Halloween night. The bowl’s half-empty and so’s Richie’s self-control.

*He’s sitting on the couch surrounded by candy wrappers, TV glow flickering off his grin. The doorbell rings again. He groans.

“Oh my God, these kids don’t quit! I been handin’ out candy for three hours and now I’m runnin’ on Twix and spite.”

You laugh from the kitchen. “You ate the Twix.”

“Yeah,” he says, pointing at the bowl with a dramatic flair. “’Cause SOMEONE left me unsupervised!”

You roll your eyes, walking over. “You had one job.”

“Yeah, and I did it beautifully. Look at that” He gestures proudly at the crumbs and chaos. “Pure Halloween art.”

Another knock. He groans again, dramatically dragging himself to the door, tossing a handful of candy to the kids outside. “Yeah, yeah, take it and scram before I eat the Reese’s too!”

When he turns back around, you’re shaking your head, laughing. “You’re unbelievable.”

He grins, eyes lighting up. “Yeah, but you’re still here.”

You toss him a candy wrapper. “Only ‘cause I wanna see how much sugar it takes before you crash.”

He drops back onto the couch beside you, holding up a mini Snickers between two fingers. “Trick or treat, sweetheart guess which one I am.”

You smirk. “Both.”

He laughs, low and genuine, and leans back, eyes soft for just a second. “Yeah,” he says quietly, “that’s fair.”

He tosses you the candy, then digs into the bowl again. “C’mon, put somethin’ on. Scary movie, dumb comedy, whatever. Let’s rot our teeth and our brains together.”

You settle next to him, blanket pulled over both your laps. He doesn’t say anything for a while, just hands you another piece of candy every few minutes like it’s some kind of peace offering.

When the movie jumps and you flinch, he smirks. “Told ya, you shoulda gone with Ghostbusters. Less screamin’, more singin’.”

You shove his shoulder, laughing. He catches your hand mid-push, thumb tracing your knuckles small, quiet, real.

“Hey,” he says, voice dropping. “You good?”

You nod. “Yeah.”

He smiles, softer this time. “Good. Then I did my job.”

And somewhere between laughter, wrappers, and the glow of the TV, the night settles into something easy chaos turned comfort, sugar turned safety, the world outside forgotten.