The back wall of the Hope's Peak library was one of Togami's favorite places to read, seated at one of the quiet tables tucked away from the world. With the large windows beside him, opening onto a clear view of the city below, and the musty scent of venerable old books around him, he felt like he could enjoy the written words far more than anywhere else in the school. Even with his classwork done for the day, he often chose to stay and read a little longer in the peaceful room.
Footsteps sounded along the edge of the bookcases, gradually approaching his seat, but he didn't pay them much attention. This was still a school, after all, and students did occasionally need to find a book from the shelves in this area. He could hardly object to the presence of the other students, as long as they didn't try to talk to him. He never appreciated being interrupted in the middle of a book —
"Oh, Togami! Here you are!"
His hands froze on the book, clenching tight at the unexpected voice. He hated being interrupted — but there was one exception to that rule. Slowly, taking great care to feign a reluctance that he didn't feel, Togami set his book down and looked up into Naegi's face.
A smile lit up the other boy's face when their eyes finally met — and oh god, that wasn't fair at all. How was Togami supposed to convince himself that he really was annoyed to be interrupted when Naegi's open, genuine smile sent his heart stuttering against his ribcage?
"Did you want something?" he asked, doing his best to conceal any trace of his reaction from the other boy. Having something as ridiculous as a crush was bad enough without advertising the fact — especially not to the boy in question.
But it seemed like he'd covered up the truth a little too well, because Naegi paused, eyes darting down to the book on the table. A pang shot through Togami's chest when the bright smile faded, Naegi's lips tilting downward in a hesitant frown. "Oh, sorry — I'm interrupting you, right? I should go."
"No," Togami said immediately, before Naegi could turn to make good on his threat. "That is… you've already interrupted me, so you might as well say whatever you came to discuss."
"If you're sure." Naegi's frown cleared away, though his smile didn't return. "Well… I wanted to ask… you know the park up the street?"
Togami raised an eyebrow at this ridiculous inquiry. Not only was the park clearly visible from their classroom windows, Naegi ought to know perfectly well that their entire class had gone there together not two weeks ago when Maizono's band had put on an open-air concert there. "I'm familiar with it."
The dryness of his words sent a flush creeping up Naegi's cheeks, and all other thoughts evaporated for a moment as Togami wondered what it would feel like to run his lips along the warm pink skin.
"Right, of course you know it." Naegi's voice snapped Togami back to reality, and he could only pray that the other boy hadn't noticed his distraction. "Well, I heard from Asahina that a really good new ice cream stand just opened there, and I thought that… maybe we could go there tomorrow night."
Asahina and Naegi had been planning some sort of outing? Not that it could be for the two of them alone, or Naegi wouldn't have felt the need to inform him… but even so, Togami felt his shoulders stiffen as jealousy prickled through him. "One day ahead of time is rather short notice for a Saturday night. You'd have a better chance of convincing the class to join you if you delayed the excursion until next week."
Naegi blinked, looking confused rather than grateful for the suggestion. "The class….?" And then understanding dawned in his expression. "Oh — you thought I meant we'd go with all our friends?"
Togami frowned, deciding to let the "all our friends" remark pass without comment so that he could focus on the odd question instead. The way Naegi had phrased it made his stomach twist into very disconcerting knots, and he was finding it unaccountably hard to breathe normally. "Are you saying that — that you meant something else?"
Naegi took a deep breath, then nodded, lifting his chin with a flash of determination so fierce that Togami couldn't tear his eyes away. "That's right. I wasn't talking about going with the entire class. I want to go together with you — just the two of us."
Togami could feel every individual beat of his heart, pulsing hot and rapid through his veins as he stared up at Naegi. Just the two of them, walking together through a park where fragrant flowers were bathed in the reds and golds of the setting sun…
"It just occurred to me all of a sudden that it would be a nice first date. I like ice cream and parks. That's where I would want to take you."
The words echoed through Togami's head, discordant and out of place. They could almost have been in Naegi's voice… except that they had a strange sort of hollowness to them, as though he'd imagined the other boy speaking lines of dialogue from a play he'd never heard aloud. That ought to make perfect sense, since of course he'd never heard Naegi say such a thing… it ought to… except…
"I had a dream about you."
It was definitely Naegi's voice this time, without a doubt. Togami looked back up at the other boy, prepared to demand an explanation for this unsettling shift in the direction of their conversation — but when his eyes refocused on Naegi, he froze.
Blood dripped down Naegi's face, long crimson gashes that soaked into the clean white of his uniform shirt. The boy hardly seemed to notice, head drooping from a tired neck as he swayed unsteadily on his feet. Haziness clouded his gentle hazel eyes, but even so, they bored straight into Togami's own, the only part of him that didn't falter.
"I dreamed that we could attend school together like normal students. You would kiss me good morning, and we would walk to class together."
What was he talking about? They did go to school together, they attended the same classes every day — but when Togami tried to open his mouth to say as much, he found that his voice had deserted him. With Naegi's eyes on him, stripping away all his outer shields to stare directly into his soul, Togami couldn't remember the words he'd wanted to say.
… there'd been something he'd wanted to say…
"It would have been nice. I would have liked the chance to have something like that."
He'd heard these words before, he knew he had… but they hadn't been said like this. There was a sorrow in these words now, sorrow and regret and loss that had wiped away the wistful dreams of a world that might have been.
"You told me I could have my dream. You said you'd keep me safe. You asked me to be on your side, but you weren't on mine."
Naegi's eyes burned into his, staring out from a blood-streaked face.
"You didn't protect me."
Togami scrambled to his feet, knowing what was coming — but even as he lunged forward, trying to catch the broken young man in his arms, a greater force drew Naegi away. He ran towards Naegi, flew past an overturned library, down hallways that shifted with twisting shadows and writhing patterns of colored lights, through a school locked and barred like a prison — but the faster he ran, the further out of reach Naegi seemed to be.
Further… further… until he turned a final corner and found himself outside the school, in an eerily lovely meadow that turned his blood to ice despite its beauty. Togami spun, searching desperately for the boy who he knew had to be there, and as he turned, the shadows rose up from the ground around him. Corpses leered at him from all directions, Kuwata's battered form and Maizono with the knife still in her chest, Fujisaki crucified and bloody and Asahina riddled with bullets — all of the dead laughed and laughed as they joined hands and danced around him.
And when he caught sight of a flash of soft brown hair, Togami realized Naegi was among them. The boy was one of their number, spinning in the dizzying whirl, too fast for Togami to catch more than a glimpse. He tried to call out, tried to scream, tried desperately to say the words he needed the other boy to hear — but he'd lost his chance to speak. He ran forward, trying to snatch Naegi's hand away from the clutches of the dead, but everything he touched scratched deep into his skin like broken glass.
There was nothing he could do, nothing he could say, no way he could prevent the line of laughing corpses from hauling Naegi away as one of their number. All he could do was throw himself after them in one last desperate attempt, throw himself into the dead and —
— and wake up, sweat-soaked sheets tangled around him as he shot upright. Togami's shoulders heaved as he gasped for breath, lungs burning as though he really had been running the entire length of the school.
A nightmare. That was all it had been. He closed his eyes, trying to steady himself against the lingering effects of terror shaking through his limbs. Just a nightmare, nothing real. He reached out to straighten the sheets —
And his hands really did hurt like he'd beaten them against broken glass.
Note: And we're back! Well, sort of. I forgot that this Sunday will be Mother's Day, so the next chapter will be up on Monday instead. After that, we'll be back to your regularly scheduled Sunday/Thursday chapters!
