A/N: This is an idea I've had swimming in my head for a while. Maybe its cliche or something...but oh, well. I hope you enjoy my very first Fairy Tail fanfic! This is pretty short because it's like an intro or a prologue.

Chapter 1: The word

It was a slow day in the town of Magnolia. Missions after the whole Tenrou Island shebang were nearly non-existant, and many of the S-class participants found themselves hanging around the guild or at home, bored out of their minds. One of the bored mages happened to be 'Salamander' Natsu, the fire dragon-slayer who was, of all things, sprawled out on the Stellar-Spirit mage Lucy's floor - reading the dictionary. Happy - his happy-go-lucky exceed- flopped on the floor beside him, whining about the lack of fish in Lucy's kitchen. Lucy herself just sat at her desk, scribbling away at her novel she was writing, 'Levy-chan wants the next chapter soon, so I can't make her wait!'

The seconds ticked by, then turned to minutes, and then hours. Natsu entertained himself by looking up words that started with his favorite letters: 'F' for fire, 'D' destroy, and 'H' for Happy. Natsu felt quite proud that he could read, remembering how Igneel had taught him how to do so. He just skipped around, going from one letter to another. He had just flipped to 'L' to see what started with the same letter as his favorite Celestial Spirit-mage when one word stopped him. It was a four-letter word that stopped him in his tracks; he could have sworn he'd seen it before, because it just looked so familiar. Natsu ran his eyes over the many definitions beside it. 'Which one is the right one?' He wondered to himself. There were just so freaking many! He put his finger on the one closest to the word and read to himself:

Love-(noun) A strong positive emotion of regard and affection.

Natsu stared at the page, page 192, the book said. He puzzled through the word's meaning one word at a time. Strong, Natsu knew what being strong was. It was never giving up, it was being able to defeat fearsome enemies with a single, flame-ignited fist. Positive, made him think of Happy. Not a care in the world, and having an awesome outlook, right? Being all revved up after eating tasty fire, that was what positive meant to him. Emotion, this was the more tricky one. Was emotion like...feelings? Was it the anger he felt when some one threatened his precious Nakama? Or was it the tears Erza cried when her childhood friend, Simon, had died? Was emotion what made Lucy travel to see her father after Phantom Lord had been defeated by Fairy Tail? Natsu supposed that was what emotion could be. Regard and affection really threw him for a loop, though. What the heck were those words supposed to mean?

Natsu stood up and made his way over to Lucy, dictionary in hand. He would ask her what the 'love' business was about, and try to see why it seemed so big and familiar to him.

So Natsu slammed the book down over the notebook paper in front of his friend, preparing to ask for answers that he would have a harder time getting then he ever would've thought.

A/N: Make sure you drop a review, or I'll send Erza after you! Expect an update soon...