A/N: The reviews are totally amazing. Thank you so much, guys! It really inspires me to work harder :DDD

Closer—thanks to a darn cat

"A-are y-you s-sure t-t-this is t-the place?"

Natsu nearly lets out an unmanly shriek (read: nearly) when a handful of snow suddenly (and forcefully) touches the back of his head. Shivering, he turns around surprised and narrows his eyes when the sight of various children playing with snow comes into sight.

"D-do you w-want t-to d-die?!"

Despite his shaking voice, the kids were terrified as hell and one by one, scrambled to each of their houses, yelling for their parents' name. Huffing, Natsu folds his arms and turns to Lucy with a smug smirk, feeling satisfied.

Lucy doesn't look impressed however, pressing her lips into a firm, thin line, but stays silent and merely flashes him a disinterested glance before continuing to float.

"That's weird," she mumbles to herself, brown orbs darting around the place. "He's gone."

The pink haired latter momentarily stops judging the area to flash Lucy a curious look. "Sorry, who's gone?" He asks, irritated. Honestly, he would much rather sleep the whole weekend with a comfy blanket and homemade hot chocolate than do underground missions with a cupid-wannabe. This is so not his style at all.

"Gajeel. The one I'm supposed to help."

If not for his favorite scaled-scarf covering his face, Natsu would've surely choked by now. "E-excuse me?" He asks, blinking. "Gajeel? As in, Gajeel Redfox? That delinquent who practically eats metal?" Seriously, what is up with Lucy and her friends?! First is Gray, then this Romeo kid, and now it's the most dangerous kid in school! Great, just fucking, great!

"W-wait. Since when did you help Gajeel with his love life?"

Lucy turns to him, a blissful grin gracing her lips as fond memories play back again. "My best friend," she breathes, "She likes Gajeel, and I promised her that I'd get them together. I almost remember her turning red and continuously denying about it," she giggles, "but I saw her sneaking a love letter in his bag. Sadly, the bag was stolen and Gajeel couldn't read it in the end."

'Your friend has no taste in men.' Natsu thinks, frowning. "How many friends have you promised to help, exactly? And why does most, if not all, always involve romance?"

The blonde ghost gives him a sheepish grin, only shrugging.

XXX

Natsu and Lucy made their way back to the Dragneel manor minutes later, devastated (well, more like Lucy only) that they couldn't find Gajeel. The sky was already turning dark, the sun about to set, and it looks like the weather isn't planning to get any hotter, either. Natsu almost shivers when a piece of snowflake lands at the back of his neck. Out of instinct, he double wraps his scarf.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asks, turning to him. It didn't really surprise her that Natsu would do stupid things sometimes. Just…not that quite often. "Oh! Are you a ninja?!"

"Shut up. I'm cold." He narrows his eyes. Come to think of it, do ghosts ever get cold?

"Oh, well you can have my coat then-"

The sound of a cat meowing echoed in the empty streets. It wasn't really creepy except for the fact that there's practically no car right now, and silence was the perfect word to describe the gloomy neighborhood. Lucy, unknowingly, jumps in fright and instinctively holds Natsu's hand, making the latter blush in surprise.

'They're surprisingly…warm.' He thinks to himself.

Another cry comes out, and Lucy, this time, shrieks in terror, holding Natsu's hand tighter. The pink haired lad snorts, sending the ghost an amused look, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, Lucy already beat him to it.

"I-I'm not scared, okay? D-definitely not!"

Cute, he thought. "I wasn't saying anything."

"B-but you were looking at me and I know that-"

The third cry was the trigger for Lucy to scream and hide behind Natsu's back, hugging him. The lad barely became conscious of his surrounding the moment the blonde ghost began shaking, but if not for Lucy pointing something in front of him, he would've died of a heart attack about how close their faces were, merely inches apart.

Indeed, it was a cat—a white four-legged feline standing where Lucy was, just a moment ago.

It only blinked at the both of them with innocent eyes. But Lucy knew better. Well it won't trick her; she knew what would happen. She knows how evil these creatures are. Seriously, there's a reason why she prefers dogs and these…these monsters happen to be what she hates!

Wrapping her arms around Natsu's neck, the ghost lets out a whimper of 'make it go away'.

Ignoring the girl, Natsu just steps aside. Despite expecting the ghost to be angry at him, Lucy, instead, points at the cat and directs an infinite number of curses, hiding behind Natsu's back again.

She couldn't understand why Natsu was so calm, why he even dared to kneel down and pat the monster. Evilness came from their eyes. Couldn't he see it?

Thousands of thoughts jumbled around Lucy's head—from how she was so going to kill that cat for flirting with Natsu and how on earth do these monsters exist and what did she do to deserve such treatment. Though the cat merely purrs at Natsu and the lad beckons Lucy to come closer with a grin.

"Come on. Touch it."

"NO! What if-what if it kills me?!"

'You've got be kidding me.' Rolling his eyes, Natsu grabs the girl's hands and drags her closer to the cat, only to have Lucy inching away. "Lucy."

"Nat-chan."

Natsu tried to stifle his laughter when Lucy began to do a shooing motion to the cat. The moment it took a step forward though, Lucy began to fly somewhere else, screaming.

Jesus, good thing no one could hear it.

'But isn't it kind of weird,' he thought. 'The cat could see Lucy…'

XXX

About a good ten minutes later, Lucy began floating back with a terrified expression, mumbling apologies and excuses about the cat and how scared she was and that she shouldn't have left Natsu all alone since he doesn't know this place. Seriously, it was just ranting stuff until she was out of breath.

Natsu waves a dismissive hand later, indicating that it was alright.

"R-really?"

"Yeah." He nods. "You know why?"

Lucy comes closer with a grin, "Why?"

Bingo.

As if on cue, the cat appears in Natsu's arms again, held right in front of Lucy's face.

"BECAUSE SHE MISSED YOUUUUUUUU~"

A loud cry of terror echoed throughout the streets.

Really. It was good thing no one could hear it.