Am I in Love with You? ~Karma Akabane X Reader~

Chapter 2

  You let out an irritated grunt once you'd stepped into the classroom of 3-E and apathetically made your way to your desk at the back of the class. You broke into another mouth-splitting yawn just as you sat down after dumping your books on your desk. You sighed. The cause of the lack of enthusiasm in your usually cheerful attitude today was because you barely got any sleep from the weekend before, and the reason for that was because... of a certain sadistic redhead who stole your first kiss...

It took you a moment to realize that you had unconsciously placed your hand over your lips when you reminisced about the kiss from the week before. Your cheeks immediately blushed pink at the realization.

"Eh, (Y/ N)-chan? Is that you?" your ears pricked up at the mention of your name being said by a voice that you'd dreaded all weekend to hear. "Wow, you sure look awful."

In a blink of a tired eye, the mischievous face that belonged to none other than your seatmate and the cause for your sleep depravity, Karma Akabane, popped up in front of you. He was flaunting his infamous smirk, obviously enjoying the sight of you suffering. There was no doubt that he was one of the most sadistic teenage boys in the world. "What happened?" he questioned, smirking ever-so-deviously.

Your eyebrows knitted in annoyance as you resisted the urge to slap him right across that arrogant and sadistic face of his. You pinched the bridge of your nose between your thumb and index finger and sighed, "It's none of your business, Karma-kun."

Karma raised an eyebrow, amusement written clearly across his face. "Oh? Something that (Y/ N)-chan doesn't want me to know?" he teased. "What have you been up to, huh?" You paid him no attention as you stared listlessly at your desk.

"Something dirty, perhaps?" you then heard him whispered into your ear and you squeaked, nearly jumping out of your seat in surprise. Your chest was heaving up and down rapidly as you tried to recover from your abrupt scare. "Jeez, Karma-kun! Don't ever do that again!" you yelled after you've regained your composure.

The redhead responded with a satisfied smirk and went to sit down at his desk, placing his arms behind his head as he leaned back against his chair. "Well, I wasn't kidding when I said that you look awful though." He said nonchalantly. "I thought you'd be happier about meeting Isogai after school today, not showing up to class looking like a zombie instead."

"Wow, you really do know how to make a girl swoon, Karma-kun, being told that we look like an undead corpse is definitely what we want to hear every morning." You replied, your tone coated with obviously heavy sarcasm.

But as much as you hated it, he did have a point; you were going to meet Isogai, your crush for months, alone after school to confess your feelings to him. You should've been happy, you should've been nervous, you should've been panicking about ways to confess to him during the past weekend... but you haven't been. Instead, you've been exhausted, you've been confused, and you've only thought about the sadistic redhead and his kiss from the week before... Why was that?

"Alright, class, now that everyone has arrived, we shall start today's lesson!" Koro-sensei's cheerful voice then spoke up, interrupting you from your train of thought. You let out a faint sight and spared a glance at the red-haired male sitting beside you; he wore a bored expression, his mercury eyes were now devoid of even the slightest trace of the mischief from earlier, and were planted on the yellow octopus writing on the chalkboard in front of the class.

You tore your gaze from him soon after, deciding to focus on the lesson instead. But no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't seem to push aside the dilemmas troubling you since earlier... nor could you refrain your eyes from stealing several glimpses of your redheaded seatmate throughout the rest of Koro-sensei's class.


***


"Focus, (Y/ N)-chan!" you heard Nagisa called out, pulling you out of the dazed state that you were unaware that you were in. "Focus!"

"Huh? Oh, um, I'm sorry, Nagisa-kun." You apologized meekly and resumed to position yourself in the fighting stance that Karasuma-sensei had taught you. "Okay, go ahead." You gave him a nod, urging him to make a move.

It was currently the fifth period which was P.E class, which meant combat and assassination training. And today Karasuma-sensei had asked for the class to spilt into pairs to practice the fighting techniques that you've been taught every day since the start of the month. One person from the pair was going to use blocking and other similar techniques to defend themselves while the other fired punches and kicks at them. Normally, Karasuma-sensei wouldn't waste time teaching the class on self-defense but after seeing Karma's fight with Grip during your summer vacation, he'd decided to change his mind.

Nagisa threw a swift punch that was targeted at your stomach but you managed to block it just a few centimeters before his fist made contact. Your eye twitched vaguely as you realized that you were thinking about the red-haired male again. He was actually the reason that you got distracted from training in the first place; you've been sneaking glances at him from time to time while he practiced with Sugino a close distance from you and Nagisa. And once again, you caught yourself looking at him as you were thinking about him. You clenched your jaw; the only thing that you desperately wished that you could do, but was somehow unable to... was to stop thinking about Karma Akabane.

You were lost in your troubled thoughts of the redhead again when something hard struck your cheek abruptly with a great force causing you to fall back onto the grassy field from the harsh contact. A loud groan of pain erupted from you as your back met the hard ground with a loud 'thump'. Your right hand reflexively flew to your assaulted cheek and you winced; the pain from the fall had just begun to fade but only for you to be tormented with another kind of pain that probably wouldn't go away as fast.

"(Y/ N)-chan!" you then heard Nagisa called your name and shouts from your other classmates soon followed. You lifted your head up to meet Nagisa's face which bored a worried and panicked expression. "Nagisa-kun..." you murmured his name absentmindedly as you stared at him emotionlessly, your mind, which had been crowded with nothing but troubled thoughts and memories of Karma, was now completely blank. But luckily, your common sense returned to you moments later as you asked, "What... happened?"

Nagisa sucked in a deep breath, his troubled countenance told you that it wasn't something easy for him to say. "We were practicing and I... I accidentally punched you..." he admitted regretfully and immediately brought himself down into a deep, apologetic bow. "Honto ni gomenasai, (Y/ N)-chan!"

You blinked your eyes, allowing the bluenette's words to sink into your confused system. "It's... it's... alright, Nagisa-kun..." you assured, giving him a weak smile once you've finally understood him. "It was an accident, and accidents are inevitable in assassination training... I mean, if you hadn't punched me by mistake just now someone else will eventually, right? Better now than later." You tried to muster a laugh to give him some form of comfort and perhaps brighten the mood a little, but it came out sounding strained and kind of inhuman. You nearly cringed at the humiliation of your failed attempt.

"Kayano-san," Karasuma-sensei then called out in his usual loud and stern tone. You noticed the green-haired girl who was standing at your right straightened up her posture as she instantly cast her attention onto your formidable teacher; the sweat trickling down her forehead told you that she was obviously shaken by the sudden mention of her name and if that didn't give off the impression that she was intimidated by your rough-looking teacher, then her trembling hands at her sides certainly did. "H-hai!" she stuttered, eyes wide.

"Take (Y/ N)-san to the infirmary and get her some ice," he ordered and let out a sigh. "Might as well get her a bandage while you're at it."

"H-hai! Of course!" Kayano responded and gave him a salute. "I'll get right on it!"

The green-haired green then went to your side and bent down slightly, stretching her arm out for you. You looked up at her and she gave you a warm smile when she'd noticed your eyes had landed on her. You returned her smile and took her hand gratefully. "Arigato, Kayano-chan." You smiled once she'd pulled you back onto your feet.

Kayano seemed as though she was ready to reply to you when a loud and vaguely obnoxious voice pierced through the air, interrupting the green-haired girl. "KARASUMA-SENSEI!" the voice that could only belong to Nakamura shouted out. "I'LL GO HELP KAYANO-CHAN WITH (Y/ N)-CHAN!"

You then spotted the blonde pushing her way through the crowd of students that you were unaware that had gathered around you and before Karasuma-sensei could even mutter a response, the enthusiastic blonde had already grabbed you and Kayano by your arms and was dragging you two away at a speed that made you thought that she would make an excellent addition to the girls' track team.

It wasn't long before the three of you had reached the infirmary; Nakamura's hold on you and Kayano's arms were gone within seconds of your arrival. Once freed of the rambunctious blonde's grip, Kayano wasted no time heading to the back to get ice for your bruised and vaguely swollen cheek. You and Nakamura watched as the green-haired girl dashed off, an awkward silence slowly beginning to fill the air.

But before the awkwardness could envelop you, Nakamura spoke up, "Come on." She latched her hand onto your arm again, leading you to the center of the room and simply pulled forward a nearby chair, urging you to sit down. You obliged to her request without complaint. You glanced up at the blonde whose gaze was fixed intently on you, making you feel slightly self-conscious. "Um... Arigato, Nakamura-san." You thanked meekly.

"It's seriously no problem." She said and furrowed her eyebrows at you. "But would you mind telling me what that outside was all about?"

You were bewildered. "What are you getting at, Nakamura-san? I'm kind of confused..."

She let out an exasperated sigh. "I meant what you said out there to Nagisa-kun, the 'if you hadn't punched me by mistake just now someone else will eventually' thing. Really, (Y/ N)-chan? Everyone knows that you're a pro at fighting, there was never a kick that you couldn't miss and never a punch that you couldn't block... So what happened today?" she asked, her usual enthusiasm gone and was replaced with sheer worry. That was one emotion that you didn't see someone like Nakamura show every day. She was serious about this, and she really was concerned about you.

"I... I just got distracted, that's all..." you answered quietly, your eyes looking anywhere besides the blonde standing in front of you. "There's really nothing for you guys to worry about."

There was a pause, neither of you made a sound. "Liar." You heard Nakamura then said causing you to jerk up to meet her eyes... you really wished that you hadn't though. The blonde was shooting daggers at you and you could almost feel them piercing through your skin.

You didn't reply, neither did you speak at all. You remained silent, partly because you were shocked at how different Nakamura had treated you and partly because all the words in your vocabulary had somehow vanished, leaving you at a complete loss for words.

"I got the ice!" Kayano's voice boomed abruptly into the room followed by the sounds of her footsteps. "And I also found some bandages at the back too!" the green-haired girl added cheerfully as she came towards you and Nakamura. "They're new so they should work..." she trailed off once she'd taken in the sight of you cowering under Nakamura's scrutinizing gaze; the wide grin on her face faded almost instantly and her brows furrowed in bafflement. "What's going on...?" she questioned slowly, cautiously.

"(Y/ N)-chan's being annoyingly stubborn and wouldn't tell me what's messing with her." Nakamura answered bluntly, obviously still mad at you.

Kayano blinked a few times with knitted eyebrows, registering the blonde's words and probably deciding on a suitable response. "Nakamura-chan," she finally spoke after a moment. "I think that if (Y/ N)-chan doesn't want to share, then you shouldn't pry. It's her personal life after all, she has the right to keep it to herself." Despite what the green-haired girl had said, the expression on her face told otherwise; she was just as concerned about you as Nakamura, it was no secret that she wanted to know as well.

"Tch." Nakamura rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you seriously suggesting that we should just ignore whatever's stressing out (Y/ N)-chan and-"

"Fine!" you yelled suddenly, making the blonde stop mid-sentence and both her and Kayano's attention falling onto you. "I'll tell you guys." You sighed, finally choosing to give in.

"Really?" Nakamura's blue eyes brightened immediately and it made you suspicious if her serious behavior earlier was all just an act.

"Yes." You confirmed and you saw Kayano's face relaxed at your answer; she was clearly relieved. "But first, give me the ice." You held out your outstretched hand and your green-haired friend quickly placed the ice packet onto your palm.

Nakamura then leaned forward, eagerness written on her grinning face. "So? What's the problem?"

A sigh escaped your lips and you held the ice packet onto your swollen cheek. You sucked in a deep breath and murmured, "It's... Karma-kun."

Upon hearing the mention of the infamous redhead's name, both Nakamura and Kayano's eyes widened. "Karma-kun? Oh, god, what did that devil redhead do to you, (Y/ N)-chan?!" the blonde demanded, rage beginning to fill her limpid blue eyes. "Did he hurt you?! If he did, I swear, I'll make sure that he'll-"

"Not that I doubt your strength or anything, Nakamura-chan," Kayano interjected meekly with a weak smile. "But I don't think you'll be able to do anything more than slap him across the face."

Nakamura rolled her eyes and parted her lips to reply when you said, "It's nothing like that!" This caused both your classmates' eyes to land on you again, slight bewilderment and curiosity apparent on their faces. "He..." you began, suddenly finding it difficult to speak. "He... stole my first kiss..."


You bit your bottom lip as you waited anxiously for their reactions toward your confession. It was all rather comical really, at first, there was a brief pause while they allowed your words to sink in, then less than a second later, they were yelling, "EH?!"

Their reactions only made you cringe and bite down harder on your lip.

"WHAT?!" both of them later exclaimed in unison with wide eyes.

"W-w-when did this even h-happened?!" Kayano stuttered, haven't yet recovered from the shock.

"Last Friday..." you mumbled. "After school... he... he wanted to get back at me for playing that maid prank on him earlier that day..."

Nakamura let out a long sigh and took a seat down on one of the other chairs nearby. "So that's what's been messing with you." She shook her head slowly. "I thought it was something serious."

"Well, sorry that my personal issues aren't more exciting." You mumbled, slightly annoyed.

"Hey, hey, I said that I thought it was something serious, I didn't say that redhead sadist stealing your first kiss wasn't exciting," she clarified then added, "This is actually some interesting news, bet the perverted octopus would think so too."

"Yea, Koro-sensei would probably start stalking and trying to pair the two of you up if he knew about this." Kayano agreed, a grin plastered across her face.

You raised an eyebrow at them. "I thought that if I told you guys about this, you'll help me fix this. I didn't expect you guys to gossip about it, oh, wait... maybe I did."

"(Y/ N)-chan, the answer to your problem is simple," Nakamura then said with a triumphant smile. "You're only distracted by Karma because he was your first kiss, anyone would get infatuated with their first kiss. But, it's important to remember that the effects won't last, just give it some time and things will probably go back to normal between the two of you by the end of the week."


"Um... okay then..." you replied meekly. You wanted to trust the blonde's words, you really did, but a part inside of you doubted that they were true.


***


Your hands were clenched into fists at your sides in an attempt to hide their trembling. You had no idea what made you decide to go through with the outrageous plan that you'd thought up during the last two periods of class, but here you were, standing behind a wall just a short distance away from Karma's shoe locker where he was currently at and you were nervous, you were so incredibly nervous.

Just then, you heard the faint 'slam' of a locker door which made you jerk your head back towards Karma to catch him about to walk away. Panicked and without a second, you jumped out from behind the wall where you've been hiding and dashed after the sadistic redhead. "Karma-kun!" you called out to him.

He must have heard you as he halted in his tracks just a few inches from the exit. He turned around as you'd reached him, panting slightly. "Yo, (Y/ N)-chan." He greeted with his devilish smirk. You didn't know why but you felt a light blush spread across your cheeks at the sight of it.

"Whoa, Nagisa really didn't hold anything back with that punch." Karma stated as he saw your cheek which was plastered with bandages that Kayano and Nakamura had placed on you.

You rolled your eyes making his smirk grow and you gave him a serious look when you were reminded of your purpose for being there. "Look, Karma-kun, I... have a favor to ask of you."

The redhead raised an eyebrow at your words; his features showing only a hint of surprise. "This is interesting... you've never asked me for anything before, (Y/ N)-chan," he smirked, mischief gleaming in his mercury orbs. You resisted yourself from rolling your eyes at him again. "What's the favor?" Karma then inquired, sounding genuinely curious.

You took in a deep breath of air and somehow managed to get the words out. "I want you to kiss me!"

Karma's eyes widened vaguely; he seemed taken aback by your request, but you would be too if you were in his position. It wasn't every day that your seatmate for months comes up to you after school alone asking you to kiss them. "What?" Karma asked, his tone incredulous.

"I want you... to kiss me..." you repeated and sighed. "I don't think I can get much clearer than that."

The redhead's expression changed immediately after it seemed like he'd registered your words. "This just gets more and more interesting," his smirk returned and his eyes were lit with amusement and interest. "You mind telling me why you're making this request all of a sudden, (Y/ N)-chan?"

Your face burned red at his query; he probably knew that it had something to do with the kiss on last Friday and your request just gave him the perfect opportunity to tease you even more than he already did on a daily basis. You probably should've made up some false explanation or ran away then and there and forget that that conversation had ever happened... and yet... you chose neither and told him the truth instead. For what reason, you had absolutely no idea, but you speculated that it was just pure idiocy.

"I... After that kiss last Friday... I can't... stop thinking about you..." you nearly choked the words out, that was how hard it was for you to tell him. "Nakamura-chan says that it's just a temporarily effect from the kiss... b-b-but I wanted to make sure..."

Karma seemed to think for a moment before replying, "So in short, you think that getting me to kiss you again will make you stop thinking about me and getting distracted during classes?"

You nodded slowly, feeling embarrassed.

"I'll do it then." He then agreed to your favor, interest glinting in his mercury orbs.

You lifted your head up to look at him, relieved and grateful for his answer. You wanted to thank him, but somehow the words just wouldn't come out, and instead you blurted out something that was the total opposite of what you'd planned to say, "Alright then, kiss me already!"

"Demanding, are we?" he smirked and leaned in, closing the distance between you two until your foreheads touched. "You're just way too interesting." And with that, he crashed his lips onto yours.

Despite that it was on your order, your body went stiff as you were quite taken aback by the kiss. But you eventually relaxed, and you mustered up enough courage to kiss him back. You could feel him smirking into it but you paid that no mind as the only thing that you could focus on was the feeling of his lips on yours. His lips were incredibly soft and so very warm, you felt as though you could've melted at the contact. You then felt his arms wrapped around your waist and pulled you closer to him. The heat that radiated from his body made your legs go weak and your hands to grip onto the thin material of his shirt. The kiss and the sensations that it sent you were overwhelming and the scent of fresh soap that lingered on his body wasn't helping to calm your scattered thoughts either.

Your breathing was becoming heavy and your lungs burned for air, yet for some unknown reason, you didn't want to stop the kiss. In truth, you wanted more, you wanted so much more. You wanted to lose yourself completely into the kiss, you wanted him to touch your scorching skin, you wanted to be enveloped in his soothing warmth...

But before you could do anything that would lead to those desires from becoming reality, Karma broke away from you, his chest heaving up and down as he breathed rapidly. It took you a moment to realize that you were the same too, your lungs finally getting some relief as air flowed in and out from them.

"So did that help solve your problem?" Karma asked in a ragged breath. Though he did pull away from the kiss, your foreheads were still rested against each other's and your noses would brush occasionally.

You shut your eyes for a second and inhaled deeply before opening them again to meet Karma's mercury's eyes which left you awestruck. It was an obvious fact that Karma Akabane is extremely attractive, but looking up close now, you were tempted to call him the epitome of perfection. "I... I'm still not sure yet," you mumbled after being broken from your trance. "Let's just do it one more time." You said, biting your bottom lip, slightly concerned that he might not want to do so.

The ends of the sadist's lips tugged up into a smirk and he murmured, "Alright, but how do you expect me to kiss you again if you're biting on that sweet lip of yours?"

Your face immediately went crimson red at his words and absentminded, you released your bottom lip from between your teeth only to have Karma's catch yours in another kiss. You kissed back instantly this time and without even a hint of hesitation. To have the feeling of his lips back on yours gave you comforting warmth, a vague sense of nostalgia, and a strong wave of euphoria.

You felt Karma licked your lips causing you to gasp, parting your lips in surprise. Your hands had freed Karma's assaulted shirt from your grasps somewhere during the kiss and your arms had found their way around the redhead's neck, pulling him down and giving him your permission to deepen the kiss. And he took it without reluctance.

Then one thing led to another and before you knew it, the two of you had broken away from the kiss as you couldn't fight off the urge for air any longer. Both your breathings were ragged and your face was flushed from the heat of the kiss.

Karma then held his hand up and touched your bandaged cheek; you had to refrain yourself from wincing. It wasn't that he was really rough or anything, his touch was the absolute opposite to be exact; it surprised you to see how gentle and careful he was compared to his usual sadistic self. Nagisa had just packed a little too much into that punch earlier...

"Remind me to have a talk with Nagisa tomorrow..." You heard the redhead murmured causing your eyes to lock onto his mercury ones. The way that he looked at you then made your breath hitched; his captivating mercury eyes were half-lidded and he wore a smile that you thought would make any girl swoon, including yourself.

"Well," he said, his hand leaving your cheek and he turned around to leave. "I hope I helped solve your problem."

"O-oh... um... arigato, Karma-kun..." you mumbled a little embarrassedly as you placed your fingers on your vaguely swollen lips.

"It was my pleasure." He glanced back, smirking at you and winked before walking off. You felt yourself heat up even more at his sly words; this boy was seriously a master at teasing.

Your eyebrows then rose up in puzzlement when you noticed the redhead had stopped just after he'd stepped through the exit. "Hey, weren't you supposed to meet Isogai after school today to confess or something?" he inquired without bothering to turn around to look at you. Your eyes widened immensely at his words as it dawned on you that you've forgotten completely about your meeting with Isogai.

Without even a word of 'thanks' to the sadistic redhead, you hurried out of the small campus and headed down the hill.