Chapter 36: Or Treat

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"Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you."

-Classics IV

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Grace was chuckling as she came back into the living room. Calun was putting another log on the fire in the small grate and Lenna was unwrapping a cupcake with black and orange sprinkles while she sat on the couch.

"What?" Lenna asked. Grace put the candle bowl on the side table and replied, "Teenagers. I asked the ones without costumes where their costumes were and they just stared at me."

"Have they gone far?" Cal asked, standing and brushing his hands off on his pants with a grin. "I'll jinx 'em for ya."

"Cal!" Gracie scolded, looking abashed at even the thought.

Lenna giggled, her cheeks puffing out with half-chewed cupcake. "I cannot take you two seriously looking like that."

Calun reached up to feel the fake bolt sticking out of both sides of his head with a grin, and Grace laughed. The two of them were dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein's monster—the Hollywood version. Grace's pale blonde hair was died black and frizzed with a white stripe through it from the left of her forehead to her neck in the back. She had fake patchwork lines on her face, neck, and arms and was in a white hospital-esque gown. Calun had his black hair shaped into a stiff black block shape on his head, two ends of a bloody fake bolt attached to his temples magically and a patchy green and black suit on. He had dark makeup beneath his eyes and also had threading drawn on his exposed skin.

"Monster no care!" Cal exclaimed and moved toward Grace and pulled her into him, kissing her hard on her darkly-lipsticked lips. Grace broke away with a laugh. Another knock came at the door and Lenna got up this time, tossing her cupcake wrapper in the trash.

"I've got it since you two are otherwise occupied," she teased. She grabbed the candy bowl and stood behind the door. She hadn't heard a 'trick or treat'.

"What do you sayy?" she called teasingly to whoever was on the other side.

There was a pause and then a man's voice answered, "Er, trick or treat!"

Lenna gasped in delight and swung the door open wide. Her husband was standing there. He smiled broadly at her expression—and at the rest of her. She looked gorgeous. Her costume was Victorian—a heavy and full light-pink dress with pink frill along the low neckline and large, elegant pink bows down in a line from the center of her bodice to the center of her waist. Lace fanned at the end of her sleeves and the body of the dress bloomed outward and down, slightly darker lace decorating the bottom. Her hair was curled and cascaded over down one side. Toward the top she had pale pink roses and beads in her hair.

"Regulus!" she squealed and opened her arms for him. "I thought you'd be tied up tonight!"

Regulus lifted a finger, making her pause for a moment. "Question."

"Right." Lenna huffed slightly. "Hum. Er…where did we go for our honeymoon?"

Regulus wrinkled his nose. "Your bedroom. Merlin, that makes me feel like shmuck."

Lenna pulled him into the house, beaming again. "Oh, stop." The black cat Regulus had seen outside slid into the house too before Lenna shut the door. It twined around Lenna's legs before padding into the living room.

"New pet?" Regulus asked, following it with his eyes curiously.

Lenna giggled. "Old coffee maker…"

"Ah."

Lenna was towing him into the guest bedroom just as Cal and Grace came out to greet Regulus, and with a happy and sly wave of her fingers, Lenna shut the door in their faces gently. She turned toward Regulus, arms reaching toward him; his body met hers fluidly and he took her in his arms and kissed her deeply. Regulus dropped his cloaks onto the floor. Lenna's getup was a little problematic, but did not impede their passion. Lenna clutched him to her and kissed and kissed him. His mouth, his cheeks, his neck, his shoulders. Regulus pressed her against the wall and showered his love upon her, his true self rejoicing in its vent and release.

After a few minutes more of private time, Lenna readjusted her dress, fixed her makeup with magic in the room mirror, and then they went out to greet Grace and Cal finally. Cal was in the open front doorway handing out candy, but Grace gave them a look, her delicate nose scrunched up.

"That was rather rude," she chided.

Lenna sniggered.

"Great costume, Grace," Regulus complimented as he hung his cloaks in the front closet. "And the decorations are amazing. You guys could throw a party here."

"Not tonight, but Len and I are already planning a Christmas party. It's going to be amaziiing!" She sang the last word excitedly. Regulus couldn't help but grin at her happiness.

"Hold it!" Cal exclaimed, walking into the room and setting the candy bowl on a chair. "This is unacceptable. Regulus isn't in a costume."

"It has to go with Lenna's," Grace added, nodding. They perused Regulus with their eyes as he stood looking resigned.

"I've got it," Grace murmured, stepping forward and waving her wand about, murmuring a couple charms but doing most of the work nonverbally. Regulus looked down and watched as his clothing shifted and pursed his lips at the slight discomfort of the old-fashioned style. He twitched as he felt her messing with his hair as well and then twitched slightly more violently as his upper lip itched fiercely quite suddenly—Grace must have been magically coaxing a mustache out of his face.

She stepped back finally, done, and Lenna was grinning.

"Goodness, Reg, you look…dashing!" she complimented, beaming with delight.

Regulus shook his head, smiling, and checked himself out in the hall mirror. He blinked, surprised. His black hair was wavy, but parted off to his left side. He wore a, well, dashing black Victorian coat with brass buttons and a white and gold patterned vest beneath with a high collar that came up right under his chin. The white curving folds of a white undershirt beneath could be seen under his chin where the vest parted. He wore pants and shoes that matched the attire.

The black mustache, while quite unfamiliar on him, didn't look so terrible. He twitched it experimentally. He barely recognized himself, but rather liked it. He could have been a character in a novel.

"Grace, this was artfully done," he complimented sincerely. "You must have had the perfect vision in your head."

"Swanky, swanky," Cal agreed, smirking. "And I'm standing here with a bolt through my head. Someone got the better deal."

"I think you're the handsomer one," Grace said smilingly. "Even with the bolt."

"Oh, because I am," Cal chuckled, scooping an arm around his love. As they walked toward the kitchen, Cal was saying, "Don't let me eat every one of these frosted doughnuts because you know I'll try…"

Lenna straightened Regulus' jacket fondly. "I should like pictures of this before the end of the night."

Regulus nodded and kissed her forehead. They joined the other two in the kitchen and Reg stared around at all the amazing food.

"Go a bit crazy in here, girls?" he ribbed. Cal chuckled. The doorbell rang again and the voices of a large group of small children chorused, "Trick or treat!" Grace left to go answer it.

There were doughnuts, cider, apples, cakes, frosted cookies, a half-eaten pumpkin pie, and the remnants of what must have been their dinner: pork roast, salad, and bread rolls.

"Help yourself to anything and everything, of course," Lenna said. "Are you hungry? I can warm up the pork."

"Nah, I ate before the—before the, er, meeting. Those doughnuts, though…I may have to have a couple."

"I'll get you some cider."

"Careful of the dress."

"What are wands for?"

Regulus smiled and conceded her point. To Grace he said, "Lenna wants pictures."

Grace's face lit up. "Oh! Why didn't I think of that?" She scurried away, presumably to find a camera. Lenna meanwhile poured Regulus a glass of cider and he gulped it down. It tasted wonderful.

"Come over here!" Grace called from the other room. "I want them in front of the fire place."

Regulus and Lenna laughed when she walked in and saw Call tapping his wand to an expensive-looking camera. Not a second later the camera flew out of his hand of its own accord and started snapping pictures of him.

"Gah!" Cal exclaimed. "Okay—I think I got it—" He hurried over to where the other four were standing by the fire place and the camera excitedly shot pictures of them, refusing to wait for acknowledgement of when to take them.

"I think your spell was a tad overzealous, Cal," Lenna sniggered as it hovered by Regulus' head and snapped a photo of what could only have been his right ear. It zoomed upward to capture a shot of them all from above at a strange angle.

"Maybe," Cal admitted. Still, photos were taken of them all standing in front of the fireplace, candid and posing, and then the couples branched away from each other and the exuberant camera flitted back and forth between them. Lenna finally caught the thing in the air and mended Cal's original spell to a less obnoxious and film-wasting level, and the camera followed them into the kitchen, snapping shots now and then, but mostly ignored by them as they ate, laughed, and took turns answering the door for trick-or-treaters. They soon had to start answering the door in pairs because the camera caught on and then another person was needed to hold the camera so its enchantment wasn't so obvious.

Its last photo was of Lenna nodding off in Regulus' arms in an armchair by the fire as Regulus nibbled a candy bar. It reached the end of its film with a soft click and then drifted down onto the couch next to the curled up black cat, looking for all the world like it too was falling asleep.

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