Chapter Text
He was supposed to be home, watching TV, with Miiko rightfully strung across his lap. Where he wasn’t supposed to be was here, tagging alongside his younger brother’s friend group, an hour away from home, weaving his way through the bustling streets of the city on the night of halloween.
But duty calls.
Unlike last time, Toujou and Ayato had decided to go for a wolf and rabbit costume respectively. A wolf waiting for the chance to jump and devour the unknowing rabbit. Typical. Definitely an F for effort. Mob resisted the urge to groan. If he was really going to spend god knows how many hours here, it wouldn’t hurt to see some originality. It was the least the universe could offer him. But alas, it seems this BL universe had other plans for tonight.
Out of morbid curiosity, he cast his eyes astray and scrutinised the couples along the main promenade as they sought out the popular haunted house. Tall brooding men donning black capes and fangs waltzed by with their lovers in tow.
“M-Mob-san, what exactly are you dressed up as?” Yanagi piped up, managing to work up the courage to ask the question he had a burning desire to ask since the beginning of their rendezvous.
“Ah,” the purple-haired man started as he jolted a finger upwards in the air eagerly, “it’s a -”
“A teletubby obviously,” a loud boisterous voice hollered, effectively cutting his monologue off.
Mob blinked.
Teletubby? What?
He carefully schooled the emerging scowl on his face into a blank slate. Of course, he desired nothing more than to give Misato a piece of his mind and enlighten them all of his undiscovered intellect but… was it really worth it?
He didn’t have time to weigh up the pros and cons before Toujou was already speaking up, ever so eager to rile up his rival in love.
“It’s called a cavity cosplay, ever heard of it?” Toujou plastered a sickly sweet smile across his face.
“Haah? Cavity? Of course I have and no way is that it!” The teenager shrilled, gesturing in Mob’s direction wildly.
Mob winced.
Ouch. His poor ears.
“I bet you’re just saying that,” Toujou retorted calmly. A second had barely passed before the words ‘you big buffoon’ could be heard being muttered under his breath. Judging from everyone’s reactions, it seemed like everyone but Ayato had heard the honor student’s insult.
Amazing. The mechanics behind the selective hearing still seemed to fascinate Mob until this day.
A splutter from the taller male in response confirmed his suspicion. Yanagi twitched nervously between the two as they stood at a standoff, crossing their arms across their torsos as they held each other’s boring gaze.
Ayato was the first to break the silence, pinching his nose and sighing loudly as he regarded the two. The weariness across his face indicated that it was a somewhat common occurrence and if anyone were to bring any semblance of calm, it would be Ayato - Mob had no doubt about it. Yanagi wasn’t even an option.
He watched the scene before him in anticipation, wondering what words could possibly be said to diffuse the quickly building tension. Quite frankly, he was caught feeling utter exasperation, wanting to bite the bullet and get the night over with already... but there was also another side of him that entertained the idea of witnessing Ayato’s soap opera of a relationship playing live at the source of conflict. It would certainly help satiate his general disinclination to babysit after all.
“He does this every year.” Ayato rolled his eyes; the costume was nothing new to him - he had been subjected to his slothful older brother going year in and year out wearing the exact same costume for the spooky season. His attachment towards the plastic pitchfork and horn headset was baffling because if anything had to be pure laziness and reflected a genuine lack of enthusiasm it had to be that outfit and nothing could change his stance on the matter. Not even the person of question’s protests - made every year - trying to dispute his argument.
What does ‘mitigating against misfortunate events’ even mean? When he had relayed his brother’s words during his regular venting sessions at school to Toujou, his unfazed boyfriend had simply quipped his brow before puffing out a chuckle, turning his head to gaze out the window and uttered the words ‘how interesting’ with a contemplative expression across his face. Just remembering it brought about an immense irritation. Another hidden facial expression of Toujou’s had to be revealed to him via the intervention of Mob. He was an absolute menace both at home and outside!
Misato’s roaring laughter interrupted his brooding. Vigorously, the abrasive transfer student wrapped both arms around his stomach as his shoulders trembled heartily.
“Big bro,” Misato gasped as he wiped away a tear from his eye, “here I was thinking I was the one who didn’t even bother.” He made a show of avidly motioning towards his own attire for the night. An overwhelmingly voluminous fur coat surrounded his frame accompanied by not-so-discreetly drawn-on whiskers.
Was that done with a sharpie? Judging from the looks from it, it would be a hell of a time trying to wash those marks away, Mob mused. But that line of thought could wait for another time. He had his honor to defend.
“You and I are not the same,” he insisted in a matter-of-fact tone. He refused to be affiliated with Misato’s poor attempt at depicting a wolf. It had taken him months of research to finally find a way to evade the universe’s perverted attempt of using the yearly event to draw couples together. Misato’s attempt paled in comparison to the fruitions of his grander ambitions.
Instinctively, Mob lowered his eyes to his hip to ensure his sash-bag full of candies were still attached to his side. He was taking no chances of being on the receiving end of any clever ‘tricks’.
This, in turn, only caused Misato to guffaw even louder. Curious looks were thrown their way by unsuspecting passerbys.
Mob sighed. It seemed as though his message had fallen upon empty ears. He couldn’t say he was pleased with this revelation as Misato threw his head back and his snorts rapidly transformed into full-blown cackles.
“It’s not that funny, Misato,” his traitor of a younger brother coughed into his hand, hiding a developing smile.
Glancing down at his watch, Mob’s eye twitched. They weren’t even anywhere close to heading back and they were already being a pain in the ass.
Was Misato going to stop laughing anytime soon?
It appeared not, as now his laughter swiftly prompted Toujou to bring a hand to cover his mouth and join the others in the hysterical fit.
A small reprieve finally came his way when Yanagi bravely inserted himself in the centre and raised his voice to shout out, “You guys are being mean!”
And just like that, Mob was reminded of why he was rooting for Yanagi in the first place; it was a cruel reminder of how unfair the universe could be.
“Sorry big bro,” Misato wheezed out as he tried to recover.
“Sorry.” Ayato said, turning around to pull out his phone.
That little bastard.
Toujou stepped forward and before he could process what was happening, his hands were being clasped between his.
“I’m really sorry, will you please forgive me, Mob-kun?” A blindingly dazzling smile was directed towards him.
With his hands at loss, Mob squinted as he tried to shield his eyes from the onslaught. Had he known in advance that this was the night that he had to endure like a sitting duck, he would’ve just lied about his availability.
“Yes, now can we continue with our journey?”
With a satisfied nod, the boy released his hands and they continued onwards.
It didn’t take long before the main attraction appeared before them. There at the centre of the street resided the elaborately-decorated haunted house; it truly did look like something that came out of a horror movie.
Deathly-pale men could be seen clasping onto their companion’s hands as they exited the nightmare-infested love trap. Well, at least the house served its purpose - people definitely did end up closer than ever upon surviving and exiting the cursed area.
Speaking of which, would Toujou manage okay?
Someone needed to comfort Ayato throughout the journey… but what about Misato and Yanagi?
Misato was definitely going to scream at everything and Yanagi…
Sending a silent prayer Toujou’s way, he guessed it was just something for them to figure out amongst themselves.
Making it very clear to the others from the very beginning, Mob had stressed and reiterated that going into the house with them was a big no-no. There was no way in hell he would step foot in there; not when he knew all the red flags he would have to encounter there with staff, customers, jumpscares and the rest of it.
With a wave of his hand, he signalled to the cohort that they were free to go.
“I’ll meet you guys out here,” he dryly said. All of his energy had already been completely depleted.
“Ah, Mob-kun, before we go, Ayato and I forgot to mention we’re expecting one more friend to join us. He said he’ll meet us at the haunted mansion so there'll be five of us meeting up with you at the exit instead,” Toujou alerted him.
Mob paused, trying to flick through the list of Ayato’s friends he remembered. From the casual tone of Toujou’s announcement, he didn’t think it could be anyone of concern or someone Toujou had deemed a threat to his relationship. But on the other hand, he felt a tightly-wound ball of apprehension take place in the pits of his stomach; a simple mob character wouldn’t just come to a gathering late.
Nodding his head in reply, he ushered the boys along to the entrance, before taking a seat on a nearby bench.
Who could this mysterious friend be? And would they be a problem?
Falling deeper into his own thoughts, he failed to notice the increasingly-louder clangs of metal against metal drawing nearer and nearer until they came to a stop in front of him.
The sudden shift in the atmosphere along with the unnerving silence caused the man to slowly lift his head, almost like some kind of human instinct engraved into him.
There, in all his glory, stood Ayato’s mystery friend, his first confessor, his filed-away ‘to- worry-later’ problem - Hatano - clad in a skin-tight police officer costume complemented with… wait... are those real handcuffs?
Mob definitely did not want to know the answer to that question.