Chapter Text
“Please, just for tonight, Hinata pleaded to his friend, who was busy putting his shirt on, “I’ll even buy some meat buns or whatever you want for dinner. Just please come over.”
“I can’t tonight,” Kageyama replied, slipping off his gym shoes in favor of more comfortable ones. “My parents are coming home, and I promised I’d be there for dinner. You’ll be fine. There’s no ghost there,” he tied his shoes, not looking up at him as he replied.
“I’m telling you there’s something in my house,” he frowned, growing frustrated at his friend’s dismissive attitude. “It keeps making these weird noises at night.”
“Dumbass ghosts don’t exist. You probably just have rats or something,” Kageyama rolled his eyes.
“They’re not rats,” he pressed. “My stuff moves randomly sometimes. There’s no way rats are doing that”, he waved his hands around.
“It’s probably just you or your mom moving them, but you’re too stupid to remember it.”
“Ughh, look, I know it sounds crazy, but you have to come over and help me check it out.”
“I’m not going over to your house because you’re scared of some rats.”
“The shrimps probably just paranoid because he saw some horror movie with a ghost,” Tsukishima butted in, “And now he’s convinced himself that a ghost is haunting his house.”
“Shut up, I haven’t seen any horror movies recently,” he glared at the taller boy, “I know what I saw.”
“Are you sure, Shouyou? I mean, you’ve lived in your house for a long time. Isn’t it a little weird that a ghost has barely decided to start haunting you?” Yamaguchi butted in, hoping to ease the tension a bit.
“Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense for them to start haunting you randomly out of nowhere,” Kageyama agreed.
“What if it’s because you brought something that belonged to a person who died recently, and they turned into a vengeful spirit,” Nishinoya offered
“Don’t say stuff like that,” said Asahi, visibly shaken by what the shorter boy said.
“Waah, you really think so?”
“Yeah, my grandma used to tell me stories about people who died terrible deaths attaching their spirits to an object so they can haunt people,” Tanaka added.
Hinata’s eyebrows knitted together, taking a second to think about anything in his house that he could have brought recently to cause this.
“Well.. recently, my mom gave me a new dresser. I think it used to belong to my aunt,” he told his upperclassman, ”but she’s still alive.”
“Oooh, maybe she gave it to you because the ghost was haunting her, and she decided to pass on the curse to you!” Nishinoya exclaimed.
“Ehh, you think so?”
“Don’t listen to them, Hinata,” Suga intervened, putting a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder, “I doubt your aunt would give you a cursed dresser.”
“You never know, Suga,” Nishinoya sighs, nodding his head in disappointment, “sometimes it’s your own family who stabs you in the back or, well, in Shouyou’s case, lets a ghost stab you in the back.”
“Noya-senpai, what do I do!” Hinata cried out, throwing his arms around the boy, “I don’t wanna die.”
“Don’t worry, Sho. I’ve done a lot of research on this,” Noya confidently put a hand on his chest, “My brother married a lady who can talk to ghosts, so I’m a medium by marriage.”
“Stop saying that that’s not how that works,” Daichi yelled at him from across the room.
“First, you gotta go to the store and buy some purified salt and a white candle,” Nishinoya continued ignoring Daichi, “You have to make a circle in the middle of the room and sit in it holding the candle.”
“Why? What does that do?”
“It helps put the spirit at rest and let their soul go into the underworld. But you have to be alone to do it,” Noya answered.
“You have to say a chant ‘Here you go, I let you go, to a peace you’ve never known’ three times with your eyes closed but remember you have to be alone or else you’ll risk the chance of the spirit entering your body and possessing you instead.”
“Woah, do you really think that’ll work?”
“I’m positive,” the older boy assured Hinata.
“I’d better do it today then. My mom and sister aren’t going to be back until Monday,” he hastily began to throw his belongings into his backpack before throwing it on, “Thanks, Nishinoya-senpai. I’ll see you guys at practice on Monday.”
His friends all shouted back a goodbye as he ran to Kageyama, dragging him out of the clubroom, “Come with me, Kageyama. I need you to take care of my bike while I buy the salt.”
“Don’t pull me, dumbass, you’ll rip my arm off!” he yelled at his friend, trying to keep up with him.
The two boys ran as fast as possible to their coach’s store. Hinata managed to calm his friend down with the promise he’d buy him a meat bun for taking care of his bike.
He looked at the different salt options scratching his head in confusion. He wasn’t entirely sure what purified salt was. He wandered around the store but couldn’t find it anywhere. After about ten minutes of looking for it, he decided on a small container of organic salt he found. He figured that was close enough, so he grabbed it along with two meat buns and walked over to pay for the items.
“You can keep the change, coach,” Hinata told him, quickly grabbing his things.
“Kid, you’re two dollars short.”
Hinata’s face reddened, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, “Uhh, can I leave one of the mean buns.”
The man sighed, feeling bad for his student, “It’s fine, ginger, just pay me back on Monday. But don’t tell anyone about his!” He warned. “I don’t need the others to start thinking this is a food bank.”
“Thank you so so much, sir,” he bowed frantically, “I’ll make sure to pay you!”
He quickly ran out of the store. His friend was standing by his bike with a displeased look on his face.
“What took you so long?’’, he complained snatching the meat bun Hinata handed him.
“I couldn’t find the salt,” he said, taking a bite of the bun.
“I don’t know why you’re doing this,” he rolled his eyes, “I told you ghosts aren’t real. You should call an exterminator instead.”
“Didn’t you hear what Noya and Tanaka said? The dressers totally cursed,” he mumbled out, “I can’t believe my aunt would do that to me,” he pouted.
“I don’t blame her,” he said, chewing a mouthful of food, “You’re annoying.”
“Don’t be mean to me,” he frowned at him, “I brought you a meat bun.”
“Whatever,” he scoffed, “I’m surprised you’re not scared of being home alone with the ghost. Aren’t you scared of something going wrong?”
Hinata stiffened. He hadn’t thought about what would happen if something went wrong. However, he didn’t want Kageyama to know that, so he pretended to be calm.
“I’m not worried,” he said a little too hastily, “all I have to do is make a circle and say a chant. How hard can that be?”
“Don’t call me if you get scared,” his friend warned him.
“Of course I won’t do that. I’m a tough guy. Some spirit can’t scare me,” he huffed. He made a mental note to text Yamaguchi instead if something went wrong.
When they made it to the part of the street where the two parted, Kageyama said goodbye to his friend and began to walk away. Hinata mumbled back an uncharacteristically quiet goodbye in return.
Kageyama began to walk down the street, excited to get home and have dinner with his parents. He was going to get there a few minutes later than he’d hoped because of Hinata’s stupid salt. He couldn’t believe that the moron thought his house was haunted. Tsukishima was right Hinata had probably seen a movie that freaked him out. He heard some leaves crunch behind him, startling him. He felt that someone was behind him. His heartbeat quickened, and he felt a shiver going down his spine. Slowly he turned around to face what was behind him.
He was met with a head full of orange hair, “Uhh, hey?”
It was just Hinata.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, idiot?” he yelled at him for nearly giving him a heart attack.
“I was thinking, instead of going to my house, why don’t we have a sleepover at yours? We could order some pizza, make it a guy’s night. What do you say?” he tried to convince him.
Kageyama looked ready to kill him any second.
“You have three seconds to turn around before I pummel you, and you turn into a ghost,” he counted slowly in his head as Suga taught him, so he didn’t throw the boy off the mountain.
The boy just frowned and huffed, turning around biking away from him fast. He heard him grumble curse words under his breath, but he couldn’t care any less. He was just ready to go home and eat the spicy tofu his mom made.
~~~
“I can’t believe that jerk wouldn’t let me stay over,” Hinata whined as he opened the door to his house, “after everything I’ve done for him too. I’m never doing that guy a favor. He can start asking for ketchup himself.”
He walked into his house, setting his keys on the table and putting his backpack down. He grabbed the bag of salt and paced around the living room for a minute.
“Okay, come on, Shouyou, you can do this,” he told himself,” If Nishinoya recommended this to you, it’s gotta be legit. He’s a meddler after all.”
He hyped himself up as he slowly made his way over to his room, quietly sneaking around, trying his best to stick to the wall. He didn’t want the ghost to figure out what he was trying to do. He was scared that if he found out, he’d try to possess him or, even worse, kill him.
He tiptoed to the center and began to make the circle with his organic salt. He didn’t have enough salt, so his ring was a bit tighter than he thought it should be. He turned the lights off and made his way to the center. He found a candle in his kitchen that was kind of used. Nishinoya never said it had to be new, so he figured it didn’t matter. He took a quick sigh, a final way to gather up the courage, and lit the candle.
He closed his eyes and began to chant, “Here you go, I let you go, to a peace you’ve never known. Here you go, I let you go, to a peace you’ve never known. Here you go, I let you go, to a peace you’ve never known.”
He waited a second before opening one of his eyes to peep around the room, checking to see if anything had happened. He couldn’t see anything in the darkroom except for the little bit of the candlelight up, but in the corner of his eye, he could see a shadow move. He snapped his head quickly to where he saw the movement. Something shifted under his bed. He slowly got up and made his way over there. Swallowing the lump in his throat as he pulled back the cover gently and peeked under.
He was met with a pair of red eyes, “Ahhh! Please don’t kill me!” he screamed, jumping away as far as he could and scrambled to turn the lights back on.
He was surprised when the ‘ghost’ scurried out from under the bed and saw that it was just a tiny mouse. The mouse squeaked and crawled away into a hole behind the dresser he thought was cursed.
“Crap stupid Kageyama was right,” he laughed in relief.
‘He’s probably the reason I heard all that scratching, but I can’t believe that little guy made those weird thumping noises,’ he wondered.
“Oh well, I’ll call mom later and tell her we need to call an exterminator in the morning,” he sighed, “Right now, I’ve got to clean this up.”
Hinata swept up the circle of salt, scolding himself for spending so much money on the salt only for his ghost to be a mouse. He didn’t want to tell anyone his spirit was just a small mouse. He knew he would never hear the end of it from Tsukishima and Kageyama, and he’d feel bad, disappointing Nishinoya like that. He decided he’d tell everyone that Noya’s advice had worked and that he saw the spirit of an old man leave the dresser. He wasn’t sure they’d believe him, but it was cooler than just telling them the truth.
Once he finished cleaning, he decided that was enough for the day and gathered his stuff ready to take a bath and get ready for bed.
He sat in his bathtub, thinking about how the mouse could have made some of the noises he’d heard. The scratching was easily explained, and arguably so could the thumping, but he swore that sometimes he could listen to someone talking. He didn’t understand how a mouse could do that. He figured it was possible that he just heard his mom talking on the phone or even just the living room T.V.
Either way, it probably wasn’t something he needed to worry about.
Once he finished, he dried himself off and made his way to his room, singing happily to himself, finally ready to get some rest.
But when he turned around to his bed, he saw a teenage boy staring at him, eyes comically widen in shock, standing in the corner of his room.
He screamed louder than he had ever before, sure that today was the day he was going to die. God, he hated being right.
To his surprise, instead of entering his body to possess him, the boy screamed right back with an equally petrified look on his face.
“A ghost!” he yelled, pointing at Hinata, “Yer that small Victorian child that died in this house, aren’t ya? I’m sorry ya got tuberculosis, but please don’t take it out on me. I’m beggin’ ya.” He got on his knees and clasped his hands together, “I swear I’ll help release yer spirit. Just please don’t possess me.”
Hinata was baffled at the ghosts’ behavior, “What the- I’m not a ghost! And I’m not a small victorian child. I’m sixteen!’’ he yelled at the boy who was still on his knees, “You’re the one who’s a ghost!”
“What? No, I’m not. I’m not even dead,” he said, glaring at Hinata with a confused frown.
“Yeah, you are. You’re the ghost who’s been haunting my house,” he pressed, “Wait, maybe you’re like one of those ghosts in the movies who don’t even realize they’re dead, and I’m the only one who can see you. Oh my god, I’m a Meddler.” Hinata gasped, staring at his hands in amazement. He couldn’t believe he had gained the power to talk to ghosts. He knew his senpai was right about everything.
The boy just threw an unimpressed look. He had no idea what this ginger ghost boy was saying.
“Oh yeah, if yer not dead, then prove it,” he challenged.
Hinata looked at the boy in complete confusion, “How the heck am I suppose to prove I’m alive?”
“If ya aren’t really a ghost, then it shouldn’t be that hard to,” the boy said smugly as if he had caught Hinata red-handed.
“Why don’t you prove you’re not a ghost then, huh?” he challenged.
“Nuh-uh, I asked you first,” he demanded.
Hinata looked around the room, trying to think of something he could use to prove he was alive. His eyes settled on a small boxcutter in the corner. His eyes light up. He knew for sure this would convince him he wasn’t a ghost. He quickly grabbed it and made his way back over to the boy looking at him expectantly but with a hint of cautiousness in his posture.
He grabbed held up his arm, not breaking eye contact with him as he sliced a little bit of his skin with it. It wasn’t deep, just hard enough to make him bleed a little, but it stung, making him wince in pain slightly. The boy’s face was shocked, and he looked a bit disturbed by him.
“See,” Hinata held his arm out to show him the blood, “I’m alive now it’s your turn.”
“Okay, fine, I buy it yer not a ghost,” he admitted, “but yer probably a psychopath, so put that boxcutter down somewhere I can see it.”
He just rolled his eyes and dropped it in between the two of them.
The boy looked around the room, thinking of the best way to prove he wasn’t a ghost either. He scratched his head, contemplating,
He smiled when he thought of something that just might work. He walked over to the boy, who eyed him cautiously with his big brown eyes. As he stepped closer, Hinata backed up, maintaining a guarded posture. He took Hinata’s hand and put it on his cheek.
Hinata burned bright red as he caressed the boy’s face with his hand. His skin was warm and smooth. He definitely felt like he was a living human being. He looked over at the boy’s face for a minute. He was admittedly pretty handsome. He had an excellent facial structure and thick eyebrows that gave him a powerful look. Hinata guessed he was probably somewhere around his age. He peeled his eyes away, jerking and back when the boy’s dark brown gaze met his.
“Do ya believe me now?” the boy smirked.
“Yeah, I believe you, I guess,” he mumbled, trying to cool his cheeks down so he couldn’t tell he was embarrassed. “That doesn’t explain what you’re doing at my house, though,” he said.
“Kid, I can assure ya this is definitely my house. I don’t exactly make it a habit to sneak into people’s houses and accuse them of bein’ ghosts,” he said.
“Well, I don’t make it a habit to sneak into people’s houses and cut myself in the arm,” he argued right back, “Also, stop calling me a kid. I already told you I’m sixteen.”
“Well then, why don’t you tell me yer name boxcutter-kun,” he gave him a crooked him.
Hinata just glared at him, “My name’s Hinata Shouyou, Mr. reverse pudding hair,” he mocked back. The boy just smiled at the juvenile dig. It was more amusing than offensive like the ginger intended it to be.
“It’s nice to meet ya Shouyou-kun,” he grabbed Hinata’s hand shook it gently.
“I’m Miya Atsumu.”