Hello Everyone! This is my first fanfiction for Fairy Tail, though I have written other fanfiction for Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, DBZ, and Rise of the Guardians.

Hope you enjoy, and I hope my writing style does this awesome show justice.

Disclaimer; I do not own, nor have I ever owned the show, the characters, or any rights corresponding to the anime or the manga.

Night had fallen, a cool breeze swept through the forest, and fireflies danced among the trees. On the outskirts of Magnolia, a small cottage occupied by two Fairy Tail mages stood within a glade, while a sign creaked as it swung back and forth on its hinges. All seemed peaceful, but a dark figure darted around the corner, their frame casting a dark shadow in the moonlight.

The figure was clad in a black cloak, but piercing silver eyes glowed under the hood while armor clad hands held an amulet necklace. The chain and amulet itself were gold, but set in the middle was a vial of green liquid that shifted and writhed within its prison.

Wriggling their fingers beneath the frame, the figure opened the window just a crack, wincing when it gave a creak that sounded horrendously loud in the silence of the forest, and quickly uncorked the vial whispering an incantation the caused the liquid to glow and change into a luminescent cloud.

The mist crept under the window and floated over to the figure currently occupying the hammock, salmon pink hair peeking out from under a blanket while soft snores were muffled by a pillow, and eventually the cloud settled on top of the sleeping boy absorbing itself into his body.

The figure smirked maliciously as their victim gave a fretful toss in their hammock, a soft pained whine slipping from their lips as the mist began to rush through his system "Soon," the intruder whispered "all my dreams will be realized, and Fiore…will be mine."

…..

Natsu woke the next morning, his body aching for some reason, and the young man gave a groan as a wave of nausea rolled through his body. He attempted to climb down from his hammock, but his usual grace was impeded by a bolt of pain as he flopped onto the floor, and gripped his stomach. The dragon slayer knelt on the wood planks, gasping for air as a thin sheen of sweat formed on his brow, and he felt the all too familiar acidic bile rising in the back of his throat as he struggled to draw deep even breaths to fight off the impending sickness.

Strangely enough though, as quickly as it came the feeling left, and Natsu sat on the floor mystified by its sudden absence "Whoa," he croaked.

"Natsu," Happy asked, one paw tentatively resting on one of the Dragon slayer's muscular biceps "are you ok?"

The young man stood up on shaking legs, and stumbled his way to the bathroom, only to rest his hands on the sink, sucking in deep breaths of air as he puzzled his way through the odd occurrence.

"What's going on?" he whispered softly to himself.

It was a well known fact that he didn't get sick, and if he did, it was extremely rare. Not even food poisoning really affected him, because after all, he did eat fire so his stomach was pretty tough. The only time he was susceptible to anything similar to an illness was when he was on some form of moving vehicle and was suffering from motion sickness, but this was unprecedented, he had no idea where it came from or how it could have happened. Taking one last quavering breath, the young mage gave a sigh of relief as he felt strength flow back into his limbs, ceasing their trembling, and normalcy was once again the order of the day.

"Natsu?"

The young man turned at the sound of his faithful friend and gave his signature grin, making the exceed's tension melt away "I'm fine Happy, just felt a little off, but everything's ok now."

The blue cat merely looked at his best friend, incredulous worry wrinkling his brow, as he stared silently making the Dragon Slayer fidget nervously "Come on Happy," he whined "I'm fine, really. Now let's go get Lucy and find some breakfast!"

Happy immediately shifted at the mention of food one small paw saluting his partner "Aye, Sir!"

But as the duo ran out the door, neither could deny the gnawing unease in their stomachs that whatever had happened that morning was more than they thought or knew, and the uncertainty of that made them uncharacteristically quiet as they sprinted into the center of Magnolia, the slapping of Natsu's sandals on the cobblestone streets the only sound exchanged between the two.

…

Lucy woke up, brown eyes fluttering open to look out the window as the clouds came into focus, and her arms stretched up above her head as she sighed with contentment.

"LUCY!"

The celestial wizard smiled softly, hearing the familiar sound of her best friend and partner, and sat up to open the window so to lean out and wave "Good morning Natsu!"

"Are you just waking up?" he snorted with a grin.

"Says the guy who is always asleep in my bed," Lucy grumbled with a playful pout accompanied by a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"It's comfy," the boy shrugged his smile completely unrepentant before climbing up to sit on her windowsill "besides you're my best friend, why wouldn't I like coming over to your place?"

Lucy giggled, a grin finding its way onto her face "I guess I can't argue with your logic,"

"Not that you don't always try," Natsu muttered enjoying their banter immensely.

"Ha!" the girl barked out a laugh "Only because your logic doesn't always make sense!"

"Sure it does," Natsu shot back "it's not my fault that nobody can understand-whoa…"

Suddenly the boy rocked back on his heels, and Lucy's face fell in shock as she watched Natsu's eyes suddenly go unfocused and begin to roll back into his head. Almost in slow motion she lunged forward, wrapping him in a tight embrace just as he was about to fall backwards from her window, and tugged him onto her bed cradling his upper body in her arms.

"Natsu!" both celestial mage and the blue cat cried out in fear.

"L-Lucy, Happy?" the Dragon Slayer murmured, slowly shaking his head, only to wince while one hand gripped his hair.

"Are you…alright?" the girl asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, fine," Natsu breathed closing his eyes as he felt the world around him spin "just a little dizzy."

"Natsu," Happy murmured his eyes wide with fear "are you sure?"

Natsu considered his question, before giving them his widest smile "Of course," he said with a tight chuckle "I just haven't had breakfast yet."

"Oh," Lucy replied her face dark as she considered her friend before scooting out from underneath Natsu, placing his head gently on a pillow and standing up "then I'll cook something for us."

The girl walked away after the Dragon Slayer hummed his agreement, and the young man lay there, both hands covering his eyes as he took deep breaths praying softly that the dizzy spell would pass and he would stop making his friends worry. Happy however felt the uncomfortable churning in his gut grow into full blown anxiety and he leaned down to whisper to his lifelong friend.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he repeated, bottom lip trembling softly "You didn't look so good this morning."

"I'm fine Happy," Natsu growled frustration lacing his words "I probably ate dinner too early last night, and I'm just really hungry, so stop worrying."

The blue cat sighed, knowing how much Natsu hated making people worry, and decided to drop the subject. Besides, maybe he was right, the Dragon Slayer had a metabolism that was a beast to keep up with, and if he went too long between meals he suffered from dizziness and headaches, so this wasn't too unusual…right?

Eventually Lucy returned, and she gave a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes to her friend, her brown eyes soft with worry as she watched Natsu struggle to sit up while his head wobbled from side to side in the familiar sign that he was feeling dizzy. Smiling his thanks, Natsu grabbed the plate and tucked into his meal, making the food disappear in record time.

The celestial mage sat next to the Dragon Slayer, and placed a hand on his shoulder "Natsu, are you-"

"Oh for Mavis' Sake!" Natsu spat, throwing his fork down on the plate "I'm fine, I already said I'm fine a hundred times, so I'm fine!"

Lucy flinched, her brown gaze wide "N-Natsu," she stuttered "I didn't…I was just…I…I'm sorry."

The fire mage paused, his jaw dropping as he shook his head "I'm sorry Luce," he said in almost a whisper "I don't…know what came over me."

Natsu was stunned, speechless, he had no idea where that outburst came from. I mean, sure, he was known for picking fights around the guild, especially with a particular ice mage, but he had never lost his temper like that before. His fights were always in good fun, he had never actually snapped at one of his friends with actual malice, and especially never at Lucy. What was wrong with him?

"No, i-it's fine," Lucy said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes "I understand."

Natsu shrunk down, his shoulders slumping over, and he eyes the rest of the food on his plate guiltily as his appetite suddenly fled "I really am sorry Luce,"

The celestial mage leaned over and gave her friend a hug, squeezing him extra tight to show he'd been forgiven "It's fine Natsu, I'm not angry."

Natsu sat in silence for a moment before looking over at his friend "So, you wanna go look at the request board and see if there's anything interesting?"

Lucy gave a wide grin "Definitely!"

I know, short for a first chapter, though my chapters are usually longer, I'm probably going to keep each chapter about this length so that I don't rush through the story.

And for those of you questioning why the affects are happening so quickly, I'm using this rationalization.

I have a very similar metabolism to Natsu, to the point I can't go two hours without eating because I almost faint (the price of being skinny), and that also means that I can't take regular amounts of medication, because a full dose of anything affects me twice as bad as it would on a normal person. So I think that because of that, anything given to him would be absorbed into his system that much faster.

See ya next time!