“What are you doing?”

Dom looked up guilty, hastily stuffing multi-colored sweet wrappers under the table; most, however, ended up in his lap. “Nothing,” he said between a mouthful of chocolate.

Elijah took the seat across from him at the polished wood table. “It doesn’t look like nothing,” he observed calmly, reaching across the table and plucking a purple wrapper off the back of Dom’s hand. He held it up for Dom to see. “What’s this?”

He shrugged in hopes that this would take away from the fact that he was trying to swallow (to no avail) a very huge amount of chocolate in order to hide the evidence.

“Your fingers are all brown,” Elijah commented, relaxing against the hardback of the kitchen chair.

“I’ve been finger painting,” Dom replied simply, discreetly glancing on the floor to see if he could better hide the leftovers.

Dom was not, however, discreet enough, for Elijah saw his eyes shift to the floor; Elijah bent down, his head under the table. When he resurfaced, his lips were spread into an amused smirk but his facial expression was accusing.

“Dom,” Elijah stated evenly.

“Elijah,” Dom mimicked, swallowing the remainder of his mouthful.

“Is that a pumpkin under there?”

“Where?” Dom pretended to look around.

Elijah pointed under the table. “Behind your leg. There’s a huge orange thing.”

“Oh?” Dom feigned innocence. After all, he was an actor, so he should be able to get away with most anything. “How strange.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “Are you eating my Halloween candy?”

Dom laughed a very obvious and overly loud laugh. “Of course not! You told me not to, so why would I do such a thing?”

“Because you ate all yours four weeks ago and then complained when I wouldn’t share mine.”

“Yeah, because you horde it!”

“I do not,” Elijah replied, laughing. “I save it for a rainy day.” He pointed out the kitchen window. “It is not raining, Dom, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

Dom glanced out the window even though he knew it was a totally cloudless day with lots of bright sunshine streaming against the recently mowed lawn.

“Elijah,” Dom began, folding his arms on top of the table and setting a placating gaze on Elijah. “If you do not eat Halloween candy within three months of procuring it, it’ll simply go to waste and by the time you DO get around to eating it, it’ll be all hard and gross. I was merely doing you a favor.”

“Favor, my ass,” Elijah commented, shaking his head. “You just had a chocolate craving and knew where I kept my secret stash!”

“Is that my fault?” Dom questioned benignly. “It was you, if I am not mistaken, who told me where to find this so-called ‘secret’ stash.”

Elijah stood up from the table, then bent down and retrieved his bright orange pumpkin candy holder (most commonly used by little children who are trick-or-treating). He grasped it closely to his chest like it was something valuable and not just an object you could get for $1.99 at some drug store.

He gazed steadily at Dom for a good five minutes (in which there was actually silence in the house, which was usually not the case) until Dom finally broke under the pressure and set his head on the tabletop.

“I’m sorry,” Dom wailed, deciding to sniff for good measure (Elijah always felt bad if Dom cried - so Dom got away with most everything). “There was no chocolate in the house and it’s that time of the month!”

“Dominic, you are not a woman. You do not have ‘times of the month.’ Or is there something you’re not telling me.”

“I’m a weak man, Lighe,” Dom said to the table, his eyes downcast and his mouth in a frown. “I can’t resist chocolate.”

Elijah laughed a little and set the pumpkin on the table. (The only things left were a mini snickers bar and a mini bag of M&M’s.)

“Even month old candy?” He asked, leaning his palms against the table and tipping his head to the side.

Dom nodded slowly. “Yeah. Maybe I should go to…erm…Candy Eaters Anonymous?”

“Nah,” Elijah replied, laughing again. “But next time you’re going to eat ALL my hard-earned trick-or-treating candy, can you at least warn me first so I can grab a Hershey’s bar?”

He picked his head up, a huge grin on his face. “Yeah. But you’ll have to race me to it.”