Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
The hellhound blearily slipped past the heavy curtains onto the balcony, its weathered and dry stone rough against his back as he leaned on the balustrade. The wind tangled his long black hair and carried only the shrill cheers of the town's children to his sensitive ears. The sun burst and flashed before it finally relented to the moon, while the stone creature hunched over the edge shook with its effort to come alive.
The brawny gargoyle shattered the rest of the stone stuck to his legs and feet, spreading his wings and carelessly sending rubble flying in all directions. A wide yawn tore from his throat, animalistic and strong. He stood up straight, flexing his wings twice more before he stepped down beside his long time friend.
"Have a nice nap, did ya?" Gajeel crossed his arms over his chest and smirked as the shadows of sleep still lingered in the creature's warm eyes.
"Always." He flicked his head in the direction of the velvet curtains leading into the manor. "Your fairy still asleep?"
The hellhound narrowed his eyes at the familiar glint illuminating the gargoyle's eye that wasn't covered by the ragged eyepatch. "Don't give me that look. Besides, she ain't even here, she's out running an errand with her elves."
"She leave you behind because Jet and Droy are a fair bit easier to keep track of?"
"Hardly, Lil'. I stayed behind to greet your ungrateful ass."
Pantherlily held a heavily clawed paw over his heart, drooping his wings and inclining his head. "I'm touched."
Gajeel rolled his eyes; his friend carried on like a cat companion rather than gargoyle. "Plannin' on goin' anywhere?"
"Meeting up with Happy and Carla, why?" He thoughtfully scratched at his white whiskers, too used to his friend's tells to pretend the hellhound was actually curious about a nightly prowl.
"Keep an eye out, will ya?"
"There trouble?" A corner of Pantherlily's scar appeared past the edge of his eye patch as his brow rose in surprise. As far as the big cat knew, there hadn't been any attacks or threats enclosing on Tail's territories.
Gajeel scrunched his brows, shaking his head. "Too soon to tell, but things've gotten quiet."
"Ah, understood. I'll see what I can find out." Pantherlily hopped back up onto the banister, his muscles itching to take off into the night. He looked back to Gajeel at the last second. "Want to come?"
"Nah, waiting on Levy."
The older creature's eyes crinkled with the strength of his smirk, jerking a thumb at the rich fabric at Gajeel's neck. "Who knew the fairy'd be able to tame and collar the wolf."
Lily pounced off the roof in the next second, Gajeel's angry splutters lost on the wind catching the gargoyle's wings. "It's a scarf and I'm the one that pierced the studs through the damn thing, not her!" He growled and huffed and bared his fangs to the pearly glint from Pantherlily's wingspan. "Next time you fall asleep, I'm tossin' yer ass off the scaffolding!"
"Bit early for howling at the moon, aye wolf?"
Gajeel whirled around to face the fairy that peeked her head out from behind the maroon curtain, sinister smirk curling up one side of her falsely dainty mouth. "For the last time, I. Am. A. Hell. Hound. There's a difference."
The girl snorted and indifferently waved her hand as she dramatically pushed the curtain aside to return inside, the inky spade at the end of her tail flicking simultaneously with the motion. "Right."
He darted forward, catching the curtain before it could fall back and latched onto her arm before she got too far. A growl was halfway up her throat in protest and his mouth opened to set the sprite straight as he spun her around, only to come face to face with one of her elves perched comfortably in the fabric of her headband. The tiny creature's insufferable and beady little eyes narrowed on the hellhound. Whatever Gajeel been about to say was replaced with his foreboding snicker.
"Tch, bad news, Levy. Looks like you've got lice."
The elf attempted to point a finger up at Gajeel in a threatening manner. "Watch your mouth, guard dog."
"Or what? You'll ask your flea cousins to plague me, ear and tail?"
"Knock it off, both of you." Levy jerked her arm from his slackened hold and slunk to the oversized lounge chair, plucking Jet from his resting spot and depositing him into the heinously colored pumpkin at the foot of the chair. "Your games grow sour."
"What's eatin' you now? Usually Halloween has you in better spirits." The hellhound stood before her, crossing his arms and irritatedly swishing his tail in erratic patterns, a habit he had that he knew drove her up the decaying buttresses.
Levy crossed her arms and glowered, her thin wings quaking with her fowl temper. "That's precisely my problem, it's Halloween."
The offending holiday was punctuated by a swift kick from her boot to the side of the plastic bucket, its brim overflowing with vibrant wrappers scattering to the floor. Jet popped over the side, leaning limply over the side and cradling his head as Droy continued to munch on the candy. The fairy gave her friends an embarrassed growl, "Sorry, guys."
Gajeel's eyes went wide, his teeth glinting with his mirth in the low light from the fireplace. "They didn't."
"Aye. The mortal even had the gall to tell me it was daring for someone of my age to be wearing such an outfit, but that my horns were 'exquisitely convincing'. He will think exquisitely convincing should I skewer him the next time he reaches forward." Levy straightened the mangled stitches across her torso and a sleeve that had slid to the crook of her elbow, all the while blatantly ignoring the shredded hem of her shorts.
The hellhound's eyes slit and a feral growl tore from deep within his chest, gloved claws threatening to tear the antique's fabric as he hunched over the arm and bowed to her face. "Did he touch you?"
In the 160 years they'd known each other, 'overprotective' had become too light a term to describe how Gajeel Redfox acted around her; the gnarled and twisted bones atop her skull were a subjective that always riled the real iron hellhound. He had been witness to her excruciating experience as the knots finally protruded and grew from her scalp, it had turned into months of hell for all of them. She was bedridden with headaches and nausea for weeks, while he was at a complete loss with the velvet ears of a hound, and Lily couldn't recall any of the pain as his own horns had grown in during infancy. Gajeel had been the one to carefully tangle and smooth his rough palms into her hair, rolling his knuckles over her scalp until she finally fell to the throes of sleep.
She forced the endearing softness to dissipate from her eyes, scowling at the memory of the mortal newcomer thinking he could pet her. "No, the fool seemed to finally pick up on elementary social cues and caught himself. Lucky for him, it would not have been a merciful death." Levy's eyes twinkled mischievously and her smirk returned, bringing a full laugh from her companion.
The image of her petulantly scowling in the oversized chair, arms crossed tight over her chest and her spaded tail undulating with the waves of her vexation, would not soon be forgotten.
Silence crept like fog into their manor, broken only by the crackling of firewood and the lonesome harvest wind beating against the balcony curtain. Levy crossed her arms, sinking lower into the chair and locking her amber gaze on the crumbling wood and bright flames.
"How long have we reigned over this territory as ours?" She slung her arm out in the direction of the old curtains billowing in the wind, autumn leaves blowing in to scratch against the stone floor.
Gajeel frowned and rose from his position hovering over her. He sighed and thought back, "73, 87, 91-"
"A century. A century we have eerily resided, while mysteriously coming and going to dispose of vile monsters, yet they praise us. Their weak hands are tossed to the sky in gratefulness, rather than fear. As if our missions are to fight for them. We're symbolized as heroes and friends, now. Those mortals treat us as neighbors, and even their ancestors were overly familiar."
"They leave us alone and don't travel the mountain to come to our door."
Her partner's attitude was always dismissively cold to the simple creatures that only lived a fifth of their lifetime, his indifference grated on ridiculous. He was an untamed hellhound and, of all the things in the world he truly couldn't stand, it's people that he's more lenient toward.
"Natsu's town fears him." She would easily get his hackles to raise and put an end to his indifferent shrugging.
His hard footfalls bounced around the room, shaking the high ceiling with his gait. A hard tug on a horn brought her tripping out of the chair and onto her feet, Gajeel's vexed countenance inches from hers. "I don't like what yer're insinuatin'."
"Then maybe you should do something about it." Levy raised her chin defiantly, her lips curling viciously around her teeth. She was close enough to feel the irritated growl that crawled from his stomach to rattle her ribcage and reverberate in her eardrums as it escaped his mouth. Her shadowed eyes glimmered with satisfaction, reaching up to seal her mouth over his.
The remainder of his anger tingled against her lips and clacked his serrated teeth against hers. One of her hands slipped into the folds of the scarf at his neck, rolling the metal studs between her fingertips. Her smooth knuckles knocked purposely against his jaw to angle his mouth better over hers. The fairy sneered into the kiss and harshly yanked at one of the clunky piercings lining his ear. Gajeel reared back with a menacing snarl, butting his forehead into hers, the other piercings on his brow branding into her own thin brows with his inhuman heat.
Levy cocked her head, unphased by the radiating danger in his bloodied irises and the dull prick of his claws at her hip. "That was for earlier."
He pressed his mouth hard over hers once more, then moving along her jaw. He hissed in her ear, "Salamander's town fears him as a fire hazard to their valley that barely sees a rainy season. Think before you speak, pixie."
A violent gagging noise snapped their attention in the direction of the plastic toy to catch Jet grossly push his tongue over his lip and loll his body over the edge lamely. "Completely disgusting. Levy, how could stand that mug? Rabies are contagious, you know."
Gajeel lifted his heavy boot, preparing to send the bucket rocketing into the nearest wall for the elf's insolence. Always the twisted peacekeeper, the fairy stopped her hellhound by holding up her hand. "Why don't you two go back to your own realm?"
Droy absently tossed the last rung of a candy corn into his mouth and happily gulped it down. "Can we take the candy with us?"
Levy rolled her eyes and smiled endearingly at the rounder elf. "Yes, it's all yours."
The elves scrambled over the edges, only stumbling for a moment to catch their footing. Droy pressed his back to the side of the pumpkin, hands wedged under the bottom, as Jet braced his own hands under the opposite side.
"Ready, Droy?"
"Ready, Jet!"
They heaved the bucket up over their heads, wavering and skittering around the floor to find the right balance. Gajeel snickered at the duo's attempts to lift more weight in candy than both of them combined; he figured handling the pumpkin alone would be a challenge for them. Lost in a new conversation, they paid no mind to farewells, their silhouettes fading into dust with just a wave of Levy's hand.
"Now, where were we?" She coyly leaned on his shoulder, dipping her face closer once more.
"You were mocking me."
"Ah, right." Levy stepped away and fell back into her chair, raising her legs and propping her feet up gracefully on the ottoman. "I met Lucy and Natsu in town."
"What?! Why didn't you tell me?" His tail twitched and thrashed with the raise of his voice.
"I wasn't previously aware they were coming. You would have missed Lily and started another one of your ridiculous brawls with Natsu in the town square if I had informed you. I doubt the mortals would think twice before running down our door because a belligerent hellhound and foolhardy dragon tore up their precious historical land marks." Levy casually shrugged her shoulders with her retort.
She stayed her gaze on the slowly dying fire, her eyes narrowing, then widening and narrowing once more. Her pointed nails thrummed against the worn arm of the chair in thought.
"They say anything?"
She gave him a curt nod and continued, "We've been summoned."
"Guessing it's not for the Halloween party the feline was workin' on convincin' Makarov to throw?"
"No, but- if you think about it- it has been too long since we took a mission."
"It has."
"The Master instructed them to tell us, and after that they're moving on to the crags to inform the Raijinshuu and Strauss siblings. We've been handed the job of traveling to the sea."
"We have to?"
"It could be worse than the siren and her marauder. Besides, we inform them and then leave straight for the guild. Juvia and Gray will have to depart for the islands in the darker waters."
Gajeel's tail swished and curled lazily, and Levy noted that he'd have to deal with the matted fur soon. Her eyes crinkled knowingly, as his frustration would be howled to the world, but it would solely be their halls that echoed his pitiful whimpers because he was too wild to properly care for the appendage. He'd been mindful to articulate a thousand and one times that he wasn't some shallow domesticate, and a thousand and one times she had had to watch him wince and cringe through every brushstroke.
The hellhound slipped his hands into the pockets of his trousers and flashed his sharp canine in the glow of the firelight, "Yeah, it could be worse. Like being mistaken for a trick-or-treater, I wager."
A/N: Belated Halloween! Originally rboz's idea and inspired by her art. We got to headcanoning the universe and thus was born the tale of the fae and hound from hell. My favorite headcanon was the idea of them waking up with their tails tangled together.
Be sure to check out the fanart on rboz's tumblr.