#host lyfe

"Are you alright?" She stepped further into the room. It wasn't like Ryou to just sit still for very long. As she asked, the boy put a finger to his lips and made a soft Ssshhh sound, indicating she should be whispering as well. She smiled, gently lowered herself to kneel in front of him, and began to whisper with him. "Why are we being quiet?"

"Spirit's sleepin'."

"I see," She was familiar with the entity in question. At first thought to be nothing more than an imaginary friend, though unlike her husband she came to realise he was much more real. For a while she suspected he might have been a poltergeist, or perhaps a more sinister creature, although now she believed he was just a lost soul. In any case, he'd done them no harm in the months since he'd arrived (and she had watched Ryou carefully to be sure), for all the thought she gave him nowadays he was practically a part of the family. "Well why don't we go downstairs and let him rest? I'll put on a video."

"I can't go, he'll wake up." The boy fiddled with the buttons on his overalls, being careful to move slowly and gently. She frowned.

"What do you mean you can't go? Do you think Spirit will miss you too much?"

"No," He lifted his head cautiously to look at her again, raising an arm as well to point to his hair. "He's sleepin' on my head."

"Oh..." She moved her gaze to above the child's head, staring for a moment as if expecting the being in question to suddenly present himself. She knew he must be there, even her youngest would sometimes stare in the directions Ryou declared the spirit to be, although she had never managed to see him for herself. With no soul in her sight, she returned her eyes to Ryou. "Are you uncomfortable with him up there?"

"No, I don't mind... it's kinda tingly," A grin broke out onto the boy's face, his feet wiggling from side to side contentedly before he pointed to the book laying between them. "but I finished my story, can you get me my crayons so I can draw?"

She smiled again, nodding once before she moved quietly to oblige the child. She fetched a messy box of worn down crayons from the dresser and a few blank pages from the bottom drawer and placed both by his side. "I'll come and get you before dinner," She leaned in to place a kiss on the boy's cheek, poking his nose with a finger afterwards and grinning back at him. "Don't draw any other monsters or the one under your bed will get jealous."

The child giggled and rubbed at his nose where it had been touched. "Okay mum."

She made to stand up but hesitated for a moment, eyes fixing on the empty spot above his head again. For a few seconds she simply stared, eyes subtly searching the air for something she surely couldn't see, before she leaned forward and planted a careful, identical kiss on the space. "Have a nice sleep Spirit."