*:･ﾟHard To Love ･ﾟ:*

CHAPTER 10 - by your side

KOU
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"Okay, I think I have everything that I'd need in order to pull the costume together. Now it's time to get things for your costume!" Sousuke looks up me with a gleaming expression on his face.

I can tell now that Halloween is something that Sousuke doesn't take lightly at all. I don't remember this part of him, but I suppose we never had the opportunity to spend Halloween together like this.

"Uhh.. so what all does a vampire costume entail? I get the whole 'go big or go home' thing but I don't want to be too over the top." "You take minimalism to such a tragic extreme. Live it up a little will you?" I look down at Sousuke as my eyebrows raise. "I'm living it up, trust me. But maybe I can just go as a teenage vampire and dress how I normally do. It'll save me from having to purchase an expensive costume that I'll probably only wear once." "What size are you?" Sousuke mutters to me as he looks through a clothing rack with some men's costumes hung around it. "No clue.. probably a medium. Why, what'd you find?" He then hands me a vampire costume before messing with my hair, slicking it back with his fingers while he glances back and forth from the front of the costume packaging to the top of my head. I could feel my eyes stuck on him the entire time he tried to figure out what I could do with my hair in order to make everything fit together.

I silently studied his changing facial expressions while he was trying to figure out a game plan.  I then naturally caught glimpse of the beauty mark beside his left eye before looking back into his gaze again. I still couldn't get over the fact that everything about him just went together so perfectly, even the smallest details such as that beauty mark.

"Okay, I'm thinking you could just slick your hair back like this.. what do you think?" Sousuke looks up at me, keeping his hand up in one side of my hair to keep it out of my face. To be honest I had no idea what to do for this costume so I was perfectly fine with Mitsuba taking the wheel here. "Are your nails natural or fake?" I mutter faintly before properly collecting the question that he asked me. "O-Oh.. my bad—" My hand comes up and clings to the back of my neck as Sousuke and I keep our gazes fixed on one another. There was certainly some sort of tension here, but probably just the tension from him getting annoyed at me. "Natural, why?" "Uh—" I forcefully clear my empty throat out. "—no reason. I-I just wanted to say that they feel nice on my head, y'know.. it's good that they're naturally long like that I guess. It proves that you're healthy and what not—" "You're rambling." "Am I?" I raise my eyebrows, examining Mitsuba nervously while he runs his fingers up into my hairline again.

He had gone silent again, but spoke once more after bringing his fingers down and back up into my hair again. "It's cute." I get a surprised look on my face and Sousuke matches it with a teasing look of his own. "Now, what do you think of this costume?" "Maybe I can be a spy.." "You want to be a spy instead?" I nod a bit. "A spy over a vampire?" I nod once again. "Okay then, what do you need for that costume?" "A suit, I have one at my family home so I don't have to buy one. It saves us the money." "Alright.. then I'm gonna put this up." I watch him toss the costume back on the shelf before looking up at me. "I'm still going to slick your hair back though, it looked good that way." I nod.

Sousuke thinking I look good? Man, this is hella sudden. I guess I'm finally doing something right.

"Okay, I can't remember if I have clothes that would fit with my theme in my closet so I'm gonna go look at what outfits they have just in case." "Right.." I nod again, not allowing Sousuke to grab his things from me—as I wanted to be a gentleman and carry them for him. Between the two of us, you could certainly tell who was in charge of the shopping trip. Surprisingly, Sousuke knew this place better than I did and I thought I knew it like the back of my hand.