AN: A little one-shot for Halloween. Normally I'd be averse to a Haro-perspective, but hopefully it works. In my eyes Haro has some unique Artificial Intelligence and sees himself as having a personality, so I wouldn't put it past him to get jealous.
I didn't have a specific Dylandy in mind when writing this, so Neil fans can interpret this how they wish, and Lyle fans (all 10 of us out there...) can do the same.
This isn't writer's block relief...it was originally supposed to be a bonus mini-story for my current story, but there's no way I'm getting that chapter up in time.
Curious Case of the Haro-Lantern
There was something strange happening aboard Ptolemy. Everyone had been acting strangely, and Haro didn't know what to make of it. It seemed like all hands aboard the ship, from what he could tell, had been spending time hiding away in their rooms, working on something they only referred to as "costume". He knew it was a noun, and he knew what it meant – Lockon had explained it once, years before - but he had no idea why anyone aboard the ship would need such a thing. They already had uniforms, flight-suits, and casual clothing…why would they need costumes? He'd tried to consult Ptolemy's data, but the informational system was down for maintenance.
Costumes weren't the only strange occurrence on-board. The lounge and cafeteria had slowly been cluttered up with things that Haro had never seen before. Giant strings of cotton were stretched over tables and coffee machines and chairs, and there were stickers everywhere that had pictures of unpleasant things on them, like the things Feldt had once called 'ghosts', and the red oozy stuff that had come out of Lockon's eye when he'd had his accident. Haro didn't like it. It was confusing and strange, and nothing like this had ever happened before. There was no one to explain the strange happenings to him, either. Everyone was busily working away at their 'costume', Lockon was out on a mission to Earth, and every time that Haro tried to ask Feldt, she laughed, patted his head, and said "It's Halloween, silly!"
He had no idea what Halloween was.
Haro was alright with slow discovery of the concept of Halloween though. He could take in information here and there and piece together that it was a holiday from Earth, that it involved sweets, and that it was meant to be scary. He was starting to be content with learning bits and pieces here and there until one day, it showed up.
The pumpkin.
The first time he'd seen it, Feldt had been carrying it carefully down the hall. It was round and orange, and from the way she held it he could tell that it was probably decently heavy. It was the same way she'd always held him, only he didn't cause her small frame so much strain. He'd hovered behind her, then in front of her, curiously questioning her about it. He'd tried to get closer to it to register more information about it, but it had earned him a sharp reprimand from Feldt!
"Haro, stay back! I can't see and I don't want to drop it! It took me weeks to be able to get a pumpkin into space!"
What ridiculousness! It looked like a saggy, faceless version of him with an odd hook on its head! It couldn't talk or flash its eyes, or even move! It didn't do anything, yet it was the center of attention for the rest of the day as the rest of Ptolemy's crew stopped in to marvel over it.
No, he didn't like the pumpkin.
He could have gotten over his upset at the imposter if that had been the end of its intrigue. The next day however, he was faced with a new surprise.
They'd given it a face.
Not a normal face, drawn on or painted on, or even a useful one like his, with wires and lights. No, they'd carved a face into it. A smirking, ugly, face. He'd hovered in front of it, staring it down and trying to understand exactly why someone would do such a thing, when he'd been distracted by a piercing squeal!
"No Haro! You might knock it over!"
Mileina Vashti had promptly snatched him out of the air and put him back in the hallway after that, lecturing him about being careless and warning him about what would happen if he accidentally destroyed the 'Jack-O-Lantern'.
That's right.
They'd given it a name.
Haro was angry. Not only did the thing look like a sad mockery of him, but it also now had a face and a name, and from all appearances, it was loved above all else on-board the ship. He really didn't like the pumpkin. He spent the rest of the day hiding in his charging station in Lockon's room, wishing that the man was there to explain everything to him. Lockon always remembered him, and Lockon was never mad at him. Lockon wasn't here though. There was only Haro.
Finally, the next day, it was time for the Halloween celebration. As much as he tried, Haro couldn't stay hidden away in Lockon's room. He wanted to see what all the commotion was, and wanted to understand the 'Halloween' phenomena better. It was interesting, after-all.
Ptolemy had been turned into some kind of strange monster-world. There were things roaming the ship that he'd only heard of when Lockon told him stories, or when Feldt had tried to explain the ominous wall-stickers to him. As he looked closer, he realized that all of his friends were hiding behind masks and hats, face-paint and strange teeth. These must have been the costumes.
He followed them to the cafeteria and watched curiously as they filed in one-by one. Werewolf Allelujah, bunny Marie, pirate Sumeragi, witch Tieria, Feldt with a red hooded cape, Setsuna with an Exia mask, and the list continued on. Finally, when it seemed like there wasn't anyone else coming, he floated into the room. They were excitedly chattering about something, and although he could pick up a word here and there, he couldn't see what it was! He bounced off one of the tables and tried to get a closer look, but his view was obscured by low-hanging decorations and tall hats. "Let Haro see! Let Haro see!" He insisted while trying to push through the mess of decorations unsuccessfully and ending in him being stuck. Normally everyone was more than willing to help him if he was stuck, but they weren't paying any attention. "Help! Help!" He said, alarmed. They still didn't pay any attention though. They were all watching the front of the room curiously and chatting amongst themselves, completely ignoring his pleas for help amidst cottony spider-webs and plastic streamers. He'd have to get out of the mess himself. He steadied himself as much as he could and gave one large, straining push of his invisible thrusters and tore his way out of the jungle-like mess that the ceiling had become. He took a moment to regain his balance, then finally looked to see what all the commotion was about.
"Alright guys! Here goes!"
Feldt had taken the pumpkin's strange hook-hat off and was leaning over it with a long lighter in her hand. Everyone in the room was intently watching, giving all their attention to the useless orange thing and not even noticing that Haro was still wrapped with streamers and cotton.
Ever since that pumpkin had shown up, no one had cared about Haro.
They didn't notice Haro at all.
It was all the pumpkin's fault.
Haro gave a little robotic shake of anger, and before anyone could stop him, he shot towards the smirking pumpkin and smashed straight through it! Pieces of pumpkin exploded everywhere, falling into food, hitting the floor, and making Feldt jump back in shock. He bounced on what was left of the pumpkin, making sure that the smirking imposter would never rise again. It wasn't until Feldt's voice cut through the squishing of the gourd beneath him that he even remembered anyone else was in the room.
"Haro…."
He'd never heard Feldt's voice like that before. Ever. He stopped bouncing and looked silently around the room. Everyone was staring at him, either in shock or anger. He didn't know why. Didn't they understand? The pumpkin was dead!
"Why Haro!?" Mileina demanded. "Do you know how hard Feldt worked to get a pumpkin on Ptolemy!?"
What was a robot to do in this scenario? There were no suggestions in his programming to explain what had happened. They'd forgotten him, and he'd gotten mad and destroyed the pumpkin, and now what?
"Don't be so hard on him."
Haro swivelled instantly as a familiar voice came from the back of the room. "Lockon?" Haro questioned. His mission wasn't supposed to end for another three days! Sure enough though, the brunette Meister made his way through the costumed crowd.
"But the Jack-O-Lantern…" Feldt said, dejectedly looking at one of the pieces of the former pumpkin. "Haro's never done anything like this before…I don't understand it."
That made Lockon laugh. "It's pretty simple." He said, picking Haro up and pulling bits of pumpkin-soaked streamer off him. "He was jealous."
"Jealous? Why?" Mileina piped up.
He smiled. "I'm not sure. Haro, why did you smash the pumpkin?" he asked, raising Haro to eye-level. Haro came back with the only response that made sense.
"Forgot Haro, Forgot Haro!" He chirped sadly, ears flapping half-heartedly.
Lockon laughed. "Don't be ridiculous Haro, you aren't forgotten. Here, look. I think I have the solution to everyone's problem." He said, slipping his travel bag off his shoulder and rummaging through it. "When I found out I was coming back in time for the Halloween party, I stopped and grabbed these at the orbital train station…"
"What are they? What are they?" Haro bounced curiously as Marie whisked away what was left of the Jack-O-Lantern.
"Our costumes!" Lockon grinned as he pulled out a set of Jack-O-Lantern stickers and a little stem-hat, followed by a black cape. Haro looked from the stickers to the hat and cape and back to Lockon.
"Our costumes?" he questioned as Lockon handed the stickers to Feldt.
Lockon nodded. "Mhm. How can I be the headless horseman without a Jack-O-Lantern?"
Haro had a costume? Lockon remembered Haro? He spun happily before being held in place by Feldt as she applied his sticker mouth and slipped the little hat onto him. "Haro-Lantern! Haro-Lantern!" he chirped excitedly.
"Exactly. Everyone knows Haro-Lanterns are better than pumpkins anyways." Lockon agreed.
After that, the party returned to normal. Feldt lightened up once the evidence of the pumpkin had been cleaned up and Haro had said sorry. Once Lockon had a chance to go change into his costume, Haro was more than happy to play his part of the Haro-Lantern, especially with the promise of the story of the headless horseman afterwards.
At the end of the day, Lockon had been right.
The Haro-Lantern was much more loved than any piddly pumpkin.