The chill October wind was surprisingly merciful tonight, only the lightest breeze flowing past to tug at the edges of Barriss' cloak and make the many rather creative lawn ornaments they were walking past shiver slightly in place. Ahsoka would be grateful if she weren't working so hard to keep her balance already.
"You don't really think we needed so much candy, do you?" Her girlfriend asked, tugging her cloak a little closer against the breeze and shifting her grip one of the plastic grocery bags, trying to spare her cold fingers some pain. "We'll be sick for days with this lot."
"We're not going to eat it all in one sitting," Ahsoka scoffed cheerfully, distractedly trying to once again blow the single dark curl of hair that had simply refused to stay in her wig cap out of her carefully painted face markings, eyes straying to her shorter companion's face. "This is for the next week, the post-Halloween aftershock. Just try to make sure the twins don't take more than their fair share and it'll be fine."
Barriss turned her own make-up caked face towards her with something like a resigned grimace. "And how do you propose we stop them from doing so?"
Ahsoka snorted at that, because really, nothing really could stop those two, but her witty reply was interrupted by the front door opening before they'd reached it.
The tall, shadowy figure in the center of the doorway looked like a specter of death itself, with nothing appearing to be under the large dark hood aside from a pair of sinister yellow eyes that seemed to glow.
Barriss nearly stuttered to a stop in the middle of the lawn path, but Ahsoka practically skipped forward, grinning ear to ear. "Hey Ani!" she chirped, completely immune to the visage of evil before her. "Long time no see! You look great!"
The shroud of stoic menace vanished like water in a desert as the hood was pulled back by a gloved hand, revealing a familiar handsome face and a friendly grin offset by the creepy yellow contacts covering sky blue eyes. "Hey guys, you made it!" Anakin Skywalker inspected their costumes as they approached, trailing up Ahsoka's elaborate headpiece with obvious astonishment. "You look pretty awesome. What even is that?" He pointed at the heavy head-tails that had taken the better part of a month to make.
Ahsoka batted his hand away even though he hadn't attempted to really touch them. "My montrals, and they're hard to keep balanced so no touching. It took three hours to get them on right and it is way too early in the night to even contemplate taking them off. I won't look right without them!"
Anakin held his hands up in surrender. "No arguments here. Are you from a new movie or-?"
"Starfleet 501," Barriss answered succinctly as she stepped onto the porch beside Ahsoka. "It's an old science fiction television show from the 80's. Ahsoka is an alien called a 'Togruta', while I am a 'Mirialan'."
"Hi Barriss," Anakin nodded to her with a smile. "You look great too."
"Thank you sir," she demurred, more than likely blushing prettily underneath her heavy layer of make-up. Getting it on had been an experience and a half, and buying it all had been murder on their bank account, but it had been worth it, her normally pale skin now shining a luminescent green in the dim light, interrupted only by the black triangular tattoos spanning the bridge of her nose that she hadn't wanted to cover up.
With both guests on the porch, Anakin stepped aside, making room for them to enter with a grand sweep of his dark cloak. "Come, my young apprentice," he intoned in a deep, croaking voice that inspired giggles from Ahsoka and a small smile from Barriss. "Enter, if you dare. Now is not the time for standing around outside. We have many terrible evil deeds that need doing."
"Of course, my Master," Ahsoka answered immediately, slipping in past her grandstanding mentor with a shit-eating grin. "Much evil, such edge."
The dramatic grimace on Anakin's face made her cackle.
"You would ruin this with a meme."
"It's why you keep me around!"
Stepping into the warm entryway, she saw the entrance was just as bedecked in festive decorations as the lawn was, fake spider-webs and little black cats everywhere.
"Where are my little hellions?" she asked curiously, turning back to watch as Anakin shut the door behind Barriss after she had ensured her cloak wouldn't get caught on the doorjamb, something that had delayed their exit from their own apartment. "And what exactly are you supposed to be, some sort of Dark Lord?"
The young father looked anything but threatening despite his outfit when he grinned widely, casting a look up the stairs and back to his guests. "They're getting ready, I think. There was a problem with one of the straps on Leia's costume, and Luke insisted on helping. And I," he gestured importantly to his entire ensemble. "Am a demon."
One prim eyebrow rose on Barriss' face. "You certainly went with a simple style for a demon."
"Scared you, didn't I?" Anakin retorted, making the hooded girl draw back a little. He gently clapped a hand on her shoulder to take the sting out of it; she still wasn't quite used to Skywalker humor.
Ahsoka nodded approvingly, barely able to move her head for fear of her montrals not cooperating. "And what is Padme this year?"
Anakin sighed wistfully like a love-struck dork. "She's an angel."
"Yes, we know," Ahsoka deadpanned, long bored of this phrase. "But what is she dressed as?"
Her mentor stared at her blankly. "She's dressed as an angel. That's her costume."
"Oh." She felt heat rising in her cheeks, hopefully invisible underneath the Togruta tribal markings she'd carefully shaped onto her face an hour ago.
The slam of a door overhead saved her from any further embarrassment, the thunder of tiny footsteps heralding the arrival of her niece and nephew.
"AHSOKA!" Dual cries of her name gave her approximately two seconds to prepare before two small bodies slammed into her, knocking her back a step and making her montrals shift dangerously.
Barriss yelped, dropping her grocery bags to dart forward and correct their lean before it could topple off her girlfriend's head while said girlfriend focused only on snuggling the twins into her chest.
"Hi guys!" She started to kneel to their level, but the movement elicited another shift of the weight on her head and a squawk of protest from Barriss, so she reluctantly remained standing upright. "Sorry I haven't been able to come over lately."
"Don't be!" Luke immediately insisted, voice muffled against Ahsoka's abdomen as he squeezed her tight. "You're here now, and that's what matters!"
"Just don't do it again," Leia was quick to tack on, making her father chuckle and a lighter laugh come from up the stairs.
Ahsoka looked up to discover that, indeed, Padme Amidala-Skywalker looked the part of an angel right now, in a long, flowing white dress and her lovely brown curls covered by a thin veil, elegant, ethereal, almost like a bride again, no tacky fake wings or goofy round halo in sight.
Her quiet grace was in complete opposition to her husband's quiet menace, which even now was quickly proving to be a façade; even covered head to toe in black and with sickly yellow in place of cerulean eyes, there was no way he could look even close to scary right now, looking up at his descending wife with the same punch-drunk expression he'd had on their wedding day.
"Anakin, close your mouth," Padme tried to chide him, but his dazed look inspired a soft giggle from both her and Ahsoka's normally resigned girlfriend, so Ahsoka decided not to tease him too much about it later.
Angel and demon. Good, classic couple's costume theme. Simple, nowhere near as intricate as Barriss and Ahsoka's heavily researched and carefully put together costumes, but it suited them perfectly.
However, it raised the question…
"What are you guys this year?" Ahsoka asked, trying to crane her neck to catch a glimpse of the twin's costumes, but with the montrals having finally settled on her head she didn't want to risk anything, so she was left clueless.
Leia peeled away from her side first, standing straight with her hands set determinedly on her hips in a pose that very much reminded her of the girls' father, and oh my god-
White shirt, black vest, dark pants and a tiny blaster holster on her left hip-
"I'm a smuggler!" Leia proclaimed proudly, for indeed, she looked like a mini carboard cutout of one of the infamous criminals from Starfleet 501, the same series Ahsoka and Barriss had rediscovered in recent years. They'd never told anyone about their love for the show, but it seemed Leia might have found it on her own. "I'm going to steal a bunch of spices, fly a spaceship, and kick some alien butt!"
Ahsoka's astonishment melted in the face of her indignation. "Hey!" she protested, voice thick with suppressed humor. "Me and Barriss are aliens! Why would you want to kick our butts?!"
"'Barriss and I,'" Luke quietly corrected her grammar, and Ahsoka finally laughed, ruffling his hair despite his small protest.
Leia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes in perfect imitation of the smuggler captain Jyn Erso's signature irritated move. "I only kick evil alien butt. Duh!"
"And how do you know Ahsoka and I are not evil?" Barriss asked, crouching down next to the girl with an indulgent smile, normal reserved nature forgotten in the face of an apparent fellow 501 fan.
Leia blinked at her in surprise, clearly not expecting the question.
It was Luke who retorted, finally releasing Ahsoka to give her a wide-eyed look. "You guys could never be evil! Aunt Ahsoka is too awesome for that, and so are you!"
Barriss clearly didn't quite know how to respond to that, but she was saved by Ahsoka's cheerful gasp.
"Princess Naberrie from episode 214!" she clapped, delighted, as Luke flushed, fidgeting a little with the purple dress he was wearing. "Oh, it looks amazing on you! And Leia, I have never seen a more accurate Captain Erso cosplay!"
Leia grinned with pride, while Luke seemed to shrink a little.
"You don't think it's weird?" he practically whispered self-consciously, his distress quickly drawing both his parents forward quickly, eager to reassure him, but Barriss beat them to it.
She gently took hold of his chin, lifting his gaze to meet hers as she smiled gently at him. "It suits you," she said. "And Princess Naberrie led a ragtag group of rebels through half a jungle on nothing but her quick wit and hope for freedom. If anyone thinks it's weird for you to dress like her, they can go stuff themselves in an airlock."
A wonderful little smile lit up Luke's face, and Leia patted him so hard on the back he almost fell over.
A small clap, drew everyone's attention to Padme, who held up a camera with her own gentle smile. "We all look perfect," she insisted, walking forward until she could lean down and scoop up her son with one arm, Anakin quickly mirroring the action with Leia as Barriss stood up. "So perfect, in fact, that I think it's only right that we take a picture before we head out and the wind messes everything up."
Luke's eyes lit up, and Ahsoka cheered. "Please let me be in the middle! I don't want to lean into anyone and risk these things falling off when the camera flashes!"
Raucous laughter preceded the scramble for placement, Ahsoka in the middle with Barris beside her, Anakin on her other side and Padme on his, the twins pressed together between their parents.
Anakin drew his hood back up, slipping an arm around his wife, while Ahsoka flung an arm around Barriss' shoulders, which she accepted with a sigh.
Holding the camera out far enough to capture them all was a chore, but Padme managed it with some complicated finagling, finally finding the right angle and saying, "Alright, everyone say-"
"Artoo-Detoo!" Ahsoka crowed, confusing Anakin and Padme, but three more voices quickly echoed "Artoo-Detoo!" before both parents pulled themselves together in time to click the button.
A/N: I am cheesy as fuck and don't know how to end things.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! Hope you enjoyed!
~Persephone
P.S. Starfleet 501 is kind of like the Star Trek/Star Wars equivalent in this world, but it was nowhere near as popular as either series. 'Starfleet' from Star Trek and '501' from the 501st Clone Regiment led by General Anakin Skywalker in the Clone Wars.