Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of the characters/world of Gravitation.
It was customary for Shuichi to awaken well before Yuki even stirred, darting about the apartment as he prepared for another day of work. Yuki would finally drag himself out of bed just before Shuichi would leave, get some coffee and start his own work.
Kind of.
Truth be told, Yuki generally awoke around the same time as his brat. But he never made that fact known because mornings, he had discovered earlier on in his life, were when he tended to be most honest—particularly about his feelings.
So, he feigned sleep until he heard Shuichi start up the coffee pot. At this point, he would let himself slide out of the bed to slip on slippers and—if need be—clothes. He avoided saying too much if anything to Shuichi, mumbling nonsensical responses when Shuichi wished him a good day or asked around what time dinner was supposed to be.
Today was just like any other day. Yuki stood in the mouth of the hallway watching with muted amusement as Shuichi shoved both necessary and unnecessary items into that annoyingly orange backpack. Not wanting to seem like he was waiting around to tell Shuichi to have a good day or anything cheesy like that, Yuki retreated to his study, opening the computer and pulling up a document more for show than anything else at that hour of the morning.
Just as he suspected not two minutes later Shuichi popped his head into the room.
"Have a nice day, Yuki!" Shuichi called from the doorway, bounding over—shoes and all—to give his boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, yeah. Get to work brat." Yuki muttered, waving Shuichi off. He heard the door clicked shut and Yuki was finally able to relax into his chair and his silence.
"At the very least you could give him a kiss." A voice chided from the corner.
Had Yuki been anyone else—say Shuichi—he would have screamed, run off or done any manner of silly things. As it was he only jumped a little and turned around with an annoyed curse.
"Who—" Yuki stopped himself short as he took in the…thing before him. It looked more or less like a human—a boy, probably around 20 or so. Only he was gray. And kind of see-through.
"Maybe 'what are you?' would be a better questioned." Yuki mused out loud.
"Me?" The figure seemed inclined to answer the spoken thought at any cost and pondered for a moment. "I'm human."
Yuki raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Fine." The ghost-thing said in exasperation. "I was human. Now I'm not entirely sure. One minute I was dead the next I was…this. I kind of just float along and watch the lives of humans, butting in when I find it necessary. And my name is Shen, thanks for asking."
Yuki didn't know what to think. Weren't even the nicest ghosts supposed to be creepy and a little threatening. Not to mention invisible. Theoretically.
"Shen?" He repeated, finally finding something decently intelligent and not completely ignorant to say. "Couldn't you have picked a more threatening name when you died? Or gone to haunt some creepy bridge and earned a new name for yourself?"
"Like what?" Shen asked, rolling around in the air.
Yuki watched this for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't know—Like Bloody Mary! Or the Jersey Devil, something catchy but creepy at the same time—would you stop that?" Yuki all but shouted, getting annoyed by all the looping dives Shen had started to do around—and sometimes even through Yuki.
"Sorry." The spirit came to a halt. "But why would I want a name like either of those? They're ghastly. Besides, isn't the Jersey Devil some kind of creature?"
Yuki sighed, seeing that he was fighting a losing battle. God help the world if Shuichi ever became a ghost.
"Right. So you're some sort of nosy little ghost-demon with no impressive death story or anything like that and a really lame name. Basically just another annoyance. Wonderful. Now get out." Yuki said, turning back around in hopes that ignoring the thing would make it go away.
"Not so fast Eiri." The spirit said, gliding around to hover in front of him. "I've been watching you and Shuichi for a while now—"
"Creepy." Yuki cut in sharply, he began to reorganize some already organized papers trying to look busy but stopped as another thought hit him. "Oh god. Please don't say you've fallen in love with me. Because I just don't think it would work out. You aren't even solid." It was hard to tell amidst all the grey, but Yuki thought he saw Shen roll his eyes.
"Don't flatter yourself." He said, gliding down a little to make it appear that he was standing on the ground. "And for your information, I can become solid." To prove his point he did just that, even adding in a little pigmentation as he did. The ghost's hair and eyes both turned a dark brown and his skin became a deceiving healthy—if slightly pale—peachy tone. His clothes had turned a solid white so it was hard to see exactly what he was wearing though Yuki could make out the shadows of ruffles on his shirt and a long cloak type thing around his shoulders. And despite all the white, Yuki had to say the ghost was damn near beautiful.
"See?"
"Fair enough. But you're still not coming anywhere near either Shuichi or myself."
The ghost glared, returning to his wispier form . "Trust me, I've been around for several hundred years and nothing you do sexually interests me in the least. And anyway that is not why I'm visible today."
"Then by all means, tell me so I can forget this ever happened."
Shen scowled. "Ok. I was going to be nicer about this but since you're being….well, you. I'll just say it this way: you're an asshole."
Yuki quirked an eyebrow but whether it was because the statement was harsh or whether it was just because this spirit-type-creature actually had the audacity to say such a thing so bluntly was unknown.
"Well thanks. You've certainly given me a lot to think about." Yuki said, more than a little sarcastic. He got up from his chair and walked out into the kitchen, hoping that would be the end of it. Or at least that maybe a cup of coffee would stop the hallucinations.
"See the thing is," The ghost started, floating through the wall dividing the kitchen and Yuki's study, nearly causing Yuki to scream once more. "I don't think you're going to be able to fix this problem on your own."
"I don't have a problem!" Yuki snapped, dumping out the still hot coffee and starting the coffee maker again with unnecessarily violent actions.
"Then why don't you ever tell that adorable lover of yours that you love him?" The spirit questioned and Yuki thought he saw a smirk on his face, but maybe that was just part of the cupboard behind him showing through.
"Maybe because I don't, ever think of that?" Yuki retorted as quickly as he could.
"Right. Why don't you kiss him when he leaves for work in the morning? Or welcome him home with a hug at the very least?"
"Because I. Don't. Want to."
The ghost studied Yuki for a long while before flashing a smoky set of teeth in a triumphant grin. "You're a liar, Eiri Uesegi. And I think I know just what to do with you." Even as he was speaking, the spirits wispy form began to fade into nothingness.
Yuki stared around the room for a while, wondering what in the name of heaven or hell he had just encountered. After a few minutes he was slowly staring to wonder if perhaps he had just fallen asleep or had indeed hallucinated the whole thing. That seemed much more likely than…Yuki stopped his thought, not wanting to even think the word "reality".
"What the fuck was that?"
Yuki shook his head, poured himself a cup of coffee as the pot finished its job and retreated to his study where he managed to immerse himself in his lovely world of romantic bullshit. He was so immersed, in fact, that the knock on his door echoed into one ear and out of the other, not phasing him in the least. So when a voice spoke from almost immediately to the right of him, Yuki tumbled out of his chair in surprise.
"Eiri? Are you ok?" Tohma asked, moving uncertainly toward his brother-in-law.
"No, I'm not! You terrified me!" Yuki exclaimed, quickly shutting his mouth once the words had spilled past his lips. He frowned. That was odd. Usually such a question would be met with a simple "I'm fine." Or just a noncommittal shrug.
The worst thing was that Tohma looked about as perplexed about the bizarre outburst as Yuki felt.
Whatever. He blamed it on the weird morning.
"I just said that the door was open so I let myself in…do you want me to get you anything?"
"A glass of water and a slice of watermelon would be great." Yuki winced openly this time, even as he was talking. Though watermelon and water did indeed sound incredibly refreshing he never would have told Tohma that…normally at least. It was like he was on this weird automatic version of himself, speaking without thinking. Next time, he would stop it. Next time Tohma asked a question he wouldn't answer. He would keep his mouth shut.
"Oookay…" Tohma said slowly. "Do you have watermelon?"
"No. But the store does." The words had flown from his mouth before Yuki even had a chance to think.
The two men stared at each other, each wondering what the hell was going on.
"Eiri. You haven't started any new medication, have you?"
"No, I haven't."
"Then what's wrong with you?"
"No idea. It probably has something to do with—" Yuki's sentence was cut off as a sudden attack of coughs overcame him. "Cats." He finally managed to get out.
"It has something to do with…cats?" The keyboardist repeated almost dumbly—at least as dumbly as Tohma ever got—and for a split second Yuki could have sworn he heard a muffled laugh coming from somewhere to his right.
In any case, enough was enough. He had to get Tohma out of here and figure out what the fuck was wrong with him.
"Look, Tohma," He began, walking towards the front door so if worst came to worst it wouldn't be too difficult to physically throw Tohma out. "I appreciate you dropping by, I really do. But I've had a weird day so far and I'm not quite myself at the moment. Basically it would be really great if you could just leave."
"Eiri I'm not sure I should leave you in this state—"
"I'll be fine, now please, just get out." Yuki said, forcefully pushing his brother-in-law towards the door.
"Alright, alright, I'll go. Just promise to call me if anything gets worse."
"I can promise but I certainly won't keep it." Yuki muttered and he slammed the door and locked it.
As soon as the door closed, maniacal laughter filled the flat. "Well that was a fun little test, wasn't it. To be honest I wasn't entirely sure I had gotten the spell right, haven't actually used this one before."
The same ghost from the "hour of insanity" as Yuki had mentally begun to call it materialized in front of him.
"What the fuck did you do to me?" Yuki hissed, more panicked about what had just happened with Tohma than the fact that some supernatural maybe even extraterrestrial being was lounging—or rather floating—around his apartment.
The ghost came to a halt in front of Yuki, resting his head on misty hands as he smiled maliciously.
"Isn't it obvious? From now on, every word you say will be true at least to your own knowledge—with a few exceptions. You won't be able to tell anyone about me, hence the cat thing. Sorry about that by the way, it was the best I could do on short notice." Yuki just rolled his eyes and walked off.
"Hey! Where're you going?" The ghost called, trailing after him. "I'm trying to explain things to you."
"All I want explained right now is whether or not there's some special ceremony in taking a vow of silence."
Shen laughed beside him. "That's cute, but it won't work. In case you hadn't noticed, you have to answer every question put to you….unless I ask. I think. I'm actually not too clear on the exact rules. We'll just see how it goes, yeah?"
Though the ghost ended his spiel with a grin, Yuki looked anything but amused, in fact he looked rather like he wanted to kill the already-dead ghost before him.
"No we will not just 'see how it goes'!" Yuki snapped. "Take this stupid curse away!"
Shen gave a shrug, completely unfazed by Yuki's less than pleasant reaction.
"No can do. It has to run its course now."
"What do you mean? How long is this going to last?"
"Maybe an hour. Maybe a year. Depends on how good you are, really."
"What? No! This has to be gone before Shuichi gets home!"
"But that'll be the best part."
The spirit started to fade away, grinning at the faintest trace of panic that was starting to set in Yuki's eyes.
"You can't be serious!"
"Oh, I'm quite serious." The ghost said and then was gone.
I'm rather fond of Shen…Too bad he isn't real