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“Nah, you’re sayin’ it too soft.” Katsuki shook his head, holding a candy bucket in one hand, and holding Eri’s hand with the other. They were on their way out the door to go trick or treating, but there was something to address first. “When you say it, you gotta be loud about it. Gotta sound like you mean it! Give it another go.”
“Ok!” Eri inhaled, balled her free hand up into a fist. “Trick or treat…!” Her voice was still so cute and soft, like she was scared to shout. It hurt Katsuki’s heart, but given what she’d been through… it made sense. That was exactly why he’d offered to take her out trick or treating this year though, to teach her that she was allowed to speak above more than a fucking whisper .
“Not quite. Here, like this.” Katsuki made a big show of inhaling. “TRICK OR TREAT!” He threw the hand with the candy bucket out, mimicking demanding candy from someone. Eri giggled next to him, shaking her head.
“Nooo, too loud! You’ll scare people!”
“That’s the point! They wanna be scared, that’s what Halloween is for. That’s why we dress up.”
“Are unicorns scary?” Eri asked, tipping her head to the side and gesturing at her unicorn onesie.
“Mmm. Maybe to someone. But you wanted a cute costume, and as far as I’m fu- fluffing concerned, you can be a unicorn if you want to be. Most people dress up scary. Since you’re not scary though, you gotta be super loud yeah?”
“Ok… I can try again!”
“You got this.”
Eri copied Katsuki, taking in a comically deep breath, before leaning forward and with all the might she could muster yelled . “TRICK OR TREAT!” Followed up by a very soft. “Please!”
Katsuki pretended to be blown away by the noise, shuffling the candy bucket over his wrist so he could offer Eri a hi-five, which she took with a grin.
“Yeah! Just like that! Heck yeah kid, you’re gonna be louder than me when you grow up!”
Eri held her head high with pride as they left, practicing a few more loud trick or treat! war cries as they made their way to the main streets that participated in the holiday.