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Captain Orion Carling died last month.
It felt odd to be saying that. Curly had died twice on the news now, but now there was no cryostasis for him be brought back from.
“Thanks for helping me out, Lou.” Lisa had said, gaze distant when she had unlocked the door for him. Louis’s first time here had already been laced with tragedy, and now so would his last.
Curly had other surviving relatives, but most of them were too old to be clearing out his house, so that left Lisa alone. Louis had offered to help. Chie would have but she had shows this week that had already been scheduled and booked months ago and she couldn't pull out now.
Not like they could have pre-planned around Curly…
Of course, Louis always kinda saw it. Curly was diligent about therapy, kept a circle of friends Louis had met in passing… but Louis had also seen cases like this before. It was an unavoidable subject in his career.
Still…
It never got easier facing it. Even worse when you actually knew the guy instead of handling just the relatives.
The wound wasn't so completely fresh. It had been a few weeks now since Curly had…
To think, the last time Louis had seen Curly had been at the ten year anniversary, a little ceremony they had to mourn the Tulpar and its lost souls. That was probably what did Curly in. Louis should have seen the signs-
As if that could have saved him.
The man was gone from the start and all of this was just borrowed time.
Now he stood in Curly’s bedroom, the last room to be cleared out. Lisa couldn’t do it, and Louis didn’t know if he had the strength to do it either. The last remains of Captain Curly, a room so full of his personality.
Little memorabilia, figurines, a drawing of some constellations that Daisuke had made hung on the wall. Louis had let Curly keep that one. Not like the art was better off in a file tucked away in the apartment.
Only missing the most important thing. The man himself.
Louis couldn’t do this. Not today.
Instead he turned off the bedroom light, closing the door behind him.
”Goodnight, Captain.”