Chapter Text
Nobody really got why I was so fascinated by the woods, but there was always a chance that I could find evidence of the supernatural in them. Who knew what nymphs, spirits, or aliens could live in here?
Even though it was still bright out, the moment I entered the woods I had to flick on my flashlight. The woods were dark as night no matter what time of day it was, which was why I was convinced there had to be something strange in here.
My suspicions seemed to be possibly true when I heard crunching leaves and snapping twigs. I turned in the direction of the sounds and saw a glowing light, which was unusual for these woods. I crouched down and flicked off my flashlight, waiting for whatever was walking towards me, when the bushes opened to show a humanoid figure with horns and pink skin.
I jumped out from the bush with a yell. "An alien!"
The alien screamed, "Vampire!"
We both froze and then took a second look at each other. I realized that the alien I had seen was probably not an alien at all and was instead a girl about my age who had horns, pink skin, and interesting eyes. She seemed to be looking over me in much the same way before she looked me in the eyes with a grin.
"Are you hunting supernaturals?" she whispered.
"You too?" I whispered back, scared to break the atmosphere that had been created.
"This is amazing!" she yelled. "I'm Ashido Mina from Mustafa Private Middle School! Who are you, strange person on the same journey as I am?"
"Holy shit we go to the same school!" I screeched. "I'm Kirishima Eijiro, can we be best friends?"
"God yes! A best friend who loves supernatural things like me! I've been looking for someone like you!"
"Well, Ms Alien Queen," I joked, "would you like to have lunch with me tomorrow?"
"Absolutely Mr Count Dracula," she joked back. "And after school we're coming back here together, so be prepared!"
Mina grinned and waved before prancing back off into the woods, presumably to go home like I was about to. I couldn't wait to see her again at school the next day.
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"So you're not like, into me or anything, right?" Mina asked me at lunch the next day and I nearly spit out my food.
"What? No! No, I'm gay," I said. "And you?"
"Oh thank god," Mina said with a sigh. "Yeah I'm a lesbian, I was just worried you'd think I'm leading you on."
"I'm just glad we met, I don't really have all that many friends," I admitted. "Besides, you're pretty cool looking if you don't mind me saying that."
"I don't mind at all! Say, have you ever dressed up as a vampire? With the black hair and red eyes you could really pull it off."
"I haven't actually done that," I admitted. "Maybe I'll have to try it sometime."
"You are so going to have to come over to my place at some point!" Mina squealed. "We can do makeovers and I can make you look so much like a vampire that you'll never want to go back!"
"So uh, punch me if I'm taking this friendship too fast, but could we do that today?" I asked. "It sounds really fun."
"Absolutely!" Mina clapped her hands together. "I'm going to have to pull out my makeup before you come over, this is going to be the best day ever!"
"And maybe we could have a sleepover?" I suggested quietly.
"Hell yes! I'll ask my parents, though they know I'm only into girls so it should be fine."
"I'll ask my moms, too, though it's the same thing there so we should be good!"
"You have two moms?" Mina asked excitedly and I nodded. "I can't wait to meet them, that's so cool!"
I grinned. "You'd love them, and honestly I think they'd love you, too."
"Sweet! So, sleepover tonight and I'll make you look like a vampire?"
"Sounds like a plan."
She smiled and then handed me her phone and we swapped numbers. It was like I'd found a platonic soulmate, and this was probably going to be the best friendship I'd ever had.
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"Hey moms," I yelled as I walked in the house, "I made a friend, can I have a sleepover with her tonight?"
"We'll drive you there and meet her and her parents," mama yelled from the living room. "Do you think her parents will say yes?"
"Yeah, she's a lesbian!" I yelled and mom laughed.
"I think it's great that you can just yell things like that," she said, walking into the entrance of the house and ruffling my hair. "I'm also glad you made a friend."
"Yeah, she wanted to make sure she wasn't leading me on and she was so relieved when I told her I was gay," I said with a laugh. "I asked her after that and then we talked some more. She wants to give me a makeover."
"I can't wait to see what she makes you look like," my mom said.
"I can't either! I'm gonna go talk to her about the sleepover, I'll be out in a bit!" I yelled, dashing off to my room. I could hear my moms laughing in the background.
I called the number for Mina that I had in my phone from when she'd exchanged numbers with me at lunch and waited eagerly for her to pick up. She picked up pretty quickly with an excited yell.
"Dracula!" Mina yelled.
"Alien Queen!" I yelled back.
"My parents said yes, what about yours?" she asked.
"They said yes, too! When do you want me over?"
"ASAP, Dracula, you're in dire need of a makeover!"
We both started laughing and then I calmed down enough to reply.
"I'll be over as soon as I can be," I promised. "Just text me your address and my moms will drive me over. They wanna meet you!"
"Sweet! I wanna meet them too, so hurry up!"
"Alright, I'm gonna go pack. See you in a bit!" I yelled, and Mina squeaked out a similar sentiment before hanging up.
I packed as quickly as I could before running back downstairs and shoving the address Mina had sent me in my moms' faces.
"Alright, we'll take you now," mama laughed. "You sure are eager to go hang out with her, Eijiro."
"She's super cool!" I said. "She's got horns and the coolest eyes and she's into supernatural stuff like me! Maybe we can hunt in the woods together!"
"It does make me feel a little better about you doing that if you'd be going with a friend," mama admitted. "She seems like a good friend for someone you met recently. I can't wait to meet her!"
-----
When we got to Mina's house I burst out of the car and grabbed my stuff, dashing to the door and knocking as hard as I could. My moms were following behind me with barely contained laughter and Mina opened the door.
"Dracula!" she yelled.
"Hey Alien Queen!" I yelled back, pulling her in for a hug. I pulled back pretty quickly afterwards, gesturing to my moms. "These are my moms. Moms, this is Mina!"
Mina's eyes went wide and her smile grew as she dashed out of the house to greet them.
"Hi, it's so cool to meet you guys!" she said, practically jumping up and down. "I'm Mina Ashido and I hope that if everything goes to plan we'll probably see more of each other! Now I'm gonna go finish getting my makeup ready, it was nice meeting you!"
Mina ran off into the house and I yelled a quick bye to my moms before rushing after her, eager to see what she had prepared. She led me up to her room and then sat me down in front of a mirror.
"Alright, time to make you look like a vampire!" she said. "You're going to look so cool, just you wait!"
-----
After Mina finished with my makeup I looked almost like a completely different person, but she definitely wasn't wrong about making me look like a vampire. I looked up at her in awe to find her looking at my face with pride.
"Well, I just had a brilliant idea," she said. "What if we started a YouTube channel together? About the supernatural, maybe, and you'd be Dracula and I'd be Alien Queen! How's that sound?"
"Holy hell, that's an amazing idea!" I yelled. "You have to cover yourself up a bit, too, though because we don't want people knowing who we really are."
"Right, it'll add to the mystery," Mina agreed. "Give me a second and I'll be ready."
I nodded and Mina turned around to start rummaging through her closet. She pulled out a large pair of sunglasses and a beanie that had holes for her horns. She turned around and while she was still recognizable to me, to people who didn't know her she probably wouldn't be recognizable at all since there were quirks that changed people's appearances all the time.
"So? How do I look?" She spun around in a circle and when she finished I gave her a thumbs up. "Perfect! Alright, I know just the place to record. I have a desk over here, just pull over the chair from the vanity and we can get started!"
-----
After recording our first video we ran into a bit of a roadblock: what would we name our channel? Mina thought that maybe we could play off of what we'd be going by but we still didn't know what to do with that.
"Maybe Dracula and Alien Queen?" Mina suggested.
"Nah, that's too wordy," I said. "We need something short and easy to remember."
"Okay… how about D&AQ?"
"Not descriptive enough. Short is nice but that's just a bunch of letters."
"Aw come on, Kiri, we need something!" Mina whined.
"We'll get something," I promised. "I just want it to be good."
"Fine. What are you thinking?"
"Maybe… Dracula… hmm," I paused, thinking, before I had an idea. "Dracula's Aliens!"
"It's perfect!" Mina squealed. "Alright, let's make this happen! I'm so excited, I really hope we find something in the woods that we can show off at some point! Maybe people will even watch us!"
I laughed. "We're just two middle schoolers, who'd watch us anyways?"