Kayla the Kawaii Gurl Says: Hey! How are you? Wonderful I hope, but if you're not, I hope that this new chapter will brighten your day (evening, night, or whatever time you may be reading this)! Consider this my Christmas gift to you all! This one-shot takes place after the events of the omake chapter "Fairies' Christmas," so I'm giving a fair warning if you haven't read it yet that there are spoilers ahead! (If you haven't, you should totally check it out; I haven't laughed that hard in a long time) Enjoy!

For Better, Part I

"Uuuuughhhhh…"

The groan that gurgled up Lucy's throat was fairly quiet, however to the blonde celestial maid it sounded as if she had voiced it into a megaphone. Rolling over onto her side, she gave herself a couple of moments before for attempted to open her eyes against the slight throbbing in her head. When she was sure that she wasn't going to die, she slowly opened her eyes and peered around the rather bright room.

The first thing that caught her attention was the fact that her house was an absolute disaster.

Squinting in an attempt to block out some of the sunlight that was streaming in through the windows, she realized that she must have been on her couch in the living room, and she allowed her eyes to roam over the area to assess the damage. Bottles and glasses were everywhere, not to mention the passed out forms of her friends and guild mates. Frowning, she tried to reach back in her memory for the reason everyone was passed out and snoring on her floor and furniture, not to mention the state of her apartment…

The Christmas Party.

At the realization of the previous night's events, Lucy's eyes doubled in size as she bolted upright into a sitting position. Well, make that tried to as she unceremoniously flopped back down into place and almost fell off the couch, however thanks to the arm that was around her waist, she was instantly hauled back into her previously laying position.

"Mmm, Luce, stop moving around and go back to sleep."

At the sound of Natsu's muffled and sleep-heavy voice, Lucy sat up once more, however this time she was successful as he had drifted off to dreamland once more and his arm had gone lax.

Natsu… NATSU!

As a certain memory from last night bombarded her out of nowhere, she turned slowly to survey the man lying behind her on the couch only to sigh in relief when she took in his prone figure.

Oh, thank Mavis, he put some pants on.

Closing her eyes and leaning back against the sleeping pink-haired man's stomach, she ignored his slight grunt of disapproval as she thought over the 'game' Erza had demanded, or rather forced them to play. What the hell was she thinking making people get naked like that? Realizing that Natsu hadn't been the only victim of that command, Lucy slowly stood up to survey the other men on her living room floor.

Oh thank goodness, Gajeel and Gray had also managed to put some pants on as well.

She shuddered as she recalled the iron dragon-slayer being slapped on the rear by the man on the couch behind her. That was an image she will probably never be able to get out of her head thanks to Erza. She couldn't imagine how Levy was going to deal with that once she woke up and remembered.

Looking around, she noticed that the red-head wasn't among them. Where could she… Oh shit, Gray had told her to walk home naked and she did! Hopefully she made it home safe. As soon as she was back in working order, she would check to make sure that that assumption was actually true.

That Guild Master game was the absolute devil.

Slowly, she stood from her spot, intent on moving to the kitchen for a glass of water to help with her head. When her stomach growled, she decided that maybe breakfast was in order as well. Mavis knew that the smell of food would get the people strewn about in her living room up and running anyways.

After drinking her fill and feeling considerably more awake, Lucy began to rummage through the fridge to see what she had to appease everyone's appetites. The men were pretty easy, as they would eat pretty much anything. Some of the women on the other hand…

Frowning, she pulled out some eggs and various meats and vegetables. Well, it looks like they were having omelets this morning seeing as she was feeling slightly hung over and they were the easiest thing to make in her current state. Her frown deepened as she tried to think about what to feed the Exceeds when a flash of a memory ran through her mind's eye, making her almost drop the shredded cheese in her hand.

'Natsu… do that thing where you purr like a cat…'

Slamming the ingredients on the counter, she stifled a groan and the urge to look back at the couch in pure embarrassment, and took back what she had said earlier.

Liquor was the absolute devil.

Shaking her head, she set about the task of pulling out a large skillet as well as a bowl to get started on the food. She couldn't believe that she did that to him AGAIN! In front of everyone no less! Ugh, she really needed to stop drinking around Natsu, lest she feel him up next time or worse… confess.

Cracking a couple of eggs into the bowl, she set to beating them as she turned the heat on under the skillet, throwing a bit of butter in there as well.

Hopefully, Natsu wasn't as traumatized this time around. She didn't think she could handle another round of staring from him for another twenty-four hours. Not to mentioned she hoped that everyone (read: Levy) were too preoccupied with their own misadventures from last night to tease her about her drunken antics with Natsu.

Calming herself down lest she got eggs all over the place, she poured them in the pan and set about cooking.

Next year, they were doing their Christmas party somewhere else and she was staying sober dammit.

That's a promise.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

To say that breakfast was awkward was the understatement of the century.

Natsu let his eyes sweep around the table to find that everyone was too busy keeping their eyes trained on the plate of food in front of them to even notice his exploring gaze. Was everyone really that embarrassed from last night? Considering the fact that no one seemed to want to make eye contact with the other people in the room he supposed that answer would indeed be 'yes.'

If they were all embarrassed about the whole naked thing, he guessed he couldn't relate. He had never been one to be embarrassed about his own body, let alone someone else's, especially considering he grew up in the wild with Igneel before coming to Fairy Tail.

His gaze slid over to the pig-tailed blonde sitting next to him and he couldn't help but snicker to himself as he thought about the look on her face when his number had been called out by Erza followed by the command of busting a move naked. For some reason, seeing Lucy get all flushed was the funniest and cutest thing to him ever.

He caught her gaze for a minute before a healthy shade of red crossed her cheeks and she turned her eyes elsewhere.

Really, she had no reason to be embarrassed by her actions last night. Sure, she had tackled him and demanded that he purred for her, not to mention the whole candle wax thing with Erza…

He shuddered a bit that the flashback of her bent over like that and moaning. Erza had totally gone too far with that one and because of her, he was sure that image was going to haunt him for a while in his dreams.

In all reality, he was happy that he hadn't really drunk that much the night before. Had he actually been somewhat tipsy, he was sure he probably wouldn't have been able to meet the eyes of his fellow guild and team members as well. Why would that be? Well, if he had had enough alcohol to get on the same level as the girls last night, he probably would have purred like Lucy had asked. Not to mention return all the nuzzling she had so generously graced him with.

He had to admit, the first time she had got drunk and pretty much attacked him, he was a little weirded out by the experience, but that was simply because he hadn't realized at the time how he had felt about her. A year and some change later, he could admit, if only to himself, that he was been hoping for another opportunity to get her drunk again just to see if she would do a repeat performance. Last night proved that he still wasn't quite used to a drunken Lucy, but it wasn't an overall terrible experience. Thankfully his body decided to freeze up on him before he did something Gray was sure to tease him relentlessly about.

At the thought of the ice mage, his eyes swung over in the dark-haired man's direction to find him nervously chewing on his food. Natsu knew better than to assume he was embarrassed by stripping down last night, seeing as well, it's Gray, and the man strips down to ass-naked status on a regular. The reason why he looked the way he currently did probably had something to do with the murderous glare that Juvia was throwing around the room at the other women as well as at him.

Not to mention a majority of the nervous look probably had something to do with the fact that Gray had shouted his master Ur's name out as his true love.

Thank Mavis he hadn't had that number at that time. No telling what kind of teasing he would have had to endure if he shouted Lucy's name ass-naked instead. And on all fours no less.

Man, Erza was kind of messed up in the head, wasn't she?

"Ah… thanks for the meal Lucy. It was really delicious."

All eyes turned to a beet-red-faced Wendy as she stood and bowed. Lucy was instantly in a standing position beside him grabbing her plate from her and telling her that it was nothing. The next thing he knew, everyone else was finishing up and making their way out the door with promises of seeing them later at the Christmas party at the guild.

Silently, he helped her to finish cleaning everything up, including all the bottles and glasses (not to mention sticks) strewn about the room. A few minutes later, everything was back in its rightful place and her living room was looking as it always did when he came over.

Clean.

"Thanks for helping Natsu, I really appreciate it."

He looked in her direction to find that she still wouldn't look at him. Frowning, he thought for a minute on what to say to let her know that she shouldn't be embarrassed when the tree in the corner caught his eye.

He had just the thing to make her feel better about everything.

"Hey, I got something for you." She threw a questioning gaze in his directing as he moved around her and made his way over to the where a couple of presents laid underneath the tree. Grabbing a rectangular shaped one, he smiled broadly as he made his way back over to her and held the package out in her direction before she slowly took it in her hands.

"Here, this is for you from Happy and me."

He watched with unconsciously held breath as she turned the expertly wrapped package around in her hand with a confused look on her face as Natsu silently thanked Mirajane for wrapping it for him. Pausing in her inspection, she locked eyes with him finally and smiled. "You really didn't have to get me anything Natsu." He couldn't help the small smile that graced his lips as he answered back, "I know. I wanted to though. Hurry up and open it!"

Smiling once more, she turned her attention back to the package and began ripping into the paper, her eyes widening more and more as she got a better look at what it was that she held in her hands.

"Oh Natsu! Happy! You shouldn't have!" Before he could really brace himself, she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, squeezing for all she was worth. After a couple of seconds, she let go and took a step back, her attention on the book in her hands as she did a little happy dance. The chuckle that escaped him was one of relief.

Mentally he gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done. He couldn't believe that he had remembered the name of the author and the book she had been pining away for, considering books bore him to death, but then again it wasn't hard to do considering she had been talking about the thing for almost a month straight, especially when they had happened to pass a book store in town.

"Oh! Stay right there! I have something for you too!"

She ran out of the room and around the corner to the kitchen only to come back a couple of seconds later with a bag in her hand that she was shoving in his direction. Cautiously, he took it from her and dug his hand only to pull out a jar of what looked to be some red peppers. Upon closer inspection, he realized what they were and couldn't help the large smile that spread across his face. "Desert Village's famous fire peppers? How did you get these?"

She smiled sweetly as she set about picking up the bits of wrapping paper that she had dropped on the floor in her haste earlier as another one of her nervous blushes spread across her cheeks. "Well, I remembered how much you loved them when we ate at that restaurant over in Sabertooth's neighborhood, so I asked Yukino if she could send me a jar of them for you. She also sent me a couple of recipes that call for them as well. If you like, I could maybe make them for you sometimes, you know, since you're terrible in the kitchen and all that."

If possible, Natsu fell in love with the woman standing before him even more. Not only was she offering to cook for him, which was always a plus and always made his heart flutter, she just proved to him that she pays attention to the little details about him, like a certain food he likes.

"Do you, uh, do you like it?"

Blinking a couple of times to bring himself back to reality, Natsu gave her a reassuring smile. "I love it Luce. Thanks." They were silent for a couple of seconds, taking in the presents that they had given each other when Natsu unexpectedly decided to break it.

"Hey Luce, I have another present for you."

He didn't know what had possessed him to say those words out loud, but he couldn't help himself. Looking at her now, he had decided in his head that there was one more thing that he wanted to give her, and in turn him as well. Kind of a gift to them both if everything worked out, really.

As she gazed at him with a look of curiosity on face, her eyebrows rose in a questioning manner as he backed her into the back of the couch, his hands on either side of her, effectively locking her in place. She whispered his name as he began to lean in but before she could utter the inevitable 'what are you doing,' not to mention before he lost his nerve, he dipped his head and softly connected his lips with hers.

The electric shock at the meeting of their lips had him frozen in place. The feeling instantly intensified when he felt Lucy slowly and shyly press her lips back against his. They broke apart for a second, her brown eyes looking into his own with wonder before he gave in to his instincts and leaned down to kiss her again. This time however, Lucy was ready and willing to participate in this round of slow and almost shy kisses.

As things started to heat up a bit between them, they broke apart once more, this time for air, and rested their foreheads against each other, their breath coming out a bit labored but wide smiles on their faces nonetheless.

"I've wanted to do that since Asuka ordered me to do it the first time."

Lucy laughed at the memory before pressing another shy kiss to Natsu's lips, which he accepted willingly. "In all honesty, I've wanted you to do it too. I liked that present a lot." The laugh that left him in return was breathless in nature.

"Merry Christmas Luce."

"Merry Christmas Natsu."

His gaze wandered over to the clock, which was showing that it was still pretty early, and then to Lucy's slightly exhausted face. Frowning, he placed his hands on her shoulders and steered her in the direction of her bed. "You should get some rest Luce; you look like you could use a nap. I'll see you later at the party at the guild."

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him with shy eyes. Why she was all shy all of a sudden was beyond him, but he had to admit it was a cute look on her. "Um… do you want to stay? I'm tired, but I don't think I'll sleep right away. Do you want to watch a couple of Christmas programs with me? You know, hang out? We could go to the party together later if you want."

With the slightly pleading look that she was giving him, he couldn't help but give in and nod. Instantly she was smiling again and running over to her bed for the comforter as he made himself comfortable on the couch. Once she returned, she draped the cover over the both of them as he maneuvered her into his lap so they were both able to stretch out on the couch comfortably before she turned on the television and flipped to some old Christmas movie.

Within a couple of minutes, his keen hearing was able to pick up the sound of her light snoring over the program. Chuckling he made himself comfortable as well, knowing full well in a couple of minutes he would be joining her in dreamland as well.

Well, it looked like they wouldn't be making it to the party after all, which was all the better for him. If he had to stay in on a snowy night, he would rather he did it with no one else but Lucy. He wasn't sure where they stood after the kiss they shared earlier, but her reaction to it and afterwards gave him assurance in one thing.

Thing were looking up for the better between them and maybe, just maybe, she loved him too.

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KTKG Says: MERRY CHRISTMAS! Did you like the gift? Hahahaha I thought that I would whip something up while the idea, and the holiday, was fresh. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this and review! I'll be back with something else soon!