Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are Jake, McCallister, Eddy, Trevor, and Duke. Happy Halloween to all! Enjoy!

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067 – Devil on Your Shoulder

Merlin's cottage was a mad house. Yuffie had gone absolutely overboard in her decorating for the Halloween Party. What had started as a mere costume party under Aerith's direction at Merlin's house had, under Yuffie's reign, mutated into a block party of glow sticks, dry ice cauldrons, and so much candy that you could FEEL the sugar on your skin just by walking through the Borough.

"Huh? What did I tell you?" Yuffie, dressed in a red tub top and black skinny jeans, adjusted the devil horns headband behind her ears as she nudged Tifa's shoulder with her elbow. "Is this a party or is this a party?!"

Tifa snorted and glanced around the sea of vampires, zombies, fairies, and—

"Is that supposed to be a pantomime horse?" She pointed.

Yuffie followed her gesture. "Yes it is." She announced gleefully. "Jake! You're missing your better half!"

Jake looked over at her, wearing the shaggy brown back end of the costume, waved, and pointed over to Eddy Lake from IT, who was wearing the ridiculous top half of the pantomime horse.

"That's pretty tame." Tifa noted. "Usually he goes all out for Halloween." She canted her head, "Though going as a horse's rear end is pretty fitting…"

"And what are you supposed to be?" Yuffie lifted an eyebrow at Tifa.

Tifa was wearing her regular clothes, but she pointed to the Stetson that she had perched on her head. "Cowgirl, duh."

"That's lazy." Yuffie folded her arms. "Almost as bad as Cloud."

"Why, what did he come as?"

Yuffie deadpanned. "As Cloud." She looked around, "Where's Leon?"

She doubted that Leon would don any kind of costume either, but a gal could dream. As it was, he was fairly easy to spot…as someone had jammed a bright purple sequined hat with zebra trimming on his head. He also looked like he had consumed just enough alcohol to either not notice that it was there, or not care. He almost looked like he was dozing against the wall.

"A pimp's life is hard." Tifa noted with a snicker at the sight.

"Boo!" A voice chirped between them.

Tifa started slightly, but Yuffie squawked as Rinoa giggled, dressed in a white blouse and a short white skirt, halo headband in place.

"Hey, wow, geez, brave wearing white to this party. There's a vampire roaming around with a vial of fake blood…I think it's Biggs, but I can't say for sure…" Yuffie said.

Tifa wandered over to talk to Cloud, and Rinoa gestured to where Eddy and Jake were standing next to each other, two halves of a whole idiot.

"I know." Yuffie waved away her wordless question. "Hey! Let's go stand on either side of people and question their life choices."

Rinoa bobbed her head, "Okay!"

Their first victim turned out to be Private McCallister, who appeared to be making a beeline through the crowd like she was on a mission.

"McCal—Tabs—Oy!" Yuffie caught up to her, swinging up to the soldier's right side. "Where ya goin'?"

The soldier was just in her fatigues, per usual…No imagination, Yuffie inwardly moaned.

"Um…Nowhere…" McCallister dodged.

Rinoa slipped to the soldier's left side. "Having fun?"

"Sure. Yeah, great party." McCallister said flatly.

"Are you not even drunk?" Yuffie balked, hands on her hips. "I got Beverly to man the bar in here and you're not even partaking of the festivities!"

"Just because there's alcohol doesn't mean she has to get sloshed." Rinoa pointed out.

McCallister looked from Yuffie's devil costume to Rinoa's angel outfit, groaned, and wriggled out from between them. "Nope." And she bustled away. "Oh, by the way, there's a lumberjack outside looking for you."

"Trevor?" Rinoa looked to Yuffie. "Are you two dating now?"

Yuffie started to panic, but just as abruptly reached up and straightened her horns, making sure her costume was hugging all the right parts. "I dunno…but better the devil you know. Get it? Devil?"

Rinoa groaned, "Ugh, no, not with the puns. Go. Shoo." She waved her arms at her.

Yuffie swung by the makeshift bar, where Beverly—wearing a massive black and white wig as a Bride of Frankenstein—handed her a mystery cocktail. Yuffie took it and sauntered over to the first spot of flannel that she saw. Sure enough, the tall ginger man was talking to a vampire.

"Hey!" Yuffie greeted, swinging into the conversation. Trevor spun to her and smiled. "Biggs, go be creepy somewhere else." She gestured.

"I'm not Biggs. I'm Dracula! Ah ah ah!" Biggs swept his cape to his eyes and darted away.

Yuffie smirked as Trevor gave her an up-down-up look. "Devil." He lifted his beer to her in greeting.

"Lumberjack." She clinked her glass against his in a toast. "Glad you could make it."

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068 – Horse of a Different Color

"Tabaeus!" Jake broke away from his partner in crime Eddy to catch up to the soldier as she moved into the back kitchen area of Merlin's house.

She slowed, glancing back at him. "Jake, hey."

Jake looked slightly sweaty: she attributed that to the dense looking bottom half of the horse costume. "Hey. Why aren't you dressed?"

She looked down at her fatigues. "I'm—"

"A soldier, right, but that's no fun!"

She huffed, "As opposed to being a horse's ass?"

Jake gawked with his mouth in a comically wide expression, but she smirked and folded her arms.

"Are you responsible for the purple hat?" She nodded toward where Commander Leonhart was steadily drinking and talking to Tifa and Cloud, seemingly oblivious to the monstrosity on his head.

"Aren't I always?" Jake beamed.

She looked at him. "You're always something, I'll admit that."

"So." Jake leaned against the doorframe. "You look nice."

"Eh? No, don't do that." She shook her head.

Jake blinked, "Do what?"

"Can we just—" She exhaled. "Can we just not?"

"Not…talk?"

"No…I mean…Ever since we went on that one date, you've been acting all…weird."

"If you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of a weird guy."

"Yeah, but…flowers? Do I look like a girl who gets flowers? And the sweet little text messages and office visits…Don't get me wrong, it's cute, but…" She rubbed the back of her neck, unsure how to say this.

To be honest, the flowers and the texts and the visits were all very flattering. Utterly bizarre to think that someone was wasting that much energy on HER, but she was slowly warming up to it. It was just…this was Jake. The guy with whom she had shared a caustic, razor-like banter for years. Teasing and sarcasm and smart ass remarks…Suddenly he was being all…sweet and gentlemanly.

And it was freaking her out.

"Can we just be Tabaeus and Jake?" She finally said. "Without the…cutie-wutie—" She wiggled her hands around and stood in that give-me-sexy pose that photographers seemed to warp models into, "—you-jump-i-jump, you-complete-me, cavity couple?"

Jake eyed her steadily and she straightened.

"Two things." Jake lifted his fingers. "One…couple?"

She narrowed her eyes, "I meant—"

"You said couple." A smile spread across his mouth, "And two…can you PLEASE do that pose again?" He whipped out his phone for the camera application.

Piper, Aerith's grey cat, suddenly launched out from under the dining room table and darted past their feet. Both she and Jake squawked and jumped up onto the counter top. The cat growled and barreled into the living room…to the surprised shrieks of many.

Realizing that they had grabbed onto each other in their haste to escape the feline terror, Tabaeus detached herself and hopped back to the floor, straightening her uniform. Jake was slower to do so, readying his camera phone and looking to her for a pose.

"Ugh, you're an ass." She gestured to his outfit, "Literally."

"No, c'mon, you were really getting into something there…Was that your flirty pose?"

"I don't have a flirty pose!" She smacked his arm, cheeks getting hot.

Was she supposed to have a flirty pose? She had only been trying to mimick those female models in sexy commercials: popping their hips out and doing that weird posture with their shoulders back…

"Good, because you looked like you were having a seizure." Jake snorted.

"This is my actual uniform." Tabaeus warned, "I have a loaded gun."

"There's nowhere to run!" Jake broke into song, "No one can save me, the damage is done!"

"Oy!" Cid stepped out from the annex that connected the kitchen of Merlin's house to the stairway to the basement. His face and arms were covered in dark green body paint and make up. His hair was sprayed black and there were bolts attached to either side of his neck.

"Frankenstein's monster! You're even uglier in person." Jake jeered.

Cid straightened his tattered jacket and walked past them. He pointed at Jake. "Shut up." He pointed at Tabaeus. "Kiss him." He pointed to Yuffie and Rinoa, who were perching their heads on either side of Eddy—who was wearing the horse head, "And quit it!"

"Frankenstein lame!" Jake said in mock-broken speech.

Tabaeus snickered and abruptly kissed Jake, like a sneak attack. Jake froze, looking at her in surprise.

She lifted her shoulders, "I've never disobeyed an order, and I don't intend to start now." She said with a wink that was bordering on flirtatious.

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069 – Good Witch or a Bad Witch?

Whoever had wrangled Duke into a white sheet with eye holes needed an award. The golden retriever was bounding throughout the Borough and Merlin's house like the ghost that she was supposed to be, barking at a few guests before heading upstairs and finding Aerith.

Aerith felt guilty for dumping this party on Yuffie. True, the girl had done a spectacular job in pulling it all together…sans the cotton candy machine in Merlin's private study…but Aerith excelled at parties and she usually loved throwing them. Ever since her visit to the Jinx facility, however, she just hadn't had the enthusiasm.

But she was only raising suspicion by being aloof tonight. So she had donned her black witch's outfit and fabulously gaudy make up and made her way to the party. Yet, just a few hours into it, here she was, in the upstairs rooms, where the party was not going on. Duke bounced her way in, tripping and snorting at the sheet as it tangled around her legs.

Aerith snorted and folded the letter in her hands, the same letter that had been plaguing her for weeks now. Pocketing it, she squatted in front of the dog.

"Oh, who put you up to this?" She said, freeing the dog's face from the sheet.

"That would be me." Tifa announced herself, having come upstairs to find her friend.

Aerith smiled and Duke keened, wagging her tail wildly and trying to lick Aerith's face. "I bet that was interesting."

Tifa snorted, "Not really. Duke, c'mere." She snapped her fingers.

Duke spun to her, wagging her tail, but didn't come. Tifa patted her thigh, bending over slightly. The dog continued to look at her, tongue lolling, but didn't come.

"Come." Tifa gestured again firmly.

Instead, Duke yipped and darted for the stairs. They heard her claws clack all the way down, and then Tifa looked back to Aerith and sat on the edge of the guest bed.

"We're working on that." She smirked, but then became serious. "What's going on?"

Aerith fidgeted with her hair. "Nothing. Just…busy."

Tifa narrowed one eye. "You've been 'busy' for a while now. Is everything okay?"

Aerith swallowed and sat beside her. "No. It's very not okay."

..:-X-:..

A/N: In Chapter 21, Leon said he had a mission and wouldn't be able to make the party. His presence at the party will be explained in a later chapter, as will Aerith's continuing debacle.

Coming up with the different costumes was fun. And I slipped Duke into this chapter too! I have missed her little cameos. Hopefully she'll sneak into more chapters.

Happy Halloween!

Preview for next week: Tifa's thoughts always darted in all directions when she was in the nursery.