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zenonaa · 1 month ago

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'“Have you ever kissed another man, Pennyworth?” slurred Byakuya. “No, I have not,” said Aloysius, half-carrying, half-dragging Byakuya across campus. Fortunately, they were alone, and it was dark. “Do you like kissing men, Young Master?” “I feel no differently about it than kissing a woman or anyone else,” replied Byakuya.'

Chapters: 1/2 Fandom: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Dangan Ronpa Series, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School Rating: Mature Warnings: Sexual content, someone gets sniped Relationships: Fukawa Toko/Togami Byakuya, Aloysius Pennyworth & Togami Byakuya, brief togami/original male character Characters: Togami Byakuya, Aloysius Pennyworth, Fukawa Toko, Celestia Ludenberg, Kirigiri Kyoko, Naegi Makoto Additional Tags: Togafuka Week, (bi)yakuya togami Summary: A completely normal timeline of a completely normal love life of a completely normal individual.

Comments: Please read the intro note on ao3 for more info on the warnings. :-) Day 2, Shame!

💖 Please like, reblog, leave kudos and/or comment on AO3 💖

***

“When Fujimoto-san said her daughter was blowing a kiss to you and that you were her boyfriend, your mother's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets,” says Aloysius. His chuckle ripples across his tea. It’s a sound only few have heard, reminiscent of a warthog.

Despite how comfortable Byakuya knows the armchair to be, his former butler doesn’t lean back into it, sitting perfectly straight. The nearby couch that Byakuya is seated on is nearly as comfortable, yet Byakuya’s posture is also stiff. He casts his gaze to the dark pool of coffee in his own cup, unable to remember the event that Aloysius had just described. Understandable, as Byakuya had been less than a year old when it allegedly occurred. Nor has he inherited his mother's photographic memory. But he believes it.

His mother had never been one for shows of affection. Whenever he cut or grazed himself, she had Aloysius tend to the injury with disinfectant rather than she kiss it. At her wedding, her lips had seemed to sink inwards as she brought them to her husband's, and she stood silently at his side during the whole reception. Even when Byakuya was born, he was whisked away to be weighed and otherwise measured instead of being cradled in her arms.

“You do not have to answer my next question,” says Aloysius, prompting Byakuya to look at him again. To anyone else, they would think Aloysius was glaring, his white eyebrows scrunched down, the corners of his lips drooping, but Byakuya has known him long enough to know that this is just his neutral expression. “When you were a teenager, did you ever think you would fall in love?”

***

Byakuya had been on his way to maths class when the girl sidestepped in front of him. He remembers she had a bob cut as plain as her face, and a slight frame that he could easily have manoeuvred around. The corridor was wide enough. There weren't too many students streaming through.

“H-Happy Valentine’s Day,” she stammered, holding a heart-shaped box toward him.

This was his first time receiving Valentine's chocolate, having left homeschooling to start Junior High last April. He hesitated. His mother warned him about this happening. About girls showing romantic interest in him.

“I think you're really handsome, and cool, and smart and funny,” said the girl with the eloquence of a blushing twelve year old. “Please accept my...”

The girl puckered her lips and shifted a foot toward him. Around them, students slowed down to observe the exchange. It was almost as if time itself had crawled to a near standstill. Some students giggled, while others stared and pointed. Byakuya shivered as the girl inched closer, with her grotesque expression and her blush like moss.

A bullet tore through her head, in one temple and out the other. She gurgled and collapsed. Within moments, the corridor was swarming with armed guards and screaming junior high students.

“Threat neutralised,” said one of the guards into their walkie talkie.

Some blood had splattered onto Byakuya’s shirt. He wrinkled his nose. It would need to be washed thoroughly later.

***

“Laden with arsenic... packed with C-4... could have blown up a single family house let alone a corridor full of civillians...”

The guard who was speaking shook his head and sighed, while the others like him continued inspecting the corridor. Mixed in with them were police officers, pale and quiet and sweaty.

Shortly after the gunshot, the school had been evacuated, and so Byakuya was presently the only living student in the building. He gazed down at the sheet-covered body by his feet. Her cousin had been a bronze tier competitor for the Togami heirship who recently died when their house set on fire in the middle of the night. Though it could be said they died before that, when they were eliminated from the competition and stripped of their identity.

At the edge of Byakuya's vision, he observed a shadow sidle up to him.

“Did you have to kill her like that?” he asked.

“She was about to kill you. I was merciful and made the shot as quick and painless as possible,” came Aloysius's voice. “Do not mourn her. Young master, your future wife will be the mother of whoever's heir is selected in the next competition. It will do you no good to accept the advances of anyone... especially a would-be mass murderer.”

“I’m not interested in her at all. I’m referring to how it meant classes have been cancelled for the rest of the week. I shall fall behind on my studies.” Byakuya blinked calmly. “Anyway, by winning the heir selection, did I not sentence the rest of my siblings to death? Did I not kill more than a hundred people? Perhaps it would be appropriate if I was paired with a murderer.”

“You didn't kill them,” said Aloysius sternly. “And what... accidents that may befall your former half-siblings afterwards are out of your control. Now, come, Togami-sama. Let’s get you some fresh air. I think the stench of death is getting to your head.”

The two left the corpse and headed to the nearest exit outside. Then they went a little further, winding through the school grounds in silence. Aloysius kept a pace behind Byakuya, not once asking where they were going. That was how it always was: Byakuya led, and Aloysius followed obediently.

Overhead, the sky was ink black. Byakuya hadn’t been at the school this late before. He couldn’t hear any insects, just the occasional rumble of distant traffic. Sparsely spread lamp posts guided them to the fencing around the athletic field. It was too dark for Byakuya to be able to see the white paint sprayed onto the astroturf, but he knew it was there. However, they hadn’t come here to inspect the baseball lines.

They came here to talk without anyone overhearing them.

“How did you know she had an explosive on her?” asked Byakuya, staring into the athletic field’s darkness.

“What she said tipped me off.” Aloysius’s voice hovered above Byakuya like a cloud. “It was when she said you were ‘funny’. That was too unbelievable.”

“Ah.”

They were silent for a while.

“Perhaps you should be homeschooled again, at least until high school,” said Aloysius.

As tempting as it was to not be around his peers, Byakuya said, “No. If I do that, my enemies will think I was scared by what happened. I will continue attending school.”

“As you wish, Young Master.”

Then they were quiet again.

***

Green Hills High School boasted both boarding and day facilities. Rather than live on campus, Byakuya resided in a modest apartment near the grounds with just two bedrooms - one for himself, and one for Aloysius. The other three bedrooms it originally came with had been converted into an office, an exercise room and a home library.

Again, modest.

Usually, Byakuya only stayed on campus until late if he was studying in the library, but today was an exception. One of his fellow students was heir to Miles Prower Multinational Airlines, and said student was celebrating his birthday. As it would be beneficial for the Togami Conglomerate to forge a strong relationship with their company, Byakuya had found himself obligated to attend the celebration.

Wearing one of his best suits, he rang the dormitory building’s doorbell. The email that Byakuya received had advised that the party would start ‘probly bout 6pm idk lol’, yet Byakuya could already hear muffled house music pounding from inside. No one answered after one minute, so he pressed the doorbell button again. When three minutes had elapsed, he tried again. This had to be the right location and date. Byakuya wouldn't have misremembered the details.

The door opened, revealing a guy wearing a t-shirt of a music band headed by a girl with wild neon hair and bright pink eyes.

“I'm here for Maxmillion Prower's birthday ceremony,” announced Byakuya.

A few seconds passed before the guy's eyebrows rose a fraction. “You mean Max? Uh, sure, dude. Come on in.”

His eyes flickered toward Byakuya's suit. Something seemed to be puzzling the guy, but he didn't say what and led Byakuya into the building.

As Byakuya trailed behind the stranger, he eyed the butter yellow walls either side of them. They reminded him of stained teeth, clenching around him. Two people could barely walk abreast without bumping an elbow into a wall or a door. Then there was the carpet, sludge-coloured. Revolting.

Also, although these sorts of places allowed students to have their own bathrooms, Byakuya had overheard complaints about shared kitchen areas. To live in a place like this... the world would have to end before Byakuya considered doing a thing like that. Why Maximillion would subject himself to such squalid living conditions was beyond Byakuya. Or why he would choose his dormitory building as a venue for his birthday celebration. He had enough money in his back pocket to rent out the whole campus.

The further into the building they went, the louder the party music became. They soon arrived at the dormitory’s living area. While the guy waltzed in, Byakuya stayed by the doorway and stared. No fewer than twenty people were crammed inside. A group of guys were crowded around a table, bouncing ping pong balls into cups. Multiple genders were flailing their arms about and grinding against each other, possibly dancing. Three couples were knotted together, kissing deeply in the far corners of the room.

Byakuya glanced behind himself. He still had time to escape.

“Is that you, Togami-kun?” A guy with dyed orange hair streaked with white came over and draped an arm across Byakuya’s shoulders. “How long has it been? Don't think I've seen you since I moved school after the shooter incident in Junior High. I was in therapy for years!”

“Happy birthday, Prower.”

“Cheers. Help yourself to snacks and beer.”

Beer. “We’re in high school.”

“I paid a homeless man to buy us some. I also owe him a kidney in five years, but that’s future me’s problem.”

Maximillion broke away to rejoin the ping pong ball game he had strayed from when he went to greet Byakuya. Every time someone successfully bounced a ball into a cup, the other participants swigged from beer bottles. Whenever the player missed a cup with their ball, they had to drink from the cup, and Maximillion cheered with the rest of the players as someone chugged down the contents of one of the cups.

Byakuya didn't doubt he could best them all at the game, but the players were noisy and prone to touching each other. Hugs, shoulder bumps and slaps on the back. Wanting to keep to himself, he pulled a plastic chair over to a wall and sat down. A few feet away, a couple made out, their bodies so entangled it was hard to tell whose limb was whose.

This was nothing like the social gatherings that Byakuya had ever attended. He tried to ignore the squelching kissing nearby and got out a book from his satchel to read. A mystery novel, one that his butler had recommended.

Only five minutes could have passed before a female voice broke his concentration.

“Hi, you're Byakuya Togami, right? My name is Kina Kirano.”

Byakuya glanced up. Two girls stood in front of him. The one talking had long straight dark hair.

“You used to go to school with Max, yeah? That's so cool, that you've known each other so long,” she added.

He didn't understand what was ‘cool’ about this alleged fact, which had very little truth to it. The two hadn't spent any significant time together. They had glimpsed each other at business conventions and in school corridors, never sharing any classes. Never talking to each other before today.

Kina's friend nudged her with her elbow.

“Sorry. Um... Do you have a girlfriend?” Kina asked him, tucking some hair behind her ear.

Then she giggled. His eyebrows twitched.

“What she said tipped me off... when she said you were ‘funny’.”

A grimace hardened his features. “I'm not interested.”

He returned to reading his book. When he looked up a couple of minutes later, both girls had vanished. Thirsty, he reached for a nearby can and popped the seal. It opened with a hiss. The beer was bitter and made him shudder on first taste, but he still found himself sipping it sporadically. Then he helped himself to another can.

“Let's play truth or dare,” said Maximillion, clapping his hands.

While the other guests gathered around Maximillion, Byakuya stayed in his chair. He attempted to read, but it was hard to concentrate with the music and now the game that had them all yelling, laughing and shrieking. Scowling, he made his way through another can of beer.

His choice to remain seated should have been a strong enough indication that he didn't intend on joining in, yet Maximillion still called out to him.

“Truth or dare, Togami-kun?”

Byakuya shot him a withering glare. “I'm not playing.”

“Everyone is.”

“I'm not everyone.”

The others exchanged looks. Maximillion put his hands onto his hips.

“Your dad won't be happy you squandered a future relationship with the Prower airlines, will he?”

That made Byakuya stiffen. Maximillion continued frowning. Perhaps Byakuya had underestimated him. He looked away.

“... Truth.”

No way was Byakuya going to strip naked and run around the building like someone else had. But that wasn't to say choosing ‘truth’ was an easier alternative. Potentially, Maximillion could ask him about one of the conglomerate's countless secrets. Then Byakuya would have to come up with a believable lie on the spot.

Maximillion beamed. “Have you ever kissed a girl before?”

Maybe Byakuya hadn’t underestimated him after all. He pulled a face.

“No. I haven't.”

The others murmured. Byakuya swigged more beer, and Maximillion resumed the game. As Byakuya licked his beer-slicked lips, he tried to figure out why Maximillion had asked him that of all questions. Being the heir to the Togami Conglomerate, Byakuya had no reason to kiss anyone. Not only was he too busy, the act was vile. All it did was spread diseases. Almost any other question would have been more fruitful.

“Truth or dare?” asked Maximillion, this time in English.

“Dare,” replied someone else in English, with an American accent. Californian. Male.

“I dare you to kiss the cutest person in the room,” said Maximillion.

Again with the kissing. Byakuya didn't understand Maximillion’s fixation with it. Did he find it amusing? Humiliating? Both? For Byakuya, it was unhygienic and indecent and pointless and -

A hand tilted Byakuya's chin up. Dark eyes met his gaze, complemented by white teeth.

“Sorry,” said the American in Japanese, but he switched to English when he added, “Rules are rules.”

Before Byakuya’s eyebrows could arch in confusion, the other guy dipped his head and pressed his lips against Byakuya's mouth. The physical contact between them was minimal, yet warm pressure engulfed Byakuya's entire body, starting from their kiss. Spreading out like roots. A chorus of wolf whistles and gasps filled the room, but Byakuya's mind wouldn't, couldn't linger on the noise. Sharp cologne swam through his nose and pooled in his brain, consuming all his thoughts.

When the guy tried to pull away, Byakuya grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. The guy more than happily obliged, cupping a hand against the back of Byakuya’s head. His other hand gripped Byakuya's thigh.

“Get a room, you two,” said Maximillion.

So they did.

***

Later, when Aloysius collected Byakuya from the party, parts of Byakuya’s body were tingling that he didn't know could.

“Have you ever kissed another man, Pennyworth?” slurred Byakuya.

“No, I have not,” said Aloysius, half-carrying, half-dragging Byakuya across campus. Fortunately, they were alone, and it was dark. “Do you like kissing men, Young Master?”

“I feel no differently about it than kissing a woman or anyone else,” replied Byakuya. He paused, licking his teeth. The guy's hot breath seemed to still be swirling in his mouth, as if his tongue hadn't stopped exploring in there.

All of a sudden, bile arose in him. Byakuya lurched and vomited on the ground. A sigh left Aloysius.

“Do you wish to see him again?” he asked Byakuya.

“No. But don't kill him.”

“That will make it harder for me to cover for tonight’s events, but very well,” said Aloysius. “Cutting contact with him is for the best. Young Master, your seed will be given to more than one hundred women, and one day you will be coupled with a refined woman, from a prodigious family with great social standing. She will be of the highest quality and class and mental fortitude.”

***

Touko Fukawa was a scrawny thing. Byakuya researched her before he started at Hope's Peak, as he did with most of his future classmates. Despite her being a best selling author and him an avid reader, he had never heard of her, but a scan of her bibliography quickly confirmed why.

She wrote romances.

Disgust had filled him upon learning of this. What a waste of talent. And he knew she was talented, not just because Hope's Peak had scouted her, but because he had read some of her books. Firstly, because one had caused butlers to surge in popularity amongst women, which explained why Aloysius had been flanked by admirers a few years back. Secondly, another book had made fishermen even more desirable, and he had been curious how.

That was all. Curious.

When they first met in person, in the school library, she didn’t give the same impression that her books did. Touko had been sour-faced, and she had sneered, snapped and snarled when he told her that he had been disappointed in the school’s literary girl focusing on romance. Shortly into their conversation, she had described herself as an ‘ugly fatty’ to him unprompted, despite looking frail enough to be blown away by a gust of wind. Then when he later returned her notebook that she had stupidly misplaced, she offered him donuts. Of course, he had declined as she could have poisoned them. He told her this to her face.

Most people would have left him alone after that. Yet for some reason, her demeanour around him changed in an unexpected way. While she continued insulting other people when she couldn’t avoid them, she started visiting the same places he went to. Watching him. Studying him. Occasionally interacting with him, and not to try to belittle him.

“I t-thought you might be thirsty, so I brought you some coffee, Togami-kun,” she said.

Byakuya looked up from the document he had been reading. Hope’s Peak’s library spanned three floors, yet Touko had decided to stand next to his table. His gaze shifted from her blushing face to the tray in her trembling hands. A cup of russet coffee sat in a puddle that must have splashed out over the rim on the way here. How clumsy.

“Pour it down the sink,” he said, returning to the pages held within the black cover in his hands. Did she not learn from the donuts incident?

“I-It’s just how you like it!” Touko piped up. “Civet, drip-brewed.”

He hesitated. “How do you know that?”

“I overheard you say it to Naegi a few weeks back, a-and I've been perfecting my technique ever since.”

“It's not your technique.” Byakuya eyed the cup. Steam wafted out of it. She had also brought some shortbread biscuits to accompany it, sealed in plastic. The buttery flavour of the biscuits would blend nicely with the rich coffee, and the biscuits were wrapped, suggesting they couldn't have been tampered with.

She had definitely done her research, but why. The obvious answer was that he had a personal wealth of over five hundred billion yen, and he managed a range of high level business operations for a worldwide conglomerate. As well as that, with certainty, he knew himself to be handsome and intelligent. Due to all this, over the years, he had attracted dozens of admirers, but all had shrunk away within a few interactions with him.

Not her though. Perhaps she had another motive, such as revenge. A dead half-sibling with no name.

This time, Aloysius wasn't nearby with a sniper rifle, but Byakuya didn't need him or a weapon. Byakuya could deal with this by himself.

He pointed to the chair opposite. “Sit.”

Her eyes widened. “Huh?”

His patience pulled to thread-thin.

“I will not ask you again,” he said, even though he had ordered her rather than asked.

Touko yelped and set down the tray, spilling more coffee, before sitting where he had directed. Keeping his gaze on her, he lowered the document he had been reading onto the table and steepled his hands together. She wiggled, her eyes flickering between his face and her fidgeting hands. Her demeanour could have been that of a smitten highschooler, or that of a rookie agent knowing they were about to undergo an interrogation.

“So you write romances, hm?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Why? Is it a cash grab?”

“No! If I wanted easy money, I would write light novels,” she said. “The reason I write romances... is that it’s therapeutic, and there is nothing as pure and inspirational as true love.”

Byakuya's frown pinched deeper into his features, as if she had sprayed spittle onto his face. Touko carried on speaking.

“Unlike the real world, romance as a genre always has a happy ending. But anyone can write one of those, as hollow as the end result would be. It is only the downtrodden and abused who see man for what it really is, that can write a story with depth and nuance for we have suffered its worst. It's with this vision that we can see true ugliness and true beauty and bleed this onto paper. Such is our gift. Such is our burden. I write because I live. Because I breathe. And romance is what speaks to my soul in ways nothing else can...”

She didn’t stutter once throughout her preaching. Her eyes bore into him as he shifted in his chair. He swigged some coffee before returning his cup to the table.

“You sound utterly delusional,” he said with a scoff. “‘Inspirational’ indeed... For someone who supposedly sees the world for how it is, you’re mistaken about ‘true love’. Love, or any attachment, is just a weakness for others to take advantage of and exploit.”

Touko wilted slightly. “I admit that I have fallen prey to m-many false loves. B-But true love... that makes you stronger. It gives you courage. A-And if you believe otherwise, it means you just haven’t felt it yet.”

The last word dripped off her tongue, made his skin crawl as if it had crossed the table and burrowed into him. Then she had the audacity to continue staring at him, her cheeks rosy, her cloud grey eyes as bright as lightning.

“You’re right. I haven’t felt it. And I never will,” said Byakuya curtly. He stood up and pointed. “I don’t know why I decided to humour your crazed ramblings. This conversation is over. Begone.”

She flinched, then rose from the table and left his sight, hanging her head. When she was gone, he slowly sat back down and massaged his temples. Even though she was gone, he knew she would come back to him sooner or later, as she did each time he demanded she vacate his presence.

He picked up the casefile for Genocider Syo and resumed reading it.

***

“Do you wish for me to make her leave you alone, Young Master?”

Byakuya glanced at the rest of his dorm room. White walls. Grey carpet. Grey like Touko’s eyes. He grimaced. Hope’s Peak could afford to make their rooms a bit more pleasing to the gaze. They didn’t need to have bright blue flooring or gaudy red wallpaper, but some colour wouldn’t go amiss.

“No,” he said into his cell phone, drumming the fingers of his other hand against his desk. “She’s a nuisance, but she goes away when I tell her to.”

“If she’s troubling you that much, I can...”

“Pennyworth, I told you that it’s fine,” said Byakuya, firmer. “Despite her usual drivel, I have found use for her. Of course, she’s not as proficient as you, but she knows how to brew a decent cup of coffee and I have been able to acquire some book recommendations from her. Even though she writes romance, she has read a diverse range of books. I’ve been reading The Summer of the Ubume on her suggestion. She is also a fan of Seijun Suzuki’s works, so we’ve been able to have some discussion about his films too...”

Byakuya trailed off. It was finally quiet outside - there had been demonstrations by the reserve course students happening for most of the day until Hope’s Peak shut them down about an hour ago. He didn’t doubt they would resume protesting by tomorrow morning at the latest. Previous attempts to quash their rallies only seemed to have a temporary effect at stopping them, and each time the reserve course students returned louder and angrier. All because their student council had killed each other during one of their meetings and they blamed Hope’s Peak's administration for it.

The rest of Byakuya’s class had been shocked at the news, but not him. Untalented losers killing each other, with a claim that a god-like human had appeared and emerged as the sole survivor... this had happened to him before. When he earned his title of heir to the Togami Conglomerate.

Admittedly, Byakuya was curious to meet this mystery victor, to see if he really was as brilliant and terrifying as the reserve course made them out to be. But mostly to see if he actually existed.

“Young Master?”

Aloysius had been talking to him. Byakuya had not been listening.

“Hm?”

“If you ever need to leave the school, let me know. I will come and get you, right away.”

“Pennyworth, I can look after myself. I’m not a child anymore,” retorted Byakuya, rolling his eyes. “Besides, it’s not like the world is about to end.”

***

When the world ended, Byakuya and his classmates barricaded themselves in the old school building. He remembered walking into the headmaster’s office and confirming on video that he agreed to stay here for what would probably be the rest of his life. It wasn’t as though he had a choice though. The world outside the school's walls no longer existed. The conglomerate no longer existed.

Was it therefore correct to say that he no longer existed?

Byakuya gazed at the mirror in his bathroom. A blond man stared back at him, with ocean blue eyes and long eyelashes. The man’s face was thin - he had lost weight, barely eating lately, and had shadows under his eyes from a lack of sleep. When Byakuya blinked, the person in the mirror blinked too. And they both threw a punch at each other at the same time.

Didn't even leave a crack on the mirror. Byakuya marched back into his dorm room. According to his pocket watch, it was past midnight. With a metal plate over the window and the electric lighting intensely bright, he wouldn't have been able to tell the time otherwise. His days had no routine. No purpose. He had no purpose.

All his life, he had been sculpted to be the Togami head, its sole heir, to bring the conglomerate to new heights, but now the Togami name was in the ground. Gone. Dead. His father had been executed on live television. No one found Aloysius's body. It was almost laughable that his classmates still called him ‘Togami’. All of them except...

Touko’s dorm door was almost directly across the corridor. Like everyone else, she was probably asleep, though that didn't stop him from rapping his knuckles against the door. Almost immediately, he considered returning to his room. No one would know he was ever here. Byakuya could pretend this never happened.

He stayed. The door opened.

“Byakuya-sama?” said Touko, surprised. She must have been in bed: she was wearing a lavender pink nightdress that hung loosely down her body, ending part way down her pale legs.

Without a word, he balled his hands into fists and pushed past her, not leaving her room until late morning.

***

Byakuya's tongue burned with questions, but Aloysius wasn't around to answer them anymore. So instead, he stood in his shower, letting the water try and burn the rest of his body.

Have you ever kissed a woman, Pennyworth?

He rinsed his hair.

Have you ever let someone kiss all over your body?

He shampooed it.

Have you ever kissed someone else’s body all over?

He rinsed again.

Have you ever seen a woman naked before?

He applied conditioner now.

Did she praise you throughout, even though you didn't know what you were doing most of the time?

He reached for soap.

Does that matter, when she says she adores every little thing about you?

His hand hesitated.

When she moans into your mouth and sucks on your tongue, then whimpers as you kiss along her collarbone...

His jaw tightened.

When she trembles as you hold her breasts in your hands, as you trail your tongue down her thighs...

He retracted his hand. Positioned it between his legs.

As you align yourself with her, and insert your - He groaned - into her, and you push...

He pulled.

And push...

He pulled.

And push...

He pulled.

Until...

Byakuya gasped. Shuddered. His shoulders heaved as he breathed unevenly, as he stared down at the drain.

What does it mean when you shout out her name?

Byakuya wiped shower water from his eyes.

What does it mean when you cry afterwards?

He slumped back against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the hard tiled floor.

What does it mean when you keep going back every night afterwards?

#togafuka #touko fukawa #danganronpa #byakuya togami #toko fukawa #fanfiction #togafukaweek #the unspectacular love life of byakuya togami #18 plus #THIS IS THE SECOND DAY I POSTED THIS EARLY #NOTE TO SELF: IT'S SHIFT+ENTER TO START A NEW LINE #CTRL+ENTER POSTS THE POST

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zenonaa · 1 month ago

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Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Dangan Ronpa Series, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School Rating: Mature Relationships: Fukawa Toko/Togami Byakuya, Aloysius Pennyworth & Togami Byakuya, brief togami/original male character, Genocider Syo | Genocide Jack/Togami Byakuya Characters: Togami Byakuya, Aloysius Pennyworth, Fukawa Toko, Celestia Ludenberg, Kirigiri Kyoko, Genocider Syo | Genocide Jack Additional Tags: Togafuka Week, (bi)yakuya togami Summary: A completely normal timeline of a completely normal love life of a completely normal individual.

Comments: LATE TogaFuka Week Day 5: First! minor spoiler but i think this is the first time i’ve properly written syo ki**ing togami sdfdsfds togami’s a weird guy, his brain needs to be studied.

💖 Please like, reblog, leave kudos and/or comment on tumblr and AO3 💖

***

She wrote romances.

That was all. Curious.

Normally, Byakuya might have approached Touko to discuss his disappointment in her chosen genre, but he had found himself confronted by more pressing matters. As ludicrous as the situation sounded, a robotic bear had taken over the school and forced his class to participate in a mutual killing game.

Ludicrous, yet five out of fifteen of them had already died.

One member of their class yet to die was Celestia Ludenberg. Supposedly, she was born into French nobility on her father's side and to a lineage of German musicians on her mother's. Despite being only of high school age, she had become an urban legend in the underground gambling scene. Not that Byakuya gambled beyond day trading, but he had heard about her in passing before researching his classmates. He knew about her feats, her notoriety, how she had stripped countless people of their wealth through various games. Maximillion Prower had been disowned after losing a large sum of money in ten games of poker.

Byakuya also knew Celes was full of crap.

“Ah, Togami-kun. A creature of habit as always, I see,” said Celes.

He assumed she was referring to how he was reading a detective novel in the library. Well, he had been reading until she disrupted him with her stupid comment. She stood over his desk, smiling.

“Some people like to read, and the library is an appropriate place for that,” he said. “This isn't a zoo. If you wish to observe behaviour in mammals, go bother the others.”

While the library consisted of a measly single-floored room and storage closet, there were many other areas of the school she could have chosen to visit instead of his location. To his displeasure, she stayed where she was. She even had the audacity to giggle.

“You are funny, Togami-kun. I should like to keep you around more... though I think your shadow won't approve.”

Celes’s eyes darted to the side. Byakuya followed her gaze. By one of the book shelf units was Touko Fukawa, who glowered as she gripped the piece of furniture with one hand.

“You bedazzled turd... flirting with my Byakuya-sama,” Touko groused, teeth bared.

When it came to Celes, Byakuya knew as much about her as he needed to. She was one of the many students competing against him in the killing game. But though he spent more time around Touko, he still didn't quite understand her. During Chihiro's murder trial, he had exposed her secret. Had revealed to everyone that she had an alter known as Genocider Syo. A serial killer. At the time, Touko had even called him cruel. Most people would have left him alone after that. Yet for some reason, though her demeanour around him changed, it wasn't in the way he expected. While she continued avoiding others and insulting them, she started visiting the same places he went to.

Watching him. Studying him.

“Fukawa, you have been expelling your smelly breath for the past ten minutes,” he announced.

She squeaked and twitched like she hadn't expected him to notice her. Even though she had been spying on him like this for weeks now. Since before Chihiro was murdered.

“T-Ten minutes is a new record,” she said. A smile crept onto her face.

Byakuya stood up and pointed. “Leave.”

Touko pouted but did as told, though not before shooting a dirty look at Celes. Not the one she usually gave Byakuya, where she grinned and drooled and blushed, but one that twisted her features into something equally ugly.

When Touko was out of the room, he sat down again. Celes turned to him and cocked her head to one side.

“Ah. Your shadow is gone,” she deadpanned. “Yet you remain. Does this mean you are a ghost?”

“Shut up,” he said. “She's a nuisance.”

“Yet you still had sex with her.”

Celes said it casually, but he flinched as if her voice had struck him like a spotlight. His eyes flickered. Part of him expected Monobear to jump out, like how it had done when he had stumbled upon condoms in his drawer some time ago. This time, it would probably come out to congratulate him on using one correctly. Or worse, it would ask him to describe the experience to everyone else in a class assembly.

He recomposed himself quickly and adjusted his glasses. “I don't...”

“Oh, are you going to deny it?” asked Celes, amused. She put a hand over mouth, though he could see her smile poking out either side. “Please, Togami-kun. You were so flustered when you came into the cafeteria that one morning and Genocider announced she was wearing red lingerie. Then when said she wanted to skip pretending to hate each other and get to the ‘lovey-dovey’, you acted most peculiar and sprinted out.”

It had been more of a brisk walk than a full out run. “That doesn't mean...”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t recall her referring to you as ‘Byakuya-sama’ prior to that. And her... affection for you has certainly taken an intense turn since then as well. Is this your gap moe coming out?”

Though he didn't know what ‘gap moe’ meant, he understood the rest of what she said. He set down his book and glared up at her.

“Why are you so invested in this fantasy you've created using a few coincidences?” he asked.

Celes beamed. “Because it’s hilarious. Though unfortunately, it means you’re off the market.”

Byakuya folded his arms over his chest.

“Please... as if I would never wish to partner with you,” he snapped. She was a liar. A control freak. A brat who treated him like a shiny toy or some kind of novelty. But also... “I doubt you’re interested in me in that way, or any other guy for that matter. I've noticed how you look at Kirigiri.”

She heaved a quiet sigh.

“You are correct that I don’t care for men in the way I do women. For me, all women are S-rank.” Celes placed a hand over her heart. “But that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed in your lack of interest in me. I would love for you to worship me. You'd make an excellent butler for my castle. The idea of ordering a guy like you around is more delicious than the world's most expensive gyoza.”

Though he kept a straight face, the rest of his body cringed at the gleam in her eyes, at the smile drawing out her red lips. She looked as though she was imagining him as that gyoza, poking him with chopsticks as if they were puppet strings until she decided to devour him whole.

He scowled, his expression as dark as hers wasn’t. “Never.”

“There’s still hope. How about we wager our lives over a game of poker? Or War? Blackjack?”

“All those games require a great deal of luck to win.” He clicked his tongue. “One day, you will gamble and your winning streak will end, rendering your life meaningless.”

Celes’s smile stayed painted on. “That is the fate for normal people, but not me. I never lose. If I did, with the sorts of antes I’ve played at, I wouldn’t be alive to have this conversation with you. Still, consider my offer, Togami-kun. If you want to prove me wrong before you perish, that may be your only chance.”

She held out her hand, knuckles up, as if she expected him to take it. For a moment, he thought she wanted him to shake it, but the angle wasn’t right. Then he realised she wanted him to kiss it. He kept his hands where they were. Still smiling, she withdrew her hand and strode toward the library’s exit.

Byakuya was about to resume reading when Celes’s voice chimed.

“Ah, Togami-kun.” Celes had paused by the door. She didn’t look back. “You didn’t deny that you’re off the market.”

He twitched. “Why should I-?”

The door shut behind her, slamming like a fire engine into a pedestrian.

***

When Byakuya kissed Maximillion’s friend at his previous high school, he had admittedly been a little drunk. Despite this, he could remember how the bed sank beneath them, the weight of the guy pressing down on him. All the saliva, all the heat. They hadn't had sex - neither of them asked, and the guy must have thought Byakuya was drunker than he actually was, because he laughed when Byakuya grinded up against him and gave Byakuya his phone number afterwards.

Neither saw the other again. Byakuya didn't even add the number to his phone. The guy was physically attractive, and the experience had been pleasurable for Byakuya's body. But once he was sober and his mind had cleared, he thought to himself how this couldn't happen again. His future spouse would be chosen for him. Emotional bonds and sexual relations would only distract him. Make him weaker. And anyway, the guy had laughed at him.

Unlike Touko, who didn't laugh at him. Not when she wore red lingerie on his bed, and not right now either. Instead, she just moaned.

“Be quiet,” grumbled Byakuya, lifting his lips from her collarbone.

Though no one should have been able to hear them, not even the Mastermind. Or see them, in this narrow closet in the girls bathroom. It wasn't the most comfortable place for what they were doing, but only this room and the sauna area had no cameras. With only three girls still alive, of the two places, this seemed the least likely to be intruded on.

Even if they had to do this standing up.

Byakuya raised his head and pressed his wet mouth against hers. Shuddering, she tangled her fingers in his hair. A tremor coursed through Byakuya, spreading from their locked lips to his centre and beyond, hot and tingly and overflowing. Moans spilled into his panted breaths. Heat flushed his skin, beaded him with sweat. Neither wore their glasses, but that didn't matter - she dominated all his other senses. Despite her being smaller than Maximillion’s friend, despite her being smaller than Byakuya, she consumed him entirely.

And somehow, even with him completely sober of alcohol, she still made his head spin, made him fall into her, made him want more.

He pushed her backward into the wall. His lips parted, and their tongues crashed into one another. This should have been repulsive. Not just because kissing as a concept was gross. She shared a tongue with the infamous serial killer, Genocider Syo, who killed people just like him. Pinned them up, crucified them with her scissors like the pair he bought on the black market years before meeting her.

Repulsion. That had to be what was bubbling in his chest, pulsating in his groin. But then it also had to be due to repulsion that he asked her to meet him here, why he led her to this closet. Why he said to not breathe a word of this to anyone before he took their glasses off and drank her in a kiss. Why he had been pulled toward her, like a fly to trash. She tore her mouth away and gasped.

“I... I need you, Byakuya-sama...” Touko whimpered, almost choking on her breath. “In...”

Someone coughed. Both of them jolted, whipping their heads toward where the sound had originated. A figure stood in the open doorway.

“K-Kirigiri?” Touko’s arched eyebrows soon scrunched as she followed up with an acidic, “H-Haven't you heard of knocking? Or did you forget that as well due to your so-called amnesia?”

Kyouko Kirigiri’s jaw clenched slightly. A miniscule movement, yet it darkened her whole countenance. She hung in the doorway like a storm cloud.

“I did knock,” she said. “You were just making too much noise to hear me. I apologise for interrupting you both, but I need you to leave. Now.”

“Why? Is your puppy dog waiting to come in and join you in here?” sneered Touko.

That had to be Makoto. If Byakuya hadn't been so mortified, he might have chuckled at how Touko had described him. The guy did always seem to be trailing after someone. However, Byakuya emitted no sound. He couldn’t. His throat was too dry. Of all the people to catch them, it had to be smug, arrogant Kyouko.

“He's playing with Monobear,” said Kyouko coolly. “Please, this is very time sensitive.”

“Go on then. Tell us why you need us to leave,” said Touko, loosely holding onto Byakuya’s waist.

Kyouko swept some hair back. Tucked it behind her ear. Raised her chin.

“I need to take an enormous shit," she said.

That caught Byakuya off guard. He tensed, while Touko shrieked and covered her mouth with both hands.

“Y-You’re disgusting!” Touko told her.

“I'm human.” Kyouko’s face stayed stern, but a touch of colour rosied her cheeks. “So you see, I'd rather you two not be in here when I go.”

Byakuya certainly didn’t want to be in the vicinity during such a situation, and he doubted Touko did either. Yet she didn't move, frozen, staring at Kyouko with an aghast expression. He pursed his lips and stepped away from Touko. Fixed his jacket back into place.

“We’ll leave,” he said, not looking at Kyouko or Touko.

“B-but...” Touko started.

“Do you enjoy foul smells as well as smelling foul?” he snapped, squaring his shoulders. “We're leaving, Fukawa. You first, then me. Don't dare wait around for me. I don’t want to see you for the rest of the day.”

He glared at the closet’s back wall. Felt Touko's warmth recede, then listened to her quiet footsteps drag. When he heard the door shut, he didn’t stir at first, but then he fixed his gaze onto Kyouko. Though Byakuya had never claimed to be a huge expert on bowel problems, he didn't need to be one to know she was full of a different kind of shit. None of her limbs bounced. Her face didn't twitch. She lied about why she was here, and he could think of only one reason she would interrupt them like that.

“If you intended to humiliate me, what an unfulfilled sad little life you lead,” he said, clenching his fists. Not that he intended to hit her, or anyone. They had merely balled, closing like gritted teeth. “You stumbled upon me having one small lapse in judgement. Has that been the highlight of your year, hm?”

“That's what you’re calling it?” Her eyebrows rose a tad before lowering again. “You don’t need to try to justify what you were doing to me, Togami-kun. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and quite frankly I don’t care. I’m only disappointed because you seemed to be finally becoming nicer to everyone after what happened with Oogami-san. We all cheered for you when you complimented Fukawa-san on her report... which you didn't need to do. Fukawa-san would have been just as obsessed with you either way.”

“I...” His heart lurched. She could have at least had the decency to smirk or laugh instead of acting so seriously. As if what she was saying had any truth to it. He glared. “I don't need to explain myself to you.”

Byakuya pushed past her. Kyouko let him leave without another word. When he emerged into the corridor, Touko was nowhere in sight. Usually, whenever she was nearby, if he couldn't see her, he could hear her mumbling, or smell her, or almost feel a charge in the air. Right now, the air was dead. He sighed and headed toward his dorm room.

It wasn't so much that he didn't need to explain himself to Kyouko than that he couldn't. In fact, he couldn't even explain himself to himself. Byakuya hadn't known Touko for very long, yet there was something akin to an attraction between them. A pull, a hunger, but he didn't understand why.

Or more that he didn't remember why.

***

Not only did Byakuya survive the mutual killing scenario, so did five of his classmates. One of them being Touko. He found it almost amusing that the person with a serial killer alter didn't end up killing anyone. Though, after everyone became aware of her presence, Genocider Syo would have had a hard time murdering anyone without arousing suspicion. She was always the first suspect. Under such scrutiny, she couldn't have killed even if she wanted to.

And oh did she complain about that. A lot. Especially when Future Foundation rescued them and made all of them full fledged members except Touko.

“It's bullshit! The reason I’m able to be here is because I didn't murder anyone and get executed like those other chumps,” snarled Syo, pacing back and forth in front of Byakuya’s desk. He knew she was doing that without having to look up from his paperwork - for someone so scrawny, she stomped remarkably loudly.

“You killed thirty-seven people before that,” Byakuya pointed out, skimming through a document. It was an article proposal for Future Foundation’s next newsletter. Some conspiracy about how the ‘Remnants of Despair’ planned to turn the mutual killing scenario into a TV series that would go on for the next fifty-two years.

Syo came to a stop.

“Aw, Darling! You remembered my kill count. That’s so romantic. It’s just like counting a lover’s freckles,” she said, perking up.

He shot a glare at her. “It’s nothing like that at all.”

The smile on her face didn’t shrink. She clutched her cheeks and wiggled her hips excitedly.

“No, you’re right. You knew the number because you read my casefile every night. The thought of you tucked up in bed, one hand groping my casefile, the other under the covers... makes me tingle all over...!”

Her expression turned even more deranged, with a grin that should have been too big to fit her face. He set down his document before he could crush it in frustration.

“Shut up.” It was a feat of great restraint that he didn’t raise his voice. “I read your casefile because your alter told me about you. I then used this information to frame you for a murder so I could test the competition, as well as force Fukawa to reveal your existence to the rest of the class in a way where you couldn’t get to me first.”

No one would have believed him if he just outright told them ‘this stuttering girl who faints when she sees blood shares a body with a notorious serial killer’. It sounded as ridiculous as one of Celestia Ludenberg’s spiels. At the time, he had thought that Syo could know that he knew her secret, and that she would try to murder him to keep him quiet. It had been fortunate for him that a few hours later, he stumbled upon Chihiro Fujisaki’s corpse. The perfect opportunity to reveal her existence.

And it had been fortunate for Touko too. Syo had fronted during Chihiro’s murder trial, and was able to see what happened to anyone caught killing before she could do the same. Not that Byakuya had intended her to benefit from his actions, but in a way he had helped guarantee their survival.

“Is that really it?” asked Syo in a low voice. She tilted her head to one side, barely blinking. Staring at him with a rare expression of seriousness. “You know, I went back to the library lots of times to try to read my casefile. It’s like a memory book to me, full of my past loves, only it was never there.”

“So?”

“So you kept it! Where’s it now?”

Byakuya hesitated. “Back at the school.”

Which was true.

“Hm, don’t believe you, sorry!” She twitched back her head, still with that horrific smile. “You’ll have to let me come over to check your apartment for it. Actually, you might carry it under your shirt or where you keep your crown jewels, so I ought to strip search ya too. That includes up your hole, but I’ll lubricate my fingers with spit before I search there so don’t you worry. I’ll make you into my own personal sock puppet.”

Somehow, Syo managed to make Touko’s most perverse ramblings seem pious. Byakuya shuddered. “Absolutely not.”

“Why not? Gloomy’s seen you naked, right?”

He tensed. His gaze flickered.

“I don’t...” he started.

“If you’re not going to beat my bush, then you can’t beat about any bushes,” she said, pointing at her crotch, then there was a bang as she slammed her palm against his desk, causing his neat pile of paperwork to explode. “Y’know, I should hate you. You told everyone about our big secret. Me and Gloomy don’t see eye-to-eye most of the time, but while we each have our own sections in our mind, we share the same heart. We feel the same things. And what you did made us feel shitty.”

Byakuya maintained her gaze. If she was trying to make him regret what he did, then she was more delusional than he thought. He did what was needed to save himself, at the time. For that he wouldn't apologise.

Without breaking eye contact with him, she hoisted up her leg and planted her foot onto his desk. His eyes flitted to her leg, widening when she pulled up her skirt. A river of milky skin extended into view until she revealed pink scars on the thigh. He had seen them before, when Syo twirled and jumped around. As he straddled Touko’s body. Trailed kisses up her thigh.

“Thirty-seven, right?” she said.

“Yes.” Byakuya swallowed. “That’s right.”

Syo directed a finger to the tally marks scarred into her thigh, like a teacher prompting their student to read. Like he hadn't already been staring at them.

“When I enrolled at Hope’s Peak, I had thirty-seven marks for thirty-seven hotties. We never talked back then, you and I, but I sometimes sat behind you in class, or watched you read in the library. You made my heart dance like I wanted to kill you, only I didn’t want to kill you. Or anyone. Just... being near you gave me all the release I needed. I’ve never felt that way about someone before.”

“Oh joy,” said Byakuya sardonically. “I have earned the infatuation of a serial killer.”

“Ain’t you one too?”

He frowned. “No, I’m not.”

“When we voted for the guy with corn on the cob for hair, we got him killed, yeah? And what about the goth chick with an ironing board flat chest? And whoever died before them? We killed them.”

A muscle twitched in his cheek.

“That was self-preservation. We would have died otherwise,” he said.

“Same as me, Darling.”

“No, not the same as you. You’ve killed because, as you have crudely put it in the past, it turns you on.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it bloody well does,” she said. “The only better feeling than twisting my scissors into a hottie’s flesh is being in the same room as you. But I’m also saving us with what I do, me and her. You can’t imagine how many guys have screwed Gloomy. How society has screwed her. How it screwed her and screwed her until she bled and birthed lil old me. It's so gratifying to screw others for a change. Hurt them before they can hurt us. That’s self-preservation.”

Byakuya steepled his fingers into a bridge. “You are absolutely insane to listen to.”

She didn't bat an eye.

“You understand though, don’t you?” she asked. “That’s why you’re an arse face to anyone who tries to get close to you. The reason you act tsundere to us, even though I know you’ve fucked Gloomy. Was she here now because you were gonna fuck her over your desk? Don’t worry, I’ll happily tag in! But you’re gonna be the one bent over.”

Of all the ludicrous bile she had ever said to him, this one was the most vile. Not for the lewd remark at the end, but when she tried to pretend she understood him at all. Or that they were remotely similar.

“I allowed Fukawa in here because she brought me lunch.” Byakuya stood up. His work chair shunted back on its wheels. “You have done nothing but give me a headache. Go far away and find someone else to bother.”

“You go such a cute pink when you’re embarrassed and trying to seem mad!” Syo laughed. “Gloomy might listen to your orders, but I do whatever the fuck I want to do! And I...”

She lunged. With a loud bang, they hit the ground together. His vision spun. The back of his head twinged with pain. He could feel her weight pressing down on him as she settled onto his crotch. Gritting his teeth, he started to move his right hand, only for Syo to stab a pair of scissors into the cuff of his sleeve.

Cool metal pressed against his wrist. It would be wrong to say she had missed his flesh, because he doubted she had aimed for it. A small upside to being her exception.

“This is a sight I've missed,” she said, wiggling slightly.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't as much of an exception as she led him to believe. Byakuya should have fought her off. Syo seemed like she was about to end his life. Most would have begged for her mercy. Cried. Yet though his heart raced, he felt a strange sense of calmness over him.

She shifted. To the surprise of both of them, a groan escaped him. Though with how her movement had elicited a sensation as if she had scratched a longstanding itch, him making such a noise shouldn't have been unexpected. For him, anyway.

Byakuya still shook.

Syo blinked, confused. “You-?”

Before she could finish, his free hand pulled her closer. Initially, he gripped her shoulder, but then he grabbed the back of head. For a few moments, she gave some resistance out of surprise, but when their mouths collided, she melted into him.

The first thing he noticed was how long her tongue was. It was one thing seeing it - feeling it was another. When he kissed Touko, it had been like icing on a cake, but with Syo that was all there was. Her tongue filled his mouth, warm, wet, sticky and sweet. He could barely move his own, while hers seemed to spread through him. Down his throat, into his torso, to his limbs. Between his legs. And she must have felt it pulsing in him, because she rubbed herself against where she throbbed in him most.

Panting, Syo lifted her head. For all her tongue had crowded his body, he felt like he was suffocating without it. A strange look crossed over her face, scrunching her brow but not with amusement or anger. Teasing her lips, but not with a smile or sneer. Her mouth hung open wordlessly. She regarded him as though he was a roach that continued to scurry around no matter how many times she tried to squash it. As though he was a modern day Rasputin, or a plot twist that she hadn't seen coming.

In that moment, she looked like Touko Fukawa.

Byakuya tore his sleeve free from her scissors and reached under his jacket. Before she could react, he shoved a stun gun to her temple. Pulled the trigger. Electricity flickered between the prongs. A loud snap cracked the air. Syo yelped, convulsing for a few seconds before slumping backward. His heart thundered as he slowly rose, the room rocking beneath his feet. Almost like the whole building was swaying.

Within seconds, he heard groaning.

“W-What happened?” asked who he knew to be Touko from the inflection of her voice. She sat up, holding her head. From some of their training sessions together, they had learned that as long as they didn’t use the stun gun too much on Touko, it wouldn’t damage her brain. With it, she could temporarily allow Syo to front, while if used the other way around, Touko would front indefinitely. Until she sneezed or shocked herself again.

The sight of blood used to make Syo front, until they trained Touko to quash this trigger. Him and her. Byakuya and Touko. White Knight and Rotten Girl, tainting the other.

“She came out, didn’t she?” said Touko, her eyes on his stun gun as she rose. “Did she hurt you?”

“No.” Byakuya rested a hand on his desk. Loose sheets of paper surrounded it. Surrounded them. He found it easier to look at the papers than at her. If not for the printed text and pen marks, they could have looked like snow. “Fukawa... just go. Please. I want to be alone.”

“Did she hurt you?” Touko asked again. Byakuya heard her step closer and tensed.

“Didn’t you hear me?” He raised his voice. His gaze remained on the paper. “I told you to go away, you idiot!”

The room seemed to reverberate, but not with his voice. With silence. Byakuya heard her footsteps, then the door. Now he was alone. He sighed. Picked up his chair and sat down. Dragged his fingers down his face.

She would be back. She always came back.

And he was always there for her to come back to.

***

“... I miss you,” said Touko, squeezing her hands together.

Byakuya gazed at his computer screen. A hotel backdrop slightly blurred behind her, with no visible bloodstains on the walls. Must have taken them a while to find a room so clean. They never stayed in one place long enough to bother cleaning it properly.

“You chose to stay there,” he said.

After Touko and Makoto's sister saved him when his rescue mission in Towa City went awry, Touko did not come back to Future Foundation with him. Without those two taking over from Byakuya as hostages, nothing would stop Future Foundation from demolishing the whole city once he left. Komaru had wanted to stay, wanted to protect this awful city, and so Touko had as well. The two of them had grown close during their adventure together.

“I know.” Touko swept a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She had lost her signature braids, her hair loose and long and wild. But she still had her grey eyes. Her glasses. And her old school uniform, as tattered as it was. “But Komaru needs looking after... She needs me to protect her. Sometimes I wish I had a leash for her; she's always rushing headfirst into danger.”

“Must run in their family,” said Byakuya, glancing at his phone. Makoto's message was the most recent. ‘I'm sure they can be redeemed.’ It was to do with Makoto's plan to rehabilitate the Remnants of Despair.

“Must be,” she said. She fidgeted her hands. Bit her lip. “Um...Byakuya-sama...”

“You haven't professed that you want to conceive my children in the last ten minutes. What's troubling you?”

“If anything goes wrong with Naegi’s plan, I want you to know that I will always love you.”

Byakuya blinked, then scoffed, “My attendance will ensure Naegi’s plan succeeds. But also... he talked us out of Despair before, don’t forget. He will be able to talk the remnants out of it too.”

And Touko knew that he knew she loved him. That didn't need to be reiterated, yet she did so. Not only that, she wasn’t blushing or drooling as she said it, like she often was.

Something wasn’t right.

“It's not that exactly,” she said. “Byakuya-sama... after you implement Naegi's plan, you will be seen as a traitor to Future Foundation. They will have no reason to appease you... and so will have no reason to allow Towa City to continue existing. They will probably... no, almost certainly nuke it, killing all its inhabitants.”

His head jerked back. “What?”

She had spoken so calmly that he thought he must have misheard her.

“Future Foundation doesn't give two shits about me and Komaru,” said Touko. “But you and Naegi are very precious to them: the Master of All Trades and the Poster Boy of Hope. It's because we are so dear to you that they've kept us alive for so long. Towa City doesn’t hold us hostage. Future Foundation does. They've kept us alive so you will work with them. If they were to get an inkling you planned to betray them... then we would perish. They will make you feel true despair, so they have cause to end you.”

With such a grim expression, she couldn’t have been joking. He stared at her. While Future Foundation did house some members who championed annihilating the Remnants of Despair and their perceived supporters, this sounded too extreme even for them. Future Foundation, destroying a whole city because Byakuya and Makoto were trying to rehabilitate the Remnants of Despair instead of executing them.

Destroying a whole city, because Makoto’s sister was there. Because Byakuya’s...

“What are you talking about?” Byakuya pointed to himself. “You, dear to me? I am indebted to you because you saved my life. That’s why I’ve been working to get you out of that cursed city. Don’t read into it.”

Touko looked down.

“And we're not going to brush over how you implied you mean anything to me,” he added. He wished he could reach into his screen. Grab her. Pull her through. Shake her. Kiss her. No, not that. He grimaced. “Because you don’t. I don’t love you, and I never will. So... don’t... So what, do you want me to tell Naegi that his scheme’s cancelled? Is that why you’ve told me this? Or...?”

“No. You need to help Naegi’s plan come into fruition,” said Touko. “I didn’t tell you this to try to change your mind, Byakuya-sama. I told you... because if I am to die because of what happens, I want you to know that I don’t blame you. My feelings for you won’t change at all.”

Nuisance. She was a total fucking nuisance.

“Shut up! You’re not going to die. Didn’t you hear me say I’m indebted to you? You aren’t allowed to die. I don’t give you permission to. My options aren’t either to help Naegi or save you. I am going to do both. And I will personally collect you from Towa City afterwards.”

A small smile quirked her lips.

“I understand, Byakuya-sama,” she said. “That’s the same choice I would make.”

When they ended the call later, he touched his fingers to where her smile had just been. The computer screen was as flat and cold as a glass photo frame.

***

Sometimes Byakuya dreamed he was dating Touko, only it wasn't really her. Yes, by definition dreams were just thoughts, images and emotions that involuntarily occurred in the mind during sleep. Nothing was real in them. But even by dream standards, she wasn’t quite herself. Instead of being a living person, she was represented by a portrait of her face. The black ribbon adorning the top of the frame suggested she had died, but the image of her could still look around. Could still speak.

“Do you think if the circumstances had been different, we'd have started dating?” she asked.

Byakuya looked around, his gaze slow and sweeping. White water lapped at his feet, as he and Touko sat on white sand under a white sky.

“The circumstances will never be different,” he said. “There’s no point in dwelling.”

Weirdly, though the image in her portrait shouldn’t have been able to change, she seemed to furrow her brow at him.

“Imagine instead of Naegi, Kirigiri was sent to be executed by Enoshima and she actually died,” said Touko. “So the five of us live in the school together for the rest of our lives. Over time, you allow yourself to open up to others. You become less haughty, and uncaring, and the quills that are spread all over your skin recede, allowing others to become closer to you. Meanwhile, I open myself up to the world. I gain confidence, become less self-deprecating and obsessive, and the barbs on my skin rust away, allowing me to become closer to others.”

The water continued to lick at his soles.

“... Do you think we could have had a chance?” she asked.

Byakuya stared into white abyss ahead.

“We must live with the cards we’re dealt,” he finally said. She didn’t reply. He turned to her and touched his fingers to her lips. The glass photo frame was as flat and cold as a computer screen.

***

“When you were a teenager, did you ever think you would fall in love?”

Byakuya resurfaces from his thoughts. Nearby, Aloysius gazes at him, old and alive and still sitting stiffly in the armchair. Years have passed since Byakuya dismissed his former butler from his post, but Aloysius remains as formal as ever. He had even tried to insist that he should prepare their drinks, despite being here not as Byakuya's employee but as his guest.

After all they've been through, some things don't change. Some things do though. A dent forms in Byakuya’s brow.

“No,” says Byakuya. “I didn’t think I ever would.”

Aloysius nods and sips some tea. Byakuya does the same with his own cup. As they drink, the lull in conversation doesn't bother Byakuya. Some people drown in silence. Will attempt to bat it away by coughing, tapping on something or with small talk. He has a theory that as one might fear what they can't see in the dark, one might be afraid of what they can't hear in the silence.

Not Byakuya though. If someone has to resort to small talk with him, then they aren't worthy of his time.

“If you could give your younger self any advice in relation to this subject matter, what would you say?” Aloysius asks next.

Byakuya thinks about Fujimoto-san’s daughter that he can’t remember meeting, and the girl with the heart-shaped box containing explosives. He recalls Maximillion’s friend, with his good looks and handsome smile who he never learned the name of, and Celes whose grandeur went up in flames along with the rest of her.

Then there's Touko. Stuttering unless she's not. Her hair braided when it's not loose and free. Born into a world of hate, yet brimming with love. Fierce. Affectionate. Tough. Gentle. He lowers his cup, frowning.

“I wouldn't give my younger self any advice,” says Byakuya.

A babbling sound draws their attention. Both turn their heads toward the doorway.

“Little Aloysius just woke up from his nap,” says Touko, gently bouncing a bunched up blanket in her arms. Not until she sits down next to Byakuya can he see the small face amongst the folds. Thin blond hair, darting grey eyes.

Touko leans into Byakuya’s side, and he curves an arm around her back. When their son giggles, Byakuya finds himself giving a small chuckle back.

#touko fukawa #byakuya togami #toko fukawa #togafuka #danganronpa #dr3 #drae #togafukaweek #fanfiction #the unspectacular love life of byakuya togami

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