Grabbing the shot glass of flaming whiskey, Natsu chugged it down in one shot, the burn helping him to focus. He and Gajeel sat at the now clean counter, Lucy and Levy sitting off to the side at one of the tables talking as the four of them took a break from cleaning. As soon as Natsu saw Gajeel and realized the man was in fact alive and standing in his door way, he'd grabbed the broom and swept the rest of the room, a large dirt pile in the middle, all in attempt to focus and gather his scattered thoughts. Sweeping the ashes of the wanna be curtain, he'd set the whole pile on fire. That done and satisfied with himself, he turned to Gajeel and asked the question that burst in to his mind.
"What the hell happened, Redfox."
So simple yet so loaded a question. Within those five words spoken, hundreds lay unspoken. How had the police known about the coffee house? How had they known what time to have the raid? How did they know the location of the coffee house? Why was Jude not there that night – the past few nights! Why were the regulars not there? Why had Natsu been called in? Why had they been shot at?! If it was a simple raid, why were the police in full SWAT gear?! The questions raced up his throat and Natsu had to clench his jaw to keep them from bursting out passed his lips. Patience and discretion had to be used in this conversation. The less Lucy knew about his past the better. As it stood right now, Natsu was going to pretend to call it a night as soon as it got dark and clean the Coffeehouse downstairs by himself. Now that he knew that Lucy lived so close to his bar / coffeehouse – right above to be exact! - he had to be extra extra careful in what he said and did.
It was bad enough that he was putting himself in danger opening his own coffeehouse! Jude was not a man that dealt with competition to well. Natsu had seen first hand how the sadistic man had sabotaged other coffeehouses that ran against his own. From something simple as planting rats and poisoning the coffee beans to outright murder making it look like a suicide and killing the assassin, all to cover his own tracks! Jude was a man not to be messed with nor taken lightly. And that was with people he didn't know! It made Natsu's skin crawl just to imagine what Jude would do to him if the other man had found out that he'd had struck out on his own! Death would be a happy release that Natsu would beg for before his old boss was done with him...!
Natsu's gaze slid over to Lucy, taking in her pleasant smile, mussed hair from working so hard with the cleaning and the way her shirt had slid up a little, exposing a thin line of pale flesh above her blue jeans. Gajeel's deep laughter and a punch to his arm had Natsu blushing at being caught staring.
"What?! I just met her twelve hours ago – she's my tenant upstairs."
"Oooh, landlord and tenant, eh? K-"
Natsu stomped on Gajeel's foot to shut the man up, talking louder then necessary to change the subject as his face burned crimson.
"So! Gajeel, I was thinking of using masks again."
"Like before? Think it'll work again?"
Back when he was a barkeep at Jude's old coffeehouse, Natsu had worn a mask that covered the top half of his face, keeping his identity anonymous but still showing enough that his guests were comfortable with it. He was still able to speak and smile, be understood and understand his guests clearly. His regular females and some males even, loved it. More often then not, Natsu had to turn down a few dozen requests a night for a private coffee in the VIP section of the coffee house. Personally, he'd felt that's where Jude went wrong. Yes, this business ran purely by word of mouth but there was a point where word got out to much. That was probably what had happened in Jude's case. To many people heard about it, word got back to a snitch that worked with the authorities and the whole thing imploded. Discretion was ninety if not one hundred percent of this business! Natsu knew that if he went around town handing out fliers about his coffee house under his bar, he would be shut down faster then he could make the first cup of dark roast.
"I guess you'll have to rebuild your collection again, mm?"
A smirk passed Natsu's lips at Gajeel's observation, a pang stabbing his heart as he knew the words to ring all to true. In the few years since he'd been a caffeine barkeep, Natsu had collected a fair amount of masks of all sorts of colours and patterns. Solid reds and greys, checkered whites and blacks, masks that were a solid colour cracking to show another colour beneath. He had a mask with little Christmas trees for Christmas complete with a beard, a black velvet mask complete with devil horns he wore on his head in a head band and a devil's tail that attached to his belt, just for Halloween! Even a red satin mask with little angel's wings for valentines day!
To make it fun and interesting, Natsu went all out with his masks, often taking requests in a draw box and drawing one out at the end of the week. The name that was drawn got to choose the style on the mask, any accessories – to a certain degree, so they didn't get in the way of his work – even the colour of the string the mask was tied on with. (Often times he'd used the same colour string as his hair, so it didn't look weirdly obvious). After the first few draws, it became the norm for weird ideas to come in – a game for the regulars and an attraction for drawing in new comers. Very few times, he'd have to turn down a mask idea – a mask of pure flame blue for example. He'd rather have liked to keep his eyebrows! The worst idea he'd ever had was a suggestion for a mask that looked like a flamingo – beak and all. The request had even asked he dress all in pink! Even though his hair was the colour of salmon flesh...Natsu Dragneel did not do pink!
Laughter bubbled up as he remembered his most favourite mask. One of his most favourite requests was to dress like a police officer! Though he stuck to his usual button down shirt and dress pants he normally wore to work, he'd added a grey vest with a clearly fake police badge, blue mask that covered his upper half of his face and a pair of handcuffs looped through his belt. The key he wore on a leather strap around his neck.
New guests, regulars and new comers alike, had their pictures taken when they first arrived in the door and noticed Natsu. At the end of that night, the person who received the loudest cheers from the audience for the look on their face won a free cup of espresso – usually sold at one hundred dollars for a cup the size of a shot glass. When all was said and done, Natsu burned all of the pictures, the winner's included, right in front of everyone's eyes, tossing them in the air and spitting fire balls at them. The ashes rained down in the crowed, covering everyone and everything and they loved it! Needless to say, those were the nights where the lookouts were kept on their toes – and the staff was grateful for their forced practice at quick shut down of the coffeehouse!
"Hey, so, who's hungry? You all are invited back to my place for a well deserved supper!"
Lucy's voice right beside him, her tiny hand on his shoulder jerked Natsu from his memories. His eyes flicked to his watch on the underside of his wrist, widening as he noticed the time. It was ten o'clock at night and he hadn't even gotten started on the coffeehouse! Never mind his apartment upstairs! His grumbling stomach broke through all of his thoughts as Lucy laughed softly looping her arm through his and tugging him from the stool, their empty shot glasses and half filled whiskey bottle forgotten.
