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You see him in the open cafeteria of the Beach (which doubled as one grand kitchen) when you get an idea. Of course, having private information about someone can be very useful in a place as cruel as here, and it might be better to keep said information to yourself for future use. But admittedly your list of priorities is fucked and seeing the opportunity to mess with Niragi is something you will never pass up. In contrast with a person like Chishiya, who doesn’t seem to care much about your teasing except “huh, interesting”, Niragi gets so easily riled up it’s hilarious.
So after having the most boring time ever, seeing him eat with the other militants gave you an immense urge to cause chaos, and maybe put yourself in an unnecessary life-threatening situation by annoying the guy with anger issues and a gun. But oh well, what is life without a bit of fun but boring?
You go sit down at one of the tables close by where the militants are sitting with the breakfast you compiled after making it your life's mission to make the most Western thing out of all the food provided. Normally you wouldn’t really bother as most Japanese food is better anyway but today was one of those days when you wished you didn’t go on that trip to Tokyo and just stayed home, in your warm house with your cats without having to worry about the death games.
Choosing the food that you did was just another way to try and close the pit in your stomach that you felt every time you thought about the fact that you may never return to your home country.
Since you were first recruited for the Beach you have made sure to always sit alone during breakfast. Breakfast was a time when you could just sit back, relax and observe. You were never a morning person and desperately needed the silence of your own company in the early hours of the day. This is why you always turned down your friends to eat with them and went over to an empty table to sit.
Sitting close to the militant table just to listen in and observe them is an interesting experience. There isn’t too much being said, the only active conversation being gossip about who did what with whom at the always ongoing party downstairs. Niragi, as usual in the mornings, isn’t really saying anything as he still needs to wake up (you have that in common) but you could tell that once the day fully starts, he will be just as insufferable as always. Which is fun considering you are going to provoke the hell out of him today.
Quietly taking a piece of bread you get ready to make your sandwich. Before you can top your bread with something you make a face as if just realizing you are missing butter, even though you didn’t take it with you on purpose. You look over the shoulder of the militant sitting closest to you and see that Niragi has already spread butter on his breakfast as expected.
You knew Niragi’s breakfast was weird by the standard of Japanese culture but as a foreigner, it looked just like any boring, generic meal.
Taking a deep breath you hide the small smirk that has started to fight its way on your face and you get yourself ready for some fun.
“Hey Sugu! Can you pass me the butter?” You say loudly in English, looking at Niragi’s direction. Even though knowing he is one of the very few people to be fluent in English, Niragi does not seem to realize the message was for him so you decide to take your chances and try again.
“Sugu! I know you can hear me! Pass me the butter, will you?” This time even louder. The cafeteria seems to quiet down a bit, as even if the people here don’t understand what you’re saying, they can see by Niragi’s face that something has happened.
“What did you just call me?” He finally answers in Japanese, his tone on edge and his face already on the brink of snapping. The faces of those around go from confusion to fear.
“Are you deaf? I asked if you could pass me the butter, honestly Sugu it’s not even that early.” Now speaking Japanese you smirk in your head at the girl next to him gasping, and holding her breath while looking at you with wide eyes.
Now with all the attention on you and him, he looks startled, muttering a quiet “How…” which no one except you seems to have picked up on.
The aura around him changes to something more dangerous, his eyes darken with the rage, which settles in his body. His hand twitches, reaching for his gun that lies on his lap.
Gotcha.
“What the fuck did you just call me?” He demands, and oh it’s almost too funny how easily angered he is. How easily he snaps.
“Well Suguru is a bit hard to pronounce, and no offense but I just don’t like how it sounds so I shortened it.” Pause. “Are you ever going to pass me the butter or do I have to go and grab it myself?”
This seems to only annoy him more, which yeah ok that’s fair. He is already far too offended to even consider that you’re doing this on purpose.
“No one fucking calls me that, no one fucking knows that!” He starts to stand up, cocking his gun in your direction and moving his finger to the trigger. Well, it’s not like you expected anything better by antagonizing him, but still… rude.
“Relax and don’t flatter yourself. I call everyone by a nickname so you’re not that special. It’s in my culture.” You make a point of dramatically rolling your eyes.
“No, it’s n-”
“Are you saying you know my own culture better than I do?” You say sarcastically while maintaining eye contact.
“If you’re just going to waste time I’ll just get someone else to get me butter, I swear to god men these days.” Ignoring the machine gun pointed at you, you look around the room and see a familiar face watching from the sidelines close to the entrance.
He looks at you with an amused look and a familiar playful smirk while watching the chaos you created. The moment you make eye contact, he shows you the butter he has in his hands.
“Ah Chesh, thank god someone with an actual brain is here. This idiot won’t understand my simple request, can you be a sweetheart and pass me that butter?” This comment only made Niragi rage more but you were ignoring him and instead fully focusing on Chishiya.
The blond walked from his spot to your table and set the butter next to your plate, looking at you with raised eyebrows.
“Chesh? Where’s that coming from?” He doesn’t sound mad though, he never really does. Rather he sounds amused, which you were thankful for. At least someone appreciates it.
“Yeah, Chesh comes from the Cheshire cat, obviously.”
“Right, obviously.” The sarcasm is dripping from his voice.
“Ugh, well it’s just that I don’t like Chish, and Chesh kind of sounds the same. Plus you remind me of the Cheshire cat so Chesh it is. Honestly, it’s like no one respects me around here.” Chishiya snorts at that.
You ignore him and finally take the butter and spread it on your sandwich. You make the entire sandwich while still very much ignoring the way too smug cat-like walking bad hair day on your one side and the pierced maniac still aiming a loaded machine gun at you on your other side.
You eat your sandwich in silence, way too aware of the attention still on you. When you are about halfway through your second sandwich you hear an annoyed huff and look up to see Niragi give up, put his gun down, and go back to eating.
Everyone around the room looks at you in both fear and despair. Not only did you know Niragi’s first name and used it like it was nothing special. You called him a nickname and were still alive.
After breakfast, the gossip only needed a full hour before almost everyone at the Beach knew what had happened. Later when you’re in Chishiya’s room recounting the events to Kuina you hear from her that someone had called Niragi “Suguru” that evening and had ended up with a bullet in their skull.
Suddenly you’re very happy that the bond you share with him was supposedly strong enough to make up for your audacity.