Halloween. Once upon a time, Ricardo's favorite holiday, but looking at him now, you never would've guessed it. Alberto stares at him from the kitchen, winking at Sofia as he snags some fruit from the platter she has waiting for when the cake she'd just taken out of the oven is sufficiently cooled to ice, and ignores her exasperated swat at his arm before he leaves the kitchen, joining Ricardo in the living room. "Mi valiente," he says softly, offering a few of the berries when Ricardo looks up.
"Gracias," he responds, chewing on a couple slices of strawberries and blueberries.
"I'm surprised you're not in your costume," Alberto says. "Why not?"
Ricardo shrugs. Rolls some of the seeds around in his mouth before poking his tongue out thoughtfully. "It just seems pointless, I guess," he says. "There won't be any trick or treaters, probably, and all of our friends are in Florida, doing whatever."
He scratches anxiously at his upper arm and Alberto frowns, hating himself just a little for not thinking of the trick or treaters sooner. Scooting closer, he cups Ricardo's face and stares into his dim hazel eyes. "Lo siento, mi valiente. I should have realized. I wasn't thinking about it..." He leans in and softly kisses him. "I hadn't thought about the children we left behind. You spent so many years providing them with candy every Halloween, they loved it and you."
Ricardo sniffs. Wipes at his face. "Yeah, well. Hopefully they find a new place to trick or treat at." He sighs glumly. Alberto presses his forehead to Ricardo's, murmuring to him in Spanish until Ricardo looks a little calmer, his lips twitching upwards. "I'll be back in a minute," he says softly, carefully extracting himself from Alberto's arms.
Alberto watches him go, chuckling to himself as the telltale click of their bedroom door echoes back into the living room. "Mm hmm," he sighs, getting to his feet and making his way to where his own costume has been waiting for this evening. First though, his hands reach for his phone, hitting a number on his contact list. "Hola, you were able to keep it to yourself what's happening tonight, right?" He pauses, listening. "Right. Make sure it stays that way," he says coolly. "But something's going to have to change in our plans... Si, I know it's last minute, just listen for once."
Once off the phone and changed into his Zorro outfit, Alberto makes his way upstairs and grins upon finding Sofia twirling around in her colorful flamenco dancer dress, the skirt billowing out around her legs as she hums and laughs at Ricardo while he watches her fondly. "You both look incredible," he offers, surprising them both.
"Ay," Ricardo says self-consciously, patting at his matador outfit with a grimace. Health issues had taken its toll on him over the last year, leaving him displeased with his appearance, but Alberto thinks he looks incredible, too relieved that he'd survived it all to care about much else. "You look breathtaking, El Patron."
"Gracias," he says softly, leaning in to kiss Ricardo. "Now let's have something to eat and then it should be about time to leave for the tour." They'd planned on going on a haunted bus tour of San Antonio, see some of the city neither really have the time for, maybe experience some frights. Sofia places a platter of sandwiches and vegetables on the table, joining Alberto and Ricardo as they eat.
Alberto takes his time, barely making it through half of a sandwich while Ricardo moves onto his second, starting to grow impatient. Finally, finally, the gate buzzer goes off and Ricardo coughs, looking up in surprise. "What the-?"
Alberto shrugs. "I suppose we should see who it is at this hour." Ricardo frowns, putting his sandwich down and following Alberto to the door. He presses the intercom and listens for a moment. "Hola? Who is there?"
"Trick or treat!" a strange, falsetto voice bursts through the intercom and Ricardo blinks, shocked, as Alberto catches his eye.
"Do you have candy, mi valiente?"
Ricardo looks flustered, starting to shake his head, but then Sofia pushes a small bag of mixed candy into his hands and he blinks at her. "Just in case," she says with a small smile and he swallows hard. "Go, mi hijo! They may leave."
She and Alberto follow him out onto the patio as he presses the button to open the gate, both watching closely as he freezes a few feet down the sidewalk, staring at the costumed people before him. "No way," he mumbles, the candy almost falling out of his slack fingers.
"Hey, don't waste good candy!" Ethan- recycling his Batman costume from NXT live events over the weekend- chides him, grabbing the bag before it could hit the ground.
Spud stares around Ethan at him, eyes wide and sympathetic through his Robin mask. "I told you we should give him some forewarning," he chides Ethan, poking him in the side.
"Hey! That tickles!" Ethan says, almost dropping the candy himself as he shifts in an attempt to get away from Spud's fingers.
Ignoring him, Spud pats Ricardo on the arm. "You alright, mate?"
"Si," he says almost breathlessly. "I just thought you all were too busy with your podcasts and NXT and whatever else to actually come."
"Oh please, like we'd miss our annual Halloween stuff, bro!" Zack says and Ricardo freezes for the second time in five minutes, staring at him incredulously. When he realizes what Ricardo is looking at, he blows out an annoyed breath. "Look, I made the mistake of letting this one pick the costumes this year, I had absolutely no say-" He drags Dolph out into view and Ricardo starts to laugh helplessly. While Zack is dressed like a Disney princess, a puffy blue dress and tiara tying the entire costume together, Dolph is dressed in ordinary clothes... except for the magnet around his neck with chicks hanging off of it.
"Damn straight, he's Cinderfella and I'm a chick magnet, which means I get all of the hot princesses." He smirks up at Zack, who buries his face in his hands.
"I hate you so much," he mumbles, causing Dolph to laugh even harder.
"If that was true, kid, you wouldn't be wearing a dress right now."
"Nothin' wrong with that!" Heath's voice breaks through their bickering and Ricardo busts up laughing again, taking in his Pennywise costume. Heath grins at him, adjusts his bright red wig. "Seemed fitting, yeah?" He steps forward and squeezes Ricardo. "Florida ain't the same without ya, man. It wasn't like we were gonna make ya go through your first Halloween by your lonesome in a new place."
Ricardo smiles at him. "Gracias, mi amigo. So what is..." And then he sees Wade, keeping his distance behind Heath, a stoic look on his face. "Grim Reaper?" he offers after a few moments of taking in the hooded robe Wade has on.
"What gave me away?" he wonders dryly and Ricardo chuckles.
"Seemed fittin', right, Ricardo?" Heath laughs too. "Brit over here bein' something really grim while I'm a clown."
"A murderous clown," Wade corrects him with a much put-upon sigh.
"Right!" Heath agrees cheerfully, throwing his arm around Ricardo and leading him towards the house.
"Wait, aren't we missing someone?" he wonders, casting a quick glance over his shoulder, counting heads and realizing that both Zema and Robbie are missing. "Well, a couple someones..."
"Figure they're still arguin'. They'll be along in a bit." Heath catches the glance Ricardo shoots at him and smiles weakly. "You can guess what it's about."
"Zema's risk-taking?" he suggests and Heath nods.
"Right in one. The flight over was real tense. Good thing Del Rio had us come over in his private jet, an actual airline woulda prolly kicked us off without landin', between Ziggler bein'... Ziggler and those two hiss-fighting the entire way." He shakes his head. "I'm glad Wade'n'I are usually not that bad... in public anyway." He laughs as Ricardo looks curious but seems to know better than to ask, quickly pulling away to open the door.
"Well, while we wait, Sofia has sandwiches waiting, so let's eat. I'm sure you guys are hungry."
"Yes," Zack says emphatically, looking relieved to sit down, even as the bright blue fabric crinkles around his hips. Sofia barely blinks as she offers him the plate of sandwiches, Zack taking two of them and eagerly tucking in.
Finally the door slams open and Zema marches his way in, not looking any of them in the eye. His costume is shaped like a box that says FRAGILE on it in large print, like something someone might mail something breakable in, and Ricardo's jaw drops when he realizes why Robbie and Zema have been arguing this entire time. "Whoa," he mumbles, taking a quick bite out of his sandwich to muffle the sound.
Robbie comes in and walks right to the kitchen table, sitting down as best as he can in his own costume, which looks like a carton of Chinese food. Spud responds first, voice low to not be heard in the kitchen while Sofia helps Zema get a glass down to pour himself some water. "You know, mate, if you keep pushing, he's going to keep responding like this, if not worse."
Robbie quirks an eyebrow at Spud and swallows the sandwich he'd bitten into, lifting a shoulder dismissively. "As long as he's healthy enough for me to make it up to him later, I can't say I really care, James."
"He hasn't been injured since last winter," Ethan points out carefully, typically one to stay out of their drama, but just feeling like it needs to be said.
"You're welcome," Robbie responds, raising his eyebrows at Ethan as Zema finally leaves the kitchen and joins them, picking at his glass of water restlessly.
Ricardo leans closer. "Help yourself to the sandwiches, Zema. There's plenty."
He sighs and absently runs his hand over his shaven head, looking at Ricardo. "No, thanks, I'm just not really hungry right now." They all sit quietly for a few minutes, the tension between Robbie and Zema leaving them all uncertain and awkward.
Zack finally speaks up, "Hey, bro! You're a box. I'm in a dress!"
Zema blinks, looking over at him, and his lips twitch up before he barks out a laugh, shaking his head incredulously. "Let's vow that next year we won't let our significant others pick our costumes out."
"Full-heartedly agreeing, bro." Zack and he claps hands as if to cement their vow, and this time when Sofia offers Zema a sandwich, he takes one, some of the concern leaving Robbie's face as he bites into it, sighing at the burst of flavors in his mouth from the roast beef and vegetables.
When Robbie leans in and whispers something to him, Zema actually nods, taking another couple of bites of his sandwich. It's clear they still have things to talk out, work through, but for now, they put the argument aside and face their friends. "So what are we doing tonight?" Robbie asks, clapping his hands together.
Once Alberto finishes explaining, Zack slumps in his chair as if trying to hide, crossing his arms over his chest and groaning as the dress crinkles all over again. "I cannot believe I'm going on a bus tour in a dress," he mumbles in despair.
Alberto looks like he wants to say something truly insulting, but Ricardo rests his hand on his arm and lightly shakes his head, relieved when he listens and settles back down to listen to the group's inane rambling and chatter about everything they've been going through since they last all met like this. He tries to be patient, especially after seeing how happy it makes Ricardo to be around all of his friends, but it's close to time and he doesn't want them to lose probably the last chance they'll get at this tour before it shuts down for the year. So he clears his throat roughly and when they look at him, he lifts his hands "It's almost time for the tour, so if we want tp get there in time, we have to leave right now."
This works well enough, the group of them leaving the house after quickly finishing whatever's on their plates, Sofia seeing them off with a relieved little wave- she doesn't like being scared, so she perfectly content to stay at home and avoid unnecessary frights while she finishes up the cake.
Although Ricardo nor Alberto scare easily, the bus tour is still interesting. The tour guide tells them ghost stories involving different buildings around San Antonio as they drive by them, even letting them all get off for a brief period to wander around the grounds of a hotel, looking for spirits that are rumored to be seen there regularly. None of them witness or experience anything, but just the claim of ghosts is enough for some of them- Heath keeps close to Wade the entire time, and at one point, Robbie yelps and grabs at Zema when he steps too close to a tree and the edge of his costume catches a branch, leaving him stuck and flailing around, yelling that a ghost has him, until Zema figures out what's going on and helps to free him, Robbie's eyes wide with fear and paranoia even as he flushes in mortification, glaring over his shoulder at the offending tree. "I hate haunted houses, bro," he mumbles, Zema sighing and pulling him as close as he can, considering their costumes, and smooths his fingers over Robbie's knuckles.
"It's fine. You're safe. I'm here," he promises, a look of understanding and forgiveness passing between them before they continue wandering around, listening to the tour guide and continuing to look for some hint of the spirits that had become something of a folk tale over the years.
Once they're all back on the bus, the tour winds down fairly quickly from there, Ricardo resting his head on Alberto's shoulder and watching their friends talk quietly about what they'd learned, things they'd seen or felt while wandering the hotel grounds. Ethan is brushing a few stray leaves out of Spud's hair while Wade patiently looks at pictures Heath's grabbed with his phone, some of the two of them that he'd insisted on taking at the hotel, and some of various places the tour guide had pointed out as significant in the city's lore. Both Zack and Zema seem to have forgotten how awful their costumes are, Zack stroking a hand down Dolph's face, while Zema leans against Robbie's chest and plays with his fingers, beatboxing under his breath quietly. Ricardo smiles and scoots over a little, pressing a kiss to the side of Alberto's mouth. "Thank you for surprising me with this," he says softly. "I didn't know how much I needed it until I went out to the gate and they were all right there." He laughs faintly. "Even with their arguing and drama."
Alberto chuckles too, eyes shining in the soft glow from street lights coming through the bus windows. "I wanted your first Halloween in Texas to be special," he says. "I couldn't bring the trick or treaters here, so I did the next best thing and brought the other immature brats in our lives to you."
Ricardo laughs and swats at him. "You're awful," he mumbles, kissing him. "And I love you."
"I love you too, mi valiente," he says with a grin as Ricardo settles in Alberto's arms to watch their friends contentedly.
The rest of the night will probably involve too much of Sofia's chocolate cake and some of the most awful horror movies any of them have seen on TV, and, he thinks, all in all, it's shaping up to be one of the best Halloweens he's ever had.