Modern Dating: A Practical Guide

Meeting The Parents

"I don't think this is a good idea," Nagisa says.

Karma squeezes his hand. "I told you that three days ago."

He doesn't need reminding.

Things are going fine, so far. In the grand two weeks of 'the Epic Relationship of Nagisa and Karma', it couldn't be better. Probably. Admittedly, this is his first relationship ever, so it's not like he has any kind of standard to compare it against. At least, this time, Karma's in the same situation. For once, they're both complete novices at this.

His favourite thing is probably the forehead kisses. Karma's being doing that a lot. He keeps saying it's because he can't be bothered to bend all the way down to Nagisa's lips every time, which he would have taken as an insult, but he can tell that Karma just wants to do it for some reason. He doesn't care though, he likes it. They're sweet.

The longest they've gone without sex so far is three days, too, so that's also been pretty great.

It's not like he felt some kind of deep urge to do the whole formal parents thing. It just came up, and Nagisa's not exactly good at announcing things. He knows his mother's not going to be happy about this, but... she likes to keep up appearances. She's far less likely to be overtly angry about it when Karma's there, or at least he hopes.

Besides, Karma offered to come anyway.

So there they are, hesitating outside the entrance to Nagisa's old home. Nagisa's aware of his own palpitations. Admittedly, he's really glad Karma's here. He feels just that little bit braver like this. Enough so to knock on the door, at least. Better to just get this over with. One conversation, and then he doesn't have to talk about it with them again.

His Dad answers. "Ah, Nagisa, it feels like ages-" He trails off in the middle of his sentence, eyes blatantly scanning down to where their hands are linked. "Come in," he clears his throat.

He didn't think about that.

Maybe this is a good thing, though? If he doesn't even have to say anything at all? It's not like Nagisa's being artificial here. He likes holding hands with Karma. To the point he forgets it's kind of considered PDA sometimes. Well, it's not like they're making out or anything. This is fine. Completely fine.

He has to let go of him to take off his shoes, though.

"Nagisa," his mother addresses, "welcome home." Her head turns a little. "Karma."

"Shiota san." He replies in the same tone.

Her lips press together. "It's Tanaka, now."

"My mistake, force of habit," he waves off. "Congratulations, by the way."

She chooses to ignore him. "Dinner's almost ready."

So that could have been worse? His Dad is still looking at them suspiciously, but doesn't say anything else. He wanders off, presumably looking for a drink or something. Nagisa wishes he had a drink. Probably the alcoholic kind, just to take the edge off at least. He definitely doesn't feel anymore at ease. It's probably best to just go and take a seat, right?

Karma grabs him by the wrist, though. "Tanaka?"

"Y-yeah?"

"You act all mysterious about your original family name, and it was just Tanaka?!"

"I wasn't being mysterious-"

Karma rolls his eyes. "I just didn't expect it to be literally the most common name ever."