Starting note: I know it isn't Halloween yet, but this chapter was originally posted as chapter 9.5, so I'm keeping it in place. The normal chapters take place at the end of the school year, so we made a time jump that also includes a little relationship progression, though nothing too far ahead.

Halloween = One of those holidays that somehow all online videogame worlds share even though only very few countries in our world celebrate it... It often comes with outfits, special items and... shapeshifting.

“Are you sure?” I turn around in front of the small mirror hanging on Alex’ closet door. “I’m not...”

Alex steps behind me, looking over my shoulder. “Yeah. Definitely sure.”

I roll my eyes at her, but then turn around again, shaking my head. Today is the Halloween get-together with the guild, we’re all supposed to dress up and Alex and I may have had the worst idea yet... “At least you have it easy.” I look her way, and she checks herself out in the mirror too, then shrugs, grinning.

“Can’t help it that mine is easier to pull off.” She twirls around a little, pulling up her knee and her arms, making a pose from the game and I look away, butterflies in my stomach.

For the last couple of days, we’ve worked hard to make these costumes. Not only are we going as our game characters, but we’re going as gender-swapped versions. This year, as one of the special Halloween buffs, you would be randomly assigned one of the races for half an hour, even some cool non-playable races were in the mix. Somehow, as we were talking late at night, we got the idea that it would be cool to gender-swap our characters. Especially since I originally mistook Alex for a guy because she plays a male character.

So, we worked our asses off, first to find some references, and then the gear we’d want to wear, and then we actually had to put the gear together. Luckily, I’m a caster, a healer, so even though I had to sew some clothes together, it wasn’t too complicated, just time-consuming. And then I had to make some pieces of foam and other stuff to make my shoulders wider and give more of an idea of being a little broader than I really am. It was very fun, especially when I kept trying things on and in one of the earlier trials my shoulders would slide to the front or the back, not exactly where you want shoulders.

Alex on the other hand, had to make quite a few structural pieces that would still be able to move, since female tank gear isn’t exactly the most practical, but we were able to find a gear set that was both not too complicated to make and would be wearable in late October. Making it was fun, but to now see her wear it... that’s a different experience.

I push at my shoulders, making sure they’re in place, then I pull on the shirt, trying to make myself look like a male dryad, while uncommon in actual mythology, they seemed to have somewhat existed. Anyway, Destruction of Elysium did choose to include them, which made our idea possible in the first place. I’m mostly lucky that the race is slim, not like the race that Alex normally plays. Some of the races, especially ones more connected to earth or mountains, are huge, and I don’t think I’d have been able to pull that off.

Alex puts her hand on my shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Really.” She turns me to her, plucking at my hair a bit. We’ve pulled it up a little, shortening my hair to a more masculine style. “Just one more spray of hairspray and you’re ready to go.” She steps back and my eyes are drawn to her long legs. She’s wearing heels, which she doesn’t do often, and with the fishnet tights and the short gladiator-type skirt, her legs look even longer than normal. She turns to me, raising her eyebrows. “What?”

“Nothing.” My cheeks heat up.

“Well...” She steps closer, putting her hand over my face as she sprays. Then she steps back. “Looks good.”

“Thanks.” I take a deep breath, almost bursting out coughing from the lingering hairspray. “You need help with yours?”

“Yeah. I need to put my hair up, and then we have to put the final shoulder layer on, with the cape.” She turns and I step closer, putting my hand on her waist. Alex leans into the touch, relaxing for a moment.

“You look great.”

“Thank you.” Alex’ voice is a little lower than normal, then she steps out of reach and grabs her hair, pulling it out of the way. “Can you hold it like this with one hand, and then we need to put the cape and the shoulders on.”

“Will do.” I take her hair in my hand and as Alex wraps the cape around herself, attaching it to her top as I hold it to make it easier, I get a beautiful view of her slim neck.

“Fleur.” Alex’ voice sounds amused, though a little impatient.

“Yeah.” I blink.

“Can you grab the shoulders, I think they’re behind you.” Alex laughs a little.

I look around and find the top set of shoulders. They help the cape stay in place better, and they look cool. I guess the second reason is why they used it in the game anyway, but for now, it made making the cosplay easier by distributing the weight of the cape more. “Here.” I lean the back of them on the back of Alex’ shoulders and she attaches a couple of things before she moves it forward and closes it at the front. I carefully let her hair down, smoothing it over the back. “There you go.”

Alex grins as she turns to me. “Good. Ready to go!” She grabs her sword and shield, also made in the last few days. She jumps up, doing another one of the in-game poses. Only, of course, she pokes the sword right into the ceiling and the tip breaks off... She looks a little flustered as she quickly looks at the damage. “Dammit.” She frowns.

I feel bad for her, but I can’t help my laugh bubbling up. It looked pretty cool, until she hit the ceiling.

Alex eyes me, also smiling a little. “Figures.” She lets out a breath, holding the piece of the tip that broke off. “You know what. Never mind.” She puts it on her desk, then she hands me my staff, and as I take it from her she wraps her hand around mine for a moment.

Butterflies seem to try to jet out of my stomach, especially the way that Alex looks at me, but then she smiles and lets go.

“Time to leave, before we break more.” There is a laugh in her voice as she leaves her room.

***

Alex’ mom drops us off at a house, promising to pick us up at the end of the night and urging us to not do too many stupid things. But even as she says it, I can see that she doesn’t really believe we’re capable of that. And, with Alex’ behaviour from earlier, I also don’t think that we can promise her anything.

We’re both laughing as Alex’ mom drives off. First her words, and of course, Alex promptly dropped her shield and I nearly poked her eye out with my staff. Yeah, we may be a slight danger to ourselves and others when we’re excited. Only a slight.

The door opens and Cerise stands in the doorway, dressed in some cat-like outfit, and her eyes go wide as she looks at the both of us. “Wow.” She comes over, walking around us for a moment. “That is...”

Troy follows her moments after. “I thought you two would never make it.”

“Slight issues with equipment,” Alex grumbles as she looks my way and I burst out laughing again. Right... Pretty sure we did that ourselves.

“Right.” Troy eyes me, raising his eyebrows. “And I do hope she didn’t break you?”

“No.” I grin, following Cerise and Troy into the house. “Not yet.”

“Oi.” Alex sounds a little offended behind me. “Don’t spoil it.”

“So. You’re what...” Cerise turns to us as she walks through the kitchen to the garage in the back. “Healer and tank, but...”

“I’m BeauFleur.” I drop my voice a little.

“And I’m... Still AlexTheDestroyer.” Alex laughs. “Just female.”

“I can definitely see that.” Aaron comes over from the back. “I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

“What? Why not?” Alex shrugs.

“Because it’s so much work?” He looks her over, and then me. “Looks really cool though.”

“You should thank Fleur for that. She’s the one who helped with the sewing. I just did the plated stuff and the fitting.” Alex turns to me, sliding her fingers over my hand and I entwine our hands.

“Thanks. It was fun.” I feel my cheeks heat up.

“Okay. Time to get to the rest of the party.” Troy starts walking to the back, where I can hear more people.

We follow them and it almost feels like there are more people now than there were at the previous meeting. But that may just be a feeling, since everyone is dressed up in a huge range of different outfits.

“You want something to drink?” Alex pulls me to a table at the side, filled with weirdly coloured drinks and for a moment I’m worried that this night may end up a little more chaotic than planned.

***

I log back out of my account. Cerise has set up a few big screens and some computers and we’ve been taking turns participating in Halloween themed Player-versus-Player content. The instances aren’t that long, so we log in a few at a time and play for a round or two. We’ve been doing this all evening and my team just had our fourth win.

I stretch as I look around. I need a drink, and maybe a few moments of calm, because my brain is doing the zoning-out thing that I know happens right before I crash from exhaustion. I make my way over to the table with drinks and candy and grab a couple of sour candies before taking a bottle with water. Then I turn, watching Alex kick ass in the game. She’s so focused, so set on winning, and I like watching her like that.

That intensity, that focus, it’s so different from the bubbly and a little bit clumsy Alex that I normally see. When she’s focused on the game like that, she’s a totally different person.

“She’s gonna win, isn’t she?” Troy steps next to me.

“Yeah. They’re gonna win, and their score will overtake ours.” I sigh. We’ve been keeping score of each team’s wins and points in the game, and right now, we’re on top, but just looking at this round. I know that Alex’ team are going to score higher and overtake us. “They’re gonna win.”

It only takes a couple more minutes before their round is over and as Alex gets out of her chair, Cerise writes the points on the board and my prediction came true. Their team is on top now.

Alex grins as she comes over. “That was a good round.”

“They should have just let me in the team with you,” Troy grumbles.

“That wouldn’t have been fun.” Alex winks. “Putting me, Fleur, you and Cerise, all in the same team... It wouldn’t have been fair on the others.” Alex reaches out, taking my hand. “I need some fresh air.”

I nod, following her as she makes her way to one of the doors at the side. When we get to the door she wraps her cape around her, pulling it tight before she gets through the door. I shiver as I step through the door too, closing it behind us. It’s cold outside, but the fresh air is nice.

“Can I have a sip?” Alex looks at the bottle I’m holding.

“Sure.” I hand her the bottle as I step a little closer, away from the door.

Alex takes a few gulps from the bottle, then lowering it and looking at me. “You cold?”

I nod a little, wrapping my arms around me.

“Come here.” She holds her cape open.

“But I’m cold already, that’s gonna be cold for you.” I don’t step in just yet.

“It will be warmer in a bit, the two of us under here together.” She moves the cape more, stepping closer and wrapping it around me.

I slide my arms around her waist, her body heat nice and the cape keeps us both warm at the same time.

“You know...” Alex’ voice is low, close to my ear. “When I wear heels, I’m the perfect height.”

“The perfect height for what?” I look up at her, but as I move, I realise that her lips are very close. Her breath now on my cheek.

Alex puts one hand under my chin, turning me more, her eyes now on my lips. She comes closer, her dark red lips tempting as they near mine...