Of course his good feeling had to go away once he went home.

He told his mom on the way that he wouldn't stay, and she was obviously mad, he doesn't understand why though. Not after she said this.

"He's going to be staying here once he's out of jail. You won't be able to stay here."

He was obviously taken aback. His mom chose Kisho over him. It's something he already suspected would happen, but having it actually take place hurts. Yukako says this, so why was she so mad when Kaminari said he wouldn't stay today?

God, she gets on his nerves so much.

"Okay. I'm taking more stuff to the dorms then. When's he getting out?" He asks like he doesn't care. It's getting to him and he acts angry to avoid crying in front of Yukako.

He doesn't look at her, so he can't tell if she's upset or surprised at his questions, but her voice shows how annoyed she is with him.

"He gets out next Friday."

Oh, what a great birthday gift this is.

"Okay. Is that what you wanted to talk about?" Kaminari is over this.

"Yes," she answers.

"Okay. I'm getting my stuff. I'll walk back to school. I'm spending my birthday with my friends."

Not waiting for an answer, he heads upstairs to his room, tears filling his eyes as he packs some of his stuff into a backpack. Once it's full, he grabs a duffle bag and puts some more of the stuff he wants at the dorms in there.

As soon as he's done, he walks downstairs, walking over to his mom to say goodbye. He just wants to hug her and let her know he's leaving.

She's talking on the phone and puts a hand up to tell him to wait.

"Yes, Love, but that's the problem," Yukako says into the phone.

She's talking to him.

"Bye, Ma."

He leaves without another look back, but his eyes burn and he knows the tears won't stop anytime soon.

~~~~~

Sero sees how upset Kaminari is when he walks into the dorms, ignoring everyone and walking straight to the elevators with two full bags.

He texts Shinso right away, and hopes that their friend is able to wipe the frown off of the blond's face.

Was it about his grades?

Maybe his dad?

Sero just hopes that Kaminari isn't too upset because he isolates himself and when he does that, it takes a toll on the group.

They all miss him when he gets like that.

He disappears and they only see him during class.

Sure, as soon as Kaminari sees them, he's all smiles and really, if they had no idea how to read him, it would be impossible to see how much their friend was hurting and faking and lying.

Sero, since he's not as close to Kaminari as he'd like, can only sit back and wait for Shinso to pull the blond out of his hole of sadness and despair. It's frustrating because he wants to be able to help his friend, but that can't be forced.

Sero has tried to be there for Kaminari countless times, but to be let in is a decision for Kaminari.

He isn't hurt by the fact that he wasn't someone who Kaminari let be close, but wished that he could do more. Other than give Kaminari his space, he can't really do anything, though.

When Shinso gets Sero's text, he's in his room. He'd just gotten back from the store, having gotten stuff for Kaminari. He might need more Band-Aids, gum, and Shinso just wanted to get him some snacks. Not because he likes Kaminari or anything. Haha.

He has the fattest crush in history and everyone knows.

---

Tape: Kaminari is heading up to his room. He's already back and does not look well. Please check in on him for me

6:43 pm

---

Shinso hurries to Kaminari's room, already having written more on the purple Band-Aids to give to the blond and taking them along with the other stuff he'd gotten for him.

Kaminari has been getting happier with himself. The blond doesn't seem to see it like a lot, but Shinso does.

A few knocks on the blond's door, a lot of shuffling from inside the room, and then the door is opened to reveal the blond with bloodshot eyes and a hoodie that was so wrinkled that Shinso wonders if it was thrown at the bottom of a laundry basket.

Kaminari makes eye contact with Shinso and immediately starts sobbing again, not talking until Shinso had closed the door. It's then, when Kaminari falls to his knees on give floor, screaming out sobs, that Shinso sees the red lines going down the blond's neck and crouches down with him.

His neck veins are sticking out with the sheer force of the scream, and the ragged lines that disappear under the sweater are smudged with blood.

Whatever it was that happened, it broke him. It broke him more than anything before.

Shinso wants to cry at the display, especially when Kaminari throws himself into Shinso's arms almost falling back, desperately gripping at Shinso's hoodie. The taller wraps his arms back around him, already forgetting about the bag of stuff that he had left thrown somewhere.

The blond sobs into Shinso's chest and it's so heart shattering that Shinso feels the pain physically.

"Hey, Denki. Sh," he says softly, rocking the blond back and forth, "come on, breathe."

Said teen's sobs are broken and get caught on gasps of breaths he takes in between the long cries of mental anguish.

Shinso feels the amount of force it takes the blond to breathe in after a sob.

"I've got you," Shinso says, voice so close to breaking.

The blond doesn't slow down on the crying, but sobs out broken words, not very intelligible, and so incredibly sad, even if Shinso doesn't understand it the first time.

It takes a few tries, but Kaminari finally says it to where Shinso can understand.

"She-" a gasp in between a sob, "-he's movi-oving in."

He's moving in.

Kisho.

"Where, to your house?"

A loud sob of 'yes' and Shinso is filled with hatred for Yukako.

Shinso fixes himself on the floor, setting Kaminari on his lap after asking if "it's okay" to which the blond nodded through a cry.

The blond has his legs wrapped around give taller teen, seated on Shinso's thighs, arms wrapped desperately around his torso, gripping the hoodie.

This has never happened.

It's never been this bad.

Shinso keeps rocking the blond, and slowly, almost after an eternity, does Kaminari go quiet, only sniffling.

"Let's go to the bed," Shinso whispers.

"You-" his voice sounds gone, "you called me Denki."

Shinso goes red, but just slightly before nodding.

"I thought it would work," he reasons.

Kaminari nods. "It did."

He goes to get off of Shinso, but the other doesn't let him.

"I thought you wanted to go-"

"Oh, yeah."

They get off the floor, Shinso picking up the bag by the door, making sure the door is locked before heading over to the bed with Kaminari.

"I got you a few things," the taller says.

Kaminari nods, looking at the bag, but never at Shinso.

"We can go through this later. Let's relax for now," Shinso decides, putting the grocery bag on the dresser.

Once Shinso is under the covers, Kaminari hugs him, making Shinso turn on his side to bury himself into his chest. "Is this okay?" Kaminari asks.

"Yeah, I was about to ask you," Shinso replies.

"Just don't rub my back or squeeze."

Shinso nods at the instructions.

"You wanna talk about what happened? I saw the scratches under your hoodie. Are there more?" His voice is so soft when he asks, and Kaminari melts.

"My mom just told me that my dad would be released soon and that he'd be going back to our house, so that I couldn't stay or go over. Not with him there," he explains.

Shinso's anger at Yukako returns.

"I don't know where I'm gonna go f-" he breathes in deeply, calming himself down, "for the summer break."

The dorms had just opened recently, so staying for the summer bad never been discussed. It was all so new, and Kaminari had never feared being homeless before.

"If you can't stay at the dorms, then my house is free."

Kaminari shakes his head. "I won't stay at your house. I'll figure something out if the dorms aren't an option."

The tears had started up again.

"The scratches," Shinso prompts.

Kaminari squeezes his eyes shut.

"I thought a-about living there anyway. Forgetting the other stuff and I couldn- it was too much to imagine. The flash- I kept getting flashbacks."

Shinso bites his lip to keep himself from threatening Kaminari's parents out loud.

"Are there more?"

A nod.

"We'll clean them later, do you want to sleep?"

"We can clean them now. I'm sleepy, but I won't be able to fall asleep. Not now. I'm really sorry."

Shinso shuts that down immediately. "Don't ever apologize for that. Now, come on," Shinso says, and they both leave the warmth of the blankets, Shinso bringing the box of Band-Aids.

Shinso turns around when Kaminari goes to take off his hoodie, noticing how Kaminari kind of curled in on himself when he first went to grab the bottom of it.

Kisho, the bastard.

"He liked to watch me undress," Kaminari said numbly, "I'm done now."

The words haunted Shinso.

He liked to watch me undress.

When he turned, his eyes didn't immediately go to Kaminari's body, but instead, his eyes. Those eyes that showed every unspeakable thing that Kaminari went through and tried his hardest to hide.

When Kaminari saw Shinso, actually looked at him instead of down, his eyes widened.

Shinso saw those eyes widen and tear up almost instantly.

"Y- I trust you so much. You could do what he did and I'd let you no matter how much I don't want it. I'm so weak- I'm so damn weak, and you respect me. You respect me so much and I see how much I deserve that respect when I'm with you. Even like this. You- you didn't inspect my body like it was a puzzle or just some thing. You looked at me. Because I matter."

His voice shook with every word, but Shinso looked at him still with that respect and Kaminari was just shocked.

"You do matter. You're not weak. You deserve all the respect."

Shinso said it like it was set in stone.

Just true without any arguments.

And Kaminari believed the words.

When Kaminari finally allowed Shinso to clean up the scratches, Shinso did with care. The disinfectant burned, and when Kaminari hissed in pain, Shinso looked up to meet his eyes.

"If it hurts, just squeeze my shoulders."

With a nod and his hands now on Shinso's shoulders, the other continued.

The scratches were deep and the blood was smudged everywhere, probably from how fast Kaminari threw on the sweater.

Once he'd bandaged Kaminari up, he took out the purple Band-Aids and started places them on Kaminari. The blond didn't see it coming, but when he saw what they said, he bit his lip and the tears spilled from his eyes.

When Shinso stood up, coming eye-to-eye with the blond, he spoke. "I'd never do what he did. Ever."

That seemed to make the tears fall faster, Kaminari wiping them to no avail as they just continued.

"I know that."

***
Word Count: 1,945
Hi people!! I hope yall liked this chapter. New years was so fun oml but my throat is fucking dead. It hurts so bad wtfff. Anyway thank you all for reading. The next chapter will go up next Sunday at 8pm central time. I love you all<3