Byakuya was sat in a chair furthest away from the others. Kirigiri and Naegi were both sitting in chairs next to each, talking about something quietly, Fukawa was standing near Byakuya, practically drooling and making him wish he was anywhere else right now, and Hagakure was sat on the floor, talking to Asahina who paced around restlessly. They were all waiting for the Future Foundation to come back and talk to them, although hopefully not for another grueling interrogation about the game even though it had in fact been broadcasted across the world.
"Let's play truth or dare!" Asahina shouted, surprising everyone - excluding Hagakure who'd probably been scheming that with her.
"Definitely not," Byakuya looked away from her with a roll of his eyes.
"You should join," Naegi said, smiling. "It'll be fun."
He raised his eyebrows at him but Kirigiri spoke before he had a chance to reply. "I'll play. As long as we don't have anything too intrusive it should be an interesting way to pass the time."
That surprised him, although only slightly. He hadn't taken her to be the type to join in on games like this. "Whatever. Better than sitting around, I suppose."
Even with Byakuya's participation Fukawa still took a second to agree to play, muttering something about stupid kid games. They sat in an awkward circle with a crude comment from Byakuya that was ignored and Asahina started the game, asking Naegi truth or dare.
"Truth?" he answered, more like a question, and Asahina frowned before thinking of something.
"Are you comfortable telling us what was on your paper for the second motive?" she asked hesitantly.
Naegi's face flushed slightly, looking down. "Ah. Well, you see. It wasn't really that big of a secret, I mean it's not that special-"
"Spit it out, Naegi," Byakuya interrupted, admittedly curious.
"I wet the bed until fifth grade," he said hurriedly.
It was silent after that before Asahina actually snorted. She and Hagakure proceeded to laugh, Asahina saying something about how innocent he was. Kirigiri and Fukawa were both smirking, although Fukawa looked more disgusted than amused. Byakuya just raised his eyebrows again and Naegi was quick to change the subject.
"Byakuya! Truth or dare?" he asked from next to him. He didn't want to bother with whatever dare these idiots thought up so he settled with truth. After a few moments of thought Naegi brightened. "Are you ticklish?"
"So innocent!" Asahina announced again.
Byakuya shot her a annoyed glance before just staring at Naegi in disbelief. "Out of all the questions?" He sighed. "How am I supposed to know that? I don't make a habit of letting people touch me."
Luckily no one made a move to see if he really was ticklish because he probably would've broken their fingers. The game continued with a few harmless dares and carefully asked truths. Kirigiri glanced around the circle, the corner of her lip slightly turning up when her gaze landed on Byakuya.
"Truth or dare?" she asked.
"Truth," he answered just as he had the other times he'd been asked, albeit more wary this time.
"Do you like anyone here romantically?" The typical school girl question.
He glanced around the circle with a slight sneer before staring directly at Kirigiri and lied. "Of course not. Really, I expected out of all of them you had the most sense but I suppose not."
Because of course he did. But like hell he was going to admit that to himself, let alone the Ultimate Detective. She nodded at his answer, her face not showing whether she believed him or not. Instead of continuing to think about that he turned to Naegi and asked him.
He took longer deciding his answer, settling on dare. Byakuya frowned, slightly annoyed he had to come up with something suitable when Asahina piped up. "Kiss someone of your choice!"
Naegi reacted immediately, his cheeks burning pink as he snapped his head down to stare at his lap. "Aren't I supposed to say the dare?" Byakuya asked, glancing at her with an unimpressed expression.
"Can you think of something better?" she asked, continuing immediately after his lack of answer. "Exactly! C'mon Makoto!"
Naegi glanced around the circle, his cheeks still red. "Uh, since you said the dare should I kiss you?"
"I guess," she answered, looking slightly embarrassed.
He awkwardly crawled over to Asahina and kissed over quickly on the cheek, leaving them both embarrassed as he returned to his spot. Byakuya ignored the slight pang of jealously in his chest, choosing to roll his eyes at the two but not speak. And then the game continued, being interrupted only by the Future Foundation wanting to talk to each of them some more.
Byakuya returned to the room after another boring interrogation to discover Naegi sitting in the chair beside his own. He would've settled to just sit somewhere else but the book he was reading was still lying on his chair and there wasn't much else to do in the room.
"Byakuya," Naegi greeted brightly as Byakuya sat down. "The others are still talking with the Future Foundation."
"I figured," he said, flipping open his book casually.
"Did you enjoy playing with the others?" Naegi asked.
Byakuya glanced up. "You mean that game of truth or dare? It was just a way to pass the time, not much else."
Naegi looked disappointed. "You didn't enjoy it?"
"... Sure. I enjoyed it." He said, only slightly sarcastically.
The smile Naegi shot him both made his insides warm and disgusted at how easily his feelings were sated. He attempted to return to his book but Naegi kept talking.
"It was pretty embarrassing to kiss Asahina in front of everyone like that, even if I don't actually like her like that," he said.
During the game Naegi had also been asked if he liked anyone and he answered yes, red in the face. "So the person you like is Kirigiri? Wow, what a surprise," he rolled his eyes.
"Ah- What? Of course not, we're just friends!" he defended instantly.
"You can't honestly like Fukawa, can you? Although that would be beneficial for me if she gets a distraction," Byakuya said.
"No! Although you should be nicer to her," he added after a thought.
Byakuya didn't respond, flicking to the next page in his book. Naegi was growing restless, still looking flustered after Byakuya's questioning. "You said you didn't like anyone here, right?"
"And that's important because..?" he asked, glad he had enough self-control to not tense immediately after the question.
"Curious," Naegi answered simply.
"You didn't think I was telling the truth?" Byakuya questioned.
"Well if you say you were then I'll believe you," Naegi said, smiling brightly at him.
"That's a naive way to live life, especially after Enoshima's game," Byakuya commented.
Naegi shrugged, looking down. "I don't want to go on doubting my friends."
Byakuya allowed himself to look at Naegi properly, concentrating on the boy in front of him instead of keeping up his usual mask. On the emotion clouded in his eyes because he never bothered to hide what he was feeling. On the sad smile on his lips because he was always so damn optimistic. On the restless way he played with his hands as he lost himself in his thoughts. On the surprised expression that flickered over his face as he noticed the intent he was being watched with. On the quick flush of his cheeks.
"Byakuya?" he asked.
"Do you have something important to say or just more pointless chatter?" he asked.
"I'm sorry for being such a bother, Kyoko said I should try to talk to you because you're too antisocial. I told her that's rude but then I had to go so we couldn't continue talking-" Byakuya stopped listening as Naegi rambled on. Of course it was Kirigiri. Who tries to lie to an Ultimate Detective and thinks they can get away with it?
"Naegi," Byakuya said, interrupting him as Naegi stared at him, slightly surprised. "I'm trying to read."
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "I guess listening to me was getting annoying."
Byakuya wanted to sigh loudly but didn't. "You can keep talking."
"Huh?" Naegi said dumbly.
"I allow you to talk and your intelligence drops greatly. How on Earth did you manage to complete your interview so quickly?" Byakuya asked, not looking for an answer but of course he got one.
"They've already asked me a lot before so I think they were running out of questions," Naegi said.
That sounded about right. "So? Were you going to talk or stay quiet?" he asked.
"If you want to read your book then I'll be quiet," Naegi said with a smile. "Although... I wonder why the others are taking so long."
Knowing Byakuya's luck it was Kirigiri's fault and not just that their interrogations were taking longer. Byakuya didn't answer, returning to his book as they waited for the others to come back.
"Byakuya!"
Byakuya turned around, glancing at Naegi with raised eyebrows. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Naegi said with a hum. "I just saw you were awake and decided to say hello."
"Loudly enough to disturb the others? We are just outside of their own rooms," Byakuya pointed out.
Naegi flushed. "I guess I'm not used to non-soundproof rooms."
"Well you'll have to get used to them. I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night because you couldn't keep your voice down," Byakuya said.
"I'm not that loud," Naegi said and pouted.
Byakuya chose not to reply to that. "Why are you up in the first place?"
"I couldn't get to sleep," he answers simply.
"So you decided walking around aimlessly would help that instead of staying in your bed?" Byakuya asked, his logic pointless as he was doing the same thing.
"But I got to see you so it's alright," Naegi said with a smile, like that could just be his answer to anything and it'd be fine - the butterflies in his stomach unfortunately saying that was correct.
"Well you can have fun with your insomnia since I'm going back to bed," Byakuya said shortly.
"Ah- I want to say something first," Naegi said quickly, looking conflicted at his own choice to speak up. Byakuya waited impatiently as he rambled on. "I mean, it doesn't make much sense that I want to say this because why on Earth would you- like, it's pretty obvious that you're not interested in anyone-"
Byakuya's heart stopped. Oh god, oh no. Stop talking, please.
"-But I thought I'd say it anyway because it's not good to keep in your feelings, y'know. I just, I like you Byakuya. And this is probably really weird - not something you wanna hear in the middle of the night - but I guess, I dunno..."
He trailed off with a blush, glancing at Byakuya hesitantly and seemed surprised. Byakuya didn't know what his face looked like. He was past trying to guard his expression, concentrating on trying to calm his emotions because the confession from Naegi wasn't helping Byakuya ignore them.
"Did Kirigiri say anything to you?" he settled for, knowing that he wasn't fooling anyone with his calm voice.
"Uh... yeah," Naegi said, his face still pink.
"I didn't take her for the type to meddle with people's relationships," he muttered and Naegi laughed.
"True. I think she was just doing it so I'd stop annoying her about you," he said, realizing what he'd said a few seconds later and looking away.
Despite Byakuya's years of ignoring his sexuality he stared at Naegi and tried to keep his face neutral. "Perhaps she realized I was lying during that game. Using her Ultimate for finding out people's dumb crushes, honestly. I suppose none of us have anything better to do for the time being."
"That game?" It took a second for Naegi to realize he was talking about truth or dare. "Oh. Oh! Um, you were lying? I- Which part? I guess probably not about being ticklish, but then that means-" He cut himself off with an even more intense blush.
"Do you always have to act this incompetent?" Byakuya asked.
"You can't insult me after you tell me you like me!" Naegi insisted.
Byakuya hesitated, stuck in one of the few times where he didn't know what to say.
"What now? I don't have much experience with relationships... maybe I did at Hope's Peak but I don't remember..." Naegi mused, straying off track.
"Now I go to bed because I'm tired," Byakuya said. "... Goodnight, Naegi."
Naegi chuckled. "Night Byakuya. See you in the morning."
I don't even ship Naegami and yet here's a 2,182 word fic on them. What am I doing with my life? And I panicked when it got to the confession bit because what do I do? The esteemed Byakuya Togami doesn't simply confess that he likes a male commoner. Who do you think he is? But yet here you go! Simply confessing to a male commoner! I would scream if I wasn't home with other people! Hope you enjoyed :)))