A Christmas tribute for our dear Fairy Tail guild! And it's my first one shot! I don't know if they have Christmas in their world but this is fanfiction anyway so I hope it's okay for me to imagine that they have Christmas. I hope you'll all like this. Merry Christmas and consider this as my gift to all of you, readers!

Christmas Escapade

By: Clovergiel

Summary:

Lucy is in a dilemma. It's Christmas already and she needs to buy some gifts for her beloved guild mates. But something came up and she doesn't have enough money to buy something so she needs to find a job. What kind of job would it be? One shot.

"Open! Gate to the Canis Minor, NIKORA!" Lucy yelled as she did her usual stance when summoning her spirits, holding the key of the Canis Minor.

After chanting the spell, a soft light enveloped the key as a figure of a white dog appeared in front of her.

As soon as she saw the cute fellow, she ran and hugged him tight, and she heard a soft 'pu-puun!' as a response from him.

"Plue! It's been a long time since I have last summoned you! I really missed you!" She said as she hugged the dog tighter.

"Pu-puun?" Plue muttered curiously at the acts of his master.

Lucy sensed her spirit's confusion so she gave him a blissful smile. "It's almost Christmas time and you know what that means, right? I'm going shopping, of course! I wanted to buy gifts for my guild mates and you're coming with me."

"PUUN!" Lucy hinted Plue's delight not only by his response but also because it could be clearly seen in his face.

She held Plue in his arms as she locked the door to her apartment. As she turned around to leave, she was stunned to see the land lady in front of her.

"Ah...l-landlady-san, y-you need the p-payment for the rent, r-right?" Lucy said as she forced a smile.

"Yes, Lucy. Can I have it now?" The landlady said as she held out her hand in front of Lucy.

Lucy can barely force her smile now as she looked at the extended hands in front of her. She has the money to pay her rent, but if she gives it now, she won't have enough money left to buy gifts for her guild mates. But she can't delay her payment for the month, because she has done that a lot of times already, and she's afraid she might be thrown out of her apartment, especially it's Christmas season.

But in the end she just decided to pay her rent. She took the money from her wallet and hesitantly hand it to the landlady. She was thinking of fighting for it, but it's already too late, for the landlady had taken the money from her hand in a blink eye, as it joyfully hummed her way away from Lucy.

Lucy sighed and just looked at her dog spirit, who was currently giving Lucy a worried and concerned look. "Pu-puun."

"Don't worry, Plue. I'll make sure that I'll have the money to buy gifts for them. Maybe instead of shopping for today, we'll just have to look for a job to do to earn money. I guess I'll head to the guild first to look for a job suited for me, ne?" she said as she made an encouraging smile.

"Lucy, you've been standing in front of the request board for about two hours already. Is something wrong?" Mirajane asked Lucy worriedly. Lucy walked towards the counter and sat on an empty seat in front of Mirajane.

"Mira-san, what job do you think would best suit me? I've been reading through the missions there but nothing seems right. I can't figure it out though," Lucy told Mirajane as she banged her head on the counter.

"Why didn't you just go on a mission with Natsu-san and the others?"

Lucy thought of it already and it sounded harsh that she'll get them involve, after all, she'll be using using the money to buy gifts for them. She wanted her to exert the effort and earn the money without anyone's help. And for sure, the mission with them will be certainly consisting of fighting with someone, and she didn't want to battle with anyone at the moment.

"Uhh..they'll certainly do a mission involving battles and I certainly doesn't want to get involve with that kind of stuffs for now, so I bet I'll just do something on my own," she said, excluding the reason for her desperate need for a job. She doesn't want anyone to know about this.

"But Lucy, why are you so desperate for a job? Ah! It's for your rent, isn't it?"

"A-ahh...y-yes," she lied.

Mira seems worried for Lucy. She badly wanted to help her and she guess she knows a way to solve her problem.

"A-Ano...Lucy-chan...I think I have something in store for you. Actually, it just came here this morning and I was thinking of taking this job, but I think you need it more than I do," Mirajane said as she handed Lucy a paper.

Lucy reads it and her eyes widened in surprise. This totally fits her. Maybe Mira was more experienced in this but it would definitely not hurt for her to try. And in fact, she'd definitely love to do this.

Lucy was currently in front of the building of the Sorcerer Magazine and was currently having second thoughts of her decision. She can feel her legs trembling due to nervousness.

She pushed away her thoughts and read once again for the 24th time the contents of the mission.

Want to be a model for SORCERER MAGAZINE?

This is an exclusive offer for the Christmas

season, so if you have the guts and the

body to take on this job, just go to the

Sorcerer Magazine's office wearing your

most appealing Ms. Santa Outfit.

REWARD:

500 000 Jewels

Lucy was now wearing a frilly Santa dress with matching Santa hat which perfectly go with her appearance. She got the costume from Virgo.

Lucy slowly walked inside the building and then towards the main office.

The reward is considerably high, especially that this is only a modeling job. But who is she to complain, it's a job and it's definitely great for her.

She sighed before knocking on the door in front of her. Before her fist could even land in the wooden door, it opened, much to her surprise. There she saw a child, probably 6-7 years old, with a woman, probably her mom, trailing behind her.

"Mommy, it's Santa Claus! Yehey, I finally saw Santa Claus! But I thought Santa is a boy? And he has a big tummy? But anyway," the boy said as she pulled slightly the end of Lucy's Santa dress. "Where is my gift? Santa Claus is supposed to give gifts right? Where is your bag of gifts, huh?"

Lucy was left speechless in her place. He was adorably cute yet he's so talkative. It's good that his mother spoke up.

"Yori-kun, that's not Santa Claus," as the mother said this, the boy suddenly looked disappointed. "Maybe she's one of Santa's apprentices and it's not Christmas day yet so they weren't distributing gifts yet so you just wait for the time okay?"

"Yes, mommy..."the boy sadly said, his face still gloomy.

Lucy finally managed to speak. "Your name's Yori-kun, right? Since I can see that you are a very good boy, Santa-neechan will give you a gift. But keep it a secret from Santa Claus, okay?" Lucy told the boy as she hands him the chocolate from her bag. Good thing she had brought it today with her.

The boy's face instantly lightens up. "Thank you Santa-nee! Merry Christmas!" he said as he gave Lucy a peck on the cheek. They started to walk away from Lucy as they waved their hands at each other.

'Waah...he's such a cute boy!' Lucy thought.

And now she entered the main office.

"Hello! Good afternoon! Ummh...I'm here for the modeling job request." Lucy saw a man arranging the cameras and lights, probably for a photo shoot.

"Oh! Are you Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail?" Lucy nodded. "Come on here! I've been waiting for you. Mira-san gave me a notice that you would be taking the job. I really thought that it was her who's taking up on it, but anyway, she told me you're good. And...that dress is totally fabulous! We can start the shoot now."

The pictorial lasted for about an hour with Lucy having different poses. He gave her the reward and told her to wait for the picture to be published on the Christmas Special issue of Sorcerer Magazine.

She went straight to the guild, excited to tell Mirajane what happened. And as she flung open the door of the Fairy Tail building, all eyes seems stunned to see her. That's when she realized something. She forgot to change to normal clothes! Her blood rushed to her face. Now they have seen her in a frilly Santa costume.

Mira smiled at Lucy to ease her embarrassment. Lucy sighed. They have seen it, might as well live with it. She walked towards the counter where Mirajane is.

"Lucy how did it go," Mira asked her.

But before she could respond, Natsu rushed up to her, with Happy floating beside him. "Lucy, what's with that outfit? I heard from Mira that you're taking a modeling job. Are you modeling for a red bell pepper?" Natsu said seriously that it's hard to tell if he's joking or he seriously means that.

And that earned a kick from Lucy. "Idiot! Who would dare model for a bell pepper!" Lucy said furiously.

"Ah I know!" Happy blurted out. "It's for a tomato ketchup, right? It's because Lucy's all red and frilly!" Lucy just shot her death glare to Happy and pinched her cheeks.

"You and Natsu are totally idiots," Lucy retorted as she continued pinching Happy's cheeks.

"Thhheenn iiit mmusst bbee a Baaananaa kkkeettcchhupp!" Happy tried to say.

"Stop it will you!" Lucy beamed.

"Well actually," Mira started, "Lucy is modeling as the female version of Santa Claus."

"It doesn't look much like that. She really looks like a bell pepper, ne Happy?" Natsu said.

"Aye!" Happy responded.

"Anyway, I have to go now. Bye!" Lucy said as she waved to Mira-san and the rest of the guild members.

Lucy went to Magnolia town first before heading home to buy her gifts for each one of them. She was definitely excited to hand it over to them for she knew that they'll all gonna love this. Each one is unique and she put a printed copy of her pictorial (which the photographer gave to her as a remembrance) in each of the gifts then wrapped it with a specialized gift wrapper with words 'FAIRY TAIL' written all over it.

They are all definitely gonna love her gifts.

-End Of Story-

Clovergiel: Wow! I can't believe I actually finished a oneshot! It's been a long time frustration for me.

Lucy: I loved the idea of you having me model.

Clovergiel: Actually, that wasn't planned out.

Natsu: Lucy totally looked great in a bell pepper costume!

Happy: Aye, Sir!

Lucy: Oh, Stop it! Guys review!

Clovergiel: Oh! I also have a poll in my profile. Feel free to answer!