51st: Flames
Summary: The fire had always been there.
Fire was warm. Fire made him feel comfortable while Ice and Water made him feel unwell – especially Water. Ice was as least not wet and didn't hinder him from creating his flames. Ironically, Natsu liked Juvia more than he liked Gray – at least officially. The water mage was far too polite to insult his intelligence whenever they met. (Natsu was smart. He just never took the time to devise a strategy before he headed straight into a disaster.)
No, he preferred the Fire anyway. (No offence, Juvia, really.)
He grinned widely as he watched how Laxus was tackled by Cana and fell into the snow. That served the cocky Lightening Mage right, the Fire Dragon Slayer decided. The snow below him – cold as it was – didn't bother him all that much because inside his body, the flames were still burning and so he didn't feel the cold.
He laughed out loud as he watched how Evergreen smashed Fried's face into the snow as Bixslow's babies circled above them. Even the Thundergod Tribe had taken a few days off to enjoy the holidays. Lucy and Levy walked through the snow with Gajeel as 'the Shrimp's bodyguard' trailing behind them. Everyone wore thick coats and hats to be protected against the cold. He barely recognised Lisanna who sneaked up on Bixslow to throw him into the snow as Elfman and Evergreen got all starry-eyed as they looked at each other.
A snow ball fight was started when Fried took revenge on Evergreen and Natsu couldn't stand by the sidelines any longer and joined them. He liked the winter nearly as much he liked the winter – if not more because of the snow fights.
He laughed as he watched how Happy tried to slide angelic over the frozen lake to impress Charle and slipped over a twig and crashed onto his face and tried to grin widely and to act cool in spite of his injuries which led Wendy to cradle his poor little body for a moment and to wrap her scarf around him.
The complete scenery was strangely sweet and homely that he wasn't sure if he really wanted the summer to come again.
He changed his opinion when Erza and Mira lost control over their sleigh and crashed into him. Both S-class mages apologised quickly and dashed away to start another attempt as night well above town.
Gildarts who was building a snow man with Cana's help was complaining about his mild cold which hadn't kept him from joining them in the snow as Evergreen complained over her cold feet. (Maybe someone should have told her that high heels weren't the best shoes when it was planned to play in the snow.) Natsu grinned as a snowball hit him square into the face and threw another one back at Juvia.
With Midwinter approaching, it would be dumb to hold any grudges and a little bit of snow wouldn't kill a dragon slayer like him.
The holiday cheer, however, didn't keep him from cursing Gray who stuffed snow down his coat because this was cold, cold, cold.
But this was what Midwinter was like in the Fairy Tail guild. Mira would make sure that the Secret Santa tradition would be kept alive (even though many suspected that she might be manipulating the system for matchmaking purposes), pranks were pulled (Natsu would never forget Erza's face when everyone had gifted socks because everyone had believed that she needed them most) – and most of the time, when everyone was drunk, Cana was completely sober which happened rarely.
Natsu grinned as he went after Gray because even in the coldest winter, the flame burnt.