Author's Note: Hiya guys. Thank you for the reviews and the support. You guys make my day! As always all credit goes to the boss Hiro Mashima. Our adventure is reaching its climax and finale. Let me know what you guys think and if you have any ideas for another story when this is over. I have one in mind, but I want your opinions too. With that, enjoy this chapter.

Gajeel couldn't believe that his damn cat was forcing him to go Christmas shopping two days before Christmas. Hell, he couldn't believe that we was Christmas shopping in general. He didn't do holidays, he didn't do feelings, and he sure as hell didn't do cute. Well, maybe there was one cute thing that he liked, but that was different. He already laid claim to that cute thing and now it was his time to make that claim in public.

The streets were filled with people doing their last minute preparations for Christmas. There was barely any room for a guy to move, but because of his fierce looks, most people steered clear of Gajeel. Not that he cared, it just meant that he could get done more quickly and do something productive with his time, like ask Levy to the dance before one of her idiot teammates convinced her to go with them or worse, before Lily took those pictures to Mira.

Gajeel looked around at the shops. He was only shopping for two people, Levy and his damn cat. Even though he was annoyed at Lily, he still loved that fur ball. Lily was easy to shop for, he just had to find a good armory to get him a new sword. That was simple, but Levy was another case. He wanted to get her something that would make her happy, something that would make her think of him every time she saw it. Gajeel had an idea, but the item was located in a place where he never thought he would enter; the book store.

When Gajeel entered the book store, he received several odd looks from the customers.

"Can I help you, sir?" The clerk asked nervously, apparently it was rare for the store to receive customers who were as built and pierced as Gajeel.

"Uh, yeah. I'm looking for a book." Gajeel replied. The clerk looked at him with a face that read obviously. "Do you have a copy of 'Beauty and the Beast'?"

"Yes, it's in the last aisle." The clerk looked like he was in shock that Gajeel asked for such a sweet and gentle book. "Do you want me to show you?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Thank you." Gajeel blushed. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He had a reputation to uphold. He was supposed to be scary, not buying fairy tales at some softie book store. Gajeel walked to the aisle and picked up the prettiest copy of the book he could find, paid for it and left the store with as much dignity as he could. Unfortunately as he was walking away from the store he heard a voice call him.

"Hey Gajeel!" a small voice called. He kept walking.

"Where are you headed?" The voice called again. He started walking faster.

"Hey!" Someone grabbed his arm. He stopped and turned. It was Levy. Shit, she can't see what I have. He moved the bag with the book behind his back. "What's wrong? Didn't you hear me call you? Why were you running away?" She teased lightly.

"I don't run away from nothin'." Gajeel huffed.

"Sure." She grinned. "It didn't seem like that from where I was standing. Are you headed to the guild? I'll walk with you if you want."

"Uh, actually, I was headed to get Lily a new sword. Do you want to help me pick one out?"

"I'd love to."

They walked on in silence until they got to Lily's favorite armory.

"So, Christmas shopping for Lily?" Levy asked.

"Yeah, he keeps talking about this sword that they sell here. I figured it would be a good gift for him."

"So you two are celebrating Christmas? That's really cool." Levy seemed to be waiting for something, and Gajeel had an idea of what she was waiting for.

"Actually, there are three of us celebrating." This was his moment. He was going to ask her to the dance.

"Three?" Levy asked, looking both confused and worried. Doesn't she realize I'm talking about her?

"Well, I guess it's two. Me and you. The third could be Lily if we want to include him." Gajeel looked at his feet, but he could hear Levy take a breath. "That is if you want to spend Christmas with me. We could eat dinner together and go to the dance, that is if…."

"I'd love to." Levy cut him off. He looked up and saw her smiling widely. So cute.

"Awesome! Uh, I mean cool." Gajeel was trying to play it off, but he knew that he wasn't doing a very good job of hiding his grin. He gave in and full out smiled at her. "How do you want to do this? I could come to your place or we could meet at the guild? I've never done this before, so…"

"How about this, meet me at my place before the dinner and we can walk to the guild together." Levy suggested.

"Cool. Sounds like a plan. I better finish getting Lily's gift and get it home, but I'll meet you at the guild in a little bit?"

"Sure. I'll see you soon." Levy smiled up at him. Then she turned and walked out of the armory.

Yes! I can't wait to tell Lily. Christmas is going to be great!

Meanwhile, at the guild things were going in the opposite direction for Lucy. When she got to the guild, rumors were flying about another snow storm that would be hitting Magnolia in the next day or so. Unlike the last storm, this one was going to be a nasty blizzard that would start sometime that night and end late Christmas Eve.

Even with the treat of a storm and it being so close to Christmas, the guild was being swarmed with jobs. Most of them local, but a few nice paying ones were a couple hours out and of course, those were the ones that Natsu wanted to take.

"Why don't we take some of the easier missions like we did the other day? We could make almost the same amount of money by staying close. This way we could make the dinner here and be able to celebrate Christmas with all of our friends. We had fun the other day, didn't we?" Lucy reasoned with him. She was hoping that he would take the hint and ask her to the dance, but that chance was becoming slimmer by the minute.

"We'll make it back in time to celebrate. Don't worry about it, the job is only a couple hours away by train" He turned green at the thought of the ride, "and it involves investigating a possible dragon living in a cave by the village the request came from."

"Natsu, is it such a big deal that we go on this mission? We are supposed to be getting a storm. What if we get stuck in the town where the job's at?" Lucy asked.

"I understand you want us all to celebrate Christmas together, but that's why it'll be me, you, and Happy on this mission. The dragon could be Igneel. We'll never know unless we go." Natsu argued back. "If we get stuck we could celebrate Christmas there. Don't you want to spend Christmas with us?"

"No Natsu!" Lucy raised her voice. "I want to spend Christmas with you, but….never mind. You obviously don't get it."

"What aren't I getting?" Natsu asked sharply, his voice rising too.

"I want to spend Christmas with you, I want it that you and I can have time to just be together."

"We will, I don't get what the big deal is? Whether it's the three of us here or the three of us on the job, we'll be spending Christmas together."

"You know what. I give. You're such an idiot, I can't believe how dense you are! Have fun on your mission. I'm going home." Lucy turned on her heel and ran out of the guild.

"Whatever." Natsu huffed and sat down at the bar. "Mira, get me an ale please."

"What was that all about?" asked a very confused Happy.

"I don't know. She's mad because she wasn't to spend Christmas with us, but then she doesn't want to spend Christmas with us." Natsu explained as Mira returned with his drink. He took a large gulp. "Thanks Mira. I don't get it."

"That's because you're an idiot." Replied a new voice from behind him. Natsu turned to see Gray glaring at him with is arms crossed.

"What did you say, you pervy popsicle? I'm not in the mood to fight with you right now." Natsu growled.

"I said you're an idiot. Don't you understand what Lucy was saying? She wants to spend Christmas with you, Natsu."

"Yeah, that's why we were going on the job…."

"No, dumbass. She wants to spend it with only you, Natsu. She was probably hoping that you guys would go to the dance together. Just you and her. She likes you." Gray explained as if it was the simplest concept in the world, which it is.

"We were going to go to the dance together. I had all intention of spending Christmas with her. The dance was just going to be the two of us." Natsu replied looking confused.

"Did you tell her this?" Gray asked sarcastically.

"Well, no but…"

"That's your first mistake. You're second mistake is that it's always you and Happy."

"What do you mean by that? Happy's my best friend, so of course it's always the two of us." Natsu defended.

"The way you feel about Happy, is it the same as the way you feel about Lucy?" Gray asked. Apparently, Natsu needed somethings spelled out to him.

"No, Happy's my best friend, but Lucy's different. She's my best friend too, but I love her."

"Does she know this? Do you show her that she means something different than what Happy means?"

"Yeah, at least I think I do." Natsu scratched his head. "I don't know."

"You need to let her know how you feel and soon. I think you really hurt her feelings."

"You can't say anything. What about how you are with Juvia? She'd do anything for you and you feel the same way, but you haven't acted on it yet." Natsu argued back.

"I did act on it. I asked her to the dance and I plan on asking her out after the dance." Gray defended back. He sighed. "I know you weren't trying to, but you really hurt Lucy. You need to talk to her. This is an easy fix. It's just a lack of communication."

"You think that I can fix this?" Natsu asked Gray. He looked so upset with himself, that Gray couldn't be a jerk back. Gray put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah I do, but you have to take care of it soon." Gray smiled at his friend. "If I were you I'd go talk to her now."

"Ya know what, I have the perfect idea! Thanks for all the help Gray. I really appreciate it man. Happy, let's go. I'm going to need your help here." Natsu grabbed a job from the board and ran out of the guild into the night and into the snow that was just beginning to fall.

Gray sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. Those two are so dense that they are perfect for each other!

As Lucy ran out of the guild she burst into tears. She ran all the way to her apartment and locked the door behind her along with the window. She couldn't believe that he was being such an idiot. Didn't he realize that she liked him? Lucy laid down on her bed and continued to cry. Maybe I'm not the right one for him. Maybe it's not meant to be. A knock on the door startled her from her stream of self-pity.

"Go away Natsu! I don't want to talk to you." Lucy yelled. She knew that was mean, but she was really hurting and she didn't want to argue with him anymore.

"Lucy, it's me. Please let me in." It was Levy. "Mira told me what happened. It's ok. You can talk to me."

Lucy went to the door and opened it for her friend. As soon as she saw Levy's face, she burst into a fresh stream of tears. Levy enveloped her in a massive hug.

"It's ok. He's an idiot, but he didn't mean to hurt you. Talk to me, tell me what's wrong." Levy lead her over to the couch and handed her a box of tissues.

"Natsu wanted to take a job that was farther away. I wanted to stay close so that we could go to the guild's Christmas celebration." Lucy explained between sniffles.

"What was the job?" Levy asked as she reached into her bag and pulled out two pints of ice cream. She walked into the kitchen, grabbed two spoons, handed one to Lucy and sat back down. If anything Lucy had to admit that Levy was a fantastic friend to be so prepared without knowing what was bothering her.

"It was investigating rumors about a dragon. I understand that there's a chance it was Igneel, and I'm not even angry about the job. I would love to go with him, but I want it to be me and him. Just the two of us." Lucy blew her nose and sniffled again. "I figured that if he liked me he would be able to differentiate between us as a team and us as the possibility of being a couple."

"Do you think it's possible that he does and doesn't even realize it? He likes you, but he might not have figured it out already. Or maybe he has, but he hasn't gotten enough courage to say anything." Levy knew Natsu was dense, but she had faith in him that he knew what was going on, but wasn't sure on how to act.

"Anything's possible, it's just frustrating. I have no idea what's going on in his head or how he feels. I just want this waiting game to be over." Lucy sighed and ate a spoon of ice cream. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. How are things with you and Gajeel?"

Levy's spoon stopped in the pint. Lucy looked over to her friend and saw that she seemed to be conflicted.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked, worried her friend was going through her own troubles.

"That's the thing, nothing's wrong." Levy looked up and gave Lucy a small smile. "Gajeel asked me to the guild's celebration. He's coming over to my place and we are going to the guild together. I didn't want to tell you when you were going through your own problems."

"Levy, that's fantastic! I'm so happy for you. I'm sorry if I took away from your happiness. That's awesome." Lucy hugged her friend tightly.

"Thanks Lu-chan. I was thrilled when he asked. I wonder what drove him to ask?" Levy shrugged. "Doesn't matter, at least it worked out. I'm sure Natsu will figure out why you are upset and will fix it. He may be dense, but he's not an idiot. He'll come around."

"I hope so." Lucy stirred her ice cream with her spoon. "I'm really happy for you Levy."

"Thanks. I know things will be ok, you just have to keep the faith." Levy looked at her watch. "I better head back before the snow starts. I'll see you tomorrow at the guild unless the storm's too bad. Let me know if you get to talk to Natsu. Will you be ok?"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Lucy smiled, even though her heart still hurt a bit. "Be safe getting back. Thank you for coming to check on me. You're the best!" Lucy hugged Levy as they walked to the door. "Let me know if you need any help getting ready for the dance, ok?"

"I will. Goodnight Lu-chan." Levy called over her shoulder as Lucy shut the door.

Lucy sighed and looked out the window to see it was starting to snow. She was still hurt, but she was worried about Natsu. If she was hurting, so was he. Lucy changed for bed and climbed under her covers. He'll forgive me right. She unlocked the window. I understand what he meant, but…I just hope he can understand what I want too. Lucy laid awake in bed for what felt like hours and eventually fell into an uneasy sleep.