7

The final project came and went and with the end of the semester came a break. This year break fell on the week of Halloween. Usually Halloween was a school night, but not this year. Duo's foster family had considered going away but he had refused. His foster parents decided maybe they'd take a parental get away instead and leave their foster son at his best friends, so Duo found himself occupying Cat's place for the first half of the week, and Halloween. They had discussed plans for costumes at school, but Duo was still unsure if his would be ready in time. They had thought of going as the four horse men. Duo of course was Death. Quatre said he could be famine 'skinny enough as it is and pale, not to hard to pull off' but nobody else volunteered. Trowa could be War, but didn't really want to and Wufei was also probably going to go trick or treating with them. Then Trowa suggested they go as the Seven Deadly Sins, sticking to the biblical theme. But nobody really wanted to identify as a sin and the costumes would be kinda complicated so they gave up on that idea too. The last suggestion of the day had been Sally's comment that they'd all look great as the Sailor Scouts, an idea nobody took seriously. Well, maybe Cat considered it, pointing out Duo did almost have long enough hair to be Serena, but the idea was shot dead quite quickly.

Duo flopped on Cat's bed. "Okay, any new ideas before the day of decision is upon us?" Cat screwed up his face in a thinking look, twitching his lips from left to right as he had a habit of when considering something, whether it be the cost of movies or the right costume for Halloween.

"Well, who for sure do we know is going? I talked with Trowa and he's of course coming. Wufei wanted to but might be out of town, but Sally definitely wanted to join us. I didn't really get to talk with the rest of the guys…" Cat trialed off. He tapped the tip of his pencil against the bare sheet of paper for brainstorming costumes, other then acquiring a series of little gray lines and dots it stayed blank.

"Well, we don't necessarily have to go as a related group." Duo offered. Cat shook his head.

"Being a group like that is part of the fun. We need to find a good TV show or movie or something. What have you read recently?" Duo pondered.

"We'll in English we're starting the Scarlet Letter right?"

"No. That won't do. Well I guess we can go unrelated. We'll be a walking mishmash." Cat sighed. Duo rolled his eyes. Cat would fixate on an idea and want everything to be perfect especially when it came to costumes.

"I'll send out the word and see who all's coming."

The night of Halloween arrived. Duo was going as Death, unoriginal yes, but he had a killer costume, partially due to Quatre's help. Cat had been dithering about his own costume up until the last day.

"What am I going to do? We have two hours till sundown and I can't find a costume." he wailed.

"Why couldn't you have just bought something?" Duo moaned, watching his friend tearing through the closet again.

"That's stupid, who wants a measly little pre-made costume. They look tacky. Arg!" Duo would not have been surprised if Cat had begun to pull out his hair at this point. Thankfully a knock at the door interrupted them. Duo ran down the stairs to get it. Trowa stood on the stoop.

"I take it I'm the first one here." He said as Cat's howls drifted down the stairs.

"You're his boyfriend," Duo said, grabbing Trowa's arm and dragging him in, "you figure out how to help him. I'm horrible at this costume stuff, you're the one who worked at a circus last summer, get the guy to wear something."

"I'll see what I can do." Trowa smiled, taking the stairs two at a time. Duo went to the bathroom to finish off his costume.

Quatre and Trowa emerged an hour later. Duo had since given up inquiring at the door. Instead he was waiting around and was flipping through the channels on the TV when they entered the room.

"Holy shit!" he jumped up off the couch. Cat stood, a little wary and self conscious, but Trowa prodded him forward.

"This something?" Trowa asked with a smile, "I figured I'd give him a costume to go with mine." Cat turned at Duo's motion so he could see the whole costume. Every inch of visible skin was dusted with green and gold glitter. There were fake leaves strung through his golden hair, and little berries. A tiny curling vine crept down along one side of his face, which had also been dusted with glitter, only the gold sort though. He wore a simple white tunic with green embroidery. It was sleeveless and on his bare arms were painted on tattoos of leaves and vines in shades of green with gold accents. The neck of the tunic was a boat neck with a little dip cut out of it, mimicking the renaissance style, with two strings hanging down. It came to a v at the bottom, hanging out over a green kilt. Beneath the kilt his legs were clad in sparkling gold and cream leggings. Duo had to wonder how long Trowa had premeditated this to find all the parts of the costume. The whole outfit was draped over with vegetation. And on his back two little wings, green and very leaf like, were attached to his shoulders. Unable to find any straps Duo searched till he noticed the green pins that held them to the shirt. The whole effect of the costume was that of a shimmering forest, or maybe a meadow sprite. The costume had a light feel too it.

"I bow to you oh costume god and subduer of Cats." Duo intoned. Trowa laughed.

"It was the least I could do, I know how he gets."

"Hey, I'm still in the room you know." Cat grumbled. Trowa looked as if he was about to ruffle Cat's hair, but thought better of it, so as not to muss his creation, and patted Cat's shoulder instead. Trowa's costume was a darker then Quatre's. He wore brown leggings and a green vest that looked to be of something like soft leather. His arms were decorated with the same sort of green tattoo work, but without the gold accents. In fact he was almost completely minus sparkle. He did have the wings though, slightly bigger then Cat's and in more fall hues, they stood out the most, and were echoed by one fire opal earring.

"I haven't seen that one before." Duo pointed at it.

"It's actually one of my sister's," Cat confessed. "We're borrowing it for tonight. When I saw the wings I knew it would be perfect." They really did make quite a fetching couple. Duo was keeping track of time though, Sally would be arriving any minute and then they'd go pick up the others.

"You should grab some bags for candy." He reminded them as he went to answer the now ringing doorbell.

Sally and Wufei joined their group. Wufei looked decidedly unhappy in his pirate costume. It was actually quite fetching, Wufei had great legs, which he never showed with his baggy pants, so wearing pants that cut off at the knees was a nice look. Sally the pirate wench was thoroughly enjoying herself. She was loud and pirate-ish with occasional mutters of "arrrr", her arm slung jovially around Wufei. They left Cat's house and went to pick up Heero. Duo had never been to Heero's house and was kind of excited. It was a small one floor apartment and on the ground level so they just went up and knocked on the screen door that lead out to the hedged front yard. Duo peered inside; the first thing that caught his eye was the dishwasher. It was sitting in the middle of the hall.

"Heero, you're friends are here!" they heard his mother yell. A door banged open somewhere and a little three foot girl streaked over to the door, edging her way by the washer. She undid the latch and pulled the door open.

"Hi Crissy." Quatre smiled, leaning down. She gazed up eyes wide.

"Are you a fairy?" she asked, her voice holding a note of awe.

"Actually, I'm supposed to be a 'sprite' but fairy will do. Is your brother coming?" She nodded vigorously. Heero appeared around the corner. He looked very menacing. I guess I have a contender for most black, Duo thought to himself. Heero was wearing a black leather trench coat, a tight black high-neck t-shirt, black leather pants and black combat boots, all topped off by black sunglasses.

"Matix are we?" Trowa questioned.

"Mr. Anderson? No. Just some random person from the Animatrix. They all look like this right?" Heero shrugged, pulling the dishwasher out of the way and rolling it around a corner. Duo couldn't help himself.

"What's with the dishwasher?"

"Doesn't fit in the kitchen when there's people in there, so it gets rolled around to wherever we want till we actually need to use it. Either the tables up, or the dishwasher is." Heero explained. Grabbing a bag from beside the door and giving Crissy a quick hug.

"When'll I get to trick or treat with you guys?" she whined.

"Maybe next year?" Cat offered and Heero sent him a glare over her head.

As they walked down the block away from his house porch lights started to come on, it was almost dark. They had just one more stop before the night's festivities would begin.

"I never knew you had a sister." Duo offered.

"Eh, she's a brat."

"She's really quite sweet." Cat said from Heero's other side. "Heero babies her, it's hilarious." Heero growled a little. "She can be a little annoying in her overly sweet way, and a little whiny some times, but I wish my sisters were more like that. What I'd give so they wouldn't pick on me and pull pranks…"Quatre trailed off.

"A little bit whiny. You try living with her, especially when there's something she wants."

"I think it's great you have siblings." Duo put in, "I was an only child for a long time, I mean I still am. When I was really little I always wanted a sibling. Siblings are the greatest I think. It's nice sometimes to have someone like that. Someone I'm related to. Guess I'll never truly have that though..." Heero threw him an odd look. But whatever question was on his lips was left unasked as they arrived at Relena's house. The two girls were already out front.

"Hey, long time no see!" called Dorothy as she waltzed down the steps. She wore a double breasted blue coat, almost military with epilates, and lots of gold ribbing. She had straight legged pants of a cream color, and a sword that looked surprisingly real in one hand. Under her other arm she had a white plushy pony. Relena looked only slightly like she was wearing a wedding dress. She had a white dress with elbow length gloves, her hair was in a braided pile on her head and she also wore a crown.

"So you guys are?" Sally prompted.

"Is it not obvious? Prince charming and…"

"I think we decided I look most like Cinderella." Relena finished.

"That explained the white horse." Cat said sagely. Dorothy nodded.

"A pair of sprites, two pirates, Prince and Princess Charming, random Matrix guy and Death. Great group we've got here." Duo summarized. Sally whooped, pumping a fist in the air.

"Brigade attack I want a full bag of candy and then some before the night is through!"