My Dearest, Saihara-Chan

Chapter Nine: Disappearance

Shuichi slowly cracked his eyes open, awakened by an annoying, but familiar ringing. Shuichi grabbed his phone and jammed his finger into the screen, shutting off the alarm. He laid back, the silence returning as he sighed and rubbed his face with his hand, feeling the comforting darkness of sleep calling for him. Shuichi sat up and got out of bed, but as he was climbing down the ladder, he realized that he almost stepped on something. Or... someone?

 "G...G' morning... Shumai..." Kokichi yawned. Sometime last night Kokichi managed to find things to make a make-shift... bed? Sleeping bag? Nest?

 "Good morning Kokichi." Shuichi responded with a small smile. A sleepy Kokichi is quite endearingly amusing to Shuichi. 

 "Go... back to... sleep." Kokichi mumbled. Shuichi sighed.

 "I... wish I could, Ou- I-I mean, Kokichi, but I got work today."

 "..."

 "Ouma-kun?" Did Kokichi fall back to sleep as he was "talking" to Shuichi? Shuichi bent down to look at him. Kokichi looked peaceful, asleep. Shuichi thought. Without the constant smiles and lying, faking emotions and acting, seeing Kokichi asleep like this was... a nice change. Shuichi's face began growing warm out of nowhere as he stood up quickly. Gazing at someone while they're sleeping, how creepy is that? Shuichi scolded himself as he went on to prepare for the day.

~~~

Shuichi sat back and sighed, stretching out his arms as he did so. What a long day... The familiar fog of exhaustion had taken its place in Shuichi's mind once again, but luckily the headache wasn't there. Shuichi stood up and yawned. What time was it? Shuichi glanced at the small clock that was on his desk in the office. Almost one in the morning. Shuichi sighed again and adjusted his hat before gathering up the files, papers, and notes strewn across his desk and preparing to leave. As he walked outside the agency building, he shivered in the cold night air and began walking as fast as his fatigued body would allow him towards the direction of his apartment. It's going to be a while before Shuichi gets there... The buses and subways have already stopped running, it being so late in the night. While Shuichi made his trek back to the apartment, he took out his phone to check if there were any messages that he might've missed while he was working. A few texts from Kaito... and Kokichi, surprisingly.

  hey shuichi! are you coming back anytime soon?

help the little purple gremlin is driving me nuts, pls come back soon

  gonna assume youre being a hardcore workaholic rn so cya whenever u get hom!  Were what the texts from Kaito said, the last one sent three hours ago- Shuichi typed out a response as he walked, wondering if it's too late. 

  Good evening Momota-kun. I'm sorry for the delay in response! I'm on my way back now. Shuichi wrote before switching over to his and Kokichi's private chat to see what Kokichi had texted him.

Shumai!!!!!!!!! Momota-kun is being MEAN 2 MEEEEEEEEE COME HOMEEEEEE  Was all Kokichi had sent, around the same time Kaito sent his last message. Shuichi chuckled quietly to himself. He could almost hear Kokichi's voice through the way that he texted. It was endearing, in a strange way. 

  Hello Kokichi. I'm on my way back now. Shuichi texted and sent to Kokichi just as a car drove past him, and the streetlamps around went out.

~~~

Kokichi paced the length of the couch in the apartment's living room, biting his thumb's fingernail as he did. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Saihara-chan's text, promising his return was from an hour ago! How long is that stupid detective gonna make him wait? Something felt off. Kokichi stopped dead in his tracks as he took out his phone again to read Shuichi's text again.