Summary: When the local cats of Magnolia have disappeared, it's up to Fairy Tail to find them.

Pairings: Gajeel/Levy, Gajeel/cats, implied Jet/Levy/Droy, and Natsu/Lucy.

YouTube Prompt: A tribute to a variety of characters, mostly Gajeel, Natsu, Laxus, Gray, and their love interests to the song 'I'm still here' by the Goo Goo Dolls.

"The local cats have gone missing."

It was an unnaturally boring day when Erza came in with Master from the Town Council meeting and made that announcement. Suddenly life sprang into everyone as they turned and looked pointedly at Natsu and Happy.

"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT US FOR?!" Natsu and Happy squawked in unison.

"You were the ones that tried to get a cat cult started a couple years ago," Mirajane pointed out as she dried a glass. "You had taken all the cats nearby and were preaching to them from the bible."

"Seriously?!" Lucy cried out disbelievingly.

"Happy wanted a gang!" Natsu said as if it explained everything….actually it kind of did. Lucy got the impression that Happy was the mastermind to some of Natsu's annoying and insane behaviour.

"I would have been an awesome mafia boss," Happy said sagely.

Lucy sweat-dropped as did Wendy while Charle looked rather constipated. "Idiot," the white cat muttered disgustedly.

"Your reasons from the kidnappings last time is irrelevant," Erza barked. "What matters is there are innocent cats being kidnapped now, and the Town Council has requested us to do the job."

"What are we being paid?" Lucy asked eagerly. She could really do with more rent money before Natsu blew something up.

"We're not," Erza said grimly, "instead they said they'll forget who exactly broke the memorial statue of our town's founder last week."

Lucy face-palmed as Natsu and Gray attempted to whistle and look innocent. God no one brought it! They all knew their public fights got out of hand again.

"Well I think we should do it anyway," Wendy said determinedly, "I hate to think all of the poor innocent kitties are being kept away from their homes by some monster."

"Yosh!" Natsu pumped a fist in the air. "Let's do it then!"

"Aye, sir!"

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Lucy and Levy's attempt to work together, just the two of them, was foiled once again by Natsu and Happy. Natsu said it was because if Lucy and Levy went searching by themselves they would never leave the book shop and he would end up doing all the work (Ha! Like Natsu wasn't hoping to slope off and laze about in her apartment). Lucy knew better. Natsu never allowed her to go off on her own for jobs. Not even for the unofficial. Every attempt she had made in the past to go on her own ended with Natsu, Happy, Erza, and Gray chasing after her.

You would think they didn't trust her to come back.

"Natsu," Lucy growled, "can you step back and give me some breathing space?"

"No," Natsu's breath tickled the back of her neck, "I know you two, the moment I turn my back on you, and you'll run off to the book shop."

"Damn," Levy muttered to Lucy, "there goes that plan."

"I knew it!" Natsu crowed as he almost strangled Lucy with his arm that he had slung round her shoulders. "I knew you would sneak off to the bookshop!"

"We were going to ask if they had seen anything suspicious!" Lucy protested. "Besides the owner has a cat as well, and they would want the reassurance that we're on the job."

"Riiiiiiiiiight, and that would take what? The whole day?" Natsu raised a sceptical eyebrow at her, and she couldn't help but squirm under his knowing look. Yeah, they would have spent five minutes doing their job and the next fifty five minutes looking through the books.

But they were only going to spend an hour at the bookshop! She swears!

"Uhuh," Natsu said disbelievingly. "Right. Someone else can cover the bookshop, we're going to look around the market for clues."

"And fish!" Happy added.

Lucy grumbled at the hypocrisy that she wasn't allowed to look at books but Natsu and Happy were slowed to browse through the fish market for their mid-afternoon snack. However they did get a lead, a child admitted to Natsu (who has a knack with kids) that she saw someone take a cat off the streets. They asked for a description and she eagerly told them that the man was scary looking, long black hair like a girl, black clothes, black tattoo, and lots of studs on his face, "Like a dragon," she added helpfully.

"Huh," Natsu scratched his head. "That sounds like…."

"…Gajeel!" Levy finished his sentence, horrified.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

They didn't have to question Gajeel whether or not he had kidnapped the cats, because the moment he opened his front door, you could tell he had kidnapped the cats. He had one of them in his arms and you could hear the rest of them yowling in his apartment.

"IT WAS YOU!"

Gajeel blinked at Natsu. "What the hell are you blathering about, you fucking moron?" he snarled. The cat in his arms squirmed and yowled in a desperate attempt to escape. Instantly Gajeel's face softened and he shifted the cat in a more comfortable position and petted it gently. Levy's heart melted at the sight. She had never seen Gajeel look so serene before. "Can't you see I'm busy?" he snapped when he realised they were all watching him. "Bugger off!"

"Don't be so rude!" Levy chided him. "We've been asked to investigate a series of cat-nappings, and our witness described you as the perpetrator."

"Yeah," Gajeel said unbothered, "so?"

Levy's eye twitched at his callousness. "You can't kidnap cats!" she shrieked furiously.

"Why not?" Gajeel demanded sulkily. "I'm not hurting them, they're well taken care of here. Isn't that right, Mr Snuggles?"

"Mr Snuggles?!" Lucy and Natsu repeated.

"Okay," Levy took a deep breath, trying to keep her calm. "For starters that's creepy-"

"Is it creepy that Salamander has his blue cat, and the kid has her female kitty?" Gajeel interrupted her rudely. Her eye twitched again at that. "No, it is not. And it's not creepy that I have my cats. My army of awesome cats! I tell you what is creepy though. You're your pets Det and Jroy."

"Jet and Droy!" Levy corrected him. "And they're not my pets!" she added in a shrill voice.

"Oh really?" Gajeel said mockingly. "So the fact that they pant around you like love sick puppies, begging for scraps of food and attention, fighting one another like dogs over your affection, and I'm certain one of them purred when you patted them on the shoulder, means that they're not your pets?"

"Yes!" Levy shouted furiously. "Because they're my friends. They don't have to fight for my affection and they're not dogs, they're human beings. Treat them as such!"

"I will when they can be bothered to treat me as if I'm one."

"Fine!" Levy said huffily. "Now give the cats back!"

"Like hell I will!"

And thus started another gruelling argument in which Levy shrieked, screamed, and spat at Gajeel who insisted on being an arrogant, condescending, selfish, spoilt, arsehole throughout the argument. He insulted Jet and Droy, she insulted him in general, he claimed she will never understand him and he didn't want her to put her nose in his business, and she pointed out the flawed logic in his argument. They ended up with their faces, red with fury, mere millimetres away from one another as they screamed in one another's faces.

The good news is that Levy had him so distracted that he didn't notice the rest of Fairy Tail liberating the cats he had stolen through the window. And that really was saying something as Natsu was crap at being sneaky.

He did notice when Master slapped a town council court order for Gajeel to take therapy sessions….it didn't last long but that's a whole different story.