Third POV:

The room fell into a dark silence as the two young men looked into each others eye, as if everything was being said, but at the same time nothing at all as the shorter male bit his tongue and got up from the ground, throwing a plastic bag into the nearby wall.

'How long?' the violet haired male asked, before giving up on his sign language and shedding back all restraints.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THINGS FROM ME?!" He screamed with a hoarse and broken voice, long and elongated sobs escaping from his as his body was wrapped in despair.

The taller male looked shocked when he had suddenly heard his partner speak, and unsure as he hesiated, even trying to take a step closer towards him but the smaller male almost violently took a step back.

"I was going...I knew for almost a year that DICE was missing...Kokichi I'm so sorry, I was just..." Shuichi tried to reason.

"Just what?! A coward?! A coward who couldn't even trust his own fiance about knowing that his fucking family had their finger chopped off?! AND YOU FUCKING PROPOSED TO ME WHILE KNOWING THIS?!" Kokichi screamed.

Shuichi looked panicked as he once again tried to take another step closer "I wanted to protect you-!"

"Protect me?! More like keeping me a prisoner in my own home?! When will you understand I don't want to be protected anymore?! I'm not some weak child Shuichi! I'M NOT THAT PERSON FROM BACK THEN!" He screamed.

The other male looked pained by those words as his partner started hyperventilating.

"Kokichi, Kokichi I know you're mad and rightfully so...but I need you to calm down- your lungs"

"No! I'm not pushing this cough off! Ok! Did you ever even trust me?! Did you seriously not trust me enough to help you with this?! Why?! DID YOU EVEN REALLY LOVE ME?" Kokichi barked.

Shuichi crumbled over those words and froze in place.

Finally he started crying, "I...I..." he mumbled and finally Kokichi seeing this weakness inside of his partner sighed and took a few deep breaths heading towards him.

"Your Uncle...Shoto told me about your parents...what you were like when they left you alone like that...how you cried for weeks and begged them to come home...how you promsied you would be good so please come back...but they didn't...they left you...and never came back" he started, his voice laced with sympathy.

"In a way...that made me think you were like me...I don't want to be alone either...but thats where we separate. Because for all the abandonment issues I had Shuichi, I never tried to force you to stay with me. I never would have made you stay with me of you were unhappy and I thought you would do the same for me.

"I know you're scared of being alone again, but why couldn't you understand that even if you told me all of this yourself, if you apologized, if you never acted so protective and possesive in the first place I never would have left you at all!" Kokichi told him.

Shuichi stood there shocked as he seemed to struggle to find words that would give an appropriate apology or rebuttal for what the short male had said.

Kokichi sighed rubbing his hands through his hair undoing the man bun he had hastily made that morning. That morning when the two had still had dreams of a coming wedding.

Kokichi hugged the on his knees male and gently stroked his hair, in a comforting manner.

"Y-You...the d-doctor *hic* when...when you arrived at the *hic* hospital after the warehouse incident *sniff* said if you did to much...you would die before you were thirty..." He confessed.

"I know..." the shorter male mumbled, "and...and that first year...you never ate...you never even showered...all you did was cry....and I was scared...I had to slip sleeping powder just to make sure you didn't die...and the therapist...you never spoke and it scared me..." he told to himself snotty sobs in his voice from buried trauma and concern.

"I know...and I'm sorry...." Kokichi apologized, "she said...I thought this helped you...you seemed happy after a while...I'm so sorry" he choked out his red tear stained face met with the other males.

The two lingered as if they were about to kiss but turned away.

"I know...I know about what you did to help me...I know those pills aren't actually for my lung problems but anti depressants...I know how how many times you didn't sleep at night because even the smallest cough made you terrified for my life...and I'm sorry...I couldn't give you the security you needed or emotional support...and I still haven't have I?" Kokichi asked.

Shuichi just continued with a broken look. Kokichi sighed.

"Shuichi...thank you for helping me back then...but...I think we need to take a break...I'm not proud yet of the person I am...and we both have issues to work out...and I'm sorry" he mumbled.

Shuichi looked on hesitant, like he was about to argue why they needed to stay together before he paused.

His mind reminiscent of words he had heard before.

Finally after a look of confliction he nodded in agreement. The two didn't respond for a while, they just held each other and even Kokichi began to shed tears, they held each other as if afraid that if they let go they would never again be together.

But they had to.

"When...were you always able to speak...?" Shuichi asked hesitant. Kokichi nodded in what seemed like shame, "three words...if I had said three words back then I could have saved lives...so I don't deserve to have a voice because I didn't ever tell the truth even for them..." he confessed his voice laced with guilt.

"It's not your fault though!" Shuichi quickly said pulling away and taking his former partner now friend be the shoulders.

"You had trust issues and paranoia and rightly so given our positions at the time, no one can fault you...they wouldn't have blamed you Kokichi....they did what they did because they loved you...so please keep talking, keep saying those humorous lies...it's why I fell in with you" Shuichi assured.

The shorter male nodded in agreement but they both knew that was a lie as he slowly removed his sapphire ring.

"Don't, when I gave that to you I never had any intention of taking it back...do whatever you want with it but please don't give it back" Shuichi told him.

"But it's yours" Kokichi argued, "no it's yours. Keep it or sell it" Shuichi told him with a sad smile.

"After this...I'll clear out my office as a bedroom till you can find a new place..." Shuichi promised. Kokichi nodded thanful.

They were still holding on tightly.

"DICE..." Kokichi mumbled, Shuichi finally let go "I'll tell you everything...just...don't do anything reckless"