Okay, my first Fairy Tail fanfic... No spoilers as of yet, although I intend on posting a warning if some come up, but I doubt there will be an issue.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, but I own some fairies.

Edit: I'm not sure how long this will end up being, but not too long. Maybe five chapters?

Tomcat: You Don't Get Herpes From Cats

The tomcat was a pretty cat, she thought, but not by any means polished. His fur was tattered, and his ears and face sported some well-earned scars. Lucy was sure that they were well-earned, after all, her Isamu was brave, and would never give up in a fight. Yes, Isamu the tomcat was pretty indeed.

She wasn't sure where Isamu had come from, or what he meant by following her to and from the guild, but she liked the company, and occasionally would speak to him about casual affairs, and sometimes, Lucy swore, she would see the cat nod in response. There was almost always a glint in his eyes, like he knew exactly what she was saying, and empathized profusely.

It had started when, one day, she was leaving Fairy Tail to head home, Natsu loudly trailing behind her, and she saw Isamu, sitting there, his green eyes barely visible in the darkness, staring at her. She stopped in her tracks, and held eye-contact, unsure of what the whole thing was about, or if there was anything at all.

"Come on, Luce! We need to get our rest so we can go do a mission tomorrow!" Natsu enthused, "I'm going to beat the crap out of them!"

Lucy sighed, still staring at the cat, "Natsu, we don't even know what mission we are going to do yet."

"Eh?" he said, "So?"

She blinked, and murmured towards the cat, "I sure hope we aren't teaching at the school or anything. The teachers wouldn't appreciate those children being beat up..."

And that was when the "connection" happened.

Isamu smiled back at her, his eyes squinting as though he was laughing.

Lucy blinked, "Hey Natsu!"

He sighed, "Whaaaat, Lucy?"

"This cat..." she began, "Is there something, I dunno, strange about him to you?"

Natsu sighed walking over to his friend, and looked at the cat, "It's just a stray," he shrugged, and tugged on her forearm, "Come on, Luce."

She shook her head, "There's something about this cat, Natsu. There has to be." Lucy crouched down onto her knees, and held out her hand for the cat to sniff. Isamu approached, confident and brave, like his name promised, and he rubbed up against her side, purring loudly.

"Ew!" Natsu jumped back, "Don't touch it! You could get herpes!"

Lucy laughed, not turning her attention away from the tomcat, "You don't get herpes from cats."

"Whatever," he said, "Come on, Happy, let's go," and Natsu turned his back and started down the street.

Lucy smiled and looked into the cat's eyes once more, "Your name is Isamu."

Isamu blinked in agreement.

Lucy was momentarily confused by her acknowledgment, but then continued talking, "Now, you are a much better listener than Natsu is," she said, and Isamu purred. "And if you were a mage, you would be so powerful, wouldn't you?"

Isamu smiled back, and Lucy could almost hear his voice in her head, yes, I would be very strong, indeed.

"And your name is Isamu, so you must be brave," she stood up, surprised to see Isamu following just a couple feet behind her. She smiled at the cat, and he pranced ahead just slightly, leading the way towards her apartment. That was about the time that she spotted Natsu, leaning up against a closed shopfront with anticipation.

"There you are! I was starting to get worried," he said, and smiled as they continued to walk.

She laughed, "What? Did you think that the boogie monster got me or something?"

Natsu shrugged, "Dunno, maybe that cat killed you or something."

"Please, Natsu, give me a little more credit than that," she said, her eyes still on the cat, "I am a mage, after all."

The dragon-slayer nodded, also watching Isamu, "I know that, and I don't doubt you. It's just..." he hesitated, "We're team mates, aren't we?"

Lucy nodded, feeling an overwhelming appreciation towards Natsu, and wishing that she didn't need him there as much as she did. She knew that she was strong, but there was always someone better, someone stronger, and having him there was like her own encouragement to try and achieve all that she could. She owed him for that. She smiled, "Yes, we are."

Natsu had forgotten about the topic, "Y'know, this cat is really starting to weird me out."

Lucy blinked, "I told you that there was something about him."

He nodded, "And be careful, look at those scabs on his face."

"What about them?"

"Herpes!"

"Natsu, cats don't get herpes!"

**

And then, the next day after Lucy beat Natsu up for sleeping in her apartment in her bed (again), she walked outside, to see, to her surprise, Isamu, sitting there, grooming. Lucy blinked, and turned around to call to Natsu.

"Hey! Natsu! Can you grab a fish from the kitchen for me?!"

She heard him groan.

"So first, you push me off the bed, yell at me, bruise me all over, yell at me more, beat me up more, and now you want me to go get you fish?" he complained.

Lucy smiled, and said, "Get one for Happy too!" at which the dragon slayer happily pranced over to the kitchen.

After Isamu devoured his fish, the group of four (including the two cats, of course) headed back towards the guild.

"You have a cat?" asked Erza.

Lucy nodded, patting Isamu on the head. "Kinda. He's been following me around," she said.

The tomcat pranced over to Erza.

"Well, hello, mister," she said, and proceeded to rub him between the ears. "Has he got a name?"

The stellar spirit mage nodded, "Isamu."

Erza smiled, "Hello Isamu, how are you today?" at which the cat seemed to respond quite fine, and yourself?

Erza's smile faltered, "That was weird... It was almost like he understood me..."

Happy crossed his arms, "I can actually talk. I don't see whats so impressive about this guy."

Lucy smiled and patted the jealous cat on the head, "We know you can talk, Happy, we don't doubt you. This isn't talking at all though... This is different. Weirder."

"You've seen it too?" Erza asked.

Lucy nodded, "Yep."

"And he's following you?"

She nodded again.

Erza looked down at the contented cat, confused. "I think we might want to have Bixlow take a look at him later... I don't know about this cat..."

"Good idea," Lucy agreed, "I'm relatively sure he's harmless, but better safe than sorry."

Isamu looked up at them, I'm not dangerous at all.

Creeper kitty! And I promise that there will be some more NatsuxLucy moments coming up, but I'm going to try my best to be gradual.. We'll see how that works out -.-

Reviews are the best(: