Paca Prompt: Costume Time!

Chai couldn't wait for Halloween.  Thoughts of the spooky decorations, the pumpkins, and the mountains and mountains of candy had been swirling around in his head for weeks, and if there was one thing he absolutely knew he had to do for October, it was to dress up in the most perfect of perfect Halloween costumes and go trick-or-treating with Nim!!!

The little pacapillar rested his nubs on the counter of the Barista Heaven cafe, huffing a big sigh and closing his eyes.  He'd been wracking his brain throughout September, and despite his best efforts, he still had no idea what the most perfect of perfect Halloween Costumes could possibly be.

"Hellooooooo?"

He was startled out of his thoughts by the gentle bump of another paca noggin against his own, looking up to find himself nose to nose with Nim.  Of course!  They'd come to get him after his shift so that they could look at Halloween costumes together.

"You were frowning really hard." the purple paca mumbled sleepily, blinking at him with a little smile.  "Thinking about costumes again?"

"Ja..." he nodded.  "We just gotta look our best for Halloween...!"

Nim nodded in that sleepy, unhurried way of theirs, gently tugging on one of his cheek nubs.  "We'll find something perfect today."  They murmured.  "Lets go."

It didn't take long for Chai to pack up his things and wave goodbye to the other baristas, and shortly after the two of them were heading into PacaParty CityCube, ready to find that perfect Halloween costume.

Two little pacas scuttled up and down each aisle, picking costumes off the racks here and there.  With their nubs full they waddled over to the changing rooms, Chai more than determined to try on every last one.

Of course there were some classic costumes, but he tripped over his nubs when he came out dressed as a mummy.  The cape on the vampire costume made his neck itch, and he had too many head feelers to fit under the frankenstein's bolted head mask.  He thought the black lagoon creature was too scary, and the fur on the werewolf suit made him sneeze.  They decided that maybe a classic spooky costume wasn't the way to go this year.

How about Food?  Everyone loves a pumpkin!  But while he could get his nubs into the big round pumpkin costume easily, it was too big for his head to poke out of the top!  The banana costume had a similar problem, too long for his body.  Nim helped him dress up as a piece of broccoli, but the top was so heavy that he fell over and couldn't get back up!  He had to wiggle out of the suit and felt very silly about it indeed.

He had to have a lighter costume!  So they picked over those next.  The little pairs of angel and devil wings were cute, but surely there had to be more to the costume than that?  When Nim lifted up the fairy wings to show him, he recoiled at the cascade of glitter that came off them and decided to pass.  What else was there?  Some dragon wings and a big dragon hat?  Oh but it was heavy and kept falling over his eyes....

Time continued to trickle on as Nim brought more and more costumes to the changing room, and though there were a few nice ones, none of the ones Chai tried on felt like they were the Perfect Fit for Halloween trick-or-treating.  He was starting to get very disheartened, and the pile of rejected costumes grew and grew.

Nim cocked their head as he waddled out slowly in an oversized Western Duster and big floppy Cowboy Hat.  "I don't know how I feel about this one either..." he murmured dejectedly, trying to adjust the hat over his feelers only to have it spring back up and bounce onto the floor.  He sighed sadly and shuffled back into the changing room, not even bothering to pick it up along the way.

"Hmm..."  Nim picked up a costume where it hung neatly on a peg.  "Will you try on one more?"

"Iunno."  Chai mumbled from behind the dressing room curtain.  "I'm kinda tired."

"I think you'll like this one."  They insisted, poking a nub past the curtain to hand it to him.  "I think it'll look very good on you, try it on for me?"

There was a pause before Chai gently took the folded apron that they offered him.  "Okay." he sighed.  "Last one."

Looking pleased, Nim shuffled back to sit next to the pile of rejected costumes.  Behind the curtain Chai slipped the apron over his head, attached the crisp white collar and folded it as best as he could.  And then he paused.

"Nim?"  He drew back the curtain, gesturing to the cute brown apron with the Barista Heaven insignia stitched into it.  "Nim this isn't a costume.  This is my work uniform."

But Nim clapped their nubs in delight, beaming sleepily at him.  "Oh a barista!  You'd be an amazing barista for Halloween, you're already so good at doing that!"  They ambled over to straighten his uniform collar and dust his apron down.

"Isn't that cheating?" Chai asked.  "People see me like this all the time already."

"Mmhmm, so they'll know who you are instantly when you show up at the door."  Came the drowsy reply.  "Its Chai, your friendly neighborhood barista!"

He couldn't help but laugh at that.  "Well ok..." he shook his head.  "But if I'm going as everyone's favorite barista then who are you gonna be?"

"Oh that's easy."  Nim replied with a smile.  "I'm going as your favorite customer.  I don't even need to look for a costume for that!"