#original

Sweetie

“I love this time of year,” Mika sighed, uncoiling another strand of hair from a pink roller and letting the resulting coil bounce down his back.

“Really? I’d have thought you found it kind of, I dunno, tiresome.”

“Tiresome! The air is crisp, the leaves are changing, and the sun only shows its face for a few hours a day.” Another curl tumbled down. “The only thing I find ‘tiresome’ is pumpkin-spice-everything.” He pointed a slender finger at Ashley in the mirror. “It’s a good flavor. It’s not mind-blowing. Ginger Bread lattes, now, that’s a different story.”

“I mean Halloween. With all the spooky parties and people dressing up as movie vampires.”

“Oh, no, it’s lovely. The closer it gets to the end of the month, the more excited people are to be bitten on the neck. Those wearing a silk opera cape from Wal-Mart even more so. What better way to spend All Hallow’s Eve than with a vamp?”

“I figured Vamps had their own parties.”

“They do. Tacky velvet and rhinestone affairs with too much red wine and too many living guests gawking at all the fangs. It’s the vamp equivalent of a company picnic. No, I prefer a normal sort of party with paper banners and plastic eyeballs in the punch.”

“Because you’re the only vamp working the place,” Ashley guessed.

“A vamp, no.” Mika held up a black headband with lacy triangle ears glued to it. “A sexy cat that’s had a little bit too much to drink and needs to be escorted home, perhaps with a stop in an alley on the way for a little,” he winked, “scratch behind the ears.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Not so much as a tired old vampire inviting young desirables to an 'exclusive’ party, with the implication that they’re there as anything other than hors d'oeuvres.” The last roller came out, and he ran his fingers through the curls to loosen them a little before gathering a handful of pins in one hand. “I don’t make a habit of leading people on.” He paused. “In that way, anyway.”

“How many parties are you going to tonight?”

“Four. It’s still a week until Halloween; the parties are only just starting. There’ll be so many on the night of the 31st that if I don’t go to at least nine I’ll consider myself a failure. And you?” A flick of the eyelashes. “Staying home with Messrs. Domino and Netflix again?”

Ashley paused uncomfortably, then, “Nah. I have a thing.”

“A *thing,”* Mika echoed delicately.

“Yeah. Just a casual thing with a friend, a couple of drinks, that’s all.”

“A friend,” Mika said, then, “a boy?”

“A man, yes–”

“Oh, a *date,* I’m all a-twitter. Tell me about this man of yours, where did you meet him, how tall is he, is he educated?

"It’s just Adrian, Mika,” Ashley said tiredly. “You know him.”

Mika’s nose wrinkled. “Ugh, *him.* I don’t know how you stand to be seen with him, it’s obvious you can do so much better. People will talk.”

“We’re not dating, just going out for drinks. He’s been running the shop on his own for almost a year. There’s gonna be a little get-together at his place next week, but he wanted to do something more private for just the two of us.”

“You might not think it’s a date, my dear, but I can guarantee you he certainly does.” Mika put two of the pins in his mouth while he maneuvered the rest into his hair, coiling it into an artless half-bun. “Give someone like him a taste of the high life and he’ll keep coming sniffing after it until you kick him to the curb. Which you ought to have done years ago.”

“Mika, we’ve been friends since we were kids, I’m not just going to get rid of him. It’s just drinks.”

“Take it from me,” Mika said silkily, “coffee is never just coffee, and drinks are never just drinks. Don’t do something you’ll regret, because I won’t hear any of your miserable moaning that you’ve made a mistake after you crawl back here.”

“Thank you, you’re such a good friend,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes.

“Someone has to keep you in line,” Mika muttered, levering another pin into his hair. “Give me that hairspray, and then get yourself in front of this mirror. Disgusting ex or no, you’re not going out in public with your hair looking like *that.”*

Bound to You.

I could never lose you without losing a part of myself. Like two metal pieces melted and welded into one another by an electric arc, we’re bound to eachother heart and soul, forming a harmonious and most beautiful whole. Our souls are too tightly entangled to ever part without ripping away a piece of ourself, forever wearing the scar of where we were once fused together.

-EllaMoon

Disclosure

“He doesn’t say much, it doesn’t come as easily to him as it does me. But of one thing I can always be certain, when his lips touch mine, there’s no need for words. I feel it all to my very core, every word unspoken, every sentiment, all his love for me expressed through his kiss, and that’s all I need.”

-EllaMoon

My Conviction

“Finding something this remarkable is a lifetime event that not all people will have the privilege to experience in their existence…how lucky we are to have gotten that chance in our lives.

I’m certain to my very core that I don’t have to look any further, that you are the love I’ve been waiting for my whole life.

With that certitude, I love you and want nothing more than to devote myself to you and this love we’ve found, now until forever.”

-EllaMoon

Axiom

“ I believe in us as I believe the sun will rise and set each day, back to back. Believing took courage and our love gave me that.

When the day comes and you’re ready… reach out for my hand and there I’ll be, ready to walk down that path that’s lit up for you and me.”

-EllaMoon