WARNING: Some parts of this chapter might be quite triggering for some, especially those who are experiencing depression and/or bullying. If it makes you uncomfortable, then please skip that certain part, or better yet don't read the chapter for the sake of your own mental health. As always, Reader's discretion is advised.

Anyway, here's some Angst for you Hiro and Zorome fans!

On the rooftop, Hiro was staring in disbelief as Zero Two pours honey all over her store bought bento. He knows how much of a sweet tooth the horned girl is, but he doesn't expect it to be this worse!

Licking the honey of her fingers, Zero Two glances at her darling who was gaping like a fish. "Want some darling?" Zero Two asks, offering her honey coated food at him.

Gulping, Hiro declines politely. "No thanks, I'm fine with this." He points to his ham sandwich. Zero Two shrugs before starting to devour her lunch.

As she eats in silence, she couldn't shake off the feeling that Hiro was intently staring at her. Turning to him, she figures her assumptions were correct.

"Stop staring, darling." She scolds playfully. Even if he had already told her how alluring her horns were, deep inside, she couldn't stop feeling a bit conscious and insecure with them.

"A-ah, sorry! I didn't mean to!" Hiro flushes before tearing his eyes away from her.

"By the way, Zero Two, how are your injuries?" Hiro asks, trying to destroy the sudden awkwardness. He also observes she had fewer bandages compared to yesterday.

"Most of it completely healed." Zero Two notices the curiosity in his eyes. "I..heal pretty fast. The perks of my condition." she further explains.

"Why were those thugs even hurting you anyway? Did you do something to them?"

Zero Two turns away. "It's nothing important."

Sensing her sudden quietness, he decides not to pry on that topic any further. It would be bad if Zero Two gets upset because of him. Instead, he twirls the red muffler she constantly has on her neck and tugs it lightly, making Zero Two flinch.

"I wonder...why'd you keep wearing this? Do you always feel cold?" Zero Two giggles at his question. "Silly darling! It's not like that.." her face changes into a fond expression.

"Someone important gave me this.." she says softly while letting her fingers graze the warm fabric. Lifting her head up, she stares at Hiro hopefully.

"Ne, darling..I wanted to ask you if….-"

Too bad the bell rang.

"Looks like it's time for PE." Hiro stands up, helping Zero Two as well. "What were you supposed to say again?"

Zero Two shakes her head before grinning. "Nothing important." she grabs Hiro's hand and proceeds to go back for their next subject.

.

.

.

.

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'Wasn't it you?'

During PE time, students are separated based on gender, meaning the boys and girls have their sessions in different locations. For this day, girls play volleyball, while the boys play dodgeball.

In the locker rooms, Miku, Ikuno, Kokoro and Ichigo are all changing into their PE uniforms, the four of them talking about a certain horned pinkette.

"She seems nice and a little shy…" Kokoro comments while tying her long ash blonde hair into a side braid.

"What do you mean nice?! She freakin licked Ichigo!' Miku argues at her friend.

"It's fine Miku, I don't think Zero Two meant any harm." Ichigo says before putting on her playing shoes.

"Well, what about her horns huh? Don't you all think it's pretty creepy?" The red haired retorts.

"Miku, like what she's said, it's a medical condition. Her horns should be treated with understanding, not like some kind of oddity." Ikuno berates.

"Hmph!" She huffs in frustration. Pouting, Miku exits the locker room before suddenly bumping into someone. Almost losing her balance, a hand grabs her arm and pulls her to her feet. She looks up and quickly panics when she sees bright red horns just inches away from her face.

"Z-zero Two!" She squeaks. When Zero Two was sure the red head was already steady on her feet, she instantly lets go of her arm and walks away without a word, leaving Miku feeling even more frustrated towards her. 'What's with her? Always acting high and mighty!'

Meanwhile, while the boys were enjoying dodgeball, Zorome was using a spare ball to show off his soccer skills to Futoshi.

"Impressed, fatty?" He gloats at his friend.

"I would be in any normal situation, but Zorome, this is dodgeball!" Futoshi jokes.

While both of them are laughing in unison, Zorome's eyes catches Hiro, who was sitting by the bench all by himself and not bothering to play dodgeball with the other. 'What a nice target..' he thinks, a smirk coming up on his lips. "Yo Futoshi!" he calls out to his friend, "Bet you'd be more impressed with this!"

"What are you-" Seeing Zorome kick the ball hard towards Hiro, Futoshi's eyes widen "Zorome what did you-"

It's too late.

Next thing Futoshi knew, Hiro was sprawled on the ground groaning in pain with his nose slightly bleeding. Instinctively, Futoshi runs towards his friend.

"Hiro!"

When he got to Hiro, Goro, too, was instantly by his side, hoisting him up.

"Dude, what the fuck?" Futoshi yells at Zorome, who had a cocky grin on his face.

"Whaaat? It wasn't like the wuss didn't deserve it." Zorome waves nonchalantly before elbowing Mitsuru, who too, was observing the scene. "Right, Mitsuru?" Said boy only narrows his eyes towards the smaller guy. True enough, he wasn't in good terms with Hiro, but he wouldn't stoop this low. No, Mitsuru was never the type to resort to violence.

"Zorome, why in the world did you kick the ball at Hiro?" Goro asks sternly.

"Whaat? Aren't we supposed to be playing dodgeball?" He answers sarcastically, but Goro wasn't taking any of his shit.

"Zorome."

Growing more and more annoyed over how his friends seemed to be siding with the wuss, Zorome grits his teeth before taking slow steps towards Hiro. Despite the apparent size difference between them, the shorter boy easily pulled off an intimidating glare.

"I just wanted to put this WUSS, in his place." He slowly says. "The adults were out of their minds, believing in someone like him, who doesn't even do any shit but mope around and brood all. FUCKING. DAY!"

Zorome shoves Hiro, who had a dark expression on his face. "You know what, since you look SO depressed, why don't you just kill yourself already?"

Pissed at how immature Zorome was acting, Futoshi grabs him by the collar.

"Take that back Zorome! You've gone too far!" He demanded.

"No! It's true after all! THAT MOTHER FUCKER'S BETTER OFF D-"

"Shut up."

All heads turn to Hiro.

"What. did. You. just. Say?" Zorome asks, half surprised and half pissed over Hiro's sudden outburst.

"I said, shut. Up." Hiro repeats with much force. With his fists clenched, he says, "you don't have a single IDEA on how I've been feeling all this time….the adults? I don't give a damn with what they think of me, so why do YOU even bother?" He stares at Zorome hard in the face.

"Now that's the problem with you, nobody knows what's in your goddamn mind because you're brooding ALL THE FUCKING TIME!" Zorome roars, attracting more and more students' attentions, meanwhile, Goro was asking a random student to call a teacher.

Hiro feels his chest tighten over Zorome's words because a part of him knew he was telling the truth. "Y-you...that shouldn't even matter to you.." He weakly responds before turning away from him, wanting to end the conflict.

Zorome scoffs. "Heh, and what, you're drama only matters to little miss pinky?" Hiro freezes.

'Zero Two!'

"I bet she only stays with you because she's sorry for your ass. With a body like hers, I'm sure you aren't the first-" Zorome suddenly feels something hard collide with his cheek. Stumbling down, he finds Hiro on top of him with his hands on his collar.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"

"MAKE ME!"

With the both of them fueled with rage, both struggle on the ground trying to land blows on each other's faces. Both Goro and Futoshi try to separate the two, and when they do, the PE teacher, along with the girls, comes just in time to punish them.

Seeing her darling looking dirty and pissed, Zero Two calls out to him in concern.

"Darling!"

Same goes for Miku, whose attention was focused on Zorome.

"What happened in here?" The PE teacher asks before running a hand through her forehead. "You know what? I don't care, you two" she points at Zorome and Hiro who were glaring at each other. "You get 2 hours of detention."

'Great. Looks like I'm gonna be stuck with this wuss for two fucking hours then.' Zorome thinks angrily.

After school, Zero Two approaches Hiro. "Are you sure you don't want me to wait for you, darling?" she was still concerned for him, especially with the fact he almost got his nose broken. "I could kick his ass for you, if you want." Zero Two offers.

"No it's fine Zero Two." Hiro reassures her, "Part of this is my fault, I shouldn't have let my anger get the best of me." he sighs. Trying to lighten up his mood, Zero Two adds jokingly, "Well, I DID say you tasted like danger, so there."

Laughing a bit, Hiro takes a deep breath and says, "You know, with what Zorome said earlier, I really do think he has a point...I just don't get why he's so mad at me?"

"Well…" Zero Two starts, "Just confront him I guess. Nothing really happens if you just sit back and do nothing, after all…"

'She's right…' Hiro smiles at Zero Two. "Yeah, I guess I'll use this as an opportunity to talk to him."

With that, Zero Two bids her darling goodbye and leaves the classroom. She notices the redhead from earlier, Miku was it?, holding Zorome by the ear, apparently scolding him. Finding the scene quite amusing, Zero Two continues on heading back home with a smirk on her lips.

"You idiot! Why did you do that to Hiro!" Miku yells in the blonde's ear, making him wince in pain.

"I TOLD YOU! It's because the wuss deserved it!" his reason earning him a smack on the head. "Even so! Hiro's our friend since childhood, you two should be getting along with each other!" she says sternly but Zorome pays no attention to her.

Giving up, Miku lets go of him and sighs heavily, clearly disappointed over her friend's actions. Walking past him, she gives him one last piece of advice before heading home.

"You know, I've been completely aware of your jealousy towards Hiro...but I think maybe it's time you set aside your immaturity and start setting things straight with him."

Zorome grumbles, a small part of his conscience biting at him and telling him, Miku was right.

And he hated it when she was right.

Having no choice but to attend detention, Zorome enters the room and finds Hiro staring up at him with his large, aquamarine, eyes. If Zorome was right, he swears the boy's eyes held a hint of sadness, making his gut wrench in guilt. Ignoring the feeling, He sits on a random seat far away from the other boy and finally breathes out a sigh;

something's telling him this was gonna be a long afternoon.