A/N: Hiya! You'll notice this is not the next chapter of You Know How To Get Along Humming. See, this was originally that and then became a separate one-shot which became a whole separate thing because I plan to write 1K and the universe laughs. This is also significantly darker (though I promise it does end happy!) so I figured best to put it up as its own thing. Please heed the warnings. But the next chapter of You Know How To Get Along Humming and the next chapter of this should be up within a week or two. So much.. outsider pov... at some point I promise I will write something else! I have a spirit-of-the-week angst-fest planned as soon as I finish this series. Title is from the incomparable Fiona Apple.

Ms. Ono had never met a student she didn't adore. She had only been teaching three years, yes, and it was a somewhat rural area with not a lot of students but still - she loved the kids and was absolutely positive they felt the same way about her. She was irrepressibly bubbly, patient, and loved her job; everything a teacher should be, in her opinion. So yes: she loved her students.

But Natsume Takashi was making it very difficult. It wasn't that he was rude, she had successfully dealt with rude children before. It wasn't that he was slow, no, if anything he was a quick learner, if a bit behind due to having recently transferred. No, instead he was the worst kind of problem child: an extremely disruptive one.

Not in the way she had typically encountered, either. He wasn't overly talkative to others or even to himself. He was much more unsettling than that. He would just… yell. Yell and cry and look so absolutely terrified that she still had trouble not letting her heart sink into her stomach as she suppressed the knee-jerk panic that seeing a child make such an expression automatically induced in her. This had happened upwards of 6 times since he had first arrived in her classroom only a few weeks ago. He was just so… complicated.

Ms. Ono had tried calming him down herself the first time, of course. She had wrapped a comforting arm around the poor boy, gently asking what was wrong. The other children had gone quiet, unsure of what to do. While it normally didn't get this bad, children this age did cry and would throw the odd tantrum or two. Nothing unusual, really. Then Natsume, through his hysterical tears, had pointed a shaking finger at an empty corner of the classroom. This was a bit more unusual, but certainly not unheard of. Children had big imaginations, after all. It was one of the things she liked about working with kids.

After a second, his gaze slid to her and Natsume grabbed the hem of her jacket. His eye were wide and lips trembling as he whispered "Can't you see it?"

She made a show of exaggeratedly looking over the corner and then shaking her head, hoping to calm him down. She wasn't expecting him to wail in despair, choking out "But- but when other kids see invisible things you say you can too!"

She had played along with children's imaginary friends before, sure. Usually when the kids were out at recess and she was fielding fifteen different calls for her attention. She had wanted to encourage their creativity. None of them had been outright terrified of their made-up friends before. This was odd.

"It's make believe, Natsume. Just pretend. There's nothing there." she tried, all the while rubbing soothing circles into the trembling boy's back.

"No," Natsume began, twisting out from her arm. "No, I'm not making it up. I thought here they would be gone, but one followed me, or- or one lives here too. It's there. " He backed up until he was on the other side of the classroom, glaring at the empty corner. "I'm not a liar!" He added in a yell, glancing at the other kids for the first time during this whole exchange.

Ms. Ono was at a complete loss for the first time in her career. This was disturbing. She had never seen a child act so frenzied for no reason like this. Her heart breaking at the sight of his little tear-stained face. She hesitantly sent him to the bathroom to clean up a bit. Really, she was just stalling, she needed a second to figure out what to do.

He started to shake his head, leaning around her to look in the corner. She moved bodily into his line of sight, and gently smiled when she caught his eye. "It's okay, I'll get rid of the monster while you're gone, okay?"

A shocked smile broke out on his face. "You do see it!" he exclaimed excitedly. Her smile slipped a bit, but didn't fall. This was an unusual incident, but that didn't mean she had to treat it as such. She had tried to convince him it wasn't real and that didn't work, so playing along only made sense.

"Yep, so you go wash your face, okay?" He nodded enthusiastically, rushing out of the classroom. She absently noticed that he had even grabbed his arm so hard they had bruised in his panic. She let her smile drop and took a deep breath before turning back to the rest of class, a good majority of whom looked shaken as well, the poor darlings. She worked on soothing them, explaining that sometimes our imaginations got the best of us and it was scary, and that was okay. Most of the kids seemed to accept this, but one boy, Uchida, made a face.

"Uchida?" Ms. Ono asked, concerned. She didn't want the other kids scared or angry about Natsume. Best to address this right away.

"He's a liar!" Uchida burst out passionately. "I walk home with him sometimes. He lies about seeing stuff all the time. "

Before she could respond, Natsume burst back into the classroom, skittering to a halt just inside the door to the classroom. He hadn't done a great job of cleaning up his face, and his eyes were still red and puffy. His gaze instantly went back to the far corner of the room.

"See?" Ms. Ono said grandly. "All gone! No more monster, right?" in her experience, confidence was the way to go.

Natsume made a face similar to the one Uchida had just pulled a few seconds earlier. "No, it's right there," he pointed his finger back toward the corner.

"No, it's gone, silly." Ms. Ono responded aiming for (and mostly succeeding) at sounding upbeat. Natsume shook his head vehemently. Ms. Ono ignored the loud I told you! Uchida yelled to her right.

"You told me you could see it." Natsume said, lip beginning to wobble again. "Why would you say that if it wasn't true?" He asked, his tone turning outright accusatory toward the end. Ms. Ono was a pretty patient person, but being called a liar by a 7 year old because she couldn't see his scary imaginary friend was a bit absurd.

Deciding not to address his hostility outright, she put on her sternest tone she was comfortable using with the kids and told Natsume firmly to return to his seat. He glanced fearfully up at the corner and then returned his gaze to her face, his expression torn between anger and betrayal. She felt sorry for him, of course, but she couldn't continue to humor him when it was disrupting the whole class. Making a great show of his reluctance via dragged feet and a hanging head, Natsume slumped down in his seat, leaning bodily away from the corner.

She was significantly less patient and gentle with him now. It was, absurdly, the 7th time this had happened. It was just so weird . He was cheerful and sweet most of the time and then a veritable nightmare during these little fits. She had never seen anything like it.

As per usual, his eyes were welled up with tears. They really were kind of a weird color, she noted uncomfortably. Along with his noticeably pale skin, it helped to contribute to how disturbing these fits were. This time he was yelling at the corner, instead of her. Interesting. He had only done that once before.

This was exhausting. She searched desperately for kindness but found stony stoicism was the best she could do. No other student had been this trying.

Completely over the whole situation and not wanting to let this odd display continue to disturb the entire class yet again , she briskly crossed the room and reached out to usher Natsume to the principal's office to let her sort it out. Ms. Ono wasn't sure exactly Principal Moriyama had doing to deal with him, but Natsume always came back quiet and compliant, so she wasn't complaining. At this point he almost spent more time in her office than in the classroom.

As she reached for him, Natsume flinched away from her outstretched arm, tear-tracked face flinching away, an arm coming up to protect his head. His wrist had bruises. Finger-shaped bruises.

Ms. Ono felt her stomach sink yet again, her arm freezing midair. Oh, this was bad. She had been trained to recognize what things like this could mean. Her mind was racing. This made his outbursts make a bit more sense. It explained a lot about Natsume, actually.

She let her arm drop. "C'mon," she began in her most saccharine tone. "You're not in trouble, Natsume, we just need to go talk. It's okay."

Natsume slowly let his own arm fall and silently walked out of the classroom. Ms. Ono ducked her head into the classroom next door and asked Mr. Watanabe to keep an eye on her kids for a few minutes. Mr. Watanabe's eyes flickered to Natsume and he rolled his eyes good-naturedly, winking at Ms. Ono and shooting her a playful thumbs up. Ms. Ono felt guilt crash over her. Natsume was a joke between the two of them at this point and the whole time it was because... They could have never known- she had never had to deal with- she didn't know.

Feeling somewhat sick, she shot Mr. Watanabe a wane smile and led Natsume to Principal Moriyama's office.

Ms. Ono was completely out of her depth her, but she thought she made the right choice to leave Natsume sitting outside the office to wait as she struggled to explain what she saw, what she thought it might mean.

Principal Moriyama looked distinctly unmoved by Ms. Ono's stuttered explanation of what she suspected might be happening to Natsume.

She leaned back her chair, fingers steepled, gaze unreadable as she stared at Ms. Ono. Nervously, Ms. Ono played with the hem of her skirt as the silence continued.

"Natsume is a liar." Principal Moriyama began in a steady voice. Ms. Ono opened her mouth to object, horrified, but was silenced by a commanding hand. "He is. That's a fact."

Ms. Ono suppressed her knee-jerk emotional response, knowing Principal Moriyama would be unimpressed by such a display, and considered this.

"Fine, yes. You know I've had trouble with him," Ms. Ono eventually allowed, "But that doesn't explain the flinching or the bruises."

"Have you never seen him 'flinch' at his imaginary monsters?" Principal Moriyama asked, her tone blandly curious. "Because I have. It looks very convincing. But there's nothing there for him to fear."

Ms. Ono dutifully considered this as well. She had seen him flinch at his made-up creatures, and it had looked very similar to what he had done today. Almost identical, in fact… maybe she had been too quick to react. She hadn't thought of that at all.

Ms. Ono nodded her acquiescence. "But… the bruises?" she asked hesitantly, unable to stop herself from hoping for a rational, benign explanation. Something manageable, something she could deal with.

"I'm almost positive he hurts himself. I've seen him grab at his arms, and the finger marks are too small to be a man's, and Natsume's current guardian is his 2nd cousin, a young man named Kaito. Unless you've seen differently?"

Ms. Ono thought carefully. The bruises on his wrist had been awfully small. And considering Natsume's lying problem, this kind of escalation made sense. She couldn't prevent herself from flushing as she responded, "Maybe… maybe I was too hasty."

Principal Moriyama nodded benevolently. "You're a worrier, and you're kind. You're always looking for the good," she began, sounding gentle for the first time during this conversation. "It's what makes you a good teacher. But you're inexperienced. Some kids are rougher than you're used to."

Ms. Ono nodded, chastened. "I'm still worried about his… outbursts. Even more so if they're getting worse like this." She explained, giving voice to her last remaining concern.

Principal Moriyama nodded again. "Yes, they are rather concerning. You'll have to bring it up with his guardian at Parent Night next month if this doesn't improve immediately. You know I've been hesitant to bother them, considering the circumstances. But this is getting absurd."

"I know it's complicated. Hopefully things will get better." Ms. Ono offered up. Principal Moriyama smiled.

"Ah, there's that trademark optimism," Principal Moriyama said, almost fondly. "Still, best to start preparing how to bring this up now. You can go back to class, Ms. Ono. Please send Natsume in on your way out."

Recognizing it for the clear dismissal it was, Ms. Ono stood up and began heading toward the door. Her knees were so weak with relief she almost couldn't walk. This wasn't anything more sinister or complicated, just more of Natsume's issues. Which were sad, of course. But she could deal with this level of sad.

She exited the office and turned to the chairs to the left of the office. He was sitting right where she left him, hunched over his knees, eyes downcast. He really was a frail looking thing, his shirt fitting loosely, not yet tall enough for his feet to touch the floor. Add in that he was an orphan, it was so easy to get wrapped up in pity for him. Really, she should have known better than to fall for it.

"Principal Moriyama wants to see you now." She said, just a bit too loud. He startled at her voice, and she uncharitably wondered if he was faking that too. "C'mon, go on in."

He avoided her eyes as he hopped off the chair and opened the door with the ease of familiarity. The last thing Ms. Ono heard before the door closed was Principal Moriyama's wry voice ring out: "Ah, so we meet again, Natsume."

There was only one incident in between the meeting in the principal's office and Parent Night. Whatever Principal Moriyama had said that day seemed to really make an impact on Natsume. Still, one incident was still one too many, so Ms. Ono resolved to bring it up.

Parent night was always chaos, but generally it was fun chaos. Very rarely did she have issues with her students outside of typical, minor things, so it was usually just a way to brag about the children's improvements. For the most part the night progressed as usual, though she was unable to shake her nervousness at the idea of dealing with Natsume. She had scheduled his guardian's appointment for last, fearing it would go over the allotted time-slot, but now she was regretting not just getting the most difficult part of the evening out of the way.

Eventually, the meeting time rolled around. Then 5 minutes after rolled around too. Ms. Ono felt her jitters turn to annoyance as 5 minutes became 15. Just as she was considering calling Natsume's guardian, a petite woman strode into the office, Natsume walking sullenly in behind her.

Ms. Ono rose from her desk, smiling in greeting. The woman either didn't notice or didn't care to return the smile, instead throwing herself into one of the chairs set out in front of Ms. Ono's desk. Natsume lingered in the doorway, and just as Ms. Ono was about to ask him to join them, the woman snapped out, "Get over here! Now. Sit down."

Natsume scurried over to the other chair, never looking up from his shoes.

"Are you Natsume's guardian?" Ms. Ono asked, somewhat confused. She was sure that Natsume's guardian was a man. The woman snorted. "My fiance is. But he's out of town, as per usual, so it's just the two of us." The words were innocuous, if a bit annoyed, but the look of contempt that accompanied them were not.

"Ah." Ms. Ono responded. "Well, I'm Ms. Ono, Natsume's teacher. He's a very bright student."

"Really." The woman-who still hadn't offered her name- didn't even attempt to temper her scepticism. "Well, good for him."

Ms. Ono was taken aback by such an abrupt response, but still tried to understand. The woman was quite young, and very beautiful. She probably wasn't quite used to being the fiance of a guardian to a child yet. It had only been a few months, and was quite a big change for anyone.

Reasonably pleased with this interpretation, Ms. Ono tried to rally. "Yes, especially with reading-"

The woman leaned forward and interrupted her. "Look. The principal lady on the phone said that someone had to come in to talk about Natsume's behavioral issues. So here I am. I'd prefer to skip to that, if it's all the same to you."

Ms. Ono swallowed, completely surprised by this, and glanced at Natsume. He was still staring at the ground, but she could see a flush spread across his cheeks. She couldn't help but feel bad for him, but still. They really did need to talk about it, and any parent would be unhappy with the knowledge that their kid was a troublemaker.

"Ah, yes, okay. Natsume has quite the vivid imagination-" she started, talking over the woman's snide response of that's one word for it, "-and it's been causing some problems. He gets… hysterical. We're all very worried about him."

The woman rolled her eyes. "He's a liar and a crybaby, we know. Look, lady. We've tried everything and he doesn't stop."

Ms. Ono saw Natsume turn the direction opposite of the woman out of the corner of her eye. "Well, things have definitely been getting better here at school, but it still is disrupting the class and hindering the other student's learning."

"Well, you'll be relieved to know that he's being sent with some other relatives in Okazaki. So he'll be out of both of our hairs next week."

Ms. Ono had been surprised by most of this conversation, but this revelation positively flummoxed her. "Oh. You and your fiance don't want to keep him? Haven't you only had him a few months?" She blurted out unthinkingly, shock jarring her into blunt honesty.

The woman's face completely shut down. "We- I - took care of him for months. You're tired of him and you only have him during school hours. Imagine how I feel? The lying, the crying, the whining- it's exhausting. I had to put off school for this. Don't start with me, okay?"

Ms. Ono looked back to Natsume, who was still staring stoically in the other direction. She felt awful for him, having to hear this. But she couldn't stop the wave of relief. Natsume was a mess of issues beyond her capabilities.

"Well." Ms. Ono cleared her throat. "I guess there's no point in addressing it here." She felt a stab of sympathy for whatever new teacher he was going to have.

"Great." The woman said shortly, rising from her seat. "C'mon, Natsume, let's go then." Natsume didn't show any sign that he had heard her, still staring off into the corner of the room.

With an impatient huff and an eyeroll, the woman roughly grabbed Natsume's wrist and yanked him to his feet. "Let's go."

It was with a detached kind of comprehension that Ms. Ono realized that the woman's petite, slender fingers perfectly matched the bruise on Natsume's wrist. The bruise that never really seemed to go away, the bruise she had been so sure was self-inflicted.

The feeling of numbness persisted as the woman and Natsume left. She knew, objectively, that this was wrong. She had been wrong, Principal Moriyama had been wrong. But… Natsume was leaving soon anyway. And he was still an incredibly troubled child, and had been since day one. Not to mention a liar. It was a messy, tricky situation. She missed the surety that simplicity had guaranteed her. Natsume was complicated and it was just too much for her.

So she let them leave without a word.