Chapter Eleven
"If we're lucky we can stay at his for the night. Gakushuu has a massive house, he's harboured me in there for about a week without his parents even finding me before when we were younger."
He had meant to say when they were friends, but that would defeat the purpose of him trying to comfort his shaking girlfriend in the first place.
If only he knew that she had been there before. She hadn't seen much of it, but after her experience, she hadn't been planning to return to explore the rest in any future.
When they slipped into the property through a back door to their huge garden, Nagisa's hands reach out and clung to her boyfriend's sleeve. If he noticed her discomfort, he didn't show it.
This upgraded to her locking hands with him completely when the son of the owner of the property appeared out in front of them from apparently no where, his eyes wide at the sight of seeing Nagisa and ticking with excitement. She averted his gaze but didn't feel him look away, he didn't even speak, only stared at her up and down and made her want to vanish.
"Gakushuu." She greeted herself, after too much of a mind-forged awkward silence for her to handle, keeping her voice even despite looking so obviously distressed.
His garden had circular lights in the floor along the path that lit up as they walked by. The darkness had been her cover before, and know she felt exposed without it.
"Both your parents are out?" Karma asked, looking around them cautiously as they stepped into the patio.
For the first time since that evening, Gakushuu looked away, but it barely lasted a second. To think that she used to find his admiration somewhat cute and flattering...
"I have to tell you- Nagisa would you like a drink or anything."
A mug of anything hot would be treasured right now, but she politely declined. The fact that he hadn't offered Karma only implied he didn't really want to make anything anyway.
"Come, we should go up to my room so when parents do come home they don't see you guys."
Karma nodded in uncharacteristically patient agreement. Nagisa subconsciously clenched his hand, wishing it would be socially acceptable to hide behind him and shut her eyes like a scared child. Her stomach was coiling in a way that could only be compared to sitting next to him in class the day after it happened. Her nerves had risen and fallen from stopping her from breathing to her just being extra wary, but now in his home, this progress in strength had been shattered, reducing her back to her initial fear with every stop further into the property.
She wished she wouldn't be like this. Karma was with her this time. It was different.
Gakushuu's room was very simple, yet compared to both her and her father's bedroom, it was massive. There would have been more than enough placed to hide had he not had everything so packed away and neatly stored in place.
The boy sat down on his desk chair while his red haired friend leaned against the wall, his girlfriend sticking very close to him.
"F-First of all - I promise I'll tell you everything I know, just answer me this one question." Nagisa and Karma both had a sixth sense telling them this wasn't going to be good.
"You two are together willingly right now, Karma hasn't forced you out of your home with him, has he?"
"Of course not!" She gasped, her confusion growing.
"Oh phew," His shoulders seemed to sink down like a deflated air balloon. Only now did the blunette notice he was wearing innocent grey pyjamas with red buttons and furry slipper on his feet. It was the first time she had seen him so relaxed and at home.
"The police came to our door at like eleven asking if we knew where you were, I was sleeping actually but my dad woke me up and let them question me," He frowned.
"What did you tell them?"
"I said if you weren't at home you could be anywhere. They were gonna make me call you but Dad took them out saying he would help them look. He really saved me both of us actually and he doesn't even like you - if you picked up we would both be in for some real shit."
They nodded in agreement.
"Did they say why they were looking? I don't see why they can't just wait until morning to get me."
At this point, Gakushuu formed a face that looked as though he had been hit by a brick,"Apparently Nagisa's dad said you threatened him and took - no kidnapped Nagsia after breaking into his house and acting 'violently and antisocially'. But even for you I had a feeling this wasn't true."
He looked at the ground and seemed to have something hidden in his gaze, "What the hell did you do to make her dad so mad?" he muttered.
"Barely anything. Not worth all of this anyway." Nagisa answered,"He's exaggerating to get you into trouble, that's just like him."
"Maybe you should just go to the police now and tell them the truth, if they see you calm and unhurt he might drop the charges and forget about it?"
"No." Nagisa and Karma both said that in sync, yet they held different reasons behind their words.
"After all he's done he doesn't deserve you going back to him like that. He can't get away with saying those despicable things to you without facing the consequences." Gakushuu's eyes hardened as well.
"Besides, he has no evidence on us whatsoever. It will die down soon enough."
"Actually that's unlikely, the way he phrased it seemed confident of your crime being kidnap, not just two teens running away. The police are already treating you as a threat to the law so things will probably get worse and you'll be made out to be more and more of an offender-"
Realising the lack of compassion in his words, Gakushuu stopped speaking to look at Nagisa concerned with trying to tell whether or not his words had come across as insensitive.
"W-What I'm trying to say is that waiting for it to pass won't do much good."
She caught both boy's looks and swallowed, "I know all of this, don't worry. I'll be going to my mother's soon anyway."
Suddenly, something clicked inside Karma's head. He leaned back, his demeanour suddenly noticeably more relaxed and laughed as he spoke, "You're right Nagisa~ We'll head over to your mother's as soon as we can and convince the police our plan had been simply to move you there sooner the whole time. It will make everything look like a misunderstanding, not to mention your dad will look like a whiny idiot."
Her blue eyes brightened, suddenly feeling a large part of the weight on her be lifted. Before she could relish in this though, Gakushuu interrupted them.
"Wait, you're moving to your mother's house?"
The pair of purple eyes that stared back at her were wide with worry, they would be even more so once he realised how far from home that was.
The girl's head sunk down as she spoke,"Yes. My dad's practically disowned me so I'm moving away to my mothers. I'll have to change school and won't be able to visit other than holidays but I'll otherwise be happier. I haven't seen her in a few years."
It didn't take a genius to know that despite the positivity of her words, when her bubble-blue eyes met his, a part of her still held onto a string of hatred for him, accusing him, blaming him and resenting him.
Karma was oblivious to this, but Gakushuu jerked back, struggling to breathe. Was she implying that her father and her had argued because he knew about what he had done to Nagisa? She... she said she wouldn't tell Karma but never specified about telling anyone else.
They would act like it had never happened.
That was their agreement, right?
Nagisa of all people wouldn't break that... but why else wouldn't her father want her.
"W-When will you be going?"
Her head tilted towards her boyfriend, pretty features peeking up at him for reassurance, "Tomorrow if it goes to plan."
"We could get a late night train?"
"No!" They were both staring at him now, he knew he had messed up, but attempted to cover it by acting like the stress he was in came from the police, "You'll only be increasing the risk of getting caught. Stay here tonight, please, it's the least I can do."
His words had been appealing towards Nagisa, his eyes doing the same, but Karma was the once who answered.
"Sure, that was one version of the plan anyway."
Pleased by these words, he looked away, narrowly missing the clear signs that Nagisa would have answered that question completely differently. By now she just wanted to go home. There at least she could relax and not feel endangered. When it was just her in that house, sure it was quiet and sometimes lonely when compared to the ideal lives of some of her friends, but she had appreciated it nonetheless.
What choice did she have? Gakushuu's home or not, Karma was with her, that should be enough to soothe her. It should be.
"Great," The strawberry blonde exhaled, "You can both stay here for the night."
He stood up, eyes flickering too and away from Nagisa several times, as if questioning in his head whether he should dress something. She tilted her head away sceptically.
When he spoke, he tried to come across as naturally as he could, even going so far as to turn to face the other direction and start walking towards the door. "Nobody goes in the basement. You guys can stay down there."
The blunette couldn't move. Karma took her hand and followed the other male, but for some reason she found herself rooted to bed. Her heart was beating at an average pace, though each pound seemed to sting.
"Nagisa?"
"I-If you're afraid of the basement don't be." Gakushuu was quick to speak, quick to distract the menace from his girlfriend so her obvious fears would be less likely to be acted on. Their secret had to stay a secret. "It's not dark and it has a bed so you won't have to sleep on the floor. If you really don't like it there you can sleep up here, but I can't say both of you up here will work."
Karma glared back at the boy. It was only territorial, but Gakushuu felt the threat of it as though he was deserving of a punishment. He knew he was guilty.
"No thank you. I'll be fine."
They had looked away from her for a second. That second alone had been enough time for her face to slip back to an unreadable lie of tranquillity.
The purple eyes on her wavered. Her blue ones remained sure.
"Okay then. I'll check on you guys when I can, don't come out of there unless I say it's fine and try not to make so much noise."
"Don't worry, we'll be on our best behaviour."