Author's Note : I love reading reviews, as it's the only way for me to know whether what I write makes someone's day, so I really hope more of you would send me one or 2 reviews.

Disclaimer : I only own the storyline, sadly.

Opposites Attract

By the end of second break of that same day, when she's done eating lunch with the rest of the girls sitting around her desk, he found himself walking toward her.

Yukiko was shutting the lid of her lunchbox off and was about to wrap it back with her large handkerchief when she noticed a figure sitting on a desk right in front of her, facing her.
"Kanzaki-san." She heard him greeting her with that uninterested tone he always gave to people other than Nagisa or Kayano.

"Ah, good afternoon, Akabane-kun. How are you doing today?"

"As bored as usual, but I figure you must have known that." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes now. Kanzaki's attempt for pleasant conversations was getting on his nerves.

She just smiled in reply.

Karma cleared his throat, gaining her attention in the process. "Anyway, can you meet me down the hill after school? I have some place to go that I need you to come with me."

Now she's curious. What place could it possibly be that Karma Akabane wanted her, of all people, to come?

When she hadn't answered, Karma quirked his eyebrows to show that he expected an answer right now. That, and his growing irritation.

"Sorry, I was just surprised. This is quite unexpected…" she trailed off, lowering her head down to put her lunchbox back to her bag before looking up to him again. "May I ask where?"

"No."

Naturally, the cynical side of her was suspicious of him, but then she brushed it off. 'It's Akabane-kun for God's sake! If anyone in this class has to fight, he'd be one of the best.'

"Very well. I don't know where you're going with this invitation, but I'll have you know that I trust you." She told him firmly, golden eyes piercing into his. The sudden hard tone amused him.

Did she just try to look a bit tougher?

He brushed the thought off before tsk-ed her, feeling a bit bothered for knowing that she didn't fully trust him. He was many things, but she should have known that he never endangered his friends. 'Besides, has she forgotten that I'm the one who fought those highschool punks for kidnapping her and Kayano? Unbelievable.' He could feel the corner of his eyes twitched as he restrained himself for not mentioning it to her. As a reply, he just made a curt nod, signalling that he heard her, before getting up and walking back to his own desk.

He spent the rest of the day feeling bored, with occasional attempts in slicing Koro-sensei when he's within his reach.

-o0o-

"Eeh, you're not walking home with us?" Kayano's high-pitched voice made Karma glanced at the group of the girls standing around Yukiko's desk.

Yukiko, who was putting her stuffs inside her bag, flashed the girls an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I have to make a detour along the way. You guys go ahead and have fun,"

The girls aww-ed at her reply, and that's the last thing Karma heard before he walked out of the room and head to the main campus' entrance, the one before it branched to the path to Class E building.

-o0o-

He was standing for a good 10 minutes, smirking the main campus' losers who had the nerve to actually look down on him, when he noticed her slender form walking down towards him. He made no move to greet her though.

It wasn't when she's within his arm-length that he straightened his posture.

"I'm sorry, did I make you wait long? It took quite a while for the girls to go ahead first.." Karma could detect slight guilt in her melancholy soft voice.

"Yeah, I noticed. I waved them goodbye when I was waiting here a few minutes ago." He nodded at her to signal her that it's alright, before he started walking down the road. Yukiko immediately followed him, falling into steps a little bit behind him. Not that far behind as if she was cowering in fear, but not exactly beside him too.

They're walking down for a few minutes when he found himself asking, "Why did you tell them to go ahead first?"

Yukiko tilted her head sideways, as if the answer was obvious. "Wouldn't you prefer it that way?"

"I could care less either way. I was just curious on why you did what you did." He shrugged.

"Ah…" she lost her words before she spoke again sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it to be a secret."

He turned to her in questioning manner, signalling her to elaborate.

"Well, for starter, I thought you wouldn't want to be seen with me.."

He unconsciously scoffed rather loudly, alarming her. "You really should stop worrying over how others see you."

"I'm sorry for taking your reputation and your well-being into consideration." Her voice was getting hardened, and even without him looking at her, he suspected she was becoming more upset at him by each second.

"Well stop that. It doesn't do you any favors." He replied nonchalantly, clearly not caring whether his words would upset her more or not.

That successfully stopped her in her tracks.

He fully turned to her now, and he saw her standing as tall as ever, her face showed complete distraught. Gone was the usual gentle Yukiko Kanzaki with unbelievable calming presence whom he's annoyed so much.

"What are we doing here, Akabane-kun? It's only been a few minutes and we're already fighting."

"I'm just stating the facts." Karma looked at her sharply. "And you know I'm right. The fact that you've been apologizing to me 3 times in a freaking few minutes is a proof of that."

With that, he continued walking down the road, with an unexplainable certainly that she would still come along despite the harsh words that he had said.

Because deep down, he knew she realized how much it was true.

A good 10 steps later, he didn't need to look back to know that she did follow him, her steps fell silently into his.

None of them spoke again.

-o0o-

They were on board of the train, with her sitting and him standing near her, his arm held the holder above, when she decided to break the tension.

"You didn't have to be so harsh, Akabane-kun." she looked at him pointedly.

"I'm not going to say sorry if that's what you want to hear."

"….. Good thing I didn't expect any." She flashed him a bitter smile before she turned her head to the window behind her, content with watching the view from inside the train for now.

Hearing that, he lifted one of his eyebrows as a response, before thinking better against it and looked toward the same window that was in front of him.

-o0o-

"Wait a minute, Akabane-kun. Isn't this place…."

Karma smirked. "It's a familiar place for you, I'm sure?"

She glared at him (it wasn't very much a glare as it's not exactly threatening, but he assumed it's the best she could do), but he ignored her and started to walk ahead.

When he stopped in front of that one place she recognized so much, she looked at him sharply as if she demanded an immediate answer to her unvoiced question. He fished some things from the back of his pocket, before showing her quite a lot of small-sized papers.

"Yukiko Kanzaki, I want you to help me spend these gaming coupons."

Author's Note : What do you think? This has been on my mind since the very first time I saw Karma, then Yukiko. Of all boys in Class E, if I were to pick one who looked like a fan of game, I would definitely go for Karma due to his playful traits and his tendency to look for something fun. And we all know how much love Yukiko Kanzaki has for games. If they indeed have something in common, it would be through games (arcade or console).

Anyway, a question though. What do you think of the witty Yukiko Kanzaki that I portrayed here? I figure she couldn't possibly act princess-like all the time when it came to dealing with a human-being namely Karma Akabane, so there's that. Do you think it's too OOC for her? Tell me what you think, as it will possibly affect the whole story!

Stay tuned to the story, please!