Día de los Muertos, by holde_maid (PG)

[unovis.livejournal.com]

Title: Día de los Muertos
Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: Duncan/OFC
Author: holde_maid
Author Website: My Realm of Relative Innocence
Why this must be read:
For the last rec of the month, a semi-ghost story. It's also a Duncan story, and very believable: guilt, tenderness, caution, responsibility, sentimentality -- core attributes of MacLeod that can so easily be overdone, but when handled right show the hero and the man that we love.
Here, Duncan plays the part of a ghost on the Day of the Dead, visiting an old love. It's shivery and warming at once, perfect for the season and the festival.

A taste of skull candy:

Duncan MacLeod drifted along through the rows and rows of gaudily adorned graves. Children’s graves with balloons. A mother’s grave with red and yellow zempasúchil, a local marigold variety. An old man’s grave with two large candles and a pipe wrapped in plastic to shield it from the rain. A family tomb decorated with baby-blue bands, papier maché skeletons and something that looked suspiciously like a cake.

The colours might not shine the most brightly in the rain, but they rendered the graveyard incongruously cheery. Besides, the rain kept the flowers fresh. Their petals were smooth and young and full of life, mocking the skulls and skeletons.

Humans always found a way to defy death, or at least their fear of it. During the dark long nights of autumn and winter, the fear was the greatest and called for festivities with an urgency of its own. Here in Mexico, they celebrated the Day of the Dead. Raunächte, Samhain, Hallow E’en, it did not matter what you called it. It was always about fear, and hope.

Día de los Muertos