[ Heart Of Stone] Kokichi Ouma x Shuichi Saihara

~ Chapter 3 : Morning Light ~

He didn't know, not only was he crying in the dream, but he was also crying in real life.

Kokichi woke up, it was quite early, 4AM or so, maybe even earlier, but he couldn't sleep, there was a reason for this.
His roommate, who was sleeping on his chest, was crying.

He was confused, wasn't Shuichi a teenager? Why would he cry? Did he was a nightmare? Pathetic.

Shuichi started waking up, whimpering still.

Kokichi pretended to be concerned for him, he pretended to be sympathetic.
It was all a ruse.

Shuichi fell for it however, he smiled and wiped the tears away, thinking, no, believing, that someone finally cared about him and his feelings.

Little did he know....

Kokichi told Shuichi that he won't be able to go back to sleep because of this, Shuichi had apologized for that.

The two decided to dress and sit on the bed together, not saying anything.

They looked at window covered in barbed wire, small rays of light shined through the wire and into the room.

Shuichi was extremely tired, but didn't feel like going back to sleep, for some reason, he felt like being awake with Kokichi was better than falling asleep.
Then again, what if he got a different, even more gruesome, dream?
That wouldn't be nice.

So he stayed awake, sitting next to Kokichi, staring at the light.
He hoped this isn't what they were going to be doing for the next 4 hours.

His hopes weren't shattered, because Kokichi decided to come up with something for them to play.
At first, they played a short game of truth or dare, a small way to get to know each other better.
Then, they played the knife game, since Shuichi wasn't exactly confident, Kokichi had controlled Shuichi's hand when it was hit turn, he made sure not to hurt Shuichi.
Lastly, they played a never have I ever.
That was...not special.

The two had somehow played the 4 hours away, in those 4 hours, Shuichi had found out that Kokichi still acts like a child, which was interesting.

When the 8AM announcement went off, Kokichi quickly got up and stretched, the two haven't gotten up much in those 4 hours.
Shuichi did the same, the two decided to go to the dining halk before anyone else got the chance to.

The two practically ran there.
Kokichi thought this was fun, he figured that Shuichi isn't as boring as he thought he was going to be.

Indeed, the two got there before anyone else. They went further, into the kitchen connected to the dining hall and made themselves some tea and breakfast.
Afterwards, they went to the dining hall and ate together, it was actually quite peaceful.

Before the two knew, more people started coming in, but that was actually after they finished eating, mostly because they knew it was would look impolite if they were the only ones eating. 

More people started appearing and sitting around the large dining table.

Once Kirumi arrived, she asked what everyone wanted for breakfast and Shuichi and Kokichi confessed that they had already ate before everyone else had.

They may or may not have gotten kicked out of the dining hall.
By Kirumi specifically.

Kokichi laughed to himself and told Shuichi that that was fun and that they should mess around more often.
Shuichi smiled and blushed slightly, agreeing.
Was this what...having a friend felt like?

Kokichi started liking Shuichi more, seeing that he isn't boring and wasn't crazy like Miu.
The two decided to go to the courtyard and sit on a bench.

The two looked up at the blue, clear sky. It was so sad that they were stuck in this cage while the beauty of the outside world was right outside the wall.

The two sat there in silence, that is until someone walked up to them.
Rantaro Amami.
Shuichi looked at him and he started remembering his dream, he didn't make it obvious, but he was on the verge of tears.
Rantaro asked if he could hang out with them for a while, since he had nothing to do and everyone else seemed to be busy with other things.

The two said 'sure' and so, instead of two, there were now three of them, all hanging around, not doing much.

Shuichi couldn't help but remember his dream, Rantaro had died after all and now, he's seeing him, fine, smiling, happy.
The urge to tell Rantaro about his dream grew inside of Shuichi, but he also had a few reasons why he shouldn't tell Rantaro, after all, who wants to hear about themselves dying in someone else's dream?

The three chatted about nothing in particular.

Soon, the three just stared up at the sky, that is until Rantaro decided to say something.
Something that brought Shuichi to a bad place.

He said,

"I had a weird dream, and honestly I don't know whether I should or shouldn't be telling anyone but  honestly, does it matter? In this dream, someone made up a trick and tried killing me with a shot put ball but Shuichi found me and tried helping me. Surprising right? Anyway, according to my dream self, I have experienced the pain multiple times. And so, I pulled out a bottle of strong, lethal poison and drank the whole bottle. Shocking, yes? Anyway, all I remember after that was waking up"

Shuichi's eyes widened, and he confessed that he had the same dream but from his perspective.
Rantaro was shocked.

He asked Shuichi if he thinks Kaede, the one who brought Shuichi to Rantaro also remembers having this dream, or was she just a background character picked by both their minds?

The two couldn't exactly say.
Meanwhile, Kokichi listened, intrigued by all this dreaming.
Kokichi asked them some questions about the dream, Shuichi was hesitant to answer them, as he didn't want to remember, why would he want to remember Rantaro killing himself?

He remembers the document that stated some details about death of Rantaro, he remembered the last line.
It haunted him, could someone else be in the dream?
Could someone be controlling it?

That would explain how both Rantaro and Shuichi remember having this dream.
Going back to thinking about if Kaede could remember the dream as well or not, the three decided to go ask her personally, Kokichi only went with them because he thought this was interesting to listen to.

And so,
The three went off to find Kaede
.
.
.