Memo cracked a smile at Alex’s trepidation. “It’s fine, baby. It’s just a pumpkin. I can go buy another.” He scooped at the pale orange flesh to hollow it out a little more. “Or if it’s a little goofy… who cares. We can have a little goofy Halloween.”

Once his gourd was excavated enough, he stripped the gloves into the garbage and washed his hands all the way up his forearms with a healthy heaping of fragrant soap (still in a summer scent).

“Um. Yay, pumpkin pie?” he said with a wince as he pulled up a chair and uncapped a sharpie, swiping on his phone for a good Noivern pumpkin template to copy.

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

“No,” he said, in a disappointed voice that was semi-apologetic for, you know, himself. “I never have. I don’t really like any… squashy gourds. Except for zucchini. They can stay but they’re on thin ice.” He stabbed at the air with his Sharpie to illustrate just how much danger zucchini were in.

He found a nice template for a Noivern and set about copying it.

“If anyone can, you can. But be careful, please.”

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

He made a face. “They’re just… stringy and gross and not a texture I vibe with. Much to the chagrin of my mother.” He had war flashbacks to huge trays of summer squash baking in the oven and little Memo exiled outside for the whole day because the scent made him want to vomit.

“Baby, it’s just a pumpkin,” he reminded him, Sharpie squeaking on the pumpkin skin as he drew a line. “I can get a new one. I just want you to be extra careful so you don’t cut yourself.”

He made an egregious face. “Of course I take pictures of my Pokemon. But I’m not Picasso. If I tried to draw Sibella’s face on this bad bitch from a real life picture it would look horrendous.”

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

Memo stood from his chair and moved to stand behind Alex, more for his own benefit than his boyfriend’s. He was a simple creature and proximity and warmth made him happy, so sue him.

“You cut all the way through,” he said, tracing the Sharpie line with one finger. “But maybe just do a narrow cut so we see the outline of the Wooloo? You don’t have to punch the whole thing out, I mean.”

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

He didn’t realize he was putting himself in such a perfect position, hovering over Alex’s shoulder; his mind went a little bit fuzzy, as he leaned in and nosed lightly into his hair.

Derailed by a distraction of his own making, he forgot what he was even saying, he pressed a light kiss to the top of Alex’s cheek.

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

Like clockwork, or the world’s most predictable weather pattern, a flush of red sprawled itself across Alex’s cheeks, and his hastily hissed warning made Memo duck his head and laugh into his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Okay, okay. Um, so what I meant was, instead of punching out the whole Wooloo, maybe just, do a bit here, and a bit here--,” he indicated the spots around the outline with a finger, “--so that we get the silhouette of it? That way it still looks like a Wooloo and not a… void.”

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

“Don’t say it like thaaaat,” he said, overcome with laughter, shaking with it where he rested against Alex’s shoulder, “it makes me sound like a teenager.”

He pulled his chair up closer and plopped down in it for monitoring purposes.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine with your skillz,” he said, with a gentle roll of his eyes, “and, again, it’s just a pumpkin. I can buy us a hundred.”

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉