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You know this city, not so far away? Down there is a street called No. 6. There, on that street, is a place where it’s fun to come. It’s right next to that restaurant called Hetalian Foods. It’s a bar, it’s called Shinya’s Bar. The owner’s name is Hiiragi Shinya. He is always standing by the counter. By the door, you will usually see a woman named Awashima Seri. She is the one to kick you out if you are causing trouble. Sometimes she won’t be there though. In those cases, you’ll see Heiwajima Shizuo there instead. He is crazy strong but hates violence. Somewhere in the bar, usually in the background, you’ll find a young man named Max Alors. He always has a broom in his hand. He always seems to be working on cleaning the place, and it is needed. If you go behind the counter, you’ll find a door, behind that, you’ll find a hallway. If you follow that, you will reach a kitchen with the chef, Nanase Haruka, in a bathtub on wheels. This is pushed around by his friend, Matsuoka Rin.
In this bar, many strange costumers come by. You might know a few of them, and usually, a lot of crazy stuff happens.
Shinya was sitting behind the counter, not desiring to be very active for today. His head was resting on his folded arms as he looked towards the door. Awashima was standing there, she was bored too it seemed. Max was sweeping the floor in one of the far corners. Shinya wondered if he would manage to find any dust there anymore. He had been standing there since morning.
“Didn’t you say someone would come today, Max?” Shinya asked.
“Huh?” Max looked up from his sweeping and looked at Shinya. “I invited a few, yes,” he said.
“When will they be here?” Shinya asked, impatiently.
“Any minute,” Max answered. “I told them to come by during the day-time,” he said.
“I can’t wait,” Shinya smiled widely. “I wanna see if that drink I came up with is any good.”
As if on cue, just then the door to the bar opened and two young men stepped in, one with black hair and one with pinkish salmon-like hair. The black-haired was dressed in normal clothes, what you would expect for a normal teenager to wear these days. The other was wearing a little less ordinarily clothes. The most remarkable though, was his scarf, which was wrapped around his neck. Both walked to the bar and sat down.
“Welcome.” Shinya stood up and smiled widely. “Would you like something to drink, I have this drink with cola, Redbull and some other really great stuff,” he said.
“No thanks,” the black-haired said in a cool manner. “I’d just like that ice-lemon drink of yours,” he said.
“I’d like something burning hot,” the pink-haired said.
“Sure…” Shinya mumbled, slightly irritated by the fact that they wouldn’t try out his specialty. He started making the drinks and serving them for the two young men. In the short time he had taken on making the drinks, the black-haired had already managed to take off all his clothes.
“What are your names?” Shinya asked, simply out of curiosity.
“I’m Natsu,” the pink-haired said, smiling happily. “The stripper over there is Gray.”
“What’d you say?” the black-haired asked, raising an eyebrow at Natsu.
“That you’re butt-naked.” Natsu smiled at Gray.
“That is true,” Shinya said calmly.
“I wouldn’t get involved with that if I were you,” Max commented lowly from his corner.
“Why not?” Shinya asked.
“Once they start, they’re impossible to stop for everyone except one specific person,” Max explained.
Shinya tilted his head. “Hmm? Interesting,” He said as an amused smile played on his lips.
Gray and Natsu had both started drinking a bit of their drinks, luckily their fighting had died down for the time being, but they were glaring daggers at each other whenever they got the chance.
“So… That drink of yours any good?” Gray asked Natsu after a while.
“Not so bad,” Natsu said before gulping down what was left of it. “Yours?” he asked.
“Not so bad,” Gray answered.
They sat in silence for a bit, still looking at each other from time to time. Shinya turned around and started looking at the bottles of various liquids behind him, wondering which ones of them would be nice to mix for a new kind of drink. What hadn’t been tried before?
“I want another drink,” Natsu said. “Gray, borrow me your money.”
“Go pay it yourself,” Gray answered. His glass was only half empty.
“Well, I’m out, so borrow me yours,” Natsu said.
“I don’t need to lend you anything, stupid.” The last word was said in a slightly lower tone, but Natsu seemed to pick up on them just fine.
“What did you say, ice-face?” he yelled.
“That you’re stupid, flame-brain,” Gray answered.
Both now stood up, they were still glaring at each other, now more intensely. A burning hot vibe could be sensed from around Natsu and a freezing cold vibe was coming from Gray. Shinya started looking amused at the scene.
“Say that to my face!” Natsu yelled.
“I just did, you moron!” Gray yelled back.
“I’m not listening to an ice-freak who always walks around butt naked.”
“Are you blind? I’m still wearing my underwear!”
“No, you’re not.” And so, Natsu was swinging the mentioned underwear in his one hand while smiling proudly at Gray.
“That’s it!” Gray yelled, and before anyone could stop the two, they were at each other, pulling punches and fighting as best as they could. Shinya was still just watching in amusement.
“We should stop them…” Max said. He had walked up to Shinya and now stood beside him. “If it goes too far, the bar might be destroyed.”
“It shouldn’t be too bad. I trust Seri-chan will stop them in due time,” Shinya said, looking pretty relaxed at the situation.
Max looked at it with more doubting eyes, but he didn’t comment further on the matter. If Shinya wanted his bar destroyed, it was none of his business.
It was only around one or two minutes after that when the two backed to the opposite wall of one another and started summoning their magic. Fire appeared in Natsu’s right hand and Gray put his hands together as ice started appearing.
This was the point when Shinya decided that the matter was to be taken more seriously, and he nodded at Awashima, who had been prepared to take action for a little while now, actually.
The blonde woman in the blue uniform drew her sword and swung it downwards as Gray and Natsu were charging forward, towards each other. The sword, however, caused them to jump back and the magic disappeared.
“That’s enough,” Awashima said coldly. Then she grabbed both of them by the collar and started dragging them outside the bar.
“What’s this!” Natsu yelled. “Let go of me!”
“I didn’t finish my drink!” Gray yelled in protest.
Awashima stopped and glared at them once.
“Shut up,” she said.
Apparently this was enough to actually make both Gray and Natsu shut up, and they willingly allowed the woman to drag them out of the bar without as much as a sound in protest.
Shinya looked around in the bar as the door slammed behind Awashima and the two troublesome costumers. He shook his head at the sight.
Gray and Natsu had, while fighting, managed to knock down at least three chairs, and destroy the only table they had in the bar. Shinya would have to admit that he was impressed. He had never imagined that those two boys could cause this much damage.
A knock was heard on the door to the back and Rin peaked out of there.
“What’s all the noise for? The kitchen has been shaking none-stop for the past five minutes.”
Shinya turned and smiled at his employee. “Well… we had some troublesome costumers who couldn’t seem to get along. Awashima has taken care of them now,” he said.
“As long as the ceiling is not falling down on our heads,” Rin said, with a frown.
“Oh yeah,” Shinya smiled. “Before you go, Rinrin; could you get Haruka up here? I need the table fixed.”
“Don’t call me that,” Rin snapped. “You can go and get him yourself. It’s not my job to get him out of the tub,” he said.
Shinya only continued to smile, causing Rin to become even more irritated and slam the door before he headed back to the kitchen, and let Shinya stay in his bar.
“Well.” Shinya let out a slightly amused laugh. “It’s true what they say; fire and ice don’t mix.”