Chapter Text
Scott realizes suddenly that he’s made his cupcakes…sweet. He didn’t mean to, but he’d gotten a little caught up in baking, and mixing, and tasting, and—well, he has a sweet tooth. Just like any other citizen of Halloween Town, he devours candy whenever he can, and when he bakes for himself, he always adds extra sugar, and—
Today, Noshiko is sending someone over to check on his progress, and all he’ll have to show is a few stale peppermint cookies left over from a few days before, and dozens and dozens of sweet caramel apple spice cupcakes that taste—perfect. He doesn’t mean to carve his own pumpkin, but he can make a damn good cupcake—that’s how he got the job.
His job, of course, is to bake tricks , not treats. He works on it all year round, perfecting his recipe until the kitsune are satisfied. Then he spends the rest of the year making that recipe until Halloween, when all of his tricks get handed out and he’s left frowning down at his messy workshop and starting the whole thing over again.
These cupcakes are treats , and Noshiko might kill him.
Sometimes, he doesn’t like being the only werewolf who can bake in Halloween Town.
He hurries over to his cabinets and starts pulling down ingredients. Maybe he has time to make a new batch! He has some fresh witch cackles that will spoil his buttermilk—not past usability, but just enough that the cupcakes won’t taste exactly right when kids bite into them.
He eyeballs his measurements and whips the ingredients together brutally, but he’s only just spooning batter into cupcake molds when there’s a knock at his door.
Maybe he can have the messenger taste his batter?
He doesn’t recognize the kitsune standing on the other side of the door. She looks more human than some of the other kitsune, though her fox-like aura is definitely visible. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and cautiously says, “Hello.”
He smiles at her. “Hi, come in.” He shifts partially so he’s less a talking wolf and more of a wolfman—like in that old film he used to watch with his mom. He looks like an extra hairy man, but he hopes it’s more comfortable for her.
“My name is Kira,” she says absentmindedly as she looks around his workshop curiously. “How can you see in here?” she wonders, and he feels suddenly embarrassed. Usually, he doesn’t bother with lighting any candles—he can see perfectly fine without them. But—well, he has a guest. He strikes a match and lights several.
Now, she blinks into the dimly lit space and smiles at him. “Oh, you shifted. You look—different.”
He nods. “Yeah, I—figured it might be more comfortable for you? I’m Scott, by the way.”
“Sure,” she says, and looks down at the plate of his cookies. “Mom says I’m supposed to try the tricks.”
He recognizes her, suddenly, as Noshiko’s half-human daughter. Fuck. “Um, yeah, I have some peppermint cookies here—“ He grabs a plate of them. Maybe they’ll be so disgusting that she won’t bother trying the cupcakes.
She takes one of the cookies and sniffs it cautiously. When she takes her first bite, he can see the disgust on her face. “Tastes like toothpaste,” she says, and sets the rest of the cookie down. “Are the tricks supposed to be gross?”
“Kind of?” he can feel his mouth turning down. He loves that Halloween Town is built for good scares, he just wishes he got to be a little more creative in his own job. At least the cookies were performing as expected. “I um—the cupcakes aren’t exactly…up to par.”
She frowns a little. “Meaning?” She doesn’t wait for an answer before picking one up and, once again, giving it a sniff. She peels back the paper wrapping and takes a bite.
Scott feels a little miserable. These are the best cupcakes he’s made in ages, and they’re going to get eviscerated.
Kira looks a little confused, but—she takes another bite. “These are not disgusting.” She says it like it’s a question.
He shifts his weight. “No.”
“Are they supposed to be?”
“…No?”
She smiles. “Can I take one home?”
Scott spends a week making cupcakes, each batch more sour than the last. It’s not that he wants to make bad food, he just knows it’s what’s expected of him—even if Erica and Boyd had eaten all of his first batch of the cupcakes. Boyd had told him, completely serious, that he should give up baking tricks and move to Thanksgiving Town. “They’ll appreciate your fall themed pastries there,” he’d said.
Despite the quirks, Scott loved Halloween Town—and he liked his pack. He would never find anyone as loyal as Malia or Boyd. He’d never find friends like Liam and Erica, who were always there to pull him out of his heads. Not to mention Derek and Isaac—really, there were a lot of reasons to stay.
And—well. The moon was always full in Halloween Town. He’d never find that anywhere else.
Still, he did genuinely think about it. Maybe setting up shop there would be good for him—after all, he wouldn’t end up listlessly shopping for frog croaks because his caramel isn’t quite slimy enough to disgust children.
Noshiko stops by nearly two weeks after Kira had come by. She had a strange look on her face. “Kira asked me to get some of your...caramel cupcakes.”
“Oh,” he says. He had been baking a batch of them every few days, since it seemed to make Isaac show up more often. “Sure. Do you...want to test anything?”
“No,” she says thoughtfully. “Though Kira has been trying to convince me to deliver some treats with the tricks this year.”
Scott perks up. “Oh?” He hands her a box of the cupcakes. Maybe if she tried them—
“We’ll see,” she says.
He tucks a thank you note into the box for Kira.