Summary: Inspired by an episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Natsu takes the song Twelve Days of Christmas seriously in an attempt to give Lucy an excellent Christmas.
Pairings: Natsu/Lucy, Natsu/Happy friendship, Lucy/Happy friendship, Lucy/Mirajane friendship, Natsu/Lisanna friendship, implied Gray/Juvia, mentions of Gajeel/Levy, and other guild friendship implications.
YouTube Prompt: A Natsu/Lucy video to Perfect Harmony from Julie and the Phantoms.
This was the most stressful situation Natsu had ever been in and that is including the many near death experiences when he was up against some of the baddest, darkest, most evil wizards and dragons known to man kind.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! HAPPY WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!" Natsu screamed as he tugged at his hair. "I have a Christmas present for everyone but Lucy. LUCY! Do you know what Lucy will do to me if I don't give her a good Christmas present?!"
"Don't worry Natsu," Happy said cheerfully, "Lucy is easy. You just buy her a fish for Christmas."
"Happy that's what YOU want for Christmas not Lucy!" Natsu snapped, not falling for Happy's sly tricks for once. Unfortunately there was no one else in the guild to witness this rare event and when he finally brags of it later no one will believe him. "Lucy would hate getting a fish for Christmas!"
"Yeah," Happy muttered darkly, "well we always said Lucy was a weirdo."
This went completely over Natsu's head as he halted to a stop when he caught some muffled words being sung by the carollers in the market. He reversed quickly and edged closer as he listened carefully to the words of the song the carollers were singing, the longer the song went on the bigger and brighter Natsu's smile got as an idea blossomed in his head.
"THAT'S IT!" He bellowed gleefully. "I KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO GET LUCE FOR CHRISTMAS!"
"Huh?!" Happy choked on the smoked salmon he had been savouring. "You have?! What is it Natsu, a book?"
"Nope," Natsu said giddily, "something much better than some boring old smelly book."
"You're going to use my fish idea!" Happy guessed.
"No way!" Natsu scowled. "This is something better than a fish!"
"...two fishes?"
"It's not fish!" Natsu said irritably. "It's something way better than fish!"
"You must have hit your head on something hard earlier," Happy said flatly, "because there is nothing in this universe that's better than fish."
"This is," Natsu said determinedly, "now C'mon we need to go and find Levy."
"Why Levy?"
"Because she's the only one I can trust to not laugh in my face or lie when I ask her what the heck a partridge is."
Happy stared at Natsu utterly baffled. He had no idea what a partridge might be either but he would bet his last fish that it was nowhere near better than fish!
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Lucy woke up to a bright but cold December morning.
Lucy shivered slightly as she rolled over and snuggled deeper into her bed. It was then when Lucy realised that she was so cold because her bed was empty. She had gotten so used to having Natsu beside her and Happy curled at her feet that it felt unnatural to be alone in her single bed.
(When did Natsu sleeping beside her became the norm?! She was sure she had made it clear that Natsu wasn't allowed in her bed.)
Lucy closed her eyes tighter as she nuzzled her pillow that had a distinct smokey scent that Natsu had left from last night. He must have gotten up extra early for some training or fishing (if she finds another note from him saying he's gone for another year, she was going to murder him!) and Lucy decided to enjoy the peace before Natsu suddenly makes a reappearance through her bedroom window.
She had no doubt within an hour or two he'll be climbing all over her and breaking something.
"LUCE!"
Lucy groaned, she didn't even get five minutes!
"OI! LUCE!"
Lucy struggled to get out from her duvet before she crawled up to her window and yanked the curtain aside. The sunlight almost blinded her and she had to blink repeatedly to adjust to the brightness when she caught sight of a massive tree standing before her.
"What the hell?!"
"Hi Lushy!" Happy called out from one of the branches. Lucy's eyes bugged out as noted the blue cat had a split lip and was pining down a chubby brown bird. "Merry Christmas!"
"...Merry Christmas, Happy," Lucy replied weakly.
She didn't know what else to say.
She glanced down to see that the tree had a great big red bow wrapped round it's trunk and Natsu stood next to it with a big grin plastered on his face. He waved up cheerfully to her, Lucy waved back with a smile.
"Your Christmas present!" Natsu waved his hands at the tree. "Do you like it?!"
"...erm," Lucy blinked, "I'm not sure exactly where I'm going to put it."
She wondered if Natsu fulfilling her dream of seeing the rainbow sakura all those years ago somehow left him with the impression that Lucy had a thing for trees. She didn't mind them and it was sort of thoughtful of him to remember but God knows what Lucy was going to do with a random tree blocking a large chunk of her front street.
Her landlady wasn't going to be happy with this, let alone all of her neighbours.
"It can stay out here you weirdo," Natsu laughed, "just as soon as Happy gets the partridge to stay in the tree!"
"It keeps trying to escape!" Happy wailed. "It's evil! It keeps pecking me!"
"Happy, you're a cat!" Natsu snapped irritably. "You should be terrifying it not the other way round! Don't be such a baby!"
"WELL IT'S HARD!" Happy bellowed. "AND I DON'T SEE YOU HELPING ME! I'VE HAD TO FIGHT THIS EVIL THING ALL NIGHT AND YOU DID NOTHING TO HELP! I'M LEAVING!"
Happy then flew away in his usual flood of melodramatic tears.
The bird immediately leaped off the tree and fluttered away as well leaving an indignant, spluttering, Natsu chasing after it.
Lucy decided she so didn't need to get involved in this bizarre turn of events and promptly closed her curtains to hide away for the rest of the day.
She managed to succeed in hiding in her apartment cleaning, reading, and a little writing before she fell asleep late in the night. The next following morning however she was rudely woken up by the sound of SOMEONE breaking her apartment in two.
She shot up, ready to kick Natsu out when she froze at the sight of Natsu wrestling with a grey bird with gorgeous bronze and black feathers on it's wings as it struggled to escape out of Lucy's kitchen window.
"Hey Luce," Natsu grinned, "did you know that turtle doves are not half turtle and half bird?"
"Yes," Lucy said flatly, "is there a reason why you're fighting with a bird in my kitchen?"
She was going to find feathers in her breakfast stuff for weeks now, she just knows it.
"It's for you!" Natsu said brightly. "Two turtle doves!"
"...I only see one."
"NATSU!" Happy yelled utterly thrilled as he appeared at the window triumphantly holding up the carcass of another turtle dove. "I GOT THE OTHER ONE!"
"Happy!" Natsu yelped horrified. "You weren't supposed to kill it! It's for Lucy!"
"YOU'RE NEVER SATISFIED!"
Happy once again left in a huff. Lucy might have quickly rushed after him (once she had gotten dressed) so she could avoid the disaster that will inevitably end with Natsu burning the second turtle dove to a crisp but that was when the turtle dove bit Natsu and made an escape attempt.
Lucy pretty much spent the day chasing after the damn bird with Natsu.
Well...at least it wasn't boring.
On the next day Natsu appeared – covered in plasters as Wendy was away and couldn't heal his bites from the turtle dove – holding up a cage filled with three large hens.
"Merry Christmas Luce!" He said cheerfully. "I got you three French hens!"
"I can see that," Lucy said dryly. "Merry Christmas Natsu."
There was no way in hell she was going to keep chickens in her apartment. She was fairly certain it was against her landlady's policy (who had made some comments in the past about Happy's presence in the apartment before) and she just knew the constant clucking and the smell would drive her up the wall.
So she accepted the cage and then promptly insisted on buying Natsu lunch at the guild. Always up for a free meal, Natsu accepted without a second thought and soon enough Lucy had him distracted with another argument with Gray as she presented her problem to Mirajane.
"Don't worry Lucy," Mira said brightly, "I can house them for you. We have a big enough garden to build them a hen house."
"Oh thank God!" Lucy cried out. "I didn't know what else I could do with them. Other than, you know, cook them! But that would mean killing them and plucking them and then – urgh!"
Lucy shuddered at the thought.
Mira giggled and patted Lucy's shoulder comfortingly. "I'll take care of them," she promised, "it'll be great to have supply of eggs on hand. Elfman eats way too many for his bodybuilding diets."
"Thank you," Lucy said gratefully, "I hope this is the last present Natsu gets me. At first I thought he might think I have a thing for trees with the whole tree thing two days ago but what with the partridge and the turtle doves yesterday and now hens, I'm getting worried that Natsu thinks I'm into birds. I have no idea where he came to that conclusion."
"I think I do," Mira smiled sweetly but her eyes glittered with mischief, "in fact. I bet you anything that tomorrow Natsu is going to try and gift you four calling birds."
Lucy stiffened as her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And why exactly would you think that?" She asked.
She strongly suspected that this was somehow a matchmaking scheme of Mira's that was going to backfire spectacularly for Lucy.
Mira merely put a finger to her lips and winked.
Lucy woke up the next day to find that Mira was right as Natsu proudly presented four little blackbirds in another cage to Lucy.
She faked a smile and let them go the moment Natsu left that very hour.
She would have to find a way to let him down gently and tell him that Lucy really just didn't like birds that much. She wasn't sure how she was going to do it without hurting his feelings though because this was clearly something Natsu was putting a lot of thought and effort into and she didn't want him to think she didn't appreciate it because she didn't like birds!
Lucy stressed about it all day and half way into the night until – for the first time in four days – Natsu crawled through her window and into her bed. She fell asleep pretty quickly when she felt his arms wrap round her waist. She suddenly felt great ease that there wouldn't be another bird in the morning and the relief was so immense she pretty much passed out on the spot.
When she woke up Natsu was still curled up round her and she couldn't help but smile fondly down at him as she reached out to stroke his hair.
That was when something glittery on her hand caught her eye and Lucy paused for a moment.
Her eyes widened as she examined the gold rings that now adorned her fingers. Natsu must have put them on while I was asleep! She realised as she took in the pretty little pinky ring that had a clusters of golden stars, the loveliest little pink sparkly gem on a simple gold band on her ring finger, a plain, thicker band of gold with a cat engraving on her middle finger, and similar bad with the Fairy Tail emblem engraved on her index finger, and finally a large golden dragon perched on her thumb with little rubies for eyes.
Five gold rings.
Five gold rings...
FIVE GOLD RINGS!
Lucy almost shot out of bed as the realisation finally sunk in but the weight of Natsu immediately pulled her back down and she flopped back onto her pillow wide-eyed. She bit her lip to not scream as Natsu let out another deep snore in her ear.
Five gold rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree!
Lucy wasn't sure what to feel.
On one hand she felt jubilant and excited at what this meant and wanted to shake Natsu awake and kiss the living daylights out of him. But on the other hand, the more logical thinking one that knew Natsu, wanted to remain cautious. It could be a coincidence or Natsu had been tricked by the one of the guys thinking it's what Lucy really wants for Christmas (it was the sort of practical joke she could imagine Gray pulling off if Natsu has done something to seriously piss him off recently) or it didn't quite click in Natsu's head what it meant to give Lucy the twelve days of Christmas!
Then she felt immensely guilty because she only got Natsu just the one present and he was giving her the twelve fucking days of Christmas!
Ack!
She was going to have to do more Christmas shopping now!
Then on top of it all the knowledge that Lucy was to expect more birds in the morning made her want to despair.
The next day she watched, feeling mildly embarrassed, as Natsu and Happy were chased down the street by six very vicious geese who did not appreciate Natsu trying to force them to lay eggs right there and then in the street for Lucy.
The day after that Lucy had breakfast ready to eat as she watched Natsu and Happy being chased down the canal by the seven equally vicious swans a-swimming.
Her heart hasn't been able to stop doing somersaults the entire time.
God she loved this idiot.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WON'T DO IT?!"
It was the eighth day of Christmas and Natsu had just managed to convince nine of the Fairy Tail girls to dress as milkmaids and ladies for day eight and nine when his treacherous so called friends outright refused to be his ten lords a leaping in the near future.
"I mean that I won't do it," Gray scowled, "are you deaf as well dumb now ash-brain?"
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"
"I take that as a yes," Gray muttered.
"Look Salamander," Gajeel butted in before Natsu punched Gray in the face, "you couldn't pay me enough to prance around in those tights you're holding up."
"And none of us want to see Gajeel in those tights," Wakaba added cheekily.
He ducked when Gajeel threw a filthy glare that promised a brutal and violent death if he didn't keep his mouth shut.
"But...but...but...how am I going to give Lucy the full twelve days if you refuse to be ten lords a leaping?!" Natsu wailed. "I'm already doing a crappy job not having you all at the ready but if I don't complete it then Lucy will think I'm a joke."
"Natsu," Gray reached out and squeezed Natsu's shoulder comfortingly, "she already does think you're a joke."
No one battered an eyelid when Natsu's punch sent Gray so hard that he flew into the wall on the other side in the room.
(Even Juvia thought her beloved Gray-sama deserved that one and it meant she got to soothe his wounds on the sly.)
"Natsu, Lucy won't think you're a joke at all," Lisanna said softly, "and she would never judge you for not completing the twelve days of Christmas for her. It's the thought that matters to Lucy and this has been very thoughtful of you."
Natsu grinned radiantly at that.
"It's just..." Lisanna trailed off as she nervously bit her lip.
"What?" Natsu asked worriedly. "It's just what?!"
"Well," Lisanna said gently, "it's just with the maids a milking, and the ladies a dancing, and the lords a leaping, and the pipers piping, and the drummers drumming...don't you think this would only end in a chaotic embarrassing mess where we will have to end up paying for the damages?"
The blank look on Natsu's face spoke volumes of how much he didn't think that would be the case.
"I really think Lucy would much prefer less of a display," Lisanna continued, "...and do you really think Lucy would want to see Gajeel in tights?"
"Oi!" Gajeel barked. "What is it with you people being against me wearing a pair of tights?!"
"Don't listen to them Gajeel," Levy said soothingly as she ran a hand up and down his arm, "I think you would look gorgeous in those tights."
Everyone blanched at that as they tried to not think of Gajeel in the tights and doublet Natsu had wanted him to wear while doing God knows what with Levy.
"I've already mucked up with the birds," Natsu said changing the subject before everyone drank themselves into a stupor to get rid off the horrifying mental image, "and I know I'm probably going to muck it up again for all of this a leaping and a piping and whatever, but I want to try and show Lucy how much she means to me."
All the girls cooed at that while the boys all slumped and muttered darkly.
"Crap," Gray groused as he rubbed the back of his head, "now I can't say no without looking like a total dick. All right then," he sighed, "toss me a pair of those tights."
Natsu beamed as he managed to smack Gray in the face with the tights.
"Natsu," Erza said solemnly, "I am prepared to be the very best of the eight maids a milking for your vision but I need to practice the milking. Where are the cows?"
"Cows?" Natsu blinked.
"Yes the cows," Erza said, "the animals we will have to milk."
"...CRAP!" Natsu tugged at his hair. "I forgot the cows!"
"Oh Natsu!" Lisanna cried out exasperated.
"Typical," Gray rolled his eyes.
"No, no, it's all right," Natsu said stubbornly, "I can fix this! There's some manticores migrating out in the mountains. I'll go and fetch them and you can milk out the venom."
"HELL NO!"
Each and every member of the guild rejected the idea – the girls because they didn't want to go near a manticore for milking and the boys because they had no doubt somehow this would end in a massacre that would traumatise them for life – and Natsu almost fell onto his back at the full ferocity of the rejection.
"Oh C'mon!" Natsu yelled back. "It's for Lucy's twelve days of Christmas! Don't back out now you wimps!"
"Natsu."
"What's a little wrestling with manticores and potential bites and poisoning compared to Lucy's happiness, huh?!"
"Natsu."
"I thought we were Nakama," Natsu continued deciding to go with the guilt trip, "whatever happened to our bond of family and friendship?!"
"NATSU!"
"What?!" Natsu whipped round to see Lucy standing behind him. Her arms were crossed but there was a soft amused smile on her face that lit her eyes up. "L-L-Lucy!" Natsu flushed. "We were, erm, not talking about you! Yeah, we're talking about putting on a play for the...the...the Luigi Theatre! Yeah," Natsu nodded satisfied with his lie, "we're putting on a play for the Luigi Theatre."
Everyone around him instantly face palmed however which, if you ask Natsu, totally gave the game away!
"Moron," Gray muttered.
"Idiot," Gajeel grumbled.
"Natsu," Lucy smiled, "I really appreciate the thought you put into this but I really don't want twelve days of Christmas."
"Oh thank God!"
Natsu's eye twitched as all of his so called friends instantly cheered at the thought of not helping him and promptly dumped the milkmaid costumes and tights onto the floor.
"All I really want from my true love," Lucy continued, "is a kiss."
It took an incredibly embarrassing long time for what Lucy said to really sink in. It wasn't until Lucy shyly cupped slipped onto her tiptoes to press a light kiss against his lips that it finally clicked in Natsu's brain what Lucy wanted.
He grinned as he pressed his lips back against hers.
Lucy immediately threw her arms round his neck as Natsu wrapped his own round her waist and pulled her closer as their kiss deepened.
"Oh bleh!" Gray gagged loudly. "Someone pass me a sick bucket!"
Mirajane immediately complied...
….by throwing the bucket at Gray's head for ruining the moment.