"Hahaha! That was a funny joke, tell me another one." the giggles of the (L/n) family's only four year old echoed through the residence's hallways. The parents' growing curious as to what their child was laughing at, peeked into her room. The girl's back may have been turned to them, but they could clearly see that no one else was in the room with her, thus leaving the parents questioning who their child was talking to.
"Who're you talking to (Y/n)?" (M/n) questioned as her child's laughter halted as she turned to face the married couple, her cheeks tinted pink from her previous laughing fit.
"Grandma Shelby of course momma. She tells the funniest jokes!" (Y/n) answered with a wide grin on her face. The older (L/n)'s faces turned to ones of concern as they heard their child's response. You see, Grandma Shelby had died a few days after (Y/n)'s fourth birthday a few months ago, and the little one was quite devastated. After the funeral, she was a crying mess and refused to talk to anyone for a solid week. The parents grew worried for their little one and began to fret that she was hallucinating things now.
"Honey what do you mean? Grandma Shelby's....dead," (F/n) said, wincing as the little girl's bright grin changed to a face of confusion as she stated, "Huh? No she's not. Grandma Shelby is right here." The child then motioned to a chair that was positioned right in front of her, looking to her parents as if they were dumb.
The parents looked to eachother, concerned for their child's mental health.
"Well Mr and Mrs. (L/n), from what our results state, your child is perfectly fine." Inside the doctor's office, the parents of the four year old girl clutched eachother's hands, shocked and confused expressions on their faces as the female parent spoke up.
"Then why is it that our sweet baby is claiming to be talking to her dead grandmother?" The worried mother questioned, letting one of her husband's hands go to motion to the four year old girl sitting on the patient bed, incoherently murmuring to the air in front of her. The woman furrowed her eyebrows, clutching onto her husband's hand with a tighter grip, to which he squeezed back in an attempt to ease her.
The doctor let out a hearty chuckle as he looked at the worried couple reassuringly, stating, "Well, it seems that perhaps it's a sign that your daughter's quirk is manifesting. From what we can tell, it has something to do with the dead. Maybe a quirk similar to what we refer to as mediums or espers." The couple noticeably perked up at the mention of their daughter's potential of having a quirk as the doctor continued, "Whatever it may be, the quirk doesn't seem fully developed yet, so how about we schedule an appointment within the next few months to keep up with your little one's quirk development and if anything happens within that span of time, you should contact us." He wrote something down onto the paper on his clipboard before ripping a shred of the paper off and handing it to the (L/n) parents, revealing it to be contact information for the hospital. The small family made their way out of the hospital after that.
Earlier, with (Y/n):
The girl sat on the thin mattress that the hospital bed supplied, fiddling with her fingers as her parents continued to blabber nonsense with the doctor. she began to grow bored as time passed, turning to look out the window, into the endless blue sky as her mind wandered off.
A minute or two passed by before the girl saw something fly past the corner of her eye, a shiver going down her spine as she turned her head to observe the object(?) only to meet the seemingly tired, dull white eyes of a pale male who sat on his knees in the same bed that the four year old was on.
The male was dressed in an over sized white shirt that hung loosely around his shoulders and ended near his thigh, where an equally white pair of shorts dressed his legs, down to his knees, where his hands lay. The boy's hair was as almost as white as the rest of his outfit but had a very slight blond tint. (Y/n)'s eyes wandered down to the older boy's neck, noticing visible scarring around his neck, almost as if something had tightly coiled around it and left a permanent mark behind. She also noticed the males collar bone piercing, but made no comment on it as she continued to observe the male in front of her. Her gaze traveled further downwards, to where his hands lay. She noticed how lanky the boy seemed and the similar scarring around his right wrist, matching the ones on his neck. The band aids dressing his hands seemed to decorate them like ornaments to a Christmas tree, along with his bloody knuckles and broken, chewed nails.
The boy seemed to be in his teenage years, not that the younger girl cared as she kept her curious gaze onto him and said a quiet, "Hello." His droopy eyes seemed to widen in surprise. This girl could see him? Talk to him? He looked behind himself, checking if anyone alive was behind him. Seeing no one, the boy's dead pale orbs turned back to meet the girl's lively (e/c) ones, seeing that they awaited a response. Pale eyes shined with interest as he opened his mouth to talk back, but a pitiful croak was all that was heard. The male quickly closed his mouth, cringing as he heard the sound of his 'voice' if you could even call it that at this point. Remembering the incident that caused this damage to the male's vocal cords, he grimaced, a sorrowful look taking over his face before he shook his head rapidly, attempting to forget his prior thought before turning his attention back to the four year old who continued to look at him, gaze unwavering as she continued to wait.
Licking his chapped lips, the boy soaked in the fact that his voice box was pretty much irreparable as he raised his hand at the girl in a slight wave. This reaction seemed to be enough for her as the child smiled a gap-toothed -yet still adorable- smile and continued to speak. "My name's (Y/n) (L/n)! Who are you stranger?" she questioned, tilting her head as she waited for a response from the teenage ghost, not minding the worried glances that her parents spared her behind them. Knowing that the child expected an answer, the unknown boy had to think about how to tell her that he couldn't speak without speaking. Within seconds, he came up with an idea.
He pressed a hand to his neck gently and shook his head, taking both his hands and making an 'x' with them over his mouth, trying to convey to the child that he couldn't speak. (Y/n) looked at the dull eyed boy making all these hand motions and didn't quite understand what he was trying to say. She tilted her head and furrowed her small eyebrows, a short "Huh?" leaving her lips as the ghost boy went back to thinking. After a second, his eyes lit up. He made eye contact with the four year old once again and put both his hands to his mouth, covering it as he shook his head once again. It seemed like that helped connect dots in (Y/n)'s head as her big (e/c) widened in realization as she asked, "Are you tryna' say that you can't speak mister stranger?" To which the pale boy nodded rapidly, happy that he was going somewhere with this somewhat one-sided conversation.
"Well, that's gonna be a problem," (Y/n) pouted, putting a chubby hand to her chin as she looked down in thought, mumbling under her breath. After a minute or two passed by the girl's (e/c) eye's lit up as she brought a (s/c) fist down to her open palm. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "Hows about I just call you a nickname and ask yes or no questions? That way you don't even have to worry about opening your mouth!" The ghost considered the child's words before nodding. It was better than what he came up with. "Alright! Now I just need to come up with something..." She trailed off, letting her mind wander as various names drifted in and out of her head, none of them really catching her attention until..
"Nanashi!" The ghost tilted his head and raised an eyebrow as if asking 'why?' and the girl just giggled responding, "I dunno. It just came to my head and I liked how it sounded." A sense of familiarity washed over the pale boy as he heard the name, yet he couldn't point out why, so he just shrugged it off as nothing as the two began to converse -well (Y/n) was the one speaking, asking questions and Nanashi would just nod or shake his head if you can call that a conversation-. Eventually, the time came for (Y/n) to take her leave, as her parents had finished talking with the doctor and they seemed happier now for some reason.
"Come on (Y/n). We're going out to get ice cream as a celebration for your quirk finally coming in,*" (M/n) stated as she picked her child up from the bed into her arms and hearing her cheer for joy before asking, "Can we head to the park too? Oh! Oh! Can I bring Nanashi? I want him to come with us too!" Hearing his ''name'', said male perked up, as did the older female upon hearing an unfamiliar name. Shrugging it off as one of her daughter's imaginary friends, the woman dismissed the chilling feeling of someone behind her and said, "Of course he can! A friend of your is a friend of ours." And so, the family left the hospital, with the addition of one ghost friend.
Nanashi; something that doesn't have a name or an identity; unnamed/nameless
Artwork used is not mine.
*sorry if that didn't make sense. I just needed a reason to bring (Y/n) to the park.
Just moving this stuff from quotev.