Two Can Keep a Secret

6.

Eddie

Christopher is super excited. It's Halloween and we're going trick or treating. He even picked out our costumes. Well, tried to. He thought Buck and I should wear matching costumes, but none of us could decide on who should be Robin. So now, I'm going out as Superman (despite that being Chris's nickname. He told us that he could concede the name for a night), Buck is Batman and Chris is Professor X.

Chris races for the door as the doorbell rings and arrives just as I open the door. Buck paints an opposing picture dressed in black with a solid attempt at a scowl plastered on his face. "I am Batman."

Chris can't help it, he giggles. Buck is really bad at sounding broody and mysterious. Instantly the scowl drops off Buck's face as he laughs with Chris. He steps in and lifts Chris up, swinging him around in a circle before placing him back down. "What's up Superman?"

Chris giggles again. "I'm not Superman. Dad is."

Buck turns to me. I've been waiting silently beside them just watching, thinking. "Hello, other Superman." I don't get a chance to reply as buck does a very un-Batman-like thing and kisses Superman. "We're going to make so many fanfics come true tonight."

This startles a laugh out of me. "Do I even want to know?"

Buck's face gets a very serious look as he says. "No. No you do not."

Chris doesn't understand what Buck is referencing but it sounds amusing so he huffs a laugh before grabbing Buck's hand and pulling him into the kitchen.

Carla is in there with her cat ears and Chris's attempt at a cat nose and whiskers drawn onto her face putting the finishing touches on the cookies they'd made. With a final flourish she turns to them. "Master Bruce, it is good to see you have arrived safely."

We all laugh at that reference. "Carla and I made pre Halloween treats!"

She finishes wrapping the treats on two separate plates. She's going to leave one here for us to eat later and take one home with her. Carla had told Chris earlier when he had been drawing on the cat details that she had Halloween plans tonight as well. Chris briefly wonders out loud if they would meet her out on the streets. If they did, Chris promises to make sure to tell her all the best houses to visit.

As Carla's car disappears from the curb Chris grabs one of the cookies decorated like a pumpkin and gives it to Buck before picking up a ghost cookie to give to me. He looks at the remaining cookies before picking one of the purple ones that represents a witches hat. He munches on it silently while he watches me re-cover the cookies in cling wrap before Buck gently takes them from his hands and places them in the fridge. The last couple of weeks had been very tense between us but tonight we seemed almost normal. I'm grateful to Chris for coming up with the idea for us all to go trick-or-treating together. We haven't said anything to him about what's going on with us. To be honest, I don't even think we know what's going on with us. We haven't really talked about it since that night. I've never been good at this sort of thing and Buck knows that. I think that's why he hasn't brought it back up to me yet, and I'm appreciative of him for that. We swallow the last of our cookies before heading out the door.

Buck

I'm buzzing with excitement. Halloween was something Maddie and I only got to do once before it was completely banned in the household. I have no idea why our parents hated the idea since it got me out of the house (seeing as they never seemed to want me in the house to begin with), but we got home and there was a whole screaming match between mom and Maddie, and we never tried to go trick or treating again.

This was different though. Eddie had been a bit distant with me since the whole "Abby has a kid" thing and this was a good way for us to spend time together that provided plenty of distraction should we need it. The entirety of LA seemed to be out in force in all sorts of costumes. We let Chris lead the way, following him up whatever walkway caught his interest and politely thanking anyone who gave him candy. One particular elderly lady gave him a gigantic chocolate bar that I figured would last him at least a week.