Here we go - the first in a handful of Halloween flavored Bethyl ficlets. I wanted so badly to write something for UltimateBethylFicList's Holidays Fest, but couldn't come up with anything I was really excited to write. So. I have the wonderful piper78 to thank for this prompt - pumpkin carving. Hope you enjoy!
It was unseasonably warm the week before Halloween, even for Georgia. And holy-cow-humid, the combination of which was doing wonders for Bethy's wavy blonde hair.
If someone could call a sweaty, frizzy mess, "wonders."
Add to that she was elbow deep in a large pumpkin, and she was certainly not in the Spirit of Halloween.
Who was she kidding? Beth loved Halloween. Almost as much as she loved Christmas.
This was her favorite Halloween so far, even though it was still a week away, because it was the first Halloween she and Daryl would be spending together. Together together. She'd known Daryl for (what seemed like) forever, but they finally stopped toeing the line - in fact, thinking about it as she tries to grab another handful of pumpkin guts) she can't even remember who stepped over the line first. They both just kind of stumbled over it and into each other and it had been wonderful ever since.
Except that she was really hoping he would have been a little more excited to be getting the house ready for Halloween.
"Daryl!" she called out, trying not to let her frustration seep into her voice. She knew his past, knew that growing up, his family didn't exactly 'do' holidays, knew that a lot of this was brand new for him. She just didn't think he'd be so reluctant to try something new. He knows what I'm doing in here, right? she briefly wondered.
Daryl came into the kitchen from where he'd been working on his bolts in the living room. That's how he was preparing, though not so much for any holiday, but for autumn and the winter months. Her man was a hunter, and he took it very seriously. "Yeah?"
Beth tried to blow some of the hair away from her face. "I could use some help. Would you mind?"
"Help what?" he asked, sighing a little as he set his bolt and red rag of a bandana on the counter.
"Well," Beth began as she pulled her goo covered hand out of the pumpkin. "This guy was seedier than I thought, and it's taking forever to get everything out so I can carve it."
Daryl grunted a little as he peered into the gourd and reached in with a cautious hand. Beth worked hard to hold back her laughter as Daryl's face morphed from distrusting curiosity to sheer disgust. "Ugh!" His hand came out with a few orange strings hanging from it. "What the hell?"
"I'm sorry," Beth said with a giggle. "Is the man who skins and processes every animal that runs through the woods of Georgia grossed out by pumpkin guts?"
She watched as he tried (unsuccessfully) to shake the strings from his fingers. "Animals ain't this…slimy. Or sticky."
Despite the fact that he looked like he'd rather be anywhere but standing next to her with his hand covered in goop, she encouraged him, "Well, you're committed now. Might as well keep digging in. Keep the seeds, though, we can roast them later on."
Daryl groaned again, but was at least a good sport about it, and dug in for another handful. And another. Together, they took turns scraping and scooping until Beth was satisfied and deemed the pumpkin worthy to be carved. "Care to do the honors?" she handed him a dry erase marker, which he looked at with sheer confusion.
"The hell is that for?"
"Well, we can't just go hacking into it and expect it to look like anything. What kind of face do you want?" When Daryl shrugged in response, Beth offered, "Do you want just basic or something from the carving kit book?"
"You have a carving book?" he questioned dubiously.
Beth rolled her eyes. "It came with the kit. There's a bunch of pictures we can carve, so it's not just a face…unless you want to do a basic face. Either way is fun, but the pages take longer."
Daryl clearly still wasn't getting it. "The hell you need a kit for? Can't you just use a knife?"
"Well, yes, you can," she reached for the package with the tools and pattern book. "But if you want it to be more…advanced, you do the detail work with some of these."
He looked at the tiny serrated blades with the cheap orange handles skeptically. "Knew I'd turn you into a knife fiend," Daryl joked. Beth did the only mature thing and stuck her tongue out at him.
They finally decided on a design - just a basic triangle-eyed jack o'lantern - and laughed their way through carving its face out of the pumpkin shell. By the time they were finished, the sun had fallen below the horizon, scattering fading slanted rays through their tiny kitchen. Daryl moved to turn on the light, but Beth stopped him. "Let's clean up a little and light him up."
She rummaged through their storage shelves until she found a tea light and placed it in their pumpkin, then stepped back to let Daryl use his zippo to bring their jack o'lantern to glowing life.
"It's perfect," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder and rubbing her hand gently up and down his back. She smiled up at him before reaching up on her tiptoes and planting a kiss on his cheek.
He looked down at her, no words coming from his lips, though his eyes told her everything she needed to know. How grateful he was that she included him in this. How much fun he'd had with her.
How very much he loved her.
The sheer magnitude and depth of that love hit her like a ton of bricks as his heart spoke to hers. They didn't need to say the words. They showed their love in a million other ways.
Daryl bent his head down to drop a soft, but lingering, kiss to her lips. That tiny tea light flickering behind the toothy grin of their jack o'lantern might as well have been a room full of romantic candlelight.
They didn't need much. Just each other.
Thanks for reading - please leave a review!