Lights glittered in the cold night, shining in the dampness of the rain earlier in the day, as the sound of children rushed past happily, splashing puddles under their little boots. Hinata sat on a ledge just shy of the crowd watching the busy shops handing out treats, patrons laughing at their friends being bad at the stall games, and couples holding hands as they passed.
Itachi felt like this was familiar. The scent wafting through the street was something that felt like he should have a memory attached to, but he couldn't place it. It was just out of his reach. Did he bring Sasuke to something like this when he was little? Was that what he couldn't remember?
Itachi blinked as a sweet-smelling stick was held up to his face. He didn't even realize Hinata got up. He took the treat and a bit into it without his usual complaint.
… Sasuke always wanted one of these. Itachi felt the memory hit him like remembering something on the tip of his tongue. Was he a good brother that brought his little brother festival treats? Or did he say 'next time' until there wasn't a next time?
Did he feel so much pain because he ran out of time with him or because he didn't do what he should have done when he had the time?
Hinata sat there on the cold stone wall, only periodically getting up to buy another snack until the lights went out and the shops closed. She watched the last of the people leave before she stretched out. "Hanabi-chan love festivals. It was one of the few things I always tried to make time for. Even if I could only take her for a few hours, we went to every one we could. She would get sticky fingers and face paint, and I would have to clean her up before we got home, so our father wouldn't see, but she would be so happy." Hinata stretched, pulled her legs up onto the wall, and stood straight up on it. "And we would walk on the ledges the whole way home." She wobbled after a few steps.
Itachi appeared behind her taking her hand, standing much more still on the ledge.
Hinata smiled at him. "I'm fine." She stepped back, her foot landing on the edge. Itachi reach forward around her back to keep her from falling, and he froze.
"Let me go!" An old man growled at him shoving at him to push him off.
Wind dangerously whipped past, warning how high up they were and how many floors they would fall if they both tipped too far over the edge.
Itachi held desperately around the old man's waist, feeling fear grip his very soul as they fought for his life, Itachi fighting to keep him from ending it. His heart felt like it was going to come out of his chest. His entire self-preservation was telling him to just let go. They both stopped fighting as they felt their weight shift toward a fall.
Itachi threw his weight back to keep them on the roof. The two slammed onto the concrete safe, for now.
Itachi slid back away from the ledge, his feet getting caught in his lab coat.
Was this what death felt like?
Hinata waited for Itachi to calm down, crushed into his chest. His grip was too tight, and his hands shook in a way she didn't know he was able.
Once his grip softened, Hinata slid her hand across his shoulder blade, breaking him out of whatever thoughts trapped him.
"Be careful." Itachi huffed softly, fear seeping out of his voice. "You could fall."
Hinata lifted a hand to his face as he loosened enough for her to look at him. Itachi remembered something. "Tell me what happened."
Itachi laid closer than he normally would to Hinata as she slept. He never wanted to make her cold, but right now, he wanted nothing more than to feel her heartbeat.
Something about this memory made him very aware that he was dead and, by extension, much more aware that Hinata was alive.
Itachi tightened his arm over the fluff of her blankets, drawing her closer, so he could feel the thumping of blood pumping through her in his chest. If he focused on the slow, steady rhythm, maybe he could imagine it as his own, so he could convince himself he was calm.
Because all he could feel right now was the anxiety on the roof. The adrenaline and danger humans felt when their mortality was threatened.
Itachi knew he could die and fought with the man anyway? Who was that man? Was he important to him?
Did he live?
Itachi was sure that it was a memory right before his own death, but did he save the man? Would that make it okay? Would it make it worth it? Could he hold a grudge if he died and the man survived?
Movement snapped him out of his thoughts. Itachi lifted his arm to give her free movement, and Hinata turned around in her blanket toward him. He tucked the blanket up toward her face between them before placing his arm back over her.
Itachi could feel that he was warmer than usual, but all of it was just because she was irradiating it. If she was snuggling into him for warmth, all she would feel was what he stole from her.
One day Hinata might realize that he was stealing from her life and wouldn't be eager to let him take any more. He knew this, but it didn't make him want to leave. It just made him wish he could sleep to not have to think about it all night.
With the new knowledge, Hinata went back to looking into Itachi's death. Something didn't sit right with her. If he died trying to save someone from suicide, wouldn't they call him a hero in his obituary? Even if he failed, he tried when others didn't.
With the more specific information, she could look for deaths from tall buildings reported around the day that he died, maybe the top of a hospital since he remembered his lab coat and the patient scrubs, but digging through old newspaper records at the library was slow.
Hinata gave up for the day and started home. Temperatures had hit their bottom and started to come up, but it would still be weeks before it would feel like it was getting any warmer. This was the worst part of winter, when the festivities were over, and spring and plants budding back to life felt like they would never come.
"Damn it, pipsqueak, where did you go!?" A shirtless man shouted down the street. He stood out with his white hair and unnaturally colored eyes as he aggressively searched for someone waving his arms out, despite his theatrics and telling no one looked at him. "Seriously, you little shit!?"
Oh. Another ghost, possibly another reaper?
He turned to see her looking at him and barked. "What are you looking at?" Hinata blinked at him. He stopped, realizing she was actually looking at him. "You look human."
"She is." Itachi appeared between them. "Hidan." He addressed with a polite tip to his head that didn't feel like he meant it at all.
"Oh. Is this the witch you have been clinging to?" Hidan crossed his arms.
Itachi didn't answer as people passed through the two of them.
Hidan huffed, titling his head much like Itachi did before he disappeared. "Ugh, gotta work." He pointed to Itachi. "I'll give you shit later." With that, he was gone.
Hinata took the extra step to Itachi. He accepted her pulling his hand into hers and moving with the crowd. "Another reaper?"
"Stay away from him. Hidan is erratic and causes more lost souls than he collects." Itachi commented coldly.
Hinata tried to cover the laugh that came out of her, but Itachi looked down at her curiously. "Sorry, I don't think I have ever seen you actively dislike someone before."
Itachi tilted his head as he considered it. "He causes problems."
"But annoyance is a human emotion, isn't it?" Hinata teased. "Like boredom?"
Hinata's bright smile up at him made Itachi wonder if she was right. Did he have more emotions than he thought? She certainly brought out more by the day.
Hinata knew that if she could help one lost soul, she could probably help another, but she didn't expect them to seek her out.
"I just want my family to know where my body is." He begged. "I don't want them looking for weeks when I died like this."
But this was different from anonymously returning a little girl's backpack. Reporting a body to the police could raise a lot of questions Hinata couldn't answer, but she also couldn't ignore the pain she felt when her sister was missing. Every passing minute ate at her stomach. What if they hadn't found her? "Where?"
Hinata felt bad using Akumaru, but it was hard to explain finding someone so far from the main road and on the edge of a bad neighborhood. She called the police and then sat to give Akumaru, her patient partner in crime, lots of attention while they waited. Kiba showed up to take him back while she answered the few questions the police had for her.
The lost soul watched his body loaded into the back of the truck before he turned to her with a content sigh. His body looked much worse than he did now. He must have looked like a corpse before he died if his body was only there for a few hours.
How did he know to find her so quickly?
"Are you okay?" Kiba asked her as she got back to the store.
"I'm fine." Hinata crouched down to Akumaru lying in the last of the sunset streaming in the window. "Good boy, that man can be at peace now." She scratched behind his big white ears.
Itachi crouched beside her in the streaming light, making a halo effect around his head. "You did well too."
Hinata smiled as Itachi petted down the side of her hair, lingering at the ends of her hair for a moment.