"C'mon, move those damn feet!" Gildarts yelled, watching his two boxers during their match.

"Shut up, ya ol' man, I got this." Gajeel hissed, spitting towards the side over his shoulder.

He swung a fist slightly downwards towards the swifter opponent, only managing to go all-air and not contact.

"C'mon, you gotta have more than that!" Natsu teased, lightly bouncing on the balls of his feet. He took a couple steps to the side, almost envisioning landing a few jabs to Gajeel's sides.

Gajeel grimaced, baring his teeth. "You're gon' wish you didn't say shit, Salamander." He took an aggressive step forward and swung his arm again.

Natsu jumped back to avoid his slow punch. He raised up his gloves to block another couple fierce shots, then quickly retaliated by slamming multiple punches at Gajeel's upper body. The finisher was swinging a fist to the left side of his head and an uppercut with his other hand to his jaw.

"Okay, that's enough for today." Gildarts said before Gajeel could regain his balance.

A slow clapping came from next to the boxing ring, obviously sarcastically. "That was just great."

Gajeel took a gurgle of water and spit it right at the male. "Fuck off, princess."

Gray stepped to the side, letting the spit water splash next to him.

Natsu cracked up. "You're just pissed you lost again."

Gajeel almost raised his hand to give him the birdie, realizing that was impossible to show with his boxing gloves on. "Piss off." He muttered under his breath.

"I'll fight this dumbass tomorrow for you." Gray snickered, throwing an already-used towel at Gajeel.

"You'll be the next person that I fucking kill," Gajeel lowly said back, stepping out of the boxing ring. "I'll hang you by your god damn towel!" He snapped the towel towards Gray like a whip.

"You guys, take it to the locker room, I got other boys to train." Gildarts said, swiping away the damp towel from Gajeel's hands. He didn't even react to how disgusting it smelt or felt, measly tossing it in one of the dirty towel baskets.

Natsu bit into one of his gloves and tore it off his sweaty hand covered in tape. "I could fight anyone anywhere and still beat their ass." He cockily pointed.

The three young men walked their way to the men's locker room, throwing verbal insults at each other.

Natsu spun his code into his lock and snapped it open, swinging the large locker door to let it smack against the locker next to his. He quickly de-odorized himself by cleaning every drop of sweat off with a two-minute shower at most. The shower stalls were cramped and tiny, the feeling of claustrophobic could creep up on anyone in there.

He threw on black Nike dri-fit sweats, following with the same thin material for his white long-sleeved Nike shirt.

After grabbing his workout backpack, Natsu stopped in front of a mirror and posed.

"Can you not pose like a hoe, thanks," Gajeel spat behind, rolling his eyes as the pinkette winked at himself. "It's already enough to see stripper walking around in his underwear carelessly."

Natsu shook his damp hair around, letting water drops fly in every direction. "Nah bro, I'm not sorry for being attractive."

His emerald eyes glistened at the sight of Gray's bag with clothes, hearing his shower finally turn off. Natsu snickered as he stripped the bag and walked out of the locker room, keeping his laughs to himself.

Natsu walked to the front door of the boxing gym, passing by many neighborhood boxers just like himself. Over the years, they've come to realize that this was his house, having the status of a king.

After a couple minutes, a couple masculine voices raised in the locker room.

"Where the hell is my bag? I swear I left it by my locker." Gray came out in only navy blue boxers, looking around the area he was mostly at. Nobody batted an eye at him, they were used to his trend of wearing barely anything, sometimes nothing at all. Only newcomers flipped their shit and were left flabbergasted to see nobody giving one shit.

Natsu swung the door open, stepping outside while waving Gray's backpack in the air. "Gotta come out and get it!" He laughed, stepping on the sidewalk. Gajeel snickered behind Gray.

Gray shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "Okay then." He stepped outside and held out his hand.

"Maybe I'll just take your bag with me so you'll have to go home that way!" Natsu laughed, clapping his hands as his best friend stood there like a statue.

"I don't care," Gray said. He walked past Natsu, leaving the two other boxers completely silent.

"That guy's really not gonna go home like that, is he?" Gajeel spat, questioning about their dark-haired friend.

Natsu and Gajeel blankly stared until Gray immediately stopped to turn back around. "I actually need my clothes."

"Wait, did I just hear that right? You need your clothes? Is the apocalypse coming?" Natsu waved the bag and chuckled it at Gray's chest, snickering. He couldn't remember any time when Gray announced he needed to wear something.

Gajeel stepped aside to let Gray walk back in the gym. "Why do you need clothes?" He asked, admittedly feeling as curious as Natsu.

"I'm meeting up with Lucy in about forty minutes at the café, and I'm actually trying not to scare her off." Gray replied over his shoulder, walking back to the locker room to change.

Gajeel clicked his tongue, muttering something as he followed Gray back to the locker room, leaving Natsu by himself.

A ting of envy wavered over Natsu. In the past few seconds Gray had said two things that were unlike his character.

Meeting up with a girl and needing clothes.

Natsu furrowed his brows as he started walking. Gray wasn't the type to be up on his game with meeting girls at public places, he was always losing track of time.

This girl Lucy definitely had more than just a meet and greet influence.

Natsu didn't even realize that during the whole while if spacing out and thinking, his footsteps had led him back to the café he'd visited only a mere couple times.

Without having a second thought, he walked in and stood to glance in both directions. To the restaurant side, Levy was coming back to where Juvia was at the front counter.

"Hey Natsu, didn't expect to see your ass here again." Levy said, carrying a large tray of multiple empty glasses on top. The shift she was working was obviously as a waitress.

Natsu playfully rolled his eyes at his friends' girlfriend. "I know, you just want me to sign your shirt because I'm the best boxer here."

Levy heavily breathed. "You wish. But why're you here again?"

"Anything wrong with dropping by to get a coffee?" Natsu questioned back, crossing his arms and smirked.

"Well I'll be happy to let you know Lucy's doing her shift at the barista again." Levy giggled and winked, flipping her short hair away from her face.

Natsu's eyes widened ever so slightly, his fingers tapping against his body. The way Levy told him was obvious signs of her knowing about his genuine interest about the blonde, and there wasn't any way to pinpoint that small ounce of information in that moment.

Natsu casually shrugged his shoulders, pretending he didn't care. "So? All I came for was a drink before going home, I'm whipped after my practice." He distastefully stated.

Both Juvia and Levy purses their lips out and falsely nodded their heads. "M-hm, sure, just go to the left." Levy sarcastically said, waving him off before continuing her shift.

Natsu squinted eyes at her back from picking up on her sarcastic tone.

"Don't glare at her like that! Juvia doesn't approve!" Juvia shouted, chucking a pen at Natsu's face.

A force of habit kicked in as he dodged the flying pen and caught it between his fist. He twisted it between his fingers before tossing it back onto the table and turned on his heels.

'Why does she talk like that? It's kind of weird...' Natsu thought as he walked to the coffee shop side.

He paused to look at Lucy working again, his smile curving at the corners of his lips for a fraction of a second before his ears picked up on the conversation.

"Aww, c'mon girl, you could leave today with me instead of working here."

His smile flatted into a thin line, narrowing his emerald eyes.

"You know, I think I'm fine, how about-"

"So you're a shy one, the shy ones are always the most interesting."

Natsu picked up on her awkward state, seeing her face expression twisted and conflicted.

"I'd just like your name so I can make your drink-"

"My name's Derek, sweetie-"

"How about you shove it up your ass because she's clearly not interested, dumb ass," Natsu interrupted, grabbing the guys' shoulder to face him. A smirk grew on the boxers face from Derek's shocked face. "Didn't I knock you out two weeks ago in a fight that lasted two rounds? That's funny."

"Y-You?! You're Natsu-hey man, I'll just get my drink and go, 'aight?" Derek said, his voice with a tone of nervousness, unlike the cockiness a few seconds ago.

Right on que, Lucy slid the drink towards the guy, not bothering to exchange any further words. Derek hastily walked away, completely embarrassed by being caught flirting until the boxer he got wrecked by stopped him.

"Mahalo, he was starting to creep me out." Lucy started, capturing the pinkette's attention. There was a different vibe when their eyes met from last time, especially after the nonverbal Instagram contact.

Natsu grinned back, leaning one hand on the counter and shoving the other in his pant pocket. "No problem; that guy barely managed to put up a fight against me."

He blinked, noticing she's said 'mahalo' instead, but didn't question it.

She grabbed a grande sized cup unconsciously knowing. "I'm guessing it's boxing, right?"

Natsu blinked for a second, feeling his pride have a boost. "Yeah, how's you guess?" He eagerly questioned back, already knowing half of the answer. The only way for her to know was looking at his Instagram. Which reminds him, he still didn't hasn't looked at hers.

"Gray mentioned you a few times to me that you're his best friend," Lucy replied, a light blush showing on her embarrassed face. "And your Insta."

"Oh, that's nice," Natsu said, side-grinning and tapped his fingers. "And I'd like a grande vanilla latte, one pump please."

Lucy scribbled the same order on the coffee cup with a black sharpie, feeling his gaze focused on her. "Your total's three seventy-"

"Four," Natsu interjected and slid another four one dollar bills to her. "And keep the change."

"Stop, you can't be serious." Lucy said as she clicked on the cash register, shaking her head in determination to give him back his quarter this time.

The quarter sat on the counter now untouched, neither one grabbing it for their own. Lucy spun around, feeling her messy hair jumbled in her bun bounce with her movements.

As she swiftly mixed the ingredients to blend, she sneaked a peek to see him not hiding the fact he was watching her; his toned chest she could easily see through his thin-tight workout shirt facing her and leaning his weight on the counter against his palm.

She adverted her eyes back, still wondering why he'd taken such an interest in her. They barely knew each other, and somehow his smile was already intoxicating to look at.

To be honest, she didn't know if they were still strangers.

"How'd you meet Gray?" His voice perked, willingly to start another conversation.

Lucy snapped the lid over the coffee cup. "I was actually walking around to find a job and he started talking to me. He said he didn't recognize me, but he wanted to get to know me more," She said, sliding his drink towards him. "Therefore, we exchanged numbers and social medias over the week."

Natsu picked up on her hint of social medias clearly. "I guess getting to know more than one person wouldn't hurt." He said, his eyes meeting hers. Without looking down, he flicked the quarter with his fingers to her side.

Lucy noted the advancing but humble glint in his eyes, smiling at his risky move. She hesitantly picked up the quarter with her fingers.

"Who knows." She playfully said, shrugging her shoulders.

A goofy grin spread on his lips, quite enjoying the time talking with the new girl. "I'll see you tomorrow." He said, taking one last moment to capture her gaze within his before turning around.

As Natsu walked out, her brown eyes studied his tall stature and back. He was more than just in shape, it was almost god-like how ripped he was.

A soft smile grazed her lips, hoping that whatever this was, it would continue to happen.

After her shift, she already prepared a booth next to a window in advance for them so they didn't have to wait.

Currently, she was enjoying her time in a conversation with the dark-haired male sitting across from her.

"So you like dancing? I guess we have a lot in common." Gray said before taking a bite of his omelette.

Lucy hinted a curious smile. "Well, depends on which kind." She took a sip of her iced water and met his eyes, seeing an interested and intrigued look from him.

"Hmm, you look too innocent to know what dancin' I like." Gray chuckled, taking an awfully dangerous risk on his part.

To his own surprise, he saw her cast him a secretive smile, pretending to shrug her shoulders in agreement. "And I thought we weren't judging by looks? Maybe you'll have to find out." Lucy winked, then laughing lightly as his eyebrows shot upwards.

"I shouldn't have judged, that's my bad." Gray laughed.

"Maybe I'll have to find out about you, you know the wii game Just Dance?" Lucy questioned, her pink lips smiling sneakily.

"That's one of my favorite wii games! We could definitely hang at my place because I've got plenty of space to break out some moves." Gray shimmied his shoulders in his seat, making both of them crack up.

They both delightfully enjoyed the time together, hoping to expand their friendship closer.

Lucy exchanged between words, getting to know Gray Fullbuster a little more once again. A curious aspect to him was finding out about dancing, and he hinted that it wasn't the innocent kind. He was secretive in ways behind his words, but taking a jab every now and then to test her.

It was different than Natsu; the pinkette's tone was more gentle but his words made his point clear. Gray was more sly, hinting behind his answers for her to ask if she was truly wondering about him.

But it left her curious to know about their friendship together, the two young men complete polar opposites. It was like fire and ice; Gray was more cool-toned and secretive that sent shivers up her spine while Natsu on the other hand, somehow made her cheeks flare up from his generosity for tipping.

After Natsu got home, he went through the same trend again.

Argue with Lisanna about complete nonsense, always the one having to apologize in the end, a meaningless makeout session, leaving him look dumber than before.

Lisanna currently went up to take a shower, letting him finally have some self-time to relax his tired body.

He decided to watch film of his next opponent that wanted to challenge him, so he propped up his laptop on his thighs, letting his feet rest against the top of the table in front.

After some time of spending time deciphering the guys' footwork, direction of swings, memorizing his combos, he decided to check his phone. His opponent tended to take a quick step in advance and jab with his further hand while the other glove protected his closer side.

That makes it a lot easier for Natsu to close the gap and land a few punches to knock him on his ass.

He rolled his eyes at a comment Gray left under his recent picture, sending a snarky reply back.

Natsu boringly clicked on his girlfriends' recent upload from yesterday, which was a regular selfie that seemed too try-worthy. He wondered why she caked on makeup for the picture, noticing her shirt was intentionally lower than what it should look like.

He still didn't know the reason of her absence the other day, and it irritated him.

For once, he only double-tapped the picture and didn't leave a comment. Nothing like he would normally do, the 'wow ILY', 'damn', 'beautiful,' and other comments that was just the same as a crapload of other guys would say.

His curiosity rose again as he went through his feed.

-Gray_Fullbuster liked Lucy_Heartfilia's photo.

-Gray_Fullbuster commented on Lucy_Heartfilia's photo.

Natsu didn't take another second to wait, clicking on the notification and took a sip of his Gatorade.

His emerald eyes rolled at Gray's comment, scrolling up through the other comments to see the picture.

It wasn't the smartest decision to be drinking at that moment because it ended up him coughing hazardously and spitting out the drink, getting Gatorade all over his laptop.

Natsu couldn't care less where his drink ended up around him, he was shook more than the strongest earthquake that's ever occurred.

Holy shit was a definite understatement, but those were the only two words replicating in his brain.

The picture showed to her mid-thigh, and he was beyond comprehending all the most praising words to jumble into one single sentence. It was high-resolution, so each detail was clear-crystal to see.

Her hair was up in her normal high messy bun, but still somehow looked hot. Her body leaned against a wooden railing, supposedly on a deck of some sort. An oversized thin white sweatshirt hung on her body down to the very top of her legs, one brought slightly forward from her weight shifting on one side. The clothing hid away how curvaceous she was underneath. One hand gracefully rested next to her with the other close to her chest, touching a long necklace with fancy charms bundled together.

Her beautiful face veered slightly to the left, loose baby hairs and bangs framing it. Her saccharine pink lips formed a delicate soft smile. She adorned natural but sun-kissed makeup, her closed eyes sparkling from a golden eyeshadow. Long, black natural lashes barely touched her rosy highlighted cheeks, blending in with her summer glow.

"Holy shit."

How could someone look so innocent and unique, adoring a beautiful and yet deviously hot appearance. She didn't enhance anything, in fact it was more subtle and secretive to the keen eye, leaving thousands curious to see more. She didn't need anything extra to leave a man breathless.

It wasn't the usual 'let's cake on as much makeup as possible to look sexy, wear flashing shirts, purse out large injected lips with a dark lipstick and want as many guys as possible to want me' look like nowadays, the trend Lisanna fell under. He couldn't stand it.

She was her own style of art, a diamond in the rough that was breaking through the outer shell to let others see the antique beauty underneath.

Natsu didn't have a hesitation to double tap on the photo after staring at it for a long unknown period of time.

He ignored the karma of Lisanna screaming at him for liking her picture, Gray finding that she'd accepted his request and followed him back, or whatever Levy would say to him.

That wasn't stopping him from deciding to check a few other photos she posted. He didn't have a thought of denying that she was beyond gorgeous.

Natsu wished Lisanna hadn't changed from the way she used to be because that's what he loved about her, and everything he fell for was nonexistent. Yes, people change overtime but the feelings for her were more questionable than permanent, and it only made him confused. He never took a chance of looking on another girls' Instagram until now.

The last thought that lingered in Natsu's mind was if she was doing the same thing behind his back.

Hey! Just wanted to say thank you all who're reading this, it means a lot to me!

I just wanted to address that I first published this story last year, I think June or July 2017? I only published it on my Wattpad account, which is queen_random1. I decided to also start posting my work here on fanfiction, but if you're interested, I have tons of other in-progress works on Wattpad. Hopefully I can get all the chapters I have so far posted here soon.

Mahalo!