Chapter 1: Faces for Christmas
The first kiss was simple. It was almost as if it didn't happen at all. The only evidence that it was in fact true, and not made up by Lucy's wonderful imagination—because she knows just how wild her imagination can be, was seeing his flushed cheeks and boyish smirk. Her finger gingerly touched her lips as if feeling them made sure that they belonged to her. Dumfounded and embarrassed at first, she quickly recovered from her initial shock. She was about to scold him for his sudden and chaste kiss, until she realized the whole guild was cheering. Suddenly she remembered everything up until that moment.
Oh right, mistletoe. Her eyes looked up to see that cursed item that Mirajane hung over her specific seat at the bar. It was as if she knew and planned it from the beginning. But it wasn't hard to know that if anyone wanted to find her, there was a good chance she'd be sitting at her bar stool. Also, it wasn't hard to know that a certain pink haired mage would always be looking for her.
Well damn her for making herself so predictable and easy. Next time she'll be more wary of Mirajane's subtle and devilish charm. But right now, she just wanted to hide under a rock. Her ears picked up the noise of catcalls and whistles that they were even scarlet red from embarrassment. Why had everyone noticed anyway, they were clearly having a Christmas party before this happened. It wasn't like Natsu announced he was going to kiss her or that anyone pointed it out that she was under the mistletoe. So how on Earthland did everyone witness their first kiss?
"So everyone who said it'd be Gray owes me 100 jewels! AND FOR EVERYONE WHO SAID IT WOULDN'T BE NATSU OWES ME DOUBLE!" Cana practically roared over everyone's voices. People were handing her bills and she was now in her own little heaven of booze and money. Lucy was even more shocked to see Wendy give Cana her money.
"Unbelievable," She muttered to herself. "To think these are my nakama..."
Lucy face planted the bar counter. They had rigged it from the beginning and placed bets on who was going to kiss her. Obviously they eyed her until something would happen. Obviously.
"Oh Lucy, it's just light fun." Mirajane cooed.
"You guys are making money off of my kiss... I feel sort of prostitute-ish..." She raised her head from the counter. "Shouldn't I get a cut from the loot?" She let her head rest on her arm.
Mirajane giggled. "Well Natsu seems like he's getting some money from Cana."
Lucy's head snapped in the direction of Cana's voice and saw that her pink haired partner was smiling as she handed him a wad of cash. Betrayal, traitor, sell-out, liar, cheater, bastard, she kept finding new words to describe him in her mind.
After cursing and killing him in her mind, she decided she would just go home and rest. Enough of him today, she convinced herself, although she said that all the time and yet she'd end up spending the following 24 hours with him. She got up from her seat and headed for the door.
"Merry Christmas Lucy!" Mirajane waved.
"Merry Christmas Mira-san." Lucy waved off before pushing the door open.
The cold breeze hit her face as if she had been punched by Gray's magic. She grabbed her hood and pulled it down to try to minimize the amount of skin exposed to the cold. It wasn't snowing but the wind had surely made it feel like they were back up on the mountains. She kept her head facing down as she occasionally looked up to make sure she was going the right way. Once she got home, she realized that it was really warm. Although outside was well below zero degrees, she didn't expect her place to be warm because she had put out the fireplace before heading to the guild earlier that day. When she entered her living room, the fireplace had been started and a cup of hot chocolate was waiting for her on the coffee table.
Lucy froze. She was clearly not alone. Her hand reached for her keys and held them tight. But what crazy stranger made her hot chocolate and what sane person wouldn't think this suspicious. She eyed around the room and there was no one in sight.
"Hello?" She said. Then she automatically face palmed herself. She owns this apartment, why does she sound like she's intruding.
Her feet lead her to the bathroom and kitchen, still not a soul in sight. Since she felt a little safer with her keys nearby, she took off her coat and changed into her pajamas. Her nose sniffed the hot chocolate and it didn't smell off, if anything it smelled delicious. She took a sip and a smile grew on her face. Whoever made this; made it exactly the way she liked it.
After experiencing that traumatic event of a kiss, she decided to retire to her bed. She hopped on her bed without even lifting her comforter and instead of hitting her soft and warm bed, she felt like she had been dropped on a rock.
"OW What the hell?!" She removed the blanket to find her a dragon slayer.
The shrill of her scream went octaves higher than her normal voice.
He quickly put his hand over her mouth and eyed her like she was crazy. As if she was the crazy one. It was only normal for her to scream when she's surprised. After her screaming died down, Natsu removed his hand from her mouth.
"You I-D-I-O-T! I said 'HELLO'. The bare minimum you had to do was grunt or even breathe a wee bit louder than usual then I WOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WERE HERE!" Her hands flung up in the air.
A smile graced his lips as he looked at her. She stared at him as if she finally saw him for the idiot he truly was. Or maybe his ears went deaf from all her yelling and he was enjoying her making funny faces—because he enjoyed it way too much.
"SAY SOMETHING?!" She whacked him on the head with her palm. "First you kiss me. Then you make money off of that kiss. Now you show up in my home, IN MY BED AND SMILE LIKE AN IDIOT?!"
If Lucy could pull out her hair she would, if she had the guarantee that it wouldn't leave her bald. But that was an off chance so she settled for hitting him.
Finally after thirty seconds of non-stop jabs to his arms, he stopped her. He held her tiny wrists back and she blushed ferociously. His gaze wasn't the dumbfounded one as before, it had turned into a more serious one like he was studying her every feature.
"I just like seeing you're funny faces." He burst out laughing. "If only Happy could have seen this too!" His boyish grin returned.
She was literally fighting for her freedom as he pinned her hands down. He stared at her again.
"I'm sorry for kissing you." He let go of her hands as she settled down.
Lucy felt a little pinch at her heart once he said those words. Even though she was mad at him, she didn't regret the kiss but it hurt knowing that he did.
"Look, here." He dropped the cash he got from Cana on her lap. "We don't have to go on a job to pay for your rent this month." He scratched the back of his head. "You said you wanted a break from work, so I thought that this was the best gift I could give you. It was easy and we can enjoy the rest of the holidays without worrying about your rent."
Lucy blushed again and this time her smile was tugging at her lips. In his own way, he was idiotically sweet. She was gushing at the thought of him doing all this for her.
"Uh Lucy, you're doing another weird face but it's not as entertain—"Lucy cut off his words by wrapping her arms around his neck. She was suffocating him and she didn't really care. But she loosened her choke hold a bit after hearing him gasp for air.
"Thanks Natsu. Merry Christmas." She continued hugging him. She had to enjoy this moment while it last because if she knew anything about him, he could ruin it just as fast.
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a tight squeeze. His breath tickled her ear as he continued to breathe in her scent.
"Merry Christmas Lucy."
A/N: Wow, it's been a while but I've been busy ): and I'm trying to write up other chapters for my other stories but I can't... guh writers block I guess... I swear I've re-written the chapters and I'm still not liking them yet... But anyway this is for the holidays. Only a week late ... more than a week s'ok. I wanted to do a holiday-focused one. Hope you all enjoy (:
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New years!