Chapter Text
The day started off as normal as any other really. The sun had barely risen, the birds weren’t even chirping yet, and there was the sound of an increasingly growing upset baby from down the hall. Grian let out a deep sigh against the crook of his mate’s neck where his nose had somehow found itself buried in during the night, and kept his eyes shut for a little longer just to relish in the warmth. Only the cries quickly turned from whines to wailing for attention very quickly.
There was a responding deep sigh against him. “Alright, I’m coming,” mumbled Scar, though it was way too quiet for the baby in the nursery to even hear. He quickly pressed a kiss to the underside of Grian’s jaw in his usual morning greeting, and worked to untangle himself from the omega’s gripping limbs - earning a near identical whine of protest as their daughter.
He moved to snuggle deeper into the blankets at the loss of warmth, and let out a happy hum upon finding the remnant’s of Scar’s scent left over on the pillows. He let himself settle - salvaging the last moments he had to himself before he would need to get up and feed Poppy.
Tired. Happy. Love. “Good morning, Peanut!” he heard Scar greet from the nursery, and Poppy’s cries lowered a bit in volume as she realised she finally had attention. “How are- AAAHH!!”
Grian sat up at once, his own panic increasing along with his heartrate at the sound of the scream and the feeling of Scar’s Horror. Only then he remembered why the alpha would be screaming, and instead smirked and tried to hold back a laugh.
Horror… Confused. Annoyed. “GRIAN?!”
“Yes, dearest?!”
There was the stomp of footsteps from the nursery, and Scar appeared in the doorway of the bedroom. “Why?!” he cried out in despair, holding their nine-month old up in full display to the omega. Poppy merely let out a coo, and lifted her blue-mittened hand up to chew on - making the Stitch onesie she was wearing look that much cuter.
Unable to help himself, Grian finally let out a cackle. “Isn’t she adorable?”
Scar spluttered. “Adorable?! It’s awful! How could you do this to our baby?! …Wait.” He glared at Grian. “When did you do this?!”
“When I went to change her before I put her back to bed.”
“I knew it! I knew you were up to something! You never get up to change diapers in the middle of the night!”
“What can I say,” Grian sighed, leaning back into bed. “Felt like it was only appropriate for the spirit of the day.”
Scar continued to glare at him. Poppy, like the true gremlin she was, proceeded to rub salt into the wound by looking up at her father with a far too sweet giggle.
“Happy Halloween!” Grian cheered, unable to wipe the grin from his face. He made a grab for his comm unit to snap a picture - forever immortalising the image of Scar holding his most detested character.
Scar just sighed, and relented as he brought Poppy in close for a proper cuddle. “Betrayed by my own baby…”
“Now that’s a lot better!” Scar cried out. Excited. Happy.
Grian let out what was supposed to be an annoyed sounding sigh, but he knew the emotions through the bond would have betrayed him. “Okay, yeah, you were right. This is very cute.”
It was later in the evening now, and they were preparing to get themselves ready for the Halloween party that had been set up outside on Main Street. Typically, most years they opted to host game nights or play pranks for the holiday - but this year everyone wanted to do a costume party. It wasn’t hard to guess why, with this being Poppy’s first Halloween and all the Hermits wanting to get their value’s worth out of it.
After the scare Grian had given Scar earlier in the morning, he relented and allowed Scar to pick out their family costume for the night as an apology for the apparently “unforgivable betrayal” (which he really should have known better than to let it go ahead). Only his regret ebbed away when Scar exited the nursery, holding a very fuzzy looking baby wookiee in his arms.
“Isn’t she?!” Scar squealed, sounding like a little kid himself. “She’s a baby Chewie!”
“...How long have you had that onesie ready to go?”
“...I may have commissioned Cleo a couple months ago. That’s why it’s a little big, I thought she might have grown a little more.”
“Don’t height shame my baby!” Grian scolded as he reached out for Poppy, earning a laugh from Scar as he handed her over. “Don’t worry, you’ll grow up all big soon!”
“She better not! She’s gonna be my little Peanut forever!”
Grian just rolled his eyes fondly and pressed a quick kiss to Poppy’s cheek, earning a round of excited squealing and babbling in return. “Do I even want to know what we’re wearing?”
“Oh you’re gonna love it! It’s gonna be ah-may-zin!”
‘Amazing’ wasn’t quite the word Grian thought, however, upon learning that he would be dressing up as Leia to match with Scar’s Han costume. Though truly he didn’t mind, and only made a performative fuss as he fixed his space-bun headband. It was worth it seeing how happy his mate was and filled with such contagious, child-like excitement. Plus at least he’d be comfortable in the dress unlike Scar’s far too tight pants (yet another thing he couldn’t exactly complain about).
“You two are going to be insufferable together when she’s old enough to actually get a sugar high on Halloween,” Grian grumbled as they began to make their way downstairs from their apartment to Main Street.
“I know! Isn’t it gonna be great?!”
Grian laughed, his insides feeling all warm at the idea. “Yeah, it will be.”
A few Hermits were already milling about, and dressed up in costumes when they finally made their way out. At once, there was a chorus of squeals and coos at the sight of Poppy in Scar’s arms.
“Oh my gosh!” Gem squealed racing forward (the half-elf dressed like a fairy). “Look at you, Poppy! Oh you’re just so cute!?”
Poppy just let out a slightly toothy smile at all the attention when Gem began to squeeze one of her hands through the mittens of her costumes, and wiggled excitedly when more Hermits approached.
“Oh I could eat her up!” said Cleo (dressed like a pirate). “You picked well, Scar!”
“Ha!” Scar barked, smirking over at Grian. “Told you so!”
“I said she looked cute!”
“He was against it the whole time,” said Scar, ignoring Grian (“Hey!”).
“Very… nice matching outfits,” said Cub (dressed like a Warden), glancing Grian’s outfit up and down with a humoured smirk, earning an eye roll in return. “But that is the cutest wookiee I’ve ever seen.”
“She’s like a little bear!” Mumbo gasped, leaning forward to get a better look at Poppy. He smiled back, showing off the fangs of his vampire costume. “Hi, Poppet!”
Poppy’s own smile dimmed as her eyes locked on Mumbo’s new fangs, and shortly her bottom lip wobbled dangerously for a split second before she broke out into heartbreaking cries.
Mumbo looked like he had been kicked, and he quickly ripped the fangs off. “Oh no! No, darling, it’s okay! It’s just Uncle Mumbo! Uncle Mumbo’s back!”
“Guess this means she won’t be going through a teen vampire romance-novel phase,” said Grian, reaching up to rub Poppy’s back along with Scar as the alpha quickly pulled her up for a cuddle against his chest. Poppy just continued to cry loudly, earning a bout of sad croons from the surrounding Hermits, and turning Mumbo more guilt ridden.
“I’m gonna go change,” the beta mumbled. “I’m gonna go find the brightest outfit I own…”
“Where’s everyone else?” asked Grian, looking around as Mumbo left - noticing that the crowd seemed a bit thinner than he expected.
“X went to go collect the Emperors from the portal,” said Pearl (dressed up like an alien) as Scar stepped away to try and rock Poppy back into a settled state. “And there’s just a few stragglers still getting ready I think. Apparently Ren’s fighting with Doc to get him out of their house. Something about a lost bet?”
“Oh, I can’t wait to see what it is!” Bdubs laughed gleefully.
Etho just rolled his eyes. “First you’re too tired and didn’t wanna come to the party; see what you could have missed out on?
“Leave me alone! This party’s too late! It’s going to cut into my bed time!”
“Dude, you’re worse than Poppy,” said Grian. Then he eyed the pair of mates with wariness as he noticed their costumes. “A horse and… jockey?!”
“Yup!” Bdubs smirked, holding up the riding whip with a knowing smirk. “Cause guess who’s gonna be riding who-”
“Woah, woah, woah!” Grian shouted. “Family friendly event, Bdubs! Dude?!”
“What did we miss?” asked Scar, coming back with a much calmer Poppy.
“Nothing!” Grian shouted. “Just keep her away from Bdubs and Etho!”
“HEY!”
It wasn’t long before the rest of the crowd showed up, with the Emperors arriving with Xisuma leading the way, and then the remaining Hermits. There was a round of echoing laughter that could have been heard from the other side of the map when Ren finally managed to drag Doc to the party - the normally proud looking alpha looking rather embarrassed and shrunken in his maid dress. Then Mumbo finally returned, wearing his season eight Hawaiian outfit that Poppy decided she liked much better, and gladly accepted cuddles from her relieved uncle.
It was an even happier occasion when the last of the guests arrived from the party with Xisuma having granted access for Skizz, Martyn and BigB to join in on the fun. Though there had ben a moment of absolute outrage (and resounding hilarity) when Skizz spotted the remainder of the ZITS.
(“What the hell guys?!”
“Skizz?! What the heck are you wearing?!”
“I thought we agreed on a group costume?!”
“Skizz, didn’t you read the group chat? We decided to go as firemen instead!”
“I didn’t get the message! So you’re telling me I’m dressed as a Teletubby like an absolute idiot?!”)
Overall, the night was as chaotic as Grian expected it to go. Hermits and sugar combined was always an interesting experience (and only furthered his decision to keep Poppy away from the stuff for as long as possible. Though he knew it would only be a losing matter, considering her wide eyed look when she watched Cub eat some gummy worms). By the end, there would be no doubt the majority of party-goers would be going home with a stomach ache.
“I bet people are regretting not doing the trick-or-treating idea,” Grian mumbled at one point to Scar.
Scar shook his head. “Nooo, this was a way better idea! Look at them! They can’t get enough of her!”
Indeed, Poppy had at one point been stolen from them, and was in the midst of being passed around from Hermit to Emperor and back again. The little baby girl clearly soaking up all the cuddles and attention she was receiving as she was cooed over. She was taking well after Scar, Grian thought with an internal groan, with her already too huge ego. She was the princess of the server and she clearly knew it.
Her only rival, of course, was Hermes. The little boy was dressed almost identically to Jimmy's sherrif outfit (much to said omega’s dismay), and was happily going around the crowd and holding up his little bucket for all manner of sweet treats which everyone happily gave him. Grian could hear Joel muttering about how difficult it was going to be to get the boy to sleep; but just like Sausage was clearly having the time of his life watching how much fun his son was having.
“Just imagine how bad Christmas is going to be,” sighed Grian, leaning up against his mate.
Humour. Happy. Love. “I think you mean ah-may-zin?”
“Scar, she’s going to be drowning in presents at this rate!”
“Exactly!”
“...you’re right. It’s going to be amazing.”