Disclaimer: I don't own anything below the title.
A/N: My first kid!McFly fic! This was specifically made for kbeto, so I hope you like it! Sorry, this is up a bit later than I wanted it to be.
Going Down
"Bye Mum!" Dougie waved frantically at the blue minivan that drove away before running inside the elementary school with the rest of the costumed children.
Yes, today is Halloween.
And for Halloween, Dougie dressed up as a cute little golden retriever. He didn't like his costume that much. He preferred to dress up as a Power Ranger, but a Power Ranger costume would be too big for him, so the only costume small enough to fit a petite kindergartener like him happened to be the dog costume.
And he hated it.
Gripping his pillowcase tightly, he made his way to Mrs. Cole's room quickly, before anyone could get a glance at what little Dougie Poynter was wearing.
"Hello, Dougie! My, you look absolutely adorable!" Mrs. Cole cooed as she pinched Dougie's cheek lovingly. Dougie smiled and leaned into her touch a little.
It wasn't a mystery why everyone loves Mrs. Cole. Not only does she sing in class to entertain the kids, she's a looker as well.
"Thank you, Mrs. Cole!" Dougie giggled adorably, causing the young teacher to giggle.
Dougie walked over to his table where the only kid that's present is Harry Judd. In none other than a Power Ranger costume. Dougie huffed audibly.
"What?" Harry looked up from the coloring book he was scribbling in and raised an eyebrow at the young blonde.
"I wanted to be a Power Ranger," Dougie pouted. He didn't like to be a pouter, but that he couldn't wear what he wanted for Halloween set him off.
Harry could see this and smiled sympathetically. "You know, there's still a way you can be a Power Ranger!"
Dougie giggled excitedly immediately and bounced up and down on his tiny chair, his dog ears flapping around like bird wings.
"How?!"
"You see, I'm not exactly a Power Ranger. All I'm wearing is the suit, boots, and gloves."
Harry stood up from his chair and twirled around to show Dougie his costume. Dougie looked at it and got into his dog role very intensely by sticking his tongue out while he smiled widely.
"But I still look like one, right?"
Dougie nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah; anyone can tell when you have the suit on!"
"Right! So, I want you to have the helmet." Harry reached under the table and patted his hand around on the floor, in search for his red Power Ranger helmet. "Huh, where is it?"
Suddenly, the table jumped. Dougie gasped and backed away from the table, shuddering like a Chihuahua.
"BOO!"
The two boys screamed and crawled away from their respected table, hiding behind the first thing they came upon.
Crawling from underneath the table revealed a boy with Harry's Power Ranger helmet on. It didn't look quite right, since the boy had a Buzz Lightyear suit on.
"Oi, Danny, give me my helmet back!" Harry groaned angrily once he realized who was the 'monster' that caused the table to jump at them.
Dougie, however, giggled uncontrollably. He always laughed at everything Danny does, because he's his best friend. Unlike Harry, who is Danny's worst enemy.
"Only if you tell me where you hid my Buzz Lightyear helmet," Danny said in his deepest Buzz Lightyear voice - which wasn't very deep - as he posed heroically.
Harry rolled his eyes and walked casually behind Mrs. Cole's desk, retrieving the said helmet from underneath it.
"Alright, hand it over," Harry sighed. Danny did as he was told, his curly locks shaking as he took off the helmet. "At last! My precious helmet! Now I can breathe properly!"
Dougie began to giggle uncontrollably again. "Danny! You're on Earth! There's fresh air here, unlike where Buzz Lightyear lives!"
Danny, never breaking character, gives Dougie a crazed look. "Are you mad? I could've sworn I landed on Uranus!"
Harry, rolling his eyes again, placed his hand on Danny's shoulder. "You need to stop. You're killing him."
Danny sighed heavily and took his off his helmet in exasperation. "You're such a party pooper, Harry." He made his way to the chair next to Dougie and tried to calm the dog-dressed boy down.
"I don't know how you can be so friendly towards him. He's a twat!"
Dougie gasped and covered his mouth with his paw. "Danny! That's a bad word!"
"So? My dad says it around us all the time. I'm bound to learn that word eventually."
Dougie jutted his lip out in concentration, considering his answer. "I... I guess you're right. But I'm not gonna say that word."
Danny smiled and patted Dougie's fur covered head.
"Good boy."
"Are you coming to trick-or-treat around my neighborhood this year, Danny?" Dougie asked excitedly, jumping up and down like a bunny. Unlike most schools, their school decided to make Halloween a half day. And again, unlike most schools, teachers passed out candy to kids that passed by the halls. Dougie, Danny, and Harry already filled their buckets half way up.
Danny grabbed hold of his head, trying to stop Dougie from bouncing. "You're a dog Dougie, not a bunny! Anyways, I don't think I can," he cringed.
Dougie frowned. "Why not?" Momentarily, Dougie stopped and waved goodbye to Harry who was waving back as he entered his car.
"Twat," Danny whispered under his breath so Dougie couldn't hear. He added, "Don't you remember last year? We had to stop trick-or-treating with our mums at eight. Eight! I sneaked out the window when I was sure my parents were sleeping and I managed to go around another neighborhood with my friend Keith until a cop found me. He told me my parents called and reported me as kidnapped."
Dougie, being slow-minded as he is, was still confused. "So...?"
"My mum won't let me trick-or-treat this year or next year with you. I have to go trick-or-treating at the mall." Danny stuck his tongue out in disgust at the thought. Mall candy was no good. They don't give you full-sized candy bars or left bowls out on the porch so you could take as much as you want even though they say that you can only take one. They gave you fruit snacks and coupons and non-generic brand candies. Danny hated that.
"Oh no, that's horrible. Mall candy is icky," Dougie agreed. He made a bleh sound as he stuck his finger in his mouth to make more of an emphasis.
"Tell me about it."
The two boys finally arrived at their houses, which coincidentally, happened to be right next to each others.
"At least try to have some fun?" Dougie called from his front porch before he entered his home.
"Pfft. That's not possible!" Danny replied with a roll of his eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow to trade candy?"
Dougie snorted and said, "If you've got anything good." And with that, he left.
Danny groaned and slammed his head on his front door. He absolutely hated his mum. And stupid mall candy.
"Stay by my side the entire time, Daniel Jones, you hear me? If you happen to be more than three feet away from me, I will give away all your candy to a kid who deserves it much more than you," Mrs. Jones warned with an accusing finger waggling in front of Danny's face. Danny sighed heavily and nodded slightly. He had no choice. Although he wouldn't mind his mum giving away his mall candy. It would be more of a treat than a punishment.
Mrs. Jones smiled to herself proudly and guided her son down the line circling around the mall that stopped in front of every store. Danny stopped in front of the first store, which happened to be a café. He smiled at the fancy wrapped taffy one of the workers were passing out.
"At least this woman knows what kids like us like." Danny smiled to himself. Although, after the next couple of stores, Danny was handed a mini 100 Grand bar. He scowled at the red colored wrapper.
"I'm so stealing some of Vicky's candy tonight," Danny muttered to himself as he started to pass by the stores in front of the escalators.
"Pay attention, Danny," Mrs. Jones warned as she texted away rapidly on her phone. Danny rolled his eyes at the device his mother held in her hands. He didn't understand why she needed to be on that thing all the time. Did it give her full size Hershey Bars? Danny didn't think so.
Danny gave up trying to look like he enjoyed this and just stuck out his basket towards whoever was giving candy and said 'trick-or-treat' in his most robotic voice. He wasn't about to put anymore effort. He couldn't understand why every other kid was so excited about getting mall candy. He chuckled to himself.
"They're so dumb!"
Finding themselves at the last store on the floor they were on, Danny tugged at his mum's pant leg and proceeded to tug her all the way to the escalator.
A certain boy in a Woody costume caught Danny's attention when they stopped next to the escalator.
Oblivious to Danny staring at him in confused awe, the boy dressed as Woody continued to wave goodbye to those going down the escalator, earning himself giggles and friendly waves and goodbyes back. Danny shook his head. He's never seen anyone so nice.
"Debbie! I haven't seen you in so long!" Mrs. Jones greeted the blonde woman sitting not too far from the boy dressed as Woody. "Who are you?" Danny asked curiously as he followed his mother to the stranger, though it came out to sound obnoxious. Mrs. Jones rolled her eyes and thwacked Danny behind the head without hurting her son so much. "Manners, Daniel."
"I'm Mrs. Fletcher, a high school friend of your mum. I'm also Woody's mum," Mrs. Fletcher pointed at the young blonde boy waving goodbye to people going down the escalator. "It'd be lovely if you could say hello. We just moved here and Tom's a bit shy."
Danny, not one for shying away from making new friends, skipped over to Tom and momentarily watched him tip his hat to a group of young girls dressed as cats who started to giggle boisterously.
"Your mum lied when she said you're shy. You just scored yourself a group of kittens!" Danny cried abruptly as he mewed at the girls dressed as cats, who weren't as fond of Danny.
Tom jumped in his place and looked at Danny with a terrified expression. He wasn't one to make friends. He hasn't even started school yet or learned how to overcome his shyness yet.
"I'm Danny!" He stuck out his hand for Tom to shake with a boyish grin. "And you're Tom, right?"
Tom hesitated as he eyed the mysterious curly-haired boy who appeared from nowhere and his friendly hand. But once realizing he dressed as Buzz Lightyear, he had to trust him. Woody and Buzz Lightyear didn't meet on good terms, as he remembered from the movie, but they became great friends at the end, so why not?
"Yeah," Tom shook his hand with a bashful smile, but warmed up to the brunet when he asked if he could wave goodbye to people by the escalator as well.
Danny loved to make people smile and laugh, and incorporated his outgoing personality into his goodbyes by singing a couple of Springsteen songs and making himself look like an adorable idiot. He realized he loved to make Tom laugh and smile a lot more. It caused the young Woody to giggle infectiously that made a single dimple poke out from one corner of his smile, and Danny grew very fond of that particular face. So he continued to do what he did to see that face more often in the small time they were together, even if it distracted Tom from saying goodbye to anyone going down the escalator.
"Tommy, it's time to go," Mrs. Fletcher called to Tom as she stood up from her seat. "We're going to go around the neighborhood and collect some candy, remember?"
Tom's face lightened up at his mother's words, but frowned when he realized he had to leave Danny.
"Can Danny come?" Tom asked hopefully, his face full of hope.
"He can't sweetie, Danny's not allowed to after what he did last year," Mrs. Jones gave a pointed look towards Danny, who shrunk and hid behind his helmet. Tom sighed and suddenly pulled Danny for a hug. "I might be going to your school at the beginning of December. Promise we'll be friends?"
Danny slowly wrapped his arms around Tom and smiled with a small chuckle. "I promise. You can even trade candy with Dougie and I at his house tomorrow! I'm gonna need to do a lot of trading since all I have is yucky mall candy," Danny stuck his tongue out as he showed Tom the contents of his Halloween bucket when they pulled away.
"Ew, you got 100 Grand bars!" Tom stuck his tongue out as well.
"Tell me about it," Danny rolled his eyes. "I might try to steal from my sister's candy supply when she comes home. She snores like an elephant," Danny laughed, causing Tom to laugh along.
"Let's go, Tom," Mrs. Fletcher called from the escalator. Tom tipped his hat towards Danny in a charming way and at Mrs. Jones, then dashed to the escalators. Danny followed and posed heroically and waved down at Tom, who only laughed again at Danny. Danny tried as hard as he could to remember that face. He loved seeing that smile and lone dimple.
"I'll trade you my Lifesavers for that Hershey bar," Danny sighed, dangling the small packed candy from his hand, his head leaning against his other hand. He was now at Dougie's house, trading the worst kinds of candies you can imagine with Dougie and Harry (whom Danny was rightfully pissed about Dougie inviting over, but Harry is Dougie's friend too, so he had to shut up about that), who had went trick-or-treating together around where Harry lives. And Harry lives in a big house; where all the posh people live, so Danny knew that trading useless candies won't get him anything his friends had.
Harry wrinkled his nose at the sight of it and rolled his eyes, not bothering to answer Danny. Danny already knew Harry's answer with the expression he made. Dougie, feeling awfully bad for the curly-haired boy, smiled sympathetically and handed his Hershey bar over to Danny. "Thanks Dan, I love Lifesavers," Dougie said in a fake happy tone, handing over his Hershey bar to the enlightened brunet. He hated Lifesavers, but he decided not to show any sign of that.
Danny grinned at his best friend and hugged the Hershey bar in joy. "Thanks!"
Harry looked over at Dougie with a disgusted expression that said "Why?". Dougie just shrugged and smiled weakly.
Suddenly, a light knock was heard from the front door. Dougie furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion. "Uh, I didn't invite anyone else... did I?"
Danny's face brightened up even more, bolting up from his spot on the floor, replying to Dougie, "I did!"
Dougie and Harry looked at each other with the same befuddled expressions. "I didn't know Jones had a friend besides you," Harry whispered, making sure Danny wouldn't hear. Although he wasn't sure why he cared if Danny would hear, he would shout it for all he cared.
Dougie rolled his eyes. "Danny's the most friendliest person I know, so of course he'd have more friends besides me," Dougie argued, wrinkling his nose at his friend.
Harry shrugged, sincerely not caring what Dougie really thought of Danny and his friendliness, although he was curious about who the lad had invited.
Danny opened the door excitedly, his expression ecstatic when he sees Tom and his mum. "Tom! Hi! Hi, too, Mrs. Fletcher!" Danny greets politely, yet a bit too loud. Tom smiles at this and kisses his mother goodbye, watching her go back to the car. Danny leads Tom into the living room, Tom's pillowcase filled with candy dragging noisily across the floor.
Dougie and Harry look up from the pile of candy on the floor and smile up at the new face. "Guys, this is Tom. Tom, this is Dougie and Harry," Danny introduces with a friendly smile. Tom looks from Danny's warm and comforting grin to the strange new boys, wearing a shy smile and giving them a small wave.
"Hi Tom, it's nice to meet you," Harry greets, brushing off the imaginary dust off his shoulders and he stands up, holding out his hand to shake. Tom furrows his eyebrows at this, but he shakes Harry's hand anyway. Danny and Dougie look at each other with puzzled expressions, wondering why Harry was being so formal, and mostly Danny, why Harry was being nice to a friend of Danny's.
But they dismissed it. Harry's weird.
Tom and Danny sat next to each other, Danny looking over Tom's pile of candies. He cocks his head to the side, wondering why Tom doesn't have any good candy. Only the mall candy he collected before he met Danny. Besides, he did leave the mall to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood where he lived... right?
"Tom... you have mall candy only..." Danny mused, eyeing Tom with confusion. Tom blushes and whispers in Danny's ear, "I kinda didn't go trick-or-treating after we left the mall."
Danny is astonished by this and gapes at Tom. "W-why? You won't get to do this again 'til next year!"
Tom shrugged, blushing hotly. "Uh, I didn't want to. I felt bad, 'cause you had to go 'round getting icky mall candy, so I didn't get any more."
Danny mulled this over, after realizing Tom's sympathetic actions. He side-hugged Tom tightly and kissed his red cheek sloppily. "Tommy, you're so sweet! Thank you!"
Tom gaped at Danny, but smiled anyway. Dougie smiled at the two while Harry rolled his eyes and tried to hold back the giggles.
The four began their candy trading and Danny earned himself a few good treats, even from the evil Harry himself who decided to give Danny his entire stock of Snickers, saying, "I never liked Snickers anyway," and gave half of that to Tom when he said he'd save Tom's life by taking "those gross peppermint patties off your hands". Throughout the entire candy trade, Dougie learned to love 100 Grand Bars and traded a part of his Twix supply to Danny and Tom for all of their 100 Grand Bars. Danny couldn't shake his mind off the fact that Tom gave up a Halloween for him. Why Danny? Tom probably had better friends before him. Why sacrifice the one day to get all the candy you want for some scumbag? Well, Danny himself knew he wasn't a scumbag, more like a God, but it was the first thing he thought of.
After a few hours of doing nothing but talking and playing video games on Dougie's Xbox, Tom's mother was seen from the front window, knocking on the front door. Tom frowned and sighed. "Can I get some help picking up my candy?" Tom asked as he made his way to the scattered candies on the other side of the living room. Danny smiled and nodded, telling the two others to continue playing their game, to which Harry replied, "Dangit, Dougie, shoot him! That's the only way we'll- no! Dougieeee!" and Dougie replied, "I'm sorry, I'll shoot him next time, I swear!" and Harry groaned, "You say that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME." and then Danny is left to wonder why he became friends with them. He sighs. At least he has Tom.
He scurries over to Tom and helps the blonde pick up the candies he left in a neat pile, indicating that it is his. He looks inside Tom's pillowcase and wrinkles his nose in confusion.
"Tom?"
Tom looks up from gathering his candy. "Yeah?"
"Why do you have a huge bag of different kinds of candies?- wow, there's Milkyway in there!" Danny drops the candies he had in his hands and quickly whipped out the bag he mentioned out of Tom's bag. Tom frowns, at a loss about why he has that there in the first place, but he suddenly remembers, and says, "I lied about earlier."
Danny looks up from the bag of candies and gapes at Tom. "W-what?"
Tom smiles excitedly. "I did go trick-or-treating. But not for me, at least."
Danny sticks his tongue out in confusion. "I still don't know why-"
"I went around the neighborhood and collected a bunch of good candy and put them in a bag. I was going to give it to you earlier, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to give it to ya when Dougie and Harry was looking," Tom explained shyly, scratching the back of his neck in an embarrassed way.
Danny gaped at Tom, still trying to take in the fresh information in his head. He lunged at Tom and hugged him as he pinned him to the floor. "Danny, Dan! S-stahp!" Tom giggles, trying to pry himself from his friend's grasp.
Danny grins widely at his blonde friend and says, "You're the nicest guy I've ever met, ya know that?"
Tom looks up at Danny and chuckles, his dimple poking out at the corner of his lips. Danny admires it and remembers how he made Tom laugh the first time they me. He decides that he really likes that dimple. A lot.
"Thanks Dan," Tom giggles. The two get to work at collecting Tom's candy off the ground and putting it back in the pillowcase, Danny remembering to hide the bag of candies from Tom and put it in his bag.
Danny leads Tom out the door and takes one last look at Tom's dimple again before he and his mum make their way to the car. "I'll see you at school, yeah?" Danny calls out hopefully before Tom enters the car.
"Yeah! See ya, Danny!" Tom calls back, closing the car door, seemingly never wanting to stop waving goodbye to Danny until the car was out of sight.
"He's a good lad, ain't he, Jones?" Harry calls from the living room. Danny leans against the door frame, smiling at his two friends. "Uh, yeah, he's alright," Danny smiles to himself.
"You two seem to like each other a bunch. Gots lots in common. Maybe he plays guitar like you, Dan!" Dougie adds cheerfully, his eyes never tearing away from the TV screen.
Danny smiles contentedly at this and thinks, "Yeah, maybe," because a Buzz Lightyear like him is always going to need his Woody.