Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Mari!” Aubrey squealed.

She jumped right into the older girl’s arms, her black dress fluttering behind her.

Her and Basil, who was dressed as an angel in all-white, had finally caught up to everyone else right outside of Sunny and Mari’s house. An orange sunset cast itself in the sky as blue and purple clouds brewed above them, signalling that dusk was rapidly coming. 

With the world around them dimming by the minute, the yellow street lights began lighting their path like a row of fireflies. Now that everyone was together, it was finally time to go trick or treating.

“Look!” Aubrey excitedly cheered, pulling away so she could show her Halloween costume off to everyone.

She wore an A-line black dress with puff sleeves and a lettuce edge at the end of her sleeves and hem dress. She was adorned with a large, pointy black hat with a large pink ribbon wrapped around it and its side was none other than her signature pink bow. And last, but not least, Aubrey even managed to find a mini witch hat hair clip to give to Mr. Plantegg so he’d be dressed up to celebrate, too.

Even though Basil had been the first one to see her, he still looked on in awe. “Looks great, Aubrey!”

“I second that!” Hero added on. He was a superhero dressed in black, red, yellow and green and wore a black eye mask over his face.

Sunny peaked behind Mari to get a good look, and Kel remained on the side next to Hero, choosing to watch her in silence instead of saying anything.

Like a coup de grace, Mari delivered the final blow to Aubrey’s playfully suave expression by throwing her thoughts into the mix. “Aww, you look so cute, Aubrey! Your outfit is perfect!!” 

Like magic, Aubrey glowed a joyful pink under Mari’s praise, her words conjuring an impossible-to-miss smile on her little witch face.

“So you do you!” Aubrey affectionately squeaked back, trying to make Mari feel as flattered as she did in that moment. Mari wore a black cat ear headband, black whisker and nose face paint and a long tail behind her.

“Thank you~” Mari cooed, doing a little cat claw gesture and purring. She winked at Hero, who let out an airy chuckle and nudged her shoulder.

Sunny, who was shyly lingering behind Mari the entire time, stepped out of the shadows to show Aubrey and Basil his costume. He was a mummy and wore a turtleneck with a bandage design on it; he also wrapped some bandages around his head, and from the looks of it, that part was homemade.

“Wow!” Aubrey exclaimed. “Your costume looks cool, too, Sunny!” 

The beginnings of pink were growing under Sunny’s mummy bandages, her words no doubt meaning a lot to him.

“I also like your costume!” Basil demurely piped up, but by the time he said anything, Sunny already looked like he entered a trance.

Sunny looked away from them, finding a spot at the ground to stare at. “Thanks.” He quietly muttered back. A faint smile was etched across his stoic features and Kel could see that he was blushing under the fading light.

Clearly, the praise - or, rather, who had said the praise - had thawed a crack in his icy demeanor.

Mari took Sunny’s free hand into hers and giggled to herself, knowing something that Aubrey didn’t.

“And I’m a pumpkin!” Kel blurted out, jumping in the middle of the scene with his hands akimbo.

The joyful twinkle in Aubrey’s eyes disappeared immediately. “Thanks for letting us know, Captain Obvious,” she deadpanned.

Kel huffed, irritated from her snark when he was secretly hoping she’d compliment his outfit too. “No problem, Wicked Witch of the West,” He shot back, biting back a mirthful smile because that was such a good comeback.

Aubrey gripped Mr. Plantegg and gritted her teeth. “Hey! I am not —”  

“Guys, I just realized something!” Hero cut in, trying to defuse their simmering fight before it boiled beyond his control. “Aubrey, you and Mari go together perfectly, since you’re a witch, and Mari’s a cat, which every witch has as their companion!”

"Oh my gosh! You're right, Hero!" Aubrey said. In the blink of an eye, she had transformed from a devil into an angel, her smile returning as if it had never strayed away in the first place.

Mari rubbed circles into Hero’s back, her way of saying Look at you, acting all heroic and saving the day.

“Since we’re all here now, let’s get to trick-or-treating!” Basil cheerfully announced, sporting a cherubic smile that matched his angel wings and halo perfectly.

“You’re right Basil, great idea!” Hero praised. With his gloved hand sneaking down to intertwine with Mari’s paw-gloved hand, they set out into the night, the air full of festivity and delights waiting to be experienced.

Just after they collected candy from their first house, Kel and Aubrey again broke out into another round of ghoulish bickering.

Kel snorted. “My costume is still better than yours.” He crossed his arms and looked away from Aubrey, who ended up walking next to him as they trick-or-treated.

Aubrey groaned. “Your costume is the most unoriginal one here! You’re just a stupid pumpkin!” She growled, harshly poking the pumpkin costume Kel was walking around in.

Kel whirled around to face her again, mouth already open with a thousand retorts. “And you’re just a stupid witch!” He yelled. 

The next thing Kel knew, his mouth was full of black cotton fabric because Aubrey promptly took her hat off her head and whacked him with it. 

“Take that, you stinkin’ pumpkin hat!” She hissed.

“Ack!” Kel spat out, desperately cleaning his mouth of any stray strings that got caught on his tongue.

After his vision cleared, he took in Aubrey’s features again; even though it was just a simple whack, a simple tease, she was all worked up and panting a little. Her eyes appeared to light up independently of the darkening world around her, like little embers trapped in glass. For a flickering second, Kel felt like apologizing to her for pulling her leg and handing her the candy he got from the next house they visited.

Then he realized who exactly he was thinking about here and felt himself grow worried. No way, I’d never give my candy to that fiend! But Kel couldn’t help but to wonder what caused him to even think that.

He glanced back at Aubrey, who was chatting with Sunny and Basil about all the candy she was excited to collect, and how badly she hoped they had tootsie rolls because those were her favorite.

Even though Kel knew that they were all wearing make-believe costumes, he wondered to himself if Aubrey was actually secretly a witch, and had just placed a curse on him.

“Aubrey!” Kel cut into their conversation. 

Basil’s eyebrows lowered with concern and Sunny’s eyebrows raised with curiosity. 

“What did you do to me? I think you infected me with girl cooties!” Kel accused, mortified at the prospect.

Aubrey rolled her eyes. “As if! Girl cooties don’t even exist! But moron cooties do, and I think you’re full of them!” She huffed.

“Oh no, you two, please stop fighting…” Basil begged both of them, clasping his hands together in prayer. He reminded Sunny of a snow angel, and now, Basil was acting the part.

“No way!” Kel spat out defensively. He stuck his tongue out at Aubrey, which prompted her swipe Kel’s little pumpkin hat off his head and tuck it under her arm next to Mr. Plantegg.

“Hey, give it back!” Kel yelled. Aubrey stuck her tongue out at him and threw him a smug smirk. “No, I’ll hold onto your hat a little longer after all the times you took Mr. Plantegg away from me!” She countered back, snuggling Mr. Plantegg closer to her.

Kel sighed, thoroughly trumped by Aubrey’s impishness. Unless…! “Hey, Sunny! You think Aubrey’s being mean to me and should give my pumpkin hat back to me, right?” Kel eagerly asked, hoping that Sunny, the ultimate mediator when Hero wasn’t there to split them up, would agree with him.

But before Sunny could give his answer, Mari rejoined the group alongside Hero and intervened by saying, “Aubrey! Didn’t you say that your new costume came with a bonus prop when you raved about it to me over the telephone a week ago?”

Her eyes regaining her trademark glitter, Aubrey dug her hand into her trick-or-treat bag, which was a repurposed black plastic bag, and pulled out a star-shaped wand. “Yes, thank you so much for reminding me! Look at the wand my costume came with, it even lights up!” Aubrey proudly announced. She held it up to the dusk sky as if she was casting an incantation and flicked the switch on the bottom on, causing the little yellow star to light up.

By this point, Kel was sure that Aubrey must have added poison to his brownie in particular when she was over at Sunny’s and Mari’s house baking brownies earlier because he actually thought she….didn’t look absolutely appalling, like every other witch he knew from storybooks and Disney movies.

‘Maybe...maybe Aubrey isn’t a stupid witch…’ Kel quietly admitted to himself.

Huh. The revelation felt so...strange.

A gust of wind blew, carrying a few colored leaves on its ride.

Nobody else noticed, since everyone was busy giving their oohs and ahs to Aubrey since they all knew deep down she never got this type of attention at home.

Although Kel didn’t join in, although he didn’t even at least say that Aubrey’s witch costume looked nice on her, Kel’s silence - his lack of initiative to find a way to turn the treat into a trick - seemed to eke out enough of a compliment for Aubrey.

Or, at least, something that stood out to Aubrey enough for her to look his way and notice.

“Hehe!” She giggled. “My spell worked, because I wished for Kel to stay quiet!” Out of impulse, she did an excited little twirl, mystified by how she ended up getting lucky. Aubrey guessed that maybe it was the moonlight that did it.

“Hey now, I don’t want you planting curses on my little brother,” Hero lightheartedly disapproved, wagging his finger.

“Well, we have to see if Aubrey’s curse really worked,” Mari replied to him. Then her gaze landed onto Kel, and then, everyone was looking at Kel for what he had to say.

“You think Aubrey’s costume looks cute on her, don’t you?” Mari tilted her head and gave him an earnest, innocent smile. 

To anyone else (except Sunny secretly), calling Aubrey “cute” was like saying jam tasted sweet: it was just a natural part of it. It didn’t do anything else besides describe the inherent nature of what was in front of them; but for Kel, the word, “cute” meant something different.

And when the word “cute” was meant to describe Aubrey, it had transformed into an entirely different beast beyond what Kel could ever grasp and comprehend.

So he pleaded the 5th. He puffed up his cheeks, he crossed his arms...Kel did anything but look Aubrey in the eyes and at the way her lips were silently mouthing, “Please say yes!” under her breath and tell her what she so badly wanted to hear.

“Well,” Mari declared, “It’s official! Aubrey cursed Kel and he’s doomed to stay silent the rest of the night until the clock hits midnight!” And with that revelation, Hero sighed and Basil sweatdropped, both of them thinking that Mari and Aubrey had gotten up to enough Halloween trickery for them to handle that year.

Sunny continued to stare at Kel, trying to read into every possible thing that his energetic yet occasionally enigmatic close friend could be thinking right now.

It was then Sunny saw it. Or, at least, he thinks he may have seen it, since for all he knew, the dim lights of Halloween night could be playing tricks on his eyes, too.

Was it just Sunny’s wild imagination kicking into overdrive again, or had a brilliant, humiliated pink blush marched its way across Kel’s face and rendered Kel bewitched into the same stupor of speechlessness Sunny was afflicted with earlier?

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***Baked by Starfood***