Hah hah, my first Fairy Tail fanfic! This is going to be pretty short n sweet (2-3 chapters) but I hope the story follows the same spirit of the original enough for everyone to enjoy it. I'm still a bit rusty from a few years of not churning out anything so let's see how this goes!

Obviously, my name is not Hiro Mashima so I can't claim Fairy Tail or any of its characters. And if you didn't know - that was my disclaimer. :P

Today was a fairly uneventful day in Magnolia's rowdiest guild hall, but that was because the exciting part had yet to come. Even the 3rd Master, Makarov Dreyer was present, seated at his favorite spot on the bar with a beer, keeping a lazy eye watching the entrance. The air was thick with anticipation as some of the other members were also watching the door, talking amongst themselves.

"So, how do you think she did?"

"If it's her, she definitely finished the quest. She's no slouch, that's for sure."

"Tell me about it, even though she's so young, she's really intimidating."

"Isn't she like the youngest mage to get S-rank in this guild?"

"Che, what's so special about that? I'll win next year, definitely! Then I'll take even more S-class missions that Erza!"

"Mira-nee, you're still upset that she beat you at the S-class test?"

"Shut up!"

"Yeah, and today, she's due back from her first S-class quest."

"Oi, wasn't Natsu and Gray supposed to be here?"

"I guess they want her to kill them. Poor souls."

"Oh man, I'm kinda excited!"

Makarov smiled at hearing the talk of his guild's membership. Iit seems everyone was waiting for this. He noted that two of the more rowdy young members were not present for this day, even though she specifically asked that they be there for her return, upon pain of near death. Heh, it looks as if those two do not want an easy life ahead of them.

The heavy wooden door swung open and the entire guild turned towards the front. A few moments later, Erza slowly made her way into the guild, her breathing heavy and body worn out from the rigorous mission and travel. "I…I have…returned," she panted, her hand braced against the door frame for support. The silence gnawed on her. It was as if everyone was staring holes right through her. And then...

"Hey! She did it!"

"That's our Erza for ya!"

The entire guild began to cheer, lifting their mugs up in acknowledgement and celebration of the safe return of Erza Scarlet from her first S-class quest. Hearing the cheers and encouragement seemed to give some measure of strength to the worn out girl and she stood a bit straighter. With a small smile on her face due the warm reception, she made her way over to were Master Makarov sat and nodded her head respectfully.

"I'm back, Master."

"Welcome back, Erza," he said in a gentle voice. "I'm glad you are safe." He noted her smile and it struck him for the umpteenth time that she was going to be a supremely gorgeous woman when she finished maturing. Oh, how he couldn't wait -! *Ahem* "We were getting worried when we didn't hear from you the entire time, though. You should send us a note or something."

She just nodded, her breathing beginning to become increasingly labored as she looked around the guild, her young eyes searching the crowd's faces carefully… "Where…are they…?" Her voice was low but her wizened guild master heard her clearly knowing for whom she was searching for.

"I think they went out on jobs earlier today. I guess they wanted to be done by the time you got back but…"

"Those…idiots…I told them to…be here," Erza leaned forward and began to cough, her face contorted in pain. "Ugh, I was not prepared for such cold weather..."

Makarov squinted an eye, carefully regarding the youngest S-class mage in his guild. "Erza, you should take it easy for a while and recover. I'll send someone else after those idiots. You need your rest. Some medicine and sleep should help."

The young woman struggled to stand up straight as she nodded. "Yes, Master," managed before she turned and began to make her way to the door.

"Hey, it's fine," Mirajane spoke up, feeling less antagonistic against her scarlet-haired rival in a rare moment. "I'll find those two myself and drag them back, so don't worry."

Erza couldn't help a wry smile. She knew that Mirajane was also fond of those boys, especially Natsu, despite beating the both of them senseless many times. "Thank you Mirajane." Her white-haired rival crossed her arms with a huff, a pinkish hue appearing over her cheeks.

"Che, I'm not doing this for you now. I just wanna see their faces when I tell them that you're gonna beat them silly for not being here when you arrived." The white-haired punk girl raised her fist, proudly extending her middle finger for all to see, grinning like a maniac. "And then, I'll beat you for sure, Erza!"

Erza just shook her head as she slowly made her way towards the entrance, taking slow, measured steps. She felt her knee began to tremble but she forced her legs to remain standing, not wanting to disgrace herself in such a manner in front of Mirajane and the Master, let alone the entire guild.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm…fine…" Erza breathed out even as her eyes rolled back as she fell, her armor and sword ringing loudly as they hit the ground. Most of the guild turned to see what had caused the commotion.

"Erza!"

Several of the closer guild members dropped what they were doing and ran over to where Erza had fallen.

"O-oi, she's burning up!"

"What? She got sick!"

"I heard that place was having a real cold blast this time of year."

"Step back!" Makarov hopped down made his way over to her and knelt down, his hand lightly touching her head. "A fever, and a bad one. She probably has the flu."

"What do we do, Master?"

"We'll take her to Porlyusica. Now, before the rain starts. Macao!"

"On it," the older fire mage hurried over to where Erza lay and eased his hands beneath her body. His face shifted a bit as he lifted her up. "Geez, this kid weighs a ton!"

"I knew it," Mira smirked, earning both her and Macao a strike to the head from Makarov's cane, leaving Mira vaguely wondering how did he manage that from where he stood near the doorway and she still atop her table.

"Get going the both of you," he roared at them, scaring Macao into action as he took off.

"Eh! Why do I have to go with him," Mira snarled, very unhappy with the change in events.

"You are not going with him. You are going to find Natsu and Gray like you told her you would."

"Dammit," she cursed under her breath, turning her head aside. After a moment, she hopped down from her table. "Oi! Lisanna! Elfman! C'mon! We gotta find the Idiot Brothers."

"Ehh, but you're the one who said that you'd do it by yourself, Mira-nee," Lisanna muttered.

Her ruby colored eyes roamed over the ancient text in a practiced manner, jotting notes into a journal. She usually spent her hours before twilight like this, going over various medical texts from all over Fiore, noting which ones had actual theories while debunking others on her own. If not for her self-imposed exile from the rest of humanity, she knew that she herself would be writing some of those boorish articles in the medical journals of this age but she would have none of it. From what she read, she could tell that some of those who were said to be leaders in her field couldn't tell a case of diarrhea from a flu.

She only raised her head when she heard banging at the door. Frowning at it, she immediately ignored it and went back to reading. The banging continued.

"Porlyusica! Hey Porlyusica! Please open up!"

"Go away," she shouted, very much upset at the interruption.

"Porlyusica, we have a sick girl here, she needs treatment!"

The elderly woman sighed heavily, glaring at the door. It must be those idiots from her former Guild again. Only they knew where she was, thanks to Makarov.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Stop breaking down my door!" She opened it, her eyes plainly showing her annoyance at the intrusion. Her sharp eyes picked up the shock of red hair that belonged to the young girl lying in the man's arms. "What is it boy, speak up!"

"Porlyusica, please help us. It's Erza. Master says it's a flu but …" Macao looked down at the young girl in his arms.

After taking a moment to regard the girl, Porlyusica shoved her sleeve up higher on her arm and placed her hand atop Erza's forehead. So it is her, the same one whose eye I tried to correct. She has grown. "Hnn," she murmured after a few seconds, taking note of the dark circles beneath Erza's eyes and her slight discoloration of her face and neck. Removing her hand, she turned her back to them. "Come. Put her on the bed. Quickly now."

"Yes, Ma'am," Macao nodded, wiping his shoes off and quickly placed Erza down on the bed. He stepped back as the medical mage stepped forward and applied a greenish paste across Erza's forehead and down her cheeks. To his surprise and curiosity, the greenish paste began to release a bitter smelling steam as it also dried quickly against her warm skin. "What is that? What is it doing to her?"

"This will cool her skin a bit," she replied automatically, leaning back up. "Wait here, I need you to keep an eye on that paste and tell me what color it turns while I prepare a concoction."

"Sure thing," Macao nodded, turning his attention back to the young girl struggling against her sickness. To tell the truth, this was the first time that he had seen the tough young girl called Erza Scarlet in such a state. For some reason, it gave him a fear not unlike what he had a few months ago when his son had also fallen ill and he was low on money. Even Makarov was stunned at how focused he was during his jobs to get enough money to pay for the doctor and the subsequent treatment, refusing all forms of help from his guild mates, insisting that this was his problem and that his pride as a man and a mage of Fairy Tail would not allow him to accept charity when he could fulfill his own obligations.

"What is the color now," Porlyusica called to him, breaking him out of his reminising. Already she had brought a beaker to boil and adding in a lavender-colored power to the mix.

"Uh," Macao glanced at the color and his eyes widened. "It's…black."

"Black? Are you sure," Porlyusica barked at him, hiding the worry in her voice.

"Yes Ma'am! I'm very sure, the color suddenly turned black!" He couldn't keep the worry out of his own voice as he witnessed the medical mage's resigned reaction. "What? What is it? Can you cure it?"

"Yes, I can cure it, but it will take far longer than I was anticipating," she walked over to a medicine cabinet and began to remove more vials and jars. "This a rare strain so tell Makarov to not disturb me for a few days."

"Uh, sure…" Macao didn't know if he should be worried that Porlyusica found this ailment to be challenging, or relieved that she could cure Erza, however it would take a while. He opted for the later. "I understand, I'll let Master know."

"Good, now get out of here," she answered gruffly. "Having one human in here is enough to make ME sick, let alone a lecherous one like you."

I wasn't even looking at you, you old bat!

At that moment, two young boys, one with bright pinkish hair and the other with dark hair, were making their way through the rain towards their guild. "Aw, man, this sucks," exclaimed the pink-haired one, covering his head with his arms. "We're sooo late!"

"If we hadn't taken your shortcut," the other one yelled, "We'd already been at the guild by now! Now Erza's gonna kill us thanks to you, flame brain!"

"Shut up, droopy eyes! If you hadn't kept losing your pants every ten seconds, we wouldn't have needed the shortcut!"

"Aye," exclaimed a small blue cat with wings, "Now my wings are wet and I can't fly good enough to carry Natsu!"

"See! It's your fault!"

"How is it my fault, No-Pants Emperor!"

"Because it is, Torch King!"

The two continue to bicker until they reached the guild hall and raced inside, eager to get out of the rain.

"Finally, I can dry off," Natsu exclaimed, activating his magic. Flames enveloped his small body, drying his clothes off rapidly. "Hee hee, my magic's so awesome!"

"Damnit, Natsu!" Gray backed away quickly to avoid getting burned. "This is why you're such an idiot! Warn me before you 'Flame On'!" Still, he held up his shirt between himself and his pryo-inclined guild mate, taking advantage of the heat to dry off his own clothing.

"NATSU! GRAY!" The old man's voice rang out, shocking them both into silence. They turned to where the old man was seated at the bar. "You two, you DID remember what day it was, correct?"

Both boys cringed, already expecting the worst from their intimidating master. "Um…Tuesday?" They both got it courtesy of a flying warheel kick to the back of their heads from an irate Mirajane.

"You stupid punks! I was looking all over for you," she crowed, slamming her heel onto Gray's shoulder. "I even got wet because of you!"

"Actually, we were the ones that got really went out to look for them," Elfman tried to speak up for himself and Lisanna but was very much ignored by everyone else.

"The hell, Mira, what are you going on about!" Natsu scrambled back enough to launch a punch at the young 'She-Devil' but was immediately flattened by a giant hand squashing him into the ground. "Nnngh!"

"That's enough out of you three," Makarov spoke up, raising his hand off of Natsu and Mirajane stepped off of Gray. "You two knew that Erza was coming back, right?" All he got was groans out of the two boys and he sighed. "She was very disappointed that you weren't here to welcome her back from her first S-class mission."

"Che," Gray pushed himself into a sitting position. "Why would we need to be here for something that she's obviously going to come back successful from… It's not like she's lost to anything."

"Yet," Makarov added in sagely, receiving a glare from the young Ice Maker magician. "Sometimes, even the smallest things can bring down even the greatest of mages."

"What are you saying, old man," Natsu growled. "Are you saying that Erza lost?" He popped back up, his small fists shaking. "Nothing and no one will beat Erza but me!"

"Yeah right, you can't even beat ME, what makes you think you can beat Erza," Gray sneered, setting off yet another round of insults between the two.

Makarov had to chuckle at the little Dragon Slayer's outburst. For all their loud bluster, those two boys cared a lot for their red-haired tormentor not unlike a real family. Why just a day before Erza had left for the quest, the two boys were accompanying her to a swordsmith in preparation for her journey. After she had paid for the sword and left the building, the two boys had apparently overheard the swordsmith's nephew mention something about Fairy Tail letting little pretty girls go out on quests when they couldn't do anything. Luckily Erza was still close or else that poor boy would have gotten the worst fire and freeze burns imaginable from her two 'highly volatile little brothers'.

"Oi, shaddup already!" Mirajane screamed at them. "Haven't you realized that Erza isn't here!"

"Eh? What, she hasn't come back yet," Natsu tried to look at the white-haired girl but Gray's grip on his hair prevented him from moving much. "Ouch, leggo!"

"She isn't here because she's sick," Lisanna spoke up, trying to keep the two from getting too loud again.

"What!" Both boys this time froze and stared at Lisanna, who looked slightly uncomfortable at the two scrutinizing stares she was receiving. "Are you sure?"

"Duh, of course she is," Mira walked over to a bench and plopped down, crossing her leg at her knee. Smirking she thought she'd have a little fun at their expense. "We all saw the fatty collapse right after she got done reporting to Master. She didn't look too good. She looked like she was about to die at any moment. Maybe that's why she was looking so hard for you guys when she came in today..." She looked out of one eye to guage their reactions…

"N-no way," Natsu's small hand began to tremble, a fearful tone in his voice. "Erza's…dying?"

"That just can't be," Gray muttered in disbelief, his voice much more serious. "There's no way Erza would..."

Makarov rolled his eyes at the sight and was about to call Mira's bluff when the door swung open yet again to reveal a soaked Macao. "Hnn, so? How is she?"

Macao shook his coat out to get rid of some of the water as he stepped further into the guild hall. "It's pretty bad," he admitted, shaking his head as a few water drops flew. "Even Porlyusica looked a little worried about it, but…Oof!" He was tackled to the ground by both Natsu and Gray, both of them with unusual expressions on their faces.

The pink-haired Dragon Slayer gripped Macao's soaked shirt with his small fists and shoved him back against the ground hard. "She's NOT going to DIE," Natsu literally screamed in his face. "Erza's not going to DIE!"

Macao was so surprised by Natsu's outburst, he forgot to even bother correcting the obvious misunderstanding. Before the older mage could get his bearings again, Gray grabbed Natsu's shoulder and yanked him off of Macao. "Hey!"

"C'mon, he said that Erza's at Granny Porlyusica's place! Let's go!" He ran for the door, ignorant of the fact that he was clad in only his boxers with Natsu following a split second after.

"Hey, wait a minute, I wasn't finished," Macao called after them but the two were already out of earshot and the drumming of the rain only served to muffle his voice even further. "Damnit, what's with those two – getting so worked up over nothing."

"So Porlyusica said that she could cure it, did she," Makarov spared the door one more glance before eyeing Macao, who nodded.

"Yeah, she said it was some weird strain from the North lands so it would take some time. She also said not to bother her while she's busy."

The majority of the guild could only stare in wonder at the thought of the two arch rivals running out into the rainstorm towards what would be a most painful experience with the medical mage. "Uh, should we stop them?"

"I don't see why we should," Makarov just shook his head, even as Mirajane was laughing and rolling on the table, which he changed to grimacing and cursing while holding her head thanks to a timely whack with his cane. "I always knew that those three were special. Let's see what those two do, shall we?"