Title: Halloween, Part 4400
Author: Richan
Warnings: mentions of consuming great quantities of alcohol
Summary: Second of the 'Beyond the Veil' stories. Sirius finds out about the best part of a Muggle Halloween - teh partys!
Disclaimer: Moira's the only character I own, and she's really out of Greek mythology. Well, then. I guess I don't own anything.
Notes: It's early for Halloween, but I don't mind. IMHO, Halloween should be celebrated once a month. After all, what other holiday can you pretend to be someone else?
Notes2: I've gone through it multiple times, but it's not been through the beta.
The Characters:
Sirius: of Harry Potter fame, since landing in Hell, Michigan, he has walked through the gates of Hell on Doomsday and works as a cashier at the local chain grocery store the next town over. (Okay, he walked to the playground on 06/06/06 just so he could say that, as part of the village's Doomsday celebration.)
Moira: a former Greek goddess, she runs a halfway house for people who weren't meant to die in their own dimension and somehow end up in this one.
Spike: the only vampire to ever earn back his own soul through the Demon Trials, he bugs those who live in Moira's halfway house instead of bugging Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Treize: tried to take over the world in the series known as Gundam Wing in his own dimension, and since arriving has practically lived in an alcoholic haze.
Saffiru: was deceived and then killed by his own brother when he tried to save Sailor Moon and now draws panels for comic books.
"Remind me why I have to bloody dress up?" Spike was asking around the cigarette between his lips as Sirius straightened his own costume. "I don't even want to go out."
The vampire was dressed appropriately for the occasion, at least as far as looking like a Muggle vampire. Moira had even supplied some fake blood to put at the corners of his mouth. Sirius thought it to be hilarious that, with as much swagger as the blond had, he was still a bit of a cry baby.
"You're not going out," Moira said, glaring at the blond from underneath her hair as she knelt on the floor to tie her shoe. "You will be the one handing out candy to the little kids tonight. And no eating any of them."
Spike huffed. "As if I would. The little blighters don't got enough on them to make a decent meal."
Sirius rolled his eyes at Treize, who was, surprisingly, not smelling like the inside of a whiskey bottle and was dressed for the holiday. Of course, he had taken it to the extreme and was dressed as Napoleon, even though he was much too tall. Sirius supposed that it was a good fit for the former military commander, but he'd somehow acquired the attitude to go with it.
He wanted to enjoy this adult party, and he planned on staying as far away from Treize as possible. At least Saffiru was a decent enough chap to hang out with, even if his English wasn't perfect. It was almost as amusing as it had been watching Wormtail try to pronounce the Latin for Transfiguration. Ooh, bad thought. He wouldn't think bad thoughts on a day... er, night like this.
"Everyone ready?" Moira asked as she grabbed the car keys from the table set by the door. There was a huge bowl on candy set on it, along with several reserve bags tucked on the shelf underneath. With everyone's nod, she opened the door. "And, Spike? No more than two pieces of candy per child. You can't just dump it all in the first kid's bag and then say you were out of candy."
Spike's face fell and Sirius couldn't help but laugh. Though it was a bit disconcerting to realize that their 'den mother' knew them all so well that she could figure out their intentions. But Sirius liked Moira enough to forgive her, as long as he still got to play pranks on the blond vampire.
"So, just who are you supposed to be?" a woman asked as Sirius ladled another glass of punch. He'd been hiding over by the food and drink table for most of the hour that they'd been here, since Treize had been roaming through the crowd and ending up next to him no matter where he'd gone.
Sirius raised an eyebrow in a sarcastic question of 'are you serious?' He looked at her and found the woman was wearing such thick lens of her glasses that maybe she couldn't see what he was. The woman had frizzy hair piled on top of her head, and she was stuffed into a satin dress made in the most atrocious green color he had ever seen. She had long, red-painted fingernails that looked more like claws than anything else. Personally, he wondered just how she managed to stay upright, judging by the impossible high-heeled shoes she was wearing - in the same awful color as her dress.
"Cap'n Jack Sparrow, lovey," he said with as best of an accent as he could. He winked one of his kohl-lined eyes and took a sip of punch. "Who're you?"
She gave a simpering smile. "I'm Rita Skeeter!"
The punch launched out of his nostrils and landed on her face, mostly on the lens of those impossibly thick glasses. She spluttered herself and screeched as she tried to wipe the punch off of her face.
Sirius choked and grabbed a couple of napkins sitting next to the punch bowl. "Sorry," he said as he wiped his nose of the red liquid. "Went down the wrong pipe."
A hand from the side grabbed the napkins. "Jack, are you having a bloody nose again?" Moira was asking as she moved the rapidly soaked paper across his chin.
The woman dressed as Rita Skeeter let loose a horrible shriek as she turned and ran. Sirius saw Moira grin as she threw the used napkins at him. He caught all but one on instinct, the last one tumbling to the floor next to his left boot, which somehow had gotten the brunt of the liquid coming from his nose - other than Rita Skeeter's face - when the rest of his costume hadn't got one drop on it.
"I'm doomed to be followed by that woman wherever I go," Sirius whined under his breath.
Moira's grin grew wider and she eyed him with a speculative look. "This coming from the man who dressed up as himself for the release of the sixth book last summer?"
"Okay, I set myself up for that one," he granted, quite ungraciously. "But, I doubt that this one could write a trashy story about anyone, considering she can't probably see them."
She laughed and patted Sirius on the back. "I'll leave you to your punch, then," she said with fake concern in her voice. "I've left my date over by the plant and I think he's sniffing it."
Sirius looked over to the man in question and saw that he was, indeed, sniffing the plant. Of course, the plant was a gorgeous rose bush that grew in the corner of the enclosed porch that the food was in, but it was strange to talk of it like that. "Have fun."
Giving his blessing, he watched as she wandered over to her date, the two of them dressed as a matching couple. The date didn't quite match Sirius' thoughts on Brad Pitt, but he did think that Moira could pull it off. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were dressed in their armor and had various toy guns strapped to them, but the ridiculous safety glasses looked odd in the dim light of the porch.
"Having a good time?"
Sirius looked over and found his hostess for the evening surveying the food table. He nodded when she looked at him. "The punch is good, although the grapes are a little tart."
She laughed. "Hey, it's Michigan in October. You can't exactly get food that's perfectly ripe." She leaned closer. "And they're supposed to be eyeballs. I know, because I had to peal them all."
He eyed them a bit sheepishly. "I was wondering why they felt funny."
She stuck her hand out. "The name's Bellona, but most people call me Belle. It's certainly better than trying to explain my name." She cocked her head to the side a little, as if a cat. "You're one of Moira's boys, aren't you?"
Sirius choked on his sip of punch and carefully set the glass onto the table. It certainly wasn't his night for the delicious punch, even with the hint of vodka that was in it. He studied her face for a moment before nodding.
Belle chuckled. "I thought so, although you seem a bit more sane than some of the others who've stayed with her."
He relaxed at that, having survived this long with Spike as a housemate. "I'm Sirius Black." He held out his hand.
Shaking, she shook her head. "Moira'd said something to that effect, but I figured you would have moved out and to your own place by now. It's only the insane ones who stay."
"What about Saffiru?" Sirius asked as he cautiously took up his cup and took the tiniest sip he could.
Belle looked at him with a reflection of his 'are you serious' look. "He draws comic books for a living." She paused. "But that may be because I doubt he's fully grown and I wouldn't want him living on his own."
Sirius laughed. "Are you one, too?"
She shook her head. "I was one of the gods, but not exactly associated with her. She was worshiped by the Greeks, but I was worshiped by the Romans."
He eyed her with a little hesitance. And she wondered why he stayed with Moira.
Belle caught his look and laughed. "I suppose it was quite the power trip, but I doubt I have anything near what Moira has now. I just try to blend in with the regular folk now."
He nodded, silently relieved that he wouldn't have another crazy person on his hands. He had enough of them as it already was.
"Did you have fun?" the booming voice asked.
Sirius squinted his eyes against the loud noise and tried to roll over. He landed with a painful thump on a hard surface that felt remarkably like the floor in the living room. He blindly reached out and hit his hand, a bit harder than he thought was possible, on the solid base of the coffee table that sat in front of the couch.
Prying one eye open enough to see what was going on, he saw a pair of shoes about four inches from his nose. They were close enough that it hurt to focus, so he shut his eye again and tried to console himself.
This was going to be painful.
"I think he drank more alcohol than I did," came a voice from what had to be the direction of the dining table.
There was a snort above him. "No one drank as much alcohol as you did last night, Treize."
That had to be Moira, then. Because if it was anyone else who lived in the house, Sirius was in the wrong house and had to get home. He'd still be in trouble, but it wouldn't be breaking and entering trouble at the least.
Sirius mentally pulled himself as together as he could with a pounding headache and carefully crawled into a sitting position. His eyes open into the barest of slits against the glaring light of the side-table lamps, he looked around the room.
Spike was chuckling from behind an unlit cigarette (part of Moira's 'no smoking in the house' clause), while Treize was gloating from the table where he was having his Morning After Bloody Mary. Moira just plain looked angry.
"You are in some serious trouble, mister," she ground out through her teeth. "Do you know who Belle is?"
He shook his head, then ruefully reminded himself not to ever do that as his head began to throb even worse than before.
Moira leaned down and looked directly into Sirius' unfocused eyes. "She was the goddess of war, Sirius, and if you did anything to her, she will hurt you. A lot. Very painfully. And it will involve things men don't want done."
All three men winced. And Sirius hurt himself as it triggered another aching jab of pain.
The doorbell rang at that moment, granting Sirius a bit of relief - in spite of the loud noise that seemed to reverberate around the house.
It wasn't long enough.
"Sirius!" It was that awful voice from last night that had encouraged him to take shot after shot, which had resulted in him sitting on the floor when there was a perfectly comfortable couch behind him.
He looked up to find Belle smiling at him. Well, that solved the mystery of whether she was going to hurt him or not. 'Cause it looked like a happy smile and not a vengeful one. At least, from what he could tell it was.
"Belle," he said as softly as he could without causing more pain.
"Here!" She shoved a glass under his nose. Whatever was in it smelled awful, like when they had to chop up lizard entrails for potions class. He tried his best to turn his head away from it, but she smashed the glass into his lips.
Once it was down, his head felt better and his stomach didn't heave. That was the good thing. The bad part was that it tasted like something had died in his mouth and he didn't think that toothpaste would ever get that taste out. Maybe if he used the entire bottle of Listerine that he'd accidentally bought the last time it had been his turn to bring home groceries. He wouldn't drink it like Treize had tried to do, because he wasn't ever going to drink again.
Alcohol, at least. Well, hard liquor at any rate. He couldn't very well watch football at the bar without a beer in hand, though he rarely ever finished it.
"Alive once more?" Belle asked in what he realized was her normal level, though before he'd drank that disgusting drink it had sounded as if she were shouting - that they'd all been shouting. She laughed. "It was fun watching you try to drink me under the table, but I've bested more men than you will ever meet."
There was a snort from Treize, and Sirius got to watch him cower as the former goddess turned her steely eyes on him. "Ready for a round, drunk?"
Moira sighed. "Treize, are you all ready drunk this morning?"
"Never stopped drinking," came the slurred response from around the rim of his glass as he took a long swallow. "I'm 'bout ready to head to bed."
Spike snorted this time, with a muttered "whino," under his breath. Sirius glared at him, along with the two women, and he silently slunk from the room, still muttering but not loud enough for them to understand the words.
"So, who was your date last night?" Belle asked as she took a seat on the couch, almost pushing Sirius into the couch.
Oh, Merlin, please don't let him be trapped in some gabfest.
"One of Chaucer's characters. He owed me a favor, and I wanted to be Mrs. Smith this year. Last year I was a mummy, and it was very boring," came the amused reply. Moira looked at Sirius. "You don't have to stay, Sirius. There's some cinnamon rolls in the kitchen, and there should still be some bacon and eggs in the fridge."
That definitely sounded better than listening to the two chatter. Climbing off of the floor, Sirius was almost to the kitchen door when Belle called out to him.
"We should have a contest like we had last night some other time, shouldn't we, Sirius?"
He didn't know he could run that fast until he tried.
Fin.
Information regarding Bellona can be found here at http / en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Enyo
