Disclaimer: I own nothing and this is definitely not for profit but for personal enjoyment and for the enjoyment of the readers.

A/N: This particular chapter is still a work in progress, but I really wanted to get it out in time for Christmas. Each year I may add more or just refine it further. I am sorry that this version is not up to my normal standards, but I have been incredibly occupied lately sorting out paperwork issues and dealing with incredibly irritating computer generated voices over the phone. I ask that you try to ignore the glaring badness of this installment and try to keep the spirit of Christmas in mind. That said, please give me all the things wrong with this that you can find so that I can fix this up that much faster and that much more effectively. Also, things are not how they may at first appear, just to warn you. Merry Christmas.

A True Blessing

It was just another 'day' at the End of Time. The small remaining patch of land with it's few doors and eternally black surroundings was the same as ever...save the massive pine tree planted in the only patch of dirt visible in the place. There was a large plain looking bed with bright white sheets and a grey comforter on it and two pillows resting at the head. Sitting on the bed, dressed in elaborate looking black robes with a white sash, was Zeref. Standing a few feet away in a skimpy 'Mrs. Claus' costume was a fully adult Mavis Vermillion glaring at him with her hands on her hips. On her left wrist was a red ribbon.

"Mavis, for the last me: Santa Claus doesn't exist. I've checked. The man does not appear at any point in time. Ever," Zeref patiently stated. They'd been quietly arguing over the matter of Santa's existence for quite a while now, but despite her husband looking and finding no evidence to support the existence of the jolly old man in red the woman refused to admit defeat.

"Did you check to make sure that there were no mysteriously existing presents under the trees?" the blonde asked with a smirk. Zeref frowned at that point, noting the mischievous glint in his wife's green eyes.

"You know I have to actually go one by one if I search like that. Besides, if this miracle man exists, how can I have no memories of ever encountering him?" Zeref countered to cover up for the small sense of growing paranoia that his beloved was somehow, as usual, actually right.

"Admittedly, you of all people would have memories of him...but you'd never heard of Christmas until I asked you for the pine tree. Which is baffling, if you think about it," Mavis idly commented, adjusting the Santa hat perched atop her head. "Wait, how did this conversation even start?"

"You sauntered in here in your not-that-much-taller adult form rather than your normal cute childlike form in that skimpy Mrs. Santa suit with a bow on your wrist and said that you were my Christmas gift this year. But that's beside the point, Santa doesn't exist," the Black Mage countered, brushing aside the somewhat odd start to their argument.

"Right, right, and you were being really silly and adorably confused..." Mavis trailed off, looking at her husband strangely. "You do realize that we don't actually exist, technically speaking. There's no record of us ever being real except a book with a really crappy first few chapters."

"It's different-"

"How?" Mavis pressed, sitting down next to her husband on their bed. Zeref had no answer and just frowned and growled in frustration. It was a difficult thing to explain how he saw things now to his beloved, how he was looking in all directions at once, what that meant...in short it put a strain on things sometimes when Mavis started to steer their conversations towards the laws of reality.

"Look, I'll write him a letter and set it adrift in space. If what I write him for is here under that tree tomorrow, you win. If it isn't, I win. Deal?" Zeref finally said, holding out a hand for her to shake. Mavis just smirked and pecked him on the lips.

"Hurry up. I still want to give you your present." Rolling his eyes at the impish smile his wife was wearing, despite his own small happy grin, Zeref conjured up a pen and a piece of paper with a lazy wave of his hand, the pen writing out the message quickly before the paper folded up into an airplane and vanished.

"So, cuddles?" he asked, turning to his wife with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile. He got tackle-hugged in response.

"Yep. Cuddle time!" Mavis chirped. Her husband just wrapped his arms around her and sighed contently. "And I'll explain the meaning of Christmas to you too!"

"The meaning of Christmas? I thought you said it was just a holiday where you exchange gifts?" the Black Mage mumbled, confused but not willing to make too much fuss at the moment.

"You need to listen more when I talk honey. It's a day originally celebrated to honor a religion's savior. But it became something more than that due to commercialism and spread rapidly through the multiverse for reasons unknown, even to places that had no version of the religion that originated it. That is part of why I believe Santa is real," Mavis answered, leaning her head into the hand now running through her hair.

"I can't be certain, but I'd blame Gilgamesh for that just to be safe. The goofy one, that is. Or perhaps that Zeltretch guy. He would think it funny," Zeref murmured, not fully paying attention to the conversation anymore as he started to drift off.

"Nowadays it's more about the act of giving to those you care for and to those in need. It's all about selflessness and the bright smiles that a gift brings to those you give them too!" Mavis loudly cheered before realizing that Zeref's breathing had evened out. The Fairy Tail founder smiled up at her husband, having found his eyes shut and a gentle smile on his face. Settling in with her head resting on Zeref's chest, Mavis dozed off to the sound of her husband's strong heartbeat.

It was the next 'day' that they woke to find the massive plain pine tree standing in the sole patch of dirt amongst the End of Time's cobblestones decorated and lit with multicolored lights. A pile of colorfully wrapped presents was stacked beneath the tree and all around the edge of the cobblestone platform the fence was decorated with garland. Not the villain, mind you, but the green plant-like decoration. The doors had wreaths on them. There was even a freestanding wooden archway hanging some mistletoe over the bed.

Mavis promptly kissed her husband and pulled him in close for a hug. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"I...I didn't do this?" Zeref mumbled/asked, confused and looking like someone had kicked a puppy he'd made with his Living Magic.

"Wait, if you didn't...this is proof!" Mavis declared, sitting up on the bed and pointing towards the 'sky', if you can call the eternal darkness of nonexistence that.

"Of what?" Zeref actually asked this time, getting up of the bed and tentatively poking the archway to see if it was real. Mavis just grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, grabbing his face with her hands and smiling with sparkling eyes.

"Santa's real! He got your letter and brought us our very own Christmas!" she squealed before giving her husband another peck on the lips. "C'mon, let's go open something. You go first, this is your first Christmas after all. Ooooh, I'm so excited!" Mavis danced away from her bemused spouse, ecstatic about the miracle that had occurred 'overnight'. Zeref just sighed and decided to accept this as a divine prank, perhaps even the doing of his father, and followed his beloved fairy girl.

"What do I open first then?" he asked with a small, loving smile on his face. Mavis plopped a heavy feeling object that felt like a really big book in his arms, wrapped up in Fairy Tail style wrapping paper. Written in large, broad strokes were the words 'This First'. "Okay then..." Zeref carefully found the tape holding it all together and used his nails to cut each piece so that Mavis wouldn't get on his case about tearing up wrapping paper bearing the emblem of her guild. He finally got it open while Mavis was browsing the presents on the other side, picking out what she wanted to open first and second and third...the silence, and moreover the lack of an audible reaction from Zeref about what the present was, drew her attention. She found him staring at a leather-bound photo album, crying silently.

"Zeref? Honey?" Mavis rushed over to him to see what it was that caused him to shed such tears.

"All I asked for in the letter was a picture of our wedding...and that damnable fat man sends the whole freaking album. This thing shouldn't even exist. I looked for so long for it whenever you were asleep but I couldn't find it. I thought...if he really did exist, he'd be the one to find even one picture..." Zeref whispered out. Reverantly, he opened it. The first page had a big picture of Mavis in a simple white wedding gown, nothing fancy, with a veil over her brightly smiling face.

It was the kind of super-happy smile that made total strangers feel happy for the person smiling just by seeing it. Standing to her left was a black haired young man wearing a simple black suit with a bowtie and a gentle, small smile aimed at the beautiful woman he was clearly marrying. The picture seemed to be from the point of view of the officiator and in the background seemed to be a beach left untouched, more or less, by mankind.

Mavis just hugged him, smiling just as brightly as she was in the picture. No more words were said and it was several hours before they stopped going through the album and a few more weeks before they even remembered there were more gifts to go through.

It was the best first Christmas Zeref could have had.

As previously mentioned, let the list of mistakes rain down upon me in your reviews. And once again, Merry Christmas.