A/N: Yes, this is a Christmas/New Years short-story (well. Kinda. It also involves Halloween and Thanksgiving sooo... yeah) . No, I don't believe it's too early for it (pfft. It's never too early—or late I suppose—for the holidays). And once again, my BrOT3 makes their grand appearance! This time though, it isn't in a HighSchool!AU. Just a modern one.

Believe it or not, this story started with this prompt: I don't know you and you don't know me but our mutual friends think we'd look cute together and won't stop trying to set us up and oh my freaking god I'm so sorry.

And then stemmed into this combined drabble mess. There are seven parts that I endearingly dubbed as 'attempts' and although the time of day may seem random to you, it actually has a bit of a pattern to it (don't overthink it though, there's no real, deep meaning to it tbh). If I feel up to it, I might even make a bonus chapter including all seven 'attempts' completely covered in Natsu's 'P.O.V.' Hell week (A.K.A. finals week) is over, so hopefully I'll have more time to write~

But anyway, enjoy and as always, see you in the next one! -808Lionfire

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail (c) Hiro Mashima

Overview: Rated T for minor to major language and a dash of mature implications. Modern!AU. Genre: Romance, a dash of Humor/Friendship/Family, and—if there was such a genre—Awkward.

Summary: Thanks to her two best friends and their nosey obsession with her love life, it only took them seven attempts to make her fall in love with a man whose name she never even knew. (Modern!AU)

Pairing(s): Natsu/Lucy, Gray/Juvia, Gajeel/Levy, Lucy/Juvia/Levy sister-ship (A.K.A. my BrOT3), and general Friendship/Family feels.

Seven Attempts to Fall

Attempt One: 25 September x791, 2:41 p.m.

The first time it happened... well, the blonde wasn't really sure what happened.

At first, it was just a normal, late-September day out with just herself, Lucy Heartfilia, and her two blue-haired best friends; Juvia Lockser and Levy McGarden. It was a normal girls' day where her happily-taken best friends usually get picked off one after another by their significant other.

That left her happily-single self to her own devices (which wasn't a bad thing; she loved to immerse herself in her thoughts without worrying if she was missing an important piece of discussion).

They had been out on a celebratory shopping spree since Gray managed to 'man up' (definitely Lucy's words when she heard the news, but in her defense, Levy agreed whole-heartedly) and propose to Juvia during their date a few days ago. The newly engaged couple dived into their bedroom the moment he proposed and didn't come up for air until Levy and Lucy barged into Gray's living room, blasting Ice, Ice, Baby on repeat until the dark-haired man got fed up with it.

The girls managed to drag Juvia out of the apartment long enough to have a nice lunch and squeal over the wedding plans they were ironically daydreaming about a month ago. The moment the long-haired bluenette finally started to fantasize about her highly-anticipated consummation night, the two other women silently agreed that the couple lasted apart a lot longer than they originally thought.

So it was no a surprise when Juvia got a demanding call from her newly entitled fiancé when they were passing the front of Magnolia's famed bookstore, Iron Ink (which was conveniently owned by none other than the kind-hearted, most sweetest, least devious, Levy McGarden). It was a bit upsetting to see their bubbly friend go, but since both of their bets on how long they would last were wrong, at least they didn't lose their money!

After a brief check-in with Laki in the Iron Script, the two women strolled arm-in-arm across the street. There was an alarming flag-raising grin on the tiny bluenette's face as they stopped to grab a cup of coffee at the cute, quaint little coffee-stop slash bakery (which was—by the way—conveniently owned by none other than the open-hearted, most naïve, least suspecting, Lucy Heartfilia) and only grew more suspicious as they conversed. But despite being all that and more, the golden-haired woman thought nothing of her friend's smile.

At least, she thought nothing of it until the bluenette's boyfriend, Gajeel Redfox, stormed over with a positively ruffled look on his face.

As they stood to greet him, she felt something weigh in her stomach. Now normally, the brute's scowl wouldn't faze Lucy—Levy's boyfriend was probably the most grumpiest man she had the pleasure of meeting—but there was something more than just grumpy on his face; in fact, accompanying his livid expression, there was a wonderful drawing of a—in lack of a better word—dick.

Maybe laughing wasn't the best approach?

Nevertheless, her laughter was loud and could have been considered as inconsiderate if it wasn't for the fact that the crimson-eyed brute's girlfriend was trying to fight her own snickers back too. The golden-haired woman wasn't even the least bit embarrassed when she snorted a couple of times, unable to suck in enough air before bursting out into another round of giggles.

Don't tell him this, but she admits later that she kinda deserved that half-hearted shove; however, she definitely didn't deserved getting half-heartedly shoved into someone behind him.

An extremely attractive someone behind him.

An extremely attractive someone behind him who was kind enough to catch her.

And he was grinning down at her like he was just all too amused with the scene in front of him.

Her eyes curiously rest on the shocking head of pink hair. Not to say that she hadn't seen her fair share of pink hair before, because she has. Sure, it was mainly on women and sometimes it was dyed while this... well, this looked natural. And from close up, she could see the roots of his hair and it definitely proved that he didn't dye it.

She barely noticed the glare Gajeel shot the pink-haired stranger, but it was enough to tell her who exactly what the culprit for the... work of art on the giant-of-a-man's face. The other man only chuckled when the crimson-eyed brute shot him a scalding look with equally scalding curses. Lucy quickly angled her face away when the stranger ripped his eyes away to look down at her again.

He didn't say anything to her thankfully, but he did turn away to shoot a remark back to Gajeel. The words spoken were lost between the blood rushing past her ears and the harsh, thumping heartbeat that pulsed in her throat. Once she got her nerves settled, she belatedly realized that she was pathetically draped against this stranger's chest and squeaked in horror. The golden-haired woman quickly tore herself out of the stranger's arms after enjoying his warmth a moment too long and gasped out a mortified apology, her cheeks pinking furiously.

The man just laughed a laugh that raced straight through her and made her toes curl involuntarily at the sound. Lucy found herself whirling on her heels– half to hide her steadily darkening face and half to scold Gajeel for being such an ass. Unfortunately, neither he nor his girlfriend was anywhere to be seen. She only caught the tail end of the brute's winter coat disappearing into Iron Ink across the street and she gaped.

The blonde turned just in time to see the pink-haired stranger follow her gaze and roll his eyes.

Lucy hastily dug into her purse for a fifty-percent-off-coupon for any pastry-coffee combo in her café. She originally planned to keep this one for her eldest regular since there wasn't an expire date and could be used twice, but when the man peered back at her curiously, she basically shoved it into the stranger's hands. The golden-haired woman mumbled another apology and stumbled into the corner coffee-stop without giving him the chance to deny the gift.

She only let her face burn when she holed herself in said café– whose name the woman would reflect upon a year-or-so later and find it so ironically fitting.

The café she worked her blood, sweat, and tears into; Celestial Fire.