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3:23am :: Rain pitter-pattering on the windows and rooftop is all Kei can hear, in fact it's all he's heard all night and for the past few days despite it being just about at the end of summer. He welcomes the cool temperatures the rain brings with it after the endless days of heat and unbearable, sweat-harbouring humidity, and also welcomes not having to water or tend to the crops as often, though there's no doubt in his mind the weeds will have flourished in the down pour and him and Grandma are going to have a back-breaking load of plucking and pulling to do once they can step foot outside again without being swept away by the flow of rain on the ground.
But still, Kei always found the sound of wet weather to be relaxing, whether it be a light shower or a storm hurdling lightning towards the distant waves at night, and relaxation wasn't something he found often so he appreciated it. He welcomed it.
What he didn't welcome or appreciate however, was the dark mass of black ghost pain in the ass standing in the corner of his room, opposite the end of his bed, just.. staring. His ghost had gotten into the habit of doing this for a small while now out of nowhere, almost like a ritual. At first, Kei ignored it. Thought almost nothing of it. He knew this ghost was strange and disobedient in it's own ways and probably wouldn't listen if Kei told it to leave, or.. not leave, considering the whole reverse psychology shtick. He also didn't want to start yelling in the middle of the night as to not wake Grandma up. At first it started slowly, it would come of its own accord and stay for a few minutes at best before making it's leave, maybe look around Kei's room, fiddle with some of Kei's things, surprisingly not breaking anything which made Kei very suspicious but he decided to just shrug it off. Maybe it just decided to not be a dick at least in the middle of the night, who knows. Kei didn't. He didn't want to know, really.
Eventually it started staying a bit longer each night it came, which gradually increased. Sometimes it would come more than once. It wouldn't really do anything, say anything (to the best of its abilities), it would only stand and watch the boy in bed almost curiously. Kei could manage to sleep around it at first, hell he probably had most of his life and just never seen or noticed it, but at some point he began to feel.. uncomfortable, almost, or maybe creeped out is a better way to describe it. It was a little unsettling, let's be honest. Kei hadn't the slightest clue what it wanted or what it was up to if anything, maybe it just felt like being a total creep-o, God knows it liked doing anything that Kei would oppose. Soon, Kei would call to it briefly, ask it what it needs or wants, get no response, lose his temper a little (despite not expecting much) due to feeling uneasy being stared at in the middle of the night every damn night, for what seemed like no reason. At one point he got so pissed off with his IBM (probably from the sleep he was losing from the entire charade) he threw a discarded slipper he spotted near his bed at it in an attempt to get it to fuck off or look somewhere else, which was an awful idea. It ended up not liking having footwear thrown at it and almost wrecked the place, the noise of which woke Grandma up and nearly ended with her calling 110 thinking they were being robbed.
He made a mental note that night. "Note to self: don't throw slippers. You'll make the situation even worse."
At this point Kei's fed up. He's had it up to here, so to speak. He's getting small but noticeable headaches during the day from the lack of sleep added onto the stress of being hunted by half the nation at any given time, and the bags under his eyes are big enough to carry groceries. Ghost won't explain itself during the day or at night and Kei is just tired.
"What? What is your deal? What do you want?" Kei throws his bad mood straight at his Ghost. He's currently leaning up in bed with his oh-so-warm blanket covering him from the waist down, his left arm propping him up and the other hand nursing his forehead in an attempt to soothe the small headache he can feel coming. "Come on, it's been two weeks. You won't answer me, you won't leave until you.. I don't know, time out or decide to stop bothering me, you won't let me sleep properly.. I could live with it at first but now you're both creeping me out and getting on my nerves." That last part came out more tiredly than he anticipated but he could hardly think properly. He'd be a bit louder if it wasn't late and he wasn't so exhausted.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" His last one-sided retort before once again giving in, leaning his head back with a tired scowl on his face and a small grunt of annoyance twisting in his throat.
"Better... Tired.." Kei hears from the other side of his room, from his ghost undoubtedly. He lifts his head up and for once he's surprised, he would almost be relieved if it weren't for how unpredictable his Ghost tended to be. That could mean anything.
"...What? Tired? Yeah. I'm damn tired, you get it? Do you mind?" Kei didn't expect a two sided conversation from this.
"Always.. tired... I mind.." It responded quietly, putting it's thoughts together as best it could. Kei couldn't tell if it knew what it was saying or if it was going off how Kei currently felt. It was always hard to read.
"Are you gonna leave me be, let me sleep? Or am I going to have to throw another slipper at you?" There were no slippers near him but he'd go searching if he damn well had to. This time he got no response, just another almost forlorn stare that Kei would suspect was right in his eyes if his ghost actually had a pair of it's own.
He groaned deeply from his chest, his eyes rolling dramatically in their sockets. "Fine. Sure. Whatever. Do what you want." He grumpily and ungracefully flopped onto his side facing the wall and away from his ghost with a huff, pulling his blanket up to his shoulders to ward off the icy chill in the room. He was not in the mood for this, but despite the fact he wouldn't admit it Kei was a little disappointed he didn't get much out of his Ghost the first opportunity he got after multiple nights of losing much needed sleep, but he was probably being too optimistic about it. Maybe tomorrow it will be more open to.. talking, or compromise, or something like that.
"Do what.. you want.." It repeated in a tone that sounded almost like it was deeply contemplating what it was being told. 'Probably a bad idea giving it free reigns but.. hopefully it'll do the opposite like it normally does.' Kei thought to himself, ignoring his Ghost in the same way it ignored him all the times he tried getting it to just leave. 'See how you like being ignored.' Truly the words of a spiteful, tired, and grumpy child.
Things went quiet after that for a short few minutes that felt a lot longer than they lasted, the gentle haze of sleep and dreams finally beginning to sweep Kei's mind of his worries and woes, and eye bags. Kei assumed his IBM was either still standing there in silence or had done him a solid and left for once, until he heard a few small but definite creaks in the floor boards. His immediate thoughts, being half asleep, was 'the house is settling' as Grandma had told him a few times during the first week of him staying there. It wasn't until he felt a small, slow dip at the end of his bed and the sheets being ever so slightly tugged that he was slowly nudged out of his almost asleep state of mind. He unhappily turned his head towards the sound of his bed creaking where he felt the dip in the mattress, opening his eyes, both stinging from sheer exhaustion and eyesight blurred for the same reasons, to find the black mass of ghost-like shadow that has been causing him mental and nocturnal havoc the past week and a half almost hovering above him.
He blinks his eyes a few times in an effort to clear his eyesight. Kei was more surprised to see it than anything, if not a little nervous and caught off guard. He felt a drop of sweat form on his cheek, slowly dripping down as if it were a physical embodiment of his current anxiousness of the situation. Ghost looked much larger from this perspective, Black Ghosts always were huge creatures generally being over two meters tall, but being close really gives one an idea on how big and.. intimidating they really are. Kei doesn't really know how to react considering his Ghost could either be harmless or a huge threat in his current position. He isn't sure it would hurt him under these circumstances but Ghost was too unpredictable to trust that much. But, that didn't mean Kei would show it or back down. He had his pride if nothing else.
He looked over his ghost before saying anything, noticing it's form in a hunched over position, one knee on the corner of the bed, the foot on the other leg on the floor holding it in position, and each hand positioned on each respective side of Kei's legs. It's head reached to about Kei's waist and it was staring intently into Kei's eyes, or Kei assumed it was, again the lack of any facial features made it hard to tell.
"What, now you want to talk?" Kei asks in a sleepy tone, to think he was nearly out too. 'Talk' might not be the right word but it's the best he's got. Kei turns almost leaning on his back, ready to turn back around again should his ghost just be trying to get on his nerves. His question was met with silence, his ghost not budging even an inch or showing any signs of wanting to communicate and all Kei can think of is kneeing Ghost straight in the face. It wouldn't do anything but piss it off again but it sure would make him feel better.
Just as Kei lets out a small sigh of defeat and goes to turn back around and ignore Ghost, he hears his IBM speak. "Cold."
Kei is left a little confused, convinced he heard incorrectly. "...What?" he asks, lifting an eyebrow and squinting his eyes trying to make sense of the single word he heard. It doesn't seem like a big deal but judging by the situation and what his IBM was doing.. Was his Ghost cold, of all things? Is that what it meant? What? This thing can only be killed from a blow to the head by another black ghost or exposure to water and it's cold?
"Cold." It repeated, as if Kei was an idiot not understanding the concept of low temperatures.
"You're.. cold? You're feeling something other than bloodthirsty jerk?" He responds, now leaning up on both his elbows almost curiously, although keeping his eyebrows down and his expression flat as ever. This is the first he's heard of this.
Ghost pauses, taking Kei's response in. After a short few seconds, it begins to shift it's arm upward towards Kei slowly, releasing it's hold on the bed sheets. "No.." Ghost's index finger goes to point outwards, the rest curling in tightly. Kei shrinks downward ever so slightly as the hand nears, his eyes snapping shut as he sees a large clawed hand moving in his direction, probably wanting to avoid the possibility of his eyes being poked out. He jumps slightly when he feels something unexpectedly prod his forehead, allowing it to push him off his elbows and onto his back with his head hitting his pillow with the smallest thud, another bead of sweat forming on his cheek. Kei opens his eyes slowly, one at a time, to see nothing trying to harm him, just a fist resting only inches from his face and a large, clawed index finger resting directly in the centre of his forehead.
"Kei.. is cold." Oh. Ohhh. Alright, so Kei didn't mishear Ghost, he just.. misinterpreted. Can his ghost even get cold? He's not sure how he didn't realise sooner though, as soon as his ghost brings it up he notices how damn chilly he feels. The hairs all over him are standing on end with goosebumps from head to toe, his hands and feet are ice cold and fingernails most likely slightly blue at the quicks, and only now does he notice the slight chattering of his teeth when he talks. How long has he been this cold, did the heating turn off? Break? Would Grandma be ok in this cold? He's been so caught up in figuring his IBM out he hadn't even noticed he was freezing. It's the end of summer sure, but it shouldn't be this cold yet.
Kei lifts a hand near his face and inspects it as best he can in the dark lighting in the room, noticing he's shaking ever so slightly too. "Oh. I guess I am." He says mindlessly. Before he can assess the situation any further or even get another word out to question the black mass of straight up bewilderment hovering over him, suddenly all he sees is very quickly moving limbs, too fast for him to realise what's happening. He lets out a gasp of surprise and all he feels is the movement of himself and his bed sheets, and a weight pressing down the outer side of the bed along with a pot full of loud creaks as the bed shifts under the sudden weight.
The movement stops, gently almost, and Kei takes a moment to process whatever just happened. He looks up towards the end of the bed automatically for only a second, noticing his ghost has gone. That's good. Then, he notices the weight over his chest and his legs. A weight that was definitely not there before. He tries to shift his limbs as best he can despite the slight tired daze he's in but soon realises some things are easier said than done. Although his body feels awkward, he moves to turn his head to his left to gather information for his own sake and to say realising he's just about face to face with a two meter (and up) tall black ghost with it's awkwardly long limbs wrapped around him like ropes to a hostage surprised and shook him right of his daze would be an understatement.
Understatement of the century.
He almost does a double take, convinced his eyes were deceiving him but unfortunately that wasn't the case. For a second he stares, mouth slightly agape as he takes in what's happening. His ghost is always confusing and pissing him off but he can normally figure it out like he did with the reverse psychology, but this time he's at a loss for words to explain this. Kei is lying with a long black arm stretched out comfortably beneath his neck area, the other lying softly above him resting on his shoulders, the hand and forearm of said arm curled towards his head and ending above his bird nest of "I haven't slept properly in 2 weeks" bed hair. Their legs are almost tangled in a complicated knot of mismatched fitting like a bad cheap jigsaw puzzle with awkward long, black limbs finding their place with one thigh bent up beneath Kei's legs, Kei almost hovering above the bed sheets, and one nestled just about in between his knees. What in gods name is happening? "What are you doing..?" Kei deadpans as to-the-point as possible, looking his IBM up and down judgmentally.
Turns out his ghost has gone back to the silent treatment. Surprise, surprise, Kei almost didn't see that one coming. He repeats himself. "What are you doing?" A little more assertive this time, despite feeling slightly vulnerable in his current 'tied up' situation. He can't die but he can sure as hell still feel pain, something to be concerned about if this thing decides to kick his ass or strangle him while it has the upper-hand. Again, he gets no answer and this time he gets a little ticked off, his eye twitching involuntarily, but just as he goes to open his mouth again he is immediately interrupted.
"Kei was, cold.. Keeping him warm. Complaining. Shut up." Ghost responded, hardly budging an inch aside from tightening its grip with all its limbs. Kei would be taken aback by being told to shut up if it weren't for how often this thing mistreats him. He pauses before opening his mouth again. "First of all, I never complained about being cold. Second, you hassle me for weeks, make me lose sleep that I need, refuse to answer my questions without wrecking the place, grab onto me in my bed out of nowhere in the middle of the night.. and you're telling me to shut up? The hell's that about?" He goes on but clearly it has no effect on his ghost whatsoever. Through one- er, ear? - and out the other. Maybe it gets it's stubbornness from him, that wouldn't be a shocker. "You can get off now, I'm tired." He sighs. Kei begins to move out of the ridiculous position he's been forced into only to find he can hardly budge at all. "Dude. Off." Nope. After some more struggling and attempted leg kicking, "Hey, you listenin'?" Some fumbling and wriggling and the grip on him only tightening even more, "Off! Now!" Nuh-uh. Not happening. Kei is losing his patience and the scowl that once found its place on his face is returning, along with what will soon be a headache. He never had much patience to begin with for this asshole but he was at least giving it a chance to leave and let go on its own.
"Listen, I'm not cold. I'm fine, and you can go back to whatever shit show in me you came from. Okay? Not cold! You can go!" Now Kei was getting snarky with his ever thinning patience and will to stay awake, his hand squeezing up past Ghost's upper arm to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Liar." He's told. Well, yeah, okay, true. He is cold. But he can't be dealing with this, not at this time of night.
"Why do you even care? You've been bothering me for days and only now have you thought of how I feel about it?" He snaps straight back, immediately realising he raised his voice a little too high making him pause for a few seconds to listen for Grandma, praying he didn't wake her up again with these stupid shenanigans.
"..." Silence.
"..." Silence from Kei.
"You wanna help?" Kei inquires, his voice softening with a small huff of air. "Let me sleep."
"...Shut up." He's told once more, but before he lets the steam out of his ears he's suddenly pulled closer by strong arms, being placed more on his side than his back. He makes a sound of protest that most would call a whine. His face is almost pressed against the dark chest of his Ghost and his free arm moved across its rib cage under the dark arm currently reaching over Kei and pressing against his back, keeping him in place. He struggles only briefly until he notices the undoubted feeling of a head being rested on his. His movements pause once more, this time his body relaxing. Kei has no idea what's happening and he's starting to give up, if not for the fact his ghosts behaviour intrigues him a bit then for the sleep he could get out of this.
He sighs once more (he could hold the world record of Most Exhausting Night Ever, he's certain of it) and lets his body be positioned by the giant child holding him hostage. "Not gonna give this up, huh?" He says quietly, more to himself than anything else. He has given up. Officially. He figures his ghost will get bored eventually and he'll be able to move again soon once it releases its hold on him, so he may as well just let this happen and wait it out. "Fine. You win." His whole body relaxes and somehow finds a way to be comfortable in its current position. He hadn't even noticed until he stopped resisting that his Ghost was far warmer than he was. The cold pain in his fingers has eased and his teeth have stopped chattering. His goosebumps are still there but significantly less so than before, and he thinks his shaking has stopped as well. Ghost seems to actually be doing something.. nice, but he can't help wonder if there's a catch. Probably. Maybe he'll wake up with one less leg or a mouth with its tongue cut out, who knows. He tries to fight off the sleep making his eyelids droop from the unexpected comfort he found in being embraced by what may as well be a demon, not wanting to put himself in such a vulnerable position, but it seems his sleepiness is overtaking all his rational thoughts telling him to stay awake for a change, just in case. Things always gotta go his IBM's way, huh? Brat. He supposes if his ghost had intentions of harming him it would have done so already.
"Good.." His Ghost mutters, it's arm beneath the smaller boy's neck reaching up to frame his head, almost protectively. "Sleep."
For once Kei is the one being told what to do and even lets it happen, lets himself fall into the warmth and comfort of the unexpected embrace of a warm chest and long arms, no longer able to resist the weight of his eyelids wanting to close shut. Sleep is sleep, he supposes. Is he really in any position to be saying no to the possibility of getting some much needed rest? He lets out a small, almost inaudible hum he doesn't even notice, the arm over his ghosts side going limp and the rest of himself following suit, finally able to get some shut eye. Not how he imagined it would happen but in the end he couldn't say he absolutely hated it, for once he was able to enjoy a warm bed and not having to spend another night alone. He feels the gentle touch of a large, clawed hand just barely patting his hair and for only a brief few seconds he experiences a rare but grateful moment of feeling secure, before he finally becomes dead to the world.
7:26am :: He wakes up in his bed alone, neatly placed up to his neck under the covers that are keeping him from catching frostbite, just a few minutes before his alarm clock goes off. His eyes open slowly, but for once they aren't stinging and they don't feel like they'll be red enough for someone to think he went swimming without goggles. He looks around momentarily before he remembers what happened that night. Kei wouldn't admit he was a bit disappointed to lose the extra warmth and the feeling of safety he found in the arms that previously wrapped around him in the night, but hell if that wasn't the best nights sleep he's gotten in months then he doesn't know what was. He didn't get many hours but for once he actually feels somewhat rested. It's still raining hard outside and still cold as hell inside but at least he's relatively warm and, oddly enough, the empty side of the bed opposite him was still warm, too.