Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This is going to be a whole new level of living nightmare, Ochako realised, filled with regret and fighting off a grimace.

Fingers pinched at her cheek.

“Mina! Hands- wheel- road!”  Momo said sharply.

Mina laughed as she replaced her hand onto the steering wheel. “You can’t blame me for getting distracted, Yaomomo. Ocha’s got her I’m-too-stubborn-to-be-scared face on, and it’s so pouty and cute.” Mina made the motion to pinch Ochako’s cheek again, but she glanced at the seat behind her, at Momo’s disapproving frown, and she quickly slammed her hands back to the wheel.

“And please keep your eyes on the road,” Momo added, though there was a smile in her long-suffering voice.

“I should have sat in the back,” Ochako lamented.

“Or we should have just let Momo drive like she usually does,” Tsu said from behind Ochako’s seat.

“I don’t know,” Kyouka said from between Momo and Tsu, “the danger of Mina’s driving is really doing it for me. Will we ever make it to our destination? Will Mina changing the radio station again, or pointing at a bird, or calling out number plates, or turning around to talk to us in the back seats get us all killed? It’s like we’re starring on our own action movie. Starring just us.”

Laughter filled the car, and even Ochako felt herself smiling at her friend’s good humour – despite the terrified squirming in her stomach.

“Oh, is it pick on the driver time?” Mina waved both of her hands in the air and snorted at the chorus of ‘Mina, hands!’ it provoked. “I’ll have you know that a professional sat in the car with me while I drove around the city and he gave me a certificate to say that I passed my test and that I’m a good, safe, legal driver.”

“You know I heard once that driving examiners have to pass a certain amount of people or it can make them look incompetent…” Tsu said softly, letting her statement hang in the air.

“Hey…”

Ochako found herself laughing again, glad that they’d all decided to go in one car. Apprehension was still weighing heavily down on her, but she found that it was easier to psyche herself up and push away her nerves with her friends to cheer her.

The quiet of the car didn’t last long before Momo reached over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “If you decide it looks too scary, please don’t think anyone will think any less of you for sitting it out. Okay?”

Ochako nodded, touched by the genuine concern. “I know… Really, I do. I just… Look, this is gonna sound really dumb but- I want him to think that I’m brave. He already told me that he gets scared of horror stuff easily and I thought that this would be my chance to be the brave one.” Ochako picked at the hem of her new frilly pink blouse, smiling at the recent memory of clothes shopping with Tsu.

“The brave one? Didn’t you tell me that you used to watch Gremlins with your friend Iida every Halloween? And that you had to watch most of it through your hands?” Mina raised her eyebrows, but her eyes stayed mercifully on the road.

“I-It’s a scary film!”

“Gremlins are cute though,” Tsu said softly.

“Before they go all scaly and gross they are.”

“Hm, I forgot they aren’t always scaly. I guess they’re kind of cute when they’re furry too.”

Ochako turned around in her seat, unable to believe that Tsu wasn’t kidding, but her finger was on her chin, and her smile was wide, so she simply had no reply to that except to shudder.

“Gremlins is a scary film,” Ochako repeated. “But that’s fine, because there aren’t going to be any gremlins at a haunted house.”

“Mm,” Kyouka said. “Probably just ghosts.”

“And ghouls.”

“Maybe some zombies!”

Ochako slid down her seat with a groan.

“Just remember that it’s not real and you’ll be fine,” Momo assured her with more confidence than she felt she deserved.

“And that you’re being brave for your cute boyfriend.” Mina leaned across to nudge Ochako with her elbow, pointedly not taking her hands off the steering wheel.

I can be brave for Izuku.

(Even her internal voice didn’t sound so sure.)

---

The car finally pulled onto a small carpark as Ochako blinked sleepily, realising she must have fallen asleep at some point in the journey. The radio was on low and she could just about hear Momo, Tsu and Kyouka whispering in the back. Her friends must have been trying to let her sleep. Affection rushed into her chest as she sat up and yawned loudly.

“Good morning sleepy,” Mina said, “enjoy your nap?”

“Don’t tease her, Mina,” Momo sighed.

Ochako rubbed her eyes. “Sorry for falling asleep guys…”

“Aw, I was only kidding Ocha. We know it’s better for your motion sickness if you sleep through the journey.”

“Mm, it really is! I don’t feel sick at all.”

Mina pulled the car into one of the many empty spots. “We didn’t even hit too much traffic, so I think we made good time.”

“Maybe we beat the boys here?” Kyouka suggested playfully.

The girls all twisted in their seats to look out of their windows and try to catch a glimpse of Eijiro’s red car, but the carpark was mostly empty. (Apparently nobody else wanted to stay in a hotel in the middle of absolutely-nowhere in January?). There were only three cars in the special designated spaces for employees, all curiously silver, and a couple further along that must belong to other guests, one black car, one blue. The tarmac was littered with holes that grass had begun to grow through and most of the white paint indicating the parking spaces had faded with time. The building of the hotel was looking tired too; a dusty old sign above the door read ‘Frog Lane Hotel’ (Tsu’s eyes had lit up when they’d told her where they’d be staying overnight), the front door itself had red paint that was peeling away from it in shards, and a window was set into it that was so fogged up with dirt that it was impossible to see through… Maybe it’s all part of the haunted house experience too?

Ochako shuddered.

Mina must have picked up on the vibes as silence descended upon the car, because she laughed nervously as she opened her door.

“I think this’s the last time we let that Denki find us a place to stay, huh?”

“It’s… rustic?” Ochako offered generously, not wanting to be mean to her boyfriend’s best friend, as she jumped out of the car and stretched her arms above her head.

Kyouka, Tsu and Momo joined them and once again there was nothing but silence as they took in the scene in front of them.

This wasn’t even supposed to be the scary part of their evening.

“At least it’s cheap.” Tsu shrugged.

“Well, the experience starts at nine, and it goes on for three hours, so there’s no way we’d have done that and been driving all the way home through the night anyway. It wouldn’t be fair.” Momo smoothed back her perfectly shiny black ponytail and rested her hands on her hips. “So, all we really need is a bed for the night, right? At least we’re close to the venue here, and there was a village not too far back, maybe they’ll deliver us some pizza or something?”

Kyouka shook her head and smiled fondly. “I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Those kids are so lucky to have you as their teacher. You’re always so practical and level-headed.”

Momo fanned her face at the resulting cries of agreement from the others. “No way! Not me! Inside I’m… not like that at all,” her voice quietened at the end.

Ochako reached over and gave her hands a squeeze. “Well we love you either way.”

Mina ran around to the trunk and flung it open with a flourish, revealing their tightly packed coats, bags and cases – that all nearly tumbled out as the pressure that had contained them was released. (To get them in there in the first place Mina had lain on top of them while Kyouka leaped up and pulled the trunk down, letting Mina remove herself just in time to not get cut in half. Ochako hadn’t been able to look.)

Once they’d unpacked the car, they agreed to wait for the others before they entered and checked in. Denki had the room arrangements and the booking details anyway, so it was probably for the best that he dealt with whoever was on the desk. Ochako had only met Denki a handful of times – briefly – but it was enough to make her desperately try to understand how she could have thought that letting him handle their accommodation for the night was a good decision and how she could have agreed to it in the first place. She should probably be grateful it was an actual hotel (she had to hope that maybe its inside was better than its outside) and not just the misleading name of a campsite or something strange like that. Denki was the sort of person her mother would describe as ‘unpredictable as the weather’. Izuku adored him though, and she loved to see their personalities bounce off each other when they were together. She guessed it was because it reminded her of herself and Mina.

A cold wind whistled through the almost empty carpark and Ochako felt herself shiver, drawing her thick coat closer to her. The others looked just as cold, but they’d all been prepared for January weather and worn warm coats too – Tsu had even brought her favourite scarf with the frogs on it. Seeing her green scarf jogged Ochako’s memory of what she’d shoved into her case at the last minute and she crouched down to her small suitcase to pull a green knitted hat out of the front pocket. She yanked it on gratefully, making sure the longer bangs beside her face were still in front of her ears, and instantly felt warmer. If anyone noticed that her hat had the kids cartoon character Deku the Rabbit knitted onto it, nobody said anything. She’d got a lot of merchandise with Deku the Rabbit on recently…

“Hm, no signal…” Kyouka said with a touch of unease, frowning at her cell phone.

Ochako perked up. “Ah, see, now we have finally moved into an area I’m comfortable in. I didn’t spend my formative childhood years in a backwater town for nothing. I’ll find us some signal out here and I’ll find some in the hotel.”

“Ooh, bold claims from our little Ocha! C’mon babe, you’ve been training for this moment your whole life. You can do it!” Mina cupped her hands around her mouth and whooped as Ochako raised and lowered her phone. “Kyouka, you gotta do your radio voice for this one.”

“Nope.”

“Please! C’mon!”

“Gods, don’t get on your knees, they’ll get all gritty! Where’s your self respect woman!”

Tsu snorted loudly, making Kyouka laugh while Mina gasped dramatically.

“Tsu’s only giggle-snorting at what we’re all thinking Mina, sorry,” Ochako said with feigned regret, still taking tiny steps around the group and waving her phone in the air.

“Be-tray-al.” Mina straightened up and crossed her arms.

Kyouka sighed. “Okay, okay.” She cleared her throat and held an imaginary microphone to her face, lowering her voice to make it silky and smooth and easy on the ears, “Our Brave Ochako goes in search of cell phone signal. The girls are left standing in front of what could potentially be the last place they stay in – getting eaten alive by rats may be a distinct possibility. Or it could be the beginning to the plot of one of those really low-budget made-for-tv horror movies.”

“Yes!” Mina clapped her hands. “I would happily marry radio presenter voice Kyouka. Have I already mentioned?”

“Only every time you make her do it,” Tsu said.

Mina sighed dreamily. “It’s the only reason I listen to our local radio station at ten o’clock at night.”

“I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that you get a better slot soon.” Momo held up both hands and crossed her fingers.

“One day,” Kyouka said, still in her radio voice, “the radio station manager will stop being such an ass and will finally get Kyouka the slot she deserves. The on-going struggle, produced, directed and narrated by Kyouka Jirou. Special guest star Yaoyorozu Momo.”

“I got some!” Ochako burst out. “I had a bar flash up! Someone give me a piggyback.” She shook her head. “Don’t ask.”

Tsu darted over and crouched, so that Ochako could jump onto her back, and stuck her weirdly long tongue out at Mina, who had just started moving forward.

Mina poked at Tsu’s tongue. “Don’t point your lizard tongue at me Missy.” She squealed as Tsu licked her finger. “Gross, gross, gross!”

Ochako giggled and looked back down at her phone as she tuned out the sound of Mina complaining to Momo. Two whole bars. Better than nothing.

She relaxed into Tsu’s firm grip on her and began typing a message.

<Hey Deku we’re at the “hotel”! (^o^) How far away do you think you guys are??? Xxx>

She wasn’t expecting an immediate answer, so she was surprised when her phone buzzed not too long after she’d tapped send.

<I’m concerned over why you’ve written hotel like that (?) but we’re going to be about five minutes, according to google maps. We had to stop at a service station for a bathroom break, but Eijiro drives… fast. So yeah, five minutes :) xxx>

Ochako couldn’t help the hiss of amusement that escaped her lips as she read Izuku’s message. She would absolutely swear down that he had a bladder the size of a walnut. The stereotype was that girls always needed a bathroom break, but every time they went on a date, he was always the one needing the bathroom before and after the meal or movie. She’d wondered aloud one day about how he coped when he was working and had to be in the ambulance for long stretches of time or dealing with whatever accident he’d been called to, but he said (with a squeaky little laugh and a self-conscious rub on the back of his neck) that it was only nerves that reminded him of his weak bladder, and that when he was working he didn’t think of anything else except helping people as best he can.

Would they ever stop being nervous around each other? As much as she loved him, she still felt butterflies in her stomach when they were together – happy, flappy, lovey-dovey butterflies. He obviously felt the same.

Now she could only imagine it was the thought of the haunted house experience that had made him so nervous.

It was all Denki’s idea though, so it was on him if it was too much.

Ochako hopped down from Tsu’s back and gave her a quick hug. “Izuku said they’ll be about five minutes.”

“That’s not all he said, judging from how much you were smiling at your pho- ow!” Mina rubbed at the shoulder Kyouka had jabbed her on.

Ochako nearly laughed again at the idea of telling Mina why she’d been smiling, but there was no way she’d embarrass him like that. She couldn’t believe how much she loved him, even his nervous bladder and stutter, his cupboard full of unused medicines and cures that he couldn’t quite part with – just in case – and his ever-growing collection of superhero merchandise. Instead she said, “W-Wouldn’t you like to know.” But the slight trip over her first word and the way her voice wobbled on the last word didn’t make it sound how she’d imagined in her head.

(Why did flirty and coy never sound right when it came out of her mouth?)

But it was enough to provoke ‘ooh’s from her friends, and she couldn’t stop the blush that warmed her cheeks.

Anything else they were going to say was interrupted by the sound of a car cruising down the dusty lane, that was the only way to reach the hotel, and seconds later a shiny red car took the sharp turn into the carpark. It pulled up a short distance from where Mina had parked, swinging into a space, and only served to make the silence of the area more pronounced when the deafening roar of its engine cut out suddenly.

Eijiro’s car was as cool as his motorbike. But it always made Ochako amused at how his ‘bad boy’ image and cool exterior didn’t quite match up to how kind and friendly and soft he was inside.

Her eyes were caught by a familiar mop of green hair in the back of the car and she tried not to let her excitement show. It’s only been a few hours since we all set off on the trip, don’t be weird and show everyone how much you missed him.

The car doors popped open and the boys finally poured out. Eijiro was barely out of his seat before Mina had jumped on him for a hug, and he swung her around while she laughed. Denki looked like he’d been asleep during the trip, like herself, since his usually perfectly spiked hair was flat at the back and he was wiping something that seemed suspiciously like drool from the corner of his mouth. He yawned loudly, stretching his arms high above himself like a cat, and Ochako thought she heard something in his back make a popping noise. (She’d never seen Kyouka’s nose crinkle that badly in distaste before – it was almost comical.)

A boy she didn’t know climbed out of the back; his black hair was pushed away from his forehead by a thick bright blue and white headband, making it spike up, but as he stood by the car he pulled the headband down around his neck and fluffed out the fringe that flopped over to one side. His eyes were grey and almost severe looking at first, but they visibly softened as he turned to see their group, where Momo was waving lightly at him. She knew Momo had said that she’d invited a male teacher colleague called Awase, so that must be him. He rubbed his arms as he stood stiffly by the car. He looked nervous.

On the other side she finally saw Izuku emerge, and she had to stop herself from running over to him like Mina had done with Eijiro. He made his way around the front as he stretched his arms one at a time behind his head, pulling up the fabric of his shirt just enough to catch a peek of a strip of skin in the small gap it left. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice him waving enthusiastically at her for a few seconds, and then before she knew it her feet were taking her to him. He met her halfway to the car and pulled her into a tight hug, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “Missed you,” Izuku said in a breath that was barely more than an exhale.

“Missed you too,” she breathed back with a smile.

When they pulled back Izuku seemed to suddenly remember where they were and the pink that snaked up his neck and the tips of his ears was so cute that she nearly pulled him down for a kiss.

“S-Sorry,” he said quietly to her with a small step away.

“Don’t be.” Ochako smiled at him and reached for one of his hands. They entwined fingers.

It was odd that they were both figuring out so much about relationships at the same time. But there wasn’t anyone else she’d rather stumble around in the dark of I’m-in-my-twenties-but-I-haven’t-dated-before-and-I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing.

Their friends had all respectfully given them some distance while they hadn’t been paying attention to them, and the boys’ cases and jackets were all out of the trunk already. She wondered how much of their packing was taken up with hair products and good clothes – she was kind of jealous that her new extended friendship group included people with such immaculately styled hair and great fashion sense.

Once she’d grabbed her case, Izuku took her hand again as they made their way back over to the group.

“I like your hat.”

Ochako touched it briefly, happy that he noticed straight away. “I like your shirt,” she countered back, gesturing at the black shirt he was wearing that had white writing across the chest that said ‘SPOOKY’.

“I’m glad it still fits actually. Toshi bought it for me one year when I’d been invited to a Halloween party at work. Told me it would help me loosen up and get into the mood.”

She loved how bright his expression got when he told her old stories from when he was training to be a Paramedic and he’d been mentored by one of the hospital’s most experienced and senior member of staff, Yagi Toshinori. She often wished she could have met him. “Did you?”

He laughed. “I ended up wearing it all Halloween under my uniform while I was working, but I – uh – I didn’t go to the party. I was too nervous.”

“Well then, next Halloween, let’s have a party of our own! We’ll invite all our friends, it’ll be fun. It’s only what- nine months away?”

Izuku squeezed her hand as he flashed her a grateful smile, his green eyes and freckles almost bright in the fading winter light. “That sounds great.”

Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest.

Izuku’s case was nearby to the rest of the group, his black jacket slung over the top, but he didn’t look especially cold when he shrugged into it. She supposed any accidents he attended that were outside would be in just Paramedic overalls and a shirt underneath, while she worked in a warm, heated coffee shop in her thick astronaut costume and apron. No wonder they reacted to the cold so differently.

When she’d taken her place in the group, that Mina moved across slightly to let her into, she couldn’t help but keep her eyes averted from her best friend – suddenly very self conscious about the affection she wasn’t used to displaying and fearing the teasing she might get about it. But when she peeked up at Mina’s fluffy pink hair her friend only turned slightly to give her an affectionate tilt of her lips and reached over for a quick supportive squeeze of her hand. Tension left Ochako’s shoulders as she breathed out and squeezed back before she turned her attention to whatever was being discussed by the others. Denki was shaking his head while there were a few voices layered over each other that were directed at him.

“Okay, yep- no- I got that- heard you all the first few times, but what was I gonna do, magic a hotel out of thin air that met all your crazy requirements?” Denki yawned again and held up his hand, pulling fingers down with each point he made. “Has to be near the venue, has to have a swimming pool, has to have a gym, has to have rooms big enough for a four and a five, has to be cheap, has to be really cheap. Honestly I think I did pretty damn well guys.”

Ochako felt like whistling innocently as she vaguely remembered being the one that had stressed on its cheapness. She was saving as much as she could whilst still paying her extortionate rent, but she refused to move somewhere cheaper because the person that lived on the floor below her also happened to be her boyfriend.

“’Ey, new guy, what do you think? Looks alright, yeah?” Denki huffed, motioning towards Awase.

Awase looked so startled to be included in the conversation so suddenly that the words, “It looks like a shithole,” seemed to spill out of him before he could stop himself. He blinked rapidly and threw his hands up. “Oh- sorry- shit- I meant- um-”

Eijiro nearly bent double with the force of his laughter while he slapped Denki on the back. The whole group soon cracked up and Ochako was surprised to see that even Momo was hiding light laughter behind her hand – especially considering her usual stance on language. But maybe that was why Awase’s cheeks were an endearing shade of pink.

Denki groaned loudly and hefted his overnight bag onto his shoulder. “Hey, at least it’s somewhere to sleep for the night. And I bet it’s not as bad on the inside as it is on the outside and you’re all gonna be apologising to me.”

Kyouka folded her arms and threw him a sceptical look. “What do you mean ‘you bet’, Denki? That makes it sound like you’ve got no idea what it looks like on the inside… You did look at some photos of the interior of this place when you booked it didn’t you?”

“Oh, nah, they didn’t have any. But the specs matched up to what we needed so I went ahead and booked it anyway. Like, how bad could it be, right?”

“Bro…” Eijiro chuckled and shook his head.

“What?”

“Maybe we really will be eaten alive by rats,” Tsu croaked with a tilt of her head.

“Guys, come on, it’s an adventure! My friend Sero is expecting us at the haunted house experience in a couple of hours anyway, so if anything happens to us at least someone will know we’re missing,” Denki yelled enthusiastically as he made his way towards the front door.

Izuku shrugged with an apologetic smile at them all as he turned to follow, dragging his green case behind him, and it made Ochako giggle again. It was the expression of someone who knew exactly what his friend was like and was totally unsurprised by anything that he did.

They walked to the entrance as a group; Eijiro lay an arm across Mina’s shoulders, Kyouka was grumbling to Tsu, Izuku was right behind Denki, and Awase and Momo walked side by side. Ochako was trying desperately not to let her imagination run away with her about what could be awaiting them inside, but their collective unease was almost palpable.

Denki tried to peer through the small window in the door, but it was so grimy that even when he rubbed it with his hand it did nothing. He turned to give them all a salute and then he pushed open the door.

It creaked loudly as it swung inwards.

Ochako followed the others into the entrance and pulled the door shut behind them all, shuddering as it closed with a click that reminded her of a lock snapping shut. Something final and definite. A desk fan creaked as it spun lazily from the wind that had blasted through the doorway for a moment. It felt like they’d just stepped back in time. There was a phone on the scratched wooden desk that was still connected to its base by a curly plastic black wire, a cash register sat in the place of where a computer would usually go and a thick book with the words ‘guestbook’ printed on top sat next to it, and a small bell was on the other side of the cash register. Underneath the bell was a note that said, ‘Ring For Attention.’

There was a couple of faded, once brightly coloured floral sofas in the corner of the room, with a low coffee table between them. The table was covered in coffee ring stains and there were patches of bare fabric that had caused holes in the sofas, and even some of the old-fashioned olive coloured wallpaper was peeling off the walls. Ochako could see cobwebs over some of the cubby holes on the wall behind the desk, where the room keys sat on tiny hooks.

Eijiro grinned his sharpened teeth (on anyone else it would look creepy, but he was cool enough to pull it off) and slapped Denki’s back. “Oh dude.”

Nothing else needed to be said.

Denki slammed a hand on the bell.

Chapter Text

Nothing happened. The tense atmosphere seemed to dissipate slightly as the group all stood in the silence. It was almost an odd anti-climax when no monsters or ghouls appearing out of a cloud of smoke at the desk counter. (Or at least, that’s what Ochako had been expecting, she wasn’t sure about everyone else.)

Denki leaned over and peered around the entrance hall, then made a small humming sound and tapped his hand in quick succession onto the bell.

DING DING DING

“Don’t do that,” Kyouka hissed.

“It says ring for attention, and we weren’t getting any.” Denki shrugged. “I’m only doing what it-”

There was a loud thump that cut Denki off mid-sentence. Ochako flinched at the sound and the tension in the group returned immediately.

“W-What was-” Ochako began hesitantly until another thump made her jump again.

It came more regularly then; a thump, thump, thump with a kind of steady rhythm that was getting closer and louder, despite nobody being able to see where the noise should be coming from. A part of the wall behind the desk suddenly swung inwards and revealed a figure behind it, silhouetted by the bright light coming from a newly revealed secret room. She thought she heard a few gasps, Awase hissed a curse, and she distantly heard someone else let out a startled squeak. Izuku was at her side in an instant and he pressed his hand into hers with a strong, reassuring pressure. Maybe she’d been the one who’d made the squeaking noise…

Oh Gods, why did I agree to this?

Denki had gotten the tickets for the Haunted House Experience from a friend who worked there and had given him special rates on them, so they’d all arranged to go, and up until a few hours ago she’d been just as excited as she had been scared. Now she just needed to remember that the reason she’d been excited in the first place was because she loved spending time with her friends.

The stranger took a step into the dim light of the entrance hall. He was a tall man clothed in a suit that was the colour of that special, sad shade of faded black that came from washing something too many times. He wore a pair of metal framed glasses, pushed high up on his nose, and had choppy black hair that looked like he’d cut it himself. Most disconcerting of all was the tattoo across the man’s lower face; the exposed teeth of a skull had been tattooed over his entire lower jaw and up to his nose. He squinted at them all with faded grey eyes and Ochako wondered if that was why his glasses seemed to be particularly thick. The thump came again more loudly as the man hobbled over to the desk – he leaned heavily onto a thick wooden walking stick with each step, creating the sound they had heard.

“Sorry,” he said in a hoarse voice, as if wasn’t used very often, “I must have dozed off in the office.”

Of course, the office is hidden behind a secret door…

Mina turned to Ochako and raised her eyebrows, seeming to communicate with just her expression that she was having the exact same thought.

Denki cleared his throat and Ochako was surprised: even the unflappable Denki was seemingly thrown off. She had been starting to suspect this was an elaborate prank that he’d planned with his friend, but maybe he hadn’t planned it after all?

“I, uh...” Denki cleared his throat again. “I’ve got a booking?”

“Are you telling me you have a booking? Or asking me?” the stranger asked in a low voice. The teeth tattooed around his mouth moved eerily as he spoke, but there was a good-natured twinkle in the man’s grey eyes, magnified by his thick glasses.

Kyouka huffed in amusement, then hastily tried to pass it off as a cough.

Denki shook his head and flipped one side of his bangs, seemingly shaking himself out of the weirdness and trying to regain his composure. “I booked two rooms last week – one’s a four, one’s a five, under the name Denki Kaminari.”

“Oh yes, I have been expecting you all.”

Ochako paled as she was struck with the feeling that those words sounded like they’d come straight out of a horror movie.

Awase’s volume was loud enough for them all to hear, even though he leaned close to Momo as he hissed, “If he was expecting us, then why’d he fall asleep?”, which provoked a few chuckles out of the group.

The man made no indication that he had heard. “Please, sign in here.” He opened the thick guestbook to a blank page and pulled a pen out of an inside pocket of his suit that he offered to Denki.

While Denki was busy filling out the details, the man turned to the cubby holes of room keys, brushed a cobweb out of the way, and placed two keys on the counter. Shiny tags were attached to each of them that read ‘12’ on one and ‘14’ on the other.

“These are the keys you’ll need for your stay. We only carry one copy of each key, so you will need to keep them safe. Room twelve is the one for five people, while number fourteen is the room for four people.”

“I thought Denki asked for rooms next door to each other?” Izuku wondered aloud.

“Yes,” the man replied, “these are neighbouring rooms.”

The silence that descended on the group was only broken by the scratching of the pen Denki was using as he wrote all their names down.

“My name is Hector Plasm. I attend to the desk nine until five every day. After that if there is anything that you need there will be an ‘out of hours’ book on the desk that I check every morning. I am here to make your stay as comfortable as it can be, so please come to me with anything you may need.”

A complete renovation of the hotel would be a good start, Ochako thought with another glance around the old room.

“Thank you,” Tsu replied, her voice bright and completely unaffected by the strangeness of what was going on. She took the keys from the desk with a smile and passed the one with the ‘14’ tag over to Izuku, who finally let go of Ochako’s hand to take the key and put it in his jacket pocket.

“The facilities are all on the ground floor,” Hector continued, “along with rooms one to ten. Rooms eleven to twenty are on the first floor. This hotel has no lift, but the stairs are just out of that door over there.” He indicated the only other door in the room, over by the faded sofas.

“Facilities?” Momo echoed. “Do you mean the gym and the swimming pool?”

“Yes.”

“And perhaps a dining room?”

“We did have dining facilities, but we haven’t had a chef in a while, so we are not offering cooked food at the present.”

Ochako was glad about that. She couldn’t imagine wanting to eat a single thing that had come out of this building.

Momo nodded and folded her arms as if that confirmed what she’d said earlier about getting pizza from the nearby village, and Ochako slowly realised that the prospect of hot, cheesy pizza was powerful enough to be cheering her up. She usually wouldn’t have wasted the money on takeout pizza, but this was their fun-weekend-holiday-spooky-break together and if there was any time that she could allow herself to be indulgent, it was now. Just the thought of sharing pizza with her friends reminded her that this weekend was supposed to be fun, and a way for them all to bond and spend some much-needed time together. She felt a tight knot in her chest unwind slightly. Momo was right before, when she’d said that she needed to just remind herself that none of this was real; no matter how creepy the hotel looked, it was just an old building in need of a good clean and some paint.

Ochako peeked up at Izuku, who was looking over at the door that they needed to exit through, her gaze lingered on the angle of his jaw and the tiny line of concern she could see between his eyebrows. She longed to put her lips there and smooth it out.

Ochako hoped nobody noticed her cheeks going pink as she took her hat off, shaking her hair back into its bouncy bob style as a way of distracting herself out of her inappropriate thoughts.

“Enjoy your stay,” Hector said with a wide smile, accentuating the teeth tattooed onto his face, as Denki placed the pen down beside the book.

“Thank you,” Tsu croaked, the only one to reply, and returned his wide smile with one of her own.

Despite talking herself out of the thoughts and fears that had been running away with her, Ochako couldn’t leave the entrance hall fast enough. But it was Awase who was the first one out of the door. When he turned back to check that they were all following him through Ochako noticed that he looked pale. Maybe he was even worse with scary things than she was?

Out from the lobby was a long wide corridor. The carpet was threadbare and patchy, while the paint on the walls was scuffed and dirty. Lamps ran along the length of the corridor, providing a dim light like the room they’d just come from, that gave it all a dingy atmosphere, and there was one lamp at the very end of the corridor that flickered slightly.

The group hesitated before approaching the stairs, except Tsu, who still seemed completely at ease.

“What a pleasant man,” Tsu said with another smile.

“He was just as creepy as this hotel if you ask me,” Ochako whispered.

“This place is creepy as fuck.” Awase’s voice cracked as he looked around the corridor with wide eyes. He flinched each time the light flickered.

“It does have a kind of… atmosphere,” Momo agreed more diplomatically. Awase cringed and fidgeted with the headband around his neck.

“Denki. Your taste is terrible,” Mina said with a pointed look at him.

“It’s not like I knew what it was gonna look like inside when I booked it!”

“Why are you saying that like that excuses you? That makes it worse.” Kyouka shook her head.

Eijiro laughed loudly. “I’m pretty sure you said something about it looking better on the inside and that we’d all be eating our words or something, bro, but I gotta break it to you – don’t think that’s happening.”

“This is the last time I book anything for you guys.” Denki threw his hands in the air.

“It’ll be fine, I mean, at least there’s beds, right?” Izuku placated, as he patted his friend softly on the back.

“We can only hope,” Momo said at the exact same time and tone as Kyouka said, “If we’re lucky.”

Eijiro was almost bent double with the force of his laughter. “I seriously thought that creepy dude was going to just- I don’t know- turn into a swarm of bats or something crazy like that. Disappear into thin air- melt into the floor or something! Should I go back and check? I bet he’s not there- honestly I’ll lose my shit if I open that door and he’s gone already.”

But nobody moved to reopen the door.

Mina snorted, her nose crinkling with delight. “Babe, honestly, I was on the verge of asking where the cameras are hidden, ‘cause this has got to be some kind of wind up. Even those tattoos! And the thump, thump, thump of that walking stick! What is up with that?”

“Maybe he has trouble walking, Mina. That’s usually what walking sticks are for,” Tsu chided.

“Well it makes him look like a Scooby Doo villain.”

“Let’s just get sorted into our rooms for now,” Ochako suggested, suppressing another shiver. She was unable to stop peering down the dark corridor. Rooms were evenly spaced all along it until the mid-section where a sign pointed towards a set of double doors that read ‘DINING ROOM’. Next to the flickering light at the end of the corridor was another sign pointing at another set of double doors that read ‘GYM. SWIMMING POOL.’

Despite her unease towards the whole place, Ochako was a curious person by nature and she felt the unwanted stirrings of curiosity that had her wondering what was behind those doors. Surely some part of the hotel had to feel like it hadn’t come straight from a movie set, right? Maybe she’d see if anyone wanted to explore later. There wasn’t a chance in hell that she was going alone.

The group came to an agreement and carried their cases and bags through the doorway immediately on their right, onto a dark metal staircase that went up in a spiral. Each of their footsteps clanged on it loudly, so the whole group of nine created a cacophony of ear assaulting noise as they made their way up. Ochako nearly giggled at the absurdity of it all.

“Everyone okay?” Izuku’s voice carried with a metallic echo as it bounced around the cold, metal staircase.

“Fine!”

“Yeah.”

“Yep!”

When Ochako reached the top Awase was holding the door open for everyone and she was glad to see some of the colour had returned to his face.

The corridor upstairs looked mostly the same as the one they’d come from, just without either of the sets of double doors. Instead, between rooms twelve and fourteen there was just a long blank section of wall. Hector had been right when he’d said the rooms were next to each other, but technically there was a stretch of nothing in between them. Ochako suddenly realised the gap was where a room thirteen should have been.

The girls walked to their room door and the boys to theirs nearby, but Ochako placed a hand on the blank wall between them. “N-No room thirteen.”

“Hotels often don’t have a room thirteen,” Tsu said, coming over to her and placing a reassuring hand on her arm. “It’s an unlucky number, so people often refused to stay in that room. In the end it must have become easier to not even add it to the building in the first place.”

“But-” it looks like there was a room here. She looked up at the boys who were already entering their room and her gaze locked with Izuku’s as he went in; his green eyes were bright, and an encouraging smile lifted the corners of his lips. But he still looked troubled.

She gave him a tentative little wave, hoping it went some way to smooth out the line still creased between his eyebrows. Then he disappeared inside.  

She sucked in a breath.

It was going to be okay.

Scary stuff didn’t exist in real life.

Ochako followed Tsu back to their room and pulled her case through the doorway. She blinked at what she saw – not entirely sure what she’d been expecting.

There were five single beds around the large room with white linen spread neatly over them. A worn, wooden chest of drawers sat between two of the beds, that was clearly missing one of its handles (and had a faded scratch of graffiti across the front of one of the drawers that said ‘Koharu waz ere’). A radio sat on top of the chest of drawers, with a long slightly bent antennae pointing high into the air, and an uncomfortable looking wicker chair was in the corner of the room, next to a tiny coffee table that had a tray of objects on top of it. Ochako went to inspect the contents of the tray and cringed at the grimy looking kettle and the cracked dish, full of sachets of instant coffee. When she picked one up it was completely solid. She didn’t want to know how long they had sat there for.

She only took a cursory glance into the bathroom and cringed at the yellowing shower curtain. The mirror above the sink was cracked in one corner, the toilet lid was scuffed terribly, and the whole room smelt like damp. She retreated very quickly out of there and closed the door.

Ochako removed her coat and placed it on the pile everyone had made on the chair, then added her shoes to the collection beneath it. She shivered at the temperature and rubbed her arms; without her thick winter coat she felt the instant coolness of the room. She’d be surprised if the heating worked in this place.

By the time she’d turned back around there was only one bed left that didn’t have one of her friends sitting on top of it. Mina was by the window (a net curtain obscured most of the view to the outside, but it looked black through the gaps she could see – the sun had well and truly set by now), Tsu was in the bed next to her, Kyouka was by the chest of drawers, Momo was next to the door to the bathroom and Ochako’s bed was the one beside that, nearest the front door. Ochako pushed her case onto the floor by her bed and let herself flop down to fall face-first onto the mattress. She heard a giggle and looked up to see Momo holding a hand up to her mouth.

“That’s what I felt like doing,” she admitted.

Ochako rolled onto her side, peering up at her friend through her fringe. Momo was sat with her legs folded neatly underneath herself, holding a hand up to giggle behind, shiny hair still pulled back tidily into her ponytail, with not even a hair out of place. She was always so elegant.

Ochako gave her a grin. “Then you should! There’s no judgement here. You know how our sleepovers always went while we were at college – by the morning Mina will have been making out with her pillow in her sleep, Tsu will be snoring, Kyouka will have probably fallen out of bed a couple of times, and I’ll be lying diagonally on top of my quilt instead of under it.” She waved a hand in the air. “There’s no shame here.”

Momo didn’t reply to that, but her eyes looked thoughtful. “Interesting place isn’t it?” she said eventually, though Ochako felt like she’d wanted to say something else. “How are you holding up? I wanted to ask you if you were okay earlier, but I didn’t want to draw too much attention to you and make you embarrassed.”

Ochako sat up. “Thanks, Momo. Um, I’m good I guess?” She rubbed her eyes. “I just… I think the problem is that I’ve only ever watched a handful of horror films my whole life, but I keep feeling like this could be one. Y’know?”

“Mm, I know what you mean.”

“But I know that’s kind of crazy- because I know the reason that they’re films in the first place is because the stuff that happens in them isn’t real. I know they can’t really happen.” Ochako hoped that the note of desperation in her voice, directed entirely at convincing herself of all of this, that thinned it out and pitched it high, wasn’t as obvious to Momo as it was to herself. She flapped her hands in the air. “But boy is this place just creepy as all heck.”

If the odd small-town saying came out when she was stressed none of her friends ever mentioned it.

“You got that right,” Mina added as she threw herself onto the bed beside Ochako. “But we’re together, so we’re like, the main characters in a horror film, so we’re good.”

“Being the main characters in a horror film doesn’t protect you though,” Kyouka countered from across the room, “I’ve watched quite a few where the whole cast dies by the end.”

“Kyouka,” Tsu croaked, “we’re trying to cheer Ochako up, not give her nightmares.”

Ochako groaned as she laid back onto the bed, pressing her face down. “I just hate scary stuff,” she mumbled into the fabric. At least the linen smelled fresh.

“Well at least you know Izuku is going to be just as scared as you are.” Mina rubbed a hand over her back.

Ochako pushed herself back up before she replied in a quiet, tender voice, “I don’t think so. I already know he’s the sort of person who can be brave for someone else’s sake – like, if he thinks I’m scared at all he’ll become the bravest person in the whole world, I just know it.” She felt the smile on her face before she was even aware that she was doing it. “I thought I was going to show him that I’m the brave one, but he’ll be able to see straight through that, and then he’ll be the bravest one of us all, just to keep me from being scared. Does that make… sense…?”

When she looked around the room her friends were giving her expressions that made her cheeks instantly warm. “W-What?”

“You love him,” Mina sang, clutching her hands to her chest.

Ochako opened her mouth to immediately deny it, but hadn’t she just been saying to Momo that they wouldn’t judge her. These were her friends and they loved her no matter what. She rubbed a gentle thumb over the tiny white scar in her hairline. “I-I sure do,” she said instead.

Ochako wasn’t prepared for the sudden addition of all her friends to her small bed, and she squeaked loudly as they all joined her in a pile of limbs and hugs and laughter. She covered her hands over her burning face even as she laughed until her stomach hurt.

“See?” Tsu said as soon as they’d calmed down and settled into places on Ochako’s bed. “As long as we’re together there is nothing that can scare us. You’ll be fine.” She petted a hand on her head affectionately. “And I’m happy for you Ochako.”

“Thanks, Tsu.”

Ochako let her fingers stroke gently through Mina’s fluffy pink hair as she laid her head in Ochako’s lap, Tsu was leaning against her side, Kyouka was lying with her legs tangled in Mina’s and Momo was leaning against Kyouka. They were a tangled mess of friends, and Ochako wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Oh, it’s going to be so strange being the odd one out tonight,” Tsu continued with a dramatic sigh as she leant harder against Ochako’s shoulder.

“Huh?”

“Well, there’s you and Izuku, Mina and Eijiro, Momo and Awase, Kyouka and Denki-”

Tsu had barely got her sentence finished before Momo’s head had snapped up and she was blushing, eyes wide, while Kyouka was shaking her head violently, making her purple hair whip around her face. “Nope. No. No way. In his dreams maybe. No no no. He wishes it was like that. He’s such an- an annoying- doofus.”

“Doofus?” Mina echoed with a snort.

Kyouka gave a playful kick to Mina’s legs, still tangled with hers, and folded her arms. “Don’t even think of us as a couple.”

She huffed, but she was blushing.

“A-And it’s not like that with me and Awase. We’re just friends from work,” Momo said softly as she wrung her hands, body rigid with tension.

“Ah,” Tsu said wryly through an innocent smile, “of course. Just being work friends is why he agreed to come to this even though he’s clearly terrified.”

“B-But he said he loved horror.” Momo blinked. “We have lunch together most days, and I mentioned this weekend, and he said he wished he could come because he’s really into that sort of thing, so I asked Denki if I could invite him.”

“Sorry Yaomomo, but he looked like he was even more scared than our little Ocha.” Mina winked as Ochako’s hands stilled in her hair.

“Eh? Hey!”

“I-I guess he did look kind of pale… But then why lie about it to me when we were eating together?”

“Oh no,” Ochako’s voice softened, “I think you’ve got the wrong idea. I don’t think it was that he was lying to you exactly… I just think he probably wanted to impress you.”

“Maybe he didn’t think you would actually be able to invite him too,” Kyouka said.

“And then it became the chance to spend some time with you when you told him he could come.”

Momo opened her mouth to say something but her eyebrows pulled together sharply in thought instead and she looked down at her hands without saying a word.

“I mean, as scared as he looks, I keep seeing him glance over at you, and I think it’s because he’s checking to see if you’re okay,” Ochako continued. “Or maybe it’s to see if you’ve noticed him freaking out… Either way, he seems nice.”

“This is all just us guessing though – it’s okay if you only like him as a friend,” Tsu said. “And we don’t want to make you feel bad if that’s all you think it’ll ever be between you two. Even if that’s all you ever are, I think it’s clear to everyone that he wants to spend time with you.”

Ochako pumped a fist into the air. “And if you did like him as more than a friend, we will be behind you all of the way as your biggest supporters!”

Ochako’s hand was yanked down as Mina pulled it down by her face, that was still in her lap. She made a noise like she was pretending to cry. “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown in these romantic matters now that you have a boyfriend, Ocha. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore, even though it was only yesterday that I was teasing you for having a massive crush on your dorky neighbour.”

“Th-This is about Momo and Awase, remember? N-Not me! Don’t kiss my hand!”

Kyouka rolled her eyes while Tsu tapped Mina on the nose. “Down, girl.”

When Ochako looked back over to Momo she was chewing on her lip.

“Back to the topic at hand, you don’t need to worry, you can stick with me, Tsu. Denki can hang around whoever he wants to,” Kyouka said firmly, changing the subject as her eyes also strayed over to Momo and narrowed with concern. “It’s just a shame that Fumikage couldn’t come.”

Tsu smiled. “It’s okay, but I do wish he could be here too. He’d have loved this sort of thing. It’s so him. But that’s why I’m going to put it all up here-” she tapped her head “-and tell him every single detail when I get back. I know he’ll enjoy it just as much from my retelling.”

“He’ll probably enjoy it even more! There’s no storyteller quite like our very own dungeon master Tsu!” Ochako enthused, hoping to bring the mood back up.

Tsu and Fumikage were school sweethearts, and they’d been together so long that it sometimes felt like they were married already. They both worked so well around each other that Ochako sometimes even forgot he was blind. It was amazing how they communicated so much with just a touch or tone of voice.

Denki had sent an email to the company asking if he could participate and bring Dark Shadow with him, his extremely well-behaved working black Labrador, but the event organisers had sent a very polite but apologetic email back. So, they’d both stayed behind.

Izuku had said that Denki had told Fumikage that even if he sat on the side lines for the haunted house experience, he could still come. But he’d declined, saying Tsu would probably have a better time without worrying about him waiting for them to finish.

It was a shame because they all loved him just as much as all their other friends in the group, even counting the new additions. He was part of the group too. Ochako could listen all day to any of Fumikage’s seemingly endless collection of puns about darkness (though you never knew when he was going to suddenly say one).

But the idea that Fumikage thought Tsu would have a better time without worrying about him made her sad, and she wondered if he ever felt like a burden on her, because it simply wasn’t true.

They all loved Fumikage and Dark Shadow, and of course they all loved Tsu with all their hearts, so it sometimes hurt to remember that they had some hardships that they couldn’t help them with. Tsu didn’t talk about her private life much, but it was clear every time that they were together that she would move heaven and earth itself if she could make her boyfriend happy. It reminded her of the bond between Eijiro and Mina, but it was like a calm spring of water beside their simmering volcano.

Momo smiled. “Maybe you’ll have to bring him here for a romantic weekend break sometime?”

“A romantic weekend away in a haunted hotel?” Kyouka questioned in a dry voice.

“Then you can say hello to Hector again for us,” Mina swooned.

They all giggled until a series of sudden knocks at the door made them jump.

Kyouka was the closest to the edge of the bed so she untangled her limbs with Mina and slid off, while the other girls leaned over curiously to see who it was. When she pulled the door open Denki, Eijiro, Izuku and Awase were standing in their doorway. Denki leaned heavily on the frame.

“Man, after all the giggling we could hear coming from this room I wish I’d have left it to my imagination to come up with what was going on in here.”

Kyouka closed the door again.

“Kyouka,” came Denki’s muffled whiny voice through the door, “I’m so-rry! Please let us in. It’s cold and we’re hungry and we’ll have to start eating Awase for strength.”

“Hey- what the fuck dude!”

Kyouka opened the door again and Denki pulled back slightly before he fell into her. He saluted.

“Are you sure he works with you, Izuku? You can confess to us, did you just let him copy all your work when you guys were studying? You don’t actually let him treat real people, do you?”

Izuku laughed, and even though it had absolutely nothing to do with her, Ochako’s heart did a strange kind of flip in her chest. She smiled at the sound.

“I promised I’d never tell…” Izuku whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, as if torn in indecision.

Denki whirled on him. “Hey, bro, not cool! They’ll believe you over me, don’t let them think I’m not as talented as I really am.” He turned back to Kyouka with a grin. “I’m a great paramedic. Patients love me.”

Kyouka hummed in disbelief.

“Fine, well, if anything happens to you, I just won’t save you,” Denki said petulantly. “Not even if you needed the kiss of life.”

“Good.”

Denki made a pained noise while Eijiro reached over and patted his shoulder. “Okay, look, I was being hasty, I’d make an exception if you needed the kiss of life…”

Kyouka groaned and Ochako could nearly imagine her eyes rolling. “Did you guys need something or…?”

Eijiro pulled Denki out of the doorway. “Oh yeah, just wondering what you guys wanted to do for food?”

“Actually, we were going to suggest going into Twyford Village – the cute one we came through on the way here – to get some pizza and bring it back,” Momo suggested from her place on the bed.

“Great idea!” Awase boomed, then immediately clamped a hand over his mouth and shrank back a little at everyone’s attention. Ochako suspected he hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Momo ducked her head, but there was a shy smile on her lips.

“So, pizza then?” Eijiro grinned his sharp teeth.

A chorus of agreement bounced around the group and everyone raised their hands.

“I can drive,” Mina suggested, sliding off the bed.

“Sweet, I’ll come with you, babe.”

“I’ll come too,” Momo said. “Someone needs to keep an eye on you both, so you don’t come back with something totally different to what we sent you for.”

“Would we?” Mina wailed.

“Eh, we probably would.” Eijiro moved into the room, opening his arms for Mina to jump into them, and he planted a loud kiss on her forehead.

“Well, while the pizza’s being collected, who wants to go for a explore?” Tsu raised a finger to her chin and tilted her head.

“Yes!” Ochako gasped, with more enthusiasm than she thought everyone had expected from her. Izuku threw her a smile full of pride and admiration. (That she did not deserve at all). “I-I just mean, it seems like a wasted opportunity to not have a look at what the rest of the hotel is like, right? E-Even if it is creepy. It’s like we’re exploring the unknown. It’s interesting…” she finished quietly.

“Like we’re space explorers on another planet,” Izuku chimed in excitedly.

“Yes!” Ochako knew she was blushing, but she beamed at her boyfriend all the same. It touched her that he had related it back to space for her.

“Oh man, I don’t know whether it’s safe for anyone to be encouraging Izuku’s over-active imagination.” Denki shook his head, but his voice was fond.

Ochako stuck a tongue out at Denki as she rolled off the bed, while Izuku squeezed through the others still in the doorway. They came together and her reached out to link his hand with hers. She gently leaned against his side.

The conversation eventually turned to what flavour pizzas they would get, and it bounced wildly between a discussion and a full-blown heated argument over topping combinations. When Ochako suggested ham and pineapple a pained noise came from some of the group that made it sound like she’d suggested murder. Eijiro preferred spicy. Tsu couldn’t eat spice. Izuku suggested chicken and mushroom. Kyouka didn’t like mushrooms. Mina wanted barbeque. Awase was allergic to onions.

It was Momo that managed to finally suggest getting four large pizzas in the correct combination of flavours: one cheese and tomato, one pepperoni, one barbeque, one chicken. No mushrooms. No onions.

Feeling like that had been harder than anything else they’d done that evening Ochako let out a relieved sigh when they all began putting their coats and shoes back on, agreeing to all go down to the lobby together – Mina, Eijiro and Momo to go on the pizza-quest and the rest of them to explore.

It was as they were all clanging down the metal staircase that Ochako suddenly remembered the digital camera she had tucked away inside her case.

“Oh, shoot. Guys, I’ll be right back, I forgot my camera.”

Silence descended on the staircase as every footstep stopped.

“You have a camera? Why don’t you just use your phone?” Denki pulled his own phone out of his pocket and waved it in the air.

Ochako laughed a little in embarrassment as Tsu handed over the key she was still taking care of. “Oh, well, if you’d ever seen my phone, you’d know the answer to that one.”

(The picture quality on her old phone meant that the photos it took weren’t worth the effort to take them.)

“I’ll be right back but wait in the lobby for me – don’t go on without me!” Ochako yelled over her shoulder as took the stairs rapidly (noisily) back up.

Her case was still where she’d abandoned it by her bed. She unzipped it just enough to thrust a hand inside, hoping to pull out the camera without disturbing her packing too much, or having to take the effort to just open it properly and have a look. Too much effort. Her hand closed on the small digital camera her parents had bought her for Christmas last year and she made a triumphant sound as she stood up and stuffed it into her coat pocket.

When she turned around she jolted in surprise and let out a strangled yelp at the sight of a figure at her door.

“Ah- sorry, Ochako- sorry! It’s just me!” Izuku waved his hands frantically.

“Oh gods Izuku, you- you really need to stop doing that.” She let out a breathy laugh and placed a hand over her chest.

“Sorry! I just… wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Hm? O-Oh yeah, I’m fine.”

Izuku said nothing, but his eyebrows were doing that thing where they tilted downwards and made him look both equally sad and concerned and his eyes were so green and his face was always so expressive and his adorable shirt still said ‘SPOOKY’ on it and damn… she really wanted to kiss him.

“Well I mean, I guess, I’m a little bit jumpy,” Ochako confessed, taking a few tentative steps closer.

Izuku gave a small nod. “I thought I’d keep you company while you looked for your camera and we could walk back to the lobby together.” He took a few steps towards her too.

What he wasn’t saying was that he’d noticed that she was scared, and that’s why he’d come back. She appreciated that he wanted to let her hold on to her own delusion of being brave.

Ochako sighed, and realised they’d come close enough for her to look up and see the freckles on Izuku’s nose. The two of them were like planets – drawn to each other by gravity. She should stop fighting it. She let her hands wind up behind his neck, while he rested his on her hips.

Her cheeks were burning.

“I need to make a confession,” she whispered, unable to stop glancing at his lips.

“Y-?” he practically squeaked, swallowed, and then tried again with a breathier, “Yeah?”

“I’m kind of a coward when it comes to scary things.” Ochako frowned. “I can’t watch horror movies without hiding behind my hands.”

Izuku’s face softened and he let out a breath as he seemed to relax against her, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers. She blinked in confusion.

“You’re not a coward at all. Scary things are… scary. I’m the same. I thought you looked weirded out, but I didn’t want to make you feel like I was underestimating you by asking. I was worried about you. I-I mean, you’re one of the bravest people I know,” Izuku rambled, “but you were looking kind of uncomfortable at times. And I didn’t want to assume that you were scared, but I couldn’t stand seeing you look like that either. So I tried not to reach out to you, but I couldn’t help myself. I especially didn’t want you to think I was trying to be all- I don’t know- like, macho or something, about trying to make you feel better if you wanted to look like you were fine. If you know what I mean. I’m not really explaining this very well…” He sighed. “I guess, what we have, I’m just not used to it? It’s like I’m learning on the job and I constantly don’t want to mess up.”

Ochako gripped his cheeks between her hands and raised his head up so she could look him in the eyes. His hands still had a firm hold on her hips.

“Me? One of the bravest people you know? You’re one of the bravest people I know!” She laughed. “I guess we’re both learning, Izuku. Trust me. And it feels kind of annoying because- well, we probably should have learned all this when we were dumb teenagers, so we’d know what to do and how to act, but instead we’re learning it while we’re in our dumb twenties, and- and that’s just going to have to do.”

She only meant to give him a quick kiss on the lips. She really did. But suddenly his hands were burning like fire through the blouse above her hips and her hands were threading through his hair and their lips were moving together with a passion that had her gasping between their kisses. She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and he moved his hands underneath her blouse, trailing heat on her skin as they snaked up her back and helped to press her flush against him.

Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest as she tilted her head slightly to allow for a better angle, not disconnecting their lips for one second, and pressed herself impossibly closer to him. He made a sound in the back of his throat that made her stomach felt like it had been carved it out and replaced with something fiery and hungry.

But they needed to go.

“We- we should- get back… to the…” Ochako breathed against Izuku’s mouth.

“Yeah,” he whispered so softly that the sound nearly lost itself in his sigh.

They reluctantly parted and Ochako quickly tiptoed back up to place a quick peck on the skin between his eyebrows – like she’d wanted to earlier – and although he tilted his head a little with an unspoken question, he didn’t ask about it.

They were both breathing heavily and Ochako had to smooth her blouse back down, knowing there would be nothing she could do about the blushing in her cheeks until it had faded on its own – hopefully by the time they reached the lobby.

“Sorry about messing up your hair,” she giggled, wondering why she didn’t feel awkward about what had happened. Like it was natural to sneak a quick make-out with your boyfriend while your friends all waited for you downstairs. Maybe it was. Maybe that’s what young couples in love did.

Izuku reached up and ruffled his green hair. “I-It’s always messy anyway.” He smiled and Ochako noticed how red his nose and his cheeks were. (She wondered if it would be entirely obvious what had taken them so long if they turned up in the lobby blushing like crazy.)

“Ready for an explore?” He held out his hand for her.

“With you? Of course! Even in the creepiest hotel to have ever existed!” Ochako happily grabbed his hand. “I promise I’ll keep you from getting scared, if you do the same for me?”

“Of course!” Izuku echoed. “I’m dying to see what the gym looks like.”

Ochako glanced around the room as they left it hand in hand. “M-Maybe we shouldn’t say the word ‘dying’ in this place – it feels like a bad omen…”

Chapter Text

Awase watched Mina’s car pull away with a leaden weight sitting heavily in his stomach. It turned out of the carpark and he caught a flash of Momo’s black hair shining in the moonlight, washing over her in the back seat as they went. His heart sank sadly at her departure. He couldn’t help the cold sense of abandonment that left him feeling like an unwanted puppy being dropped off at the pound.

She hadn’t really said much to him since they’d arrived at the hotel, and he’d been too chickenshit shy to engage her in conversation himself. Except when they’d been walking into the building earlier, and all he could babble about was the service station stop they’d taken on the trip, when he’d tried playing one of those extremely fucking rigged UFO plushie machines in the entrance. He’d complained about how the claw kept on opening before it had even picked up the toys and how unfair it was. He’d acted out an impression of the claw using his hand and he’d been so distracted by being able to make her laugh so hard that he’d blurted out that he was trying to win one for the kids in his class.

Which of course was a huge fat lie.

He’d put an obscene amount of coins into that machine to win her a fluffy red butterfly that had caught his eye, because she’d offhandedly told him that red was her favourite colour one time, and because butterflies always reminded him of her. It was dumb and corny, but butterflies were cheerful and pretty, right? Just like Momo.

(Not that he would ever tell her that.)

(Or anyone at all.)

(Ever.)

Ugh… In honesty, he’d be the first one to admit that his heart was such a fucking mess whenever he thought of her.  

Awase sighed heavily as he rubbed at the headband around his neck and pulled it up to push his fringe back again.

“Awase?” The sound of a voice calling his name and a gentle hand on his shoulder snapped Awase back to the present and he turned around to see Izuku looking at him with concern, while the rest of the group hung by the door into the corridor.

Hector was nowhere to be seen (Eijiro had insisted he was back in his cave hanging upside down, waiting for the next idiot to book a place here – Denki had pouted at that) so they were all alone in the lobby.

Awase shook his head and tried for a reassuring smile. “Oh- shit, sorry. Got lost in my head there.”

Izuku gently replied, “You sure?”, which was an innocent enough question, but his expression was so open and kind that it caught Awase off guard, and the words, “I think I’m in love with Momo”, nearly nearly tumbled out of him before he could stop himself.

Ah, fuck.

Denki waved at them both from the door and cupped his hands over his mouth. “C’mon you guys, are we exploring or not? I wanna get some good stories to make the others jealous when they get back with the pizzas!”

“You want to explore for bragging rights?” Kyouka huffed. “They’re out there getting our food you know.”

“Well, they’re missing out.”

Awase tried to let the playful banter of the group ground him, while the confusing but warm affection for Momo still swirled in the back of his mind. The rest of the night was going to be difficult if his brain-to-mouth filter was doing its best to make him want to throw himself off the roof of the hotel.

Izuku tilted his head a little, his previous question still lingering in the air between them, and Awase shook his own, desperate to escape Izuku’s large green doe eyes and kind expression. I bet he has everyone telling him their life stories, he thought with an internal laugh.

“I’m fine,” Awase replied eventually, “seriously. Just, uh, working through some stuff.”

(Stuff being:

I think I’m in love with one of my best friends.

Who I also work with.

Which terrifies me because I don’t want to lose her as a friend if she doesn’t feel the same.

And I’m still working through my lowkey terror of this whole hotel.)

Izuku smiled, making his freckles push up towards his eyes. “Okay, well, if you need to talk, we’re all here for you.”

“Uh, thanks. Yeah, you’re all such a great bunch, seriously, thanks for like, taking me in and shi- stuff.”

Izuku blinked, like he wasn’t used to the honesty, and his smile widened. “You say that like it’s been a chore! You’ve fit right in. Which- I don’t really know if that’s actually a compliment or not, since we’re all kind of weird.” He laughed lightly and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Speak for yourself!” Denki threw back, overhearing their conversation.

“No, he’s got a point,” Tsuyu said with a solemn nod.

(Awase was proud of himself for remembering their names so quickly, but he guessed it was having to memorise classes full of children’s names that made his mind so efficient in that way.)

Ochako skipped over and matched her smile to her boyfriend’s. She was a small, rounded girl, with pink cheeks and bright brown eyes – they seemed like a cute couple. Awase had liked her immediately because she’d looked like she was as scared of everything as he had been. (Maybe a little less than him, if he was being honest.)

There was something endearing but incredibly awkward about the way that Ochako and Izuku met each other’s gazes and then turned away instantly. It was like watching the kids at his school; that sweet-summer-sunshine kind of love. But he hadn’t missed the charged atmosphere between them when they’d come down into the lobby earlier, and Mina had been smiling like a satisfied cat while she turned on them both and made loud kissing noises. Ochako had all but shoved her out of the doors.

Ochako returned her attention to Awase and shrugged playfully. “Eh, it’s true, we’re all kind of weird, sorry,” she admitted with a small giggle, “but we’ve accepted you into the weirdness now, so you’re officially one of us-”

“One of us, one of us,” Denki chanted in the background.

“-So,” Ochako continued loudly, trying to drown him out, “if y’ever need anything, just ask. From any of us.”

There was something unsaid there in her brown eyes that Awase tried hard to decipher. He liked to think that he was able to recognise where his strengths lay – he was good at metalwork, he was good at teaching metalwork – but he was about as subtle as a shovel and he knew that reading subtleties or subtext was very much on the not fucking likely end of the scale of things he was good at.

“Thanks, I…” Oh… Wait… were they trying to make him feel included without Momo there? He’d been initially worried that only knowing one person in the group might make him feel like an outsider, but that idea had quickly dissolved just a few minutes into the car journey with the other boys. (Every single one of them had been so nice, what the hell.)

He cleared his throat and gave the couple a genuine smile as he thanked them again.

But… he just couldn’t push aside the creeping suspicion, threading cold through his veins, that Momo had deliberately gone with Mina to escape his company. Maybe she regretted inviting him, since he’d practically invited himself in the first place. Or maybe she’d figured him out somehow – seen through all his ‘hiding it inside’ bullshit – and wanted nothing more to do with him. Had he come on too strong? Or not strong enough?

Fuck it all, feelings were hard to understand.

All he knew was that every time they had lunch together he was actively trying not to blurt out how pretty she looked that day, especially when she was embarrassed about those red suction marks she would get around her eyes from wearing her chemistry goggles too long. The way she looked up at him from under her long lashes and rubbed at the marks like she could make them go away quicker never failed to make him want to tell her that she’s the cutest person he’s ever met. She sat down in the staffroom one day with ash smudged onto her chin and he had to physically sit on his hands to stop himself from wiping it away for her. One day she realised she was halfway through her lunch and she still had her lab coat on, and she was so flustered it made him smile for the rest of the day. Sometimes the smell of something burning, some strong and sharp chemical smell, would embed itself in her clothes and hair and he’d started to subconsciously associate her with it, even though she was always trying to disguise it with the expensive perfume she kept in her desk.

It was like… Momo was so hung up on maintaining a version of herself that she presented to the world; perfect and untouchable, elegance and grace incarnate, but the fondest memories he had of their friendship were when she was just herself. He liked the goggle marks around her eyes, he enjoyed making her laugh so hard she’d snort (she made him promise never to tell anyone), that weird chemical smell she couldn’t quite hide even with all the perfume, and he loved their WhatsApp conversations chatting shit about their favourite teas and coffees. (Tea VS Coffee was an on-going discussion that they would never agree on.)

“Ready?” Izuku asked.

Awase nodded while he somehow pushed the sunshine rays of emotion bursting out of his heart right back into the internal compartment of don’t-fuck-up-your-friendship and followed Izuku and Ochako over to the others.

“Let’s go campers!” Denki announced, as they made their way through the corridor.

Kyouka sighed at him, which amused Awase because for as exasperated with his antics as she seemed, she just couldn’t stop reacting. She’d tap him in reprimand and bite at every bit of provocation he could throw at her. It reminded him of some of the kids in his workshop classes; awkwardly teasing each other because they liked and wanted the other’s attention, but they just didn’t know how to process it.

But feelings were complicated so who was he to judge.

He couldn’t help retreating into his head while they walked, and he was so distracted that he tripped over a hole in the mostly threadbare carpet. It jolted him, and he tried not to look too spooked as he continued walking, grateful that nobody seemed to have noticed. He nearly yelped when Tsuyu dropped back and gently looped an arm through his, so that they were linked like a couple in an old timey British drama. (One of the topics Momo and himself fully agreed on was their love of historical period dramas.) He looked down at the smaller girl gratefully and she smiled widely in response, though she didn’t say anything about him tripping.

Tsuyu was a girl made of long, gangly limbs, and a too-wide smile, but it suited her somehow. She appeared to be afflicted with the same curse as him when it came to saying what was on her mind, and he respected that. When they’d been in the car Eijiro, Denki and Izuku had told him about her boyfriend, and how he hadn’t been able to come, so Awase tightened his grip on her arm through his and gave her a warm smile back. (Or at least, he pressed his lips together and hoped it looked like a smile.)

Ochako and Izuku were holding hands, further in front, and she leaned up to whisper something into his ear that had him bump his shoulder against hers tenderly. They’re too fucking cute, Awase thought as he huffed through his nose, his expression soft.

Tsuyu must have noticed where his attention diverted to because she let her smile stretch even wider in that way that was unique to her. “It’s nice to see, isn’t it? Two people so in love like that.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“It’s quite a story, actually, how they got together.”

Awase waited for her to continue and tell him, but the only sound was the group’s footsteps on the thin grey carpet. “So, what’s the story?”

“Oh no, I can’t tell you – it’s not my story to tell. If you want to know you’ll have to ask them,” Tsuyu croaked cheerfully.

Awase chuckled, knowing he’d bitten exactly how she’d wanted, and was grateful for the incredibly tactful distraction from the hotel and his confusing thoughts. She let out a barely discernible breath as she turned very briefly back in the direction of the lobby – barely a flick of her head and eyes – and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Uh... What for?”

“For meddling. I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t fair on you both.”

Awase felt like he was missing part of the conversation, and he scrunched his eyebrows together in bewilderment. What’s she talking about?

“But someone had to do something, or you’d both be dancing around it forever.” She nodded, but her croaky voice, that usually sounded so strong and sure, was unsteady and hesitant.

“Wh-”

“But I’m still sorry.”

“Smile you two,” Kyouka said suddenly from further ahead.

Awase just about had time to look up before a bright flash startled him and made him jump. Kyouka let out a little snort of laughter as she looked down at the new photo on her phone. That was probably not a flattering picture at all, he thought with a wince, as he rubbed at the headband on his forehead.

It distracted him enough that he forgot to ask Tsuyu what she meant before she un-looped their arms, flashed him an apologetic look, and jumped into a selfie that Kyouka stopped to pose for. She turned it towards Ochako and Izuku next and they bent their heads together cutely.

“Hey, what about me? Selfie together?” Denki suggested, as he dropped back from his lead at the head of the group and leaned towards Kyouka. He pointed to his cheeks and grinned.

“Oh, my phone just ran out of battery.”

“No problem, I can charge it back up with my electric personality.”

“That was awful. Literally I think the worst joke you’ve ever told,” Kyouka groaned as she pushed his shoulder away, but she was smiling. He doubled over with laughter and she turned her phone back towards him as he wheezed. The flash went off again. “There you go, mister electric.”

Laughter rippled through the group as the tone lightened at their playful antics, and Kyouka’s flash went off a few more times as she took candid photos of everyone. Awase was certain that he probably looked like a startled angry baby deer in all of them.

“You’d think someone would replace the light at the end of this corridor, huh?” Ochako pointed out as they walked towards it. It was still flickering ominously, casting odd intermittent shadows onto the double doors marked ‘GYM. SWIMMING POOL’ at the end of the corridor.

The mood of the group seemed to shift.

“I don’t know... Replacing a light bulb is probably way, way down on the list of stuff that needs doing to this place,” Awase mused. “It probably needs- I don’t know, like- fully knocking down and rebuilding. Just start again.” Awase clapped his hands to emphasise his words.

“But then where will the ghosts live?” Tsuyu said, with a long finger extended onto her chin.

Ochako’s voice was barely more than a squeak as she exclaimed, “The what?”

“The ghosts.”

“There’s not- I mean- Ghosts don’t really exist, right?”

“W-Wait, you think… this place is actually… haunted?” Izuku added, his nervous stammer coming out.

The group finally came to a stop in front of the double doors marked ‘DINING ROOM’. The silence between them all felt ominous and thick, and just the word haunted was enough to make Awase’s skin crawl… How was he going to survive the rest of the night? At least it looked like he wouldn’t be suffering alone, judging by the pale faces around him.

Denki cleared his throat. “C’mon Tsu, why would you say a thing like that just before we got into a new room? There’re no such things as ghosts, okay? It’s like Awase said – hotel just needs totally rebuilding. No ghosts.”

“E-Exactly,” Izuku said with a determined nod, “Denki’s right.”

“That’s what I’m always saying!”

Kyouka rolled her eyes.

“We’ll agree to disagree,” Tsuyu stated, and Awase thought he saw a playful twinkle to her large green eyes, “but there’s always a kind of energy about these old places. Spirits are drawn to that.”

“Now that you mention it,” Izuku said, “I did always wonder about the difference between ghosts and spirits. Like- why would someone just come back as a ghost and be out to terrorise strangers in a place they’ve never even been?” He placed a hand to his chin as his rambling increased in speed. “Unless they die and get to choose where they want to haunt, and ghosts just all have the same aesthetic choices, and all pick the same kind of buildings. Or like you say, maybe it’s because of the ‘energy’ or something? And are spirits like, good ghosts? Can they do the opposite of a haunting? Is there a word for something that’s the opposite of a haunting?”

Awase blinked as Izuku began to mumble under his breath and the words became almost inaudible. Unsure about what was happening he turned to the others, but they mostly wore a mixture of resigned affection and amusement on their faces. Ochako giggled at her boyfriend and stood on her tiptoes to place a light kiss on his cheek, stopping his rambling instantly.

A flash went off at nearly the same moment, as Kyouka took another photo.

“Kyouka-” Ochako squeaked, jumping back and waving her hands in front of her face. “Oh m’gosh, delete that right now!”

Red bloomed up Izuku’s neck and face, his eyes wide.

“No way, you should see it- what crazy timing. I was just going to get a photo of Izuku in full ramble mode to send to Momo with the others, but this came out so cute.” Kyouka held out her phone for Tusyu to see and the two girls made identical ‘aw’ sounds at the screen. This only made Ochako’s hands flap harder.

Awase laughed as Ochako whined and Denki patted Izuku’s shoulder.

“Dude,” Denki said. “Didn’t know you’d turned your rambling into a secret technique for getting kisses.”

“Do you still want me to delete it?” Kyouka asked Ochako sincerely, ignoring Denki.

Ochako shook her head after a slight pause, cheeks dark red, and leaned over to whisper, “Send it to me.”

Tsuyu hid her proud, wide smile as she pushed open the double doors, but Awase caught her expression as she moved into the room. She always gave off an older sister kind of vibe, and it made him wonder how long they’d all known each other. He should ask. But he still needed to ask her what she’d meant earlier too – what had she done? It was playing on his mind, because whatever it was, it was clearly enough for the honest girl to have to confess and confront her own guilt about it to him.

The others entered slowly and Awase followed as the last in the group. He wished he wasn’t so much of a fucking coward, but he could see Ochako and Izuku holding each other’s hand tightly, and even Kyouka and Denki were walking a little closer to each other than usual, so he felt reassured that he wasn’t the only one scared.

Tsuyu flicked on a light.

The room was cavernous inside – more of a hall than a room. There were many large round tables, enough for more people than Awase could ever imagine staying here, all with yellowing lace tablecloths dripping over their edges, and intricately carved wooden chairs pushed underneath them. Dull looking silverware were laid up at each place as if the diners were going to arrive for dinner any minute.

Each of their steps echoed on old, well-trodden wood as the group walked further inside the brightly lit room (for once the lights all seemed to be working) and Awase’s attention was drawn by the huge crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The glass was dulled and grey with age and dust.

The whole room smelt stale and disused and it made Awase rub his nose on reflex. He pulled them back in surprise. Were his hands shaking?

He literally hated this. He wasn’t sure how he was going to cope later at all. Fuck, why did he ask to come along. It’s not like he had a chance with Momo anyway-

“A-Anyone else getting really creeped out?” Izuku asked tentatively, his voice loud in the silence.

Nobody replied, but Ochako was now gripping a hand into a fistful of his shirt, Denki was only a step away from him and Kyouka and Tsuyu were holding hands.

Izuku bent his head lower to Ochako and murmured a low, “Are you okay?” as he removed her hand from his shirt and twined their fingers together, and Awase took a few steps away from them to give their conversation some privacy. He moved towards the wall on their left, where there was a line of photos in expensive looking antique frames, and a single brown door with the word ‘KITCHEN’ on a plaque nailed above it.

“Oh hey, it’s Hector!” Denki surged forward to the photos and pointed to the tall man with the skull tattooed onto his face. He was stood outside of the hotel next to two other equally dour looking people, both full of wrinkles, and next to them was a young woman waving at the camera. She had green hair, a wide grin, and looked extremely out of place. “Clearly his parents. But do not tell me that’s his wife.”

“No way,” Ochako breathed, leaning over Denki’s shoulder and tilting her head in confusion, “that seems so… unlikely.”

A caption on the bottom of the frame said the date and the words ‘The Plasm Family’.

“It’s Hector again, just without the tattoos.” Tsuyu was a photo down from them, pointing again at the same figure, just a little younger and harder to recognise without the skull tattoo. The same man and woman stood next to him and the green-haired woman was in the same place again, still smiling.

Awase moved down the line of photos. “It’s a timeline of the hotel,” he observed.

With each picture the family got a little younger until Hector and the young woman were both children and the hotel looked much newer. After that the photos continued but Hector was no longer in them and they kept going back until the old couple from the first photo were now a young couple, one proudly holding up a set of keys and the other holding up a sign that read ‘Frog Lane Hotel’.

The room was silent.

The dust that they’d disturbed on the floor swirled in the light from the dirty chandeliers.

“Anyone want to explore the kitchen?” Tsuyu piped up suddenly, startling the whole group.

“Tsu,” Kyouka said a little breathlessly, “please don’t do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Oh m’God, I think my soul left my body for a moment there.” Ochako was practically giggling, tapping a hand repeatedly over her heart, while Izuku hid his face in his hands.

Awase could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, but laughter bubbled out of him to join in with Ochako’s as she hissed between her teeth, desperately trying to control her growing humour at the situation. It was amazing how blurry the line was between fun and fear – and how powerfully laughter could banish it completely.

“What?” Tsuyu asked again.

That broke the remaining members of the group and they all laughed until Awase felt his sides begin to hurt and he struggled to regain his composure and breath. “Y’know what?” he wheezed out. “Fuck it, let’s go explore the kitchen.”

“Yes! That’s the spirit!” Tsuyu held her hand up and Awase wasted no time in reaching over for a high-five.

Denki chuckled. “Heh, spirit.”

Izuku gave him an encouraging grin as he said, “Who votes Awase opens the door this time?” Everyone raised their hand and cheered in response. “But, uh, only if you want to,” he added. “If you don’t, that’s fine, I can do it this time.” Izuku ducked his head down as if he were sorry for putting him on the spot.

Awase blinked and looked around at the encouraging faces of his new friends. He pulled his headband down around his neck, ruffled his hair, and then snapped it back into place. (It was like he was being told ‘you can do this; we have faith in you’.) “I’ll do it.”

Fuck this shitty hotel. If the choice was between opening a spooky looking door or telling Momo that he thinks he’s in love with her, he knew which was the scarier choice. Feelings were scary. Old hotels were not. Not really.

“Go Awase, go!” Ochako chanted.

He approached the door with a breath and looked up at the plaque nailed above it. ‘KITCHEN’. The door itself was an unassuming dark wood, with chips in it where serving staff must have knocked plates and serving carts into it for many years. There was no handle to the door, only a very worn looking metal square to push on to make it swing.

Awase reached out a tentative hand.

What could be scary about an old kitchen?

Right?

His fingers had barely touched the cold metal when a tune blared out from his pocket. He yelped and flinched back.

His fucking phone.

Awase shoved his hand into his pocket and yanked out his cell phone.

“Ah, fu- sorry guys, I really need to take this call.”

“Do you want us to wait for you?” Tsuyu asked with a pinch of concern.

Awase began to back out of the room, his phone still loudly playing his ring tone, and shook his head. “Uh, no- don’t worry, you all keep going and I’ll catch up!”

He accepted the call before it rang out, just as the dining room door clicked shut behind him.

“Hey, man.”

“Yo, Awase! How’s it going?” The deep voice on the other end of the phone was cheerful and relaxed, and just hearing it made all the day’s stresses melt from Awase’s tense shoulders.

“Juzo, if I told you… you would seriously not fucking believe me.”

Soft laughter came through the speaker. “It’s going that well?”

“I can’t believe I’m really here, why did I ever agree to this?” Awase began to pace the corridor while he talked.

“Weren’t you the one who asked Momo if you could go in the first place?” It sounded like he was smiling.

“I know, what was I thinking?”

“Come on, we both know who you were thinking of when you agreed.”

Awase gestured a hand in the air absentmindedly while he paced. “Shit. I just. Shit. I really like her. It’s driving me crazy. I just- I mean, I’ve been in relationships before, but this time it’s different. I really like her. Everything about her. And I don’t know what to do about it.”

More soft laughter. “How about you try telling her?”

Awase stopped. “That’s… not an option. She literally just went out on a pizza run so that she doesn’t have to spend time with me-”

“No way is that true. I don’t believe that for a second.”

“Yeah, well-” Awase stopped talking.

There was an audible sniffing sound from behind him.

What was that?

“Awase?” Juzo asked uncertainly.

Awase turned slowly on his heels and felt his heartbeat increase as he gripped the phone tightly to his ear and ignored Juzo’s requests for him to tell him what was going on.

Standing just behind him in the corridor was a small girl in a red pinafore dress, wiping her nose on her sleeves. She had long wavy whiteish hair and looked up at him with startlingly large red eyes in her pale face. She sniffled loudly again, and tears ran in tracks down her cheeks.

“Fu-” Awase began, then switched automatically into a less offensive curse, “-Fudgering fudge on a fudging fudge-stick.”

The little girl blinked owlishly at him and her lips twitched into a tiny smile. His students always found his child-friendly curses funny too. He had a foul mouth most of the time, he’d accepted that, but he’d somehow hard-wired his brain to go for the wacky stuff whenever he needed to swear while a kid was there. It was the only way he’d kept his job. Sometimes he’d be so in the zone on it at school that he’d do it in the staff room too, and it always got a laugh out of Momo. The wackier, the funnier.

After a pause, the little girl’s expression crumpled back into tears and Awase cringed. Oh God, oh fuck, ghosts aren’t real. Ghost aren’t real!

“Awase!?” Juzo demanded through the phone. “What’s happening?”

“Sorry, Juzo, I- uh- I’m fine, but I have to go,” Awase rushed out, “something’s just come up. I’ll message you later. Thanks for checking in, bye!”

He cancelled the call and shoved his phone back into his pocket, while the girl watched his every move. She wiped gently at her eyes again and sniffed loudly.

“H-Hey there,” Awase finally managed, his voice high and panicked. He cleared his throat and tried again more confidently than he really felt, “Hi, are you okay?”

The girl stared at him from beneath her dark lashes, shrinking back slightly at his voice. Eventually she shook her head delicately and said, “No,” so gently that Awase nearly didn’t catch it.

(The only thing worse than a ghost was a little-girl-ghost.)

Awase barked one strangled, terrified laugh. He could hear his heartbeat pounding deafeningly in his ears, while a squeeze of pure fear sat low in his gut. He was way too much of a coward to be dealing with this. Finding the courage to open that kitchen door before was a complete and utter fluke. He needed to get the others. With that thought in mind Awase turned to leave, but he noticed the girl shrank back even further, fresh tears shining brightly in her eyes. He stopped.

There’s no such thing as ghosts, he reminded himself.

After a huge sigh Awase felt much better – a slow lungful in and out.

There’s no such thing as ghosts.

He tried to pretend she was a student at school and he instantly felt his terror dial down. She looked sad. Awase tapped his cheeks and put on the most reassuring smile he could muster. “My name’s Awase, what’s yours?”

The girl said nothing for long enough that he wondered if he should go and get help from the desk anyway – was there something seriously wrong with her? Hadn’t she already said no when he’d asked if she was okay? Awase was on the verge of telling her to stay there while he got help when her tiny voice finally replied, “Eri.”

“Oh wow, Eri – that’s a pretty name, huh?”

A shy smile flickered onto Eri’s lips and she scuffed the thin carpet with her boots. “That’s what mama says.”

“Well she’s right y’know. All moms are always right, trust me. Can you tell me where she is?” Awase asked softly.

Eri slowly and deliberately extended an arm and pointed. Up.

Awase tried not to choke. (She didn’t mean… up… up there… in like, in heaven… did she?!) His voice came out strained as he said, “She has a room? A room in the hotel? Upstairs?”

Eri nodded.

“Oh, thank f- fridge,” Awase breathed, “uh, how about your dad?”

Eri lifted her arm again, but she pointed down at the floor this time. (Was this girl trying to kill him?)

“Down?” he virtually squeaked. “Like- like in the uh, maybe the basement?” (Not… down there, right?!)

Eri crinkled her nose and shrugged. “Down the stairs,” she said.

“O-Okay. So what are you doing alone here?”

“We were having a nap… but I couldn’t sleep, not without Miss Fluffy…” Eri sniffed loudly again. “And I know I shouldn’t… have gone without telling mama, but…” her voice, already soft, became even softer as she wrung her tiny hands together, “I wanted to find her. I last saw her when we were… at the… the… swim pool, and I thought I’d find her there. She’s probably so scared. But it’s dark in there, and I…” Tears ran down her cheeks again and she wiped at her eyes.

“Oh, hey, hey, shh. Don’t worry.” Awase knelt so that he matched her eye level. “I bet she’s having a great adventure, just like you are right now. Won’t it be great to tell her all about it when you find her again?”

Eri blinked and nodded.

“But we should go back to your mama first and tell her where you are. If she woke up and you weren’t there, she’d get scared, wouldn’t she? Even more scared than you are right now without, uh, Miss Fluffy.”

Eri looked sheepish at that and then nodded decisively. It was only after he smiled at her and she smiled back, that he realised he wasn’t scared himself anymore. The atmosphere in this place had clearly gotten to him; ghosts don’t exist – she’s just a little girl looking for…

“So, who’s Miss Fluffy anyway?”

Eri’s face brightened with excitement. “My unicorn.”

Awase tried desperately hard not to laugh or cry. “Your… unicorn?”

“Uh-huh. I really want to find her but… it’s so dark in there… And then I… I wanted to go back to mama but… I’m lost.”

Awase looked over at the doors at the end of the corridor, under the still-flickering light. She was brave going in there in the first place, he considered, feeling impressed. “Well,” he said, “you are lucky today, because right here, I have a headband that makes you invincible and helps you find your way.”

“In- Invisible?”

“Invincible,” he repeated, pulling off his headband, “it means that nothing can hurt you. This headband can protect you from everything. And when you wear it, you’ll be able to go anywhere you like and I can take you.” Awase held out the blue and white headband to her, ignoring the way his fringe flopped down into his eyes without it.

“We can go back to mama?”

“Yeah!” He figured he’d go to the desk and talk to Hector about what room Eri belonged to, then he’d take her back. But kids way preferred it if it was more magical than that.

“Wow,” Eri gasped, taking it and trying to put it around her head like he had worn it. It was far too big and fell straight down around her neck like a necklace. “Invisible!” she cheered.

Awase laughed and shook his head but repeated, “Invisible!” with her anyway. He stood up, ready to go back to the front desk with her, but her eyes suddenly focused on something behind him and they stretched wide.

“Mama!” Eri dashed around him.

Awase turned to see Eri fling herself into the waiting arms of a tall woman with green hair and a wide smile.

“Oh, baby, baby! Where did you go? What kind of little worm did I raise that you can wriggle out of your mama’s arms without me even stirring?” The woman held Eri close and nuzzled her nose into her hair.

“’M not a worm!” Eri giggled.

“I thought you loved nap time! Don’t scare me like that, okay?” The woman’s tone was still playful, but there was a fear in her eyes that suddenly seemed to put everything into perspective. That was real fear. “Don’t ever run off without telling me.”

“Sorry, mama.”

Awase waved a little awkwardly. “Uh, hi,” he said. He realised that if he had been treating Eri like one of his students, he should treat her mother like one of the parents, and then he’d be able to get over his shyness. “My name’s Awase,” he continued more strongly. “I bumped into Eri here trying to find a- Miss Fluffy? But she couldn’t remember her way back, and I figured I’d take her to the desk, and we’d be able to send her back to you.”

“He made me invisible!” Eri chimed.

The woman laughed and smiled more widely, with good humour evident in the lines at the corners of her eyes. “Did he?”

Awase realised then that she was the woman from the photos. Was she really Hector’s wife? Did that mean Eri was creepy-Hector’s child? That couldn’t be right.

“Oh, uh, she means invincible,” he explained.

“It’s magic, mama. Awase said it protects me.”

“Wow! If it’s magic, then Awase might need it back, baby.”

“No, that’s okay,” he blurted, “she can keep it. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you, that’s so sweet of you. Isn’t it Eri?” she directed at the smiling girl in her arms.

Eri nodded. “Thank you!”

“No problem,” Awase laughed, realising that there was no way any of the others were going to believe any of this had happened to him by the time he went back to the Kitchen.

“My name’s Emi, by the way, and thank you for looking after Eri too. Don’t let the fact that she’s literally the cutest,” Emi said proudly, poking her daughter’s cheek with each word, “most adorable, prettiest, sweetest girl in the whole wide world fool you.”

Eri giggled loudly, swatting at Emi’s hand.

“She can be a handful sometimes. She looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but what does it do, baby?”

“Butter melts in my mouth!” Eri sang.

“Exactly.”

Mother and daughter beamed at each other and Awase couldn’t help but smile back.

Emi set Eri down and puffed as if she was heavy, wiping her brow with a laugh at Eri’s pout. “Well, now I’m here, we can see how papa’s doing and then all three of us can find Miss Fluffy.”

“Oh, me and my friends saw Hector in the lobby not too long ago actually, I think he should still be in the office.”

“Hector?”

Awase blinked, suddenly unsure at her confused tone. “You’re uh…”

Emi’s green eyebrows were drawn together as she looked from Awase to the door behind him and understanding dawned into her expression before she barked out laughter that had her almost doubled over with the force of it. “You’ve been… looking… at the… photos. And you… thought…” she wheezed.

“Sh- Sugar, sugar, sugar. Oh man, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to like, assume, but the photos-”

Emi waved her hands in front of her face as she calmed down. “Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. But me and Hector have been childhood friends forever and that’s actually the first time anyone has thought that we were a couple. We’re so different, y’know? Everyone used to assume we were extremely mismatched siblings.” Emi took a deep breath and threw an apologetic look at Awase. “Hector finds it hard to do any kind of… maintenance on the place these days.”

(Awase considered that to be an understatement.)

“So,” she continued, “me and my husband, Shota, come to help out with some of the odd jobs sometimes. This time, Eri wanted to come too.”

“Papa’s down the stairs,” Eri said again like last time.

“He’ll be in the kitchen basement checking on the boiler. We should go get him and then we’ll go look for Miss Fluffy.”

Eri cheered again.

Awase felt his eyebrows scrunch impossibly lower over his eyes as he thought about what Emi had just said. The kitchen basement?

The door to the dining room suddenly swung open and Denki, Kyouka, Tsuyu, Izuku and Ochako came tumbling out of it.

“What the?” Emi exclaimed, as the group all began to try and explain in hurried voices what was going on to Awase. Eri shrank behind her and clung to her legs.

“One at a time!” Awase said with a wave of his hands, unable to decipher anything of what they were all saying.

“I found them trying to snoop in the basement,” a voice, deep and slow, cut through the chatter, as a man also emerged through the doorway. He was wearing black top to toe and had long dishevelled black hair. His eyes were fierce looking as his gaze swept over them all, but his expression lightened as he caught sight of Emi and Eri.

“Papa!” Eri squeaked as she jumped from behind Emi’s legs and giggled as he scooped her into his arms.

“We really are sorry,” Izuku said, in the brief window of silence Eri had produced. “We were just exploring, and we didn’t think anyone would be down there.” His stance was rigid and tense as he apologised and Awase realised he was the sort of person who probably didn’t get into trouble very often.

Ochako nodded emphatically and clapped her hands together. “Sorry we spooked you!”

A smile twitched onto the man’s lips – (Shota, Awase remembered, glad once again he was good with names) – and it reminded Awase of Eri. “I think your friend was more spooked than I was. I was just surprised to see anyone come down there.”

Denki gripped onto Awase’s shoulders. There were beads of sweat in his blonde hairline. “Dude. Dude. I nearly had a heart attack. You nearly had to carry my body out of this place.”

“But you shouldn’t be going down hotel basements without permission,” Shota finished sternly.

“Yes, sir.”

“Sorry.”

“Y-Yeah.”

Emi looked highly amused by the whole situation and Awase wondered if she was going to laugh again. He thought he might join her if she did.

Tsuyu tilted her head and put a finger to her lips as she looked at Emi, and it didn’t surprise him that she’d made the connection between her being the woman from the photos so quickly. He tried to catch her eye and raised his eyebrows, hoping to make his expression say, ‘I’ll tell you later’, and he must have succeeded because she smiled and said nothing about it.

Kyouka patted Denki conciliatory on the shoulder, but she was smiling the widest of them all.

Emi shook her head fondly as Shota placed Eri gently to the ground. “This has been one of the weirdest afternoons I’ve ever had here. And I’ve had some weird times here, let me tell ya.” She sighed happily. “It’s nice to see some life in this old building again.” She winked at the group and took Eri’s hand on one side and Shota’s on the other. “Hope you all have a good night.”

She led them away towards the doors at the end of the corridor, where Eri had tried to go alone, as Shota asked what they were both doing there, and Emi began to explain about meeting Awase and going to find Miss Fluffy. Just as they walked through the doors Eri turned around and waved. Then they disappeared into the darkness, below the blinking light. The doors clicked closed behind them. And the little family were gone.

“What the fuck just happened guys?” Awase asked, as if he hadn’t just lived through half of the answer.

“You should have seen Denki’s face,” Kyouka giggled, giving his shoulder another pat.

“Seriously Awase, you missed the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Ochako said gravely.

Izuku ruffled his hands through his messy hair. “We psyched Denki up to go down into the basement and then he gets to the bottom and just screams, and then we’re all screaming, and then that guy comes up the steps instead of Denki and we’re all screaming more and Denki comes running up after him like he’s been murdered and… there was a lot of screaming.”

Tsuyu tilted her head. “It was fun.”

Awase smiled as he realised that it really was. Whatever the haunted house experience had to throw at them, if it was anything like this, he thought he might actually enjoy it.

“Hey everyone, what are you all doing in the corridor?” Mina’s voice boomed out from the other end of the corridor, as the group of herself, Momo and Eijiro came through the doors from the lobby. They had a stack of pizza boxes in their hands. “We bring pizza!” she continued, with oblivious enthusiasm.

The small group slowed as they came closer and Eijiro visibly looked them all over with his red eyebrows raised high. “Woah, you all look terrible. What happened to you guys?”