Nico opened the microwave once it finished heating up the small cup of butter she had put in. Pouring the unpopped kernel corn onto the pot along the melted butter, Nico closed the pot and turned on the stove and began to stir the pot. In a few minutes, the buttery snacks began to pop inside it. Nico looked back at the living room where Maki was sitting on the couch and tapping away on Nico's laptop.
"Are you done setting up the movies yet?" Nico asked out loud, still stirring the cooking pot.
"Yeah, playlist's ready" Maki put down the computer on the table and joined Nico in the kitchen, walking up behind her and putting her chin on Nico's shoulder, watching her prepare the popcorn "Couldn't we have just bought some packs of these things instead? We would've started earlier"
Nico stopped moving the pot and frowned "No! These are way healthier than that pre-made and micro waved garbage! Besides, don't you prefer Nico-Nii's cooking?" she asked and turned her head to turn to Maki.
The redhead responded with a quick peck to the lips and a smile "Of course I prefer your cooking. But you're taking long"
"They're gonna be ready in a minute or two. Besides, we can make as much as we want like this" Nico continued to stir the pot so the butter spread out evenly on all the kernels. Maki turned her head a bit so her face was pressed on the crook of Nico's neck and sighed contently "Nico-Nii's popcorn is ten times tastier than packed ones but if Maki-chan keeps this up I might burn them" the shorter girl said kind of playfully and swayed her body to try to "shake" the other off.
"Fine, I'll be in the couch" Maki mumbled and kissed Nico in the neck before letting her go and going back to the living room. Now that Nico was alone again, she smirked. It was Halloween night and Nico had planned the whole evening out: they were going to marathon scary movies, the scariest films that'd make her girlfriend cling to her all night long. Maki's a gorgeous woman but Nico was sure that'd a scared Maki would be cute enough to maybe even beat Nico-Nii's own adorableness! 'Yazawa Nico, You're a genius' she thought to herself and nodded, approving of her own master plan.
The popping sounds stopped by now, so Nico took off the lid and took a smell of the delicious popcorn. She poured all the snacks on a bowl and quickly met up with her girlfriend on the couch. Maki smiled and took some popcorn to her mouth and huddled up to Nico.
The raven haired girl hit play on the laptop and smirked "Ready for an unforgettable Halloween night?"
Unforgettable had been the right choice of words for the movie experience. There had been haunted buildings, monsters, serial killers and some ghosts too. Nico's plan had been successful as Maki had clung to her from the first third of the first movie. Unfortunately, it had been a bit too successful for Nico found herself clinging back on Maki by the time the second movie wrapped up.
"H-hey, Nico-chan…" Maki dared not look back to the TV, even if nothing but rolling credits were in it. "Ghosts aren't real, right?"
"W-what? Ghosts? Not at all… likely" Nico laughed nervously and stroked the back of Maki's head. She had to sound and brave cool for her girlfriend, it was all part of her plan after all, but she knew that she hadn't sounded convincing at all. An uncomfortable silence took over the room as the film came to an end.
"Can we turn the lights back on now?" Maki mumbled, finally loosening her grip on Nico.
"Oh, uh, sure! If Maki-chan wants some lights, we can turn them back on" Nico's lips twitched as she tried to smile. Maki got off Nico as she stood up and watched her go for the light switch. Nico felt her heart drop when the lights didn't turn on when she flipped the switch. No no no no no, no matter how many times Nico moved it the lights didn't turn back on.
"Nico-chan? What's taking so long?" Maki turned around and looked over at the other girl.
"I think the uh… the light bulbs burnt out" The petite girl gulped "Maybe we should just uh… go back to the bedroom?" she suggested instead.
"You're not trying to play a prank on me, are you Nico-chan? Because this isn't funny" Maki frowned and twirled an end of her hair.
"What, no! No! I'm not playing anything on you" Nico shook her head and walked back to the couch, offering Maki a hand. "Let's just get comfortable somewhere where the lights work"
Maki's frowned turned into a small smile before she reached out for Nico's hand.
And then a window slammed open on its own and with it a strong and cold autumn wind that managed to blow a few papers across the apartment.
What followed was Nico leaping at Maki and the two girls holding tightly onto each other as they both screamed for a second.
"H-h-h-hey Maki-chan, h-how about we get out and g-go visit Rin and Hanayo!" Nico stammered out an excuse to get the hell out of apartment that she never bothered to look up if it was haunted before moving in to it. Maki didn't even say anything, instead quickly nodding. In record time, the two girls had left their home, climbed down the stairs to the apartment complex's parking lot and gotten inside their car. Nico put in the keys and and turned them.
Instead of the car engine being revved up, it only whined and failed to turn on.
"Nico! Don't you dare tell me you didn't get the car fixed when I asked you to last week" Maki glared at the driver. Nico didn't answer, instead trying and trying again to turn on the car. One the fifth try, the engine finally started up. Hope beamed in Nico's eyes as she turned the vehicle around and sped out into the streets and towards their friends' house.
Rin peeked outside, making sure she remained hidden behind the curtains. Why was she treating looking out for trick-or-treaters as if it was a matter of national security Hanayo did not know, but Rin seemed to be having fun and she always beamed when she spotted children approaching their house so the brunette wasn't going to question it. Instead, Hanayo refilled the half-empty candy bowl with more sugary treats, including but not limited to milk candies wrapped up in thin rice paper, lollies, chocolates and gummies of all shapes and sizes.
"Kayo-chin kayo-chin!" Rin squinted as she looked out to the dark outside before bolting to Hanayo's side and whispering "Someone came! In a car!"
"In a car? Then it mustn't be trick or treaters… who do you think they could be?" Hanayo tilted her head. She approached the door and was about to lookk out through the peephole until a couple of really loud knocks made her jump back and startled her so much her voice didn't come out. The other girl quickly ran to her side to make sure she was okay.
"Nico-chan! That was way too loud!"
"That's Maki-chan's voice!"
"Well I don't wanna be outside for one more second!"
"And she's with Nico-chan too!" Rin grinned and once she made sure her wife was alright, the ginger got to the door.
"Maki-chan! Nico-chan! Happy Halloween!" Rin pounced over the two friends and pulled them into a tight hug.
"H-hey Rin, long time no see" Nico managed to breathe out as she got crushed in the tight hug
"C-can we come in?" Maki's question perked Rin's attention as she let them go before nodded excitedly.
"Sure! Come on in!"
"Maki-chan, Nico-chan, make yourselves at home!" Hanayo smiled at her dear friends "Do you want some candy?"
"Have a safe night!" Hanayo waved at the children that she had just given candy to before closing the door and joining everyone else in the living room.
"You know, if you wanna talk about safety, you probably shouldn't even be giving out candy" Nico shook her head disapprovingly.
"Eeeeh, why not? It's Halloween!" Rin retorted "All children who dress up should get candy!"
"Yeah, but what if it's not a child that comes up to that door?" Maki proposed, rubbing her arm with one hand and twirling her hair with the other.
"Well, adults can trick or treat too, I suppose" Hanayo smiled "I know I'd like to do it"
"What if it's an adult who doesn't want candy? What if his treat… is killinghomeowners who carelessly open doors to whoever knocks them?" Nico shuddered at just the thought.
Both Hanayo and Rin gasped loudly and held each other. "B-b-but! I-i could fight him! He'd be totally outmatched!" Rin pumped her fist while protectively holding the brunette with her other arm.
"Yeah maybe, but not if it's actually an unkillable and machete wielding murder machine who kills for sport!"
"Or what if it's the killer ghost of a bullied girl driven to suicide?"
"Or a psychopath who'll use a kid to bait you to open the door?"
Nico and Maki hadn't even realized that they had been throwing ideas back and forth of who could come to the door to slaughter all four of them, but when the bell rang they finally came to a stop. When neither of the homeowners stood up to get the door, the two visitors turned to the other girls to find them huddled and clinging to each other on the verge of tears.
The bell rang again.
And again.
"Are you guys going to get that?" Nico pointed at the door, and the only response she got was a negative through a synchronized head shake.
BANG BANG BANG
All four girls jumped and screamed and scrambled out of the house from the back entrance of the house, making Olympic times to Nico's car. Nico revved up the engine on first try and once she made sure that the other three girls were inside she hit the pedal to the medal.
And also leaving a kid with a blanket ghost costume both confused and disappointed at the door of the house.
Thankfully nearest's friend's house was only a few minutes away by car. At least, with how fast Nico drove it only took a few minutes. They were lucky enough that there weren't any trick-or-treaters in the way.
"Whose house is this?" Rin poked her head out of the window as she stared at the two-story building in front of them.
"Honoka and Tsubasa's house" Maki said as she stepped out of the vehicle.
"I really can't stand them when they're flirting 24/7," Nico faked gagged before continuing, "but they're closest people to your house. Well, second to us."
"I-i didn't know Tsubasa lived so close!" Hanayo's anxiety flew right out of the window as she marveled at the rather normal-looking house. A-RISE's glory days were long over and now Tsubasa had been dating Honoka for years but the brunette still found it hard not to fawn over her once favorite idol.
With the comfort of a new place to stay, the four girls approached the house. Right next to the door lied a half empy basket of candy and sweets.
"We should've done something like this before we left our house!" Rin pointed at the bowl of treats "They're so smart-nya!"
"It was probably Tsubasa's idea if you think that's smart then" Maki rolled her eyes before she raised her hand to knock on the door.
"Wait." Nico grabbed Maki by the wrist and stopping her right before she could knock. "Don't. Let's go somewhere else."
"Eeh? Why? We just got here!" Rin threw her arms in the air.
"Let's just go. I… I don't want to think about it" Nico began to walk back to the car but Maki didn't budge.
"Nico-chan, why the heck are we leaving?" The redhead demanded an explanation, but Nico didn't seem she'd be giving any tonight.
"I said I don't want to talk about it! Let's get outta here already!" Nico did her best to pull Maki but she lacked the strength to do so. Her petite frame also didn't help.
"Nico-chan, at least please tell us why you're so adamant in not going into Honoka-chan's house" Hanayo put her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder and smiled.
Nico pouted, she couldn't say no to the sweetest request of Hanayo. Defeated, the raven haired girl sighed and pointed at the door handle. "See that?" On a closer look, there was an orange ribbon hanging from the door. A cute Halloween door decoration for the ignorant. Nico knew better however.
"You don't want to go in because of a dumb ribbon on the door handle?" Maki raised an eyebrow in disbelief "Nico, please-"
"No, that ribbon means that Tsubasa and Honoka are busy with each other tonight." When Nico saw she didn't get any reaction for the other three, she repeated while making scissor signs with her hands and locking them together "Really busy"
Both Rin and Maki blushed brightly and Hanayo tilted her head in confusion. "It's something I taught Honoka a while ago. Don't ask why I needed to teach her that. Can we go now?" Nico wanted to leave before she heard any loud noises from the house's bedroom.
"Where should we head next?" Hanayo asked "Kotori-chan is still abroad on her fashion show…"
"Oh oh, what about Umi-chan?! She can take on any thing that'd go after her!" Rin made the motion of of holding a bow and arrow "One shot, one kill!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself Rin" Maki shook her head "Haven't you watched any movies? The first ones to get disposed of are the strong and dependable characters. We can't go to Umi, no matter how secure she'd make us feel"
"Then that leaves us with…"
"Nozomi! Open up!" Nico yelled as she loudly banged on the door of the apartment that her other two former classmates shared.
"Nico-chan, you're being too loud. Again." Maki rolled her eyes.
"Are you sure we're not intruding on them?" Hanayo asked, starting to feel uncomfortable again.
"Well, do you want to go back to your house or our apartment where there's probably a ghost?" Nico raised an eyebrow. Hanayo quickly shook her head "Besides, Nozomi owes me one"
The door suddenly opened, making Rin jump behind Maki and scarinf the redhead in the process.
"Ah! Nicocchi! And Maki-chan, Rin-chan and Hanayo-chan! Happy Halloween!" Nozomi greeted them all with a warm smile "We're not giving out candy this year, I'm sorry"
"We're not here for candy-nya!" The ginger jumped to Nozomi, giving her a hug "Although candy would've been nice" she mumbled.
"Oh? Then what brings you all here?" Nozomi tilted her head, still smiling.
"Can we stay over for the night? We uh… had some complications at the apartment and their house" Maki quickly made something up
"Oh! Sure! You're all welcome!" Nozomi grinned "Eli just finished preparing the horror movie marathon we planned for the whooole night!"