his bottom lip.

Interlude: Rain

Rain

It was raining that day. Karma remembers it well. In the middle of the rainy season of their second year, he had the stellar idea to invite his friend out to hang out in the park. He had thought that once they were together they'd think of something to do.

It wasn't raining particularly hard. The rain wasn't violent. It was most definitely there, and if you stood under it for too long you'd most definitely be soaked through. The type of rain that could be made bearable with a simple umbrella.

Karma liked being with Nagisa. He didn't particularly feel higher than him, and he didn't particularly feel lesser than him either. He was equal.

He'd remembered that day in the store when he'd first approached the boy. He saw someone else with a similar interest and he jumped. To this day he never knew why he did that. He could have just picked up another copy of the same magazine. He could have just gone to the movie by himself. But for some reason he didn't. For some reason, he reached out to another person.

And for once, that person didn't shy away.

Karma Akabane didn't understand Nagisa Shiota.

A boy from his class with long hair and curious blue eyes. A boy from his class who sometimes seemed more exhausted than others. A boy from his class who didn't hate him. A boy from his class that seemed to really like hanging out with him. Nagisa would even initiate hanging out with Karma. He wanted to be around Karma.

And what of Karma? At first, he didn't mind having the boy around, but after a while, he started to enjoy it. He started liking the company, someone to talk to, someone to listen to, someone who listens.

Somewhere in his heart, he knew that he had ended up needing Nagisa. Being with Nagisa meant less time being at home with his sister. Being with Nagisa meant less time getting into trouble with delinquents. Being with Nagisa meant he was happy.

So there he was in the rain, near the meeting point they had agreed on. Karma was hiding near the fountain they had planned to meet at, crouched behind a closed ice cream stall. He had planned on scaring the boy.

Much like his sister, as much as he hates to admit, Karma loves seeing people's reactions to things. He loves seeing people under conditions they aren't usually under. He likes to observe.

And since meeting the shorter boy he's had a lot more fun observing. There were many little things about Nagisa that he himself might not notice. Karma notices a lot, he even has a mental list of it.

When Nagisa doesn't understand something, he furrows his brows and presses his lips together. When he's excited, his eyes seem to glow happily and his cheeks get a bit flushed. Nagisa is bad at arguing and quick to give up, but you can always tell when he's dissatisfied. He'll look down and get this hollow look in his eyes, but he won't say a word.

Nagisa sometimes has days where his face seems a lot more exhausted than others, and his eyes would look tired and worn.

Karma passively wonders why that could be, but would never bring himself to ask. If Nagisa were to realize how much Karma was observing him, he'd die of embarrassment. If Nagisa knew, he would probably be creeped out.

And that's another thing: Nagisa scared Karma.

Karma worried about what Nagisa would think of him. He worried about Nagisa not liking him. He was terrified of Nagisa rejecting him. One time he'd thought that he would rather push Nagisa out of his life than to have Nagisa reject him.