The guild hall, filled with laughter and festive joy, warmly welcomed two 'uninvited guests'.
Though they couldn't really be called that, as the two had been personally invited by Raizel. They were Jude Heartfilia and Layla Heartfilia—Lucy's parents.
...
A few days earlier—
"Ahhh!!! I'm so conflicted!!!" Lucy grabbed her blonde hair without a care for her image, resting her chin on the wooden table, looking entirely defeated.
Lucy was deeply torn.
This year was her first since officially joining Fairy Tail, and consequently, her first Christmas with the guild members.
Last year, she had been traveling independently and missed Christmas with her parents.
In all the previous years of her life, she had always spent Christmas at the estate with her parents.
Now, she was suffering from choice paralysis: should she spend the holiday partying with the members, or go home to her parents?
"I say, stop agonizing over it, Lucy. Not all members stay here for Christmas; some go home to celebrate with their families. You haven't been home in quite a while, right? You should go back if you want to," Ultear couldn't help but speak up, seeing Lucy so conflicted.
"It's not like I haven't gone back at all. I went home twice this year when Natsu and I were on jobs nearby," Lucy sighed.
Lucy had returned home on two brief occasions when their guild requests took them close to her family's massive estate.
It is worth mentioning that in this timeline, the Heartfilia family hadn't gone bankrupt. Perhaps Layla's continued presence had influenced things, or maybe Jude had simply changed his business strategies early on.
Raizel certainly hadn't seen any dramatic news about the Heartfilia family's bankruptcy in the weekly financial papers.
Nor had he heard anything from Lucy about money struggles, and Jude and Layla hadn't visited the guild asking for help.
Raizel thought the bankruptcy issue might no longer exist, at least for now.
"Ah! I'll think about it a bit more..." Lucy groaned.
"Why not just invite them to come here?" Natsu suggested offhandedly between bites of roasted meat.
"Eh?!" Lucy's eyes lit up for a moment, but then she deflated again. "They're not very familiar with the guild members... Would they even be willing to come...?"
"What's the big deal? Come with me, I'll go invite them right now." Raizel had overheard their conversation from the bar and lightly tapped the table twice with his bent fingers.
"Alright! Let's give it a try!" Lucy felt a sudden surge of confidence seeing Raizel take charge.
Raizel was considered an honored guest in the Heartfilia household, and Jude and Layla highly valued his opinions.
To save travel time, Raizel simply grabbed Lucy's shoulder and teleported them directly to the front gates of the Heartfilia estate.
"Speaking of which, it's been a while since I last visited your home—over a year, right? I didn't run into you the last time I was here," Raizel noted, looking at the grand mansion.
Over the years, Raizel had maintained polite contact with the Heartfilia family, often stopping by for a cup of tea and to catch up when he was in the area.
He had visited once early last year, but Lucy hadn't started her travels yet.
Unfortunately, she happened to be at the family's distant ranch at the time, so they missed each other.
"I know, Mom told me you visited," Lucy nodded.
"Otherwise, you might have been persuaded to join Fairy Tail by me early last year," Raizel joked.
Just as Lucy was about to reply, the two of them heard a mechanical whir, and saw the massive iron main gate slowly begin to open.
Draped in an elegant white fox fur coat, Layla stepped out slowly, followed closely by Jude in a sharp business suit.
"Mom! Dad!" Lucy swallowed the words she was about to say to Raizel and ran happily toward her parents.
"You should dress warmer in such cold weather, Lucy," Layla chided gently after hugging her daughter tightly.
"It's fine, it's not that cold," Lucy replied playfully, sticking out her tongue.
"Mr. Jude, Ms. Layla," Raizel waited until they finished embracing before stepping forward to greet them with a polite bow.
Layla and Jude nodded at Raizel, warm smiles on their faces. "Let's go inside, it's freezing out here."
The invitation went much more smoothly than Raizel had anticipated.
Raizel simply suggested they both come to Fairy Tail for Christmas, and after brief consideration and a glance at each other, they agreed.
"Actually, we've been wanting to thank the Guild Master and everyone at Fairy Tail in person for a while now. Lucy must have caused you all some trouble," Jude smiled.
"Not at all. No trouble whatsoever," Raizel shook his head with ease, since it was the truth.
"Good, it's settled then. You can prepare your luggage and just come on the 24th."
"It's two days and one night, Mom and Dad! You can stay at my rented apartment then," Lucy made a peace sign and waved her hand excitedly.
"Alright, we understand," Layla nodded at her daughter with a fond smile.
Lucy ended up returning to Magnolia with Raizel first, as she needed to help prepare for the guild's Christmas party and had a magical performance to rehearse with her spirits.
...
December 24th —
"Dad! Mom!" Lucy ran toward the guild entrance and gave her arriving parents a massive bear hug.
"Welcome to Fairy Tail. Please, come in," Raizel also quickly stepped forward, gesturing for them to enter the decorated hall.
"Wait a moment, Raizel. There are some gifts in the back for everyone." Layla pointed behind her.
Raizel's mouth corner twitched as he followed Layla's pointing finger and saw an entire, horse-drawn luxury carriage full of wrapped gifts.
"Don't worry, they're not expensive gifts. Just small tokens of our appreciation," Layla couldn't help but chuckle at Raizel's stunned expression, covering her mouth as she laughed.
"Alright, you really shouldn't have," Raizel sighed with a smile.
"Natsu, Gray, Elfman! Come out here and help move these things!"
"Lucy, hurry and take them inside to sit by the fire. Don't just stand here freezing."
More people came out to help than Raizel expected.
He helped with the moving too, and soon the mountain of presents was carried inside and stacked under the giant Christmas tree.
"Can I open this?!" Natsu asked eagerly, eyeing a particularly large box.
"Of course! These are gifts for all of you," Layla replied warmly upon hearing Natsu's question.
Raizel examined the pile and found four different sizes of packaging, suggesting the gifts varied by category.
As everyone eagerly began unwrapping presents, Jude explained their choices.
"Since we weren't sure about everyone's personal preferences, we prepared four different types of general gifts."
"They include Christmas tree-shaped Riesling sweet white wine, several high-end perfumes with different scents, and... what were the others, dear?"
"Wow! So beautiful!" Cana happened to unwrap the white wine first.