Ok so here's the thing, I feel really bad for not updating my other story and since it's x-mas and everything, I thought maybe I should give at least a small gift to my readers and followers so here I am! I hope you enjoy this chapter and Merry Christmas everybody :D
also, this was kind of a competition with my dear friend MiyuTanemura, the theme was fluffiness...so hope you do enjoy ^^
It was during a snowy night where the city of Magnolia was unusually shining with its many colorful lights and a festive mood was engulfing the whole of Magnolia. Many children were out playing in the snow while others were sitting in the warmth of their parents' home enjoying the holiday meal that was prepared for this purpose. It was like some kind of magical spell was flowing in the air-making the people happy and thrilled on this very day. Even the grumpiest of them all was enjoying this special day that comes only once a year.
This brings us to the middle of town where a very well-known guild was standing tall and, as usual, was emitting most of the noise and laughter that can be heard from the town. Although, this time, no one can blame their boisterous nature since it was, after all, Christmas day and if being noisy makes the guild members happy then so be it. After all, the town's people owed a lot to Fairy Tail so this is the least they could do to repay them. As long as their noisiness does not transform into petty fights that is...
Inside the guild, Gray was sitting next to his team on a table far away in the corner but still close to the bar where Mira is. In front of him were sitting Erza and Lucy while on his right side sat Wendy. The exceeds did not bother taking a bench, they contented themselves by sitting on the table in front of the youngest member of the team. The ice mage was staring around at the guild hall looking for the missing boy he was looking forward to seeing the most today. It has been a few hours since the party started but there was still no trace of the pink headed boy which caused Gray to worry since the fiery mage would never miss out on such a huge event, especially if there's some food involved.
"Have any of you seen Natsu today? He still hasn't showed up yet!" he said as he stared at the front doors of the guild expecting said boy to show up at any moment now.
His question got Erza's attention to be directed away from her amazingly delicious strawberry short-cake to the raven head. She hummed as she started searching the perimeters with her eyes only, but it was no use, she could not find her youngest childhood friend anywhere inside the building.
"He doesn't seem to have entered the guild since this morning and I must say that, that is weird...," said Erza with her fork in her mouth.
Lucy took the opportunity to intervene and said, "Maybe he's still sleeping, the mission we were on yesterday was somewhat tiring and it did take a toll on us. So maybe he slept in this late, I mean, he did do most of the hard-work yesterday..."
The blond celestial mage's voice lowered with each word as she reached the end of her sentence. Embarrassed to no end, she did just admit that she was completely useless during the mission they took on Christmas Eve with Happy, Charle and Wendy. The bandits they were supposed to catch ended-up being stronger than what they seemed and they were dark magic users to boot! So can anyone blame her or Wendy if they hid behind some conveniently placed boulder while they left the task of beating and catching the bandits to Natsu alone? He did like a good fight and a good fight he got. Besides, no one came out injured from the battle so there was no need to worry about it. Wait...Maybe Natsu did get injured but tried to hide it from us...He wouldn't do that would he? , thought the busty blond teenager.
Worry etched on her features and she directed her gaze up to Wendy's to make sure her thoughts were just erratic but the nervous look and the constant fidgeting she got in return was not helping her to diminish her worries. She abruptly got up from her seat, making the others direct their gaze at her as she said, "I have a bad feeling about this, I need to confirm something so I'm going to check on him!"
Before she got the chance to run away and start looking for the fire mage at his house a voice made her stop and stare incredulously at its owner, "I'll go, you stay put and enjoy the festivities with the others. There's no need or a reason for you to bother yourself about this."
"A-Are you sure Gray? Wouldn't you find it a pain in the ass to go look for Natsu when you can stay here and enjoy the party?"
Gray had a hand propped on the table that was in front of him while the other was stuffed in his pants as he slightly glared at the front doors of the guild as if it were their fault that the fire mage has still not showed himself to the Christmas party.
"No it wouldn't and hey!" he lifted his gaze from where it was to the blond girl, "In situations like these it's my responsibility to go search for him. No one else but me. Capiche?"
As soon as he uttered these words, Erza stood from her spot to go next to him and started patting him on his back. Or so she thought...With her incredibly monstrous strength there was no way the ice mage would merely feel a pat, it felt more of a hit meant to make him loose his balance. His breath was cut short every time she hit him.
"Would you look at these boys? They grow up so fast!" She wiped a fake tear away from the rim of her eyes before giving a last slap making the poor ice mage bend forward against his will, "Now go before I kick you out of here! And make sure to not fight when you see him!"
The raven head did not need to be told twice, he was out of the large oak doors before the scarlet head could blink. Her lips curled up into a smile when she saw him fleeing the guild and she, then, went back to her seat to continue eating what was left of her cake as the other two girls and exceeds were staring at her concerned (except for Happy, he was busy eating his fish).
That was when something flashed at Lucy's mind and she wondered out loud, "What did he mean by it was his responsibility?"
Erza gave her a knowing look and shrug her shoulders since she was too lazy (or busy eating cake) to explain.
Gray walked through the path that led to Natsu's home. With every step he took his hand would inch closer to his coat's zipper. Good thing he valued this coat or his self-control would have been easily lost and the coat would have been lying on the floor, covered by a pile of snow, a long time ago. This coat was a gift from someone whose importance is extreme to him, so there was no way he would lose it to his annoying habit of stripping whenever he could.
When the ice mage reached his friend's house, he stood there not knowing what to do. He had a really bad feeling about this and the darkness that was roaming from the tiny house and its surroundings did not help one bit to make his anxiousness fly away. The lights were out and that alone was weird. Natsu hated the dark –a fact Gray discovered in the past two years as he got along better with the fire mage- and so, there was no way he would leave his house unlit for no reason.
Taking a step forward, the ice mage knocked on the door a couple of times but no answers came. He tried turning the door knob and found out it was open. He cursed the younger boy's careless nature and let himself in without any warning.
As soon as he stepped in, his gut feeling started to resurface again. The house was as cold as hell! It did not bother him, but knowing how the house's owner despises the cold, he thought of it as being very weird. He ventured further inside the house that was situated at the outskirts of town and started looking for the pink headed boy.
The living room and kitchen were void of the dragon slayer which led Gray to open the closed doors of the guest rooms (there are three of them) and master bedrooms. He even checked the bathroom but to no avail- he was unable to find a single trace of Natsu in the house.
Deciding that it was no use to look for him in the house anymore, Gray left but not before making sure that the front door was properly locked. Not willing to give up his search, he headed up the hill that was behind the house knowing that if the fire mage was not at home then he would go to his second favorite place. He could not blame him since the hill allowed them to stare at the gorgeous sight of Magnolia city at night-the sight was incredible during normal days, imagine how it would be during the night of Christmas, it must be the most exquisite view of them all!
Gray was very pleased when he saw a tuff of pink when he arrived at the top. He ran through the few miles that separated him from the other boy-eager to drag him back to the guild. He was, actually, pretty ecstatic to see the pink head even if he did not tend to show it in front of the others. When he reached the other's side, he expected him to at least say something but no, nothing of that sort happened, not even a slight turn of his head to acknowledge the ice mage's presence, nothing happened. Natsu was sitting still, leaning on a tree that was planted there and he did not even flinch when Gray tapped his shoulder which freaked Gray out.
Taking another step to stand in front of the fire mage, the raven head almost jumped up when he saw green, emerald orbs being revealed behind opening eye-lids that were adorned by thick, long and pink eye lashes. Gray always got entranced by the beauty of such eyes. The way the color was presented and the presence of some golden dots trying to make themselves clear in the sea of emerald green. Although it was pretty, the thing he loved the most of these eyes would be how it shimmered under any kind of light. His favorite would be the moonlight and that is exactly what he is seeing right now. His amusing thoughts were interrupted when the younger of the two spoke in a voice indicating the state of slumber he was in a few seconds ago, "Gray?"
Natsu positioned himself in a more comfortable position than the slumped one he had, "What're you doing here?"
The ice mage feeling awkward to be standing alone and towering the other boy sat down beside Natsu as he replied, "You were missing from the party and the team got worried so I came looking for you but you weren't home and kind of guessed you'd be here, so here I am."
Natsu stared at his interlocutor for a few seconds before laying his head on top of the raven head's shoulder and hummed, "Didn't feel like going and I'm tired from yesterday, that mission took a lot from me..."
Gray wrapped an arm around the fire mage's waist and said in an equally quiet voice, "Yeah...Lucy told me about it," he tightened his hold on Natsu as he added, "So? Are you feeling alright? You're not hiding any injuries from us are you?"
"I'm fine Gra-," he was interrupted by said boy as he pronounced his name with a firm tone, "Natsu"
Said boy huffed, "Fine, I fractured my left ankle and got some really minor bruises all over my body but it's nothing to worry about, I promise."
"Did you, at least, go see a doctor for your ankle?"
"I knew you'd be worried if I didn't so yes I did."
"If you didn't want me to worry you should've gone and seen Wendy in the first place, not hiding your injury from us!"
"Yes, yes, did you come here only to nag me about this? You shouldn't have bothered coming ice princess."
"No you flame-headed idiot, I came here to drag you to the guild, you weren't there the whole day! Why?"
Gray adjusted their positions by lifting the dragon slayer on his lap and squeezing him in a hug, "And don't lie about it, I can see that you were crying by the redness of your eyes..."
Natsu sighed, "What a bummer, I thought I'd be able to hide it better..."
The ice mage chuckled at that, "Not when the tears were flowing out on your cute sleeping face."
"I'm not cute you ice bastard!"
"Sure keep on convincing yourself of that, now then, why were you crying?"
"It was nothing..."
"Natsu."
Natsu huffed and put all his weight on the chest he was laying on, "Nightmare...I had a nightmare, that's all."
"What was it about?"
The fire mage's eyebrows scrunched together and his eyes were lightly squinting while his lips trembled immensely as his body started shivering from remembering what he was dreaming about, "I-I...I saw Igneel, there was a huge gaping hole on his chest and a lot of blood was coming out of it, I couldn't do anything to stop him from going after Acnologia alone," he sniffed before adding, "It was all my fault, if I've been stronger I would have killed that stupid dragon from our first meeting but because I was w-weak I-I...H-He, Igneel diiiied," he was unable to hold back his sob when he reached the end of his sentence.
Gray's hold on the younger boy got even tighter and he tried doing some soothing movements with his hand on Natsu's back. If the pink head cried in front of him two years ago, he would stand there astonished not knowing what to do, but since he has got the chance to ask the teenager out, Gray discovered many faces of the fire mage that he hid from the others and one of them is his crying face (to which he was glad he never showed it to anyone else since it was too cute to see).
After calming down a bit, Natsu lifted his head from its hiding spot which was the other's chest and green eyes met blue ones, "Sorry about this, I didn't mean to be such a bother on such a night."
"It's okay," the ice mage pecked the dragon slayer's forehead, "It makes me happy to know that you love me enough to let your guard down around me and shed some tears."
This caused the fire mage's face to heat up from the blush that adorned it, his mouth was opened but no words came out of it. Giving up, he closed it and a pout formed on his lips as he huffed while averting the blue eyes that were staring at him with clear amusement.
Gray chuckled and stood up while holding the fire mage princess style causing said mage to struggle in his arms-refusing to be held this way all the way back home. It was no use thought, for the ice mage's hold was as tight as it could be. Resining to his fate, Natsu slumped against his boyfriend and leaned his head on the other's chest causing Gray's mouth to turn up into a warm smile.
At home, Natsu settled in front of the now burning chimney as he was covered with a very warm blanket. He was so enthralled by the dancing flames and their colors that he did not feel or smell when Gray came to sit next to him. Amused by that, said boy settled the cup of cocoa he just prepared in between the fire mage's hands, thus, startling the poor mage who was not expecting that. He smiled lightly at the ice mage before taking a sip from the hot cup and humming to show how soothing the warmth was to his body. He held the cup on his lap as he resumed his earlier task of watching the burning flames dance freely without any care in the world.
"Say Gray, will you leave me too at the end?"
This startled the poor ice mage who was waiting for his drink to cool down for he was not accustomed to such hot drinks yet, "What do you mean?"
"Would you abandon me too? Would you leave and never come back? Or would you d-," the pink headed boy' rambling was stopped by a cold pair of lips he knew too well. Gray started kissing his boyfriend wholeheartedly and stopped only when the need for air became a necessity. Somewhere during their make-out session, Natsu found himself lying on the floor and being straddled by the raven head who stared at him with an emotionless face.
"Natsu, listen to me, and listen to me well," he took a deep breath before continuing, " There is no way I would ever leave you alone, I am too captivated by you to abandon you and I care about you too much to let you go. The thought alone never even crossed my mind! I love you, I love you, and I love you! I'll keep repeating it as many times as you want me to and if it reassures you then I'll do anything you want if it means that I'll prove to you that I'll never let you go!"
Natsu was not in the state of mind to answer to Gray's plea. He was overwhelmed by such revelations from the one he loves. He laid there quiet, his arms wrapped tightly around the ice mage's neck in a hug, hoping to comfort himself. His cheeks got stained with the endless stream of tears from his unusually gleaming eyes as his body wracked from the emotions he was feeling at that moment. Smiling lightly, the ice mage hugged back as he pulled the crying boy into his lap, throwing some wanton words here and there in a trial to calm the fire mage down (which worked at some point).
The boys were, now, cuddling next to each other on Natsu's bed. The fire mage calmed down a while ago and was dragged by the older boy to the master bedroom so they could rest a bit before the morning came. It was late after midnight after all. Now that they were settled and were in no condition willing to move from their sanctuary, Gray remembered the reason he was looking forward to his lover the whole day. He got up from his position and lumbered towards the coat Natsu gifted him on his birthday and took out a small box from its pocket.
When he walked back to bed, he gave it to the curious dragon slayer who took it without uttering a single word. Natsu stared at the box wrapped with red wrapping paper and decorated with a golden ribbon. He then directed his gaze towards the ice mage who, in turn, waved his hand in front of him as if to indicate to the other to hurry up and open his present. Taking note of such gesture, the fire dragon slayer went and shuffled around in his night table's drawers to get out a similarly tiny box but adorned with blue wrapping paper and a silver ribbon instead. He handed it out to the raven head and grinned his signature smile, making his lover raise an eyebrow in amusement.
Impatient as he is, Gray decided to go first and open his present. When he did he could not believe his eyes. In front of him a set of earrings were placed inside the box. They were made out of silver-one had a sapphire crystal decorating it while the other held a ruby. They were so simple yet Gray could read the meaning behind them. He held the box closer, astonished by such a gift, he turned his head towards Natsu and smiled so big, he felt the muscles killing him.
"Thank you so so so so so so so so so much! This is the best present ever!" he leaned in front of the fire mage and pecked his lips lightly but lovingly.
"I didn't know what to buy so I thought maybe I can gift you with something that has a meaning...you know...wearing matching earrings and all that...," said Natsu as the raven head leaned in for another kiss.
"This is an amazing gift Natsu," he grinned at him and held the box in front of their faces, "We'll go tomorrow to get our ears pierced! Maybe I can wear the ruby one while you wear the other! Like that we'll show to the world that we belong to each other!"
The fire dragon slayer chuckled and that and merely nodded as an answer. He then took his present and started un-wrapping it causing the ice mage to stare at him in anticipation for his reaction at the gift.
"Rings?" was the only thing Natsu said when he saw the content of the box.
"Yup! Rings! What do you think it means?" asked Gray as he rocked back and forth.
The fire mage stared at him curiously, not knowing what to reply, "I don't know...I mean I'm not really great with this guessing stuff so you tell me."
"Ok so here's a hint," he lifted a finger in the air, "there are two of them."
"Yeah I got that part, I put one and the other is a matching set that you'll be wearing just like the earrings."
"Bingo! Now hint number two, when does a man present a ring as a gift to, let's say, the woman they love?"
"Uh...Before I answer that, one thing I'd like to know here...Are you insinuating that I'm a woman?" Natsu's eyebrow was raised in a questioning manner.
Gray waved off the question and said, "That doesn't matter right now, it defeats the purpose, so tell me when a man gives a ring as a gift?"
"I don't know! You tell me! Their birthday? A holiday? A celebration? A wed-," he stopped before uttering the last word, realizing what he was about to say he incredulously stared at the ice mage as he gasped and his eyes widened.
Gray's grin grew even more and he placed himself in front of his lover as he said, after clearing his throat, "Natsu Dragneel, would you marry me?" He did not have the time to even blink when a massive body was thrown at him and made him fall on his back. The words he heard next are what made his face light up even more than it already was.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" Natsu kept repeating the same word for the next few minutes until he was sure he was not going to be able to control the shakiness out of his voice anymore. Gray felt a suspicious wetness on his shirt on the spot the fire mage's eyes were placed and he chuckled while warmly embracing the younger boy into a tight and loving hug.
After a while, both boys calmed down from the rush of adrenaline caused by the excitement they felt. They went back to cuddling in bed but with more of a happy vibe than before.
Gray stared down at his, now, fiancé and asked, "So? When do you want to tell the guild about us?"
Natsu closed the space between them by resting his forehead on the raven head's chest, "To be honest, I feel like screaming it to the world but then I would be killed since it's around three in the morning so I'm willing to wait until tomorrow when we go to the guild."
"Sounds like a plan," Gray's voice was induced with sleep-it was really late at night after all.
"Yeah," said Natsu as his eyes started to close and lead him to lala-land.
Before joining the other in dream land, Gray tightened his hold on his future husband and whispered, "Natsu?"
Said boy hummed as he relaxed in the arms of the ice mage.
"Merry Christmas," Gray pecked the pink head's forehead and settled back to sleep. As for Natsu, he had a warm smile plastered on his face as he simply replied in a whisper, "You too, Merry Christmas." With that, both boys fell into a deep slumber, not realizing the glimmering dust of magic that flew out of the house, loosing itself in the wind so that it can use its magic somewhere else during this phenomenal night. Yes that is right-this is what is known as the magical night of Christmas. A night full of wonders and awe, a night so intoxicating and incredible, a night where magic plays its role by engulfing the people in so much happiness and love. It is a night where every couple and child in Magnolia gets something so special, but that is a story for next time.
So here you go folks ;)
hope you enjoyed and that you weren't disappointed!
Merry Christmas again ;)