Halloween Costume

Phoebe had fallen into a simple routine; go to school, then spend two hours learning with Kiki, Min-Min, and her father in the pocket dimension. Occasionally her father would play small pranks on Jiwoo but other than that things were normal for her. After that first day of school, Aiden didn't try to make too much trouble for Phoebe, just the occasional hair tug but one little warning from Aurelius was all he needed to leave the girl alone. 

She had built up a fast friendship with Hyacinth, the girls had become attached to the hip, they were a package set playing together in the recess yard. Besides her friendship with Hyacinth, Phoebe had noticed that Jiwoo had started to warm up to her. Unlike Hyacinth's overly expressive and physical shows of affection, Jiwoo was like a warm summer breeze showing up randomly but always with a gentle caress. Jiwoo was very shy at showing his affection for Phoebe, a fact that Hyacinth loved to mercilessly tease him about. But Phoebe didn't mind, she was happy when she was able to sit side by side with Jiwoo in the library as they read in silence. 

It was a regular day like any other when Hyacinth ran up to Phoebe as was waiting for the bus to arrive to take her back home. Phoebe smiled as Hyacinth launched herself into Phoebe's arms and the two girls giggled a bit as the playful ran around each other. 

"Phoebe I wanted to know if you wanted to go trick-or-treating with me," Hyacinth asked as she was catching her breath. 

"Really! I would love to go trick-or-treating with you!" Phoebe responded jubilantly. 

"Ok! Here let me give you my mommy's number so your parents can call mine!" Hyacinth cheered. 

Hyacinth quickly removed her purple polka-dotted backpack and removed a notebook and pencil from the inside. She put the notebook down on the ground and flipped over a silver dog tag from her backpack, she then began copying some of the information on the tag. Hyacinth handed over the note after tearing it out of the notebook, smiling as she put everything back into her backpack. Phoebe took the note from Hyacinth and the girl waved her off as Phoebe hopped onto the bus and it drove away. As Phoebe sat alone at the back of the bus, she glanced at her surroundings before quickly whispering to the air. 

"Dad, can you look at this note? I want to go trick-or-treating with Hyacinth this year, so you must talk to her mom." She spoke with purpose in her tiny voice as she hoisted the note up into the air. 

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, accepts your offering.]

The note disappeared from Phoebe's palm in a small burst of fire and reappeared next to Aurelius, the note matched his slightly transparent form. He glanced over the note, it provided him with the basic information about Hyacinth's mother and how to contact her. He sighed slightly, he would need to purchase a phone to be able to communicate with this human woman, he had purchased a phone earlier since he never planned to stay in contact with humans for so long.

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, informs you that he will accept your request.]

Phoebe's face bloomed into a large happy smile and once more Aurelius felt a small itchy feeling in his heart. He poked the girls lightly unknowingly a smile crept on his face that matched Phoebes. 

....

Aurelius waited patiently as Kiki and Min-Min explained the general functions and how to operate a phone. He had instructed the pair to immediately purchase the device while he watched Phoebe complete her homework. Aurelius felt annoyed as the foxes explained the process, he was an all-powerful constellation beneath him. He commanded the foxes to busy themselves with taking care of Phoebe and took the phone from Kiki's paws. Using simple magic, he summoned the old ratty doll to him, it flew across the house only stopping to float in front of him, and without hesitation, he possessed the doll. In a brilliant glimmer of light Aurelius' human form appeared in the room holding the new iPhone in his left hand. 

He had possessed the doll to call Hyacinth's mother since this form would allow him to speak to her without using his True Voice or with indirect messages. It was extremely dangerous for humans to listen to a constellation's True Voice for extended periods and because this planet had yet to go through the Dismantlement, she likely wouldn't be able to read indirect messages. 

Aurelius picked up the torn sheet of paper that Hyacinth had written for him. He swiftly punched the number into the phone and waited patiently for the phone to ring. After a short amount of time, the person on the other end answered the phone. 

"Hello, this is Evelyn Gardiner may I ask who this is." A pleasant voice responded. 

"This is Elric Sinclair. I am calling to talk about the Halloween trick-or-treating invitation your daughter sent to my daughter Phoebe." Aurelius answered. 

"Oh yes, my daughter told me how she wanted to invite your cute daughter. I would love to have both of you over to go trick-or-treating this year. We usually leave around 6 pm so if you should arrive around 5:50 pm." 

"Sounds good. Phoebe will be ecstatic to hear this news." 

"Oh, my I almost forgot, the address of my house is 325 Koch Fields, Julio Ville. We will see you two on Halloween." Evelyn said and then hung up the phone after making sure that Aurelius had written down her address. 

"Dad, what did Hyacy's mom say? Can I go trick-or-treating?" Phoebe spoke up when she noticed that Aurelius had finished his call. 

"We are allowed to go trick-or-treating with her and her family," Aurelius responded as he playfully petted the girl's hair. 

"Dad, stop that," Phoebe whined pitifully as she smacked the teasing hand away, "So now we have to get Halloween costumes!" She cheered. 

Aurelius nodded reluctantly; he didn't like the idea of needing to dress up, but he could cope with it for Phoebe's sake. He caught up to Phoebe who had excitedly run to the front door as she struggled to quickly put on her shoes. He guessed that Phoebe wanted to go out and buy costumes today, and he would comply with this request. 

The car ride to the nearest Spirit Halloween was relatively quiet except for the slight mumbling from Phoebe as she ruminated on what she wished to dress up as this year. Phoebe was so excited as the car pulled into the parking lot that she tried to exit the car before she took off her seatbelt. 

Aurelius gave her a small glare and reminded her patiently. "All the costumes aren't going to disappear before you get there, be patient." 

Phoebe slumped her head down and nodded lightly. Aurelius chuckled at the girl who looked like a small bunny trying to hide behind its floppy ears. Silently Aurelius took the girl's hand in his own and they walked into the Spirit Halloween. 

Phoebe took to the aisles quickly looking for the perfect costume, Aurelius lazy followed behind her. He had yet to decide if he was going to dress up as well, on one hand, it would be an incredibly memorable experience for Phoebe, but on the other, it was incredibly deeming for an ancient constellation to play dress up. A loud excited squeal from Phoebe brought Aurelius out of his thoughts as he stared at the costume that Phoebe was excitedly pointing at.

The costume in question was the main character of a TV show that Phoebe enjoyed; The Mystical Munchies: Guardians of the Gastronomy Galaxy. The show was a magical girl cartoon where all the magical girl's themes, costumes, and aesthetics were based on the food pyramid. The main character, Sakura Bloom was the Guardian of Fruits, her power and costume were heavily fruit-themed. 

The image of the costume was very cute and almost a perfect replication of the outfit seen in the show. Sakura's cherry pink was tied into two cute space buns with fruit theme bows, her magical girl outfit was a very frilly dress with patterns of cherries and strawberries adorned on it, and the most important element of the costume was the magic whisk wand that Sakura used to cast her spells. 

The joy in Phoebe's eyes was self-evident, she would wear that costume and nothing else. Aurelius smiled as he took the costume bag off the rack and handed it to Phoebe who eagerly grabbed it and began hugging it gently. Suddenly Aurelius felt a chill run down his spine, he felt as though the next words that came out of Phoebe's mouth would be his undoing. 

"Dad, I saw a costume for Gluttonex that was for grown-ups. You must wear it, so we match!" She giggled delightedly. 

Gluttonex was an evil henchman of the main villain of the show. Aurelius remembered that Gluttonex in the show was useless and stupid, with the only redeemed quality about him was devilish handsome appearance. Aurelius cringed internally he would rather lose his status as a constellation than be caught wearing this outfit. Sensing Aurelius' hesitation Phoebe's face transformed into a pitiful pout; Aurelius tried to steel his nerves, but he eventually cracked under the weight of Phoebe's pouty face. 

"I'll buy the Gluttonex costume so we can match," Aurelius said reluctantly.