If Megan had to pick her favorite holiday, she'd have to pick her birthday.

But that didn't count as a holiday according to everyone when she told them that, so she picked Halloween.

It was always fun getting to dress up, going from door-to-door, getting free candy that she could gouge on when arriving back home. Most people would just try to preserve their stash, but Megan was not most people.

However… for most Halloween nights, her dad would often come along, too worried about the reporter going off on her own, which was frankly embarrassing.

She was fifteen, she didn't need parental supervision when going trick-or-treating!

But lucky for Megan, her dad was chill with her going on her own on their first Halloween in San Fransokyo. Perhaps it had to due with the fact she was going with friends, but she didn't care about the statistics, she was glad to be free this night.

"Be sure to keep your flashlight on." Diego was telling her as she got ready to meet Hiro at the Lucky Cat. "Don't go inside houses, and inspect your candy before you eat it-"

"I'll be fine Dad." Megan loved her dad, she really did, but he could be so overprotective!

Diego chuckled. "Alright kiddo, if you say so." He was pouring the bag of chocolate candy into the bowl he'd hand out to trick-or-treaters stopping by. "Want some candy for the road?"

She grinned, taking a piece from the bag. "Thanks Dad, love you!"

"Love you too sweetie." He smiled as she grabbed her bag. "And make sure to be careful!"

"Don't worry I will!"

To be honest, Megan was glad that her dad wasn't tagging along while trick-or-treating. She was planning on spending it with Hiro and Karmi, but it was also going to be her first Halloween with her girlfriend.

Megan was excited for it, Halloween was spooky and fun, and sharing it with Juniper was going to be even better. It was a night of magic and merriment and lots of candy. Lots and lots of candy.

And yes, her dad did know that she was going to be with Juniper for Halloween, not just Hiro and Karmi.

Diego had found out about their relationship in the summer, after the whole disaster with the Buddy Guardians, both Megan and Juniper felt comfortable telling him about their relationship.

It was… not as bad as he would've reacted back when he held a grudge against Big Hero 6, but it was really awkward whenever her girlfriend and her dad were in the same room. Megan would've liked avoiding that tonight.

It wasn't that she blamed either of them for the awkwardness, the slight tension whenever both of them were around each other.

Juniper didn't deserve Diego's judgement during the worst of his anti-vigilante phase, which was why they kept caution around him in the first place, and didn't feel safe to tell him until he had cooled down from his hatred of heroes and villains.

Her dad lived for exposing and putting criminals behind bars. Even if Juniper was a good person, had been in a tough situation during her crime-dancing days... it was difficult for her dad to be more than awkwardly polite. At least he's trying. Megan reminded herself, if it was March, he would've tried to arrest her again.

As she got to the cafe, which was decorated with spooky cobwebs, the doorbell chimed an eerie laugh as she entered. "Well, well, well." Hiro was sitting by a table. "If it isn't my doppelganger?"
"Very funny."

As a collective the group decided to dress up as characters from Kid Icarus, Megan got to dress up as Pit, her favorite Mintendo character, while Hiro dressed as Dark Pit and seemed to be relishing it, judging by the smug look on his face.

"Hey Megan!" Across the table was Karmi, she was dressed up as Palutena. "Love your bag, it looks so cute!"
The reporter lifted up her trick-or-treating bag, it was shaped like a Souflee. "Thanks, one of my classmates helped me with it." She made a mental note to thank Cindy later for stitching up the bag, it helped with her costume's aesthetic.

"What kind of fabric did they use?" Karmi felt the softness of the bag. The biotech major had a lot of fun cosplaying, even if it wasn't during the spooky season and was always on the hunt for some fresh materials to sample.

"Hmm not sure, I'll be sure to ask next time I see her." Megan felt bad that was the best answer she could give at the moment.

But Karmi didn't mind. "Alright then!"

"Are you planning on dressing up as Captain Cutie for the next convention?" Hiro teased. "I mean I know you like writing him so much, so are you gonna dress up as him?"

"Oh my gosh, stop."

Megan snickered. Even though Karmi knew Hiro's secret identity, and didn't have a crush on his superhero persona, the robotics major liked to tease about the whole situation.

"You know you love me."

"Yes, yes I do, but not at this moment." Karmi huffed, turning away from him. "When's June coming?"

The reporter glanced at the door, Cass was handing some treats to two small children in dog costumes. "She lives a little far, might be awhile."

Or maybe she didn't want to come at all. Megan knew that Juniper was nervous about trick-or-treating, even though she was excited about it, and had this mischievous gleam in her eyes that made her look adorable…

There were some fears, fears that she'd be rejected the chance to have a normal night because of her past.

Megan reassured that it wouldn't, and that she'd throw hands with any stuffy old adult that had problems with her girlfriend trick-or-treating, if she didn't show up though, she wouldn't blame Juniper for staying in tonight.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" But the dancer's voice rang in the cafe as she entered. "Couldn't find my candy bag."

Juniper had stuck to the Kid Icarus theme and was dressed up as Phosphora, fitting because of the whole High Voltage thing, and she looked beautiful in her costume.

The blue scarf wrapped around her neck, the bits of orange in her hair, it felt as if Juniper was impersonating the character's electrifying presence to a T. "Nice costume!" Hiro flashed her a thumbs up.

"Thanks." She blushed, fiddling with her scarf. "Mama helped me a little with it."

"She did a good job." Karmi commented. "You look great."

The blush on her girlfriend got redder, but as Megan came into view, the blush turned into a smirk. "Well hello there, your costume looks rather angelic."

Normally, Megan would laugh at the pun, but Juniper was doing that cute smirk that always made her turn red and oh gosh why was her girlfriend so cute-?

All that came out her throat was a nervous squeak. "Let's start trick-or-treating before we kill Megan, alright?" Karmi chuckled.

"I know a good spot we can bury her at." Hiro winked.

That got her to snap out of her lovestruck daze. "Not if I bury you two first!" She loved her friends, truly, she did, but both of them were absolute gremlins.

Maybe it had something to do with them being teen geniuses? She didn't know, but Megan was starting to think it'd be a long night, a fun night, but it'd be long.

The chaos didn't end, even when they were walking down to look for houses to trick-or-treat at, Hiro was leading the charge. "I know all the best spots to get candy from!" He told them as they left.

"How do you know it's the best candy?" Juniper questioned, a little confused. "Is it homemade or something? Mama said I shouldn't eat the homemade candy…"

Hiro almost groaned, but then remembered that Juniper wasn't used to trick-or-treating and buried any annoyance he had. "The houses that give away the biggest candy bars are the best!"

"Ohhhhh." She nodded in understanding.

"Leave it to Genius Boy to care about the size of the candy." Karmi scoffed. "What about the variety? It'd get boring eating nothing but Hershys and Recees-"

"I don't even eat Recees!" Hiro gestured, throwing his hands up in the air. "I'm allergic to peanuts!"

Megan didn't know that. "You are?" Juniper raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know that, is it bad?"

He shook his head. "No, it's just mild. I don't care how tasty Recees or Snickers are, I am not putting any in my mouth."

"That's fair." Megan didn't blame him, she used to be allergic to strawberries as a child.

Even when she outgrew that allergy, she still didn't like the taste of the fruit, even if it was an artificial flavoring. "If you get any candy with peanuts, want to trade it with me?"

Hiro was staring at her with star-struckness. "I owe you my life."

"I'm concerned." Karmi stated.

"Now you sound like Baymax." Megan teased, she giggled when Karmi shot her a look of mild horror.

The biotech major had nothing against Baymax, but he knew how to make things awkward at times!

When the time came to trick-or-treat, Hiro gave one last glance to the group before he rang the door. "Should we have some line we should say? Like in Kid Icarus?"

"If we have to recite some dumb lines for every door, I will steal your m&m's." Karmi glared in response.

Hiro chuckled, he knew that the biotech major would find a way, no matter how hard he'd try to hide his candy stash.

Ding-dong!

As the door opened, a kind old lady answered, holding a bowl of candy. "Trick-or-treat!" Megan exclaimed.

"Aww, what cute costumes you have." The old lady smiled, handing them each a large candy bar. It wasn't simply a regular size, as most households just gave the tiny versions of candy and called it a day.

These were king sized, Megan's eyes almost popped out her head when she was handed the large candy bar, and put it into her bag.

"Thanks, Ms. Matsuda!" Hiro thanked her. "Have a happy Halloween!"

As they left the house, Karmi was raising an eyebrow at the robotics genius. "I didn't know you knew that lady."

"She's a regular at the Lucky Cat." He explained. "She sometimes comes in with really funny outfits on."

"Ohhhh." She nodded in understanding. "So where to next, o' great leader?" Karmi had said it in light sarcasm, but Hiro puffed up like a smug peacock all the same.

Wait a minute… Megan realized, since Hiro's costume was an angel, did that make him a divine peacock or something? "What's on your mind?" Her girlfriend noticed the puzzled look on her face.

"If Hiro's dressed up like an angel, does that make him a literal peacock in human form?"

"Hey!" Hiro complained as both of them had the mental image of Hiro's wings turned into peacock feathers. "I am not a peacock!"

He nudged Karmi. "Karms, back me up here."

But she just had this look of debate in her eyes. "Well… I mean she brings up a good point."

Hiro gasped dramatically, and then sank to the sidewalk like he had fallen into a state of despair. "Betrayed by my own classmate… why Karms? Why?!"

"Is he always this melodramatic?" Juniper raised an eyebrow. She and Hiro didn't really interact much, since he always seemed busy and she was still getting used to the whole "interacting with people normally" thing.

"You should see him on weekends." Karmi told her. "He's such a drama llama."

"I thought he was a peacock?" Megan shrugged.

Hiro just internally screamed, sometimes, his friends were the worst. He loved them, sure, but they were the worst.

Trick-or-treating was fun, in Juniper's opinion. But there were some… awkward moments.

Like when this young adult was handing them candy and she tried starting up a conversation. "Your costume looks familiar, where's it from?"

Instead of answering, like a normal person would, Juniper just froze. What if she recognizes my voice and asks me to take the candy back? Was all she could think of. And then everyone gets mad and there's yelling and-

"She's Phosphora, from Kid Icarus." Luckily, Karmi answered for her. "My friend's shy."

"Ah, I can relate. Happy Halloween kids!"

As they left that house, Juniper noticed that Megan was staring with concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah… I just panicked." Guilt weighed in her chest, why did she have to freak out over something so small?

"It's alright, you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to." But Megan understood her nerves, she didn't judge her, or tell her to toughen up.

No, Megan was just holding her hand to try and cheer her up. "Thanks." Juniper smiled. "Y'know, I'm having a really great night with you guys." Even if she got nervous whenever they knocked on a house door, worried someone would recognize her from the news.

Trick-or-treating was a lot of fun, her favorite parts had to be whenever they were going to a scary house and one of them got scared by the decorations.

Karmi was still in denial that the house with the moving skeleton animatronic startled her, she kept telling them afterwards that she didn't get spooked, but Juniper had seen her practically jump into Hiro's arms when the animatronic went "boo!"

"Good thing Aunt Cass didn't take notes from that house." Hiro had been trying to comfort her with a distraction. "Noodle Burger Boy and his sisters aren't trying to destroy the city anymore, but I've seen them talk about still wanting to scare people."

"If I had to work in customer service all day, I would too." Megan commented. The robot mascots weren't scary when they didn't cause chaos and villainy, but don't mess with Hangry Panda if you value your ear drums.

"Are the customers at your cafe that bad?" Juniper raised an eyebrow. She usually was in the cafe on early breakfast dates with Megan, it was always before the lunch rush so the cafe was always quiet when coming in.

The look Hiro sent her had several answers in it. "One time a customer complained about the boba in the boba tea he ordered." He spoke in a deadpan voice. "And then complained when Aunt Cass took out the boba."

They all looked at Hiro with silence, expecting him to say that he was kidding, but based on the serious look on his face…

"I will never understand customers." Karmi stated after a couple moments of silence.

The street they were walking on had gone overboard with the pumpkin decorations. Some of the carved jack-o'-lanterns had faces of frightening monsters that sent chills down Juniper's spine, so her grip on Megan's hand got a little tighter when walking past those jack-o'-lanterns.

But some of them were really cute, her favorite had to be the one that had a bunny carved onto it. "Did you try making jack-o'-lanterns?" Megan asked when she was fawning over that pumpkin.

"Mama and I tried… but we ended up making a mess out of the kitchen." Juniper sweatdropped. Neither of them had experience carving pumpkins, and it took well over an hour to clean the kitchen of pumpkin seeds and juice.

"Ouch." Megan winced. "Maybe I could show you how to carve jack-o'-lanterns? I do that all the time with my dad!"

"That'd be great, we just made pumpkin pie with all the leftover stuff afterwards." She explained. "There were a lot of seeds in the pie." So many seeds, it was one of the crunchiest pies she had ever tasted.

"Pumpkin pie isn't supposed to have seeds." Hiro cut in.

She glared at him. "I like it with seeds!"

Hiro stepped back, chuckling, he wasn't truly judging her, but did he have to hop into the conversation like that? She was having a moment with her girlfriend!

"Hey, we're near your house, aren't we?" Karmi's voice swept away any of her annoyance, as she recognized the apartment complex they were walking past.

Juniper nodded. "We are." She recognized the brightly shaped street art on the walls by the door.

"Do you wanna pay your mom a visit?"

She wanted to, but… "Won't that cut our trick-or-treat time?"

"Honestly, I could use a break." Karmi reassured her. "What about you two?" She gestured to Hiro and Megan.

"Yeah it'd be nice to sit down."

"Me too."

They were both in agreement. "Alright, let's take a break, I'm sure our feet will appreciate it." Karmi was also getting a little stressed with all the monstrous decorations people were putting out, and wanted a little break from those sights.

She wasn't scared of them or anything… really, she wasn't!

Knock-Knock-Knock!

"There's a doorbell, y'know." Juniper rolled her eyes at Hiro as he knocked on the Reynolds apartment door.

"Something tells me your mom set up a spooky doorbell." He rolled his eyes back.

He was right, but… "Way to take the fun out of it."

Hiro opened his mouth to fire a witty comeback but that's when Barb opened the door. "Hello there, kids." She smiled at them.

"Hi Ms. Reynolds." Megan greeted her. "We're just taking a break from trick-or-treating, is that okay?"

"You don't have to call my mama 'Ms. Reynolds' y'know…" Juniper muttered.

Megan chuckled, she was trying to be polite! "Force of habit."

"Well, you can come in and relax." Barb let them in, placing the bowl of candy on the counter. "Feel free to take some candy on your way out, there haven't been many trick-or-treaters here."

Hiro wasn't surprised, the area they were in didn't have any of the good candy, but they had already gotten their fill of treasures already. "So can we take the whole bowl?"

"Hiro!" Karmi bopped on the shoulder. "Your bag should be really heavy by now!"

He shrugged. "Not really." He didn't even feel the weight of the candy much. "Y'know, because I'm so strong."

"Oh yeah?" The biotech major raised an eyebrow. "With those noodle arms?"

"They are not noodle arms-" Suddenly the two teen geniuses dissolved into playful bickering.

Juniper pinched the bridge of her nose, cheeks flaring in embarrassment. "Sorry Mama…"

But Barb was just chuckling. "It's alright Juni, reminds me of when my generation went trick-or-treating."

"Hey Ms. Rey-I mean Barb, who are you dressed as?" Megan thought the costume looked familiar, but her slightly tired brain couldn't put the pieces together.

Her girlfriend's snickering was making her concerned. "I believe one of the characters from the same game series as your costume." Barb explained. "What was the name of the character, Juni?"

That's when Megan realized why the dancer had a smug grin on her face. "Viridi! She's one of my favorites from Kid Icarus."

"Oh my gosh." She didn't know that Juniper had gotten her mama included in the costume theme. "It fits so well with your costume, I should've seen that coming."

"Thanks!" Both mother and daughter smiled.

"Wish my dad had a costume from Kid Icarus…" Megan crossed her arms. "He tried ordering one, but it didn't come in time."

Juniper raised an eyebrow. "Which character did he want to cosplay as?"

"Let me think… Magnus if I recall."

The dancer tried to mentally imagine Diego in the same outfit as Magnus and felt a minor headache. "That does not fit him at all…"

Megan had to agree. "Yeah, but what other character could he dress up as?"

"Pyrrhon?"

The reporter gave her a look. "Sorry, that's all I've got!" Juniper chuckled. But not as if Megan could be upset at her, her dad was kind of dramatic sometimes.

Eventually, the other half of their group stopped bickering, but they all just chilled in separate rooms in the apartment until they felt well enough to out trick-or-treating.

"Do you kids want anything to drink?" Barb offered.

"I'd like a soda!" Hiro stated.

"I don't think your parents would be happy if I gave you caffeine…" But Hiro ended up getting his soda, but he only got a small cup of it. The robotics genius called it a win and drank his drink of victory.

When asking Karmi if she also wanted a cup of soda, she declined. "Trying to cut back on it, the caffeine heightens my nerves."

"I feel your pain." Juniper could relate to that.

The soda conversation had been a couple minutes ago, and now the dancer was chilling on the couch, resting her aching feet.

Walking around going from door to door was honestly exhausting, but it was also fun. Juniper didn't remember ever having so much fun on Halloween in her life.

Before coming into San Fransokyo, most of the neighborhoods they passed by during Halloween were not safe places. Barb reasonably did not let Juniper go out on her own, during those dangerous nights.

Besides, Juniper wouldn't have had any friends to hang with or share candy with, it had been before she wanted to live a normal life, so going trick-or-treating was out of the question.

"Mind if I sit here?" Megan entered the room, her candy bag in her hands.

"Sure." The dancer scooted over so her girlfriend could have room. She noticed Megan was digging into her bag and pulled out some small chocolate pieces.

"I hope you inspected that."

"Don't worry, I did." Megan unwrapped one and gobbled it. "Wanna try?"

Meg, you don't have to… Juniper wanted to speak up, her girlfriend didn't have to waste her candy on her.

I could always give her mine later. "Okay, sure."

For some reason, Megan was grinning. "Great, now close your eyes!"

"Huh, why?"

She was still grinning. "It's a surprise!"

Juniper raised an eyebrow, but didn't question it. Megan wasn't going to feed her a candy she didn't like after-all. "Alright." She trusted her after-all.

She closed her eyes, expecting to hear Megan dig up a piece of candy from the bag, but instead-

Instead, she felt the reporter's lips gently pressing against her own, tasting like a chocolate kiss, but better than any variant of the candy itself.

When she opened her eyes, Megan was staring at her with a warm smile. "So, how was that?"

"Y-Y-You-" She stammered, why was her girlfriend so romantic? Juniper tried to be the flirty one in the relationship, but Megan always snuck up on her. "You dork!"

"I'll take that as a compliment." The reporter giggled, wrapping her arms around her neck. "Would you like another one?"

Words could not describe the blush on her face. "S-S-Sure."

So Megan leaned in for another brief kiss, still tasting like the best chocolate Juniper ever had. "I'm really proud of you." The reporter murmured, her words gentle like honey. "You talked about how nervous you were going trick-or-treating, but you still tried it."

"Well, I wanted to spend time with you." Juniper held her close. "And well, of course the others, but it wouldn't be twice as fun without you."

"Aww, now who's the dork?" Megan smiled at her.

She thought a little sweet trick would cheer Juniper up, she had noticed the dancer was worried about getting recognized while going from door to door. It was worth it, even if it felt like she was going to melt from cuteness because her girlfriend was so cute!

As she leaned in for another kiss, this one lasting a little longer than the last two-

"Ahem."

Both of them yelped and pulled apart, as the rest of their group was by the door way. "Was I interrupting something?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.

"You killed the moment…" Megan muttered, her face now blushing with embarrassment. She couldn't believe Karmi allowed this.

But the biotech major simply bopped Hiro on the head. "I told you to leave them alone, Genius Boy!" Karmi huffed.

She felt bad, it looked like the two were having a cute moment together. "We're planning on going back out, and then maybe end up watching a movie once we're done?"

"That sounds great!" Juniper was still blushing, but at least they weren't getting teased or anything. "Only if it's a Halloween movie." To keep relevance after-all.

Megan got up from the couch, her candy back slinged around her shoulder. "I vote we watch Nightmare Before Christmas when we're finished gathering candy."

"That is not a true Halloween movie!" Hiro protested. "It's half Christmas."

"Well Christmas is around the corner…"

"Wow, does nobody celebrate Thanksgiving anymore?"

"People still do that?"

"Excuse you-?!"

Both Karmi and Juniper rolled their eyes at the movie argument. "Should we leave without them?" The biotech major suggested.

"No, that's mean!" Juniper protested. "Um… did you hear our conversation?"

To her relief, Karmi shook her head. "No, but sorry for killing the mood. Hiro can be such a gremlin sometimes."

"You don't say?" Considering he always looked like he had mischief on his mind, Juniper could see that.

"Yep." Karmi grinned. "But… it's nice going trick-or-treating with friends, I always did it with my parents or younger siblings, which wasn't bad, but also… it feels okay?" Words, why did they fail her now?

"I get it." Juniper nodded in understanding. "I… I've never done trick-or-treating until tonight, didn't realize I was missing out on so much fun."

She glanced over to Megan, who was still debating if Nightmare Before Christmas was a Halloween movie or a Christmwas movie with Hiro.

Even if she was still nervous about joining in the fun… Megan was supporting and encouraging, just like she always was, even when they first met.

"But, I think that's what made tonight so much fun." Even if she had gone trick-or-treating in the past, Juniper knew that it would've barely held a candle to this night.

Even if there were no tricks involved… she still had a blast, cheesy Halloween scares and all.

But maybe she wouldn't talk about that house with the abundance of skeleton decorations ever again. That house had been the scariest of all, even scarier than the house that had very realistic fake blood on the stone pathway.

"We should probably get Genius Boy and Meg to stop arguing so we can finish trick-or-treating." Karmi chuckled. "They can argue while watching the dumb movie."

"Hey, only I'm allowed to call her Meg-"

But she couldn't help but laugh, Halloween was truly quite a night, wasn't it?

If all Halloweens were just as spooky and sweet as tonight, Juniper would say this holiday is the best of them all.

AN: I have no idea how this fic ended up being like over 4k words and I am Afraid to know Why

Was working on it for a whole day while recovering from a shot XP, the power of writing teen dork squad and rarepair gfs soothed me.

Last year's Halloween fic was a bit spooky, so I thought I'd make this one mostly sweet! I just love my teen dork squad friendship... sadly it didn't happen in Season 3 so might as well write it myself!

(I'm a lil' hopeful the manga will have them meet, bc it'd be so cool n.n)

Have a Happy Halloween y'all, be sure to inspect your candy and beware of haunted houses!