Maki didn't remember how she had gotten there, but she was in the emergency room of the hospital. She felt strange as well; this wasn't right.

The lights flickered, but she thought little of it.

She turned around and looked through towards the waiting room.

Something in the back of her mind told her that the waiting room wasn't actually in such of a close proximity to the ER.

There was a single figure sat there, so she went through and recognised it instantly as Rin. She looked sleepy, even though Maki couldn't see her face.

She was alarmed when Rin slumped forward and she heard a sob from where she was standing, walking towards her.

"Rin?" She crouched down to her height, "Are you okay?"

There was a short pause until she looked up, tear tracks streaked down her face and the slight reddening and puffiness around the eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me Maki-chan…?"

"Tell… Tell you what?"

"My… My best friend's in there Maki-chan…" Rin whimpered, "A-and, you knew, right…? Before this happened?"

Maki was about to answer before she broke into more sobs and she couldn't find the words to comfort her. Standing back up, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay… It's not our fault… We were just too late, that's all."

Umi raised her head to look at Maki in the eye and all Maki could feel was confusion, "What happened?"

She turned and the waiting room had a few more familiar figures. Honoka and Kotori were sat together, Honoka looking more shell shocked than anything else, mumbling something incessantly under her breath along the varying lines of "Is it my fault? It's my fault…"

Kotori had shudders wracking her body, choking out more tears than Rin was.

When had Umi disappeared? As Maki looked for her, she was suddenly sat beside Honoka, head bowed with her hand laid over her partner's.

Nozomi and Nico were on the other side of the room to the former second year trio. Nozomi had her hands clenched tightly together on her lap, silent tears and the occasional shudder running through the body. Nico had her hand covering her face, mumbling the words "I knew it… And I did nothing."

Maki was only aware of how much her body was shaking when she tried to shove her hand in her pocket. She felt something in there and pulling it out, she realised it was a cigarette. And in the other pocket she found a lighter.

She knew in the back of her mind that this was not acceptable to do within a hospital, but the raging feelings of confusion and anxiety running through her made her feel like it didn't matter.

She lit it and took a long drag, those feelings suddenly being replaced with calm. Her hands stopped shaking and the thought that she should be using her e-cig was long since out of her mind.

This wasn't right, yet all of her mind save for a small fraction didn't pick up on it.

The smoke she blew out wasn't appearing, but her mind drove her to continue anyway.

She turned; when had she left the waiting room? Waiting for her was a corridor with a single room at the end.

Her cigarette was gone and the anxieties crashed over her again as she made her way forward, the corridor taking more time to traverse than it looked.

There was nothing to mark the patient inside and for some reason she couldn't fathom who was inside. Entering the room, a rush of cold flooded over her, prompting a shudder to run up her spine.

The curtain around the bed was drawn, but her attention turned to a disheveled looking Eli sat down on a nearby chair. She didn't seem to notice Maki.

She had a bottle beside her, Russian letters printed on it and half empty. The anxieties inside her turned into a sudden white hot rage.

Before she could tell herself anything else, Maki took hold of the bottle by its neck and smashed the glass on top of her head and watching it shatter.

Eli didn't react strangely enough, but blood poured down the side of her head and eventually she blacked out.

Maki thought little of it before she made her way back to the curtain, laying a hand on it before she heard a voice whisper in her ear.

"Pull back the curtain, and see what I've done. See what I did, whilst you did nothing."

The voice had little remorse, a cold hearted malice in it. And Maki recognised it as Eli's.

She pulled back the curtain.

Maki didn't remember what she had seen behind it, but now she was awake, bolted upright in bed with a constricting sensation in her chest, clammy sweat on her forehead and her violently shaking hands pressed and bunched in the sheets.

She was short of breath constantly, no matter how much oxygen she tried to get. She looked over at Rin beside her, but that did little to comfort her as she still remembered her face within the nightmare. She remembered everyone's face. Apart from…

'Oh fuck.'

A craving broke out in the back of her mind, so she suddenly rolled out of bed and reached towards what Rin had dubbed 'The Forbidden Drawer', a drawer Maki was not supposed to go in.

Yet that seemed to distant to her as she cursed under her breath until she succeeded in pulling it open to reveal her old lighter and what was supposed to be a memoriam of her last packet of cigarettes.

Their reasoning was that, if the temptation was there and Maki resisted it, then it would make her recovery from addiction easier for her.

She retrieved a cigarette and the lighter, bringing them out with her onto the balcony. The cold night wind bit at her skin, but that was the last thing on her mind right now.

With the nightmare fresh and the craving near overpowering, coupled with what she had come to the conclusion was a panic attack, she stumbled until she had her hands on the fence.

After a lot of fumbling, she succeeded in getting a flame and lighting the cigarette, the familiar scent coming back to her. She took a long, admittedly refreshing drag, with shaky hands that slowly calmed as she exhaled.

To hell with the e-cig. Relapsing made her feel better. She held the smoke in her lungs, then blew it frustratedly out her nose. This situation was getting the better of her.

Nevermind that she was first and foremost a doctor, this was two close friends whom had helped break her out of her shell. Stress was building up on more stress and this was the last thing she needed.

If only Nico hadn't come to her; ignorance was of course bliss.

She shook her head; she couldn't think like that. She would rather know now than have the shock later, that would probably be ten times the stress.

But now she had the power to make sure that her nightmare didn't come true, and as much as she loved Eli, she couldn't bring herself to forgive her if the accusations were true.

When the cigarette was finally worn down, she stubbed it out and lazily flicked it off the balcony, slumping to rest her forehead against the cold metal. What was she to do?

"Maki-chan? Are you okay?"

Rin had just appeared, rubbing one of her eyes and then leaning on the frame as Maki slowly straightened up, still facing across the street below.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She sent, with a hint of a tremble to her voice, "Just woke up. Didn't feel like going back to sleep. That's all."

Rin frowned. Now that she had gotten used to Maki and the way she acted, she knew that this was probably a lie of self protection.

Rin leant on the fence beside her, looking to see Maki's half lidded and reddened eyes, dry lips and tired expression. She brought her arm around Maki's waist, bringing her closer to comfort her.

She could tell Maki wasn't in any kind of mood to be poked about anything, much less the smell of tobacco on her, so Rin decided to stay silent until Maki turned and mumbled something about going back to bed, so Rin followed.

Maybe she would ask in the morning.

Maki had gone off to work that morning without waking Rin, which was surprising considering Maki was never usually quiet in the mornings and never put much effort in to be particularly covert as she padded around the kitchen and hit the coffee machine a few times.

But Rin didn't mind. She would see her later, however tired she would be. But she was worried, Maki had been weirder lately, more stressy and last night's episode had planted more worries in her mind, but how were you to ask someone who knew how to protect their emotions? And asking could always make things worse when it came to stress, to know people were worrying about you.

But Rin had something to do today and that was to go and see Hanayo.

So, as she had wasted away the morning, doing a little bit of her work and then inevitably heading out to meet Hanayo in town.

Rin couldn't help but bundle up tighter in her coat as she saw her breath mist in front of her; was it really getting that cold? That didn't matter too much though, right now, she was going to see her best friend and she would trudge through four inch thick snow to do so.

She entered the café and welcomed the warmth that greeted her as she went inside, looking around for Hanayo.

She spotted her best friend at a booth towards the back of the café, which was understandable, seeing as she knew that Hanayo had never been fond of staying in the more crowded places of, well, anywhere.

"Kayo-chin!" Rin waved eagerly as she bounded over, planting herself down in the booth with her before getting a proper look at her face.

She was about to give another cheery greeting when she noticed the bruise on her eye, angry looking and quite recent looking. Rin didn't have to be a doctor to tell that. She tilted her head.

"Kayo-chin, are you okay? What's with that bruise?"

"Oh! Ah… I just y-you know, was a bit clumsy. Walked into a door," Hanayo said sheepishly, fiddling with the edge of her scarf.

Now, Rin didn't claim to be the smartest person in Japan, but even she could be perceptive enough to spot something, quite frankly, obvious. The 'walking into a door' excuse was a classic, but Rin cushioned the impact of her worries by amusing herself over the confusion it would cause if someone genuinely had walked into a door.

So, she plastered on a smile and decided to enjoy the time out she had planned with Hanayo.

But, she pulled up her phone and leaned her elbows against the table, pointing the phone at her face, "I'm just checking something, sorry!"

Rin felt bad for lying, but she felt like this had to be done. She had pulled her camera app up and, making sure the flash was off, had taken a photo of her face. Maybe Maki would be interested in this?

She shoved her phone back in her pocket, now a little bit unsure how she was going to contain herself and enjoy her lunch with Hanayo if this horrible seed of doubt was rapidly sprouting in her mind, having no way to get rid of those thoughts, seeing as though she had to face the black eye all the same.

But she made it through, even with a short walk straight afterwards, the two of them casually talking. Rin had made sure she would be facing her non-bruised eye if she turned her head to talk to her. Not that it did much good.

When Rin got home, she tried her hardest to contain herself, to put the worst out of her mind and just keep believing that nothing was wrong.

But inevitably, she failed.

When Maki got home from a shift that seemed to be longer than normal, she found a solemn looking Rin seated on the sofa, rather than splayed across it as she normally was, watching TV.

This threw her off a little bit, as she was fully ready to berate Rin about her posture, but still, she stayed silent and locked up the door, and stepped into the room so Rin's attention was brought to her.

"I'm home," She said, placing her bag down and collapsing into a different chair.

"Welcome home," Rin replied, only sending her a glance.

"... So," Maki started somewhat awkwardly, especially considering she was used to Rin initiating the conversation, "How was lunch with Hanayo?"

Rin couldn't help but let her face fall a tad, going into her pocket and pulling up the picture without looking at it too deeply, "Ah, Maki-chan…"

"Hm?"

"... What do you think of this?" She handed her the phone and Maki's initial confusion vanished and was quickly replaced with anger. A similar anger to what she had felt in her nightmare.

"I… I think I'm going to go and kill someone."

"Maki-chan…? I-Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"She's your best friend. You tell me if it's extreme," She said coldly, suddenly reaching to grab her bag and rifle through it for her e-cig.

"She told me she walked into a door."

"What, and you believed her? That's the biggest fucking lie in the book, Rin."

"No, of course I didn't! I just don't want to think that anything was going on…"

Maki wasn't paying too much attention, so when she pulled out her e-cig, something else got caught on her sleeve and she accidentally pulled it out, then it fell to the floor.

She didn't have time to fumble for it, but Rin was far too quick anyway, taking it from the floor. Maki swore in her head when she realised that the worst possible thing was what she had knocked out.

"Maki-chan, you told me you were quitting," Rin held up the packet of opened cigarettes as Maki pushed the bag off her lap with a frown, saying nothing as she was trying to figure out her words, "Maki-chan, did you lie to me?"

Maki swallowed, but she supposed she couldn't hold back the truth, "N-no, I didn't lie to you. I want to quit."

"If you're trying to quit, then how do you explain this?" Rin asked, more hurt than before.

"Look, Rin, you don't know what it's like to be addicted to anything," She said, twirling her e-cig.

"Yeah, I know, but I promised to help and you promised to quit! That's the thing. You did lie!"

"I didn't fucking lie!" Her voice raised, "I relapsed! There's a difference!"

When Rin flinched, Maki realised just then what she had done, "Shit Rin, I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout…"

Rin looked like she was trying to scrutinize the situation, her shoulders tensed, "What's made you relapse then?"

Maki scratched irritably at her neck, "Stress. Stress piling up on stress and then life decides to throw more stress into the mix."

"So… What's different though? You've been clean for a few months now…"

When Maki paused, Rin anxiously waited for what she knew would probably be a carefully chosen response.

"Look it's… Just something that's difficult to talk about."

Rin watched Maki glance towards the phone and caught on, "It's about Kayo-chin, isn't it?"

Maki only cast her glance downwards, still fiddling with her e-cig and staying silent.

"Maki-chan? I took that photo! If something's going on, you need to tell me!"

Her expression only hardened and she shook her head.

"Listen, Maki-chan, this isn't like we're still in high school anymore! We're adults and I'm not a kid and I can take whatever this situation is."

"I can't… I can't burden anyone else with this. This is what I mean by stress! Eventually things get worse and worse and they spiral and I can't fucking do anything about it! What can I do right now?! Nothing's working out... God, Rin, I'm just so tired…"

"If you tell me what's happening, I might be able to help," Her hurt now replaced with concern, Rin fiddled with her hands.

"I don't… I don't know what to say Rin. I really don't. I'm sorry."

"Maki-chan, why do you have to make this so hard?" Rin sat back on her seat, staring up at the ceiling, but she realised that probably wasn't the best thing to say when it was too late.

Maki twitched at the tone of voice, feeling something snap in her head. Whether something was snapping into place in her head or whether it was something breaking, she couldn't tell.

"Fine, you want to know the fucking truth?" Maki raised herself up out of her chair and shakily exhaled, clenching her fists until the knuckles turned white, "Your best friend's being abused by Eli. No other way to f-fucking put it…" She felt a shudder push its way up her spine before she flicked on the e-cig and took a length, frustrated drag.

Maki watched the tension in Rin's body before she slumped forwards and placed her hand over her eyes. Maki knew she couldn't hold this back from Rin, she was already well on her way to figuring things out for herself.

"H-how could Eli-chan do that to her though…?"

Maki sighed as she sat back down beside Rin and wrapped an arm around her after placing her e-cig on the table, brushing her thumb gently over her shoulder, "Hey, hey… I really shouldn't have put it that way, fucking… But I can tell you as pissed as I am at Eli, I think that it's something to do with alcoholism. I don't think she could do that to her sober."

Whilst it appeared to do little to console Rin, it did make her feel slightly better. Not that it did a lot to rescue her mood from the pit of despair her heart had fallen into. And whilst Maki's head pounded with stress and a slowly worsening headache, she tried to put up a stronger exterior.

"Look, hey… How about the two of us just relax tonight, okay? We can worry about things tomorrow. Tonight won't hurt," She rubbed her shoulder and was pleased with herself when Rin dropped her hands from her face and leaning into her embrace with a small nod.

The two spent the rest of their evening avoiding talking about the issue pressing on both their minds, a small feeling a guilt seeping in as well, but they both figured, that for their own and their partner's sake, that they should take a rest from all this.

Umi had decided that tonight, being a Friday evening, that she would drop in on Hanayo just to try and push for any more information she could get her hands on. And, if she was lucky, she might be able to catch Eli whilst she was drunk. Then again, she couldn't linger without Honoka or Hanayo getting suspicious or worried about her spending so much time elsewhere.

The walk wasn't that long. She preferred walking as well as opposed to taking a car. As Winter was essentially already there, she gladly decided to take in the numbing, yet pleasant cold and the rapidly darkening evening. Although the street lamps provided a harsh contrast, she was used to it, soon enough arriving at the apartment.

Of course, when she had rang the bell to call up to their apartment, when Hanayo answered, she was quite surprised to find that Umi was just dropping in, but was far too polite to turn her away. Umi supposed that her politeness worked in her advantage, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel like some people would use that negatively. But that was the least of her worries right now, as she headed up the stairs and knock on the apartment door so that Hanayo would let her in.

Instantaneously, she noticed the bruise on her eye, but she was never one for bluffing, so Hanayo knew what she had seen. Giving her the same excuse as she had given Rin, rather weakly though, Umi noted, she then let her inside and offered her a drink.

"No, this is only a brief visit. But I thank you for your offer," Umi bowed her head before she sat down opposite Hanayo, "Where's Eli? Shouldn't she be home by now?"

"She's probably working overtime… You know how she is," She said with a small smile.

"Mm. Has that promotion been given out yet?"

Hanayo shook her head, "Not yet, but Eli-chan keeps pushing herself for it. Honestly, I'm kinda worried. If she keeps working overtime I think she'll collapse from stress."

Umi's expression softened, "How often does she work overtime? I don't even think I would work overtime unless I really, really had to."

"Usually it's for about three days per working week… She comes home a little late, pretty exhausted too," Hanayo avoided Umi's gaze for a second. Despite the fact she knew Umi wouldn't hurt anyone unless it was absolutely necessary, and that she was unexpectedly demure to some, Umi growing older and more mature had only refined her somewhat intimidating look.

But Umi was blissfully unaware of that fact.

"Haven't you told her she should be getting home earlier? She doesn't need to push herself so hard."

"Well, I've tried but.. Eli-chan can be stubborn."

"That, I definitely know," Umi nodded as she thought back to their time together when μ's was gradually gaining members and how tough it had been to get Eli involved in the first place, "But I suppose if she won't listen to you then she won't listen to anyone."

"I… Guess I could try being more assertive. But it's really not like me!" She said with a small laugh.

Umi was glad to see that Hanayo was smiling, despite all this suspecting. The conversation went back and forth until Umi checked her watch and sighed, "I should probably be heading off now. Say hello to Eli for me when she gets home."

Umi then stood as Hanayo did, giving her a small and polite bow as she headed out the door and out of the building after saying her goodbyes.

Umi sighed quietly, as her suspicions grew in her mind. The bruise was something to not ignore, especially if Nico and Maki were to be believed. But now the question remained, how was she to say anything to either of them, or to get Hanayo to confess and want to get help.

But as Umi turned the corner to leave, she was so deep in thought that she hadn't looked behind her or around to notice anyone else, or rather, someone specific.

Through her hazy vision and jumbled mind, Eli made out the unmistakable sight of dark blue hair exiting the building and turning to leave in the opposite direction to where she was coming from.

And through all the thoughts running through her head, one emotion was picked out.

Anger.

Drunk people were not best known for their abilities to be reasonable, and Eli was no exception. And thus, the only explanation for Umi's sudden appearance at her apartment was one in particular.

'Hanayo's cheating on me.'

Author's Note: are you ready for the next chapter

because i'm not