Chapter Text
With the week passing by, relatively quickly at that, Marion had worked hard. Not on anything in particular, aside from practically redecorating the entire house for the spooky holiday coming up.
Twas the night before the Halloween Festival that Naea and Dandelion had tried so hard to gather everyone up for that Marion had found himself at her desk, sewing together his costume. She had been so busy, she completely forgot about it.
And, by some miracle, with bandages wrapped around her fingers, Marion finished the costume… Perhaps next year, she ought to just buy a premade one.
They had somehow managed to agree to meet up at the gate of the themed carnival. Well, that’s what it looked like from outside.
The early wakers, like Marion, AJ, Shasta, Naea, Seven, and whoever else wakes up at 6am were already there, followed by Hyacinth who was dragging Jizi by the hand to the front gate.
The large hat atop Marion’s head was a deep brown, alongside the dress she had hand-stitched the night before. The flowy sleeves managed to cover her hands which kind of made it look like Marion had cut his fingers off and tried keeping them together with aforementioned band-aids.
“Why don’t we go over here?” Marion pointed to a few casual carnival games…
Her unwilling acquaintance who hadn't bothered with nothing more than a mask, AJ, just shrugged. He had tried walking off by himself but Marion ended up following. Something about sticking together or whatever nonsense that AJ could not be bothered to listen to.
And so, AJ just followed her lead.
“Mari, you’re walking too quickly.”AJ grumbled despite keeping up with her pace perfectly. Marion slowed down, just a little bit as his hat could as well be used as an umbrella, should it rain, at least. “You just walk too slow.” Marion still commented with a smile.
Marion wouldn’t admit it but there have been a few times AJ has slipped up when referring to them. This was normal for the both of them. AJ would find something small to complain about while Marion would do her best to fix it, alongside her own complaints.
So, as they walked at a slower pace and next to each other, aside from the constant bickering between the two, it was nice. How long had it been since she last hung out with AJ? She found her hand on his head, which instinctively made AJ lean over just a bit.
“What are you doing?” He asked, completely confused. Marion was fond of AJ, as much as she denies it with her entire being. She considered him to be her little brother.
With a lack of response, AJ slowly backed up to fix his hair, which was now a fluffed-up mess from the blue-haired woman who was ruffling it under her hand. “You’re messing up my hair.” He grumbled, tired of Marion’s incessant petting. She just smiled and continued walking, to which AJ sped up to catch up to her.
“I just felt like I should do that.” She lightly laughed. AJ just glared, albeit not a hint of malice seen in it. “You just wanted to do it.” He sighed as they walked through the festival, trying some of the games as they went around.
“What about this?” AJ, for once, pointed at a darts game. Something neither of them were experienced in, so why not try it out, no?
They paid the few dollars it took to play and started throwing darts at the balloons that were strung up on the wall.
Pop pop pop!! Pop pop!! The balloons had popped in seconds. Marion had green darts while AJ had orange. How long has it been since they last hung out like this? It feels like years.
“Let’s do this again sometime.” AJ said, calmly, running out of darts. Marion had missed one, landing right in between two of them. “Sure, I don’t see why not.”
She commented as such as she managed to pop one more balloon.