Grief

Moments

The next morning Shizu-chan didn't say much, and strangely enough, I decided it better not to bother him on the subject. He had gotten the day off and chose not to do much throughout the morning. But as the day began to drag on I found it more difficult to just sit quiet and watch the man wallow.

Exasperated and beyond bored, I let out a dramatic sigh Shizu-chan was bound to hear. I curled my finger in a familiar motion, focusing on his small television as I did so.

Starting up with a flicker, the screen illuminated to life. With a little hop in my step, I settled down on his couch as far away from Shizu-chan as possible. Sinking into something comfortable as I curled my legs close.

Shizu-chan sat slumped on the far side of the couch, his elbow resting against the armrest with his cheek squished in his palm.

The room was quiet besides the low-volume mumbles of the televisions changing channels. The options were horrible, to say the least. Lazy twitches of my ring finger flicked through the options as I sat there heavily unimpressed.

Ever since Shizu-chan had first seen me it's been easier to interact with household objects in his apartment. Sadly that's where those abilities meet their limit, but it was still an improvement compared to before.

The beast let out a grumble, something about 'annoying flea,' as he glanced in my direction.

"Would you just pick one already?" His voice was low, lip quipped with mild annoyance. I only hummed in return, continuing to scan through options, there was a certain channel I was in search of. Shizu-chan turned his head away with a 'tsk,' patience running thin from the constant audio changes.

Soon enough, I had found the channel I was looking for, the News. I settled further back into the cheap cotton layered couch and took in the daily news being covered at that time, ignoring Shizu-chan's obvious groan as I did so.

"The news? Seriously?" He sounded exhausted. He must not have gotten any sleep last night.

"I quite enjoy it, it's entertaining," I add with a shrug. Truth be told, the news wasn't usually something I'd amuse myself with. Most things they covered were either fake dramatics or events I already long since knew of.

I had turned it on from pure curiosity regarding one story in specific. It had happened around evening last night, and it was around late morning now, so there was a chance they would still be covering it.

Currently, all the News was covering was something about a mutt and a little girl's bond. A sap story that seemed to actually have Shizu-chan's engagement.

He would be interested in the story of a sickly little girl being reunited with her pet.

With another bored sigh to add to my list of many, I dipped my head back as I waited for the story to finally end. "A beautiful experience to witness," a monotone lady spoke, "She's always been such a sweetheart with animals," her mother would beam.

My god, this was getting boring.

"In other News, evening last night a man was sent to the emergency room from an overdose. Police had reason to believe something strange and found the man's daughter murdered on the bathroom floor. Authorities have reason to suspect the father of the murder after police found weapon evidence with his fingerprints. For now, it is suspected the man had killed his daughter and overdosed in the attempt of suicide." The woman's voice was spread even, monotone as she scanned over her script.

Bingo.

I rose from my slouched position with a start to pay attention to the screen. Blatantly ignoring how Shizu-chan seemed to do the exact opposite, seeping deeper into the pillows as he listened. Our eyes were both glued intently towards the screen.