|Together| Kenji Kishimoto x Reader

| 26 |

I wake up to a pounding on my door. I sigh and pull myself out of bed. 
"Hello." Aaron says as I open the door. I roll my eyes;
"What do you want?" 
"I suspect you're not going to want to work in your office today?"
"You're not wrong. Give me a minute." 

I change into proper clothes and grab my notebooks. We walk down the hall to his room. Juliette is still asleep. I slip into Aaron's office and set everything down. Aaron watches me sit down. Suddenly there's rustling outside.  He walks back into the room. 

"I'm taking this back." I hear Juliette say. 

"You're feeling better." He says. 

"My notebook was just sitting here, on the bedside table." 

"Yes." He says slowly, carefully. 

"I'm taking it back." 

"I understand. Are you-" There's a pause. "I'm sorry, are you going somewhere?" 

"I need to get out of here." There's a longer pause. 

"Where are you going, love?" 

"I have some things I need to take care of." 

"Is that right?" 

"Yes." She sounds irritated. "Your father-" 

"Is not here." 

"Oh." 

"Did you really think that you could just walk out of this room, knock on my father's door, and do away with him?"

"No." 

"Liar, Liar, pants on fire. My father is gone. He's gone back to the capital and taken Sara and Sonya with him." 

"No. Are they . . . alive?" 

"I don't know. I imagine they must be, as they're no use to my father in any other condition." 

"They're alive? I have to get them back- I have to find them, I-" She says franticly. 

"You what? How will you get to my father? How will you fight him?"  

"I don't know." I can hear her pacing across the room. "But I've got to find them. They might be my only friends left in the world and-" She takes a sharp intake of breath. "What if there are others? What if there are other survivors? What if they're hiding somewhere?" 

"That seems unlikely." 

"But there's a chance, isn't there? If there's the slightest chance-" 

Aaron sighs. "If you'd seen the devastation the way I did, you wouldn't be saying such things. Hope will break your heart all over again."

"They've been planning this war for such a long time. They must've had a backup plan. Somewhere to hide." 

But we'd been planning for longer. The entire Reestablishment had plans to eradicate rebels. We had enough planning, materials, and people, that if it came to it, which it did, we could've beaten them easily. 

"This is unhealthy. It's dangerous for you to think there's a chance that anyone will be alive."

"Y/n and I have to head out to the compounds in the next day or so, just to better oversee the rebuilding of the area. We lost so many civilians, too many. The remaining citizens are understandably traumatized and subdued, as was our father's intention. They've been stripped of any last hope they might've had for rebellion. And now everything must be put quickly back in order. The bodies are being cleared and incinerated. The damaged housing units are being replaced. Civilians are being forced back into work and orphans are being moved." 

There's a heavy silence throughout the room. 

"The Reestablishment does not allow time for people to grieve." 

Words I had heard so much growing up. 

sorry for the delay in updating! i know this chapter is short but more are coming i promise!!! see you soon