Work Text:
For as long as he could remember, Noah had a connection to the paranormal.
He had been only three when he had seen his first ghost.
It had been quite a fright, laying in the grass while staring at the clouds, when a mostly-transparent being had floated over him.
For the first few weeks he’s been terrified.
He’d stay away from places ghosts were most likely to be seen, like cemeteries and busier parts of town from pure fright. He got used to it pretty quick, though.
“Helloo?”
Talking with ghosts never really ends well.
“Hey!”
Even acknowledging them alone seemed to have its pros and cons.
Ghost are used to being fully ignored by humans, since they’re not generally seen by them. And when they realise you can, in fact, see them, they get a bit…clingy. Which is why he tried his best to ignore them as much as he could get away with.
“Noah…anyone in there?”
He shivered slightly as a freezing cold kind-of-finger poked his forehead wrinkle, frowning.
Keyword: tried.
“Psst! Dude!”
A few days ago, he’d accidentally earned himself a ghostly “friend”.
He’d found the ghost pulling faces as he floated by an angry Duncan and, thinking it was pretty ridiculous, laughed.
And wasn’t that an idiotic thing to do?
Immediately, the ghost- who he now knew was Cody, since he non stop followed him about and even gave him an introduction (something, something, “I’m Cody but you can call me the Codester-”).
The nerd had tried to pretend he didn’t see him, but it was too late. The teen refused to leave his side, even during classes.
And now. Here they were. Noah, lying on his bed, with Cody hovering a bit too close above him.
“I know you can see me, Noah,” he ended that sentence with another poke to Noah’s face, making him recoil. At Cody’s victorious grin he rolled on his side. Dang it. “Aha! See! I know you know I'm here! Why else did you laugh?”
“I really wish I hadn’t,” he mumbled in annoyance, dragging a hand down his face. They blinked in surprise as he watched the ghost float a bit too close to them.
“Come on, dude,you’re like- the first person i’ve been able to speak to in the last, what? Five months? I’m getting lonely!”
Noah awkwardly shuffled away, feelings slightly guilty. Maybe he should give this guy a break. I mean, he seemed pretty young, and from what Noah could tell, he was probably around his age. He probably had no clue why he was here and what had gone wrong.
“Why don’t you go talk to some other ghosts, or something?” that got a more sore reaction than they were expecting. Cody’s eyes didn’t meet theirs, as if he felt betrayed.
“Well, I guess I could, but I wanna talk with you.”
Noah let out another sigh, slumping on the bed. He seemed to be doing that a lot, lately.
“Fine, fine. You're right. I shouldn't have ignored you. That was…kind of shitty. I'm sorry.”
The gho-Cody, grinned victoriously.
“I forgive you, dude,” he sat up on Noah’s bed properly. “I’m Cody, but you can call me the codemiester.” the geek ended with a wink.
Noah’s eyebrow raised, giving him an unamused look.
“I know that, seeing as you have been following me for over a week, moron,” Cody winced, laughing nervously. “And seriously? ‘The Codemiester?’”
“…The ladies like it?”
Noah made show of looking around, then back at the un-dead boy before him.
“I don’t see any of them.”
That got a snicker out of Cody, making him punch Noah's arm jokingly. It went right through them.
Oh.
Cody immediately pulled away, not smiling anymore.
Awkward.
They sat in silence for a moment.
“So-” cody started. then stopped. then started again. “You play Kosmic Kaos?”
Noah nodded slowly, looking at the limited addition cards on display. They’d saved up a year's worth of pocket money and birthday bucks to get them, but it was so worth it. They turned back to Cody. Cody had heard of it? That caught their attention.
“You know what Kosmic Kaos is?” he sat up, looking at him intently. Cody’s cheeks turned a darker blue from the attention.
“Well, yeah, it’s only the best and most well made game of all time!”
Noah felt dizzy. He hadn’t met another Kosmic Kaos player, well, ever. They shook their head lightly, smirking.
“That goes without saying. Have you seen tehir story line? It’s better than all the books i’ve ever read- combined. Which game is your favourite?”
“The second one, duh! It's clearly the best one!”
Noah felt his heart skip a beat.
That one was their favourite one, too.
“I’m surprised you actually like that one. But I guess it makes sense that a geek like you would get it,” they ignored the ‘hey!’ shouted in response. “It’s my favourite, too. The best part of it is probably the cut scenes, seeing as-“
He then proceeded to go on a fifty minute rant, barely stopping to take a breath. Cody intently watched, focused on his every word.
As soon as he was done, he relaxed his hands.
“And that’s why I think the plot twist of Anna Of Bane being the torturer is the most interesting and shocking plot twist of all games.”
Cody looked impressed. Very impressed. He stared at him in awe before picking his jaw back up.
“Woah, dude,” they winced, worried they’d creeped him out. “…You’re so right.”
He almost let out a sigh of relief and relaxed.
Noah took a moment to breathe. Cody sat up, looking out of the window absentmindedly, probably thinking about Noah's ‘speech.’
He observed the ghosts' otherworldly appearance. From his gap tooth, to his freckles face. From his middle part and his pretty eyes, to the two claw marks on both his cheeks. The blood across him.
It was clear to him how the guy had died. A bear mauling.
He felt nauseous.
Cody was a kid, just like him, and yet here he was. Dead. Forced to stay here instead of moving on to who knows where.
Noah distantly had a feeling he’d heard something about a teen being mauled to death by a brown bear a few months back, but brushed that thought away as Cody shook a mostly transparent hand in his face.
“Hellooo? Earth to Noah? Are you ignoring me again?” like always, the undead boy was close. Too close.
It made Noah feel a sort of way he wasn’t ready to deal with at the moemnt.
They breathed in slightly, pretty tired. Raising an eyebrow and leaning back, they gave cody an amused look.
“Maybe i should, since you’re so intent on getting in my personal space.”
Cody frowned, scooting closer until he was almost touching them.
“Come on, Noah, I know you don’t actually care. Plus,” he put a hand on Noah’s shoulder, grinning at him. “You’re warm.”
Maybe that shouldn’t have make Noah’s face heat up, but it did. He rolled his eyes, not making eye contact with the boy in front of him.
“Yeah, sure, as if ghosts can feel things.”
Cody didn’t reply to that, watching noah close his eyes.
They felt exhausted. He hadn’t slept the night before, busy reading books and dealing with a certain annoyance.
He felt the world around him quieten. His breathing evened out. The last thing he felt was a soft, cold, touch on his cheek before everything went away.