"Good morning." Hinata said, greeting Komaeda in the hallway on Monday. He'd resolved to make friends with the strange pale boy and he felt a good place to start would be greeting him each morning. Komaeda raised his head, startled by Hinata's presence.

"Ah, Hinata, come to talk with trash like me, you really are too kind." He said with that crazed look he got sometimes. Hinata was visibly put off by this but he wasn't going to let it deter him. He leaned against the wall opposite Komaeda, trying to act nonchalant, even though his inner emotions were in a whirlwind.

"Yeah, so how are you this morning?" Hinata asked. Komaeda looked surprised for the smallest of a second before his disgustingly fake smile swiftly returned to his face.

"I'm… Good…" Komaeda said.

"Cool, did you do that homework we have for math? I kept getting stuck on the parabola questions, it's not that I find them hard I just suck at drawing so I had to keep redoing my graphs five or six times before it looked enough like the right shape." Hinata rambled, hoping to get a conversation going. School seemed like a safe topic to start on, and he was right. Komaeda actually laughed at what he said, only softly mind, but it was still quite an achievement.

"Yes, I did do the homework, I can't relate to your problem though, I had no trouble doing the graphs. But I suppose I have always been told I have a steady hand, my aunt used to make me repair her clothes when they ripped." He chuckled softly. Hinata laughed too, pleased Komaeda seemed to be warming up to him.

"So you're good at sowing huh?" Hinata said. "Have you ever made anything or do you just repair things?"

"Oh, I've made a few things, it's actually quite relaxing, sowing, mostly just simple cushions though, but sometimes I try more complicated patterns. My aunt once had me sow a dress for her daughter that was quite complex, I was actually quite proud of how it turned out though."

"Cool." Hinata smiled. "I'd like to see some of the stuff you've made, maybe I could go round your place sometime and check them out?"

"Uh!" Komaeda flinched at Hinata's words, suddenly realising what he'd been doing. He wanted to hit himself, talking to Hinata had just felt so… right. He had to remind himself it was wrong. Very wrong. He had to distance himself from the spiky-haired boy, for his own good. "It's getting late, I should get to class." He blurted out, running off down the corridor.

"Hey!" Hinata called after him, but he was too late, Komaeda had already gone through the classroom door and just a second later the school bell rang. Hinata sighed and joined the rest of his classmates as they strolled into the room. He was a point of striding with excessive determination to the chair right next to Komaeda, shocking both the boy in question and the rest of the class. People began whispering to each other about it but Hinata ignored them. The truth is people had been talking about him for the past three days he'd been at this school. It seems no one at this school could comprehend why anyone who'd spent even five minutes with Komaeda would want to be friends with him, a fact that made Hinata boil with rage. Yeah, Komaeda acted a bit strange sometimes, he'd get this crazy look in his eyes and begin rambling about hope or just give a spiel of self-deprecation, but Hinata could tell it wasn't his fault. He saw the way Komaeda smiled when Hinata was friendly to him, and the way he grew depressed when others bullied him. Komaeda had endured a hard life, one that had broken him, but it was obvious to Hinata that Komaeda wanted to be helped, even if he'd convinced himself he didn't deserve it. Hinata couldn't relate to being emotionally unstable, it'd never gotten quite that far, but he could relate to being lonely and wishing for someone to reach out to him. He saw Komaeda desired the same thing and he was going to be the one to do it, to reach out to Nagito Komaeda and become his friend. Which of course was easier said than done; even now Komaeda was doing his absolute best to ignore him. Hinata tried his best to focus on the teacher throughout class but he constantly found himself glancing to his left as though subconsciously watching over his white-haired friend. When the bell finally rang Komaeda actually rushed to gather his things and get out the classroom. Normally he'd go as slow as possible to be the last one out but today he was scared Hinata would wait for him and attempt to talk to him again so he quickly swept everything off his desk and weaved quickly through the desks and students to get to the door before Hinata. Sadly, in his desperation, he'd forgotten why it was he always tried to leave last. A leg jutted out from one of the desks he passed and, unable to stop in time, he tripped over it, becoming sprawled across the floor. Worse still, his unzipped bag was knocked forward by the force causing most of its contents to slide out in all directions. Komaeda lay still on the floor for a few seconds waiting for the initial pain to calm down. He pushed himself up shakily and began crawling around to each of his scattered belongings. He received no help from his classmates, they were all preoccupied with fits of laughter, all except one.

Hinata was both shocked and appalled by what had transpired. He knew that Komaeda was bullied but seeing it happen always seemed to catch him off guard. He struggled to comprehend why everybody seemed to hate him, why they made him an outcast. Well, he wasn't going to do that. He hurried over and helped Komaeda gather up his scattered belongings, effectively stopping the students' laughter. Now they were the ones struggling to comprehend. Why would anyone be so determined to befriend Komaeda? Didn't they know he was unstable? A stalker? Obsessive? A freak? The answer would be no, Hinata didn't know, or rather didn't believe, any of these things. From what he could gather Komaeda was just misunderstood. Yes, he pushed people away, and yes, he didn't have best coping methods for his loneliness but deep down, Hinata knew, he really did want to be loved.

"Thank you…" Komaeda mumbled, taking his things from Hinata. He kept his eyes averted the entire time. Hinata quietly watched as he walked, carefully this time, out of the room. He needn't have worried about being tripped again, everyone was too busy staring in shock, still not comprehending the fact that someone had willingly helped Komaeda. Eventually they snapped out of it and hurriedly gathered their things, not wanting to be late. Hinata was the last to leave the room, mind ladened with thoughts of Komaeda…

At lunch Komaeda, predictably, tried to grab his lunch from his locker and run off somewhere in the hope of avoiding a certain persistent spiky-haired Despair but he underestimated Hinata's determination. As he was taking his food out a hand wove its way around his shoulder. At first he panicked, thinking it might be Enoshima or someone else who wanted to bully him, but once he saw who it was he actually wished it had been one of his tormentors.

"Hey," Hinata greeted, smiling. "Let's go have lunch together, it's been far too long."

Komaeda stumbled as he was forcibly dragged down the hall towards the cafeteria.

"I'm not so sure this is a good idea, you should probably eat with someone else." Komaeda squeaked, trying weakly to break free from Hinata's grip. Hinata's face hardened.

"I want to eat with you." He said.

Komaeda didn't respond.

Naturally all eyes were on them as they entered the cafeteria. The stares from the popular table felt like the thinnest of needles, pricking against Komaeda's skin. Hinata strode to their usual table with such strong conviction no one dared move to stop them. When they finally sat down across from each other they made an interesting picture. A shy, hunched mouse and a defensive, determined lion. Though anyone with a good eye would be able to see the lion's hands shaking.

Hinata breathed out slowly, knowing things were going to be difficult for himself and his new friend but he hoped if he kept this up people would eventually get use to their friendship and forget about it. Fortunately for them Enoshima seemed preoccupied with her table at the moment, everyone was gather around Kirigiri at the moment who, despite her excellent poker face, seemed ever so slightly flustered.

"Hinata," the brunette turned his attention back to Komaeda, only to find him shaking and staring at him with sheer panic in his eyes. "Please, you have to sit somewhere else, everyone— Everyone will— I-I don't want—" He gasped softly as he felt a hand rest on top of his. "Hinata?"

"Komaeda, nothing you say will make me change my mind. I know you're scared of what people will do to me for hanging out with you and I also know you're scared of what you might do, but I also know you're lonely and even if you don't think you deserve it you want someone to be your friend, so I'm going to do that for you and that's that."

Komaeda stared at him open-mouthed. How had Hinata managed to suss him out so accurately? Though from what he'd seen Hinata was smart so it wasn't really all that surprising when he thought about it. He ate his food quietly, mulling over Hinata's words.

"Okay…" He said eventually.

"Hmm?" Hinata hummed in confusion, looking up from his boxed curry.

"You can sit with me at lunch…"

"Yeah!"

Komaeda startled slightly at Hinata's overjoyed reaction.

"I suppose that's what it'll take for you to realise it's a bad idea to hang out with me…"

"Nope, never gonna happen." Hinata said confidently.

"Believe me you'll grow tired of me eventually…"

"Nope."

Komaeda sighed, going back to his food. Hinata attempted to make light conversation as they ate and he even managed to draw a smile out of Komaeda a few times which was a great achievement as far as he was concerned.

As Hinata grabbed his things from his locker and headed for the exit he found he was unable to stop grinning and had to restrain himself from skipping down the hall as he left. Things went decidedly south after he got outside, however.

"Hey you!"

Hinata turned to see three boys he didn't recognise. He only knew the people in his year and the one below it so they must have been from one of the upper years. He quickly found himself surrounded by them.

"So you're the new kid everyone's been talking about." One of them, a gangly boy with a face even plainer than his, said.

"The guy who's friends with that hope cultist freak." Another, an incredibly handsome boy with shoulder-length blonde hair, said.

"Don't call him that!" Hinata yelled.

"Oh…" Hummed the final boy, a stout kid who had the two top buttons of his shirt undone and his tie slung lazily around his shoulders. "Don't like it when people talk smack about your boyfriend huh?" He punctuated his words with a punch to Hinata's face. Not expecting the blow, Hinata keeled over onto his knee only to be kicked in the stomach by the handsome boy.

"What's wrong loser? Can't fight back?" He taunted, grinding his foot onto Hinata's head. The other two joined in with the beating and Hinata found himself curled up on the floor shielding his head. Hinata wasn't a weak person but he wasn't exactly strong either. He didn't have huge muscles or take any martial arts or anything. In truth, for his age, he was pretty average in strength, as he was in about everything. So he was hardly a match for three people, especially given they were older than him.

"Hope freak!"

"Aw, gonna go cry to your hope god?"

Nobody stepped in to help, they either looked on silently or left, pretending they hadn't seen anything.

"Hinata!"

Oh no… Hinata looked up to see Komaeda standing in the doorway of the school with a wide horrified eyes. Satisfied, the three boys ran off, smirking in the knowledge their actions had affected not only the new kid but the "hope freak" too. Komaeda rushed to Hinata's side, hands hovering shakily over his friend wanting to help but afraid touching him might make things worse. Hinata groaned as he sat himself up. His whole body ached and there was blood and bruises all over the visible parts of his skin. Both boys were scared to find out how many other injuries he might have. Hinata looked into Komaeda's terrified eyes and tried to give him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's not serious, nothings broken and once I bandage the cuts I should be totally fine."

Komaeda immediately broke down into tears.

"This is all my fault!" He cried, trying and failing to wipe the tears away.

"That's not true." Hinata insisted. "Those jerks are the ones at fault here not you."

"But still, they wouldn't have targeted you if you hadn't been hanging around me."

"Well then that's there problem, it's not a crime for us to be friends Komaeda and some dumb thugs aren't gonna scare me off."

Komaeda stared at Hinata with his mouth open. He was really willing to be his friend? Even after everything? Tears poured even harder from his eyes. What had he done to deserve this. He felt warm arms embracing him and rubbing his back soothingly.

"I promise, Komaeda, from now on I'm going to be your friend. You won't have to be alone anymore."

Eventually Komaeda calmed done. He'd been crying quite a bit lately hadn't he?

"I better head home and take care of these scrapes." Hinata said, attempting to stand. His knees immediately buckled but Komaeda was quick and caught him. He lifted Hinata to his feet and allowed him to lean on his shoulders.

"Let me at least take you to my house and see to your injuries for you, you're in no condition to be going home on your own."

"Are you sure?"

"Believe me I have plenty of experience cleaning wounds." Komaeda said all this with a carefree smile but the implication made Hinata even more angry and worried. As he looked at Komaeda's face, baring a smile that to most would have looked happy but to Hinata was so obviously fake, he silently promised himself that someday soon he'd make Komaeda smile for real.