A/N: This is another Halloween fic posted late, the second year in a row. I'm worse than the white rabbit, ha.
"I can't believe you talked me into this again," Alberto Del Rio grouses, watching as Ricardo Rodriguez wanders around the living room, putting the final touches on a pumpkin until it looks just right, the crooked grin cut into it just waiting to be lit up by a candle.
Ricardo smiles and walks over to him, cupping his face. "You did say not every week... it's been months since the last time."
"But-" He's interrupted by a kiss, his lips pursing as he stares up at his former ring announcer with some displeasure. "Ricardo-"
"El Patron," he murmurs, a nickname that doesn't really fit anymore, but had stuck nonetheless, "you said yourself the last time wasn't completely horrible."
"But we were out, doing things. This is... all of them... in our house!" he all but whines, blinking as Ricardo nuzzles against him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "You don't play fair." He sighs tiredly and buries his fingers in the younger man's hair, drawing him up until they're eye to eye, kissing his nose. "When are the idiotas arriving, then?"
With WWE in Florida, it had made planning Halloween a little easier for them all, Alberto able to make Ricardo's hopes for the holiday come to fruition, despite his own growing misgivings towards the whole situation. But either way, he had agreed to it, and Alberto always tries to keep his word, especially to Ricardo. And so there was going to be a Halloween party in his home and... He sighs, shaking his head fondly as he stares down at Ricardo, half-listening to the answer to his question.
"... and Heath said that Zack didn't know the right way to the house, so he's insisting on driving, but Heath got lost and now Zack's wants to drive again so..."
"They'll be here in about two hours if they don't kill each other, I see," he says, head spinning with how two men alone could create so much stupidity wherever they go. Ricardo rolls his eyes slightly before Alberto kisses him, deciding to make the most of the time they appear to now have. About ten minutes later, they hear car doors slam outside and raised voices as Sofia walks from the kitchen to the front door to allow their guests in, Alberto pulling away with a regretful sigh. He taps Ricardo on the nose before allowing him to stand and greet the other two, their argument even more audible as they enter the house.
"Bro, I told you-"
"Yeah, well, who lives around here?"
"And who got lost around here?!" Neither seem aware of the blank looks on Sofia, Ricardo and Del Rio's faces as the argument continues, both men growing louder with each go around, until Alberto is sorely tempted to grab them and slam their skulls together, shut them up permanently. Or at least until after Halloween is over... but Ricardo, noticing the look on his face, intercedes, brushing past Sofia to step between them before the argument could turn physical.
They still seem barely aware of his presence, bickering over him, until finally he clears his throat and all but yells in their faces, "HEY!" This stops them short, Heath even cutting himself off mid-sentence to look at their friend, eyes wide. Del Rio smirks, glad to see that Ricardo's vocal strength hasn't weakened since he hadn't been announcing for a few weeks.
"Oh, uh, hey, bro," Zack says, sounding subdued as he looks at the dark haired man. "Sorry about that." He glances around at Del Rio and Sofia before turning his attention back to Heath and Ricardo.
"Yeah," Heath mutters. "Sorry, man. Didn't see you guys there."
Sighing, the ring announcer steps back towards Alberto and stares at the others with a small frown. "Well, if you two are done arguing over who got lost the worse, what do you say we begin decorating?" Del Rio's one condition for the party was that Ricardo not take it all upon himself to decorate the large house, roping the other two men into helping him, and he had agreed, thinking it would be fun, though he's clearly having second thoughts now.
"Yeah, sure, bro, let's do this thing. It's gonna look great!" Zack exclaims, visibly looking guilty for putting that look on Ricardo's face... especially when he notices the warning glare on Del Rio's in response to it.
Alberto watches them file into the living room before turning back to Ricardo, cupping his face. "I have things to do outside," he tells him quietly, having had carefully planned all of this out so he'd be far away from the house while Ryder and Slater did... who knows what... to it, "but if you want me to stay and make those two act their ages, I will."
"No," the ring announcer murmurs, his eyes fluttering as Del Rio strokes his thumbs over his lips gently. "I think we'll be ok, El Patron. Gracias. Go do whatever it is you need to do."
Alberto feels relief at this, his plans depending on Ricardo being distracted as he implemented them. "Alright, call if you need anything," he urges him softly, kissing him deeply before pulling away. "I'll see you soon."
"Si," the former ring announcer nods, smiling at him as he walks him to the backdoor, kissing him once more before he leaves, waving as he ventures through the path that leads towards Sofia's garden and down across to his garages. Ricardo shuts the door after watching him go fondly for a moment and goes to deal with the two men in the living room before they begin to argue once more, unaware as Alberto stops halfway there and turns, glancing over his shoulder with a smirk upon finding Ricardo long gone, turning and taking a different path into the trees that circle the property around the lake.
He stares at the men waiting for him just out of sight of the house and sneers, turning as Wade Barrett and Dolph Ziggler join him, equal looks of deep focus on their faces as they peer around at the expansive grounds. "Time to get to work, then."
Inside, Heath, Zack and Ricardo stare around the room with blank looks on their faces. "Well... where the hell do we begin?" Heath demands, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Having lived in either one apartment or another most of his life, decorating something the size of Del Rio's mansion is a bit beyond him. Zack in a similar situation, Ricardo is the only one somewhat used to having so much space and what to do with it in situations like this. And even he is a little floored by it, having only lived here a couple of years, with most of it spent on the road for WWE.
"Well," he stalls, feeling more uncomfortable since they're waiting for him to say or do something. "We could start with what you guys brought, and move on from there. I know El Patron has some decorations around here..." As the two men pull out their bags full of things, all he can do is stare. "Uh..."
"What's with all the Ghostbuster stuff?!" Heath demands off of a rough laugh, staring at Zack's pile.
"Well, what's with all the zombie crap, bro?" Zack shoots back, offended at one of his favorite movies getting dissed in such a way as he glowers at him.
"At least mine is scary! Yours just look stupid!"
"Yeah, well, your face looks stupid, bro!"
"Like I haven't heard that one before!"
"Stop!" Ricardo finally has to call out again, both men stopping short as they realize they're doing it again, turning bashful glances towards him again. Del Rio had made it well known that this party was mostly for Ricardo, to try to make up for the rough couple of months he'd had, and both are all too aware of what he'd do if their constant arguing ruined it completely for the younger man.
"Sorry," they mutter together, exchanging glances and silently vowing to do better in the future, neither wanting to incite the Mexican aristocrat's wrath, all too aware of what that's like. Barely a word is spoken as they slowly set to work on the room, Ricardo mentally daring them to say or do anything as he puts Zack's Ghostbuster in one corner, and Heath's zombie in another. When the room is dark and shadowy, the two forms of the figures do look fairly menacing, to his relief. From there, they decide to get some air and set out pumpkins that they had carved at either home or the hotel alongside Ricardo's on the porch- Heath's looking like a cyclops while Zack's has sunglasses carved into it.
Thankfully, Heath keeps his comments to himself on that one and they continue working peacefully, Heath even successfully hanging up a gliding ghost from one corner of the porch, and a witch on the other, without killing himself or falling on top of the others. After laying out some plastic tombstones and returning inside, they once more sift through all of the things waiting to be used, Ricardo surprised by how much the other two really had brought once moving past the zombies and ghostbuster stuff. Small black and orange candles that he rests on a nearby table, rubber bats that find their way into a strand of black and orange lights with ghosts poking out here and there that trails along the fireplace mantel. As he digs around, he finds a CD of Halloween music and laughs, finding Alberto's CD player and plugging it in, sticking the soundtrack in. As the music begins to play, Sofia peeks her head in and gapes at them, looking around the room.
With Alberto on the road so much, the house is usually kept simple and untouched until Christmas comes around, and even then it's usually kept on the downlow, but as more time passes, more Halloween things scatter around the area and she can only shake her head in amusement, yet another sign of how good Ricardo's been for the older man showing itself to her. Before, holidays had barely seemed to register with him, his focus only ever on his career... "Senor, do you need anything?" she finally offers. "Something to drink, or?"
Ricardo pauses from where he's working at hanging a wispy ghost from the chandelier, turning to look at her with a small smile. "I think we're ok, but... Sofia," he calls out before she can leave the room and return to whatever work she's doing in another part of the house.
"Si?" she asks, stepping back into the room as he walks towards her. "What do you need?"
"Another set of hands, what do you think? I doubt El Patron will be gone much longer, and a fourth person could help us finish all of this much sooner." He smiles down at her. "Want to help us decorate for Halloween? If you're not too busy?"
Her eyes light up and she nods. "Of course, senor. What's left?" He grins and hands her a small pile of decorations before leading her into the middle of the madness. Heath is in the process of placing a skull in the entrance way, the distorted looking thing hanging down low enough to cast even stranger shadows upon the wall. On the other side of the room, Zack is looking for a good place to put a black cat figure, its back arched up as it appears to be hissing. She smiles before placing a battery powered jackolantern on the mantel behind the garland, its light just strong enough to cause the shadows to darken and look even creepier all around the room when the other lights are off.
They've just finished, slumping on the couch or chairs or even on the floor- Ricardo idly nudging Heath with the toe of his shoe, amused as the ginger barely grunts at each contact, almost melted into the carpet- when Alberto enters the room, a smug smirk on his face that he tries to hide but fails, Ricardo raising an eyebrow at him as he takes in what they'd done. "Ay," he mumbles, glancing at the three motionless men and Sofia. "...What's with the marshmellow thing in the corner?" he finally asks, Heath and Ricardo laughing a little as Zack huffs.
Heath and Zack leave a little later to go to their respective homes or hotels and get into their costumes- also needing to force Wade and Dolph to do the same- before returning for the actual party, Ricardo watching them warily as they walk towards the car. "Don't kill each other," he calls out to them, half-heartedly waving from between the jack-o-lanterns they had all carved. Returning to the house, he finds Alberto waiting for him and smiles, resting his head against the older man's chest with a soft groan as he hugs him.
"Did they argue very much?" he murmurs against the ring announcer's hair, feeling as he shakes his head somberly. "No?"
"A couple of times, but they stopped pretty fast," he sighs, pulling back to look into his face, smiling softly. "Did you finish all that you needed to do?"
"Si, I did. Now I can focus completely on keeping those four from trashing my house tonight," he teases Ricardo gently, brushing his fingers through his hair. "Remind me why I agreed to this again?" He pauses a moment, as if thinking hard about this, before whispering, "Oh wait, never mind, it came to me..." He leans in and kisses him deeply before resting his forehead against Ricardo's. "Do I really have to dress up as...?"
"Si, you do," Ricardo nods, a mischevious glint in his eye. "Come, El Patron! It won't be that bad!"
"I suppose," Alberto grunts, allowing the ring announcer to draw him back to the bedroom, where their costumes are waiting for them. "Ay," he sighs. The things I do for him... He smiles, seeing the happiness on his face, which has been much too rare the past few months. But it's worth it, just for that...
"I cannot bloody believe this," Wade grouses as they approach Del Rio's house a few hours later, staring across at Heath as he adjusts his hat smugly. "Bullocks, you look almost decent while I...?"
"Oh c'mon! You look fine, I put that costume together myself!"
"Exactly," Wade mutters, staring down at himself. He has a white shirt on and black leggings, with a hood covering his head. But, all the more annoying to him, is the fact that there are black spades painted into the shirt, and Heath had insisted he carry a paint brush in one hand and a rose in the other. "Alice in Wonderland nonsense," he grouses. "Childish gits... You cannot be serious when you tell me that Del Rio and Ziggler both went along with this as well."
"Oh they did, Two," Heath grins. "You'll see."
"I cannot wait," he mumbles just as Heath presses the doorbell, smirking over at him. He's shut up quickly when the door's opened by Alberto Del Rio... who is apparently dressed as the King of Hearts, wearing an impressive looking fur shawl over his shoulders that partially covers a shirt adorned in the card suits. Dress slacks and buckle shoes finish off the outfit and all Barrett can do is gape in disbelief at the man who is currently holding onto a scepter with a heart at its base. "No bloody way," he finally finds the words to say as Heath fights not to laugh next to him. "Ho... how?!"
Alberto looks as thrilled as Wade feels, examining his costume in about as much disbelief. "Have you met Ricardo Rodriguez?" he asks dryly, though there is no lack of exasperated fondness in his eyes as he moves aside to let them inside.
"Ziggler and Ryder aren't here yet?" Wade asks, noticing the general silence and peace in the home as he ventures inside, following Heath into the living room.
"What gave it away?" Del Rio asks, sitting carefully next to Ricardo and propping his sceptre on the armrest of the couch.
But Wade's perplexed feeling now rests with Ricardo himself as he examines the man. "What in the bloody hell are you supposed to be?"
Ricardo blinks a time or two before glancing over at Heath, who smiles confidentially at him, nodding slightly. He shifts awkwardly and sighs, brushing his hands anxiously over the brown shirt he has on, matching the pants and even the shoes that he has on. "Eh, I'm the dormouse," he successfully says, smiling warily as Wade examines the whiskers drawn on his face with a disbelieving gaze. "You know, from the Mad Tea Party?"
"... Of course you are," he blinks, glancing over at Heath. "It all makes sense now." The ginger smirks at him, adjusting the hat with the In this Style 10/6 sign hanging off of it. His outfit is a bizarre mash of a polka dotted bowtie, checkered shirt and pants, and striped socks poking out from plain shoes, with a tweed jacket... and he does indeed look mad. "So if you're the Hatter, and he's the Dormouse, then Ryder is-"
At that moment, the gate buzzes again, followed by the doorbell a minute later, cutting Wade off and he turns curious eyes to the entrance to the living room. "Come on, bro! It's not that bad-" Zack's voice, straining over something, echoes into the living room and Ricardo and Heath exchange glances, frowning.
"Kid, I swear to God!" Ziggler yells back, the two of them obviously disagreeing over whether to enter or not.
"C'mon! You put the clothes on, just-" Finally they tumble into the room and Wade and Del Rio both look like they've been smacked upside the head as they look at Ziggler. His outfit resembles Del Rio's a great deal, down to the buckled shoes. The only difference is he doesn't have a cloak nor a scepter, and his wildly designed tunic shows no sign of the card suits on it.
Alberto spits out venomous Spanish before rounding on his former rival, eyes flashing. "What do you think you're doing, perro? Mimicking Alberto Del Rio?"
"Hell, no, why would I do that?!" he demands as Ricardo slips between them, whispering in Alberto's ear.
"Eh?" he mutters to the younger man who nods, glancing down at Ziggler's hands. Alberto follows his gaze and smirks a little, finding that he is halfheartedly holding onto a crown with a heart at the base of it. "A Knave, hmm?" He sneers as it clicks with him, remembering Ricardo reading that part of the book to him the day before. Ziggler glares at him before Zack drags him the rest of the way into the living room, squeezing his hands.
The drama coming to an end- for now, at any rate- brings Wade's attention onto Zack's costume, which is a little like Heath's with striped pants and a polka dotted shirt, a tweed jacket also layering all of this. On top of that, he has whiskers drawn on his face as well, and a thin hat with straw poking out of it on his head. "As I figured," the Brit smirks. "March Hare."
"Yeah, bro," Zack smirks, looking a little pleased that someone recognized him, never guessing that it was simple deduction on the tall man's part. He drapes an arm around a still annoyed Ziggler's shoulders and nuzzles close to him, not minding as his hat tips dangerously. "Try to have some fun, huh, bro?"
"You could've told me I was gonna be the knave while he's the king," he snaps back.
"I honestly had no idea," Zack mutters. "Ricardo didn't tell me what he was going to make him go as, I swear." Ziggler still doesn't seem pleased but Ryder looks and sounds sincere, his lips pressed tightly together as he waits for Dolph to either blow up more or relax, which is what he does finally, releasing a gruff sigh of annoyance. "C'mon, bro," he tells him, leading him over towards the Ghostbuster stuff in the corner so they can have a couple of minutes away from Del Rio so Dolph could cool down some more.
Ricardo winces at how things had started off tonight but his lips twitch up into a smile when his former employer wraps an arm around him and pulls him close, kissing him on the side of the head. They watch as Wade and Heath wander around, looking at the various decorations, until Wade spots the zombie in the corner and begins teasing Heath over it being there. Alberto rolls his eyes, resting his chin on Ricardo's shoulder as they watch Sofia enter with some drinks, her dress a soft blue with white tights and... Ricardo grins as he realizes. "Sofia, are you dressed like Alice?" he calls out to the housekeeper, eyes shining as she looks up and sheepishly nods.
"Si, senor. It seems kind of silly, I suppose-"
"No! You look great," he tells her honestly. "It's perfect."
She chuckles lowly and bows towards him. "Gracias, senor."
Eventually, Ziggler- lulled by the food and drinks that Sofia had set out, not to mention Zack wanting to show him the rest of the decorations- comes out of his corner and the party continues on peacefully enough, until they all stop when the gate buzzes to announce someone's there. Wade, Heath, Zack and Dolph all look confused but Alberto grins as Ricardo's eyes light up, the younger man excusing himself before he leaves the room, searching the kitchen for something.
"What's going on?" Zack mutters, approaching Del Rio. "I thought we were the only ones coming, bro."
Letting the 'bro' thing go this once, Alberto smirks at him. "It's not guests for the party... technically." When Ricardo goes to the front door and presses the button on the security panel to open the gate, he walks out into the foyer and stands at the door as his former ring announcer walks along the porch, hands full of things barely visible as the sun sets. When the other four joins him, he shifts subtly so they can see too, eyes warm with affection for the younger man.
"What's he doin'?" Heath demands, watching on wide eyed as Ricardo moves further away from the house.
"A couple years back," Del Rio mutters, "we were just finishing up supper when the gate sounded like it did just now..." He smiles a little at the memories. "I wasn't expecting anyone and told Ricardo to send them away, but when he answered the call, it was a family. They'd gotten lost while driving their kids around trick or treating and since we were the first house they saw, they came here for directions back to a main road." He sighs and shakes his head. "I took one look at Ricardo's face and knew he wasn't going to send them away... so while he went out to explain how they could find their way back to where they were trying to go, I located a bag of candy in the kitchen and brought it out. It wasn't much, just something Sofia had bought on a whim before we'd returned from the road... but even so, when they saw it, I wasn't sure who was more pleased- the children, or Ricardo, that I had thought to do that." He realizes sharply just who he's rambling so much to, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Every year since, they've come back to say hello, visit a bit, while on their trick or treating routes." Still feeling a little sheepish for telling as much of that story as he had, he opens the screen door and goes outside, joining Ricardo as he too kneels down and greets the little boy and girl staring up at him with grins.
Not wanting to intrude, the other four stay inside and watch as Ricardo passes candy to both of the kids before standing up to talk to their parents, his soft laughter audible all the way to the door when the girl tugs on his shirt to get his attention once more, the young man kneeling back down and wrapping an arm around her to listen to whatever she has to tell him. "Who woulda guessed it," Heath mutters. "Del Rio's good with kids."
"So it would appear," Wade answers lowly.
After a short bit, the children and their parents return to their car, Alberto and Ricardo waving from the curved driveway as they slowly back away from the house and return to the road. The two men then return to the house, pressed against each other with fond smiles, before realizing that they'd left their guests behind that whole time. "Er, lo siento," Ricardo mutters, staring at them wide eyed. "Guess we kinda lost track of time there."
"Don't worry about it, bro," Zack smiles. "But I think someone was getting anxious to go back to those cookies."
"Shut up!" Dolph flushes, poking him in the side. "You make it sound like I'm addicted to the things or something-"
"Well, bro, I do think you would've looked adorable in that cookie monster costume-" he starts to say, before needing to duck aside as Ziggler swats at him, his laughter echoing through the first floor as the others shake their heads wearily.
Finally, exasperated with trying not to get into knock-down drag-out fights, the group comes to an actual agreement on what to do and grabs bowls of popcorn, settling in for some weird low-budget horror movie that Heath had found and wanted to give a try. It's so bad it immediately becomes something to mock, Heath rolling his eyes as Ziggler especially takes great joy in lambasting the movie, its actors, anything he can think of.
They're all more than a little relieved when the credits start to roll almost an hour and a half later, until they realize this means they might all need to try talking again. "Bullocks," Wade finally mutters, shifting his arm where it's loosely wrapped around Heath's shoulders. "Now what?"
The others shrug or mutter some variation of having no clue, when Del Rio clears his throat and gently pulls away from where Ricardo is sitting, his head on Alberto's shoulder before he'd moved. "Now we go outside," he smirks as the two other men dressed like card suits sit up a little straighter.
Heath, Zack and Ricardo look around in confusion. "What for, El Patron?" Ricardo wonders, standing slowly and glancing around at the various reactions to this suggestion. "What's going on?"
"You'll see," he hums, leading the former ring announcer to the back door, his hand warm between his shoulderblades as they walk through Sofia's garden, towards Alberto's garage. Ignoring the murmurs of the men as he leads the way to where his surprise waits, he rests his hand on the side of the garage as they pass it, his smirk growing as, the further they walk, the more obvious a silvery fog beginning to fill the area becomes, Ricardo slowing to a near stop at his side, eyes wide.
"Eh, El Patron-" he mutters, staring at the grounds as they're overtaken by the mist. "What's going-" But when he turns around, Alberto's gone, his warmth abruptly missing from his side. Ricardo turns in a hurried circle, blinking. "El Patron!"
There's no answer.
Not far away, Heath and Zack are in similar states, lost in the growing fog and not sure where Wade or Dolph are at, calling out for them. Finally giving up on that, they find each other in the denseness and listens as Ricardo continues to call for Alberto, following his voice until the three of them are reunited. "Ricardo?"
"Heath, Zack?" he hisses, visibly frightened. "Where is everyone? Wade, Dolph-?"
"We don't know, did you lose Del Rio too, bro?" Zack demands, gripping his arm and drawing him closer so they won't lose sight of him as well.
"I turned around and he- he wasn't there, I don't know what happened," he admits, trembling as he yet again looks around wildly, hoping to catch even a glimpse of the older man. "What do we do now? How do we find them?"
"I'm not sure," Zack mumbles, as Heath demands loudly, "Where the hell did this fog come from anyway?!"
"Good question," Ricardo breathes out miserably, rubbing his arms briskly as he steps forward warily. "Standing here frozen isn't doing any of us any good, we need to find them. Maybe they went back to the house for some reason?"
Zack and Heath exchange glances. "Why would they do that though, bro? And leave us out here? I don't think I've done anything to piss Dolph off to that extent today," he shrugs.
Ricardo groans, pressing his fingers together anxiously before he turns away from where he thinks the house is at, it like everything else near impossible to see in the thickening fog. Each step is easier than the one prior as he walks towards the trees not far away, calling yet again for his employer.
"Do you feel like we're the idiots who get killed at the start of a horror movie because they leave the safety of wherever they'd been to look for something or someone?" Zack mutters to Heath, almost tripping over a broken tree branch and just catching himself before he faceplants into a pile of leaves.
"Shut up," the ginger groans. "I definitely don't want to think about any of the horror movie cliches right now." They've just reached the trees when they hear something crack behind them, all three of them freezing as they listen.
"Um, bros, was that either of you?"
"No," Heath and Ricardo say at once... when something heavy drops on Heath's shoulder and he yells out, all but pushing Zack aside as he races past Ricardo, disappearing into the fog surrounded trees. "Heath!" the ring announcer calls out, voice shaking as he turns to find Zack staring at him, equally as freaked out.
The two stand back to back, breathing heavily as they listen, watch as well as they can for something, anything. Anyone. "I don't like this, bro..."
"Me neither," Ricardo whispers, wishing he could see through this fog, figure out what's going on. He'd never felt so unsafe in Alberto's grounds in all of the time he'd spent here... They're still standing like that, waiting for the fog to subside, when something curls around the younger man's ankle, his whole body freezing as he looks down. What little he can see, it looks like a pale, mottled hand is wrapped around him, and his heart races as he digests this.
Zack blinks as Ricardo suddenly lets out a strangled yell, kicks at something, sending leaves and twigs all over Zack's shoes, and takes off at a run as well, leaving him all alone with no clue where he's at or what's going on. He stares ahead blankly, shaking his head in disbelief. "Screw this, bro," he finally decides, not wanting to wait for something to happen to him as well. Deducing the base direction that the other two had gone, he heads that way too, breathing heavily as he dodges trees and whatever else seems to be lurking in the unending fog, wanting to find everyone and return to the house where it's safe and warm.
Heath is leaning against a tree, struggling to catch his breath, cursing every second of this. "See if I ever come back here for Halloween, damn place is haunted or somethin'!" he grouses, eyes widening when he thinks he hears footsteps approaching. Cursing hotly, he steps back onto the path and continues to run, until he just catches sight of something that causes him to skid to a sharp stop. "No way," he mutters, backtracking and, after glancing around to make sure that nothing's lurking to grab him, he approaches a pile of rocks and leans down, picking up a red rose that had been just visible thanks to a small solar light that had apparently been hidden by some leaves until wind blew them away, revealing just enough of its base that Heath could see it through the fog.
Pieces beginning to fall into place for him, he shakes his head and walks slowly forward, keeping an eye out for more of the lights, which seem to be leading him out of here, the ginger collecting the roses as he goes.
Zack's first hint that things aren't exactly what they seem comes when he is walking under a tree, calling out for Dolph again, and something pink smacks him in the face, causing him to jerk and instinctively swat at it, only stopping when he realizes that it's a ribbon now tangled around his wrist. He stares at it before looking up, finding a similar blue one tangled along the branch. "Well, well, what do you know?" he smirks, plucking them from the wood and wrapping it around his hand, Zack smirking as the amount grows the further he goes, forming a weird kind of fingerless glove as he holds onto it.
Ricardo is near tears by now, his hands shaking almost to the point that he thinks he's about to pass out from all of this, too breathless from running to even try calling out for his former employer now. Despite knowing these grounds better than he'd known most of the apartments he'd lived in in the past, he has no earthly idea where he's at, the fog confusing him and leaving him all the more frightened... It all works against him until he trips, unable to catch his balance as he hits the ground, bracing the fall with his hands. It's a rattling impact and now he's covered in leaves and branches, adding to his misery as he looks up dimly, considering just staying here until it's morning or someone finds him... somehow.
But unable to just lay still, give up fighting, still unsure and worried about what had happened to Alberto, he struggles to sit up and scrubs at his face, mixing dirt with the tear tracks on his cheeks. He sniffs and starts to stand up when he freezes, noticing a glow through the fog. Releasing a shuddering breath, he inches forward and brushes aside some leaves that had fallen upon the base of the gleam when he'd hit the ground. His eyes widening as, when he uncovers it, he realizes that a small Mexican flag had also been knocked over, recognizing it immediately as similar to the ones that adorn the ringposts during Alberto's matches. He closes his eyes and holds it to his chest, relief and some aggravation mixing together in his voice as he breathes out, "El Patron..."
Finding his way to his feet a few minutes later, he continues to trudge on, no longer feeling the desperate fear that had all but paralyzed him earlier, stopping here and there to pick up the flags that the Mexican aristocrat had scattered along the buried lights to show him the way through the fog.
Sure enough, Wade is waiting at the end of the trail, Heath's hands full of various colored roses as he meets up with him, raising an eyebrow at him. "That's an awful lot of work to go through if you just wanted me to give you flowers," he drawls as he holds them out to the Brit, smirking when he takes them and pulls him closer in one motion. "You freaked me out, you jerk."
"That was the point," he mumbles, kissing Heath's forehead. "Happy Halloween, ginger."
"Happy Halloween," Heath grouses, giving up on his lingering annoyance a few moments later when Wade tickles him slightly with the soft feel of the rose petals, leaning up and kissing him.
Zack stumbles out of the copse of trees, shaking his head and laughing as one last ribbon gets snagged in his hair, reaching up to pluck it out of the branches and wrapping it along his wrist. Looking back down, he watches as Dolph saunters away from a tree and approaches him, smirking. "Lose something, bro?" he asks, holding up the pile of ribbon wrapped around his fist. Ziggler chuckles and takes his hand, carefully beginning to unwrap the pink and blue mess, when Zack grips his face and forces him to look up. To Dolph's relief, he doesn't look as angry as he could, grinning wryly. "So whose brilliant idea was all this?"
"Del Rio's, partially," he mumbles. "We know how much you all like horror movies, so we thought maybe..."
Zack rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, watching them is a lot different than living them, bro." As soon as his hand's free, he snags Dolph and pulls him closer, raising his eyebrows. "Now to put these ribbons to good use," he smirks, staring at Dolph's bleach blond hair, a different kind of terror thrilling down Ziggler's spine as he realizes just how he's going to pay for the last half an hour.
"Oh, boy," he mumbles, Zack's fingers already deep in his hair.
Ricardo has a large pile of Mexican flags in his arms as he finally finds the exit, the fog not bothering him as much now that he knows that this was all some sort of Halloween mischief by his former employer, his head cleared enough for him to recognize where he's at in the grounds. He sniffs faintly and picks up one last flag before looking up to find Alberto a few feet away, watching him. Trudging out of the trees, he joins the older man and just stands there, staring at him through the misty darkness. "I thought something happened to you," he finally mutters, handing over the flags to the older man.
Alberto immediately drops the flags on a nearby tree stump that he's been meaning to have removed, relieved for its presence now as he turns back to Ricardo and cups his face, immediately feeling guilty and worried as he takes in dried dirt streaks on his face. "What happened, Ricardo?"
"I fell," he admits, leaning into his touch with a vague sigh. "But if I hadn't, I might not have noticed the flags and I probably never would've gotten out of there..."
Alberto feels even worse as he wraps his arms around the younger man and holds him close, noticing how he's still shaking a bit. "Lo siento, Ricardo. I didn't mean to scare you so badly, I thought it'd be a temporary fright and then you'd have a little bit of fun with it once you saw the flags. I didn't consider..." Ricardo mutters something that Alberto can't deduce since his face is flush against his chest and he pulls away slowly. "What did you say?"
"I said next time you get the urge to do something like this, we should work together on it against the others, then everyone wins," he mumbles, looking up at the Mexican aristocrat with a weary smile, some of Alberto's tension easing as he brushes pointlessly at the marks on his face.
"Sounds like a plan." Turning him back to the house, he sighs, already dreading what the housekeeper will say when she sees the state that the younger man is currently in. "Come, Ricardo. I'll help you clean up and then we'll kick those perros out and have some of Sofia's apple cider, hm? Maybe find a... low-key movie... to pass the time until you're relaxed enough for bed."
"Alright," Ricardo nods as his smile grows, becomes more sincere. "I'd like that." As they trudge closer to the house, he looks up. "One question... where did the fog come from?"
Alberto laughs and presses a button, the two of them turning to watch as the fog slowly drifts away, begins to dissipate. "A fog machine, is all," he whispers, squeezing Ricardo.
Sighing, he buries his face in Alberto's neck as they walk the rest of the way to the house, Del Rio leaning over to kiss him. "Happy Halloween, El Patron."
"Happy Halloween," he whispers, smiling also.