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The bookstore is haunted.
It didn't really surprise Buck when he realized it at the end of September — since their street gets all spooky every Halloween and his boyfriend is literally a witch, the presence of a ghost in his bookstore, in his personal opinion, isn't far-fetched at all.
He thought he could even get used to it at first, but the ghost seems to grow more and more agitated as October passes, knocking books off the shelves and scratching Buck's forearms or ankles almost on a daily basis.
But it's fine. All Buck has to do is convince his witch boyfriend to engage in some witchy stuff like cast a protection spell or do a séance to communicate with the ghost.
The only problem is that said witch boyfriend doesn't believe in ghosts, or in magic, or even in the fact that he is a witch.
Which Buck is painfully reminded of on the thirteenth day of October.
"You trip over your own feet all the time," Eddie is arguing in his special exasperated-but-still-very-fond voice exclusively reserved to Buck and Christopher, "you must have gotten those scratches when you weren't paying attention, that's all."
"Rose wouldn't stop barking at something I wasn't able to see yesterday," Buck protests, "and a few seconds later, three books fell on the floor. How do you explain that?"
Eddie raises his head from the cash register to cast a glance at the huge Groenendael snoozing at their feet before shrugging. "A lizard, or a mouse."
"You're not listening. I wasn't able to see what she was barking at."
"Maybe you need glasses."
"You're not funny."
"Hm, I'm pretty funny." And he says it with a small grin revealing his left canine, something ethereal enveloping him in the dim lighting of the video store, forcing Buck to lean in and kiss him, a myriad of champagne bubbles popping in his chest.
"You're very pretty, yeah," he murmurs against Eddie's lips, tasting the sweet smile again and again and again.
"Not what I said," Eddie manages to mumble between two kisses, but he brings his arms around Buck's shoulders and pulls him closer behind the counter, mindful to keep a few inches of distance between their bodies.
(Ever since Chimney caught them in the projection room five months ago, Eddie's thigh pressed against Buck's crotch — a traumatic event for everyone involved —, he always keeps a spray bottle on him and never hesitates to use it whenever he thinks they're physically too close at work.
Mostly at work.
He once sprayed water on them in Sue's coffee shop. And in Athena and Maddie's flower shop. And in Hen and Karen's tattoo parlor.
And in Buck's own apartment.
He never did it in the bookstore because of the books, but instead yelled at Bobby your staff is defiling mine again in front of a dozen of customers.)
Right now, however, Chimney is spending his break with Maddie at the flower shop, and there's no one looking for a movie to rent or a vinyl to buy, so Buck allows himself to drag his fingers under Eddie's shirt, presses a palm against his ribs and swallows the small gasping sound Eddie lets out.
The light bulb flickers above them.
"Careful," Buck whispers, "if you burst another one, Chim will definitely know what we're doing."
In response, Eddie bites his lower lip hard enough to be painful (but Buck is into that, so joke's on Eddie, really) and says, "Stop assuming I have anything to do with the faulty electricity of this place."
Buck opens his mouth to argue, but Eddie cuts him off with another bruising kiss, and — okay.
The rest can wait.
"What are you doing?"
Buck jumps out of his skin, accidentally knocking his phone off its hidden place between two books on the shelf of the thriller section as he turns around to face Bobby, who is looking at him with a blank expression.
"I was… trying to catch the ghost on camera. To show Eddie."
Bobby's eyebrows fly up, eyes glinting with amusement. "And you really think he'll be more inclined to believe you if it's on video?" He asks slowly, his way of suggesting Buck to actually take two or three seconds to consider his next words before answering.
(He does the same thing with his stepchildren. Buck hasn't decided yet if he should be offended to be getting the same treatment as a twelve and an eight year-old.)
Three seconds later, Buck shrugs. "The ghost never does anything when Eddie is here, which doesn't really help my case. You know, that's a weird thing I noticed a few days ago," he carries on when Bobby doesn't immediately walk away, "it always waits until Eddie is gone before it starts acting out. I'm serious. It's like Eddie's presence protects the place against ghosts and evil spirits."
"Or maybe it just messes with you. Wants you to make a fool of yourself in front of your boyfriend."
That's an interesting theory. Buck stores it in a little box in a corner of his mind along with everything he's gathered so far about this ghost. He crouches down to retrieve his phone (unscathed, fortunately) from the floor, already speaking before he turns once again towards Bobby. "Do we have books on the different kinds of ghosts?"
Bobby walks away.
Whatever. Buck gives up the idea of catching the ghost on camera (for now) and instead strides down the aisles, barely looking at the sections he knows by heart, and pushes open the storage room door — he vaguely remembers Bobby saying they got a bunch of Halloween themed books delivered last week, but it was on Buck's day off, which he spent building pillow forts with Eddie and Christopher, so he wasn't there to check the content of the books and it, in all honesty, totally slipped his mind.
He sits down, opens one of the boxes at random and starts digging, taking the opportunity to scan each copy and put it on the waiting shelf once he's done skimming through the first pages; most of them are fictional novels, a few articles about the history of the traditions associated with Halloween, and a lot of retelling of myths about vampires and other creatures of the night, but he still finds, after the fourth box or so, a couple books about ghosts — Buck ignores the chapters explaining how to summon one, going straight to the glossary, typing on his phone every kind that has any similarity with his own uninvited visitor from the afterlife.
He gets so engrossed in it that he doesn't notice someone's here with him until a pair of small, sticky hands grabs his cheeks.
"Hi, Buck," Christopher loudly whispers right in his face.
Behind him, Eddie is leaning against the doorframe, obviously tired but beaming — good news, then. Buck puts his book aside and slides an arm around Christopher's waist to hold him, his other hand stretched towards his boyfriend.
"So? How was it?"
Eddie joins them on the floor with a smile, keeping Buck's hand pressed against his chest and his eyes never leaving his son. "You're in the presence of the proud owner of stunning red crutches," he claims, and Christopher's face lights up with pride when Buck makes a whole show of widening his eyes, "we're still gonna use the stroller from time to time, but the doctors are confident that he won't need it for much longer."
"That's so cool," he coos, "red is my favorite color, you know."
"Mine too," Christopher replies with a serious nod, and then turns to his dad, expectant.
Eddie looks at them and rolls his eyes, his lips curling up in a grin. "I prefer blue."
"Of course you do," Buck jokes, allowing himself to drown in those oceans of molten chocolate that are Eddie's eyes, glinting just a little too brightly to be truly human.
They stay a few minutes like that, soaking in the warm embrace of familiarity as they listen to Christopher excitedly retelling the weekend he spent with his mom almost play-by-play, throwing here and there a word in Spanish that Eddie whispers the translation of to Buck — he's in the process of learning Spanish since last year, but he's never been very good at languages, so it's a slow process.
But then Bobby shows up in the doorway, pulling them back into the real world.
"Break's over," he says, not unkindly, "You'll see them tonight, c'mon."
Eddie gets up first, hoisting Christopher up in his arms since the boy apparently isn't feeling like walking right now, and Buck is quick to follow them all the way to the front door of the bookstore before pressing a kiss to Christopher's temple, then another to Eddie's lips.
"I'm off at eight. Want me to grab takeout on the way?"
"Yes, please," Eddie sighs, "you're the best. Love you."
A last parting kiss and they're gone, leaving Buck to do what he's paid for, like giving customers advice or leading them to the right section, but also what he's definitely not paid for, like barely avoiding a heavy hardcover book falling on him from the highest shelf.
"Stop that," he scolds at no one in particular.
Less than five seconds later, a new scratch appears on his left arm.
"Seriously, what's your deal, man?"
The ghost doesn't provide a verbal answer, of course, only finding another book to throw off the shelf.
If someone told Buck two years ago that he'd be bickering with a ghost in the middle of the philosophic essays section of the bookstore he works at, he wouldn't have believed them.
But again, two years ago, he wouldn't believe that his sister would knock on the door of his shitty apartment one night, no ring on her finger and bruises on her throat, to tell him she was leaving far, far away and that he and Rose could come with her if he wanted to.
But they did, and they found themselves in this town without even really knowing how they ended up here, at first living in a cozy motel room, hearing locals talk about a strange street in the old part of the town. They decided to check it out one day, and Maddie dragged him into the coffee shop as soon as she saw it, almost bumping into Bobby and Athena who were coincidentally just walking out of it.
(And that's when the memories get fuzzy for both Maddie and Buck. One moment, they were all profusely apologizing to each other, and the next, Maddie was following Athena to the flower shop to help her with compositions while Bobby was dropping a box full of books in Buck's arms.)
Getting a job in this street meant being able to rent an apartment together, but it also meant meeting Chimney when he walked into the flower shop and fell in love with Maddie right there and then, then, exactly a month later, meeting Eddie in the video store when Maddie wanted to go see Chimney and begged Buck to accompany her for moral support, and realizing that magic truly exists.
It took them six months of building friendship and awkward flirting on Buck's part, but, on Halloween of last year, Eddie kissed him in their matching Ghostface costumes in the main room of the video store.
(And Eddie caused a light bulb to explode when Buck told him he loved him, even though he refuses to admit it.)
So now Buck, happy with his new life and dating a witch in denial, doesn't bat an eye as yet another book falls on the floor.
"Do I need to pour salt all over the shelves? I will do it if you don't stop. The books don't deserve such treatment."
He almost expects to get another set of scratch marks in retaliation, but two teenagers interrupt him to ask about a certain book they need for their English class, the desperate look in their eyes making it obvious that they should have got it days if not weeks ago (a look Buck is very familiar with, both from seeing it in tons of school students on a regular basis and from having been at their place less than a decade ago) so he composes himself, turns away from where the ghost must be, and puts on his best professional smile.
Time to ignore the haunting presence behind him and do what he's actually paid for.
On the twentieth day of October, Buck looks like he lost a battle against a feral cat.
He came to the bookstore early this morning to turn it into a Halloween fan wet dream — a little late, in his opinion, but Bobby struggled to let go of the wedding theme he set up when he got married to Athena in the summer — and, apparently, the ghost hasn't been happy with Buck moving everything around at dawn.
He called Maddie to come patch him up, but she ran into Eddie on her way to the bookstore, and now, gathered in the storage room, while Buck is sitting on a wobbly stool, shirt and pants and socks stained with droplets of blood, they're both looking at him without even trying to hide their smiles.
"You could've asked me for help," Eddie still berates, "that's what you get for running around with your arms full of things that can give you paper cuts when you've got like two hours of sleep."
Maddie looks up from the nasty cut on Buck's chin at the same time as he sputters, "It was the ghost, not the decorations!"
"Why did you get only two hours of sleep?"
He locks eyes with her, ignoring Eddie's disbelieving snort, and wiggles his eyebrows. "I was at my boyfriend's place that was child-free for the night. What do you think?"
She scrunches her nose. "Never mind."
S-e-x, he mouths, and gets flicked on the forehead in response.
"I will let you bleed out."
"Please don't," Eddie says from his newfound place on the floor with Rose sprawled on his lap; he must have grabbed his sketchbook at some point and is already most likely doodling the scene happening in front of him, pausing just long enough to give Rose's black fur a few strokes every ten seconds.
Maddie sighs but keeps putting band-aids on Buck's wounds, because she loves him very much and also doesn't want him to spill blood on the books.
"You really should be more careful," she mutters a minute later, "some of these cuts are pretty deep."
"Exactly," Buck points out, "they are too deep to be just paper cuts, we can agree on that. A ghost haunts this place and it's trying to hurt me, I'm not crazy."
"Nobody said that," Maddie interrupts him with a scolding frown, but Buck isn't finished.
"I don't know how powerful it's going to get by Halloween, so I would feel better if my witch boyfriend would cast a protection spell on me until I find a way to get rid of it."
Said witch boyfriend looks up from his sketchbook. "Not a witch," he states for the billionth time of the month.
"Dude. The light bulb last year."
"A coincidence."
"Your ability to read your customers' minds and give them the perfect movie."
"I'm just good at my job."
"Your eyes glow most of the time."
"You're in love with me."
"A trash can caught fire when a girl flirted with me a few months ago."
"Another coincidence."
"You really do believe that, don't you."
"Okay," Maddie exhales, reminding them both of her presence as she gathers the first aid kit and looking like she's fighting a headache, "I'm leaving."
People tend to do that after spending more than fifteen consecutive minutes with Buck and Eddie when they get in a bickering mood — Athena once left her own flower shop in the middle of the day without a word, and Chimney often picks up Christopher and goes to the loft of the video store to put a vinyl on the record player to drown their voices; they'd almost wonder if they are, generally speaking, an annoying couple.
Eddie rolls his eyes, closes his sketchbook, and gently pushes Rose off his lap to get to his feet. "Of course I believe in coincidences, like I believe in the fact that all of Chim's stories about this street got into your head and are influencing your judgment. Also, you need to stop reading stuff about ghosts and witches every second of your free time."
"That's not all I do on my free time," he protests, then proceeds to look Eddie up and down very pointedly and very, very appreciatively, "if you haven't realized it, then I'm really not as good as I thought I was."
Eddie comes to stand behind him, hands resting on his shoulders as if he was ready to give him a massage, and looks down to meet his gaze, a teasing grin on his lips. "You're very good, don't worry."
God, his eyes are so beautiful.
"Well, I'm your first boyfriend, so it's not like you have anything to compare me to."
"Okay, calm down, Casanova, you hooked up with one guy before you met me."
"And he was terrible," Buck laughs, scrunching his nose at the memory. It had been a nightmare from start to finish between the guy's personality and lack of skills in the bedroom, and Buck had left his place seriously considering sticking to women for the rest of his life.
"See? If you were bad, I'd know it."
"But would you tell me?"
"Yes. Like I tell you every day that ghosts aren't real and that I'm not a witch."
"Okay, okay. Even if you're right—"
"I am."
"What would it cost you to still cast a protection spell on me? It wouldn't make you admit to anything, and I'd feel better."
Eddie pretends to at least think about it for a second, which is more than he did in the past month; Buck waits, staring up at him with hope slowly blossoming in his chest.
"I don't know how to cast protection spells," Eddie settles on, but Buck shakes his head.
"It's in your blood, let your instincts take over."
He sees it, right there and then, in Eddie's eyes. The non-human glint.
He's never been more sure of anything in his entire life.
Eddie lets out a deep, deep sigh, and then leans down to peck Buck on the lips.
"There. You're protected against all your evil spirits and demons. C'mon, now, let's get coffee before opening."
It doesn't feel like it worked, but Buck still lets Eddie lead him out of the bookstore and all the way to the coffee shop on the other side of the street, Rose on their heels.
Linda is the one working at the counter today, and she takes in Buck's appearance with widening eyes and a soft gasp. "What happened to you?"
"Don't ask," Eddie says, just a second before Buck starts a long and detailed retelling of his morning.
And since both baristas know their usual order, Linda doesn't have to interrupt him to ask, wordlessly preparing then putting both cups on the counter as Eddie pays, and nods sagely once Buck is done.
"Josh told me about your ghost situation, but I didn't think it'd get this bad."
"Yeah," he sighs, and takes a sip of his pumpkin spice latte before slumping against Eddie's side when the taste makes him see stars — Linda is a really good barista. "You wouldn't have any advice for me, would you?"
Instantly, Eddie wraps an arm around his waist, humming to himself as he drinks and certainly tunes them out while Linda shakes her head.
"Sorry, Buck. I don't think any of us has ever dealt with a ghost before."
"Shocking," Eddie mutters dryly. Buck would have elbowed him if he wasn't so comfortable, so he just thinks about it really hard instead and hopes Eddie can telepathically feel the pain.
Linda jokingly swats Eddie's wrist before dropping the subject with practiced ease. "So, have you two decided on your costumes for Halloween this year?"
Eddie straightens up slightly against Buck, much more interested in this new conversation — he loves dressing up and gets so serious about it, it's almost unbearably endearing.
"Buck's gonna be Superman, I'll be Batman, and Chris will be Robin, since he wanted to do matching costumes with us this time."
"And Rose will be Krypto," Buck chimes in.
Eddie nods. "And Rose will be Krypto. You?"
"A pumpkin. And I think Josh talked about being a werewolf? It feels like we're all trying to outdo last year, I like it."
"Not Maddie," Buck retorts with a snort, "the most effort she can put in is wearing cat ears like she did last Halloween."
Eddie chuckles, low and directly in Buck's ear. "Give Chim a little credit. He can be very persuasive when he wants to, and I know he had a few matching costumes ideas."
"Hey, matching costumes is our thing, he can't have that."
"Matching costumes is everyone's thing, Buck."
"Hen and Karen do matching costumes every year, and I'm pretty sure Athena and Bobby are also gonna do matching costumes," Linda adds, helpful, before starting on another patron's order.
Buck frowns. "Hen and Karen don't count, they've been together forever. But Bobby and Athena? That's not fair. They got married in the summer, how can we compete with a married couple?"
At that, Linda pauses, a hand on the coffee machine and the other hovering over the chocolate powder. "Compete for… matching couple costumes?"
"Don't listen to him," Eddie says with a shake of his head, "he even refuses to let Chris win at boardgames. And last year, we won the best new couple competition that exists only in his head since we literally got together on Halloween while wearing matching costumes, but this time is gonna be more difficult to win if they're also wearing matching costumes because Bobby and Athena are married and Maddie is pregnant."
And.
What.
He pulls back a little, enough to catch Eddie's eye. "What did you just say?"
Eddie opens his mouth, closes it. Looks at Linda, then Buck again. "That last year we won…"
"About Maddie," he specifies, which seems to confuse his boyfriend even more.
"Well, since she's pregnant—"
"She's not pregnant."
"Yes, she is. Did you not know?"
"I did not!" he shrieks, and turns to Linda. "Did you?"
She only shakes her head in response.
Eddie's eyes flicker back and forth between them as if he's trying to determine whether they're playing dumb on purpose but, before he can say anything else, Maddie and Chimney choose this exact moment to walk in.
Buck lunges towards them so fast Rose gets up and lets out a surprised bark, and puts his hands on his sister's shoulders — not too roughly, just in case. "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"
She blinks once, twice.
"Because I'm not."
"You are," Eddie claims from somewhere behind Buck, so calmly and assured that Maddie frowns, exchanges a look with Chimney, both of them suddenly silent and unsure.
Then she takes a breath, gently removes Buck's hands.
"Excuse me for a moment."
And she turns on her heels.
(They do find out that she's pregnant.
When asked about it by every person on the street, Eddie visibly can't explain how he knew, just that it was obvious.)
On the twenty-fourth day of October, exactly one week before Halloween, like every year, the street dies.
First, it's Hen and Karen's tattoo parlor. Then it's Athena and Maddie's flower shop. Then Sue's coffee shop, then Chimney and Eddie's video store, and, finally, Bobby and Buck's bookstore.
The machines stop working, the flowers wither, the electronic devices shut down.
Even the ghost is nowhere to be found.
They're all used to it by now, so they close their stores for the day, waving the others off as they go in different directions, either alone or in small groups.
Everything is gonna get back to normal tomorrow, anyway.
The ghost is playing a game, and Buck hates it.
His theory from earlier in the month is being proven right — Eddie came by the bookstore four times today (he's mostly avoiding Chimney who won't stop buggering him about his ability to sense women's pregnancies) and every single time, the ghost stays still and doesn't cause any ruckus from the moment Eddie steps into the main room to the moment he leaves, then turns the place upside down with only Buck as witness.
Maybe the ghost is afraid of Eddie.
And since it's starting to seriously tax on Buck's energy, he texts Eddie with a simple wanna hang out in the courtyard with Rose and me? before telling Bobby he's not feeling very well — and Bobby, familiar from the start with Buck's occasional emotional exhaustion, lets him disappear with a reassuring smile and a hand on his shoulder.
Eddie finds him there less than five minutes later, and sits with him on the floor, his back against the stone wall and gently guiding Buck's head to rest on his lap while he opens his sketchbook to draw. Rose curls her huge body against Buck's, eyes open to stand guard and ears following sounds only she can hear.
Buck breathes, deep and slow, steals a few glances at the pages of Eddie's sketchbook (covered mainly in portraits of him and Chimney since they're the ones Eddie spends the most time with, but also a lot of the rest of their friends, a few of a cat, some fish from the time they went to the Aquarium with Christopher, and other silly doodles of things he found interesting or prompts people gave him) but mostly watches Eddie draw.
He's always so peaceful in moments like this. There's a soft smile on his lips and the non-human glint in his eyes that makes Buck feel warm all the way down to his very core — how he doesn't realize that he uses magic is the world's greatest mystery.
An hour or so later, the cuts on Buck's arms and legs are less painful and he's feeling mostly recharged, his head a bit clearer than earlier; he sneaks a hand under Eddie's shirt (that must have belonged to Buck at some point) and runs the pad of his fingers over Eddie's stomach in featherlight caresses.
He feels more than he hears the sharp intake of breath, and looks up to meet Eddie's narrowed eyes.
"Stop that."
"I'm not doing anything," he rasps, his fingers slowly dropping a few inches down on Eddie's happy trail.
All he has to do is lean forward a little to get his lips where his fingers are heading, and they both know it. Eddie sets his sketchbook and his pencil aside, slouches down just enough to give Buck better access without looking like he did it on purpose, and clenches his jaw.
"Buckley," he warns when Buck opens the button of his jeans, but his voice breaks on a soft moan and the glint in his eyes turns into a blazing fire, his skin hot under Buck's touch.
There's nothing better than having a witch for boyfriend.
Buck leans forward, just a little bit.
And gets sprayed in the face with water.
"If you have enough energy to get disgusting in public, you can give me my employee back."
Like all things in this street, it ends with Halloween.
(Thick fog slowing their steps, flickering lights above their heads and hollow wind forcing them to close all the doors and windows.)
Buck, wearing his Superman costume, makes a last round in the bookstore before closing for the night and going to the video store for their yearly Halloween movie tradition, but the ghost apparently refuses to let him go.
Maybe it wants to possess his body to stay in the land of the living, or has completely lost its mind, knocking off books and plants and tearing the curtains apart — Buck has to hold his cape close to his chest to keep it from suffering the same treatment, which makes him certainly look ridiculous, but he really doesn't care at the moment.
And then Eddie walks in with his Batman cowl in hand, and both Buck and the ghost freeze.
"We're gonna be late, what are you doing?"
Buck opens his arms, setting his cape free. "What do you think? Look around you, I got attacked by the ghost!"
In his defense, Eddie does look around him, taking in the state of the bookstore. He frowns, lowers his gaze to the floor, inexplicably staring at something somewhere near Buck's right feet.
"Was that you, sweet girl?"
(If anyone asks, Buck didn't open his mouth on instinct to reply to the question that very obviously wasn't directed at him.)
"Was that who?" he manages to ask once the horrifying second has passed.
Eddie doesn't verbally answer, crouching down and extending his hand, soft smile on his lips and eyes glowing in the dim light of the bookstore. "And here I thought my boyfriend was pulling an elaborate prank on us, but he was just covering for you with that silly ghost story, right?"
His fingers move slightly in the air, mimicking the gesture of petting an animal, which is a very disturbing scene to witness.
"Eddie," he says slowly, tasting each syllable on his tongue to try and convince himself that it doesn't sound as absurd as it does in his head, "who are you talking to? Who are you, uh, petting?"
"You can drop the act now, Buck," he snorts, before cradling the air in his arms and standing up, "honestly, it's almost harder to believe she's been the one behind all this than your ghost story. She's such a kind thing every time I see her."
How, exactly, do you announce to your non-believing, witch in denial boyfriend that there's nothing in his arms?
(Wait.
Not exactly nothing.
When Buck squints, and focuses very, very hard, he can vaguely catch the faint outlines of a small body nestled against Eddie's chest.
A fucking cat.)
How exactly do you announce to your non-believing and witch in denial boyfriend that there's a ghost cat in his arms?
"That's a ghost cat."
(Definitely not like that.)
His non-believing and witch in denial boyfriend rolls his eyes with a chuckle, leans forwards to peck him on the lips.
For a second, Buck could almost hear a purr.
"C'mon, we need to show everyone that we're the superior Halloween couple."
With a defeated sigh, Buck whistles for Rose to follow them, takes a second to adjust the short red cape of her Krypto costume, then closes the bookstore while the ghost cat apparently decides to drape itself over Eddie's shoulders — it's hard to see, but under the defective lamppost, its body seems to flicker in and out of existence — and they join the others in the projection room of the video store.
Nobody notices Eddie's new companion, of course.
But they're all in costumes; Linda and Josh are, indeed, a pumpkin and a werewolf, Hen and Karen are Viktor Frankenstein and his Creature, Sue is a fairy, Bobby and Athena are Mr and Mrs Smith (which Buck only knows because Bobby told him a few days ago) and Chimney and Maddie two ghosts.
The two holes cut in a white sheet kind of ghosts.
And they snicker when Buck throws them a dirty look, because they're terrible people.
Everything has already been set up, so they flop down on their seats, Eddie's head nuzzled in the crook of Buck's neck, hands hovering a few inches over his lap in what must be the ghost cat's fur, Rose laying at their feet, and watch as the movie starts.
"I know what you did last summer," Buck reads in a low voice. He's never seen it, but again, he hasn't seen a lot of movies in his life.
Eddie hums. "Chim picked this one because one of the actresses is, like, a carbon copy of Maddie. Says he had a crush on her when he first saw it."
"Great," he grumbles, "now there's really no way we won the superior Halloween couple contest."
"Don't worry, we'll win next year."
"And how do you intend to do that? By proposing to me on Halloween?"
He's half joking, of course, but Eddie grins up at him for a brief instant before redirecting his attention towards the movie.
And then:
"Maybe."
Buck's heart turns into a ghost cat, making a mess of his organs and purring against his ribs when he steals a glance at Eddie, just to make sure.
(His eyes are glowing.)