"No way."
"Come on, Charity, get into the spirit of things, will ya?"
"Not a chance."
This was not happening. There was no way in hell Vanessa was getting her to dress up. The vet was lucky that she had even agreed to go trick or treating with the kids in the first place. She would not be caught dead in a costume as well.
"Please? Moses and Johnny would love it," Vanessa batted her eyelids sweetly, using every trick she had in her arsenal to get Charity into the witch's costume lying on the bed in front of them.
"They won't care what I'm wearing babe, they'll be more interested in running around, pretending to be Ninjas," Charity waved her hand dismissively, refusing to be swayed.
Vanessa shook her head, "They're Power Rangers actually."
Rolling her eyes Charity replied, "Whatever, same thing innit really?"
"No, they're completely diff-", Vanessa stopped herself mid-sentence realising what Charity was doing, "-oi! You will not distract me."
Doing her best to look innocent, Charity shrugged, "Worth a try, wasn't it?" She really didn't want to dress up. If it was anyone else suggesting she dressed up she would have told them where exactly they could stick the costume, but this was Vanessa and she had found out a long time ago that upsetting Vanessa wasn't fun.
Vanessa knew that she was going to have to pull out the big guns if she was ever going to get Charity into the costume she had bought her. A predatory look fell across her face and she slowly stared stalking towards Charity who, noticing the glint in Vanessa's eyes, swallowed heavily and started to back up until she bumped into the wall and couldn't retreat any further.
"Baaabe-"
"No."
"But-"
"No, Ness. It's not happening."
"I'll make it worth your while, I promise," By now Vanessa had Charity pinned completely to the wall and was slowly kissing up her neck.
Melting into the vet's kisses, Charity panted, "Worth my while how exactly?" The second Vanessa's lips made contact with her neck she knew she was fighting a losing battle, but she would be damned if she was going to make it easy for her girlfriend. Leaning forward, Vanessa whispered into Charity's ear, smirking at the little groan that the woman let out at her words.
"And they call me sneaky," Charity ground out, still slightly dazed from Vanessa whispered promises.
Chuckling, Vanessa leant forward once more, pecked Charity on the lips and mumbled "Love ya, babe," against them before quickly leaving the room before Charity could change her mind.
Two hours later, Vanessa and a very reluctant Charity were pulled out of the house by their two excited little boys. Vanessa in her devil costume and Charity in her witch costume. As if sensing Charity's desperate desire to not see another living soul that night, from around the corner came a harassed looking Cain with Kyle and Isaac.
Clapping eyes on him, Charity immediately tensed up, "No way, not worth it," she muttered, turning to re-enter the house. Before she could take more than a step, Vanessa's hand clamped her hand around the other woman's upper arm and pulled her back around to face the approaching man.
"Hey up, you finally embracing your inner-self are ya?" he sniggered at Charity.
"Oh hardy-ha. And what have you come as? Because I don't think 'pillock' counts as a Halloween costume when you are one every day of your life."
"Control your woman will you, Vanessa?" Cain retorted, knowing full well that his comment would rile Charity up even more.
"You little bast-"
"Okay, that's enough don't you think?" Vanessa ground out, motioning to the boys stood around them, all listening intently. She knew that this was just how Charity and Cain were with each other, but she didn't feel like having to explain the complicated relationship they had to their kids right now.
"We've gotta go anyway. We're meeting Moira in the pub," and with that Cain bent down, scooped Isaac into his arms and turned towards the pub with Kyle keeping step beside him. He left behind him a seething Charity and an amused Vanessa.
"Can you believe the cheek of him?" Charity asked, shaking her head.
"Oh, come on babe, you're both as bad as each other," Vanessa said, trying her best not to laugh at the look of indignation on Charity's face, "now come on, let's go before Johnny pulls off my arm trying to drag me down the street."
Later than night found an exhausted Vanessa on the sofa, the table in front of her covered in sweet wrappers. Just as she was thinking about clearing up the mess, Charity walked down the stairs and plopped down next to her, flinging her arm around Vanessa's shoulders.
"Christ, I thought the little buggers would never go to sleep. Why did we let them eat so many sweets?"
Turning wide-eyed at Charity, Vanessa scoffed, "We?! I think you'll find that I tried to stop them scoffing their faces at least an hour ago."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. It's Halloween int'it, and you were being a spoil sport."
"Well, excuse the shit out of me, Miss Spooky. I forgot that you were Halloween's biggest fan," Vanessa grumbled, rolling her eyes at her girlfriend.
"Hey! Speaking of loving Halloween, didn't you promise me something to make my Halloween worthwhile?" Charity may have been tired, but she wasn't dead yet and there was no way she wasn't cashing in on Vanessa's promise from earlier in the night.
Standing up, the vet looked down at the landlady, "Do you want a trick or a treat?" Throwing a wink over her shoulder she walked out of the room and up the stairs.
Quickly pushing herself up off the sofa Charity shouted after her girlfriend, "Treat, please," before giving chase, the sound of both women's laughs echoing down the stairs behind them as they both ran into their bedroom and slammed the door shut behind them.