Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

FiveUp was dying his hair white again, trying to cover his roots that are growing in, when his phone buzzed. He ignores the second buzz, as busy—he can’t text. He became slightly annoyed when it began blowing up, and he knew it was Hafu before she even began to call.

He sighed and put his stuff down for a moment, slipping off one glove to answer before putting his glove back on and going right back to dying his hair.

“Five!” Hafu’s voice came through. “Why weren’t you answering my messages?”

“I’m busy, I can’t type,” Five responded, cursing as he dropped the brush onto the counter, causing dye to splatter. He picked it back up, put more dye on it, and went back to what he was doing, leaving the mess to clean up later.

“Well?” she started again after a moment. “What are you doing?”

FiveUp hummed. “Why are you calling?”

“You answer my question first.”

“You’re the one blowing up my phone.”

She huffed. “Fine. Do you want to go ghost hunting?”

“Hell no,” FiveUp responded instinctively. I have to deal with too many ghosts already, he groaned inside. It’s why he became a streamer in the first place—he doesn’t have to go out of his house every day and see all the wandering ghosts crying and moaning—the screaming ones and the laughing ones are the ones he hated the most.

“Why? You’re not busy!”

“I’m dying my hair,” FiveUp retorted before he realized he fell into her trap. He groaned as she chuckled, then stopped as she seemed confused.

“Why are you dying your hair?”

FiveUp forgot that they haven’t seen his face yet. Yes, he moved to live closer to them all—they all moved closer to each other to do vlogs and to stream together and just simply hang out—but they still hadn’t seen his face yet.

“You haven’t even seen me yet, is that why you’re trying to get me to go?”

“Come on, Five!” Hafu pleaded. “We’ve all been living close to each other for a year now, and you haven’t done anything with us—let alone let us see your face. It won’t even be streamed. It’ll just be me, you, DK, Apollo, and Steve.”

FiveUp froze for a second before groaning. He was a sucker for Steve—anything Steve was involved in, FiveUp would happily do, even if he repeatedly denied doing it for his friends. He really had to get a hold of himself—Steve is just a friend, nothing more, no matter how much he wanted it.

He couldn’t fault her for bringing up Steve’s name—she wasn’t purposely using his name to get him to agree to go, she didn’t know FiveUp may have a little crush on their dear friend Steve.

“I’ll buy you drinks,” Hafu offered in his silence, and FiveUp was silently grateful—she had no idea she gave him an excuse of how he was bribed to come with drinks and totally not Steve.

FiveUp audibly groaned. “Fine. You owe me drinks and if you ask me a favor for two weeks, I’m blocking you. Deal?”

“Deal!” she responded cheerfully. “Steve will be there at nine.”

“What time is it now?” he asked, now putting his stuff down to wait for the dye to develop.

“It’s eight forty.”

FiveUp glared at the phone. “Wow, a warning. Well, he’s going to have to wait.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry, David backed out at the last minute, his mother needed his help with something. I texted him, he’s fine with waiting a few minutes, but he said he’s still going to honk at you anyway.”

FiveUp groaned. “I have neighbors!”

“He doesn’t care,” Hafu responded, as if FiveUp didn’t already know. “You might want to hurry it up, though.”

FiveUp gave a pointed glare at the phone. “You can’t ‘hurry up’ dying your hair, Hafu.”

“Why’re you dying your hair anyway?”

“Because I can?” FiveUp responded with an eye roll. He felt a little guilty keeping all these secrets from her, but that’s how he wanted them to stay: secrets that no one but himself knew. Even though dying his hair white was just a family tradition all of his family did, he didn’t want the extra questions that came with it.

Hafu hummed. “What color are you dying it?”

“White.”

“Isn’t that hard to do with any hair color? How blonde are you?”

“It is, I bleached it first. I’m not blonde, I’m brunette.”

“Are you trying to fry your hair?”

FiveUp smiled at her worry. “I’m fine, Hafu. My hair’s fine. I’ve been doing this for years.”

“Is it already fried?” she pressed, and FiveUp laughed.

“The color will stop holding when I’ve dyed it too much,” Five informed her. “It’ll be fine anyway. I take precautions. I let it grow out to its normal brown over winter.” Winter was the only time of the year where his family didn’t dye their hair white—they let the dye grow out by fall, and heal over winter, to repeat the dying process when spring comes. FiveUp faintly remembers his sister explaining that it’s so that the family can continue to dye their hair white while also standing out against the snow, and not to be mistaken for the other religion being celebrated at winter time.

“And that helps?”

FiveUp shrugged. “That’s what I’ve been told. It’s been working for me. I also don’t get box dye, I hunt for saloon dye.”

“And there’s a difference?”

FiveUp hummed. “A huge one.”

Then someone else’s voice could be heard distantly through Five’s phone from Hafu’s end. “Ah, I got to go. We’re going to meet up at a restaurant to eat, as it’s a long drive there. It’s supposed to be really cool, that’s why Steve wanted to show you.”

FiveUp tried to ignore how his chest seemed to explode and stay warm. Steve wanted to show him?

Hafu doesn’t even realize the number of reasons, besides alcohol, she’s giving him to go.

“How long is the ride?”

“Two hours.”

Oh, FiveUp was screwed. Was he going to be in the car alone with Steve for two hours?

“Wait, are we going in different vehicles?”

“Yeah. We can’t all fit in one car anyway, Five! There’s five of us. We’re all adults, so unless you want to be crammed in the same car as Steve and DK—“

“Alright, alright,” FiveUp brushed her off. “I got it. Go do what you’ve got to do. Tell Steve that if he starts honking, I will hit him.”

She laughed, assured him she would, and hung up, leaving FiveUp in silence. He looked at the time stamp of their call and then made a timer based on the remaining time he needed to wait.

While waiting for his color to sit, FiveUp mindlessly scrolled his accounts, liking tweets of fanart of him from his fans, while trying not to get nervous. It wasn’t working too well.

He was going to be in the car with Steve for two hours—alone! Steve, who he had grown particularly fond of recently. Steve, who had never seen his face before. What if he didn’t like how he looked? And he also has to show what he really looks like to Hafu, Apollo, and DK as well!

Then, right as FiveUp was about to rinse his hair and wash it, he heard it—honking. He groaned and hurried to wash out his hair in a hurry before rushing to scramble getting properly dressed, all while getting a headache from the neverending honking. Why did he like this guy?

Finally, he was able to rush out of his apartment, apologizing to those wondering what all the honking was about, earning him some dirty looks. When he finally saw Steve, still honking his car, he ran up and immediately started repeatedly trying to open the locked door. Steve unlocked it, thankfully letting go on the honking, and FiveUp climbed in with a glare. He immediately punched Steve’s shoulder.

“Oh! What was that for?”

“I said ‘no honking!’ I have neighbors! I was busy!”

Steve gave a smug grin. “And I said I ‘didn’t care.’”

FiveUp’s glare hardened. “You’re a nuisance, you know that?”

“Only for you, babe.”

FiveUp huffed and rolled his eyes, turning away so that Steve couldn’t see his cheeks heating up. Steve didn’t know what he was doing when he playfully flirts with FiveUp like that, but, one day, FiveUp would make him regret it.

“You have white hair?” Steve asked after a moment.

FiveUp sighed. “I dyed it. I was dying it when you wouldn’t stop honking.”

Steve hummed. “What’s your natural hair color?”

“Brown,” he responded with a huff. “Yes, it takes multiple times of bleaching it to get it to go white. Can we start going now?”

Steve hummed and got out his phone and called Hafu. “We’re leaving now, start heading there!”

“Alright!” Hafu responded before yelling at Apollo and DK to load up. “See you guys soon!” she told them before hanging up. Shortly after, Steve started up the car with GPS leading the way.

“I didn’t think you were going to come,” Steve spoke up after a few minutes of driving. FiveUp had been staring at the people walking on the sidewalk, unknowing of the ghosts wandering right beside them.

FiveUp was grateful he couldn’t hear them in the car.

“I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”

“I don’t,” FiveUp lied. “Hafu bribed me with drinks.”

Steve laughed. “Oh, that’s a good deal! Dude, you’ve got to share with me!”

“No way,” FiveUp responded, knowing full well that he actually probably would give up his drinks for Steve. “It’s my reward for going on this stupid trip.”

“It’s not a ‘stupid trip’! We’re going ghost hunting. That’s super fucking cool, and it’s got us a shit-ton of views all the other times we went.”

“Oh, that’s why Hafu ‘believes’ in ghosts now.”

“Hey! Ghosts are real, dude!”

“Uh–huh, sure,” FiveUp responded with a deadpan expression, pushing down the urge to just agree with Steve. He looked back out the window, trying to not focus on the fact that he was alone with Steve in the car, and saw a ghost on the ground, screaming for only him to hear. He shivered and focused back on Steve, who was glancing at him repeatedly, slight worry etched in his expression.

“You good, dude? If you’re cold, you can turn off the AC. I don’t know why you’re cold, though, it’s fuckin’ burning up.”

Five couldn’t help the small smile and how his chest began to feel warm once more. “I’m fine, Steve. I’m not—It’s my hair. It’s still wet. I just have to wait for it to dry.” He fished out his phone. “What music do you want to listen to?”

“Hell yeah,” Steve answered and snatched FiveUp’s phone to pick a song.

“Pay attention to the road!” FiveUp shouted as he snatched the phone back. “Are you trying to murder me?”

“Chill, dude. I’ve been on my phone plenty of times while driving. It’s fine. I haven’t wrecked before, I won’t wreck now.”

FiveUp scoffed. “Whatever. Just tell me what song you want me to play.”

And so Steve gave him song name after song name, all the way until they made it to the restaurant—albeit late, as Steve took a wrong turn, resulting in a scolding from Five. FiveUp didn’t mind letting him control all the music. In fact, he was saving it to a new playlist called ‘Stevie’s Music’ in his phone so that he’ll always have it handy, and can listen to it when he’s missing him.

Finally, they made it to the restaurant and quickly rushed to the table Hafu, DK, and Apollo were sitting at.

“Finally! What took y’all so long?” DK exclaimed when he saw them.

“Steve took a wrong turn, sorry, guys.”

“Shut the fuck up, dude!” Steve retorted as he slid in the booth after FiveUp. “You were playing the music too loud to where I couldn’t hear!”

“You kept telling me to raise the volume! It’s your shitty music, you think I want to listen to it full blast?”

“Woah, Five, we do not need to go there!” DK intervened.

“Yeah, that was just mean,” Steve added with a pout. “My music is not ‘shitty.’”

“Yeah, FiveUp, be nice,” Apollo joined in, making FiveUp huff. “His music can’t be that bad.”

FiveUp gave him a pointed glare. “I felt like my ears were bleeding.”

“You could’ve turned it off! We were using your phone and you wouldn’t let me grab it!”

“You were trying to be on the phone while driving! What was I supposed to do? You could’ve snatched my phone again and crashed us!”

“Shut the fuck up, dude, you’re just being dramatic!”

“Guys,” Hafu snapped, grabbing both of their attention. “Decide what you want to eat so that we can order. We’ve been sitting here waiting for you guys for fifteen minutes.”

“Yeah, guys, stop with the fighting,” Apollo added. “It’s not necessary. You’re drawing attention and you may get us kicked out.”

“Why are you always ruining my entertainment?” DK asked with a pout. “You’re such a party–pooper, Apollo. And a teacher’s pet.”

“I am not a teacher’s pet!”

“You so are, dude,” Steve snickered. “Five’s the substitute, and he’s not even a teacher’s pet like you are.”

“I’m not sure if I’m supposed to take that as a compliment,” FiveUp grumbled.

“Guys. What’re you guys getting?” Hafu snapped at Five and Steve.

“Dude, chill. Let me choose,” Steve whined as FiveUp examined the menu. “Five, isn’t she such a nagger?”

Five gave him a side glance. “Don’t look at me, I’m not going to be siding with you and risk getting smacked.”

Steve gave him a pointed glare. “What, like you hit me earlier?”

“Woah, Five, you’re abusing my brother now?”

Apollo sighed. “FiveUp, why did you hit Steve?”

Five purposely ignored DK’s comment, and glared at both Steve and Apollo. Mainly Apollo. “Wow, you really are a teacher’s pet. Steve deserved it for honking knowing I was busy, was going to be late, and I had neighbors.”

“Why are you all attacking me?”

“What are you guys getting?” Hafu pressed again.

“Dude, I’m probably just going to get a burger.”

Five looked at him. “Dude,” he mocked, “you’re so lame. I’m getting the chicken alfredo.”

“What’s with all this Steve slander? You’re slandering my brother and I won’t have it!” DK declared.

“At least someone is on my side!” Steve cried.

Five rolled his eyes with Apollo while Hafu just groaned.

A few moments later, the server came over and took their orders. They spoke about everything and nothing while waiting for their food, and Apollo, Hafu, and FiveUp kept chastising DK and Steve for talking with their mouths full.

Then they got to the topic of FiveUp, considering none of them had ever seen him before.

“You look a lot different than I was expecting,” Apollo commented, to which Hafu agreed with a hum.

“What were you expecting me to look like?”

They shrugged. “I don’t know, man, just not this, I guess,” Apollo stated. Five lifted a brow and gave a pointed glare, not sure if he was being insulted or not.

“You want to know what I was expecting?” DK butted in, and Five gave an amused smile.

“What, DK?”

“I was expecting a hobbit,” DK exclaimed, immediately making Five’s face fall as Steve burst out laughing. Hafu and Apollo at least had the decency to at least hide their snickers.

FiveUp turned around and smacked Steve, ignoring his shouts of mock pain, and ignoring Apollo and Hafu’s growing snickers. FiveUp didn’t even have to say anything when he turned his glare to DK for the man to already put his hands up in mock surrender.

“Dude, my brother, I was joking, I swear!”

FiveUp gave an unamused hum, took out cash to pay his portion and a tip, and turned to Steve, offering out his hands. “Keys,” he demanded.

“You just hit me, you think I’m going to let you steal my car?”

FiveUp gave him a pointed glare. “I can’t drive, dipshit. I’m going to sit in the car while I wait for you guys to finish up.”

“Oh, come on, Five,” DK whined. “Don’t you want to spend time with us? Steve’s a lot to deal with, don’t you want a break?”

“Shut the fuck up, dude. I am not a lot to deal with—I’m less to ‘deal with’ than you!”

Five groaned. “Steve. Keys,” he ordered again, and the man obeyed as he shot back at DK, never meeting his eyes. He did climb out the booth to let Five go, however.

“See you at the haunted house!” Hafu called as he left, and he groaned.

When they pulled up to the haunted house, Five didn’t know what to expect.

He certainly wasn’t expecting them to pull up to his childhood home—his family’s old estate—though.

He froze when he saw it, and didn’t even register that Steve climbed out until he was knocking on his door with a questioning expression. Five ignored it and climbed out. He walked straight up to Hafu, DK, and Apollo with Steve trailing behind him.

“So what’s the story behind the house?”

“Apparently, there was a family of ten living there—“

“Whoo!” DK exclaimed. “That’s a lot of kids.”

Hafu shook her head. “Actually, no. There were three generations living in the home—it’s an estate, so it had the rooms plus extras. There was supposedly a grandmother, her two daughters, and their kids. There were five kids, one belonging to one sister. Only one of the siblings was under fifteen. He was called ‘Summit Stanton,’ aged ten, and survived the day his family went missing by hiding but didn’t witness what actually happened. The only thing he got from them was that they were religious and doing a ceremony, and he got bored so he wandered off into his playroom, and hid when he heard screams.”

“That must be traumatizing for a little kid,” Apollo murmured, and Five nodded.

It was traumatizing. He shuddered, trying to block out the memory.

“At least we won’t get attacked by a little kid,” DK exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood. “Getting haunted by children are fucking terrifying, dude.”

“For real!” Steve agreed.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Hafu spoke up, getting their attention again, especially Five’s. “When they put the kid into the foster system, he was bounced around, people claiming he was ‘crazy’ to ‘haunted’ to outright calling him a ‘murderer’ and ‘servant to Satan.’ Eventually, he went missing, and the rumors say that he returned to his family home and committed suicide in his teen years.”

“So if he’s in there,” Apollo started, “he might be the worst one?”

Hafu nodded. “Very likely. He’ll probably be the most angry, with all he went through.”

“Let’s just hurry this up so I can go to sleep,” Five interrupted, wanting to just get it over with and move on from the conversation. “What do I need? What am I supposed to do?”

“Shut the fuck up, dude,” Steve commented. “Don’t act like your sleeping schedule isn’t already fucked.”

FiveUp rolled his eyes and scoffed, but never answered him. Apollo began to hand him things as Steve took a moment to vape real quick. Within a few minutes, FiveUp had a flashlight, a thermometer he wasn’t sure what to do with, a crucifix, and a walkie talkie.

“Alright, so there’s an uneven number of us because Janet didn’t want to come, so stick with who you rode here with.”

Five groaned, trying to ignore how his heart seemed happy at the prospect of staying near Steve even longer.

“Oh, come on, I’m not that bad!” Steve exclaimed, and DK just laughed as he taunted Steve. Apollo and Hafu both rolled their eyes at the two.

“Come on, let’s go inside. I’m kind of curious to see what the inside looks like,” Apollo spoke up, getting DK and Steve’s banter to come to an end. They all began to make their way to the entrance, and FiveUp tried his best to ignore how heavy and tight his chest began to feel, and how everything inside him screamed at him to turn around.

But he told his friends he didn’t believe in ghosts. He told his friends his name was Earl Eaton. He told his friends he simply cut off his family, no more details. So he kept going, getting closer to Steve the closer they got, until he was right up to Steve when they entered the building.

Steve didn’t say anything, and FiveUp wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or not.

When they entered the main entrance, which had been seemingly left untouched, they pushed.

“Okay, who’s got what?” Apollo asked.

“I snagged the EMF this time with a lot of bribing to Hafu,” Steve declared, chest full of pride. FiveUp wasn’t sure what the EMF did or why it was important, but he felt himself swell up in pride as well from how happy Steve was about it.

He ignored Hafu’s questioning gaze.

“DK’s got the UV light and salt. I’ve got the book and the camera. Apollo, you have the spirit box?”

“I do,” Apollo confirmed, showing it off.

“It’s so weird that everything looks untouched when they just up and disappear one day,” DK muttered.

FiveUp scoffed. Of course it didn’t look untouched, that was the whole thing. Only the Ceremony Room where his family was last seen was destroyed, as well as his playroom.

“What?” DK asked.

“Nothing,” Five responded, ignoring the questioning glances from his friends. “Let’s just see if everything else looks untouched.”

They continued on, with FiveUp holding out the thermometer with no clue on why. DK kept sprinkling salt around, and all FiveUp got from it was ‘demonic entities don’t like salt,’ which FiveUp was sure was just a myth—he faintly remembered his family laughing about it. He simply rolled his eyes, however, and didn’t say anything.

Eventually, they find the old kitchen, where water was spilling out of the sink. Hafu gasped and took a picture for whatever reason, and FiveUp investigated the pantry to see it left just like how he last saw it, just with mold on the food. He scrunched his nose at the large amounts of homemade applesauce for FiveUp, feeling nauseous—he hasn’t been able to eat applesauce again since that day.

“Ew,” Steve commented, making Five flinch. He didn't realize the man was behind him. “That’s gross.”

“What’s gross?” DK asked as he walked up to them, a strange glint of awe in his eye. Five wrinkled his nose at it.

“This food—it’s all rotten.”

DK pushed past Five and Steve and went ‘ooh,’ much to Five’s confusion. Hafu quickly joined and took a picture.

“Well, there was definitely a young kid here,” Apollo commented as he looked at the applesauce. “And a large family definitely lived here, with how much food that is.”

“I wonder how much their grocery bill had cost,” Steve muttered, and FiveUp bit his lip. They didn’t go grocery shopping—they grew their own food, raised chickens for eggs and to eat, and even had cows for milk and to eat as well. They made their own clothes too, and carved their own furniture and kitchen utensils. They did everything they could to be independent from the town.

“Considering they went missing in the early two–thousands, they weren’t spending but maybe one thousand a month on groceries.”

“Can we go before the smell of mold makes me sick?” FiveUp asked, wanting to hurry things up. The others agreed, so they quickly moved out of the kitchen.

FiveUp was silently glad they aren’t looking too far into things, less they uncover the old servants’s passageways and FiveUp’s old secret hideouts for when he got into trouble.

What FiveUp wasn’t glad for, was that it only took a couple of minutes for the ghosts to begin to show. They weren’t FiveUp’s family, which confused him greatly, but they glared at him as they followed him around, as if he had personally murdered him or something.

FiveUp got closer to Steve who, again, didn’t say anything. This time, Five knew he was overly grateful he didn’t say anything.

Then, as they get extremely close to the Ceremony Room, Steve’s EMF goes off, making him grin.

“Level five!” he exclaimed. “Write it down, write it down!”

“Dude, I’m trying!” Apollo responded as he scrambled to get a journal and pen out and sit down. “Don’t rush me!”

“Let’s go!” DK exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. “Should we get out the spirit box then?”

“Give me a moment,” Apollo called before hurrying to get it out.

“What name should we call for?”

“We can try for Summit Stanton first,” Hafu answered, “see if he’s here. We don’t have much of the family’s names, other than the missing boy’s siblings. Their names were apparently Rosemary nicknamed Rosie, Matilda, and Jameson.”

DK scrunched his nose. “Weird ass names.”

FiveUp glared daggers at the floor, since he couldn’t glare at DK directly without the others noticing.

“Alright. Summit Stanton, if you are here, give us a sign!”

FiveUp felt compelled to answer, but kept his mouth tightly shut. He looked down at the floor, not wanting to look at any of the angry ghosts surrounding them.

After a few minutes of FiveUp fighting the urge to respond, DK finally moved on.

“Jameson Stanton, if you are here, give us a sign!”

FiveUp was silently glad that DK didn’t seem too knowledgeable on ghosts—he didn’t say his brother’s name correctly to make it a command, to try to force his brother to respond. He only hoped his brother wouldn’t respond.

He didn’t.

As they breezed through names, they got no response.

“Maybe they’re shy,” Apollo finally proposed. “I mean, weren’t they here with just each other for company for years and years? If they died here, that means that they’ve been trapped here with their family for even longer without any human interaction. Maybe they’re scared of us.”

“I have a feeling they’re more of the angry bunch,” Hafu responded before abruptly standing up. “Alright, let’s split up. Stick with who you rode here with.”

Steve jumped up and cheered, pulling FiveUp up with him. “Finally! Fuck you guys!”

Apollo wrinkled his nose while Hafu rolled her eyes and DK shot back with something sending them into another playful banter.

“Alright, wrap it up,” Five spoke up, pulling Steve away, trying to ignore how the ghosts seem to be getting angrier. “Let’s ditch these losers, Stevie.”

“Hell yeah!” Steve agreed, walking in front of FiveUp with a pep in his step.

“Fuck you both!” DK yelled as they left the room, causing them both to laugh.

“What does splitting up have to do with the ghosts being shy?” FiveUp questioned.

“Some ghosts are less likely to be active around large groups of people,” Steve informed him, “so we split up to help them feel more at ease.”

“What’re we looking for?”

“Any sign that ghosts are here. Has your thermometer done anything weird yet?” Five shook his head in response. “Alright. Well, we’re just looking for anything that says ghosts are here.”

Does actively seeing them surrounding us count? FiveUp thought bitterly.

They wandered around, taking pictures of family paintings and portraits, with Five trying to ignore the angry ghosts around them. Why were they angry? Five needed to find out, but he couldn’t get away from Steven.

Then he saw her—the crying ghost of his mother.

He saw her out of the corner of his eye and whipped around to see her standing there, silently crying. Then she turned and walked away. Five spared a glance at Steve, who was still walking forward, expecting Five to be following, and then tried to chase after the ghost of his mother as silently as possible.

She was as beautiful as the last day he saw her. Her long white fluffy hair was done up in a ponytail, and she wore the same white dress draped in gold.

FiveUp followed her down two corridors before he lost her. “Mom?” he called out quietly, heart racing as the angry ghosts surrounded him instead. One stepped forward from the circle, slowly walking towards him as he bumped into the wall behind him. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”

The ghost sneered. “Stanton,” it spit. Then it jumped at him, and FiveUp screamed.

FiveUp could feel the cold as it grabbed him by the next, making him struggle to breath, before throwing him across the hall. He gasped as he landed, panting as he tried to get his air back into his lungs while also attempting to scramble away. The ghost didn’t want him to escape, though, as it jumped back at him, repeating his last name over and over again.

Then he hears footsteps running at him, and something is thrown at the ghost on top of him, causing the ghost to disappear. FiveUp gasps as Steve is suddenly above him, pulling him into his chest.

Never before had the ghosts attacked him. They’d grabbed his wrists and legs before, yes. They’d cried and begged for him to help them, yes. But they never attacked him.

FiveUp tried focusing on the warm body against his, instead of the cold grip that was just strangling him. Steve was muttering something, but FiveUp couldn’t hear, and then suddenly he was pulled up and being dragged, and then he was being shoved inside a closet with Steve.

Any other time, Five would’ve been extremely nervous but excited, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on their closeness as Steve held his hand over his mouth to silence his crying.

Five froze as a figure passed the door, pushing himself more into Steve. The floorboards creaked as the ghost passed, and Five was reminded just how creaky the floorboards used to be.

After an agonizing few minutes, the ghosts all passed by the door and left them alone, some screeching so loud that Five flinched and tried to push himself into Steve more than he already had.

“Fuck, man,” Steve whispered. “You scared me shitless! Why the fuck would you do that? I thought you were going to fucking die, man!”

FiveUp just stood there, holding his arms to himself as he tried to force himself to calm down. They’d never attacked him before, no matter how angry they were—why? Why did they attack him?

“Come on,” Steve spoke softly after a few moments, drawing Five’s attention. He’d never seen Steve look so shaken, so stressed—so scared. It didn’t fit the Steve he knew. He hates the worry etched into his face, he hates the haunted look in his eye, and he hates the frown. Most of all, he hates that he put it there. “Let’s go. We’re leaving,” he ordered as he fished out his walkie talkie and turned it on.

“We’re leaving, let’s go,” he ordered into the walkie talkie.

“What? Why? But we found this room that’s completely trashed and full of toys—“

“Don’t care,” Steve interrupted. “We’re leaving. Now. Five and I are heading to the cars, meet you there. We might leave without you.” He then turned it off, pulled FiveUp closer, and led him out the closet. They scurried away as fast as they could, with Five hiding his face in Steve’s shirt to ignore the curious and angry looks of the ghosts.

They stopped outside the car to catch a breath and calm down before trying to drive off. Five didn’t dare let go of Steve as he tried to force his breathing to calm.

“Are you hurt?” Steve asked after a few minutes.

“I’m fine,” FiveUp mumbled assuringly. “I’m fine, really. I—I am.”

“Let’s load up,” Steve mumbled after a few moments. “We should get ready to go.”

“Give me a few more minutes,” Five pleaded, gripping his shirt tighter. “I—I’m still shaken. I wasn’t. . .”

“It’s fine, it’s not your fault,” Steve assured him. “We. . . We shouldn’t have brought you, knowing you didn’t believe in ghosts. That’s on us.”

Five almost admitted he always did believe in ghosts, but then Hafu, DK, and Apollo joined them. They were loud, laughing and fighting until they were close enough to see FiveUp and Steve. Five quickly pulled off of Steve and climbed into the car.

“Did something happen?” Hafu asked as Five slammed the door shut. He could hear anything after that, but Steve seemed to mumble something short as he raced to get into the driver’s side.

“I didn’t tell them,” Steve muttered when he shut the door and started fidgeting with his phone and car.

Five nodded, grateful he didn’t, but also guilty. It’s one more secret that he’s keeping from his friends, just this time, Steve is in on it.

“Did you want to tell them?” Five shook his head. “Do you want them to know?” Five shook his head again. Steve nodded. “Alright. I’ll keep my mouth shut. Why don’t you play your music?”

Five was grateful for the distraction, so he focused on finding his favorite songs to show off to Steve. Though the ride was more solemn then when they came, they both did their best to try to pretend as if nothing happened.

When they got back to the city, both of them agreed FiveUp would spend the night at Steve’s. They didn’t tell their friends.

Chapter Text

FiveUp knows he’s fucked. No one has to tell him.

FiveUp had been staying over at Steve’s for so long, that they started calling Steve’s apartment Five’s as well. They call them ‘roommates’ now. Steve’s room was FiveUp’s room. Steve’s bed was Five’s bed, and Steve had to buy a couch for his room to sleep in his room with FiveUp. Steve’s food was Five’s food. Steve’s vape was Five’s vape.

Yes, FiveUp had started vaping. Could you blame him, though? He learned that the ghosts can actually harm them if they wanted to now, and when he returned to his apartment after a week, fearing he overstayed his welcome, he was being haunted by the ghosts that were in his childhood home. Now he only went to his apartment on rare occasions or when he needed to stream—which he was doing now.

“FiveUp, where were you?” Hafu’s voice came through his microphone. Five removed the vape from his mouth—FiveUp wasn’t so sure Steve knew he’d stolen it yet—and blew out the smoke, focusing on the taste of strawberry. Steve had said it reminded him of FiveUp, but Five wasn’t sure how and he refused to explain further.

“Oh, I started in admin—“

“What were you doing that took so long to answer?” Apollo asked.

“Uh, vaping,” Five answered hesitantly.

“Is that where my vape went?” Steve asked right as Apollo spoke.

“You vape?”

Five ignored both Apollo’s question, and chat’s as well. He chuckled at Steve. “Took you long enough.”

Steve laughed. “Shut the fuck up, dude!”

“You know that vaping is bad for you, right?” Janet’s voice asked. FiveUp groaned.

“Janet, just leave him be,” Steve responded, a little too much edge in his voice. FiveUp just simply smiled as Janet grew concerned, as well as the others. He took another hit as the others began questioning Steve, and he pointedly ignored chat until the timer ran out.

“Oh, fuck”s were heard when the timer ran out, followed by Hafu’s “deafen.”

“I trust Steve,” FiveUp told his chat as he began to move to finish his task in oxygen. “I don’t think he’s an imposter. I’m suspicious of DK though, he was strangely quiet—“

FiveUp froze.

In the reflection of his monitor, he could see eyes staring at him. After a moment of eye contact, the ghost began to scream, and FiveUp rushed to throw his headphones off his head and rush out the house, not noticing that Steve’s character had walked up to Five’s frozen character and was standing with him.

He burst through his apartment door, slamming it shut as he ran down the hall, eyes wide and chest beating. He ran down the street, shoving the grabbing hands of ghosts off of him as he ran past. Steve’s place was a good ten–minute drive away, but FiveUp still didn’t stop. Not when he could hear the screams and cries surrounding him, his mind making him believe they were still the ghosts from his old home.

When he finally reached Steve’s apartment complex, he stopped to pant for a minute before running into the building. His sides were burning, his chest was burning, and everything was spinning, but he didn’t care. He didn’t even wait for the elevator, choosing to run up the stairs instead.

Finally, he made it to Steve’s door, and rushed to get the spare keys that Steve gave him out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He burst through the door and slammed it shut before running over to Steve’s room, where he knew the man was streaming. When he slammed the bedroom door open, Steve turned around and gave him wide eyes.

“Five?” Steve spoke softly, eyes wide and brows furrowed in confusion as he looked at the panting FiveUp. “Did you run all the way here?”

Five nodded, feeling dizzy. He went and collapsed on Steve’s bed, turning to look at Steve as he turned back to his computer for a minute.

“Hey, yeah, Five’s here, so he’s safe. I’ll be back, I’ll text you guys later. Bye, guys. Bye, chat, sorry for the early end.” He quickly shut down the stream, left the game, and shut down his computer. FiveUp watched, taking a hit of his vape, as Steve took off his headphones and sat on the bed.

“What happened, Five?”

The tone in his voice—soft with genuine worry, but with an edge of protectiveness—made FiveUp almost spill out the truth about everything. But he didn’t. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

When he started to cough, that’s when he realized he stopped breathing and hadn’t exhaled the smoke. He realized with a startle that he was shaking.

“I. . .” FiveUp started when he realized Steve was still waiting for an answer. “I thought I saw it again, in my house.” He hated how guilty he felt for lying to Steve.

Steve was quiet for a moment before slowly reaching out and bringing him into a hug. “I’m sorry I took you there.”

“It was my fault,” he muttered, ignoring Steve’s ‘no’s. “It was my fault,” he repeated, louder and more final, making Steve go silent. “I wandered off instead of staying close to you. I’m keeping secrets and I’m lying to you guys because I can’t tell you the truth. That’s what makes it so much worse—it’s my fault it happened, no one else’s. I did it to myself. I’m sorry.”

Steve stayed silent, simply watching as FiveUp took another hit of the vape. They stayed there, sitting in silence, until FiveUp finally calmed down. Steve ended up playing a movie, and then they went to shut down Five’s stream that was left running.

When they got back to FiveUp’s apartment, it was seemingly left alone. But it hadn’t. FiveUp didn’t miss the scratches on the wall, or the light blue splatter on his wall, peeking out from behind the couch. He didn’t miss how his books and notebooks had been flipped open. He didn’t miss how his cup on the counter had been knocked over and was spilling tea on the counter, the cupboards, and the floor. He didn’t miss how the blankets had been dropped on the floor across the room from where they had been sitting on the couch. He didn’t miss how his television was turned on. He didn’t miss how the set temperature had been knocked down twenty degrees.

All of it just solidified the fact that FiveUp was, in fact, not hallucinating the encounter. Of course, he knew, realistically, he hadn’t been, but it was the hope that that’s all it had been—his mind playing tricks on him out of fear, because of what happened.

Five hurried to go turn off his computer, noticing the hand print in his mirror. When he turned around, there was the face of his brother attached to it.

They stood there, staring, for what felt like forever. Five didn’t dare turn around to see the actual ghost, settling to stare at the reflection. He felt his heart begin to race. He wasn’t sure what to do.

Then, his brother uttered “Summit,” right when Steve opened his bedroom door, and the ghost of his dead brother disappeared.

Steve looked seriously concerned. He looked more and more concerned for FiveUp’s well being with every passing day, and Five wondered if he should be concerned for himself. His brows were too tight, his eyes too dark, and he was frowning. FiveUp much preferred the relaxed, happy Steve, and hated himself for the joy that welled in Five’s heart at the fact that Steve was concerned for him.

When Steve opened his mouth was when FiveUp was able to move again, and he quickly walked right past Steve to leave his apartment. He could borrow Steve’s clothes tonight.

When Steve offered to buy them ice cream, Five chuckled, letting a soft smile grace his lips as he accepted the offer. His chest felt warm inside, even when they were finally eating their ice cream together in Steve’s living room.

Somehow, they got to the topic of their venture into Five’s childhood home.

“Why did you wander off, dude?” Steve questioned. “I turned around and you weren’t there, and I began to panic as I looked for you. I thought you were dying when I heard your scream.”

Five gave a weak chuckle. “Well, I was being strangled, so. . .” When FiveUp began thinking of a lie to tell Steve, he felt the guilt set in, but he forced it out anyway. “I wandered off because I—I thought I saw something. I went to grab it to show you, but when I turned around, I was being attacked.”

“What did you find?” Steve pressed, eyes narrowed on FiveUp in a way that made him nervous—did he know Five wasn’t being truthful?

“Oh, just a strange instrument that looked to have been broken clean in half,” he lied. He knew there was a broken instrument in the home—the morning of the event, Rosemary hadn’t gotten into trouble again, so they broke her guitar as punishment. They had been due to burn it that night, but then. . .

Steve hummed, unaware of how guilty FiveUp felt from the lie he just told, before getting up and going to his room. FiveUp furrowed his brows, but it didn’t take but a few minutes for Steve to return with a small piece of paper in his hand.

“I found this creepy ass motherfucker,” Steve proudly declared, handing it over to Five.

Five felt the color drain from his face. It was a picture of him from his tenth birthday, with “HELP US” scribbled in red ink at the top.

They needed his help? Five knew that for ghosts to no longer be trapped on earth as ghosts, they usually had to be ‘freed,’ usually by helping solve their case. In cases of demonic entities, however, it was quite simple: burn the place.

“Creepy, right?”

Steve’s voice brought FiveUp back from his thoughts, forcing out a chuckle. “Yeah. I’m guessing this is the missing kid—Summit Stanton? That’s his name, right?”

Steve nodded, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “Yeah, I think that’s what Hafu said.” Five nodded. “I’d say I’m surprised you remembered, but you’re you,” he laughed. “It does not surprise me that you have an excellent memory.”

Five laughed with him. “Hand over the vape, Stevie,” Five demanded, holding out his hand. He wanted to try to forget about his family and the ghosts for just a little bit.

Steve happily handed it over. “Ooh, I’ll make you some weed brownies!”

With how happy Steve seemed, Five couldn’t refuse.

Chapter Text

FiveUp had been searching for his family records and history online when he heard the cries. The cries were way too familiar, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He knew he shouldn’t have left Steve’s side, but he also couldn’t drag Steve into this mess. He didn’t want Steve—or his friends—to treat him like his hometown did for it. He didn’t want them to treat him like his foster families did, or his classmates, or the other townspeople, or even the authorities.

He couldn’t go through that again.

He made the mistake of telling people the truth too many times. He couldn’t repeat his mistakes, no matter how much he wanted to just trust them—

He shouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

“Summit.” The voice was quiet, sad, and painstakingly familiar.

He forced himself to turn around and meet his dead sister’s eyes.

“Rosemary,” he breathed.

He wasn’t sure if he was grateful that it was just her or not. From his memories, she’d been the kindest of his family. Matilda had always been the cold, perfect, eldest daughter expected to become the heir. Jameson always carried a sneer, and pushed FiveUp around to have a good laugh. Mother had always been very strict with her children, and Father backed her up, but he gave out the harshest punishments.

Rosemary, on the other hand, was the family’s black sheep. He oftentimes was banned from talking to her because of it. She was always willing to argue, but was always extremely jumpy. She was always sneaking out. She was the ‘problem child’ of the family for sure, but no matter how much they described her as a nightmare, Five always saw a different version of her. He always saw Rosemary with a sad smile, a sad laugh, but willing to do anything to protect him. She’d sneak him food when he was in trouble, and she’d sneak him cool new toys every time she snuck out. She’d defend him from Jameson and his cousin, Edith.

But just like that, she was gone. She faded with the nonexistent wind, and FiveUp had made up his mind.

He was going to help his family no matter what.

He went back to researching all he could of his family’s missing case files, but it wasn’t long before the other ghosts began to show themselves. He ignored the groans as long as he could. He ignored the reflections as long as he could.

He stopped ignoring them when they got violent.

“Shit!” Five shouted as it felt like hot liquid iron was poured down his back. When he turned around, a ghost was quick to throw him across the room, sending him into his wall. Five scrambled to escape his apartment.

When Five made it to Steve’s apartment, he was reminded that he was actually supposed to be showing up anyway—everyone else was already there. Five quickly snagged one of the brownies right as Steve took them out the oven, cursing when it was hot. Steve just laughed at him.

“Dude, I just took them out! You know those are weed brownies, right? Nice to see you too, Five. Glad you could make it.”

Five ignored Steve in favor of stuffing his mouth.

“Woah, is FiveUp here?” Janet’s voice spoke as she creeped into the kitchen and entrance area. She paused and gasped, and Five remembered that Janet hadn’t seen his face before. “Woah, Five, is that you?”

He nodded, and she squealed.

“You look so good! You look better than I was expecting!”

Five coughed as Steve laughed. He swallowed before responding. “Is that an insult or. . ?”

“No, it’s a compliment!” she swore, before grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the living room. “Come on, everyone’s already here! You’re late!”

“FiveUp! My man!” DK greeted as he saw Five enter the living room. “You’re actually here!”

“I didn’t think he was even going to show up, to be honest,” Apollo commented, and FiveUp rolled his eyes as he gave a small smile.

“Of course I was going to!” he defended himself before turning to Hafu, greeting her and offering a hug before sitting on the couch with them. “So what were you guys talking about?”

“We were thinking about going to do laser tag for a vlog, or going to another haunted property and look for ghosts.”

Five wrinkled his nose. “You guys are seriously talking about work? Come on, we’re supposed to be hanging out as friends, not business partners!”

“FiveUp’s right!” Steve called from the kitchen before entering with the batch of weed brownies. Apollo just groaned as DK snickered, leaving the rest of them confused as Steve made sure to smack the back of their heads—which, of course, Janet and FiveUp laughed at.

“Five’s right about hanging out as friends,” Steve started again as he set the tray of brownies down on the table. “I knew you guys were going to have a hard time not bringing up our jobs, though, so I made weed brownies to loosen everybody up! No, Janet, you don’t have to eat them,” he added when Janet opened her mouth, making DK, Hafu, and Apollo laugh.

Steve took a seat beside Five, putting his arm behind him to rest on the couch cushion. Five didn’t say anything, even though he desperately wanted Steve to put his arm around him.

It wasn’t too long before DK and Steve started up their banter, and when Janet joined, they teamed up against her. Five kept laughing at everything Steve said, and every joke he made, and it was very clearly inflating his ego. Five even joined the ‘bully Steve’ committee, even though he refused to part from Steve, leaning against him. Steve was happy and laughing through it all, so Five encouraged it even more, keeping the attention on him, not wanting his laugh to come to an end.

Eventually, Steve pulled out his vape, causing Janet to complain. Steve rolled his eyes and handed it over to Five, who stepped outside onto the balcony to avoid Janet’s scoldings.

After a few moments, Hafu joined FiveUp outside. She stood next to him silently as he vaped.

“So, I presume Steve’s been corrupting you since you moved in?” she joked, giving a chuckle. Five rolled his eyes. She knew he hadn’t actually moved in, it’s just that he was seemingly always there.

“Maybe just a little bit,” he retorted. He gave a smile. “I don’t mind. Really.”

She hummed. She was silent for a few minutes, and FiveUp just stood there in silence with her, not wanting to go back to the chaos just yet.

“I may just be going crazy,” Hafu started again, “so don’t laugh if I seem absolutely bonkers, but . . . what’s up with you and Steve?”

Five giggled, feeling his face growing hot at just thinking of him. “What do you mean?”

She gave him a knowing grin. “Come on, don’t act like I don’t see it. You’ve been all over him from the moment we first met up. You’re vaping and doing weed when you never have before. You’re always over at his house. You’re always staring at him and laughing at everything he says like he’s the funniest person on earth.”

Five grinned, way too relaxed to really think about the consequences of his actions. “He is, Hafu. He’s also—He’s also the hottest person I’ve ever seen walk on earth.”

Hafu’s eyebrows shot up as her eyes went wide and her mouth made an ‘o’ shape. Then she grinned, and one brow dropped, and she leaned forward. “Oh? Does FiveUp have a crush on Steve?”

Five laughed. “Why do you think I went to the haunted house? For the drinks? No, you mentioned that Steve was going to be there and I had to go. You just offered up drinks so I pretended that’s why I was there.”

“Aw, that’s kind of sweet, actually. Wait—is that why you were so clingy? I figured you were uneasy due to how creepy the mansion has been.”

Five giggled and shrugged before turning around and leaving. He wanted to see Steve again, so he rejoined the man on the couch, leaning against him once again. Janet had apparently challenged Apollo to a chess game, so DK and Steve were betting on who would win. Janet had ended up winning, surprisingly, but then again, maybe Apollo was high.

After their game, Janet challenged Hafu, and lost. Then DK challenged Hafu, and lost as well. Then Steve decided to compete against FiveUp, not even bothering to challenge Hafu. Steve ended up winning since the taller man had apparently decided not to eat any of the brownies, so he was able to stay focused, unlike Five who kept giggling and rambling about nothing.

Afterwards, Janet had decided to do karaoke and challenged DK and Steve. She attempted to get Apollo, Hafu, and Five involved as well, but they were firm on their ‘no.’ They had a side conversation until they were no longer able to ignore the terrible singing, and FiveUp finally grabbed one of the untouched brownies and threw it at Steve’s head, making everyone laugh as Steve and FiveUp began to banter.

Finally, everyone else began leaving one by one, some taking an Uber if they’d eaten some of the brownies. Hafu was the last one to leave. She gave him a sly grin and a wink before she left.

He and Steve stayed on his couch, talking about nothing and everything as they went back and forth with Steve’s only box vape—the only one Five wasn’t allowed to steal. Somehow, they got onto the topic of their past.

“My mom raised me by herself,” Steve informed Five, who frowned. “My dad disappeared when he was supposed to go to work. They closed his case and decided he was probably murdered by a serial killer going around. My mom cried for days. We had to move in with my grandmother, and, boy, was she not a nice lady. She did her best to raise me, though, with what she had.”

FiveUp smiled. She had raised Steve into a pretty amazing man. Steve didn’t even realize he had FiveUp wrapped around his fingers—or maybe he just wasn’t making a big deal out of it.

“She did pretty good,” he said softly, bringing those brown eyes to his. “I think she did pretty good. You turned out to be a great person, Steven. She should be proud of you.”

“What about yours?” Steve asked. “What was your childhood like?”

Five looked away and hummed, recalling it all. “I raised myself, mostly,” he whispered. “I was placed into foster care when I was eleven, after being on the streets for about a year already. I ran away from the foster system when I was sixteen, so I lived on the streets until I was twenty. I worked enough under–the–table jobs to get myself in an apartment, and then I met Hafu, so she helped me start streaming.”

He could see Steve’s concerned gaze, worry clouding his eyes. He only smiled.

“I preferred the streets to the foster system, so it was fine,” he assured Steve. It didn’t work as intended, as his brows only furrowed deeper.

“What happened to your parents?”

Five looked away and frowned. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Everything was normal—I was playing in my room when. . . when all of a sudden they started screaming. I hid for hours after it all stopped, worried that whatever was out there that scared them that bad wasn’t gone yet. I never saw them again.”

Steve was silent for a moment, and Five regretted talking about it upon seeing his frown. He didn’t like seeing Steve upset, he only wanted him happy.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered after a few minutes of silence. “Do you know what happened to them?”

Five looked him in the eyes, studying the dark brown color. “No. They closed their case soon after. The town considered me a curse after that, so everyone hated me. Some people even thought that I killed my family.” He turned away and muttered, “Still do, apparently,” under his breath angrily.

“Those people are idiots,” Steve sneered. “Fuck those guys.”

Five gave a comforted smile. “Yeah. Fuck those guys.”

Chapter Text

People always said that lying was easy, but as the days grew on and his lies specified to specific people, FiveUp found himself tangling in his own web of lies. He was beginning to get worried that he was going to start choking himself out with them, if he hadn’t started already.

“Can you not blow smoke in my face?” Kimi asked with a wrinkled nose as she waved the smoke away.

Five frowned. “Sorry, Kimi.”

She gave a smile. “It’s no problem! I don’t mind you vaping, but it does stink, so I’d rather it not be blown in my face.” Five nodded in agreement.

Kimi and him started talking a lot after their meeting, and then they began visiting each other more regularly. FiveUp was glad to have someone at least know his real identity, and not care in the slightest. He was also glad he had a reason to deny going on more ghost hunting adventures of Hafu’s, since she started trying to bribe him with Steve since he apparently confessed to having feelings for him to her at some point.

He groaned when his phone started going off, making Kimi giggle.

“Is Hafu bothering you again?”

“Probably,” he muttered, taking another hit. He made sure to blow into his shirt this time to avoid the smoke going into Kiki’s face again. “I better answer before she breaks my phone again, though.”

However, when he got his phone, he found that the one that was messaging him was, instead, Steve. Steve was asking him to come visit—well, more so demanding, but it made Five’s heart flutter and face flush either way.

‘Sorry. I’d love to, but I have a guest.’ He hated how terrible he felt for rejecting Steve. He didn’t want to do anything that would upset the man, and he wanted to make him the happiest man on earth. However, he had a sister to bond with, and he spent so much time around Steve that he felt himself on the edge of slipping up about his crush any day now, so he needed to distance himself.

“What’s with the frown?”

“Oh, it was Steve asking me to come over.”

“You looked way too upset to be simply rejecting a hang out session with a friend.”

Five wrinkled his nose, turning away before she could see his face beating up. It only made her more intrigued, however.

“Oh, I see,” she sing–songed. “This isn’t just a friend, is it?”

She laughed when he huffed and took another hit of the vape. Then when she stopped, and he still wasn’t speaking, she began to complain. “Come on, Sammy! Tell me about him! I want to know more about who my baby brother has a crush on.”

He groaned and sunk into the couch more. “First of all, you’re only two years older than me. Secondly, it’s nothing. It’s just a silly little crush, that’s all. It’ll go away eventually, if I stop hanging out with him so much.”

She frowned at that. “Don’t be like that. What if he likes you back?”

Five scoffed, ignoring the ache of his heart. “Steve’s straight. He’s made it abundantly clear.”

She put a hand on his shoulder, but stayed quiet for a moment. “Well. . . What if he thought he was straight, and realized he was actually gay or bisexual or something?”

FiveUp didn’t answer.

“At least try?” she tried after a few minutes of silence. “Don’t just give up.” When FiveUp still remained silent, she took a deep breath. “Look, I promised your sister I would not only keep you safe, but also happy. I promised her I’d treat you like you’re my brother. So, with that being said, promise me you’ll at least try. Try to see if he likes you and, if he does, try to make it work. I just want to see you happy.”

Five frowned. “I. . . I tried that before, Kimi. I—Before Steve, I was in love with another. A past friend of mine. I moved to the Netherlands when we started dating, and I was so happy.” He hated how his voice broke thinking about it. He narrowed his eyes and glared, sneering at the floor as if it had done him wrong personally. “I was a fool. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Kimi was silent for a few moments before she spoke up again, much more quietly than before, even though she moved closer to him. “How do you know it’s going to be the same? How do you know if you don’t try?”

“Because I tried,” Five sneered, shaking her hand off of him. “I tried and tried and tried, until I learned that everybody’s the same. I can’t trust anyone—I can’t even trust myself.”

Kimi opened her mouth and then closed it, then took a breath. “I know this world seems cruel—trust me, I know—but it’s not everyone out there. Many people will abandon you to save their own skins, you just have to find the people that are willing to risk theirs to protect yours.”

Steve.

He absolutely hated how his mind went to the man—the man he wanted so bad but couldn’t have. Steve didn’t even realize how many times that event replayed in his head, and how happy he got at the fact that Steve protected him.

Many people called him a curse for who he was. Many people laughed at him. Many people blamed him for stuff he didn’t do to avoid getting in trouble. Many people blamed him for things out of his control because they had no one else to blame. Many people threw rocks at him for who he was. Foster parents sent him to the mental hospital several times before he learned how to pretend as if the ghosts didn’t exist to him.

Even when he started going by a different name, people still called him names. They still laughed at him, and kicked him when he was down. They still gossiped about him, and made faces. They would call the police on him, and try to get him sent back into the foster system—and when he was an adult, the homeless shelter. They still blamed him for everything wrong they did or anything wrong with their lives, and took it out on them. They still blamed him.

Never before had anyone jumped to protect him. When he got attacked, many people simply turned a blind eye. Afterwards, people would blame him for it and shoo him away. They’d say he started it, he instigated it—it’s his fault the one–sided fight started.

Steve protected him. He protected him against something he couldn’t see. He comforted him afterwards, and didn’t blame him for it.

“You already found your protector,” Kimi said again, bringing Five’s attention back to her.

“I don’t need a protector,” he shot back. “I’ve been protecting myself perfectly fine for years!”

“Aren’t you tired of being your only protector, though? Aren’t you tired of thinking of everyone as enemies, or potential enemies? Don’t you want to have someone you can rely on when you’re simply tired of fighting?”

“At least I can trust myself to help me survive!” he spat. “And what if he hates me because of the truth? What then?” he snapped back, still sneering.

She hummed. “I think that you don’t really know until you begin telling the truth. If he does, then he doesn’t deserve you, and you can find others. There’s a billion other people in this country.” She took a step forward. “But, Sammy, it’s time you stop running. You’ve finally become brave enough to come face to face with your past after running from it for so long, that it’s time for you to embrace it. It’s time for you to stop running from the fear of everyone being just like everyone else instead of looking for if they’re different. It’s time for you to stop running from your fears.”

“I’ve worked so hard to perfect this life,” he cried before looking up to Kimi again. “I can’t ruin it now! Not after all the effort I put into it. Not after how comfortable I got with this life.”

She frowned, sympathetic. “Maybe you have, but it’s going to crumble whether you like it or not. They’re going to find out the truth either way. These—These separate lives you’ve got going on, they’re going to crash. They’ve already started to—they brought you back to your childhood home. They’re crashing into each other whether you like it or not. You’ve just gotta make the choice on if you’re going to let it become a raging blaze, or if you’re going to take control of the situation. What are you going to do?”

FiveUp thought for a moment before going to answer, but the moment he opened his mouth, his door burst open to reveal a shaken Steve.

Five’s heart immediately clenched at the sight, a frown taking over his face as he rushed over to Steve. “Steve, what’s wrong? What’re you doing here?”

Steve didn’t answer, instead looking at Kimi. “Who is that?”

FiveUp looked back to see Kimi grabbing her things. She looked up and smiled, offering a wave. Five gave a small smile. “That’s—That’s my friend, Kimi. Kimi, this is Steve.”

She pranced right up to Steve with her things in her bag, sticking out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Steve! I’m going to get going now. Talk to me later, Sammy!” she called as she ran out the door, causing Five to groan as Steve began to look confused.

“Is ‘Sammy’ your real name?”

Five shook his head. “Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p.’ “No idea why she calls me that. I’ve corrected her, but she seems to think that’s my name, so I just dropped it.” He ignored how good it felt to not be lying to Steve for once.

“Anyway,” Five started again, “what happened?”

Five had never seen Steve look so embarrassed before, but it was cute.

“Oh—I just. . . I just fell asleep on accident earlier and had a nightmare about you getting attacked again, but I couldn’t save you. So—So when I woke up, I had to see you to make sure you were okay.”

FiveUp’s chest bloomed, and he gave the taller a comforting smile. “I’m okay, Steve, thanks to you.”

“Many people will abandon you to save their own skins, you just have to find the people that are willing to risk theirs to protect yours.”

“You already found your protector.”

Maybe it’d be nice to feel protected and safe, but FiveUp still had to protect himself.

“Why don’t we watch one of your shitty movies?”

“Shut the fuck up, dude!” Steve laughed, making Five’s smile grow. “My movies aren’t shit, you just have poor taste!”

Five rolled his eyes, shoving him before walking away. “Your movies make me lose brain cells!”

“You take that back! You just have no sense of humor!”

Five scoffed as he began to set his TV up. “No wonder I’m smarter than you.”

“Dude, shut the fuck up! I’m way smarter than you!”

FiveUp snorted. “In your dreams. Do you want your movie or not?”

“Only if you give me my vape back.”

Five lifted a brow. “Alright, then. My pick it is,” he responded as he started sifting through movies, cackling as Steve began to backtrack.

After some bickering—mostly because Steve couldn’t just pick a movie—they finally settled on a movie. Half way through, Five got up to use the restroom. When he was washing his face, he caught the face in the mirror standing behind him, and all the blood drained from his face.

It was the ghost that attacked him.

He turned around to look at it, grabbing something to throw at it, but then it was gone, as if it was never there. He took a moment to calm his breathing back down before turning back to the mirror, to jump once again.

It was him as a child looking back at him, not looking a day over ten years old—and looking like a ghost.

On the mirror, in black, was written ‘This should’ve been you.’

He hurried out of the bathroom, not wanting to think about it just yet. He rejoined Steve on the couch, content that even if the ghosts showed back up, Steve would protect him.

“You already found your protector.”

Five internally groaned at the fact that Kimi may have been right.

Chapter Text

“Uno!” DK yelled, slamming his card down. Five flinched and winced, as people began complaining.

“Okay, does anyone have any ‘plus four’s’?” Apollo asked, trying not to let DK win. “‘Cause I am not getting beat by a moron today.”

DK audibly gasped. “Fuck you, man!”

“Woah, woah, don’t be insulting my brethren now!” Steve retorted.

“Thank you, man!” DK called Steve. “Someone cares about me!”

“Sorry, Dumbdog, I don’t have anything,” Janet said with a frown. “For the record, DK, you are pretty dumb.”

“Okay, okay, guys,” Hafu spoke up as DK went to respond. She put down a ‘plus two.’ “It’s okay, start a chain.”

“Can I stack with a skip?”

“What the fuck, Steve? Of course, you can’t!”

“God, Apollo, I was just asking! Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Steve grumbled as he drew.

Janet put down a ‘plus two’ card. “Hah! Now you have to draw four, Apollo!”

“That’s not how it works, Janet!” Apollo called back. “Steve already drew for the last one, so it doesn’t stack! I just have to draw two!”

He then proceeded to throw down a wild card.

Five wondered if everyone was stupid today.

He took a hit of the vape as Apollo realized his mistake and fumbled to switch the wild with a plus two. Steve taunted him by asking if he was blind, with Janet joining as Apollo told them both to ‘shut the fuck up.’

FiveUp sighed as he went to grab four cards, and Hafu made a comment about starting a chain.

“Hafu, none of us have shit,” he snapped. “How are we supposed to start a fucking chain to keep DK from winning if we have no stackable cards? You’re just giving cards to the one person before him that can stop him from winning!”

“Oh, shit, I didn’t think about that,” Apollo murmured.

Hafu lifted a brow, gave a knowing smirk, and Five had the sinking feeling he played into her game. “Oh, so you are listening to me?”

Five glared at her. “You,” he started, pointing at her as everyone looked at him confused as she snickered, “shut the fuck up.”

“What’s going on?” Janet asked.

“No idea,” Steve whispered as he leaned closer to her.

“Don’t look at me,” Apollo said, quickly followed by DK.

“Don’t look at me either, Janet. I don’t know shit.”

“FiveUp,” Hafu taunted.

“Hafu,” Five responded with an icy glare. “What are you trying to do?”

She hummed, leaning back as she shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not doing anything. I’m trying to win the game, FiveUp, which you should be doing as well.”

Oh, shit.

“Have I. . ?”

She nodded as she began to laugh. “Yeah, you have.”

Five dropped his head to the table. “Shit.”

“Woah, Five. What’s wrong, dude?” Steve’s voice called.

“Yeah, what’s wrong, FiveUp?” Hafu taunted. Five shot his head up and glared at her grinning self again.

“I’m going to boil you alive.”

“Woah,” DK drawed out. “This is getting heated.”

“Maybe we should all take a break and calm down,” Janet offered, making DK whine.

“No, but this is just getting good! We don’t even know what’s going on yet, Janet! Don’t ruin this for me!”

“I’m very confused right now,” Apollo spoke up. “Can we know what’s happening?”

“No!” Five shouted before Hafu could respond, putting his hand up at them. “Absolutely not! Hafu, whatever you think you’re doing, it’s not going to work on me.”

“FiveUp, you’re being dramatic,” Hafu said. “I’m just trying to make sure you’re focusing on the game and nothing else.”

“Oh, is this about FiveUp doing weed and vaping now?” DK asked, to which Janet frowned.

“Are you high right now, FiveUp?” Apollo questioned, making FiveUp shake his head.

“No, I’m not.”

“Look at me, let me see your eyes,” Apollo demanded, making Five look at him out of pure confusion.

“Uh, I would know if he’s high, dude,” Steve said with an edge to his voice, making DK whistle for some strange reason.

Apollo put his hands up. “I was just asking, dude. I wasn’t targeting you.”

“Okay, what is going on right now?” Janet cried, slamming her cards down on the table. “I don’t even know who’s turn it is anymore!”

“Oh, shit, is Janet being left out?” Apollo asked, making DK coo at a very–annoyed Janet who quickly began swatting at him to get away from her.

“What does that mean?” Steve pressed Apollo, eyes narrowed at the man in question. Apollo simply put his hands up in mock surrender. When Apollo didn’t give a clear answer, Steve stood up. “Alright. Guys, meeting in the kitchen later after we’re done here.”

FiveUp tilted his head. “What for?” he asked Steve, who’s eyes went wide for a second. He elbowed DK, who had started laughing at him, before looking at FiveUp apologetically.

“Sorry, Five, I meant just DK, Apollo, and me.”

FiveUp ignored how his chest tightened and the pity look Hafu sent him in favor of giving Steve a pointed look. “Still doesn’t answer my question, dumbass.”

Steve went red as DK burst out laughing, with Janet beginning to giggle at him as well. He hit DK again and glared at Janet.

“Hey, what about you guys have your little meeting or whatever,” Hafu proposed, “and Janet, FiveUp, and I can go eat somewhere? We can wrap this up since we’ve abandoned the game anyways.”

“Ooh, yeah! Let’s go to that new bar that just opened up down the street!” Janet exclaimed. Five chuckled at her as Hafu smiled and agreed.

“Does this mean I won?” DK asked, only for Janet and Steve to start complaining. Apollo and Hafu confirmed that since he had an Uno card and was about to win anyway, he got that game, making DK cheer and rub it into everyone’s faces.

Five’s phone went off as they were getting ready to leave, so they paused for FiveUp. Once he was done, he looked back up at the girls.

“Hey, is it okay if my friend, Kimi, joined us? She’s in town and wants to visit me.”

“Oh, of course! I love making new friends!”

“Kimi is going with you?” Steve asked with a weird tone. When Five turned to look at him, he had wrinkled his nose. Five would think he was jealous if he knew better.

He smiled. “Yeah. She’s very clingy.” He chuckled as Steve grumbled something beneath his breath. He didn’t get to question it, as DK and Apollo began elbowing his sides with strange grins on their faces right as Hafu grabbed him and dragged him out.

“Woah, slow down, S—Five!” Kimi cried, going to grab his hands to get him to put the glass of alcohol down, patting Five’s back when he began to choke. “That’s why you shouldn’t chug.”

“Kimi, it’s fine. Hafu’s paying. She owes me.”

“Why does she owe you?” Janet asked before Kimi could.

“I bribed him with drinks to go to that haunted house in Ashbury,” he grumbled before looking at Five with hope. “Can I tell them?”

He groaned, frowning, confusing Janet. Kimi giggled, but she sounded just as confused as Janet looked.

“Kimi already knows,” he muttered, and Kimi’s eyes went wide as she realized. “So, yeah, I’d rather not tell Janet. I don’t want everyone to know.”

“What do you not want to tell me? I can keep a secret! Oh—Is it like how you started vaping and doing weed? Is it that you’re an alcoholic now too, or do you use other types of drugs?”

FiveUp sighed and shook his head. “No, Janet. That’s—It has nothing to do with any of that. I’m not an alcoholic. Though I am probably about to step out to vape.”

“You’ve changed so much since I last saw you,” Kimi whispered. FiveUp ignored her.

“Come on, Five. Not everyone in our circle is going to know. It’s just going to be between us four.”

“I didn’t even want anyone to know in the first place, Hafu! Not even you! It’s embarrassing.”

“I’m feeling very left out,” Janet said sadly.

FiveUp groaned. He hated seeing his friends upset, and Janet’s frown and sad puppy dog eyes just made him give in. Even though he kept a lot of things from his friends and often lied to them, he just wanted them happy. “Fine. Janet, I have a crush on Steve.”

Her eyes went wide as she gasped. “Oh,” she blurted as Kimi giggled and Hafu grinned. “Oh, I am such a—a Five–Uptic shipper now! You’re my new OTP! How can we help set you up?”

Five narrowed his eyes, already regretting his decision. “There will be no ‘setting us up.’ Steve’s made it clear he’s straight, and we’re just friends. I don’t want to—to ruin what we have just for my stupid fantasies.”

Janet frowned at that. Kimi copied her.

“Come on, give yourself a break. You’re so uptight. Don’t you think it’ll be nice to give in to your desires instead of fighting them?” Kimi asked.

Five glared at her. “You know why I shouldn’t.”

She gave him a look. “You’re doing the thing again.” Five lifted his brow. “You’re doing the thing where you think everybody’s just like the people you used to know.”

Five scoffed and leaned back. “It’s called ‘learning,’ Kimi. It’s what’s kept me safe for this long.”

“Safe from what?” Hafu asked, concerned. Five took in a breath and looked away.

“It’s nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”

There was silence for a long moment.

“Well, think about it this way,” Kimi spoke up. He eyed her. “You vape or whatever to temporarily forget, right? You do it to pretend like everything’s fine. It’ll be just like that—pretending that you’re living the life you’ve always dreamt of.”

FiveUp hated how appealing that sounded to him.

He groaned. “Fine, have it your way.”

He flinched as both Kimi and Janet squealed. Hafu merely laughed at his misery. FiveUp had a feeling he’d end up with a headache after this.

“You have to tell us everything!” Janet insisted.

FiveUp lifted a brow, slightly tilting his head. “What do you mean by ‘everything,’ Janet?”

She pouted as she leaned more onto the table. “Like—Tell us all your favorite things about him. Tell us about your favorite moments with him. Tell us how he treats you when we’re not looking.”

He gave wary glances to both Hafu and Kimi, who both returned his glances with looks of encouragement and interest. He sighed. This was not the life he’d worked so hard to perfect.

Unfortunately, he was already starting to relax due to the alcohol. It shouldn’t be long until he was tipsy. He could already feel himself beginning to be less cautious and feel more social.

“I don’t know where to start, to be honest,” he muttered after a moment. “I don’t—I don’t do ‘girl talk’ or whatever.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Hafu assured him. “Just—ramble. Start from the beginning. When did you begin to like him as more than a friend? What made you like him in the first place?”

FiveUp felt his face flush as he took another drink, but didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure exactly how to respond anyway. It was overwhelming with all the questions being asked of him at once, when all his life he’d kept things like this close to his chest. Hell, they didn’t even know about his past relationship with Fundy!

“Tell us about the time you realized you liked him more than a friend,” Hafu tried again. He was at least thankful she shortened how much she was asking him at once.

He huffed, cheeks heating further. “Fine. But you’re going to have to buy me more drinks to loosen me up, or you’re not getting much out of me.”

“Deal!” Hafu exclaimed before waving the server over. “Let’s get you something stronger.” She did, and soon enough, Five had a new cup of alcohol in front of him.

He immediately began to down the one he already had, nerves running rampant from the fact he was likely going to reveal way too much personal information for his taste. Kimi and Janet jokingly began to chant “Chug, chug, chug!” Five choked and put the glass back down to cough.

“I feel like you just want me drunk,” FiveUp joked, making them laugh.

FiveUp sipped some more, letting the alcohol flow through his system. He listened quickly, sipping at his drinks as they talked about Dave and then moved to Kimi’s life to get to know her more while he drank, and he listened to them as he let it kick in. Eventually, he started giggling and joining in.

“I think it was Stevie’s face reveal,” Five giggled when they asked when he knew he liked Steve once more. “I saw him and was like ‘oh, shit, he’s hot’ and then I realized I probably shouldn’t think that way about my friends.”

Kimi snorted. “Yeah, probably,” Hafu joked.

“I don’t get what you see in him, to be honest,” Janet said with a wrinkled nose. “He stinks.”

FiveUp huffed. “He does not. That’s DK. Don’t insult Steve like that.”

“Steve is gross.”

FiveUp glared at her as Hafu sighed and Kimi chuckled. “No, he is not.”

“Janet, why are you picking a fight?” Hafu asked, exasperated.

She smiled softly. “‘Cause it’s kind of sweet to see him get all defensive for Steven.”

Hafu rolled her eyes, while Kimi muttered her agreement. “Whatever. We should do something to help lover–boy over here. FiveUp, you should try stealing one of his hoodies,” she suggested.

Janet gasped, grinning ear to ear. “What if—What if we made a code name for him? So that we could speak about him and have him not know.”

“Like middle schoolers?” Kimi teased, an amused smile on her face.

Janet huffed and sunk into her seat. “Well when you put it like that. . .”

“It’s okay, Janet,” Hafu assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned to FiveUp. “But you should definitely steal his jacket when you get a chance, and spend as much time with him as you can.”

FiveUp, in fact, did not spend as much time with him as he could. He had business to attend to, after all.

He declined Steve’s call as he stepped out of the Uber that dropped him on the edge of the city. He was lucky the Uber even took him this far. He took a breath before he pushed himself onward, tense and on guard as he tried to quickly find the newly–built church.

It wasn’t very long until they realized who he was.

He faltered when a rock hit him on the head, but he quickly recovered. He blocked out the laughter, and subtlety flitted away the few ghosts that reached out to him. He suppressed a sneer and balled his fists, trying not to get angry.

“Go back to where you came from, Devil!” a voice called, followed by laughter and some people agreeing. Mothers began herding their children inside, holding their toddlers and newborns close to their chests as they ran for cover. A few more rocks were thrown, and FiveUp was really having trouble not getting angry.

As he grew close to the church, two familiar men stepped in front of him.

“Move,” he demanded, scowling.

They grinned. “Why should we, Stanton? Are you trying to infect our church with your curse?”

“You should’ve stayed gone when you left the first time,” the other taunted. “Maybe we should teach you another lesson for cursin’ our homes.”

“I don’t need to, if you're still living with your mommies,” FiveUp spat. He saw them get visibly more pissed, but he didn’t care much.

“And where’s your mommy, Stanton? You never told us what happened to her. Did you kill her? Did she kill herself to get away from you?”

FiveUp snapped, and punched Michael in the nose. The man shot back and screamed, as Leo quickly tackled him and started hitting him. Five elbowed his stomach and shoved him off to kick him in the stomach once more. However, he was punched in the eye by an angry Michael, giving Leo ample time to tackle him. His adrenaline was running so rampant, he barely noticed the pain as he fought to get back up.

He got more bruises and landed a few more hits before he was apprehended by the town’s police force. They handcuffed him as everyone laughed at him before they drove him to the town’s jail. He was sneering and breathing heavily the entire way there, pain returning full force since he was finally calming down. His sides hurt, his chest burned, and it was hard to see. He refused to answer any of the police officer’s questions—they already knew him, and he already knew them. He’s dealt with them before, back before he left.

“I’m surprised you decided to return,” one of them laughed. “I thought you learned your lesson.”

“Well I guess he’s going to learn again,” the other added, chuckling. FiveUp rolled his eyes and huffed before leaning back in his seat.

When he got to the town’s jail and got checked in, they took his broken phone and broken vape. They told him he had to wait a few hours and, if he didn’t get picked up, they’d charge him for assault. They laughed at him as they gave him access to a phone, limiting him to only one.

He called Kimi, and was grateful that she answered.

“Hello?”

“Kimi, where are you?” he asked, hoping she was home. He ignored the looks of surprise he got from the cops.

“FiveUp?” she shouted, making him wince. “Why are you at the sheriff’s?”

FiveUp cleared his throat. “Uh, I’m actually in their jail. Listen—Listen, can you come pick me up in a few hours? They said they’ll release me later today.”

“Alright, fine, but you’re going to get a stern talking to when I get you.”

He nodded, shifting his weight as his leg began to throb. “Alri—Alright. I came here for a reason, so I need to go to your house when you pick me up. Please.”

“Alright. I’ll be there later. What time?”

“Uh, they said eleven. But, Kimi, please don’t tell anyone else.”

She was quiet for a moment. “You really need to start being more honest with them, Five.”

“I—I know. I know. Just—Just not now, alright? I don’t want them to freak out. I have to prepare myself too. There’s a lot of reasons why I lie, Kimi.”

“I know, I know,” she assured, voice much softer. “I’ll be there at eleven on the dot. Don’t do anything that could get you held in there longer. I don’t even know why you’re in there.”

“I’ll explain later. Goodbye, Kimi. See you later.” She returned it before the call hung up.

“Wow, the Stanton kid actually has someone on his side,” one officer laughed. FiveUp tried his best to block them out as the others joined in on making fun of him, making comments of how she’ll ‘regret it when she’s cursed.’

Finally, Kimi got him, and he jumped up to leave with her. He got his broken stuff back, not that it was useful any longer. He’d need to buy more. He assured Kimi he was fine when she freaked out at his state, and told her the story in the car, including their history and how he just kind of snapped. She eased up on the fact she had to pick him up from jail after that.

The next day, Kimi and him went on a trip to Pastor Smajor’s to see if he knew anything to protect FiveUp from ghosts. He felt uncomfortable admitting just what he’d been going through—vaguely, though, not mentioning that he could see them and has been for years—and had to show them the scratch marks on his back as proof. But Kimi, Scott, Lauren, and a girl nicknamed ‘Cupcake,’ were all apparently friends and knew a little bit about FiveUp’s backstory, so they treated him warmly, and he felt more at ease. They gave him all he could, including salt, making FiveUp question if they knew the salt thing was a myth or if they were just desperate to help him.

Then, after that, Kimi took FiveUp to buy a new phone and fought to get his old SIM card out and transfer it. Once it was loaded, then his new phone began blowing up.

He winced as all the missed calls and messages loaded through, from everyone in his main friend group. Steve seemed to be contacting him the most, and freaking out the most. He’d even sent a picture of his now–trashed apartment.

He frowned. He hadn’t meant to scare them—especially Steve. He was just trying to find anything that could help him stop getting attacked by the ghosts.

“You should tell him the truth,” Kimi muttered as she looked over his shoulder. “He really cares about you, Five.”

FiveUp felt his face flush. “I know. I’m just scared.”

She gave a comforting smile. “I know you are. But you need to start learning to trust him.”

He took a breath. “I’ll try,” he promised before giving a weak smile. “I’ll try.”

Chapter Text

There was screaming and laughing all around, and FiveUp tried to suppress his own laughter and coughs as he tried to sneak around to break into the other team’s defenses.

Most of them had chosen their own team. It was Hafu, Janet, Kimi, Tina, Koji, and FiveUp on one team. The other had Steve, DK, Apollo, Ellum, Belle, and Ovilee on the other.

Their clothes were probably stained for life in different colors of the rainbow—apparently Janet, Kimi, Steve, DK, and Ellum thought it would be a wonderful idea to dye the water with food coloring. How they did it, FiveUp wasn’t too sure, but he didn’t question it much.

Now Steve had been repeatedly targeting FiveUp in a very obvious way, so FiveUp wanted revenge. He grinned as he held the pink water balloon close as he crawled past the group, trying to stay hidden and quiet.

Steve wouldn’t know what hit him.

FiveUp finally climbed to hide behind the very back wall behind their makeshift ‘base’ as they called it. He was waiting until he heard Steve’s voice to jump out and throw the balloon. He could hear DK and Ellum, with Apollo giving out orders amongst the chaos. He could distantly hear his own team—Tina, Janet, and Kimi’s screams, followed by Koji laughing, and Hafu’s silence meant she was probably treating it like a war zone.

He decided to be brave enough to peek around the corner, and saw Steve across the field, tormenting Janet and Kimi. He quickly hid back to avoid Steve’s teammates spotting him to wait for Steve to get closer.

He heard some of the boys screaming, followed by laughter from Koji and some of the girls before the roles were switched. From the sounds of it, Belle had sniped them right before they were able to unleash their attack on the boys.

Finally, he heard Steve in the distance seemingly approaching, so he prepared to jump out with a large grin. He began to eye the corner, waiting for his moment to jump out, when he spotted something in the corner of his eye.

He sucked in a breath, shutting his eyes. He already knew what it was.

Half a second later, FiveUp couldn’t breath. It felt like something right around his throat—just like the first time he got attacked by a ghost. He tried to shove off the hand, but it was futile. He couldn’t speak either, it was as if something had completely silenced him. He desperately searched his pockets for the crucifix he got from the church, but found the pocket it was in empty and began to panic even more.

Then it was gone, and he was left gasping for air. He felt his throat and the weight was gone, and then grasped at his chest.

A second later, he realized why he left—Steve was in front of him, speaking but FiveUp couldn’t hear. He tried to focus on where Steve was holding him. He had a firm grip on his shoulder, which helped at grounding FiveUp. After a few minutes, his breathing was back to normal and he was calm again.

“Are you okay, Five?” Steve asked softly, probably the softest voice FiveUp had ever heard him speak in too. It made his heart swell and he tried his best to calm himself before his face flushed.

He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine, it was just—it was just a panic attack,” he lied, refusing to meet Steve’s eyes in fear he’ll reveal the truth. “I’m fine now, though. Thanks.”

He really needed to do something about these ghosts. Maybe he needed to go to another haunted location and try to figure out how to make those ghosts go away first.

“Wait—Where are your glasses?” FiveUp questioned as he realized Steve’s glasses are missing. He furrowed his brows as Steve gave a smile and rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that was on FiveUp’s shoulder. FiveUp missed the warmth immediately, and shivered, but he could blame that on the fact that he was soaked in water easily.

“Had to put them away. Almost broke them too many times.” Then, as if he realized where FiveUp was, furrowed his brows and asked, “Wait, why are you back here?”

FiveUp grinned and threw his balloon at Steve before running off and leaving behind the shouting and laughing Steve behind. When he glanced behind him, Steve was chasing him down.

When Steve went to throw a water balloon at FiveUp when they’d made it to FiveUp’s team’s side, FiveUp was quick to use Koji to catch it instead of him.

“Excuse you!” Koji shouted, making FiveUp cackle. He quickly hid before Steve could spot him, and easily found Hafu hiding a few moments later.

“Where were you?” she whisper–hissed, a focused and angry look on her face. FiveUp was amused. She was so treating it like a war zone. Normally, FiveUp would as well, but he really needed a way to release his stress other than vaping and getting high with Steve or getting drunk. He didn’t need this to add onto the stress just because he wanted to win.

“Steve and I are having a mini–war,” he explained. “He’s been targeting me, so now I’m targeting him.”

“I figured that out,” he responded. “I mean, where’d you hide? Steve started targeting Kimi—and Janet, but Kimi mostly—trying to find out where you were hiding.”

FiveUp giggled. “Well, he found me. I was all the way at their little ‘base,’ hiding behind it.”

“Did you get him?”

He huffed in pride. “Yes,” he bragged. “He wasn’t expecting it at all!”

She quickly hushed him. “Don’t get me caught! But good job.” She waited a moment as she glanced out from where she was hiding. “Alright, you have a balloon?”

FiveUp nodded. He’d snagged one out of the chest on the way there, much like Steve had done before he got Koji.

“Alright. Belle and Ovilee are approaching. Get ready.”

He nodded and obeyed. He began to crouch similarly to her, holding the water balloon as she counted under her breath. Finally, she called, “Now!” and they both jumped up and threw them at the girls. Shocked, they dropped their water balloons, and then began laughing as the two ran away from the crime scene.

Then FiveUp was hit in the head, almost knocking him down. He turned to catch the culprit, to catch a laughing Steve running away. He narrowed his eyes and went to grab a water balloon from the nearest chest before chasing him down.

Then Ellum tried to hit him but missed. FiveUp stopped anyway and turned on the European man, who quickly went, “Oh, shit,” before trying to run off. FiveUp was quick to chase after him, soon joined by Koji who just wanted to target Ellum too.

Once they were able to corner Ellum and pelted them with their water balloons, Koji and FiveUp high fived before running to help Tina, who was being attacked by DK, who was laughing at her misery. They quickly shooed DK off, only to be surrounded by Steve, Apollo, Belle, and Ovilee. Hafu, Kimi, and Janet quickly came to their rescue, making it into a large standoff as DK rejoined.

After the big standoff, for some strange reason, FiveUp began to feel overwhelmed. He was covered in water and was just feeling stressed from being surrounded and couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being stared at and that at any second he could be attacked again and he still couldn’t find his crucifix. His heart was beating and his chest burned the more he laughed and coughed, his head was beginning to hurt, and his face was sore from smiling.

He ended up sitting the rest of the game out, wrapping himself in his towel and playing a video of Steve’s as he stole Steve’s vape that he refused to share. It was strawberry, confusing FiveUp since he knew Steve liked strawberry–kiwi more. He just shrugged it off and focused on calming his nerves. He refused to leave his friends’ sights again though, in fear of another attack. He pulled the towel up more as he noticed bruises starting to form around his neck in the reflection of his phone.

When he was finally dry, they were all still playing in the water park. FiveUp grabbed his clothes and went to change, and was glad he brought a turtleneck when he saw how bad the bruises were.

He let out a sigh of relief as he left, glad that nothing had shown up where he couldn’t easily hide it.

When he went back to chill on the benches, he grabbed as snack and a cold water bottle from the cooler. He scrolled on his phone as he ate and drank, making notes of some ideas for videos.

“Hey, little guy,” Steve greeted as he joined him beside him. FiveUp gave him a glance and then quickly tried to focus on his phone. Steve was red in the face, likely from the sun and all the running they had been doing. He was also soaked and only wearing swimming trunks. “You good?”

FiveUp hummed and nodded. “Yeah, I just—it all started to become too much for me to handle. I’m just waiting for you guys to finish up.”

Steve hummed, nodding. “I was thinking about streaming either some Among Us or Dead by Daylight later, want to join?”

FiveUp smiled. “Sure, Steve. I haven’t—I don’t think I’ve streamed in a couple days, so I’ll join you. I should have time.”

Steve grinned. “That’s great!”

They were silent for a few moments before FiveUp’s phone rang. Scott’s contact popped up.

“Who is that?”

“A friend of mine,” FiveUp explained as he stood up. “I need—I’m going to need to take this call, give me a moment, please.” He walked off before Steve could answer, answering the phone when he could barely hear his friends.

“Hey, Scott, what’s up? You got the documents?”

“Uh, no, actually,” he answered, tone apologetic. FiveUp frowned. “We have a problem. Apparently they’ve locked down you and your family’s case—all important documents regarding you guys, and are refusing access even to me. I’ve tried everything—I’ve even bribed them with fifteen hundred dollars, and still nothing.”

FiveUp scowled. “So how are we going to find out what happened? We already tried online and the house. They ransacked the house of all documents.”

“Yeah. Whatever happened to your family, they do not want getting out,” Scott responded. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke up. “Look, normally I wouldn’t condone this because I’m supposed to be a priest, but . . . if you really need those documents, we might need to break in.”

FiveUp straightened up. “You want to break in?” he whispered, covering his phone and mouth with his other hand, as if afraid the others will over hear. He could still feel Steve’s stare.

“We might have to. They’re attacking you, and the only way to get rid of ghosts is to help them get what they want—most ghosts want you to help solve their case so that they can get justice. You said it yourself. But it’s your family, they’re haunting you, so it’s your decision. You choose what risks we take.”

FiveUp took a moment to think. “Alright, it’s on. I’ll text you the details later.”

“Keep me posted,” he responded before hanging up.

FiveUp slipped his phone into his back pocket, plastering a smile on his face as he rejoined Steve. “Hey, sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” he answered, waving him off. “You alright, though? You looked pretty upset there for a second there.”

FiveUp forced a laugh, waving him off. “Oh, it’s nothing. I was shocked, that’s all. It was good news though, trust me.”

Steve looked at their friends, who were, somehow, still playing. FiveUp laughed when he noticed Tina and Ellum having a makeshift sword fight with sticks.

“Well,” he started again as he looked back at FiveUp, “it looks like they’re going to be a while, but I think I’m done as well. I’m going to go change. Do you want to maybe get ice cream with me after?”

FiveUp grinned, trying his best not to turn red in front of Steve. “Of course! Hurry up, I’m getting hot.”

Steve laughed and grabbed his clothes before running to the restrooms, promising to be back in a few. FiveUp let himself cheer a little and let his face go red at the prospect.

Then, Hafu approached and joined him at the table.

“I think I’m done for today,” she started, only to get cut off by FiveUp, who was trying to shove her to go rejoin their friends.

“No, no, no. I need you to—I need you to continue for a little bit, okay? Steve said he’s going to take me to get ice cream since you guys didn’t seem to be finishing up anytime soon, don’t ruin this for me, Hafu!”

Hafu laughed as she jumped up. “Why didn’t you say so? Don’t worry, I’ll shoot the message to not bother you two and to not sit down until you guys leave. Kimi, Janet, and I will make sure no one sits down until you guys leave.” She then hurried to rejoin them as Steve came out of the restrooms and began to approach him again.

“What was she doing? Are they finishing up?” Steve asked, and FiveUp rushed to shake his head as he grabbed his stuff.

“Nope,” he responded as he stood up, giving a grin to Steve. “She was just checkin’ on me, making sure I was alright like you did. Should we go now?”

Steve laughed, grabbing his keys, phone, and vape. He left his bag there, though, likely to tell the others they hadn’t just ditched them altogether. “Let’s go, little guy.”

On the way there, they stopped by a vape shop. FiveUp had made a comment about ‘losing’ his and had stolen Steve’s, so Steve bought him his own to protect the one he has. He even wrote ‘FiveUp’ so that he wouldn’t get mixed up, making FiveUp laugh. He picked out kiwi–strawberry, since it reminded him of Steve, even though he knew he wouldn’t be using it for a little bit.

If breaking into a government building to steal files was going to be a success, FiveUp would have to be off of the vape for a few weeks. He didn’t need to be slowed down or coughing during it, so he resisted the urge to take a hit. He focused on Steve instead, and tried to forget that he even had it.

“You’re so boring,” Steve commented when FiveUp ordered vanilla.

FiveUp laughed as he accepted his ice cream from the employee. “It’s a classic, Steven. At least I’m not getting whatever monsterosity you ordered.” He wrinkled his nose at the ice cream in the employee’s hand, who was putting a scoop of a lot of different flavors of ice cream together. FiveUp didn’t even want to think about how they would all melt and mix together. “You’re an embarassment. You’re a literal child.”

“Shut the fuck up, dude!” he laughed. “I’m just an indecisive little guy, so I decided not to choose.”

“You should’ve gone with two or even three then, Stebon. Not five. That’s too much.”

“It’s the perfect amount of variation, thank you very much,” he retorted as he grabbed his ice cream from the employee. He then paid for both of theirs. They continued bickering as they went to sit at a table outside.

“We should invite Fundy and them to play again,” Steve commented they were talking about an old game they found funny. There was a glint in his eye, something mixed with mischief and pride that he couldn’t quite place. FiveUp froze. “It’s been a while.”

He looked back down at his ice cream, resisting the urge to instinctively lie. It was already on the tip of his tongue: “Fundy doesn’t play Among Us anymore. He sticks to Minecraft now. That’s why we stopped playing together.”

But he promised Kimi he’d try to be more honest, and it was Steve. Steve was probably the least judgemental of the group because he was so easygoing. It’d be fine, right? Right?

“Uh, I’d rather not,” he forced out, getting a look of curiousity from Steve before it became worry when he looked at FiveUp’s nervous expression. He forced himself to take a breath and look back up at Steve, feigning confidence. “Fundy and I were dating. That’s why I was in the Netherlands—I was living with him. We broke up, I stopped inviting him to our games.”

He nodded. “Oh—Was it a bad break up, or . . ?”

FiveUp gave a meek smile. “He cheated on me, so, yes, it was a bad breakup.”

Steve hummed, taking another bite of his ice cream as he seems to think. FiveUp felt a little guilty when he noticed Steve’s mood had fallen. “It makes sense—that you two were dating, now that I think about it. We all thought it was a bit, honestly, but it makes a whole lot more sense that you were dating.” Then, as if realizing, “God, he cheated on you? That’s so fucking stupid, man. He didn’t even seem like the type to do that, either.”

FiveUp laughed. “Well, no matter how good at coding he was, he was a moron, that’s for sure. I guess I’m just attracted to morons, though, I can’t seem to stop falling for them. You think I would’ve learned by now, but no.”

Steve gave him a weird look, silencing for a moment. “You got a new idiot that you’re in love with?”

FiveUp smiled, stuffing his face as he felt his face heat up, and not from the sun. “Why would I tell you that, Steven?” he finally answered when he swallowed and Steve hadn’t moved on, meaning he actually wanted an answer.

Steve gave a chuckle, putting his hands up in mock surrender, but didn’t let go of his spoon. “I was just asking, man! I was curious, that’s all!” Then he leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Is it someone we know?”

FiveUp laughed, but didn’t answer. Of course Steve was going to be nosy. Unfortunately for him, the answer was Steven himself, so FiveUp would rather die before he admitted the truth to him.

Eventually, Steven gave up on his pestering, and so they moved on. They sat there long after they finished their ice cream, until Steve’s phone started going off.

“Oh, I guess they’re done,” he said, making FiveUp frown. He grabbed his keys. “We better leave, then. They want us to pick up food. Apparently they all already ordered from McDonald’s, so we got to go get that and order for ourselves.”

FiveUp grabbed their trash and checked his phone to see texts from the girls in the group chat they made with only ‘sorry, FiveUp. We tried, but we didn’t want to blow your cover’ with other ‘sorry’s. He frowned but assured them it was fine anyway, and jogged to catch up with Steve as he threw out the trash.

“Oh, do you got the hiccups now?” Koji mocked when Ellum began to hiccup from eating too fast. “We warned you.”

“I’ve never felt more like a parent then I did when I joined this group,” Apollo complained.

“Try being the mom friend,” Hafu responded with a heavy sigh as she was ignoring the spitballs DK and Steve were throwing their way.

“Steve! Stop that!” Janet shouted, shoving Steve into DK. “You’re being mean to Hafu!”

“Yeah, Steven—if that’s even your real name!” Tina joined in.

Steve, having recovered from the push, gave Janet a confused look. “Why wouldn’t it be my name? We have—We literally have FiveUp here.”

“Woah, why am I getting dragged?”

“Yeah, but we know his name’s really ‘Earl’!” DK called, now apparently trying to help Ellum stop hiccuping by patting his back.

Kimi gave FiveUp a look, but didn’t say anything. FiveUp sighed, exasperated. “I still don’t get why my name is getting attacked when we all go by something else! Like Hafu? Dumbdog? Hello? Why are we just targeting me, what the fuck?”

“Half of your name consists of a number, FiveUp, that’s why.”

FiveUp scoffed at Apollo’s excuse for Steven’s actions.

“DK, stop patting his back! He’s not choking, you dimwit!” Tina yelled at DK. “You’re going to make it worse! Ellum, hold your breath! That’s how you get rid of hiccups! It’s always worked for me!”

FiveUp furrowed his brows, swallowed, and tilted his head. “Isn’t holding your breath to stop hiccuping basically resetting your lungs by turning them off and back on again?”

“What the fuck, FiveUp?” Koji blurted after a moment of silence.

“Why are you like this?” Tina cried.

“No, no, I’m not against him—he might actually have a point. Let’s hear him out,” Koji said, to which Apollo agreed.

“Yeah, I want to see just how far this thought goes.”

“No! We are not going to encourage him!” Hafu demanded, before turning to Steve. “Steve, control him!”

“How am I supposed to ‘control him,’ Hafu? It’s not my job to babysit FiveUp! Usually it’s his job to babysit me. I really don’t think you want our roles to switch.”

“Yeah, Steve would just let FiveUp run wild and cause absolutely chaos,” Tina agreed.

“Oh, then we definitely should make Steven in charge of FiveUp,” DK declared before looking at FiveUp. “I want to see how much trouble FiveUp can stir up.”

FiveUp snorted, remembering their task. Unfortunately, it drew attention to him.

“Oh, God, FiveUp, what did you do?”

“Or what are you planning on doing?” Apollo added onto Hafu’s question.

“Should we be scared?” Koji asked.

“I think so,” Ellum answered.

“FiveUp,” Steve pressed.

FiveUp laughed, waving them off. “Guys, relax. I just find it funny that you assume I would cause trouble. I’m not even on a leash now and I’m not doing anything, but you thinking putting me on a very loose leash will get me to cause chaos?”

He then picked up his trash as the others let it go, and took the long way to walk past Kimi. He waited until she was done taking a drink before leaning down and whispering in her ear. “Watch our discord. We’re going to be breaking into the court building in Ashbury.”

She gave him wide eyes. “I’ll explain later,” he added on, going to throw his trash away. He then reclaimed his spot as the conversation broke into smaller conversations, and began to talk to Hafu about streaming later.

Later, after his stream, he made the plans to prepare to break into the court building in Ashbury.