I really ought to update this account more often. I'm more active on tumblr than on here.

They made some progress by the first day's end. Some- a wishy-washy word like 'later' and 'maybe' with no definite place on a scale. Nonetheless, escaping Junko Enoshima surely amounted to something. Amounted to some number of steps in the right direction, even if no one could determine its Euclidean vector.

The air purifier's shutdown presented but one hazard. In a world flecked with pockets of resistance against despair, it left the rest their enemy. A majority who watched Junko's broadcast. Her defeat, her death, and hope's victory. So the ex-students left a trail of footsteps, six pairs that led to a place none in the group remembered seeing for two years.

Deserted buildings lined the streets. Wind moaned through jagged holes in broken windows like cries for help. Doors rattled on rusted hinges, scarred with age if not kicked down. Cobwebbed fast food restaurants they might have visited with deceased friends glared back through hollow eyes. And shop windows too, that for all they knew once documented their growth on a near daily basis. A flip book of reflections now cracked and grimy and lost forever.

When the sky threatened to blacken as much as their surroundings, they hunted for shelter. One hand stretched out, fingertips skimming across silhouettes, while the other pressed against their noses as they fought choky air. Setting up camp in a stranger's home without permission… who would have thought they would do it so readily?

How things change. How everything can change.

The matter of keeping a lookout arose upon securing a rundown house. A house someone lived in at one point. A family, perhaps. Two people were to be on duty while the rest slept. Rotating every three hours, using Byakuya's pocket watch as a clock.

Time. They could measure that at least.

Aoi and Yasuhiro volunteered to take the first shift. Touko fell behind the remaining three, watching them part ways. She rubbed her elbow, shoes scuffing debris. Sharp debris. Unseeable debris, all across the carpet. What if she cut herself clearing a space? And she woke up bleeding? And then everyone would have to deal with Genocider Syo? Sort of tempting, actually, a break from despair.

No. Missing the end of the trial was bad enough.

Trying to sleep while crouching proved futile. It left her tired but not tired enough, and achy. Great.

Creeping down hallways and up stairs, Touko peeked into each room. Listened for talking. Breathing. Knowing Makoto and Kyouko, they probably set up a love nest. Dirty boy and dirty girl, always giving each other bedroom eyes and keeping secrets from everybody else. Sneaking around at night to who knew where. Scandalous. So incredibly scandalous. Totally warranting a chapter in her next novel.

She reached a bedroom and creaked the door open. "H-Hello?"

"Go away," came a voice from one of the far corners.

"Byakuya-sama?" Floorboards groaned as she approached. He shifted. Sat up. Her knee knocked into wood. Wood. Wooden bed. A bed. He found a bed. Of course Byakuya found a bed when the most ideal thing to find was a bed. "I… I can't sleep…"

"So you've taken it upon yourself to ensure I don't sleep either?" He sounded groggy. Groggier than usual. "You're quite the team player, aren't you?"

"S-Sorry!"

"Well, what do you want? State your business in as few words as possible so I'm not subjected to your smelly breath for longer than necessary."

She inhaled, cupping her palm over her mouth when she remembered his last remark. "I was wondering whether," she fidgeted, "maybe," she picked at a hangnail, "I could possibly," she gulped, "sleep wi… with," she blushed, "with y-you?"

A pause.

"No." The bed rumbled as he lay down. "Now begone. Find a bit of floor to curl up on."

Touko raised a hand. "B-But it's dirty!"

"How is that a problem? It's a match made in heaven, surely."

"I m-might cut myself! A-And bleed!" Eyes clamped shut, she buried her fingers into her hair and trembled. "A-And when I see it in the morning… the bl-blood… I'll-! I'll-!"

Another pause. Longer than before. Could pauses be longer than other pauses? Like how some laters seemed laterer than other laters, and some laters ended up being so late they turned into nevers? Did those warped laters even qualify as laters?

This later remained a later, and the pause just a pause. Lifting his knuckles to his forehead, Byakuya sighed. "If you stay on the other side of the bed and shut up, you may… join me."

His last two words echoed in her head. Again and again as she internally screamed until they imprinted onto her mind for the rest of her mortal life and whatever followed. Join. Me. She sat down. Join. She swung her legs onto the mattress. Me. Not as romantic as she liked but some progress. Whatever 'some' quantified as.

Touko adjusted her arms. No blankets. No pillows. No anything, really, except fabric pills that scratched at her skin. Had the room's owner stripped it bare? Taken the bedding with them as they evacuated? Fled? Were kidnapped? Did moths eat them? Well, their larvae, strictly speaking. Or did a passerby stock up on supplies before she and the others arrived? Even if there were blankets somewhere, finding them in the dark would be near impossible. She could barely see the back of Byakuya's head, moonlight hinting at strands of hair and curves of body.

And what strands of hair and curves of body they were, arms folded over his chest. If only she could trade places with the wall beside him. How close to kissing they would be. A mere breath apart. His breath. On her. Closing the distance.

Instead she teetered on the edge of a coarse uneven bed as a breeze wafted in.

Cold. It left the room cold. Cold. Cold, cold, cold. Coming through the shattered window and making everything cold. So cold. So uncomfortable. Hope's Peak had the whole murdering each other thing going on but at least it contained flat beds and central heating.

"Stop wiggling or you're sleeping outside," Byakuya snapped. She twitched in response, an action that did nothing to help the situation. "I didn't survive what we went through for you to bury us all in rubble with your incessant moving. In fact, I think I hear the building's foundations giving way. Or maybe I'm mistaken and it's just my teeth grinding together because you're so damn annoying."

Touko squeaked. "I'm t-trying to s-stay still!" But she couldn't. She failed. Repeatedly, as she shivered and squirmed. Red alert. Danger. Tears formed and refused to be blinked away. "I'm sorry! Sorry, sorry! The bed is p-punctured with springs and too lumpy for my feeble worthless body that can't handle the cold as well as yours a-a-and-"

Byakuya rolled over and grasped her shoulders. She stuttered to a stop as his grip tightened.

"It looks like I have no choice in the matter," he said, voice low and less malicious. Maybe because he was tired. Maybe. "I will hold you still. Understand?"

She nodded, swallowing, gaze darting between where she could feel his touch and where his eyes stared into hers until they both drifted off.

-DR-

Rather than disturb the pair, the others allowed them to miss their shift.