Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The rather... tiring daily routine Kabru followed everyday has been getting into his head.
Getting up at the crack of dawn, getting ready for his utterly and completely draining university, preparing himself for insincere conversations coming his way and forcing himself to put on the politest smile he can muster up, trying to keep up with his professors’ impossible demands, all the while trying to earn enough money to support himself through his shitty part-time job.
Needless to say, hes really crumbling down.

Don’t get him wrong, he really did love being a psychology major. He was genuinely interested in his major and loved the challenges that came with it, he generally had no problem whipping up long and detailed essays and presentations that would impress anyone.
Well, anyone but his old fashioned-perfectionist-stuck up-professors it seems. It also didn't help that his schedule was basically randomized.
Apparently its not a good idea to form and approve the schedule you’ll be having for the whole semester while you're blacked out drunk. Wow, who could have guessed?
But the thing that's really been making his brain feel as smooth as a baby’s butt was his part-time job.
He had won a full scholarship for his university but that only covered school-related necessities like textbooks, cafeteria meals once a day and the rent for the small place the university management found for him. Anything outside that, for example the luxury of eating,,, Gasp! a second meal, was not one of those necessities.

So, on top of his mess of a schedule, he had to work the night shift at the local cemetery that he passed by blissfully unaware every other day.
Right, because that clearly doesn't fuck up his sleep schedule even more.

How did he manage to get that job you ask? He has absolutely no idea.

One day while he was miserably trying to crawl back to his apartment flat after another attempt to drink away his sorrows, the cemetery keeper with white hair that looked suspiciously like a teenager offered him the job out of nowhere. He said that he didn't need Kabru’s CV or an interview and enthusiastically said that he could start tomorrow night.
Kabru was seeing sounds and hearing colors so with his amazing critical thinking skills, he obviously agreed and signed the contract. He took a copy of the job contract with him and somehow managed to get home. In the morning, he obviously didn't remember shit so he ran all the way to the cemetery before his social psychology class with his oh-so-lovely professor that talked about anything but social psychology. God that dude really loved oversharing to his miserable students.
He was dumbfounded to find out that the cemetery keeper was just as clueless as him. He insisted that he also had no memories of approaching Kabru and offering him a job, of all things.

But alas, the contract was very much real and not a fragment of their imagination.  
Plus, the cemetery keeper with the most unrealistic baby-face ever -seriously though, what moisturizer is he using?- did actually needed the help so Kabru legitimately started to work there.
He actually learned later on that the keeper owned, actually inherited, the land along with the cemetery and took care of it all by himself. The gravestones were all clean, the grass was always trimmed, the flowers and plants on top of the graves was taken care of and there was even small amounts of food placed here and there for the cats and dogs that chose to take refuge there for the night. It all seemed to be sacred to him.

The pay was good, Kabru wasn't complaining about that, but yeah spending your nights with buried corpses can eventually start to feel unpleasant, apparently.
He tugged at the turtleneck of the plain black sweater he was wearing and sighed softly.
He was done sweeping the leaves that were scattered around and left the broom he was using back in its place. He suddenly got goosebumps and shivered a little, the feeling of being watched never went away no matter how much he told himself literally everyone here other than himself was six feet underground. He started to wander around aimlessly with the excuse of patrolling the area. He passed by the graves and read the gravestones on some of them, while trying not to have melancholic thought about death. Everyone dies someday and that's that, no use worrying about the inevitable.
One of the gravestones caught his eye and he read the name written on there,
’’Laios Touden... Died by... getting poisoned?’’
He pondered for a minute, placing his hand on his chin. The deaths of most people here seemed to be by natural causes so he couldn't say Laios’ death didn't surprise him a bit.

He shivered again and held out his hand to touch the tip of the gravestone, as if someone guided him to do so. He lightly caressed the cold stone but the dry cold that ran down his spine didn't seem to be caused by the stone itself.
He softly gazed at the grave and got lost in thought. Why was this grave so alluring to him?
Kabru was snapped back to reality as he felt ice-cold hands on his shoulders. Cold... hands?

He froze in place. Okay, either he was about to get murdered or his lovely boss came back to check on him. He probably forgot something or wanted to have late night chitchat- yeah no he was about to get fucking murdered.

He probably accidentally stepped on a grave or something and angered the dead, he literally enraged the dead into rising again.
A cold sweat ran down from his furrowed brows, how does one even defend themselves against the undead? Can you even kill the undead? They’re, like, UNDEAD? He should have payed attention to those stupid apocalypse survival guide videos Rin and the others watched.

His whole body tensed up when he heard a echoing voice filled with... joy and whimsy??? right by his ear,

’’Did you finally notice me??!1!!?’’

He turned his head to face the voice.

Kabru was faced with the ghost of a tall man grinning from ear to ear.

’’Oh my fucking god?’’

Chapter Text

The desperate internal pleas of a young man could almost be heard from miles away.

Dear god, my name is Kabru and I am NOT your strongest soldier, was just one of his chaotic and panicked train of thoughts. Though god must already know this as, one way or another, throughout all his life Kabru had always managed to get what he wanted. No matter what or where, the situations he faced were always just convenient enough for him to get his way somehow.

Just like now, even if he was literally about to die, he thought it was very convenient to die in a cemetery. The transparent figure of a tall man with the stupidest of smiles nailed across his face stood right in front of him. Sure, he thought working in a cemetery, in a night shift no less, would be creepy but encountering an actual... ghost? Spirit? or whatever the hell this was, was not something he took into account.

How does one even greet a ghost? Does he put on his best sincere-ass-kisser smile like always? Does he quite literally shit his pants or does he faint on the spot? Before he could form any coherent thoughts, the floating man with his opacity settings turned down spoke again.

’’You're not ignoring me, right? You can actually see me, right???’’

His voice bounced and echoed all around the environment in an impossible way considering the open space they're in. Kabru tried to assess the situation to the best of his abilities. Okay, the ghost seemed friendly enough. If this otherworldly being wanted him dead he probably would have been already. Plus it was arguably not a wise decision to ignore and potentially enrage the ghost, so he broke his silence. ’’Yea dude, you’re um... seen? I'm totally observing you super hard right now?’’  He could feel cold sweat dripping from his forehead, apparently, it was hard to speak properly when you’re on the brink of fainting.  Amazing social skills Kabru, he’ll probably kill you know even if wasn't planning on it, he thought to himself.

Kabru filched when the ghost reached out with both of his hands and grabbed his shoulders.

’’I knew you could see me!! I tried talking to a bunch of people who visited the cemetery, but none of them could even sense me. You dont know how glad i am to finally interact with someone!!’’

Kabru took a deep breath and tried to regulate his breathing as much as he could. This ghost didn't seem to have any intention of harming him, he even seemed friendly. Too friendly perhaps, the mannerisms of this man unconsciously rubbed Kabru in the wrong way. He instinctively tried to grab the man's hand to push him away, but his hand passed right through him. The brief contact gave him shivers and he could feel the chilling sensation growing and spreading in his hand. The ghost let go of his shoulders while Kabru caught a glimpse of what he interpreted as guilt flash across his face.

Kabru looked him up and down,

’’So, you’re Laios and you’re a... ghost, right?’’ The blond man answered while observing his hands,

’’Yup. That’s what I'm guessing, anyway. Got no clue why though. Oh before i forget, what’s your name?’’

’’My name’s Kabru, a pleasure to meet you, uh... Laios the Ghost.’’ 

Kabru wanted to convince himself that this was all just a dream, but the cool feeling that still lingered in his hand was evidence enough.

He was great at making friends with basically anyone, so he figured getting along with a transparent version of a human wouldn't be too hard. Sadly for him, that thought quickly vanished from his mind.

Over the past week, Kabru made acquaintances with the ghost who seemed adamant about making his night shifts hell with his non-stop rambling about animals and mythical beasts.
It was obvious that the ghost meant no harm and did not have any malicious intent whatsoever but still, almost everything he did or said made Kabru wish he was alive so he could kill him himself.

Since their less-than-ordinary first meeting, Kabru had learned that the ghost, well Laios because he felt comfortable enough to call him by his name now, was actually around the same age as him, studied business because of pressure from his parents, he had a sister he loved deeply and he died by food poisoning.
Kabru had known Laois was poisoned but the part he didn't know was that this dumbass ate a genetically modified squirrel he found in his university’s lab.

Why? Because he was curious how it would taste. 

What’s more is that a year ago while he was applying to his current university he heard rumors about someone illegally experimenting on local campus animals, someone even vaguely mentioned that one of the students where affected by it. The university must’ve done a great job at covering it up for the gossip-loving Kabru to disregard them. He honestly didn't want to entertain the idea that someone was ACTUALLY doing such a thing on school grounds, let alone it costing someone’s life, though Laios wasn't completely innocent in the matter either way...

Why would he decide to EAT IT, of all things, instantly reporting it like a regular person?

Well, Kabru didn't care either way.

He didn't care that the ghost's creepy interests were growing on him.

He didn't care about how cute he seemed when he made painfully oblivious remarks.

He didn't care about his past, and he certainly didn't care when he ‘’accidentally’’ encountered the girl he was actively seeking out that just happened to share the same last name with his least favorite ghost.