Title:  Haunts
Author:phobiaplague
Chapters: 3/??
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Suspense/Thriller

Warnings: None
Rating: G

Disclaimer: Rune is property of evilgeniuskoji . All other characters are copyright tophobiaplague   and are not free for distribution without written consent.


Comments:  The third chapter is finally up. It was supposed to be posted Thursday, but things beyond my control came up, and so it's a little late, I'm afraid. I should have the next chapter up by Wednesday of next week at the latest. This chapter is for Koji, because it's so damn late.






It was difficult to tell which of the two men  was more visibly shaken.  They had just barely made it into the kitchen,  Rune more or less pulling Toshiro aimlessly down the hall once downstairs until the man had directed him there. It was more than a little alarming to him how very little the Medium weighed--in spite of the fact that he was dragging his feet with the shuffle of the dead as they made their way slowly into the kitchen, incapable, it would seem, of making it there under his own steam. When they finally made it into the kitchen, Rune had hastily hooked his foot around the front leg of a chair nestled against the small, round kitchen table, jerking it back slightly. It was just enough to swing the chair to the left, and Rune had quickly but gingerly transferred the limp young man into it, propping him up a little against the chair's back.

It was like something out of a nightmare. But then, he'd been thinking that since Toshiro's mouth first opened and Keiji's voice had come out. The Medium's unfocused look had gotten much worse in just the few seconds it had taken for them to move from the second floor down to the first--the glazed whites of his eyes rolling. For a moment, Rune was half-worried that the man was having some sort of fit right there in the kitchen. That's the last thing I need.  A loud, imperious sort of meow sounded behind him then, and, feeling a strange sort of prickling, brushing sensation against his calf, he turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder. Skellington was weaving between Rune's ankles, leaning into the man as he did so, his tail curved into a perfect question mark as he rubbed his sides against the dark hem of Rune's pants.

Rune grimaced, already thinking of the drycleaning bill. The cat rumbled low in his throat before drifting away, leaving the bottom of Rune's pants plastered in fine white hairs. Skellington quickly padded across the kitchen floor, making straight for Toshiro with a purposeful stride. As soon as he reached the slumped form of his master, the cat sprang from the tiled floor onto his lap, and from there onto the table. Toshiro's head, by this point, had lulled forward, until his forehead was resting on the flat, cool surface of the table. Skellington hovered for a few seconds, lowering his pink nose to the dark mass of Toshiro's hair, the ends curly and damp now with sweat, and sniffed gingerly. Then, as if satisfied by something, he lowered his head until it was level with Toshiro's, tilting his head and rubbing his cheek against his, purring in a coaxing sort of way.

After a moment, Skellington stretched himself out across the table, curling up into the crook between the boy's shoulder and neck, purring into his ear. Rune could only shake his head at the spectacle. He doubted he could do much more, and it would probably be better if he just left. Nodding to himself slightly with that resolve in mind, he started to turn. But was promptly stopped by a yowl. When he turned back quickly, it was to find Skellington regarding him with narrowed eyes, tail lashing the table in a slow, rhythmic thump.


"You look like you've got everything handled," Rune ventured, while helplessly thinking Why I am I talking to a cat?

The cat in question's glower didn't let up.

"What can I  do?" he demanded.

Skellington fixed with with an expectant look then,

Chocolate...didn't he say something about chocolate...?


"Oh. Right. Where does he keep---" he began, before immediately cutting himself off with a flat look.

No. I am not talking to a cat.

With a sigh, he made his way over to the various cabinets that hung over the counter, opening one up one right after the other, looking briefly at the contents, and then shutting them again. Canned goods, bags of sugar and rice, noodles, various bags of assorted junk food, china, cups, plates...but no sign whatsoever of anything that looked remotely like candy. Blowing out a breath, Rune stood back from the counter, his fists balled and planted on his hips as his eyes scanned the shut cupboard doors restlessly. How hard could it be to find a bag of chocolates?


It shouldn't be this hard.

After a moment, he noticed a cabinet that he hadn't before, tucked into the corner and slightly separate from the rest of them. Stepping forward, Rune seized the small bronze handle and threw it open with a triumphant flare. And nearly slammed it shut again. Rows open rows of tea. Tea in cheap cardboard boxes. Tea in richly decorated imported tins. Small mason jars of dried tea leaves and flowers. But no candy in sight. A sudden movement from the back of the foremost row of boxes caused Rune to frown, thinking that some of the boxes must have simply fallen to the back. But there hadn't been a sound...

There was a flash of movement in front of his eyes, too quick to be light, or mistaken for falling tea boxes. Rune's eyes narrowed as he attempted to concentrate on the...whatever it was. Without warning, a face appeared in the center of the cabinet. A very transparent, grinning face. Rune bit back a yelp and staggered back a few steps, eyes wide with alarm. The face, hardly perturbed by Rune's reaction, slowly began to center, as a neck attached, followed by a torso, and gradually, all the rest of a normal body. When the transformation was complete, a small, crouching ghost, roughly the size of a child five or six in age, sat perched on the edge of the open cabinet, his knees drawn up to his chin.

"Oh! Hello," came the sudden bright greeting.

The child-ghost was grinning at him rather warmly, and if he hadn't been dead, Rune would've sworn that there was a distinct twinkle to his eyes.

"Er...hello," Rune responded cautiously.

"Who might you be? Probably one of Shiro's guests, huh? He tells me to call you guys 'clients,' but..." he paused, his nose wrinkling. "I told him that makes him sound like a whore. Don't you think so? And he isn't a whore, he hasn't even..."

At this, the little boy's rambling cut off abruptly, his eyes widening. Rune let out a quiet sigh of relief. He could hardly keep up with this ghost's fast-paced chatter.

"Oops. Um, but anyway! Did you want something? Tea, maybe?"

"No...thank you, I was--" Rune faltered, before taking a breath. "I'm looking for some chocolate. Do you know where he keeps it?"

At this, the baby-faced ghost puffed out his already considerably round cheeks and peered over Rune's shoulder, his small neck craning.

"Oh. Oh! Yes, of course. Um...chocolate, chocolate," he muttered, suddenly turning and presenting his back to Rune.

For several seconds, there was only the sound of rummaging, until at last the ghost turned back around, clutching a bag of small truffles.

"Here you go!" came the cheerful announcement, as he passed the bag over into Rune's hands.  "Anything else?"

"No, thank you."

"Alright, then! "

With that, the boy grabbed hold of the ends of the cabinet door and pulled it shut with a muffled bang. Rune could only stare blankly at the now closed door, giving his head a slight shake in a vain, desperate effort to clear it and make sense of what he'd just seen.  He turned then, and made his way back to the kitchen table. Toshiro was still in the same position that he had been when Rune had first turned away, and he frowned. That was troubling. If he hadn't moved in all this time, then it was pretty obvious that he was worse off. Rune quickly dropped the truffles onto the table with a muffed thump, gently taking hold of the man's shoulders and drawing him back.

When he started to fall forward again, Rune's shoulders winced, and he heaved a sigh; hooking one arm around his chest to hold him steady while his other hand snaked forward, his long fingers worming themselves into the bag of chocolate. Slowly and carefully, he brought the first of the truffles up to Toshiro's unresponsive lips.  The outside shell of the confection was a dark, rich brown in color--with a delicate drizzle of white icing all along it. The warm breaths coming from Toshiro's slightly parted lips felt strangely pleasant against his fingertips--but it was also, unfortunately, causing the chocolate ball to soften slightly under his fingertips.

Grimacing in disgust, Rune pressed the truffle firmly between his lips and into his mouth. Toshiro's lips closed over those fingertips, sucking softly before his mouth shut and he began to chew mechanically. They repeated the process several more times, and each time, Toshiro's lips would close around Rune's fingers, sucking the melting chocolate off the tips, or curling lazily around them. It got to be so oddly distracting and mildly satisfying that Rune began to think that the boy was doing it on purpose.



Skellington looked up at him then, eyes slanting in what Rune swore was a smug expression.

"Oh, shut up," he sighed wearily.

Suddenly, talking to a cat didn't seem nearly as weird as the rest of the afternoon had turned out to be.  When Toshiro finally came around again, it was with startling speed. He sat up calmly, and there was a clarity and calm to his gaze that Rune in turn found a little unsettling. There was an awkward pause as both men slowly became aware that Toshiro still had one of Rune's fingers in his mouth, and was caressing along it's side with his tongue. Toshiro stiffened and immediately spat it out, his eyes comically wide. Rune, for his part, merely shook his hand and wiped it along the seam of his pants.  As Toshiro rose from his chair, Rune sank heavily into it.


"I think," he said faintly, "I'll take you up on that tea, after all."

Toshiro nodded wordlessly, and moved over to the sink. He lifted a teapot from the stove--this one nowhere near as ornate as the dragon one left in the dining room, but rather a humble affair--painted in soft whites with the outlines of blue weeping willows hanging over garden bridges, with swallows sweeping throughout the scenery- and removed the lid, twisting on the faucet. The teapot gurgled hollowly as cool water from the tap quickly filled it. Twisting the tap off once again, he set it carelessly on the stove, flipping a dial with a flick of his fingers.

He had just started to head for the tea cabinet when Rune spoke.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Toshiro stopped cold and looked over his shoulder at him, which Rune took as permission to go ahead. Rune braced himself for a second before blurting out.

"Why is there a ghost in your tea cabinet?"

"Oh. You mean Kio?" Toshiro grinned faintly and shrugged his shoulders lazily. "He came with the house."

"Came with the..." Rune repeated in a dazed voice, sinking back against the chair.

The completely nonchalant way in which he said it just made it sound all the more ridiculous. As if he were some ugly piece of mismatched furniture that the other occupants hadn't seen fit to keep, and left behind. By this point, Toshiro had thrown open the cabinet, once again revealing Kio's cheerful  face in the process.

"Could you pass me the rose, please? Thank you."

The cabinet shut softly this time as Toshiro turned. A few minutes later, the teapot began to shrill on the stove, and he crossed over to it, turning it off with a deft twist of his wrist. Placing the teapot on the counter, he reached up for a mug, carefully opening a glass jar resting on the counter, and scattering tealeaves into the bottom and making his way over to Rune. He set the mug in front of the man then, before moving back to the counter and picking up the teapot once again. He also tucked another glass jar under one arm, and took up a small clay pot full of sugar, before heading back to the table.

Once he had sat all of these things down, he unscrewed the lid of the first jar. His fist dove into it, before emerging with a handful of perfectly dry rose petals. As Rune watched, he carefully poured the steaming water into the cup. Instantly, the water turned from a pale gold into a deep, richly red color. Only then did he open his fist, allowing the rose petals to flutter into the mug and settle onto the surface. Just as carefully, Toshiro used the small ladle inside of the sugar jar to load each petal with a small lump of sugar. Under the weight of the sugar, the edges of the petals dipped forward once, spilling the sugar into the tea, before straightening again. Satisfied, he sat back, handing Rune the spoon.

"Rose petal tea," he announced. "You look like you need to relax."

Rune wordlessly nodded his thanks, hands curling around the mug in a tight grip. He had barely taken his fist sip before Toshiro spoke up suddenly.

"So did you find out what you wanted?"

Rune shook his head slowly.

"No. He...wouldn't tell me. Not that that's a surprise," he added a bit sourly.

"Oh. I'm...sorry."

Rune lifted an eyebrow over the rim of his mug.

"What are you apologizing for?"

Toshiro lifted a shoulder in a shrug.  They sat in silence for several long minutes as Rune finished his tea. When at last he'd swallowed all but the dregs, he sat the mug back on the table carefully, folding his hands.

"I'd like to come back. For an appointment," he added hastily.

"Okay. I can fit you in next Wednesday at three."

Rune nodded shortly before pausing and getting up from the table.

"Well. If that's all, then..." he reached into his back pocket as he spoke, withdrawing his wallet. From the bill fold, he produced three six-thousand yen bills and dropped them onto the table.

Toshiro blinked, but wordlessly picked them up at pocketed them, getting up as well.

"I'll see you next week, then."

"Yeah."

For a second, the two stood staring at each other before Rune finally moved around him and out of the kitchen. Faintly, from down the hall, the sound of the front door closing echoed.