(no subject)
Title: One more chance {Chapter 4}
Author: Mistress_astute
Pairing: Ariyama
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Yamada's dying. He just wants to help Daiki move on.
“Ya-Yamada?” Takaki repeated for the nth time. Yamada started frowning. He had answered that question for more times than he cared to remember and it seemed that Takaki still had difficulty comprehending that yes he was Yamada Ryosuke. What was so wrong about that?
“Yes Yuyan, it is me. Hi.” Yamada sighed and sat on Takaki’s bed, his gaze never leaving the older one as he wondered how long this would.
“Oh my gosh.” Well at least that was an improvement. “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.” Or not…
“Yuya! Would you get a grip already?! Yes I’m Yamada and I’m in your room!” Yamada exclaimed loudly, almost shouting. Takaki continued gaping at him for a good ten minutes before he finally had a response.
“But you’re dead.”
That statement caused another round of silence. Takaki by then had collapsed on his chair and Yamada was staring at the floor, twiddling his thumbs.
“Yes I’m dead…” Yamada finally replied.
“Then why are you here? And more importantly, why can I see you? Gosh, can other people see you? Am I dreaming?” Takaki asked before proceeding to bang his head against the desk. Hard. “Ouch!” He gasped. “Oh my gosh I’m awake.” He turned to look at Yamada who was observing him in amusement. “Oh my gosh. You’re still here.” He paused before concluding. “I must be mad. I’ll go to sleep now. And you will not be there when I wake up.”
Yamada continued to stare at Takaki in amusement as Takaki made his way to the bed. As Takaki got into the bed, he touched Yamada by accident and screamed when he felt flesh. It was lucky that it was late and his family members were all fast asleep.
“I can touch you,” Takaki said in disbelief as he stared at Yamada’s hand. “I’m completely mad.”
Yamada rolled his eyes.
“Yuya, you’re not mad. Yes I’m a ghost and I’m here. And you can touch me because I allowed it!” Yamada snapped in annoyance. “Now sit down, let me explain and stop gaping like a goldfish!”
“Let me get this straight,” Takaki started, trying to convince himself that all his parents told him about ghosts being fake were not true. “You’re a ghost and you’re Yamada Ryosuke. And I am not mad.”
“That’s right,” Yamada said happily, glad that Takaki was finally getting it.
“Let me have some time to get used to this…” Takaki requested and Yamada patiently waited for about half an hour before Takaki nodded.
“Okay, I believe you.”
“That certainly took quite a while…” Yamada said, staring at the clock. “It’s almost an hour since I came.”
“Would you believe it immediately if I died and appear in your room?” Takaki shot back and Yamada slowly shook his head. “Exactly. Anyway, exactly why are you here? Shouldn’t you have gone to heaven or something?”
“I was supposed to. Something stopped me,” Yamada replied, a pained expression crossing his face.
“What?” Takaki asked though he already suspected the reason.
“Daiki.”
“Oh… I thought so…” Takaki said.
“He’s not doing very well is he?” Yamada asked tentatively.
“He’s doing better already…” Takaki replied.
Yamada shook his head.
“How would you know?” Takaki asked, feeling something akin to irritation boiling in him.
“I went to check on him just now, after you guys left…” Yamada answered, the image of Daiki sobbing flashing before his eyes again. He felt his heart clenching. “He’s not okay. He’s pretending. It’s going to kill him.”
Takaki said nothing. He honestly thought that he and Yabu had succeeded in convincing Daiki to move on. In the end all they succeeded to do was to make Daiki hide his pain from the rest and carry the burden by himself. Takaki knew that Daiki loves Yamada, but he never knew that it was to this extent.
“But why did you choose me and not Yabu?” Takaki asked as the thought occurred to him suddenly. Yabu was definitely a much better choice.
“Yabu-kun doesn’t have time,” Yamada answered. “He has to take care of the group and he needs time with Inoo-chan alone too you know. And you are single and free.”
“And Hikaru?” Takaki asked.
Yamada glared at him. “I just chose you okay? If you’re so unhappy about it then fine let me be an unhappy and depressed ghost. I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.”
“Chill!” Takaki exclaimed, though he was mindful to keep his voice down. “I didn’t mean that. I was just wondering why you picked me among all the other better people… wait, does that mean that only I can see you and everything?”
Yamada nodded. “You’re not that bad Yuya! But yes you’re the only who can see me. But you have to promise me that you can’t tell anyone though. Okay?”
“Why?”
“It’s against the rules or some shit… I didn’t really check…” Yamada replied.
“Okay, I promise,” Takaki said, not really wanting to know all the ghostly details.
“Good.” Yamada smiled in satisfaction. “Good night then.”
“Wait, exactly what do you want to do?” Takaki asked as he laid down in his bed. Sleep was claiming him already. It had been an absolutely tiring day.
“Help Daiki move on.”
In a life without me…
--
Takaki woke up the next day feeling refreshed and energetic. He got up of bed and set about doing his daily routine. Just as he was about to reach for his doorknob after changing, Yamada appeared in front of him.
“Boo.”
And that caused him to let out a shriek that was definitely higher than a guy’s should be and he stumbled backwards and landed not so gently on his rear.
“Yuya, are you alright?” his mother called from the living room.
“I’m fine!” Takaki shouted back. “I fell by accident.”
“Be more careful!”
“I will!”
Takaki then proceeded to pick himself off the floor and glared at Yamada who was on the floor, laughing himself silly.
“Go on, laugh at me.”
“I am,” Yamada said before bursting out into more giggles.
“I’m not going to help you anymore.”
That stopped Yamada from laughing and he stood up, suddenly serious again.
“You better!”
“I will,” Takaki assured with a roll of his eyes. “Daiki’s my friend too you know.”
Yamada gave him a wide smile which he returned with rolling his eyes.
“Hurry! Let’s go to work!” Yamada said cheerily as he dashed out through the door. Takaki followed suit literally and landed on his rear once more.
Right, humans can’t go through doors like that…
Yet as Takaki watched Yamada on their way to work, he could not help but feel that Yamada was not really a ghost. He felt so real and his expression, actions and everything made him were so human like that Takaki found it hard to believe that Yamada was not exactly there anymore.
When they reached, Takaki noted delightedly that Daiki was there and he was happily chatting with Inoo and Hikaru, who were both fussing over him. Yabu and he had decided not to tell the rest exactly what condition Daiki was in when they found him. It was better not to worry them after all. Takaki was just about to go join them when he noticed Yamada frowning.
“He’s happy isn’t he?” Takaki asked softly so that no one would hear him.
Yamada turned to him with incredulous eyes.
“Can’t you see that his eyes are swollen?” Yamada asked, gesturing to Daiki almost frantically.
Takaki stared for a while before noticing that Daiki’s eyes were indeed swollen. It was not obvious at the first few glances and no one would probably notice unless they stared like Takaki did. Takaki wondered exactly how well Yamada knew Daiki.
“Go talk to him. Drag him away!” Yamada said. Well, more like commanded. Takaki gave him an incredulous look.
“What?” he hissed under his breath.
“I said go talk to him,” Yamada said, staring at Takaki coolly.
“The other part.”
“Drag him away.” They matched their stares levelly until Inoo came over and hit Takaki over the head with an extremely think book. Takaki let out a yelp and glared at Inoo.
“What did you do that for?” Takaki snapped.
“Why were glaring at the air?” Inoo retorted.
“Because Ya - ” Takaki stopped short and looked at Yamada again. It was finally starting to sink in for real that he really was the only one who could see the younger boy. As if catching that thought, Yamada looked away. “I was just spacing out…” Takaki said instead and Inoo rolled his eyes. With that said, Takaki marched up to Daiki and grabbed his arm. “Sorry Hikaru but I need to borrow him for a while.”
“Yuya, what do you want?” Daiki asked later. Takaki had dragged him to the vending machine area and it was deserted.
“Actually…” Takaki looked expectedly at Yamada. He had not wanted to pull Daiki out here. He did not want anything. It was Yamada who wanted him to do it.
“I was worried about you,” Yamada said and Takaki frowned. “Say that you idiot!” Yamada snapped when he realised that Takaki did not get it. Realisation dawned on Takaki and he looked back at Daiki who was looking at him weirdly.
“Why were you staring into space?” Daiki asked curiously.
“Nothing, I was just thinking about how to reply your question,” Takaki replied and almost face palmed himself. What was he saying?
“Okay…”
Yamada glared at him heatedly.
“I was worried about you!” Takaki then said immediately. Yamada’s glare was still scary even though he was a ghost. However, what Takaki said sounded more like a shout.
“What?” Daiki asked, obviously stunned. He peered closely at Takaki, worry spread across his face. “You’re not angry at me are you?”
“No, no, of course not,” Takaki answered, feeling more awkward as each second passed.
“Why were you worried?” Daiki asked instead.
“Because you were obviously crying last night,” Yamada said. Takaki repeated those words.
“Don’t be stupid,” Daiki said but there was some hesitance in his voice. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“You’re not. Your eyes are swollen,” Yamada insisted and Takaki repeated once again.
“They’re not,” Daiki said even though his eyes flickered to check his reflection in the vending machine.
“Then why are you checking your eyes?”
“I wasn’t…”
“You were.”
“Then how can you tell that they’re swollen anyway? No one else mentioned anything!” Daiki snapped, his anger obviously getting the better of it.
“That’s because they don’t notice such things about you!” Takaki answered vehemently before he realised that he was not repeating anything anymore. In fact those words were just coming out from his mouth directly and he had no control over them.
“What’s it to you?” Daiki eventually shouted before he stalked away.
Takaki stood there frozen to the ground, but it was not because he was shocked. It was because he was unable to. It was an unnerving feeling; wanting to do something but being simply unable to. It was a few more minutes later that he felt something detaching from within him and he got thrown to the ground. He immediately picked himself off the floor and turned to look at Yamada in shock. The younger boy was looking down at himself in amazement.
“What did you do to me?” Takaki demanded as he strode up to the younger boy.
Yamada looked up, his eyes shining with excitement. “I think I possessed you!”
“You didn’t tell me you can do that!” Takaki berated in annoyance. “At least I would have been prepared. That was not a nice feeling you know!”
“I didn’t know that I could do it either!” Yamada defended.
“How did you manage to then?” Takaki inquired.
Yamada shrugged before replying. “All I did was think about how I wanted to be the one saying those things to Daiki and you were being too slow in conveying them.”
“So you just have to think you want to tell something to someone to posses the speaker?” Takaki asked, feeling rather skeptical about the whole thing. This was not what the movies said.
“I’m new to this ghost thing okay!” Yamada snapped before he disappeared.
Takaki glared at the empty space where Yamada had been.
Author: Mistress_astute
Pairing: Ariyama
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Yamada's dying. He just wants to help Daiki move on.
“Ya-Yamada?” Takaki repeated for the nth time. Yamada started frowning. He had answered that question for more times than he cared to remember and it seemed that Takaki still had difficulty comprehending that yes he was Yamada Ryosuke. What was so wrong about that?
“Yes Yuyan, it is me. Hi.” Yamada sighed and sat on Takaki’s bed, his gaze never leaving the older one as he wondered how long this would.
“Oh my gosh.” Well at least that was an improvement. “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.” Or not…
“Yuya! Would you get a grip already?! Yes I’m Yamada and I’m in your room!” Yamada exclaimed loudly, almost shouting. Takaki continued gaping at him for a good ten minutes before he finally had a response.
“But you’re dead.”
That statement caused another round of silence. Takaki by then had collapsed on his chair and Yamada was staring at the floor, twiddling his thumbs.
“Yes I’m dead…” Yamada finally replied.
“Then why are you here? And more importantly, why can I see you? Gosh, can other people see you? Am I dreaming?” Takaki asked before proceeding to bang his head against the desk. Hard. “Ouch!” He gasped. “Oh my gosh I’m awake.” He turned to look at Yamada who was observing him in amusement. “Oh my gosh. You’re still here.” He paused before concluding. “I must be mad. I’ll go to sleep now. And you will not be there when I wake up.”
Yamada continued to stare at Takaki in amusement as Takaki made his way to the bed. As Takaki got into the bed, he touched Yamada by accident and screamed when he felt flesh. It was lucky that it was late and his family members were all fast asleep.
“I can touch you,” Takaki said in disbelief as he stared at Yamada’s hand. “I’m completely mad.”
Yamada rolled his eyes.
“Yuya, you’re not mad. Yes I’m a ghost and I’m here. And you can touch me because I allowed it!” Yamada snapped in annoyance. “Now sit down, let me explain and stop gaping like a goldfish!”
“Let me get this straight,” Takaki started, trying to convince himself that all his parents told him about ghosts being fake were not true. “You’re a ghost and you’re Yamada Ryosuke. And I am not mad.”
“That’s right,” Yamada said happily, glad that Takaki was finally getting it.
“Let me have some time to get used to this…” Takaki requested and Yamada patiently waited for about half an hour before Takaki nodded.
“Okay, I believe you.”
“That certainly took quite a while…” Yamada said, staring at the clock. “It’s almost an hour since I came.”
“Would you believe it immediately if I died and appear in your room?” Takaki shot back and Yamada slowly shook his head. “Exactly. Anyway, exactly why are you here? Shouldn’t you have gone to heaven or something?”
“I was supposed to. Something stopped me,” Yamada replied, a pained expression crossing his face.
“What?” Takaki asked though he already suspected the reason.
“Daiki.”
“Oh… I thought so…” Takaki said.
“He’s not doing very well is he?” Yamada asked tentatively.
“He’s doing better already…” Takaki replied.
Yamada shook his head.
“How would you know?” Takaki asked, feeling something akin to irritation boiling in him.
“I went to check on him just now, after you guys left…” Yamada answered, the image of Daiki sobbing flashing before his eyes again. He felt his heart clenching. “He’s not okay. He’s pretending. It’s going to kill him.”
Takaki said nothing. He honestly thought that he and Yabu had succeeded in convincing Daiki to move on. In the end all they succeeded to do was to make Daiki hide his pain from the rest and carry the burden by himself. Takaki knew that Daiki loves Yamada, but he never knew that it was to this extent.
“But why did you choose me and not Yabu?” Takaki asked as the thought occurred to him suddenly. Yabu was definitely a much better choice.
“Yabu-kun doesn’t have time,” Yamada answered. “He has to take care of the group and he needs time with Inoo-chan alone too you know. And you are single and free.”
“And Hikaru?” Takaki asked.
Yamada glared at him. “I just chose you okay? If you’re so unhappy about it then fine let me be an unhappy and depressed ghost. I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life.”
“Chill!” Takaki exclaimed, though he was mindful to keep his voice down. “I didn’t mean that. I was just wondering why you picked me among all the other better people… wait, does that mean that only I can see you and everything?”
Yamada nodded. “You’re not that bad Yuya! But yes you’re the only who can see me. But you have to promise me that you can’t tell anyone though. Okay?”
“Why?”
“It’s against the rules or some shit… I didn’t really check…” Yamada replied.
“Okay, I promise,” Takaki said, not really wanting to know all the ghostly details.
“Good.” Yamada smiled in satisfaction. “Good night then.”
“Wait, exactly what do you want to do?” Takaki asked as he laid down in his bed. Sleep was claiming him already. It had been an absolutely tiring day.
“Help Daiki move on.”
In a life without me…
--
Takaki woke up the next day feeling refreshed and energetic. He got up of bed and set about doing his daily routine. Just as he was about to reach for his doorknob after changing, Yamada appeared in front of him.
“Boo.”
And that caused him to let out a shriek that was definitely higher than a guy’s should be and he stumbled backwards and landed not so gently on his rear.
“Yuya, are you alright?” his mother called from the living room.
“I’m fine!” Takaki shouted back. “I fell by accident.”
“Be more careful!”
“I will!”
Takaki then proceeded to pick himself off the floor and glared at Yamada who was on the floor, laughing himself silly.
“Go on, laugh at me.”
“I am,” Yamada said before bursting out into more giggles.
“I’m not going to help you anymore.”
That stopped Yamada from laughing and he stood up, suddenly serious again.
“You better!”
“I will,” Takaki assured with a roll of his eyes. “Daiki’s my friend too you know.”
Yamada gave him a wide smile which he returned with rolling his eyes.
“Hurry! Let’s go to work!” Yamada said cheerily as he dashed out through the door. Takaki followed suit literally and landed on his rear once more.
Right, humans can’t go through doors like that…
Yet as Takaki watched Yamada on their way to work, he could not help but feel that Yamada was not really a ghost. He felt so real and his expression, actions and everything made him were so human like that Takaki found it hard to believe that Yamada was not exactly there anymore.
When they reached, Takaki noted delightedly that Daiki was there and he was happily chatting with Inoo and Hikaru, who were both fussing over him. Yabu and he had decided not to tell the rest exactly what condition Daiki was in when they found him. It was better not to worry them after all. Takaki was just about to go join them when he noticed Yamada frowning.
“He’s happy isn’t he?” Takaki asked softly so that no one would hear him.
Yamada turned to him with incredulous eyes.
“Can’t you see that his eyes are swollen?” Yamada asked, gesturing to Daiki almost frantically.
Takaki stared for a while before noticing that Daiki’s eyes were indeed swollen. It was not obvious at the first few glances and no one would probably notice unless they stared like Takaki did. Takaki wondered exactly how well Yamada knew Daiki.
“Go talk to him. Drag him away!” Yamada said. Well, more like commanded. Takaki gave him an incredulous look.
“What?” he hissed under his breath.
“I said go talk to him,” Yamada said, staring at Takaki coolly.
“The other part.”
“Drag him away.” They matched their stares levelly until Inoo came over and hit Takaki over the head with an extremely think book. Takaki let out a yelp and glared at Inoo.
“What did you do that for?” Takaki snapped.
“Why were glaring at the air?” Inoo retorted.
“Because Ya - ” Takaki stopped short and looked at Yamada again. It was finally starting to sink in for real that he really was the only one who could see the younger boy. As if catching that thought, Yamada looked away. “I was just spacing out…” Takaki said instead and Inoo rolled his eyes. With that said, Takaki marched up to Daiki and grabbed his arm. “Sorry Hikaru but I need to borrow him for a while.”
“Yuya, what do you want?” Daiki asked later. Takaki had dragged him to the vending machine area and it was deserted.
“Actually…” Takaki looked expectedly at Yamada. He had not wanted to pull Daiki out here. He did not want anything. It was Yamada who wanted him to do it.
“I was worried about you,” Yamada said and Takaki frowned. “Say that you idiot!” Yamada snapped when he realised that Takaki did not get it. Realisation dawned on Takaki and he looked back at Daiki who was looking at him weirdly.
“Why were you staring into space?” Daiki asked curiously.
“Nothing, I was just thinking about how to reply your question,” Takaki replied and almost face palmed himself. What was he saying?
“Okay…”
Yamada glared at him heatedly.
“I was worried about you!” Takaki then said immediately. Yamada’s glare was still scary even though he was a ghost. However, what Takaki said sounded more like a shout.
“What?” Daiki asked, obviously stunned. He peered closely at Takaki, worry spread across his face. “You’re not angry at me are you?”
“No, no, of course not,” Takaki answered, feeling more awkward as each second passed.
“Why were you worried?” Daiki asked instead.
“Because you were obviously crying last night,” Yamada said. Takaki repeated those words.
“Don’t be stupid,” Daiki said but there was some hesitance in his voice. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“You’re not. Your eyes are swollen,” Yamada insisted and Takaki repeated once again.
“They’re not,” Daiki said even though his eyes flickered to check his reflection in the vending machine.
“Then why are you checking your eyes?”
“I wasn’t…”
“You were.”
“Then how can you tell that they’re swollen anyway? No one else mentioned anything!” Daiki snapped, his anger obviously getting the better of it.
“That’s because they don’t notice such things about you!” Takaki answered vehemently before he realised that he was not repeating anything anymore. In fact those words were just coming out from his mouth directly and he had no control over them.
“What’s it to you?” Daiki eventually shouted before he stalked away.
Takaki stood there frozen to the ground, but it was not because he was shocked. It was because he was unable to. It was an unnerving feeling; wanting to do something but being simply unable to. It was a few more minutes later that he felt something detaching from within him and he got thrown to the ground. He immediately picked himself off the floor and turned to look at Yamada in shock. The younger boy was looking down at himself in amazement.
“What did you do to me?” Takaki demanded as he strode up to the younger boy.
Yamada looked up, his eyes shining with excitement. “I think I possessed you!”
“You didn’t tell me you can do that!” Takaki berated in annoyance. “At least I would have been prepared. That was not a nice feeling you know!”
“I didn’t know that I could do it either!” Yamada defended.
“How did you manage to then?” Takaki inquired.
Yamada shrugged before replying. “All I did was think about how I wanted to be the one saying those things to Daiki and you were being too slow in conveying them.”
“So you just have to think you want to tell something to someone to posses the speaker?” Takaki asked, feeling rather skeptical about the whole thing. This was not what the movies said.
“I’m new to this ghost thing okay!” Yamada snapped before he disappeared.
Takaki glared at the empty space where Yamada had been.