A/N: dude just call me james bond 'cause I'm doing this in the middle of school just so you guys can get your gay assassins early loVE ME.
But on a more serious note, this is gets pretty dark. If you cannot read brief hints of abuse, please do not read this. I will have many other fluffy fics this week. Do not force yourself to read something that makes you uncomfortable just because you want Karmagisa.
Prompt: Dare
Karma watched the large house with hands in his pockets. It didn't exactly look like your stereotypical haunted house, but Terasaka had sworn up and down that it was. In fact, Terasaka's diehard belief that the house was haunted was the reason Karma was here in the first place. Terasaka had became more and more irritated by Karma's blatant apathy about the whole situation and had dared the redhead to go visit the place. Terasaka's reasoning to make Karma go had been a simple 'Well, if it's not haunted, then there's not really a problem is there?' As much as Karma hated to give into Terasaka's childish dare, not going to the house was almost the same as admitting he actually believed Terasaka's story and, even worse,that he was scared of whatever lay inside of the house. Karma was anything but frightened at silly stories that should have stopped scaring people past the age of ten.
Still, Karma had to admit that a small piece of him may have started to believe there may be something more there when he stepped inside of the dimly lit house.
Karma hadn't planned on staying longer than necessary, so the only things he brought was a small flashlight for guiding him in the darker sections of the house as well as a book to keep him entertained. He wasn't going to sit there until dark staring at the wall and listening to the creaks and whines of a house long past its prime. Karma dusted off a nearby couch before promptly plopping down on it and laying his legs on top of the coffee table that sat in front of it. He idly wondered why the previous owner had left the house so well furnished and put together. There were no signs out front that claimed the house was for sale, which might make one think there were still current occupants inside the house, but one look at how wild the grasses and bushes surrounding the house would tell you that no one was currently inhabiting the house. In other words, it was a house filled with many comforts and furnitures ready for no one. It was almost like the house…
"Is owned by a ghost."
Karma snickered at the thought. Almost an hour had already passed, and there was still no sign of any ghosts or goblins. This was going to be the easiest money Karma had made from a dare in a long time.
A sudden, loud creak shocked Karma out of his reverie. His eyes scanned the room in search of the reason before his logic caught up to him and made him realize it was simply the house moving again. Karma relaxed back into the sofa and chuckled. He almost let Terasaka's childish story get to him for a second there. As if there was anything supernatural happening in the house.
"I'm sorry, but...who are you?"
Karma instantly jerked to attention, adrenaline beginning to pump through his veins. It didn't take long to find the source of the noise. A feminine looking boy with long blue hair that was pulled back into a ponytail was looking at him with confusion clear on his face. Karma didn't answer, simply staring at the boy. When Karma didn't answer, the boy bit his lip and nervously shifted from side to side while still waiting for an answer. Karma blinked and roughly shook himself back to attention. He eyed the other with distrust clear in his eyes despite the easy smile on his lips.
"You know, it's rude to ask another person's name without first giving your own."
The boy's expression soured for a second with irritation clear in his eyes but just as soon as the bitterness was there, it was gone. His nervous smile returned as he replied.
"Ah, you're right… My name is Nagisa Shiota. And yours…?"
Karma stood up and held out a hand towards the newly dubbed Nagisa.
"Akabane. Karma Akabane."
Nagisa stared at his hand before laughing nervously and shaking his head. When he saw Karma's confusion and slight irritation, he spoke.
"I'm sorry. It's just that.. I have this thing about touching people. I'm really sorry. Maybe if I get over it one day we can shake hands?"
It was an obvious lie, and they both knew it. Still, Nagisa was way too interesting to scare off this early in the game, so Karma would play along with the other's lie for now. After all, the best kind of games were ones where you had to piece together the answer, right? So for now, Karma would not mention Nagisa's lie or the way Nagisa seemed to blur at the edges as if he wasn't truly there.
It became a regular occurrence for Karma to come by the house after meeting Nagisa. He came by every day after school and stayed until it was dark. On the weekends, Karma would pack his things and stay at the house all day. Most of the time their time was filled with Karma retelling a prank he had played on someone earlier that day or simply complaining about people who weren't 'nearly as interesting as Nagisa'. Sometimes Nagisa would even let a few things from his life slip like the fact that his parents were divorced or that he was homeschooled by his mother. They stayed like that for weeks, never breaching anything past simple questions of how one's day went or if the loud dog next door had managed to chase anyone down yet. Who knows how long they would have continued on like that if Karma hadn't came in one day while Nagisa was wearing a dress?
Walking into the house and seeing Nagisa in a dress with his hair down was almost surreal. Nagisa didn't even notice Karma until Karma had finally awoken from his silent shock and started to laugh. Nagisa whirled around to face Karma with wide eyes and a bright red blush staining his face. The blunet let out a panicked squeak and quickly pulled off the clothes, revealing what Nagisa normally wore underneath. Karma looked at Nagisa with all of the solemnity he could summon and spoke.
"Nagisa. I can't believe you never told me about your secret desire to wear a dress. I totally could have gotten you one while I was out in town yesterday that would have went swimmingly with your eyes."
Nagisa huffed in irritation as he rolled his eyes. Karma snickered again before looking at Nagisa more carefully and taking in some of the details he had missed. He whistled lowly.
"It's amazing how nice you looked in a dress though. You could really pass as a girl, you know."
Nagisa tensed up at Karma's words. His hands curled into tight fists by his sides as his shoulders began to shake slightly.
"Don't...Don't say that. I'm not a girl no matter what she wants."
Karma froze, realizing he must have accidentally stumbled upon a sensitive topic for Nagisa. He held up his hands as if to show Nagisa he meant no harm by the comment. There was complete silence until Nagisa's shoulders finally relaxed. Nagisa breathed deeply before turning to Karma with a sad smile.
"Sorry about that… My mom… She likes to dress me sometimes." Nagisa's words grew hurried as he continued. "I mean, I know she doesn't mean anything bad by it… She just wants me to look like...Like something she wants to see, you know?"
Karma felt like he had been slapped. He had never considered the fact that Nagisa's mother, who Karma had learned over time tended to be controlling and overbearing, had anything to do with the dresses or the way Nagisa had reacted. Nagisa's voice was what really shook him though. Karma had never heard the blunet sound so… so small and defeated. Before Karma could think about it, the words were already tumbling out of his mouth.
"Why? Doesn't she know you don't want to dress like that? It doesn't matter what she wants. You're not her toy, Nagisa. You're a human and deserve your own choices."
At that moment, Karma realized how much he hated Nagisa's mother. It didn't matter he had never met the woman personally nor that he had never even spoken a word to her. Nagisa's reaction was all it took to instill the hard, fiery feeling in Karma's chest. What kind of a parent made their child respond like Nagisa was at the mere mention of living as he wished?
What kind of parent was Nagisa's mother that she couldn't even see the way Nagisa was tearing himself apart because of her?
It was clear in Nagisa's eyes how he felt. It was clear in the way Nagisa hugged his arms around himself in a poor attempt to comfort himself from the demons his own mother gave him. It was clear in so many ways, and Karma hated it with a passion he had never felt before in his life. When Karma noticed panic beginning to cloud Nagisa's eyes, he wondered if his rage was showing on his face. Karma breathed deeply before walking forward to hold Nagisa's arm as a sign of comfort, but Nagisa back away quickly as he shook his head in blind panic before Karma's hand could land on the other's arm.
"I can't- She's coming back! I'm sorry, Karma, but I have to go!"
And just like that, Nagisa was gone. If Karma hadn't been staring in disbelief, he would have missed the way the other simply blinked out of existence. As Karma stared at the spot where Nagisa was not only moments ago, he promised himself that he would definitely save Nagisa from his mother no matter the cost.
After all, what kind of person would Karma be if he let the person he loved be hurt?
It was a week before Nagisa appeared back at the house. Karma had visited every day, staying until dark had come. Every day, Karma waited for Nagisa to come, so Karma could make sure he was okay and that Nagisa knew that everything was going to be okay. When Nagisa came around the corner again on the seventh day, Karma finally released the breath he felt like he had been holding for the past week straight.
Nagisa was acting normally again, and Karma played along and enjoyed the happiness that came with Nagisa that he hadn't been able to experience for a week. He would have loved to continue like that and only focus on the happy, funny things, but then Karma's eyes caught something on Nagisa's face that instantly filled him with a familiar cold rage. When he spoke, Karma almost didn't recognize his own voice from how frigid it sounded.
"Nagisa. How did that bruise on your cheek happen?"
Nagisa froze, and the smile on his face seemed to harden slightly. Despite his attempts to hide it, Nagisa's fidgeting hands were still noticed by Karma.
"Ah. It's a funny story actually. You see, I was carrying something for my mother, and I accidentally fell down the stairs, and the bannister hit my cheek. Weird, right?"
Karma breathed deeply in an attempt to calm himself. When that didn't help any, Karma finally spoke the words he had been dreading.
"Nagisa. I think we need to talk. About you. About your Mom. About everything."
He paused, waiting for Nagisa to interject. Nagisa simply stared at him with a shell shocked expression that soon turned to dread and despair. Still, he remained silent. Karma continued.
"I know you're not what you say you are. You're not all the way here as strange as that sounds. I never see you out of this house, and, hell, last time we met you vanished into the air. Not to mention the fact that you always have a strange fuzziness around you whenever I focus hard enough on seeing you. And your mother… She isn't good for you, Nagisa…"
Karma stopped to breathe, watching Nagisa for any signs of denial or fright. Instead, Nagisa simply sat there with a dull light in his eyes as though he had already accepted whatever Karma was going to say. Then, as though he was a puppet being controlled by a master, Nagisa spoke in an almost mechanical way.
"I'm not here. No... That's not right. I am here, but my physical body isn't. It's something I learned to do at a young age when my mom got to be too much. I couldn't leave like Dad could, so I just imagined myself being somewhere else, somewhere far away… I began to use this house, because this was where we used to live when everything was okay, and Dad was still with us. And then one day, I found out I was actually here."
The small, bittersweet smile that came over Nagisa's lips didn't match the dull look in his eyes, and yet it did at the same time. Nagisa's laugh came out more like a sob, and it was beginning to break away at Karma's resolve to listen to all Nagisa had to say slowly.
"You see, there was this boy that wandered in here. He was loud and brash, which was why I originally came to see what was happening. I just thought it was my brain adding in something else to add something more adventurous to my fantasies, you know? But when he saw me… He just screamed and ran away yelling something about a ghost. It was quiet, and things remained silent for a few days...but then you came, and for the first time in a long time, I felt alive again. And I…I couldn't let that go, so I just played along and lied. I just couldn't let you find out the awful truth of how horrible I am."
Tears began to trickle out of Nagisa's eyes as self-hatred and crushing sadness began to bleed onto his features.
"After all, what kind of a son hates their own mother for doing what she thinks is best?"
Karma stared at Nagisa with wide eyes before a chuckle bubbled out of him and soon Karma was howling with laughter. He was clutching his stomach as he finally stopped. When he saw Nagisa watching him with a look of horror, the laughter almost came back, but Karma was able to shove the urge down. Karma smiled at Nagisa before speaking in an easy tone.
"You didn't let me finish. I was going to say that we could run away together. And now that I know more about what all has happened to you, I will definitely fight your mother and whoever else dares try to come between us in order to make sure you're free from her and all your worries. So now all that's left is for you to tell me where you live. No matter whether it's in this town, country, or even this damn continent, I promise you I will be there by the end of today to make sure you are out. I promise."
Nagisa stared at Karma until something seemed to break down inside of the blunet. He sobbed, but his lips curved upwards into the smile Karma had come to love so much. The address of where Nagisa lived came tumbling out of Nagisa's lips in between heavy breaths. Karma was pleased to find the address was not only in Japan but also a little bit away from where Karma was now. It would be easy to get there before nightfall. So Karma gave Nagisa one last glance and a reassuring smile and then walked out of the house, already planning what to do and where to go after he managed to get Nagisa out.
The ride to where Nagisa's home was felt like it took hours, but it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes. When Karma knocked on the door and saw Nagisa in person for the first time, it was almost too hard to believe that this had all happened due to a silly dare.