See end of chapter for notes.
Merriweather Gabriel was a devious bitch. Cain meant that with every conceivable sense of affection, but she was a devious bitch. And, unfortunately, knew exactly how she was able to trick him. So when Merry called towards the end of October and the conversation turned towards Abel, she easily extracted an agreement from Cain for another week or so with his handful of a nephew. Arrangements were made, and Merry dropped Abel off the next day, smiling and waving goodbye and, as usual, giving Cain an extensive lecture on food, bathing, bed times, and other and sundry babysitting demands.
Within an hour of Merry leaving, Abel announced he was not a boy today, he was a cat. Cain convinced him there were no mice in his apartment, at which point Abel then decided he was no longer a cat he was a dragon, and a new debate began over whether or not Abel was allowed to set anything on fire, dragon or not. Deciding to channel Abel's apparently budding pyromania into something constructive, Cain took him into the garage where he showed him some childish chemistry experiments.
Explaining the chemical construction of fireworks was age appropriate. Right?
Abel decided he was no longer a dragon and was instead "a science."
It wasn't until dinner that Cain learned the whole fiasco had meant that Abel was "practicing for Halloween" and that he now expected his uncle Cain to procure him an appropriate outfit for "being a science."
"…Halloween?" Cain had repeated, beginning to get the feeling that he had been tricked. "Aren't your parents going to do that with you? Trick or treating, right?"
"Nope! Mommy said there'd be better candy with you and you could help me with my costume."
And that was when Cain knew for an absolute fact that Merriweather Gabriel was a devious little bitch, however much he loved her.
Cain developed a new understanding of why Merry had been so incredibly willing to not celebrate Halloween this year within an hour of the sun going down. Abel had reluctantly agreed to not go out trick or treating until after dinner, and had then tried as hard as he could to move dinner forward from the usual six thirty to about four in the afternoon. He'd been wearing his costume all day-a lab coat, goggles, massive, garishly yellow dishwashing gloves and a "helmet" he had created himself. The helmet was, in fact, an upside down colander with elaborate wiring and at least twenty different buttons of the clothing variety that Abel made appropriate noises for when pressed.
When at last Cain finished eating, Abel jumped to his feet and ran to the door, plastic cauldron for collecting candy tight in his hand. Cain insisted again upon holding Abel's hand everywhere, which he put up with shockingly good grace. The threat of not being allowed candy was likely the only reason, but at least he was mostly behaving.
It only took half an hour for Cain to desperately want to go home. Two hours and three "this is the last house of the night, Abel, I mean it"-s later, Cain was ready to scream.
"Abel, your cauldron is almost full," Cain pointed out. "Come on, one more house and then we'll go home. All right?"
"But Uncle Cain…"
"You want to count all your candy, right?" Cain bargained desperately. "It's almost ten o'clock, that's a lot later than you're usually allowed up. Come on, Abel. One more house and then we're going home."
"Fine," Abel sighed, clearly very put upon. "One more house."
"I mean it!" Cain called after him as he ran up the walk of his chosen house. He sighed and rubbed lightly at his temples. "If this is another attempt of Merry's to make me a better babysitter, I swear to God…"
"Uncle Cain, I can't reach the doorbell!"
Cain followed him up the brick walk and rang the doorbell. Waiting for the door to open, he eyed the horribly tacky Halloween decorations in the yard and tried to remind himself this was the last house, definitely the last house. Was it even possible to decorate for any holiday tastefully?
"Trick or Treat!" Abel shouted the instant the door opened, and almost immediately added "You're the guy my uncle was flirting at!"
Cain instantly turned back around and found that, depressingly, Abel was perfectly correct. Riffael Raffit was standing in the doorway, looking much less disheveled than the last time they had met, and holding a tray of candy. Riff stared at him a moment longer (Cain had forgotten how tall the other man was) before laughing and bending down to look Abel in the eye. "It's Abel, isn't it?" he asked, before offering the tray to him. "Happy Halloween. What are you dressed as?"
"Science!" Abel informed him, and grinned upon seeing the full sized candy bars.
"Pick one," Riff warned him immediately. "I have to save some for the other kids. Though," he added, smiling at Cain, "Your uncle could have one, too, if he likes." With as much dignity as he could manage, Cain selected a candy bar and stuck it in his pocket.
"I'm surprised you remembered his name," he said, crossing his arms. "It's Riff, isn't it?"
"Yes. And your'e Cain," Riff said, and shrugged. "It was unusual-Cain and Abel. You remember one and you're bound to remember the other." Cain bit his tongue against asking if the blond remembered his name or his nephew's.
"I thought you said you lived in London," Cain finally said, wishing Abel would make his decision already.
"Suburb. I count it, though I probably shouldn't. I'm trying to sell the house anyway-it's too big for just me," Riff explained.
"Then why'd you buy it?" Cain asked, not realizing it wasn't really any of his business until Riff frowned faintly. "Sorry, you don't-"
"It's a complicated answer, that's all," the blond assured him. "And I've only met you twice, so I hope you'll excuse me not telling the story."
"You didn't call, either," Cain said. Did that sound accusatory? Sulky? Oh God, he probably sounded petulant, that was even worse…
The tips of the man's ears went red. "I… Sorry. There's no real excuse for that, I suppose. I mean…"
"I told you you shouldn't have been mean to him!" Abel said abruptly, finally grabbing up a bar of pure chocolate. "Told you."
"Abel," Cain started, but Riff laughed again.
"No, your uncle's right. It's my own fault. He scared me a bit, you see," he confessed to the child. "But I'm big enough I ought to have admitted that. You see?"
Cain suspected the question was for him, but didn't say anything. Abel pondered this for a moment. "No," Abel finally decided. "Because that doesn't make sense either because Uncle Cain's not scary."
Riff shook his head. "He knows what he wants, and I'm not sure if I do," he explained. "And that can be a bit scary."
"Well then, you're stupid." Abel informed him and crossed his arms.
"I think we'd better get home," Cain broke in, tugging Abel back with both hands on his shoulders. "It's getting late, Abel, and your mom is going to come pick you up tomorrow afternoon."
"Okay…" Abel whined, and suffered himself to be led off the porch and down the walk. "One more house-" he started to plead, but Cain shook his head.
"No. I mean it, Abel, we have to get home."
If Cain had half-hoped Riff would come after them (which he had not because that was silly and romantic) he was disappointed. The car ride home was almost silent, Abel picking up on Cain's mood and staying nervously quiet. When they got home, Cain confiscated his candy and shooed Abel into the guest room, promising he could count it once his costume was off but not before. The answering machine blinked dully from the kitchen, and Cain hit play with a sigh.
You have (1) new message.
Hello, Cain? It's… It's Riff. I'm afraid I'm taking horrible advantage of knowing you're not home, but I… wanted to say I was glad to see you tonight. If you… still want to get lunch together on Friday…? Well, dinner might be better, because work, but… call me. …Please.
To play this message again, press five. To save this message to the archives, press seven.
Cain couldn't quite suppress a grin, and ran a hand through his hair. Well. That was mildly less humiliating than he'd thought it would be. He'd call after Merry picked Abel up tomorrow-let him worry for a while. Served him right.
He was humming to himself when Abel came out of his room, hauling himself onto a chair at the dining table. "You're happy," he commented immediately. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Cain laughed. "Here. Go on and sort through you're candy," he suggested, giving his nephew the cauldron. Abel fell upon it eagerly, as Cain watched to make sure Abel didn't actually eat any tonight. When his nephew loudly declared that "that guy" gave out the best candy, Cain grinned and made a mental note to inform Riff of his nephew's approval on Friday.
A/N: Happy Halloween! I've been sick all day and I'm supposed to be writing a paper, but instead I wrote this. Whoops. Hope you like it! The timeline is a little screwy and it's unbeta-ed, so sorry about that. This is a follow up (of sorts) to "Blind Curves on Bike Paths." Still pretty much plotless... Still basically just fluff.
Thank you very much for reading, and as always please read and review!