The Salamander's Sister

Christmas Special

Natsume's pov

I smiled up as I watched everyone in the guild hall, everyone was gathering to decorate the guild hall. Just as I took a sip of my hot chocolate a paper was slammed down in front of me, I looked up to see Natsu. He had this large smile on his face but there was a glint in his eyes that told me that he was up to something, I raised an eyebrow as I stared at him. "What's up?" I questioned him, "We're going on an important mission." I sighed putting my cup down.

"Well, what's the mission?" I asked.

"We are going to help a town that needs their Christmas to be saved. Apparently a thief has been going around stealing gifts and ruining everyone's Christmas. They need help." I couldn't help but feel a little upset that Natsu wanted to spend Christmas doing a mission, I wanted us to stay here with everyone else and enjoy our time relaxing and having fun.

"Is anyone else coming with us?" I asked, Lucky was asleep on my lap. "Yeah, Erza and the others are coming." Happy smiled and I sighed.

"Come on, sis. Let's go." He grabbed my hand and pulled me off of the bench which woke Lucky up and I yelped. "Wait Natsu!! Slow down!!" I tripped over my feet as Natsu dragged me towards the bar where Mira stood. "Hey, Mira! We're gonna take this job!" He slammed the paper on the bar and I sighed, not struggling against him since I knew I had to go anyways. 

Two hours later...

Natsu was splayed across the floor and I sighed knowing that he was never gonna get over his motion sickness, we were taking a carriage to the town that needed our help and it would take us another hour to get there.  Instead of a lot of us going, the only people to go on this mission was Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Erza, Gray, Lucky, Wendy, Carla and I.

"So what's the history of this small town we're going to? I've never really heard much about this place." Wendy spoke up, as she held Carla. She sat across from me next to Erza and Happy, "Well.. Actually I did some digging and came across an article.. The small town gets very festive around Christmas time. They have a huge festival with a float parade and everything. Lot's of people attend every year even other guilds seem to like the place." Lucy explained.

"Has this place had problems like this before?" Erza asked, looking over at Lucy. Lucy was sitting next to me and on the other side was Gray. "No, not that I've heard of. I think this might be the first time their having trouble." Lucy placed her chin in her hand.

After a bunch of small talk we finally made it to the small town and by the time we arrived, it had already started snowing luckily, I came prepared. I wore warm clothing before we left knowing that it could snow at any minute, everyone except Natsu and I had left the carriage. "Natsu, get up we're here." I nudged him with my foot but he kept whining.

"Will you stop being so whiny and just get up?!!" I got irritated enough to kick him off the back and into the freshly fallen snow that had been already a foot deep. We had arrived by evening so I doubt that we could get much done today.

I sighed, jumping off of the cart and thanking the driver as he pulled off. When Natsu didn't surface, I heavily sighed and grabbed the back of his shirt lifting him up.

"Man, you lazy dragon slayer." I threw his arm over my neck and helped him stand as I walked over to the others. When I looked at the sight in front of me, I was surprised and stood there in shock.

"Whoa, this place is beautiful!!" I stared in awe seeing all of the pretty lights and decorations that were put up all around the town, it was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.

"This place is amazing." Erza smiled looking down at Wendy, who was excited.

"Come on, we should head to the town chief's place." Erza spoke up and we followed her. The streets seemed fairly busy with many merchants selling their products and many of the townspeople spending their time talking, eating and playing games. When we finally got there, we met the chief and his family and he gave us a place to stay for the night.

"Alright, I'll share with the girls. Lucky, do you mind sleeping with Gray and Natsu?" I asked, "No, it shouldn't be a problem. I'll be fine." We said our good night's and headed to bed, Lucy and I shared a bed while Erza and Wendy shared a bed with Carla.

The next morning....

"So how long has this thief been around?" Lucy asked, we were sitting on the couch in the chief's office talking with him and his wife about what had been going on around town. "It started last week. We're not sure who it is. And I don't know if it's someone from the town or on of our guests here." He explained with a sigh. "Then, you don't have to worry. We will find this person. Have you guys conducted an investigation?" Erza asked him, "Yes, but the people of the town have grown impatient. The last incident happened before you arrived. I'm worried that our festival could be put on hold because of this. Please I beg you, Fairytail members. Please find out whose trying to ruin everyone's Christmas...that way everyone can enjoy themselves with their families. Please.. You have to catch the thief." His wife begged, her eyes shone with concern which made me feel bad.

"We'll do everything we can to find this thief. Until we can know who it is for certain keep going with your investigation and we'll help you." Erza gave them a reassuring smile so they gave us a list of the townspeople and the list of all the visitors in town and sent us on our way.

"Ughhh, how many more do we have on that list?!" Natsu whined as we checked another name off the list. "Stop whining, we have at least ten more to go." Just as Erza stepped up to knock on someone's door, we heard a scream come from down the block. Instinctively, all of us took off towards the sound of the scream which led us to a woman who was crying in front of her house but it looked so bad. Her inflatable Christmas decorations were popped and a section of the lights had been destroyed, I noticed that her front window was broken and all of the presents she must of had was gone. As we questioned the lady and her husband, I caught a whiff of a familiar scent and looked around outside. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a hooded figure standing far away from us but he looked very suspicious so I ran after him as he ran off.

"Natsume, where are you going?!!" I heard Lucy shout, "To talk to this guy!!" I shouted back and followed after him. I had a lot of trouble chasing after him, he knocked over food carts and people trying to get away as I shouted sorry to everyone he came across and finally got him cornered in an alley. "Hey! Why were you running?" I questioned,  I stood in front of the only exit out of the alleyway and the hooded figure turned around and slowly pulled back their hood. Out popped brown hair and his face became recognizable, "What the hell are you doing here?!" I shouted as I pointed to him. "Ruining everyone's Christmas." He grimaced but from the look in his eyes I could see anger and grief hidden in it. His face may not have shown it but I knew that something had definitely made him do this, "Why? Why did destroy that women's house? Who's behind all the stealing presents?" I crossed my arms, standing there. I stayed cautious with him being here since I knew mostly he can pull any trick and get away with it.

"I am responsible for all of it. Because Christmas had always been the worst holiday for my family. Everyone else can go out and buy presents for their family while my mother has to sit out in the cold trying to make income to buy presents for my siblings but she can barely make money as is!! That woman had it coming! Spurting all that damn nonsense and treating my mother like she's garbage. I was so sick of it!" He exploded with anger and I sighed, shaking my head seeing as I knew I was going to have to bring him to the chief's office.

"You know I have to turn you in right?" I pinched the bridge of my nose in annoyance, "Why? Can't you just let me go?" He pleaded and I shook my head. "No, it doesn't work that way. I'm sorry, Yuuichiro. I'm disappointed in you." I sighed again moving forward and grabbed his arm. "But... You know Yuu... Can't you let me go?" I shook my head and dragged him to the chief's where I met up with the others. Everyone was surprised to see that Yuu's younger brother was the one to commit all the crimes, after they gave him his punishment we decided to stay another night for the festival.

Everything was so beautiful, the floats were amazing and everyone genuinely had a good time. All of the events eventually led us to the giant tree in the town square and we watched as all of the lights came on and the star at the top of the tree was lit up, "It's so pretty!!" Wendy exclaimed in awe as we all stood there admiring the tree and the decorations. "It's so nice." Gray said as he stood beside me and I nodded with a smile, "That it is." I smiled as it started snowing, causing a crazy amount of cheers from the townsfolk.