"Basically, in your life, every important event comes down to twenty seconds."
A thirteen year old Natsu frowned, eyes flickering up to Gildarts. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"All you ever need is twenty seconds—for anything." Gildarts paused, his eyes flickering across the field before them. They'd gone out here to train, to spar for a bit. Somehow, that had morphed into Gildarts spilling what few life lessons he had for the energetic fire mage. "Every important moment...only twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery is needed. That's what life is—all of these important few seconds strung together."
"Gotcha," Natsu muttered, giving a nod, although his face was still twisted up in a confused expression. "...I think."
Gildarts' words lingered in the back of Natsu's mind for years—he'd never really been able to make sense of it. But he sure as hell tried.
When Natsu was fourteen, he took Gildarts' lesson as an excuse to do stupid shit.
"Gray! Natsu!" Erza had cried, fire in her eyes, as she chased after the two boys. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"
Erza had been slaving away in the guild hall's kitchen the entire day, trying to recreate some world famous strawberry cake recipe that she'd discovered in some buried treasure she encountered on a mission a while back. It had taken her a couple weeks to gather the special ingredients, and prepare them. The strawberries had to be from a specific region in the hills far beyond Magnolia; once retrieved and picked, they had to be soaked in a special type of honey infused with magic for three weeks. Once everything was ready, the recipe had to be followed precisely. The cake was legendary, and Erza had been anticipating eating it for weeks.
Of course, Natsu had come up with the genius idea that he should eat the cake. He'd asked Erza if she'd share—she'd violently denied him a slice of her cake—and so he'd resorted to plotting against her to swipe a piece or two. He knew he couldn't work alone, and therefore he had recruited Gray to assist him.
Gray was hesitant, unsure if this was truly as good of an idea as Natsu seemed to believe it was. "Are you sure about this, flamebrain?" Gray whispered as they hid behind the bar's countertops, watching as Erza carefully sat herself down at a table with her precious cake. "I think Erza might kill us."
"Don't you wanna slice of that cake?" Natsu said, peering at the black haired boy.
"Well, yeah, but—"
"Then, we'll get some," Natsu said with confidence.
"How?"
Natsu cocked an eyebrow. "All you need is twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery."
And so, off they went, sneaking up behind the scarlet haired girl until the exact instant before she placed a bite of the cake in her mouth. The two boys yelled out their war cries, kicked over the chair she was seated in, and grabbed the cake; they hightailed it out of the guild hall, hauling ass back to their super secret hideout (around the corner).
Erza fell to the floor, the bite of cake on her fork smashing into the floorboards; she let out a scream as she watched those two brats run off with her perfectly crafted cake. Absolutely raging, Erza chased after them, more furious than she'd ever been before, screaming swears the entire way out of the guild.
By the time she'd made it out the door, the two idiots had cheeks full of decadent strawberry cake. Erza's eyes dropped to the plate on the ground, wiped completely clean.
No cake left.
Erza let out a screech, and then she dove at the two boys, ravenous and horrified and more pissed off than Natsu could've ever imagined.
