How the Blondes Save Christmas

by RosesForEveryone

It's Christmas Eve at Fairy Tail and everyone is celebrating. However, Laxus destroys the Christmas tree and is held responsible for replacing it. Lucy tags along to help the man and the two wind up getting a lot more than they bargained for.

Hello everyone! I really wanted to do a Christmas themed one-shot so I decided to write this little number up. Sorry this is a few days late. #laluxmas16

When I thought of this idea, I thought it was going to no more than 5,000 words. Then I started writing it a couple of weeks ago and I discovered that I cannot write short stories, apparently. So I hope you guys enjoy a nice, long Christmas story.

I want to give a warning to all of you readers before you progress any further in this story.

This fanfiction has a lot of stereotypical American Christmas traditions. So if you're not from the United States and something seems particularly weird or silly, it's probably just a culture difference. Nothing is wrong with that; I just wanted to give you the heads up.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Happy Holidays!

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and all corresponding characters. I only own the extra characters and plot.

It's a cold winter's evening on December 24th.

Snow is falling in thick blankets across Magnolia as townspeople run to and fro from store to store in search of that perfect gift that they suddenly remembered they had to buy at the last minute. That being said, stores are open late into the night to accommodate the desperate men and women.

On the north side of Magnolia, the Fairy Tail guild hall sits on the edge of the lake. Christmas lights cover every edge of the stone building while a huge, brilliant, green wreath decorated with ribbons, bows, ornaments, and lights hangs on the giant front doors. Once the doors open, the wreath splits into two parts, only to be joined together once the doors close again.

Inside, the guild hall is decorated to parallel all of the warm, joyous feelings created by the holiday. Green, red, and gold lights glitter and glisten along the edge of the walls as well as wrap around the rafters in spiraling motions. Long garlands drape across around the edges of the stage so it appears that a single circle is made around the entire stage. Scented candles sit in pairs on every table. Jingle bells, a piano, and a set of drums are being used on the stage as members sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in joy and merriment. Between the guild doors and the bar sits a table of a town of homemade gingerbread houses. Mistletoes have been "strategically" placed around the guild, to encourage couples to be a little more adventurous this holiday season.

All of the decorations are all finished…except for one.

A forty foot tall Christmas tree stands a little ways away from the bar next to the wall where the residential Celestial Mage is currently wrapping the red and gold lights around the upper half of the tree since she has already finished with the bottom half. Ornaments of various colors, styles, shapes, and representations sit at the floor on the other side of the tree, awaiting their turn to be placed amongst the green needles.

"Halfway there," Lucy sighs tiredly as she leans back slightly from her place on the ladder to admire her tree with a proud smile.

Master gave everyone a job decorating the guild this year and Lucy got the tree. Something she is excited and worried about. Excited because she actually enjoys decorating the tree; worried because she does not want any help from her overly helpful team whatsoever. Not unless she wants a burnt tree, frozen tree, or chopped tree.

That's why she waited until the absolutely last minute in order to decorate the tree. She has hung out with them all day so they won't feel compelled to bug her while she is trying to accomplish her job. And if—for some reason—the tree got ruined during the day, she wouldn't have wasted all of that decorating effort just to have to do it over again.

Because knowing her luck, that's exactly what would have happened.

I'm surprised that no fights have broken out, she muses to herself thoughtfully. Must be all of the holly Christmas feelings.

Since the guild will be closing up within the next two hours, Lucy decided that she couldn't put it off any longer since she has a whole forty feet of tree to decorate.

Thoughts of her team makes her eyes float over to where two of the members sit in the middle of the guild hall as the new song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is played on the stage and she can't help but feel her heart warm and soften in joy at the wonderful sight.

Natsu is arguing with Gray over who has better Christmas plans while Lisanna and Juvia chat happily beside their respective boyfriends, sometimes laughing at something the boys do.

I'm so happy that they're happy, she thinks to herself with a small smile.

A loud sneeze brings her out of her thoughts to make her look at the bar behind her with a sympathetic frown. Or better yet, at the miserable girl with her forehead planted to the top of the bar.

"Are you feeling any better, Wendy?" Lucy asks with a concerned tone.

"Mmmmm," Wendy grumbles miserably through the bar wood before turning her head so she can at least see the blonde woman.

"I hate colds," she whines gloomily.

Lucy gives a sympathetic look. "Why don't you go home? You would probably feel better if you just rested."

"She won't listen to reason," Carla interjects as she huffs at her dragon slayer.

"I'm not that sick," she insists as she wipes her nose with the back of her hand. "I want to celebrate Christmas with everyone else," she whimpers as she pouts.

"But Wendy…"

"Pleeeeeeaase Lucy? I don't want to go home yet. I've already taken that special medicine that Porlyusica gave me today and I'm going to take some more tonight so I'll be a lot better tomorrow," the wind dragon slayer pleads with large puppy dog eyes.

Lucy opens her mouth to reject her but the words catch in her throat at the sight of the piteous girl.

"Alright," Lucy sighs before pointing a stern finger at her. "But don't sneeze or touch anyone."

Wendy gives the celestial mage a grateful smile before dissolving into another loud sneeze.

Lucy heaves another sigh before shaking her head. I hope no one else gets sic-

A loud rambunctious laugh echoes from below her and draws her attention to another group of mages that are happily celebrating.

Bickslow has hung a couple of ornaments (did he get those from her?) in Freed's hair in his drunken stupor and proceeded to laugh so hard that he fell out of his chair. The other members of the table and Lucy watch him in question for a few minutes while the seith mage catches his breath. Only for several seconds, Bickslow pulls his head above the table and tells Freed that he's now a Christmas tree before falling to the ground once more in laughter.

Lucy, Evergreen, and Laxus turn toward a red-faced, glaring Freed. Evergreen busts out laughing so hard that she quickly falls to the floor like Bickslow, Laxus chuckles from his place at the head of the table, and Lucy's lips purse together as she tries to hold back her amusement and winds up letting small, quiet snorts out through her nose.

Laxus hears her and flicks his eyes upwards at her to see the strained smile across her face. A knowing smirk grows across his face as he watches Lucy try her damnedest not to laugh. She shakes her head and looks down at him to catch his eye. Surprise flits across her face before it is covered with a small smile. Lucy gives him a tiny wave in greeting and he quirks an amused eyebrow at her before turning back toward a drunk Freed trying—and failing—to reprimand a still laughing Bickslow and Evergreen.

Lucy watches the ensemble with a content smile as a small blush rises on the apples of her cheeks.

Laxus…

The way the Christmas lights highlights his striking eyes, long eyelashes, high cheekbones, strong jaw, firm chin, and long spiky hair to make him practically glow in all of his masculine glory, causes her stomach flutter and knees quake. He is wearing a long sleeved white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a vest over his shirt, black pants, and black boots. His warm black fur-lined coat is lying across the back of his chair.

Over the past couple of months, Lucy has discovered that she has come to see Laxus in a more romantic light. It's not love, per say, but it's definitely in the "like" category.

It started happening after they won the war with Alvarez. While she has always acknowledged his good looks to herself because she would never tell another soul that piece of information, she also noticed how much he consoled everyone after they lost Master Makarov even though he was the one that lost his actual grandfather. That single act made her watch him even more closely and she learned how much of a loving and assertive guy he truly is over the next couple of months. It appealed to her physically, emotionally, mentally and before she knew it, her attentions turned into a crush.

There were times that she would catch herself daydreaming about things they would do if they were actually together.

Just typical girly things, ya know: them going on dates, holding hands, cuddling, hanging out at the guild, kissing, him proposing over a midnight dinner, getting married in Kardia Cathedral with all of their friends from the Fairy Tail guild around them…Natsu would be her "man-of-honor" while Freed would be Laxus' best-man, she would Erza, Mira, Levy, Lisanna, Ever, Cana, and Wendy to be her bridesmaids while Bickslow, Gray, Elfman, and Gajeel would be his groomsmen, the colors would be purples and blues since those are they're favorite colors, and her dress would have a long train and lots of lace—

Lucy quickly halts her train of thoughts and turns back toward the tree as she feels her blush darken. Her hands grip the ladder rail as she inhales a few deep breaths through her nose to calm the raging heat in her cheeks. The air treatment works as the blush fades but a sudden onset of dejection consumes her heart to make her lips turn downward in sadness.

Even with all of the daydreaming and mind-wondering, Lucy understands what those ideas truly are: a fantasy.

They could never be together in reality.

While she doesn't have much experience when it comes to men, Lucy figures that she is nowhere near Laxus' type. Women more like Erza (although Jellal would fight him tooth and nail for her) or Mira are better suited for him than her. Someone who is strong both physically and mentally would be perfect for him, not someone who is dainty and girly like her.

Sure, she has her star dresses now and she can kick some serious ass…but she is still nowhere near Mira and Erza's level. Although that's a pretty high level to achieve, anyway.

Still…that doesn't stop her for wishing for his happiness; even if that means that she won't be the woman he wants to be with.

A sharp yell garners everyone's attention to the table were most of Team Natsu resides. Lucy forgets her negative thoughts in favor of seeing what is going on with her team.

"What did you say Ice Prick!?" Natsu yells as he butts heads with the ice mage.

"I said, what kind of moron doesn't know what a stocking is used for! Deaf idiot!" Gray retorts back sharply as he pushes back against Natsu's forehead.

"That's rich coming from a guy who loses his socks all the time!"

"At least I use socks! You on the other hand, need some to block that foot odor of yours!"

"I don't have foot odor!"

"Yes, you do! You have the worst body odor of anyone I know!"

"We're talking about foot odor, not body odor!"

"It's the same thing!"

Both boys growl at one another and punch each other in the cheek. They fly backwards from the force and crash into nearby tables. The mages sitting at those table quickly throw the guys back at one another while yelling obscenities for spilling their drinks. Natsu and Gray ignore the outraged mages and throw more kicks and punches.

Natsu and Gray's fight soon engulfs more tables and consequently more mages to snowball into one of the infamous brawls that the Fairy Tail guild is known for. Fists, feet, chairs, tables, and people fly through the air in a flurry.

I knew it was too good to be true, Lucy deadpans while remaining perched on her ladder to stay out of the way of anyone wishing to incorporate her into the fight.

Lisanna and Juvia have moved to the sidelines and are cheering for Natsu and Gray, respectively. From the corner of her eye, Lucy can see that the Thunder Legion has already joined the fray but Laxus remains at the table with a disapproving frown marring his face.

A stray tankard flies out of nowhere from behind Laxus and Lucy watches the whole scene play out in slow motion. The horribly thrown mug by some stupidly unsuspecting individual in the brawl creeps toward the back of Laxus' skull in mid-air ever so slowly…slowly…slowly…

…Until it collides handle-first with Laxus' head with a crack. Laxus' head is forced forward—more from surprise than actual force—while the tankards breaks into a hundred different pieces and falls to the floor shattered.

Lucy's eyes widen to the size of saucers as her heart slows to a near comatose state in fear. Fear of everyone's safety makes her soul cower but any warning she might consider giving to her brawling guildmates is locked in her throat.

Two thick veins pop in Laxus' temple and cheek as he slowly raises his head to glare murderously at the still clashing Fairy Tail guild members.

Thick lightning streams buzz around the ceiling and steady grow into long tendrils of never ending yellow light. Everyone momentarily pauses to look up at the ceiling in curiosity and wonder.

Here it comes, Lucy cringes internally.

At one moment, dozens of thick lightning bolts strike various guild members around the guild hall. The residual electricity shocks nearby people that were lucky enough to not be directly hit. Everyone violently shakes from the onslaught of overwhelming amounts of lightning while releasing ear splitting cries of pain.

Lucy watches everyone with a deep cringe and wide eyes as she remains stock still on the ladder. Members fall one by one into crispy, blackened, twitching piles on the floor as the lightning takes out everyone in the guild except her.

As the last standing member of the guild falls (Natsu and Gray due to their stubbornness), Lucy exhales a relieved sigh at being spared from the lightning storm.

The sudden movement attracts the last lightning bolt from all of the lingering static energy. A lightning bolt similar to the ones a few minutes ago crack over her head.

Lucy yelps in worry as she watches the yellow electricity descend ever so slowly…

…but at the last second, the lightning bolt slightly turns to strike the top of the Christmas tree.

A bright yellow glow surrounds the tree and all of its needles and lights. Sounds of wood cracking, needles sizzling, and lightbulbs popping resonate in the air. The needles fall off and shards of glass splatter all over the floor. The narrow trunk cannot withstand the overwhelming amount of energy and magic forced into the tree and peels away from the center like a banana peel. The branches creak or break as they collide with the floor.

"Ahhhh!" Lucy screams as the splintered branches push the ladder backwards. The ladder tips backwards with her on it to crash into the ground. Lucy's back hits the ground with a crash and causes the woman to groan in pain.

The tree base cannot hold its own weight up and tips away from the Celestial Mage. Lucy watches the broken tree slowly fall away with wide eyes from her spot under the ladder on the floor. Cracks of moving wood echo in the still room as the ruined tree steadily falls toward the floor.

The moment the tree collapses onto the floor, sharp sounds of glass and ceramic breaking reaches her ears. With that noise, Lucy's entire stomach drops along with her jaw in exaggerated horror.

"The ornaments…" she cries in a strangled choke.

Lucy tosses the ladder off of herself before pulling herself upwards to sit on her butt, never taking her eyes of the disaster in front of her.

Tense, pregnant moments of silence—save for a final tree branch breaking and dropping to the floor—fill the room as Lucy gawks at the destroyed tree. Big, exaggerated tears roll down her cheeks at the loss of her beautiful Christmas tree.

Not really sure why, Lucy slowly turns her head to stare at the perpetrator of the lightning attack. Laxus is gawking at the sight of the poor tree with a bead of sweat dripping down his temple.

"Is it over?" Wendy's meek voice calls out as she pops the top of her head out from behind the bar counter.

The doors to the guild swing open to allow the frosty cold and three Fairy Tail members that missed the impromptu electrocution inside.

The three stop dead as the doors swing shut with a bang and gape at the mess. Their heads turn to the side to see Lucy crying on the floor in exaggerated dismay, the silhouette of a shell-shocked Laxus, and the eyes of a nervous Wendy from behind the bar.

"LAXUS!" Master Gildarts yells at the top of his lungs.

Laxus' shoulders twitch briefly before he turns his head to face the orange-haired man and two women with a scowl.

"Laxus! What did you do!?" Erza demands as she lays aside the box full of wrapping paper in her hands.

"I stopped them from wrecking the guild," he answers with a scowl as gestures to his unconscious guildmates

"Is that why everyone is fried!?" Mira demands as she sets her box of wrapping paper next to Erza's box.

"They were being annoying," Laxus grumbles in annoyance.

"Laxus," Gildarts sighs as he puts the two huge crates of gifts down on the floor, and crosses his arms, "you can't just go around shocking people."

Laxus tsks before he looks pointedly away in not-so-concealed guilt.

"The tree…" Lucy murmurs in complete disappointment.

Fairy Tail is not going to have a Christmas tree this year.

Laxus twitches again as Gildarts, Erza, and Mira turn toward where the Christmas tree is—or was—and gape in shock at the pitiful state of their beloved tree.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TREE!?" the three yell simultaneously.

Laxus awkwardly scratches the back of his neck while Lucy hauls herself up from the floor.

"The lightning hit it," Lucy answers hesitantly as she looks between the tree and the trio with a frown.

The three deadpan and turn to Laxus with scowls.

"Go get a new tree," the all say flatly.

Laxus is taken aback and is about to argue when he sees the banana-peeled tree out of the corner of his eye. Deep down, he knows he's not going to win this argument, not this time.

"Fine," he huffs indignantly.

Laxus grabs his coat and actually puts his arms through the sleeves while Lucy's eyes droop in concern.

Her heart trembles in slight pain at knowing that she got the man she likes in trouble with Master. She didn't mean to get him in trouble. She only wanted to tell the truth. Maybe, there is some way she can help him…

"I'll go too," Lucy announces suddenly.

Laxus, Gildarts, Erza, and Mira turn their heads to give Lucy a surprised and questioning look.

"U-um," she stutters under the weight of their combined gazes. "I-it's my job to decorate the tree s-so I should be the one to pick it out, right?"

Gildarts and the two women hum in thought before shrugging their shoulders. Laxus looks pointedly away from the blonde woman with a small nervous glimmer in his eye.

At that moment, Lucy realizes that she just offered to spend some alone time with the guy she likes, time that she honestly never believed would happen in a million years. Heat rises to her cheeks as her heart starts to flutter erratically.

"That's really nice of you, Lucy," Mira commends her with a bright smile.

"S-sure," Lucy laughs nervously while she tries to hide her small blush and calm her heart.

"Come on, hurry up," Laxus commands as he crosses his arms and frowns at her in impatience.

"R-right," she stammers as she looks around for her things.

She sees her long white fur-lined jacket, dark pink scarf, light pink beanie, and light pink gloves on the coat rack next to the door. She quickly throws her jacket over her shoulders and ties the belt around her waist to cover up her white long-sleeved cashmere sweater, dark pink skirt, and thick white leggings. Her long blonde hair is separated into two low ponytails at the base of her skull and she wears knee-high black boots. She pulls her pink beanie over her head to cover her ears, her gloves to cover her hands, and she wraps the scarf securely around neck to ensure no piece of skin except for her face is exposed to the cold.

"Ready?" he asks gruffly as he waits for her by the door.

"Yep, all set," she nods as she puts the finishes touches on her coat.

Laxus pushes open the door and Lucy follows him out just as Gildarts, Mira, and Erza start to awaken the other members from their electricity induced comas.

The two blondes trudge through Magnolia to the southeast outskirts of town.

Children laugh heartily as they run back in forth in the streets throwing snowballs and building snow forts. They taunt each other playfully and with childish jokes as they try to triumph over each other in their makeshift war.

Shops are still trying to sell their last wares of the night. Couples are walking down the street hand-in-hand as they enjoy the cold night air. Carolers sing holiday songs from street corners and passersby either stop to listen or throw them a few jewels.

Lucy smiles warmly at the wonderful scenes around her as she and Laxus pass by each one of them to the lumberjack yard on the edge of town that sells all different types of Christmas trees.

Laxus and Lucy arrive in front of a big gate and fence that blocks off an almost barren lot from the forest and the street. A small hut is next to the gate with all of the Christmas tree in front. They walk inside and immediately see that their selection choices are extremely limited.

Less than a dozen Christmas trees are left and only four of them are in good enough condition. The others have broken limbs, not enough needles, or are just too small to really consider putting in the guild hall.

"Well?" Laxus asks as he looks down at Lucy expectantly.

Lucy looks up at him in confusion. "Huh?"

"Well, you said at the guild that since you're gonna be decorating it that you should pick the tree out. So…?" he states indifferently.

Lucy's flinches backwards as her lips form an "O" in understanding.

"R-Right, I'm supposed to go pick the tree. Sorry," she mumbles out in embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it," he sighs as he reassures her. "Let's just hurry back and get out of this cold."

She gives him a small bashful smile before she walks between the four trees and examines them carefully.

The first one is the tallest but its needles and limbs are not as thick as the destroyed tree. The second tree is the shortest and has a few limbs poking out in the wrong direction but otherwise it is just a smaller version of the ruined tree. The third tree is medium size—about thirty five feet tall—and is thick-branched but also looks like its needles are barely hanging on. The fourth one is very similar to the first one except that it is slightly smaller.

"I think we should get this one," she suggests to her companion as she points to the second tree.

Laxus looks it up and down and nods.

"Hello there!" a burly deep voice calls out from behind them.

They turn their heads to see a barrel-chested man with thick arms come toward them with a young man with a similar-but-slightly-lesser build behind him.

"You two looking for a Christmas tree?" the man asks with a welcoming smile.

"What gave us away?" Laxus drawls sarcastically.

Lucy shoots him a half-hearted glare before smiling at the two men.

"Yes, please. We would like his one," she states pleasantly as she points to the shortest Christmas tree.

"Very good. Come on, son," the lumberjack claps his head together and brings the younger man with him to the tree.

They hook several belts near the base of the tree and pull it down gently to lay it against the ground. Several sturdy ropes are wrapped around the tree to hold the branches close to the trunk. They grab the tree around the top and bottom and bring it to the gate and lay it down once more.

"I'll have you pay inside," he nods his head toward the small hut next to the gate.

Lucy and Laxus follow the two lumberjacks inside to find the little room warm and comfortable. A woman stands behind a small counter with a friendly smile.

"Hey, darlin', these kids want the twenty-foot Balsam Fir," the man says heartily as he warms his hands by the small fire.

The woman nods her head and starts to ring up the order. The son leans against the counter and looks expectantly at the two blondes.

"So, where's your wagon?" he asks with raised eyebrows.

Lucy cocks her head to the side in confusion while Laxus hums.

"Wagon?" they ask simultaneously.

"Yeah," the young man says like it's obvious. "How else are you going to transport the tree?"

A shadow of dread descends over Lucy and Laxus.

"We don't have one," Lucy mumbles as she internally facepalms for not thinking about how they are going to get the tree back to guild beforehand.

The son slightly cringes as he looks at his parents. His dad comes to stand beside his mom and they look at the two blondes like they have a few screws loose.

"We could carry it," Laxus suggests as he looks down at Lucy.

Lucy deadpans and crosses her arms at the man. "Do I look like I can carry a twenty foot tree?" she asks rhetorically.

"Well, unless you have a way to become a lot stronger really quick than we are not getting a tree. 'Cause we ain't getting a wagon," Laxus states matter-of-factly.

Lucy cups her chin in thought.

"Oh, I know!" Lucy exclaims as she thumps her fist on her palm in inspiration.

She pulls off her gloves, beanie, scarf, and coat before pulling out one of her keys.

"Stardress: Taurus!" she yells briefly before she is engulfed in light. Moments later, she stands in her celestial spirit clothing with her long hair tied into two buns.

Laxus blinks at her in a stupor while the lumberjack and his son gawk openly at the new look with hearts in their eyes and steam coming out of their ears. The wife/mom rolls her eyes at the two's idiocrasy before knocking both of them upside the head.

Lucy quickly throws all of her warm gear on so there is almost no difference than before she took them off, save for her hair.

Laxus gives her a confused look before realization dawns on him.

"I get it," he states with a bit of a smirk. "You're strong enough to carry half of the tree now, aren't ya?"

Lucy gives him a wide smile and a big nod.

"Your total is six-thousand jewel," the woman says as if she didn't just hit her family.

Laxus quickly pays the woman and takes the receipt. Lucy thanks the lumberjacks for their help and walks out of the little store with Laxus.

"Do you want the top or the bottom of the tree?" she asks the blonde male with a smile as they reach their tree.

"I'll take bottom."

"Then I'll take the top."

They haul their respective ends onto their shoulders. With the combined strength of a muscly dragon slayer and a strength-induced celestial maiden, the tree is easily lifted.

"Let's go!" Lucy cheers happily.

The two blondes make their way through the gate and into town. They pass the same shops and houses on their trip outwards. Most have begun to close up while others are still trying get rid of that last pair of ugly Christmas sweaters. The children that were having a snowball fight earlier have now started to build snowmen or make snow angels. Yet, the carolers still sing loudly and brightly as if no time had passed at all.

Several of the children and adults stop what they are doing momentarily to gape in awe at how the two blondes are carrying the massive tree on their shoulders. A couple of the braver children run under the tree and laugh at how much fun it is.

Lucy giggles at their antics while Laxus scowls at the little tikes before the kid's parents tell them to not bother the blondes.

Soon enough, they return back to the guild hall. Lucy kicks the door open with her foot since her hands are occupied. Her and Laxus carry the new tree toward the bar and notice that almost all of the guild members have been restored to their previous health. Wendy is currently healing the last member while Mira watches over her to ensure that Wendy does not have any physical contact with the guy because of her cold.

The old tree has already been removed—thanks to Master Gildarts—so Laxus places the base of the tree in the holder right where the other one was. Lucy and Laxus push the tree upwards until it remains standing. Lucy tugs on the expertly executed knot that holds the rope closed and unravels all of the rope in once go. The branches pop out as if they were never tired in the first place.

"There we go," Lucy exclaims proudly as she steps back to look at her tree. She unconsciously drops her stardress form to automatically change back into her previous clothes.

Laxus smirks as he glances between the tree and Lucy.

Lucy glances at the tall male with a satisfied smile but she feels a little bit sad that she doesn't have an excuse to spend time with him anymore. Even if was just getting a new tree, she was happy to spend time some alone time with the guy.

"Well," Lucy sighs as she undoes her scarf, "I guess I better get started on the decorations. I wonder where the extra ornaments and lights are."

"I'm sorry Lucy," Mira's sweet voice says gently as her, a sniffling Wendy, and a frowning Carla approaches the bar, "but the ornaments and lights I originally gave you were all we had."

Lucy's shoulders slump and she looks at the women in exasperation as she asks, "Really?"

Mira smiles devilishly up at Laxus.

"Why don't you go to the store with Laxus and he'll buy new ones for you?" she asks innocently but with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Lucy blinks at her is surprise while Laxus glares at the white-haired woman.

"Why would I-"

"Achoo!" Wendy sneezes loudly. Her lips pucker in misery as she wipes her nose with the back of her hand.

All of three older mages give her sympathetic looks. They've all had colds in the past so they all know how much it sucks to have one.

Mira tells Wendy to go to the bar and she'll come over and make her some hot chocolate. Wendy gives her a grateful smile before sneezing once more. Carla escorts her dragon slayer over to a barstool and sits her down on one.

"I just think that since you broke them, you should be the one who pays for them," Mira explains with a sickly-sweet smile.

"Since when has Fairy Tail applied that rule?" Lucy mumbles in disbelief as she sweatdrops at Mira.

"Master!" Mira yells toward the orange-haired man at the bar. "Please make Laxus and Lucy get new ornaments and lights for the tree."

"Laxus, Lucy, go get new decorations for the tree or you'll be on clean up duty after the Christmas party," Gildarts orders nonchalantly without an ounce of hesitation.

Laxus and Lucy gape at Master in disbelief while Mira sends a thankful smile toward him.

"That's playing dirty…" Lucy grumbles.

Laxus growls lowly before huffing, "Fine. Let's go Lucy before everything closes."

"O-oh, u-uh," Lucy stammers in surprise as she snaps out of her shock, "O-okay!"

Mira smiles at both of them before she dismisses herself and heads to the bar to tend to the sickly dragon slayer. Afterwards, she is going to finish the rest of the preparations for the Christmas dinner tomorrow.

Lucy gulps nervously and holds down another blush as she cheers internally at getting to spend a little more time alone with Laxus. Even if it is just shopping. Lucy is throwing her scarf around her neck as Erza walks to her side.

"You're back," Erza says as her eyes turn toward the tree to examine it closely.

Lucy jumps in fright at the sudden voice and clamps a shaking hand on her heart once she realizes that it's just Erza.

"Y-yeah. What do you think?" Lucy asks hesitantly as she stops fiddling with her scarf.

"It looks kind of ragged," Erza states with a slight tilt of head as she inspects the tree.

"It's not that bad," Lucy insists as she remembers that she has to leave and wraps her scarf around her neck. "It just needs a bit of trimming to even the sides out and it'll look perfect."

"I guess," Erza says somewhat reluctantly.

"I'll fix it!" a normally sophisticated voice claims from behind Laxus.

Erza, Laxus, and Lucy turn around to see a heavily inebriated Freed trying to look serious with his hand on the handle of his sword. If that isn't ridiculous enough, more ornaments have been hung in his hair so he really does look like a Christmas tree now. Bickslow and Evergreen flank him and are giggling unashamedly at their leader.

"That's okay, Freed," Lucy sweatdrops as she holds up her hands in rejection. "I'll do it once I get back from buying decorations."

"I," he hiccups as his eyes lazily roll around in his head, "insist. I'll trick the tree!"

Lucy sweatdrops more at how Freed is obviously too drunk to do something as basic as trimming a tree. Laxus simply shakes his head at the leader of his team. Lucy is about to reject the "Christmas Tree Man" more firmly when an armored hand is laid upon her shoulder.

"Worry not, Lucy," Erza says calmly. "I will watch over Freed and trim the tree for you while you are out getting the decorations. You have nothing to worry about."

Lucy gives her a worried, skeptical look but she holds her tongue. She could argue with Erza on the subject but she'll only wind up losing and all of the stores will be closed by the time they are finished. So she just lets it go.

It's just a little trim, how badly can they possibly screw it up?

"Alright," Lucy sighs and finishes tying her scarf around her neck, "let's go, Laxus."

Laxus grunts in agreement and walks beside the celestial mage as they leave the guild once more.

Lucy guides herself and Laxus through town on the scavenger hunt for more ornaments and lights. They first try any stores in close proximity to the guild but none are open this late on Christmas Eve. They go a little further out and discover that all of the stores have either just closed or are about to close and are out of all Christmas lights and ornaments. They keep going outward, spanning all across town; store after store with no luck.

Until they find one store on the southwest corner of town.

Nutcrackers, Santa dolls, sleigh bells, gingerbread house building kits, sweaters, pants, earmuffs, toys, Christmas ornaments, ornaments, toy-making-elves ceramics, candies, stockings, mistletoes, small Christmas trees, backdrops of Christmas settings, wrapping paper, tape, and boxes are all laid out against every shelf in the store.

"Hello?" Lucy calls out as her and Laxus step inside. "Anybody here?"

No one answers.

Lucy looks up at Laxus and shrugs slightly before she walks over to the Christmas ornaments. There are all types of blue, white, yellow, red, and green colored ornaments in different boxes. She picks up a box of ornaments with a variety of colors and designs. Feeling these are good enough she looks at the price and she feels her eyes bulge out of their sockets.

"You gotta be kidding me! No wonder this place hasn't sold anything! These prices are insane!" she exclaims in shock.

Laxus hums in questions as she walks to her side and looks to where she is pointing at the price tag. A small cringe morphs his face before he relaxes and sighs.

"It doesn't matter. Either we buy the ornaments here or we don't buy ornaments at all. And we both know what Mira, Erza, and Gildarts will do to us if we don't get the damn ornaments," he grumbles in irritation at the thought of the three instigators of this trip.

A disgusted shiver runs down Lucy's spine as she remembers the atrocity that was the women's bathroom after last year's party.

"How many do you need to put on the tree?" he asks as he looks down at the smaller blonde.

Lucy nervously nibbles on her lip and looks down at the box in thought.

"Well…" she says hesitantly, "I can probably make it work with six boxes. Is that okay?"

"Do you need more than six?" he asks with a slight cock of his eyebrow.

"Not if I spread them out a little more than usual," she admits sheepishly.

"Why would you do that?" he asks, now confused.

She hunches her shoulders in embarrassment before looking up at him with worry dancing in her eyes to say, "I just don't want you to have to spend so much money on ornaments."

Laxus blinks at her in surprise before his face melts into an appreciative smile. Lucy's heart throbs and her cheeks warm slightly under that mesmerizing gaze.

"It's fine," Laxus he says sincerely. "Thanks for worrying about my money but really, don't worry about it. Get as many as you need."

Lucy dips her head and turns away from him in embarrassment. "O-o-okay," she stutters as she tries to calm her nerves and heart. "I-I'll need a dozen then."

"Okay," he agrees as he grabs eleven ornament-filled boxes to add to the one in Lucy's hand.

"Hello!" an odd sounding voice sounds from behind them.

They spin their heads around to find the owner of the voice but freeze in incredulity once they see the man behind them. The man behind them has a pot belly and looks to be an extremely jolly guy. But that's not what's disturbing about him. What's disturbing is the Christmas sweater that he is proudly wearing.

It's knitted and has a picture of a flat plane of snow across most of the body. The words "Merry Christmas" is written on the snow in yellow and at the top left is a picture of Santa facing away with a urine trail leading to the top of the "M".

"That is an excellent selection!" the owner nods knowingly as he eyes the ornaments in his customer's hands.

"I think it's horrible," Lucy says absentmindedly as she stares at the ugly Christmas sweater.

The man looks down at his sweater before bursting out laughing. Lucy is shook out of her stupor and looks up at the laughing man in bafflement.

"I was talking about the ornaments," he chortles as he points at the ornaments in her hands.

"Oh, oh, oh!" realization dawning on Lucy as she looks between the owner and the ornaments in a fluster. "I'm sorry!"

"It's alright! Will this be all for you?" he gestures happily to the cash register at the front.

"Uh, no. Gotta get some lights too," Lucy states hastily, still embarrassed.

She looks over at Laxus to see him with an irritated scowl over his face. A giggle makes its way past her lips and draws his attention toward her. He flinches slightly from the sight of the amused woman and looks pointedly away from her.

Lucy heads to the other side of the store and selects some gold and red lights like the ones she had before. She gets enough boxes so all of the tree can be wrapped. Afterwards, she deposits the lights next to the ornaments at the cashier counter.

The jolly owner rings everything up and bags the decorations before handing them to Lucy. Laxus quickly pays and gets his change back. The owner wishes them a Merry Christmas and tells them to come back if they need anything else because he'll be open all night.

Lucy and Laxus walk back most of the way to the guild in companionable silence. Most of the earlier sights are gone. The children have all been called inside, most of the couples have turned in for the night, and the stores are closed. Yet, the carolers persists and sing louder as the two blondes pass in a last ditch effort to get a few more jewels.

"What are your plans?" Laxus asks suddenly, breaking the silence of the air.

"Hmmm?" Lucy wonders as she looks up at him.

"Christmas plans," he clarifies while keeping his eyes on the road.

"Oh! Well, I need to finish decorating tonight. Then I was planning on coming to the guild tomorrow and being with everyone during dinner. What about you?" she asks with a smile.

"Same," he grunts.

Lucy gives him a mischievous smile. "So you're gonna help me decorate?" she teases.

Laxus cocks a confused eyebrow at her before scowling at himself.

"You know what I mean," he pouts.

Lucy giggles behind her gloved hand.

They reach the guild just as a gust of wind drops the temperature lower. A deep shiver racks Lucy's body as Laxus opens the door just enough so they can slip inside.

Lucy sighs in relief as the warmth of the guild hall wraps around her chilled body.

"Well, I'm glad we're out of that snow. I was begin-in-in-in…" she trails off in utter horror and shock as her eyes catch the sight of the tree.

Laxus hums at her in confusion before following her eyes. As his eyes land on his tree, his entire soul freezes in mortification and his mouth drops open.

The Christmas tree sits right where they left it, with the exception that it's not a Christmas tree anymore. All of the branches—save for a tiny triangle at the top and a narrow skirt at the bottom—have been cut away so much that the trunk is bare to the naked eye.

Lucy and Laxus gape openly at the tree.

"Laxus! You're," Freed stops to hiccup as he slides up next to his leader, "back!"

Laxus and Lucy slowly turn their heads so they gawk directly at the man that still has Christmas ornaments in his hair.

Laxus beats her to it though as he involuntarily exclaims, "What the fuck happened to the tree!?"

Freed is slightly taken aback by the declaration but is quickly forgotten as he squints at his leader and gives him big proud nods.

"I won the Battle of the Trim," he gloats as he slaps a hand across his chest.

Laxus furrows his eyebrows in utter confusion and looks at Freed like he's crazy. Lucy's mouth opens and closes like a goldfish struggling for air as she attempts to formulate some sort of response.

"What?" Lucy finally blurts out in bewilderment.

"This is all my fault, Lucy," Erza's ashamed voice announces.

Lucy and Laxus slowly spin their heads to see that the redhead has suddenly and mysteriously appeared by Lucy's other side. An odor of eggnog is wafting from her and a light blush mars her cheeks to attest to her drunkenness.

"How about you tell us what happened first," Lucy suggests with a deadpan.

Erza's eyes narrow in anger and she points to the still gloating Freed. "That idiot wouldn't listen to me! He said that one side wasn't even so he tried to fix it and took too much off. I tried to fix the other side to balance it but he said that I was doing it wrong! Then we noticed the other sides were wrong so we cut those too! If he hadn't cut too much off in the first place we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"You're the one who kept complaining about how that one limb was too curved!" Freed retaliates as he steps in front of Laxus to get closer to Erza.

"If you would have listened to me that the branch would not have been curved!" Erza pushes past Lucy to stand nose-to-nose with Freed.

Lucy and Laxus watch their respective teammate argue with the other as they sigh in exasperation.

A tipsy Gildarts comes over and the two blondes look at him curiously. He picks up the arguing Freed and Erza and puts them over his shoulders as they continue to bicker. Lucy and Laxus slightly sweatdrop at the ridiculous scene.

"Go get another tree, you two," he orders Laxus and Lucy.

Lucy and Laxus scowl at the Master and are about to argue but he quickly cuts them off.

"You're the only two who are sober enough to handle this job. I'll compensate you afterwards," he explains before walking off with Freed and Erza pulling on each other's long hair behind his back.

They glare at where Gildarts was a moment ago in irritation before they both sigh heavily. Lucy sits the decorations off to the side so they won't be damaged while she's out.

"Let's go," they say simultaneously as they leave through the guild doors once more.

The cold air nips at Laxus and Lucy's bare faces as they walk across town to the lumberjack, again. Lucy ducks her head down into her scarf as she hugs her coat closer to her body.

The same carolers as before sing louder as they pass.

They eventually reach the Christmas tree lot and easily find the three other trees they can pick from. Lucy selects the one with the loose needles since it is the thickest.

If I'm really careful then I can make it back to the guild and decorate it without losing too many needles. It'll be fine, she thinks to herself as she sees the lumberjack and his son walk toward them with happy but slightly questioning looks.

Lucy explains their situation and tells them that they want the second tree. The two men share a laugh before nodding. They carefully pull it down and ties ropes around the branches as Laxus pays for the tree and Lucy switches into her Taurus form.

The lumberjacks wave goodbye as Lucy and Laxus haul the second tree very carefully towards the Fairy Tail guild hall.

As the two blondes pass by the carolers, they singers lean a little too close for Lucy's liking and she sends them a warning glare that says "Do. Not. Touch. My. Tree".

The carolers back off.

After forty-minutes of walking in the cold, Lucy and Laxus arrive once more to the guild. Just like the first time, Lucy kicks the door open.

No one pays them any attention—although most wouldn't be able to recognize the blondes anyway from all of the alcohol in their systems—as Lucy and Laxus take the third tree to where the second tree has already been removed and place it upright. Lucy gently takes the knot and tugs it to unravel the tree very carefully. The limbs pop outward and a few needles fall to the ground but the tree remains perfectly unharmed otherwise.

"Good," Lucy sighs in relief once she is sure that the tree is stable.

Laxus takes a seat at the bar and peels off his coat as Lucy grabs the bags of decorations and returns to the bar. Lucy sets the bags behind the bar until she's ready to put them on the tree later. She releases her stardress form again and takes off her gloves as she sits down next to Laxus with a tiny blush.

Mira comes out of the kitchen with an apron tied over her dress and greets the two blondes with a warm smile. Laxus notes how she smells like the yams, scalloped potatoes, strawberry cheesecake, glazed ham, and other recipes that she has been slaving over all day in the kitchen. His stomach growls in hunger at the thought of the annual Christmas dinner that the guild will be throwing tomorrow evening.

"Ah…" a tiny miserable voice exclaims at the end of the bar.

Laxus and Lucy turn their heads curiously to see Wendy with a scrunched up face and her chest slightly puffed out.

"Ah…" she breathes again as her face scrunches further.

Wendy quickly turns her face away from the bar and away from Laxus and Lucy so she won't get germs on anybody or anything. Of course, that means that she is facing the—

"ACHOO!" she sneezes so hard and so loud that some of her magic unconsciously merges with her breathe to create a sky dragon's roar.

The magical air splays out to form a huge current that hits the tree full force head-on. Like fireworks on New Year's night, the needles are violently ripped from the tree and burst outwards as they are sprayed across half of the guild hall.

The drunken people—which are all of their guild members—look up at the needles in awe. Some have goofy smiles split their faces as they exclaim how the snow has turned green while a select few decide they want to dance in the floating leafage.

Laxus and Lucy gawk completely, utterly, totally dumbfounded at the whole scene.

Their tree literally blown to the bare trunk, drunken guildmates dancing in the falling needles, others yelling about Christmas trees snowing, and a sickly Wendy plopping her head down onto the bar top…None of it is believable to either blonde.

"Oh my," Mira says casually and unworriedly as she places a hand on her cheek. "It would seem that we need another tree."

Laxus and Lucy slowly turn their heads to glare at the barmaid.

If Mira notices their gazes, she doesn't show it as she walks around the bar and begins to clap her hands.

"Alright! Time for everyone to head home!" she announces clearly as she pulls out a broom.

Gildarts—who has been drinking a lot more and is clearly much more inebriated—wobbles around the guild and slaps unconscious guild members that drank too much awake. The man hits a little bit too hard and leaves distinct Gildarts-handprints on their faces. Each member is instructed to go home with a partner so nothing too bad happens on the way.

Lucy and Laxus groan in annoyance while they slip on their coat and gloves, respectively, once more. They exit they the guild again just as Gildarts accidently breaks someone's nose.

"They better all be gone by the time we get back," Lucy growls through her teeth as she stomps toward the lumberjack yard. The cold air not bothering her at all due to the anger boiling inside of her.

Laxus merely grunts in agreement because his irritation at this situation really makes him want to punch someone.

The group of notorious carolers has switched sides of the street and sees the Fairy Tail mages approaching. They begin a joyous, uplifting version of "A Holly Jolly Christmas" just as the two blondes are in close proximity—but quickly shut up as the mages send the group murderous, frustrated glares.

As they arrive at the Christmas tree place once more, the lumberjacks can't help but laugh further at their expense. Even so, they help the two pitiful blondes out as Lucy is forced to pick the tallest tree with the least dense foliage.

Laxus pays, Lucy uses her stardress, they pick up the tree, and say goodbye one more time—hopefully the last time.

They walk along the same road and pass the carolers for the sixth time that evening. Apparently the singers have noticed their coming and goings because Laxus hears one mention how this is the third tree they have gotten in the past two hours. A spark of aggravation flickers on his shoulders and he damns himself for ever starting this horrible mess.

As they return to their beloved guild once more, Lucy notices that Mira has left all of the lights on and the door unlocked for them. Lucy kicks the door in once more and breathes a sigh of relief as she finds the massive hall completely empty.

Thankfully, Gildarts has already cleaned up the last tree to make room for the fourth tree. Laxus and Lucy go through the same routine as before and are greeted with the sight of a decent tree with no one around to ruin it.

"At least that's finished. Now for the time consuming part," Lucy sighs tiredly as she glances at the clock behind the bar to see that it is ten o'clock at night.

She strips out of her winter gear and puts them on the coat rack next to the door. Laxus does the same thing except he throws his coat on a table, sits down in a chair, and puts his feet up on the table.

Lucy looks at him curiously and cocks her head to the side as she asks, "What are you doing?"

Laxus raises an eyebrow at her like she just asked a stupid question. "Sitting. What are you doing?" he repeats her question.

Lucy frowns and crosses her arms under her abundant chest.

"I mean, why aren't you going home too, smartass?" she asks matter-of-factly.

Laxus smirks at her confidently as he says, "I have to stay. I need to lock the guild up once you're finished."

Lucy blinks at him before raising a skeptical eyebrow at him. "You have a key?"

"All of the S-Class members do," he replies like it's no big deal.

Lucy rolls her eyes up in thought before nodding since that makes sense. Then her eyebrows scrunch together in thought and she blurts out, "Wait…Is that why Mira doesn't keep any strawberry cake over night? Because Erza would come in and eat it?"

Laxus can't help but chuckle at where her thoughts went.

"It wasn't Mira at the time but the barmaid was so pissed off when she discovered Erza in her cake stash the week after Erza was inducted into the ranking that Gramps had to make it a new rule."

Lucy deadpans as she nods slightly in understanding. "Yeah…Yeah, that would make sense." Lucy shakes her head and turns for the tree. "Well, I'm going to get started."

Laxus grunts in acknowledgement before he pulls out his headphones, prompts them on the table, turns on some gentle Christmas music, leans back in his chair, and closes his eyes in relaxation.

Lucy unfolds the strings of lights from the boxes and begins to wrap each one between the branches of the Christmas tree. Music reaches her ears and she smiles bashfully at the somewhat, kinda, sort of, hopefully-not-made-up-in-her-head romantic atmosphere.

A small blush warms her cheeks as she realizes that she is spending more time alone with Laxus. This is way more than she originally planned but she isn't going to complain. Sure, fetching three whole Christmas trees was a pain in the ass but doing it with him makes it more bearable. Her heart beats happily as she thinks about how he is waiting on her to finish and that he seems comfortable being alone with her.

Maybe tonight won't be so bad…she thinks hopefully.

After he little internal swooning, Lucy works meticulously so each string of lights is not placed too close to another but is still close enough that almost every branch is lit up. Every so often she has to stop and grab the next set of lights from the bar. Eventually she has to grab the ladder to continue her spiral of lights upwards above her head. Once she finishes with one side she has to climb down the ladder, move it to the next side, and climb back up; only to do the exact same thing once that side is finished. Up, down, around, up, down, around, up, down, around…

Laxus tilts his head comfortably to one side to watch her work. He watches how her eyebrows scrunch together in concentration as she leans back slightly on the ladder to make sure that everything is straight. He watches how the red and gold lights are reflected in the depth of her chocolate eyes. He watches how her flaxen hair glows. He watches how the lights create shadows along her amazing curves to highlight all of her assets. He watches how her smile is brighter than all of the lights in the room when she eyes her work proudly.

Every so often, she'll catch him looking at her and for a moment he swears he sees a small blush on her cheeks before she turns away to continue working. His face softens as his heart melts inside of his chest.

An hour later, the Christmas lights are finished.

Lucy plugs the lights in and is finally able to see the entire tree lit up.

"Alright!" she declares in determination as she puts her hands on her hips. "Time for the ornaments!"

Lucy fetches the first box of ornaments and decides that she'll start from the top of the tree and work her way down. She unplugs the lights so she won't accidently burn herself and gets to work on the ornaments. She lays each ornament out with delicate precision so that no two colors are adjacent to one another and that they are not buried underneath or on top of the lights.

Laxus continues his peaceful observation from his seat.

Almost another hour later, Lucy stands at the base once more and nods up at her beautiful Christmas tree. With a flick of her wrist, she plugs the lights in to see the final results of all of her hard work. The lights shine brilliantly against the green foliage while the ornaments reflect the nearby lights so each one practically glistens. A small wondrous smile spreads over Lucy's lips at the wonderful sight.

Laxus joins her side and looks up the tree with a smile.

"It looks amazing," he tells her without turning away from the sight before him.

Lucy blushes from the sweet compliment. "Thanks," she says bashfully, "It was no-"

The lights on the Christmas tree flicker before all turning off at once.

"-thing," Lucy finishes as her face drops. "What happened?"

"Don't know," Laxus admits with a frown as he looks down at her.

Lucy scowls in annoyance before she ducks her head in contemplation. None of the other lights around the guild have turned off so it's something exclusively with the tree. Is it the lights themselves? They could be defective. That would suck…I would have to redo all of the lights again.

"Maybe I overloaded the power outlet?" she suggests out loud in hope. "Where's the electrical breakers?"

Laxus hums in thought and says, "I think they're down in the basement."

"Alright," she declares with a sigh. "I'm going to go restart them."

Lucy walks toward the back of the guild as Laxus follows her. She finds the door to the basement and flicks the light on before walking down the stairs.

Little did either blonde know that the Christmas tree lights turned back on upstairs. Some defective lights flickered while others shine brightly.

"What makes you think it's the outlet?" he asks inquisitively as Lucy opens up the hatch to the metal box.

"Well it's either the lights that are busted or the circuit got overloaded with the amount of energy that is being transferred through the outlet," she explains as she looks at all of the black switches. "Ah crap, there's no labels."

Laxus bends down slightly to look at the switches and sees three bigger ones at the top. "I think those control the main power, try those," he suggests.

Lucy shrugs her shoulders and flicks each one off. First the outside lights go out, then the lights in the front, then the lights in the guild hall. Upstairs, the lights on the Christmas tree were shining brightly until the power was suddenly cut. The abrupt halt in the electricity causes a few of the defective lights to burst from the drastic change in energy. The sparks emitted by these little lights catches on the tree needles to flicker. Soon enough, the flickering turns to smoldering which then bursts into little flames.

Within fifteen seconds, the entire incredibly flammable Christmas tree is doused in flames.

Blackness surrounds the two blondes shortly before Laxus pushes some of his electricity into a ball in his hand so they can see their immediate surroundings.

"Let's give it a minute to reboot," Lucy says as she crosses her hands behind her back.

Laxus grunts before looking down at her with raised curious eyebrows.

"How do you know about electrical circuits?" he asks.

Lucy blinks up at him before she gives him a small smile. "Besides the fact that I constantly have to fix my apartment's lights due to my team destroying them, my dad had tutors teach me about that kind of stuff when I was younger."

"That's…" he trails off in amazement, "…pretty awesome."

"Thanks," she smiles warmly at him. She turns toward the outlet box and flicks on each switch.

All of the lights turn back on and Lucy sighs in relief. "Good, let's go check and see if the Christmas tree lights are back on."

They walk up the basement stairs to the back of the guild.

"I really hope that it's the breakers," Lucy says as they walk toward the front, "because I really don't want to redo the—TREE! FIRE!"

The massive tree is still burning and the flames have risen upwards to the rafters. The lights along the rows of wood pop from the extreme heat and further expand the flames to almost cover the ceiling.

"What happened!?" Laxus bellows as he looks around.

"It must have been the lights!" Lucy guesses but knows instinctively that she's right. "They must have exploded and caught the tree on fire!"

Laxus grits his teeth and clenches his fists as he tries to think about how to put a fucking building-sized fire out. Lucy panics at first before a lightbulb pops over her head.

"Stardress: Aquarius!"

Her clothes change into the mermaid's bikini. She holds out both of her hands toward the tree and focuses her magic into her palms. Water pools between the two hands to create one sphere. Once the sphere is large enough, Lucy forces the water outwards into a constant cylindrical stream towards the tree.

Hissing resonates through the air as the water splashes the entire side of the tree. The water douses one side of the tree before moving to the next as the force of the water pushes past any resistance the burnt limbs may have left. Within ten seconds, the entire tree is doused from the fire and has streams of steams bellowing from the trunk. Unfortunately, the blast from the water is so strong that after the fire is put out, the water sprays through the bar area to hit the gingerbread village dead on and utterly annihilates the poor gingerbread men and houses.

An act Lucy completely misses because she turns her palms skyward to douse the fire in the ceiling. She quickly shifts the water so no spot is left unattended. Soon enough, the entire fire has been put out.

Lucy releases the spell and looks upwards. A deep cringe settles over her face. Her eyes float downwards and her cringe only deepens.

Water is dripping from the ceiling, the rafters are burnt and black, the previously shining lights on the ceiling are nothing more than seared lines of thin copper and steel, small pools of water are starting to form on the floor, the beautiful Christmas tree is shredded and crispy, the wall directly behind the tree has been burned away so badly that some of the wiring in the walls is showing and/or destroyed, the bar is soaked, and the pitiful gingerbread houses are decimated and soggy.

"We…are…so…screwed," she says slowly in dread as she looks around at the entirety of the ruined guild hall.

Laxus doesn't move from beside her as he also looks around. He doesn't want to admit it but things are not looking too good. Guilt builds within his heart as he looks down at the still stunned woman.

"I'm sorry," he whispers softly and without warning, "this is all my fault. Don't worry, you won't have to spend your Christmas cleaning up after everyone. I'll take full responsibility."

Lucy snaps out of her trance and looks up at the man in confused surprised.

"What!?" she demands. "No! I can't let you do that! I was the one who picked out the ligh-"

"And I was the one who destroyed the original tree," he interjects firmly but not harshly. "If I hadn't destroyed the first tree then we would have never bought the lights for the fourth tree. This is my doing so it's my responsibility."

"But-"

Laxus gives her a silencing glare as he refuses to budge on his decision.

The corners of Lucy's eyes drop in sadness. Her heart aches at the kind gesture both from guilt and adoration. A piece of her is overly thrilled that the man she cares for would do such a wonderful thing for her but the larger part wants to stop him from being punished for what they are both responsible for. He is willing to take all of the blame and she wants to help minimize the consequences down to nothing. A fire is set alight in her soul as determination to help him out of this mess rises in her chest.

"There's gotta be another way!" she declares adamantly. "There's gotta be way to fix all of this!"

Laxus gives her a skeptical frown as he waves his hand toward the mess and grunts, "How? Everything is destroyed. It would take a miracle to get everything pulled back together."

"Then that's what we'll do!" Lucy slaps a fist into her palm in certainty. "We'll pull a Christmas miracle! We'll redecorate everything so no one will know what happened…at least until after the holidays," she adds as an afterthought.

Laxus blinks at her like she's crazy and mumbles, "Why would you help me?"

"Because we started this together and we're gonna finish this together. We're family and we're supposed to be there for one another when things get tough so I'm going to stick with you till the very end," she claims strongly.

His face goes blank is surprise. Warmth pools in his heart and his face softens at the kind gesture. "Thanks, Lucy. I owe you one."

A bright smile comes across her face and she waves off his compliment. "Well, don't thank me yet. We still have a lot of work to do."

Lucy drops her stardress form to appear in her normal clothes. She walks to the center of the guild and looks around at everything as her mind begins to make a list of everything that will need to be done. Ideas on how to fix or hide everything run through her mind as she tries to plan the best strategy. Laxus comes to stand behind her and begins to come up with his own ideas.

"Alright," she announces as she turns to him after several minutes of thought. "We definitely need a new tree, with new ornaments and new lights."

"Agreed," he nods as he turns toward her so they are facing. "There's only one tree left at the tree yard so we'll have to be careful not to destroy that one," he reminds her with an annoyed look.

"Right. The ceiling is all black so we need to cover that up. I was thinking if I can dye some of Aries' wool white, I can cover the ceiling with it and call it clouds. Cancer can cut out some paper snowflakes and we can hang those from the wool so it looks like it's snowing inside. I think Mira and Erza should buy that for a while."

"Good enough. The water on the floor can be cleaned up with a mop so that's not a big deal. The wall…we could cover it with a piece of fabric or something. Don't know how we're going to make that Christmas-y though."

"Hmmm. Oh! We could say that everyone can take Christmas photos in front of it. Yeah! We can get a snowy scene backdrop and extend it behind the tree so it'll look like everyone is taking a photo of the Christmas tree outside! Plus, it'll cover up the hole in the wall and no one will take it down."

"Where are we going to get the camera?"

"Mira's gotta have a camera somewhere."

"Fair point. What about the gingerbread houses? We need to get new ones."

"Didn't that shop where we went to earlier have gingerbread stuff too? We could buy some of those and make a little village ourselves."

"Won't everyone notice that the houses are different?" Laxus asks skeptically with a raised eyebrow.

Lucy gives him a dumb look and says, "After they've been celebrating and drinking all day? I don't think anyone's going to notice if a gum drop is misplaced."

Laxus rolls his eyes up in thought before sighing.

"Okay, so that's the plan? Go get a new tree, make fake snow and paper snowflakes, and go buy lights, ornaments, gingerbread house kits, and a backdrop. Sound right?" he asks just to clarify.

Lucy nods in agreement as she says, "Let's split up. We'll make better time that way. Do you want to go shopping or go get the tree?"

"I'll get the tree," Laxus volunteers. "You know what to get and how much at the store?"

"Yep, I remember how big the tree is. I'll make sure to buy extras of everything just in case though."

"Good."

With their plan set, the two blondes throw on their winter gear and set off into the night. Laxus heads to the southeast side of town to fetch the tree while Lucy heads to the southwest side to get the decorations.

As they walk through town together (since they will split up once they reach the south side of town), those persistent carolers are still roaming the streets.

Lucy has to give it to them, they are a determined bunch. She takes a few jewels out of her pockets and hands it to them, not so much for their singing ability but rather how amazingly resistant to cold they are.

The Fairy Tail mages spilt up at their designated spot and tell each other that they will meet back at the guild hall. Laxus has given Lucy plenty of spending money so she shouldn't have to worry about not being able to afford everything.

As Laxus approaches the lumberjack yard, he can see a yellow glow in the lumberjack's window so he knows that at least one of them is still awake. He bangs on the door and it opens to reveal to son. The young man starts to laugh so hard that he falls over on his side. Laxus scowls at the laughing man and is about to start barking at him to get up when the lumberjack and his wife pop their heads out from the back. The wife begins to laugh hysterically while the husband pouts.

They explain to Laxus that the two lumberjacks had a bet on whether he would be back and the son won. Laxus huffs in exasperation at the trio and tells them to just get his tree.

As before, the two lumberjacks pull the tree down and tie it up for the blonde man. With a hefty heave and thick grunt, Laxus barely manages to pull it up on his shoulder. The lumberjacks watch him in awe but chuckle their final goodbyes toward the strong man.

Thank god I had Lucy the other times, he thinks as he tries his best to walk through town without falling over.

Meanwhile, Lucy is buying armfuls of goods from the man in the "Yellow Snow Sweater", as she has now deemed it. Although, she has no idea why he would be open at midnight on Christmas but she's not going to push her luck.

She buys the same colored lights and decorations as before but she chooses a different brand out of fear that the lights will combust again. Thick white paper is on a single table and she grabs a huge stack so Cancer can cut out snowflakes. Small hook are also necessary so the snowflakes can be hung. Lucy also buys a beautiful backdrop that has a gentle snowy slope with pine trees along the edge. A snow covered mountain can be seen in the distance.

There is also an assortment of gingerbread kits: houses, people, workshops, storefronts, stables, churches, and nativity scenes. Lucy bought a dozen houses, ten 2-people box sets, one workshop, five storefronts, one stable, one church, and a nativity scene. She also grabs some boxes of candy, cotton, and glitter to decorate the gingerbread village.

The shop owner is ecstatic that someone is buying his ridiculously overpriced items but Lucy can't complain that much.

She is desperate, after all.

The "Yellow Snow Man" bags up her goods and wishes her a Merry Christmas as she leaves with three huge bags on each arm.

Lucy makes it back first and sets everything on the steps so nothing gets wet from the ceiling water. She takes off her coat, scarf, beanie, and gloves before she grabs a mop and bucket out of the storage closet. There is still water on the floor and it really needs to be cleaned up before they start to decorate anything.

By the time Laxus returns with the tree, he is heavily panting and his shoulders and arms' muscles ache from the strain of carrying the damn tree through town. He sets the tree in the metal holder (that somehow survived the fire) to position it upright. Laxus cracks his back to relieve some of the pain.

He pulls on the knot to untie the tree. The limbs pop out to showcase the less-than-full-of-needles-branches but it'll have to do.

Looking over his shoulder, he sees Lucy mopping up a particular large puddle of water. He deposits his fur-lined coat on a chair and walks over to the bar. The bar is sopping wet so he dries it off with rags.

They clean the guild until no water remains on the floor, tables, chairs, or ceiling. Any tables that got overturned in the water blast are also straightened up and positioned correctly.

"All done," Lucy sighs as she dumps the bucket before she puts it away with the mop an hour later. Lucy grabs the bags and begins to lay everything out on a table.

"The ceiling's good too," Laxus says as he jumps down gracefully with little-to-no effort.

"Alright, everyone will be coming to the guild around eight in the morning tomorrow so we have," Lucy looks at the clock and sees that it's almost two o'clock on Christmas morning, "six hours to get everything finished. Since Aries and Cancer will be handling the ceiling, that leaves us with decorating the tree, assembling the gingerbread village, and hanging the backdrop on the wall. Which one do you want?"

"How about we do them together?" he suggests. Lucy cocks an eyebrow at him so he adds, "So we can finish each task faster. Handling single jobs by ourselves could take longer."

"Good point," Lucy nods in agreement. "How about you hang up the fabric sheet while I get Aries and Cancer set up then we can work on the Christmas tree together."

"Fine," Laxus agrees before he grabs the backdrop. He walks over to wall while Lucy takes out two of her keys.

"Cancer! Aries!" she yells.

The crab man and the goat girl appear in bright lights.

"What's up, Baby?"

"I'm sorry."

"Listen up, guys," Lucy gets right down to business. "We are in a Christmas emergency and we need your help. Aries, is that any way for you to make white wool or to dye your wool white?"

"Um, I can't make white wool. I'm sorry. But Virgo might be able to dye it," Aries replies modestly.

"Okay, that's fine. I need you to make enough wool to cover the ceiling," Lucy points up, "without showing any of the rafters underneath. Can you do that?"

"I can try. I'm sorry," Aries nods.

The ram spirit holds out her hands and produces globs of wool across the floor while Lucy turns to Cancer.

"Cancer, I need you to cut out as many paper snowflakes as you possibly can," she commands her spirit. "You can make them different designs as long as you make a lot of them. Got it?"

"Got it, Baby," Cancer replies with snips of his scissors.

Lucy sits the crab spirit down at the table and pulls out the thick white sheets of paper to place in front of him.

Lucy watches Cancer begin to rapidly cut away at a test piece of paper to ensure that he knows what to do. Seconds later, he proudly holds up a perfectly cut out snowflake to his Master like a kid would do to his mother. Lucy can only blink in astonishment at the perfection of the snowflake and internally thanks whatever goods have pity on her that she has Cancer.

Leaving the happy crab man to his work, she turns around to see how Aries is doing and sees that she has way more than enough of the wool.

"I-is this okay?" Aries asks hesitantly.

"It's more than okay! Great job, Aries!" Lucy exclaims as she touches a piece of the wool to find it very lightweight so it won't be that much of a hassle to hang up.

"T-thank you," she says bashfully before poofing back into the celestial sprit world.

Lucy pulls out Virgo's key and summons the maid to her side.

"Punishment, Princess?" she asks with a neutral face.

"No, I have a job for you. I need you to dye Aries' wool white so it looks like snow. Can you do that?"

"Of course, Princess," Virgo nods with a small bow before poofing back into the celestial spirit world and returning moments later with two huge buckets of white dye in her hands.

Would does she have that stuff on hand? Lucy sweatdrops internally.

Laxus quickly takes the fabric sheet over to the wall and covers the hole in the wall with part of the sheet. Luckily, Mira left the nails and hammer in the bar so he takes a few nails and a hammer to nail down the corners. The other end stretches out along the wall past the tree—just like Lucy suggested—and he hammers those corners down as well. Stepping back, he sees that the little section of wall actually looks like a small place to take photographs and not a means to cover a hole in the wall from a Christmas tree fire. The tree stands in front of one side of the backdrop so the slope is on the other side and the mountain behind everything.

"What do you think?" he calls over his shoulder.

Lucy turns from watching Virgo dye the wool pristine white to look over her shoulder. A wide smile comes across her face as she nods at him hurriedly and chirps, "It looks great! They won't think twice about it when the tree is decorated!"

"Good," Laxus nods as well. "You ready?" he asks as he returns the hammer and nails to their rightful place and retrieves the Christmas tree ornaments.

"Yep, let's do the lights first," Lucy states as she joins Laxus at the base of the Christmas tree.

Lucy grabs a string of lights as Laxus turns his music from earlier back on. Lucy begins to wrap one end around the base of the tree while Laxus stands on the other side to wrap the lights around the other side.

Music plays softly in the background as they circle the tree with lights in this manner until Lucy can't reach any higher. She fetches the ladder thereafter and they continue the trend until Laxus can't reach anymore. Deciding that he can still help since there isn't another ladder for him to climb, he easily picks up the ladder that Lucy stands on and spins her around the tree each time she needs to move instead of her pulling the ladder around herself. Lucy screams and squawks at him for trying to kill her but Laxus ignores her and tells her that he'll catch her if she falls. Blushes erupt on her cheeks as she imagines being held by those big strong arms. Lucy focuses back on the tree as she attempts to finish with the lighting without fainting from her overimagination.

Within half an hour, the tree is fully wrapped. Lucy turns the light switch and all of the lights begin to shine brightly. She and Laxus watch each one to ensure that none show any indication of combusting. After several minutes, the lights are perfectly stable and they breathe a sigh of relief before switching them off.

"Now, time for the ornaments," Lucy says merrily as she grabs a box full of fat, striped ornaments.

Laxus grabs a box and starts to decorate the bottom while Lucy tends to the top. She'll ask him about whether certain ornaments look good together if she's not certain. He'll give his honest answer but always leaves the final decision to her.

Time ticks by as most of the tree branches are hung with some sort of ornament. Music continues to play in the backgrounds as the two blondes work contentedly with one another. Occasional giggles reach Laxus' ears and he always looks up to find mirth dancing in Lucy's eyes as she smiles down at him. He returns the gestures with a smirk and nearly chuckles as she hurriedly turns away with red cheeks.

A quarter past three, Lucy lays the final ornament on the Christmas tree. She takes a deep breath as she steps back to admire the fully decorated Christmas tree. With a tense, nervous frown she plugs the light switch in and watches all of the lights shine at their brightest. Her frown melts into a relieved, satisfied, proud smile as the tree shines in its fullest glory.

"What now?" Laxus asks after a few moments.

Lucy snaps out of her reverie to point toward the gingerbread kits on a table and says, "Let me check on Virgo and Cancer and we'll get started on the gingerbread."

Laxus nods and head over to the gingerbread table while Lucy checks on Virgo and Cancer's progress. She is flabbergasted to see that Cancer has created more than two dozen shaped snowflakes and he has used two-thirds of the paper while Virgo has turned almost all of the pink fluffy wool a pristine white. She encourages her spirits to keep up the hard work before she leaves them to finish their job.

Lucy joins Laxus as he is glaring down at the kits with an uncertain frown.

"What's the matter?" she asks as she takes a seat across from him.

His lips slightly twitch as he raises his face to give her a complicated frown. "I don't think I can do this."

Lucy furrows her eyebrows slightly and asks in mild disbelief, "Why not? It's really easy. You just line each of the gingerbread fixtures with icing and attach the parts. Once the building is built then you decorate it and it's all finished. Simple."

Laxus' face turns skeptical and a bit apprehensive at her words. "I don't know…"

Lucy waves him off and puts a gingerbread house in front of him. "Just try it. You won't know until you try," she insists.

With extreme uncertainty and a heavy sigh, Laxus takes out all of the tools from the kit. There are gingerbread pieces with labels above each one, a paper plate for to place the house onto, tubes of icing, several small candies for decoration, and a small dull knife to scrap away any excess icing.

"Alright…" Laxus sighs again as he prepares himself for the disaster that he is certain will occur.

He gingerly takes two pieces of gingerbread wall and the tube of icing. He carefully sprays the icing onto one side of a wall and sticks the other piece of wall onto it at a ninety-degree angle. Laxus watches and waits for the icing to harden so the two pieces stick together.

"See?" Lucy says sweetly as she smiles at him. "That wasn't so bad."

Laxus hums in doubt as he doesn't drop his focus on the small structure. He sighs heavily as he gently takes his hands off of the walls and stares at them to ensure that they don't come undone.

"My gingerbread house turned out really bad last time I made one so I really doubt that my skills have gotten better since then," he explains in a grumble.

"Eh? When was the last time you made a gingerbread house?" Lucy asks, genuinely curious. She has pulled everything out of her own kit and is applying the icing to the bottom of a wall so it sticks to the plate.

"When I was seven," he answers while applying a layer of icing to the bottom of the walls to stick them to his plate.

Lucy's eyes shoot into her hairline in surprise. "That long?" she utters.

Laxus glances at her and shrugs in indifference. He delicately presses the walls to the plate underneath and holds them still while the icing hardens.

"What about you?" he asks in order to get out of the spotlight. "When was the last time you made a gingerbread house?"

Lucy snorts and rolls her eyes in exasperation and annoyance.

"Last year. Although it was promptly eaten when Natsu busted into my apartment and saw it sitting on my table," she retorts as she releases her hold on her wall.

Laxus imagines a crazed-faced fire dragon slayer grabbing a well-built gingerbread house and stuffing it into his face like the monster in a monster movie. A laugh bursts of his mouth at the imagery.

Lucy perks up at the sounds and watches him laugh at her expense. Irritation at the blonde man flames within her heart and makes her brow twitch.

"Don't laugh you idiot! I worked hard on that house!" she demands as a tick forms on her forehead.

Laxus can't help but laugh harder.

Lucy narrows her eyes at the man and puffs her cheeks out in annoyance. "Stupid dragon slayers…" she grumbles under her breath.

Yet, even with those words, she can feel her heart flutter in her chest at the wonderful sound of Laxus laughing.

Laxus stops laughing after a few minutes. He teases her about Natsu eating all of her gingerbread houses as he tries to work on his own gingerbread house. She shoots him a cold glare and states that Erza and Mira will kill him if he even dares to smell the gingerbread village.

Laxus chuckles at that one as he tries to remove his hand from his walls. Unfortunately, the icing between the plate and the wall didn't stick so all he has is hard icing spotted along the two pieces and the plate. He scrapes the icing off and tries again but they still do not stick together. Laxus grunts in irritancy as a small string of lightning bleeds off of him.

Lucy looks up to see the lightning dragon slayer struggling with his piece of gingerbread wall. "What's the matter?" she asks curiously.

Laxus groans before shooting her an aggravated look and grumbling, "The wall won't stick to the plate."

Lucy nods and rises from her bench as she states, "Let me get some glue. Mine are having trouble too. There's some in the kitchen, right?"

"In the top drawer by the door," he answers as he forgoes the wall for now.

Lucy walks over to the kitchen door and flicks the light on as she enters. She pulls the top drawer near the door open but doesn't see the glue. She pushes and pulls all of the crap inside before miraculously finding it under a piece of paper. With a firm "aha", she grabs two small bowls from above the overhead cabinets and leaves the room without ever noticing the melted glop of food on the floor by the refrigerator.

As she returns with the glue, she hands it over to Laxus before taking her seat. She also places a bowl beside him and beside her own house. He looks at her expectantly for instructions on what exactly to do with it.

"Just mix it with the icing in the bowl and apply it to the gingerbread with the knife," she explains nonchalantly.

Laxus hums in thought before following her instructions. He takes the glue, squirts a decent amount into the bowl along with the icing, and mixes the two together. With a careful hand, he applies the icing-glue to his wall and presses the pieces to the plate. Within a couple of minutes, the walls are standing straightly and sturdy.

He breathes a sigh of relief and continues to work.

Lucy gives him a small smile before returning to her work as well.

"So what's the Thunder Legion doing for Christmas, anyway?" she asks to keep the mood light.

Laxus sticks two more walls together as he says, "Evergreen is spending time with Elfman while Bickslow and Freed are handing out presents and reading Christmas stories to the kids at the orphanage."

"Aw," she sighs, "that's really nice of them."

Laxus smiles gently as the kindness of his team. "What's your team up to?"

Lucy smiles warmly as she tells him about how each one of them is spending time with their significant other, except for Wendy who is just trying to recover from her cold.

Time passes by as they continue their small talk and work on their respective gingerbread houses. Icing-Glue is applied to everything and before each of them knows it, the structures of their houses are complete. The remaining icing is used to add windows and a door to the walls. They each take small candies, some cotton, and glitter to add to further decoration. Laxus is meticulous with every part and coordinates everything so everything matches. In fact, he is so precise that Lucy can't help but think that he is trying extra hard to be extremely careful so he doesn't break the fragile pieces of gingerbread.

They both finish at the same time and Lucy is blown away by how beautiful Laxus' house is in comparison to hers. His house looks like an actual professional handcrafted it.

"Oh wow, Laxus! It's beautiful!" Lucy sighs in wonder as she is mesmerized by how he added glitter to his cotton so it looks like glistening snow around and on the house. The windows are perfectly straight and the candies on the rooftop are placed in a precise pattern so they look like actual rooftop tiles.

A tiny hint of redness powders his cheeks from embarrassment at her compliments and at how proud he is that his gingerbread house turned out looking good.

"Let's do the next ones," he says in a hushed, timid tone as he looks pointedly away from her.

"Okay," she agrees before she takes both of their houses to the table besides the bar that held the gingerbread village from before. That table will be the final place where they set everything once it's all finished.

Laxus pulls out two storefronts just as Cancer calls out for Lucy. Lucy walks over to the crab spirit to see that he has finished with all of the snowflakes. Stars gleam in her eyes as she thanks him a half a dozen times for all of his hard work. Cancer smiles proudly at her before poofing back into the spirit world. Lucy then turns to Virgo to see that she has also finished her job and is awaiting further instruction. Lucy asks the spirit in the nicest—and somewhat desperate—voice she has to hang the wool from the ceiling so none of the wood is showing and to then hang all of the snowflakes from the little hooks she bought earlier at the store. Virgo agrees without an ounce of emotion before she bows and grabs an armful of the wool. Lucy watches the maid spirit with a sweatdrop as she runs over to the nearby wall to somehow run straight up the wall and land swiftly and delicately on a rafter. The maid pulls out nails and a hammer from nowhere and begins to hammer down the fluffy "clouds".

Lucy decides to not question anything her spirit just did.

She returns back to the table and continues to make small talk with Laxus as they work on their gingerbread village. Occasional laughter is heard from the table as Lucy laughs at some of the stories that Laxus tells. Sometimes Laxus will tease Lucy about something and she can't resist playfully flinging a bit of icing at his face. He retaliates though by not wavering and continues to tease her. The lighthearted fights always end with Lucy laughing and Laxus smiling.

Two hours pass by quickly as the two blondes and the maid work diligently.

Laxus glues the gingerbread cross on top of the gingerbread church as the final touch. He steps back from the gingerbread table to admire the view with Lucy.

A large majority of the table is covered with some kind of gingerbread building. The church sits in the middle of town with the houses and storefronts next to it. A small manger is on the outside of town and has the nativity scene displayed. Stables are next to the manger and there are gingerbread men and women positioned throughout town. Small glittery cotton is spread between the buildings so it looks like fresh snow has just fallen.

Lucy looks between him and the village in pride.

"Look at that!" she exclaims excitedly. "It looks fantastic! I don't think anyone could have done a better job! Your buildings look incredible!"

"Thanks. They do look pretty good, huh?" he smirks confidently.

"Good!? They're great!" she insists with honest eyes.

Laxus looks down at her and he feels his ego swell two sizes from all of the genuine compliments from the woman. It honestly surprises him how well everything turned out.

"Alright," he sighs as he turns to fully face her and crosses his arms, "what else?"

Lucy takes a moment to look around the guild hall. She sees Virgo putting the last snowflakes onto their hooks on the other side of the guild so after she hangs them from the wool, the ceiling should be finished. The tree is shining brightly in front of the scenic back drop that completely hides the hole in the wall. Lastly, the gingerbread village is built and looks absolutely perfect.

"I think we're done," she says as excitement spreads from her head down to the tips of her toes.

Laxus breathes a sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding. "Thank God."

They can't believe it, they actually managed to pull together and accomplish everything they set out to do. With time left to spare too.

"All we gotta do is clean up and wait for Virgo to finish," Lucy states as she flicks her thumb over her shoulder toward the mess at the "building" table.

"Fine by me," Laxus nods his head.

They leave the gingerbread table and gather up all of their things on the "building" table. Laxus goes to throw away all of the empty building kit boxes while Lucy takes the glue and bowls to the kitchen.

Lucy enters the kitchen and puts the glue back in its drawer. She walks over to the sink to wash the bowls when a foul, pungent odor hits her nose. She unconsciously turns around to find the source only to see a puddle of mushy food on the floor at the bottom of the refrigerator. Horror strikes her and without any conscious thought, she jumps over the puddle of mushy food to open refrigerator door only to have her eyes nearly pop out of head

"AHHHH!" she screams loudly as she cringes in dismay at the sight.

The door to the kitchen bursts open to reveal a defensive Laxus and a neutral-looking Virgo, moments later.

"What's wrong!?" Laxus demands loudly.

Lucy's slowly turns around with big rivers of tears flowing from her eyes as she points meekly at the inside of the refrigerator.

"The food's ruined," she sobs in a helpless voice.

Laxus blinks at her in bafflement.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he demands.

Lucy sniffles as she opens the door wider for him to see. "That," she says as she continues to point to the "food".

Laxus' whole soul drops in dread as he finally understands what Lucy is going on about when he sees the inside.

Inside the refrigerator—where all of tomorrow's dinner dishes are supposed to be patiently waiting and literally chilling—is now covered in melted goo that once was solid food. Heat radiates from inside as the desserts, entrees, side dishes, and appetizers have all melted and are now spilling over the edge of their containers to bleed out the bottom of the refrigerator.

"What the fuck happened?" he yells loudly as he steps closely to see if everything is truly ruined.

Yeah, it really is.

"I don't know," Lucy shakes her head in ignorance. "Everything melted because it's hot inside but I don't know why it's producing hot air instead of cold air."

Laxus shakes his head in disbelief before an idea occurs to him. He tells Lucy to step aside as he grabs the front and side of the refrigerator. With minimal effort, he tugs the whole machine out so the back side is visible. He scowls deeply as he sees the exposed wires in the back of the refrigerator and the other side of the burned up wall that is covered with the scenic fabric.

"It must have been the fire," he states as his fists clench in frustration.

Lucy nods her head as she begins to piece everything together.

"The fire must have destroyed some of the wiring in system so the refrigerator malfunctioned and became an oven," she explains her idea and pulls back to lean against the counter.

"Holy fucking shit," Laxus curses angrily as he yanks the power cord of the refrigerator/oven out and runs a hand down his face. "What are we gonna do now? Almost all of tomorrow's dinner is not running all over the floor."

"I don't know," Lucy says miserably with a look of defeat on her face. "Mira probably has extras of all of the ingredients so would could make the food again if we had to. Problem is…Mira would notice if the refrigerator is broken or missing and we wouldn't have anywhere to store the food if we did make replacements for everything."

Laxus groans in agitation. "Are you shitting me? We did all of that fucking work to clean up the guild hall and we're still get screwed over?" he grunts gruffly and with distinct ire.

"Well…" Lucy trails off as she tries to think of a way out of this situation. "I mean, if we can find a way to get the exact same kind of refrigerator at five o'clock in the morning on Christmas and remake every part of the dinner, Mira won't notice anything. But I don't know where we would get an exact copy of the refrigerator."

"I have one," Virgo interjects into the conversation.

Both blondes stop their discussion and sharply turn their heads to look at the Virgo in surprise.

"You do?" they ask simultaneously and with hope in their voices.

Virgo gives a curt nod before disappearing and reappearing moments later with an exact replica of the broken refrigerator.

Lucy and Laxus stare at her in disbelief before relief and hope floods their veins. They might still be able to pull this whole hide-the-accidental-fire scheme off yet.

Laxus pulls the broken, dirty refrigerator out of the way while Lucy cleans up the mess on the floor. Virgo the places the new refrigerator in the old one's spot and plugs it into the power outlet. Laxus positions it just right so none of the exposed wall is showing, no matter which direction you look at it from.

"Hey Virgo," Lucy asks her spirit curiously as Laxus works, "not to say that I'm not grateful because I am, but why did you have spare refrigerator lying around?"

"I pulled it from my collection," Virgo answers indifferently. "I have collections of all kitchen appliances and utensils."

"Uh huh," Lucy hums as she sweatdrops at her spirit.

Virgo might be weird but that weirdness is saving her ass right now so she won't complain.

Laxus steps back and checks that everything is settled. He opens the door and he feels the cool air circulating inside.

"It's good," he confirms as he shuts the door and faces the two females.

"Great!" Lucy declares with a fist pump. "Now all we gotta do is redo the food and we're home free!"

"If you excuse me, I must finish with my previous duty," Virgo says before she bows and leaves the kitchen.

"I don't think I should help you this time Lucy," Laxus says apprehensively as he and Lucy are left alone in the kitchen.

Lucy cocks an eyebrow at him and puts her hands on her hips. "And why not?"

"Because I can't cook," he answers simply.

"Relax," she sighs as she crosses her arms. "We're just prepping the food not cooking it. Mira is going to cook the food later today so it'll be fresh once it's served. All we gotta do is get everything ready for her."

"But—"

"No buts. There's a lot work to be done and we have less than three hours to get everything finished so I need your help to do it. Besides, we just have to follow the recipes to a "T". It'll be fun," she swears as she gives him a small determined smile.

Laxus' eyebrows scrunch together in confusion as he asks, "Why do we have to follow the recipes exactly?"

Lucy facepalms and sighs in exasperation before she explains, "Because if we don't follow the recipes then the food will be wrong, if the food is wrong then Mira will wonder why the food is wrong, if Mira wonders why the food is wrong then she will investigate, if Mira investigates then she will find the hole in the wall, if she finds the hole in the wall then she will know that we put up a backdrop to cover the hole, if she knows the backdrop is a cover up then she will get suspicious of everything else we added and tear down the snow in the ceiling, if she tears down the snow then she finds the burnt rafters, and if she finds the burnt rafters then she's going to tell Gildarts and Erza about the burnt rafters, the hole in wall, and ruined food and we'll be on clean up duty for a month!"

Laxus blinks down at her with a stupefied look plastered on his face. "Yeah, that'll be bad," he mumbles out after a few seconds.

Lucy deadpans at him while her brow twitches in irritancy. Why do men have to be so stupid sometimes?

"Let's just get the food ready…" she sighs in exasperation as she grabs his sleeve and tugs him toward the pantry.

On the way, Lucy grabs Mira's recipe book. She looks over all of the ingredients and tells Laxus which ones to get from the pantry as she reads off the list. It seems like an excessive list to the blonde man but he grabs everything she tells him to.

Practically the whole pantry is empty by the time they have everything gathered and deposited on the kitchen counter. He stands patiently beside her as she groups certain items together.

"Let's start with the desserts since that takes the longest to cool," Lucy decides as she pulls on an apron. She tries to hand Laxus an apron but the glare he gives her makes it clear that he will not be wearing one.

"First, we make the dough for the pies," Lucy states as puts the required amounts of flour, salt, butter, and sugar in front of her and Laxus.

"Um, Lucy?" Laxus says hesitantly as he looks over the ingredients nervously.

"Yeah?" she turns toward him.

"I'm really not sure about this," he admits with clear uncertainty in his voice and body language.

"It'll be fine," she reassures him with a soft smile. "Just do what I do, okay?"

A bead of sweat runs down his temple as he nods doubtfully.

Lucy takes the ingredients on the table in front of and mixes some of them to together. Laxus follows along and replicates her actions exactly. Step by step, piece by piece, half a dozen pie doughs come together.

Lucy sets them aside so they can rest while she and Laxus work on the fillings. They both conjure up apple and pumpkin pie fillings together as Lucy constantly encourages Laxus.

After the dough finishes settling, they make the pie crusts and pour the filling into the pan. The remaining dough is layered on top to create a nice crust.

As Laxus pulls away and looks down at his finished pie, he can't help but feel a swell of satisfaction in his chest at accomplishing such a thing. But then his masculine pride takes a nosedive as he realizes that all he's done in the past two and half hours is make gingerbread houses and pies.

How unmanly…

"Now for the cakes!" Lucy claims as she claps her hands together.

Depression fills Laxus' soul and covers his eyes as his pride takes another dive off the deep end at the thought of his strong, masculine, used-for-fighting hands making…cakes.

"Laxus," Lucy warns as if she can practically sense where his thoughts are lingering.

"Yeah…yeah…" he mumbles as he forces himself not to mope too badly.

The reason he's doing this is because he destroyed the tree. That was an act he committed and these are the consequences of that act.

Before Lucy can begin the lesson, however, the kitchen door swings open to reveal Virgo.

"Princess?" Virgo says calmly from beside the door.

Lucy and Laxus look up inquisitively at the maid.

"Yeah?" Lucy asks.

"I have finished with the decorations," she says neutrally as she holds her hand out towards the kitchen door.

Lucy and Laxus look at one another before they follow the maid out into the main guild hall. Their eyes float upward before they feel their jaws drop in amazement.

"V-Virgo…th-that's…" Lucy's voice gets lost as she is overwhelmed with how beautiful the ceiling looks.

"Holy fuck," Laxus says absentmindedly.

Aries' pure white wool is laid out against the banisters so it looks like a single layer of clouds is floating above the entire guild hall. Each one of Cancer's snowflakes has been hung from a small hook that is attached to the wool so there is some kind of snowflake hanging over the floor down below. The snowflakes twirl in the air and hang at varying lengths. The lights from the tree make the wool shine brightly and the snowflakes gleam.

It's a striking sight and makes Lucy and Laxus completely stunned for a moment.

"Is it to your liking, Princess?" Virgo asks apathetically with her hands crossed in front of her body. "If it isn't then you are welcome to punish me."

"Wh-what!? Are you kidding!? This is better than I thought it was going to be!" Lucy exclaims in a high pitched, excited squeal.

"Will you punish me anyway?" Virgo's eyes lit up in eagerness.

Lucy gives her a knowing look and shakes her head. "No, Virgo. No punishment. But thank you! Thank you so much for all of this! It's beyond wonderful!"

Virgo gives a deep bow and says, "Anything for my Princess. I will be taking my leave now."

Within seconds, Virgo disappears within a poof of pink smoke.

Lucy sighs happily as she looks back up at the ceiling.

"There's no way anyone is going to tear that down, right?" she asks her fellow guild member as she looks up at him.

Laxus rolls his eyes down at her to give her an incredulous look. "Are you fucking kidding? Mira will probably want to keep it up until next year."

"Good," Lucy laughs, "then she'll never find out about the burnt rafters."

Laxus nods his head in exaggeration.

"Come on, that ham isn't going to prepare itself," Lucy chirps merrily as she waves at him to follow her.

Laxus sighs as he takes one final look up at the ceiling before retreating back into the kitchen. He resumes his position back at Lucy's side as she continues with the lesson.

The next two and a half hours pass in the blink of an eye for both blondes as they prepare the reaming desserts, entrees, appetizers, and side dishes.

Lucy patiently prepares everything all the while managing and observing Laxus' work to ensure that nothing is done wrong. Laxus had no idea how much work goes into cooking and develops a new respect for the craft.

Laxus asks questions whenever he is unsure about a certain step and always welcomes the blonde woman's input. She is never critical or imposing in her teachings so he doesn't feel insulted or impotent in any way. Much to his surprise, he enjoys leaning how to cook when it's Lucy that's teaching him.

It's kinda, sorta…fun.

Sometimes she teases him about the taste of his food just like he teased her about the gingerbread houses. Initially, he freaked out but when he realized that she is just messing with him, he would pretend to add a wrong ingredient to return the favor. Lucy would puff out her cheeks in annoyance while he would laugh his head off.

In the end, she would always laugh with him.

During the last half hour, all of the dishes are prepared and ready to be cooked. Lucy and Laxus clean all of the utensils, bowls, pots, and pans so there will be no indication that they were ever in the kitchen when Mira shows up at eight.

Just as she is drying the last dish, Lucy looks up at the time and sees that it's five till eight.

"Oh my god! Laxus, hurry! Mira's gonna be here in five minutes! Clean this up! Quick!" she shrieks frantically as she waves her hands in a flurry.

Laxus' eyes briefly go wide before he hastily swipes up all of the clean bowls off the counter with one arm swoop and shoves them into the overhead cupboard.

Lucy grabs all of the utensils and tosses them into their drawer. She grabs a towel and begins to furiously wipe the spilled crumbs off of the counter while Laxus all but throws all of the freshly prepared dishes into the new refrigerator. He hurriedly joins her as they scrub every inch of available countertop in a panicky state.

A minute till eight, Lucy yelps before she snatches Laxus' rag from him and throws it into the sink. She grabs his wrist and tugs him so hard through the kitchen they practically slide through the kitchen door. They each plop down onto a barstool just as the guild door opens.

Mira walks inside and is pleasantly surprised to see the two blondes at the bar. Her eyes immediately drift up and she can't stop the awestruck smile from blooming across her face at the beautiful snowflakes hanging from the fluffy clouds above her.

"Good morning, Lucy. Good morning, Laxus," calls out with a cheery smile as she gingerly walks toward them.

"G-Good morning, Mira," Lucy tries a bit too hard to reply casually.

Laxus grunts in greeting as he keeps his face pointedly turned away from the barmaid to hide the small bead of nervous sweat on his cheek.

"Did you guys do all of this?" Mira asks wondrously as she gestures toward the ceiling.

"Y-Yeah," Lucy states with a nervous undertone as she props her head on her palm. "It took us all night but we thought it would go well with the photo backdrop."

Mira cocks her head in confusion but follows Lucy's finger to where it points behind the tree to see the scenic layout. Her eyes light up to so stars shine in her blue eyes as she exclaims, "Oh that's a wonderful idea! Think of all of the Christmas pictures that everyone can take!"

"That's what we thought too," Lucy lies with a stressed cheesy smile.

"That's so sweet of you. I think the snowflakes look better than the lights personally," Mira says sweetly as she switches between admiring the beautifully dressed tree and the overhanging snowflakes.

"Can I get you guys anything before I get to work on the dinner?" she asks as she turns for the kitchen door.

"Nope, I'm good," Lucy answers kindly.

Laxus merely waves the barmaid off.

Mira gives them both a grateful smile before disappearing into the kitchen to begin cooking everything for dinner.

Lucy and Laxus visible deflate in relief against the bar the moment Mira disappears through the door. She shoots Laxus a confident grin while he smirks at her in success.

They saved Christmas.

"Thanks Lucy," Laxus says softly. "You really saved my ass."

Lucy gives him a bright smile and replies, "You're welcome. Anytime."

Exhaustion sets in at that moment and they realize that they have not had a moment to rest since last night when this whole mess started.

"I'm so tired…" Lucy whines pathetically as she lays her head down on the bar.

"Me too," Laxus grumbles.

A sudden thought strikes Lucy as she raises her face to furrow her eyebrows. "I just thought of something…" she mumbles before trailing off in contemplation. Why didn't she think of this earlier?

Laxus looks at her curiously.

"Why didn't the lightning bolt hit me earlier?" she speaks her thoughts. "I mean, it was heading right at me so why did it hit the tree?"

Laxus is slightly taken aback and turns away with a huff. "The tree attracted it. What's the big deal?" he responds gruffly.

Lucy frowns at him as she rebuffs with, "But that doesn't make sense. There wasn't enough metal or anything that would conduct electricity on the tree so why would it change direction?"

Laxus hunches over slightly as he tries to hide more of his face from her. He grumbles something under his breath so Lucy can't understand anything.

"What?" she asks.

"I redirected the lightning so it wouldn't hit you," he says clearer and louder. "The tree just happened to be there so…"

The statement makes her initially freeze up in shock but then she relaxes as warmth flows through her veins at the kind act.

"Thank you, Laxus," she says quietly as she gives him a gracious thankful smile.

Laxus snorts and shakes his head. "We wouldn't have gone through this whole night if I had just steered the lightning away from you and the damn tree."

Lucy giggles at the man. "Don't worry. Last night was kinda fun," she admits bashfully as she blushes slightly.

He peeks over at her nervously for a few moments before turning pointedly away.

Lucy catches the weird act and cocks her head at one side in confusion. "Hey, are you okay?"

Laxus' shoulders visibly tense as he ducks his head further away from her. A small cough rumbles in the back of his throat and his hands clench tightly on the bar counter. To Lucy, he looks like he wants to say something but can't bring himself to do it.

"What-"

"It wasn't bad," he blurts out very quietly and with obvious reluctance.

Lucy scrunches her eyebrows at him in confusion. "Huh?"

"Last night…" he explains, his tone thick with embarrassment. "Last night…wasn't bad. I…enjoyed it."

Lucy's eyes go wide and a deep blush rises to her cheeks as she openly stares at him. Did…did he just say that he enjoyed the time he spent with me?

"It makes me think that…Um…I…uh…I-I…wouldn't necessarily mind…um…" he trails off, his embarrassment growing as he scratches the back of his neck.

Lucy leans forward expectantly as she waits for him to complete his sentence. Right now, her heart is beating out of her chest and her throat has dried up as her mind is preparing for the impossible. She is sure there are little blushes along her cheeks but she doesn't care.

Laxus takes a deep breath and clenches his fists tighter as he spits out, "I wouldn't mind if you celebrate Christmas with me."

Lucy's heart practically explodes within her chest from excitement and merriment. A small squeal reverberates within the back of her throat as she internally holds back the need to scream in joy.

Laxus just asked me to spend Christmas with him...! Laxus just asked me to spend Christmas with him...! Laxus just asked me to spend Christmas with him...!

The noise draws Laxus' attention and he peeks at her cautiously from the corner of his eye.

Lucy's unconscious response is to smile while she calms herself down enough to give him a legitimate answer. Laxus turns his head a little more to give her a worried look since she is acting really strange right now.

Clearing her throat, she gathers her thoughts and responds with, "I would like that."

Laxus tenses in surprise at her answer before relaxing with a small smile. "O-Okay," he mumbles.

Lucy tries to nod calmly but she can't help the wide excited grin that spreads over her lips.

"Wanna go get some breakfast since we're both hungry?" she asks, the smile never fading from her face.

Laxus smirks down at her and nods.

The two blondes grab their winter clothes before they leave in search of some food in town. Behind them, in the silence of the guild hall, the Christmas tree shines brightly on everything while snowflakes dangle from the ceiling and the gingerbread village sits quietly by the bar.

While not a typical Christmas, it is still a Merry Christmas for Lucy and Laxus.