You walked out of your Ultimate lab when you spotted Kaito walking through the room. "K-Kaito!!" you called over to him. You slipped and fell straight on your face, but you kept moving towards him,

"Oh, uh, hey...(Y/N)?"

"Oh my goodness. I don't think he even remembers your name! AH-HAHA!"

"Yeah, um, that's my name," you told him. "Let's get straight to the point... Where's Kokichi? Did you catch him?"

The astronaut looked to the side sheepishly. "Not...really... But what I did catch was this!" He pulled another Flashback Light into view. "I found this after I lost Kokichi... Damn, he's faster than I expected him to be."

You looked down in slight disappointment, but you didn't let your newly found feelings cloud your rationality. "Alright, that's reasonable. So I presume that you're wanting everyone to meet in the dining hall so we can use the light?"

"Yeah! How'd you know??"

Because we do that every time there's a new Flashback Light, you answered inside your head... Idiot... Alright, I'm sorry for calling you that...I guess.

"I'll make my way over there as fast as possible, then." You rushed ahead of him to get to the dining hall as quickly as possible. You were just hoping that Kokichi wasn't getting himself into anymore trouble than what he needed to be in...
***

"Alright, looks like everyone's here. Let's get started," Kaito announced, pounding his fists together.

"Oh, what about Kokichi?" Gonta asked.

"Forget about him! It's his fault for messing around like that!"

"I guess...he must be a real pro at hide-and-seek," Himiko noted. "I magically looked all over the school, but he was nowhere to be found."

"No one can find him, huh?" Shuichi asked the group.

Maki bit on her nail. "He might've used the motive's card key to enter a place we're unaware of."

"Do you think that's where the real motive is being kept?" Kiibo inquired. "Either way, it's worrisome."

"Heh, next time I see him, I just gotta catch him and ask," Kaito chuckled. "Anyway, let's try out this new Flashback Light!"

Tsumugi looked down to the ground, holding her arms anxiously. "But...I'm still uneasy about these Flashback Lights... Are they really okay to use?"

"Well," Himiko started, putting a finger up to her chin, "if we don't use them, our memories will never come back, y'know? So we've got no choice but to use it! The memory we'll get from this is our only clue!"

"I agree with fish d*cks over here!" Miu exclaimed.

"Who are you calling a chunk of breaded fish!?"

You were about to ask, "Are we sure that these memories aren't fake?" until a voice cut through the room.

"Ah-haha, for someone who looks like canned tuna, you make some pretty good comebacks."

Your heart jumped when you saw him enter the room. Good, he's...he's okay. I don't know why I'm worrying so much. I said that I trusted him, right?

"Who are you calling a wad of shredded fish!? Wait...Kokichi!?"

"I knew you'd find us here," Maki said with a dirty scowl on her face, "...but only because it's you."

"Thanks for the compliment!" Kokichi spoke cheerfully. "So, why are all my merry friends gathered here?"

"First things first..." Shuichi started. "What did you do with that card key?"

"Ooh, so you're worried about that. Well, relax. Unfortunately, I couldn't use that card key."

"You couldn't use it?" the detective repeated.

"Yeah, I had no idea where to use it, so I just gave up instead."

"You don't seem too disappointed about not being able to use it," Kiibo remarked.

"I am disappointed, dammit! I wanted to use the card key!" the boy whined.

"I smell another f*ckin' lie!" Miu spat.

Kaito rubbed the back of his head as if he was getting exhausted just by Kokichi being in the room...and with Kaito being Kaito, he probably was. "Whatever..." he sighed. "Talking to him's a waste of time. We've got more important things to do." He pulled out the Flashback Light.

"Oh hey, the Flashback Light. Lemme see that," Kokichi told him, still smiling. "Kaito doesn't have the balls to turn on the switch—"

"Of course I do!!!" Kaito violently smashed his thumb down into the switch.

Click!

.
.
.
.
.

"It's everyone's favorite show!"

An excited teen basically screeched, calling for her girlfriend to come over and sit down on the couch with her. "Whoo! Yeah, it's ##$%&%&@ )( !!"

"We had you all vote in an online poll what YOU would like to see in your new season, and each choice had a brief explanation as to how it could be implemented into the game! We will share the results of the poll, but let us first recap the choices!"

"Oh come on, my girl needs to know what's gonna happen in the new season...!" the girlfriend yelled, barely holding back from throwing her pillow at the screen.

"The first choice was the disease! The second choice was the insomnia motive! The third option was 'remembering' motive! The fourth option was a nature setting! Well, actually...why don't I just tell you all what won?"

The excited teen nodded her head up and down rapidly, stars in her eyes.

"The winner of the poll...was the FIFTH OPTION! The fifth option, where an E—"

CRASH! BOOM!

The storm outside cut off the power.

"OH COME ON!"

"Hey." The girl pecked her girlfriend on the forehead. "At least we know what we're getting, right?"

"Yeah..."

.
.
.
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.

You ran out of the dining hall as fast as you could. Faster than you had ever ran before in your life.

You ran far. Far. Away.
~~~

"H-Huh?" Shuichi sputtered as he saw the teen dash out of the room. "D-Did something happen?"

Kokichi sharply turned to Kaito. "Did you use your quirk to bust (Y/N)'s ears so that they'd run away like that??"

"Wh-What are you even talking about!?" Kaito yelled back. "Do you really think that I of all people would know what got into them?"

"Should I go and see if they're alright?" Kiibo asked, concerned.

"Ah, well... If anyone is to go check up on them, the best people would be Kiibo, Gonta, or me," Shuichi spoke.

"Gonta got very nervous when they run away like that... Gonta wants to be much help, so he can go!"

"Nahhh," Kokichi lilted. "You're way too big. If (Y/N) suddenly saw such a guy right in front of them, they might go into an even worse state...! And seeing a talking hunk of metal would be just as absurd."

"Hey...! Please, stop it with your discriminating remarks!" Kiibo pleaded. "I'll have you know that we have spoken before and they were perfectly fine with this hunk of metal!"

"So should I go?" Shuichi asked.

"Nuh-uh! You need to stay here and lead everyone on in the discussion."

"Then...are you saying that there is a better person to go?"

"Duhhhh!" Kokichi pointed at himself profusely. "I'll go! (Y/N)'s comfortable with me anyway, and also—"

"Dude! You're probably the worst person to go comfort someone!" Kaito barked at him.

Kokichi was getting frustrated. "Oh come on!" he screamed. "The more we bicker about this, the more time being wasted! The more time that (Y/N) might be getting even worse!" His voice was ragged now. "I'm going whether you guys like it or not!"

With that, the enraged and concerned boy promptly sprinted out of the dining hall in pursuit of the other teen.

"Hurry!" Tsumugi yelled at him, but he didn't care about what she had to say at the moment.

Now where could they have gone? Kokichi asked himself. There's the possibility that they went to the library where it's quiet and solitude, but if they ran away like that then I don't think that they'd corner themselves in a place like that.

With that in his mind, he ran past the staircase to go downstairs to instead run outside. But where to now? There were plenty of places outside that the teenager could have ran to, but Kokichi had a feeling that they might have gone to their dorm. He could only hold onto that hope as he ran towards the dormitory.

"(Y/N)...?" He looked up at their door, finding it opened just a small bit. Good, so they were there. In a cautious manner, he crept over to the door, opening it up just a bit to look inside. There his beloved was, curled up in a ball on the floor and seeming to be hyperventilating. "(Y/N)..."

Kokichi knocked softly on the door, not quite sure how to approach someone in such a fragile state. "Hey, it's me, your dear friend, Kokichi." He got no response. "Can I come in...?" This time he did get a response, even if it was just a nod of the head.

The boy slowly entered the dorm, making sure to close the door behind him. He then proceeded to carefully make his way over to the trembling body on the floor. "What happened...?" he muttered to them.

"I want...to s-scream," (Y/N) finally said through their ragged breathing, "and I-I wan—cry, and vomit...but I c-can't...!"

"Calm down, shh... Can you please try to explain to me what happened?" Kokichi bit on his lip. What in the world could have brought this on?

"Agh, i-it's just...my...head..."

Kokichi slowly took (Y/N)'s hand and started rubbing small circles on the back of them. He was surprised when they suddenly jumped into his arms. "Are you... Is this..." His words died in his throat when he felt the other instantly melt into his touch, their hazardous breathing finally starting to calm down.

The supreme leader gulped, lightly flushing. Normally, he would crack a joke or make a lie, but this was (Y/N). They literally threw themselves into his arms as if they were in some sort of cheap romance anime. Kokichi wouldn't lie, he had fantasized about (Y/N) throwing themselves into his arms, and then they would...

Cuddle, the boy finished his thought while blushing. He kind of felt bad about thinking things like that when he was supposed to be comforting them, but he barely had a clue on what to do in the situation. He did know that he wanted answers.

"Can you please tell me what happened?" he mumbled. "If possible then I'd like to avoid this happening to you..." He sighed. "You just seem so shook is all... I'm not really used to seeing you like this, y'know...?"

(Y/N) didn't answer him. Kokichi leaned back ever so slightly to look at them; their normal grey eyes had turned dull and almost lifeless. "That's just a kinder way of saying that it's a special treat to see you so pathetic like this," they muttered. The sentence was so quiet that Kokichi was fairly sure he wouldn't have heard it if just a fly had landed on the ground.

"You okay?"

The teenager in question just blinked. When their eyes were met with lilac ones, they seemed to gain some life back in them. "Y-Yes..." Lilac to lilac. "Maybe not..." Lilac to blue. "But... could you please not push it? I... It would be hard to explain..."

Kokichi sighed. "That's fine...but what happened back there?"

"Oh, right, that... I'm sorry for not getting to that sooner. Well, I think the Flashback Light is messing with my head..."

The boy's eyes widened. "I remember now. You kinda zoned out when we used those other two Flashback Lights, right?"

"Y-Yeah. I can't believe you remembered... I can't be the only one whose head hurts after those memories, right? Did yours hurt?"

Kokichi tilted his head. "Um, no...?"

"Not even a bit??"

"I'm sorry, but it's a 'no' for me." He looked off to the side. "None of the others seemed to be in pain after receiving the flashback... Do you think it's just you?"

"Hahh, I can't quite tell anymore..." (Y/N) suddenly looked up at him. "Tell me, Kokichi... What exactly did you see during that flashback?"

Kokichi raised a brow. "Same thing that you should've seen."

"Just tell me."

"Welllll, I saw a whole lot of meteorites coming down to the earth. It was basically gonna be the end of the world if no one found a way to stop it. There were groups of people throwing around flyers that read 'Mankind deserves damnation.'... There was also something about the 'Gofer Project' which was supposed to save the world from the meteorites and then it failed."

Kokichi got confused when he saw the puzzled look on his beloved's cute face. "Hey, why are you looking at me like that? Is something wrong?"

"..." They looked down. "Oh, I just remembered! Sorry, my mind was so fuzzy that I couldn't think about what I saw in the memory."

"Did you...see something different?"

"Hmm..." (Y/N) looked up. "Yeah, I saw a cute lesbian couple." They chuckled a bit at their own sarcastic statement. The sound just made Kokichi's heart flutter.

"Alright...! I'm okay with the gay!" the supreme leader responded in a joking tone. Wait... He took notice of the blue in his crush's eyes. "You actually saw something different?"

"Huh?" It took them a moment to realize it. "O-Oh... Sh*t," they mumbled. "I guess I did...but it's hard to explain. It went like... There was a lesbian couple watching a show on the television. It was saying that it was 'everyone's favorite show.' Apparently, viewers of the show could vote for what they wanted to see in the next season of the show, and there were five options. The one that had the most votes was the fifth option, but a storm outside had cut out the power, so I wasn't able to see what that option was...and then the couple kissed."

Wow, what an ending, Kokichi thought. He was intrigued, though. It seemed like everyone had received the same memory, so then why did (Y/N) see something different?

...

Which memory was the truth and which memory was the lie?

Were both memories just a lie? Monokuma wouldn't give out two true flashbacks, right? He just wasn't that kind, and besides, it just didn't make sense why a completely unrelated memory would be sent out if it did happen to be as true as the flashback Kokichi had received.

Is it just a red herring? the boy wondered. Or is the majority of us being fed lies? Why is this so damn complicated—!?

"K-Kokichi, you've been, uh...staring at me for a while now."

Kokichi blinked back into reality. "Nishishi! That's because you're so cute and pretty~!"

"That's the best lie that I've heard all day, Kokichi!" (Y/N) laughed. It was only then that he realized how rarely they laughed. He allowed the sound to make an imprint in his brain so he could remember it—

Wow, he was getting corny and so cliche. It was boring.

"It's true, though!"

(Y/N) rolled their eyes, suddenly shivering. "I just now realized how cold the floor is..."

Kokichi smirked as he took this chance to pull them in closer. He swore he could feel his ego rise when they easily complied, hugging onto him tightly and shoving their face into his neck. "Hmm, I wonder how you would've reacted to being in this position when we were first started getting to know each other?"

"I would have punched you," the teenager in his arms instantly replied. A small part of Kokichi felt saddened, and he parted his lips to open up until—

"But that was a lie."

"Oh-hoho! Am I rubbing off on you?" Kokichi asked.

"Perhaps. Apparently I was pretty convincing, too."

"...Huh?"

(Y/N) chuckled for a quick second. "I can feel your heart beating. It started to beat faster when I said that, and just now, it went back to normal."

"Aww, you caught me!" Kokichi hummed for a second before asking, "Hey, I'm getting bored. Do you wanna get up and do something?"
~~~

"I guess," you replied. "We basically have all the time in the world, right?" You slowly forced yourself to get up until you were finally standing up on shaky legs, him doing the same.

"Now that I think about it, did you ever end up eating anything today?"

"Huh?"

Kokichi shrugged, looking over to the side. "I mean, I didn't see you eat anything this morning, and then I was gone for a while around lunchtime, so..."

"But why do you ask...?"

"Because I want you to be eating properly," he answered simply. "After all, if you're going to be in my organization once we get out, I can't have you weak and lagging behind! If you're lagging behind just because you weren't eating properly then I'd stay behind to take care of you. Then, neither of us would be able to go on a big heist!"

"If you say so. I guess we're going to the dining hall?"

"Yep!"

You led Kokichi out of your room, making sure to close the door behind you. You started walking toward the school building when something snaked into your hand. "Hm?" You gave a curious to Kokichi who only giggled at you. Then you looked down, staring at his hand that locked itself in yours.

"Really?" you mumbled before looking over to the side, silently screaming at yourself for blushing. You remembered when something similar to this had happened, which was only a while back, and back then you didn't have such a reaction. Geez, I'm just embarrassing myself so much at this point...

"Don't run into the door!" a cheery voice spoke, cutting through your thoughts.

You were able to somehow stop yourself from moving before you crashed into the grand doors of the dining hall. "Thanks for the warning," you grumbled. Using your free hand, you opened the doors for the two of you to enter.

Kokichi let go of your hand to hurry into one of the seats at the table. He leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs up onto the table. "I'll be waiting right here~" he cooed. "Oh. (Y/N)? Can you get me a Panta while you're in the kitchen?"

"Sure, if I can find one." You turned away from him to go into the kitchen. You made haste in using whatever food you could find to turn into a meal for you to eat... You could only make a sandwich. You sighed, but then you remembered Kokichi's request.

You turned around to the fridge, opening it and scanning its insides. A purple bottle soon crossed your line of vision, and you instantly grabbed it for the supreme leader that was waiting for you.

You left the kitchen, bringing your food back to the table, along with the bottle of Panta. "Here," you told him, shoving the bottle over in his direction while you began to eat. The appreciation showed in Kokichi's eyes as he eagerly screwed the cap off and began chugged the liquid.

For the next few minutes or two was just that. You eating your (poorly made) sandwich and him drinking his soda. It was a comfortable silence, at least, but you still didn't like it all that much.

"Hey, Kokichi?"

The boy maintained eye contact with you as he took another sip from his Panta before setting it down on the table, screwing the cap back on. "Yeah?"

"Can you tell me where you went when you had the card key?"

"I can't tell you," he instantly replied.

You felt a bit disheartened by his answer. "Oh..." you mumbled, slouching a bit.

A pang of guilt and pity shot through him. "I'm sorry, but I...can't really tell you." He brightened up a bit. "I can't yet," he said hopefully.

"I bet you have your reasons..." you replied.

Kokichi sighed. "I said I'm sorry. I'm gonna do something but I'll need you to trust me, okay?"

You nodded, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. "I'll trust you."

"Ah-haha! Why are you so eager?"

"Er..." You looked off to the side. In the corner of your eye, you could see him coming closer. He eventually moved his chair closer to yours and leaned forward teasingly. "S-Stop." You pulled the scarf around your neck up towards your face, letting it hang from your eyes down.

"Put that down! I just wanna see your beautiful eyes for a second," Kokichi whined.

"No!" you grumbled, wishing that you could just disappear into the floor.

"Please!?"

"No... Stop acting like a weirdo!"

"'Weirdo'?" he repeated. "Wow, I don't think that I've ever heard you say a word like that before! You're always so formal. Loosen up a bit!"

"You little sh*t."

"Oof... That went straight to the heart, y'know??" It sounded like the boy forced himself to giggle, which made you felt bad, but you didn't have much time to think about it before he asked, "So do you really think I'm a little sh*t?"

"...O-Of course."

Kokichi suddenly ripped the scarf out of your hands, causing you to shut your eyes. "Aww man..."

"...So close~!" His voice was speaking directly in your ear, and you could feel his curly purple hair against the side of your face, slightly tickling it.

"Why are you being so stubborn? Are you being stubborn to spite me? Just to be stubborn? Are you self-conscious? If that last one's the case then..." He paused for a second. "...Don't worry about anything. You're pretty. Your eyes are pretty, too. I find it quite interesting how they change color." His voiced sounded softer than before for some reason.

The boy grabbed your hand which caused you to shoot your eyes open. "What are you doing?" Your voice was weak and quiet.

Kokichi immediately jumped back from you as if he had been shocked. He locked gazes with you and he spoke, "You were lying when you said that awful comment about me! Yaaay, I'm so glad that you didn't mean it!"

You bit your lip, refusing to acknowledge the heat in your cheeks.

Kokichi kept staring into your eyes for a few seconds longer. "...You have something to tell me?" he suddenly asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah..." I am just being really open today, aren't I? You let out a breath that you didn't realized you had been holding before opening your mouth to speak. "I just want to say...thank you."

"Thank you?" He raised his brow higher. "For what?"

"For...caring about me." At this point, it was getting really hard for you to maintain eye contact with him. "I-I know that I'm probably getting corny, which I'm sorry for, but I mean it. You've been kind to me, and for some reason, you've kept coming back to me... Who knows what would've happened if you hadn't spoken to me."

Kokichi's eyes widened but he kept his composure. "I'm sure that you would've spoken up to make a friend. Or someone else would approach you—"

"No one did that when you and I barely knew each other."

Ding dong, bing bong! It was the nighttime announcement.

"We should probably go now," the boy in front of you said quickly. Your eyes didn't miss the light pink hue that dusted his cheeks.

"Alright... Again, thank you...so, so much..."

"O-Of course!" Kokichi put on a smirk. "It's just what I do as your friend!"

You frowned at him, him only giving you a slightly puzzled look in return. "You say 'friend' too much. You're making it sound weird..."

He exaggerated a gasp. "Is that you giving me permission to call you 'sweetheart' or 'my beloved' whenever I want to and you won't get mad at me!?"

"It would depend on the situation whether I'd get mad," you replied. "But I guess the answer to that question would be a 'yes.'"

Kokichi's eyes widened before he quickly spun away from you. "W-Well then...! Let's go back to the dorms... Would you like for me to escort you, my...beloved?" His tone gave away just how embarrassed he was.

"Sure."

Word Count: 4072