Arthur had already come to a quiet, embarrassing conclusion about himself—one he hadn’t dared to say out loud to anyone, not even in a whisper. He had a crush. Not just one, which might have been manageable, ignorable even—but two. Two boys, both unfairly attractive in completely different ways, both somehow existing in the same town as him like the universe was playing some kind of cruel, romantic joke.
And obviously—obviously—they had to be taken.
That was just how things worked, right? Pretty people didn’t just walk around single. They gravitated toward each other, like magnets, like they were part of some exclusive, beautiful club Arthur had never been invited to. Just look at James. James had Tina—and, apparently, something else going on too, if the whispers Arthur had half-heard and half-invented were anything to go by. People like that didn’t stay alone.
So naturally, Arthur had filled in the blanks.
The boy from the bush—the one he had quite literally first seen while crouched in leaves like some kind of anxious woodland creature (and yes, maybe Terence had done it first, but Arthur refused to examine that too closely)—had to be involved with Tina somehow. Or with the other boy. Or both. Honestly, at this point, Arthur’s imagination had built such a tangled web of relationships that even he was getting lost in it.
Which was why—when the door to his workplace opened, and that boy walked in—Arthur’s brain very nearly short-circuited.
Because this wasn’t a distant admiration anymore..this wasn't watching him from behind a tree in a park, or noticing him half asleep while being on the streets. No, this was immediate. Real. Terrifying.
And then, as if his mere presence wasn’t enough to send Arthur into a full internal crisis, the boy calmly—casually—claimed that he was going to die here.
His mind skipped several steps, tripped over itself, and landed somewhere between panic and utter disbelief.
No, no, no—there were rules to the universe, and Arthur was fairly certain that “beautiful boys collapsing dramatically in your workplace” was not supposed to be one of them. Someone like him wasn’t meant to die in a place like this—under Arthur’s watch, no less.
…Though, a small, traitorous part of his brain did whisper that having a ghost boyfriend might not be the worst thing in the world.
He shoved that thought away immediately, face heating. Because that was ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. No one—ghost or otherwise—would fall in love with him. Not really. Not Arthur. Not awkward, overthinking, hiding-in-bushes or trees Arthur.
Still, that didn’t mean he was about to let this boy just… die.
Before he could overthink it—before he could talk himself out of it or spiral into another loop of self-doubt—Arthur was already moving, words tumbling out of his mouth faster than he could keep up with them.
“Are you okay? Do you need water? Food? You—uh—I can take you to my room, I mean—not like that, just—so you can sit, and I’ll get you something to drink while you rest!”
He winced internally at himself, hands fidgeting, nerves buzzing under his skin. He was rambling. Of course he was rambling. This was exactly the kind of moment where he rambled.
Because if there was even the slightest chance that he could help—if there was even the smallest possibility that he could keep someone like him from slipping away right in front of him—then Arthur was going to try.
