Juuzou stirred a bit, and his red eyes open to his blurry surroundings.

"Where am I?" he said out loud. He sat up and looked around. He was at his apartment. And working in the kitchen was no other then Sen Takatsuki.

Juuzou gulped.

She looked up from whatever she was making in a large iron pot on the stove and smiled at Juuzou.

"Oh, good, you're up!" she smiled, doing that cute little wave thing she would do. "I'm making you soup."

Juuzou managed a small smile before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and starting to stand up.

"No no no!" Sen said in a scolding manor. "You hit your head awfully hard. I know you're not supposed to sleep when that happens, but I couldn't keep you awake."

"How did I get back to my apartment?" Juuzou asked, cocking his head at the pretty girl.

"You insisted not to be taken to the hospital," Sen explained. "So I asked you where you lived and you told me. So I got a cab and brought you back and put you in bed, got some stuff from the store, and came back."

"You carried me up the stairs?" Juuzou asked, face feeling warm. "And paid for a cab?"

"Mhm," Sen said, smiling at him. "It was the least I could do, especially after how you saved me from Kiniko."

"He's annoying," Juuzou blurted out, trying to think of something to the beautiful woman that was standing in his apartment.

"You got that right," Sen said, rolling her eyes. "Well the soup still has a little bit yet. I think taking a nice hot shower would help."

Juuzou nodded. He looked outside; it was getting dark out.

"Do you have anything cozy to put on afterwards?"

"Cozy?"

"Yeah," Sen said, giving him an odd look. "Like something warm. Sweats and a sweatshirt?"

Juuzou shook his head. "No."

"What do you sleep in then?"

Juuzou could feel his face turn bright red. His stomach twisted.

"My boxers," he muttered, not meeting the author's eyes.

"Oh, that's ok," Sen giggled. "Go take your shower, I'm going to keep working on the soup."

Juuzou walked into his bathroom and changed out of his clothes. He turned on the shower and stepped in, the hot water feeling god on his skin.

He thought about the beautiful girl who was doing so much for him, even though they had not known each other long. He thought of what Shinohara would've said if he were here. Suzuya decided that his partner probably would've teased him. Not the way Kiniko had, but in a playful way.

Juuzou still felt a little dizzy when he moved quickly, and it was an odd feeling. He had had it before, when Mama had hit him in the head especially hard during good boy time. It took about three days to go away then.

When the man decided he had wasted enough water, he got out and dried off, water dripping from his bangs and down the bridge of his nose. He dried off, and then his heart jolted when he realized the mistake he had made.

He wrapped himself in the towel and opened the door a crack.

"Sen?" he called out, his voice shaky with embarrassment.

"Yeah?" he heard her call from the kitchen.

"Um, I forgot to grab new clothes."

"That's ok," she giggled. "While you were in the shower, I ran to the store and I got you something. I'll put it on the bed, and I'll stay in the kitchen while you get whatever you need."

Juuzou watched through the crack in the door as Sen placed a large bag on his bed and then returned to the kitchen. Tying the towel even closer around him, he hurried and grabbed some fresh boxers from his drawer and then looking inside the white bag that was sitting on the bed. He glanced at Sen, who had her back turned to him and was humming to herself in the kitchen over the stove, and then peered in the bag.

Inside was a bulky gray sweatshirt and black sweatpants. Juuzou took the clothes out and hurried to the bathroom and put them on. When he came out, Sen had soup sitting on his nightstand for him.

"Eat up, you'll feel better."

Juuzou ate his soup while Sen cleaned up the kitchen. The soup was for sure not the best soup Juuzou had ever had, but it was something.

"Sorry if it wasn't very good," the author said as she took the empty bowl when Suzuya had finished. "I haven't cooked for awhile."

"Thank you," Juuzou said. "What time is it?"

"It's almost nine thirty," Sen said, sitting down next to Juuzou on his bed.

He could feel his face grow hot from how close the writer was to him.

"Do you have anybody that you could call to watch over you?"

"What do you mean? Juuzou asked.

"Do you have a girlfriend that could come over?"

Suzuya blushed. "No"

"A parent?"

Juuzou shook his head.

"Siblings?"

"No."

"Friends?" Sen asked softly.

"No," Juuzou said, more hurt showing in his voice then he would've liked. "I don't have any friends." His voice squeaked as the tears began to well in his eyes.

Sen put her arm around Suzuya, who flinched.

"Juuzou," she said softly, looking at him with a sympathetic look in her eyes. "What's your story?"

"What do you mean?" Juuzou sniffed.

"Where are your parents? Why are you so-," she paused. "Alone?"

Juuzou then did the unimaginable. He cried. In front of Sen Takatsuki.

"You don't have to say anything, I'm sorry for asking," she said.

"I don't know who my parents are," Juuzou choked out through sobs. "I was raised by ghouls."

"Ghouls?" Sen asked, flinching.

"Yes. My earliest memory I was with them. So I have no idea who my parents are, and how I got to be with the ghouls. I don't know if I was kidnapped, or if they just gave me up."

"What happened with the ghouls?"

Juuzou held nothing back. He told Sen of Mama and what she would do to him, his job of killing, how the CCG had freed him, and of everything with Shinohara. Juuzou noticed that there was a hint of another emotion when he told her how Shinohara had died, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

When he was finished, there were tears in Sen's eyes. She flung her arms around him and hugged him tight, Juuzou's nose buried in her shoulder. She smelled of coffee, flowers, and… Blood?

It must be me who smells like blood, not her, Juuzou thought.

Suzuya looked at the clock. It read eleven thirty two pm. He blinked, vision blurry. He laid down on his pillow and started to drift off. Just as he was almost asleep, he felt Sen get off the bed.

"Please stay with me," he murmured. Sen paused, and then sat back down.

Juuzou smiled a bit, and then drifted to sleep.