The price of the house is ridiculously cheap, so cheap that it's practically stealing. Still Riku will gladly take the fixer-upper despite its apparent ghost problem.
It takes awhile to move in, four carloads of boxes and numerous trips in Axel's truck. It only makes sense that after the moving everything into the house his troubles would lessen only it's his first nice in his new house and everything is a chore. Brushing his teeth to finding an extra blanket is a nightmare and Riku regrets ever moving from his shared apartment.
The inconvenience of having everything in boxes spurs Riku into unpacking frenzies. It's been almost a week and Riku still isn't unpacked, but he comes back into rooms to find books on shelves and towels folded in the closet where he thought he had yet to unpack them.
Regardless, it's been a long week and he's sure he's just been doing too much unpacking to remember doing all of it. Instead Riku unpacks all the essentials and switches gears, working on fixing up the outside of the house instead.
The boxes stop unpacking themselves and Riku confirms that he just hasn't been getting enough sleep in his new place, what with the noises of the house settling each night. It sounds like doors closing and footsteps echoing through the halls, but Riku has searched the house more than one and knows that he's the only occupant. He knows these old houses and understands that he'll have to get used to the noises. At least, that's what he told himself.
It wasn't until he was changing for bed and turned around to black lettering scrawled onto his walls that he finally admitted that he was probably having a mental breakdown. So, only one leg in his sweatpants, Riku does what most rational people would do in that instance and finish changing, grabbing his blanket and pillow and promptly leaving the bedroom and its new wall decorations.
The words slowly fade off the wall when Riku enters the hallway, leaving no trace of the greeting. Riku made his way to the couch, made it into a bed, and passed out for the night, either he wakes up tomorrow and has to deal with an actual ghost problem, or he wakes up and it was all an interesting dream.
Of course that means that he wakes up to a person peering over him, looking a little nervous.
Riku hates himself for the first thought that crossed his mind: he's really cute.
It's not the first thought you should have about an intruder in your house but Riku is feeling oddly calm and his mouth moves before his sleep addled brain can begin to process rational thought. "Why are you here?"
The man kind of leans back and bites his lip, an obvious tell to his emotions. "Well, I didn't mean to scare you out of your bedroom last night and you're nicer than any of the old tenants so I thought I could say sorry when you woke up this morning."
For some reason Riku was imagining something more filmic, repeating echoing voice, rattling of chains, anything other than someone Riku could meet walking down the street on any given day. Yet the man – fine, he'll admit it: ghost - before him looked not much different than anyone else. "I meant here," he gestured to the living room and up the rest of the house. "In the house that I bought?"
A moment of silence passes that Riku really wants to break and the – fuck – apparition? Looks at him like he's the crazy person. Though seeing ghosts might make him inclined to agree. "This was my house, you know, before I, uh, died. Just like in every ghost story you've ever heard, man." Now the ghost looks a little embarrassed and, Riku admits, kind of cute too. "Sorry. I'm kind of stuck here."
Now fully interested Riku sits up. "Stuck here?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth he realizes how insensitive he's being and quickly switches gears before the ghost can answer. "Was it really you moving my stuff when I got here?"
"The last couple of tenants were pretty cruel people, always yelling and breaking things so I tossed some things around to scare them." He reiterates, avoiding looking at Riku while rubbing the back of his neck in, what Riku assumes, was a nervous tic he had while alive. "But you seemed nice, and, well, tired, so I wanted to help."
"A ghost helped me unpack." Because that's not surreal.
"Yup!"
In a fit of TV melodrama Riku closes his eyes and pinches his arm. The ghost is still there when he opens them and, really, what else can he do? "Oh my god." He ends up saying.
"That's the spirit!"
Groaning, Riku shoves his face back into his pillow. "No. Shut up. This is my house."
Laughing, the brunet says, "Yeah, your haunted house."
"I don't believe this." Riku gestures to where Sora is standing the perfect length away which, coincidentally, puts him directly in the center or the coffee table, phased through it like it's a hologram or something. "A ghost."
"You can call me Sora, you know."
'Sora', apparently, doesn't offer his hand so Riku doesn't offer his when he responds with, "I'm Riku." Because even though this is ludicrous he was still raised with some semblance of manners.
There's an odd look that crosses over Sora's face before he's wandering into the kitchen and calling back, "What do you want for breakfast? I make awesome scrambled eggs."
Riku can't believe that this is his life now.
A/N: So, the weird thing at the end is basically because Sora's name means Sky and Riku's means Land so it's a whole thing where Sora is struck with the thought that maybe Riku can help ground him and pull him out of limbo either one way or the other.
Halloween is quickly approaching! Have fun!
-Reiver