It's a bit early but i'm already in the mood for some Halloween spirit!
"I don't understand Swan."
A sentiment so often expressed by me that I might as well have it tattooed on my person. However, in my defense, this strange land has thrown me a multitude of rather bizarre customs and devices. Talking phones, automobiles, using a plastic card as currency, Netflix. All of it I have deemed odd but taken with stride in an attempt to better acclimate myself into my new world. But this…'holiday'…I must draw a line.
"What is it you don't understand babe?" My Swan smirks at me from the couch we picked out only last week to furnish our new home with. 'Our home' is another one of these new concepts to me, one I will gladly never grow tired of.
"You wish for me to dress up in some fantastical garb so I can harass our neighbors for sweets?" I say with an air of astonishment. How could my lovely Swan wish to subject me to such humiliation?
She laughs and I am even further off put by this whole notion. Surely it is some prank her father has put on to make me look like a fool and I will not have it. I may now be in the hero column as Emma puts it, and completely ready to settle down, but I am still Captain Hook!
"I don't want you to go trick or treating! That will be Henry's job." She explains, toning her mirth down at my obvious fuming.
"So now you want your son to become a beggar?" I just do not grasp this concept.
She rolls her eyes and flicks me in the head. "It's not begging you idjit. It's trick or treating. It's something all children do in this realm." She shifts a tad uncomfortably and I ignore her insult sensing something deeper in her posture. "I missed all of Henry's Halloweens before, and honestly this is probably the last one he'll have. Already he doesn't want to spend too much time out, an hour or two with his friends and then they are going to a party that Violet's house is holding." Ah. I can see how a holiday meant for children would be hard for a mother who spent so much time separated from her own child. And I would bet she did not have much time in her own childhood to enjoy in this silly childish day.
"Well it does sound a tad fun. And perhaps the lad will be able to get me one of those Milky Way bars." The food in this realm is another new thing to me that I will not be complaining about, especially the sweets.
"I knew you would come around." She smiles up at me. "We just need to put up some decorations, buy some candy, help Henry come up with a costume and get ones for ourselves as well." I can see her forming a plan to complete her to do list in her head but I pull her up short.
"What do you mean costumes for ourselves? I believed this to be a child's holiday."
"Trick or treating is." She explains getting up from her seat beside me. "But the party at Regina's later at night is very much for the adults." She throws over her shoulder while walking away with a wink.
I am left sitting by myself, very confused and somewhat uncomfortable.
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"Ahhh! It's all over me! I'm dying…" Henry is rolling on the lawn tangled up in fake spider webs as David tries to save him from himself. "Tell my mom I love her." He whispers dramatically as David kneels beside him in his 'final' moments. The prince fake tears up and grabs the boy to his chest while I laugh and try to get the rest of the imitation cobwebs spread amongst the bushes.
"He was so young. It's not fair!" David cries, completely forgetting to place the plastic spiders along the banister of the porch.
"Why don't you try reviving the boy with true love's kiss?" I suggest, grinning at the immediate scowl on Henry's face at the comment.
"You're a genius Hook!" He exclaims as he tries to pepper the boy's head with kisses.
"EW! Enough! I'm alive, it's a miracle, please stop kissing me!" He jumps up and runs away from his grandfather.
"Ha!" Charming shouts, jumping up from his place on the ground. "You were right, a kiss is just what he needed." I take a deep bow towards the prince as Henry mutters something under his breath and picks up his discarded webbing.
"Happy to assist." I say, surveying the lawn. It has been raked and then decorated with all manner of objects. Pumpkins in all sizes line the walkway up to the porch. The previous night Emma, Henry and myself had quite the time carving faces into a couple of them. However, I was slightly admonished by both for using my hook to carve them! There is fake spider webs all along the bushes and in some of the trees. Earlier in the week I had strung up some orange lights shaped as skulls and pumpkins along the porch. There are fake spiders here and there and in the corner on a rocking chair is a rather grimly skeleton with an eye patch (an attempt at a pirate joke I am sure). All in all it looks quite festive and I am rather proud at the hard work the three of us accomplished.
"Well it's about time I get back to Snow. We're going to dress Neal up and we'll bring him over in about an hour." David says, waving his goodbye.
"See you Grandpa." Henry waves back. "I need to get some homework done and then I should get ready soon too. It's going to start here shortly." He addresses me calmly. I can tell he is excited about tonight even if he is trying to see casual about it. Not only is the idea of candy appealing to him, but he also confided in me that he was going to ask Violet to be his girlfriend tonight at the party.
I clap him on the back as we head up the steps into the house. "Of course lad. You do that, your mother and I will be ready to take your picture right before you decide to go."
"Ugh. Does she really need to do that?" He moans and I smile at his overly dramatic teenage behavior.
"Indulge your mother. And finish your homework." I say and push him up the stairs to his room.
"What's that about?" Emma asks as she rounds the corner from the kitchen with a bowl of candy in her hands.
I take a piece from the bowl as I follow her back outside to sit on the porch. "Just Henry complaining about getting his picture taken." I explain. It is rather comfortable sitting outside on the swing seat next to Emma on such a beautiful fall day. There aren't any kids about yet so it is rather peaceful.
"Oh." She starts swinging the seat back and forth gently. "Well too bad. I think it's still cute and besides, Regina is bound to be much worse than me when he stops by her house later." She smiles at that.
We rock in comfortable silence after that, enjoying the slight breeze and warm sun, the smell of autumn and the sounds of the birds and the occasional car driving by.
It's so tranquil that I almost jump a bit when I see a little girl in pig tails wearing a blue jumper and a symbol of a ghost with a circle and a slash over it, a symbol of a ghostbuster I am aware since watching the movie the other night with Henry, come up the steps. She is followed by who I assume to be her father carrying a much smaller child dressed up as the stay puft marshmallow man. The overall effect of the duo is adorable.
"Trick or treat!" the little girl says in her high pitch voice at her father's nudge.
"Ohh." Emma leans down towards her. "I love your costume!" she says as she drops a piece of candy in the girl's outreached bag.
"Thank you. I'm a ghost butter!" She shouts proudly and runs down the steps towards her mother who was waiting bellow.
Her father rolls his eyes. "Thanks." He says with a laugh as he makes his way down to his family in search for the next house.
"That was too adorable." Emma says with a huge smile to me and I am inclined to agree.
After that we get a trickle of young children come to our steps asking for candy. It is starting to become heavier around the time Snow and David come up our steps baring the young prince. Except instead of his usual attire he is dressed up as a dragon. And I must say, in all of my experience with dragons, this is the happiest, cutest one I have ever seen.
He is giggling as Emma takes hold of him and coos at him. "He is so cute!" She says while David is taking pictures of his two kids. We stand around and talk a bit about what houses the Charmings have visited on the way here and some of the costumes we have seen so far. Henry makes his way outside not much later wearing his own costume; Han Solo. I found it rather amusing when the lad picked out the costume, but I could see the appeal of going as a handsome rogue when wishing to woo a young woman tonight. Plus, Star Wars and all.
"Don't you look handsome?" Snow says as he joins us. "Take a picture Charming." She gestures to her husband. He starts snapping away as Emma passes me her brother to grab her own camera and further embarrass the boy. I bounce Neal around in my arms as he continues to grin at me and I grin myself at the very amusing family display.
"Alright that's enough!" Henry shyly ducks his head. "I'll see you tomorrow after Mike's sleepover." Trick or treating, a party and then a sleepover, quite the busy day.
"Alright, be careful." Emma calls out to him as he goes down the steps to join his newly arrived friends at the end of the drive. "And have fun!"
"We should head out too." Snow says taking Neal from me. "We're going to walk around some more and then we need to drop this little guy off with Granny. Then we'll see you at Regina's!" When they leave, Emma and I sit back down and pass out more candy to the eager children who make their way up our porch. I see what Swan tells me are ninja turtles, Pokémon, cartoon characters, princesses, princes and even some pirates!
It is dark by the time we head in to get ready, leaving the bowl of candy out just in case some last minute stragglers make their way here.
"Ready for some real Halloween fun?" Swan teases me from inside the bathroom where she is changing into her costume. As I pull on my own, I smile into the mirror and reply back to her.
"If it's with you? Always, love."
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"Oh my, what on Earth is this?" Regina asks us when she opens her door poised in a skin tight black dress, much like the ones she sported while in the Enchanted Forest, with the addition of a pointed witch's hat for comic effect I believe.
"We're Claire and Jamie Fraser. From Outlander." Emma explains as the Queen examines her green skirts and corseted top and my own kilt and loose black shirt that is loosely buttoned even by my standards.
The Queen just smirks and steps to the side gesturing us in. "Of course you are. Well come on in and enjoy yourselves."
The mansion which is normally pristine and decorated in stark contrasts of black and white is now eerily set up with tiny lights shining on the ceiling giving the illusion of stars, smoke filtering in from every corner, candles of all sizes on almost every surface and dark but compelling music playing from either stereos or magic.
We pass one display that has me pausing to laugh. "Care to bob for apples love?" I question Emma who has now spotted what has me shaking with mirth.
She rolls her eyes and drags me in the direction of a group of people gathered around the staircase. "Not in this house."
"Oh Emma, Killian, you two look so cute!" Snow clasps her hands as we near the group. She herself is dressed in a brown pencil skirt uniform with pins attached and bright red lipstick, while her husband is dressed in some sort of blue jumpsuit with a star on his chest and a disk strapped to his back.
"What are you two?" I question as Ruby, dressed as her girlfriend Dorothy, hands me a cup of what I assume to be some sort of alcoholic beverage.
"We're Aaaaaagent Peggy Carter and Caaaaaaptain America!" She bounces up and down and laughs. I imagine she has already had a couple of cups to drink. The group shares a knowing look, confirming my suspicion.
"Ok, Agent, let's dance." Emma grabs her mom who in turns grabs Ruby and the three set off to jump and twirl around the living room.
The evening is spent with much dancing and drinking; David and I at some point get into an arm wrestling match that ends up having bets placed on it, Belle gets iced twice, the dwarves break two vases that Regina should have had the foresight to put away and Cinderella and Pinocchio go head to head in a pumpkin pie eating contest.
All in all it is an extremely amusing night made all the more better spent in the company of friends. It is around two in the morning as most of the guests are leaving. Regina is showing people out and gifting them with party favors, the Charmings are sleeping on the couch and Emma and I are swaying to the music that has been left playing.
"Did you have a good time?" She asks sleepily, lifting her head from my chest. I smile down at her and move in to give her a sweet kiss.
"The best." I reply.
"Mmmm, good." She leans back into me and we continue to share kisses in the middle of the room. The best time indeed.
"Alright you two, get out." Regina beckons us to leave.
As we walk hand in hand under the moon back to our house, Emma pulls herself to my side and looks up at me.
"Hey Killian," she says. "Happy Halloween."