"Come in."

I bit my nail, as was my habit when I was nervous or excited.

Tonight, I was excited.

"Is something wrong?" Nircoel asked, poking his head through the door.

"On the contrary, Nircoel. Tonight...tonight, I finally have a lead."

"A lead? On what case?"

What case? Only the one that had been plaguing Shoals since I moved here. The "Strange Happenings" case none of the city's detectives have been able to solve. No one knew if it was one person, or an organized group. People would disappear without a trace, only to turn up dead in one of three ways: no blood lost and no injuries, only strange tattoos on them, the blood completely drained from them, or as a barely recognizable human body with grotesque wounds. It seemed like some mad scientist's experiment.

Nircoel almost threw up when I explained it to him. I asked if he wanted to see the photos and he asked if I wanted vomit on my floor.

"What's the lead?" he asked after he had recovered his composure.

"My source discovered an abandoned warehouse that whoever's behind the serial murders may have been using. We leave soon."

"Soon? But it's only midnight."

"Yes, soon. We leave in four hours. Get some rest."

He sighed, bid me goodnight once more, and retreated to his room.

~.~

"You ready?" I asked, starting the car.

"No," he said with a yawn. "I wanna sleep more."

"You can sleep on the way." We pulled out of the driveway.

He took my advice and fell asleep quickly, his even breathing adding to the rhythmic sounds of the road. When we came to a red light, I glanced at him. It was breathtaking, in a way. The sun itself seemed to adore him and bathed him in its light, making his figure seem all the more...cute?

I shook off these strange thoughts and focused on the road.

~.~

"Wake up." I gently shook Nircoel.

He woke up with a start. "Are we there?"

"Yes. We've been here for a while."

This news seemed to shock him. "Ah! I'm sorry! I should've woken up earlier!"

"Oh, uh...I got breakfast, so it's fine. I got you something too, in case you're hungry." I handed him a sandwich wrapped in foil. "You mentioned you liked these when we were unpacking yesterday..."

His expression changed from anxious to teasing in a split second. "Are you sure you're a professional? I thought the case took top priority."

Slightly chuckling, I countered, "No good detective sleuthed on an empty stomach. Imagine all the clues they'd miss!"

"True," he said, giving a small laugh. His eyes turned serious. "But thanks for getting me breakfast. I didn't think you'd remember.

"You went on about it for a whole five minutes. How could I not remember?"

He sheepishly scratched the back of his head, then started eating. I, however, wondered how he could make me laugh so easily. It came so naturally with him.

Thus, I came to the conclusion--

I must be broken.

"You gonna drink that?" Nircoel asked, pointing to my half-empty soda cup.

I handed it to him while sorting out my "brokenness."

"I have the best boss!" he exclaimed before chugging the rest of the soda. Wiping his hands with a napkin, he asked, "Are you ready?"

"Hmm? Yes, let's go."

I approached the warehouse, Nircoel close behind, holding onto me for dear life.

 "Are you okay?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder.

"Ehmm...yes. I've just never done anything like this before." His eyes darted back and forth, but we weren't even inside the building.

"You're acting like we're committing a crime."

His grip on my arm tightened. "Have you...committed a crime before?"

"Have I?" I raised an eyebrow. "Now prepare yourself. We're going in."

"W-Wait! That's not a definite answer. And I'm not ready!"

He still walked in with me. The desolate warehouse was filled with dust and the strong scent of metal, but otherwise perfectly intact. 

"Akyu! Akyu! Akyu!"

"Woah, there. What's up?"

Nircoel was having a sneezing fit.

Pinching his nose, he responded, "I'm very sensitive to dust."

"I can see that. Will you--"

Another round of "Akyus" interrupted me, and I laughed.

"You've got a cute sneeze." I didn't realize I had said it out loud until I saw him blush. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out like that..." Or at all, actually. 

"Oh, it's okay. I've always been told my sneeze is annoying, so that made me really happy."

Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned my attention back to what we originally came here for.

"Let's get back to looking for clues, Nircoel."

"Nir." 

I turned back to him. "What?"

"Call me Nir. It's my nickname. I've always preferred that to Nircoel."

"...Okay, Nir. Then you can call me Esi. But not in front of Khlo."

"Oh, okay, Esi!" Again, his face lit up.

Smiling, I looked around. The floor we were on was completely bare, but a set of stairs led up to the next floor.

"There are three floors, right, Esi?" Nircoel kept some distance from me on the second floor, seeming more comfortable in the building.

"Yeah. Why don't you check the third floor for clues? I'll come up when I'm done here."

Already halfway up the stairs, he replied, "Okay!"

I supposed he was happy to have a job to do. 

Scattered documents on a lone table called my name...but so did Nircoel, although he sounded more desperate. I ran up the stairs to see what was wrong.

"Nircoel, what happ...ened..."

No one gave me a blood warning.

The walls and floor were covered in blood. Nircoel was crouched against the one spot in the room that had no blood, his knees pulled up to his chin. I ran to him and placed my hands on his shoulders.

"Nir, are you okay?"

It was plain that he wasn't, yet I felt the need to get him talking.

He shook his head. "I don't...like blood."

"Who does?"

He looked up at me, but he didn't meet my eyes. "You seem fine with it."

"It's my job to be indifferent to disturbing things."

"Does that mean I won't be a good detective?" Nircoel made no effort to wipe away the tears that had begun to fall.

"Nir, a good detective also needs a certain sensitivity. You have that. I...I lost mine."

His curious eyes showed he wanted to ask what I meant, but he must have noticed that I didn't want to talk about it. "Thanks, Esi."

I helped him up, leading him to the stairs. "Go back to the second floor and look through those documents for me."

I handed him some gloves to handle the papers with, then watched him go. Getting a pair of gloves for myself along with a few cotton balls, I collected blood samples from different areas around the room. The blood was strangely fresh, almost as if it had just been poured onto the ground. There was something I was missing. I had no doubt about that. But what it was, I did not know. I hoped the documents would shed more light on this. 

"Nir, what'd you find?"

"Besides these records of someone anonymously ordering many...suspicious...tools, there's this letter. And...it seems to be addressed to you."