“This is stupid.”

Rinoa frowned, waving a makeup brush in front of his face. “Be quiet, or I’ll mess up.”

Squall rolled his eyes but shut up, allowing her to continue. She knew his opinion well enough.

He didn’t exactly hate Halloween, but there were some traditions he could do without—and dressing up to demand candy from neighbors was one of them. Halloween was a kid’s holiday, and Squall was fifteen. There were better things he could be doing on a Saturday night.

But here he was, sitting at Tifa’s kitchen table and letting Rinoa paint his face.

Their other friends were surprisingly nowhere to be seen. Cloud and Zack hadn’t arrived yet, and Tifa had let them in only to leave—saying that she had to go help Aerith with her costume. Squall had hardly been able to get a word in edgewise before Rinoa was forcing him to sit down, opening a bag of makeup.

“Squ-all, you’re moving again. Stop it or I’ll be forced to accidentally-on-purpose poke you in the eye.” Rinoa frowned, wiping her hand onto her blue-and-black striped tights. She was dressed as a witch—with a black dress, striped tights, pointed shoes, and a fake stripe of gray in her dark hair.

Why am I doing this?

Because Rinoa said so.

Squall sighed but didn’t move.

“Trick or treat!” Zack shouted as he opened the door—well, tackled the door was more like it. He tripped and almost wound up sprawled on the table, but caught himself just in time. He was dressed in what was supposed to be a “mummy” costume—wrapped in strips of a white sheet—but the strips had been tied around his arms, making him look like he was wearing a strait jacket. He struggled to move his arms for a moment before sitting down. “Spike, I need scissors ASAP!”

Cloud (who had entered quiet and unnoticed, like always) ran to the kitchen drawers, searching for a pair of scissors. Rinoa finally started laughing and Squall raised an eyebrow. “What the—“

“I asked Tifa to help me,” Zack explained simply as Cloud began to cut his arms free. “Obviously a bad idea.”

“It suits you,” Squall said simply, causing Rinoa to laugh harder.

“Shut up.”

“Zack, stop squirming or I’ll cut your arm—there.”

Zack grabbed the scissors and proceeded to cut his other arm free, speaking hurriedly. “Thanksbudcrapnowmyarm’ is going down.”

“I’m done, Squall.”

“Finally.” He stood up, examining his face in the mirror Rinoa gave him. His face was completely white, his eyes circled in black, and a red gash fell across the bridge of his nose.

“What is he supposed to be?” Zack asked, retying the pieces of fabric around his arms.

“He’s a dead Squall,” Rinoa declared. “Cloud, you’re next.”

“That’s the stupidest costume I’ve ever seen,” Zack declared.

“At least I don’t look like I belong in a mental asylum.”

“Touché.”

“We’re here!”

Tifa and Aerith entered through the front door, rather than the back. Tifa was dressed similar to Cloud—in all black, clothes dirty and torn, her face painted white and black like Squall’s but without the blood. Beside her stood Aerith, dressed as a princess.

“Aerith, what are you doing? We’re all supposed to be scary!” Zack insisted. Aerith crossed her arms, frowning. “I didn’t want to be.”

“Come on! We’ve got two zombies, a mummy, a witch, and a dead guy. The princess totally throws everything off.”

“Did you actually expect Aerith to be scary?” Tifa asked. “I mean, come on. It’s Aerith—no offense.”

“None taken.”

“Hey, Cloud’s a zombie and he wouldn’t hurt a fly, much less try to eat somebody’s brains!”

Rinoa lifted the makeup brush from Cloud’s face long enough for the blond to speak. “I wanted to be Vincent, remember? You were supposed to help me find the cape.”

“Oh. Yeah. Well, a zombie’s better.”

“Done!” Rinoa declared, and Cloud stood up.

“Are we ready yet?”

“Just about—lemme grab my hat.” Rinoa slipped past Aerith and Tifa to find it. She came back with the hat along with six bags. “Here, for the candy.”

“Score!” Zack grabbed a bag and ran to the door, followed by Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud.

“I see you untied yourself,” Tifa smirked as she went outside.

“Just wait, Teef. You’re going down.”

“You guys, hurry up or we’ll miss all the good stuff!”

“This is stupid,” Squall declared for the hundredth time that evening.

Rinoa rolled her eyes, a smile showing past her annoyed expression as she pressed a bag into Squall’s hand. “Just suck it up and enjoy the free sugar.”

A/N: Squall doesn’t seem like the Halloween type.

Well, this is one of those random chapters that I just thought of while passing out candy. It’s not really that good, but I couldn’t pass up the mental image of Zack in a strait jacket.

For time's sake (it's 11:30 p.m. while I'm uploading this) there is no song for this chapter, but oh well.

I do have the next actual chapter for this typed, it should be up soon... hopefully, as long as I get around to it and don't get distracted by National Novel Writer's Month.

Hope you enjoyed, and Happy Halloween!