#ghostzai

[anticidic]

One evening I came across a house that had no one inside it, not even a mouse.

I thought it strange and said to myself, “How peculiar, surely someone must wander its halls?”

And so I called and my voice echoed,

…that’s when the moan of a ghost bellowed.

"Every relationship has burdens they have to overcome. Together."

"But our burdens seem to be more substantial."

ONE DAY I WILL RETURN TO YOUR SIDE

Ghost!Dazai and human!Chuuya AU ficlet. 1,074 words. Character death with a happy ending.

"That's what makes them even more worth fighting for," Chuuya said.

He fixed his hair in the mirror and tucked a lock behind his ear. Behind stood Dazai by the open door, his arms at his chest as he leaned against the wall. Watching. As he always did. When Chuuya looked away and fixed his bowtie for the third time, Dazai faded from sight.

It was quiet. No sound, no movement. The headlights of oncoming cars from down below in the district like tiny ants navigating the colony sped past.

Then he reappeared.

Chuuya frowned and shifted his attention away from his reflection. Dazai's form flickered rapidly until he was no more in the blink of an eye and all that was left were footsteps down the hall. A door opening. And shutting. Wind blew through his clothes and he felt detached from his surroundings. Inside the building—a cold memory hung.

As the days grew shorter and the nights longer, Dazai struggled to maintain his form for more than a few hours at a time before he had to step away. Their makeshift constellations before bed included Chuuya sipping from his wine and a blanket draped over his shoulders, on the couch. Across from him with ghostly legs draped across his lap was Dazai leaning back and propped up by physical cushions he had no use for. He could phase right through them if he wished. Chuuya would go on about his day, about the stray animal he fed, and about the elderly neighbor, Mr. Kishimura, whom he checked in on after not seeing the man on his early morning walk with cane in hand. Dazai would listen with a smile and when he spoke, he spoke with a whispering echo that wrapped around the room and filtered through the halls like a memory fading, fading away.

The most fragile voice Chuuya had ever heard. Dazai was just holding onto reality enough to be there. With him.

“I’ve never been more restless than the day you moved in,” Dazai paused and crossed the room. He placed a hand upon Chuuya’s cheek and cupped it tenderly. “I fear I’ll never be at peace now. Each day gets harder and I’m not long for this world anymore. I should’ve been gone when I took my last breath.” He sighed. “Does the longing ever stop?”

The words rang hollow. Chuuya stood there in thought and nodded with the tiniest smile.

A feeling of tenderness washed over him—a longing even, perhaps. And gentle tragedy. He gazed at the dresser, recently dusted with several framed photos propped up on it. Chuuya smiled in all of them, alone. He was never centered in the photo, always off to the side. His friends could not understand what Chuuya needed room for, and why he’d ask them to take several steps back to make sure they captured everything and everyone in the photo, but they relented for him. He never looked happier than in those fleeting moments in time: absolutely, completely alone.

“It’ll end. We know how this ends.”

Their story would come to an end. He had maybe one or two more chapters left in him. Dazai would go on forever. Chuuya would not.

At half-past midnight when his eyes closed, the blanket fell from his shoulders and rested atop his body. The lights turned off, and the remote was placed on the table in front of the television. A chill overcame him against his skin. A caress not of this world, but still entirely loving and careful like he was the one who would break first and not Dazai.

Maybe it did break him. Knowing they were together, had been together, and could forever be together but not actually experiencing what it was like to be in one another’s arms. Chuuya had not even photos of them. The first anniversary. The second one that came and went with him in bed bundled against the harsh winter outside and nursing a hot cup of tea. He lay across one side of the bed with the other half reserved for Dazai. The third was spent at work with Dazai using the last of his energy to follow after Chuuya for the day. They sat in a dim restaurant that night with smooth jazz playing in the background and a lit candelabra on the table in front of them. Chuuya would talk, talk, talk the night away and look as if he was holding a conversation entirely by himself to the onlookers. But Dazai was there as he always was. Listening. Even wearing a suit to match Chuuya’s own.

Chuuya coughed with a wheeze.

Days turned into months which became years on end spanning decades. His hair dulled. And he grew weaker by the day.

He lay in bed with the lights on and the television softly playing in the background, head turned toward the balcony. The same one he spent chilly evenings out on with a cigarette between fingers laughing to himself whenever Dazai’s words reached his ears.

Over the howl of the wind and so soft only he could hear, Dazai whispered: “I love you.”

Those same words would find themselves stuck to the walls and lost to time. One living memory would become two.

Chuuya closed his eyes for the last time and drew his final breath. Everything went dark and silent. Peaceful.

Then he awakened to Dazai looking down at him with the softest smile. On the verge of tears? Or was Chuuya imagining it? He reached out and touched Dazai’s cheek. Warm. A sunny spring day after the cold rain.

A startling realization hit him.

He could feel Dazai for the first time. They were back in his apartment with the lights off and Dazai sat crisscrossed on the bed beside him.

“Rest, Chuuya,” Dazai said. He lay on his side facing Chuuya, never taking his eyes off him. “We overcame our burdens. You were right.”

“You waited all these years to be with me?”

“And I loved every minute of it spent with you.” A pause, fabric rustled as Dazai pulled the covers over them and he draped an arm across Chuuya’s chest. His cheek rested on a pillow, and he had the most adoring look in those eyes Chuuya had seen since…since the earliest days of their relationship when it was still little but a budding flower.

“—And I’ll love our endless future.”

[osarina]

Angst idea ! What if instead of a universe where Dazai and reader are together , fyodor steals reader before Dazai can meet them 😯🫣 and then they all die. Yayy!

LOLLLLLL IT DEPENDS WHAT DAZAI WE’RE TALKING ABOUT I FEAR, but honestly 💀 fyodor is dying one way or another, dazai will not let him touch what’s his. it’s just a matter of whether or not dazai is unhinged enough to take her with him because he wants them to be with each other. i honestly don’t think dazai would be the type of yan to harm his s/o - obsessive, possessive, and manipulative? yes. but i don’t think he would cross the line of hurting them. so i want to lean toward the fact that he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to kill them but at the same time??? ghostzai i think would be a whole new type of unhinged so who knows.

[ghoszay]

Hello!!! Formally ghostzay (with the t) but I lost the account. I love art and music!! You’re average nerd obsessed with Pokemon since day one 🥲

Love my cats more than anything

[solarsleepless]

ITS DONE.

OH MY GOD OKAY ITS HAPPENING. EVERYBODY STAY CALM. STAY FUCKING CALM. STAY CALMSHJHSHJSs

OH FUCK OH MY GOD OH MY FUFJHAHFHJAFHHFAHAF WHAT THE FUCK???? HOLYSHIT THANK U THIS IS AMAZING OH MY LORD

THIS IS THE FIC BTW. HOLY SHIT SHSJSH

[klm-zoflorr]

i imagine you as your icon in my head. like ozai but bright glowing blue

YES I WON AT LIFE!!

[natequarter]

@satans-poptarts this isn't really something i plan on writing as such but the idea is that when ursa poisons azulon, he just... doesn't die. in fact, he seems to be invincible. nobody is entirely sure why but he seems to just be impossible to kill.

ozai and ursa have by this point teamed up to try and bring him down (good for their kids who no longer have shitty parents breathing down their necks, bad for ozai who is probably going to be dead if he continues like this).

also this brings in:

ursa who is in this universe just an unrelentingly horrible person to anyone who gets in her way, including and not limited to the fire lord himself

ozai who is basically just a laughably incompetent version of ursa

urzai vs azulon's political machinations - ozai trying to steal the throne, both of them trying to kill azulon, and azulon trying to kill them

ursa does not get caught

ozai does! rip

azulon has been looking for a convenient excuse to get rid of his son for ages and here it is

the war/the rest of avatar continues as per usual, except azulon keeps on threatening to kill zuko, so ursa convinces him to banish zuko and hunt down the avatar

what azulon and ursa did not account for is:

zuko actually finding the avatar

azula in the background with several very stabby friends :)

ghost ozai (ghostzai) deciding to follow aang around and annoy him (oh and also help him overthrow azulon. that too)

zhao

zhao's general incompetence

can you please talk about that azulon wip? im kinda invested already

ok this is confusing me do you mean the one where azulon just refuses to die out of spite or-

[anticidic]

got ghost!Dazai and human!Chuuya au on the mind with Chuuya moving into a place haunted by Dazai.

candlelit dates over dinner: ghostzai can't eat the food, but Chuuya sees the chair across from him pull back and then in and he knows Dazai's across from him, and Chuuya will just talk about his day while enjoying his meal. sometimes Dazai responds, mostly he just likes hearing how Chuuya's day was and seeing his eyes light up

when Chuuya's out for the day and ghostzai stays behind to conserve his energy because he's been expending a lot whenever he ventures outside of his resting place, he'll sometimes doodle and write in an open notebook Chuuya leaves on the counter. Chuuya looks forward to going home to see what Dazai writes in it, and sometimes writes just tiny observations like he saw birds on the balcony for the first time since spring started, that the cherry blossom trees around the house finally started to bloom and ghostzai never remembered them being so pretty since he was alive himself.

Dazai can be a cranky spirit but mostly he's living his ghostly life just haunting the halls and windows. He likes to mess with the neighbors sometimes by appearing and disappearing and waving at them

Sometimes he pickpockets Chuuya's friends whenever they come over. And Chuuya suddenly has a lot of little trinkets he never remembers having. Whenever Chuuya's friends come over, they leave with their pockets a little lighter…sometimes ghostzai just takes a few yen coins, and one time he took a pack of cigarettes knowing Chuuya likes to smoke sometimes, but then Chuuya catches on to that IMMEDIATELY because Dazai pickpocketed a brand Chuuya doesn't like

Dazai can't possess people, but he can possess objects, and one of his favorites to possess is a doll that looks a lot like him. It sits on Chuuya's bed propped up against pillows, and when they're ready to retire for the night, Dazai will possess the doll and Chuuya will tuck it in gently and Dazai can't move, but he can physically feel all of the sensations and the phantom warmth of a kiss on his cheek. And it's the most he's felt since he was last alive, however little it is. Dazai feeling what it's like to be embraced again and falling asleep nice and warm and with arms around him.

Chuuya sometimes asking right before falling asleep if Dazai yearns to be alive, if he misses it, and if he's at peace with himself. And sometimes Dazai doesn't have an answer for him, but mostly he smiles because although he's a lot more restless nowadays after having his resting place disturbed, he doesn't mind it so much by Chuuya.