Love is not Extinct ~ HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
A Spooky Little Party
A/N: I am posting this much later than I originally intended today but non the less here is the second Halloween Special with more Haru-chan!
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"I'll get it!" Haruhisa yelled from his room. He darted down the hall past his dad before he could even walk out of the kitchen and opened the front door. He was greeted by a bright smile as Yamaguchi looked down at him.
"Good morning Haru-kun." Yamaguchi chuckled as he stepped inside the apartment. In his hand he carried a plastic bag which he handed to Haruhisa, who looked like he was ready to jump up and down with excitement. When the boy saw his dad coming around the corner from the kitchen he hid the bag behind his back, looking up at his father sternly.
"You have to go wait in the other room," he exclaimed.
"What?" Tsukishima questioned with a raised brow as he looked from his son to Yamaguchi, who just shrugged with a smile that seemed to say 'humor him, he is excited.'
"You have to go in the other room!" he repeated more adamantly as he put the bag down and ran over to his dad, pushing him to turn around as he guided - or forced - him towards the living room.
"Why do I have to go into the living room? Can't you just hide the bag and go into your room?" He tried to reason, as he resisted his son's shoving just enough to make him have to work hard to push him along, without actually preventing him from doing so. He could hear Yamaguchi behind them, snickering at the scene.
"No!" He huffed with the effort he was exerting trying to push his father along. "You have to wait in the other room. Go!" Haruhisa put all his weight into the next push nearly causing Tsukishima to lose his balance as his son finally managed to push him into the living room. "Stay!" he ordered before running back and grabbing the bag; then he ran to his room.
Tsukishima just blinked as he watched his son zip by, followed shortly by Yamaguchi, who stopped in the entryway to the living room. It was very clear that the brunette was thoroughly amused.
"Is all this really necessary?" Tsukishima asked his friend.
Yamaguchi smiled with a shrug. "He is excited, let him enjoy the surprise."
"Tch." He sighed, going over and sitting down on the couch to wait. "It's just a Halloween costume. I don't know why he is getting so excited about it."
"Because he is a kid, Tsukki." Yamaguchi spoke softly with a chuckle as he heard Haruhisa calling for him from his bedroom. "Let him be a kid." Then he turned and headed down the hall to help Haruhisa with his costume.
Tsukishima leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "I know that," he mumbled to himself. "I just don't get it."
It wasn't long before he heard two sets of footsteps coming into the room. He cracked his eyes open when he heard someone clear their throat. Looking forward, he saw his son standing there with a proud grin on his face and his hands on his hips. He wore a pair of work boots and tan pants that were held up by a brown belt that held multiple little pouches on it. His shirt was a denim button-up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top couple buttons left undone. Around his neck he had a folded and tied red bandana and he wore a brimmed hat on his head.
"I present to you," Yamaguchi said, flinging out his hands in a theatrical manner to geautre to Haruhisa, "the famous Dr. Alan Grant."
A smirk tugged at the corner of Tsukishima's mouth as he looked between the two. "So, you wanted to be the dinosaur guy for Halloween?" he asked, amused. Haruhisa ran over, jumping into his dad's lap, nearly losing his hat in the process. Tsukishima put his hand on his son's back to keep him from falling.
"Do you know why I wanted to be Dr. Grant?" he asked, looking up at his father with large, expectant eyes.
"Because Jurassic Park is one of your favorite movies and he is your favorite character in the movie?"
"No." He pouted slightly that his father hadn't guessed right. "Well kinda, but no! I wanted to be Dr. Grant because Dr. Grant is a paleontologist like you, and he loves dinosaurs like you."
Though his expression didn't change, Tsukishima's heart softened. He didn't know what he had done to deserve such love from this little boy. Despite the struggles, despite the sudden change Haruhisa had brought, that threw his perfectly planned world into complete disarray, it was moments like these that made him realize how lucky he really was. He had never really wanted children, but now he couldn't imagine his life without his son. Nothing was more important to him.
"Well Dr. Grant, this paleontologist who does not have a doctorate degree needs to get to his job at the museum to do research on those dinosaurs that you have discovered, so why don't you hurry and go get your backpack and lunch so that we can get going."
"Okay!" With that Haruhisa jumped off his father's lap and ran to gather his things, and within a few minutes the three of them were off to the train station.
Sugawara smiled when he saw Haruhisa come through the door to the classroom carrying his bag of treats that he brought for the party in front of him. Since Tsukishima had to be to work earlier than normal today due to the event they were holding later on, Haruhisa was here earlier than normal. Usually when that happened the boy would just go and help out Yamaguchi with his morning practice for the volleyball club, but this time he had asked Sugwara if he would let him come and help the teacher set up the classroom for their Halloween party.
Yamaguchi waved to both Sugawara and Haruhisa before he disappeared, to head across the street to the high school for his practice, and Haruhisa walked over to Sugawara with a smile.
"Good morning Suga-sensei," he greeted with a bow.
Sugawara beamed as he reached down, patting the boy's head. "Good morning Haru-kun." He knelt down so he could be at eye level with the seven-year-old. "Are you ready to decorate for the Halloween party?"
Haruhisa nodded excitedly, holding up his bag for the teacher to see. "I brought treats. Sobo and Yamaguchi-sensei helped me make these."
"Oooh! Homemade treats from Haru-kun? They must be very yummy." Sugawara smiled, peaking in the bag and seeing the rows of dumplings on wooden skewers lined up neatly in tupperware boxes. Each set had a little, round orange, green and purple dumpling on it. "How nice. I can't wait till everyone gets to try these. Go ahead and set the bag on the table next to my desk. That's where we are going to put all the treats."
Haruhisa nodded and went over, doing as his teacher requested before returning. "What can I help with?"
"Hmm let's see." Suga looked around the room, trying to decide what he could have the boy help him with. "Oh, I know. How about you help me fill the treat bags that I am going to give everyone? Come over here behind my desk and I'll show you what to do."
Haruhisa beamed at the idea of being given such an important task, and he felt extra special being allowed to go behind the teacher's desk. Sugawara-sensei had strict rules about his students not being allowed to go past a certain point by his desk, so Haruhisa felt very trusted by his sensei.
Teacher and student both sat on the floor and Sugawara pulled out a bag from under his desk. "Each student is going to get a bag," he said, as he pulled out a stack of small cellophane bags that had cartoon pumpkins all over them. "And in each bag you are going to put one of each of these prizes and five pieces of candy. Can you do that?" He pulled out smaller bags that held little toys and other halloween themed items, like necklaces, pencils, and erasers before pulling out a larger bag of candy. "I'm going to put their name on the bag, then you will fill them, fold over the top, and close it with one of these stickers. Once they are done you will go put them on everyone's desk, okay?"
Haruhisa nodded and, as soon as Sugawara finished writing the name of the first student on one of the bags, the boy took it and began filling it with the required items.
It didn't take Sugawara long to write all the names on each bag, so once he was finished he stood up, leaving Haruhisa to continue filling the bags while he continued to put up the last of the decorations.
"Are you excited about the party today, Haru-kun?" he asked as he stood on a step stool to hang tissue paper ghosts from the ceiling.
"Uh huh." The boy nodded, continuing to focus on the task that his teacher had given him.
"What about the dance?" Sugawara smiled as Haushia looked up at him, a little unsure. "Is there someone that you want to dance with?" he teased, and was pleased to see the young boy blush slightly, looking down at his task quickly to hide his face.
A few times each year the elementary school would have small dances for the students. It was nothing formal, except that the fifth and sixth year students would be taught ballroom dances throughout the year and would often hold more formal dances. But for the rest of the school it was mostly just a dance party for the children. The first and second year students would have their dance right before going back to their classroom to have lunch, the third and fourth year students would have theirs after lunch, and the fifth and sixth year students would hold theirs at the end of the day.
Though it didn't mean much to his young first year students to have a co-ed dance, Sugawara always found it so cute watching the children experiencing their first crushes and getting their first, young experiences of love, and he could tell from the look on Haruhisa's face that the boy was in fact experiencing his first crush. He had seen it in class too, and he knew the girl that had caught the attention of his friend's son.
But he wouldn't interfere. Not right at this moment at least.
Haruhisa was standing near the wall, next to his best friend, Sawai Toshiaki, who was a second year at his school. Sawai was a lanky boy with jet black hair that he kept cut short and spiked on the top. He had bright green, shimmering eyes and always wore a big, goofy smile. He was dressed in a black ninja costume with a purple belt around his waist and a matching band tied around his head.
"Is your dad letting you go trick-or-treating?" Sawai asked, leaning against the wall as they watched their classmates move about, dancing with each other, chasing each other, and laughing. It was a lively gathering, being in a room full of seven, eight and nine year olds and the teachers were all very busy trying their best to keep the peace.
"No," he responded as his eyes caught a flash of pink dart through the crowd and instinctively he followed the figure as they made their way over to Sugawara. "We have too much going on, after school is the museum trick-or-treat and then we are going to the sport center festival."
"Lucky!" Sawai whined with a sigh as he slumped his shoulders forward. "My parents don't take me to things like that. They say it cost too much."
When his friend didn't respond he looked over to see Haruhisa looking off into the crowd. Curiously, he looked over to see what had distracted his friend. With a mischievous grin he nudged him.
"Is that the girl from your class? She is talking to your teacher."
"Shush!" Harushia reached over, covering his friend's mouth before he could say anything more, as some of the other girls from his class were walking by. Once they had passed and he thought it was safe, he dropped his hand, looking back at his friend. "Don't just say things like that out loud. What if someone hears you?"
Sawai shrugged and smiled. "Why does it matter? If she likes you, just talk to her."
"I can't just talk to her!" Haurhisa whisper-yelled, almost panicked at the thought. Talk to the cute girl in his class he liked? No way! He was not ready for that. It was embarrassing. He didn't want her to laugh at him or for the other kids in class to make fun of him.
"Too bad," Sawai said as he stood up straighter, looking as if he was going to leave.
"What? Wait, where are you going?"
"She is coming over to talk to you. Bye!" He waved, quickly darting over to a group of guys in his class, easily inserting himself into their conversation. Haruhisa looked at his friend, confused, before turning around and jumping with surprise to find someone had come up right behind him.
"Hello Akiyama-kun." The fairy princess smiled. She was wearing a pink dress with a frilly tulle skirt that had flower petals and sparkles dispersed throughout the layers. Her ballet slippers were a pastel pink that matched the sheer sparkling wings on her back. Her normally wavy, dark auburn hair had been done in loose ringlets and ensconced in those curls was a silver tiara.
Haruhisa swallowed, his cheeks flushing slightly as he stumbled over his words. "He-hello. Hello Ushijima-chan." He tilted his head down, hoping that the brim of his hat covered most of his face.
-kun: is most often used for younger boys, it's not exclusive. The meaning expresses respect for someone of "lower" status than you or, most often, younger than you.
Sensei: Teacher
-chan: Is for anything cute. That means you'll usually attach -chan to girls names, young boys, babies, and even sometimes pets. But also you'll hear it used with celebrity names, boyfriends, girlfriends, close friends, siblings, grandparents etc.