The prompt for this chapter is:"Pumpkin guts!"
She makes him laugh, he can't deny that. She has her hands full of mushy pumpkin and she tries to chase him.
"Pumpkin gut war!" She shouts and throws.
A second is enough to save him from the mass of slimy orange plant matter. He changes suits for this battle, and she notices.
She hits his neck, as he's reaching into an open pumpkin.
She remembers that look, the first time she had seen it had been years ago.
"If you think you can beat me, you can't." He reminds her and she grins.
"We'll see about that." She challenges and then there's pumpkin in her hair, cold and slimy. She gasps and scoops another handful of guts out.
He just laughs.
Her throw misses. He throws another large ball of squishy pumpkin entrails at her and she tries to avoid it. It hits her back. She shivers at the cold sensation and tries to shake it off and take a step backward. She doesn't have steady footing and she's aware of her foot sliding forward as the rest of her starts to move backwards.
He has an arm around her waist before she falls any further, and he pulls her closer. She could have cracked her skull on the hard cement. She's human, and he's reminded of how fragile they are as her heartbeat races and her lungs try to catch up with it. One of her hands moves to his back and moves upwards. A clenched fist, she'll relax it eventually. It's close to his collar, and her other hand moves close to it, and tugs at his collar briefly. He's too focused on holding onto her to think of it.
It's only when he feels something slimey against his skin does he realize what she was doing. She had a full hand of pumpkin in her clenched fist.
It's on his chest, no doubt going to stain his once crisp and white shirt. He moves and her arms move to wrap around him, quickly.
With his free hand, he reaches into a pumpkin, and releases a handful of pumpkin a few inches above her head.
She shrieks and he rights them before he lets her go.
She moves away and tries to get the pumpkin out of her hair.
He can't help it, he laughs, and she's angry for a moment.
But then the angry look slips off her face and she laughs at his appearance too, she almost falls over in her laughter. There's a protruding lump of pumpkin showing in his shirt. She points it out, and he points where she still has pumpkin on her back. She pretends to look annoyed and lets him help her get the pumpkin off. He gets the pumpkin out of his shirt as she apologizes, and he just grins at her.
"I won." He says smugly and she rolls her eyes.
"You did not!" She says. They have this argument all night, even when she's brushing her wet hair before she goes to bed.