December 17th

"Luce!"

Lucy shrieked when she found herself suddenly airborne, hauled into the air by strong arms wrapped around her waist. Levy, who'd been beside her, gawked. They'd been having a pleasant conversation in the moments before Natsu had arrived and scared the hell out of her. "Natsu!" she snapped. "Put me down!"

He laughed, but did as he was told. She elbowed him, but the blow hardly hurt. "Jerk," she grumbled. "I was drinking my tea." It'd have hurt like hell if he'd spilled it all over them. It was boiling hot, just like she liked it.

Ignoring her irritation, Natsu simply draped his body against hers, arms slung over her shoulders and chin on her head. "Sorry, Luce," he said sincerely enough that she relaxed, though she kept grumbling about it.

Levy, watching them with wide hazel eyes, suddenly grinned. Natsu knew where she was going from the moment she opened her mouth. "Got something to tell me, Lucy?" teased Levy, and Lucy hissed at her to shut the hell up.

Natsu took a split second to make the decision to not rip his body away from Lucy's. Instead, he kept himself looking oblivious. He knew precisely what they were muttering about, and why they'd say such things. He knew without a doubt that they probably had guessed at things he was trying so desperately to keep under wraps. Natsu also knew that they thought he didn't have a clue about anything related to the matter, and that Mirajane was plotting something with the mistletoe.

He was okay with that though. Let them think he didn't know that Lucy was the loveliest person in the room, and that the warmth he often felt was from so much more than friendship.

Levy simply hummed and lifted her book back up, throwing Natsu a knowing look that made him scowl briefly at her. She knew he was a liar, and she was making that very clear. So long as she said nothing, he decided, he wouldn't rat her thoughts out to Gajeel.

She and Lucy were really not that quiet when discussing things like that.

"Where's Happy?" Lucy asked, tugging herself free of Natsu's grip so she could turn and look up at him. He let her, nearly pouting about it.

"Dunno," admitted Natsu. "Somewhere around here. He'll show up soon." Happy had been disappearing more often than not as of late, though that was fairly normal for him at this time of year. Happy disliked the noise that came with the Twelve Days, and if he was selected or had something else he needed to do, he'd hang around, but outside of that…even Natsu hardly saw him at this time of day.

Lucy looked a little insulted when she complained, "I've barely seen the stupid cat since I came back. Is he mad at me or something?"

Natsu cracked a grin. For all of her complaints about Happy and his teasing, Natsu knew Lucy loved Happy as much as he did. "He's not mad," reassured Natsu. "I only see him as much as I do because we live together. The Twelve Days hurt his ears, that's all. He said something about getting his ornament to Mira, so he'll be around."

"I still need to do that." Lucy tapped her lower lip, and Natsu admitted that he let his gaze linger a little too long on the action. He ripped his gaze away when Lucy turned her attention back on him entirely. "I was thinking of seeing if Loke could help me with it. What do you think?"

"He'd probably be able to come up with something good," agreed Natsu, bumping her shoulder with his. "Mira would like that. She was always pestering him to get her one for the tree when he was, you know, not a celestial spirit."

Lucy eyed him for a moment. Long enough that Natsu frowned. "What?" he demanded.

"You've been so touchy lately," she said, pointedly bumping his shoulder with hers. There was concern etched into her brow. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he quickly denied, almost panicked. The last thing he needed was for Lucy to realize a few things he didn't want her to know. When she seemed to grow more suspicious, Natsu insisted, "Nothing." He scrambled to come up with something and ended up with a half-truth. "Just…missed you while you were gone."

It wasn't a lie. He had missed Lucy while she was away. A week without her had seemed like forever. He hadn't even wanted to so much as look at the request board without her around. Happy had commented on it just once before keeping his thoughts to himself, knowing Natsu didn't want to talk about it.

Apparently, it was the right thing to say. Lucy's eyes warmed and she gently bumped him with her shoulder again. He waited until she looked her in the eye to say, "We'll take a job together after Christmas. You, me, and Happy. I'll even let you pick it so long as you promise me that you'll get something that will pay my rent."

Natsu's ever present grin returned, and he tugged his scarf away from his mouth. "I'll pick a good one," he promised.

"Good. Maybe–" Lucy broke off, giggling at something. He followed her gaze and began to laugh, too.

Happy had scrambled onto the bar, behind which Mirajane was beaming and clapping. Looking at everyone with a rather grumpy expression and his ears pinned to his head to help block out the cheering, Happy shouted, "On the fourth day of Christmas, Fairy Tail gave to me~" He looked around until he saw Natsu, who waved encouragingly. "Four yummy fish, three new swords, two manly gifts, and a teddy bear just for me!"

Lucy and Natsu exchanged matching smiles before ensuring that Happy could hear their cheers from the back of the guildhall.

Little Happy got his chance! ;)

Thanks to the lovely reviewer (FairyTailxFanGirl!) as well as those who favorited and followed! See you tomorrow!