Well you're all back for more, huh? Hopefully this story is good enough for you all to use up your time reading. 8)

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer is applied here

I've Been Replaced?

It was another day in the big house and Haru was walking around the hallways making some rounds to make sure that the animals weren't going too crazy or anything.

She was watching as the animals were all running about playing with each other.

Haru was feeling that everything was okay when she heard a small whimper behind the couch.

Haru craned her neck to see a light orange mane that belonged to Natsu shivering in the corner of the room behind the couch.

Natsu seemed like he was too scared to play with the animals and was also scared of the humans as well.

Haru knelt next to the couch and she looked down at the poor little lion cub. "Natsu? You okay sweety?" Haru questioned him.

"Gao!" Natsu inched away from her, rolling his body in a defensive curl and he shivered more.

"Now Natsu, I won't hurt you. Come now, if you want to play with someone, I will play with you. You mustn't be so shy and scared that you don't play with any of the other animals. It's too lonely." Haru said with a small frown feeling bad for the poor lion cub.

The Lion cub stared at her uneasily, unsure of what to do with this female human in front of her. His master seemed to be rather uneasy around her most of the time. Was she a scary person? He got along well with the other female human, was she less scary?

The lion cub wasn't willing to take any 'drastic chances' just yet. He was going to wait before he even believed her words.

"Come here Natsu, I'll play with you so you won't be so shy. Haru can love you just as much as Tsuna-san does."

Love? This female human loved his master? Why would the master be so uneasy around her then? Is love wrong?

It couldn't be wrong, now could it?

Natsu decided to be brave and he slowly moved one paw in front of the other one edging himself closer to her slowly.

Haru's gaze softened some and she reached her arms to pick him up and she brought him to her chest, holding onto him comfortably.

Natsu struggled in her arms until Haru's hand softly petted his mane. Natsu stopped struggling and he relaxed in her arms purring a little bit. Who knew that lion cubs could purr? Haru was sure that they couldn't but who heard of animals coming out from boxes anyways? It could happen.

Natsu rubbed against Haru cheek happily, licking the bottom of her chin.

This… was comfortable. It was nice.

She was warm, she was kind, and it was comforting to be around her. She wasn't scary at all! She didn't make him feel uneasy. His master… was odd for being so uneasy around her.

Haru giggled and she set him down on her lap so he could curl up onto her lap and look up at him with those cute eyes of his.

"Gao~" Natsu smiled with a lovable grin on his face.

Haru giggled and she pulled out a ball from her pocket. She learned that if she wanted some time for herself, she'd have to start carrying some animal toys with her to distract the animals with.

She held the red ball in front of Natu's face and waved it back and forth noticing that his eyes were following the movements of the ball carefully.

Haru tossed the ball across the room with a flick of her wrist and Natsu ran after the ball, jumping onto it rolling across the floor as he lost his stable footing on the ground.

Natsu landed with the ball underneath him and he sunk his teeth into the ball and he ran over to Haru dropping it into her hand.

"Gao gao!"

This was pretty fun! Tsuna would often play with Natsu as well and for as long as he wanted, and she was doing the same! Natsu liked her!

Haru kept throwing the ball for Natsu until the little lion cub lay on his stomach panting tiredly.

"It looks like it's time for one of those lengthy lion naps. Come here Natsu, you can take a nap with Haru then." Haru suggested holding out her hands for him to run into.

Natsu's head rose up from the ground to see her inviting arms, pushing himself off the ground onto his feet, he ran into Haru's arms.

Haru leaned against the couch and she petted him slowly and gently trying to be as soothing as she could to him.

Her eyes were feeling heavier with every blink she took, barely hanging on until she felt Natu's soft, slow breathing ending with a small purr.

With Natsu finally going to sleep, Haru let herself fall into slumber as well the two of them sleeping together with each other's company.

The two slept together letting t he time just pass them by without much of a care.

Natu was curled up in Haru's arms sleeping, taking in the sounds around in as he slept.

A few footsteps were heard hitting the ground.

Natsu's ears twitched as he heard the clumsy footsteps that had an irregular stepping rhythm that tripped over various things in the room including themselves.

These footsteps seemed…so… familiar… like they belonged to someone he cared for, but whose footsteps were they again?

Natsu couldn't place his paw on it, snuggling up to Haru pushing the owner of the footsteps out of his mind.

The footsteps were getting louder though, and they even stopped right in front of them.

Natsu cracked open an eye warily to see a familiar face, Tsunayoshi Sawada's face to be exact.

Natsu lifted up his head to smile up at Tsuna happily, and then he dropped his head back down to continue laying in her comfortable hold.

Now this was odd… Natsu would always come running up to Tsuna the first chance he got no matter what.

Maybe his vision was blurry from his sleepiness?

"Natsu, what's wrong? It's me." Tsuna questioned his box animal trying to get the little lion's attention.

He waved his arms around but to no avail not receiving any attention from the lion. Natsu continued to snuggle up to Haru comfortingly his ear twitching happily. Haru was just so soundly asleep that Tsuna didn't have the heart to try waking her up from her blissful sleep.

Caring for all of these animals must be hard and she deserved her sleep.

"Tsuna, it looks like he likes Haru. He's warmed up to her." Lal Mirch said walking up into the scene.

"I wonder what caused that to happen." Tsuna wondered a bit confused over how Natsu was very attached to Haru right now when Natsu was always so attached to himself. Sometimes Natsu would even climb onto him and dig his claws into his skin so they couldn't be separated so easily.

"Who knows, now stop staring at a woman sleeping, you creep." Lal Mirch insulted im.

"W-what? I'm no creep!" Tsuna defended himself nervously, but he said it loud enough to jerk both Haru and Natsu awake again.

Haru jolted awake almost knocking Natsu off of her and she frantically looked around, half asleep still.

"W-what? Is there a fire-desu? Did the animals get into another fight? Are they hungry? Did someone get hurt?" She questioned, showing the worries that she always had to worry about when caring for all the animals.

Tsuna waved his arms around wildly.

"AH! Sorry! I didn't mean to wake you!" Tsuna apologized to her. "You… can just go back to sleep Haru. You've been doing a great job." Tsuna said with a smile.

Haru smiled tiredly at him and she yawned a bit. Natsu already went back to sleep, curled up in her lap.

Haru's eyes slowly blinked closed and Haru drifted back into slumber. Tsuna watched her as she was lulling back into sleep.

"Thank you, Haru has been working hard-desu. If you… don't mind then… Haru will be … sleep…ing… now…" Haru whispered quietly.

She was so peaceful and she had a look of elegance about her as she slept? Haru was surely a strong girl watching over all of these animals with just herself and Lal Mirch. Haru was watching them all without complaining much.

She still found the energy to smile and bear through the hardships she placed onto herself.

Haru was so caring and was a beautiful girl inside and out. This was probably what drew Natsu close to her.

"Good night Haru." Tsuna smiled as he watched her sleep.

"Creep." Lal Mirch huffed as she hopped out of the room much to Tsuna's dismay.

Heh, poor Tsuna. LOVE Lal Mirch. LOL yesss go verbally abuse Tsuna. XD

Has anyone wondered why I always seem to update "Pet Sitting Woes" and "White Feathers, Friend or Foe?" together? Do you also wonder why I'm being somewhat quicker about updating these two than the other stories?

Do you recall that one time when I had updated 7 things at the same time? Well I actually had 3 chapters of both of those stories in advance so when I'm busy with college I'd update then whenever I felt like it. So this is the last of the chapters that are already finished in advance. I started on chapter 4 on both of the stories but am not close enough to even say I'm halfway there. You will actually have to wait a while for these both of these stories to be updated from now on.

I try to work on every single story at a random stories at random times, so I don't work on one story only and then work on another one. This is a lot quicker for me updating-wise.

Why am I telling you all this? I dunno, I feel proud of how I cheated pretty much. I did so much over the summer. I love summer time. =w=

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS!

Before I forget:

I HAVE A CONTEST! CHECK MY FORUM (link found in my profile) IF YOU WANT TO READ ON THE DETAILS! I HOPE TO SEE PEOPLE JOINING IN ON THE CONTEST! LET'S SPREAD THE HARU LOVE SHALL WE?

Until next time!

- Neospice12