Every day, Kokichi comes back to me with a new bruise.

Shuichi sighed to himself as he looked at the clock. Kokichi had told him during lunch that he would be coming over again to study and watch Danganronpa with him at five. The clock's hands pointed out that it was seven, and still no signs of the purple haired boy.

Crack!

Just like that, the pencil in Shuichi's hand snapped in two clean parts. He slammed his fists down on the table. "God! He's always doing this! Why can't he ever be on time anymore!?" He stood up and paced around, hands running through his hair as he contemplated going fully mental and ripping his hair out right then and there. After a while of walking though, the anger wore off and he could think rationally once more.

"I just don't know how much longer I can handle this..." He sat back down, folding his arms together and resting his head there.

Tick, tock, tick...

The ticking of the clock... I never minded it until recently. It used to be nothing except for the sounds of the clock's workings, but now... it's like the ticking of a bomb, waiting to just explode as soon as I reach the brink of my sanity.

Shuichi sighed, hoping that his boyfriend would just come back already.

Kokichi is my everything... At first, when he started appearing late and with those bruises of his, I was so scared and worried for him... Now, all I can be is pissed. If he cheated on me...!

The navy haired boy picked up one of the broken pencil pieces and started to roughly drag them across his arms, watching it make faint designs on his skin. "Kokichi would never leave me, Kokichi will always come back to me, Kokichi will!--"

Suddenly, the door burst right open.

"I-I'm so sorry, Shuichi! I'm so, so sorry! P-Please... please forgive me!"

Shuichi looks up from the table and at his boyfriend, hair ruffled and nose bleeding. The frail boy was trembling, his shaky hands missing the doorknob a few times before grabbing it to close the door.

The door is always left unlocked so Kokichi can come right on in. Mom and Dad are across the sea for business, but even if they were here, they'd be too drunk to care... Yes, this does leave the potential of strangers breaking in, whether they come in with the intent to steal something or kill someone... I wouldn't care if I died though, that's the beauty of Danganronpa. It gets you desensitized to ideas like dying... well, for me it does. Not so much with Kokichi.

"Sh... Shuichi? S-Say something, y-you're... you're, um, scaring me with... that -- that stare of, um... yours..."

Shuichi stands up from his chair and walks over to Kokichi. He rests a hand on the shorter boy's cheek, then rubs his finger across the blood dripping from his nose. "Hmm..." He slowly licks the thick red substance from his finger, maintaining eye contact with Kokichi while doing so and causing him to shudder a bit. "So... What happened to you this time?"

The taller boy examined his boyfriend with meticulous eyes.

The question should be more of where it is this time. You've given me enough bullshit excuses that I don't care about trying to pry an answer out of you anymore... Ah, there.

After rolling up Kokichi's sleeves, Shuichi found a fresh bruise on his arm. He uses one of his hands to hold the arm up, another to press down on it.

"A-Ah, that... hurts..."

"... I see. Do you want ice for it?"

Kokichi timidly nodded.

Shuichi then sighed. "Then wait on the couch for me."

Kokichi nodded once more. "Thank you, Shumai..."

The purple haired boy made his way over to the couch, leaving the Shuichi alone. He hastily made his way to the kitchen where he grabbed a plastic bag and placed it on the counter. He went over to the freezer, pulling an ice tray out and popping some ice out into the bag. Then he filled it with some cold water from the sink, zipped it shut, and walked back to his boyfriend.

"Here."

"Th-Thanks..." Kokichi reached out to grab the bag when a droplet of blood dripped down from his chin. "S-Sorry about that..." He covered his nose once more.

"Don't worry about it. Now take this, I'll..." Shuichi looked around. "Goddammit. I'll be another second, hold on." Once more, he had to abandon his boyfriend on the couch. He made his way to his bedroom and looked around for the tissues. He rolled his eyes at the bottle of lotion sitting next to them and took the box with him back to the living room.

"Take this. Are you all set now?"

"Yeah, th-thanks, Shumai." Kokichi quickly took a tissue and started wiping away the blood.

"Any chance that you'll tell me what happened?"

Kokichi's eyes widened. Something akin to fear was evident in the dark purple galaxies that shown through his irises. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, look, I r-really am, I -- I swear! Just... ugh." He let out a defeated sigh. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you," he mumbled.

Shuichi looked to the side, then back at Kokichi. "...You love me, right?"

"Of course I do!" the boy immediately exclaimed. "Why wouldn't I? Shumai, I... I love you with all of my heart. Hah... haha... I would die for you, I would join Danganronpa if you did too... hehe, but I'm sure that I've told you this a million times already..."

"...You still never said yes or no, so I'll ask again. You do love me, right?"

Kokichi looked up at his boyfriend who had sat down next to him. "Yes, of course." A genuine smile was shining on his face.

This boy... he truly has something wrong with him...

Shuichi finally let himself smile for the first time that night. "Good, because... you know that I love you too, right?" He leaned down and placed a kiss on the other boy's forehead.

"Of course, my beloved..." Kokichi giggled a bit to himself.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Mhm!"

"Good. So do you want to stay up and watch Danganronpa like we said we would... or are you too tired?"

"I can always stay up to watch Danganronpa with -- yawn -- you! R-Really!"

Shuichi glanced at the clock. Only an hour had passed and Kokichi was tired.

Kokichi has always been more of an early bird rather than a night owl... I should let him sleep.

"Nope, you're going to bed."

"N-No, really! I can stay up for you--"

"You're going to sleep, final decision," Shuichi determined with a quiet chuckle. "Come on."

"Wait, I'm sleeping... with you tonight?" A blush started to paint itself onto the purple haired boy's cheeks.

"Oh come on, we've slept in the same bed before, don't act like we haven't."

"Will your p-parents be o-okay with it though?"

"Haven't I told you? My parents wouldn't care, even if they were here. Also, it's starting to get dark. I'm sure that your mom won't mind."

"I... g-guess not! S-Surprise sleepover it is, then...!" Kokichi threw away his tissues in a nearby trashcan and left the ice pack on the coffee table, following Shuichi to his room.

"Do you need a change of clothes?" the taller of the two inquired.

"I would like some, i-if you don't mind..."

The navy haired boy lazily threw an old t-shirt at his boyfriend. It was a bit too small for him, but it would fit just nicely on Kokichi.

"Thank you. I'm... going to get changed then." He turned around and stripped himself until he was only in his boxers. Then he pulled the shirt over his head and pulled his arms through the sleeves, finally turning around with a dark red across his face.

Shuichi smirked, pulling Kokichi closer to him. "No matter how many times I see you naked, you'll always be so embarrassed, huh?" He leaned in and nibbled a bit on the shell of the other boy's ear.

"M-Mmph--"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get you worked up. Now we can go to bed."

"... H-Hah?" Kokichi blinked and Shuichi had already pulled away from him and was under the covers. "... O-Oh, uh, yeah..." Blush still prominent on his face, he awkwardly shuffled over to the bed and settled himself in his boyfriend's arms.

"Goodnight, Kokichi," Shuichi whispered while placing a lazy kiss on his lips.

"Goodnight, Shumai..."

Shuichi watched as Kokichi's eyes quickly fell shut.

He must have really been exhausted... I don't recall him being this exhausted before... maybe it's something that happened today. Bah, whatever, that's in the past. Goodnight, my sweet angel.

*****

Shuichi wakes up. There's no sunlight shining through his curtains, so it must still be late. He looks at the digital clock next to him, and it's two in the morning. 'Why the hell did I even wake up? I should just go back to sleep,' he thinks -- but then he notices something. There's no warmth in his arms...

"Kokichi?" he whispers. He blinks a few times to clear his foggy eyes. Everything's dark, but as his eyes adjust to the darkness, and with the help of the dim moonlight flooding in, he can spot an outline in the corner of his room. It seems like a person scrunched up in a defensive ball. After a few more seconds of squinting, he can identify curly hair, matching to no one other than his boyfriend.

"Kokichi?" he says, a bit louder now.

Kokichi doesn't seem to notice him. Instead, it seems like he's... looking at something else entirely. Shuichi tries to follow his line of sight, finding himself to be looking at a small window to the side of his room. There, he can see it. The dark silhouette of a person looking in from the outside, despite the curtains blocking most of the window.

"Kokichi?" Shuichi repeats, even louder now.

"S-Shh! Wait... Shuichi!? Go back to bed, go back to bed! This is just a dream! Hehe..."

Shuichi is drowsy. It makes perfect sense. "Oh, okay. See you in the morning, my beloved." And so he turns on his side and lets his eyes drift shut.

*****

The school day passed like normal. Shuichi and Kokichi spent some of their morning time finishing some homework and watching Danganronpa before the bus came to pick them up. Kokichi had to call his mom, of course, but then everything was fine.

The two of them didn't have many classes together, and for most of the classes that they did share, they weren't seated next to each other, so that meant that they really only had lunch time to interact with each other. Kokichi had made both of their lunches, surprisingly.

"Wow, Kokichi, I didn't know that you could cook so well," Shuichi commented with genuine interest.

"O-Oh, w-well, ah, neither did I..." He trailed off into an awkward giggle before stuffing his mouth with a mouth of rice.

Shuichi took a small bite of his lunch before thinking about something. "Hey, Kokichi? You know, I had the weirdest dream last night..."

"Hey, you need to eat more!"

"... Wait, huh?"

Kokichi leaned in and put a piece of chocolate to his lips. "I said that you need to eat more!" His words were quite obviously rushed, and there was some new emotion hiding in his eyes...

"Something wrong?"

"W-Well, the only thing that's wrong is that... is that you're not eating enough! I made these for us, y-y'know...!"

I'll just let this slide. Just this one time though...

"If you say so, Kokichi." Shuichi simply took the piece of chocolate and popped it into his mouth, and lunch continued normally until the bell rang.

"Well, time to get going then... B-Bye, Shumai!" Kokichi turned around to get ready to leave before he was suddenly stopped by a hand grabbing onto his sleeve. He looked up. "Wh-What is it...?"

"I just wanted you to come over again, is that fine?"

"O-Of course!"

"Maybe... try to be more on time?"

Kokichi flinched. He opened his mouth to speak but decided against it and closed it once more. He only responded with a stiff nod.

"Alright then." Shuichi kissed him on the forehead. "Meet you at five, my house." He waved and started towards his classroom.

And the day continued as normal.

.

.

.

.

4:57. Kokichi should be here any minute by now, although I doubt that he will. He's my everything, but sometimes I want to just choke the living daylights out of him! But... I guess that's not entirely true. I'll just wait for an hour or two, like always.

Shuichi grumbled as he wandered around his house, wondering what to do. His life was so dull and boring without Kokichi there. All he saw was black and white.

But it's just like Monokuma...! Black, despair, and white, hope... but not even Danganronpa is the same without him. I bet that there will be some day where all of a sudden this pattern stops and I won't have to worry as much anymore.

The navy haired boy reluctantly grabbed his backpack from the couch and pulled out some textbooks. He carried the heavy things to the dining room table along with a pencil and set them down, starting to work on his homework under dim lights. The only noises in the room were his steady breathing, the scratching of his pencil against paper, and the continuous background noise of--!

Tick, tock, tick, tock...

Shuichi blinked a few times and looked at what he was writing down. It was all chicken scratch, so he figured that he would have to start all over again. His eyes switched over to the textbooks. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore, and the longer he stared at the text and symbols, the more it started to look like everything was in a different language. Then a memory appeared in his mind.

"This is just a dream!"

What an odd thing for him to say, even in a dream... but then again, anything can happen in your mind. What if... just what if... I'm dreaming right now? Well, I guess I'm not. I'm pretty self aware, but if I was lucid dreaming then I would have made Kokichi be here already.

He looked away from his homework, all of it just seeming to blur his mind. His eyes wandered across different things, eventually finding themselves resting on the clock. That damn clock.

Tick, tock, tick tock --

It stopped moving. Shuichi thought that it broke down until it suddenly sprang back to life.

Tock, tick, tock, tick...

The hands on the clock started moving backwards. And they started to turn faster. And faster. And fasterandfasterandfasterand--

The hands sprung off of the clock's face, somehow managing to stick themselves to the sides of the it. Numbers began to reshape themselves to form two wide, blank eyes that seemed to stare off into infinity. There was a blank space at the bottom where on a human's face would be a mouth.

"When will you learn that he's never coming back."

Shuichi blinked at the clock.

"I'm talking to you, boy. Just face it. Your boyfriend will never be on time ever again."

Shuichi shook his head and rubbed his eyes, but nothing seemed to make the weird clock go back to normal. So he tried to speak to it, "Why do you say that?"

"You aren't protecting him well enough or he's left you for someone else. Either way, you let him go. It's all your fault."

"But Kokichi would never leave me."

"Says who? You? HAH."

The clock's laugh was more like a rumbling thunder that shook the entire house. Shuichi could feel the vibrations run through his body. The arms of the clock started to stretch out from their former position. They looked like unstable twigs as they shakily grew to reach the boy.

Shuichi tried to move back away from the arms, falling in his chair in the process. But there was no escape. The arms quickly shot out to grasp his face. With a surprising amount of strength, they pulled him up off the ground and closer and closer to the face of the clock.

"I'll leave you with one final question."

"..."

"Are you dreaming?"

Shuichi jumped in his place. He looked around. He was back in his chair, the clock was back to normal, everything was fine. He went to rub at his eyes only to find a strange wet trail on his face.

Did I fall asleep and start crying? Over what? Tch, lame. That's in the past though, what matters is now, and that Kokichi still isn't here right now.

The boy looked at the clock. 6:15, and still that constant ticking.

Shuichi furrowed his brow and stormed up to the clock, ripping it from the wall and throwing it to the ground. "Fuck you, fuck you, I hate you..." he mumbled as he started to step on it. He was crushing the device as if his life depended on it. Each time his foot collided with the clock, the more pieces of glass and mechanical bits flew out and littered the bland, worn down carpet.

Shuichi kept at it until the clock was beyond recognition. He panted a bit and stepped back. "Tch... I'll clean it up later."

Right at that moment, the door busted open.

"Sh-Shuichi! Sh... Sh..." Kokichi collapsed after only two steps.

Shuichi ran over to the front door, closing it before kneeling down to console his boyfriend.

"Kokichi, what's wrong? You seem worse than usual."

"Sh-Shuichi, I... I-I didn't mean for i-it to h-happen!" The boy was almost unintelligible through his choked out sobbing.

"Shh, stop crying. I'm here, okay?" Shuichi told him in a soft tone. He wrapped him in his arms and held him close, but he noticed a foreign smell on him. "Are you willing to spill something now?"

"I... I-I'm so s-sorry, but I -- I still c-can't tell you!"

"Shh, just calm down for now..."

Shuichi started to rock Kokichi back and forth until he heard his sobs soften. He waited for a few moments before pulling back, but still keeping his boyfriend in his arms. He examined Kokichi's overall appearance. There's a heavy flush on his face, his shirt was half buttoned... Meticulous eyes dart once more and spot a dark spot on his neck.

"Kokichi," he looked him dead in the eye with a cold tone, "mind telling me what this is?"

"Wh-What... What what is?"

Shuichi dragged Kokichi to the bathroom, pulling him up in front of a mirror and brushing away some of his hair. "This." He pointed to a fresh hickey that's easily noticeable against his pale skin.

Kokichi gasped slightly before turning around. "W-Wait! N-No, it's not what it l-looks like!"

"Then what is it, Kokichi!?" Shuichi's voice began to rise in volume.

"Y-You've gotta u-understand, I would n-never willing d-do this! I -- I h-had no..." He was silenced when a finger was placed on his lips.

"I think you've said enough for now."

Kokichi gulped and slowly made his way to the floor, getting on his knees and clasping his hands together. "P-Please, you -- you've g-gotta understand! Please... f-forgive me... Shuichi..."

Shuichi sighed and sat down on the floor in front of him. He watched the other boy stare at him with fear in his eyes. He did nothing but lean forward and attach his lips to the hickey on his neck. Kokichi tensed up and quietly gasped. Shuichi smirked against the soft skin.

He placed a few soft kisses on the mark before resting his teeth on it. He relished in the way Kokichi shuddered before biting down on the skin. The action caused Kokichi to gasp, and he only continued with quiet moans as Shuichi began to suck.

A few moments passed before Shuichi finally stopped. Kokichi let out a quiet whine and looked at his boyfriend with small sparks of lust in his eyes. "W-Why'd you s-stop...?"

"I was only getting rid of the mark that some stranger put on you and replaced it with mine. You know that you're mine, Kokichi, and only mine, right?"

Kokichi nodded eagerly.

"Do you know have any more bruises or cuts anywhere else?"

"W-Well, I, ah, have some on my l-legs, but they don't h-hurt much anymore... but, um, I think that's it."

Shuichi looked at the ground and narrowed his eyes. "Then it's settled... You'll be staying here tonight. I'm not going to let you out of my sight. Go ahead and call your mom to tell her the news."

"O-Oh, okay..." Kokichi stood up and shuffled past Shuichi to get to the front door where his backpack was sitting. He pulled his phone out of one of the outer pockets and dialed his mom.

Meanwhile, Shuichi stood up in the bathroom and just stared at himself in the mirror.

"Either way, you let him go."

He rested his elbows on the sink counter, allowing one hand to reach up and grab a fistful of his hair.

I let him go? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'll show that goddamned nightmare clock... Yes... I know exactly what I must do. I can't believe that I haven't done this before! I was really tempted to in the past but I thought I respected his privacy... Oh well, I bet that he wouldn't mind, even if he did catch me! We love each other so much anyway.

"M-Mom says that it's fine, and she also wanted me to tell you thanks for being such a good boyfriend for me!" Kokichi shouted from the other room. He walked to the bathroom where Shuichi was still standing. "Sh-Shumai...? Is something wrong?"

Shuichi shook his head and stood up straight. "No, everything is fine. Come on, let's watch Danganronpa together. I'll make us dinner later on."

"A-Alright then!"

*****

"See you later, Kokichi!"

"See you l-later, Shumai!"

The two waved at each other, and Shuichi watched as Kokichi continued to walk towards his house. He waited for a few moments to let the last few students from school get out of eyesight before he started to walk after his boyfriend.

On the road, he could just barely see the familiar head of curly purple hair off into the distance.

I'll finally get to the bottom of this. No more, "don't worry about it"s and no more bullshit excuses. I really wish that I had done this before, I would've found out sooner. I'm not sorry, Kokichi, this just... needs to be done so I can help you.

Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes next to him. Shuichi paused in his tracks, staring at the bushes until... a small kitten came out. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, really? A kitten?" It was a tan-ish grey-ish color with darker grey stripes and large golden eyes, much like his own. "Hey... Kokichi might actually like you... Shit! Kokichi!" He looked up ahead of him and he couldn't spot him anymore.

"Shit, shit, shit," he mumbled as he jogged forward. Even as he continued forward, he saw no trace of his boyfriend. He paused in his tracks to take catch his breath.

"Mew?"

Shuichi looked down, realizing that the kitten had followed him. He sighed and bent down, petting it between the ears. The kitten started to purr, which eased his nerves a bit but not by much.

Then the kitten ran across the other side of the road.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Shuichi looked around. "You're lucky that there aren't any cars around." He grumbled and reluctantly followed the kitten. As he got closer to the other side of the road, however, he could start to smell something. Something like... iron...?

Shuichi finally made it to the other side of the road and noticed that the kitten was staring at something in between two houses. He walked over and looked inside.

There in the alleyway lied a body. Half of the clothes were ripped, exposing fresh cuts and gashes. Some blood was spattered on the wall. The body that was all mangled and torn up could only belong to the one and only Kokichi.

Shuichi dropped his backpack and rushed over to his boyfriend's side and yelling, "KOKICHI! KOKICHI!? H-Hey... can you hear me?"

...

"Answer me, dammit!" He grabbed him by the shoulders, only to realize how warm the body was.

He must have just been killed... If only I hadn't gotten distracted, then I could! I could have...! I should have... done something...

"Kokichi... I'm so sorry..." Slowly, he picked up Kokichi's corpse and wrapped his arms around it. Maybe, if he thought hard enough, then he would suddenly revive. "... Heh... hehe... Just like Danganronpa, right? Someone killed you... and now I must find them and expose them."

And I'll make sure that their execution is real gorey.

He wiped away the tears that he hadn't realized he had wept, gave his beloved one final kiss, and left him in the alleyway to go find the culprit.