Hey there, fellow Sing buffs!

I know this should've come out in October but I'm still glad to get it out there. Hey, if The Nightmare Before Christmas can still be enjoyed in both October and December, so can this.

Hope you like!


Calatonia had certainly gotten into the Halloween mood. Practically every window along every street was festooned with spooky decorations, children donning various costumes. Their parents accompanied them on their eager travels to every front door they could manage, their bags all bulging with candy.

And every member of the Moon Theatre had plans of their own for the holiday. Buster had been invited to Eddie's parents' house for a fancy Halloween soiree. Rosita and Norman had taken all their kids out for trick-or-treating, with Gunter and Johnny accompanying them to help keep the twenty-five piglets under control. Meena had opted to stay home with her family to greet any kids who came to their doorstep.

Steff, on the other hand, fought back a shiver as she stepped out of the taxi outside Ash's apartment, smoothing out some ruffles in her Rapunzel costume. In contrary to her girlfriend, the young skunk wasn't a fan of anything horror-related, mainly due to her involuntary gas spraying whenever she got startled. She still dressed up each year for the trick-or-treaters, but that was as far as she went.

This year, however, Steff had decided to challenge herself. On their last video chat, she had convinced Ash to have a movie night for them both at her apartment that Halloween night. Surprised as she was, Ash had nonetheless agreed to it. Truthfully Steff had never sat the whole way through any horror movie, oftentimes changing the channel after only a minute. But she concluded there was no harm in giving Ash's interests a fair chance. No matter how much it would possibly make her skin crawl, he was determined to face her fears for her girlfriend.

Once upstairs, Steff made her way to Ash's door, the only one on the top floor decked out in fake bloody claw marks. She always liked to go all out every Halloween. Patting down her golden wig, the skunk took a deep breath before knocking on the door; no turning back now. Stepping back as it opened, Steff was greeted by a porcupine clad in black pants and an olive green and red striped sweater dress, topped off with a brown fedora; quite the contrast to the skunk's vibrant princess regalia.

Smiling, Steff held up her hands in a 'ta-da' pose. "Trick or treat!"

"How about a treat?" Ash grinned back and coiled her knife-fingered glove around her girlfriend's waist, pulling her in for a smooch. "Happy Halloween, Steff."

"You too, Ash." The skunk giggled before stepping into the apartment. "Cool costume, by the way. Uh… Jason, right?"

Ash stifled a laugh. "Freddy, actually. Good guess though. And your costume looks pretty great too."

"Yep, best Disneigh princess, I'll hear no arguments to the alternative." Steff said jokingly, flipping her fake blonde plait. The porcupine playfully slipped one of her fake knife gingers under the wig's ponytail.

"Better be careful or I might turn your hair brown." After sharing a laugh, the two teens made their way into the dimly-lit living room, a jack-o'-lantern with a freshly-carved ghoulish face proudly displayed on the coffee table.

"You got the movie ready?" Steff asked. Ash's smiled dropped a little.

"Uh, yeah." She said hesitantly, glancing at the eerie DVD menu lighting up her TV screen; after giving her girlfriend some choices for their movie night, Steff had picked at random a horror flick set in a hospital, aptly named Vivisection.

"Steff, are you absolutely sure you can handle this?" The porcupine asked. "You were never the biggest horror fan back in high school. Y'know, with your spraying and everything."

The skunk waved her hand flippantly. "Pssh, that was then, this is now. And I'm willing to give it a fair shot for you."

At that moment, Ash's ear pricked up at the light knocking coming from her door. "Well… alright then. Just let me take care of this quickly."

Heading into the hallway, Ash quietly tiptoed over to the door with a mischievous smirk. Steff watched in amusement as the porcupine slipped one of her knife fingers through the door to give the illusion of unlocking it. The high-pitched chattering on the other side stopped. Finally Ash yanked open the door with her other hand.

"Boo-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!" She cackled, wiggling her knife fingers. The costumed kids at the door erupted in screams which quickly gave way to laughter.

"Trick-or-treat!" They cried out, presenting their half-full pumpkin buckets. With a chuckle, Ash grabbed the candy bowl from her console table and held it out for each of them to grab the biggest handful they could. Steff watched the entire thing from the living room door, thoroughly impressed by how much Halloween spirit her girlfriend showed.

As soon as the last child waved goodbye to her, the porcupine promptly hung a 'DO NOT DISTURB' hanger on the handle and shut the door.

"Now then…" She said, making her way back into the living room. "Shall we?"

"Let's do this." Steff gave a determined nod, planting herself comfortably on the couch. Setting the candy bowl between them before taking her own seat, Ash pressed play on the remote.

The movie started out bearable enough, showing only one murder off-screen to build up a mystery. Gripping her blonde wig tightly at the sound of the victim's scream, Steff quickly put on a brave face when her girlfriend glanced across at her. She wasn't about to lose her nerve now; not when she had made it five minutes in.

Half an hour later, however, the horror ramped up. Ash leant against her cushion unfazed, having sat through this movie more than her fair share of times, albeit still wincing at some of the gory parts. Steff, on the other hand, was freaking out internally. Every muscle in her body was tensed up. Sitting cross-legged, her fingers drummed anxiously on her legs as she tried not to let out even a squeal.

"Steff, you alright?" Ash asked, looking over worriedly.

"You kidding?" The skunk replied, not looking away from the carnage on the TV as her hand fumbled about for a caramel. "It's a chainsaw-wielding maniac in a hospital. What's not to love?" Her wide smile quickly faltered, the colour draining from her cheeks as she witnessed the newest victim's onscreen demise.

"Ohhh… wow, that's a lot of blood." She muttered with a shudder.

Another five minutes of spine-chilling mayhem passed. The rabbit on the TV screen was now hiding behind a corner, holding her breath as the killer seemed to give up on his search for her and walk away. Glancing at her girlfriend, who was hugging her tail in silent terror, Ash knew the movie's most famous jump scare was moments away. And she couldn't stand to see Steff like this a second longer.

The skunk finally blinked as the movie paused. Putting the remote down, Ash leant over and placed her ungloved hand upon her shoulder. Steff released a deep breath she hadn't even realised she'd been holding.

"Steff, I can see you're not enjoying yourself." Ash said gently but firmly. "It's okay for you to tell me if you're uncomfortable. I promise, I won't think you're a coward." Unable to deny it anymore, Steff gave a tiny defeated nod.

"You're right. I'm not enjoying the movie." She sighed, taking off her glasses to massage her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ash. This is our first Halloween together and with all the effort you put into celebrating, I just wanted to give something you love a shot."

"Final verdict?" The porcupine asked.

"I tried it… and I still hate it."

Moving the candy bowl to the side, Ash tenderly pulled her girlfriend into a hug. "Steff, there's plenty of things we don't have in common. Our fashion senses, your love of pop, my affinity for rock. But there's also plenty of stuff we do enjoy together, maybe some things we haven't discovered yet. And horror just isn't gonna be one of them. And I'm completely okay with that. Are you?"

Steff processed her girlfriend's words before returning the embrace.

"Yeah. I am." She said quietly. Finally pulling away, she planted a grateful kiss on Ash's cheek.

"But, hey, I'm impressed you made it this far into the movie." The porcupine added.

"Honestly I was about five seconds away from screaming 'turn it off!'." Steff chuckled, sheepishly scratching under her wig. "Is there maybe something else we can watch? Something a little less… scary?"

Ash pondered to herself for a moment before her face lit up. Dashing over to the DVDs stashed on her bookcase, she thumbed through a couple before finding what she was looking for.

"How about something a little more... macabre?" She asked, proudly holding up a black box set.

On the cover were a very peculiar group of animals: a quartet of pale foxes, the parents donning a slinky black dress and a chalk-stripe suit, while their son and pigtailed daughter wore a striped T-shirt with shorts and white-collared black dress. Stood next to them were an albino raccoon with a light bulb in his mouth, and a towering polar bear butler with a disembodied hand sitting on his shoulder.

"Steff, let me introduce you to a little something called... The Addams Family."

Over an hour later, Steff's uncertainty melted away and she found herself completely hooked on every minute. Snuggled up close to each other, she and Ash laughed the whole way through the movie's darkly comedic tone, finishing off the last of the leftover candy as they did. Wednesday's one-liners, in particular, brought her so much joy.

"Now that was a good compromise." The skunk said once the credits began to roll. "I'm not even kidding, Gomez and Morticia might be the best couple ever."

"I know, right?" Ash said with a grin, coyly tracing her girlfriend's shoulder with a knife finger. "Would you be interested in us dressing up as them next year?"

Steff immediately sat up, her eyes wide with excitement, before giving her a kiss. "Absolutely!"

Holding the porcupine close once more, Steff sighed blissfully as she felt her warm arms around her; this was undoubtedly the best Halloween she had ever had.


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The movie Sing belongs to Illumination Entertainment. I only own my OC, Steff Pearce.