Disclaimer: I don't own anything nor am I making any profit out of this. I'm just writing for fun.
Note: I know that this is a bit belated but we're still in the season so whatever.
Unbetaed.
Feedback's always nice.
Christmas Eve
It was Lucy's first Christmas at the guild. So the team had decided to get together to spend the evening, celebrating. They would have dinner at the guild before and only after celebrating with their friends, would they gather to a more reclusive celebration.
The appointed place was, as expected, Lucy's house.
Lucy's house was filled with decorations, both her table and kitchen counter were overflowing with food and the blood mage was sitting and waiting for her friends to arrive. The appointed time was closing in.
Finally, there was a knock on the door. Lucy went to open it. It was Natsu and Happy, they were grinning and both of Natsu's hands were busy with bags.
"Merry Christmas!" they said.
"Merry Christmas, you guys." She greeted, opening the door and ushering them inside.
"Waaah, Lucy! You've outdone yourself, that's quite a lot of food!" Natsu whooped. "It's all for me, I imagine." He teased with a wink.
"Silly…" Lucy slapped the fire mage lightly on the arm. "Of course not. And what did you bring?"
Natsu raised his right hand.
"I brought something more for us to eat. You never know, right?"
"Yes, because we haven't had enough food yet at the guild or this isn't enough for our bottomless stomachs… of course…" Lucy deadpanned with a nod.
"Right. And I also brought some presents, as promised." The fire mage raised his left hand.
"Alright. You can go put the food in the kitchen and the presents will be by the tree." She waved towards the small pine tree that sat on her desk.
"Lucy, you did quite a lot of decorating, aye." Happy was hovering by the tree, inspecting the decorations and presents that were already under it.
"It wasn't too much," the celestial mage giggled. She was about to add something more but was interrupted.
There was a knock on the door.
The blonde mage headed towards it, listening to Natsu mumble's coming from the kitchen and when she swung it open, she let out a slightly surprised "ah".
Instead of only one person, as she expected, there were two.
"Erza, Gray, you're here." She waved them in.
"We met on our way in," Gray replied, already taking out his shirt, distractedly, and becoming topless.
"We both had good timing." Erza added with a nod.
"You sure did." Lucy laughed. "Natsu and Happy have just gotten here too."
"You're finally here, huh? And doing your exhibitionist thing, I see." Natsu shot at Gray as he left the kitchen.
"Of course that we're here and – wait! Huh?" Gray looked down at himself and blinked in surprise. "When did this happen?"
"It doesn't matter. Put your shirt on and let's drink!" Lucy quickly interjected, seeing where things might be headed and wanting to prevent the damage that would occur to her things if the boys started one of their fights.
"Where do we put our presents?" Erza asked sensibly.
"Ah, right, over there. Under my little tree. I didn't have time for anything more…" she excused herself.
"Oh, don't worry. It's not as majestic as the one at the guild but it's lovely." Erza brushed Lucy's self-deprecating comment and placed her presents on top of the desk.
"And now, let's begin our little celebration!" Natsu said loudly.
"Hey, no need to shout, fire-breath." Gray grumbled, slapping Natsu upside on the back of his head.
"Aye! Celebrate!" Happy agreed.
"Ouch! What are you doing, you dumbass ice-brain?" Natsu rubbed the back of his head and pouted at Gray.
"Boys…" Erza said.
"Let's eat and drink!" Lucy interjected again, handing out mugs and dishes to everyone. "Please, help yourself!"
"Let's eat!" The friends said before digging in.
Despite having already eaten quite their share of food, most of the food that was on Lucy's house was eaten. It did surprise the celestial mage a little but, she was discovering that, in regards to food, their friends (well, mostly Natsu and Gray a bit) could wolf down large quantities. Finally, their food ingestion died a little down and they agreed that it was getting to the time to open the presents.
"First of all, you need to clean yourselves!" Lucy said peremptorily as she saw Natsu look hungrily at the presents, face and hands still glistening with sauce.
"Awww, not fair." The fire mage whined.
"I don't understand how you can dirty yourself so much, Natsu." Erza sighed before finishing her cup. "Can I have more wine?"
"Sure…" Lucy answered to Erza.
"That's what you get for being a pig while eating." Gray snarked at Natsu, throwing a bone to Natsu's plate, sauce splattering and dirtying Natsu's shirt.
"You asshole!" the fire mage growled. "You're lucky that you didn't dirty Igneel's scarf."
"I want mooore fiiiiiiiish…" Happy said groggily from where he was lying down, nearly passed out and with a large belly.
"You should have taken it off before eating. You're always so messy…" Gray said distractedly.
"Why you-!" Natsu stood up with a jump, being quickly followed by Gray.
"Boys… behave!" Erza barked and both stood to attention, a scared expression on their faces. "Now, you go and clean up, both yourselves and the table, so that we can go ahead with our celebration. You're being very rude to Lucy. This is her first Christmas in Magnolia and you're going to ruin it!" She finished her tirade with a narrowing of her eyes that had both biting down a whine.
"We're sorry." They said as they bowed to Lucy before hurrying to pile the dishes up and take them to the kitchen.
"That will never cease to amaze me…" Lucy said in awe.
"Hm? What do you mean?" Erza blinked before knocking down another cup. "This is good wine, you know?"
"Ahaha, yes, you sure seem to be a fan…" Lucy laughed and shook her head. "You are all too much for me." She bit down another laugh as she saw Happy's blissed-out expression. "Indeed…"
Natsu and Gray were taking care of the kitchen while grumbling a little and sometimes shooting each other half-hearted glares. But, among that, the companionship was still stronger and they finished taking care of the kitchen before long. Natsu headed to the bathroom but was followed by Gray.
"Hey, it's my turn here. Yeah?" the fire mage splashed around as he washed his hands.
"I just need to wash my hands." Gray said innocently.
"Well, hurry up. I need to pee."
"Small bladder, I see." Gray teased as he rinsed his hands and splashed some water on his face.
"Small my ass! I ate and drank more than you, you wall-flower. No, go, go!" the fire mage ushered the other from the bathroom, slamming the door right on Gray's face.
Gray just laughed as he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. He could hear Natsu's grumbles echoing in the tiled room.
When Natsu opened the door, he was surprised to see that Gray was still there.
"What are-?" his question was interrupted as Gray leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips before laughing and heading to the living room.
"That… asshole…" Natsu muttered, a hand over his mouth and his cheeks painted red.
"I think that this is the time to hand out the presents, no?" Lucy said as she opened the window, a sudden rush of cold entering the house, as well as the sound of the bell ringing.
"Presents!" Happy and Natsu yelled with joy.
Gray rolled his eyes and Erza shook her head fondly. Lucy just smiled at her friends' antics.
They happily handed out the presents. Everyone got something interesting.
Erza was gifted with some high-quality dual-blades, the handles exotically embroidered, Lucy got a book she'd been coveting for a while and a new notebook, Happy got a large assortment of fish that nearly had him falling to the side due to the bliss, Gray got a new jacket and Natsu a small sewing kit – everyone laughed at that – before being handed a small intricate glass sculpture of a red dragon. He got a little teary-eyed at that.
Another batch of food came to the table and before long they were singing and laughing and having more silly food-related competitions.
From the outside, they could hear people walk on the streets, singing carols. And when the mages went to the window to listen to them, they noticed that it had started snowing.
White was beginning to coat the streets and windowsills, white flakes dancing along to the gusts of wind.
"I wasn't expecting snow today." Lucy commented, looking up at the sky before down at the moonlight-lit street.
"Neither was I." Erza replied fondly.
"We're having a white Christmas!" Happy raised his paw up in the air. "Aye!"
Natsu sat down on the sofa and leaned back, head out of the window, "That's why everybody was complaining about the cold."
"What cold?" Gray let himself fall down on the sofa, making it bounce, and looked out.
"It's very pretty." Lucy said with a yawn. "At least, I'm glad that my house has heating. Ah, I'm starting to feel so tired."
"Who would have thought that celebrating this much would be so tiring, right?" Erza teased Lucy before yawning herself. "Oh, that was unexpected."
"My fishy…" Happy had landed on the arm of the sofa beside Natsu and was being petted, purring softly.
"Maybe we should call it a night." Gray said sensibly.
"Close the windows, please." Lucy chided. "So cold… but, you're right. Better go to get some sleep." She yawned again.
"Let's crash here, then." Natsu said cheerily.
"Hey!" Lucy was about to deny but, stopped and shrugged. "Fine. It's not like it isn't anything I'm not used to anyway."
"Do you need some help?" Erza offered.
"No. I'll just get some blankets. You never know, right?" the blonde mage disappeared into her bedroom before returning with a braceful of blankets. "Here you have them."
"That's not necessary…" Gray was about to start saying but was shut by Erza's look. "T-thanks." He threw the fluffy light blue blanket over him and Natsu.
"Don't you need another?" she inquired.
"No, this is enough." Gray nudged Natsu, who seemed to have fallen asleep while petting Happy.
"Well then, have a good night. Erza, let's share my bed?"
"Sure, it's more comfortable." The red-headed mage agreed and stood up. "Sleep well, boys."
"Sleep well, Erza." Gray replied as Lucy turned off the light.
The door to Lucy's room closed and the living room was plunged into semi-darkness, only being lit by the moonlight that came by the windows.
There was silence until the moment when Natsu startled, yawned languorously and stretched.
"Hey, where did the girls go?" he asked Gray.
"To bed. You kind of fell asleep right there, without our notice."
"Oh, I didn't notice…" Natsu said dumbly. "I was petting Happy and then…"
"You fell asleep, of course." Gray smiled. Under the blanket he grabbed Natsu's hand, entwining his fingers. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas to you too." Natsu pulled their hands to rest on top of the blanket. "But maybe I shouldn't be saying that to a thief."
"Thief? Me?" Gray arched an eyebrow.
"Yes, you stole a kiss." Natsu leaned forward and kissed Gray. When he pulled back, he licked his lips and grinned. "But now that makes us even."
"Only you…" Gray said as he shook his head fondly, before laying a kiss on the back of Natsu's hand.
"Argh, you're so embarrassing!" Natsu near-whined, blushing.
"You wouldn't have me any other way…" Gray grinned and winked.
"True…" the fire mage said with a pout. "But now, let's sleep. We still need to tell the girls that we're dating."
"Well, at least we've escaped them giving us a couple present." Gray laughed.
"Sleep well, ice brain."
"Sleep well, fire-breath."