A small super-early Halloween special because I'm a diehard Boogara (and if you don't know what that means, watch Buzzfeed Unsolved on YouTube. Unlike most Buzzfeed content, it's actually well-edited, funny, and entertaining.)
It was a dark and stormy night at UA.
The winter to spring transition brought its usual sense of change and slightly later darkness. But it also brought a slight chill and unexpected rain that easily turned into storms and those storms caused problems for everyone when it came to villain attacks and transportation failures. In fact, the power couple of the 2-A dorms—Izuku and Ochaco—weren't present for that very reason. They'd been on a date for their day off and had gotten stuck when one of the trains stopped working. Kazumi had been the one to receive the call saying as much and had relayed the message to the other members of the dorms.
And so, the youngest resident sat with Yaoyorozu on the couches in the common area, waiting for her parents to come home while she listened to the smartest student in class 2-A tell a story about a princess who married a war-chief against her will and fell in love with him.
"The princess's brother came to bring her home. But she didn't want to go home, not anymore. Besides, the stuffy castle had never truly been where she was meant to be. Out in the desert, with her husband and his tribe, she was free to be who she wanted to be. And so she told her brother that the desert was her home now, the war-chief her true love, and that she was happy where she was. He relented and agreed to allow her to stay with her husband in the desert. The end."
"That's great," mumbled Eri, falling against Yaoyorozu sleepily. The creation hero smiled warmly.
"It must be time for bed. Come along then." She went to move Eri, then realized something was wrong.
The little girl felt hot. Too hot. She was burning up. Immediately, Yaoyorozu scooped up Eri and ran upstairs to the little girl's bedroom before rushing across the hall to get help from Kazumi. Surely, Eri's aunt who was quite skilled in terms of first aid would have something to help a sick little girl.
Inside Kazumi's room, Yaoyorozu also found Bakugo lying on the girl's bed with a textbook in his hands. Kazumi herself was sitting at the desk with their notes, apparently transcribing whatever either of them had missed that the other caught. A smart system if you were slow at taking notes.
"Hey, Yao-momo," Kazumi greeted her. "What's up?"
"I think Eri's sick." Kazumi snapped the notes shut and immediately began digging into her medical supplies that she kept in the dorm.
Given her brother's habit of injuring himself, it made sense.
"What made you think she was sick?"
"She was unusually hot. Her normal temperature's 99 degrees Fahrenheit, right?"
"Right." Kazumi retrieved a thermometer from her stocks and grabbed a washcloth and some cough syrup. "I'm going to check on her and stay with her until Izuku and Ochaco get back. You tell everyone else to stay out of her room for now, but I'll need you to help me out if you can. We need to keep her hydrated and make sure her fever doesn't get any higher. Sorry, Kacchan. Guess we can't watch that movie like we planned."
"Hey, Pipsqueak being sick is more important than some stupid movie. I get it. I'll see you tomorrow." They pecked each other on the lips and Bakugo headed back towards his room while the two girls went across the hall, in such a hurry that Kazumi didn't even bother putting back the supplies and papers that she hadn't taken with her.
Meanwhile, down in another part of the common area, several other students of 2-A were finishing a horror movie about a family being terrorized by home intruders. Kaminari clung to Jiro, still shaking and whimpering over watching the family being tortured.
"People aren't really like that unless they're villains, right? I mean, none of the intruders had Quirks!" he stated.
"Of course not," sighed Jiro. "Why would anybody do that kind of thing unless they're villains?"
"People can be pretty sadistic," commented Kirishima. "I mean, look at Bakugo and Kazumi's entire relationship. They sling insults at each other like nobody's business and, uh… have you seen Bakugo's neck?"
"That's a far cry from tying up a little girl and shocking her with a cattle prod to make her parents come downstairs!" Kaminari protested. "The biting's just what they do! I don't question it and nobody else should, either!"
Suddenly, there was a creaking of floorboards and Kaminari froze.
"Did you guys hear something?"
"You're just jumpy from the movie," scoffed Ashido.
"No, I heard something." He started shaking. "What if somebody broke into the dorms?"
"Nobody broke into the dorms. How could they?" Todoroki sighed. "UA's campus is secure."
"Villains have gotten past security before! M-maybe we should go check…"
Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder and the lights fizzled before going out. Kaminari screamed like a little girl, diving under the coffee table and shaking with fear as he began to mumble prayers for their survival.
"Grow up!" groaned Jiro, grabbing his arm. "The storm knocked out the power! That's all it is!"
"Or maybe a villain knocked out the power using their Quirk and they're planning to torture us like in the movie!"
There was more creaking of floorboards upstairs, which the others heard this time, too.
"Um… who else is here?" asked Sero.
"Uraraka and Izuku are stuck in town. Iida, Tsuyu, Ojiro, Sato, Shoji, Aoyama, Koda, and Toru are visiting home, and Momo went to bed," Kirishima rattled off. "Then Bakugo and Kazumi are in her room, so I'm not going up there."
"Tokoyami went to bed, too," added Ashido. "And I'm sure Kazumi tucked Eri in an hour ago. So who could be upstairs…?"
The feeling that they were being watched fell over them, making those gathered uneasy. Perhaps there was some credence to the idea that there was an intruder.
And they were being watched and listened to—just not by a villain.
It was Bakugo.
An intruder? Heh. This could be fun…
"Oh, crap."
Kazumi looked up at the lights as soon as they went out.
"I'm hot…" mumbled Eri.
"I know, sweetheart," sighed the water-haired girl. "Just wait a second."
She picked up the washcloth and soaked it with cool water, placing it on her niece's forehead. Eri settled, then started coughing.
"Momo, could you give us some light?" asked Kazumi.
"I can. Give me a moment."
The black-haired girl undid her shirt enough to allow herself to make a lantern, which she turned on and set on the bedside table. Kazumi sighed in relief and went to pour some cough syrup into a little cup.
"Eri, I need you to sit up and drink this, okay?"
"Don't wanna… I want Papa."
"Your papa's trying to get home. But I need you to drink your medicine so you can get better."
"Okay…" Eri sat up a little and Kazumi had her sip down the bitter liquid. "I don't like it…"
"I hate it, too, but you need it to get better."
Eri whined a bit as her aunt laid her back down and Momo picked up Eri's favorite stuffed animal—the orange cat that Kazumi had given Eri on the little girl's first night in the dorms. She tucked it into Eri's arms, making her smile a little bit.
"Thank you, Aunt Momo…" Eri began to drift off and Kazumi glanced up at the lights again.
"We're going to need a heater before long. I guess the storm knocked out the power and the generator. That happened back home sometimes."
"I can make us a small one."
"No, you should save your energy. I'm sure everything will go back on soon."
"There is no intruder," Todoroki insisted. "I'm sure it's just the wind from the storm."
"Wind doesn't make floorboards creak on the second floor!" Kaminari insisted.
"Perhaps Kazumi and Bakugo chose to go to Bakugo's room instead of hers. It's fairly simple."
There was a muffled boom somewhere in the building, making Jiro freeze and stand closer to Kaminari.
"If Bakugo and Kazumi are in his room, then why was there an explosion?" she asked.
"Why don't we just check upstairs? It's a simple solution that would help disprove any notion of an intruder."
The six teenagers walked up the stairs to the girls' side first, right to Kazumi's room. Ashido opened the door to reveal that Kazumi's desk drawers had been ransacked. Lightning crackled, illuminating the abandoned and open textbook on the floor.
"W-where are they?" Kaminari asked.
"Now we check Bakugo's room," Todoroki stated, but he was becoming slightly uneasy.
My sister keeps her living space very neat. Why would it be such a mess?
They headed across the dorms, straight to Bakugo's room. It was a wreck, with clothes and books all over the floor and the sheets rumpled as if somebody had been taken right out of the bed. Ashido shifted uncomfortably.
"This is bad. This is very bad. Where are they?"
"I…" Todoroki looked uncomfortable. "I have no idea."
"I'm going to check somewhere else they might be," Kaminari stated, still shaking. "I need two of you to come with me. If Ghostbusters has taught me anything, it's that you always travel in groups of three or more."
"I'll go with you," Jiro told him.
"Me, too," Kirishima chimed in.
Those three headed downstairs, Kaminari taking the lead and unscrewing a lightbulb out of a lamp to act as their light while he provided enough electricity for it to glow. His destination? A supply closet that he'd caught Bakugo and Kazumi making out in before. But the closet proved to be empty, meaning that those two members of the class were completely missing.
"This is bad," he whimpered, clinging to Jiro. "Where are they?"
"I have no idea…"
Whispers came out of nowhere, surrounding the three teenagers and causing Kaminari to drop the lightbulb out of pure terror.
"Run."
The hiss came out of nowhere and they had no problem obeying the voice, heading straight for Bakugo's room where the others were.
As soon as they were gone, Bakugo and Tokoyami came out of the shadows, both smiling.
"Thanks for helping me out with this," Bakugo told the bird-person.
"It's not a problem. At the very least, it's a good way to help me control Dark Shadow. And it's fun to see them believe in such a stupid idea."
"Just don't tell Kazumi I'm doing this. She's got her hands full with Pipsqueak."
"Understandable."
Bakugo proceeded to make another muffled explosion, this one which was a little less muffled than the previous one.
Kazumi lifted her head at the sound and groaned.
"Watch Eri. I have a moron to smack."
"What's going on?" Momo asked, sitting up from where she'd been falling asleep on the floor.
"Kaminari and a few of the others were watching a home-invasion horror movie. I bet you anything my dumbass boyfriend is taking advantage of that to pull pranks."
"Aunt Kazumi, I'm thirsty," mumbled Eri. Kazumi nodded and went into the bathroom, filling up a cup that Izuku insisted on keeping in his daughter's room.
"Listen, Eri. I need to go give your uncle Kacchan a good slap to the back of the head."
"He's dumb sometimes. Tell him be quiet."
Kazumi replaced Eri's washcloth and stood up, heading out of the room. The ends of her hair began to slightly steam—a sure sign that she was pissed off and Bakugo needed to prepare for a smackdown akin to when Kazumi had found out he was teaching Eri how to fight using knives.
(But that's a story for another time. The knife thing, not her smackdown.)
"Okay. We need to set traps," stated Kirishima. "These guys are pros at staying out of sight and I think it would be a bad idea to face them head-on."
"I've got some wire," Kaminari told him. "We can use that to make an alarm to tell us when the intruders are coming."
"I'll hide where the tripwire is and when it gets triggered, I'll melt the floor and trap them!" Ashido chimed in.
"Perhaps icing the floor would make them less able to move and attack," added Todoroki.
"And I'll wrap them up with my tape!" Sero added.
Jiro nodded, motioning that she'd listen out for danger.
And so, the six set up traps for the perceived intruders and went back to their positions to wait.
Downstairs, however, Izuku and Ochaco had finally made it back from town, both freezing due to the rain and ready to just say goodnight to their daughter before they headed off to bed themselves. Just as Izuku was helping his girlfriend peel off her raincoat, the lights came back on since the generator had finally been brought back online… revealing a rather complex and frankly overkill system of tripwires that were put all over the common room.
"Um… okay?" Ochaco stated, looking confused.
"What's… what's going on?"
"I have no idea, but it can't be good."
Kazumi came down the stairs, turning herself into a puddle so she could get all the way down without doing a complex series of spy-movie maneuvers, and she came to her full height in front of her brother and best friend.
"Do you know what's happening?" Izuku asked her.
"Yes, it's called my boyfriend is a jackass." Her hair started to steam. "I'm going to find him. I'm going to grab him. And I'm going to slap him."
"Shit!" the three heard Bakugo hiss, followed by the sound of him hitting the floor.
"And there he is." She turned her attention back to the couple. "Eri's not feeling well. Momo's with her right now, but she wanted to see you two. Excuse me for a moment."
She went past the tripwires towards the boys' side of the dorms, where those who had set the traps were waiting. However, it appeared that the power coming back on had been short-lived and it fizzled out again as thunder cracked overhead. As such, the 'defenders' weren't able to see her approaching and she slipped behind them.
"What the hell is going on?!" she snapped, catching their attention and scaring all of them.
"AAAAAAH! DON'T HURT ME!" screamed Kaminari, covering his head.
"Kazumi! You're okay!" breathed Ashido.
"Of course I am—what the hell is going on here?"
"There's an intruder in the dorms," Kirishima told her, panting. "We're just trying to take them out."
"Take it all down, now. This isn't an intruder. It's just Kacchan pulling a prank on all of you because he's bored."
"Wait, weren't you supposed to be with him?" inquired Sero.
"Eri's sick, so I was taking care of her instead of watching a movie with him like we planned. Momo's with her now and Izuku and Ochaco are heading up to check on her."
The 'defenders' proceeded to take down their traps and Kazumi found her boyfriend lying on the icy floor, struggling to get up. His eyes met hers and he started laughing nervously.
"Hey, Kazumi."
"Get up. Now."
She shot boiling water at the floor, melting the ice and allowing him to stand up.
"It was just a joke!" he protested. "It's not my fault they thought it was real!"
"Who else was involved?" The sight of the five-foot-seven Kazumi facing her 6-foot-two boyfriend was comical, to say the least.
"Tokoyami, but he just did a little extra thing to make it more convincing. He went back to bed after that."
She squeezed her eyes shut, then let out a breath and her hair stopped steaming.
"Kacchan?"
"Yeah?"
"If you ever do anything like this again, we're done."
"Wait—"
"And I want you to apologize to everyone you were scaring tonight. Deal?"
"I don't apologize!"
"I know. I'm still waiting on apologies from you. But I know you can do it."
Then she slapped him.
"And that's for freaking me out while I'm trying to take care of my sick niece!"
"Okay, I deserved that…"
Eri shifted slightly in her bed at the sound of her door opening, looking to see her parents in the doorway. Her fever still made her sluggish, so all she could do was cough and look at them.
"Mama. Papa," she whimpered. Momo glanced up to see them.
"Oh, thank goodness you made it back safely. Kazumi gave her some cough medicine about an hour ago, but she'll need some more in about five hours."
"We'll take it from here," Ochaco assured their classmate.
"Yeah, thanks for helping out," Izuku agreed.
"I'd better head off to bed myself, then. See you in the morning."
"Night!" the two called, turning their attention to their sick child.
"Did Auntie Kazumi find Uncle Kacchan?" she asked.
"I believe she did," Izuku replied, taking the cloth off his daughter's forehead and feeling it. "You still have a fever. We'll take you to Recovery Girl in the morning."
"Okay." Eri nestled down in her blankets and Ochaco sighed.
"Should we take shifts?"
"Are you kidding me? I'm staying up all night."
"Deku…"
"Okay. We'll take shifts. I call first."
She rolled her eyes affectionately and headed off to grab a spare cot for the one not on shift to sleep on.
"Not cool, dude!"
"Yeah, you really freaked us out!" Ashido added.
Bakugo sighed as his classmates berated him for his prank the night before. Kazumi had kept him up all night to practice apologizing (because she insisted he do it right and far be it from him to refuse the girl he regularly made out with) and now he was paying the price.
"Look, I said I was sorry. It was too easy a target and I was bored. From where I was standing, it was funny."
"I thought we were all going to die!" Kaminari shot back.
"He's very sorry and he won't do it again," Kazumi assured them. "Right, Kacchan?"
"Yes, ma'am. Now can I please get some sleep?"
"Yes you may."
He trudged upstairs. Izuku came down a minute later carrying Eri wrapped in blankets.
"We're heading to Recovery Girl's to see what's wrong with Eri," he told the others. "See you later."
"Bye!" Ochaco called, coming down after him.
"Bye-bye…" Eri added, waving weakly over her father's shoulder.
"Poor Little Bit…" murmured Kazumi.
"Well, there's a lesson for us," Kirishima commented. "Don't watch horror movies when it's dark and stormy."
"Oh, no. You just need to watch the right kind of horror movie. Don't go for the home-invasion ones because those make you paranoid. Instead, watch a slasher film or some ghost movie. Or just watch Stranger Things."
"What's that?"
"A horror series taking place in America during the eighties. It's really good and I'm not ashamed to say that I cried while I was watching it. Now that's perfect to watch on a dark and stormy night."
She stretched and yawned.
"I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me if you need me."
And so ended the 'dorm invasion incident', as it came to be called.
Eri had a bad cold, it turned out, and Recovery Girl fixed her up. Bakugo had the cold shoulder from his girlfriend for about a week after the incident, but he managed to get her to forgive him. As for everyone else, they soon found out why Kazumi spoke so highly of Stranger Things and were equally enraptured and terrified by the series… with several tears shed.
But it wouldn't be their last brush with horror movie tropes.
HAHA I LEAVE ROOM FOR A SEQUEL CHAPTER YET AGAIN!
In all honesty, the sequel will be more related to ghost stories than things like slasher films.
Leave suggestions for one-shots in the comments and I might use them as chapters!
So long and thanks for all the fish!