Chapter Text
When Hajime was accepted to his dream college, he expected a number of things. A challenging curriculum, new lifelong friends, opportunities he could have only dreamed of until now.
The one thing he didn’t expect was to be lying in his bed, kissing his roommate.
But hey…he wasn’t complaining.
Hajime had moved (with the help of one Hajime’s dad) into his new room about 3 months ago. When he entered, he saw a square room with two beds. One on the right of the room and one on the left. Hajime had known he’d have a roommate, but the reality of having to live with someone hadn’t set in until this moment. What does “living with someone” even mean in college? Will he have to see the guy naked? Gross!
He picked the left side of the room and started unpacking. The peaceful vibes of a new, clean living space were slowly being replaced by the peaceful vibes of a furnished, lean living space. And then he showed up. And the place went from peaceful to chaotic real quick.
Enter Nagito Komaeda. The most disruptive human being alive.
They were polar opposites. Hajime had his hair done all nice for his move in day and orientation. He put on a respectable outfit and mainly tried to blend into the crowd. He was just trying to be one of the many dots on this gigantic campus until he could meet new friends in his various law classes. He was an intellectual. A proper little nerd. His entire life he had had around 4 friends at a time, and that was it. No girlfriend (although he had a couple crushes in his time because he’s a cheeky little fly on the wall). He was not ready for the sheer presence that was his roommate Nagito Komaeda. This nonbinary Albert Einstein looking weirdo (ifykyk) was disheveled and chaotic. Whenever he took a step a small earthquake spawned on a remote island on the other side of the world. His steps were single handedly ruining Elon Musk’s vacation house #8. This art major swore he was going to change the world with his paintings. Apparently people all over told him he was the next picasso but for human rights activism. So I guess he’s doing something right.
Stumbling into the door, Nagito scanned around to see a confused looking boy and an old guy not really paying attention. Once he reasoned out for himself that the old guy would not be living with him, he quickly straightened himself out, and introduced himself.
“Hello! My name is Komaeda, pleased to meet you.” he stuck out his hand (something he doesn't frequently do, but his mother urged him to be a bit more professional now that he was an adult.
“Nice to meet you, my name is Hinata” Immediately Hinata took note of the clamminess of Komaeda’s hands. In fact, scanning the boy up and down he realized he was quite a quirky kid. His hair was going every which way, his clothes were baggy and had paint stains, he had a piercing. One. In his left ear, which Hinata found no use for. If one is going to adorn their ear with such ornaments as an earring, one should aim for the elegance of symmetry. But whatever, this guy was weird.
But he wasn’t gonna judge a book by its cover. He was gonna judge a book by the fact that the PAGES WERE ALL FUCKED UP.
THIS MAN HAD NOTHING. NOTHING PREPARED AT ALL.
Let’s break this down. Hinata brought: a full year's worth of clothes for any season, all study materials needed for his classes, a rice cooker (mans liked some good rice), proper bedding, toiletries, anything and everything the dorm list said to buy was bought and brought to the room.
Komaeda brought: an easel and paints, clothes to last him until the snow eventually froze him to death, no bedding (he thought it would be provided), a lot of candles (you’re not allowed to have those in the dorm) and so. Many. stuffed. Animals.
Let’s just say Hinata was stunned. Stunned at how this was going to play out. Stunned at how the fuck he was gonna live with this sentient mess for an entire year until he could finally move out. The first nights were the worst. Hinata was one of those kids who never fucked up their sleep schedule. A goody goody. A little bitch boy. He went to bed at 9 and woke up at 5 to work out and stuff. In fact, he was decently jacked for a little nerd. Komaeda, however, stayed up till 3 am WITH A LAMP ON painting something on his SQUEAKY ASS EASEL and when he finally passed out would wake up at 2 pm. When he and Hinata had shared their schedules, Hinata was confused why Komaeda would choose to have classes as late as 9 pm. Now he understood the reasoning.
A week into their classes and the two had probably said approximately 40 words to each other. Combined. While Hinata was (kind of) surviving in the awkward silence, Komaeda certainly wasn’t.
“What did I do?” Komaeda asked, not taking his eyes off his painting.
“What do you mean? Hinata responded, reading his textbook at his desk.
“All of the other people I’ve talked to get along great with their roommate. They talk and they hang out and they want to get to know each other. I get this weird vibe from you. You don’t want anything to do with me. What gives? What did I do?”
Hinata wasn’t used to people being this upfront with him, but I guess he should have seen it coming. While Hinata barely tried to start a conversation, Komaeda was trying to ask questions and get to know him all week. Hinata had responded with one word answers and mumbles of “I have to go” when truthfully he had nowhere to fucking be. He just didn’t want to deal with trying to do the delicate dance of having a conversation while wearing a hazmat suit.
“I don’t know man, we just don’t seem to vibe I guess. I just assumed we could live in silence until we don’t have to live with each other anymore.”
“That’s bullshit!” Komaeda rose from his seat with anger and stomped over to Hinata, turned his chair around and stared straight at him, hand on the seat back and foot right next to Hinata’s legs.
They were unbearably close.
“I don’t know what I did that makes you want to avoid me, but I refuse to live like this for another 9 months, come on!” With that, Komaede grabbed Hinata’s arm and dragged him out the door.
“Hey! Hey dude it’s like 8:30!!! WHERE ARE WE GOING AT 8:30!?!?!?”
“YOU’LL SEE, JUST GO WITH IT.”
Komaeda dragged Hinata all the way to the art building on campus. Just outside was a lawn with two benches facing each other, under a tree, surrounded by flowers. It was behind the building so not many people really knew it was there, but when Komaeda went exploring one day he had stumbled across it and deemed it his new spot. He forced Hinata down into one of the seats, and plopped down on the other, legs crossed staring at him.
“Tell me something about yourself. Now. Anything that comes to mind. We are bonding.” Nagito ordered with a commanding but also childish voice. Hinata found it quite amusing if he was honest.
“Ha-okay okay okay. Uhhhh…Do you wanna know the reason I want to go to law school?”
“Yes.” Komaeda’s eyes were transfixed on Hinata’s. Staring at him in a way he’s never been stared at before. He felt listened to, even though he hadn’t really said anything yet.
“Um…well okay. When I was younger…I wanna say around freshman year of high school, I saw on the news something about some sort of killing game. It was horrible. Thankfully they arrested the girl who caused it all but the lawyers of the surviving kids were so horrible that the girl got to walk. I was enraged. I couldn’t figure out how some dumbass could lose that case and let a serial killer go free. Eventually I found out she had died by some weird mechanical device error, but still…I wanted to make sure that anyone who deserved justice fucking got it. Like…even when…”
Whatever Hinata was gonna finish that sentence with flew out the window. Completely gone from his brain. Poof! Why? Because he looked up and saw Komaeda, paying close attention, eyes fixated on him as he rambled on and on about some boring shit other people in his life didn’t really seem to care about. But Komaeda did. Not only that, but he showed that he did. And Hinata couldn’t help but feel his heart spark a tad bit at how Komaeda’s eyes looked when they were staring at him. The way the green tint in his gray eyes could be seen in the light of the moon. God he was transfixed, Only for a second though. Like any good lawyer, he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Kind of.
“Uhh so anyway…what about you? Why do you want to be a painter?”
Nagito suddenly snapped out of the attention he was putting towards focusing on Hinata’s words, and shook his head slightly. “It’s a long story.” He murmured to the ground. Seeming a tad ashamed of what it was.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
They each gave each other a soft smile. And that’s what begun the greatest friendship both Hajime and Nagito had ever experienced.