ohana means family

if it were anyone else paxton would've rolled his eyes and left them to it, but this was nani's little sister. he knew sibling relationships could be complicated, patrick and himself being a prime example, but it was to another level with lilo and nani. "nani was going to kill you regardless considering you threw a rager. your relationship with your sister is not my business. however, i'm also not going to let you lash out at her. i'm not your enemy, lilo. i get it, you're angry and you don't know where to channel that, but shouldn't be at your sister"

"you're not going to let me do or, like, not do anything, guy." lilo did not have the capacity to take in anything paxton was saying, not really. and she hated that even in her current state, he saw right through her bullshit. it was insulting! it was the worst. she huffed and had to actively stop herself from stamping her feet in defiance. she couldn't get past the fact that he was even here, suddenly in her life like he belonged there or something. "you don't know me-," she hissed, only cut off by a sudden feeling of total ickyness. oh, crap. lilo held her hand up to him, feeling a little dizzy and too full of fresh air (or hot air). she totally should have seen what would come next...

"wow thanks, kiddo. i walk sultan, i work, i go for runs... that's three things right there" he gave a smile to his favourite honorary niece "how was the recovery after your rager? yeah i heard about it. damn kid, are you trying to give your sister a heart attack? on a scale of one to ten, how in trouble were you?"

"that's like, three of the exact same thing! you might as well walk, walk faster and oh... walk again. at least sultan makes it kinda interesting," she grinned, well aware that she was a pro at giving him - her favourite honorary uncle - a hard time. when he brought up her infamous 21st rager, though, she quietened down. "um, that's still majorly ongoing. i mean, we basically haven't spoken in about a hundred years because she didn't run fast enough to kill me in the moment. it's whatever. i mean, she's busy anyway. and i'm fine, thanks."

since the break up with babette, victor had doubled down on his gym time to keep himself preoccupied. even with sultan running around, the house was too quiet. with his second gym trip of the day in full swing, victor finished up his run on the treadmill and headed over towards the water station to rehydrate.

lilo was so giving up on the gym for today. probably forever! who decided that this was good for you, anyway? she was so gross and someone else had totally stolen the machine she liked. ugh, anyways. she was about to refill her water bottle and dip when she saw victor. "no offense, victor, but do you like... do anything else?"

Alice had stopped in their tracks in the middle of the sidwalk, head tilted as they admired a new, pristine poster on the cafe wall. "A festival? We've never had one of those here before."

Lilo popped up at Alice's side, squinting at the poster in the window before turning to them. "Sounds sketchy to me."

Cameron instinctively held a fist up to her mouth, brows furrowing and face scrunching. Oof. That was all she could think. Obviously, that wasn't what she'd expected to happen, and although Cameron was sure the other was embarrassed, she did her best to not make it awkward. "Fresh out, I'm afraid, but let me help." Extending a hand, Cameron pulled her to her feet, and picked a few leaves off of her shirt. "Sorry— hope you don't mind."

Man, she could not catch a break. Lilo looked up at Cameron's outstretched hand and willed the ground to swallow her whole. When that didn't happen, she took hold of her hand, pulled swiftly to her feet. Lilo's brain took a second to reboot as she reached over to pick leaves off her shirt, blinking before letting out a nervous laugh. "No, not... not at all, I loved it. I mean, you're very good at-- You should be a professional leaf picker forsure. Um, thank you."

lilo wasn't a fan of him, that much was obvious, but the things you do for love her older sister you care about and have an undefined situation going on with that you both are avoiding talking about like the plague.

"oh, what a shock," she scoffed. of course he'd been with nani, where else would he have been! where else would nani be? what was she looking for in this man's mouth that she couldn't find anywhere else. lilo couldn't help it, she couldn't stop herself from lashing out. she didn't even know why... or maybe she did. she definitely didn't know right now (stupid frickin' cocktails). "in peace? yeah, right, narc. nani is going to kill me, you- you're just an a-compas. acom... plus. whatever, the point is, you're so not on my side!"

.

"Yeah! She's totally fine... I mean, she still seemed like she remembered her name and it wasn't even that big of a plastic bat. Totally fine. I guess if there was going to be a freaky storm any night, it should be Halloween night. Definitely not the worst thing that's happened in this town, mind you," she nodded as if everything she'd said was super comforting. Lilo was acing this! Or so she hoped.

Alice took the little triangle sandwiches on their little round plate, glanced at them, but didn’t take a bite. Not yet, at least. They looked sharp enough, indeed, but Alice’s stomach was rolling all sorts of waves, and a tiny sail shaped piece of bread would simply get caught up in the waves of nausea. Alice nodded a few seconds too late to be considered a regular response time.

As Alice looked down at the sandwiches, leaving them untouched, Lilo wasted little time. The longer she spent chewing, the more likely it was she wouldn't fill the silence by saying the wrong thing. She had finished swallowing her last bite when Alice spoke, frowning at their answer. She couldn't help feeling partially responsible for Alice's turn of ungroovyness. Once you give a feeling a name, you give it power, right? "Groovyness is totally relative, right?"

Candy corn was an interesting choice, but she didn't mind it. There were a lot of people she knew that were closeted candy corn fanatics. "No need for apologies," she insisted. "I like both, but I'm more of a sweets person. Luckily though a little goes a long way for me. Favorite candy?"

"Equal opportunist, huh?" Lilo probably would have finished off the rest of this candy corn if Abby wasn't now a witness. She nodded along, though. "Favourite candy? You can't ask that. Think of all the other candies that'll never look at me the same again when I don't choose them. My career will be over, my reputation left in tatters. Un-happy Halloween."

Abby jumped, a bit startled by the abruptness. "I told you! You were forewarned." A small chuckle left her lips as she held her hands closer to her chest. "I dunno, maybe I have a circulation problem."

"That's true but I don't think any amount of warning could have prepared me," she gasped dramatically, stuffing her own hands back into her pockets. "We need to get you some emergency gloves before your hands freeze up into claws."

"...So that's your worst case scenario, and you're still going for it?" Cameron chuckled, shaking her head. "Well I have to admit, your imagination is quite creative, but it's safe. No black holes over here. Though I can't promise there won't be any other surprises."

"Well, you better manifest the best for right now because I am not scared of a pile of leaves. I'll dive into them right n- OW!" Okay, so she had been going for a graceful dive but one foot went over the other and... she bit it. Leaves everywhere. "I'll take that black hole now, thanks."

How foolish they both were, in that moment, to decide that this utter chaos didn't need worrying about. It was clearly wishful thinking. The night would not end so pleasantly. "Okay, well I'm going to follow your lead on that then," Rachel replied. "1AM sound reasonable. I guess you've had parties like this before, right?"

"Parties like this? Me? Before? Uh... yeah, obviously. Totally." She paused then, shaking her head. "No, not at all. I don't... the other kids didn't want to come to my idea of a birthday party. So, it's really just been me and Nani and... wow, embarrassing. Just forget I said that, okay?" she took a big bite of her cupcake after Rachel 'clinked' them together.