…I'm not a good author am I? I keep starting new stories when I have a dozen other ones to worry about. Okay, if we're going to get technical about it, this is a reboot of an old story, so not exactly a "new" one so to say... heh….

Anyway, here we are the reboot of "Of Light and Shadow". I would like to think that I was the first guy who started the first Natsu x Irene story (Not counting harem stories); at least I think I was the first. Unless another one popped up before June 6, 2016, then feel free to point out how wrong I am.

Now, there are going to be some differences compared to the original one. For example, I'm not going to make Natsu and Irene meet in the first chapter then have them confess to each other two chapters later, no, that's not going to fly here. We're going to take a more slow approach this time. While the other nations will show up like in the original eventually, that won't be for a LONG while. The focus for the most part is the relation between Natsu and Irene for now.

Yes, Natsu still knows he's E.N.D and has his demon form and powers like in the original story, but there are differences. Unlike the original one, Irene doesn't find out like the way she did. Also, Natsu… isn't exactly proud of it or willing to show it like in the original story. In fact, I would say he's fearful of it. Imagine the E.N.D from my other story "Torn World", Natsu/E.N.D here used to be like that for the most part, so yeah, he's way more protective about that side of his and more afraid of it then he was in the original work.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way; let's start the story shall we?

Enjoy, or not, I don't care you all have your opinions. Everything belongs to their respective owners.

Chapter One: First Meeting

Outside a nearby town, a woman could be seemed landing on her two feet after the long flight she did to arrive here. She was a tall, voluptuous woman with thickly braided scarlet hair that was bow-adorned. Two front braids of her hair had two golden ornaments near the upper sections; and she also possesses two U-shaped earrings. She also was wearing red lipstick.

The woman, who was now walking into the town that she landed right outside of, wore attire that looked like a risqué version of a typical witch's garb. The black top she wore has a diamonds shaped opening, which showed off a bit of her breasts, and also has a heart-shaped pattern around the borders. This extends down to the navel of her stomach where it comes into contact with large angular scar, which is draped over by a dark-colored cape with a light-colored inside and two medallion gold-like ornaments. This is held together thanks to a golden chain. The red haired woman's neck was also covered, being decorated by other small cloth-based accessories, which included a wide bow. The woman also wore a elongated black loincloth that had the symbol of an unknown Empire emblazoned on the front. This also had white borders on its edges and was connected to another cloth piece with the very same heart-shaped design. Adding to her appearance were black thigh-high boots with heels that have a white-colored border near the top and also wore gloves of the same color and design, only this had claw-like extensions. To finish it all off, the woman also wore a black witch's hat, which was much larger than her head and possesses dreadlock designs with white bandaging near its ends. The hat also has a fur lining near its edges.

This woman was none other than Irene Belserion, the strongest woman of the Spriggan Twelves of the Alvarez Empire, a military force that covers most of the continent known as Alakitasia.

And she was on vacation.

No one said she could, but no one also didn't say she couldn't. Besides, Irene knew that her Emperor probably wouldn't care if he was present, as long as she returned when she was needed, then it was alright.

The red haired woman continued to walk around the town she had entered, trying to spot anything interesting for her to check out. If this town didn't have anything that suited her tastes, then she might as well try to head off for another town.

"Hmm… seems like this town doesn't have anything worth my time." Irene muttered to herself, but she didn't mind. With her magic and flight, it wouldn't take long for her to travel around the whole country if she needed too.

The woman then went to turn the corner of a building, still following her path. But then…

*BAM*

"*OOF*" Both her and another voice both let out a noise as she fell on the ground. Irene, who was relatively alright, it was just a fall after all, looked to see what she just collided with.

For some unknown reason, even her, her eyes widen a little as she saw who she collided with.

In front of her was a lean young man, who was also recovering from the fall, with pink spiky hair. He wore a sleeveless black, gold trimmed, waistcoat, which was opened thus allowing the woman to see his bare chest, as well as he wore a gold trimmed, black cloth around waist that goes down to his knees, which was held by a leather brown belt with a oval-shaped silver buckle. He also wore white knee-length trouser with black ribbon ties. The pink haired male has a thick black wristband that could be seen on his left wrist. On his feet he wore black opened-toed sandals. And finally, Irene could also see a white scale-pattern scarf around his neck.

Unknown to her, this was Natsu Dragneel, the Fire Dragon Slayer of the Fairy Tail guild. For some reason, Irene couldn't tear her eyes away from him as she simply remained on the ground with her eyes locked onto him.

"Ow… what just happened?" Natsu muttered to himself, as it appears that he was yet noticed the woman in front of him.

This changed though after he rubbed his head to get the small headache he got from the collision. He looked straight forward to see what he ran into, and that's when he saw the red head woman in front of them.

And like Irene, for some reason Natsu found himself frozen as he only stared back at her.

The two merely kept their staring at one another for only a minute before the two realized what they were doing with one another. They both shook their head before they both slowly got back on their feet.

"S-Sorry about that," Natsu started to say to her, trying to break the awkward silence they befell the both of them, "I wasn't watching where I was going." He finished saying with a sheepish grin on his face.

"N-No, it's fine. I wasn't watching where I was going either." Irene managed to reply back to him, 'Did I just stutter?' She thought to herself in confusion. But that ended as the pink haired male in front of her started to speak up once again.

"Uh… a-are you sure you're alright?" Natsu asked her in a little concern, 'Why am I stuttering?' He thought internally to himself, realizing his little trouble speaking to her for some reason.

"Yes, I'm alright. A little fall to the ground like that is nothing." Irene informed the male in front of her.

"O-Oh, that's good to hear." Natsu replied back with a smile, while internally cursing himself with the stutter he just allowed again.

It was an awkward silent for a moment, which was rather uncomfortable for both the red haired woman and the pink haired male. Luckily Irene decided to break the awkward atmosphere.

"May I ask your name?" Irene requested from him, even surprising herself by her words. Usually if she ran into someone, they would just apologize and move on with their lives, never to meet one another again.

Yet, for some reason, Irene couldn't find the will to do that in this case.

"Y-Yeah," Natsu spoke up with a smile, while wanting to slap himself for sounding like an idiot, "I'm Natsu, Natsu Dragneel. It's nice to meet you..." He introduced himself before he trailed off, realizing that he didn't even know her name. Thankfully for him, it seemed Irene caught on.

"Oh right, my apologizes, I am Irene Belserion, it's nice to meet your acquaintance Natsu." The older red head woman introduced herself properly to the Fire Dragon Slayer in front of her.

'Irene huh… what a beautiful name,' Natsu thought to himself, before he realized what he just thought of, 'Wait what? Where in the world did that come from?' He thought before he saw Irene waiting for a response, "So… are you from around here?" He asked her, trying to start a conversation with her.

This was weird, since Natsu didn't usually tend to just want to talk with people he would bump into in the street. But then again he never though of calling someone's name beautiful either. He bested to keep that last part to himself though.

Seeing him trying to start up dialogue, Irene simply smiled as she went on to answer him.

"No, I'm simply visiting to see if there's anything of interest," The red haired woman informed the pink haired male, before she asked her own question to him, "What about you? Are you from around here by chance?"

"Nah, I just finished up a job here that I was hired to do." Natsu informed. And he would like to add that the job was boring. It wasn't even a challenge.

"A job? So you're part of a guild then?" Irene asked with interested, though even she herself didn't know why she wanted to learn more about the Dragon Slayer in front of her. But yet she wasn't even trying to stop herself.

At her question, Natsu's face beamed with pride.

"Yup! I'm part of Fairy Tail, the number one strongest guild in all of Fiore!" Natsu answered her with a big smile on his face, as he pointed at the red Fairy Tail guild mark on his right shoulder, allowing Irene to see it.

'Fairy Tail? Weird, I feel like I heard of that name before.' Irene thought to herself, but decided to shake that off for the time being. She then went on to ask another question for the pink haired Fairy Tail Mage in front of her, "So you're part of a guild, which means you know magic."

"That's right. I use Fire Dragon Slaying Magic." Natsu told the woman in front of him with pride still present in his voice.

This though got Irene to be surprised by what she heard. He's a Dragon Slayer?

'There are other Dragon Slayers still out there in the world?' Irene thought, as she thought Acnologia got rid of all the other dragons and Dragon Slayers. Then again, there's a chance that the pink haired male in front of him may just have an implant dragon lacrima inside of him. After all, that's what that dramatic Spriggen member God Serena has for him to become a dragon slayer of different elements.

Before she could ask him if that's the case, Natsu once again spoke up, getting her attention.

"Hey Irene, you said that you were just looking around here right?" Natsu questioned her, getting her to nod in confirmation to his question, "Would you like me to show you around here? I know a good place to get food at here." He informed her, as he remembered passing it earlier before he went to take care of the dark guild that was causing problems for the town.

Irene was surprised by the suggestion, though a small frown appeared on her for a moment, knowing that she couldn't really taste anything, but quickly went away before Natsu picked up on it. No need to try to bring the whole thing down because of her problems. Also, the way he worded his words, a smirk couldn't help but appear on her face.

"Oh? Are you asking me on a date?" She teased him.

She got the reaction she wanted as a massive blush and a look of embarrassment appeared on Natsu's face, realizing that he sounded like he was asking her on a date.

"W-W-W-What?! T-T-That's not-! I-I-I mean-!" Natsu was now failing to find the rights words as steam could be seen coming off of his head. What was he thinking?! Now Irene's going to think he was some creep that asks random women he runs into out! He was not a pervert dang it!

Irene couldn't help but giggle loudly, getting Natsu to temporary stop his freak out. A much smaller blush form on his face, as he for some reason, found her laugh cute.

'Dang it! Stop that!' he thought to himself. What was up with him all of a sudden?

"Calm down Natsu, I was only having fun," Irene stated to him with her smile, before she went on before he could speak up, "But alright, I'll take your offer."

This got Natsu to be surprised.

"Really?" He asked her just to make sure he heard her correctly. Irene simply nodded to him with her smile, a beautiful smile might he like to add, still present on her face. Natsu couldn't stop his own smile from growing on his face, happy that the red head woman agreed, "That's great! Come on, it's not far from here."

With that Natsu motioned for her to follow him as he went on with a giant smile on his face. Irene, with small smile on her own face, followed suit. Who knows, this may end up being fun for the both of them.

There we go for the first chapter. So what did you all think? Good? Bad? Want me to jump off a cliff? Let me know.

See you all next time, whenever that will be.