(I don't expect the Instagram to get anywhere, but if it gets a little more followers, I'll use it. If it doesn't, I'll simply post the updates within the chapters as I have been doing. As I said last chapter, the Instagram is: corvokage.)

(I've been having a little difficulty getting motivated to write with how busy I am lately, but I have TONS of ideas, many chapters worth of content in store. I've been a little exhausted with work and school, and I don't want to sacrifice quality for the quantity of chapters I put out. However, I'll get them out as soon as I possibly can. In the meantime, enjoy this chapter. It's a little longer as an apology for the wait. Some interesting things are developing.)

I do not own Doki Doki Literature Club, nor do I own any of the characters portrayed within this story.

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The school day went by as normal as ever. I sat with Natalie at lunch like I have been doing recently. The tables at our school weren't that large, so for two people to sit at them seemed relatively ordinary. She had mentioned that she plans on telling the girls at the literature club that she did go to the hospital, but it was to visit her grandfather who was dying, and the reason I went with her is because her mother wasn't able to be there in time, and she didn't want it to be just her. Since we knew each other since childhood, he knew me well, and he'd be happy to see me.

The only problem is he didn't know me well. He was never around either, similar to her father. In hindsight, it wasn't a terrible excuse, but it is sort of difficult to back up. We'll just have to hope that the girls have the decency to not ask about it. I never knew him, but Natalie's grandfather had already passed away. It really didn't feel right to make up such a lie, it felt disrespectful to him. I didn't say that to Natalie though.

.

After 8th period, I met Natalie after her class just like I did every period today, and we walked to the club together.

Natalie took a deep breath, swung open the door, and made her entrance.

"Hey everyone!" She said.

The three girls whipped their head around simultaneously, and made their way over to inspect Natalie.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Asked Marissa, first.

"O-oh, eheh, nothing really…" She said, giving me a glance that said, 'help me!'.

"You better not be hiding anything from us!" Naomi said.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I had to save the situation. I decided I'd still use Natalie's excuse. I spoke up from behind her.

"I'm here too you know. Also, Natalie and I were at the hospital. Her grandfather wasn't doing too well, so we went to visit him," I paused, and noticed I had all of their attention on me. I felt apprehensive, but kept my cool. "her mom wasn't going to be able to make it on time, so we went to spend time with him in his final hours. That's why we weren't here at the end of last week."

The three girls took the information in, and Ada and Marissa brought Natalie into a group hug, with Naomi standing off to the side. I'm guessing she's not the hugging type?

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know!" Marissa said.

"If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask any of us, we're always here for you." Ada said reassuringly.

"I-If you need me to bake anything for you sometime, just lemme know." Naomi said, unconfidently.

"Thank you, you guys. I'm glad I can count on you." Natalie said with a short smile.

After the girls spent their time catching up, discussing what they had done in our absence and paying no attention to me, everything was back to normal. They had shared poems for the two days we were gone, and were practically used to it, and were making it an every day thing now. I wasn't too keen of the idea on having to write a poem every day, but I didn't say anything about it. Natalie seemed pretty excited about it, and I already had one written for today from back when we were at the therapist office and I had some time to do it, so it wasn't like I had to write a new one right this second.

I moved over to the desk I normally sit at and went to put my bag down, when I was stopped by Naomi.

"Hey! Thanks to you being gone, we have a lot to catch up on now with the manga! I hope you read what you were supposed to." She exclaimed, hands on her hips.

"I did. I'm sorry I wasn't here, but I had to be there for Natalie. It's not something any of us can control."

"W-Wait, I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying… Never mind. Can we read some more today?"

"Sure, I guess so." I reached into my bag, and pulled out the manga. She instantly snatched it from me to check for damage. "I know how to keep things nice, you know."

"I'm sure you do. But you can never be too safe!" She made her way over to the spot beneath the windowsill on the floor, sat down, and patted the spot next to her, holding the manga in her arms.

"What, you don't trust me?" I asked teasingly, sitting down.

"I-I trust you! I-I mean, no I don't! I don't trust anybody! You can never be too careful!"

"Geez, relax. I'm just messing with you, silly." I nudged her with my elbow.

"I-I know that! Just sit down and read this stupid manga with me already now, dummy."

"Oh, so now it's stupid?"

"You know what I mean!"

I laugh to myself lightly, and we open the manga and begin reading the pages. She's already read this manga, so we start where I last left off, about halfway through it. Last time, she had managed to doze off on my shoulder, but this time she was getting really involved, and I kept catching her taking quick glances at me.

She laughs to herself. "I forgot that happens. It's been so long since I last read this one."

"Yeah, it's always nice to revisit old things you've read."

"Shh, keep reading!" She snaps.

I decide not to mention how she was the one who talked first.

She obviously is very passionate about manga. It's kinda cute how she gets so entranced by it. The rest of the girls have seemed pretty uninterested in it, so it must make her pretty excited to have someone who finally shares an interest in it. It really is a good manga, I'm excited to read the next one as soon as we're done with this one.

After a few more minutes of reading, I noticed Naomi wasn't making anymore snark comments about the manga. I glanced over to her, to find her staring into nothingness in Natalie and Marissa's direction. That sparked my interest.

"You good?" I asked, nudging her.

"…Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Well, you seemed like you were spacing out. And you weren't reading along anymore." I said.

"Well… Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She said

"That didn't seem like a very confident answer." I said. She looked away from me. "You know you can talk to me if anything is wrong, right?"

"I know that! I said I'm fine. Where is this all coming from? Dummy." She said, defensively.

"Alright, okay. I was just checking on you. I'm sorry if I was a little forward."

"It's fine, let's just-"

She's cut off by Marissa.

"Okay everyone! Let's share our poems now with the time we have left."

"Ugh… I guess we can continue tomorrow. Don't you forget to read a little more though. I like re-reading the old stuff, but it would be better if you caught up as quick as you can."

"Alright, I will." Giving her a thumbs up, I stand up. I held out my hand, but she gets up on her own.

I walked over to pull my poem from my bag.

Who do I share with first? I thought.

Naomi will definitely be the most critical, might as well save her for last. I'd like to impress Marissa since she's the club president, so I'll need feedback from another club member before presenting my poem to her.

So it's down to Natalie and Ada.

I think I trust Natalie the most out of everyone here, but something tells me Ada will have the best insight. She's pretty intelligent, and is obviously very knowledgeable in literature. I'll go with Ada, then Natalie, then Marissa, and then finally Naomi. Perfect.

I approach Ada, who was in the middle of putting away a book, and pulling out a notebook.

"Hey Ada, you wanna trade poems?"

"Trade? I mean, you can keep mine if y-you'd like, but I need to share with everyone first."

I chuckled "That's not what I meant. I meant you read mine, I'll read yours, and we can give each other feedback."

"Oh, of course, sure. Here's mine. Just to let you know, it's probably not my best work." She says, handing me her poem.

"I could say the same about mine. I'm not much of a writer." I retort back.

I handed her my poem, and started to read hers. Her handwriting was almost unreadable, but in a good way. She had a typewriter-like penmanship with a cursive flair. The poem itself had been written very well, and I could tell because I had no idea what I was reading. It was almost like a different language. Very descriptive, yet short, sad, and mysterious. I think the best word to describe it would be… melancholy. The only thing I could pick up from it is that it had a peculiar rhyme scheme. Compared to mine, her poem made mine look like a child wrote it.

"Ada, I'll be honest with you, your poem is very impressive. But I have no idea what it means. I feel like I'm reading something that was written in the sixteenth century."

She was quiet, taking in my feedback. I only then realized what I said could've been taken the wrong way.

"I didn't mean that in a bad way though! I mean that it's written very well! I just don't have that much experience in literature to decipher it." I said, frantically.

"Its okay Nick, I didn't take it that way. The reason it may be a little hard to understand is because I was going for a gothic, old English theme." She paused, then continued on. "Actually, when you said you felt like you were reading from a sixteenth century poem, that was sort of what I was going for! Not that area in particular, but older times, yes. You may have noticed it was written in the form of a sonnet?"

"…um… I'm gonna have to say I didn't notice." I didn't want to lie to her.

She went on to explain exactly what a sonnet was, how they were only fourteen lines long, and how there were three different common forms: Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and something called Spenserian, which hers was supposedly written in. I sort of tuned her out halfway through, since she can tend to ramble, but picked up just enough information to seem like I was listening.

"I'm sorry, I'm rambling again." She said, embarrassed.

"Oh, no it's okay! I was learning quite a lot from you. Your knowledge on this subject is really vast, it's impressive." I reassured her.

"W-Why thank you..." She looked away, blushing. "Yours was nice. Simple and... cutesy in its own way. It's actually very similar to Naomi's style. I bet she'll like it." She finally said.

"Cutesy? That's not necessarily what I was going for."

"Oh, that's not always a bad thing! It's just easy enough to get the point across, and keep the reader's attention. I think you did a fine job for your first time." She assured me.

"Thank you, Ada. It means a lot. I came to you first because I wanted to get the best feedback first, and you made sharing feel a little less difficult."

"O-Oh, that's why you picked me first?" She asks. "You thought my advice would be best?"

"Just don't tell anyone else." I said, giving her a wink. She looked away and blushed again, with a smile appearing across her face.

With that, I marched over to Natalie.

"Hey, Nick! Wanna share poems now?" She asked.

"Sure, let's have a look."

Natalie's poem was pretty straightforward. She had messy, but pretty neat handwriting. When we were writing these together, she finished surprisingly early, so her handwriting looked rushed. Her poem was, to put it simply, happy. It had an optimistic feeling, and an 'everything is going to be okay' kind of vibe. It had a rhyme scheme that reminded me of the old Dr. Seuss books my mom used to read to me when I was a kid. So I guess you could say it had a pretty nostalgic feeling to it as well. I never expected her to be so naturally good at this.

"This is really good, Nat. I like it. It's fun to read."

"Thanks! I like yours too." She said.

That's it?

"I'm sure it sucked, I've never written a poem before."

"It didn't suck! It's a poem made by you, and that makes it special! I know I'll like every single poem you give me without even reading it first." She said.

"That's funny, you said the same thing about my smoothies." I said.

"Ehe, it's like I like everything about you!" She said, pressing her fingertips together.

She's really hammering this happy act home… or… was she being serious?

I smiled at her, and we took our poems back.

Next, I approached Marissa while Natalie and Ada exchanged poems.

"Hello Nick. Ready to exchange poems?" She asked, in a calm, soothing voice.

"Oh, I was born ready." I said with determination.

"Hoho, I like the enthusiasm!" She said.

Natalie and Ada both seemed to like my poem, despite it being nothing more than amateur, so it really had given me somewhat of a confidence boost.

Marissa's poem was… odd. Her handwriting was also very neat, like she had her own font in Microsoft Word and typed it up herself. However, I couldn't quite understand it. It used a lot of symbolism, and the placement of the words was quite literally all over the place. She certainly made use of the space the page gave her.

"Wow, yours is pretty good for your first time, Nick! You have a style very similar to Naomi's." She said, finishing my poem before I could figure out hers, or attempt to at least.

"Really? That's funny. Ada said the same thing."

"Have you shared with her yet?" She asked.

"Naomi?"

"Yeah, duh." She said, punching my arm lightly.

"Oh, no. I was expecting to get the most criticism from her, so I was saving her for last." I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck.

"She does have a tendency to be somewhat critical. I'm interested in seeing her reaction to your poem. I bet she'll like it! Although she won't willingly admit it."

I looked over Marissa's poem again.

"I'll be honest with you Marissa… I-I have no idea what's going on with your poem." I finally said.

"Haha, that's alright Nick. That's my intention with my writing. I really like to make use of the space in front of me, and leave the reader guessing. I've shown Naomi and Natalie and they both had no clue as well, but had different ideas as to what I was getting at." She paused. "I think next time I'll make it a little easier to read in between the lines. Thanks for your input though!"

"Huh, I didn't think of it like that. Well, in that case, you did a great job obtaining your goal. I'll make sure to be more analytical next time going forward." I said.

"Thank you!" She said, bowing forward slightly, with her hands behind her back.

We gave each other our poems back, and moved to our respective last person to share with.

"So you picked me last, huh? What, saving best for last or something?" Naomi asked, with a smug grin, her hands on her hips.

"Oh, me? I was just going from tallest to shortest." I teased.

I could hear a very faint 'oooohhhh' from Natalie in the back of the room.

Naomi glanced back at her, and she quickly looked away.

"You know what? I'll let you off the hook and give you that one. You only get one though. Be happy I'm in a good mood." She said. I just looked at her, surprised that I didn't get any heat back. "Gimme your dumb poem." She said, hand out demandingly.

We handed our poems to each other, her a little more reluctantly than I.

Her poem really was simple, and cutesy. Her handwriting was playful and bouncy, yet neat just like the rest of the girls. Her poem was deceptive. It was cutesy on the outside, but was hiding a deeper meaning within it. Her style was simple, so it was easy to pick up the message within. Hers was certainly the easiest to figure out and give feedback to today, that's for sure. But because it was Naomi, that made it a little harder to give any criticism, out of fear of what's to come.

"…You said you've never written before… right?" She asked slowly.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" I said.

"That explains it." She said.

"Um… what?" I asked.

"Yes… that's it!" She exclaimed.

"What?" I asked.

"Beginners luck, that's all this is!" She said somewhat loud. The other girls glanced over, and Naomi lowered her voice. "There's no way you could've written something this good. It's just beginners luck!"

"Honestly though, you're probably right. I thought it was terrible, but the other girls seemed to like it as well."

"I-I didn't say I like it! D-Don't get the wrong idea!" She said.

"We seem to have similar writing styles it seems." I said, handing her poem back to her. "I liked your poem though. It was easy to get the message. It isn't just something cutesy, it has a real underlying message that comes across beneath the surface."

"Oh my gosh, thank you. Everyone else just said 'oh, Naomi its so cute' like no, it has a real message to be seen! At least someone gets it." She huffs, and hands my poem back to me.

After the poem sharing, that concluded club time. We grabbed up our things, and departed.

.

Natalie and I were walking towards the house, when we noticed Naomi not too far down the street behind us.

"Doesn't she live the opposite direction from school? She never walks this way." I asked, nudging Natalie next to me.

"I'll call her over to us." We both stopped walking, and Natalie held her hands up to her mouth. "Hey! Come catch up!"

Naomi jumped a little, and started jogging to catch up to us.

"What were you doing back there? You could've called for us or something. Don't you live in the opposite direction from here?" I asked.

"Yes. I mean- No. I-It wasn't because I wanted to walk home with someone or anything like that. I just wanted to take a different route!" She stammers.

"Oh. Okay." Natalie and I said in unison.

We continue walking for a while when I realized that Natalie doesn't want any of the girls knowing anything of the recent situation, so it would probably be bad if Naomi found out we were living together for the time being. I decided to come up with an excuse.

"Hey, Nat. Do you want to come over? I have something I wanted to show you." I shot her a wink, gesturing at Naomi without her noticing.

"Huh?.. OH! Yeah, sure!"

Thank god she caught on. Naomi studied us.

"What is it?" She asked.

Shit.

"A… A secret that Naomi and I are going to bring for club time tomorrow as a surprise! So you can't know otherwise it'll spoil it."

"Oh. Alright, whatever." She said.

After walking a little while longer, we made it to our house. We said our goodbyes to Naomi, and went inside. After we were inside, I could see Naomi spin around on her heel, and start walking back the same way we came after seemingly studying my house for a minute.

.

The rest of the time we spent was just schoolwork, making and eating dinner, and writing our poems for tomorrow. Then, quicker than we knew it, it was time for bed. Natalie was acting normal so far, nothing off luckily. She was in bed before I was, and already out. I joined her after brushing my teeth and getting changed.

*tap tap tap*

Right as I was climbing into bed, there was a light knock at the door.

Who would be here at this time? It's so late.

Careful not to wake Natalie, I climbed back out of bed, and made my way downstairs to the door.

*taptaptap*

There were three more light knocks, quicker this time. I gently opened the door, to see to my surprise, Naomi.

"Um… Hey Nick. C-Can I come in for a minute?" She asked, uncharacteristically slowly.

I noticed she had some bruises on her left arm, and right leg. Noticeable ones. She had on a white t-shirt and a pink skirt on, and a drawstring bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah, of course! Is everything okay?" I asked, as she stepped in.

"U-Um…y-yes…no. Nothing is okay right now." She said, uneasily.

"Have a seat." I gestured at the island in the kitchen.

I got a glass of ice water for her, and set it in front of her.

"Thanks." She said, and drank half the glass in one sitting.

I leaned against the counter, and looked her over.

"So… what's up?" I asked, smiling timidly.

"I'm in a little bit of trouble…"

"How so?" I asked

"Well… I ran away from home… I don't have anywhere to stay."

"What? Why? Is everything alright?" I asked again.

"I-I just had to, I didn't have a choice!" She said, raising her voice.

"Alright, I'm sorry. Just keep it down a little okay? Nat-" I paused, "people are sleeping."

"People?" She asked.

I sighed.

"Screw it." I said

"Huh?" Naomi said.

"It's about time word got out. Naomi, Natalie is sleeping upstairs." I finally said.

"What? Why is she here?" She asked, then concluded. "Don't tell me. You guys, you guys ar-"

"No, don't jump to conclusions." I stopped her.

I sighed again. Natalie would be pissed if she found out I told this to Naomi.

"The reason we weren't in school those last few days are… well… Natalie tried to take her own life. I found her the morning before school, and took her to the hospital. Long story short, we weren't in school because we were in the hospital after she tried to commit suicide. After a trip to a therapist, he recommend that we live together for awhile since we both don't have parents home, and so I can look after her."

Naomi was quiet for a good amount of time. "I… I had no idea… I have so many questions."

"I understand, but now isn't the time to discuss it yet. She wanted to tell everyone at the club on her own time, but I just needed you to know the truth so I didn't have to over complicate it. What matters is you, and why you're here." I said.

"Well… you were honest with me… so…" She trails off.

"…my dad hits me. He has for as long as I've been alive."

My heart skipped a beat.

"He hits you?.." I stopped. "Is that why you ran away?"

"I… I couldn't take it anymore. Every day it got worse and worse recently…" Her voiced cracked.

She continued. "He never feeds me anymore, either. I don't even know how I'm still alive."

I was shocked. This girl didn't deserve any of this. I… I know how she feels.

She started speaking between sniffles. "I followed you guys yesterday because… I needed to know where you lived. It was getting so bad. I promised myself if it happened again, I would grab what I could, and run. Run to the only place I could go. I-I don't have any family, and nobody I trust. I know we haven't known each other long but… but… you're my only hope. I don't have anywhere else to go. I have nobody. I'm alone. I-I…" She couldn't keep going. She folded her arms on the island, lowered her head and began sobbing.

I walked over, lifted her body from the island, and embraced her. I just held her there for what felt like forever.

"I-I don't remember the last time I was h-hugged…" She said at almost a whisper. She held on tighter.

I was choked up for a moment. Finally, I spoke up. "I'm so sorry to hear that this has been happening to you Naomi. You don't deserve any of that. You're more than welcome to say here with us. We have lots of room here." I ran my hand up and down her back, similar to how I do with Natalie.

Naomi was in no condition to talk, so I continued on. "Believe it or not, I know how you feel. I… I had abusive parents too." I released her, and showed her the scar behind my ear, that very few people knew about, not even Natalie. "And that's not all." I had a long sleeve shirt on, as I normally do. I pulled up my left sleeve to reveal my scarred arm. "You aren't the only one. And I promise you, you most certainly aren't alone. Not if I have anything to say about it."

"I-I don't even know what to say…"

She stared at me, then pulled me in for another hug.

"Don't worry about it. There's a guest room upstairs that you can stay in for as long as you like. You're always welcomed here, I promise. In this house, you're safe. I'll make sure of it."

She let go of me, and after a little silence, she spoke up again,

"T-Thank you so much… I'm indebted to you."

"Nonsense. Just be a little nicer to me, that's all I ask." I said, teasing her as always.

"I don't know, that might be asking for a little much." She joked.

We laughed, and then her stomach rumbled.

"Hungry?" I asked

She looked away.

"That's not something you have to be embarrassed about. You live with us now. If you want something to eat, just ask. Or hell, make it yourself. What's ours is yours."

"O-Okay… thank you." She said quietly.

"Tell you what, I'm going to head to bed. Help yourself to whatever you like in the kitchen. You can bake a whole wedding cake should you feel like it. The guest room is upstairs, first door on the right. My room is opposite to that, if you need anything, don't be afraid to wake me up, seriously." I didn't want her to get suspicious of the sleeping situation of Nat and I. "I'll share the room with Natalie and sleep on the floor, just knock if you need anything. Feel free to get yourself situated and make yourself at home. Mi casa es tu casa."

"Um… Okay! I mean, again I can't thank you enough. I just…" She trails off, runs over, and hugs me a third time. "Thank you…"

"Ehe, you're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow morning when we get ready for school. I hope you have a good nights sleep. The bed in the guest room is immaculate."

"Okay. You too!" She said happily.

I headed upstairs, and walked into my room, locking the door behind me, and crawled back into bed with Natalie. She stirred in her sleep.

"…mmm. Why'd you get up? Was someone here?" She asked quietly.

"Oh boy, do I have a long story for you. I'll tell you in the morning. Let's just get some sleep." I said, ruffling her hair.

.

(Oh yeah, that's right. I went there. Natalie AND Naomi living with Nick? What kind of situations will this cause? I guess you'll have to find out in the next chapter.)