Chapter 9: Unexpected Meeting

Nagisa crouches down and feels under the mat, hoping that his mom left the key where it usually is. Karma stands behind him, now wearing actual clothes instead of a blanket. Eyes on the key now in Nagisa's hand, the redhead speaks. "Are you sure she isn't home?"

The blunette turns toward him and nods before elaborating on his answer. "Yep. She's got work early on Saturday mornings so we should be able to get my stuff without any disruptions." He inserts the key into the lock and turns the knob.

The door opens easily and two teens walk in. Nagisa talks as they continue down the hall. "It's under my bed but, as well as the kit, there's some other stuff I forgot to pack."

The pair are almost to Nagisa's room when the blunette suddenly turns around. "Did you hear that?" He asks, his voice laced with suspicion. Karma didn't notice anything off or hear something but knows not to doubt the blunette's observational skills. The blue-eyed boy turns away from his room and tugs on the redhead's shirt sleeve as he starts to lead him away from the room and towards the kitchen.

Their footprints are barely audible as they make their way down to the other end of the wall. When Nagisa enters-Karma not far behind him-the kitchen, he almost yells. Almost. At the small table in the middle of the kitchen, a blue-haired man is pouring tea for two. The middle-aged man looks surprised when the blunette boy appears at the entrance of the kitchen. He falters slightly as he continues to fix the cup of tea.

When he's done, he stares at the blue-haired teen a little longer and, before long, a large grin breaks out on his face. "Nagisa! It's nice to see you, your mother made it sound like you wouldn't be back for hours." He stands up and gives the boy a somewhat awkward hug before ushering Nagisa to the seat across from him and handing him a cup of tea. The man has yet to notice the other teen standing at the doorway.

Karma continues to study the man from the threshold, his calculating gaze sizing up the older male. It is pretty obvious that the man is related to Nagisa, most likely his father. His only concern is why the man is here. Hadn't the deal about Nagisa going home with his father been called off?

While Karma would love to stay and watch Nagisa and his dad converse, he has other things he should be doing. The redhead makes his way back to Nagisa's room and immediately crouches down to reach under the other boy's bed. After feeling around blindly, his hand bumps into the hard casing of the assassination kit had given to them at the beginning of the year.

He quickly pulls it out and places it right outside the window so that they can retrieve it later. If Nagisa's father hadn't showed up they would have absolutely no trouble getting the case but now that he did, Karma needs to make sure that he doesn't see it. Ministry of Defense assassination kits always make parents suspicious.

Once the chore is done, Karma falls onto Nagisa's bed and decides to catch up on his Saturday morning sleep. He would very much like to eavesdrop on Nagisa's conversation, but he has the feeling that Nagisa would rather have privacy when talking with his dad. Also, the bed is comfy and carries the faint smell of his best friend. He buries his head in the blankets and falls asleep.

Down the hall, Nagisa is seated across the table from his father, steam from their tea cups floating up and then disappearing into air. Nagisa listens intently as his father makes small talk, asking about school and how he's doing. The blunette doesn't quite know why his father is here, and, despite having nothing against the man, that's making him uneasy. He can easily tell that his father is avoiding a topic, but isn't sure he knows what the thing is that his father doesn't want to talk about.

Suddenly, the older male comes right out and says it. "Nagisa, your mother called me last and asked me if I wanted to pick you up and take you home with me. Did you know that?"

Nagisa nods. "Yes, she told me."

The man sips his tea as he leans back in his chair and asks the question that's been on his mind all morning long. "Nagisa, why would she suddenly want to be rid of you?" The man has a habit of being blunt-once he finished beating around the bush- when it comes to delicate situations. This habit was a big part of the reason him and Hiromi separated. Whenever she had something to say about Nagisa's gender, or did something stupid or unreasonable, he would flat out tell her she's crazy. Eventually, he got tired of living with a psycho, and she got tired of living with someone so blunt, so they decided that they weren't good for each other and he moved out.

Nagisa looks down at his hands while debating what to say. After a few seconds of thinking, he responds to his father's question, making sure to not give away too much information in his answer. "Well, we had a sort of a…misunderstanding, and I did something that upset her."

As the older blunette stares blankly at him, Nagisa is pretty sure that his answer wasn't detailed enough to satisfy his father. He decides that he might as well admit to what he did.

"We had a disagreement about a few things and I left for a day. My disobedience resulted in her wanting to hand me over to you. Everything's fine now, though…We're not going to be around each other enough anymore to have any disagreements." Kaiyo almost spits out his tea when he hears Nagisa's answer. The last time he had been with both Hiromi and his son at the same time was three months after the divorce, approximately five years ago.

Back then, Nagisa did everything Hiromi asked and never dared to go against her. At age ten, Nagisa would follow his mother around in a dress, always trying his very best to please her. It is now blatantly obvious to Kaiyo that his son has changed. While this change is seen as unpleasant by Hiromi, Kaiyo recognizes this bit of rebellion as an improvement in his son's character…But something doesn't add up.

Although he doesn't like it, his former wife is not the type of person that would decide to send Nagisa away and then decide to keep him just because the boy wants to stay at his current school. The last thing Nagisa said also makes him wonder a bit too. Kaiyo Ashitaka is a pretty smart man and it only takes him a few minutes to come to a conclusion, though he doesn't like the conclusion he comes to.

"Nagisa, where are you staying?" He says. When his son almost spits out his tea, he's disappointed to know that his hypothesis is correct.

"How-" The blue-haired boy begins, but his father quickly raises a hand to silence him.

"Nagisa, please answer the question. I would like to know the person my son is living with." Nagisa bites his lip nervously. If his father finds out that he's staying with a classmate his mother just met two days ago there's a good chance that he won't agree with it. But, he has a feeling that his dad isn't going to immediately decide that he doesn't want him staying with a classmate. His eyes wander to the entrance of the kitchen. He isn't surprised when Karma isn't there, there's a good chance that his redheaded friend went back to his room at the beginning of the conversation. Instead of answering his father, Nagisa gets out of his chair, leaves the kitchen, and heads down the hall to his room.

Bewildered, follows his son to his room. He's about to say something pertaining to his earlier question but stops short when Nagisa opens the door to his room. Inside, on the bed, is a redheaded teen sleeping. Nagisa looks just as surprised as him, although for different reasons.

The smaller blunette quickly approaches the bed and attempts to shake the other boy awake. "Karma, wake up! MY dad wants to talk to you. How'd you even fall asleep so fast, anyway?" After a few minutes of Nagisa shaking the other teen, Karma finally wakes up. It's kind of funny how the redhead is such a deep sleeper now, but wakes up so easily during class. Nagisa ponders as Karma sits up on the bed.

Karma's eyes immediately fall on the blue-haired man standing at the doorway. Since he's Nagisa's dad, Karma pays attention when the man addresses him. "I take it you're the one Nagisa is staying with?"

Karma nods and sits up a bit straighter. "Yes, as of last night."

"So, I'm assuming that you've met Nagisa's mother." Kaiyo says.

Karma can't stop from smirking as he answers the question. "Yeah, I've met Nagisa's mother."

The grin slightly unnerves the grown man but he continues on with his interview. "Does she know that you have Nagisa?" There's always the chance that Hiromi thinks Nagisa ran way and decided not to tell him.

The redhead's grin grows even wider, to the point that Nagisa is a little curious about why he's so happy. "She knows."

Karma's answer doesn't sit well with . His former wife is not the type of person that would hand their son over to some kid she barely knows. When she isn't upset over something he does, she's usually very protective over Nagisa. And, he honestly doesn't feel right leaving his son with the evilly smirking teen on the bed. He glances over to Nagisa, who's taken a seat next to the redhead on the bed. Kaiyo notices the way Nagisa sits nonchalantly next to the other teen, looking slightly interested in but otherwise not affected by the other teen's evil grin. More importantly, what happened that made Hiromi willing to give Nagisa away?

"She let Nagisa stay at your house, without any arguing or anything?" He watches Karma's reaction. The teen's face hardens into something a little more serious but the tall adolescent manages to keep his smirk. Also being interested in the answer to the question, Nagisa stares at Karma as well.

"It was less of an argument and more of me persuading her to let Nagisa stay at my place for a while." Karma leans back onto the bed and glances over at Nagisa, who seems slightly put off by his vagueness. He doesn't want to let the blunette know that his mother traded him for a promotion but he still needs to answer the questions Nagisa's dad asks him if he wants there to be any chance of Nagisa continuing to stay with him.

ponders the boy's answer. From the bored expression on the redhead's face, he knows that he's not going to get any information out of the teen. He turns to Nagisa now.

"Nagisa, do you want to continue school here?" He asks.

Nagisa answers immediately, "Yes, I do." His determined expression catches Kaiyo slightly off guard. The man would very much like to take Nagisa home with him right now so they could pretend that Hiromi Shiota is nothing but a nightmare both of them were having. The look on his son's face tells him otherwise. It is pretty obvious that Nagisa likes where he is now and doesn't care much for going back home with his father. Plus, he doesn't want Nagisa to know him as the one that pulled him away from all his friends and schoolmates.

He turns back to Karma. "What's your name?"

Karma answers in a bored tone. "Karma Akabane." The last name sounds slightly familiar to Kaiyo, probably something Hiromi mentioned a while back.

The man also introduces himself. "Ashitaka Kaiyo, Nagisa's dad." Karma just nods as a response since he doesn't care much for the man's name, just his relation to Nagisa. studies the teen a little longer before beckoning Nagisa and turning to leave the room. Nagisa glances at Karma, who's still laying on the bed, before standing to his follow his father.

When Nagisa exits the room, he shuts the door behind himself. His dad is leaning against the wall, a focused expression on his face. They both stand awkwardly in the silent hall. Thankfully, Nagisa speaks.

"So…what do you think?" The taller blunette stops thinking and glances over at his son.

"Nagisa, I honestly don't think I'm in the sort of position to judge what you do at this point in your life. Also, I'm pretty sure that you don't want to leave Kunugigaoka."

Nagisa nods. "So, what are you thinking about?"

"Well, I traveled three hours to get here, Nagisa, I was thinking that maybe we could eat lunch later."

Nagisa smiles. Despite having a somewhat detached relationship with his father, he still enjoys the little amount of time they spend together. "Okay, I'll tell Karma."

Nagisa disappears into the room, making sure to close the door behind him. Karma's standing up now and is digging through the vanity. Nagisa addresses him.

"Karma," The redhead looks up. "My dad wants me to go out for lunch with him, since he traveled a long time to get here."

Karma nods. "Okay, I'll leave, but can you tell me what you need from here for my house?"

Nagisa looks at him oddly before answering. "I left the kit and my other school supplies. That's about it. Why'd you need to know?"

"It'll be easier if I bring the stuff to my house than coming here again later." Nagisa nods in agreement, although he doesn't want Karma carrying his stuff home, he has to agree with the redhead's reasoning.

"Nagisa?" Both of the boys hear on the other side of the door. Nagisa smiles at Karma. "See you later, Karma." He says before leaving the room.


A/N: Oh my god, I don't quite know how this chapter turned out sooo boring and sooo pitifully crappy. Please forgive me! Next chapter I'm moving on to the fun stuff! (KaruNagi Fluff and other stuff). Please review and all that jazz. BTW, since I'm pretty sure none you guys care for reading about Nagisa eating lunch with his dad, so that won't be in Chapter ten.

If I update soon I'll see you soon,

Palpex