This story was originally posted on AO3, under the same penname.
The story's main pairings changes from one-sided! NakamuraxKarma, to eventual GakushuuxNakamura.
When it comes to Assassination Classroom, I seem to excel at unusual pairings.
Have you ever felt that you were being pulled in two different directions, but when you decide to go down one, it's blocked off?
Fragile House of Cards
It wasn't until the second semester midterms than everything started to collapse for her.
As her grades fell through, so did her relationship with her parents. Her mother coaxed, threatened, and wheedled, but Nakamura stubbornly refused to sit down at her desk and study like a good girl. Her father yelled at her after receiving a notice from the school of her delinquent behavior; graffiti on the school walls, skipping classes, once breaking a window with a baseball (that one was actually not her fault; an earnest bench player on the baseball team had been practicing his fastballs behind the school when one of them turned into a sharp curveball instead. She had willingly took the blame for him because she had seen something sincere in his expression; an ambition that she lacked).
Opposite to herself, Akabane seemed to have calmed down quite a bit in comparison. His fights became infrequent and his grades started to rise even higher than before. Though she tried hard to not approach him again, she did notice that he was becoming closer to Oono-sensei. Rumors flew, of course, of how a single teacher had managed to tame the wild beast of Kunugigaoka Middle. He still hung out with Nagisa-kun, of course, though on some days she noticed that in the small boy's presence, his eyes would have that wild and wary look in them.
Asano-kun had already become the Student Council President even though he was only a first year (though everyone agreed that it most likely through underhanded means) and his control over the first year student body was indisputable. Only Akabane seemed to be able to resist his authority, and yet their paths never seemed to truly cross. The closest they came was when the redhead continuously scored 100s in math to match him on every exam.
Sometimes she felt as if Asano-kun's eyes were following her whenever they passed each other in the hallway by chance, but of course that was impossible. It was more likely Sakakibara who was often by his side. Stupid womanizer.
Her friends in class had started to drift away from her as the school brainwashed them into study-zombies. Suddenly all they talked about were their grades grades grades. The thing that she had been outcast for in her childhood still haunted her, but now from the opposite side of the spectrum. Suddenly the tests she had tamed and conquered were chasing her, teeth bared, and the worst part was that they weren't sharp enough to give her an instant death.
Little by little, the red circles and checkmarks on her papers increased, except in English which was her saving grace from a complete hell. Her parents and teachers all pressured her to put her 'passion' for English into her other subjects. She tried to explain that she wasn't passionate about any of the subjects, but of course they didn't listen.
"Unless you clean up your act, you'll be put into Class E during your third year," her homeroom teacher warned. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors about it."
She had. That was something else her friends from class wouldn't shut up about.
She watched as students all over the school, no matter what type they were, suddenly started to push themselves to their limits. Two students fainted in the middle of gym because of lack of sleep. A male student who used to skip every other day suddenly sequestered himself in the library and poured through the collections of outdated encyclopedias.
Usually the only ways to get rid of the stress of studying was through clubs, or at least that was the only explanation Nakamura could think of for why each club seemed to be top quality. Nagisa-kun's Concert Club won an award for an excellent performance in a music competition. Chiba's Light Music Club managed to release a single. The Baseball team made it to Koshien. The Student Council had an article displayed in six different magazines for their contribution to community service.
Nakamura herself was in the Ski Club, which was honestly a hangout for the reject first-year and second-year students who didn't want to actively participate in anything, but also didn't want to get razzed on to participate by the teachers. What they really did in the club was gossip, complain, and overall not focus on their studies. In its own way, it was still a good outlet for stress.
(And it was an easy way to stick students who would be troublemakers in a neat little box, which Nakamura suspected was why the Asano father and son duo allowed the club to exist.)
Akabane she knew was not in a club, but he never seemed to be stressed with his studies anyway, so he got away with it. There was one other student that she knew of – Terasaka or something like that whom she had only talked to once and felt a bit of empathy with – who also did not participate in club activities.
She never expected for it to be the cause of their first conversation.
...
...
One day, when her club members had decided to take an 'outside excursion' to the nearest fast food restaurant, she had encountered Akabane pulling out his shoes from his shoe locker at the entrance. Suddenly her friends and seniors disappeared, babbling excuses about forgetting things in the club room. She would have gone too, but her feet turned to mud and her silver tongue rusted in her mouth.
"Hey," Akabane glanced at her standing dumbly on the step. Cold, blank eyes, almost like a dead man's… "Oh, sorry. Am I in your way?" he was wearing that black cardigan, the one that he had started wearing near winter break (it was late January now).
"Uh… n-no," she stammered out. God, why was she talking like that? Where did her usual glib tone and roguish sense of humor go? "That's not my locker. I mean, you're not standing in front of it. I mean…" she groaned and put her face in her hands. "Goddammit, talk!"
"… You or me?"
Horrified at herself for losing her composure, Nakamura's head shot up, red in the face. She watched as Akabane's eyebrows lifted…
And then he chuckled and gave her a small smile. His eyes glimmered softly. "You're kind of weird."
"Weird?!" Nakamura's embarrassment was overtaken by outrage. "What do you mean weird?!"
"Oh, that's better. That kind of expression suits you more. Umm… Nakamura-san or something, right?"
"Huh?" she froze in place. "You know my name?"
"Yeah. I mean, you come to our classroom every other day to talk to Fuwa-san and Hara-san. It's kind of hard not to notice you," his eyes drifted over her freshly-dyed hair. "Blonde and all."
"Look who's talking?" Nakamura found herself laughing. "Like you stick out any less with that red hair of yours!"
"Hey, mine's natural."
"Liar," why did she think it was hard to talk to him? It was so easy. Speaking to him was no different than speaking to any polite acquaintance. "Hey, I've been wondering. Is Nagisa-kun's hair natural too? No way right?" she laughed brightly before she realized that she was the only one. "Um, Akabane?"
A shadow seemed to cross over Akabane's face. "Ah, sorry," his voice was light. "I don't know if Nagisa-kun's hair is natural. It really doesn't seem like it, right?" he pulled his schoolbag onto his shoulder and gave her another smile but without a trace of his earlier amusement.
She tried her hardest to repress a shudder.
"Um… you're not going to wait for him today? Until after club activities are over?" why was she talking about Nagisa-kun still? Clearly she had hit a sore spot. Maybe they had a fight or something…
"Mmm, no, not today. I've got things to do at home," Akabane jerked his head towards the doors. "I'll be going now. Bye, Nakamura-san."
"Bye," she whispered as she watched him leave.
She stood there, her body completely rigid, up until her club members came back for her. The president anxiously patted her cheek, and then lightly slapped her when she didn't respond. "Nakamura? Rio-chan? You in there?"
"Yeah," she whispered.
There were two things she learned that day: Akabane smiled really easily even when he didn't mean it, and he had the ability to convey exactly when he was displeased.
...
...
The rest of the year passed by like a dream. Nakamura only really remembered snatches of what happened in the past few months – barely passing half of her finals, getting screamed at by her parents, her second-year seniors getting thrown in to Class E – and even those memories seemed… superficial. Silly. Annoying.
As a second-year she was already elected to become the new president of the Ski Club, though she found her member count woefully reduced. The majority of the second years had been sent to Class 3-E, and she barely saw them anymore. Her year-mates, previously her best friends and fellow troublemakers, started to severely focus on their studies.
"Didn't you see the email Haruki-senpai sent out?" one of her friends said. Haruki-senpai was the previous president. "Class E is even worse than the rumors! And the teacher isn't even that good!" Nakamura vaguely remembered what the teacher – Yukimura-sensei? – looked like. She was a pretty lady who seemed a little too young and a little too optimistic for the job. "If you get stuck there, you get stuck there for the rest of the year!"
"I didn't get the email."
"Probably because you're smart enough to be average without studying," her friend turned his back on her. "Lucky you."
The walls in her throat clamped down tight. Suddenly she was being closed in on both sides, one side discriminating her because she was smart enough to pass without studying, the other condemning her for not studying at all.
To study or not to study, that was the question.
...
...
Nowadays, school consisted of loneliness and accusing stares.
Her teachers lectured her over and over again of how she had the potential, but they always said the same thing: "You end up in Class E!"
Class E, Class E, the whole damn school was a broken record. Teachers recited it like it was the only threat they knew. Students spoke of it as if it were the monster hiding under the bed.
Often, when she was feeling too pressured with no way to turn, Nakamura found solace on the roof of the school. The cool early spring air was soothing on the nerves and she found love in the art of cloud-watching. It was the one place in the whole building where she felt like she could avoid the eyes of others.
Though she was still president of the Ski Club, almost no one bothered to come anymore. Today in particular, nobody but her showed up at all. Feeling deserted and unhappy, she trudged her way up to the roof to at least watch others having fun instead.
What she didn't expect was Akabane to be there too, fast asleep in the furthest right corner and shielded from the wind.
Feeling as if she had walked into something she shouldn't have, Nakamura backed away slowly as if she had been confronted by a wild animal. How did she not see this coming? Of course someone like Akabane would already know about the solitude of the roof.
Would he be angry if she joined him, she wondered.
Mustering up her courage, she tiptoed towards him, trying to pretend that she was a cat, and halted just far away enough for the head of her shadow to touch his side. Sinking down on to the ground, she tucked her knees under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. She tried hard not to stare, but it was hard when the wind kept ruffling his hair just right. If she could just touch… God, his skin was so pale and clear. How did he manage that at this forsaken age of puberty?
Closing her eyes, she let the wind wash over them both and a small smile graced her lips. This wasn't so bad…
"What do you want, Nakamura-san?"
Her eyes flew open and she practically skittered a few feet away. If Akabane saw her panties – light mint green with a leaf pattern – he had the courtesy to not mention it.
"You don't have to freak out that badly," he sat up and ran a hand through his hair. His eyes still looked a little bleary. "I'm a light sleeper, so I noticed you when you sat down next to me."
Nakamura blushed and was glad that she had resisted the impulse to smooth his hair away from his face. "Sorry for waking you."
"It's cool," Akabane yawned with his mouth wide open. Little sleepy tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. "So? Did you need something?"
"No, I…" she wondered how much she could say without sounding like she was whining. "I just wanted a place to… get away, I guess?" she wanted to slap herself in the face. Just how vague was that?
Akabane's light amber eyes were impassive and he laid back down, hands crossed behind his head, both legs bent and one crossed over the other. "I see. Well, take your time. Nobody comes up here after school except for me."
"Thanks, I guess," unable to find a topic of conversation – he seemed fine with the silence anyways – Nakamura looked out over to the sports fields below and watched the baseball team yelling at each other to catch the ball.
"Why aren't you in a club?" she blurted out. Damn, what was wrong with her mouth every time she approached this guy? What? It was like it suddenly gained a mind of its own and was deadest on exposing her embarrassing thoughts.
Akabane opened one eye and glanced at her without turning his head. "Shouldn't you be in a club right now?"
"Ski Club," Nakamura wondered if she looked like a bobble-head, what with the way she couldn't stop jerking her chin up and down. "Barely anyone ever shows up to it though. Nobody came today, so I'm just having a breather."
"Hm," Akabane closed his one eye again and everything lapsed into silence. Maybe forcing the question wasn't the best idea…
"I don't bother with clubs."
"Huh?" did she always sound so stupid?
"I said, I don't bother with clubs," Akabane opened both of his eyes and stared up at the sky. Small cumulous clouds floated by. "I'm no good with team sports and I'm not really into the arts either. There's no point in joining a club without any interest."
Oh, hello, that was interesting. She had expected him to say something along the lines of, 'Clubs are stupid' or 'I don't like crowding (and I'll bite you to death)'. But to say that there was no point in joining without interest…
"What's so funny?" he asked her. She didn't even realize she was smiling.
"Sorry," she grinned. "I just thought that you were unexpectedly serious."
"What's that supposed to mean…"
She laughed out loud and suddenly she felt as if her breathing came easier. As they launched into a long conversation about random topics, from candy to politics, she barely noticed the sky turning dusky orange streaked with clouds of yellow.
All at once, their conversation was interrupted by the roof's door creaking open.
"Karma-kun?"
Abruptly the spark in Akabane's eyes died as his eyes drifted away from Nakamura's face to Nagisa-kun's. "Oh, Nagisa-kun. Is club over?"
"Yeah, um…" for some reason the smaller boy's face was pink. "Did I interrupt something?"
"Nah," Akabane stood up and said dully to her, "See you later, Nakamura-san."
"Y-Yeah, see you…" she watched as the two of them left together. Nagisa-kun had a cheerful smile on his face. Akabane had a smile too, the kind that an inmate would give on death row. It just didn't quite seem to reach his eyes.
The roof was a place where she could avoid others. She couldn't help but wonder if Akabane was avoiding something too.
...
...
How dull.
Asano Gakushuu was only thirteen, and he already felt as if he were too old.
As his classmates talked about trivial gossip – celebrities, fashion, who Sakakibara and Maehara were dating – Gakushuu wondered what it would be like, for the millionth time since his sixth birthday, to be 'normal'.
If he had grown up with a 'normal' father, perhaps he wouldn't have been so bored.
Information was power, but what kind of power was it to know who this celebrity was dating, or what kind of style was 'out', or who Sakakibara was currently making out with in the hallway (he'd have to give him a warning, even if they were 'friends')? Why did such pointless chatter have any power anyways?
Gakushuu's father had empowered him from a young age with real knowledge: the study of law, stocks, how to pay taxes, budgeting, martial arts, and the subtle art of manipulation, to name a few. Knowledge that was actually useful for the rest of his life. Why weren't teenagers interested in discussing that?
For the first time in months he thought of Nakamura Rio and for the first time he thought that perhaps he could understand her. To be number one above all others his age was a singular existence. While he would never admit to loneliness, nor would he ever purposely lower his intelligence level (unless it produced some kind of benefit that he could use against his father) he did acknowledge that he wanted an intellectual peer, someone whom he could discuss more useful topics with. Not nonsense about what visual kei singer was sleeping with what bikini model. Sakakibara, who had originally been friendly towards him, started to drift away towards his classmates who spoke of lighter gossips.
He wondered if he should try talking to Akabane Karma, who was proficient in both frivolous and serious topics. He only knew this because one minute he would see Akabane talking about American movies with Shiota Nagisa, then the next the redhead would be with Oono-sensei discussing the political aspects of so-and-so bureaucrats. He would speak of them with such aptitude that even Oono-sensei looked a little lost.
Gakushuu immediately dismissed the idea. Their personalities were too different. Knowledge, although desirable, did not soften the blow of Akabane's irritating attitude.
And Nakamura Rio…
Gakushuu shook his head and dismissed that idea as well.
He wondered if Sakakibara was still willing to talk to him.
When I was still in middle school to high school, I was an anime nerd and that's all I talked about. In a dominantly white school, that kind of topic didn't come up very often, and even when I found others who shared my interests, they shyly hid it away behind computer screens and treated it like it was something to hide in the closet.
What interested you at that age? And does it still even matter?
