The Boy Who fell from the Sky

Chapter 8

"So is this... a Christmas tree?" Nagito asked, staring at the pine tree Hajime had set up in the living room. Hajime nodded and started untangling some Christmas lights, which did not look like it was going to be easy. "Huh, I thought it would be more... festive," Nagito said, trying not to look disappointed and failing at it. Hajime laughed. "No silly, you have to decorate it!"

Nagito blushed and stared at the ground. "Yeah, totally, I knew that." Hajime chuckled again, and noticed just how cute Nagito was when he blushed like that... no! He wasn't allowing himself to think like that.

"Heads up!" Hajime yelled and chucked the ball that was old Christmas lights at Nagito. Nagito caught it with ease. "What do I do with these?" He asked.

"Untangle them while I get the ornaments," Hajime ordered. Nagito did as Hajime asked while Hajime ran downstairs into their storage room to get some Christmas ornaments. It had been a week since Nagito told them about the School. Hajime had finished the first semester of school and was now off on winter break. Meanwhile, Nagito had completely demolished the tiny microchip, and he looked glad to do it. Then Hajime's mother had thrown the dust that was the microchip away, saying that when the garbage men took it away, it would be gone forever.

Hajime and his mother had started researching anything to do with what Nagito told them. Anything about the School, human experimentation, this Dr. Truman person. They even typed bird kids into Google to see what it would spit out. But they kept pulling up blanks and it was frustrating Hajime and his mother. They had decided to take a little break for the holidays, they were sure Nagito would understand. Now, Hajime and Nagito were going to decorate the Christmas tree.

Hajime found the ornaments and ran back upstairs to see that Nagito had successfully straightened out all of the Christmas lights. Hajime's jaw dropped. That would have taken him hours to undo! It took Nagito mere minutes! "How did you do that?" Hajime asked, trying, and failing, to hide how impressed he was.

"I'm good at undoing knots," Nagito said simply. Then he looked at the sea of Christmas lights at his feet. "What do we do now?"

"Now we put them on the tree," Hajime said. Nagito picked up the lights, stared at them, and then threw them at the tree.

"Hey! What was that for?" Hajime yelled as he lunged for the lights that bounced off the tree. He grabbed them just before they hit the floor. "They're breakable! You don't just yeet them at the tree! They'll shatter!" Nagito flinched and looked at the ground. "S-sorry," he mumbled. Hajime sighed and demonstrated to Nagito how to put the lights on the tree. Nagito shakily followed Hajime's instructions and weaved the lights in between the branches. "How do you not know how to decorate a Christmas tree?" Hajime asked. "Have you never celebrated Christmas?" Nagito looked up from the tree and stared at Hajime. Hajime immediately felt bad. The kid was an experiment from a lab, of course he's never celebrated Christmas! "Oh, yeah, um, I'm sorry," Hajime mumbled with an embarrassed tone. Nagito gave a shy smile. "It's alright." And continued decorating the tree. But that got Hajime thinking. Nagito was raised in a lab, how did he know so much about the outside world?

"Hey, Nagito? How do you know about Christmas?" Hajime asked before he could change his mind. Nagito thought for a second before he said, "I've mostly read about it, but I've seen a Christmas tree before."

"Where?" Hajime asked, curiosity sparked.

"Once, when I was smaller, the Doctors from the School must have wanted to lighten the mood, or whatever, so they put up a Christmas tree in the room I was kept in. I remember looking at it and thinking it was really pretty, and feeling happy, for once. But then one of the baby mutants, one of the healthier ones, got out of their cage, walked over to the tree, and started chewing on the lights. Long story short, they got electrocuted and died. So the Doctors never put up a tree again." Nagito chuckled to himself. "Man Truman was pissed." Hajime was astounded by how calmly Nagito retold his story. "What?! That's so sad! You must hate Christmas then!"