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After a long day of cleaning toilets and scrubbing sinks with a rag that was probably older than Kamome Academy's building, Hanako graces Nene with a break.
She falls flat on the floorboards with a grateful sigh. "Hanako-kuuuuuuuuuun,"
Hanako is resting where he usually sat on the windowsill, colored in a mix of reds, whites, purples, blues from the wide glass windows. The edges of his frame an array of transperant rainbows. "Yes, dear assistant?"
"Have you ever wanted to get married?"
He stops picking at his knife then, and slides it back into his gakuran. And moves to push the windows open, letting his hair cover his expression from her view and a gentle fresh air to stroke her cheek.
She slaps a hand to her mouth then, sudden realization causing tension to hunch her shoulders and she tore her bright red away from tracing how the wind made Hanako's hair sway in chopped strands of near black hair.
Hanako hates to speak about his past.
"Ah—I think I actually have something else to ask you, were you the one who snuck rotten candy in my bag? 'Cause if you were then I'll have you know that—"
"..Maybe."
Wait, what. Seriously? Well she supposed that made sense. But the thought of Hanako, alive and hands never having invisible streaks of his brother's own blood, pure and unadulterated happiness in his smile instead of hiding sorrow and guilt behind it, was a bit foreign to her. The thought of it though, was peaceful.
Hanako turns to face her, expression hollow and looking as if he was staring at something that wasn't really there. He isn't looking at her, and somehow, that makes Nene's stomach squeeze into itself. "A long time—well I guess everything about when I was alive is a long time to you—ago, I met a highschool girl who begged me to give her my wish slip, she ended up giving me all of hers in the end."
Nene is astonished, an older girl!? "She sounds nice," she says instead. She probably shouldn't pry (even when she really wanted to!), it was the most Hanako had ever told about himself.
"She left a kiss on my forehead!" He huffs, if a little proud.
"A f-forehead kiss!? That's like, 4th on my favorite types of kisses!"
Hanako laughs, bending to poke at her cheek, and retreating before she could swat him away. "A 4th? How many are there to you?"
Nene whines and slams her fist on the newly cleaned floorboards where she sat. "I've never even gotten any kind of kiss from anyone outside my family. How unfair!"
Hanako is slightly red in his giggle fit. Replacing the hollow look on his face with something lighter—something that had him looking at her.
She fixes her position on the floor into a more comfortable one, it was surprisingly cool for her sweaty from work body.
"Then how about now? Do you still want to marry?"
The apparition shakes his head in a manner that wasn't yes nor no. "Doesn't matter; I'm dead."
Nene tangles her fingers in an invisible beard, throughly frying her brain over. "Then, a supernatural lover!"
He waves his hand in a vague gesture. "We supernaturals are too caught up in trying to keep our rumors popular,"
Nene wonders because that's what she does, always thinking and thinking and when she's using her brain she uses her mouth and suddenly she has Hanako's whole attention on her. Her ruby red eyes having spots of blue and yellow lights in them from the bathroom window, Hanako can see his reflection in them and he honest to the heavens burns. "Then I'll marry you."
"What."
Then, she shoots up. "What."
A moment of silence, Hanako can hear the mokke drop their stolen scissors in shock, before scurrying out of the bathroom.
Hanako almost fell into hysterics from how he seriously cannot actually believe this. "You—you're gonna leave this school—what?—do you even hear yourself right now!? Yashiro!"
The situation kicks her over the head. "Huh..what? What? WHAT?"
Nene and Hanako cover their beet red faces in shame and embarrassment. Crawling into a hole in the dirt would never be enough, maybe get Tsukasa to tear out their soul and put them in seperate jars far, far away from eachother.
Hanako regains his ever withering confidence first, entire face still red and voice just a bit squeaky. "Pfft—do you atleast have a ring to give me?"
Teasing motherfucker get damned—
"Hah? Why would I have one? Why would I give one?"
The apparition shakes his head and wags a finger at her from above, hiding his face by tilting his hat just so, but Nene stills sees the red tint to his ears where his hair can't hide beneath choppy black locks.
Perhaps—in the safety of her own room where Hanako can't reach her—she could admit that it made her feel a bit proud.
"Terrible fiancé you are, Yashiro!" Hanako laughs, "lucky for you, I'm a sufficient lover."
Mentally kicking himself over this situation as he always does, Hanako sends a hakujoudai flying to hand him the scissors the mokke had dropped, and lets it fall into his sweaty palms. And tells another hakujoudai to get the safety pins the girl hid in the pocket of her bag.
Nene watches with curiosity at the pair of scissors, noting the kiddie fox shape of it and the name tag 'Minamoto Kou' slapped onto it in faded blue marker.
In a swift movement, Hanako slides off his hat and cuts the emblem off the threads holding it in place, and presents it to her wide eyes.
He pulls her onto her feet and captures her closer, only a few centimeters separating them. A squeak slips from soft lips that smelled vaguely of peach chapstick.
"Hanako-kun—"
Hanako sticks the safety pin into the cloth back of the emblem, his smile a bit wobbly in a way that made Nene want to drop to her knees.
It's exhilarating. There's a feeling settling into her stomach that's heavy in a sort of pleasant way. Nene keeps reminding herself to breathe and couldn't help but think that Hanako was lucky for the fact that he could go on without his lungs heaving. Nene digs her fingers into her uniform dress, crumpling.
She thinks, maybe he missed it.
The thought makes her feel terribly sad, so she inhales a long breath for the both of them.
Hanako pops off her skull brooch. "I'll be taking that,"
"Huh? Why?"
She could never quite read the boy, but something that feels like understanding wafts through her. "Oh," and hides her eyes behind the curtains of her hair shyly.
It's strange how Hanako seems to be infected by her embarrassment, but feels it big and whole. He'd always been a bit shyer than her at times.
Hanako pins the old dinky painted gold emblem where her brooch once was, and puts the skull brooch where the emblem once sat.
Nene pipes up first. "Aren't we supposed to wait a few months or so before marriage?"
The ghost laughs, almost all nervousness washed away from the hunch of his shoulders. Before a serious expression replaced it.
"Are you really fine with this?" An unspoken question, you don't have much to live—are you truly okay with being married like this?
Nene hears all the same. "Yes."
Hanako's lips are cold against hers, he probably thinks her is too 'human temperature' for him.
Somewhere, the school bell rings. Perhaps to signify a strong bond between human and supernatural.