A/N:
My Belated Happy Halloween Fic. Finally fixed the internet on my new PC and decided to finish typing up the rest of what I didn't get to do when I was at the library. Enjoy! I hope. . . ^^" And for those of you who can come up with a better title for the Fic, please let me know! X'D
". . . Iroha, you have got be kidding me. . ."
"No such luck, Luis."
"Iroha, honestly, I'm not going to—"
"Oh, suck it up, Pretty Boy! This is gonna be great! Now don't go trying to ruin it all by being your usual wet blanket self—it's Halloween! Get into character, he's much less annoying!"
"But Iroha, of all the costumes to pick, you—"
"I know! It's perfect, right, right? RIGHT?!"
"No! I'm not doing this! I'm not going to follow you around like some lovesick slave boy—"
"And why the hell not? It's all just a part of your character—an act. It's for fun! I mean, believe me, I'm not happy about this either. Having to waltz around with you on my tail all night, having to pretend that I actually like you? Pffft, please, as if!"
"Then why—"
"BECAUSE, Fat for Brains, as I've stated NUMEROUS times before, it's Halloween. It's all about getting out of your element, scaring the beeswax out of people, and getting as much candy as possible. And who better to accomplish all of that than dress up as none other than—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Iroha, we've heard this all before."
"Hey! Zip it, Patchy! I wasn't finished."
"Sounded finished to me. I'm on Lui's side on this one. This bald cap you forced me in makes me feel like an idiot. My hair keeps poking out of it from the sides!"
Lui chuckled a little, unable to resist. "Well, if the goal is to get you out of your element, it's definitely doing it's job."
Iroha smirked, pleased. She gestured a long arm towards Lui, looking at Oliver. "See?"
"But this is ridiculous. Can't I switch with Len?"
"Yeah! I don't wanna wear this stupid wig all night! I can't see anything! It's so dark! I can't see what's in front of me even. . ."
"Hey, ow! That's my USB tail, you moron!"
"Oh. Heh, heh, sorry Piko."
Iroha looked at them dryly. "Seriously? For Pete's sake, if you've gotta switch, just do it! I don't care."
"Splendid! And while we're at it, how about you and I switch as well, Iroha?" Tone crossed her arms, a small twitching scowl being repressed at the corners of her mouth.
"Of course not. Why the heck would we switch? What's wrong with your costume?" Unlike Tone, Iroha didn't try to hide her scowl.
"Well for starters, there are these dreadful pigtails! I don't see how I can't change for at least for one night; I look like a child!"
"Princess. . ." Iroha's eye twitched, looking ready to throttle her, "YOU ARE A CHILD!"
"Hmph!" Tone turned away from her, her nose high. "Well, excuse me. I just thought I would be much more suited for the role of the sophisticated, beautiful matriarch, considering I am one."
Iroha rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, you're not. Just because you're the first for MoeJapan doesn't mean you automatically assume the role. And if you had such a problem with it, you should have said so before we all bought our costumes and everything. Besides, it was my idea, so I'm the lead female. And there's nothing wrong with your character. The pigtails suit you." She smirked.
Piko stepped in this time. "As much as I don't like this, I have to agree with Tone. This costume I'm stuffed in makes me feel like a bloated ham wishing it were a mime! Is the fat suit really necessary?"
"Um, yes, and I do think that this wig is really quite itchy, Iroha. . ." Aria fidgeted.
"Yeah, and why do I have to be the butler? Sweezus, I reckon I look pretty spiffy in this here tux, but he hardly ever says nothing. Just grunts a whole lot. And ain't it the butler that's always the murderer in them thar mystery books?"
"Yeah, and not to complain, Iroha, I'm sure you had good intentions, but can't I get a better costume? I mean, I'm just a hand. . . A hand. Why do I have to be the hand?" Lapis stared at her hand with a down expression.
"And why do I have to be the baby? Do I LOOK like a baby to you?" Ryuuto scowled, offended.
Iroha's deep scowl couldn't help but turn upwards a little into a small smirk at that one, and she held back a small chuckle. "Well. . ."
"Okay, okay, everyone, calm down." Lui stepped forward, deciding to be the voice of reason, ready to stop the fight before it broke out. "So maybe we're not all completely happy with our costumes, but you can't just pin everything on Iroha. It was her idea, but she didn't make you choose your characters. You did that yourselves, and if you don't like them now, then there's no time to go back. It's already Halloween. We're all just gonna have to make the best of things. You know, look on the bright side."
Tone scoffed, flipping a raven-haired braid over her shoulder. "I seriously doubt there's a 'bright side' to any of this. Why can't we all just go home and change into our own costumes? I have a lovely fairy costume as back up and it screams mo—"
"Hey hey hey! We always dress up all together with a theme! You know we gather more candy as a group."
"Yeah, and then Piko eats it all," Ryuuto mumbled, crossing his arms with a small flick of his eyes in Piko's direction.
"HEY! What'd you just say?" Piko towered over him, scowling.
"U-Uh, n-nothing, Piko, wh-why would I say anything! Eh, heh, heh. . ."
Lui sighed, crossing his arms with an authoritative, final look on his face. "Look, we're going as the Addamses, and that's that. It's too late to turn back now. The bright side is that it's Halloween, we're going to have lots of fun, and get a ton of candy. Okay, guys?" He grinned clear across his face, trying to get everyone else to join in.
"Hey. . ." Piko looked at Lui suspiciously, letting Ryuuto down from his fist, much to his relief as he passed out right there on the sidewalk. "Why are you suddenly okay with all this? You were the one complaining about your costume in the first place!"
"For once, Piko's right. You can't be telling us now you're okay with being the Gomez to Iroha's Morticia." Tone turned her nose high again, as if the very idea were repulsive.
Lui twitched. "Well, I'm not. . . But I just don't want us all to fight over this. It's not so bad."
"But Lui, dear," Lapis stepped forward, her eyes reasonably distressed, "I'm a hand."
Lui shrugged. "Sorry, Jay-Jay, but with everything bad that seems to happen to you. . . It's the safest costume of the bunch."
"But it's not even really a costume. It's just my hand."
"Exactly, Lapis." Lui shifted uncomfortably.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Ryuuto interrupted this time, having woken up from his small fainting spell, and staring at him with wide eyes, "you're actually going to go around pretending that you love Iroha?"
Lui twitched again, and scowled. "No. I'll pretend to be Gomez, but that's where I draw the line." He looked at Iroha, his slight scowl dropping.
She just rolled her eyes. "Ah, come on, I don't see what the big deal is. Is it so unbelievable that someone would go gaga over me?"
"Well. . ." everyone chorused, excluding Lui who just continued to stare at her.
Iroha scowled darkly, clenching her fists up tight. "Shut up! Lui goes gaga over every girl that crosses his path! With all the dweebs I've had go gooey-eyed over me before, I don't think it's so hard to imagine that Lui, the KING of the geeks, would go goofy for me at least once."
Lui looked decidedly offended, but he just received her little speech with a dry half-lidded look.
"Hey, does that mean you think I'm a dweeb, little Miss Iroha?" Akikoroid asked, with a worried look on her face and scratched the back of her head uneasily.
Iroha just stared at her. "Do I even have to respond to that? Well DUH, I think you're a dweeb, Bun head!"
"Woah, that means she's got you in the same category as Kaito," Ryuuto said, a slight disgusted look on his face at the notion of being related in any fashion to Kaito.
"Don't take it as an insult, Akikoroid. We all know that Iroha doesn't like anyone," Lui snorted.
"I know. . ." Akikoroid sighed, used to it by now.
"Fantastic. Now are there anymore complaints or can we head out already while it's still dark out?" Iroha looked around with her brow raised, hands on her hips. "Because if so, I've got a sock in my pocket to use on any of you knuckle heads!"
Everyone looked around at each other and shrugged.
"Good. Now here, Sassy Pants, you hold these for me." She pulled down her hair from it's low ponytail and handed him her thick hair band, as she ran her hands through her hair a little so it'd fall more gracefully around her face like Morticia's. She ignored the odd looks she got and the surprised stare from Lui, and waved her arm out towards the neighborhood. "Now let's head out!"
"Hey, Iroha. . ."
Iroha stopped, having gradually made her way to the back of the group, and looked behind her. "Yeah?"
Lui looked at her a moment intently, then stared past her towards the rest of the group making it's way further and further ahead, then smiled at Iroha when he felt satisfied that no one was watching them. "I like your costume. . ."
Iroha smirked a little, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, you do, do ya?" She slowly brought herself to a stop, and turned to look at Lui, leaning towards him with the backs of her hands resting on her hips. "Starting to come around a little, are ya?"
Lui, having stopped as well, smirked back, not bothering to lean away. "I wasn't ever against the idea, Iroha. I was just pretending back there."
"You were? Well, well, well, aren't we the little actor?"
Lui chuckled a little, leaning forward as well now, the smirk all over his face and their noses practically crushing each other's. "It's Halloween, Iroha, dear. Everyone's a good actor tonight." He just continued to smirk at her, his eyes falling half-lidded as he brought his forefinger over to the underside of her chin and brought her eyes back to his. "Well, I was."
Iroha shivered a little, but whether it was from the cold night air or his touch, she wasn't sure. "I don't remember saying you could touch me, Mr. King of the Geeks. . ."
Lui just shrugged. "Maybe I'm not allowed to touch Iroha, but Gomez was always more than allowed to touch Morticia. Remember, Kitten? We're pretending to be married. . . with kids." He held back a chuckle.
Iroha gulped, and quickly pulled her face away from his, watching his finger fall down away from her chin. She pulled her long black sleeves over herself, and gave him her own shrug. "Okay, maybe it's okay tonight, but don't forget that tomorrow I'll be Iroha again. . . and you'll have to pay for every little touch." She smirked evilly.
Lui just leaned forward towards her again, grinning. "Is that a promise?"
Iroha nearly tripped over herself backing away from him and his implications. She did a double take of him, her eyes wide. "Lui, what—"
Lui just laughed, leaning away from her now. "Oh, nothing, nothing. . ." He went to walk around her, but before he passed her he winked quick and added, "Cara mia."
As he was making his smug ascent back to the group, he heard her respond back, "Whatever you say, Mon Cher." He heard her scoff after that, and mutter something under her breath. He just chuckled and continued the rest of the way to their friends.
Iroha watched him walk away in his dark pinstripe suit and shiny dress shoes, before she made a run for the alley right by her. She promptly tripped, though, considering the very limiting qualities of her dress. She fell flat on her face and stayed there a moment. . . before looking up and giving a dry look to the universe. "Seriously?" She huffed and tried to stand up, but promptly fell on her face again. "Grrr, stupid dress! Sweezus, how did that broad walk in this thing?" With much struggle and a few more trips and stumbles, she managed to force her way back into a. . . somewhat upright position by balancing herself on a trash can conveniently beside herself. She clung to it for safety as she continued on her small mission.
"WHOA, look at all this candy!" Piko awed, staring at their loot now sprawled across the table in Len's kitchen with wild, almost beastly eyes, rubbing his hands together.
Oliver smirked slightly, pulling aside some of the long locks of his wig to look at Piko. "You know what Puglsy would say we should do with all this, right?"
"No, what?"
"We blow it up."
Piko looked horrified, and quickly scuttled over to wrap his arms around all the candy and pull it protectively towards him. "Oh no you're not! You're not touching this candy without MY say so! And we're NOT blowing it up!"
"Ahhh, put a sock in it, Oreo—Or rather, Puglsy." Iroha leaned forward in her tight black dress with her hands on her hips, giving Piko the best sarcastic look she could muster.
"Madame Fortress Mommy. . ." Piko muttered with a small pouting scowl, looking back down at the candy in his arms as if it understood his pain.
"And give me that!" Iroha grabbed all the candy back from his arms and scattered it evenly across the table once more, and away from Piko. "It's not your candy, Piko, it's all of ours. Comprende?"
"Bu—"
"WHAT DID I SAY BEFORE? A sock? In your mouth? Recall anything of that nature?" She gave him a good, hard glare before looking back to the rest of the group, her eyes lighting up as she took a moment of her own to look amongst all the candy they'd managed to gather. "Alrighty then. . . good run, everyone! We must've TRIPLED last year's candy with all this! Although. . ." she cast a glance towards Lui and Oliver, her brow raised, "if it weren't for Sassy Pants and Patchy's little 'prank' last year, we might've had a much better turn out. . ." She grounded out through clenched teeth of an event they all swore to secrecy.
Oliver, dressed as Cousin Itt, just stuck his hand out from the mass of hair covering himself and made it out as a flapping mouth as he muttered a bit of Cousin Itt gibberish in mocking, "Boo bee bop skiddity diddity bla bla bla. . ."
Lui had to hide his chuckles behind a hand, as Iroha sent another glare their way.
"Willikers, I dunno if I can eat all that candy. . ." Akikoroid said, staring at the giant pile on the table with wide eyes.
Iroha rolled her eyes. "You won't have to, Aki. We're splitting it evenly. You'll only have to consume a tenth of it."
"Ohhh, well, that's a relief." She muttered dazedly, not sure whether it actually was a relief or not.
"It certainly is, Aki-Chan. My dentist strongly advises me away from candy, along with my diet," Tone announced importantly, staring down at the pile with a bit of disdain.
"Awwww, Ton-Ton, how can you be thinking about your TEETH at a time like this? Look at all this candy!" Piko grinned, clasping his hands in front of himself as he gazed lovingly down at their pile. . or, in his mind, his pile.
Tone scoffed. "Well, I certainly don't want to end up like YOU, Piko. Your teeth are a complete wreck. I mean, didn't your dentist ever advice you to get braces?"
Piko looked down. "Well, he did, but he said that once I had them on it'd limit a lot of the foods I eat 'cause they'd get stuck in them and stuff. . . and most of them were sweets. . . so I didn't get them."
Tone looked at him incredulously.
Iroha just looked bored and uninterested in the entire conversation. "Fascinating. . . Now come on, ya chuckle heads, let's split this up already before the Halloween party is over! I wanna get some of those chocolate eyeball things before they're all gone! Now who wants the honor of having the first Mr. Coco bar?" She held up a jumbo sized Mr. Coco bar with a grin.
Naturally, Piko was already half-way across the table making a jump for it.
"Well, what do we have here?" Kaito grinned as he made his way over to them, dressed as the Grim Reaper with his face all painted up to look bony and pale, a scythe held at his side proudly. "I don't remember letting you little ghouls in here."
"We just came in around the back, Kaito," Len explained, smiling mischievously.
"Ohhh, why didn't you just come in through the front? I have a great act for the kiddies that come to the door! I set up a smoke machine and lights and everything!" He cackled.
Lui shook his head. "That's why."
Kaito gave him a lively smirk, putting his hands on his hips. "Agh, ever the party pooper, eh, Lui?"
"Tell me about it," Iroha muttered dryly.
Kaito looked over towards her and grinned once more, taking her hand. "And WHO is this lovely young lady here? Morticia Addams?"
Iroha shifted a bit uncomfortably, but managed a small smile and curtsied a little dramatically. "The one and only."
"Awww, and Lui's your Gomez! How cute~!"
The other kids snickered and Lui frowned, looking over towards his Senior with a serious, reprimanding look. "Kaito. . ."
"Oh, don't give me that look, Kiddo. I can't take you seriously with that mustache." He chuckled, letting go of Iroha's hand. "Heh heh, come on, kids! We've got food, games, music—anyone interested in some. . . WORMS AND COCKROACHES?!" He pulled out his candy bowl full of the squirming insects and shoved it in their faces, cackling maniacally.
They all just looked at his bowl uninterestedly, though, before Len spoke up after a moment, "Kaito, that hasn't worked on us in years."
"Yeah," Piko spoke up, taking a couple cockroaches and shoving them in his mouth with a crunch as he continued to speak, his mouth full, "we know they're just candy."
Kaito stared at him with a raised eyebrow, pulling the bowl away as he scratched his head a little with a finger. "Actually, those really are cockroaches. . ."
Piko stopped chewing immediately and his eyes bolted open.
Kaito cackled again and began walking away, holding his arms out in a grand gesture to the entire party. "Enjoy yourselves!"
Iroha just shifted her way through all of the crowds of grown ups from the neighborhood 'til she managed to find the dining room, where a large spread of snacks and food was laid out across the table—blood red punch, some kind of hash of fruit salad made to look like guts, popcorn covered in a green goop of some kind, all different kinds of cookies including fingers, spiders, and bugs, caramel apples, bone-shaped pretzels, spider dumplings, and, the particular dish she had her eye on, gooey caramel and chocolate stuffed eyeballs.
She grinned, rubbing her hands together as she raced over to grab one and stuff it in her mouth. The chocolate and caramel of the inside of the grotesque looking eyeball burst in her mouth and she hummed in satisfaction. "Mmmm~"
"Enjoying my eyeballs, Cara Mia?"
Iroha nearly jumped clear out of her skin and spun around in a frightened flash, a hand shooting to her heart to try to calm it. "Oh-ho. . . STILLETOS! I could've sworn I've told you at least a thousand times to not sneak up on me!" She took a few deep breaths, forcing a weak scowl onto her face.
Lui just continued to smile, his eyes half-lidded again as they gazed at her. "Sorry, Iroha, dear. I was just looking for you is all, I didn't mean to scare you."
Iroha humphed, grabbing another eyeball and holding it close to herself with two hands, grumbling, "Yeah, well, at least you chose an appropriate night to do it. . ." She stuck the eyeball into her mouth and chewed, feeling that burst of chocolatey flavor overwhelm her mouth again as she smiled. "What better a night to be scared literally to death than on Halloween?"
Lui's smile increased. "So have you been enjoying the party? I haven't seen you around."
Iroha just shrugged. "I've been around, it's just a full house. I haven't seen you either. I mean, not that I'd want to. . . or was looking." She grabbed a finger cookie and munched it nervously.
Lui chuckled, looking her over. "I like your costume."
Iroha shifted a little, staring at him oddly. "Yeah, you told me before."
"It bears repeating." He grinned. "It was dark out, so I couldn't see you very well before anyway. You look really pretty with your hair down like that, Iroha. Why don't you wear it like that more often?"
She snapped, pointing a bone pretzel in his face with a scowl as she said, "BECAUSE, Sassy Pants, I don't FEEL LIKE IT! There's nothing wrong with my ponytail!" He'd hit a nerve. She couldn't stand the idea of Lui wanting to change anything about her anymore.
"I never said there was." Lui didn't back away, didn't look at the pretzel, just looked into her eyes with his own shining gold ones and a small smile he was clearly trying to hide. "Your ponytail is cute."
"I-it is?" Her scowl dropped and she was left staring at him dumbfounded, her arm going a bit limp in the air.
Lui looked at her in a way that she almost thought might be tender, before gently taking the pretzel from her hand and taking a crunchy bite. He smiled again. "Yeah, Iroha. You don't have to be all defensive. I was just saying you looked pretty." He shrugged.
She stared at him, gaping a little like a fish. She didn't know what to say. . . didn't trust herself to say anything.
Lui just finished the pretzel in his hand and rubbed his hands together to dust the salt away, before holding his hand out for her. "But anyway, Iroha, I was just looking for you to see if you wanted to dance. After all, we are dressed up as husband and wife. We should dance together at least once." He smirked.
Iroha's eyes just shifted down to look at his outstretched hand, her mouth still open. "Uh. . ."
Lui took her 'Uh' as a yes and chuckled, taking her hand in his. He lead her out of the dining room and back into the living room, where the frightful Halloween music was playing, and started to dance.
Iroha just stood there stiffly for a little while, looking around at all the other fools dressed up to look "scary" dancing around. Her eyes roamed around the room for a few moments before landing on Lui before her, and she opened her mouth, about to say she wasn't going to dance and he couldn't make her, when suddenly Lui grabbed her hands again and pulled her close to him. Her breath left her in a rush and the words she'd been about to yell were lost in some distant galaxy.
It was a fleeting moment, though, as he had pulled her forward to his chest then used her hands to push her away and spin her around, then let go of her hands again and continued to dance, trying not to laugh at her dazed and confused expression now. He was just trying to get her to loosen up a little, give her a head start.
Iroha swayed a little in her spot a moment before she shook her head and stared at Lui, her face blank. . . For a moment, both of them thought she was going to get angry, but she surprised herself when she shrugged and said, "Ah, what the heck." She grabbed the collar of Lui's fancy suit and pulled him close to her, so their noses were pressed against each other again, and this time it was Lui's turn to be wide-eyed. She just laughed and pushed him away again, though, then grabbed his hand before he could topple over from his suddenly weak knees and spun him around. When she'd let him go and finished the little spin, though, his back was to her.
He heard her laughing behind him, he knew she was dancing now, and it was a serious relief his back was to her, because he knew his face had gone goofy and his heart was beating a bit too fast for just mere dancing. He shook it off quick though and spun back around with a grin, as they continued to dance to the funny Halloween songs with the rest of their friends and family surrounding them. . .
"PHEW!" Iroha fell back onto the retro couch up in the Kagamine's room, a satisfied smile on her face as she brought her hands behind her head for support. "Well, we did it fellows. We made it to the final event of the night. . ." She looked over at everyone with an evil, overly pleased grin, as she whispered loudly, "SCARY MOVIES~!"
Len gulped, pulling his trench coat tighter over himself. "I-I'm afraid of a-any st-st-stupid movies. . ."
Rin, having finally joined them in her nun outfit, harrumphed, sitting herself demurely on the end of the couch where Iroha's feet weren't. "It's all just make believe, Lenny. Bring it on! I already missed trick or treating because I had to set up the party, so there's no way I'm gonna miss this!"
Oliver pulled off his giant wig of long hair and flopped down on the soft, carpeted floor, leaning up against the front of the couch. "Yeah, this has always been my favorite event of the night. I'm looking forward to 'Day of the Not-So Living.' "
Ryuuto stood up a bit straighter, smiling, "Or what about 'The 13th Friday'?"
"Oh! Or 'The Eyes on Hills'?" Lapis smiled.
"Or the 'Evil Twin' series? Can't forget those. Them right thar are classics." Akikoroid grinned.
Lui smiled, grabbing a big pile of horror films and setting them down on the TV that Luka had helped Len set up the day before just for the occasion. It couldn't get live TV, but the DVD player worked with it, and that was all that mattered. "Well, at some point we're gonna have to watch The Addams Family. It'd feel wrong not to, all things considered."
Iroha shrugged, stretching back more and near forcing Rin off the end of the couch, her eyes shut in contentment. "Eh, well, just pop in anything good and bloody and it's fine with me."
"All right." Lui shifted a bit through the pile of videos, before pulling one out with a grin. "How about we start out with 'Tokyo Chainsaw Massacre'?"
"PERFECT! Pop it in, Fat-for-Brains, and let's get this show on the road!"
Lui put the dvd in, shut off the lights, and walked over to the couch to sit down. Seeing Iroha still laying there and not looking in any way like she was planning on moving any time soon, he just shrugged, picked up her legs, sat down, and sat them back down in his lap.
As he relaxed back on the couch, he missed the wide-eyed look Iroha gave him from across the couch.
Later on in their horror movie-fest, Iroha was sitting upright now next to Lui, with Oliver having scooched his way to sit on the other side of Lui with his giant wig back over his face and body now because he "felt like it" (everyone knew he was just scared and wanted to security to feel like he was hidden away from the monsters).
All the more terrifying movies were over with now, though, and The Addams Family was playing on the modest little television. Every time Gomez and Morticia would do anything even a little romantic, Lui would shift a little in his seat in what Iroha could only figure was discomfort. She shrugged it off, though, and just continued to enjoy the movie.
Eventually, though, she couldn't ignore it anymore and she could feel his unusual closeness. . . She risked a look over at him, only to have her gold eyes crash into his amber ones already staring at her. She froze. He smiled brightly.
It was then she realized all that shifting he'd been doing was only making him come closer and closer to her gradually. . . Whether this was an accident, fate, or on purpose, she didn't know, but it had happened, and now she was staring into his half-lidded, bewitching eyes with her own wide, frozen ones.
He leaned closer to her unexpectedly then and whispered, "So Iroha, I wanted to ask if you'd stay after the party for a little while."
Iroha stared at him, her eyes almost wide enough to resemble the TV screen. "Wh-What for?"
Lui shrugged. "Just to hang out."
Ugh. . . It infuriated her that he could be so casual about it! He had to understand what he was doing to her. "U-Um, I. . ." She couldn't form words around him when he was asking her things like this and looking at her like that.
Lui took her hand suddenly and leaned his head over in front of hers so they were much closer, though his eyes stayed their same relaxed, half-lidded selves. "If it's about your parents or anything, you'll be back home before ten. I'd just like to spend a little time with you alone today, since we've been around everyone all day. You know, just to talk?" He lifted her hand to his lips and gave it a small kiss, his eyes not leaving hers.
Iroha's expression blanked. Her entire train of thought and comprehension of her surroundings she'd somehow managed to keep going had just crashed horrendously, exploded violently, and now her head was just smoking in the aftermath of the event.
Lui smiled, again in a way she almost thought might be tender (that is, if she could think, considering her brain had just been obliterated and all), and patted her hand before letting it go and whispering, "You can think about it. . . Cara Mia." He grinned.
"W-Whatever you say, M-Mon Cher. . ." she muttered dazedly, her brain still mush.
Suddenly the two of them felt eyes on them, though, and they turned to see Oliver as Cousin Itt staring at them. . . his face and body hidden under a sea of hair, his eyes behind a small pair of round, dark glasses, and a bowler hat covering his head. Those beady little eyes and the appearance of Cousin Itt in general staring at them like that unnerved them and made them both just have to stare back unabashedly.
The awkward moment was broken from a small squealing cry from Tone, sitting on the floor now, who'd just had the pleasure of watching Wednesday kiss some kid from the camp she was escaping through a metal fence. She pointed to the TV in horror, a fretful hand to her head. "Oh my gawd, look! My character is condemned to fall in love with a total geek! She kissed him and everything! AGH, how humiliating! As if I'd ever fall in love with a nerd. . ." She shuddered.
Rin leaned way over towards her with a wild grin, her pendant shining in the light of the TV. "Don't knock it 'til you try it, sister!"
"Ew! Don't say that!" She put her two forefingers together to make a cross and held it out towards her, as if she were some unholy creation that needed to be banished from this world.
"I'm not a devil, Tone! I'm a nun, moron." Her tone quickly swapped, however, when her eyes landed on the Techie of the group. "Unless you mean a handsome devil. . ." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and nodded her head in Piko's direction, leaning in closer to Tone just for the lulz.
Her body was met with a shove, though, naturally.
"Hey, keep it down! We're trying to watch a movie here," Ryuuto said, popping a few pieces of green, goopy popcorn into his mouth.
"Yeah, tone it down a little, guys," Lapis agreed, waving her 'hand' at them.
"Yeah," Iroha muttered, sinking down into the couch, "I need this distraction. . ."
"Bye, everyone!" Len and Rin waved his friends off as they left with their parents from the party.
"Hey, man." Oliver walked up, lightly nudging Lui's shoulder. "I'll catch ya tomorrow so we can start gorging on all our candy before I have to go home with mum and dad. You gonna be all right 'til then?" He glanced over at Iroha sitting on the couch in the living room amongst all the Halloween decorations, and looking like a decoration herself.
Lui smiled, remembering before and what Oliver had seen. "It's okay, Ollie. It's really no big deal, I was just playing the part earlier is all. It seemed to catch her off guard and you know how I love that." He smirked.
Oliver looked back over at him and chuckled, looking much more relaxed now. "All right, I believe you. So tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow," Lui confirmed with a nod.
"Great. SeeU," he joked, and walked down the Company's steps and over to his family waiting for him across the street in their car, before they all began their drive back home. Lui stepped inside while Len shut the door as the last few lingering guests streamed out the door, and turned around to see Iroha still sitting on the couch, staring down at her lap. He smiled a bit softly, and made his way over to her as he shooed the twins away. Rin giggled and gave Lui a thumbs up before skipping away down the hall.
"So I guess this means you've decided to hang around for a little while after all?" he asked, smiling down at her.
"Huh?" Iroha's head snapped up, as she seemed to be lost in thought, before she shook her head and waved him off, some of her sarcastic flair returning to her. "Okay, yeah, so? It's not like I've got anything interesting waiting for me at home anyway." She rolled her eyes.
Lui nodded, holding a hand out to her. "Well, we should go upstairs then. Kaito, Miku, Ring, Luka and Meiko will want to clean up a little bit before they go to bed."
Iroha ignored his hand and stood up by herself, raising her brow at him. "And you're not going to play Mr. Perfect Goody-Goody and help them out?"
Lui shrugged. "I'll help them later. I still have a guest." He smirked at her, keeping his hand still extended towards her stubbornly.
Iroha looked down at his hand with a dry look, her face very blank. "You know I'm not going to take that, right?"
Once more, Lui shrugged his shoulders a little, before taking her hand and leading her over to the stairs. "Eh, I wanted to hold out a little longer to see if you'd take it on your own. You can't blame me for hoping, right?"
"Well, actually, I could if I really wanted to." She smirked, trying to ignore the warm, wonderful feeling of his hand in hers.
As they stopped at the top of the stairs, Lui turned briefly to look at her with a small smirk of his own, stepping a bit closer as he raised an eyebrow. "But you're not actually going to, are you?"
Iroha stared at him a second, before scoffing. "Yeah, well, if I weren't so tired and you weren't so annoying, I would make it my business to squash down your hope. But I just don't feel like it right now." She shrugged.
"That doesn't even make total sense. . ."
"Like I said, I'm tired, Stiletto. I don't need to make sense."
Lui only chuckled, pulling her closer by the hand so they were just a few inches from being nose to nose once more that evening, his eyes falling back into their age-old position of being only half open. "Well, I guess 'tired' should explain a lot of my actions tonight then, huh?"
"What do you mean?"
He let go of her hand and shrugged, turning his back to her as he walked down the rest of the hallway towards his room. "Oh, nothing, Iroha. . ." She heard him chuckle lightly.
Iroha stared at him for a long while, watching as he pulled down the stairs of his room and walked up to his door to open it, before snapping out of it and growling, fed up as she ran towards him quick. "Hey, Slut Bag, I'm getting very tired of this!" She took meaningful, loud steps up the stairs and into his room, before placing her hands over her hips and scowling down at him in a reprimanding gesture. "You've been making confusing comments all night and acting like a total weirdo. . . and I mean more than usual! Now there's clearly something on your mind, so why don't you just suck it up and tell me already?"
Lui looked at her blankly for a little while, looking like he wasn't really thinking about anything or considering what she'd said at all, but just before she could get to yelling at him again, he moved. His hand came up ever so slowly to her cheek, before gently cupping it in his palm. The words died in her mouth, and her eyes widened, unsure of what he was doing exactly.
He continued to stare at her, his eyes a bit wider than before, as his free hand came over to shut the door firmly with a sure hand. Once the door was closed, his hand came up to cup her other cheek as well, and he took a step closer to her. Finally making some kind of expression, he raised an eyebrow, and smiled mysteriously, pulling her face down towards his. She didn't resist, obviously. "Okay, Iroha. You want to know what's going on? Well. . ." he shrugged a little faintly, "you know we've been friends for a while now. . ." His voice was quiet, soft. . .tender.
Iroha gulped with a small nod, her arms as limp and useless as noodles at her sides.
Lui nodded back as well, copying her action. "And you know, for quite a few months now. . . I've been doing some thinking. . ."
"You can think?"
Lui blinked as what she'd said processed, before giving her a slight scolding look.
Iroha just gave a sheepish smile, her entire being trembling in front of him, though he didn't know it. Or maybe he did, she just didn't know anymore. "S-Sorry. . . it just slipped out." She giggled nervously. "So y-you've been thinking?"
Lui sighed a little, before smiling once more and nodding, almost caressing her cheeks in his hands. "Yes." he confirmed.
"O-Oh. . ." Iroha smiled dazedly, ready to pass out. Instead, though, she just giggled. "Um. . . what about?"
"You," he answered simply, as if she'd just asked him what time it was.
"M-Me?"
"Yeah, and me, too. You. And me. And us."
"U-Us. . .?" 'Holy Sanrio…'
"Yeah. . ." he murmured softly, his eyes traveling all over her face in his hands.
"Uh. . ." 'Pull it together, Iroha! You can't do this, you know you can't, but for the love of all creation, TRY ANYWAY!' "Uh. . ." 'Oh, brilliant. You'll win awards for that one, genius... . .' "U-Uh, Lui. . . what do you mean?"
He continued to smile his small smile, before bringing their faces very close to each other, his breath on her even warmer than the weird smoke that had been coming out of Mew's cauldron downstairs hours earlier.
"Uh. . ." She stared down at his lips, as if they were some foreign object from a distant land far, far away. . . which, for a long time, they had been.
Lui just stared at her eyes, though, his fingers dancing gently over her face. He'd seemed very intent on kissing her a moment ago, but now as they were only a fraction of an inch apart from going through with it, his face blanked a little. . . Eventually he just pulled his head slowly away, as to not rip them both apart from the previously tender, meaningful moment, before just letting go of her face all together and taking a small step back. He took her hand as a quick afterthought and gave it a kiss. "I just mean," he spoke finally, as the smoke that had seemed to be overwhelming the room started to clear at last, "that I've been thinking. . ." he repeated again.
"O-Okay. . ." Iroha managed to mutter, her knees shaking, though thankfully the tightness of the dress concealed it. On the inside she was nothing but a gelatinous mass of pink, gooey love, though. After a moment, she managed to help him along a little, "Y-You've been thinking. . . about u-us?"
Lui nodded, his eyes closed and a smile on his face, grateful for the bit of help as he managed to gain back some clear thought. He opened them once his nodding was over and let go of her hand, and took a step back to sit on the edge of the couch behind him. He looked up at her sweetly, some of his hair that'd been slicked back before already beginning to pop back up into it's usual stubborn, crazy position, his little fake mustache near falling off his face, his jacket unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up to help relieve some of the heat of the house. But despite all that, he looked perfect. "Yeah, Iroha. All night all I've been able to think about is how. . . beautiful you look." He smiled, the twitch at the corner of his lips betraying his nervousness, though he hid it well, surprisingly. Must've been the hair gel had seeped into his skull or something.
Once more, Iroha's thoughts just turned into one major train wreck, and she was left as nothing more than a bumbling, baffled oaf in it's wake. "Wha?"
Seeing her confusion, he decided to just continue on and smiled understandingly, some confidence returning to him. He stood up and walked towards her again, holding his hand out. "I get that this must be weird for you, but—"
Seeing him coming towards her like that again, though, Iroha took a step back away in fear of him completely annihilating her mind and any intelligent responses that might come with it, but that was a bad idea. She stepped over her dress and tripped. Her arms flailed ridiculously at her sides, before she just toppled over on the ground, her hair flipped over all messily into her face. "Oof. . ."
Lui stopped mid-step at seeing this, before his eyes widened and he dropped to his knees towards her, frowning in concern. "Kitten, are you okay?"
"Peachy. . ." She muttered through the mass of pink hair in her face, puffing a great deal of it out of her face to reveal one narrowed gold eye. "See, THIS is why I don't wear my hair down. . ."
"Here, I'll help you." Lui reached over to grab her shoulder and her arm, attempting to pull her up. Her face came close to his as she heaved herself up, though, and he glanced up at just the right time to see it. . . The coral pink hair covering one eye, the one free, sparkling gold eye, the pale skin. . . He dropped her instantly, frozen with wide eyes. "Whoa. . ."
Iroha, on the ground once more and stuck like a turtle on it's back, or perhaps more appropriately, a beached whale flapping about hopelessly in some inane attempt at survival, just huffed loudly and said, "Whoa WHAT? Me on the FLOOR? Because, psht, yeah. . ." Growling, she attempted to push herself up off the ground, grabbing onto Lui's pants leg in the process. She ended up pulling him down with her, though, and he toppled over next to her with a little, "Oof!"
Unable to help herself, Iroha cackled a little, her legs now attempting to rip themselves out of the ridiculous dress. "How's it feel, Mon Cher? Say au revoir to standing UP!" She snickered.
Then, though, she surprised him by smirking and wrapping her arms around him quick and saying, "Because you're not going anywhere any time soon, Kiddo." She reached up and plucked the mustache off his lip and threw it away with the cloth, then ran a hand through his hair to make his hair spring back to life. Smirking devilishly, she grabbed his head and pulled them nose to nose once again that night, her eyes gleaming into his now wide ones. "Although I wouldn't complain if you ever wanted to wear that little mustache every once in a while. . ." She chuckled.
Lui stared at her, gulped, and mumbled, "K-Kitten? I-I. . . really, really l-like you. I have for a while now, but I thought after the party and all might be a good night to say so." He laughed nervously. "That's what I've been thinking, just so you know. . ."
Seeing his confidence had finally drained and he was finally left as nothing but a poor, overwhelmed, lovesick kid at last, Iroha grinned at the power she had. He'd been driving her crazy all night, and now finally she could have her revenge. Smirking once more, she dipped him back and said quietly, "I 'like' you too. Happy Halloween, Luis."
Lui, stiff in her arms, just smiled shakily and responded, "H-Happy Halloween to you t-too, Iroha. . ."
Iroha went to kiss him, but leaning her head down like that unbalanced them and she tripped over the dress again, this time falling on top of Lui with their arms still wrapped around each other, and Iroha's lips literally crashing into Lui's. They stared at each other in surprise a moment, before they parted lips and laughed.
She giggled. "You okay down there, Mon Cher?" she teased, trailing a couple joking fingers up along his chest.
Lui just chuckled again, setting his hand on her arm and staring up at her with a smile. "Fine. Though I've gotta say, Gomez or not, Iroha, I do like the French." His eyes fell half-lidded.
Iroha smirked, raising herself up over him. "Oh really?"
Lui nodded.
"Well, guess I'm gonna have to make it my business to learn more of that, huh?" She lowered her lips down to his and gave him a kiss.
Lui trembled, not used to kissing girls. But after a few seconds of it he relaxed and managed to return her kiss, and though it was clearly a beginner's kiss, Iroha found it completely bewitching.
Meanwhile, on the roof of the boarding house not too far from Crypton's skylight where the two kids were kissing, Miki, dressed as the Queen of Hearts, cackled wildly and waved her scepter at all the kids and grown ups still passing by down below, screaming, "OFF WITH YOUR HEADS! ALL OF THEM!" She laughed insanely, swinging her scepter.
"HAPPY HALLOWEEN! OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!"
A/N:
Okay, in case there was any confusion:
Gomez Addams: Lui Hibiki
Morticia Addams: Iroha Nekomura
Uncle Fester: Len Kagamine
Cousin Itt: Oliver
Wednesday Addams: Tone Rion
Pugsly Addams: Piko Utatane
Lurch: Akikoroid-Chan
Grandmama: IA/Aria
Thing: Lapis Aoki
Pubert Addams: Ryuuto/Gachapoid
I ran out of characters to use from the Addamses, and I really wanted to use Rin, but I thought every one else seemed to suit their roles. XD I was a little iffy with Akiko but, I don't know, I just wanted to include her with the kids. XD
