Leave a “Haunt Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about my character watching over yours[as a ghost, watching from a distance, or otherwise, feel free to specify.]
It was highly unlikely, Hakuba thought, that anyone knew that he was still around. But so many things had become clear to him now that he was dead that the once-detective was not, in any way, surprised. He hadn’t been a fool to believe in ghosts while he’d lived, and now, trapped in this miserable existence, he only wished he could tell them how wrong they had been.
Not that it would have mattered. It certainly didn’t for Janus, he thought, observing the killer’s actions day-to-day, lurking from whatever shadows he found most comfortable. The man lived like he’d been haunted all his life, why would adding another spectral spectator be any different at all? It wasn’t as if Hakuba could talk to the others, anyway… so many spirits, drifting uselessly behind the Osakan, trailing after what tastes of energy they could scrounge up, latently trying to survive.
That’s really all that they did… survive. No one had enjoyed being killed, but the damned assassin had been so good that most, Hakuba thought, hadn’t even known it was coming. Hadn’t even had enough time to be upset at being murdered, much less at whoever had done it.
He, though… he knew exactly who had done it, though the reason still baffled him. Hadn’t they been in love? That’s what the other had said, anyway. That’s what he’d thought that ring had meant. But all of those promises meant nothing once his own blood had been washed down the drain, hadn’t it?
Miserable… they were both miserable, caught in a constant spiral of hate and regret. Hate for themselves, hate for others. Regret for what they’d done, regret for what they hadn’t. Did it even matter? Had it all been pointless?
Some days he thought of nothing but revenge… trying to cause his former lover pain. Perhaps, if he had, it would somehow make up for ending his life. But no… no, it really was useless. Janus was nothing but pain already, and even though he hated him with every immaterial piece of his being, he knew that, deep down, he should have seen it coming… that he’d known it would happen…
…and that he loved him, still, anyway.
