A small smile grazed her lips while tears whelmed up in different emotions as a large hand caressed the back of her head, a strong arm gently bringing her in a comfortable, safe embrace.

Lucy's eyes fluttered open from her sleepiness, stretching her body under the blankets. A content sigh escapes through her, lazily laying on her tiny bed.

Her eyes turn towards her small phone to see notifications running wild on the screen.

She grabbed it and rubbed her eyes before scanning, then glancing at the time.

10:46 am

Her mind doesn't seem to register for a good solid minute before scrambling out of bed in utter chaos to finally connect the obvious dots.

Lucy was supposed to be at work right now. Her shift started at eight in the morning, or had started at that time.

"Oh my god, oh my god I'm so late! My alarm didn't go off, what the hell-?!" Lucy paused to check that her alarm was set on p.m, not a.m. Plus her phone hadn't even charged last night, so it was below fifteen percent. "'Ōpiopio!"

She tried snapping the charger end into her phone several times, then let out a devastating groan to find out it was broken now.

Those chargers were expensive as hell, and now she was going to need to save more money for that. She had bills, food, the landlord lady-

"E ku'u Akua, I can't deal with this now," Lucy panicked, shoving her work clothes and extra makeup in her worn-out backpack.

"Siri, text Levy that I'm running late and then call her!"

"Okay, I texted Levy 'I'm running late,' now calling~"

__________ ∙∘✧❀✧∘∙__________

Natsu grumbled with his arms crossed, a thin line spread on his lips. His foot tapped slowly, the situation completely off from his routine.

He did his first workout earlier today, and now he was standing inside the café leaning against a wall.

Some customers went to the barista side, ordering drinks and conversing with the girl who was on the shift.

And that's where his problem stopped to practically wave red halt signs at the scene.

Natsu has no interest to order from the overly-preppy girl with voluminous brown hair and eyes to match, her gaze constantly catching over towards him. He knew a thot just by looking, and he wasn't anywhere interested by the very least to ask for a drink now.

"Oh, so now you're not in the mood for coffee? Hmm, I wonder why."

A familiar voice calls from the side. How she can say that really strikes his nerves.

Natsu rolled his eyes at Levy, who approached him. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Maybe I'm just-"

A ringing phone cut Natsu off, and both froze to notice that Levy's device was blowing up in her pocket.

"Hold that thought, salmon," Levy waved him off and mindlessly clicked the speaker button since the café was booming with customers. "Hello?"

"Levy! Oh my god Ua kaumaha wau-I woke up late and I accidentally set my alarm on p.m and-"

"Calm down! We got someone who filled your shift until you'd come! But really? Really?! Your alarm set on the wrong time?" Levy laughed, smacking Natsu on the arm.

"I'll be there in a few!"

"Yeah, bye bitch."

Levy ended the call and shook her head, "Don't pull a Lucy, I'll tell you that."

Natsu's eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Pull a what?"

"Of course you wouldn't get it," Levy playfully joked, but waved her hand. "You'll only need to wait a few more minutes until your stubborn ass can order something."

Before Natsu could ask anything, Levy turned her back to walk away, giving him a sneaky grin as if she knew something was up.

Natsu shook his head and grumpily leaned against the wall again, almost pouting like a little boy who had his favorite toy truck taken away.

"She says it'll only take a few minutes, what the hell does that mean?" Natsu grumbled, not caring about the people giving him looks before walking by him.

He clicked his tongue when he noticed Juvia practically giggling at him.

Minutes seemed to pass twice as slow as he stood there waiting, debating on staying or leaving to go back to bed.

He took a step to leave but retracted when the doors slammed open, a blank stare towards the blonde who ran in.

"Juvia thought love rival wouldn't ever show up!"

"I..I fin..ally made it.." She breathlessly said, slouching against the front desk Juvia was at and rested her head.

A smile and a chuckle made its way upon Natsu to see the barista he knew, tugging at his shirt to bite the collar to keep himself from cracking up more. The white shirt and blacks sweats seemed like her pajamas with dirty white shoes, along with her hair barely thrown up in a messy bun toppling over to the side.

"Love rival should really get organized! Love rival looks awful-"

"I get it!" Lucy ticked, her tone flaring with annoyance, "You don't have to say anything else." Her hands brushed a few irritating hairs away from her eyes.

Natsu's smile dropped watching Lucy lowly drag her work backpack behind her. She pushed the back door open and slammed it shut.

Well he was now shook to see her upset. She'd only been radiating with smiles and it was clear her day wasn't off to a good start.

"Juvia's sorry..." The blunette mumbled, a worried look on her face.

Natsu scrunched his eyebrows, the quick memory of last night flashing in his mind. Whoever Loke was...he had rough correlations to Lucy, obviously somebody from her past that didn't make a good match.

He eagerly waited about ten minutes, luckily barely any customers were showing up in the barista side now. Most people were dining in the café.

He showed a soft smile as he walked to the counter after Lucy finally appeared from the other side.

"Awesome! You finally showed up!" The brunette barista praised, flashing a wide grin at Lucy.

Natsu tapped his fingers against the surface, pretending to look up at the options. "Hmm, you know, maybe I don't know what I want.." he casually joked.

An unexpected squeaky laughter came from the brunette, her hand tapping his shoulder. "Omg, you are so funny!"

Before Natsu could call her off, they paused as Lucy's slow hand grabbed a cup and scribbled an order, refusing to look up.

There was definitely something bothering her.

Words come out between his lips faster than he could react, "Could you take her shift a little bit longer after she makes these coffees? I think I got a job to do."

The brunette froze. "Umm, what do you mean?" She confusingly asked, flipping her hair.

Natsu ignored her, instead flashing his eyes to Lucy. "I'll get a grande mocha with extra whip cream with my usual."

He knew he'd need her favorite drink to come in handy someday.

"I'll keep the change if you tell me your favorite drink." Natsu stated, tapping a finger against the side of his hot coffee.

Lucy cocked her head slightly, but didn't seem to mind. "My favorite's are mochas with extra whip cream." She blushed, feeling like a child.

Lucy's fingers stopped writing on the cup, almost looking up.

The brunette scribbled the other order on another cup and set it next to Lucy. "Why does she have to make yours? And why can't she just start her shift now?" She scoffed, sending a jealous glare towards her.

"Look, some people just wake up on the wrong side of the end, and now I really wouldn't trust you to make both drinks." Natsu fearlessly shot back, sliding over a ten dollar bill.

The brunette quickly exchanged it for his change, watching him keep a few quarters in his palm. "Lucy, go make his drinks." She ordered, rolling her eyes.

Soon as Lucy turned her back and started working, Natsu slammed his palm on the counter, toying with the quarters in his other hand.

"Are those tips? Cause I can actually talk to people without being upset?" The brunette giggled, tapping a finger on her lip.

"Yeah it's a fucking tip, and it's not for you." Natsu gritted, "And don't ever run your mouth on her again."

His last statement silenced the two, the brunette awkwardly greeting the next customer as Natsu waited.

He observed her, clear signals that her posture was nowhere near her usual bubbly but shy state.

Lucy finally slid the two drinks to him without a greeting, turning away in hopes of not starting a conversation. If she did, nothing good would come from her.

Yet a hand caught her wrist gently with a voice she now could easily recognize.

"I didn't get these drinks for nothin', I'll need some help finishing 'em."

She bit her lip to keep from smiling, letting her bangs cover her face when she nodded.

It didn't last long when she heard her replacement scoff. Lucy made sure to give her a 'fuck you' smile before walking through the door and to the other side.

How he remembered her favorite drink, she didn't know.

A small shy smile met his eager one, following his lead to one of the small tables with two chairs outside.

"You know, you've already helped me last night, I don't mean to be a bother," Lucy finally spoke, finally looking to meet the green emerald shade.

Natsu almost paused for too long to see her eyes reddened and puffy between her bangs. "You know, I'm not gon' pretend to not notice and go along my day," He emphasized, pulling out her chair with his foot.

"It's alright, I mean-"

"Friends don't do that, unless they're fake as fuck but that ain't me."

Lucy decided to take his generous offer to sit, smiling wide enough to make her eyes sting.

Natsu slid her drink along the table's surface, feeling his face flush when her fingertips grazed his hand.

"I don't know, I can't say mahalo enough," Lucy began, her tired eyes staring down at her drink. "I just woke up late, that's all."

Natsu studies her face, more so seeing a temporary smile being plastered over in the moment. Something must've happened between yesterday and this morning, and he was determined to somehow find the right clues to reasons. He didn't want to start with a direct question about it, he'd have to ease his way slowly.

Pestering ideas flickered in his mind, giving himself more time by taking a sip of the coffee, exquisitely perfected like she always did consistently.

"You don't need to worry about what happened last night, it was just a person I knew a while back."

Well that train thought came to a screeching halt. She'd just made it a whole lot easier for him to dive into questions.

Natsu shook his head, grabbing out his phone and placing it to the very side of the table. "Now that you brought it up, I'm all ears. I got all the time to listen. I'm included in this because I fought the bastard last night, and I don't know what happened before I walked out to see you two."

Lucy mentally ticked at herself. He wasn't just all brawn, he was brains too.

She could practically hear Levy's voice in her head scream 'and he's beauty too!', causing a tint of pink to flourish on her cheeks.

She held her cup tighter in her palms. "It's nothing, he's just...an hoa aloha that I grew apart from."

"Hoa?"

"Sorry, I meant 'old friend'."

'An old friend my ass.'

Lucy's eyes almost bulged wide open to see Natsu glancing at her neck, completely forgetting what Loke had done during that scene.

Her heart quickened as she awkwardly brought a hand up, attempting to cover the side of her neck as casual and sleek as possible. 'I must've accidentally changed my shirt so fast in the bathroom that I rubbed my concealer and foundation over it!' Her mind internally screamed. She was smart enough to pack a turtle neck shirt just in case, it was practically the fall season after all. She'd need to change into it pronto.

Natsu lifted an eyebrow slightly in curiosity to see her fidgeting, letting him know for certain that something was keen on her mind.

"Did Gray make sure you got back safe? I texted you, but I saw you never checked it." His eyes flashed from between her constantly moving hands to her face.

Lucy's shoulders hunched, not remembering any of the notifications she'd checked earlier. After she called Levy, her phone died so right now she was completely phone-less. "No, I'm-"

"What the hell? You didn't get home safe?! Gray's a fucking dumbass!" Natsu ran a hand through his hair, a temper raging quickly in his chest.

Lucy waved her hands in the air, shaking her head. "That's not what I meant! I didn't see your text, that's all! My phone's dead, but yes I got home safe." She explained rapidly, quickly clearing the air before he could go off on Gray for no reason.

She lightly laughed as Natsu pinched the bridge of his nose, a relieved sigh escaping from him. "Luce, don't say things like that. The last thing I want is for one of my friends to end up dead because they were walking at night. It's sketchy as hell here."

"Dead like my phone," Lucy joked, her tiredness getting the best of her. "I don't wanna be aliiive, I just wanna die today," She hummed, cracking herself up.

"That song is hella overrated," Natsu replies, shaking his head. "But who can relate?"

Lucy almost spit out her sip from cracking up, causing a laughing domino effect that passed onto the boxer.

After a few moments of calming down, Lucy took a few sips of her coffee, elbows propped up onto the table.

"You have an iPhone?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, but..." Lucy trailed, embarrassed to say that she was way out of date with the technology these cdays. Her eyes glanced at his clearly updated device.

"No worries, I got a charger you can use." Natsu somehow luckily had his charger on him today instead of leaving it at home. He couldn't believe how unintentionally prepared he was.

He blinked a few times when she veered off, shying away with an embarrassed expression. "Hey, you good?"

"It's really kind of you, but it won't work on mine..." Lucy slowly set her beat up white iPhone 4 on the table, feeling his gaze look back and forth. "I can't really afford a new one."

He guiltily slipped his charger back in his pocket, feeling a tightness regret cockily placing his trendy iPhone on the table in the first place. "Sorry bout that, I didn't mean-how long have you had that anyways?"

"Over five years, this is actually my first phone," Lucy softly replied, her finger pressing on the button of her dead phone. "And my charger broke, and those are already expensive anyways. It's difficult to find one that's for my phone so they sell them on eBay for twice or three times the price..." she mumbled, staring at a random spot on the table.

Natsu worriedly looked at her, maybe getting a hint of something she was insecure about. He felt like a jerk, remembering all the times when he cracked multiple former phones he owned and could easily buy the newest iPhone that same day. Or there were some that he just quit because he wanted the latest version...

An idea popped in his head. A few days ago, he ordered the new iPhone X, and he currently had a seven plus.

"So you're just gonna go phone-less until you get a new charger?" Natsu asked, resting his chin in the palm of his hand.

Lucy shrugged her shoulders. "I guess. Sucks that I have to break my Snapchat streaks, but I'll be fine." She waved his question off, showing him a smile.

Natsu stares into her eyes for a few seconds, then reached for his phone and felt her gaze watch him tap his thumb on the screen a few times. "Here, you can check your snap on my phone. Just ask me when you want to." He slid his phone directly in front of her, the Snapchat login opened up.

Lucy blushed, but blinked at how wide and crystal-clear the sleek phone was.

Natsu raised an eyebrow, watching her finger hover over for a solid ten seconds. "Lucy, it's a regular phone."

"Well, the screen's so big it's intimidating me." Her quiet voice peeped up.

The salmon haired boxer turned his head away for a moment and laughed from her quirky-ness, ruffling a hand through his fluffy hair. "Oh man, you're really funny sometimes, y'know?" He mumbled into his shoulder, a grin widening as he watched her.

After a few minutes of watching her fingers slowly tap on his phone, Natsu gazed at her and let a question slip from his lips that he intended on keeping to himself.

"You have anything goin' on later today?"

Lucy met his eyes, seeing that he was quite interested in talking to her more. For a moment, she dazed from how the sun shone on the side of his face, noticing that his attention was only to her.

"I was supposed to work from eight to one, but I don't think that's happening." Lucy sweatdropped, shyly brushing a lock of golden hair behind her ear. She did need every paycheck to keep up with bills, hopefully taking the day off wouldn't affect her outcome in the future.

Natsu was a little surprised that Gray hadn't asked her, or if she just hadn't seen a text because her phone was dead. "I mean, I don't have any plans for the whole day surprisingly, guess it's one of those Saturday's after a fight." He casually said, a faint dust of red flushing to his face.

Lucy puckered put her lips, a sudden boldness striking her. "I think both of our schedules have a plan now."

Natsu didn't expect her to take the step first, a genuine smile glazed on his lips. "Sounds perfect." He slipped a hand in his pocket, pulling out three quarters he separated from his change earlier.

Lucy watched him drag the first quarter towards her with his finger. "This one's for coming to my fight yesterday," he began, then slipping the next coin. "This one's for the drink tip."

Natsu paused for a second, sliding the last quarter over more slowly with his heart beating a little quicker, "And this one's for our plans today."

"You need to stop." Lucy laughed, already knowing he wouldn't take any change back.

The sun hovered over her, golden blonde strands still glowing even from her messy bun, a genuine smile finally radiating towards him that he couldn't look away from.

He'd like to see that smile more often, hopefully inside and outside the stands around the ring he fought in.

__________ ∙∘✧❀✧∘∙__________

A nice kinda-filler chapter to start having their relationship build up.

I'm just shook by how quickly I got another chapter up.

Thank you to everyone with your genuine supportiveness, love y'all tons ❤️

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