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Byakuya Togami was having a good day. He’d been able to have pleasant banter with his classmates, read a good book, and have peace from Genocider’s incessant drooling.
He was in such a good mood, in fact, that at dinner he’d slipped up.
“What’s got you so happy?” Asahina looked at him suspiciously,
“Nothing.” And that was that, until he spoke up again, “Have I ever told you how much I admire your perseverance in the face of hardship?”
Everything at the table stopped. Oblivious, he continued to smile,
“And Yasuhiro, despite what I say, I enjoy your company, You as well, Toko.”
“That’s great man, but-” Byakuya cut off Hagakure’s sputtering by turning to Kyoko and Makoto,
“Kirigiri, I appreciate your sleuthing and social aptitude, and Makoto, I will never understand your everlasting optimism.”
He chuckled a bit at their shocked faces, before quickly moving to the kitchen to put away his dirty dishes. As good as his day had been, he was anticipating going to bed, he hadn’t slept well for a while, and he was tired.
He ignored the other occupants as he left the dining hall, but he stopped in the doorway,
“I appreciate how kind you all have been despite my best efforts to avoid your friendship. I apologize for any trouble I’ve caused you.” And with that he left them in stunned silence.
Recently he’d been having nightmares. Probably on account of the killing game, he mused as he went through his nightly routine. Also recently he hasn’t been sleeping well. He can’t fall asleep, too paranoid of the shadows in the corner of his room.
Rationally, no one could get into his room, but logic never helped Byakuya sleep at night. And when he finally fell asleep, it was restless, and more often than not he found himself waking up in a pool of sweat, though he never mentioned it to the others.
Thus, he’d begun to keep sleeping pills with him. And he was nearly out already, unfortunately.
He popped two in his mouth, dry swallowing, and lay down, willing himself to close his eyes and not move until morning.
…
He was being violently shaken awake. There was yelling, why was it so loud? He groaned as is head hit the pillow once more, and he blearily opened his eyes to see Makoto hovering over him.
“What are you doing in my room? Get out.” He puts his arm over his face and attempts to push away Makoto.
“BYAKUYA! OH MY FUCKING GOD!”
That certainly woke him up. He sat up, inadvertently hitting his head against the smaller boy’s. He surveyed his room as he rubbed his head.
The remainder of his classmates with the exception of Kirigiri were huddled around his bedside with various expressions of concern. Aoi looked close to tears, and Makoto…
Oh. The messy haired boy was crying.
Kirigiri was inspecting the bottle of sleeping pills on his other side.
“What’s going on?” He couldn’t bring himself to be cold to them as he touched the sobbing boy’s shoulder.
“We-” The boy was shaking as he sobbed, “We thought that yo- that you…” The boy trailed off and Byakuya grabbed his glasses, putting them on as he once again attempted to figure out what the hell was going on.
“Don’t go into the light, man.” Yasuhiro was gripping Asahina’s hand as she wiped her eyes. Toko was strangely silent, staring at him.
“Into the- Kyoko? What the hell is happening?” The sleuth turned to face him, pills in hand.
“What were you doing with these?” He looks away, embarrassed.
“I-” he barely got a word in before Naegi spoke up again,
“Kiri, why are you asking? We already know.” He’d stopped sobbing, which was good, because Byakuya didn’t know how to comfort people.
Byakuya curled into himself a bit, embarrassed that he had to take stupid sleeping pills to stop reliving everything that’s happened in the past few weeks.
“Master…”
Byakuya sighed, “Please, just call me Byakuya.”
“Byakuya… Tell me you didn’t.”
“Fine man, you caught me!” Now he was just irritated. They burst into his room, disrupt his well-deserved sleep, and shame him for using medicine to sleep? “I use melatonin to sleep at night! Wow, can’t believe it! Surprise of the century! Now get. Out. Of my goddamn room.”
Everything stopped. Everyone stared, and he felt himself growing red under their gaze, “What?”
“You… weren’t gonna kill yourself?”
Now it was Byakuya’s turn to look shocked, “Is that what this was about?”
Considering what happened with Sakura, it made considerably more sense why she was holding back tears.
Kyoko fiddled with her braid as she spoke, “You were acting uncharacteristically friendly to us during dinner, and apologized. This is typical of suicidal people before they attempt.”
“Is that it?” The exhaustion was settling back into his bones the longer he was forced to interact with emotional people.
“We came in, and the pills were open and nearly empty, and you weren’t moving, and-” Makoto began to breathe heavily,
“Makoto,” Byakuya placed a hand under the small boy’s chin and tilted it so they were face to face, “Makoto, look at me.”
When he did, Byakuya smiled, “I’m fine. I’m alive and well.”
After more confirmation they all left one by one until only Makoto remained,
“Promise me you won’t scare me like that again?” He whispered
“I promise, Naegi, now go to bed.” he whispered back.
And suddenly the shadows didn’t seem so long, and everything truly might be okay.
As he drifted off to sleep that night, he smiled, knowing he finally had people who cared.