Lucy lay in her bed trying but mostly failing to fall asleep. Her head was just too full of all the events that had gone down in the past month since she'd been captured.

Natsu had brought her home just as she asked. He made it so they materialized a short distance from her families main house so no one would notice the huge flames bursting out of nowhere. He had whistled at the size of her home.

"Snazzy place you got here! No wonder you wanted to come home." She almost winced at that last comment. She really didn't care for the vastness of her home. Its size just made it that much easier for her father to ignore her...

"Y-yeah... Thank you for saving me Natsu, and for bringing me home." She waved as she started down the path to her home. Once she was far enough away that she wouldn't hear him Natsu called out:

"Hey Happy come here" In a little poof of smoke a blue furred cat with wings appeared.

"Hey Natsu! Why haven't you called me in forever!?" The little cat complained at him while giving the demon his best pouty face. Natsu chuckled and placed a hand on the cats head.

"Sorry little buddy, but I need you to do something for me." As he spoke he waved a hand at the cats fur and it changed from blue to a chocolate brown.

"There's a human I want you to look after for me. See the girl walking a head of us? Her names Lucy and shes special so watch her for me."

"Lushi? hmm.. okay!"

"Your gonna have to pretend to be a normal cat though, I think she might get mad if she finds out I'm having you watch her." The cat cocked his head to the side confused but shrugged it off. His wings disappeared and he dropped to the ground.

"If something happens to her you call me okay?" Natsu asked.

"Aye sir!" Happy responded and started walking after Lucy, grumbling as he had to walk on all fours and wasn't used to it.

Once he was sure Happy could fake being a normal cat, Natsu disappeared back to his home.

Lucy had to bang on the door to get someone to answer as she didn't have a key to the front door. She had never needed one before. The instant the head maid saw it was her she burst into tears. Everyone fussed over her, bringing her clean clothes feeding her having the families doctor look her over. Not once did her father come down from his study to make sure she was okay or not. She honestly doubted he noticed she had been gone at all.

After they had all made sure she was okay the maids drew her a bath and left her to relax alone. The bath had felt amazing! She couldn't remember the last time she'd had one. Once she was clean and relaxed she went over to her desk to write a letter to her mother explaining that she was okay and that she was sorry for not writing in a while. That's when she heard the scratching at her window.

She walked over and was surprised to see a little kitty in her window. Smiling she opened it up and held out her hand to the small creature. He sniffed her hand before rubbing his head on it.

"Hello little fella, where'd you come from?" Happy meowed at her hating that he couldn't talk in front of her. Lucy picked him up and put him on her desk before closing the window.

"No reason for you to sleep out in the cold. I'm sure no one would mind if I kept you for a while. What do you think kitty?" Happy meowed again, slightly grateful at the thought as well.

"Hmm... What should I call you...?" Lucy sat in her chair and stared a good long time at happy considering a good name. Happy stared back trying to think of a normal cat way to tell her his name.

"Hmm... Oh! How about Scoofulfunts!" Happy fell off the desk from that one. If he were aloud to face palm he would have! What kind of name is that?!

"Oh kitty are you okay?!" Lucy asked picking him up and inspecting him to make sure he was okay. Happy inwardly sighed and meowed at her. If she was gonna call him a name like that this was gonna be harder than he thought.

"I guess you don't like that name...How about I just call you kitty until I know your personality better hmm?" Happy meowed and rubbed his head against her hoping she'd take it as a yes.

She giggled. "Alright kitty it is."

She had then asked one of her maids to bring him a bowl of milk and some cut up fish. He was liking Lucy more and more by the minute! He loved fish almost more than life itself! Happy practically pounced on the maid when she came with the fish, that made Lucy laugh and the maid grumble under her breath.

The rest of the night Lucy just sat on her bed and read, Happy curled up right next to her providing a comforting warmth.

When she finally attempted to sleep it ended with her just laying there wide awake thinking about all this over again.

She sighed and rolled onto her side and looked at her new friend. He was an adorable little cat. She hoped she'd be able to keep him. Her father thought pets were a waste of time and an unnecessary mess to have cleaned up after. With all she had been through maybe he would make an exception and accept the cat as a sort of coping mechanism for her. That was assuming much but it was what she hoped for...

Back with the demons Natsu was bored practically to tears listening to Laxus drone on and on about who knew what. Battle plans more than likely. He tried to remain interested really but his thoughts were so jumbled especially over that human girl! He almost hoped something would happen so he could go to her and bring her back again. It had been centuries since he'd smelled a human so full of magickal light. He wondered if she was full blooded human or not. Most of the time humans could only preform magick that summoned beings to them, any other magick they used was usually given as a gift from those beings. Rarely though you'd find that one human who's family line lead back to a magickal being who had got a little too frisky with the human who summoned them.

If that was the case with this Lucy girl then she would fit in very well with that group. They were practically bursting at the seems with magick blooded humans. But he doubted she'd want to leave her home unless she was forced to. That had been one huge place! She must have had one big family to own a place that big. He almost envied her. Sure everyone here was like family to him. A few even called him big brother, but they weren't really his family. His family were either long dead or cursed and in hiding.

He remembered the other group he had once belonged to. They hadn't called him big brother... They'd probably been to scared of him to call him that. Scared or hated him, he wasn't sure which. Ironic how they were his enemies now.

"END did you hear me?" Laxus asked annoyed.

"Huh? What?" He said coming out of his thoughts. From beside him he heard Gajeel laugh with his distinctive "Giihee".

"I said; Once we have this platoons focus-" He gestured to the table where the war plans were mapped out. "- I want you to strike at their reinforcement camp. Keep them from ganging up on us alright?"

Natsu grinned. One of the very few things about Laxus he liked was the guy new he liked to work solo and never tried to force a partner on him.

"Got it sparky! I'm all fired up!"

"Don't call me sparky, pyro!" Laxus yelled back Lightning sparking around him a bit. Natsu just chuckled. Sparky was without a doubt the best nickname for the lightning dragon demon.

They finished their meeting shortly after and Natsu headed for the dining hall hoping to grab the best meat before the others got there. One of the things he liked about this group was they weren't afraid to oppose him on stuff. Like if someone wanted to fight over food with him they would, or if they got mad at him they called him names, his favorite was how some of them weren't afraid to piss him off. He was deffidently stronger than all of them combined but that didn't stop them from putting him in his place from time to time.

Four centuries ago he would have killed anyone who even thought about doing any of that. He demanded allegiance, loyalty, and obedience. He was cruel and hateful, and just plain evil in general. Then he'd fought Igneel the fire dragon and got a total change on his perception of life. He had damn near lost to the dragon and fully expected to be killed, but Igneel had spared him. Igneel had done so much more than that but thinking back on it hurt his heart to the point he wanted to rip the damned thing out. So often he'd shove those thoughts away and focus instead on shoving food into his mouth. Yes it was depressed eating; no he didn't care if it made him fat.

"Yo, Salamander a bunch of us are heading to the fairy hall you coming?" Gajeel asked from the doorway to the hall.

"Nah, Ima stay here and eat." He responded around a big bite of meat.

"Save some for the rest of us flame breath." Natsu gave him a thumbs up and he left.

Fairy tail... They were a fun group. All kinds of magick folks gathered there, but they were also that group he was thinking of sending Lucy to earlier. Founded about a hundred or so years ago by the last great fairy Mavis. Often it was used as a place where humans with magick blood could live in safety while they learned their powers, but recently it had become an HQ for anyone participating in the war. The dragon demons had allied with them to fight the Etharious demons who were trying to force their way into the human lands and take over. Admittedly it was a plan he had originally proposed and planned, but that's why he was here helping the other side. To try and make up for his past he was willing to fight his true brethren.

Come to think think of it Fairy Tail had a Lacrima screen that peered into the human lands so people could check on their human families. He could see how Lucy was doing!

Hopping up quickly he hurried to catch up to the others.