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Things were tense. Things had been tense for awhile and at this point Jasper wasn’t sure if it was between him and other people or just the muscles in his body. Either way, he had decided to suck up his anger and rage, bottle it all up and try to take something Phe had said to him to heart.

He needed to make things up to his sister...even just a little. For all he knew, it could have been too late.

But he was going to try and in doing so he figured the best place to start this time of year would be costume shopping. Worst case was they didn’t find anything. Best case was he could at least see her play dress up again.

God he missed his mother…

This has been something they had done when he was little: go shopping and try on all the costumes in the store to find JUST the right one. Amelia was missing out on that. Dad would try but there was something about having someone keep bringing you random things and then getting dressed up themselves.

He was going to at least try not to suck today.
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For the better part of the drive to the costume store Amelia had sat quietly in the back seat. Hands folded daintily in her lap as she looked out the window. For anyone that had known her back in kindergarten would have thought this behavior was strange with how talkative she use to be but with how greatly the dynamic of her household had changed in the last year it was, to a degree, expected.

She could hear cars passing them on the left as treetops flew by on the right and though Jasper had tried engaging her in some conversations she really didn’t know what to say and instead just shrugged her shoulders in reply. For all the yelling and name calling that happened at home between Jasper and their father. she just really didn’t want to be the target of their anger again and so she often did her best to remain as small as possible when they were both around.

Today, however, was different. Amelia may be young, but she could still see that he was trying and so, when Jasper knocked on her door while she was coloring and invited her to look for a Halloween costume, she agreed to go.

The store itself was massive with high ceilings and racks of costumes filled with varying sizes packed closely together. On the wall were several masks and other toys like a stethoscopes or fairy wings; an array of possibilities to choose from. Unfortunately when asked she had no idea what she wanted to be this year. However, the one thing she was oddly firm about not dressing up as was a doctor or nurse, much to their father’s girlfriends disappointment.
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The costumes were all over the place and as he saw some made for older money, he was very grateful his sister was NOT even close to fitting into some of those. ‘Sexy Nurse’ was not an image he wanted to see her in. On the flip side though, he couldn’t help but wonder how Phe would have looked in that sexy maid costume.

“So, no nurse or doctor.” He had said, once more remembering her stance on it. Not that Jasper blamed her at all. He wasn’t too thrilled with the older woman around either. While he couldn’t blame his father for wanting a companion, he still didn’t care for the choice in women especially when she tried to help ‘take care of him’. “What about a pirate?” He asked, grabbing one of the hats off the wrack and putting it on his head. It was about two sizes too small so it more balanced as if it was floating there than him really wearing it.
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Amelia, on her part, looked up at him with a confused sort of expression. A small part of her wanted to laugh at how silly he looked but instead she simply shook her head. “No. I don’t want to be a pirate.” Maybe if they were going to dress up together then she would have agreed but chances are it would be their father taking her out trick-or-treating since Jasper got cranky when it was cold outside.

While wandering deeper in to the store through the maze of outfits Amelia paused occasionally to touch some of the drapey fabric especially if there was a fuzzy trim. Eventually she came to a halt in front of an almost snowy white dress that had a bit of a reflective lavender tint to it when she looked at it just right.

She looked up at her brother almost imploringly “Can I?” She pointed at the silken dress with the chain belt that hung from the hanger.
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While the shake of the head had his heart sink a little, Jasper couldn’t blame her. The fact she had at least humored him in coming was all he could really ask for. To see her laughing again might have been too far gone.

And it was his fault.

The idea ate at him, distracting his mind as he wandered behind her, keeping an eye out on what she touched and looked interested in. That was until she stopped in front of something that Jasper couldn’t say he would have expected. It was a ghost of some sort, modest yet at the same time…

“Sure. It would go great with your hair.” He offered, reaching up to flip through the sizes before grabbing a Medium. “What size are you now?” He asked, looking at the chart on the back before offering it to her.
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Amelia shrugged having no idea what he meant by her ‘size’. “Little I think,” She replied as he handed her the outfit which she held up in front of her.

Looking down she noticed the bottom of the dress was touching the floor and so she handed the costume back to Jasper “It’s too big, I don’t want to fall… Is there a littler one?” It was pretty, and she definitely wanted to try it on but but even she knew this one wouldn’t fit.
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