::Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all its characters are property of Hiro Mashima::

the obligatory coffee shop story in which i buy my hot chocolate with cinnamon whenever i feel bad and the cute barista starts drawing little pictures on my cup to make me smile and it always works so i come on days when i don't actually feel sad AU

There was a dancing cat on her cup.
It was awkwardly drawn. The hand of the person who did that was not steady at all. Some of the lines were smeared. But it was easy to identify what it was supposed to be.

A small smile widened the blonde womans lips.

Lucy Heartflila, head cheerleader on the college around the block, sat down on a chair, after setting down her hot chocolate with cinnamon.
She could still remember the first day she had visited this coffee shop.
She had been depressed.
Ever since she had attended college nothing went the way she had planned it.
The person she had to share her dorm room with, was the complete opposite to her. Loud and obnoxious, leaving her clothes at the place she had pulled them off. It was a mess.
Her tutors were way more strict than the teachers in high school.
Her best friend had refused to join the cheerleader-squad and was much more invested in her art than she had been in the past. Especially since she had met that scary guy and his buddy in the museum.
And her grades were beyond everything she had seen in her life.
She had doubted her decision to got to college. She really had. So she had decided to drown her doubts in hot chocolate with cinnamon. Something she had done since she was a child. She loved it very much. And she was glad it did not affect her figure the slightest.
That day, she had entered this particular coffee shop, with a gloomy face and surrounded by the aura of failure. Even her hair had been a mess.
With a muttering voice she had ordered, not even paying a thought on the cute pink haired barista. The man had blinked at her, and gifted her with a wide warm smile. She had not smiled back. She had not been in the mood to do so.
This was the day she had received her order with a small drawing beside her name.
The letters were as awkward as the drawings were.
'Lucy' None of those letters were fancy or entwined. Just a plain and bold handwriting. Fitting the small drawing besides it.
And she still remembered the first drawing she got.
It had been a lemon. A sour look on its face – like a lemon is supposed to be – and a hand with a stick poking it.
It was silly, a dumb joke. But it had made her smile.

So she came back, the next time she was sad. Ordering a hot chocolate with cinnamon. And received another drawing.
It continued being like this. Little drawings to cheer her up. And with every drawing she got, she started to notice the barista even more.
He had – professionally toulsed – pink hair. His eyes had a dark colour, she could not place. She might be in need to ask Levy about it the next time her best friend joined her here. And that warm smile of his, she had not returned the first time.
It was wide, showing some enlonged canines, warm and made her stomach feel all warm and funny. He was always cheerful, making jokes with other costumers. A ray of sunshine.
And she had a huge crush on him.

How many times had she thought about to just subtle leave him his number, but had been to embarrassed to do so?
Or to stand at the counter a little longer, just to talk to him, or maybe even crack some jokes?
She did not know.
But she really wanted to.
Regardless of all the confidence she radiated, she had no confidence when it came to love.

Yes, she had been daydreaming about such things. Especially after Levy had made that sneaky comment about that guy liking Lucy. She was prone to such things.
She had never had the courage to do those in the first place and she knew it.
What she did know was, how she would end up as red as a tomato if he would ask her out. What he would not do. Or so she liked to believe.

That was why she came here, not because she was depressed any more.
She had started to frequent this shop, at least once a week. And every time she entered, he was there.
And even if she did not radiate that aura of failure, he drew he small pictures on her cup.
Little did she know, how he did it to see her smile. Because he considered it beautiful. He did not care if she was sad or not. He wanted her to smile.
So Lucy sat on her table, sipping her hot chocolate, and looking at the barista, joking with a customer again.

Whatever he did, he made her smile.
So it was worth coming back every time. For the drawings, and the smile.
And who knew? Maybe she gathered the courage to give him that slip of paper in her pocket, with her number scribbled on it, tomorrow?

::As in the reviews of my 'I want to draw you' requested, a Nalu one shot in the same timeline and universe. XD I hope you enjoyed it. It's my first time writing them, so pleade bear with me.
Reviews are welcome~::