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to say quackity was enthusiastic about halloween would be an understatement. the first of october was spent curled up by his boyfriends watching and rewatching “it’s the great pumpkin, charlie brown” until the little’s eyes drooped and they put him to bed where he dreamed of pumpkins and snoopy. that’s not the say the others weren’t excited for halloween, in fact they were ecstatic for the holiday.
karl had purchased numerous halloween sweaters for the five of them, and both him and george went to party city in search of halloween decorations for the group to hang up. sapnap had taken it upon himself to get a multitude of halloween movies for the couple to watch. dream very obviously preferred christmas, but he wasn’t opposed to halloween so he smiled through his boyfriend’s antics and played along with their ideas.
truthfully, if george hadn’t begged him to go back to party city for karl’s temporary hair dye dream wouldn’t have done anything memorable this halloween, but since george had asked him it gave dream’s gift giving addiction free reign and allowed him to stroll the aisles in search of something for his boyfriends.
first dream searched for the desired hair dye, but he was admittedly a little lost and had to get a worker to lead him to the hair dye section. “so what color are we looking for today?” she asked him cheerily, turning to dream from their spot in front of the temporary hair dye. “uhhh red? or pink? i’m not sure which one is more similar to what we’re going for.” she nodded and pointed to the section with red, pink, and orange dyes in many different forms. “is it for halloween? if it’s a character i might be able to help.” she explained with a smile as she watched dream’s expression falter into a confused one as he looked at the dye’s.
“uh, yeah it's for my boyfriend since he wants to be starfire for halloween.” he explained casually and watched the girl’s expression shift momentarily before she nodded, squatting down beside the dye near the bottom of the shelf. “so you’re gonna be robin? that's such a cute costume! my partner is an idiot and wanted to be a fucking sandwich for halloween.” the blond grinned at that as she handed him temporary orangish-red hair dye in a sprayable can. “oh no i’m gonna be cyborg, my other boyfriend is gonna be robin because he’s a little shit and fought me for it. and for the record i think a sandwich is an excellent costume.” she giggled at that and led him out of the aisle that was oddly far back in the store.
“i’ll make sure to tell them that. anything else i can help you with?” she asked and watched as dream’s eyes traveled to the next aisle over beside them that held stuffed animals. “do you have any, like, charlie brown themed stuffed animals? like snoopy?” the worker, that he now figured out was named maggie, shrugged at that and led him to the poorly organized aisle before they began looking for the desired stuffed animal.
“would snoopy with a witch hat work?”
dream’s hands were sweaty as he shuffled to the door of his own house, able to hear the loudness from the outside of the door and grinning as he heard karl’s familiar giggles. the blond wasn’t really sure why he was so nervous about giving the toy to his boyfriend. the little would likely be excited to have a new friend, but there was always that miniscule chance he’d hate it and dream would feel bad.
he didn’t really get a chance to dwell on that as he opened the door and was immediately met with karl who was practically jumping up to the roof in excitement. “did you get it? did you get it?” he questioned, reaching for the bags and pausing as he opened the one with the toy inside. “for q?” he inquired quietly in case it was a secret while going to a different bag and grabbing his spray hair dye.
“yeah! it’s not a secret, i’m just not sure if he’ll like it-”
“daddy’s home! daddy’s home! dreamie where you go?”
dream flushed at that, moving past karl to see quackity who was grinning widely in his duck onesie they’d bought for him after a particularly long stream train. “i had to go to the pretty halloween store for karl!” he matched the others' excitement as one of his now-free hands was taken by quackity and he was dragged into the living room with the leftover bag that contained the stuffed animal. “and i think dreamie got you a gift while he was there…” karl said to the little with a grin, making the little jump in excitement, plopping down onto his place on the floor next to where he’d left his toys to go to the door.
“toy! s’ bubba telling the truth?” he asked excitedly, watching as dream sat infront of him and ran his fingers through his hair nervously, tilting his head in confusion since dream typically didn’t show his nervousness to the little. “daddy otay?” quackity asked with a small smile as he crawled into his boyfriend's lap and gently patted the boy’s arm with a soft “there, there, quack is here. you’re okay.” like they’d do to him when he was upset. “yeah! no, i’m okay pumpkin. do you wanna see your present?” the boy nodded quickly, silently promising to himself that he’d love whatever dream had gotten him.
the blond hesitantly pulled the toy out of the bag and pushed the plastic bag to the side to show the toy to quackity who’s eyes lit up immediately. “snoopy! s’ snoopy from the movie!” he exclaimed, taking the toy into his hands and holding it to his chest tightly. dream couldn’t help but grin at the reaction, his boy was adorable and anyone could see the admiration he had for him. “it is! i saw it at the store and just had to get it for you.” the brunette pressed a kiss on the dog’s nose like his boyfriends would do to him occasionally, showing how he’d watch their behaviour and his little mind would copy them.
“i love him! s’ my new friend, gonna come everywhere with me!”
dream failed to realize how literal that statement would be.
quackity carried the toy everywhere for the next week, even when he was big he’d leave it in a backpack or inside of the car but when he happened to go out small he’d insist on carrying it on his person with the ear clutched in his small fist. the others weren’t opposed to this, nobody said anything to them about it and quackity didn’t go out much when he was small anyway.
“baby are you really going to watch the pumpkin movie again?” sapnap inquired with a small smile as he sat next to quackity sat criss cross with a sippy cup full of moon milk full of it. “uh huh! papa do people do punkin huntin’ in real life?” he asked, although his eyes stayed glued to the screen. “its called pumpkin picking, and yes some people do sweetheart, why?” the brunette watched as quackity’s eyes widened, him turning to his boyfriend with an ‘o’ shaped mouth to showcase his surprise and unintentionally making sapnap giggle. “can we go? right now?” he asked, standing from his spot and dropping his milk to the floor. it really was quite a sight. quackity in his pajamas begging to go pumpkin picking at nine pm as if his bedtime wasn’t in thirty minutes.
“baby, it's too late for pumpkin picking.” he tried to reason, but felt the frown sprouting on his boyfriend’s face. “but- but they go in the movie? gogy will take me!” he declared before sprinting up the stairs and up to george’s room. the brunette sighed, walking after the little and helping him up the stairs until they were stood inside of george’s room where he lay in his bed with both karl and dream, one of which had been sucking on a pacifier sweetly and drifting off the sleep until quackity had burst into the room.
“shh, is everything okay?” george whispered to the others and looked down at the now half-asleep dream in his arms. “no! napnap won’t take me pumpkin huntin’!” he whined to the other boy and stomped his foot on the ground, to show his frustration. “honey, it’s too late to go pumpkin hunting. dream is already sleeping and you’re scared of the dark.” quackity hated that he made a good point, despised it even. “gogy’s so mean to me!” he whined out softly from his spot in the doorframe where he stood with his arms crossed. “baby you know this isn’t how we react when we don’t get what we want…” sapnap started and paused at the soft whines from the little as he curled into his caregiver's body.
“i wan’ gooo-”
“we’re well aware of that, and we will talk about going pumpkin hunting sometime tomorrow, but reacting this way isn’t okay. sweet pea you really hurt gogy’s feelings, you know? he doesn’t want to be mean to you but it's not safe to go out at night and he just wants you to be safe.”
the little hesitantly nodded in understanding as he shuffled over to where george sat with dream curled up in his lap, bottle now sat on the nightstand. “‘m sorry gogy. didn’t mean to hurt your feelin’s. was just upset cause i wan’ get pumpkins.” the brunette coo’s sympathetically to the boy before setting dream gently into karl’s awaiting arms, pulling quackity into his own. “baby boy it's okay to be upset with gogy, but we are all just trying to keep you safe. we’ll talk about going pumpkin picking during the daytime, and we’ll see okay? does that make you feel any better?”
quackity nodded at that before taking george’s face in his hands momentarily, and pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. “uh huh, feel better. gogy still love me?” the brunette couldn’t help but smile, eyes flicking over to sapnap before returning to quackity and pressing a kiss to his nose. “course i do, how could i not? gogy will always love you, even if you say mean things to him.” he reassured softly and let quackity curl up against his chest at that, mumbling something soft neither boy could really understand before letting his eyes fall closed. a few minutes of silence passed as george held the boy until he was sure he was asleep, the caregiver then setting him next to dream and karl who’d both fallen asleep.
“the living room a mess?” george asked quietly as they tip-toed out of the room and both made their way down the stairs. “yep, he fell asleep before he could clean it. you okay? i know you told him it was fine but… you know.” the brunette sighed, picking up the sippy cup full of moon milk and the leftover goldfish on a plate and carrying it to the kitchen to be dumped out and washed. “i can’t get bent out of shape every time one of them says something mean to me. he doesn’t mean it, so it’s fine.”
sapnap frowned at that, arms wrapping around george’s waist and head resting against his shoulder. “you’re human, george. they might not mean it but it can still hurt, and that's okay. you don’t have to be fine with it just because you think you should.” he sighed, abandoning the sippy cup in the sink and turning around in his boyfriend's hold so he could press a gentle kiss to his lips. “sometimes you’re too smart.” he complained with a giggle, making sapnap grin and press their lips together once more. “yeah, yeah. come help me clean up the blocks he got into.”
the next morning both quackity and dream woke up big, both stumbling into the kitchen and giving their caregivers a scare. “anything happen last night?” quackity inquired as he raked his fingers through george’s hair that really needed cutting at some point. “uh, no. nothing worth mentioning.” he lied, pointedly ignoring the looks from both karl and sapnap. “you don’t sound sure?”
fuck quackity for being so observant.
“well- well something happened, but it wasn’t a huge deal.” quackity frowned at that, detaching himself from george so he could properly look the other in the eye. “but it was a big enough deal that you felt like you had to hide it from me?” a moment or so later and george cracked, giving sapnap the go ahead to recap the night before. when the texan finished, quackity was frowning and looked just the slightest bit guilty. “george i’m sorry, i knew i wanted to go to a pumpkin patch but i didn’t think i wanted to go that badly.”
dream tilted his head in confusion at that, looking to his boyfriends to see if they’d caught it.
“you knew you wanted to go to a pumpkin patch? babe why didn’t you say anything?” the brunette looked at his feet sheepishly, shuffling back and forth underneath their gaze. “i didn’t think it’d be that big of a deal! plus, i’d probably slip and slipping outside of the house is really fucking scary.” they nodded in understanding, george taking the boys hand in his own and grinning as quackity practically latched onto him. “well if you want to go, we’ll take you. i talked about it with sapnap while you guys were asleep and we agreed that it’s just a pumpkin patch and those are usually less crowded than things like stores. we’d bring all your little gear and stuff obviously since you might slip, but even if you don’t it’ll be fun.”
today was the day. it was about a week later and the boys were in their kitchen packing the bag for quackity’s little gear. things like small snacks that were in fun halloween shapes, pacifiers, and even soothers like teethers and fidget toys were stuffed into the bag with quackity’s snoopy plush sitting on his lap during the car ride there. while he wasn’t actively small on the way there, they could all tell he was getting there and began doing subtle things to help him ease into it although the excitement rising throughout him as the pumpkin patch came into view was enough to push him over the edge.
the shift from quackity’s big mind to his small one was almost visible, the boy gasping excitedly as the orange fruit came into view. “napnap look! punkin’s!” he exclaimed excitedly as he bounced in his seat and showed snoopy the pumpkin patch in front of them. “i see the pumpkins! baby can you tell me how old you’re feeling? just so we know.” quackity thought for a minute as the car stopped and they began piling out of it. “mm this many!” he said excitedly as he held up five fingers and rushed out of the car, frowning as his hand was taken by karl.
“baby you have to hold one of our hands in the parking lot, it’s for safety.” the brunette reassured before subtly signaling for them to hurry up since quackity did tend to be rather impatient. “bubba p’ease! i wanna go find the great pumpkin!” they looked at one-another in confusion as they led the boy to the pumpkins where they released him, but not before making him promise to stay within eyesight. “great pumpkin? like from his movie?” dream questioned as they walked after quackity who was poking at pumpkins and inspecting them. “does… does he think that's an actual thing?” sapnap whispered to them so as to not alert quackity of their conversation. “i guess so?” george said quickly, turning to watch quackity as he very nearly tripped over his own feet. “well there's no hurt in letting him believe it.” karl said, watching as the boy poked and prodded at pumpkins, humming to himself about if he liked it or not before moving on.
as the day progressed they were sure quackity had looked at every pumpkin in the patch, insisting that it wasn’t “great” enough before moving on. throughout this process fatigue had weighed upon dream heavily, considering the boy typically wasn’t a very active person. he wasn’t one to go out frequently, preferring to stay inside in the safe arms of his boyfriends. because of this he’d gained the habit of regressing rather small for long periods of time as opposed to quackity who was more on the toddler side, which created lots of clashes between the two.
quackity insisted on doing lots of interactive things such as playing outside and building with his legos, while dream was more the type to curl up in george’s arms and doze in and out of sleep, so when quackity wanted to play and he couldn’t deliver it’d create problems between the two. dream began to fall behind the group that was diligently following quackity with smiles on their faces because they’d planned to take care of him today. they hadn’t planned on dream wanting to be carried around by his caregivers so he could doze for a little. for obvious reasons he couldn’t do that, so he stuck to falling behind the group and just telling himself he could get through this and regress when they got home.
he got through about half of the outing like this, before sapnap noticed and stayed back with him after insisting that the others would watch quackity well enough. “you alright pumpkin?” he whispered to the boy and oh god did that feel small . the blond was sure sapnap knew what he was doing to his mind, further feeding into the fog that was consuming him. “mhm, tired i guess.” dream did his best to keep his voice even, but it squeaked and sapnap’s concerned looks grew. “baby are you feeling small? it's okay if you are, we just need to know.” a moment passed before dream nodded sadly, staring down at his feet with a frown.
he wasn’t supposed to be small. they’d only planned for quackity, he should’ve been able to handle it. so why couldn’t he? why did just the thought of being big and having to do things like walk himself make his mind feel foggy and empty? “hey, hey it’s okay sweetheart. can i tell the others? we’ll figure out what to do from there, i promise.” a moment of silence passed between the two before he nodded, cheeks warming as his hand was taken by sapnap.
“hey, can we talk?” the brunette whispered to his boyfriends who were lovingly watching quackity attempt to pick up a pumpkin much too big for him. “uh, yeah. quack can you come sit by us?” the request was more of a light command, but he was happy to do it anyway. the little happily plopped by their feet with his stuffed animal in hand and began singing soft songs to occupy his small mind while his caregivers spoke. “baby do you wanna sit with quackity?” sapnap asked the blond softly, to which he shook his head and curled into sapnap’s side, thumb instinctually rising to his mouth since he hadn’t been offered a pacifier.
both george and karl had caught on by now, but their suspicions had been confirmed when sapnap whispered something to them both about dream feeling small. “oh buddy! i see we have a small guy with us today, hm?” dream shyly nodded at george’s question, cheeks flushing further as he buried his head in his caregivers hold. “not one.” was all he could mumble out, thankful that his caregivers were used to his baby babbles and could weed out what he really meant. “oh you feel smaller than one? we’ve got a little teensie baby on our hands today, don’t we?” he then nodded at karl’s words, hesitantly reaching for the other and latching onto him with a soft barely eligible whine for milk.
“sweet pea we can’t get milk right now, we still need q to pick a few pumpkins for us. do you think you can wait it out or do you want to go back to the car with bubba?” george questioned the little softly, heart breaking a little at the whine he’d let out upon being told he’d have to wait for a bottle. “i- i pick punkin’?” he questioned to the best of his ability, shocking his caregivers at the nearly coherent sentence he’d managed to form. “of course sweet pea! would you like to pick out your very own pumpkin?” dream beamed a little at that, nodding his head proudly as if he’d done a big accomplishment. and really, for him, it was.
“i’m sure quackity would be okay with that, do you wanna ask him yourself?” sapnap asked him and grinned as the little bent down to quackity and gently tapped his knee with his free hand. “daddy! ‘m gonna get the great pumpkin!” he exclaimed to the boy happily, making dream jump just a bit at the abrupt change in volume between his caregivers and quackity. “quack? cans- cans i pick out ‘m own punkin’?” he questioned quietly, only to be met with all smiles as quackity nodded in response and was quick to get up from his spot on the ground.
“bubba! i got napnap a pumpkin too! i get one for gogy an’ you as well?” he asked the three all while attempting to carry a rather medium sized pumpkin that felt much bigger to his small mind. “that’s so sweet of you baby! i’m sure we’d all love that. would you like papa to carry the pumpkin for you? so you can keep looking for more?” the little was quick to nod in response to that before handing the pumpkin off to his caregiver and linking hands with dream. “c’mon dreamie! we’re gonna find the bestest of pumpkins and- gogy what do people do with the pumpkins?” he questioned his caregiver curiously, turning to the brunette as he did so.
“well, sometimes people will use them for pies or drinks, or they’ll carve them and make jack o'lanterns.” now it was dream’s turn to tilt his head in curiosity. “jack o’lanterns? like- jack from quack’s big boy movie?” sapnap couldn’t help but grin at the reference to “the nightmare before christmas” which they’d shown to quackity who promised he wouldn’t get nightmares. he, of course, did but the boys were well equipped for this and combated it easily enough. “no, sweetheart jack o’lanterns are pumpkins that people carve into shapes or drawings. they put a light inside of them to make them glow and set them out for halloween.” karl attempted to keep his explanation short and sweet, quackity’s impatience growing by the minute. “dreamie lets gooo! how’re we supposed to find the great pumpkin if we’re standing ‘round talkin’?” he complained before lightly pulling dream in the direction he wanted to go.