Chapter Text
The sound of racing bikes steering to turn in curves could be heard from miles away, sweaty palms grip the handles as two teenagers are racing in the middle of the street .
“You can’t beat me Baji!” A triumphant voice echoed through the streets.
“I know the way to Haru’s house the best!”
Baji gritted his teeth as he turned on another risky curve trying to reach the blond.
“No way!” He shouted, “I promised myself I would win this time!” He accelerated right trough, forgetting about his brakes.
“Promises never work out stupid!” Mikey replies, accelerating right beside him.
Baji stumbled, nearly losing his balance as the end of the road approached again.
“It’s not my fault the way to the Akashi’s is so fucking rocky-“ Baji hit the brakes so fast, barely regaining himself to avoid toppling over.
“Go easy!” Mikey slowed down as he reached the end of the slope. “You’ll end up hurting yourself if you try so hard.” The blonde stated confidently. Baji glared at him but then smirked playfully before pedalling away as fast as he could.
“Hey, no fair!” Mikey yelled behind him
“I’m going to win this!” Baji stared forward determined, lifting his feet from the speedy pedals as he went down another slope.
Chifuyu exited the shop, one of his hand held a bag of snacks, candy and drinks, the other one held the note Baji had given him an hour ago, ‘go buy us some candie, we’ll meet you after we kidnap haru from his house!’ Accompanied with a poorly drawn doodle of Haru in a bag.
“You idiot, that’s not how you spell candy…” chifuyu muttered under his breath; his bangs were sticking to his forehead and his throat felt dry, they hadn’t had this hot weather since years. He popped the cap of one of the drinks he brought and sat down on a nearby bench, he gulped down the drink in seconds before tossing it in the bin. “Ahh, how long are they going to take?” Chifuyu exclaimed, leaning his head back, hot sunlight burning his closed eyelids.
A loud knock echoed through the Akashi household.
“Coming!” Haru exclaimed, awkwardly trying to get in his shoes on as quickly as possible.
Takeomi’s deep voice could be heard from the living room, “Haruchiyo, don’t be late again, it’s rude!” It made Haru’s heart jump a bit but he managed to get everything ready without panic.
Senju’s smiley face approached him, “Have fun Haru-nii!”
They shared a brief smile for a moment before he opened the door.
“And remember don’t return too late again!” Takeomi shouted again.
“I won’t!” Haru replied quickly before swiftly going thought the door and closing it.
He was met by two big dark eyes staring back at him, a soft but confident smile and gold locks gradually flying into the air. It felt almost like a dream.
“Haru!” Mikey exclaimed, reaching for Haru’s arm, breaking his train of thoughts.
“Mikey-“ he got pulled through the household’s gateway and into the sidewalk in a span of 3 seconds. Mikey hopped on his bike and patted the backseat with his palm. “I still have some energy, so why don’t you take the backseat?”
Haru’s face started to warm up only with that request but he tried to blame it onto the scalding weather.
He nodded quickly and hopped on, he didn’t want to grip on Mikey’s waist in case Haru lost balance and dragged him along too.
‘Would he even mind-‘ Haru thought.
“No time to waste guys, Chifuyu is probably going to die in this heat if we don’t hurry up!” Baji’s panicked voice exclaimed.
“Well, he’s the one with the drinks at least!” Haru replied, wiping his forehead sweat with the back of his hand.
“Ahh true, we’re definitely the ones about to die if we don’t reach him in time!” Mikey protested, starting to pedal up the road again.
Mikey’s sarcasm made Baji roll his eyes before he kicked off the bike’s stand and pedalled off along with his two childhood friends.
They found Chifuyu on the bench near the shop, he looked like he’d melted into the bench by now, empty soda cans surrounded him along with an opened crisp packet.
“Hey!” Mikey approached him in panic. “You we’re supposed to wait for us before eating the snacks!” He grabbed the bag to check for anything left but there was only one more soda can along with some unopened sweet bread.
“You guys took so long, I had nothing to do!” Chifuyu protested.
“Not a valid excuse to not leave anything left for us!”
Mikey sighed as he popped the can open gulping down some of the drink before handing it to his friends. “Well, either way here’s the plan for today.” Mikey walked in front of the group as if he was presenting something to them.
“Me and Baji found a creepy, abandoned road along with a suspicious fence hidden in the trees.” Mikey spoke, prolonging his words to create a spooky effect.
Chifuyu’s eyes opened in surprise, he wasn’t the best with sinister themes.
Haru’s ears perked up too, unlike Chifuyu, he was keen on exploring eerie places himself when he had the chance, which would usually lead to trouble.
“Sounds…. Interesting.” Chifuyu muttered slowly.
“The fence is broken so we came up with a plan to see what’s behind it, we needed more of us in case it would get scary.” Mikey added.
Mikey knew talking calmly about this would persuade them to follow into his plan without any fuss, although Chifuyu seemed suspicious about it.
“So let me get this right. You guys found a sketchy, abandoned fence and your first thought wasn’t to run away but to… explore further.” Chifuyu questioned, chewing on his words.
Mikey grinned. “Spot on!”
Chifuyu sighed as everyone got their bags and bikes ready to go. Baji approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, if this goes terribly wrong, I’ll make sure nothing happens to any of us.”
Chifuyu and Baji shared a look of fondness for a second before Mikey’s shrill voice interrupted them again. “You talk big for someone who nearly died trying to get to Haru’s house.”
Haru snickered behind Mikey, now having mustered up the courage to hold onto his waist from the backseat.
“Hey don’t laugh I promised myself I would win this time… and I did!” Baji held up his hand in defence.
“Don’t worry Baji I know you’ll keep your word.” Chifuyu smiled again, before hopping up on the front seat of the bike.
“Hey I was gonna drive!” Baji exclaimed as he caught up with Chifuyu. Earning an uneasy laugh from the blonde. “Look I admire you and all… but after hearing how your ride to Haruchiyo’s went I don’t think it’s the best idea.”
Baji hopped on, scoffing at the remark, “Whatever I was getting tired anyways.”
They’re on the street pedalling again, following Mikey’s lead was Chifuyu and Baji, this time they were unsure of the way to go so they would slow down at every turn, making Haru have to hold on tighter to the person sat in front of him. Haru grit his teeth every time he had to shyly place his hands again when he lost balance, turning redder each time.
It felt like a world of their own whenever they would go on sunny rides together, the wind would caress their face and the sun would burn their shoulders as they roamed through the roads and avenues. This time it didn’t feel any different.
‘It’s hard to muster up courage and do things out of your comfort zone, play it safe.’ Is the words Haruchiyo would repeat to himself after he avoided doing something risky. And today wasn’t any different either, he was enjoying himself and being strict on doing things out of the norm was a daily occurrence, the only person who could (and had) make him come out of his shell was the blonde whose waist he was holding and right now he was too concentrated on the road ahead to notice his silly struggle. At least that’s what he thought.
“Hold on tighter, this is where the road gets tough.” Mikey chimed in, offering him a genuine smile. It caught him off guard and excitement warmed his chest for a second so he took the opportunity to fully wrap his hands around him. Before the rough part of the road was a smooth, steep way through the sunny neighbourhood, leading into a bushy avenue drowning in overground grass and trees, Haruchiyo looked back to see the rest of them, instead spotting something uncanny near the sidewalk: his eyes opened in shock as he saw an unusual black figure standing upright, slowly turning to meet his gaze, his colours contrasted with the bright houses behind him. Haru furrowed his eyebrows and squinted, trying to make something out of the weird looking figure who looked almost like a tall man with a mask.
He turned around to the others quickly. “Did you guys see that?” He asked, his voice cracked. “There was a man or something, he was standing on the sidewalk!” He gripped Mikey’s waist tighter, not knowing if he wanted comfort or attention from the boy.
Baji turned around quick, looking everywhere, trying to find the man Haru was talking about but he was… gone. “What are you talking about Haru?” Baji checked again. “There’s no people out around this neighbourhood, especially around this area, it’s isolated.”
Chifuyu chuckled nervously, “Is the heat getting to you already Haruchiyo?” He scratched the back of his head, focusing his gaze on the road again.
Mikey spoke at once, he softly asked him. “How did he look like?”
Haru’s mind scurried for words to describe the man. “He was wearing black, and a weird looking mask… I couldn’t see because of the sun.”
Mikey’s gaze turned serious, side-eyeing left and right. “If he comes near you I’ll break him, so don’t be nervous Haru.” He smiled again.
Haru didn’t know what to say so he nodded and hugged his waist tighter to let him know he heard him. After all he’s the one supposed to be protecting his king.
They’ve arrived at a sketchy avenue covered in trees, houses were barely visible and the sunlight barely made it though the cracks in the foliage. Mikey braked before the gate, the big warning sign was still there, as was the big hole through the fence, along with the car who supposedly crashed into it.
“This is the place” Mikey mumbled, he was still skeptic about looking into it or not, but summer was made for deranged adventures and of course he had to drag along the others for a scare too. The big yellow warning sign still had not fallen, water still prickled at the bottom of the car, little sparks of electricity clearly showing the place was not safe.
“It’s strange how we found this place again so easily.” Baji came closer to the leader scratching the back of his head. “Yeah… it’s almost like there was something telling me where to go, I don’t usually remember ways to places so easily.” Mikey added, sceptically eyeing the fence.
“It seems like the only way to go ahead is through the fence, I looked around and it’s just thick bushes.” Baji replied,
Chifuyu looked around nervously, he was clearly unsure of this. “Guys, what if its closed down for a reason, clearly it doesn’t look safe.”
“We’ll be fine Chifuyu, are you being a scaredy cat again?” Baji teased, grinning at the blonde who did not look amused.
“I say we explore and then if it gets dangerous we turn back as fast as possible.” Haru, who has been very quiet spoke at once; he had been distracted from what happened earlier, the man with the mask and Mikey’s curiosity, he wasted no time in believing what Haru said, he desperately wanted more questions from the blonde, who was now approaching the gate hesitantly.
“Haru’s right, let’s turn back if it gets weird.” Chifuyu chimed in.
Mikey approached the hole in the fence, he put one leg over, ducking his head carefully while avoiding any water. He was in. “Guys follow up, I’ll check what’s next.” Mikey ordered, unchanging expression. He wanted to reassure the others, nothing will go wrong, this is a harmless little adventure nothing has to go wrong. Mikey knew how to defend himself, so did the others in case some dodgy people approach them and attacked them. For now the only strange thing was the man Haru mentioned.
He could hear the footsteps of his friends approaching, he carried on his step and saw some light peek through the trees ahead.
He moved some branches and peeked into the trees, what he saw was quite different than what he expected: An isolated alleyway that lead to a copy of their own neighbourhood, an expanse of houses, a disappointing view to say the less. Mikey gave an exasperated “Really man!”
Which evoked a bunch of ‘whats’ from his friends. Chifuyu and Baji moved in front of Mikey hurriedly looking through the same spot, Haru waited for Mikey to make some space for him too, and so he did.
“We went in a circle?” Baji shouted, surprised. “I never knew we could get out this way!” Chifuyu added in.
Haru had a look finally, he looked for a few seconds, analysing the view. “Something’s up… there is no way I haven’t seen this- or been here!” Haruchiyo pushed through the branches, uncaring of the leaves and bugs. “No way- that doesn’t make any sense.” Haru said in disbelief as he walked through the old alleyway.
“It’s kind of spooky~” Mikey grinned, following behind.
They looked around the old alleyway, the sun peeked through the small spaces between the rusty red bricks the alleyway was made of.
Mikey looked at Haruchiyo’s expression, an expression of confusion and skepticism. He’s not used to seeing him like this, and it kind of intrigues Mikey to see his friend being so interested in their discovery. “Hey what are you thinking of, detective Haru?” Mikey teased.
Haru scoffed at the nickname but he smiled. “I’m not sure, but I didn’t notice it’s already 7pm.” He checked his watch again and his eyebrows furrowed. “8pm now…”
“What?” Baji screamed from behind, “there’s no way it’s this late already.”
Chifuyu yawned behind him, “Yeah, It’s strange but I guess time goes quick when you’re having fun… right?”
“I’m feeling sleepy, someone carry me~” Mikey yawned too.
“Mikey I don’t think any of us have the energy to do that..” Haru turned around, smiling apologetically.
“Well then I say we all take a nap.” Mikey stated as they went out of the long alleyway.
Everyone knew that when Mikey wanted something he would go out of everyone’s way to do it, exactly why nobody went against that idea, even though they all had a strange feeling or tiredness overcome them and that idea did not sound too bad.
“Our houses are so far from here…” Baji mumbled, his head hanging heavily in front of him.
“Wish we could go with our bikes but we just dumped them at the side of that road.”
Their walking pace kept decreasing more and more. Until Mikey stopped and slurred some words together. “This place…. It’s empty…. Garden- there.” Mikey pointed at one of the houses by the side of the road, it looked quite old, ruined, the garden entrance was overgrown but right open, and it seemed like no people habituated it.
No answers, everyone just sluggishly dragged themselves towards the sunny looking garden.
“Right but let’s not uh… stay here for long ok?” Chifuyu mumbled before going in, one hand holding onto Baji, the other still holding the bag of sweets. Mikey somehow knew the others would never agree to this if it wasn’t for the extreme weariness, ‘that’s rude Mikey!’ ‘There’s no way we won’t get caught.’ ‘What if the owners are out at the moment?’ ‘Mikey let’s head back’ ‘That’s an awful idea.’ His mind was making up all kind of scenarios, their voices were as vivid as daylight. Before he knew it, they were all either on the ground or on the wooden deck near the house’s back entrance. The garden was shielded by thick trees, it was comfortable enough for all of them to fall asleep within seconds.