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Angie and Tenko were dead. (Y/N) couldn't bear to see his friends pained expressions. The corpses whose eyes were widened, mouths open, the girls dripping with their own blood… The thought almost made him gag. They were such innocent people, yet they were killed by something, make that someone, whom they could barely control. It had happened before, Kaede and Rantarou... Kirumi and Ryoma... and everyone realized it would soon happen again. (Y/N)‘s eyes shut harshly. The distressed sheen in all of his friend’s eyes flashed in his mind.
“(Y/N), are you alright?” A voice emerged from the abyss that (Y/N)’s mind had turned into. Behind that voice rushed millions of other thoughts. The words pummeled the sides of (Y/N)’s head, filling his brain with unwanted jumbles of words. (Y/N) reached up and grasped the sides of his hair with hands that had almost turned white from fear.
Two fingers snapped in front of (Y/N)’s eyes. Shuichi was standing above him, worry etched in his face. His presence shed light over the dark depths (Y/N) had recently sunk into. Shuichi opened his mouth to speak yet again.
“The rest of the class and I were going to search for Kokichi, would you like to help us? I-it's alright if you don't want to, though…” Shuichi was treated by silence. “Um, I just thought you might know where he is, that's all.” Shuichi began to retreat, becoming aware how cumbersome the situation had begun to feel.
(Y/N) shivered, tasting the bitter words that still played on his tongue and cracked his knuckles out of impulse, “No, I’ll help you, don’t worry about it. It’s probably better doing that rather than just sitting here having an existential crisis.” (Y/N) shot out in a joking tone instead of having said existential crisis. Shuchi laughed nervously, most likely not getting how literal he was being, but nevertheless reached out a hand to help him up from the hallway floor.
Kokichi was the only person that (Y/N) had truly connected with during the entirety of the killing game. For whatever reason, (Y/N) really enjoyed being in his presence. Maybe it was because he was the only one that didn't take the whole experience too seriously. It was nice to at least have a match on a cold, dark night. He liked the fact that the two could joke around together, and that’s most likely why you would never see them separated. Until now, that is.
“So do you have any idea where Kokichi might be?” Shuichi attempted to strike up some conversation to make the awkward silence between them not so, well… awkward.
It took a moment before (Y/N) finally responded “No, I don’t, I was looking for him for a while, but it started to seem kind’ve hopeless after like, twenty minutes or so.” (Y/N) paused for a second, biting his bottom lip so hard it left a pink mark when he opened his mouth again. “We had a bit of a fight after we found Tenko and Angie. It was just… weird. He looked just a bit too excited to be finding our friends dead, and when I pointed it out…” his voice trailed off before finishing the sentence. It seemed that (Y/N) was trying to choke out the words without crying.
Shuichi quickly took note of that and quickly blurted out, “Ah! It’s alright, you really don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” (Y/N) quickly used the backs of his hands to swipe across his eyes and sniffed before speaking again.
“No, it’s my fault. I totally sprung that on you without warning. I’m really sorry for dumping my emotional baggage on you right there. It felt kinda nice to say it out loud though, even though it was super embarrassing.”
Shuichi looked over at (Y/N), tenderness shining in his eyes, smiling lightly at how he could still be humorous while almost crying his eyes out. The two continued walking. The only sound was the slightly off synchronous taps of their footsteps, leaving them in a comfortable, almost-silence.
- -
The group had been searching for at least half an hour at this point. ‘Nyehh.. We could be finding evidence right now.’ Himiko had pointed out only fifteen minutes earlier. There was a piece of truth to her words, as Monokuma could call the class trial any minute now. Yet the search was still going strong, with minimal complaining that is. Shuichi had made his way to the front of the group, while (Y/N) naturally fell to the back. In (Y/N)’s opinion it was pretty easy to see who the natural born leaders were, even if he was only appointed by the now deceased Kaede Akamatsu.
The group arrived at the last doorway in this corridor, Shuichi grabbed the handle and pulled only to shut it after opening it a third of the way. When he turned around he looked completely and utterly flummoxed.
“Wait… He’s not… He couldn’t be…” Shuichi could barely get the words out of his mouth. He took a deep breath and then swallowed before crumpling onto the ground.
“He couldn’t be what?” (Y/N) questioned, in an attempt to satisfy the urge for knowledge that he knew he wasn’t the only one seeking. (Y/N) quickly pushed past Shuichi, who was still sitting on the floor, and swung open the door. He looked down at the ground and stopped in his tracks. Although there was silence, static seemed to float through the air.
In the dark room he lay, the subject of their search, lying in a pool of his own pink blood. His skin was so pale it seemed that every drop of blood in his body was poured out into a puddle in front of him. Kokichi’s body was laid face down onto the ground, his expression most likely contorted into that of a painful one, glassy eyed, open mouthed, just like the others who had perished.
(Y/N) swallowed, then let out a mangled sob at the sight of his friend’s body sprawled out at his feet. He could smell the overpowering stench of blood pooled from the corpse and felt like he was going to vomit.
“It’s a lie!” Kokichi sprung up with an obviously faked, innocent smile on his face like a child who was caught in the act of sneaking sweets after bedtime.
“Did you really think I was dead? Wow! I’m better than I thought!” Kokichi's voice was that of candy being melted past its burning point and sending strangled smoke up into the air. (Y/N) couldn't hear a word he said. Or maybe he just didn’t want to. He only sat on the floor, completely shell shocked. Kokichi looked down at (Y/N) with a half-hearted frown.
“Aww, Come ON! I was only joking! Why do you look so sad?” All of a sudden, (Y/N) stood up onto his feet, raised his right hand and brutally slapped Kokichi across the face. (Y/N) closed his eyes so tightly it made his face wrinkle.
“Why the fuck would you do something like that? What in your head is so wrong that you think that’s funny? You scared the everloving hell out of me! I thought you were dead!” (Y/N) had almost lost his mind at this point. He was yelling and screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs while gripping Kokichi’s wrist tightly.
Kokichi was appalled. He wasn’t sure if (Y/N) was talking in gibberish or if he had lost so much blood that he began to feel woozy. (Y/N)’s left hand reached up to grip the side of Kokichi’s head only to hear him emit a whimper of pain. (Y/N) looked at his hand only to find it stained with fushia blood. (Y/N) touched Kokichi’s head wound directly and only now realized how much blood he was losing.
(Y/N) panicked and immediately tried to get a better look at the laceration. Kokichi tried to recoil but was stopped by the firm grasp on his wrist. (Y/N) tugged him back and shoved him out the door, passing by their classmates on the way out.
- -
Kokichi whined while (Y/N) swiped antiseptic on the wound. “Ow! Stop it that Huuurtss!”
“Well maybe it wouldn’t so much if you weren’t squirming the entire time!” The initial shock had passed, ‘Wounds almost always look worse than they actually are.’ (Y/N) had remembered reading that somewhere, and in this case, it seemed to be true. He wasn’t the Ultimate Nurse or anything... Kokichi’s wound had stopped bleeding by that point, and (Y/N) had just dug out the bandages from the first-aid kit he had hidden in his dorm bathroom and set them on the counter.
(Y/N) turned on the bathtub faucet and began to massage the clotted blood out of Kokichi’s hair with the lukewarm water. With every rhythmic stroke, Kokichi relaxed more into (Y/N)’s warm body. His fingers intertwined with his purple locks and gingerly washed his scalp. Kokichi snuggled into (Y/N) and relished the feeling of soft pressure on his head.
(Y/N) turned the knob of the tub and gently towel-dried Kokichi’s damp hair. (Y/N) slowly wrapped the bandages over his previous laceration and securely fastened the dressings with a tight knot. Soft arms wrapped around (Y/N)’s torso and grasped the back of his shirt. (Y/N) grinned softly and looked down at the small frame clinging to his shirt.
“So are you gonna hug me back or what?” Kokichi asked, his voice muffled by the fabric covering his face. (Y/N) chuckled and enveloped Kokichi with his own arms.
(Y/N) spoke up after a few moments, “I’m sorry for reacting like that earlier.”
“No, I should be the one apologizing to you. I reacted in a bad way to seeing Tenko and Angie.” Kokichi raised his head from (Y/N)’s chest and spoke in a gentle tone.
“Thank you for saying that, Kokichi. It means a lot to me.” (Y/N) pulled Kokichi into an even tighter embrace and tucked his head onto Kokichi’s shoulder. Kokichi smiled softly and planted a kiss onto the side of (Y/N)'s head. (Y/N)’s face went pink and was now glad that his face was covered from view.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, cherishing the closeness of their new relationship. (Y/N) raised his head in a moment of courage and planted a sweet kiss on Kokichi’s lips. He tasted better than anything (Y/N) had ever eaten and swiftly realized that he craved more.
Kokichi blushed and sputtered out pathetic, nonsensical syllables. It annoyed (Y/N), so to shut him up he went in for another, and another, and another…
“Alrighty guys, it’s finally time! That’s right. It’s time for the long-awaited class trial!”