There were a lot of things Neal has always loved about Halloween. The dressing up and pretending to be something your not (once he really became a conman he liked it a little less, because that's basically what his job entailed), the decorations, but mostly he liked carving pumpkins.
Well, maybe not the carving. More like scooping out the guts with your bare hands. Not to say the carving wasn't fun! It just wasn't as fun.
So when El offered for him to help prepare the pumpkins for when Sam was coming over for carving, he jumped at the chance.
Of course, they started with the one he found.
When he walked into the house the first thing he saw was the pumpkin. The top had already been cut off and was currently on the newspapered kitchen table, and there were spatulas and spoons and a knife all laid out. The second thing was that the wall was covered in plastic, and so was the floor.
El came in, wearing jeans and a white apron with orange splatters all along the front. Neal guessed it wasn't the first year she had set to carving a bigger-than-average pumpkin.
Still, he didn't get the need for the plastic on the wall.
El stared at him, a puzzled look crossing her face before she followed his gaze. "Curious?" She questioned.
Neal just nodded and walked out to the pumpkin.
"It's a Burke family tradition," she explained, taking a handful of pumpkin guts. "Just throw it."
And with that, she chucked the gooey orange mass in her hand at the wall, smiling as it slid down.
"Wanna try?"
