Those were the only thoughts that went through my mind as I immediately signed for the package. I'd been waiting for weeks, and now the thing which I'd only been dreaming of and fantasizing about was now being held in a large box in my hands. After closing the front door, I ran off to my room, locking the door behind me. Didn't need or want any interruptions ruining the moment. I got a pair of scissors and carefully cut the tape sealing the plain brown box shut, opening it and almost squealing in delight to see a large, black mass of soft fur in the box. I picked it up, taking the main piece out of the box, and held it up, letting it unfold in front of me.
I had ordered it about three weeks ago from a friend who lived on the other side of the country. He and I shared an interest in costumes, but he was much better at making them than I was. I couldn't measure, I couldn't sew, I couldn't cut materials in a straight line. Basically, I was a designer disaster. But my friend, on the other hand, did amazing work. His costumes were form-fitting, comfortable, and always looked great. You couldn't see any seams or zippers anywhere. And that was just his fabric work. He was also gifted in all sorts of other skills. So when I asked him for a favor, I was more than willing to pay him however much he asked for it. And I was finally holding the results of his labor and my wait in my hands.
I laid it out on the bed, both to get a look at it and to get ready. It was a costume of an Umbreon, a pokemon. I felt kind of silly asking him for it, but I loved pokemon, and I thought it would be nice to wear around the house and to bed at night. It was completely made of very short, very soft black fur, except for a few circles of yellow fur -- one on the outside of both upper arms, one on the front of both upper legs, one around the tail, and one around each long, floppy ear. There was a long black zipper down the back from the middle of the head to an inch or two above the tail that blended perfectly in with the black fur -- I barely even noticed it was there until I started inspecting it closely, thanks to a small pocket the zipper head's pull tab rested in when it was fully zipped up. The hands were nothing more than furry thumbed -- but otherwise featureless -- mittens, and the feet were just featureless sock-type feet. As usual, the whole suit was perfect, possibly one of his best works ever.
I stripped off my clothes until I was standing in just my underwear, tossing them aside in the corner. I went over to the box, finding the other part of the costume -- the mask. He made it to specially fit me from a mold of my head he had taken about a month ago, when he also took down my measurements for the costume. It was just a regular latex mask, but it was covered with the same kind of black fur (with a ring of yellow fur on the forehead) the costume was covered with, and since it was specially made to fit my head, it not only let my own eyes look through as the mask's but also allowed me to open the mask's mouth like my own, letting me breathe easily, speak, eat, and drink. Under the mask, I found a small tube and a folded up sheet of paper. I picked up the paper, reading it to find a letter from my friend:
"Hey! I'm sure by now you've either already tried the costume on or are drooling over it about to. Try not to drool on it too much. It's washable, but still. ;) I made it as fast as I could, I'm sure you were waiting impatiently for it, and I hope you like it. I suppose you figured out you put the mask on first, then the suit. Also, I sent a small tube in the box with the costume. It's some black face paint, put it around your eyes and mouth so your skin doesn't show through the mask. It's a special high quality brand I ordered, so it won't smear or come off from sweat or anything like that. Let me know how you like it, give me a call when you get it!"
I was going to call him, but I had to give the costume a test run first. I grabbed the mask and went over to the mirror. I quickly pulled the Umbreon mask on to see where I'd need the face paint, then took it off, carefully applying the black paint around my eyes and mouth. I went in the bathroom, getting a hair dryer to help speed up the drying process. Once it was dry, I ran my finger over the painted areas quite hard, pleased to find just as he said it didn't smear. I went back out, this time pulling the mask on and smoothing it out. There were velcro fasteners on the back of the mask, and I fastened them all as tightly as I could. The mask adhered tightly to my face -- the inner latex lining conformed comfortably and perfectly to my face. I examined myself in the mirror. Just as he said, my eyes looked like part of the mask with the paint on. I opened and closed my mouth, trying out some expressions as I looked in the mirror. The mask moved along with my face, displaying them quite well.
Satisfied, I went back over to my bed, picking up the suit itself. I sat down on my bed, and unzipped the costume, taking a small spool of black thread nearby and tying a large string loop onto the zipper for easy use later. I stuck my foot into the leg of the costume, finding that it was very soft on the inside as well. The fur he used was slightly stretchy, and conformed to fit my body perfectly. I pulled my foot all the way down, filling out the Umbreon costume's own featureless foot. I did the same with my other foot, standing up to pull the costume up to my waist. The tail hung behind me, swinging back and forth slightly as if to wag happily. I continued to pull the costume up, now slipping my arm into the costume's. My hand fit perfectly into the costume's featureless mitten, and a small elastic band built into the costume around my wrist kept it in place nicely. Luckily, it was my left hand (and I was right handed), so I decided to hold off on putting the other hand in so I could finish putting the costume on. All that really remained to do was pull the costume's hood up over my own head, smoothing it out. It hid the back of the mask nicely, making the mask and the hood of the costume look like one solid continuous piece. I smoothed out the head, straightening out the long ears, and was now ready to finish putting the costume on. I put my right arm in, pulling it up and smoothing it out as best I could with my mittens, then went over to the mirror, turning around and pulling the zipper up with the string loop I'd tied on earlier. It took some effort, but after some coaxing with the mitten paws, I pushed the zipper up into its little pocket. (The string loop still hung down, so it wouldn't be too hard to unzip it again.)
My jaw dropped as I turned around, looking at myself in the mirror. The costume fit me perfectly -- there wasn't a wrinkle, seam, or flaw to be seen anywhere. The Umbreon's tail and long ears were stuffed well, and the ears stood up as they were supposed to while the tail bounced with life with my movements. I rubbed my paws all over my body, the feeling of soft fur all over filling me with warmth. I turned around, craning my neck to look at myself at every angle. I was an Umbreon! For the next three hours, I took pictures of myself with my digital camera as best I could until the batteries ran out, skulked around my room pretending to be an Umbreon, and just laid on my bed, cuddling with my stuffed animals, enjoying every minute of being an Umbreon.
It wasn't until my stomach started growling that I realized how long I'd been in costume. I really had to go out and get some dinner, and call my friend and thank him immensely. I chuckled as I got up, halfway tempted to go out and get dinner just like I was. My chuckles quickly ceased, however, when as I took hold of the string loop to unzip my costume, it snapped.
My stomach tightened up with tension. Relax, I told myself. Don't panic. You can still reach up and work the zipper down. But try as I might, no matter how hard I tried, my paws simply couldn't reach inside the small furry pocket the zipper was tightly tucked away into. That's okay, I thought to myself, just stay calm. Maybe you can reach into the little pocket with a pencil or a pair of tweezers. Those plans also fell short as I quickly found my friend's expert craftsmanship of the paws left me unable to do anything except grasp the pencil between my thumb and the rest of the mitten, the fur being too smooth and soft to get a good grip on anything. Every time I tried to use it, the pencil just slipped out of my hands.
I sighed, and gave up for the time being, and decided to make the most of the situation. I decided to clear my mind with some sleep. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad being stuck as an Umbreon for a while? I went back over to my bed, crawling under the covers again. I grabbed the biggest stuffed animal I had -- a giant Umbreon plushie I made myself with the help of my friend a few years ago -- and hugged it tightly, smiling as I drifted off into a peaceful slumber...