Biography | Quentin Beck

[Halloween] - Friday, October 31st, 1976

The start of today was rocky and didn't start the way Quentin thought it would. The young Beck hadn't been able to celebrate the scary holiday in literal years. The last time being in California with his cousin. He figured today would be different now that he had Tony. How they could have fun again! However, when the older boy showed up at the younger one's doorstep to spend the day doing traditions until the afternoon... it puzzled him.

"Isn't all this stuff... I don't know, kind of childish?" His friend asked before checking the coast to step outside. 

"Well, yeah, I guess... but we're children, aren't we?" Quentin asked with a frown.

"I know, I know... but it's not Stark like, you know that... could you imagine what my father would do? He'd probably hit me if I even dared to ask if I could go out Trick or Treating." The young boy sighed, crossing his arms over each other and narrowing his eyes at the ground, "Besides, I've never been. I don't even know how."

"You know I'd never force you to do something you don't want to," Quentin started, "But I'm going to remind you of what I told you with the toy car incident. You deserve a childhood, Tones, you deserve to have fun, but as I said back then, I know it's hard to give in to something you've been taught against. So know that if you ever change your mind, I'll be more than happy to teach you the basics of today." He smiled, pulling his backpack up a bit higher. "Are you allowed to carve pumpkins?"

"No, but, you know what? It doesn't matter." Tony replied, "I know I say this every single time, but, you're right. Fuck my father." 

This was common for Tony, and it was always heartbreaking for Quentin to see him try and go back and forth. Some days he was more confident in himself, ready to go against any orders that he had been giving... but, on other days, he was almost terrified to disobey in any way that counted. As much as Beck wanted to turn both their Halloween's around, he had to be absolutely sure that it was okay.

"Are you positive? I don't want you to go against your morals just for me, alright?"

"I'm never sure, Quentin, you know that... but, you're definitely helping me to learn. Someday I'll be able to trust my gut. Maybe not today, but I promise I'll try harder, starting now.  So to answer your question... no, but, I want to try again." Brown eyes met Blue, a small smile coming across his face with a confident head nod, "Let's have fun."

-~-

Quentin suggested they do something easy first while they count down the hours before trick or treating. The easiest thing he could think of was carving pumpkins, which he just so happened to have in his backpack. After all, it was one of the things he wanted to do with his friend. The young Beck tried to help Stark with taking out the insides... but the texture of the squash was too much for him, it genuinely made him sick whenever he touched it. 

Tony, being the genius he was, had an easy solution. Now with gloves on, the two were able to scoop out the remains of their pumpkins. Afterward, they began on the faces. Quentin went with something tame. An average happy face with squeezed shut eyes and a giant smile with some ridges. 

Tony, however, went with something much more spooky. His design had big circle eyes, a jagged grin made from triangles, and a square nose. "What do you think?" He had asked while proudly turning it around to show his work.

"I love it!" Quentin laughed, "It's very Tony-like, and that makes it perfect."

"Well, then yours is very Quentin-like, which makes it awesome!" Tony countered with a playful punch to his friend's shoulder, "What do we do next?"

"We have to cut out the face so that when we insert a candle, it'll glow!"

"Easy!" Tony shouted, flipping open his pocket knife with a grin as the blade carefully started to slide across the orange fruit.