Chapter Ten
If there was ever a moment where Nagisa was on edge, it was now. Her father was very much aware of Karma's personality and all of it's quirks, and Karma was aware of the man's knowledge of this himself.
Which meant that when he intentionally made himself harder to read, closing off his actions from interpretation as he sat on the couch beside her, while her father settled on an armchair, he was doing it to hide something nefarious.
The boy was either really and truthfully just trying to convince her father with words, or he was making it less obvious what he was planning so when he did do it, the others would be taken by surprise. Knowing Karma, one was highly more likely that the other.
"Thanks for the drinks, thanks for the hospitality, but I'll cut straight to it. Nagisa doesn't want to leave so you have no right to make her."
The man took in a deep breath, his voice calm as he spoke. "I thought you would have this kind of reaction, which is exactly why I requested you keep it a secret."
His eyes flickered over to his daughter, lingering just long enough for her to notice his silence and see a glimpse of his glare, dragging away as soon as he knew he'd had her attention.
"But as a matter of fact, I'm Nagi's father - not you - and I'm responsible for deciding what's best for him."
"Then as her father surely you can see how much leaving has been upsetting her. Or is that just the kind of father you want your daughter to see you as?"
Nagisa wanted to speak, but was stumped for words. What was the point in fighting to stay with someone who didn't want to stay with you? Someone who treated you badly and depressed you because of that? At this moment she could only cringe back in her seat.
"If you're really as close to Nagi as you consider yourself to be, it should be clear that the source of his problems came from long before we spoke about leaving." He stated, looking half bored.
"So who exactly are you trying to put the blame on here?" Karma kept his voice steady, but his eyes were narrowed.
"I understand that I'm the one who's at fault. Don't think you can emotionally blackmail me with that. Though, accepting that I've become a person Nagi doesn't like, I don't understand why it is you would want your friend to stay here so badly with someone who clearly makes him sick."
"Dad, you don't make me sick. I never said tha-"
Instinctively she had put on the voice of a lie to speak to him, he caught her eye, picking up on the fact that she had to change herself to feel comfortable to speak him, and his expression spoke all that needed to be spoken, silencing her.
"Seriously?" Karma scoffed,"She's your daughter and you're going to throw her away over one fight?"
"Would you prefer I remain with him and force him to be something he's not?"
The way he persistently spoke in that dismissive, unentertained and incapable of being convinced way because nobody could give a valid counter opposing the one conceived by his flawless mind was beginning to take affect.
"I would prefer you accept your beautiful daughter for who she is and don't tempt her into changing that. It wouldn't be hard for you to acknowledge her as a girl if you weren't so caught up in your own personal problems."
His voice was low and almost husky like a grown man's.
Nagisa's father cleared his throat, removing his reading glasses and slipping them onto his shirt pocket.
"Well Nagisa will be free to fall as low as she like once she's back with her mother away from me, so I don't see the problem."
At seeing his hand tightening around his thigh, Nagisa sat up abruptly and met his eyes, seeming to communicate silently to each other before the redhead's shoulders slipped down and his tension released a bit.
"That's still forcing your actions on her old man." Karma stood as Nagisa's father raised his eyebrow.
"So you've given up."
He put down his coffee, reaching for a newspaper only to stop when he saw that the redheaded boy's hand had interlocked with the hand of his child, both of their bodies turned towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"We-"
"Since you want her away from you so badly I'll take her away from you. Don't worry, you'll never get the chance to see her face again." Karma spoke mockingly.
"You mean you're off to make out in another alleyway? You're right, I wouldn't want to see that."
"Karma!"
The man's glass had been smashed. He didn't see anything. Only feeling the slowly returning pang of cut skin for a long time as his vision returned to him. Hot water seeped into his clothing, staining the expensive carpet below his feet.
When his brain managed to finally tell him to look up, he saw the odd golden eyes of the redhead looking down at him. It was hard to say that look resembled a boy or anything human at all. It was more like an animal. Something dangerous that needed to be locked away in a cage.
Aside from the stare, Karma was deadly still, it was strange to look into eyes that were no doubt plotting with intent to kill, causing the usually composed man to breathe quite heavily without even knowing it.
This was different from the angry teenager outbursts he'd witnessed before.
"Karma," Nagisa had said his name several times now, but this was the first time it had been heard by her father. Maybe it was the shock of the sudden sound, or perhaps his ageing heart was responsible for him not realising his ears had been ringing catastrophically until they were finally cleared by his daughter's voice.
"Karma come on. It's better just to leave him, hurting him won't do us any good."
Then the boy smiled, "Don't worry Nagisa, I wouldn't do that to you."
He was finally free of the menacing gaze.
"Lets pack your things."
"We can leave them." She suggested, shrugging like she bore no connection to all the money he had spent on her.
"Are you sure? We might not be able to get it back later."
She nodded. "I'll go pack a bag for the night. That should be enough."
The teens left his side without even so much as another glance in his direction. Humiliation wasn't the right word. Though, wrath was definitely one that was increasing in him.
There were only so many scenarios where punching a minor would be acceptable for a man of his status, this unfortunately wasn't one of them.
He grit his teeth an hour after they had left, still sitting in the same seat, still making the same still expression as his eyes stared ahead calculatingly. His thumb had popped into his mouth to ease the small tear bleeding onto his palm.
At this point he wanted to do more than punch that red haired kid, he wanted him locked up or dead, either way was acceptable so long as he was away from his child.
"Hello," His voice feigned more distress than intended, but that didn't hurt his case at all, in fact, judging my the concern on the operator's voice as she asked if she could help him, this would prove to be a very useful act indeed. "Yes, I'm calling to report a possible kidnapping."
"Karma... I'm gonna have to go to my mother's eventually."
"That's only if I let her get you~" he smirked. She smiled back.
"So you're going to adopt me?"
"Exactly, you'll be my new little pet."
"Not your daughter?"
"Nope. I think a puppy or a kitten would suit you better."
They were walking in the dark, they had been for a few hours but Nagisa insisted on Karma getting the fresh air instead of a bus or taxi in hopes of his anger fading a bit. Just in case his parents weren't as welcoming as Karma. If that were to become the case (which she had a feeling was more likely than anything else) at least her boyfriend would remain level headed and not do anything irrational. The last thing they needed was another temper tantrum from him.
"What are you thinking about this time?"
She hadn't realised he had stopped until he lifted up her blue hair and put little-to-no distance between their eyes.
"Ah- I'm wondering whether or not your parents will let us sleep in the same room?"
She lied quickly, looking less obvious since she was honestly curious about the matter. "They'll let us sleep in the same bed if we pretend your a boy."
"A boy? How would I pull that off?"
"The last time they saw you they thought you were a boy." He shrugged, "Besides, we're not going home tonight."
The girl paled and nearly tripped over on the concrete as dread crept up on her, "Then where are we going?"
"Wherever the night takes us~"
Experience had taught her to take that as an ominous sign.
"You mean we're going to be out in the cold all night?" She rubbed her shoulders despite wearing a large fur-lined black jacket just to tease him.
"Ah, why don't we we catch a late movie?"
"In there?" They had come across a surprisingly busy street. The direction in which Karma looked down was dark and the entrance to the theatre was packed with as many people as there would be in the morning. Though at this time they were mainly over 16's at least.
He noticed Nagisa's incredulous stare on his face and smiled, "I get it. You're still angry - you're looking for a fight."
"Yep." he nodded deviously. She sighed, knowing that it was hopeless trying to persuade him otherwise.
"Fine, just promise not to fight until after the movie." She blushed a little, poking out her tongue "That way we might make him chase us."
Nagisa and Karma were both breathing heavily, their chests together as they stood embraced in each others arms. The second they had evaded their unfortunate target of mischief, they had sprinted back to their meeting place and jumped into each others arms laughing.
It had taken a while, but the tension in Karma's eyes had finally faded from a hawk's gold back to their usual honey brown.
The blunette was starting to see what people meant when they had said Karma was a bad influence on her, but there was no point fretting over it.
Now she was just tired, they both were and Nagisa was conflicted with the urgency of wanting a soft warm bed to slip into and the impending concern at being turned away by her boyfriend's parents.
In her thoughts, her eyes had averted to the side as they spoke, not looking ahead when his house came into view. She could only be shocked when Karma cursed loudly and spun her suddenly, backing up into the shadows.
"What's-" One look at the police car parked ready for arrest in his driveway said it all.
"What have they found out now.." He muttered, still analysing the scene with narrowed eyes.
"F-Found out? That's not reassuring - could your parents be in trouble?"
"Unlikely." He clicked his tongue, "They haven't called so they can't have asked them to go and find me...That means the police are here for me again. Shit! What have I done recently to get into this...?"
"You don't think that man told on us do you?"
Karma was still, looking down at his girlfriend in consideration. "He's the one that asked for a fight, so no."
"But, we threw popcorn at him and insulted his date."
"Either way, we should get out of here before they see us."
"T-Then where are we supposed to go? What can we do all night, watch more movies?"
"Haven't you ever spent a whole night out before?"
Nagisa bit her lip, paling at his intent, curious, amused and slightly belittling stare.
"Maybe I should just go home to dad after all..."
"No, Na-"
In their situation, seeing Karma freeze up and tense suddenly frightened her, she backed away ready to disappear, fearing the worst. But in the end, it was only the vibration of his phone ringing that had caused his reaction.
He pulled the item from his pocket scowling. "Gakushuu. What the hell does he want at this time?"
Despite this, the redhead didn't answer his phone, however, the second it ended, it started up again, causing him to groan.
"I think you should just answer it."
"Are you with Nagisa?" The boy's familiar voice demanded, a hint of urgency and fear eliciting some of Karma's attention. The girl beside him cringed so hard Karma would have been alarmed if the sight hadn't been swallowed by the darkness.
"Aren't you a bit eager... no Hello, no how are yo-"
"You have her don't you ass-hole?!"
"What are you so upset about, she is my girlfriend." His patience was being tested at seeing his lack of ability in getting his friend to play.
"So you admit it! Y-You fucking scum! You never learn not to treat her like an object, how could you-"
"Gakushuu you're not making any sense."
"Nagisa! Are you alright?" His tone of voice changed instantly. It was like he had forgotten what he had been vehemently accusing just a few seconds ago.
"O-Of course I am." She was taken aback in confusion.
"But you..." he had leaned too far from his mobile, clearly nervous to the point that he wasn't thinking straight "...the police said to my father..."
At the word police, Karma's fingers had dug into the corners of his phone, causing grey smears to appear on his screen where he had applied too much pressure. Nagisa didn't have to look up to know that his teeth were grit and his eyes showed fury. Could Gakushuu have been the one who called the police?
"Gakushu," he fumed,"explain everything."
The purple eyes boy on the phone knew that tone as well as Nagisa did, becoming surprisingly obedient when he sighed.
"My mum and Dad will be gone for at least another hour, come by mine but don't be seen."