#i can tell you rn that the costumes for kaeya and wrio aren't the typical ones they're put in lmao

[holybananaoafshoe]

Modern AU: Halloween 🎃 1/2

It’s way after Halloween, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?? I’m happy you guys are here, and what would the spooky season be without a, hastily written, one shot? Here’s the first half for you guys!

Pairing: Kaeya and Wriothesley  :)

TLDR: What’s Halloween without a party, a ghost hunt, and some well-meaning shenanigans?

“Please, Albedo, it’ll just be for tonight!”

“No.”

“I’ll do anything,” Kaeya pleaded, “I’ll do all of the taste testing for the next month.”

The man in question was lounging languidly on the couch of their shared apartment, feet propped up on the coffee table, and absentmindedly watching some kind of documentary on cryptids across the United States. A large bowl of candy sat on the round end table next to the couch, a few discarded wrappers laying on Albedo's lap as he watched the documentary. 

The living room was dark, the only source of light coming from the various lit candles around the apartment and the glowing TV. Small pumpkins that were crudely carved by Kaeya and Klee littered the counter top, while the more intricately carved ones Albedo had carved (as well as a few he carved for Klee) were displayed on the balcony. 

Their neat apartment had a few cobwebs strewn about and rubber bats hanging from the ceiling. Their kitchenette had some small test tubes and beakers with water and food coloring in them. A few had smoke drifting from the tops to pool on the counter--courtesy of Albedo, who took a few leftover dry ice chunks from work. Ghosts hung in the hallway that led to their bedrooms and the bathroom. They had painstakingly hung up their fairy lights on the ceiling of the hallway in an attempt to make the ghosts seem a little less scary. Poor Klee had gotten quite the scare late one night while she was sleeping over because she forgot they had hung them up, that is until a passing car's headlights cast the ghosts' eerie shadows on the wall. 

Kaeya liked to dub the hallway “Specters Crevice,” but it seems others did not share his sentiment as they’d wrinkle their noses or roll their eyes at the cheesy name. All, besides Klee, who had giggled and hung up a small ghost that looked a lot like Dodoco. The name, lights, and the ghost resembling Dodoco had thankfully helped ease the young girl's mind.

It was their night off from the Knights of Flavorus, which was a small bakery owned by Alice. The local bakery wound up expanding relatively fast with the help of Albedo’s scientific ways of combining flavors and the owner’s own to-die-for recipes. Albedo was the head food and flavor chemist of the company and managed a small team that would come up with wacky flavors that made all the employees a little nervous to try. 

Kaeya had known both Alice and Albedo long before the bakery began. Alice had been close to Crepus, his adoptive father, before he had passed away. She visited so often that he and Diluc have taken to calling her “Aunt Alice.” Since Crepus's passing, Alice had taken Diluc and Kaeya under her wing, treating them like her own children and helping them through the hardships they endured after the funeral. The family held a special place in Kaeya’s heart, they took him in after he and Diluc had gotten into a nasty fight in the bar. The brothers had exchanged harsh words--words neither of them truly meant, but left emotional scars all the same. One of the long-time bartenders broke them up and let Kaeya leave early, just an hour after midnight. Wouldn’t you know, that would be the same night a drunk driver hit Kaeya in a head-on collision as he was driving towards Aunt Alice’s house. 

He lost his right eye and his brother that night. 

The next following days in the hospital were…ones he’d rather forget to be honest. Surprisingly Diluc would visit, which would always end up in a yelling match that Aunt Alice or nurses would rush to break up. During those rough weeks of healing and physical therapy and searching for a job (and trying not to think about his eye), she had let him stay with her. Aunt Alice bought the bakery just a few months after his accident and hired Kaeya as one of the bakery’s managers. After a lot of deliberation and discussions and arguments with Diluc, he started work at the Knights of Flavorus and got an apartment with Albedo. He was often found upfront working his customer service ‘charms’ as Lisa, their accountant, would say, or in the back decorating cakes.

Thankfully, Kaeya and Diluc are at least on speaking terms now. Sometimes, they can even stand each other long enough for Kaeya to help out at the bar or to sit through an event with Aunt Alice and her family. 

Nonetheless, Albedo was not one to dress up for Halloween, often going with whatever costume Kaeya or Klee wore or just donning his lab coat and grabbing some kind of prop he dug out from Kaeya’s closet. Tonight, he sported an oversized white hoodie that had swirling gold embroidery on the arms with stars sprinkled in, a pair of navy sweats, and fluffy Dodoco slippers Alice had gifted to him last Christmas. 

Kaeya had on his costume and a face full of makeup, ready for a night out in the town.

Only, he had forgotten he was supposed to take Klee out to the annual Halloween bash in the park this year. The bash is hosted by the town where various businesses open up elaborately decorated booths ranging from food to games to entertainment. It was one of the biggest holiday celebrations in the town, right next to Christmas. The winners of the booth decorating contest won bragging rights as well as the ability to pick where their booth would be located at the next year's bash.

After the bash, the streets in town would be closed off for a few hours so kids can run around and go trick-or-treating. Everything considered, the turn out for the event was huge and most of the employees at the Knights of Flavorus worked in shifts at their booth.

It was the first Halloween either has had off for…a while. Usually the two spent the night covering each other's breaks at the Knight's booth so they could spend a little time with Klee. Yet, here they were, spending the few hours before the Halloween Bash to get their costumes on and goodie bags for the kids ready, and Kaeya just realized his predicament. 

Albedo slowly tore his eyes away from the TV and looked over at Kaeya, raising an eyebrow at his costume. “Last time I covered for you, you got arrested.”

“And I got a cute boyfriend out of it, your point?” 

Last Halloween, Kaeya had gotten into a small fight with a customer that resulted in both him and the customer getting detained and taken to the nearby police station. He wasn’t even working for the Knights of Flavorus, he was helping his brother bartend. Technically, he was supposed to be at the barkery, but Albedo had covered hsi shift after Diluc had called Kaeya up right around the time the Halloween Bash began, asking if there was any way he could help. His long-time bartenders had called in just before the bar opened: one had gotten sick and the other had to rush their child to the emergency room (word on the street was the child had grabbed a flaming marshmallow with his bare hands, apparently trying to throw it into their cup), leaving Diluc alone at the bar. Kaeya couldn't exactly leave his brother to fend for himself, he knew how busy the Halloween party at the bar got and then the absolute insanity when the after party started. (It was always the best party of the year, fondly remembered by all those who participated until the next rolls around).

It wasn’t his fault and, if it says anything, Diluc and the police agree that Kaeya was not at fault. 

Listen, what was he supposed to do when he kept getting orders for angle shots? He and Diluc made sure to keep an eye out for the creep. Unfortunately, with how packed it was, neither seemed to be able to spot the man. His breaking point was when Barbra, a member of a local band that often played live music at the bar, had shakily come up to him and tell him that it was Albert. At that point, Kaeya had left the bar to hunt the man down. Can you blame him? He was getting sick and tired of throwing Albert out for creeping on girls and following Barbra around the parking lot. No matter what he or Diluc tried, nothing seemed to keep Albert away. 

When he finally caught Albert’s ass, he made sure to get between Albert and the person he was pursuing. Of course, when kicking Albert out peacefully didn’t work, Kaeya had tried to forcefully kick him out. One thing led to another, and Albert wound up breaking a bottle of wine over Kaeya’s head and used the bottle as a makeshift weapon. At some point in the fight, Kaeya had been able to wrestle the bottle away and subdue Albert until the police arrived. 

Imagine Kaeya’s surprise when the police arrested both of them. He supposed it had been a year or two since he’s worked as security, but he thought the local police would at the very least remember all the times he had called the station about an unruly drunk. 

He didn’t exactly regret fighting Albert, the man had it coming for a long time and a small part of him was satisfied that he was the one to put the man behind bars, but he did regret having to sit in an interrogation room for the rest of Halloween without spending any time with Klee. He sat in the cold interrogation room for who knows how long--his head bleeding, feeling a little woozy, and overall reevaluating his life choices--until Wriothesley had walked in. It’s cheesy to say, but Kaeya’s breath was taken away at the sight of the officer. How could he not be infatuated when the officer scrolled in, a slight grin tugging at his lips, and began to tease Kaeya about the fight?

He wound up doing community service for a few weeks, but it was so worth it. 

For one, Albert was officially banned from the bar and Diluc was able to get a restraining order of sorts to keep him off the bar's property. Secondly, it also gave Kaeya more time with Wriothesley. Eventually, he had worked up the nerve to ask the other out for dinner, who had teasingly said he would take up his offer once he was finished with community service. 

“My point,” Albedo said, pointing a Crunch bar at him, “is that last year, you were beside yourself for missing out on spending time with Klee.” 

“I know," Kaeya sighed, "it's just, I can do the Halloween Bash, but Wriothesley and I wanted to go to the after party together and…" 

"That's when trick-or-treating starts," Albedo finished for him.

Kaeya nodded and silence filled the space between them as Albedo thoughtfully munched on the candy. After a moment, Albedo looked over at him and pointed his half-eaten crunch bar at Kaeya: “You know, you still owe me for knocking a whole tub of peppercorns into batter when you and Wriothesley tried to fu--”

“OOOKAAY we agreed to never bring that up again,” Kaeya interrupted, his face turning a nice shade of red. 

Albedo took an aggressive bite of his candy, the loud snap making Kaeya cringe, and threw his arms up as if to say: what do you want me to do, when you haven't touched a single cake pop I've made?

The Peppercorn Incident™ happened when Kaeya and Wriothesley first started dating. Let’s just say Wriothesley's after hours visit to the Knights of Flavorus with Kaeya to pick up a set of keys had turned into an impromptu cake decorating lesson in the large walk in cooler that got a tad flavorful, if you will. In their passion, they had knocked over a large container of peppercorn into leftover dough (who knew plastic wrap was so flimsy?). 

After knocking the peppercorn over, they decided it would probably be best to continue elsewhere, so Kaeya cleaned up (he wasn’t a monster, thank you, people make food on those tables) and they left. Only, he had forgotten to throw out the leftover batter, and Albedo had been the lucky soul who had decided to look at the security footage to find the culprit. Thankfully, Albedo deleted the footage and they both agreed never to speak of it again, so long as Kaeya taste tested anything Albedo made for the Halloween Bash.

You can imagine how much Kaeya had wanted to yeet himself into the abyss when Albedo had dragged him into dry storage and confronted him about it. 

Kaeya can only imagine what would have happened if Sucrose, or, God forbid, Aunt Alice had found the footage.

Small mercies and all of that. 

Regardless, Kaeya didn’t mean to avoid taste testing things for Albedo. Between helping Diluc out with the bar, getting the Knights of Flavorus’s Halloween booth items, and splitting his spare time between Klee and Wriothesley he hasn’t been able to pop by the labs. Usually, Kayea doesn't overwork  himself--he prides himself on his ability to balance his time between work and life--but before he had realized, he found himself committing to setting up the bakery’s booth for the Halloween Bash and helping at Angel's Share all so he could get tonight off. 

He wasn't proud to say that Albedo and Lisa had to send him home early a few times (nearly collapsing at the counter and throwing an entire tray of cupcakes away instead of the broken piping bag wasn't his brightest moments), calling Wriothesley to come pick him up and drive him back home. One day, Albedo took one look at him, picked up his phone, and told Jean Kayea wasn't coming to work--all while maintaining eye contact. Don't get Kayea wrong, he was thankful for his coworkers (if he was being honest, they were all more friends than coworkers) and without them he wouldn't be half as alert as he was currently. 

However, Albedo hasn’t summoned him to the labs once. Instead he just set random cake pops out and about the apartment, and they weren’t even weird flavors, they were vanilla. Perhaps he didn't call him over because he could see how exhausted Kaeya was, but he was fully capable of making caffeinated cake pops.

Albedo can deny it all he wants, but he swears he's seen something about it in Albedo's recipes.

Not only that, but Albedo occasionally enjoyed giving them things to taste test that were unusual, stifling a laugh when they made faces at the flavors. So to say that Kaeya would have been the perfect subject for unusual flavor testing, tired and unassuming as he's been the past few weeks, would be an understatement. 

The perfectly normal and delicious cake pops were odd, suspicious even, and Kaeya had halfway expected one of them to have an interesting candy coating. Except none of them ever did.

(No matter how much Albedo liked tricking others into tasting something odd, he wasn't cruel. Not that he didn't try to make something for Kaeya, he just felt bad pushing his unholy creations onto his tired roommate. Besides, Kaeya has been working his ass off to try to get Halloween off to spend time with Klee. Even Albedo had to admit his efforts were enduring, so maybe he made Kaeya's favorite cake pop flavor to help him feel better after a rough night at the bar. He even made a few for Wriothesley, who would drive Kaeya home. He'd spend the night and cook Kaeya’s favorite breakfast the next morning. Wriothesley would stay over more to make sure Kaeya would actually go to bed rather than work on finding things for the bakery’s Halloween booth.)

So here they were.

Kaeya shuffled his feet, the red shoes of his costume squeaking on the floor. "Listen, I'll make good on that and I'll make sure to help keep nosey cooks and customers away from the labs during the holidays." 

Albedo hummed and stated: "I believe you will…and I'll come up with something you can help me with for this later, so go have fun on your date."

Kaeya let out a victorious whoop, crossing the distance between himself and his roommate to give him a sloppy hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Albedo laughed and patted his friend's back: "Yeah, yeah, don't get too ahead of yourself." 

Kaeya went back into the kitchen, buying himself with packing up a small goodie bag for Klee and another for Wriothesley's adopted cousin Freminet, humming a song to himself happily. 

He paused, his hand hovering between the popcorn balls and Halloween baggies, suddenly realizing: "There's no way you're only wearing a hoodie to Halloween."

"I didn't have time to get a costume." Albedo called from the living room.

"Oh, we'll make you a costume."