It Takes Time

24

Aizawa had absolutely no idea what to do with that information. He was completely dumbfounded. Of course, going to work now was completely out of the question. He watched the husband walking away from him and disappearing without another word. What the hell did he mean, she left? Did she leave him? Did she just disappear? How was he ever going to find her again? He had nothing to go by.

All he had was her phone number and since she hadn't replied to his text a while back, he wasn't sure how successful this was going to be. What if he called her? What if he tried again? Would she maybe reply now? It seemed that things had changed from before, so maybe it was worth a try. Maybe she'd reply now.

Aizawa could feel the despair surging through his entire body, almost as if it was flowing through his veins. He tried to focus, tried to think of the best course of action, but it took a little while for him to calm down. He tried to sort his thoughts, tried to figure out what to do first. He couldn't go to work, so he should probably let U.A. know that he wasn't going to be able to make it. And then he'd go back into his apartment and have a coffee, and hopefully that would help him think more clearly about this.

He dialled the number for the U.A. office and told Mariko that he had the feeling he was coming down with some sort of flu. The damn thing was going around already, anyway, so it was a quite handy excuse. There were no questions asked, Mariko just told him to get better soon and that she had thought he was looking a bit pale. Aizawa knew that someone else would have to take over his classes, and he didn't like that idea much, but this right now seemed much more important. He had to find Y/N.

After he hung up the phone, he turned around and went back into his apartment. Once he was there, he took a deep breath. He had to keep it together. Maybe it was all just something simple – maybe she had left her husband on her own and was perfectly fine, somewhere in this city. Or maybe in some other city. Maybe she didn't want to be found and that's why she hadn't replied to any texts.

But there were so many other things that could have happened and for some reason, Aizawa found it hard to believe her husband. He found it hard to believe that she simply left, especially so soon after she had returned to him. Something about this whole situation was off. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

While Aizawa made his coffee, he tried to methodically think through all the options. Anything that might have happened to her. The one that seemed the most convincing and at the same time the most terrible scenario was that her husband had actually ended up killing her. He had been escalating the last few months, and Aizawa wouldn't have been surprised if that was what had happened.

After all, that was the thing that he had been warning Y/N about constantly, wasn't it? He would hate to have been right, but it was a real possibility. But then why would he say that she left? Did he think that might make him less suspicious or something? Surely, at some point, people were going to ask questions, right? But in that case, it made sense to tell people that she had disappeared. And even if at some point a body was found, there was still only a tenuous connection to her husband, if he had already convinced everyone that she had packed her bags in the middle of the night and just left.

But what if she wasn't dead? What if her husband had beaten her badly and he made her hide, so people wouldn't get suspicious? What if she needed to go to a hospital, but he had locked her in some part of the house, hoping that things were going to get better, and he wouldn't have people asking him uncomfortable questions? There was another possibility. Or what if he was just telling him that she left, so he wouldn't bother them anymore? So, he'd stop keeping an eye on that little bastard?

Aizawa took a deep breath as he poured his coffee. He was getting ahead of himself. Maybe she had left. But where would she go? She had told him that she had fallen out with her parents, so that was probably not where she would go. She had told him that she didn't have any friends, besides him and in extension Nemuri and Hizashi. Maybe she was with one of them? He could call them and ask about it.