"I am not putting that on!" Ward held the object at the tip of his fingers, as far away from his body as possible. There was no possible way he would ever wear something like that. The embarrassment might literally kill him.
"Ward." Danny tilted his head and gave a disapproving look. "It's for charity." He gestured to his own appearance, as though that was a convincing argument. Except Ward often thought that Danny looked ridiculous.
Ward gave a full-body shudder and said, "Fine." There was no point in arguing against Danny; eventually he'd win, and it would just take a lot of time and energy to try.
Ward buried all that remained of his pride and took the costume into the bathroom to change.
Ward slid his legs into the pants. They were soft, with a mottled design in black, white, and orange. At least it wasn't a onesie costume; his dignity was slightly preserved there. Except for the long, luxurious tail hanging down from the back of the pants that swayed as he moved. That was definitely a knock against his dignity. There were booties for his feet, each ending in little toes with plastic blunted claws. The shirt preserved the same color pattern as the pants, except over his torso, which was all white. There were gloves to match the booties. Then there was the headpiece, made to cover everything but his face, with little ears on top of his head. For his face Danny had gotten what looked like the best facepaint he could fine. Ward thought it looked like stuff professionals would use, although he knew he was out of his element there.
He started with a base coat of black and then carefully applied orange across one cheek and around his eyes. Using a tube of theater hair glue provided, he attached individual whiskers on his cheeks.
When he was done fiddling with the design, he stepped back to assess the result. It had been a long time since he'd let his artistic side run free. With a mixture of annoyance and pride, he had to admit he was pretty good at this.
Ward stepped out of the bathroom and stood in front of Danny. Danny was literally bouncing up and down on his feet, his rabbit ears flopping as he did so. It was almost sickeningly cute. Ward glared at him.
Danny just grinned. "You make a really good cat!"
Ward decided to take it as the compliment that Danny obviously intended and said, smugly, "Yes, I do."
Ward was driving. He'd made very clear to Danny that the only people allowed to see them dressed up like this were other attendees at the fundraiser—they were doing this for the children, dammit—and that included no taxi or limo drivers.
As they approached the venue, Ward suddenly pulled over into a loading zone. He stared at the people going into the building under a banner that said "HALLOWEEN FUNDRAISER TO SAVE THE CHILDREN!"
"Um," said Danny.
Ward started tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and refused to look toward the passenger seat. "Danny?"
"Yeah?" To his credit, Danny sounded a little sheepish.
"You did say this was a children's costume party, right?"
"I mean, it said it was for children." There was a pause. "And there was definitely something about costumes on the invitation."
"Costumes… for children?"
The couple walking past the car wearing elaborate 1920's gangster outfits answered his question pretty clearly. They greeted a woman dressed like Marie Antoinette.
Danny sighed. "I might have made a wrong assumption somewhere."
Ward thought long and hard about what to do. On the one hand, this was a fundraiser that could help kids. On the other hand… "I can't do this. I can't go in there dressed like this. I'm sorry."
"It's okay; let's just go home." Danny, as usual, didn't judge him; Ward's brain insisted there was disappointment in the words, nonetheless.
Ward quickly turned the car around and headed back the way they had come. He felt like shit. Embarrassed over stupid bullshit and guilty because he hadn't managed to suck it up in order to help other people. Danny said nothing, and it only made him feel worse.
Then Ward realized where they were and a lightbulb went off in his mind. He immediately hung a left, trying not to think about what he was doing. Since they'd skipped the fundraiser, he was pretty sure it wasn't too late at night yet.
"Ward? Where are we going? It's okay, no one has to see us."
Ward had his mind made up. "Yes they do, yes they have to see us." He stopped the car a block away from their destination without bothering to check if he was legally parked. He knew he'd need the short walk to build up his courage for what he was about to do. It was a quiet street, with lights on at their destination.
Danny had obviously put two and two together and was literally bouncing in excitement again as they walked up the block. Ward wanted to roll his eyes but resisted; he was determined to embrace this evening with sincerity.
As they neared the warm lights and handmade decorations on the windows of the orphanage, a small cat stepped into Ward's path and sat on the sidewalk before him. As he approached, it looked at him. He looked back at it. Danny looked back and forth between them both. "Huh, it's kind of like a mini you. That's really cute."
The cat looked eerily similar to his costume: the same black, white, and orange markings, the same fluffy white belly, the same black ears.
Ward crouched down in front of the cat, his tail flopping down by his booty-covered feet. The cat still stared at him. He cautiously reached out a gloved hand. At first, it looked like it wouldn't react, but then it seemed to make its own mind up and headbutted his fingers. Ward scritched the top of its head in amazement and wondered at this night.
The cat purred.
"Good kitty," Ward whispered to the cat.
The cat headbutted his hand one last time, as if to say goodbye, and then walked back the way it had come. Ward stood up and looked toward the orphanage entrance.
"So what's your plan?"
Ward glanced at Danny. "Uh…" He realized he hadn't thought through what showing up at a children's home on the evening of Halloween would actually entail. He tried to imagine what a bunch of kids without families might enjoy. It was a thought process that brought up a lot of uncomfortable feelings for him. "We could tell them a story?"
Somehow Danny managed to light up even brighter at the idea. He was like sunshine covered in a rabbit costume. The thought made Ward snort in amusement. He headed toward the doorway with newfound confidence.
As they entered the building, they were immediately met with a stern-looking woman who blocked their path, looking their costumes up and down. Her name badge said, 'Sylvia.' "The Halloween parade was this afternoon. You're late."
Sylvia looked unflappable, but Ward knew he had to try. "Is it too late even for an announcement of the newly endowed Rand Enterprises Children's Home?" Ward resisted the urge to waggle his eyebrows.
She scrunched her face a bit at Ward's pledge but didn't budge. "You can come back tomorrow. The children are about to go to sleep."
Danny edged closer to her and smiled, his eyes big. Ward wondered then why he hadn't dressed as a puppy dog, but figured it would have maybe been too on the nose.
Danny looked guileless. "I'm Danny Rand and this is Ward Meachum. We meant to be here earlier but ran into some, um, complications that delayed us. We just wanted to pop in and say hi to the kids. We thought they would like our costumes."
Sylvia softened. Apparently Danny's earnestness could win anyone over. "Are you serious about the donation?"
Danny nodded vigorously. Ward had meant what he'd said. The whole point of the night was to raise money for kids; he figured they might as well cut through the bullshit and just do a direct donation that would hopefully make the orphans' lives a bit better.
"Alright, come with me." Sylvia led them down a hallway.
Ward whispered to Danny as they went, "I can't believe you lied to her about us being late."
Danny just smiled, but this time there was no naiveté, just satisfaction. "Everybody wins."
Ward realized Danny meant him as well as the kids. Danny was making sure that Ward's night, with all the risk of embarrassment and awkwardness, ended up a success. Sometimes Ward hated how well Danny knew him, but this wasn't one of those times.
As they opened the door to the children's play area, where the few kids lingering before getting ready for bed looked up and stared and him and Danny with wide eyes, Ward felt himself smile with utter sincerity and realized that he really was going to enjoy this. He sat down on the floor in their midst, carefully tucking his tail around him, as Danny crouched down next to him. Ward looked at them and said, "Hi kids, we've come to tell you a story."