A/N: Hello eveybody, I'm back with a short filler-ish chapter for you all before I post chapter numero three later on this week.

Posted:19/02/19 | Word Count: 845

A short filler chapter / Chapter 2.5

It's still dark outside when she awakens from her dreamless state of unconsciousness, her eyes glued shut and crusty from the tears that she shed in a wild moment of panic, swinging her legs over the side of her bed she reaches up her hands shakily to wipe the crusts from her eyes.

Her tired eyes remain unfocused and blurry as she tries to read the clock that sits on her bedside table, she picks it up slowly and holds it closer to her face in a groggy attempt to figure out how long it's been since she fell unconscious. The fuzzy red light of her digital clock stares back at her as she groggily tries to distinguish which numbers mean what.

3:13 am That's what's proclaimed on the clock as she slumps over her bed.

Hanako yawns tiredly into the air as she places her clock back on her dresser as makes to stand from the bed. She pops her head out of the door of her bedroom, wincing every time the old wooden door shrikes into the night or when the floorboards underneath her feet creak and groan as she stands on them.

The hallway between her room and the bathroom, her grandmother's room, and the stairs is dark and empty, no fading glimpses of light coming from under any of them and there are no sounds drifting from up the stairs or otherwise to signify that anybody but her is awake. Although, she guesses Noctowl could still be prowling around somewhere inside the house since it's in the old bird's nature to be up all hours of the night.

She sneaks her way over to the bathroom, the groaning of the floorboards be damned as her feet pad as lightly as they can across the floor. The bathroom door creaks noisily in the quiet hallway as she steps inside, closing the door behind herself as she switches on the light.

She sighs a breath of relief as she leans over the bathroom sink. She touches her face lightly as she stares into the mirror at her tear streak face, her eyes still a little red and puffy, and feeling more tired than she ever thought could be possible as she turns on the tap. She turns on one of the taps and lets the sink fill with cold clear water as she stares unseeingly at her reflection, the events from earlier swirling around in her like the water flowing into the sink underneath her.

She turns off the tap when the water nearly overflows over the basin. She lets some of the excess escape under the plug hole and sloosh down the drain before she submerges her hands into the cold liquid, cupping whatever amount she can into the palms of her hands before raising them and letting herself drink the water greedily.

Once she's had her fill she sets about washing her face using the soap that sits on the side of her sink to clear away the grime from her face. Before, gathering more water into her hands and splashing on herself and letting it drip back into the sink.

She reaches around behind her until she feels the soft fabric of a towel under her hand. She clutches the sheet of fabric tightly into her hand as she brings to her face, wiping the excess moisture from her face and placing it back onto the radiator from which it came from.

She looks up into the mirror again, staring at the doleful face of the person looking back at her as she wonders why, why her? Why out of anyone else born on this planet, in this country, in this region is she the one that has to live a life which is governed by solely by a set of rules and traditions.

Tears slide and blend together as they travel down her face before plummeting into the murky water that rests in the sink. She swipes a shaking hand across her eyes as the tears continue to fall without her consent into the sink. Her other hand comes up to cover her mouth as a sob works it's way up her throat and out of her mouth.

When did everything in her life get so twisted and contorted out of shape? When and where did everything go so horribly, horribly wrong? That is also something she doesn't know. But if she had to guess it happened around the same time she was brought into this world. Crying and screaming, and ever so alone.

She lets herself silently cry herself out after that. Hot, painful tears streaming down her face as her sobs come out muffled and distorted but not soundless from behind her hand, the suffocating feeling from earlier coming back to haunt her throughout the endeavour. Until she too tired to cry, too tired to stand even as she lets the water fall down drain down the sink. Before, heading back to her room and flopping back down on the bed and covering herself with her blanket.

A/N: Initially wrote this as an introduction/prelude to the next chapter. But, it didn't quite fit and I didn't want to scrap it so here it is. But, yeah. Thought Hanako could use a good cry after the last chapter so here she is in all her tear streaked glory.

I would also like to mention that I have updated the last couple of chapters, gotten rid of some of the more glaring spelling mistakes and other such problems. I have changed anything major. However, I did add in a mention about Hanako's teacher/senseis, only a mention though they won't appear until the next chapter. I also changed Hanako's panic attack scene around a bit to make it flow a bit better with the story.

A/N: If you've made it this far down the page then I would just like to give you my sincearest thanks. Regards, TheGutsyWolf.