Now that everyone was equal and followed Jellal to lead the new world, you had been getting along with Hughes.
How is that an accomplishment?
When King Fraust was around, you were a girl living on the streets, struggling to meet ends meet.
Jellal had put his trust in you a few weeks after the rebuilding of the world by showing Erza, Sugarboy, Coco, and Hughes that working together with everyone, rich and poor, wasn't bad as they sought it out to be.
Which brings you to your current dilemma in your room.
As the city was rebuilt before the holidays, Jellal was throwing a huge party for everyone and you were taking part in the Secret Santa.
"Jeez, Jellal shouldn't have put me in charge of this!"
You were also in charge of the matter making it difficult for you to not notice you would know your Secret Santa.
Jellal had you gather everyone's names together and pair them up. All they had to do was bring the presents. On the day of the party, you were to hand out their gifts to each other.
Erza with Jellal, Coco with Sugarboy, so on and so forth until you came down to Hughes and yourself.
A part of you was happy, but another part of yourself knew Hughes would guess right away that it was you. Everyone knew you were in charge of this little gift exchange!
This was stressing you out so much, but you didn't have time to change the list for the tenth time this week! It always came down to you two anyways.
Besides, you had to come up with a present.
The party was only a few days away too!
Time wasn't on your side.
Knock, knock~
Putting away the list in a book, you got up and went to the front door.
"Hey ho, (First Name)-chan!"
There stood Hughes wearing his bright grin as always.
"What brings you here today, Hughes?"
"I can't visit you with no reason?"
"No, but whenever you do visit, you want to play some game."
"That hurts, (First Name)-chan~!"
You sighed and let him in.
Like he always does, the grown man skips into your home.
"You've been pretty busy with the whole planning thing Jellal has you doing."
"Because he knows I'm a hard worker despite what troubles I've gone through while you toyed around in the castle."
"Ouch."
Hughes grinned and turned around.
"So can I see the Secret Santa list?"
"What? No! It's not done yet!"
"Oh come on! You've been working on that for most of the month and you're telling me it's not done yet?!"
"Exactly!"
Your cheeks were burning a crimson red as Hughes continued to try and beg you into showing him the list.
That's when he said it.
"Ooooh~! I get it! You won't show me because you paired us together!"
"N-N-No! Hughes, I did no such thing!"
He grinned as you stuttered in embarrassment.
"No, it's okay. I won't tell anyone~! Guess I should leave and go pick a gift for my 'Secret Santa'"
The purple haired man skipped out of the house making you sigh while trying to recover from your heavy, beating heart.
~~~
Counting each gift, everyone checked in with their gifts. Hughes even caused you to get flustered when he dropped off his gift.
"(First Name), I see everything is well."
You flinched and turned around to see Jellal standing there with a kind smile.
"O-Oh! Well, of course. I made sure that everything was in check."
"I can tell. You never seem to disappoint me. Well, how about we start handing out Secret Santa's right away? That way you can enjoy yourself."
"That's very kind of you, Jellal."
Of course, you started at his request and handed out Secret Santa's.
Lastly, your gift an ps Hughes's were left.
Hughes was laughing away with some people while you tried to figure out the right moment to go over.
"Yooo hooo! (First Name)-chan~! Over here!"
Now you had no choice, but to walk over.
"Sorry if I'm interrupting."
A man across from Hughes.
"Oh it's fine, young miss. You must be the woman Hughes speaks so highly of."
You blinked and soon blushed.
The woman smiled.
"To think my baby boy would love a kind, beautiful woman."
Did she say love?
"M-Mom!"
You blushed.
"Oh! You're his parents. It's an honor to meet you both!"
"And a pleasure to meet you (First Name)."
You never thought you would be meeting his parents.
His mother giggled.
"Well, we'll leave you two alone. Come on, sweetheart."
As they left, you looked at Hughes.
He rubbed the back of his head.
"Sorry about that. I didn't know they would say that. Kind of ruins the whole surprise."
"Surprise?"
His eyes were looking at the two gifts in your arms.
"Oh! Um...well here's your Secret Santa."
Hughes took the present and opened it up.
It was a hand knitted hat with his name on it.
"Wow! Who made this?"
He was teasing as he had a small smirk on his lips.
"I'm not telling you..."
You looked away holding the small box in your hand.
"(First Name). Open my gift."
"How do you know it's your gift?"
"I know what gift wrapping I used, (First Name)."
You sighed and opened it in front of him.
It was a small, red velvet box.
"A box?"
"Open it."
Letting out a sigh, you opened it.
Although, the second you did, you lost your breath.
In the box was a blue lacrima attached to a chain, making it a necklace.
"Hughes...this is beautiful."
"Not as beautiful as you."
You blushed as he smiled, but it looked more lovingly than the usual playful one he has on.
He took your hand and kissed your hand.
"Merry Christmas, my Not-So Secret Santa."
You blushed, but smiled.
"Merry Christmas, you goofball."
Feeling bold, you kissed his cheek and held his hand.
Hughes blushed, but smiled before spinning you around in a hug.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Woot! I made it on time! Started to play games with friends and forgot to write, so I'm rushing a little bit. Plus, I need to write for next week already since I have a party to go to the night prior to Christmas.
Okay, so while writing this, I'm watching 47 Ronin and listening to iHeart radio with India Menzel as guest DJ on a Christmas station. Such a lovely combination XD
Now, who is next? Oh! Dobengal, Sabertooth's Ninja! Christmas time with the ninja who's face hasn't been revealed yet. I mean, half of it's hidden. If you're reading this Mashima-dono, because I'm sure he sees all of this stuff with some radar when a fan talks/writes/watches/thinks about Fairy Tail, please show Dobengal's face in the future before ending it. Thank you! Also...don't troll us with it somehow...because we all know you'll do something like that...like you always do with Natsu and Lucy or Gajeel and Levy ;3;