Ghoulish Festivities (Skire Monthly Event)

On a clear night and while in his human form, Alex was doing his best to tidy up quietly as to not wake up his partner, Ciro. The vampire slept on the second floor of the open plan house, his arms and legs sprawled across the queen size bed with the blanket covering a third of his body. The good thing was how heavy he slept, so a vase breaking would only make him turn over. A big CCCat cleaning up definitely wouldn't cause him to stir, yet Alex wanted to be considerate of his hard-working boyfriend. Item by item, sweep by sweep, the creature finished cleaning up the kitchen, then stood at the end of the kitchen to admire his work. Happy with how it looked, he took the broom and swept the living room floor, grabbed a duster afterwards to dust the furniture, and was going to wipe down the glass table. The second his phone vibrated in his pocket, he neglected his task to scroll through the messages. Eventually, he found something interesting on his timeline. A festival called Gala of Ghouls? In Stonewing? And there were various booths with all kinds of wares? Alex's easily excitable mind made him giddy the more he read about it. The best part? He had just started! The humanoid didn't waste time hurrying up the stairs to jump on to the bed, immediately waking up the much smaller humanoid. Ciro's purple eyes snapped open and stared at the CCCat looking down at him with a big unnatural grin. The straddling also didn't help with how odd Alex's behavior was.

"Please say you didn't have ten buckets of sweets again…" Ciro's soft voice uttered, assuming it was Alex high on sugar again.

"Unfortunately, no, but it's something better!" The bigger partner pulled out his phone and showed him the posts talking about the festival. "There's this thing called Gala of Ghouls and it's the perfect thing for our anniversary! It has vendors, mini events, games, and other stuff!"

Ciro took a look at the screen with his half opened eyes, and raised a brow. "All of these posts were created an hour ago-"

"Yes! We have plenty of time to get there! Stonewing is three cities over!" It was easy to see how stoked the CCCat was about Gala of Ghouls, and how could Ciro deny his big, buff boyfriend? He was being too cute about it. A smile appeared on the baker's face as he gave Alex a loving head rub.

"Let me put on my outside clothes, then we can go the-"

"HELL YEAH! I'll be right outside, Cici!"

Alex bounced off the bed, allowing Ciro to get up and put on his casual wear. As fun as that festival sounded, his vampiric senses gave him a bit of a bad feeling. There must be more to it, he pondered…Or it could be him being too cautious about Alex's wellbeing. He knew he was a CCCat, but he didn't want to see anything happen to his lovely man. The thought of losing Alex…

Ciro popped the collar of his jacket, checked his heeled boots, and, finally, buttoned his gloves so they were secure. Now ready, he headed out of the house where he met up with his boyfriend in his feral form. That usually meant he wanted to travel by hands and feet.

"Pumpkin, I could teleport us there," He stated.

"That's not as much fun as running through the streets with the wind in our hair-"

"And strange looks being shot towards our way."

The 7' 3" creature chuckled, then shot his tongue out to take hold of Ciro and help him on to his back. "Are all vampires from your world this worried about what others think of them?"

The little baker sighed. "We kinda have to be with the vampire hunters and priests; they look like everyday humans until we notice too late."

Alex began the trek to Stonewing with Ciro clutching chunks of his mane to stay on. At least the spikes helped by acting as the back part of a seat. The couple got there in time to see more Skireans and other creatures set up their booths with Chime and Jingle dancing to loud music with others. There was so many colors that it'd put a rainbow to shame, the brightest lights highlighted points of interests such as The Market of the Ghouls, creatures in vibrant outfits and paint filled the streets and paths, and eye catching knick-knacks. It was the place to celebrate their anniversary! Though, as great as it was, Alex wasn't too vivid himself; only his eye, tongue, and teeth were, but it gave Ciro an idea when he saw a booth with hair dye spray.

"Pumpkin, wait right here while I talk to the lady over there."

The CCCat nodded with a smile. "Don't take too long!"

"I won't!"

Alex parked his furry butt where he stood, then switched to Cyclops mode to get a better look on where Ciro was. His little man was capable of defending himself, but if something happened to him…Alex shook his head and told himself nothing was going to happen to him. There weren't vampire hunters and priests on Skire, there wasn't anyone who would go out of their way to hunt Ciro. Getting caught up in thought made him forget Ciro went to a booth to get something, then was presented with neon and blacklight hair spray.

"You're finally going to try dying your hair, Cici! That's wonderful!" Alex exclaimed, but Ciro shook his head with a smile.

"No, you goof. These are so you could enjoy the festival better by looking the part. We might as well go all out during our anniversary, right?"

The beast was much happier about that, and stayed still to let the baker dye his fur. He made every part of his CCCat dark blue as a base, then drew swirls, stripes, stars, and musical notes all over him with various neon colors that glowed under the lights. Alex checked what he did by holding his eye with his tongue and moving it around his body, but there were a couple of strange symbols. "Ciro, what are these markings?" He asked.

"These? They're the language my people speak back home. Together, they read "a loved and cherished individual". I thought it would be perfect for-are you crying?"

"No.…I got something in my scent glands," Alex wasn't fooling him as he made sniffling noises. It was kinda cute, actually. He looked intimidating, yet was the sweetest and cutest being Ciro knew and he enjoyed every second of it. He pulled a box out from under his jacket, opened one side, and got a box of tissues out of it. Once Alex dried up what Ciro wanted to assume were tears, they walked down the street to look at all the things people were selling. So many things caught the CCCat's attention, and he would buy it on the spot compared to the less impulsive boyfriend. Ciro only bought things he needed such as rare ingredients and some homemade shampoo, but there was something Ciro got a glimpse of and it was one of the prettiest things he saw. Looking at the woman in a black and orange witch outfit, he asked, "How much?"

Her cat ears perked when he approached, then placed both elbows on her display case with a big grin. She looked 20 years old, but Ciro knew a witch would be much older. "Welcome to the Pumpkin Patch booth! I see you have a great eye for things!"

"Sometimes...How much for this one?" He asked, pointing at a piece of jewelry with her orange cat eyes following and the tip of her fluffy tail flicking in delight.

"That is a hundred of whatever currency you got!" chirped Pumpkin.

"Alright. I'll buy two."

Alex was too busy to notice what his partner was buying. Though, it wasn't very hard to distract him with rainbow desserts, glowing lollipops, and cakes stacked with several layers. They both finished their shopping, but with Alex having boxes in one arm and bags hanging off his spikes and hooked tail. Meanwhile, Ciro had one bag that was the size of a purse. Now that the shopping portion was done, they continued by dancing for a bit, meeting new faces, and hanging out with Chime. They told her how much fun the festival was and gave her a few ideas on what they could add on to next year, then the pair took a seat near the makeshift dance floor to relax.

"Enjoying yourself, Cici?" Alex asked, leaning back on his chair with a big smile.

"Of course. Any time with you is enjoyable, love," replied Ciro, but he was more focused on the last things he bought. Many thoughts rushed through his mind since he wasn't the bravest. Would Alex like the gift? Did he feel like the relationship was going well? Little things like that could make a huge impact.

"Cici?" The CCCat gently poked the vampire, bringing him back into reality.

"Sorry! I was thinking of new recipes with the spices I got."

"There's always time for cooking, sweetie! Let's not get work involved for once."

He was right in a way; Ciro was overthinking things. The present he got was perfect and he needed to do it! He took a deep breath and stood from his seat to finally-….What were those sounds?

To Be Continued…