Treat 9

“What is that for?” Natasha raised her eyebrow as she watched Clint struggle through the apartment door with what was perhaps the largest pumpkin she had ever seen.

“Lucky,” Clint said simply using his foot to close the front door behind him.

“And what does Lucky want with a 10 pound pumpkin?”

“We’re doing a couple’s costume,” Clint said balancing the oversized gourd between his hip and the wall as he removed his coat and scarf.

“No. We are not.”

“Not us,” Clint sighed, hefting the pumpkin back into his arms and heading for the kitchen. “Me and Lucky.”

“You’re doing a couples costume with the dog?” Natasha twisted on the sofa, dislodging Liho who hissed as she leapt from Natasha’s lap to her perch on the windowsill.

“I saw it on TikTok,” he called from the kitchen.

Natasha went back to reading her book, but it only took Clint a few seconds to poke his head back around the kitchen door. “Have you got any good knives for gutting?”

“There’s a serrated blade in the set on the shoe rack. But make sure you clean it properly after,” she glanced up from her reading just long enough to give him a look that made clear he would regret any half-assed cleaning attempt.

“Sure thing,” he nodded and disappeared into the bedroom. It was less than a minute later that she heard him cry out in pain.

“Ah, Nat!”

“What?” She noted the page number before tossing her book onto the coffee table and going to investigate.

“Why are these all…,” Clint clutched his left hand with his right as blood pooled in the palm. “Why do you have so…” Clint kicked the shoe box of knives as he got to his feet. “They’re so sharp Natasha!” He glared at the blood in his palm.

“What? Did you just stick your hand straight into a box of knives?”

“No,” he stalked into the kitchen and began to run the tap with a scowl on his face.

“Let me,” Natasha pulled a barstool over to the sink. “Sit.” She instructed. He obeyed and she took his hand in hers. The gash was shallow, a little jagged nearer his wrist but he had caught the fleshy part near his thumb, so the bleeding was insistent. With a clean cloth she gave his hand a once over and slipped his wedding ring from his finger, setting it neatly on a folded square of kitchen towel on the counter, before lifting his hand in the air and applying pressure with her own.

“Thanks Nat,” He gave her a lopsided smile. “Sorry I got blood on your stuff.”

“It’s ok,” she quirked a quick smile. “I’ll clean them.”

“Will you help me with the pumpkin? I don’t know how I’m going to carve with this,” he gestured with his hand causing Natasha’s grip on it to loosen a little and a little blood trickle down his forearm.

“Don’t move,” she scolded with a tut as she readjusted her grip. “What do you need done with the pumpkin?”

“Just a jack-o’-lantern but it needs to be gutted from the bottom so I can get it on Lucky’s head.”

Natasha burst into a peel of laughter. “On his head?” She asked incredulously. “Babe, he’s going to hate that!”

“No, I’m going to put peanut butter inside, he’ll love it!”

“And how’s that a couple’s costume?”

“’I’ll be the grim reaper and I’m going to use my scythe to cut Lucky’s pumpkin head off. It’s theatre!” Clint gestured wildly with his right hand and received a stern look from his first aider.

“And what? Are you going trick-or-treating at Tony’s party with your bit?” Natasha smiled and loosened her grip slightly on his hand and brought it down to inspect.

“Nah, just to show the kids we hand out the candy to before we head over to Tony’s,” he winced as Natasha pulled slightly at the flesh by his thumb.

“It’s looking alright, want me to wrap it for you?”

“Please,” he fumbled with the door of the cabinet under the sink and held out the first aid kit to her. She made quick work of wrapping his hand and he made a lewd comment about the possibility of an undercover mission as a nurse, which earns him an eyeroll as she pushed his wedding ring back onto his finger with a little more force than necessary. Then she followed his directions in carving the pumpkin and together they made quick work of cleaning up both the pumpkin guts and Clint’s blood.

Natasha went back to reading with Liho curled on her stomach while Clint donned his costume and smeared peanut butter on the inside of Lucky’s jack-o’-lantern head. Natasha began watching with interest as Clint disappeared into the kitchen to return the peanut butter jar and set up a candy bowl for the trick-or-treaters and Lucky sniffed his way towards the peanut butter coated pumpkin. It was Natasha’s huff of amusement that brought Clint out from the kitchen to find Lucky with his head already buried in the pumpkin enthusiastically licking the peanut butter up.

“Lucky!” Clint scolded. “Not yet, we need to wait for the doorbell.”

“You want to do a dress rehearsal for me?” Natasha asked with a twinkle in her eye as she watched Clint extract the very slobbery pumpkin from Lucky’s grip.

“Ok, but you’ve got to take a video to send to Kate, alright?”

“Sure,” Natasha smiled and opened the camera on her phone ready to shoot.

The dress rehearsal was enough of a success to produce a highly amusing series of videos for Natasha to forward to Kate and enough of a disaster to convince Clint not to try re-enacting the theatrical piece for any trick-or-treaters. By the time the first group of trick-or-treaters rang the doorbell Lucky had torn the pumpkin head to pieces anyway in his efforts to lick every drop of peanut butter from inside.

They clear up the pumpkin and drop the candy bowl off on the front stoop on their way over to Tony’s party. A couple of blocks from home Clint’s phone chimes with a message from Kate.

Your dog is dumb. But not as dumb as you.

“Did you send Kate a video?”

“All of them,” Natasha slipped her arm through Clint’s and gave him her most charming smile, which he knew better than to trust.

His phone chimed again.

What happened to your hand? Did you

It cut off halfway through a sentence and Clint frowned but another message appeared immediately in the wake of the dropped off thought.

HOLY SHIT! IS THAT A WEDDING RING?

OMG THAT ENDING I LOVE IT!!!

Ahhh this is so sweet and funny!!! Love it!

Loved this!!!

Ahahhaa! A treat for me and a treat for Kate (learning Clint is married and presumably getting to harangue him about it forever now 😂)