Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or its characters. All rights belong to its creators.
The Tumblr Prompt for day 3 was Trick or Treat? I thought I'd share the story here although it's past Halloween.
Other Kinds of Treats
Tonight, was the night of Halloween. Halloween was a holiday Arthur Kirkland rather enjoyed for the sole purpose of dressing up, scaring the literal hell out of unsuspecting people, and getting free sweets. Alfred and Matthew being the prime targets for scaring, with Alfred being 7 years old and Matthew being 8. But he was 15 now and officially "too old" for trick-or-treating.
Arthur seemed to be the only one not invited to Feliciano Vargas's Halloween party, hell even his brothers were going, and they now attended University. Having not been invited left him with nothing to do except take the little brats on their candy run. He lived down the street from Alfred and Matthew. Alfred and Matthew's parents said they'd pay him for the job when he brought them back home.
Arthur was dressed as a plague doctor, equipped with the white long beak mask, staff and an oil lamp.
"What are you supposed to be, a bird?" Alfred who was dressed in a red, white, and blue superhero suit said. He had a little orange pumpkin pail for his sweets.
"A plague doctor, but you're too young to understand." He said lifting the mask up.
Alfred stuck his tongue out at him, "Whatever. You're probably some kind of villain. I'll take you down because I'm Captain America!" Alfred held up the target looking plastic shield before running into him at full force.
Arthur gasped stumbling back a bit, "Bloody hell you little prick! Don't do that!"
"Yeah, Alfie you're not supposed to hit people, remember? Mom said you won't be able to keep your candy if you cause trouble." Matthew said, voice barely above a whisper as he lightly pulled the other blond back.
Matthew was wearing some kind of blue and orange hockey outfit with a blue bicycle helmet on his head and a hockey stick in his hand. He had a little black pail for his sweets.
Alfred pouted, "You're no fun Mattie."
"Come on, the faster we get through this the faster you can get your candy." Arthur said as he ushered them ahead. He pulled his mask back down.
He hoped he wouldn't see anyone from school that he knew, then they'd know he didn't get invited to the party.
They went to the house of a sweet old lady who had little light ghosts hung on her banisters. She pinched Alfred's cheeks before saying how cute Alfred and Matthew were. Then she gave them each a handful or so of candy. Arthur stood at the bottom of the steps, looking around for anyone he recognized but had only seen a group of children dressed as a dinosaur, a fairy, and a bee.
Alfred and Matthew met back up with him and Alfred blew a raspberry, "She only gave out hard candy!"
"At least she didn't give out candy corn." Matthew said.
"I love candy corn! I would have rather gotten that!"
Matthew grimaced but didn't say anything else.
"Come on, let's go to the next house." Arthur felt as though someone was looking at them or more specifically him.
The next were a young couple and their pumpkin costumed baby. They gave out chocolate and Alfred looked like he wanted to eat it right then.
Arthur stood waiting down the walkway, and looked around still seeing nothing, but saw a little movement near a tree close by. It was dark out except for a few porch lights to signal that these houses were giving out candy.
Alfred led the way to the next house that was a few doors down, stomping like he was an armed soldier. Arthur still couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed. It made his skin crawl.
He nudged Matthew to hurry him along and the boy casted him a worried glance before there was a loud snap!
Arthur turned around and his heart almost leaped out of his throat as he was facing one Ivan Braginsky.
"Ivan!?"
Ivan was his classmate. They were both in the same year, and the boy had a reputation for being rather intimidating and a bit creepy. The Russian American was also rather tall.
"Ah, so it is you, Arthur." Ivan said, a smile on his face as Arthur lifted up his mask. He was painted in white makeup and wearing ripped clothes. His shirt was made in such a way as though to appear to show his open heart.
"Why were you following me? Why didn't you say anything? You almost gave me a heart attack, you wanker!"
"I'm sorry. It is hard to tell with your costume, and I didn't want to bother you if you were a stranger. I was curious because everyone is at Feliciano's party."
Arthur crossed his arms, "Well not me. I didn't want to go to that stupid party anyway. If you got invited, rub it in now before you go."
"I did not get invited either. I am taking my little sister Natalya trick-or-treating." Arthur then noticed the little blonde girl with midnight blue eyes giving him a ferocious glare as she clung to Ivan's pant leg. She was wearing a witch costume complete with a pointed black hat.
Arthur felt his cheeks warm with blush, "I-I'm doing the same with my neighbors from down the street Alfred and Matthew."
"Really? Would you like to go together then?"
Arthur was surprised. He and the platinum blond never really talked outside of greeting each other at school.
"Noooo." Natalya whined as she pulled Ivan's pant leg.
"A-ah well—" Ivan for a brief moment looked dejected, before his signature smile was back on his face.
Just then Alfred and Matthew came back over, "Mmmm strawberry licorice! My favorite!" Alfred said before he gasped. "A zombie and a witch! A hero's work is never done!"
Alfred ran over and pushed Ivan with his shield. He did it a bit too hard and caused Ivan to fall back onto his butt.
"Stop doing that!" Arthur said before rushing over to help the other teenager up, "You'll have to excuse him."
"It is ok, he is just playing." His grin was lopsided. Arthur held out a hand for him to take, which Ivan grasped.
Natalya let out a battle cry and ran past them before tackling Alfred to the ground. It was a bit of a struggle to pull Ivan up; Ivan was heavier than him.
"Mattie! Mattie help! Ahhhhh!"
"I told you to stop doing that, but you don't listen." Matthew said.
Natalya was punching Alfred's plastic shield and had then resorted to pulling his cheeks when Ivan pulled her off of him. Ivan seemed to reprimand her in Russian when he set her back down.
Alfred's glasses were askew, and his eyes were wet when he got back up. His face was red, and he looked like he was about to cry. Arthur squatted down to Alfred's level to fix his glasses, "See now, it's not so fun when it happens to you. Are you going to apologize?" Alfred gave him a nod.
Natalya begrudgingly apologized to Alfred, and Alfred said his apology to Ivan. Ivan ruffled the boy's blond hair, "No harm done Fredka."
"So as a witch can you do spells?" Matthew asked Natalya.
"I can curse people." Natalya said.
"Did you curse Artie's eyebrows to never stop growing?" Alfred said.
"Fucking twat." He muttered, to which he felt a sharp pinch on his arm.
"No swearing in front of the little ones, da?" Ivan said, to which Arthur felt his ears warm in embarrassment.
"R-right." Arthur crossed his arms, "Well I suppose to not die of boredom we could take them trick-or-treating together. They seem to be getting along so why not."
Ivan smiled, his eyes squinting as he gave him a nod.
Alfred made spaceship noises as he spun around, Natalya whacked at people's lawns with Matthew's hockey's stick and Matthew tried to stop Alfred from spinning so he wouldn't get dizzy as they walked to the next lit home.
He spared a few glances at Ivan, who seemed to be enjoying the walk, not paying attention to the kids, but instead whatever he was thinking about. Arthur didn't know what to say if he wanted to start a conversation.
When Ivan caught his gaze Arthur felt his cheeks warm with blush.
"I thought you got along well with Feli, da?" Ivan said presumably asking about the party.
"N-no the little pr-punk got along with my brothers, never liked me much. Something about the student council and how well I got on with his stupid boyfriend. I never liked Ludwig in a romantic sense, and Ludwig is head over heels for that dizzy idiot. So, I don't know why he's jealous."
"Feli jealous of you?"
"It's baffling, I know. No one would ever believe that if I said anything, and he'd deny it to anyone who asks. So, it's easier if he just "forgot" to invite me."
"My, that is interesting to hear. Mine is not so fun. Little Feli thinks I want to crush his bones into dust. I try to be nice, but he's always crying."
"We've already discussed that Feliciano is a moron. So, it's fine that we didn't go."
"But he has so many friends. I thought that if he liked me, they would too." Ivan's expression was gloomy briefly, before a smile wormed its way back onto his face, "I will just have to find another way."
Arthur didn't know Ivan was desperate for friendship. Although if he thought about it, the majority of the school was terrified of him and those that did talk to him probably only did so out of fear. He sat alone during their lunch period, smiling at anyone who approached his table, but it came off as a little creepy. Arthur was not immune to feeling uneased by the Russian American either.
But as they were now alone, Arthur felt a little bad for him. He had an idea to make Ivan feel better.
"Let's not talk about them now, hmm? Come on, I want to show you something."
There was this couple up the road on the other side of the little duck pond that always made their house into a makeshift haunted house. His brothers took him a few times when he was younger, hopefully they were still doing it.
"Where are we going Artie? Are we going to get more candy?" Alfred asked, after they'd just come back down the steps from getting their candy. Suckers this time as Natalya had them in between her fingers as though they were claws.
"We're going to take a slight detour to a haunted house."
Arthur put his mask back down and led the way with Ivan bringing up the rear as the three children chanted, "Haunted house! Haunted house! Haunted house!" They skirted around the edge of the pond and through some high grass before they arrived in another neighborhood.
He could see the line of costumed children and tweens waiting at the makeshift haunted house beside a modest looking middle class American home. Arthur stood behind a group of tweens that were dressed as Freddy Kruger, Jason, Ghostface, and Michael Myers from their respective movie franchises. His brothers made sure they saw each movie as Halloween aficionados.
"This is awesome!"
"I'll go in with you if you get scared, Alfie."
"I'm not going to be scared! N-natalya might get scared though so we'll all go together." Alfred said, gripping the small girl's shoulders, who looked to be apathetic.
"I'm not sure how scary it will still be considering I came when I was younger. If it's not scary at all we could laugh at how mediocre it is." Arthur said, turning to Ivan.
"I would like that." Ivan nods, looping his arm in Arthur's, he was grateful for the mask hiding the warm blush on his cheeks.
The maximum number of people per group was 4 so Alfred, Natalya, and Matthew went in together, first.
The makeshift haunted house consisted of dark cloth draped high as though to encase them in darkness. They walked in a maze-like path encountering creepy decorations of ghosts, demons and ghouls.
Ivan giggled at the decorations, a hand covering his mouth and Arthur felt a smile twitch on his lips. For such an intimidating boy he made a lot of cute gestures…err just something he noticed.
And then suddenly a man in a clown suit jumped out in front of them, startling him. Ivan punched the clown in the nose, apparently startled too.
"Ack!" The man covered his nose, "Ooh that hurt!"
"S-sorry." Ivan said, covering his mouth but he seemed to be struggling not to laugh.
"J-just go on through."
That was the end and they had to shut down the haunted house for about an hour to check on the clown.
When they got to where Alfred, Matthew and Natalya were standing, Alfred was trembling.
"It's over Alfie. You're alright." Matthew was hugging Alfred.
"You are a big baby. Nothing was scary." Natalya crossed her arms.
Arthur slipped his arm from Ivan's.
Ivan let out a laugh and Arthur felt a chuckle of his own escape before he cleared his throat.
"Ivan, that man's nose might be broken, it's not that funny." He lightly shoved the laughing teen.
"It was his own fault." Ivan grinned, bumping his shoulder against Arthur's.
Arthur rolled his eyes, "Alright, it's late enough. Let's go back." To which Arthur led the way back to Alfred and Matthew's home.
Alfred and Matthew's parents thanked him and handed him the money for taking them around.
Arthur walked with Ivan and Natalya to their home. He stole a few more glances at Ivan and looked away hurriedly when Ivan caught his gaze. Arthur stood at Ivan's walkway. Ivan told Natalya she could go inside the house.
"Why?"
"It's past your bedtime, tomorrow's a school night."
"What about you?"
"I will be in, in a minute." He said lightly shoving the girl towards the house. She looked back, sticking up her middle finger at Arthur before going inside the house.
Arthur frowned before turning his attention back to Ivan.
"I had a nice time tonight. I'm glad we didn't get invited." Ivan said.
"I had a nice time too." Arthur gave him a stiff nod. "Y-you're welcome to sit with my friends and I at lunch, i-if you want that is." Arthur felt his cheeks warm with blush, gaze not on Ivan but on his porch behind him.
"I would like that. Thank you." To which Ivan lifted up Arthur's mask and leaned down to kiss his cheek before he walked back towards his home.
Arthur's entire face to the tips of his ears were warm with blush.
Ivan gave him a wave before he closed the door. Arthur went through the motion of giving him a wave back.
He put back down his mask, thankful that it could hide his face as he walked back home.
A/N: Canada is dressed as Wayne Gretzky.
Thank you for reading!
