Bread and Butter (Akabane Karma x Manami Okuda)

a quick drive

"Dinner? With who —" Her eyes widen as she stares at the creased brow Karma. He looks unamused — clearly, asking what the man has just told her a few seconds ago. She does not remove her wide eyes away from him and neither does he stop staring at her with an eyebrow up. "Me?!" She finally says, her cheeks turn rosy.

"Yes, is there something wrong with that?" Karma grins, showing his sharp fang, which makes Okuda panic at the amused look he's giving her. She gulps a lump in her throat. Nothing is wrong with that. Two friends eating dinner is normal — completely normal. She simply bites her lip at his question, shaking her head telling him that nothing is wrong with dinner. "Great," he tells her with a lopsided smile. He turns, leaving the empty classroom, carefully walking back to the main road. Okuda feels Karma's grasp tightens as the ground gets a bit sturdy.

"I think my feet are fine now," Okuda mutters, making the red head look at her. He only raises an eyebrow, not believing Okuda. "Really, Karma-kun."

"Fine," he says, placing her carefully on the grass. Her toes plays with the grass that surrounded her feet.

"Thank you," she smiles at him, she starts to walk since she knows he will follow just behind with his longer legs.

"You're not gonna wear your shoes?"

Okuda stops, she turns to see an unamused look of Karma's.

"No — I'll wear them when we get on the road. I should have brought extra flats," she grunts, staring at her heels. "Well, let's go, we don't want to be here 'till the dark, Karma-kun."

Karma nods, walking beside her, both hands shoved in his pockets. Okuda has her hands behind her, as her heels dangle on her one hand.

They both walk in perfect sync and in silence. It is rather comforting than it is awkward. Okuda does not want to break the silence, instead, she heaves a relaxed sigh.

"You seem awfully amused, Okuda-san," Karma chimes, making Okuda jump in suprise, and snap back to reality. "I guess you missed me, huh?"

She stops herself from blushing, hence, her ears heat up and paints itself red. Good thing her ears are covered with her raven black hair. She doesn't reply since she does not know whether she should lie or admit it — either way, it would only result into Karma-kun teasing the petite girl. She only stick her tongue out in a form, not answering him at all. The red head grinned at how the used-to-be-shy Okuda is now teasing him.

They both reach the main road before the sun completely sets. Okuda stretches as if warming up, and sets her heels on the ground to put them on. Karma watches her on the side, as she pumped her shoes together, looking comfortable.

"Alright, should we take the bus or call an Uber —"

"I have a car, Okuda-san," Karma cuts her off, Okuda blinks and a smile twitches.

"I-I see," she stammers, she looks around and see a silver car parked beneath a tree. She points at the car and Karma nods. They both start to stalk towards the car, Karma presses the button on his car keys and its head and backlights start to flicker. Okuda extends her arm to open the door; however, her arm stopped midway as she saw a larger hand grabbed the door and pull it open. She bites her lip, stopping the urge to smile like a dork and refuses to look at Karma. She hears him snicker while taking a seat on the passenger seat. Shortly, Karma had been seated on the driver's seat. Okuda turns to him and her lips for a pout.

"What?" Karma blurted, as if surprised. Okuda spots a hint of pink on his cheeks and she blinks at this.

"Nothing, where are we eating?" She asks as she pull the seatbelt and secure it on its seat. Karma has started the engine and is ready to take off anytime soon.

"Hm, I don't know, have anywhere in mind?"

Okuda has a lot of favorite places, after all, she had spend majority of highschool life in this city. Her thoughts are filled with different restaurants and fast food places. One place in mind has stood out though.

"How about at Isogai-kun's family restaurant?"

She sees Karma's face light up at the sound of that, she can tell he, too, wants to see a former classmate, and a good friend. He nods at her, shifting gears and he begins to drive.

"How have you been, Karma-kun? I see you're very well off by the looks of you," Okuda mentally slaps herself at the conversation starter and hopes he doesn't think of her as a gold digger for starting a conversation about his financial stability. "T-That came out wrong," she whispers to herself, unsure if Karma hears her mumbling.

"Ah, yes, I think I am doing quite well and Okuda-san asking about my financial stability does not make you a gold digger," he states, not looking at her. Blinking, Okuda turns to him confused. She is not sure if he had hear her thoughts just now or it was an instinct or — "I heard you were developing a new substance — medicine?"

"Artificial blood," she tells him, pushing her spectacles in place. "That can be transferred regardless of the person's blood type, I call it 'Rh slither blood' it has been approved by our head chemist and now is in the process of credibility testing and soon will be in the market, specifically clinical markets," she continues, feeling butterflies flutter in her stomach as she explains it to her companion.

"That sounds great, I'm sure you'll save a lot of lives with that," he answers, "and it's a lot more convenient, too. I hope for its success and your success as a chemist," he finishes, not looking at her, but he has a smile plastered on his lips, a smile that she has not seen for a while.

"Thank you, that means a lot," unconsciously, she smiles in a way he has — it naturally occured and she is sure she has not smiled like that. It stays like that for a while. For a reason, she feels everything around them stopped. Only she and Karma exists. 

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I had no idea I had more drafts for this story. Sorry fellas for taking me half the year to update. I will TRY to continue this one and finish it. I just have so many DRAFTS that I am currently writing and NONE of them seem to have a future. Anyway, this story is slow paced as heck, I'm in it for the FLUFF.

-March 27, 2019