April 26th 2020

Chapter 117
Their Transformation Into Everything

"Hey, I remember this," Lucas laughed as he turned to find his cousins walking into the party. Emmett Jr, Dora, and Alex were dressed as the Animaniacs, just as they were on the picture soon added to the wall, showing them aged nine, six, and five. Eleven years onward, the dynamics were mostly identical.

The whole thing had been spearheaded by firstborn Junior, who had loved the old cartoon as a kid. He had convinced Dora first, pointing out that the girl Animaniac was called Dot like their mother, which made it all the better, and then in turn Dora had been able to convince Alex, which was the real stroke of genius here, as Emmett could never talk his little brother into doing anything, whereas their sister had all the power. Now here was Junior, aged twenty and pleased to jump into this old love, and Dora who found the whole thing funny, and Alex, who looked like he'd been talked into this more than anything.

"It sort of made more sense when we were this small," Dora pointed out, looking at the picture as she clipped it to the wall. Alex gave her a look which Lucas interpreted as 'that's what I've been telling you, why are we even doing this then?' All the same, as sulky as his youngest Cassidy cousin could be a lot of the time, one only had to see how much genuine love he had for his older sister to know the heart underneath the sulk.

"When was it that you dressed as Luna Lovegood? You and Chiara could have matched," Lucas pointed over to where their Italian friend was leading her wife in a very cautious sort of dance. Sophie looked so happy to be doing it, she barely gave a mind to careful she still had to be. She was getting closer to the point where they would kick things up a bit in her PT, but until then a slower dance was better than no dance at all.

"Two years after this," Dora recalled.

"And three," Alex pointed out.

"And seven," Junior nodded.

"Took a bit of a break, huh?" Lucas chuckled.

"Now I wish I'd done that…" Dora frowned at the missed opportunity. Her expression changed when she noticed her friends across the room, chatting with Missy and Kai. Lucas watched her, getting a flashback to the previous Halloween, where she'd gone to have a breather to clear her head, hearing aids out and everything. It really got to be that this year felt like an echo, with some of the elements slightly different but on the whole…

"Hey," Lucas tapped his cousin's arm and she turned back to him. "Everything alright?"

"Yes, I just…" She waited a moment, as her brothers headed off further into the party, leaving her and Lucas to talk. "They've been acting weird for a few days, and I… I think it's because of me."

"How?" Lucas asked, playing innocent.

All this time, it had felt as though Sam, Cecilia, and Dora had all played with various parts of a single deck, while Lucas and Maya had all the cards. They knew Sam had feelings for Dora from the year before, and now Cecilia knew it, too, hence this weirdness Dora had picked up on. Meanwhile, they also knew that Dora had had feelings for Sam last year, too, until Adam had happened. As to the state of those feelings at present time, Lucas couldn't say, although he suspected he might find out. For all that though, Sam and Dora both seemed unaware of the reciprocation of their feelings toward one another, which could really be the hidden charge waiting to burst.

"I think maybe I said something I shouldn't have, and now Cecilia knows how I felt about Sam. I think she believes I'll get in between them now that me and Adam aren't together anymore." As Lucas had suspected, it was half decks all over again. She hadn't read the situation exactly right, but then again, it might have been that she wasn't entirely wrong. Now Lucas suspected Cecilia did find out about Dora, which would mean that she, along with Maya and him, held all the cards, too. If that was the case, it'd be no wonder she'd need time to think.

"Is that what you want?" he had to ask Dora. He'd be the only one able to ask it without coming off as accusing. She looked at him now, with a face that told him the answer even before she managed to speak it.

"I wouldn't do that," she shook her head. "Not to him, not to her. They're my best friends." But she still felt something for Sam. That much was clear, even though she tried so hard to stamp it down. Knowing his cousin, even if Sam and Cecilia were ever to break up, she could never date one friend without feeling like she was benefitting from the other's heartbreak. And for all that, Lucas wondered about the power she held without knowing. What could happen if Sam realized it had never been a one-way crush as he would have assumed all along?

"You don't know how to talk to them right now, huh?" Lucas guessed. She shook her head. "You never will if you don't try." Dora looked at him for a moment, taking a breath before she made her way over to where Sam and Cecilia were now making to grab something to drink, after Missy and Kai had gone off to have themselves a zombie dance with the others in the middle of the cleared living room floor.

Lucas turned back to look at his cousins' picture on the wall, smiling at the memory of the three of them in their hyperactive glory back in the day. That was the year Maya had arrived in Texas.

His eyes drifted along the pictures on the wall, as more than one guest would end up doing throughout the night. It was a feature built on curiosity, drawing people in to want to look at the photos and then around the room to find the counterpart. He stopped on Asher's contribution again, and there was just something about it…

"What's on your mind, Pappy?" Maya appeared at his side, one cup in one hand, the other extended to him. He took it almost without breaking eye contact with the image.

"I don't know, there's something that doesn't add up." Maya stepped up a bit, so she might look at it, too.

"What do you mean?"

"I just remember the James Bond thing, except I also don't remember what year we weren't all sort of following some kind of theme, or doing a group costume…"

"Like the Turtles?" Maya grinned.

"Like the Turtles," he nodded with a small laugh. Maya squinted at the picture again, and then…

"Wait a second, look, here," she pointed at something in the picture. Her nails were each covered with things like a bottle, a cookie, a flower, a door… The Cheshire grin was presently directing his eyes at the small boy's neck.

"I don't see anything," he shrugged. Maya stared at him like 'yeah, exactly, which means…' "That's not him," he blurted it out even as it came to him. The boy in the picture, if he was Asher, would have had a scar on his neck, from one perilous incident the summer before, but he didn't. It stood like an equation in his head. One Asher-looking boy minus one scar equals one… "That's Joey," he revealed, even as Maya nodded. It was all coming back to him now, but then there was a new question. "Why is Asher pretending that's him?"

"I…" Maya frowned, looking back to find the friend in question so they might ask him. She blinked. "I think I know…" her expression shifted as she physically took hold of Lucas and made him turn around and see for himself.

Ever since he'd arrived at the party, Asher had been working up his suit with a comically on point impression of 007 himself. If he didn't do this, he would just look like a man in a suit in the middle of a Halloween party. Now it looked as though he was dropping the spy and keeping the man, because James Bond may have been all about his 'odd named women,' but Asher Garcia was all about his perfectly named man. Once upon a time their romance had been forced to be kept in the dark, but that was far in the past now, and today… Today he had fooled them all into thinking he was wearing a costume, just so he might proclaim his intentions before one and all and look damn good doing it.

One could have pinpointed exactly where each one of the couple's closest friends were standing in the room when Asher got down on one knee, holding his vampire's hands. They all reacted in what might be called 'the squeak of a stolen breath.' Ray looked stunned as well, showing he'd had zero idea this was coming, at this point in time. Some kind soul had the presence of mind to silence the music, the better to let Asher's words reach their intended audience.

It didn't make it across the room, to where Maya and Lucas stood, hears thudding in harmony with their friends', but the intention and the message were as clear as the answer was. Ray had given a solid nod, a yes read on his lips, and even before Asher had the chance to rise and kiss him, the room was an eruption of cheers. The music returned in a most upbeat tune, as the scattered friends came through to join the newly engaged pair and congratulate them.

"I thought you were going to figure it out the moment I gave you the picture," Asher revealed, once the chaotic hugging session had run its course. He looked all flushed and happy, which might have been the sweetest thing ever. "I almost went and added the scar in, but I couldn't get it to look right," he explained, pointing to his neck.

"What would you have done if you didn't have your brother's brief and… vaguely age inappropriate fascination with those movies?" Maya asked, smirking.

"I would probably have needed to come up with some kind of tearaway costume on top of the suit," Asher beamed, looking over to Ray. They hadn't let go of one another's hand since that kiss, sealing the proposal. On this night where he already got to reclaim his childhood memories, to have this happen on top of it, there were wet streaks in the pale makeup over his face, and a bright smile to make those tears follow the turn of raised cheeks.

"I figured it out," Dylan was proud to declare.

"You two were attached at the hip more than he and his own twin, it would have been weirder if you didn't," Zay pointed out, which made the others laugh. "I had a suspicion, by the way," he raised his finger, so the record would be clear.

"This needs drinks!" Sophie decided, pulling Chiara along to help her make the rounds in the kitchen, where they had their habitual rotating bartender, especially at a party like this, where they had people who could and couldn't drink alcohol.

"You know, between this and our whole spookversary thing, Halloween is starting to feel a little more romantic than scary," Maya breathed, as she soon received a new cup.

"You want to go do something about that?" Lucas asked with a tip of his hat. The twinkle of mischief in her eye said it all, though it was followed with a look down at her costume.

"Not exactly bursting with the spooks right now, am I?"

"How much work would it take to turn you into Alice in Nightmareland?" She stared at him.

"Sometimes, your timing, I swear…" she pulled him to follow up the stairs. "You help."

"I'll do my best."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners