Hesitant Lies (Karma x Nagisa)

PHASE 5: Dreams

The blue haired child sat in the old gray swing, the chains holding it up were rusted and squeaked every time the boy moved in his spot.

Nagisa sniffled a bit and quickly rubbed his eyes in an attempt not to start crying again, as he had been doing so for the past ten minutes.

The nine year old hated crying. It always made his chest feel tight and his head pound.

A small breeze moved through the park, blowing lightly through the boy's shoulder length blue hair. He hated it's length, but his mother refused to let him cut it.

His mother was the reason he was sitting all alone on a sad little swing in the park a few blocks from his home in the middle of the night. He'd snuck out when she had finally passed out from exhaustion.

Her exhaustion was no doubt cause by all the yelling she did at him today, when he said he didn't want to be a girl.

"I'm a boy." Nagisa whispered in a shaky breath to himself, wishing he had the guts to stand up against his mother mote often.

"Really? You had me fooled."

The voice from behind him startled Nagisa and made his head jolt up and his hands clutched at the rusty chains of the swing, which earned him a teeth-clenching squeak.

A slightly taller red haired boy had sat down on the swing next to Nagisa around two minutes ago, the bluenette having no clue of his sudden appearance.

"W-who are you?" Nagisa asked in a trembling voice as he stared at the boy, wide eyed.

Karma turned his head to meet the other boy-whose eyes widened when he saw the beautiful amber color that was this red haired boy's eye color.

"I'm Karma. You looked sad so I came over here."

Nagisa blinked at the boy, unsure of what to think of him. But then Karma met his eyes and the fear edged away, turning into something like the feeling of comfort. Comfort with someone he's literally just met.

Nagisa turned his head away again and felt his hair touch his cheeks, shielding his watering eyes from the red head's view.

"I'm fine." He lied in a quiet whisper.

Karma tilted his head a bit. "No, you're not. I can tell."

"How?" 

Karma's hand grazed Nagisa's cheek as he tucked the bluenette's hair behind his ear. 

"I just can."

Nagisa stiffened and his hands clenched into little trembling fists against the white nightgown that his mother forced him to wear to bed.

"That's hardly an answer."

Then, a warm hand covered his and he turned his head to see Karma giving him a small smile. 

The two don't speak any words after that, they simply stare back at each other with Nagisa's eyes opened wide and a rare smile on Karma's lips.

And, somehow, a smile seemed to be enough.

~

"Nagisa, you butt-head, wake up already!" 

I caught the pillow that Kayano had tossed at me before it hit my head, and opened my eyes to glare at her.

But instead, I got a smirking red head looking down at me.

I yelped and chucked the pillow at Karma, who was for some reason sitting next to my bed, and shot up from where I had been laying.

Karma caught the pillow in his hand and let out a soft chuckle. "My, my. Who knew Sleeping Beauty here had such a good throwing arm?"

I froze in my spot and blinked as I took in his sentence, ignoring the giggling Kayano standing behind him.

"H-hey! Don't call me Sleeping Beauty! Why are you here? Where even am I-"

My question was cut off abruptly by Karma placing his hand over top my mouth and raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Well, aren't you chatty today, Princess."

I shoved his hand away. "I don't-you don't...what exactly is happening?" I asked, directing the question towards Kayano, who was grinning at me like an idiot.

Kayano rolled her eyes and walked over, sitting on the bed next to me-it was then that I realized I was in her apartment, not mine-and pointing to my cheek.

I frowned at her before remembering what had occurred last night and immediately slapping a hand to my bandaged cheek.

"Wha..but I...ah." I groaned and laid back against the bed, closing my eyes. "Whatever."

"Please forgive Nagisa, Karma-kun." Kayano spoke to the devil who was sitting across from me with an apologetic tone. "He's not very good at handling those kinds of situations."

I opened one eye and looked over to see Karma wave a hand at Kayano's apology, a smile/smirk on his lips. 

"It's fine. I understand." For a second, I thought his gaze flickered over to me, but maybe not. "Things happen."

Kayano's eyes lit up and I immediately had a bad feeling about this. "Wow! You're so understanding, Karma-kun!" She practically squealed in appreciation.

I was about ready to slap my hand to my forehead. The way she's acting, there's no doubt about it.

Then again, she could be faking it. She was a very talented actress, after all.

Karma gave her a grin. "I try. Well, now that Sleeping Beauty's finally woken up, I should probably get going."

"Oh, right!" Kayano shot up to her feet, folding her hands under her chin. "You didn't have to wait this long!" She said and she walked Karma to the door. "I'm sure your parents must be worried about you."

The air in the room immediately tensed as Karma's hand paused on the golden door knob. He turned his head a bit, looking just past Kayano and meeting my surprised gaze.

"Yeah. I bet they are." He spoke calmly and clearly, and the way his eyes seemed to see right through me almost sent a shiver down my spine. 

Then, in an instant, the tense atmosphere disappeared and Karma turned his gaze back to a wide-eyed Kayano with another smile/smirk. "Well, thanks anyway. See you around!" He did a two finger salute with one hand as he opened the door with the other and walked out.

Kayano watched the door as it closed and stared in silence for a bit before I finally coughed awkwardly and spoke up.

"So...I think I had a strange dream." I muttered, which made Kayano jump a bit and turn to look at me.

"Yeah?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head. "What was it about?"

I paused, thinking. 

"I...I can't remember."

A/N~ Sorry for the long wait! I hope you like this chapter and I'm sorry it was so short! The next chapter will hopefully be out soon, but these next few weeks I have tests so I might not be able to update very often. Sorry about that!

Hope you enjoyed it!

~Zee