Ah, this is a beautiful one and a return to form for chapter length. Sorry about the last few being a bit on the shorter end but it just felt like the right length for those chapters. I won't keep you though, please enjoy. Thanks as always for reading this far.

Song Suggestion: Welcome Home by SquigglyDigg & GabeCastro

Disclaimer: just like every other fan fiction writer and then some, I don't own the work I am writing about I'm borrowing it for fun. Plz don't hurt me CapCom.

The last few weeks of September fell back to the usual rhythm, Chris moved back into his newly renovated apartment, Emma would drop off lunches on Sundays and they'd practice on Thursdays. Summer gave way to Fall as October began. Chris closed the door behind him as he made it home from work, Kicking off his shoes to shuffle over to the couch and sit.

Well. Now what? he thought as he gave a tired sigh while staring at the wall across from him. He eventually shifts to get his phone out of his pocket.

[Chris] Hey, Are you busy?

...

[Bastion] Not really. What's up?

[Chris] Mind if I stop by for a bit? I think I need some help.

[Bastion] Well color me surprised, Sure.

Chris eventually gets up, he looks at his shoes and shakes his head before walking over to the other door across the hall from his to knock on it.

bastion opens it and leans in the doorway. "I've been expecting you"

"Bastion" Chris says with an amused expression while rising an eyebrow to say 'seriously'.

"You're no fun" Bastion says getting up and out of the way so Chris can walk into the very nicely decorated apartment. "It's a bit early to be talking costumes but I can appreciate the initiative since you were late last year," he says as he closes the door behind the agent.

"Actually, it's not about that," Chris says as he walks over to the living room to take a seat.

"oh?" Bastion says surprised but takes a seat in the chair next to the sofa. "Well this really is a surprise then. What can I help you with?"

"You're more in tune with your emotions and such," Chris says earning an unamused stare from Bastion.

"Chose your next words carefully," the nail tech warns.

"...It's come to my attention that I might. have developed feelings for Emma and I don't know what to do about that," Chris says as he takes the warning seriously resulting in a more hesitant tone.

"oh that's where we're going with this, thank the stars you finally figured it out," Bastion says clearly relieved and not surprised in the slightest which confused Chris.

"you knew?" He asks as his eyebrows knit together.

"I've known since Halloween," Bastion says as if this should be obvious.

"Since 3 weeks from now?" Chris points out, further confused. Halloween hasn't happened yet and he only just figured this out at the end of August.

"It's been a year Chris. A. Year," he says while giving a small clap between each of the last two words.

"Oh," Chris replies quietly with a frown. how?

"You definitely need more help than you can get if you're asking a gay man how to get a woman." Bastion points out before shifting to stand back up and head over to the kitchen. "this seems like it might take a while. do you want some tea?"

"Coffee if you have it" Chris replies, still mulling this over.

"Fine" Bastion says as he brews the two drinks and eventually returns, offering a cup to Chris before taking his seat again. "Okay so you've opened your metaphorical Pandora's box." the man says before crossing his legs "now the question really is. what do you want to do about it?" Bastion points out.

Chris sips at the drink he was offered before putting it down. "That's where I'm stuck at the moment..." he admits "I want to tell her but,"

"Then tell her," Bastion says as he shakes his head and sips at his tea.

"It's not that simple" Chris replies as he moves to his usual thinking stance of leaning forward to rest his elbows on his legs and hold his own fist.

"It is though," Bastion replies with an amused and befuddled expression

"It's not for me," Chris countered as he turns his head to look at Bastion with a frown, "There's not much that scares me but. this does." he verbally admits which causes Bastion to pause as a more sympathetic expression crosses his face.

"Alright," Bastion says getting up to sit next to Chris placing a gentle hand on his back and take the conversation more seriously. "What's scaring you?" he asks figuring that was the first thing they'd need to tackle.

Memories of each time he held a dead or dying partner came to mind in a mental collage. that was classified. "I'm afraid of losing her," he says after thinking of a way to explain it without going into detail.

"hm" bastion nods, it was a pretty normal fear. "So you're worried if you tell her then she might leave?" bastion asks to make sure he understands.

"That's part of it yeah" Chris admits and once more the nail tech nods before patting Chris on the back and getting up again.

"Okay well, Uncle Bastion is going to help you out. Luckily I know a few tricks for communicating without speaking," he says as he walks over to his fridging and takes a flyer out from under a magnet, and walks back to take his seat. "You know the 90-10 rule right?" Bastion asks causing Chris to raise an eyebrow.

"Can't say I do," Chris admits confused

Lord, you really do need help. "Okay. So, crash course. 90-10 rule is for if you want to kiss someone and you haven't before so you don't want to force yourself on them." Bastion explains, "You lean in 90% of the way and if they are interested they move the last 10%" he explains before handing over the flyer.

Haunted Fair Ground!

open from Oct 15th to Nov 3rd

Enjoy our amazing haunted attractions Fit for the whole family.

For the brave of heart check out our haunted house full of ghouls and frights.

No costumes, face paint, or masks allowed on the fairgrounds.

"So, here's what we're going to do. We are going to go over there and tell Emma that we're going to the fairgrounds and see if she wants to go with us on the 16th. Oh, what a miraculous turn of events I already have a date that day to go to that exact place." Bastion explains "You two split off, have a good time, go through the haunted house, she screams and clings to your arm, it's cute, laugh about it. get home then invite her over for Coffee." he continues and Chris nods as he looks at the flyer. "This is where the 90-10 comes in, sit at the couch, Lean over go for the 90% if she doesn't move, Grab something from the table next to her and move on with the night."

That. was actually kinda really smart."Huh... that could work" Chris admits. He'd be able to see if she felt the same way with a way to backpedal if she doesn't.

"Thank you, thank you. I have my brilliant moments," Bastion says with a smile. "Now let's finish up our drinks and talk about something a bit lighter in the meantime."

'*'*'*'*'

Emma sat at her couch with her laptop on her crossed legs and Duke curled up next to her. She plugged in her Earbuds and got to work. It was a bit frustrating but she was late to the game for this round of EP selections. The Senior marketing managers usually got the first pick and had Regulars agreements to work with the Chart-toppers. Mostly the Pop and Electric/techno artists. after that, the scraps of newly picked up talent were left for the Junior marketers to pick through to see which one they wanted to work with for the month. It wasn't the best way to do it but it made sure that people were passionate about what they were working on so Emma respected the chaos it brought all the same.

"Let's see what we have this month," She mumbles and starts opening sound files. She slowly bobbed her head to the sound before eventually shaking it. Nah that one wasn't going to catch on, it was absolutely all over the place. she closed the file and started up another one. Okay not bad, alright that has a good bassline to i- her expression switched to one of confusion. "Is that. Christian rock?" she says really confused. the melody and instrumental worked really well but it was so niched it would likely never catch on with the mainstream. She really was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Dang, it all. If only she hadn't been late.

A tired grumble escaped her lips which Duke mimicked back causing her to laugh "are you talking to me, bud?" she says shaking her head and went back to sorting through sound files. she gave each one a try. it had been about an hour and she made it about halfway through the files and they were starting to dwindle as others took on their project for the month. she needed to pick and fast.

click. she nods along to the music. okay. alright...Hey, hold on. She smiled as she put a leg down and tapped it to the drumbeat and made a drumming motion with her finger. Okay, alright, yeah. This was actually really good holy he- how did no one pick up this EP yet? She quickly drags the folder into her stash as she continued to listen to the other songs for the set of 4. she quietly mouths a silent 'Yas'. as she continues to smile and jam along to the music. It was more Punk / Alt rock which wasn't what she usually worked with, but this. It was a sleeper track and she was determined that it could make it on the charts if she tried hard enough. She had yet to pull that off but if she ever was going to then this was the track to do it. She plays it again and smiles. "Never seems to be enough for me, We're forever! You & I together~" she happily sang along with the chorus only to feel a tap on her shoulder which causes her to yelp as she closed her laptop and held it to her chest while standing up.

'*'*'*'*'

Bastion collected up the Cups and looks to Chris, "as much as I appreciate how comfortable you are in my home, you should probably head back to yours and put your shoes on before we head over to Emmas" the nail tech points out which cause's Chris's shoulder to drop.

"Probably a good idea" he agrees as he gets up as well and heads over to the door, back to his apartment, and put his shoes on when a shrill sound caught his attention. He looked over to the kitchen wall with a confused expression. That was definitely some sort of timer or ring tone going off at Emma's place. He gave it a while but it wasn't turning off. Concern started to wash over him as he dug through his pockets to get his keys and walked over to her door and knocked on it. no response.

He frowns at this and goes to unlock the door and quietly walks in to find that Emma was sitting on her couch drumming at the air while bidding her head with a wide grin and earbuds plugged in as her phone sat on the kitchen island. whatever she was listening to it was too loud for her to hear her phone going off. Chris let out a sigh of relief and walks over figuring he should get her attention.

"Never seems to be enough for me, We're forever! You & I together~" she happily sang along with the chorus only to feel a tap on her shoulder which causes her to yelp as she closed her laptop and held it to her chest while standing up. "Chris?" she asks speaking a bit louder than intended because of the music in her ear. She removes the earbuds "what the heck you scared the crap out of m-" she stopped as she realized her phone was going off. "Oh my gosh my alarm," she says as she hurried over to it and turned it off. "I am so sorry that must have gotten pretty loud" she apologized as Chris laughs.

"What on earth were you listening to that made it so you couldn't hear that?" he asks amused. Emma smiles and puts down the laptop on the counter.

"Okay I'll show you but you can't tell anyone that I did," she says with a smile, she was excited about this. she pressed play and a loud guitar cried out alongside the thumping beat of a drum.

"Is this punk rock?" he asks with a chuckle.

"It's good" she counters with a smile as she nods at the music again "I'm going to get this one to the top of the chart even if it kills me"

"Emma" Chris replies with a disapproving tone.

"What? You joke about that all the time don't go all hypocritical on me," she says with a laugh as bastion walks into the open door.

"Wow couldn't even wait for me?" he says looking at Chris with an amused smile before starting to bob his head as well "hold up what's this?"

"Right?"Emma says with a smile to bastion "Keep an ear out for it, it's going to get on the radio if I have anything to say about it." she says excitedly as her grin returned.

Bastion nods "Anyways Chris and I were just talking about something and wanted to see if you wanted in," he explains before looking to Chris who was still holding the flyer.

"Yeah, Bastion found out about some Halloween set up," Chris mentioned and offered Emma the flyer which she looks over.

"Oh, this looks fun," she says with a smile. "When are you guys going?"

"The 16th," Bastion replies with a smile.

"Yeah I can make that," she says and offers the flyer back. "That sounds awesome, are the Russo's going too?" she asks with a smile, it seemed unlikely.

"Pretty sure it opens after their bedtime" Bastion says with a wink which causes her to chuckle.

"right fair enough." Emma agrees amused, "so we're meeting in the hallway?" she asks to confirm the plan.

"6 pm so we can be there by 7" Bastion confirms before patting Chris on the back "see you guys then!"

"See you around then," she says with a wave as Chris and bastion left.

'*'*'*'*'

the 16th eventually came along. Emma had been working her tail off the whole time and she was excited about the break. "What do you mean the cover is blue?" she asks as she digs through her purse to make sure she had everything she needed "No, I saw the proofs, they all looked soft and half-ass, send them back to the graphics team. Redo them and make them green. I want this next batch to have an edge to it or I'm going down there and doing it myself," Emma says as she holds her phone to her ear with her shoulder so her hands were free to finish putting on her coat. "Okay, glad we're on the same page now. I look forward to having the results on my desk by the end of tomorrow. I need to get these printed. Okay. Okay bye." with that she turns off the screen and puts that into her purse. she looked over her outfit one more time, she looked cute. she thought with a nod and with that, she went out to the hallway to find Chris there and no bastion. She checked her clock. 6:01 pm.

"Hey, have you seen bastion yet?" Emma asks as she locked up her apartment.

"He went ahead, something about having a date waiting for him" Chris replies with a shrug which mildly surprised Emma.

"Wha- but he suggested the carpool." Emma says with a frown before shaking her head "Oh well, good for him." she says and looks to Chris "Rock paper scissors for who drives?" she offers.

"I'm driving," he counters and starts walking down the stairs causing Emma to give a short laugh

"You are determined that I'm a horrid driver arent you," she teases which causes him to smile.

"The worst," he replies earning a nudge. All the same, Chris drove the two a good 45 minutes out of town to the Haunted Fairground, the parking lot was packed even for a Friday night. it took them a moment before they made it through the ticket booth and they eventually say bastion talking to a cute young man and smiling. upon seeing them he gives them a thumbs up and walks off.

"Hm well guess we're solo then," Emma says with a chuckle. It was good to see that the New Years' luck was at least working for him. she looked back to Chris "so, what should we do first?" she asks curiously.

Chris remembered the plan that bastion mentioned. "Wanna try out the haunted house?" he suggests in return. the fairground did look pretty family-friendly as the flyer said it would be. the haunted house couldn't be that much worse. the suggestion got Emma to chuckle.

"Fine fine, might as well get the bravery test out of the way" she agreed and walked with him to the building. the 'house' was more of a mansion. it was huge! "Oh wow they really went all out on this place," Emma says amazed as they walked past several signs. '18+ only' 'be prepared to provide ID' 'consent form required' oh boy... well hopefully it didn't scare her too bad.

a demented clown waited for them at a desk with clipboards and pens "IDs" he asks as he hands them each a clipboard. both hand over their driver's licenses which the man shines a blue light at before handing them back. "those are the consent forms, for your safety and the safety of our actors, they may reach out and grab you redirect you down secret passages and so on. However do not touch the actors, punch kick push or shove. no running in the halls, or pushing. shoving other guests outside of your own party. In the event of an injury while walking through the staff will escort you out using an emergency exit. this haunted house takes about 45 minutes to walk through."

wow, that was a lot of information. Emma thought as she read over the form. "The building is gorgeous by the way, are you guys renting it?" she asks curious about the logistics of running this place, good old marketing brain was not completely shut off yet.

The clown gave a short laugh "Yeah I think the even planner rented it out from the state, it's some old asylum supposed to already be haunted too" he adds with a smirk.

"That's a great selling point they should have had that on the flyer," Emma says surprised while Chris frowned. She didn't seem worried in the slightest.

Maybe this was a bad idea. He thought but all the same, handed back the filled-out consent form. The two are escorted in and Chris looks around the dark poorly lit hallways as a cool breeze could be felt despite the place being locked up. he took a deep breath and walked with Emma down the hall. to Chris's horror, he watches as a Zombie walks into view as they cross the hallway. flashbacks flooded his mind. all the same he walked alongside Emma. 5 minutes. for 5 minutes actors dressed as zombies rattled barred doors and reached out to try and grab at them causing Chris's breathing to quicken and eyes to dilate and he pushed back his urge to run. one of the actors who appeared to be another Door shaker, opened the door and ran at the two, causing Chris to Grab Emma by her waist with one arm and pull her back with him as the other clambered to grab a pistol that wasn't there. Emma gave a frightened yelp as she was pulled back. the 'zombie' reached the end of a lease as it reached out to try and grab at the two. Emma eventually relaxed and started to laugh. This was fake after all.

It took her a moment but she noticed the arm holding her was shaking. she looked up to find Chris staring at the zombie. that wasn't haha funny good times fear that was genuine terror... he wasn't having fun. There was another 40 minutes of this and they hadn't even got to the parts where the actors would grab them and try to separate them and send them down hidden pathways... Emma took his arm and made sure she was between him and the Zombie. She wasn't sure what set him off but she needed to think of a plan to get them out.

Blood, gore, death, and memories of pain from being bit and scratched at by the living dead flooded his mind, how did he get out of here. He flinched slightly as he felt something take his hand only wake up from his thoughts as Emma lead the way forward. each sound he heard caused his eyes to dart in the direction it came from.

it took her a few minutes but Emma eventually saw her opening. a wire across the hallway that hadn't been secured down properly. Bingo. She let go of Chris's hand for a second so she wouldn't bring him down with her. She wasn't the best actress but she caught her foot on the wire and 'fell' landing on her knee. the lights turned on as she held her knee.

"Emma?" Chris says as he moves to help her get up again one of the Zombie actors walked over to check on her "Stay away," He says with a sneer causing the actor to raise their hands to signal surrender as they walked back.

"Sorry, is it okay if we go? I don't think I can walk on this for another 35 minutes." Emma requests as she looks to the actor who nods.

"Yeah, the emergency exit is that way," they explain pointing over their thumb over their back as the behind-the-scenes looked like a more normal building.

"Thanks," She replies as she held onto Chris and walked with an exaggerated limp.

This didn't make sense, he'd seen her take much worse tumbles before, did she hit her knee at a bad angle? Chris thought while trying to fix his breathing with little to no success.

Emma waited until they were a good 30 feet away from the Haunted house as she started to walk normally again "There we go, much better," she says with a smile. "It's a miracle," she adds with a wink and a chuckle as she shifts to stop clinging to him but takes his arm instead. "Let's find a place where we can sit for a bit though, How are you holding up? That place was pretty intense." She says with a concerned expression.

"Yeah," he replies shaking his head as the feeling of embarrassment started to build as the adrenaline died down. She noticed.

That wasn't an answer... Emma frowned slightly as her worrying compounded but ultimately found a seating area surrounded by various 'spooky' themed food vendors. "Here we go, this looks like a good place to rest a bit," she says and walks with him over to a table "I'm going to get water, do you want anything?" she asks as she watches him take a seat.

"I'm fine" he replies.

Well, that was better, he at least answered the question. Emma nods "Kay, I'll be right over there," she says pointing to the vendor she was going to. it took her a good 10 minutes because nothing could ever be set up efficiently but she returned with two bottles of water. "Much better," she says as she takes a seat next to Chris. she shifted to put one of the bottles away into her purse for later only to notice her phone going off.

[INCOMING CALL - WORK]

She stared at it for a second but dismissed the call before putting the bottle away. The two sat in silence as Emma took a drink from the bottle and offered it to Chris who took a swig before offering the bottle back. it helped. It took a minute but he finally spoke. "Well, that sucked... Sorry about that..." he says as he finally recovered from the adrenaline burst.

"No problem, I'm not sure what they were thinking putting that next to a family-friendly location," Emma says with some level of sympathy, she didn't find it scary at all but maybe that was because she had a stronger grasp on the fact that what she was seeing was fake from being in the entertainment business. "So, what should we do instead?" She asks while looking around for ideas. There was the usual assortment of carnival games. "Oh, hey I think they have darts" she suggests with a smile as she points out the booth.

Chris smiles at that "Sure, let's check that out," he replies while pushing himself to get up.

The two played a few games and walked around the fair as they talked about anything else. Plans for Halloween, favorite books and movies to watch during the spooky season, and favorite treats to enjoy. as the latter subject came up Emma chuckled "Actually I think I could go for a bite to eat. hmm let's see if we can find anything else ridiculous for you to put hot sauce on" she says before noticing a stand selling fried Octopus tentacles on a stick. " oh there you go" she says gesturing to it.

"Are you still on about that?" Chris asks with a laugh. Emma laughed in return and stuck her tongue out at him in response. To her dismay, he hooked her shoulder with his arm and started walking over to the stall "Well since you suggested it."

"Chris no, I was joking," she says with an expression of dismay and regret. "Okay you win I'll drop it." she adds with a laugh as they end up staying in line "Just don't make me eat that it looks gross."

"I'm not going to make you, I'm curious," he says which causes Emma to relax and luckily the stall sold normal food too. Emma got two chicken skewers while Chris got two chicken and one octopus. the two eventually got back to a sitting area and Emma watched concerned as he actually picked it up and looked it over.

"you're not actually going to eat that right?" she asks "I'm pretty sure I just saw it move," she adds which causes him to laugh.

"When in Rome," he says with a shrug and takes a bite out of it which causes Emma to look away while sticking out her tongue even though she was still smiling.

"I don't think they ate fried octopus in Rome," she says with a chuckle before looking back.

Chris chews at it a moment and shrugs. "It's not bad," he admits and takes another bite.

"Wait really?" Emma asks baffled.

"Really, it has an odd texture but it's not bad," he says and finishes it off.

"you're definitely better traveled than I am. I'll stick to chicken" she says with a laugh as she picks up her own meal and takes the bottle from her bag.

[INCOMING CALL - WORK]

Ignore.

The two finished up their meals and walked around the fair a bit more, playing a few more games before heading back to the car and riding home. 45 minutes later the two chuckle about a shared joke as they head up the stairs.

"That was fun," Emma says as she stopped by her door.

he knew what he was supposed to say but he hesitated as he remembered his earlier episode at the haunted house. "Yeah, I had a good time," he says with a nod.

Do you want to come over for a cup of coffee?

"Have a good night" he said instead as he gave a short wave and went back to his door.

"Good night," Emma says with a small smile and went inside.

Progress kinda? boi knows what to do but the execution was a slight fail for his first attempt. hehe gosh this was fun! I'm excited for the next one too :) see you soon~!

Review Responses:

InkScribble - chap 17 was one heck of a chapter here's hoping this helps with a bit of fluff and emotional development uvu

getawaygirl - amg it makes my heart happy to hear that my story is binge worthy :) i hope this latest addition was worth the wait.

Guest 1995 - Heya~ just saw your review, sorry i missed it before :) here's hoping this is a nice amount of fluff there should be more for the next two chapters