Work Text:
There's knocking on the doors.
Lena checks the time, confused. It's way too late for any type of visit, especially without any mention of it beforehand.
Just in case, while walking towards the doors, she grabs a heavy candlestick with herself, hiding it behind her back.
Opening the doors, she startles the late guest.
It would be even better if it wasn't...
"Ray..?" she asks confused, looking at the doctor that has two big turnip-looking vegetables, all round and orange. And seemingly... heavy, by how the man seems to get red on his face from the effort of holding both of them at the same time.
Still confused, Lena reaches out and takes one of them into her hands, with an appreciative hum realizing that it is, actually, quite heavy.
"What is that?" she asks, moving so the healer can step inside the small house she's been staying at lately. With a faint "thud" he leaves the vegetable on the table, swiping the beads of sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand.
Lena's eyes mindlessly follow the movement, after a moment focusing on a few droplets running down his neck and disappearing in the line of his coat.
"Don't you remember? We talked about the traditions from the Earth! About the carving in the special vegetable, they call pumpkin" he smiles, all curiosity in his eyes as he shows off the so-called pumpkins.
Lena stretches her fingers, counting under her breath.
"Wasn't it like... a month ago?".
At that Damus clears his throat, after that looking the other way and scratching his neck. It's not usual for him to start acting like that.
/These things had to be heavy for him... he's all red on the face/ she thinks, observing him.
"It... was. I know we were ready to carve whatever but I wanted it to be pumpkins or at least the closest thing I could get and then I..." his voice falls quieter, Lena barely being able to hear it. "I grew them myself but they took ages in this climate...".
Lena opens her mouth and then closes it, after a moment starting to chuckle which quickly changes into full, happy laughter.
"You grew them... just for us to... to carve them? Don't you see how funny it is?" she asks, getting closer and patting one of the pumpkins as if it was one of the Blossomdrops. "Are they edible? I haven't had dinner yet".
"Yes, they are but--" Ray right away frowns, looking around the house as if hoping to see the emptied plates. "What do you mean you /haven't eaten/? Lena, it's so late, you should have already been after dinner" he says in a condescending tone, making Lena feel like a young apprentice, puffing her cheeks out.
"Yes, yes, I know" she mumbles and in the hope of just escaping the further continuation of this slaughter, she turns to add some more wood to the fireplace. "So why exactly do they do that?".
"Do what?" Ray by then is slowly moving both of the pumpkins closer to the fireplace right with a bench from the table so they have where to sit.
"Carve the turnips".
"They're called pumpkins," he says with a small smile, shaking his head at Lena's quiet "whatever vegetable is that".
"Actually to represent the supernatural beings, but also to keep evil spirits away. They carved them with scary faces and used them as lanterns. They would call them 'Jack o'Lanterns' and were named after ghostly lights rumored to be seen in marshes and bogs that were believed to be the spirits of the dead" he explains calmly, glad that he decided to go around and ask about such a thing before coming to Lena with the whole idea and grown pumpkins.
"To scare them off?" Lena sits down next to him, placing two big pitchers filled with hot beer with spices between them. "Why would the ghost be scared of a lantern? The one that will burn itself on top of it" she comments, reaching for one of the knives Ray brought.
"Well, it started as that and got to be a tradition... I'm not sure later anyone believed it" he says, after a moment starting to cut off the top part of the pumpkin. Lena, copying him, does the same.
"Looks like guts," she says half amused and half curious, pushing her hand inside of it and getting it out with a handful of dangly orange parts and seeds.
"It's the softest part of the vegetable. And these are seeds, you could grow more of these from them" he says and after that observes Lena tossing that handful into the fireplace.
The fire quickly swallows all of it, flickering and cracking at the wet parts of it, frying and burning the seeds to crisps in a span of a few moments.
They look at it for a long moment, before Ray brings a bowl to have the rest of the "pumpkin's guts" put in there.
During this, not as pleasant as he imagined, task, they chat. About... well, various things. From the most typical mention of weather and Ray's patients to Lena's new plans for the upcoming month right with the idea mentioned by someone for Lena to get herself a Baby Aura or a small Angara as a travel companion.
The beer also disappears quite quickly, their chuckles and giggles filling the room right with the cracks of wood in the fireplace as the background noise.
"The poor thing would have to get used to me. To live through all of that and travel so much..." Lena sighs, finishing cleaning the insides. She looks down at the vegetable on her lap. "I can't imagine anyone being able to do that, let alone /wanting/ that" she chuckles, trying to turn it into a joke.
The silence lasts barely a few seconds, before...
"I would," Ray says quietly, his cheeks red from the beer and fire in front of them, the flames making his eyes seem to shine, even more, flickers dancing around his pupils. "I would like that very much, actually. As long as I could assist your wounds and other people on the way".
Lena feels her cheeks getting red as well, thinking that it's all because of the beverage and the temperature in her small house.
She clears her throat, looking back at the pumpkin.
"So how... how do we carve it?" she asks quietly before Ray starts explaining the possible options and starts to carve his pumpkin as well.
They don't mention the whole situation, barely speaking anymore. For a moment they exchange opinions on the new tavern in the nearby village and talk about Ras and his whereabouts.
Once everything is ready, they put the candles inside, moving away from the fire so they could really see how it looks.
While Ray's looks quite scary with the imitation of pointy teeth and squeezed eyes, Lena's looks... quite soft. Goofy even, with how half of the mouth is different than the other one and the round eyes seem to just look into the distance with no coherent thought behind them.
Ray moves slightly closer, Lena could feel the warmth from his body as their shoulders nearly brush.
"I'd say we did quite a good job" he comments quietly. Lena nods, looking from one pumpkin to another, feeling the air between them start to get heavier with the unspoken words yet. "And so I think we'd... be quite a good team. You and me" he says, making Lena look back at him quickly, her cheeks starting to burn. "As.. as in travelling. And such. Partners in... our quests" he explains, his tongue betraying him with every other uttered word.
Lena looks back at the pumpkins, smiling lightly and biting her lip to fight it before making a step to the side, leaning on him just for a moment.
"Yeah... I think if we can carve these turnips we can do quite a lot together".