AUTHOR: Joanne
TITLE: Treat
CHALLENGE: Britslash Halloween Challenge
RATING: PG-13 (for language mostly)
FANDOM: Byker Grove
PAIRING: PJ/Duncan (pre-slash)
SPOILERS: Not a one
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. The boys and the Grove belong to Zenith North and the BBC, but since they won't repeat the early stuff, we make our own fun.
NOTES: Joanne finally posts a fic! Set early on in the 1992 season (after the Psychandrics but before PJ's accident) so they're underage (about 16 if I've done me sums right). This is my first attempt at Byker slash. Wish me luck...

Email:  myth24@go.com
The Den - http://www.angelfire.com/wy/denfic

Treat

by Joanne

Somewhere in the distance, a car engine roared. Duncan pulled his jacket tighter around himself and shuddered. "Cold tonight." Although, if he were being honest with himself, it wasn't just that. There were a hundred places Duncan would rather have been than in the cold, in the dark, on Halloween night. Double French was leading the list. He peered down through the cellar window for the third time that minute, looking for signs of life. "Nothing." Muttering under his breath he pulled the note out of his pocket again, shining his torch over a tiny scrap of paper covered in PJ's familiar energetic scrawl.

'Secret Halloween party. Grove, midnight. Tell no-one.'

Stuffing the note away, Duncan swung the torch over his watch. Quarter past. Where was everyone? The cellar light snapped on without warning causing Duncan to drop his torch in fright. It crashed to the ground, blinked on and off for a moment and gave up. "Bollocks." The cellar window opened easily and he dropped lightly down. "'Bout bloody time PJ, do you know how long I've..." There was no-one there. "Oh, aye! Very fucking funny PJ." He turned back to the window, but just as he started climbing back out, the light went off. "Brilliant."

After falling from the window, tripping and bashing himself more times than he had expletives for, he made it to the door, bursting through into the brightly lit corridor to be greeted by the sounds of a party in full swing in the General Room. "Well, that's a good sign!" He sighed, relieved as he made his way down the hall. "I'll kill PJ though!" He sauntered into the room and came to a sudden stop, spinning round in a state of total bewilderment. The sudden silence that hit him as he arrived in the room was oppressive and there wasn't one person to be seen. "What the..?" He searched the room twice, double checking every possible hiding place. Apart from himself, the General Room was completely deserted. Dazed, he dropped into the nearest chair, shooting up again almost immediately.

"Duncan!"

"Angel? Angel where are you?"

"Help Duncan, help, please!"

"Noddy?"

There was a sudden burst of maniacal laughter and Duncan shot out of the room and up the stairs. Nothing. He tore the whole Grove apart, disembodied voices pleading with him for help everywhere he went. There was a shrill scream from the General Room that sounded like Jemma Dobson and Duncan raced back down the corridor towards it.

Once again the room was deserted, but the trapdoor to the cellar was open and there was a smudgy red mess leading to it from the conservatory doors that looked a bit like someone had been dragging a leaky paint tin. "Oh God..." There was another scream from the cellar and another crazed burst of laughter from above. Duncan turned to try to make it out through the conservatory doors but was stopped by a hoarse voice from behind him.

"Some party, eh?"

"PJ!"

PJ was slumped against the door frame clutching his arm. He was covered in...

"Blood?"

PJ looked down at himself. "Aye."

"Your arm?"

"Noddy put up a bit of a fight." It was only then Duncan noticed the knife in his hand. "You'll kill me Duncan? *You'll* kill *me*?!"

Heart pounding, Duncan bolted for the conservatory doors, throwing himself against them in a blind panic. That laugh again... He turned slowly to find PJ about two steps away, waving a large ring of keys at him. "They're locked. They're all locked." He raised the knife slowly, then suddenly, turned it on himself, stabbing himself in the chest. Duncan screamed, cramming his eyes shut tight, only opening one nervously at the sound of uncontrollable giggling.

PJ flexed the knife between his hands. "Rubber. It's rubber. It's OK."

Shaking madly, Duncan dropped to the floor, caught between intense relief and fury that he'd been caught out by one of PJ's pranks. "You really think I'd know better by now, wouldn't you?" PJ nodded, grinning and sat down beside his friend. Duncan tugged at PJ's T-shirt. "It's tomato sauce." Duncan groaned, knowing full well he'd be hearing about this one for months. "And the screaming?"

PJ grinned cockily, "Haway man, I had us listening in on the girls lavs, d'ya not think it'd be a doddle for me to wire this place up with a few speakers?! Angel and Jemma and all the rest of them are tucked up safely in bed for all I know."

Duncan finally managed a weak laugh. "Taken in by another Peter Jenkins scam. I don't believe it!" A thoughtful frown crossed his face, "So what do you want then?"

PJ looked genuinely puzzled. Duncan stared at him, "It's not like you to put in this sort of effort just to scare me." His eyes bulged as the full potential horror hit him. "Oh God, blackmail."

"Shut up Duncan! Who the fuck would I tell?"

"You never do anything without an ulterior motive."

PJ's trademark grin had returned. "Perfectly true. But now you're here I've got what I wanted in the first place."

"You just wanted to talk to me? You could've just said."

PJ snorted, "Alone, at the Grove, on Halloween? You'd never have come. You'd have thought it was a wind-up. So I thought, get all that stuff out of the way, then you'll know I'm serious."

Duncan couldn't help laughing at this expert application of 'PJ logic'. "So, what was so important it couldn't wait until tonight?"

"It's Halloween, Duncan. Trick or Treat?"

Duncan groaned, but went along with his friend. "Treat. I've had enough tricks from you for a lifetime."

PJ took a deep breath and leant forward, pressing his lips gently against Duncan's, only relaxing when Duncan smiled against him, kissing nervously back.

When they finally pulled apart, shaking, grinning nervously at each other, PJ finally answered him. "You really *would* have killed me if I'd done that in front of everyone tonight!"

"Oh, I dunno." Duncan laughed shakily. "You're coming to this thing tonight then?"

"If you are."

"Aye, I am. PJ..?"

"What?"

"Trick or treat?"

PJ smiled, "Treat."

Duncan jumped up, laughing and dropped down the trapdoor. "Gotta catch me first, man!"

PJ took his time following him into the cellar, but then, Duncan didn't really seem too worried about getting away this time. PJ smiled inwardly. A treat? Oh, aye, but a tricky one! A pair of hands grabbed him from nowhere. "You've been taking notes!" Duncan hadn't stopped laughing. "I've got a few tricks of my own."

End

[BritSlash Fiction Archive]  [BritSlash Contents Page]