Thanks for reading!

I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL! THAT HONOR GOES TO HIRO MASHIMA.

(~)

'Twas the day before Lucy's birthday, most of the guild was out shopping, trying to give the Celestial mage the best-surprise- birthday party she's ever had. Natsu was running frantically through streets, trying to give Lucy a present not most would think of. Natsu had the feeling the number of silver and gold keys attached to Lucy's belt would drastically increase by the end of tomorrow; the guild had already combed through all of Magnolia's magic shops, making them run out of keys. Lucy hadn't hinted to what she wanted, she just smiled good-naturedly and cheerfully claimed, "Whatever is fine!"

Walking through hungrily stalking through the food aisles, he saw a blue fur ball, flying near the ceiling.

"Yo, Happy!"

"Yes, Natsu?"

"What're you getting Lucy?"

"A fish."

Nastu sweatdropped at his exceed's predictability. Food was out of the question for Natsu, last time he tried to give food as a gift, it had magically teleported to his stomach. Erza was not happy with the lack of strawberry cake.

"What are you getting Lucy, Natsu? Is it going to be handmade? I hope not…" The exceed trailed off, thinking of 8-year-old Natsu's failed arts and crafts projects.

"Shut up." Natsu muttered, absentmindedly. A card? He had forgotten about a card. He could put jewels, from his saved up stash, in it! Lucy would love that! Not to mention she would stop complaining about her rent! Which meant her portion of their mission money go towards her refrigerator, a pathway to his stomach! With that, he sped off towards the nearest Hallmark, leaving Happy in the fish aisle, drooling over a thick trout.

Inside the nearest Hallmark, Natsu decided he loved the place. It smelt like Lucy after visiting Levy's dorm at Fairy Hills- ink, paper, and some warm, cozy, scent he couldn't describe. Despite the glitter and rhinestones that tickled his nose, along with the over-zealous happy faces littering every corner of the store, he instinctively knew he could find the perfect card.

After 3 hours of pawing through 'Thank You!' cards and fill-in-the-blank birthday invitations, he thought he found the perfect card, and it came along with a fancily decorated envelope he immediately knew Lucy would adore. The card itself was quite girly, like Lucy. The hue of the card was the exact same shade as his hair. Inside the card were lavishly PRE-WRITTEN words inscribed in a calligraphic font,- Lucy, along of the rest Fairy Tail, knew Natsu wasn't good at words. But, thought the words a little out of his vocabulary, they expressed his happiness for Lucy. All he would have to do is insert 70,000 jewels, sign his name on the card, and lick a foul-tasting envelope!

"I'll take this!" He shouted, to no one in particular, quickly running to the nearest open cashier and throwing some jewels at the cashier. The cashier, a lady with a sticker saying 'Hi! I'm Sherry!' giggled at Natsu before sprouting hearts out of no where, "LOVE!" she shouted.

Sherry grinned at him, "Here, have a rose, too. On the house, since this expensive letter is for your girlfriend!" Natsu blushed at her words, wondering where she got that idea from, but didn't contradict her, after all, another free gift for Lucy was great!

~July 1st, Lucy's birthday~

At approximately 9 o'clock p.m., Lucy walked towards the guild she called home. Loke had spent the whole day with her, along with Plue, Carla, and Happy. Watching the exceeds amused her, Carla obviously liked (or should I say lllliked) 'male cat' but continuously rejected him. Wistfully, she looked at the calendar on her lacrima-powered-phone, a red circle around the date, declaring that it was her birthday. Lucy sighed inwardly, she didn't want to bother the guild, so she didn't tell them the special occasion, but now, watching the 2 exceeds and her spirits, she regretted her decision. It was her birthday. Her 17th birthday. This marked a decade of being ignored on her birthday.

Entering the guild, she was met by complete silence, save for the creaking hinges of the rusty doors behind her swinging shut. Unbeknownst to Lucy, Mira whispered,

"1

..

.

Lucy blinked, wondering where everyone was.

2

..

.

Lucy assumed the guild was sleeping, drunk from whatever party she might've missed during the day

3

..

.

Sighing, Lucy turned on her heel, planning on running home and taking a long luxurious shower and crawling into her Nastu-dented bed, calling it a day.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted, making the 3 dragon slayers wince. All of Fairy Tail was here, along with most of Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and the Twin Dragon Slayers of Saber Tooth, Sting and Rogue never missing a chance to talk to their idols, along with Yukino, her fellow celestial mage.

After 3 drinking contests, which Cana dominated, 2 dance-offs, 8 attempts to throw Gajeel off stage, 1 drunk Asuka demanding she and Natsu kiss, and 37 brawls, Erza happily announced,"Cake eating time!" Lucy somehow got the idea Erza was only talking about herself. "Let's sing happy birthday for the birthday girl!"

All the mages present gathered around Lucy and the massive cake, strawberry, of course, in front of her, singing, their voices mixing harmoniously while Mira belted out the melody, while Gajeel randomly added a shoo-be-doo-be-do. After the song came the candle-blowing-out-ceremony (A/N IDK, whatd'ya want me to call it?), in which Lucy enlisted a blushing Wendy to help Lucy blow out the infinite amount of candles decorating the cake. Afterwards came the chorus of well wishers,

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LUCE!" Natsu shouted, before quickly grabbing a slice of cake, undetected by Erza.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LU-CHAN!" Levy yelled, before stuffing her nose back into a book, trying to find the quote she was looking for to show 'Lu-chan'.

"NICE CAKE, BUNNY-GIRL, ~SHOO-BE-DOO-BE-DO!" Gajeel sang.

"BEST WISHES, LUCY!" Erza shouted, before devouring the cake in front of her.

"BLONDIE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Sting and Laxus shouted together.

"YES! BIRTHDAY WISHES ARE MANLY!" Guess who?

"ALL YOU TALK ABOUT IS MAN, MAN, MAN! OH YEAH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LUCY!" (And the other half of the Elf-Ever ship comes in….)

"Happy Birthday, Love Rival!" Juvia told Lucy.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!" Loke and Virgo popped up in unison.

"Present Opening Time~!" Mira trilled.

Levy popped up, giving Lucy (Guess!) a Zemu Kaleon book signed by the author.

Erza went next, giving Lucy a gift-card for a shop that sold cakes and other delicacies.

Grey gave Lucy a un-melt-able ice sculpture of the Fairy Tail guild, complete with the broken chairs, and tables strewn around everywhere inside.

Reedus gave Lucy (Whad'ya think?) a painting of a day in the guild.

Cana gave Lucy a decade-old bottle of wine, demanding to have at least half of it and a drinking contest.

Gajeel gave her a CD of him singing his signature shoo-be-doo-be-do song.

Loke made do with a kiss on the lips, much to a flustering Lucy's dismay.

Mira made her a strawberry milkshake and a detailed picture of 'Nashi Mirajane Dragneel', claiming that she needs to be the godmother of Lucy and Natsu's future kids.

Wendy gave her a sweater she's been eyeing for the past few days.

The exceeds gave her a bookshelf for her multiplying book collection.

And the rest of the guild, as Natsu predicted, gave Lucy a variety of rings to add to her vast collection.

Natsu then handed her a single envelope, thick with paper. Lucy curiously opened the envelope, eyes lighting up when she saw the outrageous sum of money hastily stuffed into the envelope. She then grabbed the thick card, admiring the shade of pink on the cover before flipping it open and reading the prettily inscribed words inside.

"Sometimes we let affection, go unspoken,

Sometimes we let our love go unexpressed,

Sometimes we can't find words to tell our feelings,

Especially towards those we love the best."

~Natsu Dragneel

(Later she, in the privacy of her own room, she would admit to herself that ut her favorite part of the card is where Natsu scrawled his name. It reminded her of his hair, messy but beautiful at the same time. That, or the word love. Not that she would admit that to anybody.)

Mira awww-ed at her words before fangirling, shouting at Levy, "Ha! I knew it! I already claimed the position of godmother!"

An (unflattering) shade of tomato red decorated Lucy's face. 'Is this what's in birthday cards these days?' She silently questioned to herself.

A couple of shots later, liquid courage surging through both Lucy and Natsu, she asked Natsu, "Hey, Natsu, Where'd you get the card? I like the shade of pink on it. It reminds me of you. And I like the fancy words."

"At the For Her section of Hallmark, I think." Natsu answered, unabashedly, clueless to the cause of the cat-calls and wolf-whistles echoing in the guild.

"Natsu, you know that section's for somebody's girlfriend or wife." Lucy declared, a tinge of red splashing her cheeks because of the alcohol (or so she would claim).

"Lushy, does that matter? I read the card before buying it, 'cause Happy told me to, and what you read in the card is all true." A drunk Natsu muttered. Unfortunately, to the drunk dragon-slaying mage, his definition of quiet was louder than Lucy's declarations of 'Lucy Kick!'

Mira squealed before fainting while Macao and Wakaba simultaneously raised their eyebrows at Natsu's confession.

"You guys all owe me some jewels!" Cana yelled above the cheering of the guild.


The next day~

Lucy, perched on a bar stool, hid her so-red-it's-nearly-purple face in her hands, groaning at the video that was projected onto one of the guild's walls, the 'NaLu scene' as Mira dubbed it, was playing over. And over. And over. And she was groaning (definitely because of the hangover. Not that she had one.) over. And over. And over.

"Hey Luce?" an innocent pink (Salmon!) haired dragon slayer nursing the slightest of hangovers asked.

"Yeah, I know, I'll forget about it, you were drunk anyways." She muttered before walking away.

"What? Luce! That was all true! Even if I was tipsy..." He yelled, wincing from the minuscule hangover he had.

"Really, Natsu?" a match-making demon asked, mimicking Lucy's voice.

"Are you deaf or something? Duh!" He replied.

Lucy, overhearing the conversation, ran back to the bar (much faster than she left, may I add.) grabbed his chin and held him in a passionate lip-lock, not caring about where they were at the moment.

"Be mine?" Natsu asked, flashing Lucy his best puppy eyes and a hopeful smile.

Lucy couldn't resist him. Even if she wanted to. "Duh, of course, you baka!"


The end! I hope you liked it! I never thought I would do so many one-shots, but there is waay less baggage and stuff.

FUN FACT: I was going to post this on the 14th of August, because that was exactly half a year away from the next Valentine's day and half a year after the last Valentine's Day! But I forgot... so... School's starting on the 25th, so I won't have as much time, but I think I'll be making a multi-chapter fanfiction later.