Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderfulness that is Gravitation and all its characters. T.T I don't even own any merchandise, so there's no point suing.
"What??"
"You heard me. I said I'm going away for the weekend," Yuki Eiri replied. He disconnected his laptop, which contained his latest novel-in-progress, and zipped it into its black case.
"B-but Yukiii… How am I going to survive without you??" wailed Shuichi, trailing after his blonde-haired lover as he walked into the bedroom to finish packing his suitcase. "I'll be all alone! For a whole weekend!! Yuki, why didn't you tell me earlieeeeer??"
Yuki said nothing as he closed his suitcase and padlocked it. This was exactly why he hadn't mentioned it earlier: the less warning Shuichi got, the less time he had to complain. Right now, he only had to endure half an hour more of the pink-haired singer's whining before he had to leave.
"How could you be so heartless and cruel??" Shuichi moaned, still following Yuki as he moved around the house. "What am I going to do?? Wait-" He stood still in the middle of the living room, and Yuki could almost see the lightbulb appear above his head. "I'll come with you!!"
"No."
"WHAAAAT?? Why nooooot?" cried Shuichi. Yuki glanced at his watch; twenty minutes to go. "Come oon, Yuki… I'll hardly take up any room-" he curled up small on the floor to demonstrate, "-and I don't have much luggage… Pleeease, Yuki?" Shuichi straightened up and did his best puppy-dog eyes.
"No. It's a writers' conference I'm going to. You'd have nothing to do all day and I don't want you tagging along with me the whole time."
"You're so cold!! How can you abandon me at this time?! With a huge concert in less than a week, I need all the moral support I can get…" For the next ten minutes, Shuichi continued on this theme, alternating between bemoaning his fate at being left alone for two whole days – days! – and begging Yuki not to leave him. Yuki tuned him out as he made last-minute checks around the house; finally, when he had ascertained that everything was in order and that even Shuichi's best efforts couldn't mess the place up, he walked towards the door.
"…and you could at least have stayed one more night and left in the morn-" Shuichi broke off as he saw where Yuki was headed. "Yuki? Where are you going?"
"Where does it look like, idiot?" growled Yuki. "I'm leaving."
"B-but…" Shuichi's eyes began to well up with tears. Yuki sighed mentally; why was it that Shuichi was allowed to rant for twenty minutes straight at him and yet as soon as he did something wrong, Shuichi would start crying? Yuki checked the time again; if he didn't leave now, he would miss his plane. There was only one thing to do.
He took a step forward and cut Shuichi off with a forceful kiss. Shuichi froze and his eyes widened; as soon as he came to his senses and began enjoying it, Yuki had pulled away and was opening the door.
"Yuk…i…" Shuichi managed to say. Yuki glanced back at him.
"There's enough food in the fridge for two days. Don't break anything," he instructed, then left, shutting the door behind him.
Hiro reclined on the sofa in his apartment, idly plucking the strings of his guitar. He had begun picking out the tune of Shuichi's latest song when suddenly, the phone rang. Hiro set his guitar aside and leaned over to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Hiro!!" Hiro recognised his best friend's frantic voice immediately.
"Oh, hey, Shuichi. What's u-"
"YUKI LEFT MEEEE!" Hiro flinched at Shuichi's loud tone and held the phone a little way away from his ear.
"Really?" he asked, worried but bearing in mind Shuichi's tendency to overreact about small things, especially where Yuki was concerned.
"YES! For a whole weekend!" Shuichi moaned. Hiro breathed a sigh of relief.
"Is that all?"
"ALL?? What am I going to do?! I'm going to be so looonelyyy… unless… Hiro, can you please come over and stay the night? Or maybe two nights? Or even three?"
Hiro sighed again, this time in frustration. "I don't know, Shuichi, I was going to have Ayaka-chan over for-"
"PLEASE!" Shuichi begged. Hiro grimaced and rubbed his sore ear. One phone call from Shuichi was worse than a Bad Luck rehearsal for making his ears ring.
"All right, all right, I'll come over. At least for tonight."
"Thank yoooou! It'll be fun, I have some new anime DVDs and Yuki left some ramen and other nice food…"
"Yeah, yeah. See you soon." Hiro put the phone down and cast about for a backpack to put some clothes and a toothbrush in. Within a few minutes, he had packed enough essentials to last him a night or two (knowing Shuichi, he'd end up staying longer than he'd planned). He picked up his guitar as well, so that he wouldn't need to come back to the apartment for it, and then left, turning out the light as he went.
Shuichi was sitting in the middle of the floor, twiddling his thumbs, when the doorbell rang. Eagerly, he jumped up and ran to answer it.
"Hiro! You caaaame!" he exclaimed, upon opening the door to reveal the auburn-haired guitarist standing outside. He seized Hiro by the wrist and dragged him inside. "Come on, come on! What would you like to eat?"
"Whatever you're having is fine by me," Hiro replied, setting his guitar down in the hallway before allowing Shuichi to lead him into the living room.
"Okay! Ramen it is!" Shuichi declared. "We can eat it while watching anime." He whirled around the kitchen, grabbing bowls and chopsticks and piling them up on the counter.
"What anime are we watching?"
"Fruits Basket!" Shuichi replied happily. "One of the characters is named Yuki!! But he's not nearly as cool as my Yuki. Hehehehe…" He laughed to himself, obviously reliving a particular memory. Hiro rolled his eyes.
"Isn't that the one where the guys turn into animals?"
"It's not just guys!" Shuichi corrected him. "There are girls who do, too!"
"Right…"
Minutes later, the two of them were seated in front of the television, eating ramen and watching Yuki and Kyo fight it out for the umpteenth time. Occasionally, Shuichi would make a comment such as, "Eh, Kyo's so cool, I don't understand why Yuki hates him," or, "If that Yuki is a prince, then my Yuki is a king!"
Halfway through the episode, the doorbell sounded once again, accompanied by a call of, "Trick or treatu na no da!!" Shuichi and Hiro glanced at each other in bemusement.
"I'll get it," said Shuichi, pausing the DVD.'Na no da'… that almost sounded like… but nah, it couldn't be Ryuichi-san…
"Hello, how can I help…" began Shuichi as he opened the door. His jaw dropped as he beheld the person before him. "Ry… Ryuichi-san??"
"SHUICHI!!" Shuichi found himself enveloped in a black cape as Ryuichi launched himself at the younger singer.
"Ryuichi-san…! What are you… what are you wearing?" Shuichi managed to ask. His idol was dressed from head to foot in black, with a large black cape tied around his neck. Two plastic fangs protruded over his bottom lip, and his lower jaw had been decorated with trails of what looked like red lipstick. Kumagorou, Ryuichi's faithful pink rabbit, was balanced atop his head as usual, a pair of black bat wings affixed to his furry back.
"I'm a vampire na no da!" Ryuichi explained, still hugging Shuichi. He turned his head and pretended to bite Shuichi's neck, smearing him with lipstick in the process. "I'm sucking your bloood! Yum, yum!!"
"Shuichi, what- oh, hello, Sakuma-san," said Hiro in surprise from behind Shuichi. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm trick-or-treat-ing no da!" said Ryuichi, finally letting go of Shuichi. Shuichi massaged his neck as he was released.
"Trick-or-treat-ing?"
"Yeah! It's an American thing. K told me about it, na no da. You can get loads of candy from strangers on this night, the 31st of October! They call it Halloweeeeen!" Ryuichi triumphantly held up a bulging sack full of chocolate, pocky, and other sweet delights. Shuichi's eyes grew round.
"Wow, Ryuichi-san, that's amazing!"
"Yeah!! Would Shuichi and Hiro like some candy?" offered Ryuichi. "If Kumagorou eats too much, he will get sick no da."
"Sure! Uh, would you like to come in, Ryuichi-san?"
"Yeah!" Ryuichi bounded inside. Upon entering the living room and seeing the frozen TV screen, his eyes lit up. "Fruits Baskeeeeeeet!" He wasted no time in jumping onto the couch and hunting for the remote.
"Ah, you like Fruits Basket, Ryuichi-san?" asked Shuichi as he sat down next to him. Hiro followed suit.
"Yeah! Momiji is the coolest because he turns into a rabbit no da. And wears girls' clothes!"
Shuichi pressed 'play' and soon enough, Ryuichi was rewarded with a glimpse of Momiji. "Yay! Momiji, Momiji!" He leaned forward, hands clasped and eyes starry. Then, in the middle of a quiet moment in the anime, his stomach rumbled loudly.
"Ah… Ryuichi-san, are you hungry? I'm sorry, I should have offered you food…"
"Nope, I'm not hungry na no da," replied Ryuichi.
"Huh…?"
"But Kumagorou says he is hungry no da," Ryuichi continued. "He would like some ramen."
"I see!" Shuichi jumped up from the sofa. "I'll get some for him."
Just as he had put one foot over the kitchen threshold, there was complete darkness. Shuichi jumped in surprise, wondering if he'd accidentally stepped on a wire or something.
"Why is it dark, na no da?" Ryuichi was the first to break the silence.
"Hiro, did you turn out the lights?" asked Shuichi, wheeling round. As his eyes adjusted, he could just make out Hiro and Ryuichi's silhouettes on the sofa.
"Nope. The TV's gone off, too. Must be a power cut." Hiro rose from the sofa and went over to the window, looking out over the city. "Yeah, all the street lights and neighbouring buildings have lost power."
"Dammit!" muttered Shuichi. "I wonder if Yuki keeps any candles in the kitchen…" He turned back around and walked into the doorframe. "Ow ow ow…" Carefully, Shuichi felt his way into the kitchen, then began opening drawers and feeling their contents. Several times, he pricked himself on knives or other sharp utensils, until his fingers were bleeding considerably. Still he found no candles.
"I can't find anything…" he said, feeling his way back out of the kitchen and sucking two of his sore fingers. "…Hiro? Ryuichi-san?" The living room was empty.
"Guys, don't play jokes…" Shuichi walked forwards and then tripped over something, falling flat on his face. It was Ryuichi's sack of candy.
"Ryuichi-san? Hiro? Where are you?"
There was a creak from the direction of Yuki's bedroom. Shuichi whirled around, but saw only a dark, empty doorway. Cautiously, he approached the bedroom, one hand stretched out in front of him. He stopped in the doorway and peered around the corner – and screamed.
"AAAAAAAAH! A GHOST!!!"
He stumbled backwards as the ghostly figure approached him, until suddenly he came into contact with the back of the couch and his escape was impeded. "Please don't hurt me!" he begged.
"Shuichi, you are so silly na no da!" said the ghost in a muffled voice. Shuichi blinked.
"Ry…Ryuichi-san?"
Ryuichi threw off the white bedsheet he'd found in Yuki's room. "Surprise, no da!!"
Shuichi almost fainted with relief. The sound of a toilet flushing was heard, and seconds later Hiro emerged from the bathroom.
"Shuichi, what were you yelling about?"
"Nothing… Hiro, you went to the toilet in the dark?" said Shuichi in some disbelief.
"Yeah. So, what'll we do now?" Hiro sat down on the couch. "We can't watch anime, and we've got no light…"
There was a pause, before Ryuichi spoke up. "I know!" He switched on a torch that he'd found in the bedroom and held it under his chin. It turned his mouth and eyes into shadowy holes and gave the impression that he had no body. "Let's tell hairy-scary stories na no da!"
Author's Notes: Wow, what's this? I'm taking an old story off hiatus and updating it! I always wanted to update this because it was a lot of fun to write, but I had no ideas at all for what to come next, until I finally buckled down because it was getting close to Halloween (albeit for the third time since I put this story up) and sparked off a few brainwaves. Now, behold! I hope you enjoy the madness.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation, and nor are the scary stories narrated in this chapter my own creation. Or the elements of Japanese mythology. But I did come up with the ideas for decorations (you'll see what I mean later) myself, and you're more than welcome to try them at home!
"After a long, agonising wait… the police finally arrived. They helped the woman out of her car and into a waiting police vehicle. One of the officers sternly told the woman not to look back over her shoulder under any circumstances. But the woman's curiosity overcame her, and just as the police car pulled away, she looked back at her own parked car. The horrifying sight that she beheld terrified her for the rest of her life."
Shuichi and Ryuichi stared at Hiro with wide eyes as they clung together for protection. "What was it? What did she see, no da?" asked Ryuichi, trembling as he took another piece of candy from the rapidly emptying sack and transferred it to his mouth. Shuichi was similarly on edge, hugging Ryuichi close with one arm and Kumagorou (generously lent to him by Ryuichi "for safety, na no da") with the other. The story wasn't that scary, but the amount of sugar that the two had consumed made their mood swings even more extreme and ridiculous than usual.
Still, it didn't prevent Hiro from milking the last line for all he was worth. He picked up the torch which had been casting a dim light over their little gathering, and swung it up to illuminate his face from below as Ryuichi had done earlier, making it appear skull-like and disembodied. "Her husband's severed head, bouncing on the roof of the car."
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Shuichi and Ryuichi screamed together.
Hiro laughed and switched off the torch, throwing them into darkness. "You know, we should probably save the battery on this thing. It's our only light."
"Aaagh! Hiro, you jerk! Turn the light back on!!" yelled Shuichi.
Hiro stood up. "Sorry, but I need to use this. I'm going to phone up the power company and find out how long it is before the lights come back on. Where's the phone in here, Shuichi?"
Shuichi huddled up small on the sofa. "Find it yourself, stupid. You've got the light. And if we've been eaten by monsters by the time you come back, it's your fault!!"
Hiro laughed again as he switched the torch back on and shone it around the living room. "It's just a story, Shuichi. There aren't really things like that out there."
"How can you be sure?!"
Ryuichi smiled, the story already forgotten. "Cheer up, Shuichi. Have another piece of candy! I've got all the best sorts!" He unwrapped a piece of caramel chocolate and gave it to Shuichi. "Hiro and I have both told stories; now it's Shuichi's turn to tell something scary!"
"Well… I'm not sure if I know any good ones…" Shuichi said. Hiro went into the kitchen and shone the torch around. He suddenly noticed a drawer labelled 'Emergencies' which Shuichi had obviously forgotten to mention. Or possibly didn't know about. Opening it, he found everything that they might need in a difficult situation: candles, matches, spare batteries, a first-aid kit, a list of important phone numbers, and for some reason… lube?! Hiro's eye twitched as he shoved the tube to the back of the drawer. I know they're lovers, but that is something you really don't want to think about your best friend doing…
"Then tell a bad one! Or what about one of Eiri-san's stories? Are any of those scary?"
"Ah… some of those have a lot of blood and violence, but they're love stories really. Yuki is a romantic at heart!" Shuichi beamed. "No, it's okay; I've thought of one that I heard a long time ago. It's about ten people who get invited to a big house on an island, for a party…"
Hiro took several candles and their holders out of the drawer, along with some spare batteries for the torch, and then used the list of phone numbers to look up the name of the company that supplied power to Yuki's apartment. Shiroikaze Power Company, that must be it. He located the telephone, affixed to the kitchen wall, and dialled the number.
"Shiroikaze Power Company, how may I help you?"
"Hello. We're experiencing a power cut at my friend's apartment; the address is…"
Hiro came back into the living room a little while later to find Ryuichi listening open-mouthed to Shuichi's story.
"Just then, they noticed that the old woman in the chair had stopped knitting and her head was bent forwards. One of the men tried to wake her up, but she didn't. They checked for her heartbeat and found that she was dead."
Ryuichi gasped. "Oh no! How, no da?!"
"It was the doctor who found it – a mark on her neck that meant she'd been injected with a deadly needle, just like being stung by a bee."
"Like in the poem!"
"And on the shelf, there was one more little soldier figure missing!"
"Oh, I know this one," Hiro interrupted. He walked over and placed a candle on the coffee table, struck a match and lit it, then proceeded to do the same in various other places around the room. Soon the room was illuminated with a warm glow.
"Oooh, Hiro, you found candles? Where were they?" asked Shuichi, momentarily distracted from his tale.
"In Yuki's emergency drawer. Didn't you know about it?" replied Hiro, shaking out a fourth match.
Shuichi placed one finger on his chin and raised his eyes to the ceiling, thinking. "Nope. Don't think so," he said eventually.
"Heh. Honestly. After all the time you two have been living together…"
"What did the power people say, no da? Will we have light again soon?"
"Not for a while yet. They said that there are some problems at the power station and we won't have electricity for several hours yet."
"What a bad time for a power cut," said Shuichi, thinking sadly of the romantic evening he could have had with Yuki had his lover been home during the power cut.
"So, come on Shuichi, carry on with the story! Don't leave me hanging!" Ryuichi begged.
"Oh, yeah! So, after that, the five people left in the house were really really scared…"
Hiro finished lighting candles and sat back down to listen to the rest of the story. He was impressed with how well Shuichi remembered it. His powers of concentration were often not the best, but he could do impressive things when he set his mind to them.
"…The judge put a rope around the woman's neck, trying to strangle her with it so that it would fit with the ending of the poem. But just then, the army man jumped up – he wasn't dead after all! The bullet had missed him! He picked up the gun and shot the judge, and he and the woman lived happily ever after."
"Ooooh!" Ryuichi grinned widely. "That's a great ending, na no da. I like it when things end happily!"
Hiro frowned. "That's not the ending I read in the book."
"Hmm… I think I saw this one as a play," Shuichi said. "Oh well! What do we do now we've all told stories? Shall we start again with Ryuichi?"
"Ah… let's do something else now," said Hiro quickly. Ryuichi's story had been much like how he would imagine a bad acid trip to be: full of misshapen monsters with eyes in the wrong places and too many legs, houses where the walls had mouths with sharp teeth that tried to eat you, and a giant pink rabbit who was friendly during the day-time but at night, turned evil and rampaged around destroying things.
There was a pause, during which Shuichi and Ryuichi munched on more candy from the sack, now less than half full in the space of only an hour or two. Shuichi bounced up and down on the sofa and started laughing for no apparent reason; Ryuichi soon joined in with the laughter and bouncing, until the two of them were rolling around clutching their sides and trying to bounce each other off the sofa and onto the floor. Hiro put a hand to his head. Spending time with those two was like babysitting a pair of little children. He helped himself to a handful of candy, which the two vocalists had been hogging between them.
"Hey, hey, I know what we can do!" Ryuichi said suddenly, sitting up.
"Hm? What's that?" asked Shuichi, looking at Ryuichi upside-down as he lay on his back.
"Shuichi, when it's summer and you want a big fun scare, what do you do?" Ryuichi quizzed him.
"Um… go to a haunted house…?" Shuichi tried tentatively.
"Ding! Right answer! Let's make our own haunted house!!"
Shuichi gasped and sat upright. "Awesome! What a brilliant idea! That's what we'll do!" he exclaimed.
Hiro was less sure about the idea. "Are you sure Yuki would appreciate you doing such a thing while he was away?" he said. "He wouldn't want you to mess the place up."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Ryuichi, flapping a hand at Hiro. "We will put everything back and clean up afterwards!"
"Yeah, Hiro, don't be such a killjoy!" said Shuichi, jumping to his feet. "We'll make this the best haunted house there ever was! …But who will we scare with it?"
"Our friends! Anyone who wants to come!" Ryuichi replied. "And to get in they have to pay a piece of candy, no da!"
"Right! Or maybe two pieces!" Shuichi agreed.
Hiro shook his head. The two of them were getting completely carried away, and there was nothing he could do except to go along with it and try to stop them from wrecking the whole apartment. At least it was more interesting than what he normally did in the evenings. "All right then," he conceded. "What 'scary things' are we going to have in the house?"
"Well, we have to have ghosts!" said Ryuichi. "Noppera-bo, Rokurokubi, Karakasa… Shuichi, do you have a paper umbrella?"
"Yes, I think so! I'll go and get it!" said Shuichi, grabbing the torch from the table and running into one of the bedrooms. Hiro looked sideways at Ryuichi.
"How are we going to make a Noppera-bo? I don't think my neck can stretch that far."
"Haha, you're so funny, Hiro-kun!" Ryuichi laughed. "We can create some other scary things instead! What are you going to dress up as?"
"What?" asked Hiro, wrong-footed by the abrupt change of topic.
"We have to dress up as things! I am the vampire lord of the dark," explained Ryuichi, spreading his cape. "Kumagorou is my blood-sucking bat assistant! So what will you be?"
"Um…"
"A creepy old man!" Shuichi called from the other room.
"Haha, aren't you cute," Hiro called back. "Um, I'll think about that one, Sakuma-san."
"Okay! Let's go and find some tomato sauce!" said Ryuichi.
"Tomato sauce?" Hiro was flummoxed once again. "What do you need that for?" He followed Ryuichi into the kitchen as Ryuichi instantly made himself at home and started opening cupboards and peering into them.
"To make bloodstains, no da," replied Ryuichi as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Bloodstains… right…" muttered Hiro as he rolled his eyes. "You'd better not use anything that won't wash out." He felt like the boring one, always having to play the part of conscience for these two (neither of whom appeared to have one), but it was only so that he wouldn't have to put up with Shuichi's tears and whining when Yuki kicked him out for wrecking the apartment. Hiro shuddered as he imagined it. Yes, he needed to avoid that outcome at all costs.
"Found it!" Shuichi announced with glee as he entered the kitchen holding a cheap souvenir paper umbrella. His fear of the dark apartment seemed to have evaporated as he walked between each room, unafraid. Maybe it was the candles that gave him courage… quite possibly it was also the sugar.
"Yay! Now we can make a Karakasa no da!" Ryuichi cheered, taking the umbrella from Shuichi. He produced a marker pen from his pocket and got to work flattening the folds of the umbrella so that he could draw some features. "Karakasa, Karakasa…" he sang to himself, making up the tune as he went along. "You are a creepy ghost umbrella… hey, Shuichi, do you have tomato sauce or cranberry juice?"
Shuichi blinked; even he was obviously not completely used to Ryuichi's sudden changes of topic. "Maybe?"
"It's to make bloodstains," Hiro filled him in.
"Oh! Great idea, Ryuichi!" said Shuichi, brightening. "I'll look in the fridge!" He opened the fridge and was momentarily surprised that there was no light or cold air to greet him. "Of course, it's not working right now…" He shone the torch over the labels of food containers inside the fridge. "We have tomato pasta sauce, but I don't think Yuki would like me wasting that…" Wow, so he does have some sense, Hiro thought with a smirk. Maybe being punished by Yuki so many times has finally taught him a lesson. "Ah! What about this?" He took out a bottle and showed it to Ryuichi. "It's a free red berry smoothie sample. Yuki didn't like it because it was too sweet."
"Perfect no da!" Ryuichi asserted. He held up the umbrella, which now had one eye, a nose and a mouth with a long tongue hanging out, the traditional image of a Karakasa spirit.
"It's great, Ryuichi!" Shuichi complimented him. Ryuichi studied the umbrella critically.
"It needs arms and a leg no da. Let's get some paper!"
Some time later, the 'haunted apartment' was beginning to take shape. The Karakasa now had paper arms and a leg wearing a sandal glued onto it, and was hanging from the lampshade in the living room. The walls were covered in old bed sheets (held up using copious amounts of masking tape) that had been artistically stained with smoothie-blood. In the semi-darkness, Hiro noted, the effect was actually quite ominous.
Ryuichi proved to be a master of original ideas when it came to transforming everyday objects into haunted decorations, making Hiro wonder just how often he did this sort of thing. He'd come up with the idea of stuffing gloves with socks and tissue paper to make severed hands, which were now 'holding' candles in various places around the apartment. Hiro only hoped the candles wouldn't burn down and set the gloves on fire, because that really would be a scary situation. He located the fire extinguisher just in case. Shuichi was using Ryuichi's marker to turn some old (and not-so-old, but it was washable marker) pillowcases into traditional shapeless white Western ghosts, which would also be hung from the ceiling. And Hiro found himself using the marker to colour in paper spiders and other insects to decorate the walls and ceiling.
Shuichi delved into his extensive store of costumes and came up with a skimpy red devil costume, complete with horns and a tail, which Hiro really didn't want to know the origin of. Shuichi shivered in the tight shorts, and top which ended a long way above his navel, but insisted that he was fine. "I do this sort of thing all the time!" he declared, and Hiro didn't doubt the truth of his statement. Shuichi used a tube of dark red lipstick (which he also just happened to own) to draw trails of blood dripping from his eyes and mouth, trying to make himself look frightening instead of just a kinky cosplayer. It sort of worked.
Ryuichi didn't seem in the slightest bit disturbed by the fact that Shuichi owned lipstick. "Wow, that's cool, Shuichi! I didn't know you had lipstick! I had to beg Noriko-chan to lend me hers, but next time I'll just ask you!"
Hiro flat-out refused when Shuichi offered to lend him a costume to dress up in. "No thanks. I've seen the kind of ridiculous stuff you wear," he said dryly. Shuichi scowled and hit him over the head. "Jerk!"
He consented instead to borrow some studded wristbands and a spiked choker that Shuichi also owned (again, Hiro decided not to ask – this evening was providing some rather disturbing revelations about his best friend) which he combined with a ripped black T-shirt and jeans that he'd brought with him. Heavy black eyeliner (again, Shuichi's), chains and some artful lipstick marks around his eyes, mouth and neck completed his outfit as a goth… punk… rocker… with a partially severed head. Well, the main thing was that it was scary.
They added a few more decorations to the apartment before Ryuichi declared that they were "ready to go, na no da!" The impromptu-haunted-house/apartment-created-under-the-influence-of-copious-amounts-of-sugar was open and ready for business. Though they would probably need to think of a catchier title.
Glossary
Haunted House (in Japan): During the summer, the Japanese have a tradition of 'cooling off' with some blood-chilling haunted houses or similar attractions. A few of their inhabitants, all of which date back to the Edo period, are listed below.
Karakasa (or Kasa-obake): The Japanese spirit of a parasol or paper umbrella that has reached its 100th year of existence and become animate (alive).
Noppera-bo: A faceless ghost from Japanese mythology.
Rokurokubi: A youkai (demon, spirit or monster) from Japanese folklore that appears as a normal human being during the daytime, but at night, can stretch its neck to great lengths.
Author's Notes: And there you have it. ^^ In case you're wondering, the scary story that Hiro tells is one that I heard a few times when I was younger, and used to terrify me. (But then again, I am very easily scared). Shuichi's story is adapted from Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which is a fantastic creepy murder mystery. I went to see it on stage myself in Vancouver when I was ten, and I've also read the book. The stage version has the nice, happy ending that you read here, whereas the book does not. xP
I hope that I will have some readers, because no-one has put this story on their Alerts so far, so they won't know that it's finally updated T_T Please let me know that you've read the story by sending a review! And you can also go to my profile and vote for Halloween Sleepover updates in the poll!
Ah - that reminds me - please also 'vote' for which characters of Gravitation you would like to see visit the haunted apartment =D I have one or two ideas, but I'd love to know who you want to see appear in this fanfic. So review and let me know!