Chapter Text
Derek Nurse has never been a huge fan of pumpkin carving. Sure, the end result is pretty nice, but pumpkin stems are prickly, and the pumpkins themselves are heavy and dealing with the guts is more than gross. Not to mention the fact that his designs never come out as cool as he imagines them. He sighs and tips back in his chair, purposefully ignoring the way Chowder tenses and follows his movements with his eyes. He’s not that clumsy, he’s not going to tip the fuck - The back legs of the chair wobble and he grabs for the table, mentally apologizing to Chowder for ever doubting him. His pumpkin’s lopsided smile mocks him and his internal dialogue.
God. He hates carving pumpkins.
Nursey reaches for his can of PBR, trying to pretend like the chill in the air doesn’t make him want to go burrow under the blankets in his dorm. Instead, he’s sitting out in front of the house in a rickety folding chair, hands freezing from the nasty pumpkin goop, and not wearing nearly enough warm clothing for the circumstances. When he was a kid, his mom used to let him carve his pumpkin at the kitchen table, but after the Pumpkin Gut Incident of 2015, Bitty had banned pumpkin carving from his kitchen. Nursey had tried to protest, but since he might have been the instigator of PGI-2015, his opinion was not valued whatsoever. So he sucked it up and helped Dex and C move the pong table outside, and maybe stared a little when Dex carried three folding chairs up the basement steps with one arm. You know, the usual.
Speaking of Dex… Nursey never really considered Dex to be artistic, and he’s not, not in the drawing and painting and singing kind of way. But the way his jack-o-lantern is shaping up, you’d think art was his thing. While Nursey had scooped the guts out of his pumpkin sloppily and as quickly as possible, Dex had spent almost an hour cleaning it out and carefully shaving the insides down. (Not to mention that he even separated out the seeds like Bitty had requested). And sure, Dex printed his design off the internet, but even though it’s traced, it takes a certain amount of skill to carve a sail boat and waves into a pumpkin. He’s not just hacking into it like Nursey did either, no, there’s all this shaving and layers and meticulous details that kind of makes Nursey want to die.
Or just like… rip Dex’s clothes off.
Because apparently, he has a thing. A competency thing. And a passionate thing. And a flannel thing. Or possibly just a Dex thing. Which is really a thing he wishes wasn’t a thing.
A sharp pain to his shin jolts him back to reality, and his chair crashes back down onto four legs. Across the table Chowder winks at him, because he’s an asshole sometimes, before proudly holding his pumpkin up for Nursey to see.
“Wow C,” Nursey smirks. “You really went out of the box with this one.”
“Shut up Nursey,” Chowder huffs, setting down his pumpkin (complete with a shark carving, obviously) carefully down on the table. “Lemme see yours if it’s so great.”
Nursey shrugs and turns his Classic ™ jack-o-lantern around, enjoying the way Chowder’s expression changes as he clearly fights between chirping him and praising his nonexistent skillz. Letting Chowder continue to struggle with that, Nursey pushes himself to his feet. Grabbing his beer, he ambles around the table, leaning up against the back of Dex’s chair.
“You’re really goin’ for it brah,” he says, letting one hand rest on Dex’s shoulder. Surprisingly, Dex doesn’t shake him off, which is… different. There’s a part of Nursey that wants to push his luck, wants to squeeze his fingers and feel the muscle beneath them, wants to rub at the knot he just knows lives towards the base of Dex’s neck. But Dex is also holding a very large knife, and he really doesn’t want to push his luck.
“I used to enter the town wide contest back home,” Dex explains. “I mean, it wasn’t big or anything but… it’s soothing. Plus my mom always grows pumpkins in her garden anyways.”
Nursey hums, and doesn’t move his hand, and Dex keeps doing his thing, and he kind of maybe wants to stay like this forever. Except Chris Chow is smirking at him again. Honestly, this kid acts all sweet (and he is sweet, he’s the most genuine friend Nursey’s ever had), but he’s still kind of an asshole sometimes. He flips Chowder of with the hand curled around his beer, scowling when Chowder starts making kissy face at him.
“I’m gonna go find some candles,” Nursey says, regretfully breaking contact with Dex. Chowder’s still smirking at him, but he doubts he’d say anything to Dex about like… feelings, so he just grins back before heading inside the Haus.
It takes him awhile to find enough candles, darkness having settled over the yard by the time he makes it back outside. Chowder and Dex, along with Bitty and Tango, have lined up their pumpkins on the front step. They place candles inside and light them, standing in a group in the front yard to admire them. Dex leaves a space for Nursey beside him, their shoulders pressing firmly together for a moment. Nursey slings and arm around Dex’s shoulders and ruffles his hair, wrapping his other arm around Chowder’s waist.
Surrounded by his best friends and the crisp fall air, he thinks that maybe pumpkin carving isn’t all that bad after all.