Chapter 1: Flight of the Cat

As the morning dew lifted itself up, light also began to penetrate on every corner of the busy town. Windows of houses and establishments started to open, signaling the start of a brand new day as the sun's soft rays passed them, loving the gentle and healthy warmth it provide.

As he made his way along the cobbled stone road, he was greeted with the familiar 'good morning handsome' by the housewives; some of them busy hanging their laundry to dry and some on their way for an errand. Though, almost every time he would hear such terms of endearment, it never falters to make his pride swell. After all, his personality is made up of 100% pride. He is Leo the lion spirit, the leader of the 12 Zodiacs, and the strongest of them all. And when we say lion, it means the king of beast.

He continued his walk, enjoying the scent of the fresh morning air and the smell of the ground after the heavy down pour here on Earth land last night. 'Hmm, this is what you call peace and quiet,' he thought, but was easily replaced by a grimace when his ears picked up familiar voices and squealing. 'Way to start the morning, Loke' he grumbled to himself.

"Loke-kun," came the freaky voices.

"I miss you! Where on earth have you been?"

Loke cringed and forced a smile on his face, trying to hide his annoyance and irritation. He heaved a deep sigh and tried his best to compose himself before turning his head to the voices' direction, where he saw squealing girls in different colors.

Tinted glass glinting in the early sunlight matching his infamous smile that melt hearts, he uttered a refreshing 'good morning beautiful ladies' that received a dozen of fits and giggles. 'Women,' he thought. He really has no time for this!

"Loke-kun," a raven-haired aristocrat seductively said, arms encircling on his'. "Let's get out of here. We can go in an out of town vacation…just you and me," the last four words she said maliciously, batting her lashes that matched her black orbs.

"No, don't listen to her, Loke-kun!" cried another. "Father's ship will set sail this afternoon and I already told him you're coming with me."

"…"

"No, come with me," a few more girls chorused.

Dubbed as the 'perfect gentleman' and being trained to professionally handle women, Loke gently tilted his head, faced the raven-haired aristocrat and stared at her intently. For minutes, they remained locked in each other's gaze, ignoring the other ladies' protests. Then he slowly cupped her cheek and lowered his lips.

Assuming that they will surely end up in a heated kiss, one by one the ladies dramatically fled in embarrassment, each of them crying some 'how could you, Loke-kun!' and 'you broke my heart, sweetheart!' as they left.

Plan A

Status: Success.

Plan B

Status: Executing

Said aristocrat, now beet red in the face shut her eyes and pouted her lips even more, hands clutching at Loke's jacket, as if bracing herself for whatever may come. She could feel Loke's warm breath on her face as she patiently waited for the contact.

"Hurry, kiss me,"

"As much as I want to ravage you, Milady, I'm afraid we have to postpone this little romantic play," Loke whispered in her ear.

The lady furiously shot her eyes wide open and saw Loke looking at her seriously. "What the hell…" and she suddenly clamped her hands in her mouth.

Loke winced upon hearing the foul word. He then released the lady from his hold, sheepishly pocketed his hands and stared at the now risen sun. "You," he began, adjusting his tinted shade in a sloppy manner, "Milady is a beauty to behold, much brighter that the sun itself…"

The woman blushed a thousand shades of red. "Oh, Loke-kun…"

"But," Loke paused and stared down at the dirty and wet cobbled stone beneath his feet.

A brow twitched and a number of veins popped on the lady's forehead; thankfully her make-up was almost half an inch thick that it did a good job on hiding those irregularities on her face. "But what?" she hissed acidly.

Loke, still staring at the floor beneath him, started playing with the dirt by kicking mud all over, due to the impact, some made their way on to the lady's skirt.

The woman just ignored his game and eyed him warily. "But what?" she repeated, now the sweetness in her voice all gone.

He slowly lifted his gaze to her and smiled bitterly. "But foul words certainly cannot conceal a person's real heart."

Plan B

Status: Success

The sun was now at its peak, and almost everyone was now in search for the coolest place to stay for protection from the ferocious heat. It was only the start of spring, and supposedly, the sun shouldn't be that angry. Seems like it really missed its job while being absent from the last winter.

Down a dark and run down alley way, where people not so often passed, someone moved beneath the shadows of the rubble. As if afraid of being assaulted, he slowly moved forward, sometimes checking on his surrounding as though a huge predator might suddenly lunge forward and swallow him whole. Though the day was really hot, he didn't mind removing his jacket for one bit, thinking that a simple noise of his movement might give out his hiding place, ruin his day, and most of all, cost his life

For hours, he stayed still settled in the darkest of the alley. Finally sensing no more of the menacing aura from earlier, Loke slowly rose and darted forward to the opening, observed his surrounding behind those tainted glasses and mentally counted.

'3,'

'2,'

'1,'

He then leaped out of the dark completely and sprinted fast like his dear nine lives hangs on mid air. He continued to run, feeling stupid at himself for his foolishness. 'Pathetic,' he thought. His jacket's hem flapped against his thighs as he hurriedly passed a group of ladies calling him. 'Pathetic;' he muttered again as he quickened his pace as he neared his destination.

Upon stepping on the luscious green grass beneath, he let himself collapsed against the soft earth and laughed maniacally, glass lopsided, and jacket drenched in sweat.

"Really, I'm pathetic, " for the third time he told himself." Running like an idiot instead of just returning to the astral plane."

It was very much unlike him, he thought as he closed his eyes to get some sleep and the moment he did so, image of a horror-stricken face flashed before him; the image of the aristocrat from earlier. He had foolishly thought that he could easily dispatch her, that after what he had said to her, she will cry and run away. Well, she did run, but she didn't cry. And the worst part of it, she did ran after him, saying that she's sorry that she didn't mean making Loke upset, saying that she'll do anything but leave him for his forgiveness.

But Loke had seen through the lie that's why he decided to leave. But the lady was persistent, following him for what seemed like forever before Loke got annoyed and started running away from her sight.

"Well, atleast I've gotten rid of her," he absent mindedly told himself.

"Gotten rid of whom?"

Loke automatically shot his eyes wide open and quickly pushed himself up, accidentally bumping his head against something he did make out as a furred, blue head. He scowled in pain, gently caressing his own forehead before looking behind him.

"You…"

"You're cruel, Loke!" a teary eyed blue exceed with a slight bump on his forehead cried in pain. "Really, what's eating you?' Happy asked making a face.

Loke sighed inwardly and sat cross legged, looking at the little bump on Happy's head. "Really, I'm sorry Happy. I didn't know you were there…"

"I've been calling you for ages," Happy thinly snapped.

"…"

The Exceed stood up and dusted himself. "Ne, Loke, is there a problem?" he asked voice full of concern.

Loke chuckled and smile mischievously. "Don't tell me…" Loke whispered, looking at Happy with a dirty look, making the cat quiver. "Don't tell me…"

"DON'T YOU DARE FINISHED THAT SENTENCE!"

He burst out laughing hard at the Exceed, for a second forgetting the random things he had in mind.

Happy was less entertained at all. Spreading his wings and flying a good two meters high, he shot the perverted lion a disapproving look before saying, "if you don't want people and Exceeds getting worried about you, then stop making that face when you're with us. And maybe," he paused and thought for a moment and a sly smile appeared. "Maybe if I tell Lucy about how you flirted with the women this morning and how one of them actually chased the hell out of you, maybe you'll come back to your senses." And the Exceed started flying away but was held back by a tight grip on the tail.

"Loke, let go of my tail! What if it comes off?" Happy cried but the lion spirit did not heed his plead. Instead he pulled the now thrashing cat and lowered him to his gaze.

"You were spying on me," Loke warmly said, making the cat lose his normal color.

'Aye," Happy could only say as his brain flashed before him the 'danger' light.

"You were spying on me. On what purpose, Happy?" Loke once again spoke. He really doesn't enjoy scaring the little cat. But then again, this is Loke we're talking about. He was a real gentleman, and he has his pride. And a thing called 'spying' is certainly one thing he can't tolerate.

Happy gulped. "No…not like that…" he tried to explain himself before the lion spirit but no right words seemed to enter his little brain.

Loke laughed a little at the Exceed's confused action before finally deciding to release his grip on his tail. He then once again settled himself comfortable on the soft earth and patted his side, motioning Happy to sit beside him, to which Happy obliged (maybe out of fear, perhaps).

"Who asked you to do it?' he asked, starring at the playing children from afar.

Happy, feeling guilty to what he had done, replied in a small voice. "Lucy…"

"Wha…Luc…ouch!" Upon hearing his master's name, Loke quickly turned his head towards Happy, and accidentally cricked his neck. Restraining a painful groan, he slowly massaged his neck, stroking it gently to avoid worsening his condition. "You mean Lucy asked you," the words escaped his mouth unconsciously. That can't be! He knows his master and he was quite sure that Lucy won't do something as lowly as spying. She said she trusts him, didn't she? That's what makes their bond strong! So how come she asked the Exceed to do this 'crime'?

Happy, seeing the hurt and disbelieving look in his eyes, shrugged. "It was not really Lucy to begin with."

With that statement, Loke felt relieved, but refrained himself from asking questions as to not disrupt the Exceed's tale.

Happy continued. "You've been spacing out recently, so Erza and the rest of team Natsu asked Lucy what was really going on, and of course, Lucy had no clue," he hastily added, frantically flapping his paws in front of his face, afraid that Loke might misunderstood what he mean.

"I get it," Loke abruptly said.

"Well, we all agreed to have someone tail you but Lucy. She said that she can't agree to something that low." Then the cat grimaced and his wings dropped. "If I had known from the start that they're going to use me…" and he sniffed and started crying dramatically.

Loke felt remorse and sympathy for Happy. He softly rubbed his back. "That must be hard on you," he said, thinking of the many loop holes he had gone through to escaped from the aristocrat's claws. If Happy was tailing him from the start, then he would have gone through the same route like he did. He felt guilty.

"I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you, Happy. But really, I'm okay…"

"Is it something you can't tell Lucy?" Happy suddenly asked, raising his head with his blood shot eyes.

Surprised at Happy's sharp thinking, Loke lifted his gaze and sighed. "Yeah, it's something only men can understand."

Silence fell over them after Loke's words were heard. Loke stared at his companion and slightly smiled at the different emotions the cat was showing. He would furrow his brow, heaved a deep sigh, and would scratch his head. Then much to Loke's amazement, Happy closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

Loke, not wanting Happy to be dragged into him, playfully patted his head and coolly said, "You don't have to go that far, Hap…"

"If that's so, I understand it all," Happy blurted out of the sudden, leaving Loke slightly taken aback. Pushing himself up for the second time, he faced the lion spirit with such indignation, pointed his thumb on his now swelled chest and bravely declared, "If you can't tell Lucy, then tell me! Let's talk about it, man to man, cat to a grown-up cat."