Soft flickering from the T.V. lit up the room for a brief second. Blinking against the sudden brightness Tendou tightened his hold in Aone's shirt. He knew he was probably clutching onto his friend too tightly, but there was no resistance or refusal from him so Tendou tried not to worry about it.
His widened eyes shifted around swiftly at the screen when it grew dark again, eerie music slowly echoing through air from the speakers at a slow build. And he knew, knew too well at this point, that something horrible was about to happen. Biting into his bottom lip he shifted himself closer to Aone, sliding across his friends' bed until their sides were flush against each other.
A cold sheen of sweat broke out over his skin bringing forth a chilled shiver despite the room being muggy and hot. Aone gave his arm a gentle squeeze which was meant as comfort but only made Tendou flinch. Shooting Aone an apology, his voice high and tight with fear, Tendou focused more intensely on the screen across the room. The music peaked and his suspicions came true.
Something obviously dead and decayed came crawling out from around the corner of a desk. The father and daughter staring at it gasped in shock, the daughter shaking as her face screwed up until a shrill scream ripped from her throat.
Hitching breaths halted the rise and fall of his chest. His eyes began to burn from not blinking as they screwed open so wide Tendou briefly worried his eyelids would get stuck in the back of his head forever. Tendou felt his jaw slacken as a lull in the horror show turned brighter, but his heart still raced and thumped heavily at the top of his throat. Beside him Aone relaxed, his muscles seeming to melt back into place yet Tendou just couldn't shake off the tense stiffness in his. Just the knowledge of another scare, another ghost, another terrifying thing will happen at any moment kept his nerves vibrating with anticipation.
Sure enough, barely ten minutes later the music shifted once again. His bottom lip worried between his teeth again as Tendou scrunched himself down between the arms he had wrapped around Aone. Shrinking himself further and further down and against his friend's side as he prepared for it. The lighting grew dimmer and dimmer, his heart thump-thump-thumped faster and harder. And then-
The bedroom door swung open. A dark, shadowed figure stood in the doorway of the show and Aone's bedroom. Both boys jerked back against the headboard of Aone's bed it slammed against the wall with a resounding thunk. The loud crash of wood hitting the wall was drowned out by the shrill, terrified screams of both Aone and Tendou. Their fingers dug into each other's skin so hard they would have bruises to show off to each other the next morning. Something they would come to laugh and joke about until they had tears streaming down their faces, arms clutched over their stomachs as they struggled to breathe through their giggles.
But in that moment, all they could feel was stone cold death staring them in the wasn't actually death staring at them. A quick flick of the lightswitch blinded them for a few seconds, both boys groaning and blinking back the black spots that filled their vision. Once the could see, as long as their squinted through the sudden brightness, the shadowed, death figure turned out to be Aone's mom.
With a disappointed shake of her head, a hand resting on her cocked hip, she scolded them both about the time and how they should be in bed. She continued to rant about their misbehavior as she strolled into the room and turned the T.V. off with a soft click. The lecture ended with both boys being tucked into Aone's bed, a soft kiss pressed to each forehead and a warning to remember that scary shows and movies weren't real and they had nothing to be worried about. With one last warning to go to sleep she turned off the light and closed the door behind her almost soundlessly.
Aone was able to eventually drift off into sleep, soft snores falling past his open lips as a line of drool trailed down his cheek onto his pillow. Tendou however, remained on his back staring up at the ceiling without blinking as his muscles kept him stiff as a board. Arms and legs straight and strained as he drew slow, deep breaths in and out of his lungs. For the millionth time since meeting Aone he swore, no promised himself he would never watch another horror movie or show with him again. But even as he was telling himself this, Tendou knew that next week when Aone came to stay over at his place, they would be doing the exact same thing. Watching yet another horror related movie or show despite his own fears because his best friend loves them.