Their first meeting is one only Hinata has the pleasure of remembering, due to the fact Waka-chan was but a few hours old.
Ghosts have strong urges to tread certain places that have Meaning to them. They aren't supposed to form attachments after their death, and thus, wander only places they have known. Hinata knows it well, for he paced the house where he had lived for many years, even after his mother and Natsu had left the house behind.
Hinata ends up different somehow. His own feet march him to the Ushijima residence where the birth had taken place under the careful eyes of a midwife and the worshipping hands of the Ushijima couple.
He walks through the house and hears the small cries of the youngest and wanders straight to him without a thought.
Hinata always said he never regretted letting his body rule him that day, and he says it is because of the way little Waka-chan quieted when he wandered into view.
A hand flexes in his direction, and Hinata reaches out, only for their hands to pass through each other.
Perhaps he was lying, just a bit.
Neither of the Ushijima Parents have the ability to see Hinata, nor any of the other relations Wakatoshi comes into contact with. Hinata wonders why, because any cases he'd seen had been hereditary before.
Hinata is not the only ghost Wakatoshi encounters, though he is fiercely protective of the small child something guided him to. No other may know him half as well as Hinata- not even himself.
Wakatoshi learns to help the others pass along anyway by listening to their lives or helping to settle what loose ends they still have in the living people. Hinata learns how to share, and how to profile check at a moments notice.
Ushi-chan doesn't understand why Hinata follows him. It's not like he can't go elsewhere- whatever tied him down the first five years of Ushi-chan's life seems to dissipate when school begins. It's not fair, he thinks, that Hinata has a life after he died. Or at least, a life that didn't involve Ushi-chan. But that doesn't explain why he doesn't try to make one for himself.
"I'm here to help," Hinata always says when asked, that brilliant smile warm on his translucent face.
Ushi-chan lets them think he has an imaginary friend. It's nice to talk to Hinata and lack the judgemental stares he knows will appear in years to come.
Hinata is terrified that Ushi-chan won't talk to him anymore once that happens.
Ushijima is a blunt young lad, one who excels in volleyball due to his bullheaded dedication and Hinata's almost wistful tone when he recalls the short slot of time he'd been allowed to play the sport with friends before his death.
So for the both of them he becomes the Ace, the one who will dominate Japan in the years to come.
Ushijima watches Hinata grow friendly with Kenma, another with the ability to see, and doesn't want to acknowledge how much his throat clamps shut. When Nekoma is knocked down before they can face Shirotorizawa, he isn't sure what makes him feel worse- Hinata mourning Kenma's loss, or the fact he didn't get the chance to knock Kenma out of the running himself. They beat the team that beat Nekoma, which cheers Hinata and Ushijima up considerably for opposite reasons.
Hinata doesn't sleep anymore, but he does sometimes look so far away he might as well be out cold.
Ushiwaka forms during these moments, taking them as a silent confession booth where he can say all the ways he's in love with Hinata with each passing day. About how he doesn't understand why Hinata doesn't leave him, but he's grateful all the same. He falls asleep afterwards, secrets safe.
Hinata always comes back before Ushiwaka wakes up with a strange urge to throw himself at Ushiwaka and touch- but he can't. And it burns low at the base of his skull.
Ushiwaka is ultimately the one who eases out of professional volleyball. With his truly obscene amount of income saved from all those years he starts to globetrot and seek out others who can see when he sees. It's a lot easier with Hinata tagging along because children always glance at him before they even realize Ushiwaka is there.
A small newspaper reports that Ushiwaka is making a family, one of lost children who stare at things that aren't there.
Sometimes he's seen staring at the same thing, but his eyes are softer and he's almost always smiling.
There were a handful of things Ushiwaka truly regrets to his deathbed. Number One has been that Hinata cannot touch him, and neither can he touch Shouyou. Now as he lay dying, not so old he's turned white and gray but still old enough to have grown children he helped teach about ghosts and the sight watch him go, Hinata's form seems to flicker.
Maybe they were cursed never to touch, he thinks bitterly. What had their past lives done to curse them so?
His first student squeezes his hand tightly.
When Ushijima Wakatoshi lives, it is always for helping someone else.
When Ushiwaka dies, it is for himself.
The students never see the ghost of their teacher, and Hinata fades away in his last breath.
This was as it was always meant to be, or so they think.
Though their teacher never called it as such, they know in their bones Hinata and Ushiwaka were tied together through their very souls. But more importantly they tied themselves together in that way, not someone higher up.
When they wake up somewhere together, Wakatoshi runs his hands through Shouyou's mane while Shouyou sobs happily into his neck, clinging to his soul with all four limbs.
This feels more like they're alive than Life ever did.