A chill fell over the room, goosebumps swept up Shuichi's arms. His heart pounding in his chest, loud enough to fill the silence in the now-dead room. Blood rushing through his ears like crashing ocean waves.
Kokichi's mother was here?
Shuichi just couldn't believe it, but there was no denying the woman standing at their door, bearing a striking resemblance to Kokichi.
Shuichi sobered up immediately. He had already been on his way down, slowly drifting into a more conscious mind, but now it felt like he had been drench with a bucket of freezing water.
He straightened himself out, flattening his clothes down with his hands, even though he was pretty sure she couldn't see him.
Kokichi bristled, his body tensing up like a rod. "How do you know where I live?" His voice was cold and questioning, which seemed completely reasonable to Shuichi. Kokichi didn't even know his mother, and past Kokichi hadn't seen or talked to her in years either. So her showing up out of the blue, at ten o'clock at night, to an apartment she shouldn't know the address of, was completely worth questioning and in fact a little scary.
The woman wrung her hands together, having a hard time making eye contact with Kokichi, now that he knew who she was. "Well, I really wanted to find you, and I knew you had been on Danganronpa, so I-" she paused biting her lip worriedly, her shoulders hunching over. She looked about ready to cry.
"You what?" Shuichi flinched at Kokichi's harsh tone. No matter how pitiful the woman at their door looks, he remembers what his parents told them. His parents never went into full detail about the things she did, only saying she was into 'bad things' and 'bad people'.
"I called Team Danganronpa and was able to find a person who had your information on file. Since they aren't allowed to give out that kind of stuff to anyone, I pretended I was you."
Kokichi crossed his arms. "And they just gave you my information, just like that?"
"Yes," she pushed a piece of fallen hair gently behind her ear. "I've been told we sound similar over the phone, especially if I lower my voice."
Red flags were popping up all over his brain. Not only had she sought out private information about her son, that she abandoned mind you, but she also impersonated him to do so. Something just wasn't right here, and he could feel it.
Kokichi's mother picked at her thumb in silence, waiting for any kind of response, but receiving none. She looked up slowly, a nervous smile on her face. "I'm sorry for showing up so late and so abruptly, I really wanted to see you," she laughed shakily, Kokichi stared blankly at her.
"Am I intruding on something? I thought I heard another voice behind you, do you have a friend over?" she leaned a little into the apartment, eyes scanning behind Kokichi, but not spotting Shuichi, who was tucked away in the kitchen. "I'll leave, sorry for intruding."
Kokichi sighed and then pushed the door further open, stepping out of the way. "You can come in." She lit up instantly, clearly expecting to have been turned away.
"I don't have a friend over. Shuichi lives here as well, I suppose Danganronpa didn't tell you that?" Kokichi closed the door behind her as she walked into the apartment.
Her look of glory that she had been allowed in, died off as soon as his name was mentioned. "Shuichi? No, no they didn't-" her words grew quiet, as she took notice of him standing at the kitchen entrance.
"Hello," he waved, afraid to say anything else and have his dazed brain mess something up.
She waved back, but her eyes didn't match the friendly gesture. In fact, Shuichi was starting to grow uncomfortable with the look of resentment she was sending him. What did he ever do to her?
She drew her eyes away from him, giving their apartment a once over, nodding her head in approval. A judging smirk pulled at her lips. "So you two live together, huh? Figures," she huffed in what sounded like condescending amusement. Shuichi wasn't sure if he should be offended or not. Seriously, what was her deal?
"Yeah, we found that out when we got out of Danganronpa," Kokichi spoke clearly and emotionless. Shuichi was impressed he was able to be so calm, right now. Although, he should really be used to it, considering the entire killing game he bottled up his emotions. He can't help but wonder what's running through his mind right now.
"I assume you already know who he is?" Kokichi continued, motioning his mother into the living room. She took a seat on the couch, but Kokichi didn't join her, instead, dragging over the desk chair. Shuichi hovered by the mantle, not wanting to take a seat just yet, even though his heavy bones were practically begging him.
"I do," she answered softly, settling into the couch. "It's been a while since I've seen both of you. I was hoping I would be able to talk to you before you learned about me from someone else, but judging by your attitude, I'm too late."
"Mm," Kokichi hummed looking down at a nonexistent watch. "About two months too late."
Shuichi's throat burned for him to laugh, he knew it was inappropriate timing, but that just made the urge so much worse. He cleared his throat, playing it off as best as he could. "My parents told us shortly after we got back."
She swallowed, bringing her hand up to her mouth to bite her fingers, knee bouncing nervously. "Right, of course. How much do you know?"
"They didn't go into much detail, but we know enough."
Shuichi slid his arm off the mantle, he should probably give them some space to talk for a minute. He walked briskly to the kitchen, setting a kettle on the stove, he should at least be polite by offering her some tea.
"Why now, why after all this time, you choose now?" Shuichi listened in on Kokichi's words from the kitchen.
"Because I've changed. I'm better now, and I just thought, that since you changed too, losing your memories and all. That now could be my chance to be in your life more." She sounded sincere, but Shuichi didn't trust it one bit. He doesn't like judging people, especially those he doesn't know well, but his intuition is just telling him that this whole situation is off.
Shuichi couldn't hear what was said next over the sound of the tea kettle whistling. He poured the hot water into the cup, steeping the tea in it. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he picked up the cup and carried it out to the living room. He was just going to hand the tea to her and make his way to bed. Hopefully, she won't find it too rude, but he was completely wiped.
"So what should I call you?" Kokichi asked, watching as Shuichi set down the tea in front of her.
She smiled and picked up the tea, holding it tight between her hands. "Thank you," she whispered to him, taking a sip of the tea before answering Kokichi. "It's okay if you aren't comfortable calling me Mom, I understand. You can just call me by my name, Kodoku. Both of you can," she added quickly.
"Alright," Kokichi nodded, standing up. "Shuichi can I talk to you for a second?"
Shuichi eyed Kokichi nervously. "Sure." Kokichi nudged his head toward the bedroom, grabbing Shuichi by the wrist and pulling him into the room as soon as he got close enough.
"Woah hey!" he shrieked, almost falling over a pile of clothes, and nearly having his hand taken off by the closing door, in Kokichi's haste.
"Shh!" Kokichi shushed, pressing a finger to Shuichi's mouth. "What do you think?" The room was completely dark, Kokichi's face formed completely from shadows.
"What do I think? Are you serious?"
"Yes," he stated firmly.
Shuichi sighed, pinching his forehead. "Kokichi I can't think. This whole night has just been something else, and now your mom shows up? I still feel weird and I'm too tired for this." Maybe if he just goes to sleep he'll wake up and this whole situation will just be a dream.
"She asked if she could stay the night here." Kokichi's head turned down, his hand falling into Shuichi's more securely.
"What? Why?" he asked, voice raising just for Kokichi shush him again.
"Apparently her boyfriend kicked her out or something and now she doesn't have a place to stay."
"What did you say?" he asked worriedly.
"I said I have to talk to you," Kokichi strained, his voice taking on a slightly stressed tone.
"You realized this isn't normal right? Nobody just shows up at their son's house after not seeing them for years and asks to crash at their place."
"I know," Kokichi brought his other hand up to bite at his nails. Shuichi couldn't help but draw the connection to earlier when his mother did the same thing. Seems like some inherited habits remained even after losing their memory.
Shuichi batted the hand away from his mouth, taking hold of it with his other hand, making sure he got Kokichi's attention. "This whole thing is sketchy. Aren't you suspicious?"
"I'm not stupid, okay? I know that it's suspicious and you should know that I never trust anyone. I just want to see where this goes."
He should say no, but what kind of a person would he be if he didn't let Kokichi have a chance to get to know his mom?
"She can stay," he answered, ignoring his gut feeling. "I'm too tired to stay up anymore, so I'm just going to sleep. Are you going back out there?"
"Yeah, I'm going to go talk to her some more I guess, I'll be in bed soon."
Shuichi's heartstrings tugged, he couldn't help but feel like Kokichi was going to get hurt somehow, regardless of whether or not he trusts her.
"Kokichi," Shuichi called, stopping him before he could open the door.
"Yeah?"
"Goodnight." He packed all of his care into the words. Hoping that Kokichi understood he wanted him to be careful.
Shuichi craned his neck pecking Kokichi lightly on his cheek. He made a grunt of disgust, wiping his cheek off, but as he opened the door to leave, and the light shined in, he could see a small smile.
***
Shuichi had been expecting to be woken up in the middle of the night by Kokichi crawling into bed, but instead, he woke up to little claws digging into his chest.
"Ow!"
He cracked open an eye, still too sleepy to open both, finding a pair of green eyes staring back at him. Mischief was stretching on his chest, her little paws kneading into his shirt, unknowingly scratching him. Shuichi grumbled incoherently, pushing his head back into the pillow and letting Mischief rub her head against his hand.
God, he doesn't want to believe yesterday actually happened. His cheeks burned as the events that took place yesterday replayed in his mind, it was so embarrassing. Shuichi is never ever going to eat food offered by Rantaro again.
Thankfully he didn't out himself to Kaito and Maki, he had been waiting for the right time, but it's starting to seem like that time will never come. He should probably just tell them and not make it a big deal, it might be easier that way.
On the flipside it looked like he was finally going to kick the bucket today, seeing as he told Kokichi about what prompted him ignoring him. Ugh, he promised himself he would never say anything, but he can't say that having that off of his chest doesn't feel better. It was probably better to not keep secrets anyway since they were in a relationship now. Especially since he wants Kokichi to trust him, something that was extremely hard for him.
Shuichi jolted up in bed as soon as the thought crossed his mind, looking to Kokichi's side of the bed. He wasn't there. Did he not come to bed last night? The sheets don't even look crumpled up. Shuichi considers himself a bit of a light sleeper, and Kokichi being the messy, wiggly, bed-hogging, sleeper he is, Shuichi knows he would have woken up if he came to bed.
Relief flooded his body as he heard the sound of voices filtering into the room. He shouldn't be so worried, Kodoku is Kokichi's mother, she wouldn't do anything. He shouldn't judge her based on what she was like, she really might have changed. He's seen how much people can change first hand.
Even though he could rest assured knowing Kokichi was okay, it still didn't explain the reason he never came to bed.
Shuichi plucked Mischief off of his chest, draping her on his shoulders, and slid out of bed. He was too curious to take the time to get dressed, so he shoved his feet into a pair of slippers and walked out of the room, still holding onto Mischief.
" 'Morning Shuichi!" Kokichi greeted cheerfully.
Shuichi blinked, allowing his eyes to adjust to the light and process the scene unfolding before him. Kokichi and his mother were sitting horizontally on the couch, a blanket was thrown over their legs and they were laughing.
Kodoku's hair was down, her bangs falling into her face. She looked younger when she was smiling, and it occurred to him that her and Kokichi's smiles were the same. Shuichi hadn't noticed any particular similarities he shared with his parents. Other than looking slightly more like his father, he thinks he's a good mix of them both. But there was no doubt that Kokichi looked like his mother. They have the same eyes, the same cheekbones, they were both short, they had similar mannerisms, and now he can see that they also have the same smile. They would even have the same hair color if Kokichi's wasn't dyed and Kodoku's didn't have hints of grey.
"Uh, good morning," he spoke slowly. This was all so confusing, they looked to be getting along great, but last night Kokichi was so cold. What happened while he was sleeping?
"We were going to go out today, you coming Shuichi?" Kokichi hopped up onto his knees, staring at him in anticipation of his answer.
Shuichi has stuff he could be working on, but he could always find some time tomorrow. "I'll come."
"Let's go get breakfast and then do something after. We'll figure out what later," Kokichi stood up. "Do you want to get breakfast Kodoku?"
"I would, but I don't have any money," Kodoku answered, her smile turning down some.
"It's okay don't worry about that," he shrugged, picking back up the falling blanket.
Shuichi stroked Mischief's back, watching as Kokichi walked off to the kitchen. Now would be a good time to go talk to him if he wanted to speak to him alone. He set Mischief down on the floor, the bell on her collar jingling as she pranced away.
Mischief was headed for her favorite spot on the armchair of the couch, but as she got closer to where Kodoku was sitting Shuichi began to notice Mischief's attitude change. Her steps grew wary and her ears tilted down.
"Aw, hello kitty," Kodoku greeted.
Shuichi stepped closer to Mischief worried by the way she was acting. "This is Mischief."
"Hi, Mischief." As she talked Mischief took a step back, beginning to hiss, her spine arching and her fur standing up. Kodoku gasped, lifting her feet from the ground.
"Hey Mischief, stop that!" Shuichi raised his voice and Mischief ran off. Shuichi frowned, he had scared her. Great, now he feels bad.
"I'm sorry about that, I guess she's a little scared of new people." Except that wasn't true. Mischief had been great around his friends, and people he's had over. The only time she's ever done that was when they found her. Mischief was no stranger to affection, she would lay on you and cuddle with you, but she would also climb around and explore the apartment on a whim. She had never acted any differently when someone was over, so why now?
"It's okay," Kodoku laughed shakily. "Do you mind if I have a shower before we leave?"
"Not at all. It's right back there," Shuichi pointed behind the couch. Kodoku nodded and left to the bathroom.
Kokichi was scrolling through his phone, blindly swiping around, eating some chips he pulled from the cabinet.
"I thought we were getting breakfast." Kokichi raised his head at the sound of his voice.
"We are," Kokichi said placing another chip in his mouth. "This is my pre-breakfast snack."
He snorted stepping closer to him, taking notice of the dark circles under his eyes. Shuichi tilted Kokichi's face towards him to get a better look, his eyes still as they were moved away from his phone. "You have dark circles. Don't tell me you were up all night."
"Fine, I won't tell you."
"Really," Shuichi deadpanned, unimpressed by his joke. "Is that why you never came to bed?" Shuichi traced the dark circle with his thumb, resting his palm on Kokichi's cheek, deciding to leave it there.
"Yeah, we stayed up all night talking. It was really nice though, she has good stories."
"That's good." Shuichi was really happy Kokichi was getting along with his mom, and he probably would have more to say about it. If only he wasn't getting so distracted by the way Kokichi's eyelashes fanned out as he blinked, and the way his tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip.
Luckily it seemed like they were both on the same page.
Kokichi leaned into his body, kissing him back with all his fervor. It still thrilled him that he was able to do this now, and in his opinion, they needed to do it more. Distantly he wondered if they were going too fast, their relationship had picked up so much after they both confessed, but it doesn't feel like that to him. Everytime he touches Kokichi, it all feels so normal, so right, like he was meant to do this his whole life. It was like even though they didn't remember being in love with each other, their bodies still did. And they had been slowly gravitating towards each other this whole time. Shuichi shivered as Kokichi brushed his hands through his hair, tugging at his bottom lip playfully before Shuichi deepened the kiss.
And perhaps they were getting a bit too carried away, but once it had started they definitely didn't want to stop, it was almost addictive. Shuichi's trailed his hands down to the small of Kokichi's back, pulling the lower half of his body closer. He smirked against his lips, raising his leg higher between Shuichi's until it pressed against-
"Oh!" Shuichi went pin-straight ripping himself away from Kokichi, turning his beat red face towards Kokichi's mother. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay, do you need something?" Kokichi cut her off, sounding slightly irritated, but otherwise calm. It could have been anyone walking in on them at a moment like that and he still probably wouldn't be able to function, let alone Kokichi's mother. It was so impressive how relaxed, Kokichi was able to be.
Instead of answering the question though, Kodoku said something unexpected, her expression darkening. "So, you two are still keeping up your little thing. I thought for sure you'd grow out of it, or at least drop it after you lost your memories."
"Well we didn't," he countered back, his embarrassment quickly turning into anger. What was her problem? She had been saying weird things like that and glaring at him since she got here, and frankly, it was pissing him off.
He doesn't like getting angry, he always ends saying something hurtful he doesn't mean. But he doesn't know her, nor does he trust her, and for her to come into his apartment and judge him, or whatever the hell she was doing. Yeah, that makes him mad.
Kokichi glanced over at him, a little shaken from the underlying anger in his voice, he had only heard once before.
"Look, I didn't mean anything bad-"
Kokichi cut her off again. "Do you need something?" he repeated.
Kodoku sucked in a breath visibly calming herself before answering. "I couldn't figure out how to work your shower could you help me?"
"Sure," Kokichi grumbled walking towards the bathroom. He flashed Shuichi apologetic eyes, and he nodded back in understanding.
***
Unfortunately, breakfast, which actually turned out to be more of a late lunch, wasn't any better for him. The beginning wasn't so bad, he had been able to get some food in his stomach while listening to their conversation, which flowed surprisingly easy between them.
He wanted Kokichi and his mom to have a good relationship, so he decided he would put away his anger and try not to fret over it. But when Kodoku started to talk about their childhood, purposefully leaving out the bad things his parents had told him about, his agitation began to rise.
He understands how someone might not want to just start airing their dirty laundry in a restaurant. Her not talking about it wasn't making him mad, no, it was the way she made everything seem like it was perfect, a walked around obvious plot holes in her story.
"What about what my parents told us," Shuichi interrupted feeling quite bold. Kokichi shot him a look, placing a hand on his knee under the table.
Kodoku tilted her head in confusion.
"You know, the bad things you got into, and why you haven't seen Kokichi in years," he prompted, taking a sip of his water. Kokichi squeezed his knee harder, feeling a small kick to his shoe.
"Oh those old bats!" she waved off, taking a bite of her food. "I'm sure half the stuff they fed you were just fabrications. They were jealous that they couldn't have more kids, and when they saw sixteen year old me pregnant, they wanted the baby. When I told them no, they got all pissy and spread rumors about me. I guess they're still doing it," she shrugged.
Shuichi might not know his parents as well as someone who remembered their childhood, but he knows them enough to know they are not like that. Rumors, is she serious? She's trying to say that his sweet, old parents, who bake bread, and go to parks to feed ducks, write text messages like letters, and babysit kids whose parents can't afford daycare; were vindictive enough, to spread rumors about a teenage girl, just because they were jealous? No fucking way.
He was about ready to blow his lid.
"Maybe your right." The angry buzz in Shuichi's ears came to an immediate stop, falling into a deadly silence, as Kokichi spoke. Kodoku carried on talking after Kokichi said that, but Shuichi just sat there staring at him.
Kokichi squeezed his knee again, giving him a look that told him to knock it off.
"You know what, I think I ate too much. I'm going to go outside and walk around for a bit. You two take your time and finish eating, we'll meet back up after you're done," his voice sounded empty.
He slid out of the booth barely hearing their response, or seeing the concern in Kokichi's eyes as he walked off
He wasn't mad anymore, he just felt hurt, and he needed to cool off. He knows Kokichi was lying, all he was trying to do was median the situation before it escalated, which was probably the smartest thing. It just hurt. He wanted Kokichi to side with him, but that's selfish. He could never put Kokichi in a position where he would have to choose between him and his mother. If he has to put aside his pride for Kokichi to be able to have a good relationship with her, he will. That's why he left.