Dear Readers,
Day 4 - can't believe we are halfway through the week already. I have to say… I'm more excited about day 5 than anything, but I'm proud of all my submissions this week and I hope you like them.
FYI - Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, Desna owns the Pradesh and Boscan universe, and my beta is GoddessxNyte2, and she is awesome.
Enjoy!
Day 4: Sweater
It was Christmas in Fiore, and for the first time Lucy was going to spend it with her boyfriend of five years. Every year before that, he'd been a wanted man, and he and the rest of his guild had continued hunting dark guilds throughout the holidays like everything was business as usual.
He'd even refused to allow her to send him a gift for the holiday, despite that he always found a way to send her one - much to the blonde's chagrin. She'd have ignored his wishes and sent him one regardless, because fuck him and his double standards, but she never knew where he was going to be, so it was fairly impossible.
This year, though, would be different. Erik and the rest of his guild had been officially pardoned, and for the first time since she was a kid with two living parents, she was going to spend a quiet holiday with those she considered close family: Erik, and her spirits.
Erik and Lucy had gotten each other gifts, but since Lucy had sixteen Spirits, they'd decided to just do a secret santa gift exchange instead of having everyone get everyone else a gift. Lucy had gotten Pyxis in the draw, and was unbelievably excited to see his reaction when she gave him a small, golden compass engraved with the Fairy Tail symbol. He'd always wanted to get a guild stamp, but every time she'd summoned him at the guild, he'd gotten too shy to accept the mark from Gramps and hid behind her legs. She figured this was a nice compromise for the cute little spirit.
She was also unbelievably excited for Erik to open his gifts from her. She'd gotten him five things, to make up for lost time, and if he threw a fit about it she was probably going to castrate him.
Unable to contain herself any longer, Lucy decided to wake up her favorite grouchy dragon slayer and begin the festivities. She rolled over and kissed Erik on his bare, scarred chest.
He made no move to wake, so she did it again. No response.
Smirking, she decided to give him his first present before anything else.
"Erik…" she called softly, and kissed up his neck. He did respond this time, but only to groan and mumble about more sleep.
Giggling, Lucy straddled his lap under the covers. Immediately, she saw (and felt) him becoming more excited as his hands moved to grip her hips and he cracked open one violet eye.
Leaning down, she put her lips right next to his ear and spoke in her most sultry voice, "Good morning, sugarplum…"
He groaned, "Bright Eyes, you do this to me first thing in the fucking morning, then you're going to have to put out. I'm sorry, but it's a requirement," he told her in his husky morning voice, grinding his hips into her own and tightening his grip.
"Kind of the point, my dearest dragon," Lucy giggled softly as she leaned forward and snatched something off the bedpost. She pulled her shirt off with little fuss, and proceeded to pull a santa hat onto her tousled blonde locks, "Now, why don't you open your first present, hmmm?"
"Fuck, that's hot," Erik mumbled to himself, before flipping their positions and covering her lips with his own.
A few hours later, when the sun had finally risen over Magnolia, the two mages made their way into the kitchen in their pajamas. Erik, in the same one's he'd worn to bed except he'd thrown on a ratty T-shirt, as they expected her spirits to all show up at any moment and he still didn't like the idea of anyone but Lucy seeing his scars. Lucy had been forced to pick out a whole new pajama set, as Erik had taken the 'open your present' thing a little too seriously, and had literally ripped her fuzzy pants to shreds.
"I still can't believe that Stache Face agreed to open up everyone's gates so they could enjoy the holiday with us," Lucy mused as she got to work on breakfast and Erik focused on what was important: coffee.
"I don't know why you're surprised, Tink. You've literally got every fucking being in the universe wrapped around your sadistic little finger."
Lucy decided not to dignify the comment with a response, but luckily she didn't have to. Loke popped up half a second later, dressed in a ridiculous pink pajama outfit, to defend her.
"He's got a point, Princess," Loke nodded seriously.
"What the hell? I do not. And I'm not sadistic, you perverted lion!" she almost kicked him, but stopped herself at the last second, realizing that it might further their argument.
Hm. Maybe they had a point.
The next to arrive was Aries, and she immediately apologized for arriving without being summoned, despite the fact that she was invited, and also despite the fact that Stache Face had practically shoved her through her gate after he opened it, and ordered her not to return until she'd participated in the gift exchange.
Lucy laughed, piling up more pancakes, and greeted the spirit with a happy, "Merry Christmas!"
Next was Saggitarius, and he didn't great them at all, opting instead to stand near Erik and copy his exhausted stare-down with the coffee pot as if adding his eyes would make it finish the pot faster.
Lucy wasn't exactly a morning person, typically, so she'd never had the occasion to see her spirits this early in the morning (except Capricorn, who occasionally popped in of his own accord to interrupt her when she slept in, claiming she needed to adopt a more regular sleep schedule). Saggitarius' reaction was a little hilarious to her.
Next to arrive was Scorpio, with Aquarius tucked under his arm, who's key had been reacquired two years ago. She greeted with some sort of half-hearted scathing remark that Erik had grumbled at her for, and Scorpio just directed them to sit near the Christmas tree.
Taurus and Virgo arrived next, and together, carrying various side dishes for what was turning into a very large breakfast.
Capricorn arrived with Plue sitting primly (but trembling) on his shoulder, followed shortly after by Cancer, who held Gemi in one arm and Mini in the other, instead of his customary scissors, "Smells good, baby!", he shouted over the quiet conversations in the kitchen.
Lyra showed up a few minutes later, singing to herself and clutching Caelum to herself as if the metallic spirit was a teddy bear. She didn't say anything to anyone, but continued singing lightly to herself with the universe's brightest smile as she danced around the apartment.
It was at this point that Erik realized what kind of batshit crazy nonsense he'd gotten himself into. He poured Saggitarius a cup of the newly finished coffee, then one for himself, and they both stood off to the corner and clinked glasses as they watched the rest of the craziness around them.
Erik found it strange that the most normal-seeming spirit in Lucy's family walked around day in and day out in a horse suit.
Figuring it was better for his sanity, he decided not to question it.
Pyxis, Horologium, and Crux all arrived together. Crux sleeping inside Horologium while Pyxis had the clock spirit by the hand and was trying to turn him so his minute hands pointed due north, while all the time looking incredibly confused as to why the little hands weren't adjusting to the direction they were facing.
It wasn't a bright spirit, honestly, and was very child-like, but Erik still couldn't help but wonder how the little guy had gone several millennia without figuring out the difference between a compass (which was what he was) and a clock.
Again, Erik just sighed and didn't question it.
Lucy clapped her hands together happily, "Alright, let's eat!"
They only had a few hours of free open-gate time for the celestial spirits, so they moved right into gifts immediately after breakfast was completed. Virgo had volunteered to clean up, and before Lucy could protest, it was done. Literally, completely clean.
Erik had thought Virgo was some kind of earth magic user, but if cleaning was a magic type, the masochistic maid would be the leading authority on its capabilities, he was sure.
They all settled down, somewhat uncomfortably, since everyone was squished into a tiny one-bedroom apartment, and began passing out presents.
Lucy opened hers from Erik first, and found herself gasping at the beautiful key ring inside. It was white-gold and instead of a plain ring, it was a delicate piece of metal work shaped into several different types of beautiful poisonous flowers.
The celestial mage had launched herself at her boyfriend and spent the rest of the present-opening session on his lap.
She had insisted that he open the next two presents, since he had more than everyone else because of all his missed Christmas presents.
He was very much not used to receiving gifts, and kind of lit up at having been given things he liked. The first gift he'd opened was the ownership ticket to a large plot of soil in the Magnolia Greenhouse that Lucy had bought him six months ago and had been planting various types of poison in since. He had squeezed her into a hug so hard that she'd had to slap at his arms to let go so she could breathe. The second gift had been a brand new, slightly higher quality white coat that he'd immediately draped over her shoulders while he kissed her temple in thanks.
They continued the gift exchange, everyone having succeeded in getting thoughtful gifts for their assigned person/spirit.
Capricorn got what Lucy assumed was a gag gift, as it was a magically spelled book that automatically catalogued calories eaten versus calories burned, but the goat had lit up like the Christmas tree on her left and had thanked Cancer for it profusely.
Cancer received several bottles of hair care product from a stoic Virgo.
Virgo had been delighted when she received a few medieval torture devices from Erik, who seemed very proud of himself for whatever evil thoughts he caught running through the spirits' mind.
Pyxis had practically passed out from excitement when he'd opened the small box containing his gift from Lucy, and Lucy had sobbed out loud when Aquarius had provided her with one of her mother's old journals and a blank journal of the same style, so Lucy could write her own.
Aquarius had received a beautiful crown of blue and green crystals that was similar in style to the headpiece she currently wore, from an overly excited and violently trembling Plue, who in turn got a massive basket of assorted Lollipops from a grinning Scorpio.
Scorpio got an assortment of ancient scarabs framed in a shadowbox from Loke.
Loke received, much to Lucy's annoyance, a very ornate looking version of his 'little black book', essentially his list of girlfriends. Saggitarius had gotten the pages enchanted so that it would update to display the woman's current opinion of Loke (which he could use to determine which of his girlfriends had found out about other women).
Caelum gave Saggitarius a series of intricately carved decorative arrows that the horse-man spirit clutched to his person tightly, as if someone would take them from him.
The chisel spirit received a book of enchantments from Crux that, if Lucy agreed to cast them, would change the color of the little guy's blast attacks. The metal ball-like spirit showed excitement in the only way that was possible, it trembled violently in a decent impression of Plue, and Lucy laughed right along with it (him?).
Crux received a large bottle of silver polish (presumably for use on his own body?) from Lyra, who received an original, hand-written score from an ancient composer from, surprisingly, Pyxis.
Taurus gave Gemi and Mini a whole box full of random supplies for various pranks they could pull in the celestial realm. Or at least, Lucy hoped it would be used in the celestial realm, because Fairy Tail responded to pranks by starting full out, vindictive wars. She would know.
Gemi and Mini gave Aries an assortment of dyes for her wool that the ram spirit had been tremendously excited about.
Capricorn gave Taurus, much to Lucy's frustration, a subscription to Sorcerer Weekly.
Lastly, Aries had put her heart and soul into a beautiful, hand-crafted… sweater, for Erik. It was actually of an amazing quality, and the pink-haired ram had informed him as he opened it that Loke had enchanted it with the warmth of Regulus to keep the easily-chilled dragon slayer comfortable even in the coldest of climates.
Lucy had tensed up as the moments passed by with hardly a reaction from the poison slayer, and Aries had gone from hopefully apologetic to genuinely embarrassed at having presented a maroon, homemade sweater with a monogrammed "E" smack in the middle of it, to the most well known grouch in all of Earthland.
The celestial mage nearly ripped the man's other eye from his head at how utterly rude he was being, but when he looked up at the red-faced ram spirit, he wasn't… grouchy.
He was touched. He had never received anything so thoughtful from another person before (at least, one he wasn't sleeping with) and once he'd gotten over his shock, he thanked her profusely for the gift as he pulled it on over his T-Shirt and practically snuggled into its warmth.
Lucy felt immense gratitude to the slayer for his reaction, as Aries smiled with more confidence than she had ever displayed previously, saying a soft, "I-I am glad you like it, Master Erik…" and for the first time in the history of Lucy's contract with her, omitted the 'I'm sorry'.
Before Lucy could burst into sobs for how well everything went between her human family and her spirit family, the Spirit King crashed the party, stopping time (because he's a show off) and speaking to them all through Lucy's now-open bedroom window.
"I believe it is time, old friend, that your contracted spirits returned home to show off their gifts to the rest of us," he told her with a smile. Or she thought it was a smile, she couldn't see all of his massive face through the limited field of view provided by her window.
"Merry Christmas, Stache Face!" she shouted, running to the window to greet him. She held out a hand for a high-five, and he obliged her by holding out a single finger for her to slap.
"Spirits don't typically celebrate such things, but I shall wish you a fine holiday, old friend," he responded in his booming voice.
She shot him a bright smile, "I'll send the others back now. Thank you so much for this, though."
"Of course, old friend," he smiled at her and disappeared as time restarted.
Lucy spent the next ten minutes hugging each of her spirits warmly as they all went home, even Aquarius, while Erik awkwardly shook hands with the ones that had hands, and shared the world's weirdest half-hug with Aries.
An hour later found Lucy and Erik sitting cuddled by Lucy's fireplace, hot chocolate in hand while they sat in comfortable silence.
"Erik?"
"Hm? Whatcha need, Tink?" he asked, pulling himself out of his thoughts of contentment.
Lucy sighed happily, "I love you."
He smiled, "I've known that for years, Bright Eyes. You can omit information, but your soul can't," he informed her, amused.
"Yeah, yeah," she said smacking him in the chest as she cuddled closer and put her mug on the side table.
"I love you too, Lucy," he informed her quietly.
"I know," she said, a bright smile taking over her features and the most beautiful happy melody chiming in her soul.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, like she suddenly remembered something, "I had two more gifts for you," she explained as she sat up and turned in her seat to face him.
Erik looked around as if trying to find another box or two lying randomly in the apartment.
Finding nothing, he looked at her curiously.
"I'm pregnant!"
A moment of silence.
And another.
"Y-you… really mean it?! Seriously?"
"Yes!"
Erik hugged her fiercely, "I'm going to be a dad…?"
"Yes, but you're squishing me…" she mumbled.
"Oh, shit, sorry. Oh, fuck. Am I allowed to say shit?"
Lucy just giggled.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just so happy, Bright Eyes, holy fu-" he cut off in the middle of his exclamation, "Wait… you said you had two more presents?" he questioned.
"Oh, yeah! Twins!"
Erik would deny it forever, and he swore Lucy to secrecy, but in that moment, Erik "Cobra" Vivas passed the fuck out.
