Natsu heard the bell ring and two newcomers entered. They were from out of town and their car had broken down on the curb – some customers had been commenting about them earlier and Natsu would never be surprised about how fast news travelled in the town…
The pair walked to the counter and Natsu could almost feel the dark clouds that seemed to be hanging over the man.
"Hi. What can I get you?" he asked in his usual cheerful tone.
"I want a coffee." The man said before looking at his partner, waiting.
"Juvia would have a glass of water." She said after clearing her throat.
"Right away." Natsu turned quickly before they could see his slightly dumbfounded expression and started preparing the coffee as well as the glass of water. "Anything else?" he asked pleasantly, seeing how the woman seemed to be looking at the sweets. "You guys aren't from here, right?"
"How did you notice?" the man said sardonically.
"It wasn't difficult." Natsu paused for a beat, placing the drinks on the counter. "So I imagine that you don't know that the northern pass is already blocked."
"What?" the man said.
"Yeah, and there are more bad news. The weather has been pretty bad for the time of the year and we just had word that the road you came through, the south road, has been closed too. It just happened, really."
"Wait. What does that mean?"
"Huuh…" Natsu scratched his cheek sheepishly. "I think that it means that you guys are stuck in our town?" The weird noise the other emitted just wasn't funny because of the blood curdling glare he was throwing. "But, you two are welcome to stay for the couple of days that it will take for things to go back to normal and the roads to be open again."
"I can't believe this…" the man was muttering in disbelief.
"Juvia would like this cupcake." The woman pointed at the peppermint-chocolate cupcake in the showcase.
Natsu wordlessly complied.
"How much is this?" the other man asked.
"It will be 1500 jewels." Natsu answered. He was handed a black, glossy card. Quickly going through the motions, the bill was paid off and the duo walked into one of the comfortable seats that were by the window. It looked as if there were a cloud – a very gloomy cloud – hanging over their heads.
Natsu felt compelled to go there.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Lisanna whispered on his ear as he walked by the kitchen door. She had a hand holding his wrist.
"Huh, going to talk to them? Show them the town ropes a bit? I was thinking that they could go to the Inn. Mira would accept, right?"
"Right, and then you would have Laxus walking around in a bikini in the freezing snow." She slapped him in the upside of his head. "What happened?"
"I have no clue about what you're talking about." Natsu answered honestly.
"You're acting weird. To a customer. An out-of-town customer, might I add." Lisanna arched one eyebrow. "So, what's the deal?"
"There's no deal." Natsu answered with an eye roll. "I just don't think that anyone should be feeling this forlorn in this season."
"The season is just beginning, you silly." She matched Natsu with an eye roll of her own. "But, fine, I will go with you to talk to them and call my sister. Maybe she won't shoot me next time she sees me."
"You talk as if Mira would do something to you." Natsu snickered. "You're her favourite sister."
"I'm the only sister she has. Elfman is a boy, in case you haven't noticed…"
"No." Natsu cut in. "He's not a boy. He's a man."
"Oh, shush, you." The pair snickered while walking to the two strangers.
"Hi. I'm Lisanna and this is Natsu," she pointed towards him, "and we would like to give you some information, as you seem to have been caught unaware and have car trouble."
That elicited a suspicious look from the strangers.
"How do you know?" the man said.
"News travel fast in this town." Lisanna said in a carefree way. "So, welcome to Magnolia – I think that it was time you got a welcome."
"I'm Gray, and this is my assistant, Juvia." The man, Gray, said. "This was not on the plans."
"I bet it wasn't. But that's the thing about plans, they're always bound to happen, right Natsu?" she asked with a subtle elbow to the side.
"Oh, yes. And we're going to call ahead so that a couple of rooms – or, huh, a room? – are being prepared."
"Two rooms is fine," Gray said.
The woman, Juvia, seemed to be distracted from the conversation, gazing focusedly at Gray.
"Well then." Natsu said. "Lisanna will accompany you to the Inn. It's not too far but the snow has been falling harder since you two got inside. We can't have you going lost."
"When you're ready to go, just call." Lisanna said, all smiles.
Gray nodded and went back to look down at his coffee.
"That went well." Lisanna concluded as they rounded the counter.
"You were laying it a bit thick, no?" Natsu said with a snort.
"Me? Nah. Never." She answered with a wink.
"I really don't know what goes through that head of yours…" Natsu said in a disparaging tone as Lisanna slipped to the kitchen to make the important phone call.
Not many more people came in, the falling snow not too enticing for walks outside. And so Natsu just sat behind the counter and looked outside – though he couldn't help but find his sight straying to the strangers.
At long last the duo stood and approached the counter.
"We're ready to go." Gray said.
"Cool. Let me call Lisanna." Natsu said as he stood. But Lisanna came from the back almost as if she'd been waiting for those words.
"Shall we go?" she asked in that perky way of hers.
"Sure. Thanks for the help." Gray said.
The trio started heading out but, as the two women were walking out the door, Gray turned and caught sight of the snowglobe.
"What's this?"
"Oh, it's just the snow globe. People say that if can make wishes come true." Natsu said. "It brings quite a few people here, especially kids. Apparently the wishes you make with all your heart while shaking the snow globe do come true. Some people say it's almost a miracle."
That phrasing didn't sound good to Gray. More, it landed like lead on his stomach.
"I don't believe in miracles." Gray said dryly.
"Hey, I'm just saying what I overheard." The other said, raising his hands in his defence. "All I know is that it doesn't hurt. And lots of people get smiles out of it."
Gray looked down at the snow globe. He couldn't help himself from snorting at his own actions but he grabbed the globe, seeing the snowman inside and the fake snow starting to spiral at the bottom, the glitter bits also adding lots of colours.
Gray closed his eyes and shook it. Making a wish.
I want to find my way home.
It was pretty simple, almost silly. And Gray couldn't help opening his eyes, letting out a breath and placing the thing down, shaking his head at himself.
"Thanks for the advice. Bye." He said to the other over his shoulder before leaving the warm space.
Outside, Juvia and Lisanna were waiting by the car. They seemed to be shifting their weight from foot to foot, as an attempt to not be too cold.
Gray didn't understand why. The temperature was totally bearable.
But they go get their bags and headed to the inn to get settled.
The room was cosy and pleasant. There was enough room for him to feel at home. Except…
There was a theme that permeated the whole inn. Something that was grating on Gray's nerves since he'd set foot in the establishment – though, to be fair, the grating feeling had mostly started since they'd stopped in the town.
Christmas.
There was Christmas all around him.
And even if he had pilled all the Christmas-y things behind the armchair by the window it wasn't possible to escape it because even the windows were decorated with fairy lights and they twinkled and changed colours and Gray's patience was wearing thin.
More. The wifi was down. At least he still had his telephone – he'd already called Lyon and complained. He'd complained so much that Lyon had just hung up to his face. Fortunately that made him calm down a little before calling Ur. Because if he made such a call to Ur she would totally come barging into the town and at least the problem with being stuck in there would be solved.
The silly thought of imagining Ur fighting – and beating – the forces of nature made Gray chuckle to himself. He had no doubt that she would come out victorious.
With a sigh Gray sat on the armchair and looked outside. Visibility wasn't all that great because there was still snow falling but the lights, the damned lights, they did look pretty.
The falling snow was calming to Gray.
It was somewhat nonsensical.
His parents had died in what was probably a night like this one – he was a bit fuzzy on some things sometimes – and yet the snow was calming to him.
Gray opened the window, cleared it a bit and sat on the windowsill. It was cold but also comforting. The fluffiness of the snow, the harsh ice that was left behind. It could all be very misleading – but that was also where the beauty of it was.
Extending his hands out, Gray let some snow fall on his hand.
He sat like that, almost in a trance-like state.
And then a knock on the door pulled him out of it.
"Gray-sama?" Juvia's voice came from the outside. And with it, the slight calm that Gray had managed to get went up in smoke. "It is time for dinner."
Heaving out a deep breath, Gray stood up and closed the window. "I'm coming, wait just a moment." He said as he quickly changed his now wet trousers for a new set and, upon a quick glance around the room, he also decided to fetch a new shirt.
In no time he was in the slightly nauseating corridor – even the smell! – and heading downstairs to the inn's restaurant.
Hopefully the food wasn't also thematic.
After Natsu and Lisanna left the coffeehouse, as their shift had ended, they headed to Cana's house. She was probably home already.
The group of friends had been decorating each other's houses together and having dinner, so they could spend a little time together as things in the town would get busier in the next few weeks.
"They were nice," Lisanna said as they walked on the sidewalk, heading to Cana's.
"Hm?" Natsu asked, burrowing slightly on his oversized parka.
"Sister's new guests." She said. But Natsu knew that smile.
"Oo-kay…" he said cautiously. "And what does that have to do with anything?" Natsu paused and Lisanna did too a couple of steps ahead.
"Nothing…" she replied teasingly.
"Hm," Natsu was unconvinced. "You'll have to tell me how you did it so that Mira didn't kill you."
"It's the perks of being the favourite sister." She said with a wink.
The snort that came from Natsu was expected.
"Come on. I can already see Cana's house. I want to eat."
"You're such a glutton," Lisanna said affectionately.
"You love me."
"Pffft. As if!"
And they walked the rest of the path while elbowing each other.
When they got to Cana's the door was opened by Lucy. She was yelling something back and rolling her eyes but a bright smile shone on her face before she threw herself at them, hugging them.
"Come in, come in! It's about time you got here. Erza and Cana are arguing over something and I just can't handle those two." She rolled her eyes.
The pair was dragged inside and before long, their coats were at the door and they were in the living room where a whole mess was taking place. The tree was on the corner, close to both the window and the fireplace but on the floor it looked like a warzone. Tinsel and baubles, lights and thread – and Natsu did a double take because, what the hell? – were scattered on the floor. The only decoration was actually the sock that was hanging by the mantle.
Natsu and Lisanna looked around in some shock and then, in the middle of the room, on the floor and covered in tinsel and fake snow, sat Erza and Cana and they were arguing about something at the same time that they were unravelling some lights that had been knotted into balls.
"What is going on in here?" Lisanna asked.
"They've been arguing since we brought the decorations. Apparently Cana wasn't too… careful… in storing things. And so Erza has been giving her an earful. And this is where we are." She shrugged. "They're just bickering now."
The duo stopped the bickering and looked at their friends before half-formed balls of tinsel were thrown their way, and Erza and Cana started laughing.
That was the moment Natsu's stomach chose to growl super loudly.
There was a beat of silence before laughter filled the room once again.
"I'm hungry, okay?" Natsu said, his cheeks a flaming pink.
"Come on, let's go eat." Cana said, standing up and untangling herself from the lights and tinsel before heading to the kitchen. "Set the table, will you?" she said to the room at large.
A flurry of movement followed and before long they were all sitting in the sofas and on the floor around the coffee table. Dishes, glasses and cutlery were distributed, napkins followed and then spaghetti Bolognese was being heaped into dishes and eaten. There was a bit of slurping around that elicited some side eyeing.
"So, it seems like we got some visitors today?" Lucy asked.
"Is that why Mira isn't here tonight?" Erza asked in turn.
"No, Mira had to see to the customers and some other things. She's getting ready to be all busy."
"But she's going to be very busy on the next few weeks. She had said that she was coming to help." Cana mumbled into her red wine.
"There's nothing that we can do today." Lucy said consolingly. "But, how are those strangers, then?"
"My, you're curious…" Lisanna teased.
"You know how it is. I need to find new bits of information."
"You call it information." Natsu said with a laugh only to shut up and innocently go back to his plate.
"C'mon, don't be assholes. Tell us who those strangers are." Lucy nearly whined.
"Fine, fine." Lisanna replied with a huff. "They're from the city and needed to go to another city…"
"You're terrible, Lisanna." Natsu said with a snort.
"They wanted to use the north pass but as you know, we're kind of isolated until the clean-up teams get it done."
"Oh goody…" Natsu said sarcastically.
"Shush you. Don't pretend that I didn't see you." Lisanna threw her balled-up napkin at Natsu.
"See what?" Erza asked, and Lucy and Cana were leaning forward too attentive too.
"She didn't see anything. You know Lisanna. At the end of the shift she starts seeing things." Natsu threw an unsubtle glare at his friend. "But now we have two new people in town and they don't exactly seem too keen on it."
"Maybe we should try to give them some of the Christmas spirit?" Lucy offered.
"That's not a bad idea. But, speaking of Christmas spirit, we still have a lot to do today." Lisanna said, pointing to the mostly bare tree.
"After dinner!" Natsu said around a mouthful.
"Yes, only after we finish eating." Cana said raising her glass in toast.
The friends ended toasting and putting some order in the chaos. The house got decorated. And, all in all, it was a chill evening with friends.