"Monster Bash Night! Monster Bash Night! Monster Bash Night!"

The cheerful voice chirped and resounded across the entire house as the littlest deputy made their way towards the door and gracefully spun and zigzagged through the air as if they were a tiny plane practicing its stuns.

"Adorabat, be a little quieter, please?" A tired voice called out from behind.

"MONSTER BASH NIGHT!" They yelled, louder this time.

Behind them, a grouchy looking cat was carefully approaching the scene, holding a bunch of tiny but neatly decorated bags. Two plastic looking fangs hung from his lips, his whiskers were combed back with exaggerated amounts of gel, and replacing his usual armor were a purple vest, around his neck an old looking cravat that neatly accentuated he look, and his cape was a brighter red, with tiny little details that made it look more like a… vampire's?

The sheriff department was taking its well deserved break after a long, long day of battling monsters and stopping a surprise visit from the Sky Pirates, who had rebranded themselves as the Space Pirates in an attempt to seem bigger and more important. It didn't work.

And that night just so happened to be their very first Monster Bash Night out ever since they had come across Pure Heart Valley. They were the heart of the festivity after all. Even after the Valley had vanished, the holiday had become global.

The night where darkness came to life and every creature went out to celebrate, ask for candy, party and most importantly, wear costumes and be scary, relish in that rush of adrenaline that fear was so well known to produce. That was the premise he could remember, at least.

What was it they celebrated exactly? He wasn't so sure.

The name was certainly different from what Mao Mao could remember, maybe it was even exclusive for Pure Heart Valley.

As tired as everyone was, especially Mao, they had been planning this outing for a very long time, ever since Adorabat mentioned the special day, and they wanted to have this little bonding moment with them. The cat wouldn't have even remembered that this was a festivity that existed in the first place hadn't the young deputy dedicated their life to yell about it the closer the day became. He thought it would be a good opportunity to keep them company but also do some good old patrolling in the process. Nights like these tended to be more dangerous than usual for one reason or another.

Adorabat had been the first to dress up for the occasion. It was mostly improvised but they were happy with it, and that's what matters. Two little red horns were adorning their head. Their wings were sloppily painted black with what he wanted to assume was body paint and not markers, a red bow adorned their neck, and finally, from their back hung a long, red imp tail that just seemed really difficult to fly with, but he didn't really want to question the kid's choice in costume.

The seconds were passing, the kid was growing impatient, and Mao was starting to reconsider this whole thing. He wasn't used to wearing anything other than his battle armor, and even though the costume didn't stray too far from what his usual outfit was and was only missing his leg plates, he already felt naked without them. A rush of air made him shiver, but he wasn't sure if it was caused by the cold or rather by the weight of his choices crawling on the back of his neck.

"BADGERCLOPS!"

Yes, he needed him to hurry up before he completely regretted doing this in the first place.

"Coming, coming!" Called out the cyborg. One could hear him stumbling.

Finally, from their shared bedroom, the final member of the sheriff department peeked his head, a frown upon his features as he shot a glare at Adorabat. He went back in, and after mere seconds, he walked out completely. He had a little cartwheel tucked under his robo-arm, probably for all the bags Mao was carrying in his own, though based on the cat's raised eyebrow, this had been a last minute decision. He wasn't complaining, having to carry all that by himself, especially knowing that they would get filled with sweets later on, didn't sound all that appealing.

"Sheesh, Adorabat. You don't have to yell at me, my costume is very elaborated, it takes long to achieve the exact look..." The badger mumbled the last part, pouting.

His costume was in fact, pretty elaborated. At the very least, his had a lot of little details in it that showed that he put a lot of thought into it.

He'd never have many opportunities to dress up for Monster Bash Night, though he was probably the only one out of the three who had experience celebrating the holiday almost yearly, even if he didn't wear a costume each time. Badgerclops was a big horror movie fan. He liked the old, cheesy ones the most, but he indulged whenever he had the chance. He chose to fuse two classic looks for this particular instance because he was having a hard time choosing between the two. A Frankestein monster/mummy hybrid. Bandages were wrapped around his lower body and his bad eye, two bolts were peeking out of both sides of his neck. He had drawn a lot of scar markings across both of his arms, and stuffed the pockets of his belt with various viles filled with liquids of dubious origins. Probably got them from Camille. As a final touch, he had glued a tiny, green googly eye, right over the bandages on his face.

Mao Mao and Adorabat had chosen to stay quiet for a moment, simply staring at the big guy who was fixing the bandages covering his left eye carefully. They were actually impressed by how dedicated he seemed to be to all this.

"Why are you staring at me like that...?" He sighed. "I know, I know, it seems kind of ridiculous that I decided to put so much work into a childish costume, but it's a day I enjoy a lot, so if you wanna be mean, go ahead, I just won't take it. I wanna have fun tonight."

"Woah, woah, Badgerclops!" Mao Mao stopped him, walking over to him to grab the cartwheel from his arms and place it down on the floor so he could place all the little bags there. Then, he looked up at him, smiling sheepishly. "You're not ridiculous, we're just really... taken aback by how much work you put into your costume, you look amazing." His voice was earnest, so Badgerclops had to look to a side, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"Thanks, man..."

Adorabat giggled, batting their wings impatiently. "YEAH, BADGERCLOPS! You look really scary! I bet you have the best costume out of all the sweetypies! I mean, I still think my little imp costume has an adorable aura that none of you can ever achieve and Mao Mao's vampire is the coolest I've ever seen, so everyone else might look mediocre compared to us but... let's go show them off now, I can't wait for you guys anymore!"

Badgerclops laughed with them, and shook his head as he took a hold of the cartwheel handle and began walking behind the bat, dragging it with him.

They had both stepped into the night and had already gotten pretty far, but eventually Badgerclops realized that the light coming from their house was still on and intensely embracing both of their bodies, signal that the door had been left open.

When he turned around, a little annoyed that everyone just thought it was a good idea to go into the town and leave their house open for anyone to creep inside, he was met with a stiff Mao Mao, still standing there, in the doorway, staring at them walk off and hiding his body into the warmth of his vampiric cape.

"Mao?"

No response.

He turned his whole body around this time, however, before he could take a step towards the sheriff, a sudden movement from his part caused him to jolt a little. He had whipped his head to a side, as if he was ashamed to look at him.

He earned a frown from Badgerclops.

The second he noticed the stink eye, he bit his lip and began walking down the steps as if nothing had happened.

"It's nothing! I'm fine, I was just... reconsidering for a bit, haha! Don't mind me!"

"Reconsidering?"

"Yeah, you know... thinking about how it would be a little ridiculous for me to try to keep the peace while dressed up like... like this-! But it was just a thought, I'll get used to it!"

Badgerclops smiled half-heartedly, quickly elbowing Mao on the side the moment he was close enough.

"C'mon, Mao Mao Mao. You don't get to tell me how good I look and ignore the fact that you look awesome. Because you do look awesome! You're like a vampire of justice, hehe... it's going to be fun, let's go." He wrapped his free arm around the cat's shoulder and gave Mao's hesitant expression an excited one of his own.

Mao couldn't help but sigh in defeat, and even if it took him a while, he jokingly slapped the badger's arm away and walked past him while flicking his cape in his characteristic, cool manner, trying his very best to look unfazed. The cyborg followed him with a big smile on his lips. "Dude, I'm literally so excited. I'm going to eat so many things! You wouldn't believe how tasty the sweets are around this time of year!"

The two men were already far behind Adorabat, who seemed eager to get there as soon as possible, so Mao was stuck listening to Badgerclops ramble about different types of sweets and their taste based on seasonal aspects as they walked. Not that he minded.

In no time, the trio of heroes were already crossing the entrance gates to the kingdom, where the atmosphere had changed entirely. From dark paths of forest, where possible dangers crept at every corner and the only noise one could hear were the chirps of bugs jumping around, to streets filled with lanterns, each uniquely decorated to fit the theme of the specific celebration, music filling the air, laughter and the sweet smell of pastries everywhere. Every house had outside decorations, each different from the other, though the one that caught his eye the most was Pinky's, which just looked like a graveyard, surrounded with bones which he hoped to some divine entity were fake. Other than that, the rest of the decor, even if it fit the theme, was strangely adorable in its own way. Bats, pumpkins, ghosts, anywhere you looked, everything either had a smiley face or a heart somewhere.

Leave it to the sweetypies to make a supposedly creepy holiday into a festival filled with cheer.

It wasn't what Mao was expecting, even if it didn't come off as a surprise coming from the cute little creatures.

Adorabat and Badgerclops didn't seem to mind though, so he didn't complain.

The little imp bat squealed when they spotted a group of children running towards them, all dressed up in different costumes, probably to say hi. They waved their wings excitedly.

"Hi, Adorabat!" Ketchup said first. She was a witch. "Do you wanna come sweets-or-fleeing with us?"

"GASP! My very first sweets-or-fleeing!" They giggled. "Count on me!"

"And on me!" Badgerclops was quick to interject. However, when he looked down to everyone's stashes to see what he should expect this year in terms of sweets, his smile disappeared from his face almost immediately. Their bags looked... pretty empty? He wasn't about to panic but that didn't look good at all.

"Hey? How long have you kids been out?"

All of them got lost in thought pretty quick, but Chubbum, dressed like a little chef, seemed to be the only one who knew with certainty. "Well, we've probably been running around for like an hour, the festival hasn't been going on for long!"

"And how come your bags look... so sad and empty?" The cyborg sounded way too concerned. "They should be overflowing at this point!"

"Oh, it's always been like this. Everyone's so immersed into the festival part of Monster Bash Night that sweets-or-fleeing has become very difficult. They rarely give us sweets, but if you ask nicely you can get some! Kevin got a good amount this year!" Lucky, the sailor, giggled.

Badgerclops seemed disappointed, but even if it wasn't a big amount, sweets were still sweets, and he couldn't pass up on a chance to savor them.

Adorabat, however, was really happy. "Well, good thing you came to me! Let's see who gets stingy with their candies after a little talk with me..." They said as their face turned grim, causing the group to grow silent, and then suddenly, they were all cheering at the idea, and they were quick to regroup and run off, expecting the little bat to follow suit. Adorabat gave a few spins around their own orbit, trying to use up some energy since they were so excited, but as soon as they threatened to fly off, they felt their little body being tugged backwards, and when they looked behind them, they saw Mao Mao, who up until this point had been dead silent, holding them by the red cloth tail that was strapped to their back.

"Mao Mao? What's wrong?" They asked, worried. The hero had this impossible to read expression drawn on his face. He looked as angry and serious as ever, but there was a hint of something unknown there, somewhere in his dark orbs.

"Adorabat, we have no time to waste."

"No time to waste?"

Mao nodded. "I know the prospect of being in costumes might have given you the wrong idea, but uh, we're supposed to be... to be patrolling, remember?" He brought his hand out to signal an invisible something.

"But, but...

"On nights like these, the kingdom is at its most vulnerable. W-We can't afford to have a sudden monster attack happening and us running short on time to battle because you were distracted asking for candies!" He seemed pretty out of it himself, but they didn't dare point it out.

Just when they were about to argue back, Badgerclops, who had stepped out for a minute to reevaluate his plans for the night and ended up getting distracted by the intense smell of food filling the night air, came back with a corndog in his hand and a pout on his features.

"Mao," He mumbled, taking a bite. "don't be like that. We've been hyping this whole thing up for weeks now, I've been preparing my stomach for all the sweets I was planning on eating today, even though sweetypies apparently don't... give any away... but that's not the point! I know you want to patrol and how important that is to you, but let us have this!"

"Mao Mao, you can come with so you don't feel lonely!"

Mao's eyes widened. "That's not-!"

"Yeah, that's genius, Adorabat! Come with us and that way, you can do your sheriff stuff while we walk around the kingdom and try to solve the mystery of why everyone refuses to give candy to the people who need it the most!" The cyborg giggled.

"Come on, Mao Mao!" The kid started.

"C'mon, Maoooo!" The badger continued.

Mao Mao had to bring a hand up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache building up, but as he tried to push the growing, uncertain feeling in his chest back, he looked up at the two causes of his distress with daggers in his eyes. They had to take a step back, expecting the worst. However, the sheriff then closed his eyes, huffed through his nose, and nodded his head, though it had been very hard to notice.

"This," he sighed. "is ridiculous, but sure, let's do it, I guess."

The two in front of him cheered at the same time, hugging each other and spinning in their place briefly while Mao rolled his eyes.

Badgerclops was quick to grab Mao Mao by the wrist so they could walk close together, almost completely dragging him along. "Yeah, baby! Mao Mao, the party vampire!"

"You just made me regret this, I hate you."

And so, their little adventure was set in motion. Adorabat's friends had vanished out of their sight, but it didn't matter. Until they could find them, they would stick close to their two caretakers. However, them and Badgerclops seemed to be way too immersed in the excitement of the holiday, more than Mao would've liked, so as they walked around and took in the sights of the beautifully decorated valley, they began spotting different sweetypies, most of them behind food and game stalls, which meant potential sweets, so they eventually began straying away from the cat, so he was left walking several feet behind, where their voices were distant and he was alone with his thoughts and the music coming from somewhere around the town square.

The imp bat and the cyborg monster didn't seem to succeed in their approach of asking nicely, moreover, the sweetypies didn't seem to have anything to give them that wasn't the things already displayed on their stands. Badgerclops' cries resounded loud and clear every single time the disappointment settled in, but he always came back with a different type of snack in his hand, which made Mao, watching from his safe distance, chuckle to himself.

However, as they kept up this pace, them running off to harass every citizen, and Mao, not able to keep up, being left on his own, things began to feel off.

Badgerclops, like one would do after following a pattern and repeating it again and again, began to notice something that remained constant whenever they distanced themselves from Mao Mao.

The second they began doing their thing, talk to a sweetypie, or stop to buy food if they didn't obtain any candy, which had been every single time so far, the cat would stop dead in his tracks and stare at them intensely once he thought he was out of their sight. He could spot him from the corner of his eye.

Not an angry look, not a tired look, just... a hard to describe, intense stare, as if he was carefully analyzing their every move.

For the time being, he had chosen to ignore it. It wasn't very odd behavior for Mao, who was probably starting to get impatient over the fact that they were totally not patrolling and had used that as an excuse.

And so they kept walking, until Adorabat's screech brought them to a sudden halt.

Only a few feet away, over at the entrance of the King's castle, were the bat's friends, all knocking at the doors and laughing.

Delighted to have finally found their friends, Adorabat flew over to hover above them, and began knocking as well. The King most likely had stashes upon stashes of sweets, and if not that, all kinds of food.

It was pretty weird that he wasn't out celebrating with his subjects, and Mao and Badgerclops noticed, but when they approached to investigate further...

"GET OUT!"

Perfect timing.

Snugglemagne's terrified screams echoed across his balcony, while the kids seemed to rejoice at the sound. Sweetypies were weird like that.

Mao Mao immediately seemed to come out of the weird daze that he had been in throughout the night and didn't hesitate to run towards the door so he could be closer to the commotion.

"My liege!" He called out, impatiently. "My liege, what seems to be the problem?" He had to resist the urge to break down the door. The King didn't sound in danger, just extremely distressed, however, he still stood in a defensive stance in case he truly needed to force his way into the castle to rescue his protégé.

A few moments of silence went by before a very sleepless looking Snugglemagne peeked his head out from the balcony with a plate of muffins in hand, probably one of his midnight cravings, and looked down only to have his face light up at the sight of the sheriff. He looked like he could burst into tears at the slightest inconvenience.

"OH, SHERIFF!" He sniffled. "I'm so glad you're here! Please, I need you to get rid of these little pests at once!"

The wording he chose to use was quite rough, but Snugglemagne looked... genuinely terrified of them. He even took a peek at them and whined.

"But... but, My liege, they're just kids! You know them... and I can assure you that Pinky isn't among them, so I don't really understand what the problem is. I'm pretty sure they just want some candy and they'll be on their merry way."

Snugglemagne didn't seem to like this answer. "Well, of course they want candy! I know what they're scheming! As soon as they earn my trust and I come down to hand it to them, they'll try to eat me or something! They're ruthless! It's always been the same on Monster Bash Night!"

Mao Mao was even more lost now. What did he mean? All this time they had been doing nothing but walk around and ask nicely for a treat, they were probably here now to do just that. Was there something he was missing?

"I'm sorry, your highness, in my opinion, they don't present any threat. Even if it seems a lot different that from what I heard, isn't this what you guys always do on Monster Bash Night?"

"Of course not! This holiday has always been about the danger! The scares! Monster Bash Night exists because of a group of sweetypies who rose up against a monster by themselves and chased it away by throwing what they had most handy at it as a finishing blow, that's the whole premise! They dress up as monsters, and we're supposed to give them candy to make them go away but I have no idea as to why anyone thought it would be a good idea to make this a thing in the first place! It's terrifying! When I became King, I tried to turn it into a more, festival based celebration, make them be nice in exchange for the candy, but I know there's always someone out there willing to find a loophole to scare us and make us feel miserable! I won't let some kids intimidate me for some food!"

Mao Mao's eyes widened, as if he was just hit with the biggest realization of all, when in reality, he honestly should've guessed this on his own, hadn't he been wandering around his own thoughts. Of course Monster Bash Night in Pure Heart Valley felt so boring and washed out, the spirit of the holiday had been lost, that was all.

He spent a good while staring at the King, trying to figure something out, before his screams made him snap back to reality.

"Sheriff!" He hiccuped. "Please do something, now!"

Mao stared back at the group of children, and he couldn't help but sigh as he finally succumbed to the King's request.

He had an idea.

The purpose of the pastries and sweets was to drive the monster away, right? What was the point of having them ask nicely? The King was right, they should be earned! And since the King was already so terrified that he refused to give into the pleas, he supposed he would have to do something about the mob terrifying the poor Royal.

The sheriff approached the children, looking stern and making them cower.

However, instead of yelling at them to go away like Snugglemagne was expecting, he called them over. The kids, especially Adorabat, looked at each other, surprised, but complied. Once they were all in a little circle around the hero, he began whispering. Badgerclops was off to a side, leaning against one of the pillars and staring at the scene. He was confused but he felt too drained to approach them, so he simply watched with curious eyes to see how Mao would handle this.

Once the little assembly broke off, Mao Mao nodded, then the kids nodded back at him.

"Okay, ready? One..." Mao Mao began.

"Sheriff? Sheriff, what is going on down there?" The King asked, concerned.

"Two..."

"THREE!" They all finished in unison, quickly turning around and letting out the strongest, loudest growl they could manage to get out. Each of them was doing an individual, scary pose to add to it.

As expected, the King's only response was a panicked screech and instinctively throwing his plate of cupcakes at the group of abominable beasts before he ran off, crying back into the safety of his castle.

Everyone cheered at their success, and they were quick to gather around the floor cupcakes and grab them to themselves. Badgerclops, eye wide and jaw dropped, tried to shake off the feeling of utter shock taking over his body because he was extremely hungry and he wanted his part as well.

As he shoved a handful of custard into his mouth, he looked back at Mao, who was silently chuckling to himself and having to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. This caused a genuine warmth inside of the cyborg's chest that made him smile at the sight.

"Mao Mao! That was awesome!" Adorabat giggled, clearly taking the sheriff by surprise, because he suddenly wrapped himself with his cape once more and forced the smile to go away.

Clearing his throat, he nodded. "Th-Thanks, Adorabat."

"How did you know that would work?"

"I uh... I actually didn't. A hero always relies on his instincts! I just felt like it was the right thing to do..." He felt another laugh threatening to escape his throat. "That's the true spirit of Monster Bash Night, right? Earning your sweets by being monstrous, if you're gonna slack off at least do it the right way. I'll uh..." He looked up at the empty balcony. One could still hear the faint cries of the King begging Quinton to give him a hug. "I'll apologize to the King later..."

As the night went on, Mao Mao seemed to get more and more eager to be closer to the action, almost as if he had forgotten about patrolling all-together. Whenever Adorabat and their friends would stray away as they spotted their next victim, he insisted on going with them, and joined the scare fest every time under the excuse that he was just making sure they stayed safe. They were all excited about him accompanying them anyways, so they didn't say much about the endless barrage of excuses he would throw before he would run along with them with a wide smile on his features. The plan was always the same, sneak up on a sweetypie, mainly those around the food or game stands, scare them, and prepare the bags for the storm of food that would come at them.

The cat led the group across the entire town, until they had seemed to have done a full tour of the kingdom and Mao had finally ran out of breath. At one point, he slowed down his pace and let everyone overtake him so he could quietly walk off and have some time to himself.

His feet seemed to automatically take him to the local restaurant. He was hungry, so he didn't question his instincts. He could use some warm food to munch on, and maybe even a drink.

Mao Mao sat down on one of the stools. The place was basically empty, and no wonder, everyone else was either enjoying the festival or getting terrified out of their minds by the group of little monsters he had created. He smiled at the thought as he ordered himself a plate of sushi and a warm drink.

A few minutes went by, his food was already being served to him and he delightfully held his cup with both of his hands, trying to get some of the warmth for himself, and as he blew off the steam off of the drink so he could dig in, his whiskers began twitching as he felt another presence extremely close to him.

He had to jerk his head to look at the intrusive body entering his personal space, but all he saw was Badgerclops taking a seat and placing all of the bags he could finally fill with food on the stools next to him, probably assuming no one else would take them.

And Mao thought that he had been pretty sneaky when he distanced himself from the group...

Despite the music, the screams in the distance, the ambiance noise of the restaurant, an awkward silence seemed to fill the air as Mao Mao tried to play dumb and ate away at his sushi, eyes shut.

Badgerclops however, didn't seem to read the room, or maybe he did, and he wanted to make sure he broke this atmosphere Mao was trying to build. So he elbowed the sheriff, chuckling.

"Dude, I'm so glad you're having fun. It's refreshing to see you like this."

Mao almost choked on his food, however, he swiftly managed to swallow. He even took a moment to glare at the cyborg as if he had just said something outrageous.

"I'm not."

"Mao, are you kidding? You were the one who encouraged them to embrace the true spirit of Monster Bash Night! You were basically leading the group! And, man, I'm so glad you did it. My Monster Bash Nights used to be wild when I was little, I can't believe the sweetypies out of all people would turn this into something so dull..." He groaned to himself. "But it's all thanks to you, we all got our fair share of treats. We didn't get much candy, but people throw all kinds of interesting snacks so I'm not complaining, I think someone threw their phone at me..."

Mao remained silent.

"Honestly, you should give yourself some credit. Admit that you're actually having fun, letting loose! You deserve at least that! You deserve to have fun, man."

Finally, a chuckle left the cat's lips. He sounded defeated and he was facing away from the cyborg. Badgerclops knew that he only did this when he was getting emotional, so he gave him some time.

"You know," Mao Mao sighed, placing a piece of sushi between his teeth and taking his sweet time to chew it. It felt unbearable. When he swallowed, he turned to look at his partner. His eyes were mellow, they had softened. "this is actually my first ever Monster Bash Night since I was a kid." He paused to take a deep breath. "Everything about how the sweetypies decided to do a festival instead felt off, because all I remember about this holiday is going out with Bao Bao and scaring my neighbors so they could give me candy, but I didn't feel entitled to that opinion because despite all of that, all of my previous outings had been... so weird, and sad. I was always alone with my dog, my father and sisters were always out on important missions and would send letters describing how much fun Monster Bash Night was in other regions, with family, but I kinda walked around the village by myself and spent the rest of the night sitting under a cherry blossom tree, eating candy in silence. Eventually, I stopped dressing up, and then going out all-together. It was just too pathetic to keep putting in the effort, you know?" He laughed, almost bitterly, as he poked at his food.

"When Adorabat mentioned the holiday and how much they were looking forward to it, going out with us, they awakened a bunch of bad memories. I was extremely anxious, even when it came to planning out a costume. But I hated feeling like that, so after an extensive talk with Blue, I finally gathered up the courage to do it, for their sake, for your sake. I wanted to show you two that I do care. I don't want any other child to go through what I did. But tonight I began feeling that regret again, so when you two first threatened to go off to ask for candy I kinda panicked..."

Badgerclops smiled. "So you made us stay under the excuse of patrolling...?"

"Yeah... it wasn't until Snugglemagne explained the holiday to me that I sorta remembered why I was doing this, why I was so eager to do it when I was a kid. Seeing everyone so excited made me want to give it a try again, and I ended up... ugh, having more fun that I'd like to admit. So uh, thank you... for keeping me company, and for being so patient... I should thank Adorabat too when I see them..." The sheriff sighed, going in to take another piece of food, but a sniffle caught him off-guard, and when he looked at Badgerclops, he saw him almost weeping, his face stuffed with some of his sushi, which he probably took when he wasn't paying attention.

"D-Dude," Badgerclops hiccuped. "I celebrate Monster Bash Night with awful dedication, I used to put so much effort into my costumes when I was a kid, and even if my family told me it was ridiculous, I would go out and walk around town sweets-or-fleeing by myself. Gerald was always too busy with his own friends to hang out with me..." He sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, how nice would it have been if we knew each other back then? We would've been the best of friends! I would go with you everywhere! Make sure all your Monster Bash Nights, and all your days for that matter, were always fun! Although, I'm really set on doing just that to present you, forever." The cyborg said sternly.

The whole time they were speaking, Mao had slowly moved his hand up and let it rest on top of his partner's, which had been resting on top of the counter. When he would get too emotional, he'd make sure to squeeze it to let him know.

Honestly, that was all he could do at a moment like that, that and stare at him with wide eyes. He was completely taken aback.

When he snapped back to reality, however, he burst into laughter. Genuine, warm laughter as he let a tear run down his cheek. "M-Man! You're getting all mushy in public, it's embarrassing...!" He snorted. For a creepy holiday he sure was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Well, it's your fault for being so lovable, mister!" The cyborg whined.

After a seemingly endless back and forth where they tried to win a war on who was the most lovable out of the two and Mao Mao feeling his face get too warm for his own good, he decided to walk away from battle and simply finish his food with a content smile.

A few moments of silence go by, but this time, the silence is pleasant, comfortable, and Mao relished in it.

"Hey, Badgerclops?"

"Yes, Mao Mao Mao?"

"Now that I've finally caught my breath, I uh... don't you think it would be a good idea to join Adorabat and the others again? It's still pretty early and I don't think you've filled all of your bags just yet." He smirked.

Badgerclops could only muster up a lovey smile.

He was extremely quick to jump down the stool and grab his partner by the wrist so he could drag him off into the night.

Something told him that he would have to get used to this from now on.