Naoto looked up at the ceiling, the starry sky of the night absorbed the surroundings, with nothing being audible other than some quiet footsteps trough the halls.

"I can't sleep."

Naoto stood up from his futon before stretching. He turned his gaze towards the clock. 2:30 A.M.

It was extremely early and he hadn't gotten a single drop of sleep. It was like this most of the time anyways. He'd simply stare at the ceiling for hours at the time, his mind in the clouds.

But weirdly enough... it was his favorite time of day. At night, no one was there to bother him. The Darkness and overwhelming silence calmed him down from everything going on around him. At these times, it was only him, alone with his mind. Or so he thought.

"Senpai?" Naoto flinched as he looked next to him, noticing that Nagatoro had woken up as well. She rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust from the darkness.

"N-Nagatoro..." Senpai responded. "What are you doing up so late?" Nagatoro finally stopped rubbing her eyes, sitting up properly.

"I should be asking you the same thing, Senpai~. Have you been secretly looking at naughty stuff while everyone is asleep? Dirty Senpai~."

Naotos face flared up slightly as he picked up his glasses and shakily put them on. "N-no. Why would you even say that?"

He walked towards the window, taking a look outside. No matter how messed up the outside was, it still looked mesmerizing at night. Despite the city being pretty much destroyed, a few street lights were still functional, glowing dimly to illuminate the streets, which were filled with Zombies that simply wandered around.

"I simply haven't been able to sleep lately, so I just decide to take a walk or look out the window to relax better."

Nagatoro approached him, resting her hand on the window. "Doesn't it kinda get boring to see the same landscape over and over again?" Naoto thought about it for a second, before nodding. "I guess you're right."

Naoto turned towards a wall in the room. "But what else is there to do? We can't really do much at night. Unless..." his eyes were fixated on the wall.

Nagatoro turned her head in confusion. "Senpai? Is something wrong? You're staring at that wall and being all creepy about it." Naoto shook his head. "No. It's nothing." He turned back to her. "Hey. I just remembered..."

"I never actually got to invite you to the summer festival." He blushed a bit, rubbing his finger against his face. "I promised we'd go there next year and everything."

Nagatoro blushed slightly when she remembered that day, covering her face slightly. "Y-yeah. That's true. I guess you didn't." She looked at Naoto, noticing how red he was. Surely he wouldn't mind if she took this opportunity to tease him a bit.

"Don't worry. You're not the only one who broke his promise. I also promised I'd beat Orihara and earn a kiss from you, didn't I?" She said, as a big grin formed on her face, followed by Naoto turning redder than a Tomato.

"U-Uh...Y-Y-Yeah. I guess." He turned to the other side, trying to avoid looking at her, before setting his sight back on the wall.

"Say... Nagatoro." She instantly turned towards him. "Yeah?" Naoto looked at her, his face still red as he swallowed. "I know this isn't the same as going to the festival, but do you wanna stargaze a bit?"

Upon hearing those words, Nagatoro lit up, gasping. "Really?! Of course!" Naoto smiled while at the same time shushing her a bit, before heading for the wall he was staring at the whole time.

Upon further inspection, the wall seemed to have small cracks on the ceiling. Naoto reached for the 'cracks', pushing them slightly. All of a sudden, the 'cracks' opened, releasing a ladder down. "I only just remembered this now, but this room has direct access to the roof, as it's on the highest floor."

He reached for the ladder, climbing up and ending up at the flat rooftop of the school. Nagatoro followed, but was having a tougher time getting up. Naoto lent her a hand, his face red from embarrassment, although Nagatoro's face was just as red, if not more.

Naoto and Nagatoro laid down on the hard floor of the roof, staring at the sky. "This is relaxing. Don't you think?" Naoto asked. "It really makes you forget... everything else."

Nagatoro nodded. "Yeah...it does. If only we could forget forever and live everyday like this." Nagatoro answered. "If only... none of this..." Naoto turned to Nagatoro, able to tell that she was sniffling a bit.

"If only... this didn't happen." Nagatoro sniffles as she spoke, slightly holding back tears at the contrast between the magical sky and the harsh reality they were in. She wanted to stay like this with Naoto, hoping the sun simply wouldn't rise anymore.

"Why did this happen to us? I know I don't talk about it, but it hurts to know that our lives will never go back to normal. Either we get out of here somehow, or we spend the rest of our shitty lives cooped up in this... fucking school." Naoto inched closer towards her.

"I don't think it's wrong to feel bad about what's happened, but we should make sure to at least appreciate what we have." Nagatoro looked down at the floor.

"... What is there even to appreciate for you, or me?" Nagatoro answered. Her tone sounding melancholic and upset.

"What?" Naoto was surprised at the sudden pessimism that Nagatoro was giving out. "Uh... I'm sure you can find a lot of thing to ap-"

Nagatoro interrupted him in the middle of his sentence. "Don't you dare finish that sentence. You know it's not true. Other than our friends, we've got nothing left. We don't do anything in here. We barely count as being 'alive' with what little we do." Her body instinctively crumbled up into a ball, as a small flow of tears came from her eyes.

"Sometimes, it feels like being alive like thus is worse than being dead like 'them'. At least then we wouldn't be aware of what a shitty live we're living." Nagatoro quietly sobbed to herself, with Naoto by her side.

His feelings were mixed up at the moment, confused as to what to do and what to say. He didn't know which words would make it worse and which ones wouldn't.

"We have nothing left..."

For some reason, hearing those words come out of her mouth made Naoto feel upset. Were her friends not something? Weren't their experiences worth something to live for? Wasn't he worth it to live for?

...because he definitely knew she was his 'something' to live for.

"N-Nagatoro. I know you're mad right now, but you know it's not true. We have a lot of things left to appr-"

Nagatoro once again cut him off. "And what would those be?! Almost everyone important around us is gone! We've watched friends die in front of us. We've been almost killed multiple times and I've been living in fear every night, afraid of waking up to those 'things' having made their way in. So tell me: what should be the reason for me not to give up right now?" Nagatoros tears kept going, as her inaudible crying turned into quiet sobbing.

"Even better question, since you seem to be so happy-go-lucky right now. What makes you keep going, huh? What the hell is worth so much to you that you can volunteer to risk your life to keep us alive with food. What's worth so much that you try so hard to keep a positive attitude?"

Naoto didn't know what to answer, or that's what he wanted to think. But he knew exactly what his reason was. It would simply be too ridiculous to utter out loud. "I-"

"Please tell me...Please tell me..Please tell me! Tell me what stops you from jumping from the rooftop right here and right now! Because I can't find a reason to keep going if I can't even know what yours is!

"I..."

"Tell me!"

"I-It's..."

"TELL M-!"

Nagatoro was about to scream her lungs out when Naoto covered her mouth, afraid that they'd get too much attention from the Undead bellow. He looked at Nagatoros face, who simply shivered in place, her tears flowing across her cheeks as she looked as his hand, which he slowly removed.

"It's... you."

Naoto quietly uttered those words, but Nagatoro was unable to hear them due to how quiet he spoke. "W-What?" She looked up at him.

"It's you. You're..." Naoto was turning beet red with every second, hoping he could simply say it quickly and get it over with. "Y-You're my reason, Nagatoro. Everytime I feel down or upset when I remember the fact that you're here with me, and it makes me happy. As for the reason why, i think..."

"I think we both know."

Nagatoro looked at him, her tears finally stopping as she wiped her face with her sleeve. "I do..." She held his hand, looking at him. "But I want to hear you say it. Because that's the only thing that can get me going right now."

Naoto turned even redder, looking at his desperate Kouhai. Maybe it was better this way. None of them knew how much time they'll have left, so maybe it was better to quickly het it done with and live with no regrets..

"B-Because... I l-l-lo-"

The entrance to the rooftop slammed open, as Gamo and Yoshi climbed up, interrupting the two.

"My God, we've been hearing you two screaming ever since you woke us up a few minutes ago. Do you want to get us eaten by Zombies?"

Naoto and Nagatoro shook their heads, profusely blushing as they apologized. "Whatever you're doing, do it sometime else. Not at three in the morning. You should get back to bed."

Naoto and Nagatoro quietly nodded, as they went down the ladder, neither of them saying a word, their 'Moment having been stolen.'

A few minutes later Naoto was laying in his bed. The events from tonight had gotten him tired enough to get a good sleep as he looked at Nagatoro from behind, who seemed to already be sleeping.

He turned towards her. "I'm sorry Gamo ruined our moment. And if you're awake, I hope you can hear this." He quietly whispered behind her.

"I love you, Nagatoro. So much."

Naoto turned back around after a while, before succumbing to his tiredness and falling asleep. Meanwhile, Nagatoro laid wide awake, heaving heard everything he said, a big smile forming on her face.

As she slowly closed her eyes to sleep as well, she realized. "I'm really stupid. I was so caught up in my depressing rant that I ended up forgetting my own reason to keep going." She turned to the sleeping Naoto, smiling as she closed her eyes.

"I love you too, Senpai~"