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Every three months or so, the ex-E Class come together and meet at the mountain, given their availability allows it, and not only clean up the place but bring music and treats and drinks and everything in between. Long ago did Sugino brought up a grill and Itona and Ritsu wired up some speakers and lights around the area, overall making the space a good hangout for the ex-students.
And, even with them all going to different schools with different planned paths, they all kept in contact. However, some were harder to get into contact with than others. Of those, Karma and Nagisa being the most difficult, even with their relatively consistent communications with Nakamura and Kayano respectively. And rarely were they ever able to make it to the hangouts that the class had organized, though Nagisa always made sure to tell them to have fun whenever he found the time.
Hell, sometimes it was easier, and overall more likely, for Karasuma and Professor Bitch to come around during the occasional hang out, though they more act as mediators for what happens when they’re there, the students still appreciate seeing them and they all hope that the government agent and ex-assassin are able to relax even slightly around them all.
So colour the class surprised when they see Nagisa and Karma in a more secluded area near the old campus building as they gather for another one of their hangouts.
Spring has just sprung, the grass’ green is freshly vibrant and the trees and flowers are in full bloom, fruits and flowers and blossoms raining all over the area in a picturesque way that the students have come to love the campus for. It doesn’t take them long for the students to get everything prepared and run through the quick touch-ups that they needed to do considering they had to miss their last hangout due to scheduling conflicts and heavy snowfall.
It’s Chiba that notices them first, always the perceptive man with his sharpshooting abilities. He points them out in a hushed tone, gesturing for the class to come over to where he and Hayami are standing. The class moves quickly and quietly, that silent movement from their years in Junior High not yet faded.
It’s quite the sight, seeing the two of them after so long of not really encountering either of the students always neck-and-neck with each other in terms of assassination ability when they were in school. The class half expects to be fighting, to be at each other’s necks or arguing about something arbitrary, even with their made-up-friendship.
However, the two of them are almost something of a painting to be admired in a museum.
Karma, tall as he had gotten, is standing with a teasing smile on his face directed down at Nagisa, who had grown only an inch even after all these years. Nagisa has one hand on Karma’s waist and the other clasped in Karma’s hand parallel to their bodies, Karma’s freehand resting on Nagisa’s shoulder. The two of them seem to be engaged in a waltz in a bed of freshly bloomed flowers much like those that the students had planted around the old campus while they were still attending Koro-sensei’s classes. The two of them may be shrouded with trees above them, sparseness of branches in certain areas above them allow for the sun to shimmer between leaves and hit not only the flowers and the grass underneath them but illuminate the two themselves, blue and red hair standing out against the natural colours of the environment.
They’ve both got passionate looks in their eyes and they’re talking about something, whispering in tones low enough that not even those with the best of ears are able to figure out what they’re saying and heads inclined in such a way that makes it near-impossible to read their lips.
It’s an awfully domestic scene for the two of them, two of the most violent students--one shown in his actions almost everyday and the other shown in harsh, cold looks and cruel smiles--dancing together in a field of delicate flowers, a flower crown even sitting on Nagisa’s head, clearly made with inexperienced hands.
And, admittedly, the class has a hard time understanding the way the two of them are interacting. Even with their rekindled relationship from years ago, this was something that the class would never expect from them; Karma wouldn’t let his guard down around anyone enough for them to see him doing such a ‘gentle’ action and Nagisa someone who is so perceptive that he would pull away from anyone the minute that he learned someone else were watching.
Except, they’re not really dancing, as Okuda points out after about a minute or so of the class watching their former classmates. Their words are not gentle, loving words as one would expect in seeing two people dance so intimately and so gently.
No, instead their words are clipped and teasing, as can be seen in the fire in Nagisa’s eyes and the teasing lilt to the way Karma is speaking. Their gentle embraces are not so much as gentle as they are violent in such miniscule ways; Karma is digging his nails into Nagisa’s shoulder and although Nagisa isn’t doing anything notably violent outside of the white knuckles where his hand grips Karma’s, there is a competition between them.
And before the class knows it, Nagisa pulls a knife--a real knife, not the anti-Koro-sensei knives that they had all carried previously--from his waistline and goes to press it against Karma’s throat. Karma smiles and allows the knife to settle against his throat for a couple seconds, whispering something that looked a lot like, “finally” then, “good boy”. The red-head then maneuvers them around so Nagisa’s hand holding the knife is behind his back, knuckles nearly touching his opposite shoulder, and Karma is standing behind him with his free hand against Nagisa’s neck, beginning to press down.
It doesn’t take more than a couple seconds for Nagisa to re-adjust to the new position enough for him to be able to throw Karma over his shoulder, an impressive feat considering the size and weight difference between the two has grown significantly larger than what it once was when they were younger. However, Karma recovers quickly, pulling out his own knife that the two begin clashing their blade, moving themselves in a way that reflects their previous dance.
Nagisa finally makes ground in his fight with Karma, getting a slash into the red-head’s shoulder with his knife. Karma’s response isn’t heard if he even makes one, and the man is quick to recover; pulling away and reaching for a low-enough branch for himself, pulling him into the tree.
Nagisa sighs but seemingly doesn’t relent as Karma begins to stand and looks for other places to head within the trees. Instead, the bluenette takes out knives from where they’re strapped to their belt and begins throwing them.
Karma laughs as a knife sticks itself into the bark of the branch Karma just leaped from, “Has your aim really taken that much of a hit? You can’t even get close to me?”
Nagisa just offers a smile and grabs another knife, “I’m not aiming for you, Karma.” The next blade he throws slices off the end of the branch Karma was just going to jump onto, causing him to stumble and jump off the branch in his imbalance. The bluenette runs up to the taller with outstanding speed and Karma is quick to match his knife, a loud clang that rattles some of the ex-E class students’ teeth clatter.
This time, the fight that they engage themselves in is violent yet graceful. They’re a mess of striking and blocking and moving in a way that reflects Karasuma’s training, and their picked up dodging from watching him. Feet move gracefully, moving in a way that hardly disturbs the beautiful flowers scattered around the two’s feet. It’s almost a dance in of itself, albeit a different one from their previous clash of blades; it's even different from the slow dance they were genuinely engaged in previously.
But what’s the most shocking to the class is when they begin to talk. Karma is the one to speak first, moving his head away from the strike that landed near to his left ear, “How is your class going? Those douchebags still testing you?”
Nagisa does a motion that could be a shrug or could be him shaking out his muscles after a bad throw of the blade, “They get testy sometimes but they’re learning I’m not someone they can push around.”
“How many have you had to put in their place?”
“Most of the class and their friends at this point.” Nagisa smiles; his cruel smile that graces his face before he strikes for someone’s throat; though he doesn’t make a move to go for Karma’s.
Karma lets out a cruel chuckle to match Nagisa’s expression--no wonder they were so close, the two hold each other at a level that the class can’t begin to fathom, even after seeing them head-to-head--and finally gets a cut into Nagisa’s elbow, “And they still try to mess with you?”
Once again, Nagisa shrugs, “They’ve calmed down, in the way Koro-sensei was able to calm you or Itona down, or even Terasaka.”
“You really do idolize that damn octopus, huh?”
“Don’t act like you’re shocked.”
Karma strikes low and Nagisa jumps out of the way, catching himself with a back-walkover type move and recovers quickly. The red-head smiles, “You were telling me over lunch the other day that there was this sweet new transfer, what about him?”
“Hmm,” Nagisa hums, allowing his knife to fly from his hand when Karma goes for his wrist, “He’s a cute kid, not much shorter than me. He’s got long hair that’s styled like Okuda used to and a cute blush on his face all the time.”
“What’s a sweet boy like him doing in a dump like that?” Karma hums, “That sounds like his family is setting him up to get jumped.”
“I think that’s why he’s clung to me. Apparently his family doesn’t have the money to send him somewhere better.”
“Talked to him a lot?” Karma asks, though the end of the question is quieter when Nagisa gets a good elbow to his sternum, knocking him unsteady.
“He likes hearing my stories from when the moon first blew up.” Nagisa smiles, “And some of the more innocent stories from E-Class.” The smile turns cruel and he sweeps Karma’s feet from under him, making the red-head slam into the ground harder than the class expected. The bluenette moves to sit on Karma’s stomach, pressing the taller’s own knife to his throat and holding his hands under his knees.
Karma tries to respond but it’s clear the air is knocked from him and he taps Karma’s legs a couple times, giving his surrender. Nagisa’s smile once again turns more gentle and he stands up, moving to help Karma stand up as well. The bluenette continues on, moving to grab his flower crown, “I’d love to be able to help him get out of there, I mean sometimes I feel like protecting him isn’t enough.”
Karma brushes himself off and takes a couple seconds to get his voice back, “You should take him out here one day, teach him how to fight. How to defend himself.”
“Yeah, that might work one day.” Nagisa tilts his head a bit. He reaches up and grabs his flower crowns, “My work with Sakura has been going well, she made me this flower crown the other day with these flowers out here. Apparently her cousin can preserve flowers.”
“That’s cute.” Karma smiles back, something small and gentle, and reaches up to re-adjust the crown. They begin walking back towards the open campus of the old building and the class finds themselves scattering so as to not seem like they were watching the entire fight, though some continue to find themselves talking about the casual conversation their ex-classmates were holding while holding knives to each other’s lives.
The two eventually make it back to the field and Karma calls out, “If you’re going to creep on our fight, guys, try to be more sneaky about it.” The two of them walk towards the building, probably going in to check over their wounds. Kayano and Sugino find themselves following the two inside.
“Long time no see.” Sugino smiles, heading into Koro-sensei’s old classroom behind the two of them, “ And to think that the first time we see you guys in a long while is watching you two at each other’s throats.”
Nagisa smiles and allows Karma to begin disinfecting the cut on his arm caused by the red-head himself, “What else would you expect from us? How are you doing, Tomohito? Kaede?”
“I’m doing pretty well.” Sugino smiles, “I take it you two are doing alright?”
Karma shrugs, “A little stressed but…”
“Being a politician will do that to you.” The ravenette smiles, “Even so, you two should try to keep up with us more than you do.”
Nagisa offers him an apologetic smile and rubs the back of his neck with his free hand, “Sorry about that, we’ve been… occupied with some things.”
“Has teaching really been that busy for you?” Kayano asks, “You said that you had to grade when I asked if you wanted to go to lunch.”
“Unfortunately I’m not Koro-sensei even if I look up to him.” Nagisa shrugs, whispering an apology when Karma gets after him for messing up his bandaging process, “I can spend whole days grading and working out my next lessons.”
“I understand,” Kayano smiles, “I’m just teasing you. I’ve been busy as well. We’re lucky this many people were able to come out today.”
“Did you even know we’d be out here today?”
Karma shakes his head, “No, we both had a free day and wanted some fresh air and training, keep our limbs loose, y’know.”
Kayano seems like she’s ready to say something, however Kanzaki comes in. She says hello to the two checking over their injuries and offers a kiss to Sugino’s cheek then whispers something to Kayano, making the girl nod and turn to leave with the intruder, leaving Sugino alone in the room with them.
The baseball player walks further into the room once the door shuts behind them and sits on a desk next to where the other two have settled themselves, “I know that Itona is still helping out Karasuma, but he said that you two were more consistent with the work?”
Nagisa offers him a sheepish smile, “Yeah, we’ve been away the past couple of days on an assassination order Karasuma needed us for. We were working with Professor Bitch on this one.”
Sugino shakes his head, “You two are going to end up dead somewhere if you keep this up.”
“We’ve already accepted that.” Karma shrugs, pulling up his pant leg to check over something, “Though after this much, you should know that we won’t let ourselves go down without a fight.”
“I know.” The ravenette sighs and shakes his head, “Outside of that, how are you two doing?”
“We’re doing alright.” Nagisa smiles, “Just moved in together a couple months ago, though our landlord keeps making backhanded comments about our relationship.” The shorter waves his hand around, reaching into his bag and pulling out two rings, handing one to Karma and sliding the other to its home on his left ring finger.
“Ah, that’s unfortunate. Other than that, you liking your apartment?”
“It’s nice,” Karma shrugs, “Similar enough to my old house that it didn’t feel like much of a change. It’s smaller, which is nice.”
“Enough about us,” Nagisa waves his fiance off, “How about your life? I see you’re still with Kanzaki?”
“Yeah,” Now it’s Sugino’s turn to rub the back of his neck, “I’m planning on proposing to her soon. I’d appreciate you guys’ help if you wouldn’t mind providing me with it.”
“Of course!”
“Thank you, it means a lot.” He nods appreciatively, “Other than that, there’s not much going on for me right now.”
“Then tell us about the others. Chiba and Hayami seem to be doing well.”
“They decided that they were better off as friends for right now,” Sugino shrugs, “I don’t know why but it’s their lives and they seem happy so I don’t see much reason to question. Nakamura on the other hand, though.”
“That’s how she is.” Karma sighs, “What I want to know is whether or not Maehara and Isogai have finally gotten together.”
“They have, actually.”
The red-head leans forward, raising an eyebrow, “Oh really? Tell me about it?”
“It’s better if one of them does it.” Sugino shrugs, “Though they came clean about their relationship a couple weeks ago.”
“Maehara confessed first.” Comes a voice from just outside the door. It slides open, creaky as always in recent years, and in comes both Isogai and Maehara, holding hands. Isogai continues on, Maehara closing the door behind them, “We were having our usual lunch and he just blurted it out. Got all flustered about it too.”
“Oh please, you couldn’t even properly say yes with how stutter-y and blushing you were.” Marhara teases back, leaning against the wall.
“Both of those responses sound exactly right.” Karma smiles, and it’s incredibly genuine, “You guys have been ogling each other since we were actually sitting in this classroom learning.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re oblivious.” Maehara waves him off, “But you act like you were hiding your sexuality well.”
“What do you mean? I’m pretty sure most of our class still think I’m straight.”
Maehara sighs and pulls his hand from Isogai’s beginning to count on his fingers, “You never showed interest in anyone, and when you did it was Okuda, who we know is one of your close friends but your reasoning as to why you liked her was nothing more than shallow, you were obsessed with Nagisa and were constantly teasing him with sneakily-taken pictures, and the two of you were constantly worried about the other when you weren’t at each other’s throats in the most homo-erotic way possible.”
Nagisa snorts at that, though there is a bit of a blush on his face, “You really can’t deny it Karma, you were pretty obvious about it to those who looked close enough.”
“You didn’t notice.” The red-head challenges.
“Who says that?” Nagisa challenges back, “I knew most of third year but we got a little busy and I was already dealing with a lot mentally, so was all of the class. Then we went our own ways and lost contact for a while. I couldn’t find a good time to come clean about my feelings.”
“Sure, I’ll believe that… for now.” Karma rolls his eyes, crossing his arms like he knows he was caught but doesn’t want to admit it.
“How did you two even actually get together?” Isogai asks.
“Believe it or not,” Karma raises an eyebrow, “Through a fight. Tensions were high after a mission and the two of us ended up fighting.”
“What did one of you confess while you were all bloody or something?” Sugino teases.
Nagisa just smiles and tilts his head, “You could say that.” One could also say that blood was not the only substance the two had ended up covered in, nor did their night end with pained screams.
“What are you guys doing in here still?” Nakamura asks, coming into the room abruptly, “Foods about ready and I’m getting hungry. Come on out and party with us!” She slams the door and her half-running footsteps echo down the hall as she runs out.
Karma laughs and stands up, “She hasn’t changed much, huh?”
“No, not really.” Maehara rolls his eyes, pushing himself off the wall and turning towards the door with Isogai a step behind him, “But then again, neither have either of you boys. Come on, let’s go eat.”