The room gradually got colder as the night carried on. Laxus watched the time go by in a mild disgust. No one thankfully bothered him for the remainder of Christmas eve. He stared at the clock as the hours paced by. He was getting better and better at being able to space out for a few hour. His detachment to this day made time go by faster than he could have wished for. When 1:45 rolled by, Laxus decided he would get up and be punctual for his absurdly early arrival time. He put on his coat and decided to walk to the guild, even if hell had frozen over the entire region. He could use the exercise anyway.

The lights struggle up in the town sparkled as Laxus walked by, but he despised them. A part of him wanted to run through the electrical grid and blow out all this nonsense. Another part knew that if he did that, he'd be ruining someone else's holiday. Sure, there was a pleasure in making someone's life as miserable as his, but it wasn't something to be proud of. He knew it wasn't right to shit on anybody's happiness, but the desire to do so still existed.

The middle-aged man slid around on the empty sidewalks. More sleet rained down, making an even thicker layer of ice on the pavement. Laxus never really minded this weather, but it was still nasty to walk in. The closer he got to the guild, the more he appreciated his timing. There wasn't any loud commotion echoing from the guild's direction. At the entrance to fairy Tail, he noticed the huge front doors were wide open, letting in the cold air. With each step, Laxus could better make out that no one was inside. No one was strung along a banister. No broken tables. It was just barren of life. The lights still shimmered, but no one seemed to be home.

"Oh!" A young woman said in surprise. Laxus looked around again and saw Mira with cleaning supplies in her hands. An apron covered her layered, Santa theme dress. "Bixlow mentioned that you might show up, but I assumed he meant in the afternoon, not early morning…"
Laxus didn't move or change his expression. He just looked around for other people.
Mirajane went on, knowing that he would just stay silent. "Freed and Bixlow are in the bathroom with Wendy, because someone gave her too much alcohol. For once, it actually wasn't Cana!" The young lady joked. Still no smile from the man she was talking to. "There's vomit here and there, so be careful where you step… If you're here to congratulate her, Cana is most likely at the bar. Wendy had an accident on her front, but she doesn't smell anymore." The young woman shook her head and started walking to the men's bathroom. "Can't say the same for Wendy!"

The absence of passed out bodies was a bit bewildering to Laxus. The woman he was looking for wasn't by the liquor.
"Hey!" An excited voice called out. Cana was by the guild's Christmas tree, dropping off a few gifts at its stump. She was wearing a holly patterned tank top with black pants. She had a cheap red velvet coat with a white synthetic trim tied around her hips. She ran over to him, skipping over a few puddles of… something. Whatever it was, Laxus could only imagine it being blood, a spill, or the contents of someone's stomach.
"I thought Bixlow was joking when he said you might show up," Cana admitted. She had a radiant smile, but something about her seemed exhausted. "Well, Gajeel was your secret Santa, but he came in kind of drunk with a stray cat." Cana paused. "We told him to skip it, but for some reason, he thinks you need a cat. I named it Oscar. He's around the tree, but I don't think he can see where he's going…" Cana pondered if someone told Laxus about Oscar, or if he was present for a different reason.

He cleared his throat. "Congrats on your promotion. I thought they'd announce it sooner than they did."

"Thanks. I got the gift… Do you want to sit down for a little bit? We have a ton on pie left." The young woman offered. She still didn't understand exactly why Laxus showed up. If it wasn't the cat, food seemed like a reasonable explanation.

The man stood uncomfortably, confused about what was going on. "Where the hell is everybody?"

Cana chuckled threw her arms up. "Making babies! I have never seen a year without so many people. Except for Freed, Bixlow and Wendy. That'd be kind of messed up."

"Making… Oh!... Everyone left early to screw?"

"To some extent, yeah. It's the first Christmas with someone special for a lot of couples. Elfman and Evergreen didn't even leave. They're in the library. I think Max is in the kitchen with the broom." The young woman focused on seeing if she could still hear anybody.

"What about your dads? Where are those three at?" Laxus asked, not wanting to know what dirty works Ever was up to.

Cana sat down at the nearest bench and massaged the back of her neck. "Wakaba wanted to spend time with his actual daughter and Moaco took Romeo to something festive. Gildarts hasn't shown up… I was kind of hoping he would be done that job by now, but maybe he'll show up tomorrow."

Laxus sat on the opposite side the table. He could tell that Cana was distressed. He didn't want to talk to her, but he didn't have anything better to do. "Did anyone send him a message about your promotion?"

"Yeah, but I don't know if he cares. He already told me before that I'm S-class to him, so…" Cana sighed in frustration. "I don't know…. I worked for so long to prove something that he didn't care about. I told you about all that mess years ago."

Laxus nodded. "I'm sorry about that one year."

"Ahh… It's fine. You were more determined than I was."

Laxus ran his fingers through his fluffy golden hair. "Everyone was expecting me to win. I… My dad had left and I thought it was my fault because I was 'never strong enough. I can't even remember why I wanted him to stay…"

"Everyone has daddy issues. This is kind of a shitty Christmas anyway. You're not missing much…" Cana got back up and waved Laxus to follower her. She went over to the bar, reached down and popped open a new bottle of whiskey. "Do you want a drink? I can get you a glass and ice from outside."

Laxus got back up and faintly grinned. "You haven't had enough?"

Cana stared out into an empty space before responding to him. "I have this heavy feeling on my chest and this bitch isn't hopping off my bust, so yeah. I haven't had enough yet." The smile had slowly faded away and there was an indescribable tiredness in her empty eyes.

Laxus watched her as she started miserably taking drinks straight from the 40oz bottle. With the vomit and empty hall, it was no longer hard to imagine that someone could be having an awful Christmas too. That someone was standing in front of him, downing booze like she was trying to kill herself before sunrise.