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It felt like a truce. Like something important had shifted.

It was eleven thirty when they made it home. The house was empty and dark. They got ready for bed, and it felt anticipatory. Downstairs- and upstairs-neighbor noises both until they were settled beneath the sheets.

I need to know.

What?

If you could be doing anything else, if you could choose not to do this, would you?

Walt took a moment to answer.

My first day like this was on purpose. I was desperate and childish and selfish back then, but no. Now, knowing all that I do, I wouldn’t have chosen this, Hollis. If I knew you and understood who you were, I wouldn’t have chosen you. You deserve more than this.

Walt sounded stubborn. Embarrassed. Also, he’d answered Hollis’s question even though it had taken him a whole day, and with that, something settled.

Permanently and in every way that mattered. Hollis wasn’t afraid of Walt anymore, and he wasn’t angry.

Okay. Okay, we need some rules. Everything you’ve done so far has been mostly all right. But when I need to use my hands or mouth or whatever, you have to let me. Tonight was as close to a trial run of that as we could have had, and it worked. I liked it better.

All right.

You have to let me cook dinner and do food stuff. It’s not that you’re bad at it—your recipes are just... a bit out of date and you keep triggering my ma.

Walt laughed.

Last, if we fight—and I know we will—you can’t just run off and start doing whatever. We have to resolve it. This can’t be me versus you, it has to be me and you versus the problem.

You read that one in a book?

Heard it at a wedding, Hollis snapped. Do we have a deal?

Hollis, you could have whatever you wanted from me if you ever asked it, Walt said, rolling over on their back. All I do, I do for you. I’m a guest in your house.

Hmm.

Give me my arm.

And it was his. Hollis raised it high enough that the moonlight fell across his skin, then turned his hand around, stretched it.

It’s dangerous for me to trust people, Walt admitted. Early on, I used to just sit back and not touch anything. Explained stuff up front. It got real messy. Jail, hospitals, work camps. I’ve been murdered twice. Y’wait longer and the risk of the screaming sickness gets higher though. It’s hard to find middle ground.

Hollis understood.

Have you ever met anyone else doing this? Another ghost?

Walt shrugged their other shoulder.

I’m the only me I’ve ever known. Spirits are more common. They’re less like a person and more like bad energy attached to a space where something bad happened.

So you’ve been alone. This whole time?

Ninety-two years?

Walt shrugged again.

Wasn’t all bad.

Just most of it, huh?

Hollis placed his hand on his chest over their heart to cover Walt’s aching.

It’s not happening, that wild feeling.

It has to be skin to skin. You’re the first person who actually likes it, you know. Dina said it felt like hitting her funny bone or sticking a fork in a socket.

Walt sighed and closed their eyes.

We didn’t do it often, and when it happened it was an accident. I did it to you because I thought it would scare you some, ’cause you scared me some. Wasn’t sure what to do when it didn’t.

Hollis smirked, and Walt let him.

I’m an unusual guy.

It reminded him of standing in front of a train. The overstimulation of it, the rattling at the back of his teeth. He liked things like that. He wanted to do it again, now that he knew what Walt’s tears tasted like, knew the speed of his fist.

Can I... ?

It’s your body, Hollis. Walt cracked their eyes open just a sliver.

But it isn’t anymore, is it? Hollis thought soft, like a wish. Too quiet for Walt to hear.

You can’t just touch people; you have to ask, Hollis insisted, louder. Now I’m asking.

Walt turned his face to the wall and shut their eyes tight.