Kate

https://archiveofourown.org/works/49791955/chapters/126169975#workskin
After what happened in Ingo’s bedroom, the relationship between you and Emmet went somewhat back to normal. It was still nowhere the same as it was before the older twin’s disappearance, but at least you didn’t feel like there was a wall between the two of you anymore. You still didn’t talk quite as much. You still tended to avoid the more painful topics most of the time. But it no longer felt like the two of you were just roommates, and it was much rarer for the two of you to cry alone. At least, that was how it was for you, and you assumed it was the same for Emmet.

But that didn’t solve all the problems. Ingo was still missing and the police still made no progress with the investigation. While the media coverage wasn’t as active anymore as it was during the first two weeks, the topic was still quite popular, both on TV and online. To the point you couldn’t even go check social media without coming across a reminder of the missing Subway Boss practically everywhere you went. You couldn’t tell if the speculations from regular social media users were more stressful for you to see than official articles and news reports, as both made you react quite badly. So you ended up limiting yourself on how much time you spent online.

All the stress was piling on more and more. Preventing yourself from going online for too much seriously limited your distraction options. It was an especially big problem when you were at home. How do you stop thinking about someone dear who’s missing and Dragons know where or in what state, while in a place where you used to see him most of the time, and where there’s literal third of the space that’s now eerily empty because of it?

And that was how it started for you. Being on your own, especially at home and when Emmet was at work, caused your mind to wander, and that made you anxious. Anxiety made your already messy, to say the least, emotional state even worse. There were times when you broke down, seemingly for no reason, other than the pent up stress and anxiety, while alone at home. Ingo’s Pokemon and Emmet’s Joltiks would do their best to comfort and calm you down whenever it happened. You did the same for them in return – they needed emotional support too, after losing their trainer. But the poor babies reminded you of Ingo even more, making you even sadder, and the crying sessions would just go on and on.

On an evening like this, you were at home, waiting for Emmet to hopefully come home soon. A piece of paper on your desk in your bedroom found its way into your hands while your mind wandered once again. The thoughts were just as unpleasant as they usually are, and your hands needed to be busy before it was all too much and you had a fourth breakdown this week. Without thinking about it, you began to fold the piece of paper in a pattern deeply engraved into your mind since childhood. Fold, fold again, flatten, fold, open, fold… until you had a paper figurine in the shape of a bird in your hands.

Holding a fragile origami piece brought you back to reality. You stared at the paper Ho-Oh in your hands, for once focused on something other than your missing partner. At least, you thought it was Ho-Oh. You weren’t sure where you heard that this was the Pokemon the piece is supposed to depict, but somehow you were confident anyway.

You spent several minutes admiring the origami piece in your hands, and for just a few minutes you didn’t feel anxious, or scared, or sad, or hopeless. You also realized that while you were folding the paper Ho-Oh, your mind didn’t get the chance to wander as far as it usually does. It never dipped into the dangerous territory. You reached for another piece of paper and begin folding it as well.

Several minutes later, you had two origami pieces resting on your desk. You stared at them, your mind at peace. You felt no worry or anxiety while folding or thinking about the origami Ho-Ohs. Your mind was fully focused on the piece of paper and the movement of your fingers, on how the paper felt against your skin. On trying to understand why you folded them in the first place

That was how it initially began. Just a way for you to keep your hands busy when your mind wanders during moments when you have nothing else to do. Folding pieces of paper helped your brain not overwork itself, and the process really helped you keep your intrusive thoughts and anxiety in check. You didn’t feel the need to learn other patterns or shapes. You kept creating the same shape, over and over.

It was when you were folding your twentieth Ho-Oh in total, when you ended up with too many of them in your bedroom, you remembered something. About folding Ho-Ohs out of paper. You were pretty sure you heard some sort of story or legend, a really long time ago, that making a lot of them would do… something. You weren’t sure what, or if it was even true in the first place and you didn’t imagine it, but it was something good. Like one wish that would be granted, maybe?

For about a day you kept that thought to just yourself. Something about the idea of getting a wish granted if you kept doing what you were doing made you excited, but at the same time you didn’t have the guts to look up if it was actually true, or just something your brain came up with. You were scared to be disappointed again.

You were not disappointed when you finally got the courage to look it up. You didn’t make it all up and were not misremembering. There really was a legend that whoever folds one thousand Ho-Ohs out of paper would be granted one wish. Some interpretations of this legend said you would be granted happiness in general, but it was too vague for your liking and you fixated on the other variation of the legend.

A wish. You would be granted one wish. That idea completely changed the reason you were now folding the paper Pokemon. Doing so still helped you deal with stress and keep yourself sane. But now you had a clear goal. A purpose you were doing this all for. A feasible one.

You didn’t know if the legend was true or not. In fact, logically, you knew that it was most likely just an old tale, and you wouldn’t be granted anything just because you made a bunch of origami birds. But just as it was with blowing out candles on your birthday cake – a tiny, illogical part of you, deep inside, believed it could be true. Wished that it was true. And so you kept folding, with more enthusiasm than before, when it was just a way for you to cope with intrusive thoughts.

But this activity still kept helping to manage stress as well, and you picked it up at a very right time. Because a month or so after Ingo’s disappearance and no updates from the police, the rumors began.

You learned about them later than anyone else, since you were limiting your time on social media or watching TV. But you did still notice that Emmet was even gloomier at home on some occasions, especially when he had his phone in his hands, or was at his laptop. At first you thought he was simply stressing over the situation, or because he was tired from overworking himself. Until Elesa texted you and let you know about what was happening, because it has gotten bad enough.

Ingo ran away, because he was tired of Emmet and the gimmick they had going on. Because he couldn’t bear to share his partner with his twin and decided he didn’t want to see either of you again. Ingo was murdered by his own brother, because Emmet was tired of being less popular or sharing his partner with Ingo. Ingo was murdered by both his brother and their partner, because you two didn’t want Ingo to stand between you two as a third wheel anymore.

You felt sick to your stomach when you first read through all the disgusting ‘theories’ people felt just so compelled to share with the world. Short posts that consisted of the accusation made up of a few sentences, short and straight to the point. Long posts with multiple parts, detailing on why the theory was correct and bringing up ‘evidence’, ending with an almost triumphant declaration of your or Emmet’s guilt, in a ‘it just makes sense’ way. People overanalyzing Emmet’s body language and facial expressions and speech patterns, from interview recordings, to offline and online interactions. They made you so sick; you had to run to the bathroom, as you felt like you were going to actually throw up when you’ve read the first dozen.

You missed all of it because of your informational self-isolation, and now it was hitting you in the face all at once. And suddenly, Emmet’s particularly sour moods when he had his phone in his hands made so much more sense.

The rest of the day you spent in your bedroom, folding, folding and folding paper Ho-Ohs. You were waiting for Emmet to come home, and this was your way of killing time and dealing with stress while you wait, as well as approaching your goal of folding a thousand of them. Besides, ever since you started purposefully folding the origami Pokemon, you felt like you were actually doing something. Like you were actually somehow being useful, instead of just sitting there and waiting for the police to find trace of Ingo. It was only an illusion to help you cope, but it helped nonetheless.

Emmet was once again working late, and your folding continued well into the night. It helped you pass time, so the wait didn’t feel as exhausting. Though you still kept an ear out for any noise, waiting patiently for your partner to come home, not wanting to accidentally miss him walking in.

You smiled at one of the many Ho-Ohs you already made. The one in your hand right now was the hundredth one. It was a considerable milestone, and you felt proud that you managed to reach it in just a week. You put all the hundred paper Pokemon carefully into an empty shoe box and put them away into your closet, before going back to your desk to keep going. A hundred done, nine hundred more left to go.

You were on your one hundred fourteenth paper Ho-Oh, when you finally picked up on the sound of the front door opening and closing. Your concentration was broken and you looked up from the piece of paper in your hand to your phone screen. It showed almost 11 PM. Seeing the time made you realize how sleepy you actually gotten and you yawned, rubbing your eyes. You quickly finished the origami Ho-Oh number one hundred and fourteen, placed it gently on your desk and went to see Emmet.

You peeked from your bedroom door. Emmet was in the corridor, taking his shoes off, his coat already resting on one of the wall hangers. You opted to simply watching him do his thing quietly for a few seconds. He has been spending so much time at work lately; you used every opportunity to admire him when he was not in his work mode.

Of course, you also wanted to take every opportunity to be close to him at home as well. So it didn’t take long for you to leave your bedroom doorway and approach the younger twin slowly, as he was getting his tie loose.

Emmet’s eyes locked with yours once you were only a meter away from him. He had his usual smile on his face – a somewhat rare sight to see when he’s at home lately, but always a nice one. Although it wasn’t quite reaching his eyes, which looked really tired. There were small, but still noticeable dark circles under them, and his gaze felt almost a little dulled. Exhausted. And yet, despite all this, it was not hard at all to tell that he was happy to see you.

You walked over to Emmet and opened your arms for a hug, which he immediately gave you. You put your face into his shoulder, slowly breathing in the familiar and comforting scent, feeling the soft fabric of his cotton shirt and his warmth envelop you. Emmet almost immediately tightened the hug, as if preventing you from pulling away, before you even had the chance of thinking to do so. You reciprocated the gesture, not wanting to separate either just yet.

“I am Emmet. I missed you”.

You smiled a little wider and nuzzled Emmet’s shoulder, as if to press yourself even closer to him somehow. “I missed you too”.

It was nice to be able to do this. To greet eachother with a nice hug, without feeling the awkwardness of neither of you talking as much as before. It used to be a problem that lasted for almost a month that developed from you two not knowing what to say to eachother. But the first cry you shared in Ingo’s bedroom helped to get rid of that awkwardness and made it easy for you to share affection in silence again. Even if you couldn’t give eachother supporting words, you could still support eachother.

You briefly looked up from the younger twin’s shoulder to give his cheek a kiss, before returning to the hug that didn’t seem to end anytime soon. Emmet’s cheek was a little cold from him walking in the chill air outside, but it was slowly getting warmer the longer he stood in the apartment hallway, in your embrace. Usually Emmet would cover you in kisses whenever he’d come home after a long day, or whenever you visited him at work, as if he’d die without doing that. But since Ingo’s disappearance, his affections became more ‘quiet’. It was the same change you saw in his eyes – he still gave you the look that he loves you to the Moon and back, but it was as if he was simply too tired all the time to be as energetic as he used to be not long ago.

A quiet evening followed after. You and Emmet had dinner, relaxed together for a bit, before soon going to bed. You ended up not mentioning the rumors that night, or the fact that you knew about them. It was too late, both of you were tired, and there just didn’t seem to be a fitting occasion. You also didn’t want to bring up something so uncomfortable out of the blue, when the mood was good. Especially by the time both of you were in bed, cuddling, feeling half asleep the moment you two settled down.

Tomorrow was Emmet’s day off, so that morning you didn’t have to see him off to work, only to see him come back home at dead of night. Probably a good time to mention the rumors and talk about them. Probably. You wouldn’t know, because you didn’t do it. At least not in the morning. Seeing Emmet’s relaxed sleeping face first thing in the morning deterred you from starting the day with such topic.

You woke up earlier than Emmet and had the luxury of seeing his sleeping face. He looked so calm and peaceful, for a few moments it felt like everything was alright. No one was missing, no one was spreading awful rumors and theories or overanalyzing his each breath. Everything was as it should have been.

You spent some time in bed, just admiring your partner’s face in a rare moment of peace. Just watching him calmly breathe helped put your own mind at ease. For a while, you just stayed in the soft bed, in his warm sleepy embrace, enjoying his warmth, his calm heartbeat and breathing…

You smiled without realizing when Emmet’s eyes fluttered and softly opened. When his gaze landed on your smiling face, his own smile grew soft, just as it always used to be before. You missed that smile. You giggled when he held you closer and pressed a quick kiss on your cheek. Before you could recover, Emmet was already covering your whole face with kisses. They tickled and you laughed harder, and Emmet laughed with you. Everything was alright, Emmet was his old affectionate and teasing self, and for a few moments you were both happy.

The mood soured closer to noon. Both of you went back to the regular amount of sad once you were out of bed and started the day. Both of you remembered that Ingo was still missing, reminded by the empty space that was never supposed to be empty, and both of you became visibly sadder. Emmet’s smile stopped reaching his eyes once again. You should have gotten used to that sight after over a month, but it still hurt to see. You had a feeling your face had a similar effect on Emmet.

You noticed his mood drop even further later that day, when he was laying on the couch, Galvantula on his stomach and phone in the free hand he wasn’t using to hold his Pokemon. Knowing everything you learned yesterday, you now had a vague idea of what he was looking at, and you felt your heart grow heavy. It seemed like the appropriate time to bring the topic up, even though it felt difficult.

You walked over to the couch and sat down on the floor next to it, putting your elbows on the soft fabric. You put your head on Emmet’s arm, taking a peek at his phone screen.

“What are you looking at?”

Before you asked or could even look at the screen properly to see what was on it, Emmet closed the app that was on and opened browser instead. You frowned a little, looking up at his face. He didn’t look at you, his silver eyes burning a hole in his phone, pretending very hard to find the empty search bar very interesting. He didn’t respond to your question at first, pretending like he didn’t hear you, but failing really hard with how unnaturally he was acting. Lying has never been either of the twins’ strongest suit.

“…It’s stupid. You shouldn’t worry”.

A very curt response. Not something uncommon for Emmet, but you’ve known him for way too long to be fooled. You’re also not blind and see the many tells of it being something you should be worrying about. You tilted your head at him, while Emmet kept pretending to find the browser page very interesting, unsuccessfully.

“…I know about the rumors, you know”.

It took you a few seconds, but the Meowth was out of the bag now and there was no way to take it back. Now it was something you two had to actually talk about. Emmet’s eyes immediately turned to you the moment the words left your mouth. His face was a little hard to read, but you could tell he wasn’t exactly looking forward to discussing this either. You felt a similar way. But it needed to be done.

“Elesa”, was the only thing he said, his tone of voice unreadable. His face, however, spelled out ‘I should have known’. You nodded.

“Yes, Elesa”, you confirmed, in a way that would imply it wasn’t important. Something else was important though. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Emmet still wasn’t looking at you. He put the phone down and instead focused on Galvantula on his stomach, caressing her yellow fuzz and focusing his gaze on her mandibles. The Pokemon could feel her trainer’s stress and clicked in a comforting way, letting Emmet caress her to help calm him down. It felt nice, so she had no complaints either way.

You watched Emmet, waiting patiently for his answer. Someone else might have thought he didn’t hear you or was ignoring you on purpose, but you knew he simply needed some time to choose his words. This was a difficult topic to talk about as is, so you understood the hesitation.

“…You’re stressed. The rumors are verrry stupid and not true. You don’t need any more stress. So you shouldn’t worry about them”. Emmet answered after a long pause. He still didn’t look at you, and your frown deepened. You expected this to be the answer.

“But you’re obviously stressed too, and even more now because of these rumors. Even if they’re stupid. These rumors make you feel bad, and I don’t want you to. And if you do feel bad, I want to be there to support and comfort you”.

You watched Emmet’s face closely, seeing him think over your words. He furrowed his own brows when he said that you noticed how the rumors affected him. You understood him not wanting to expose you to this garbage, especially after you started limiting your time online specifically to avoid stress like this. But you also had a feeling he didn’t like it that those rumors are getting to him.

Your thoughts were soon confirmed. Emmet finally turned his face towards you, though he still didn’t look up, still looking at Galvantula as he messed with her fur. The Pokemon was quietly resting on his stomach, watching you two talk, not interrupting.

“…We did not murder Ingo”. This was a statement, not a question. You nodded.

“We didn’t”.

“Ingo did not… run away from us”. Although Emmet’s voice didn’t change, the pause and the deepened frown on his face told you that he wasn’t quite as sure of this statement as he was of the first one. Even though both of you knew it was true, the ugly feeling of doubt was still there. You shook your head once again and you reached for his hand.

“He didn’t. He didn’t take any of his Pokemon with him, and his things were found scattered in a tunnel. He didn’t run away from us”.

But it did imply that something really bad happened to him, and reminding Emmet and yourself about that hurt. You wanted to reassure Emmet though, so this needed to be said. He nodded slowly, still looking very pointedly in the direction of Galvantula, but not quite at her.

“He did not run away”.

“He didn’t”.

“…Something happened to him”.

“…Something did”.

The silence that followed after weighed on your heart as you waited for Emmet to say something else or to react in some other way. While he was thinking, you were lost in your own thoughts as well. This situation was awful, wasn’t it? The rumors that started circulating were awful, untrue, and implied a lot of very unpleasant and hurtful things about you and Emmet. Screw that, they screamed those things, and ‘unpleasant and hurtful’ is an understatement of the century. And yet, even with them all being untrue and based on people’s desire to play detective with a case they have no personal connection with, the real situation is still awful. Something happened to Ingo, and now he’s gone, and no one can say where he is, what happened to him or if he was even alive. And if he wasn’t, where his body was and who did it.

Knowing something awful happened is bad enough. Not knowing what happened keeps you guessing between ‘bad’ and ‘horrible’, and your mind won’t rest until it knows the definitive answer, and makes you think about all the options, over and over again, until all you feel is agony from thinking of everything your loved one might have gone through, alone, while you had no idea what’s going on.

Your mind spiraled once again in just a few short minutes, as it did tens, possibly hundreds of times before in the last month or so. You forcibly brought yourself back to reality and only now noticed that Emmet was now looking directly at you. If he was trying to at least somewhat hide how upset he really was and how the rumors affected him, now he was no longer trying. His face expression looked pained and his eyes were glistening with tears. It seemed like his thought process was similar to yours.

You stared at eachother in silence, until Emmet eventually spoke up quietly again.

“…Why did it happen?”

It wasn’t a question you were able to answer. Emmet wasn’t actually expecting you to. You asked yourself the same question often too lately. But hearing it get asked out loud made it so much heavier somehow. So much more real.

Why did it happen? What did your kindhearted Ingo do to deserve whatever it was that happened to him? What did you and Emmet do to deserve to experience such loss with no answer in sight? You couldn’t understand. Your whole being refused to accept that it happened without a reason. Just… because. Because tragedies can happen to anyone, at any moment, and no one is safe from one happening to them, no matter how much they don’t deserve it.

Your chest stung once again, as your mind wandered. You were so used to the sensation at that point; it almost felt normal, just as the stinging in your eyes. A routine. You didn’t want this to become your ‘normal’, that shouldn’t be a routine…

Emmet shifted his position and pushed himself off the couch, sitting up, while Galvantula slipped into his lap with sad clicks.

You watched him sit up, his face looking like he was having the same thoughts as you. Once he was sitting straight, he opened his arms for you, inviting you into a hug. Without any hesitation, you got up from the floor, sat down on the couch as well and wrapped your arms around Emmet, burying your face into his shoulder. He immediately held you close too, so tightly, as if afraid you might get away if he doesn’t. You won’t, and you know he won’t either, but you still squeeze him just as tightly.

Another crying session followed afterwards, with sad Galvantula there as part of the group this time. Her sad clicking helped both of you stay somewhat grounded, despite everything. Even after the tears dried and the sobs with the sniffles faded away, neither you, nor Emmet were in much of a hurry to let eachother go. You kept clinging to one another, like you were each other’s lifelines. Though, in a way, perhaps that really was the case.

You turned your head and leaned sideways on Emmet, now looking down at his lap and at Galvantula there. She has grown silent for a while now, letting you and her trainer pour all your pain and sorrow out, but her look was still noticeably concerned. You smiled softly and reached to pet her fur as well. Emmet has been doing it pretty much the whole time the two of you sat on the couch. It most likely helped him feel more grounded, you did a similar thing yourself. And Galvantula’s fuzz was really nice to touch too…

The three of you remained on the couch together for some time, all three of you silent. Emmet being right there, by your side, and caressing the spider Pokemon helped you to slowly calm down. They didn’t do much to ease the ache in your heart or help your mind not wander anymore, but it was something. You really needed to get your hands and mind busy with something else though. Something that would actually distract you.

You remembered that you still haven’t touched paper today and haven’t reached your personal quota for the paper Ho-Ohs yet. Folding them always calmed you down and distracted you from bad thoughts, so this was perfect. You stood up from the couch and walked towards your room.

“Where are you going”, Emmet’s voice and Galvantula’s confused chirp that followed afterwards made you stop on your way and turn around to look at them. Emmet’s confused and slightly sad look made your chest sting again for a moment and you hurried to reassure your partner and his Pokemon.

“I’ll be back in a minute, promise”.

You went into your bedroom and hurried towards your desk. Quickly, you grabbed a small stack of square pieces of papers, and then you hurried to return to Emmet and join him back on the couch. You sat back down and leaned on his shoulder again. As soon as you did, Emmet put his arm around you, pulling you closer to him. You pressed yourself into him, allowing his warmth to envelop you again. Once you were fully settled, you took one of the paper squares from your stack while putting the rest on the couch near you. It was a bit different to fold one without a table, but that inconvenience only made your brain work harder on the task at hand. Once again, there no longer was any space for intrusive thoughts anymore.

In the corner of your eye, you could see Galvantula watch your fingers move, carefully folding the paper in different places, then more, and more. You couldn’t see Emmet’s face, but it wasn’t hard to guess he was watching your hands too.

“What are you doing”, Emmet’s voice was calm and the question didn’t quite sound like one. Your eyes remained glued to the unfinished origami piece, as you didn’t want to accidentally make a mistake and ruin it.

“Folding a paper Ho-Oh”.

For a few minutes, silence settled between the three of you again. Your focus was back on only the paper in your hands, and soon enough, a paper Ho-Oh number one hundred and fifteen was now complete. It took longer to make one this time, since you weren’t at your desk, but you were still satisfied with the result.

“Why”.

You looked up at Emmet. He was staring curiously at the origami piece in your hands. Galvantula seemed to be curious about it too, though you couldn’t tell if she recognized it as a bird Pokemon, or if it looked like simply jumbled piece of paper to her. You looked down at your lap again, trying to decide how to respond properly.

“…It helps me calm down”. You pauseed. After staring at the origami Pokemon in your hands for a few more seconds, you put it nearby on the couch and reached for a new piece of paper. You folded it a few times, before pausing again. “…I also want to make a thousand of them eventually”.

You resumed folding, though a little slower than before, because you were no longer fully focused on the process. Only half of you was actually paying attention to what your hands were doing. The other half was focusing on waiting for Emmet’s response. You were sure he would ask you to elaborate. You knew him too well not to.

“Why”.

Even though you knew he would ask this, you still hesitated to answer. Sure, this whole time you were doing this so that your wish would come true. Your wish to have Ingo back. But to say it out loud to someone, especially Emmet… it felt weird. Not the good kind of weird. You were a bit scared of how he would react if you told him. You weren’t sure why, you knew he wouldn’t be mad or anything. But something was still making you scared to tell him the reason regardless.

“…It’s a legend. If you fold a thousand Ho-Ohs out of paper, you will be granted one wish”.

It wasn’t the full truth, but it was all that you were brave enough to tell him. Though, it seemed to be enough for Emmet anyway. As you resumed folding, he remained silent, quietly watching you work. Maybe you didn’t need to say the whole reason for him to understand what you meant.

The second Ho-Oh of the day was finished and you put it near the first one, before taking the third piece of paper. You were in the middle of folding it, completely focused on the task at hand, when Emmet spoke up again.

“Give one to me too. Please”.

You didn’t expect Emmet to say that. You looked up at him, your face showing obvious surprise and slight confusion. Emmet looked a little somber once again as he stared at the unfinished paper Pokemon in your hands. After a few seconds of hesitation, you reached for another piece of paper and handed it to him. Emmet accepted it and began to slowly fold it too. Nowhere near as fast as you – you were used to the actions, to the point of them being mechanical, and he wasn’t. He looked very focused as he folded his own Ho-Oh, and you smiled, before focusing on your own piece. For a few minutes, it felt like you and Emmet were both working on reaching the same goal, together. Galvantula on Emmet’s lap watched you two quietly, her eyes following Emmet’s hand movements closely.

By the time Emmet was done with his piece, you were finishing up your fourth one for today. He stared at the paper bird in his hands in silence. You stopped your own work too, looking at the paper Pokemon in his hands as well. It was a little wonky, but good nonetheless.

You looked up at Emmet’s face. It was unreadable, and his gaze was distant, as if he was lost in thoughts. You were curious about what was on his mind, but ended up not asking, feeling like if he wants to, he will share his thoughts with you.

Eventually, he gave the origami Ho-Oh to you, without looking away from it.

“Here. Thank you”.

You weren’t sure why Emmet felt the need to thank you, but you nodded anyway and took the origami piece. Once you did, Emmet gave you a quick peck on your cheek, grabbed Galvantula and got up from the couch. He squeezed his Pokemon into a tight hug, and swayed her from side to side.

“I’ll be in my room”, that was all he said before walking towards his bedroom. He walked in and closed the door behind him. You remained on the couch, watching hm leave, and then staring at his closed door with a tilted head. You weren’t sure what made Emmet leave so suddenly, or what he was going to do. Which was a little strange. Usually you could understand him and his thought process, often without any words. When he was leaving though, you felt like you couldn’t read him at all.

You took the remaining pieces of paper, along with the Ho-Ohs that were already finished and went to your own bedroom. You had many more origami birds to make and plenty of intrusive thoughts to keep away.