'I should probably stay away from him, he deserves a chance to fit in with the class, everyone hates me and will probably hate him by association.'

"Now, Hajime, how did you convince your parents to transfer here?" Chiaki says - I can't tell if she's excited, mad or curious, maybe a mix...? 

"Well, it did take some time but my main "argument" was that you were here and you could help me study or something similar." he says in a pretty normal tone, then he sighs and starts sounding sad/disappointed. "I guess they also let me come here so I could have "fEmInInE fRiEnDsHiPs" that could help "fix" me..." 

'what does he mean by that...?'

"I swear I'll punch them if they say shit like this again."

'woah, don't think i've ever seen Chiaki cuss before'

"At least they didn't..." Hajime pauses. He's confused for a second, then he looks at me "ah, nevermind ... I forgot you were here... sorry..." 

'... I got in the way of their conversation. I only bother people, I should apologize for staring, my lowly self is in no place to get involved with them.'

"Ah, no, don't apologize. I was probably intruding. You can continue, I'll mind my own business. Trash like me shouldn't overhear anything, my deepest apologies."

( Hajime pov ) 

"You're not trash... you seem nice just - this is just an awkward topic to talk about in front of someone i just met" i say trying not to sound rude.

'he'd probably hate me if he knew anyway, i'll talk to Chiaki during lunch break...' 

"It's okay, I get it, it seems personal." 

As Nagito says that 2 more people walk in, a short blond and a pink haired person. 16 people now, me included. Every site is taken.

Chiaki looks at the people who just arrived.

"Well talk about it during lunch, but Hajime you don't have to worry, no one here would judge." 

'is Chiaki serious? Last time I told someone I was trans it spread around and I was left behind even by my closest friend. I don't want to risk it so soon'

"Chiaki i told you what happened last time, i'm not sure if it's a good idea-"

"I swear, it's fine Hajime, there are other-"

"Chiaki, new student, sorry to interrupt, but you can talk during lunch" the redhead teacher says, she's nice. Nicer than my previous teachers at least. "Now, new student, do you mind coming here for a second? It'd be nice if you could introduce yourself to the rest of the class."

I follow her to the front of the classroom. Everyone's eyes are on me. 

"So, what's your name? And do you mind sharing your pronouns?"

'This is it, if I pass well enough there won't be any scandalous reactions... if i don't... let's not think about it...'

"Ah... okay. My name's Hajime Hinata, he/him... nice to meet you" My heart almost pops out of my chest as i wait for their reaction. 

"Nice to meet you Hajime" a girl with hair as red as a tomato says. A few other people join in. Saying things like "is your hair like that normally or did you do it on purpose?" or "You're probably as much of a lost case as pig barf" and "Woah you were talking to Chiaki, are you guys dating?".

'they're nice enough - anything is better than my old classmates i guess' 

"..." - Chiaki looks uncomfortable, maybe she feels bad for me? - "Guys let him breathe"

"Right-! Ibuki is sorry!"

"I don't really mind, I just think this is interrupting class, isn't it ... miss...?" I look at the teacher trying to figure out her name.

"Miss Bustier, and don't worry, first period can be used for you to start getting to know each other."

"Oh, if it's okay then..-"

Then, one person in the middle row gets up and extends their hand. 

"Byakuya Togami, they/them." - I grab their hand and shake it, their grasp is quite firm. 

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Me and Chiaki were class representatives last year, so it still feels like a duty to talk to new students."

"I see, well, thank you anyway."

'They/them huh... i guess Chiaki was right, i mean she normally is but, i don't know how the others feel about it and ... yeah, i'll just wait.'

We drop the handshake and they go back to their seats, next to the energetic person from earlier, who called themselves "Ibuki". 

'Should i go around introducing myself or...?'  - Chiaki notices me just standing there like an idiot and approaches.

"You know they don't bite, right?"

"Yeah, I'm just a bit nervous, that's all."

"Fair enough, I can go with you if you'd like." - She smiles softly.

"Sure"

She takes my hand and drags me to the person with pink hair seated next to Nagito.

"Hey man, I'm Kazuichi Soda, he/him." - the boy says with a grin - "don't flirt with Miss Sonia! I already have my eyes on her!" 

"Oh ... sure-"

"He's obsessed with Sonia and likes to play mechanic" Chiaki gives a short explanation. 

"Hey! I don't PLAY mechanic, i AM a mechanic!" Kazuichi complains. 

Chiaki is already taking me to the second table where we found a short blond person from earlier and a gray haired one with braids who I hadn't paid attention to. The blond was sitting on the corridor seat and the one with braided hair was near the window. 

"Hey, the name's Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, he/him" The blond says. 

"...Wait - Kuzuryuu-?" - 'Is he Natsumi's brother..?'  - "This might seem random, but do you have a sister?"

"Huh? I do, why does that matter?"

"Ah, nothing, I just used to study with your sister, we're friends, though, I don’t think she’d admit it."

"Weird, my sister never mentioned any one named Hajime, but she did mention -" He stops for a bit, thinks and lets out an "oh- wow i didn’t recognize you at all-”.

'i'm so fucking stupid - i can't keep my mouth shut even if my life depended on it.'

Trying to change the focus of the conversation I look at the one with braided hair.

"Peko Pekoyama, she/they." She responds, noticing I'm staring.

"Oh, nice meeting you guys, hope we can have a good school year" we walk away - 'i don't talk like that what the hell- Chiaki is gonna make fun of me in 3... 2... 1...'  

"What was that? You never talk like that" - Chiaki says chuckling.

"Haha, very funny. I was nervous - can you blame me?"

"Fair enough I guess..." She yawns and takes me to the next row, where I see another blond and a... person with hamsters-? Why do they have hamsters-?

The blond is the first to speak up. 

"Hello, I am Sonia Nevermind, she/her. And as the princess of Novoselic I must welcome you with all my might! I hope you feel comfortable here in our class!" 

Then the person with hamsters speaks up.

"Peasant! You shall feel welcomed here! For I, the great demon Gundham Tanaka, he/they, welcome you to the highest ranking class!" - 'I don't know what i was expecting but this wasn't it.'

"Thanks...!" I try smiling but this is awkward, luckily, Chiaki pulls me away before i could fuck up.

Next row, we're back to "our side" of the classroom. A Person with messy looking purple hair and someone with brown curly hair and a darker skin tone sit chatting.

"Hey hey, Mikan, Akane.." she uses her head to point at me. I don't know which is which, so I just awkwardly wave and whisper a "hi".

"O-oh hello Hajime, I-i'm Mikan Tsumiki, she/they." The one with messy hair says. 

"And I'm Akane Owari, she/her, nice to meetcha!" The one with curly hair says shortly after.

"Sorry girls, we only have a few more minutes and 5 more people to talk to, I'm sure he'd love to talk to you later though." - 'she sounds a bit mad, i guess she's mad about my parents only letting me come because it could maybe make me "go back", like hell that's happening...'

We turn around and I see "Ibuki" and the previous class rep.

"Oh oh! Hey Hajime! Ibuki's name is Ibuki! She's a She/Her but doesn't mind any other pronouns! Nice to meet you!"

"This is Ibuki Mioda, she really likes writing and playing songs. Though they don't really match her personality ... which, I guess would be the best fit..." Chiaki looks lost in thought, I should probably talk to them before going to the next rows.

Byakuya just gives me a nod.

"Nice meeting you both"

"Ibuki is glad she finally met Hajime! Chiaki talks about you a lot!" - I turn to look at Chiaki, she doesn't seem embarrassed, and looks like she's still thinking about Ibuki's song writing.

'Doesn't seem like she told them anything weird...'

"Wait, really-? ...Anyway we should get going for now, but we can talk more during lunch" I grab Chiaki's hand and slightly pull her to the seats by the back of the class, she snaps out of her thoughts and yawns. 

"I didn't say anything weird if you're wondering" 

"Yeah, i guessed it" 

We take a few steps in silence. When we get to the table, yet ANOTHER blond is there, alongside the tomato-like short haired one from earlier.

"Sorry about earlier, i'm Mahiru Koizumi, she/her." The redhead says with a comforting smile on her face.

'She has freckles, that's pretty.'

Then I turn to the blond, who seems to be irritated.

'Why do all blonds have such strong personalities-?'

"Soooo.... Chiaki, are you dating him? He looks like a creep, I bet he takes advantage of you while you sleep." - ' ... is she serious-?!'  - I look at Chiaki, who yawns.

"Hiyoko, I'm not dating Hajime, and he'd never do that."

"Seriously Hiyoko? Already pestering the new student?"

She starts tearing up and sniffling.

"... Whaaaaaaa!! Don't get mad at me..! I was only worried for Chiaki!" She continues crying. - 'God - where did she get that lung capacity - this is so loud-' 

No one in class seems to mind, seems like this is a common occurrence ... I'm not looking forward to that.

"..."

"It's okay, Hiyoko, just stop messing with him."

"Are you sure big sis Mahiru..?" - Mahiru looks at me and I reluctantly nod.

"Yeah, Hajime says it's fine."

In the blink of an eye her expression changes and she giggles. 

"I can't believe you fell for those fake tears, you're all such pushovers pfft."

Chiaki pouts and drags me to the final desk. There I see a tall muscly masc presenting a person with blue hair, not like that's their major feature tho - seriously how did they gain so much muscle mass? By their side, I see a short chubby person, they have brown hair and some sort of sidecut.

"I am NEKOMARU NIDAI! Mostly use he/him pronouns but I'm fine with anything. Please also introduce yourself loud and clear!!" - the muscly guy says.

"ah- i'm Hajime Hianta, he/him, pleasure to meet you"

"You look a bit scrawny, how much do you eat daily? Do you sleep well? What does your shit look like?"

"Wha-"

"Nekomaru... i think you're scaring Hajime '' - Chiaki says, yawning once again.

'Did she even sleep yesterday-?'

"Shit man- sorry, just want to make sure my classmates are in top shape!"

"I-it's okay"

"Aham, bonjour, monsieur Hajime" - the short person says. - "I hate to interrupt your conversation, but I'd like to introduce myself."

"Oh, i'm sorry-"

"I don't mind, my name's Teruteru Hanamura, he/him pronouns, but don't mind they/them. I'd like to get to know ya, clothes are optional~"

"Uhh- pleasure to meet you, i'll be keeping my clothes, thanks."

"What a shame"

"..." - 'well... this class… eccentric- to say the least' - "Uhh...- I think I heard from Chiaki that you cook? Do you have any favorite type of cooking?"

"Not really, why limit my possibilities? I cook a bit of everything'"

"Yeah! Teruteru is a great cook! His cooking is very nutricional too." - Nekomaru chimes in.

"I think you mean "chef". But, monsieur, If you'd like, I could bring you some of my cooking."

"Wouldn't it be too bothersome?"

"Nonsense! Why would I cook if not to satisfy people? I'd be throwing my hard work away if I didn't get my classmate to taste it. Either way, I intended on bringing food for everyone tomorrow."

"If you say so-" 

The bell rings. I turn around to see Miss Bustier, she leans on her desk and puts her clipboard. - "Class! Sit down please! You can chat with Hajime during break, let's focus on class for now, alright?"

"Such a shame, see you later, mon ami." - Teruteru says, grabbing his tablet.

I feel Chiaki pull on my sleeve.

"Hey hey, let's go" - she takes me back to our seats, I see Nagito looking at us.

I hadn't noticed this before, but his expression is almost unreadable, even if he has a calming vibe, kind of unsettling.

"Hope your tour went well, Hajime." - Nagito smiles. That calming smile again, I can't help but smile back.

"Yeah, it went pretty great, this class is ... eccentric" - not sure if that was the right thing to say, but now it's done.

"I guess you're right, hah" 

Lunch break finally arrives and I'm starving. I grab my bag and check for my lunch.

"Uhhm... Hajime, we serve food here." - Chiaki says, looking over my shoulders.

"Huh-? But i thought-" - 'well, that info would've been useful this morning'

"Yeah... you can eat the food you brought if you'd like, but it must be cold by now..."

"I guess so... You could've told me this sooner-"

"Well, I didn't know you'd transfer here."

"Touché-"

"I apologize for interrupting, but would you mind if I had lunch with you?" - Nagito says. - 'Damn, he's super quiet- what the hell-'  - "I understand if you think i'm too disgusting to be around-"

"Shut up, Nagito, of course you can have lunch with us..." - Chiaki pauses to yawn - "...we just have to talk about something private first, then we'll join you, okay?" 

Chiaki gives him one of her soft smiles, they're really comforting, I hope it reassures Nagito.

( Nagito pov )

'They're being polite, how wonderful of them. But trash should know its place, they're probably gonna ditch me'.  

"Hmmm... Hajime, i didn't want to say anything, but, you looked a bit pale while talking to the class" - i say - "not like trash like me can say anything, though". 

He becomes as pale as he was during introductions. - 'Of course, i fucked everything up again, typical me'.

( Chiaki pov ) 

"It's about the thing we need to talk about in private" - I say, Hajime seems to calm down a bit, he gets kinda jumpy, can't blame him, last time must've been awful if his color just drained on the spot. - "We really need to go if we wanna have lunch, Nagito, can you save us a table?" 

"Of course, Chiaki" - Nagito says, that same smile he always has on his face showing. I sometimes wonder why he smiles so much. He has self-deprecative tendencies so I doubt he's happy all the time. It would be insensitive to ask, though, so I just ignore those thoughts. 

'Hajime is kinda blunt when you know him well enough... I wonder how long it'll take for him to ask Nagito. 

"Want me to grab you guys something to eat as well?" 

"Just grab me an apple" - I respond - "I'm not really hungry, also, there's an event happening today in one of my favorite games, can't lose it".

"And you, Hajime?" - Nagito asks, he seems happy to meet Hajime.

"Ah- i can't ask you to buy me lunch- I didn't bring money and-"

"Don't worry about it, money's not an issue and it would be an honor to help out Chiaki's friend". 

"No, no, it's okay, I brought some food from home, not as tasty as it would've been earlier but...-"

"Hajime wants today's special, an apple and orange juice".

"Chiaki you can't just order Nagito around-"

"I'm not, '' he offered, “and I won't let you eat that cold tasteless food". 

"Yeah, Chiaki's not ordering me around or anything, and even if she was, it would be an honor" - Nagito keeps putting the class on a pedestal, or maybe he just thinks he's too lowly or something, I don’t know, I just don't like it. It’s a bit uncomfortable but it has gotten better recently, maybe it has something to do with Miss Bustier and her more… well, caring teaching, I guess…

I yawn. Both Hajime and Nagito look at me. - “Chiaki, when did you sleep last night? You slept as soon as I ended the call… right-?” - Hajime asked, not like I could hear him, tho- too sleepy…

‘Oh crap - I haven't talked to Hajime’. - “Hey hey, Nagito, Hajime and I will be right back.” - I grab  Hajime's hand and take him 

“Of course Chiaki! If any of you need anything from me I’ll be…” - he looks around for a bit - “...probably sitting in that table... on the corner, like usual - heh…” - he then proceeds to walk away heading towards the self-service part of the cafeteria. 

( Nagito pov )

‘I overstayed my welcome, didn’t I? Of course I did, who am I kidding? Certainly not myself.’ - as I walk away I turn around to see them one last time. They are walking side by side in a kind of awkward side hug. I feel a bit creepy and bothered staring like this so i just go towards the food section.

After grabbing everything, I head towards the table, sit and wait.

( Hajime pov ) 

As Chiaki takes me to whatever secluded place she's thinking of, i wonder if i’m being stupid worrying like this. I mean, Chiaki didn’t care and she knew me pre-transition… or well, whatever I've been able to pull off at this moment. 

“You know, Hajime…” - she speaks in an almost whisper - “I've said no one would judge and I mean it.” - she drops the hug - “You don’t have to come out or anything to anyone but don’t worry about mentioning it or i don’t know, joking about it. Gundham is an enby-trans guy, Ibuki is genderfluid, Byakuya is intersex and agender, Peko is a demigirl and… uhh… the list goes on, i guess…” 

“Oh-”

“Also, you outed yourself to Fuyuhiko and Peko, so…” - Chiaki yawns again. 

“Urg don’t remind me- he’s probably gonna talk to Natsumi about it too- and she’s gonna be all… well, Natsumi about it.”

“Oh?”

“She’s not gonna be transphobic or anything, I’m pretty sure, at least- but she’s for sure gonna start sayin’ some shit like ‘are you fucking serious Hajime?!?! Why didn’t you tell me, you fucking moron?????’ or something. And I just don't feel like dealing with that.”

“Wait if she’s not transphobic, why didn’t you tell her?”

“She still kind of talks to our old classmates - and not only that but i forgot too and just got anxious whenever i'm about to do it-”

“Fair, fair…”

“This chat… was a hell of a lot shorter than I expected- shouldn't we go talk to Nagito or something? I feel kinda bad for just essentially telling him to fuck off - i feel like he has low self-esteem and- yeah-”

“Mhm… Don’t worry, he understands. But I get what you mean, and yeah he has some… concerning tendencies. It’s gotten better since Miss Bustier started teaching us, tho-” 

( Nagito pov )

‘This is… kind of awkward… What should I look at..? There isn’t much to do…’ - I start fiddling with the napkin that I grabbed alongside our lunches. - 'I can't eat without them, that'd be rude... even trash like me knows basic ethics'.

Something tells me to look at the door, maybe intuition or anxiety, although it's probably just my luck - I can’t tell the difference at this point, and they seemed to be heading here.

‘When they said private chat i thought it would take longer… or maybe be an excuse to ditch me… But they aren’t that kind of people, I'm sure … please shut up, brain, this is very annoying to you.’

I get up, wave at them, and smile.

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