Author's note: It always bugged me that Danganronpa will flirt with the idea of romance between it's characters but never quite pull the trigger. With that in mind I made this fanfic. The title is both a reference to the contents of the fic and to the fact that this is the first time I published a fanfic. All C&C welcome and I hope you enjoy it.

Garbage Romance

Why is this happening? This doesn't make any sense. Everyone voted me as the blackened and Monokuma is going along with it! Kyoko!

I turned to her and saw pure anguish, probably the most emotion I've ever seen on Kyoko's face.

"I don't expect you to forgive me. I know this is all my fault…"

Kyoko…? What, did she know this would happen?

"Let's give it everything we've got! It's….. Punishment Time!" Monokuma exclaimed and slammed his ballot down on a red button. I didn't even have time to think, suddenly a chained collar came out of nowhere and latched itself around my neck. It starting pulling away just as quick as it came, just like what happened to Leon. The last I saw of the courtroom was Kyoko reaching towards me but I was already being pulled away.

The Chained pulled so quickly I couldn't get a grasp of my surroundings as hallways passed by, I got the vague sense of sliding down a ramp. It finally came to a stop and I found myself locked into a chair in a dark room. The lights came on, after my eyes adjusted I saw that I was in what looked like a classroom. On the blackboard in front of me the words "After School Lesson" were written in chalk. I looked around the room some more, it was way larger than a normal classroom.

I heard footsteps running in the distance I looked up and saw the rest of my classmates, they had an eagle view of the mock classroom looking down from a ledge. Seeing them there, it finally hit home. I was framed as the blackened, Monokuma was going along with it… I, I'm about to die. My heart started thundering in my chest, I couldn't calm down, I was going to die, I had moments to live, how would it happen?

"Time for your lesson Makoto!" Monokuma walked to the desk in front of the blackboard dressed up like a professor.

"Let's begin shall we?" Monokuma picked up an eraser and started clearing the board. As he did the room suddenly came alive, the sound of gears turning and low humming of energy filled the air.

*Thump*

A loud crack echoed throughout the room, I twisted in my chair to look behind me and saw what caused it. A large guillotine like machine was raising a block of steel and then slamming it down on the ground. My face broke out in a sweat.

*Thump*

The chair I was locked in lurched slightly and began moving slowly backwards, it was on a conveyor belt. A wave of dread spread throughout my body, this is how it's going to happen, I'm going to be squished.

*Thump*

I turned away from the machine, If I watched it any longer I think I might puke. I looked towards my classmates. Aoi Asahina was crying into Yasuhiro's shoulder who looked on the execution with horror. Toko Fukawa was looking at her feet, arms holding herself and cringing every time the block hit home.

*Thump*

Byakuya Togami looked angry, he stood fists clenched at his sides. I think he understood this execution was a farce, Monokuma wasn't playing by his own rules anymore. Kyoko was unreadable, she just watched on passively. Did she know that it would end up like this? Is that why she threw suspicion at me during the class trial?

*Thump*

No, her reaction when I was voted the blackened was genuine, this wasn't how she wanted things to end up. I looked away from my classmates, it was getting a little hard to see them from this distance. Monokuma was gesturing to the blackboard where he drew a basic diagram about the creation of life. Despite the situation I felt a little heat rise to my cheeks. Really? Here and now?

*Thump*

I'm going to die, how many thumps until the last one? I think I'm past the halfway point from where my chair started. This is torture, my heart feels like it's going to burst, there can't be more than 4 or 5 cycles left until the last. Could I have avoided this? What if I exposed Kyoko instead of protecting her, would our positions be reversed?

*Thump*

Oddly the thought comforted me, at least me dying here means that Kyoko doesn't have to go through this. I chased that line of thinking, it was the only comfort I could find. Who else but Kyoko could finish this, expose the Mastermind and get everyone else out of here. Yeah…

*Thump*

I would die so Kyoko could live and save everyone else. My mind calmed slightly for the first time since I was voted the blackened. I wasn't going to die in vain. Knowing that filled me with a strange sense of peace. I'm going to die…and that's okay.

*Thump*

I felt that one vibrate through my chair, it made me jump. It was like my mind and body were separating into two different entities. My mind has accepted death but my body has not. My heart was thundering away, sweat pouring down my face. This is it. I closed my eyes and waited for the end.

..…

Death didn't come. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was under the guillotine so why…? Then I saw something on the monitor above the blackboard. Chihiro! No, Alter Ego, he saved me somehow. Even Monokuma looked surprised. Suddenly I felt the chair tip back, there was some kinda hatch at the end of the conveyor belt. I felt my stomach lurch as the chair tipped back past the point of no return and then I was falling, down and down, into darkness.

I came to groggily. First thing I noticed was the smell, uhhg, what is that? At least I'm alive, no way the afterlife smells this foul. I slowly got up and looked around, I was in some kind of trash pit. It was large cylinder concrete room filled with all manner of garbage. Everything from discarded food packaging to bent steel girders. Good thing I didn't land on one of those, as a bonus I even got dislodged from the chair I was locked to somehow. I guess my ultimate talent has to kick in sometime.

It didn't take long to make a full survey of my surroundings, this room was huge but it was also very open, there only seemed to be one way out, a small set of stairs that led to a locked door. I considered trying to find a small enough piece of metal to lock-pick the door but I don't know the first thing about lock-picking. Unable to think of anything else to do I found a spot that didn't smell quite as bad the rest of place and cleared it out to give me room to lay down.

I felt completely exhausted, mentally from all the twists and turns of the last class trial and being voted the blackened. Physically from my body all but hyperventilating leading up to my execution, not to the mention the beating it took landing down here. Emotionally worst of all, after weeks of watching my friends get manipulated into killing each other.

The fear of Monokuma, not knowing when he showed up if he just wanted to banter or if he had a new motive to throw our lives back into chaos. The slight panic of realizing you haven't seen one of your classmates in awhile and worrying whether something happened to them. The despair of knowing so many of the them are gone forever now. Perhaps what some of them did was unforgivable but that didn't stop me from wishing I could stop every one of those executions.

In the school there was always something new to worry about. A new floor to explore, a new motive to contend with, a new lead on the Mastermind. But down here, alone with my thoughts and feelings, the combined grief finally caught up with me. Sayaka, Leon, Junko, Chihiro, Mondo, Kiyotaka, Hitfumi, Celestia, Sakura. I would never see them again. Even though I hadn't known them that long their loss hit hard, harder than it should have. I liked all of them in their own way, when I talked to them I almost got the sense that I had known them before and was reconnecting with a long lost friend. That doesn't matter anymore, they're gone now.

Laying there in this garbage pit with nothing else to do I mourned my lost friends. I cried as I haven't since after the first class trial when I mourned for Sayaka alone in my room. This time I cried for all of them.

After a while I calmed down. My natural optimism was coming back. I was alive. I couldn't give up. For my friends, those lost and those still here I had to persevere! Only problem was I didn't see a way out and I found no edible food or water shifting through the trash. With nothing else to do I laid there and tried to save my strength.

In between sleeping I thought back to the class trial and what happened there. I tried replaying it in my head. It still didn't make sense but a few things became clear to me. Monokuma has forsaken his own rules. That much was clear by my current predicament. He didn't care that I didn't kill anyone, I was still voted and executed as the blackened.

Kyoko must have known somehow. I remembered what she said during the trial. "If you vote for me and I die here, the mystery of this school will stay hidden forever…This is a trap the mastermind has laid for us." But why did she throw suspicion at me then? If she knew this was all a trap why didn't she start explaining how messed up this trial was. Then we could have starting working towards the truth….

No, that's wrong! What happened when I starting talking about how odd and inconsistent the trial was? Monokuma called time up on the trial, something he's never done before. If Kyoko had done that the same thing would've happened while everyone was still suspicious of her. She would've been voted the blackened instead of me. So what was her goal?

It came to me. She wanted me to see the truth. It's always been that way, in all the trials Kyoko never came straight forward with the truth. She would give the pieces and then let us put them together. She wanted us all to see this was a trap but she couldn't just say it outright. I caught it at the end but Monokuma ended the trial early… I guess he didn't want his secret revealed. My stomach growled, I'm getting too hungry to think about this. I cleared my head and went back to a dreamless sleep. It has to have been more than a day now, how much longer can I last down here?

*Thump*

"What?!" I got up instantly the noise jarring me from my sleep. It didn't take me long to find the disturbance as I spotted a pile of new garbage bags that definitely weren't there before. "Just some more trash?" I muttered.

"Just some more trash? Rude." A voice I recognized instantly came from the bags. Kyoko Kirigiri got up from the trash bags and brushed off her arms but failed to notice a large cup of half eaten noddles was up turned on her head.

I don't think I've ever been so happy to see someone in my life. Until she handed me some food and water, then I was positive that I've never been so happy to see someone. I gobbled down the bread and water while Kyoko picked the last few bits of noodle out of her hair.

"haah I needed that, now I can keep going."

Kyoko gave me a small smile. "It seems your still as optimistic as ever."

"Well It's about the only thing I'm really good at." I said.

"That's not such a bad thing to be good at." Kyoko said softly. Then her face turned more serious. "I'm here to atone."

"Atone?"

"Even though you knew I was lying during the trial you didn't say anything." Kyoko said.

I knew instantly what she was referring to. "So… you knew that I knew." I was sure she did but at the time it just made it more baffling that she went on to throw suspicion at me when I just covered for her.

"Yes and I couldn't return the favor, I…. abandoned you."

"Don't say that! That's not true" I spoke with emotion, an instant denial of what I've been arguing with myself over the past day and a half.

"No, that's exactly what I did, I abandoned you to save my own life. You covered my lie for me and I did nothing in return." Kyoko stated. It was always hard to read Kyoko's emotions but she seemed upset at herself. "It's no excuse but there was a reason I thought I had to survive."

"What reason?" I asked. I wasn't sure how to deal with Kyoko being so down on herself, what could she have really done anyway? Monokuma was playing dirty to begin with.

Kyoko went on to explain how she thought it was odd how so much of memories were gone, why she thought getting them back was key to discovering the secret of who the Mastermind was, and how she remembered what her ultimate talent was, the ultimate detective. She also explained her original motivations of coming to Hope's Peak. To find her father, the headmaster of the school. Finally she explained her thoughts on the last trial.

"So the mastermind wanted to trap you with a trial in order to get rid of you…" I surmised reflecting on all she had said.

"Correct but when you covered for me it seems the mastermind was willing to take you as a consolation prize." Kyoko's shoulders slumped ever so slightly. "And I did nothing to stop him."

Makoto didn't like seeing Kyoko so down on herself, it was unlike her. "You're here now aren't you? It worked out."

"...I didn't know Alter Ego would interfere, You easily could have died Makoto." Kyoko countered looking off to the side.

Deciding something a little bold was in order I walked up to Kyoko and put my hands on her shoulders. "Well I didn't alright? Look I forgive you, will you forgive yourself?"

I wasn't sure about this, Kyoko had never given the impression that she would be okay with physical comfort but if ever there was a time for it it would be now right? To my surprise she pulled me close and wrapped her arms around me in an embrace. I quickly returned it.

"I'm really glad you're okay Makoto." Kyoko whispered softly.

"Me too." I replied a little stupidly, stunned by the affection Kyoko was showing and wishing I was taller.

After a moment we let go of each other. Kyoko looked a little better now, some of the guilt lifted from her.

I started starching behind my head and looked away, a little embarrassed. "You know, when I was tied to that chair thinking I was going to die the one thing that gave me comfort was that it wasn't going to be you being executed. I figured as long as you were okay you would be able to finish this and expose the Mastermind."

I looked towards her expecting my confidence in her to elevate her mood even more, instead what I found was she was even more upset than a moment ago. Kyoko had her hands at her sides in tight fists. Her face was an unreadable mask but I was starting to realize that there was a difference between Kyoko's neutral poker face and when she was really struggling to hold back her emotion.

".…It wouldn't have been worth it." She said after a moment.

"huh?" I asked, not sure what she's getting at.

"It wouldn't have been worth it." Kyoko repeated. "If the price for exposing the Mastermind and getting the rest of us out of here is abandoning you, it wouldn't be worth it."

The beginnings of tears formed in her eyes, her mask of indifference cracked. I didn't know what to say, Kyoko cared that much for me?

"You put absolute faith in me during that trial Makoto. I trust you in a way I didn't think I could trust people anymore and I'm discovering that means a great deal to me."

Kyoko took a deep breath and seemed to recover. It was amazing to watch, even when Kyoko was vulnerable she was strong.

I didn't know what to say so I just kinda smiled at her, glad she calmed down. She smiled back. Something in her eyes made my heart start beating a little faster. What was with this sudden atmosphere, Kyoko said she cares about me, that was kinda like a confession right? Should I do something? I looked at Kyoko but she just seemed amused at the sudden panic that overtook me.

"You know Makoto, if you don't take the lead during these types of situations, someone else will." Kyoko said placing a gloved hand on my chin, she tilted my head up and brought her lips to mine.

Kissing Kyoko was incredible. It felt like all the aches and lingering fatigue washed off my body, I felt ready to take on anything.

Even Kyoko looked more energetic when we finally broke apart. It seems between the kiss and confessing her feelings Kyoko was finally able to let go of her guilt for what happened during the trial for which I was grateful.

"Well that was …nice, and I look forward to trying it again. Somewhere cleaner" Kyoko said taking in their surroundings. "But we do have a job to finish." She gestured toward the locked door up the stairs that would lead us back to Hope's Peak and the Mutual Killing Game.

Still flying high on cloud nine I responded eagerly "Yeah! Let's finish this!"

Walking towards the locked door and pulling out the Mastermind's skeleton key Kyoko chuckled "Optimistic as ever, but that's not a bad thing."

Feeling better than I had since before the Mutual Killing Game started I felt something more than optimism rise from deep within me. Hope flooded my body.

"We're going to to do it. Beat the Mastermind and escape with everyone." I said with absolute confidence, chasing after Kyoko. " Alter Ego too, we'll find him and save him. I owe him one."

Kyoko who had never quite approved of the way her classmates humanized the A.I. gave Makoto a curious look.

"...Agreed, I do as well." Kyoko stated as she unlocked the door and led them back to Hope's Peak.

End