Danganronpa One Shots

Hinagami angst

A/N by hinagami i'm referring to Aoi x Byakuya but i may also use it to reference Aoi x Sakura in the future.

Byakuya pays off the other swimmers at a competition to lose and Hina finds out.

Hina looked up at the stopwatch. 104.02 seconds. Dammit. Leaning over her hands on her knees, she tried to regain her breath.

Her coach patted her on the back and threw a towel over her shoulders, "Don't sweat it Hina, you still won." Hina looked back, behind her a few of the swimmers were just making it out of the pool and some were still in the water. Huh.

She was led, by her coach, to the podium where she stood atop the first-place stand. As always, she smiled proud, even if she didn't feel it but the crowd roared for her nevertheless, among them she could see Byakuya at the front trying to simultaneously cheer for her - and he did genuinely look proud - while also trying not to touch a crowd member who was getting too close for comfort.

This was enough to make Hina actually smile as she was presented with a gold medal. Not too big of a tournament, only state championship, she was basically guaranteed a spot in regionals being the ultimate swimmer and all, but she still felt like every competition mattered and this win just didn't feel right.

After getting her photo taken, Hina was led away again by her coach and taken to the locker-room. Her coach left her there and she opened her locker to grab her shower supplies, as the other swimmers came in and congratulated each other. No one spoke to her until a girl with a silver medal came up to her.

"Congratulations, well done on your win." Then she muttered under her breath, "Not that you earned it."

"What'd you say?" Hina definitely heard that.

"I just said that you deserved it and I'm sure you boyfriend is so proud," the 2nd place girl snorted before walking over to the other swimmers, who all seemed to know each other, and started giggling.

"Don't let it get to you, Hina, I'm sure it's just their way of being nice," Hina whispered to herself, "just brush it off, Hina."

She took her took her things and headed for the showers. Not long after she entered a cubicle, some of the other swimmers came into the room.

"That girl doesn't know how lucky she is." said one of them to the group.

Another replied, "Yeah, I mean she doesn't officially have a spot in nationals, but everyone knows she has a spot in nationals."

Were they talking about her? Hina refrained from turning on the shower, surely they didn't realise she was in there.

"And she doesn't even deserve it, ultimate swimmer my ass, did you see how she swam today?"

Hina's stomach dropped. Why would they say those mean things about her? Jealousy?

"I bet her boyfriend paid for that title, as well as everything else."

"Rich brats just get everything handed to them, they wouldn't recognise hard work even if it punched them on the nose."

"Byakuya? What does he have to do with anything?" Hina whispered to herself before clamping a hand over her mouth and listening carefully.

"Lucky for her, we all just so happened to be needing money right now, or that first place medal would be mine."

Clearly they hadn't heard her.

"Hey, let's not lie, you still tried your hardest, you're just not good enough, it would've been me who won."

"You came last!"

"Yeah because I was paid to let her win, we all were, clearly you didn't get the memo."

They began bickering amongst each other and Hina didn't care anymore if they knew she was there so she turned on the shower and blocked out all the noise, letting the tears run down her face.

Was all what they were saying true? How could Byakuya do that?

Hina needed to confront him quickly so she showered as quick as she could with sore muscles, and raced out of there. She didn't bother to dry her hair, only putting it into a bun, way more floppier than her usual signature look, and after collecting her gum bag from the locker, she sped outside where everyone was waiting for her.

"Miss Asahina! How do you feel on your win?"

"Aoi Asahina, is there a reason why you struggled today?"

"Are you sure you can win regionals again this year?"

The common fuss of the paparazzi swarmed Hina, she was used to this after every meet but today she just wasn't in the mood to address any questions.

Pushing her way through the crowd, Hina made it to where her coach was waiting for her as always, along with Byakuya.

Byakuya beamed when he saw her," Well done on your win, Hina, I'm so prou-

"No, I don't wanna hear it from you. I know what you did, Byakuya." Hina made her usual stompy pose she made when she was angry, she knew it made her look pathetic but she couldn't help it.

"Hina, what's wrong? Do you want some donuts we can go get some if you li-

"No this is not about donuts. You can't just buy pay to make bad things go away, y'know, some people actually have to work hard to get what they want." Hina huffed, "Why would you pay the other swimmers to let me win?"

Byakuya was taken aback, then he looked like he was about to lie, then he pushed his glasses up his nose and sighed, "You weren't meant to find out about that.."

"So what? I was just supposed to go around blissfully ignorant, is that how you think I am all the time?" Hina pushed her nails into her palms to try subdue the tears.

"Hina, you've been struggling lately and it's getting you down, I just didn't want to see you like that, I thought a win would make you happy and give you the motivation you've been lacking, I'm sor-

Hina could feel the tears falling from her eyes now, "No, sorry doesn't cut it. Don't you get how humiliating this is for me? If I don't work things out by myself I won't get anywhere in life, that's why I'm the ultimate swimmer!"

With that, Hina jogged off, warding away a few more reporters and heading off into the distance. Not turning around when her coach shouted her name, not turning around when Byakuya shouted her name, not even turning around to see Byakuya's look of disgust when her coach put his hand on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't have done that Mr Togami, but what's done is done, she'll be ready to talk after at least half-dozen donuts," To Byakuya's relief, the contact only lasted a few seconds, "But you have to make up for what you did, and not with money."

Byakuya sighed in the back of the car, which was significantly lacking in a certain bubbly personality, he placed a hand on the leather seat and the chauffeur drove him away.