Assassination Classroom Matsui Yuusei.

A bunch of paperwork assignment is the obligation that occasionally keeps Nakamura Rio busy; and can be considered as her main cause of stress. Not that the foreigner student from Japan hate it though, since she is a big fan of the common phrase 'no pain no gain'. And her recent assignment was the perfect epitome of beautiful pain indeed. Racing with tight deadline, thorough researching, high expectation she placed upon herself, deadline, researching, deadline…. A day off was a simple yet heavenly desire her tired soul desperately wished as her fingers raced through the keyboard.

And there it was, a day off.

The Japanese girl was overloaded by infinite bliss – should be. But strangely, she felt empty somehow…. She'd submitted her meticulously-written paperwork, and – more importantly – weekend was around the corner! But still, this shadowing hollowness….

Rio shook her head several times; in result, her yellow locks sprawled across the scarf she was wearing. Geez, Nakamura Rio, what are you musing about, gal? She scolded herself. You come out to enjoy the lovely scenery of London city, not to activate the melancholy mode.

She threw a glance at her smartphone screen, then sighed and tucked it back inside her coat pocket.

Rio was walking aimlessly on the bustling street. The buzzing sound of crowd was muffled by the beating tune of Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA roared by her earphone; quite irrelevant pick of song since she was currently in England but yeah, let it go. An eyecatching ruckus - a crying brunette girl who was being consoled by a panicked blonde man - caught Rio's attention. A couple's bickering in public space, eh? If I were one of them, I'd just flee away and then –

Her blue eyes went wide as if she'd been stung by electric shock; caution stroked her nerves. Turning her slim body agilely, she caught the wrist of a tall man who'd just passed her. The mysterious man didn't even try to set himself free from Rio's tight grip, but that didn't lessen the blonde girl's alertness.

"Stealing other's possession is a deed of trash," she hissed threateningly. The mysterious man whose head was covered by a black-flipped baseball cap – a nasty street thief, Rio had labeled him mercilessly – stood still; his back facing Rio. "Face me, bastard!"

As Rio forced the man to turn his body, their gazes met. Cerulean orbs were greeted by a pair of copper-like amber irises.

Too much familiarity. Rio went stupefied for a few seconds before her shout echoed through the buzzing sound of pedestrians. "…Y-you!"

"Such a redundant reaction," the red-haired man didn't bother to hide his trademark mocking tone, "do you think you're the only one who can buy an airplane ticket and then fly to London?"

Rio smacked the man's shoulder grudgingly, her blue eyes flashed irritation. "Do you think you'll not be flabbergasted when your friend who's supposed-to-be-in-damn-across-the-ocean-right-now appeared out of the blue in front of you – as a wallet thief, moreover – without even giving any damn notification beforehand?"

Akabane Karma stretched his arms wide, unperturbed by the blonde girl's grievance. Instead, he put a sweet smile – sweet up to Karma's facial expression standard – and stated playfully, "Surprise, it's a surprise, Nakamura-san. Aaand, are you not going to give me a warm welcome hug or something like that?"

Rio rolled her eyes. "I think I'm going to give you a warm spinning kick instead. I almost did that, y'know."

Karma laughed heartily. "Basic rule of self-salvation, don't even think to mess with 3-E class – ex – students; especially the girls one."

Smiling in agreement, Rio added proudly, "Especially not with the awesome girl who's got impressive score for marksmanship back then." Rio eyed the man beside her in witty expression, but in a split second she scowled again. "By the way, I'm soooo glad to know that someone's busy enough to not reply to ten damn line of chat."

"For the sake of surprise, Nakamura Rio-san," Karma defended himself.

"Haha, I thought you went into comma because of college assignment overdose."

"Very logical assumption," Karma booed, but he still laughed eventually.

"'I-happened-to-follow-my-parents-who-have-work-on-here' is a plausible reason, but still, it was such a miracle for you to accidentally bumped into me like that," Rio eyed her ex-classmate suspiciously. Karma just hummed random tune indifferently, didn't bother to respond. The blonde girl snorted in comprehension. "From my recent Instagram post, I see. Such a stalker, hmm?"

Karma and Rio were standing side by side near a red-painted typical London-ish phone box, their hands gripped cups contained of strawberry milkshake – Rio's treat, to substitute Karma's spilled one.

"Wanna go somewhere where we can sit?" Rio offered. "I know a lot of nice cafe and restaurant."

The Japanese man scanned his surroundings, seemed amused by the foreign scenery he'd just seen for the first time. The sky wasn't clearly blue but not quite gray either, and based on Rio's information, the rain hadn't poured on this city of rain since three days ago. Maybe the nature was giving a brief transition before the first snow started to fall. "I don't mind standing here. Not every day I can witness the Big Ben from near distance like this, right?"

Rio tilted her head upwards. Less than one hundred meter from their current position, the said legendary gigantic clock stood gallantly, watching the hustle-bustle of London downtown with its towering form. Some tourists were taking photos and selfies enthusiastically, whilst the inhabitants just simply walked by. The blonde girl drove her gaze back to the figure of her middle school friend, wondering since when Karma got this tall that she needs to tiptoe in order to match him.

"Hey, Nakamura-san, thanks for the material that you gave me. It really helped," Karma said earnestly. Yes, this cocky red evil could be sincere sometime.

Rio replied, "Of course you have to thank me. It's quite an effort to take photo of almost the whole book, page by page."

"Yes, yes, I grant my biggest attitude, my holy savior Nakamura Rio-sama." Karma paused a second, got tickled by his own words. "Well, Yamanobe-sensei is easy to read. Too easy. He was so pleased when I stated that I used foreign material for my research. So, the next time, I'll use another foreign sources and A is in my grip I suppose?"

"Sly and cocky as always," Rio commented.

"It's called utilizing opportunity and boosting confidence," Karma corrected. He adjusted the position of the red scarf around his neck. The weather was getting chillier as the seconds passed. The soon-to-be-bureaucrat young man scrutinized the girl beside him from the corner of his eyes. "Got any agenda tonight, Nakamura-san?"

Rio was a bit startled. "Well, yeah, not really, I think?" she answered vaguely. "Umm, actually my campus friends are going to throw a big party tonight at the bar, but I think I'm not quite in the mood to throw myself in…."

"Ah, I understand," Karma remarked calmly, "despite your looks, you're more a 'rainy day-coffee-book' type of person than a 'wine-loud music-dance' one, am I wrong?"

Rio raised her eyebrows. "What does my looks indicate, by the way?"

"Glamour and hedonism?"

"May I take that as compliment?"

"Sure."

"'kay."

There was a brief silent creeping afterwards – not long-lasting of course, since the pair of ex-classmates (including devilish partner-in-crime) have a long list of what-to-talk-and-discuss-about.

Karma started his story, "Y'know, a week ago, I, Nagisa, and Sugino went to…."

It's so refreshing to have trustworthy friends which bond never faded and awkwardness hardly occurred no matter how long time and how miles separated them; and 3-E class has its own magical way to form such bond. Rio cannot feel more blessed.

"I don't know whether I should thank you or not," Rio shook her head pensively, "for those meme images and poopy jokes you often send to me before I go to sleep. Sometimes it helped me to get the 'tight sleep and nice dream'. But sometime it did otherwise."

"Ah, I really, really love time difference. Because of it, I can disturb someone who's going to bed in my leisure afternoon time. Such a priceless fun."

"Wow, bless your positive thinking. Guess you've never listened to Jet Lag, haven't ya? Well, talk about nine hour difference…." Rio glanced at the Big Ben's big display watch. "It's almost 3pm now here – it means it's almost midnight in Japan, right?"

The clock kept ticking. And then the bell rang. Ding dong ding. Three times respectively.

As if they were in command, Karma and Rio turned their heads so they could face each other.

"A certain brat's getting older, huh?"

"May I take my privilege?"

They talked at the same time; one rhetorical question, one shameless demand. Then, they laughed in unison.

It was officially December 25 in Japan now.

Karma extended his hand towards Rio, a gesture of demanding. P-r-e-s-e-n-t, his expression clearly stated that. Rio scratched the back of her head while showing a wide goofy grin before she decided to search inside her pocket for something worth-giving… and there they were, three pieces of fruit-flavored candy. Karma put a disappointed expression. A pang of guilt nagged Rio's heart for a few moments, but then she found a way to defend herself. Pointing the blue-stripped-yellow scarf she'd been wearing since her unexpected encounter with the now-19-years-old-teenager, she said, "You, Nagisa, and Kayano-chan gave me this on September, one month after my birthday because you said shipping it abroad won't be efficient blablabla –"

"Okay, I'll take 'em," Karma tucked the free candies inside his pocket. "Still, it isn't equivalent to the fancy dinner that I've prepared for us…."

Rio shot a confused glare at him. "Eh? A dinner?"

"Yes, an intimate one," Karma explained with his trademark smirk, he even ignorantly placed his hand on Rio's shoulder, "just the two of us, with dim light of small candle and delicate jazz music accompany us…."

A pair of round blue eyes blinked several times before the owner burst into maniac laughter like the redhead beside her had turned into a clown. "Hahaha ha ha, I've known you long enough to fully understand that Akabane Karma and romantic thingies are more unmixable than water and oil." There was red tinted her cheek though – from excessive laughing, maybe.

Karma also laughed, but more gracefully. "Well, you re-read Jane Austen's works recently, right? Didn't it turn your maiden heart on? The desire for romanticism, massive heartbeat, warm and fuzzy feelings, whatsoever…. I'm man enough to provide all of that."

"Seriously," Rio stressed the word. It was utterly insane if Karma wasn't kidding. "911, please come to my rescue. I'm sure I'm facing an impostor right now."

"Haha, don't you dare to do that. My parents will go nuts if I don't appear on my birthday celebration dinner." Karma extended his hand to Rio, again. But this time, his open palm was inviting, not demanding. "C'mon."

A/N: I used to write Karma x Rio in Indonesian language, but suddenly I think that it isn't a bad idea to give the English archive a shot… I know that this pairing is uncommon here, but yeah… and well, since English isn't my mother language, please don't hesitate to give corrections for the spelling, grammar, etc (n.n)