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“Oh please, like anyone would know it was either of us.” He was glad she’d said us, and not just him, even though this whole thing was entirely his fault. Stepping forwards he tried to smush some of it down into the pier with his foot, covering his shoes and his lower leg completely in shaving cream. Crap. That had not worked out how he expected and now his shoes were just slipping on the wooden planks of the Pier. Regretable? Never. “Why don’t we just run away and pretend we were never here. I know a great pancake house…”

“You never know they could find out, people can find out a lot of things these days.” She pointed out not wanting to sound paranoid but just to tease him. “Yup that didn’t work now did it.”She chuckled at him. “Sounds good to me I can never say no to pancakes.”She replied already making her escape. “What way to the house of pancakes!”

His face dropped to a deadpan expression, unimpressed, with her response, wiping the last of the shaving cream from his eyes and mouth he began to shake his head, like a little puppy. Flecks of shaving cream sent flying in every which way. Jumping as she said the word quick, flinching and bringing his hands up to protect his face, he thought it was something else, maybe something she’d thrown, or someone running angrily towards them … “Wait what … where the heck are we gonna find paper towels out here?”

It was only now that he looked around to make sure that no one was indeed running towards them, it seemed that he’d gotten lucky once again and this area of the pier was dead. For now.

Mora chuckled as she watched him getting rid of the last of the shaving cream, it going in every direction and thankfully there wasn’t anybody else around to be hit with it. Mora looked around too,scratching her head just a little bit as she thought. “I don’t know, it’s either that or we use one of our jackets or we leave it for somebody to find and track down to us.” 

“A pumpkin? I wouldn’t have to wear a wig or anything or is that too on the nose.” She thought out loud to herself before sighing and throwing her head back a little. “Why is it so hard this year!”

He had to admit, he could see the entertainment in running around and pretending to be Crash, and lord knows he was good at running around pretending to be something he wasn’t. A well practised skill. Peter had turned around just in time to see that devilish grin across her face, as her body shook like an excited puppy in the rain. Ducking down in an attempt to shield himself from the expulsion of shaving cream, he was sadly too slow. As he stood he clapped slowly, “Bravo.” Now too covered in a smattering of shaving cream blobs. “But now you seem to have made a rather big mess.” Checkmate he thought.

Mora had always been influenced by things around her, thankfully more good than bad, but she couldn’t help trying to be her favourite video game character from time to time. “I got you good!” She exclaimed clapping her hands together seeing him covered in the shaving cream. She looked around and noticed the mess and shrugged her shoulders. “No big deal, just need something to clean it up with, quick find the most paper towels you can!”

Kev relaxed when they saw the short, bright haired girl beside them. In the dark, Kev didn’t initially recognize Mora, which was surprising given Mora’s inability to blend in based on appearance alone, something Kev as a fellow creative soul understood. Kev met Mora their second day on the job and immediately found the girl’s sweet demeanor and quirky style intriguing. “Oh hey Mora, sorry I didn’t recognize you for a second. It’s been a long, boring day.” Kev took the final drag of their cigarette before extinguishing it on the wall behind them. “What’s up? You’re out late tonight.”

Mora had been the type to stand out amongst a crowd, even though she was short, she could be seen simply by her bright hair colours. Mora got along pretty well with Kev, always up for a chat with them when she saw them. “Oh it’s totally cool, I understand. Finished work late, was about to head home then realised I wanted food, wanna grab a bite to eat with me?”

She thought for a moment about the fae comment. Toni had always been one to believe in frivolous things like that. After all, she had believed in fae her whole life and the Toothfairy until she was about thirteen. Her parents never wanting t take the magic away from their youngest child. It would be all she had left of her innocence. Toni’s fingertip traced the length of the feathers. Her mind taking her back to a much simpler time.

“Thank you,” she said with a soft smile, “I guess a part of her never really left me. I always seem to find myself drawing her in one way or another. Then again, I’ve always sort of believed in fae. With a cruel and harsh world we need some kind of magic to hold on to.”

Mora always had a fascination with mythical beings, she had a fascination with everything really but those really stuck with her. If people talked about it she would always be sucked in imagining what it would be like to be around such things. 

“Well that’s a good thing, I mean it’s like she’s looking after you by staying with you all this time even if it’s just in drawing form.” She replied with a warm smile appearing on her lips. “It’s always good to have something like that, to take you away from the real world, even if it’s something small.”

There was a moment every morning, when the strip quieted down and the sun peaked over the horizon. The sky filled with oranges and reds, chasing away the deep blue of the night and warming the air. No one else was on the pier and Cindi breathed deep, savouring the smell of the ocean. Her shift didn’t start for another twenty minutes and so she sat there, legs dangling off the edge of the pier and watched the sun rise. 

A creaking noise caught her attention and she twisted her head, surprised to see someone coming her way. The bright light from the sun reflected off the signs along the pier and Cindi brought up one hand to shield her eyes and cut the glare. “Good morning,” she called out, squinting to make out the person’s face. “Heading home or heading to work?”

Mora was out for a walk, best way for her to wake herself up for the day ahead, it was the best way to wake herself up. Humming to herself, she made her way down the pier without a care in the world. However it was the sudden sound of a voice that caused her to snap out of the little day dream she was having and turn in the direction of the voice. “Good morning to you too!” She smiled and waved at her. “Well not heading to work yet, I’m just an early bird.” 

His smile dropped very quickly as he stared at her, “Oh yeah, that makes much more sense.” Glancing at the crates beside them he was now thinking about whether he would get in trouble if he started kicking and jumping on boxes. He was still giggling away when she spoke her lightly veiled threat. Staring at her with a slack jaw he leapt back from her, holding his hands up in front of him like a ninja. “Oh yeah…” Motioning for her to come closer he winked. “Bring it on.” Flicking his fingers with the last of the shaving cream at her.

“I mean Crash is highly debatable, you can’t go around just punching pigs and old ladies.” Leaning down he scooped up the biggest handful of shaving cream from the snow pile, “It is not better, it was supposed to go off in your face … like this.” Tossing the giant handful at her face he leapt back out of range of any retaliation, his cheeky grin slipping back into place after a short moment. “Oh no wait, it’s better now.” Clutching his stomach he burst into a fit of giggles, doubling over as his sides began to ache.

“Gambling is a sin!” Teasing as she spoke of being maybe a betting woman, giving another shrug he held out a sweeping hand towards the box, gesturing for her to go ahead and pick it up, or open it. “Wait kick it? I don’t think the box will appreciate that! CRASH ISN’T A GOOD ROLE MODEL!” He blurted out rather quickly, leaping off the crate and running towards her. Running towards the box he felt like everything moved slower as her foot lifted and kicked towards the box. He was right next to her as her foot disturbed the box, the lid shooting off the top and a large explosion of shaving cream erupting up and spraying their shoes and lower legs, a large big fluffy pile of white shaving cream now right in front of them. “Gosh darn it, Mora. You ruined it.” His energetic run towards her to try and stop her kick had made him forget to throw the firecracker. Quickly shoving it into his pocket with a disappointed look of dejection.

“Eh, everybody sins so what are you gonna do.” She replied to him shrugging her shoulders while she went for the box with her foot. “You’re right, he isn’t a good role model, he’s a GREAT role model!” She cried out as she kicked the box. She jumped a bit with a laugh as the lid of said box popped off revealing the large amount of shaving cream that was now exploded all over the ground their legs and their shoes which didn’t seem to bother her. “I didn’t ruin it, I made it better! Come on it’s like a little snow pile!”