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"Ryu, please!" Kendo whined for what felt like the millionth time. Wasn't Mori supposed to be the whiny one?... "It'll be fun!"
"Kendo..." Ryu sighted, finally dropping the assignment he and Kendo were supposed to be doing in order to face his best friend, who was sitting at his desk "I already said no. So just drop it already and help me with this, you know you're supposed to be doing your part of the assignment instead of having me do the whole thing. Now, if you don't stop with this an actually help me, I'm going to fly your rainbow-colored ass all the way to space, understood?"
Kendo cringed at the last part as if Ryu had just physically slapped him. Ryu didn't tend to curse or threaten often, but when he did, he made sure to use creative insults. That was one of the results of having to grow up with Dabi as one of your dads.
"Ryu, come on! Dude, you're almost 17, don't tell me you've never snuck out before."
Ryu sighted and closed his book with a little bit more force that needed and glared at Kendo. Clearly, Kendo was most definitely not going to drop it. And Ryu didn't tend to get annoyed easily too, usually he was all smiles and kindness, but his best friend knew just how to push his buttons.
"No, as a matter of fact I never have."
"No way! Why!?"
"Why? Are you serious, Kendo? One of my dads is known as the fastest hero alive and can sense a fly in the air with his feathers from miles away. He'd know if I ever snuck out."
"Ok, yeah, dumb question... But dude, really, you have to live a little! Even Mori agreed to this!"
Ryu snorted. "Is that supposed to convince me? You and I both know that Mori may be top of the class, but he's..."
"A little fucking gremlin who never passes the opportunity to go on an adventure, I know" Kendo interrupted him "which is why you should just say yes! Are you really okay with Mori, of all people, being more willing to sneak out with me at 3 am at a haunted house on Halloween than you, my best friend?"
"Mori will throw a fit if he heard you implying he's not your best friend too."
"Mori can't tell me shit when he's dating our also supposed best friend and constantly ditches us for him."
"Fair enough."
"POINT IS!" Kendo proceeded "Mori is coming, which means Yurei is coming, which means we only need you to complete us! There's no Dragon Squad without our dragon, Ryu! Then we're only a dramatic gay, a ghost boy, and this hot piece of ass."
Ryu snorted again.
"... Fine, I'll do it."
"YES!"Kendo raised his fists in the air with a triumphant shout.
"But" Ryu proceeded "If I end up grounded because of you, then I'm killing you."
"I'd gladly accept my death if it meant I managed to convince the great Ryu Takami to sneak out."
Ryu huffed and picked up his book again, skiming through it to get to the page he was reading before.
"How do you even know this place is actually haunted?"
"I don't" Kendo shrugged, finally willing to help Ryu and grabbing his notebook "It's just rumors, but hey, even if it's not true, you still get to have a good time with your best friends on Halloween. And it's the weekend, so we can stay there all night if we want. The way I see it, it's a win-win situation."
Ryu rolled his eyes, but stayed quiet as he focused on the assignment again, and luckily this time Kendo did the same.
The Halloween night came soon after. Hawks, as apparently it was now tradition, threw a huge party for other pro heroes and celebrities. Back when Ryu was a kid and no one yet knew about Dabi, he would take Ryu trick or treating while Hawks handled the party. Sometimes, Hawks would completely threw aside the party and just go out with them instead.
But now Ryu was older, and also the world just knew about Dabi, which made this a whole lot easier.
To keep up appearances, Ryu invited his friends to the party, much to Kendo's pleasure, who had told him before he'd always wanted to be in one of Hawks' famous Halloween parties.
Hawks was dressed as some sort of sun God, because of course he was. He used to joke around saying that he was still 39, and if he still had a killer body, he was of course still going to show it off, so he was wearing an outfit that showed off most of his chest.
Dabi, on the other hand... It was the first official Halloween party where he would be present as Hawks' housband. The public finally had a face to go with that title, and the press was eating up that fact like piranhas after fresh meat.
Hawks had of course been in charge of Dabi and Ryu's costumes, and he had insisted they stuck with a theme. It was their frist Halloween party together as a family (or at least the first one they were openly a family) and Hawks was not about to let his son and housband wreck the aesthetic.
So Ryu welcomed his friends to the party, disguised as another god, only that his outfit resembled more of an eclipse. Dabi was dressed as some sort of moon god, so he was wearing silver jewelry from head to toe, and it was the most jewelry Ryu had Dabi seen wearing since he finally stopped stapling his body together. Ryu was an eclipse because again, Hawks was the most original person ever, and insisted for his son to be wearing an outfit that was a mix between his and Dabi's. At least he didn't went for a dragon again, considering that since Ryu was born, he'd been stuck with dragon themed stuff for the entirety of his childhood. Not like it was the frist time he would be dressed as a dragon either, considering how much Hawks adored to put him in dragon onesies as a baby.
Kendo was dressed as a vampire, Mori as some sort of fae, and Yurei as (obviously) a ghost. He didn't even needed to do much, all he had to do was put some makeup on (that Mori definitely took care of) and use his Quirk so he was slightly see-through.
The party went as swiftly as ever, with some drunk young heroes here and there and music blasting. Hawks had said that Ryu and friends could not have a single drop of alcohol that night, but Dabi, always the bad influence, had silently handed them each a coup with suspicious looking liquid when Hawks wasn't looking. Or rather, he acted like he didn't noticed, but judging by the disapproving look he later gave Dabi and the tired sight, he had definitely noticed. Apparently he was allowing it as long as no one got completely drunk and they had only one drink.
Ryu took the cup out of Kendo's hands almost immediately, earning a whine from him. He tried to do the same for Mori, but somehow the damn gremlin had already downed his drink by the time he tried snatching the cup. Apparently, Ryu and Yurei were the only really responsible ones of the group...
...
Yurei was drinking. Okay, yeah, scratch that last sentence- apparently Ryu was now the only responsible one in this group of lunatics. Perfect.
"Remember what I said about living a little?" Kendo said (or yelled over the loud music), snatching his cup from Ryu's hands again.
"I will cut your fingers off right now, Kendo. Don't test me"
The other laughed and managed to take a long sip of his drink before one of Ryu's feathers knocked it over.
"It's Halloween! Loosen up a little, Ryu. Sometimes you're very uptight for someone who's supposed to be the son of Hawks."
"It's called being responsible."
"Is it?" Mori finally cut in, tilting his head to the side.
"Yeah, and one would think that you of all people should be at least a little bit responsible, mister top of the class and class delegate."
Mori shrugged.
"What can I say? I like to have fun, Ryu. Unlike you..."
Ryu glared at Mori. "I know how to have fun, you walking strawberry."
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Okay, then down your drink. Unless, of course, that you want to 'be responsible'... "
Ryu narrowed his eyes. He knew this was a trap. But if he shared anything more than his looks with his dad, then it was never backing down from a dare. Dabi was just as stupid, and of course, Ryu had passed to inherit that too.
Without thinking much, Ryu quickly downed his drink, making Kendo loose his shit laughing as Ryu desperately tried his best not to cough and keep a straight face (not that he particularly succeeded. It's not like he was straight himself either...).
Mori faced Ryu with a shit-eating grin that screamed 'you fell for it', but Ryu pointedly ignored that and just crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Mori as if daring him to say something once he recovered.
"Good! You're officially a rebellious teenager now" Kendo beamed "Took you almost 17 years, but congratulations, dude."
"We still have 3 hours to enjoy the party before making our exit" Mori announced, taking Yurei's drink from his hands and downing the damn thing as well. Yurei didn't even protested.
How could that pink haired gremlin down alcohol like that!? Ryu could sense that the answer probably was that Mori already had experience with alcohol.
"Just don't get wasted" surprisingly, this time around it was Kendo the one who scolded Mori and not Ryu "I don't want to have to drag your drunk ass all the way to the haunted house."
Mori dismissed him with a gesture.
"I'll let you know, my alcohol tolerance is really high."
"Right..." Kendo turned to look at Yurei "Keep an eye on him, please. I trust you won't let him get drunk" Yurei nodded.
"I'll take care of him" he said.
"Keeeendo! You can't just use my own boyfriend to babysit me!" Mori whined, but Kendo ignored him.
"Sure, whatever you say. Ryu, c'mon, we have to take this opportunity to polish your flirting abilities. Yurei, make sure to drag Mori to Ryu's room 20 minutes before 3" Yurei nodded again.
"What's wrong with my flirting?" Ryu frowned. Kendo simply stared at him, one brow arched.
"Dude. You suck at flirting."
"I don't!"
"Oh, really? Huh, well, what about that time with the guy from the coffee shop?"
"That was your fault! You scared me on purpose, you know I can't control my fire when that happens! It's not my fault that the fake plant caught on fire, that was all on you."
"Alright, fine, I'll take the blame for that one. But what about that third year girl? Or the guy from the bookstore? Oh! The one at the mall when..."
"Okay, fine, you win! I suck."
Kendo patted Ryu on the shoulder.
"Again, that's quite the surprise coming from Hawks' son."
Ryu snorted.
"You only think that because you've never actually heard him flirt with dad. Pops is just as bad."
"That explains it then..." Kendo sighted "What a tragedy. Anyway, I'm here to teach you today! Yurei, remember to keep an eye on..." Kendo cut himself off, because for the time he'd noticed, Yurei and Mori were already long gone.
"Hope the next time I find Mori is not downing a bottle..." he mumbled.
"Maybe if he was alone. Yurei will keep an eye on him."
"Yeah..." Kendo sighted "Alright then! Let's find you someone to courtship! Who knows, maybe tonight you'll get all three: your frist drink, first time sneaking out, and first time getting someone's number."
Ryu shoved Kendo with his wing, earning a laugh from the other.
"I've gotten someone's number before, you asshole. And you know that, you were there!"
"I'm still convinced she only gave you her number out of pity..." Kendo ducked before Ryu could smack him with one of his wings again "Ok, ok, I'm sorry! Now let's go! I won't turn you into a master of flirting in two and a half hours, so we better get to it. You need as much practice as you can."
Kendo's self-proclaimed "flirting lessons" were going terribly. For starters, the only people at the party were either pro heroes or celebrities of some kind, and he might be Hawks' son, but the bar was certainly high even for him. Rich people were picky, even for people they could or couldn't possibly date. They thought about looks first, then whether it'll be beneficial for them to date this person or not, then whether they were worthy of their time, money and presence or not. It was stressful.
And it wasn't like many folks at the party didn't wanted to date the son of the number two (with Endeavor possibly retiring soon, maybe even future number one. That is, of course, until the title got snatched by either Deku or Ground Zero. Those two were constantly competing their way up the charts, currently sitting between the top 20). The thing was, the public had learned that Dabi was his other dad recently, and although most people took it well (incredibly well) many were, to say the least... Scared to date him. You did not wanted to anger one of the best pro heroes and best ex villains.
And also, Ryu just really sucked at flirting.
So their 'flirting lessons' ended up taking up all of their time, and soon, Ryu found himself dragging Kendo away from a guy and towards his room, much to Kendo's complain.
"Ryu! Now he probably thinks you're my boyfriend!"
"He's a rich dick either way, Kendo. You can find a better one."
"Bold of you to assume I'm not a gold digger."
"Then why aren't you dating me, genius? I'm Hawks' son, I'm your best bet at this party."
"Gross, no, I'm not that desperate!"
"Rude bitch."
"Thanks."
Rolling his eyes, Ryu threw open the door to his room, startling Mori, who was laying on his bed, sprawled out. Yurei was sitting on the floor next to the bed.
Kendo looked at Mori, narrowing his eyes.
"Is he drunk?"
"You wish you had the pleasure of meeting drunk Mori Hana." he huffed, sitting on the bed.
"Doesn't answer my question."
Mori rolled his eyes.
"No, dipshit, I'm not drunk."
"Good." Kendo nodded approvingly. "Now let's go, we don't have all night. We have a haunted house waiting for us."
The haunted house was definitely something. Ryu was surprised he'd never heard of it before, considering it was 20 minutes away from his home. The windows were broken and some even blocked with wood. The front door was slightly cracked open. There were no lights in the house, reason why Kendo had insisted they brought flashlights.
Mori was by far the most exited.
"C'mon, let's go inside! Let's prove ghosts are not real once and for all."
"You're literally dating a ghost" Kendo deadpaned.
"It's different! That's his Quirk!" Mori huffed, grabbing Yurei's hand. Kendo rolled his eyes, starting to make his way over to the entrance of the house.
"Let's just go inside."
The other three followed him promptly. Kendo pushed open the door, that creaked extremely loudly. He took out his flashlight, turning it on and walking inside.
The others did the same, getting what apparently used to be the living room of the place.
"This just looks like an abandoned house."
"No shit, Ryu. We have to call for the ghosts!"
"Well then do it, apparently you're the expert."
Kendo cleared his throat and holded out his arms in a theatrical manner that Ryu only really saw coming from Mori.
"Ghosts of this house, we're here with good intentions! Please, manifest yourselfs!"
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the front door suddenly slammed closed, startling all of them.
"That... Was probably just the wind..." Mori said, even though he had definitely been startled by the door closing too.
"Right..." Kendo cleared his throat again "Um, ghosts? Was that you? Can you... Give us another sign?"
They waited for a moment, and again, not much happened. Until all four of their flashlights turned out at the same time.
Kendo furiously shook his flashlight, clicking the button again and again, trying to get it to turn on again, but to no avail.
"Ryu, use your fire!"
"Oh, so you're using me as a lantern now?"
"Just do it, I don't like standing in the dark of a supposedly haunted house!"
Ryu rolled his eyes but eventually complied, calling for 4 of his feathers and lightning them all on fire. He may have trouble controlling how long he could keep his wings lit on fire, but when it came to individual feathers, it was way easier for him to keep them lit up for a longer period of time.
"Mori?" Yurei called. Kendo and Ryu turned to look at where Mori had been standing only to find he was nowhere near.
Yuri looked just about ready to faint judging just by the way this Quirk was getting out of control, starting to make him kind of see-through.
"Yurei, it's fine, he's probably just trying to fuck with us. You know how he is" Ryu tried to reassure him.
"Yes, he's probably just playing with us. Mori, really funny! You can come out now!"
There was no answer. Kendo cursed under his breath.
"Mori, you're scaring Yurei!" had Mori actually been trying to play a prank on them, he would have already come out upon hearing his boyfriends name. But he didn't, so there was definitely something wrong.
Now Yurei was about to full on spiral into a panic attack.
"Don't worry, we'll find him." Ryu said, trying to offer Yurei a reassuring smile.
"Yeah! He can't be that far... Let's go look upstairs!"
The three of them silently made their way upstairs, Ryu leading the way with one of his feathers, showering the place in a soft blue light that made the creepy shadows look longer and offered a sense of mystery to it all. They started to register the rooms one by one, calling Mori's name. Right before they even got close to the door of the last room, a chorus of noises came from all directions. Objects being thrown around, the door at the start of the hallway slamming open and closed repeatedly, and the doorknob of the last room started violently shaking while they started also hearing something that sounded oddly like scratches on the door, almost as if someone was trying to get out.
"I guess we answered our question, this place is haunted..." Kendo mumbled "Now let's get the fuck out of here!"
"We're not leaving Mori here!" Ryu protested.
"Fine! Yurei, you're a ghost, talk with the ghosts!"
"I'm not talking with the ghosts! You provoked them, Kendo!"
Then Ryu's feathers went out. He'd reached his time limit, and he was going to need a couple of minutes to cool off before being able to light up his feathers again. Right then, the door at the end of the hallway threw itself open, the sound of footsteps quickly approaching them followed by a growl. Cursing, Kendo grabbed both Ryu and Yurei's arms, yanking them into the room they had just come out of and closing the door.
The footsteps stopped at the front of the door, and again, the doorknob started to furiously turn, whoever or whatever was on the other side furiously trying to get in.
Kendo was laying on the door, keeping it closed with this body alone.
"Don't just stand there, help me out here!"
Ryu and Yurei scrambled to the door, pushing it closed too.
"We're going to die here..." Yurei whimpered.
"Think positive!" Ryu yelled over all the noise that was still happening around the house.
"We're going to die fast!" Kendo answered now.
"It took Mori..." Yurei whimpered again.
Suddenly, all noise stopped and the doorknob stopped moving.
The three teenagers stood there for a second, only listening to their own heartbeats and waiting in complete darkness.
Then, a sudden force threw the door open, all three teenagers scrambling to the floor with it.
Squinting trough the darkness, Ryu was able to see a big figure on the doorway. Kendo screamed, instinctively forming a shield with his Quirk, the rainbow-like energy dimly lighting the room, and then the sound of laughter filled the place. Yurei had been so startled he turned invisible, Ryu still able to feel him next to him trough his feathers, but not being able to see him.
The laughter would have been creepy, did Ryu not know who it belonged to. He frowned and got up, realizing the figure wasn't moving. He managed to light up more feathers, realizing the figure on the doorway was no doubt made out of plants. He summoned one of his bigger feathers, slicing the thing on half and scrambling to get out into the hallway, almost tripping on the process.
He went out into the hallway, only to come face to face with only Mori, but also his parents, who were both laughing their asses off.
"... The fuck!?" Ryu wasn't one to curse in front of his parents, but he was just scared half to death, so cut him some slack. Dabi laughed even harder upon hearing him, and Hawks simply raised his eyebrows.
"Wow, tonight is really the night you're having your teenage rebellion phase, huh?"
"Mori!" Yurei suddenly materialized next to Ryu, startling him. Yurei threw himself on top of Mori, hugging him close.
"Hey, love!" Mori casually greeted, as if he hadn't just helped scare the shit out of them.
Kendo exited the room too, looking as confused as Ryu was.
"What are you two doing here?" Ryu questioned his parents again. Hawks shrugged.
"I noticed you sneaking out. I was going to just let you do it, but Dabi said he heard you talking about going to the haunted house and suggested we gave you a good scare."
"That was you!?"
"Feathers are incredibly useful, little bird. I've told you this before. And it was my idea to get Mori involved."
Ryu sighted.
"Of course it was..."
Dabi finally seemed to be able to stop laughing.
"Well, that was fun. But we probably should get back to the party."
Hawks nodded in agreement.
"It's almost 4 am, the party will be over soon either way. You're all staying at Ryu's room, right?"
Mori nodded.
"Yes, we all can stay over for the night."
"Well, let's go then. I don't doubt you're all tired after that scare" Hawks snickered.
Ryu loves his parents, but right now, he really, really hated them.