the most wonderful time of the year

p.1: all i want for Christmas

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The last thing Lucy needed was her car breaking down two days before Christmas, so naturally, that's exactly what happened. Her tiny blue Beetle decided: you know what? Lucy is barely holding it together this holiday season, so I am going to sputter and gasp and barely mke it off the road to the weird little truck stop, where she will curse and possibly cry, before giving up and texting Levy that she may be a teeny-tiny-bit late. At least, her car had the decency to make it to the parking lot, although she had done a terrible parking job and if her car hadn't, you know, broke, she would have needed to fix it.

Levy had been nice about it. She'd asked for Lucy's location and told her that Gajeel, her fiancé would come pick Lucy up, so please stay safe while you wait, will you? No almost getting kidnapped again! Even though the reminder to not be kidnapped was a bit low, considering that'd only almost happened twice before, Lucy thanked all her lucky stars that she both had Levy as a friend and that Gajeel was a mechanic. At least, she knew Gajeel would fix her car for cheap.

As she opened the door to the truck stop's store front, a little bell above the door jangled. Some snow whipped in with the wind and the wind slammed the door shut, hitting her in the ass.

Only one other person was in the shop, a punked-out cashier with a bunch of piercings and dyed bubblegum pink hair. He gave a half-wave in greeting and returned to his phone. Lucy took that as a sign she could stay inside the shop and wander around.

The cramped, full shelves and tables made the already-tiny shop feel even smaller. Surprisingly, the place did not only sell food and other road trip essentials, but also sold a bunch of knick-knacks. The knick-knacks weren't even the typical tourist-fare, but rather selected based on a seemingly arbitrary judgement call. Not that this mattered much to Lucy: it's not like she had much to do until Gajeel arrived, so studying all the weird items would have to be her solution.

She picked the aisle full of snow globes to browse. A couple snow globes had the typical wintry scenes with variations of the evergreen trees and a small cabin. Others were odder: a shirtless Santa on a beach, scantily-clad fairies putting ornaments on a tree, a pile of tiki dolls, a little city with stone roads and summer flowers. Lucy picked up a snow globe, the glass cool to her warming hands. She flipped it and watched the fake snow fall on the statues of two kids building a snowman, their sculpted faces smiling. Something about the two children made her sad. Perhaps it was the fact that her dad had died and while they hadn't had the best relationship, she did not want to have her first holiday without him. Without quiet dinners and that big house. Without Aquarius, who had gone overseas with her boyfriend, leaving Lucy to figure things out. As she exited the aisle, Lucy stared at that sculpted smile and stroked the necklace with keys around her neck, lost in thought.

Something crashed behind her.

An "oh shit!" slipped from her mouth. A snow globe had fallen to the floor, knocked over by her purse. She knelt down to fix the mess, but she had no tissues or towels to do so.

"Is everything alright?" the cashier called. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Fuck," she muttered in response. The broken snow globe would have to be the cashier's problem. She straightened up and turned to find the cashier right behind her. She startled, but he didn't notice, head tilted and staring at her or the broken globe or the puddle or all three.

"I can pay for that," Lucy offered.

The cashier smiled and shook his head. "No need. Just trying to remember if I've washed the rags recently."

"Are you sure?"

"It was only five dollars. Let me go get the cleaning supplies." He walked off into the Employee's Only room. Lucy didn't know what to do, so she stood there, awkwardly holding her purse. When he returned, he looked at her bemused and began cleaning.

"So what's your name?"

"Lucy. Yours?"

"Natsu." He scraped the glass into the broom pan. "Hope I got all of that."

"Let me." Lucy pulled out her phone and shined the flashlight on the floor. The shards twinkled on the tile.

"Thanks." Natsu got rid of the last of them. Lucy attempted (and failed) to not get distracted by the hint of muscled shoulders that flexed through Natsu's long sleeve. He tossed a rag over the wet spot and stepped to ensure it soaked through. "That's a handy trick," he added.

"My friend, Cana, taught it to me."

"I have a friend named Cana. Super fun at parties!"

That sounded familiar. "Cana Alberona? Long brown hair, brown eyes, somehow always wins at beer pong?"

Natsu lit up. "You know her?"

"She was my roommate in college."

"We went to high school together. Are you here to buy a gift for her? Every time I visit her apartment, she always has something new."

"Ah, no? Although this would be a good place to get a gift for her. A gift that isn't alcohol, I mean. I'm waiting for a friend."

"What a great place to wait for a friend. Do you like to meet all your friends in the middle of nowhere?" Lucy flushed. She knew that most people wouldn't willingly stay in a gas station, but she wasn't sure how willing she was to tell a stranger that she was stuck there because her car broke down. Creeps and all that. But Natsu seemed friendly and he had a bright cheery smile that challenged his punk demeanor. Not to say that punks can't be friendly, but he wasn't what she expected.

"We decided this was the best place," she said.

"How weird. You're a weird girl, Lucy." Before she could protest and before she could consider how nice the girl and the Lucy sounded in his mouth, Natsu said: "You might as well shop for gifts while you wait. You can do some stocking stuffers! I loved those when I was little. We even have stockings in the back!"

Lucy laughed. "You're excited about this. Why don't you make some for your parents or something?"

Natsu's smile dropped. "I'm not spending Christmas with my dad. I'm going to my cousin and his fiancée's apartment."

Lucy silently cursed herself. She, of all people, should know not to make assumptions about people's parents and how alive they are. She fiddled with the keys around her neck, as her and Natsu fell into an uneasy silence. He didn't return to the cash register though; instead, he scanned her and saw her hand around the charms.

"What's that?" he asked.

Lucy let go, revealing the three golden keys hanging from a gold chain. "Necklace. From my mom."

Natsu raised his hand up to where the charms sat against her chest and then paused. "Can I?" he asked. Lucy nodded. His warm hand wrapped around the charm an he studied them, thumb stroking the embossed design. Lucy stood frozen: he was so close and he didn't even seem aware of it. This close, she could better study his symmetrical face, broad shoulders, and muscled forearm. Was that a tattoo, peeking out from below his long sleeve? Stars, she had such a thing for bad boys.

"Follow me," Natsu said, hand darting from her necklace to her wrist. He brought her to a little table in the corner of the store and there, on velvet fabric behind glass, lay gold keys just like the one on her neck. It brought Lucy back to memories of going through her mother's jewelry box, chubby hands grasping at the pretty metal and gems, just for her mother's soft hands to gently grasp hers, for her mom to whisper not yet, Sunshine, not 'til you're old enough. She was finally old enough when her father died and she found her mother's three keys and strung them on her father's gold chain. Tears pricked at Lucy's eyelids.

"Can I—" she swallowed wetly. "Can I touch them?"

"Yeah, of course." Natsu pulled out a key ring and opened the glass case. Lucy ran her fingers over the gold.

"I thought this would make you happy," he said.

Lucy laughed through her tears. "I am happy. I'm just also sad."

The bell above the door jingled. Natsu gently squeezed her hand. "Let me go deal with that."

Natsu left, leaving Lucy alone with the keys and her thoughts. She heard him call out a greeting and then, his and another voice murmuring. After two minutes, the bell rang again with the customer leaving. Natsu's footsteps and movement could be heard, but she could not tell what he was doing. Possibly giving her space. Lucy couldn't blame him. Nobody wants to be a near someone crying on a normal day, let alone a late-night shift during the holidays. She stared at the keys and tried not to get lost in her memories.

"Here." Natsu held out a cup of hot chocolate. At her confused look, he rubbed the back of his neck. "Gramps – er, my boss – keeps the employee backroom stocked with cocoa powder and instant coffee."

Lucy took the cup and sipped the creamy liquid. It warmed her, the liquid close to burning but not quite. It was sweet. He was sweet. "You didn't need to do this," she said.

"I wanted to. Can't have a customer crying after all."

"They remind me of my mom. She died around this time of year when I was ten."

"My biological parents died when I was three and I was adopted by a man named Igneel. He left right after Christmas. That's why I'm staying with my cousin."

"And working on Christmas Eve?"

He nodded. "Do you want to buy one?" He gestured at the keys.

It was Lucy's turn to nod. She grabbed the two keys she liked the most and followed Natsu to the cash register, where he started to ring them up. As she inserted her debit card to pay, she noticed a discrepancy in the cost.

"A discount?"

"For my favorite customer of the day."

"Was it the crying that won you over?"

"Something like that." She put her car away and stared out the door. Still snowing and her phone had yet to buzz with a call from Gajeel.

"Can I stay here?" Lucy asked. "I'm waiting for my friend because my car broke down."

Natsu beamed like he'd won the lottery. "I'll grab a chair."

After that, they talked for a long time, the minutes blending together in Lucy's head. It was all light-hearted, talk of friends and old times that weren't shared but could have been. Natsu talked about his high school shenanigans, paintball guns and snowball fights, and Lucy talked about her and Cana's college camaraderie, which somehow always ended in wild games and even wilder stories. Behind that counter, Lucy forgot temporarily how alone she had felt, that grief that sat in her chest with both her parent's deaths. Lucy scanned the beautiful boy in front of her, the way his eyes lit up and his hands dashed around with every story he told. He made her feel less alone. She wondered if he'd be willing to be her friend after this or if this was a one-off soulmate for an hour and then never meet again. That thought made her heart hurt.

Lucy and Natsu were so caught up in their conversation that the jingle from the front door startle both of them. It was Gajeel, bundled in a thick black coat with a knitted scarf and beanie covering his many piercings.

"Christ, Lucy, you scared the fuck out of me when you didn't answer the phone," Gajeel said. "Do you know what Levy would have done if you'd been kidnapped?"

"Sorry. I was a bit distracted."

"Gajeel?" Natsu asked. "You know Lucy?"

Gajeel looked at the boy next to her, only somewhat surprised. "So this is where you work, huh?" He snorted. "Lucy is close friends with Levy."

"You both know each other?"

"Gajeel's the cousin I'm spending Christmas with." Natsu's eyes widened. "Wait, is Gajeel the friend you're spending Christmas with?"

"Technically, she's spending it with Levy," Gajeel said. "I'm just there."

"Guess I don't need to ask for your phone number then," Lucy joked.

"I can still give it to you though." Natsu held out his hand, silently asking for her phone, which she handed to him, briefly seeing the three missed calls from Gajeel. Whoops.

As Natsu fiddled with her phone, she asked the mechanic: "Did you bring the tow truck?"

He nodded. "I wanted to make sure you were safe first. I'll go get your car hooked up."

"Thank you so much. I really appreciate you doing this." His shoulders shrugged with her gratitude, never having learned how to accept positive reinforcement. He looked gruff, but Gajeel truly was a big softie.

Lucy watched him leave to grab her car.

"I should follow him," she said. "I'll see you on Christmas then?"

Natsu returned her phone. "Couple hours actually. Once my shift is done. Which is just enough time for me to get you a gift."

Lucy laughed. "You don't need to do that! Your company was a good enough Christmas gift."

Natsu seemed taken aback, but his dark eyes were full of a softness she didn't know how to name. And while she hadn't known him for long, something told her that this softness was rare and thus, special.

"Same" was all he said and she waved goodbye, as she left into the snow, the jingle above the door a holiday hymn she wanted to remember, like how she wanted to memorize Natsu's smile. To make it a Christmas gift, all for herself.

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endnote: i've always enjoyed modern!aus that make natsu a bit of a punk, so i decided to write that into this one :)

this is the first part of a series i've titled the most wonderful time of the year. it's a series of holiday conversations, set in the same modern!au, between each of the four main fairy tail couples: natsu/lucy, gray/juvia, gajeel/levy, and jellal/erza. if that sounds interesting to you, please keep an eye out for them! each of these works will be posted as oneshots over the course of december. or not! it's up to you~

title taken from the famous (or infamous, depending on your feelings) mariah carey song "all I want for Christmas"

let me know what you think! i always appreciate feedback, whether it be positive or more critical !