Here's the second Halloween fic - the last one will be posted tomorrow!
No curse/ No Fairy tale AU.


David was jostled awake by a small hand shaking his arm, Neal not being two yet meant that it wasn't him waking David, which meant it must be his other child. "Emma, what's wrong?" he whispered before his eyes had even properly opened.

"Daddy, it's Halloween." She whispered excitedly.

David looked at the clock on the side table and groaned. "Princess, it's not morning yet. It's still night time you have to go back to sleep." He sat up against the headboard, careful not to wake his wife, and readied himself to get out of bed. He watched Emma fidget where she stood and glance nervously towards the door. He placed his hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong honey?"

"I think Pitch is in my bedroom." She whispered to him.

David inwardly sighed, at the moment Emma's favourite film was 'Rise of the Guardians', however she was absolutely terrified of the baddie in it. "Do you want daddy to go chase him away?" he asked gently.

Emma's lip jutted out slightly, she looked down at the ground, and she shook her head.

David gave a small smile. "Do you want to sleep with mommy and daddy?"

Emma bit her lip and nodded. She would much rather stay awake and get things ready for Halloween but she doubted that her dad would let her do that.

David lifted Emma up onto the bed and placed her between himself and Mary Margret. "Get under the covers, kiddo."

Mary Margret had heard David and Emma's conversation and turned over to face her daughter as David pulled the covers over the four year old. She shared a look with David, they'd have to try and hide that DVD, then she pressed a kiss to Emma's forehead. "Get some sleep sweetie." She told her. Emma must have still been tired as she closed her eyes straight away, she felt David's arm wrap around herself and Emma and she shot him a loving smile before she closed her eyes too, no doubt they'd be joined by Neal within a couple of hours.

Mary Margret woke up to hear Neal talking to his toys over the monitor, he was fairly calm for the moment so she wasn't in a rush to get out of the warm bed, she looked over to her left side and a sight which filled her heart with love. Emma had moved during the night to lay fully on top of David, she had only just turned four and was small for her age anyway so she fit comfortable atop his chest, it reminded her of when Emma was a baby a refused to settle for either of them; eventually David was lay her on his chest and stroke her back, waiting for her to drift off. She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and took a picture, before leaving the two of them to sleep, she would probably be able to get more things done with just Neal awake than the two of the getting under foot.

David only managed to convince Emma not to change into her costume as soon as she woke up by telling her he needed some help to make the pancakes that morning, normally it was much quicker to keep her distracted, but neither he nor Mary Margret were working that day so they had enough time.

"Okay, Em, you ready for the secret ingredient?" David dropped his voice to a conspiring whisper.

"Yeah." Emma whispered in the same tone.

"You can't tell mommy though, it's a secret." David struggled not to laugh when he saw Mary Margret roll her eyes.

"I promise." Emma replied solemnly.

"Good girl." David smiled at how adorable she was. "Add this nutmeg in for extra special pancakes." He said measuring out the correct measurement.

Emma poured it in then turned to look at her mother, who quickly turned her head, Emma smiled when she realised her mother hadn't seen. "It's okay daddy; mommy didn't see."

"Fantastic!" David lifted Emma up into the air, twirled her around, and then placed her back onto the ground. "Why don't you go play with something while I get these cooked?" he suggested.

Emma frowned. "I wanna help." She said crossing her arms.

David crouched down to eye level with her, apparently waking up in the night had made her a little grouchy, they'd have to make sure she had a night before they went out later. "Emma you know you're not allowed near the stove, don't you, we don't want you to get hurt."

Emma nodded slowly, though she wasn't happy about it, she still wanted to help make the pancakes.

"Hey Ems, can you help me read a book?" Mary Margret jumped in so they could avoid any tears.

David and Mary Margret managed to keep Neal and Emma distracted all day with cartoons, games, painting 'scary' pictures, and baking cakes – which both of the children greatly enjoyed as they got something to eat. But as the day went on Emma's excitement only grew and passed onto Neal.

Emma was colouring in one of her Disney colouring books when Mary Margret went up to her, she sat on the floor, next to where Emma was laying on her stomach.

"Sweetie, do you want to get ready now?"

Emma immediately shot to her feet and started bouncing up and down. "Yes! Let's go mommy!"

"Wait a minute, Emma, aren't you forgetting something?" Mary Margret nodded her head towards the crayons which were all over the floor, for once Emma moved to tidy them up straight away, without so much as a sigh.

David was finishing dressing Neal in his Tin-Man costume when Neal started to giggle, David didn't turn around even when he heard the little footsteps leading across the floor, until suddenly there came a roar from behind him. He jumped into the air in 'shock' with Neal held to his chest, still giggling. "Oh no, Neal! There's a lion on the loose!"

"It's just me daddy!" Emma shouted, even more excited now she had her costume on, which was really a lion onesie which Mary Margret and David already predicted she would be wearing for a long while after Halloween.

"Oh of course, it's you Emma." He smiled as he placed Neal on the ground.

"Emmy!" Neal ran towards his sister.

David smiled down at his children as they started to play, he shook his head, if they were this worked up already he didn't want to think what they'd be like with sugar in them. He looked up to see Mary Margret walking into the room. "Wow." He breathed out. He walked over to her and brought her into a kiss. "You even manage to make Dorothy look attractive." He smirked.

"Well you're not so bad yourself, for a scarecrow that is." She joked back.

"I think we wore them out." Mary Margret joked as she pushed Neal's push chair back home, David was at her side carrying Emma in his arms, both of their children were asleep.

David laughed quietly, careful not to wake Emma up, he wrapped his free arm around Mary Margret's shoulders. "I think we did. They seemed to really enjoy the party."

"Not as much as they enjoyed collecting candy trick-or-treating." He pressed a kiss to the top of Emma's head as he shifted her slightly in his arms. "Do you remember the Halloween party we met at in college?" he smiled at the memory.

Mary Margret grinned in the dark. "I remember every other male was dressed as batman, you were the only one dressed as a prince."

"I was seriously regretting that costume choice until you showed up, my Snow White." David smiled. "And then you started to try steal my spot in the coffee shop."

"It was my spot; you actually had to turn up to class to be able to claim it." She protested.

"I turned up a lot more when I found out that you were in my class."

"Oh, I remember." She looked across at him with a smile. "I got a good picture of you and Emma this morning. She was lying on your chest like she used to when she was a baby."

"She was so small." David said quietly, almost to himself.

They both walked quietly into the house as they remembered four short years ago when Emma had been born premature, it had absolutely terrified them, and it had only scared them more that this was their first baby. Eventually, however, Emma grew and they became more confident in their new roles.

"I'll meet you back down here." Mary Margret whispered to David as she carried Neal up the stairs.

David followed her up the stair a few seconds later, but went to Emma's room, instead of Neal's. He debated waking Emma up but instead decided it would be easier to simply change her himself; that way at least she wouldn't be able to have a tantrum about not being allowed to wear the lion onesie, which was now covered in glitter from a party game, to bed.
He turned on her nightlight, sending a galaxy of stars dancing across her ceiling, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and tucked the blankets around her. "Goodnight princess."

He turned to walk to the door and notice Mary Margret standing in the doorway. When he reached her he looped his arm around her waist. "What are you thinking?" he knew that look that was on her face.

Mary Margret led her head against his shoulder as she looked at her oldest. "It'd be nice to have an addition to our Halloween photo next year."

"We'd have to be mad." David pressed a kiss to her lips. "But I've been called worse." He took her hand and led her to their room; just like she had led him to her room after the first Halloween they had spent together.