Chapter One: Fading Natsu

Natsu was fading, disappearing from the world . . . and nobody even bothered to notice this. They didn't notice the change in his personality either. It was as if nobody cared, as if nobody thought he mattered anymore. Everyday, Natsu felt himself get weaker, and his hands had started turning transparent. Because of this, he began covering them with gloves, and still nobody noticed this change.

Day after day, week after week, Natsu felt himself falling deeper into his depression, but there was still a flicker of hope deep within him that even he wasn't aware of. That was that the person he cared about the most would take notice of these changes and try to help him through it. That person, although Natsu hadn't realized it(yet), was Gray, his oldest friend and greatest rival. But there was more to it than just camaraderie, there was an even deeper feeling there. There was love.

***FTFTFT***

It had been two months since Natsu had started fading and falling into his depression. As happened every day for those two months, nobody (supposedly) noticed Natsu's gloomy mood, except for Gray (supposedly), but Natsu hadn't noticed that. Gray watched Natsu for about forty-five minutes until he'd had enough of it, and finally walked over to the fire dragon slayer.

"Natsu, what's been up with you lately? You've been acting really strange!" Gray couldn't keep the anger out of his voice as he said this. Natsu had secretly been worrying everybody in the guild and hadn't even bothered to pretend to look happy, which only made it worse.

The dragon slayer only ignored him, apparently lost in his own thoughts. This only made Gray even madder and he decided to attack the pinkette to get his attention and snap him out of his gloomy mood.

This didn't result well, though, because when he round house kicked the man and Natsu hit the wall and snapped his head up, Gray noticed the tears in the man's eyes. The ice mage was at a loss for words, and could only watch as Natsu ran out of the guild to God knows where.