Chapter Text
“So what you’re telling me-”
“Yachi.”
“No, no. Let me finish. What you’re telling me, is that you viewed a flat, found out that not only did someone die there, but that everyone who’s lived there since has left before their term was up because of ‘undisclosed circumstances’ and you still signed the contract. Is that what you’re telling me, Shouyou? Is it?”
Hinata rolled his eyes at the phone receiver, ignoring the indignant squawk of ‘I could hear that, Shouyou!’
“Yes, Yachi. That’s basically it. Now will you come and help me unpack?”
“Um…”
“Yachi.”
“Shouyou, I don’t want to die.”
“Yachi.”
“Oh, fine. I’ll be there in two hours.”
Thanking her and hanging up, Hinata dropped his mobile down to the floor and looked around at what he’d affectionately dubbed his ‘box kingdom’.
Despite the current state it was in, with boxes seeming to burst out of every alcove and various take outs littering the floor, the whole place was much more opulent than anything Hinata could have hoped to afford under normal circumstances. The flat had open brick walls, hard wood flooring, and a view that most would have died for. Well, he supposed that death was part of the reason that most didn’t have it. The place had been cheap, somehow managing to fit his meagre budget. It was only when he was about to sign the contract that Hinata had found out why. Five years ago the person who lived in this flat had been found dead and since then anyone who’d moved in here had left with next to no explanation. After about the sixth sudden move the place became almost impossible to sell, apparently one of the former renters, a journalist, had written a column on it entitled 'Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here'. It all went downhill from there. The price dropped and dropped, until here Hinata was.
Looking around the flat once more, Hinata reached down to his phone to text Yachi and ask her what pizza she wanted, only to find it gone. A glance to the kitchen counter found his phone, and he shrugged. He’d never had the best memory.
By the time Yachi and he had finished unpacking half of the boxes the sun had set and the only shows on TV were either teleshopping or late-night-scream-fests. With the half empty boxes acting as a makeshift sofa, they curled up in front of the shopping channels (scary films never sitting well with Yachi’s temperament) and ordered pizza.
“I just don’t think it’s entirely safe is all?”
“You’re just being paranoid Hi-chan. It’s a spooky story that happened to creep some people out!”
“But…”
Brushing some of her hair away from her face, Hinata gave his best friend a hug, attempting to calm some of her nerves.
“There’s no stock in it, don’t worry. Ghosts don’t exist, Hi-chan.”
She hmm’d in response, leaning into Hinata’s shoulder and sighing.
“Maybe…” Yachi spoke softly, turning towards Hinata, “we should open some drinks. You know, to celebrate.”
Hinata grinned and pushed himself up from the box couch, his half-asleep legs giving him a prominent limp. Making his way towards the kitchen, he didn’t notice the extension cable on the floor and tripped, grabbing onto the counter and knocking off a glass placed on the edge. He reached out to grab it and missed, skimming air as it skipped his fingers. He braced himself for the smash, and it never came.
The glass stopped, midway through the fall, and placed itself gently on the floor.
Hinata stared at the glass, then looked around him, and then stared at the glass once more. It was late. He needed a drink.
“Shou-chan! You’ve drunk too much!”
“I’m celebrating!”
Yachi burst out into a fit of giggles, shoving Hinata’s shoulder and tipping over herself.
“You should talk!” Hinata snorted. “You’ve drunk enough sake to knock out a battalion of troops.”
She just continued giggling, lay flat out on the floor, and passed the bottle up to Hinata. He took a swig and grinned down at her.
“To a new life!” he shouted.
“S’new life!”
Taking a swig from the bottle and putting it on the box next to him, Hinata glanced about the flat, feeling pretty proud of himself. They’d not made that much progress but the place was finally starting to feel more comfortable, tea towels hanging up and photographs covering the surfaces.
He reached behind him to grab the bottle, only to swipe at thin air. His head shot around, and the bottle was nowhere in sight. Jumping to his feet, Hinata scanned the apartment, ignoring the grumble Yachi made in protest as he forced her to move. His eyes finally landed on the bottle, sitting nicely across the room on his small desk.
“Yachi?” Hinata whispered, “Did you move the bottle?”
There was a grumble.
Hinata already knew the answer. He suddenly felt very, very queasy. He’d probably drunk too much.
“C’mon Yachi, let’s go to bed.” He said after a long while.
Pulling Yachi up to her feet, Hinata walked her into the bedroom and lay her down under the covers, knowing she’d be perfectly comfortable in the t-shirt and leggings she arrived in. Hinata quickly got into his pyjamas, making sure to scope out the entire room as he did before diving into bed alongside Yachi.
They’d known each other long enough to be comfortable sharing a bed, and often did when scared or lonely. Not that Hinata was scared; his gaze flickered across the room once more. It was just a new place was all?
It didn’t matter anyway, was his final thought of the night, Yachi was here too. Nothing would dare go after the both of them.
The morning came with a rushed exit from Yachi and promises that he’d see her tomorrow – they both had the same sport science lecture. He stretched out across the bed, the delivery men should be coming later on with his sofa and various IKEA items he couldn’t even pronounce the name of that he’d bought on a whim. Thinking about it now, he probably could have gone without the waffle iron and heated towel maiden, but he was damn sure that the whale shaped bathmat was a solid investment if ever he saw one.
Rolling over and staring at the cheap dresser the landlord had left for him, Hinata found himself wondering about his family. Since starting University he’d only been home twice, once during Christmas, and once for Natsu’s birthday. She’d been so excited when he got accepted into University in Tokyo, but when she found out how long he’d be gone for Natsu had cried for days. He still felt pangs of guilt when he thought about it.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he barely even registered his phone ringing. He scrambled for it and answered quickly, not thinking to look who was calling, only two people ever rang him anyway. Yachi probably forgot some notes.
“Shouyou!”
“Hi, Mum.” He was wrong. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Well if you think about me so much, why don’t you try ringing once in a while?”
“Ah, sorry Mum.”
“It’s fine. How’s the new flat?”
He started picking at loose threads on his blanket, “It’s alright. I'm almost finished unpacking.”
“It’s not too cramped there, is it?”
Looking around at the wide open space, Hinata shrugged. “Nope, it’s fine.” His bedroom alone was almost twice the size of Natsu’s old one.
His mum hummed in response, and he went back to picking at his blanket.
“You know, Shouyou,” her voice was slowing, taking on a careful tone, “You don’t need to stay there if you don’t want.”
His hand stilled.
“We’d all understand if you came home.”
“Mum.”
“Some people just aren't cut out for University.” She whispered the last word, “They don’t do well in big cities.”
“Mum.”
“Shouyou.”
“I’m fine.”
A hum.
“I have to go now Mum, the delivery men are here.” he lied.
“Ah, oka-”
He hung up before she could give her answer and stared down at his phone. His head tilted to the side and he went back to picking at the blanket. His stomach grumbled but he couldn’t bring himself to get anything to eat.
The delivery men came and went, and he slowly set his furniture up, feeling less and less working that night’s shift. He needed the money, he reminded himself.
Shoving his uniform into his bag, Hinata made his way out of the flat.
He worked in a small sports shop down in the café district. His boss had told him they were placed there to guilt people into buying exercise gear after eating too much sweet food. Hinata didn’t think it worked particularly well, what with their only real customers being an overly-excitable guy who seemed to have a never ending plethora of owl tops, an awkward, burly-looking guy who spent most of his time talking to Suga-senpai, and a freckled kid who came in purely to see Tsukishima (God knows why).
It was bound to be just as quiet as usual in the tiny shop, so Hinata didn’t feel too stressed about the prospect, he’d just really rather stay at the flat.
“Hi Hinata!”
He grinned at his boss as he entered, glad to see a friendly face first, “Hi Suga-senpai! Had many people today?”
The silver-haired man frowned slightly, looking beyond Hinata and towards the doors.
“Not yet, Hinata. But it’s coming up to six, which means-”
Before he’d even finished speaking, the doors burst open and a flustered looking Sawamura-san fell in.
“Ah, uh, ahem. Hello Sugawara-san.”
“Hello Sawamura-san.” Suga gave his patented ‘how may I help you?’ smile and shooed Hinata off to go get changed into his uniform.
“Daichi!” The man cried out in response.
“What?”
Sawamura-san just laughed slightly awkwardly and walked off down the running aisle. Suga raised his eyebrow at Hinata and stifled a giggle before leaving the counter and going to talk to the awkward man.
Mondays and Wednesdays at six were always the same. Sawamura Daichi would flail into the shop, flustered and uncomfortable, and spend the rest of the night talking to Suga. The shop would close, and at that point he would buy an extraordinary amount of items, bow for way longer than strictly necessary, then fluster back out into the night. Suga thought he was sweet, everyone else thought he was an idiot.
Nishinoya was sat in the backroom, ripping open boxes of polo shirts and haphazardly shooting at them with the pricing gun.
“Uh, hi Noya!”
“Huh- oh, Shouyou! Hey! Is Mr Lovestruck in yet?”
“Yu-huh. Got here just after me.”
They grinned at each other, and Hinata got changed quickly before sitting and joining Noya on the floor.
“Shouldn’t you be out helping Suga on the floor?”
“Ah, yeah but it always gets really awkward when Sawamura-san is here…” He trailed off and frowned at the box, trying not to think about the uncomfortable feeling of having to watch someone try to ask his boss out on a date about forty times and never quite manage it.
“Yeah, true. Don’t worry Shouyou! I’ll say I needed help in here!”
“Thank’s Noya-senpai! You’re so cool!”
“Hell yeah I am!” Noya preened, and handed Hinata a pricing gun.
Work always left him feeling drained, even when it hadn’t been too difficult. Lying back on the sofa and staring up at the beams on the ceiling, Hinata thought about the long day of University ahead of him and sighed. He didn’t want to go in tomorrow, the lectures were long and dreary recently, full of terms that he didn't understand and had to spend hours deciphering later on at the library. He thought about Yachi and wondered if she’d be mad, she hated it when he skipped lectures. His mother’s words came back to him: ‘some people just aren’t cut out for University’. He was going to go in.
He felt his eyelids getting heavier and knew that if he was going to go to bed, it was now or never. He couldn’t bring himself to move.
Without opening his eyelids Hinata could tell it was late. The air was still and outside he could only hear the muffled shouts and speeding cars of the city late at night. Something had disturbed his sleep, Hinata made a mental note not to sleep on the sofa again; he’d probably made himself jump almost rolling off it.
Stretching out across the sofa, Hinata started to push himself up. There was a blanket covering him that he didn’t remember grabbing, but he put his forgetting down to his sleep addled brain.
“Shouldn’t you shower after work?”
Hinata froze.
“Yachi?” he whispered. But he knew it wasn’t her, the voice was too gruff, too deep. It was a man’s voice.
“Think again, dumbass.”
Hinata slowly opened his eyes, peering into the darkness. Stood at the end of the sofa was a tall, angry looking man in his early twenties. He had thick, black hair that hung over his eye, making him look even more imposing than he already was, and a deep scowl engraved into his face. He was wearing a pair of tight black jeans and a dark blue jumper.
And for some reason that Hinata couldn't fathom, he seemed to be glowing.
“Well,” the stranger asked, as Hinata lay staring at him, frozen in fear, “are you going to say anything?”
Shaking his head slowly, Hinata made his plan of escape. He threw his blanket at the man and went to run, hoping it’d confuse him long enough for Hinata to get out.
The blanket passed right through him and fell to the floor.
Hinata screamed.