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The leafless trees rustled outside the window of their apartment as the sun ducked below the horizon. The street below was far from dark, however — the bright lights and the eerie colors cast an odd glow through the curtains, setting a proper atmosphere for the day. The younger children could be heard in the streets, heading out with their parents, the familiar chimes of “trick or treat!” rising through the slightly open window. Chiaki stood outside the bathroom door, shifting from side to side impatiently. His partner had insisted on dressing up for Halloween, and while Chiaki hadn’t been able to think of a reasonable costume (all of his sentai outfits had to be perfect, and there was no way that was happening in the short amount of time they had, and definitely not with their limited budget), who was he to stop the other boy from enjoying the holiday?
He supposed the excitement was justified. Due to Kanata’s sheltered childhood, he never really had the chance to dress up or go trick or treating on Halloween — even if he had, it was unlikely he would have been able to do it with friends. He had seemed so excited about the idea of it all, staring with wide eyes at the walls of a Halloween pop-up store, lined with packaged outfits and weird masks. There was no way Chiaki could refuse, especially not when his eyes were shining, and yeah, it probably didn’t help that it was really cute.
They had ended up making a compromise: they wouldn’t go out for too long (they were high school students, after all, people might be suspicious), but Kanata could keep the leftover candy.
The sound of rummaging suddenly came from behind the door, causing him to jolt out of his thoughts. “Kanata! Are you finally done?” An airy voice replied back, “almost,” and Chiaki had to hold back a sigh. Part of him was just impatient — he could hypothetically leave and do something else while he was waiting, but he didn’t want to think about what happened last time he left Kanata near the bathtub unsupervised — and the other half wanted to see what costume Kanata had picked out for himself. He had insisted on keeping it secret, even when Chiaki offered to help him buy it.
He had just begun to zone out again when the door opened.
And Kanata...
Was nowhere to be seen.
It took his brain a second to register this. As soon as he realized Kanata was not, in fact, standing in the doorway, his immediate assumption was that he was in trouble. As he rushed in to help his companion who may or may not have been face-down in the bathtub at that point, he was suddenly on the opposite end of the issue. Kanata had managed to slip past him (seriously, was he human?!) and through the doorway, dropping a bag before swinging it shut.
“you have to “dress up” too, you know.”
Of course it was a trap. The brunette sighed, turning towards the mirror, contemplating the situation he was in. There was no way he was getting out of the bathroom without changing, that was for sure. He hadn’t wanted to dress up purely because his superhero costumes had all been too small for him now. Maybe Kanata had found him another one, though? Letting out a huff, he picked up the bag that was left to him.
He didn’t recognize what was inside at first, only seeing black fabric folded up neatly with some kind of hat on top. Pulling it out, however, he realized it was a costume for those spirits that came back to life...Jiangshi, he thought? He wasn’t too sure, but it really didn’t matter too much. Sure, he was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a hero, but if Kanata wanted him to wear it, there had to be a reason. Slipping on the robes and trying (and failing three times) to balance the hat on his head, he looked at himself in the mirror, flashing the fake fangs that came with the costume. It didn’t look too bad, in all honesty. He made a few faces in the mirror to get used to this new character he was assigned before opening the door.
Immediately, he was greeted by Kanata popping out at him, wearing a costume similar to his, except with blue accents (while his were red; how fitting). The sudden shock caused him to stumble back onto the floor, frantically grabbing up at the hat on his head that he took so much effort to balance.
It took a moment to get over the shock before he started laughing, seeing Kanata stick his tongue out like a child before giggling along with him. As the blue haired boy kneeled down to offer him a hand, he noticed Kanata’s nails were painted back. He was really excited, wasn’t he?
Chiaki smiled warmly, taking the hand offered to him. He looked at Kanata’s shining face, the mirror showing their matching costumes, and suddenly he didn’t mind that this year, he wasn’t dressed as a hero.