Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You ready?” Babe was stood holding the passenger side door open, autumn breeze wafting their hair around and making it stick to their face “Ash?” 

It hadn’t taken much to convince babe to go along with Asher’s plan. With the possibility of Quinn being close by they hadn’t been allowed to go anywhere unaccompanied and were itching to get out of the house. 

Ash bounded out of the front door, shifted and ready to go. Although arguably impossible, Ash had that signature grin on his face even as a wolf. His tail brushed past Babe’s legs as he jumped into the car wiggling around a little before sitting down. 

“Looking good pup, do I still need to strap you in?” 

Ash tilted his head in thought before huffing and nodding in silent reply.  

“Okay one secooooond.” Babe dragged out pulling the belt across his body and leaning over in attempt to buckle him in. Asher’s fur tickling their bare arms. “I can’t reach, here.” They placed the stretched belt in front of the wolfs face and he held it in his teeth. Closing the door before circling the car and getting into the driver's seat. 

Babe took the belt and buckled him in. “And you’re sure you don’t want a collar because we have plenty in the-” Ash nudged his head into their shoulder and growled softly as babe giggled “alright, alright. Ready pooch?” The wolf nodded again and Babe set off to the local park. 

“Are you sure about this Asher there’s quite a few people here.” Babe turned the ignition off turning to face him. He huffed again, pointing towards the park with his nose. Ash had assured babe that everything would be fine, that he’d done this before. “Alright, then lets go.” 

The park was beautiful, red leaves falling from trees in the wind as the sun began to set. Kid’s playing with their parents and couples holding hands on evening walks down the paths.  

Babe reached into the back pulling out a pink Frisbee and some water after putting on their coat. “Come on then.” 

Once the pair was out of the car and making their way down into an empty field, they received quite a few stares from passers-by. A couple of children pointing the rather large ‘dog’ out to their parents. 

“Ready?” 

Ash began shuffling backwards in reply, also exited to get out of the house and spend time with his mate. The security company had been busier than ever after the recognition they’d gotten from the E&E Games and he’d been working a lot of late nights. 

Babe threw the Frisbee and Ash caught it easily before prodding back towards his mate huffing light heartedly. 

Come on you can throw further than that.  

“You want me to throw it further?” Asher ran back about 200 yards before Babe threw it again chuckling at the sight of their mate leaping in the air. They repeated this for a while as the sun fell further beyond the horizon. 

Asher paused to stare at the sight of his mate in the soft golden glow, hair dancing in the wind and bottom lip bitten as they focused on their aim.  

So fucking gorgeous  

Asher was so consumed by his mate's beauty that he’d forgotten what he was doing, the pink disk babe threw whacking him straight between the eyes. It hadn’t really hurt at all but Asher always being one for the dramatics decided to fall slowly to the ground, rolling around and whining. 

Babe erupted in laughter, running towards their stupid wolf and stroking between his ears. “Get a little distracted their ash?” He sat up panting slightly, melting into his partners more than welcome touch. 

“Thirsty?” Babe grabbed the water they’d brought and opened the nozzle before squirting it towards Ash’s face. He jumped around, jaw open trying to catch the water and mainly succeeding. 

The two had been too preoccupied in each other to notice what appeared to be a border collie running up to them, followed by a rather dishevelled looking woman.  

The dog ran straight up to Asher sniffing around and ready to play, unfazed by the disparity in the two canines' sizes. Asher ‘laughed’ as well as a wolf could and perched his head down to play with the pup, tail wagging in the air, as the woman met up with babe,  

“Sorry, I was putting his leash on him when he just ran away, is your.... dog friendly?” 

“Yes, he’s very friendly don’t worry about it, what’s your dog called?” 

“Buddy, yours?” 

“Ash.” 

The two humans watched on as Asher chased the collie. The stranger watching to make sure nothing went awry and Babe watching in pure delight. 

“He’s quite big, what type of dog is he?” 

“I’m not sure actually. I think he’s got a bit of malamute in him and some Irish wolf hound.” Babe had looked up large dog breeds in the past just in case there was another incident with Ash and an unsuspecting pizza man but hadn’t expected to use that information at a park. 

“Wow, well he’s impressive either way, very pretty.” 

“Yeah, he is very pretty.” 

Asher turned towards his partner before bounding towards them, he’d been listening in on the conversation. The other woman called for her dog to return and managed to place the lead on his collar. 

“Well, it was nice meeting you, and you big guy.” 

“You too.” 

Babe waved as the woman left and sat down on the grass. “You have a good time there?” 

Asher nuzzled his head into their shoulder before curling around them and laying down, letting Babe lean all of their body weight onto him and relax into his soft coat of fur. 

“Thanks Ash this was fun.” 

The wolf huffed happily, placing his chin on their lap. They stayed that way, for a while watching the sunset as the last rays of light bounced off of the autumnal parks’ beautiful colours. 

“I love you, Ash.” 
I love you too babe.

Chapter Text

David returned home from yet another late night, taking his shoes off at the door and hanging up his jacket. His usual greeting of Minecraft music wasn’t playing from the living room and the light was off.  

“Angel?”  

“In the kitchen!”  

David huffed, maybe they’d attempted to cook dinner for once, he wondered if his cooking lessons where finally paying off. Entering the kitchen, he found his mate leaning against the counter, wearing an apron with ‘Shaw Baking’ written across the front of it. 

“Hey” 

He leant straight in for a hug, Angel standing on their tiptoes and wrapping their arms around his neck. He breathed them In, scent as sweet as ever complimenting his own musk. He pulled away after a while, eyeing the pinny again. 

“What on earth are you wearing?” 

“Do you like it?”  

“I’m confused by it, last I checked we didn’t have a baking company.” 

Angel smiled and turned around grabbing a couple of boxes, one filled with cookie cutters and the other with icing. 

“Well depending on how this goes, we could?” 

David chuckled, taking the box of shapes and looking over them, pumpkins witches and ghosts amongst others.  

“You want to bake cookies.” 

“Not just any cookies, spooky cookies.”  

Angels smile faltered when David didn’t reply. “If you’re up to it of course I know it’s kind of stupid.” 

“No, I mean it is ‘kind of stupid’ but there’s nothing wrong with that. I'd love to bake with you.” 

Angels smile immediately returned, “Good I’m glad.” They jumped up to kiss his cheek before leaving to retrieve something from the dining room. “Stay there and don’t turn around.” 

David huffed in reply, what on earth where they up to? He turned to get a peak. 

“Angel-” 

“Uh-uh, turn back around, you’ll see.” 

Before long Angel returned, standing behind him and placing something over his neck before touching along his abs and tying the string around his waist. 

“A little feely there, someone touch starved?” 

“No, just wouldn’t want our wonderful matching aprons getting wrinkled now would we?” 

David looked down to find that Angel had in fact bought them matching aprons although David’s was black and larger than Angel's baby blue one. 

“I know how big a fan you were of our matching hoodies so I figured you’d like these.” 

“My Hoodies. And yes, I do like them, although I have no idea where you got aprons with our names on them.” 

“Ooh I found this website online you can customise anything, pillows, robes, blankets. Do you think it would be cute to get everyone matching PJs for Christmas, well for everyone who celebrates...?” 

“Hmm we’ll see, that’s very thoughtful. Now do you have a recipe ready or are we just going to ‘wing it’?” 

Although David would NEVER admit it to anyone, he absolutely loved little couple things like this and was glad he could rely on Angel to arrange them every so often. He stepped forwards towards the counter grabbing ingredients from the cupboards above. 

“Actually, I pre-made the dough a few hours ago, figured you’d be tired when you got in.”  

The wolf began returning the ingredients to their places, what had he done to deserve someone so thoughtful and willing to put up with him and his moods.  

“We still need the flour though, to roll it out.” 

Angel grabbed the rolling pin and the dough from the fridge and David placed flour across the counter top.  

“Come here.” 

Angel placed the utensils on the counter and David pulled them in for a kiss, long and slow. Tucking a small piece of Angels hair behind their ear and savouring the taste of their lips. 

Before long the pair had succeeded in cutting the cookies and placing them in the oven. Angel had begun placing the icing into piping bags and David was making them both drinks. 

“Could you pass me the creamer?” 

Another thing David enjoyed but wouldn’t admit to was the sickly creamer his mate liked. He’d never buy it himself and would always put up a small fuss when Angel placed it into the cart but they could see right through him and had witnessed him using it on multiple occasions. 

“Decaf Davey it’s late.” 

“Mmm.” 

The timer rang and Angel took the cookies out of the oven, placing them in the fridge to cool quicker, They could tell David was tired and didn’t want to keep him up too late. Once done, David moved on to cleaning up the mess, accidently knocking the flour onto the floor. 

“Fuck sake.” 

It had gotten all over his apron on the way down. 

“At least the pinny came in handy.” Angel tried to lighten the mood. 

“I got your gift dirty.” 

“It doesn’t matter I can wash them.” 

“Thats not the point.” 

“Davey aprons are supposed to get dirty that is the whole point.” 

The alpha grunted and continued trying to gather the flour up from the tiled floor. Angel unsatisfied with his reply, grabbed a tube of the icing and squirted it across their clothes 

“what-”  

“Oops now mines dirty too.” 

“Angel-” They grabbed a different colour and squirted it towards David, orange sugar splattered across his face. 

“You are such a snot.” David reached up and grabbed the green tube pointing it towards his mate, and covering their front with it.  

Angel retaliated with purple fondant and before long they’d used almost all of the icing, the kitchen looked as if they’d let the pack’s kids have a free for all in there. 

The pair cleaned up the mess whilst finishing the drinks David had made. Laughter filled up the kitchen as they reminisced on old memories, David telling Angel about the time a food fight had broken out in the school cafeteria and poor unsuspecting Milo had ended up covered in spaghetti, and Angel told stories of when they worked at a restaurant. Angry customers throwing their plates at the servers. 

They were glad that the impromptu food fight had managed to relax David a little bit. He had been so stressed and tired recently with everything going on that Angel had almost begun to forget what his laughter sounded like. 

“Do you wanna head up to the shower first, I'll finish up down here.” 

Angel finished mopping the floor before walking up to David and rubbing some flour off of the bridge of his nose and untying his apron. 

‘You know, the bill prices are going to go up now that we have the heating on.” 

“I know, why are you worrying about that, we’ve got enough money.” 

His mate placed their hand on his shoulder grinning. 

“Not worried, just, maybe we could do with saving some water....” 

David almost began re-explaining that he was set to pay the extra prices before taking the hint and lifting them up. Angel’s legs wrapped around his waist and hands over his shoulders. He kissed them quicker and sloppier than last time, walking up the stairs, both of them losing their shirts on the way. 

He turned on the shower, letting the water heat up before slipping out of his jeans. Once he was fully naked, he stepped in, leaning Angels back against the tile and pulling off their shorts.  

They kissed again, full of passion and want. Angels' fingers clawing into Davids back as he rolled his hips into them. The noise of the shower muffling their moans, not that either really cared who could hear. The Water ran down their bare skin washing away all of the mess as the two clung to each other as if they’d never touched before. 

The alpha breathed praise into his partners neck as they struggled to form coherent sentences before they’d even fucked.  

“You want me?” 

“Ye-yes” 

“Yes what?” 

“Yes pl-please David.” 

“Good.”  

Needless to say, the cookies were not decorated that night. 

- 

When the wolf woke the next day, he was not amused by the empty bed he found himself in. Usually, David woke first. He’d set his alarms ten minutes earlier than necessary just to lay with them in the mornings but today his alarm hadn’t sounded. 

He was plenty relaxed from the night before and although, confused, he was appreciative of the desperately needed sleep in. He slipped into a pair of joggers and headed downstairs. Creeping up behind Angel who was sprawled across the couch and hugging their shoulders from behind. 

“Morning Angel.” 

Angel turned around kissing his forehead before patting the seat next to them. 

“Morning Davey.” 

“What’s going on?” David sat down close and observed the two mugs steaming on the coffee table next to a plate of bare cookies and tubes of icing. 

“Weellll, I called Ash and he said you didn’t have a gig today so I figured we could spend the morning together, I don’t know why you keep your alarms on on weekends.” Angel leant forward to grab the remote as David opened his mouth to argue.  

They knew he kept his alarms because he preferred running errands in the morning before the traffic came but errands could wait their mate needed some rest. 

“Non-negotiable Davey sorry but this morning we are decorating cookies and watching a film.” He looked at them slightly disapprovingly but decided on grabbing a ghost and white icing before leaning back on the couch. 

Angel squealed quietly before grabbing some biscuits and icing of their own. “Now, Hocus Pocus or Corpse Bride?”  

“Whatever you want.” 

“Corpse Bride it is.”  

David found it tricky to decorate nicely, his hands were double the size of the biscuits and he kept accidently squeezing too much fondant out. Angel on the other hand had moved onto a skeleton, expertly sculpting out the bones as the alpha watched. 

“You know what Angel, we might have to look into that baking business.” 

Chapter Text

“So, you used to do this as a kid?”

“Yeah! Me and my ma would come here every year, she’s big on supporting small businesses’”

Milo helped Sweetheart into their coat one arm at a time and folded the collar over at the back, before dressing into his own. The cold air tickled his nose a breezed past his neck as he took his mates hand and held it into his own, leading them down a short sandy path. There were small cardboard signs cut into arrows pointing them towards the farm, not that Milo needed them.

After his dad left, Marie discovered a lot of little activities to do with her son, especially around the holidays. One of which was visiting a small pumpkin patch just on the outskirts of Dhalia. Milo loved it, the whole farm was decorated from head to toe for Halloween and there was a small play area that he’d run around whilst Marie watched him fondly. Pushing him on the swings and standing behind him on the climbing wall in case he fell.

The wolf couldn’t help but smile as they entered the building, it had been quite a few years since he’d visited and was glad to be back.

Sweetheart loved hearing stories from Milo’s childhood, there were quite a few ‘characters’ in the pack and telling old tales from his childhood often ended in laughter. They walked over to a large wooden box filled with a pyramid of pumpkins and picked one up to check it wasn’t bruised.

“Uh, uh put that back down.”

“What? Why, it’s good, I like this one.”

Milo strode up to his mate before taking the fruit out of their arms and placing it back in its spot. “Nope, today you are getting the full Greer experience, and us Greer’s pick our own pumpkins, come on.”

Sweetheart huffed but followed the ridiculous wolf anyways. They liked seeing Milo like this, passionate, even if this certain topic of passion was orange plants. Whenever he was interested about something he could go on about it for hours and the stealth loved to listen, there was always a certain glint in his eyes that they wouldn’t get to see otherwise.

“Okay Mr Greer, pumpkin expert. What are we looking for?”

Milo chuckled as he crouched down to look at his chosen variety of the fruit. “I’m gonna get one of these one’s, I always pick from this patch.” Sweetheart knelt down beside him as the wolf begun prodding and tapping the vibrant orange spheres. “The good ones’ll sound hollow when you tap ‘em, see?” He knocked one with his knuckles to demonstrate and Sweetheart copied.

“This one sounds good?”

“Let me see? Nah its got a brown stem I want a fresher one.” The stealth laughed again; he was so cute. “What?”

“Nothing, you’re just very precise.”

“Well forgive me for wanting us to have a decoration that won’t be rotting by the end of the month Sweetheart.” Milo threw his arms up in a way that mirrored the sarcasm in his voice. His mate smiled at him with affection as he did so.

“You’re forgiven,” they joked back as the wolf stared at them with an unimpressed expression. They pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Don’t strop, what else do we need to look for?”

Milo shuffled to get a look at some of the pumpkins further back, “You don’t want any bruises or soft spots on em either.” After a short while of searching, he found one just to his liking, and grabbed a pair of plyers from his pocket to cut the vines. Sweetheart held back a quip about how he’d brought his own, the two liked to joke with each other a lot but they didn’t want him thinking they were actually making fun of him. “Right, let's go find on for you, Ay Sweetheart?”

The two walked around for a while, Milo fiercely trying to avoid the scare-crows scattered around the field. “They’re just creepy, surely we’ve advanced enough to find a better way to guard crops than haunted hay dolls.” He said when the stealth questioned him about it.

Sweetheart eventually decided on a white variety, “ooh, look at these white ones I could carve a ghost or something! Help me pick a good one?” Milo valiantly knelt down again, carefully checking the selection. He pressed into the skin of one slightly and when it springed back up offered it to his mate.

On the way to pay Sweetheart picked up a miniature pumpkin from a stand ‘for Aggro’ and Milo selected a carving kit. The pair tread up to the counter in unison and a familiar face met him behind the desk. At first Milo wasn’t sure the old man would remember him; he’d changed quite a lot since he’d last seen the man.

“What can I get for you to- Well I'll be damned; Milo is that you?”

“Yes sir, how’ve you been?”

“We’ve been well, thank you. Cecilia! Cecilia come look who’s here.

A small elderly woman walked out of an office door to join her husband behind the counter. Cecilia and Graham were the ones who had taught Milo how to pick pumpkins when he was little and he’d played with their grandkids sometimes.

“Oh Milo, look how big you are now! How’s your mother, it’s been a while?”

“She’d doin really well thank you.”

“And who might this be?” Cecilia said knowingly.”

“This is my partner,”

Sweetheart introduced themselves and the four talked for a short while before the mates started their way back to the car. The patch had been quiet since they’d decided to go on a weekday and as they passed the playground it was empty.

“I used to play in there all the time when I was younger.” Milo said nostalgically “It has the coolest slide.”

“You wanna go on it?”

“It’s for kids.”

Milo continued walking but his significant other did not. Stopping in their tracks with a mischievous smile on their face.

“I don’t see any kids in there.” The wolf returned to his mate as they placed their bag on the floor and opened the gate into the playground, “Come on it’ll be fun.”

It didn’t take much convincing for Milo to follow and Sweetheart climbed up the ladder to the slide. “Fine, but only one time it’s freezing.” He began climbing after them, for a Childrens play area the slide sure was tall. Sweetheart tilted their head down slightly whilst climbing, “You alright down their Sweet-cheeks?”

“I ain’t the one with the Sweet-Cheeks Sweetheart, sure is a nice view.” He chuckled. Once at the top the stealth sat down first holding onto the top of the circular slide for support and Milo sat behind them, wrapping his arms around their waist and squishing his legs between theirs and the metal.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

Chapter Text

Darlin’s boots scuffed across the small pebbles that coated the path up to Sam’s house, treading up the stairs and knocking on Sam’s door precisely three times. They hadn’t made plans to visit, but they had arrived after sun down so at least they wouldn’t be waking him up. The wolf had walked all the way from the den after another pack meeting filled with daunting stares and incoherent mumbles from other shifters who were less than happy to have them back and no-longer tried to hide it. Not since David had announced Quinn had returned.  

Sam opened the door wide, with a smile on his face to match, he was dressed in his usual attire and his hair was neatly pulled back, with a few strands framing his face. The sight of him enough to make the shifter feel instantly better.  

“Hey Darlin,-” He motioned for them to enter but the wolf only tilted their head to the side slightly. “-shit, did we have plans?” The vampire wasn’t usually one to be forgetful, but that’s the only thing he could think of that could have been causing the tired, confused look on their face.  

“No, no we didn’t, it’s just, Um- you look nice. Are you going somewhere? I can come back another day.”  

“Do I have to be goin' somewhere to look nice?” His accent softened his words in the most perfect way.  

“No, I didn’t mean-  

Sam chuckled slightly, before standing back once again to let the shifter through, “I'm messin’ Just got back Darlin, perfect timing. Now come on in its cold out there.” Darlin smiled sheepishly, removing their shoes and jacket at the door. “You ever gonna use that key I gave you?” Their hand instinctively moved upwards to hold the small piece of metal that hung around their neck. ‘Just so I don’t lose it’ they’d told him when threading it onto an old rope necklace they’d bought as a teen. Although they liked having it there, a small piece of home hung next to their heart.  

“No why would I do that when I could be greeted by a handsome gentleman at the door instead?” They quipped, planting a kiss on his cheek. The pair made their way into the kitchen, Darlin opting to sit on the counter instead of the multiple chairs Sam had in there. It was routine at this point, Sam would let them inside, they’d joke around whilst he made them a drink and then they’d cuddle on the couch. “where’d you go?”  

Sam began spooning the coffee into two mugs whilst the kettle was boiling. “Shopping, actually. Now that the sun’s setting earlier it means I can actually go to more than just the 24-hour convenience stores.” Sam moved away from the counter, standing in front of his shifter “I would have asked you to come but I know you’ve got pack meetings on Thursdays; can I give you a hug?”  

Darlin opened their arms and the vampire stepped between their legs; arms wrapped around their waste. “You don’t have to ask.”  

 The Vampire hummed, not caring to explain that as long as they still smiled when he did, he would always ask first. “How was the meeting by the way?” The gloomy look on the wolfs face hadn’t escaped Sam’s observations, if they didn’t want to talk about it, he wouldn’t push, but it was only polite to ask.  

“Pack meetings are always fine, they’re just boring and-”  

“And?” Sam moved back to the drinks, now that the kettle was steaming. Stirring thoroughly as he poured the water into the mugs.  

“I dunno, everyone stares at me.”  

Sam passed them a cup and they held it in both hands, he kissed the tip of their nose “I’m sorry about that, probably ‘cause you’re so damn beautiful Darlin” they looked at him with their signature ‘less than impressed’ stare that most found intimidating, but there was always a soft edge to it when they used it with Sam that made it more ‘cute’ than anything else. “You wanna go sit?”  

The wolf hopped of the counter, somehow manging to keep their drink from flying as they did so, and settled down into the corner right side of the couch (which is what Sam now recognised as ‘Darlin’s seat’) and covered themselves in a cream knitted blanket. They set their mugs on the coffee table as Sam sat down close, legs brushing past each other and tucking himself under the blanket too. Even though they were mates, it still felt so surreal to be that close to someone else, to have ‘their person’.  

Sam flicked through the ‘Halloween collection’ on his tv whilst the two chatted about random things that had happened since the last time they had met. ‘Lovely, was no longer in blood-lust and Darlin could go visit soon, Fred and bright were doing well- Angel was feeling better after being sick etc   They decided on ‘The Addams family’, Darlin resting their head on Sam’s shoulder and both snapping along to the intro.  

“Oh, before I forget, David’s invited us to this ‘scare festival’ thing on the 31 st if you wanna go?”  

“Scare fest hmm, do you wanna go?”  

“Not fussed.” was the only reply they gave him before turning their attention back to the movie as if that answer told Sam everything he needed to know.  

“Is it the whole pack?”  

“Hmm? Nope, just a few of them ,Milo, the stealth, Ash and David’s mates,”  

“Well, I think it would be nice for you to spend time with the pack without having to deal with the more ‘difficult’ members, no?”  

Darlin laughed slightly, “Sam, I am one of the ‘difficult pack members.”  

Sam hummed again, soft and low. “Well, if you do decide to go, I'll happily accompany you.” He moved his head to the side and placed a kiss on theirs. “Talkin’ about Halloween I actually picked something up while I was out.” Some stood up, leaving the room and returning before the wolf could blink. Sam spent so much of his time loathing the circumstances of his turning, it was nice to see him embracing his vampire side every now and again.  

With a large bag in hand, he settled back down next to his wolf, “Now, I know we said we weren’t gonna do costumes or anything, but uh- well you’re always cold when you come over and I- shit- I saw these when I was out an’ I thought you might like em.” He handed Darlin the bag and they raised an eyebrow in apprehension, they never knew what to say when given something, weren’t used to it. “They’re both the same size so you can have whichever one you prefer,”  

Darlin carefully pulled a large black, hoodie? out of the bag and began unfolding it, not a hoodie , before pulling a matching white one out. “If you don’t like em I can always go back and retur-” Darlin jumped up, eyes widened in glee and kissed the vampire before pulling away quickly, “Shit, sorry I should have aske-”  

Sam pulled them back in, fingers running through their hair as Darlin’s hands rested on his cheeks, the wolf breaking the kiss to breathe.  

“So, I'll take that to mean ya do like ‘em?” The vamp joked sweeping a strand of hair behind the wolf’s ear and out of their face. “I don’t know if you were thinkin’ of sleepin’ over but we could put them on if you like?”  

“You know I've never had one of these! thank you Sam, really.” The wolf jumped straight up removing everything but their underwear and although slightly startled Sam followed suit “You’re always welcome, I know you like the movie, I mean you’ve made me watch it a hundred times,”  

“It’s a good movie,” they mumbled stepping out of the rest of their clothes, climbing into the white onesie and passing the black one over to Sam. Giggling as he put his hood up, and did the same to them, their laughter a sound he’d forever cherish. “You make a very handsome night-fury,” They stated as the pair settled back down on the couch. Darlin laying on their side, head rested against Sam’s chest as his arms curled around them. “How much do I owe you?”  

The vampires arms tensed a bit as he looked down at the shifter, “It’s a gift, you don’t owe me anything.”  

“But it isn’t my birthday?”  

“I’m aware of that Darlin.”  

“Shit,” the wolf turned slightly to meet Sam’s gaze, it wasn’t their anniversary and Valentine's Day wasn’t for another four months? “Sorry I didn’t realise you were supposed to give presents for Halloween. I haven’t got you anything.”  

“You don’t need to give presents on-” Had they only ever received nice things when others felt obliged to give them? “It’s not for anything in particular I just saw ‘em an’ thought of you. You don’t owe me anythin in return.”  

“Oh,” Sam could feel the wolf’s body relax again slightly as they turned back on their side, “Thank you, I really really like em’” Sam had noticed how Darlin never used ‘love’ to describe things, they only used it for him, and a few pack members. It was a small circle of people and the one Sam felt most honored to be a part of.  

“You’re welcome Bright-fury,”  

“It’s Light-fury"  

“Huh, I like Bright-fury better.”  

They spent the rest of the night together watching movies and chatting, Darlin glancing up and smiling at Sam every once in a while, before falling soundly asleep in his embrace.  

Chapter Text

Babe set down the several large bags of shopping they’d collected throughout the day, Asher couldn’t get any time off before Halloween so they’d had to go costume shopping for the both of them, and had brought home many, many options for him to choose from.  

Thankfully, David’s mate had agreed to go with them so that they weren’t wandering around costume shops alone all day. Shopping, although fun, was exhausting. Babe slid their shoes off without undoing them and slumped down on the bed next to their purchases. Laying their head down and scrunching their eyes closed they exhaled, sighing as they realised how much their legs were aching. Before long Babe heard the door click shut.  

“Baaabe, You home?”  

“in the bedroom!”  

Asher slid his head around the corner of the door, instantly smiling at the sight of his mate sprawled across their new linen sheets, and furrowing his brows at the mountain of shopping bags next to them.  

“God Babe, looks like you bought the whole store, you have fun?”  

He grinned wide, sliding the rest of the way into the room and lying next to them.  

“Yeah, it was really nice, just tired.”  

“Well, I hope you’re not too tired.”  

“Why’s that? Couldn’t possibly be because of that photo I sent you from the changing rooms earlier, hmm?”  

The wolf wrapped his arms slowly around their waist, moving up slightly to plant a kiss on their forehead. “Certainly not, I don’t even know what picture you’re talking about and it’s also definitely not because I've been thinking of my mate dressed up in sexy costumes all day.” Asher repeatedly kissed them between words as he spoke.  

“oh, Definitely not-” they smirked looking up at him, “How was your day?”  

Asher sat up on the side of the bed, “Boring, no job today just a ton of paperwork, I don’t mind doing it, but it’s just so tedious ya know?”  

“Hey at least we’ve got the weekend to look forwards too, You hungry I was wondering if you wanted to order in?”  

“Pizza?”  

“Pizza. I’ll order it, do you want the usual.” Babe pulled up the takeaway website on their phone, adding on what they wanted before their mate could answer.”  

“Yeah, can we get Wings as well?”  

“Already added.”  

“You know me so well,” The wolf snuggled in closer to his mate, watching as they added in their payment details before dropping their phone on the bed. “Now, what are we going as?”  

“Well, I couldn’t pick so I may have actually bought the whole store yes.” They reached for one of the bags, a large black one, so full that clothes were sticking over the sides of it, and passed it over to him. “Try them on, in the order their packed.” Asher took the bag excitedly and started towards the door in order to get changed. “Where are you going? Don’t tell me you’re suddenly shy beta?” They teased, holding back small laughs.  

Asher was way too excited at the prospect of dressing up to even flirt back. “I wanna do a big reveal for each one!” and with that the wolf had left the room.  

Babe sighed, taking a bag of their own and shaking their head before stripping into their underwear and trying on the first of many costumes. They hauled the large ‘top’ over their head before placing on a brown belt, green hat and rummaging through a spare bag for a shield.  

Ash burst into the room “You get to be Zelda!” his tone was playful and Babe turned around to look at him in the pink dress and head piece they’d bought for him. “Why do you get to be Zeldaaa?”  

They loved it when he dragged out his words, so whiny. “What? Link’s cool, and if I do say so myself, you are really pulling of that pink.” They moved towards him and slowly straightened out the fabric of the dress, giggling before ruffling his hair and re-straightening the jewels he had in it. “As much as I appreciate the effort, if I turn up in this get-up, in front of Milo, I will never hear the end of it.”  

His smile was so wide as he pressed kisses against their cheek that they could feel it without seeing his face. “You wanna try on the next one?” he nodded against them, “Wait just one second,” Babe reached one arm behind them and grabbed their phone, “Pose for me..?” they held the phone up and Ash twirled around mockingly so they could take a picture of him, he trusted that they’d keep the photos to themselves. “Beautiful.”  

“You wanna get one together?” Ash set the phone up against their dressing table and they both posed with fake weapons waiting for the timer to go off. After a while Babe began removing their clothes again.  

“Come, on next one we have a lot to go through.”  

“What’s next princess peach?” The beta muttered as he exited the room again but before he had a chance to close it behind him, somebody knocked at the door. “Babe, I think the pizza guys here.”  

“You’re gonna have to get It this time, I'm not dressed.”  

“Can’t you throw something on! A hoodie!”  

Babe considered that for only a second before remembering the first time they’d ordered food together and they had to explain to the poor delivery man that their ‘mutt’ was unusually large. Payback time. They slid their head around the door, grinning. “Sorry princess no can do.”  

Another knock.  

“Shit.” Asher opened the door and played off the outfit by leaning cockily against the doorframe. The pizza man, who’s name tag read ‘guy’, didn’t even notice what the wolf was wearing at first, instead he was nervously staring around the apartment. In search for a large dog perhaps?  

“Uh, Max’s rustic pizza delivery?” After a minute ‘Guy’ eventually looked up to see the costume and just smiled unfazed. Asher took the pizza boxes setting them down on the counter before returning with a decent tip.  

“Thanks.”  

“No, problem.” Guy hurriedly left down the stairwell as Asher relocked the door.  

“You are evil.”  

Babe exited the room wearing a large robe and handing Asher his own. “What? I didn’t do it on purpose.” They smiled up at him innocently “Now put that on don’t wanna get wing sauce on our new clothes.”  

The pair spent the rest of the night eating and dancing around their room in different outfits. Miguel and Tulio, Sonic and tails, cop and a robber, the list went on until they made a complete mess of the apartment with props and capes scattered everywhere. Once they tidied up and packed everything away Babe handed Asher a small bag he hadn’t seen yet. “Fancy doing one last reveal for me?”  

Asher carefully took the bag suspiciously and exited the room. In it was a faux leather strap top, connecting with metal rings and studs for decoration, and matching underwear that covered absolutely nothing but the sides of his hips. He wasted no time putting it on although he did have to spend a minute figuring out exactly where everything was supposed to fit.  

When he re-entered the bedroom for the last time that night his partner was laid across the bed wearing sheer underwear with bats patterned across it and a matching black leather top to his.  

“you look fucking gorgeous Babe” They sat up slightly, pulling him closer to them using one of the straps on his underwear and kissing him long and slow, savouring every muffled moan that left his mouth. They moved away, laying back down and pulling him with them, his arms supporting his weight placed next to each of their shoulders caging them in as he hovered above them.  

“I had my fun teasing you tonight, Asher” They purred and just the sound of his name on their tongue had him straining against them, “figured it was your turn”.