Happy Halloween, Ariel!

Summary: Thanks to the 'brilliant' mind of Lilly Truscott, the gang goes on a humorous trip of trick-or-treating, and Miley discovers some feelings she didn't even know she had. [ MxO oneshot, Happy Halloween!

Author's note: This is why Dear Stupid hasn't been updated. I've been working on this fic specifically for Halloween because I've wanted to write this for awhile.

And yes, I'm very much aware of the fact that the title has thrown you off. It does come into play, though, trust me. So enjoy, and I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

Disclaimer: Don't own Hannah Montana.

I sat in annoyance as Lilly bounced around the room with a wand. Now, as much as I love my best friend… she had to be on something that night. That was for certain. Not sure what, maybe too much medication. Really, if she honestly thought I was going to put on that ridiculous green fairy costume and go trick-or-treating with her, she had another thing coming.

"Oh, it'll be so much fun, Miley!" she said for the two thousand and eighty-third time. "We haven't done this since we were like… twelve!"

"Maybe we should keep it that way," I suggested.

Lilly's eyes got all big at this, like she had suddenly just realized I wasn't into her idea.

"You're denying a bag of candy?" she exclaimed, looking very hurt and disgusted at the same time. "Tens of thousands of melty, sweet, heavenly chocolate bars?"

"Um, no." I was eyeing the puke green fairy costume that was resting in her arms. "Have you even looked at that thing you have there?"

"Hey! I put toothpaste on it this morning!" she shouted at me.

I looked at her oddly. "Is that why it's so… weirdly green colored?"

"MY ZIT'S GREEN?!" Lilly screamed and ran to my bedroom mirror and began to inspect every inch of her face.

Finally understanding what she meant, I pulled her back by the arm, irritated. "I was talking about that fairy costume, not your stupid pimples!"

"Oh," she said and blinked. It was silent between us for a moment. Then she opened her mouth again.

"So the toothpaste worked?"

I smacked her arm. "Lilly!"

"Whaaat?" she asked innocently, rubbing the spot where I had hit her. "I wanted to know!"

"Yeah, whatever, it did," I answered, rolling my eyes. "Now, honestly, where in the world did you find that costume? Rags-'R'-Us?"

"For your information!— " she began angrily with a pointed finger, before she immediately lowered it. "…Yes."

I was startled. "There's an actual Rags-'R'-Us?"

"Also known as Mom's Broom Closet," she said, smiling in what seemed to be arrogance.

I just shook it off. This was Lilly after all.

"Lilly, okay, I'll go trick-or-treating with you, but only if I get to wear something else. I'm not wearing that thing under any circumstances whatsoever."

"It's all I have on short notice, though, Miley! Halloween's tonight! Not next week!"

"Still, no."

I refused to give in to this.

"MIIIILEEEYYY!"

"LIIIIILLLLY!" I mimicked, making my voice higher pitched to sound more annoying.

"P-p-p-please?" she was sticking out her lower lip at me in a puppy-pout. Much to her dismay, it had no effect on me at all. I just turned my nose up at her because… I rock.

"What if," she started, all of a sudden in a more thoughtful pose. "Oliver goes, too?"

I blinked a couple times, obviously baffled.

"Um, so what if Oliver goes?" I repeated. "Why would that suddenly make that ratty old thing look irresistible?"

"I wasn't finished," Lilly said sternly. "We could make him look stupider than us."

As I considered this thought, I felt a small smirk tug at my mouth.

"Just how stupid are we talkin'?"

"I'm not leaving my room with this on, guys. Let alone out in public!"

Lilly and I were standing outside of Oliver's bedroom door. As you may have guessed, the donut was being stupid and not coming out into the hallway.

"But Ooooliiver!" Lilly wailed dramatically. "Me and Miley wanna see!"

Really, I did. A lot. This was going to be hilarious.

"Yeah, w-well," Oliver replied in the voice he always used when he tried to be manly, but yet again, the stutter had given away the fact that he had failed. "I want to see the new Saw movie, but I can't!"

"How come?" I asked the white door in front of me.

From inside we heard a mutter of, "My two best friends are wimpy girls."

Oh my God. He so did not…

"Excuse me!" I yelled, offended. "We're not wimps! We'll go see that stupid movie with you, right, Lilly?"

I turned to her, and she was looking at me in disbelief… and fear. She was shaking her head "no". I glared at her.

"Right, Lilly?" I said more loudly.

"O-o-onlyifOlivergoestrick-or-treatingwithus!" she cried in a rush.

"Yeah!" I faced the door again with a determined grin, an idea forming in my head. "If you go trick-or-treating with us in that costume, we promise we'll go see Saw with you!"

A beat of silence.

"…You guys promise?"

"Pinky-swear!" Lilly and I chorused together.

"Well… all right, I trust you guys," we heard Oliver say and watched as the doorknob rattled. We stood in anticipation, waiting for him to appear… and then…

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN, ARIEL!" I shouted happily and whipped out my camera from behind my back, and snapped a picture of what I like to call "picture perfection".

Oliver was dressed in a long emerald green skirt with poorly made holes sticking out in the front for his legs to go through. The end of the skirt forked out into a lighter colored "V". His upper body wasn't really "dressed" exactly… he had on a lacey, bright pink bra. It actually belonged to Lilly's grandma, and it was the biggest bra we could find that Oliver would be able to get his arms in.

Point-blank, the funniest thing I had seen in a looong time.

"GIVE ME THAT!" The Little Mermaid, er, Merman yelled in fright, extending his arms out wildly in an attempt to snatch my camera. I tossed it to Lilly, who was dying of laughter beside me. This was too good.

"HAHAHAHA, Nuh-uh-uh, hahaha, Ariel," I said jokingly as I laughed. "We already made a, hahaha, deal."

He either didn't hear me right, or just ignored me and still tried to get the camera anyways. Oh, and his face had gone the most amusing shade of ketchup red. I laughed more.

How cute, I thought before realizing what had just occurred in my head. Oliver? Cute? No. Oliver isn't cute. And… even if he were cute, the mermaid outfit he was wearing would kind of abolish it… Er, right?

"Don't show that to anyone! Please!"

But seeing him beg as a mermaid was too much. My sides were cramping of laughter. Lilly had already gone to rolling on the floor.

"Hahahaha, oookay," I said, stifling a few giggles. "We won't… but I am wondering one thing, Oliver."

He was glaring in a verrrry scary manner at me now and crossing his arms.

"What?" he huffed.

I attempted to rid my head of the 'cute' thing again.

"Well," I said, "How in tarnation did you figure out how to put on a bra?"

Which resulted in another laughing fit of ten full minutes.

Outside that night, it was freezing. And I'm going to say that that is even putting it lightly. Because really, I felt like my toes were gonna fall off. Malibu should not be this cold. Ever.

Lilly and I were ratty looking fairies. I was the puke-green colored one because Heaven forbid I want to wear Lilly's "favorite color of the week" and get the pretty blue colored one that she was wearing.

And then… there was… Oliver walking beside me, hugging himself. Because well, as useful as bras are, they aren't really known to protect you from Alaska type weather. His teeth were chattering pretty violently, too.

"I-I-I-I-I-I—"

"Spit it out, boy!" I shouted at him.

"C-c-c-c-can't."

"Can't," Lilly repeated slowly.

"F-f-f-f-f-feel."

"Feel."

"M-m-m-my."

"My."

"H-h-h-hands."

"Hands," she stared thoughtfully at the sky, piecing it together. She didn't say anything for a while actually.

"'I can't feel my hands.' You can't feel your hands, Oliver?"

"YES!" he yelled at Lilly furiously.

And instead of getting mad like I thought she would, she said the weirdest sentence I've ever heard.

"Wellllll, maybe Miley can warm them up for you."

Huh?

I looked at her strangely, then back at Oliver, who had suddenly gone bright red.

"What are you talking about?" I asked Lilly. But she didn't really answer me. She just started skipping ahead of us with her paper candy bag, humming "This is Halloween".

Did she actually just mean for me to hold Oliver's hand? Why would he want—?

Oh, wait.

Uh oh.

Does Oliver… like… me?

As in… like like like like me? Of the more than friends variety?

In alarm at the idea, I snapped my head to look at him, my heartbeat speeding rapidly in my chest. I realized he was looking at me, too, and he appeared to blush harder at my gaze.

"D-d-d-don't l-listen to Lilly," he chattered. "I mean… sh-sh-she's L-Lilly."

I felt a huge wave of relief. But then… something else that didn't seem like happiness. In fact, it seemed rather… sad for some reason.

"Uh, right," I said awkwardly and plastered on some kind of fake smile as the speed of my heart's beating slowed.

Pushing away any kind of uncomfortable thoughts from my head, I caught up to Lilly with Oliver right behind me, and we approached our first house of the night. It was large and gray with jack-o-lanterns posted on the doorstep.

"Oliver, go!" Lilly said urgently.

"What—?" But before Oliver could say anything else, Lilly had suddenly jerked him towards the front door of the house. He looked horrified and took a step backwards. "Ohhh no, I'm not going to be the first thing they see! Not like this!"

"Just ring the doorbell, Ariel, or the photo hits the yearbook," Lilly demanded, and I giggled.

Grumbling, he reached out to press the tiny white oval next to the door on the wall.

Ding dong.

A dog started barking like crazy at the sound from inside the house, and the three of us watched through the glass as an old woman walked up to us. She squinted through her glasses and smiled, opening the door.

"Trick-or-Treat!" we said together.

Her smile grew larger, accentuating the wrinkles on her face.

"Aw, don't you three little ladies look so cute!"

Lilly and I had to bite our lips to keep from laughing. Oliver's expression was absolutely priceless. He looked both confused and mad at the same time.

He's so cute, said that inner voice of mine again. I mentally slapped myself. No. Oliver isn't cute. He's in a mermaid costume. Looking absolutely ridiculous. And yet… adorable. No. NO.

Luckily, Oliver's teeth-chattering voice woke me from my mind war.

"But I-I'm a bo—"

"Have some candy, dearies," the old woman interrupted him, reaching into a red bowl to pull out three Hershey's chocolate bars. And suddenly, the issue of Oliver's gender became not so important because he dug the candy bar very excitedly into his pumpkin shaped container.

We said thank-you to the lady and walked back down her driveway, and on to the next house, passing by other trick-or-treaters along the way.

"See, Oliver, the costume worked out great!" Lilly announced proudly. "No one can tell that you're actually a guy!"

A vampire and werewolf stopped in their tracks to stare incredibly at Oliver, who had yet again began to blush.

"Oops," Lilly said. "I mean, no one can tell that you're actually a girl! Wait…"

"Lilly," I said sadly. "Just stop."

Oliver kept walking ahead of us, probably embarrassed beyond belief. "Let's just get this over with before we run into someone like—"

"Oliver?"

"—Becca Weller."

And just like that, Oliver's ex girlfriend had appeared like magic in front of us. On her left was a little girl of about… I don't know, seven? She was dressed as a mini-cheerleader, with white and blue pom-poms to match Seaview High School.

And even more sudden than her appearance, I became protective. Not of anything I owned, either, like my hair-clip or "Miley" necklace…

But, weirdly enough, of Oliver.

"Hi, Becca," came this snotty voice I've only used on Amber and Ashley in the past. I was mildly confused at this.

I think I even puzzled Lilly a bit because she gave me this look that looked like she was saying "What the heck was that?"

"Oh, hey, Miley, Lilly," Becca said slowly, probably just as confused, blinking her eyes at me strangely and taking in mine and Lilly's attire. And then back at Oliver.

I didn't like her looking at Oliver. She was like, examining him. Like he was some kind of… lab experiment. Or something. Whatever. It was just making me pretty angry. I think I even started glaring at her for some reason.

I mean, okay, I guess I'll give her somewhat of a break. 'Cause I know he's cute and…

No. Wait. I do not know he's cute.

Or do I?

Oh, geez.

"Oliver… what…" Becca got out of her mouth after it had been hanging halfway to the floor for the past minute.

He immediately pointed to Lilly and I. "THEY MADE ME DO IT!"

Lilly threw her hands up in defense. "Don't look at me! He could've been Jasmine, but he chose Ariel instead!"

I crossed my arms, staying silent. I really just wanted Becca to leave.

"Becca, why is that boy wearing girl's clothes?" asked the little girl.

Becca stared at Oliver a little bit more, which irritated me some. Okay… a lot.

"I… don't really know, sis," she said, and she FINALLY took her eyes off of him. Geez. You'd think she had to memorize him like she had to take a stupid test on him tomorrow or something!

But then, she looked at me, which was bad, too. I'm not sure which is worse. She really just shouldn't look at either of us. Maybe look at Lilly?

"Don't you think last year, as freshmen, was the latest cut off for Trick-or-Treating?" she asked me.

Me. Why in the world would she be asking me? This was Lilly's idea, not mine. And does she really need to know? Or care? No. No, she does not.

So I said, "Who really cares?" in my snotty-voice-that-came-from-nowhere and started to walk away. "C'mon, Oliver," I put my arm through one of his and began to drag him. I then realize my mistake and felt myself blush. "And Lilly!"

As we walked away from the girl, leaving her… who knows where really, Oliver finally decided to speak again.

"I can walk on my own, Miley," he said.

"Congratulations?" I said irritably.

"No, I mean…"

I felt a tug on my arm and at once realized we were still attached. I dropped his arm immediately.

"Sorry," I murmured, blushing again. What was my problem? First some weird part of my brain keeps randomly telling me Oliver's cute when he clearly isn't. Just look at him in that ridiculous costume! Mermans-that-are-Oliver aren't cute! Second of all, I hate Becca Weller for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I didn't care about her yesterday. So why now? THIRD of all, I'm blushing! I don't blush! Not around Oliver like this at least!

"Hey, Miley," Lilly's voice butted in from my thoughts. "What was your deal back there?"

"Yeah, really," Oliver chimed in.

I wanted to die more than actually answer. Because I couldn't just say that I didn't like her because she was Oliver's ex girlfriend. Even though, technically, that is the truth. That and she was looking at him… with a stupid sparkle in her eye…

"Uh, earth to planet Miley?"

Lilly was waving her hand in my face.

"Oh, nothing!" I said in this totally fake cheery voice. "I just don't like her much is all!"

OH NO. I DID NOT, REPEAT, NOT JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD.

"Why?" Oliver questioned.

Apparently, I had.

"Because she broke up with you!"

Oliver stared at me. "No… I broke up with her." Oh, geez. How stupid of me. I obviously already knew this being one of Oliver's best friends and all, I just couldn't really think at the time of being asked.

"Miley, are you jealous or something?"

I choked on my own spit at Lilly's question. I think Oliver did, too, for some reason.

"JEALOUS?" I repeated the word like I'd never heard it before. Oh, and I kind of screamed it by accident. "NOT AT ALL! Why would I be jealous of Becca Weller?"

Aaaand I accidentally just spat her name, too.

"I think you are," Lilly smiled at me devilishly.

I wanted to scream, NO! STOP! STOP SMILING! YOU ARE GONNA MAKE ME SAY THINGS LIKE OLIVER IS CUTE OUT LOUD!

Oliver was oddly quiet during the next three seconds. He was kind of staring at me in this weird… hopeful?… way.

"I'm not jealous!"

I was going to stand firm on this, even if I wasn't entirely convinced myself.

"Uh-huh," Lilly said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Suuure you aren't. And Oliver's a pretty mermaid!"

"Hey!" Oliver finally spoke up and shook a fist at Lilly. "I'm very pretty! Wait. Never mind!"

"Speaking of mermaids…" Oh no. Another demonic Lilly smile. "I have the perfect song to sing right now! Sha la la la la, my oh my, looks like the MERMAN's too shy, ain't gonna KISS THE GIRL! HAHAHA!"

Oh my God. I wanted to kill her. I was going to kill Lilly with my bare hands. As soon as they were free from Oliver's anyways. Wait. What?

"Oliver, what the heck are you doing?!" I shrieked, trying to pry my hands from his. I could even feel the burning in my cheeks.

He opened his mouth, then shut it again.

"I… really don't know," and he let go of my hands.

What was going on?!

"You two are so hopeless!" Lilly said, sounding very aggravated for once. She looked livid actually. "While I'm off to the next house to get me some Laffy Taffy, I expect you," she pointed at Oliver. "To be a man, as much as you can in a bra anyways, and fess up to Miley a certain something you've been keeping from her since the beginning of time!"

What?! What does Oliver have to tell me since the beginning of time?! And why was my heart going so crazy?

"Oh, and you," Lilly was then pointing at me unfortunately. I wanted to die again, and I was extremely shocked. I'm sure that the emotion was shown very openly in my face, too. "You need to stop letting yourself fall all over guys that only care about themselves when you have a guy standing right next to you that cares about you more than himself! And actually likes you for you!"

WHAT.

I was blushing to the maximum, I'm sure.

Oliver… cared about me? … More than himself? And… likes me for me? What?!

Oliver and I were staring at her, mouths agape.

"OH MY GOD!" Lilly yelled at us again when we didn't do or say anything. "YOU TWO ARE HOPELESS! HOPELESS!"

And she stormed off to the house across the street. I swear, if life were a cartoon, there'd be smoke coming out of her ears. I hadn't seen Lilly this ticked in forever.

Anyways, this left Oliver and I in an awkward position. I didn't really know what to do. Neither did he, I guess, because we kind of stood there for eighteen hundred years maybe. And all I could think about was if what Lilly had said was true.

"Listen."

Oh my God. The merman's taking the plunge. (HA. That actually works, but never mind.)

I still didn't look at him, though. I was scared what might happen if I did.

"If you hate me forever now, okay, I deserve it."

I didn't expect THAT.

So I did look up at him, and he was looking down at the sidewalk beneath us. And he looked… very sad. A very pitiful little mermaid. Absolutely the cutest thing ever.

No. No. Not cute. Not the cutest thing ever.

Oh, who am I kidding? Oliver is the epitome of "cutest thing ever". The only male in the entire universe who could possibly make a Little Mermaid costume cute.

And then, I was smiling.

"I don't hate you, Oliver," I said, all at once sure of my feelings.

"You don't?" He looked up at me hopefully.

"How could I hate you? I mean… look at you, boy!"

He actually followed what I said and peered down at himself. I felt proud when he broke into a tiny grin.

"Okay," he said. "So we're still friends?"

This kind of confused me. Didn't he want to be more like Lilly had suggested…?

"Well, yeaaah," I said, blinking.

He gazed straight into my eyes then. His brown eyes were… a lot more dazzling than I can ever remember. What the heck was happening? I never imagined I'd see Oliver as any more than my donut guy best friend, but now… I'm sitting here kind of… embarrassingly enough, wishing he'd just lean in and kiss me.

He didn't, though. How sad.

He said, "But I mean, I really do… care about you… A lot." His voice was getting squeaky. Yes. I can finally admit this without hesitation – VERY cute.

"I care about you a lot, too, Oliver."

It may have taken trick-or-treating to realize it, but hey. Whatever works.

"But… this is gonna sound really dumb, and I know you like guys who are all romantic and stuff, but I'm kind of bad at that, so I'm gonna give this my best shot." He breathed in deeply.

EEEK, my mind was screaming in bliss.

"You've been my best friend since, what… forever? Well, yeah, that sounds about right. Forever. Actually, wait, that's Lilly… Oh, geez, I can't even remember! I'm already messing this up!"

I was smiling so big, as you can imagine. And he was standing there stumbling over his words and everything.

"Anyways," at last he got the word out. "I always thought you were really pretty. And geez, that whole Hannah Montana thing? When you told me that, I about fainted!"

"You did faint, Oliver," I said, cocking my head to the side.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm letting out my feelings! It's not an easy thing for a man to do!" he said loudly, and I let out a chuckle. He chose to ignore it, though, I think, since he continued, "But yes, that was crazy stuff. I was shocked. I should've seen it. You and Hannah even look alike! So when you told me, I guess… I started realizing that Hannah Montana isn't the best girl out there for me. I kinda realized…"

His face was bright red, and the tone to his voice went up three octaves, "You… are."

I really, really, wanted to cry. It was possibly the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me. Jake Ryan WHO?

But I didn't cry at all. Not one tear.

Instead I leapt on top of his chest, with his bra and all, and tackled his lips with my own in a huge kiss. I opened my eyes, and his were open, too, and he was staring at me in complete shock. He wasn't kissing back. Uh oh. And from in his mouth came a muffled, "Ow!"

I stopped kissing him and jumped back.

"I'm… sorry," I said, blushing.

"No, no, no," he said, his voice still very high pitched and face red, which made me smile. "I sort of thought I was dreaming, so I had to pinch myself a couple times."

"Smooth line, Ariel."

"Not a line. The truth. Did you not hear my 'ow'? And can I please be like, King Triton or something? Ariel makes me sound like I'm a girl!"

I giggled. "You're wearing a bra, Oliver."

"…Oh, whatever!"

I laughed even more and walked back up to him. I swung my arms around his shoulders. He blushed more and put his arms on my waist.

"So, uh, can you, try that… kissing thing again? Oh geez, that sounds weird saying that to you, Miley."

I don't think I could stop smiling if I tried. "Well, I guuueeess so," I said, making a face like it was hard to decide. "You're cute enough."

He smirked, "Real funny." His face started leaning in towards me. His eyes were locked shut. I followed suit, except my lips were puckered into somewhat of a smile. I was just way too happy not to show it.

"Oh my God."

We didn't even get to kiss, thanks to a certain blue fairy named Lilly making almost pee our pants of fright.

"I can't even leave you guys alone for two minutes!" she cried as she walked up to us, exasperated.

"Didn't you want this to happen?" I asked Lilly, bemused.

"Well, I was kind of hoping for you guys to wait for me to come back with the Laffy Taffy, but nooo. I didn't get to watch Ariel here make a fool out of himself!"

"That's King Triton!" Oliver said defensively.

"Whatever, Ariel, I'm going to turn around now, which gives you about five seconds to smooch on her, mermaid. Ready… go!"

Surprisingly, this side of Oliver I've never seen awakened or something, and he kind of attacked my lips as soon as Lilly said "go", but it was nice. Oh so nice. Even though it is kind of weird to kiss your best friend… in the middle of the sidewalk where little kids are passing by us making disgusted faces, and moms and dads are covering their eyes. Oh well.

Although it probably looked like two girls since well, Oliver's dressed a mermaid. So I can kind of see where the parentals are coming from there.

"Fa-fa-fa-fin-al-ly," Lilly abruptly broke out in song, making us jump out of our skins again. "Looks like the merman's a guy, he finally KISSED THE GIRL!"

I laughed. Oliver rolled his eyes.

"Now, let's get a move on!" Lilly hollered. "We got twenty more houses to go, and at this rate, the only thing you'll be getting are some of those chocolate kisses!"

"I didn't get any kisses!" Oliver exclaimed, suddenly very terrified at the idea that he was missing out on something. Then he froze. "Wait, was that a joke?"

"You are such a donut," I said to him.

He took my hand. I gave it a happy squeeze.

"Yeah, well, oh well. Hopefully you like donuts."

"I do," I responded. "Donut mermaids actually."

"It's your lucky day, there's one right in front of you!"

"I suppose I could take advantage of the luck then," I said and smiled into the kiss we shared in the following second.

"Okay, really, I'm happy for you two, but seriously, hello? Guys? NEXT HOUSE! GETTING CHOCOLATE HUNGRY HERE!"

We broke apart again and saw Lilly standing in front of us with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping against the cement impatiently.

"Uh, right!" I blushed and took off towards her. "C'mon, Ariel!"

"It's King TRITON!!"

Author's note: Alright, now it's your job to tell me what you think! I tried really hard to make the characters act like how they would in the show, but it was really, really hard… especially hard during the Miley/Oliver ending bit. But oh well. Hopefully you all enjoyed it anyways!