#d.i.c.e

Cake

The day that their mother died, Kimochi bought them a cake. Kokichi had been saving up money all year in hope's of buying something special, but he was pretty sure Kimchi had just taken money from their father's wallet while he was passed out. 

Their father liked to drink. That had never been a problem when their mother was around to pick up the slack. He wasn't abusive, but he was the type to let himself blackout and slack off, and there was no way he'd be good at raising two kids on his own. Neither of them had thought of that yet. That thought would come a few days later when their father went out one night and didn't return for two days because he forgot there was no one watching his kids.

For now, their mother had died and Kimchi had bought them a cake. He snuck it up to their bedroom, lighting two candles and almost dropping the lighter until Kokichi showed him how it worked.

"Today is our birthday," Kimchi had told him. His voice was hushed and excited, manic rather than happy. Kokichi didn't have the words to point out that his twin didn't look happy when he smiled or that the brightness in his eyes seemed... wrong. What he did have was the ability to take his brother's shaking hands in his own and copy his smile. He was pretty sure that he felt the way his brother looked, but he didn't know how to say that either, so he just nodded.

"Happy birthday," Kokichi whispered.

"That's right. It's just our birthday and nothing else okay?"

Kokichi kept nodding. "Okay."

Kimochi sang happy birthday three times until Kokichi stopped crying and sang along. He tickled him and blew raspberries on his cheek until Kokichi was laughing instead of crying. By the time they fell asleep, frosting on their faces and hands clasped, Kokichi no longer felt like his entire world was falling apart.

Friends

Kokichi loved his friends at Hope's Peak Academy. Everyday he came home with a story to tell. This classmate was so cool, that classmate was so lame, he dumped a bucket of water over this girl, he pretended to be a ghost to scare this guy. Kimochi found it very entertaining at first. But he also paid attention and he started to notice the things that he was pretty sure Kokichi didn't want him to. Scrapes and scuffs and strange marks that Kokichi tried to carefully hide.

Kimochi snuck around when Kokichi told stories to other Dice members, trying to log the things that Kokichi was too smart to tell him.

"Kokichi, what happened to your throat?"

"Haha. I was too slow and she caught me."

"Boss, what's on your head?"

"Don't worry about it. One of my classmates is just stronger than I thought."

"Are you limping?"

"Me? No way! You should have  your eyes checked."

Kimochi began keeping a list of names and stories, to make sure he wouldn't forget anything he learned.  A pattern emerged fairly quickly of who was and was not a problem, and Kimochi didn't like it one bit.

Kokichi liked catching Kimochi off guard, so he eventually caught Kimchi looking at his notes. Kokichi pounced on him when he was laying on the bed, snatching the notebook out of his hands to look at it, eyebrows climbing up in surprise. "What's this?"

Kimchi decided not to answer that. "Hey, would you be mad if I killed your classmates?"

Kokichi held his gaze for a long time before answering. "Yes and I think Bishop should follow you when you go out from now on."

"That's fair," he said with a shrug. Inconvenient, but fair. Kimochi thinks he should be able to get revenge on them, but he was willing to wait. They would slip up badly enough eventually and then Kokichi would leave them at his mercy.

Cold

"I'm pretty sure we're lost," Kimchi whispered. He was shivering and cold, but he'd forced Kokichi to wear the one pair of gloves between them, leaving him to rub his own hands together desperately for warmth.

Kokichi was the one that suggested they run away a few weeks later. They'd spent too many nights with hungry bellies for his liking and when the lights went off and didn't come back before their father did, he knew that they'd be better off taking their chances. It was Kimchi who had snuck their fathers wallet out of his pocket before they left, but there had been frightfully little actually in it.

"We're not lost," Kokichi told him. "I know exactly where we are."

Kimchi didn't look like he believed him, which was good since Kokichi was lying through his teeth. He definitely didn't know where they were and he definitely didn't know where they were going. Next time they ran away, Kokichi would wait until he could read a map properly at least.

"Fine, we're not lost," Kimchi said. "But we are cold."

Kokichi reluctantly nodded in agreement. He was shivering too hard to lie about it, even if  the lie was blatant. 

"If you cry, someone might take pity on us," Kimchi suggested. 

"What if someone tries to kidnap us?"

"We'd be warm?"

Kokichi glared at him. Kimchi sighed and moved closer. He opened his coat, pulling Kokichi practically into his lap and wrapping the coat around him.

"What are you doing?" Kokichi asked.

Kimchi placed their faces right beside each other. It was the warmest he'd felt in days. "I'm gonna keep us warm, that means you need to think of a plan, okay?" 

Kokichi nodded. "This is my fault."

"Even if we'd stayed, we would still be hungry," Kimchi said. "It would be dark and lonely and maybe dad would have forgot to come home one day anyway."

"It's not dark," Kokichi admitted. "And I'm never lonely if I'm with you, Kimchi."

Kimchi squeezed him tight. "And I'm not lonely with you. So... we'll be okay."

"We'll be okay," Kokichi repeated. He didn't know if he believed it, but Kimchi didn't lie like he did, so maybe it was true. And if it wasn't... Kokichi could find a way to make it true, right? He had to. 

Party

Kimochi was bad at sleeping. They were both, honestly, but in different ways. Kokichi was a light sleeper that would wake up if you looked at him too hard and Kimochi was restless, tossing and turning a thousand times before finally falling asleep. Despite this, they usually slept better when they were together.

Unfortunately, they didn't often sleep together. Kimochi liked to go out at night and Kokichi had school, which dictated that some night he had to actually go to sleep if he wanted to function normally. On the bad nights, when they were plagued with nightmares and insomnia and restlessness, Kimochi would take Kokichi out. On these nights, Kimchi was Dice's Leader, leading Kokichi and whoever was awake at the time on one of their more strange adventures.

"So who's this?" Kokichi questioned as Kimchi spread a blanket out before a row of graves. Bubbles popped her gum as she sat down on the blanket immediately and Poker leaned forward to read the grave.

"Jasu Horagini."

"This," Kimchi said with a wide smile as he held out the bag of goodies they'd picked up from the convenient store. "Is our grandfather for the night. We're throwing him a  retirement party."

Kokichi peeked into the bag, rooting around to see what he'd brought. "And tell us about our dear old grandfather." He pulled out a few generic cards, a pack of pens, and candles, throwing them all on the ground.

Bubbles picked one of the cards up, squinting at it in the darkness. "This is a birthday card," she said.

"No one said that we were good grandkids," Poker said immediately, snatching that card and claiming it for himself.

"So Grandpa Jasu used to be a Jazz player in his youth, a real passion for music. Once he met Grandma Anzu though, he decided he needed to pull himself together and get a stable job. He worked at his boring company for 45 years, had seven kids, and was the best baker at the company. Everyone loved him at the office and he celebrated every birthday."

Kokichi made a sound of delight as he pulled out the cupcakes and balloons. Poker immediately snatched the balloons while Kokichi fell to the ground on the spot to open the cupcakes and put candles in them.

"Grandpa was pretty cool," Bubbles said. She took the bag from his hands now that Kokichi was done with it, pulling out her phone to root through the rest. She tossed the lighter at Kokichi and immediately lit the candles on the cupcakes.

"What was the boring company?" Poker asked, pulling up his mask so he could see better as he scribbled on his card. He didn't have the good sense to take out his phone, moving closer to the candles for light.

He thought for a moment before deciding. "Blink incorporated," he answered. "They make black ink for pens. The name is a pun, but no one ever notices and Grandpa was always trying to explain the joke to everyone.

Kokichi snickered. "Grandpa told bad puns all the time, but they were bad because no one could ever tell they were puns. The company ruined his sense of humor.":

Kimchi smiled at his brother. "Now you're getting it."

"I bet his hearing started to go toward the end," Bubbles said. "So when he told puns, he'd be super loud and repeat them a bunch of times because he wasn't sure if anyone was listening."

Kokichi laughed. "He would! Hey, remember that time--" Kokichi launched into a story about Grandpa Jasu's work shenanigans while Poke blew up some balloons. Kimochi tied them to balloons, wrapping them around a small bouquet of flowers.

"Did you guys really just make up a whole life story about some dead guy?" A dry voice questioned. They all looked up to see a short haired blonde dressed in all black. She had what he thought was a cigarette in one hand and she was leaning against one of the nearby angel statues as she watched them.

"Excuse you, I didn't make up a thing," Kokichi said. "I was telling them about a cherished memory. Also, it's rude to crash a retirement party."

"I'm not crashing," she replied immediately. Her voice was so deadpan that it sounded like she was speaking at a drawl even when she wasn't. "I was invited. I'm a grandchild of one of his seven kids."

They all looked at each other before Bubbles reached down and pulled up the remaining cards. "There are extras, Her story checks out."

"Since you got here late," Kimochi added, "You have to tell a story about Jasu."

The girl shrugged, putting out her cigarette on the statue before moving closer. "Let me tell you about how Grandpa accidentally made my parents get divorced." Despite the setup, the story was actually kind of amusing. Kokichi argued with her about the details at numerous points, resulting in them all laughing.

Bubbles made a song that Jasu taught her while they ate the cupcakes, making sure to include multiple puns.

Poker claimed that grandpa taught him everything he knew about cards and once won a big prize gambling that he used to buy the family two new dogs.

By the end of the night, there were cards and balloons taped to the grave, as well as a pile of flowers that Bubbles picked around the graveyard.

That was how Kimchi first met Kanade Akamatsu, but it would hardly be the last.

Family 

Kokichi and Kimochi had always been small. Kimochi was convinced that they always would be, but Kokichi liked to say that they would have a growth spurt one day and end up taller than even Dano. Kimochi didn't believe that. Dano was almost as tall as the adults, it would take a miracle for them to get that tall, let alone surpass that height. He wasn't sure that Kokichi really believed it either, since he liked to say things that were more than he liked to say things that were true.

What Kokichi didn't have in height, he made up for in presence. Kokichi felt big. Kimochi was sure how he did it, but his brother was so good at making himself seem like the biggest, most important person in a room when he really wanted to. That was how Dano and Arisu ended up following them around. Kokichi was bossy and big and the two of them would run all over the playground if he told them to. And he had before. Multiple times. Kimochi mostly watched, sometimes laughing about it with Karin, who was too smart to run around just because Kokichi told her to.

Kimochi could get her to run around, but only because he didn't tell seven lies a minute or enjoy pranking people. As far as she knew, at least.

It was because they were small that people wanted to pick on  them. It was because Kokichi felt big that people took it too far. Kokichi didn't bend. He laughed in their faces when they tried to bully him and was usually too fast to catch. Sometimes they wanted to bother Kimochi, too, but he didn't play with them the way Kokichi did and those just ended up with fights. Not that they could tell the difference between him and Kokichi most of the time, which further led to confusion around them.

Arisa wasn't fast though. She was small and a little clumsy and quick to cry. That was why people made fun of her. That was why Kokichi tried to protect her. That was why when the bullies had knocked Kokichi off the top of the monkey bars and pulled Arisa's hair until she cried, Kimochi saw red.

He didn't really remember running at them or punching them, but he did remember Dano having to pull him off the other boys, even though they were bigger and older. He knew someone was yelling about getting a teacher and the bullies had stopped fighting him. He knew that when he looked over at Kokichi, trying to comfort Arisa, that he looked at Kimochi like he was very worried about him and that look took all the fight out of his body.

Dano kept his hands on Kimochi's shoulders after sitting him on the edge of the sandbox, as if he was afraid that Kimochi would get up and attack someone again. Karin bandaged his knuckles really carefully, which he hadn't even noticed were bruised.

He looked at Kokichi. "You hate me?"

Kokichi made a face at him. "Don't be stupid."

"It's not a bad thing," Karin said. "Wanting to protect us. You just... that was really scary, Mochi. We were calling your name and you didn't respond to us at all."

Huh. He definitely didn't remember that. 

Kokichi stepped away from Arisa's side to flick Kimochi on the forehead. "You're a loose cannon, Kimchi. That's why I'm the boss around here."

"Is that so?" he asked, smiling just a little bit.

Kokichi pretended to look really mad. "Are you trying to take over my position? Is the Prince trying to remove the King?"

"I would never."

"Good." Kokichi smiled at him before stepping back over to Arisu.

They didn't leave each other's side for the rest of the day, even when the teacher threatened to give them all detention. They stuck close together during that extra hour after school and Kimochi realized that his brother wasn't the only family worth fighting for.

Milestone

Kokichi was the official leader of Dice, but everyone knew that Dice actually had two people that were in charge. Kokichi had the final say, but it was just as likely for them to go to Kimochi if they had a problem. Usually, the two of them worked together to make sure that everyone was properly taken care of. 

This only increased once he got into Hope's Peak Academy. Kimchi seemed to become twice as bust as soon as he stopped going to school. Kokichi couldn't count the days that he'd come home to find his brother surrounded by books, trying to research this or help someone with that.

Haru was failing chemistry and he'd asked Kimochi to do his homework so he wouldn't fail, and Kokichi in turn told Queen to tutor him so he'd actually learn something. Bishop liked to overwork himself, so Kimchi would steal his books and when he came to Kokichi for help getting them back, Kokichi sent him out on an errand while he "talked" to Kimchi. By now, Bishop recognized that it was a ploy between the two of them to make him relax, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Kimchi was a good writer and Kokichi was a chronic gamer, so he started doing work writing articles on games that Kokichi played. This resulted in free games for Kokichi and half the work for Kimchi, since Kokichi was good at explaining his thoughts for Kimchi to write down. Sometimes they argued over whether a game was good or not, but that just ended up with a more varied opinion to put in the articles and all parties ended up pleased. Kimchi took other online work, Kokichi knew, but he was never sure how much. Kimchi wasn't quite as impulsive and easily bored as Kokichi was, but he had similar habits of picking things up and dropping them at a dime. It didn't change the fact that Kimchi was a pretty stable source of income for them.

Not that the others didn't help. Several of them had part time jobs or did performances for money, but whenever Kokichi talked to him about it, his brother would just smile and knock their shoulders together. "Let me do this. You take care of the hard part."

Sometimes the hard part was Kimchi himself. The twins were remarkably similar, but that only meant that Kokichi knew all of the bad parts of himself were also in Kimchi. Kokichi would joke about doing awful things sometimes, Kimchi would mean it. 

He still remembers the week before Kimchi stopped going to school, when Kimchi had sent Dice after someone that had been a pain in their ass. He remembers seeing Kimchi standing over someone with a baseball bat, a ring of fire around them, as he laughed darkly. "Do you still think I don't mean what I say?" he had asked. "Do you still think I'm lying about my organization? Do you think I was lying about making you pay?"

Kokichi to this day still wasn't sure if Kimchi was just trying to scare them or not. All he remembers is Kimchi smiling at him, surrounded by Dice members Kokichi had never seen before, and proclaiming, "Looks like your savior is here. They're your classmates too, Kokichi, what do you say?"

Kokichi was always good at wearing a mask. "I think we could let them off with just this warning if they begged, right?"

They did beg. Kokichi felt a little sick, but he didn't show it. They deserved to be scared after what they had done, but that was all that they deserved. And afterwards, once the fire was out and the bullies were gone, and Kokichi had given new orders to unfamiliar Dice members as if it was his birthright, he sat on the ground with his brother. Kimchi had placed his head in Kokichi's lap and laughed, sad and weak. "Do you hate me yet for being your evil twin?"

Kokichi answered like he had always answered, "Don't be stupid." Because even if Kimchi worried him sometimes, he still hadn't done anything unforgivable. Kokichi planned to keep it that way. He stroked his twin’s hair, watching as Kimchi closed his eyes but didn't relax. He rarely relaxed anymore. Kokichi hated it.

"Hey Kimchi..." he whispered. "Maybe... you need a break."

There was something dark and tired in Kimchi's eyes. "Are you sending me to jail?" he asked. It was meant to be a joke, but it didn't sound like one.

Kokichi didn't make it sound like one either. "Yeah. I'm sending you to jail."

Kimchi sighed. "I promise that I wouldn't have let them hurt anyone, Chichi. I would never ruin Dice for you, they know what the rules are."

And Kokichi believed him. Kimchi had never ruined anything of Kokichi's on purpose, except himself. He'd wrapped himself around his twin, holding Kimchi tightly as Kimchi held him back. "It's okay, I love you."

"I love you, too, Chichi," Kimochi whispered back. "I love you so much."