When Kotori opened the door to Nico, she instantly noticed the downcast mood on her face; wordlessly letting her inside. Kotori led Nico into the living room and smiled as she gestured to a chair, which Nico took with a quiet sigh to finally break the silence.

"Do you want a drink?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Nico waved her hand dismissively as Kotori sat down as well.

"So what's this about?"

"Listen, I know you were never… Particularly er… 'Into' Eli and Hanayo's relationship, right?"

Kotori fiddled with her hands and didn't look up to meet Nico's gaze, "Yeah…"

"Well look, I… I think something's going on. And I think you're the only one who'll be willing to listen to me," Nico watched her expression carefully, scrutinizing her, "Nozomi rebukes whatever I say. And I can't blame her to be honest. I came to you because you might be the most skeptical about their relationship."

Kotori paused and sighed, suddenly downcast herself, "What is it then?"

"I don't want to throw any… Accusations around, but... I think Eli's being violent."

Kotori raised her head, stunned into silence and Nico hastily managed to continue.

"I-I have my suspicions. I was the only one who saw the red mark on Hanayo's face… Not only that, there were tweezers with blood on them and glass shards with blood on them as well. And Hanayo was smiling, but… It was so fake."

"How can you tell?"

"Trust me, Nico-Nii knows a smile when she sees one," Nico raised up her hands in her signature pose, managing to force a smile to inject some kind of light heartedness into the whole encounter.

Nico watched her carefully; she didn't want to distress her. Kotori rubbed her eyes after the momentary smile fell keeping her hand hiding her face and Nico saw her swallow and take a few deep breaths.

"I… Also think it's connected to alcoholism," Nico wrung her hands together, "One of the shards had Russian on them… Feel free to correct me, but I don't know many other glass things with Russian writing on them other than a bottle of vodka…" She paused as she tried to get a response out of Kotori, but she wasn't really being shown one, "I don't meant to bombard you with this… But you know how I feel when it comes to familial and relationship issues."

"I understand, Nico-chan…" Kotori brought her hand away from her face, somehow looking a lot tireder than before, "But what can we do? We don't even have any proper proof."

"That's… What I need to figure out," Nico sheepishly admitted, "But I really can't do it alone. I'll probably talk to a few of the others as well… But I have to be careful. For now, just keep this talk between us. You should know what's going on, as should everyone else."

"You told me before Nozomi-chan, right?"

"Well, I mean… I tried to hint at it, but she wasn't really going to take any of that from me," Nico leant forward with a sigh, "And can you blame her? She probably doesn't want to face the possibility that her best friend is being abusive. Would you?"

"No, I wouldn't."

"So you see my problem. If I'm right then she'll have to face it eventually and I'll be there for her, but… Something has to be done. Whether it's to confirm or to deny my suspicions. I really hope that it's the latter."

Kotori sighed as her gaze shifted from Nico out the nearby window, "I do too," She cleared her throat, feeling a lump push its way up, "I can only imagine how it'll be if Rin-chan finds out too."

"Yeah, God, you're right… I have to tell Maki-chan, but I'm going to avoid telling Rin until we can figure out what's going on. Maki-chan will know the medical signs of domestic abuse, right?"

Kotori could only nod.

"Also, it's another thing… If it is what I think it is and we do manage to get the two apart, then I need you to be prepared to take Hanayo in. No one else has the space, right?"

At this suggestion, Kotori blinked in surprise, but she wordlessly agreed regardless. Nico opened her mouth to continue her train of thought before her phone buzzed, "Shit, I have to be at the studio soon."

"Recording session?"

"Yeah, yeah. New album and all that. Hey, I'll drop a demo tape through if you want before it's released."

"I'd like that."

Kotori said her goodbyes to Nico with a heavy heart, struggling with turmoil in her head.

"Hey, Kotori I just realised how erm… Insensitive I might have been for dropping this on you so suddenly. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I would have had to find out anyway if it turns out you're right."

"I know this might seem unrelated or maybe a little bit jarring, but…" Nico sighed, "You still love her, don't you?"

Kotori stiffened when the question was posed to her, resorting to looking at the ground. She remembered the day she'd tearfully divulged that, to Nico and Nico alone. It wasn't her first choice of person, but it was relatively spur of the moment. She remembered the tears and she certainly remembered the cover up. But Nico knew the importance of secrets, so she agreed to keep it between them.

After a small pause, Kotori raised her head again with tears in her eyes, "I do."

When Nico arrived back home she was exhausted. Having recorded the song a total of ten times under the guise of wanting the best for her fans, her terrible stamina only served to betray her. With a yawn, she threw her jacket on the hook and collapsed onto the sofa, lying on her back before she rolled over onto her side to flick the television on.

It seemed to be a slow enough news day. When news about her latest album came on, the reporters interviewed some fans of hers, which helped lighten the burden on her shoulders. When one fan stated how he couldn't wait, she chuckled to herself, "Damn right."

"Nicocchi, you're home?" Nozomi's voice called from the kitchen.

"Yeah."

Nozomi poked her head out from behind the doorway, "Did the recording go well?"

"Well enough, yeah."

"Hey, uhm… You went to see Kotori-chan, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah. I did."

"Without me?" Nozomi pouted and Nico couldn't tell if it was playful or serious.

"W-well I mean… You know Kotori prefers one-on-ones. Plus the fact she's always reminded of the fact that she's the only single one out of all of us. I didn't want to make her feel bad." Whilst that was partly the truth, Nico still managed to bluff her way through smoothly.

"Mm, I suppose you're right. What was it about though?"

Nico swore inwardly as she made up a quick lie, "Outfit for a live concert. Best seamstress I know, so my agency put it up to me."

"What'd she say?" Nozomi disappeared back into the kitchen.

"That she would think about it," Nico sat up, relieved that her lie had played out with no difficult questions to answer.

Nozomi frowned in the kitchen; Nico was a good liar and even she could only tell when slight things were wrong. When Nico wanted something to be a secret, she could definitely keep it. The only thing she could hope to do was poke at her and hope she would divulge something on her own.

Lies were harmful sometimes, but other times they were difficult to judge. A person may be upset when a person lies to them, even if the lie itself may have been especially harmless. This was a lie of protection, Nico reasoned, besides, she had already reluctantly tried to confide about what she thought in Nozomi, but she didn't seem to want to know. Perhaps it was to ease her state of mind. Which would only make it harder when she found out the truth.

Eli was tired, but she supposed that was normal for someone who had collapsed out of drunken exhaustion at 3am. Even though her hangover had disappeared by now, she just wanted to sleep.

So when she felt Hanayo's hands giving her a back rub, she swatted away her hands.

"No, Hanayo, not now. I don't deserve it."

Hanayo frowned, "You do, Eli-chan. You've been working hard so I thought that you wouldn't mind…"

"Look, I'm just… Not feeling like it right now. Nothing against you."

"I-is there anything I can do?"

Eli sighed and adjusted herself on the chair, "Just pour me a drink."

Hanayo scratched at her collar nervously, "A-are you sure…?"

Eli didn't raise her head to meet her gaze and nodded lowly, "It's fine. I won't have a lot."

That was probably true for once, as she was in Hanayo's presence. The problem was that Hanayo couldn't be with her all the time to mediate her as she was in her presence. The problem was that Hanayo couldn't be with her all the time to mediate her during bouts of weakness.

Hanayo came back after a few minutes and handed her a small glass of straight whisky, which she mumbled a thank you for. Eli watched her sit down and pick up her tablet, the two falling into a tense silence.

This was normal though, so Eli just sipped absentmindedly at her drink, ignoring the slight burn she had gotten used to.

About halfway through her drink, Hanayo's voice suddenly spoke up, "E-Eli-chan… D-do you think maybe you could… You could cut down a little bit on alcohol…?"

This wasn't part of any usual conversations they'd had, but now that she had thought about it, this probably had been on her mind for some time; Hanayo was not the kind of person to speak her mind if she worried it would hurt another in some way.

"W-well I... " She paused, only glancing up at her for a moment before her gaze returned to the amber drink in her hand, "... I'll try."

It sounded empty and she knew it, and she didn't doubt Hanayo saw it that way too. But she was far too polite to say anything, so she smiled weakly and at least thought the sentiment was there, so she looked down at her tablet again as Eli downed the final dregs, "This is all I'll have tonight."

She got up and placed the glass by the sink, rubbing her temples, "I'm uh… I'm going to sleep early. I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright," Hanayo acknowledged, "Good night."

Eli woke up at around the middle of the night, strangely rested enough to not want to go back to sleep. She slid out of bed, avoiding waking up Hanayo as she went to the bathroom sink to down a small glass of water.

She thought about going to try and get back to sleep, but she thought she would be far too restless for that. She trudged into the lounge and sat down on a chair, flicking on a lamp and squinting at the newfound light.

She laid back in the chair, staring out the window for only a moment, before she got up and trudged to the sink, deciding to make herself do something useful if she was going to be awake so early.

When she saw the glass that had been used to hold her whisky earlier, she paused as she was about to turn the tap on. She took it with little thought, opening the cupboard and pouring herself a drink, only having half a mind to close the cupboard again quietly.

She downed it quickly, nearly choking at the burning sensation down her throat, sighing and placing the empty glass back on the counter.

Eli wasn't usually the kind of person to break her word. But she realised she had just done so.