Chapter Ten - Shiver Me Timbers

The day ended. School was over, well, for the most part. Koro-sensei has this awful habit of setting disgusting amounts of homework. Considering we may not even live to see results day, I don't know why he is bombarding us with all of this. It's not even assassination related.

My walk home is different now. It begins as usual, Kayano, Rio, and Sugino walk with Karma and I to the station. Sometimes, Isogai comes with us, but that's only if Koro-sensei isn't keeping him behind to help him with Biology. I don't know how Isogai does it, juggling everything he has to. I admire him for it, I wish I was as good at keeping home in balance as he does.

I don't actually think any of us need to go on the train, but it's become the place where we split to go home.

This is where it changed. Karma tends to take the long way home, stopping outside my house before continuing on. We didn't walk that way today, much to the confusion of Sugino.

"Oh, that's unlike you two to come this way?" He rubbed his hands together to beat away the cold.

"Nagisa-kun is coming over this evening, is that a crime?" Karma hummed, his hands stuffed into his pockets. I regretted rushing out my room and forgetting my winter gear. Maybe I should at least get some gloves. Or maybe he could just hold my hand, just a little. I'm sure the shared warmth would be enough.

"But… you never walk this way? Like, ever?" Sugino stopped outside his house, raising his eyebrow at us.

"It's a shorter route, I'd rather not be in the cold for any longer than I have to," Karma specified. Sugino's eyes flicked to mine, and an obvious 'text me' message came through. Did he think something was wrong?

"Alright, well I hope you two get home quickly!" He smiled, briskly walking to his front door. He turned and waved to us as we left. We returned the gesture, then continued on our way.

I really, really wished I had thought to grab my coat, I'm freezing. I rubbed my arms, trying to push back the Goosebumps forming all over them. Ugh, we still have another ten minutes to go. I would give anything for some warmth. I wonder how many layers I could sell my soul for. Maybe like… Two? Maybe I'll phone up Satan and be like 'ring, ring, need a coat'. I wish. It would be handy. This cold is driving me nuts. I wonder if I'm doomed to Hell anyway, my mother probably thinks so. I hear Hell is pretty warm at this time of the year. I should take a trip. Bring some sun cream, I'll be fine. Karma glides closer to me as we walk, whistling to himself a bit. I doubt he can sing in real life. If his laugh is anything to go by, he's probably got this weird nasally voice. I wonder if he sings in the shower. I'll probably encounter it at some point. Good thing he's pretty.

"Nagisa, I can hear you thinking," Karma teased, looking towards me with a playful glint in his eyes. "What do you spend all your time thinking about?"

You.

"Oh, just that it's cold, that's all." One day, I'll build up the courage to say something. I almost feel like 'crush' isn't actually the right word for Karma. He doesn't suit it as much as I thought. Maybe it's too girly for him. I'll have to work out what to internally call him later. We walked up the stairs to Karma's apartment, with him searching his pockets for his keys.

"We can go shopping at the weekend if you like? I mean, you can't go around without a coat."

I'm glad he suggested shopping over selling my soul to Satan or worse sneaking back into mum's house. I don't think I'm entirely ready to go back there.

As we walked through the door, my pocket buzzed. I took out my phone to look at the display. Sugino?

'Find out what his intentions are with Okuda. Also, is it true he used to be in a gang of modern pirates before middle-school? Look out for stolen gold!'

God's sake.

So, before we do anything else, we get homework out the way. It's nice, sitting opposite each other and working. Karma can speed through work like lightning, though, I think its English he is doing. For once in my life, I finish my homework before him. He raised his eyebrows at me as I took out my notebook from my bag, and stowed away my homework. I smirked, yeah, that's right Karma-kun, I finished my work before you. Maybe I should have placed some sort of bet on who could finish their work first… Maybe the penalty would be a romantic date for me somewhere nice. He can use all that stolen gold to treat me. I'm actually kind of curious. Karma is so clouded in mystery what if he actually was a pirate? Maybe if I look under his bed I'll find a hook and an eyepatch. He rolled his eyes at my smug expression (I hope it was at that anyway), turning his attention back to his work with a sigh.

Then I remembered. I still had Chemistry to do. Shit.

I quickly rampaged through my bag once more, grabbing my most detested notebook. I heard Karma snigger when he worked out my haughtiness had all been in vain. Shut it ya land lover!

I flipped the pages, having them land on the task Koro-sensei set us. I stared at each one of the equations on the page. I was wrong. We weren't trying to assassinate our teacher. He was trying to assassinate as with these questions! No, calm down. You got this. Science wasn't my strong suit. I was far better at English. It's true, I am pretty damn good at English. Not fluent, obviously, but I can do the 'L' thing okay. I continued to glimpse at all the questions. They were filled with complicated maths and lettering. Oh my fucking god what am I doing?

"Do you need help?" Karma asked, obviously noticing my soul crumbling dread upon reading our homework. He flipped open his Chemistry book and finding pages I was looking at despite already completing the task. How kind of him, maybe he has moved on from his high sea villainous ways. Though maybe I should just make sure. Test the water a little.

"Ai matey!" I answered, impersonating the best pirate I can muster while keeping a straight face. He furrowed his brows, and just kind of stared at me. Though eventually he shook his head, maybe thinking he had just misheard me and leaned closer to the table to read the page. Karma, I don't think by moving it closer you are going to help me understand it better. He always has this air of confidence with his subjects that makes him seem so much more superior to the rest of us. It's refreshing to say the least, him knuckling down to actually try and teach me. He mouths the word on the page, his eyes darting as he repeats the sentence to me and begins to explain the problems.

It's not the first time we've sat together and worked, but it's certainly the first time I've noticed Karma's mannerisms. He's very still when he works, poised, as if he was about to strike his target. His eyes are sharp, utterly focused. I noticed each crease forming as he squints to read the question, how he frowns momentarily as he thinks of the answer. I've never noticed that he bites his lip when he works before, or how much his expression changes as he finishes each problem. I took my time mentally noting these things down, maybe they'd be important to remember. After ten more minutes of us struggling through the Chemistry we finish and he finally relaxes, dumping his book back into his bag and exhaling.

"Nagisa-kun, you feeling alright?"

"Ship shape!" Bollocks, I panicked. That one just slipped out. I must be getting seaweed brain. Overthinking this whole pirate rumour thing, I must of just been sat here ogling at him.

Oh shit, his got an eyebrow raised. Don't let him notice you have been staring Naggy, pretend you are really interested in your notebook. Yeah. Good. Wow what an interesting blank note page you got there, mm, what great paper creases. Okay, now we can look back to him. He's stretching. I couldn't help but stare at the hem of his shirt. Please ride up please ride up please – damn it, his shirt is too long. That's a shame. I could have seen some stomach action. I wonder if the rumours are true that he has a tattoo... A pirate tattoo… I really doubt he has, considering we can't actually get them for at least another two years. Maybe he has some weird friends that can tattoo, his crew from the seven seas maybe, though, part of me thinks he's not entirely that bad boy enough for a tattoo. I don't remember ever seeing a hint of one when we change for training. Not that I was looking. Much. Maybe because it's on his inner thigh? Maybe it's somewhere much more exciting… One day I'll see it. If I play my cards right. Oh well… You can't have it all.

Karma watched me, an amused smile on his face. I hope I didn't say any of that out loud.

"You wanna order take out?"

"Ai, ai captain!"

And so we did.