Another Ghost (Hanako x Gender Neutral Reader TBHK fic)

Talk with Yako

~Your POV~

Hanako picked up the phone, "Hi Yako!"

I couldn't make out what she said, but Hanako handed me the phone. 

"Yako? What's going on, this isn't how you usually operate, is it?"

"No. The others have tasks to complete before they make it here, but I'll let you come through."

"Why?"

"I have felt your feelings. We can talk about them together."

"Sure, I suppose. I'll be there in..." I looked up at the staircase ahead of me, "about an hour."

I heard the dial tone and put the phone down. I gave the other three a wave and made my way up the long stairs. 

"What're they doing?" I heard Minamoto say. 

"No idea, but I'm a little angry with them right now, so I say we let them go." Yashiro waved her hand.

"I guess if Yako wanted to talk to them, then they should go." Hanako sighed. 

~A while later~

I huffed and made it up one last step, nearly collapsing in front of the final gate. I knocked on the door. 

"Yako, let me in." The gate opened up and I stumbled in. 

"Welcome, Y/N." The gate closed behind me and I was faced with Yako, in her fox form. There was a plume of smoke, and she stood in all her tall, human, glory. 

"Jeez Yako, don't you have an elevator or something for express entry?"

"I've never done express entry before, so it's not really something I ever considered. Have a seat." She gestured to a small bench surrounded by grasses. 

I looked around, and I saw that I was in a park, surrounded by short cropped grass and blue skies. There was a small, worn path that lead to a shrine of some kind. "This is a nice place."

"Thank you. Now, tell me all about your feelings recently."

"Straight to the point, huh? How did you know about that anyway?"

"I've felt it in myself so often I can practically feel romantic tension anywhere. Now, what's going on?"

"Well, there's a lot going on to be honest."

Yako knelt to the ground, sitting gracefully cross-legged. "Tell me all of it."

"If you insist. I'm infatuated with Hanako, but I've known that for a while now. The trouble started when he met this new girl, Yashiro. He used to spend all day talking and spending time with me, and I was happy with that."

Yako nodded thoughtfully.

"But now, he's spending so much time with Yashiro that he hardly even looks at me anymore. I feel forgotten by the person who's the most important to me. I'm used to being forgotten by people who hardly knew my name, but when it's Hanako, it just hurts." I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes. 

"Yes, I felt the same way about my Mitsuri for a long time," Yako said.

"I don't know if I should be angry, or sad, or just happy that he's happy. I constantly feel like people are giving me their pity, but I don't want pity! I just want to feel wanted somewhere," I sighed deeply. 

I heard a click, like a device being stopped. Yako pulled out a tape recorder.

"And you don't have the confidence to tell Hanako any of this yourself?"

"Hey! Why would you do that?!" I went to grab it from her hands, but the woman transformed back to her cunning little fox self. Unfortunately, foxes are a lot harder to catch than women in long, dragging kimonos.

She hopped up onto a stone wall that couldn't reach the top of, transforming back into herself. 

"You know, Hanako has telling me a lot about you for a long time now."

"What? What has he been saying?!" I jumped, trying to reach the tape recorder, to no avail. 

"He tells me all about how sweet you are, and how much he is utterly devoted to you. He is madly in love with you, just as you are with him. I think he should hear how you feels too."

"You're just a lying little fox, he wouldn't say that about me! Now give me that before I am only humiliated by my own feelings another time today!"

"Oh, here they come now." The gate opened, and Yako began to play the recording. 

"...If you insist." My own voice repeated back to me. 

"Turn that off you crazy old woman!" I shouted.

"Now, that's quite rude isn't it? I thought you apologized for being rude today already." Yako laughed.

She clicked the volume button, and the recording got louder. 

"...I'm infatuated with Hanako, but I've known that for a while now."

I shouted in frustration, my vision blurring with hot, angry tears. I sunk down to my knees, giving up and letting the recording play. I swore to myself that if Yako was lying to me about Hanako, I would make sure to never speak her name again, and let her be forgotten, just as I was.

"The trouble started when he met this new girl, Yashiro. He used to spend all day talking and spending time with me, and I was happy with that. But now, he's spending so much time with Yashiro that he hardly even looks at me anymore. I feel forgotten by the person who's the most important to me. I'm used to being forgotten by people who hardly knew my name, but when it's Hanako, it just hurts.

Yes, I felt the same way about my Mitsuri for a long time,

I don't know if I should be angry, or sad, or just happy that he's happy. I constantly feel like people are giving me their pity, but I don't want pity! I just want to feel wanted somewhere,"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, a familiar, cool one. I sniffed.

"Y/N?" Hanako said softly. 

I heard him kneel down in the grass next to me. He hugged me close to him, and I just hugged my knees, careful not to let him see my tear-streaked face. 

"Y/N.. I- I didn't know you felt so much about me, and I didn't know that what I was doing was making you feel bad."

I wiped my face, and looked up at him. His eyes were really full of apology, and tears. 

(hmmm this chapter was a lot longer than I meant for it to be. The cringe overtook me and I couldn't stop myself. anyway does anyone else just cry when their frustrated? apparently my brain cannot express it's feelings correctly ffs)