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The circumstances that find Nagito half buried in the bushes behind the reserve course dorms are not something he likes to think about. It's his own fault for taking an alternate route out of the main course building, which had led to him completely barreling over a stressed Nanami. The girl had barely noticed the compromising position she had ended up in, and completely ignored his stuttered apologies as she had explained she had to get to a meeting with Chisa ASAP but had dropped her game charger on the way back from meeting her friend. Nagito, willing to help an Ultimate in any way possible, had immediately volunteered to grab it for her.
And so here he is.
He doesn't regret helping Nanami. He would never regret doing something as banal as this to support an Ultimate. What he doesn't like about this situation is the implications of it all.
First, he's outside the reserve course dorms. It wouldn't do for a main course student to even be seen near somewhere as lowly as this, with people who weren't even considered as Ultimates.
Worse, he's in the bushes beneath the window of one Hajime Hinata, because Nanami had informed him she had dropped her charger while climbing out of his window. He shudders to even think of what that means. Consorting with a reserve student is one thing, but to sneak around with one like this?
He shudders to even conjecture poorly of an Ultimate, but, really?
Nagito's luck works as it always does, and the second he locates and seizes the charger, the window above him slides open.
Nagito jolts backwards, or tries to. He finds himself stuck in the branches.
"Can I… Help you?" a voice asks. It's, as expected of a reserve course student, rather plain.
"I'm fine," Nagito huffs. He's not quite worthless enough to allow help from a reserve.
"You don't seem fine," the voice continues, uncertain.
There's an awkward silence, and then the person in the window groans in annoyance. "Well, fuck you, then."
He slams the window closed. The impact shakes the bushes enough to dislodge Nagito. How lucky.
Nagito shakes the leaves off his uniform and glances up at the window. The person is long gone. He takes the charger and leaves, deciding to put this incident out of his mind.
He tells himself he's not listening for that voice every time he passes a reserve student for weeks after.
The first time he lays eyes on Hinata is on his way back from class. On the days he shows up to school, he takes the long route to avoid running into any Ultimates, knowing none of them would want to see trash like him if they don’t have to.
This time, he sees Nanami sitting by the fountain by the edge of the grounds. He wonders why she’s so far away from everyone else at Hope’s Peak, but then he realizes that the boy next to her is wearing the plain yet telling uniform of the reserve course.
Nagito puts two and two together and narrows his eyes. This must be the infamous Hajime Hinata.
The two of them seem engrossed in their gaming, so he tries to sneak by, but he’s stopped by a noise from the bench.
Hinata has noticed him. He’d recognize that voice anywhere.
“Hey, aren’t you that guy who got stuck outside my dorm?”
Nagito narrows his eyes. He hadn't expected the reserve to remember him.
“Nice to see you got out, finally,” the reserve continues.
“Oh, hello, Komaeda,” Nanami says, finally looking up from her game.
“Hello, Nanami!” Nagito says brightly, because he always responds when an Ultimate speaks to him.
Nanami looks back down at her game, and after a moment, Hinata does too. Nagito knows he’s been dismissed, and if it were only Nanami, that would be fine, but the fact Hinata does it too rankles him. They are too familiar for an Ultimate and a reserve, he thinks. Something about their apparent closeness rubs him the wrong way.
He needs to do something about this.
Later, after returning to his dorm, Hinata finds a letter under his window. It's unmarked. He opens it carefully.
All it says is Get out.
He opens his window and looks around as if the view would offer some answers.
He sees nothing. Nagito is very good at being overlooked.
After that, Nagito finds himself lingering outside of the reserve dorm more than he ever expected he would.
He watches Hajime Hinata come and go, and cannot believe how utterly boring he is. He leaves in the morning for class, then eats alone on a bench outside for lunch, then returns to class, then meets with Nanami when the class rep is free of her duties, then returns to his dorm to study, and then the cycle begins anew.
Day in and day out, Nagito observes this routine. He watches Hinata study through his window, face drawn in determination, pouring his heart and soul into the intense schoolwork expected of the reserve course.
Nagito himself has no such work. No one even seems to notice he's been gone from class this whole time.
He spends his days, instead, trailing after Hinata, memorizing his movements and scrutinizing his actions.
Something about this random reserve student has caught his attention. He isn't sure what that thing is, or what impression he's getting from this person. Clearly, the only way to puzzle this whole thing out is to tail him at all hours until the mystery is solved.
Nagito narrows his eyes as he watches Hinata tap the eraser of his pencil against his lips while working on a math problem. Something about this boy makes him feel different. Something about this innocent gesture is making his heart beat more quickly and his breath catch.
It must be hate, he concludes. He hates Hajime Hinata.
He had already decided he didn't like Hinata that first time he saw him retrieving Nanami's charger, and his later meeting while Hinata had been sitting with Nanami has cemented this opinion. He can't get over the nerve this reserve course student has, consorting with a main course student. With his message, he had hoped to impress upon him the importance of leaving the structures that held their society together well enough alone.
Hinata hadn't seemed to pay his note much mind, so, as Nagito tracks his every move, he decides to make his intentions more clear.
In Hinata's shoe locker, he leaves another note. Get out of my school.
He watches from a safe distance as Hinata returns to his locker to put his books away. He notes how well the uniform fits him and how the dark colors compliment his bright green eyes. This is his place, Nagito tells himself, feeling that same mysterious feeling again, And he should stick to it.
Hinata opens the letter.
His eyes dart around, but the hallway is empty. He slips the note into his pocket and walks away, shoulders tense.
Nagito manages to run into Hinata once again sitting at the fountain, but this time he’s alone.
“Oh, hi,” the reserve says. “Do you know when Nanami’s free?”
Nagito stares at him. How highly he thinks of himself, to think he’s entitled to the Ultimate Gamer’s time… “She’s busy today,” he says, even though he doesn’t actually know what Nanami is doing.
“Oh.” Hinata sounds dejected. His shoulders are still tense. He rubs the back of his head awkwardly. “Well, thanks for telling me.”
The reserve walks away. Nagito knows it’s how things should be, but he can’t help but feel bad.
He pushes that aside. Since when was he feeling bad for the reserve course?
He needs to get rid of Hinata soon, he realizes. Vaguely threatening notes aren’t enough. He needs to escalate things.
The next morning, Hinata finds another note on his shoe locker. This time, it says, You have one week to get out, and is stuck to the door by a pocketknife.
“You know,” Nanami says, later, as Nagito helps her gather worksheets for the class, “Hinata thinks someone’s trying to kill him. They keep leaving messages in his locker, his window. He’ll probably have to move... I think.”
“How terrible,” Nagito replies mildly. That means it’s working.
He keeps an eye on Hinata as the week progresses. The boy is jumpy, body tense and eyes darting around at every movement. Nagito is good at blending in the background, so he doesn’t think he’s seen, but he keeps a bit more distance than usual. The reserve has gotten paranoid.
He looks stressed, too. There are bags under his eyes that hadn’t been there before, and his uniform isn’t as pristine as he usually keeps it.
Something about this change eats at him. He tells himself he’s doing this for the purposes of furthering hope.
Nagito takes the time to walk with Nanami on her way out of class, but she doesn’t meet Hinata. Apparently this isn’t exactly unusual, as she often has class rep duties and he has work to do, but she can’t help but think it has something to do with the notes. Nagito doesn’t like worrying the Ultimate, but he tells himself this is all for the best.
The day before Nagito’s deadline, Hinata is jumpier than ever, but hasn’t changed much else about his routine. He still goes to class, he still stays in the same dorm, and he hasn’t even changed his shoe locker. He just endures the stress.
That night, Nagito goes to the reserve dorms to place another knife on Hinata’s windowsill. He’s just pulling off his glove after arranging it just right when a hand grabs his arm and spins him around.
Hinata is there, eyes narrowed, looking livid. “You’re the one doing this?”
“Oh, me?” Nagito plasters a serene smile on his face.
“I saw you put that knife on my window just now. What the fuck do you want from me?”
Nagito just keeps smiling. Maybe this way he can talk some sense into the reserve. “You keep consorting with Ultimates as if you have any right to,” he says. “You come onto our campus with your nicely fitted suit and your alluring green eyes and you expect to join them, when they are your betters?” He lets out a soft laugh. “You should stay with the reserve course where you belong.”
Hinata just stares at him. “So your solution was to threaten to kill me?”
“Kill you?” Nagito shakes his head. “No I wouldn’t have had to actually kill you. At least, I don’t think so. The notes weren’t doing much more than make you paranoid, so I might have had to step it up a little."
Hinata blinks. “So, what, you’ve been stalking me, too?” He releases Nagito and takes a step back. “That’s just - that’s insane.”
Nagito tilts his head, still smiling.
“Whatever.” Hinata throws his hands up in the air. “Whatever. Just - just leave me alone." He spins around and walks away.
Nagito follows him with his eyes, that same feeling deep in his gut. The one he’d thought was hate.
He isn’t entirely sure it is hate, after all.
“Hinata told me what you did,” Nanami says, cornering him by a vending machine the next morning. She looks confused more than angry. “He said you didn’t like that a reserve was hanging out with an Ultimate. But he’s my friend and I like spending time with him.”
“Your friend?” Nagito isn’t sure why that had been the part he’d focused on. “Just your friend?”
Nanami tilts her head to the side. “Just friends. But that’s all I want us to be.”
Nagito nods slowly. A feeling washes over him, almost like relief.
“You should come join us after class today,” Nanami says, hooking her thumbs into the straps of her backpack. “If you two meet on neutral ground you could actually be friends… I think.”
Nagito agrees before he can think better of it. He does actually want to get to know Hinata. Something about the boy has always stood out to him, something intrigues him he can’t quite put a finger on. Strange that he would feel that way about a reserve, but perhaps he’s just unlucky.
Against what is probably his better judgement, he follows Nanami to the fountain where she usually meets Hinata. The boy is there, in that same uniform, but he looks less stressed than the last time Nagito had seen him.
“Why’s he here?” Hinata asks, narrowing his eyes when he sees Nagito.
“You both need a fresh start, I think,” Nanami says. “He has something to tell you.” She looks meaningfully at Nagito.
Nagito stares at her for a long time, then realizes what she’s trying to tell him. “Oh - uh, I’m sorry about threatening to kill you?” He rubs the back of his neck. “I still don’t like that a reserve is trying to hang out with an Ultimate, but -”
“See how you feel after you play a few rounds with us,” Nanami cuts him off easily and sits down next to Hinata.
Hinata watches him intently as he takes the space next to the reserve. Nanami pulls out three handheld devices and passes them out, and the three of them start playing.
Nagito wins every round, as it turns out, and Nanami takes it much better than Hinata. Hinata starts to play aggressively, making his performance poorer, but he does have good banter. Nagito will grant him that.
As the sun starts to set, Hinata is the one to put down his controller first. “I have to go get some work done,” he says. He says goodbye to Nanami as he hands her controller back, then hesitates. Then he turns to Nagito, frowning at the ground. “It was… nice. To meet you. Actually meet you, I mean.” He glances up, and Nagito is transfixed by the green of his eyes. “Will you come hang out again?”
“Yes, I would like that,” Nagito says before he realizes what he’s saying.
Nanami beams in the background.
As Hinata walks away, Nanami collects Nagito’s controller. “This could be the start of a beautiful friendship… I think.”
“What?” Nagito had been staring at Hinata’s retreating back.
Nanami gives him a small, knowing smile. “You’ll see.”
Months later, Nagito stares at the ceiling of a dorm he never would have expected to be in, and realizes the feeling he has whenever he looks at Hinata has never been hate at all. He’d been such an idiot. How typical of him, to fail so completely at something as simple as having a crush.
“I know you’re thinking something self-deprecating,” he hears Hinata say sleepily from just beside him. “Stop that and go back to sleep.” A solid arm wraps around his waist and pulls him closer, and as Nagito drifts off he realizes the bad luck of misunderstanding his own feelings had likely led to the good luck of meeting Hinata properly.
Or maybe the real bad luck is still to come.