It's already so late... I should have went to bed like an hour ago :I :D

But well, you guys are worth it XD

I hope you all got relieved now that you know Karma's still alive XD Anyway, enjoy.

He fell asleep. Who knew crying could be this tiring?

Anyway, I think that was a good thing. I needed time to prepare myself to think of arguments to make Karma-kun see my point.

Picking the poor boy up, I headed back to the classroom where I bumped into Nakamura-san, Nagisa-kun and Kayano running towards us.

"Sensei!" Nagisa-kun cried out when he was me holding the redhead. I smiled at them weakly, indicating that everything was fine now.

Letting out a sight of relief, they collapsed down to the ground and started cursing the redhead:

"That Karma... I am going to... make him... regret scaring us so... much!" Nakamura-san grinned playfully.

Kayano nodded quickly, trying to say something too: "I have never... run... so fast!"

This made my heart calm down a little. The children really cared for each other, I knew that, but after hearing Karma-kun claiming otherwise, seeing him do something so rash and dangerous - I needed a small reassurance that we could help him.

"My dear students... You already know that Karma-kun is going through a bad time."

They quietened, looking up to me seriously.

"This is a request. Make him feel home. Make him realize that we are his family and that we will always stand by his side. I will try to do so too but you as his friends are most important." And they nodded, biting their lips with pained face.

This kind of thing was too much for children. The seriousness and heaviness of life, the good and bad... options - to kill or not, to die or not to die. That should have never even crossed their minds. Children were meant to stay pure, innocent, protected.

Where did all that disappear from Karma-kun? I regret not noticing the absence earlier.

Either way, if he didn't have anyone to protect him until now, I would.

Three hours later:

Having Karasuma-sensei talk with the doctor and persuade him to release Karma-kun, I have taken charge of the boy. At the moment, we were at the Akabane residence, the boy still sleeping in bed.

And I was bored.

So I cleaned his whole house, sorted things out in his room, built a new and bigger bookshelf, made a research on some very nutritional, tasty and easy to digest meals, cooked some and bought a heater. I noticed only now that this whole place didn't have heating (it didn't work) and as it was already autumn, the temperature drastically dropped.

The boy still wasn't waking up. So I planned out what to do after he did. My list looked like this:

1/ Eat.

2/ Sing songs to Karma-kun (karaoke?)

3/ Play games

4/ Draw and colour pictures

5/ Watch drama: "The spring of last year,"

6/ Snack

7/ Read a book before going sleep.

8/ Put him to sleep at 21:15

And as I reread the list, satisfied, the certain teen stirred in his sleep and suddenly opened his eyes. Confused, he looked around the room and then laid his gaze on me.

"Karma-kun, hello-" I wanted to greet him but he immediately hid under the sheets. To be honest, he looked like a white fur ball.

"Karma-kun?" I poked the blanket ball. "Karma-kun? Karma-kun? Karma-kun?" And every time I called his name, I shifted from one place to another, still poking him.

"Karma-kuuun! Look what I have made up! A plan for today I excitedly declared and pulled away the covers, revealing the kid. He looked at me in surprise and horror but before he said anything else, I shoved the list into his hands.

The redhead examined it and the gave me a disgusted and annoyed face.

"What's wrong? I did my best!" I whined, genuinely dejected from his reaction. I expected him to smile and say That's wonderful, sensei! or Thank you, I love you, sensei!

It seems the shyness from before got beat by his current irritation: "Draw? Colour pictures? Reading me a book and making me go sleep at nine p.m.?! What am I, a kid?! The hell, you octopus?!" And he crumpled the list, throwing it at me in a similar way to Irina-sensei.

"And besides! We don't have karaoke! I don't like dramas! And I am most definitely not going to play video games with you!"

Crying, I took his hands into my tentacles: "But sensei did his best! And look! I bought some new CDs of the drama! I recharged the game consoles! I also made beautiful drawing of me in a warrior armor!"

Handing him the perfect autoportraits of me, I hoped that he would appreciate my hard work.

He tore them all apart.

"NUAAAA?!" I cried out, frantically picking all of the paper shreds and glueing them all together.

I turned at Karma-kun, ready to scold him. But I stopped when I saw the teen lightly chuckle.

"Pff," he tried to hold it back but I could see the corners of his lips curving up and soon, he was laughing.

All of the frustration from having my plans devastated disappeared. The sound of real amusement, the geniune smile on his face - it was so beautiful. So innocent and precious. I wanted to protect it. I wanted to hear it more, to make him happy.

"Sensei, you are pathetic," the redhead managed to state while holding his stomach.

Coming to him, I put a tentacle on his head and affectionately fondled him: "I indeed am."

For hesitating. For not knowing what to do. It was so easy.

I just needed to love him.

Karma-kun stopped giggling and stopped moving altogether. He locked his eyes on his hands, feeling situation getting awkward.

"Can I really trust you, sensei?" it came out silently, as if afraid of the answer.

"Of course you can. I swear on my life."

The redhead still refused to look into my eyes.

"I am not going to mention what has happened today to anyone. But Nagisa-kun, Nakamura-san and Kayano already figured out."

He weakly nodded.

"However, I insist on you relying on me and telling me what lead you to do such thing."

He took longer than I would like but nodded nontheless.

Seeing that this kind of atmosphere was no good, I took the initiative to start off the conversation again:

"BUUUT! First of all, FOOD!" loudly and happily, I declared and ran off to the kitchen for my speciality.

"Burger With Mushrooms and Radicchio! Rich in iron, proteins and fiber! Mushrooms contain antioxidants too! This meal fills you up! Now, go ahead and see for yourself how heaven tastes!"

And the boy just sat there, dumbfounded at the abrupt change of subject, staring at the dish I was holding. I awaited something like refusal or disgust again but instead, the boy sighed, gentle expression on his face and he, finally letting down the facade, whispered:

"Itadakimasu"

AY! Karma's eating! Can you actually picture him trying to stuff the huge hamburger into his mouth and failing miserably?

I should be sleeping XD Bye bye, love you all!