Deck the halls with balls of holly
Fa la la la la, la la la la
Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la la la-
Rock on!
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm," Loke hummed. "You know you want in on this action," he said with mouth full to the boys.
The guys were all gathered on the couch in front of the TV after a long day's work. Gajeel slurped loudly on cup noodles using chopsticks, as Natsu cringed at the scene on the TV, beer in hand of course. Meanwhile Loke, still in his suit and tie, was holding a large plate of prepared raw fish and seaweed, munching on it ardently, in an attempt to entice the boys.
"A little fatty toon..." Loke continued. "Yellow T... Cali roll..." he continued, looking pointedly at Natsu, who uncomfortably scooted over. "Samurai snack," he said, this time feeding himself another helping with his chopsticks. "So scrummy."
The scene on the TV continued to play on, as the singing group herded themselves in front of the cafeteria, and a guy dressed as a pine tree started to speak.
"Merry Christmas Lima High! Glee club here! Reminding you that our Christmas pageant is soon coming. Next stop... regionals!"
"What the hell are regionals?" Natsu asked quietly before taking a bite of his sandwich. "They never stop talking about it... And seriously Celeste, it looks like you're just soloing on $80 worth of sushi."
"Cause I got the means, player," the blonde retorted. "Look, I get why you don't want to get down here," he said with a patronizing smile to Natsu. "But Gaj, my man, you got to climb aboard!" Loke looked over Natsu to his other roommate. "You've got a serious J-O-B now, you've got to indulge yourself!"
Gajeel scoffed.
"Are you serious?" he asked incredulously. "Dude its a temp job. If by 'serious' you mean 'piece of crap' then yeah its serious."
Flashback
That day at work, marking his very first as a mail room assistant, Gajeel sat at a desk in one corner of the complicated postal office in his suit and tie. He quickly stuffed envelopes and checked his stop watch right afterward, hoping he could beat some kind of record. Surely, there had to have been some kind of professional envelope sealer in the Guinness Book of World Records right?
After stuffing another envelope and checking the time, he collapsed onto his desk.
"I'm losing my mind guys," he finished. "You know, I sometimes touch the frayed part of the power cord, just to feel something."
Before his friends could really dissect his statement, the door jingled and opened, revealing a shyly smiling Lucy who only peaked her head inside.
"What's up you guys?" she asked. "So does anybody have any special lady guests coming over tonight?"
"Lady guests?" Natsu asked, making a face at her phrase.
"And how would you feel about opening your home, and your hearts, to the youth of America?" she continued, before gradually opening the door to reveal a small group of middle schoolers, all talking amongst themselves as they entered their home.
"Yo Miss H," one of her students asked. "Where should we set up these bells?"
With that remark, the girl unceremoniously dropped a heavy, bulky case on the ground causing the indistinct clattering noise of said musical instrument and Loke to get a chill up his spine.
As the kids began to set up the dining room table as a station to practice their bells, Lucy scurried over to the couch. The sounds of somber piano keys started to fill the background and Natsu silently wondered where the noise was coming from. The guys all looked at the kids with dread and then turned to Lucy with that same dread.
"I am so sorry you guys, I should have told you, but it was last minute since the community center decided to turn our rehearsal space, back into a hallway, so..." she threw her hands in the air in defeat. "I had nowhere to go."
"Is this some kind of, mean, creative judgement thing that you do?" Loke asked.
"Yeah, this is just like a nightmare I had once where you brought over teenagers... with bells," Natsu added.
"These kids had a choice between early morning detention, and music... and they all chose music," the blonde finished happily.
"No kidding?" Natsu asked sarcastically.
"Desiree, bells are not for hitting!" Lucy called over to the dining room table. The darker hued girl named Desiree, who dropped the bells earlier, stopped in her tracks with a bell in hand as she was about knock one of her schoolmates with it. "The kids wanted to play band instruments, but we got a huge donation of hand bells recently which are also tres tres dope," the teacher finished.
"Miss Heartfilia," Desiree called, walking over holding a small packaged snack. "Can I eat some of these crackers?"
"Oh no, no, no, little girl" Loke said getting up. "Water crackers are for the adults..." he said with a smile. "...to eat with adult cheese."
"Then can I at least eat a cracker sushi sandwich?"
Loke was about to have an aneurysm. "No," he said sitting down and turning to his roommate. "Luce?"
"So what?" Gajeel asked. "You guys just gonna sit around and play 'Jingle Bells' all day long?"
"No," she answered. "Jingle Bells is a cliched song and we're not gonna do it on the most cliched instrument either - and just so you know, I'm not really asking for you guys' permission. I'm a grown woman who has to pay rent around here - I'm giving you guys a heads up."
The room got really quiet after Lucy's assertion of using the living room and the boys were all surprised. Lucy cleared her throat and laughed.
"Wow, that got serious," she said before getting up. "Anyway, you all are gonna love these kids, just as much as I do."
"Well you can't really promise us that, can you Luce?" Natsu folded his arms.
She smiled and stood up, noticing the scene on the TV.
"Oh my dear sweet Natsu," she smiled sympathetically at him. "Of course I can. All you need is a little-"
Glee!
It's a feeling you get,
when you're brain finally let's,
your heart get in it's pants!
Glee!
It's like a drug that you use,
that turns pain into shoes,
and your shoes into dance!
Nevermind his perplexed reaction at her terrible wordplay, the somber piano music that Natsu was wary of in the background suddenly sped up to play a musical theatre tune as Lucy started singing.
"Where is the music that's playing this song?" Natsu asked to the piano's melody.
Glee is the answer when questions are wrong! Lucy sang.
You'll understand if just sing along!
Cause Glee is the gift that you neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!
She danced her way in front of Gajeel, smiling as she extended a hand for him to get off the couch. Seemingly being pulled in by the whimsy in her eyes, Gajeel took her hand to join her and started to sing.
Horribly off key.
"Oh dear God..." Natsu stifled a groan as his pulled his spiky pink locks due to his cousin's voice.
Glee!
Is what I'll spread to our friends,
Like a virus that sends
them to a healthier place!
Gajeel and Lucy jumped on the coffee table to tap dance, leaving Natsu and Loke to quickly scamper for their food items before it got stomped on.
"Hey, watch it!"
Glee!
I'll understand every scene,
because they'll sing what they mean
instead of making a face!
Natsu checked to see if he was subconsciously making a 'turtle face' after hearing Lucy's lyrics. He was.
Families are closer
when families are winning!
Everything's cooler,
when camera's are spinning!
Gajeel hoisted Lucy in the air for a spin and finally, they sang in unison.
Singing
and dancing
and everything-
-ing -ing -ing!
Glee is the gift that we neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!
"Glee!" Gajeel shouted impulsively when it was done, they both were smiling brightly, as if possessed, panting for air as they held their closing poses.
There was a... long silence that followed.
Not even the kids said anything.
"Who are they posing at?" Natsu asked quietly after a while.
Caroling of the Bells
Lucy and her group of detention kids got to work for the next hour, as she taught them the basics of how to hold the hand bells, how to chime them and the notes for their first song. The guys all cleared out of the living room when the kids started playing due to the noise. The hour seemed to pass by too quickly for Lucy, and she was super proud at how fast everyone was able to learn the basics and that they were already learning the song.
The students started to play a very out-of-tune "Camptown Races" on the bells, when Loke returned to the living room with a grieved expression, noise cancelling headphones, and a plate full of crackers and sliced cheese for Lucy the kids.
"Aw, thank you Loke," Lucy said, tapping him lightly.
He nodded tersely at her before returning to his room.
"Wonderful," Lucy said as she directed them with gloved hands. "You guys are doing great. And to think - you could've been in detention right now."
"Is it too late to choose detention?" Desiree asked.
"We suck," another girl said plainly.
"We don't suck, we just need a bit more time to practice, that's all."
The one male student whom Lucy had allowed to play the bells like a percussion instrument, was beating the bell with a pair of xylophone sticks off key, as if he were doing his own drum solo.
"Oh wow, Hector, um... big finish, big finish," she said signaling to everyone that she was about to cut the song off. "And... we're out."
Once the song was done, Desiree walked away immediately.
"I'm so proud of you," Lucy said genuinely. "That's what it feels like to play a song, sort of together. Now bring it in," she said holding out her hand for the other three to pile theirs on top. Another brunette girl smiled and excitedly placed her hand on top of Lucy's. Hector, and the girl who claimed that they sucked earlier, both looked at her hand for a moment before reluctantly adding theirs to the fray.
"Ensembell!" Lucy and the excitable brunette cried.
"You've earned yourselves five minutes of text time," she offered.
Taking advantage of the reprieve between horrible chiming noises, Gajeel wandered out of his room into the kitchen, watching them break their group huddle.
"Miss Heartfilia!" came a cry from the bathroom.
Lucy spun around at the sound of her name. "Desiree?"
Lucy flew into their shared bathroom space and met Desiree pushing the lever for the toilet as water rose up, about to brim from the bowl.
"You got a twisted toilet Miss H," Desiree said to her.
"Natsu!" she cried. "Toilet situation! Code one! Water only!"
Natsu dashed from his room and down the hall, brushing past her as he entered the bathroom. "You didn't tell her the system?"
"I'm sorry, she went rogue!"
Natsu turned on the faucet, slipping between the two ladies to open a square, cutout hole in the wall, above the toilet and fiddled with a Sprite soda bottle in the wall.
Loke came in due to all the commotion, taking off his headphones.
"Thank you Natsu," Lucy said, after the toilet water started receding.
The pinkette returned the cover back on the wall. "There we go. No problem."
"Perfect. You did it," Loke remarked sarcastically. "The plastic soda bottle is right where its supposed to be - back in the wall hole."
"What?" Natsu looked at him. "I fixed it!"
"I've heard that before..." Loke rolled his eyes.
Montage
After gathering as much stray quarters as he could find in the loft, Natsu placed them in a quarter holder and duct taped it right to the bottom of a shaky nightstand to fix the uneven lengths of the table legs. Once he was done, he stood the table upright, tried to shake it but it remained steady.
"I fixed it," he said.
XxXxX
After scooping as much ice as possible into their leftover plastic grocery bags, Natsu taped them to his stand up Lasko fan and turned it on. Chilly air proceeded to blow at him.
"There," he said, as Loke stared at him skeptically with his shirt soaking with sweat. "I fixed it."
XxXxX
On the roof, there was a pool of black liquid gathering above their apartment, and Natsu with a long, thin hand drill, began to drill a hole through the ceiling, causing the liquid to drain out.
Gray and Loke looked on at the scene with concerned looks.
Once the liquid was gone, he looked up at them. "It's fixed."
"Okay Natsu, repeat after me: I am not the Chinese kid from Goonies." Loke said.
"You know I fix things just to the point of working Celeste," Natsu retorted. "If you want a fancy fix, just say so."
"Alright," he relented. "Can you please fancy fix the toilet?"
"That's all you had to say."
They're interrupted by the majestic yet complicated chiming of bells from the dining room. Curious, the three roommates wandered to the origin of the sound only to find Gajeel wearing Lucy's white gloves, masterfully chiming three bells in each of his hands all around his body.
"Woah..."
As Gajeel continued to play, the hairs on Loke's arm began to raise. He pulled up the sleeve of his suit to view them in awe. He tapped Natsu.
"Goose pimples... look..." he took a wet smack with the roof of his mouth. "...each one... a memory..."
Natsu gave him an odd look just as Gajeel finished, and everyone, including the kids cheered.
Later on, after the kids had left the loft leaving only the foursome, Lucy got to begging.
"Okay Gajeel... you've got to help me," she placed her palms flat on the table. "Here's my pitch, women love two things: musicians and role models. The kids would totally love it and you and I would get to spend some time together!"
"You gotta do it," Loke nonchalantly interjected. "It's a mitzvah bro."
"Are you sure you've never rung before?" Lucy clarified.
"Believe it or not Blondie... I've never played the handbells before. I guess I just pick up things easy, that's all." He finished with a shrug like it was no big deal, while the rest of his friends looked at him like he was a bonified genius.
"Well I know handbells aren't exactly the coolest instrument in the world," Lucy continued. "They may not even be the fifth coolest... but the kids would love it! I think they'd try a little harder if they got to see how good the bells can really be. Plus, the whole thing is for a Red Cross Fair, and you can't say no to charity on Christmas."
"It's only December 3rd..." Gajeel countered.
"Also," Lucy added, "there's like, some really cool bell shorthand we can use to talk about this guy..." she finished, hiding the side of her mouth while pointing at Natsu, causing the pinkette to raise an eyebrow.
"We'd be like, Natsu's such a tinkle," she imitated Gajeel with a deep, groggy voice. "No, I think he's more of a tonkle," she responded to herself in her own voice.
Gajeel chortled.
"Tinkle and tonkle... are potential bell talk we could use," Lucy clarified quietly.
"I get it, I get it, just be cool please," he said with a half smile.
"Oh I am cool," Lucy countered. "And before you make your decision... I'd only need you until the fair on Sunday and I'll compensate you for your time."
Gajeel picked up a single bell and gave it a gentle chime. "I don't know... I think I could be into this."
"Yay!" Lucy cheered.
Natsu looked at him, mortified.
"And with that ladies and gentlemen... Gajeel never had sex again.
His statement was ignored as Lucy started to sing again.
Lucy and Gajeel!
Playing bells together forever,
(or at least until Sunday)!
The next afternoon, Loke returned home from work and went straight to the bathroom, where he found Natsu lying beside the toilet with a wrench and a toolbox beside him, tinkering with something the blonde couldn't see.
"Natsu look," he said. "I don't mean to nag you, but how long is this gonna take?"
"Fancy fix, so fancy amount of time."
"'Cause I would like to use my own bathroom now."
Flashback
The local cafe by Mermaid Heel was a popular spot for kids and the local college students to visit in the afternoons and that particular afternoon was no exception.
Loke power walked out of their singular bathroom as the toilet flushed, but before he could get very far he was stopped by a barista.
"Excuse me sir, bathrooms are for paying customers only."
Loke flashed him a bagel out of his pocket and pointed a finger in the man's face.
"How dare you."
"If only there were some sort of... pipe and... water expert we could hire... to come and fix this problem," he continued.
Natsu sighed.
"We can't afford a plum-"
"A plumber!" Loke interjected. "So you do know what it's called!"
"You really want to do this?" Natsu used his wrench to gesture between the two of them. "Do you really want to have this fight with me Celeste?" He slowly began to sit up.
"You wanna go down this path?"
"Is this a path that you recently fixed?"
"It's called self-reliance Celeste! Because you see, unlike you Loke, I don't just throw money at all my problems."
"All I'm hearing, is that I can't use my toilet because you're poor!"
Natsu shook his head.
"Look, it's your lucky day buddy," Loke continued. "I'll pay for the plumber. Merry Christmas. Or the way my people say it, Happy Hanukkah!"
"No Loke, I don't want your charity!"
"Well you seem to be more than happy using my emergency toolbox."
"Oh yeah?" Natsu challenged, lifting up a pair of pliers from the toolbox. "Do you even know what this is?"
"Doy, it's a scissors."
"Sure Loke, it's a pair of scissors," he said before throwing the pliers into the toilet.
The pinkette dusted off his hands as he headed out the bathroom door, bumping into Loke's shoulders on his way out. "A scissor... really man?"
Meanwhile, Loke stared at the toilet his pliers fell into confused.
"Well yeah, it was a scissor, a scissors that you just threw into the turdlet."
Lucy and Gajeel were outside of the post office where he worked as he helped her haul the bell case inside her car. Lucy looked around the downtown area and twirled around, taking in the disorienting height of the skyscrapers.
"I can't wait to get to practice Gajeel, this is going to be so amazing," she said. "Just picture it, us... in this Winter Wonderland serenading the good people of Earth to give to charity... on bells."
Gajeel raised an eyebrow.
"What winter wonderland? We are standing in the middle of downtown Los Angeles in 80 degree weather."
"Oh Gajeel," she smiled at him. "All you've got to do is have a little faith. That's how we're gonna get the kids in the Christmas spirit."
"Okay, again, it's only December 4th..."
Lucy pulled out her phone and a speaker out of her bag. After connecting them both, music started to play.
Give me the snow,
Light up the trees,
Deck every hall
and wall you can see,
She sang and danced her way down the sidewalk, popping up on park benches and swinging on lampposts as Gajeel hurried to lock her car and follow.
Roast every nut,
Mistle the toe,
This needs to be the best
Christmas since the original!
She made her way to the other side of the mailroom parking lot and began to jump on top of car to car, like they were stepping stones, setting off numerous car alarms in the process.
"Uh, I don't think you should be doing that..." Gajeel said, noting the various eyes that were watching them.
"Come on Gajeel!" Lucy said, bending down and putting her hand on his shoulder. She used her other hand to swipe the air. "All you need is a little imagination... and LA can become your own personal wonderland!"
Following her line of thinking, suddenly the dark, dreary post office parking lot became a powdery, white heaven. He smiled at the absolutely breathtaking scenery.
"Wow, I think I see it..." he said in awe.
He started to walk towards a small snowman with a fedora and red scarf, being taken back to the days where he was a kid and was able to make snowmen with his friends back in Magnolia.
Gajeel picked up some snow from the surrounding area, piling it on top of the snowman's head. He picked up three pebbles to make the buttons, he pressed them into the snowman's top, then middle.
"That's the spirit Gajeel!" Lucy cried. "Tap into your heart and find the true meaning of Christmas!"
"I don't suppose you know the true meaning of Christmas, Mr. Snowman?" Gajeel asked, as he went to button the bottom.
The snowman roughly slapped his hand away.
"Apparently, it means getting fondled by singing mental cases like you," the snowman said disgustedly.
Gajeel gasped. "Mr. Snowman! You're... alive!"
"I'm not a snowman you idiot, I'm a guy," he continued. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I thought I made you..." Gajeel responded.
"Yeah, you made me need to go home and cry in the shower tonight."
Gajeel's attention was snatched away momentarily when he heard somebody scream at Lucy for continuing to sing and dance on their car.
Twenty thousand years from now
they'll saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,
The most successful Christmas
was todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy!
Just then, two police offers surrounded the car and one of them pulled out their taser and shot it at the blonde, causing her body to have a minor jolt before she passed out on the hood of the car.
The people in the parking lot cheered.
"Lucy!" Gajeel immediately snapped out of his reverie to run to her side.
"Okay everyone, we got her, we got her," the officer said the the crowd. "She's finally down."
The crowd cheered again.
"Hey!" the snowman yelled as Gajeel ran away. "Now that you started it, how about ten more seconds on that third button, eh?"
Gajeel winced as he took in Lucy's unconscious body on car.
"Yeeeaaahhh, we're gonna be late for bell practice today..."
"Just sign here, and here..."
Loke looked over the older gentleman's shoulder at where he was needed to put his signature.
Just then, Natsu walked back into the loft after leaving to blow off some steam. He took in the stranger's attire, his overalls, rubber gloves and utility belt and it gave Natsu all the hints he needed.
"A plumber Loke, really?!" Natsu slammed the door behind him and threw his keys on the couch. "Did you plan it this way? Just to rub my face in it?"
Loke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I wanted to rub your face in our working toilet."
"Great, well that working toilet I will never use."
"So you're just never gonna go to the bathroom again?"
"Wait, you're the soda bottle guy?" Interjected the deep voice of the plumber. "That was actually pretty smart."
Natsu's face lit up.
"Thank you!Thank you," he turned to Loke. "And I have nothing to say to you."
Loke rolled his eyes. "Okay."
"Question for you sir: How much did he pay for this?"
"Alright, that's enough," Loke said, ushering the plumber out the door.
"$50? $100?"
"Inappropriate!"
"Hey everyone, my name's Loke Celeste and I was born rich, I had a $40,000 bar mitzvah!"
Once the plumber was out the door with the door closed, Loke angrily stalked over to the couch where Natsu was.
"Okay. How long you do the petty act for man? A week? A month? Is this 'my favorite bedspread' all over again?"
"That was a handmade gift my nana gave me you jerk, that you spilled a pitcher of Midori Sours on, and now you bring it up like it's nothing?"
"I left you a check for $30 on your pillow. Your 'nanny' gave you that thing for free, so as far as I'm concerned you're up 30 bucks."
"My nana is dead! I'm not looking to make money off of her!"
"I will NOT apologize again for the Midori Sours!"
"WHO DRINKS MIDORI SOURS?!"
"EVERYONE DRINKS MIDORI SOURS!"
"NO THEY DON'T!"
"IT'S A MELON LIQUEUR!"
"I WOULD NEVER DRINK ONE!"
"IT'S AN AMERICAN CLASSIC WITH ASIAN INFLUENCES!"
"GAJEEL WOULD NEVER DRINK ONE!"
"Well enjoy the couch," Loke said indignantly. "I bought that too."
Natsu quickly got off the couch and sat on the rug in front of the coffee table to watch their banged up television.
"Enjoy the rug too- paid for that. Organic woven," Loke continued.
Natsu got off the rug, walked behind the TV, and yanked out some plugs leaving no signal on the screen.
"What are you doing?" Loke asked as he sat on the couch to watch a soccer game. "Oh come on man."
"Well I paid for cable this month!" Natsu yelled as he stormed off.
"AND MY BAR MITZVAH WAS AN AMAZING EVENT!" Loke cried as Natsu slammed the door. "The theme was sports jams!"
That evening, after finally being released from police custody with an explanation and an apology, Lucy and Gajeel were in the dining room with the detention kids, practicing Camp town Races. The kids sounded off key and unsure as usual, but then Gajeel came at the end with his own fanciful, impromptu solo. The kids looked to him in awe.
"Oh, wow!"
"Oh my God!"
"That was really good!"
The kids broke out into applause. Lucy smiled and applauded too.
"That was off the hammer yo!" she shouted. Everyone paused to stare at her strangely. Lucy chuckled.
"You know, as in the Hammer and the bell? Tough crowd," she sang with another chuckle.
"So listen gang, here's what I was thinking," Gajeel said. "If we want to win at this Red Cross Fair thing, we play something cool like Eye of the Tiger."
Lucy's smile started to wane a little.
"What's Eye of the Tiger?" one of the students asked.
"Eye of the Tiger is the greatest song ever written. It was so cool, it ended the Cold War."
"That's not even a little bit true..." Lucy trailed off.
"I never thought bells could be so cool," another one of the kids said.
"What do you mean? I make bells cool," Lucy interjected.
There was another awkward pause as the kids looked at her sympathetically.
Then they turned back to Gajeel.
"Hey, can you do that thing where you hold three bells in one hand and..."
"The three-in-hand!" Lucy shouted.
"I think they're talking about, the Gajeel," her roommate said to her.
The kids all started to murmur excitedly in agreement about 'the Gajeel' while Lucy trailed off to herself.
"It is actually called the three-in-hand... And I know how to do it too."
"Yeah, but do you know how to do this?" Gajeel asked, before going on to effortlessly chime out another impromptu melody.
When he was done, the kids all cheered and clapped for him again. Lucy put her hands together as well.
"Um... that was really pretty!" she mustered. "But Ms. Heartfilia's got a few tricks up her sleeve as well!"
Accepting the challenge, Gajeel put down the bells in his hands, as Lucy tied up her hair into a high ponytail. "Let's see what you got."
The kids started encouraging her as well.
"Yeah, Ms. H!"
"Lets see what you've got Ms. Heartfilia!"
"Show us how it's done!"
Lucy took a bell in each of her hands and began to ring them wildly, playing dissonant chords. The kids all looked disgusted. Lucy tried to incorporate a mixture of martial arts and dancing into her bell playing, which resulted in her whipping her hair, kicking the air and trying to do an unsuccessful split kick that made Gajeel question the laws of physics.
"I wanna play Eye of the Tiger!" Hector spouted to Gajeel, prematurely ending Lucy's performance.
The kids all started to clamor in agreement.
"That sounds so fun," Lucy added. "But we can't because we don't have that kind of time guys. Sorry."
"Well that's not true," Gajeel piped up. "I was thinking, if you all skipped school and practiced like your lives depended on it, then bam, you got it."
The kids all started cheering at his suggestion and Lucy's eyes bugged out, mortified.
The next morning found Lucy in a black and white stripped romper with blue flats on her feet and a blue ribbon in her hair. She arose that morning to the sound of tinkering sounds in the living room, and she wandered over to find Natsu with a screwdriver in hand doing something with the boys' indoor basketball hoop.
He looked over at her and smiled. "Morning Luce."
She was in the kitchen making herself a cup of hot chocolate, and she could only return his greeting with a distraught expression. "Hey, can I talk to you about something?"
She walked over and sat on the arm of the couch to be as close to her friend as possible, as the first rays of the morning started to pool in, leaving golden patches on both of their bodies.
"Um... so it's about Gajeel."
As Natsu continued whatever it was he was doing behind the basketball hoop, as Lucy nervously recounted for him what transpired at their last bell practice.
"Listen, Lucy, I've known Gajeel longer than anyone and I can tell you he's always been like that. Kinda callous, kinda conceited. He's always been incredibly talented, pretty much at everything he ever tried. It was... it was one of the main reasons I hated his guts when I was younger."
Lucy rubbed the rim of her glass mug as her heart began to feel bad for little Natsu. She always was super invested whenever he told her bits of information about himself, because he hardly liked to talk about himself.
"The point I'm trying to make is, he gets big headed if you let him get out of hand like this, so I suggest, you talk to him about it."
Lucy squirmed in her seat. She didn't like the idea of going to confront him because she still wasn't sure if the problem was just him or her own fragile ego getting in the way. Regardless, she didn't want to do anything to hinder the kids' progress and most importantly, she didn't want to cause a possible rift in their friendship over nothing. Especially since she felt like they were just starting to get close.
Natsu looked back over to her in growing silence. Sensing her discomfort, he offered to do it himself.
"Well, I could always talk to him if you want."
Lucy's face lit up. "Are you sure?"
"It's no problem."
The small twinkle in her eyes soon reflected in her shining expression as the biggest, most relieved smile overcame her face.
"Thanks Natsu.'
A half smile tugged at his lips as he went back to finishing up the last of his screws behind the basketball.
As much of a handful as Lucy could be sometimes, there was just something about that childlike innocence of hers that was just so adorable. It made him feel good doing something nice for her, especially when it resulted in that smile.
Lucy's eyes arbitrarily rested on her mug again and she jolted once she remembered something.
"Oh crap! I forgot to offer you a cup of cocoa because my mind was so busy on this bell group stuff. Did you want this one?" She offered Natsu her own mug. "I could always make myself another."
"Nah, I'm good. That's very sweet of you though."
Seconds later, Loke emerged from his bedroom in stride, as Natsu stepped down off of the TV stand and away from the hoop.
"Hey Nat..." Loke said nervously. "You and I... we're good on that whole plumber thing right?"
"Absolutely Celeste," Natsu said, passing him a basketball.
"Oh cool, cool," he said, dribbling the ball once before going for the hoop. "Cause I was right about that whole thing."
As Loke shot the ball through the hoop, the whole thing fell apart over Loke's head as he quickly jumped out of the way and shielded himself from the crash. Lucy's jaw dropped.
"Yeah, I unfixed that." Natsu said plainly.
"Yeah, well how were you gonna fix a dead Loke?!"
"I wasn't worried about it, I knew you were gonna get out the way in time!"
"YOU MANIAC! You didn't know anything!"
And just like that, Natsu and Loke were in each other's faces, having another yelling match even though it was early in the morning. Lucy got in the middle of them and covered her eyes so she wouldn't go deaf, while trying to calm them down.
"You guys! You shouldn't be fighting like this! This is not exemplary of the holiday spirit!"
But alas, her cries fell on deaf ears.
Later on that afternoon, Natsu was waking up from a long nap in preparation for his shift that night. He lifted one his hands to wipe the sleep from his eyes, but he was met with some kind of goo on it.
"What the..."
Once he finally regained all of his senses and registered everything around him, he realized that his entire bed was covered in various, defrosted, frozen food items.
Loke adequately popped in hearing his friend stir, wearing a shit eating grin.
"I paid for the freezer, so, you know."
Natsu groaned aggressively. "I am going to kill you."
That afternoon at bell practice, found Gajeel laser focused. Standing upright and wearing a determined expression, the man repeated one word.
"Focus," he said.
"Focus," the kids said mimicking him.
"You guys focused?" Gajeel asked, turning to the kids like a drill sargent. Lucy watched the whole scene unfold with only slight worry.
"What's the song about?" he asked the group.
"Hanging tough, staying hungry... sir." Hector answered.
"A man and his will to survive..." one of the girls said wistfully. Gajeel turned to her.
"Are you brown-nosing me?"
"Yes. Yes, absolutely," she turned to him with a smile. "You are so cool."
"Where are your eyes?" he asked the group.
"On the tiger!" They chorused.
With that, Gajeel pointed a finger at Lucy and the blonde smiled and nodded.
"One, two, three, four..."
Gajeel and the kids started to play the melody for Eye of the Tiger. It started off pretty well. Everyone was playing in unison, the chords were on key, and the whole thing sounded like the actual song. Then, things went left when the bells started to chime in discord and the song went off-key.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Gajeel cried, causing the kids to nervously stop playing. "Are you kidding me? It is not that hard people. This is an instrument, that a cat wears around it's neck."
"Okay, you know what," Lucy said. "I think they did a pretty great job considering the fact that they only had one practice session to learn this."
"Well you're wrong Lucy. You thought wrong, because clearly I'm the only teacher here who cares about teaching them crap. I'm out there in the cold, by myself! I got no support!"
"Maybe we just aren't good enough to do this," Hector said solemnly.
"No, you are good enough," Lucy said strongly. "This is not your problem, this is Mr. Redfox's problem."
"Pah, rest, pah, pah, pah, rest, pah, pah, pah, rest, pah, pah paaaaaaaaaaaah," Gajeel sang the melody sporadically in the kids' faces. Desiree laughed at his apparent freak out. "Can you hear it everybody? It's a very famous song."
"Gajeel..." Lucy said in a warning tone.
"You know what," He walked away to a nightstand, picked up two magazines and rolled them up. "Sophia, you're gonna play these until you learn how to get it right."
He took the bells out of her hand and replaced them with the rolled up magazines. "Don't play those, play these."
Desiree straight up laughed. Gajeel wildly turned to her.
"And what the hell are you laughing at WNBA?"
The girl's smile quickly faded.
"Okay, Mr. Redfox," Lucy injected in a warning tone.
"You look like you're fighting off a shark, when what you should be doing, is trying to pet the dolphin!"
The kids all stayed deadly silent.
"You!" he pointed at Hector who jolted at the bass in the man's voice. "You... didn't make me want to throw up."
Hector's shoulders relaxed.
"Now, let's take this from the top."
"Gajeel," Lucy said sternly. "...I think you should go."
There was a shocked pause between Lucy's words and Gajeel's reaction.
"What, you're kicking me out of bell group?"
Lucy didn't say anything, but her expression didn't change.
"Fine," he yanked off his gloves and threw them on the table. "I don't need this."
As Gajeel walked away, Lucy felt the heat of the tension weighing down on her. She quickly strode her way into the kitchen for some water.
As the blonde opened the cupboard, the door fell off causing a loud crashing sound and forcing Lucy to get out of the way.
"NATSU! LOKE! This has to stop! It's not my war!"
The next morning, Loke returned from his morning run to meet only Natsu in the common area, sipping on coffee and reading the newspaper. The blonde was quite glad he and Natsu were alone because them being at odds was starting to weigh on him. Especially since its already been a couple of days.
"Hey uh... so maybe Luce was right," Loke began. "Maybe we should talk this thing through."
"Absolutely man," Natsu said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Great, well I'm gonna go put on a clean shirt and I'll be right out."
Loke quickly jogged to his room already yanking off his sweaty shirt, when his door got stuck. "What the...?"
He immediately turned to Natsu.
"Yeah Loke, I put your couch and your freezer in your room. You see I didn't want to get my POOR all over them!"
"I've got to get in there man, I'm a MESS," Loke raised his voice. "I have to go to a networking event later, Scott Kaun is speaking!"
"Uggh, would you LISTEN to yourself?"
"Did you use my conditioner?" Loke suddenly asked.
"What? No!"
"No I can tell man," Loke stalked over to Natsu's head and took a whiff. "Lotus berry Relax! Lotus berry Relax! I can smell it on you right now!"
"Its fine, stop sniffing my hair Celeste!"
"You know how much that stuff costs?"
"Newsflash Loke: I didn't use your conditioner."
"THEN WHY DOES YOUR HAIR LOOK SO BABY SOFT?!"
"Fine, Loke! I ran out of my shampoo and used your conditioner! We're talking about conditioner right?!"
"YOU USED IT AS SHAMPOO?!" Loke was appalled. "Its for moisture Natsu, not for cleaning! I can't believe we're- I can't believe we were ever friends. Give me it back man."
"Give you what back?!"
Loke marched over and tried to strongarm the moisture out of Natsu's hair.
"Think about what you're doing right now!" the pinkette shouted.
"I'm squeezing it out of your hair!"
"You're squeezing it out of my hair?!"
Angry, Natsu got up and shoved Loke off of him, causing the honey blonde to tumble on the floor and slam his back against the wall.
"Quit squeezing it out of my hair!" Natsu yelled.
Flabbergasted by his strength, Loke clumsily got up.
"Oh okay. Yeah. This is what's happening."
Natsu raised his eyebrows. "Oh really?"
"Yeah it is."
Natsu began to roll up his sleeves as Loke continued to talk.
"These are the first moments of what is happening right now," Loke took a fighting stance and put up a fist.
"This is the beginning of what is happening," he slammed his palms on the counter. "RIGHT NOW!"
"So you want to get your hands dirty?" Natsu asked.
"Yeah man."
Natsu took a running start for him and Loke immediately ran away.
"Woah!"
"COME ON LOKE! YOU LITTLE RICH BOY SISSY! WHO ARE YOU GONNA HIRE TO FIGHT ME HUH?!"
The two of them ran a couple of circles around the island stovetop, with Natsu taunting him the entire time until Loke turned to him and put his foot down.
"Alright ENOUGH!" he roared at his best friend. "Where is this coming from man? Look, you chose to be a bartender, you chose to quit law school, and you chose to give up boxing. You're not some down-on-your-luck, hardscrabble guy, you're just a loser who-"
Loke instinctually covered his mouth to stop himself. He saw the look of devastation in Natsu's eyes and immediately regretted every word.
"I didn't mean..."
But the pinkette had already started to back away. "Nah its cool. Cool, cool, cool," he said as he exited loft.
With Loke standing in the middle of the loft all by his lonesome, he said:
"See these are the things that just come out when you mess with another man's conditioner..."
"Gajeel!"
Lucy came storming into the loft that evening, angry at her friend. "We need to talk."
The older man looked at her with a disinterested glint in his eye. She continued.
"So we had a rehearsal today and it was terrible. The kids literally freaked out in the park and one of them ran off. I had to chase them through the forest for like ten minutes amidst some hobos."
"I'm sorry Blondie, but I really don't care."
"Look, this was just supposed to be a fun, low stakes, community service event for already troubled middle schoolers. Somehow, you've made this thing all about you."
"Look, I don't see what the big deal is, alright? I mean, come on, between the two of us, I was only one actually making them play correctly, unlike you who just wanted to baby them the whole time."
"See!" Lucy shouted. "That! That right there! That's why I kicked you out of bell group! You are acting like such a tonkle! And its supposed to Christmas!"
"Hey watch it... Don't nobody call me a tonkle!"
"Gajeel the stuff we end up saying to them now, they could carry with them for the rest of their lives, and I want those to be good things. You telling them that they can't do this, is just one more person telling them they're not good and that's a really big deal to me!"
She softened her voice a bit.
"Look I get it. I know you've had a tough month. Your career ended prematurely and you can't get a job. I empathize with you, I do. But if it's one thing you can't do once you take up the mantle of teacher, is make the process all about you. You have to make it about the others, the kids specifically. And I remembered, you asking about the true meaning of Christmas in the parking lot the other day and... well, there it is."
With that, Lucy took her exit, leaving Gajeel to ruminate on everything the blonde said.
Gajeel's quest to find somewhere to think led him on the apartment rooftop, where he met Natsu, lounging with a case of beers.
Gajeel silently pulled up a lounge chair next to him and picked up a beer from the case as he laid down. A police siren wailed in the background as the pierced filled man opened his drink.
"You know what sucks about getting older?" Natsu asked. "Your friends have known you for way too long. They've got too much on ya."
Gajeel nodded in agreement. "Yep."
"I want friends who still lie to me because they're afraid to hurt my feelings."
Gajeel snorted.
"No, I... sadly kinda mean that."
Gajeel tapped his bottle thoughtfully.
"Natsu, what happened to us man? We used to be so cool. I was gonna go to the NFL and be a gazillionare..."
Natsu chuckled. "And I was going to be a pro boxer... put on for my city and... make my dad proud..."
Gajeel took a swig of his beer.
"But most importantly I told myself I was never going to live with that lunatic, Loke, ever again."
"And who do you live with now?"
"Loke," Natsu sighed. "And he's killing me man, he's killing me."
Gajeel burst out into laughter. After his laughter died down, he turned to him.
"I got fired from my temp job..."
Natsu gave him a concerned look. Gajeel continued.
"I got kicked out of a handbell playing group, for being too mean to kids."
"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that-"
"Oh trust me, you don't need to say it. I know. That's a low point for even me."
They both laughed.
"I was just... enjoying being good at something again."
Natsu nodded his head in understanding.
"I mean, what did she want me to do, not try my best?"
"Yeah, but Gajeel this is your thing though. It's not always about being the best. It's not always about you. You gotta learn to pass the ball sometime man."
"And I know you think that I don't know how to talk about the real stuff when it happens," Natsu continued. "But I know it hasn't been easy suddenly being derailed from what you thought was your life's calling - trust me, I've been there - so if you ever wanna talk about it... I'm here."
Gajeel looked up at the sky and sighed. Then, he rested his beer down and got up, patting Natsu on the shoulder on his way out.
"Thanks for the offer man... but I've got a charity fair to go to."
Natsu smirked as he watched his cousin, putting his beer down and getting up himself.
Natsu and Gajeel headed back inside the loft to get their car keys and a jacket. They found a dejected Loke, sitting with his head hung low on their coffee table. Natsu sighed. He hated seeing him like this.
"Celeste, Gajeel and I are headed to this bells concert, wanna come?"
Loke's face instantly lit up.
"I'll go grab my best cardigan!"
At the Red Cross Fair, Lucy and her kids were set up at a giant booth that doubled as a stage, with the words 'Ensembell' in big bold letters on the sign. Backstage, she was giving the kids a pep talk.
"I know you guys are nervous," she began. "I know you all want to do a really great job and you want to sound really great, but it's not about that. There's a really big crowd of people out there, who's really excited and wants to hear some bells today, just look."
She turned behind her and peaked behind the stage curtain to look at the crowd comprised of solely stragglers.
"All right," she put out her hand. "Bring it in."
The kids all piled their hands on top of hers.
"Ensembell!" they cried.
With that, Lucy drew the curtains nigh, revealing herself and her kids as well as the table with the bells.
"Hello Pershing Park!" Lucy cried. "We are Ensembell!"
Just then, Natsu, Loke and Gajeel sprinted towards them.
"Huh?" An old man in the audience cried. "What'd you say?"
"She said, 'Ensembell!'" Desiree yelled impatiently. "Its on the banner stupid!"
Just then, Lucy paused when she saw her friends. Gajeel waved sheepishly at her and she smiled sheepishly back.
"But first... I'd like to welcome Gajeel Redfox to the stage... if he's still willing to play with us."
The guys and the kids clapped as Gajeel made his way on stage.
"What's a Gajeel Redfox?" a senile old lady asked.
When Gajeel made it on stage, Lucy handed him a pair of gloves as he took his place in between the kids. "Hey, what's up?"
"So Eye of the Tiger?" Lucy asked.
"Yo Hector," Gajeel called. "Think we can pull this off?"
"Nah, I doubt it."
"Yeah I didn't think so either. So lets do this."
Lucy started the countdown. "One, two, three, four..."
The six of them started to play 'Eye of the Tiger' in unison as Gajeel and Lucy shared secret smiles.
As the bells group began to play, Loke leaned closer to Natsu.
"You know I don't actually think you're a loser right?"
"Don't apologize. You're right."
"No, I'm not," Loke insisted. "You are amazing Natsu. Seriously. Back then and especially now. I can't imagine my life without you at this point. You're one of my best friends man."
Natsu nodded slowly.
"And after what happened with your dad, nobody blames for wanting to quit boxing. I know it must've been hard dealing with all of that and trying to finish law school too, so I'm sorry for throwing all of it in your face."
Natsu's throat tightened. His mind flashed back to that dreadful day when he got the news about his father. He didn't want to think about. It was so traumatizing, that he all but blotted the incident from his memory altogether.
"It's okay man," Natsu said.
"Look at me," Loke commanded. He knew Natsu. And Natsu was the type of guy to say anything to protect himself from facing his own feelings. So if Natsu was going to honestly accept his apology, Loke needed to look him in the eyes to see if he meant it or not.
When their gazes met, Natsu half smiled at him, eyes glossy.
"Seriously Loke... thanks for saying that."
Natsu quickly looked away again, leaving Loke shocked.
Was Natsu about to cry?
He couldn't recall too many times his friend submitted himself to the release of tears, and especially not in front of people. Not even in the waiting room of the hospital the night of Igneel's accident.
Loke felt touched that his friend was vulnerable around him, so he rubbed Natsu's back for comfort. Eye of the tiger continued to play badly in the background on the bells.
"Please don't touch me with that cardigan on," Natsu said.
"Wha- are you not feeling the cardi?"
"Everytime you do or say something, all I can hear is 'Cardigan. Cardigan. I am wearing a woman's cardigan."
Smiling, since Natsu was back in a joking mood with him, Loke turned forward.
"I feel like you and I should commemorate this beautiful moment in song, don't you think?"
"Loke, I made a vow to myself after the last time, that the next person to spontaneously break out in song and dance around me will be mentioned - by name - in my suicide note."
Loke wrapped his arm fully around Natsu's shoulders.
"I think I can live with that buddy... I think I can live with that."
Merry Christmas everyone! Or seasons greetings!
As you can imagine, I wanted to post this chapter on Christmas day, but I actually didn't start writing this until Christmas Eve. I figured as long as I posted this before December passed, it could still count as a Christmas chapter.
So I spruced up this chapter a bit to make it a Christmas chapter. The original version of this didn't have any of the business themes - or the singing. By the way, the two songs that Lucy sings in the chapter are both from Community.
I hope you enjoyed this one, this chapter is quite different from the episode that I based it from so I hope you got something out of it - and I hope you enjoyed!
A side note: I have the entirety of part one already plotted for this story (25 chapters total), and once part one is done, we'll have a two part special almost like a movie, and then we'll begin phase two. I might take a break in between then, though.
Finally, I'd just like to say that I'm so grateful to I have readers who care enough to leave a review on every chapter I post. Seriously, I'm never short of motivation thanks to you guys and knowing that you're enjoying reading as much as I am writing. With that being said, thanks for the continuous feedback! Particularly from AJ, queenuly14,rao hyuga and copperreign for reviewing the last chapter!
Until the next one, (which I'm really excited about because there's a bit of relationship drama for Lucy and budding development for the love life of one of the guys in the loft! Any ideas on who?)
Chapter Title: Bad in Bed