Chapter Text
they go home for halloween.
it’s nothing personal, but switzerland isn’t quite the place to celebrate gabe’s favorite holiday. sure, there’s bound to be a couple people wandering around in costume, some kids eagerly knocking on their neighbors’ doors, and one or two bars decorated for the comfort of tourists – but that’s about it.
and walking around, there’s something too dependent on its commercial success for gabe to enjoy it. yeah, america’s one to talk – but at least it’s so integrated that there’s more to the night than just the costumes and candy. there’s social gathering and domesticity as communities come together to celebrate living through morbid, wholesome portraits of myths and legends that can never die.
that’s without even talking about heritage.
it’s easy to say that gabe loves october 31st for halloween – that he loves it at all. he can appreciate the tradition and acknowledge the value others have placed in the night – but given a choice, he’d push consumerism aside. pull custom to the spotlight, hand it a mic, and shower it with the respect it ought to demand.
because it’s not all pure gratification that drives gabe’s love for the 31st. it can’t be.
not when his papá often narrated the tale of how he won the hand of the only woman he ever loved. when his tías would look across a tombstone under the moon and compare gabe’s eyes to their sister’s. it can’t be, when gabe’s regard for a woman lost too soon, deserves more love than that of a day in a year.
even if jack can’t fully comprehend día de los muertos, he can see the altars heaped with ofrendas and topped with marigolds. he can notice how – even in the dim candlelight, the vibrant flowers light up the night far better than any jack-o-lantern.
he can heed the increasing frequency of gabe’s silence as it nears the 31st and understand the man’s need for more than just a halloween knock-off in switzerland.
jack buys the plane tickets to LA on the 25th, finishes packing on the 28th, and on the 30th,
they go home.