Chapter Text
The air in the classroom was warm — pleasantly so, in that way that had him wriggling in his sweater to soak it all up. The vents churned steadily, and the biting December wind outside could have been nothing but a scenic wallpaper playing on a desktop. A light snow had begun, delicate and unhurried in its descent to the pavement, save for the occasional gust that sent the flakes scattering in cyclones of white. He idly watched from the window, scanning over pedestrians and tardy students wrapped tight in their coats with their eyes pinched shut, mumbling some kind of profanity, he was sure.
Thank heavens for a heated classroom, and for the thermos full of green tea nestled in his hands. He wished them safe travels in his mind, and turned to sit at his large desk as his students finally trickled in.
Red-nosed, many of them sighed when they crossed the threshold into his room. He smiled against the rim of his cup.
“Good morning, everyone. Chilly out there, huh?”
The shyest of them offered a polite bow in response and sniffled, while the chatterboxes immediately popped open their lips at the first chance given to complain.
“Sensei, don’t even joke,” one whined, pulling her ear muffs off. “It’s so cold out there, we ought to sue everyone involved in the decision to hold class today!”
Nagisa put his drink down and gave her a pitying curl of his lips. “Push through, Eri-san, this is your last day before break, after all. You all will be fine.”
They grumbled as they slipped into their seats.
Nagisa stood and looked out at the sea of tired teenage eyes blinking wearily at him, some of which were still glossy with tears from the wind.
“Oh dear, must you all look so pitiful?” he laughed against himself. “A little snow won’t kill you. See, back when I was your age, and we had snow days…”
“Sensei…” several of them groaned.
He stifled another laugh and had mercy on them. “Okay, alright, I know. I’ll spare you. Well, you’ll be happy to hear that I didn’t plan much today in terms of work. To be honest, I’m in no mood to grade anything once I get home either.”
“So what will we be doing today?” one asked.
“You’ll sit for a short lecture about pursuing governmental service as a potential career path.”
They didn’t seem too keen on that, if their glazed eyes and unimpressed blinks were anything to go by.
“Of course, I won’t be speaking,” he added after a beat, “We’ll have a guest coming in today, an active member on the city council board, and director of finance.”
“Who and what?” they asked.
“A friend of mine. I’ll introduce him formally when he arrives.”
They blinked again, and Nagisa smiled with a sigh.
“Just…do some free-write for a bit. At least try to pretend like you care when he gets here.” He plopped back down in his seat and mumbled to himself, “Or don’t. Give him a taste of what he was like in school, that oughta be pretty funny.”
They, as most high-schoolers did, interpreted “free-write” as “scribble for a minute or two in your notebook, before whispering quietly to your friends with your pencil growing increasingly limp in your hand.” But Nagisa couldn’t be bothered to care that day.
His phone buzzed softly on the desk, and he picked it up to see the contact that had him smiling before he could help it.
“Will probably be just a little late. Traffic sucks today, which is weird because it’s cold as hell. What happened to staying inside, out of the elements?? Very rude of everyone to be on the road right now. It’s like they have jobs and responsibilities or something…so lame.”
Nagisa huffed a soft laugh at the eye roll emoji stamped on the end of the message. His fingers moved deftly to reply.
“No worries. Just get here safe. And thank you again for doing this… I was scared you’d change your mind last minute…moody kids and cold weather is not an ideal way to spend a morning, though I love them dearly.”
“Change my mind?? And miss out on seeing you in teacher mode? Not a chance. I missed seeing you in your cute little ties. Be there soon :)”
Nagisa's gut did a gentle flutter and he decided to put his phone down, his hand finding the tie tucked neatly under his pullover to smooth it out.
He spent a few moments staring out into space, basking in a mix of warmth and vague anticipation, when suddenly his ears, fine-tuned to pick up the sounds of adolescent displeasure, pricked at a developing argument in the back of the classroom between two students. He lifted his head and allowed himself a moment to be taken off guard, as these two, a boy and a girl, seldom spoke aloud in class at all.
“Are you fucking stupid? The video caught him in broad daylight. They don’t just come out at night and that’s exactly why you’d be killed first!” The girl, Cho, jabbed her finger at her classmate, her large glasses fogging in rage.
Yamari, the boy with equally large glasses that were currently sliding down his nose with how hard he was shaking, shot back immediately with, “No, you’re stupid, because you can clearly see the umbrella in his hand, shielding him from the sun! So you’d actually be killed first, due to your severe lack of observation skills! This instance was a rare occasion! They only come out at night!”
“You know who comes out at night? Your fucking mom when she visits my bedroom!” Cho spat.
The class erupted into gasps and laughter. Nagisa stood and said, “Cho-san, that’s enough.”
Yamari stood too, leaning over her desk, the both of them paying no heed to Nagisa in the throes of their fury. “Say that to my face, four-eyed bitch!”
Cho jumped out of her seat and pressed their foreheads together, their glasses clinking softly in contact. “You’re the four-eyed bitch!”
Nagisa was between them in the next second, snatching them both by the collars gently but firmly. “Find your seats,” he hissed, “Or leave my classroom. I won’t repeat myself.”
The class quieted down until the room was still. He let them go and they sank back down into their seats dejectedly. Nagisa marched back to the front and looked at them incredulously. “I’m beginning to think it’s crack cocaine falling from the sky. What the hell is wrong with you two?”
They didn’t respond, reverting into the students they usually were, soft-spoken and averse to attention. Nagisa ran a hand through his hair.
Eri raised her hand. “Sensei, they were talking about the vampire footage that went viral last week.”
Nagisa rolled his eyes hard. That stupid video had been everywhere, local news included. It depicted a man clutching an umbrella in broad daylight, walking down the alley of a store to attack another man by digging his teeth into the other’s throat. The attacker was frantic in his pounce on the victim, so much so that Nagisa clearly remembered barking in laughter when first seeing it on his living room tv. “There’s no way you two nearly fought over something as senseless as that. It’s fake, guys. I don’t know why I have to tell you that. Don’t believe everything you see online.”
“No, it’s real, Sensei. Like, really real,” Cho said under her breath. “The victim came out and said he had to get a blood transfusion and everything, and that he saw clear as day the fangs coming out the vampire’s mouth.”
“And your source for this?” Nagisa put his hands on his hips.
“He came out and made a YouTube video about the experience. He’s got two little holes in his neck!” she shuddered, along with a few other students.
Nagisa stopped being angry and found what replaced it was just pity. “Guys…you can’t be serious.”
“It’s true!” a handful of them cried.
Yamari added, “And that’s why it’s dangerous to walk alone at night now. The only reason the vampire came out at day in the video was because he was ravenous. You should research it. The news isn’t divulging all the details because they don’t want mass panic. But, Sensei, it’s real. It’s all real.”
Nagisa pinched the bridge of his nose. “God help me, my poor children have become tinfoil hat wearers.” He looked at everyone, all wearing serious expressions that he would have laughed at, if not for the growing need to approach this delicately, since they clearly were shaken about this. “Okay, uh, right…I don’t have time to unpack all of this right now. When we come back, I’ll have a lesson about the spread of misinformation and how to identify primary sources prepared for you all. For now, Cho-san and Yamari-san, apologize for the inappropriate comments you made to each other. You know I don’t tolerate language like that in my class.”
They grumbled, avoiding each other’s eyes. Nagisa hardened his face and stared. They caught his gaze and eventually sighed in resignation.
“I’m sorry for saying I slept with your mom,” Cho whispered.
“Sorry for calling you a four-eyed bitch…”
Nagisa nodded. “There you go. I don’t wanna hear or see that ever again. That goes for everyone.”
The class returned to a soft chatter as he sat back down. He caught the mutterings of vampirism still lingering in the room, but decided to let them deliberate amongst themselves, in hopes that student-led discussion would help them come to the correct conclusion: that vampires roaming the streets was the laziest hoax idea yet.
He glanced at the clock and frowned. Class was nearly halfway through. He picked up his phone and typed.
“You didn’t get into a crash right?”
“Course not.”
“Where are you?”
“Outside some classroom staring at this stressed looking blue haired guy. Don’t know what his deal is but his tie looks super cute from what I can see.”
Nagisa whipped his head to the door window and his face broke into a wide grin. “Ah! You’re here!” He hurried to the door and slid it open. His arms reached instinctively to wrap around the other, but like a storm of pins, his students’ eyes snapped onto him at once. He instead fell into a shallow bow.
“Hi, Karma,” he whispered, tamping down the glee in his voice and hiding it under a layer of rehearsed professionalism.
“Oh?” Karma smiled, before bowing a little himself. “Good morning, Nagisa. You make me feel so important. I’m glad I wore my good suit today.”
Nagisa pulled up and did a once over of the man in front of him, indeed dressed in a blazer and slacks dark as coal, with a white button up underneath and a ornate red tie.
“And I remember you saying that you hated dressing up,” Nagisa said.
“I do,” he replied. “Can’t show up to work in my jammies though, as much as I’ve fantasized.”
Nagisa hummed. “Well, you look nice.”
“You don’t look bad yourself, shortstack,” Karma said, giving him one of those smiles that startled in its sincerity. Then he rubbed his reddened hands together to add, “Ah, it’s so toasty in here…”
Though to Nagisa it was beginning to grow a little warmer than he’d like. Under the curious, unanimous gaze of his class, he suddenly remembered why Karma was here at all. He quickly led Karma further into the classroom so everyone could see him clearly.
Nagisa introduced him, and the kids stood and bowed politely, their eyes darting back and forth between the two adults. Karma seemed to be preening ever so slightly at the attention, and Nagisa couldn’t decide if it was a little cute or irksome.
Karma fell into speaking with ease soon after, explaining what exactly he did for the city’s budget and how he helped direct proper funding to the city’s schools, including the one they sat in. This straightened their backs in no time. It was hard to tune Karma out, Nagisa realized. Public speaking was a skill that took years of experience to cultivate for Nagisa, and yet Karma had always been like this — not much of a talker, yet when he did speak, you couldn’t help but listen. And though the whole reason Nagisa even asked Karma to come by was mostly because 1) he wanted an excuse to see him and 2) he truly had nothing planned for the last day of the semester, a part of him was a tad bitter that the kids didn’t give him the ol’ “whatever old man…” treatment like he had been expecting.
Yamari raised his hand. “Akabane-sensei, would it be possible to put more resources into making our school building vampire proof?”
Karma tilted his head. “Vampire proof…?”
Nagisa quickly interrupted before the kids got Karma roped into their nonsense. “Why don’t you take a little break, Akabane-san? I see you’re tiring.”
“Oh, I’m fine, thank you—”
Nagisa clapped his hands together in finality. “Everyone, let’s spend the last fifteen minutes of class working on an in-class writing assignment. I want a few paragraphs on how proper school funding is important to our city, highlighting the detriments of a community with an underfunded school system. Get to it, please.”
A few students rolled their eyes as they begrudgingly flipped open their notebooks, and Yamari simmered in his seat. Nagisa had the decency to feel guilty.
“And you may jot down any remaining questions you have for Akabane-sensei. As long as they’re appropriate, I’ll make sure he gets them all,” he added.
Everyone’s pencils moved faster at this, which satisfied Nagisa enough to return to his desk. Karma followed him, leaning over to inspect the tiny gifts and trinkets Nagisa collected over the course of his career. Karma picked up a snake mini-figure from their favorite video game, Oro-Boro Feast.
“Too cute,” he whispered to Nagisa. “Maybe I’ll become a teacher too, so I can get free Oro-Boro figurines as well.”
“I’m sure they would adore you. You’d have all the figurines you could ever ask for.”
“They’re sweet kids. You have a good bunch.”
“Yes, I do…” Nagisa glanced up at them briefly and smiled.
“If only someone were sweet enough to prepare a chair for me before my arrival,” Karma looked down at Nagisa seated in his chair with a soft, dramatic sigh.
“You said you weren’t tired.” Nagisa met his eyes.
“I am now. You don’t mind right?”
“Mind what—what are you…?”
Karma squeezed so they were sharing the chair, their sides flush. He leaned over Nagisa’s desk, nodding at the stack of lesson plans placed atop as if he wrote them himself.
“Okay, right, I see perfectly. This next unit should be interesting, yes, yes…” Karma mumbled in a posh voice. “Carry the four and cite your sources for the book report due at nine. Yes, and we can’t forget the essay about that one battle of 1884…”
Nagisa erupted into surprised laughter that he did his best to stifle. “Will you move?”
“You’ve provided no seating. Unless you want me to sit on the floor in some kind of sick humiliation ritual in front of your students.”
Nagisa let out a slow breath. “You’re right, seating was an oversight. I’m sorry.”
“No need for apologies, teach. I’m as comfortable as can be.”
They spent the last fifteen minutes of class quietly organizing Nagisa’s plans, with Karma frequently recommending things that could help the students retain information. Some of these ideas he heavily considered, and others not (a trampoline in the classroom was impractical).
It was nice to be pressed against Karma in this way. It took him back to the long afternoons in Karma’s living room, spent studying for upcoming exams and eventually getting distracted with intense matches of thumb wars and tic-tac-toe.
Nagisa savored the memory and looked up at Karma. “If you beat me in a thumb war I might take you up on your trampoline idea.”
“Deal,” he said softly, sticking his hand out.
Nagisa met him halfway and they spent a few moments hooking their thumbs together eagerly. Nagisa fought with his wallet on the line, as mini trampolines were more expensive than one would think. They broke into soft giggles as Nagisa gained the advantage, and suddenly Karma included another hand to assist himself.
“You’re cheating!” Nagisa hissed quietly with a chuckle, finally catching Karma’s thumb.
“You must have been training or something.” He bunted their heads together gently. “I should buy the trampoline anyway and sneak it in here.”
They melted into lighthearted laughter, hands still laced together, as they held each other’s gaze. The entire world was that desk for a while, the population two, every earthly desire found in between long red lashes and a wide, familiar smile.
“Sensei…” Eri called from across the room. “Class is almost over. Two minutes left.”
Nagisa flinched and looked at his class, slipping his hand out of Karma’s hold. “Of course, I’m aware. I was just about to announce that, Eri-san, but thank you.”
“No problem,” she said, giving him an odd smile.
Nagisa cued everyone to stand. “Everyone please give thanks to Akabane-sensei for his lecture. I hope it got you all thinking about what your own futures may hold.”
The students bowed and said in unison, “Thank you, Akabane-sensei.”
Karma chuckled softly and returned the gesture. “No problem. I had a great time and I hope you all enjoy your break. If I’m lucky, I might be invited to speak with you all again soon.”
Eri grinned. “I’m sure you will be.”
A few students in the back snorted. Nagisa squinted and cued for them to take their seats again as he walked Karma to the doorway. Their voices lowered.
“Back out into the cold I go,” Karma said softly. “This was awesome.”
“I agree,” he replied warmly, “Don’t freeze out there, Karma.”
“My car’s heating treats me well, don’t worry. How are you getting home?”
“The train, as always.”
Karma shook his head. “Then I might as well take you home.”
“Please don’t. You’ll be waiting for another five hours for my day to end. I don’t leave until late afternoon.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll just go do something else in the meantime, and you tell me when you get off so I can swing back down here to get you.”
“That sounds like a lot of trouble.”
“And if it is?” Karma shrugged, tilting his head with a smile. “Do you want me to come out and say it? I wanna spend time with my best friend in my car.”
Nagisa hesitated, but not for very long. “Me too.”
“Then it’s settled.” He ruffled Nagisa’s hair, before resting his hand on the crown of his head. “You have a good rest of your day, alright? I’ll see you in a bit, Nagi.”
Nagisa waved goodbye and Karma was already disappearing down the hallway. When he walked back into the classroom, his face prickled with heat that spread to the tips of his ear.
He cleared his throat and announced, “I’ll take your assignments up here. Once I have it, you may all take your leave. Please have a restful break, everyone.”
The class wasted no time in standing and handing off the sheets of paper to him, all smiling widely.
One said on their way out, “I’m glad that today is the last day. Sensei looks a bit feverish. He ought to rest too.”
Eri replied, skipping behind them, “Something might be in the air…”