Chapter Three

Things were awkward between Gakushuu and Nagisa for a while. Somehow, things with Karma for both of them had gone back to normal, but it felt as though the boy had no memory of what had happened, leaving Gakushuu and Nagisa as the only ones with the burden of having to react to it.

Gakushuu no longer needed convincing that his friend was no good. It just scared him that he could know someone for nearly his whole life and find that they were hiding such a dark side of their personality.

Now... it was just a matter of what he should do. The longer he withheld from acting, the more open Nagisa would be to situations like the one he had been unfortunate enough to see a few nights prior. He knew he couldn't be there to intervene for all of them.

Although, even when he had been there he hadn't done anything to stick up for her. That was eating away at him more and more.

Karma had gotten bored of school by now and spent most of his time bunking, leaving Nagisa alone in the class of teenage boys. Gakushuu felt responsible for protecting the girl and keeping her out of harms way when Karma wasn't around.

That night, when Nagisa had been in his arms looking up at him with eyes full of gratitude and emotion had felt too nice for him to admit it, or he would have ended up leaning in to stay there forever.

Karma was right. He really did want to kiss Nagisa, she would probably taste as sweet as she smelled. But if he did kiss her, she would either slap him or one of her friends would. Even another boy in the class could potentially rat him out to his best friend, and that couldn't be good.

He rolled his eyes at that thought. Since when did he back down to Karma? They had always had disputes and arguments, always tried to compete with each other to see who could outshine the other. He should have known things would be the same once one of them got a girlfriend.

While he was thinking, a boy from behind them had decided it would be a good idea to lean over and touch the girl's hair.

The motion caught his eye before Nagisa could feel it, and he found himself acting without thought. It was like him touching the precious blue hair would taint it. Gakushuu twisted the wrist sharply, unusually violent of him, though he ended up stopping before he could seriously hurt the boy.

It was the middle of class, so the teen knew he couldn't threaten him just as well as his victim knew he couldn't make a big deal out of it without the story somehow ending up being heard by Karma. That same boy was frozen now at the realisation that he had been caught by the sadist of the class' best friend of all people. He thought he was done, for sure, but Gakushuu only glared, locking their eyes just long enough to have the boy feeling inferior before letting go, releasing a hand that was nearly lifeless from lack of circulation.

It was unfortunate as the boy didn't know they shared the same enemy in the girl's boyfriend.

Nagisa and Gakushuu found themselves forced to speak to each other. eventually. It was natural given their seating position, though the over confident boy was blatantly at the disadvantage when the blunette turned to face him, smiling in a friendly way despite the embarrassment of their recent predicament.

"Thank you for looking out for me."

"Y-You already said that the other night."

"I did. I meant thank you for looking out for me again. I saw what you did to that boy earlier."

The strawberry blonde actually found himself unsure of which specific boy she was referring to. Since this morning, there had been three. The first in class, the second at break telling tales to his friends that made Nagisa out to be no where near as elegant and graceful as she really was, gladly earning himself a very awkward argument with the more intelligent boy, going on to later discover that his bag had been thrown out of the window at some ungiven point so that his things sprawled out on the concrete or had travelled away with the wind.

The third was a matter of minutes ago. He was having a birthday get together, and even though Gakushuu was positive the brute wasn't close to Nagisa, he had invited the girl to his party. That itself made him feel like he had swallowed a bare wire, but it was only later when Gakushuu consulted the boy's friends out of sheer instinct that something was wrong did he learn that the boy wasn't really planning on having a party. It wasn't even his birthday, he had just made an excuse to get Nagisa alone with him outside of school so he could talk away from the girl's boyfriend.

In this situation, what Karma would have done was throw a punch right then. But Gakushuu was different. He considered himself to have more self control, to be more civilised, and on many occasions, much smarter.

Nagisa wouldn't be meeting that boy this weekend. But thanks to certain arrangements, someone else would be, someone who happened to think they were meeting Nagisa.

Earlier that day, a sick sense of rebellion had riled up in him at looking over the girl's slim shoulders to forge her handwriting and slide a letter into another perverted assailant's locker, telling him the meeting place, telling him she wanted to see him and telling him she thought he was special.

He knew they would be angry at each other, not to mention ashamed at being tricked, but the best part of it was that they would think they had been played by Nagisa. They would hate her! If they hated her, they wouldn't want to date her would they, meaning she would be all his. Excluding Karma of course, but his benefit was that no matter how horrible he made her out to be, no rumours would be spread with the threat of them being heard by her explosively violent boyfriend.

Though, there was no way Nagisa could have knwon this so she obviously couldn't have been referring to that action.

He smiled right back gently, "He deserved it. I'm just happy to keep you out of harm's way."

They spoke a bit more, about their classmates, their work, themselves and something funny that had happened on the weekend.

Multiple times in their conversation, Gakushuu noticed smaller details about Nagisa that he found increasingly adorable. From the way her lips moved prettily as she spoke, to the way the fingers of her non-dominant hand fidgeted at her side while she wrote. He couldn't keep staring at the colourful flecks in her bright eyes for long without being affected by it, and felt himself struggling to control his pleasure at simply being able to watch her.

In fact, Nagisa had noticed his blatant blush, even bringing that into light in their conversion, once again practically choking him for words. Stuttering, he responded with how it was hot, rambling about how he was wearing his football uniform below. To his pleasant surprise, Nagisa nodded intently with her doe eyes, not at all disgusted or shy.

"Better too hot than cold I guess."

"M-Mhm."

Still, there was a fluency Gakushuu was missing, where was his usual confidence and strength? Where were his witty remarks and obstinate challenges? He had easily led girls in the past to develop little crushes on him, so why was it so hard with her?

Why did he feel like he was a student and Nagisa was his teacher, when things were completely the other way around with everyone else?

Suddenly, the cap of the pen Nagisa had been flicking popped off and hurled down. Reacting quickly, Gakushuu reached out to retrieve it. But he shut down when he felt Nagisa's hand knock into his when she tried to get it as well. Worst of all, the cap had landed on her thigh. Her thigh.

He snapped his hand back, eyes wide, heat rushing to his face as his mouth opened to stutter out the most unthought out, insincere awe-struck apology only to find Nagisa paying him little to no attention as she thanked him and pried the cap from his fingers, oblivious to the way her soft touch made his palms sweat shyly.

His breath was heavy in his chest. What was this yearning feeling inside of him that could only be satisfied by delighting in fantasies of leaning in close to the girl and hearing laugh, running his hand over her cheeks, staring into her azure gaze and burying his hands in her ice blue hair that looked so soft.

It was easy to label these feeling as love. That would mean he loved Nagisa. He definitely loved her.

Things had changed over the course of time. Nobody messed with Nagisa anymore, and at nearly all times, the girl had a body guard figure looming over her to keep her from harm's way as if the average school day came with so many threats.

Currently, it was Gakushuu in this position, eyes bead like as he leered around the halls, not needing to speak to intimidate. At the efficiency of him keeping her under his wing like this, he developed an arrogance that let him feel like a king walking beside his future queen. People were afraid to touch Nagisa, to speak to her, to approach her, to lend her a pen, or smile at her or even let their gaze linger for too long.

There was a thrill in having her to himself like this. He felt so in control, nothing could break out of his demand.

But in real life, even for him things weren't that smooth.

A despicable figure had dared to approach Nagisa, worming into her breathing space, walking the ground she walked on and looking into her eyes right from beneath his vision.

His mouth opened. At this point, he had a vast vocabulary of phrases that could make anyone wish to end their own life. The first syllable escaped.

Unfortunately, the rest of it mutated into a gasp at the sight before him. Nobody would dare to get that close to Nagisa - in his rage, nobody could have challenged him. He picked up on their hands locked together and blind red led him to slam that figure back into the wall, creating a large thud of impact as Gakushuu sneered loudly enough for the whole corridor to hear miles down, "You stay the hell away from he-"

Karma looked over at his friend with puzzled golden eyes. There was a hint of suspicion, but mainly, the gaze consisted of that curiosity that had the overconfident strawberry blond paling and backing away with the feeling of being a monkey at a zoo for spectation.

His hands slipped away from the collar he had been strangling almost fearfully.

"What are you doing?" The red head sneered, tilting his head to look under the other male's attempt to hide.

"I was looking out for your girl. Didn't realise it was you. Sorry."

He mumbled in a way that was clearly hostile, hoping he hadn't been discovered. Karma only hummed still smirking.

"So you're looking out for her huh? Aren't you a lucky girl Nagisa~ Two handsome boys at your side all day..."

Watching from the sidelines, purple eyes narrowed at the sight of their hands locking together again, their eyes meeting in secret communications and smiling at each other with detestable agreement. The whole thing was a mockery to him... an intentional insult.

Karma was mocking him. There was no denying it by now. He had the feeling creeping up on him that wherever the hell Karma was right now, he was grinning to himself just by knowing that the evidence he had left on Nagisa was being seen by Gakushuu right now. There were the mouth shaped marks adorning Nagisa's flawless throat like a brandish.

The fact that so many other boys had seen this repulsed him. They would taint her with their eyes and bring her to their fantasies were she didn't belong. How could his best friend be so keen on marking her where everyone could see? How could he be so keen on sucking her so many times? On biting so hard until they were purple?

The idea of Nagisa being in pain bothered him a bit, but the fact that he could diminish her into looking like a sex object for so many others to see made his fists curl up.

Today Nagisa wore her hair down not that it mattered. It did little to hide her neck being such a pale, frosty colour.

Gakushuu found that the pale lilac scarf he had brought with him suited this function quite well. His fingers brushed her warm skin as he draped it over her, head tilted up, hands busy raising her hair, unconsciously revealing more dirty remnants of her passion with her boyfriend.

"That tickles.." she accused, shoulders shaking as she tried not to laugh.

"This perfume you're wearing.." He hummed thoughtlessly, inhaling the mixed scents that seemed to waft from her hair and the forbidden zone under her shirt into a delectable blend.

"You can smell it? Karma got it for me actually. It's really nice isn't it?"

He glared at the back of the redhead before him. Karma kept on walking, oblivious to it all as they entered the changing rooms. It was dark outside. They had stayed to practice late as a make up session for all of their spontaneous moments of escape.

Their conversation was quite one sided. It lacked the spark it used to have. Though, Gakushuu was unsure of whether or not they both felt this way, or if Karma had found their conversations this dull to begin with having known Nagisa the whole time.

He seemed pretty into it and cheery however. So far, Gakushuu hadn't given more than a three word response.

"Where are the lights..." he tutted eventually, feeling against the wall for a switch he had never actually had to find before during the day.

Karma's eyes were the only thing visible to him as he looked back.

"Just leave them off. You're not scared are you?" He scoffed.

"Of course not." The other deadpanned.

They continued on changing in silence.

"It is impractical though..." He commented later.

"Admit it, you're afraid~"

"I'm not." He grimaced.

Silence ensued again. No longer a fire to their conversations. No longer a heated debate, no longer an enquiry or scheme to expose the ideas or intentions of one as they competed. Instead, Gakushuu made sure they were in a stubborn, protesting silence.

Considering the way Karma could flick like a switch when in the presence of someone he liked verses someone he disliked, Gakushuu was being reckless in letting his dispute be so obviously discovered. Again, this wasn't like him, but even without the girl being in the room, she was making him careless.

"So how's your girlfriend?"

He froze, pausing at catching the trap, nearly answering until he spotted the hidden meaning.

"What do you mean, I don't have a girlfriend?" Playing dumb was the best option. Without a doubt, there had been a change in the atmosphere from that single question alone.

The strawberry blond teen was suddenly aware of the darkness and silence. It was only them here. Maybe only them and a few cleaners in the whole building. If he were to scream really loudly like he was being stabbed, would there be anyone to hear it? If they were to kill each other, would the bodies be discovered within minutes or hours, or even days?

He pulled his shirt over his head, glad to be nearly done.

"You don't? If poor Nagisa was here she would be offended and heartbroken."

"Nagisa's your girlfriend, genius." He spoke more playfully, treading carefully in the darkness. His eyes had adjusted, but that wasn't much good with his head down and looking at his stuff. He grabbed his bag, swinging it over his shoulder and turning around. The voice that spoke up next was right by his ear. Right where he had been facing less than a moment ago.

"Exactly."

His breath hitched in. Karma was so close he could barely see him. The spot between his eyes, that was what he saw. He swallowed, stepping back.

They were too close in the wide, dark space. It was too risky, too uncomfortable.

That look in his eyes was not to be messed with. Though, it was a little different from his usual look. This look couldn't be described as angry high school student... it suited the common idea of a serial killer.

"What do you mean exactly, of course she's your girlfriend, what are you implying?" He hissed, narrowed eyes looking quickly from each of his limbs so when the attack came he would hopefully have some time to react. It was like waiting for the final strike that could end a long game, only the pressure was multiplied by dozens.

Was it best to play innocent? To act like friends? Maybe he should make out he has no interest in her?

This usually worked, so why was Karma still edging closer to him. How had his back found the cold tile wall already? How was he trapped so far from the door with his own best friend yet fearing for his life with his own pulsating blood ringing in his ears.

Karma's hand dragged out slowly, reaching over to the other boy's shoulder the way one would stroke a pet. He waited for a pain that didn't came, easing from his flinch only to find that the action was no harsher than a pat on the back.

Or so he had thought. Karma lifted the blue hair between his fingers dauntingly, not looking at it adoringly as he would, but burning curses into Gakushuu's eyes as he held the hair up to his victim's face to see.

"This was on your shoulder.." his mouth was pressed into a thin line.

Shit. Had it been there the whole time? Had Karma been planning this since he saw it?

"It must have come from when I lent her my sca-"

"Did you touch Nagisa?"

Why now of all times was he swayed by the alluring memory of her soft feathery strands, her silky tone of blue and fluid motion of her hair flying as she turned. Yes he had touched her, on the thigh, on the hair on the bare skin of her check and even gently on her neck.

"Well her hair clearly must have-"

His voice died under Karma's smile-less laugh. Then, the boy leaned in even closer. Close enough to stab him without him even seeing it...

Gakushuu swallowed hard, eyes closing at the assault of the words spoken by the low voice.

"That's the thing with Nagisa," You wouldn't think he was threatening if you heard his voice alone, "Her hair is soft to touch isn't it? But nowhere near as soft as her skin. Even that isn't as pleasurable as her same skin being under your lips and tongue after she's become sweet from your touches...though that isn't something for you to experience, is it?"

He shook his head now, fearing for the life of him that disobedience would have consequences.

When Karma put the healthy distance between them, he stopped just to marvel the expression of his humiliated work. His friend glared up with his lips together in humiliation and his face laughably red as his own hair.

It was a spiteful look shot at him, one that told him he was disgusting, that he didn't deserve Nagisa, but most of all, that to Gakushuu, he was terrifying, and that he couldn't do anything about that but silently obey him and glare.

The red haired boy laughed grandly, punching him playfully, taking ahold of his cheek and tugging playfully as though trying to cheer him up.

His voice lowered though as he spoke finally, "Nagisa is my girlfriend. Remember that."