Lea woke up groggy. He didn't want to get up. Today was a good day for sleep. They could have one of those once in a while, right? One of those cozy stay in the PJs all day and keeping the trusted friendship with your pillow strong sort of days. Maybe he could pull off not feeling well to score a few more hours rest. No, that whole can't get sick thing. Rats!

Lea stretched Oh! That felt physically painful when you wanted to stay curled up asleep. With great reluctance he managed to roll on his back and kick off his blanket. Bleh. Stay in bed, stay asleep. Yeah right. No way that was going to happen. No doubt there was going to be several things Master Yen Sid would want done today before there could be any playtime. And going to bed early just wasn't the same as staying in bed. Here's hopin' this meh feeling didn't dictate how the rest of the day would go.

On his back Lea stretched his arms above his head. Maybe getting out all the kinks first might wake him up and feel a bit more human before having to get up and greet the day. Then he saw something. Or he thought he did. He'd have to wait a second to get the layer of fuzz off his eyes before he could be sure. There it was again, but not in the same place. Just a shadow out of the corner of his eye? A speck of dust floating across the pupil? Couldn't be, it kept happening. What was he seeing? It happened again. Lea jolted upright; flailing his arms. Was something on him or on his bed? Yeesh! Hopefully not! Was that a spider? Lea got a bad shiver. That would be disgusting. He didn't mind spiders; from a distance. But he couldn't see anything else. Had he imagined it? No, there it was again. On his arm!

Lea startled again and brushed his arm violently. Gross, gross, gross! But…he didn't feel anything? If it was a spider, even a little one he should have brushed against something, right? Lea looked over his arm in case he missed it. But no spider, no fuzz, no bu-OH GEEZ!

There was a shadow alright, but it wasn't from any spider. Lea completely freaked out when he figured out what was going on. The shadow was on his left arm…and it was moving! It was like there was a beetle crawling just under his skin! It started at about his wrist then went the full length of his arm before disappearing. A few seconds later it would happen again. I'm sure you might imagine what his reaction might've been like. Lea tried everything. He pushed his right hand hard on his left forearm; a desperate attempt to keep the thing from going any further. But that didn't do anything at all! And…wait. Shouldn't he be feeling this? He was seeing it but…not feeling it.

After a few seconds to let the adrenaline wear off, Lea came to a conclusion. The moving thing wasn't really there. You'd feel a bug crawling on you. Of course you'd feel one under your skin. And, after watching it for a second, the 'crawling bug' came and went in a very specific time loop. It took exactly to the count of six one-thousand after it vanished at his shoulder did it appear again at his wrist. It was like some kind of illusion. And he knew exactly who was responsible.

After slipping a shirt on Lea stormed off to the kitchen. Everyone was already there and in the full swing of breakfast. Rachel was kneeling by the edge of the kitchen counter, petting Tatania as the tower cat had her breakfast. When she stood up again, Lea was right behind her.

"You better not be thinking about abusing my girlfriend." Riku warned.

"This will only take a second." Lea said roughly. He turned back to Rachel and pointed violently at his left arm. "Fix it!" He ordered.

"I don't know what you're talking abo-eek!"

She tried to walk away but Lea gripped the back of her shirt to keep her from going anywhere.

"How do I get rid of it?" Lea growled in her ear.

"Take a chill pill! It washes off with hot water and a good scrubbing."

"It better!"

Lea quickly took a small plate and took two jelly donuts before leaving in a huff. He typically didn't eat with everybody when he was irritated. Rachel hopped up on the counter where she finished her slice of breakfast pie like nothing had happened.

"What was that about?" Sora asked.

"Did you seriously give him a tattoo?" Bryan said to her.

She only smirked behind her glass of juice but said nothing.

"Come on," Riku said. "You two can't keep putting on displays like that and not tell us what it's about."

"Okay, I'll tell you. I found a fascinating potion called Illusionary Paint. I mixed some up then got the idea to test it on Lea."

"Why is it always him?" Sora asked.

"Some people are just more fun to get."

"Sora," Bryan hissed. "Don't say things like that. It might start giving her ideas about branching out."

"What does Illusionary Paint do?" Kairi asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not much. You can use it on any surface. If you have an image in mind, it will appear on it. And all you have to do is focus on what you want to show up the image can even move."

"Like the walls in the room we stayed in when we were sick?" Kairi asked.

"I never thought about that before but it wouldn't surprise me if you're right."

"What did you do to him?" Bryan said.

"I ran a brush of the stuff along his arm and made it look like he had a bug crawling under his skin."

Kairi shivered. "That's gross."

"Kinda cool though." Bryan said. "Evil but cool."

Two Days Later

"What're you doing, Bryan?"

Just ahead of lunchtime Lea came into the magic kitchen to grab something to drink. He'd just run a timed obstacle course with Riku to see who could get to the end first. When they were finished, he found Bryan was already in the kitchen and working on something.

"Are you cooking?"

"Of course not."

"Then why are you stirring a steaming cauldron?"

On the counter was a small silver cauldron. It didn't look like it would even hold three gallons. The top was all frothy. The brew was an attractive amber color and smelled scrumptiously sweet but with a sharp edge of something else.

"What is it?" Lea asked. "And are you willing to share?"

"Hard apple cider and no, this isn't for sharing."

"Hard?" Lea questioned. "You do know what that means right?"

"Of course I do."

"Your sister's not even old enough to drink yet so I know you're not."

"Master says it's okay."

"Excuse me?"

"Relax, will you? This isn't my first drink. After about a year apprenticing under Master Yen Sid it became an evening tradition talking over a small glass of wine."

"To minors? What's wrong with that old man?"

"In some worlds, kids get their first taste of wine as young as twelve. The alcohol content was never very high and it was only ever the one glass. I'm not much of a wine guy but I do like this." Bryan said, pointing to the steaming cauldron. "Master says I can have it whenever I feel like it so long as the booze content is three percent or less."

"That low? Sounds like it's mostly for taste."

"Well, yeah. You'd have to be a micro-featherweight to get so much as a wave of lightheadedness off of this. A bug would have a hard time getting tipsy from this stuff."

"And what is this for?"

"I'm going to Montressor tomorrow afternoon to visit Jim. Montressor is celebrating their version of Halloween. There's going to be a party at the Benbow Inn. Jim invited me so I thought I'd bring something for the two of us."

"Where's Montressor?"

"Wanna come?"

"To the party?"

"Sure. Jim's already met Sora and the others. And I doubt he'll mind if I bring a plus-one. It just makes the party more fun."

"Sounds great. So will this be a costume party?"

"Oh yeah. Even though most of the people who live in those worlds aren't human they still dress up as monsters and things. Though a lot of the monsters they tell stories about are very different than what we know."

"When did you say this was?"

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"What are you going as?"

"Don't know. Might just go with what I'm usual in in Halloween Town. What?"

"What?"

"You look like you just got an idea."

"I did. I'll get back to you later."

"You!"

"G-yaah!"

Lea found Rachel in a meadow in the Hall of Gardens with her unicorn, Fantasia the UniGlow. The unicorn was lying down, half-asleep due to the soothing repetition of Rachel brushing her. Of course that calm didn't last when Lea came up. He wasn't exactly quiet.

"Geesh! If I'm ever going to have a heart attack I don't want it to be with your help!"

"Sorry."

"What do you want?" She said a little snippily. Fantasia wasn't too happy about being startled out of her dozing either.

"I need your help."

Rachel pulled her head back like a bee had suddenly buzzed in her face with surprise. "Help? You need my help? Sorry, I can't work miracles with eyebrows…or the lack thereof."

Lea rolled his eyes high and counted to five to keep himself from commenting. "I met up with Bryan earlier and he said he was going to a world where a friend was hosting this Halloween-like party. He said I could go with him if I wanted. I had an idea for how to dress up but I need your help with it."

"Why would you need my help for something like that?"

"You still got that weird paint?"

It was funny to watch her stare at him blankly then see the switch click into place once she processed what he was talking about and what he intended to do with it.