Love is Not Extinct

Chapter 08: Hocus Pocus

Haruhisa hummed and swung his legs back and forth as he sat at the bar in their kitchen, watching his father make breakfast. It had become part of their morning routine since Haruhisa had started living with his father. Tsukishima hadn't been one to worry too much about what he ate for breakfast when he lived alone. He would grab leftovers, or pick something up on the way to work without thinking much of it. But his son couldn't live like that.

The first few months after Haruhisa moved in, Tsukishima's mother came over a lot to help out, and during that time he had made sure to take the time to learn some things from her so he could make sure that he was preparing proper meals for a growing boy.

Now it had just become second nature to him.

Tsukishima dished them both a portion of rice, a warm bowl of miso soup, and a plate of koachi and natto. By the time he finished that, the grilled fish was done and he carefully pulled it out of the pan and portioned it onto each of their plates.

"Itadakimasu." Haruhisa pressed his palms together and bowed his head before shoving a large clump of rice into his mouth. "Thank you, otousan," he mumbled with a full mouth. Tsukishima smirked, chuckling at his son.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. You'll choke and then you'll throw up on my floor and that would upset me."

Haruhisa pouted as he looked back at his father whose smile didn't falter. "Otousan…" he whined. "All you're worried about is the floor?"

"Humm…" he replied, tapping his finger to his chin as if he was really pondering this. "You're right that's not the only thing I should worry about." Haruhisa perked up, pleased, before his shoulders slumped again at his father's follow up remark, "I would hate to see that food go to waste."

"You're mean." Haruhisa frowned and Tsukishima laughed.

"Stop your pouting, you know I'm teasing you."

His son eyed him warily, but his father was right. He had in fact known his dad was teasing him. "Meanie face," was his intelligent reply as he stuck another big clump of rice into his mouth before sticking his tongue out at his dad, saliva-covered rice and all.

Tsukishima wrinkled his nose. "Oi! That's nasty kid." He chuckled, reaching up and, with his palm on top of his head, he turned his son's head to face back towards the rest of his food. Haruhisa put his tongue back in his mouth and began the chew again, smiling brightly as his shoulders shook with laughter. "Make sure you eat the rest of your food too. You can't just have rice for breakfast."

"Mess-ser" Haruhisa mumbled incoherently through his food.

"So..." Tsukishima started up the new conversation between bites of his own food. "Halloween is only a couple days away and you still haven't told me what you want to be. You know if we don't get you a costume soon they won't have any good ones left and you'll have to be a rainbow unicorn or something."

He looked over, expecting his son to have an expression of horror at just the thought of being caught wearing something so embarrassing. But to his surprise the boy seemed indifferent to the idea as he picked up his bowl of miso soup and drank some of the broth.

"I already know what I want to be," he said very matter-of-factly.

"Oh, is that so? And what is it that you want to be?"

"Can't tell you," Haruhisa replied and his father looked down at him puzzled.

"Uh, why not?"

"It's a secret. Don't worry, Yamaguchi-sensei helped me get my costume." He put down his bowl looking up at his father with an expression very intense and serious for a seven year old boy. "You are not allowed to see it, okay?"

Then the boy turned back to his breakfast and continued eating as if the matter was settled. Tsukishima was so shocked that he didn't even know what else to say. When had Yamaguchi taken his son to get his Halloween costume? And why was he being kept out of the loop? Was it something he was too embarrassed to tell his dad about but he trusted Yamaguchi? It didn't really make much sense.

After dropping Haruhisa off at school Tsukishima got back onto the train to head towards the museum. As he stood there among the other commuters he pulled out his phone, texting his friend.

[08:35] Tsukishima Kei: Alright, what are you and Haru up to? Why is there this big secret revolving around his halloween costume that you apparently already bought him?

It was only a few minutes before he got a response, which meant that his morning practice with the volleyball team was probably over at this point. Opening up the text, he rolled his eyes at the reply.

[8:38] Yamaguchi Tadashi: It's a secret. I promised not to tell

This text was followed by a gif of a cartoon character repeatedly bringing his finger up to his lips in a 'shushing' motion.

[8:36] Tsukishima Kei: Why are you teaching my son to conspire against me? I thought you knew better than that.

[8:40] Yamaguchi Tadashi: LOL. Don't worry he has his reasons

[8:41] Yamaguchi Tadashi: And for the record he approached me about this it wasn't my idea

[8:43] Tsukishima Kei: Yeah sure it wasn't. You are corrupting my son Yamaguchi

[8:45] Yamaguchi Tadashi: Sorry Tsukki. LOL

Tsukishima shook his head but smiled, sending one last response before he pocketed his phone, knowing they were pulling up to the station he needed to get off at.

[8:46] Tsukishima Kei: Liar

That evening, when Tsukishima got off of work, he picked up Haruhisa from his after-school program as usual. On their way home they stopped at the store to buy some groceries and items they would need for the different Halloween events that they would be attending. Tsukishima had never been as busy around this holiday as he was with his son, it seemed like he had managed to get involved in everything.

"Alright, what should we get first?" Tsukishima asked as they walked down the seasonal aisle in their local grocery store that was stocked and overflowing with a wide variety of candy and halloween related goodies.

"Ummm...treats for class," Haruhisa decided as he took off his backpack to pull out a half sheet of bright orange paper with bold, black print. "Suga-sensei says that I need to bring enough treats for all of the class. We have twenty-two students. And…" He paused as he slowly read the next line to himself before relaying it to his father. "We should make something without any nuts because Ito Himari-chan is allergic to them."

"Okay, so a treat for twenty-two kids that has no nuts in it. What would you like to bring?"

"Humm…" He pondered this for a moment. "Can we make a treat?"

Tsukishima hesitated, not sure he wanted to take on that type of project when they were as busy as they were, but one look at his son's big brown eyes and he couldn't say no. He would just rope Yamaguchi or his mother into helping them as well, they would be thrilled at the idea he was sure. "Sure, we can make something. What would you like to make?"

"Dango dumplings. And we can color them orange, and purple, and green for Halloween colors. Is that okay?" He looked up, a little worried, at his father's unsure expression. But Tsukishima just smiled.

"Yeah, I think we can do that, but let me text obaasan and see if she can help. I don't think I am good enough in the kitchen to do that."

Haruhisa's eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect of his grandmother coming to help them. "Will sobo come help us make all the Halloween treats?"

"I sure hope so." He smiled, reaching over and ruffling his son's hair as he texted his mother. "Okay, so what else do we need to get?"

Haruhisa held out the orange flyer from school to his father before taking out another slip of paper from his pocket: the prized shopping list that his father had entrusted him with. Looking over the list, he found the next thing they needed to plan for. "Candy for trick-or-treaters," he read aloud, before looking back up at his dad. "Can I pick out the candy for the trick-or-treaters?"

"Yes. Pick out three bags of candy, one is for home and the other two are for the museum trick-or-treat event."

"Okay!" The boy ran over excitedly, examining the many choices of candy bags before deciding on the three he thought looked the best and carrying them over to the shopping cart. He then looked back down at his list. "And we need prizes for the booth at the Karasuno Halloween Festival." He looked back up at his father. "Otousan, what booth are you helping with at the festival?"

Tsukishima had to resist sighing just thinking about it. He couldn't believe that he had even gotten roped into helping out with the sports center's annual Halloween festival this year, and he didn't even work there.

"I am helping with the bean bag toss."

Harushia looked around the aisle thoughtfully until his eyes fell on a small section at the end of the aisle that had little knick-knacks and toys that were Halloween themed. Going over, he scanned the selection for a moment before coming back with a bag full of bouncy balls in Halloween colors and prints of spiders, ghosts, pumpkins, and witches on them. "What about these?" he asked.

Taking them from his son, Tsukishima examined the bag which had a dozen balls in it. He figured it was as good as anything. Kiyoko had told him that the prizes should be something small that he could give out to every child who participated, nothing too expensive but something fun. And of course, she assured him that the sports center would reimburse the cost.

"These should work. Go grab three more bags so we have enough for everyone who wants to play." Harushia nodded, running back over and grabbing another three bags of bouncy balls and placing them in the cart. "Alright, anything else before we get our regular groceries so that we aren't living off candy for the next week?"

His son giggled at the idea, looking back down at the list. "No, that's all the Halloween stuff."

"Okay, good." He reached over, ruffling his son's hair once more before leading the cart out of the aisle to precede with their normal weekly shopping. About halfway through the trip, while he was looking for ingredients for the dango dumplings from a list of ingredients his mother had texted him, Haruhisa grabbed onto the hem of his shirt. Tsukishima looked down to see his son staring up at him.

"Otousan, can we make extra dango dumplings for the volleyball team as a Halloween present?"

"Are you planning to make treats for everyone we know?" Tsukishima shook his head, putting a bag of rice flour into the cart. "Yes, if you want to make Halloween treats for the volleyball team then we can make extra."

"Thank you!" He hugged his father's waist before going over to push the cart for him, toward the next item on their list. And so began the chaos of the next few days of Halloween celebrations.

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.

This plan backfired. Not able to see his face, Ushijima bent down slightly so that she could lean over and look up, under his hat, to see his face, her big blue eyes staring at him intently.

"Uwah!" He jumped back, startled at her sudden closeness. Ushijima giggled.

"Akiyama-kun, you're funny."

"No I'm not…" His cheeks were burning now and he hoped that no one in his class was looking this way. He was being so lame.

"Suga-senpei told me that you were looking for me earlier," she said, ending her sentence with an inflection that turned the statement into a question. Dumb-founded, Haruhisa looked over at where their teacher was on the other side of the room. When Sugawara saw Harushia looking in his direction he suddenly became very focused on making sure that students next to him weren't miss-behaving.

His own, beloved teacher had ratted him out.

"I..uh...do-do you like dancing?" He managed to finally get a full sentence out.

"Yes. I like to dance." She smiled brightly and looked at him expectantly.

"Cool," was all he could say in response. He wanted to bolt for the door and get as far away as possible. He didn't know what to say in a situation like this and he was completely embarrassed because he was acting so un-cool in front of the coolest, prettiest girl in his class.

After watching him for a moment, Ushijima just smiled as stepped forward, closer to him. "Haru-kun come dance with me," she said, then reached out, grabbing his wrist, and started to pull him away from the wall and into the group of students dancing.

"Wha-what?" he stammered as the redness in his cheeks rushed up to the tips of his ears. He felt embarrassed and yet extremely happy that she had called him by his first name and, though he didn't think dancing was very cool, Ushijima seemed to really want to, so he couldn't say no.

Sugawara watched the two with a small, satisfied smile. He was tempted to take a picture and send it to Tsukishima but decided that he would wait for that. He had meddled in Haruhisa's little romance enough for one day. He was just happy that, despite the embarrassment, the boy seemed to be really enjoying the party, and he hoped that this would help him to break the ice to talk to, not just Ushijima, but more of his classmates and make some new friends.

A/N: For anyone who might be interested, I attempted making Halloween colored dango dumplings myself! It was my first time making and trying dango dumplings. From what I know of them the texture and taste turned out great, but boy were they ugly! haha They are supposed to be relatively round but mine looked like weird flat discs. Haha! But still fun none the less. (If you want to see pictures of how they turned out, check out this Fic on my Wattpad I have a picture posted in my author's notes at the end of the chapter)

Happy Haunting! (∩ᄑ_ᄑ)⊃━ ﾟ*･｡*･:≡( ε:)