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Volleyball practice has now officially ended, and Gao decides to take a longer shower than usual, which he will later learn was a mistake. He’s ready to turn the shower off and step out to wrap a towel around himself, turning around the corner and-
“OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!”
Gao almost pisses himself on the spot, gripping his towel so tight his knuckles turn to ash and his face drains itself of all color. When his breath regulates again, he’s pulled out of his frightened state by the sound of booming laughter, the laughter he knows all too well. Sure enough, he looks up to see a male significantly shorter than him, with overly gelled white hair and green eyes that are glazing over with tears because of how hard he’s laughing.
“What the fuck Hoshiumi!” Gao looks about ready to bodyslam the shorter man. “Holy shit! Your reaction, I don’t know if any money in the world could be paid to see it again!!” Hoshiumi’s practically on the floor when another male with mid-length wavy brown hair freshly damp walks out of a different shower stall.
“It sounds like a circus out here, what happened?” Hirugami takes one look at Hoshiumi and then one at Gao and can guess what happened. Hirugami goes up to Hoshiumi and picks him up by his collar to stand him up. “Apologize.”
Hoshiumi gawks at him, a fake confused look on his face. “What?! But I didn’t do anything, he slipped!” Hirugami has almost a bored expression on his face when he pinches the back of Hoshiumi’s neck, making him squirm. “Apologize for goodness sake Kourai.”
Hoshiumi poked out his lip, Gao thought he looked like a child an annoying one he’d dropkick across the room. “Alright alright! Sorry, you’re so easy to scare, Hakuba-Kun” Gao looks tired at this point, just wanting to go home. “Yeah whatever, just leave will ya? A man wants to do his biz in peace.” Hoshiumi cringes at him on his way out. “You’re weird. Welp, see ya! I’ll be waiting for you Sachirou!” Aaaaand he’s gone. Fantastic. So that leaves him and Hirugami. “I’m sorry about him and his little pranks, I feel like I've been repeating this to too many people lately. I’ll leave you to finish getting dressed, sorry again, Hakuba-kun” Hirugami waved, walking out.
Gao sighed and finished getting dressed since he was now the only one in the locker room. When he finished he opened the door to the chilly evening air. He was thinking about what he was going to eat for dinner when his phone started buzzing.
Incoming call: Yu 💚
Gao smiles instinctively and answers on the second ring. “Yu!!” He’s practically radiating excitement, not hearing from his boyfriend in the last couple of days. “Hi Ku, what are you doing?” He sounds like he’s walking home as well.
“Ah, nothing. I just finished getting dressed in the locker room, on my way home.” He switched to a fairly neutral tone, hearing Yuudai hum on the other line. “Alright well, how’s today gone?” Gao decides to think before telling Yu about what happened earlier with Hoshiumi but decides to anyway because he wants to complain.
After finishing his rant, he hears Yuudai chuckling through the phone, you can also hear his keys dangling. It seems like he’s home already. “Well, I’d expect nothing less from Hoshiumi-san, he is very childish, yeah?” Boy does he know it?
“I’m at home now, I have to go, alright Ku?”
Right. He has to go.
“Ku?” Gao is out of his head, remembering he’ll see his boyfriend this weekend. “Yeah, I'm here Yu and yeah I’ll talk to you later.”
“Hey, I can hear your frown all the way from my genkan. I’ll see you this weekend, okay?” Hearing it from Yuudai made it better. “Pshh whaaat? I’m not frowning. I’ll see you this weekend in the best costume!” Yuudai can be heard chuckling again. “Yeah, I bet. Love you, Ku.” Gao knew what smile Yuudai was wearing. He knows it all too well. He relaxes his face and puts on one of his own, speaking genuinely. “I love you too, Yu.” And that’s the end of the call. Gao makes it to his house, it seems nobody is home yet. He bolts for his room, flopping down on the bed. He closes his eyes hoping the weekend would come sooner.
It’s a Friday evening, October 31st. Halloween. Gao gets to see Yuudai today at the party.
Yuudai.
…
YUUDAI!!!
“Holy shit!” Gai scrambles up to get in the shower, ready to get into costume and see his boyfriend. He’s spending the weekend at Gao’s since everybody is out of town there. He decided to be a vampire bat because vampire bats are cool. He’s done with his makeup and everything, already heading out the door. It’s a 25-minute walk, so he just decides to take the bus.
When he gets there, he already spots familiar people from different teams. People from Karasuno, Nekoma, Fukurodani, Nohebi, and Date Tech along with some others. The first people he runs into are what looks like Sakusa Kiyoomi and Lev Haiba, they’re also with two other people he recognizes. On the right of Lev is Kozume Kenma and on the left Sakusa looks to be one of the Miya twins. Atsumu he guesses, based on his bright yellow hair. Komori must be somewhere lounging around. Lev is the first one to greet him. “Hakuba-san hey!” Lev is dressed as a vampire, like most people here. Simple, but a good one.
“What’s up Lev?” Gao’s eyes start roaming while Lev is talking, too focused on finding his boyfriend. Kenma seems to be the only one paying attention, Sakusa and Atsumu seem to be bickering. “Anyways, what are you up to?” Lev asks questionably, he and Kenma start to notice Gao seems to be looking for something. “Oh nothing, just looking for Yuudai.” Kenma speaks up this time. “I saw him over by Shouyo and Asahi. I think Aone is over there as well.” Gao hums in acknowledgment, thanking Kenma and saying goodbye to the pair before heading off.
He spots his boyfriend over by Shouyou, Hoshiumi, and Hirugami.
Oh boy.
He strides over to them, grabbing Yuudai by the arm and tugging him affectionately. “Yu.” Yuudai turns to look at him, giving him a big smile. He’s dressed as a mummy, which is typical, but he looks good nonetheless. “Hi Ku, I’ve missed you.” Yuudai slips his hand into Gao’s, still looking at him when they hear a fake gag come from Hoshiumi. “Yuck man! I know it’s Halloween and all, but your affection is scary enough on its own!” Hirugami pinches his neck, making Hoshiumi complain. “Stop it Sachirou!” Hoshiumi huffs.
“Well then stop being an asshole yeah?” Hirugami says, dressed in scrubs and a mask with a stethoscope around his neck. Hoshiumi is dressed as a ghost. Shouyou went off chasing Kageyama some time ago, but he was dressed like a crow, Kageyama also being a vampire, but Gao feels like he pulled it off pretty well.
“Whatever, anyway. Do you guys wanna do something fun?” Hoshiumi’s smile is downright sinister. “No.” The rest of them say in unison.
“Aw, you guys suck! Pussies.” Hoshiumi huffs. “Come on it’ll be fun I swear!” Yuudai actually looked like he was considering it, while Hirugami wouldn’t budge. “Come on Yu, I’m sure it can’t be that bad.” That’s what he thinks. Gao sighs heavily, making firm eye contact with Hoshiumi. “Hoshiumi I swear on your grave I will put your costume to good use if you pull anything.” Hoshiumi’s grin is still nothing short of a troublemaker. “It’s just a haunted house!”
…
Oh hell.
There they were, hand in hand walking to a haunted house with Hoshiumi in front of them leading the way. When they finally get there, they observe what they’re supposed to be going into.
It’s a medium-sized house, bigger than the average, and it’s covered with gorey-looking decorations, and had a bunch of flickering lights. There was a dog sitting on the porch, which Yuudai gladfully pet on his way in. The front door was cracked, and it was really dark on the inside. “Well come on guys! What are you waiting for?” Both Gao and Yuudai look at each other and sigh, looks of regret already clouding Yuudai’s face as he holds Gao’s hand tighter.
There’s nothing out of order when they first walk in, both of them observing the decorations, it’s just really dark. Gao lifts his foot, tugging on a string and-
“AAHHH!”
Both of them jump, the loud sound of a woman’s screech filling their ears. Yuudai doesn’t look to be having much fun. “Hey, Yu you okay?” Yuudai shakes his head. “No, I don’t know why I agreed to come in here.” Gao feels bad for actually letting Yuudai talk himself into this.
“Hoshiumi I think we’re gonna leave!”
…
Silence.
“Hoshiumi??”
It’s more silence.
“DID HE LEAVE US HERE?!” Oh, Gao is seriously going to skin him alive.
“Fuck, let’s just go-” They turn around and head to the exit, only to see the door closed shut. “What?” Yuudai asks curiously. Gao is trying to open the door, but it won't budge. “Yu, the door won’t open.”
… “What do you mean the door won’t open??” Yuudai looks on the brink of panic. “I mean it won’t open!!” Well, this is definitely something. “Yu we’re just going to have to rush through it. It can’t be that bad, right?”
It was in fact, that bad. Because how was Yuudai the one scared, but Gao somehow ended up bridal style his arms not 15 minutes later? Gao Hakuba. 203.3 cm of pure height and muscle in Yuudai’s arms somehow. Yuudai drops Gao, him hitting the hard floor with a thud and a whimper. “Ouch Yu, what the hell? Couldn’t you have set me down?” Yuudai looks at him deadpan, straight in the face. “No. Now come ON.”
They speed walk past all the stages, occasionally letting out a shriek, or sound of panic whenever something pops out at them unexpectedly. Not too far ahead, they spot a bright red sign. “Look, It says exit! Hurry up, Yu!” Gao says too focused on getting out to realize there’s one last piece of string he’s about to trip over. “Wait, GAO!!-”
Top 10 moments before disaster. Gao is a moron.
It all seems to happen in slow motion. Gao trips, setting off a loud alarm, and the exit door slams shut. There are people with masks starting to crowd in on them. Someone grabs Yuudai’s ankle, causing him to let out the most blood-curdling scream. They’re about to seriously get violent until the exit door soon bursts open.
“IT’S OPEN! YUUDAI MOVE YOUR ASS!” Gao scurries up, dragging Yuudai with him as they run out into the chilly night air.
“I’m never listening to Hoshiumi again. Why would you let me do that?” Yuudai exclaims out of breath, and a little upset. Gao shrugs. “I don’t know but I’m seriously going to hurt him the next time I see him.”
“Yeah. Let’s go home. I need to get out of this costume.” Yuudai sighed, expression very tired. Gao nodded.
“We’re sleeping with the lamp on.”
“That’s fine with me.”