Work Text:
When Chihiro Fujisaki woke up in an empty classroom, she was, to say the least, alarmed. Eyes wide, she looked around anxiously, taking in her surroundings - large green chalkboard, four rows of four desks, four times four is sixteen, sixteen places, sixteen students?
But she was the only one there.
She stood up slowly, trying to counter the shaking of her legs. Smoothing down her skirt, she made her way to the door and used all of her strength to pull, pull, pull it open, and the latch popped and the door swung open and she fell right onto her butt with a squeak.
“Are you okay?” a voice smooth as honey and cold as ice asked.
Chihiro looked up to see a girl staring down at her.
She was tall and pale, almost inhumanly so, with violet eyes and lavender hair. Her mouth was pressed in a straight line and she was extending a hand - a gloved hand, black leather wrapped tight around slim fingers splayed out to reach for Chihiro’s.
Eyes even wider than before, she took her hand and allowed this new girl to pull her up. The corners of Chihiro’s mouth pulled up in a relieved grin.
“Yeah! I’m fine, th-thank you….. My name is Chihiro Fujisaki, what’s yours?”
The girl retracted her hand and stuck it in her pocket. “Kyouko Kirigiri,” she said simply.
Chihiro stared in awe as Kirigiri looked around the room, as if she were searching for something. To put it simply, no one had ever struck her like this. She had this aura around her - smart, mysterious, cool, and maybe a little dangerous, and it sent butterflies up Chihiro’s tummy.
“Sixteen places,” Kirigiri noted quietly. She held a gloved index finger to her mouth and hummed. “There are other people here besides us. Classmates, I believe; they're in the gymnasium. You should head down there now.”
Chihiro turned pink and looked at the ground before admitting she had no idea where the gymnasium was. Kirigiri nodded and directed her, drawing a little path with her gloved finger on the desk as a sort of blank, makeshift map.
“Got it?” Kirigiri asked not unkindly, straightening up and tucking her hair behind her ear.
Chihiro thought for a minute, then nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Okay, go on without me,” instructed Kirigiri. “I just want to see if anyone else is here.”
Nodding again, Chihiro smoothed down her skirt before leaving the room, keeping the door open behind her just in case it stuck again and Kirigiri got trapped inside. True to her directions, the gymnasium was exactly fifteen steps down the left hall turn. She pushed open the door and there were twelve other students. Four times four is sixteen, sixteen places, twelve students, plus her and Kirigiri made fourteen. Where were the other two?
The fifteenth student arrived shortly after Kirigiri returned to the gym, a boy in a hoodie with a big gap-toothed smile and a baby face. It turned out that their class was only fifteen - there was just an extra desk, probably. How stupid of her to assume desk space actually would tell her how many people there were supposed to be!
That night, Chihiro was too scared to sleep. How was she supposed to sleep when her classmates could kill her at any moment? She was much smaller than everyone else and probably couldn't defend herself very well. Her weakness would be the death of her - she was an easy target, no muscles, no backbone, no significance. She’d be the first choice to be killed. Anybody could be dangerous. Except Kirigiri, she thought as she burrowed deeper into her blankets. She seemed nice. She showed Chihiro around the first floor of the school, and Enoshima was nice to her too, even though Chihiro didn’t really trust her as much. Maybe things weren't so bad?
In any case, no matter how nice Kirigiri and Enoshima were, the real fear of being killed in her sleep kept her up that night. She made sure her door was locked every half hour, fear freezing up her feet each walk only for her blankets to warm them up again. By the time the sun rose, she had a hard time keeping on her feet and found herself nodding off on her way to breakfast.
Kirigiri was waiting in the cafeteria, a mug of something that smelled really nice in front of her. She gave Chihiro a little smile. She returned it as best she could but yawned loudly, bringing a hand up to stifle it.
“Morning, Kirigiri-san,” she yawned.
Kirigiri yawned as well. Too much yawning, Chihiro thought. “Good morning, Fujisaki,” she responded. “I take it you didn't sleep too well.” It was definitely not a question.
“Um, no, not really.” Chihiro frowned and looked towards the floor, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
Kirigiri frowned. “That's too bad. Would you like some coffee? I have some I wouldn't mind sharing.” Before Chihiro could answer, she had pushed her mug towards her, a silent urge for her to taste. She didn't want to be rude, so she lifted the mug to her lips, took a sip, and made a face as she tried not to spit it out. Kirigiri smiled sympathetically and pushed an empty mug towards her as she removed hers from Chihiro’s hand. “Spit,” she instructed. Chihiro let the coffee dribble out into the empty mug, noticing a lip gloss mark on the rim. It must have previously held Enoshima’s morning tea.
“Sorry,” she said, looking down at the backwash in the mug. “I wasted your coffee….”
She waved a hand in polite dismissal. “I have plenty more.” And that was that. Kirigiri waved for Chihiro to sit down, so she took the place opposite her, where the two of them sat in comfortable silence. It didn't seem like Kirigiri was much of a talker. That was okay, though; she showed what she was thinking in other ways, as Chihiro found out over the next few days.
She liked to read a lot. Chihiro would find her in the library during weird hours with a book clutched in her gloved hands. Sometimes she would be reading, but other times she was staring at the pages like they’d offended her but she’d lose too much by throwing them away. Chihiro never liked to bother her when she was like that - Kirigiri was obviously a very deep and thoughtful person figuring out how to get them out of there, and Chihiro wouldn’t want to disturb her concentration.
She found Kirigiri watching her a lot, too. Not in a weird way - it felt protective, like how Oogami-san watched Asahina-san when they were together. Chihiro knew what they did together, so she wasn't sure what that meant for her and Kirigiri. Did she like her like that? It seemed unlikely. Kirigiri was so cool, and Chihiro wasn't really anything special, she thought.
She decided to ask her about it after breakfast. It was horribly nosey, but she was curious. Kirigiri was reading at the table long after everyone else had left. It would be private. If she did like her, they would figure out what to do next, and if she didn't, nobody would be around to see her humiliation.
“Um, excuse me, Kirigiri-san,” Chihiro said, waving a hand in between the book and her face. She looked up at her and they swore they saw annoyance flash in her eye for a second before it was replaced with curiosity. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
“Yes, Fujisaki?” She tilted her head inquisitively. Her fingers flexed against the cover of the book, smooth black leather rubbing against brown.
“This is kind of a stupid question, but…. do you like me?”
Kirigiri’s eyebrows rose. “I would consider us friends, so yes. I wouldn't play a three-hour game of Scrabble with you if I didn't.”
Chihiro faltered. Was she ignoring the real question on purpose? Also, the Scrabble thing was probably true. She had let her use “scritch” as a word. Only true friends did that. But no, she had to get a real answer. She took a deep breath, smoothed her skirt, and said, “I mean as... more than a friend.”
The way Kirigiri’s eyes widened told Chihiro that she really hadn't expected that. Her cheeks tinted pink and she looked to her right. “What makes you think that? You'll have to back up this accusation with evidence.” She spoke quickly, almost defensively. This wasn't the cool headed Kirigiri that Chihiro was used to.
In order to get a real answer, though, she figured she might as well tell her what she noticed. Her finger rested on the side of her lower lip as she thought for a moment. “Hmmmmm….. I always catch you looking at me, and when you notice that I noticed, you look away. You let me use ‘scritch’ as a word in Scrabble. You smile at me when you don't really smile at anyone else, except maybe Naegi-kun. You stare at my mouth sometimes, even when I'm not talking. You let me try some of your favorite coffee, the kind Naegi-kun gave you, I think. That sounds like a crush to me. But I guess I could be wrong, now that I think about it. Am I?”
Kirigiri was even pinker now. “You're quite the detective,” she answered. “But no matter how I feel, this killing game makes a relationship unwise at best and deadly at worst. So the point is moot. It would be stupid to - ”
“I like you too.”
Kirigiri's nostrils flared ever so slightly and Chihiro giggled. She was cute when she was flustered! Not wanting to overstep her bounds, she rested her hand, palm up, on the table. Maybe… Kirigiri could hold it if she wanted. A few long moments passed before Kirigiri seemed to come to some sort of resolution. She smiled softly, dipped her head in acknowledgement, and, leaving Chihiro’s hand untouched in favor of brushing her long, silky hair out of her face, said, “Would you like to meet me in the library tonight?”
Chihiro beamed. “It's a date, then!”
Kirigiri smiled just a little wider. "It's a date."