The costumes Ephemer and Anora pick out in this chapter are inspired by the Dragon Age series. If you want to look them up, Anora's is the battlemage armor from Inquisition. Ephemer's, on the other hand, is based on ninjafairygirl's Dragon Age AU. Their concept arts for him can be found on Tumblr, under the blog name chibi-mushroom. Also, I did my very best to make Counterpoint look like a mildly mundane walking stick, so please forgive me in that regard. Describing Keyblades in general is such a pain in the neck. -_-

Thank you for reading!

Their first stop for costumes was the thrift store. Neither of them were entirely sure what they were looking for, but that only added to the fun of it.

"Have you ever been to a Halloween party before?" Ephemer asked Anora, giving a curious tilt of his head. Anora had been looking at the clothing racks opposite of him. She did not look up at him before slowly starting to shake her head.

"We did trunk or treat when I was younger." she told him. "We lived in an apartment, so anyone that had a car would open their trunks up and decorate them."

Ephemer's eyes lit up. In the back of his mind he tried to imagine a much younger Anora. Too small to actually reach inside the car and SUV trunks so she'd be picked up by her parents to get the candy. In her charming little kid ways, she'd give the owner of the vehicle a big smile before going on to the next. Who knows? Maybe if she was just adorable enough, they'd even offer her more candy.

"I bet you were adorable."

To this, Anora just raised and lowered a shoulder. She didn't offer any other clues to her past, which disappointed Ephemer, but he didn't press her to continue.

"Well, in any case," the young man told her, "Our party will just be us. Skuld, Lauriam, Brain, Ventus, and you and me. Lauriam said that Strelitzia's coming along, and I think Ven mentioned he might bring a friend too. We might get a bit cramped in the clubroom, but if you feel uncomfortable, we'll leave immediately. And that's a promise, Anora."

Anora's cheeks flared in a light shade of pink. Ephemer could not stop the grin on his face as he watched her. He soon turned his attention back to the clothing racks. The two of them were silent as they went through the clothing racks. Then something happened to catch Ephemer's eye.

"Hey Anora, check this out."

Anora turned her attention over to Ephemer and saw that he was now holding a long, sleeveless duster jacket. It was made with a faux leather, looking like it could reach to her ankles.

"Come here and try it on." he offered. "I think it'll fit you."

Not seeing any harm in in, Anora nodded and moved around the rack to him. He helped her put the jacket, then she turned around for him to get a good look.

"It looks very… dark ages." he decided, giving his chin a thoughtful scratch. "But a bit more modern. A very good juxtaposition. Kinda like an RPG, or something Oh! That's it! You can be a mage!"

Anora looked at him and blinked.

"Hang on," he said as he went through the rack again, "I just saw this blouse that would perfect for this!" After a few quick screeches from metal on metal friction from the rack, Ephemer let out a sound of happy discovery as he pulled a light blue shirt off. It was a nice looking heavy cotton shirt, with buttons going down the front and lightly flared sleeves. Seeing Anora's almost interested approval made Ephemer beam with joy. "This will work perfectly!" he proclaimed. "We'll just need some distressed jeans. But we might need to get a new pair of shoes- your high tops aren't gonna cut it with this one. Maybe… combat boots. Yes! Knee high combat boots! I think I saw a pair of those around here somewhere too..."

For someone who usually groaned when Skuld asked him to go shopping with her, Ephemer sure did seem animated as he assembled Anora's costume for her. Anora's heart was almost pounding in her chest as she watched him. It was like the young man had been possessed by some entity from another world over, and was trying to recreate the fashions of that period. Ephemer had been so excited that he paid for the entire outfit on checkout.

"We need to go to the costume store next." he told her as they left the thrift store. "You need a staff, and just a bit of something else to really tie the whole look together."

All Anora could do at this point was nod and follow him. When was the last time she saw Ephemer this spirited? It almost felt weird. At the same time, it was very mesmerizing. Is this how he felt when she lit up with joy? No wonder he tried so hard to keep her curiosity flowing.

Ephemer was lost in his own world as they entered the costume store. He made an immediate beeline for the accessories and started to look through them all.

"Let's see..." Ephemer mused as he scanned the shelves. "You need… a belt. Something that just says 'mage' without it even being said..."

Anora cast Ephemer a questioning side glance, but didn't stop him as he went along the rows. It almost surprised her when he loud out a noise of happy exclamation.

"This will work!" Ephemer declared, picking up a belt that had a fake herbalist book attached to the side. He put the belt on Anora without a second guess. But after he clipped it on to her, his hands didn't leave her hips. In that very moment, his entire demeanor seemed to change. The young man's eyes glazed over slightly as he stared at the belt. As if he was given a vision of some alternate or future world line, he could almost see something else on Anora. A certain something that he was starting to bury his face in just to hide the deep blush that was growing on his face.

"Ephemer?" Anora quietly questioned, snapping Ephemer out of his thoughts with a jolt. He looked up at her with widening eyes.

"I love you." he breathed before pulling her in for a quick kiss. Anora's noise of surprised was muffled by the embrace- not that she was particularly complaining, or anything. When he pulled away, his eyes fluttered slightly as he sighed. "You don't need any weapons, Anora. You kill me just by existing."

She couldn't help it, but Anora let out a sound of disgust. It very quickly brought Ephemer down from his moment of hazy bliss. When he was properly aware of everything around him again, Anora had taken off the belt and was now carefully holding it in her hands. She looked up at him expectantly. It was like she had been waiting for him to come back down to earth for years.

"What are you going to wear?" she curiously wondered.

"Me?" Ephemer repeated, as if he had never considered it. "Oh, I dunno. Let's just look around a bit more."

With an affirmative nod, the two them strolled through the costume store the way they had at the thrift store. As they came to the premium costumes, Ephemer found himself drawn to the knight costumes.

"That's it!" he declared. "I'll be a knight! No, even better- a Templar!"

At Anora's downcast glare, he felt the need to continue.

"A Templar is a special kind of knight- sworn to their duty to protect those with a magical affinity, but at a cost. In order to neutralize a mage's abilities, they have to ingest these super powerful rocks. No man or creature can touch these rocks without going insane. So the Templars are natural candidates for going absolutely nuts without being aware of it. But you and I? We're the exceptions. We're going to break all the boundaries and find a cure for the Templar's sickness!"

Anora was still not moved by Ephemer's apparent gusto. Her glare possibly more unwavering than it had been before.

"Just roll with it." he assured her. With that, he looked through the various styles of each knight costume. He finally settled on one that was mostly light gray, accented with darker gray elbow guards. The set even came with a pair of near black, knee length medieval style pants. He'd have to find different shoes, though, as the set didn't include them. Thankfully, the costume store had a pair of medieval riding boots that would have worked just as well.

"I think that's it here." Ephemer decided. "Unless there was anything else that you wanted to look at?"

Anora lulled her head from side to side as she thought it over. She was about to shake her head before something caught the corner of her eye. Sitting in the bargain bin was a highly decorative walking stick, marketed as a wizard's staff. Anora walked closer toward it- her feet earning a mind of their own in doing so. She cautiously pulled the staff from the bin to look it over.

The bottom of the staff was shaped similarly to the body of a violin. But, where the neck and handle pegs would be on the violin, the staff's shaft took on a different shape. The shaft was waved, and was even painted to look like a river of water. At the end, it was designed to look like a splash of water was holding up an iridescent treble cleft. The treble cleft itself looked like it was wearing something like a wizard's hat with a star on top.

"Counterpoint." Anora mumbled under her breath, almost in bewilderment. Ephemer cast her a rather worried look.

"Anora?" he cautiously questioned. "You alright there?"

Blinking, she turned to him and held up the staff with eagerness.

"Can we get this too?" she asked him.

"I guess so." Ephemer agreed, a nervous hand placing itself on his neck. He forced a small smile before adding, "Besides, what's a mage without her staff?"

The smile on Anora's face washed any momentary fear from Ephemer's mind. What was he so worried about anyway? It's not like magic could hurt her in this world, or anything. Besides, if it could, he'd be her Templar in shining armor, even if it killed him.