A/N: I have definitely been procrastinating, trying to find my way back to this story, and truth be told the thing that brought me back and made me get over my writer's block was that lovely review from Crows-Love-Henry. Thank you, you lovely user, you! It pushed me to re-read this entire story to find out where I had this headed. And so, here we go!

"If you're so intent on studying things you already know then fine: go and get your books." Kenji smirked, and tossed all of Kamiko's study materials out the window, in front of Seishun's gates.

The next thing Kamiko knew, the car had stopped suddenly and Kenji had all but passive-aggressively shoved her out the car. She fell onto her lab books, wincing as she noticed her injuries and ignoring them after a second's glance.

"Thankfully it was just the paperbacks..." She mumbled, somehow convincing herself that that was the upside to the situation.

"That's only because I have the hardbacks."

Her eyes widened, and Kamiko looked up to see a glaring Momo standing in front of her, and Kaidoh holding out the rest of her books beside her. She smiled happily at them, and the two boys' serious demeanor caused her to sense that they had seen more than just her falling beside her books.

"Momo-nii? Mamu-nii? What are you two-"

"Did he hurt you anywhere else?" Kaidoh asked gruffly, he hissed when he saw Kamiko pull her sleeve down to hide the scratches and bruises on her arm from yesterday.

"Anywhere else?" She asked, 'The only time I was injured was- oh no.'

"We saw everything that happened last night." Momo revealed, "And we'd like an explanation, Kami-chan."

The look in Kamiko's eyes were more than hurt, and Momo and Kaidoh realized it was the first time that they'd seen the girl this serious, other than yesterday. She shook her head, and shamefully retreated from them.

"I-I can't explain right now, Momoshiro. I'm sorry!"

Kamiko didn't want to explain, she couldn't even think straight, but she knew she wanted to be alone. So she ran away from them, towards the other end of the school opposite the two boys. And they were just about to chase after until a teacher had caught them and hurried them to their classes.

All morning Momo kept glancing to the empty seat beside him.

Where could she have gone?

"Isn't this all a bit... Hasty?" Oshitari asked cautiously, he dodged the wires hanging from above and watched as Hitomi tried connecting and taping them together.

A broken light hadn't been fixed yet, and Hitomi decided to take matters into her own hands. She needed to set up stage lights and make sure everything looked right for the upcoming show; she also needed to stay busy whenever she wasn't, but she decided not to dwell too long on the why.

"It's not hasty! Why would it be hasty?" She grunted as she reached towards the spotlight, "If I could just get that light..."

"Be careful, Hitomi-chan!" Suzuki yelled. Well, Hitomi found that Suzuki's yell was equivalent to that of a child's indoor voice. In other words, her yell was the normal volume of people's speaking. Hitomi didn't mind though, and, because Oshitari had managed to charm his way into making Suzuki talk to him, Suzuki didn't mind speaking in front of the two.

Currently, Hitomi was above the stage, where the spotlights hung, standing on a tall machine that lifted her up to the ceiling while she was reaching out. Oshitari didn't want to admit it, but he was feeling anxious about his friend, and he was standing center stage, looking above at her.

"There's a reason that the school calls lighting technicians."

Hitomi's grunt was more forceful as she pulled out another set of wires, she replaced them with the hanging wires, "And they're the reason why I'm up here in the first place."

"If you could just hurry, Hitomi, because Atobe is-"

"Don't talk about him here."

"Atobe-san donated this theatre to the school in the first place." Suzuki reasoned with a frown. After hanging out for days on end practically non stop (for Suzuki's parents were delighted at the prospect of having Hitomi sleepover), the two girls were closer than ever and Suzuki was now caught up in the whole ordeal. Hitomi even told Suzuki her darkest secrets, ones that only few people knew, and Suzuki felt that now that they were friends, she had grown a little bit more confident as well.

Hitomi scoffed, "And he hasn't once stepped onto this very stage. He uses the assembly one because it fits more people."

"Not yet, at least," The tensai sighed, there was no arguing with Hitomi, "I'm sure there will be opportunities to present himself."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen." Hitomi stepped off the ladder carefully, making sure not to slip. Hitomi's instinct led her to grab Oshitari's held out hand, but, before she could, she stopped herself, "You can go, Oshitari. I didn't need help in the first place."

Oshitari couldn't help but be slightly amused, "You know that avoiding the whole tennis club is not a wise decision, and it won't help anyone. Especially not you."

"I'm sure I'll be fine. Thank you, Oshitari."

The tensai finally agreed to Hitomi's adamant request, and as soon as the theatre doors closed Hitomi slid down onto the floor. Her hands and legs had been shaking the whole time she spoke to Oshitari. The offer of staying at Atobe's was brought up by the blue-haired tensai once again, and after everything that had happened the entire team, sans Atobe, had urgently insisted that she go.

After the second incident with Kenji, and once they'd found out about Hitomi's father, Hitomi had wanted to. The only thing that stopped her was the hubris that she accumulated when defying Atobe. She didn't want to depend on him, she's been depending on nobody but two people for years. Even when she liked the spoiled diva she had always made sure to catch his eye through annoying, Atobe-defying stunts. It was in her nature to rebel whenever someone told her she couldn't do anything. She could very well do what she pleased, and that included finding help elsewhere.

Besides, after the other night, when Atobe had gone against Marc... well, there was no way she could accept now, right?

"What do I do..." Hitomi mumbled. It was one thing on top of another, with her home life and now Kenji. No place seemed safe. Maybe if she set boundaries with Atobe...

"Maybe... You should set boundaries?"

Suzuki's brilliant mind was already conjuring up thousands of possibilities, Hitomi could see. Suzuki was an under-exaggerated genius in science and mathematics, and her mathematical solving skills was how she thought of even the most common happenings throughout an ordinary day. It was only normal for Suzuki to unconsciously start solving the problem at hand.

"No. I can deal with this myself." Hitomi assured Suzuki and her own inner thoughts and took in a deep, calm breath. She let it out calmly just to make sure she could keep her cool.

"Hitomi-chan, you don't know how Atobe-san-"

Suzuki stopped herself when noticing how down Hitomi was, and bit her lip nervously. Even though the two were fairly good friends, she felt disrespectful when going over boundaries (though the two opened up to each other so much that it felt like they had no secrets to tell, and therefore no boundaries).

"Do you want to sleepover tonight?" Suzuki asked in her normal, hushed tone.

Hitomi nodded, a solemn smile from thinking too much was still on her face, "Thank you, I would love to."

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/plot/etc., of the PoT manga/anime.