Work Text:
Imagine running to Souda’s cottage and banging on the door in a panic, the mechanic leaping off his bed and throwing open the door at record speeds, likely because he thinks you’re being chased by a homicidal classmate. But when he opens up and sees you standing there with tears in your eyes, his stance relaxes and he looks partially relieved.
You’re not bleeding, nor are you being chased-but you are cradling your cellphone in your hands, which has been cracked and smashed into pieces. Kazuichi ushers you inside with a hand on your shoulder, and with a hiccup you recall what had happened.
“I-I was looking through my camera roll in the library…but when I went to p-put it away, Komaeda bumped into me and I dropped it…a-and then he stepped on it…please, Souda, can you please fix it? I-I’ll do anything!”
You can see his eyes darken and the scowl on his face, carefully taking the pieces from your hands to look them over.
“..I-It has all my pictures on it, all my photos of m-my family…i-it’s all I have left of them..”
The heartbroken expression on your face only increases his anger at your classmate tenfold-if nothing else, he absolutely loathes seeing you cry. It makes him feel hopeless, if someone as bright as you was upset.
“That stupid creep! He probably did it on purpose, with that dumb luck of his.”
Souda immediately heads to his desk to lay the remains of your cellphone out, and pulls a small bundle of tools out from his jumper pocket, the cogs already working in his brain.
“..Don’t you worry, I can fix it. I’ll just need a bit of time, but I’ll get it working again.”
His confidence relieves you, and with a small ’t-thank you’, you step back to sit on his bed while he starts figuring out the pieces. Though it’s around the afternoon when you bring it to him, it soon grows far past dark when Souda finally puts the finishing touches on your device. He’s even upgraded the camera to a better quality and expanded your memory, and as he turns it on to determine that it still works, he decides to check and see if your data was all saved.
Inside your gallery, he takes a peek to see numerous photo albums-most of the pictures are of you and your family, or of nature, or some cute-looking animals. They all seem like peaceful and happy memories, even the ones that he notices are of Jabberwock itself. You have pictures of the ocean, of the view outside your cottage, you even have an adorable photo of you and Monomi, throwing up a peace sign. And then, near the most recent pictures, he finds quite a startling one.
The most striking part of the photo is the long, brightly coloured hair tucked into a beanie-his hair, as well as the rest of him crouched over one of the little tinkering projects he’d been doing. He’s got a thoughtful expression on his face, one he hasn’t seen before-his brow is furrowed and his eyes are laser-focused on what he’s doing. Though it feels strange for you to have a secret picture of him, it makes him feel…really, really flattered. He even blushes at the thought of you snapping a sneaky photo of him, especially when you didn’t have any others of your other classmates, just a group photo everyone took on a whim. Clearing his throat, he closes out of the app and turns to tell you it’s done-only to find that you’ve fallen fast asleep on his bed, cuddling one of his pillows like it’s a teddy bear.
“…Here you go, cutie. All fixed up-now, how am I gonna wake you..?”
He slips the phone into your pocket, and contemplates shaking your shoulders to wake you up-until Monokuma’s 10 pm announcement goes off, and he realizes that it’s better for you to stay here.
“Guess I’m taking the couch, then…sweet dreams.”
Souda murmurs to himself-and then, eyes darting about as if someone might be watching, he quickly leans down and presses a kiss to your cheek. With the warmth of your skin fresh in his mind, he falls back on to the sofa and starts to doze off-all with the hope that he’ll get to see your smiling face when you wake up tomorrow.