With his head aching, it took Naegi a moment longer than it normally would have to figure out what Togami meant – but then, with steam clinging to his skin and his ears full of the sound of water, it finally clicked. With the steam and the sounds of the shower, the cameras pointing into the bathroom wouldn't be able to capture anything they said. With Togami standing behind him, they could both face away from the cameras, and even the slightest potential for eavesdropping would be eliminated. It was a good plan, designed to foil the mastermind at every turn.

The only problem was that now that they had the opportunity for private communication, Naegi wasn't sure what he should say. Of course Togami wanted to know what had happened, and considering the way he'd helped Naegi get through it, he deserved answers. It wasn't fair to keep secrets from him.

But on the other hand, these weren't Naegi's secrets to tell. Kirigiri had told him about the hidden room behind the storage closet in confidence. She hadn't actually sworn him to secrecy, but considering the difficulty Naegi had had getting any information out of her at all, he was pretty sure she hadn't intended for it to be shared.

And then aside from her, there was the question of what he'd seen afterwards. While trying to drag himself back to the dorms, he'd heard the sounds of fighting coming from the gym, and when he'd investigated, he'd seen a furious battle between Monokuma and Ogami. And the things they'd said – if he told Togami about it, he knew Togami would take it as hard evidence that Ogami was a traitor. How could he do that to one of his friends, just based on a conversation he'd overheard while dizzy from a head injury?

"Well?" Togami asked impatiently, though the biting tone didn't alter the light touch of his fingers cleaning the blood out of Naegi's hair. "Did you hear me?"

"Yes," Naegi said, keeping his voice low enough that it would only just be audible above the roar of the shower. "I was just thinking about what to say."

"Say everything, obviously."

Naegi sighed and decided to go with honesty, since he doubted he could manage anything more complicated with the way his head kept aching. "I'm not sure I can. Some of it is about other people's secrets."

Togami didn't respond immediately, at least not verbally. One of his hands moved from Naegi's hair to trail down along his jaw. Naegi flushed at the touch, a little confused – until he realized that Togami was wiping away dirt from a scrape he must have gotten when he hit the ground.

"Would you really respect those secrets when they got you hurt?" Togami asked, his fingers sending tiny shivers rippling down the skin of Naegi's throat.

"Well – yes," Naegi said, forcing his attention away from the touches and back onto the conversation. "I mean, I don't think anyone meant for this to happen. It doesn't make it okay for me to start telling people's secrets without their permission."

"Not even when it could help?" Togami persisted. "You know that information is one of the weapons the mastermind uses against us – they watch everything we do with their cameras while trying to control what we know. Any information we don't share is a potential weakness for them to exploit. Secrets are a luxury we can't afford."

"Really? You're going to say that when you go off on your own all the time?" Naegi tried to make the words warm, but he couldn't help the tiny sting that made its way into his tone.

Togami went silent for a moment, his hand going still against Naegi's cheek.

Naegi frowned. Maybe bringing that up had been too unkind. After all, it had only been a day ago that going off on his own had gotten Togami kidnapped and nearly framed for murder. Maybe he should have been more tactful about bringing that up.

"Not anymore." Togami's words were so quiet that if his lips hadn't been close enough to brush Naegi's ear, he wouldn't have heard them. "I'm not leaving you alone again."

Naegi felt the words curl down into his stomach in a long trail of heat, leaving him warmed in a way that had nothing to do with the hot water pouring down on him. Togami wanted to stay with him? This meant that much to him? Oh, Naegi knew it wasn't just about some romantic notion of staying at his side – a large part of this response came from concern over what had happened when Naegi had been alone tonight. But if it came to that, he didn't exactly like the idea of Togami going off on his own either, not when it had put him at such great risk in the last trial.

"Fine with me," he murmured, tilting his head so that his temple rested against Togami's cheek.

"Well – good," Togami replied, a faint catch in his voice. "Good." Naegi couldn't see him swallow, but he felt the muscles moving in Togami's throat as it happened. "But that doesn't answer my question. Something happened after you and Kirigiri went into that dressing room, and it left you so hurt you could barely walk. What happened? What did that to you?"

It was the same question as before – but it also wasn't. Togami's first question had been a demand for information, cold and detached and logical. This one might have used similar words, but there was nothing detached about it. Naegi could hear the emotion coloring these words, and he realized now just how worried Togami must have been when Naegi didn't return to the dining hall last night. It hadn't even occurred to him at the time that Togami might be concerned about his whereabouts, but obviously he'd been very mistaken.

Togami might be cloaking his question by saying he wanted information to use against the mastermind, but that wasn't the only reason he was asking all this. He'd been genuinely afraid for Naegi's safety, and he was asking because he wanted reassurance that Naegi was all right.

Naegi had been willing to oppose the logical arguments, but how could he deny something like this?

"I guess I can tell you some of it," Naegi said at last. "I'll ask Kirigiri later if I can tell you the details, but I think just the general outline of what happened should be all right."

"Oh, we'll definitely need to talk with Kirigiri later," Togami agreed grimly. He reached for a washcloth and began wiping at the stubborn remnants of bloody dirt clinging to Naegi's arms and shoulders. "So?"

"She told me about a hidden room she found where there are no cameras," Naegi said. He figured that it had to be okay to share that much, as long as he didn't say where exactly the room was. "And when I went to check it out –"

"You went immediately after talking with her?" Togami interrupted.

"Yeah," Naegi said. He tried to focus on the conversation, not the gentle movement of the washcloth over his water-slick skin. "She went to the dining hall, and I went to the – uh, the hidden room."

"Because she asked you to go?"

"Well – I don't think she actually asked." Naegi frowned, thinking back. It was a little hard to pin down the specifics with his head still feeling fuzzy. "But it just sounded so unbelievable, you know? A hidden room like that – of course I had to go look at it."

"I see." Togami's tone was unreadable in that moment, with an edge that Naegi couldn't quite catch through the masking noise of the shower. "So you headed directly to this mystery room where no one would be able to find you – and then what?"

"Well, it was full of all kinds of documents and files and things," Naegi said. "But then just when I started to look through them, someone came up behind me and hit me."

"Did you see who?"

"No, I didn't get a chance," Naegi said, sighing. "They were gone when I woke up – and not just them. All the files and papers had been moved out of that room, too. It was completely empty."

"Really?" Togami's voice lit with sudden, sharp attention. "Now that is interesting. That means that somewhere in this school there is a room-sized cache of information that the mastermind doesn't want us to find."

"You think it's still here somewhere?" Naegi asked, frowning. "I guess they wouldn't have bothered carting it all out if they were just going to destroy it. And if they'd destroyed it in that room, I'm pretty sure I would have seen something left over afterwards – at least dust or ashes or something."

"And it must be useful, or they wouldn't bother keeping it stored somewhere in the school in the first place," Togami said. "Though presumably the second location will be more secure than the first. It sounds as though you were just able to wander aimlessly in – unless Kirigiri gave you some kind of key or password?"

"No, nothing like that," Naegi said. "It was just that the entrance was tricky to spot unless you knew it was there."

There was a long moment of silence, filled only with the spray of the shower soaking down over them both. Then Togami asked very softly, "Did she say how she knew about it?"

"No, not really," Naegi said. "We were a little short on time, since it was getting close to the curfew."

"Of course." Togami's hand had gone still on Naegi's shoulder, gripping rather than washing at this point. "Naegi, I want you to promise me that you won't go back to that room – not without telling me first."

Naegi frowned. "There's nothing left. Why would I go back?"

"I don't know. Why did you go in the first place?" Togami heaved a frustrated sigh. "Will you promise me or not?"

"I guess, if it matters that much to you," Naegi said, shrugging. The motion made Togami's hand flex around his shoulder, palm sliding down the curve of his arm. "I promise."

"Good." Togami leaned forward a little to press his lips to Naegi's temple. "Don't forget."

"I won't."

At that assurance, Togami nodded and reached out towards the knob that would turn the shower off. Apparently the conversation was finished – and none too soon for believability's sake, since Naegi had long since gotten all the dirt and grime dealt with. But that also meant that Togami was assuming he had nothing more to say – that nothing else of note had happened before Naegi had left the hidden room and dragged himself to the dorms. And Naegi knew that wasn't true.

"Wait." Naegi's hand shot out and caught Togami's wrist, just before he could turn the shower knob. "There's one other thing."

"What?" Togami asked, voice going sharp even as his hand stilled.

"There's something else that I think I might have seen," Naegi said, trying his best to choose his words with care. "But – well, I'm not really sure about it. Like you keep saying, I had a head injury, and it was confusing."

"What did you see?" Togami prompted impatiently when Naegi paused to think.

"I – well, I don't think I can tell you exactly what it was," Naegi said after a moment. "I'm sorry, but I just don't think it would be fair. I have to ask about it before I can tell anyone else."

"Then why did you bring it up at all if you aren't going to say anything useful?" Togami demanded.

"Because I wanted you to know that there is something else," Naegi said. "Even though I can't tell you yet. But I'll try to ask about it and tell you as soon as I can."

"And you think that's going to be enough?" Togami asked. "You just expect me to take this on faith? You know something, and you're not telling me what it is!"

"But I will!" Naegi protested. "I'll tell you as soon as I know for sure. But you can't just expect me to betray someone else, can you?"

"Well – when you put it like that." Togami sighed. "No, I certainly don't expect you to be capable of betraying anyone. And I can't force you to tell me anything against your will." With the hand still resting on Naegi's shoulder, he drummed thoughtful fingers against Naegi's collarbone, a light staccato pattern almost undiscernible beneath the shower pressure. "How long?"

"Uh – how long what?"

"Until you think you can tell me," Togami elaborated, annoyed. "I don't think a timeframe is too much to ask. An estimate will do."

"Oh." Naegi frowned and thought about it. "I guess a day or so should be enough."

"So you'll tell me tomorrow?" Togami pressed.

Naegi pressed his lips together and considered it. There was always the chance he wouldn't be able to get Ogami alone today. "I'll try to. And if I can't – I guess I can tell you why not."

Togami rolled his eyes. "You just have to make everything more complicated, don't you?"

"I do?" Naegi blinked. "I'm not trying to."

"You do it without trying," Togami said dryly. He reached out and shut the water off, and the sudden absence of noise felt loud in its silence. "I didn't expect trying to keep you safe to be so difficult." He let his lips graze over Naegi's cheek as he spoke.

Before he could pull away, Naegi turned his head and brought Togami's lips against his own. He didn't want to hide things or to make life difficult for the other boy, and he hoped the kiss would convey that. He just wanted everything to be as simple as the way their bodies fit so easily against each other, arms curling around one another in a skin-to-skin embrace. Heat washed through him, warm and welcome, exactly what he'd needed to chase away the chilly loneliness of trying to get through the school alone and injured. He felt safe here, supported by Togami's arms.

And then a flare of white pain burst from the lump on the back of his head, and Naegi jerked back, swallowing down a yelp.

"What –" Togami stared at Naegi blankly for a moment, face flushed and shoulders heaving. Then his gaze sharpened as he took in Naegi's expression. "You're still in pain?"

"I'm fine –"

"You're not, and you should have said so sooner." Togami reached over to grab one of the towels by the sink, shaking it open and wrapping it around Naegi. The motion made the world tilt a little around Naegi, and Togami had to catch his arm to hold him steady.

"I guess maybe I'm not," Naegi conceded, letting Togami lead him out of the bathroom. "Sorry."

"For what, not being up to elaborate contortions on a slippery surface less than eight hours after you were injured?" Togami's voice might have sounded sarcastic, but his supportive arm around Naegi's waist was gentle. "I should have stopped you sooner. That was rather the opposite of keeping you safe."

"Oh. Right." Naegi flushed, feeling a little silly. Togami had even said it already, hadn't he – that he didn't want to do anything other than clean up in the shower. He should have remembered that, no matter how much he'd wanted to do anything else.

"Although –" Togami cleared his throat, looking away from Naegi as a blush crept steadily down his neck. "If at some point after you've recovered, you felt like making the suggestion again –"

"Consider it made," Naegi interrupted, a grin spreading over his face as his embarrassment melted away.

Togami's hand clenched reflexively for a moment, just before he stepped forward and pressed a quick sunburst of a kiss to Naegi's mouth. "Until later, then."

"Definitely." Naegi couldn't help but keep smiling, even though his head wouldn't stop aching. "But until then, we really should meet the others at the dining hall."