I giggled like a dork as I donned my completed costume. My mother and I had literally finished making the sleeves roughly half an hour ago, and I stood admiring our work in the mirror. Sure, it was all made out of felt, but MAN, did we make felt our bitch in making this. I reached down, and fixed the purple tights that bunched around my knees, and darkly muttered. "How does he stand this…?"

I shrugged it off and crept into my room, pulling out any make-up I had and began to apply cover-up about 3 shades darker on my pale face, giving me a healthy tanned look. I was nearly done darkening my eyelashes, and accenting my eyes with liner when I heard a now familiar whooshing sound near my windows and a light thud.

"Steph, I just saw a bunch of kids down the street, and they're dressed-" NiGHTS stopped dead and I turned to meet him with a smile. He responded by slightly cocking his head to the right, his mouth contorted in a semi-jaw drop. Immediately, I threw my hands out, dropping my eyeliner pen into the dresser with a clatter.

"TAADAAAA!" I held that pose for a grand total of ten seconds before dropping my jazz hands to my sides. The confused maren pointed at himself, then me, then back at himself. "You… look like me." He finally said, his mind blown. I snorted, walking over to him and cuffing him on the shoulder. He didn't take his eyes off me, and leaned forward as if he were an official costume inspector.

"This is strange." He muttered, picking up my arm and poking at the white felt sleeve, as if it was going to jump up and bite his non-existent nose. "How did you make this?" He cocked his head the other way, now batting at one of the points on my hat like a cat.

"Very carefully." I oh-so-creatively replied. He continued to scrutinize my costume, and I waited for some sort of approval. He moved on from examining the vest to the purple tights (which I was totally rocking by the way), and he reached out a hand, pinching a bit of the material and tugging it. I wouldn't have minded if he did that on my legs, but he pretty much grabbed the material around a very personal region. "Whoa buddy!" I smacked his hand, and shot him a look.

NiGHTS quickly shot backwards, almost as if repelled. "Ouch! I was just looking!" He whined, crossing his arms in a defensive sort of way. I rolled my eyes at him, slightly sighing. "Last I knew, Mr. Prince o' Darkness, you look with your eyes, not your hands." He stuck his tongue out at me, and turned his head away, almost pouting.

Instantly, I felt quilted. "Okay, no, please, don't do that." I groaned. He remained steadfast, and I swear I even heard a little 'huff' thrown in. "Oh COMMON!" I wailed, feeling my shoulders droop. "This is almost as bad as when my cat begs for food! Stoppit!" He didn't even shift. "Stoppitsstoppitstoppit!" I felt like a little kid, but hey! If he could have a tantrum, then I can too! I opened my mouth to wail at him some more, but the next thing I knew, I was facing the ceiling, and he was straddling my hips. It took me three seconds to realize how awkward this situation was, but before I could say anything, he started to tickle. I immediately started to laugh, and I wiggled about, trying to find a way out of this predicament, but I was hindered by a scrawny jester sitting right on my center of gravity. "No faiiiirrrr!" I was quite the whiner today apparently.

Eventually, he stopped, and I was able to fully breathe again, the purple hat I wore sitting at a strange angle on my head. He silently floated off, seeming to 'lie' on the air, propping his head up on the back of his hands. His mouth was pulled back into a rather large and devilish looking smile, complimented nicely with those large sharp teeth of his.

Wow. I never thought I could see a smile to rival the Cheshire Cat's.

I pushed myself into a sitting position, unintentionally getting myself closer to his face. "-And what have we learned, dreamer?" He asked, that smile remaining on his face. "… that I'm ticklish?" I asked, still red faced and smiling awkwardly. "Well, no." He snorted. "I was hoping something along the lines of, 'I'll stop hitting you, because I know that I will be punished cruelly if I do it again.'"

Oh God, an extreme tickle attack for every time I abuse him? I don't know if I could live with that. I nodded though, reaching up and fixing my hat. "You're kind of a jerk, so you know. I mean, you could have at least given me some warning." He swiveled onto his back, leaning his head down to keep looking at me with those wide eyes and smile. "Well, if you're expecting it, then it's no fun."

I rolled my eyes, reached up, and pushed him away by his shoulders, saying, "Fine, I get it, no more hitting!" He soared lazily across my room and stopped himself before hitting the dresser on the other side. "So, why are you dressed like me anyway?" He rolled himself over, placing his feet silently on my carpeted floor. "Is it that Halloween thing? I want in on this!"

"Um, okay. Um, um, um…" I looked around for something I could use. "Well, you could have just wandered out like that, but I mean, the no neck and wrists thing is extremely noticeable." I reeled through my mind, trying to figure out if I had something I could give him with a higher collar. " … I got nothin'." I sighed, defeated. "Unless you can figure out a way to blend in, you're just gunna have to not wander."

He blinked. "Blend in? You mean, as a human?" I looked at him. "Well, that's the general idea. I can't explain why I have this unworldly guy living on my roof, can I? I was under the impression that we weren't going to flaunt you off." I crossed my arms, pursing my lips.

"Well, if it's simple blending in, I can do that!" He exclaimed excitedly. With a simple wave of his hand, his body began to shift at once. It was extraordinary to watch, and even though it took only about three seconds, I was locked on to this strange sight. Within a second, I was looking at a human boy with longer blonde hair standing in my room. His ears were kind of pointed, and his nose was cute and small, but other than that, he was pretty good. I then realized he was totally naked.

'AUGH!" I averted my eyes, blushing madly. "WHAT THE HELL, WHERE ARE YOUR CLOTHES!" NiGHTS seemed to reply as if it were obvious. "Well, I can't fit into what I normally wear as this. The proportions are totally different." I still refused to look. "OKAY, WELL-" I started, my voice still louder than it should have been. "-We can't have you be a nudist for Halloween, so, um, we better do something."

"Well, what if I –WANT- to be a nudist?"

"Do you even know what that IS?"

"No, but it sounds fantastic!"

I sighed, working up my feminine courage to finally look back at him, making sure to keep my eyes above his stomach. "Well- Well, we're going to have to find you clothes now, I suppose." I blindly wandered past him to the drawers and opened my shorts drawer. "First off, you will put these on so I can actually see again." I blindly threw him a pair of navy blue booty shorts I use for sleeping at him, which landed oh-so-nicely on his face. "Wait, why?" he questioned.

"Because… because you're NUDE!" I cried out, making some sort of distressed hand signals at him. He pulled the shorts off his head and made some sort of face at them. "You don't wear these though." He pouted, tossing the shorts aside. "Where are the thingys you wear?" I gacked, face palming with one hand. "Only GIRLS wear panties. Guys wear boxers, mostly." He continued his pouting. "I want panties! Boxers look big and uncomfortable and stupid. Besides, yours are much more colorful!" My other hand covered the other side of my face. "Hurrr." I decided that sharing underwear was something I was not willing to do. "Absolutely not. Now put those on right now." I pointed at the shorts, and slunk over to my jeans drawer, looking for something he could wear.

"No." He responded, crossing his arms over his scrawny bare chest.

Sweet candy coated JESUS was this guy stubborn.

I whipped a pair of dark blue denim jeans at him that were too small for me. "Here!" I exclaimed, hoping I would sock him in the face again. Sadly, he was more aware of flying clothes and caught the pants with one hand.

Bummer.

He then proceeded to slide them on, still not wearing the shorts. "Whoa, wait! You just can't go commando! You –NEED- something under there!" I felt my face getting hot again. I didn't think I would ever have to argue with a guy to put his underpants on. Ever. NiGHTS proceeded to flat out ignore me and slid the pants up. For once, my longer and baggier jeans came in handy – they were long enough. They were extremely loose on him, but, hey, what are you gunna do? He sort of stopped, and blinked. "Did I do this right?" He asked.

Groaning and feeling my eyes roll up at the ceiling, I had no choice but to look. "Y-Yeah. You're good." I admitted. "Just fasten the pants and you're all- all good." And with that, I tore my eyes away from his midsection, knowing that I lost my eye's virginity to someone that doesn't even technically exist. Thankfully, he wasn't as stupid as he appeared to be and managed to figure out how to finish putting on the jeans. Meanwhile, while he figured all that out, I ran over to my closet and fished out a spare belt and handed it to him. "You're gunna need it."

He held it for a grand total of ten seconds before securing it around his head. At this point, I couldn't even tell if he was being serious or not. "No, around your hips, sweetie." I commented exasperatingly. He slid it off his head and put it around his hips and blinked at me. "Like this?" I snorted. "Close." And so, for about a solid awkward 30 seconds, I had to show him how to use a belt. After that whole crisis was over, I took a step back and looked at my 'model'. "Well, at least you're kind of decent now, I suppose…" He looked down and examined the baggy pants, lifting his left leg and shaking it, watching the pants flail around with his movements. "This feels strange." He commented, set his foot down and repeating the same motion with the other leg.

For good measure, I opened my shirt drawer, taking a good look inside in case any other 'maren decided to appear there, and searched for a shirt. He needed it longer, but not bigger. This was hard. I finally found a Kingdom Hearts shirt and deemed that good enough, though I eyed a pink shirt over in the corner and cackled softly.

Naw, I'm not that mean.

"Here." I handed the shirt to him, which he put on backwards. After I fixed that mistake, I sat down on my bed. "Man, this is the strangest Halloween ever." I remarked. I took a chance and glanced over at the newly formed human boy in my room and couldn't help but smile. "You know, you kind of look like me." I commented. "I mean, you're skinnier and your hair is longer, but other than that…." He beamed at me with somewhat normal teeth, though I noticed his canines were still kind of sharp looking. "Maybe that could be your Halloween costume. You could go as me!"

His smile stayed there. "I could be a human! Cool!" He jumped a bit, and ended up sitting next to me on my bed. "When do we get to go out? I want to try this candy!" he swung his legs back and forth. "Whenever Jack gets here." I responded, yawning. He cocked his head. "Jack?"

"Yeah, he's some new kid at school. Poor guy seemed out of place and really seemed to need a friend. We have English class together, and that's about it. I don't see him anywhere else in the school." NGHTS blinked at me, which must have been the tenth time today. "English?"

Oh. Right. "Don't worry about it." I waved that off. "We need to find you shoes yet… oh god." I flopped backwards on the bed, the points on my hat going in random directions against the bed. "Anyway, he should be here at about 6-ish. In fact, what time is it?" I leaned over at my clock and stared.

6:13? GAAAH! He's probably outside, standing all awkward and stuff!

I shot off the bed, and ran into my dad's room and dug around in his closet. I pulled out a pair of black wintery boots. "Good enough." I dashed back into my room, NiGHTS just staring at me. "Right, so!" I threw a pair of my own socks at him. "Put those on, and then we'll put these on." He didn't seem to question me, and just slid the footwear on. "They're kinda tight." He commented, wrinkling his small nose. "Can you put up with it for a little bit?" I asked, looking at him. He nodded. "Yeah, I suppose so." After that was done, he pushed himself up, and starting floating toward the door.

"WOAH HEY! None of that!" I yanked him back by the shirt. "If you're gunna pretend to be a human, you gotta act like one. That means no floating, no flying, no… none of that stuff." He dropped his jaw in shock. "But-! But-!"

"No buts! Walk, mister!"

He landed, and clumsily took a step forward. "Wow, I'm not even human for more than an hour and I'm screwing up." He muttered darkly, trying to get a feel for this whole human way of transportation. I watched amused for a second till I remembered we had to be downstairs, and NOW.

"Okay, you're obviously in no condition to use the stairs at the moment. Here." I pushed myself in front of him. "Hop on my back, night-boy. You're getting a piggy back ride."

"A what now?"

"SHUT UP AND GIVE ME YOUR LEGS."

To his credit, he did try and give me his legs. At the same time. I heard a thud and looked back and saw him on the floor. "Ow."

"No. Not literal- FINE. Float down the stairs, but you're walking afterwards!" He seemed to leap straight to his feet and took off down the stairs, me following behind. As promised, he was standing in front of the door, waiting for me. My mom was watching TV, and thankfully, there was a wall jutting between the foyer and the chair she was in. I indicated to NiGHTS to stay put. "Mom, I'm going out!" I called, running into the kitchen to snatch some plastic bags."I'll be back!"

"Alright – if you get any Snickers, they're mine!" She laughed.

"Alright!" I opened the door and ushered NiGHTS outside, whom, for once, was quiet. As soon as the door was shut, I sighed out of relief. "Okay. So, NiGHTS is a strange name for humans. If anyone asks you, just for tonight, your name is now Matt."

"Matt? What kind of name is that? I thought Steph was weird."

"Well excuse me if I'm not named after a noun!"

"Yeah, well, I'm PROUD to be named after a noun!" he scoffed. "…What's a noun?"

"Just… stop. Let's go get candy."

He seemed to be more enthusiastic about collecting candy. "Well, let's go!" He hopped off the porch enthusiastically, only to stop and stare toward my sidewalk. He stepped down the stairs, the horns on my hat bobbling. "What's wron-" I was cut off quite suddenly as my arm was grabbed and 'Matt' threw me behind him. "What are you doing?" I hissed, peeking out from behind him to look at the sidewalk.

There was a kid in a large black cape and top hat, wearing an orange cat-eye mask and white gloves. One single strand of obnoxious colored hair told me that it was Jack, waiting for me as expected. What I didn't expect though, was the look of intense hatred on his face. Was he looking at me? No. He seemed to be looking right at NiGHTS. I glanced up at the 'maren in front of me only to notice he was returning the same look. The silence between them hung heavily, and I swear there was a staring contest going on.

Finally, something happened. Jack swiftly turned, and ran. NiGHTS didn't move, but I did. I pushed the 6 foot wall in front of me to the side, and I ran down my sidewalk. "Jack! Wait! What's going on?" I called. Almost instantly, I was tugged back into NiGHTS' chest. "Don't you DARE go after him." He snarled. I jerked my head back a bit – I never heard him sound so commanding and angered before. "Why-why not?" I choked out, still trying to understand what's going on.

"I have a bad feeling about him." He sharply responded, still holding me in a somewhat protective hold. "He's alright!" I assured him, but one look from the 'maren told me that I was not going to win this argument. I sighed, and felt bad. Did Jack get shy? What was with the face they were both pulling at one another? I desperately wanted to chance after the poor kid and explain to him that 'Matt' was just a protective friend or something, but with the hold 'Matt' had on me, it was obvious I wasn't going anywhere.

"Can… can we at least go get candy?" I asked nervously. The almost-scary demeanor of my captor faded, and I could see his more pleasant side returning. "I don't see why not. But if he comes near us, we're getting out of there, got it?" I nodded, still unsure what was going on. I took a couple steps forward until NiGHTS finally let go of me. "Well, common! We got a lot of houses to hit then!" I opened the gate and leapt out, trying to get all joyful once again. NIGHTS slowly followed, still wobbling slightly. I held out a hand to help him figure out the step-up out of my yard onto the sidewalk… and I gently lead him down that sidewalk, holding his hand like some sort of mother teaching a toddler to walk. When he was finally doing good, I let go. He took a couple steps before stumbling and falling into me. "GACK!" I managed to keep my balance and catch him.

"Watch where you're going, you dork!" I helped him back onto his own two clumsy feet, reached up, and flick his nose hard. "We're not gunna get anywhere if you keep stumbling like you're drunk!" he recoiled at the nose flick. "HEY! I said no more abuse! You just earned yourself more misery when we get back!"

Oh no, I could already feel my stomach and sides fall numb.