Chapter 10: Midnight Run

The blunette walks down the street alone. It's dark now, as he suspected it would be by the time he finished "lunch" with his father. He and his dad hang out about once every three months and when they do his father makes sure to make it count. That means "lunch" includes a stop at a sushi place, a shopping trip that includes Mr. Ashitaka buying Nagisa clothes for males (something Ms. Shiota does not do), a trip to the movies, and a small "unplanned" detour to the nearby amusement park. Though he did have a lot of fun, while at the sushi place, his father mentioned something that made him think.

The elder of the two blunettes places his chopsticks on his still full plate before leaning back in his booth. He's pondering something and blue-eyed boy sitting across from him knows it. The adolescent places the cup he's been sipping from back on the table and locks eyes with the older male. Sighing, the man speaks of what's on his mind. "Nagisa, what was it that your redheaded friend did to make Hiromi change her mind?"

Staring blankly at his father, the boy racks his brain for an answer. When he can't find anything, he shrugs. "I don't know. He talked with mother alone and next thing I knew I didn't have to leave Kunugigaoka." Now, the blunette's curious of what his friend did to make his stubborn mother go back on her word. She's never, ever been the sort to quit when it came to what she wants.

Now, Nagisa is making his way to Karma's house, his temporary home, his mind still wondering what Karma did to persuade his mother. His father had offered to drop him off, seeing as the bags in his hands are pretty heavy. The blunette had declined the offer, saying that it is late and his father should probably start his trip home. The blunette shivers slightly at the cold and grips at the filled bags in his chilled hands. He continues up the street, until finally he sees Karma's house, like a beacon in the dark shadow of the star dotted night.

Shifting the bags into one arm, Nagisa rings the doorbell. Within a few moments, the lock on the door clicks. Wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, Karma opens the door. The redhead quickly lets Nagisa in and closes the door upon noticing the blunette's baggage. Glancing at the smaller teen with a teasing smirk, the redhead speaks in a mischievous tone. "Eh, must've been some lunch, seeing as it's," he glances at his watch, "Eleven-Ten." He pauses and tilts his head to the side. "I was wondering where you went."

Nagisa sets the bags down and starts to tell the redhead where he's been all day. "Well, I went to a sushi restaurant with my dad and then we went shopping for clothes since spring is coming up. After that we went to see Sonic Ninja Two and then to the amusement park," He holds up a Sonic Ninja key chain and places it in the taller teen's hand, "I won it in a shooting game…kind of felt like I was a cheater, being trained and all."

Karma smirks as he studies the keychain in his palm. He loops it around his index finger and starts to spin it, watching the black blur. "Thanks, Nagisa. Anyway, while you were gone, I decided to get you set up in one of the guest rooms. It's next to my room." No need to put all the extra rooms in the mostly empty house to waste.

Nagisa acknowledges Karma with a nod and leans over to pick up a bag. The blunette is slightly surprised when Karma helps him with the bag, then again, Karma has proved to be a pretty considerate person over the past few days. Both teens leave the parlor and make their way down the hallway, one door pass Karma's room, they stop.

The redhead opens the door with his free hand and lets Nagisa into the room before letting the door shut. When Nagisa enters the room he quickly looks it over. The rather large room includes a bed about the same size as Karma's, a nightstand, and a dresser, all of the furniture painted the same cream color. On the bed is the assassination kit and on the wooden floor is his duffel bag while his school books lay on the nightstand. "Thanks for bringing my stuff, Karma."

The mentioned redhead waves his hand at the comment. "No problem." Nagisa glances over to what is most likely the closet and puts his bag of clothes in it. Karma moves to put the other bag in there too, but Nagisa moves to stop him. "I actually have something in there I need to take out."

Karma gives the bag to the smaller adolescent before walking over to sit on the blue and green striped comforter on the blunette's bed. The blunette digs through the bag for a few minutes before taking out a blue notebook. He places the notebook on the floor next to his duffel bag before placing the second shopping bag in the closet.

Karma leans back and studies Nagisa for a while before speaking. "Of course you got a notebook. I wonder how many notebooks you've gone through since the beginning of this school year," he states with a chuckle at Nagisa's bordering on obsessive note taking. Blushing in embarrassment, the smaller teen mumbles as he looks at the ground. "Thirteen; writing information down on paper makes it easier for me to understand it."

The redhead twirls the keychain around his index finger as he leans back onto the bed, wondering how a person can go through thirteen notebooks in just four months, especially when they've-not him, of course, he never takes notes-only used two notebooks for Korosensei's lessons. It's kind of cute. He thinks, but quickly pushes the thought to the back of his head. After turning onto his stomach and watching as Nagisa starts to take the stuff out of his duffel bag, Karma sits in silence for a few minutes before asking his question. "What do you even write about?"

Nagisa stops working and looks up into Karma's questioning eyes. The blunette racks his brain for a few seconds, sometimes he doesn't even know what he writes about. He shrugs, "Just random things like observations and stuff that pops into my head during the day…I actually brought them with me."

Karma attempts to muffle his laughter at the last part but fails miserably. Nagisa finds himself blushing in embarrassment once again. The redhead grins lazily at the blushing blunette and manages to say through his laughing fit. "Again, Nagisa, your priorities were obviously messed up when you ran away. I mean, you brought thirteen notebooks with you."

Nagisa keeps his head down as he continues to pull stuff out of his bag, managing to protest, "Notebooks are very important, Karma." Sadly, the redhead is too busy laughing to hear him.

After about an hour of watching the blunette organize his stuff, Karma gets bored. So he starts to sigh. Nagisa continues to put his stuff up, trying his best to ignore the other teen. This proves to be difficult for the small boy, as the longer he ignores the redhead, the louder the sighs get.

By the time Karma starts letting out what resembles more of an airy scream than a sigh, Nagisa decides that he might as well communicate with the redhead. "Something wrong, Karma?"

The redhead smiles at the acknowledgement and lets out another sigh as he answers in a whiny voice. "I'm sooo bored, Nagisa." The blunette looks up from his stuff and smiles apologetically at the whining redhead. "I'm sorry, Karma, but I can't do anything to mend that."

Karma sits up on the bed and stares intently at the smaller teen, who is now finishing up with the organizing of his stuff. He smirks at the content expression on the blunette's face as he folds his last shirt. "Are you done, Nagisa?"

Nagisa smiles and nods. Karma looks at the other teen and leans closer to him from his spot on the bed. His tone reeks of mischief as he questions the blunette. "You want to do something?"

The small adolescent glances anxiously at the red-haired teen. "I guess." He says, slightly nervouse about what the redhead is planning.

Nagisa stares at the aisles of bagged chips and artificially flavored packaged candies, now fully regretting his earlier answer to Karma's inquiry. The blunette shivers slightly at the shrill coolness that all convenience stores seem to have. Occasionally, he sees a tuft of red hair bob over the tops of the shelves. Tiredly glancing at the clock on the wall, Nagisa sighs. 12:42 AM.

Why are we out so late? He ponders as Karma appears in front of him with an arm full of snacks and drinks-mostly coffee. "Why'd you get all that stuff?" Nagisa says as he points at the redhead's load. Smirking as an answer, the redhead walks over to the counter and continues to stare at the blunette as he purchases the items.

When he returns to the blunette, he answers the question. "We're going somewhere, Nagisa."

The adolescent stares at him blankly, lacking the ability to fully comprehend his words for a second. When he his brain starts working again, he says bluntly, "It's pass midnight and you want to go somewhere. People usually sleep at this time, Karma."

The redhead stares at him for a moment before responding, "You work up crazy early today, a Saturday, why can't I stay up a little late?" He says, feigning a small pout for good measure.

Nagisa replies curtly, "It's Sunday, Karma. We are forty-two minutes into Sunday, yet we are at a convenience store and are going to someplace I don't even know about."

Karma nods and acts like he's truly looking into Nagisa's reasoning before promptly leaning closer to the blunette. Slinging his free arm over the other teen's shoulder, Karma tugs Nagisa closer to him. He sounds disturbingly persuasive as he whispers into the blue-haired boy's ear. "Come with me, Nagisa. Aren't you curious as to what you could be doing tonight rather than sleeping? It's not even a school night. Plus, there's a place I want to show you."

"So, you actually have a plan? We won't be running around past midnight without a motive, right?" The blue-eyed boy inquires. When the redhead nods, he sighs. "Okay, I'll come."

Karma immediately unslings his arm from the blunette's shoulder and instead grabs his hand. Swiftly, he drags the other teen through the automatic doors of the store and into the chilled night.

A light blush dusts the blunette's cheek as Karma pulls him down the road. His blue twin tails dance in the cool nightly winds and the hand that's not being grabbed grips onto the hem of his jacket. It takes a while for the blunette to figure it out, but soon he realizes that they're heading towards the school.

When they stop at the base of the E-Class mountain, Nagisa questions the redhead. "Karma, what are we doing here?" The questioned redhead lets go of the small hand and looks down at the curious blunette with his trademark teasing smile.

"I said there was a place I wanted to show you, and that place happens to be on this mountain." He smiles and grabs the younger teen's sleeve before gesturing to the trail leading up to the mountaintop classroom. Nagisa follows behind obediently, rather curious of a place on the mountain that they haven't yet explored. Surprisingly, though, after only two and a half minutes of walking, Karma tugs him off the trail. They were still near the base of the mountain, one of the places they didn't go during PE since any passerby could easily spot middle school students dangerously flipping through the trees and get suspicious. Although Nagisa would love to inquire about where they are going, he decides against it since he's pretty sure his friend wouldn't answer anyway. The amber-eyed teen continues to lead the way, ascending up the mountain in a seemingly random way, only occasionally stopping to look at a tree or rock. He's probably looking for landmarks to lead the way. Nagisa concludes as he watches the much taller teen.

The more petite of the two finds himself yawning as they trek through the forest. Although moving fast, thanks to the training, Nagisa can't help but be tired so late in the night. Although at this time he would much rather be sleeping, he can't stop himself from anticipating what the redhead wants to show him.

Finally, when they come to a dense wall of leaves, the redhead stops walking. Nagisa stares at the leaves, squinting to see if there's anything special about them. When he doesn't find anything out of the ordinary, he turns to the redheaded teen. "Karma, are we going to go or not?" He pauses, "Because I'm pretty sure you didn't drag me out in the middle of the night to stare at leaves."

Karma smirks that damn annoying smirk of his before swiftly sweeping the leaves aside. At first, Nagisa can't see anything it dark cover of night, but, when his eyes adjust, he's left awestruck.

Buildings sparkle as crisp moonlight hits them and trees stand like dark, shadowy titans. Little squares of light appear on far off buildings, as the workaholics of Kunugigaoka continue functioning in the dark night. The stream that filled their class pool somehow remains visible within the lush greenery of the mountainside and looks like a wonderful mix of murky black and creamy white as the permanent crescent moon shines down on it.

Instinctively, Nagisa takes a step towards the beautiful scenery, only to be pulled out of his amazement when he doesn't feel the safe solidity of Earth under his feet. He lets out squeak of surprise when he realizes he's falling. His hand is quickly grabbed by the boy above him and the blunette finds himself growing nervous as he reaches up with his other hand and grips the redhead's wrist. Though he knows he shouldn't, the smaller teen looks down and frowns. After seeing the height he's hanging from, the adolescent is pretty sure that if he falls his class is going to lose two members before graduation.

He feels Karma grab his wrist and the blunette looks up at the other teen. Blue orbs lock with amber ones as the redhead attempts to pull him up. Nagisa's foot quickly catches on the side of the cliff and pulls himself onto flat ground with help from the taller teen. Once on ground level, the blunette stares at Karma as the latter teen lets out a sigh. "I didn't think you would walk right off." Blushing slightly, the blue-eyed boy looks away. "I was slightly distracted," he says as the redhead drops to the ground and sits, taking the small blunette with him. Nagisa sits next to the other teen, letting his jean-clad legs dangle over the side of the cliff.

Karma reaches over the blunette and picks two drinks out of the bag he dropped a few moments ago. Both of them being canned coffees. Anxiously looking at the cylinders, Nagisa sighs, his former interest of the view now flowing out of him, "Why are we even here?"

Karma looks at him and brings his hand up to his chin as if in deep thought. A smirk falls upon his lips. "Because we can be. I mean, there's no one to tell you or me that we can't be here. Isn't that a good enough reason to do something?"

Nagisa turns away from the other teen and looks out at the magnificent view. His mind wonders to his mother, who could be any one of the many shadows moving within the yellow squares along the horizon. Yep, there's no one to tell me when to be home now. He turns back to the redhead with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

A/N: Just a filler chapter. But, it still felt nice to write this, seeing as I've been so busy and have had so many ideas in my head but I couldn't find the time to type them up. Thanks for the 100+ follows! I'm so glad people are reading this! Please tell me your thoughts on this chapter!

I'll be back,

Palpex