Winter has come to the sleepy town of Magnolia, as the temperature plummets, a cold wind blows and snow and frost coat the town like sugar on a jam doughnut.
"It's f-f-f-freezing in here and your s-still comple-t-tley topless?" said Lucy, incredulously huddled under several layers of clothing and shivering furiously, whilst Gray reclined on the table "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Blame my upbringing." He smirked in reply, "I haven't felt cold in years."
"Doesn't explain why you can't put a top on" said Cana, perched on her barstool.
"Like you can talk."
"As you can see, I am in fact wearing this rather fetching coat. It's cold, doofus."
At this moment, Romeo and Wendy (two of the guild's younger members) burst into the guild hall in excitement, closely followed by an exceed as white as the world outside. As they catch their breath, they both exclaim together "The river's frozen over! Natsu said we could go ice-skating!"
"That's a great idea!" says Lucy, relieved at the distraction, "At this rate I think it's the only way I'm getting warm."
"But are you sure it's safe child?" queried Carla anxiously, "I don't want you to fall through the ice and freeze to death!"
"That' OK Carla," said Gray, reassuringly, "I can freeze the ice myself to keep it thick enough."
"Hmm, ice-skating's manly!" declared Elfman "And I'm a real man!"
"Shut up!" yelled Ever, smacking him but not too hard.
"Would you like to learn to skate darling?" Bisca asked little Asuka, who nodded excitedly at the thought (Mira almost fainted from adorableness).
"I'm all fired up!" yelled Natsu.
"That makes no sense in this context." replied Gray.
"Says you, ice-pervert!"
"What did you call me, Flame-Brain!"
"Nothing, Mr Slushy!"
By now they were brawling, right until…
"Boys! I want to ice skate! NOW!" from a reasonably irate Erza.
After a brief scuffle they saluted in unison with a cry of "Yes, Erza!", allowing the day to avoid side-tracking into yet another whole guild fight (seriously, the residents of Magnolia could set their watches by them, it was impressive).
And as, in this guild particularly, things tend to snowball, pretty soon the entire guild was out on the ice.
REQUIP!
Erza slipped into something more suitable, "Ice princess armour".
"Why does she even have an ice dancer outfit?" asked Lucy, as the "armour" was revealed to be a sparkling blue and white skater dress with tiara and silver skates.
"I've stopped questioning it to be honest" replied Happy, as Erza began gracefully whirling around the river, sending those unfortunate enough to be in her path hurtling out of the way. "Probably the shopaholic tendencies have something to do with it." Luckily for both, Erza was well out of earshot when they said this, since instant, painful death often offends. Albeit briefly.
Natsu and Gray were continuing their interrupted fight out on the ice; although that did give one party a rather unfair home advantage. "Stop avoiding me you coward!"
"Not my fault you keep slipping over, you bastard!"
"Well just keep still then!" yelled Natsu, sliding all over the place.
"Face it flame-brain, I'm just faster."
"Oh yeah stripper!*"
"I'll prove it. Race me!"
"You're on!"
"Now this could be interesting, I mean obviously Gray is the more skilled skater, but thanks to his flame powers, Natsu is jet-propelled." noted Panther-Lily, though Gajeel didn't seem to be paying much attention as he watched a slightly unsteady Levy make her way across the ice. "The shrimp's just gonna fall if she keeps going like that." He grumbled, skating towards her. Proffering his elbow to the diminutive mage he muttered something about her being no good to the guild with a broken ankle. Levy blushed furiously as she was escorted round the make-shift rink as Jet and Droy, who had yet to get their skates on, looked on in horror. Gajeel gave a self-satisfied smirk in their direction. After all, you snooze, you lose.
Meanwhile the Natsu/Gray race was going as well as one might expect, since they had collided, each accused the other of cheating and were now punching each other on a trajectory to collide with… Oh no…
Mira-Jane was not amused at her sudden change of angle and velocity. Not amused at all. And when Mira is unamused, large volumes of other people are going to shortly be the same way. This situation would require some fast thinking from Fairy Tail's most prominent rivals. "Is that Romeo and Wendy holding hands?!" asked Natsu pointing behind the she-devil, who was looking more the latter than the former. "And Ever and Elfman!" added Gray, "And, wait a second, that is actually Gajeel and Levy!" The others had been cunning deceptions designed to fool Mira with her one weakness, a tendency to match make. The last one was genuine surprise. Using this cunning distraction both Natsu and Gray managed to escape the demon's wrath unscathed, as she made her way speedily across the ice to investigate. Breathing a sigh of relief they went their separate ways.
As Gray scanned the river, he noticed one person was missing. Where the hell was Juvia? It was getting kind of hard to spot people as the town had decided to turn the day into a spontaneous festival, with bunting and entrepreneurial refreshment stalls already setting up. Oh wait. There she was. Sitting at a riverside café, Juvia sat drinking tea and watching the guild. Well she seemed happy enough, maybe she just wasn't in the mood for skating. Besides, there was no-one going to bother her now, the only one stupid enough to try was Lyon, and he was safely in Lamia Scale, at least a day's journey from here. Shrugging his shoulders Gray went back to skating rings around his guild-mates with reckless abandon. He had always loved skating, even when he was little, before… Before Deliora had come. Every winter the town would go skating, there would be games and races. The cold would be bitter and sore but n-one would mind, it was all just part of the fun. He didn't like thinking about back then though. It just reminded him of how much he had lost. Gray noticed the ice was suddenly a lot emptier than it had been before. It was wuite a lot darker too. He must have been just acting aimlessly for a while. Everyone else had pretty much gone. He was just about to do one last circuit before heading in, when he noticed Juvia standing on a bridge looking sadly into the water.
"Hey Juvia!" he called up to her.
"Hello Gray-sama. Juvia saw your skating. You're very good" She blushed a little.
"Why didn't you join us?" asked Gray, ignoring the blushing, which he really had to do if he wanted to talk to Juvia.
"Juvia has no skates." she replied shyly, staring at her feet, then looking up, "besides Juvia doesn't know how."
Gray looked at her, standing so lonesome and came to a decision. "Come on Juvia," he said, a little warily "I'll teach you."
"But Juvia has no skates, Gray-sama."
Gray smiled at her. "Give me your shoes." Juvia looked a little confused, but she merely blushed and handed him her boots. "Ice-make blades!" Simple skates formed on the bottom of Juvia's boots. "There you go." He handed them back. "Don't worry, I'll melt them later."
"Thank you Gray-sama!" Juvia's eyes shined with pleasure. It broke his heart how she treated every tiny act of kindness as a miracle. It just reminded him of how lonely her past had been, how mistreated she was. How the compassion and optimism in her had been squeezed out. He hated it.
"So do you want to learn to skate or not?" he asked, suddenly defensive.
"If Gray-sama doesn't mind teaching Juvia would very much like to learn." She looked at him shyly, with eyes full of admiration. How could anyone say no to those eyes?
"OK, well to start with just link arms with me, so I can help you keep your balance."
*This one was indeed accurate. Gray had regained his coat before heading out, but had somehow managed to get down to his underpants in the meantime. No-one knows how he does this, but the cost of replacing missing clothes is the main reason he has to keep taking jobs.