(A/N: So I mention in my fic "Burst Free" that Marco and Jake's first kiss happened when Marco was dressed as a woman for Halloween. I finally finished rereading the series this morning, so I decided to write some Jake/Marco, and I ended up with this! I hope you like it.)

xxx

"No."

I just looked at her. It had taken her a few minutes to say it, so I don't know why I was expecting her to say "yes." Surely if she were going to say "yes" she'd have answered pretty quickly. And yet it rocked me, just for a minute, so I just looked at her. Until my mouth started working again.

"N...no?"

She slumped a little, and gave me this sort of sympathetic smile that was impossible to decipher. "No, Jake. I'm not going to go to the Halloween dance with you. I'm going to go. And I will see you there. And we can talk and have bad punch and maybe even dance together a little. But I'm not going to go with you."

And then my voice returned really quickly. "Are you breaking up with me?"

This time she laughed at me, as if I were being stupid. "Don't say it like that."

I couldn't believe she was laughing! "What do you mean? How should I say it?"

"Jake - "

"Cassie, I love you. And I know you love me too. So why - "

"I do love you, Jake," she said. "And I know that you love me." She sighed, and reached out to take one of my hands with both of hers. "This is...I didn't really plan this out...I wasn't expecting now to be the time that I had to say this. I was going to wait until you figured it out for yourself."

"Figured what out?"

"You'll get it. I know you will. You're almost there."

"Cassie - "

"No, I'm not going to tell you. It wouldn't be right. And I'm sorry I figured it out so long before you did. I...I wish I didn't have to say this, Jake, but let's just be friends."

And because I was just so confused by the whole thing, I just smiled weakly back at her, and didn't wonder at all why I didn't feel like crying, even on the inside.

xxx

It was big news among the rest of the Animorphs, of course.

Fortunately, the one person who would have reacted the most to a situation like this was Cassie herself. Marco teased me about it a little, sure, but when I didn't respond he kind of cooled off. Rachel's only concern was making damn sure that I didn't hurt Cassie in any way, so when she found out that she'd made the first move I was off the hook. Tobias and Ax stayed out of it. I can't say I blamed them.

But did it have to be two days before this mission?

"Tseeeeerr!" Tobias cried out, with the screams of my peregrine falcon and Rachel's bald eagle right behind him. That got the guy's attention.

-That's right, bozo,- Rachel scoffed. -I guess they never train security guys to look up for incoming threats, do they?-

-Not at places like this, anyway,- said Tobias. -What exactly do the Yeerks want with a paper plant, anyway?-

-That's what we're here to find out, isn't it?- I said. Our dives were steepening and soon we'd all be in place. It was time to dispatch Team Infiltration while Team Distraction was still doing its job fairly well. -Marco? Now!-

-You got it, big guy,- he said. While the bald, beige-uniformed Controller in the guard house was hissing "Andalite!" and reaching for his handgun, he completely missed the three raccoons darting through the bars of the compound's gate. Raccoons: small enough to get through and to hide if they needed to, but with developed enough hands to punch numbers into coded locks or steal things if necessary. Awkward, but perfect for the situation.

Cassie's idea, of course.

"You are mine, Andalite," sneered Baldy, but even as he was aiming his gun skyward it was too late.

-Tobias!- I ordered. He flared out of his dive and dropped his bomb - a small lead fishing weight, an old trick of ours - right onto the knuckle of Baldy's thumb. He yelped almost girlishly in pain and the gun fell from his hand.

-What a wuss!- Marco laughed from the other side of the stone walls.

-Like you're one to talk,- Rachel shot back. Her weight came next. As Baldy bent over to pick his gun back up, her rather heavier load hit him square in the back of his cueball head. I dropped mine for good measure and it was just enough to knock him out.

-Okay. We need to keep a lookout for anyone that may have noticed our bald-headed pal over here. Rachel, stay here by the guardhouse and notify us if anyone shows up so we can bail ASAP.-

-Gotcha.-

-Tobias, you circle high, and make sure that unless they're inside a building you can see the other three to tell them if anyone finds them.-

-And if someone does find them?- he said.

-Well, that's where I come in, I guess. I'm gonna chill behind the warehouse in the corner of the compound and go tiger in case this turns ugly.- I was already flying to the spot I'd mentioned. We'd scoped it out on our aerial review of the place earlier.

Tobias's private thought-speak caught me mid-morph, when I was mostly human still and unable to answer. -You're being awfully hard on yourself this mission, Big Jake,- he said.

When my mouth was finally completely filled with the tiger's teeth I was able to reply. It gave me about three extra seconds to come up with something. The best I got was -Am I?-

-Being the distraction instead of the hacks, putting all the weight of kicking butt on yourself instead...- He paused as if he didn't want to say it. -Instead of Rachel? That seems a little unlike you.-

I didn't have an answer to that. What could I say?

-Is this because of the whole Cassie thing?-

-I don't wanna talk about it.-

-I know when you're having some kind of big emotional crisis she's usually the person you turn to, is all. Except you can't do that in this situation. So I'm just saying, don't count me out. I've had a lot of nights alone in the woods to sit and ponder on the meaning of life.-

-I'll remember that,- I said.

There was silence for about ten minutes. He looped lazily through the sky, then finally: -I lost them. Ax - at least I think it was Ax, all the raccoons look the same - keyed in a code to a building and they squeezed inside.-

-We're in,- came Marco's thought-speak a split second later. -There's a ton of boxes in here. There better not be anything we need to steal because it'd take us years to find the right box.-

-Just keep an eye on anyone that looks or sounds particularly suspicious.-

-If I may say so, Prince Jake, these bodies are not the most stealthy,- said Ax.

-You need the dexterity,- Cassie insisted, -and this was the best I could come up with. Work with me here.-

-Look, if there's that many boxes, can't you hide behind some of them? You're only about the size of housecats.-

-Jake, have you ever tried to hide three housecats in a room with no furniture?- said Marco. But they shut up after that, so I assumed they'd figured something out.

Tobias laughed a little at them. -You'd never believe we were saving the world, would you?-

-Tell me about it,- I agreed. -And on top of all this, I have a paper to write for English tonight.-

-Man, I miss a couple of things about life as a human, but homework is not one of them.-

-It would cut into your existential brooding time.-

When he said nothing to that I realized I had gone too far. We were silent for a little while longer before I could bring myself to say something else.

-I just...she said some stuff about me..."figuring something out." Something she said she'd already figured out herself. I don't get it, you know? It was all really confusing. Like, how did she know something about me that I didn't know myself?-

-That is kind of deep, man,- Tobias admitted. -A little too deep for a mission. You wanna stop by the scoop, maybe we can talk this out later, but - -

-Jake!- Rachel cried suddenly. -I think our guy here is coming to! What do I do?-

-Do you have enough time to grab the big weight and nail him again?-

-I seriously do not think so.-

-Peel off and get to safety, then,- I said. I started demorphing, making sure to call out to the Raccoon Squad before I lost my thought-speak. -Hey, Marco, can you get outta there? Our time's up, buddy.-

-Bit of a crisis down here too, Big Jake!- said Marco.

-What? What's going on?-

-Marco has been separated from Cassie and myself,- said Ax. -In an attempt to remove an important-looking clipboard from an office desk, he was nearly spotted, and is now cowering underneath this desk waiting for a group of humans to leave.-

-I am not cowering!- Marco protested. -Well, okay, maybe a little.-

I started to reverse the morph, going back to tiger. Great. -All right. Ax, you and Cassie get out of there as quickly as possible. Marco, do you still have the clipboard?-

-Yeah, but it's full of crap. It didn't actually have any info we were looking for. What info were we looking for, exactly?-

-Never mind that.-

-Jake, the bald guy is calling in to the plant!- Tobias cried. -We need to be out of here twenty minutes ago!-

-What building are they in?-

-Jake, you can't be serious!- said Rachel.

-What building are they in, Tobias?-

-Jake...-

-Look, I'm the only one in a position - or a morph - to rescue Marco. I need to get him out of there. Another distraction. Anything. Now where are they?-

There was a pause while Tobias weighed the options. -If you come out from the left-hand side of this warehouse and go straight, it'll be the third building on your right. With the big automatic doors.-

-Good looking out!- I told him, and immediately starting bolting tiger-fast in the right direction. Halfway there, I decided to let them know I was coming.

"HROOOAAARR!" cried the tiger, in the way only the big cats can, the way that makes a grown man turn and run the other way. A couple of people in the building had been just about to leave, and had gotten close enough to trigger the electric eye of the door from the inside. They quickly decided to run back the other way, but it gave me enough of a gap to get inside the building and shake things up.

-Back that way!- yelled Cassie as she and Ax came bolting toward the door and slipped out. I darted through the maze of boxes in the direction they'd come from and eventually found a mob of three angry humans with guns and two terrified humans with files full of documents. Three Controllers. Two innocent saps. And one wide office desk.

-I sure hope that's you and not some other tiger,- said Marco.

-Get out of here!- I said, in the split second I had before the twitchiest of the three Controllers, an irritable-looking woman with a severe ponytail, fired her gun into the empty air of the spot I'd been in the moment before. I had to act fast, because the standard "Don't shoot him, we can take him prisoner!" in-fighting would only last for a couple of moments.

I had a plan.

With another great feline roar, I launched myself at the nearest ceiling-high stack of cardboard boxes. The quaking uninfested workers noticed first and immediately dived out of the way. The distracted Controllers did not.

Papers erupted around us and Marco and I fled as quickly as possible. When he wasn't running fast enough I grabbed the nape of his raccoon neck in my teeth and motored us away.

-Ugh, this tiger needs a Tic-Tac,- he whined.

-Busy saving your life right now,- I said. -Didn't have time to brush my teeth.-

-Fair enough.-

In a feat I didn't think was possible, I powered up the tiger's legs and leapt clear over the outer wall of the plant when we finally reached it. We kept running until we reached thicker woods. By then, Marco was demorphing in my mouth and the others were catching up, so I stopped and went back to human as well. I emerged panting for breath with Marco grinning in my face.

"I guess that's a little more excitement than your average guy sees on a regular basis at the paper plant," he chuckled.

"It's more excitement than I wanted to see at the paper plant, either," I said.

-We're out, and that's all that matters,- said Tobias. He fluttered down onto a log next to me, followed shortly by Rachel, an osprey Cassie, and a harrier Ax. They were all ready to fly home. It sounded like a good idea to me.

"Let's get out of here," Marco said, practically reading my mind. "I've still got to write that freaking English paper!"

"Did you even read the book this time?" I teased.

"No, but I'm pretty sure you did, so I figured you'd hook me up. Am I right?"

"You're lucky you're my best friend, dude." I grinned back at him, and then my mouth was forming a beak. In a few more minutes we were all airborne, heading back to our part of town.

Tobias sent me one last private message. -That was definitely more than you needed to do.-

-Marco was going to get caught if someone didn't do something,- I said.

-But you could have had the others do it. Cassie. Ax. They were already in there.-

-What were they going to do as a bunch of raccoons?-

-It doesn't take a big conspicuous tiger just to knock down some cardboard boxes.-

-Well, it worked.- I was grumpy all of the sudden. -It worked and no one died. I look out for my team.-

-You look out for Marco, anyway,- said Tobias. And then, -Ohhh.-

-Ohhh what-?- I said.

-No, it's nothing. I just - it's nothing. If Cassie won't say it I won't say it.-

-Not you, too!-

But he didn't answer. I could tell he was sending private thought-speak to Cassie, discussing the secret that no one would tell me.

Despite the fact that it was apparently so obvious.

xxx

"I'm coming back to pick you up at ten-thirty!" my mom called as I was climbing out of the van.

"Yeah, okay," I said. "I'll see you then. I'll try not to get too hyped up on Halloween candy."

"I appreciate that," she said with a smile. "All right, have fun!"

"Thanks!" I shut the door behind me and, once I made sure my cape wasn't stuck in it, walked away from the van and let her drive away as I headed into the school.

I saw Cassie almost as I came in. It didn't really bother me. It had been a couple of weeks and I had given up trying to figure this out. She smiled at me.

"Batman? For some reason it suits you."

I smiled back. "I was Batman when I was five or six, I think, and I couldn't see a reason why it shouldn't make a comeback. But I think you're cheating. Are you even wearing a costume?"

"Sorry, Rachel beat you to that joke already." She was in costume, of course. She just happened to be wearing a beat-up pair of overalls, a plaid button-down shirt, and some dirty brown boots. All of which looked like she could have worn them on a regular day, though maybe not all at the same time. The only additions were a tattered straw hat on her head, a piece of grain hanging from her mouth, and the very real pitchfork resting in her left hand.

"You have to admit, you kind of opened yourself up for it."

"I ran out of costume ideas at the last minute," she said. "I was going to be a butterfly, but my mom had already thrown out the old curtains I was going to make my wings out of. This was easy."

"So Rachel's here already? I've been dying to see her costume." I almost hadn't believed her when she told me what she was going to wear. But then I thought about it, and Rachel was just crazy enough to do it.

"She and Tobias went over to the snacks table to scope out if there was anything good," said Cassie, gesturing with the pitchfork and nearly skewering a couple that was dancing past. "Sorry!" I looked in that direction, catching sight of two blond heads nudged close together and a mountain of candy corn. But that was all I could see from where I was standing. A girl dressed as a ballerina and a guy dressed as James Bond were blocking my way.

"Okay, I've arrived, you can go ahead and start the party now." I turned around, in search of the face that matched the voice, and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

It was Marco, all right - but at the same time, I couldn't believe it was Marco. Standing behind us was my best friend in the world, wearing high heels, fishnet tights, a kind of short dress covered in sequins, a feather boa, and as much makeup as any real girl.

And actually pulling it off.

He was already kind of short for a guy, and he definitely had long hair for a guy. The makeup had obviously been put on by someone who knew what she was doing, down to the shining red nail polish, and I was pretty sure the necklace he was wearing was one of Rachel's. If I hadn't already known it was Marco, it may have taken me a good twenty minutes to figure it out.

"Geez, Jake, put your tongue back in your mouth," he said, grinning. Cassie had nearly fallen over beside me, leaning heavily on the pitchfork to keep from collapsing with her silent giggles. I, apparently, was still staring, and shook my head to clear it.

"Um, wow, Marco."

"Well, I'm so hot as a guy, I guess it just stands to reason that I'm hot as a girl, too. I seem to remember that costume, Jake. I'm amazed it still fits you from first grade. And is Cassie even wearing a costume?"

"You're late on that one," I told him.

Cassie finally broke from laughing. "Where'd you get all this?"

"Well the dress was my mom's, I think," he said, "unless my dad goes through cross-dressing spells, too. The boa and the tights I got at costume stores and the heels are from Goodwill. Rachel did the makeup and jewelry, but she only did it on my word that I wouldn't laugh at her costume - which makes me way more anxious to see it, since she still hasn't told me what it is, and where is she any - oh. Oh. Rachel. I...oh."

Rachel and Tobias had returned from the table sporting five glasses of punch, which they distributed amongst us. Tobias's costume was pretty good. He'd thrown together a few things and ended up as a pirate, with a bandanna and an eyepatch and a plastic cutlass. He slouched awkwardly at Rachel's side, just about her height. Rachel herself was wearing a very interesting outfit: boots, armbands, a pleated skirt, and a bikini-style top, all made out of matching brown leather.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you'd react just like this," said Rachel, rolling her eyes.

"But you know," said Marco, "with the hair, you really look more like Gabrielle. But that's Cassie's role, I guess. You couldn't talk Bird-Boy here into being your Hercules?"

"That's a little much for me, thanks," said Tobias, squinting around.

"Can you even see with that thing?" I asked him.

"Ugh, you have no idea." He tugged the eyepatch away from his eye and off to the side of his head. "Bad enough having two lousy human eyes. Down to one and it's miserable."

"Xena. Xena! I just can't believe it!"

"Hey, we had a deal!"

"You just said I couldn't laugh. I don't recall once yet having laughed. I don't know why you thought I would anyway. I am in awe! Did you make this yourself?"

"You should see the couch we had to destroy to do it, too," I said.

"You were in on this, Dark Knight? Why didn't you tell me? Hey, is that candy corn?" And just like that, Marco was gone in a flash, feather boa dangling off behind him as he squirmed his way past a guy in a toga and a Powerpuff Girl.

The song that had been playing when we got there wound down and a new one started in. I finished off my punch and turned to Cassie.

"Can I at least have this dance, Farmer Jane?"

"Just as long as you don't expect me to come back to the Batcave with you," she said. She leaned the pitchfork against the wall near the door and then let me tug her out onto the dance floor. I wasn't the world's best dancer, but it was nice just to be with Cassie. For a moment I almost forgot we'd "broken up."

Almost.

The next dance Rachel's friend, Melissa Chapman, asked if she could cut in. She was dressed as a hula dancer. I said sure, and swayed to a slow one with her, passing Rachel and Tobias locked together, too, cutlass to chakram. I smiled at them and Tobias smiled back over Rachel's shoulder.

The next song I sat out, and I realized suddenly that Marco had kind of disappeared.

"He's been off in search of that candy corn for a while now," I said to Cassie.

"Why don't you check the bathroom?" she asked. "Maybe he just went in there for a minute."

"Yeah. Yeah, the bathroom." I walked in that direction, nudging Captain Kirk out of the way, and opened the door to find the outer bathroom itself empty but two of the stalls occupied.

"Marco?" I called softly. A strange clattering came from inside one of the stalls, and I heard a faint mumble of "crap." I walked over to it and tugged on the door, not expecting it to be unlocked, but it was, and inside I found Marco, his stockings jerked down and his dress hiked up around his waist.

But he wasn't just taking a leak.

"Crap," he repeated, looking up at me. I tugged off the Batman mask to look him in the eye.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, Big Jake?" he asked. I knew exactly what it looked like he was doing.

"Geez, Marco, you couldn't wait till you got home?"

"It's kinda hard to hide one of these underneath a skimpy dress."

"You couldn't at least lock the door?"

"I was in a hurry!"

We sat there engaged in a staring contest for a minute or so. It didn't go away.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, look, if you want, I can just go, and you can, uh, finish - "

"I'd rather you stay," he said suddenly, and grabbed me by the back of the head, forcing his mouth to mine.

Kissing me.

At first I was really confused. Almost more confused than I had been when Cassie had broken things off. But then everything fell into place. Mostly because Marco's mouth was so much sweeter than Cassie's kisses ever were - and not just because he'd been wolfing down the candy corn, either. They were...I couldn't begin to describe them. Amazing. Incredible. He was doing this weird little twist thing with his tongue and kind of stroking my hair just above my ear and it was just all so good.

We broke off for a minute, and I said, "Oh."

"It's about time you got with the program," said Marco.

"You know, it's kinda hard to hide one of these in superhero spandex, too," I pointed out.

He grinned. "Let's get outta here. The music sucks and the candy corn is stale."

"Tobias is running out of time, anyway," I agreed.

We stripped down to what we could morph in. For me it was easy. The costume was skin-tight and I just had to leave behind the mask, the cape, the belt, and the boots. Marco ended up in nothing but the stockings and his underwear. We went fly.

I found Rachel's blond hair in the middle of the mass of dancers and landed on her bare shoulder. She reached up to swat at me but I dodged, landing right back in the same spot.

-If you want to get that necklace back, you should send Tobias into the guy's bathroom to pick it up. I'd appreciate it if you got the rest of our stuff, too.-

-We figured you two would understand. Leather skirt is pretty easy access, isn't it, Cap'n Tobias? Had any luck in yer quest fer booty?-

"You guys are awful," he murmured, but he was laughing.

-Catch you later!- We sped out of the gym and into some bushes outside, where we transitioned as quickly as possible from fly to human to owl. My bedroom window was closed. His wasn't.

I demorphed faster and sprawled out on his bed. When he was done, he made sure his door was closed, and then climbed into the bed on top of me, sporting a huge grin that still somehow bore the faintest traces of lipstick.

"Trick or treat."