Fuzziness clouded Ikuya's mind as he awoke, feeling strong arms wrapped gently around him. Upon tilting his head up slightly, he noticed Natsuya, his expression calm and tranquil as he slept soundly.

He was hit by a sudden wave of fear as he recalled what had awoken him. A dream. Well, a nightmare to be more precise. Hiyori had followed them, he had broken in during the night and had been filled to the brim with pure rage, taking it out on not only Ikuya but also his brother and friends.

Loud clattering noises from the kitchen caught his attention, earning a sharp flinch from Ikuya who shot up in bed, not concerned about waking his brother who let out a small confused grunt.

Ikuya climbed out of bed carefully limping and grabbing the nearest item he could find which could be used in self-defence, a pair of scissors lying on the sideboard. After mentally steeling himself, he held the scissors out in front of him as he limped into the kitchen, barely managing to hold back noises of pain as his knees protested.

The door swung open silently and he saw the silhouette of a person's back, feeling his fear spike dramatically, he hid behind the door, barely breathing out of fear. His knees ached and protested anytime he shifted his weight, however, if this was Hiyori, he was prepared to fight, or at least defend himself as best he could.

He could vaguely make out the person's hair colour. Brown hair...Hiyori...

Ikuya stepped forwards slightly, prepared to confront the person, however, he felt a hand grasping his wrist.

"Ikuya?" Natsuya's voice was full of confusion as he sleepily asked what he was doing.

The person in the kitchen had taken notice of them now as Ikuya turned to face Natsuya.

Ikuya's eyes were wide with panic as he looked away from his brother again, his heart almost leaping out of his chest when he saw that the person had moved closer and was now stood directly in front of him.

His gaze trailed up to meet the face of...Makoto. Ikuya sighed, trying to calm down his racing heart as he took a deep breath in before releasing it again.

"Are you alright?" Makoto asked gently, concern plastered upon his face as he could practically see the rapid pace of Ikuya's heart.

"Sorry...I...I heard you in here and thought it was Hiyori...I had a bad dream...and he was here..."

"It's okay, I promise you he won't get you. You're safe here...Do you want to talk about it? Your dream I mean," Makoto asked gently as Natsuya gently ran a hand down Ikuya's arm.

Ikuya shook his head and quietly replied

"No, it was just stupid, he'd followed us here and tried to hurt everyone...I'll be fine...It mainly just shocked me, that's all,"

Ikuya winced slightly as the adrenaline wore off, leaving a sharp ache in his knees which only grew worse the longer he stood.

Natsuya seemed to sense this, scooping his brother up in his arms effortlessly and heading back to the bed, Makoto following after.

"I was meaning to ask, do you plan on staying at your dorm? Because of Hiyori and everything...it...it doesn't seem very safe for you..." Makoto asked, sitting down on the spare chair in the room.

"I...I'm not sure...I...haven't thought about it..." Ikuya replied, however, something didn't seem right with his tone of voice which his brother picked up on immediately.

"Do you feel safe going back there? Do you think you could happily stay there alone without being afraid?" Natsuya prompted.

Ikuya shook his head immediately, having to accept the fact that he had been terrified from the moment they had stepped into the building the previous day.

"I...I really didn't want to go in yesterday...but I thought if I faced that it'd all be okay...apparently it's not as simple as that..." Ikuya mumbled sadly

"It's alright, from now things will hopefully only get better," Makoto reassured

"Kisumi's uncle runs an estate agent, right?" Natsuya directed the question at Makoto who nodded in reply.

"He helped me and Haru out when we moved to Tokyo, I can call him in the morning if you'd like?"

Natsuya nodded and turned to Ikuya once more and spoke.

"We'll start looking for apartments as soon as possible, I can make up an excuse to tell mum and dad if you'd like?"

Ikuya agreed, unsure about telling their parents about what had happened.

"Alright, we'll start looking later okay, it's still early so try and get some more sleep," Makoto suggested, heading back to his bedroom as Natsuya wrapped himself around his brother once more.

A few hours later, sunlight began pouring into the apartment, waking everyone up once more as the apartment seemed to come to life.

Makoto called Kisumi's uncle and he agreed to show them around some local apartments, arranging to meet them after lunch and so, the three of them got themselves ready, deciding to get lunch at Asahi's sister's cafe.

Kisumi agreed to meet them later too, offering to stay with the Kirishima brothers as they looked at apartments whilst Makoto went to work, after which they had agreed to meet Haru and Asahi at the cafe once more.

Ikuya was beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed already however, he pushed through it.

He was introduced to Asahi's sister who offered him a kind smile and told him he was welcome there anytime before the group left to meet Kisumi and his uncle.

They were shown around multiple apartments, all of them close enough to Shimogami university but also far away from the dorms that Hiyori likely wouldn't see him.

By the time they'd finished looking around different apartments, Ikuya was thoroughly exhausted, yawning every few minutes, however, they had agreed to meet the others and so, they headed back to the cafe, Kisumi immediately noticing Makoto, Haru and Asahi sat at their usual table. They had already ordered drinks and so Kisumi led Ikuya and Natsuya over to the counter, the three of them ordering the drinks oblivious to the chaos that had started at the table.

"Makoto! That's Ikuya and Natsuya-senpai! What's going on?" Asahi hissed, unable to sit still as he itched to find out what was happening.

"Makoto...Is this why you got us all to meet here?" Haru asked, his voice tinged with concern that would be unnoticeable to anyone else.

"Yeah, I guess, look everything will be explained just whatever you do, don't harass Ikuya too much, okay? Asahi?" Makoto asked, turning to the redhead with a knowing look. He could tell that Asahi was desperate to know what was happening but it wasn't right for Makoto to explain and so the three waited in tense silence, all eyes focussed on the two brothers as they waited for their drinks with Kisumi.

"Makoto..." Asahi's voice seemed to shake slightly as he spoke "What happened to Ikuya? Why is he on crutches? What happened to his eye?"

The brunette notice Asahi's hands clenched tightly into fists and gently reached over to place his own hands on top of them.

"Uh...everything will be explained in a minute okay...just...try to stay calm...Please don't get angry..." Makoto asked as Kisumi led the way over to the table.

Ikuya could feel his heart rate increasing slightly as he saw his other middle school friends. Asahi looked just about ready to punch someone and Haru seemed slightly passive but there was something lurking deep in his eyes, something that looked like concern.

As they sat down at the table, all eyes were focussed on Ikuya as he avoided eye contact with everyone, taking a deep breath.

"...Ikuya..." Asahi breathed out, almost in disbelief "..A..are you okay...?"

Ikuya nodded slowly before stopping, deciding to begin explaining.

"Uh...I'm not really sure how to explain this..." Ikuya laughed slightly forced. "I...I guess ...Well...Uh..." Ikuya struggled to explain, unable to find the right words to explain.

"Hiyori did this didn't he?" Haru asked quietly, to which Ikuya nodded silently, before asking

"Was that just a lucky guess or was it that obvious?" He had intended it to be a joke however, there was a sad tone to it too.

"When I saw you after that tournament, something seemed off about both of you, he seemed really defensive and you seemed...scared...Then he stopped us from even talking to you and it all seemed a bit strange..." Haru spoke quietly and Ikuya realised how much trouble Hiyori had caused.

"He stopped you from seeing me? He never mentioned ever talking to you...?" Ikuya mumbled quietly.

"After we saw you that first time, we went to try and find you but Hiyori stopped us...he refused to let us even see you. Then we met up with Nao-senpai ad he said it seemed strange and that he'd try and find out what was wrong. That was a few days ago now but he never got back to us..." Asahi explained.

The entire table was quiet for a minute as they let the information hang heavily in the air.

"H...how bad are your injuries..?" Asahi asked carefully, not wanting to upset Ikuya.

"I...can't swim for at least 3 weeks...My knees are bruised pretty badly...and I have some stitches in my back...again they'll probably take about three weeks to heal enough to swim but even then I have to be careful." Ikuya sighed, missing the simplicity of his life before Hiyori.

"Ikuya..." Asahi mumbled. He looked torn between anger and sympathy, The latter winning as he reached over the table and took Ikuya's hand within his own

"If there's anything we can do to help tell us immediately and we'll do it!" Asahi sounded hopeful as he spoke and Ikuya smiled faintly, thankful that his friends were understanding about the situation

"Thank you...for not freaking out..." Ikuya felt his eyes watering which was immediately noticed by Natsuya who put his arm around the smaller males shoulders, gently pulling him into a hug.

"I always knew Natsuya senpai was secretly a sap," Asahi commented, eliciting laughs from around the table and a hard glare from the brunette.

"Do you want to fight?" Natsuya playfully asked before Ikuya added in

"It's true though, you are a sap,"

After another hour or so of catching up with each other, the group all exchanged phone numbers, ensuring that they won't lose contact again before each heading off home.

The next few days passed by fairly quickly, Makoto had returned to going to university and Ikuya and Natsuya spent the days looking for an apartment. They had decided upon two possible places which they were visiting again to decide which one was best. The others had all offered to help move things from Ikuya's dorm when they decided upon an apartment and Ikuya had some news of his own to share with the group.

He had been practically bubbling with excitement the past few days and it was threatening to spill over however, he decided to wait.

A couple more days passed and Ikuya had decided on an apartment not too far from Makoto's. The day had arrived to begin packing up everything in his dorm to prepare to move in and so, They headed to the same cafe from the other night with Makoto.

The rest of the group slowly began filtering into the shop, joining them at the table they had chosen. Random conversation filled the air and Ikuya sat in his seat, practically shaking with excitement as he waited for the rest of the group to arrive. Once everyone had sat down, Ikuya gained the group's attention, giving a mischievous smile as he announced

"I'm transferring to Hidaka university," He waited to gauge people's reactions before explaining further, "I...really don't think I could deal with seeing Hiyori every day...and it seemed kinda logical..."

The table was silent for a minute before Asahi jumped up, reaching across the table to pull Ikuya into a hug, almost knocking over a glass and receiving a yell from his sister about being more careful.

"You will be joining the swim team, right?" Asahi asked as he pulled away, causing the entire table to laugh as memories of middle school came back.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world," Ikuya grinned in reply.

The group began leaving soon after, splitting up into different cars and heading towards Ikuya's dorm, ready for a long day of packing.

Ikuya stared out the window as they drove, wondering how his life turned around in such a short time. It felt calm, peaceful even for the first time in months. Little did he know it was all about to change...

Something felt off as they got closer and closer to Ikuya's dorm however, the teal haired boy couldn't think what it was that felt wrong. He blamed the strange feeling on the slight fear he still felt about going into the same building as Hiyori. He assumed that his fear was coming from the other day when Hiyori had tried to touch him, however, as they pulled into the road leading towards the dorms, it was clear that something much more extreme was happening there.

The car slowed almost to a complete stop at the sight of flashing blue lights and the sound of deafening sirens.

"What's going on?" Kisumi, who had been driving asked.

There was a large crowd gathered around the building, an ambulance and two police cars at the centre of the commotion.

The group exited the car, heading over to the crowd in an attempt to find out what was going on. Ikuya, upon seeing another member of the Shimogami university swim team asked what was going on, his blood running cold when he heard the answer.

"It's Hiyori..." He began "He...He's dead..."

Ikuya felt the world spin around him as he heard this, a million questions rushing through his head. How? Why? What happened? Who did it? Why? Before he even knew what was happening, his world began fading to black around him, bright flashes of light appearing in his vision before he passed out...


A/N: Hehehehehheeheh people will either love me or hate me for this :)))))))))