31-Day Tales of Series Christmas Challenge


Summary: One-shots or short stories from many of my favorite Tales of Series couples and friendships, which I'll try to upload one per day during December, 2016. Some of them will be rare-pairings, but you'll actually find some canon couples or even fan-favorites I can't help but love. Please enjoy and leave a comment!
Ratings: K+ / T. If there are any adult themes I'll warn you beforehand.
Pairings: Various

Posted in Fanfiction, Ao3 and Wattpad
Prompts posted on my tumblr


1. Winter Clothes
Tales of the Abyss
Jade x Natalia

Everyone wondered why Natalia refused to bring thicker clothing when they had all told her Grand Chokmah became incredibly cold by the end of the year. She insisted it should be nothing compared to Baticul's winter, but she was surprised to find the fortress' waterfall completely frozen. As it surrounded the entire city, the temperature dropped drastically, making the weather a lot less friendly that the one at her hometown. After the princess and her friends arrived together for Emperor Peony's annual holiday dinner, Natalia locked herself up in the Inn and regretted every decision she'd made in the past few days. Of course it'd be cold, what was she thinking?!

Her friends offered to lend her one of their robes, but they'd all end up freezing if they didn't have at least three layers of clothing on, so Natalia denied their help for the moment. The princess covered herself up to her chin with the Inn's blankets and wondered what would be the best course of action if she didn't want to end up in Peony's dinner party in a real-life icicle costume. After almost ten minutes of silently gritting her teeth and holding her tears from embarrassment, someone knocked at the door.

"Come in", Natalia said, expecting Tear to enter the room. In her instead, Jade opened the door slowly, as if asking for permission to intrude. "Oh… hi, Colonel."

"I found it strange you didn't come with the rest of the group. Did they really leave you behind?" The Necromancer asked with a playful tone.

"No, I insisted they moved along, I'd catch up with them once I know what to do."

"Then Anise was right, you were dumb enough not to bring extra clothing."

"Hey!"

"It's what Anise said." Jade laughed finally walking inside the room. He was dressed sharply, in one of the army's formal uniforms, but Natalia noticed he had something beneath his left arm. "I decided to come to your rescue, though."

Jade handed her one of his coats, which Natalia took with skepticism. She didn't expect anyone to offer some help in her situation, it was even less probable Jade would be the one to bring up a solution. Natalia crawled out of the bed and placed the coat around her shoulders, feeling an incredible warmth wrapping her entire body. The coat smelt nice, it reeked of Jade's cologne. It almost made her feel as if he was embracing her, not just for the smell but also because of the heat it emanated. Natalia blushed, but acknowledged it was the best solution to her problem.

"W-whoa… what did you do to it?" She fixed her dress beneath the robe and tugged the shoulders slightly, since Jade was taller and his back was wider than the princess', the coat fit a little loose on her body.

"Most of my clothes are imbued with fonic artes", he shrugged. Natalia understood how he had managed to keep himself fresh at the desert or warm at Mt. Roneal earlier that year. "It'll keep you warm as long as you're not too far away from me."

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver, Jade!" She said, holding his hands in excitement as she could finally move without any of her joints aching because of the cold.

"I know, I know." He placed a hand on her shoulder and fixed the straps on her waist so the coat would not slip down as they walked out of the Inn. It had started to snow, Jade was grateful he managed to reach Natalia on time before the dinner had begun. If he had reached the Inn a few minutes later, they'd not be able to get to the party on time. "Just promise me you'll punch Peony in the face if he says anything about lending you my clothes, please."

"Sure thing", Natalia laughed and took the arm he offered. The snow began to fall and the city fell quiet as people withdrawing themselves to their houses. The princess smiled, the silence was quite enjoyable and Jade had always been a good conversation partner when nothing needed to be said. She'd always been comfortable spending time around the Necromancer, unlike other people who resented his presence. Perhaps spending her entire afternoon ignoring the others and feeling Jade's warmth embracing her wouldn't be such a bad idea.


A/N: Yup. I'll start this with an unpopular ship no one pays attention to, and this fic will get no views. But you know what? I don't careeee! I write what I want! Also, as a side note, I'll classify this as a Tales of the Abyss fic because most of the stories will be centered around Abyss' characters, like half of the prompts are for them. I don't like lack of Fanfiction tagging system and their categories are quite limited imo... Oh, well. I'll do a more proper tagging in Ao3.