The two boxers both had a stiff roller underneath their bodies rolling out different muscles.

"My fight's gon' be fuckin' easy," Gajeel confidently mocked, moving his leg back and forth on top of the roller.

Natsu stiffed a laugh back, laying his hands behind his head as he moved his body. A pop noise came from his back, the roller easing out every muscle beneath him. "Still see your fight's up first."

"I'll make sure I'll sock you till you drop dead."

Natsu shook his head with a smirk plastered on his face. He was fired up for tonight no doubt. Out of all the matches being placed from afternoon to night today, his was going to be the most popular attended one again.

He could already envision himself in the small, musky building, his eyes narrowing at his opponent dominantly.

"The Roaring Lion versus no other than...The Red Dragon, Natsu Dragneel-!"

"Snap out of your daydream, maybe you'll actually get punched in the face; no, I hope you do," Gray clarified, leaning his shoulder against the wall.

"I hope someone throws a tomato at your face and shoved a cigarette up your ass."

Gray narrowed his eyes at Natsu. The snickering laughs from Gajeel weren't helping either, only causing the boxer's cocky grin to widen. Sometimes the karma for acting like a dick was a bitch.

"I'll see you clowns later," Gray said, hearing their cocky snickers behind him as he left the boxing gym. The various options to do something else were all better than getting verbally shot at by his friends.

He hopped in his car, knowing the perfect person that'd make his morning a thousand times better than how it started.

He flashily drifted into a parking spot perfectly between two other cars, not bothering with the impressed glances a few people around gave off to him.

He walked through the double doors to be introduced by a familiar bluenette.

"Is Lucy here?" Gray questioned, casually shoving his hands in his pockets while he took a glimpse around.

"Yes! She should be working at the barista area towards your left," Juvia ecstatically replied, dreamily gazing at him as he nodded before taking his leave.

Gray walked up to Lucy, his side-smile wide on his face. "Hey."

Lucy looked up at him for a second, surprised that it wasn't who she expected it to be, not like she minded though. "Oh, aloha Gray, nice to see you early today."

"You still want to go to Gajeel's fight, right?" Gray asked, more like double-checking to see if she was still down.

The blonde smiled and nodded her head. "Of course, its not like I have anything better to do tonight."

Gray stood there chatting with Lucy from the side for a while, stepping out of customers ways whenever they approached to order a drink to their liking. Lucy didn't mind the chitchat, it was a way to pass time quicker for the moment, but she couldn't pinpoint in why it felt so foreign to have the raven-haired male talking with her instead. A lot of the time when she spoke, there was almost a hesitance? It was different than how lively she felt. Her mind took half a second longer to think before speaking, as if she was barely holding back.

The double doors opened wide, barely seeing the tips of the hair she recognized.

"Jesus, who needs to slam the doors that loud?" Gray rolled his eyes and turned around, widening to see his best friend shoo him to the side.

"Move over, there's people actually getting shit." Natsu leaned his hand against the counter, a lopsided goofy grin on his face when he turned to the blonde barista worker.

"Kalahiaka, Natsu," Lucy said, reaching to grab the same sized coffee cup to his liking. "Same?"

"Same."

"Same?" Gray questioned, glancing back and forth between the two.

"What, you can't hear right? It's one word," Natsu snickered, a certain cockiness to his demeanor and posture without being too excessive. From the corner of his eye he saw Lucy show a small smile.

Gray rolled his eyes, subtly glaring after. "What the hell does same mean?"

"A grande vanilla latte with one pump of vanilla." Lucy mindlessly said, scribbling down the check marks on the side of the cup.

Natsu flashed a grin with his pearly whites glistening while Gray furrowed his eyebrows a tiny bit. "She knows your order?" Gray asked, a hint of disbelief in his tone.

Natsu casually shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal, paying no mind to it. "She's got a good memory." He kept his attention towards Lucy, who was turned around stirring up the simple but tasteful morning drink.

Gray crossed his arms while observing the two of them, noting how more fluently their conversation went. The corners of his lips dipped downwards a little from seeing the beautiful blonde smile from the corny words Natsu spewed from his mouth, a subtle glare to watch him teetering on the verge between light jokes and maybe barely hinting at flirting. The boxer tended to never interact with any other females besides his friends he's known his whole life, didn't take one glance at private messages he got on social media.

Now he's all up being a suck-up showoff to a girl Gray met before him.

Gray looked at Natsu's smile, seeing the mutual friendship between the boxer and Lucy somehow seem closer than with himself.

Lisanna never made him that happy anymore.

The corners of his lips perked up slightly, a different thought in his head that may not be what he wanted, but it'd make his best friend be truly happy again.

"There's always more fish in the sea," Gray thought, glancing randomly away.

He blinked once to see Levy and the other bluenette at the front desk curiously peeking over at the three of them. An eyebrow raised when the taller bluenette's face grew pink, shyly waving while Levy laughed.

"That'll be three seventh-five," Lucy slid the coffee on the counter, swapping with another four dollar bills. "Your change is-"

"Keep it." Natsu waved a hand like usual, a playful grin on his face.

"'A'ole, it's yours." Lucy slid a quarter harshly across the counter to bounce off his hand.

"It's a superstitious act."

"For what?"

"My fight tonight, what else? C'mon Lucy," Natsu laughed, picking up the coin and flicking it with his thumb directly into her hand.

Lucy pursed her lips out, sassily meeting his eyes. "Fine, but don't expect to pay next time." She sighed, tapping her fingernails against the counter. After a moment of looking at his playful smirk, a smile grew its way onto her lips in no time.

"I'm gonna win for sure, I've been fightin' even better since I met you," Natsu winked, taking a sip of his drink before bursting out laughing at Lucy's blossoming pink cheeks.

"You're a suck-up dick, go eat your chicken salad," Gray snickered.

Natsu rolled his eyes. "You're a flashy stripper, go drink your shitty beer."

"Hey!"

The two of them started their usual bickering again, throwing cheesy verbal insults back and forth like a tennis match with Lucy laughing from the sidelines.

"You guys, shut up before I call up Erza to make her ass drive all the way here!" Levy's voice rang from the other side, carrying a large stack of dirty plates.

Natsu and Gray froze, both dryly swallowing at the thought. A shiver ran down both of their spines.

Lucy cocked her head in curiousness as to why this "Erza" had a larger influence on them. Whatever the trick was, it worked to cause them from making a huge scene in the midst of the barista area, much to her relief.

Gray shrugged his shoulders, nodding towards Lucy. "I'll see you later, I'll pick you up whenever you're ready."

Lucy smiled back at him and waved before he walked out of the café, leaving her and Natsu by themselves. "So who's Erza? I'm assuming she's a friend of yours."

Natsu waved a hand. "She used to babysit us when we were a lot younger, she's scary as hell though."

"Ike au."

He took a glance towards Lucy, almost staring at her smile for half a second longer than he should've. Her long hair was thrown up into another usual messy bun, some hair framing her face. "What's that mean?"

Lucy flushed. "Sorry, it means 'I see'. I keep forgetting to use English sometimes."

He smiled and chuckled. Her accent and voice were gorgeous, he couldn't deny that.

Nonetheless, he wondered why she had that accent, not that he was complaining. It was the complete opposite of that.

"Hey, I mean, do you think even after ya know, my fight tonight..." Natsu trailed off, a barely noticeable pink tinted from the bridge of his nose to his face. "-I, you and I could do somethin' next week?"

Lucy raised a curious eyebrow at his sudden timidness, an unfamiliar vibe from the boxer she'd known as dominant, and a little on the subtle cocky side. "I wouldn't mind."

"Alright, it's a plan." Natsu cheekily grinned, grilling his coffee before walking towards the exit. "See ya, Luce."

"It's Lucy," Lucy commented, pursing a sassy look out as he goofily smiled back at her over his shoulder.

"Just a nickname."

She smiled and shook her head, accepting it for now. "Bye Natsu."

__________ ∙∘✧❀✧∘∙__________

As usual, Natsu was crunching down a large chicken salad in his belly while watching some last videos of his opponent, memorizing every swift move for counterattacks.

He heard a few clicks from the kitchen. "You still not showin' up tonight?" Natsu questioned out loud, loudly munching on a mouthful of lettuce as he kept his eyes glued to his new computer screen.

Yes, he had to buy a new fucking laptop from wrecking his last one by spitting Gatorade all over it. It was partially Lucy's unintentional fault for being so attractive. Yes, Natsu did admit she was pretty no doubt, it's not like he doesn't notice Lisanna looking at other guys.

"Natsu, it's stupid. You never spend time with me."

"You told me you'd be okay with it when we started dating," Natsu groaned, finally rolling his eyes. "I've never treated you any different, how is this my fault?"

Lisanna sighed, pouring her lips out. "Because I always miss you."

Natsu paused for a moment. Literally. His finger touched the laptop pad to pause the video, his brows ruffling. "Do you really miss me? Everyday I see you less and less because you leave me too."

"That's a dumb question, of course I do," Lisanna retorted, sauntering towards the couch he lazily laid on.

He stretched his legs and set his bowl and computer on the table in front, shifting so she could lay next to him. No words were exchanged between the pair after stiffly embracing one another, both feeling a hesitation to lean in for a light kiss.

Natsu let Lisanna nuzzle her head under his chin, blankly wrapping his arms around her figure. The peaceful moment wasn't tender like before, a frown placed on his lips because the feelings he'd accepted for her were slowly disintegrating like a burnt out fire. He didn't know what it was, but overtime he couldn't see her the same.

What if his best friend was right about her?

__________ ∙∘✧❀✧∘∙__________

Heh

Thank you all for being so patient, I've been pretty busy lately preparing for leaving to Hawaii in 13 days for college. The picture of Lucy describes me at the moment :)

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