Iwaizumi starts leaving incense on the windowsill one month into moving to his new apartment, because he's certain that he's not the only one there.
His grandmother has always been incredibly spiritual, and he remembers listening to her stories when he was young. He knows how to sense a ghost's presence when he feels it, just from the stories alone. He remembers everything that his grandmother has taught him, about respecting those who have deceased but are unable to pass. Better to appease them, he remembers in her voice, than to anger them by denying their presence.
It makes his apartment smell like a temple, he thinks to himself, cracking a window open before he leaves the house. By the time he gets home, every night, the incense has burned up. On the days that it rains, he returns home to find the window closed.
"Thank you," he says to the room in general. He feels something brush his cheek, and he holds his own hand to it. It's not warmth, he doesn't think, but it's still the sensation of being touched.
The ghost doesn't go out of their way to make their presence known, and Iwaizumi doesn't mind that. Their cohabitation is something quiet and peaceful, and he finds that he likes that.
Still, he's curious.
He starts doing research, sitting with his laptop on the dining table as he searches into records from around the area, until it leads him to a single name. Even without the trail of research that has led him to it and confirmed it for him already, Iwaizumi reads the name and it feels right.
"Oikawa Tooru," he murmurs, and the room suddenly feels different. The presence of the ghost feels more pronounced, but Iwaizumi knows that it's not angry. Surprised, perhaps. It's probably been a long time since the ghost has gone by the name.
"Oikawa," he says, a little louder this time, looking up from his laptop and glancing around the room, as if he can actually see the ghost. He feels like he detects movement from the corner of his eye, but every time he looks, it's somewhere else. "I'm. Uh. Iwaizumi Hajime. It feels weird to say this, but it's nice to meet you, I guess. Thanks for letting me share this place with you."
He thinks he hears a soft chuckle, and feels a phantom hand brushing through his hair. It makes him smile, shutting his eyes.
He lights another stick of incense before he goes to bed, and he doesn't know if naming the ghost has made him more sensitive to its presence, but he swears he can feel the way that it—no, he—follows him from one room the next, before he finally goes to sleep.
FILL: Team Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru, G
supernatural themes, reference to character death
word count: 459
remix of
Iwaizumi starts leaving incense on the windowsill one month into moving to his new apartment, because he's certain that he's not the only one there.
His grandmother has always been incredibly spiritual, and he remembers listening to her stories when he was young. He knows how to sense a ghost's presence when he feels it, just from the stories alone. He remembers everything that his grandmother has taught him, about respecting those who have deceased but are unable to pass. Better to appease them, he remembers in her voice, than to anger them by denying their presence.
It makes his apartment smell like a temple, he thinks to himself, cracking a window open before he leaves the house. By the time he gets home, every night, the incense has burned up. On the days that it rains, he returns home to find the window closed.
"Thank you," he says to the room in general. He feels something brush his cheek, and he holds his own hand to it. It's not warmth, he doesn't think, but it's still the sensation of being touched.
The ghost doesn't go out of their way to make their presence known, and Iwaizumi doesn't mind that. Their cohabitation is something quiet and peaceful, and he finds that he likes that.
Still, he's curious.
He starts doing research, sitting with his laptop on the dining table as he searches into records from around the area, until it leads him to a single name. Even without the trail of research that has led him to it and confirmed it for him already, Iwaizumi reads the name and it feels right.
"Oikawa Tooru," he murmurs, and the room suddenly feels different. The presence of the ghost feels more pronounced, but Iwaizumi knows that it's not angry. Surprised, perhaps. It's probably been a long time since the ghost has gone by the name.
"Oikawa," he says, a little louder this time, looking up from his laptop and glancing around the room, as if he can actually see the ghost. He feels like he detects movement from the corner of his eye, but every time he looks, it's somewhere else. "I'm. Uh. Iwaizumi Hajime. It feels weird to say this, but it's nice to meet you, I guess. Thanks for letting me share this place with you."
He thinks he hears a soft chuckle, and feels a phantom hand brushing through his hair. It makes him smile, shutting his eyes.
He lights another stick of incense before he goes to bed, and he doesn't know if naming the ghost has made him more sensitive to its presence, but he swears he can feel the way that it—no, he—follows him from one room the next, before he finally goes to sleep.