hello again! i wrote this for 400 followers on tumblr. please enjoy!

Being a light sleeper was both a blessing and a curse, Midorikawa decided. On one hand, every slight noise would make him pace the room restlessly until he could force himself back to bed. On the other hand, he could hear the soft click of Hiroto closing the bedroom door behind him from ten feet away. Midorikawa knew where he was going, and with a yawn, stretched his fingers and toes before throwing his legs over the bed and onto the cool wood, hissing at the feeling. Did Hiroto have to do this on the coldest days? Clicking in the back of his throat annoyedly, Midorikawa didn't bother to put his hair up before tip-toeing around the other kids and retreating from the warmth of the room into the hallway, where Hiroto was still nowhere to be seen.

Hiroto would do this sometimes; leave in the middle of the night unexpectedly. Midorikawa didn't think anyone else knew but him, seeing as Hiroto came back before anyone woke up and hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone else(to his knowledge, at least). Midorikawa understood the need to get away from it all. He squeezed the thin fabric of his pajamas. He knew it too well. Being in the spotlight could warp you to do disgusting things. Midorikawa knew that Hiroto could handle himself, but there was always a nagging thought in the back of his mind that Hiroto really wasn't okay. Not that he would tell the him that directly.

Midorikawa found Hiroto in the front yard. He could see him through the paned glass of the door, sitting on the lawn, hunched over himself into a ball. The green-haired boy frowned. Was he sleeping? Opening and softly closing the door behind him, Midorikawa walked quietly over to where Hiroto was sitting and suddenly that small-looking Hiroto was moving and -

was Hiroto shaking? The hand that Midorikawa was about to extend stopped in its tracks. He was. It almost sounded like… he was crying. Midorikawa's chest tightened and he squatted down next to Hiroto, lightly touching his shoulder in question. The redhead recoiled immediately, emitting a soft gasp. "M - Midorikawa!?" Hiroto whispered loudly, surprise - and, Midorikawa noted with another pain, tear tracks - visible on his face. At Midorikawa's face, Hiroto wiped his cheeks with the sleeve of his pajamas and flushed hotly, turning away from him.

They sat that way for a couple of minutes, Hiroto trying to compose himself in silence, Midorikawa glancing over every minute to see if Hiroto was okay. Why was he crying in the first place? Midorikawa didn't think he'd ever seen Hiroto cry in his life. Not even when they were younger. Just the thought of it made Midorikawa frown.

After a few more minutes, Hiroto finally said, a crack in his voice, "You should be asleep."

"You should too," Midorikawa responded instantly. "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise, Hiroto." From the looks of it, Hiroto wasn't the first one of those. He looked even paler than usual, even in the moonlight, and his eyes were red-rimmed from crying. Midorikawa sighed. Finally sitting down on the grass, he asked, "Why were you crying?"

Hiroto didn't answer.

Not that he'd expected him to, of course.

What a stubborn brat, Midorikawa thought fondly. Scooting closer to Hiroto, he rested his head on his shoulder, the long strands tickling his nose. He languidly put his fingers through Hiroto's limp ones, trailing his fingers over the skin before squeezing them together.

Almost instantly, Hiroto's grip tightened to an almost painful pressure. "It's hard," he said quietly.

Midorikawa shifted himself again, getting more comfortable. "What is?"

"Everything."

Midorikawa felt a lump in his throat at the sudden loneliness in his friend's voice. "I know," he whispered. He buried himself in Hiroto's neck.

"I want to stop fighting. I just want to play and have fun. Why do we have have to keep doing this?" Hiroto said desperately, choking back a sob.

"I want to stop seeing my friends get hurt. I want to stop seeing you get hurt," he confessed. Midorikawa couldn't do anything but listen at this point. "Father's so bent on getting back at these people, it's scary. You can tell something's different with him, but no one's willing to admit it!" Hiroto tried to explain desperately. "You saw it when you got defeated. I know you did; you were devastated. And I saw it when he yelled at you for crying over losing to Raimon." Midorikawa nodded wordlessly. Just remembering his loss sent a wave of shame through him. He understood what Hiroto was saying. But…

"Father likes you best, though," Midorikawa said quietly. "That's why you're captain of Genesis. You're something special."

"I don't want to be special!" Hiroto said desperately, his voice raising to a dangerously high level. He stared Midorikawa straight in the eye, pleading with him. "I just want this to stop!"

A murder of crows flew out of the tree next to them.

They lapsed into silence, Hiroto breathing heavily and Midorikawa looking wide-eyed with shock. Hiroto stood up, keeping his hand locked with Midorikawa. Midorikawa stood up with him. "We need to sleep," Hiroto said. They were both covered in dirt, but neither of them made any motion to wipe it off. Midorikawa frowned slightly, but walked with him anyways. He knew this conversation wasn't over, not really.

This conversation wasn't over until it was all over, and they both knew it. Hiroto more than him, he knew, as they both crawled into bed and Hiroto pulled him close.