Sawamura Daichi did not believe Hinata could go as far as hurting Koushi.

The captain was fond of the redhead. He had grown to respect him in the short time he'd been a part of the team, and seeing him decline into ruin was a difficult process to watch. He couldn't deny Hinata had changed. He had become much more distant, more difficult to read. He had closed himself off to the others, shut himself away, and it seemed the only one to which he'd given the keys to free himself was you. But that didn't mean he had turned into a monster.

And yet, there was still something. Something that didn't feel right, something that felt wrong when Daichi was around Hinata. It was like a bad taste in his mouth that he couldn't quite place. And after you had shared your own suspicions, Daichi knew he had to talk to him. He didn't suspect him of anything untoward . But there might be a clue, something, somewhere, that could shed a glimmer of light on what really happened to Daichi's best friend.

Sawamura's knuckles scraped three times against the door to Hinata's house, before he took a step back and waited with his feet braced firmly against the porch.

After a few minutes of waiting and receiving no answer, Daichi cut across the lawn of unruly brown grass and tangles of weeds, and peered through the front window. Squinting against the glare of sunlight refracting off the glass, everything inside was still. The sitting room was empty. But that wasn't all. Something about it seemed untouched - as if it hadn't been lived in for a while. The only thing that suggested otherwise was the vase of fresh flowers sitting on the sideboard. Orange tulips.

Sighing to himself, Daichi retreated from the window and scratched the back of his neck, where a sweat had broken out across his skin. Maybe Shouyou and his mother were out. He had already knocked and nobody had answered, so there wasn't much more he could do.

As he reached the gate on his way out, a strange little feeling tugged at his mind and he instinctively turned back around, his eyes already lifting to the top window.

A face was staring down at him.

Dark eyes met his, and Daichi felt his heart quicken a few beats in his chest, his breaths coming out ragged. Pushing aside his sudden unease, the captain lifted his hand and gestured for the boy to come downstairs. Hinata watched him motionlessly for a moment, then disappeared out of sight, leaving the window once again a dark, empty portrait. Taking it as a sign he was coming down, Daichi found himself waiting once again by the front door, his stomach swirling anxiously.

When the door finally opened, the house behind Hinata was doused in shadow, and nothing stirred. "Daichi-San," the boy said simply, barely lifting his eyes from the ground.

"Hinata-Kun," the captain replied, biting his tongue when his voice wavered slightly. It was difficult to keep his composure when the boy in front of him was so different, so unrecognisable. Daichi was struggling to convince himself that this was the same Hinata he knew, the same Hinata that could never hurt anyone. "Can I come in?"

Nodding silently, he stepped back and let Daichi through the door, ghosting him into the sitting room. There was a vague scent of tulips, but also something else, something damp and rotting.

"You're here to talk to me?"

"Yes," Daichi said shortly, turning to face Hinata so that he had his full attention. He kept his arms lowered at his sides, loose, but his fingers were curled into a light fist. "I just wanted to see how you were. I haven't had much chance to speak with you, one-on-one like this."

Hinata was unhesitating, firm. "I'm fine."

But Daichi knew those two words well. He'd used them often enough in the past few weeks to know that there wasn't an ounce of truth to them.

"We're all worried about you, Hinata. First Natsu and then... and then Koushi. It's a lot to take in."

"Yeah," Hinata said blandly, as if he was barely even listening. His eyes were dark and unfocused, following something over Daichi's shoulder with a hazy sort of interest. He fought the urge to turn around as a chill crept up his spine.

"Look, just know that I'm here if you want to talk, okay? I'm not just the captain of the team you play on, but a friend too. You can tell me anything, no matter how painful it might be," he added, paying careful attention to the boy's reaction.

His words seemed to draw Hinata's attention back to him, the ashy haze in his eyes thinning, become more clear-cut, the usual reddish-brown. "Friend..." he mumbled, tasting the word on his tongue, seeing how it felt. But after a moment, he changed again, his whole face transformed. His cheeks flushed a deep rouge and his lip curled into a premature snarl. "If you're my friend, then why are you trying to steal [L/N] away from me?"

Daichi fought against the urge to step back, keeping his feet braced firmly against the carpet. He was aware, now, that Hinata was trembling, his shoulders wobbling with an unconfined restlessness. "Hinata, nobody is trying to take her away from you. I think... I think losing your sister has made you overprotective of her. You're scared of losing [L/N]-San like you lost Natsu, and that's understandable but-"

"No. You don't understand." His whole face had flushed and he was shuffling closer to Daichi, seeming to grow taller as he did so, a shadow falling across the captain's face. Daichi, for the first time in his life, was struck with a sudden dread. It was like a cold, hard stone in the pit of his stomach, pinning him down so that he couldn't move. He had made a mistake coming here. He had made a mistake in thinking Hinata was still the same, in thinking that he could help him.

"You don't understand anything. That's why you're giving me no choice."

— ♠ —

When Daichi didn't turn up for school the next day, you knew something was wrong. It wasn't like the captain to be absent without telling anyone, and it especially worried you when you realised Hinata wasn't there either, and that Daichi had gone to talk to him the night before.

You had asked Asahi if he'd heard from the other third year, but the Ace had only shaken his head and immediately broken down into a panic, taking his face into his hands and fretting about the safety of his best friend.

"Hey, don't worry so much," you told him, easing his hands away from his face and giving them a squeeze. "I'll swing by after school and check on him, okay? Maybe he's just fallen ill and hasn't had the chance to tell us yet."

That seemed to console Asahi for the time being, but you knew better than to trust your own excuses. They didn't know about Daichi's visit to Hinata's house, nor the suspicions you had been harbouring about Sugawara's death. You tried to tell yourself that the two incidents were completely unrelated, that they were both simply taking the time off to work through their grief, but there was always a shadow, lingering over those thoughts and casting them into darkness.

As soon as school finished, you headed straight for Hinata's house. Something told you that Daichi wasn't at his own. It was here that you would find your answers.

Something felt off the moment you stepped inside. There was something wrong, something unfamiliar about the house you had stepped into. It was more than silent, more than empty. It sucked something out of you. And it smelled. You couldn't place what it was, but it was something dark and unpleasant. Like a cold shadow, a corner of damp where the sun couldn't reach. Something festering. Something rotting.

"Shouyou? Hello? Is anyone here?"

You moved through the hallway with slow, shuffling steps, your eyes attuned to movements in the shadows that seemed to coalesce around your feet. You glanced briefly into the rooms that you passed, finding every one of them empty.

The kitchen was dark too, the curtains drawn across the windows with only a thin crack of light misting around the edges, but it was enough to see the shattered cup, the tea spilt across the counter, dripping into a dark puddle on the floor. Swallowing past the lump that had settled in your throat, you turned and went through to the front room.

The first thing you saw was the broken vase. Shattered pieces of white porcelain and orange flower petals and broken stems.

Then you noticed the red, in gruesome splatters across the broken ornament. And you felt something wrench at your stomach, a rising panic, a heavy dread. Bile rose up your throat because you could smell it now. The scent you couldn't place. Here, it was thick and stifling.

The smell of blood.

You heard a door open while you were still staring at the mess, trying to fight back the nausea that was rolling through your stomach. But by the time you reacted to it, forcing your eyes away, Hinata was already stood behind you.

A/N — Hello there strangers! Firstly, I am so, so sorry for my sudden disappearance! I've been super preoccupied at Uni and simply haven't had the time or motivation to write. But I hate leaving my stories unfinished so I'm really hoping to wrap this up soon and not leave you hanging too much longer. Thank you so much for sticking around, and I apologise again for the sudden hiatus!