"I'm sorry!" In a lonely corner of a festively decorated plaza, the cries of a very distressed nun could be heard by everyone... except apparently his tormentor.

Ranmaru clung to the back of a very elegantly dressed pirate, trying his hardest to grab either his attention, or grab back what was his: a cartoonishly large book simply labeled "Holy Bible". Inside of it, however, was not any form of scripture, but instead was hollowed out to fit a rather unholy amount of Halloween candy. Candy which Takuto was helping himself to, ignoring his friend's pleas.

"I'm sorry for talking shit to the ghosts and telling them to eat us!" He wasn't really, at all, but he assumed that's what Takuto was upset about. He was practically --since his pride would never allow him to do so fully-- clinging to Ranmaru throughout the entire Halloween event, pleading for him to stop aggressively provoking the performers. But he couldn't help it, Ranmaru just needed something truly scary to happen before, instead of dying of fright like the attraction promised, he died from sheer boredom.

Perhaps Takuto thought the performance was sufficiently scary, for as soon as they exited the attraction, he swiped the book full of candy from his friend's hands, apparently to exact revenge for Ranmaru being an active contributor to raising his blood pressure.

Ranmaru chuckled, he thought it was funny at first, until he saw a good chunk of his candy was legitimately gone-- "Wha--!" --half of it eaten, and half of it simply tasted before being prissily discarded. "You're not even eating it~!!" He batted at him with his fists like a child.

But Takuto ignored him, winding down from the event by calmly picking through hundreds of pieces of candy, finding whatever next one he deemed worthy of being eaten. He knew Ranmaru would never be bold enough to forcibly take it back, Takuto figured he probably enjoyed whining.

"I didn't mean to, ok!" Ranmaru panicked when Takuto pulled out a rather large chocolate bar, one of his favorites, "I'm sorry! I didn't realize it really scared you!"

Chomp.

"Aaaaagh!"

"I wasn't scared," Takuto turned away from Ranmaru, hiding his offended face. "It's just a headache when you and the performers are both having a contest to see who can be more obnoxious." Whenever a performer hissed, growled, screeched or screamed, trying their absolute damndest to scare them, Ranmaru would parrot back with a sadistically mocking expression. Takuto got a headache just thinking about it...

Ranmaru kneeled down, resting his chin on Takuto's knee. "If it wasn't that bad, then will you give me my candy back?" The next strategy seemed to be simply looking cute. "Please?" He added when Takuto picked out a few more of his favorites. "We can do whatever you want next." A change up from how they've simply been darting towards whatever merry Halloweeny decoration caught Ranmaru's attention next.

...

Takuto looked down at Ranmaru, who's eyes perked up with hope. "..." before coldly eating the candy in front of him.

"Guuwaa!"

"You should be thanking me, because some of this is..." After literally less than a second of tasting it, Takuto dropped the candy out of his mouth. "Truly awful..."

He really didn't enjoy eating so much candy, but he also knew not actually eating the candy would bother Ranmaru even more, and he was in the mood to be a bit of a bully. "Besides, that's what pirates do, right? Whatever they want they simply take."

Ranmaru frowned... he knew Takuto was referring to how he practically forced him to pick out a real costume instead his original idea, which he was apparently very fond of, simply wearing an orange shirt with the word "costume"

...

"Fine." Instead of the crying from before, Ranmaru spoke curtly, before standing up, spinning on his heel and walking away.

"But speaking of costumes..." He looked over his shoulder just to make sure he caught Takuto's interest. "There's a little more to mine, you know." He picked up the sides of his long frilly nun skirt, as if about to do a cute curtsey. "Just a little more, though. A few secrets." A long slit in the gown gently fluttered open, as if threatening to reveal said secrets.

Takuto avoided his gaze, but at least—Ranmaru smiled—he finally stopped eating.

"I picked it out just for you, as thanks for going out with me." Ranmaru looked away as well. "I know events like this aren't really your thing..." Even if he did have to practically drag Takuto out of his comfort zone, that was only possible because Takuto cared for him. It was a special occasion, and Ranmaru appreciated that.

"But--" He dropped his skirt abruptly, and the holy image of a nun returned. "If you insist on being rude, then I guess it'll have to go to waste. And you'll get nothing."

...

"Hm."

After a moment, Takuto closed the candy filled book, stood up, and held it out to Ranmaru. His friend perked up, excited that his proposed bargain worked, before bounding over to take it--

"Wait." Takuto slipped the book out of his hands again, holding it out of a very grumpy Ranmaru's reach.

"Hey--" But before Ranmaru could complain, Takuto wrapped his arm around Ranmaru and quickly pulled him in, pressing close to his back. "Can't I just," he placed down the book, out of the other's reach. "take you too?"

"No, that's not fair!" Ranmaru could tell from the strength of his grip it was pointless to try to free himself, but that wouldn't stop him from at least complaining.

Takuto nuzzled into Ranmaru's neck and sighed, "You taste much sweeter than candy, anyway."

"Uuuugh!" Maybe it wasn't pointless after all, Ranmaru started twisting out of Takuto's grasp, or at least trying to, pink face and all.

Takuto looked down at Ranmaru's skirt with an honestly innocent, curious expression, "What is the secret, anyway?" as he gently reached through the slit of the dress to feel very warm skin--

"Hey!" Ranmaru finally put effort into his escape, pulling as hard as he could away from Takuto's grasp, "It's supposed to be a surprise!" even if that meant dragging Takuto along with him, for he wasn't letting go. "You expect me to show you here?!"

They stumbled across the plaza tangled together, the sound of fancy heels clumsily clattering against the pavement filled the air. "Let go!" Twirling around in circles, squabbling over... they didn't even really know anymore. "People are going to see!"

It wasn't often that Ranmaru was ever concerned about something like that, which meant Takuto was doing a good job picking on him. He didn't know if it was the festive atmosphere, or all of the candy, or just the adorable way Ranmaru pouted, both of them dressed in silly costumes. Ranmaru had been telling him all about how he should loosen up and have fun, Takuto hoped he would forgive that, sometimes, teasing his friend was his idea of fun.

"Ok! Ok," Ranmaru finally, abruptly stopped running and looked back at Takuto, smiling sweetly, actually holding the other's hands around his waist. "Ok... but, just a little ok?"

Takuto's shoulders dropped, his face blank. He was just messing around; it wasn't actually the best place for--

"A diversion!" Ranmaru quickly slipped away from the loosened grasp, scooped up his now half empty book, and darted out of the plaza, leaving behind a rather dizzy Takuto who calmly watched him leave. Probably off to enjoy the rest of his remaining candy, the rest of the event in peace.

...

---

...

"Taku..."

Not even five minutes later, Takuto turned to see Ranmaru wandering back up to him, clutching his book close, with a cute, mopey face.