Work Text:
Hanako had never seen the world in colour before; not during his time alive nor in the time he’s been dead. In other words, he had never met his soulmate. Whether he was alive or not, he had always heard about everyone finding their soulmates and seeing the world in colour.
Those who had found their soulmates would always talk about how beautiful the world was. They spoke of the deep scarlets that faded into soft oranges and yellows when the sun was rising or setting, the dark blues of the ocean, the gentle greens of forestry; not that he knew what any of those looked like.
In all honesty, he was jealous. Jealous of all the people who had found their soulmates, who were able to see all the colours of the world. So many people were able to find their significant others but here he was, dead, and now he would never get another chance at finding his soulmate.
Hanako let out a soft sigh, propping his elbow on the windowsill facing outside the little bathroom he was bound to, staring out at his monochrome world. A short time had passed as he looked out the wooden framed window, gazing through the scenery rather than at it.
Instead of staying there longer and wallowing in his sadness more, Hanako decided to go back into his even smaller bathroom stall. He slowly floated in and sat atop the toilet in the stall, crossing his arms and trying to keep the intrusive thoughts and utter loneliness from creeping into his heart.
He lightly bit his lip, glaring at nothing in particular just trying to keep his head clear, trying to keep himself from thinking about the topic of soulmates. He scrunched his eyes closed, grasping for anything, anything to keep his mind away from that train of thought but he just couldn’t no matter how hard he tried.
He felt the hot sting of tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He couldn’t deny how lonely he had been throughout his lifetime and even after that. He barely had any friends, his broth-- Tsukasa was nowhere near present in his life, at least in a positive way, and worst of all he hadn’t found his soulmate. Hell, he was starting to think that maybe he didn’t even have one, maybe he didn’t deserve one, maybe he-
He quickly snapped himself out of the spiral he knew he was about to go down. He felt something warm and wet rolling down his cheeks --tears -- he hadn’t even realised he was crying. Eyes wide, he raised a hand up to his face in disbelief, touching his cheeks to feel that tears were indeed still flowing steadily down them.
He couldn’t take it anymore, having bottled up all his grief and held it in for so long. He just let the tears flow freely down his face. Burying his face in his hands he sobbed and sobbed for who knows how long. Eventually, all the crying had tired him out. He fell asleep, leaning against the bathroom wall, a few tears still falling from his eyes.
…
A few hours had passed, Hanako was still sleeping in the bathroom stall that he was bound to because of the rumours. But he wouldn’t be asleep for any longer.
Three knocks on his stall door woke him, causing him to jolt up from where he was sleeping. Then a feminine voice timidly asked…
“Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you there?”
Someone was here for a wish. About time, he was getting pretty lonely bored.
“Here I am.~” he replied as he pulled open the stall door a tiny bit and creeped his fingers through the crack to pull it open wider. The young girl, Yashiro Nene, yelped fearfully in return, squeezing her eyes shut.
Nene built up the courage to take a peak at who or what had said that only to be greeted by an empty bathroom stall. She sighed in relief, leaning onto the stall door’s frame.
“Oh, it was just my imagination.” she said to herself aloud.
“Over here.” a voice said as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Nene froze, fearfully glancing behind her, prepared to push away whoever had said that and book it out of the bathroom.
A flash of blinding white.
And suddenly… she could see the world in colour.
And so could he.
Two gasps.
Tears filled both their eyes.
“It’s you…” they said in unison.