Title: Sincerity :) (1/1)
Author: BradyGirl_12
Pairings/Characters: Dick/Roy, Lian
Genres: Fluff, Holiday, Humor
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Spoilers: None
Summary: Roy and Dick take Lian trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. :)
Date Of Completion: October 21, 2017
Date Of Posting: October 28, 2017
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, DC does, more’s the pity.
Word Count: 1458
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
Ghosts and Witches roam
From home-to-home,
Clad in sneakers
Carrying plastic pumpkins,
Scurrying, hurrying,
Little feet
Kicking leaves
As calls of
“Trick-or-treat!”
Echo
Down the street.
Sally Ann Sullivan
“The Great Pumpkin Generation”
1966 C.E.
Black paper-mache cats twisted on streamers of black and orange as the front door was opened and fresh air puffed into the house.
“Trick-or-treat!” came the familiar chorus as Roy said, “Wow, it’s Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. What, no Arrows?”
“Not in our group, Mister, but Green Arrow is in the one at the house next door,” said the pint-sized Amazon as Roy dutifully threw Snickers and Hersey bars into the kids’ plastic pumpkins and glossy bags decorated with ghosts and Jack O’Lanterns.
“Okay, good.”
“Thanks, Mister!” the kids said, and the children hurried down the walk to the main sidewalk, intent on getting to the next house for more loot. Smiling, Roy closed the door.
“Any Robins yet?” Dick called from Lian’s bedroom.
“Not yet.” Roy checked the contents of the plastic pumpkin on the TV tray set by the door. Still plenty of candy left.
Dick appeared in a black commando-style outfit, complete with matching boots and gloves. A black domino mask was pushed up on his dark hair.
“Why are you interested in Robins? Shouldn’t you be counting Nightwings?”
“Is that like counting chickens before they hatch?” Dick slid his mask down. Roy realized it was his ‘official’ Nightwing mask. “I have a proprietary interest in Robin. After all, I designed the costume.”
“So that’s why it had sparkling panties and pixie boots.”
“Says the man who has dressed in red his entire superhero career, and stood next to Green Arrow in the early years. Is Ollie colorblind, or didn’t he mind the two of you looking like Christmas trees all year ‘round?”
“Ha, says the guy who stood next to a guy dressed as a giant bat during his formative years.” Roy looked Dick up and down. “What are you, a commando?”
“A cat burglar.”
Roy rolled his eyes at Dick’s grin. “Does Catwoman know you’re horning in on her trademark?”
“She doesn’t mind. She always said I had the body for it.”
“Yeah?” Roy crossed his arms. “She’s pretty bold, isn’t she?”
Dick laughed. “What are you going as?”
Roy puffed out his chest and pounded one fist on his red-checkered shirt. “A lumberjack.” He was wearing faded jeans and well-worn hiking boots and took a cranberry-colored cap out of his back pocket.
“Are you the giant Paul Bunyan?”
“Just check me out later and I’ll show you a giant Bunyan,” Roy leered.
Dick shook his head and called, “”C’mon, Lian, all the good candy will be gone! You’ll be stuck with the equivalent of nougats in the Valentine box.” He took Roy’s cap and jammed it over his husband’s unruly red hair.
“Coming!”
Lian appeared in the hallway and Roy felt immense pride. She strode toward him in a perfect replica of his old Speedy costume, complete with bow-and-arrow.
“No fairy princess?” he teased.
“I was one last year, Daddy.”
“Oh, that’s right.” He took out his phone. “Say cheese.”
She giggled and struck a ‘battle pose’ as she drew back her bow with a nocked arrow. Then she and Dick posed (“You’re more ham than Bat,” Roy informed his husband), then Lian and Roy, and finally all three as Roy took a selfie.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Dick urged.
“Sweet tooth talking,” Roy said to his daughter. She giggled again and opened the door as she swung her plastic pumpkin.
“C’mon, Catman,” Roy said as he closed and locked the front door behind him and Dick.
“Okay, Paul.”
A new group of trick-or-treaters started up the walk to their house but Roy was prepared. He had scooped u a handful of candy before locking up and dropped the treats in buckets and bags. He slipped an extra one into the bag of the kid wearing the Green Arrow costume. The kids ran off while the Harper-Graysons followed at a more sedate pace, Lian marching out in front at a dignified pace.
The two men watched as Lian skipped up to her first house of the night and rang the doorbell. A cardboard skeleton twirled from the porch ceiling as a Jack O’Lantern grinned in the front window that was framed by tiny, winking pumpkin lights.
The door opened and a middle-aged woman smiled and oohed and aahed over Lian’s costume after the little girl sing-songed, “Trick-or-treat!” She doled out the candy and Lian thanked her, coming back to her fathers with a big smile on her face.
“Whadja got?” Dick asked.
She rattled her pumpkin. “A Milky Way and three Hersey miniatures.”
“Cool!” Dick high-fived her.
“Next house!” Lian shouted, running off to the house decorated in ghosts and Witches.
“She’s gettin’ greedy,” Roy said.
“A good ol’ American trait.”
“Trick-or-treat!” Lian’s voice was clear as a bell.
“She gets a Reese’s peanut butter cup, I’m claiming it,” Dick said firmly.
Roy grinned. He was carrying an ax with a rubber blade and tapped his husband on the shoulder with it. “You ever go trick-or-treating as a kid?”
“You kidding? In Gotham every night is Halloween.” Dick laughed quietly. “Of course I trick-or-treated. Alfred was going to take me that first year but I managed to get Bruce to go, too.”
“Oh, how so?”
Dick’s grin was incandescent. “Let’s just say I learned early to read Bruce.”
“You brat.”
Dick chuckled. “So I’ve been told.” He looked affectionately at Lian as she ran out to the sidewalk. “Next house!”
“Hey, wait, what did you get?”
“Mars bar!”
Lian darted from house-to-house as Dick and Roy followed at a more grown-up pace, though Roy suspected his husband wanted to run, too. He smiled and said, “So did Bruce dress up, too?”
“Not the first year. Alfred did, though.”
“Alfred?”
“Sure. Don’t forget that he was on the London stage in his youth.”
“Oh, yeah.” Roy looked at his companion. “What was his costume?”
“Hamlet.”
Roy laughed. “Smashing, as Alfred would say.”
“Very smashing.”
Lian charged down the street, her pumpkin getting heavier. Roy and Dick could hear childish voices a few houses behind them as another group shuffled down the sidewalk across the street. Little feet crunched dry leaves as every house glowed with Jack O’Lanterns, candles, or spotlights shining on ghoulish creatures of the night. Clouds drifted across the face of the moon.
“Never thought I’d be living in the suburbs,” Dick said.
“Yeah?”
“With my knockabout life? Circus folk are always on the move. After Bruce and Alfred took me in, I had to adjust to staying in one place. I went from a cramped circus wagon to Wayne Manor, for cryin’ out loud.” Dick looked at his husband. “I’m so grateful that you agreed to buy a house in the ‘burbs. With all our craziness, I wanted a quiet home life for us.”
“Quiet? Us?”
Dick grinned. “Okay, it can get crazy, but that’s outside this neighborhood.”
“It should be. We’re part of the freakin’ Neighborhood Watch, for cryin’ out loud.”
“Which I’m sure Ollie finds funny.”
“He does.”
Dick shook his head with a smile. “I’m sorry that Ollie never enjoyed the pleasures of suburbia.”
“Look who’s talkin’ with Bruce Wayne as your mentor.”
“Yeah, Bruce doesn’t do middle-class too well. He eats a hamburger with a knife and fork.”
Roy laughed. “A cool breeze swept down the street, swirling the fallen leaves in mini arcs. “I can see that. Alfred’s influence?”
“Yup. He taught me how to use the proper fork and knife at fancy dinners the Wayne scion had to attend, but it was no go for the burgers.” They continued their leisurely pace.
“Bruce dressed up the second year.”
“As what?”
Dick smirked and told Roy, who burst out laughing. When he finally stopped, he wiped his eyes and chuckled. “Gotta tell Ollie that one.”
“Yeah, for once the tables were turned. No Batman-Lite for one night. The Green Arrow was the star.”
Lian ran up to her fathers. “Here, Papa!” She gave Dick a Reese’s peanut butter cup.
“Thanks, honey.” As she ran off again, Dick grinned and unwrapped his treat. “I must be doing something right.”
“Oh, you are.” Roy took his hand and squeezed it. “C’mon, Mr. Suburbia, let’s see if the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch and brings toys to all the good little boys and girls.”
“It must be a sincere pumpkin patch.”
“Nothing but.”
“Sincerity as far as the eye can see.”
“Of course.”
“Snoopy has to fight the Red Baron.”
“The Beagle for the win!”
They both laughed and Lian called, “Popcorn ball!” as she ran to the next house.
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