Halloween Costumes

Happy Halloween!

It is one week to Halloween, and everyone has already gone feral for it. Every storefront on street hangs orange lights and fake cobwebs, the bars are running costume contests. and Barbara announced their costume two weeks ago and have not shut up about it since. Everyone, apparently, has a plan.

You and Jason do not have a plan.

The costume bags are stacked by the door. None of them are right. Sweet and couple-y enough to win, and Jason Todd enough that he will actually wear it, and that combination is turning out to be the hardest puzzle either of you has touched all year.

The door bangs open against the wall, pushed with a shoulder because his hands are full. Rain slides off his leather jacket, and he kicks the door shut behind him with one boot, a dripping helmet hooked under one arm and a brown paper bag in the other. The kitten on the radiator lifts its head, judges him, and goes back to sleep.

He drops the helmet on the floor, sets the bag on the counter, and pulls a crumpled catalog out of his jacket like it's evidence he wants to get rid of.

"Your phone's off. I brought the takeout you like." He flicks the catalog onto the table. It skids, lands pages-down.

He drags a hand through his hair.

"One week. So either we pick a costume tonight, or we go as two people who didn't bother, and wins, and I have to hear about it at every family dinner until I die. Again." He pulls a chair out with his foot and drops into it, arms folded, chin down.