Tricks or Treats
By Ruby
Title: Tricks or Treats 1/1 (16th in
the "Plagued--Why Us?" series)
Author: Ruby
E-mail: [email protected]
Rating: PG-16
Disclaimer: Joss owns all.
Summary: Willow and Spike celebrate Halloween, well, sort of.
Archive: My usual haunts.
Feedback: Yes, please!
Dedication: For Gabrielle, who suggested something Halloween-y. And for Laviva,
who's been waiting patiently--more or less.:-)
Willow closed the door and set the bowl
of candy back on the small table beside it. From the sofa behind her, Spike
grunted
impatiently and shook his head.
"Oh, come on," Willow spoke, reading his thoughts. "You have to admit they're cute."
"No, I don't," he argued. "We're not really going to stay here half the night and hand out candy to a bunch of snot-nosed kids, are we?"
"It's Halloween!" she sighed. "They're just trick-or-treating. I think they're sweet. You could get into the spirit of things, you know."
"Okay," he nodded. "I'll open the door next time."
"In full vamp mode and scare the hell out of them?" she crossed her arms. "I don't think so."
He chuckled at her look of consternation, "Would I do that?"
"Absolutely," she answered. "Anyway, they must be about done. It's nearly nine o'clock."
"Good. Let's get out of here. If I see
one more 'cute kid' standing on our doorstep, buried under a dirty sheet and
screaming out
'trick-or-treat,' I'm going to heave."
Willow rolled her eyes and smiled, "I'll
bet you were the kind of kid who would have soaped people's windows, toilet-papered
trees, and
smashed jack-o-lanterns."
"Hey!" he grinned, his cold eyes lighting up.
"No!" she growled firmly. "We are _not_ going out to terrorize the neighborhood!"
He stood up and moved around her as the
doorbell rang again. He flung the door open on a diminutive fireman, a combat
soldier, and a
fairy princess, all of whom came no higher than the blonde vampire's waist.
The children opened their mouths to chorus, "Trick-or--"
"Here," Spike barked, grabbing up the bowl of candy.
He dumped the entire contents into the combat soldier's bag.
"Wow!" the little boy's eyes grew wide with delight. "Cool! Thanks, Mister!"
"Yeah, whatever," the vampire grumbled as the trick-or-treaters let out a happy whoop and bounced off down the sidewalk.
He looked back at Willow, who was shaking with laughter, and curled his hand around her wrist.
"There. That takes care of that. Let's
get the bloody hell out of this apartment," he said.
***
The streets were still busy with straggling trick-or-treaters and cars, driven
by weary parents, slowly rolling past. Spike's arm snaked
around Willow's waist as they stepped aside to avoid a trio of children.
"What were you like as a child?" Willow asked him.
"A bloody terror," he answered, kissing her head.
Willow looked up at the grin that spread
to his eyes, unsure of whether she ought to believe him or not, but it was obvious
he was not
going to elaborate.
"Will you tell me, sometime?" she requested.
"Maybe," he replied and ran his fingers
through her hair. "You, on the other hand, were so adorable, no one could take
their eyes off of
you."
She snorted in amusement and squeezed his hand, "How would you know?"
"Because you're beautiful now," he answered, his tone implying she really should have known it.
Spike lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her slowly, softly.
"Hungry?" he murmured against her lips.
"Uh huh," she answered.
He kissed her again, pulling her hard against
him as her arms wound around his neck. The embrace continued until two children
darted
past, one of them brushing against the redhead. Spike's arms tightened around
her to keep her from falling as she was jostled against
him.
"Damned carpet creepers," he mumbled.
She laughed softly and kissed him once
more, then took his hand to continue on down the sidewalk.
***
The playground in the park had been decorated by the Sunnydale PTA with numerous
jack-o-lanterns and orange and black streamers
strung over the equipment. Ghosts made of bedsheets, large rubber bats, and
gangly, plastic skeletons hung from the trees that
bordered the playground. The children's party had ended well over an hour ago,
the decorations having been left behind to be dutifully
retrieved in the morning.
"Looks like someone had fun," Willow observed,
sitting down on a swing to sip on the soda she had brought with her when they
left the
Burger Bin a few minutes ago.
Spike looked around them and shook his
head, "With all of the demons running around Sunnyhell, you wouldn't think they'd
have had to
go to the bother of hanging up this junk."
"Has anyone ever told you you're a spoil sport?" she teased.
"Frequently," he grinned.
He scooped her up and took her place on the swing, lowering her to straddle him.
"I just have different ideas of fun," he explained, his lips brushing her earlobe.
A shiver of pleasure raced through Willow's
body as he dragged her mouth down to his and ran his hand up under her sweater
to press
against the warmth of her back. She dropped her soda and buried her fingers
in his hair as his tongue delved between her lips to
capture hers. The kiss rapidly deepened until they were so involved in the feeling
of their lips on one another's and the sensations
coursing through their bodies, they were totally oblivious to the gentle rustling
coming from the trees around them.
Suddenly, Willow's body went rigid with
terror, and she pulled away from Spike with a squeal as she felt a hand curl
around her
shoulder from behind her. Spike's mouth dropped open, and Willow ventured a
glance at her shoulder to find a bony hand resting there.
Fear swept over her, and she pushed against Spike, sending him tumbling backwards
off the swing, and she landed on top of him. He
pushed her off of him and clambered to his feet, dragging her up with him. They
turned to face the skeleton which had detached itself
from a nearby tree. Its form--no longer constructed of plastic, but of bone--rattled
as it took a step toward them.
Spike suddenly pulled Willow against him,
shielding her head with his arms, as a bat disengaged itself from its string
on another tree
and swooped down on them. She trembled in his arms and peeked around to find
three more skeletons moving up behind the first. The
vampire took a long stride backward, pulling her with him, and quickly bent
down to pick up a large rock from the ground. He hurled it
at the foremost skeleton, and its bones flew apart, hitting two of the others
behind it and sending them all scattering to the ground.
"Strike!" Spike crowed with a wide grin.
Willow yelped as another bat flew toward them, and she pushed Spike out of its path.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" she shouted.
"Easier said than done, pet," he noted, looking around them.
The ghosts that had been hung about the
playground had taken on an eerie, translucent glow and now fluttered in a wide
circle around
them.
"You just had to go on about all the demons on this Hellmouth, didn't you?" she complained.
"As if I knew they were going to appear in the form of bloody party trinkets!" he snapped back.
"Spike, look!" she gasped, pointing behind the one remaining skeleton.
Four of the jack-o-lanterns that had been
placed around the slide and swings had sprouted viney legs and were now advancing
on the
couple in a waddley sort of walk. Their carved mouths had taken on the appearance
of evil smiles, and orange fangs glimmered from the
candles that still burned inside their hollowed-out shells. Spike growled and
took a long, angry stride toward one of them. He extended
a booted foot and kicked it. It sailed through the air, crashing into the lone
skeleton and beyond it, to a ghost fluttering in the air. The
ghost transformed back into a sheet and floated down on top of the jack-o-lantern.
The pumpkin's top fell off, and the sheet burst into
flames, incinerating it and the jack-o-lantern it enshrouded.
One of the bats darted between two other
ghosts, and Spike pulled Willow through the swings. Willow grabbed up the remains
of a
half-eaten Tootsie-Pop from where a child had carelessly dropped it on the ground.
Willow flung it at the bat, and the sticky lollipop
glued itself to the bat's head, right between its eyes. The creature plummeted
to the ground, its now-rubbery body bouncing once
before coming to rest on the hardened dirt under a swing.
A luminescent ghost flew over, and Spike
reached out to grab it, but its unearthly body simply floated through his fingers.
Willow
snarled and grabbed up another jack-o-lantern and heaved it at the ghost. It,
too, caught fire and drifted down at her feet. Willow
stepped back, only to feel yet another of the carved pumpkins snaking a viney
leg around her ankle.
Spike plucked up an open bag of marshmallows
from the slide beside them, pulled off the jack-o-lantern's lid, and stuffed
the
marshmallows inside. They bubbled and melted as the heat from the candle warmed
them. The vine disentangled itself from Willow's leg
as thick, white goo began to ooze out of the jack-o-lantern's face.
Spike grabbed Willow's hand and darted
through the remaining ghosts. They ran out of the playground and through the
park, never
stopping until they reached the apartment. Spike threw the door open and shoved
Willow inside, slamming it closed behind them. He
leaned back against the door and pulled her into his arms.
"I've changed my mind," she decided, breathing heavily against him. "I hate Halloween."
"Good," he nodded. "Because next year, I'm locking you in the bedroom, and the only one getting any treats will be you, luv."
Her eyes sparkled as she looked from her
watch to his face, "_This_ Halloween isn't over for another three hours. Care
to check out
that bedroom lock a year early?"
Previous
Part
Next Part