October 31st

There's a chill of frost in the autumn air, a breath of the inevitable winter that follows Jack as he flies through the streets, grinning at the smiles on the faces of the little superheroes and princesses running from door to door with plastic pumpkins bobbing. Jack swoops between buildings, through a playground that stands abandoned, the equipment glistening faintly with this afternoon's rain in the failing light. A few drops freeze as he soars past. His powers are growing stronger here as the year turns towards winter, but he still has to concentrate to freeze much.

The wind blows itself out at the edge of a patch of trees overhanging a sidewalk, sweeping Jack over the fence surrounding the park and letting him down lightly on the cracked concrete before howling off to spiral a few stray leaves down the street. Jack grins, and leans on his staff, watching as a gaggle of witches who barely come up to his knee shriek and laugh as they dash away from the dust devil, their hands clasped as they run.

"Nice night, isn't it?" he asks, without turning to look, as a shadow detaches from the patch of dark under the trees behind him and slides through the chain-link fence like smoke.

"Beautiful," Jamie agrees, smiling as shadow pours off of him and into the streets. The dust devil whirls back into life, and the little witches scream delightedly, their small feet slapping against the pavement as they run up the walkway to the next lighted house.

At last, Jack looks over. His grin grows wider at the sight of the smile on Jamie's face, and a spark of mischief steals its way in. "Got big plans for tonight?"

"You're a bad influence," Jamie says, but the look he turns in Jack's direction is knowing, winking, like he's in on the joke. "Actually, I was going to stop by and see how Sophie's doing."

"You mean you're going to pop out at her when she's least expecting it and scare the pants off of her," Jack says, and Jamie shrugs, glancing up at the trees with an expression that's entirely too innocent.

"What are big brothers for?"

Jack laughs, and Jamie laughs with him. Somewhere in the sunset suburb, a crow croaks hoarsely, and the jack-o'-lanterns nearest them flicker.

"You do have something big planned for your first Halloween as the Boogeyman, though, right?" Jack asks, and Jamie's smile falters slightly, his shrug a little too tight.

"I really just have to be there for it to be good. Cast a few creepy shadows, appear out of the corners of a few people's eyes…"

"Yeah, but don't tell me you don't want to have some fun with it!" Jack laughs, leaping lightly up to perch on the crook of his staff. "Come on, I know you're not usually this much of a killjoy."

Jamie looks up at Jack, but he doesn't say anything before blowing out a breath and turning back to face the street. The asphalt shimmers wetly under the feet of excited children in a rainbow of costumes.

When he finally does speak, it's both not at all what Jack was expecting to hear and exactly what Jack was expecting to hear. "Is Pi- is Lord Pitch still - ?"

It's Jack's turn to shrug, though his is much broader and less nervous than Jamie's. "Mother Nature's still chewing me out for dumping him on her every time we cross paths, so yeah, probably."

Jamie relaxes visibly, his shoulders settling as he shakes his head.

"Hey," Jack says, reaching over to poke Jamie in the shoulder, and Jamie flops his head back to give Jack an annoyed stare. "You know you're not going to end up like him."

"No, I don't," Jamie says sharply, and Jack's face falls. He blows out a huff of breath, whispering 'whoo boy' as he does.

"Remember what Manny said? Well, okay, Manny never really says much, but what he showed us in the crystal? Pitch was already a genocidal rage-machine before the dark got to him, it just brought the worst of it out. Ever wanted to wipe out a whole species because you were having a bad day?" Jack teases, and Jamie rolls his eyes. But he's smiling again, however grudgingly, and Jack puffs out his chest just slightly with pride. His first believer, his best friend, shouldn't be sulking and worrying on his big day.

"That could be me, though," Jamie says, so softly that Jack almost doesn't hear him at first. "I – when I thought he was going to hurt Sophie. I just wanted to blot him out -"

"You didn't," Jack interrupts.

"But I wanted to."

"Buuuuuut you didn't." Jack leans back precariously on his staff, stretching and yawning with exaggerated care. "Pitch is just a big grumpy murderous weirdo, no matter what he's calling himself. And you're still Jamie Bennett, even if you're a little less colourful these days."

"You really think it's that simple?" Jamie asks, but his smile, however small, looks genuine. Jack shrugs again, flipping up into a one-handed handstand on the crook of his staff. "Jack!" There's admiration and delight mixed into the exasperation in Jamie's voice, and Jack grins to himself before tumbling down to land on his bare feet on the sidewalk.

"Why not?" Jack tosses his staff carelessly up across his shoulders, hooking both wrists over it. "Now. Am I gonna have to snowflake you to get you to pull some awesome Halloween tricks with me?"

Jamie gives a long-suffering sigh, but he's still smiling as he turns back to Jack, the corners of his eyes crinkling with mischief. "Well…there is this urban legend doing the rounds around here. Something to do with playing hide-and-seek with dolls."

Jack matches his smile. "We can work with that."

Brown and orange leaves rattle like dry bones down the street as they step back and melt into the dark, the wind setting the trees tossing and whispering. All along the street, jack-o'-lantern grins flicker, candle flames guttering, casting their shivering glow over the gathering dark throughout the suburb.

Overhead, in the deepening twilight blue of the sky, a pumpkin-round, pumpkin-orange full moon winks down through the trees.

A/N: It's finished! I could never have anticipated the response that this fic got. I'd like to say a special thanks to CafCow and Anne Camp/obi-quiet for the incredible art they made for this fic, but I also want to thank everyone who read it, everyone who left a review (or two, or more), and especially everyone who stuck around despite my increasingly glacial updating pace. Without you and your encouragement, this probably would have been abandoned as a WIP two or three chapters in.

It's been incredible, guys. Thank you.