Transformation
by Yukitsu
Disclaimers: Eerie Queerie does not belong to me. Lots of thanks to Wil-tan for sending the manga halfway across the world to share the EQ-love
Looking at it in retrospect, Kanau's life had not just been sad, it had also been pathetic. He had been a gullible teenager, wrapped around his senpai's fingers. Perhaps that was why he had despised Mitsuo -- the blond had Hasunuma wrapped around his fingers, yet was unaware. He hated how Mitsuo reminded him of his senpai's denseness, and his own naivety.
Fifteen years. Fifteen years was just too long to spend watching is beloved grow up and have children of his own as if nothing ever happened in the past, as if he never led another to drown....
No, not fifteen years. Kanau had given up haunting the older man after a decade, and instead went to roaming around the school where everything had started.
Too much time alone.
Kanau figured that even if his phantom body refused to grow, his mind had. Somewhat. Mikuni had commented off-handedly, once, that he still seemed to have the maturity of a teenager. Kanau had said Mikuni just didn't know him well.
It made him sad, he supposed.
"Dinner will be ready in a bit, Master," Kanau said in his quiet voice, monotonous, calm, resigned.
"Thank you, darling" was the reply.
For a moment, the sight of the frilly apron on him made him think of adding poison to the tea. But Kanau was too grateful for being able to physically feel again to harbor the thought for more than a few seconds.
"Join me."
The dark haired poltergeist looked up for a bit in surprise -- he hadn't tried eating yet, no matter how long he's been under the Chief Preist's wing.
"I-- I..." Kanau blushed, embarrassed at the indecisiveness. He shut his mouth and made to fetch another set of utensils.
"Don't bother. Try it first; even I don't know if it's possible." A piece of meat hovered over his lips, suspended by a pair of chopsticks he traced back to pale hands, strong arms, broad shoulders, a a handsome face....
He had opened his mouth and leaned in to take the bite before he could stop himself.
"Well?"
One fat drop of tear met the query. Kanau couldn't help it -- in Mikuni's sanctuary, he felt as if he had never died. The transparency to certain untalented aside, he was as solid as the living were. And now, he discovered that he could taste, too.
"We should have known, really," was the casual reply. "If you can feel in this form, there's no reason for you not to be able to use your tastebuds."
"Thank you." It was a quiet murmur, so heartfelt Kanau had surprised himself. Not even his joy of being understood by Hasunuma could reach up to what he had been given, at the moment, even if it HAD started as imprisonment and slavery.
Mikuni wasn't a bad master to have, really....
Kanau wondered when the sanctuary had stopped being a prison for him. Mikuni had put it up for two reason: To keep Kanau in, and give the boy solidity.
The dark haired teenager had found, soon enough, that he didn't want to escape anymore, that he had come to get used to the cat ears and the maids uniform and the erratic schedules the Chief Priest kept. Being 'alive' again had made it worth everything; he had missed being able to touch and be touched. The strange 'service' required of him aside, being Mikuni's pet wasn't so bad. Hasunuma's assumptions about the bedtime services were incorrect -- Mikuni never touched him in that manner.
The sanctuary had changed from being his cell to his lifeline.
One day, he would find someone who he would love and who would cherish him in return.
That day might come sooner than he ever dreamed.
And when that happens... he doubted if he would move on.
8:41 PM 1/16/2005
Unedited.