So, after making your way back inside, you found Lavi and gave him Allen’s message, but he only laughed and Ven pulled Lavi away for a ‘private conversation,’ or in other words, he kicked you out of the conversation.
Getting over it, but still slightly pissed you walked over to Roxas, Sora, and Riku, who were hanging out by the food table. “Hey guys.” You greeted, taking some food for yourself. Riku was dressed as a skeleton, Roxas was a vampire, and Sora had a cluster of scary attire stuck all over him.
“Sora, what exactly are you?” You asked.
“I’m a—”
“Don’t get him started, please.” Roxas begged, interrupting him.
“Pirate demon vampire who has been—”
“Way to go.” Riku sighed as Sora began to call out other creatures. You smiled slightly as Sora went on, and decided to take a look around the room. Roxas was banging his head against the wall he was leaning against, Riku had his eyes closed and was trying to block Sora out. Then you noticed Zack and Gippal down at the punch bowl. ‘That cant be good…’ you thought, and began to walk towards them.
“Why does she get to leave him?” You heard Riku mutter to Roxas as Sora continued.
You walked up to the older boys and put a one hand on Zack’s shoulder, and grabbed Gippal by the collar of his costume and pulled him down to a reasonable height/your height.
“What are you two doing?” You asked.
“Nothing.”
“Not a thing.” They answered at the same time.
“Not trying to spike the punch, I hope.” You scolded.
“Not in the typical way.” Gippal said.
You looked at the punch and sighed. It was a puke green color with smoke rising out of it.
“What did you do?” You asked, swatting them both on the head.
“Just threw in some dry ice.” Gippal shrugged.
“We’re only trying to give it that ‘Halloween-feel’.” Zack added.
“You’re both idiots.” You sighed, holding a hand over your eyes.
“We try.” Gippal mused, scooping up some punch in a cup, then holding it out to you.
“Try it.” Zack urged.
“No way.” You said, eyeing it.
“You’ll like it.” Zack said in a sing-songy tone.
“There is no way in hell.” You said, pushing the cup away.
“Your loss.” Gippal shrugged, downing the punch.
“I’ll live.” You said, shaking your head and walking away, but not before giving the punch one last look of disgust. You saw Allen standing a few feet away, stuffing his face with snacks. Then you saw he had a cup of punch in his hand, and was about to take a sip.
“Don’t drink that!” You warned. And he looked at the cup, then at the punch bowl where Zack and Gippal were still standing. He thrust the cup away at an arms length, “Why? What did they do to it?” He asked, eyeing it suspiciously.
“Wait, you know them?” You asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I’ve know them for a while.” He said, picking out something else to eat. “About 8 years ago, when my foster father died, and Lulu found me. She discovered that I had the stigma, so she took me in. I met Ven, and the two of us studied under her for about a year or so, then I met Lavi, and his family. They decided to adopt me, or at least let me be part of the family.” He took a bite of pretzel when he finished.
“Oh, so you’re like a bother to Kairi too?” You asked, taking a pretzel for yourself.
“Don’t get crazy now. It’s more like I’m hired help with living benefits.” He said with a smile as he tried to put it in words that would make snese.
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s alright really. I’m treated like a son, so it doesn’t really bother me that I have to clean up occasionally. If anything, it just makes me feel like a regular kid doing chores.”
“So, is that why you were the carriage driver?”
He sighed and nodded.
“Hey Ally, come here. I need to talk to you.” Ven said, walking over with Lavi.
“Sure, okay.” Allen said, putting down his plate and taking a step toward Ven. You put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and glared at Ven.
“No. We’re talking right now. Come back later.”
“No. It's important.” Ven crossed his arms.
“Go away.” You tightened your grip on Allen.
“Ummm…” Allen hummed in confusion.
“What, are you still mad at me?” Ven asked, smirking.
“No. Don’t be so conceited. We are just in the middle of a conversation.” You shot back, putting your hands on your hips.
“Really?” Ven took a step closer.
“Yeah, really.” You said taking a step yourself. You had to look up at him he was so close, but that didn’t make your glare any less intense.
“Guys, it really isn’t that big of a deal.” Allen said putting one hand on your shoulder and one on Ven’s, trying to separate you both.
“Shut up, Ally.”
“This isn’t about you.” You added.
“Uh, it isn’t?” Allen asked, getting confused again.
“You’re just jealous that I’m actually able to hold a conversation with the same person without them running away screaming.” You said to Ven.
“Why would I be jealous of you talking to him?” He gestured to Allen without even looking at him.
“Hey! I’m slightly offended by that.” Allen mumbled.
“Oh shut up.” Ven growled.
“Don’t tell him to—“
“Hey, ≈≈≈≈, let’s dance.” Lavi said, stepping between you and Ven, then leading you away.
“Hey! But I—”
“Bye-bye lovebug.” Ven waved you off and stepped over to Allen to talk to him.
“I was winning that fight too.” You grumbled bitterly as Lavi pulled you to the dance floor.
“Rule number one on fighting with Ven; you never win against Ven.” Lavi chuckled.
“Whatever. He’s a moron.” You sighed.
“Oh, little ≈≈≈≈≈. If you even knew.”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” You glared lightly at him, but he just beamed at you.
You saw Kairi glaring at you from across the floor, managing to hold quite intense eye contact with you while grinding with someone dressed in full Scooby-doo attire. Lavi saw her glaring too, waved, then pulled you closer to dance.
“Lavi.” You scolded, seeing he was enjoying pissing her off far too much.
“Oh come on, it’s a party. Lighten up.” You sighed, but decided he was right.
Just as you were starting to enjoy yourself, the song switched to a slower beat.
“Brilliant.” You mumbled, face palming.
“What did I just say?” Lavi laughed at you, then put his arms out as a way of asking permission to dance. You stepped forward and put your hands on his shoulders, and his found your waist.
You caught sight of Ven and Allen still talking, both of them watching you.
“So, what did Ven talk to you about?”
“Sorry ≈≈≈≈≈, I cant tell you. Top secret.”
Your eyes narrowed. “What?”
He just laughed at you. You rolled your eyes, and in doing so caught sight of Reno and Axel, who were slow dancing with each other.
“Hmmm.” You hummed to yourself as you saw them getting closer. They were defiantly up to something.
“Mind if I cut in?” Reno asked when he and Axel were finally close enough.
“Yes.” Lavi said with a glare. While he was distracted, Axel swooped in and stole you away from him, leaving Lavi and Reno both thinking that they were the ones dancing with you, when they were actually dancing with each other.
“So ≈≈≈≈≈, I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands….” Axel started once you there were enough people between the two of you and Reno and Lavi that he felt comfortable enough to talk.
“What’s going on?” You asked, trying to imagine any kind of problem Axel would be having that was big enough to take his attention off the party.
“Tomorrow, we’re heading back to Spira.”
“And?”
“And, we don’t know if you’re going back to Spira.”
“I’m not sure if I see your dilemma.” You said, raising an eyebrow.
“Do you think you could convince Zacky and Gippy to go back to Spira too?”
“Oh. Well, I’m sure I could.” You said, but as you did, someone else cut into your dance, and you were now clumsily dancing with Sora.
“No way! You should come with us to—!”
“Sora! You’re supposed to be dancing with me!” Kairi yelled, “Get over here!”
“Wait! Sora, where are you guys going tomorrow?” You called after him, but Kairi had already pulled him too far away for you to hear his answer. Someone tapped your shoulder. You turned around to find Riku.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about, we’re going to Spira tomorrow too.” He said, holding a hand out. You took it and he pulled you away from the sight of Kairi harassing Sora, and into a more secluded area of the dance floor. When he stopped leading you, his hands rested on the small of your back, and your fingers laced behind his neck. The song ended, but it seemed an even slower song came on, so you stayed leaning against him longer, enjoying how warm he was.
“Hey, move over Riku.” You opened your eyes at the sound of Ven’s voice.
“You don’t have to move.” You said, tightening your grip on him.
“≈≈≈≈≈?” Riku muttered in confusion as you got on your tippy toes to see over his shoulder to stare down Ven.
“I insist.” Ven said, putting a hand on Riku’s shoulder.
“Uh…Sure, okay.” Riku yielded, stepping away, then shrinking back at the death glare you were giving him.
Ven proceeded to step into a proper dancing position, reaching for your hand. You took the opportunity to make your hand flaming hot. He smirked as he realized you were trying to burn him, and chuckled.
“Two can play at this game, are you sure you want to start with me?”
You took this opportunity to step on his toes. He stuck a hand on your side and it began to tingle painfully. Your hands went to his shoulders and you dug your nails in and did your best to make your hands as hot as possible. He made to spin you, and tripped you while doing so.
By the end of the dance you were exhausted, and using all that magic was just making it worse. Ven noticed and gave up on the little game, letting you rest against him.
“Are you okay?” He asked as the song ended, but you didn’t move away from him.
“Mm-hmm.” You hummed, nodding a little in case he couldn’t hear you. He took on of his hands off your back and felt your forehead. He lead you away from the dance floor and up to the stairs, despite your groans of protest as your standing pillow left you. He walked down on of the halls on the second floor, the knocked on one of the doors.
“Come in!” Came the reply from inside. Ven opened the door and chucked you inside, the shut the door and left. You peeled your face of the ground, no longer feeling quite so sleepy, you looked around the room and saw Zaxion, Demyx, Deidara, Roxas, and Allen all sitting in a circle with cards in their hands.
“What are you guys—”
“Poker! Got any money on you?” Allen interrupted you with a rather strange glint in his eyes and a devilish grin.
“Don’t do it…you’ll lose everything you have.” Demyx sighed.
“I fold…” Deidara sighed, throwing down the cards, then laying back in defeat. You looked over at Roxas, who seemed confident enough, but then he looked over at Allen’s grin and sighed, dropping his cards.
“I fold.” He grumbled, resting his hand on his head.
“What about you?” Allen asked Zexion. His face was unreadable, but then he folded as well.
“Even the master of illusions can’t win!” Deidara fussed.
“Shut up.” Zexion said, running a hand thoruhg his hair. You noticed Allen’s eye twitch with a demented happiness at his victory.
“I’ve got a game for you.” You said, joining their circle.
“Fine. You deal then.” Allen said, handing the deck of cards over to you after collecting everything. The smooth cards had black and white slanted checkers on them, but they shuffled like old, broken-in cards. Your shuffling skills were not what they used to be, but they were still good enough that Demyx, Deidara, and Roxas were gaping at you, even Zexion was watching intently.
“Come on.” Allen said, getting anxious.
“Fine. Let’s just play some nice, easy black jack.” You said, dealing the cards.
“What?” Allen fussed.
“It’ll be harder for you to cheat.” You jabbed at him as you threw him some cards.
“You were cheating?” Demyx bellowed, pointing an accusatory finger at Allen, who shrugged it off, then smirked at his cards.
After a few minutes of play, everyone had noticed a trend. The only ones left were always you and Allen.
“Hit me.” All said, and you slid him another card. He smiled, “I’ll stay.”
“We’ll see.” You said, drawing a card for yourself. Your lips twisted into a smile as you saw what it was.
“It’s like watching two pro con artists.” Roxas said.
“What do you mean?” Demyx asked.
“Look at them, they are both counting cards…” Zexion grumbled.
“What a bunch of cheaters.” Deidara sighed.
“Right now it’s down to who can cheat better.” Zexion sighed.
“On three.” Roxas said, seeing you were both ready to show your cards.
“Fine by me.”
“One.”
“You’re going down.”
“Two.”
You got ready to flip your cards and put Allen in his place.
“Three!” The two of you flipped, and everyone either sighed or gasped.
“Are you kidding me?” Demyx fussed. You had an ace, a 3, and a 7, for a total of 21. Allen had a 10, an 8, and a 3, also totaling at 21.
A similar situation happened 3 more times in a row.
“That’s it. I quit.” You huffed, unable to out cheat him.
“Then victory is mine.” Allen said.
“By default.” You growled dryly.
“You want to go in another game?”
“You’re on.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“FINE.”
“FINE!” You both grabbed at the deck, then began shuffling.
“Whoa…” Demyx mused as he watched you two go at it.
“Never seen this side of ≈≈≈≈≈.” Deidara said.
“Or Allen…” Zexion added. The door opened and Lavi walked in, but you and Allen were too occupied to notice. He saw how competitive the two of you had become and chuckled.
“I see Allen has finally met his match.” He said, sitting down.
“You should see it, they are both the biggest cheaters I have ever seen.” Roxas said.
You were now playing for an audience, as no one else wanted to join in on the games….which you were quickly running out of.
“Go freakin’ fish!” You commanded after he asked for a card you didn’t have.
“Got any 9’s?”
“I hope you like the water, cuz you’re going to be fishing for a long ass time!” Allen shot back.
***Later on***
“I de-clare war!” You each put down a card on each syllable, but the last card you put down was the same as his, so you had to do it again. “I declare war!” You both shouted.
“How long is this going to go on?” Gippal asked.
“Who knows? It’s already near 3 in the morning.” Zack said. The two, and some others, came up a few hours ago to see what all the commotion was about.
***Later yet***
By now, everyone but Lavi had fallen asleep, tired of watching the two of you cheat.
“Are either of you going to call it quits any time soon?” Lavi asked with a yawn.
“That depends,” You looked at Allen, “Are you ready to admit defeat?”
“Go. Fish. Yourself.” He replied.
Eventually, after Lavi went to bed, the two of you fell asleep, cards still in your hands.