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Halloween is kinda Jensen’s favorite holiday, despite not really being a holiday.
He loves everything about Halloween…everything except zombies. He never likes zombies, but Jared knows well enough to steer clear off that side of Halloween.
He loves the stupid decorations and the fact that everyone can be a kid again for one day and play dress up as their favorite superhero, movie villain, or long-shot career dream. He is one of those people who likes everything and anything pumpkin despite the fact that he pretends he doesn’t and has to sneak a pumpkin beer every now and then to keep up his street-cred that he isn’t one of the pumpkin addicted drones of the season.
Most of all, he loves that he has a chance to relive Halloween again in a whole new light now that he gets to spend it with Arianna and Brooke. It makes him smile like an idiot every time he thinks about the plans he and Jared have for the girls’ Halloween season. More often than not, he is daydreaming at work, getting completely caught off guard when Jared tells him his next client has arrived. He can’t focus on financial related math when he’s too busy contemplating the impact dressing the twins up will have on their cuteness factor.
The intelligent, scholarly part of Jensen knows that Halloween is just a silly holiday but he’s always loved it. He loved the playfulness of it growing up and he’s come to love the spine tingly scary part as an adult. Right now, he plans to keep the girls far away from anything scary but he is going to smother them in playful fall activities. They are going to get to dress up, pick pumpkins, and go trick-or-treating.
Somewhere along the line, Sherri sent the girls identical Halloween costumes that Jared adamantly detested. Since their birth, Jared’s been on a kick of making sure Arianna and Brooke are individuals and he’s taken a pretty sold stand against dressing them identically. Every now and then, an identical outfit that is just too cavity-inducing-adorable to refuse slips through the cracks. There are times when the girls look too sweet and perfect in matching dresses that Jared’s resolve falters and he falls in alongside everyone who fawns over his and Jensen’s baby girls. Usually, Sherri is to blame. For all of Jared’s determination in letting Arianna and Brooke be their own person, Sherri seems to be addicted to dressing the girls like sweet dolls. When Jensen sees the finished product, Ari’s hair in big bow and Brooke’s in two pig tails that practically stick straight out from her head, he can’t argue too much. Every now and then the temptation to dress their identical twins in identical outfits is too much and Jensen’s heart does this weird flip-flop maneuver from the double cuteness affect.
So it isn’t much of surprise when, despite Jared’s initial refusal to put the twins in his mother’s gifted costumes, the two girls end up dressed as the most adorable versions of sheep Jensen has ever seen.
Since Arianna and Brooke are nearing two years old and pretty much all over the place, Jensen wonders if he can keep the girls in those costumes for a few more months. The costumes are plush and cushioned, making tumbles and wipe outs on the kitchen floor less dangerous and they’ve helped cut back on the amount of tears going around.
Jensen couldn’t stop himself from laughing as Jared held on to his attempt to hate the costumes with every fiber of his being. Only, it was impossible because watching Jensen try to keep the girls still for a photo, essentially herding them onto the couch, made Jared laugh too loudly to continue with the façade. They took a thousand pictures and sent some to everyone they knew.
They also decided to allow the girls to wear the costumes for as long as they wanted to. They seemed to be having fun playing dress-up and when Brooke slipped off the swing-set later that day, landing squarely on her padded butt without so much as a whimper, Jared was firmly on board in keeping the twins safely swathed in lamb-y softness till they stopped falling so much.
It’s why Jensen finds himself dragging two little lambs to the pumpkin patch on a sunny weekend in October.
Jared has hit that perfect stage of his pregnancy where he isn’t sick anymore and, even though he’s tired, he’s got enough energy to keep up with the twins. Still, there is no way Jensen is letting him carry any pumpkin bigger than his hand. He gets a pointed look in return but Jared doesn’t argue.
Arianna takes off in her favorite direction – the exact opposite of the one her family is going in.
Scooping Brooke up and propping her on his hip, Jensen jogs after his runaway sheep. It takes a little maneuvering to get to Arianna because little baby feet seem to have an easier job of ambling though the maze of pumpkins but he catches her around the waist and football carries her over to a small clearing.
The area they’ve landed themselves in is practically perfect for what Jared and Jensen have in mind. The pumpkins here small enough for the girls to pick up themselves and there are hundreds of them to choose from. There’s no need for arguing. No fighting.
Of course, the girls do fight. For all their sweetness, they are siblings and genetically predisposed to arguing over anything their parents don’t want them to. They both want the same pumpkin – one that looks exactly like the 199 other pumpkins.
“No!” Brooke pushes Arianna and tries to get her hands on the small pumpkin between them. “My punk-kin!”
Arianna gears up and whines, shoving Brooke as she tries to sit on the pumpkin. “Mine!”
“Enough!” Making an award crouch while holding a hand to his lower back, Jared swipes the pumpkin away from the girls. “It’s no one’s pumpkin now.”
Arianna throws her father pouty eyes and whines. “My punk-kin!”
“No. If you can’t share, you can’t have it.” Jared shakes his head at his daughter.
“I want it!” Brooke makes grabby hands towards the pumpkin and jumps up and down. Jensen can tell she is gearing up for tears because he’s seen this song and dance one too many times.
“Pwease papa.” Arianna hip checks Brooke for a better position in front of Jared and starts her own pleading jumping. “Pwease.”
“Nuh-uh. Nope. My pumpkin now. You can go find another one. Look,” Jared points towards the pumpkins surrounding them, “there are lots of other pumpkins. Why don’t you find a better one?”
Both girls consider it and follow Jared’s pointing finger to stare at the pumpkins. They looks back at Jared again before setting off in the direction their father is referring to. Like they always do, Arianna and Brooke forget their fight almost instantly, laughing and grabbing each other’s hand as they scamper towards more pumpkins.
Jared watches them for a moment, laughing to himself as he throws the pumpkin they had been arguing over to the side. He tries to stand up, snorts, and gives Jensen a pathetic look. “A little help?”
Jensen is at Jared’s side in an instant, offering a hand and hauling Jared to his feet. He coasts a hand over the swell in Jared’s middle and smiles when he feels a kick. “You smuggling your own pumpkin in there?”
“Yeah. A pumpkin that apparently likes Halloween as much as you because he’s been kicking up a storm.” Smiling, Jared rests a hand on his pregnant middle. He sighs but there isn’t much more behind the sound than a twinge of discomfort.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. He’s just kicking a lot, like I said. Here,” taking Jensen’s hand in his own, he guides it lower, “feel.”
The baby lands a perfect kick to Jensen’s palm and Jensen feels guilty for talking Jared into walking around all day. It must show all over his face because Jared is laughing and shaking his head at him.
“Stop, Jen. I’m fine. This is normal. Him moving a lot is good. He’s okay. We’re okay. I wanted to come. I never got to do this with them before. They were too little for their first Halloween and…you know…we were still kinda…well…we weren’t a family.” Smiling, he captures Jensen’s lips in a quick kiss. “Now we are. And I love seeing you with them. I love seeing your face light up when you interact with them. You have no idea, Jensen. It makes me so happy to see you smile or to see them giggle when you grab them and kiss their cheek. It’s just,” he trails off as a sudden wave of emotion slams into him. It looks like it’s almost too much for Jared as he takes a shaky breath while squeezing his eyes closed. “And then that lady in the parking lot said how precious the girls are and what a lovely family we have and…and…” Whatever Jared wants to say, he can’t get the rest out. He’s crying now, but the tears are slow. “I’m just glad I have this. That I have you…and them…” he touches his middle, “and him.”
“Woah, Jared.” Jensen can see their girls playing to their right, safe and sound. He knows he has time to put Jared at ease. “Shh.” Cupping Jared’s face with both hands, Jensen uses his thumbs to wipe away the tears there. “Hey, Jared…shhh…why are you crying?” Smiling reassuringly, Jensen touches their foreheads together and kisses his lips softly.
“Because…god, I don’t know. Because I’m pregnant and I’m crazy?” Jared jokes with a laugh. “Ignore me. I’m all out of whack right now. But I do feel lucky to have you and all of our kids.”
“I know, Jared. Me too.” Jensen smiles against Jared’s lips and hopes the tenderness in the hold he has around Jared conveys how much he means those words. They’ve had this conversation countless times before and Jensen knows Jared’s fear that the other shoe is going to drop is a deep seated one. It’s been getting better but it’s still taking Jared a long time to get used to the fact that he doesn’t have to raise his girls alone, that someone wants to, more than anything, do it alongside him. “You’re not crazy. You’re pregnant and amazing for that. I’m glad you came. It’s kinda perfect, Jare. It’s kinda how I always wanted to spend Halloween.”
“Yeah?” Blushing self-consciously, Jared laughs and shakes off his hormonal moment.
“Yeah. I used to picture what Halloween would be like for me as an adult, and this is it. I wanted a family I could spend it with so I could introduce my kids to all the fun things my parents used to do with me. So, yeah…this is kinda pefect.”
Jensen is cut off by Brooke pulling on his pant leg. She is giving him a toothy grin and holding two hands on her obscenely round belly. It takes Jensen a minute for him to realize she’s shoved a pumping in her sheep costume and is patting it.
“Baby.” Brooke smiles again and pats her ‘pumpkin-belly’ with both hands. Pointing to Jared’s middle, she repeats herself. “Baby.”
Jared can’t help himself when he snorts out a laugh. His eyes go wide and Brooke’s antics unleash another fit of laughter.
Arianna is the icing on the whole cake. She’d been watching her parent’s reactions to Brooke so she knows what to expect when she follows suit and shoves a little pumpkin in her lamb costume. Patting her newfound belly, she looks directly at Jensen. “Baby. Like papa.”
Jensen has a mild heart attack for a second and can’t breathe. As cute as the girls are being, now all he can think about is the premise of his babies having babies and it’s kind of terrifying. He feels a little dizzy and wobbles on his feet, sinking slowly to the ground and blinking at his daughters.
“Jen?” Jared gives his boyfriend a concerned look. A light in his eyes flicks on in understanding and he shakes his head with a laugh. “Oh, Jen…they’re not even two years old. They’re playing.”
“Yeah, no…I know that. I…” Jensen’s vision does a weird tunnel effect, blackness dimming out the edges before he blinks it away. Staring up at Jared, who seems to find this whole thing funny and is laughing his ass off, Jensen points at him. “I’d like to stick to a world where you have the babies. I’m not ready to leave that world yet.”
Though he might regret it later, Jared falls to the ground beside Jensen with a thump, putting Jensen’s hand on his pregnant middle. “Don’t worry. We’re very much still in the world where I have the babies. We’ve got a few more months of that. Plus, if we keep dressing them like sheep, I think they’ll have a hard time finding dates.”
This time, Jensen laughs. How could he not? He kisses Jared’s temple and pushes away any worries about his daughters growing up too fast. Brooke throws herself at him, ‘pumpkin-belly’ now removed and held tightly in her hands. She snuggles into Jensen’s hold and raises her pint-sized pumpkin up to him. “For you, daddy.”
“For me?” Jensen kisses the top of her head.
She nods energetically, smiling wide and letting her big green eyes sparkle.
Arianna does the same thing, snuggling onto Jared’s lap, mindful of his belly. “For you, papa. Your punk-kin.”
“That’s a really nice pumpkin, angel face. Thank you.” Wrapping his arms around Arianna in a tight hug, Jared kisses her cheek. “Wanna pick another pumpkin for your baby brother?”
Thinking for a moment, Arianna puts her palm on Jared’s belly and looks up with inquisitive eyes. “Baby Chase?”
“That’s right. Wanna pick him a nice pumpkin?”
“Yeah!” Scampering away, Arianna is already off on the hunt for a pumpkin. Brooke wiggles and squirms out of Jensen’s hold so she can follow suit. Watching them makes Jensen’s heart melt. This time they aren’t fighting. They are babbling their own special baby talk but it looks like they are discussing what pumpkin would be perfect for their brother.
Propping his hands behind him to brace his weight, Jensen smiles. “They are, without a doubt, the cutest things in the world.”
“I know, right?” Leaning to the left, Jared lets his head fall to Jensen’s shoulder. “I think they like Halloween as much as you do. Look at them, they’re loving this pumpkin picking thing.”
Smiling, Jensen lets his thoughts fall away. He can’t focus on anything other than how much he loves Ari and Brooke. “I love them so much. They’re…they’re amazing Jared. And you did that. You let me be their dad...”
Jared cuts him off with a firm press of his index finger to Jensen’s lips. “Stop. Don’t. You’re going to make me cry again.”
“Well it doesn’t take much.” The words give away the fact that Jensen doesn’t mind. He thinks Jared’s tendency to lean towards being overly emotional while pregnant lands more in the adorable category than annoying. It was surprising at first, considering how professional Jared had been in the workplace during his first pregnancy. But then again, he and Jensen weren’t an item and Jared had seemed determined to prove to Jensen that he could still carry twins to term while working his ass off to be the best damn secretary in the universe. It only serves to warm Jensen’s heart that Jared feels comfortable enough in their relationship to act on all his true emotions.
Instead of talking, Jensen tucks Jared under his arm and they watch Brooke held Arianna carry a pumpkin larger than they are. They smile at him and Jensen knows if they wanted to buy the whole damn pumpkin patch, he would do it for them.
It hits Jensen that the season has barely started and it’s already the best Halloween he’s had because watching his girls giggle and smile is like reliving his childhood again…only better.