(I own nothing. It's so late. I should not be allowed to write this. Let it be known that this is a crack fanfiction and is, in no way intended to be taken seriously as it is about two in the morning and I'm on a coffee low. I know it's really dumb and that's partially why I wrote it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! God bless!)

In all honesty, Yuu despised Alma the moment he met him but in all honesty, who introduces themselves to a boy as angry as Yuu with a line like "Hi there! Do you remember me? I'm Alma Karma! I think we dated in a past life!"?

The poor dear did try to fix it by telling Yuu he was a girl in that past life and that he didn't feel the same anymore but that only seemed to make things worse.

But in all honesty, who breaks someone's wrist over something so silly?

Overall it was a large fiasco and they were both sent to detention.

On top of that, their parents had them grounded from the television for a week.

The most vile of punishments parents can offer especially when both Yuu and Alma knew they would miss the next episode of their favorite show, Samurai Jack. A show they both enjoyed tremendously without even knowing it.

In retaliation, Yuu only grumbled while Alma cried the whole time because they were yet just nine year old boys at a new school.

The tension never really wore off and they got into many more fights after that, some even more violent than the first, but one thing that's seemed to improve was that they slowly began to get used to each others presence.

Winters turned to vibrant springs and vibrant springs to colder winters.

Their families moved to a small town where no one really came and no one really left so they could always count on landing in the same school every single year after year.

But by the time both were dignified and grown up eighth graders, Yuu being thirteen and Alma being fourteen, they had both changed in some ways.

Yuu's love for the samurai and Japanese became borderline fanatical but only on the inside since he didn't really share his feelings with others. Alma noticed very early and began to study the country himself in order the keep up with his classmate. Although Yuu's temper was basically the same if not worse. Everyone seemed to notice except him, leaving him still curious as why his parents wouldn't buy him a real live katana for his birthday.

Alma went in quite the other direction, developing a love for flowers and becoming a total social justice warrior. Every time he introduced himself, he'd flaunt his zodiac and say those silly little lines that only a social justice warrior knew how to say and it drove dear little Yuu up the wall. But unlike most, he still remained a kind and delicate lotus flower with a good heart and good grades.

Overall, both kids parents could not find it in themselves to not be proud.

Winter came once more.

Now we begin at the start of another wretched Monday morning just like every other. Miserable, exhausting and miserable.

Despite all the training Yuu had done to become a good samurai, he could not bring himself to get out of bed. He felt like a dying soldier in battle. He could almost feel the life leaving him.

He blamed his stupid book assignment he spent all night reading.

Little women. Some stupid girly novel. Some stupid sisters. Some stupid romance. He didn't care.

His mother had to practically choke in with breakfast and then drag him out of bed and into the bus. He wouldn't of moved even if they payed him.

The whole ride to school was a blur. He hardly remembered walking to class but he did it anyway on pure reflex.

And the moment he routinely caught sight of a stupid messy head of black hair sitting beside his seat by the window, he immediately told him to "Shut up" and averted his gaze.

But once he sat down, there was an skyward silence that ensued because Yuu only told Alma mean things when he'd greet him and smiling so brightly it was almost blinding, but now the normally talkative boy was silent, almost painfully so.

His occasional move to wipe his red nose with a tissue looked so wrong in comparison to his normally hyper nature that Yuu could hardly suppress the minor hint of worry when he spoke up to ask "Are you crying?".

"No." Was Alma's sluggish and nasally reply "I just feel a bit sick…"

There was another awkward silence and Yuu quickly decided to end to conversation because he actually didn't know where to go from there.

Alma being sick was not a big deal, just as long was he didn't infect Yuu with his germs.

This was just another Monday morning.

He remembered how in that long and awful book he read last night, there was a sister who was sick. It was a big deal to be sick with the common cold when that book was published because you could very easily die.

Luckily life was no longer like that.

Luckily Alma was just sick with the common cold.

But.

But what if he wasn't?

And it was just that one thought that was enough to come into contact with his brain with the effect of an atom bomb.

If the teacher was curious why the student Yuu Kanda suddenly got a rather dreamy look in his eye, it was because he was mentally enjoying the view of the mushroom cloud.

He did not know why this was suddenly a big deal to him or why Alma Karma and fatal diseases did not commute in his thick skull but he suddenly had all these thoughts and questions he didn't know how to answer.

It was difficult to explain but, somehow, in the middle of class, it suddenly hit him that sicknesses still existed in modern societies that could be fatal and Alma, a force of nature that's been plaguing his life for quite a few years now was not immortal.

Yes, as unreal as that thought seemed to him, Alma could die today, tomorrow, a week from now or just from whatever sickness he had now just like that girl in the book.

And Yuu, as much as he hated to admit it, did not like this possibility at all.

Not Alma. Not after all the cruelty he had shown him.

For the first time in a long time, Yuu felt incredibly sad and he really could not bring himself to focus on really much of anything in school.

He knew that if Alma thought about it, which he probably already did, he'd just say that they'd meet again the next life and perhaps a good luck charm or two would be enough to keep him safe.

But Yuu was very unable to see past death. All that he saw was this life and nothing else. If Alma died, to Yuu he'd be gone forever and he just would not be able to deal with not seeing his stupid face ever again.

And that is why, as they left the school building to return home, Yuu replaced his mountain of pride for courage and dropped his jacket on Alma's shoulders because somehow it was worth it.

"It could snow. You should be careful."