Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Where are we going?" Your quiet whisper echoed through the empty hallways of the club building. The lights were dim and down the paths hid ghostly shadows, and every tap of your footsteps on the tile floors matched in time with the sound of your nervous heartbeat thumping in your chest. Although you had been rather suspicious as soon as you agreed to tag along, you couldn't exactly back out now. You heard the faint hush from the man you were following and just decided to trust him.

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You had been suddenly jolted out of sleep by a swift knock on the door, precise and proper while seeming a bit urgent. With one eye open and the other still closed you glanced over at your clock. It was nearly two in the morning. At first you ignored it, just letting it stir you from your sleep and quickly turning over in your bed to fall back asleep, but a second much louder knock sounded and you shot out of bed. Thankfully your roommate had always been a heavy sleeper, so when you started receiving the brunt of Normal Boots shenanigans, it never woke her in the late hours of the night.

When you had opened the door an impatient Shane was standing with his arms stiff at his side. Even though it was so early in the morning, he was fully clothed, dress pants, Normal Boots jacket, fancy shoes. If you had been less groggy you would have questioned it, but you were still dazed from the sudden arise.

"Well. It's about time." He whispered. You rubbed your eyes and sucked in a deep yawn. You didn't say anything, deciding that if it was important enough he would just come out and say it. He wore a sort of stern look on his face, even more hardened than his usual one, but you swore you saw a brief glimpse of anxiety when you had finally opened the door. But, you wrote it off as nothing important as the haze of your dreams still buzzed around in your mind.

However, after a couple moments of him just watching you expectantly, you scowled and brought your hands up incredulously, irritation painting your entire body.
"Well what? I sure hope you woke me up for something other than staring at me in my pajamas." With this statement he twitched, his eyebrows being brought into a fierce furrow and his cheeks burning red. His intense blue eyes darted away from you, and just as quickly as they flicked away, they flicked back, expression changing back to normal.
"Follow me."

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And so, here you were, following Shane down an empty - so you hoped - hallway at several hours past curfew. An hour or so would result in probable detention, but with how late you were out, you figured it would be the end at Asagao for the both of you. Finally, at the bottom of a staircase, you had stopped in your tracks. Between the cold air brushing on you during transit from dorm to building and the constant exercise of rushing through the school you eventually were wide awake, and this meant you were actually conscious enough to realize what you were doing.

"Shane," you whispered harshly as he continued up the stairs, "where are you taking me?" You had your arms crossed, a scowl on your face. He turned around, surprised you had stopped so abruptly. His eyebrows scrunched together and the same break in character had peeked through his cold exterior. He slowly made his way back down the stairs after realizing you weren't moving. His eyes stared into yours. They were intense and focused, but his jaw was clenched tightly and his face was a light red.
"Just," he quickly snatched your wrist in his hand, "hush up. Follow me." He pulled lightly at your arm, just enough to move you, but not to cause you any harm if you tried to pull away. It still confused you why he would risk this at all. To you, Shane always seemed like the type to follow the rules, be proper at all points to uphold his superior reputation, but here he was, breaking all rules for god knows what. You had no idea Shane was such a rebel. Cute.

As Shane dragged you up the stairs you couldn't help but chuckle. It was just a bit after two in the morning and here you were, getting dragged around by Shane with no idea where you're going or what he intended to do with you. Your mind wandered to several possibilities. You had been talking to the club for a while now, but Shane was always stand-offish, and it's not like you were close friends, what could he possibly want with you? With your wrist in his hand you were sure he felt your hand clench into a fist as you blushed over ridiculous scenarios. You quickly wiped any impure thought from your head and instead focused on where you were now instead of the not-so-distant future.

Shane had stopped at the top of the staircase, releasing your hand and peeking out into the hallway. You stood behind watching as he swiveled his head to the left and then to the right, scanning for any possible trace of another soul. It was so dead quiet that if you listened hard enough you could even hear Shane's heartbeat above your own.

After a few moments past and he thought it was safe, he turned to you with a sly smile on his face.
"Wait here." Eyes flying open, it was you who grabbed at his wrist this time. If there was a safe place to talk about what was happening it would be the shelter of the stairwell.
"S-Shane wait. What is going on? I've been asking this whole time and you've done nothing but brush it off. I'm sure you can understand my reluctance to just run around on campus at this time of night. Please give me an explanation." The reaction you got from him was unexpected. Normally you would have awaited some snarky quip, a sarcastic remark, a blatantly rude degrading comment on your intelligence. But, instead, you were presented with a different soft side of Shane. He didn't move much, just shifted so he was facing you, looking at your worried eyes as he responded.
"Please. Just trust me."

It was all he said, but for some reason the way he said it made you drop his wrist, and off he went. You peeked around the stairwell corner and watched as he quietly glided to the other side of the hallway and into the Normal Boots club room.

What could he possibly be up to? You wondered to yourself.

Minutes went by. You heard some rustling in the room across from you, but you didn't dare to spoil whatever it was he was planning. A swift breeze flew up the corridor from behind you, feeling as if a ghost had just passed through your body. It had dawned on you that you were all by yourself in a dark, empty stairwell. A shiver ran down your spine as you tried to will yourself not to look behind you down the pitch black descending stairway. As seconds ticked by your willpower grew weaker and weaker as it felt like someone was behind you.

Watching you.

You whipped yourself around and stared fearfully into the abyss that was the darkness. Nothing was there, but nausea formed in the pit of your stomach, afraid to look away, as if something would come up behind you in that moment and shred into you, leaving your lifeless body drained of your very soul for the rest of the school to find, for Shane to find.

"(Y/-" The mere mention of your name behind you caused you to jump high into the air and shriek loudly. Suddenly you were whirled back around and a hand was placed over your mouth.
"Jesus Christ, shhhhhhhhush," Shane dropped his hand and brought a finger to his smile and quietly chuckled, "Shut up." You sighed with relief and regained what composure you could muster, giving him a weak smile in apology. He motioned for you to follow him once again and you two entered into the club room, a feeling of suspicion still like lead in your stomach.

Chapter Text

When you got into the club room, the lights were dim over head, and in front of you you could see a small monitor looking screen with several different game consoles lined up in front of it. Shane crossed his arms and just watched you with a smirk on his face. After registering what was in front of you you did a double take toward Shane. You weren't upset, in fact, you were anything BUT upset. You huffed out a quick laugh and looked at him with a goofy grin on your face.
"You... brought me here to play games? At two in the morning?" His eyes drifted to the clock, lips pursed as he did so, eyebrows raised jokingly.
"Two thirty, actually," He gestured to the different array of consoles in front of you,
"pick your poison, yeah? I'm excited to see which one I can beat your ass in first." At this you blinked puzzled. None of this made sense to you, why would he bring you here to play games. Not only to play games, but to also apparently 'beat your ass' at them.

"Shane, this doesn't make sense. Why did you wake me up so late just to come and play games? We could literally do this at any other point in the day. And how come it's just us anyway?" As the word 'us' left your lips your voice croaked nervously. The way your voice betrayed you made you irritated.
"B-because," he stuttered, "because I didn't want the guys to possibly be around to bother us. They can get rather annoying. Besides, we used to do this all the time, it's better this way. No interruptions." He didn't look at you, and you knew it was a sorry excuse, but you figured you'd just play along with it.
"Alright," you shrugged, "let's go with the 64. I wanna play you in some old school Nario Kart." You knew this line of games was what he played in the tournament and you wanted to see his skills for a while. At this his face immediately lit up, but then it devolved into a wolfish grin, a certain devilish sparkle in his eye.
"Alright," he chuckled, "good choice."

He walked up and plugged everything in, turning on the monitor, switching on the game, and handing you the player two controller. You huffed.
"You wake me up this late and I don't even get the player one controller? That's rude." He chuckled and shrugged arrogantly.
"Sucks to suck." He replied playfully in his thick accent. You nudged his shoulder as he got to the character select screen, and he laughed again. It was a rare occasion to hear him fully laugh, and when you did it was like the heavens opened up and the world knew peace for a split second.

As soon as the characters appeared on screen you moved your cursor lightning speed to select Princess Plum. You smiled adorably as you waited for Shane to pick his own character.
"Princess Plum. Really?" He teased as he finally decided on Xoshi, a little green dinosaur.
"What's wrong with that? She's cute!" You squeaked offendedly. He snickered and slightly shook his head.
"Either way, Plum is going to eat my dust." He glanced at you from the corner of his eye and smiled. That was it. If he brought you here to play games, you would play games, and you were determined to beat him at least once tonight.

With this thought running through your mind you had the creeping feeling of being watched. The blinds were down on the windows so nobody could see the light from the game screen outside, but there was still the window on the door to the room. You watched the window carefully, almost expecting some horrifying face to be there, but no matter how long you stared, nothing appeared, but you still couldn't shake the feeling that something else was there.

You were dragged back into the moment by the sound of the engines whirring down the path and the joyful music playing in the background. You had missed the start of the race.
"Ah! D-dammit!" You fumbled with your controller and eventually got yourself driving around the course. Of course, Shane was already exploiting shortcuts and using his far superior knowledge of the game to completely dominate you. He didn't even give you a chance.

You weren't going to give up until you won.

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Well, you eventually gave up. Not a single race was won by you and at this point you were just feeling like it was overkill. But finally, it came down to the ultimate challenge. Rainbow Road.
"How does it feel to be a loser?" He pushed you affectionately and you sighed deeply.
"Well, it doesn't feel good," you glared at him, "but I'm having a good time." Shane blushed and his lips cocked up into a smile.
"Uh, well," he cleared his throat, "I'm glad, then." It was strange to you that he was opening up so easily, but if you were honest, you really liked to see him this way and a small, sweet smile found its way on your face. He caught you staring at him and just as quickly as he relaxed he immediately shut back down, becoming stoic and reserved as usual.
"Moment of truth, then. Rainbow Road. If you can beat me here, I'll disregard any loss that happened here tonight."
"Oh, is that all? Then it's so worth it."
He remained silent for a few moments before opening his mouth, his face flushed.
"...What else did you expect for a victory?"

You decided that it would be less awkward if you didn't give a straight answer.
"I dunno. Let's go!" Shane hovered over the course option and was just about to play the race when suddenly the clock struck three A.M. and all of the power in the room shut off.

"What the hell?" Shane snapped. The feeling of dread in your stomach from earlier returned quickly and you involuntarily gripped tight onto Shane's Normal Boots jacket.
"Breaker probably blew. Shame. I was looking forward to having you taste defeat on Rainbow Road. Hold on." Shane got up from his seat and walked over toward the light switch by the door, flicked it off, and flicked it on again. Nothing happened. A heavy sigh left his body and you could tell he was a little more than just irritated. He muttered something under his breath and pulled out his phone for some light. You decided to do the same.

The same sudden breeze you felt from when you were waiting in the stairwell crawled its way up your spine and clung to your skin, causing goosebumps to form. You felt as if there was something else in the room. No matter where you looked there was nothing there, but it felt as if the being was enveloping the entire room. With this feeling surrounding you you walked up and remained as close to Shane as possible.

Nobody said a word. Shane opened the door and looked down the previously dimly lit hallways which were now jet black, just like the bottom of the stairs, and now currently like the club room. Shane remained quiet, but from what you could tell he wasn't even affected by what was going on.
"Well," he finally said, "this is bullshit." You peeked your head out the door, and for a split moment you thought you saw a faint silhouette of white down the hallway. You shivered with fear and bolted back into the room.
"Sh-Shane, I don't think it's just some malfunction." But as soon as the sentence left your mouth he stared at you like you had two heads.
"Oh, please." He rolled his eyes and turned back around, the dim light of his phone following him. It hurt a bit that he didn't take you seriously, but just as soon as he turned back to the doorway you could see him freeze up. He suddenly got stiff and turned slowly back to you, his face perplexed.
"There is. A white figure at the end of the hall."

So he had seen it.

You slowly tiptoed your way back up to him, about to look down the hallway, when the sound of footsteps started from the direction of the figure. It didn't even take the snap of fingers before you two of you slammed the door shut and Shane locked it. The footsteps turned into quick, heavy thuds after the door had been closed. You grabbed onto Shane's arm and continued to shake. You knew you had felt something earlier, you weren't just crazy.

You started to back up away from the door, gently tugging at Shane who followed suit.
"D-do you think it can get in?"
"I honestly don't know. What even is it?"
"I honestly don't know..." Suddenly, there was a quick slam at the door as the pounding footsteps reached it. You let out a small, terrified scream, and Shane involuntarily brought his arm back as if to protect you. The door handle began to shake violently, and a distorted, muffled voice was heard on the other side. With Shane just as tense as ever and your quivering body, you two were stricken still. A few seconds went by of the jingling handle and it suddenly had stopped. You loosened your grip on Shane's arm, but you knew it wouldn't be over that easily, would it?

Just as you were about to check to see if you were clear, a pair of creepily black eyes peered in through the window. Shane grabbed your hand and pulled you to the back of the room toward the closet and pushed you inside, making sure to avoid the big glass Boots box. You heard the sound of the door unlocking just as Shane had crawled into the space beside you, shutting the door and locking the closet as well.
"Well, shit." He breathed, trying to keep as much composure as he could. The two of you were in such close proximity that you could basically feel the adrenaline seeping out of his pores.
"This is really not how I wanted tonight to go, I can tell you that." You chuckled out of fear as a defense mechanism. You were sure you were both about to die.
"Oh yeah? And h-how else would you have had it gone? I think it went p-perfectly."
"Oh sure, this is nice, but dates aren't usually supposed to end in a bloodbath. This isn't a Jason movie."

The word date hadn't fully registered in your brain yet as it was still grinding around thoughts of getting murdered, but eventually the realization dawned upon you. Stunned, you jerked your head quickly over to Shane, and with your phone light still on you could see his face was burning a bright, fiery red. You yourself started to change hue, face as red as a perfectly ripe tomato and just as hot as a dragon's fire.
"D-date?!" You whispered unbelieving toward the ground. Of course it was a date, all the signs pointed to it, and the way he had been acting was so obvious, you idiot. The temperature of the room had risen several degrees from the body heat alone.

Just after the awkward confession, the closet stayed silent and from outside the door the agonizingly slow creaking of the club room door could be heard. You could hear Shane fidgeting.
"I was never going to admit it." He raised an eyebrow with his eyes lidded as he glanced down at you. The sound of footsteps moved at a steady pace toward the closet door and both of your breathing got just a bit heavier. "But figuring with whatever the fuck is going on, there's no use in keeping it to myself."
"D-do you think we're gonna die?" His chuckle was empty, and you could feel the hopelessness fill the room.
"How ridiculous." He whispered to himself. You could tell he was full of doubt, and without even his confidence you felt completely defeated. You were screwed.

With this in mind, you took your phone and quickly shined it up so you could see his face. You looked away toward the floor, blinking hard, stomach churning with anxiety. The quick taps of footsteps growing closer and closer an closer...

Fuck it, you thought.

You put your phone in your pocket and with memory of where all his details were, you reached up and grabbed at the collar of his jacket, yanking him down to your face. His lips crashed into yours, and at first you could feel him stiffen under your grasp, but he quickly brought his hands up and cupped at your face, kissing you back passionately, as if this truly was the last moment of your lives. His lips were incredibly soft and you could feel his intense heat radiating off his face. You two stood there for a few moments just stuck together, kissing furiously. But you two were interrupted by a quiet, proper knock at the door. When you broke apart, you saw a light shining at the bottom opening of the door.

"Shane Gill? (Y/n)? You two need to come out right this instant." It was a familiar voice, stern, yet calm, but yet you couldn't exactly place it. However, realization came upon Shane and he hung his head, laying his forehead against yours.
"Fucking... shit." He groaned. The sound of keys jingled at the lock on the closet door and the door swung open. Standing there was Nurse CreepsMcPasta, phone in hand acting as a flashlight, and keys to the rooms in his other hand.
"Well. I'm sure you have a good explanation for this, don't you? Do you know how late it is? I like you kids. I don't want to see you expelled from this school." The two of you stood farther apart from each other, trying to seem less suspicious, but the bright red color on your faces gave it away easily. Creeps frowned heavily, but then sighed and crossed his arms. "If you two go back to your dorms this instant, I won't report you to the higher staff. And I do not want to see you out this late ever again, or next time I won't be so kind, is that understood?" Both of your heads nodded in time with each other and without wasting a moment of time, the two of you bolted out of the room.

Once you got outside though, the two of you burst out laughing, recounting the events of the night, and reevaluating the status of what you thought was just an acquaintanceship.

However, back at the club room, the lights to the building had shot back on like lightning, and a hearty laugh could be heard outside the door. Jirard walked in nearly doubled over with laughter, tears in his eyes.
"M-man, Creeps! That was priceless! I totally owe you, man. It was absolutely PAINFUL to see Shane try to hide it any longer." Nurse McPasta merely raised one hand and chuckled deeply.
"Honestly, no need, it was about time. But seriously, go back to your dorm. One, you're out way past curfew, and two, I think if Shane gets back to the dorm before you, you'll have a lot of explaining to do, and a lot of rage to combat." And with that, Jirard raced back to the dorm room remaining undetected as well as he could, and Nurse McPasta continued on his merry way down the shadowy halls of the building, eventually turning down a dead end hallway and disappearing without a trace.