Hi readers. I'm so sorry to have left this story so long! I do have plans to keep going until it's finished so I hope you'll stick with me.

This chapter's a little unseasonal but hopefully you won't mind :) either that or wait till December to read it lol.

Thanks for reading!

Natsu surveyed his dishevelled-looking room, searching for anything that may have escaped his notice. The holidays were finally here. St Makarovs made any students living in the college accommodation move out every vacation to make room for conferences, so Natsu had spent the morning throwing items into boxes and suitcases, leaving the already utilitarian room looking even more bare.

"Whoops, almost forgot this," he muttered, as he spied his spare blanket tangled in the college-owned duvet. He extricated it from the folds, its softness reminding him of the last time he'd really used it; Lucy's warm limbs millimetres away from his own underneath the cloth, the tension rising between them and his heartbeat picking up…

He grinned a little to himself as he deposited the blanket in another box.

Lucy rang the doorebell downstairs around lunchtime. Natsu pressed the button to buzz her in and opened the door wide, smiling happily as she came into sight. She had a long coat on to combat the cold but clear weather, her cheeks a little flushed from the temperature. Natsu was always almost taken aback at her attractiveness and frequently found himself wondering how he was with her.

"Hey!" she greeted, pulling him into a hug in the doorway. He drew back a little to give her a gentle kiss on the lips, which she returned warmly. "Ready to go?" she asked as she broke away.

"Absolutely."

He pulled a coat on (even he wasn't immune to the weather) and slipped a hand into hers. She'd forgotten gloves again. As they exited, she pushed their still joined hands into his coat pocket to share the warmth, offering him a cute smile.

They made their way past many other students as well as Magnolia's other residents as they walked into town, all in a festive mood. Christmas decorations were up everywhere, and the shops were full to bursting. They were headed to the same diner they'd shared pancakes at for a late brunch before they parted for the holidays. Natsu had learned that Lucy lived with her dad near a town called Hargeon, just under two hours journey from Magnolia, and like most other Makarovs students, she'd made plans to visit home.

"How's your packing been coming along?" he asked her casually as they approached Quattro Café.

"Actually… I haven't done anything."

Natsu let out a bark of laughter. "For real? That is SO unlike you, Luce."

She smiled at that. "You forget, I live in a rented apartment- it's not college owned, so I don't have to move out completely."

She dropped her gaze and took a breath before she continued. "To be honest though, the reason I haven't packed at all is because… I'm not going home."

"What?" Natsu asked in confusion. "But why? Luce, you were so excited!"

She sighed. "My dad called yesterday. Turns out he has to go abroad over Christmas, you know, business. He left this morning. Said it was really urgent."

She sounded quite despondent, and Natsu could sympathise. She hadn't seen her dad in a good few months now, he always seemed to busy to visit her here in Magnolia. She'd been psyched about spending Christmas at home, telling Natsu all about her family traditions. Since her mum had passed away when she was a child, she and her dad had had a strained relationship for a while; before reconciling. Now even though he travelled a lot, their Christmases were often just the two of them, cooking dinner together and having movie marathons. Natsu had to admit, it sounded a lot more peaceful than the chaos of his own family.

It was then that the lightbulb went off. Slowly but surely, it flickered to life in Natsu's head.

"Hey Lucy."

"Mmm?"

"Come spend Christmas with me."

She stopped and turned to face him in surprise.

"What? Seriously?"

He laughed. "Yeah seriously! Come over. You know my family lives in Magnolia too. They're just the other side of town."

"But I don't want to intrude on your family's time-"

"Don't be a moron, we'd LOVE to have you."

"You can't just speak for them!"

"Fine, I'll confirm with my mum tonight. She's gonna be ecstatic to have a guest. And to meet my girlfriend, of course."

She blushed a steady red. "Oh my gosh. Woah. Er- you're sure your parents won't mind?"

"I told you, they'll be thrilled! Please come Lucy. Pleeease?" He hit her with his best puppy dog eyes. He could see it working. She was caving. "You can't spend Christmas alone."

"Oh… fine."

Natsu whooped and picked her up by the waist, giving her a wild spin right there on the street.

"Natsuuuu people are looking!" she squealed in embarrassment.

"Only in jealousy," he clarified, setting her down. "Anyway, I'm gonna make sure you have the best Christmas ever. You'll see."

…

The fun started on Christmas Eve. Natsu had insisted Lucy come over for this occasion as well as Christmas itself, and even cheekily suggested she sleep over. Lucy had shot this down quite decisively. They hadn't even spent the night together in their own rooms, let alone staying in the same house as all his family.

She rang the doorbell at precisely half past six, feeling unpleasantly nervous. The sky was already dark and the streetlamps had winked on on Natsu's family's street. It was located fairly far from St Makarovs University as well as Magnolia Tech, in a more residential part of town, with its own mini shopping district safe from the mayhem of student campuses.

"COMIINNNGGG" came a loud, muffled female shout from behind the door. There were a number of crashes and yells from various voices swiftly following, ("GET THE DOOR" "I AM GETTING THE DOOR" "Ouch, Happy, don't sit there!" etcetera, etcetera). Lucy listened with growing alarm, but just then, the door swung open- warm light spilling outside and enveloping her, along with the scent of something incredibly delicious baking.

Lucy blinked in the sudden light at the slightly out of breath silhouette at the doorway.

"Hi!" panted the silhouette. "You must be Lucy."

As her eyes adjusted, Lucy took in the short frame and long, deep blue hair. (Did everyone in this family have crazy hair? She questioned internally.)

"I'm Wendy- Natsu's sister!" she continued cheerfully. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Here, come on in!"

Wendy led her into the cosy hallway, bedecked in haphazardly placed tinsel and fairy lights. The yells she'd heard from outside showed no signs of abating; she could hear Natsu's voice distinctly, along with a woman's and a deeper man's. They seemed to be getting closer.

"Hello! You must be miss Heartfilia!" boomed the deep male voice as its imposing owner burst into view from an inconspicuous doorway.

"Oh, I- yes, I'm Lucy!" Lucy gathered her wits to try and make a good impression. "Thank you so much for inviting me to your home-"

"LUCE!"

Natsu barrelled into her out of nowhere and lifted her bodily, swinging her round, and totally ruining her attempt at formality.

"I'm so happy you're here Luce! I see you've met dad, and Wendy!"

Lucy wobbled as she got set on her feet. "Erm, yes, I suppose I-"

"Call me Igneel!" Natsu's father said heartily, shaking her tiny hand in his relatively large one. He was tall and broad, with red-brown hair and an easy smile.

"Igneel, are you terrorising our guests again?" The mature female voice also gained a face as a white-haired woman (looking far too young to have naturally white hair,) emerged from what was supposedly a kitchen.

"Don't mind him dear. I'm Grandine, it's so lovely to have you."

"Thank you," Lucy went for a smile which she thought she probably pulled off when the entire family grinned manically back at her.

It's so different to home, she couldn't help thinking, as Natsu's parents resumed their loud discussion- something to do with dinner.

"I'm gonna take Luce on a tour of the house," Natsu announced, grabbing her hand.

"Alright, but the food will be out soon- make sure you're down in ten minutes!" his mother warned, as she pushed Igneel towards the kitchen.

"C'mon, I'll show you my room," Natsu said eagerly. He'd been looking forward to seeing her all week and having her meet his family. And there was no harm in getting her somewhere alone, either… He pulled her up the stairs that led up from the entrance hall, Wendy bounding up after them.

"See you in a few!" she called as she disappeared into a bedroom with anime posters on the door.

Natsu continued to pull Lucy up another flight of stairs to the second floor. He pushed a trapdoor in the ceiling to open out to his room.

"This is so cool!" Lucy exclaimed as her head popped out from the floor.

His bed was in the middle of the converted attic; with sloped ceilings and low hanging wooden beams, it was a wonder he hadn't given himself a concussion from walking into things all the time, but he had to admit they gave the place character. He'd tidied earlier on, so the floor was pretty clear and a bookshelf in the corner had been divested of picture books, stocked instead with intellectual novels he'd raided from the shelf downstairs, newly polished sports trophies displayed proudly atop it. He was suddenly very conscious of his Pokémon bedspread and tried to move unsuccessfully to obscure it from view.

"Oh my gosh, your cat's up here!" Lucy suddenly squealed in delight.

He turned round to see she was indeed correct. He sighed mentally. There was nothing quite like a kitten when it came to being a massive cockblock.

"Wanna say hi?" he said instead, going to the corner and scooping Happy up. He was a long haired kitten with black fur, so dark it was almost blue, and he mewled mildly to protest at being manhandled so.

"Awwwwww," Lucy cooed, the most stupid grin on her face he thought he'd ever seen. "Sho adorable!"

She lifted a hand to pet him tentatively, allowing him to sniff her finger disinterestedly first.

"He's quite sleepy," Natsu commented, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Lucy followed without hesitation. Maybe the cat was useful after all. "He's usually not nearly so polite. Are you, Happy?"

The kitten meowed, irritably. Lucy let out another helpless "awwww".

"I'll put him back in the basket," Natsu suggested. He got up to do so, and to his annoyance, realised Lucy had gotten up with him.

"I like your posters," she commented, as she wandered round the walls, perusing them.

He snuck up behind her to hold her round the waist. "I like you," he murmured in her ear.

She laughed. "Shut up," she said affectionately, turning round in his arms.

He kissed her, deep and long, holding her tight against his body. Her voice created one of those familiar, involuntary "mmmms" that sent electricity to his core.

"NATSU!" came a shout from downstairs. "DINNER!"

Oh for crying out loud.

"COMING!" he pulled away from Lucy long enough to shout in response, then promptly slammed her back into his body with a fierce continuation of their kiss, causing her to make an "mmph!" of surprise.

She tried to detach herself after a minute. "Shouldn't we go down?" she asked breathlessly.

"It's never ready when they say it is," he replied casually and tried to pull her in again.

"I don't want to make a bad impression," she implored, nudging his shoulders a bit.

"Oh fiiinnnee," he relented with a long-suffering sigh.

"I'll just get my stuff- eek!"

This last yelp was a result of an insouciant Happy wandering past the foot of the bed, causing Lucy to lose her balance and fall straight onto it.

"You ok?" Natsu asked in concern, attempting to help her up- only for Happy to actually trip him up so he landed on top of her.

"Natsu, mum says dinner is- ohmigosh I'm so sorry!"

Wendy's blue head had popped up from the trapdoor at the most inopportune moment. Lucy went bright red.

"It's not- nothing- I, we didn't-"

"Happy tripped us up, Wendy," Natsu grumbled as he extricated himself from the mess, but Wendy was already retreating. "Sorry- just came to say, dinner- uh, come down!"

…

Lucy calmed the flush on her face enough to be presentable at dinner. Wendy might be the weak link though, Natsu thought as he glared at her. The poor girl still looked like she wanted to sink into the ground.

"Natsu, get the plates please," Grandine requested as she pulled something delicious-smelling from the oven. They stood crowded in the kitchen, awaiting tasks to complete, as Grandine put the finishing touches to the food and Igneel tidied up. "Wendy, could you find the nice serving bowls?"

"Could I help?" Lucy asked politely.

"Would you mind helping Natsu laying the table? I don't trust him to do it on his own!"

She went through to the dining room, where Natsu had picked out five completely mismatched plates and was happily arranging them at the table. She was just biting her lip and debating whether to ask if he had any matching crockery, when her phone rang from her coat in the hall.

"Sorry, I'll see who that is," she told Natsu, hurrying outside.

Natsu trailed after her, nosily.

"Hello- Dad?" he heard her say in surprise.

"I'm fine! How are you calling though, aren't you abroad…? … you're in Magnolia?"

Natsu's eyes widened at that one, and he stepped fully out into the hallway in curiosity.

"Of course, I would love to, but- I'm actually at, erm, Natsu's house right now…"

She turned around and looked at him uncertainly. He made a snap decision.

Striding towards her and plucking the phone from her hands, (ignoring her "Hey!" of protest), he said to her father, "Hello, Mr Heartfilia? Hi, this is Natsu!"

Lucy kept looking at him, aghast.

"Listen, you should come visit our house! We're in the west side of the city, let me give you our address!"

Lucy continued to stare, stunned, as Natsu rattled off their house number and street name.

"Yes I'm sure, it's absolutely fine! Hold on a sec-"

Natsu let go of the handset to yell towards the kitchen.

"MUM, CAN LUCY'S DAD COME OVER?"

"SURE HE CAN", came the almost immediate reply.

He returned to the conversation. "It's fine! Looking forward to meeting you! See you soon!"

And promptly hung up.

"What. Did. You. Do." Lucy asked him in cold horror.

"I invited your dad round. Ouch! What?" Lucy had poked him, none to gently, in the stomach.

"Our parents? MEETING EACH OTHER? What if they hate each other? This is massive!"

She was looking fairly panicky. Natsu sniggered.

"Relax, Luce!" he said cheerfully, sliding an arm around her waist. "It'll be fine! And if they do hate each other, we can be like that super romantic couple. You know, Romeo and Juliet."

"Romeo and Juliet DIE, Natsu," Lucy pointed out with a murderous glare.

"Hey, what did you want me to do?" he held up his arms in a surrendering gesture. "You were totally just about to blow him off. I couldn't let that happen, if your Dad's here on Christmas, you gotta see him!"

She deflated slightly. "… Fine. But if this goes terribly, I'm blaming you."

"Feel free," he winked at her, and she groaned but couldn't help smiling back.

…

About a half hour later, the doorbell rang. Grandine had delayed dinner now that she knew they were getting another guest, so the food lay out in a spectacular fashion, tantalisingly on the table (which had indeed been treated to some matching dinner set plates- Natsu's contribution hastily replaced.)

"I'll get it!" Natsu jumped up from the sofa, Lucy hurrying after him.

"Hi!"

Natsu swung the door open enthusiastically, revealing a tall man carrying a very oversized yule log cake.

"Dad!"

Lucy arrived behind Natsu a second later, and pushed past him to give her father a hug.

"Lucy!" he said warmly, balancing the cake with extreme difficulty.

"I'll grab that if you want," Natsu said quickly, coming forward to help him with it.

"Thank you. That's for you, and your family. I'm very grateful you invited me to visit."

Jude Heartfilia finally let go of his daughter and appraised her. "You're eating well? You look lovely, dear. I hope you haven't been working too hard."

"I'm fine, dad," she laughed, rolling her eyes a little. "Let's go in, Natsu's parents and sister are here too."

The family had emerged from the sitting room to greet him, now seemingly prepared for a guest reception and looking the picture of formality.

Igneel came forward to shake Jude's hand. "How do you do? I'm Igneel, it's good to meet you…?"

"Jude," he responded. "Thank you for having me, and my daughter."

"Check out this massive cake," Natsu highlighted helpfully. This gift endeared Jude to the Dragneels quite significantly- if there was a way to their hearts, it was with food.

"You didn't have to!" Grandine said in a pleased tone, taking the hefty thing from Natsu's arms. "I'll pop it in the kitchen, dinner's on the table now so if you're hungry, we'll eat!"

…

Dinner was going pretty well, Natsu thought. So far, no hideously embarrassing things had been said by either parental faction, and even Wendy had managed to keep it together. In a few moments, he realised why.

"Wendy. Are you messaging under the table?" Grandine asked sternly.

"Oh- sorry," Wendy apologised, blushing.

"Who was it?" her father asked with interest.

"…no-one," she said unconvincingly.

"I bet it's that guy you like. Romeo, isn't it?" he supplied, helpfully. Wendy shot him dagger glares from across the table, while Grandine and Igneel looked vaguely alarmed.

"How old are you, Wendy?" Jude asked kindly, hoping to diffuse the growing sibling feud.

"Sixteen," she replied, with strained politeness, diverting her attention away from revenge on her older brother.

"I remember Lucy at that age," he chuckled. "Always pretending to me that she didn't have any crushes. I caught her texting under the blankets so often when I went to wish her goodnight and she'd keep denying it."

Lucy spluttered. "I- did not!"

Jude just gave her a look.

"So what is it you do Jude?" Igneel asked, digging into his third plate of roast chicken. "Something crazy that keeps you travelling over Christmas!"

"I'm an investment banker," he told them, a little ruefully. He was still in fact in his expensive work suit. "I like the travelling, but this was too much. I was there just for the week, then it got to the 23rd and I decided, no- I needed to spend Christmas with my daughter. So I took a flight straight back!"

He finished this with an affectionate gaze at Lucy, who seemed to have not quite forgiven him for his earlier embarrassing comment.

"Tell him what you do, dad!" Natsu said proudly.

"I'm captain of the city fire response department," Igneel explained. "Used to be one of the juniors of course, running around and on call at all hours. Now I get to manage 'em instead, though I still have to be on site!"

Jude and Lucy looked suitably impressed.

"Mum's a professor," Wendy piped up, perhaps in an effort to get back into her parent's good books. "At Magnolia Tech."

"I didn't know that! What do you teach?" Lucy asked her.

"I'm a fluid dynamicist," she smiled. "Airflow, mostly. It's quite a sought after field- lots of money in it, but I decided to go into the least profitable job I could get; academia!"

"Lucy does astrophysics. I told you that, right?" Natsu supplied.

"It's nice to see another woman in science," Grandine said encouragingly.

They fell into conversation swapping stories about being girls in such male dominated fields, as Natsu got up to clear the plates. He was, after all, on his best behaviour in his attempt to impress Jude. Plus (he congratulated himself) he'd been pretty shrewd inviting him over; this way, his parents couldn't grill Lucy too much in front of her dad, and more importantly, Jude couldn't actively look for Natsu's flaws. This strategy so far looked to be going very well. The conversation had been neutral, the adults getting along nicely.

He should've known it couldn't last.

"Natsu, could you fetch the dessert while you're there?" Grandine called from the kitchen.

"Sure, mum!"

He'd almost forgotten his signature move to top off the evening. He knew Lucy had a sweet tooth, and though he was usually hopeless at cooking, he had one specialty dish he knew she would be impressed by.

"Who wants crème brulée?" he announce with pride as he re-entered the dining room, balancing a tray of cream-filled ramekins.

Five faces looked up at him, with mixed expressions. Surprise (Igneel), worry (Grandine- she'd given him the ok before, but was now sincerely regretting it), guilt (Wendy- she'd been texting again), disbelief (Lucy), and interest (Jude).

"I know you said you'd do the dessert today Natsu, but Jude did bring cake, maybe we should…?" Grandine ventured.

Observing how Natsu deflated, Jude quickly stepped in. "No, not at all, that was a gift for you; please, open it on Christmas!"

Natsu perked up again. "Great! I'll get the blowtorch!"

"BLOWTORCH?!" Lucy echoed, but Natsu had already sped out.

"The finishing touch!" he added, as he came back in, wearing oven gloves and a deranged grin.

Everyone simultaneously leaned back from the table a bit.

"Don't worry, I've done this loads of times!" he assured his (literally) captive audience.

"Doesn't mean you've been successful every time," Wendy sniggered, as Natsu carefully fired up the torch.

"I'm not the one who set fire to the tablecloth," he replied, smirking, eyes still focused on sugar layer he was gradually crystallising on top of his first creation.

"Oh please." Wendy addressed the rest of the table at this point. "He only decided it was a good idea to try and create his own flaming cocktail, and turned his blowtorch on a glass of frickin whisky."

"I was like, fifteen!" he replied with irritation, now on his second bowl.

"I remember that," Igneel said, forlornly. "That was some really expensive whisky…"

"You'd think a family with a fire department captain would be more careful about setting fire to things," Jude joked nervously.

"I think that seems to make them more lax about it, they know Dad's around to help," Grandine replied, sounding strained.

"What do you mean them? Natsu's set fire to way more stuff than I have!" Wendy protested.

"Oh what was that?" Natsu interjected. "Didn't here over the sound of your boyfriend texting you."

"Hey! At least I'm not falling into bed with him."

"You WHAT?!" Jude, Igneel and Grandine simultaneously cried.

"Hey!" Natsu's concentration wavered as he looked up in alarm. "That is NOT what it sounds like!"

"Onto. I meant onto!" Wendy amended hastily.

Lucy had gone white as a sheet, her mouth open in an O of horror.

"Natsu."

"Huh?"

"You're on fire."

"I'm- OH SH-"

The smoke alarm started wailing loudly, mercifully drowning out the swear that may have reduced Jude's estimation of Natsu even further.

"Hold your arm out," Igneel commanded quickly, already out of his chair and having grabbed the fire blanket from the wall. He swiftly pulled the burning glove off Natsu's hand and smothered it efficiently, the flames dying without much fight. The guests around the table were left looking shell-shocked as the alarm continued to beep.

"That's going to leave another burn mark in my tablecloth, isn't it," Grandine said sadly.

"Another one?!" Jude and Lucy couldn't stop themselves from saying.

And then the sprinklers went off.

…

"I can't apologise enough," Igneel said again, worriedly hovering around Jude and Lucy as they dried their hair off with the Dragneels' towels.

"That was some quick work, by the way," Jude mentioned, referring to Igneel's heroic save.

They were all trying to drown out the obvious sounds of Natsu and Wendy being yelled at in the kitchen/dining room where they were of course clearing up.

"…I'm holding YOU responsible for this TOO Wendy, don't think you didn't provoke him, I mean REALLY, SHOUTING at each other, in front of GUESTS…"

Wisely, no one had tried to point out the irony of this to Grandine, who really seemed like she was on a roll.

Jude cringed. "Er… so. Er, Lucy and I, had better, get going... it's late, and it's a long drive back to Hargeon…"

Lucy looked at him in surprise. "We're going to Hargeon?"

"Oh. If- if that's ok? I took the time off, and I thought, maybe we could have Christmas, as we do, but if you've made other plans-"

"Sounds great, Dad," Lucy cut him off with a smile. She turned to Igneel. "Mr Dragneel, I do hope you don't mind? I know I committed to you earlier…"

"Not at all. Well be sorry not to have you, but you should absolutely make use of your holiday time to visit home!"

The yells from the kitchen continued to drift into the hallway where they stood.

"…Sometimes I wish Natsu wouldn't, though."

Jude and Lucy laughed. "Well then Lucy, let's be off" Jude said. "We've still got the company car so I don't have to do any driving!"

"Alright. I'm just going to say goodbye to Natsu."

Igneel had departed for the kitchen, supposedly to inform his son that his girlfriend was leaving.

"Lucy!" he came skidding out. "Listen, I'm so so sorry, I completely ruined your evening."

He looked dejected. Jude tactfully shifted himself out of earshot and out the front door.

"Natsu, don't worry about it." She smiled. "Nothing bad happened, right? You're not burned, are you?"

"Me? I'm fine. Dad says I've had so many accidents, I'm fireproof."

She giggled a bit. "I'm really happy you invited me and dad round. It means a lot to me."

He held is breath as she stood on tiptoe to give him a sweet, short kiss on the lips.

"Oh, before I forget- I got you a Christmas present!"

Despair fell to the depths of Natsu's stomach. "I… Luce, I didn't get you anything!" It didn't occur to him to try to lie, not when she was holding out a gift-wrapped parcel so eagerly.

"That's ok, I didn't exactly spend any money on this! Well, unless you count printing credits… open it tomorrow, ok?"

She gave him a final hug, before turning and bounding down the front steps.

"Merry Christmas, Natsu!" she waved.

"Merry Christmas, Lucy!"

He grinned like a maniac as she got into the waiting car and disappeared into the cold, dark night.

"NATSU YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED CLEARING UP SO YOU BETTER GET BACK IN HERE NOW!"

Yes, he thought, closing the front door dreamily. This had been his best Christmas Eve ever.

…

Later, in Natsu's room

"Let's see what she got me, Happy!"

Natsu plonked down on his pokemon bedsheets, gripping the parcel with excitement. He looked at the clock.

"12.17. It's officially Christmas!"

He tore open the gift wrap, revealing a pile of A4 papers.

"Earthland – by Lucy Heartfilia. Chapters 1-3."

"Happy!" He sat up excitedly as he realised what she'd given her. Her most prized and personal possession. "It's her book!"

The kitten was sound asleep in the corner.

Natsu settled back into the pillows, flipped open the first page and began to read.

TBC!