Transparent ✖️

4 - Antiques

Your eyes wandered everywhere.
Lights, people, shops, chatting, laughter. You haven't socialized much after moving in, so this was awesome for yourself. Nik looked at you with a stupid grin on his face.
"You having fun there?"
"There's so much stuff..." you said as you let your sentence go on, distracted by a certain shop.
Your friend sighed. "No."
"Why not?!" You spun around to meet his gaze.
"Until you successfully get your job, you're keeping your money."
"But Nik!-"
"No, y/n. Your ass is broke right now. You can't afford these." He pointed at the item displayed by the shop's window. "Especially for THAT."
"But it's Super Smash Ultimate! You CAN'T just say that you don't want to have it. We've both been dying to get it for so long now! There's even new characters now!-"
"Joker from Persona 5 and now they added the Dragon Quest guy. Banjo Kazooie is going to join the ranks as well. I know, y/n, I'm not that dumb."
"Well..." you trailed off, looking back at the item behind the glass.
"We'll buy it when we have enough money, okay?" He gave you a smile.
"Whatever..." you slightly pouted, continuing to walk down the road.
"'wHaTeVeR', she says. Pfft, I could just buy it for myself and not let you play." He smirked devilishly.
"I'm the one with the Switch." You kept on walking.
"And I have the games. So HA!"
You simply gave him the middle finger and you heard him say 'Fuck you too'.

You gazed upward, the sun blazing as a soft breeze kept you in the perfect temperature. Some shops had this antique feeling about them, like if they kept the touch of myths on them. Diarmuid pops into your head. 'I wonder if he saw these...' you talked to yourself in your head. 'If he hasn't, would he like these? Maybe I should take a look in some of them...-"

"Oi, missy, look where ye goin'." A man said as both of your shoulders collided.
"Ah, s-sorry." You mumbled. You felt a slight panic rush through you. 'Agh, I should've been more careful. I don't want this city to hate me...'
"One singular man won't make you be an intruder into this city, you dummy." Nik patted your head.
Eyes darting to the ground, you mumbled to yourself.
"Hmm." Nik looked around. "Did you want to go into that shop?" He points to the one who you were looking at, the one that made you think of your ghostly friend. "Seems antique-like."
You nodded and walked towards it with him.

Pushing the door, you entered as you heard a small bell ring from the top of the door.
"Hm..? Oh. Oh! Welcome!" A voice rang throughout the place.
"Hello?" Nik said in your place.
A tall man with long blue hair, four strings of his hair dropping on to his forehead, a pony tail gathering the length of his hair behind his head, appeared behind one of the shelves and smiled. He had bright piercing red eyes, with a tabard of sorts on. You felt a good vibe from him for a reason.
"I'm the shopkeeper! Cú Chulainn, at your service." He bowed down.
You did a small gasp, and looked at him. He instantly gazed at you in curiosity.
"Hello lil' missy, do you perhaps know me?" He smiled.
"Ireland's Child of Light, in flesh..." you gazed at him in awe. Never would you have thought to meet him in a simple boutique like this.
"Just Cú is fine, no need to bring out the formal names, heh." He gazed at Nik now. "How may I help you both?"
"Oh, don't look at me, she's the one who looked at your shop for a while." Your friend pointed at you with his thumb.
"Uhm, yeah, I was just curious about it's old feeling, antique-like and stuff..."
"Mhm! I tried my best to make it feel like how it was back when I was alive... for real that is." If you imagined him as a dog, you could easily see that his puppy ears would stand straight up as his smile made him even more adorable than he already was, tail wagging.

You looked around, looking at the books on the shelves against the walls of the small shop.
"They're... books about Celtic myth; Irish legends." You talked to yourself.
"Are you a fan?" The blue haired man smirked.
"It's one of the main reasons I came to Ireland..." you say, however distracted with a certain book you picked out.
Cú puts his chin on your shoulder from behind to see what book your looking at.
"Ah, once one of my old friends after the Grail's destruction!"
You brushed the particles of dust that accumulated into the cover of the book, and read its title. 'Diarmuid and Gráinne' it wrote with cursive letters.
"... you said 'once'?" Your head turned to meet his, and he stood straight up, sighing.
"Sad tale, poor guy died. I... don't know much of the details, but when I learned of his death, I felt lost for a few months." Cú admitted through a saddened smile.
"Do you at least know the cause of his death?? When he died??" The words burned your tongue to be said, hence why they came out so urged and curious.
"Like I said, don't know the details. Only that he died in his own apartment at the time. When?; well, must be a few years back."
You stood silent and dread consumed you. What did Diarmuid go through? How did he even die? This was more like a solving mystery case instead of a new life. You sighed.

"Missy, are you alright?" The dog-like Servant asked, worried. "Do you know him? Is that why?"
"I..." You started, then hesitated. If you tell him, maybe he could help you out and answer some of your questions. But, what if he finds you insane? Gazing at Nik, he just stood at the entrance beside the door, on his phone. You went closer to Cú and whispered. "Can we meet up some time? Just to talk. I-I know it might sound weird but-"
"I would gladly love to. Why would I refuse such a fine woman like yourself?" He smirked, eyeing you quickly up and down before settling on your own eyes.
Blush invaded your cheeks. "I'll come back to the shop later, when I'm alone... is that okay?"
"Hmm, meet me here tonight at 8. I usually finish most of my stuff around that time." He eyes you again with a confused but curious look. "What are you up to?" He gasped for a moment, then chuckled. "If you're after me, just tell me, I'm single." He winked.
Sighing and shaking your head, you gave him back the book and headed out of the shop with Nik behind. Cú waved at you, 8 fingers up to make you remember the time.

~✨~✨~✨~✨~✨~

You closed the apartment door behind you, sighing.
"Diarmuid?" You rang out.
"Welcome back." He said from the kitchen. "Hm, where's Nik?"
"He continued to explore the city, I wanted to take a break. Nevermind that, I... I found this shop." You started.
"There are many in the city. Which one peaked your interest?" He gazed at you, smiling.
"Cú's shop."

Diarmuid's eyes widened and he was about to choke on air itself. "Wait, you mean Cú Chulainn himself?"
"Yes. I'm wanting to talk to him about your condition since he told me you were good friends, back when you were alive. He might help! What if we can bring you back to normal? A—"

"y/n."

The mention of your name in his soft voice, which goes close to being a whisper but still loud enough for you to hear, made your heart skip and made your mind go blank. The expression on his face held one of empathy and joy.
"I'm overjoyed knowing you'd do that for me, but... maybe fate decided that this would be my life, if you can even call it that."
"We can alter fate! Just this once! Who knows what can happen, Diarmuid. Please, I hate seeing you like this in this form, in this appearance you have. You..."
Now that you talk about his ghostly appearance, you realize that he seems more pale, more ghostly than he did the few days before when you first met him.
"I hate this as well. Trust me, if I could, I would give you a hug with the warmth of my heart, but I cannot because of the coldness of my ghostly being." He said without a hint of doubt in his voice.
"Diarmuid..."

Just saying his name aloud made your mind calm, your heart flutter, and your body relax. His voice made your doubts disappear, his words made your fears disintegrate. You felt... zen, peaceful with him. This feeling that sounded in your chest is the feeling of a love that will grow easily, you knew that. You knew it because your cheeks burned by just thinking of being with him in a more intimate fashion.

In that moment, cold arms embraced your small form, and for an unknown reason, tears wanted to pour down your cheeks. You let them accumulate in your eyes.
"If only you knew how much I would wash away these tears. If I could... make the problems I bear disappear from your chest." He states as his face snuggled into your hair.

You let the tears fall as you enjoyed the rare moments you could lay your head against his chest, try to warm him up with your own body heat, imagine how it would be like if his body was alive again. Yes, imagining was all you could do.

Until you figure out a solution, this affection he gives you will do, because it's more than anything you could ask for.