"Here you go!"

Pausing his game, Karma looked up from where he'd been sprawled on the couch to dedicate his attention on the paper bag dangling from Manami's fingertips, his eyes following the wrist and arm that followed to where she was all upside down, standing over him behind the armrest with a topsy-turvy smile. She still had her coat on, snowflakes stuck on her lashes in her haste to get inside the heated apartment.

Not taking the bag just yet, Karma twined his hands behind his head. "What is it?"

"Your sweater," she chirped, jiggling the bag. "You left it behind the last time you visited."

"More like the last time I crashed in your place."

Manami laughed as she jiggled the bag again, and after a beat, Karma reached up to take it from her, sparing the gray cashmere nary a glance before dumping the paper bag on the coffee table, unpausing his game as he listened to the sounds of her going around and shuffling about his apartment.

"You keep forgetting your stuff in my apartment, Karma-kun! Your laptop, a scarf, a book… what if you needed something urgent the next day and you found out you left it at my place?"

"Then I'd simply have to drop by again real quick, Okuda-san. No big deal."

"That means taking the very first train, you know. Are you sure you'd be able to get up that early?"

"Like I said, no big deal~"

Manami giggled, breezing from behind the couch rest to where he'd been sprawled, and Karma bent his legs up so she could sit. The warmth of her tempted him to dig his toes onto her lap as she sunk into the cushion with a sigh, but Karma sat up and knocked their shoulders together instead, smiling indulgently at her disgruntled huff as she bumped him back. "Well, I've just never expected for Karma-kun to be so careless with his things."

"I don't really mind leaving them at your place," Karma replied, deliberately avoiding her curious gaze as he mashed the controller buttons. He was losing. Fucking useless fireteam. I need a win! "Because I've been doing it on purpose."

He felt her flinch before she sputtered, "What? Why?"

"Because then I could give you reasons to come see me, too."

The silence that followed is loud, impossibly stifling, filled only with the sounds of violence and bloodbath currently unfolding on screen as the other party absolutely decimated his team. They lost. We lost? Karma refused to think about the metaphors that realization inspired as his heart raced and his suddenly clammy hands abandoned the controller.

"...Why?"

But then again, perhaps there was something profound about admitting defeat, too. Karma, of all people, should know. He'd spent his younger years eating dirt and she'd been witness to it. Even if she turns him down, there will be nothing disgraceful about the fall, only the cathartic, forgone conclusion to the confession he'd smothered for years.

No more excuses.

"Because I like you, Okuda-san."