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Halloween was both the most exciting and most dreaded night for him.
He adored the memories of visiting the houses that were partial to the American style of the holiday, trick-or-treating with Kacchan, as their fathers walked behind; his dad would have a big backpack on his back filled with juice boxes, adult juice beer, and band-aids for their inevitable ouchies, which Uncle Masaru would help hand out whatever was needed.
Sure, there wasn’t a lot of houses that gave out treats to kids, most preferred to go to parties or go to big events held for the holiday, but Izuku really did adore walking about, dressed to the nines in his costume of choice All Might, three times as Present Mic, but once it had been Eraserhead and asking for treats from houses and even some restaurants.
(He was still very bitter the Pizza Place was closed, that’s where they always end the night on Halloween.)
(Kacchan had always sounded weepy on the phone when he had told him, once the asshole stopped laughing at him for almost being arrested.)
Jackass
Needless to say, Halloween has been one of his favorite holidays thanks to well-built memories.
But.
And there was always a But.
His area tended to go very…plus-ultra for the holiday. Maybe because All Might liked the holiday a lot. Maybe it was because they tended to have a lot of Westerners in their area from businesses. Maybe they hoped the near by pros would visit their location and fans can get surprise visits from Present Mic or even Midnight
And when they went plus-ultra, they got creative in their scary shit.
Izuku was not a fan of being scared.
Oh sure, put him in front of any movie, any horror movie, and he’d last the whole thing without flinching, analyzing the poor piece of media from the storyline, the special effects, the costume makeup, any choices to add in CGI, any inaccuracies be it retcon or medical or so forth, he could dissect any movie enough to no longer be scared of it.
But video games?
Haunted houses or scare-fests?
Yeah, fuck to the no. He does not need that bullshit in his life, thank you very much, please have a nice day.
Dad was back home in Japan this Halloween, but he and his mom had had plans to go to Universal Studios Japan for Halloween. Izuku had been once and that had been enough for the teen. So, no USJ for him.
And then Kacchan happened.
“Come on, Zuku!”
“No, fuck off, Kacchan, I just had my mid-terms.” An Izuku sized form grumbled from underneath layers of euphoric piles of fluff. Kami he loves cats.
Kacchan did not fuck off, tragically, and instead snarled as he ran his fingers through Miss Pixie’s fur, “Oh fuck no, you are coming with us. Don’t be a fucking loser and stay home for Halloween!”
Izuku managed to peak out an eye from his haven, glaring at his childhood friend, “Fuck. Off.” Okay so he was surly but come on! You try keeping an almost perfect GPA while obtaining a double major degree in Quirk Science and Teaching! “I didn’t invite you here so you can rope me into doing UA crap.”
The blond huffed in irritation, kicking his foot against Izuku’s, rough affection always worked for them after The Talk (tm). “You’ll get bored. ‘Sides, the extras were talkin’ ‘bout going trick-or-treating or some fucking bullshit.” Kacchan had gotten so soft, it was adorable. “So you’re coming with us, or else I’ll tell Auntie that you almost got arrested.”
Bitch.
“Uuuuuugh, fine.” Izuku kicks the other’s shoe, not at all pouting, stupid smug asshole. “Where the fuck are we trick-or-treating?”
–
“Kacchan.” He begins, glaring at his bestchildhood friend, the blond’s classmate’s bewildered by his deadly tone. “Why are we on Eraserhead’s patrol route?”
Kacchan, the insufferable demon (well, he was dressed as a werewolf), smirks at him, flashing his false fangs, “Caterpillar-sensei said we were /required/ to be on his patrol route. Especially if he has two problem children out after dark.”
Izuku had straight up refused to pay Kacchan, he still does, in regards to Kacchan’s ‘Eraserhead will adopt you because you’re you’ theory, and he knows Izuku’s been avoiding the route as much as possible.
If he saw the man, and the occasional blond husband, loitering in his cafe, or even following him from the rooftops until Izuku got home, that was for him to know and no one else to figure out.
“I’m getting Obaa-san’s spicy mapo tofu without you and send you so many fucking pictures.” Izuku seethes, pouting as he adjusts his ghost hoodie. “Uuuughhhh, fine, whatever.”
Kacchan smirks, pleased with himself.
At least the other students were nice. Ashi(“Call me Mina!”)-Mina and Denki were hyperactive, but were so eager to meet him that he almost felt flustered by their awe over how he handled ‘Blasty’. Sero and Kirishima were pretty chill even if they could get loud, seeing as the pair teamed up with Mina and Denki to rush up to a Haunted House that he straight up refused to enter.
He’s baby.
Kacchan’s bastard.
Shinsou and Jirou were the calmest of the bunch, something he didn’t realize he needed on his first outing with Kacchan’s friends. Their quirks were so cool! He hadn’t realized he was /gushing/ over how the pair could possibly team up and win against their opponents, there were just so many ideas!!, until Kacchan shut him up with a kit-kat shoved into his mouth.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad night.
Sure, he sometimes got scared, his screams rivaled Mina’s and Kirishima’s, but overall? It was a lot of fun for all of them being heroes in training and not /once/ did they even really probe into his quirklessness! Kirishima thought it was manly he was able to beat up ‘Bakubro’ in our wrestling matches, to which he received some very happy tears at the compliment.
Lately, Kacchan had been urging him back to his dream, to pick it up again instead of leaving it aside. Kacchan can be so silly, it’s not realistic…
“Kaminari-kun, I am not trading my matcha kit-kat for some plum candy,” he pouts, keeping a firm grip on his candy sack. Despite it not being big on the trick-or-treating aspect of Halloween, the particular neighborhood they wandered around in was very generous to their little myriad of teens.
Kaminari-kun began to whine before his eyes locked onto a haunted house. “Come on! This is the last Haunted House we can visit before curfew! Please, Midori?” Izuku tried to look away, only to be attacked from all sides.
“Yeah! C’mon bro!”
“Please, Izu-kun?”
“We’ll be here anyway! We’ll protect you!”
Izuku was a strong teen, but he wasn’t strong enough to deny them. Kacchan, hung back, saying he was going across the street to use a restroom, so they all went inside to be scared to death.
(Katsuki eyes the two losers, both snickering as they adjusted their costumes, “I wouldn’t fucking think of scaring them.”
Jackass scoffs at his warning, sneering, “Or what? Big baby Deku is in there!” He grins, rubbing his gross hands together, “It’s been years since I got to scare that quirkless freak!”
Dumbass nods in agreement, looking like some fucked-up bobblehead, “Yeah! What, Bakugou, finally decided to keep him as a pet?”
Now, Katsuki had grown over the last year. Not a lot, but enough to man the fuck up and apologize to Zuku, earned back some trust with the dumbass nerd, saw the effort he had put into himself and made sure the little shit knew he was proud in his own emotionally stunted ways.
Not like Zuku’s any better with the emotional shit.
So, as much as he was dying to lay into the fuckers, he held back.
He knew how badly Zuku reacted once already scared.
The dumb fucker still gave Zuku a wide berth.
“Your funeral.”)
Izuku groans, tucking his face into Shinsou’s side, face red as he whines at their good-nature teasing, “I didn’t mean to hit him.”
“Aww, come on Mido, you let them know already you’re not good with scares! They got a decent warning,” Kaminari tried to sooth, unable to tame down his snickers from the encounter.
Jirou snorts, shaking her head, “‘Sides, he’s the creep that was in our class for a while last year. If anyone had to get a busted nose, it’d be him.”
Izuku pouts but eases up his hold as they saw Kacchan made it outside, tension in his body easing. “You guys are sure it won’t be too much to drop me off at home?” His house wasn’t exactly close to the train station.
“Nah, we wouldn’t be decent people if we didn’t.” Mina pointed out, booping his nose.
Laughter warmed his chest, grinning as he relaxed around Kacchan’s friends. Maybe…Maybe they weren’t so bad. Kacchan had one (1) good idea, he’ll convince mama to make Kacchan the curry he loves next time he visits.
That was, unfortunately, when two figures popped out, scaring the shit out of them and Izuku was, well…
“GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!”
Izuku swung his pillowcase, half full pillowcase, down on the scary monster that had something in their hand, panic filling every bone of his body.
He didn’t know how long it was until Kacchan snapped him out of it, barely hidden amusement in his eyes, “Relax, nerd, he’s just trying to give us candy.”
Izuku blinks, becoming aware of his surroundings, just as a dark shadow fell from the sky with a woosh of air.
As Eraserhead gave him a look akin to something his parents would, he gave a nervous smile to the very done looking Pro-Hero, “To be fair, I didn’t mean to give him a concussion. That’s on him.”
The resounding groan and missing second ‘monster’ was a very clear message to not scare the fuck out of Midoriya Izuku.