It took Colin a moment to realise that yes, it was his best friend standing in front of him, and not some other child dressed in a miniature replica of Nightwing's costume.

Damian was in the process of walking up to one of the many houses that lined the street, a semi-full bag of Halloween candy dangling by his side. Colin continued to watch for a moment, before hurrying over.

"Damian!"

Damian turned around. Colin half expected him to flush in embarrassment, or start stammering out excuses, but his friend simply watched him calmly, and raised his free hand in greeting.

"What are you doing here?" Colin asked when he'd finally caught up. "I thought you said you weren't coming trick or treating."

Colin had asked him the previous week, in the hopes that Damian would be coming. Some of the kids at the orphanage had organised to go in a group, but Colin wasn't close friends with any of them. Damian had quickly defused any hope of that happening, telling him that under no circumstances would be participating in such a childish, meaningless holiday.

"Please," Damian scoffed, "I am not 'trick or treating.' This is a top secret mission."

Colin stared.

"It's true," Damian insisted. "I would never agree to something so childish as trick or treating without good reason. You see, Grayson informed me of something troubling — some of these sweets have been tampered with. A plot has been hatched, Colin, and someone means to use the children of Gotham for their nefarious plans."

Colin's eyes widened in alarm. "What?"

Damian nodded. "Yes. Grayson provided me a list of the suspected neighbourhoods. Within these, there is one individual who plans to use this holiday to their own advantage. The sweets that they will be handing out have been tampered with — and anyone who eats them will be under their control."

Colin's mouth opened in shock.

"Yes. They intend to brainwash these children, and use them for god knows what." Damian's expression darkened. "They may be a bunch of mindless fools with no real futures ahead of them, but I cannot simply stand by and let this happen."

"No of course not," Colin agreed, nodding quickly. "We need to do something!"

"I have it under control," Damian assured him. "Grayson said we simply need to visit all these houses, collect sweets from each one, and then analyse them once we return home. Once we have identified the culprit, we will head to the GCPD precinct, and inform them of the problem."

Colin nodded. It sounded like a good plan. He wasn't too happy about working on Halloween, but he was Abuse now, and that meant he couldn't just stand by if there were people in trouble.

"I'll help," he told Damian. Damian nodded his head approvingly.

Colin glanced briefly at Damian's costume and added, "I like your costume, by the way."

Damian immediately flushed and averted his gaze. "Grayson made me wear it," he muttered. "It looks ridiculous, but apparently it was the only thing he could scrounge up on short notice." He snorted. "Personally, I just think he's a conceited moron."

Colin shrugged. He thought Damian's big brother was actually pretty cool, but he was pretty sure Damian already knew that.

The two boys glanced at each other, nodded firmly, and made their way over to the next house.

...

Dick watched Damian and his friend head towards yet another house, and bit back an excited squeal. Sure, he'd made up a few lies along the way, but they were for a good cause. He was sure Damian wouldn't be too mad when he told him the truth — that there was no 'top secret mission', and he'd really been spending the past hour or so trick or treating.

…Well. He was sure his little brother would have some fun, especially now that Colin was there too. And he'd have heaps of candy. What wasn't there to love about that?

He'd have to take a picture later as well, because there was no way he wasn't preserving the memory of Damian in a Nightwing costume (and boy, that had taken a lot of convincing), looking like the adorable kid he was.

He watched Damian and Colin walk up to another house, and heard a chorus of "trick or treat" when the door opened. He bit back a grin; oh yeah, this was so worth it.

...

AN:

This is the second fic in my Halloween collection. Hope you enjoyed it! :D