'I like you.'

'I really like you.'

'I really, really like you.'

'I love you?'

"Why does this have to be so hard?" Hinata smacked himself as he walked through his cottage door. It was morning, and he was just getting back from his night shift at the control room. This was his seventh shift since the first day, and he'd used each night to think about how he would confess.

Pure nervousness. His body shook just out of pure nervousness. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn't fall asleep now. Especially after deciding that today was the day he'd go for it. Rejection was anticipated, and to be honest, feared.

"Alright...I'm going to... I'm really doing this." he said to himself as he took note of his deteriorating condition. From the bathroom mirror he could see that he was sweating profusely, and that his hands wouldn't stop shaking. His eyes shot away from his reflection as he cursed out loud. Clearly he was being a bit too hasty in making this decision, but he had made up his mind.

He still planned on doing it today, but he thought it would be best if he at least got some sleep. He moved over to his bed, flopping onto it in a single motion. He stared at the ceiling, slowing his breathing, trying as hard as he could to relax. He didn't sleep as he had intended, continuing to stare upwards as he lay on his back.

Trying to relax only put him more on edge. He knew he had something to be anxious about, and staring at nothing would do nothing to make that feeling go away. And as intelligent as he was at this point in time, he couldn't think of anything that would stop his heart from racing.

He decided to close his eyes. A yawn escaped his mouth, once, and then once again. He rolled out of bed quickly, not wanting to succumb to sleep after all. He yawned again when he stood up, stretching his arms over his head. He threw off his clothes without a second thought, deciding spontaneously to take a shower.

As the ice cold water spewed out from above him, he breathed in a calming rhythm. He would use this time to try and rid himself of his nervousness.

"Ahhh," Akane winced when she saw the state of her hands. Her knuckles were cut up and bruised, trickles of blood dripping from her wounds. She had been at the beach since she woke up that morning, and had been venting her accumulated anger by punching one of the scattered palm trees.

*Crack!* the joints in her hand popped when her fist came down on the tree trunk again. The entire tree rattled and shook as she continued slamming her fists against it again and again. Her wounds were now producing even more blood, staining the tree as she kept assaulting it.

"Ah crap..." she stopped her odd form of training when she noticed a slip of crumpled paper on the ground. She bent over and picked it up, shaking the grains of sand off it while straightening it out. "Damn idiot...".

She licked the back of the paper and slapped into onto the tree again. On the beaten sheet of parchment was a name, written quickly and crudely. Hajime. In her mind she wasn't taking out her anger on a tree, she was taking it out on him.

She was preparing herself for what she thought she'd have to do. He'd been avoiding her, so she'd found a way to force him to talk. She planned on fighting him, forcing him to say something, anything. Today was the day she would have answers from him.

"What's this..." Hinata stepped out of his cottage and was met with a crumbled up piece of paper on his doorstep. Curiosity took hold of him, the scrap finding its way to his hands. He smoothed it out as best as he could, flinching when his hands found that part of it was damp.

"Hajime" his name was written sloppily in the middle of the paper. Among that he noticed that there were many small, yet very noticeable red smears all along the surface. The parchment reeked of copper. The red stains covering the paper were blood, clearly.

"Meet me at the beach. We have to talk." is what he saw when he turned the paper over. Now he was slightly worried. The message was very poorly written, now dried blood substituted for a pen or pencil. He crumpled the paper up again and shoved it in his pocket. With quick feet he decided to head for the beach. He hated to do it, but for now, his plans with Akane had to go on the back burner.

Was someone hurt? Did Komaeda wake up after all? Maybe he hurt someone. It certainly wouldn't be beyond him. As the theoretical scenarios began getting worse and worse, his pace quickly turned into a jog, and then a run. The more he thought, the more he panicked. The more he panicked, the faster he ran.

He did not expect to see her waiting at the beach. Standing near the shores edge, Akane had her back to him. From where he stood, he could see her bloodstained knuckles, wrapped up in stained bandages.

"Akane!" he shouted before running to her side. She turned as his words met her ears, her eyes sending chills down his spine. Never before had she looked at him so angrily. "Who...what happened to your hands?"

"Don't worry about that." she said, crossing her arms.

Still worried, he reached out towards one of her palms. His hand was slapped away almost immediately. She shot him another angry look as she let her arms hang down, grinding her teeth together while her fists were curling up at her sides.

"How can't I? You're bleeding! Just tell me what happened!" he urged again.

"You can't do that!"

"Ah!"

She swung at him with her left, following with a right. Missing, she continued throwing punches wildly. He walked backwards, narrowly avoiding her attacks one after another.

"H-Hey! What are you...Ah!"

"You can't avoid me, and then act like you wanna talk! You wanna talk to me!? Then beat me in a fight!"

Her plan had changed one he had sought her out. Now she wasn't so eager to speak to him. In her boiling anger, she had decided that she would make him work for it. He would have to fight her before she would listen to anything he had to say.