Hello everybody, happy super-duper-early-halloween! Exotos135 here bringing you a little one-shot for the occassion.
I know what you're thinking, "Hey Exotos, are you gonna make something like the Harrietween special last year?"
And the answer, sadly enough, is no. There are several factors as to why:
1) The laptop I'm using, I prefer to only use it to write once in a while if I can help it. Not because it doesn't work, it actually works pretty well, but I got a writing app on my phone that works regardless of whether there's wifi or not, while the laptop requires wifi for saving what I write.
For example, let's say I just finished what I needed to write to complete a 6000+ story chapter. I'm going to save and oh man, there's no wifi, I can't save it! Oh no, I didn't notice until it was too late, and now what would've been saved has been lost.
That totally wasn't based on personal experience, by the way.
So, yeah, I prefer using my phone for writing than the laptop.
2) It should come as no surprise, but I got several things to work on: Conflicted Feelings, Kakorraphobia, Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn, etc. Not to mention countless one-shots. So, yeah, adding another story to the pile would be troublesome.
3) While I did have an idea for a Harrietween sequel, one involving a certain poet related to Haiku, I'm not so sure it's a good idea to write it anymore, or at least right now, for the previously mentioned reason: I just have too much stuff to do right now.
So, we're gonna have to make do with what we got: Here's a little Leni and Lucy one-shot about pumpkin carving. Enjoy. :)
It was noon at the Loud House: Halloween would officially begin in a couple hours, and the Louds were starting to place their decorations for the holiday. Fake skeletons, bats, and despite Leni's protests, cobwebs were all present, with the only thing left in the list being carved pumpkins.
Those were being made at the backyard by the older sisters, except Luna, who was playing her guitar nearby, with one sister watching them from afar: Lucy, who was resting under the tree.
"I can't help but feel bad for the poor pumpkins," Leni remarked as she she finished carving a crudely-carved smiley face on the pumpkin. "At least I can, like, make them look happy before placing their hollow bodies on the front door."
"Leni, did you remember to literally mark an outline for the face before carving it?" Lori asked, focusing solely on her own pumpkin.
Leni glanced back at her pumpkin, then remarked with a deadpan tone, "I think I need a new pumpkin."
"Sigh, pumpkin carving looks like so much fun," Lucy lowered her head. "If only I hadn't taken my fun a bit too far last year."
Last Year...
A younger Lucy cheerfully giggled as she carved her pumpkin with reckless abandon, with her older sisters looking at her worriedly. And then she placed her grotesque pumpkin on the front door, causing several kids to run away.
The Present...
Lucy frowned and sighed audibly, which caught the attention of one of the older sisters: Leni, who looked at the goth with a sad look before she got an idea.
"Hey, Lunie, could you, like, cover for me?" Leni asked Luna, who stopped playing. "I have to go do something."
Luna smiled and nodded. "Sure, I could give it a shot."
Leni smiled in return and Luna took her place as the fashionista walked up to Lucy and sat next to her, with the goth looking elsewhere to try and ignore her.
"Leni, I know you probably want to cheer me up," Lucy said in her usual deadpan tone. "But I'm really not in the mood to talk. And besides, don't you have to help with the carving?"
"Luna's covering for me," Leni answered. "And besides, you know how I, like, can't just stand and watch my poor little sister being sad. I at least have to try to cheer you up."
"How?" Lucy shrugged. "Do you have a plan?"
Leni reached for her back, and took out a medium-sized pumpkin, which she placed between her and Lucy. "We're going to carve a pumpkin. Together."
Lucy fell silent, and stared at the pumpkin before nervously asking, "A-Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Lucy, what happened last year, like, stays last year," Leni brushed her little sister's hair. "And besides, I'll keep an eye on you so you don't start mutilating the poor thing."
"And I want to apologize for doing that last year," Lucy lowered her head. "I was just trying to follow Great Grandma Harriet's own teachings."
A thought cloud appeared above Lucy and Leni, showing a miniature Harriet as she spoke:
"Whenever you start carving a pumpkin, just remember to have fun, even if you need to do so by mutilating the pumpkin in front of it's pumpkin-family!"
"I don't think she ever said anything like that," Leni scratched her chin. "Although, that does, like, sound like something she would've said. Anyway, how about we start?"
Leni took out a marker and handed it to Lucy. "First, mark an outline for the face. Try to draw a happy face."
Lucy hummed as she tried to think about it, then promptly drew the face on her side of the pumpkin. She then turned it around to show Leni... and she saw the pumpkin had beady eyes and a little smile. It almost looked goofy, but cute at the same time.
"Huh, interesting, I thought you would, like, go for something more horrifying," Leni remarked as she took the pen back. "But this'll work. Now, I'll mark the top of the pumpkin so we can cut it."
Leni drew a circle around the pumpkin's head, then saved the marker before she reached for her back, took out a toy knife, and asked, "Do you mind if I'm the one who, like, cuts the top?"
"Fine by me," Lucy smiled. "But only if I get the honor of lobotimizing the pumpkin itself."
Leni smiled nervously. "Well, that's an interesting way to put it."
The fashionista cut the top, put it away, and then watched as Lucy put her hands inside the pumpkin, and started tearing and throwing away its insides, giggling like a little kid as she did. This made Leni both smile and feel a chill go down her spine as she remembered Lucy's giggling from last year.
It wasn't long before the goth noticed this, and she quickly finished and looked elsewhere. "I'm sorry if that brought back bad memories."
"No, it's... alright," Leni sighed. "At least you're having fun, right?"
Lucy nodded a little, and Leni's smile turned from a scared one, to a beaming one. "Okay, how about I cut the eyes, and you cut the smile?"
The goth smiled a little, and nodded once again. So she and Leni carved their parts, while the other sisters watched them from nearby.
"It's so rare to see Leni and Lucy together like that, isn't it?" Lynn asked, earning a nod of agreement from the other sisters. "She's usually seen with me or Lincoln, and Leni's usually seen with Lori or Lincoln. But I've never seen them sharing a moment together before."
"There's eleven of us, Lynn," Luan pointed out. "Of course some pairings are going to be rarer than others, like you and Lola."
"We hang out once in a while!" the jock growled.
"Name one time," Luan said, with Lynn getting ready to answer before the jokester added, "That wasn't in your or Lincoln's imagination."
The jock put a pouty face and looked somewhere else, while the rest of the sisters watched Leni and Lucy putting the finishing touches on their pumpkin, before exchanging pleased smiles.
Later, at the Frontyard...
The siblings were placing the finished pumpkins as the final decorations for the Halloween atmosphere. Most were already put down, with only Leni and Lucy's pumpkin left to place.
"Are you ready?"
Lucy nodded, and the sisters placed their simplistic pumpkin with the other pumpkins, which made it blatantly clash with the other pumpkins' more detailed faces.
"Um, are you sure you placed the right pumpkin, dudes?" Luna asked, scratching the back of her head. "I'm pretty sure Lucy would've carved something much more horrifying for its face."
"I guess I was just feeling like playing with your expectations," Lucy said with a smug smile.
The sisters went "Oh, you!" at the goth, then added one last touch to the pumpkins: They placed a candle inside, and lit it up, illuminating the pumpkin's inside. With their job done, the sisters went back inside to prepare to go trick-or-treating, except for two: Lucy and Leni, who stayed behind to watch their illuminated pumpkin.
Leni crouched and placed a hand on her shoulder. "So, how does it feel to carve a pumpkin after what happened last year?"
"Honestly, I thought something would go horribly wrong, that would scare everybody yet again," Lucy turned to Leni and smiled. "But thanks to you, that didn't happen. I had fun doing it, and nobody got scared."
Leni returned the smile, and the sisters exchanged a hug and a little dialogue before going back inside:
"Thank you, Leni."
"Your welcome, Lucy."