"Jo Kayano-chan." To Nagisa's surprise Karma drove them to Nagisa's own home. And Nagisa didn't manage to handle this information until Akari was there to open the door.

-She's still living at my place?! –

"Oh… Karma-kun, what are you doing here?" Nagisa spaced out hearing her voice again and the second she appeared he just started to stare at her face. Akari had a faint smile on her face, but Nagisa could see that it was forced. Also, she was skinny, way skinnier than two years ago! Not that she looked bad because of it, but she somewhat looked unhealthy and fragile.

"…the government had assigned you a bodyguard, the organization is apparently targeting you." Karma shrug his shoulders and gave Nagisa a slap on his back. "Comon introduce yourself."

Nagisa was suddenly standing right in front of Akari since Karma took his step back, he was definitely panicking, "H-hello." Nagisa stuttered a bit. "I'm …"

"Na…gisa?" Nagisa froze in place. His mind was completely blank, he was just asking himself how that happened and what he should do right now. Nagisa switched his sighed back to Karma looking for help, but he was just as taken by surprise as Nagisa.

"Ehmm, A-Haruna-san?" Nagisa almost called her Akari out of panic but quickly corrected his mistake.

"I-I'm sorry… it's just that you reminded me of someone I used to know." Akari shook her head and also came back to her senses, "ehh, yeah. So, since you already seem to know me, how do I call you?". Nagisa really didn't like the way Akari was talking to him. She talked as if he was a total stranger, well he was at the moment but he simply didn't like it.

"My… name?" Nagisa was a bit troubled, he didn't feel like lying to Akari.

"He doesn't have a name Kayano-chan, he was taken in by the government and given the name "unit 284" since he was a kid. But I guess you could use his codename "Viper"" Karma helped Nagisa out of the puddle there.

"Viper?... Sure why not. Nice to meet you "Viper"-san." Akari smiled at Nagisa and offered him her hand.

-She's faking her smile…-

"Nice to meet you Haruna-san." Nagisa shook her hand and felt really uneasy talking to Akari like this. He wanted to hug her and tell her how much he missed her.

"Well you two will need time to get known to each other, so I'll take my leave. Gonna leave Kayano-chan to you then Unit 284." Karma said after secretly stabbing Nagisa in his ribs before leaving.

"Ehh? Karma-kun?" Akari was surprised by Karma's reaction. Just a few days before Karma was utterly mad that some random guy was going to be guarding her. "Well I guess that's how it's gonna be then… come in." Akari sighed for a second and let Nagisa in.

After two years Nagisa was finally back home, but this time not as the owner but as a guest. "H-Haruna-san?" Nagisa tried to start a conversation.

"Hiromi-san will show you your room. I'm going to be upstairs." Akari completely ignored him and walked away.

Nagisa was expecting something like this, but that didn't mean he was able to accept this. "Understood Haruna-san, but can you please give a list of your daily schedule later?" Nagisa shouted after her.

Akari stopped for a second, looked at Nagisa, nodded and continued walking. Nagisa felt awful, all these years he had imagined uncountable times how it would be when he would see Akari again. But never had he thought that their first reunion would end up like this.

What Nagisa didn't know was that Akari was feeling uneasy as well. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, but the person Karma introduced her made her feel uneasy. He felt way too familiar to Akari and the most important part, he smelled like vanilla, just like Nagisa. But looking at his appearance there was no way that he would be Nagisa.

"So you're the one who will be protecting Kaede-chan, right?" Nagisa's mother approached Nagisa, she was watching everything from a distance.

"Ehh, yes H-Hiromi-san. Nice to meet you." Nagisa was panicking ever since he walked into this house. He didn't know how he should act like.

"You're ...Nagisa aren't you." She had tears in her eyes.

-W-What? Again?! –

"Ehh, no, I." Nagisa started to stutter. He was not prepared for that. How?!

"That's the face you always make when you tried to lie to me. Don't ask me how I know… I guess I am your mother after all." She simply smiled at him, "you've grown so much." She lifted her head and started to pet Nagisa on his head and then hugged him.

Nagisa was desperately trying to find excuses, but after that. He just gave in, there was no way he could keep lying. "M-Mom!" Nagisa started to cry. Two years, even though they had some conflicts in their past, but she was right. She was his mother after all, there was no changing that.

Even in that state Nagisa still had to control himself. He couldn't cry out loud and for too long since he didn't want Akari to see him. But before that he still had to ask his mother something. "I know you said that I shouldn't ask mom… but… how?" Nagisa was a little worried by this.

"Even though you might dislike it, but I am still the person who raised you for 16 years you know?" she just smiled and stared at his face still with tears in her eyes. "you've grown into a fine young man Nagisa. But I have to say I like your natural hair and eye color way more." She didn't cry, there was more than enough time for it later. Right now she just wanted to stare at her son and rejoice the fact that he was still alive.

"…" Nagisa didn't talk, he simply let her do what she wanted. Even though he might be one of the strongest person on this planet right now, in front of his mother, he was still just an eighteen-year-old kid.

"When are you going to tell Kaede-chan Nagisa? She has changed too much. It's like she is wearing a mask to live right now. She only rarely shows her true emotions when we were talking about you." Nagisa's mother asked him.

"I-I can't tell her yet… I." Nagisa couldn't tell his mother that a terrorist organization was after them, but she already knew that he was working for the government right now.

"You don't have to tell me Nagisa. I knew right from the beginning that the story with the landslide was a lie. But I think I want to try something. Something I probably should've done years ago. I'm going to trust your own decisions Nagisa, just promise you won't let Kaede-chan wait too long, she's a good girl."

Nagisa started to tremble hearing his mother's words. To be honest, even though his mother changed after talking to Koro Sensei, he still had this knot in his heart. He was still displeased with his mother. But this had changed now, it was only at this point where Nagisa finally felt like she really was his mother. That she really cared for him as a son and not as a replicate as herself.

"I won't mom." Nagisa smiled at her. It was the first time in two years that Nagisa was able to smile from his heart. "But try to treat me like a stranger for the next weeks please. Akari isn't stupid either you know." Nagisa said to his mother half as a joke.

"Don't worry Nagisa, I got this." His mother smiled at him for a second before turning her face to a complete emotionless one. "This way mister. I'll show you your room." And she walked away without even looking at him.

Nagisa was left there completely confused and with an opened mouth.

-Does living with an actress improve your acting skills? –

And there he was, in his own room again. It was actually quite obvious since they didn't have any other guestrooms. The only one they had was now Akari's room.

Nagisa spend some time checking out his own room. It's been two years since he was here. And all the stuff in there gave him a nostalgic feeling.

This didn't last long though. Just about 10 minutes after entering his room Nagisa heard Akari having a fight with his mother.

"He's sleeping in Nagisa's room?!" He could hear Akari asking his mother. Her voice was trembling and it sounded like she was really disappointed. "How can you let him sleep in Nagisa's room!"

"Kaede-chan… it's the only free room we have." Nagisa's mother wasn't angry at Akari. She didn't know that "Viper" is Nagisa after all. "We can't just let him sleep in the living room either."

"I-I know, but…" Akari sounded like she was going to cry. It made Nagisa happy and hurt at the same time. He knew Akari didn't like the idea of him sleeping in his room because she couldn't accept having a stranger live in there. But at the same time… this stranger was Nagisa, she just didn't know.

Nagisa let out a long sigh, there was no way he could get mad at Akari because of that. After having a bitter smile on his face, he took a deep breath and walked out of the room with a neutral expression.

The moment Akari saw Nagisa she immediately went silent, she was so upset that she forgot that Nagisa was hearing everything she said, "Ehh, I…".

"Ehmm, excuse me Haruna-san, I don't think I can sleep in this room." Nagisa cut off her words before she could say them.

"H-Huh?" Akari was taken by surprise, "Oh, ehh okay?" She tried to find the words to say.

"The reason I'm here is to protect you Haruna-san, but from this room it will take too long to get into your room if something actually happens." Nagisa claimed knowing that everything he was saying was complete bullshit. Even without his "Overdrive" he could reach Akari's room within a second.

"Ehh, sure, where do you plan to sleep then?" Akari was still not completely following Nagisa's claims.

"I'll take the tree." Nagisa said nonchalantly.

"Ah okay, sure… wait what?" It took Akari a second to understand.

"I'll take the tree. Just make sure you don't lock the balcony window at night so I can enter if something happens." Nagisa shrug his shoulder. "Plus, I doubt they will try to entre from the inside so up there I will have more vision as well."

"But…" even though she didn't like the idea of "Viper" sleeping in Nagisa's room, she still couldn't live with herself if she just let him sleep on a tree while she was the sole reason he was here.

"Don't worry, I'm used to this." Nagisa said with a gentle smile on his face, but at the same time it looked so lonely and sad.

Before Akari could say something Nagisa already walked downstairs. She didn't know why, but "Viper's" gentle yet lonely smile made her heart ache.

-What is wrong with me? –

Akari shook her head a little bit to get this weird feeling off her head. "Are you alright Akari?" Nagisa's mother asked her.

"Y-yeah…" Akari answered still staring into the direction Nagisa left in. "This "Viper" … he is a really weird person."

"You're right, he's really weird." Nagisa's mother repeated with a slight chuckle.

It was late night and Nagisa was lying on the tree in front of Akari's window. This tree had grown quite a bit in these two years. He wasn't able to sleep. There was way too much going on in his head. He was really happy to see Akari again and he was thinking how Akari had changed. She has definitely gotten taller, not that it could compare to his growth but it was still quite impressive.

Unlike the younger Akari, right now she had this gentle and quiet charm instead of her lively and cheerful one from the past. But to be really honest Nagisa didn't like that. The Akari right now wasn't happy. If there was one thing he was good at even before he was introduced to assassination, it was reading people's faces.

Even though Akari sometimes had a smile on her face, there was always this grey layer in front of her face, under this layer was a soulless and dead expression. It made Nagisa feeling hard to breath.

"Ehmm, "Viper-san"." A gentle voice suddenly pulled Nagisa out of his thoughts.

"Y-yes, Haruna-san?" Nagisa turned his face towards the source of the voice. Akari was standing there under the moonlight, her black hair wavering in the midnight breeze. She had put a coat over herself and was now standing on the balcony.

"I've been wondering for a while now… the thing about sleeping on a tree… did you say that on purpose because you heard what I said?" Akari stared at the ground already knowing the answer.

"No." Nagisa said without hesitating.

"You're lying." Akari said without even thinking what she was doing.

"Yes." Nagisa still said in the same tone, "but it doesn't change anything Haruna-san." Nagisa smiled at her. "I don't mind sleeping here, the breeze is actually quite nice."

"…Why are you being so kind?" Akari asked while looking to the side. "Most people hate me for my attitude…"

Nagisa's body stiffened hearing that. Most people hate her?! But Akari had a really nice personality! And people used to love her! "Why should I be mean?" Nagisa was still smiling.

"I-I mean what I said was… unreasonable." Akari still didn't let Nagisa off the hook, "there has to be a reason, right?"

"Who knows? I mean for me it was pretty unreasonable. But you never know, maybe there was an important reason for you to do so. So what's the point for me to get mad at something I don't understand?" Nagisa now was staring at the moon.

"That's it?" Akari didn't believe her ears.

"Maybe, or maybe I do have a reason. But is that really important?" Nagisa answered her with another question.

"… you're really a weird person." Akari shook her head and let out a slight giggle. "But yes, if there is a reason it is actually quite important."

"Hmm, what kind of reason do you want me to have?" Nagisa asked her again.

"Hmm. Did you know me before today? Have we ever met before today?" Akari suddenly got all serious. "I don't know why, but you seem way too familiar and trust me I don't get something like this wrong."

"Hmm, let's see… I would say yes and no." Nagisa answered after thinking for a second. And he wasn't lying. Yes, they have met before, quite often if you would ask him, but no, it was the first time she met him as "Viper".

"How so?" Akari clearly wasn't satisfied by this answer.

"It really depends how you see it. I've had so many identities in the past and all I can tell you is that I've met you before, with one of my past identities." Nagisa didn't gave her clear answer.

"When was the first time you met me?" Akari kept digging deeper.

"Today."

"But you just said!" Akari started to protest.

"But right now I am "Viper" Haruna-san. So please…" Nagisa let out a long sigh. "There is no reason to dig even deeper. It doesn't change anything. Right now you're my client and I'm your bodyguard, there is nothing more to it." Nagisa said in an undeniable tone, what Akari didn't know was that Nagisa was trying so hard to convince himself.

"Okay… I'm sorry to have bothered you." Akari seemed really down, from all this questions she wasn't able to find anything. Because all the answers Nagisa gave didn't give her any information at all!

"Not at all, it was quite pleasant to talk to you Haruna-san." Nagisa nodded to her still wearing a gentle smile.

"Nagisa…" Akari suddenly said in a really sad tone while looking at the crescent moon "I miss you.". Nagisa's body stiffened for a second but he instantly made himself calm down again and showed no reaction at all. Even if he did, at least it was too dark for Akari to see.

"Get some sleep Haruna-san, you need to calm down a bit." Nagisa forced himself to sound as neutral as he could. "And you still haven't shown me your schedule, but we can leave that till you wake up tomorrow. For now, good night Haruna-san." Nagisa turned his back to her and pretended to be sleeping.

While on the other side Akari went back into her room looking really disappointed, Nagisa was gritting his teeth as well. He still remembered this one sentence she said two years ago, the longest distance in the world isn't life and death. It's that I'm standing right in front of you and you don't know that I love you.

-That's not quite right Akari… the longest distance in the world is that I'm standing right in front of you but you don't know who I am anymore... -

With this thought in mind, Nagisa went into a half sleep. He was resting while still being aware of his surroundings. It was an important ability that saved his life more than once.

Well there you have it, Nagisa met Akari again. Tell me what you think about this chapter and how you like the development. Please do warn me if I'm going overboard because I tend to do that :D.

And as always, thank you for your support and I'll see you in the next chapter ;)