When they hung up, Elias received a text from Rei with the invitation to the party. He forwarded it to the group chat that Nesiah had made for their trip. There was a reply from Avian and Nesiah a few minutes after he’d sent the message about being down to go, which meant that Marco and Javier would be going as well.
He went back to his sketch, his attention only pulled away from it by a text from Eri ten minutes later.
Eri:I’ll be home in an hour. Do you want to go look for costumes when I get back?
Elias snorted, realizing that, had he planned on not going before, he was now.
Elias:Yeah. I’ll pick you up in two hours?
Eri:Okay. See you in a bit.
He stayed there until he finished the sketch and then headed home. He wanted to switch his bike for his car since they were going shopping.
When he made it home, he still had time before he needed to pick Eri up, so he checked his email and social media inboxes.He had a few message requests, and he accepted the ones asking about consultations, but ignored the others that were just people sliding into his DMs, as he usually did.
He watched an episode of a historical documentary, and when it was over, he headed to Eri’s apartment.
Elias tried the knob twenty-five minutes later before knocking on the door. She opened it a few seconds later, and he leaned down to kiss her.
“Someone missed me,” she teased when they pulled apart.
“I might have,” he responded. “Are you ready to go?” She nodded, and Elias stepped back, allowing her to exit the apartment and lock the door.
Once in the car, he drove to the Halloween store. They opened every year for a couple of months, and the rest of the time, the building was vacant.
“My costume was pretty low-key last year, but I want to wear an actual one this year,” Eri said as they found a parking spot. Elias recalled the previous year she’d worn a T-shirt that said,Not One Fuck Given.
In the store, he allowed her to pull him over to a rack. She looked through it for a few minutes, and when she didn’t find anything, they continued deeper into the store.
“What or who do you want to be?” she asked him after looking through two more racks.
“Whatever you choose is fine with me, Amate,” he responded. He wasn’t one to usually dress up for Halloween, but he would if she wanted to.
“Ooh!” she started, turning to him. “We could go as Star-Lord and Gamora.”
Elias smiled at her excitement. That movie series was one of her favorites. They watched it almost as much as she had them watchingThePowerPuff Girls.
“We can do that if you want to, baby. You sure you want to paint yourself?”
She thought about it for a few seconds. “Yeah. I’ll only need to paint what the clothes won’t cover, so it should be fine.”
They checked the different racks for costumes. There were three different versions of Gamora’s costume. Eri chose the first one she wore in the movies, and with both costumes in hand, they headed to the register. Elias paid, and then they exited the store.
“Do you want to go get some food?” he asked as they approached the car.
“Yes. Can we get Mexican food?”
“Sure, baby,” he responded.
He put the bag in the backseat, and once they were in the car, he headed towards her favorite Mexican restaurant.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Eri collapsed on the couch while Elias took the shopping bag into her bedroom. When he returned, he hovered over her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down on top of her. He shifted to lie between her legs so that all his weight wouldn’t be on her.
“What do you want to do for the rest of the night?” she asked.
Elias kissed her neck. “I’m not opposed to doing this for the rest of the night.”
