Rain fell from above, and with no umbrella to shield himself from it, Jack looked up. He didn't feel the rain against his skin, though, and didn't have to squint as it patterned around his eyes. He could feel the coolness of the air around him, winter already here. The first sign of this was that the community had already set festive lights around the lampposts and stoplights in the town.

He looked down the street. To his left he saw that some shops were still on, people with umbrellas or jackets briskly walking to get to their destination and avoid getting any wetter. A car carefully drove by, careful to not splash any water on the curb to any pedestrians. Jack wouldn't have minded, though; he loved feeling cold, absolutely hating the heat of summer.

Behind him, he heard the shop bell jingle as the door opened. He turned around to see Hiccup, Elsa, and Anna exiting the coffee shop, each of them with a hot beverage in hand. Hiccup had his usual hot chocolate, while Anna had come king of pumpkin latte stationed in her gloves. Elsa was the only one of them to have black coffee, not adding any cream or sugar. He ran to catch up with them as they left the coffee chop.

"Where to now?" he asked.

Anna spoke at the same time he did. "What next?"

"To be honest, I'm kinda tired," Hiccup said. He looked at the watch on his rest. "It's almost nine. I need to go to bed, I'm taking my flight back to Burgess early in the morning."

"And you and Anna are going back to Arendelle for the holidays this week, aren't you?" Jack asked his girlfriend.

Elsa nodded. "You've got a point. Let's just keep walking until we reach the intersection."

They chatted idly as the crosses the street, careful to not slip on the wet pavement. Anna mentioned that Kristoff would be seeing the people who raised him again. Elsa brought up that her child was learning how to sit up, the infant that he was. Hiccup added that the memorial service for his friend in Burgess would be over quickly.

"Maybe you can make something special for Jack when you get back," Elsa suggested. Out of all of them, Jack would be staying in Corona.

Hiccup smiled. "Yeah, maybe."

Once they reached the necessary intersection, they split up. The girls went in one direction, the boys in the other.

Jack and Hiccup walked together in silence, the latter taking occasional sips from his hot chocolate. He stopped for a moment to gaze into the window of a shop, making Jack backtrack a few steps when he realized his friend had fallen behind.

Inside the window of the bookstore, the display of a popular YA novel signed by the author was presented in a literal spotlight, higher and easier in sight than the other books that surrounded it.

"Remember when you published your book, Jack?" Hiccup said, not taking his eyes off the bright blue cover.

Jack smiled. "How could I forget? It was the same day Elsa told me she was pregnant." He snorted. "We weren't even engaged yet."

Hiccup didn't answer. He took another sip from his hot chocolate and sniffled. From where he stood, Jack saw that Hiccup was starting to cry again.

"Dude, it's okay," Jack reassured, knowing fully well that he couldn't hear him. "I'm right here."

Jack tried to rest his hand on Hiccup's shoulder, but just like all the other times he tried to do so, the hand fazed right through him like he wasn't even there.

"Elsa misses you a lot, Jack," Hiccup said quietly. He shook his head from these thoughts, turning back on his path and walking straight through Jack as he continued the way home.

Numbly following behind, Jack didn't even stop or flinch as a car crossed the street and went right through him. Hiccup made a stop at a pet store to pick up a little gift before exiting, Jack walking through the doors in both the entrance and exit. He followed Hiccup back to their old apartment—or rather, it was only Hiccup's now. Almost a year after Jack's hit-and-run incident and he still lived alone.

Well, not completely alone.

Hiccup let the keys into the keyhole and let himself in, not realizing that he was being tailed. "Toothless?" he called out, locking the door behind him and setting the key ring on its appropriate hook on the wall. "I'm home."

Jack let himself in before Hiccup fully closed the door. He looked around and realized that Hiccup had not changed much of the apartment. The hallway still had a hanging portrait of the two of them when they were kids. The living room was adorned beautifully with simple Christmas decorations, too little for just one person, but two stocking hung over the artificial fireplace. And lastly, a bauble that Jack had always insisted was platinum but Hiccup argued was white, was meticulously hanging from a branch on the miniature tree on the coffee table.

The familiar black cat with emerald green eyes darted from around the corner, clawing at Hiccup's pant legs for attention.

Hiccup chuckled as he bent down to carry the large cat and placed it on the kitchen island. "Hey, bud. Have fun today?" He looked around and saw that the pantry door was open, and on the floor was a spilled plastic jar of crackers. "How'd you get your snacks off the shelves?" Hiccup asked, admittedly bewildered. It was literally impossible given that Toothless would had to have bumped the glass containers of sugar and flour that was in front of the crackers. The only thing dirtying the floor was the jar.

Jack snickered, glad that he had enough manipulation to stuff in the real world to baffle his friends again. He caught the cat's eyes, and once again swearing that the feline could see him, and winked. The cat didn't respond; he simply smacked his lips, showing off its singular tooth, and look away, meowing with irritation.

"Agh, forget it. I'll spend the rest of the night looking to closely into it if I don't stop now." Hiccup set the pet shop bag on the island and pulled a parcel out of it. "Here, bud. I got you something." Unwrapping it, he revealed a new collar, one with a tag with new engraving on it to match their new address when they returned from Burgess in the new year.

Yes, of course. How quickly Jack had forgotten. After his death, Hiccup refused to move out, feeling that abandoning the place would be an injustice to Jack, his best friend. But after a while, Hiccup could swear he could hear Jack's voice, a creaking from another room making him thing Jack had returned from another date with Elsa rather than the building shaking in the wind. He could swear that Toothless would be meowing threateningly at Jack like he used to because Jack had insulted it when they first saw it in the shelter.

And all of this was before Jack came back as a spirit, as a ghost.

Hiccup had already leased the apartment and almost everything was packed. He wouldn't move to another town, no; he was still attending the community college and ready to transfer to a four-year, not to mention he was titled as godfather to little Jackson. He would simply move away from the apartment, already lined up for a small, affordable house a few streets away from Elsa's. Anna lived in the city a while away with Kristoff, but it was never too far that she wouldn't hang out with her sister and new nephew.

Jack picked up an ornamental snow globe, very inexpensive and fragile, as Hiccup prepared to make himself a new cup of hot chocolate. "Can't believe you still have this thing," he said aloud, knowing that Hiccup couldn't hear him but wanting to speak anyway. "You never managed to get anything else for your supposed snow globe collection. Fat lot of good it did you."

At the same time he set the ornament back down on the table behind the couch, he heard something crash behind him in the kitchen. Whirling around in shock, he saw that Hiccup had dropped the pan he had already partially filled with milk. The stove hadn't been turned on yet, not with Toothless capable of jumping from the island to the counter, but that didn't matter. Hiccup made no move to pick the pot up or to clean the spilled milk. Toothless took advantaged of this as he leaped down, his new silver collar gleaming on the kitchen light as he lapped away at the milk on the floor.

"Whoa, dude, what happened?" Jack asked, not expecting an answer as he looked down at the mess.

"I heard you."

Jack stiffened. Slowly looking up, not daring to believe it, he let his blue eyes meet with Hiccup's green ones. "You can hear me...?" he asked tentatively, unsure of what the response would be.

He received a nod.

Taking a step closer, Jack asked, "You can... You can see me?"

Another nod.

At this, Jack let out a heavy breath before it turned to airy laughter. "Y-you can really see me! Haha!"

"Jack?" Hiccup, shocked and speechless, stepped into the milk as he neared his friend. "Wha- How? You..." He inhaled before exhaling heavily. "You're dead. You died."

Jack's laughter turned to remorse. "Yeah. I know."

"And you're... here? But..." Hiccup made to touch Jack's shoulder, as if to make sure he was real, but just like every other time, he fazed right through. "...you're not."

"I'm a ghost, dummy," Jack said, trying not to let his disappointment of a lack of physical contact show. "I've come back to haunt you. Boo." He waved his fingers in front of him as if to ward him off, then laughed again. "I'm just kiddin'. Seriously, though. I've been back for almost a month."

Hiccup, still absorbed that his best was right in front of him, blinked and met his eyes again. "Huh?"

"Hiccup. My family." Jack rubbed his hands nervously before continuing. "Elsa and Junior. How are they?"

Hiccup finally composed himself and managed to answer. "They're fine. Elsa's, um, a li– a little shook up obviously, but, uh, she's managing to get by with Jackson just fine, and he's learning to sit up and oh my god Jack, do you know how upset we were?!" Diverging halfway through the sentence from an explanation to an accusation, Hiccup gestured with his hands like he always did, waving them at the being in front of him.

"Uh, what?"

"You died!" Hiccup shouted. "You died and left Elsa, alone and pregnant with your child! Do you know how she felt when I had to be the one to tell her that her fiancé was dead? The shock was enough to almost send her to a premature labor! Your baby could've died before Elsa even began her third trimester!"

"You think I wanted to die?!" Jack shouted, his voice even louder and angrier that Hiccup's. "You think I wanted to come back like this and see the people I loved suffer because I wasn't there for them?! For god's sake, Hiccup, you're not the only victim in this! A drunk ran me over, Harold!"

Hiccup flinched at the use of his real name, something only which his father used on him when he was about to face punishment.

"I died! I'm dead! I haven't even been able to see my son because I don't want to see his life without me in it! I'm scared, damn it! I never married the girl I love, my best friend is leaving our old home behind, my son will never know his father! You think you're in pain?! I've gone a month trying to communicate with you! I've tried every haunting trick in the book and nothing! I can't leave notes, I can't touch you, you can't hear me! How do you think I feel, alone with no one to speak to?! If I wasn't dead, I'm sure I would have gone insane!"

When he was done with his rant, he saw that tears had begun to spark in Hiccup's eyes. His jaw was tight and stiff, his knuckles white as his fists tightened. The portion of his palm visible was turning red as his nails dig into them.

"Oh, shit, Hiccup. I'm sorry, I–"

He was interrupted as he felt something barrel into him. For the first time in a month since he came back, for the first time since his death almost a year ago, he was finally being touched. Hiccup's arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, his face buried into the crook of his neck where his sweater covered. Almost as if the concept of a hug was unfamiliar to him, Jack hugged back, unsure what to with his arms until they met each other around Hiccup's back.

Afterwards, they talked. It felt like hours, but at most not even one had past. They discussed much in less than sixty minutes; Hiccup was dating a girl named Astrid, Anna and Kristoff were living together, he would be heading off to Burgess for a memorial service in honor of him.

They talked about the concept of a lost ghost; that their soul cannot move on unless their unfinished business was complete. And right away, Jack knew what his unfinished business was.

This was how they found themselves in Elsa's house, Anna having planned to sleep there that night before she left for the city in the morning. Hiccup's reason for visiting was bland at best; he wanted to talk about Jack.

As Elsa fixed Hiccup a cup of tea, Jack strolled through the house. He had walked these halls so many times the past few years that he automatically knew where to go. The guest bedroom's door, which they had modified into a nursery when they discovered Elsa was pregnant, swayed open only a little. Carefully walking inside, not needing to touch the door, Jack walked to the crib. Inside, barely awake and kicking his feet in the air as he clapped his hands together, was the baby.

"Hey, Jackson," Jack started, unsure of what else to say. "I'm your dad." He chuckled and shook his head. "I know you can't hear me, but... I just wanted the chance to meet you. To see you. You look... just like me."

This was true. Jackson bore an uncanny resemblance to Jack during his own infant years, with the same brown hair and light skin. The only difference was that he had bright blue eyes, almost like ice.

"I'm always going to watch over you. You know that?"

Jackson had stopped kicking at this point.

"You may not see me or not I'm even there or even know that it is me, but never doubt that your old man's watching over you." He reaches into the crib and let his fingers hover just out of infant reach of Jackson's fingers. "I'll be there. Just don't forget me, okay? Promise?"

As if understanding his words, Jackson greedily grabbed three of Jack's fingers with his two hands and began to pull them in his direction.

Jack's vision began to deteriorate, and he thought for a moment because it was his tears soaking through. But no, even though he was crying, he could his finger fading away with a blue twinkle. Jackson noticed this and stated above him in awe.

Jack chuckled, sniffing before he spoke. "Love ya, kid."

He heard a gasp behind him and turned his head to see Elsa, Anna, and Hiccup at the door.

"Jack..."

Jack smiled, unable to make out their faces as they blurred, but he was sure Elsa was crying. "Goodbye, Els."

As he closed his eyes he felt himself each away. And just like that, he felt himself go to a blissful sleep, able to watch his son grow old and have kids of his own. Jackson would make his own mistakes, but as he grew into a child, then a teenager, a young man, and adult, he could swear he heard a man speak to him every year before the holidays. Coincidentally, the man would speak a short while before the anniversary of his father's death.

Don't forget about me, okay? Love ya, kid.

Author's Note:

This was another story I wrote on the fly, one full of feels that I couldn't resist doing it all before I lost any inspiration for it. I'm not too sure where the idea came from, but it actually partially came from Disney Pixar's newest film Coco.

To those of you who've seen it, you may have a partial understanding of where I'm coming from, and if you haven't, I'm not going to spoil anything so don't worry. But I suggest you watch it, as a Mexican I felt a personal connection to the film as I've also lost people whom I've loved. I too celebrate Día de los Muertos honoring my loved ones, including my grey tabby Iggy who passed away a few months ago.

May our loved ones never leave our hearts and stay in our memories forever.

~CoronaCrown~