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Ichiro wasn't all that big on haunted houses. They just weren't all that interesting, or even all that scary, to him. And seeing as he only had an hour's break between his shifts at the cultural festival that year, he probably would have skipped the haunted house in favor of grabbing some food and maybe seeing a play.
But Samatoki's class was doing the haunted house that year. Ichiro wouldn't miss it for anything.
His break wound up lining up with Dice's, so they decided to check out the haunted house together. Gentaro was in Samatoki's class too, which meant Dice was pretty much obligated to go—especially with Ramuda begging off, claiming a heart condition or ghost allergy or something.
The very first scare—four or five pairs of hands, busting through a paper screen—got a startled little yelp from Dice.
"Want me to hold your hand?" Ichiro joked.
"Bro, would you?" Dice hugged his own arms, eyes nervously darting from side to side. "I'm dead sure Gentaro's gonna pop out from behind some corner and come at me with a knife."
Ichiro stifled a laugh. "If I really hold your hand, he might come at me with a knife."
Dice gave a little 'yeah, probably' hum and wobble of his head, before they continued down the darkened path, lit only by a few dim lanterns hanging up on the makeshift walls.
The next scare came out of a conspicuously large barrel, which tipped over as they approached. A girl, heavily made up to look like a corpse, spilled out from inside with a strangled groan, reaching towards them with one clawed hand.
Dice gave a proper little shriek this time, swiftly ducking behind Ichiro.
"Hi, Adachi-senpai. Cool makeup."
"Yamada-kun!" The girl on the floor beamed up at him, which made her face of horror makeup even more unsettling. Behind Ichiro, Dice gave a full-bodied shudder. "Aohitsugi-kun will be glad you made it."
Ichiro ducked his head with a sheepish but pleased smile, then helped her get the barrel upright again, to reset for the next group.
"Are you really not scared at all?" Dice whispered to Ichiro as they moved on. "Or are you just trying to look cool for your man?"
Ichiro really was as unfazed as he acted, but he didn't hate the idea of acting cool for Samatoki. "Maybe a bit of both?"
It wasn't long before they approached a cardboard well at the end of one pseudo-hallway. Ichiro didn't frequent haunted houses all that often in real life, but he'd seen plenty of them in the anime he watched—he knew exactly what to expect there.
An eerie ghost with long black hair, usually dressed in a long white gown, would rise from that well and crawl towards them, movements stiff and halting, like a recently reanimated corpse.
Nothing to worry—
Ichiro let out a shout, more out of surprise than terror, when his expectations were abruptly shattered. Someone did pop out of the well, sure enough, but there was nothing stiff or halting about their movements. No, rather, someone popped up in a flash, grabbed Ichiro around the waist, and lifted him clear off the floor.
Off the floor, and into the well.
"Ichiro?!" Dice shouted. "What the fnngh—"
His voice suddenly became muffled and began to grow distant, like someone had clamped a hand over his mouth and started dragging him away.
Gentaro, probably.
Ichiro didn't give it much thought. He was still a little disoriented, having crashed onto an exercise mat laid out behind the well. From back there, he could see it was only really half a well, open on the other side to give the 'ghost' room to stretch out and relax between scares.
And the 'ghost' was in fact stretched out, right next to Ichiro, arms still wrapped around his waist.
"Samatoki," Ichiro whispered, his surprise quickly melting away into a giddy grin. "This isn't the sort of scare you're giving everyone who—"
Ichiro was only teasing; of course he didn't think Samatoki was actually dragging every visitor into his well for an impromptu cuddle. But Samatoki seemed to find the implication so absurd that he didn't even let Ichiro finish before cutting him off with a kiss.
Which Ichiro, naturally, didn't mind one bit.
He couldn't help but smile into the kiss, which only made Samatoki hold him closer. Ichiro had to squirm back once they parted to breathe, to blink a few times—letting his eyes adjust more to the dark—and take in Samatoki's costume.
Samatoki was dressed, more or less, like a typical 'ghost' that occupied the obligatory well of a high school haunted house. But to Ichiro's totally unbiased eyes, Samatoki was more beautiful than scary.
The long-haired wig he wore was white, not black, and his lips were painted with a shade of blue that was probably supposed to make him look ghastly, but only made Ichiro want to kiss him again.
Which he did, right away, smudging that paint a little more.
"Pretty," Ichiro whispered. "You're so pretty, Samatoki."
"Oi."
"You're so pretty, Samatoki-senpai," Ichiro amended.
Samatoki huffed a laugh against Ichiro's lips and gave his hip an admonishing pinch. "Cheeky."
But he loved it. The smile he showed Ichiro said it all.
It had been almost a year since Ichiro confessed, since Samatoki accepted, but they were still like this. They still took any and every opportunity to steal away together, to get lost in each other. They'd become worse and worse, in fact, with Samatoki's graduation imminent; Ichiro would follow him to college soon enough, but neither of them liked the idea of the year they would spend apart.
Sometimes, though, they did push their luck a bit much.
Like now.
Ichiro wasn't sure how long he lay there with Samatoki, but it didn't feel like very long at all before a few sets of footsteps approached the well.
"Uh… isn't someone supposed to come out of this thing?"
Samatoki wasted no time in sticking one hand up over the side of the well, middle finger raised. That earned him an indignant squawk, and a few snorting laughs.
Ichiro waited for that group to move along before kissing Samatoki once more and moving to get up. "Come by my class later. I saved you a piece of tiramisu."
"Maid cafe, right?" Samatoki teased.
"You know damn well it's a normal cafe," Ichiro chided. "But text me when you're almost there. I'll put on the cat ears for you."
Samatoki grinned, and wouldn't manage to wipe that grin off his face for the rest of the day.
But that didn't seem to stop him from scaring the shit out of all the rest of his visitors.
"The ghost in the well was super scary," one girl whispered to her friend, as Ichiro—back on duty at his class's cafe—came by to deliver the drinks and sweets they'd ordered.
"Super scary," her friend echoed in agreement. "That smile made the whole look so much creepier. It was awesome."
Ichiro had to bite back a smile of his own.
Maybe it wasn't so bad, really. For them to push their luck every now and then.