Kevin was somehow aware he should wake up, that it was time to stop sleeping. But the bed was just so damn comfortable. He snuggled into the sheets, sighing silently at the comfort. But then his rest was interrupted. Mavis had jumped into the air and landed all over his legs, startling him and making him jump off the bed.

"Mavis! What's wrong with you, girl?" he asked, quite pissed off. Mavis was unfazed, and instead the hint of devious smile leered at him.

"It's called payback, darling. You should have seen your face when I landed on your legs" she then started to laugh out loudly at him, rolling all over the bed while she did so. Kevin huffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, giving her the stink eye.

"Oh, yeah?" he challenged, grabbing the mattress from the bottom and flipping it with ease while Mavis still sat on it. She yelped when she felt the bed shift, and tuned into a bat just before she ended up below it. Turning into "human" form again, she grabbed one of the pillows and threw it at Kevin, who caught it and moved towards her, starting a pillow fight that would be brief but would have them making quite a ruckus. They collapsed on the over-turned mattress, still a laughing mess, but now somewhat exhausted.

"That was fun" Mavis stated the obvious, tossing her pillow on his stomach, still giggling every now and then.

"Yeah, but now we are sweaty. I call dibs on the shower first" Kevin said, getting up, picking up a fresh set of clothes he had left out before going to bed, and entering the bathroom before she could so much utter a peep, "guess you are on clean up detail, huh Mavis?"

"Oh, you'll pay for this!" she answered back, casually using her magic to pick up the mess easily, already planning her own comeback.

Count Dracula glided down the staircase, casually looking from side to side of the lobby as his guests went around their business. The Hotel was always a source of pride for him, and he would gladly take any compliments said to him about it. But tonight it wasn't the case. Everyone was giving their usual round of compliments about the state of the place, now that it had been modernized as best as possible, but he wasn't listening to most of it. His mind was on the plan he had concocted for getting rid of their "Johnathan" problem. The human had made himself hard to see the last couple of nights, but the Count could feel him planning something himself, and he was afraid of the possibility of those plans to be dangerous to him or, heaven forbid, his daughter. Oh, if that guy dared to hurt Mavis, it would be the last thing he would while alive. He would make sure of that.

A devilish smile had formed in his face, and it was frankly disturbing to those around him.

"Drac, I still think this is a bad idea. Just think about this man! You would be practically declaring war on humans if you run Johnny out of this place" Frank begged to him, still highly doubtful and scared of what the vampire Lord had in store.

"You are over-exaggerating, Frank. Running him out of here won't do. He'll be leaving on his own, I promise that. And Frank, if you tell him anything, or if you warn him, I will have a… 'chat' with you, and you know what happens in those. Keep it to yourself, Frank, I mean it"

Mavis was excited, something that was now par-of-the-course for Kevin and he found extremely endearing, borderline cute. The girl was rushing discreetly all over the place, at human speed so they weren't recognized right off the bat (pun intended). She also tried not to gawk or smile too widely, so no one could see her fangs, although everyone was so into their thing that they wouldn't really notice, anyways.

"How's this place called, again?" she asked, looking at the posters lined on the wall she was staring at.

"This is called a cinema, Mavy. Here's where people watch movies… you do know about movies, right?" he asked, just half-joking. He was really surprised (and kind of worried) that she didn't appear to have any knowledge about what average people would do in their off time. What had that moron "Johnathan" been doing all this time? Rhetoric question, she had already told him too many times.

"Are they like those slides dad used to show back at the hotel? In the projector and all that?"

"Well… sort off. Movies have moving characters, and sound, and they usually tell a story. I'm sure you must have seen even small parts of one" he suggested, trying to work up her memory.

"I don't think… oh, no, wait, yeah! I think I saw one the first time I rode one of those 'plane' things" she answered, still going through the potters lined along the wall.

"Well, you are about to see another one right now. Come on, it's more fun inside, when you are actually watching the movie" he said, grabbing her lightly by the hand. While she pretended normalcy, she could feel the excitement building up inside her. The simple gesture of him grabbing her hand was something special for her. It had been years ago, too, but her stupid brain had ignored the feeling and let him go of her. And it hadn't worked well for either of them. But now? She was going to pay close attention to that felling, because that was how a real Zing should fell. She knew it, deep inside her.

"You are gonna love this, trust me" Kevin broke her daze, handing her a decently-sized pop-corn bucket, holding one of his own and two big disposable cups full of something that smelled extremely sugary.

"What's this?" she asked, looking at the yellowish snack in her hands, the smell of salt and butter making her stomach grumble a bit. She had grown a recent appetite for human food, so every time she was presented with a new one she would crave for eating it, and this was no exception. At first she started slowly, one by one, but this "popcorn" thingy was good enough as a snack.

"Woah, easy there! They have to last you the whole movie, Mavis" he half-laughed, looking as the girl made a flustered sound and went through her popcorn slower.

Almost two hours later, they both emerged from the projection room, Mavis with a couple of fresh tears still lingering in her eyes and Kevin serving as her support.

"It really got to you, didn't it?" he asked, just slightly concerned about her. Mavis had started crying silently during the movie, cuddling closer to him when the protagonist had fallen ill in the movie, and he could swear she had "awwww"-ed in the cutest way possible when the guy's girlfriend had decided to stay by his side during his sickness. And, like many of the other women in the place, she had cried profusely when they guy ultimately died, in one of the most dramatically over-the-top ways Kevin had seen in a while. As usual, he just rolled his eyes at the movie's goofiness, instead deciding to help Mavis get over her cinematographic heartbreak.

"Yeah. He didn't deserve what happened to him! They loved each other! They should have been able to live their lives together, like they wanted!" Mavis really felt upset about the story she had just seen, having not seen anything like it before.

"I know, but don't feel too bad about it, it's just a story, Mavis, it wasn't real"

It seemed to him like she was somewhat relieved to hear this, but she snuggled closer and remained silent while he threw away the garbage and left the tray outside the projection room. She remained silent all the way out into the mall, where at some point Kevin stopped and looked down at her.

"What's wrong, Mavis? Did it get to you that bad, little bat?"

Mavis smiled just for a second at the nickname, but there was still some sadness in her eyes.

"It's just… I don't…" she started, but arranged her ideas quickly enough, "you wouldn't do that to me, would you? I just… you wouldn't leave me like that, right?" she almost begged silently. For some reason, the movie had given her the idea that it could happen to them, despite what her own knowledge would tell to her.

"Mavis, I wouldn't dream of it. Besides. I really can't get that sick at all, you know?" he told her.

Mavis tried to laugh, but she was distressed enough to not be able to. Kevin embraced her then and there, among throngs of people who couldn't have cared less about them, feeling her sob lightly against his chest.

"I wouldn't ever leave you, my little bat. Not when I've been waiting for years to get here, you know? I missed you so much, and leaving you right now would be the worst pain of my immortal life. If there is one thing I can promise you for sure, is that I will be by your side for as long as you allow me to. Do you believe me?"

The girl never looked up from the embrace, instead she just nodded profusely while he kept her close to him. Overtime, she stopped sniffling and composed herself as best as she could. He helped a bit, wiping some tears off her cheeks with his thumbs, and both decided to go somewhere where they could be on their own. They were strolling through the Dark Forest in no time, while people went about their business, like taking their dogs out for a stroll or out for a night jog. The few that actually looked their way (mostly women) silently "aww"-ed at their sight, but they were few and far between. Ignoring this, Kevin could just smile and think that life would never feel this good again.

So that's the clue, huh?

The redheaded youngster smiled to himself, feeling smug about his plan. He was sure he could sway Mavis' affections towards him, but he would get rid of that "Horseman" pest.

So he only needed to find a powerful sorceress to defeat the guy. It didn't sound that difficult, he would probably be able to find one if he looked around the hotel. Discreetly, of course, lest the Count try to stop him. He was sure the older vampire would try his best to stop what he was planning, so he had to do this on the down-low.

No sweat.

He set out to start his plan as soon as possible, skulking around the lobby discreetly. He saw the usual monsters strolling around: gill-men, a giant freaky spider, big foot, witch maids, zombies… run of the mill stuff, except for an older, human-looking subject sitting on his own in one of the place's seats. Johnathan observed him for full twenty minutes, noticing nothing of use to him.

But that didn't mean the guy couldn't be useful.

After two hours (during which he only broke his vigil to go to the bathroom a couple of times) the stranger rose to leave, with a redheaded young man in tow far behind. At points, the stranger seemed to disappear and then suddenly reappear again, which started to lend to the realization that maybe he was a lot more than met the eye.

"So, tell me again, how does this work, Drac?" Garrett asked the vampire, as he materialized in the library.

"That twerp is surely going to ask for your help, no doubt thanks to the research he's been doing in this… inter-webs the human created…"

"Internet, Drac…"

"Never mind that! You'll pretend to help him as you see fit. It won't work anyway, he's not his grandfather. We'll pretend that it worked and that Kevin is gone, and then we'll make him fear hell on earth. See who's got the last laugh…"

"I'm not liking this plan by a long shot" the sorcerer mused, scratching his graying hair at the temples.

"It's for Mavis' safety and happiness. As part of her family, you should hope this goes through"

"Fine, I'll do it, I just won't accept any kind of blame if this goes sideways" the magical being answered back, changing the topic next, "how's baby Mavis, by the way? With all this evil planning I never got around to asking"

"It's not evil planning" the Count sulked a bit, "she's fine, or at least she was before this whole thing blew on our face. She's found someone who actually cares for her, and that's what I'm trying to protect here" his voice started to fade in intensity by the second sentence.

"I'm glad to hear those news. Do you think she'll remember her uncle Garrett?" the sorcerer smiled at remembering a cute toddler Mavis, crawling all over the walls and making life harder for the old man. He hadn't been around for some decades, so the girl might just as well not remember him very well.

"It's been long, but she's got a good memory, so she probable will. So?"

"Fine, the kid is trying to tail me, might as well lure him. You'll owe me big time." Garrett warned, turning into mist and leaving the place.

"Whatever" Dracula growled, leaving the place himself.

After a short period of playing cat and mouse, Johnathan was finally able to locate the number of the stranger's room. It was now clear that he guy would be of use to him, but he still wasn't sure how he could coax such a person to help him. Money? Did this guy need any of that? He would have to interact with humans to make anything good out of it… Gold? Any other thing of worth? He had no gold, and couldn't think of anything that was worth to a monster.

So there was the first problem of his plan to solve.

One week later

It had been one week of fun, exploration, and… well… yeah, romance, so sue them. Nothing dirty, and certainly not anything intimate. It was all quite innocent: some looks here and there, cute monikers, a few hugs, a bit of teasing, and the cherry on the cake: one kiss.

It had been the night before, while they had started packing the less-useful stuff they had brought with them. Mavis had pointed out that Kevin had bought a lot of stuff and his bag was too big. He had just shrugged it off, and resumed packing, telling her to do her own pack and they would sort any problems later. The girl had agreed, shaking her head sideways and, in an act of reflex, connecting her lips with Kevin's. It was brief, and broken as soon as they both realized, in a bit of shock, what had just happened. In the end, they had continued with their packing, albeit among an awkward silence that made each other blush anytime they remembered the moment. Even almost 24 hours later, they wouldn't say a word about what had happened, instead pretending like it hadn't even happened.

"Uh, have you seen my toothbrush?" she shyly called from the door of the bathroom.

"Um, not really… wait, didn't you leave it at the restaurant yesterday?" he inquired with a puzzled look, remembering how, in a weird attack of hygiene-obsessiveness, she had taken her oral-hygiene stuff with her, but she had accidentally lapsed out of it and forgot to bring it back with her. Apparently, she had lapsed out of it again.

"Crap. Dad's gonna lose it…"

"Are you alright? Never heard of a vampire forgetting or losing stuff, it's kind of freaky, you know?"

"Are you calling me a freak?" she snapped back, seriously, unlike she had done in the last week.

"What? No! Mavis, what's wrong? I can't recognize you right now… seriously? What's happening?"

"I'm… sorry. It's this 'going back' thing. I don't want to. I miss Dad a little bit, but… he is still there, and he'll be looking to make our lives hell. After a week of being so happy… I don't want to be around him anymore. Do we really have to go?" she asked pleadingly, as if willing to change his mind.

"Believe me, I don't really look forward to seeing that smug bastard but" he swept one of her bangs behind her ear, "your dad has been planning something to get rid of him. Wouldn't you like to make pay for what he did to you?"

"NO! I want him gone. I want him so far away that he can't do you any harm. I just… want to be able to be with you, without looking behind my shoulder to check if he's not stalking us, or without any fear of him trying to hurt you. Is that too much to ask? Can't I just stop living in fear of him?" she was distressed, and tears of rage, impotence, and some sadness began to well up on her eyes, but she made a remarkable effort to keep them there.

"No, you deserve to live in piece, with whoever you want to. Which is why it's important for us to listen to your dad's plan, it might be the way for you to get just that. We'll lay low in the castle, as if we hadn't yet come back, and then we'll take care of the problem. Trust me, ok?"

Mavis smiled sheepishly and assented, surprising him by repeating the kiss event.

"You earned that one" she added, as if she thought it necessary.

"Don't tell your dad just yet, he's just warming up to the idea"

"Wimp"

UPDATE!

Been too long, but well, here it is. As usual, if you like it or have constructive criticism to give leave a Review, I appreciate them, and see you next update.