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The sun is low in the horizon, its last rays shining their goodbye before it finally dips down and gives way for the moon to glow its ghostly whites from between the shy clouds that sail lazily in the wind. The night promises a cold that will make even the busiest bodies want to curl up somewhere warm, surrounded by blankets and comfort as they just let their thoughts grow quieter than the wildlife outside the windows.
Heights Alliance, contrary to the eerie calm found just outside the dorms, is bustling with life, every student running around to complete one task or another, the walls slowly filling with cobwebs, plastic bats and spiders among other spooky decorations such as the skeletons hanging from the ceiling. Everyone is doing their part to make the dorms come to life with the undead spirit of Halloween. And, perhaps, the best part is that every single person is donning a holiday appropriate costume. The likes of Frankenstein’s Monster shouting warnings and advice at the top of his lungs to try and keep some order to the utter chaos this whole ordeal has become truly makes a colourful scene.
“Don’t worry, Iida-kun! Everything is going smoothly so far, don’t be such a stick in the mud!”
Uraraka smiles, bright and pink-cheeked from somewhere on the rightmost corner of the common room’s ceiling as the sticks yet another blood spatter on there, her floating only making her witch persona seem all the more believable. As luck would have it, however, her enthusiastic assurance gets cut short when a loud crash sounds from somewhere in the kitchens and Iida has to run there faster than Izuku ever thought his legs could take him.
Izuku laughs into his hand at the look of bashful remorse on Uraraka’s face as she slowly pulls herself down to the floor with the rope Tsuyu had tied around her waist for that exact purpose.
“Midoriya…”
At the sound of his name, Izuku whips around, blinking stupidly at Todoroki when he sees him shaking his head in a useless effort to get the ghost costume’s hood away from his eyes without using his pumpkin innards-covered hands. Izuku can’t fight off the snort that crawls out of him, the dismayed little whine coming from underneath the white sheet they had both worked on altering to fit Todoroki’s aesthetic rather than his own only spurring him further. Still giggling, Izuku carefully picks up the hat sewn to the top and slides the hood down his friend’s head.
“How did you manage to keep that thing out of your eyes last year?” Todoroki huffs and Izuku grins, pointing at his mop of untameable curls.
“This helps.”
“I want my costume back.”
The little pout to Todoroki’s lips is much too adorable but Izuku pointedly avoids looking at it for too long, focusing instead on the jack-o-lanterns he is making out of actual paper. They had all agreed to make some to release later on in the night and Izuku so graciously offered to take care of it rather than dirty his hands with actual pumpkin. Todoroki had not been aware of the mess it was bound to make and Izuku may have told him if not for the fact that he was too busy imagining his friend adorably fumble his way through carving them.
“Too bad. You lost the bet, and fair is fair.”
“It would be if not for the fact that you cheated.”
“I hardly think using my new move during our spar is cheating. Or do you assume you’re going to know all your enemies’ moves out on the field.”
Todoroki narrows his eyes. “So now you’re calling using the fact that I’m ticklish against me ‘a new move’?”
“I call ‘using my opponent’s disadvantages against them’ my new move. Gotta use all those years of analysis for something, Todoroki-kun.”
“You fight dirty, Midoriya.”
Barking out a laugh, Izuku turns back to his crafting while Todoroki continues to gut innocent pumpkins. It’s an absolute massacre and yet Todoroki somehow manages to keep the costume completely devoid of any stains. Truly impressive if Izuku says so, especially considering how he glues his fingers together on more than one occasion taking care of his side of things. All in a good day’s work.
Though their task is not completely done, if the mess of papers and pumpkin body parts on their respective tables is anything to go by. If Iida actually lays eyes on it, he might just work himself up to an early, stress-induced death. God only knew how much closer to an ulcer he got every day handling Kaminari and Ashido’s antics. Pair that with whatever disaster he is still taking care of containing in the kitchen and… well, they better get everything clean and ready before he returns.
Yaoyorozu graciously provides them with trash bags and Kirishima brings over the cleaning supplies he had just finished using to clean out the explosion of glitter Kacchan had caused when Aoyama mentioned that his werewolf wouldn’t be complete without it. Izuku is pretty sure he meant that vampire movie but considering his own current outfit he wasn’t about to correct him.
Once done, they both stare proudly at their work, Todoroki casually picking up the Pumpkin Might lantern and raising an eyebrow at Izuku. He isn’t ashamed, but he does pink a little at the lopsided smirk that dances on his friend’s lips for little more than a second.
“You never change, do you?”
“Don’t think that I didn’t hear you mumbling ‘take that’ whenever you stabbed the pumpkin that looks suspiciously like Endeavor.”
“You know what, that’s fair.”
Laughing at themselves, they leave their assigned stations to help the others with the rest of the decorations. Soon enough, the common rooms have become a den of ghouls, the only lights allowed being that of the pumpkins scattered around every other corner and casting a spooky orange glow to every plastic creature hanging on the walls. Considering last year they had only managed to sneak copious amounts of candy into the dorms this was undoubtedly an improvement.
To be quite honest, Izuku still isn’t sure how Iida and Yaoyorozu managed to convince Aizawa to let them have a proper Halloween party at the dorms, what with how accident prone their class was on any normal day. But he wasn’t going to complain. Perhaps Shinsou had something to do with it… No, he wouldn’t do that. If only because the consequences would be disastrous and he wouldn’t risk his spot at the hero course for something so trivial.
Still, Izuku can only hope that this will not end with any sorts of celebrations being completely banned for them. They had already risked not being allowed to participate in the cultural festival anymore when someone had the brilliant idea of suggesting they run a paintball station and everyone got way too competitive. Turns out a school of heroes was not the best setting for a war-like game that promised the enticing prize of free meals from Lunch Rush for a week.
Shaking his head to get his mind back to the present, Izuku stares after his classmates quickly scattering to enjoy the fruits of their hard work just as Satou brings in the orange and black cupcakes decorated with creatures of the night as their frosting. Unsurprisingly, Todoroki is one of the first to take a cupcake in each hand, without a shadow of a doubt planning to eat them both himself but pausing when his eyes land on Izuku.
“W-want one?”
Izuku fights a losing battle against the twitch of his lips before taking one with a smirk and a word of gratitude, his grin only growing larger at the obvious frown on Todoroki’s face as soon as he takes a bite off the bat’s black wing.
“Don’t worry, I bought candy just for you.”
“You’re the best friend I could ever ask for.”
“I try,” Izuku bites off the head this time. “Though I’m probably getting another one of these myself, they’re delicious.”
Todoroki hums in agreement, savouring his own before following him to the table where Satou is still trying to neatly remove them from the trays and hardly having any space to move around the countless hands reaching for more. If it weren’t for the fact that he’s just as greedy for seconds as everyone else, Izuku might have felt the need to rescue Satou from the sugar hungry fiends but, alas, he doesn’t have to be a hero all the time.
All Might doesn’t need to know. He will confess his sins at a later time. Halloween is the night of mischief anyway.
Spooky Scary Skeletons blasts from the speakers Jirou had set up earlier as Izuku slumps onto one of the pumpkin poufs Yaoyorozu had created to match the theme, happily brandishing Pumpkin Might in front of Todoroki’s face. The corners of his friend’s mouth twitch slightly and Izuku feels accomplished from that alone, scooting closer and smiling widely when he brings the lantern to hover over Todoroki’s lap, where his hands are resting.
“He needs light.” Izuku nudges Todoroki’s leg with his own.
“I think I can help with that.”
Lifting his left hand, Todoroki produces a small flame and the lantern comes alive, shining with the soft reds and oranges of the fire on top of the paper itself. Izuku’s hands feel pleasantly warm, even through the gloves he managed to put on after completely scrubbing off any traces of glue from his calloused fingers. The sensation makes his eyes flutter closed as a smile stretches across his face.
When he opens his eyes again, Todoroki is looking at him with a gentle fondness that has Izuku’s heart skipping several beats and a million butterflies flapping their wings in his stomach. The warmth spreads all over his body and settles on his face, a bright flush likely painting his cheeks a deep crimson, though he hopes that maybe the orange light might mask it at least a little.
Todoroki should really smile like that more, but Izuku isn’t sure that it would be healthy for him to witness it every time, at least not from this close, where he can almost see the glow of his eyes when it reaches them. He is pretty sure he has forgotten how to breathe until Uraraka announces that they’re going up to the roof to release the lanterns and he jumps a little, inadvertently gasping when he startles.
Letting out a huff of a laugh, Todoroki snuffs out his flame before standing up and taking Pumpkin Might from Izuku’s hands and waiting for him to follow. Izuku bites his bottom lip, the sharp sting of the vampire fangs digging into it bringing him all the way back down to earth from the fantasy world he had just been floating on before they walk towards the rest of the group.
As the lanterns float away, lighting up the night sky with their soft glow, Izuku stares instead at the way those lights reflect in Todoroki’s eyes and sighs. Well, he thinks, if making him smile like that is going to be the death of me, there are worse ways to go.