Neon

nine

It had been two weeks since Harry had seen Daphne.

After he had run out of the Velvet Curtain, Harry walked a mile in the direction of his hotel to clear his racing mind. For a Sunday night the streets had been busy, but he was grateful to blend in with the hustle and bustle and go unnoticed. He came to the realization he was an idiot for running away around the time he also discovered he was another three miles from his hotel. Defeated entirely, he called an Uber and sulked the rest of the way home.

Typically a routine person, Harry never found it hard to fall asleep. His body operated like clockwork after having such a regimented schedule for so many years, but despite the fact he was several hours past his bedtime, neither his mind nor body allowed him rest. The cheesecake Daphne had given him the night before became breakfast, and he suppressed the guilt for the poor dietary choice as much as he could.

He tried to suppress his regret about running away from Daphne as well by staying busy. It wasn't a hard task considering he had to juggle furnishing his new apartment between playing games every other night. Phoenix had coordinated a team bonding day when the moving truck arrived from Montréal, and even though he insisted he had paid a pretty penny for the moving crew and didn't need his teammates doing physical labor for him on their day off, all twenty three of them showed up anyway. In no time his entire kitchen was full of discarded bubble wrap and he had enough furniture that the walls no longer echoed. After most of the boxes were unpacked, the team stayed to eat pizza and drink beer on the floor of his living room and Harry felt like he belonged for the first time in years.

Harry had made plans to talk to Daphne the next time the team dined at Oak & Ash. Only, when they did arrive at the restaurant after their win he learned Daphne had been off for the night and was replaced with a short blonde waitress, who was bubbly and overly flirtatious and so not on Harry's radar whatsoever.

The team spent the last week of October on the road, concluding Harry's first month as a Manhattan Phantom. With wins against the Austin Outlaws and the Scottsdale Scorpions the Phantoms were third overall in the league standings. Harry hated to boast, or get too excited early on in the season as to not jinx his chance of winning, but fuck it, where had that mentality gotten him ever?

In fact, Harry was feeling so confident and in tune with his new teammates, he agreed to take part in a group Halloween costume.

It was standard practice for every team to have a Halloween party with the players and their family, thrown by wives or long term girlfriends of men that had been well established on the team. Harry had gone to one or two early on in his career in Montréal, but as he became somewhat of a recluse, he had no desire to mingle with people who didn't seem to like him - even as Captain. It was isolation he never wanted to feel again.

And that's how Harry ended up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Most of the players in relationships had their costumes planned out and executed by their partners, but Viktor shared with Harry that the single men had a tradition of dressing up in group costumes. Harry liked the idea immediately, thinking about all of them dressed up as rock stars, or maybe hippies.

Harry wasn't even opposed to the Wizard of Oz idea when Delly had first proposed it, and he thought he might even look pretty funny in a Tin Man costume. Unfortunately, everyone else had decided there was only one person who could be Dorothy, and it just had to be him.

He had done his best to find a blue and white gingham dress last minute and in the largest womens size available from Amazon. The dress arrived with a matching headband affixed with a giant matching gingham bow, and a small wooden basket that he threw out immediately - he had to draw the line somewhere. He wore a pair of red opaque tights at the suggestion of Kelly Kesa, who said they were a necessity and would keep his legs warm. He paired them with a pair of old dirty red vans he hadn't bothered to clean, and allowed Ameilia and Eloise Kesa to put a tiny amount of blush on him that they insisted made the outfit. Only "some" blush turned into Harry looking like a Raggedy Ann doll. He thanked them for it anyway.