A/N:So, I turned 19 and I feel old already. In other news I started Akagami no Shirayuki-hime and I'm loving it so far, the characters are so well portrayed, I have a few plot bunnies inspired from it, so you might see a new fiction in the near future.

Important story stuff, the Christmas Lemon chapter will be removed from this fic and placed in its own One-shot, that lemon was designed as a special Christmas thing and it kind of throws my original plan for the story off, so I will be removing it from this fiction, basically it never happened, so yeah.

Natsu paced around his front yard for a few moments, examining the splintered pieces of tree that decorated his front yard 'They are all coming for you.' He quoted in his head as he took a deep breath 'I'm perfectly capable of dealing with them on my own, but he knows about Erza and I've never known any bad guy to play fair when it comes to love interests.' He paused 'Love interests?' He questioned in his own mind slowly 'I suppose that what this is isn't it,' He thought back to the kiss he'd shared with the strange cat girl in his shower and rubbed his chin 'I've certainly never had the urge to do that before.'

"Mate?"

Natsu snapped out of his thoughts as the voice reached his ears "Uh, Erza? What happened?"

Erza tilted her head slightly, ears twitching as they picked up on the worry in his tone "Nothing's wrong, with me anyway, I can tell something's worrying you."

Natsu stiffened slightly before relaxing and taking a deep breath "Just thinking about some things, everything's fine." He smiled at the red head reassuringly.

Erza watched him apprehensively 'Does he not trust me enough to tell me? Or is it something else?' "Ok." He replied calmly.

'She knows' His mind practically roared at him 'Well, maybe not all of it, but she knows something's off,' Natsu pinched his side hard and winced 'Now's not the time for these thoughts, I can sort out my feelings when we are both safe.'

"It's really fine, let's go inside are you hungry?" Natsu asked as he walked passed her, she followed after him silently.

"No." She replied "I would like you to tell me what's-"

She cut off as her stomach growled quite loudly, he placed the back of her hand over her mouth and coughed "I suppose I could eat."

Natsu sighed "Not convincing in the slightest, go sit down I'll cook something to eat."

Erza pouted and crossed her arms as she sat down and the small dining table 'Is he really not going to tell me anything, what was that kiss then? I thought he was warming up to me, at least a little.' She thought to herself, she leaned over slightly to watch Natsu moved around the kitchen, she could tell he was thinking about something, from the way his brow furrowed and he occasionally stopped to pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh. She could sense the uneasiness from him, her ears twitched at the sensation of it and her tail dropped by her side lazily. She got to her feet slowly and padded towards him.

Natsu heard the sound of footsteps behind him and glanced around, Erza leaned against the doorframe of his kitchen and stared at him, he could see the effect his mood was having on her, he ran a hand through his hair in exasperation and sighed "Someone's after me." He began slowly "I don't know who it is, but that Vulcan from earlier today was something he sent, but form the brief conversation I had with him he knows about you."

Natsu didn't turn to face her as he spoke, she moved towards him while she listened silently "So, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with that!" Natsu defended quickly before taking a breath "I'm worried he might use you to get to me, I really-I don't want." He trailed off "Ah, talking's never been this hard before!"

Erza couldn't help but chuckle slightly "Well, if this human is my mates enemy than he is my enemy!" She exclaimed cheerily.

"I don't think it will be that sim-" Natsu cut off as Erza pushed her body flush against his and placed her lips forcefully over his.

"I find you, I'm not going to let you out of my sight, ever, if this human is threatening you he's threatening both of us." Erza explained, rubbing her thumb over Natsu's cheek slowly as she smiled gently.

Natsu took comfort in the feeling of her warmth for a moment and sighed as he glanced up, she was his eyes widened slightly and he pulled her passed him quickly as magic energy flared around his arm and materialized into a blade, she heard it slice through something and a metallic thud sounded when the thing hit the wall beside her, it took her a moment to realize it was a blade.

Natsu rotated slightly and slammed his first into the cloaked attacker, the man grunted and was forced back a few steps, he still held the cut in half sword hilt, a small piece of the jagged blade remained attached to it.

Erza hissed at the attacked and ripped the blade free and spun on her heel, launching the thing at the man like a missile, the blade struck home, embedding itself into the man's chest with a resounding thud.

The pair watched as the man slid his foot forward slowly, dropping it down with a heavy thud, a small trickle of liquid fell from the blade and hit the ground, when the black ooze hit the floor it hissed as the wood of the floor began to melt.

"It's a shade." Natsu realized audibly, he glanced around quickly "As much as I'd like to not break my entire house, he opened his palm and a steady jet of fire hit the window behind the pair, the window blew out quickly and Natsu gestured for Erza to go first, the girl dived through the broken window quickly and landed with lightly she turned around and waited for Natsu to follow after her.

Natsu rotated and brought his heel down in a kick, a line of fire flew from the blow and sliced the shade in half, Natsu jumped back and flipped over as he landed beside Erza deftly, his hand outstretched on the ground he pulsed a small amount of his magic power into the ground that ran along the ground in every direction, it struck the side of his house and the fence and the wood quickly caught alight, casting shadows around them as he stood up and cracked his neck and slammed his fist into his palm.

The shadows surrounding them began to take shape, forming the shapes of armed men and beasts, the beast snarled and Erza slammed into the ground on all forms as her body began to shift, her eyes dyed gold and her pupils narrowed to slits, her teeth sharpened to fangs and her hands became sharp taloned paws.

Natsu saw the muscles in her legs tense as she watched the things that surrounded them "Don't bother physical attacks won't work on them."

Erza glanced at him, she pushed back to her feet and reverted to her less feral appearance "So, How do I use magic?"

"I'll be happy to explained it to you," Natsu groaned as he clenched his fists and held his arms beside himself as he gritted his teeth "The moment we are not in danger, get as close to me as you can."

Erza leaned her back against Natsu and stood still as the shades around them began moving forward slowly, when Natsu made no movement she glanced at him worriedly "Mate?" She questioned slowly.

The thud of the things footsteps resounded around the silence, Natsu breathed in deeply and didn't move.

"Mate?!" She demanded in a more worried tone.

The shades paused momentarily as they leaned back before pouncing forward, Erza ducked down and placed her hands over her head "MATE!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Natsu's eyes snapped open "Fire Dragon's Nova." He growled darkly, fire spread around the pair of them and circled them like a tornado before it flew outwards and engulfed everything around them, Natsu sagged low as the spell dissipated, Erza scurried around and lifted his head worriedly, his eyes dropped heavily, as far as she could tell he was just exhausted and had no other injuries, she smiled in relief and pulled his head against her chest tightly, she looked around them and froze, the Shades stood frozen in the exact same places, even the ones that had jumped into the air, in fact the whole scene seemed like it had just frozen in time, a breeze pulled at her hair and the scene cracked, before it scattered into the wind, she looked around herself in slight wonder, even her mates home had completely vanished.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Erza questioned audibly, Natsu had already passed out against her chest.

"As expected from the great Salamander," A dark voice hissed angrily, Erza snapped around and glared at the masked figure 'How'd he get there without even giving off a scent?' She thought quickly "So you must be the one who holds the Dragon's Heart? How does it feel to have the ability to manipulate all that power?"

Erza hissed angrily at the figure as she launched it, her eyes widened in surprise as she struck nothing but air, she glared at the masked figure angrily as the person rotated and slammed it's foot into her stomach, sending her hurtling away, Erza coughed as she attempted to get air back into her lungs, the power of the person in front of her surprised her, she glanced at Natsu who was still unconscious on the ground and got to her feet, albeit a little shakily.

"I'm impressed you can still move." The robed person praised darkly as they moved towards Erza slowly.

The stopped abruptly when someone grabbed a hold of their shoulder "Looks like you're not a projection anymore." Natsu growled darkly, magic energy flared around Natsu as he ignited his fist and threw it at the person, the robed figure didn't even attempt to dodge he allowed the blow to pass through him, Natsu's eyes narrowed as he lifted his knee and locked it against the person's counter "Cheap parlor tricks won't protect you from me." He growled.

Now that Erza was looking at it from another angle she could figure out what happened, it wasn't that the blows would pass through, the person would leave a thought projection in the exact spot he was standing and step back, making you as a striker believe you had punched through him, when all you had hit was a thought projection.

Natsu grabbed the person by the collar and ripped him over his shoulder, the person rotated and landed on his feet, the robed man slammed his palm into the ground and a cloud of black smoke exploded from the spot.

Natsu spun around and forced the smoke away with the air her generated with his fire.

"As fun as it would be to duke it out with you know, you should be more concerned about what I have in store for you." The masked man chuckled "New member of the Wizard Saints."

Natsu wiped his mouth calmly "You'll need more than an army to take me out, I'm all fired up."

A/N: And the stage is set, I know there wasn't much fluff in this chapter, but I promise it's coming! But in the meantime I hope you enjoyed this chapter and any of my other fictions you read, as always I will see you guys in the next one, peace!