It was almost 5 o clock at the agency, and the four of them were getting things ready for halloween. They never failed to succeed when it came to having a good time on halloween, always inviting all their friends over to join them and have a huge party. They put more effort into halloween then their birthdays, and had a huge reputation around town about halloween, and how well they played the holiday off.

Shadow watched Espio walk into the main room and place a box on the floor, inside it seemed to be wall decorations such as tinsel, 'fog' and stick ups of ghosts and other 'scary' images. He could tell they were all new though, as they were all still sealed and had tags on them. The sofa Shadow was sitting on had been pushed to one side, beanbags scattered around him along side little stools which had cardboard cups and plates on them. The hedgehog noticed Espio struggling to hang up a banner, trying to hold up both ends of the very long strip by himself. He chuckled internally before pushing himself up and walking over to Espio smugly. "Need any help?"

"Please." Espio replied, watching Shadow tear off the sticky back on his side and press the banner against one side of the wall and then copied him once done. He dusted his hands. "Thanks Shad."

Shadow nodded and gave Espio a smile, to which the chameleon smiled back in response. It was the first time Shadow was celebrating halloween, and he was celebrating it with his work colleges at the chaotix. He wasn't very fond of Vector and Charmy, but he and the chameleon were very close and could even be classified as friends. To be honest though, he would've much rather spent his time somewhere else and with his other friends such as Rouge and Knuckles, but since they were all heading to the chaotix for halloween he decided to stay and see what the big deal was. He leant against the wall and watched Espio stick some pictures onto them, with a slight cringe on his face.

"Man these just get tackier by the years." He commented turning to Shadow. "I absolutely hate all this bullcrap about halloween. I just like seeing everyone and fancy dressing. Don't feel theres a need for all this." He sighed, scratching the back of his head. Shadow just nodded in response as Espio leant on the wall next to him when he was done. "But don't you worry, I promise you we will make sure you have a good time." He reassured, poking the black hedgehog and grinning. "I mean it."

"Yeah yeah." Shadow replied in response, an apathetic tone on his face. He scanned the room, noticing the other two team mates hadn't been down in a while. "Where are Charmy and Espio?"

"There coming down soon, just getting changed."

"What are they dressing as?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow. "I just took Rouge's advice and got some vampire stuff."

"Vector's going as some captain pirate and Charmy's going as a superhero."

"Right…And yourself?"

"A gothic butler sorta thing…I was too lazy to go out so I'll just put on one of my old suits and add some make-up on." Shadow raised an eyebrow at Espio's reply. "What, don't like the idea?"

He shook his head. "No it's a good idea, but you wear make-up?"

The chameleon blushed slightly and looked away. "Not like that. I had to get some make-up once for when I was on a goth mission…I'm not going to lie I think I blended in pretty well.."

"Excuses excuses…" Shadow teased, flicking his friend on the horn. They then turned to see Vector and Charmy marching down the stairs in their outfits. "Oh hey guys."

Vector huffed and banged his fists against his chest like a gorilla, despite the tight pirate outfit and hat he was wearing. "How do I look guys?!"

"You look great, Vec." Espio said, a small blush on his face and a laugh also escaping his mouth. "Suits you."

"What about me Shadow!" Charmy beamed, flying over to Shadow and twirling in mid air. "Don't I look cool?"

"Uh…" Shadow felt a sweat drop appearing. "I suppose."

"Yay!" He gave Shadow a large smile, showing Shadow his silver-painted teeth. "Aren't you going to get ready guys? The party will start soon!"

"Oh yes, yes we were" Espio answered, elbowing Shadow. "Come on Shadow, lets get your fangs in place."

The corniness of Espio's words made Shadow cringe also.

People had already arrived at the party, but Espio was still getting ready. He was finding difficulty fixing his braces; Once he got them both on they'd snap off which was irritating him as he was determined on wearing this outfit and nothing else. What was worse was that he couldn't rub his eyes from his blinding light now that he had thick black eye shadow on, he drew lines down from his eyes to the tips of his muzzle to make it look like he was crying tears and to top it all off was wearing dark black lipstick.

"Espio?"

He jumped slightly, but from the mirror he could see none other then the pirate crocodile from earlier peering his head through the door and looking at Espio's reflection through the mirror. Espio didn't know what to think when he noticed Vector's face turn as pink as his scaled and look down slightly.

"Wow, you look really good Espio." He just about mumbled, emphasising ever so slightly on the 'really.' The chameleon smiled in response and turned around, assuming Vector's shy acting was from an encounter with Vanilla. "Why aren't you downstairs? Nearly everyones here."

"I can't seem to get the braces on properly." Espio answered, walking over to Vector and holding the braces in his own hands. "And I don't feel comfortable not wearing them because this shirt so see-through."

Vector nodded, understanding Espio had insecurity problems and turned Espio around so Espio's backside was to Vector. "I'll put them on." Espio definitely wasn't going to complain as he felt Vector's hand gently stroke his own back as he pulled the brace down and clipped one in. "Should I tighten it?"

"If you can." Vector nodded and tighten the brace by pulling a few pieces of the fabric from behind, and then worked on the other brace. Once the other one was snapped into place and fixed, Espio did a elegant twirl and turned to Vector with a hand on his hip. "It does look better with the braces on." Vector then said. "And the gothic makeup looks good too, can't believe you still kept all that stuff."

"Well could come in handy, and it cost us quiet a bit didn't it?" His black nails scratched themselves against the wall slightly as he headed towards a drawer. "Since you're here, could you help me put these in? You know how much trouble I have with contact lens." He took a small box from the top of the drawer and handed it to Vector, smiling. "They make my eyes more fluorescent and glow slightly, they were on sale at the costume shop and Charmy wanted them to be laser man, but I guess he found your old superman costume." He laughed slightly and sat on the bed. "Bless Charmy though, he's so adorable…"

"Heh, yeah, our little boy…And sure thing Espio." He sat on the bed next to Espio.

"Our?" Espio started, pulling at the bottom of his eyelid. "What do you mean?"

"Well were like a big family aren't we" Vector started, getting out a contact and gently placing it against Espio's eye. "I'm the big guy…Charmy's the son, Shadow is the new edition brother…"

Espio blinked slowly and let a small smile come on his dark lips. "And what am I? The mum?" He said, laughing slightly.

Vector shrugged and got out the other contact, and Espio did the same actions with the other side of his eye and Vector put his face close to Espio's trying to get the contact in. "Yeah, you can be mummy and I'll be daddy."

Espio gulped as Vector's breath was hitting against his face and lips were so close to his own. He notice the crocodile too was blushing and dropped the contact lens in response to the scenario they were in. "Oh drats." He crawled onto Espio slightly and stretched his arm onto the floor, picking up the lens that landed behind where Espio was sitting.

"Aha I got it!" He got back up and noticed he'd by lying on Espio the whole time he attempted to get the lens. His face went red. "Sorry Espio."

"Yeah, couldn't you have bent forwards instead of onto me?" They shared a small laugh together and then Vector put Espio's lens in his eye. Espio blinked twice when Vector had done. "Thanks again."

"That's alright, lets go down to everyone else now?"

Espio nodded. "Sure thing, Vector."

Shadow did seem to be enjoying himself, to his own surprise. He was sitting on the sofa alongside Rouge, Knuckles, Sonic and Amy who were all gossiping and telling silly secrets that were no ones business, but people were still interested in knowing. Shadow had no secrets to share though, and planned to keep the one Espio had told a few days ago to himself because he realised how much trust Espio was putting into him when he said those two words to Shadow. He was busy listening in on a secret Rouge and Amy were blabbing about. "Yeah, I kissed Amy one time, we were drunk and all." Rouge happily admitted, popping her lips and looking at Amy. "Can't remember how it felt though, but at least she doesn't have that annoying muzzle stubble you guys do."

Amy giggled slightly. "Yeah, it was kinda weird though, I mean I'd much rather be kissed by Sonic…No offence Rouge!" The bat just shrugged, knowing how much Amy adored the blue hedgehog on the beanbag.

"Awh I wish I was there…" Knuckles admitted, putting his fist to his chin. "I've always wanted to see two girls kiss."

"Well, maybe if one of you kisses a guy we'll kiss each other again, right Ames?" She elbowed the pink 'fairy' next to her, who's ears dropped and began to blush.

"S-Sure…As long as Sonic isn't doing the kissing!" Amy argued, poking the witch the boys wanted her to kiss. The echidna who had devil ears and a red bodysuit on frowned.

"Eww I ain't kissing another boy, that's totally gay Rouge, totally super gay." Knuckles argued, shaking his head. "At least two girls are hot!"

"I'm not gay but whats so bad about two guys kissing each other?" Shadow asked, mentally sticking up for his friend. Everyone looked at him dumbfounded.

"If you think it's so easy to do why don't you go and kiss some bloke?"

"Uh…Ok" Shadow replied, shrugging. "Can't be that bad."

They all watched in awe as the hedgehog dusted his knees and walked over to where one of his old friends were.

"Omega."

"Shadow." The mobian replied in a croaky tone. It had been a few months since Eggman mobianised the robot, turning him from metal to mobian. It took a lot of work from Eggman, but thanks to the help from Tails, Eggman and everyone else Omega now lived off donated blood and was, just like Shadow, a mobian android.

The hedgehog himself was glad to see Omega at the party, but he was wondering why Omega came, considering he wasn't close with the chaotix at all, or anyone him other then Shadow and Rouge. "It's good to see you Omega."

Omega slowly nodded, eyeing the hedgehog up and down. "Likewise. I'm glad you came to talk to me actually."

"Yeah?" Shadow said, slightly shocked Omega said that. He took a sip from the cup of water he was holding. "You know you are allowed to sit with us, you don't have to ponder here."

He shook his head; Moving his head side to side statically to show he was shaking his head. "I am not in good terms with Knuckles and Sonic." He then attempted a sigh. "Euhhh…"

"Well if they did anything to you I'd kick them out" he winked at Omega "because I can, can't I? I live here now…" He then lingered off and looked around. "What do you do these days, Omega?"

Omega didn't reply, just looked down at his own feet. He noticed Shadow waiting for him to answer and decided to answer the only thing he could say without feeling like he was lying. "Nothing. Of. Importance."

Shadow scratched his ear. "How is it here? At the agency? Things are working out yes?" The only problem they had was that omegas voice had one tone, and would only go up if damaged physically. But Shadow thought Omega clearly seemed saddened by something.

"You could say that, made friends with the chameleon Espio." He pointed over to Espio who was chatting away to a silver hedgehog dressed as a robot. "You'd like him too."

"That's good…" They then paused for a long time. "Are you ever going to visit sector 11 again?" Sector 11 is where Omega lived along with some of the workers from GUN, but he knew Omega didn't speak to them.

Shadow paused, realising Omegas sadness was out of jealousy more then anything. "Whenever I'm free next I'll pop by." Shadow answered honestly, leaning with one hand against the wall. He noticed a small smile appear on Omega's face, he'd never noticed the robot-like friend of his smile before, and it felt nice to know he could bring a small smile to the robots face.

He heard a loud, and obviously purpose coughing and turned to the red echidna sitting on a different bean bag and giving him an expression with his lips puckered out in a kiss form. Omega, too noticed this and raised an eyebrow very slowly. "Does that not mean kissing?" Omega asked, tilting his head to one side.

"It does indeed mean kissing…" Shadow said, frowning slightly. "I said I'd kiss a guy."

"Like…A request? Which guy were you planning on kissing?"

"Yes a request and…." He chuckled crossing his arms and looking up at Omega, who was about the height of his chameleon friend. "Who do you think I mean?"

Omega scanned the room and then back down at Shadow, realising who he meant. "…Okay. I do not mind." Shadow smirked and looked over at the group before kissing Omega on the lips lightly.

When he moved his mouth away, he could see the blood rushing to Omega's cheeks. "Omega sit with us now alright?"

"Affirmative." Omega hesitantly replied, nodding as best as he could and walking behind Shadow and sitting with the others, who's mouth were all hung open.

'Heh this party just keeps getting better…' Shadow thought. "Well go on ladies, we did our side of the deal. Time to pucker up~"

Amy and Rouge looked at each other awkwardly.

"Guys did you hear! Shadow and Omega kissed!" Charmy beamed, running towards Cream, Vanilla and Vector. "Apparently it was a dare!" The three of them were sitting at one of the folding tables Vector had set up in the kitchen, and were playing a card game.

"Well, is there anything wrong with that dear?" Vanilla began, sipping on her glass of wine. "They have been very close friends for a while and many women do so anyway."

"No ma'am but I just never pictured Shadow interested in love life!" Charmy argued, taking a seat next to Cream and poking one of her cards. "Save that card for last."

The rabbit turned to him and giggled. "Okay then." She placed the card Charmy pointed at faced down to make sure she didn't use it and placed down a different card. "I'm very happy for mister Omega though, it must be nice not to feel so lonely and left out. If only I was able to do so to Emerl…" She sobbed slightly.

"Awh Cream don't you worry! Emerl must be really proud of you! I'm sure Emerl loves you the way you are." He grinned "And as long as you loved Emerl as they were I'm sure they'd be happy knowing you love them! They wouldn't need to change right?"

Cream blushed slightly. "Oh uh…Yes thats true…You're always so kind to me Charmy." She watched Vector place a card down who was now looking at the two with an evil grin on his face. "Why is he looking at us like that? It's kinda scary with his pirate outfit…"

"I dunno Cream, maybe it's part of his halloween act?" He answered. He noticed Vanilla had began to fill her cup up with more wine. "Miss Vanilla Vector always told me drinking was bad…"

"Yes, you are drinking a lot…" Vector added, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a celebration right? So I can drink as much as I want!"

As the older rabbit drank her wine down faster then anyone could imagine, Charmy noticed Cream scolding her before quickly looking away.

"You wanna go somewhere else Cream? We have those erm…Princess cakes to match your outfit." Charmy said, poking her princess dress. "It's really yummy I had one before the party…" He noticed Cream looking at him slightly confused. "Okay, I had two! But still come on." He held her hand and jumped off his seat. "Lets go go go!"

Cream smiled at Charmy, then at Vector and hopped off her chair, running out innocently with the six year old. Vector chuckled slightly. "They are definitely in the 'puppy love' stage."

"Heh…Yerh." Vanilla said, wiping her mouth.

She saw Espio and Silver walk into the kitchen and her immediate reaction was to lean her on Vector's shoulder and bust her chest out in her tight queen of hearts corset to try and make the boys jealous.

Even though the two teenagers knew she was drunk, it was working ever so slightly. Silver was jealous mainly due to him and Blaze's breakup, but Espio was jealous of her. She could win Vector's heart in a flash.

"Vanilla drunk again?" Espio asked, sitting where cream just was and lifting up the card she placed down.

"I'm right here Espio…" She said, getting up and trying to keep her head in the air, but all 3 of the boys could see she was struggling. "I'm just fiinneee…"

Silver, who was dressed as a prince, sat next to Espio and began picking up the cards on the table. "Hey look at this Espio." He pulled his chair closer to Espio's and waved one of the cards about. "This is a weird card, not in the usual deck is it?"

Espio leant over slightly, making the sides of their heads touch. "That is weird, hey Vector what card is this?" He took the card and waved it in front of Vector. "Hm?"

He snatched the card off Espio and raised an eyebrow. "Never seen it." He then looked away from Espio and at the drunk rabbit who was pressing her bust against the table. He looked away shyly then over at Espio.

Silver suddenly realised he was in the middle of what seemed to be an awkward situation and stood up quickly. "Hey Espio I need to go to the toilet!" He said, lying through his teeth. "I'll be right back okay!"

"Uh…Alright?" Espio watched him leave and then turned to Vector who was doing his best to get Vanilla sitting upright. "Cream looked a bit sad when she left the room with Charmy, she probably doesn't enjoy seeing her mum like this, it probably is embarrassing for her." He laughed a bit. "It's a good thing you stopped drinking, our son will be proud of you." He winked slightly.

Vector rolled his eyes. "I suppose. I don't really like Vanilla like this either." He whispered, in hope the rabbit wouldn't hear. "She makes herself too revealing, I always preferred people who kept their bodies to themselves so when their lover sees it it's special…" He then grabbed slowly by Espio's brace and let his hand move up and down the brace. "A bit like you, I suppose."

"Yeah?" Espio replied, noticing Vanilla had been starring at them the whole time. "Maybe you should let Vanilla know too, she's obviously trying to hit on you…"

"I don't like her that way, why doesn't anyone understand that?" He sighed and stood up, moving to a seat which was far from vanilla but next to Espio. "Yeah, I had one of those crushes on her but…Then i got to know her, jeez she's drinks more then I do on a bad day." He rubbed his snout.

"Oh…But you've been acting distant, I thought you liked her?"

"Erh…I like someone yes. But not her…" His voice then went back to normal. "You think you'll be staying the night ma'am?"

"If I could…" She slurred, head slowly lifting from the table. Vector nodded. "Thanks…"

"You can have the sofa though." She didn't seem to reply, so they assumed she passed out. "We best make the kitchen out of bounds to make sure she's safe."

"Yeah, I promised Shadow he'd have a good time too, so I best go see if he's having one."

They both then nodded and left the kitchen, closing the door behind them, and heading over to their own social groups.

Espio didn't realise how long he'd been in there, because when he came out half of the people had disappeared. He looked at the clock and realised it had almost turned 10 o clock. 'Wow…' He thought, looking around to see Shadow, Rouge and Omega talking. He noticed that they all seemed to be engrossed in their conversations, so decided to pick up a cup and drink whatever was in it, trying to act busy. He was tempted to spit it out though, he hated the taste of pineapple juice, but decided not to cause a scene and swallowed it with a bitter look running across his mouth. His bitterness went away when Shadow signalled him to come over.

"Hey I haven't seen you since the party started…" Shadow said, waving to him. "Jeebus you look awesome though!" His eyes travelled up and down Espio's body. "You were right when you said you put the look off quiet well."

The chameleon grinned and walked over to them, sitting on a yellow beanbag and putting his drink aside. "I'm not known for my lying Shadow, you also make a great vampire, and Rouge you make a great witch." He then turned to Omega. "Hello Omega."

Omega was the only exception when it came to the fancy dress, because they knew the android was still developing. Espio smiled at him and the robot nodded. "Hello Espio." His voice was monotone, but it always was, so Espio took no offence to it. "Shadow tells me you are a great friend of his."

The chameleon's face suddenly lit up more then before, not realising how much he meant to Shadow. He did his best not to smile even more. "I…I suppose." 'I am?' He turned over to the woman of the trio. "I love how you're always a with but always get a new outfit which never ceases to amaze all the people in the room who are interested and have desires for women."

Shadow chuckled, realising what Espio basically was saying was he didn't like what she was wearing. "Well I must say, you look fucking sexy."

The chameleon nevertheless blushed at what Rouge was saying. "I'm sorry to say I disagree with your inquiry about me."

"Pfft don't say that, come on someone agree with me when I say he's hot!"

The last few people in the room other then them were Charmy, Cream, Vector and Mighty, the older two of the group walking over to Rouge. "Oh Espio!" Mighty chirped, showing off his cowboy outfit. "You do look pretty sinister, it's cool."

Espio was going to argue that that meant a completely different thing, but didn't want to. "I like the western theme you have." Mighty raised his eyebrows and bucked his own hips. "Yeah…" Espio was slightly unamused by Mighty's cowboy actions despite thinking the theme suited him.

"Well I said you look awesome, but I'm sure you could attract anyone Espio." Shadow replied, grinning slightly. "Maybe even some men will come crawling to you."

From the corner of Espio's eye he noticed a green crocodile staring at him with a light blush on his face.

"Heh, yeah that'll be the day Shadow, that'll be the day."

It wasn't long after that that the chaotix were the last ones in the house. Shadow was standing at the door seeing off Omega.

"I'll see you at Sector Eleven tomorrow Omega" he said with a slightly heroic looking smile on his face. "See you later."

"Goodbye, I hope to see you then." He said, before walking into the blackness and going out of sight. He closed the door and turned to Espio who was now talking to Vector. He leant against the door and let out a quick sigh.

"So, did you enjoy the party?" Espio finally asked, tail swaying from side to side. "That was probably our worst one yet though, we were much to lazy to add as much effort as usual in thanks to our mission last night." He groaned. "Hated that mission."

"Well, I don't know you're parties before but it was…Interesting. The only complaint I can make is that it wasn't scary or anything like that, just felt like a normal party!"

Charmy blushed and looked away. "Yeah well if it was scary Cream wouldn't have come! And she's the only person I talk other then Tails, who didn't come for some reason…"

"Awh bee boy has a crush on Cream…" Shadow teased. "That's pretty adorable. Young love. Bah. Well then I suppose it's okay, i'll let you off."

"Shut up! I do not fancy Cream!"

"No no I think Shadow meant you love her…" Vector added, giving him googley eyes. "Charmy and Cream sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g."

"Shut up!" Charmy wailed, flying up to his room in embarrassment. A sweat drop formed on the chameleons head.

"Poor guy, you didn't need to bully him Shadow. I mean you're the one who kissed Omega." He gritted his teeth slightly as Shadow glared at him. "I know I know it was just a dare! A straight as a ruler…" 'A slightly bent ruler, that is.'

"Yeah, think nothing of it, just like Omega did. But I missed speaking to him, he's that kind of guy that when I see him after all this time…I get happy. Sort of strange."

"I know how it feels Shadow." Vector admitted. "I like seeing all you guys y'know! Even you Shadow, you're just so fun to tease when you're angry!"

"Heh. Likewise croc likewise. I best go up and rest, told Omega I'd be there early so I'll be signing off now." He nodded at the two before heading upstairs.

And the two reptiles were left alone, looking awkwardly at a passed out Vanilla on the sofa. "So where are you sleeping tonight Vector? You let Vanilla sleep on your bed…"

Vector shuffled about, and mumbled. "Maybe your bed…"

Espio couldn't quiet hear him and scratched his earhole. "Pardon Vector?"

"I'll sleep with you in your bed." Both their faces had gone bright red by now, and the smaller reptile looked down awkwardly. "Or y'know, the floor."

"No, you can sleep with me, I don't mind." A spark suddenly flashed in Vector's eyes, and he pulled Espio into a deep lip lock. The chameleon slowly kissed back, rubbing his black lipstick all over the crocodiles snout in the process.

But he pushed Vector away embarrassingly once he heard the rabbit from the sofa mumble. "L-Lets just go to bed…"

"Alright, mummy~" Vector growled, rubbing his snout to see a black stain on his hand before making his way up the stairs. 'I'm going to have a good night tonight~