Author's Note: Sorry for the slight delay in posting - been dealing with being sick this entire week [thankfully it's not COVID!]. Hope you all are enjoying the story!

Chapter 34: Day 31

Togami left his dorm door slightly open as an invitation, figuring Naegi would wander back once he was finished helping Fujisaki. He sat on the edge of the bed with his hands clasped together, his mind attempting to play out the potential scenarios that could unfold from the upcoming conversation. He wouldn't say he was worried… That would admit to weakness, which Togami never would. And yet he felt a sense of uneasiness grow as the minutes passed by.

It wasn't that he feared rejection. He highly doubted that Naegi would have done all he had only to spurn the corporate heir. Rather, it was the decision to be made. What were they to do? It was something that Togami couldn't solve by himself. Sitting here pondering it wouldn't bring the matter closure, and yet that's all he could do as he waited and waited for Naegi to arrive.

After what simultaneously felt like mere seconds and an eternity, Togami heard a knock at the door. He looked up and nodded at Naegi as he entered the dorm room. Naegi, for his part, closed the door shut and smiled warmly as he approached. Standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, he glanced around, and Togami pointed at the space on the bed next to him. Naegi nodded, walked forward, and sat down.

For a long, empty moment, neither one spoke.

"We need to talk," Togami finally began, a statement meant for himself as much as Naegi. "About us."

Naegi slowly nodded once more in agreement.

"We clearly had a relationship prior to waking up to Monokuma," Togami continued, figuring that laying out the facts would help ease the tension in the room. "The photograph and our memories can all testify to that. But when I woke up here, I had no recollection of it." He glanced over. "Did you?"

"No," Naegi answered honestly. "I woke up just the same. I didn't remember anything."

"And yet you and I kept running into each other during our first few days here," Togami remarked. "You even made it a point to spend time with me in the library and, eventually, the rec room."

Naegi blushed slightly. "Yeah…"

"Why?"

"I, uh… A few reasons. One was that I genuinely wanted to get to know you. You just seemed so different from everyone else here. Two was that, well…" His blush deepened as he blatantly said, "You're pretty, uh, good looking."

Togami bit his lower lip to stifle the threatening awkward laugh. "Gods, we sound pathetic," he couldn't help but think.

"But if I'm being honest, why I really started pushing to hang out with you was… Well, it started when you gave me instructions for your coffee." Looking up at the ceiling, Naegi explained, "You told me to make you that cup of coffee, and I went back to the kitchen, but your instructions were wrong. They were missing something." Togami frowned in shock and shot Naegi a confused look. Naegi smirked. "And I just knew that. I followed my gut and made it the way I knew, and when I came out and you were pleased with it, something in me just...clicked, I guess? I knew there was more to us than the fact that we had just met four days before. From my memories, I had never made a cup of coffee in my life, but I knew how to please your particular tastes." Naegi chuckled at Togami as he rolled his head to the side, looking directly at him with his bright, hazel eyes. "You would have told me outright if it sucked, after all. When Fukawa couldn't replicate it, I knew I had learned it from somewhere else."

"It's probably muscle memory, by this point," the corporate heir remarked. "In my last dream, I pointed out that you had worked over a month perfecting my coffee."

Naegi laughed as he asked, "What, so I've always been your personal coffeemaker?"

"Apparently it was both our idea. You wanted to go on a date with me, and I told you I would only go if you made coffee that satisfied me."

Naegi's eyebrow quirked upwards. "I take it Fukawa never heard that offer?"

Togami scoffed. "Gods, no. Though if my memory is accurate, we were dodging her back then just as we are now…"

"I don't think a memory wipe is even enough to change her. But, uh… Yeah. That's how this all started here under Monokuma. Once the coffee thing clicked, I had to know if there was more to us. I didn't have any connections like that to the others, and I didn't think there'd be any harm in trying to get closer. Then you gave yourself away in the library, which at least told me I had a shot. Maybe a really, really poor one, but a shot regardless."

Togami grimaced at the memory. "I didn't mean to say that. It just slipped."

"I'm happy it did. I probably would have backed off if you hadn't. But the more we hung out, the more I wanted to hang out. I figured it meant that maybe we had a strong friendship before, that maybe that was the reason everything just felt okay around you, until I… I had my first dream."

"The one where we were…?"

Naegi blushed red as he slowly nodded. "Y-Yeah. I thought it was just a fantasy…a really, uh, strong one. But then when I visited your room to check on you that one day… I recognized it all. Your room, I mean. 'Cuz my dream happened in your room, which I had never been in before, but everything was the same. The carpet, the table, the music stand…" Naegi's expression turned serious as he said, "That's when I thought, 'No, there's definitely something to this.'"

"And then we continued being around each other, and things naturally took their course as I, too, began to have memories of us together whilst simultaneously enjoying spending time with you." Togami smirked. "Meaning we've done this song and dance twice now."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"We were dating in both my dreams," Togami noted. "And clearly we were dating in both of yours. We must have started, then, pretty early into our time here at Hope's Peak."

"Well, I mean, I made you coffee four days into this bizarre time, right?"

Togami smirked as he responded, "Yes, I suppose so."

"So…"

Togami inhaled and slowly exhaled. "So now what do we do, is what you want to ask."

"Yeah…"

"Well, our options are shockingly straightforward. It is pointless to state that our past relationship meant nothing when that's all we can remember. And it's also pointless to convince ourselves we don't have feelings for one another now." At that, Naegi's eyes widened, causing Togami to scoff. "What, did you think I let you hold my hand or embrace me out of kindness?"

"I… Well…" Despite his stuttering, a wide smile was forming across Naegi's lips, brightening his expression. "You never really said anything, so I–"

"Neither have you, to be fair. We've been skirting the issue without addressing it. So now we address it. We either date, or we don't. And just to be clear, even with the memory erasure and school mysteries to solve, and even before our memories started to return, all that aside… I admit I started to feel differently about you during our time here under Monokuma. So I'm not saying this or asking this because of something that once was. I'm asking now… Well, I suppose I'm stating now… We can do one of three things. We can be together again, or we can wait until we determine what's going on in this school before making a choice, or we can…"

Togami surprised himself as he felt his throat tighten. He couldn't even say the third option. The thought of dropping everything, of letting Naegi go, sent such a shock of pain throughout his chest that he had to inhale to steady himself. Naegi seemed to sense the hesitation, for he quickly reached out and placed his hand over Togami's. Leaning forward and looking Togami right in the eyes, he said, "I'm not leaving you."

Togami nodded, doing his best to hide the wave of relief that washed over him. "So then what do we want to do?"

"I…" Naegi swallowed loud enough for Togami to hear. "I think, before Monokuma attacked you, I would have been okay with the second option. Of just waiting and seeing. But when he knocked you out… When I found you passed out and watched you in the nurse's office, not knowing if you would be okay… It made me realize something. Something that not even that memory of you going into shock made me think about."

Togami's eyes widened as Naegi spoke; in the month spent here, he had never heard the other student talk in such a serious manner. "And what is that?"

"That things are fragile here," Naegi continued as he held Togami's hand. "Our memories were erased, and who knows if we'll ever get them all back. Monokuma attacked you and could have seriously harmed you. If he follows through with his threat, he might try again. We're all having fun now, but if something terrible is going on outside, then who knows what will happen to us?" Holding their clasped hands up between them, Naegi said, "I don't want to sit passively for something to happen here any longer. I don't want to wait and regret something. So I… I think we should… I-I want us to…"

Togami's heart raced in his chest, the powerful words taking his breath away. The corporate heir was always in charge, always on top of his game, but in this moment, under Naegi's gaze, he felt different. It wasn't weakness, but it was something altogether different. Charged by his emotions, he reached up with his free hand to caress Naegi's cheek, cutting off the other's speech. The two drew closer, their gazes locked, and Togami thought he would lose himself completely as soon as he felt Naegi's breath against his face.

"Naegi…" He whispered the other's name. Their clasped hands fell to the side. He waited, giving Naegi a brief moment to pull away. He stared into those hazel eyes, looking for any sign that what he was doing was uninvited or undesired. And when he didn't see any, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Naegi's.

And Togami felt a wave of heat spread throughout his body.

What was meant to be a soft kiss, something to confirm Togami's emotions, immediately escalated. The corporate heir's brain seemed to short-circuit at the sudden rush of warmth and desire. Naegi almost instantly parted his lips as Togami ran his hand along his jawline and into his brown hair. Togami shivered as he felt Naegi's tongue press upon his lips, and their kiss deepened as Togami met Naegi's passion with equal fervor. Pulling his hand away from Naegi's, he wrapped his arm around him and brought him forward, pressing their bodies together. Naegi surged into the motion and practically climbed on top of Togami, forcing the corporate heir to fall backwards on the bed.

The two pulled away for a quick breath of air before resuming their fiery, open kiss. Togami let his hands wander until one held the back of Naegi's head and the other pressed into his back to hold him tight. He could feel Naegi's hands trailing along his arms and shoulders, slowly making their way up his neck and into his hair, causing a shiver to go down his spine. It was as though they were trying to see how close they could actually get, to see how much space they could get rid of between them.

They kissed and kissed until finally Togami stopped, gasping for air, with lips still so close to Naegi's he could practically taste them. He took a good look at Naegi and saw the boy's half-lidded eyes, flushed cheeks, and slightly red lips. He, too, was panting heavily, and the sight made Togami want to take things much farther than he knew they should. Instead, he smirked and said, "I guess waiting would be foolish, at this point."

Naegi chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not waiting."

"Then neither am I."

Naegi nodded and planted a firm kiss once more on Togami's lips before awkwardly pulling himself away. Togami sat up, doing his best to control his heavy breathing. His smirk widened as he looked over Naegi, secretly enjoying how messed up the other student looked.

"So...now what?" asked Naegi as he, too, looked Togami up and down.

"Now? Now we figure out this school and see if any more memories awaken."

"And the others?"

"I thought we already went over this? We're not telling them about–"

"No, I don't mean the memories. I mean about...us. Do we tell them that we're...?"

"That we're boyfriends now?" The word caused Togami's face to warm.

"Yeah… That we're boyfriends," Naegi confirmed, his tone indicating his awe at such a concept. Togami smiled, understanding the true weight of the statement. Such a definition, after all, meant no more dancing around the issue. It meant commitment. It meant their relationship was no longer something fluid or left to chance. They were together now. A team. A couple. Just like in his memories, and just like in the photo.

And yet Naegi's tone gave Togami pause, and he wondered if the other was feeling just as overwhelmed as he felt. Togami needed to know… "Are we boyfriends? After all, a kiss is one thing, even a heated one, but–"

Reaching over, Naegi swiftly pulled Togami forward and kissed him once more on the lips. It was quick, almost too quick, but it made sure Togami was looking directly into Naegi's eyes. "I'm okay with this," he stated. "More than okay with this. I want you to be my boyfriend."

Togami slowly nodded. "And I want you...as mine." He leaned forward and softly kissed Naegi, his heart racing at the thought that he was now free to do what his body wanted. He pulled away, however, before he could lose himself to his emotions. "So… We're together now. And the others…" The corporate heir released his grip on Naegi and stood up from the edge of the bed, straightening his jacket and clearing his throat. "Given the others' reactions, I highly doubt it would surprise them all to find we're together. But...let's keep our displays at a minimum. I don't need Fukawa getting any ridiculous ideas."

Naegi nodded and also stood. Togami turned and watched him run a hand through his hair. "So then...what do you want to do now?"

"Well, we have the rest of the day, and quite frankly, I don't want us spending it all in my bed. The others would have a field day with that." Naegi laughed, and Togami felt a blush rush to his cheeks when he realized just what he said. Turning and grabbing the dorm key off the table, he stated, "Here's an idea. It was rather enjoyable watching you thrash Owada at billiards. So how about I teach you some tricks that will surely get under his skin?" Naegi nodded once more, and the two exited the dorm room, with Togami locking the door behind them.

Despite his statement not a moment prior, he felt Naegi reach out and grab his hand. He smiled, making sure their fingers were interlaced, and he refused to break the grip until they reached the rec room and began to set up their games. And if someone saw them walking together hand in hand, he suddenly found that he couldn't have cared less.