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It had been such a promising night to begin with. Sawamura had finished all his classwork for the next week and their coach had given them the holiday weekend off. He had plans with his Netflix queue and a large pizza all to himself, along with an empty dorm room. Something that hardly ever happened but his roommate had gone home and Sawamura was not going to question his good fortune.
Good fortune doesn’t last when someone is friends with the walking disasters in human form, known as Bokuto and Kuroo. Sawamura regretted the day he had met them. It never failed that if Sawamura was even thinking about being a bit of a couch potatoe those two should show up and wreck his entire night.
Due to the numerous stunts they pulled Sawamura into, a Haunted House on Halloween weekend wasn’t actually all that bad. At least that’s what Sawamura initially thought. Except it turned out to be one of those huge Haunted Houses that were several stories tall. Kuroo had worked as one of the scarers the previous year and insisted they all go together.
It was all fine. It was a bit chilly but Bokuto’s surprisingly high pitched screams of terror and Kuroo’s cackling nervous laughter made it all a bit worth it. Who knew they were such scaredy cats? Sawamura definitely didn’t know and he wasn’t above hoarding this over their heads for the rest of their lives.
Then they were separated. Sawamura could still hear Bokuto’s screams nearby so he hadn’t been all that worried. Sawamura was a bit of a horror movie fan so the haunted house was more amusing than anything. He liked seeing each new room, the props and designs that went into each one. Each person's makeup and costumes, the characters they choose to play and how they really seemed to get a kick out of completely terrorizing Bokuto. Sawamura couldn’t blame them. Bokuto was a pretty big guy, both in height and weight, no one expected the volleyball star to be able to reach such high volumes in screams.
Sawamura had seen a tall person from behind, had noted the black messy hair in the dark. He had assumed he somehow caught up with Kuroo again so he had gotten an idea. An idea born of too many late night phone calls of Dadchi, please pick us up. No I don’t know where we are. No you’re drunk and belligerent! Of missed opportunities to stay home and go to bed early. Of scraped knees and ruined t shirts. Revenge was on Sawamura Daichi’s mind.
Of course nothing can ever be easy for Sawamura, and he did vaguely remember his grandfather telling him how revenge tends to hurt the seeker too.
“You’re here to be scared, not the other way around!” A guy in a ghoul costume was shouting. Sawamura winced but let him continue on.
Sawamura had snuck up on the tall figure and shouted behind him. The figure was not Kuroo, and he had turned around in full skeleton paint. Sawamura, expecting Kuroo and not a monster had reacted in a rather violent way. In Sawamura’s defense he had never been so scared in his life. In not Sawamura’s defense, he had punched a poor guy just trying to do his job.
“I’m really sorry.” Sawamura apologized for what felt like the 100th time. It would never be enough.
“You better be!” Ghoul guy said.
“It was an accident.” Kuroo slipped in between the Ghoul and Sawamura, which Sawamura was thankful for even though he felt like he didn’t deserve it. Bokuto was quietly sitting in the corner, looking like he would need therapy for the next twenty years.
“I can’t believe I punched you in the face.” Sawamura continued on, staring down at the converse clad feet instead of the bloodied skeleton face. “I’m not usually such a violent person, you scared the shit out of me.” A deep chuckle came from in front of him, where the skeleton was sitting on a chair with a bloodied rag held up to his nose.
“I guess that’s a compliment.” The skeleton guy said before lightly tapping his foot against Sawamura’s boot, both of them ignoring ghoul guy and Kuroo’s arguing.
“I know you work in a haunted house and I am so, so sorry for punching you in the face but- oh man, I can’t believe that’s how I react when I’m scared.” Sawamura rubbed the back of his neck.
“You kind of did me a favor.” Sawamura looked up at him in disbelief. “When we get injured we get to leave but we still get paid for our full shift.”
“I guess they just had a higher standard of hiring when I worked here.” Kuroo said with a nasty smirk as the ghoul gasped, hand fluttering over his chest.
“Or lower!” The ghoul shouted.
“Grade A comeback.” Kuroo snapped back.
“I mean look at my nose.” The skeleton prompted, pulling Sawamura’s attention back to him as he pulled away the bloodied rag. It looked like his nose had stopped bleeding but it was crooked. “You think that’s the first time I’ve been punched?”
“How are you so fine with this?” Sawamura asked as the guy shrugged in response. “And how many times have you been punched in the nose?”
“Seven, this makes eight.” The guy nudged Sawamura’s boot once more. “If you wanted to talk to me Sawamura you could have just approached me in class, no need to get so physical.” Sawamura ducked his head again as he groaned. He had a sneaking suspicion the person he hit was Matsukawa Issei, the one guy Sawamura had been caught staring at in their shared microeconomics class one too many times.
Sawamura could blame the monotone voice of the lecturer or the completely dry subject material for his wandering eyes and it would be partially true. But mostly it was because Matsukawa was always sleeping in that class but continually managed to get higher marks than Sawamura.
Well that and Matsukawa had ridiculous eyebrows and even messier hair. He seems so serious but Sawamura had caught a couple of the jokes he shared with the pink haired man Matsukawa shared a table with. He was witty and intelligent. And yes, handsome.
“You made your own prosthetics?” Kuroo asked.
“The ones at the store have such thick edges, I had to.” The ghoul said with a shrug as he allowed Kuroo to get a closer look.
“So you’re allowed to leave?” Sawamura asked, glancing up at Matsukawa almost hesitantly because this was so much scarier than any haunted house could be.
“Yes.” Matsukawa’s eyes were heavy lidded, even more pronounced with the contrast of black and white paint all over his face.
“Can I buy you some food as an apology? Maybe get some ice for your nose.” Sawamura clasped his hands together to keep from rubbing the back of his neck, a sure sign of his discomfort. Matsukawa’s smile was a small thing but it warmed up his dark eyes quite nicely.
“Cheese filled hamburger steak.” Sawamura looked at him in confusion. “It’s my favorite.”
“That’s disgusting.” Sawamura laughed but he was already pulling out his phone to find the nearest place that had cheese-filled hamburger steak on the menu.
“I need to get out of here!” Bokuto shouted before making a break towards the door.
“No Bo, not that door it goes back to the haunted house!” Kuroo yelled as he quickly ran after his friend, followed closely by the ghoul.
“Come on, before they get back.” They both stood up and Sawamura noted how much taller Matsukawa was.
Months later Matsukawa’s favorite story to tell was the time he scared his boyfriend so bad, his boyfriend gave him a bloody nose. Even years later Sawamura still does not find it funny and buys his boyfriend a cheese-filled hamburger steak every Halloween to make up for it.