A/N:

DarkerMS is an awesome guy, he basically did all the work and also a big thanks to salvador for helping me too.

Without further ado, here's the chapter two guys! Enjoy!

Beta Reader: DarkerMS

Chapter 2

I was already quite wary of the situation from last night, using each minute since I awoke to contemplate purely as to why the hell I was going through with this. For context, last night, at about 11AM I received a message. Normally I would have shrugged it off. There were only three possibilities for me ever receiving a message on my cell phone.

One, If Hiratsuka-sensei went off on one of her drunk tangents of her sad dating life.

Two, Yuigahama messaging me about god-only knows what with spelling errors and random emojis that I would chide her on.

Three, If Okaa-san happened to be running especially late from work, and told me to go to sleep rather than wait for her, something I was used to due to my stupid sleep schedule.

Nothing would have prepared me for the shock on my face as I went on to read the email id titled YumiMiura, insert email here, asking me to meet up with her. Seriously?! at an ungodly hour no less. Thus, I had an appointment at 5:30AM, at the school Tennis court, open early mostly for the students in sports clubs, rarely used by anyone.

This was the reason I now crept through my house in the dark, dressed up for school at 5 in the morning, lights turned off and everything, as I could hear the prominent snores coming from Otou-san in my parent's room, with the lighter snores coming from Komachi's room. I thought I was in the clear as I went down the stairs, but then, in my sleep deprived haze, I forgot to account for a major detail that I would otherwise have foreseen.

Komachi's door was open. The only one in this house who does that is the person who goes to check up on both her children when she wakes up in the morning. As I saw the kitchen light turned on with cutting noises emitting I seemed to have caught up with this logic, and in panic at the sound of a step creaking, I fell off, missing the last four steps of my journey.

*CRASH!*

"Oww…" I slowly muttered as I heard as the kitchen gave out a clattering noise and footsteps emitting towards me. As I regained my bearings, I focused on the knife being held in the middle-aged woman's hand before me. This woman was Hikigaya Kiyomi. A formidable woman that I would say I get my more deductional intellect from, whereas my analysis of already apparent knowledge comes from my father. Oh, yeah. She was also my mother.

"Hachi! You scared the life out of me!" She said, giving out a sigh as she put on she put the knife down. I took the recovery time to observe her. My mother was an incredibly hard-working woman. Naturally this hard work showed, her being quickly and swiftly promoted time and again to being a powerful figurehead at her workplace. At the end of the day, my family had long since passed the stage of needing both my parents to work for the well-being of our household. They were just workaholics. Which is why I was surprised when I saw her donning an apron, with her seldom worn home clothes, actually cooking a full meal of food rather than the quick breakfast she usually makes for herself.

"Kaa-san… What are you doing up so early?" I asked slowly, getting up to stand up, reaching barely an inch taller than her.

"I could ask you the same thing." She said, coolly, with a calculating look in her eyes. Shit. "But we can talk about that as you join me for breakfast, isn't that right, Hachiman?"

"Yes, ma'am."

A Few minutes later

A bowl of the classic Miso soup and a small bowl of rice was placed in front of me by my mother, as she took a seat opposite me, a spot that Komachi usually takes. Instead of fear, I was now faced with an overwhelming annoyance from the situation that Miura has placed me in.

"Hachi, If you keep that look on your face, it'll freeze like that forever!" She said, giving me a classic "Mom" line.

"Yes, I know, I heard it the first fifty times." I shot back at her, taking a bite of the rice and soup. Ah~

Perfection as always. Something I'll never rob my mother of, was her skill at cooking.

"Now, Hachi, Why don't you tell your mother what's so important that my very own deadbeat, infamously lazy son happened to wake up at 5:00 in the morning for it?"

I stayed silent, thinking of the various answers and also silently recovering from the painful jabs my mother just threw at me.

"You wouldn't happen to be meeting your girlfriend would you?" she said offhandedly, a smile on her face. I immediately snorted. That was a joke that I could laugh at a hundred times. Even if we did look at the situation.

I woke up this early morning getting ready for my 'date' with Miura Yumiko. I'm lucky right? Right? Ugh... Who am I kidding? The old me would be jumping and literally tearing a hole through cloud 9 but not the new Hachiman armed with my 108 skills.

And here I am eating breakfast with my Mother, throwing at me her silly detective questions at five in the morning.

"Nice guess. The school happens to allow us access to a local gym near the community center. I'm simply making use of the facility."

Now, my mother was the one to laugh. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but surely you can do better than that."

There was a moment of silence, as I blushed at how retarded my excuse started. I'd like to blame my sleep deprived state, rather than the fact that I was bested by my mother.

Kaa-san let out an exasperated sigh.

Thank God, looks like she has given up.

But then, her eyes light up and for a moment I think saw an imaginary light bulb flash up above her head.

Not again.

"Are you going somewhere? Like a date?" She asked again.

I almost spilled the coffee I'm drinking when she asked that.

"No, I just said-"

"No, you never SAID, anything. You never denied it, you just snorted." Damn! She caught me again.

"H-Huh? And what makes you ask that question? I think you're overestimating me, Kaa-san."

"Well, who is it that must require such secrecy to meet you? No, it wouldn't be Yuigahama-san, from what I hear she's an average girl, there's no reason to. The second Yukinoshita daughter on the other hand… Plenty of reasons to avoid being seen with you. Her family wouldn't approve of you, and the press coverage would blow up in their faces even if they did."

I sighed again. Well, she was my mother after all. I stayed silent again.

"There's nothing more to it than that, Kaa-san, I just want to take an hour long shower at the gym, that's all. I couldn't sleep well." I said, giving a convincing enough lie.

She sighed again. That isn't a good sign, Kaa-san.

"Fine, if that's how you want to play it, I won't probe you."

I muttered an appreciation for her stopping and continued my meal. We sat in a comfortable silence as my mother also joined me in my meal.

"Hachi?" she asked again while simultaneously reading emails and eating.

"Yeah?" I asked, raising my cup of coffee to my lips.

"You didn't make a girl pregnant or something, did you?"

And so, I spit my coffee out for the second time that day.

Later, around 5:15AM

My usual peaceful trip to school was ruined by Miura Yumiko. I'm supposed to be waking up at 6:30 a.m. But her mail instructed me to meet her at 5:30 a.m. and I don't wanna upset the infamous Fire Queen of Sobu. In the end, it's nothing but a drag. Most men would kill to take my place normally. But my dead eyes can see that behind that facade and beauty is nothing but a drive and will of everything that's fake to protect her fragile and dysfunctional social circle. A social circle built purely on the fake smile and whims of Hayama Hayato. It sickens me to no end. But perhaps now, more than ever, the change of pace is welcomed. I just wish it didn't require me to wake up at 5 in the freaking morning...

I snapped out of my daze, as I approach the gate my mind still undecided. I stood idly at school gate contemplating my options, and I really don't have that much to choose from to begin with, because let's be honest, we're talking about Miura here. Nothing popped into my brain, seemingly still running on stand-by, not to wake up until at least 30 minutes into Japanese Literature with Hiratsuka-sensei about three hours from now.

Within the next couple of minutes, I had arrived at the designated location. But I couldn't see Miura anywhere. I frowned and pulled out my phone, I look at the time. 5:25. I'm only a couple minutes early.

I figured that she would be here by now. My legs start to feeling tired. I searched for a while and I found my desired rest stop to save game, A bench by the tennis courts. I sat on it and pulled my phone out of my pocket trying to pass some time while waiting for her. To be honest I wasn't even using the black object in my hand. I was simply reminded of a time when my classmates used to pull pranks on my during my middle school days, suffering to their smirks and laughter as I was ostracized by them. Of course, I had tailored my life carefully around this. I have never, and never will deny that I put these one thousand walls in front of myself so that these turn of events never happen to me.

I knew that Miura didn't care enough for things like that, but even so, as I lost myself to contemplate the old Hachiman, the only thing I could really recover in my memory from those days, was simply how… Boring I was…

Woah. That line was scary. Maybe I've been spending too much time with Yukinoshita Haruno… With my mind jumping from place to place, I barely noticed the clock striking 5:40, only brought back to reality as I heard a distinct and confident voice behind me.

"Hikio."

Hikio-kun A/N:

DarkerMS A/N: Hello once again to you people, I'm sure you guys have seen me around. I have returned to help Hikio-kun out with his story as a collaborative piece between us, so to speak. (When I say that I mean that he comes up with the awesome ideas and I fill in the dialogue and descriptions for the most part.) And yes. Stop glaring at me. I know I haven't updated in awhile. :P