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◈» Kiibo fiddles with the bowtie under their chin for the hundredth of time. The fabric of it feels rough after they have touched it so many times, and Kiibo is somewhat apologetic for what they did to it.
The suit isn't even meant for them, after all.
"Kiibo-kun?"
Kiibo nearly coughs something of a robotic sound. "Ahhh yes?"
"Are you ready?"
No. I will never be ready. "Close enough, Saihara-kun."
"Do you need me to help you?"
"Of course not! I'm a high schooler just like you, I can handle my own clothes!" Kiibo grumbles as they tear one side of the bowtie off. "Ahhh!"
"Kiibo-kun! What is it!"
"I… I probably do need some help after all."
Saihara pushes the door open to a slightly disheveled and extremely embarrassed Kiibo, who is bending down to pick up the remains of the bowtie.
"Kiibo-kun, it's okay if you don't like the bowtie. Just take it off." Saihara gently takes the bowtie away from Kiibo's tight grip. Kiibo struggles to hold onto it for a second, but then lets go.
"Hey, Saihara-kun?"
"Yes?"
"Do you mind… If I dress this badly without the bowtie?"
Saihara chuckles. "You don't look bad without the bowtie! If you have wanted to take off the suit, I'm okay with that too."
"You are okay with that?!" Kiibo's pale complexion turns rouge in an instant, and Saihara can't help but clutches his chest in response.
"I mean!… Only if you want to. Do what you're comfortable with. I'll support you no matter what, Kiibo-kun."
Saihara tentatively presses his forehead to Kiibo's, who goes somewhat stiff with sounds like steaming from their back. Taking that as a cue, Saihara lifts his head and smiles at Kiibo.
"Kiibo-kun, are you ready?" «◈
◈» The ballroom glints with gold, but Kiibo can tell it's merely cheap paint. Team Danganronpa doesn't have a lot of money left. It's a surprise they still have enough money to throw a ball.
It's a surprise they are still brazen enough to hold such public events as if they are shining beacons of humanity.
Kiibo can see Saihara smirking at that staff when they walk in, and debates whether they should turn on the internal fan to prevent overheating.
"Oh look! Aren't them the victors of Season 53?"
Chatters flicker around them like fireflies, causing a turmoil inside of Kiibo's system. Kiibo clutches Saihara's left arm harder.
Saihara raises a slightly trembling hand to pat Kiibo's shoulder. "I'm here."
"Sai―Saihara-kun, you, you know what they'll say about me…"
"I know and I don't care, Kiibo. You are all that I care about. And we can leave if you really―"
"No!" The proclamation shocks Kiibo themself. But Kiibo knows what they said. "I don't want to see those jerkfaces happy that we chicken out at the last second."
"Anything you say, Kiibo."
Saihara smiles and presses a chaste kiss at Kiibo's lips.
Okay. Time to turn on the internal fan.
Kiibo straightens their posture, determined not to let their anxious slouch be a sign of weakness.
And yet, Kiibo could hear words everywhere, words that gnaw at their resolve:
"Just why did that detective buy the robot? They are just an audience proxy…"
"The robot literally just destroys everything without audience permission? Bad character…"
"The robot is so useless…"
"The detective is no fun…"
It's Saihara's turn to tremble and clutch at Kiibo's arm.
"Saihara-kun? Are you okay?"
"Hey, Kiibo… Can you call me Shuuichi instead?"
Kiibo holds in the desire to take Saihara's face into their hands. "Of course! Do anything you want, Saihara―I mean, Shuuichi!"
Saihara's face flames up immediately. "Kiibo… I―"
"Hey guys! How are you doing?"
Two teens, one boy and one girl wearing glamorous attire in stark contrast with theirs, walk right up to them with teasing smirks.
"We are the survivors of Season 43! How's your evening going?"
"Pretty alright." Kiibo uses their most robotic voice.
"But don't you guys feel pretty bad for dragging down the show's rating? I mean, the anticlimatic ending where you just blow up the school―"
"What's wrong with it?" Kiibo decides the voice just now isn't enough and uses what they perceive as a harsher voice. "I have free will to do what I like in it, don't I?"
Saihara frowns. "What makes you guys feel obliged to harass me and my datemate―"
"Datemate?"
"… Boyfriend about it?" Saihara reluctantly changes word. "That's not the point. Can you guys leave us alone?"
"We think not? This ball is literally for survivors to communicate and stuff, isn't it?"
"Not when you obviously do not intend to be polite about it." Kiibo hears the obvious crack in Saihara's voice that always precedes crying. The crack they hear so many times, the one that cracks their heart every time they hear it.
The pair shamelessly continue. "Well, even so―"
Kiibo abruptly turns to Saihara. "Hey, Shuuichi? Do you remember the last time I did this?" They turn on the cannon inside their right arm, palm and fingers retracting to form an empty column that is charging up with bluish green energy inside.
The couple take one look at Kiibo's charging cannon and takes it as their cue to leave.
Saihara chuckles with tears still flowing down his cheeks. "I love it when you do that."
"I enjoy doing that with any jerkface in our way, don't you worry." Spontaneously, Kiibo kisses Saihara's forehead. Just a chaste kiss, but Saihara's feverish countenance stays.
"Kiibo… That's just… So…"
"Catch your breath first, Shuuichi." Kiibo grips Saihara's hand harder, as a bright note goes into the air. «◈
◈» "Are we… Are we supposed to dance now?"
Saihara nods, a faint smile on his lips. "Shall we start?"
Kiibo looks at Saihara's outstretched hand, pondering. "Okay." They take it firmly.
Saihara steps back to give Kiibo space to walk up. Kiibo hesitantly does so, watching Saihara with anxious eyes for his next step.
"We can just do that for a few more times first. To let you get a feel of it." Saihara whispers, his voice a song in its own way to Kiibo. Kiibo suppresses the blush from rising again and methodically steps back and forth as Saihara instructed.
"Then we can like, shuffle from left to right instead." Saihara takes lead again, and Kiibo follows the best they can, stepping from left to right and from right to left.
It's so much like…
"Saihara-kun?" Kiibo kneeled next to a sobbing Saihara, who turned away from Kiibo, the volume of his wails increasing.
"Don't mind me, Kiibo-kun… It's just…"
"It's about Akamatsu-san, isn't it?"
Saihara didn't reply.
How can he?… Perhaps?…
"Saihara-kun, can you dance with me?"
Saihara looks up. "Why?"
"To cheer you up. And I always have wanted to learn how to."
"I'm so glad I can share this with you, Kiibo." Saihara presses his face to Kiibo's neck, releasing a low purr that makes Kiibo tremble. "I love you so much."
"Me, me too, Shuuichi." Kiibo hugs back. It feels almost a bit awkward, especially considering the other guests' mystified glance towards them. "What should we do next?"
"I can twirl you!" Saihara stands upright again, drawing Kiibo's hand above their head, making Kiibo gyrate once.
Kiibo turns around very slowly, evidently confused. "Ooh… So that's how to dance."
"Do you want to do it again?"
"What kind of question is that, Shuuichi? It's part of the dance, I definitely want to try again." Kiibo prepares to be twirled again, but Saihara stops.
"Kiibo, if you don't want to, I don't want you to do it." Saihara brings a hand to caress Kiibo's cheek, and feels the warmth of it. "I told you, we only do what you are comfortable with."
"Shuuichi, you say it like that… But what about you?"
Saihara's smile dissolves to abashment. "Huh?" «◈
◈» "Kiibo-kun, what are you doing?"
Kiibo stared at the altars they made for Iruma and stayed silent. They have made altars for everyone that passed away. Akamatsu. Amami. Hoshi…
Iruma's altar was just one among all others, so why is this so?…
Painful?…
"Kiibo-kun, are you okay?"
Kiibo didn't even turn around. "How are you so well now, Saihara-kun?"
"Me? Well?"
"Other than the time you've cried for Akamatsu-san, I've never seen you sad and shattered anymore. Why?"
A chuckle. Kiibo couldn't withstand the temptation to turn around, and saw a tearful Saihara in front of them.
"Kiibo-kun, I almost feel offended," Saihara wipes his tears off. Or tries to, at the very least. "that you think I have no feelings over everyone."
"I did, try to I guess? But it could never work. The most I do is make myself numb to everything. But it doesn't work."
"Shuuichi, you always only care about what others think… What about yourself?"
They completely halt their dance. Saihara won't meet Kiibo's eyes.
"Shuuichi… Do you still feel guilty about everyone? You still think you don't deserve happiness?"
The rock lodged in Saihara's throat grows bigger. "I…"
"You can be honest with me, Shuuichi."
Tears are starting to flow down Saihara's cheeks again. "Kiibo… I still don't know how to do this."
"Shuuichi. We can leave now."
Saihara is aware of the noises around him. He knows. He doesn't know.
About what to do here. About what to do with his heart.
The music blares to a climax. «◈
◈» "Shuuichi!"
Saihara attempts to raise his head, but is interrupted when Kiibo takes him by the waist and lifts him up.
"Kiibo-kun! What are you―"
"Shuuichi! Forget teaching me how to dance!" Kiibo's smile is underscored with mischief. "We don't have to keep doing what they want!"
Kiibo puts Saihara down and pirouettes, rather inelegantly, but still fascinating.
"Saihara-kun! I understand it now!"
Saihara's wide eyes sold away his fears, but there was a distinct sense of fascination in them. "What is it?"
Kiibo remembered watching romantic movies with his professors, where person A takes a bouquet of roses or a ring to confess to person B. The lack of gifts notwithstanding, they suppose the plasma cannon and armour on their body are not suitable for the occasion.
Yet, they still floated down, stood right in front of Saihara, and lightly pecked on his lips.
"Kiibo-kun… What are you?…" Saihara's hoarse voice had an attractive quality.
"Saihara-kun… Shuuichi… I know now." Kiibo took Saihara in his non-transformed arm, flying up as Saihara let out a yell of shock. "You have been taking all this weight onto yourself. And you don't let anyone see them because you don't want more people to hurt."
Saihara's eyes widen for the millionth time, and obviously not because Kiibo is firing at the school dorms. "Kiibo-kun… I can't believe…"
"And you know what, Saihara-kun?"
"I won't let you take all these onto yourself again!"
Kiibo takes Saihara by his waist and lifts him up to the air again. Instead of shock, Saihara responds with an almost childlike glee that prompts him to make airplane noises, voice no longer trembling.
"And here's a new kind of twirl!" Kiibo starts pirouetting and Saihara revolves around them in the air, making more childlike sounds of jubilation.
Everyone is staring at them and quietly complaining now, but Saihara and Kiibo can barely hear anything.
They could barely care about anything except each other.
"Kiibo… I understand it now, too." Saihara's simper returns, a phenomenon that Kiibo adores the most. "We can endure it, because we have each other. Because of you, I have hope again."
"I will never, never ever try to take everything onto myself. I will always let you know if I need help, and I will always help you back just the same."
"That's what I mean, Shuuichi." Kiibo pulls Saihara close to them in an imitation of dance again, sneaking a hand up in Saihara's hair to draw him into a kiss. "I love you."
The kiss is chaste enough, but Saihara reciprocates intensely with a harder kiss, toppling a giggling Kiibo onto the ground. Soon, the two are in a tangle of limbs, with Saihara straddling Kiibo. The onlookers are loudly chastising them now.
"Kiibo, you are my wings, you are the wings that carry me out of that hell."
"Shuuichi, don't say it like you aren't. I'd say both of us are. We are each other's wings." «◈
◈» The ball ends without preamble, most likely because Team Danganronpa never expects the two of them to go rouge in that way. Now everyone is going to fawn over their love, or about Team Danganronpa's failure to promote the new season they barely put together.
All because the two of them can't stop being themselves. It's a moment of triumph. For themselves. For everyone who lost their lives. For the three girls they never know the fates of. Saihara silently wishes Maki, Himiko and Shirogane finds their own route out of the hell that is the killing game.
"Hey, Kiibo, what do you think about the couple staring at us from that direction?"
Kiibo puts on their mischievous smile again and takes out their cannon again. The couple avert their eyes.
"Saihara-kun, guess what?"
"Hmm?"
Kiibo presses yet another kiss on Saihara's lips. "I love you so much."
Saihara kisses back softly. "Me too, Kiibo. Me too."