Warning for violence, character death, and single parent.

She finds his files. She finds everything.

Rie has never been a fool, nor weak, nor unobservant. Her body could give off the impression the same as anyone, the same as any societal thought and figure could attest.

There were rumors. Some of them were even true. She didn't care which ones actually were.

The rumor that she loved another man and her husband didn't care, however, was entirely false. It was the only one she challenged day in and day out. She loved Kamishiro Satoru without fault.

She and Draven were just everything the other had in an adrift sea before Nao came along before the other dragons came to be in company. And she did not regret.

But she finds Kamishiro Satoru's files and she does regret.

She remembers, really, those moments of eight years ago. She remembers losing her son. And it's really not her husband's fault. People say it is, Daimon says it is but he's wrong and he is trying to fix it. He's often working late hour after late hour and he'll smile wearily every time she's asked if he's accomplished something.

She raises Yuuko almost alone.

And that's fine because without her memories she's honestly happier sometimes, without remembering her friends and the pain they were going through while she went through life was doing her some good. Not a lot because she's still lonely. Without Yuugo, however, she's been too shy, always too shy and that's no one's fault.

Her head feels empty.

The rallying in her stomach and brain grows louder as she runs up every step. The dragon in her feels no fatigue.

Her children are listed as lab rats. City children are listed as numbers before names, symptoms, and diagnostics before play and health (and it's normalized here and she knows it shouldn't be) and there are files a foot thick and she's-

Suedo.

She brushes him aside in front of the door like he's paper and he really is, to her. He's just a feeble man in mourning through laughter and she understands that all too well.

She reaches his door. She pauses, breathes. She just wants to talk. That's all, that's all. She just needs to understand.

But he doesn't defend himself when she asks. When she moves. When she sees red. He just smiles at her, her favorite, knowing, old smile and she remembers something somewhere in her head.

Rie lets go and cries while laughing the same way.

It had been a joke once that he had seen the future. It had been a joke and it-

Wasn't.

Any.

Longer.

Why?

A/N: I was struggling with this prompt so I just gave up and did something else. Anddd I look forward to people looking back to this later.

Challenges: Ultimate Sleuth 2.3