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Byakuya Togami awoke with a jolt. Darkness pressed against his body, squeezing him in its clammy palm. He heaved himself into a sitting position and peeled off his duvet. His shoulders rose and fell as jagged breaths grated his throat. Though he couldn’t see much, both due to the lack of light and his glasses being on the bedside table, he knew where he was. Not in Hope’s Peak, not anymore, but on a bed, in a hotel room, on the same floor as the other survivors of the killing game. A few weeks after they escaped Hope’s Peak, an organisation called Future Foundation rescued them from the destroyed city and took them to this hotel for the night before they continued their journey to their headquarters.
For a couple of seconds, all he could hear was a faint buzzing, the hum of the hotel that had been droning when he first tried to go to sleep. But that wasn’t what woke him up. A sound like a coughing fit erupted again, and he flinched. The noise wasn’t actually a person coughing but someone knocking on his hotel room door. He squinted across the room. How he hated the heavy heartbeat in his chest, as if the stranger’s fist was rapping against his insides, the vibrations echoing through his bones. There was no reason for him to be afraid. Cautious, yes, but not afraid.
They weren’t in Hope’s Peak anymore. They weren’t being executed. They weren’t in the destroyed city, hiding in whatever debris most resembled a house. Yet when the hotel door creaked open, his heart screamed breathlessly. His body jerked. The corridor beyond the doorway glowed, some light spilling into the room. A head popped into view. Two wild braids with hair sticking out like spider legs swayed before dangling downward.
“B-Byakuya-sama? Are you awake?” came a small voice.
He immediately identified the figure as his former classmate, Touko Fukawa, without needing his glasses. His eyewear sat on his bedside table, the temples folded in like his arms over his chest as he glared at her.
“I am awake now,” he said coldly.
She slipped into the room without a word, without being invited. One of her hands remained latched to the door, holding it ajar and allowing light from the corridor to drape over her and bleed into the entrance of the room. Her other hand’s fingers uncurled and curled by her side. At such a late hour, she must have had a good reason to barge into his room like this.
At least, she better have had a good reason to disturb him. She stayed quiet, biting on her lip.
“Did you enter the wrong room after fetching yourself a glass of water?” he asked, even though she wasn’t holding one.
Touko shook her head. “I had a nightmare.”
A nightmare. He blinked. Of all things. His glower carved in deeper.
“So what? That doesn’t explain why you barged in here. Are you expecting me to comfort you?” he asked with a sneer.
Her cheeks tensed, but that was her only visual reaction to the acid he spat at her.
“In my nightmare, you died,” she said, answering a question he didn’t ask. “I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
Byakuya leaned over to the bedside table, picked up his glasses and fixed them onto his face to better see her. The blur tinging her body vanished. Her features sharpened, revealing the exact lines and shadows of the frown on her pale face. She stared intensely at him. Not like how she often ogled and drooled over him and made him shudder, but in a way that dug under his skin and made him feel uneasy. It wasn’t the same uneasiness he felt when Syo looked him over like he was a meal, but like she was looking inside of him.
And no one was allowed to see that.
He lowered his gaze to break eye contact. Most of the time, he saw her in her old high school uniform, purple blouse and ankle-length skirt. Upon arriving at the hotel, they had been given pyjamas. She was wearing a light pink dress that finished at her knees. Her legs rubbed together as she twiddled her fingers, and it took him a couple of seconds to realise he was staring at her thighs.
His eyes shot up. She seemed preoccupied with looking at the rest of his body, as if checking all his limbs were still attached. He hoped that was what she was doing, because that meant she probably wouldn’t have noticed where his gaze had wandered to. Her legs’ movement had attracted his attention briefly. That was all.
“I am obviously all right, as you can see.” He motioned to himself with one sweep of his hand before waving at the door. “So you can go on your way.”
Despite how explicit he had been with what he wanted her to do, she stayed rooted to the spot, staring at him. Byakuya cringed, wondering if she had noticed him looking at her legs. As empty-headed as she sometimes came across, she could be very observant. And she wasn’t stupid. Most of the time.
“Byakuya-sama...” Touko’s voice was hushed. “Can I... stay here with you tonight?”
His eyes widened. Her outrightness caught him off guard for several moments.
“You...?” He hardened his features. “Of course not. Leave at once.”
But she didn’t, continuing to probe him with her lilac eyes.
“I told you to leave,” he snapped. “Think it through, you silly person. There’s only one bed.”
“Please, Byakuya-sama. I’ll sleep on the floor,” she begged. She clasped her hands together in front of her heart. “All c-curled up, like a loyal dog at your feet...”
Usually, when she said disturbing things like that, she smirked, but right now, her jaw was tightly clenched in a grimace.
Byakuya straightened up, his teeth gritted. “I said - ”
“Please!” Her exclamation slammed into him. His head jerked back. “If I go back to my room, I know I’ll have the nightmare again. You... plummeting down a chute on the floor behind your trial podium... into a factory making dummies looking like you...”
Touko’s hands slid up to cradle her head.
“Dummies?” Byakuya repeated, furrowing his brow. “What sort of nightmare is this...?”
She trembled. “It’s... your execution. That’s my nightmare. First, you fall onto a conveyor belt, then you are thrown into a trash can and tossed out into the arctic...”
The more she talked, the more her words muddled and blubbered. If she kept this up, or got any louder, she would draw someone’s attention and they would find her here, in his room, at night, and jump to conclusions he didn’t have the energy to correct. And he was no monster. If she did leave, she would most likely stay in this distressed state. Before, that wouldn’t have bothered him, but he had learned to take people’s emotions more seriously.
Keeping an eye on her could do them both good. He held in a sigh. It seemed he had no choice.
“Shut the door,” he said as she sniffled. She brought a fist to her eyes, her knuckles pushing up her glasses. “If you promise to be quiet, I will permit you to stay for a little longer.”
Touko froze mid-sob.
“What?” she blurted.
“Shut the door.”
She did not. For all the fuss she made about wanting to stay, she remained by the door.
“Can we have the light on?” she asked.
Byakuya reached over and flicked the switch on the wall next to him. The bedside lamp switched on.
“Will this do?” he asked.
Touko nodded and finally released the door. It swung shut with a click. The backdrop of light behind her snuffed out, and she was now only faintly illuminated by the lamp beside Byakuya. As she shuffled over, the shadows dissolved off her body. A small smile pulled on her lips, though her hands continued to fidget.
“Before I say what I’m about to say next, you must confirm that you will not squeal or faint,” he said. When she didn’t answer, he said, “Do you consent?”
“Consent?” she repeated, confused. His glare sobered her quickly and she twitched. “Yes! I do!”
He placed a hand next to him, onto the bed. “You can sit here until you are satisfied that I am alive. Not a second longer.”
“I c-can...?”
“I just said you could.”
Touko plopped down onto the bed. Her fingers crooked against the bedsheet. “B-Byakuya-sama’s bed...”
“It’s a hotel bed,” he corrected. “Remember, you are to leave as soon as you’re well. Now be quiet.”
Byakuya lay down, facing away from her. The back of his neck prickled.
“Stop staring,” he said. She yelped.
“I’m covering my eyes!” she promised.
The tingling sensation continued, but he didn’t want to talk to her anymore. He shut his eyes and tried to push out thoughts of Touko. Of her on his bed, legs hanging off one side. Or possibly tucked underneath her. She could have listened to his order and been staring at something that wasn’t him. Perhaps the window, where one could see lights from other buildings. There was a good chance she was looking at him still. That would explain why his skin was crawling, as if she was dragging her tongue across him.
He winced and forced the image out. Focus. Focus. The word pounded in his head like his heartbeat.
At some point, he fell asleep.
***
Byakuya’s eyes shot open as he choked on a gasp. Beyond the reach of the bedside lamp, the room was dark, but he didn’t dwell on that fact for long. His attention was quickly pulled toward the firm pressure cinched around his waist. He shifted. Something hard rubbed against his back. An icy shiver ran down his spine, and he was about to try to break free when he heard quiet breathing.
While he had been resting, Touko had fallen asleep too, but not before settling behind him and wrapping her arms around his middle. That was the culprit of the squeezing. She was hugging him. In his bed.
The obvious thing to do was to wake her up. He could thrash his limbs and buck her off. And shout, but not too loudly. That would draw the others into his room. Her mere presence in his room would raise too many questions as it was. For her to be discovered in his bed would foist a whole interrogation onto him.
Perhaps it was best if he pretended he hadn’t woken. Hadn’t noticed. Yes. He concentrated on his breathing, trying to keep it even, and shifted again to get more comfortable.
But he didn’t fall back to sleep. Sweat beaded on his forehead and not because the room was warm. This was his first time sharing a bed with another person. Makoto and Aoi mentioned sleepovers with siblings and crawling into bed with parents after movie nights, but Byakuya didn’t have siblings he would have done that with. Or parents. In fact, he didn’t have any of them any more, full stop.
Touko exhaled, pressing closer and hugging harder. Byakuya nearly gagged on his next breath. His body stiffened. Her breathing’s cadence didn’t falter, indicating she was still asleep. Good. So she wouldn’t know how her lips and nose were pressed against his back. How her fingers slept in the groves of his shirt, their heavy weight rooting them to him. Or how her knees tucked into the back of his. The more his mind explored her touch, the more her vines seemed to grow around him like he was the mansion he spent his childhood in. And like being in that house, he should have felt suffocated.
Yet he didn’t. His cheeks burned. Electricity skittled across his skin. She shouldn’t have been so close. He shouldn’t have allowed her to get so close. A voice in his head demanded he fling her off. Shove her to the other side of the bed. Run away. Anything but lay there, in her arms, his heart stirring and fluttering at every graze, every touch. It didn’t matter that he was pretending to be asleep. This was wrong.
This was not what Togamis were supposed to do.
She pushed into him again. This time, he lurched forward and fell off the bed with a thump. Despite the noise, Touko continued snoring quietly. When he looked up, he saw a smile curve her lips, one corner leaking a trail of saliva that streaked her chin.
After she had ousted him from the bed, she had tipped forward so he couldn’t return to the same spot as before. Byakuya rose, walked around the bed and then got in behind her, with his back to her. He scrunched his eyes shut.
Even though he couldn’t see her, he could visualise her clearly. Two aubergine braids that needed unravelling. They suited her, but they were a mess and needed redoing. Her glasses needed a good wipe too, after being fumbled with by her grubby hands that were always wringing each other, or playing with her lips or clothes. And if it wasn’t her fingers scraping her mouth, it was her tongue and teeth. Licking, biting, as her lips contorted into grins and smirks.
He dragged himself out of his thoughts. Thinking about her wasn’t making him tired, despite how he often complained how tiring she was. It seemed to have the opposite effect, so he focused on the rest of the room instead.
It was as his ears strained at the silence that he realised he couldn’t hear her snoring anymore. She was fine. She had to be. But just to confirm what he knew for sure, he turned around, careful to not make the bed creak. Then he fitted himself behind her as she had done to him earlier. He held his breath to better hear. As he expected, she was still breathing. Just very quietly. Which was good, because she could have been giggling or moaning.
A relieved sigh escaped him. When he breathed in again, his nostrils drew in her scent. Slightly musty. The smell washed over him and he tensed, as if it awoke him from a stupor. He was really doing this. Lying behind her. With her. This should have been repulsive. All this was repulsive. Yet he didn’t try to escape.
Byakuya felt himself melt into the mattress, into her, blending with her edges. Her hair tickled his face. He reached up to bat it aside, but as her hair curled around his hand, a weight lifted from his chest that he didn’t know he had been holding. Silently, he wound a tress of her hair loosely around his finger instead. After a few seconds, he carefully removed his finger and lay his arm over her.
“Byakuya-sama?” Touko’s voice lit up like candlelight in the dark room.
He flinched. His first thought was to spring back. And indeed, his heart leaped, but the rest of his body was locked around her.
“I’m... cold. That’s all,” he mumbled.
“I see.” A pause. Then, “Did you have that nightmare again?”
Byakuya stiffened. He barely got the syllable out. “What?”
“A few minutes ago, you let out a shout.”
“That was when you pushed me from the bed.”
She shook her head. “... Earlier.”
Something sickly glued his teeth together.
“Earlier?” he managed, with a reverberation in his chest.
“When I awoke from my nightmare earlier, I didn’t go straight to your room,” she revealed. “I didn’t need to check to see if you were alive. Y-You’re too strong to kill so easily. I could sense your spirit from my room.”
Byakuya was too stunned to roll his eyes.
“But... I heard you making noises. You sounded like you were having a nightmare. T-That’s why I really came here,” she confessed. “To make sure you were okay.”
He hadn’t realised he had been that loud. For all he knew, the others had heard him too. The hotel walls didn’t block out sound like the ones in the Hope’s Peak dormitories. But regardless, only Touko had come to check on him.
His hands shook. When he noticed, he balled them into fists. Tugged on her hair slightly as his nails sank into his palms.
“You idiot.” The quiver in his voice wasn’t so easy to hide. Byakuya squared his shoulders and forced his voice to be level even if it meant burning his throat. “How dare you think I would be disturbed by something so stupid as a bad dream...”
“But you had one tonight, didn’t you? Or two?”
He opened his mouth only to realise there was no point lying to her.
“... Two,” he stated, deflating. “I had two tonight, yes.”
“Were they about the same thing?”
“Yes.”
The bed mumbled as she wiggled.
“What was yours about?”
He inflated in an instant.
“None of your business,” he snarled.
She yelped and jerked.
“S-Sorry!” Her pensive tone crumbled, breaking into panting, dampened by saliva. “P-Please sit on my face as punishment to shut me...”
He grimaced. Honestly, she could be downright repugnant at times. Yet here she was, in his bed, with his arm around her. If she was a fool, then so was he.
“I’m not going to punish you,” he told her. “Just go to sleep. Not another word.”
After a few breaths, she seemed to recollect herself.
“Yes, Bya-” Touko started, but then what he said sank in and she shut up with a little squeak.
Byakuya’s face hardened as he shut his eyes, one of his arms still slung over Touko’s body. Now that it was quiet again, it should have become easier for him to fall asleep. No longer was she chatting, distracting him.
The sooner morning came, the better. Then he could put this whole ordeal behind him.
But without their voices creating an orb around them, memories of his dream crept in from the darkness.
A chute underfoot. A long fall. A black room.
Nausea shot a chill through him. Byakuya clenched his jaw and pushed out the buzz of the room from between his ears. He focused. Focused on his breathing, her breathing, the curve of her waist that his arm lay crooked over.
A spotlight. A figure standing in its glow. Him.
He hugged Touko tighter. Her hair pressed into his face.
Him. Her. A roller. Charging forward. Toward her.
Byakuya swallowed, shuddered. As Touko promised, she didn’t speak, but she continued to breathe. Breathe, because she was very much alive. Not like a flattened corpse.
When he finally fell asleep with Touko in his arms, he didn’t have the nightmare of her execution again for the rest of the night.