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impracticaldemon · 6 years

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Pride Goeth Before a Party ~ Graylu Holiday Fic Exchange

by Impracticaldemon for @condacending

Words: ~ 2100 | FFnet | AO3 @graylusecretsiblings @fic-writer-appreciation @graylu-fanfictions

Author's Note:

Unfortunately, this story was both delayed and shortened due to me being sick over the holidays and beyond. I hope to publish an epilogue shortly. I was offered the perfect wishlist (matching my own preferences just about exactly). Here are Condacending's notes:

Characters portrayed as rational / down to earth who connect on a personal level

Witty, comfortable conversation between them and their friends

Dependable, emotionally there for each other

Moments of normalcy in their life

Canon compliant but enjoys AU spins on canon

~ Impracticaldemon

Pride Goeth Before a Party, or We All Make Mistakes A Holiday Graylu Fic for Condacending

Gray stood at the front window of Lucy's apartment watching the snow fall, arms crossed, shoulders tense, stance closer to defensive than appropriate for a comfortable night in with a much-cherished girlfriend. He managed to keep his tone reasonably even, at least.

"I thought it was just going to be the team. Natsu, Erza, Wendy, the cats… maybe one or two others."

From her seat on the couch, Lucy studied the way Gray's muscles moved under his soft navy t-shirt and concluded that things were more serious than she'd realized. They'd done pretty well in the four months since becoming a couple: disagreements had been few, tempers had been held in check with the patience granted by new romantic love, and each of them had been carefully considerate of any known bruised spots or raw places in the other. Tonight wasn't going nearly as smoothly as usual.

"Well… I thought that since it was a New Year celebration, we should try to kind of reconnect to past friendships"—and other important relationships—"and go a bit beyond the usual"—for once. Gray had always been slightly introverted, but he'd generally had fun at guild parties, and hadn't seemed to mind hanging out and having drinks with various guild members. Lucy wondered why she hadn't noticed sooner that between missions with the team, and time alone together, neither of them had been seeing their wider circle of friends much, and—

"Look, Luce, I appreciate the sentiment, but we didn't decide to invite Lyon. Or Ultear. Not that they've accepted yet or anything, but… I dunno, I just wished you'd asked for my input first. We were doing this thing together, right? And does Erza know you've invited Jellal? Seems to me they've got a complicated kind of relationship—something that isn't exactly 'kiss under the mistletoe and it's all good now'. Again—not that anyone's accepted the invitations, but if they do then what? And I have no idea where Meredy's at, but she's had a rough time of it, and we don't know what the dynamics are between her and Jellal and Ultear. Plus, aren't they all, you know, wanted criminals?"

Hearing the sarcasm edging into his tone, Gray drew a deep breath while Lucy processed his comments. Then he turned from the window, determined to do things right. That included not shutting himself away, or using words or worse to push others—Lucy—away.

Lucy did her best to stop frowning, with mixed success. Although she knew it would probably be better to keep listening right now, she felt impelled to defend herself a little.

"I'm sorry I upset you," she said carefully. "I guess I was hoping we could bring people together a little—and I kind of had the impression that you were getting along okay with Lyon these days and—"

Gray dropped onto the floor in front of Lucy, eyes fixed on hers.

"It seems like you're trying to turn our little New Year's party into something different. Are you sure you weren't just looking for a chance to get me to talk to certain people you think I should be closer to? We know each other pretty well by now, right? And I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me or for selfish reasons, unless"—he broke off, suddenly wary of saying the wrong thing. Sometimes he used jokes to keep people at a distance.

Fortunately, Lucy reached down and poked him lightly on the forehead, saying:

"Unless it involves my rent, I know, I know, sheesh!"

Since she appeared to be genuinely amused, Gray let out a puff of laughter; it was a standing joke with their team that Lucy's scruples inevitably went out the window when her rent was on the line. The mood between them lightened.

"Okay, let me ask straight out, Luce: did you invite Lyon, and Ultear and Meredy, because they're connected to me?"

Lucy chewed her lower lip and then nodded slowly. "I guess that's a big part of it. I have a much better appreciation now for how complicated it is—since Tenrou especially—and since things seem a little more settled these days, I wanted to give you an opportunity to reach out a little. Ultear and Lyon are like family to you and… I know what it's like to realize too late that you could have done something to... to make things better... and didn't."

Gray pulled Lucy's forehead against his. For some reason, touching always helped when they were talking about the hard things.

"I'm sorry about your dad, Lucy. Really, really sorry. And I can see why not getting to see him again—especially the way things were between you—made you think of me and my totally crazy sort-of-family. Ur was deceived, and Ultear was deceived, abused, and manipulated…" He trailed off, unable to continue. It had gotten a lot better since he had finally met and fought Ultear, and learned so much more of the truth. He'd begun to make his peace with her, and even with losing Ur. There was still some way to go, however. He and Ultear weren't exactly in touch.

He heard a faint sigh from Lucy, and then she pressed an apologetic kiss to his temple. She cared about him too much to ignore his pain or her own mistakes. It gave him the strength to wonder whether her basic idea was all that wrong.

"I absolutely shouldn't have invited people—especially those people—without asking you first, Gray. I'm sorry, my bad."

"You wanted to surprise me?"

Lucy looked away, cheeks turning pink.

"Yes… But seriously, given the twinge of concern that made me ruin the surprise and tell you about the invitations after all, I should have known—admitted—that there was a problem. Right?"

Gray shrugged. He wasn't one to need big apologies once something was sorted out—although it helped that he knew Lucy honestly regretted what she'd done. "You'll tell me what you're thinking next time, right? So we're good. At some point I have to stop reacting so much every time you want me to face my past and try to make something good come out of it."

"Thanks… I wish I hadn't—"

"It wasn't a totally bad idea, though."

"Such a compliment!" Lucy was smiling, despite her words.

"Yeah, I could've put that better," Gray muttered. "How about I say that upon consideration, adding some outsiders to our team party seems like a good plan?"

"We could send a quick note to Lyon asking him to invite Chelia as well? Wendy would like that."

"Okay, good thought. Besides, that way I can pretend—he and I can both pretend—that we're being polite for the sake of the girls." His mouth quirked up at the corners, as he contemplated the idea of trying to get along with Lyon in a way that wouldn't total Lucy's apartment. Mind you, Flame-brain would be there too, so there were no guarantees…

Lucy couldn't resist running her fingers through Gray's soft dark hair. Gray could get a little inwardly-focussed at times, but he was also sincere about taking his friends' feelings into account, especially hers.

"I don't know about Jellal and Ultear, though," Lucy said hesitantly. "I mean, they probably won't accept anyway—and no, I hadn't forgotten the whole 'criminal charges' thing, I just wasn't too worried about it."

"Aw, what the hell," Gray replied. Lucy could see that he was now in his "I'll take'em all on" mood, where the challenge of the situation suddenly made him want to prove to everyone (mostly himself, in this case) that he could handle it.

"But—"

"Come on, Luce, don't back down now! Besides, I don't see any graceful way out of it unless you figure I'm fast enough to silence the messenger somehow." He gave Lucy what was no doubt intended to be a murderous leer, and she had to laugh.

"Okay, then. How about: we're just trying to show how good we are at being magnanimous in victory?"

"Of course. Also, it'll play out on their side as doing something nice for Jellal and Erza—maybe. I still don't know exactly what the deal is between those two. I'm guessing that Ultear will want to give Meredy a chance to see people other than their own oh-so-fun-former-evil-doers group."

Lucy squeezed Gray's hand, and he looked up with a rueful smile.

"Yes, I do feel badly for Meredy. I think she got a raw deal. I mean, we both lost our homes and our parents the same way, but I found Ur, whereas she ended up devoted to the person who had caused all of her grief and loss in the first place. Poor kid."

"So it's actually a good thing to invite Meredy, right?"

"Right." Gray hesitated for a moment, then let go of his last desire to add "although you still should have told me first."

Lucy slid off the couch to sit beside him, silently acknowledging his forbearance, but he drew her into his lap instead. He hugged her close, and she laid her head against his shoulder.

"Thanks for not being mad, Gray. At least, not anymore."

"Thank you for giving me a chance to exercise my talent for almost-convincing excuses."

Lucy lifted her head and smiled at him. He smiled back, happy that they were in synch again. A few moments passed in enjoying each other's warmth and a few heartfelt kisses.

"So we're inviting Lyon and Chelia—mostly for Wendy's sake, as well as to avoid some of the more common Team Natsu dynamics—"

"I'll be so torn between thumping Natsu and thumping Lyon I'll be on my best behaviour," murmured Gray.

"—And we're inviting Jellal because I think he and Erza might enjoy having some time together when the world isn't being threatened with disaster—"

"Right, the happy matchmaker approach—how on earth will you keep Mirajane away?"

"—And we're inviting Ultear and Meredy because I think Meredy would appreciate a chance to get to know you better and we both think she deserves to have some fun and meet people who haven't engaged in, um, terrible acts—"

"Have you seen the way Natsu eats?"

"Yes, and you aren't all that different." Lucy tried to look contrite when Gray glared at her and the temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees, but it came out as more of a smirk. "Sorry, sorry, I concede that your manners are generally better than his!"

"Hmph." Gray drew a little icicle heart in the frosty air, although he then had no idea what to do with it.

"C-c-cold, Gray!"

The air warmed up again and Gray's little creation vanished.

"There's a metaphor in there somewhere," he grumbled, as the icicle heart disappeared. "Or do I mean a simile? I'm not sure that Ur was any clearer on that stuff than I was."

Lucy ignored his rambling.

"So we're inviting Ultear in part because we're inviting Jellal and Meredy, and in part because I think she could stand to see that a lot of us don't hate her."

"And because you think it will help me deal with things better too."

Lucy's expression became serious again. "I think she's like family to you, and vice versa. And since you are important to me, I want to do whatever I can for both of you."

"Alright, Lucy, fair enough. Just remember—"

"I will. This isn't a book, and I can't make people just do what I want, or make things turn out the way I want." The solemn expression left her face as she added: "Although, to be honest, it's much harder to make my characters do what I want than you'd think! I mean, I know it's a little ridiculous, but they can be completely stubborn about things..."

[END]

A/Note: Epilogue is intended to follow. I didn't want my Graylu sibling to have to wait any longer for this, however!

All comments and reviews are appreciated. If you see typos or other little glitches, please send me a PM through your platform of choice. \(^u^)/

Tags: @shell-senji @eliz1369 @hakuyamazakisensei @hidetheremote @miss-zei @lockandk3yfiction @sassyhazelowl @gsut

#fairy tail #ft fanfiction #graylu #graylu siblings holiday exchange #impracticaldemon #imp writes

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vannahfanfics · 4 years

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@mynameistakenhavethisinstead So... I sat down to write your GrayLu holiday request, and... It ended up becoming something else entirely! ^.^” Because I am not one to short my requestees, you’ll still get your GrayLu request (which is why I answered this outside of the physical ask) so, uh. Just have this one on the house, I guess? Lmao

Forever Begins Here

Category: General Fluff

Characters: Lucy Heartfilia

Lucy’s coffee-colored eyes glistened with the reflection of the bright, merry, and undeniably Fairy Tail-esque array of multicolored fairy lights strung at the guild entrance. They were a nice compliment to the dull and gray winter that had been plaguing the city for the last several days; though the steely clouds hung oppressively low to smother the earth in a perpetual, seeping chill and deliver puffy white snowflakes onto the already buried community, the twinkling bulbs brought holiday cheer in the form of red, yellow, green, and blue soft glowing light that kaleidoscoped across the white snow. Lucy stood a moment in front of the guild to simply admire the beautiful display that had literally appeared overnight. It really was the simplest of things in life that made it worth getting up every day, she mused with a small smile before charging into the guild.

As usual, the guild chorused with raucous greeting at her entrance, as was custom. Lucy barely noticed because her eyes were alight attempting to absorb every ounce of holiday cheer that had been applied to the buildings interior. To keep from being overly gaudy, white fairy lights instead of colored ones were on display, wrapped around every column and trailing over every banister. Pine garland complimented it in certain areas, notably demarking the second-floor balustrade. Lucy had tracked half-melted snow onto a thick, downy, bouncy red rug that sprawled across the floor and traveled up the steps to likely puddle across that wooden floor in cherry-red bliss; with a light giggle, she stepped onto it and so wished she could pull of her shoes to feel it with her bare feet, because it was simply so pillowy and the fibers looked as soft as featherdown. Beside the entrance were two large copper vases stuffed to bursting with red poinsettias, and a garland of holly stretched over the doorframe. To complete the ambiance, a roaring fire was blazing in the guild’s massive fireplace to steep the wide room in cozy warmth. To Lucy, Fairy Tail was homier than ever before.

She pranced down the aisle to notice that the holiday decorations were still far from complete, as various members were hard at work applying decorations elsewhere. Mirajane and her siblings were adorning her bar with what looked like hand-made paper snowflakes, which were being produced at length by Asuka and Romeo, who wore matching beaming smiles as they attacked the folded papers with scissors to produce one-of-a-kind patterns. Cana was going about the room setting holiday-scented candles of many a variety on each table to create little bubbles of cheery aroma- peppermint, gingerbread, candied apple, sugar cookie, and those were just the ones she smelled as she walked by. It was all so festive and fun, and Lucy dearly wished that she would’ve arrived earlier so she could’ve joined in.

“Lucy! You’re just in time!” Levy called to her from her seat beside Gajeel. Lucy trotted over to the girl with a cheerful greeting before inquiring what she was just in time for. “Erza, Gray, and Natsu should be here with the tree soon.” Not a moment after did the blue-haired girl speak did the guild hall’s door fling open with monstrous ferocity. Lucy looked over her shoulder to catch Natsu’s tufts of pink hair peeking out from a massive expanse of pine needles. Lucy watched in mild concern as Natsu shook himself out of the needles, gasping for breath, before gripping onto the trunk of the trees with bulging muscles.

“You’re not getting the best o’ me, you damn tree! Ahhhhhhh!” He yelled, literally spitting fire from his mouth as he feet slipped uselessly over the floor while he attempted to haul the gigantic specimen into the guild. Lucy smiled in bemusement. Leave it to Natsu to spice things up…

“Hey! Stop breathing fire everywhere! If you catch it on fire, Wendy will cry!” Levy accused him from her spot at the table and pointed at the sky dragon-slayer. Sure enough, she had her hands balled up at her chest as she watched with great anxiety, tears even brimming in her big round eyes. Natsu flushed from head to toe and grumbled something under his breath, but obediently ceased his flame-spouting. Shifting positions to try and get better leverage, he buried his arms up to his shoulders into the pine tree. With another guttural roar, he yanked hard, and the tree came bursting into the guild hair with exceptional force. Little did Natsu know that Gray had blasted the back end with swirling icy wind, aided by Erza with a powerful glae from her flashing swords, so it was really questionable whether Natsu really aided in the process or not. The wood around the door splintered as it was stretched beyond capacity to fit the wide girth of the pine tree, which was now skidding across the guild hall with reckless abandon right to where Levy, Gajeel, and Lucy were sitting.

The both screamed in alarm as the tree shot towards them like a massive green bullet, trying to scramble away; the tree was simply gargantuan and would swallow them up no matter which way they ran. “I love you Levy!” Lucy wailed as she threw her arms around her best friend, pitifully crying tears.

“I love you too, Lucy! I wish I could’ve finished reading your next novel draft!” Levy whined in lament. Behind them, Gajeel rolled his eyes before plucking them both up by the backs of their shirts. The two girls released their hug as he plopped each of them on either of his broad shoulders, then grunted and reared back to pull up a combat-booted leg and plow it directly into the top of the tree. Despite his brawny form, he was actually pushed back a good deal across the guild hall, but due to all the friction and resistance, the tree slowly came to a stop. Gajeel grunted as he disentangled his leg from the gigantic tree, as it had sunk nearly up his thigh. Levy squealed as she sat on his shoulder like a little parrot, hugging his head and nuzzling into his spiky dark hair. “Ah, Gajeel, thank you! I thought I was a goner.” Gajeel blushed a salmon color and looked away bashfully.

“Well, you’re small, so…” he grumbled under his breath. Lucy chuckled under her breath at their impossibly cute interaction before patting his back and hopping down with a similar gratuitous remark, just in time for Erza and the two boys to walk across the crammed-together, flipped-over guild tables to marvel at their prize.

“Now we just have to put it up and then we can decorate it!” Gray remarked. His shirt had been lost in the exchange somewhere, though if it was while hunting for the tree or the debacle that had just occurred, Lucy wasn’t for sure. At the mention of the most basic of holiday traditions, Lucy clasped her hands together at her chest and gasped in delight.

“Oh, yay! I’ve never gotten to decorate a tree before!” Lucy could hear the record screech as all the noise suddenly died in the guild and dozens of eyes became centered on her in utter horror. A blush rose to her cheeks in slight mortification; she knew decorating a tree was a normal holiday tradition, but really, was she the only one who had never done it? She shrunk into herself as Gray hopped down from the table to look at her incredulously.

“Really, Lucy? Never?” he hissed in a mixture of shame and pity. Lucy puffed out her cheeks at the interrogation.

“Never… My father always insisted that it was too frivolous and made the servants do it…” she admitted meekly. Now that she said it aloud, it was pretty sad. At least half the guild whipped around clutching their hearts while tears streamed down their faces, while the other half crowded around to hug the very confused and slightly pissed-off blonde. Mirajane tutted as she pulled Lucy into her chest while snuggling her chin into Lucy’s hair.

“Oh, dear… How tragic… Get this tree up at once! Lucy is gonna lead us in decorating this tree, top to bottom!” she suddenly barked in a tone that indicated that she was dangerously close into tapping into her demonic alter ego. With yelps of “yes ma’am!” the grew scattered across the tree, trying to riddle out some way to heft the massive thing into standing position. In the end they decided to situate Wendy at the peak to blast its front end upward with her sky dragon-slayer magic, and the rest of them would keep the momentum so that the tree nestled upright in the corner of the guild. Wendy sucked in a deep breath to the point that her chest swelled to painful capacity before releasing her Sky Dragon’s Roar at such an angle that the tree’s end skyrocketed up. It actually went pretty high, up to about a sixty degree angle, before it threatened to come crashing down. That’s when the rest of them went to scaffolding it with all manners of their magic, pushing up against its thick trunk until it finally rested in the proper position. Standing beneath it, Lucy could not help but be enthralled; it really was the perfect tree, towering over all of them with just enough room between its single-branch summit and the roof to place an adornment. Though Lucy’s forte was in the aesthetic of words, her mind also was not lacking in the creativity of décor, and her mind began to swim ecstatically with various ways to arrange baubles and ribbons and ornaments on the gargantuan pine tree.

“Okay, Lucy! Let’s get to work,” Gray mused as he walked by her to grab her in a tight but affectionately comfortable headlock, tousling his fist into her hair. Someone had probably scolded him for walking around half-naked, because he was now wearing his overcoat. Not even bothered by his wrestler’s grip, she smiled giddily as she saw the guild members dragging out countless boxes filled with decorations that had accumulated over the years.

With Lucy at the helm, they began decorating the tree- though of course, the Celestial Mage participated plenty in the physical aspect of the event. They began by stringing more fairy lights to the tree, sticking with plain white bulbs that flickered like stars from deep within the branches. Then they applying round bauble ornaments to the tree. The largest ones, which were hung at the base of the herculean plant, has such an incredible circumference that Lucy couldn’t even wrap her arms completely around them. To compliment the red rug and the flickering white fairy lights and the pine garland, Lucy elected for a tri-color arrangement of red, white, and green. The covered the tree in the circular ornaments, using the Exceeds to fly to the top of course, but left plenty of space for some more fun flair. The kitty-like creatures found massive spools of ribbon, and were more than happy to zoon about draping the sheer white glittery trimming over the branches (with some left over to play with after!). Lucy found with delight a set of milky-white glass tailed fairy ornaments, most likely in honor of their beautiful and kind founder Mavis, and so they hung them at strategic gaps in the foliage, as well as sets of crystal stars and red-and-green holly ornaments. Finally, when every space in the tree was stuffed to capacity, it was time for the final piece- the tree topper. It was just a generic angel figurine, but Lucy hesitated to put it atop the pine tree as an artistic vision stirred in her mind when she spotted a plan wreath.

“Hold on a minute!” she cried as she dashed off into one of the guild’s hall where they had hung a corkboard. Mirajane had installed the small panel for them to post pictures on, and though it had only been hung a few months or so, the thing was so smothered in photographs that a plan had been enacted to fill the entire hall with corkboards to create a grand display. Lucy plucked photos from the board one by one, aiming for every guild member to be represented, and even found an old photo of the founders, with a sweet, beaming Mavis in the middle, practically glowing like an angel herself. Snickering to herself, Lucy scampered back to her very curious guild members to kneel down in front of the wreath and begin clamping the photographs to its stems with small clothespins. Once she was finished, she held it up in triumph, though wobbled a bit as it was nearly as large as herself. “Ta-da!”

“Oh, Lucy, it’s so beautiful,” Juvia whispered as she marveled at it, tears brimming in her navy blue eyes. Levy was crying silently as she nodded in approval. Gray and Natsu both snickered and threw their arms around her slim shoulders, with Gray affectionately rubbing her hair again. The Exceeds flew around it with glee, with Happy pointing and naming everyone he could. The Master, who had been watching the proceedings the entire time, smiled softly and nodded in approval.

“I couldn’t ask for a more perfect centerpiece for our work of art. Am I right?” he mused and stroked his mustache. The guild chorused in an earth-shaking roar of approval.

“RIGHT!” Lucy hugged the wreath to herself, tears flooding her own brown eyes with overwhelming joy that they cherished her little creation so much. With a guiding hand on the small of her back, Gray turned her back to face the tree and, with a flourish of his hand, fashioned her a set of icy stairs up to its peak.

“Go for it, Lucy,” he smiled softly down at her. Though she had her back turned, she knew the rest of the guild was wearing the same look. Like she was a fairy aflight, she ascended the stairs with her toes barely skimming the surface of the ice, like a fleeting winter wind rushing to the heavens. When she arrived at the top, she hefted the massive wreath over her head before settling it into the pine branches, giving it a little shake about to ensure it was secure before turning around with a gleeful shout. The stairs beneath her feet suddenly morphed into a slide, and with a shocked scream her legs went out from under her. She zipped down until a small bump sent her airborne, and she landed unsteadily on her feet, wobbling around while pinwheeling her arms. With a mischievous smirk dancing on his face, Gray steadied her with hands at her waist. She made a face at him, but couldn’t be too mad, because it was all in the spirit of fun, of course. He then whirled her around so that she could meet her masterpiece, and all the breath left Lucy’s lungs.

Enchantingly gorgeous was the only way that Lucy would ever be able to describe it. The soft glow of the fairy lights reflected off the shiny surfaces of the various ornaments to create sparkling glints against the deep green of the pine needles. The little fairies seemed to be fluttering as the light played over them, and the crystal stars absorbed the light to glow with a pulsing luminosity of their own. The rich tones of the red and vibrant hue of the green complimented the striking white well. At the crown of the tree, all their happy, smiling faces beamed down, with the beloved smile of their founder Mavis outshining them all. A single tear rolled down Lucy’s cheek as she beheld it, and then she put her hand over her heart as it clenched with more joy than words could ever express.

“You guys… Let’s do this again next year, okay? And the next, and the next… Forever…” she sniffled.

“Of course!” they hollered before jumping forward to envelop Lucy in a crushing, smothering, suffocating and wonderful group hug. With her friends, her greatest treasures, enclosing her with tender arms, Lucy had never felt more loved. Her forever began right there, at that pivotal moment… Her forever with Fairy Tail.

Such was Lucy’s first time decorating a holiday tree, but it certainly was not her last…

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

Tag List: @searchfortheonepiece

#I dunno what happened #I just started writing and then things started happening #I was possessed by the writing gods #anyway #I hope you enjoy it anyway!#GrayLu is definitely coming!#fairy tail #lucy heartfilia #fairy tail lucy #ft lucy #holidays #fluff #general fluff

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