Karasuno in amusement park

03 | A terrifying surprise

As much as Daichi hated it in there, the haunted house hadn't gone that badly yet. There had been jumpscares, dark corners, and sudden noises from both the house and Daichi, yet he was certain he'd manage to keep his pride, and his image in Sugawara's eyes somewhat decent.

At least until the lights started flickering and a half destroyed corpse appeared in front of their faces. A screech was heard, and two hands clutched onto Sugawara's right arm.

"Ow, Daichi that hurt! Both the scream in my ear and ripping my arm off!"

Daichi gawked at the fake blood and bones in front of him, slowly realizing he had been the one screaming and not the house. He managed to get out a strangled "sorry", which sounded more like a distressed mouse than a 176 cm tall young man. Sugawara didn't seem too impressed. Though after a few more seconds of silent judging and eyeing the fingers gripping his own arm, he smirked.

"You're scared out of your mind, aren't you?"

Daichi's hands left the setter's arm as fast as they once grabbed it, as much as he wanted to keep holding since his legs were still shaking a bit. "I-I'm not! Why- why would I be scared of a house with some stupidly fake props, like-" Daichi's eyes locked with the corpse's- "dead, half eaten body, staring into my soul..."

Sugawara chuckled and shook his head, continuing to walk past the scary decor without looking back at his trembling teammate. "You're cute."

Daichi felt his cheeks grow hot. For the first time since arriving at the haunted house, he was glad it was dark. Almost glad, he thought, as he sneaked a look back at the corpse now behind them and jogged a little closer to his friend.

When he tried stuttering something unintelligent as a reply to the comment about his silly appearance, Sugawara had already found a new interest.

"Oh my gosh I can't believe it!" The boy clasped his hands on his cheeks.

Daichi stopped on his track and frowned, looking around. "Can't believe what?"

"Ahoy you bilge-sucking buccaneers!" barraged a black haired, eye patched pirate while attacking the boys from his hiding spot. "What are ye doing in me cog? Ye want to get cleaved to the brisket?!"

Daichi jumped like Hinata in his best games. Sugawara had brought his arms around his chest, laughing so hard he started to cough.

"Seriously, Kuroo!?" he finally wheezed. "I was NOT expecting this!"

The Nekoma player let out a roar of laughter. "Well, I most definitely wasn't expecting to see Karasuno's captain here with his closest crew member either!"

Kuroo moved his one eyed gaze to the mentioned captain. The actor's liveliness compared to the bloody puppet earlier had boosted the scary effect, and Daichi found himself in an embarrassing situation, sprawled on the floor. If his face had been hot earlier, he was probably letting out smoke at this point. Kuroo tilted his head, a hand supporting his jaw.

"Though I kinda remembered you as a slightly more graceful person, matey."

If Daichi's ego had been a material thing to see and touch, it would now have been in tiny pieces on the floor, sprinkled all around him. He didn't trust his legs enough to even think about getting up yet, and he decided to leave his reply to Kuroo as an irked grunt. He counted on Sugawara to save the situation for him.

"Oh, you should see him during horror movies!" Sugawara chimed, getting comfortable on his left leg and bringing a hand to his cheek. "Or movie, rather, because he hasn't watched another one since I showed him The Nun. Probably never recovered from it." He scrunched up his nose, and continued: "And here I wanted to be nice and start easy on him. I didn't know The Nun could scare anyone."