Rambles, Recs, Rarepair Hell

Spanner and Lachesis had been busy with helping Kyoka decorate. As they went to work the normal looking apartment began to be covered with cutesy Halloween décor that Kyoka acquired from Daiso earlier. Cute pumpkin lights were hung across the walls, little statues of skeletons and black cats placed about, and a festive tablecloth over the table just to name a few.

Unsurprisingly Kyoka was preparing for the Halloween party that she had offered to hold for everyone at the last minute. Little over an hour was left until they all would begin to show up.

This was going to be Lachesis’ first ever time celebrating this holiday. So it was no wonder Kyoka wanted to go all out.

Lachesis had heard about Halloween in the past, moreso the history of how it developed in western countries. But there was never a need to celebrate it until now.

She wasn’t against the idea of joining in the festivities. Another part of becoming human was partaking in these events. Doing so would help her get one step closer to the freedom she wanted to achieve. Even though Lachesis was open to celebrating with everyone else, she wasn’t entirely sure what to exactly do. This was a whole new world for her.

Kyoka had told her not to worry and just enjoy herself. How Halloween, and especially a get-together like this wasn’t something to overthink. So for the time being she’d give that approach a try.

Spanner brought out the bowls of various candies. Chocolates, gummies, hard candies—it was a whole array of colorful sweet treats. Lachesis could only imagine just how packed Kyoka’s bags were back at the store.

He began to walk to his room, “I’ll go get dressed, Kyoka-san.” Sounding very matter-of-fact. Spanner wasn’t enthused about getting in costume. Surely it was one more item to add to the list of what he saw as a ridiculous joke.

Despite this, he would deal with wearing one for Kyoka.

“Alright!” Kyoka grinned and gave a thumbs up. She was already dressed as a mad scientist. Her outfit was largely the same. But she had a white lab coat on, rubber gloves, as well as some wild looking circular glasses. “Can’t wait to see my Frankenstein’s monster!” She was positively beaming.

Spanner only sighed with a wry smile before closing the door.

Kyoka moved over to Lachesis, looking up and down at her thoughtfully. “Lache-chan… Now that I think about it, you’re already dressed pretty well for this.” She came closer and patted her shoulder. “You kinda look like a Gothic maiden!”

Unable to keep it together, Lachesis couldn’t help but laugh at that notion. Her haughty laugh filled the air of the entire room, and Spanner certainly would be able to hear in the next room over.

Kyoka simply pouted in response. In a rather cute way too, it made Lachesis want to give her a kiss.

Perhaps later.

“What? I’m not wrong!” Deciding to change the subject, she went over to the candy bowls. “Either way. Try some of this before the others get here. I know they'll be popular.” Passing over a wrapped candy to Lachesis.

She examined it. It was called a “kitkat”. This wasn’t her first time actually seeing one of these. Kitkats were in a lot of stores, in a variety of flavors too. The one for this was “pumpkin pudding”. She knew pumpkin was a food humans ate as well as using for decoration.

Though this would be her first time actually tasting pumpkin. And it combined with pudding of all things sounded interesting…

Unwrapping it, she popped it into her mouth and her eyes widened in surprise. It tasted sweet, but had a tiny hint of spices to it. Also possessing an overtone of chocolate as well alongside the pumpkin flavor. This was actually quite good.

Kyoka chuckled before picking up one for herself. “You don’t have to put the whole thing all in at once.” She snapped the kitkat in half. “You’re meant to break it in two, and enjoy each bar one at a time.”

“Well how was I supposed to know that?” Lachesis said with a smirk.

She scratched her head. “…True. Got me there.”

Lachesis leaned over and gave Kyoka a quick kiss. Enjoying the flavor of that kitkat across her lips, which felt so much more addictive when tasting it this way. She could get used to this.

Kyoka smiled and gently kissing her back. She then rested her hand on her chin, gleefully gazing at Lachesis with a dreamy smile. “Was it good?”

“Mhm.” Lachesis winked. “Very good.” Directing her eyes to the other bowls of candy next.

All of this raised the question, what were the other ones like? Lachesis felt her curiosity start to bubble up. Feeling quite excited at the prospect. And more importantly: How would they taste while kissing Kyoka?

They had about an hour, and Spanner was still out of the room… It was time for a little experiment before the party would start.

Shinji didn’t know why he volunteered for this fortune telling session. As much as he liked Tezuka, their goals aligned as well—he still didn’t believe in his fortunes. Ren absolutely wasn’t going to do it though, Yui already had a session of her own, and Auntie was out doing errands. Even in this dreadful weather.

He wasn’t sure what made him go along with it. The gears continued to turn in his head, almost feeling as if smoke was coming out. No matter what, he couldn’t find an answer.

But Tezuka was his ally, his friend…

“Are you ready?” Tezuka’s voice cut through all the noise in Shinji’s head.

Well whatever the reason might have been, there was no turning back now. “Yeah.”

The Atori cafe was dimly lit, making the room feel strangely foreboding. It didn’t help that there was a big storm going on right outside. Normally this was a place Shinji found a sense of comfort and safety in. For the time being, Atori had been a safe enough space from the never-ending hell of the Rider War.

Though when it was like this… It felt so different. Even kinda scary.

Shinji shook his head.

He wasn’t doing this in some dark alleyway in the furthest depths of the city. Everything will be fine!

Tezuka lit a match. Its light felt so much brighter with the cafe being so uncharacteristically dark. Shinji found his eyes becoming glued to the flame. Unable to look away. For someone who didn’t believe in fortunetelling, he found himself strangely starting to get invested in this.

Small tea lights were lit, adding to the mood as Tezuka began to look into the small crystal ball placed on the table. His gaze was unwavering. Looking the most focused he’d been while doing one of these sessions.

What was going on in his head? What did he see, was Tezuka even truly seeing anything to begin with? Shinji couldn’t help but wonder as he tilted forwards. Looking straight at him.

As Tezuka’s brow furrowed, something in the air of the room shifted. The lights that were on began to flicker rapidly. A flash of lighting, alongside a crash of thunder. Shinji jumped right out of his seat.

Surely this had to be a coincidence. But that didn’t change the fact that Shinji was still trembling like a small dog, no matter how much he tried to control his body.

Tezuka became even more focused than before. As his expression intensified, yet another bolt of lighting struck. Shinji couldn’t help but feel the atmosphere of the cafe continuing to rapidly transform right before him.

And that was when Atori’s power suddenly went out. The pair able to hear a muffled “What the hell—” coming right from Ren upstairs through the ceiling.

Now this was getting really creepy.

Outside the wind had become so strong it burst the windows open. Blowing out the tea lights in the process. Everything had become nearly pitch black. Say for the beams of light from the moon that had found their way into the cafe. A burst of freezing cold air struck right against Shinji’s skin. Even with his coat on, it did little to protect him from this attack from the elements.

Shinji had enough of this. He didn’t believe in fortunes, but he sure as hell didn’t like whatever was going on!

“I’m going upstairs!” Mumbling while making incoherent noises under his breath along the way.

Tezuka only quietly looked at Shinji as he left, before going to close the windows.

It was another slow day in Kitchen Ichinose. Tamami bought a new basil plant to use for dishes, and Hotaro was excited to use some leaves himself.

Hopper1 examined it slowly and curiously.

“HOPPA!”

Hotaro put down his sponge, “Huh? What's wrong Hopper1?”

“Hoppa! Ho-PPA!!” The chemy gestured to a bunny that somehow sneaked in! Given how the door was wide open to let air in, it wasn’t hard to guess how it got here. Chowing down on the leaves of the plant. The bunny was rather adorable, but it couldn't be left to eat his mother's basil!

Picking it up, Hotaro scratched behind its ears whilst petting it. It seemed to like that. Bountybunny reacted to seeing the creature, joyfully jumping around in the card.

“Hey little fella… Don't know how you got in, but you gotta go back home, ok?” Hotaro stepped outside, Hopper1 and Bountybunny following right behind him. Giving the bunny more pets along the way as they went to the nearby park.

Gently Hotaro put the bunny down, and it hopped away into the grass. The chemies started to wave farewell, Hotaro joining in with them. “Bye little bunny! Hope you find more tasty snacks!”