Kasamatsu Yukio was not happy about dragging himself out of bed only to find Kise standing at his doorstep. Not happy in the slightest. "What are you doing here at this hour?" He growled, attempting to contain his violent impulses long enough to hear the other boy's no doubt pathetic excuse.

"I just missed you so much that I had to come see you again!" The blond proclaimed happily only to double over in pain almost immediately thereafter when a solid kick landed in the pit of his stomach. Damn, he'd thought he'd been standing out of his upperclassman's reach.

"We were with each other all afternoon and you're still not satisfied? And you only left maybe twenty minutes ago, there's no way you'd miss me already!" Kasamatsu flexed his leg muscles, preparing to kick his teammate once again but a head poking into the doorway behind Kise gave him pause. "Oh, Kagami. What's up?"

"Nothing much." The red-head grumbled, glaring daggers at Kise's back. "I just have one question though; didn't you say you were headed home after going on a date when we ran into each other earlier?"

"O-Oh, that was just a joke! A joke!" Kise insisted, flusteredly alternating between giving his blushing upperclassman an apologetic look and glaring at Kagami to shut the hell up.

"YOU WHAT!" Kasamatsu roared, looking downright murderous despite the rather endearing flush that had claimed his cheeks.

Kuroko chose this moment to poke his head inside the doorway as well. "Please don't kill him yet, Kasamatsu-kun. We need him for at least a little bit longer."

(****)

"Alright, let me get this straight," Kasamatsu intoned as he grudgingly led the unlikely group upstairs. "You threw a Halloween party and Kuroko brought The Ring, amongst other scary movies, for everyone to watch but you got so scared that you ran out of your own apartment where you eventually met up with Kise who offered to help lift the curse. Is that about right?"

"N-no! Kurokocchi asked me to!"

Kagami groaned rather loudly, cradling his own head as if a headache were coming on. "Jesus, are you sure this was a good idea Kuroko? I'm starting to think I may have been better off dealing with a few weeks worth of nightmares than going through all of this."

"Please don't be rude, Kagami-kun. After this is over we can all return to our respective homes and sleep peacefully."

"I don't really mind helping you out," Said Kasamatsu, ushering everyone into his room before closing and locking the door. "But I don't really understand why this is such a big deal. I mean, it's just a movie."

Kuroko glanced from the older boy to Kagami and then back again. "Yes, but Kagami-kun doesn't handle scary things very well and I don't want his imagination to get the better of him since the winter cup is right around the corner. We need him focused."

"H-hey! Now that's rude." The red-head grumbled, crossing his arms and looking elsewhere. "I'd never let the evil spirit of some stupid little girl get between me and winning that tournament."

"That's all well and good," Kasamatsu said, taking a seat in front of his laptop and booting it up. "But we're going to be the champions of that tournament."

Kagami's heckles rose instinctively. "Heh, I'd like to see you try!"

"Boys, please," Said Kise placatingly. "Can't we get along for just a few minutes? There's no reason to get all fired up over basketball in the middle of the night."

Kasamatsu only tsk'ed and opened his web browser. Pulling up YouTube, he typed in 'The Ring cursed video' and watched as plenty of hits came up. He then moved to connect a few cords from his laptop to the TV situated on the other side of his desk. It was a slightly older model with a VHS player built right into the thing and sitting next to it was a DVD player. Kasamatsu then stood and crossed his room, rummaging around on a shelf before returning with a black VHS tape in hand which he promptly inserted into the player. Returning to the laptop, he clicked the video that had come up in HD before hitting the record button on the TV panel.

Leaning back in his chair, he crossed his arms and watched boredly as the video played on both screens whereas Kagami hurried to cover his eyes. He'd made the mistake of watching it once before, he wasn't going to do it again!

"There, all done." Kasamatsu said at length when the video had reached its conclusion. Hitting the record button once more to make it stop, he ejected the tape and turned with the cassette in hand, waving it at his late night guests somewhat ruefully. "Now the curse should have been lifted off of you two and transferred to us, right? You should be safe from Samara or Sadako or whoever." Yawning, he leaned heavily against his desk with his elbow. "Now is that all? I would like to sleep at some point tonight."

"Yes, thank you for everything." Turning, Kuroko glanced upwards. "How do you feel now, Kagami-kun?"

Peaking between his fingers, the red-head hesitated a moment before slowly nodding. "I feel good. Definitely a bit less anxious. Is that really all you have to do to escape the curse?"

"According to the movie, yes."

"Well then, thanks for the help! We'll get out of your hair now!" Kagami exclaimed, quickly grabbing Kuroko by the shoulders and physically steering him out of the room.

Left by themselves, Kasamatsu slowly turned a smoldering gaze on Kise. "So you're going around telling everyone that we're dating, huh?"

Kise silently braced himself for the foot that he knew was inevitably going to strike him.

(****)

Halfway back to the apartment, Kagami and Kuroko split up. It was so late that they were sure everyone must have already gone home and they bid farewell until morning practice. Kagami felt so drained at this point that he walked the rest of the way home in a sort of trance, exhausted on both a physical and a mental level. He was no longer scared though, reassured by the lengths Kuroko had gone in order to lift the curse, even though he still unconsciously recalled parts of the movie. That terrible skreeee, skreeee sound in particularly echoed within his ears but it no longer scared him as it had not long ago.

That may have had more to do with being too tired to feel fear rather than anything else, but he was certainly in no position to question what had caused his relief.

Sighing, he mechanically climbed the stairs leading up to his apartment and walked down the hall. He was half asleep by the time he reached his door and he pushed it open to find his residence deathly quiet. He should have questioned plenty of things at this point but instead he merely trudged through the living room and into his bedroom where he collapsed onto the bed, vampire costume and all.

Kagami was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

(****)

S-seriously guys, you're killing me over here. At least say something. Two people favorited this and four people followed it and yet, still, no one has anything to say? I'm getting some really mixed feelings here and I don't think I have it in me to become one of those 'I'll only update if I get so many reviews' people but I MAY just end up dropping this story if I feel like no ones interested. An author without an audience is like a dolphin without water and an audience without an opinion is like a shark without teeth. It just doesn't happen. Anyway, the slippery slope into horror starts up next chapter and with it will come less dialogue and more action. Get hyped.