scott x hope oneshots

your heart, a sword in the stone

"Cassie, can you come help me for a second?"

Her dad has been working on his Halloween costume for two whole days, and she isn't entirely sure why she expects something fancier when she makes it down to the living room. He's clad in all black, with stars of all sizes cut out of yellow cardstock attached to the fabric with what looks like safety pins, and holds out a paper moon with a grin. And then he asks her to stick it on his ass.

"It's funny," he laughs to himself when she looks at him like he's grown another head. "Like, mooning someone? Get it?"

"I get it, Dad." Cassie turns the moon around in her hands and picks up a pair of scissors to make it a little more smoothly crescent-shaped for him. She tries to find the perfect balance between not stabbing him with a safety pin and trying to attach the moon to the seat of his pants without looking at all. "So why is this your costume, anyway?"

He spins dramatically to face her. "Looking at the stars is romantic, Peanut, if you must know," he explains knowledgeably. He'll probably never stop calling her that, Peanut, like she's still a little kid. She doesn't really mind, truthfully. They've missed a lot of time, when he was locked up and then when she thought he'd disintegrated into dust along with half the world. "It's nighttime. It's like when you and me and Hope were looking at the fireworks, right?"

"Then why don't you have any fireworks?"

"That's a great idea, and I genuinely wish I'd thought of it sooner, but there's no time." He twists awkwardly to try and pin another star to the back of his own shoulder, which is decidedly not an angle he should attempt to do anything at, and Cassie tugs the items away from him and takes over. "Thanks, Cass. Will you take a picture of us, when she gets here?"

Of course, when Hope does arrive, it's not dressed in all black and covered with stars.

Scott is upstairs, trying to find shoes without screwing up his costume, so Cassie is the one who sees her first, and God, this is going to be so worth it. She freezes as her dad's girlfriend lets herself into the house, eyes comically wide as she takes in Hope's costume.

"What?"

"No, nothing," and Cassie's voice comes out slightly higher-pitched than normal, which makes Hope narrow her eyes just a little. She knows Cassie well enough to know that nothing isn't exactly an accurate answer. Clearing her throat, Cassie tries to speak lower again. "Your costume looks great, Hope. You guys are really gonna be something, together."

She's a knight. With shiny fabric designed to look like metal, and knee-high boots, and even a sword. It's taking practically all of Cassie's energy not to burst out laughing right this moment – that would spoil the surprise, after all, and she sort of can't wait to see their respective faces when they see each other's costumes. Where's her phone? She's got to document this, right?

Hope leans on the banister and calls up the stairs, "Scott, we've got to go, we're going to be late!" They're going to a Halloween party, which Cassie sort of wishes she were going to, too, just to sit with Luis and Kurt and Dave and marvel over the costumes her dad and Hope are wearing, at least. Turning back to Cassie, Hope looks her over. "You look nice," she says sincerely, which isn't exactly true. Cassie has used eyeliner to draw a cat's nose and whiskers on her face, and stuck a headband with cat ears in her hair, and that's it. All she's doing is handing out candy, and then watching some scary movies. A high-effort costume is not required.

Catching the footsteps reaching the top of the stairs, Cassie leans against the wall in the front hallway to watch this unfold. Her dad comes thundering down the steps in the way he always does when he's in a hurry, a grin freezing into place and then slowly beginning to slide away in favour of something definitely more serious when he spots his girlfriend. "Hope," he mumbles, "you're..."

"What the hell?" Hope interrupts, looking him up and down. "What are you supposed to be?"

"A night! Just like you said!"

"Scott, I said knights," she sighs, hand going to her temple.

Okay, so she can't help it. It's around now that she starts laughing, starting in a tiny little snort and then a chuckle and then snowballing from there into a near-cackle. There are even tears forming in her eyes, and they blur her vision when she looks to her dad and Hope, who are staring at her with the sort of unimpressed expressions they often have when they stumble into any minor disagreement. "Don't tell me this isn't hilarious," Cassie says through her laughter, taking a deep gasping breath in an attempt to compose herself. "Did you tell him the costume idea out loud? This is the best. Hey, Dad wanted me to take a picture." She holds up her phone, grinning brightly.

Heaving a deep sigh, Hope steps up two stairs to line her feet up with Scott's. "I'm never going to let you live this one down," she tells him through the corner of her mouth, but she slides one arm around his waist, anyway, tugging him a little closer to her.

"Smiiile," Cassie singsongs, and snaps about eight pictures in a row. "Guys, this is amazing. Really. I'm going to get this printed and frame it. God, Mom's going to love this." She dodges her dad's lighthearted shove as the two of them head for the door, pulling it open for them helpfully and carrying on. "I'm going to post it on every social media account I've got. This is great. Really, guys, thank you for this, you've made my whole entire night. Month? Year!"

Her dad rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I think between the two of you, nobody's ever going to forget this." He looks only slightly embarrassed; he's always taken slip-ups like this in stride. If it makes for a funny story, he'll let go of any awkwardness he feels about it quickly enough, and they all know it. His only concern will be that Hope might actually be upset about it, but Cassie doesn't see any real danger of that happening. That woman is just as in love with him as he is with her, and it's only proven by how immediately she reaches for his hand when they step out into the night.