Work Text:
In one of the poorer, more dangerous cities in Japan, where it was common to hear a siren blaring at two in the morning and a walk should never be taken at night alone, was a large abandoned warehouse. Windows shuttered, doors locked tight, the entire building was covered in spray paint graffiti and childish drawings.
To someone outside of the city, the graffiti looked to be nothing but that. Graffiti. But the locals knew better. It was the mark of a group, a symbol that they had claimed the building as their own. Builders beware, that building was not to be bought and renovated, lest they wanted to go home with egg yolk and feathers in their hair. No breaking in, no messing with the building, and no messing with the ones who lived in it. It was their home, no one else’s, and it was sacred.
Some might’ve called a group like that a gang. Protecting their turf, causing mayhem across the city. Truly they were horrible criminals! But most didn’t see it that way. To them, the ragtag group of kids who had commandeered the building were at worst, a minor nuisance, and at best, some troubled orphans doing their best.
Whether in uniform or not, all the locals could spot the kids on sight. And, though they played their fair share of pranks and pulled petty crimes both in and outside of the city, most were willing to lend them a hand every now and then. Ms. Hisakawa had kept her food cart open late one night when the whole group had come shuffling up in pajamas, the youngest member (a little girl with long light brown hair) wiping at her tear-stained face. Mr. Kazama had tended to a few of their more serious injuries before, no questions asked or money required. And practically everyone in the city had lied to the police about what the kids looked like and who they were. Even the crankiest of old men just… couldn’t turn them in.
So the city endured their pranks. Air horns going off in the middle of the night to drown out the sirens. Streamers covering storefronts and glitter bombs exploding in the street. And everyone avoided the abandoned warehouse covered in graffiti, knowing it was the makeshift home of the strangest unofficial family they’d ever seen.
Still. Unofficial or not, it was clear that that little band of orphans cared about each other more than anything in the world.
“Spades! Jack! Get back here right now!”
Diamonds liked to think of herself as DICE’s second-in-command. The one that was in charge! …Providing Kokichi wasn’t there to lead. Smart, quick-witted, and ready to kick ass, she was the whole package deal. Amazing! FANTASTIC! That was Diamonds! Glittering in the sun, shining in the moonlight, a beautiful, brilliant mind untethered my humanity and their rigid definitions of intelligence. She was a star! A dangerous villain destined to go down in history! A god damn, motherfucking-
“Think fast!” Spade yelled.
The whipped cream pie slammed into Diamonds’ face.
-badass.
Ok, so MAYBE she was exaggerating. Maybe DICE didn’t actually have an official second-in-command, and maybe if they did it would likely be Queen and not her, but that was beside the point! She was like… at least third in their unofficial ranking system. Well, no King was likely ahead of her considering he was the only one that was consistently good at cooking. And Ace would probably fight her for fourth place, but she could beat him! …Probably. Maybe.
Ok, so maybe she was more like fifth place! Sue her! She was still pretty awesome! Fifth place in DICE was still better than NOT being in DICE. Because, as everyone knows, anyone who isn’t in DICE is automatically less awesome and less amazing. That was like, the law. DICE was on top. Everyone else was below, prime from pranking. And in a ten-member group she was still in the top five, so HA! Take that!
“Whatsa matter Diamonds?” Jack teased, hands in his pockets and rolling back on his heels, “I thought you love a good cream pie?”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Spades agreed, grabbing the pie tin off the ground and plopping it on Diamonds’ head, “You look good that way! Very flattering.”
At the very least she was better than these two chucklefucks.
Diamonds shook the pie tin off her head before reaching for her seltzer bottle. Spraying herself clean, she gave the bottle one more shake and pointed it at the two with a glare.
Jack took a step back, “Thanks for the offer, but uh, I don’t need a rinse down.”
Spades nodded, dramatically showing off his clean uniform, “Yeah, no cream here! Perfectly clean. Besides, this is my fanciest uniform. Wouldn’t want to get it wet, right?”
Water dripping from her pigtails, checkered scarf soaked, and bits of cream still clinging to her face, Diamonds just glared harder.
“Don’t make me get serious,” she warned, pulling out a feather and waving it menacingly.
Jack took his hands out of his pocket, raising them up in surrender.
“Not the Giggle-Water trick,” he cried in horror.
“YES, the Giggle-Water trick.”
“You wouldn’t!” Spades argued, “Joker told you you couldn’t anymore!”
“Joker isn’t here.”
He would be soon, though. And if she didn’t get these two in line the party would never be set up in time. They had an hour at MOST, likely less knowing Kokichi. King and Queen were in the kitchen, finishing up the spread. Clubs was setting up the tables. Deuce was handling the decorations. And Ace and Hearts were keeping a lookout outside.
Jack and Spades were SUPPOSED to be putting up the banner, but things could never be that easy. Honestly, you tell two people a banner is off center twenty times and suddenly people are pieing you in the face and chasing you around headquarters. It wasn’t HER fault that the two were too busy exchanging banter to properly align a banner. She was just doing her job as party coordinator!
…Unofficial party coordinator, but that wasn’t the point! The point was… wait was the point again?
Oh, whatever! The point was, for as much as DICE was a family, they were still ten dysfunctional orphans and it was pretty much inevitable for them to get on each other’s nerves. And the two of them had totally eaten the last s’mores pop tart yesterday and they KNEW that those were her favorite and that she always had them for breakfast and that was about as good as declaring a prank war on her so if she wanted to annoy them to hell and back about the precise alignment of a banner that was her god given right!
“Diamonds,” Jack backed away, “Put the feather down.”
“Never,” she hissed and the chase began.
“QUUUEEEEN!!” Spades cried, just barely avoiding a spray of seltzer water, “Diamonds is breaking the ruuuules!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“I refuse to be tickled into submission!”
“How about waterboarded?!”
Diamonds tackled Spades to the ground. Raising the bottle with grim determination, she startled as Spades squeezed a bike horn directly in her ear, causing her to press down on the trigger in shock and spray him.
Spades sputtered and coughed, “Fuck, that backfired.”
Diamonds grinned, knocking the bike horn out of his hand, “Accept defeat.”
“Never!”
“Then perish.”
She brandished her feather and began tickling him, spraying the seltzer so he laughed into the water. Was it eerily close to waterboarding? Yes. Was that kinda torture? Possibly. But all she was doing was making him laugh! Sure, he was laughing on his back as water sprayed onto his face causing him to choke and sputter, but she wasn’t ACTUALLY hurting him.
Really. There was no reason for Joker to have banned it.
“Sneak attack!” Jack screamed, ramming into Diamonds just as she looked up.
Spades coughed, giggles still shaking through his body as he turned to Jack.
“Disarm her!” he cried, and Jack nodded.
“No!” Diamonds cried, but it was too late.
The seltzer and feather were knocked out of her hands and she was left defenseless.
Jack laughed and pumped his fists in the air, “We are victorious!”
“You cheated!” Diamonds argued, “Two against one? Not fair!”
“You’re not allowed to use the Giggle-Water trick anymore,” Spades argued back, “So it’s totally fair.”
“Is not!”
“Is too!”
“Is-”
The pager on all of their belts buzzed. The three froze.
“He’s here already?!” Jack cried, “I thought we had an hour!”
The door to the kitchen burst open, Queen’s hoop earrings swinging as she rushed out. Behind her, King pushed a tea cart piled high with sweets and treats. Chocolate chip cookies covered with rainbow sprinkles, slutty brownies, and those little mini sandwiches that were always popular at tea parties for whatever reason.
Seriously. What made mini sandwiches more appealing than regular ones? You just ended up taking more sandwiches by the end of it! It ends up being the same amount of food, just in smaller doses. Just take a whole fucking sandwich!
“Focus!” Queen snapped, and Diamonds did, “Jack. Spades. The banner. NOW.”
“Got it!” the two nodded and rushed to the ladders to put it up.
“Clubs,” Queen called, “Are the tables set?”
“Yep!” Clubs nodded and moved to help King transfer the deserts from the cart to the tables.
“Deuce?”
Deuce elegantly spiraled down from one of the streamers hanging from the ceiling.
“All good,” they said.
“Diamonds?”
She rushed to pick up the present box she’d left on the floor. Hefting it high, she gave Queen a bright smile.
“All set!”
Queen nodded, “Perfect. All that’s left is-”
“Everyone into positions!” Ace yelled as burst into the room, Hearts in tow.
“Right on time,” Queen smiled, “You heard the man. Positions. Now.”
It was hard to truly surprise Kokichi. He just wasn’t the kind of person to get surprised. He was smart. Smarter than any person Diamonds had ever known. And it only took him a few seconds before he got something. Diamonds would love to say that she was like that too… but that would be a lie.
No, back when most of DICE went to school, back at the orphanage, Diamonds had spent many a day tearing up stupid worksheets and cursing their teacher to the high heavens. Call her a troublemaker, call her too headstrong for her own good, she didn’t care! It wasn’t her fault none of the problems made sense. Wasn’t her fault the teacher explained things in such a mind-numbingly convoluted way. School wasn’t a place for smart people, it was a place for boring, annoying rule followers and teacher’s pets!
Kokichi said so himself, despite finishing every worksheet twice as fast as the teacher expected. Despite always getting perfect scores. The teacher only needed to show him something once before he just got it. Kokichi only ever needed to see anything once before he just got it. Taking it apart in his mind, analyzing it till the exact mechanisms were nothing but toys for him to play with.
Of course, just getting it didn’t make one very good at showing work. Or explaining things to others. So, despite Kokichi being the only one that was actually still in school, she didn’t go to him for help with her little side-projects (No, they weren’t hazards against humanity JACK. Joker never got hassled for his inventions so what was so wrong with her building stuff?!). No, instead she went to Ace. Because that crazy bastard checked out math workbooks from the library for fun.
Where was Diamonds going with this again? Oh! Right!
Yes, it was hard to surprise Joker. But that didn’t mean DICE wasn’t going to try. Kokichi went out of his way to make the world a more fun and interesting place, so it was only fair for them to do the same for him.
“Three… two… one… SURPRISE!”
Hearts pressed a button, setting off the confetti cannons around the room. And everyone struck a pose as the guest of honor entered the room.
“Well, well, well,” Kokichi said with a smile, twirling in the falling confetti, “What’s this? Have my loyal henchmen thrown a party for my illustrious return?”
“No,” Deuce rolled their eyes, “The base just always looks like this.”
“That’s barely even a lie,” Ace muttered.
And well. Headquarters was never exactly neat per se. They were ten orphans who never had a proper parental figure in their lives. Cleaning and organization skills were never really a skill of theirs. But it wasn’t like it was constantly covered in confetti and streamers. …Only some of the time.
“Welcome back!” Diamonds smiled, rushing over and pushing the present box towards him, “I got you a present!”
“WE got you a present,” Spades reminded.
“Yes, but since I was the one who gave it to him, technically it only came from me. In that, I got it and brought it to him.”
“Wha- So THAT’S why you wanted to be on present duty!?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Diamonds lied.
“Oh, you sneaky son of a bitch.”
“Like I had to be sneaky, you and Jack can’t even put up a banner correctly!”
“Hey!” Jack cried, “Can too!”
“Oh really? Look behind you. It’s still not straight.”
“Like you know anything about being strai-”
Queen coughed loudly behind them, “The present?”
“Sorry!” the three chorused, causing Kokichi to giggle.
“Yes! Yes! Don’t keep your leader waiting!”
Diamonds handed Kokichi the large, oversized gift box. Bouncing slightly on her heels, she watched as he tore into the thing, shredding the wrapping paper instantly. Opening the box he reached inside to take out… a smaller box.
Diamonds watched his smile grow.
“Well?” she asked.
“You didn’t.”
“It was Hearts’ idea,” Ace said, nodding to Hearts who gave Kokichi a big thumbs up.
“Yeah,” Diamonds admitted, “I’m afraid I can’t take any credit for the packing decision.”
“But you CAN take credit for our collective gift?” Spades quipped.
“Yes. And?”
Spades glared at her. She glared back. Kokichi opened the second box to reveal a third smaller box.
“Oh I love this already,” he whispered under his breath.
Ten boxes and a lot of wrapping paper later, everyone had migrated to the tables. Queen poured everyone tea while King piled everyone’s plates high with sweets. Ace and Hearts were having a silent conversation via pens on the tablecloth, Clubs and Deuce were attempting to make a tower out of the now empty cardboard boxes, and Diamonds, Jack, and Spades were being perfectly civil thank you very much.
Which is to say, Jack had fake poisoned Diamonds tea with salt, causing her to dunk her half-eaten slutty brownie into his, which got Spades to fling sprinkles into her hair, which got Diamonds to grab some frosting off her cupcake and smear it over both their faces.
Spades was just about to reach for one of the stray boxes Clubs and Deuce were stacking when Kokichi finally gasped. Immediately, everyone’s attention was on him.
“Well?” Queen said, “What do you think?”
Hearts tapped Kokichi on the shoulder. She made a heart with both her hands, then two thumbs down, before cocking her head to the side.
Kokichi smiled, leaned in, and said in a loud stage whisper, “I love it.”
IT was a brand new set of playing cards, themed after none other than DICE.
Spades let out a sigh, moving away from the box he had no doubt been planning to ram into her face, “It really was Diamonds who came up with the idea for them.”
“Oh?” Kokichi raised an eyebrow.
Diamonds turned to Spades in surprise, but he didn’t look her way.
“Yeah. Those are her old playing cards, you know? Queen patched them up, Clubs stripped them, and Deuce repainted them. Ace made sure the modifications didn’t make them unusable, Hearts made the new box for them, and we each got a say on what our cards looked like.”
Jack nodded, reaching over and taking one of the two jokers from the deck, “Obviously, we all pitched in when it came to your two cards. What do you think?”
The joker Jack was holding featured none other than Kokichi himself, in full uniform. Cloak, hat, mask, and all, he balanced on a circus ball designed to look like a globe. Quite literally on top of the world, he stood with his arms outstretched and triumphant.
Kokichi laughed, “It’s fantastic! Truly a card for yours truly.”
He took the joker from Jack and began shuffling the cards, fanning them out in a beautiful array.
Diamonds turned to Spades with a suspicious glare, “Why did you say that?”
“What? I can’t be a good friend sometimes?”
Diamonds glared harder, “This doesn’t make me forgive you for stealing my pop tarts.”
“Jack and I’ll help you with your Thingamatron.”
Jack choked on a sip from Spade’s teacup, “Wait, what?!”
The Thingamatron, as Diamonds liked to call it, was her greatest accomplishment yet. It didn’t actually have a purpose and, to be honest, she didn’t really know what it did. What started as some loose gears, silly bands, and pencil grips had become an insane contraption of mayhem. Spinning and whirring and… well not really doing much else. But it took up more than half of her room and made strange noises when on and that was enough for Jack to view it as an abomination.
“Deal,” Diamonds agreed immediately.
“Spades…” Jack cried, “how could you do this to me?”
“It was a necessary evil.”
“It was not.”
“So, we cool?” Spades asked.
“We cool.”
“Spades!”
Spades shot Jack doe eyes fit to rival Hearts.
Jack sighed, “Fine. We’re cool.”
“Yes!”
Kokichi clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention.
“Now that I’ve been oh, so ceremoniously treated by all of you, it’s time for me to pull a few tricks up my sleeve!”
“Huh?”
“You brought us gifts!?”
“Yep!” Kokichi riffled through his backpack, “First! Queen.”
Queen straightened up, “You know you didn’t need to get us anything.”
“Nonsense! What kind of boss would I be if I didn’t treat my minions? Now, for you, I have some of the finest Turkish tea!”
Queen gasped, immediately grabbing the box, “You’re lying.”
“Not this time.”
Queen looked the box up and down, clearly enamored. She shook her head.
“How?”
Kokichi shrugged his shoulders, “What can I say? I’ve made some powerful connections at school.”
Diamonds didn’t doubt it. Hope’s Peak Academy was the most prestigious school in the country. Tons of important people went there.
It was a running joke in DICE that they could get the world to change with a snap of their fingers. It wasn’t true. But, at the very least, they ran their own world.
After Hope’s Peak? Diamonds wouldn’t be surprised if one day they really COULD snap their fingers and get the world to change. Or, more accurately, after making a very strategic phone call.
“Thank you, Kokichi.”
Kokichi stuck out his tongue, grinning all the while, “Next! Ace!”
“Me?” Ace blinked.
“Yep!” Kokichi handed him a larger box, “I know how much you love coffee, so I got you some!”
“I’m sorry, is that Turkish coffee?” King asked, looking between them.
“You betcha.”
King swiveled towards Ace, “Ace, no.”
Ace stared at the box, unblinking, “Ace, yes.”
Diamonds started chanting, “Ace, yes! Ace, yes!”
Spades and Jack joined in, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
King switched targets, “Kokichi, that’s Turkish coffee. Do you know how caffeinated that is?”
“Yeah,” he said, “And?”
“I trust him with it,” Deuce argued.
“You shouldn’t,” Ace said, “But thanks for the vote of confidence. Oh! And thank you for the coffee Kokichi.”
Kokichi gave a seated bow, “It was a pleasure to be of service.”
“Me next! Me next!” Diamonds bounced in her seat.
Kokichi tossed her a bag of loose parts. Gears, bolts, random planks of metal, and more spilled out of it.
“Go nuts,” he said, “You’re welcome.”
“Oh, hell yes!”
“Of course,” Jack sighed, “Right when we agreed to help with the Thingamatron.”
“Shush!”
“I’ve also got a phone number for you if you’re interested,” Kokichi added, “I loathe to say it, but I met someone I think you’d like.”
“Oh?”
Kokichi waved her curiosity away.
“I’ll tell you about it later,” he stated before moving on, “Next! King!”
The gift-giving went on. A bundle of recipes for King. A new book for Deuce. A magic trick set for Spades and Jack. Until, finally, it got to Hearts.
Kokichi paused, “Now, this gift is actually really special. And it’s not even really a gift from me.”
A confused look overtook Hearts' face and she cocked her head to the side.
“Yeah,” Clubs said, noting the silent question, “What do you mean by that?”
“Well, technically, someone gifted this to me, to gift to you. So consider this a gift from me, but mostly from them.”
Hearts looked suspicious but held out her hands for the gift anyway. Kokichi nodded and reached into his backpack. Carefully, as if bestowing her with a priceless artifact, he placed a laptop in her hands.
“Go on,” he said softly, “Turn it on. And, don’t tell me what you think yet! Wait till you’ve figured out what it does. And then. THEN you can tell me all you like.”
Everyone leaned in as Hearts turned on the computer, waiting to see what it did. There were a few minutes of silence as Hearts fiddled with the thing. And, in that moment, Diamonds wondered if perhaps it was just a simple laptop. Honestly, that would still be a really awesome gift, but something about Kokichi’s tone implied there was more to it. Not to mention, most normal laptops didn’t have a front-facing screen to go along with the normal one. What was even the purpose of that? It wasn’t like the one using the laptop could see it. What was it supposed to display?
Hearts jumped, staring at the screen with wide eyes. An expression Diamonds couldn’t place crossed her face as she turned to Kokichi and stared. She looked back to the laptop, then back at him, then back to the laptop. Kokichi smiled.
“Well? Go on. Tell me what you think.”
Hearts turned back to the laptop. With shaking hands, she brought her fingers over the keys and began typing.
“[Hello?]” the program on the laptop read out in a very stereotypical high-pitched princess voice as a chibi kitty princess avatar appeared on the front-facing screen.
Everyone froze. Hearts’ eyes glimmered.
“[Hello! Hello everyone! Hi! Hi! Hi!]”
“Kokichi?” Clubs breathed out.
“Hi Hearts,” Kokichi ignored him, “How do you like your new laptop?”
“[I love it! I love it! I love it!]”
Hearts pulled Kokichi into a fierce hug. He melted into it.
“Kokichi,” Queen said, “How much did that thing cost?”
Kokichi shook his head, “Didn’t I tell you? It was a gift?”
“From who?!” Spades and Jack said in unison.
“That,” Deuce stumbled on their words, “Kokichi that… Oh my god.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my god.”
“Nice choice in avatar and voice, by the way,” Kokichi smiled.
“[I can say fuck in a pretty princess voice!]” Hearts explained, “[Fuck!]”
“Are you saying it has DIFFERENT voices and avatars?!” Diamonds exclaimed.
“Oh, you have no idea. We also set the number lock keys so they should work with the pagers.”
Within seconds everyone’s pagers went off. Diamonds felt the buzzing on her belt and was stunned.
This. This was. Diamonds didn’t even know what this was. This was HUGE. AAC devices were expensive and DICE’s budget was small. Their collective attempt to learn JSL ended when Hearts threw her notes across the room and went to cry into her pillow after a particularly unsuccessful day of teaching themselves. The pager system was good, and the ten of them had become close enough that more often than not they could just tell whatever the other was thinking, but Diamonds knew it wasn’t perfect. That having conversations in glitter pen on the tablecloth only got you so far.
She and Kokichi had cobbled together what amounted to a soundboard one day, with stock phrases ripped from different abandoned toy sound boxes over the years. But with so few options Hearts really only used it on DICE missions.
But this was. This was gifting someone a voice. A full-on voice, able to carry over distances, able to inflect in a way writing wished it could.
“[I love it,]” Hearts repeated and Diamonds marveled at how it sounded different from the last three.
“Right, changing the inflection is a little tricky,” Kokichi said, leaning over Hearts’ shoulder, “but you got it! It gets harder on longer sentences, and I wouldn’t recommend using it on something that’s kinda timed cause it takes a bit, but the more you do it the easier it gets. There’s also some pre-made inflections you can swap from if you click…”
Connections. Hope’s Peak was the perfect place to make connections. And here Diamonds thought the Turkish tea and coffee was a big deal. No. Whoever managed to get them THIS was one of the best non-DICE members Diamonds had ever heard of.
“[Who gave this to you?]” Hearts asked.
Kokichi laughed, “Yeah, about that. I kinda have an announcement to make.”
“There’s more?!” King exclaimed, “Joker, what have you been getting up to over there?”
“A lot! Do you know classes aren’t even mandatory there?”
“THEY’RE NOT?!” Ace yelled.
“I thought this was the best education in all of Japan,” Clubs whispered to Deuce.
“But enough about that” Kokichi clapped his hands, “The one who gave me this lovely device was none other than Shuichi Saihara! The Ultimate Detective! …My boyfriend.”
The room… exploded.
“WHAT?!”
“NO WAY!”
“You’re lying, you’re lying, this is one big lie.”
“You’re dating a detective?! Like, Batman Catwoman style??”
“Wait? Isn’t that the guy you asked us to research?”
“If this is a prank I’m going to retaliate so hard!”
The pagers buzzed violently. What was unofficially called the ‘shut the fuck up’ buzz. Everyone quieted down.
With everyone now silent, Hearts took her hands off of her ears. Then, she turned to Kokichi.
“[Boyfriend?]” she asked.
“Yeah. Don’t worry, you’ll get to meet him someday. Who knows? Maybe he’ll even join DICE!”
Clubs jumped at that, “Details! Give me details, how else are we gonna figure out a codename for him?”
“Oh! Or an outfit!” Deuce added, “Does he like rips or no rips? What about buttons? Arm straps? Leg straps? Give us something to work with.”
“Ok! Ok!” Kokichi laughed, beckoning everyone forward and leaning in as if to start a fairytale, “Here’s the story of how I met the most beautiful, unpredictable detective in all of Japan. It all started on the first day of school. I was doing my damndest to be a complete model student, skipping class, when some blonde girl and blue-haired boy came up to me!”
Kokichi launched into his dramatic tale and, as he did, Diamonds took a moment to really get a look at him. To see just what the school year had done to him. It was strange, to compare the mental image of him to the version in her mind. He hadn’t changed, not really. It was still clearly Kokichi. Still the same relaxed mannerisms that were reserved for DICE and DICE only. Still the same voice and tone that existed purely in the realm of family. Still those exaggerated and playful bits poking through. But there was something else.
Perhaps, Diamonds realized, looking at Kokichi in that moment, he looked happier. Which was strange, considering Kokichi was always his happiest when with DICE. She’d seen him at his lowest, they’d ALL seen each other at their lowest. At the orphanage. During those first few years on the streets. Back when death was a genuine thing that very well could happen to any of them at any time and the playful mayhem they’d wrought was just a glimmer in their eyes.
She’d seen him at his lowest and she’d seen him at his happiest. And the happiest moments had always been with DICE. In those moments of joy and false grandeur. Where they bickered and fought and loved each other like a real family. Where the dream of ruling the world felt real, if only because they’d managed to conquer their own rule.
But speaking so fondly of this man she’d never met, she saw a new sort of happiness spark in his eyes. One she’d never seen before that was just as bright, mixing into the joy of being home to create a happiness stronger than any she’d ever seen.
Diamonds looked to the laptop in front of Hearts. Watched as every few seconds her gaze glanced back at it, as if she couldn’t believe it was still there. Diamonds watched the joy in Kokichi’s eyes burn bright as the sun as he talked endlessly about the boy who came into his life and made it better.
“I think this guy’s a good one,” Diamonds’ whispered to Spades and Jack.
The two shared a look.
“Yeah,” they said, “We think so too.”