Val and Hallow's Halloween

Valentine liked spending time with Hallow.  Sure, she did enjoy spending time with all of the Last Hope, even if they did get on her nerves. They were her friends after all, and friends aren’t friends if they don’t piss you off every so often, right?

Or something like that, Val was never into cheesy card nonsense.

But, today, today was something special. Maybe it was that time of day when you knew something big was going to happen, the palpable sense of excitement in the air that you could feel in your bones that tipped Valentine off when she woke up this morning.

Okay, maybe it was Hallow standing in the corner of her living room like a twisted shadow from some cheap horror movie waiting for her to walk out of her bedroom to tell her what the plan was today and scaring the living hell out of her but that’s Hallow honestly. All about the spookiness.

If Hallow hadn’t reminded her it was that special day today, Valentine would have probably forgot and spent the night doing some proofreading on yesterday’s medical reports or doing some reconnaissance on that feral feline with the removal limbs in Little Innsmouth.

Hallow may have been spooky, what with the mask and needles and bandages and those odd pale eyes, but deep down she was a very kind woman, always surprising them with treats that could either be a generous gift or a needle full of chemicals that to this day they couldn’t identify.

Like she said, very kind woman.

After a shower and getting ready, the two hit up the town to gather up supplies. It wasn’t going to be easy getting most of the stuff they needed for Hallow’s “pet project”, but since it was the only day of the year they could do this, no exceptions could be made.

First stop, get some coffee. Valentine liked the dark chocolate mocha- not too sweet, a good hint of bitter to wake you up in the morning. Hallow got the seasonal coffee- the one with the candy pumpkin on top. Hallow would still testify Valentine took a couple sips of her coffee and liked it.

The second stop was at the Shoppes in New Deco Plaza (yes, those kinds of high-class places that they call Shoppes to show how high-class and fancy they are). It took a while for the store clerk to find what they were looking for, understandable due to how rare it was for two nurse ninjas incognito to stroll in and ask for that. A rare year, a bit pricey, but just what Hallow wanted. She promised to give the rest to Valentine when they were done, since Patty stole the last one last year.

The third stop was at a little mom-and-pop store out in Maplecrest. The walk there was nice. Golden and crimson washing away the green of summer, the chill of the air of an upcoming winter. Kids carving pumpkins out on the porch while chewing on the seeds. Plastic bones rattling in the wind on porches. The ice cream truck doing final rounds around Birch and Pine (WHY an ice cream man would be out in the fall everyone reasoned to the youngest Renoir princess first and only decree). Valentine and Hallow talked the whole way- about the surgeries they did last Thursday, the chemical experiment on neurological preservation and amplification, the newest issue of Summer Blossom: Travels of the Wandering Ninja and how, despite needing to find a “true” untranslated issue of the manga, the translations were still very faithful to the writer’s intentions.

Valentine laughed- not a mocking laugh, not a sarcastic laugh, but a real, honest laugh. It always felt good to talk about stuff with Hallow, or hell, anyone of her team.

The shop didn’t have what they wanted, unfortunately. But the folks behind the counter were more than helpful in trying to find something that would work. Eventually, they handed over one made with brown sugar and hand-churned butter, imported from the Chess Kingdom. They even gave some free samples, which was a nice gesture to do of course.

The third and last stop was at a ‘green grocers’ back in Maplecrest, just up the block. One of those really organic places, with the stereotypical clientele. By clientele, they were long-haired, wore tie-dies, and reminded Valentine of a really old medical film on the “dangers of patchouli”. As Hallow stood checking out the merchandise with an eye akin to Christmas when she did sparring practices, Valentine felt thankful her friend was there with her, because if someone called her “dude” again, she was going to flip her shit in the middle of this hippie heaven.

They got back to Valentine’s place in the afternoon, right before nightfall. Just when everyone was getting ready. Why they couldn’t use Hallow’s place, Hallow explained, was because she had left a bunch of “treats” out and they certainly couldn’t disturb the filtration process now.

Whatever that meant, Valentine knew not to ask.

First, they added the liquid components, bring it all to a low heat, then add the produce. Testing the first batch proved pretty good, but the color was a bit off for Hallow’s taste, and Valentine wanted to add something to even out the sweetness. Another splash of brandy to the mix added a bit more depth in terms of flavor, and brought a good golden color. A few chunks of dark chocolate really added that smoothness Valentine was looking for to the mixture.

“And here you said you weren’t good at cooking, Val” Hallow said, in between trying to scrape a piece of hardened caramel off her tooth. “A little apron, put up your hair, you’d look like one of those goofy housewives on those old sitcoms”.

Valentine snorted in between dunking another apple into the caramel. “Hallow, please. This is because of you and your obsession with candy. I mean, couldn’t we have just bought some candy apples from a store?”

Hallow gasped like Valentine had just told her she was in an affair with the Director. “Valentine, you know that Halloween candy is the prime time to get the best sweets in all of New Meridian. If you want to get good real candy instead of store bought trash, you have to do it yourself.”

Ah, yeah, Hallow had a thing for candy. For someone so gothic and eerie, she was quite the candy aficionado.

“And we spent 200 bones today for your little candy obsession?”

“Well, you could have stopped anytime. If you didn’t want to do it, we could have just left it alone...”

Hallow said this as she leaned over like a lanky scarecrow and booped Valentine’s nose, making a smirk.

“Why, I’d think you like hanging out with your spooky neighborhood nurse~”

Valentine stifled a blush and smirked, pushing Hallow back into the couch, with the raven-haired nurse smirking back. Oh, how cute the normal cold and serious Valentine could be when she blushed.

Hallow sat back up and grabbed at the first batch of candy apples, and headed for the door.

“Where are you going? If you leave me to clean this mess up myself...”

“You said you had trick-or-treaters come by your apartment a lot, right? Well, I’m sure the kids would like these if we leave them out. Besides, it’d leave us to watch the “Surgeon of Killer Swamp” in peace!”

As Hallow went to the door, handing out candy apples to kids dressed up as Black Egrets and Annie of the Stars, Valentine couldn’t help but give that warm smile again.

Hallow really was a sweetheart underneath all the spookiness, huh?