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i.
Felicity was running late for her coffee date with Laurel and Thea. It wasn’t really her fault, honestly. Her bed had been warm and comfortable, but Slade cuddling her closer, sleepily demanding she stay in bed for just five more minutes was what kept her from moving. Cold October mornings happened to be the best mornings for cuddling, and Slade happened to be the best person for Felicity to cuddle. Nobody could be expected to only stay in bed five more minutes when given that perfect cuddling opportunity, especially not Felicity.
As valid as her excuse was, she still got to the coffee shop late and made her friends wait almost too long for her. Laurel and Thea were sitting at their usual table, Laurel on her last few sips of coffee and Thea already done with hers. Felicity blurted out an apology after hugging both of them and promised the second round of coffee was on her. Neither of them really minded that Felicity had been late since they had each other for company, but Thea still perked up at the prospect of extra caffeine. Managing a nightclub on top of late-night vigilante hours made Thea the furthest thing from a morning person.
The plan was to have coffee and then Laurel and Thea would whisk Felicity off to shop for Halloween costumes. Felicity had been putting it off for weeks since she had a company to run during the day and was busy all night trying to keep her friends alive, thank you very much. She had considered “borrowing” Laurel’s Canary suit once or twice for Halloween, but decided that it wasn’t anywhere near her style. Halloween was only a week away, so she was a little worried that she’d get stuck with a weird or ugly costume. The Canary outfit was looking better already.
ii.
Laurel and Thea were having way too much fun getting Felicity to try on costumes. So far they had gone through Sexy Cat, Sexy Nurse, and a white and gold dress that Laurel swore was a costume on its own. Thea had just shoved a Sexy Ninja Turtle outfit in Felicity’s general direction when she finally drew the line. The cat costume had honestly been pretty cute, but they could do so much better. Laurel suggested Little Red Riding Hood and the huntsman as a couple costume, but right before Felicity was ready to try it on, Thea butted in and said Felicity could be Speedy and Slade could be Canary for an even better couple costume. The look on Laurel’s face honestly made Felicity want to do exactly that, but if Felicity didn’t think she could pull Laurel’s costume off, Slade would look even stranger.
Thea and Laurel shopped around for costumes of their own when Felicity spotted the perfect costume for Slade and one that she liked for herself. They didn’t match, but it wasn’t like that was actually important. At the register, Thea kept snickering every time she looked at Felicity’s costume choices. She paid for her Peter Pan costume and Laurel’s Tinker Bell one and moved aside so Felicity could buy hers.
Thea begged for Felicity to take a picture of Slade’s face when she showed him the costume she picked out for him.
In Thea’s defense, Slade’s face had definitely been picture-worthy.
iii.
Slade wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about dressing up, since it was more for children than anyone else. However, Felicity had insisted and he eventually came around. He’d dress up because she liked dressing up, and he had told her it would be okay if she wanted to pick out his costume.
Felicity came back from her coffee and shopping with a massive amount of candy for trick-or-treaters and a costume for each of them. Her costume was Jem from some cartoon that he had never seen in his life, but it was bound to look nice on her. He asked to see his costume and laughed when it turned out to be a pirate costume, complete with a stuffed parrot to sit on his shoulder. Felicity grinned. She knew he’d like it.
iv.
Once Slade had accepted his fate of actually having to dress up and do Halloween things, he decided to help Felicity out with decorating the house. He had wanted to make the whole place look scary and explained his plan for turning the front yard into a cemetery until Felicity pointed out that if it was too scary, she wouldn’t have anyone to give candy. He grumbled about children being too easily scared now, but they came to an agreement. The fog machine was okay, but there were to be no zombies, severed limbs, or scary music. They would line the walkway with Jack-o-lanterns and have eerie lighting but absolutely no overly cute decorations. As Felicity was not the best judge of what was excessively cute, that job fell to Slade.
The pumpkins were a joint effort. Felicity planned out each of her pumpkins carefully, tracing her designs onto each one before she even thought about carving. Slade hacked away at each pumpkin with seemingly no prior thought. Felicity expected at least a few disasters, and maybe two or three pumpkins looked like a kid had carved them, but Slade had been so proud of himself that Felicity couldn’t even tease him.
Trick-or-treating had gone surprisingly smoothly, and not even the smallest children had been too frightened to approach the house. John had stopped by after trick-or-treating with little Sara, who was eager to show Auntie Felicity and Uncle Slade her dinosaur costume. After a truly spectacular battle between the little dinosaur and the old pirate, Sara tired herself out and fell asleep in Slade’s arms. He handed her back over to John once it was time for him to go. They’d see each other later at Oliver and Thea’s party, and maybe Lyla would go with John if the babysitter didn’t flake out on them.
v.
The party was fun and loud and everything Felicity could have wanted. She got Slade to dance to most of the weird music that Thea’s DJ played, and by the third or fourth song he was definitely having fun, too. Barry won the impromptu costume contest with his suspiciously well-made Green Arrow costume, barely beating Roy and his Red Hood costume. By the end of the evening, Felicity’s feet hurt and she felt giggly from the club’s “witch’s brew” that she’d been drinking all night. Slade got them home, helped Felicity into bed, and kissed her forehead. He wasn’t much for Halloween, but Felicity’s enthusiasm had changed that. He got into bed next to Felicity, wrapping an arm around her after he was comfortable.
He wouldn’t hate dressing up and doing it all again come next Halloween.
But she’d have to hold him at gunpoint before he’d wear an ugly Hanukkah sweater, if such things even existed.