"Okay, least original costume ever," you laugh.

Jay scowls at you through the gap in his ninja hood. "Hey, I had to come up with something fast, okay? But look at you, you look adorable."

"Really?" you ask shyly. "Thanks, I spent a lot of time on it." You're dressed as a cat, complete with cute ears on a headband, face paint, and a fake tail clipped to the back of your skirt.

"Well, yeah!" Jay says. "Come on, would I lie to my girlfriend?"

"Well, you know..." You pretend to think about it. "Kidding!" you add when Jay opens his mouth to protest.

Jay sighs. "What am I going to do with you, y/n?"

You kiss his cheek. "You're going to take me to the campus Halloween Party. We're going to have lots of fun there, and then you're going to come back to the dorm and snuggle with me until we both fall asleep."

"Sounds good. Let's go!" Jay says.

The party is in full swing by the time you arrive at the frat house where it's being held, with people dancing and eating snacks. You quickly lose sight of Jay in the crowd, and you're wandering around when you bump into someone in a Serpentine costume.

The person turns around and glares at you. "Hey, watch where you're going!"

You pause for a moment, then make the connection when you realize that it's not actually a costume. "Slithraa?"

"Y/n?"

"What are you doing here?" you whisper. "If you get caught—"

"It'sss a costume party, remember?" Slithraa whispers back. "Everyone's going to assume I'm just dressed up."

You shake your head. "I've got to hand it to you. You know how to crash a party. Just be careful you don't run into my boyfriend."

Slithraa points at Jay, who's grabbing punch at a nearby table. "Isss that him?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, that might be a bad idea." Slithraa admits. "He'sss got a great costume, by the way. If I didn't know better, I'd actually think that he wasss one of the ninja."

"Yeah, he's heard that a lot this evening," you say. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to let Slithraa know that Jay actually is a ninja—there's no point in bringing up the Serpentine-human rivalry.

"Do you humansss have parties like this often?" Slithraa asks.

"No, this is just for Halloween," you reply. When Slithraa looks confused, you explain, "Halloween is a holiday humans celebrate every year by wearing costumes."

Slithraa nods. "Oh. I'll definitely keep that in mind. This is way more exciting than the parties Bytar throws down in the tomb—oopsss!" His scaly face goes red in embarrassment. "Can you forget I mentioned that? I'm technically not sssupposed to be coming up here. Or talking to you. Or basssically anything."

You put a finger to your lips. "Our secret."