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“Byakuya, hey, can I just… Can I sit with you?” Togami looked up from his book, staring at the boy in front of him with contempt. Naegi frowned, visibly uncomfortable. “I just… with all the death I don’t want to be alone right now.” Togami hesitated, then looked back at his book, giving Naegi permission without quite saying those words.
They sat in silence for a while before Togami’s reading was interrupted by the quiet sound of sniffling. Looking over, he saw Naegi wiping his cheeks. The realization that Naegi, the kind, friendly Naegi, had come to Byakuya for comfort took Togami by surprise.
“Makoto. Come. We're going to investigate the fifth floor.” As Togami rose to his feet, he questioned himself. Why was he doing this? Was it for himself or was he doing this for Naegi? Why would he do anything for Naegi? Why was this even a question?
The two walked up the stairs side by side, Togami comfortable in silence, but unused to it coming from Naegi. Naegi looked at him and smiled. Then it clicked. Naegi had sought him out for comfort.
This was something Togami couldn’t understand, as much as he tried.
As they reached the fifth floor, Naegi walked closer to Togami. They reached the first room, a biology lab, and togami cracked the door open, peeking inside before he opened it fully, walking in first. Because he was a Togami and the Togami family was always first. Not because he was still concerned about what may lay inside the room.
“Is this a morgue?” Naegi was facing a row of refrigerators and Togami cursed the fact that he’d somehow missed that.
“And a biology lab, makoto. Try to keep up.” Naegi glanced back at Togami, a frown pulling at his lips. Togami turned on his heel and exited. A morgue is not a good place for a friend commoner to hang around. Especially one who had been crying about death just a little while ago.
The first two classrooms they investigated were nothing special. Naegi seemed slightly relaxed as the two walked through the empty classrooms. Togami cracked open the door to the third classroom, 5-C, and hesitated. Dried blood was splattered around the room, chalk outlines covering the floor. He glanced at Naegi standing at his side.
“Nothing important.” Byakuya grabbed Makoto’s shoulders, ushering him towards the greenhouse. The facade of the sky and the artificial sun unsettled him, but it was better than seeing Makoto’s reaction to that room. Leave that to Kirigiri. She was a detective. Makoto was his friend nobody.
“Oh wow. A greenhouse. I’ve never been in a greenhouse before.” Naegi drags Togami deeper into the greenhouse, ignoring the way Togami rolled his eyes.
“I’ve been in plenty. This one is nothing compared to the greenhouse in my house.” Naegi ignored Togami’s brags, dragging him towards a flowerbed. As Naegi rambled about flowers and how much he missed seeing plant life, Togami’s eyes drifted to the way his hands wrapped around Togami’s arm.
“Oh my god, are those chickens? Byakuya, let’s look at the chickens!” Naegi pulled him towards a chicken coop, and he scoffed, before jumping as something hit his leg. His arm slipped from Naegi’s grasp and he looked down, half expecting to have triggered a tripwire, cursing himself for letting his guard down. What met him when he looked to his feet was a black and white hen, pecking at his shoe.
Naegi laughed at Togami’s frightened reaction, and reached down, picking up the chicken clumsily, before cradling it to his chest like a baby.
“It’s just a chicken, Byakuya.” Naegi stroked the animal as he spoke, a large smile on his face.
“Good. It fixed it.” Byakuya, satisfied by the return of Makoto’s smile, turned and began to exit, planning to return to classroom 5-C to investigate what could have happened there, only to be stopped by a hand on his arm.
“Fixed what?” Togami turned around with a huff at Naegi's question.
“Your unhappiness. It’s resolved. I can go back to my reading.” Naegi frowned slightly and Togami wanted to scream.
“Why can’t you stay?” Naegi pulled slightly on Togami’s sleeve, earning a frown from the taller boy. Naegi let go. “I just don’t want you to be alone.” Togami scoffed.
“By now you should trust that I don’t plan on dirtying my hands with blood.” Byakuya wouldn’t admit it, but Naegi’s distrust struck him. He’d never distrusted anyone from their class like this, and many of them had been bad people to trust. His trust had nearly gotten him killed by Maizono, but it was Togami he refused to trust.
“What? No, I’m just-” Makoto frowned deeper and Togami clenched his fists to keep from reacting to the frown. “After Sakura… I know you don’t have any friends here, and I don’t want you to end up like her.”
You don’t have any friends here
“You think a little loneliness will bring me down?” Byakuya could feel his face turning red with embarrassment which he carefully disguised as rage. “I am the heir to the Togami corporation, I don’t need friends, I’m not like you.” Makoto’s frown deepened further and he took a half step backwards. “I’ll find my opportunity and I will graduate. And like you said. I don’t have friends here. So I won’t miss any of you.” Byakuya practically spat his words, turning his pain into a weapon.
For a moment he had thought he and Makoto were friends.
Naegi took another step backwards, and Byakuya caught sight of a tripwire going off. He surged forward to Push Makoto out of the way of whatever was coming, but he was too late. The two of them tumbled as a net from underneath them sprang up, dragging them into the air.
“Upupupu” Togami sighed at the sound of their ursine headmaster. “Looks like I caught a two for one deal.” Monokuma laughed again at his own joke, and poked into the net, making Togami flinch as his paw dug into his back. His flinch only succeeded in further entangling him with Naegi. Who was not his friend. He crossed his arms and huffed. At least he could probably play off his attempt to protect Naegi as a shove meant to hurt.
“Well since you two can’t seem to get along, I guess I’ll just have to leave you here overnight. Be sure not to kill each other. Or do! I’d love it if you do!” And with that, Monokuma disappeared again.
“Overnight?” Naegi turned to look at Byakuya, who was not in the mood to talk to Naegi at the moment. “Byakuya?” Togami continued ignoring Naegi. Which was exceptionally difficult with his shoulder pressing into Togami’s sternum painfully. Hair tickled his nose as Naegi adjusted himself, digging a stray elbow into Byakuya’s gut and drawing a grunt from the man.
The two sat in awkward silence for a while.
“What did I say?” Togami just glared at Naegi in response to this question.
They sat in silence some more.
“I’m… sorry for yelling at you.” His words were stilted, but Byakuya was trying. That’s all they could ask of him, in his opinion.
“I’m sorry for suggesting you couldn’t handle some loneliness. You’re the strongest man I've ever met. Of course you can deal with it.” Togami feels his face go red with rage again, and he shoves Naegi as hard as he can, turning away from him as much as possible with their tangled limbs and his leg having slipped through the net, holding him firmly in place.
“Byakuya, c’mon, what did I say this time?” Naegi poked Byakuya’s chest, teasing him gently. “Byakuya-”
“Don’t call me that, Naegi.” Makoto frowned at the use of his last name, and fell silent again for a while.
“Just tell me what’s wrong, Togami.” Naegi fidgeted nervously, hands twisting a nearby piece of fabric. Togami’s blazer.
“I don’t have to answer you. It’s like you said. We’re not friends.” Togami shoved at Makoto again, only causing more discomfort to himself as Makoto’s dead weight came crashing back down on his chest.
Makoto stared at Togami, hands loosely clutching at the blazer he’s been fiddling with, the blazer he’d possibly mistaken for his own by feel.
“Is that why you’re mad at me?” Togami glared at Naegi, before turning to face the greenhouse, the freedom just on the other side of this stupid net to walk away from this conversation.
“Do you want to be friends?” Byakuya could feel himself trembling and he knew Makoto would feel it too. He hesitated to answer, just a moment too long.
“No.” Byakuya’s voice was confident, but Makoto’s noise of sympathy made him want to scream, to bash his head into a wall. Makoto started adjusting himself, laying chest to chest with Togami.
“Well, I want to be friends.” Makoto laid his head on Byakuya’s chest, and byakya could feel the tears he’d been determined to force down slip down his face in his rush to look at Makoto. Makoto’s comforting smile fell from his face, replaced with shocked sadness.
“This never happened.” Byakuya wrapped his arms around Makoto, squeezing slightly. The world faded away.
~~~
Byakuya woke up to the sound of giggling. He cracked his eyes open, squinting at the brightness of the room. His blanket was horribly heavy and his mattress too firm and Asahina was standing above him smiling and-
He was in the greenhouse. He glanced down, Makoto, still sound asleep, was drooling onto Byakuya’s blazer.
As Makoto’s eyes blinked open, the greenhouse shook with an explosion.
The investigation that followed was a blur, all overshadowed by the shock that was Makoto agreeing to be his friend the night before.
Then the trial started, and Byakuya quickly remembered why he didn’t have friends. Makoto turned to him for an alibi, eyes wide and pleading, but Byakuya shook his head.
“I’m a heavy sleeper. I didn’t wake up when the net hit the ground. I wouldn’t have woken if you left.” Togami couldn’t feel his face. He couldn’t lift his eyes to meet Naegi’s. He just stood there until he had to vote.
Then he condemned his friend.
As the execution started, he finally raised his eyes to look at Makoto. His face was red, his hands white knuckling on the edge of the desk he was seated in. Someone was screaming, begging for this to end. Promising the riches of the togami corporation in exchange for Makoto’s life.
Byakuya’s body slammed itself against the fence separating the class from the blackened, his fists banged on it and he screamed again. Something slammed into his back, pinning him in place. His wrists were wrenched behind his back to stop him from banging them against the fence. His voice gave out and he stood there, sobbing, as the desk reached the end of the conveyor belt. He turned his head away, the bones in his body turning to jelly as the compactor kept slamming into the ground.
Held up by the force on his back, Byakuya kept sobbing into the fence.
“It’s okay, Togami. It will be okay…” He shook his head pathetically, and the pressure on his back lessened, lowering him to the ground. Hands free, Byakuya covered his face with them.
“I’m sorry. But you were going to get yourself killed.” Byakuya looked up, Kirigiri’s stoic expression twisted just enough for it to be obvious she was in pain.
Byakuya turned around for just a moment, nausea bubbling up as he saw the blood stained compactor.
“Fuck you.” The word was unfamiliar in Togami’s mouth but it felt right as he shoved Kirigiri out of his way, stalking out of the room. Somewhere deep down he knew she had moved out of his way of her own accord.
When he reached his room he rushed to his bathroom, emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet.
Avoiding the bathroom mirror, Byakuya stumbled to his bed, laying down atop the covers fully dressed. His fingers lifted to his chest, finding the spot on his blazer where drool had collected that morning.
He didn’t remember falling asleep.
He remembered thinking about Naegi suggesting that Togami would kill himself if he had no friends. He remembered imagining the others finding his body. He wouldn’t write a note. He had nothing to tell them. They knew why he would do this.
When he woke up it was to knocking on his door. He groaned loudly, ignoring the way the doorknob turned. He hadn’t locked his door the night before. He didn’t care then, and he didn’t care as his door swung open.
“M… Master?” Togami reached over to his bedside table, grabbing blindly, and threw the first thing he found towards the door. He could hear his tool box hit the wall and Toko squeak and retreat, but he didn’t look up to watch either.
Sitting in silence again, Byakuya forced himself to leave his bed, fetching his tool kit and closing his door.
He didn’t want anyone interrupting him.
Naegi was right. Byakuya had no friends.