Work Text:
“Taylor, please, I’m
begging you
. Don’t make us watch
The Nightmare Before Christmas
again.”
Taylor thought it was a genius plan.
Everyone was busy on Halloween (Hermie was working and Linc and Scary had a soccer game that Normal had to cheer at), so he moved the celebration to the weekend before.
They were all going to be able to pick a Halloween themed movie or short series for the group to watch. It would be an amazing time.
But when he mentioned it to the Teens, they stared at him like he was crazy! The actual nerve of these people.
Normal said something like: “Taylor, I know you think this is a good idea, but we don’t really all have the same taste… It would probably be a trainwreck.”
And Scary replied with something like: “Yeah Taylor… I don’t want to have to sit through some pussy movie that Linc decides to have us watch to learn the ‘power of friendship,’ or some bullshit.”
And Taylor had frowned and pouted because come on — they were completely derailing his perfect Halloween plan. “C’mon guys, please .”
Linc probably glanced between all his friends and replied: “We can at least try… I guess.”
Taylor jumped and latched his arms around Linc’s neck, pulling himself into a hug, legs dangling off the ground. “ Fuck yeah ! Thank you so much, Linc!”
And all the Teens gave him a soft smile that he didn’t see- no! He pretended to not see.
Or something like that happened.
It didn’t really matter! If he had to — and he didn’t — get on his hands and knees and beg them to gather at his house please please please it would have had the same effect as that conversation!
Point is that they were coming.
And Taylor was beyond excited.
- • •
Other than dressing up, getting spooked was one of Taylor’s favorite Halloween traditions. The movie he had planned was ultimately not scary, and Normal and Linc probably couldn’t name a scary movie if it bit them in the ass. Really, it was just Scary and Hermie he was counting on for some good scares.
Obviously, Taylor would have the Teens watch The Nightmare Before Christmas — the anime was kinda mid, but they repremiered the original from 1993 a couple years ago and Taylor got hooked . The animation, the songs, the actual story . He had always felt a sort of connection with it, and now, after meeting his sorta-grandpa and his Dad, it made sense. Christmas is his family’s holiday.
But Halloween is his.
While growing up, it was just him and his mom. She never hired a nanny or a babysitter to watch him everyday; it was always her and him. Taylor and Cassanadra. Mother and Son.
Halloween was their thing . They would watch their favorite Halloween animes and dress up as their favorite characters. Buy out an entire store’s candy stock and gorge themselves on it that night. They went all out . House decked out in leaves and lights and pumpkins — so many fucking pumpkins.
There had been a couple times Taylor had tried to summon a demon in the backyard or the bathroom and his mom would walk in, laughing softly. She’d turn off the lights, ruffle his hair and give him a kiss on his forehead, telling him to head to bed.
He understood why, now, after meeting Nicky.
Then, his mom was the only person he cared about. The only person he had to care about.
He wants to share something like that with the Teens.
The fact that they hadn’t wanted to was insane to Taylor! It didn’t really hurt his feelings, things like this tended to just slide off his back — no hurt, no sweat.
He had convinced them though! And it’ll be nice to share this tradition with his four favorite people (not counting his mom and dad).
- • •
Ding dong .
Taylor hears his doorbell ring and he jumps up to go answer it.
Standing in outside of the door, looking awkward, are Hermie and Linc. During the whole adventure they never really got… close , and now, when they weren’t forced to see each other — out of fear if one of them wasn’t watching their back they’d lose half (or the other half) of their skin — their relationship hadn’t exactly gotten better .
“Come in guys! Welcome to my humble abode…” Taylor gestures wildly to his very much not humble house. Inside, everything is either orange or black or purple (he hopes Scary, at least, will appreciate the decorations).
“Thank you Taylor.” Hermie takes Taylor’s dramatics in stride and walks in, somehow in time with the movements of his flailing arms. “Where would you like us to put our…” Hermie looks down at their duffel bag, very obviously half empty (perhaps for stealing from their nephew, perhaps not).
“OH! Right!” Taylor shuts the door behind Linc and slides with his socks through the hall. “Follow me, guys!”
His excitement is getting to him. Hanging with his best friends, watching animes or movies, during his favorite time of the year — he feels like flapping his hands hard enough that he actually takes off flying, vibrating his body fast enough that he shakes the whole house. In the end he just opts to swish his tail around.
Ding dong .
Taylor hears the doorbell ring again. “Shit! Now I have to go all the way back!” He glances around for his cane — having not expected to be moving around so much, he had left it downstairs where they’d be watching the movie. “Fuckkkkkkk. Linc?”
“Yeah?”
“You know where the movie room is, right?”
Linc furrows his brow and he glances around the house. “Yes?”
“Perfect. I’ve gotta go let Scary or Normal in. Take Hermie down there and start picking a movie.” Taylor turns on his heel and slowly makes his way towards the door.
Standing outside is both Normal (carrying a pie in his hand and standing way too close to the security camera lens) and Scary (cross-armed and bored) — oddly convenient that both of his friends arrived in duos.
“ Finally . We’ve been standing here for like- I dunno- Eight years , Taylor.” Scary snarkily says.
“It wasn’t that long…” Normal mumbles in response to Scary.
“If we were in another dimension it could have been!”
“Sorry! Sorry! I forgot my cane downstairs and I wanted to greet you myself!” Taylor quickly amends, yanking Normal through the door, and waiting for Scary to walk through. “Come on, it’s chilly. I want to close the door.”
Scary steps through and walks ahead of the two boys. She mutters, “Uhm- Sorry about the- About the comment back there. That was… unnecessary. Or whatever.”
Taylor waves it off. “Let’s go downstairs! Hermie and Linc should be down there picking our first movie.”
Normal perks up again. “Where should I put the pie? Hero made it the other day, and my family didn’t want to waste it, but they decided that they didn’t want to eat it, you know?” He’s rambling trying to fill the silence.
“We can put it in the downstairs kitchen. Let’s go.” Taylor leans on Normal’s side, supporting himself, and ignores the shocked expressions from both of his friends. What does he mean downstairs kitchen!?
Sitting on opposite couches of each other, either on their phone or flipping through a script, Linc and Hermie absolutely do not have a movie put on.
“Guys, what the fuck!? Where’s the movie!?”
Both of Taylor’s friends look up at him, almost in sync.
“We couldn’t figure out how to use the remote,” Linc admits sheepishly, glancing at the long, black piece of plastic, adorned with way more buttons than seems necessary.
Hermie shrugs in agreement, turning back to their obnoxiously long script.
“God damn it you guys! I’ll do it myself then!” Taylor snatches his cane, balanced diagonally on the right side of the entrance door, and marches over to the remote.
“I hope you assholes like stop motion.”
- • •
“Taylor, please, I’m begging you . Don’t make us watch The Nightmare Before Christmas again.” Linc whines looking up from his phone. “You’ve played it twice, isn’t there any other movie you could put on?”
Taylor grumbles before standing up. “ You guys were supposed to let me know what movie or short series you wanted to watch! It was supposed to be a whole thing…” For the first time since planning the whole get-together, Taylor actually seems kind of hurt.
It must have pulled on everyone else’s heartstrings, because the moment Taylor clicks the remote to put on some sitcom for background noise, Normal stands up.
“Hey, man, I know a good Halloween movie we can watch. It was one of the only ones my Dad let me watch- Though I think it might’ve been Uncle Lark’s decision more than Sparrow's… But whatever.” Normal holds his hand out for Taylor to give him the remote.
Taylor grins and slaps the remote down in Normal’s palm. Then, he jumps up and lands on top of Scary. “Wake up Scary! It’s party time.”
Scary groans. “Do I have to watch whatever Normal picks? It probably won’t even be scary…”
Linc, finally getting into the mood of things, plops himself on the other side of Scary, sandwiching her. “Yup! When it’s your turn, you can pick the movie!”
As the beginning music starts to play, none of the Teens can hear it over their giggling and Scary’s exaggerated groan.
- • •
None of the Teens expected Normal to pick an actual horror movie — though when he said that his Uncle Lark was the one who introduced him to it, they should have assumed.
The opening scene of Texas Chainsaw Massacre begins to play and Scary leans forward in mock-anticipation. She didn’t like Scary movies when she was Terri… but she’s Scary now. Plus, she had seen some shit! She should love this.
Newsflash: She does not.
Not even fifteen minutes in, she is curled into herself, shaking.
Next to her, Linc notices. “Hey Scary… If you’re not up to this, we can turn it off… I’m sure Normal won’t mind.”
Across the room, huddled together under a blanket with Taylor and hands clasped with Hermie, Normal is rocking back and forth in excitement. His eyes shining every time a new scene appears on the screen.
“…No. It’s fine. I love scary movies. That’s where I got my name from, Linc ,” Scary tries to sneer in his direction, but her eyes catch back on the TV and she has to hold herself back from gagging. “But, like. If you wanted to hold my hand. Or whatever. I dunno- Nevermind actually, I- ”
Linc snatches her hand and pulls her into a hug before she can finish denying her request. “I got you, Scary. I don’t like scary movies either…”
Muffled from Linc’s shirt, the faint sound of Scary muttering “pussy” under her breath can be heard. Neither of them pay it much mind — they stay like this for the rest of the movie.
- • •
Hermie picks next.
And, honestly, after the horror fest Normal just pulled, Taylor’s not sure he’s up for whatever scary thing Hermie decides is fitting for them all to watch.
He is shaking so much in his anticipation that he doesn’t even notice, until the opening music begins to play, that Hermie had picked Over The Garden Wall .
“ Hermie, my man! This is my jam ,” Taylor crawls across the couch just to fist bump Hermie — who stares at his hand with an eyebrow raised, arms crossed.
“…Yes. It’s a really good show. I try to watch it every Autumn.”
Normal jumps up. “Hey, yeah! I’ve seen this show too, man! It’d play earlier on the channel Adult Swim’s on during the fall months.”
All of them, except Linc (who hasn’t seen anything rated higher than PG13, let alone R), stare at Normal. How the fuck did Normal know what Adult Swim was? He was the last person any of them expected to have watched South Park or Rick and Morty — though after his standup, maybe they should have guessed.
Electing to unpack that all later, the Teens glance back at the TV, still playing Over The Garden Wall .
“I’ve never actually seen this,” Scary mumbles under her breath.
Hermie gasps.“It’s wonderful, my beloved Scary. You will enjoy it very much.”
Scary rolls her eyes. For some reason, Hermie’s teasing isn’t as obnoxious as it used to be.
The moment the dog shows up in the first episode they all start giggling. “Rogue,” they all agree.
When the frog band starts playing, or anytime Wirt talks about his clarinet, they shove Normal and he hides his face.
“That’s you about Hermie,” Linc whispers to Normal when Wirt starts talking about his crush on Sara. Normal groans in embarrassment.
“Beatrice is totally Mae Hailes.” Taylor says and the rest of the group nods along in agreement.
They’re silent, on the edge of their seats, when Wirt talks with the Beast. When Wirt saves Greg. When Wirt blows out the lantern.
That hits a bit too close to home.
When it’s revealed that they got to The Unknown from almost getting hit by a train, from nearly drowning in a freezing cold pond — the Teens hold their breath, only exhaling episodes later when they’re safely home.
The teens adore Over The Garden Wall . The metaphors of death and the inbetween and continuing on for someone who you care about cuts deep for them all. They could hear Normal sniffling the entire show, and, though they’ll never mention it, Scary as well.
- • •
It was a fight to see who went next. Taylor, Normal, and Hermie had already gone, and so just Scary and Linc were left.
“Guys just do rock-paper-scissors- ”
“Shut up Normal!” They yell in unison.
Normal spins around arms up in mock surrender.
“Scary, I swear I just want to pick the next movie! It’s not that big a deal!”
“You’re trying to take away something that makes me feel, Linc! This is so antifeminist!”
Linc sputters, at a loss of what to say. “ You’re being homophobic!” A smirk starts to grow on his face, the absurdity of their argument getting to them.
“At least I wasn’t adopted on the titanic!” Scary grins too, now trying to make the situation humorous.
Taylor jumps up and collapses into Linc’s arms. “Will you guys please pick something to watch!?”
“Fine!” Scary tries to scowl, but can’t keep the smile hidden. She goes and sits next to Hermie (who looks like they just won the lottery, and with how full their bag now was, they might as well have). “Linc, you can pick!”
Linc glances back at Scary, checking to make sure she doesn’t seem actually upset, and then turns to the remote. “Alright. So I know most of you guys probably won’t like this but… uhm…” Linc trails off and turns back to the TV, where the movie he was going to turn on is pulled up. “I really enjoy it at least.”
“We’re going to watch fucking Garfield ?”
Linc perks up. “Yes! It’s actually really good. This one’s called Garfield’s Halloween Adventure , but it was originally titled Garfield In Disguise .” He clicks on the play button. “Its animation is a bit older than the movies nowadays… But so far everyone’s played older movies so it’s not that big a deal.” Linc chuckles nervously, looking around, hoping no one actually stops him from playing the movie.
No one does.
Linc grins and flaps his hands slightly. God, he loves Garfield.
The entire movie (24 minutes) goes by like this. Linc chiming in with a cool fact about this specific film, or Garfield in general, the Teens listening and nodding along, asking questions in response.
Linc leans his shoulder against Normal and Hermie wraps his tail around his wrist.
Linc can’t think of a better way to spend his night.
- • •
It was finally Scary’s turn, and they were all getting a little jittery. The night has actually been fun . It was nice hanging together.
It’s embarrassing to say, but they really all love each other so much .
They don’t want the night to end.
Or, on Taylor’s part, he didn’t want the night to end for more reasons than one. Sure, Normal (out of all people!) had a scary movie, but all the others’ were sweet and cute! He needed to get scared .
He was counting on Scary.
She was fidgeting with the hem of her dress. By the end of the movie, she had wandered over to where Normal was sitting and was leaning on him. Linc was pressed against Taylor’s side, and Hermie’s tail was still entwined with his hand.
“So uhm… I know like, a ton of scary movies. But, Normal- Normal played a super good horror movie so I thought — ” she clears her throat and starts typing on the TV “— we could play a suuuuper cringy overrated movie.”
With the way Scary’s legs were bouncing and the fiddling of her hand, this was a movie she actually really liked.
Hermie was the first to speak. “Yeah of course. What better way to go out than ‘cringe’?”
Scary grins and clicks play on the movie.
“ Hocus Pocus ? Hero loves this movie!”
Scary shoots up from her relaxed position. “ Really !?” She wraps her hand around Normal’s arm, softly, careful not to hurt him. “Have you seen it!?”
Normal tilts his head, obviously happy that they’ve found something Scary really enjoys. “Not all the way through, no. But my Dad and Hero would sit down and watch it almost every October. I kinda get the gist of the plot…”
Scary leans back down and continues messing with the string of her shirt. “It’s uh- It’s like, super cringy and whatever… My mom and I used to sit and watch it together.”
The teens all lean back and enjoy the movie, Scary noting a thing or two as it happens.
She dozes off first, thirty or so minutes in.
Normal, who she’s using as a living pillow, is the next to sleep. The rest of the Teens follow quickly in their footsteps, until Taylor is the only one awake.
He looks over all his friends, his four favorite people. People who he knows would- will do anything for him, for each other. His mom is upstairs sleeping, safe. His dad is in Hell — and for once, hearing that is a comfort, not an insult.
Taylor reaches over and clicks off the movie, swapping it to Gravity Falls (a good background noise show) and lays down on Linc’s knee.
“Happy Halloween you guys.”
He falls asleep surrounded by more people that he knows love him than he ever has in his life.
Taylor has never been happier.