So as with the Christmas chapter, this chapter is completely non-canon as well, even if it is a pseudo-sequal to that chapter.

I actually wrote this last year, but since the Female Titan Arc was still in play, I didn't publish it for... somewhat obvious reasons. The timing for this update is still a bit awkward, admittedly, but even so, I got it out anyhow!

Also no review replies for this chapter, and no outro! Enjoy!

"Annie, not to be harsh, but your costume is ridiculous."

"Shut up, Mina. It's good."

And in spite of their attempts at stifling their laughter, neither Mina nor Nac were able to force the sound down completely as they burst out laughing, and in that one instant, Annie Leonhardt wanted nothing more than to drag them under the stitched together bedsheet that acted as her ghost costume and beat the tar out of them.

"Yeah, it's good alright… a good laugh!" protested Nac as he leaned his head back and laughed, with his strange… knight(?) helmet falling off his head in the process. How he was able to find a full suit of plate mail armour just for this occasion was beyond anyone's comprehension, but he managed to find it regardless. "Ah drat-"

"I should decapitate you with your own sword, Nac," spat Annie as he glared at Tias through the two eye holes in her ghost costume, and as she said that, Mina snickered a little, with her witch hat bobbing with each laugh all the while.

"It's a prop, so it won't work!" warned Mina as she twirled her plastic trident around in her hand playfully before she bounced up a little. The skirt of her witch dress bounced up a little in the process, as did her pigtails, something that looked rather cute, all things considered… a mix of adorable, as Mina tended to be, and sexy- nah… Carolina couldn't look sexy even if her life depended on it.

Well, that was what Annie kept telling herself, anyways…

"Try me," challenged Annie from beneath her ghost outfit, and as Mina opened her mouth to retort playfully, the door that they were all standing by shuddered a little, with someone on the other side getting a little irritated with their bickering.

"Hey Mika, you done in there?" inquired Nac as he swung his foam sword around to alleviate his boredom. "We need you out here, posthaste. If you don't, we can't leave, and we'll probably lose all the candy to Sasha!"

"One moment," grumbled Mikazuki as the sound of stumbling could be heard from within the room, prompting everyone to flinch a little as they heard Augus crash against a wall on the other side. Thereafter, Leonhardt grumbled a tad as well as she approached the door, fist raised as she got ready to slam it once more.

"Damn it, Mikazuki, we should-" began Annie, only to be cut off when the door abruptly swung open, and at that… the three of them were silent when they saw what Mikazuki was wearing.

"M-M-Mika…" began Mina, with some blood spilling from her nostril as she spoke. Oh god, this was… it was… phenomenal! Exquisite, even! So much so that it made her face feel oh so warm…

"W-W-Wha-" added Nac, with his helmet leaning forwards a little as its visor covered his eyes. He couldn't believe what he was seeing… oh god… did he swing that way?

"Mikazuki Augus… w-why are you…" finished Annie as she was thankful for her sheet covering up her blush. It would've been embarrassing for it to show… but the sight of Mikazuki wearing a frilly headband, a puffy black and white dress, what seemed to be lingerie stockings and with a sword strapped onto his hip… it was too much for her to handle as she spoke the obvious alongside her friends…

"WHY ARE YOU DRESSED AS A MAID?!"

And to that, Mikazuki simply shrugged.

"Connie suggested it, and you seemed curious at that time," explained Mikazuki offhandedly as he stared right at Annie, who flinched when she realized that she had been found out. Yes, Connie Springer did indeed suggest a maid outfit for Mika on this day… and by all means, Leonhardt had been turned on by the mental image of Augus in one. It just seemed… hot to her, so to speak, and to see him actually wearing it now… well, it was a dream come true in more ways than one.

The fact that his sleeves were short, revealing his perfectly sculpted biceps, triceps and forearms, didn't help much either…

"Look, can we just go now?" grumbled Mikazuki, with him getting sick of the staring as he dusted his frilly dress off, and to that, his three friends snapped out of their trance-like state as they swiftly nodded in response to his demand.

"R-Right!"

"So, remind me again. What is Halloween?"

"Apparently Titans are scared of random costumes. So we're dressing up like idiots to keep this dumb myth alive."

"And the candy?"

"Just blackmail for most of us to do something this stupid."

"Fair enough."

An amused snort came as Annie's response from Mikazuki as he nodded in apparent agreement, and as he did so, a random kid rushed past the two of them. The pilot in the maid outfit and the blonde in the 'ghost' attire rolled their eyes and groaned out loud, respectively, as they watched the kid head off to get some candy, and as they did so, they raised their brows when they saw Mina and Nac rushing up to them with a buttload of candy with them.

"Look look! We got a massive load!" proclaimed Mina enthusiastically as she held her witch hat, which was filled to the brim with candy, and likewise, Nac was holding a decently sized bag, about the size of Mika's head, that was half filled with the same sugary treats. Reaching into it, Tias pulled out a rather… unsavoury looking chunk of rock candy and threw it into his mouth, with each chomp sounding rather… painful as he bit into it, but hey, Nac didn't seem to mind, as evident by that dopey smile on his face as he chewed.

"They said my costume is pretty cool, so they gave me a Trost special rock candy! It's great for training jaw stamina, among other things!" explained Nac as the vibrations that came with biting into the rock candy caused his helmet visor to swivel over his eyes, with its sudden appearance catching Nac off guard as he winced and almost fell backwards, only for Annie to grab onto his wrist from behind her 'ghost' costume. "Thanks-"

"Psh, dumbass," berated Annie gently as Nac laughed and flipped his visor up.

"Regardless, what did you two get?" inquired Mina curiously as she smiled at her friends, only to wince a little when she saw that they were still empty handed, save for a small bar of chocolate, half eaten no less, in Augus' hand. The sight of the damn thing made Mina and Nac wince a little while Annie remained neutral.

"Some kid hid in my skirt from a friend. Gave me this as thanks," explained Mika with little interest as he bit into the chocolate, only to spit it out and throw the damn thing away when he realized that it was probably contaminated in some way. Nac winced at that blatant waste of food, though Mina ended up pouting a little as she looked between Leonhardt and Augus.

"Tell you what, the two of you oughta go together to some random houses! I'm sure you'll be able to find some good candy near the west side, since it's less packed!" suggested Mina helpfully, to which her friends shrugged indifferently, with Mika pulling a dustpan out of seemingly nowhere as he rid Annie's costume of some dust, much to her chagrin.

"Do we have to?" grumbled Annie indifferently as she leaned against Mika in a rather bored manner, to which Nac smirked.

"You might find doughnuts~"

"Fuck. Mika, with me."

And to say that they were gone within the blink of an eye would be a major understatement, and as soon as they disappeared from view, both Mina and Nac snickered between one another.

"Jeez, she's certainly excited, now isn't she?"

"It must be the costume…"

Elsewhere

"Give me doughnuts, or I'll haunt the fuck out of you, bitch."

If Mikazuki wasn't giving him the stink eye, and if he wasn't showing off a portion of his Halloween costume's katana, which was apparently real(?!), the guy Annie was speaking to would've just laughed right into her face. As things were now, however, the guy rushed off to find any and all doughnuts he had in his house. Before long, he ended up finding one and passing it off to Leonhardt, who took it from him and brought it under her ridiculous Halloween costume and chomped down on it, satisfied.

"That works, I guess," scoffed Mikazuki as he heard Annie chomping down onto the doughnut from beneath her attire, and at that, she snorted as she wiped at her lips. As he spoke, the pilot fully sheathed his weapon and began to walk alongside his covered friend. He heard her lick at her lips as she finished her doughnut, and as she did so, the guy crossed his arms and deformed some of the frills on his dress.

Reaching behind himself, the young man pulled a raisin out of his hammerspace pack or something and ate it. As he chewed on the thing, Augus glanced around the area they were in, namely the western wing of Trost, and huffed a little to himself. Not many people here, which was to be expected. It was close to midnight, after all, and most of the Halloween nonsense happened near the center of the place.

With that being said, the two blue eyed soldiers did have quite a bit of luck with candy here, what with Annie having threatened several people for doughnuts with rather high success thanks to Mika backing her up, and at one point, Mikazuki had… aphem… lifted his skirt a little to get two packs of raisins. Annie thought it would've been embarrassing, though Augus assured her that this was far from the most embarrassing thing he's done thus far in his short life.

"Doesn't it get hot beneath that thing?" asked Mika as they walked onwards, with neither of them reacting to the guy that had jumped out of nowhere in an attempt to scare the living daylights out of them. The poor guy with a skeleton mask walked off dejectedly as he realized that it wasn't going to work anytime soon, and at that, Annie scoffed.

"I've had worst," assured Leonhardt dismissively as she cracked her neck a little beneath her coat, and as she said that, Augus huffed a little and unsheathed the sword he had as his costume and twirled it around mindlessly, surprising Annie with his skills with the blade.

"If you say so," quipped Mika as he twirled the sword around, only to stop when he nearly dropped the weapon. Swiftly, he snatched it out of the air and sheathed it, with the tiny tint of red visible on his cheeks being a good indication of a small amount of embarrassment as Leonhardt smirked beneath her costume. Oh goodie, something new to tease Mika with on occasion! God knows that she can count how many things she had to tease him with on one hand, for fucks sake.

Teasing aside, the sight of that blush, for as subtle as it was… ended up making Annie smile a tiny bit beneath her awkward as fuck costume as she rolled her shoulders, though as she did so, she smacked Augus in the gut with her elbow, with the suddeness of the strike catching him off guard as he winced, though he got over it quickly as Leonhardt smirked.

"So you do feel pain, huh?" joked the 'ghost' that was Annie as she eyed her friend teasingly, something that was strange for her, though Augus saw it as her being in a good mood for now as she got a lot of doughnuts for free today, and as such, he opted to humor her for now.

"Ah. Don't we all?" responded Mika sarcastically, though Annie didn't seem to see it as sarcasm as she felt her heart tightening a little at the memory of what happened last Christmas. How out of character for her to remember such an insignificant moment… but even so… knowing that Mina had stolen a kiss from Mikazuki before her was more than enough to make the blonde feel a primal sense of… envy. She may have been an emotional husk of a woman, a Warrior, but god dammit, she was still a girl!

And she liked Mikazuki Augus a whole lot more than she was letting on!

"Yes… I suppose we do-"

Before she could finish that statement, however, the sound of soft footsteps approaching the two of them from behind quickly caught their attention, prompting both Mika and Annie to turn around on instinct. Right as Augus managed to turn his upper half around, however, he felt something colliding with his left leg, prompting him to raise his eyebrows in confusion and glance downwards…

… and truth be told, both Mika and Annie were taken aback when they saw a little girl… dressed in a green… rabbit onesie? That had to be a rabbit costume, with its hood pulled down, revealing her pale blue-gray hair and red eyes. That horn on her right forehead was definitely strange to look at, though aside from that, she seemed mostly normal, disregarding her terrified whimpers, at least.

"Uh…" muttered Mika, with him silently wondering what he should do as he stared at the girl clinging onto his left leg for dear life, with Annie seeming ready to pry the, in her words, little brat off him, though before they could do so, they turned their attention back ahead of themselves and raised their brows when they saw five men rushing forwards.

"Ah, well, I guess I should've seen that coming," commented Annie from beneath her sheet as she stared at Mika and the mystery girl stuck to his leg. Augus himself raised a brow at that, elaborate.

"Kidnappings. Lots of people default to these holidays for that kinda crap," explained Annie, short, sweet and to the point as she stared over at the approaching men, and in response to that, Mikazuki simply nodded as he cracked his neck and stomped one foot into the ground. What Leonhardt had just said was quick to sink into Mika's mind as he felt his anger bubbling up, though before he could unleash it, he wanted to make sure that he wasn't about to go all righteous dumbass on the wrong set of people. For all he knew, the men chasing this weird girl were her guardians, for as unlikely as that was…

"Hey, hand over that kid… please?" piped up one of the men as soon as he was close enough to the costumed duo, with him adding the please in as an afterthought when he noticed the genuine sword hanging behind Mikazuki's skirt. A guy wearing a maid outfit and a girl in a 'ghost' costume wasn't exactly threatening, but throw in a fucking sword? Now that was some real terror, and it showed, as the guy shuddered a little as Mika stared down at the cowering girl clinging onto his skirt.

The poor little thing whimpered timidly as she held onto him, silently begging for the pilot to not do as he was told… and for as cold hearted as he was, he found his heart tightening a little as he watched the poor girl whimper. Annie seemed to see where Mika was going with all this, as evident by her sigh, and she was quick to shake her head.

"No. She's… our kid," denied Mikazuki as he pried the girl off his skirt and held her in his arms. The horned girl smiled a little as she clung onto his frilly shirt like a lifeline, and thereafter, he turned a little and motioned for the men to buzz off. "And she's none of your business."

"Our… kid…" echoed Annie, with a mild blush appearing on her face as she thought of that. Oh god… that was a good fantasy to have. She'd have to remember it for future use!

For now, however, Annie bit her lip with enough force to draw blood as she turned back towards Mika, who was ready to leave with this lost girl in tow. Before he could do so, however, one of the men, a guy with a smug smile on his face, stepped forwards.

"Kinda young to be parents, don't you think? Something tells me that you're lying or something," pointed out the man as Mika snorted, not buying this attempt at getting his attention as he walked on. Annie did the same as well, with her walking shoulder to shoulder with Augus as she spared various glances over at the horned girl in his arm, with their blatant ignoring of the smug guy being enough to set him off as he continued. "Hey, I'm talking to you, shorty! You're stealing our property!"

Property… he didn't like that word. People weren't property… and to hear someone as young and innocent looking as the child in his arms being referred to as that was rather infuriating to Mikazuki, with him clenching his free hand tightly as he processed this newfound rage welling up in his stomach. Surprisingly enough, however, Annie was the one to simmer him down, as she gently knocked her knuckles up against Mika's from beneath her costume, a gentle love tap that made him lose most of his anger whilst the horned girl watched the little exchange with great interest.

'Ooooh…'

Evidently enough, however, the men noticed it as well, as their smug spokesperson smirked a little wider as he continued.

"Oh yeah, tell the bimbo in the cumrag to get a better costume next time. That your girlfriend or something? If so, damn, she must be one ugly bitch!"

Oh… oh… so that's how they wanted it, huh? Stopping dead in his tracks as the men laughed mockingly at the insult, Mikazuki felt an uncharacteristic level of malice invade his system as he remained stoney faced. To anyone else, he would've seemed… expressionless, but to Annie, and, surprisingly enough, the horned girl he was cradling, they could see that he was radiating an aura of pure, unbridled hatred as he handed the girl off to Leonhardt, who held her gently.

"One moment," muttered Mika as he grabbed onto his sword holster, and as he did so, the smug spokesperson charged him from behind, with him holding onto a metal pipe, ready to bash Augus' head in. And yet, before the pipe could connect, Mikazuki whirled around on his heel and swung his costume weapon with incredible speed, and in one fell swoop, he sliced off the smug prick's hand, causing it to fly up into the air seconds later.

The smug smile was gone by now as the guy clutched his hand in pain, with Annie instinctively covering the horned girl's eyes with one hand as she didn't want to traumatize her. That in itself was for naught, however, as she simply peeked over her hand, wishing to see how Augus would fare.

As the guy cried over his lost hand, and as the others got several weapons out of seemingly nowhere, Mikazuki found himself ignoring it as he slashed at the guy's waist. A single swing was all that was needed to slice him in half, and as the top fell from the bottom, Augus kicked at the lower half, sending it sprawling towards his fellow men as his now blood stained blade rose up and pointed itself towards them.

"Your move."

And that it was… and boy, was it bloody, though due to time constraints and the rating of this story, it was all fast forwarded.

A few moments later

"Well, you dealt with them quickly."

"Ah."

Well, after slicing up those men with such vigor that it would be impossible to recognise just who they were without advanced tech, something that admittedly made Leonhardt feel rather nice, as he had done all that for her, Mikazuki and Annie were on their way once more to find candy… only with that horned girl still being held by Leonhardt as they walked on. It was irritating, to hold onto the girl whilst wearing a dumb ghost costume, but hey it could be worse.

And besides, Mika took her back from Annie after some time, anyways, so that ultimately didn't matter.

"Who even is this? I feel like I know her, but at the same time, I don't," commented Mika as he stared at the little girl in the bunny costume. She stared back with a childish expression, though judging by her eyes, Augus could tell that she had been through a lot, prompting him to roll his eyes and cradle her in one arm.

"I don't fu- freaking know. I don't know," responded Annie, with her frowning as she had to correct herself from using a swear. Not in front of that actually cute kid who was giving her a massive, dopey smile, at least… "I guess someone lost their kid, huh?"

"I guess," muttered Mika dismissively as he felt oddly protective of this horned child. Why, he didn't know… but regardless, he found himself walking aimlessly as they strolled towards the holding pen for Gundam Barbatos. As they did so, however, the girl ended up yawning a little, much to Mika's chagrin. "... dammit. I don't know how to handle children."

"Give her here," ordered Annie as she held the girl in her ghost costume. Thereafter, she removed that ridiculous looking blanket and wrapped it around the child, using it as some sort of blanket for her, so to speak, as she cradled her gently. The little horned gremlin seemed to like this, as evident by how she had fallen asleep almost instantly. "There. That'll work for now. We should get a senior to find out who she is or something."

"..."

"I wonder if Keith is good with kids."

"..."

"Maybe Erwin. I don't know, really."

"..."

"Or Mike… hey, Mika, what do you-"

"So that's your costume…"

And upon acknowledging those words of his, Annie's cheeks abruptly caught fire as she realized that she had revealed her actual costume to Mika by accident… a mummy costume. A somewhat risque one, no less. Multiple bandages were wrapped around her body, with there being a small handful of gaps to reveal her skin, and to top it all off, she also wore a pumpkin themed hair clip to keep her ponytail up, something that was rather cute.

As for the rest of her… well, Mika didn't like to lie, and as such, he willingly admitted to Annie Leonhardt looking smoking hot in that costume of hers. Not that he'd say that, for her sake, anyways…

"Y-Yes… it is…" confirmed Annie, and to that, Mika offered a thumbs up as some blood leaked from his nose, though it wasn't from overuse of Barbatos for once.

"Very nice."

And by all means, he probably deserved the slap that came next.

"Again, Mikazuki, I'm sorry."

"No, I probably deserve it anyways."

The red handmark was still present on Mika's cheek, even as he cradled that little girl in his arms whilst he sat alongside Annie atop Barbatos' chest. He didn't seem to mind it honestly, though Leonhardt was clearly remorseful over her actions. Even so, she dropped the topic for now as he sighed.

"Well, regardless, I never thought that Trost would look so good from a higher vantage point, especially at night," commented Annie as she adjusted one of the many bandages that made up her costume, to which Mika shrugged and messed around with some of his maid outfit frills. All the while, the two of them ignored the awkward looks from below the Gundam.

"It looks fine," quipped Mika, prompting Annie to huff.

"How could I forget, you've been to space," recalled Annie, prompting Mika to huff.

"It wasn't that nice. A lot of darkness," rebutted Mika, to which Leonhardt scoffed.

"Really now? It seems nice to me. What the Hell can be better than that?" commented Annie as she watched Mike, dressed as… a giant nose walk by. Reaching behind herself, she picked a random pebble off the unit's cockpit and threw it at Zacharius, who was rightfully peeved by the act of aggression, though he chose to let it slide just this once.

"You, I guess."

And at that, Annie nearly fell off Barbatos' cockpit out of shock, with her only being saved when Mikazuki grabbed onto her arm.

"You WHAT?!" demanded Annie, with her raising her voice for the first time in god knows how long as she glared at her friend for making such a cruel joke, and at that, Augus smiled a little, a sight that made Leonhardt blush even further than she already was as he responded.

"You're more beautiful than space, I guess. I'd rather stare at you than at the stars," assured Mika passively as he stared down at the sleeping girl in his arms and gently poked at her horn. Oh… so that thing was legit… strange… though he ignored it for now. Currently, Annie's blushing face took precedent, after all. "Is something wrong?"

"You… fucking idiot! You don't just say that out loud!" proclaimed Annie as she punched at his arm several times over, with her usual stoic, calm self replaced with a more childish, flustered demeanor as her inner child screamed out in a mixture of joy and embarrassment. She hadn't acted this way in years, so why…

… why was her heart feeling so nice about Mika admitting that she was beautiful?!

"I like telling the truth, Annie, and I think you're cute when you're flustered," admitted Mika as he leaned away from Leonhardt, who pouted as she glared at him. Thereafter, like a child after throwing a temper tantrum, she turned away from him and crossed her arms, refusing to look him in the eye as her face burned red. She… needed time to process all this… though evidently enough, Mika didn't want to give her any time.

Granted, it wasn't as though he wanted to cut her thoughts off. He had, unintentionally, mistaken her silence for anger, and like the dense young man he was, he knew of only one way to make girls less angry, or at least how to make them happy! It worked with Mina last Christmas, and it worked with Atra oh so long ago! So it had to work for Annie, he reasoned.

And as such, he leaned towards her and pecked her on the cheek.

As soon as his lips made contact with her cheek, Annie's heart completely stopped as she began falling off Barbatos' chest. At that, Mikazuki jolted his free arm forwards and snatched Leonhardt back up before she could become a red stain on the ground, and at that, the blonde gasped as she turned to glare at Augus.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" demanded Annie as she dropped all her worries of waking the girl up in favour of screaming at her… crush. Her simple response was, as stated, simple.

"You seemed sad, and so far, kissing girls seems to make them happy, at least in my experience," commented Mika absentmindedly as his terrible knowledge of love shone through rather intensely.

"What the fuckshit made you think that?!" demanded Annie, prompting Mika to shrug.

"I don't know. If it means anything, I'm sorry, I guess," apologised Mika halfheartedly as he silently acknowledged how they were gaining an audience from below. A harsh glare was enough to make said audience disperse, though one lingered… Hanji Zoe… who was… why was she naked. Oh right, Titan costume… 'costume'... how quaint.

"Fucking… fine, it's fine, I guess… just… a bit of a warning would be nice next time, alright?" grumbled Annie as she turned away from Mika with an embarrassed look in her eyes, though at that, Mikazuki, shockingly enough, smirked widely as he leaned towards Annie and used his free hand to cradle her lower jaw. Thereafter, he made her turn towards him and look him in the eye, an act that, shockingly enough, intensified her blush as she stared into her fellow soldier's eyes. "What the fu-"

"Consider this your warning," commented Mika before his lips crashed into hers, and by all means, all her pent up frustrations ended up dissolving, if only for a moment, as she kissed her crush! Oh god… it felt great…

And as they kissed, neither teen noticed how the girl in Mika's other arm was fading away, with her cameo in this chapter coming to an end as she disappeared.

Everyone but Barbatos, anyways, as one of his four internal optics darted towards the little girl as she disappeared from existence, having been warped back to where she belonged all the while, and once she was gone, the unit turned its attention back towards its pilot and the blonde as it 'smiled' in its own unique way.

'Ah, Mikazuki Augus. What is it with you and making harems…?'

Happy Halloween~

"Eri?"

Blinking a little as she yawned cutely, the little horned girl got up from her spot on the couch as she stared up at her Papa, who was glancing down at her alongside Big Brother Awase and Big Brother Aoyama with an indifferent look on his face.

"Papa! I just had an amazing dream!" proclaimed Eri with a massive smile on her face as she got up and jolted up to her 'Papa's' shirt, latching onto his frilly maid outfit all the while. He didn't seem to mind as he left, with him listening to the little horned girl ramble on about him and some random blonde chick, and all the while, Awase and Aoyama both shared a laugh as they shook their heads.

"So, Monsieur Awase, about that strange madam' who just appeared out of nowhere and stole all the potato chips…"

"Let's not talk about that, Aoyama."

"D'accord, I very much agree with you there, Monsieur Awase."