[C][M] The Summoning

Lyo had spent the night with Belial. Well into the morning. He had stayed until he was exhausted and couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.

Then he had crawled into bed and promptly fell into a deep sleep.

That sleep wasn't a good one.

He was racked with memories and nightmares.

He writhed and tossed around in bed, his hair tangling, his body sweating.

He mumbled to himself in Russian, in Latin, even in the little Italian he knew.

One particular Latin phrase he had spoken caused a strange reaction in the room. The book on his bedside table shook, trembling for a moment before flying off the table and hitting the wall.

Lyo tossed in his sleep.

Another book shook and threw itself across the room.

Soon, unbeknownst to the sleeping man, the books in his room began to circle in the air above him.

Under his breath, he muttered a name.

One he hadn't said in a long, long time.

Maksim.

Maksim was sat out on the couch with Danii after another successful job, the Necromancer was treating himself with take-out and a drink while Maks just kinda floated their and enjoyed watching tv.

He had gotten so accustomed to being around Danii that he didn't feel the need to make idle small talk.

That was until he felt something he had never felt before, like an intense headache that happened instantly then faded, that wasn't the only thing that had faded, his body had disappeared from even Danii's view for a moment.

"Danii....what the fuck..."

Being a ghost you were nothing if not consistent, he never felt much at all and the sudden surprise of pain left him a little shaken.

"Dude I feel weir-"

Before he could finish talking he vanish from the room completely.

After a few disorientating moment he felt himself burst back into existence.

"The fuck..."

He growled as he clutched his head, standing in a foreign room.

It wasn't until he centered himself and looked up at the saw the tossing form in the bed.

Instantly he froze, his hands falling uselessly to his sides.

He felt a jolt of pain through his chest, it was Alyosha...He hadn't seen the man in 8 years, he should have felt excited but he remembered those two days of screaming at the man to hear him, to see him, and he never had.

As soon as the figure appeared in the room, the books stilled in the hair, shuddering once before falling.

In the bed, Lyo tossed again, whispering to himself once again in Russian.

"Maksim...Maks...Maks..."

His face screwed up and he shifted again.

His body shot up and he screamed, a loud hoarse cry that shook his entire body.

His blue eyes were wide and wild as he clawed at his head, yanking at his long hair.

Maks took a shuddered breath as Lyo whispered his name, this was painful, so incredibly painful to watch but there wasn't anything else he could do.

He tried to keep his emotions in check, he knew what happened when ghosts couldn't let go and got lost to despair.

Even now he could see the windows frosting over as his anguished presence lowered the temperature.

When Lyo screamed ordinarily he would have jumped in surprise but when you had been dead this long fear is a foreign thing, you don't have to react to anything because the world doesn't react to you.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked away from Lyo as he welled up.

He couldn't handle seeing the man again, not like this, not still plagued by him after all these years.

"Dani... I don't want to see this, get me out of here..."

He whispered into the void that he lived.

His body shook.

He felt tears pricking at his eyes and soon falling down his cheeks.

Alyosha curled up, his body shaking, tears rolling down his cheeks as he sobbed and cried, all the while whispering the name under his breath.

Maksim.

Maksim.

Maksim.

The whisper broke him. That voice... That voice that sounded so much like his. He still remembered it after so many years. So many long years...

"Nyet. Nyet. Nyet, nyet, nyet."

His body shook even harder. He couldn't be hearing voices. He didn't want to go off the deep end; hear voices that weren't there.

The sound of Lyo sobbing broke Maksim up inside, he turned back around and the sight in front of him was enough to bring him to his knees.

He knelt on the floor, looking up at his broken and hurting Alyosha, he felt selfish, so selfish, he had taken that bullet because he couldn't live in a world without Lyo in it and in doing do he had condemned the man to this existence.

"Please don't cry, please stop."

Maksim sobbed in return.

"Alyosha I'm so sorry, I'm so..."

He choked up as spectral tears slid down his face and fell onto the floor.

"This is all my fault."

He heard the thud of Maks dropping to the ground clear as day.

That sound was what caused him to look up.

And he stared. Through his thick tears, he stared at the man knelt before his bed. The man that looked no different than he did eight years ago.

The man who had died.

His heavy breathing came heavier, shaking his body as his gaze began to become glassy and unfocussed.

Maks froze, he could have sworn that Alyosha was staring at him, he knew it was just wishful thinking.

He wanted so badly to be seen and heard that he was willing to delude himself with false hope.

That was until he saw the clear symptoms, Alyosha was having a panic attack.

"No no no, Alyosha, remember, focus on me, it's alright."
He cooed softly.

He got up and ran to the man as he had last time this had happened, moving to grip the man's face but his hands fell right through him, not like when he tried to touch Dani who was still solid to him.

"Fuck!"

He swore trying to punch the bed instead but nothing.

"It's the same as before, he can't see me, or hear me...or..."

He sunk back onto the floor, the room becoming colder as he began to despair.

[From now on all speech is in Russian until stated otherwise]

Alyosha blinked rapidly when Maks told him to focus.

His eyes pierced Maks and he tried to focus. He really did.

He was even aware enough to flinch away when Maks hand went through him. Though his breathing didn't even out. Not yet.

"Can't breathe...." he gasped out, hands still gripping his hair tightly.

His body shook violently.

"Can't breathe. I cant breathe!"

Maks was sure that Lyo couldn't see him, that he would never see him, he was having a panic attack induced by his bad dream.

Still, driven on protective instinct and simply willing Lyo to subconsciously hear him he looked up through tearful eyes.

"You can breath, forget everything else, focus on something different, we've done this before you just need to focus."

He said forcefully, there was no point telling a person having a panic attack to calm down and breathe, if they could do that, they wouldn't be having a panic attack.

"Fucking focus Lyo!"

Focus.

Focus on something different.

He could- He could do that. He could do it. He just had to try.

He squeezed his eyes shut, yanking hard at his hair as his body continued to shake with the effort of trying unsuccessfully to breathe.

Focus on something else. On the feeling of the blankets beneath him. They were warm. Wet and slightly sticky. Feeling them against his bare skin was disgusting.

He needed to wash them. He needed a shower.

A nice warm shower.

Maybe even a bath. He could take a book and just soak for a while. Try to relax.

His chest heaved as he finally relaxed enough to take a gulp of air.

Maks actually managed a small smile as Alyosha took a gulp of air, he was relieved, and proud of the man for snapping himself out of it.

He hated seeing the strong, unwavering Lyo sobbing and shaking.

He just sat on the ground, even if Lyo didn't know he was there he could at least just enjoy seeing the man.

"I've missed you."

He muttered, mainly to himself as he admired the man in front of him, pain and sadness still written all over his face, but he was smiling through the tears.

"It's been a long ass time, never use to go a night without you and it's been like 9 years? I lose track of time, being a ghost sucks, other ghosts are assholes and you can't even throw shit at people who are still living, that poltergeist movie is bullshit.

Lied to myself all this time man, convinced myself you'd be off on some tropical island, living it up, nice lady on your arm or something. If I had known..."

Lyo just sat, focussing on breathing properly again and listening to Maks' voice chatter on.

He gave a breathless laugh, a great effort, when Maks mentioned the Poltergeist. "Told you it was bullshit."

The fight over whether poltergeists actually existing or not had come up often between them.

His lip kicked up into a crooked grin.

"Yeah you did."

That made him pause for a moment, stunned, had Lyo just responded to him?

He looked up at the man with wide eyes, trying to stay calm to avoid disappointment.

"Lyo please tell me you can hear me, for the love of God..."

"Yeah, I fucking did."

His breathing was better now. He didn't sound entirely breathless at least.

"Of course I can."

Lyo brushed his hair out of his face and shook his head slowly, wiping at his tears.

He inhaled shakily. "It's been eight years...." Weren't ghosts supposed to have done what they had to do and moved on after death? Thats what Belial said, at least. But ehre was Maks, eight years later.

A fresh batch of tears streamed from Mak's eyes as he gave a relieved sob.

He shuffled closer to the bed, looking up at the man with a huge smile.

"And you can see me huh?"

Disbelief laced his voice as his hand tentatively tried to touch the man, once again, no luck.

"Two out of three ain't bad.

He muttered with a watery smile.

"Eight? Yeah, yeah it has, I missed you."

Lyo nodded slowly. "Kinda... a little blurry, but yeah."

He felt that same cold feeling when Maks tried to touch him. Like a cold breeze was stroking that part of his skin. It was a weird feeling.

"I missed you, too."

He really really had missed him.

And like Maks, his own tears began to well up. Maks was here. He could see him again.

"I'm old now." He'd be thirty three in a few months.

"You still look like you need to suck off the dragons tit."

"Blurry or not I'll take what I can get, last time I saw you, you couldn't even hear me."

He muttered, that had been a horrible day for him.

"Old or not, you're still hot as hell, love the hair."

He replied with a weak chuckle, he was still feeling so many emotions right now, it was hard to focus, he hadn't felt anything but a lonely numbness for years.

As his mood picked up though, the ice on the windows began to melt.

"I need to stay young, for all the hot ghost bitches that I can't have sex with."

He replied rolling his eyes, being dead really did suck balls.

"I couldn't?"

He was beginning to relax now. He had a feeling about why Maks was here. He'd spent the whole night with Belial learning about spirits and summoning.

And apparently he had subconsciously used what he had learned this morning.

He didn't know whether Belial would be proud or want to tear him a new one.

"I've been thinking about cutting it." Hair so long was getting more annoying than it was worth. "Up to my chest." It was a reasonable length. Long but not long enough to piss him off to bad.

He scrubbed his scarred hands over his face, heaving a weary breath.

This was a lot to take in. He felt surprisingly calm about this.

The calm before the storm, he was sure.

"Getting a lot of ghost pussy, huh? Must have been rolling in it in the last eight years."

"Nah."

He replied, looking back on it now those two days had been the absolute worst days of his rather short life.

"I followed you around for two days before you left Russia, I was screaming at you constantly but you didn't have the slightest response. I figured no one could see me until Danii came along. How come you can see me now?"

He asked, he was over the moon about it but the whole thing was hugely confusing.

"Looks so good though."

Maks ran a ghosty hand through Lyo's hair, even if he was just pretending to touch the man it made him feel better.

"I'm surprised you ever let it grow this long, thought having long hair always annoyed you?"

Lyo never let his hair get out of control, it was always longer, but maintained.

"This will shock you but no, once you die you lose bodily function, I don't eat, don't sleep, man I can't even get a hard-on let alone feel horny."

He kind of just existed, without feeling much at all.

"I'm sorry."

Two whole days being ignored by him... When he had no clue what was going on, that must have been rough. He was truly sorry that Maks had had to deal with that.

"I'm a Necromancer now. Like raise the dead, creepy shit Necromancer." He wiggled his fingers in the universal 'creepy shit' action. "I have been for ages. Years. Remember that book I picked up a few months-" He cut himself off. He couldn't say it. "W-Well, it was an honest to God spell book and reading out of it did this."

He made a sweep of his body with his hands, signalling that it had changed him. He body wasn't the same.

Lyo's eyes slid shut when he felt the chilly feeling on his head. He didn't think he could get used to that feeling any time soon. It felt so weird. Like ice was running down his spine, but not quite.

"I've just... never really thought about cutting it until now." It had never really crossed his mind to cut it. Because one of the last things Maks had said to him was to let it grow out.

Lyo tried to hide his laugh, but it revealed itself in a loud snort, followed by a full-body laugh.

Maks losing bodily functions... The idea of Maks losing the ability to get horny was ridiculous. Horny was half of Maks' personality.

Maks shook his head as he sat as close to Lyo as he could without touching him, he doubted his touch could feel good to the man.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing, I saw how... everything affected you. I didn't mean for you to suffer."

Maks pouted as Lyo explained that he was a necromancer, looking very displeased.

"So everyone has freaking cool super powers except me? Man this is bullshit."

So far Danii and Lyo bath have awesome magic and he was the only shitty human, and now even shittier ghost.

Maks' pout turned into a full on glare as Lyo snorted and then laughed, yeah he knew the irony in it all and how utterly ridiculous it sounded.

"Not that funny..."

He grumbled, unimpressed.

"Can't even get naked."

He had tried, he was stuck the exact way he was before he died, clothes and all.

"You didn't-" Maks didn't fire the gun at himself. If anything it should be him apologising. Begging for forgiveness. If he hadn't been so stupid and sat down like he had then Maks would-

He'd had these thoughts a thousand times before and been absolutely consumed by them.

"Everyone?" Everyone? Who was everyone?

Lyo grinned widely. "Kinda is."

He felt sorry for Maks. He couldn't see Maks going without sex for so long.

Though if he were back there he doubted he would have seen himself going without sex like he had done for so many years now.

Maks didn't want to think about how he died, or who's fault it was, he knew one thing for sure, it wasn't Lyo's fault and he had never blamed the man for it.

"Yeah, you and Danii, wait did you guys know you were Necromancers all along and just leave me out of the loop?"

That would suck, though he knew it wasn't the case, if Lyo was a necromancer back then, he would have been able to see him.

Ignoring Lyo's stupid grin he looked around the room for the first time.

"Where are we? And how did I get here? Haven't been able to go anywhere on my own and suddenly I'm dragged all about."

"Danii?" Danii was a Necromancer? Were they thinking of the same Daniil here? He couldn't see the Danii he used to know being a Necromancer. Not with everything he had been through as a Necromancer so far. He couldn't see Danii being able to cope with what he'd seen.

"Italy. Well, Sicily."

He'd taken up his promise to go somewhere hot, even if he hadn't had Maks by his side.