Raikko was not one to believe in fairy tales. He thought of them as having too much sappy and happy endings. None of it ever came true anyway. Life wasn't like that. In a perfect world, perhaps, but in this world, Raikko only took notice of the things that were on the news, or in science journals and in the occasional discussions between his parents over dinner. He also kept his observations of his neighbourhood and of the stuff that actually ever happened when he was around.

However, the moment he stepped into the venue of his first ever costume party where he barely knew anyone, his view on fairy tales slightly fell short. In certain places and at the right time, life can actually come close to a story. Looking around, he saw heroes with capes that almost danced behind kids who ran around chasing villains and monsters of sorts. There were nobles in elegant dresses save for the crumples in gowns and the scotch tapes on some crowns and swords. He was more amazed when he saw a dragon zigzag past him with several sneakered feet squirming underneath its scaly green body. All around him there were space battles, ancient conquests, jungle adventures and, most of all, a place where it was most fun to be 12 and under. This was as close that life could get to being a fairy story. Add to that, Halloween surely had its perks.

"There's our princess!" someone exclaimed as they put their arms over Raikko's shoulders, pulling the boy out of the spell that bounded him.

"We've been looking everywhere for you!" claimed another one to his right.

"Alex! Mattie!" Raikko delightfully shouted, quickly scanning his eyes over one boy to another. "Cool costumes!"

"Right?" Alex, the boy to his right, said. "We're your knight in shining armour, milady."

"And check out these swords," Mattie said, pulling his long sword from its sheath.

"Where'd you get these?" Raikko asked, amazed at the careful construction of the fake blades.

"Crafted them ourselves," Mattie answered, "but forget about these. Look at you! You're...you're..."

"...beautiful," Alex finished. "Simply stunning, your highness."

Raikko giggled and they all soon burst out into mild laughter as they walked past the registration tables and towards the crowded atrium. One by one, they took pictures of themselves and also together as a group with other kids. They even role played in some of the shots. Who would've thought that a princess and his chivalry knights would come across an alien from a different dimension or even come face to face in sword battle with a mini Darth Vader? And as kids are always expected to do, they made a whole lot of fun in the occasion.

When they felt a bit tired, they walked to the snack table and just watched everyone else engaged in all sorts of activities. After all, it was no easy job to run around in high heels and his pink majesty needed his knights with him as protection.

In all truth, their costumes accomplished two things. Firstly, they can all have fun as a trio with the same theme and such. Secondly and more importantly, a princess without her [his] knights may become a vulnerable target for an impromptu role play of a damsel in distress. Who would exactly know when a random dragon might come swooping the monarch's heir and hold her [him] hostage in some backstage dungeon. A dragon can't always be trusted. But strip away their costumes and they would still go to lengths to protect the royalty. Such was their theme for this year's Halloween and such was the friendship among the three of them.

Alex and Mattie were Raikko's knights even without the crafted suits of armour and swords.

As the three of them enjoyed their snacks, Mattie kept stealing glances towards his ward. In between the soda sips and chip crunching, his eyes were also delighting themselves to this noble view.

"Hey, Rai?" he mumbled, silence no longer a comfort zone, "I know I probably told you this already, but...you really, really look beautiful tonight." His heart may have skipped a beat, but he didn't dare to search for that missing thump.

Raikko looked his way and smiled. "Thanks, Mattie. You two are the best friends ever."

"We're not only saying this as a friend," Alex said. "We really mean it. Hell, if I didn't know you and started walking to here to get some snack, you'll immediately stand out."

"Y-yeah...," Mattie added, "out of everyone in pink gowns here, you're the most beautiful."

Raikko could not instantly respond. He shifted his eyes several times from Alex and Mattie before finally setting his snacks on the table and throwing his arms over each of his friend's shoulders and pulling them in for a mini group hug. He didn't care that his tiara was starting to fall loose over his braided brown hair. Or that his friends might spill their sodas on his dress if he hugged them too close. These two were his best friends and if something they said called for a hug, he wouldn't hesitate to initiate one.

"And I really meant what I said," he told them. "You two are the best friends ever."

There was that missing beat in Mattie's chest again. This time thought, he took notice that it hurt somehow.

Alex, for his part, suddenly felt shy and some warmth over his cheeks, but he just ignored it with an equally warm smile as he returned the hug two-folds – for Raikko to his left and for Mattie to his right.

Breaking apart, they went back to their snacks and started some small talk about who looked the best in their costume. They eventually narrowed it down to the zigzagging dragon with, perhaps, quadruplets underneath it, a mini Captain Jack Sparrow and a brooding stormtrooper at the opposite snack table from where they were. Placing their bets on each one, they went back into the crowd to mingle just before the winner of best costume would be announced.

"Happy Halloween everyone!" the announcer finally came on the speakers to which everyone happily greeted back. "Okay kids, it's almost time for bed so what do you say we...go straight ahead to the Best Costume part?"

Reminded of their bedtime, the crowd groaned and sighed.

"Don't worry, you can all still go trick or treating later," the announcer said which received glorious approval. "Seeing the variety of tonight's costumes, we, the judges, decided to split the award into several categories namely the wild-wild west, the seven seas, medieval, space-age, explorers, heroes/villains, monsters and...," he paused, smiling almost awkwardly. "...imaginative!"

The last category earned a puzzled expression from several faces, but as they looked around, they eventually caught a glimpse of Barney the purple dinosaur, an overgrown bunny rabbit, some anime characters and other weird figures that fell into none of the first seven categories. It was fairly understandable that several three-year-olds would dress as their very own teddy bears.

"You'll definitely win in medieval," Alex whispered to Raikko.

"What?"

"I said you'll definitely win in...," Alex paused, staring into Raikko's worried eyes as realization hit him. "Oh..."

"I wrote my name in the registration!" Raikko yelled, but not loud enough for everyone else to hear or care about. "A boy's name!"

"Rai...," Mattie interrupted, feeling worry wash over him as well.

"No, they can't know!" Raikko shouted at Mattie's face before holding his dress up and running away from the centre of the crowd, leaving his knights to trail behind him.

To his knight's disadvantage, Raikko knew how to run in heels. The boy grew up dressing himself in gowns with shoulder-length hair and wearing girls' shoes whenever he felt like it. And even though their crafted armours weren't heavy, it still made running a little difficult. And that damn eight-legged dragon had to come zigzagging in front of them after Raikko ran past it. When the dragon's tail whipped past them, they lost sight of their noble ward.

* * *

"I think you're cool and you punch harder than any boy or girl I know. You even punch harder than me."

* * *

Looking for a pink gown wasn't supposed to be difficult. In a crowd full of ugly monsters and beardless pirates and space cowboys, it really wasn't supposed to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But, in a large crowd of children in Halloween costumes, there surely would be a gang of princesses in pink gowns. And Raikko wasn't the only one with a tiara and shoulder-length brown hair.

"Where is he?" Alex asked loudly while letting his eyes wander to every corner of the atrium. Barely five minutes have passed and they still couldn't track down their friend.

Meanwhile, Mattie kept quiet the whole time. His eyes were busy, but his mind kept shifting between a different time and the present. He was worried as hell and his heart already skipped countless beats. His costume started to feel uncomfortable. He thought of taking the suit off, but that would also take some time and he didn't feel like wasting time worrying about his costume while Raikko was still missing.

"Still unattended," Alex told him, hanging up his phone call to Raikko's number. "It's either he shut off his phone or he went somewhere..."

Then, Mattie's eyes lit up. Of course, any distressed person who felt that he was about to be humiliated would most likely run towards the...

"Restroom!" the two boys exclaimed as they ran towards the nearest men's room.

Raikko thought he was beautiful. His mom told him so. His friends told him so. A lot of people even stared at him, not with disgust, but with amazement as he mingled among the crowd earlier. No one asked for his name earlier. Instead, they all asked about his escorts and how beautiful his braided hair looked like and how the blush on his cheeks and silver tiara made him look like a true princess. After all, kids in costume didn't ask for names. They only asked about each other's costumes.

However, he felt this sudden fear when Alex told him that he might win as best costume in the medieval category. That was a possibility, but now that he had some time to think it over after locking himself in a stall, it became less and less of an outcome. How can a mere princess who only took hours to perfect his look beat a huge papier mâché dragon which probably took months to look so fierce. The only thing lacking was fire from its mouth. They both fell into the medieval category, right?

He took a deep breath in, stood up and straightened his dress. He took his phone out of his pocket which his mom sewed into the dress and checked to see if he missed a text or call from his friends. There was none, however. There wasn't any network coverage inside the restroom. He sighed and opened the door.

"Hands up, sissy."

The voice may have been muffled, but the order was clear enough.

"I said hands up!"

At once, Raikko held his hands up and found himself slowly backing into the stall.

"You're a boy, aren't you?" the aggressor accused. Raikko took notice that it was that brooding stormtrooper that he put his bet on as the best costume earlier.

"N-no...," Raikko stammered, feeling anxiety wash all over him.

"Liar!" the stormtrooper shouted, poking Raikko's chest with his blaster rifle. "You're in the men's room and if you were a girl, you'd be screeching your lungs out and shouting `pervert' and prancing outta here before even holding your hands up."

"B-but..."

"Shut up, sissy boy!" the stormtrooper bellowed and pushed Raikko to sit on the toilet lid cover. "You're disgusting."

In mere seconds and with Raikko still too stunned and afraid to react, the stormtrooper lifted the silk gown at the skirt and yanked Raikko's shorts and underwear just low enough for him to peer at the mysterious bulge that the `princess' hid. Raikko almost fell off the toilet, but with the end of his skirt almost over his head, he couldn't think of even protesting. And in the seconds that followed, the stormtrooper violently pulled the skirt down once more and stared at Raikko through his helmeted face. Despite the hidden identity, Raikko knew that he was being stared at with disgust.

"You're a fucking sissy," the other boy repeated and with a smirk he added, "I see why you come to Halloween parties dressed up like that. They did say eight categories, right? You're clearly not in medieval."

The stormtrooper held his blaster rifle down and appeared to be thoughtful. Raikko, on the other hand, was on the verge of tears. Still, he couldn't find the strength to run out of the stall and maybe even to knock the other boy down on his way out.

"You're in the monsters category," the other boy finally said. "You're no princess. You're a fucking demon in disguise. An abomination and you should be eliminated."

At that, the stormtrooper lifted his rifle and pointed it at Raikko's forehead.

"Too bad this's fake," he said. "If it were real, you'd be dead." He pointed his rifle down again and calmly turned around before walking out of Raikko's view. "Wait `til I tell everyone about you."

Raikko heard the door to the restroom shut.

Pulling his knees to his chest, he slowly felt the wetness on his cheeks. He thought he could be brave, but he couldn't even stand up for himself. He told his mom that he'd be fine, but what was he doing now? All alone, crying inside a restroom stall with his dress all messed up. The hems of his shorts and underwear were still wrapped halfway around his thighs. He could care less if anyone barges in and saw him like that. His skirt may even give the intruder a good view of what he truly hid underneath. He didn't care. He couldn't care. Not now or ever since the stormtrooper may already be in the atrium and have told his friends and others about a sissy boy he caught in the men's room or about a demon in pink gown.

What a lousy demon he was to be crying. What a stupid monster he was to think that he could brave a huge costume party and mingle amongst real-life monsters. The bullies, his mom told him. The unforgiving sorts.

Raikko stayed in there for what must have been several minutes and he planned on staying there for all eternity.

"Rai..."

He hiccupped as he slowly lifted his head up to see both Alex and Mattie looking at him. After that incident with the stormtrooper, his mind pictured his two best friends looking down at him. Even they thought that he was a monster, surely. What else could he be?

He knew right then that a line was missing in the bible. `...male and female he created them.' And monsters, he thought to himself.

Mattie knelt in front of Raikko and patted the boy's back gently. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier," Alex offered. "I didn't mean to make you feel..."

"...scared?" Raikko bitterly mumbled. "Terrified? Horrified? Afraid?"

"I was going to say uneasy," Alex corrected. "We all know you're brave, Rai. You're no coward. You're the bravest guy I know!"

"Hn," Raikko grunted. "I don't feel so brave right now, though."

"Just tell us what happened," Mattie said, feeling more worried after seeing the state of his friend's dress. It look wrinkled and tossed and almost torn off Raikko's body. "Did someone come in here and..."

"No one," Raikko instantly said, righting himself on the toilet before standing up and fixing his shorts and underwear. He hastily wiped his tears and took a deep breath in. With his voice still shaky, he said, "I wanna go home. It's okay if you guys stay here and..."

"No way, dude," Alex interjected. "Where you go, we go."

"And you know we'd hate ourselves if we just let you go home alone. Who cares about this stupid costume party anyway? The only decent costume here besides yours is that stormtrooper dude," Mattie said.

At the mention of the stormtrooper, Raikko stiffened. Before his friends could notice, he walked past them and went to the vanity to wash his face. He'd even hope to wash his make-up off, but water couldn't do the trick. There were several stormtroopers in attendance, but that one stormtrooper just stood out. Now, Raikko knew why. He was bound to meet that particular imperial soldier.

"Something clearly happened here," Alex pointed out. "And someone hurt you."

"Alex' right," Mattie said. "C'mon, Rai. Tell us what really happened."

With a dab of water to his face, Raikko turned around to face his friends, but his eyes weren't very friendly. "You really wanna know what happened? I'm a fucking demon, that's what! I'm a monster! I'm no princess! I'm just...I'm just..."

Raikko cried once more, but this time on Mattie's shoulders. He felt weak, really weak. But Mattie's hug comforted him like none other before. So he just wept his heart out and they all stayed silent. Despite the whole disaster, Raikko managed to make one right decision. The men's room he chose was recently built in an extended wing of the building. People rarely came this way. It may have took his friends some time to find him, but at least no one else caught him crying so helplessly. How the stormtrooper came to use the same restroom as he did was still a question. But, none of that mattered when all he could feel was the warmth of his tears on his cheeks and the gentle kiss that Mattie placed.

"You're no demon, Rai," whispered Mattie. "I never thought of you that way. You saved me that one day, remember. You punch harder than any boy or girl I know. Please, let me protect you this time. Will you tell me what really happened? Please?"

Mattie felt a small nod on his shoulder.

"Thank you," Mattie said.

"Mattie? Alex?" Raikko mumbled and hiccupped, lifting his head off his friend's shoulder to look at his two friends with the deepest sincerity and determination.

"Yeah, Rai?" the two boys said.

"I wanna be a real boy."

~ End of Chapter ~