"We can' let dem go out trick-or-treatin' on deir own." Jean-Luc commented. Sitting around him in the living room of his house were other members of the New Orleans Thieves Guild: his son and daughter-in-law, Henri and Mercy LeBeau, Belize and Theoren Marceaux, Claude Potier, Francois Lapin, Pierre Alouette and his son Genard. Tante Mattie was also present. It was October 29, two days before Halloween. Just hours before, the three boys, Remy, Emil and Etienne, had expressed a desire to go out trick-or-treating. Now, the Guild had to figure out who was going to take them.
"It's too dangerous." Pierre agreed. "If de Assassins caught wind dat de boys were out alone, dey'd take de opportunity to kidnap dem an' put us in a tight spot." Pierre was one of the senior members of the Guild, he, along with Belize, were Jean-Luc's closest friends and advisors and they took the safety of the Guild members…even future members…very seriously.
"Agreed." Belize said, thinking of how he and Theoren would worry if anything happened to Etienne. He knew Jean-Luc and Francois would be equally worried if anything happened to Remy and Emil. The three boys were, after all, the future of the Guild. They were important, whether they realized it now or not.
"So, we've established dey can' go alone, mais, who's gon' take dem?" Theoren questioned. "An' how many of us should go?"
"We don' wan' draw attention to ourselves…" Jean-Luc pointed out. "Two of us at de most should go wit' dem." He sighed. "Dey aren' gon' be happy 'bout having chaperones…"
Genard chuckled. "Dey'd be even more unhappy if you didn' let dem go." He commented quietly. Genard was nineteen years old, the youngest of the Guild members present. "As I recall, you guys never let me go an' I rather resented it. Derefore, I volunteer to take dem out."
Jean-Luc, Belize, Francois and Pierre all nodded at their young blond-haired counterpart. They had been hoping he would do just that. They thought that the boys might not be so upset if younger members of the Guild accompanied them.
"Very good. Anyone in particular you'd like to go wit' you?" Jean-Luc asked.
Genard glanced over at Claude, one of his closest friends. "Claude? You up for a little trick-or-treatin'?"
Claude shrugged his broad shoulders. "Sure, I'm game. Might be kinda fun." Of the Guild members, Claude was, at thirty years old, closest in age to Genard. Everyone else in the Guild was older than he was, and because of that, he and Genard often stuck together. They both served as pseudo big brothers to the young boys, especially Emil, who had no siblings of his own.
"Remy, you make a kick-ass Dracula!" Emil exclaimed, watching as Remy put in the false teeth as the final touch to his costume.
"Don' say dat, Emil." Mercy scolded slightly as she continued spiking Emil's red hair with hair gel. He was going as a punk rocker. He would have gotten Mercy to shave his head in a Mohawk, but that idea was vetoed by both his father and Tante Mattie, much to his dismay. However, he knew he and his cousins were lucky to be going out trick-or-treating at all, so he accepted Mercy's idea to spike his hair. It was better than not being allowed to go.
"I know. It's de eyes, right?" Remy replied with a laugh.
"Yeah. How hard is it to talk wit' dose teeth in? I don' wan' have to be askin' you to repeat yourself every five seconds tonight." Emil said.
"Not too hard." Remy looked out the window. "Hey, Et's here!"
"Cool, what's he dressed as?"
"Batman. Looks pretty good too, even t'ough Batman isn' blond." Remy turned back and looked on as Mercy put the finishing touches on Emil's hair. Surveying his cousin's punk look, Remy laughed. "You look funny."
Emil glared back up at Mercy, who just shrugged. "Don' listen to him, Mil." She said. "You don' look funny, not for a punk rocker."
Emil forgot his distress as Etienne joined them. "Hey you guys look cool."
"T'anks." Remy and Emil replied.
"All three of you look perfect." Mercy told them as Genard and Claude poked their heads in the door.
"It's getting dark, boys. You almost ready?" Claude asked.
Emil, Remy and Etienne grinned at their chaperones. "Oui!" they exclaimed in unison, holding up their pillow cases.
Claude and Genard looked at each other, expressions of mock horror on their faces.
"Pillow…" Genard began.
"Cases…" Claude finished.
"Yeah…we're each allowed to bring two." Remy told them.
Mercy started laughing as the three boys ran downstairs to show off their costumes to their fathers and Theoren, who were waiting in the living room. She looked at her two friends, sympathy in her blue eyes. "You two are in for a hell of a long night…"
"Six pillow cases. Mon dieu…" Claude muttered.
"Correction." Mercy replied. "Six full pillowcases. An' guess who's gon' get to carry dem all?"
"Why did I volunteer to do dis…?" Genard wondered aloud.
"When you figure dat out, tell me why you asked me to help you." Claude said. "An' den remind me to hurt you for it."
"HEY!" three young voices yelled up from the bottom of the stairs. "It's dark out! C'mon!"
Mercy looked at Claude and Genard and giggled as they visibly cringed. "Have fun, guys."
"Dese bags are heavy…" Genard complained. He and Claude were each carrying one of the bags, and were taking turns carrying the third one. They didn't want to think about how they were going to carry all six bags between them.
"I know. But t'ink of it dis way. Right now we're only carryin' half as many as we'll be carryin' later." Claude reminded him. "You know dey won' carry dose ones home."
"You kids getting tired yet?" Genard asked. "An' slow down. Dis ain' a race."
The three boys stopped and waited for their friends to catch up. Claude and Genard noticed identical mischievous looks in the boys' eyes and weren't sure they liked it.
"Nah, we're not tired. Are you?" Etienne grinned.
Claude stifled a yawn. "Do you need an honest answer?"
The boys looked at each other and then shook their heads. "Uh-uh."
Claude and Genard sighed, wishing the night was over. "Okay, so where do you guys want to go now? I mean it is starting to get late, an' even wit' us here, you still have a curfew." Genard reminded.
"Well…" Remy began with a sly grin. "We kinda have an idea…"
"You let dem do what?!" Jean-Luc, Belize and Francois yelled.
Claude and Genard looked at the older men, sheepish expressions on their faces. Suddenly they both started laughing, as they remembered just what the boys' idea had been.
"But it was really funny!" Genard gasped.
Jean-Luc scowled. "Dat does not matter. You risked deir lives, an' your own by doin' what you did. Whatever possessed you to agree to it?"
Claude attempted to be serious. "Well, honestly, we don' know. Oui, it was stupid. We know dat, an' we're sorry, but nobody got hurt. B'sides, you guys can' convince me you wouldn' love to see de look on Marius Boudreaux's face when he finds out someone toilet papered his mansion…"
"Whether or not we would isn' de point. De point is you took dose boys into Assassin territory without permission." Francois told them. "How are we s'posed to be able to trust you two wit' dem again?"
Genard and Claude both looked at the floor, the smiles off their faces. They hadn't realized the others would be so angry with them. Well, they had realized it, but they ignored the warning signals. And it had gotten them in trouble.
"We're sorry…" Genard said softly. "We were wrong."
"Damn straight you were." Belize snapped.
Jean-Luc noticed the remorseful looks on the younger men's faces. "Belize, Francois, could you step outside for a moment? I'd like to talk to dese two alone."
Francois and Belize left the living room, commenting to Jean-Luc that they'd be in the kitchen if needed. Jean-Luc thanked them and then turned to face Claude and Genard. He sighed and started to say something, but Claude interrupted him.
"Jean-Luc, we're sorry!"
Jean-Luc put a hand on Claude's shoulder. "I know, Claude. I know. An' I also know you two don' have it easy, stuck in de middle de way you are. On de one hand, you're younger den everyone else, an' on de other hand, you see dose three boys an' want to align yourselves wit' dem."
"It won' happen again…" Genard said.
"Dat's right, it won'." Jean-Luc agreed. "You're gon' have to earn our trust again, when it comes to dose boys. You can start earnin' it next week. In de meantime, you're suspended from all Guild activities for one week. Is dat understood?"
Claude and Genard hung their heads. They were more than a little ashamed of themselves for screwing up as badly as they had. "Oui." They said in unison, voices barely above whispers.
"Good. You can go."
"Dis is jus' great." Claude muttered as he and Genard headed to the door of the mansion.
"Oh you t'ink?" Genard demanded. "You don' have to go home an' face your father!"
The two young men paused at the door as they heard a small voice somewhere nearby, calling to them softly.
"Guys?"
They turned and looked up at the staircase, eyebrows raised questioningly. Sitting on the stairs about halfway up were Remy, Emil and Etienne, their costumes off, pensive looks on their young faces.
"We're sorry." Remy told them. "We didn' know our idea would get you guys in dis much trouble. We jus' t'ought it would be funny."
"Yeah, can you forgive us?" Emil asked.
Genard and Claude gave them half-hearted smiles. They were feeling pretty bad about what had happened and couldn't muster up any more happiness, in spite of the memories of what they had helped the boys do.
"Of course we forgive you. Don' worry 'bout it." Claude replied.
"B'sides it was funny." Genard continued. "Now you three get upstairs an' into bed b'fore your fathers find out you're still up. We'll catch you in a week, okay?"
The three boys nodded, and they watched Claude and Genard leave before they ran back up to Remy's room.
"I can' b'lieve Uncle Jean-Luc suspended dem…" Etienne said in disbelief. He hadn't seen either of his uncles or his father that angry in a long time, not since they had found out about the jet the boys had crashed over a year before.
"I can." Remy sighed. "Dey were real mad."
Emil stretched out on his sleeping bag. "I wish we hadn' gotten Claude an' Genard involved. Dat way de ones in de most trouble would be us, not dem. It's not like it was deir idea or anyt'ing."
"I guess none of us really t'ought 'bout de consequences, dem included." Remy commented.
The boys continued talking for a couple more minutes, and then went to sleep. When Jean-Luc, Francois and Belize checked in on them ten minutes later, they found their three wayward young sons sleeping peacefully. The three men would never have admitted it, but they did in fact find it very funny that the young people had toilet-papered the home of the Assassins Guild leader.
"You know, de look on Marius' face would be priceless…" Francois pointed out quietly as they went back downstairs.
"Oui, but dat doesn' change de fact dat what dose foolish kids did was wrong. No matter how we feel, Claude an' Genard's punishment stands." Jean-Luc said. "An' so will de boys' punishment."