❆ Festive Fairies ❆ [EVENT]

I'll have a blue Christmas without you; I'll be so blue thinking about you.
Decorations of red, on a green Christmas tree. Won't mean a thing.
Nessa Cordelia Lux

Another year passed and they had once again reached that lovely time that was Christmas. As far as Nessa was concerned this year was good, for the most part. Of course there had been some sadness and frustration. The realisation that Rex was back and targeting her had been difficult to deal with, but at least she was better equipped to handle him now. Now she had Markus, who she knew would do his utmost to make sure that Rex couldn’t effect her the way he had before. She also had Fairy Tail, along with the prestige that she had earned since joining the guild -  making strength and status wasn’t nothing to sniff at. This wasn’t the same sixteen year old girl who couldn’t deal with what rex had thrown with her, Nessa had grown up and learned a lot in doing so.

That wasn’t to say that things were perfect for her, Arcadia was gone. One of her genuinely closest friends in the guild, and Aven was … there. Although their relationship wasn’t nearly as close as it had been when they first joined, something that she knew was her own doing. Unable to deal with his feelings she just, hadn’t. And so there was a gap between them now, not to mention that she had learned that he had been in liaising with a certain Rune Knight. Who he spent his time with wasn’t Nessa’s business, she knew that, but what was her business was the fact that Lilith Kadokawa was quite obviously anti-Fairy Tail. Something that since their confrontation in the cursed lands had surely worsened from her latest article in the magazine. But how was she getting such information? Was Aven leaking it to her? Nessa wanted to confront him about it, but there was an uncertainty there. She didn’t like confrontation in the slightest and wasn’t sure how to approach such things, she did know someone however, who was very good at confronting others. Her latest friend, whom she had become quite close to in the past few weeks.

Louie Calvin Klein wasn’t someone she had expected to become close to, in reality there personalities were vastly different. He was rich, she was not. He was savage, she wasn’t …so much. But she liked hanging out with him, he was fun, and he loved to party. It was nice to hang around someone so lively, and he made her care less. Which was always nice. Had it not been for the blonde fellow, she might never had felt the drive to confront Cassie that day. She probably would have just walked out, choosing to keep her demons locked away instead of facing them the way she had.

It was Louie’s confidence and his ability to deal with his problems so directly which had caused Nessa to reach out to him. There was a festival going on, another Christmas themed event for the locals to enjoy. So feeling that it would be a good opportunity to get his advice and enjoy a nice hang out with her friend, she had called him and invited him along.

Currently she stood in the middle of Magnolia’s town centre, the place where he had told him to meet her. She rubbed her palms together, trying to build up some heat in her hands. The streets were bustling with activity, people out enjoying the festival. It was nice, standing here ready to enjoy the day ahead, it made her feel normal. Nessa really liked feeling normal.

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Louie could hear his iLac rumble on the coffee table next to his bed, rumbling as his mother tried to reach out to him time and time again. Her attempts were relentless lately, her only child in a country thousands of miles away, spending the holidays alone after the recent passing of his late wife and unborn child. It was such a sad and tragic thing at face value, but Louie wasn't refusing to answer her calls for any sort of reason like that. He hadn't spent the holiday season with any of his family for at least three years now and hadn't even returned to Napedia for this time of the year either. Christmas in his home was always just a bunch of toxic bullshit masked with tonnes of gift-giving. It was always used as an opportunity to introduce her aging son to a new girl that she approved or the president of some company that she wanted to have connections to through her son's success. He hated his family, and yet they seemed oblivious to the reason why he hadn't come home for the holidays in so long.

But that wasn't the only reason. Lately, his life had been hectic even by his standards. Ever since that encounter with Vandrad in the expedition, his life had spiraled into emotional and mental turmoil. A lot had happened since then and he wasn't feeling any better about it today than he was when it happened, always angry and waking up from nightmares of that day. It didn't help when he read up on Vandrad's snippet in the Sorcerer's Magazine, and needless to say, the blonde was infuriated. He burned that journal to smithereens and continued to brood all day. It seemed like he had hit a hard spot in his life at the moment, a darkness in which very little light could come in. But there was one person he had thought about often—Nessa.

Louie had never intended to become so close to Nessa, thinking very little of her when they first met at Fairy Tail. At the time, she was an attractive woman, and that's all he coined her to be, but he ended up becoming drawn to her over time. She was quick to get past his nasty attitude and snide comments, and eventually, everything he had said or done to her became something of pure endearment. Taking her out somewhere or doing something with her had become part of his routine, even if he hadn't realized it. For once, he felt comfortable with someone, something he hadn't felt for a long time. Even if he hadn't visited the guild a single time since the incident in the Unknown Lands, and although he had done some wicked things in the time between, Louie had only thought of her fondly. However, it wasn't until today that he had decided to reach out to her again.

Blocking his mother's number only seemed to cause more problems for him, as she'd always send over servants to check up on him or, God forbid, she'd come in person, and that was always far more annoying than her relentless pursuit of his resources. So, Louie had snatched his iLac off of the coffee table and immediately began to text Nessa, telling her to meet up with him as he usually would do, and then silenced his device. He just couldn't deal with anyone's nonsense today. He already had enough on his plate.


It was chilly outside, seeing the frost in his hot breath blow out of his mouth every time he exhaled through it, a telling sign that the colder season had finally arrived. Of course, it was a lot of people's favorite time of the year, and they through festivals and parties to show it. Wearing a brown, woolen pea coat and beige slacks to go with it, the blonde meandered through the center of Magnolia Town in search of the girl he was looking for. Surely enough, it didn't take long to spot that long, gleaming white hair and the short figure accompanying it, standing in the center of town. His life was a mess right now, but the moment he saw her, it's like a beacon of light broke through the darkness encapsulating him. For a moment, all he thought about was how pleased he was to find her. She couldn't see him from where she was, Louie approaching her from behind with his confident smirk creasing his unblemished, attractive face. His hands pocketed, he walked up from behind.

"You know, you're so short that I almost didn't see you, petit porcelet," Louie greeted her with a teasing remark, leaning over her from behind so that he could loom over with his playful smirk, "Hey."

Louie wanted nothing more than just an ordinary outing with his little piggy. Just a moment where Vandrad, that scar, his family, or the other fiends who had assaulted him before this didn't plague his mind or his energy. Just a day where he could spend his invaluable time on the one person he didn't mind giving it to, for once. It made him feel like himself again despite all of the problems he had to deal with—like normal. He really liked feeling normal.

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I'll have a blue Christmas without you; I'll be so blue thinking about you.
Decorations of red, on a green Christmas tree. Won't mean a thing.
Nessa Cordelia Lux

Whilst she waited, Nessa would occasionally activate her starlight in her hands. Rubbing her arms up and down with the warm magic coating her fingers, allowing her to warm up a little in this chilly weather. Nessa tended to prefer the summer more than the winter, cold has always been a bit of a counter for her magic especially in her D-Rank days. At least now that she had built up her powers to such a point she was able to fend off the effects of the cold with ease, but it still wasn't very comfortable to be in. Plus it felt like forever since she'd been to the beach - ugh, how she missed the beach.

His teasing voice would break the quiet around her, she spun to face him, grin already stretched across her face. "Hey Lou!" She cooed warmly, despite how many times he'd told her not to call him that. "Also, what do you mean short? I'm like barely shorter than you!" That was quite the exaggeration on her part, as she looked up at him, she quickly realised this which was why she added the next part of her retort, "In heels! I just decided to wear uggs today because of the cold!" She told him defensively. "Anyway, let's take a wander, apparently there's like a ton of stuff to do here!" She said before strolling along, sure that he would follow her. "Sooo, how are you?" She asked conversationally, as she looked around at the festival.

As always, it was really nicely done, everything was so pretty and Christmassy. Not too mention there was a load of interesting stalls to take a look at, vendors offering food, merchandise and even games. The latter being the part Nessa was most interested in, Nessa loved partaking in festival games, it was corny but also a lot of fun. Spotting one activity, she grabbed Louie's arm, "Ooh that looks good, let's go!" She told him, before dragging him in the general direction of the contest that seemed to be taking place "Are you good at decorating Trees? Cause I'm like, practically a pro." She told him smugly, signing them both up for the contest before taking the box that the organisers were giving out. She would guide him over to a decently sized tree about three metres in height with a base width of one and a half metres. "Let's take a look shall we," She muttered, more to herself than to him as she opened the box they'd been given. Inside what's a bad selection, it was perhaps a little on the simple side in terms of extravagance, but not a bad set of decorations for the task ahead. Nessa wasted no time getting out the lights, which would need untangling before she could put them up. As she did so she looked up at Louie, deciding now would be a good time to bring up her concerns.

"So um... I have a bit of an issue at the guild and I was hoping for your opinion. I don't suppose you saw that issue of whispers that came out not to long ago, the one that was super anti-fairy tail." She began, her face quickly falling into a scowl, eyes trained on the wires as she spoke. "Well... I kind of did something that might have caused the writer to get mad at me, and I think she's taking it out on the guild to get back at me. And er... I think that she might be getting info from ... inside the guild. I think I know who it is too but I don't really know how to confront them. What do you think I should do?"

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At this point, Louie had told Nessa to stop calling him 'Lou' so many times that it began to feel like an irritated automated message before long. Hell, before he could even do his spiel, Nessa had continued to ramble on about her height and this and that, while Louie could only stare at her with squinted eyes and a mildly amused smirk. But now that they had reunited, their loitering came to a quick end as Nessa led them both through the festival, strolling along the roadway side by side with a polite amount of interest in his day.

"Great," Louie replied to her almost instantly, his brow twitching a little as the question brought along unwanted memories of recent times. His life had been on a downwards spiral recently, and he had come here to escape it all if only for a day. He didn't look her in the eyes when he said that but returned his gaze after a long pause. He often didn't ask Nessa how she was or what she had been up to when they were in person, choosing to briefly look at her face, mannerisms, overall energy—that sort of stuff. In his own way, he checked up on her when they were together. After all, people brooding in his presence always killed his buzz, and frankly, doom and gloom simply did not fit her.

The rest of their stroll was as expected. They saw some curious items and displays, families and couples enjoying the festivities, vendors selling their holiday treats in stalls the could wrap around the center of town twice over. It wasn't until Nessa had caught sight of one particular activity, lined with rows of naked pine trees waiting to be adorned with a plethora of vibrant ornaments and decorations. She grabbed his arm and dragged Louie to over where they'd receive a box of decorations and then walk over to a decently sized tree for them to adorn with their creativity.

"Well, if you're a pro, then I practically invented Christmas tree decorating," Louie boasted, never having decorated a single tree in his life. Not only did tend to celebrate Christmas alone, with his stick-in-the-mud family, or with complete strangers out on an exotic night in a club, but he hadn't ever celebrated it traditionally. In his world and so many others, gift-giving was really just a formality, and it always had some sort of ulterior motive or hidden message. Nothing was ever earnest, and nothing was never not weaponized as some sort of political or emotional bone being waved in front of whoever. Needless to say, it didn't help him with his distrust in the honesty or generosity of people. Louie's Christmas looked like red wine and splurging on the most materialistic holiday of the year—just his style.

The decorations weren't anything to write home about, but it wasn't like they were complete garbage either. They were... decorations. Nothing more, nothing less. Of course, out of all the trees Louie had seen decorated, there was certainly more to it than whatever was in this box, but his competitive spirit could turn any water into wine, no matter what. The blonde curiously grabbed one round ornament which glittered at every ray of light, examing it by turning it this way and that way in his hand. He played with the pointy metal hook at the very top, but once Nessa suddenly brought up the Whispers column from the recent Sorcerer's Magazine that Louie had been brooding over, he flinched and pricked his finger on the pointy end of the ornament.

"Merde! Ugh! Just... what? That's your issue?" Louie swore in his native tongue, quickly placing the ornament back in the box and immediately held out his thumb in front of him, noticing a small drop of blood resting in the center. It was just a prick, as irritating as it was, so he just casually placed the tip of his finger in his mouth where he could quietly suck the blood away. There was a look of surprise and anger on his face, although he wasn't mad at Nessa at all. It's just that the Whispers column was literally the last thing he wanted to talk about, considering how infuriating the information was... but they were both probably upset about it for very different reasons. He quickly moved past his initial anger and returned his attention to Nessa, sighing with mild irritation. What else was even in that column? Something about a trading company? Sabertooth? He knew that Bigfoot was mentioned and his hilarious bonding with Lady Twilight, but who cared about that? "You know, petit porcelet, maybe that page wasn't so anti-Fairy Tail and just the fact that your friends aren't everything they say they are. If it's actually a problem, they'd grow a pair and deal with it themselves since it doesn't even have anything to do with everyone else anyway. If you're going to be upset, get upset about that son of a bitch beast about his bullshit royalty—"

Apparently, Louie wasn't as collected as he thought he was, feeling his blood begin to boil as he offered the advice he meant to give. It ended up in him almost starting a rant about the core of his anger, but he quickly stopped himself in an exasperated sigh as he realized what sort of rambling he was about to spew. His face was scrunched up in a repressed irritation before he turned to look at Nessa once more, finger still planted between his lips.

"...As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't waste your breath. People can keep on with their bullshit all they want—just goes to show how little of a life they have, anyway. But if you want to invest into some kneecap replacement surgery for the mole," Louie chuckled through his nose, half-jokingly, "you can put it on my tab."

Half-jokingly.

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I'll have a blue Christmas without you; I'll be so blue thinking about you.
Decorations of red, on a green Christmas tree. Won't mean a thing.
Nessa Cordelia Lux

Once the Christmas lights were untangled, Nessa began to thread them around the tree. Weaving the wires gathering between the branches to create a nice space between each row. Circling the tree at a casual pace, she looked over at Louie as she awaited his thoughts on the matter. He looked annoyed at her mention of the magazine, although that could have been because he seemed to have pricked his finger whilst decorating. His answer was as expected direct, without any coatings of sugar as he laid it on her. She bit his lip, pausing for a moment as she considered this. Was she being silly about this? It just didn't seem right that Lilith was so clearly targeting Fairy Tail, purposefully making them look bad to the public. It was fine for her to have a vendetta against Nessa, but not her friends.

Still the stories hadn't been lies, Mura it seemed was secretly married. Something that Nessa had only learned through the article, it was news that brought both joy and sadness to the Ace. She and Mura were work colleagues, but also friends no? Didn't friends tell each other these sorts of things, then again besides for work matters, she didn't really hang out with Mura that often on a social level. Was it that they just weren't close enough for him to have told her? And the same could be said for Vandrad's secret, although that she understood. He obviously didn't want people to know about his status, else he would have told them. Nessa flinched at Louie's harsh words about their guildmate, she hated that they didn't get along. But it was one of those situations where she didn't know if there was anything she could do to help them, they just really did not get along. Another sad fact about the Fairy Tail guild.

She smiled meekly at his kneecap joke, she didn't want to hurt Aven, or to even fight with him. But if he was the one spilling these stories to Lilith, well, that was wrong wasn't it? Surely he should know better? Then again, she could be wrong, maybe it wasn't him. Nessa would turn away for a moment to grab a ladder and bring it over, using it to finish wrapping the lights around the trees. Climbing down she quickly set about switching the lights on, after a moment the tree would sparkling with pretty glowing white lights, making it look so much better already.

"I guess... It just sucks you know. It's not just this issue, she's written like four issues making digs at Fairy Tail. One of them implied that I was cheating on Markus with you, and people believed her. One of the ladies at my local market called me a tramp because of that article. And that Lilith, UGH! She's just..." Nessa could feel herself getting angry, her hands glowed for a moment as she recalled the way she had spoken to her. "She's just... not a nice person." She finished quietly, managing to stop her from saying anything harsher, calming the magic welling up within her. As much as she disliked the Rune Knight, she didn't need to talk like that in front of anyone, those were private thoughts.

"Fairy Tail is my family, I can't get help but get mad when someone tries to mess with it. You know? But anyway, thank you. You're really good at putting things in perspective for me," She told him, giving herself a little shake as though to shift the negativity off her. "Enough drama, let's christmas the heck outta this tree!" And with that she would set about getting the decorations on the tree, doing what they could with what they had to make it pretty. "Hey you have gold magic right? Think you can pretty up the ornaments a bit?" She suggested, as she stood back from the tree, she examined it. It looked good as it was, but not enough to win. There was no rules to say they couldn't... improve the decorations a bit. Spreading her palms, Nessa would creature tiny orbs of starlight, which would dancing around the baubles in a ring like fashion. After it was done, she would step back, admiring their pretty tree. "Ahh it's so cute!" She remarked happily, before going to let an organiser know they were done. Once she was back to turned to Louie, already in a much better mood. "Apparently we have to come back for the result in a bit, shall we go do other stuff in the meantime?"

As they set about wandering the festival once more, Nessa would grab a hot chocolate on the way. Feeling the need for something warm on this chilly yet enjoyable day. It wasn't long on their journey that she spotted another fun activity that she wanted to try. "Eeee! Look at that, we HAVE to do that. I'm going to make you something fabulous, HAHA!" Without waiting for him, she rushed over to the christmas jumper making stand. Taking a pew, Nessa quickly set about grabbing the sunny yellow and white wool.

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"Is that right?" said Louie, mindlessly listening to her complaints as he carefully placed ornaments across the pine. Everyone had insecurities, or maybe just a distaste for untruthful implications, but it was your own response to those attacks that mattered. Louie was easily one of the most insecure and defensive people one could come across, but on the bright side, he at least knew how much he was worth and didn't let other people invalidate that through media, gossip, or strength alone. His confidence and self-appreciation was a double-edged sword—sometimes inspiring in how much of it he had, and often the reason for his doom. Personally, he found the Whispers column entertaining, but Nessa clearly held some sort of a grudge over something she simply shouldn't bother with.

The tree was done, finished with tiny orbs of Nessa's starlight dancing around the tree and caked layer of gold glitter from Louie's magic, enough to see it shimmer at light bounced off of it. As far as Louie was concerned, it was perfect, looking at the tree with this triumphant and approving smirk on his face before Nessa had led them away to whatever else they could find. Fortunately, that didn't take long. Very little time had passed before an Ugly Sweater crafting activity caught Nessa's sparkly eyes, and she'd dash over towards it like Santa's reindeer.

"Wha—" Louie flinched and tried to call out to her, but she was gone before the word came out. He watched her immediately go for her choice in wool, and Louie could already tell that crafting ugly sweaters wasn't really his thing, even though he had never tried it. He sighed through his nose, a defeated smile on his face as he followed behind her. He liked bolder colors, the kind the stuck out and popped but looked good while doing it, and so he chose an apple red and an almost neon-green for his wool. It was supposed to be ugly, right? It was a shame because he liked beautiful things, but if it must be ugly, then he'd make it the most horrendous sweater someone had ever seen! "Tell me something you hate and I'll make sure to add it on the sweater~"

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I'll have a blue Christmas without you; I'll be so blue thinking about you.
Decorations of red, on a green Christmas tree. Won't mean a thing.
Nessa Cordelia Lux

The sweater Nessa would create was truly a masterpiece in her eyes, weaving yellow and white wool with pattern lines. She would get some white cotton sheets and cut out several pieces in a familiar shape. Nessa's wasn't especially artistic, she couldn't draw or paint to save her life, but fabric, fabric she could work with. She loved fashion and had thoroughly enjoyed helping the design team with Lux Designs Ltd initial product release. It hadn't made her an expert, but she had learned alot about what fabrics worked well together and how the design process of making clothes worked.

Nessa shot Louie a challenging grin as he asked for something she hated, "Not telling!" She answered him in a teasing voice, although it was a bit if risk leaving the sweater to his own volition. She doubted he could do much to decorate a sweater with themes like 'bullies' or 'studying' anyway. To be honest it didn't matter how garish it came out, the idea of making items with a friend to exchange with one another was actually very whlesome. Nessa was having a great time, and for the first time in a while was having a geniunely good time.

Once she was done, she would hold up her sweater, showing off the bright yellow jumper with it's white lines and fairy tail pattern. "A bit of Fairy Tail pride! What do you think, I know it's supposed to be ugly, but I think it came out kind of cute don't you!" She said with a laugh, well aware of Louie's more 'extravagant tastes'. Lowering the jumper, she leaned over to see what he had made, "Let's see what you made?"  

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