theairlock | sixth investigation

[Junpei actually takes the time for a quick shower. Not because he completely needs it, because it's just his hands, thank God. But he needs it for other, not-blood-related reasons. If he's going to get them through this, he needs to feel human.

When he comes to the dining room, he's finally wearing both his flannel shirt and the white hoodie together again, sleeve rolled up so it doesn't irritate his tattoo. This is who he is; rather than the bitter young man who'd sunk too deep in the mire of humanity looking for a diamond, but the boy who once saved a girl from burning in the belly of a sinking ship. The boy who found a way out.

But he's not not the bitter asshole, either.

When he finds Yuuri, he holds his leather jacket up for her so she can slide herself into the sleeves.]

Here. Since you'll need to wash your cardigan.

[ Yuuri's -- where else? -- in the kitchen and, to no one's surprise at all, she's fussing. She's making another round of tea even though the first one's barely been touched just for something to do with her hands that isn't washing them for what feels like the fifth time since getting out of the shower.

She does stop once she sees him though and gives him a weak smile. She's ditched her cardigan so she's just in her pajama top which is very cute but perhaps not conductive for keeping warm. So she slides her arms into the sleeves, carefully pulls her hair out of the collar and gives a long, long sigh. ]

... thank you. I completely forgot to grab the other one on the way over here.

How... how are you holding up?

[It's just a little big on her, and noticing that... helps. An image of protection when they've needed that so badly all along.]

I'm... I'll be all right. I'll hold on through the trial.

[He brushes her bangs back with a gentle, well-scrubbed hand.]

You?

... I feel a little bit sick, honestly.

[ The queasy cast to her smile probably tells him that much. ]

I've, um... at home, it was always Kurumi who dealt with... anything that got too close. I've never actually been that close to...

[ ... you get the idea, Junpei. ]

Something gingery might help. Settle the stomach and all.

[It's been a long time since he had to get used to this himself.]

...Thank you. For staying with me.

[ She shakes her head quickly, makes her smile just a little brighter. ]

You don't have to thank me. It wouldn't have felt right leaving you and Ardyn-san to do that by yourselves when I was right there.

[ She looks at him -- really looks at him for a long moment and then she opens up her arms, makes that same beckoning gesture she did in the garden all those weeks ago. ]

... come here, okay?

[He sighs like coming home and steps into the hug, wrapping his arms around her as well. Two children in a storm.]

We'll get through this. I know it. But it's still...

[ She hugs him as tight as she can, her hand rubbing slow circles across his back. ]

It doesn't make it any easier when we're actually in the "getting through it" part, does it?

... I'm sorry you had to be the one who found him. I know you and Nishitani-san... [ She hesitates, casting around for the right word before settling on: ] You were friends.

He was...

[He laughs weakly and buries his nose in her hair.]

He was sort of... the first person here I felt I could trust. Not because he was good or kind or honest, but because--because he wasn't those things. Because I knew exactly what kind of person he was, the kind of criminal assholes I'd been working with for the past year.

Yes. Yes, we were friends. I keep... we all keep losing friends.

... There's still some of us here. I know... it doesn't make up for what's lost, but...

[ The hand rubbing circles across his back skims up so she can cradle his head against her. ]

I'm here. Church, Ardyn-san, Arianna-chan, Nari-- all of us. We'll be with you all the way through this. All the way to the end and beyond.

I know. That's why I can keep moving.

[He holds her, and he holds her up against him. They are neither of them going to fall. They're none of them going to fall.]

This is the last one, Yuuri. We can't lose more than this. This is where it stops.

[Nine doors. Nine hours. Nine persons.

The one they lose beyond the patio doors today will be the last.]

... Just one more. I can handle just one more.

[ One more execution. One more death. One more friend forever beyond their reach. ]

And then once it's done, we make all this stop. I don't know how yet. But I know we can do it.

[ If she'd been saying it to herself then it would've sounded full of false bravado. But when she's saying it in tandem with Junpei then it feels solid. Real. Like a promise she has no intention of breaking. ]

We've made it this far, haven't we? I know we can make it the rest of the way. Right to the end.

Right through the end. All the way to the other side.

[He pulls back just enough to see her face. To look her in the eyes, his odd red to her stunning olive, and to imagine for a moment...]

When you get out... and you see the sun again, for the first time in your life...

[Resolve sharpens his eyes. His heart beats, and he knows he can't give up. Not while he and Yuuri--not while each of them are of the same mind.

And if they aren't there yet, together, they can make the impossible happen.]

I want to be there when you see it. What's on the other side of that last locked door.

[ It's almost instinctive now for her to reach up and touch his face -- without even having to think about it, she carefully cups his face in her hand, brushing her thumb over his cheek in a gesture so familiar it feels almost like muscle memory by now. She's tired -- both of them are so tired. But she gives him a smile and there's a tiny spark in her eyes. Not a flame quite yet. But eventually. ]

I wouldn't want it any other way. I want to walk through it with you.

sixth investigation

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