Author's note:

Hello! I'm very excited to put out the following chapter because it sets up the beginning of a lot of things for Fenris in my story. Although this is a rather short chapter, it serves as the segway into a very important mission for him, Kalea, and Faelen. There will be plenty more to come so the next few chapters should be longer. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. That privilege belongs to Hiro Mashima

It was a beautiful day as Fenris and Faelen were walking towards the guild early in the morning. And although the weather was perfect, Fenris couldn't help feel a sense of unease. Apparently, there were a lot of dark guilds on the move lately. It made him wonder what could be going on and he was curious if anyone else from the guild had heard anything.

As he entered the guild, he saw a crowd of people standing around where the job board was supposed to be. However, instead of the job board there was a large floating screen that had many names he couldn't see from where he was standing. As he approached the crowd, Kalea noticed him and waved him over.

When he reached her, he said, "Hey what's going on?"

"Mira came up with a chart of all the dark guilds that we know of," Kalea said, eyeing the lacrima screen with unease. "Haven't you heard about what's been going on? There's a bunch of dark guilds that have been attacking small villages and even some larger ones."

"Yeah I had heard about the attacks," said Fenris. "I was actually going to ask if anyone here knew what was going on."

"Pretty much everyone has a general idea of what's been happening recently," Kalea said. "But we really don't have many details. I think Mira does though. She was actually about to discuss what's been going on with everyone."

Fenris turned as he heard Mira's voice.

"The dark guilds seem to be awfully active recently. So, I think we need to work on strengthening inter-guild relations," she was saying.

"What's that big circle for?" asked Elfman.

"Ah, Juvia knows that," interjected Juvia. "That's the most powerful force amongst all the dark guilds: The Balam Alliance. The Balam Alliance is a massive force made up of three individual dark guilds. Each of these has a number of lesser guilds under its control, and thus the three of them keep the underworld in check."

"Hmmmm, so there's a bunch of dark guilds that are controlled by those three main guilds?" asked Fenris.

"Exactly," said Mira with a smile.

"Seems like that Oracion Seis guild has a lot of small guilds under their control," Kalea noted.

"About those Oracion Seis…." came a voice from the front door. Everyone turned to see the Master striding into the guild.

"We're going to take them down!" he exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" everyone shouted at the same time.

"Hi Master!" said Mira airily.

"At the regular meeting a few days ago," the Master continued. "The Oracion Seis came up on the agenda. Seems they're up to something. It was decided that this development cannot be ignored, and so a guild must be sent to eliminate them."

"And you just had to go draw the losing card as usual huh?" said Gray casually.

"Fairy Tail is taking up that responsibility?" asked Juvia.

"Not quite…" the Master said hesitantly. "The enemy is simply too large for that. If we went alone, then we would eventually end up as the sole targets of The Balam Alliance's wrath. As such… we're going to be forming an alliance of our own," said Master.

"An alliance?!" said the entire guild.

"Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Cait Shelter," the Master counted each guild on his hand. "Each of these guilds is to select a number of members, and those members will join forces to defeat the enemy. As such, each guild will be sending a group to team up with the other guilds to defeat the Oracion Seis."

Everyone began muttering about who would be the ones chosen.

"To get straight to the point, I've selected 5 members for this mission. They are Natsu, Gray, Erza, Happy, and Lucy," said Master.

"Wha-bu-why am I going?" asked Lucy.

Master ignored her and turned to Fenris. "Fenris. Originally, I was going to choose you as well for this mission as I believe your powers would have come in handy. However, because of your injuries during the fight with Laxus, Porlyusica informed me that you must take it easy until you are completely healed. Therefore, you cannot go on this mission," said Master.

"Bu-" began Fenris before he was interrupted by Kalea.

"If Porlyusica says no, then no," she said, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "I agree with her anyway. You still need to recover. It's only been a few weeks and I can tell you haven't gotten all your strength back."

"I guess… fine," he conceded.

A few hours later, Fenris watched on as the chosen group made their way out of the guild, assuring everyone they would do their best.

"I can't believe I'm not allowed to go…" Fenris complained. He was sitting in the guild hall with Kalea and Faelen.

"You haven't recovered Fenris. Porlyusica was right, you looked like absolute death after the fight with Laxus," said Kalea.

"I know…" he sighed. "I'm just starting to feel bored. I haven't been on a mission since the fight and I'm getting antsy."

"Well then…" Kalea stood up and went to the job board, which had been replaced earlier. A few minutes later, she came back with a flier in hand. "Here," she said, giving him the paper.

He scanned the request and was slightly disappointed. It seemed like an easy job. It was a request to help out the town of Balsam Village with a problem they've been having for a few weeks. Apparently, some dark guild has been harassing them every day and they needed help capturing them.

"This seems easy enough," he said.

"Exactly," she said, sitting back down. "You'll get to hit people but it shouldn't be too difficult. The perfect way to recover your energy and get back into the game."

"I guess you're right," Fenris said. "Should we meet up at the train station then? I gotta go home and get some stuff before we go. I wasn't really expecting to go on a job today."

"That's fine, I need to go get some stuff too," Kalea said. "How about we meet at the train station in about an hour?"

"Sounds good to me," Fenris said.

.

.

.

An hour later and they were on the train to Balsam Village.

Faelen was laying with his head in Fenris' lap as Fenris stared out the window. He always found these train rides peaceful. It allowed him to think without being disturbed, which could never happen at the guild.

"Fenris," said Kalea from the seat facing him.

He looked over at her. "You really did overwork yourself with the Laxus fight," she continued. "You literally had almost no magic left because of the spell you did trying to hold him. Porlyusica said if you held it any longer you could've died."

As she finished, her cheeks flushed and she looked away. Fenris noticed this seemed to be happening more often lately. She was beginning to act more shy around him again. It reminded him a little of when they were younger but this was…slightly different. He couldn't put his finger on it though. Fenris also realized that she was right. He really hadn't expected it to be that big a deal but that spell had taken its toll on him. He had tried too hard and could've killed himself. His left arm still didn't feel perfectly normal.

"I know… I'm sorry," he said, looking back out of the window, slightly ashamed. "I won't be doing that again any time soon until I can master it some more."

He looked back at Kalea and found her looking at him. "Good," she said. "I don't want you doing it everagain even if you do master it unless it's against someone you know you can handle. It was stupid to try and hold Laxus. If you had died I-" she cut off.

"You what?" he asked.

"Doesn't matter," she muttered quietly.

"No. It does matter so tell me," he insisted. He was getting tired of the constant back and forth between them. Although he knew it wasn't smart to push Kalea, he hoped their relationship would allow her to open up to him more. She had told him her story, why couldn't she tell him anything else?

"I don't know Fenris!" she yelled, waking Faelen. "I honestly don't know where I was going with that! I don't really know what I would've done if you had died. I just… don't want you to die. I guess that's all I'm trying to say," she said.

"I mean… I don't want to die obviously," Fenris said. "But it's inevitable. Eventually we all die. Whether naturally or not. But I don't want anyone I care about to die either of course," he finished quickly.

"I realize that Fenris," said Kalea. "I know we'll all eventually die. It's just… I want to… have a life before that I guess is what I'm trying to say. I want to experience things. I want to see the world. I want to experience… something happy… I guess. I've told you about my past. I was not a happy child. I was never happy until I met everyone in Fairy Tail. And I am happy now don't get me wrong. I love everyone in the guild. But… I want to experience something more. I-this I stupid I have no idea where this is coming from sorry," she said quickly.

Fenris was listening intently. Ever since Kalea had confessed her childhood to him he had grown somewhat protective over her. Something inside of him just wanted to see her happy. And it seemed as though she was getting at something and he needed to know.

"No. Please. Keep going Kalea, this isn't stupid. You know you can talk to me about anything," he said.

Kalea didn't respond for a few minutes. Fenris thought she was done talking but then she continued.

"Well… it's like I said. I absolutely love everyone in the guild. But I love them all like my family. I want to experience… something more than that kind of love. I know that's the girliest thing to say but it's true I guess. But… I'm also… scared. I guess. Scared of being close to someone since the closest people I had growing up were so abusive," she finished.

Fenris felt his throat tighten when she said love. He had occasionally thought about the subject too. Not all that much. But when he was alone and thinking about the past, the thought would come up. But when he thought about it there weren't many people who he thought he could love. At least not at the guild. Everyone was like family to him there just as they were to her. Although there was one person who seemed to pop up in his mind from the guild.

Kalea.

No matter what, a picture of her would cross his mind every time. But how could he love her? She was his best friend, along with Faelen. Even if, and this was a stretch, those feelings he was having developed into any form of "love" he could never tell her. She just admitted she felt like everyone in the guild was family. And besides, her feelings towards love were obviously conflicting. As a child, we're naturally inclined to feel some sort of love to our parents. They're the ones who raise us. They feed us, give us a home, provide for us.

But Kalea's parents were different. They had abused her. But they had still provided her with all the essentials she needed to survive. Although he didn't exactly know how she felt, he could imagine her feelings about love were anything but straightforward.

But it didn't matter. He didn't like her like that… he kept telling himself. Lately though… it seemed as though he was having to tell himself that more and more. Fenris snapped back to reality as the train hit a bump.

"Uh… no no," he said. "It's not girly. It's how you feel. There's nothing wrong with feeling that way. And I mean… doesn't being scared let you know you're on to something important?"

"Yes… I suppose. But the truth is, I'm not afraid of being inlove. I'm afraid of not being loved in return," she said quietly.

Fenris reached over and put his hand on top of hers. It was a bold move. But he felt the conversation was appropriate for it. "Kalea. You need to stop being afraid of what could go wrong and focus on what could go right. You can't be afraid of being hurt so much, that you pass up the chance of someone making you happy. Because that someone isout there," said Fenris.

Kalea looked at him. He felt her squeeze his hand.

"Fenris… I-" and then the conductor's voice sounded above them.

"Hello folks. We've just arrived at Balsam Village. I do hope you all enjoyed the ride and have a safe trip into the city!"

Kalea pulled her hand away. She suddenly stood up and grabbed her pack and walked down the aisle off the train. Fenris sat there for a few moments, staring at his hand. He could still feel her touch where she had squeezed it.

Author's note:

There we are! Next couple of chapters we get into the mission itself and are introduced to some new guilds that will serve a vital role for Fenris in his future. See you then!