Day 5 - Pumpkin carving
“It’s so… Wet… And gooey…”
“Just put your hand in further, Robbe. Go on… There you go!”
“Sander, this is so gross, why do I have to be the one that gets all the pumpkin guts out?”
He chortled, “Because, my dear Robin, I am the artist. Which means that I do the details, after you do all of the gutting. It’s a perfect balance of work.”
“Oh, is it?”
His boyfriend nodded enthusiastically, continuing to hover over Robbe’s shoulder as he tore the insides of the pumpkin out, depositing it in a bucket right next to them.
It was a job that he had every year, Sander being way too squeamish to do it himself. Yet, he always poked fun when Robbe complained – it was completely hypocritical. He had half a mind to force Sander into doing it. He was the one that wanted all of the cool pumpkins for the spooky vibes around their place, but he was the one that stood idly by while his poor boyfriend did all the manual labour.
“Maybe you could help just a little bit?” Robbe asked, looking at Sander with wide pleading eyes. But to no avail, the blonde boy merely turned away and looked in the opposite direction.
“Be gone, foul temptress!” he cried, making Robbe giggle.
“Thought you liked it when I tempted you?”
“Normally, yes. But when you are trying to trick me into dirtying my hands? I will be ignoring your siren calls.” Sander said, his voice loud and dramatic, then with a softer, “You want some coffee?”
Robbe couldn’t help but roll his eyes, “You think you can stretch to that, babe? Wouldn’t want your hands to cramp up reaching for the mugs.”
“Ha, ha. Do you want some or not? Going once… Going twice…”
“Fine! Yes, please. After all, I am slaving away here. It’s thirsty work!”
Sander peered at me over his shoulder, “Hmm, yeah I can tell. You do look very… Thirsty.”
“Ugh,” Robbe replied, smiling, “just make the coffees.”
“As you wish.”
He turned to face the coffee machine, moving about as he put in the correct settings and placed the cups underneath in the correct positions. Robbe was tempted to have a dig at him and tease about his sudden ability to do the ‘peasant tasks’ but he bit his tongue.
Well… He did at first. But after Sander began to talk again, there was only so much he could take.
“You know, I think we should get a couple more pumpkins this year – bigger ones. We can have one for each room. Wouldn’t that be a fun idea?”
“Um, I guess… Who could be doing the work for those, though?”
“The same as we are doing now. It works well, right?”
“You want me to gut at least three more pumpkins? That is just… Sander, I really don’t want to do that.”
Sander turned to face his boyfriend; eyebrows raised.
“And you think I do? It’s gross, I don’t want to put my hand in that!”
“But you expect me to? God, Sander sometimes you are so pretentious and uppity! You think you’re too good to do the work for things like this, yet you lower me to that standard. If you want a cool looking pumpkin, either do it yourself or buy a goddamn plastic one!”
The blonde boy looked frankly baffled by his outburst, eyebrows suddenly knitted together on his face.
“Robbe, woah, I didn’t… I thought we were just joking around! I didn’t know that-”
“What?” The brunette shouted, “That I didn’t hate doing your dirty work? It sucks!”
He flung his hands on the last word, making the bits of pumpkin guts stuck to him fly off, some of it managing to hit Sander square in the face.
“Oh my god! San, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
Sander slowly made his way closet to Robbe, moving in total silence as the smaller boy tried to reason with him. He grimaced a little as he plunged his hand into the slimy bucket of guts, holding it in his fist as he raised it high above his head.
“Well, maybe I didn’t mean to do this.”
But before Sander could release his ammunition, Robbe had already grabbed some throwing it at his boyfriend in a matter of seconds, leaving him completely dumbfounded.
“What?” Robbe asked, feigning innocence, “You thought I’d just let you throw the pumpkin guts at me? How stupid do you think I am?”
Bam!
Sander rubbed his hand all over his boyfriend’s face, leaving a trail of pumpkin seeds and betrayal. Which paired well with the shocked expression that befell Robbe, his mouth gaping, then his nose wrinkling in disgust when some of the guts fell past his lips, making him taste the uncooked fruit.
“Oh ok.” Robbe hissed, wiping the remnants away from his eyes, “This means war.”
The two boys started flinging the pumpkin trails at each other, with all their might. There was so mercy, not even for a second, as they were both intent on being victorious. Both of them wanted to win whatever war they had started, not content until the other had surrendered.
There were orange splatters all over the kitchen as they hurled the slimy entrails across the room, sometimes hitting their target but mostly just creating the mother of messes in their flat. One that they would no doubt spend the rest of the day clearing up.
Although the food fight had started with annoyance, the bizarre actions they had taken resulted in any animosity ebbing away, leaving them with only laughter. The noise of it being carried through the air as often as the guts were, grinning at one another as they attempted to make a headshot with a handful of the seeds.
“Give up!” Sander cried, trying to shield himself with a pan he grabbed from the counter.
“Never!” Robbe responded, hurling the food at an even faster rate, with a wicked smile on his face, “You’re the one who should surrender.”
The two continued that playful bickering for a few more minutes, before Sander relented, deciding enough was enough.
“Alright, alright, I’m waving the white flag!”
Robbe, still on guard, continued to hold some in his fist. He wanted to be ready just in case this was Sander’s clever way of trying to beat him at the last second. But, in the end, the blonde boy carefully walked over – though that was a task in itself due to all of the slippery innards that had carpeted the floor – and gently began wiping the pumpkin from Robbe’s face.
His hands delicately picked the orange trails and seeds from his curls and made sure there was nothing that could get in his eyes, slowly yet surely revealing his features again.
“I’m sorry I made you annoyed, baby.” He murmured, pressing a soft kiss on the brunette’s nose. It transferred some of the pumpkin taste onto his lips, but he tried to ignore it.
Robbe unfurled his hand, letting the guts drop to the floor by their feet.
“I’m sorry I threw pumpkin at you.”
“I’m sorry I retaliated.”
The smaller boy snorted, “No, I’m pretty sure I deserved that.”
“Well, I probably deserved you getting annoyed, I did push it a little far.”
“Eh, it doesn’t matter, I think we have bigger issues now.”
Sander looked at him with slight confusion, “What do you mean?”
“Look at our kitchen! It looks like some innocent fruit has been massacred! This is gonna take so long to clean.”
“Oh, well you have fun with that, I’m gonna go and make some more coffee since our last ones are filled with guts.” He replied, smirking.
Robbe fixed him with a look, “Hilarious. You’re helping me with this, Driesen, whether you like it or not.”
“Sir, yes sir!” he replied, pretending to salute.
“Now scrub the floors.” Robbe commanded, biting his lip slightly as his lips tugged into a smile, “Or you won’t be getting any treats this Halloween.”
