Natsu's Christmas Party

"Was this really the biggest tree we could find?" Lucy asked as she looked at the 12 foot fir tree in the middle of the guild hall. The guild members had just finished stringing the lights up and down the tree, and now the ornaments were beginning to go up.

Still, in the middle of the Fairy Tail guild hall, the tree looked rather small. It barely reached the second floor of the guild. It just felt like a guild their size should be able to do better.

"What's wrong with it?" Erza asked as she pulled out some rather sharp looking ornaments to place on the tree. "It's the same size we get every year!"

"Oh, nothing I guess." Lucy said with a sigh. She remembered the enormous Christmas trees they used to have in Heartfilia mansion when she was growing up. Fairy Tail may not have been her father's business empire, but surely they could at least afford a better tree!

"Well, that's done!" She turned to see Natsu, a big grin on his face. He'd been placed in charge of hanging the decorations around the guild. There were streamers, lights of various shapes and colors, tinsel, some mistletoe, and a few wreaths hung throughout the guild.

"Nice job Natsu, are you going to help decorate the tree now?" Lucy asked, smiling at the pink-haired teen.

"Nope. Me and Happy are gonna' go on a job request," Natsu replied with a grin. Then he yelled, "Hey Gramps, we're out!"

"Aye sir!" Happy called out behind him. And before anything more could be said the two were out the door.

"A job request, with Christmas only two days away?" Lucy asked gaping. "Didn't he just get back from a job request too?"

Erza frowned. "Natsu always goes on a ton of requests right before Christmas. He loads up on jewels, and nobody knows what he does with them."

"Probably goes and eats some local restaurant out of business," Lucy said with a light laugh.

"Yeah, flame brain and his cat probably just gorge themselves on Christmas. That's why they always miss the party," Gray said, smirking as he joined them. He then admired the Christmas tree. "Say, that's a weird ornament at the top."

Lucy looked up to see Gajeel hanging something that looked like a pair of jeans near the top of the tree. She then looked at Gray, and instantly looked away again.

"I'm pretty sure those are your pants," she said.

"WHAT? When did this happen?!" Gray rushed off to retrieve his pants, leaving Lucy and Erza alone again.

"Seriously though," Lucy said, turning back to Erza. "What does Natsu do that makes him so eager to earn money around Christmas."

"Very well," Erza said, slamming her hands down on the table. "If you are so eager to find out what Natsu does with his Christmas, we will interrogate every person in Magnolia till we can discover what it is."

"Should we really pry into his personal life like that?" Lucy jumped at the soft voice behind her, then turned to see Wendy standing there with Carla nearby.

"Why not?" Lucy replied to the young dragon slayer. "He's always coming into my house without permission, so I don't see anything wrong with it. Besides, I really want to know what he's doing with all these jewels."