Chapter Text
You're a witch. That's been a fact about you ever since you were little and first learned the craft, wide-eyed and curious even as a kid. As a witch, you require many ingredients to do your spells, and tonight is a perfect night to gather a few important ones.
Your boots add a comfortable and familiar weight to your steps as you walk through the pumpkin patch. It's only a few miles from your house and tends to be full of good ingredients to collect. You even brought a basket with you, ready to get as much as you could out of your trip.
Your hat bounced slightly as you walked. Sure, the classic witch's hat might be a bit cheesy to wear as an actual witch, but you've always had a love for spooky attire. Plus, you'd enchanted the charms on it with all sorts of protection spells and other such things, so having it on kept you safer when you were out alone!
You went to a few different spots in the pumpkin patch, finding all sorts of things to put in your basket. Some cobwebs clinging to the side of a large pumpkin, a few blossoms from the pumpkin vines that hadn't grown along with all the rest, and even a few discarded crow feathers!
Soon you found yourself plucking some mushrooms from the cobblestone fence that surrounded the pumpkin patch. You were careful not to take too many so more could grow later.
“Shouldn't you be asleep?”
You flinched and looked up as a mischievous voice called out above you. To your surprise, a strange creature was crouched on top of the fence looking down at you. He had a pumpkin face, split in two different colors. His face even looked like a carved jack-o-lantern with spiky teeth and hollow eyes. His slit pupils were attached to the edges of his eyes, only furthering the look. The insides of his eyes and mouth glowed like he had a candle inside. His body was similarly two-toned and split down the middle. He was wearing a green patched up shawl and cloak held together by a pumpkin charm, and a little bell at the end of the long tail of the hood. He had baggy tan pants that were similarly patched up and had green, pumpkin leaf-like ruffles on the waist and bottom of the pants legs. To complete his look, he had funny little green shoes with bells at the ends.
“Staring is rude, you know~” He teased, making you snap out of it and blush. You huffed as you got over your shock. You should be careful. Even as a witch, you could never be too cautious around monsters and spirits.
“This is the perfect time to collect ingredients without the townsfolk seeing me, so it doesn't matter if I should be in bed or not.” You went back to collecting mushrooms as he watched with his strange glowing eyes. He leaned forward a bit to get a better look at you. With a glance up you could see three spikes coming from the top of his head, creating a strange shape in his hood.
“Oh? So you're a brave little witch ignoring their bedtime? Don't you know coming out at night makes you an easy catch for monsters that prowl in the dark?” His grin widens. You expect he's trying to scare you, but you just finish collecting your mushrooms and stand to face him at full height.
“I'm a ‘brave little witch’ for a reason. Any monster who wants to snatch me up would quickly find it much harder than expected.” You challenge him with a hard look. He looks very amused at this. He hops off the wall and stands up, towering over you even as he slouches.
“Well it's a pleasure to meet such a strong and clever witch such as yourself. What's your name, little witch?” He asks, leaning over you with a playful tilt to his head.
“Why don't you tell me yours first, and then I'll tell you mine. An equal trade, if you will?” You proposed, not risking getting tricked by this strange pumpkin man.
“Very well. My name is Jack.” He held out a hand to shake. Heh, funny, Jack like jack-o-lantern. You looked him up and down, cautious but deciding that there's no reason to be rude. You tell him your name as you shake his hand and give him a small smile.
You get home a bit late that night.
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It's been a few days since you met Jack, not seeing him again after that night. Currently you were watering your garden. You grew all sorts of herbs and flowers to use in your spells and potions, though some were just pretty and for decoration. You smiled as you watered some lavender until something quite strange happened.
“Good morning!” A voice called your name, making you pause and look over. Jack was there leaning against the fence of your garden, though he looked a bit different, and definitely sounded different.
He mostly looked the same, save for the fact he had his hood down and those spikes from before circled his face entirely like the rays of the sun. His face was no longer lit up, looking more like an unlit jack-o-lantern during the day. You supposed that part made sense, as it was daytime right now. The part that confused you were the spikes and his voice.
“Good morning Jack. What brings you to my house?” You asked him, an eyebrow raised as you walked closer to him. He smiled and the spikes swayed side to side for a moment, surprising you. You thought those were stuck in place, but it looks like you were wrong.
“Close, but not quite! I'm not Jack!” He told you, making you step back a bit in alarm. He noticed and quickly waved his hands to pacify you.
“Oh, no, no, don't worry! I'm Jack's friend! My name is Lantern! I got curious after he told me about you and I wanted to come meet you myself!” He quickly said, seeming worried about scaring you off. You were a bit skeptical, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Well, it's nice to meet you Lantern. I was just watering my garden, so I don't know how interesting I'll be, but you can stick around for a bit if you want.” You told him. He beamed at that, watching as you went back to your work.
You spent the rest of your day talking to Lantern about all sorts of things as you did your chores. He was surprisingly good at keeping the conversation going, and you ended up having a great time with your new acquaintance.
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Jack insisted on walking with you tonight as you went into the woods to stock up on some more ingredients. Something about how you never know what kind of dangers lurk at night. Really, it just made you laugh at how eager he seemed to come with you. You'd been spending a lot of time with the two pumpkin monsters lately, growing to enjoy their company. You came to learn Jack only came out at night while Lantern showed up during the day.
“Of course Halloween is my favorite time, all that free candy from frightened humans!” Jack says playfully, making a pose where he’s pretending to be scaring someone. You smile and nod along. You’ve always had mixed feelings on the holiday. The vibes were amazing, and the candy was definitely a plus, but it was much more dangerous when it came to the supernatural.
“Makes sense. You seem like the type to be addicted to candy~” You tease, giggling at the look he gives you. You take his hand as he helps you step over a log. “You’re not very scary though, I can’t believe anyone would give you candy out of fear.” You stick your tongue out at him. He looks at you with a jokingly offended gasp, putting a hand to his chest.
“I’m plenty scary! You’re just weird.” He huffs, making you smile. You pause and pluck a few berries off a nearby bush and put them in your basket.
“Sure you are, pumpkin man. I’m so scared~” You hum, knowing he’s got that silly smile even when you’re not even looking at him. You turn to look at him only to see he’s gone. You look around and frown. “Jack, you know I didn’t mean anything by it. Where did you go?”
You jump when you hear a stick break, looking around for the source. You shudder and flinch when you feel something trail up your back. You spin around and stumble back into a tree as a hand slams against the trunk next to your head.
“Boo~” Jack hisses, his bright smile stretching across his face. You take a moment, heart beating wildly, to notice who exactly was cornering you. You got over your shock and huffed, slapping Jack’s chest as he began to giggle at your reaction.
“Jack! You fiend! What if I dropped my basket? Then we’d have to pick everything back up!” You pout. He only smirks as he leans back and gives you space.
“You have to admit I'm scary now, little witch. I could hear your heart pounding in your chest.” He boops your nose, pulling back as you try to bite his finger. You puff your cheeks out and walk around him.
“You’re the worst, Jack.”
“You know you like me anyway~”
You try your best to look upset but can’t hold it for long before you devolve into giggles, turning to smile at your friend. He laughs with you, offering you a hand and begins leading you home.
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You hum as you pull the cookie sheet out of the oven, setting it on the cooling rack and shutting the oven door. You pull the oven mitts off and set them on the counter before going to look into your living room to check on your visitor.
Lantern was sitting on the floor waving around a cat toy for your beloved familiar. Soot, or as you liked to call him sometimes, Sir Sootington Fluffybottom, was a black cat with pretty green eyes and crooked little whiskers. He had been a stray you rescued from the alleys in town. It always broke your heart that black cats were treated with disdain just because of superstition. Soot was a kindred spirit to you. He had taken to Lantern quick once you started letting the silly monster come into the house.
“Having fun?” You call out to the pumpkin man from the doorway to your kitchen. He perks up, looking at you with a happy smile.
“So much fun! Soot has so much energy! Thanks for letting me visit today, friend!” He swayed a bit as his spikes spun around his head in a motion you had learned meant he was very happy. It warmed your heart seeing your friend and your cat get along so well.
You came over to sit next to him. He leaned over to bump his head against yours lightly, a sign of affection he’d learned from Soot. Speaking of the cat, the fluffy little thing stopped playing to come curl up in your lap and start purring up a storm. You smiled softly and started petting him.
Lantern hugged your side and started purring as well, startling you. He can purr??? Since when??? Though…He is a monster, so it kind of makes sense for him to be able to do something like that. You decided to just go with the flow and lean into his touch, shutting your eyes and relaxing.
“The cookies will be cooled in a few minutes, would you like some?” You offered, not quite sure if he could even eat normal food.
“Of course!” He eagerly responded, nuzzling into you. Well, you guess that solves that. Pumpkin monsters can eat human food. Though now that you think about it, you remember Jack saying he liked candy. Your friends always manage to surprise you in little ways every time you see them.
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You were visiting the pumpkin patch again after Jack kept bugging you about it. You snicker and grin at him as you follow him to an empty circle in the patch.
“Will you finally tell me what this is all about Jack?” You ask as he finally stops. He has a soft, playful grin as he turns and offers you a hand in a gentlemanly pose.
“May I have this dance?” He asks, making you laugh in surprise.
“Jack, what?” You giggle at his antics as he tilts his head to the side and keeps his hand held out. The more time you spend with Jack, the more you learn how mischievous and absolutely silly he is, always getting up to some sort of shenanigans. You shake your head with a wide smile and take his hand. “Fine. Yes you may.” You tell him, wanting to see what he’s getting up to this time.
His smile brightens as he pulls you close. Your eyes widen a bit as he suddenly starts to sing. It’s a beautiful sound. You’d grown to like his voice of course, but you never expected he could sound so pretty. He began leading you in a dance as you realized the situation you were in. Here you were dancing with a monster in a pumpkin patch under the moonlight. It was a bit absurd, making you giggle as he twirled you around.
You ended up dancing with him through three more songs, his singing getting more energetic with each one until you were laughing breathlessly as you spun together and danced the night away. Once the song was over, you had to sit down on one of the pumpkins to catch your breath, your laughter mingling with his as you both calmed down. You both didn’t say anything, words not being needed, as he sat down next to you and put his head on his shoulder.
You both spent a while just sitting there looking up at the stars together, not wanting to leave the moment just yet.
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You hummed a quiet song as Lantern was wrapped around you like a big, silly, pumpkin flavored quilt. It had started storming quite bad outside a couple hours ago and you had rushed a sopping wet Lantern into your house to escape the rain. After warming him up with a nice hot drink and drying him off, you’d let him borrow some of your clothes until his dried.
He’d insisted on cuddling with you on the couch as the storm raged on outside, claiming to be scared of the thunder. You weren’t quite sure you believed him, but you didn’t mind his clinginess at all. He nuzzled into your hair and purred, happy to be safe and warm with you instead of out in the storm.
“What song is that, Pumpkin?” He asked you. Recently the boys had taken to calling you all sorts of little nicknames, though Lantern had grown fond of using Pumpkin especially.
“It’s a lullaby my grandmother used to sing to me as a kid.” You told him, reaching back to pet one of his spikes. You could feel his smile against you as his spikes wiggled a little in happiness.
“It’s very pretty. I like it.” He mumbles. Honestly, you’re a little surprised he’s still out instead of Jack. You guess all the candles all around your house are strong enough light to keep the daytime monster in control.
“Jack says you should sing for us sometime” He adds, making you blush a bit at the idea and laugh it off. “Maybe someday,” You say “But you haven’t unlocked that level of friendship yet.” You feel him giggle a bit at the joke.
“What level do we need to reach for that, Pumpkin?” He plays along with you. You pretend to think hard for a bit before you say “Level 30.”
“Are we not there already?!” He laughs, which makes you start to laugh too. You think you’ll enjoy waiting out the storm with Lantern quite a lot.