Luminescence
I'm a lazy slob, I know. I've neglected Parapsychology, I know. I have at least ten fanfics still in production, I know. But, for your reading enjoyment, I have handcrafted this fine little one-shot.
Post EW, 3x4 Halloween fic. A treat, rather than a trick, I believe.
It was a time of year that had once been almost forgotten by the people of the Earth Sphere, who had so long been subjugated by war and dissent. But ever since peace had returned to all peoples, and hope had been restored in all hearts, tradition could be carried out once again. There was a chill in the air that raced along the block, kicking up dry leaves and sending them whirling through the ever-darkening night sky. The street was growing pitch dark quickly, the lamps overhead sputtering on as twilight fell across the land. Houses lit up like magic, the colors of the season casting wild shadows on the lawn. Little hobgoblins scurried and capered, while witches hefted their spindly sticks for a midnight ride. But there was one house in particular on Corsica Drive that they were most drawn to, one that always promised to be the best on the block.
It was a little Cape tucked away at the end of the street, a neat little house that was always well kept and pretty. The adults of the neighborhood knew it to be the home of a pair of legendary heroes who not only preserved the world for future generations, but also never failed to lend a pair of hedge clippers or babysit on short notice. They were intellectual men with strong, moral values and the pride of their community. The children all knew the Bartons as the most impressive house for any major decorative holiday, Halloween and Christmas. They would all get anxious as soon as the first leaves on the maple tree at the corner of Corsica and Peacemillion started to turn, for they knew that Halloween wasn't far off and the great Barton pumpkin either.
The great Barton pumpkin was a neighborhood tradition that had started since the Bartons moved to Corsica Drive. Some of the teenagers on the block now too old for tricks and treats still recall the first Barton pumpkin. It had all started when the Bartons were newlyweds, first moved into their little cottage, back in AC 201…
~*^*~
Quatre Barton sighed, setting down his violin. Trowa was taking too long, he decided. It never took this long to go grocery shopping, he should have gone instead. Doubt and fear began to gnaw at the back of his mind. What if something had happened? Their car wasn't in the best of conditions, it was a used model that they'd bought from Lady Une after retiring from Preventers, it could have easily broken down, or failed in the middle of an intersection. Quatre began to fret, tugging at his duckling blonde hair. He'd only been married three months, he couldn't be a widower just yet! He had great aspirations! He and Trowa were going to have Catherine move in with them. They were going to celebrate the holidays with the other pilots, their first Thanksgiving, their first Christmas. He glanced at the clock desperately, why was it taking so long?
Just then, the familiar green Ford pickup pulled into the driveway, a tall form jumping from the driver's side and reaching across the seat for the groceries. Quatre just about ripped the front door off of its hinges, standing there with a wild-eyed look on his face.
"What took you so long? I got worried!" he cried, trying to make the decision as to whether or not it would be appropriate to tackle his husband and embrace him while he was carrying an armful of groceries. He decided not.
Trowa laughed, ivy green eyes tearing from the effort. "I was gone for five minutes, Cat. You worry far too much."
The taller young man breezed past his partner into the kitchen, setting down the plastic shopping bags and about-facing, heading back to their truck for a second load. Quatre watched with perplexity as Trowa struggled to maneuver a very large, very orange pumpkin out of the passenger side and into the house.
"What in the world is that?" he asked, frowning as Trowa struggled his way into the kitchen with the gargantuan squash. The auburn-haired ex-pilot deposited his burden on the counter, heaving with the effort.
"Man, and I thought the controls for Heavyarms were bad. That, dear Quatre, is a pumpkin. One cannot have proper Halloween without a pumpkin," he explained.
Quatre frowned. "Whoa, wait. Halloween? Why haven't I heard of this?"
Trowa raked his hand through his long bangs. "It's an American thing, I guess. Duo told me about it. Apparently tonight's the night, so we get the honor and pleasure of carving this bad boy."
The aquamarine-eyed Arabian glanced over at the calendar. "I don't see what's so special about the thirty-first of October. It's just another day."
The phone conveniently rang at that point, cutting off further conversation. Trowa slid across the wood laminate floor and hit the speaker. "Barton residence."
Duo Maxwell's leering visage crackled on the viewscreen. "Yo, Happy Halloween, guys!"
"Hello, Duo, your timing couldn't be better. Quatre needs this holiday explained to him while I unpack groceries, if you'd be so kind," Trowa stated casually, trying to hunt down the perishables and get them into the refrigerator.
Duo sighed, toying with the end of his braid. "Won't be the first time I've had to give this lecture today. Heero and Wufei needed it spelled out for 'em too. Least you had some idea, Tro-man."
"It helps to have grown up with a pack of mostly American mercenaries."
Duo cracked his knuckles enthusiastically. "All right, it's a very simple concept, Q. So simple, in fact, that it only took Wufei three explanations to get it…a new record for Chang, I must say. I'll let Tro-man give you the whole background, the pagan rituals and the feasts for the dead and all of that good stuff on his own time. All you need to know is that people, kids mostly, dress up in costumes and go door-to-door for candy…trick or treating, you know? So when the doorbell rings, you give the little grubs candy and shut the door. And watch out for cruel pranks. Halloween is notorious for houses getting egged and toilet papered…I should know, I was one of those little miscreants."
"So what about the pumpkin?" Quatre asked, accepting some proffered candy corn from his partner and munching on it absently.
"Ah, jack-o-lanterns, the symbol of the holiday. You scoop out the guts of the pumpkin, gouge it with a knife, and stick a lit candle in it. Tro, you better handle all the technical carving duties."
"I was planning on it. Managed to wrestle a good knife off of Cathy just for the occasion," Trowa answered, ducking behind the counter for a large silver bowl.
Duo ran his fingers through his bangs absently. "I think that's everything. I'll call you later in the week and see how you made out…in the Halloween sense, not in the tonsil hockey sense. Now if you boys will excuse me, I left my pumpkin alone in Carving 101 with my favorite katana-wielding nutcases."
Quatre glowered. "Well, that was no help. I'm still confused."
Trowa sighed, taking a slender knife out of the wooden rack and flipping it into the air, catching it by the blade expertly. "You won't be, trust me on this. Now go put something scrubby on, I don't want you complaining when you get pumpkin guts all over yourself."
Quatre grumbled something under his breath but did what he was told. Trowa shook his head; amused that someone with a background such as Quatre's could have no idea about so simple a concept as carving a pumpkin.
~*^*~
"So…what do you want me to do?" he asked, watching from over the lip of the counter as Trowa rammed the knife into the top of the squash, sawing a neat little hole around the stem, wiggling this until it pulled up. He sliced the long stringy bits off of the chunk of pumpkin and set the slimy portions in the silver bowl before nudging the pumpkin closer to his partner.
"You get to take the gunk out. I recommend your hands, spoons don't really work too well in getting much of it out," Trowa responded, doodling something on a piece of paper.
Quatre wrinkled his nose in distaste. "You want me to put my hands in that?"
"Yes, Quatre. That's part of the process."
"But it's squishy and…slimy…" he protested, poking the innards in disgust.
Trowa rolled his eyes, pushing one sleeve up to just past his elbow, digging into the decapitated vegetable and hauling out a dripping handful of orange viscera, fat white seeds glistening wetly under the kitchen light. These entrails he lovingly dumped into his mate's hands, cruelly smearing a streak of cold orange across his cheek.
"There."
Quatre glowered, a madness lighting in his eyes as if he'd returned to that unholy cockpit for another dance with the devil. He reached into the opening in the gourd, scrabbling desperately, scraping his nails along the sides and the bottom, scratching the inner walls until every slippery strand was aggregated into his tangerine-stained grip. Seeds slid past his knuckles as he hauled his bounty upwards, to the light, the bowels of the mutilated pumpkin almost writhing in his fists. With a wild fury, something of a demonic hellfire that sparked a deep indigo in the unadulterated ocean calm of his still youthful eyes, he lobbed that pulsating wad of carrot-colored slime at the man standing little more than three feet away. It struck with a squishy thud, embedding itself in his long chestnut bangs, sliding wetly down his face.
"Duo was right, this is a fun holiday," Quatre mused innocently, moving to wash his hands in the sink. Trowa picked the sludge from his hair and stretched out a long arm as Quatre passed, grinding whatever he removed into the baby blonde of his love's.
"Well, now that the pumpkin is all cleaned out…" he sighed, observing every inner angle of the melon and finding that it was perfectly disemboweled. He glanced down at the little sketch he'd drawn and hefted the slender knife, gouging it into the flesh. An ominous silence fell over the kitchen as the former Heavyarms pilot hacked away at his pumpkin, a doctor performing grave surgery. Quatre fidgeted, longing to see but unable to from his vantage point. After an infinity of solemnity for the pumpkin in its passing, the surgeon put down his scalpel.
"So now what?" the discolored blonde asked, trying to see the result of his husband's mastery. Trowa went to his shopping bag and pulled out a votive light, a little white candle in a metal tin. He glanced out the window, noting the ever-growing darkness. The tall young man took up his newly carved jack-o-lantern, the votive, and a small book of matches, parading them through the house. Quatre swiftly followed, marching along out to the front porch, upon the top step of which their creation was placed.
"Give me just a minute," Trowa stated, lighting the tiny candle and tucking it in the pumpkin through a small opening. He grinned childishly and led him down the stairs and halfway across the front lawn, where Frankenstein and Igor could better view their monster. The interior of the lit pumpkin glowed brightly, a warm yellow that lit up the darkened porch.
"Trowa! That's incredible, I didn't think that it had any point to it, but…hey wait…is that…?" Quatre inquired, scrutinizing the carving. He shuddered visibly. "Now that's scary."
Trowa chuckled quietly. "Thought that'd get a few shivers out of the neighborhood kids."
Carved upon the jack-o-lantern was a grotesque face, leering viciously out at any passersby, wild eyes narrowed under oddly forked eyebrows, the mouth drawn into a tight grimace.
"It was a toss up between that and Wufei in the midst of a rant. Maybe we'll do that next year."
"Or Heero on an off day. That's a scary one," Quatre suggested as they wandered back inside, waiting for the doorbell to announce the arrival of the first of a long line of ghouls.
Trowa shrugged, slinging an arm around his beloved. "What about a bowl of Cathy's soup?"
"I don't think you're supposed to scare children that much."
~*^*~
A slender, gracefully aged man peered out the window of the little Cape on Corsica Drive, smiling as he adjusted the peacock-plumed turban on his head.
"They're on their way here. Best hurry," he chided, watching the bobbing lights as fisted flashlights and lanterns illuminated the way for the princesses and pirates that were racing towards the house.
"I'm almost done, hold on," came the retort from the kitchen. "This one took a while."
An equally well-aged man stumbled slowly across the floor, carrying an immense pumpkin in his arms. Quatre took up the candle and matches, following the solemn procession. Trowa set their latest creation down on the porch, shielding it from the trick-or-treaters that had gathered to watch the lighting of the Barton Pumpkin. The match was struck, the candle set, and the two neighborhood elders strode across the lawn to admire their work.
"Best one yet, Trowa. Best one yet," Quatre sighed, resting a weary head on his husband's shoulder. The jack-o-lantern was an intricately carved portrait of the entire Gundam family, from Heero to Lady Une, Mariemaia to Hilde, and the five scientists as well. The little pumpkin Quatre, perpetually fifteen, grinning brightly, goggles on his brow, stood side-by-side with his pumpkin Trowa. The children let out cheers of approval before racing up the steps, eager to claim their prize.
And to this day, though the Bartons have long since passed on, the people of Corsica Drive will walk by the lot where the Cape house once stood and place a tiny jack-o-lantern on the lawn, the flesh branded with 03 and 04 to commemorate the two pilots who illuminated their lives with their bravery and their kindness alike.
~*^*~
Sappy and squishy, yes, but I'm not one for horror. Corny as this may sound, have a happy but relatively safe Halloween, all. And ten points and a baggie of candy corn to anyone who carves a Gundam Wing pumpkin! Mine's so going to be disgruntled Wufei, I know it right now. Disgruntled Wufei pumpkin!