A/N

Another request from smallsquash! Warning: physical abuse

Y/n had always just been the cute kouhai that seemed way too perfect to like him. Her grades were a bit high, she was fairly cute, she wasn't overly friendly but almost everyone who knew her thought she was a nice person...you get the picture, right?

Sure, Kunimi had been described by some people as a pretty boy, and he had high grades for someone so lazy. And of course, he was good at volleyball. But he wasn't exactly popular. Not like Oikawa-senpai was anyway...even after the former third-years graduated. Well, he'd never wanted to be popular.

The current team all met her when she started as their manager. He'd only gone to greet her briefly then, mostly uninterested but slightly curious because they'd never had a manager before. On their way home after practice that day, Kindaichi disbelievingly told him about how Y/n said her reason for joining was because it seemed like the club with the least work.

Kunimi respected her blatant statement of laziness but had briefly wondered why she didn't just join the "going home club". He didn't dwell too much on it though, figuring it wasn't his business. He'd never been the nosy or overly curious type anyway.

A few weeks later he had been asked to help her buy meat buns for them as the rest of the team cleaned up. He felt especially sleepy due to the cold weather but he figured it was better than picking up all the volleyballs they'd scattered during spiking practice, so he shrugged and followed her out.

As they walked, she hummed a small tune and smiled up at the sky. He couldn't help but notice how wide and doll-like her eyes looked in the early evening moonlight. She really did seem like such a nice, cheerful person. Like a perfect child, unlike him. Well, he never really tried or particularly wanted to be one. It just felt weird for someone like that to actually exist.

"A doll made out of glass," he muttered without thinking, and she skidded to a halt.

She tilted her head to the side and stared at him, suddenly looking as fragile as his description of her.

"What is it?" he asked, continuing to walk.

"Nothing...I just remembered a song I used to like..." she exclaimed, and hurried after him, with that same smile that suddenly looked trained.

He carried most of the meat buns for her since he knew the rest of the team would probably yell at him if he didn't, but she insisted on carrying at least one bag of them. They could see the stars already as they walked back, practice had run a bit long today, partially due to a fight between Kyotani and the new first years.

"Ne, can I call you Akira-Senpai?" she asked out of the blue, and the question was so unexpected that he actually glanced at her.

"...why?"

"I just like how it sounds!" she replied, flashing a brief close eyed smile.

"...mmm why not..." he replied with a yawn.

"Nice!"

He didn't know how, but she slowly started to become his friend. She almost always had lunch with him and Kindaichi, which kind of puzzled both of them at first. Even if they were in the same club, you'd expect that she would hang out with kids from her own year. She even went out with the two of them during weekends sometimes.

One thing that she never did with them, though, was walking home together. One day, Kindaichi had gotten fed up with his curiosity and followed her home, dragging Kunimi with him. They'd always figured that she went home with friends from her own class, or that her house was in the opposite direction as theirs. It wasn't. It was in the same district actually.

Kindaichi had puzzled over it the whole way that they were following her, annoying Kunimi.

"Don't you think it's so weird? I mean she has no reason to walk alone! She feels like such a people person and she's always been so attached to us!" he had exclaimed as they walked to their own houses.

"Just because someone seems like an extrovert doesn't mean they don't like alone time too," he shrugged, but there was a nagging feeling in his gut that she wanted to avoid them seeing her house.

A year had passed but Y/n remained their friend and the club's manager. The three of them had grown closer, and Kunimi was suddenly aware of the fact that he was a third-year now, and that this was his last year before he graduated.

"Akira-senpai~" she reached out to steal a salted caramel candy bar from his desk as soon as she appeared in their classroom.

That's right, she'd also grown a bit cheekier. At least nobody else but the three of them tended to eat lunch in the classroom, he might not have cared about it much but he still had a reputation. He grunted as he woke up, raising his hand to swat hers away. He was suddenly wide awake when he realized that she had flinched away from his hand, as if afraid that he might actually hit her with force.

"Y/n-chan...?" he stared at her in confusion.

She merely laughed and used his distraction to steal some of his candy, quickly getting over whatever daze she had been in, and he sighed.

"Oi. Give it back," he reached out and started poking her repeatedly on the shoulder.

She was laughing at first, but during one of his pokes she suddenly flinched away and the candy she was unwrapping fell to the floor with a soft yet resounding thud.

Kunimi's eyes seemed to cloud over as he attempted to calmly process everything he knew about her, trying to make sure he hadn't jumped to conclusions. He stole a glance at her and saw that she had frozen in place. He didn't know why but the sight made him decide that he was probably right.

"Y/n. Take off your clothes right now," his voice was gentle but surprisingly firm.

Of course, Kindaichi picked this precise moment to walk in.

"Woah, woah, woah! My best friend since middle school is a lolicon?" he waved his arms around in disbelief.

Y/n, despite blushing brighter than she had ever done in her entire life, managed to squeak out, "I'm only one year younger you know!"

Kunimi rolled his eyes, "That's what you idiots are worried about?"

Y/n and Kindaichi started to yell a bunch of other things but Kunimi sharply cut them off, "Look I'm really sleepy so I want to get this done quickly. Kindaichi, it's not whatever weird thing you thought it was. Y/n, I know you're smart enough to know that I've figured it out, so there's no point in avoiding it."

"Are you comfortable with showing Kindaichi too or am I going to make him leave only for us to have to fumble up excuses later?" he raised an eyebrow as Kindaichi sputtered.

"Stupid shallot head..." she muttered as she began taking her school-issued cardigan off.

Kunimi shushed Kindaichi when he almost yelped. Sighing, she unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall to her wrists, leaving her in only her camisole.

"...wha?" Kindaichi blinked at the sight once Kunimi had pried his eyes open.

"...I didn't expect there to be this many. I'm not letting you go home today," Kunimi's normally dull eyes blazed with anger for the first time in ages.

And he had good reason to be angry. Across her skin were countless bruises, the majority were blue and purple but they ranged from fresh red ones to faded yellow ones...A glass doll that was splashed with too many colors. And far too much pain.

"Who the hell did this to you?!" Kindaichi yelled as soon as he regained his senses.

Y/n's only reply was to slip her blouse back up and begin buttoning it.

Kindaichi looked to Kunimi and was taken aback by the solemn expression on his face.

"Kindaichi..." he pulled him outside the classroom to explain as Y/n slipped on the rest of her clothes.

"But she always seemed so...happy...but I guess it does make sense..." Kindaichi muttered to himself after Kunimi relayed all the little things he had noticed about her...and her reaction earlier that had suddenly made him sure enough of his suspicions to confront her like that.

The bell rang and students started filing into the classroom just as Y/n made her way out wordlessly. As the chattering students took their seats, Kindaichi couldn't help but sigh at the missed opportunity. He had so much to ask her. And on top of that he had really wanted to tease Kunimi about observing her so closely...but he knew it wasn't the time. Damn, and it was so rare for him to be the one to tease Kunimi instead of the other way around...

When they arrived at the gym after classes finished, Y/n was nowhere to be found. The two of them cursed loudly, shocking the underclassmen who knew Kindaichi to avoid cursing and Kunimi to always be composed.

"Kunimi, I can't skip. I'm the captain," Kindaichi gritted his teeth.

"It's alright, I'll find her. Don't worry," Kunimi said, his voice barely above a whisper, as he blew out of the gym.

He searched for her in a blur in her usual spots all over the school, shocking everyone who knew him, since, you know, nobody had seen him with that much energy before.

"Y/n...I can't...let you go home today," he huffed as he placed his hands on his knees.

Of all the places he'd found her, it was sitting on the wall behind the school. Of course, she would have been in a spot he wouldn't immediately think to look. He scolded himself for not considering how she thought in his panic.

"No, that's not right...It's not really home is it?" he looked up at her to see her face make an expression it had never made before.

She was so close to breaking down, her eyes were already brimming with tears, and for once her lips weren't curled up into her insincere smile. While his heart hurt at the sight, he felt a strange relief at the fact that she was finally showing him the side of her that wasn't the sculpted perfect doll everyone thought she was.

With a small hiccup, she hopped down clumsily and stumbled into his arms.

After a few moments of silence, he heard her whisper weakly, "It's not that bad you know...It's just that I forgot that arranging my books like that reminded mother of father and...and I didn't do my best in our last exams...I'm sure once I'm part of the top ten again..."

He shushed her and sat them down on the grass, stroking her hair lightly. She clutched his jacket tightly, letting her tears out as he stared up at the late afternoon sky.

"Remember last year when you told me...to always stay here and never leave me..." he began singing a song he recalled she liked as her breathing started to calm.

She finally removed her face from his chest and stared at him as he continued, "The light from your eyes made it feel like...we-e-e were dancing in the moonlight..."

He looked down at her and gently wiped away the remaining tears on her eyes, suddenly glad that his singing voice could always calm others easily.

"I'll ask sensei to find you a lawyer to settle the whole thing. Until we can find a kind relative to be your guardian everyone in the team will take turns housing you. We can even ask our former senpais. Don't worry, there's so many of us that it will just feel like you're having a bunch of consecutive sleepovers," he said, smiling in what he hoped was a comforting way.

"But...I'll be eighteen next year. That's a waste of time," she dived back into his chest.

"Then we'll go with the same plan minus the lawyer stuff. C'mon, let's go home," he stood up, dragging her with him.

"We're going to your place?"

"Kindaichi and I'll talk to sensei and the rest of the team tomorrow. I'll try to call the senpais later too. For now, you can borrow some of my clothes and I'll set up a futon. My parents are visiting my grandma so they're gone for a week, but I'll explain the situation once they come home," he explained simply as he walked over to the wall to grab her backpack.

She only hummed in response as she slung the backpack on and Kunimi continued while they walked, "Once I tell the team, we'll raid your house tomorrow. Kindaichi and I found out where you lived by...coincidence. We'll make sure that nobody's home and get everything you need."

She was silent for a while as they walked to his house, so he thought she might have been doubting the plan, but she eventually reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Damn...you make it sound so easy, Akira-senpai!" she laughed, and his jaw almost fell.

He was positive that was the first time he had ever heard her curse, and he was overcome with the urge to laugh. Instead, he settled on teasingly sticking his tongue out at her, "Because it is easy, dummy."

As soon as they got home, they both changed into comfortable clothes. Kunimi brought out his homework as Y/n went to the fridge to get them drinks. He normally dozed off as soon as he got home, but he wasn't feeling quite as sleepy today. Maybe it was because he wasn't tired from practice, but something told him it had something to do with, well, Y/n.

He finished his homework a bit faster than Y/n and decided to make some phone calls as she finished up. While he was talking to Kyotani, Y/n's own flip phone started ringing on the table.

Her brows furrowed upon reading the contact name, and Kunimi pondered helping her with it. But the way her lips pursed convinced him that this was her own small battle. Eventually, she let out a huff and declined the call, blocking the number afterward.

Kunimi smiled to himself and resumed explaining to Kyotani.

Later that night, Kunimi woke up to see Y/n curled up in her futon, looking fragile yet thankfully, finally, peaceful. He sighed in contentment before shaking his head at himself. He carefully stepped over her and went downstairs to get a glass of water. As he climbed back up the stairs, he started humming the song he had sung earlier. It really did have a calming melody, but he realised that the lyrics were quite sad...and quite fitting for her.

Despite wanting to dive right back under his covers, he placed a featherlight kiss on her forehead before going back to sleep.