Chapter Text
Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!
Monokuma's voice rang through the room, along with the groan that left Naegi's mouth as he rose from his bed. Slowly and begrudgingly, he made his way over to the bathroom to take a shower. Opening his door, flashes of memories of Sayaka leaning against his wall with blood splattered around filled his head.
Shaking away the thoughts, he turned on the shower and flipped around to look at his reflection in the mirror. He could see the bags forming under his eyes, and the way his face hollowed out due to him not eating. He was too preoccupied or stressed to even think about putting something in his body. Of course, you couldn't see those details unless you studied his face closely, which brought a sigh of relief to him. The last thing he would want is for someone to worry.
Once he thought the water was warm enough, he peeled off his clothes and hopped in. To be honest, he hated showering. Obviously he liked being clean, but the thought of seeing his own body was just utterly and absolutely revolting. There was nothing about himself that he liked- not his height, his hair, and especially not the scars littering his arms and legs. Those were especially disgusting. He looked down and saw the lines of colors ranging from bright red and dark maroons, and thin white lines looking back at him. He knew it was wrong and he knew there were better ways to cope, but why does it even matter? It made him feel better and there were no major risks. As long as he was careful, then it was fine. He stole a quick glance at the corner of the shower and saw a shiny piece of metal flash at him.
Should I? He thought, but again- his impulse control was awful, and there was no reason not to. Well, maybe there was one reason, the cameras. The thought of someone seeing him so vulnerable was quite frankly terrifying but right now he didn't care.
He reached his hand out and grabbed the razor, feeling the weight in his hand. When he first came to Hope's Peak and learned of the situation that he was now stuck in, one of his first thoughts was how would he cope now? He didn't think there would be packs of razors among other things under his sink, but then again this wasn't exactly a safe school.
Regardless, he held the small object to his arm and got to work, watching the white from the open wounds slowly be covered by red that bubbled over. Once he was finished, he put the razor back in the corner and watched the blood swirl down the drain as the water washed over him. He then actually begun his shower and cleaned himself.
He got out and noticed that some of the cuts were starting to bleed again, so he reached under the sink and grabbed for the medical supplies that he took from the nurse's office. Gently, he wrapped the gauze around his arm and made sure that it wouldn't slip off, then got dressed for the day.
In all honesty, he didn't feel like eating right now. It was the day after Sakura's trial and he just felt so... drained. Nevertheless, he knew that he had to meet with the others in the dining hall, so he dried his hair and walked out the door.
As he left, he gazed at Byakuya's door. If only he wasn't such an asshole all the time. Though, even if he is an asshole, he definitely has Naegi wrapped around his finger. Jesus, he would literally do anything for that man. Byakuya could tell him to jump and he would ask how high. Maybe not just like that- he still had some dignity left.
Anyway, he made his way to the dining hall and walked in to see the usual three there, Asahina, Hiro, and Kirigiri. Surprisingly, all the way in the back, was Toko too.
"Hey Naegi!" Asahina yelled over to him, "You getting something to eat?"
"No, I'm not feeling too hungry right now, I just wanted to pop in to say hi... i'm probably just gonna walk around the school for a bit."
"Okay well be safe and remember to eat something later." Asahina gave a tired smile, Naegi knew she was completely distraught over Sakura's death.
He walked back out and decided to look for Togami. He was gonna try to spend some time with him even though he knew for a fact that he was definitely going to be insulted. It didn't matter too much, it was just nice to be around him, even if Togami didn't seem to agree.
He figured he would be in the library as per usual, so he climbed the stairs to the second floor.
Naegi pushed the door to the library open, and to no surprise, Togami was there. He felt a little awkward just going up to him and starting a conversation, so he figured that he would just pretend to get a book, sit down, and ask if he could read with alongside him. Just being around him was enough for Naegi, sadly enough. He knew that their friendship- if he could even call it that- would go nowhere, and it would be fruitless to try to attempt anything. Regardless, he was perfectly content with just having Togami in his presence.
He walked in and immediately went over to the shelves of books. He tried to find something to read while feeling Byakuya's stare in the back of his head. Naegi let out a small sigh, this was definitely going to be fun...
Eventually he settled on a murder mystery book, how ironic. Grabbing it, he walked over to the table where Byakuya was and sat down.
"Mind if I read next to you? I'll be quiet." Naegi could feel his heart already picking up pace.
"...Fine, just don't interrupt me."
Well... at least it was something. Naegi opened the book and began to read, occasionally stealing glances to the boy across from him.
About 30 minutes passed when Togami started to talk.
"Why do you always go out of your way to find me? You'd think by now even an idiot like you would realize I don't necessarily enjoy your company."
Wow, that definitely caught Naegi by surprise, "If you really don't want me here I can go but... I do enjoy spending time with you, even if we're not talking."
"How can you still not understand? You and I are on completely different levels, worlds even. There is no point to you even trying to spend time with me, it is a useless endeavor that will not help either of us in the long run, nothing comes from this." Byakuya said
"I don't talk to you because I expect to gain some sort of knowledge that's gonna better my life, I talk to you because I'm happy to be around you. I'm happy because you're my friend." Naegi can already tell that this conversation is most likely not going to go anywhere
"Don't call me your friend, we are on completely different walks of life. You are a loser, living a loser life with loser friends. I am not. What makes me different from you is that I do not stop fighting until I win, and I am going to keep on winning." He gave a glare in my direction.
"You always talk about having to win, isn't that tiring? It doesn't sound too enjoyable..."
"Such is the fate of the chosen." Byakuya said nonchalantly
"The chosen...? You keep saying that but I don't understand what that means." Naegi questioned
"I wouldn't expect you to understand, but fine, if you really want to know then I guess I don't mind indulging you a little bit. My family runs different than most, we have a system where the head of the family couples with exceptional women all over the world in order to bear as many children possible. Then all of those children compete to see who comes out on top, and the one on top becomes the head of the family. In my particular battle, there were 15 of us but when all was said and done I was the one who was last standing- the youngest brother. Me. That is what I mean by the chosen, I was not born into my title, I earned it with my own blood sweat and tears. I put my life on the line and I earned the right to be called that." Byakuya sounded somewhat melancholy throughout his speech
"Wow... that sounds really tough, I'm sorry" Naegi hesitantly put his hand atop Togami's when he suddenly heard a huff a few seconds later.
Naegi looked up to Byakuya to see him staring at their hands together in shock while small tears rolled down his face.
"Byakuya?! What's wrong? Did I say something? I'm so so sor-"
"No ones ever..." Byakuya's voice faded out
"No ones ever...?" Naegi tried to think when it suddenly clicked in his head, Togami has most likely never been comforted before, let alone shown any physical affection- even something as small as holding his hand, "Oh! well, do you uh... wanna talk about it? ...Or something?"
Togami simply glanced at him, not speaking a word.
"Do you want to talk at all? I can just uh leave if you want." Naegi suddenly felt really bad for causing this whole scene. He tried to remove his hand from Byakuya's when he felt him grab his hand slightly harder, making it clear that he didn't want Naegi to go.
"Um, if you want I can just stay here and read, we don't need to talk or anything, I can just... be here... I guess." This was definitely a difficult situation he was in
Byakuya simply nodded his head and opened his own book back up with one hand still in Naegi's.
Eventually an hour or two passed and Naegi could tell Byakuya was thinking about something.
"Hey are you alri-"
"Don't you dare tell anyone about what happened here okay?" Togami spat out
"O-of course not! I would be a really shitty person and friend if I did" Naegi tried to reason.
"Good." Byakuya let go of his hand and strolled out of the library, that was definitely not what Naegi expected to happen today...