Happy late New Year to everyone! Finally got this chapter written and edited. Since more characters are gonna start getting involved, this chapter's a little dialogue heavy. Hope you guys enjoy!


Kiku walked in through the front doors of the school with the rest of the crowd, finally having to return back to his normal days. He was greeted at his locker by a flustered Feliciano who told him how he "got so worried when you didn't show up at all!". As nice as the break was, Kiku was glad to be back to his normal schedule. School gave him something to keep busy with. There was always work he could do or tests to study for. It was a good way to forget about the empty feeling in his stomach and even better if it meant he'd get a boost in grades.

He dismissed himself from Feliciano as he saw Lovino walk out of the cafeteria with a paper tray full of vending machine snacks, and instead went to hand in some of his homework before class. When he got to the health room, he saw Lili typing away at her desk. When she noticed Kiku in the room, she smiled and stood up to greet him.

"Feeling better I hope? It's been strange not having you here in the classroom," she told him.

"I've been doing much better, thank you," Kiku told her, slinging his bag off of his shoulder. "I brought in the last of my worksheets as well."

"You didn't have to that!" Lili replied, setting the papers down in the small wire basket on the corner of her desk. "If you ever need to turn in something late, you know you'll still get full credit right?" She glanced over at the whiteboard for a second. "You guys do know that right? Should I put it up?"

Kiku smiled. "No, I do, it was no problem at all." The two chatted for a few more minutes before the bell rang and Kiku dismissed himself off to his first class of the day. Lili waved as he walked out the door, getting back to her work. All of his classes went by smoothly, and before he knew it, it was his lunch period.

Everybody was planning to get something from the fast-food place across the street from their school but Kiku politely declined their offer.

"Thank you, Alfred, but I'm not a fan of fast food."

"C'mon Keeks! I know you're all into health and stuff but can't you eat a burger or anything? It's not like you'll die if you eat anything with grease on it!" Alfred whined, trying to pull him along with the rest of the group.

"Alfred please, let's just go" Toris chimed in, pulling the freshman away. "If he doesn't want to go, don't make him. Plus, you're not even supposed to be going off school grounds until your junior year!"

"Whatever, everyone else leaves!" Kiku watched as they walked off together to go meet the Vargas twins outside (No, Kiku was definitely not ignoring Feliciano waving through the window in order to avoid a conversation). He grabbed an energy drink from the nearby vending machine and found an empty spot on the stairs nearby. He pulled out his book and was just about to flip it open to his last page when someone plopped down next to him.

Kiku, really just wanting to read in peace (but not wanting to be seen as rude) casually slipped in his earbuds and started flipping through the pages to his bookmark. He didn't want to talk, and he was sure he didn't want to talk to a total stranger. Unfortunately, luck didn't seem to be on his side. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and when he looked over he was surprised to see Emil staring back at him.

"Um, yes?" He asked, wondering if this even was Emil's lunch period.

"I just wanted to say you should probably talk to your brother or something. He's been talking about you a lot and It's getting annoying."

"O-okay?" Kiku stammered, surprised by his bluntness. Emil nodded without a word and stood up, flashing a quick peace sign before heading upstairs an around the corner. Kiku sat there on the stairs, confused as to what just happened. He guessed he'd talk to Leon later since he was pretty sure Emil wasn't talking to any of his other brothers.

At the end of the day, Kiku was finally able to catch up on his reading during his TA hours in Lili's health class. All she had planned were a few short videos and a writing assignment, leaving him to do what he wanted. As the rest of the class was half-paying attention to the clip on screen, he saw Lili handing him back a few marked papers.

"I got them done on my lunch break since there wasn't much to grade," she explained, "Great job. Just be sure you don't push yourself, I noticed you still look a little unwell."

Kiku thanked her and shoved the papers down into his backpack. He hoped that it was just his cold that was still making him look sick. The final bell rang sounding the end of the day, and he filed out with the rest of health students being as Lili didn't need any help cleaning today. He met up with Leon near the doors as usual and the two headed out to the parking lot. Once they were in the car, Kiku turned towards his brother.

"Emil told me earlier you've been talking about me or something? Is everything okay?" Leon froze for a moment. 'Dammit Emil, he thought to himself. He didn't want to tell him that he was complaining about him. On the other hand, he was an awful liar. What could he say that was still kind of the truth?

"Well, I uh," he stammered, trying to find the right words. "I noticed that you've been like, working really hard and stuff and getting super stressed out so Emil was kinda getting worried cause you got sick and y'know... looked sick." Oh, my God. It sounded like he was trying to show he was lying.

"Oh well, I guess I have been a little stressed out but it was all just bad timing. Tell him there's no need to be worried." Leon sighed a little bit and let his shoulders fall. "Yeah, sure, no problem." The two didn't talk much the rest of the way home, which was fine by the both of them. Kiku was able to convince his dad to eat in his bedroom, saying that he still had some notes to catch up on reading. When he got upstairs, he promptly threw the food into his garbage bin. He had started doing a thing where he put two bags in the can, one on top of the other. He'd dump his food in the bottom one and take them out at the same time so nobody would know that he was dumping out his plates.

The next day at lunch, Kiku was once again being pestered by Alfred about the lack of fast food in his diet.

"Not even once? Like on special days?"

"Thursday is not a special day, Alfred," Kiku replied.

"Okay, but what about on trips and stuff?" Kiku was starting to get annoyed with him now.

"Yes, fine. On trips, I don't mind it."

"Great! So let's go on a trip across the street!" Alfred beamed, finding his own joke incredibly funny. Once again, Toris tried to take his mind off of lunch.

"What?" Alfred asked, feeling Toris' hand on his shoulder. "I'm just sayin', I never see him anything here, and I know he's too busy for breakfast at home, and he never goes with us. Do you even eat at all?" This obviously struck a wrong chord with Kiku.

"Of course I do! Just because it's not garbage all the time doesn't mean I'm starving!" He snapped. Alfred and Toris stopped and stared at him and the twins stopped their conversation. He could feel the eyes of the group a few feet away glance over at him as well.

"Wow," Lovino said, breaking the silence, "I think that's honestly the first time I've someone make you mad." Kiku grabbed his bag from the ground and walked inside, getting a strange look from the teacher who had been standing near the door.

"Shit, I didn't mean to make him mad or anything..." Alfred said, visibly looking upset.

"It's okay Al! I'm sure Kiku was just having a bad day!" Feliciano chimed in, trying to make the boy feel better. Lovino looked back over at the door, biting his lip slightly. Sure, Alfred had been being annoying, but his friend's reaction seemed so out of character for him. He hoped it was just a bad mood, but he paid close attention in his Psych class and he'd gotten the feeling something was off since Kiku came back. Lovino didn't know anything for sure, but the yelling didn't help his suspicions that something was bothering his friend.

Meanwhile, Kiku had headed up to class early and was sitting in the back of the empty room. He heard someone enter the classroom, and curious, he peeked over the edge of his book. Emil tossed a paper to the teacher and started to turn out of the room before meeting eyes with him. "I talked to Leon, I'm doing fine. Thanks for wondering about me." Emil furrowed his brows, but nodded and waved goodbye before leaving.

Although Kiku thought that was a little bit strange, he decided to just not mention it and instead turned his attention back to his book until the period ended.


Thank you guys for reading and for all the support this fic is getting! The next chapter will be focusing more on Yao and what he's thinking, so we'll finally get to see some of his story