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“Give me one of the caramels.”
“You’ve already had your share.”
“No I haven’t! You’ve been hogging them all!”
“You’ve both been hogging them.” Eli and You’s bickering was interrupted by the sound of Riko’s voice, stern and matronly, accompanied by a glare that she was shooting them from across the living room. “Need I remind you, again, who that candy’s actually for?”
“Tell that to your wife,” You snickered. “She’s been pigging out worse than both of us.”
“Hey!” Chika huffed, giving You an indignant look and clapping a hand over her stomach. “I have an excuse. I’m eating for two now.”
“Great, so now your baby can have diabetes too.” Chika was only three months pregnant at the moment, and it wasn’t even noticeable, especially when she was wearing a heavy sweater like she was right now. That still hadn’t stopped her from using it as an excuse for every single thing she didn’t want to do, though, and honestly You didn’t know how Riko was staying sane.
“She does have a point, you know,” Riko said, reaching out to place her hand over Chika’s, gently discouraging her from shoveling any more candy into her mouth. “Your morning sickness has already been bad enough as is. It’s only going to get even worse if you keep eating at this pace.” As Riko tried to remove the candy from Chika’s grip, however, Chika let out a literal hiss, snatching the candy back for herself.
“Hands off! I need something for myself,” she insisted, before pointing towards the glass of wine in front of Riko, and the pumpkin beer in You’s hand. “If I’m the only one who’s not allowed to drink I deserve extra candy to make up for it.” Riko let out a sigh at that point, though she clearly didn’t have a good rebuttal. You, on the other hand, wasn’t feeling nearly so kind.
“Hey Chika-chan, watch this,” she said, and she waited until Chika was looking at her before knocking her head back, chugging the remaining contents of her beer in a single go.
“Hey, fuck you!” Chika whined, and even Eli elbowed You in the ribs at that point.
“Be nice,” she scolded. Still, as You finally came back up for air, now swirling an empty bottle in front of her, she was grinning quite triumphantly. And that grin only grew even wider as she heard a knock at Chika and Riko’s front door.
“Dibs!” she called out, thrusting her empty bottle into Eli’s grip and jumping up from the couch before anyone else even had the chance to react. You grabbed the bowl of candy off the table in front of her, prompting a whine from Chika as she did so, before she was running over to the door and tossing it open in front of her.
“Trick-or-treat!” a chorus of tiny voices called out, and You’s grin stretched even wider when she saw the little horde of costumed children standing there on Chika and Riko’s doorstep, all of them already holding their bags and their buckets out expectantly.
“My, my, look at all of you!” You said, her voice getting just a bit higher than usual as she spoke, in that way people's voices always seemed to when they were addressing children or animals. “You all look so good! What do we have here, an astronaut? And a witch, and I see a princess. And are you…”
“I’m Tsubasa Kira!” a little girl in an idol costume loudly proclaimed, and You couldn’t stop herself from snickering a bit at that.
“Well, it’s an honor to meet you, Kira-san,” she said, fishing pieces of candy out of the bowl and handing them over to each of the kids. “You guys enjoy the rest of your night.”
“Thank you ma’am!” all the kids said as they started to run back down the walkway, on towards the next house. And while You wasn’t sure she appreciated being ma’amed, especially at her age, she at least appreciated the children’s manners. As they disappeared back towards the street she watched for another moment before finally stepping away from the doorway, letting the door swing shut as she returned to the living room.
“Hey Eli,” she said as she marched back in. “You just missed her. Your friend was out there.”
“My friend?” Eli repeated, tilting her head to the side and raising an eyebrow.
“Tsubasa Kira,” You replied, setting the candy bowl down and dropping back onto the couch next to her girlfriend. “You guys were friends, right?”
“I don’t know that I’d call her my friend,” Eli replied. “We met a few times in high school, but that was it. I’ve barely spoken to her in a decade.” Eli paused for a moment after she said that, before furrowing her brow. “Children really dress up as her?”
“Obviously!” Chika butted in. “She’s still super famous!” Unlike µ's and Aqours, who had both called it quits after their third-years had graduated, A-RISE was still going strong to this day, and they were still as popular as ever. “As soon as our kid is old enough I’m gonna make sure we introduce them to all the great idol groups out there,” Chika went on, already leaning forward to steal more from the candy bowl now that it was back within her reach. “Including A-RISE! And I’m gonna buy them idol Halloween costumes every single year.”
“What if it’s a boy?” Riko asked.
“Boys can dress up like idols too, Riko. Expand your mind.” Riko didn’t have an answer to that, and You just snickered, reaching out for her beer again before realizing it was empty. A pout spread over her face, and it was only a moment before she was back on her feet again.
“I’m gonna grab another drink,” she said. “Anyone want anything?”
“Beeeeeeeer…” Chika whined, only for Riko to scowl at her.
“We’re all set, thank you, You-chan.”
“Babe?” You asked, glancing back over her shoulder at Eli, and Eli just shook her head. You exited the room from there, momentarily leaving Eli alone with her two friends, and it was only a second or two after that before Eli spoke up.
“Thank you again for letting us come here tonight, really,” she said. “We don’t tend to get trick-or-treaters in an apartment in the middle of the city, and you wouldn’t believe how much You-chan misses this.”
“I said that we should just bring the trick-or-treating to the kids!” You called out from the kitchen. “But Eli said walking around the street handing out candy to stranger’s kids would be ‘weird’ and ‘sketchy’ and would ‘probably get us arrested.’”
‘Good call,’ Riko silently mouthed to Eli, prompting Eli to laugh softly.
“Really, though,” she went on. “It’s nice to be here tonight. Halloween in a rural town feels a lot different than it does in the city, but it’s nice out here.”
“You should move back here!” Chika called towards the kitchen, though just as she did so You emerged with another beer bottle in hand, and the most unamused expression on her face she could possibly muster.
“I would rather die.” After living in the big city for as long as she had, You wasn’t sure she would ever be able to go back to rural life, even if there were still parts of it that appealed to her. Not to mention, after everything she had gone through to get where she was now, the thought of returning to Uchiura felt like a step backwards every time You considered it. This was a nice town to visit, but not a place she ever wanted to live again.
“But think about it!” Chika whined, giving You a pout that You was entirely immune to by this point. “We could be neighbors! You could hang out with us every day and see Shiitake whenever you want, and you’d basically be like our kid’s cool aunt who’s around all the time! And if you and Eli-chan end up having kids then they can all hang out together! M-Maybe- Maybe they would even fall in love, and then- th-then they could get married, and we would be i-in-laws and basically s-sisters, and- and-”
“Are you- Are you crying?” You asked.
“It’s the pregnancy hormones you bitch!”
“And here I thought Riko-chan was the dramatic one.”
“Hey!” Riko huffed, though the exaggerated facial expression she was shooting in You’s direction only proved You’s point.
“I’ll make you a deal,” You said. “We’re not gonna move back here. But if Eli and I ever give up on living in an apartment and decide to become world-wise travelers wandering the globe and relying on the kindness of strangers to get by, we’ll stop in and crash on your couch for a while.”
“We’re not going to do that,” Eli said.
“She’ll come around,” You insisted, putting a hand up beside her mouth as if to block Eli from hearing that.
“I won’t.”
“She will.”
“Well our couch is always open!” Chika promised. “Unless Riko-chan and I end up having so many kids that we have to give up all the bedrooms and sleep there ourselves. I did tell her that I want, like, a dozen.”
“And I told you that I wanted one cat and zero kids,” Riko replied. “But here we are.”
“Well if you didn’t want any kids you shouldn’t have knocked me up!”
“I didn’t!” Riko protested. “It was artificial!”
“But you still sat next to me in that doctor’s suite and held my hand while they put that weird little syringe aaaaaall the way up inside me and blasted me full of some stranger's sperm, so that's basically the same thing."
“Are you guys always this disgusting in front of company?” You interrupted. “Or is it just like, specifically the two of us?”
“Now, now,” Eli said. “Personally I think it’s wonderful that we’re all comfortable enough around each other for Chika-chan to discuss these sorts of things openly.”
“You don’t have to suck up to them just because they’re my friends, babe. They’re being gross.” Eli just grinned at You in response to that, and the small lull in the conversation that followed a moment later was interrupted quickly enough anyway, by the sound of yet another knock coming from the front door. A small pause followed that, and You looked around the room at her three companions, not jumping up to answer quite as eagerly as she had the last time around- sharing was caring, and all that.
“Anyone else wanna get it?”
“Would you mind?” Eli asked.
“Not at all,” Riko said, gesturing towards the candy bowl. “Go right ahead.”
“Thank you.” Saying that, Eli stood up and grabbed the bowl off the table, walking over towards the front door, and though she couldn’t quite see it from where they were sitting You could hear the familiar cries of “Trick-or-treat!” a moment later, followed by Eli humming and hawing over everyone’s costumes before she finally started to hand out candy. It was adorable to listen to, even if she couldn’t see it- and apparently You looked like just a bit too much of a lovestruck dork as she sat there, because a moment later she was being pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Riko’s voice.
“You really love her, don’t you?” Startled, You looked back over towards Riko, and found that both she and Chika were staring at her with vaguely mischievous smiles on their faces, which immediately made You’s cheeks burn a little bit. Maybe it was because she was feeling sappy and sentimental right now, though, or maybe it was just because of the several beers that were coursing through her system by this point in the evening. But for whatever reason, You didn’t quite have it in her to get all flustered and defensive at the moment.
“Yeah,” she agreed, leaning over the edge of the couch just enough that she could peer around the wall and see Eli again, smile stretching a little wider on her face as she did so. “I really do.”