Halloween Special!

I'm aware this update is a tad late, if you wanna follow more frequent updates, check my AO3 account. Also has some stories I'm not going to add here on FFnet. You don't need to be a registered user to read them. Due to some issues with FFnet, I'm adding these short specials as chapters to the main story.

This chapter has a time skip of a few years into the future from where the main story left. I have an epilogue for the main story that is outlined and I'll come back to this story whenever I need a break from my other fics. It's been such a fun story to write. :)

Thank you for the reviews, it's been nice to hear what you think of all this.

-Nova

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Mary still wasn't sure why she had agreed to go trick or treating with Ririka in the first place. If she had to guess, Ririka had used her incredible manipulative powers on her somehow. It had been almost as surprising to see Ririka ruin one of her nicest kimonos with fake blood. Mary had winced when she heard the sound of very, very, expensive fabric tearing when one of the sleeves came almost off. 'How am I a convincing bride if I'm wearing a cheap costume?' had been the argument when Mary tried to protest and suggest they would pay a visit to a costume store instead. Also, the amazement when Ririka pitched the whole concept of a misfortunate bride who had been snatched by an evil vampire lord to be their slave for eternity on her wedding day and would eventually fall in love with her captor. 'You do know that's called Stockholm Syndrome, right? It's not real love…' Mary had chuckled at her girlfriend's elaborate story but felt sorry and agreed it would still feel like love, who's to say it was wrong?

So there she stood with her evil vampire lord costume, Mary decided to go with whatever the costume shop had in store but unfortunately most of the outfits were kids' sizes only so the cape was weirdly short and instead of the nice fake tuxedo that would have come with the outfit, she merely put on a white shirt with a black tie she borrowed from Suzui earlier. The fake vampire teeth in her mouth hurt her gums and it was hard to speak. She let Ririka do most of the speaking anyway. Mary was glad they had finally reached their destination, a party held by Yumeko at her apartment. Earlier route Ririka had decided on went through with almost all of the previous Student Council members, the ones Ririka still kept in touch with, anyway.

Reluctantly, Mary had stood still and pretended to be a vampire while Midari was rolling on the floor in a laughter fit when they visited her earlier. Unsurprisingly, she didn't give them any candy. As the spirit of Halloween commands, Ririka left Midari a little trick to discover when she would leave the house. Midari's white front door now had a 'I didn't have any candy, so I got tricked' text written in red lipstick. The biggest candy haul they got was from Runa. No surprises there. The girl practically lived off candy. They tried visiting Yumemi but they were informed at the gates that she was on tour and wouldn't be back before December. Ririka insisted they'd take a selfie with her new phone and send it to her with her estate showing in the back. When she suggested they should trick Yumemi too, Mary managed to convince Ririka they didn't need the gate guard to chase after them, especially when they had just introduced themselves with their real names and all.

Already tired before they had even entered Yumeko's apartment, Mary let out the breath she had been holding for what felt like the whole day, finally a place where everyone else would be in costumes too. Yumeko however looked mostly normal, aside from the cat ears there was barely enough effort to call it a costume.

"Oh, c'mon. I thought this-h was a cos-f-tume party…" Mary whined with her vampire teeth giving her a distinct lisp.

"I'm a cat, meow." Yumeko lifted her hands like paws in front of her face and smiled.

"No, that's-h-" Mary ripped the teeth out of her mouth and put them in her pocket. "That's just you, with cat ears. That's not a costume."

"I can fix that," Ririka said, rummaging through her purse. "Could you close your eyes, Yumeko-san?"

Yumeko did as asked without hesitating. Mary wanted to laugh when she realized what Ririka was about to do. She had a black eyeliner in her hand and swiftly drew whiskers on both cheeks and finished the look off with blackening the tip of Yumeko's nose too.

"There. Much better, right?" Ririka turned to Mary who nodded.

They were not the first ones to arrive, the small living room was already filled with familiar faces. Midari immediately got up on her feet and approached them.

"Do you realize how hard it is to get that stuff out of my door?! I tried all the cleaning products I have and now it has a huge red spot that just spreads if-"

"I'm sorry, I'll pay for a new door if you can't get it off. I just wanted to do a small prank, not cause too much trouble," Ririka replied, genuinely sorry.

"Oh, nah… It's okay. I thought that was Mary's doing." Midari glanced at Ririka carefully.

"When have you ever seen me wear red lipstick?" Mary asked.

"I wouldn't know what kind of things you're into. Maybe you dress up when nobody's lookin'?" Midari provoked and it worked, at least a bit.

"None of your business, what I'm into." Mary huffed with her cheeks burning red.

"So, what's this about?" Midari nodded towards the costumes the two were wearing, Mary noticed the absence of costume on her too. "Crossing off the vice prez's bucket list or somethin'?"

"What's a bucket list?" Ririka was curious and turned to Mary.

"Oh, please. No. Nobody explain 'bucket list' to Ririka tonight, alright?" Mary pleaded the whole room. She already saw how it would end up, she'd be hanging from bungee ropes regretting her life decisions just because she couldn't say 'no' to anything Ririka asked of her. "And we were informed this would be a Halloween party, I assumed costumes were inclined in the invitation."

"I just came for the free drinks. I didn't gamble myself a fortune like all of you, y'know…" Midari drifted off towards the table with some bottles of what looked like some expensive import beers.

"Do you want one?" Mary turned towards her girlfriend. Her hopes of Ririka dropping the subject of bucket lists were short-lived.

"Maybe later, I'm going to catch up with Sayaka first…"

Mary was about to call after Ririka but Yumeko came carrying an extra bottle of beer and offered it to Mary. "Thanks."

"Have you thought about what we discussed earlier?" Yumeko asked. Mary knew what she was referring to.

"I have, but can we not talk about this now with everyone around?" Mary looked around nervously and took a sip from the bottle.

Yumeko let out a small excited whimper. "So, when are you going to do it?"

"I don't know. Can we not talk about this right now, please?"

"I can't believe you hadn't thought about it. You're so clueless when it comes to women, Mary-chan." Yumeko teased. "You should have all of this planned out already."

"Shh- I don't want her to know about it yet."

"Fine. But you tell me as soon as you know. I want to be there when you-"

Mary choked on her drink. "No, you most certainly will not be there."

"But it was my idea! I deserve to be there." Yumeko pouted.

"Be where?" Ririka appeared behind Mary's shoulder.

"Nowhere, nothing you need to worry about. Did you find out what a bucket list is yet?"

"Oh, yes. Sayaka explained what it is. We need to sit down and write one, tonight." Ririka looked excited, Mary knew she was being serious.

Yumeko beamed at Ririka. "Do you want a notepad and a pen?"

"Please, don't encourage her." Mary rolled her eyes and took another sip from the bottle. She watched Ririka tailing after Yumeko who refused to hear Mary's objections.

Even with the looming possibility of ending up in dangerous situations because of the stupid list, she wouldn't trade a day with Ririka for anything. If someone had said she'd end up dating the Vice President, she would have imagined she had been the one who had to learn how to live in the Momobami estate and adapt to a lot fancier lifestyle. But instead, Ririka moved in with her, in her small apartment and kept insisting on a daily basis they try something that was new to her.

She was even happy to see Ririka getting along with Yumeko so well, too. Given it was often on her expense, she still couldn't help but smile when Ririka sat down around the small coffee table to write her list and people around started throwing her more ideas. Mary felt proud, she knew she could take at least some credit from getting the girl in front of her to drop her mask, literally, and let everyone see and enjoy the person behind it.