Chris loved Halloween, loved it the way everyone else loved Christmas. He laughed when Justin would roll his eyes and refuse to help put up decorations, enlisting JC's help to tack things up near the ceiling. Starting at the end of September, he'd insist on midnight stops at Target and buy light up pumpkins and fake spiderwebs and anything that made scary chuckle noises when brushed by or stepped on.

Justin swore off Halloween the first time he stepped out of the bathroom, sleepy eyed and intent on finding coffee and stepped on a small plastic mat that cackled and booed. He fell backward onto JC, screeching and suddenly too awake.

Chris barely escaped when Justin chased him around, waving a small gourd with a scary pumpkin face painted on it,. It took JC stepping in between the two of them, arms outstretched. "Justin, man, Chris will unplug it, right Chris?"

Chris nodded, reluctantly of course, and refused to unplug the small Frankenstein Monster that hung from the ceiling and shook. Justin really hated Halloween.

Chris loved decorations, loved Halloween parties and getting dressed up in real costumes.

Justin laughed at him for that too, when Chris sat and pondered costume choices. "You spend your whole life in costumes, yo." He smiled though. "I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle once. My mom bought the mask and this plastic coversheet thing from the drugstore because she didn't want to waste time sewing."

When Chris just looked at him, Justin backed away. "I was the smart turtle."

Chris stopped asking Justin for advice, paging through costume booklets and asking JC instead, even though he never listened to what he suggested. JC loved the pretty pastel princess costumes.

He'd point at the fairy ensembles. "Chris, you'd look so sweet with little wings. You could be an elf. Like something out of Shakespeare."

Chris always batted the catalogues out of his hands and pointed toward Darth Maul or Grim Reaper costumes. JC would frown and try to make him look at the pretty outfits again. Chris would wind up with something in between, living in mortal fear of the day that JC would talk him into being a princess or a fairy or something.

"I'm short, C. Doesn't mean I wanna wear wings and answer to Oberon." He also unequivocally refused the kelly green leprechaun costume. "Real men don't wear green tights."

Most of all, Chris loved Halloween because it was his excuse to go on binges of extremely bad horror movies. He had a carefully cultivated collection of terrible examples of the horror genre, and he insisted that it wouldn't truly be Halloween without watching Jason gore teenagers or Freddy scrape his fingernails down a wall menacingly.

Justin flat out refused to watch them. "The blood looks fake, the acting sucks and I can't stand that Jason dude. Like, he doesn't die, doesn't die, and then suddenly, boom, it's an hour and forty five minutes and he goes down."

"Yeah, but freaky movies with animated snowmen and singing reindeer are cool."

Chris turned to JC. "Jayce, wouldn't you rather watch a movie about a cool slasher dude, with razorblade fingernails than a stupid green guy who tortures his dog?"

JC examined his fingernails, startled, almost like he was expecting to see razorblades suddenly sprouting. He looked up, Chris and Justin focused on him. "I kinda like 'The Empire Strikes Back' myself."

JC was sweetly tolerant of Chris's enthusiasm, staying back on the bus when Chris asked him to. He smiled when Lance and Joey teased him, shrugging and mumbling something about popcorn and Chris wanting him to watch movies.

Chris was practically bouncing when he pulled JC over to the rack of movies. Gesturing magnaminously, he announced, "You can pick the first one!"

JC gulped a little, looking at the racks of cases, with dripping blood spelling out the titles and knives, axes and stakes prominently featured on their fronts. He examined the videos carefully, finally whooping and plucking one out to present to Chris.

Chris dropped it to the floor. "JC. We are not watching 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'! That was a joke gift from Lance. Pick a good one, or I'll do it for you!"

JC closed his eyes and poked at a movie, hoping that it was campy, not terrifying.

Chris chortled. "Nice choice, C. Halloween III."

"Those are the ones with Micheal Myers?"

"Well, technically, yeah. But this one is... Um, it's different." He tucked the tape into the VCR, dimmed the lights and patted the seat beside him. "You'll see."

JC plopped down, and watched spellbound, humming along with the catchy jingle for Silver Shamrock masks. He turned to look at Chris, "This isn't so scary is it?"

"Just wait."

An hour later, JC had crept closer and closer, until he was clutching at Chris's sleeve, his blanket tucked tightly around him. One hand covered his eyes and he whimpered. "Chris. Just tell me. Do they stop this warlock guy?"

He dropped the hand, and buried his face in Chris's shoulder when snakes and bugs erupted from one of the transformed kids. Chris put an arm around JC, sneaking part of his blanket and patting him on the shoulder. "It'll be okay. Look. It's a happy moment."

JC looked at the screen, which just happened to be playing a particularly gory bit, smacking Chris and hiding his face again. He watched the rest hidden against Chris, hand over his face for extra coverage during the end.

When Halloween III ended, Chris stretched happily and grinned at JC. "Wasn't it cool? Huh? It's old too. Like. Neat special effects, right?"

Chris hopped up, dislodging JC, who was staring in horror at the blank screen. "Chris, man, I'm gonna be singing that 'two more days til halloween, halloween, halloween' song for the next three weeks. And I'm gonna cringe every time I do." He blinked suspiciously at Chris's back. "And they didn't even save 'em all."

Chris turned, pulling a video out of the rack and tossing Halloween III on the floor. "It's okay, Jayce. We'll watch Nightmare on Elm Street now. No more psychological horror, okay? Just Freddy, the coolest horror movie freak ever."

JC squeaked and tucked the blanket up around his chin. He didn't even wait until the movie started to snuggle up to Chris. By the time Freddie killed the first girl, he was almost sitting in Chris's lap. Every time he jumped, Chris would pet his arm and laugh a little down in his chest, eyes glued to the movie that played on the television screen.

"Hey, you okay?" Chris patted JC again, suddenly conscious of how close he was sitting, and feeling just a little bit bad that he was obviously terrified.

JC pulled his face out of Chris's arm with obvious reluctance, looking up at Chris, his eyelashes shadowing his eyes. "I just. I know they're just movies. They just. Scare me, y'know. I snuck over to a friends house and watched the first Friday the Thirteenth after my mom forbade me to see it." He shuddered in remembrance. "I had nightmares for two weeks."

Chris nodded, looking away from JC. "Yeah. I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre and. Yeah. Nightmares for days."

JC picked that moment to look toward the screen, just as a fountain of blood erupted on the screen. He jumped, shrieked and clutched at Chris.

Chris looked down, ready to make a joke about jumpy boys, when JC looked up at him, eyes wide and mouth open just a little and Chris leaned down and kissed him.

Chris tensed, expected JC to push him away, but instead JC moved closer, snaking a hand up to cup his face while he licked at Chris's mouth. Chris didn't stop kissing JC until they were both gasping and JC was running a hand up and down his side.

JC pulled back, a little smile on his face. "Um. I might have nightmares tonight."

Chris tangled his hand in JC's hair, leaning in to nip at JC's earlobe. "Well, maybe I could sleep, mmmm. Near you. And I could wake you up if you did have, um. Nightmares."

JC just laughed and shut the movie off, pulling Chris toward his bunk. "Yeah. We'll have to watch Friday the Thirteenth soon."

Chris stumbled, caught himself and mumbled, "I've got all of 'em" When JC just laughed and pulled him down onto the bed, Chris really really liked Halloween.

~end~.