Work Text:
Warlock absolutely loved Halloween!
The spooky decorations, the spooky foods, the spooky pumpkins, the dressing up spookily, the spooky stories, the tricks and especially the treats. He loved it all. Nanny did too, after all, she was kind of quietly celebrating it all year long! Even Brother Francis seemed to like it, though he could still learn a bit or two from Warlock and Nanny about being spooky.
Every year, at some point just before Halloween, he’d pick Warlock up and they’d spend an afternoon carving pumpkins together. Sure, his ghost stories weren’t really scary and his carved pumpkins were always kind of funny and not terrifying, but that’s what he had Warlock for! Then he would dutifully carry the pumpkin guts to the kitchen and they would make pumpkin soup with it and sometimes draw scary faces with the cream into it, if he asked nicely.
In short, it was a holiday that brought the whole family together! Or well, most of them!
A very important question he had to figure out each year was that of costume. Nanny always helped him actually making it happen and look cool but he made the executive decisions and had the ideas. (He was gonna be great at commanding the armies of Hell when he was older!) So when this year, he’d had a flash of inspiration, he couldn’t wait to assemble a prototype and show it off to her. He’d first rushed into his bedroom, painted two cans of peanuts pitch-black, put on his diving goggles, and then rushed into her room. She’d love it!
“What are you wearing?”
But instead of answering, Warlock held the cans in front of his mouth and took a step towards her.
“Are you my mummy?”
Things got very quiet. Warlock in anticipation and Nanny because she must have been so in awe of his amazing costume.
Seconds passed.
She was really very in awe.
“What now, dear?”
Oh! She didn’t recognise it! He took a step towards her to give her a hint. “Are you my mummy?”
She still didn’t react properly, so he just ended up telling her. “Do you like it? I wanna go as the kid from Doctor Who! Imma need a proper gas mask! Can you procure one?” Warlock pulled the diving goggles off his face and smiled at her.
She cleared her throat. “Right, yes, course I can. Good idea.”
Warlock beamed and came to sit next to her and show her. “Here, that was a peanut can. I used poster paints so you can’t see the label anymore! And I found my goggles to make it look like a gas mask. Do you like it? I think I can use my normal clothes!” he told her proudly and dumped both in her lap, before snuggling into her side.
“Yes, I like it. It’s very clever.” She wrapped her arm around him and cleared her throat again, looking at the items in her lap.
“Nanny, are you sick?”
“What, oh no, just… thinking.” She sniffed and her voice was still kind of croaky, so he didn’t buy that at all. She probably just didn’t want to take her medicine. But that’s not how you got better!
“Hm, let’s see.” He put his palm flat on her forehead and waited a few seconds, before announcing his verdict. “Too hot! You’re very, very sick.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Am I, doctor?”
“Yes,” he said very gravely. “You need to lie in bed and get better. And eat soup.”
“Right, of course.”
“Come on, then.” Warlock was already up on his feet and pulled her towards her bed. Once she’d lain down obediently (a testament to her severe illness), he pulled the blanket up right until her chin and nodded approvingly. “And now you have to get better.”
“Got it.”
“Close your eyes,” Warlock said and began to pet her head, because last time he’d been sick, his head had hurt and that’s what she’d done. “There, there, the fever will burn all of the viruses that hurt you to ashes.”
Nanny snorted and Warlock wondered if maybe those had been the wrong words. Hm... what else would she say? “We all love you so much and all of your toy- erm, all of your stars will still be there tomorrow. So you need to stop sniffing so we can look at them again.”
Her expression was unreadable, as Warlock contemplated his next steps. First, he zoomed out of the room to get his stuffed whale for her, which he tucked under the blanket too so they could rest together. Then he left to get a picture book. He placed it on her chest and she peered down.
“Do you want to read that to me?”
“No, it only works if you read it!” he said and drew up a desk chair over to her bed.
“That makes sense,” she said and picked it up. Warlock rested his head on her bed and listened quietly.
By the end of it, he looked up and found that Nanny already looked normal again. “Did it work?”
“Yes, I feel much better." She pulled him up onto the bed with her to give him a hug and murmured into his hair, "Thank you."
“Of course.” Warlock nodded dutifully and smiled. “Can I be sick now?”
-
The next day, Warlock woke up to several copies of Goosebumps on his bed. After flicking through them and landing on a page about the pyramids, he suddenly got a much better idea for his Halloween costume:
...A mummy!