It was cliche, really, how Lucy was left trembling in fear as she held onto Natsu's scaly red arm for dear life. Not that her life was in danger, but if her heart kept beating as quickly as it was then, she wouldn't be surprised if she was at risk of a heart attack.

Let's go trick-or-treating, he said. We aren't doing anything else. Just hangin' out with some friends, he said. Yeah, a haunted house certainly wasn't in her plans when she agreed to this.

As Natsu and Lucy rounded the next corner, a face covered in oozing blood, with pale and gray skin, and dark eyes with no whites to be seen jumped out at them, and Lucy screamed as she hid her face in his shoulder.

Natsu's shoulder began to shake, and despite the loud Halloween music and the screaming coming from all around them, she could hear his loud laughter, no doubt directed at her. She took a moment to elbow him, only making him laugh harder.

How did Lucy get into this situation, you ask? Well, that answer is easy.

Lucy quietly walked next to Natsu, taking in the houses with extravagant decorations colored orange, black, purple, and green. It was one of the few things she liked about the holiday. Natsu was bickering with Gray as Juvia clung to Gray's arm. It was only background noise to Lucy, but from what she gathered, Natsu was wanting to trade candy, M&M's for Crunch.

There were large dragon wings attached to him and medium length horns protruding from the top of his head. They caught her eye for the second time that night, making Lucy realize just how intricate Natsu's costume was. He didn't care much for coordinating his outfit on a regular basis, but he must have spent hours upon hours of his time creating this costume of his.

Lucy had never been one to go out trick-or-treating for Halloween, had never been one to dress up for it much either. She liked staying at home and watching non-scary Halloween Movies, but Natsu had invited her to go, saying she could bring a friend if she wanted. After more persuasion and a promise of a little bit of his chocolate, deciding not to go wasn't an option, so she invited Levy to come along too.

As Lucy looked behind her for that same friend, wondering where Levy could have gone when she wasn't sticking by her, she saw her shouting at a man that towered over her five foot stature. He had long black hair and a fair amount of piercings scattered on his skin. It truly was a sight to see.

Lucy didn't think she had ever seen Levy lose her temper like that. The girl was normally quite calm in any situation. It took a lot to piss off Levy, and it made Lucy wonder what he could have possibly said to make her blow her fuse.

Lucy turned her head back around and sighed. Looking into her own bag of candy, she grabbed a mango lollipop and took out two of the crunch bars that lingered on top of the stack of candy. She nudged Natsu's shoulder and handed him the chocolate.

With one of his signature broad grins, he said, "Thanks, Lucy!" He was quick to unwrap the candy and shove it in his mouth, the argument with Gray long forgotten.

Lucy smiled back at him as she brought her lollipop to her own mouth.

Her fingers were cold, and as a breeze blew past them, she couldn't be more grateful for the sheer, starry cape she had found in a store a while back, the long curtain of fabric giving her a little solace against the chill. Her black knee-length dress and the witch hat atop her head also comforted her, but even with all that, it didn't stop her fingers from freezing. If only she had remembered to bring gloves.

There was another house coming up soon that Natsu would no doubt be dragging her towards, but right before they were able to get there, Natsu stopped in his tracks. "Hey, check it out!" he exclaimed, pointing in the direction of what caught his attention. "It's a haunted house!"

Lucy followed his finger to find that it really was a haunted house. She took the lollipop out of her mouth, putting it back into the wrapping it came in, and dropped it in her bag.

Fake cobwebs hung from every corner, and even the outside looked old and rickety. The windows were covered in what Lucy assumed was some sort of paint that made it look dusty. Fake tombstones stood around the front of the house with large piles of dirt in front of them. If she squinted, she could make out the bones that stuck out of the dirt in the darkness of the night.

She might have thought it was just another house decorated extremely well if not for the giant sign that also stuck out of the dirt saying, "HAUNTED HOUSE OPEN! Enter if you dare…"

The sign alone was a little silly, and it didn't necessarily strike fear into Lucy's body, but when she heard the obvious sound of someone screaming coming from the house, she knew that assuming it wasn't frightening would be wrong.

The more she thought about it, the scarier it got. Why would a random haunted house be in the middle of a neighborhood if not for malicious intent? Maybe that was her writer's side talking, overthinking even the most basic of situations, but the question was still valid. Lucy shook her head, hoping to get those crazy thoughts out of her mind.

"Let's go check it out!" Natsu said, already walking towards the haunted house.

Lucy hesitated, not sure if she was really up for it. "Uh, Natsu?" she called out.

He stopped walking to turn back to her. Natsu tilted his head.

"I don't...I don't know...if I really want to go into a haunted house." She bit her lip, her heart already racing at the idea of just what could be waiting inside.

Of course, it didn't seem Natsu was worried at all. He just smiled at her walking back to her.

Everyone else was already heading inside of the house, and then Lucy felt she was just holding Natsu behind. "I could just wait out here; it's not a problem for me."

"Aw, come on, I'll protect ya!" he said, grabbing her hand. The warmth permeating from his hand was almost enough for her to just agree and come along alone. "Let's go! You might end up liking it!" He pulled her arm towards him, similar to how a kid would when they wanted their parents to go buy ice cream somewhere.

Lucy furrowed her brows. It was only one haunted house. It wasn't like she was going to be stuck in there forever or anything, and Natsu was right! He would protect her if she ended up becoming too afraid. He may have been a little reckless, not caring for much of anything or the consequences that would follow, but he was careful when it came to his friends. If she really ended up not liking it, she knew without a doubt that he would take her out of there as soon as possible.

Not for the first time, she wished that she saw scary things the way Levy did. She didn't know why she enjoyed horror movies, but from what she had been told, Levy was more of a critic when it came to this stuff. She spent so much time just researching jumpscares and how they work, along with how the music and characters played into the story. Levy would look at a haunted house and pick out everything they did wrong and everything they did right rather than focusing on what was supposed to frighten her.

Regardless, she trusted Natsu, so she said yes, finally letting him pull her along towards the haunted house.

"Wanna leave yet?" Natsu said, getting closer to her ear so she could hear him. They were heading towards a pitch-black room where the only light was from the dim hallway they were in.

She wasn't crying at least, and Natsu was glad for that. He didn't know what he would do if she started crying, but Natsu knew he would do everything he could to stop it.

Lucy turned her head to look behind them but turned it back around right after, clutching his right arm even tighter. She shook her head. "No way. We've already gone too far, so we might as well finish it, right?" She looked up at him and chuckled nervously.

Natsu smiled. "Yeah!"

Natsu didn't know what was going on in Lucy's head with how quiet she was then, but if it was anything like the way they first met, words were flying through her mind faster than she could understand them. It seemed like that was what she did when she was nervous or scared. It was a little strange in Natsu's opinion. Most people either reacted with fight or flight, but she had this weird combination of both…?

Natsu felt he was more of a fighter, willing to just punch whatever it was that was in front of him rather than run. Not that running away was bad. He learned the hard way that sometimes you needed to run even if you wanted to fight.

As it turned out, the pitch-black room they were entering wasn't entirely pitch black. Once Natsu and Lucy entered, the sight of clowns, some with decapitated limbs and others with blood and bloody props, sticking out of their mouths, skulls, and body were there to greet them. They had some sort of neon, glow-in-the-dark paint coloring their faces and clothes, making them light up in the dark.

"Oh, jeez," he heard Lucy mutter, no doubt trying not to have a panic attack.

He turned to look at her, checking to make sure she still hadn't begun to cry or actually have a panic attack. Her eyes were closed, and it looked like she was relying on Natsu to bring her out of this, but thankfully no tears were in sight. Scaring Lucy was always a little funny, but he felt that he preferred when it was him or their friends scaring her and not someone else.

If he was being honest with himself, the clowns in the room had begun to creep him out too. Their broken and bloodied faces looked a little too real, and he almost thought about running out of the place right then and there. It must have been their eyes, Natsu thought. Their eyes were cold and dead, a look the contact lenses they wore were easily able to pull off. It wasn't the scariest thing he had seen before, but their eyes made him uncomfortable.

He looked to his side to see Lucy worrying her lip. Right, Lucy trusted him to protect her; that was the only reason she agreed to come in here in the first place. Lucy trusted him to protect her, so protect her he would.

As soon as Natsu and Lucy were out of the haunted house, she breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't think I am ever doing that again," Lucy said. She could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins, but a smile was on her face.

Natsu laughed. "Did you at least have a little fun?" he asked. He was already digging through his bag of candy again, probably looking for a piece of that Crunch chocolate.

"It was…" Lucy started, "it was interesting, and I was scared, but I feel better now that it's over."

"That's the whole point of scary stuff!" he said once he swallowed down the chocolate. "It's how ya feel at the end."

She smiled. "I am not going through all that for a feeling that lasts a minute."

"Alright. You're missin' out though."

"I think I'm fine with that," she laughed.

"Lu!" she heard. She and Natsu both looked in the direction of the voice to see Levy and everyone else standing off to the side. Now that Lucy thought about it, she began to wonder how long they were in there. It may have felt like an hour when they were in there, but it couldn't have been more than 20 minutes.

They walked over to them as Gray shouted over at Natsu. "What took you guys so long!"

Natsu went on to say a smart remark (Something about taking in all the sights since he was less afraid than Gray.) back as Lucy went to go talk to Levy. "Hey!" Levy said. "You actually went into the haunted house? I thought you hate them."

"It's hard to say no when it's Natsu trying to convince me to do something."

"Oh?" Levy's lips stretched into a smirk, mischief in her eyes.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at her. She knew that look. It wasn't her first time seeing it, and she'd be surprised if it were her last. Levy tended to play cupid whenever Lucy befriended any guy. It wasn't new, but sometimes it got tiring, even if Levy was only trying to tease her. "Don't twist my words into your little match-making game...We're friends," she said matter-of-factly. Sure he was handsome, and sure he had beautiful eyes, and sure he was sweet and caring, but Lucy could have a handsome and sweet and caring beautiful-eyed friend.

"That's what they all say…"

"Levy!"

She laughed. "Okay, okay! I'll stop," she said. "Did you have fun though?"

Lucy smiled. If you asked her past self the answer would be a blatant no, but she didn't think that was the case this time around. Even though it may have been scary, and even though haunted houses had never been her thing— "Yeah. I think I did."—she had to admit, the company was pretty great.

...

Happy Halloween, Everyone! And to anyone who doesn't celebrate it, I hope you have a great day! This is chapter...8 technically, but the 7th in the main story. It took a lot of thinking, and it was a little tough to write, but I really like how it turned out! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and feel free to review if you like!

Like I was saying, thinking up an idea for Halloween was tough, and it took a while for me to write the ending (like it normally does), but I truly am happy with the results. Like it was said in the beginning, it was a little cliche, but still cute nonetheless.

Oh, but I think thinking of costumes for the two was most difficult. I hope you don't mind that I didn't describe everyone else's costumes! But yeah, Natsu's like a sort of dragon-human hybrid thing while Lucy is a simple witch with a really cute, starry cape.

Umm, I don't have much else to say about this chapter other than I had to search up info on haunted house. I ended up scaring myself unintentionally, but that's besides the point...I got inspo specifically from this place called Basement of the Dead. The clown picture freaked me out, so that's why I used a whole room of them in the story.

I'll leave of with that for now. Thanks for taking the time to read my story, and I'll see you next week!