A.N. I know it isn't Halloween anywhere in the world anymore, probably, but Hallowmas season isn't over till November 2nd, so there! /hj

The title is meant to be reminiscent of fantasy stories, like "The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe" and things like that. Speaking of vaguely christian allegories, this is an Angel/Devil AU but it's not really meant to align with any particular belief system (as evidenced by Arceus and Giratina substituting for God and the Devil), so please remember this is a work of fiction and try not to get offended, okay?

Anyway, uh... happy Hallowmas! Even though this story takes place in Halloween (blushes)

"I hate this part", Goh coughs profusely as he steps out of the summoning circle. He'll never understand why there's always this much smoke whenever a demon enters the human world.

He dusts himself off and realizes he manifested inside some sort of dimly-lit cavern. He can hear a lot of commotion from the outside, most likely from a nearby town. The Halloween festivities must already be in full swing.

Goh grins mischievously and, unfurling his wings, swiftly departed from the cave like a bat (or demon) out of hell. "It's showtime!"

The town is apparently called "Vermillion", judging from the billboard on its outskirts. Little kids are running through the streets with their disguises asking for treats, and the buildings are decorated with carved pumpkins and red ribbons.

The children are much too innocent to be corrupted just yet – he needs to find someone his age! Goh skulks around the village, trying not to be spotted, until his eyes meet a pink-haired girl in a nun costume sitting by herself in a bench, expressionless.

'I wonder why she's not participating in the festivities?', he wonders to himself, before deciding to approach her.

"Hello, miss."

The girl looks up briefly from her book. "Nice Halloween costume", she remarks.

"Thanks, yours is nice too", he replies, before sitting down next to her. "So tell me, have you heard the word of our dark lord, Giratina?"

"…Oh god", the girl exclaims, frowning at him. "You're one of those people."

"Hey, just hear me out! I know Arceus is always telling people to 'love themselves' and other claptrap like that. But all people hear in those churches is stuff about how they have to repress their wants and desires! Now, that doesn't sound much like loving yourself to me!"

"I mean, sure, but that doesn't mean-"

"All Giratina wants is for you to follow your heart, man!" Goh states, acting like some kind of ad man.

The girl scoffs at his showmanship and points to her nun's veil. "Do you not see this outfit I'm wearing?"

"…Wait. That's not a Halloween costume. You're actually a nun?" Goh fearfully asks.

"Yes. And I know a demon when I see one. You know, usually most demons don't go straight for the sales pitch. They try to make small talk, or get to know the person they're talking to. You're being too obvious." The girl comments.

Goh is sweating now. "You're not going to banish me back to hell, are you? You know us demons only get one chance to be here every year!"

"If you promise to not do anything bad, you can stay here… but the moment I see you trying to corrupt anyone in my parish, you're getting the cross, mister!"

"Uh… thanks." Goh stammers. "I, uh, I promise I won't misbehave… while you're watching." He vowed, whispering the last part.

"I heard that."

"Until next time, Miss Nun!" With that, Goh hastily retreated as quickly as he could.

"The name's Chloe!"

Goh mumbled curses under his breath as he flew away and perched on the roof of a nearby building, like some kind of cute gargoyle. "Sheesh! What a way for my first night in the human world to go! And here I thought nuns were just something my parents made up to scare me…"

Goh looked despondently at the starry sky. At least the stars were as beautiful as he'd always imagined them being. Especially that huge, fiery one.

Wait… huge, fiery one? It's night! There aren't supposed to be any huge, fiery stars right now!

Looking at the object more closely, Goh presumes it to be some kind of meteor, and it's headed right towards him. Thankfully, though, being a demon he doesn't have to worry about things like 'convection', so he'll just dodge it at the last second with his wings. Like a cool guy.

Or at least, that was his plan, if the 'meteor' hadn't spooked him out of his wits by beginning to speak.

"OUT OF THE WAAAAY!" It screeched, knocking Goh right out of the building he was standing on, and leading them both to fall into a nearby clearing.

"OW! What the heaven?!" Goh shouted as he rubbed his head. He really hoped he hadn't just broken any more of his horns. As his eyes regained focus, he realized what it was that had actually hit him.

It seemed that 'what the heaven' was accurate. Sitting on top of him was a bonafide angel, like the ones in mom and dad's scary bedtime stories they used to tell him when he was just a little imp.

"A-ANGEL!" Goh screeched in terror and reflexively pulled out his trident. "Stay back, you, you fair creature!

To Goh's surprise, the angel doesn't react with similar fear or hatred. Instead, he smiles at him, and for a brief second Goh thinks maybe he is looking at the sun.

"You think I'm a 'fair creature'? Oh, you flatterer!" The angel says, fanning himself in an exaggerated manner that Goh isn't sure is meant to be serious. Either way, any feelings of threat he was feeling due to the angel's presence are now gone.

"Hey… your halo! It's cracked!" Goh notes. "That means you're a-"

"NOT FALLEN! Not fallen at all, no sir and/or ma'am!" The angel insists, which really doesn't help his case given Goh hadn't even spoken the words yet. "I'm just taking a sabbatical! That's a good, angely thing, right?"

"A sabbatical that required you to fall violently and uncontrollably to earth?"

"Uh… yeah!" The angel replies, nodding repeatedly. "T-That must have been when my halo got cracked, too! What about you, mister? Judging by the horns, you seem to be a devil!"

"Yeah, I'm a devil", Goh confirmed. "Out on my first mission… only to have it blow up in my face."

The angel's face became concerned and sympathetic. "Awww. I'm really sorry to hear that, mister devil! Is there anything I can do to help?"

Goh was almost appalled at this angel's… how should he put it… lack of professionalism. They were supposed to be rivals, and yet he was asking if he could help?

Then again… Goh looked at the winged boy's broken halo once again, and an idea began to form in his head. Few were the demons that had managed to tempt an angel to their side, and here was one already considered unworthy by Arceus, having quite literally fallen into his lap. Maybe there was a way he could make this work for him, after all?

"…Yeah, actually", He said, crawling over to the angel and putting his hands on each side of the other boy's face. He looked curious as to what Goh was going to do next. "I would very, very much like a kiss. Could you give me one?"

The angel blushed, and Goh almost thought he'd succeeded, before – disappointingly – recoiling. "No! We can't do this! I-I don't even know your name!"

"…Oh." So this little angel, scatterbrained as he seems to be, still won't succumb to lust. Disappointing. Maybe another one, then?

Goh looks back at the village, the inhabitants having apparently decided to ignored Ash hurtling like a comet through their skies. With the celebrations going on, there is sure to be plenty of food to eat, and candy to beg for.

"I'm sorry about that, it was just a… bad joke." Goh lies. "Let's start over! My name is Gohphistopheles, but most people call me Goh. What's yours?"

"My name is Ashbriel!" The angel replies, peppy as ever. "But you can call me Ash! Nice to meet you, Goh!"

"Ash, huh? I like it. Say, Ash… Why don't we go spend some quality time in that town over there, get to know each other?"

"O-kay!" Ash cheered. What a baby! Would Goh really be able to corrupt such an innocent soul?

Well, he would have to try. If there was sin in this boy's heart, he would find it and wrench it free.

Goh watched as Ash gorged himself on unhealthy food with mild interest. He was trying to get him to act gluttonous or greedy, but Ash evaded him every step of the day. It didn't help that all the townsfolk were quick to give 'that magnanimous angel-dressed boy' as many candies and pastries as they had on them. That's not how gluttony is supposed to work!

Still, he admitted that being around lots of people like this and just quietly eating together was… new. Strange, but new. He wasn't quite sure if he liked it yet, but it was a feeling he could get used to.

"Hey, look, Ash!" He said, drawing the attention of the hungry boy. "That little kid over there is holding a Casteliacone! They say they taste like nothing else in the human world! Don't you want to have a lick?"

"I mean… sure…" Ash considered. "I'll ask him if he wants to share!"

"W-What, no! You're an angel, you're better than this!" Goh pleased, trying to appeal to Ash's pride – assuming he even had any, given that just a few minutes ago he was letting the kids in the village ride him so they could pretend he was a pegasus.

"No one is better than having good manners! Silly Goh!" Ash gave him an embarrassing pat on the head, complete with hair ruffle, and went to talk to the boy with the coveted ice cream.

"Hello, fellow kid! Tell me, could I have a little taste of that casteliacone you're holding?" Ash politely inquired.

The boy in question, as was typical for a human child at that age, rudely turned away. Ash's shoulders slumped. "Awwww…"

"Parker, don't be like that. The boy asked you nicely. Let him have one of your casteliacones." A familiar voice (well, familiar to Goh) spoke.

"Awww, geez, sis! I paid good money for these!"

The nun from before – Chloe, if he remembered correctly – ruffled her apparent sibling's hair and consoled him "generosity is a virtue, remember? It's no good to be greedy, especially not with food."

Goh scoffed at this, though he felt unusually happy when the boy reluctantly handed over his smallest casteliacone to Ash and ran off. But it still meant Ash technically wasn't doing anything sinful. "Shoot! The people in this town are just way too nice, sometimes."

"We try to be", the nun girl said, interrupting his thoughts. "Hello again, mister demon. I hope you haven't played any nasty tricks on anyone this Halloween."

"I'm probably tricking myself at this point, honestly…" Goh commented dejectedly.

"You know this girl, Goh?" Ash questioned.

"We're acquainted, yeah. Her name's Chloe", Goh explained, while Chloe nodded in confirmation.

"I'm surprised you remembered."

"Most people don't forget being threatened with being nailed to a cross, yeah?!" Goh complained to her.

"WAIT! You thought that's what I meant? Noooo!" Chloe shouted with an uncharacteristic look of panic. "I just meant I was going to make a cross with my fingers to repel you, that's all!"

"Oh, haha! M-My bad!"

Ash chortled at the two's conversation. "You guys are funny!"

Chloe turned to look at him, unsure of what to make of this new stranger. "What about you? You're not from around here. What brings you to Vermillion?"

"Oh, you know… this and that…" Ash trailed off as he tried to think of a way out of this conversation.

"I'd like to know, too! Angels aren't supposed to come to Earth during Halloween time, right? So…"

"Oh, so he's an angel?" Chloe asked. "But if that's so, then what's with the cracked halo?"

"I presume it's because he's fallen", Goh explains. "I've been trying to nudge him in that direction a little bit, but he's being stubborn."

"I'm not stubborn!" Ash protested. "I'm just too much of a GOOD BOY to get distracted by your very obvious attempts to corrupt me, that's all!"

"Told you you were being obvious", Chloe teased.

"SHUT IT!", Goh screamed at her, trying to be as intimidating as possible. But it failed!

Ash and Chloe laughed in unison. "Look at us!" Ash remarked. "A nun, a demon and an angel, talking as if they're good friends! Almost gives you hope for the future, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does…" Goh mumbled. 'Especially because that future involves me tempting you and bringing you back to hell with me to show what a good demon I am', he thought silently.

No sir, Goh still hadn't given up on trying to corrupt Ash. The night was still young and there were plenty of other avenues left. But first, he decided, he had to learn what made him tick.

"So about that halo…" he continued.

"Would you please just drop it?!" Ash angrily shouted.

"Ash, look at me. I'm literally a demon. Misdeeds and wrongdoings are my stock and trade. I promise you, there is nothing you could have possibly done that I would judge you for." He tells Ash, taking his hands into his own for dramatic flair (he tells himself).

Ash blushes very hard. "A-Alright, Goh… I'll tell you. It's a long story."

"Take as much time as you need." With that, the trio decide to sit down together and listen to Ash tell his story.

"I was a guardian angel before this, for a boy named Gary. He was a rowdy little boy, always misbehaving. He had lost his parents when he was very young, and the other kids always mocked him for it. He didn't need a guardian, he needed a friend!" Ash stated. "So I decided I'd show myself to him."

Goh and Chloe said nothing, so Ash continued. "We became friends, and I got to know him better than anyone else ever did. Maybe a little too well. Slowly, I started falling in love with the man he was becoming. I know he was just supposed to be the one I was protecting, but I couldn't help it. So I… told him."

Ash's face became clouded, but he kept on talking, faster now, as if to make it go quicker. "And that was when I was brought back home and I was in this court, and mom and dad looked so disappointed, and I-I… they said I wasn't supposed to do that! That it wasn't okay for an angel to love a human, that it was wrong, and they… they broke my halo and threw me back here."

Goh stared at Ash with pity. Now he almost felt bad for prying. "Do you want us to help you find Gary?"

"No, it's okay. He's honestly better off without me complicating things for him. Don't want the other angels getting mad at him, too."

"See, this is what I'm talking about!" Goh declared, standing up. "All these arbitrary rules, telling people who they can and can't love, even his own servants! It's not right!"

"Well, what's the alternative?" Ash questioned.

"Ash, come with me to hell! It's… it's a great place there!" Goh said, lying through his teeth. "It's not for everyone, but we don't judge anyone there! You can do whatever you want! It's pure freedom!" Well, that part was true, at least. Goh was proud of his native homeland, despite everything.

"Really?" Ash's eyes sparkled. "It sounds like an amazing place! When can we go there?"

"Well, all you have to do is sign this contract here-"

"Wait. Hold on a bit. Ash, can you let me talk to Goh in private?" Chloe requested.

"Uh… sure! I'll just play with the other kids while I wait!" Ash replied with a nod.

After Chloe took him aside, Goh asked her, "What is this about, Chloe? You're not going to try to banish me or anything like that, right?"

Chloe sighed. "No… look, I have no quarrel against you demons. You didn't choose to be born into a miserable, literal hellhole just for being who you are. If anything, I pity you."

"Is this your idea of a pep talk? 'Cuz it's really not working…" Goh snarked at her.

"But", she continued, ignoring his comment, "When I look at that boy, I see someone who still has a chance. Someone who is an innocent, as a child is."

Goh looked back to where Ash was. He was playing soccer with the village kids, laughing with them and acting like he was just another one of them, even though he was an angel and a divine entity. Goh could never bring himself to do that.

"…Your point?" He asked confrontationally, though he already knew what it was.

"Don't take that away from him!" Chloe begged. "He doesn't deserve to spend the rest of his life eternal trapped underground."

"Well, neither do I!"

"I know, and I wish there was something I could do about that. But I can't. All I can do is insist that maybe, just this once, you take a break from being egotistic and self-centered and out for yourself and consider whose soul you're damning here. If Ash goes with you, will he ever be the same?"

Goh fell silent. "Arceus would want his creations to make their own choices", Chloe stated, "And you're both Arceus' creations. So I'm going to step out of the way here, and hope that maybe there's some humanity inside this awkward little demon I've met today."

"H-Hey!" Goh balked at the description she gave of him, but Chloe was already walking away. What a strange nun, Goh thought. Befriending a demon, letting him potentially corrupt an angel… That sort of behavior takes a lot of faith. It seemed like she saw something inside of him he didn't know about.

Goh continued to stare at Ash. He had just told him that, right before they'd met, he had confessed his love to the boy he was guarding, only to be abruptly separated from him, divested from his position as an angel, and stuck with the realization he couldn't be together with the boy he'd fallen for (quite literally) ever again.

Yet, here he was, acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. If anything, Ash seemed happy he was making so many new friends. If Goh took him to hell… he would never be happy again.

Sure, Goh defended some aspects of hell, but he knew they were all prisoners. No light ever reached there. Everything was confusing and cacophonic, and the temperatures varied between 'so hot all the water is boiling' to 'frigid like the two north poles had a baby', pretty much all the time. And that was ignoring the weekly punishments they were subjected to.

If he let Ash stay here… he could come back to Vermillion and play with his new friends as many times as he wanted, whereas he'd have to wait for Halloween if he went with Goh. And he would never have any hope of repairing his halo if he did so. What Goh was intending on doing was incredibly selfish.

B-But! So what if it was? Wasn't that what demons were all about? Why was he faltering now?

Could it be…

He ran toward Ash. He took in his soft face, his messy hair, thinking about how he'd have to wait one year to see them again. It felt… painful.

This childish, immature angel boy, it seemed, had corrupted him, without even trying.

No. He couldn't lie to him like that. Ash deserved to be here, with good people, doing good things.

"Hey, Ash!" Goh called out, approaching the angel boy once more.

"Oh, Goh! You finished talking with Chloe?" Ash inquired, now busy carefully carving some jack o' lanterns for the children.

"Yeah… listen, Ash, maybe I was a little hasty, before. Hell isn't perfect. I think the human world is probably the best place for you. You can stay here and protect everyone, just like how you used to."

Ash looked thoughtful. "Hmm. You sure? You come from hell, right?"

"Yeah, but… anyway. Want to, uh… want to do something fun together?" Goh suggested, stumbling through his words.

Ash gave him a grin in response. "Sure! How good are you at…" With a dramatic flourish, Ash removed a tarp from the ground and showed a crude drawing. When had he drawn that? Was it while he and Chloe were talking?

"Hopscotch! See, this bit here represents earth, where we are right now. And you have to play until you get to heaven!" Ash explained.

Goh chuckled to himself. "Really? What a cruel little game for both of us… but alright. Explain the rules to me, o master!" Goh instructed, bowing in overdramatic fashion.

"Well, I throw this stone into one of the squares. You have to hop on one foot, avoiding that square, because it represents sin! Oh, and you also have to switch what foot you're using, each time!"

"W-What does the foot-switching part represent?" Goh asked, befuddled.

"I, uh… I forgot." Ash replied with a sheepish smile. Goh was unsurprised.

They spent quite a while playing the game, half of which was spent attempting to dissect its metaphorical applications, which Goh insisted were largely nonexistent the more he thought about it. Eventually, Goh tired out, so they took a break to rest.

"Well, I didn't really get what I came here for, but at least I got a… friend in you, Ash." Goh stated gratefully. The word felt so weird in his mouth, but somehow it felt appropriate.

"Well, to be honest, now that we've gotten to know each other better, I wouldn't mind giving you that kiss you wanted!" Ash replied.

"I- WHAT?!" Goh shouted with great surprise. "I-I mean… that was just one of those corrupting things, you know? Didn't you say they were really obvious?"

"I don't know, it really did seem like you wanted one, that time."

Goh thought it was preposterous. Like Ash said, they had only just met. It made no sense for him to want a kiss from a stranger, let alone an angel.

But, uh… he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, either! If Ash was offering it, why not? Or so he told himself. "Well… just a small one on the cheek is fine." He muttered.

So Ash leaned in and gave him a cute little peck on the cheek. Goh's body burned brighter than all the fires of hell in response. "You know, you're kinda shy for a demon!" Ash commented, though it didn't sound mocking at all.

"And you're way too forward to be an angel", Goh playfully remarked. "So much for pining over your lost love."

"Oh well, you know, aren't you supposed to move on in these kinds of situations?" Ash reflected.

"I guess. Though it's going to be hard for me to do that, after meeting you…" Goh stated cryptically.

"What do you mean? It's not like we're-"

BONG. BONG. BONG. Tolled the church bells, signaling the arrival of midnight.

Goh's body began turning transparent before Ash's eyes. "GOH! What's happening to you?"

"I must have forgotten to mention it before", Goh stated with a bittersweet tone. "You know how most angels can't come to Earth during Halloween? Well… demons are the opposite. We can only visit earth while Halloween is happening. After that, we're gone."

"But we'd just-" Ash angrily protested.

"I know!" Goh shouted back. "But I'll be back for you, Ash, I promise! We'll meet back up here next year's Halloween, for sure!" He told him, putting his hands on Ash's shoulders. "Will you… can you wait for me here?"

"I… of course, Goh. It's just, it's all happening so fast…"

"I totally get it. I wish we had more time. But demons don't really have the luxury of getting what we want, do we? But I wouldn't have it any other way, because if I had, you would have ended up down there with me, instead of up here, free to spread your wings to every corner of the world."

Goh finished his speech by giving Ash a hug. "Thanks for the memories, Ash. This Halloween is going to really hard to top."

Ash wiped away what few tears had managed to come out despite his best efforts, and gave Goh a confident grin. "Yeah? Well, that sounds like a challenge to me!"

"I'll look forward to seeing how you overcome it, then!" Goh replied, grinning back. "Bye for now!"

"Byeeee!" Ash said while waving his hand at Goh's slowly-disappearing image, now no longer unhappy.

All he could think about was Goh's final words, about him spreading his wings to every corner of the world. Imagine the kinds of stories he could tell Goh, all the things he could show him when they got back together.

Ash ran back to the village, thinking of asking Chloe about interesting places to visit in the human world.

And in the future, whenever people would ask him about his broken halo, he would tell them, simply:

"Oh, this? It's the reason I met Goh!"

A.N. As always, a few notes.

I changed what I wanted the Halloween tie-in fic to be about three times before arriving at this one. The first idea I had I decided was "too dark", the other was too complicated for a simple halloween story. Both will be released someday, though, don't you worry!

If you're in the satogou discord server, you've seen the fanarts of these characters already, and it was because we were talking about them again recently that I decided the time was right to put this AU out there into the world. They were drawn by the ever-chaotic Corail Rouge, based on an offhand comment of mine. I wrote a short fic in response (which I might publish some day as some sort of bonus feature), and now here we are. Nun Chloe, however, was drawn by Zuyurio! Not sure if he ever posted it, though. If he did, send me the link so I can properly give credit =)
twitter+com/corailrouge_/status/1323124138152763392
corail-rouge+tumblr+com/post/633646514812649473
(Make sure to replace the pluses in the urls with periods, because FFnet breaks them)

Goh mentions not wanting to break "any more of his horns", and that's because he has mismatched horns ("fashionable assymetry", he would call them). One side of his head has no horns, because they got broken at some point, but the other has small reddish horns in place of his normal self's hairclips/red splotches in his hair, though I should note that this is not the case in Corail's designs! In the same way, Ash does not have a cracked halo in the art, because him being a fallen angel was an idea I came up with later.

Will the boys really meet up again next Halloween? I mean, who knows? It depends on whether I feel like revisiting this one and don't have any new Halloween AU ideas on the backburner 0:)

See you guys (hopefully) soon!