note: I'M BAAACCKKKK!
note2: So, I found out I'm not cut out for multi-chaptered stories. I'll still try to finish though, although I'm not sure when exactly. I'm such an awful updater.
note3: I'm still trying to get my writing mojo back, so please excuse this crappy one-shot. The concept's cute though.
disclaimer: I won't let Gray suffer such a terrible backstory (or any of them for the matter, but mostly Gray because have you seen that latest chapter?), so I'm not Mashima-san.
summary: Nothing like a nice cup of brunch coffee and romance.

He brought the steaming mug to his lips and drank the creamy, slightly bitter content in one long gulp, feeling the warm liquid slide down his throat and settle in his stomach. Setting the mug back on the table, he sighed in pure bliss and wiped his lips for any remaining stain there may be.

The coffee in this café has always been one of the best he's tasted, prompting him to return to the place regularly in the morning despite it being quite a long distance away from both his house and school. He even had a mug dedicated especially for its coffee. Some of the baristas already knew him well because of how frequent he dropped by.

The Sunday surrounding outside the glass window was crowded at 10am, the whole scenery bustling with life—contrary to the peaceful inside where he was, which, aside from him, only had a handful of people. It was probably because the morning coffee rush has passed, and the remaining customers were late-risers like he was (mostly teenage-slash-young adult parishioners who enjoyed the coffee and atmosphere and smell of coffee—hell yes the smell of coffee—that stayed until noon). And, to think, he would miss this rare serenity for a whole day of video-gaming—

"Oh, Natsu! I've never seen you around here on a Sunday."

He looked up at the direction of the familiar voice and flashed a greeting grin. "'Morning, Mira," he said, waving a bit at the white-haired café owner. "Just thought I should stop by and ruin the Sunday peace like I do every weekday."

"Maybe you should," she said, but her tight, deceptively sweet smile seemed to say otherwise (a shiver ran down his spine and he gulped). "It's always very quiet without you here, Natsu. I think I quite miss paying the bills for the damage you make."

The laugh he made was anything but natural—frightened was a more accurate word to describe it. "Haha, I was kidding, Mira, you know me!"

"Make sure of that, Natsu." The threatening curl of Mira's lips remained for a moment before it disappeared completely, and he was allowed a relaxed sigh. Okay, Demon Mira has retreated to her lair. This time, the café owner smiled a genuine smile, and he could barely miss the excited glint sparkling in her eyes. "Well, perfectly good timing! Today's a special day for the café."

He raised one eyebrow in question. "Special day? How come I've never heard something about that before?"

He pretended that the way Mira's smile tightened a bit was just part of his imagination. "Because it's special," she said in a tone that left no room for argument (or protests and complaints or questions). "So, we have this special offer where you can get another cup of coffee for free."

His body perked up at the thought of free coffee—because if there was anything he wanted more than Strauss Café's one-of-a-kind coffee (and playing with video games and fire, weirdly), it would be drinking it for free. "Oooh, really? Sweet!"

If he had been any less excited, he would've noticed something conspiratorial behind Mira's satisfied face. "All you have to do is kiss someone in this café and you get the coffee. And it has to be on the lips."

That cut the excitement completely off. "Wait, what? Whoa, whoa, whoa, Mira, I'm not too sure about that."

She didn't seem the least bit fazed. "Oh, come on, Natsu! Don't you think the coffee's worth it? It's just one kiss for my special coffee."

He bit his lip to restrain himself from saying something he would regret later on. But the coffee is worth it! The offer was too nice to pass up, and he found himself agreeing a short moment after, much to Mira's joy. "Fine, I'll do it," he grumbled, cheeks turning a faint shade of red, "but just one kiss." The only question left was who?.

Mira seemed to read his mind as she said, "Well, since you don't have a girlfriend, I'll help you pick." With her, his eyes wandered across the expanse of the café interior for any prospect kiss-ee. To both his disappointment and relief, all of the girls had companions with them, excluding them from being possible candidates. He'd rather not get his ass kicked by a jealous boyfriend just for coffee (well, he technically won't get his ass kicked, because he was so damn awesome at fighting, but he absolutely did not want to get involved with taken girls and interfere with relationships—if it was him, he wouldn't want his relationship ruined by an asshole kissing his girlfriend just for a measly cup of—delicious—coffee).

"Hmmm..." Mira hummed from beside him, deep in thought. She knew every customer that ever entered those café doors, so it was better to trust her choice. "It's like every girl's unavailable—ooh! Of course!" He jumped at white-haired woman's sudden exclamation. "How about that blonde girl sitting over there, reading a book?" He turned his head to where she was pointing—and there she was, a lone girl engrossed in a hardcover sipping a cup of frappuccino. Wow, she's cute was the first thought that entered his mind, to which he promptly shook his head to get rid of. "She's a regular here. Her name's Lucy."

"How come I haven't seen her here before?" He was sure that, if he'd seen someone like Lucy before, he would've remembered it.

"Oh, she only goes on weekends." Well, that made sense. "Now, go!" And Mira was suddenly pushing him off his seat, leaving him sitting on his ass in the middle of the whole café for everyone to see. He was so lucky Lucy was really into her book that she didn't turn to look, or he would've made a pretty bad first impression on his future kiss-ee.

Wow. That sounded weird even in his head.

Well, it wasn't like he can turn back now. He was Natsu fucking Dragneel, and he never chickened out of anything—plus, a cup of Strauss Café coffee for one simple kiss was the best deal ever. And Lucy was not bad at all. It wasn't going to be completely terrible kissing someone like her. So, he squared his shoulders and walked as cool as he can towards the blonde's table.

"Hey there," he said, and Lucy acknowledged him with a curious stare. Bright brown eyes, he mused briefly.

She closed her book and smiled, a bit uneasily (well, he was a stranger after all). "Ummm, hi."

Smooth. Like he always was. He just had to be smooth and do it quickly. No big deal. "Are you interested in getting a free cup of coffee?"

The way her eyes lit up was kind of beautiful, he thought, as Lucy grew as ecstatic as he was at the idea. "Oooh, that sounds goo—!"

The rest of Lucy's sentence turned into a surprised squeak as he grabbed her face and smashed his lips with hers, the taste of coffee still in his mouth. The kiss was soft at first, close-lipped and chaste, but just as he was about to pull away, Lucy's arms came around his neck to pull him back in and kissed back with so much intensity that it was his turn to squeak in surprise.

Wow, Lucy was a good kisser.

When they both pulled away for air, it was clear on her face that she didn't mind being kissed by him (and he sure as hell didn't either). "Was that the coffee offer? Because that wasn't too bad," she said with a half-smile, breathless.

"I'm Natsu," he said, face still only a few inches away from Lucy's, gaze still drawn to her eyes and her smile.

"Lucy," she said, and the silence that followed (as they looked into each other's eyes, mind you) reminded them that the whole café had just witnessed their kissing scene and was most likely staring at them with their jaws dropped to the ground. Disentangling their limbs from each other, he took the empty seat across from her, not once breaking eye contact.

Suddenly the coffee was only the second thing he liked the most in the café.

"Magnolia University? I'm transferring there this month!"

"Sweet! I'll give you a tour around the campus. What's your program?"

"Creative Writing. I want to become an author."

"Oooh, really? What do you write about?"

"Mostly fiction. Mages, powers, that kind of stuff."

"Do you write about dragons and fighting?"

"Of course! And then, there's—"

Listening to the two's excited chatters made something in her matchmaker heart flutter. They just clicked so easily, like they were meant to be.

Meant to be. Such a nice phrase.

Looking visibly pleased with her work, she started to vacate the wall she was hiding behind in when a teasing voice said, "Very sneaky, Mira, setting up Natsu and Lucy like that."

Knowing exactly who it was, she gave the redhead a smile. "Aren't they just perfect, Erza?" The sound she let out was a cross between a sigh and a swoon. "Lucy's last date was terrible, and she'd always told me what her type of guy was."

Erza's eyebrows disappeared into her fringes, shocked. "Someone actually likes Natsu's type?"

"Don't act too surprised," she said, waving her question off. "And Natsu already likes her, see? They just needed a bridge to connect them."

There was a moment when they just observed the two—who had long forgotten that they had free coffee—until Erza said, quite coyly, "So, does this special offer apply to me, too?"

Mirajane giggled. "If you kiss someone, sure! Why not?"

The smirk instantly appeared on Erza's lips. "Easy," she said, then turned to the counter. "Hey, Jellal! Can you come here for a sec?"

The blue-haired barista was by her side immediately. "Hm? What is it, Erza?"

Without a warning, she pulled him by the collar and kissed him deeply, making Jellal's eyes widen and his arms flail around for 3 seconds until he eventually learned to set them around Erza's waist and kiss back.

She couldn't hold back the squeal at the sight. "I better make some coffee then!" she said, practically skipping the kitchen with her lips humming sweet songs in an elated loop.

Special day indeed.

note: Is it obvious that Jerza's my second favourite ship? And that Mira will always be my eternal matchmaker/Shipper On Deck?
note2: Anyway, I've had this idea for months now. There does exist a café where you can pay with a kiss (you can look that up), but it's only for couples, and it was only, like, for the month of June. I thought it was pretty clever.
note3: Well, how was it? My writing's still a bit rusty from misuse (2 months is a long time), so yeah. It'll be back to normal in a matter of time now.