Hello all!

I give you chapter three, the re-written version. I hope you all enjoy!

It was raining, little droplets of water pouring down from the heavens, soaking all who dared step out their door. A young girl, no older than 5, stood in the shadows of her parent's door, listening silently. They didn't know she had snuck out of bed an hour ago to listen outside their door, they were too busy arguing to notice her shadow underneath the slightly ajar door. They had been arguing for well over an hour, and not quietly either. How did they expect her to stay asleep, especially after her 'attack' earlier that day?

"What are we going to do about her?" She could tell her father was trying to keep his voice down as he spoke to her mother, but his growing frustration made him lose control every now and then.

"You heard the doctor, the city is not good for her health. Perhaps she would recover better somewhere else?" Her Mother's voice shook as she spoke, obviously scared for her daughter.

Her Father's reply sounded more like a demand than a question, "like where?"

"Like the countryside," was her Mother's clipped response.

"That is ridiculous and you know it," he continued when it looked like her Mother was going to argue. "We cannot just move, especially to the countryside where it's cut off from the rest of the world. You and I have work, the company needs us and we cannot cast it away simply because the city is bad for the child's health."

Fresh tears ran down her face...her Father didn't care whether she was well or not. She was just a burden to them.

"She will only get worse if we don't leave the city. Try thinking about what's best for our daughter instead of the company. We can always find other work, but our daughter is irreplaceable, she is far more important than some business." Clamping a hand over her mouth so her parents didn't hear her cries, she was forever thankful that her mother loved her; thankful that her mother always fought for her, not matter how her Father reacted.

"We can't do that!" Out in the hallway she flinched at his tone, a sense of dread filling her as she realised that her father had gone 'dark'...There was no arguing when he got like that, both she and her mother knew that. "We will not be moving! Why don't we just send her away?! She's nothing but a nuisance here anyway, send her to your mother's home. She lives in the middle of nowhere, right? Let her grow up there."

This was the end, she realised when her Mother said nothing else. Her father was going to send her away to live with her Grandmother (not that her Grandmother was a bad person, in fact, she was the kindest person she had ever met).

But...but she was never going to see her mother again, or at least not for a very long time.

Her father was sending her away.

He didn't want her.

She was just a nuisance.

Neglected.

Alone.

Scared.

Tired.

Sick.

With her mind spinning, she closed her parent's door with not so much as a click and made her way back to her room across the hall. As soon as she was in her room, she buried herself under her bed covers and let her tears fall free, all the while trying to make as little a sound as possible.

That night, she cried herself to sleep.

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Haruka woke up and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. Tears from her dream - no, memory - were drying on her face and had soaked her pillow. She felt like shit, probably looked like it too.

To have that memory resurface after all the years gone by...Haruka was completely spooked. She hadn't seen her Mother, or Father, since her Grandmother agreed to take her in and raised her as her own, though she often wondered how they were doing, if they even remembered that she was alive. Whenever she did think of them she always found herself wondering if they even cared.

Her Mother had been a kind, caring and selfless person who, when living with them, had never let Haruka down. Even when she was sent to live with her Grandmother, her Mother always sent letters, pictures and postcards whenever she could. After a year or two, the letters and gifts stopped coming, as well as her visits. Haruka remembers the pain she had felt when she realised her parents had forgotten about her...They had left her, not caring if she was living or dead. As for Father...he had never truly cared for her. Often, he would ignore Haruka whenever she tried to speak to him, even sometimes going as far as saying she was in the way, an annoyance. Many times, both when she was living with her parents and when she wasn't, Haruka wondered if her Father had even wanted her, loved her. She seriously doubted it. For him, work came first and everything else came last, even his own family.

Wouldn't it be nice to just be loved and appreciated by someone, even if for a day?

Forcing herself out of bed, Haruka made her way towards the bathroom and into the shower once she had peeled off yesterdays clothes. She felt exhausted, and it was still first thing in the morning. 'Must have been that bloody dream,' she thought bitterly, stepping into the soothing pray of water. 'Too early to think of such things.'

Even as she thought that, she couldn't help but glance down at her ruined thighs, water running over them as if nothing were wrong. The guilt she had felt yesterday was gone. Instead...she kind of wanted to do it again, to feel that delightfully painful stinging sensation. Oh, she knew it was wrong...but who would ever know other than her?

Taking a deep breath, Haruka spied her pack of razors she had bought the other day sitting oblivious on the edge of her sink. Barely breathing, Haruka stepped out of the shower and, with shaking fingers, picked out a new razor. It was like she was suddenly in a movie of some sort as time seemed to slow as she brought the razor down onto her skin and dragged the blade through flesh. Gods, her blood looked rather...beautiful, sliding down her leg and leaving that glistening trail of red behind with beads of water smashing into it like it was a contest to see which droplet fell to the floor first.

Slowly, as if in a trance, Haruka continued to drag the razor across her thighs until she felt her legs begin to shake and her breath coming erratic. Too much, she had cut too much. She felt like she was going to faint, her hands shaking more so than before, her breathing deep and slightly panicked as well as her legs wobbling and shaking so much she dropped to the floor. As carefully as she could, Haruka moved herself so she was lying, still naked, on her bathroom floor, the coolness of the tiles calming her thumping heart.

After what seemed for forever, Haruka regained control of her head and body, her hands still shaking though it was slight. Looking down at herself, Haruka realised she was still wet, naked, and her legs were covered in blood. 'Great,' she thought with a scared sigh, 'now I have to clean up this shit. I am so going to be late'. The shower was still on, though the water had gone cold, when Haruka stepped back under the spray. The water stung her still fresh cuts and she had to bite her lip from hissing or cursing aloud. "God help me," she whispered, staring down at her even more ruined legs, silent tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.

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Jinguji Ren's POV:

Ren rolled his eyes at the scene before him: Quartet Night had arrived early that morning and had immediately made themselves at home, which the members of Starish had found rather rude (they weren't actually that pissed off, just surprised). Kotobuki was chattering in Tokiya's ear while he was trying to read (Ren thinks Tokiya might explode), Syo was arguing with Ai and Natsuki about something - probably about his height, and Masato was sitting next to Ranmaru looking like he wanted nothing more than to leave. Ren, however, wasn't doing anything except watching the chaos unfold with an amused smirk.

Bored, Ren looked at the lock on the mantle and raised his brow at the time; The Little Lamb should have arrived with that gorgeous smile of hers by now. Shrugging, Ren made his way out the front door, thinking no one would notice, only to see Haruka doubled over and breathing hard. She was wearing the same thing as yesterday, though this time her hair was down and currently wind-swept. Her eyes went wide with surprise as she noticed him standing there looking down at her with a bemused smile.

"How fortunate, I was just coming to see the Little Lamb and here you are." Ren smirked seductively, his form towering over Haruka from where she was crouched. "Must be fate."

"You were coming to look for me, Jinguji?"

Ren blinked, moving away from her with a coy smile, knowing she had ignored his attempt at seducing her. "I was. The Little Lamb is late, you see, so I decided to come and check on you."

Haruka's cheeks flushed pink and, just for a moment, Ren swore he could see a look of hurt/sadness in her honey coloured eyes. "I...sorry for being late," she finally got out, "I slept through my alarm." Raising a brow at the unlikeliness of the Little Lamb doing something like that, though he chose to grin as usual, comment something teasing and then guide her inside their home.

As Haruka entered the living room, Ren watched with fondness as Haruka's lips twitched upwards in a small smile as she took in the scene in front of them. Starish and Quartet Night didn't seem to notice their favourite women had entered the house, let along the living room. They seemed to busy to bother looking up. That is, until Ai finally looked up with his usual dead expression, "Haruka. You're late."

Everyone's heads snapped up and Ren had to supress his amusement at the sight, though all amusement disappeared as he caught the Little Lamb wince and cringe backwards for a second. Strange, Ren observed. A quick look to Ai and Tokiya told him he wasn't the only one who noticed too; they both seemed equally as confused.

Worrying her lip, Haruka grimaced slightly. "Um, yeah, sorry about that...I slept through my alarm."

Again, Ren couldn't help but think how out of character that was of his Lady. Ai, apparently, shared his thoughts as he frowned, opening his mouth to no doubt call her out on it when he was interrupted by Reiji. "Haruka! Your favourite group is here today and we're all going to be writing a song that both groups can sing together!" He exclaimed cheerfully, though everyone else simply roller their eyes.

"She knows that dumbass," Ranmaru deadpanned, slinging an arm around the Little Lamb's shoulders and obviously not noticing her discomfort. "She's the one who told us about it the other day."

Crocodile tears flowing, Reiji turned to Haruka with puppy eyes, "Haruka, RanRan is being mean to me!"

Little Lamb, to her credit, just smiled apologetically and suggested they get straight to writing the song before heading to where the piano was.

Masato, ever the saint, went into their kitchen to make the Little Lamb a cup of tea just how she liked it; obviously he could tell she was exhausted as well. Taking the tea with a thankful look to Masato who nodded, she sipped it and asked about ideas everyone had for the new piece. Whilst everyone began discussing different ideas and arguing over some of them, Little Lamb simply nursed her tea quietly. During all of this, Ren couldn't help but glance over at her every now and then, noticing that when she thought no one was looking the smile would slip off her beautiful face and she would stare down at her legs. She seemed almost, dare he say, depressed.

After that, Ren kept an eye on his Lady throughout the course of the day, noting her strange behaviour and reminding himself to talk to the guys about it after she had gone home.

The Little Lamb seemed to get more and more stressed as the day wore on, her smile seemingly more strained and her participation to discussions changed to one word answers or, sometimes, just a nod of her pretty head. It worried Ren more than he let on, not even his usual flirting got a reaction out of her...She seemed different, and not in a good way either.

Eventually, the rest of the guys noticed her strange behaviour as well though, to their credit, they didn't mention it until after the Little Lamb excused herself for the night and began walking back to her apartment.

"So," Otoya began, "did anyone else think something was wrong with Haruka today or was that just me?"

Frowning, Ren nodded, "yes, the Little Lamb did seem to be acting rather strangely today."

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Syo asked, his voice serious.

"Depression," Ai stated, as if it was obvious. Seeing everyone's shocked expressions, he elaborated, "it would seem that Haruka is depressed. The signs are clearly there, though do not ask me why she is feeling like that as I do not know."

Everyone was silent for a while until Reiji of all people broke the silence. "We should keep and eye on her from now on, to make sure she doesn't do something she'll regret," he suggested. Ren wasn't the only one surprised by the usually cheerful senpai's serious attitude if the surprised looks from Tokiya and Otoya were anything to go by.

Still, they all agreed to look out for the Little Lamb more so than usual.

Ren just hoped they weren't too late already...

Well, that's the end of Chapter 3! I hope you all enjoyed, or, enjoyed it as much as you can despite the mood.

Ren's POV is really hard to write, so I apologise if it sucks. I tried my best anyway.

I also apologise for taking so damn long with this chapter; my motivation just disappeared these past few weeks as my Mother went into hospital and my best friend went missing - they're okay now though.

Thank you all for your patience and your reviews, they seriously make my day!

Until next time! xxx