Chapter Text
HALLOWEEN
For their first Halloween Eric and Deb had decided they would try something simple first. They were ghosts, at the suggestion of Small-Dinosaur-Boy, because (in his words) ‘you’re already white and capable of flying, why not be ghosts?’
So the duo accompanied Small-Dinosaur-Boy (dressed in a full-body triceratops costume), and Abbey (dressed in a full-body spinosaurus costume) around the neighbourhood to each house and slowly filled their bags with candy.
Mother and Red-Faced-Anger-Man would wait on the sidewalk for them with Insta-Mom and Barbequing-Man; Mother and Insta-Mom trying to subtly brag about their children and Red-Faced-Anger-Man and Barbequing-Man talking about hiking, cooking, and how obsessed their children were with dinosaurs.
The night was declared a success by Small-Dinosaur-Boy and Abbey once they had all filled their bags to the brim and struggled to hold them without spilling candy on the ground.
Deb and Eric were disappointed when they remembered they weren’t able to consume human foods and sweets, and after voicing their disappointment immediately had to remind Mother that they did not eat batteries but they appreciated her efforts to include them.
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THE SHIRTS
“Mother, what is this?”
Linda looked over from her garden, curious as to what was so confusing it had brought one of her boys outside. Eric was holding up a bright purple shirt that had ‘MITCHELLS’ written across the back in a mishmash of different fonts, all of the letters a different colour and each one clashing horrible with the letters beside it.
“Sweetie,” Linda smiled softly, “that’s a family shirt. If we ever go to a big family reunion then we all wear those shirts! Our part of the family is the purple family, and each of the branches of the family gets a different colour.”
Eric gently ran a hand over the colourful letters, and Linda could tell they were considering what she said.
“Family reunion?”
She laughed quietly and turned back to her garden, keeping a side-eye on Eric. “It’s not as impressive as it probably sounded just then. Not a lot of people regularly show up because we’re all so spread out, honestly the last really big reunion was before Katie was even born! But I like to make sure we all have a shirt ready, just in case we feel like going.”
Eric carefully tugged the shirt on and held their arms out, Linda leaning back on her heels to clap as they slowly turned around. As they spun around fully Linda could tell that they were delighted with the shirt, another link to the family that they and Deb never could have thought they’d have.
“My beautiful boy, you look like a proper Mitchell.”