Chapter Text
“Mind if I sit here?”
Lucy Montgomery, this year’s lone participant from Section 28, is slow to look up at the first fellow participant who dared approach her. Her hands are callused, her fingertips roughened by needle-pricks. Still, they’re nimble enough to quickly make a number of her weapons from scratch.
“I… don’t really care.” Lucy’s head remains slightly bowed down, her long bangs shadowing her eyes. “It’s not like I care if someone sits beside me!”
“If that’s the case, then…” Nakajima Atsushi, one of the participants from Section 16, slowly sits down on the bench, a good twenty centimeters away from its original occupant. “Thank you, Lucy-san!”
“I didn’t give you permission to call me by my first name,” Lucy points out, with a tone that says that she has never given such permission to anyone in her life. Her expression though, tells Atsushi that she truly wants someone to be close enough to call her by her name. “And you’re not interesting enough for me to remember your name!”
Well, that’s easy enough to remedy. “I’m Nakajima Atsushi.”
Lucy bites her lip, an instinctive ‘I know who you are!’ almost escaping. Because she does know who he is. Not because he’s special, but because she remembers every single one of them. They’re all her enemies, after all. She’s the lone participant from Section 28 and she doesn’t have any friends, much less allies. She’s all alone in this fight and she’s fine with that, she’s used to that. Her grip on her favorite doll, Anne, tightens. She only has her dolls with her, she knows. It doesn’t hurt.
Still, she lifts her right hand so she can meet the offered handshake.
“Lucy-san, you can call me Atsushi, okay? And is it okay if I call you Lucy?”
He looks so earnest, wide eyes and wide smile. It’s strange. He’s so strange. Nobody approaches Lucy and nobody smiles at Lucy. That’s easy to understand. This guy, too friendly for his own good, isn’t easy to understand at all.
“It’s not okay!”
“Oh.” Atsushi’s smile falters, but he regroups quickly. It’d be a good attribute for a warrior, but right now it’s just a pain in the ass. “Well, that’s fine! You can still call me ‘Atsushi’, though!”
Better to get it over with. She holds Anne tighter. “Why are you talking to me?”
“You just seemed so lonely,” Atsushi says rather straightforwardly. Lucy gapes at him, shocked by the guy’s nerve! How dare he? How dare he just drop that so casually?! “And you looked like you could use a friend.”
Lucy crosses her arms over her chest, trapping Anne there. It usually brings her comfort, but not today. She’s floored by this guy’s audacity, to approach someone like her, to approach anyone, really. “I don’t need friends.”
She has survived with far less.
Without knowing any of her family, she grew up in an orphanage. Without having anyone with her, she sought solace in the dolls that have been her only constant. Without knowing kindness, she had become strong enough to live without needing anyone else.
She doesn’t need anyone, because everyone just makes fun of her, just showers her with hurtful words, just gifts her with painful hits. She doesn’t need anyone – certainly not this Nakajima Atsushi who looks like he’s definitely not meant to be in an arena filled with killing intent.
“Even if you don’t need me, I’d like to be your friend!”
“Stop trying so hard,” Lucy says eventually. Her face is hot, but that’s probably because she’s filled with anger. Yes, it can only be anger. “Is this a dare? Did someone tell you to talk to me?”
“No? I told you, I wanted to be your friend!”
“You’re annoying.”
“That’s fine, it’s good to be honest with your friends!”
“I’m—not being honest, I’m just telling you—”
“Oh? So you’re not honest when you called me annoying? So you don’t find me annoying?”
Lucy covers her face with Anne, seeking her doll’s help, because Atsushi’s crossed the distance quite quickly, eyes sparkling like the stars that she used to watch every night. It’s almost too blinding. She doesn’t understand.
“Ah, she’s cute! Did you make her?”
Atsushi’s eyes are still sparkling when Lucy peeks at him from behind Anne. He looks so… interested in Anne though. It’s the first time. Everyone else calls her ugly, with her deformed proportions, mismatched eyes, rag clothes. Everyone calls Lucy stupid, childish, for constantly relying on her dolls. (They all called them monsters though, the moment that Lucy made Anne grow and move and crush them.)
“Don’t touch her. She’s Anne. She’s the first one I made.”
Lucy didn’t quite mean to divulge so much, but with the way Atsushi’s eyes are sparkling… she’s helpless to it. Because he’s like the night sky and the stars that have comforted her long ago. The same stars that Lucy cried to, asking for a savior. The same stars that twinkled at her but did nothing except for giving her the power to make Anne alive.
Atsushi raises both hands, in a show of surrender. “Got it. But hey, you’re good! I’m so clumsy, I can’t even think of making a doll! But you made Anne so cute!”
It’s her loss.
She’s supposed to be here, to fight alone and bring victory to herself so she can fulfill her wish. But in the face of such bright kindness, how can she resist?
“…t-t-t-thank you.”
Atsushi’s answering smile is warm.