Abyssmare and Unichord Rarepair Week 2023

Weronika/Miiko (Weroniiko)

Prompt: Chocolate/heart-throbbing/"I want you, not anyone else."

AN: Again, everyone is the same age in this entire anthology and ships can be read as romantic or platonic.

"HA, HA! GOT 'EM!" Weronika kicked down the haunted house's exit door with a proud, bordering on arrogant, smile plastered to her face. She held her arms high over her head. In one hand (or paw, rather) she had a large, Jack-o-Lantern-shaped bucket of chocolate. In the other, she had a haunted house employee by the scuff of his neck. Even though he wore a mask, no one needed to see a face to know that he was terrified. His feet kicked helplessly as they dangled two inches off the ground. And even though he was gripping a machete, it was obvious that he was gripping it out of fear rather than aggression.

Weronika marched triumphantly over to her younger siblings, one of whom was waiting with wide, awed eyes. Another of whom looked embarrassed and exasperated by Weronika's antics. And a third who looked torn between the emotions of the other two.

"Hey, kids, you want some chocolate?" Weronika joked, holding out the bucket as she finally let the employee fall to the ground with a THUD!

"Weronika!" one of her siblings whined. "You're not supposed to actually fightthe people in the haunted house!"

"I didn't!" Weronika protested her innocence as the employee crawled away behind her. "He was the last challenge of the house. If I wanted to win, I had to get through him and steal one of his chocolate buckets!"

She was more than happy to launch into the epic spiel of how she braved every spook and scare of the house, and all without flinching. Exactly as she said, the masked man with the machete was the "final boss" of the house. If she could get past him using courage and cleverness, she could take a chocolate bucket as proof of her achievement. Even more tempting, she would get bragging rights to the fact that she would be the first and only person to make it all the way through the house thus far! She simply couldn't pass on a challenge like that!

Her strategy was easy, too. Headbutt. She lowered her head and ran. Sure, the man had a machete, but she had no doubt that such a sudden attack would catch him off guard. Even more importantly, if it was true that no one else had completed the house yet, the masked man was likely overconfident and underprepared. Weronika would be his first real challenge, and she would give him a run for his money, and chocolate, for sure!

She proved correct. He froze. The last thing he expected was for a young woman dressed as a werewolf (Were-onika the Were-wolf) to just lunge at him, and even after he finally remembered to swing his machete, his technique was so pathetic that Weronika only needed to flick her wrist and his blade clattered easily off her claws. The rest was history. With the chocolate bucket in one paw and the employee in the other...

"See?" Weronika bragged. "I'm not like a regular sis. I'm a cool sis!"

Please stop talking... None of her siblings said it, but they were certainly thinking it. Weronika was just about to crown herself Horror Hero Extraordinaire while her siblings rolled their eyes and slapped their foreheads when the haunted house's exit door swung open again. All heads turned to see... the smallest girl they'd ever seen before. She wore a cheaply-made zombie costume and a smile that stretched from ear to ear. She, too, had a Jack-o-Lantern chocolate bucket.

"What the—?" Weronika whispered in disbelief.

"Kurumi! Miyu! Haruna! Miiko did it! I completed the haunted house! I told you Miiko could do it!" The little girl waved the bucket proudly in the air just as Weronika had done before her and she raced over to three other waiting girls. Weronika didn't even hear their replies as she struggled to comprehend just how such a tiny child could've cleared the haunted house and come out the other end smiling. Had they just let her pass because of how sweet, cute, and innocent she looked? Before Weronika even knew what she was doing, she'd made her way over to the other girl.

"Just how did you manage to get through the haunted house?!" she demanded, towering over Miiko and her friends. The friends looked frightened by Weronika's imposing figure, and it was a bit of an ego booster for her, but that Miiko girl was still smiling like the sun. That was not an ego booster. Seriously, was the child too stupid to even realize when she was supposed to be afraid?!

"Oh, it was easy!" she clapped. "Miiko had so much fun seeing all the scary stuff the haunted house had to offer!" Weronika's eye twitched. Miiko kept blabbering. "—and when the last guardian tried to chase Miiko, I just outran him and hid, and then I played a prank on him that distracted him, so I was able to sneak in and steal the chocolate!" Again, she raised her bucket in triumph, a smile stretched across her zombie face.

"No way!" Weronika scoffed and shook her head. It was impossible! But... then again... the girl did have the chocolate bucket, and...

"If you don't believe Miiko, why not do the haunted house again with me?!" she cried excitedly. "There are a different set of challenges if guests come in together!" For a second time, Weronika was left dumbfounded, and from the looks on Miiko's friends' faces, it was mutual.

"Miiko!" one of them muttered, eyeing Weronika warily. "You can't just go off with strangers!"

"Oh, Miiko isn't afraid! I wanted to make a new friend!" she beamed up at Weronika with wide eyes. "See? She has a bucket too, which must mean she also likes scary stuff, and any person like that is a friend of Miiko's!"

This is... certainly something else. Weronika shook her head again. But Miiko's challenged echoed around Weronika's head. She didn't really feel like doing the house all over again, even if there would be a new set of challenges, but... she couldn't exactly decline the offer either. It would make her look weak! She'd look like a lame little baby coward trying to run home with her tail between her legs, and that was unacceptable! Besides, if SHE can get through the house so easily, I can DEFINITELY do that and more!

"All right then, fine! Let's go!" Weronika puffed out her chest and grabbed Miiko's arm, dragging her back towards the haunted house.

"Miiko!" Her friends reached out in concern, but Miiko only waved cheerfully at them as she let Weronika take her away.

Weronika's siblings watched the entire exchange in disbelief and exasperation. Classic Weronika.

ooo

20 minutes later, Weronika and Miiko came out of the haunted house howling with laughter.

"AWOOOO, YEAH! I've never had so much heart-throbbing, heart-pounding fun in my life!" Weronika thumped her chest excitedly. She looked up at the little zombie girl sitting on her broad, furry shoulders and grinned wolfishly. "That's it, kid, I've decided! When it comes to a paranormal partner in crime, I want you, not anyone else!" Just as Miiko had said, her pranks really were killer, and Weronika had the supreme delight of getting to see one in action up close and personal. It was even better than what her bandmates or siblings could cook up!

"Mmhmm! Miiko's gonna have so much chocolate that it will last all the way to next Halloween!" Miiko cried. Her three friends and Weronika's three siblings had since struck up a conversation as their crazy, wild fourth members braved the haunted house. Once that fourth member, victorious and vivacious, returned, the other six could only shake their heads, no idea how else to react.

"Guess what they said about Miiko being good with animals is true," one of Miiko's friends whispered as they watched Miiko emerge from the house on Weronika's shoulders. The zombie had tamed the werewolf. Both of them looked so excited that—

"Hey!" Weronika shouted at them. "Who's up for Round Three?!"

She was met with a chorus of six groans and one excited, "Ooh, me, me, me!"

It surely was one of the strangest Halloweens any of them had ever had, but for Miiko and Weronika, it was an exciting, entertaining one at that!