Epilogue ** Seven years later **

Levy was woken up by some movement next to her before feeling that comfortable heat getting away from her, forcing the young woman to tighten her blankets around her a little more.

"Gihi! You'll get lost in the bed if you keep this up".

"Why are you leaving this early?" she asked without bothering about the usual teasing of her husband.

"Flame brain has once again accepted an order from Erza. Seriously, that chick loves swords way too much!"

"That chick's the queen" laughed Levy. "You can at least do that for her."

"If I was impressed by royalty, I wouldn't be in that bed" he said with a mocking smile.

"Idiot!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just go back sleeping shrimp" he said, getting out of bed. "At least you can sleep".

Once dressed up, he was about to leave the room but Levy was waiting for one last detail.

"Gajeel" she beckoned him, barely awake.

The later lifted his eyes towards the ceiling, a smile in the corner of his mouth, knowing very well what she wanted, and kissed her before leaving. As for Levy, she indeed slept a little more before waking up herself, ready to start of with the pile of translation she had to finish for the next week. The task was enormous, but she welcomed the job happily, the work allowing her to distract herself from the mass of things she had on her mind. Gajeel coming home from the forge only in the end of the afternoon, it was the best moment to get to work anyways.

Much to her pleasure, after moving in with her seven years ago, Gajeel and Natsu quickly developed a friendship. Okay... this friendship looked more like hatred from an external point of view and, most of the time, they were quarrelling and insulting one another. But Levy knew that deep down, they appreciated each other... in their own way. To everyone's surprise, about four months after their return to Fairy Tail, Natsu, with his passion for fire which was close to pyromania, and Gajeel, with his experience in weaponry, opened a forge together.

As for Juvia, she had become Gray's assistant for more then three years in his workshop, Juvia wanting to be as much with him as she could. However, during the four past years, she had to learn how to live without him twenty-four/seven, a new member being added to the Fullbuster family. The little guy, Jake, was Gajeel and Levy's godson. Then, less than two years later was born his little brother, Dylan. Levy was seeing both kids tonight, Juvia having asked her to babysit them so she and Gray could celebrate their 1771th day of marriage. It would be their fifth year anniversary in barely a couple of months and Levy had first wondered why celebrating such a weird amount of days but Levy had got used to Juvia's particular personality so she didn't ask for details. Anyways, with two kids, there was nothing wrong about wanting to have some lone time in a romantic diner once in a while, valid reason or not.

She barely saw time fly. It was a knock on the door that got her mind off of her papers.

"Aunty Levy!" Screamed both mini Fullbuster seeing her.

"Hello my sweethearts!" she exclaimed, taking both of them in her arms.

"Levy! Juvia is so glad that Levy and Gajeel can babysit the boys tonight!" exclaimed the young woman, clenching at her husband's harm who had long ago abandoned the thought of making her let go.

"Didn't tell me we had some visitors tonight" growled a gruff voice that made Gray, Juvia and Levy turn to Gajeel.

The later was covered in soot, but Levy couldn't really complain, that neglected look making him even more attractive to her.

"Gajeel!" Exclaimed Juvia, leaving for a brief moment her grip on Gray to hug her best friend.

She however had a hard time circling his waist, her own belly in the way.

"Tch" said Gajeel, seeing her vain efforts. "Don't you get tied of being pregnant?" he said, pointing at the protuberance the couple's third child was forming. "How much kids do you plan having anyways?"

"As much as Juvia can carry!" She exclaimed, a glorious smile on her lips.

Levy could see Gray's eyes widen a little at that last sentence.

"One at the time Juvia" he sighed to his wife's passion.

"Of course my love! Now we are working on this little one and in a few months, we'll make the next one!"

"That's not what I meant" he sighed, placing his palm on his forehead.

"Gihi" Gajeel laughed, slapping Gray's scapula. "Good luck with your kid production, Fullbuster.

"Shut up Redfox" he mumbled so only Gajeel could hear, sparing the kids from his bad language.

Then he kneeled to hug his sons.

"Be nice to aunt Levy" he said. "But you can be a little troublesome for uncle Gajeel if you want to" he added with a blink.

"Have a good time!" interrupted Levy, closing the door before Gajeel could say any bad words in front of the kids.

From the window, Levy could see the couple walk away. Despite the usual detachment Gray was showing, she knew he was glad to have some quality time with her. She could see it in his eyes. Then she turned to the kids, both of them following Gajeel everywhere with a lot of energy despite the annoyed expression of their uncle.

The evening seemed to pass in a flash and, once the children where installed in the couple's bed, Levy let herself fall on the couch next to Gajeel.

"Can you believe it looks like that every night at their place?" he sighed yawning, obviously not used to so much action.

The comment tightened Levy's heart a little.

"I don't think it's that terrible" she said, strangely distant.

"Shrimp"

"What?" she answered with that same neutral voice that was never a good sign.

"You have that look"

"What look?"

"The look that says: something's wrong, but I'll let Gajeel guess what it is" he grumbled. "And you know I'm bad at guessing".

Levy laughed a little. The young woman knew very well that Gajeel was one of the only one who could always know something was no right, even though he indeed had a hard time pin pointing the exact problem.

"You really think it's that much of a pain to have kids?"

"I didn't say a pain... just a whole lot of responsibilities and problems".

Levy started to nervously play with her hands. Then she opened her mouth, about to say something, before closing it back.

"Levy" he said with seriousness. "What are you not telling me?"

The blue haired girl chewed nervously on her lower lip before taking a deep breath.

"What if... what if I tell you we'll soon have our own lot of responsibilities and problems?" she finally let out.

Gajeel's mouth was now wide open, seeming to slowly process the information she just gave him. After a moment that seemed like eternity to Levy, he started to function again.

"Are you sure?"

Levy's heart tightened a little more. She was expecting him to be not as exited as her, but did he really want her to be wrong?

"Porlyuska confirmed it to me yesterday" she let out, close to tears.

Then, Gajeel's dumbfounded look slowly changed to a smile as the surprise's effect started to ware off.

"Gihi! So their really is a mini shrimp in there?" he smiled, placing his hand against Levy's stomach.

It was Levy's turn to be surprised.

"You're really happy that I'm pregnant?" she asked, incredulous.

"Before you, having brats was not even thinkable for me" he said in a serious tone. "Well, I never would have imagine wearing one of those either" he added, showing his wedding ring.

He paused, searching for his words, this kind of talk having never been his strong suit.

"What I'm trying to say is that, as long as it's you... or one of our little shrimps that are wearing my name, I'll keep on surprising myself loving those kind of things..."

If he had something else to say, he couldn't add a thing, Levy's mouth sealed with his. She didn't need to hear more. His words were already perfect.

"I love you so much Gajeel" she whispered, barely unlocking her lips from his.

"I love you too shrimp" he answered, holding her close to him.

And there it is! It's really over now! Writing that fiction was, once again, an incredible experience and you can be sure I'll be back soon with the translation of my next story! Being busy with my new job, it may take more than a weekbefore I publish my first chapter of "behind the wall" but the prologue will soon be available so you guys can have a peek of it!

I hope you had appreciated that little slice of life of our beloved couples seven years in the futur :D

And one last time, THANKS A LOT for reading my story :)

Lily xxx