Starting high school, Karma had been moved to the A class. The school recognised his academic ability, having placed number one in the second term finals the previous year in junior high. As they should have, a smug part of him thought. Not only that, but he had also improved himself in many ways because of a certain teacher of his. He had learnt to control his temper and stopped picking pointless fights – such actions would likely drop him down a class or two. Moving out of class A was not something Karma wanted anyways; it's much more fun when your rival's in the same class as you, after all.
The school bell rang – in Kunugigaoka High, the school bell signified the start of a new school day. Studying in a normal classroom would definitely feel strange after a whole year in Korosensei's assassination classroom. Karma walked towards his school – studying on the main campus after that year on the mountain would feel strange too. This was something entirely new but he was more ready than ever.
However, upon entering the 1-A classroom, he couldn't help but feel like something was missing. C'mon, it's only been a year since studying in a normal classroom. Why was he suddenly feeling empt-
"Akabane." He'd recognise that voice from anywhere. Karma's eyes drifted to meet cold, violet eyes. "The bell rang 5 minutes ago, you're late."
"Eh? It's better than missing class entirely – the teacher isn't here yet, anyways." He smirked, "you should really learn to let loose sometime, Asano-kun. Those wrinkles really spoil your complexion."
Asano only rolled his eyes in reply, muttering something under his breath before taking his seat near the front of the classroom. The only other empty desk was next to Asano. Great, he mumbled sarcastically before he too took his seat. Now, what was it he was thinking about again? Right. The feeling of emptiness he couldn't describe. Was one year enough to make him feel this way? No, maybe it wasn't class E. There was always a certain someone with him... but before Karma could further his thoughts, he could feel the piercing gaze of the student next to him. What was it with Asano and interrupting his thoughts today?
"What's the problem, Asano-kun~? Admiring my beauty?"
"You seem to be deep in thought," Asano looked smug, "having trouble adjusting to a normal classroom?"
Was it really the classroom that was bothering him? It felt like something else entirely. He didn't really feel like spilling everything to Asano so he simply shrugged and faced the front before their teacher finally arrived. Asano didn't bother him anymore after that.
-=+=-
"You like Nagisa-kun?"
"Yeah," he paused, "I... didn't even notice it myself at first. I kept denying it. I didn't want to believe it."
"Why not?"
"I didn't want to believe I would fall for someone like him," he trembled as he averted his gaze, "I thought he'd be happier with Kayano-chan. Even tried to hook them up, but then Kayano let him go. Anyways, I don't think Nagisa would ever like me that way."
"B-but he's your best friend! And he's great at reading people – especially you! Maybe he'll notice and-"
"Yeah, he's great at reading people – but when it comes to love, he's clueless. I just... don't really know what to do. I needed someone to talk to about this."
It was rare for her to see Karma like this. Unsure of what to say, she put on a gentle smile and tried to assure him the best she could.
"No matter what happens, I'll always be here to support you."
"Thanks, Okuda-san."
-=+=-
Homeroom was boring – although the satisfaction of having his name called before Asano's made him smirk. Shishido-sensei paled in comparison to Korosensei – in fact, all teachers paled in comparison to him. Their Maths teacher's inefficient way of teaching only proved this. Instead of wasting his time listening to stuff he already knew explained in a much more horrible way, Karma decided to be productive and do his own self-studying. After a while, he let his eyes drift off to his classmates – they all looked so plain, contrasting class E. There wasn't anyone attractive to look at either. Attractive? He really had to stop letting his feelings for Nagisa slip into his thoughts, none of this had to do with him.
"Akabane." Oh, so he finally noticed. Considering Karma was sitting near the front, it was shocking it took him that long to realise he wasn't paying attention to any of his babbling – Karma doubted any of the students understood it with the speed he was erasing the board with. "I see you're paying very close attention to my explanation."
"Wow! Kurokawa-sensei, did you know 3-E covered this last year~?" Karma could tell the whole class was staring at him, "I'd say you're pretty bad at teaching considering half the students here barely understand what you're saying."
"If you're that good, Akabane," he huffed, "why don't you come here and teach the class?"
"I'd love to." Karma wasn't kidding, he got up from his seat and practically snatched Kurokawa-sensei's chalk. It's not like he had anything better to do, anyways. He started writing what he knew about the topic and explaining it the best he could. Exactly how Korosensei explained it to us. It seemed like everyone else understood it too. Ha, maybe I should be the one getting a job as a teacher, he jokingly thought to himself.
Kurokawa-sensei was at a loss for words, seemingly humiliated, he ordered Karma to get back to his seat. Jealous? That you're not as great a teacher as Korosensei? Karma chuckled. Satisfied, he stuck his tongue out and strolled back, resting his arms behind his neck.
It seemed his little lesson during Maths gained him some popularity. During the break, a bunch of his classmates approached him, all pestering him with questions. Great, can't even eat my food in peace. Karma decided to humour them and answer their questions, hoping it'd get them to leave him alone.
"How'd you learn to teach like that, Akabane-kun?"
He felt like he was being interviewed or something.
"Well~ I had a pretty good teacher last year as you probably saw in the news – he was really passionate about teaching and worked harder than any other teacher would, it's crazy." Something stirred up in Karma, and a few unintended words spilled out of his mouth, "...plus, I have a good friend who's an aspiring teacher."
Where did that come from? Nagisa's really been intruding his thoughts lately, it was getting unhealthy. These thoughts seemed to have reached a new high. He didn't even notice that the "reporters" walked away.
"A good friend, huh?" He was watching. How wonderful. Karma remained silent, he didn't have any reason to tell Asano anything. Asano approached him, keeping his voice low, "your obvious feelings for Shiota aside, you did promise to tell me more about this Korosensei who was such a great teacher to your class."
Karma visibly cringed at the first part of what he said. He knew? Maybe he just said that to get under his skin, but he couldn't help but scorn, knowing that Asano had an idea about he felt.
"Yeah. Like I said, a great teacher. What else do you want to know."
"If your feelings for Shiota are bothering you this much, why don't you just confess already?"
As if it's that easy. Was he a hypocrite for thinking that? Considering he told Kayano the exact same thing like it was nothing.
"Why do you care?" Karma scoffed.
"You've obviously been thinking hard about something. That offhand comment tells me it has something to do with Shiota."
"How do you even know I was talking about Nagisa? It's not like any of us shared our career goals with you." How did this suddenly become about Nagisa?
"I have my own way of gathering intel." Before he could say anything, the bell rang, signifying the end of their break. Saved by the bell, quite literally.
Karma didn't enjoy his peace for long. After school, Asano approached him again.
"About our earlier conversation..."
"What? Trying to invade my privacy again?"
"No, I have no interest in your love life." Then why bring it up in the first place?
"How does Nagisa have to do with any of this?"
"Clearly, you've been distracted by something and it's harming your studies," Asano placed one hand on his chest to point to himself, "as your leader, it would be of my best interests if everyone was able to focus in class."
Karma rolled his eyes. No way was he going to believe that. He clearly wanted leverage over him, Asano wasn't that humble.
"Right. Like I'm gonna believe that-" he was interrupted by a call from Nagisa. Asano shot him a smug look, but Karma only frowned in reply.
"Yo, Nagisa! What's up~?" Karma answered the call, trying to pretend he wasn't just arguing with Asano.
"Hey, Karma! Was just wondering if you wanted to hang out at the old WcDonald's branch we used to go to? As long as you're not busy or anything, of course!"
"Sure, I'll be there." Karma answered before Nagisa ended the call.
"So, he asked you out on a date?" Why is he still here?
"No. This has nothing to do with you." It's not like he likes me back, anyways, he mumbled under his breath. It seemed like Asano heard him since the next thing he said was-
"Why else would he call you? Texting you would have done the job just fine."
He did have a good point. Why did Nagisa call him? Maybe he just wanted to make sure he got an immediate reply. That had to be it. There was no other explanation.
"If you don't act on these feelings, you might just go crazy." This was none of his damn business. Didn't he want to learn about Korosensei, and not poke his nose where it didn't belong to ask about Karma's feelings?
"Whatever." Karma simply shrugged and walked away. It was nice that he was getting a chance to relax and hang out with Nagisa. As the distance between them increased, he could subtly hear Asano say something.
"Have fun on your date." He almost seemed a little too smug when saying it. Karma ignored him.
-=+=-
Admittedly, Nagisa didn't really have any reason to call Karma other than his weird desire to hear his voice. It just made him feel calm – it was nice to hear after his stressful first day of school. It was so much different from E-class and Korosensei. Of course, Nagisa wasn't blind to Karma's attempt to hide his anger in the call, he wondered if Karma was also having a stressful day at school. He'd hope that spending time at WcDonald's would help take their minds off things, even if he was tired.
Once Nagisa reached said restaurant, he texted Karma to let him know he was there and waited at the entrance. There wasn't really any point in calling him for that, as much as may have wanted to. After a few minutes of waiting, Karma too arrived and they greeted each other with a smile before entering and finding a table to sit at.
"I'll order the food," Karma suddenly said. "What do you feel like having?"
Nagisa didn't really feel like having anything special – he just wanted to hang out, really. He didn't want Karma to worry, so he tried to hide his fatigue.
"I'll just have a hamburger."
"Drinks?"
"Water is fine."
"Wow, that's it? I'll order you some French fries too, don't want malnutrition to stunt your growth," Karma teased, "you're already short enough~"
All he could do was sigh at it, but he found it in him to smile – he didn't really mind Karma's teasing that much. Right as Karma was about to get up to order the food, Nagisa decided to bring up the phone call from before.
"Wait, Karma-"
"Hmmm?"
"About the call earlier, you seemed kind of angry. Did something happen?"
Karma paused and frowned a little, it seemed like he didn't want to talk about it. Although his expression soon relaxed as he smirked.
"Eh? Are you worried about me or something, Nagisa~?" Karma grinned, "don't worry, I'm fine. Just peachy!"
It almost seemed too fake, but before he could say anything, Karma left to order their food. What exactly happened before their call that managed to anger him? He didn't really have the energy to bring it up again to talk about it and took the time Karma spent ordering their food to get a little bit of rest.
-=+=-
Karma didn't want to talk about it. How was he supposed to tell Nagisa that the problem was him? Well, at the very least it involved him... and Karma's feelings for him. Either way, he didn't want to think about that at the moment, he just wanted to order food. As Karma went up to the counter, he observed the girl waiting to take his order who was only slightly shorter than him and had dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. His eyes wandered to her name tag, "Larry". Huh, definitely a foreigner. And wasn't Larry a guy's name? It didn't really hold any significance, he just wanted to take his mind off Nagisa for a moment. She seemed nice so he didn't question it any further and simply ordered what Nagisa asked for – a hamburger and water, plus Coke and a Big Mac for himself, as well as regular fries.
Walking back to the table, he locked eyes with Nagisa. Nagisa... was really cute, he couldn't help but smile when Nagisa looked at him like that. The way Nagisa looked at him filled his body with warmth. Karma needed to stop thinking about Nagisa like that, it would be incredibly awkward if he knew how much he slipped into Karma's thoughts.
Sitting back down, the two of them started eating. Nagisa didn't bring up the phone call again.
Eventually, after they finished their food, Karma noticed Nagisa started staring at him as he drank his Coke.
"What? Changed your mind about just having water?" Karma asked sarcastically as he offered his Coke, "want some?"
"Wh-What!? No, no, it's okay, I can just buy one for myself-"
"C'mon, Nagisa, you gotta learn how to save money. Take mine, I don't really want anymore, anyways."
"Are you sure?"
"'Course I am. Now drink up."
Nagisa flushed slightly as he sheepishly reached out for the Coke and started sipping. Now, that was adorable. Karma silently admired Nagisa before it suddenly struck him. He didn't change straws. Was he going to make a big deal out of it? In his mind maybe, since he already felt his cheeks heating up at the thought. Thankfully, Nagisa was too busy enjoying his drink to notice. It was ridiculous that this was where he first started being scared of Nagisa.
-=+=-
"...why don't we drop the honorifics already? I don't much feel like sticking with -kun after that fight." Karma honestly wanted to find an opportunity to drop the honorifics for a long time – to close the distance between them, even though he was the one who put said distance between them.
"What, now? It feels weird to change this late in the game."
"I'll do it, then. Okay, Nagisa?"
"All right, Karma."
After officially changing their way of addressing each other, Karma found it downright embarrassing that he referred to Nagisa with -kun to begin with. Should he have been this happy about this? It seemed so simple and yet, there was this feeling he couldn't describe. It wasn't fear, he'd just gotten over that. After the fight, seeing Nagisa work so hard to win, it stopped him from using the knife to kill him, he couldn't bring himself to. He didn't have any reason to fear Nagisa after that – not because he was weak, far from it – but now he saw Nagisa for who he was, he understood his bloodlust, and he was finally willing to accept it. So what was it that was still bothering him? This feeling was...
-=+=-
Seeing Kayano and Nakamura let go of their feelings for Nagisa on Valentine's Day, Karma was weirdly relieved. That was when he realised something about his feelings – he realised that maybe, just maybe, he loved Nagisa. Now, that thought started to scare him, so he denied it for a while before he found it in himself to tell someone about it. Okuda was someone he felt he could talk anything about with, so he figured she was the best person to talk about his feelings with.
The weeks that came after admitting his feelings to himself, he started thinking about Nagisa more and more. And here he was now, silently freaking out about some dumb indirect kiss while admiring Nagisa. Looking closer, Nagisa looked a little tired. Had he asked to hang out despite that?
Soon enough, Nagisa finished and stumbled as he got up, grabbing the empty cup as he got ready to throw it away.
"Thanks for coming, Karma, I'm gonna head home."
No way was Karma going to let Nagisa walk home alone like that.
"In this state? No way, I'm coming with you." In the state Nagisa was in, he'd collapse just walking to the train station, let alone back home.
"B-But, I don't want to inconvenience you-"
"You're not inconveniencing me; I want to help."
By then, Nagisa seemed too tired to keep on arguing and just nodded lethargically.
Nothing much happened on their walk to the train station, Karma simply supported Nagisa to make sure he didn't pass out while walking. However, it was on the train itself where that happened. They'd miraculously found two empty seats on the train and decided to sit together. A few minutes into the journey, Karma felt something warm and heavy on his right shoulder and something soft and fluffy on his cheek. Oh. It turned out that Nagisa had fallen asleep. His head had dropped down, causing him to lean on Karma's shoulder as he slept. He was that tired, huh? At that point, Karma's brain stopped functioning; he couldn't keep his eyes off of Nagisa, he looked especially cute like that. He was fine with them staying like that for a while, he'd never admit that out loud though.
After their journey, Karma did end up waking Nagisa up and of course, Nagisa being Nagisa, he apologised profusely for it, but Karma didn't mind it. He walked Nagisa home to make sure he didn't pass out on the way there. When the two of them were standing right at the front door of Nagisa's house, Karma held on to Nagisa for a good while before letting him go.
"K-Karma-"
"Sorry."
They didn't say anything else to each other as Nagisa hesitantly opened the door to enter it, not before looking back at Karma to share a concerned look. Karma stood there, absently staring at the door.
Maybe, he thought, maybe it'd be fine if I did tell him. Maybe Asano was right; but the more he thought about it, the more his heart rate continued to increase. He wanted to tell him, but how?