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“Those lights are so ugly.”
King Boo, who was floating beside you, snorted in response to what you said. “I thought you said all Christmas lights were pretty?”
You squinted at the lights on the mushroom-like house, and your face slowly curled up in disgust. “Yeah, but not those lights. They're doing an injustice on the national holiday; Christmas Lights Day! At least the other house we saw had an overall theme. This house... is just everywhere! It’s like they couldn’t decide what to put out, so they threw everything out in the hopes that it’ll look better!”
“What are you, a Christmas lights judge?” King Boo said with a huff. “I think it looks... adequate.”
“Well, you must be lying to yourself, then,” you grumbled, rubbing your cold arms. Even though you were wearing two long sleeve shirts and a thick coat, you were still freezing. King Boo, unfortunately, radiated freezing temperatures— he can raise the temperature a little bit, you found out recently, but he still gives off the cold. At least you knew that when you return to the mansion, you’ll have a warm plate of latkes waiting for you. You also found out that some of the Jewish Boos loved to cook, but they weren't able to make food for people before you showed up. Ghosts can't really... eat, obviously, so when you said that you’d love to eat their food, their little eyes lit up.
King Boo rolled his purple eyes, and floated down the street towards the next house with lights. “So, the lights at that first house we saw didn’t look ugly? I couldn’t stand looking at it— it was far too bright.”
You pouted, and quickly trotted after him. “You just want to go against my opinion, don’t you?”
“Yes, because I enjoy you pouting all the darn time,” he huffed. “Moron. What’s wrong with having a different opinion?”
“There’s nothing wrong with having a different opinion, I just think that... that...” You stared at the next house that had Christmas decorations out, forgetting what you were going to say. The house had a few light-up reindeer on the roof, and there were red and green lights decorating the frame of the house... “I wonder how they got those big reindeer decorations up there,” you said after a pause.
“They grew wings,” King Boo said sarcastically, not liking how you didn’t finish your previous sentence. “They probably got a ladder, or asked a Boo to put up the decorations... Or maybe they are a species that can fly,” he said, now mulling it over...
You hummed. “I thought Boos don’t like to hang around populated areas. Toad Town is a bit... populated...”
“While that may be true for most cases, some Boos do enjoy populated areas,” King Boo said, still facing the house. “Though, they tend to wear sunglasses so people won’t look at their eyes.”
You furrowed your brow. “I also thought Boos have a difficult time wearing accessories...”
“They do.”
“Oh...” You stared at the crown on his head, and he grunted.
“It’s like... learning a new skill, almost— Us Boos have to learn how to phase through walls with inanimate objects, but some Boos either never learned that skill, or have trouble learning it,” he explained.
You nodded along to that, and began walking towards the next house... “Why don’t you teach them how to do all that? I think you’d make a great teacher,” you said with a smile... before giggling when a thought came in your head. “I mean, you’re basically their dad at this point.”
He floated next to you, groaning. “Why do you keep calling me their father? I ain’t their daddy!” Another burst of giggles came from you, and the corner of his mouth twitched as he resisted a smile. “Besides... even if I was their daddy, wouldn’t that make you their other parent?”
You then sputtered, waving your hands around like a fish out of water as your cheeks turned pink. “N-No!”
King Boo cackled at your expression. “See, now you feel how it’s like to be teased!”
You folded your arms, and walked a bit faster towards the next house. “I don’t like being teased…”
“Oh, stop pouting,” he said, and poked your shoulder with a nub. “You’re allowed to tease me, aren’t you?”
You squinted at him, trying to look at least somewhat mad, but your face was still pink. “Well… It’s fun to tease you!”
“It's fun to tease you too, my dear.”
“Shut up,” you huffed.
“Aren’t I supposed to tell you to shut up all the time? Stop stealing my lines, human!” King Boo said, letting out another Boo-ish cackle.
You were about to say something, but paused at the sight of the next house. The lights on the house and railing flashed neon colors, and there was a few inflatable decorations in the yard…
King Boo cringed. “Urgh, those lights are incredibly ugly.”
“You’re ugly,” you mumbled, but you still had a smile on your face.
“Oh really?” King Boo hissed playfully, and floated closer to your face. “You wanna say that to my face, human?”
You stared him in the eyes, giggling. “You…” He stared straight back into your eyes, and didn’t look away, or hide behind his nubs like a typical Boo… “Are cute,” you finish with a wide smile, and kissed the side of his face.
You and him have become more comfortable with kissing each other, but he still blushed purple. Now it was his turn to be embarrassed. “Shut up,” he grumbled. “Aren’t we supposed to be looking at Christmas lights?”
If there was anyone else on the streets, even though it was late at night, you wouldn’t have the courage to tease him. However, since it was just you two…
“What if I want to look at you, hmm?”
“You can look at me later!” King Boo hissed, though his face was still painted purple. “Just… look at anywhere but me!”
“Why, are you gonna hide behind your little nubs if I keep staring at you?”
“Shut uuup,” King Boo groaned, and turned around, letting his little Boo-ish tail face you instead. “I hate you.”
You eyed his tail, and a horrible idea popped up in your mind. “Do you hate me… sometimes?”
“No, I hate you all the ti— AAAAA! D-Don’t pull on my tail!”
You immediately let go of his tail, and chuckled nervously. “Oops, my hands slipped.”
“I bet it did,” he snarled, his face a dark shade of purple. “Why would you do something like that?! My tail is... sensitive!”
“I didn’t know it was sensitive,” you mumble embarrassedly, poking your index fingers together. “I didn’t even know ghosts had... sensitive areas like that.”
“What creature doesn’t have sensitive areas?” King Boo growled.
“I dunno... Boos?” You shrugged sheepishly.
He groaned loudly, and seemed to be resisting the urge to facepalm. “You’re lucky I like you.”
“I thought you hated me?”
“Shut up. Let’s go towards the next house. Just... don’t pull on my tail again.”
You let out a small giggle at that, and reached for his nub-hand thingy, wanting to hold it despite making a fool of yourself moments ago. He sighed deeply, and floated downwards a little to hold your hand as you both walked to the next house.
“...Hey KB?” You asked, glancing around the dimly lit street. Only a few houses had their decorations out, since it was the first of December, but there was still plenty of houses to look at.
“Yes, my human? What is it?”
“Which house do you like the best so far?”
King Boo grunted. “I don’t... know. Maybe that second house we saw?”
“But... that house was so bland! I like the fourth one we saw.”
He grimaced. “The one with the bright lights everywhere? I think I hated that one the most.”
“What! But... it looked so cool!”
“I just think you don’t have refined tastes in Christmas lights, my dear.”
“You don’t have refined tastes in deez nuts,” you tried to hiss in a threatening tone, but laughed loudly when you saw the flat look he gave you. “I’m just kidding, KB...”
“You better be kidding,” he mumbled, and probably was going to say more, but paused when he saw the next house... “That one looks pretty,” he commented slowly.
There were lights lining the frame of the house you and him were looking at, just like that other house from earlier, but this time the lights were a calm white. Several wreaths hung on certain places on the house, and even the bushes had soft white lights hanging from them.
You hum in response, and stare at the house for a long moment... “You should decorate the mansion like this. I think it would look nice.”
King Boo seemed to consider it for a moment, but soon scoffed in response. “It would take too long to decorate the outside of the mansion. Besides, we’ve mostly decorated the interior, and have a tree set up in the foyer already. I don’t see the point of putting lights outside the mansion.”
You gave him puppy eyes, and lowered your bottom lip. “Oh, but it would be so much fun! It... may take a while to put the decorations up outside, and I’ll probably make you and the Boos do most of the decorating since it’s cold, and I don’t want to put lights up while on an unstable ladder, but... It would be fun!” You’ve told him the importance of manually putting up the decorations instead of using his illusion magic to simply poof it up there, and he had only summoned up the materials so you both and his Boos could decorate the place... manually. The Boos seemed to enjoy it, and that’s really all that mattered... Though, KB seemed a bit tired of putting up decorations.
King Boo rolled his purple eyes, and stopped holding your hand. “Human, if you aren’t putting up the lights, then what’s the point of doing it at all?”
“Well... maybe I wanna watch you and the Boos put the lights up outside,” you said cheekily.
“I think that’s one of the stupidest things I've ever heard you say,” King Boo lightly growled. “Just... why in the world would you want to watch us put up the lights?”
“Because... I just want to!” You said, “I don’t really need a reason for that, do I?”
King Boo was going to say something, but seemed to think about the last thing you said for a moment, before sighing a breath that he didn’t need. “I suppose you don’t need a reason for that, but it just makes you more of a weirdo, then.”
You faked a gasp. “I am not a weirdo!”
King Boo let out a small cackle at your expression, and floated closer to your face, immediately jumping on the fact that he can tease you about this. “Oh, yes you are!”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Yea-huh! You, my dear human, are a massive weirdo!”
“Well...” You tried to think up of a good come-back. “Well, you’re dating me!”
King Boo scoffed. “Is that the best come-back you could come up with?”
“Uh... mmmnnnnno?” You smile sheepishly. He gave you a flat look, and you bit your bottom lip. “Um... maybe...?”
“You’ve lost this battle, just admit it,” he told you.
“Never!” You said dramatically, but squealed when he put both his nubs on your shoulders, and got reeeal close to your face.
“Admit. It,” he hissed playfully. You lightly shivered when the air got colder.
“N-Never!” You repeated.
King Boo vigorously shook your shoulders. "Admiiit iiit.”
“Never!”
“I will never kiss you again if you don’t admit—”
“Fine, fine... you win,” you said with a pout, but you did smile when King Boo grinned.
“Good human,” he said, and patted your head.
“You’re so mean...”
King Boo cackled. “I never said I was nice, did I?”
“You said you were sometimes nice during Halloween!”
“Bah, I don’t remember that part,” he said, and waved a nub.
You narrowed your eyes at him in a suspicious way, and reached over to hold his hand again. He wrapped his nub around your outstretched hand. “You certainly do remember that part! Liar.”
“Why would I ever need to lie to you, my dear?” King Boo flashed his sharp teeth as a grin. “Halloween was a month ago, wasn’t it? So, of course I wouldn’t remember much from that time.”
“Lies,” you hiss, and leaned a bit closer to his face as you held his nub a bit tighter. “You definitely would’ve remembered everything that happened that day.”
King Boo cackled, thinking that he had won this battle. “Why do you say that, my lovely human?”
“Because that Halloween day is when we officially became a couple!”
King Boo froze, and... pursed his lips. He knew he could always say that he couldn’t remember every single last moment of that day, since it was a month ago, but... since that day was a month ago, that meant that today was... “Wouldn’t that mean today is our one month anniversary?”
You... paused, and thought about that. “Um... well, it’s been like, thirty-one days since Halloween, right? I’m not sure if our one month anniversary would’ve been yesterday, since that was on the last day of the month, but...”
“We’ll just say that our one month anniversary is today, since it has been thirty-one days,” King Boo said with a nod.
...A beat of silence went by, and you stared into King Boo’s eyes. He stared back at you.
“Um, so... should we do something special, or...?”
King Boo grunted. “Aren’t we doing something special right now? I mean, what normal person looks at Christmas lights in their spare time?”
“It’s a national holiday!” You said with a pout. “And, very normal people go look at Christmas lights! Besides, I don’t see you complaining, KB.”
He rolled his eyes. “The only reason why I'm not complaining is because I like hanging out with you.” You softly ‘aww’ -ed at that, but huffed when he said this— “I couldn’t care less about those idiotic lights.”
“You’re lucky I like you,” you said, repeating what he said earlier. “But... I’m glad you enjoy being with me, KB.”
He... slowly exhaled a breath that he didn’t need, and leaned in close to kiss your lips. “You’re lucky I like you too, human. If I didn’t, then I’d probably have you in a painting already.”
You giggled, and began to walk towards the next house with Christmas lights. He wrapped his nub around your hand a bit tighter, and floated beside you. “If you had a painting of me, you’d probably just look at my butt.”
“I would not.”
“Would too! Don’t you always like to be the big spoon? What if you stare at my butt when you’re behind me?”
“Shut up,” he grumbled in a light tone, “you silly goose... At this rate, you’ll never get the latkes to eat. I’ll tell the Boos to throw them away.”
“Nooo, not the latkes!”
While you and him walked to the next house with Christmas lights, you both bantered with each other, talking about nothing in particular. Throughout the rest of the night, the atmosphere stayed calm and light. Even though you were getting pretty cold, and your hands were numb, the conversation kept your mind off of it, putting any of your worries at ease.