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If anyone had asked Lucy what she wanted for Christmas, she’d have said rent money. Well…that wasn’t exactly true. Erza had asked, and so had Mira, Lisanna, and Juvia, and she’d told them not to worry about getting her anything. Just being with her Fairy Tail family was plenty for her! Except…she wasn’t spending Christmas with her Fairy Tail family, was she?
No, she was taking a job because, despite her own insistence she didn’t want gifts, she’d spent too much on gifts for others. So instead of settling into the guild hall sofa with a book and a hot cocoa, she was pulling on her boots at home and making sure she had her keys clipped to her hip. Instead of the warmth of the fireplace and the scent of Mira’s cooking, she was getting ready to venture out into the cold and ride a train across the continent to Rosemary Village, where they were having an issue with the iced over river. Instead of listening to the pop of the fire, and the dull roar of Natsu, picking fights with Gray or Laxus or Gajeel, she was listening to the rapid-fire pounding of….sandaled feet on her stairs?
No sooner had she realized what the sound was than Natsu was bursting into her apartment, skidding to a stop in front of her. “Mira said you took a job! What the hell, Lucy!?” he demanded, glaring down at her in confusion. “We take our jobs together! Plus its Christmas!”
Lucy flinched back from his explosive energy. She’d thought he would have been too busy fighting with the others to notice her slip away, and once she was on the train, she’d have been in the clear. But here he was, all incredulity and defiance.
“It’s not a big deal, Natsu,” she said, zipping up her boot and standing up, pulling her bag over her head. “I had some unexpected expenses and I’m a little short on rent, that’s all. It’s fine, I’ll be home tomorrow night, and we can take a job together then, okay?”
He crossed his arms with a huff and his frown deepened. “Can’t it wait? Tomorrow is Christmas! We could do that job in a few days and stay home for the holiday!” he insisted.
Lucy shook her head, partially in answer, but mostly in exasperation. “No, Natsu. It has to be now. I’ve already sent word that I’m on the way, and my train leaves in twenty minutes so…I really have to go. Have fun with the others….Merry Christmas, Natsu,” she said, brushing past him.
She made it to the train with only a few minutes to spare, dropping into her seat with a soft huff. If she didn’t love her little apartment on Strawberry Street so much, she’d find something closer to the station for sure. As it was, she resolved to start building in more time for interruptions from the pink-haired nuisance she absolutely didn’t have feelings for. There wasn’t a lot of point in letting feelings develop, she kept telling herself. Natsu wasn’t the boyfriend type, and she’d always imagined herself with someone far more….well…someone not like Natsu.
The train pulled away from the station only seconds after she’d reached her seat and she dropped her head back against the seat with a sigh. Christmas hadn’t really been the same since her mother died, but things had gotten better once she made it to Fairy Tail. Although…if she was being honest, it wasn’t easy anymore, now that she’d lost her father, too. She’d been struggling the holidays since getting back from Tenrou, really, but it had been easy to ignore last year, what with Tartaros, and Natsu running off. But he was home this time, and she wasn’t entirely sure she had enough Christmas spirit to handle a big family gathering like the guild usually had. No…a quiet, unobserved Christmas on her own was what she was after.
Unfortunately for Lucy’s stubborn attempts at seclusion, Natsu had other plans. They’d missed seven years, and then Tartaros had ruined everything. Of course…he only blamed Tartaros because it was hard to admit that he’d probably been just as much at fault for running off the way he had. Spending last Christmas alone after everything she had lost during Tartaros couldn’t have been easy and he could sort of understand why she might prefer the quiet of Rosemary Village. But he wouldn’t let her isolate herself anymore. Lucy shined brightest when she was with her friends, and he wouldn’t let her walk away from that.
Of course, that meant braving the damned train. He’d intended to keep away, just on the train, so she had some time to herself. But then the car lurched, and the nausea swelled. He couldn’t help himself, drawn to the scent of her like it was a magnet. He gave a soft moan of discomfort, dropping into the seat beside her and over into her lap without warning. The closest thing to relief he’d ever found for the rolling waves of motion sickness was the scent of her and her fingers in his hair.
“Natsu!” she exclaimed, her topaz eyes wide with a mixture of emotions. “What are you *doing* here?” she demanded.
“We work…together,” he said, shifting slightly until he was on his back, looking up at her. He dragged her hand to his hair with a pitiful whimper. “You’re not…spending Christmas alone anymore, Lucy. I won’t let you…be alone anymore,” he panted between the pretesting rolls of his internal organs.
Lucy looked away from the dark intensity of his gaze, blinking away tears. “B-But the guild…and I can’t afford to split the reward, and—”
Natsu groaned again. “Lucy, can you argue with me when we get there? I’m tying not to throw up on your lap.”
Lucy bit her lip against a reluctant smile, scratching lightly at his scalp in resignation. “Okay, Natsu. You can come. You’ll make the work faster, anyway,” she said softly. His head turned and buried into her stomach with another wobbling moan, and she had to bite back a giggle. She knew better than anyone just how badly trains affected him. But he’d come anyway, just to make sure she wasn’t alone. That meant a lot to her. “Thank you, Natsu,” she whispered, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of his soft hair passing between her fingers.
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The job was an easy one, especially with Natsu involved. The river had frozen over and the town no longer had a water source. She’d intended to just have Taurus break up the ice with his axe, but Natsu made the whole thing far faster. So fast that instead of *losing* money, as they typically did when Natsu took part in a job, they received a bonus.
“I’ve heard of bonuses before, but I was sure Loke was making them up,” Natsu said as they walked back toward the train station. He stretched his arms out behind his head, looking up at the sky. “And then you made him all sprirt-y and I figured maybe it was just something from the celestial world,” he chuckled.
He stopped, looking back when the sound of her footsteps beside him stopped. She was stopped, staring down one of the streets that had colorful lights wrapped around the street signs. “Lucy?”
“It’s….the Rosemary Christmas festival,” she said softly, her eyes moving over the decorated lane and the shop stalls lining it. “My mom told me about it when I was a kid. She always said we would go one day…”
“Smells good,” Natsu said, stepping back to her side. He eyed the lane, lifting his head to sniff at the delicious mixture of aromas leaking from the lane. He looked back at her, taking her hand. “Well, she was right. Today is one day, and we’re gonna go!” he said with a wide grin, pulling her down the lane.
“What? No, Natsu, wait!” she yelped, stumbling along behind him. “We’ll miss the train home if you get distracted now!” she cried, planting her feet. He looked back at her and grinned wider, tilting his head. The flashing lights from the stall nearby illuminated his face and hair in the setting sun, making his hair shift colors steadily. The image made her smile softly, reminding her of the way the rainbow cherry blossoms shimmered in the streetlights as it floated past her house.
Even in the multicolored lights, he paled at the mention of the train again and he shook his head rapidly. “No, not the train again….” He muttered. “No, come on. Your mom said we’d go one day. Today’s that day,” he said again, pulling her into the crowds.
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Rosemary was much further north than Magnolia. The winters were harsher, with actual regular snowfall. The air was so cold that even Natsu’s ever-present heat wasn’t enough to chase away the chill. Even on Mt. Hakobe, the snow never seemed to land on the fiery slayer.
Here though…wandering the streets of the Christmas drenched town, even his heat seemed subdued. The snow piled in his hair, clinging to his jacket and melting against the bare skin of his shoulder. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with the mess, shaking his head like a dog trying to rid itself of the damp. Each time he did it, he sent snow flying, drenching Lucy in yet another layer of the icy precipitation.
If he was being honest, the first time had been accidental. But the way she screamed and squealed and swatted at him every time made him grin and he found he liked the way her cheeks flushed when she laughed at his unapologetic joy. They stumbled into the hotel room they’d managed to find, snow and the scent of spiced cider clinging to them both.
“Seriously, this is how it always is for you?!” Natsu demanded, shedding his soaked jacket as soon as the door was closed. The moisture steamed off his skin the moment the cold left him and he shook his hair out again.
“Yes! Winter is clingy. The chill grabs on and doesn’t let go until the season is over and the sun gets serious about its warmth again.” Lucy giggled, dodging another wave of moisture flying off of him. “Would you quit that?! We both know you could just steam them off! Quit shaking off at me!”
Natsu shot her a cheeky, fanged grin. “Aw, but you’re so cute when you squall like a wet cat.” He tossed his now-dry coat over the arm of the couch, turning to watch her shed the thick pink parka she’d always worn. He kind of understood it now, seeing how her clothes were completely dry under the bulky garment. Her cheeks were still flushed from the cold and a shiver rolled through her body as she tossed the coat aside, making him react on instinct. He moved to her, cupping her cheeks gently, looking at her with mild concern. “Winter is always that cold for you?”
Lucy flushed brightly, though she couldn’t help the way her body instinctively leaned into his warmth. Rather than deal with the embarrassment of just how close he was to her, she closed her eyes, just basking in the welcome heat he always brought along with him. “Well, yeah. Cold is clingy.”
Natsu thought for a moment, studying her face. She looked more at peace now, with the warmth bleeding back into her from his contact. “Then how come you always insist on tagging along when the job is on Mt. Hakobe, or in the winter at all? I bet there’s all kinds of jobs you could take that wouldn’t make you cold, even in the winter.”
Lucy hummed softly, opening her eyes to look up at him, toliting her head in his grip. “Why are you here, Natsu?” she asked softly. “I was going to do this job on my own…but you came along. Why?”
His brow furrowed slightly. “Because we—”
“Work together,” she interrupted. “Even in the cold…even when it’s damp and icy, and clingy…I’d still rather be with you, instead of working on my own on some warm boring job. Like you said….we’re a team. And we’re always going to be together now….right?”
He stared down at her, caught off guard. He’d been almost inexplicably drawn to her since they’d met, but the feeling had grown undeniably stronger over the years. To the point now that he couldn’t stand the thought of being away from her, especially not after their year apart. But he’d never noticed that she felt the same. He’d expected the opposite, after he’d run off and left her after Tartaros, yet here she was, saying the same words that had wrapped around his heart and become an undeniable piece of his soul.
He belonged with her, and she with him, and they would always be together from now on. “Forever,” he agreed softly.