Freak ~Juuzou x Reader AU~

Chapter 6: Hollow Home

~2 Days Later~

July is hot, the humidity making my skin sticky as heavy air fills my lungs, but man, does it feel good.

The sun is hanging high in a clear azure sky, the breeze blowing, whisking my hair as the scent of pollen fills my nose. A choir of birds is chirping somewhere in the nearby trees as the leaves rattle.

This is what I needed. After spending five days cooped up in the hospital, inhaling that cold and sterile air, being out here is much needed. So needed. So refreshing.

I close my eyes, feeling the sun peppering my face with little kisses as another breeze combs my hair. In my chest, my heart does its little pitter-patter. Something about being out here breathes a new life into my soul, which has felt inflated for the last five days.

I still don't feel like myself. Not completely. Not wholly. Not like before. See, right now, a part of me is missing. This huge chunk of myself is gone, snatched away in the dead of night, taken to only God knows where.

I suck my breath in.

Rui. It's been almost a week since my apartment was broken into and she was hauled away, and as of now, no one has anything to show for it. There have been no details made known. No suspects pinned. Even the man held in custody has - as far as I know - given no valuable information. I don't even know if they've gotten him to talk.

But Juuzou promised.

He said they'd bring her home. He told me that himself. And I want to keep faith in him - in them. In him and Abara. I want to believe they'll bring her home. I want that more than anything...

But I am too afraid to stay too hopeful. To remain too optimistic, only to have that hope dashed away.

I suppose that's why I'm giving myself room to hesitate. Why I'm allowing myself to not feel completely at ease knowing two highly qualified investigators are handling this. Because at the end of the day, special investigators or not, they are not guaranteed to achieve their goal. And there is no saying they'll be able to find her.

"Here we go, Miss L/N," the nurse says, stopping the wheelchair. She places the breaks and folds up the footrests. "Here, let me help you."

We're out at the pickup zone, Randy's car purring as he climbs out of it. He walks around to where we are, interjecting.

"I'll take her. Y/N, are you ready?"

A funny question. Am I ready to leave? I think back to the last five nights - four spent listening to the eerie quietness. It was so foreign and ominous. It wasn't the same as the quiet of my apartment.

I nod, taking his hand, "Yeah."

"Be careful," the nurse says, helping to ease me up to my feet. "Dr. Creech said you can walk, but no long-distance, and no overdoing it. Okay?"

I hiss, the tenderness of my foot scuffing the hard ground. "Okay."

"I've got it from here," Randy says, helping me hobble to his car.

It's almost hard to believe that two days ago I walked to Juuzou with fury, the pain almost nonexistent. Though, I suppose that was due to the combination of anger and pain medications allowing that. But now, that anger is absent, and the pain meds are fading.

With Randy's assistance, I manage to hobble to the car and slide into it. The nurse passes him my bags and wishes me well before turning, wheeling the wheelchair back through the sliding door. Randy walks to his side of the car and glides into the driver's seat, turning to me.

"Are you all set?" he asks.

I nod, "Yeah." I fidget with the seatbelt. "And thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it, especially since I don't think Mrs. Warner would've been able to help much."