Work Text:
"I'm going to kill you."
Kokichi looked up at her, a smile ghosting his pale lips. "So you decided to take me out after all?"
"Yep. There's no way the show can continue to a satisfying ending if you keep doing what you're doing." Tsumugi ran a hand through her hair, dispelling the few tangles that had formed in the short time they'd been talking. "We have an audience to please. You remember that, right?"
Unconcerned with anyone else's pleasure, Kokichi reclined in his chair, hands folded behind his head. "Nishishi...who cares about them? I just wanna keep playing the game 'cuz it's fun."
"Well, you can't, okay?" Despite her words, Tsumugi didn't sound irritated in the slightest. Her voice was tinged with enough warmth that anything she said could easily be mistaken for affectionate chiding. And maybe it was. "Here's the murder form if you need it. Come by my office later if you..."
She trailed off as Kokichi snatched the yellow form from her, conjuring a ballpoint pen from behind his ear. It was clear that he'd been thinking a lot about his fictional death, that he already had something planned. She watched him closely.
His handwriting ignored the borders of the answer boxes printed on the sheet, danced over the edges of lines it was supposed to sit on top of, and spilled down the spacious margins like messy waterfalls of jumbled blue lines. In a matter of minutes, he had his death sketched out, its gruesome details adorning a paper that looked no more threatening than a high school history worksheet.
Tsumugi's eyes flickered over each character as he wrote, her expression unreadable. When he appeared to be finished, she finally sat down next to him, at a minuscule distance that would raise a few eyebrows if they had been in a crowded workshop instead of alone in a conference room.
"You're joking," she said. Her smile was approving.
"Hmm? Why would I do that? Jokes are vile. Anyone who tells jokes in a serious situation like this needs to quit fooling around already." There was barely any space between them and yet he scooted closer to her on the bench, close enough to feel the warmth of her skin.
"Ouma-kun, this is..." Tsumugi shook her head. "I hope you know that I'll have to fight the executives to push this through."
"That means you're gonna fight for me, right?"
She chuckled. "I always have."
The corners of his eyes crinkled as he gazed up at her again, his head resting on one palm. "I'm so lucky I have my brave Shirogane-chan to stand up to those corporate bullies for me. Man, I don't know what I'd do if she wasn't around..."
"Cut it out, silly."
They both seemed to realize that they were far too close to each other for an upstart antihero and an evil mastermind. Tsumugi looked over her shoulder, fixing her eyes on the door for a moment. The frosted glass on the small square cutout window at about eye level suggested that the hallway outside was clear.
"I have a meeting in fifteen minutes," Tsumugi said. "It's one of those really long ones."
Kokichi glanced at the door too. "Don't forget about me while you're in there."
"You're too annoying to forget about." She smiled again when he pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense. "Anything you want to add before I take this form with me?"
Almost imperceptibly, the look on his face softened, and he averted his gaze. "Yeah, kinda." Her silence prompted him on. "You know...we've both been so busy filming..."
To any other person, it was preposterous to even imagine that Kokichi Ouma had the capacity to look shy. But here he was, scanning the gaudy pattern on the carpet, not daring to look up at Tsumugi through his lashes. His fair cheeks even sported a tinge of pink.
"I'm starting to think you don't make time for me anymore," he said, pouting. "You think you're so important, huh? Do I hafta remind you that a supreme leader outranks all of your managers?"
Tsumugi threw one last look over her shoulder at the window. Then, she bent forwards, swiftly closing their prodigious eight inch height difference, and kissed him on the lips.
Floored, Kokichi stumbled backwards, barely managing to balance himself before Tsumugi wrapped her arms around his waist and held his body tightly to hers. They separated a moment later, their heartbeats racing against each other.
It looked as if they weren't quite ready to let go, still tangled together, still hazily staring into each others' eyes. "We haven't...done that in a while, huh?" Tsumugi said absentmindedly, her glasses knocked askew.
"Aw, man." Kokichi bit his thumbnail, an old habit. "What are we gonna do? There's still months of promotional stuff after the show ends. At this rate we'll only be able to get it on at a sixth-rate motel on the side of the road in—"
"Would you stop ruining the mood?" Tsumugi rapped him on the forehead with her knuckles, provoking a little yelp. "It'll be alright. I'll kill you off, and I'll tell the special effects team to make it really ugly. Gallons of blood ugly. If anything, they'll suspect that I was biased against you."
"Great, but then the press is going to think that we hate each other. You realize they're going to pit us against each other for drama, right?"
Tsumugi sighed. "I...actually, I've been thinking about just going public with it." Her grip on him loosened, her hands sliding down his back and off of his hips. "I don't know if they'll want me back next season anyway, with the finale I've planned."
"Is that a spoiler?" Kokichi gently took her hands in his, eyes round and curious as he tilted his head upwards to look at her. "Are you gonna blow the whole place up?"
She squeezed his palms. "Maybe." A glimpse of the analog clock on the wall made her blanch, and she took a few steps back. "I should really get going. See you in the green room later, then?"
Kokichi beamed at her, bright and hopeful. "Yep! Seeya!"
As she stepped into the hallway with the murder plan tucked safely away in a file folder under her arm, Tsumugi couldn't help but think that the dazzling hope in his eyes was what had drawn her to Danganronpa in the first place. If blowing up the academy would make him look at her like that again, well...
So be it.