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Waking up to his roommate shoving a paper flier in his face was not exactly the morning greeting he expected.
Well, it was sort of expected. Sammy Sweetsparkle was a lovely person, but they were not a polite roommate. After having endured a few months of unfortunate incidents with them as his roommate, this was actually pretty tame by comparison. They were messy, awful with magic, best friends with his ‘mortal enemy’, and never let him sleep in. That wasn’t even mentioning the incidents with that goddamn elephant! The amount of times Peri would come back to find that the dorm had been completely wrecked by the cheerful being was almost enough to make him wish that he’d roomed with Irep instead.
Almost.
Sammy’s shrill voice wore away any remaining sleepiness that the fairy still had. “Peri! Oh, good, you’re awake!”
Peri groaned in response.
Sammy smiled and held the flier out to him again. Peri begrudgingly took it. It just looked like a poorly designed college festival flier to him, but from the way his roommate grinned down at him, he knew that they really wanted to go to the cheap college event. Which meant that they were both going to the event.
“Doesn’t this look so fun?! Look, they even have a haunted house! Not that I’ve ever been in one, but Irep says they’re great!” Sammy’s cheerful expression soured for a few moments. “...he said he had other plans today, though. Do you think he was lying?? I guess it doesn’t matter! Do you want to go with me?”
As Sammy looked at him with sparkling, hopeful eyes, Peri was reminded why he’d decided to room with them in the first place. He could never find it in him to say no to the magical being. “Yeah, yeah, sure, dude. Just let me wake up first.”
★☆★
The festival was exactly as corny as Peri thought it would be. Poorly set up booths combined with rickety-looking rides made for a desolate sight. Sammy, though, was over the moon. Peri found himself being dragged all over the festival. They both somehow ended up with bags full of free knicknacks, all branded with different advertisers names. Really, when would he need a cheap plastic whistle that read ‘Fairy News Network’ on the side?? And the Tooth Fairy had somehow tracked him down yet again to offer that internship at her school of dentistry, which he had to turn down, once again… But Sammy was having the time of their life, and that’s why he was here, so it was actually pretty fun. Plus, that haunted house looked promising. It lurked ominously over the rest of the festival, and even had real bats circling overhead. Peri had never really liked haunted houses or being purposefully scared, but this seemed pretty cool.
It wasn’t long before they ended up at the entrance of the attraction. The man checking tickets even seemed to recognize Peri and tried to chat with him, though he quickly gave up when he realized that the former celebrity had no idea who he was. That was scarily awkward, so the house was already off to a pretty good start!
The inside was gloomy and ominous. Sammy clung onto Peri’s arm as soon as they entered, shaking like a wet cat. The fairy honestly thought it was pretty funny, but managed to stifle the little giggle that threatened to escape. He patted his friend on the head a few times to comfort them, letting them attach themselves to his arm for as long as they needed.
As Peri led them both through the house, stopped by the occasional scare actor that had Sammy shrieking in fear, he couldn’t help but be impressed. It was pretty high quality, at least compared to the rest of the festival. The scare actors looked professional, the gothic house was built very well, and he could feel his heart racing a bit. If he liked haunted houses, he probably would have been having fun.
Sammy was completely freaked out, though. Their trembling had practically quadrupled. After about 10 minutes, they just couldn’t take it anymore. They excused themselves lamely to go to the bathroom, and teleported away. Peri shrugged and continued through the house. Sammy had been the one keeping him on the right path through the attraction though, apparently, because Peri somehow immediately got lost as soon as Sammy left. He only realized when he stumbled into a random dead-end corridor.
Sighing and running a hand through his hair, he muttered to himself, “Ah, shoot.”
“Are you lost, little rabbit?” A voice called from behind him. Peri was embarrassed to admit that he jumped at it. The person had snuck up on him so quietly, he hadn’t even realized that he was there. Peri turned to face them, and was greeted by a man covered in fake blood, face obscured by a creepy mask.
“Um, yeah, actually. Could you help me find my way back?”
The man chuckled lowly and shook his head, creeping slowly towards Peri. “You’ve stumbled into my territory now. What makes you think I’m going to let you leave?”
Peri laughed nervously as he backed up. His back immediately hit a wall. Right. Dead end. The man continued to inch closer. “Dude, listen, great performance and all, but I really need to get out of here and find my friend…” He was only about half a foot away, now. “Wh-what are you gonna do? It’s not like you can touch me or anything.” Purple eyes glinted at Peri from behind the mask as the man slammed a hand onto the wall next to Peri, effectively half-pinning him to the spot without ever actually touching him.
“What would you like me to do, little rabbit?”
Peri, running on pure instinct and adrenaline, pulled his fist back and let it fly. It connected squarely with the stranger’s face. He gasped as they reeled back, but took it as his cue to run. He yelled an apology back at them as he took off, though. It wasn’t long before he found the exit, blowing past the other actors in his rush to leave. He found Sammy pale and shaking outside the house, and they pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
“Where were you?! I was worried.”
Peri cleared his throat. “I just… got held up, is all.”
“Are you ready to head back to the dorm yet? I think we’ve done everything here there is to do.”
“Yeah. Definitely. Let’s head out.”
★☆★
Peri could not stop thinking about the scare actor from the house. It was a kind of scary interaction, and definitely against policy, but it was weirdly hot. He could barely even sleep that night between weird dreams about the stranger and lying awake thinking about him. Peri wondered what could have happened if he hadn’t punched the guy. Maybe he could have gotten his number, or something. It was too late for any of that, though. He literally assaulted a stranger, someone who was just doing their job no less, and then ran away. There was no coming back from that.
His lecture the next morning was rough. Peri was exhausted, just barely managing to claw his way out of bed and to the lecture hall.
When he saw Irep in the front row, grinning smugly at him and sporting a massive black eye, he started to piece it all together. When the anti-fairy waved his fingers at Peri and winked, his theory was just further confirmed.
If he sat just a bit closer to Irep for the rest of the day, no one needed to know.
★☆★
The campus cafeteria was usually very crowded, but they’d managed to find a table pretty far away from everyone else. People didn’t really like to sit near Irep. Peri always felt a little bad for him before he remembered why that was. Irep was a menace.
“At least let me fix that up with magic. I feel guilty every time I look at it!” Peri tried to touch the black eye that he’d accidentally given to the anti-fairy.
Irep shrugged and ducked away. “For your information, Periwinkle, I happen to like it. It adds some charm and realism to my look, doesn’t it?”
Peri groaned and threw his hands up in frustration. “Fine! But if it doesn’t heal up right, it’s on you.”
“I’ll just take it as proof that you enjoyed the haunted house I set up, darling?” Irep rested his chin on one of his hands as he casually stole fries off of Peri’s lunch tray.
Peri paused before responding. “...it was pretty cool, actually. You did an alright job.”
Irep gasped in offense. “No, I think you mean I did an excellent job! You certainly seemed scared.” He smirked.
Peri swallowed thickly. “Uh, well, I-”
Irep’s eyes narrowed as he tilted his head to the side. He observed Peri for a few moments. Flushing, quickening heart rate, inability to make direct eye contact… His eyes widened slightly as he came to a realization. His opposite had always been rather easy to read, after all. “Oh my goodness, you were attracted to me, weren’t you?” His smirk expanded as he leaned closer to Peri. “Do you like when I’m a bit scary, little rabbit?” His fangs glinted dangerously.
Peri cleared his throat, trying to will away the blush and his increasing inclination to kiss the anti-fairy. “Nope, no, definitely not. You were just breaking the scare actor rules of the haunted house, is all. I’m just worried about how safe it was.”
Irep wrinkled his nose and tossed a fry at Peri. “Aw, you’re no fun.”