Prompt: Food

"How did it go last night?" Lucy asked curiously, sipping her drink and putting down the book she'd been reading when she noticed Gray had sat down next to her.

Gray started to laugh, "It was a disaster. Natsu tried to make dinner, so as you can imagine, the smoke alarm went off, and everything was burnt. How anyone can burn ice cream, I'll never know. I went home early."

"That's mean Gray, you know he likes you. He probably tried really hard," Lucy chastised him.

"Well, if he wants to impress me, maybe he should stick to something that he's good at like I don't know. What's he good at besides shooting off his mouth and being annoying?"

"If that's what you think of me, why did you even come last night?" Natsu snarled, turning on his heel and leaving the guild with a slam of the doors.

"Shit! Natsu, I was joking, I didn't mean it!" Gray yelled after him, a sick feeling pooling in his gut from the pained expression on Natsu's face. He rose to chase after him but encountered the sharp edge of one of Erza's many swords pointed at this chest.

"That was beneath you, Gray. Fix it or else!"

Gray gulped, nodding quickly and looking for Mira and finding her in the kitchen.

"Hey Mira, can I get an order of Fire Chicken to go?"

"No, if you want to apologize to him, you're going to have to make it yourself."

"But, I don't know how to make it," Gray complained, trying his best to sound pitiful.

"Well, Natsu didn't know how to make your dish either, but he tried his best." Mira crossed her arms in front of her chest, and the dirty look she was giving him was enough to make him realize there would be no help coming from her corner.

Beautiful, he'd managed to piss everyone off. Great going Fullbuster. The truth was he'd thought it was sweet of Natsu to go to all that effort for him. He just didn't like to appear vulnerable in front of others. Especially in the guild. But his comment had been unnecessarily mean, and he wholeheartedly wished he could go back in time and just shut his damn mouth.

"Fine, can you at least give me the recipe?"

"Sure," Mira smiled sweetly before chucking a cookbook at his head, which he only just managed to catch.

Gray got out of the guild as quickly as he could, looking through the recipe before going to the grocery store. He hurried home, worried that if he didn't talk to Natsu soon and try to fix this, any chance he might have had with him would crumble like the ashes that were the end results of most of Natsu's attacks.

His first attempt was a disaster, the second not much better, but the third actually smelled edible and didn't look too bad, so he quickly packaged it up in a container and ran out of his apartment. Not knowing where to go, he peeked in at the guild quickly, then to the riverbank and everywhere else he could think of. He got more and more nervous, causing his body temperature to lower in response. He finally found Natsu at South Gate park sitting under a tree.

"What do you want?" Natsu glared at him, every muscle tensed for a fight.

¨I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being an asshole and to bring you this. Uhm, I made it for you." Gray shoved the container at Natsu and sat down next to him.

"You are so infuriating, you know that?" Natsu declared before opening the container and staring at the contents in confusion. "Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?"

"What's wrong with it? I worked really hard on your stupid favorite dish, I mean I know the presentation isn't that great, but at least it smelled good," Gray argued, except he realized now that it didn't smell like anything and when he peered at the contents of the box he was horrified to see his efforts had frozen solid."

One look at Gray's expression had Natsu rolling on the ground laughing hysterically. When he finally got himself under control, he asked with a knowing grin, "It isn't easy to be an elemental mage, is it?"

Gray muttered under his breath, "Nothing to do with you is ever easy."

"I heard that, " Natsu smirked before becoming serious, "Look, I've been honest with you, you know how I feel. The ball is pretty much in your court."

Gray sighed, "I know, and I like you too, I just suck at showing it."

"Well," Natsu warmed up his hand and thawed out the fire chicken reheating it gently until it once again began to smell the way Gray remembered, "I'd say this is a good start."

Natsu took a bite and tried to hide his expression, but Gray wasn't fooled. He grabbed the container away from him and threw it into a nearby trash receptacle.

"Hey, I was eating that!" Natsu protested.

"Save it, it was terrible, I could see it in your eyes." Gray pulled him up by the arm and led him out of the park, "Come on, I'll treat you to some damn food."

Seeing the pleased expression on Natsu's face made a different feeling pool in Gray's gut and this one he was very interested in pursuing.