the doorbell's persistent ringing doesn't deter xiao from finishing the report that was due next week. what deters him, however, is the sight of a certain long-haired woman with makeup on her face and an excited glint in those blossom eyes looming on his window.
he shouldn't be surprised. hu tao has been messaging him nonstop the night before (he almost blocked her number when his phone wouldn't stop buzzing at 4 am). sliding the window open, he lets the woman in, and the cursed woman lets out a cackle as she hops inside, one leg at a time.
xiao takes the time to carefully take in the sight of his girlfriend. she was cute (but she's always been cute in his eyes), wearing what would appear to be a ghost outfit with her signature plum blossoms pinned on her hair. in her hands are two pumpkin baskets. xiao raises a brow when she hands him one.
"no."
a pout starts forming on her face.
"i have a report to finish."
"a report due next week."
"we're too old to go trick or treating, tao."
"nobody's old enough to go trick or treating."
a sigh, and then: "i don't have a costume."
"there's no need. you can go as tired college student."
the teasing grin on her face makes xiao wants to wipe it off using any means necessary.
there really is no saying no to tao, especially on halloween. the holiday is to her like christmas is to children, and trick or treating a tradition. she hands him the other pumpkin basket once more.
"if you want, we can cut eyeholes out of your old bedsheet so we can be a pair of ghosts? and that way nobody would know it was you under the sheets."
he doubts it. everyone knows he always unwillingly accompanies hu tao every year to halloween. they even go in matching costumes sometimes. who were they again last year?
oh, that's right. they were raven and beast boy.
xiao hoped tonight would be the night they break tradition and she would let him do his report in peace. obviously the archons in celestia aren't on his side. he looks at hu tao again. her face forms that lethal combination of pout and puppy dog eyes that she would always use to win him over.
he looks up, as if asking the great archon morax for help.
xiao sighs and takes the pumpkin basket from her hand.
"fine," he acquiesces. "but this is the last time i'm accompanying you on halloween."
hu tao giggles beside him as she drags him out his dorm room. she was sure that come the next year, she would be able to drag him again for halloween.
after all, he's always said the same thing every year.
