Chapter Text
The floor of the bus was disgusting. Snow tracked in from people’s boots, melted and swirling with dirt and discarded bits of garbage. But it was all Yosuke could look at; he couldn’t bring himself to look at any of the people around him out of some fear that they would know. Even though there was no way they could, which was part of the entire problem. It didn’t make much sense. The entire thing went around in some kind of bizarre circle.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Don’t say it like that,” Yosuke sighed, holding his powered-off cellphone against his ear. “You make it sound like you’re my hostage or something.”
“Am I not?”
“Having a hostage would mean I get the chance to benefit somehow, right? So far, I’m not seeing anything good about this. It’s not like I had a say in this, either.” Yosuke closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, bouncing in his seat a little as the bus drove over one of Inaba’s many potholes. “Besides, if I know anything about this kind of situation, you’re the one that’s gonna benefit.”
“What?”
“I gotta help you find rest; tie up some lingering regret or whatever. I’ve seen movies like this. Haven’t you? I mean, when you were… still…”
He opened his eyes and looked up at the guy sitting backwards in the seat in front of him. All shaggy hair and blue eyes, sitting crosslegged with his arms resting along the back of his seat. Staring at Yosuke with a look of such boredom it came off as a little haughty.
“Alive,” Minato finished.
“Yeah.”
The bus stopped and picked up a girl about their age. She made her way to the back and out of all the empty seats, chose to sit in the seat beside Minato. Out of some kind of habit born from when he still breathed, Minato shifted a little to the side to give her space. It was unnecessary and judging by the bitter look on his face, he knew it. As if to add insult to no injury, the girl flipped her long hair to free it from the scarf wrapped around her neck, and instead of whipping him in the face, it passed through him like he wasn’t even there.
Minato sighed and turned his head to look out the window.
All that aside, he really did look surprisingly normal. Not at all like the ghosts Yosuke had seen in movies and manga – well, except for shoujo manga but Yosuke definitely didn’t read those. But no, Minato was just your regular, average, corporeal-looking young adult wearing regular, everyday clothes. Fitted jeans and a striped t-shirt that did, funny enough, make him look a little bit like a prisoner. His shoes, these clunky combat boots, were so tattered and old they had cracked everywhere his foot bent, but they were completely dry and clean, unaffected by the snow outside.
And as he watched the scenery pass by the window, it reflected in his eyes, as if there was actually a surface for the light to shine on.
As clever as Yosuke felt about using his cellphone as a way to talk to Minato without looking like he was talking to himself, the drawback was that it meant no headphones. No headphones, no music. No music meant higher levels of anxiety and higher levels of anxiety meant nausea and a heart beating so fast it hurt.
Yosuke swallowed hard and tried not to notice his reflection and Minato’s lack thereof in the windows as they walked down the corridor, coming to a halt in front of the second last door on the left. Which he just stared at. And stared at.
“What’re you waiting for?”
“Nothing,” Yosuke mumbled, and he pushed the door open.
Minato followed him into the room, looking around curiously, but it was just a normal hospital room. Everything was normal. Completely fine. No sense of urgency or imminent death, which was good. Yosuke’s mother was sitting upright in bed and she even smiled and waved when she saw him. Not that it really did anything to comfort him. If anything, it was worse knowing everything was inside where he couldn’t see it, couldn’t be sure it was fixed.
“Hey.” Yosuke held out the vase of flowers he’d bought in the gift shop. “I got you something. It’s – not much, I know, but…”
“They’re beautiful, Yosuke.”
He took a long time to place them on the bedside table, taking advantage of every second he didn’t have to look into her eyes and see that knowing look he feared would be there. The one people got when they could see through you. She was particularly good at it.
“So how’re you feeling?” Yosuke asked. He pulled up the chair next to her bed and perched himself on the very edge. Minato walked by the foot of the bed and over to the window, where Yosuke tried his hardest not to watch him. “The doctor said the surgery went really well.”
“I feel fine. The incision’s so tiny, I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah. Welcome to the future.”
His mother laughed and said something, but Yosuke became too distracted by the scene by the window to hear it. Hands gripping the sill, Minato was leaning so far forward his head and shoulders passed through the glass like it was water.
It wasn’t the first strange thing he’d seen the guy do, but it happened so rarely that it was jarring every time. The first time he’d laid eyes on him, Minato had been floating by the ceiling above his bed, curled up in a ball like he was asleep – which had been horrifying. But since then he’d at least taken to walking around and pretending to interact with gravity like a normal person. Most of the time.
“Yosuke?”
“Uh – sorry,” Yosuke mumbled, looking back to his mother. He turned his chair around a little, putting the window just out of reach of his peripheral vision.
“Are you alright? You’re not still worried, are you? Your father told me you –”
“What? No, I’m fine,” Yosuke said dismissively. He kept his eyes on his hands as they fidgeted with the zipper of his jacket. “It was just hip replacement, not like you were getting brain surgery or something, right?”
“Makes me sound old, doesn’t it?” His mother smiled gently and leaned back against her pillows. “But I’m not that old. Apparently arthritis affects a number of people my age.”
“Exactly. No big deal.”
Yosuke looked over his shoulder. Minato’s head was back inside the hospital and he was leaning against the windowsill with his arms crossed. Their eyes met only briefly, but it was still long enough for Yosuke to recognize that knowing look.
“Why’re you so upset? It was just a hip operation.”
“Shut up,” Yosuke snapped, momentarily forgetting he didn’t have his phone out; a woman sitting at the nurse’s station gave him a dirty look as he passed. Instead of bothering to take it out again, he lengthened his stride and clenched his jaw. He wasn’t planning on saying anything to Minato again, so it didn’t matter.
What did matter was finding the elevator, and if he could just fucking remember where it –
The world jerked around him, the floor disappeared, and all the air vanished from his lungs. Something hard slammed into Yosuke’s back and the next thing he knew he was looking up at a bright florescent ceiling light. And then Minato’s face as he leaned over him, wearing a smug smirk.
“Nice one.”
“Shut –”
“Are you alright?!”
This third voice sounded genuinely worried, and it more than anything prompted Yosuke to fight the urge to just lie there and melt into the floor. Back aching a little, he sat up and looked around, finding himself staring at a pair of long legs and a mop. He followed them up to their owner; someone wearing a janitor’s uniform and a look of wide-eyed concern.
“Here,” the janitor said, holding out a hand. Despite wanting to smack it away and run for cover, Yosuke took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. A little dizzy and a lot embarrassed, he averted his eyes, and only then did they land on the yellow caution sign that warned of a wet floor.
“Uh… Thanks…”
“No problem.” The janitor removed his hat and scratched at his head, leaning a little on his mop. “Or, uh, maybe I should be saying sorry.”
Yosuke forced a smile for the guy’s benefit, because that was what he wanted. Yosuke just wanted to get out of there.
“Souji?”
Yosuke looked over his shoulder and felt his heart give an odd thump. Minato was staring at the janitor with a look he could only describe as anguished. An expression he’d seen faked by countless actors, but never made in real life. It was the most emotion Yosuke had yet seen on that blank face, which just made it that much worse.
Minato took a step forward and hesitated, but then he spun on his heel and bolted down the hall.
“Minato!”
“What?”
Yosuke looked back at the janitor, who was staring at him and looking a little confused.
“Uh – sorry.” Yosuke gestured toward the windows to his left. Despite the fact they were several storeys high, he said, “I thought I just, uh – saw someone I know? I have to go.”
And with that, he too turned and ran off down the hall, though this time being much more careful on the slippery floor.
Minato hadn’t been far away. He never was. Whatever was causing Yosuke to see him in the first place was also making it impossible for them to separate. For better or for worse.
He’d been sitting against the wall with his hands pressed to his face when Yosuke found him. Right by the nurse’s station Yosuke had accidentally yelled at, and the nurse was still there, giving him the stink eye.
Under the pretense of tying his shoes, Yosuke knelt down beside Minato, lowering his voice and speaking as gently as he knew how. “Are you okay?” But no answer came. Yosuke tied and untied and tied his shoe, over and over, but still nothing. “Did you used to know him?”
“Stop.”
Minato let out a long, slow breath from between his hands.
“Can we please just go? Please.”
“Yeah,” Yosuke sighed, getting to his feet. “Let’s get out of here.”