Author Note: Extended/Alternative ending to the previous chapter! Starting from when the trio arrive back in Halloween Town after the Valentine's Day Town fiasco.
They landed gently in the middle of the ring of trees in their own world and Barrel found Lock and Shock sitting next to each other on the ground. He watched them cautiously for a moment, holding his breath and bracing himself for more kissing… and while at least they didn't kiss, their condition did not seem to have improved. "Are you okay?" Lock asked anxiously, scrambling over to grab Shock's hand once more.
"Yeah, are you?" she said just as anxiously, holding out her hand to receive his, and even though they never got hurt when they went through the doors Barrel felt a tiny bit annoyed that nobody asked him if he was alright.
"Who cares?!" he shouted. After all, nobody hurt each other more than the two of them did, so for them to suddenly be concerned about the other being hurt was ridiculous.
Lock whipped his head around and gave Barrel an angry look. "I care!" he snapped as he helped Shock off the ground, and she let him do it even though she really didn't need any help. Normally she would have tried to punch him in the throat for treating her like she was weak, but something about it just seemed so romantic this time… her knight in a red shirt and pants.
"What is wrong with you two!?" Barrel said, clutching his head and fighting the urge to tear his own hair out. What was he going to do? They were getting more and more disgusting by the second and he was already thinking about which ditches or dumpsters in town would be the most comfortable for him to set up residence in.
"You're just jealous 'cus you don't have a girlfriend!" Lock said snottily as he pulled Shock closer to him in a rather possessive manner. He hoped that she wouldn't be mad that he'd just said that, but wasn't that was kissing meant? That they were boyfriend and girlfriend now? Fortunately she didn't seem to mind, she was just gazing at him dreamily for a moment and his heart beat a little bit quicker before she tore her eyes away and said to Barrel:
"Nothing's wrong, everything is perfect. Why are you even asking? Is it because we dropped the chocolates?" Even though she felt like the happiest witch in Halloween Town right now, she had to admit that the one thing that could make today better would be candy. "We should go back and get them!" she said, heading towards the Valentine's Day door and Lock followed along behind her like a lovesick puppy.
Barrel stared at them, at a complete loss for words. There was no way they could still be faking and suddenly he wondered if maybe they ate some of the chocolates without him seeing, and that maybe the chocolates were what was making them act like this. "NO!" he shouted, and threw his body in front of the door with his arms spread out so she couldn't get to it. "I think you guys have been poisoned or bewitched or something!"
"Definitely bewitched." Lock said with a big goofy grin, and Shock batted her eyelashes shyly at him.
"I'm serious!" Barrel shouted again, trying to ignore the corniness of what Lock had just said and Shock's disgusting reaction to it. "There's something the matter with you, we have to go get help before you kiss again!"
"Oh, you mean like this?" Shock said wickedly, and she smooched Lock right on the tip of his pointed nose.
"Or like this?" Lock snickered as he kissed her on the nose right back.
"Stop it!" Barrel shrieked, now seriously afraid of losing his lunch right there, and his cohorts laughed.
"C'mon, outta the way, pipsqueak." said Lock, moving to shove Barrel aside. "Let's go get those chocolates." He wanted to take turns popping them in one another's mouths with Shock like they'd seen those little blond diaper kids doing, and he blushed a little bit more at that thought.
Barrel clung to the door like his life depended on it, trying to figure out what to do before they could pry him away from it. He wasn't good at thinking up ideas like Lock or planning them out like Shock, he just followed along. But now his cohorts were clearly incapacitated and it was up to him to help them somehow. They didn't seem to think anything was wrong and that it was perfectly safe to go back to that awful world, and no amount of his insisting it was dangerous would convince them. He was going to have to be clever like Shock and persuasive like Lock.
"Wait!" he cried, thinking fast. "Uh… we should go back to town and tell everyone that you guys are boyfriend and girlfriend now!" Lock and Shock looked at one another for a moment, letting those wonderful words sink in, and then turned back to their littlest cohort.
"Why? You know everybody hates us, no one will care." said Shock.
"Jack will! Sally will, too!" insisted Barrel, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. "You know they like love stuff, you should tell them the good news!" Lock and Shock paused at that… it was true that the happiest couple they knew in Halloween Town was Jack and Sally, plus they were the ones who liked the trio the most and always said they cared about them… so perhaps they would indeed like to know the good news. Plus, maybe they would have some good tips on being boyfriend and girlfriend, since neither Lock nor Shock really knew anything about it. "Maybe they'll throw you a party!" Barrel said, laying on the motivation even thicker and praying to the Halloween gods that they would go for it. Anything to keep them from going back to that evil - and not in a good way - place.
"Yeah, that's a pretty good idea, actually." agreed Lock, for he suddenly wanted to crow about his new relationship status from every rooftop in Halloween Town. As far as he knew none of the other kids his age had girlfriends yet - especially not ones as pretty as Shock - so it would feel great to rub it in all of their pathetic loser faces.
"Okay, that sounds fun." said Shock. If Lock thought it was a good idea, then she would go along with it. He always had the best ideas, she thought dreamily, conveniently ignoring the many, many terrible ideas he also came up with.
Barrel exhaled in relief and relaxed against the door, hardly able to believe that his idea had worked. The walk to town was excruciating - Barrel led the way as quickly as he could but his cohorts trailed along slowly behind him, holding hands and giving each other compliments that they never, ever would have said normally.
"Remember that time you cut the stitches out of that corpse kid's grody eyeballs so perfectly? And that time you baked that exploding cake and put it out at the solstice party and everyone freaked out and got cake all over them?" Lock said, and Shock giggled a bit at the memory. "Or when you read about how to build that catapult and we shot rotten pumpkins all over the town hall? You're so smart and good at everything." he continued, admiration dripping from his every word.
Shock could hardly believe that he was saying all this - usually he was calling her a nerd and an annoying know-it-all, not complimenting her brains and talents. "Not at everything…" she said bashfully. "You're really good at running and climbing and stuff, and you can punch really hard. Remember that time you knocked out a bunch of Gustov's teeth?" Lock grinned because he remembered that very well, and also because she'd never complimented him on his physical prowess before - usually she was calling him an idiotic show-off. "Or when you jumped off the roof and pulled the axe out of Behemoth's head? You're so brave." she sighed, but then her expression turned a bit more serious. "Like when you told Oogie Boogie to stop strangling me that one time." she said quietly. She still felt extremely guilty about that way down deep inside.
Lock looked shyly down at the ground and mumbled, "It wasn't that bad." That was an enormous lie because he'd never been beaten so severely in his entire life, but right at that moment he felt like he meant it. "Anyway, it was worth it. You made me my favorite food after that."
"You didn't even eat it!" Barrel yelled from in front of them. He'd been trying his hardest to tune them out, but it just wasn't working. Finally he stuck his fingers in his ears. Why weren't they at Jack's house yet?
"You're so good at cooking." Lock continued, ignoring Barrel's outburst. "And everything else. Like when you helped me after my tail got cut off… Jack told me you tied the end of it so it wouldn't bleed so much." He really was grateful for her quick thinking during that awful incident and he shuddered to think that maybe he could have bled out right there in the street if she hadn't known what to do.
"I'm just glad Dr. Finkelstein could put it back on. Your tail is cool." she giggled, and Lock thought he would die of pride and embarrassment at such a compliment.
"Thanks!" he grinned, bringing it up to pat her awkwardly on the back - usually if he ever touched her with his tail it was to slap her with it.
Mercifully for Barrel, they had finally reached the gate to Jack's house, but then Shock and Lock decided they'd better have one more kiss just in case Jack didn't approve. Barrel dragged his fingers down his face in agony while they locked lips for far too long, so he went up the stairs by himself and jumped as high as he could until he managed to grab ahold of the doorbell pull, praying that Jack was home and could help. Luckily, the Pumpkin King was indeed at home and by the time he opened the door to greet the trick-or-treaters Lock and Shock had joined Barrel on the front steps, still holding hands.
"Why hello, you three! What are you up to this beautiful day?" Jack said cheerfully, hoping they weren't causing too much mischief… but then he saw Lock and Shock holding hands and he raised his brow in surprise.
"Uh, hi Jack. We have some good news." said Barrel, trying to express with his face and tone of voice that it was in fact not good news at all.
"Shock's my girlfriend now!" Lock said proudly, as if daring Jack to tell them that they were too young.
"And Lock's my boyfriend!" added Shock, squeezing his hand a little tighter.
Jack looked even more surprised, then saw Barrel's desperate little face staring up at him. "We went through the holiday doors to somewhere called Valentine's Day Town and something happened. Something weird. Like a poison or spell or something." he pleaded, willing Jack to understand.
"Why do you keep going on about a spell?" Shock said, now starting to feel a little annoyed. Honestly, couldn't Barrel just be happy for them?
It took every ounce of Jack's power to keep from laughing. He had visited Valentine's Day Town before and knew what it was about - after the Christmas fiasco Jack had embarked on a diplomatic mission to meet with all of the Holiday Leaders and establish goodwill, and everything he'd learned had fascinated him and given him plenty of new ideas and things to explore - though he'd certainly learned his lesson about trying to take over anyone's holiday. And while he knew that the children were all extremely close, it was quite out of character for Lock and Shock to suddenly and without warning decide they were boyfriend and girlfriend… but once Barrel mentioned Valentine's Day, it all made sense. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened to the little witch and devil, but he thought it smartest to play along with them for now until he could determine exactly what was going on and how to proceed.
"I see! Well, congratulations, you two! That is truly wonderful news. Why don't you tell me all about your trip to Valentine's Day Town while we walk over to tell Sally? I'm sure she'd love to hear the good news. Maybe she'll make you a cake to celebrate!" Actually his plan was to try and get them to Dr. Finkelstein for an examination, and Jack knew that food was the most effective way to bribe the children. Barrel looked up at Jack completely devastated, but then Jack winked and nodded reassuringly at him when Lock and Shock weren't looking and the little ghoul relaxed. Surely Jack was going to fix everything. They strolled along to the laboratory and told Jack all about their adventure, and Barrel was careful to include the parts about the potentially-drugged chocolates or poison-dipped arrows. Jack remembered what Cupid had told him about the magic arrows that he and his helpers used to inspire romantic love, and he hoped there was a way to reverse it. Cute as this little puppy-love was, it wasn't fair to Lock and Shock to have been artificially influenced into liking one another this way. If they were going to start having romantic feelings for each other, it needed to come naturally. Jack had to scold all three of them for setting off cherry bombs and attempting to steal from a foreign land - it was bad enough when they caused severe property damage and stole things in their own town, but now he was going to have to send them back to apologize and make amends after Lock and Shock were back to normal… plus he might even have to take the two of them back to Valentine's Day Town anyway to cure them if nobody in Halloween Town could reverse the enchantment.
Finally they reached the lab. Sally was just as surprised as Jack was to see the little witch and devil holding hands and smiling brightly up at her, but then Jack explained that the trio had visited Valentine's Day Town and she understood. Jack had learned all sorts of romantic things from that place that she was enjoying very much during their courtship but Sally agreed that even though Lock and Shock were being almost unbearably cute right now, it wasn't right for them to be feeling this way towards one another because of an enchantment. She led everyone into the kitchen and while the kids dug into a plateful of cookies and sugar-coated beetles, Jack pulled her aside and whispered: "We've got to find a way to let the doctor examine them. It sounds like they were hit with cupid arrows and we need to figure out a way to snap them out of it." He highly doubted they would sit willingly for an examination and had no idea how to convince them, but Sally had an idea. She felt a little bad at the prospect of drugging children, but Lock and Shock were stubborn and she couldn't imagine any other way to get them on the operating table. She pulled a small jar of deadly nightshade out of the cupboard to show him, and Jack nodded in agreement. She hadn't used it for a very long time because ever since the doctor had created Jewel he didn't have much use for Sally anymore. He let her stay and still made her do most of the cleaning and cooking, but he was much less uptight about how she spent her time and he never locked her up anymore, so she had no reason to poison him these days. She poured just the tiniest amount into two glasses of pumpkin juice, then added a few other tasty herbs as well to hide the nightshade flavor.
"Here you are," she said kindly, placing the drugged juice in front of Lock and Shock and handing Barrel a non-drugged glass. Lock was busy tossing the sugared beetles up into the air and trying to catch them in his mouth, hoping to impress Shock, then they started tossing them at one another's open mouths, trying to catch them and giggling the whole time. Barrel wanted to smack his head on the table until he lost consciousness but instead he drowned his sorrows in cookies, wishing that Jack or Sally would hurry up and do something already. Finally Lock and Shock stopped flirting long enough to drink their pumpkin juice and within minutes they began to feel sleepy… and then they were suddenly both passed out and drooling with their heads on the table. Sally gave Barrel more cookies and a coloring book and some crayons - ever since Oogie Boogie died and she had become a bit closer to the children she had started keeping toys and games around for whenever they visited.
"Please behave yourself, we'll be right back." Jack said sternly as he picked up Lock, and the little ghoul nodded. He didn't really have any good ideas for mischief at the moment anyway, he was too depressed about what would happen if Dr. Finkelstein couldn't help his friends. Sally smiled gently at him, then picked up Shock and followed Jack up the ramp to the doctor's operating room.
Dr. Finkelstein begrudgingly performed numerous tests on Lock and Shock: he took samples of their blood and saliva, peeled open their eyelids to check their eyes, looked up their noses and in their mouths and ears. He tested their reflexes and took small scrapings of their skin and hair samples to test. After the results came in he turned to Jack and Sally, scratching his brain in frustration. "I really have no idea what to make of this. If I could get urine and stool samples from them I might get a tiny bit more information, but it seems that their condition is - shockingly - beyond my comprehension and abilities." Jack and Sally glanced nervously at one another. Even if they could manage to convince Lock and Shock to pee and poop in a cup, it didn't sound like that would yield much helpful information.
"Do you have any suggestions at all, Doctor?" asked Sally.
"I suggest you take them to the witches. This sort of magic is more within their skill set, I think."
"Excellent idea, Doctor! Thank you very much for your time." Jack said graciously as he scooped Lock back off of the table, and Sally picked up Shock and they headed back down to the kitchen. Barrel was sitting quietly where they had left him, scribbling anxiously in the coloring book without even trying to stay inside the lines and Sally gave him a brand new small super-bouncy ball as a reward for behaving so nicely. Then they all headed for the coven headquarters across town.
The witches weren't especially pleased with the idea of doing anything nice for Lock or Shock. They were most definitely not fond of the three trick-or-treaters, but Helgamine and Zeldaborne were so enamored with Jack that they would do anything he requested. "Put them down here." Helgamine said crankily, pointing to the center of the floor while Zeldaborne went to a cupboard full of supplies and several very large spell books. "And you! Don't you dare touch anything or we'll turn you into a toad, you little vandal!" she hissed at Barrel.
"I didn't do anything!" he protested angrily. He was having the worst day ever and now he was getting yelled at before he even caused any trouble at all. Those witches didn't have any sense of humor, he thought to himself. How could anybody not find drilling holes in the bottoms of their cauldrons or putting termites in their broom closet funny? Sally gently took him by the hand and led him to the far corner where he could bounce his new bouncy-ball against the wall and hopefully not hit anything important with it while the witches began drawing some sort of symbols around the sleeping devil and witch on the floor with white chalk. They started murmuring strange incantations and waving various bundles of herbs over the children, but after a moment Lock and Shock began to stir - the deadly nightshade was wearing off.
"What the heck are you doing?!" Lock yelled when he realized where he was, then he noticed that he had a significant headache… and then he saw Shock groggily coming to beside him on the floor. "What'd you do to her!?" he yelled even louder despite his aching head and her eyes popped open at the sound of his voice.
"What's going on?" she said angrily, sitting up and rubbing her own head. She felt like her brain was pounding against the inside of her skull.
Jack thought up a lie as quickly as he could. "You both fell asleep and we wanted to do something nice and surprise you." The children looked at him suspiciously so he continued: "Zeldaborne and Helgamine here are doing some spells to make sure you have a long and happy relationship together! Isn't that right, ladies?"
"Sure is." Helgamine said, trying to go along with the lie - but only for Jack's sake.
"We don't need any dumb old spells! Lock's perfect just how he is and I'm gonna like him forever!" Shock said with her nose in the air.
"Yeah!" agreed Lock. "I'm gonna like Shock forever plus infinity without any stupid magic!" Jack had to keep from chuckling because it was magic that had caused these sudden passionate sentiments in the first place, but he held his tongue. "She's the best and prettiest witch in Halloween Town!" Lock added, giving Helgamine and Zeldaborne a smug, nasty look, but the older witches only rolled their eyes. As if some six-year-old devil's opinion could matter one whit to them.
"Alright, we'll just finish up then, since you're so confident." said Zeldaborne, sprinkling a few more herbs on the two little lovebats as Helgamine took Jack aside and said:
"Well, I think we've cracked it. It's some weird magic for sure, but hopefully with a few more incantations they'll be back to their annoying little selves. No promises, though." Jack nodded in understanding and watched anxiously as Helgamine returned to Zeldaborne's side and they interlocked their fingers together over the children and chanted some very strange words before each throwing a fistful of herbs on the floor inside their chalk circle and there was a large poof of purple smoke… but when the smoke cleared they found Lock and Shock kissing again - they had decided to take advantage of their temporary invisibility to sneak in another smooch.
"Noooooooo!" Barrel wailed from the corner. Sally tried to pat him comfortingly on the shoulder, but he was rapidly losing hope for any solution. He was going to have to take his few belongings and move out after all, and he hoped it wouldn't rain anytime soon.
"Sorry Jack, we tried." the witches shrugged and Jack sighed.
"I know you did. Thank you very much for your time and efforts."
"We already told you, we don't need some dumb spell." Shock said snottily as she let Lock help her up from the floor again. It seemed like Lock had been taking notes on being a gentleman from Jack, and she decided she rather liked it.
"Of course you don't." Jack said. "We were only trying to do something nice for you. Please forgive our presumption." The children weren't sure what 'presumption' meant, but getting an apology from the Pumpkin King was always nice, so they nodded once and then turned towards the door with their noses in the air and hand in hand once more. Barrel started to trudge miserably after them, but Jack grasped his arm and knelt down as close to the little ghoul as he could get. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out." he whispered. "Just try to survive tonight and we'll go straight back to Valentine's Day Town in the morning to find a solution, okay?" It was far too late to go all the way back to the holiday doors by now but Jack felt certain that if there was any hope for a cure, then that's where they would find it. Barrel nodded as Jack released him, then he followed his cohorts out of the coven headquarters and back home to the treehouse for what was sure to be a very long and aggravating night.
The trio spent the rest of the evening on their ratty old sofa watching the beat-up, barely-working television and eating snacks: Lock and Shock were snuggled up close together under the tattered throw blanket and sharing a box of chocolate malt balls, while Barrel was sitting as far away from them as he could get and stress-eating an enormous bowl of popcorn all by himself before moving on to three candied-apples and two nougat bars. Finally he couldn't ignore their revolting giggling any longer and decided to go to bed even though he wasn't tired yet. Eventually Lock and Shock began to get sleepy, too, and Shock decided she'd better to go bed before she fell asleep with her head on Lock's shoulder and accidentally snored or drooled on him and embarrassed herself. "Well, I think I'll go to bed. Goodnight." she said shyly as she got up off the couch, and Lock followed her. He probably could have stayed awake for one more show, but what was the point if Shock wasn't there watching it with him?
"Okay, goodnight." he said shyly back, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before she disappeared into her bedroom. He didn't understand why he still felt a bit bashful about kissing her after they'd done it so many times already - usually he got bored with things pretty quickly, but kissing or being kissed by her was still just as exciting and nerve-wracking as it was the first time. That night two little trick-or-treaters slept soundly and contentedly in their beds, but one tossed and turned restlessly in his wadded up pile of blankets, hoping that maybe that day had all just been a bad dream.
Unfortunately for Barrel, his nightmare was all too real. When he dragged himself into the kitchen that morning he found Shock still in her pajamas, humming contentedly to herself while she sliced up some pumpkin and kept an eye on the tea kettle. "Where's Lock?" Barrel asked warily as he hopped up onto his seat at the table.
"He went outside to find some eggs for breakfast." she said cheerily, and Barrel frowned. Shock was never this chipper in the morning. Just then the elevator gears started turning, the cage came up through the trap door and Lock strolled out of it carrying an absolutely gigantic dead vulture.
"Look what I killed!" he said proudly, hoping that Shock would be impressed. He'd never bagged something as big as a full-grown vulture before, but he was feeling at the top of his game that morning.
"Oh wow!" she squealed, pushing her cutting board and pumpkin aside so Lock could toss the vulture on the countertop. "You're such a good hunter!" she gushed, and Barrel was glad he hadn't eaten anything yet because otherwise he would have puked it all over the floor just then.
"It's humongous!" said Barrel, staring at the dead vulture. He had to admit it was an impressive catch, but he also wondered what on earth they were going to do with all that meat. "How the heck are we supposed to eat all of that before it goes bad?"
"Shouldn't be too hard with you around, fatty!" Lock smirked and Shock laughed meanly. Barrel sighed to himself - at least some things were still the same. In addition to his trophy vulture Lock had indeed found some eggs and Shock whipped up a tasty pumpkin omelette for the three of them, which Lock fawned over incessantly until even Barrel nearly lost his appetite.
After everyone was dressed they grabbed their masks, chugged some of Sally's anti-allergy potion, then headed to Jack's house because the Pumpkin King had demanded that they return to him the next morning so he could take them back to Valentine's Day Town to apologize for the damage they'd caused. That was indeed part of Jack's intention, but even more importantly it was their last hope of restoring Lock and Shock to their former selves… though Jack had been smart enough not to say that to the two little lovebats, who were still in complete denial that their feelings had been caused by an outside influence. The kids were definitely irritated about being made to apologize, but Shock and Lock figured if they were together than it couldn't be that bad, and maybe they could still manage to snitch some chocolates while they were there… but for once in his life Barrel couldn't care less about chocolates, he was just hoping that his cohorts could be cured and that soon they would be back to strangling and punching one another instead of kissing and holding hands.
"Are you ready to go apologize and make up for your actions the other day?" Jack said sternly as they all headed out into the forest, and he was answered with various disgruntled mumbling and grumbling from all three of the children. When the four of them arrived at Valentine's Day Town they saw numerous little flying diaper kids working on repairing the damage that the trick-or-treaters explosives had caused and the trio laughed wickedly and congratulated themselves on the chaos they had left in their wake. Each of the little cherubs greeted them politely except for two who glared angrily at Lock and Shock - clearly those were the two who had seen them stealing the chocolate and shot them with the arrows. Jack led them to the largest building there and introduced them to Cupid, and the trick-or-treaters could barely contain their giggling because he looked like an even stupider holiday leader than Sandy Claws: he appeared to be only slightly older than the other little flying people and was wearing just as little clothing. He also had wings and a golden bow and arrows and he was delighted to see Jack - clearly the two of them had spent some time getting to know one another and all of the children prayed that Jack wouldn't try to take over this holiday next.
"Jack! Welcome back! How is that lovely doll of yours? Come for some more tips and advice from the land of love?" Cupid grinned, forming dimples in his rosy cheeks. The children couldn't hold in their raucous laughter at that, and if Jack had skin he would have blushed a bit, for discussing his love life was definitely not something he felt like doing in front of the trick-or-treaters. Instead he cleared his throat and replied:
"Sally is just fine, thank you for asking. And I'm afraid that we've come on less-pleasant business." Under Jack's extremely stern and scary gaze the children took off their masks and grumbled a confession and apology, but to their surprise Cupid didn't seem all that upset. He accepted their apology, then leaned down a bit closer to Lock and Shock with a knowing grin on his face.
"Well, well… seems like you two are in the right place. I can tell you've met with some of my cherub's arrows, hm? Adorable!"
Shock and Lock scrunched up their faces at being called 'adorable', then Shock replied haughtily:
"Two of your little minions shot us in the butt!"
"Yeah, they should have to apologize to us!" added Lock, but Jack looked down at them and said lightly:
"I think that's a fair trade for blowing up a significant portion of their garden." Then he turned to Cupid and said politely, "I actually need to talk to you about Lock and Shock here. While they definitely deserve to be punished for their misbehavior…" and the children rolled their eyes, but Jack continued: "It really is troubling that they have been artificially influenced by those arrows. These two have shown no indication of romantic affection until that incident, so I do hope you are willing and able to reverse the effects and restore them to their normal selves."
"What are you talking about?" Lock and Shock said simultaneously, feeling deeply offended that their devotion to one another was being questioned yet again. Why was it so hard for everyone else to understand that they were obviously meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend forever and ever?
"Well, Jack, you remember that I told you that my arrows only work on those targets who are already susceptible, so clearly there's something here, however deeply it may be buried or how undeveloped it may be…" said Cupid while scratching his chin and examining Shock and Lock closely, and Barrel didn't know what 'susceptible' or 'undeveloped' meant, but it didn't sound good. "However, it is also true that being stuck with those arrows while here in this land packs a much stronger punch than it does outside of it, especially on targets so young. And far be it from me to presume to know what's best for your citizens, so I can indeed reverse the effects."
"Excellent, thank you very much, Cupid." Jack said, and Barrel felt so relieved he could have cried. Finally his misery was coming to an end. Cupid reached into his quiver and pulled out another two arrows, but these ones were silver. Lock and Shock's eyes widened and they took a few steps back as he loaded an arrow into his bow, and they both put their arms out in an attempt to protect the other. Barrel watched eagerly, both because he thought it would be pretty funny to see them get shot, but also because he was desperate to see if this would work. Lock was just about to try and pull Shock under a nearby rose bush to hide, but suddenly Cupid released the bow and the silver arrow hit him right in the arm.
"Ow!" he yelled, and immediately pulled out the arrow and started rubbing his arm, for this arrow hurt considerably more than the golden one had. Within seconds Cupid had shot Shock in her arm as well, and she yelled just as loudly and pulled the arrow out just as quickly. They simultaneously decided that the next time they came back to Valentine's Day Town they were going to put twenty cherry bombs underneath Cupid's throne, but then a weird, heavy, sinking sort of feeling came over them, like having a thick, cold blanket draped on top of them… and then everything came back to them with startling clarity. They turned to look at one another and their expressions of anger at being shot quickly transformed into horror.
"Holy crap…" Shock said as she brought her hands to her mouth, remembering the feeling of Lock's lips and feeling like she wanted to barf. What had she been thinking? She couldn't believe she'd let Lock's horrible lips touch her, and even worse, that she'd touched his annoying - and definitely not cute! - face with her own. And wanting to be his girlfriend? She didn't want to be anybody's girlfriend, especially not his! She'd never felt so mortified in her entire existence and she suddenly wanted to drown herself in the nearby reflecting pool - or even better, drown Lock in it. "Oh my god, so gross!" she said in a tone of utmost revulsion as she took several steps away from him.
"That was the most disgusting thing that has ever happened, ever, EVER!" Lock said angrily as he roughly scrubbed his face with his sleeve until his white skin was pink and his blue lips were purple. What had he been thinking? How could he ever have thought she was pretty, and even worse, how could he have kissed her and let her kiss him back? And all the lovey things he'd said to her, and how excited he was to be her boyfriend? It was just too repulsive to think about and he'd never felt so embarrassed in his entire existence. He was tempted to throw himself under the town square guillotine again once they got back home - or even better, throw Shock under it.
"Yay!" Barrel cried happily, breaking out into an enormous toothy grin, and Jack couldn't help grinning himself.
"That's more like it, there's the Lock and Shock we know!" Jack chuckled. "Are you two feeling better?"
"NO!" they shouted at the same time, then glared at one another.
"Oh, so you'd rather be in love?" Jack teased them, and both of their eyes bugged out in rage and horror.
"NO!" they shouted even louder, and now Jack couldn't help laughing out loud. Barrel was giggling so hard that he actually snorted several times, and when his cohorts turned to glare at him he pointed at them and said happily:
"I can't believe you guys kissed, that's soooo grooooss!" Now that he knew it wasn't permanent, it was truly the most hilarious thing he had witnessed in a good long while and the misery of the previous day was all worth it.
"SHUT UP, BARREL!" they both yelled at him, their cheeks going red.
"And you held hands, too!" Barrel squealed in delight, now laughing even harder. It wasn't often that he got to embarrass his two older cohorts, and now he got to do it to them both at the same time. It was too good not to savor.
"Shut it, midget, or I'm gonna punch your lights out!" Lock snarled, baring his teeth and balling his fists, and Shock was fully prepared to help him.
"That's enough now, all of you." Jack said, suppressing a grin and placing his bony hands on both Lock and Barrel's shoulders to keep a fight from breaking out. If they were going to duke it out - and he was certain that they were - they could at least do it when they were back in their own town. "Thank you so much, Cupid, and again, please accept my apologies for the damage. Unfortunately playing tricks is part of their jobs, though from now on I am very hopeful that they will keep those tricks confined to Halloween Town and the Human World." Jack looked down very sternly at all three of the children, but then Cupid said lightly:
"No trouble at all, Jack. It seems that these three have probably learned a lesson." He leaned down and looked all three of the trick-or-treaters right in the eye. "Just be warned, if you choose to cause mischief here my cherubs and I will have no choice but to use these again," he waved one of the golden arrows and the children shrank back a few steps. "And the next time, I may not be able to find my silver ones. Understand?" They nodded frantically and decided that even though he was completely stupid-looking and had a stupid holiday, Cupid scared them almost as much as Jack did.
Despite Cupid's assurances that it wasn't necessary, Jack insisted that Lock, Shock and Barrel be put to work to help with the reconstruction efforts so the children soon found themselves hauling heavy chunks of marble away, sweeping up dust and glueing fallen tiles back into murals for several hours while Jack and Cupid sat nearby chatting and eating chocolates. Lock and Shock didn't say a word to one another but Barrel giggled pretty much nonstop all throughout their punishment, deciding that even this heavy labor was worth it because making fun of them for kissing and holding hands and being all lovey-dovey with each other would give him ammunition for months. At last Jack decided that they had been punished enough, and Cupid even gave each of them a box of chocolates while assuring them that there was nothing in them that would cause gross, unnatural, lovey-dovey feelings.
The trek back home was intensely awkward for Lock and Shock, and they kept as far away from each other as they could on the narrow path as they trailed along after Barrel and Jack, who were having a rather pleasant conversation with one another. Jack of course had to take the tiniest steps he could in order to keep pace with the children and their short little legs, but he didn't often spend time with them that didn't include scolding or punishing them or taking them to see the doctor, so he was quite enjoying their walk. When they reached town they parted ways and the trio headed back towards their treehouse.
"We can't go back to that place, no matter how much chocolate is there!" Lock finally spoke up for the first time since he'd threatened to punch Barrel back in Valentine's Day Town.
"Agreed." said Shock firmly. No amount of candy in the world was worth the horribleness they had just endured. "Those arrows are the worst kind of magic ever. There's no way I'd kiss your dumb, gross face without something crazy-powerful like that."
Lock was about to argue back that her face was dumber and grosser than his, but then Barrel interrupted: "Yeah right, I bet you totally wanted to kiss before you got a magic arrow in your butt…" he snickered.
"Watch it, twerp…" Shock hissed in a low, threatening voice, but Barrel was undeterred.
"Shock and Lock, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-…." he singsonged, but that's as far as he got because Lock made good on his earlier threat and clocked him right in the face. Barrel stopped laughing for only a moment because it hurt, but then he started laughing again because the hilarity outweighed the pain and he continued his teasing. "N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage…"
"Then comes my foot up your butt!" Shock yelled, and she was so mad that she actually tackled him. Lock dog-piled onto both of them, but then realized that he didn't want to touch Shock again for as long as he lived so he quickly rolled back off again and let her deal with punishing that stupid little ghoul. Shock wasn't satisfied until she'd given Barrel two black eyes and a puffy lip, and she finally got off of him when he promised not to tease them anymore… but Barrel decided that he didn't even need to cross his fingers to break this promise later, because this was just too good of an opportunity to let go to waste.
When they reached their treehouse Lock and Shock drew straws to decide who got to use the bath to wash each others gross cooties off first. Shock won the draw and Lock would have fought her over it if wasn't still completely disgusted by the idea of touching her, so she stuck her tongue out at him and slammed the bathroom door shut as hard as she could while he gave her the nastiest glare he was capable of. As she scrubbed herself off in the bath she thought about everything that had happened and she cringed at all of the embarrassing things she had said and done. While obviously kissing him and thinking he was cute was completely the fault of the arrows, she had to admit to herself that some of what she'd said was at least sort of true… even though he was a stupid show-off, he was really tough and brave and she'd never forget the way he'd stood up to Oogie Boogie on her behalf… and even though he'd received a terrible beating for it, never once did he blame her afterwards. And she did really think he was a good athlete and hunter. And she even had to admit that even though half the time his ideas were completely idiotic and reckless, sometimes he did have really good ones… but she'd rather throw herself into the pit than ever, ever tell him that. And then she wondered… if some of what she'd said to him was actually true, did he really think some of the things he'd said to her? She quickly shook off that thought as she drained the tub and got dressed. Why did she care if Lock thought anything nice about her? He was so dumb that his opinion didn't matter to her one bit, and she made a mental note to punch him in the face or kick him in the crotch at the next available opportunity, just because.
When Lock finally got his turn in the bath he had many of the same thoughts. He wanted to steal all of those stupid golden arrows and melt them down into one big metal blob and throw them into a volcano for making him kiss Shock's stupid, ugly face… but then he thought about what he'd said to her and painfully admitted to himself that 'stupid' wasn't really a good word to use to describe her. While he wished more than anything that he hadn't said it out loud, the truth was that he did actually think she was super smart. How could she not be? She'd learned to read so much younger than he had and she knew all sorts of things that he had no clue about. And even though she was an annoying, bossy, uptight know-it-all, she was really good at figuring out how to execute their more elaborate pranks. And the fact was that if she hadn't been around to cook for them, he and Barrel would basically be living off of candy and stolen hot-frogs from town now that Oogie Boogie was dead and gone… and Oogie never fed them consistently anyway, so they would still have been going hungry a lot of the time if Shock wasn't there. She could keep a cool head in an emergency slightly better than he and Barrel could, and he would never forget her helping him with his tail when he'd been dumb enough to get it chopped off. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and then he wondered if she'd meant some of the nice things that she'd said to him… and then he got even angrier because he didn't understand why he should care if she thought nice things about him. She was so annoying that her opinion didn't matter to him one bit, and he decided to try and set her hair on fire or something the next chance he got, just to make sure she knew it.
When Lock and Shock had both finished scrubbing themselves as clean as possible, another distraction was desperately needed. "Let's go spray-paint some swear words on the Mayor's house." Lock suggested, eager to get back to their normal activities.
"Good idea." said Shock, and she pulled out the cans of paint that Oogie Boogie had given them from the trunk in the corner.
Barrel just grinned and didn't say anything as they headed for the cage elevator. Even though he was pretty beat up, he wasn't done teasing them quite yet. He knew what he was going to spray paint on the Mayor's house, and it definitely wasn't swear words.
Author Note: Well, I had WAY too much fun with this! Thank you, rathernotmyname, for suggesting that it might be funnier to have Lock and Shock's chemically-induced infatuation last a little bit longer, because as an enthusiastic Lock/Shock shipper, I certainly have no problems with writing them being lovey with each other, haha! (Although this was definitely sicklier and sweeter than I tend to imagine them - but it's the fault of those darn Cupid's arrows this time). When I was writing out all the nice things they were saying to one another I imagine that deep down they mean it, but would never normally say it out loud or even really admit it to themselves most of the time. Because at the end of the day, they are friends and I do believe that all three children love and admire one another in their own childish ways. I was imagining how I - and many people - act like when they're really drunk: sometimes you say embarrassing things, but usually they come from somewhere deep inside of you and are generally truthful (if maybe a little exaggerated…) they're just things you would never admit to or say out loud if you weren't drunk and unable to keep your socially-acceptable filter in place and think through the consequences! Thank goodness I don't drink anymore, I've got too many embarrassing stories from those days… take my advice, kids: take it easy with the booze when you hit drinking age! :D