Katou (katoustheshit) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-10-05 21:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, wendy darling, yue katou |
Who: Katou and Wendy
What: Picking out pumpkins!
When: Recently
Where: Irvine Park
Warnings/Ratings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Perhaps it was a bit silly, but picking out a pumpkin was a fun, Halloween (or autumn in general, really) tradition that Wendy wanted to participate in this year. With her most favourite boys, of course, and for the actual picking-out-a-pumpkin part, she’d brought Katou with her to Irvine Park for some fun in the afternoon, on a Saturday. A weekend to just relax - he’d been through quite a bit lately, but he always seemed to bear the lion’s share of burdens. A shame, given how young he was - and he was such a sweet person too. Perhaps with rough edges, and he wouldn’t spew flowers and rainbows, but he was very smart about the ways of human experience. It impressed her quite a bit, seeing how he had grown and changed under her very roof. How his experiences had shaped him. Such a fine young man, right?
One who would be helping her pick out a pumpkin today. The park was so crisp and lively, with hayrides, a maze, carnival games, cookie decorating, pony rides, and of course the orange plants. Gourds. Whatever you wanted to call them. She hadn’t worn a skirt for once, expecting to really get into the messy festivities, and was sporting velvet leggings and boots with a striped knit top, something cute for the season even if in the OC it didn’t always feel like fall.
But they’d pick out a pumpkin, Jack would work some artistic magic on it, and Wendy would roast the seeds. It’d be their own tradition, something just for the trio.
“Goodness, look at all of them,” she whistled in appreciation, once they were in the Enchanted Pumpkin Patch. Not literally enchanted...well, you never knew.
Katou’d never really gone pumpkin shopping before. Halloween wasn’t exactly a Japanese holiday, and so his parents had never really been into the celebrations. They’d hang the Halloween decorations that Katou and his sister had made at school in the windows, maybe let them pick out costumes to wear to school, but that was about the extent of it. Which was a shame because Halloween had always been one of Katou’s favourite holidays. More than that though, Katou’d never really had many of the family bonding experiences he’d seen on TV.
So when Wendy invited him to come pick out some pumpkins, he’d feigned indifference and immediately jumped at the opportunity. Wendy was one of his favourite people in the world, and spending some time with her was needed, especially with how much he’d avoided her at the end of his dreams. He’d taken to wearing a hoodie out in public to help mask the fact that he had a fake arm, and was also sporting a pair of ripped jeans, Doc Martins, and a toque.
“Looks like Charlie Brown out here,” Katou said. He hadn’t expected there to be so many pumpkins, but it kind of cool and he couldn’t keep the grin off his face, no matter how much he wanted to act like a moody teenager. “How do you pick out a good one? Just grab the biggest one?”
Aw, wasn’t he precious! The grin on Katou’s face was infectious - Wendy was sporting one too, and she kind of wanted to pinch his cheeks. But she doubted that, being a teenager, he’d appreciate that. So she kept her hands to herself, slipped into the pockets of her top, bouncing a little on her heels. “I’m sure the Great Pumpkin will bring all sorts of goodies come Halloween,” she laughed. The holiday itself was sort of Americanised and like other fads (pumpkin spice, music, certain types of fast food), it had become sort of a thing, a storm, in the UK as well and began to overshadow the very English tradition of Guy Fawkes Night (much to the chagrin of purists). But still, Wendy never really celebrated much before moving here - her first real Halloween, celebrated the way the Americans did, had been during her initial semester of uni at Berkeley. She’d gone to a proper party and dressed up and everything.
This year, she wasn’t certain if she’d dress up but they’d have the decorations otherwise. “I read somewhere that you don’t choose the pumpkins, they choose you. There’s a connection of sorts,” she said as they began to make their way further into the patch. “But ideally, I suppose not too tall, not too thin, and not too fat are good criterion?”
“So long as he brings a bunch of those little Mars bars,” Katou said. Bite sized chocolate bars in bulk was one of the best parts of the season. That, and the parties had always been fun, though Katou was probably going to avoid going to the big rowdy parties he used to. Spending the night with a few close friends and winning a bunch of costume contests thanks to his shapeshifting powers seemed like a better way to go about things.
“So we gotta play Goldilocks,” Katou sniffed. “Find the one that’s just right. Our round, orange soulmate.” He gave Wendy a toothy grin before turning his focus on the pumpkin patch in front of him. He really wasn’t that picky when it came to anything, but he did want to find a great pumpkin for Jack to carve up.
“Right, exactly, we can be Goldilocks,” Wendy chuckled, channeling her inner blondie - she didn’t know how well she would do it at it, but she would certainly try. “Ideally, I suppose we should aim for one that’s not covered in dirt though...” she trailed off, stooping to examine a particularly round pumpkin, picking it up, turning it over. Yes, the dirt was inevitable - these beauties were all fresh from the ground, there was no way they’d find a pristine one.
But she also thought they ought to avoid ones that were a bit smashed or had their guts spilling out. Bleh.
That pumpkin was set down, and she continued further along down the row to see what the vine had to offer. “You’ve been feeling better, then? Dreams are done? I think it’s like that for all of us now. I’m sort of glad for it.” Jack’s had definitely ended, with his death, and Wendy’s second set concluded very much the same as the first - Peter flying off with her daughter Jane to Neverland, the cycle beginning anew.
“Eh, it ain’t that hard to run ‘em under a sink,” Katou said. He’d never had a problem with getting a little dirty, though he could probably understand why Wendy wouldn’t want a pumpkin covered in mud sitting in her car. Hands in the pockets of his hoodie, he nudged a couple with his foot to get a better view of underneath, though the first few didn’t really strike him.
“Dreams are all done,” Katou said, grinning and if someone was looking closely, they’d see a whole lot of relief in those brown eyes of his. “I thought they were the coolest shit but things got really fucking shitty at the end there.” And he had no idea if Setsuna got out of there alive. In his head he decided that Setsuna managed to win, fix the world, and then have a happy life with Sara, but he knew that that was only a wish and there was no way he’d know for sure. “It’s gonna be fucking nice to have a dream free household. No more waking up to nasty surprises and that shit.”
He actually knelt down to check on one of the pumpkins. It looked almost like a melted hourglass, coming in narrowly around the middle with two rounder parts stacked on top of one another “Man, this one sure is ugly, ain’t it?” he asked, wiping some dirt off of it and glancing up at Wendy a little curiously to see what she’d say.
“It looks a bit phallic,” Wendy couldn’t help but giggle. The poor pumpkin was probably not going to get selected either, at all; it reminded her of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. So sad and droopy, with its one ornament! It just needed some love, was all. But she quickly moved on so she wouldn’t feel sorry for inanimate gourds and decide to take them all home. It’d be a pumpkin explosion in her quaint little cottage.
Not particularly feeling ‘the call’ of any particular one either, she closed her eyes and concentrated - ommmm, pumpkin zen! The right one would jump out at them soon enough. “I think I know what you mean about dreams being terrible at the end. Yours really were awful though, but oh, you’ve changed so much, Katou. In good ways,” she smiled warmly, cracking one sky blue eye open. “It’s been difficult but we all pulled through it together.” That was what family did, right?
It… kind of did look a bit phallic, now that Katou was looking at it. He blushed lightly and stepped away from the pumpkin. His blush deepened at Wendy’s compliment, and he quickly turned his face away from her. “I uh… owe most of that to you I guess. I ain’t really ever had people’d who’d look out for me like you do, you know.” It was still weird to him, having people who’d worry after him, but he was growing accustomed to it and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. It made him want to be a better person.
Wendy couldn’t help it, she slid her arm around Katou’s shoulders and squeezed him in a hug - better than pinching his cheeks, really. “Oh, I’d do it all again too,” she assured him. “No regrets at all. I saw something quite special in you, ever since that first night when your band played. And I looked so horribly out of place in a skirt and a cardigan.”
The memory made her laugh. She supposed that the ‘badass’ lessons Katou gave her hadn’t really stuck, but Miss Darling was perhaps badass in her own way. Overall, she liked herself, and didn’t really care what people thought - that fit the criteria he’d gone over, anyway. “It seems so odd to think that soon you’ll be finishing school and moving on to the next stage of your life.” She sighed, all nostalgic like any proud mother would be - Wendy would probably always have those maternal instincts, her ability to take in Lost Boys and then watch them grow and change. It happened in her dreams (she had even married one!), it happened here - both Jack and Katou had changed for the better, and it was true, having people who believed in you and cared about you made all the difference.
Katou didn’t hesitate to return the hug, though he did mutter “Gawd, you’re such a sap,” as he did so, just so he wouldn’t tarnish his image. “Besides, it’s way more punk rock to show up someplace dressed however the hell you want instead of trying to fit in.” Really, he’d been kind of impressed back then to see some lady he’d never met showing up someplace where she stuck out like a sore thumb, even if he didn’t say it.
“I ain’t got a clue what that next stage is gonna be,” Katou said. He’d never had cause to think that far ahead before. He had no intention of going to college, and frankly he kind of had trouble seeing himself with a steady job. Maybe it was one of those things where something would just click after he got his diploma without putting any forethought into it. “But I’m sure it’ll be alright if I got you guys around.” Someday Wendy’d wanna start a real family and would give him the boot, unless he beat her to the punch and found his own place (he didn’t think she’d let him move onto the streets), but he was confident that it wouldn’t stop them from being family of a sort.
“You’ll figure it out eventually, I’m sure. In the meantime, no matter what, Jack and I will come to your graduation - “ Katou still had a bit of time to go, but goodness, it would fly as it tended to do. “And cheer you on.” Whether he chose a four-year university, community college just to get his feet wet, or working straight out of the gate, his future seemed very bright now that he’d begun making better choices.
Wendy would try not to wax poetic about that too much that, however, because she did tended to be a sap sometimes. But she meant well!
Instead, she focused on a rather round pumpkin, appealing, and it didn’t look grotesquely large either. Nor was it caked in dirt. “Oh, this one’s nice?” she said, lifting it to give it a proper lookover. “What do you think?”
To think that not long ago Katou wasn’t even sure if he’d graduate high school, let alone have people talking about showing up to cheer him on. He smiled a little softly at that. He’d probably never ask them to go, but he’d be disappointed if they didn’t.
“Looks like it could be on TV,” Katou grinned. “Good eye.” It was a pretty nice pumpkin, definitely a class above some of the other pumpkins lying around.
“I sort of feel the connection to it. The special pumpkin zen,” Wendy snickered, and she held the pumpkin to her like it was her precious. It’d be a good one for Jack to carve up all fancy - they had kits and such here, things to really get artistic with, but she’d see how he wanted to do it. Maybe he just needed a good, old-fashioned carving knife to work his magic! He was very talented, after all.
She passed the pumpkin on to Katou and dusted her hands off. “I think we go get it weighed when we pay for it? Then I’ve really been wanting apple cider. Plus, I’m kind of hungry. Are you?” Of course she assumed he was - he was a teenager, and had a black hole for a stomach. It was simply a thing.
Katou sniggered. “Yeah? The voice in your head telling you that this is the perfect pumpkin to cut open and disembowel, eh?” he said with a wink. He took the pumpkin and looked it over himself. It really was a good-looking pumpkin, definitely something Jack would be able to make look badass, and it had been a stroke of luck that it had caught Wendy’s eye amongst all the other pumpkins lying around.
He tucked it under his arm. “They’ve got booze here?” he asked, never having tried hot apple cider before. He wasn’t a huge fan of alcoholic cider - he had a sweet tooth but he didn’t really like sweet alcohol that much - but he wouldn’t shake his fist at it if cider was all they’d had. “And yeah, I could probably go for something to eat. I think I saw some pumpkin pie a bit ago. You thinking of baking anything with the insides of our new friend here, by the way?” So far as he knew, he’d never actually had any baking with fresh pumpkin guts before; it all seemed to be made with the canned stuff.
“I don’t think so. It’s mostly family friendly,” Wendy laughed, shaking her head. “You know, things like candy corn and applesauce and...oh yes, pumpkin pie. That sounds delightful!” Her stomach rumbled at the thought, and she was all for using the pumpkin guts of the beauty they’d just picked out to cook up some fancy things.
She set the pumpkin on the scale when they got to where the cashier’s stand was, and pushed a bit of chestnut hair from her face, cheeks all flushed from excitement. “I’ll certainly roast the seeds, perhaps make pumpkin butter or my own pumpkin pie. Pumpkin rolls, something with cream cheese frosting?” Wendy grinned. “God, that sounds good.” Add cream cheese to anything and it was a winner, in her opinion.
“I didn’t think it was. The cider threw me off I guess.” He really wasn’t all that disappointed at the lack of alcohol. He’d been drinking a lot less lately than he had before. He even still had some of the bourbon that Wash had given him. “It’s considered healthy if it’s got a veggie in the name, ain’t it? ‘Cause I could for sure go for candy corn and pumpkin pie.”
“You’re making my mouth water, ya know,” Katou said, grinning. Because all of that sounded really damn good. “What the hell’s pumpkin butter? You just spread that on your toast in the morning?” He’d never heard of such a thing, but it kind of sounded delicious. He pulled out his pack of smokes as Wendy went to pay for the pumpkin and lit up a cigarette.
Once she had their household, family pumpkin, Wendy carried it to where Katou was puffing on his cancer stick - ugh, she still hated those things but both he and Jack hadn’t given up the habit. At least they both smoked outside (aside from that period of Katou being a rebel), which she appreciated quite a bit. “Pumpkin better,” she prompted him, with a cheery smile - it was such a pleasant day and she was feeling rather festive, especially after finding the perfect addition to the house. “You do spread it on toast, yes. Or on muffins. Or I bet you could even use it to make cheesecake too.”
Oooh, that sounded even more delicious, actually. But enough talk of food - it was time to be stuffing some in their faces. “Alright, let’s put our lovely thing in the car and then go sample what this place has to offer.”
“Yeah, pumpkin better makes even less sense,” Katou snorted. “Cheesecake sounds damn good though. But whatever you wanna do with it I’m sure it’ll turn out good. I could like, help or whatever.” He was a decent cook, having often tried to cook dinner for his dad back when he was still trying to suck up to him, but he’d never really tried his hand at baking. It seemed easy enough though.
Things might’ve been rough for a little while there with him, but things were good now. He really couldn’t wait to spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying the California autumn air with one of his favourite people in the world. Things really were looking up.