A/N: Christmas is less than a week away! And for those who don't celebrate Christmas, happy holidays! Happy whatever you celebrate! And I really hope you have a good holiday. If you don't, you can message me and talk to me. I know that most holidays are rough and that you might be spending this awesome time of year with a not so accepting family. If that is so, message me. We can talk so that you have a little bit better of a holiday.

PLAY.

By the time we called quits, it was dark out, the only lights coming from the lampposts surrounding the playground and the moon above. It was a little wet and cold, but we collapsed on our backs, laying on the ground as we stared at the sky. Emma laid to my right while Hiccup panted on my left. He had a scrapped elbow and a bruised arm, all caused by my violent seriousness to tag.

My breath puffed out of my mouth and nose, creating steam against the cold October air. I had always done this when I used to walk Emma to school. I would tell her to look up and as soon as she did, I'd make the best train noises I could, steam puffing from my mouth. But right now, I just enjoyed it, smiling from ear to ear; even though it was freezing and the entire backside of me was soaked now and I was sure to get hell from mom when we walked in with twigs and bugs in our hair. It'd be a race to the bathroom for sure.

Slowly, I turned my head, looking over at Hiccup. At some point, he had taken his hat off and stuffed it into his jacket pocket, making one side of him larger than the other. His hair spiked up and I could see his crooked teeth as he breathed through his mouth. The moon as well as the lampposts reflected off of his glasses like the sun had earlier that day. I could barely make out the color of his eyes as he moved them around, looking at star after star. It seemed as though he was connecting them, trying to make his own constellations.

After a moment or so, Emma groaned and sat up, causing me to look over. "Okay, let's go home. I need a shower."

"I'm oldest, I get to shower first." I chuckled as I sat up as well. "And don't say that's not fair because it is. I've lived in that house longer than you so I should be able to take a shower first."

She rolled her eyes and stood up, brushing the dew covered dirt and grass off her back. "Yeah, okay, but I get to have the first mug of hot coco after all the showers are done."

How dare she play that card! She knew I loved hot chocolate! Besides lemonade and root beer, it was my favorite drink of all! I grumbled and did the same, turning so that the pieces of earth I brushed off wouldn't hit poor Hiccup in the face. "Fine...Go head home, I'll be there in a bit."

With that, she nodded, turned on her heel and began walking home, her feet slightly skipping as she did. I watched her until she had walked around the corner then looked down at my hands which were covered in dirt. Parts of my palms shimmered against the lights like they always did when they got dirty from playing outside and I began wondering the same thing I always did when this happened: why is there fucking glitter in the ground? Seriously, glitter is like the hardest things to get off! I tried rubbing my palms on my pants, grunting a bit out of frustration, when I saw Hiccup had stood up and now was watching me with a concerned look. Like he was worried about my mental well being or like he was trying to figure out why on earth I was swearing at dirt glitter.

I sighed and shook my head, rubbing my hands together to get the rest of the dirt off. "So you live in this neighborhood?"

"Yeah." He nodded, giving a slight shrug.

"Which one again is it?"

"That one."

Right behind me was his house; a two story large house with a yard, a garage, everything. I hadn't even noticed he came out of something like that. Frankly, I was too busy noticing him and trying to get him to hang out then anything else.

On the outside, our house looked like that of a doll house; blue sided panels that were plastic, fake bricks around the base, and the roof was this ungodly gray. I mean, I like gray, but this was that gray that made you wonder if it was dirty or if it was just like that. His house though, his house was perfect. Like something from a t.v show. Brown, real wood panels met up with what seemed to be river rocks at the base, the roof this lovely, shiny black. The walkway was perfect, not a crack or anything. I imagined what it must be like there, the Christmas parties they would hold. My cheeks began to heat up as I compared mine to his.

I kept a straight face and nodded, sniffling from the cold that now made everything in my nose start to run. "Nice house."

"Thanks. Which one is yours?"

"Uhh...mine is...not here. Nope, we live, uh, a little ways from here." My hand waved off to where Emma had just run off to. "It's small..."

Hiccup nodded with a slight smile, looking off in that direction. "I bet your house is nice, too." He said before beginning his walk back home. "See you tomorrow, then."

I nodded back and began my own walk home. Every step I took, though, I glanced at him, a question bubbling in my chest. I could feel my tongue flicker against my teeth like a lizard and finally, I just screamed out to him. "Hey!"

He turned around and stared at me, slightly startled. My lips quivered, knowing what to say and how to say it but refusing to open. Finally, I forced them open and after a moment, words began stumbling out of my mouth. "Um...are we...friends or something?"

Hiccup curled his lips into his mouth and looked down at the sidewalk in thought. He crossed his arms over his chest before nodding, looking back up at me as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "Yeah. I guess we can be. We need to get to know each other a little more first."

"Yeah." I nodded again. "Like...at school tomorrow?"

"That'd be cool. We could walk there together if you're up early enough."

He smiled as I grinned, nodding once again like an idiot. I loved my sister, but there were days I'd love to walk to school with just a friend. Or a group of them; talking and laughing. And now, I was getting just that; a friend that I can talk to and have even crazier adventures with. Someone to help get me out of the house.

"I'll, uh...see you in the morning then." I said, backing up as I walked down the sidewalk, hitting a lamppost. "Damn things..." With that last whisper, I completely turned and walked off.

The rest of the night wasn't as enjoyable. When I walked through the door, my dad began listing off all the things that could have happened to Emma on her own walk home. She could have been kidnapped, assaulted, killed, and many more other things that I hardly thought about. I wanted to tell him, tell him I thought it was safe seeing as she walks longer distances to get to school and back but I knew he wouldn't have any of it. He'd tell me off more and more until my ears finally started bleeding. And when he started telling me that I need to set a better example, that I need to start really looking out for her, I wish they did. Anything to get his voice out of my head.

When he was finally done, I went up to my room without dinner(my own choice) and continued working on my costume for tomorrow. I took my shirt and pants from their bins of water and hung them up by a string that was tied above them. No one in my family could afford real shirt dye, so I had to look up some tips. This one with the colored chalk seemed to be working out real good and I grinned as I watched my yellow shirt and orange pants drip dry from the makeshift clothes line. My now bare feet brushed up against the bag that sat under my bed; Emma's costume. She had been looking forward to wearing it since she saw the newest Captain America movie and my heart sunk when I realized dad wouldn't let her. The three of them laughed from the living room, but I could hear it from here. The drips from my costume fell into the colored water below them, the sound mixing with my mother trying to say something while holding her laugh back. She failed and laughed anyway, my father and sister joining her. I wanted to leave my room and join them, actually have some sort of normal family fun, but the last thing I wanted was to be around my dad and make him even madder, so, I stayed in my room.

After a while, I took out the bag from under my bed and began working on her shield some more. I opened my window and sprayed some clear paint on the front of it all, pulling my shirt up over my nose and slightly holding my breath. The can said to do it outside and, in hindsight, I was probably going to regret this later. Still, I continued till the construction paper star in the middle was flat and the whole thing shined like a real shield. Once that was finished, I pulled out her old, blue sweatshirt from the bag and finished stitching each stripe onto the bottom. Our sewing machine was heavy and stayed under my parent's bed so most of the time, if we had to make something, we did it by hand. And Halloween costumes? Always by hand. There were a few years we went in store bought costumes, but most Halloweens, we wore handmade things.

I winced slightly as the needle pricked my thumb, the sound of everyone laughing in the living room following very shortly after as if they had seen it. Frowning, I tried my hardest to focus on the task at hand. Of course though, it didn't last long. I continued to sew as I remembered one of the best costumes mom had made for Emma. It was when she was six and begged to go as Tinkerbell. We had gotten the wings from the store but the rest was made at home from different old green clothes we had. Sparkles were added to it upon my sister's request and we were all covered in the stuff for weeks after. It was horrible.

Surprisingly, it didn't take that long to finish. Once the stripes were on, I stuffed the costume into the plastic bag and threw the whole thing under my bed. By now, I could hear my father screaming at the people in his game and Emma began knocking on the wall separating our rooms. I smiled and grabbed the shirt to my costume off the line, walking out. I knocked on her door and ruffled her hair, telling her the good news as we made our way to the bathroom to dry the shirt. She stayed there with me for a while just staring at the dryer and talking about things she was currently thinking about. She was thinking about creating her own sort of superhero; one that had proper clothes and decent flaws. I began creating my own supervillain as she talked, explaining how her hero had no chance against my villain's awesome skills. Our mother came up after a while, handing me some reheated dinner and giving Emma a small plate of cookies with a glass of milk. Over the sounds of the dryer, we could faintly hear our father scream at another person on his game before storming out, slamming the door behind him. Although he had never hit us, we jumped and shook, becoming tense and getting ready for a kick or slap. Some days, I just wish he would hit me so I could charge him.

He walked down into the living room and fell back into his chair violently. For a moment, we stayed silent, listening in on his motions before turning to each other and continue eating. After the shirt was dried and the color was in there pretty good, I sent Emma off to bed and began drying the pants. As soon as I sat down and watched the dryer, time began to move uncomfortably slow. Minutes weren't minutes anymore and the space between each tick and tock seemed to grow more and more. Quicker than I thought, my eyelids became heavier and heavier. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the washer for what seemed like a second but, when I finally opened my eyes, the dryer had stopped and the sun was just peaking through the bathroom window.

"Shit!" I hissed under my breath. I got up as fast as I could, grabbing my pants from the dryer and running to my room.

This whole day was supposed to go according to plan; I was going to wake up, take a shower, put on my costume with pride, meet up with Hiccup, and walk to school where I'd do not much all day. Now that I looked outside my window, seeing students already walking in their costumes, I realized that none of that was really going to happen. Walk to school with Hic maybe, but everything else wasn't. I've noticed it's like some sort of domino effect; one bad thing leads to another then another and soon, your whole day is fucked up.

My arms had no idea how to be arms and my legs forgot how to slip into pants, a side effect from rushing. Grabbing my bag, I walked out of my room and ran down the stairs, fixing up my hair as I said goodbye to everyone in the dinning room. Emma beamed up at me and stopped me just as I grabbed the doorknob, spinning in her...rather strange costume. She wore the Captain America sweatshirt but, obviously for my father's pleasure, wore a blue tutu with it. It shined and sparkled as she pointed down at her feet, showing her blue tights and blue rain boots, white stars printed on them. I told her she looked amazing, which was true, she did, and I ruffled her hair before jumping out the door. Walking a little ways down toward his house, I saw him turning the corner, wearing a lab coat instead of the school's issued blazer. Pushing up his glasses, he looked much smarter than normal.

I smiled and gestured to myself, showing off my handmade awesomeness. He sighed and shook his head, seemingly suppressing a smile. When he walked up to me, he took his hands out of his pockets, holding onto his backpack straps instead.

"Trick or treat."

"Happy Halloween, Jackson."

"Where did you get the lab coat?" I tugged at the sleeve, wondering if it was real.

He shrugged. "My mom works with animals down at he shelter. This is a vet's coat which I wear when I help her cure sick animals."

"So you're Hiccup the Hero for Halloween?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yes, Jack, I'm Hiccup the Hero."

A/N: Little fairy Captain America. - ADAM

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