A/N: I've been looking forward to this chapter for a while. :) The events within might seem a bit weird happening so early, but I honestly can't write anything else until I get this out of my head. So off we go!

Edit: In the anime Hiromi was given blue hair, but at the time this chapter was written we only had the manga to go off of, and it looks black there. Eh, I feel she looks better with black hair anyway.

Yuuji bounced on his heels. He fidgeted on the doorstep, glancing once more at the sign on the wall: a square panel bearing the words '301, Shiota'. The house that it was attached to appeared to be an ordinary building—wide, square, and painted white, with slanted tile rooftops.

A few more days had passed since last time, and- Wait, was it a few days? Maybe a week? Yuuji didn't know. But that didn't matter. Time was fuzzy around the edges and was certainly a thing that held no consequence.

He and Nagisa had tried to hang out a bit more, but it was tough. Nagisa said that he was often busy with schoolwork, both at Kunugigaoka Junior High and studying at home. If Yuuji had to guess, a certain program's "training" probably also contributed to those absurd "club-time" hours.

In order to make up for it, Nagisa had invited Yuuji to his house.

'I've had friends over occasionally, so it should be okay!' he had said via text message. Yuuji still wasn't completely sure what Nagisa meant by that, but whatever.

Yuuji looked over the gift in his arms one more time. It was a beautifully-wrapped box, with purple wrapping fabric tied at the top in a neckerchief-style bow. Inside was a package from a semi-famous sweets shop. It contained little sponge cakes, each one of them individually wrapped. The present was both pricy and stylish. Yuuji hoped it would be good enough.

Still standing on the threshold, Yuuji took a deep breath. It wouldn't look very cool to dawdle around. He should just go ahead and stop thinking about things so much. Yuuji raised one hand to the door and knocked.

There was a moment's pause. Then came a clattering noise as one window opened from some room above. Nagisa's head poked out from the opening. From this distance, his hair framed his face like a blue halo. "Yuuji? Hi!" he called down.

Yuuji grinned and waved back.

"I'm coming right down!" Nagisa's words echoed behind his retreating form.

A soft thumping came from inside the house as the boy went, moving from left to right.

Yuuji smiled to himself. He listened as the noises changed, picturing Nagisa moving through whatever the inside of his home was like. Yuuji shifted in place while he waited, adjusting his grip on the gift-

Wait. A thought stopped him cold. Had he left the price tag on? Shoot, he had forgotten all about it until-

There was a creaking noise as the hinges moved.

The person who opened the door was not Nagisa. Instead, a woman stood in the opening. She had short black hair, with bangs swept to one side. Her face was stern. She glowered down at Yuuji, keeping one hand braced against the doorway. When Yuuji's eyes flicked, trying to see over her arm, he found that she was blocking his view of the inside of the house.

"Are you that Norita boy?" said the woman.

"Y-yes?" Yuuji had never before sounded so unsure of his own name.

The woman stared at him for a few more seconds. Then she withdrew back inside. "Hmph. Come in."

Yuuji followed, letting out a breath that he hadn't even realized he was holding.

They stood together in the living room later, after Yuuji had kicked his shoes off and stored them in the entryway. He slowly looked around, taking in the image of where Nagisa lived. The space was clean and practical, featuring a large living room with a kitchen attached. Most of the furniture was in neutral colors.

The woman stood off to the side, tapping one finger against her folded arms. Yuuji snuck a glance at her once more. She was wearing a white sweater over a black pencil skirt. On her feet was a pair of low heels. Black and white clothing seemed to suit her, he realized.

What is she dressed for? Yuuji wondered. She an Office Lady or something? Overall this woman was beautiful, but it was a beauty that felt held together by very tight laces.

Yuuji brought up his gift and handed it over to her, bowing slightly as he gave it. "Thank you for letting me visit, Miss…Shiota, right?"

"Shiota Hiromi," she replied, glancing over the gift. She ran one finger lightly across its fabric.

Ah, Yuuji thought. So she was Nagisa's mother.

In that moment, Nagisa came thumping down the stairs. The boy froze in the entryway. He stared, eyes focused on Yuuji and his mother. "W-welcome, Yuuji…" he stuttered after a few moments.

The woman, Hiromi, tucked the gift under one arm and faced Yuuji again, peering down at him. Yuuji tried not to tense up. He could sense her gaze running over his skin. Somehow he knew everything she must be looking at—the brand of the clothes he was wearing, what kind of bag he had brought, how he carried himself… all of it would be things that she noticed. Oh, yes. He had met people like her before. He tried to match her gaze with a blank, harmless stare.

She opened her mouth.

"Lights out by ten," Nagisa's mother said. "It may be a weekend night, but you boys still need rest if you're going to do well in school. No extra rough-housing or horseplay. Keep it civil. The bedroom door must be open at least an inch at all times; Nagisa knows the drill. Oh, and do be careful to not trash the place."

She looked at Yuuji. "You coming was a surprise, but I'm sure we'll manage." Then the woman smiled kindly and left, walking into another room.

Yuuji stood, unsure what to say, until Nagisa came up beside him.

The boy gave Yuuji an apologetic smile. "Well, that was awkward," said Nagisa. "I never thought you'd meet my mom this early! But looks like it's all good now. You heard her—as long as we follow the rules, we'll be fine."

Yuuji shrugged. He adjusted the overnight bag on his shoulder, a small spark of excitement beginning to ignite within him. "Can't wait to get started."

Nagisa brought them up to his room. "Make yourself at home," he said, gesturing around with one hand.

Yuuji tossed his stuff down near the bed. He hadn't brought much—just enough for one sleepover night, and a few games.

The two of them exchanged the usual pleasantries, catching up on what had gone on in their lives since last time. Nagisa sat on his bed while Yuuji fiddled around in a rolling chair.

As it happened, Yuuji had brought a tennis ball, and within minutes they had made a game out of it. Yuuji and Nagisa took turns trying to shoot hoops with the wastebasket, muffling their laughter and placing pillows on the floor to stifle the thumping noises so Nagisa's mother wouldn't get angry.

Eventually, the action shifted naturally into conversation. The two of them just talked, kicking their feet and flopping around on the pillow-floor. They jabbered about school gossip, how awesome next summer was going to be, and what high schools their classmates were thinking of going to.

But that discussion led nowhere. Gradually, Yuuji began to almost feel like he was bragging. His classmates were all aiming for super-high-performance, super-high-price exclusive prep schools, while Nagisa kept saying that his classmates were more focused on the end of this school year than the start of the next one. And after a few more minutes, Yuuji began to realize that Nagisa actually hadn't given up much personal information on his friends at all. Yuuji decided to just let the conversation thread die.

They moved on to showing each other videos on the internet. That wasted a good two hours. By the time their recommended videos began to become randomized cooking shows and gaming playthroughs, their cheeks were hurting from laughter and Yuuji knew far more about Puzzle Monsters than he would ever need to know.

Eventually, they started playing board games. Yuuji learned that Nagisa was surprisingly good at chess, and was also adept at checkers. But he was awful at cards. Just god-awful. Every time he drew a busted hand, disappointment flashed clear as day on his face.

Yuuji played like a champ, racking up a few big streaks here and there. But he was careful not to overdemonstrate. He lost a few hands on purpose, choosing not to pursue paths that would lead to the largest bonus points. Faint memories flashed through his mind—velveted tables, cards flipping in the strobe lights of a dance club, a row of dingy, backlit counters in yet another rich-kid babysitting resort. Yuuji suppressed a shudder. He couldn't let Nagisa realize where he had learned his skills.

As they played through one last round of Othello, a thought came to Yuuji. He snuck a glance up at Nagisa, the boy's face frowning while he looked over the board.

Yuuji did see some similarities between Nagisa and his mother's appearance. They both had the same soft features, high forehead, and demure feeling about them. But Nagisa was also rather different. His hair color was wildly dissimilar, for one—blue was a far cry from black. Briefly, Yuuji wondered what Nagisa's father looked like.

"Umm…" Yuuji looked back towards the door, craning his neck a bit as if to see through the opening. "I'd really like to meet your father sometime. Will he be home later, or…?"

Nagisa blinked and then gave a soft smile. "My parents are divorced. Dad doesn't live with us."

Oh.

Yuuji felt like an anvil marked DUH had dropped on his head. "Oh. Okay," he said, sheepish.

He looked down, cheeks burning with embarrassment. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He shouldn't have asked. Why didn't he just leave it as Nagisa's business? Yuuji wished he could scream.

He should have known, anyway. Something twitched in the back of his mind. A shadow of a thought, of some familiar emptiness, the table set for two and not three, the eyes of a mother who knew that she alone was the entire world, of a space that was missing here too.

He took a breath. "Hey."

Nagisa glanced up at him with a questioning look.

"Wanna see this funny face my friends taught me?" Yuuji brought up his fingers, pulling on his nose while grimacing.

He relaxed once Nagisa began to laugh. A small grin crept onto Yuuji's face. Hopefully he had made up for his faux pas.

A knock came from the door.

"Boys," Nagisa's mother called through the one-inch crack. "Dinner's ready."

Yuuji and Nagisa looked at each other. Suddenly they were both starving.

They rushed to get downstairs, Yuuji winning the race to the door.

It was actually pretty fun eating dinner at a friend's house. And as it turned out, Nagisa's mom was a really good cook. There was shrimp and vegetable tempura, crunchy and delicious, with rice and a few side dishes as accompaniment. The three of them made polite conversation as they ate, with Nagisa's mother asking Yuuji questions about his school and plans for winter break.

When she asked how he knew Nagisa, Yuuji nearly choked on a shrimp. Luckily he managed to pass it off as a rough swallow, and said something about meeting Nagisa during their summer break island vacation. The other boy nodded and chimed in with a few more details, solidifying their story. Later during dinner, Yuuji caught Nagisa's eye and received a miniscule nod of confirmation. Yuuji breathed a sigh. It was a relief to know that he hadn't messed up whatever alibi Nagisa was living under.

When dinner was over, Yuuji felt pleasantly full. He trudged back upstairs along with Nagisa. There, they rushed to brush their teeth as it was already almost time for bed.

They set out Yuuji's stuff. Nagisa rolled out the guest futon, bringing him a pillow. Yuuji arranged his belongings, which mostly just consisted of taking whatever he needed and shoving things back into his bag after he was done using them.

Apparently the Shiotas had even reserved a small space in Nagisa's closet for him. Yuuji accepted the gesture in order to be gracious, allowing the boy to open the closet doors and start hanging up his clothes for the next day. When Yuuji came up behind Nagisa, peeking over his shoulder, Nagisa hurriedly shoved the rest of his clothes to the side. The hangers moved with a grating shrrk noise. All Yuuji saw was the wisp of something lacey with a butterfly pattern on it as the clothes disappeared from sight. But as Nagisa took the clothes from Yuuji's grasp two seconds later, all was forgotten.

At last they were both settled in.

"Okay, are you ready?" said Nagisa. He stood by the door with one hand placed on the light switch. In the next few seconds, Nagisa turned off the lights with a click, then ran back to his bed, tripping over Yuuji in the ensuing darkness. "Ow!"

" 'Ow'? That's my line!" Yuuji exclaimed, but stifled a laugh at the same time. "You ran into me!"

"Well, I didn't mean it!" Nagisa whined. "It was dark."

"I thought you had super-awesome-night-vision."

A pillow was thrown at him from Nagisa's direction. "You can't override human biology, dummy."

The teasing continued for a few more minutes. Then, slowly, the two of them settled down into a pre-sleep haze. A quiet atmosphere spread through the room. Only the occasional giggle or recalled joke broke the mood. Yuuji snickered from his place on the floor. Everything was always a little bit funnier after dark.

"Goodnight, Yuuji." Nagisa whispered, his breath a soft gust through the stillness.

Yuuji closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Nagisa."

Silence fell. All that existed now was a world of darkness. If Yuuji were to open his eyes, he knew that he wouldn't be able to see one foot in front of his face. But then perhaps, if he waited, he would just barely begin to make out the outlines of shapes. The curve of the room light hanging overhead. The top edge of the bookshelf. Darker patches along the wall that must be posters.

All these thoughts came to him through a fog, half-remembered and half-imagined, like images glimpsed through minuscule blinks or the beginnings of a dream. He didn't know anymore.

Somewhere in the night, there might have been the touch of the lightest footstep against the floorboards. A few moments later, the door might have opened just a sliver and then swung silently shut again. Nagisa, supplied Yuuji's mind as it shut down, probably stepping out to the bathroom.

Yuuji rolled over onto his side. His breathing deepened, his face relaxed. Everything slowed, falling into a comforting rhythm like the pushing and pulling of the tides. The shoreline was all around him.

Yuuji was supposed to be asleep.

He wasn't.

He wriggled. He clutched at the sheets. Yuuji hid a grin, stuffing it into his pillow. He couldn't do it. He was too excited to sleep!

Just think about it—this was Nagisa's place. It was smaller than his own house, and plainer, but oh well. It was charming in its own way. Yuuji rolled over, giving up on any attempts to quiet his mind. Dimly, he realized that hadn't spent much time away from home before. Besides, sleepovers were, like, super-rare here in Japan.

With his gaze now angled up towards the ceiling, Yuuji tried to take it all in. He looked around the room, seeing nothing in the darkness but trying to remember what had been. A closet. A bed. A set of dresser drawers over to the right. A bookshelf teeming with textbooks, study guides, and a few novels, some small action figures waiting on a nearby shelf. Everything in different shades of black.

Yuuji was still comparing this house to his place when the door opened.

It swung open wider than before. Its arc was a less careful wobble. A lone figure walked in, their footsteps a shuffle on the carpet.

A bead of sweat ran cold on Yuuji's forehead. Who was there? The mom? He wriggled around a bit and located his flashlight in the outside pocket of his bag. Then he turned around and flicked it on, shading the beam with his hand.

The figure was relatively short. They wore familiar flannel pajamas, standing there with lowered shoulders, scuffed cheeks, and long blue hair hanging down to their shoulders. They didn't say a word.

Yuuji squinted. He didn't recognize that long hair. But he had some experience with seeing past that familiar feminine appearance by now...

His eyes widened. Oh my god.

Yuuji scrambled to his feet, flashlight beam bouncing wildly. "Nagisa? That's you, isn't it?" he said.

Nagisa flinched away. He wouldn't look at Yuuji. His gaze stayed focused on some other point past him, as if Nagisa just wanted to get around him and move onto the bed. When Yuuji tried to reach out, he took his arm away.

"What the hell happened?"

"It's nothing," Nagisa replied.

"What is this?" Yuuji breathed. "Your face looks scratched." And it was true. The boy's cheeks were scuffed a bit, two thin lines there in the width of fingernails. But that wasn't all. Yuuji noticed Nagisa's hair was disheveled on the sides of his head. Dimly, he realized that he had never seen Nagisa with his hair worn long before. Yuuji's gaze flicked down. And were those a few band-aids on his fingers?

"I just came in to get a bandage," Nagisa mumbled. "Go back to sleep."

You keep bandages in your room? Yuuji's thoughts were running at a mile a minute.

Nagisa faced away, dodging all of Yuuji's pleading hands and concerned looks. For one moment, Yuuji thought he heard something like a muttered 'You shouldn't see this...'

"Nagisa," he repeated. "Tell me what's going on-"

"It's a dream, you'll wake up in the morning," Nagisa snapped.

Yuuji paused. He stared at the other boy. "This...this isn't a dream," he said. "I'm awake, I'm pretty sure. I didn't even fall asleep, so there's no way I'm imagining this right now."

Nagisa rubbed his arm. "It's nothing," he repeated. "Just an accident."

An accident? Yuuji couldn't believe that. His mind slowly ran through the possibilities. This didn't look like it had come from falling down the stairs, or from spilling something in the bathroom-

Something dawned on him.

"Nagisa… This happened when… when you went downstairs, didn't it?" said Yuuji, his insides turning to ice.

"Did… Did something…hit you?" he said, because the alternative was too horrifying to say out loud.

Nagisa gave no answer. No confirmation was needed. In the darkness, Yuuji thought he could see the boy's eyes shining with held-back tears.

The ice turned to shadow in Yuuji's guts. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.

Nagisa sighed. "Yuuji, it's nothing," he maintained. "She promised that she'd get better. It probably just…slipped her mind."

She. There was a lump in Yuuji's throat. His mind hardly seemed to process the words. Maybe this was all an illusion. Maybe this entire situation could just fade into the darkness of the night and vanish. They could blame it on the late hour, this time of dreams and nightmares and other things that were never real, only momentary.

Nagisa glanced down. The outline of his sky-blue, octopus-print pajamas was becoming more and more visible as Yuuji's vision adjusted. "I don't want you to worry," he whispered.

"How could I not worry?" Yuuji said, trying to sound soothing. "Nagisa, this… This is-"

"This isn't your problem."

"If it concerns you getting hurt, then it is my problem," Yuuji heard himself say. "You went down, and you came back up…well…"

"I'm not beaten," Nagisa retorted. He rubbed one cheek with his hand. "It's just a little bruise."

A little bruise?! Yuuji fell silent. He wanted to shake his head. He wanted to protest, to pull Nagisa farther away from that door, to do…something! But he just watched, expression grim.

A few moments passed.

"What can I do?" Nagisa suddenly burst out. "I'm dependent on her. I owe her my home, my food, my life…" His voice trailed off.

"Okay," Yuuji spoke in a whisper. He reached out toward the boy with one calming hand. Nagisa looked away, scowling whenever Yuuji tried to catch his gaze. "Okay," Yuuji said again. "Okay. Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Nagisa."

He didn't know why he was apologizing. He didn't even really know what he was apologizing for. But Nagisa seemed upset, and for the moment all Yuuji could concentrate on was the need to calm him down and make him feel alright again.

Nagisa took a deep breath, regrouping. He nodded once. "It's not that bad. Really. Like I said, she promised she would stop. That just takes some time, is all."

"I promised to stay with her only until I became an adult... That's not that far away, now," Nagisa said, his voice strained with optimism. "And she's my mother, I mean, she'll probably be really lonely once I've left, so we should spend as much time together while we still can, and I'm- I'm fine with being here for that..."

Yuuji's heart sunk. He felt a foreign, faint stirring of rage beneath it. This was all so wrong. How could Nagisa say those things? It sounded desperate, like someone who had been pretending for so long that they no longer had any energy left to do otherwise.

"No," Yuuji said. "No, I don't… Nagisa, listen. I don't think that your mother should-"

Nagisa twitched. "Stop," he said in a voice that made Yuuji's tongue freeze inside his mouth. "Don't you dare say one word against her."

Yuuji fell silent. He gestured helplessly with his hands and then out a deep sigh.

"Nagisa." He managed to take the boy's hand. "Look, I don't know what's been going on here, but…" Yuuji took a shaky breath. "Do you want me to call some people? I can-"

"No!" Nagisa pulled away roughly. "If you tell, then I'll never forgive you! Besides, that would just lead to even more trouble. What would people think, Yuuji? What would they say? I might lose my mother, and then what?" Nagisa's eyes glinted in the darkness, hurt and yet clear and still, inexplicably, filled with love.

The boy fidgeted in place. "I wasn't supposed to tell you about this, anyway. It'll only get worse if she finds out that I came here instead of cleaning up by myself."

Yuuji stood silent, at a complete loss. The feeling of despair hung heavy, threatening to overtake him. "So, we can't tell anyone?" he asked lamely.

Nagisa shook his head. "No." After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "Please don't."

Yuuji almost started to struggle, but then stopped. He looked at Nagisa, taking in the boy's face, his hands, his matted hair. But also, his stern expression—wounded and yet resolute.

Yuuji sagged. "Alright," he relented.

The smallest of smiles cracked across Nagisa's face. Gratitude.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

The boy nodded. He brushed past Yuuji, walking over to the bed and then crawling back into it. Nagisa pulled the covers over himself, sending the message that the night had returned to its previous level of normality.

Feeling dazed, Yuuji sat down on his futon. He spread himself out to lie inside of it, gathering the blankets around himself again.

But his thoughts refused to leave him alone.

Yuuji lay still as a stone, listening to the sound of his own breath as it came in what seemed like too-noisy bursts. He was scared. He was so scared, scared like a churning in his gut and a crawling over his skin. He couldn't name what had just happened here, but he was still scared of what it meant.

What should he do? What could he do? He had no training, no expertise that would help in this situation. For all Yuuji knew, he might just make things worse. Maybe it was getting better. Maybe this was the only time this had happened. Maybe it really was 'nothing'. If it was, then Yuuji didn't have to deal with it.

According to Nagisa, there was nothing to be done, anyway. Nagisa had said that he didn't even want Yuuji's help. He had told him to forget it, and assured him that things would be alright. He should respect Nagisa's wishes, right? Nagisa would know what was best for him. Yuuji's thoughts raced. He felt torn between options that didn't really exist. The emotions in his mind circled back and around again, always arriving at the same miserable conclusion.

But most of all…

He was just a kid. He had no power. Yuuji gripped the blankets tight around him, acutely aware of his hands holding nothing. He curled up into a ball and felt so helpless.

Nagisa was quiet on the bed next to him, the slight stirring of his breath the only hint of someone existing underneath the bedsheets. This time there was no exchange of goodnights between them.

Yuuji tried desperately to forget and hoped that Nagisa would be okay in the morning.

Yuuji stood in the living room. Mid-morning light bathed the entire space around him, bouncing off of the furniture. He adjusted the overnight bag resting on his shoulder—all packed and ready to go home.

On his left, Nagisa smiled up at him. "You got everything?"

Yuuji gave a quiet nod. "Yup."

"Good. I don't think you forgot anything, but if you did then I'll bring it to you later."

Soft footsteps sounded from around the corner. "Have a good rest of the week, Yuuji," Nagisa's mother called as she came into view. The woman's sweater top had been changed for a pressed white blouse. She had a small, kind smile on her face.

Yuuji muttered an automatic "Thank you". He looked at her carefully for a moment, sneaking one more glance before looking away.

He couldn't see it. She looked just the same as she did yesterday—a respectable career woman with a sharp mind and a prim feeling all about her. Charming. Put-together. Polished. Reasonably happy.

But Yuuji ducked his head. He knew the truth.

He paused in the entryway, tripped up by trying to put his shoes back on using his feet alone. Nagisa stood there, waiting patiently.

The blue-haired boy spread out one hand in a wave as Yuuji hesitated before heading for the door. "Thanks for coming over, Yuuji," he said. "I really enjoyed our time together."

"Yeah," said Yuuji, distracted. Suddenly everything felt like it was happening at a distance. Like he was living in the strange fugue state after awakening from a bad dream. All he could do was nod, and try to ignore the feeling of his spine being a concrete rod in his back. "Thanks for inviting me."

"Oh, boyyyys! Wait!" a voice shouted from the kitchen. Both of them froze as Nagisa's mother rushed in.

Hiromi Shiota looked at Yuuji with a beaming grin, one hand braced against the wall. "Just so you know, you're always welcome to come back and play again sometime, Yuuji," she said. "We loved having you here."

Nagisa gaped. He couldn't have looked more surprised if the roof had caved in. "Really, mom?"

"Of course!" Nagisa's mother chirped. "I love meeting my darling child's friends. It would be a pleasure to have you over in the future. Isn't that right, Nagisa?"

Yuuji stood, stunned. Slowly, his gaze drifted up past Nagisa, past Hiromi Shiota standing with one hand on her son's shoulder. There on the dining room table was the gift that he had brought, opened only on the top, where the price tag would surely be on full display.

Yuuji nodded, swallowing around what felt like sandpaper. He thanked the woman again and turned to leave.

As the door shut behind him, he wondered if he would ever come visit this house again.

Afterword: Yeahhh, so I don't believe that Nagisa's mom would back off that easily. Her apology in chapter 118 seemed really fake and shallow. The lovely sweetgums over on tumblr further pointed out to me that "in real life it's a very common tactic for abusers to claim to be sorry and ask for forgiveness, and even act all nice and gentle for a while, only to fall back into the abusive routine again (this is actually called the honeymoon period)." Hiromi's speech smacks of Honeymoon period to me, and in this chapter we learn that it's already run out.

Abusers can sometimes be very good at hiding their abuse, so in real life most people probably wouldn't notice the Shiota family's situation. However, Hiromi has been shown to have some major slip-ups in canon (losing her cool in front of Korosensei, for example) so maybe she's a bit more careless than the average?

Because of that, I figured it was believable for Yuuji to find out about things here.