SSSD Halloween Epilogue Ch2

Spirit Halloween is a magical place full of great stuff. It can be a little dangerous to certain types of people who are susceptible to the true spirit of Halloween and want it to be Halloween all year long. Luckily, Ro and Alison are not those types of people and they are not seduced by spooky stuff and easily stay on task. It is literally Halloween and already mid-afternoon, so the place is packed. Alison has to step on a kid’s foot to get a dressing room and Ro only got hers because loud coughing drove the occupant out.

“You’re acting weird,” Alison says as she strips down.

“How do you know how I act? Last time we saw each other aliens were trying to kill us,” Ro shoots back, unzipping her skirt.

Normal people are probably hearing this. People who don’t know about the shapeshifting aliens. She doesn’t care; they’re running late.

“PTSD didn’t change you this much. Is there something going on?”

“It’s Marit,” Ro admits finally.

“Oh, man. Fucking,” Alison admits, irked. “Hold on.” She struggles to situate herself in the costume, which is not made for someone as busty as she is. “Fuck.”

“Hey, language,” some mom calls from outside the booth.

“Sorry,” Alison calls out. “You aren’t still hung up on her, are you?” she calls to Ro.

“Uh, we’re kind of together.”

Alison freezes in the act of pulling on her costume boots.

“Come again,” she says.

“We’re together. It’s a thing. It’s complicated.”

“Too complicated to mention on the phone? You’re doing it long-distance with her? How does that even work? Her English is even worse than Signe’s.”

“Actually, she’s here.”

“What?” That comes out as a screech.

Ro sighs and stops what she’s doing. The stupid prop belt is in her hands. She toys with it nervously. “Look, I sent her a letter to tell her that I really appreciated her, OK?”

“What does that even mean? I know you had a crush on her, but where is all this coming from?”

“OK, look. I know all the stuff she and I did in Antarctica was like… drunken situationship stuff and everything, but I was closeted before that, OK? Being with her even just a little gave me a lot of confidence and helped me out. And I wanted her to know that because I knew she was struggling with stuff too. So I sent her the letter and then she showed up.”

“Showed up?”

“She’s staying with me.”

“Holy shit. Sorry,” Alison calls out preemptively before some other mom can scold her. “She moved in with you?”

“She’s trying to get sober, OK?”

“Oh. Oh, man.” Alison bites her lip, imagination running wild. She can’t help but picture cute little Ro snuggled up to a… smug, confident-looking Marit in bed. Except Marit isn’t smug or confident. Alison does love her tattoos, though. Sexy as hell. “OK. Fair enough. Is this a good thing?”

“Yeah. It’s good. It’s just a change. We’re figuring it out. She’s having a tough time with America kind of.”

“Yeah, Florida? That’s gotta be insane.”

“She’s a trooper.”

“So are you. Oh my gosh. What is she like?”

“She’s a really sweet person. She just likes loud music and doesn’t understand headphones. She does all the cleaning. She can fix anything. I cook. It works. We just don’t, uh…”

“Talk much?” Alison claps a hand over her mouth to stifle laughter.

“We communicate! We have a connection. And my Norwegian is getting better.”

“How much sex can you have totally sober? Seriously,” Alison says.

“OK, come on,” the mom outside snaps.

“Sex is not a swear word,” Alison fires back, wincing. Her boobs are getting absolutely crushed. The things she does for… for who, actually? Doesn’t matter. “Sex is a thing. A normal thing that two women do when they love each other. And when they’re bored. And when they don’t speak the same lang…”

Bam!

Ro thumps her fist on the divider between their changing rooms.

“Shut up!”

“You shut up,” Alison mutters.