A/N: I had problems with this chapter. Still have them now, but hey ho, what can you do. I swear it's always right as I post I suddenly think of twelve million other probably better ways I could have done this.
And another quick thing - the ghost chasers estimate how long ghosts have been around by reported sightings. So even if they haven't seen a particular ghost for forty years the reported sighting from 1970 will be enough to determine whether they're overstaying their welcome or not when and if the next sighting is reported. This is what's happened in Yao's case - he's managed to avoid being sighted for a long time so was somewhat off the radar until now. Of course, Ivan did not report it when he saw him again.
6. rain
When Ivan leaves the ghost chaser headquarters, it is raining heavily, and a bitter smile reaches his lips as he thinks about how fitting the downpour is. It seems like only yesterday he was smiling and laughing and joking - at the same time it feels like a lifetime away.
He has just been accused of failure to report a ghost sighting. He has just been accused of harbouring a ghost in his apartment, hiding it from the ghost chasers. He has just been accused of helping a ghost suspected to be more than thirty years in the plane, well over the preferred limit. He has just been accused of major offence against the order.
He thinks it might be Toris Laurinatis' doing, too.
It might not be, he wants to say, Toris is nice and wouldn't ever do something like that. Besides, all he saw was Ivan passively being friendly towards a ghost - that isn't enough to accuse anyone of a major offence.
That shouldn't be enough to accuse anyone of a major offence.
But it is, apparently, and Ivan can't exactly try to tell anyone it isn't. He can only do something else about it.
Ivan wonders where Yao has been, when he's not in his room with him.
He doesn't have an umbrella or even a waterproof coat, so by the time he's stepped outside for more than a few seconds he is soaked through and freezing cold. The sooner he gets home, the better - although the thought of seeing Yao again-
"What are you doing here?"
He's said it before he's thought it through properly, faced with the exact ghost he was preparing to see at his apartment - the exact ghost he has been accused of harbouring and assisting. "You shouldn't be here, someone might see you."
Yao frowns, slightly taken aback. "What? Ivan, what happened?"
Ivan opens his mouth, pauses for one second of wet, frozen silence, then he closes it again and shakes his head. Part of him wants to tell Yao everything, to tell Yao that he needs to run before the ghost chasers catch him, before the people Ivan has worked alongside for years take away one of the most important parts - the most important part - of his life.
"Let's go somewhere else, okay?" Yao says, his tone unnervingly soft - he must have seen the look on Ivan's face. "You're going to catch a cold in this rain."
They end up on the university site, hiding under a tree in a courtyard - the same courtyard they met in, Ivan realises. He had let Yao take him away from the ghost chaser headquarters and hadn't thought about where they were going. It's almost a bittersweet kind of surprise ending up here.
"I'll ask again," Yao says, "What happened, Ivan?"
Ivan is quiet for a moment, before he looks at the courtyard surrounding him, at the beautiful ghost in front of him, and explains everything. Everything about how he was accused of protecting an overstaying spirit, hiding them, befriending them, breaking natural order - all of it comes out, and he watches Yao's expression change from that of soft concern to shock and what he might call disgust.
He talks about how they even turned Alfred Jones against him - there's no way a single chaser could catch a poltergeist like Alfred Jones, no matter how skilled they are. You have to have had some outside help, and as none of our ranks were with you, it is a reasonable assumption that the very same ghost you have been conspiring with assisted you - and he hopes Yao understands now why he's always tried to say the ghost chasers can't have ghosts in their ranks.
When he's finished, he looks away, and there are a few moments of silence before Yao says, "I didn't know the ghost chasers were so totalitarian you're not even allowed to speak to us."
Ivan just shakes his head. He has to consciously stop himself from biting his lip as Yao continues, "I guess there are two kinds of people in this world."
Did Ivan know what they'd do? He did. He did know what they'd do if they ever knew of Yao Wang, he knew exactly what they'd do.
"And am I supposed to do something about it?" Yao asks, raising his eyebrows, "What am I meant to do? Leave?"
Ivan doesn't say anything.
Yao frowns almost instantly, recoiling slightly, his tone painfully incredulous as he adds, "Wait- are you serious?"
Something inside Ivan wants to be angry - of course Yao is going to be stubborn and arrogant, now of all times - but he can't do it. Perhaps he's too busy forcing himself to do this. There is not a single nerve in his entire body that wants to lose Yao now, but he's been driven to the conclusion that perhaps asking him to leave really is the only way to keep him. Ironically.
But is it really?
There isn't time to think of something better. The ghost chasers could be on Yao's tail by tomorrow. Possibly tonight, depending.
He wonders how he didn't see it before - why on earth would he ever go out in broad daylight, talking to Yao where any old ghost chaser could see? Why would he ever work with a ghost to exorcise Alfred Jones outside of the ghost chasers' command? Why did he ever join the ghost chasers in the first place?
Yao begins to say something else but Ivan cuts him off. "Don't be offended."
"I'm not offended." Yao's reply is quick and quiet, almost a whisper.
"They'll probably watch me for interactions with ghosts. I don't think I'm safe to be around - they'll find you before you even have a chance if you stay here."
Yao looks like he wants to tell Ivan that he's better than they are, that he's survived fifty years of ghost chasers, that Ivan needs to believe in him more. Perhaps Ivan does - perhaps Yao really is better than the ghost chasers that hate him so much.
It's a chance, though, one that maybe he shouldn't take. He should have learned his lesson from General Winter.
He briefly imagines the scene of an exorcism, with still memories of Yao's brothers and parents and country floating in the air, and something about it tells him that he is far, far too attached to Yao to see him die. That's why he has to do this now, while he can. "I don't mind where you go, just... don't get caught."
He falls quiet, and Yao stares at him for a few moments - he looks at the pale colours shifting through Yao's eyes, a beautiful dry rainbow. Yao sighs and glances away, frowning, before he looks back to Ivan. "You really have that little faith in me, huh?"
He is smiling, though, a small, reserved smile, and Ivan feels his own face twisting to match it. He lets out a short, breathy laugh, and Yao shakes his head slightly, adding a tiny, almost inaudible, "Fine."
Ivan looks him in the eye and musters up every ounce of gratitude in his body, concentrates it into his gaze - he's surprised Yao's not trying to argue more - and Yao continues, "You're overreacting, but fine. I'll go somewhere else for a few weeks."
Yao keeps shaking his head, almost exasperatedly, still smiling, and before he has really thought it through Ivan hears himself say, "I love you."
There is a quiet pause, and Yao studies Ivan's face with his beautiful flat, dark eyes for a few long moments. He raises his hand - and Ivan becomes dimly aware of it moving towards him - and carefully brushes the backs of his fingers across Ivan's cheek.
Ivan suppresses the urge to shiver.
Yao's fingers are cold, like a crisp winter breeze in the air - but they don't touch Ivan's face. They're there but not there, like a perfect dream that someone might suddenly wake up from and realise wasn't reality and wish to go back to. Not for the first time Ivan finds himself unable to stop wondering what Yao's real touch is like.
"I won't get exorcised," Yao says quietly. His hand falls from Ivan's face and falls slack at his side. "You really don't need to worry. I promise."
Ivan supposes he'll never know what Yao's physical touch is like - was like, some miserable part of him corrects - and as Yao gestures for them to begin walking home through the thinning rain, he realises that this might be the very last he'll ever see of Yao Wang.
He desperately hopes it isn't.