"You haven't been yourself lately..."

"... Kei, I'm getting worried." You nervously looked towards your husband of 3 years.

You knew work was starting to get stressful for Tsukishima lately. He wasn't much of one to talk about his feelings, but you especially didn't see him as someone who would try and relieve his stress with alcohol.

He was getting drunk every other night at this point, it was becoming an addiction. You wanted to help, but his behavior was rather violent and aggressive. You didn't want to get hurt but at the same time you didn't want to just leave him like this. He clearly needed some proffessional help at this point.

"I don't care, leave me alone!" His words slurred together slightu as he pushed himself out of the chair he sat in. You two were eating the dinner you made; you could smell the alcohol on his breath from the other side of the table.

"Kei, I really care for you. You know this isn't healthy. Please, you need to talk to me at..." You flinched as he broke a nearby glass bottle on the side of the table. He held the sharp edged broken bottle threateningly.

"Fuck off I don't need you to tell me what to do, bitch!" He said, then dropped the remaining half of the bottle onto the ground. It shattered to pieces as well.

He stumbled off towards your shared room. You let out a shakey breath, sat back down in your seat, then started crying. Tsukishima had never been like this in all the years you'd known him, dated him, and been married to him. You two even were on a steady pace of opening up to one another since you got engaged.

"Did I do something wrong?" You wondered, "Why did he turn to alcohol. Was I not good to talk to? Did I not help him?"

"No, you need to leave. Who knows what could happen. He could hurt me for real. Kei needs someone else to help him out with this." You came to the conclusion that you had to leave. You shakily stood up and retrieved your phone from the kitchen counter.

You decided to text Yamaguchi. You were friends with Yama way before you even knew you had a crush on Kei.

Hey Tada, can I stay at your place for a

bit. The issue with Tsukki has gotten

worse and I don't feel safe here anymore.

We can talk about this more later but please answer as soon as you can.

You typed the words out carefully and much to your relief you could see that Yamaguchi was replying immediately.

Of course, come over whenever you're

able to. When you get here we can

talk about how we're going to help

him with this. I'm so sorry this

is happening (Y/N). Call me if anything

goes wrong.

"He's a fast typer." You thought.

First you gathered all the stuff you needed downstairs. It was mostly the things in your purse (wallet, car keys, ids, cards, and other important things) and a few jackets. Then you got whatever you needed upstairs.

Now, you had your ear pressed against your bedroom door. Tsukishima was definitely in there. From what you could hear, he was sound asleep. You really hoped he was. You ever so quietly opened the door and peaked inside. The blonde had the covers up to his chin, you could see his chest slowly rising and falling, he was definitely asleep.

You very quietly went towards where you kept your clothes and took whatever you were able to take. You didn't want to leave anything important behind and also didn't want to go out of the way to get unnecessary things.

"(Y/N)." The voice sent your heartbeat racing.

"What are you doing?" Tsukishima followed with. You were terrified to turn around and see him.

"Just the laundry. Go back to bed." You lied.

"G'night." He lazily said then you turned ever so slightly to see him roll over in bed.

You quickly left the room, taking what you had, and putting it in the car. You drove away that night, and you would never be returning to that house again.

"...Tetsu. You can talk to me if somethings going on." You confronted your boyfriend.

"I'm fine! Don't worrry about it." Kuroo rolled his eyes and patted your head.

"I'm serious. This is the third time in the past week you've come home bruised! You're always tired too, always going out everytime you get calls. I-I'm worried, Kuroo." You stopped him. The corners of his lips dropped to a neutral expression when you used his last.

He almost seemed like he would give you an honest answer but once again, "Don't worry about it, (Y/N). You don't need to get involved."

You huffed in frustration and watched him walk off to your shared bedroom. This had been going on for weeks now, and he still refused to talk. You'd approached him more passively before but even your aggressive approach failed to persuade hin to tell you whats going on.

"I'm going to follow him next time and find out what he's doing!" You concluded.

You didn't have to wait much longer for that time. After you two finished dinner, he got a call from someone, said a few "yeah"s, and said he had to leave for a bit. After only a few seconds, you slipped on your shoes and followed after him.

He walked quickly; you almost lost him around a few corners. But, you really lost him once he entered some odd building. He seemed to have a key for the door, and you listened to it lock shut behind him.

"Great, now I'm out here. I wonder what that place is. Its pretty secretive if he had to go down so many alleys and enter through some back door." You wondered.

"'Ey, what do you want!" Someone yelled. You jumped in surprise, two guys were walking closer towards you.

"S-sorry, I-I'm just a bit l-lost! I was trying to take a short cut, b-but I don't know where I am. Can you help me?" You used your best acting skills, even giving a small pout at the end.

"Of course, doll. Where ya' goin'?" The guy who yelled at you originally walked closer to you.

"Don't call me doll." You thought, cringing a bit at the nickname and the closeness.

"Th-the subway." You quickly lied.

"Sure, I'll lead you right that way." The guy put an arm around your shoulders and began leading you away from the area Kuroo went in through.

The other guy who was beside him finally decided to speak up: "Matsuda, leave her alone. Just give her the directions out of here."

"Whats the fun in that!" Who you now knew as Matsuda whined.

"Some guy is probably gonna come beat you up again." The other guy said.

"I-if you could, directions are fine." You nodded. You heard the squeak of the door open and close. Both guys stopped to look at it.

"Please don't be Kuroo, please don't be Kuroo, please don't be Kuroo!" You pleaded in your mind.

"(Y/N)?" Unmistakably Kuroo's voice asked. The guy, Matsuda, panicked and took his arm off of you.

"Hey, didn't know she was with you, Kuroo! Said she was lost, just leadin' her where she needed to be." The guy obviously lied.

"I don't have time for this. Lets go." He grabbed your wrist and led you back the way he came to get here. You followed silently, like you just got in trouble and didn't want your parent to be even madder at you.

Once you two reached the opem sidewalk, he lot go of your wrist. You both walked back to the apartment together in silence, the arguing broke out the minute you two stepped in side.

"What the fuck was that?" You spoke up first.

"The hell were you thinking following me!" He retorted.

"Don't yell at me for this one thing. You haven't told me shit for weeks and act like I'm not supposed to worry about you or wonder whats going on! I don't know what else to do Kuroo! I've tried talking to you so many fucking times, and you say the same damn thing everytime. I want to know whats going on with ny boyfriend, so where the fuck did I follow you two just now and how did you know those guys." You ranted to him.

"This is why I didn't want you knowing! Now they're all gonna' know who you are, find where we live, you aren't-" He was cut off by an abrupt smack across the face.

"Answer the fucking question, Kuroo." Menace dripped from voice.

"I owe someone money. Thats where I pay them. Some Yakuza hideout or whatever, nothin' that would have been an issue if you didn't try and make it your business." Kuroo glared down at you at the last sentence.

"Before I say anything about that other bullshit you said, why do you owe money to the damn Yakuza?" You asked.

"None of your business, woman. If you knew what was happening was dangerous, why did you follow me." He replied.

"Get it through your dense fucking skull, I care about you! I don't like watching you come home bruised and barely able to walk and just tell me you're fine! I don't like being lied to by someone I truly trust and- and love." You started tearing up at the end, hiding your face in your hands as you quietly sobbed. You felt Kuroo pull you towards him, and comfortingly rub your back.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for lying to you. I didn't want you to get involved or for those shitty Yakuza guys to come for you if I'm even slightly late on a payment. We can move or stay somewhere else for a bit, 'till I get it all payed off, then-" His words were reassuring but something in your head told you not to stay.

If this was dangerous for you, why would you still stay beside him? Why would you still stay with him after all of this? He got involved with one of the biggest organized crime groups in Japan and lied to you about it. You weren't sure if you even knew the man you were talking to anymore.

"No." You said and pushed yoursekd away from him.

"No?" He asked.

"Don't bother moving for my sake, we're done." You said.

His eyes widened as you brushed passed him towards your shared room. You got there before him and locked the door behind you.

"(Y/N), talk through this with me, alright! We don't have to break up! I can keep you safe from this, I promise!" He was begging outside the door. You took your time packing up the essentials into your old college backpack: clothes, toiletries, and your charger. You unlocked the door, met by a pleading Kuroo who looked like a kicked puppy.

"I'm leaving. My decision is final. I don't want to be with someone who can put me in bad situations like these. No one can come for me if I'm not your girlfriend. We're over Kuroo." You walked past him. You slipped on your shoes and left the apartment.

"I'll go to Kenma's place. He'll be more sympathetic that I show up unannounced now." You began your walk across town to Kenma's house, and didn't even look back at Kuroo's apartment.

"

... Kou. Is everything alright?" You asked. Your boyfriend didn't seem normal, but it wasn't in a bad way. He seemed much more relaxed when he came home instead of super energetic like he used to be.

"Yeah, everythings fine." He started laughing a bit.

"Okay Kou. Dinner will be ready soon." You gave him a hug, resting your head against his chest. He smelled a lot more like his cologne, almost like the air around him was made of it, but there was something you smelled under it that you didn't very much understand.

"Is that weed? Why does he smell like weed?" You wondered as he stumbed off to his room. You were staying at his apartment for a few days, while your entire building was havung exterminators come in to handle a cockroach problem.

"Maybe- maybe its from that one guy on his team. Yeah, he said that one guy was definitely a pot head." You tried to reassure yourself, even though you were beginning to think it was him.

Pretty much the rest of the week he came back from work that way, leaving you questioning more and more if your boyfriend was smoking weed. One day certainly confirmed it for you the most. You heard the door unlock and greeted your boyfriend as usual: "Hey Kou, how was work."

"(Y/N)! Hi!" He said, laughing almost hysterically afterwards. The room filled with the smell of weed as he walked in, his eyes noticeably red, and he was acting like more of an idiot than normal.

"Bokuto, are you high?" You asked.

"'Course I am! I'm always high!" He giggled.

"You walked all the way home like this! What if the police caught you or anyone did! You could get arrested, Bokuto!" You exclaimed. He continued laughing and went off to his room without any further words. Your yelling probably had no affect on him, but you had to say something.

You knew weed was highly illegal in Japan. Someone was definitely going to smell it on him and call the police. He could go to jail for years and have his entire volleyball career ruined.

"I could go to jail." You realized. The police had no reason not to arrest you too if you were staying in his apartment and the whole place smelled like weed

"I need to get out of here." You decided, but you couldn't leave without doing something to the house.

You sprayed down pretty much the whole apartment with any type of air freshner Bokuto had in his house until it no longer smelled disgustingly strong of weed. Then, you took a small piece of scratch paper Bokuto kept for grocery lists and decided to write a note for him; he certainly wasn't going to remember what you had said to him earlier.

"Goodbye Bokuto. I would be telling you this in person, but you're certainly not in the right state right now for me to do so. I'm leaving. I don't want to get dragged into your mess. Talk to me again when you've figured out how to do that instead of do drugs." Your became harsher in the end as you started feeling your emotions overwhelm you. The anger you felt quickly became sadness. You leaned against the kitchen counter and cried into your hands

"What did I do wrong? Would he really rather do drugs to solve his problems than talk to me? Does he even have any problems. Is he just doing it for the hell of it?" You wondered, sprialing further and further into your break down.

Bokuto's bedroom creaked open and his loud footsteps made his way to you. It had been awhile since he arrived home, maybe 2 hours.

"Hey, what are we having for dinner?" He asked. He had taken a shower or did something since you could no longer smell anything on or around him.

You didn't look at him, "I got a pizza. I'm going to go pick it up."

"Really? Thanls (Y/N), you're the best!" He gave you a hug from behind. He was back to his over excited self.

"I'll be back in a bit." You lied. You walked towards the door, slipping on your shoes, and grabbing your purse.

Those were the only things you took from him house as you left with no intentions of returning soon.

Bokuto waited half an hour at the dinner table before deciding to try and text you to see if you were okay. Another half an hour later with no response, he noticed the note you left, and was left in a similar state of agony that you had been in.