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“Are you sure about this Ryusui?” Suika looked up at the captain.
“I’m sure of it,” Ryusui confidently huffed. “Senkuu’s a good guy,”
“I know but-,”
“Senkuu!”Ryusui pushed open the curtain to the laboratory without a care in the world.
“Ryusui chan!?” Gen stardled .
“Geez- Ryusui,” Senkuu almost dropped the chemicals he was holding. “What the hel-,” Senkuu noticed Suika standing in the entrance as well “-heck?!”
“What are you guys doing?” Chrome also looked up from what he was doing.
“Sorry you guys,” Suika apologized. “Ryusui told Suika something about Halloween and I wondered if we were going to celebrate this year?” Suika rambled out.
“I mean obviously you have a plan Senkuu but no one has yet to share it with us,” Ryusui added.
“Well actually Ryusui chan-,” Gen tried to start.
“Yeah because there are none….?” Senkuu deadpanned and raised his brow.
“What?!”
“Aww,”
“I mean we didn’t do anything last year and it’s not like it’s a tradition in the village,” Senkuu pointed out more.
“Wait wait wait!” Chrome injected. “What’s hallo-een?”
“Some excuse to get free sweets,” Senkuu shortly put.
“It’s this cool thing old world people used to do where they dressed up in costumes and go door to door asking for candy and then they say some magic words and boom! They get candy,” Suika’s eye sparkles behind her watermelon mask.
“Tch Suika, I doubt the old would dress up just give out candy one night a year,” Chrome arrogantly shook his head.
“No they would,” Gen and Ryusui added together.
“Wha?! So why don’t we have that tradition?!” Chrome snapped out of his arrogance.
“It was just an excuse for kids to get free candy and play dress up,” Senkuu shrugged. Now Suika and Chrome’s lit up lookin at Senkuu. “What?” Senkuu looked back up, feeling the eyes on him.
“Not helping your case Senkuu chan,” Gen pointed out.
“Well I desire a Halloween,” Ryusui snapped his fingers. “I’ll have Francois make us the best candies as well,”
“Ohhh and I bet Yuzuriha would be happy to make us costumes,” Suika thought out loud. “I could be like a tiny ghost,”
“A ghost? Ghosts don’t exist Suika,” Chrome blew off the younger one’s idea.
“I know that! I just thought it would be cool to dress as one,” Suika argued.
“How would you dress as a ghost if they are invisible?” Chrome retorted.
Ryusui smiled at the sibling-like antics of the two. The oh so logical brown haired Chrome and the excitable blonde haired Suika arguing about such small things. Ryusui swore he had seen this before.
“Did you two miss the part where I said we’re not having a Halloween?” Senkuu remarked.
“Awww come on Senkuu, where your sense of fun? You must have gone trick or treating at least once,” Ryusui pointed out.
“I just don’t see the point of-,” Senkuu tried to explain himself.
“Depriving the village kids of such a great holiday,” Ryusui cut in.
Ryusui knew exactly what he was doing but for the sake of his desire. You could almost see the gears turning in Senkuu’s head started to run the calculations in his head of how long this holiday would set back their next journey.
Senkuu sighed. “Alright but I’m leaving that entirely up to you Ryusui,” Senkuu caved.
“Already have it planned out,” Ryusui quickly reported.
Senkuu dropped his shoulders slightly. “Of course you do,” Despite Senkuu’s defeated look, he had a slight smile.
.
.
.
The night of the 31st came and Ryusui tried to contain his excitement.
It took a bit of explaining but the others in the village took to the idea as well. Yuzuriha was more than happy to make costumes. Tetsuya complained the whole time while making decorations but when anyone would offer him a break, the artist scolded whoever not to interpret his creative process. To no one’s surprise, Taiju’s relentless energy and Francois’s dedication to their craft meshed well together as they made the small candies. Even Kaskei got involved and made some glass bats and hung them up with string.
Ryusui’s first Halloween was going better than he could have imagined.
First part of the night could be for the kids to enjoy trick or treating and a party for the adults after dark.
Trick or treating had started and the excitement in the village was almost immeasurable . From the village elders to the kids got swept up in the holiday.
Knock knock.
Ryusui opened the door to Kohaku and Suika. The little watermelon had kept her word and dressed up as a ghost but with a pumpkin on her head instead of a normal watermelon.
“Treat or trick!” Suika smiled, holding up a little bag to Ryusui.
“Suika, it’s trick or treat,” Kohaku bent down a little to whisper to Suika.
“Ohhh right, Trick or treat,” Suika corrected herself.
“Oh a floating pumpkin.” Ryusui joked. “Expected nothing less,” Ryusui stepped forward to hand the candy to Suika when he felt something was off.
He looked up at the cloudy sky. Felt like something was adding pressure that wasn’t there before.
“Ryusui?” Suika hummed.
“Oh right, sorry about that,” Ryusui snapped out of it and handed a few candies to the pumpkin.
“Thank you,” Suika beamed. “On to the next house!” Suika practically ran, even tripping up Kohaku a bit.
It was nice to see everyone in such high spirits but something was starting to bother him more and more. Even the paper decorations Tetsuya had made started to sway more.
“Oh hey Ryusui,” Another voice caught Ryusui's attention. Mirai in a little mermaid costume happily walking up to Ryusui’s door. “Can you guess who I am?,” She smiled, while giving a small twirl.
“Let’s seeeeeeeee… Are you a mermaid?” Ryusui asked as if it wasn’t obvious.
“Not just any mermaid, the little mermaid,” Mirai sang. “Look, my brother even made me this necklace,” She showed off the little necklace around her neck with a shell pendant.
Ryusui looked up to mention the craftsmanship of the necklace to Tsukasa but noticed he was missing. “IS Tsukasa not with you?”
“Oh no he is, but he’s just standing over there,” Mirai pointed behind her to the left. “He said something about he staying back,”
Ryusui glanced over to where Mirai pointed and like she said, Tsukasa was there. Their eyes met for a second before the former fighter quickly glanced away.
Not like Ryusui was expecting any less. Gen and Minami had warned him about how he was the exact kind of person Tsukasa would hate due to his greedy personality. That didn’t matter though of course. He was as greedy as ever.
“Well tell him he did a great job,” Ryusui went to drop a few candies in Mirai’s bag when a swift wind took the candies as they crashed to the ground by them.
That wasn’t expected. He knew about the cloudy weather but such a sudden gust of wing rolling down from the mountains.
“Ahh!” Mirai tried to shield herself from the gust of wind that nearly knocked her over.
“Mirai!” Tsukasa ran to his sister’s side.
She was still a little frail from her days in a coma but a gust of wind strong enough to almost knock down anyone was a bad sign.
“Tsukasa, can you make sure Mirai and anyone else you run into get inside?” Ryusui looked at how the sky grew darker.
He expected Tsukasa to ask for an explanation for the sudden command, but Tsukasa just nodded. “Come on Mirai,” Tsukasa took his sister’s hand.
Ryusui stepped outside and looked up the mountain and sure enough something had started to brew. Seems he wasn’t the only one who started to notice as well.
“Everyone inside,” He shouted, hoping the wind didn’t carry his voice away.
Craccckkkk
A crack of thunder rang.
Just like that everyone in earshot started to scatter back to their homes. Ryusui continued to run around shouting it to make sure everyone heard him. Like his mouth grew dryer with each shout. The wind only making his screams weaker and weaker. Everyone had seemed to make it inside though. Ryusui turned to head back to his hut was well
The glass decorations that once stood proud started to rattle in the wind. The fishing line holding them coming undone in the violent wind and rain.
Damn it!
Ryusui rushed to try and save them when he felt a force push him to the side, taking his legs out and causing him to fall to the ground.
CrSHHH!
Ryusui looked up and noticed the glass shards right in front of him along with the ones meters ahead of him. There was also a pressure on his back.
“Uughnn,” Another voice groaned.
Ryusui turned his head to look at the force that pushed him over only to be met with messy brown hair. “Shit Tsukasa!” Ryusui got up to check his back.
Tsukasa sat up too with a small groan as some of the glass shards rolled down him back. “Damn,” Tsukasa brushed off the ones that had lodged themselves in the skin. “Come on,” He pulled Ryusui’s arm.
Ryusui was still a bit stunted by the sudden tackle so he just followed what the taller one told him. (Not to mention now casually Tsukasa had just brushed off those glass shards- Just how much muscle did the other have ??)
Ryusui tried to get a look at Tsukasa’s face to see what may have been going through his head.
Tsukasa let go as they got to his door, “inside,” Tsukasa shouted over the rain.
Ryusui pulled the door open, careful not to let the wind take it away.
Mirai was already inside nervously pacing until she saw the two of them enter. “You’re okay!” She ran to hug them both as Tsukasa closed the door behind them.
“Yes Mirai, we're fine,” Tsukasa said, failing to mention the small cuts on his back.
“And everyone else?”
“Probably inside as well,” Ryusui noted, trusting Senkuu to take care of people on the main island.
“I hope Suika is alright,” Mirai mumbled to herself.
Ryusui noticed the small tears forming at the edges of Mirai’s eyes but lacked the words to offer any comfort.
“She was with Kohaku, she’ll be fine,” Tsukasa reassured, getting down to his sister's level. “Wanna go sort your candy?”
Mirai whipped the small tears. “Okay, you can have any of the bitter candy,”
“Sounds good, be with you in a second,” Tsukasa git back up.
“Okay,” Mirai’s spirits seemed a lot more lifted as she skipped to where she left her candy bag.
Ryusui was going to sit by the fire to warm up when a weight was added to his back. “Here,” Tsukasa slipped his lion coat to Ryusui.
Despite the outside being damp from the rain, the inside was still pretty warm.
“Thanks,” Ryusui tried not to show how confused he was.
“Hmh,” Tsukasa nodded before joining Mirai with her candy bag.
Sure, Tsukasa had never been outright with his disdain for Ryusui but were these really the actions of something who disliked him?
“Come on Ryusui!” Mirai waved him over as well.
.
.
.
Craccckkkk
Another crack of lighting lit up the hut beside the small fire dying out.
Ryusui knew it was going to be a bad storm but this was much worse than he could’ve imagined.
He should’ve seen the signs sooner. A storm this bad, no way there weren’t any clues before.
Heh got too caught up in the celebration.
Ryusui continued to look out the window. Besides his frustration at himself for missing clear signs, he couldn’t help but antagonize more over how his plans crashed around him. (sometimes literally)
“Ryusui?” The voice behind him snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Oh yeah?” Ryusui whispered back.
The two whispered to make sure not to wake up Mirai who had crashed after her sugar high.
“I’m sure the others are fine,” Tsukasa stated.
“Oh yeah, I know Senkuu is capable of making sure everyone is safe on the mainland,” Ryusui chuckled a bit at the thought of how Senkuu would do that.
Ryusui was expecting the convo to end there- “Then why are you spacing out?” - but it kept going.
“Just annoyed the celebration didn’t pan out,” Ryusui dumbed it down a little. “It was something I desired after all,”
Tsukasa lightly hummed in acknowledgment. “Next year then,”
That reply didn’t feel good enough. “Yeah, and I’ll make sure to make up for this celebration tenfold!” Ryusui tried to me his boastful self while still being quiet. “No better than that,” Ryusui snapped his fingers.
The lion coat slipped partially off his shoulder as he did so, reminding him he still had it.
“Oh yeah here,” Ryusui slipped it off himself and handed it back.
“Thanks, Tsukasa put it to the side.
It fell quiet for a second. Kinda silence that was suffocating.
“I think Mirai appreciated being able to trick or treat so thank you,” Tsukassa finally broke the silence. “Had been a while since we got to,”
Ryusui noticed how Tsukasa happily looked at the little mermaid consume hanging up to dry. “You’re a good older brother,” Ryusui blurted. “Most siblings I know would’ve been against taking their younger sibling out,”
“Thanks,” Tsukasa smiled a bit. (Only adding more to his confusion.) “I take it you’re only child?”
“Nah, second youngest out of 5,” Ryusui explained. “But my siblings didn’t really like me,”
“Sorry about that,”
“Nah it’s fine. Was kinda my fault,” Ryusui confessed.
“Because of your ‘desires’?” Tsukasa questioned.
“And my stubbornness ,” Ryusui smirked a bit. “You won’t know the half of it,”
“That too,” it earned a small chuckle from Tsukasa before what looked to be hesitation passed the fighter’s eyes. “Though I might have an idea since I heard what you said to Gen and Minami,”
Oh.
“Hehe guess I didn’t really try to keep it a secret,” Ryusui snickered. “It’s like I said, I desire you,” Ryusui repeated. Maybe something others would find embarrassing, but to him, he knew what he wanted and he wasn’t ashamed of that.
“I see,” Tsukasa spoke. Ryusui was pretty sure his already confessed- confession wasn’t worth much to Tsukasa but he wasn’t one to hide away from his feelings. “At first I thought you’d be the exact kinda person I’d hate,” Ryusui knew that. “Imagine my surprise when it was the opposite,” He did not know that.
Ryusui almost laughed at just how perfect the situation was. “And they say I’m bold,” Ryusui smirked.
“Whatever you want to call it,” Tsukasa smiled back.
The men both meant to look at each other's eyes but their glance traveled down to their lips. The two wondered what it felt like against their own. Didn’t take long to find out though.