Chapter Text
Jokul laughed high and shrill as his shadows chased the teenagers back towards their homes, and away from the cartons of eggs, toilet paper, and cans of spray paint they had dropped. Their fear was delicious, a true treat that he indulged in once or twice a year only.
There was a bitter nip to the cool autumn air, a sure sign that his other half was having fun scaring human children as well. It was almost midnight, so anyone left out wandering was fair game to the spirits of frost and dark, and there were a fair few of them on this night.
Jokul wasn’t sure exactly when Mischief Night had become a tradition, but he did know that the types who indulged in it were his fair prey. Jokul had taken to the harvest holiday with a vengeance, enjoying all the variations he could find and finding more and more of his ‘believers’, or humans who could see him, during this time of year.
Long shadow claws raked at the fleeing teenagers, catching slightly at their clothing and tugging, drawing out more screams and terror from the humans. It was delightful, and his voice wasn’t the only voice laughing in the wind.
Jokul let them escape as he traversed the shadows to the nearby roof where Jack waited for him.
“Having fun?” the winter sprite asked, mischief in his bright blue eyes as he watched the same humans fleeing Jokul.
“Well duh. I’m almost done for the night though, there aren’t many more people out and about and the ones that are there are doing the same thing I’m doing. I think I won't harass the lawmen though.” He said, nodding to the black and white car pulling down the street, no doubt summoned by reports of teenage screams.
“Probably a good choice. They’re just doing their jobs after all,” Jokul’s other half said with a nod, before grinning very brightly indeed. “I think Bunny’s waiting for us to get back. He said something about meeting up with the Guardians for some kind of fall party, since its right before North’s busy season and all.”
“But its in the middle of OUR busy season,” the Nightmare King whined, a little grumble in his throat as he glared up at the full moon watching the proceedings ‘serenely’. He was still cranky with the cantankerous old bastard.
“I don’t think North even realizes that we’ve laid claim to All Hallows and the associated holidays,” Jack said thoughtfully, glancing upwards at the moon as well. “I’m pretty sure he would be more nervous around us if he knew. Because he’s responsible that way and we’re ‘young’.”
“Also, I’m still, well me.” Jokul knew his words would make Jack flinch even before he spoke, but he said them anyways, a little bit peeved at the fact that any of the time he had claimed over the humans was being diverted to something else.
“I’m enjoying their fear just as much, you know,” Jack growled, glaring before he rolled his eyes dramatically. “Come on. I’m pretty sure Aster has something special planned for tonight after the party.”
The lascivious look combined with his waggling eyebrows made Jack look extremely funny, and Jokul couldn’t help the burst of laughter that he let out at the sight.
“It had better be something good. Or I’ll mutiny. I’ve got a whole fleet of Nightmares, so don’t think I won't follow through.”
“I promise, its something good,” the frost sprites statement was accompanied by rolling eyes, but it was certainly enough to get Jokul into a downright jovial mood.
“Right then. What are we waiting for? We’ve got the engraved invitation, right? Lets go!”
Aster grinned as his two lovers arrived at the North Pole, taking in the sight of them both, so similar and yet so very different.
Jack rode the wind, his staff leaving trails of frost on all objects nearby as he came in for his landing, his silver hair mussed and tastefully disheveled. He had taken a liking to simple clothes, wearing a dark blue hooded sweater in one of the newer styles, and a pair of pants whose simplicity was belied by the way they curved and fit tight to every inch of the boy’s long legs. With his pale, almost luminescent skin and bright blue eyes, he was a vision of winter personified.
On the other hand, Jokul rode in on one of his prized nightmares, frost ferns covering her from nose to tail. He had done something to his black hair so that it was much longer than Jack’s, brushing his shoulders in a more tame, cultured do than his other half’s. Where Jack wandered around in a sweater and pants, Jokul’s clothes looked like they had actually been tailored for him. A pair of black slacks were topped by an immaculate dark blue button up shirt that matched his mischievous eyes to the perfect hue. With the pale blue tint to his skin and the hint of fangs in his smile, he looked like a modern vampire from one of those trashy teen novels that the boys had been bringing back to the warren lately to laugh about.
It was hard not to compare the two boys, but if Jack was a bright winter day playing in the snow, then Jokul was the deadly winter night under a dark storm cloud.
The delightful part was that they were both his mates, something that still amazed him whenever he thought about it. He still wasn’t sure what they saw in a tired old Pooka like him, but he was never going to be the one to push them away.
“Hey’ya Kangaroo!” The snow sprite grinned and bounded over to him even as Jokul dismounted from his Nightmare and sauntered casually over. “You didn’t start the party without us did you?”
“Nah. The party wouldn’t be complete without you starkers little drongos anyways,” the Easter Bunny said with his own grin, pulling Jack into a hug before reaching out and snagging Jokul as well. It might have been greedy, but he wanted his paws on both of them whenever he could get them.
Not that they spent much time apart unless they were busy with their duties.
“Hows the harvest festival work going?” He asked, knowing full well what his mates were up to, Jack with his work painting the leaves and encouraging plants to ripen, and Jokul with his self appointed tasks involving the harvest festivals.
“Pretty good actually,” Jack stated, although his nightmare half simply scowled and glared.
“What he means, is pretty good for being interupted the day before my big night!” The Nightmare King grumbled and glowered, but Aster caught a hint of smirk in his tone and face. “I’ve got so many plans and there’s this thing down in New Orleans that has promise. Not to mention the sheer number of ‘haunted’ houses I wanted to, well lets just say I’ve been adding my own touches here and there.”
The smirk was full blown now, reaching the boy’s dark blue eyes and seeming to light them up from within in a way that made Aster’s loins tight.
Then again, both Jokul and Jack excelled at getting him worked up, whether they meant to or not. He had finally come to terms with it about a decade after they got together and the other Guardians found out about Jokul’s Nightmare shard status. They had all approached him when he wasn’t around his lovers, asking him if the boy was really stable.
Aster had always had the same answer for them, that he had never met anyone who tried so hard to hide such a tender, fragile, caring heart. For all that the boy put on airs about being evil, Aster trusted him around the human children as much as he trusted anyone, including himself.
“Мои друзья на воздушной подушке здание! Come in, come in! We are starting party soon! Tooth and Baby Tooth have already arrived, and Sandy is on way! Yeti have laid out spread for the ages and although elves are still under boot, they are less annoying than usual!” North bellowed, interrupting Aster just as he was contemplating skipping the party entirely and absconding with his lovers back to the Warren for some quality time together.
“North…” Aster kept it mostly under his breath, but both of the Frost boys heard, smirking and giggling as was their habit. “You bloody galah, what’s the rush?”
“I am thinking that if I do not bring you into party room, Пасхальный заяц and Frost boys will disappear.” The knowing twinkle in North’s eyes would have made a lesser being blush, but as the boys had a distinct lack of shame when it came to their lover, and Aster had plenty of fur to hide it, no one saw a thing.
“Yea yea, lets get going then. The sooner we get the party started, the sooner we’ll see Baby Tooth!” Jack said enthusiastically, bounding ahead of the Christmas Guardian and the Easter Guardian.
The party went about as well as it possibly could have considering who was attending and the available entertainments. Jokul and Baby Tooth had disappeared almost immediately, but Jack knew they had spent a lot of time in the rafters plotting together. Of course, Jack had nothing to do with the patches of ice laid down for yeti and elves in places where, although it would get annoying after a while, it was amusing to watch them slip and slide here and there.
He certainly had nothing to do with the way that the reindeer were all loose in the main workshop, knocking things over and nibbling on any food that had been carelessly left out. Of course, since there wasn’t supposed to be food on the workshop floor in the first place after that debacle a decade ago, he also had nothing to do with that.
However he would admit to being the driving force behind keeping North and the others busy so they didn’t notice all these little things he had nothing to do with.
It only made things more hilarious when North noticed all the little things adding up to a mess of proportions that made Jack proud. Tooth and Sandy had both been watching the mess stack up instead of alerting North to it, and Jack was certain that both of them were giggling as North made his way through the mess, organizing yeti and elves to get started cleaning up. When he found out that half the Yeti were iced to their work places, he turned on Jack with a furious glint in his eyes.
That was the frost spirit’s cue to get out of there, and there was no way he wasn’t making Jokul take the fall with him. His staff caught the Nightmare King’s leg, dragging him out of the shadows in the rafters as North barreled after both of them, shouting incomprehensible Russian.
Jack had no idea why he seemed to be shouting about purple eels and giant dodo birds, but then again his grasp of Russian still wasn’t that good even after one or two lessons with Grandfather Winter.
Baby Tooth had peeled off long ago, North still chasing after Jack and Jokul, which was actually making a bigger mess than the pranks that Jokul and Baby Tooth had pulled. It made Jokul cackle like a mad man, and they made several passes through the workshop with North hot behind them before something landed on both of them, pushing them down into a tunnel that they hadn’t even seen open up.
Jack was still giggling when he turned into Aster’s grip, dropping a kiss on the leoporidae’s nose. The pooka’s hole had closed up almost as soon as the three of them had dropped into it, and there wasn’t so much of a mess that the other three guardians wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“Did you see his face when we pushed Phil behind us to slow him down?” Jokul was giggling even harder than Jack was, wiggling out of the tangle of limbs to drape himself over Aster’s back, nuzzling into the Pooka’s neck. “I can’t believe he got so worked up.”
“Christmas is only a few months away,” Aster said, and Jack grinned as he nuzzled into Aster’s neck from the front. “He gets as stressed out about that as I do about Easter… Ooohh… cold hands.”
Aster’s voice was definitely not a complaint as Jack and Jokul’s hands carded through his fur, over his ribs and down his long sides.
“Then he shouldn’t have thrown his party on Mischief Night.” Jokul growled, and Jack shuddered, nuzzling into Aster again. “Now… I was promised a reward for coming.”
“A reward….? Strewth! You wrecked the workshop, turned the reindeer loose, and I don’t know what you did to Baby Tooth but she was so wired last time I saw her that she was vibrating in Tooth’s hands. Vibrating. I know the little sheila has a lot of energy, but she was seriously buzzing.” Aster’s voice was a breathy moan, especially as Jack’s lips found their way to his chin, the winter sprite nuzzling the Pooka as distractingly as he could.
He was indeed rewarded for his efforts when the Pooka lost his train of thought, capturing Jack’s lips in a deep kiss. The Pooka tasted like sunshine and earth, something growing and green and oh so exotic to Jack’s senses. He teased and kissed deeply, the pooka’s long tongue stroking in and out of Jack’s mouth making the boy want more, only to release Jack as Jokul started growling and submitting the other Frost boy to the same treatment.
He wasn’t supposed to get jealous, but Jack still nipped at Aster’s shoulder when he felt like the other two had been kissing too long. Not that he had a valid reason to complain, Aster had been making short work of both his clothes and Jokul’s, systematically stripping both boys as they kissed.
Feeling warm fur against his cold skin, soft in all the right places without being in the way when he reached forward to stroke his lover, was pure heaven. He reached around Aster, determined that he was going to help make his other half nude as well. It was fairplay after all, hands, paws, mouths, teeth all working in tandem.
It wasn’t long until they were all in the same state of undress, and between skin only slightly warmer than his own and Aster’s heavenly fur, Jack certainly wasn’t going to be holding out for very long.
Mischief Night.
It was such a perfect time to start, with so many tasty little morsels trying to convince themselves that they weren’t afraid. Or worse, enjoying their fear.
“Come on Pippa! Look at the ghosts and spiders they decorated with!” One enthusiastic little morsel was saying, dragging his friend along. A whole group of them were wandering around looking at the decorations, enjoying a time that should have been fear and hard work. Planning the optimal ‘trick or treating’ routes.
These puny humans should have been terrified that they wouldn't be able to harvest enough to survive the coming winter. They should have feared the monsters that would come through the dark and devour them in their sleep, the horrors that would maim them and leave them worse off than dead.
Yes, they would learn to fear again, starting with this one who was so excited. Crimson smoke, unseen and un-heeded caressed the boy’s face even as his friend called out to him.
“Slow down Jamie! I cant keep up.” She said it with laughter in her voice, laughter that would soon enough turn to screams of terror.