(A/N): Still looking for beta readers. Also, I wasn't planning to do romance in this story but people seem to be a fan of the idea. Who do you think 8man should end up with? Sound off in the reviews. Almost any pairing is fair game with a few exceptions. I won't pair him with anyone that goes against basic decency, eg Tsurumi or Komachi. Besides that anyone from either verse is acceptable. I am also open to suggestions for thruples, eg 8man x Yukino x Yui. Again common decency still applies.

My return back to normal life was wrong, unexpectedly. When Komachi burst through the front door. I walked in behind her hoisting our bags. "Oh hey Mom, Dad." Komachi said.

I held back a groan when I saw them both sitting down in the living room. Making use of the couch that I'd paid for. On the floor that I'd had redone.

"Hello." I greeted, though the response was terser than I'd meant it to be.

"Hello Hachiman, Komachi." My father greeted us like this was a normal thing for him to do. Like they had been there for us beforehand. Like I hadn't been doing both of their jobs since I was a little boy taking care of a littler sister.

"Can we talk to you?" My father cleared his throat as if that was the only impediment between us and a good relationship.

"What's this about?" I winced as the words came out. They were icy and curt, more what I would expect from Shinomiya when she retreated into herself than me.

Before an argument could break out, I put a hand on Komachi's shoulder. "Little Sis, go upstairs."

"No." Was her quiet but resolute response. Mother and Father stayed quiet but observed keenly.

"Komachi, this isn't a discussion, go upstairs, now." My eyes narrowed as she refused to move.

"No, I refuse." Her shoulders were tense, carrying an incredible burden. I could really see the resemblance between the two of us.

"Trust me, you don't want to be here for this." I pleaded. My Hand laid lightly on her shoulder, patting her head for a moment before returning.

"No trust me, I heard what happened last time. I won't let that happen again. I refuse." She spun, wrenching my arm off her shoulder in the process. She put herself protectively in front of me. "If you are going to try something on him, you'll have to deal with me."

Both my mother and father's eyes were wide. My mother, always the more eloquent of the two, managed to choke out a "we'll discuss the matter with you later." She retreated upstairs to her bedroom and my father marched towards our backyard.

I picked my bag up off the floor. How the hell could I leave Komachi at home with them. "Komachi, I have to go help out with a school thing at a summer camp. It's in the wilderness and is probably going to suck, it's going to be one night because I'm getting there late."

She laughed, "Don't worry you have my blessing to go. I'll be fine here." I frowned at her words.

"I can set you up in a great hotel for the evening."

Komachi waved me off. "I'm excited to sleep in my own bed tonight."

"Fine, but call me if anything happens." I stared at her in the eyes.

"Okay, big bro. Have a nice trip. Enjoy the bugs." She waved as I ascended the stairs. I entered my room and dumped my bag. Opting instead for a briefcase, I threw in the bare essentials, along with my phone. However, the only person marked as essential was Komachi and any other message would be filtered by my do not disturb function.

I left the house as quickly as I entered with a promise from Komachi to tell Mother and Father where I was if they asked. The chauffeur held the door open for me and I hopped in. Nodding off as soon as the door closed.

I didn't achieve a deep state of unconsciousness but couldn't be bothered to open my eyes. When I heard paved roads give way to gravel and then felt the engine shut off I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I pulled myself languidly from the car. The sun's rays beat down on me and I felt grateful for the white shirt that I was wearing.

I nodded to the driver and promised to put in a good word for him with his boss. I marked a reminder in my phone to do just that before ambling down the dirt path toward the camp. I heard the camp first, the sound of impact resounded through the forest. As I came through the clearing I saw the source, the orange-haired kid from Hayama's clique was splitting wood from a huge pile and hauling it. Hayama and He were working in conjunction. I crept behind them uninterested in any social airs that they would try and put on. Instead I approached Hiratsuka, clad in a baseball cap.

"Hello, Hikigaya. I wasn't sure that you were going to show up." She complained while supervising work done in the camp.

"I wasn't sure if I was going to show up." I confessed. Glancing away.

"Well you're here now and that's what counts." She smiled. "Now shoo, there's firewood that needs chopping for you and kids that need supervision from me."

I nodded and turned, resolved to a day of building bonfires. However before I could depart, a cry of "Hikki" stopped me. Yuigahama raced towards me.

I watched the waves of energy ripple through her body as she flounced toward me. She reached me and then leaned into my personal space. "It's so good to see you. I'm so glad that you made it. We have a situation that needs dealing with."

"What kind of situation?" I asked, unenthusiastically.

She smiled and grabbed my non-briefcase carrying hand. "Let's go to Yukinon, we'll all discuss it there."

She led me through the camp until we came upon Yukinoshita. She was teaching a gaggle of elementary schoolers how to make curry. Yukinoshita had her hair tied back and covered with a bandana, talking as she stirred a pot. She looked satisfied as her students listened raptly.

"YUKINON!" Yui shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. Yukinoshita turned with a glare, and excused herself from the group with a quiet word before marching toward us with a vengeance.

"Hikigaya, what nonsense are you pulling? Having Yuigahama shout like that." She glared and then flipped her long locks.

"You should know, Yui needs no encouragement to engage in tomfoolery." I protested, sliding out of reach from Yui.

"Meanie, Hikki."

"Fair point Hikigaya."

"Not you too Yukinon."

We bickered for a moment longer and I allowed myself to fall into the comfortable repetition. Surprisingly Yui was the one to get us back on track. "Irregardless of our argument-" she began

"Irregardless isn't a word." Yukinoshita and I cut in, simultaneously.

"Irregardless of your interruption, what are we going to do about that?" Yui pointedly ignored our suggestions and gestured broadly to the group of grade school girls. I observed and saw that there was a trio conversing easily while one girl stood a few paces away, looking anywhere but at them.

"What is the desired end result?" I yawned as I spoke.

"Hikigaya, it should be obvious. Especially for someone like you." Yukinoshita's icy sapphire eyes bored into mine. "We want her to be less alone."

"Duh, Hikki." Yuigahama added.

"How would you get someone without friends to open up?" I retorted, opening my briefcase and popping a mint into my mouth.

"Evidently we haven't found a solution and are therefore asking you." Yukinoshita berated me. I began to turn and walk away.

"Okay, I'll see if something comes to mind." I returned the way we came. Yui trailing behind me. We walked quietly, for about a minute. Less than the time it takes to cook instant ramen before Yui broke the silence.

"You already have a plan, don't you?" She increased her gait and walked beside me.

"Not a plan, just a loose array of thoughts on the matter."

"Well, how about you share them with me. Maybe that'll get the creative juices flowing." I listened, flicking a fly away from my ear.

"Well, then my current idea is relatively simplistic. In it, that girl." I waited for Yui's amendment.

"Rumi Tsurumi."

"Yes, in this plan, Tsurumi will approach them with a new friendlier disposition. An easy way to fix the problem is an attitude adjustment." I concluded, wishing that I had stayed home. Off all the ridiculous nonsense I do for my friends this has got to be the worst.

"That's your master plan." She said, not outright criticizing but evidently disappointed.

"Oh, like everyone else has come up with brilliant ideas." I grumbled. "What was Hayamas? No, let me guess, how about we all just get along." I parroted his cadence of speech. He was really the only one after Shuuchin who I fundamentally disliked, his cowardice obvious to even the most uninformed observer.

The others were obstacles in my way at times but I didn't hate them on principle. Hiratsuka was doing what she thought was best albeit with underhanded methods. Haruno Yukinoshita was more a force of entropy than she was a force of evil. Besides from what I had gleaned from Yukinoshita about her family, Haruno's autonomy may be quite limited.

I finished my internal soliloquy to find Yuigahama, glaring at me. "What's your problem with Hayato? He's a nice guy." And just when I was beginning to respect her intuition and backbone.

I was going to tell her, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was going to. But that didn't mean I looked forward to hurting her. I rest a hand on her shoulder and she flustered, though whether that was due to proximity with men or me specifically was unclear. "Hayama isn't a stupid guy. He's aware of Moira's feelings for him but does nothing. That's why I have no respect for him, people who avoid change and seek to always maintain stasis are nothing but cowards."

Yui wasn't stricken by this information, nor did she look angry. Her expression was warm and matronly. She raised a soft hand up and cupped my cheek. "Hikki, are you sure you're not projecting? You know what I feel for you but you choose not to acknowledge it." I recoiled back as if stricken but she wasn't finished. "I'm not saying these things to hurt you but to prove a point. Sometimes when you care for someone you put off hurting them. As the time grows so does the amount of hurt they would feel so you keep on putting it off." She stroked my face once before retreating, leaving me frozen.

Had I been leading her on?

The question consumed me as I hauled firewood. As I dipped my feet in the river to cool off and as I let Tsurumi vent to me about her loneliness, I responded with my advice about adjusting her attitude. She rolled her eyes at me and stomped away but I could barely be bothered to notice.

I only really snapped out of my haze the next day when we were packing up; Yui, who had avoided me yesterday, approached. "Uhh Hikki, good job."

I blinked "I'm just putting away benches, but thank you for the compliment."

She laughed, "Not that, dummy." I ignored the irony of her statement. She pointed behind me and I followed her gaze to Tsurumi. The trio of girls still ignored her but she was chatting amicably with another girl wearing braids and glasses. I smiled at the sight. "Good job, for that. She really took your advice to heart and approached a girl from another school who was also sitting alone."

I nodded and resumed stacking benches, Yui's words about why we stagnate relationships. I thought about Yui's touch and her kindness. She deserved better than a guy who couldn't commit to her. I turned to face her. "Yui, let's take a stroll. We have a couple of minutes before we have to leave."

She nodded and walked abreast with me a few hundred meters away from the others.

When we'd reached what I judged to be an appropriate distance I turned to face her. "Yui, I…"

She cut me off and grabbed my hands. "Hikki, it's okay, you don't feel the same way. Thank you for being honest." I blinked. But upon examination, she seemed to show no signs of distress.

"Are you really so okay with this?" I asked.

Yui smiled, "Yeah, I am. The truth was yes I had a crush on you but it wasn't love and I'm not heartbroken; a little disappointed, maybe. But heartbroken, definitely not." She let go of my hands and turned 90 degrees facing the trees. "It May have developed into love if you ignored my feelings but as of now it didn't get that far."

I nodded along, shell-shocked at how smoothly my first time rejecting another person was going. "Hikki, I hope we can still be friends. Irregardless of anything else, I really do care about our friendship."

My discomfort eased and I pulled her into a hug. "Of course, I was worried you wouldn't want to, but I would be happy to keep on being friends."

She pulled back "Then, how about as our first act of friends with the air cleared between us, you go with me to the fireworks festival coming up?"

I nodded, eagerly. "Of course." Even if I had a meeting with the prime minister I would reschedule for this. The actions were out of character for me but then again, her maturity and kindness had surprised; and relieved me, if I was being honest.

We walked back to camp, closer than before. Laughing at her take about Yukinoshita and a centipede in the shower. We sat together in the back of the van that Hiratsuka drove us back in too. Sharing little jokes and hushed whispers. I couldn't remember the last time I had done this with anyone. I was so happy I ignored the myriad of suspicious looks thrown our way by the other passengers.

When the car ride finally concluded I stepped out and stretched my stiff legs. The passengers bid each other goodbye and trekked our separate ways. Yui promised to text me to work out the details of our plan. Hiratsuka raced away telling us something about how if she didn't get there by two pm the rental company added another day of fees.

In a matter of two minutes, everyone but me and Yukinoshita had wandered away. I glanced over and she glared back. "Don't you have somewhere to be, Hiki-busy-Kun?"

I chuckled halfheartedly. "Yeah but I'm not looking forward to it." I learnt against a wall to support my weight. "My parents say that we have something to discuss, and that's never a good sign." I slid to the floor, already tired of standing.

"I can empathize. I'm being picked up to speak with my mother and am not looking forward to it." She slid next to me, resting her expensive looking capris on the slightly dirty floor.

I offered a consolatory nod as we waited together. Both content to sit in silence. That was until a familiar black car pulled up to the curb. Black tinted windows reflecting. Out of the car stepped two figures, the familiar one of Haruno Yukinoshita, and one of a slightly older woman clad in a kimono.

We both scrambled to our feet as Haruno giggled and opened her mouth. But her mother held a hand up to silence her. "Hachiman Hikigaya, it is an honor to meet you." She inclined her head towards me.