HAAAAPPY HALLOWEEN! Man, we are really peppering you guys with fic updates one after the other, aren't we? Sovereign is finished up and Wild Aces should be up sometime tomorrow, but here is our latest offering. Samhain in honor of HALLOWEEN! It is 12 chapters long, not including the epilogue. Lucky 13!

This fic is dedicated to phoenix-before-the-flame! We got her for the Halloween Fic exchange. It was supposed to be a oneshot, but well you guys know us. Kytrin and I are broken when it comes to oneshots. It got away from us.

A little.

ENJOY!

CHAPTER 1

All Hallow's Eve

the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed

Lucy's heart pounded in time with the pulsing music below, and she wondered for the thousandth time just what she was doing.

It had started out as an ordinary Halloween party. Levy had come over early to help with the decorations and the last of the setup. Everything tended to go smoothly with her help, oddly so at times, so Lucy was lucky to have her. The two had laughed and giggled and generally had a great time before splitting up to get their costumes on. And Lucy had actually been in a good enough mood to hum while she'd transformed herself from quiet writer into sassy witch queen.

It was after that things had gone downhill.

The party had started out fine. Everyone had shown up in costume and everyone had been having fun as the food and drink flowed the way only Lucy's budget would allow.

Then her ex had crashed the party, and all hell had broken loose. Lucy had been considerably less than pleased to see him so soon after their breakup, and he'd been upset that he was one of her friends but she hadn't invited him. The invitation had been open, but still she had been hoping for a little more time apart before they saw one another again. Gray was by no means a bad guy, but he could sometimes be a hard headed idiot...

The disagreement had turned into an argument, fueled by perhaps too much alcohol, that had resulted in harsh words and tears in the bathroom before Levy had found her.

Though how that had translated to being up in her attic staring at the most ridiculous excuse for a summoning circle imaginable Lucy still wasn't sure.

She was even more confused by the creature, person, sitting in the middle of it.

"I... what?" She gawked, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say.

She scrambled for her flashlight and hastily flicked it on, swinging it directly onto a face that was all sharp smiles and wicked humor. A face that was half buried under a mop of spiky pink hair, and promised all kinds of trouble.

The owner, somehow, widened his smile and flopped back into a more comfortable position, ignoring the candy corn that made up most of his summoning circle, "You called?"

He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the beam of light she was shining directly in his face, and scooped a handful of the candy corn to drop in his mouth. The creature took a second to gag before spewing out the candy, clearly not favoring its unique flavor.

"Uhm, no?" Lucy cringed, taking a step back from the man's spew, "Are you one of Levy's friends? This is some sort of joke isn't it?"

"Levy?" The man raised an eyebrow, "I don't know any Levy's. I'm a demon, you're the one who summoned me ain't ya?"

He gestured towards the circle filled with bat-shaped glitter and pieces of candy corn, "Even if this is a damned embarrassment of a summoning circle."

He eyed the drink in Lucy's hand before standing up and swiping it from her, "That's better! At least give me something to wash out the taste of that sugared candle wax you wanted me to eat. You humans call that candy? Disgusting."

Lucy crinkled her nose, thinking this joke had gone on for far too long, "You really expect me to believe you're some kind of demon? I can't believe I burned some of my special candles for this, they're expensive."

"Hey!" the man exclaimed, running back around Lucy from where she was turning to head back down to the party, "I'm 100% a bonafide demon! You're the witch who summoned me!"

He froze, nose twitching as he seemed to take stock of things, listening to the party downstairs, the cheap booze in his hand, the candy, the bat-shaped confetti, and the outrageous witch-costume his summoner was wearing.

"Oh no. Is it fucking Halloween?," the 'demon' deadpanned, throwing his hand up and causing the beer to hit the ceiling, "Gajeel is never going to let me hear the end of this!"

"Uh, excuse me" Lucy blinked, now quite sure she had no idea what was going on, "Of course it's Halloween, where have you been-"

The man cut her off right there, his hand balled up into a fist a foot away from her face. It wasn't the fist that was alarming, but the fact that his hand was on fire that cut her off short.

"-Hell." He finished for her.

"-oh, Hell. Right," Lucy said somewhat faintly.

The demon held the flame for a few more moment before snorting a laugh at her expression, "Not that hell." He snickered, "You humans got that all wrong you know. But yeah... hell. Except now I'm here, and you summoned me missy."

His smirk darkened into something predatory that had Lucy's heart jumping in her chest, and he prowled over to her, "So..." He purred, "What is it you want?"

Lucy swallowed a little reflexively, absently noting how dry her mouth was, "Uh... I wasn't... I mean... I didn't really think it would work? So I don't want anything?"

It was the demon's turn to stop and gawk, "Wait... what?" He asked in disbelief, "You summoned me without intending to make a deal?"

Lucy nodded and he frowned sharply. His thoughts seemed to take up the entire room but he brought voice to none of them. Instead his arms crossed in a way that would've been sulky had her entire focus not been on the fact she'd actually summoned a real demon into her house.

He narrowed his eyes at her and an instant later he was far too close for comfort as he studied her intently, "No." He rumbled after a moment, "No you had a reason. I can taste it. There's something you want. Desperately. Desperately enough to not only fuel a summoning but to hijack mine."

Wait... what? Hijack?

"I hijacked you?" She yelped, "How is that even possible?"

He shrugged as he leaned back, "Beats me lady, but there it is. Maybe you have a touch of fae blood in there or something."

Lucy sighed, a migraine beginning to threaten after everything that had happened already, "Look. I don't want you here. You're not supposed to be here. This was just some stupid Halloween gag my best friend set up so I wouldn't..." She trailed off and shook her head, unwilling to add fuel to the fire, "Can't you just go home and call this off?"

Natsu rocked back a little on his heels as he thought about it. Could he call it off? Sure. Technically. The mortal woman's magic was either very new or very weak. Whatever weirdness had caused the summons to collide, a possibility that seemed more and more likely the longer he was here, it didn't change the fact that it was a weak summon. She'd lacked the faith and strength to bind him on arrival with it. So he could leave if he wanted. He was more than powerful enough to do so.

Except... he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to. It could be dangerous for the mortal. Not that she needed to know what kind of forces she had meddled with, but it spelled a very dark future for her if he just disappeared now. There was no need to terrify her right away.

Besides, being 'trapped' in the mortal world would be an advantage for any number of reasons. Reasons that would start getting urgent soon.

It didn't hurt that he'd always liked the mortal world. Humans were often fun, and the opportunity to play with them didn't come up nearly often enough for his taste.

Besides... he was kind of curious what this woman could want so badly that she inadvertently summoned a demon lord to carry it out.

"Nah." He grinned at her, and stretched, "I think I'll stick around for a while. Maybe you'll think of your wish or whatever." He bounced slightly on his feet, "Besides, there's a party going on down there right? Seems like an awful shame to miss it!"

"Wait... what?" Natsu's grin widened as he curled his fingers around her wrist and bounced for the door, gleefully ignoring her protests.

Oh this was going to be fun.

"Wait! You can't! How are you going to explain yourself?" Lucy demanded, and clung to the most feeble of excuses, "This is a costume party! You can't just show up!"

"I don't even know your name!" Lucy burst.

The demon froze in mid-stride, glancing back at her and grinning slow and fierce, "The name is Natsu miss Witch, and as far as costumes go..."

He grinned, scales emerging under his eyes and sneaking down along his arms. The whites in his eyes began to burn black, irises glowing a haunting green. His fangs sharpened into points and his fingers thickened into sharp, black points. He was an odd mixture of reptile and demon, and Lucy stared at him.

"Maybe going as myself for Halloween isn't that original, but it's better than getting some cheap witch costume at the dollar store," Natsu grinned and flashed a critical eye on Lucy.

She gasped and yanked at one of his horns, eliciting a surprised yelp from him, "Fine! You can stay! just don't cause any trouble okay!"

"You'll leave after the party is over, okay?" Lucy demanded, not as alarmed by his demonic appearance as she should have been. Perhaps it was because it was Halloween, but it wasn't really bothering her.

Of course he didn't pay any attention to her as he walked down the stairs with obvious excitement and disappeared into the crowd of her friends.

Lucy groaned a little and decided she'd just about had enough of her own party, and it was barely past midnight. Why had she thought this was a good idea again?

She couldn't remember, and decided maybe retreating to her kitchen, or even the library, might be a better option than attempting to be social right now. Particularly if Gray hadn't left yet.

She scowled a little at the reminder of her ex and threaded her way to the kitchen... where she found Erza making passionate love to a strawberry cake. She blinked at the sight for a moment and backed slowly away, wary of drawing the redhead's attention. Especially if she'd been drinking.

Her friend was scary on a good day, but was positively terrifying after she'd had a few drinks.

Thankfully, she was able to escape without incident and retreated straight to the library to collect her wits.

In the meantime, Natsu was prowling through the party with an appreciative growl. Whatever else his summoner was or wasn't, she was obviously loaded. And knew how to throw a good party.

The music was pulsing, there was a long table groaning with catered food, and everywhere he turned there was energy.

He shivered a little at the sensation of all the high-spirited lust and excitement surrounding him, and couldn't resist taking a little taste as he slid onto the temporary dance floor and found a hilarious facsimile of a succubus to dance with. Not that he minded.

Natsu curled in close to the faux-succubus, his eyes shimmering with darkness as he danced close with her. He sampled her energy, careful not to take too much to damage the human or make her tired. She wasn't suited to his flavor anyway, but he did enjoy the energy she spent on her dance.

His senses fanned out through the humans, enjoying their unique flavors and passions. Of course that meant he picked up faint slivers of conversation he ordinarily wouldn't pay attention to.

"I hope she's okay. I haven't seen Lucy since I sent her up to the attic with that spellbook and all that candycorn."

Ah, so they were speaking about little Miss Witch.

"I've looked all over for her Levy, but she's just gone. You don't suppose your book actually worked and she summoned a demon do you?"

"Stop it Cana! Oh no I think I might have given her the unaltered one, you don't think a demon carried her off do you?"

The woman sounded frantic enough to make Natsu snort in laughter. What did they think he would do to a little human that summoned him? He was a demon lord, and he liked to think he was above petty kidnapping.

Although it was impressive the human Lucy was able to hijack a demon of his caliber. Speaking of which, he was very late to his meeting with Gajeel and his friend was going to be furious when he found Natsu.

Not that Natsu particularly cared, he was too busy having fun. Although if he were being honest, he felt a little bad for whatever low level demon was going to be thrown in his place. Gajeel was not the most forgiving of sorts.

Untangling himself from the succubus, he slipped back towards where the source of the voices were speaking on a porch. Two women were conversing, and neither seemed to notice Natsu's presence.

"Relax girl." A brunette sipping a glass of what was probably wine smirked, "I was just teasing. I'm sure Lucy's fine. She's got a pretty big house so she may have gone to hide out for a while. You know how she is."

"Especially after Gray." The other, a petite girl that either had interesting taste in hair color or was part fae, responded grumpily, "That was the whole point in this was to take her mind of him, and give her a chance to have some fun again."

"Was that the point of the summoning too?" The first teased, and Natsu stifled a laugh at the way the little fae puffed out her cheeks in irritation, "You should've known that was going to backfire the moment you let her off by herself."

"I was going to join her!" The fae huffed indignantly, "She was just supposed to set things up while I took care of a few things down here, but by the time I went up there she was gone and the circle was all messed up. Like something had happened, gosh I hope I gave her the right spell!"

The worry was back, and Natsu cocked his head curiously, wondering just why little miss fake fae was so concerned. Did she believe that strongly in ritual magic and summoning? It was quite curious and he took a half step forward to introduce himself just as the first woman set her drink down.

"Alright. If you're that worried let's comb the place again. There's only so many places Lucy is likely to run to. You start with the library and I'll check her bedroom alright?"

"Okay!" The little fae burst before rushing off and leaving her friend to roam off and try and find Lucy.

Natsu watched the fae go, following after her with sauntering steps. He was certain of it now. The light way which she moved and how small and quick she was, this was a woman from the fae realm. She wasn't human at all.

How had she ended up here, and a friend with a mortal no less?

Natsu followed her to a large room, watching her disappear inside. He grinned and stepped in quietly after her, blanketing himself with shadows to hide from sight.

"Lucy!" Levy exclaimed, rushing over to her friend and wrapping her in a hug, completely unaware of the demon watching everything, "You're okay! I was so worried about you!"

She seemed to swallow nervously and she hugged her blond friend tighter, "You didn't, uh... happen to do anything with that circle we set up did you?"

Lucy straightened a little at that and eyed her smaller friend with a mix of dread, suspicion, and resignation, "And if I did?"

Levy's eyes widened, "You did?" She squeaked in horror, "Lucy are you alright? Did something come through? Did it hurt you?" She frantically checked her friend over, and paused, "You didn't make a deal did you?"

Lucy pulled back from her friend's horrified questioning and waved at her, "Whoa! Slow down! Yes, I'm fine. Relatively speaking." She opened her mouth to continue responding only to snap it shut and eye Levy suspiciously, "Why are you so worried about something coming through? I thought the whole thing was supposed to be a gag."

"It was!" Levy assured her friend anxiously, and then sighed, her shoulders slumping, "But only after I tweaked the ritual a little." She looked up at Lucy imploringly, "Please tell me you didn't actually summon something?"

Lucy groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Him."

Levy blinked a little, non-pulsed, "What?"

"Him." Lucy replied in exasperation, "I didn't summon a something I summoned a him!" She got up and started pacing, "I thought you were screwing around again Levy! I thought this was supposed to be just a funny thing to cheer me up after the mess with Gray!" She exclaimed, waving her arms a little, "So while you were taking your sweet time of course I went ahead and got started! And the next thing I knew I was done and staring at him!"

"Who is him?" Levy asked in a small voice, and Natsu had to smother a cackle at the worry there.

Lucy sighed, "I dunno. He said his name was Natsu and he was a demon." She leaned back against her desk and crossed her arms, "He said I somehow hijacked his summons and that I had to have been desperately wishing for something when I invoked the ritual. Then he decided to crash my party and ran off."

"Didn't wander off too far, now did I?" Natsu drawled, poking his head around a chair and grinning at the two startled girls, "Nice digs little Miss Witch. Gotta say, you've got a nice place!"

"I'm curious though, why a fae and a human are such close friends," Natsu smirked at Levy, his grin splitting open into a wider smirk.

Levy recoiled at the sight of him, and Natsu's smile only grew. So the fairy recognized him? That much was good. Although she clearly had been out of their world for a long time if she still feared him.

"Lucy, you summoned- you summoned not just any demon," Levy whispered, grasping onto her friend and pushing her behind her. Lucy blinked with some alarm, especially how Natsu began to stalk forward, sauntering a step closer to the women.

"I got to say, I don't much appreciate being summoned as a Halloween hoax, can you imagine the embarrassment if this gets out?" Natsu growled at Levy, "do you know how cliché it is for a demon to be summoned at some slumber party? Only low level imps or poltergeists make appearances on Halloween."

"Levy, who is this? How do you know him?" Lucy asked, not yet scared but starting to get that way by her friend's reaction.

"Yes, Levy, who am I?" Natsu mocked, bypassing them to inspect Lucy's collection of books, "And who are you for that matter?"

"I'm so sorry Lu," Levy apologized, "I only wanted to cheer you up. It wasn't supposed to actually summon a demon! I'm just a fairy that dabbles in some knowledge based magic. Minor things, like curses or spells, or the occasional Jinx to make a certain ex of yours lose their clothes all the time."

"That's pretty funny," Natsu grinned.

Levy ignored his comment in favor of keeping her attention on her friend, who was looking more than a little stunned at the revelation, though the way her lips kept tugging upwards was a good sign.

"You're really a fairy?" Lucy asked after a moment, scrambling to come to terms with the revelation on top of everything else.

Levy smiled a little, "A pixie if you want to get technical." She met her friend's eyes earnestly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Lu. Really. But it's just not something you can easily talk about. I promise I've always been your friend."

Lucy melted a little at the worried earnestness, the same earnestness that had forged their friendship in the first place, and smiled, "It's alright Levy. I believe you." Her lips twitched in amusement, "Though this does explain why you keep stealing my ribbons."

Natsu collapsed into a fit of cackling as Levy turned bright red at that and pouted while Lucy giggled a little before sobering and looking over at Natsu, "So what's your story that just seeing you scares my best friend?"

The fierce way she asked that had Natsu blinking a little as he calmed down and straightened up with a grin, "Well now that's interesting." He glanced at Levy, "Is that why you like her?"

Levy frowned and moved back in front of Lucy in a way that would've been laughable had Natsu really felt like doing anything, "My reasons for being Lucy's friend are my own!"

Natsu snorted a little and his grin widened, "I'm sure they are." He purred and went back to perusing Lucy's books, "You can relax pixie. Your friend Loony got lucky when she summoned me by mistake." He flashed the girls a toothy grin over his shoulder, "I don't play by Zeref's rules anymore."

"You expect me to believe that? You're the demon king's brother, the lieutenant of his army!" Levy burst out, "The demon END, said to be more dangerous that Zeref himself!"

"Rude," Natsu deadpanned, not even looking over at Levy in acknowledgement, "You've been out of the loop for a while. And I was actually on an important business meeting with one of the dragon lords when Blondie over here decided to pluck me from what I was doing."

"Nice party by the way, I don't really mind the detour, but I've gotta wonder where the demon you were supposed to summon ended up," Natsu hummed.

"If I were to guess, probably where you were going," Lucy supplied.

"Poor creature, Gajeel hates unexpected visitors," Natsu tsk'd.

"So who's Gray?" Natsu turned towards Lucy with a dangerous smile, "Is the one who hurt you? He's the one you want me to turn inside-out, right?"

He spoke with a purr, walking away from the books and advancing towards Lucy. He edged past a confused Levy, letting some of his more demonic features fade back away so his face could relax more fully into a smile.

"Gotta tell ya, I don't much care for humans taking revenge on one another anymore," Natsu dropped his finger under Lucy's chin, his eyes surveying her for physical injury, "but I make exceptions. Did he hurt you?"

Lucy scowled and swatted his finger away, "Hands to yourself demon boy." She growled, not in the mood for his games, "And keep them away from Gray too. My problems with him are between me and him. If I wanted to terrorize him like that I'd sic Erza on him, not go through the hassle of dealing with you."

Natsu's eyes widened a little in surprise, not at all used to being talked to like that by a mortal. Gajeel and the rest didn't really count. They were magical themselves and could handle any retaliation he dished out. He slowly lowered his hand and his grin reappeared.

"You are interesting." He purred, "Not out for revenge, and you didn't summon me with the usual crap humans are after. I wonder what it is you really want."

"What do you mean she didn't summon you with a reason?" Levy asked suspiciously.

Natsu turned his attention to her and grinned happily, "Oh she didn't mention that? Miss Lucy over here managed to summon me without a specific purpose! She didn't have a wish and didn't want a deal." He turned his gaze back on Lucy, his eyes drooping a little as he smirked, "Which makes her very interesting."

Levy turned a wide-eyed look on her friend, "You... how?"

Lucy shrugged helplessly, "I don't know. I didn't really expect it to even work. Why would I wish for something?"

She shook her head a little, "But that's not the point." She turned her gaze on Natsu, not sure why she wasn't scared yet, but willing to roll with it, "My question is when are you going to leave and head to this meeting of yours that you're already late to?"

"When I grant your desire," Natsu replied, "that's the way these things work. Until then, I'll make it work with the people I was meeting. Your home is large enough for a dragon."

"What!" Lucy exclaimed, "No it is not!"

Natsu whipped his head around to her, smiling broad and wide, "You should have thought about that before summoning a demon lord then."

He headed back towards the door and flashed her a wide smile, "Happy Halloween!"

Everyone have a Happy Halloween! Please be safe out there, and let us know what you guys all think of our most recent story! We had taken a short break from writing Reset to get this ficlet done and we are really hoping you like it! You guys know the drill for sneak peeks by now, so drop us a line to let us know how we did!