Notes

I'd like to thank all my reviewers and any who've been reading quietly. You guys are all awesome! This is a sort of epilogue of sorts. Not very long. Maybe a little sweeter than I'd originally intended. You know those moments. Big lofty plans about murder and sex and death and all that jazz, and then the characters just decide to be cute little shits. Then bam. Plans of a big finale, totally ruined.

Anyway, Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh! And make sure to cover your mirrors tomorrow. You never quite know who's looking back at you on Halloween.

As the night dragged on, more and more of the Levy McGarden that they all knew and loved started making an appearance. Whatever doubt that Lily had had about things returning to normal was evaporating like early morning dew. It would all go back to the way it was if they held out till the morning. Unfortunately, for them the parts that were surfacing were quickly being used against them. Levy was a highly intelligent mage with a very broad spectrum of skills to draw from. Magic wasn't even close to being her most versatile weapon.

"These ropes are burning really badly, please, even just loosen them, Lily?" She begged.

Her brown eyes blinked back tears and Lily found himself jerked back by his tail about two foot from her, her entire body throwing itself forward in the chair a moment later, her teeth snapping shut, a laugh dying on her lips before it gave way to a frustrated scream.

"No going near vampire Levy, cat!" Gajeel was still sitting crossed legged on the floor in front of her. His chin propped up on a closed fist his other hand had shot out and caught a hold of the Exceed as he'd drifted passed him.

Lily moved back ashamed that he'd almost fallen for it yet again. He wasn't normally this idiotically trusting. He figured it must be the spell. Then again. Vampire Levy was getting very good at her Human Levy routine.

"Did we find anything good in the books from the library, Lily?" The woman addressed the Exceed as though the previous hours of screaming, and begging and threats had never happened. As though she didn't just try to eat him thirty seconds ago. Brown eyes bright and her normal easy going smile. Even knowing her as well as he did Lily could forgive himself for mistaking this as the real Levy McGarden. But as he looked closer he could see her feet straining in the bonds fixing them to the front legs of the chair, the tightness to the muscles in her shoulders. The readiness to her posture. The problem was that he wanted her to be back so badly he was deluding himself with what he wanted to see. He really wanted to believe the lie, but that didn't mean that there wasn't some truth in there. Morning was breaking and the truth was that she was getting desperate.

"You can give up now, half-pint," Gajeel grumbled. "I'm not going to let him get close enough to you to do anything. So quit it," He seemed resigned.

"But it's not him I really want, is it?" She purred to Gajeel. Tactics changing. "I've wanted you, every day since the trials."

Lily heard Gajeel suck in a slow breath between clenched teeth. Already the fangs had started to vanish and the red had retaken his eyes. Though, like Levy, the elements of foreign personality still lingered but to the Exceeds ever growing opinion of the man, he was keeping it together. Mostly.

"Listen up woman, I don't want you. I want my shorty. So yeah, I wasn't my self and you were fun ...but fun's over,"

She sneered at him. "You're lying. I can tell you still want me, I'm almost exactly like her. How could you not?" Her voice took on a condescending tone.

Gajeel sprang from his position on the floor and brought his face close to hers and the vampire recoiled.

"No, I want her. Not a lookalike. Not an imitation. Not an almost anything. I want her. If you aren't her, you aren't anything."

A beam of sunlight spilled in through the window as two small hands cupped Gajeels cheeks and Levy's lips brushed his. There was a singular moment of panic before the dragon slayer determined that this was the real Levy. Not some trick. Not a daydream. She was real and solid and warm...and she sort of stank.

Gajeel sat back on the balls of his feet to examine her.

"I think you need a shower, short stuff," He waved a hand in front of his nose.

Levy lunged from the chair and knocked him to the ground. Lily yelled but Gajeel only laughed as the woman sat on his midsection as she was prone to do when she needed him to take something seriously. She always joked saying she could never believe he took anything she said in earnest looking down at her from that height.

"I've spent three whole days a vampire and that's the first thing you say to me, you, you jackass!" She pounded a small, Human fist off the terse muscles on his abdomen and pointed a finger in his face. "She came literally three seconds away from ripping your heart out of your chest just now. Of course she just got you angry to get you closer. Of course she'd broken a few fingers to slip out of the ropes. You...ummmphf..."

Gajeel pulled her down to his chest and smothered her lips with his own, wrapping his arms across her back and holding her close. She groaned into the embrace returning the kiss eagerly.

Lily let out the breath he was holding. He was officially done with this week.

"I trust you know the way back. I'll see you at home. Need to buy some new knives..." He mumbled as he disappeared out through the doorway.

When he'd left Levy settled down against the dragon slayer's chest and Gajeel couldn't think of a single thing that had ever sounded better than the steady thump of her heartbeat. He smiled.

"You know this farmhouse has a pretty nice bathroom? I was just suggesting maybe the both of us get cleaned up? There might even be some Rune Knight gear hiding around that we can change into afterward," Gajeel was grinning as he spoke quietly to her as though someone might overhear them.

Teeth nipped sharply at Gajeel's earlobe and Levy's voice purred in his ear with the same tone as her undead counterpart. "I hear the bedroom is pretty nice as well,"

He rolled her onto her back and looked her in the eye, making sure there was no foul magic at play this time. Levy grinned at him, regular teeth chewing on her bottom lip as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"You know, we don't need some magic book if that's the kind of thing you're into, Gajeel," She smirked.

Gajeel was stunned into silence for about ten seconds where he blushed a dark crimson before he quickly climbed to his feet and pulled Levy from the floor into his arms in a single movement. She shrieked with laughter as carried her, stumbling toward the bathroom, kicking his boots off along the way.