Raising hope (Danganronpa Trigger happy havoc fanfic)

Chapter 6

When the announcement rang through the school, we all got ready and went to breakfast. Although when I was about to grab a plate, a stoic voice cut me off.

"Asu brought two plates with her; I'm guessing ones for you." Kyoko said before grabbing her own plate.

I nodded and made my way to the warehouse and found Asu sitting in the middle of the room, lost in her thought eating breakfast. Another plate was on the chair, which I guessed was mine.

But something caught my eye... Unlike usually... Asu seemed... at ease herself. It felt like she was in her own world at that moment... I know staring is rude but... I couldn't help but admire her... She was full of mysteries for sure, but... I felt safe around her.

It seemed she noticed me staring at her because the next thing I knew she was looking at me, "Oh, hey... how long have you been here for?" She asked.

"O-Oh! Uh not long... yeah I just arrived! Kyoko told me you brought two plates here so uh I guessed you wanted to like... eat here to get things started faster."

She chuckled and smiled, "You know... I felt you staring... it's rude to stare at people you know..."

I chuckled while rubbing the back of my neck looking at everything but her "I-I know... I just couldn't help it... you looked so at ease I just-"

I stopped talking when our eyes met, we were both looking at each other in silence. The silence was heavy but... she didn't seem to mind. Her eyes seemed to examine my expression.

She seemed to finally notice that it had become awkward, she cleared her throat, "Well, I got you a plate so eat up."

Our eyes didn't meet the entire time we were eating. There was something in her eyes from back then... I remember it having a certain sparkle... which now was gone and replaced by the sparkle from the light hanging from the ceiling.

She finished eating before me, and simply sat there lost in her thoughts.

"Are you staring because you're done eating?"

"What! No no! I'm so sorry! I don't know why I-"

She laughed, "Calm down I was just joking, well since you love staring I won't take the risk, you're going on the ladder today."

So that's how I ended up on the ladder... which felt awfully less stable than she made it seem yesterday...

"Erm, there's... probably six dozen donuts here... for some reason... who needs to eat that much- AH"

The next thing I knew, the ladder came undone under me and I fell... I landed on Asu which had tried to catch me in the fall. We both fell to the ground with a grunt.

"I told you I had bad luck with ladders... Sorry."

She rubbed her head, "Don't worry about it... I mean it was probably old anyways. Are you okay though?"

I nodded, "You?"

"I'm fine, although... now we have no way of reaching the top shelves...."

She seemed to be thinking for a bit before speaking up, "Hey... have you gotten closer to Sakura or Mondo?"

"Not really, the only people I would consider myself close to are you and Sayaka, why?"

"Well, they're tall so I just thought they could help us and all..."

"I mean we could always ask them, I know Sakura and Aoi have gotten closer so we could maybe ask the both of them." 

"We could ask them."

Although when she said that she seemed to lose all interest.

"Is something wrong?"

She glanced at me, "No... I just... the real reason I was doing the inventory was really to keep myself occupied... but I guess if there are no more ladders I don't really have a choice to ask someone else to do it."

It's only now I really noticed the darkness under her eyes. 

"Have you been sleeping well?" 

She was about to answer but was cut off when the door opened. 

"Hey, I heard there were donuts he- what are you both doing on the floor?"

I was about to say something, but she cut me off, "Ladder broke."

"I see, well if you wanted to keep the inventory going maybe you could ask Sakura, I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

Asu shook her head, "No it's fine, I think I'm just not gonna do it anymore... thanks for offering though."

I got off her and she got up and left the room and waved to us. I waved to Aoi and followed her, but I had already lost her...

"If you're looking for Asu, she's in her room, but I advise you not to disturb her." A voice with a tick accent answered.

I nodded and simply went on with my day without seeing Asu for the entire time. The way she was acting was odd, but is there really anything I could do except wait for her to open up...