Natsu slammed his blaring phone, immediately stopping the alarm from screaming through his eardrums.

He slowly rose up from the bed and went through his normal morning routine.

Except he replaced raw eggs for some water and a protein bar.

He unlocked his phone to check the notifications he'd gotten overnight.

-Hey babe, I can't make it over to your house today. I'll see you tomorrow.

Natsu furrowed his brows, almost having the urge to chuck his phone at the wall. The one day she promised she'd be there was when she bailed on him.

Today was his fight, and she was "too busy" to make it all of a sudden. She always skipped on his fights, it's like she didn't give a damn about his future at all.

"She's the one fucking complaining about me not seeing her enough because I train too much, she's being a hypocrite! Why's she busy now?!" Natsu yelled out loud. He tried to chuck a napkin in the trash bin, but it only fluttered a couple feet in front of him and landed by his feet.

He decided to leave her on read, not bothering to reply. She should already know the problem here.

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"The place just opened half an hour ago and I'm already tired. I'm going home after my shift." Levy complained, quickly throwing together some ice caffeinated drink for a customer.

At the moment, Lucy was working for the dining section, mainly as a waitress. So far everything was running smoothly, happy customers leaving more than satisfied.

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Lucy replied, grabbing another order to serve.

Juvia sweatdropped as she was running the cashier, hilariously complaining about her fingers being too tired.

The café doors burst wide open to reveal an extremely tall, broad muscular man with jet-black hair that swept behind his back. Levy immediately ran up and practically pounced on him, squeezing him in an bear hug.

"You made it!" Levy gladly said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek with a giddily smile.

Lucy came back from serving an order to another customer, smiling to now see what her friends' boyfriend looked like in person. She'd seen a few pictures that Levy showed her from Instagram, but it was the real deal now.

"Shrimp, I wasn't bout to take my chances of risking not coming." He said, his voice a deep husked tone.

"This is my new friend Lucy," Levy pointed, motioning her to walk over. "You know she's a huge bookworm for the Divergent series too?!"

He rolled his eyes. "Of course you'd find yourself another bookworm to read with." He said, setting her back down on her feet.

"Lucy, this is Gajeel, obviously," Levy smiled, patting her hand on his chest a few times. "Otherwise, how was your workout?"

Gajeel roughly groaned. "That Salamander went for a run this morning before coming to our practice and still managed to beat me in two out of three rounds. I let him off the hook because he's got the main fight tonight at the arena."

Lucy perked up from the interesting nickname. "Salamander? That's quite original. What does he have, red or pink eyes?" She giggled, brushing her bangs away from her face.

She looked to see Gajeel blankly shake his head, subsiding her laughter. "You'll see one day if you watch a boxing match, or he might come in here ordering a venti straight black coffee to-go."

Lucy lightly laughed again. "Well, he sounds interesting. Maybe you'll beat him after you work on your agility." With that, she started to continue working, hearing him hastily talk to Levy.

"You told her that?! I don't want more people knowing I can't beat him!"

"Sorry babe!"

Lucy shook her head and smiled. Those two were the cutest together, maybe she'd have to go with Levy to a few boxing matches.

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"Natsu, my boy, you're gonna beat this lil' kids ass tonight." An older man chuckled, slapping Natsu right in the center of his back.

"And you're gon' be sleepin' at home afterwards without a girl again." Natsu joked back, taking a sip of water before laughing at the mans' face expression.

"Shut your trap, I'll take away half of your reward money tonight."

"Still wouldn't get you far, Gildarts."

The gruff, older man shook his head, ruffling his salmon-colored hair. "Go rest up, kid. Make sure you're not late at the arena again tonight."

Natsu grabbed his Nike workout bag and slung it on his back, having his phone in his hand. "No promises, you old fart!"

"I'm not an old fart!" Gildarts voice yelled from behind. He only snickered to himself as he walked out the boxing gym, the sun greeting him by its blinding rays.

Natsu began to walk home, throwing a few punches in the air as he imagines himself socking the guy right in the nose. "I'm fired up for this!" He yelled, his voice carrying throughout the air for a few more seconds.

He continued to walk home until he spotted the café, immediately grabbing his attention. "You know what, I'll go check it out. I'll just grab something quick." He smirked as he lazily jaywalked across the street, not giving a damn about finding the nearest cross walk.

The place was already packed, cars filling up every parking space available in the tiny lot. It was the most lively café he's seen in his town, so curiosity only grew when he approached it.

He slowly opened one of the wooden double doors, slipping in to the lively place. His eyes glanced around to inspect the features.

"Can Juvia help you, sir? Would you like something to-go or a table?" A voice called, grabbing his attention to the cashier.

Natsu made a weird look from the bluenette referring to herself in third-person, but shook the thought away. "Yeah, I'll take a seat for one." He replied, shrugging his shoulders. If anything, it would be a good experience to see if maybe one day he'd take Lisanna out to eat here.

"What the hell, Salamander?"

Oh, he recognized that voice from earlier.

Natsu smirked as he saw Gajeel standing there with Levy. "I'm just coming here to celebrate my win." He said cockily, flashing a toothy grin.

Gajeel flipped him off. "I hope this guy beats your ass tonight."

Levy sighed, pulling down his hand. "I'll be back babe. Natsu, I'll lead you to a table." After a quick kiss, she motioned him to follow her.

It was a small booth diagonally across from the registration and barista area, clearly able to see many workers blending and mixing different coffees for customers. Natsu slid in a seat and grabbed the menu that Levy handed her.

"I didn't know you applied for a job here." Natsu surprisingly said, opening the menu to gaze through the different options.

Levy smiled. "Yeah! I needed a new one anyways. I gotta get back to my area, but I'll call your waitress over," she replied, then turned her head the opposite direction. "Lu! You have another customer to handle!"

Natsu winced from her loud voice. "Jesus! You'll scare off more customers if you yell like that!"

"Oh sue me." Levy stuck out her middle finger towards him, walking back to her shift to continue making drinks.

"Jesus, why's everybody flipping me off?" Natsu muttered under his breath.

Natsu shook his head and rolled his eyes at the shorter nineteen year old. The only thing he prayed was that this person serving him wouldn't be annoying with a squeaky high-pitched voice like in other cafés he's gone to.

As he glanced down and propped his elbow on the table while scrolling on his phone, he didn't notice a figure approach him.

"Aloha, I'll be your waitress for today; could I start you with a drink?" An angelic, soft voice said.

Natsu glanced up to see a young woman, probably his age, with golden blonde hair thrown up in a large messy bun on top of her head, her bangs framing her thin sculpted face. "Yeah, I'll start with a regular drip coffee." He said, looking into her cocoa brown eyes.

Her pink lips formed a gentle smile as she nodded. "I'll be right back."

Natsu looked down at his phone for a second, but his eyes glanced back up to watch the waitress walk to the barista area. The blonde approached Levy, assuming she'd already started making a pot of regular coffee for him.

"Lu! You got another customer to handle!"

For some reason, the short name struck out to him, wondering his thoughts with curiosity again. The tips of his fingers tapped against the table.

The blonde waitress happily came back, him noticing her lively and positive vibes. She started to pour regular coffee in a mug, setting it down with a few creams and packets of sugars.

"What's you name?" Natsu asked boldly.

The waitress perked up, shyly smiling. "Sorry about that, I forgot to tell you my name. I'm Lucy."

Natsu's eyes shot wide open.

No way. Was this possible that he managed to run into the girl Gray met?

"E kala mai ia'u, I should've said my name earlier." Lucy squeaked out, an embarrassed blush tinting her cheeks. She looked to meet his surprised gaze, somewhat confusing her.

Lucy quickly sucked in a breath and spun on her heel, not feeling the gaze that traced her steps back to the chef area.

Natsu blinked several times, making sure he heard her words correctly. Gray, having a chance with her?

And that accent... It was pretty. It wasn't straight-up noticeable, but it grabbed his attention faster than his heartbeat.

He studied her until she was out of sight, noticing that she was no doubt attractive. The thought of Gray meeting up with a beautiful blonde was almost unreal, he'd somehow managed to finally step up his game. Her black jeans hugged her curvaceous figure along with her white long-sleeves v-neck shirt-

He stared as he realized he was checking her out unconsciously because of her name.

"What the hell?! No, Gray would not land a chance with someone like that, it's gotta be a different Lucy." Natsu huffed to himself, rubbing his face with his hands. God, if Lisanna was here, Hell would've broken loose for sure.

As if right on que, the damn stripper casually walked in without seeing Natsu, approaching the front desk.

"Stripper! What the hell are you doin'?" Natsu spat. His best friend pivoted on his heels to face him.

"Didn't you have a light workout this morning to be prepared for your fight tonight?" Gray asked as he carelessly walked to Natsu's booth, slipping into the seat across from him.

"No shit! But I gotta ask you something, I'm being fucking serious here." Natsu's voice was more serious, causing Gray's eyebrows to raise.

The dark haired male weirdly blinked at his seriousness. "Yeah, go ahead..." he said, taking a sip of the untouched glass of water that was originally for Natsu.

"Does this Lucy person work here?"

Gray's eyes narrowed. "Why the hell would you ask that?-" He stopped in the middle of his sentence when the waitress came back to order.

Both males looked up at Lucy. "Lucy! I didn't know you got a job here!" Gray exclaimed, a pink tint dusting along his cheeks.

"I didn't expect you to visit, Gray. It's nice to see you again," Lucy smiled back. "Are you getting anything today?"

"I'll just have the same as this dumbass." Gray snickered, pointing towards the pinkette.

Natsu sent a glare towards him as she lightly giggled, setting down a mug and pouring another cup of drip coffee.

"A hui hou." Lucy said, gently smiling before taking her leave from the two males.

Gray winked back, a cocky smirk formed by his lips. They both watched her saunter away, until the stripper caught the boxer staring at her.

"Hey! You already got a girlfriend, she's mine." Gray spat, grabbing an ice cube from the glass of water and chucking it straight at Natsu's forehead.

Natsu stared flabbergasted, ignoring the small cube bounce off his face and land on the table. "How the fuck did you manage to land a girl that hot?" He questioned, taking another glance at Lucy, who was throwing together another pot of coffee. "She's speaking Hawaiian. I don't know what the fuck she said, but damn."

"Hey, Lisanna would be fucking pissed if she heard that," Gray chuckled, ripping open a packet of sugar to stir in his drip coffee. "But yeah, I told you she was hot. Check her Instagram when Lis ain't around."

Natsu flipped him off and stirred a pack of sugar and cream in his own coffee. "No way, I was just giving you a compliment." He bitterly said, his voice more angry than subtle.

Gray blinked a couple times, sensing that something was wrong. "Bro, something's wrong again. You're always like this before your fights; did Lis get mad at you again?"

The boxer sighed, staring at his hot drink. "She fucking bailed on me again, said she was too busy to come over or watch my fight tonight."

Gray shook his head. "I'm tellin' you, I don't know if she's loyal, but I won't make your decisions." He said, taking a sip of his creamy coffee.

"I trust her, it's just that she never likes it when I ever leave. She thinks I'm always wasting time boxing." Natsu replied. He lifted the mug to his lips and took a sip, immediately impressed by how flavorful the simple coffee tasted. It was just the right amount; not too subtle where it didn't tingle his tastebuds but not too strong that made his nose wrinkle in dissatisfaction.

They both looked at each other after taking a sip. "Who made this? It's the best drip coffee I've ever had I swear." Gray said, his eyebrows raised as he took another full.

Natsu smirked, swirling the liquid around in his mug. "Pretty sure I saw Lucy make it."

"It's hella good."

While Gray took out his phone, Natsu took a long moment to glance back at Lucy working, somewhat curious to know her, specifically why she was wasting her time with the numskull sitting across from him.

"Let me have her Instagram." Natsu said, grabbing his large red iPhone out of his pocket. He didn't take a second to feel annoyed by Lisanna's absence of him ignoring her.

"I swear to god you better not do anything when you see it, you'll probably wanna hide this shit away from your loyal girlfriend." Gray said, clearly emphasizing the word 'loyal'.

Natsu rolled his eyes and opened up his instagram app.

He clearly wasn't expecting anything at all, but didn't realize he'd be proven dead wrong.

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Fight for Glory
❀ by queen_random1 ❀
comments & votes are
always more than welcome.
❤️Thank you for reading❤️