The class trip that Gakushuu had been dreading since the first year was finally approaching.
It was a trip for all the third years to Kyoto, the commercial center of Japan, and it was for three days and two nights.
They would spend hours traveling on the train and spend the days touring the city on their own, before spending nights in a hotel that would be arranged according to their class.
They were literally just going to Kyoto , a place Gakushuu had been to multiple times by himself.
Unfortunately, his classmates were slightly more excited than him. The important part for them was unaccompanied.
Kyoto was a place where many many things could happen, good and bad, and leaving the students in groups to do whatever they pleased could be said to be irresponsible, that is, if they actually were left on their own.
Basically, it was mandatory for at least one person in the group to carry a phone and to submit their phone numbers to their class teacher.
This, of course, meant that Gakushuu had, not only the phone numbers of group leaders but also every individual carrying one, and therefore, had a mode to keep track of them.
There were some people who didn't carry one, either because they couldn't, or because their parental figures wouldn't let them.
And Gakushuu had no doubt that anyone who ended up lost would be found if his father willed it hard enough. And surely they would be kept track of, if only because there was a superhuman creature acting as class E's teacher?
Though, Gakushuu couldn't possibly think him particularly hard to keep track of.
He looked outside the window, and there it was, Koro-sensei was lingering outside the train.
He could spot class E making their way into the train while class A put away their bags inside. The seating was arranged by class and then groups, so, Gakushuu relaxed into his seat, put on earphones and pretended he knew none of the screaming, excited children around him. (Looking at you, Ayaka.)
Anaya sat beside the window, content to be far away from the rest of the class. No one was going to bother Gakushuu, therefore no one was going to bother Anaya.
Gakushuu sat between Anaya and Ren. Ren was talking to Araki, while both Anaya and Gakushuu pretended to be sleeping.
Their first class cabin was divided by their chosen groups. Their car held all of class A's cabins so they were free to roam between the multiple cabins and cars for other classes.
For Gakushuu's cabin it was himself, Ren, Anaya, Ayaka, Kazuki and Araki.
Half an hour into the journey, everyone was mostly involved with doing their own things, Ayaka and Kazuki had decided to leave for cheerier companions and Ren and Araki were discussing something or the other.
Occasionally, there would be loud laughter or hooting about something or the other from the other compartments, but that was only expected.
Half way through, Gakushuu decided to stretch his legs. The trains stopped on certain stops occasionally and he habitually bought an energy drink before climbing on the train and wondering if he should even drink it.
The trip to Kyoto meant Gakushuu had a lot of time to do whatever he wanted. It wasn't too troublesome to clear out a few days on his schedule when he had decreased his extracurriculars outside school for third year preparation.
His father was just mostly out to get him, so Gakushuu would need to prepare for a tough final examination. Though he bet the highschool exams would probably have him on a deathbed through caffeine overdose.
Gakuhou, as usual, didn't know the meaning of restraint.
So when Gakushuu spotted his father out of the corner of his eye, he let out a startled breath before turning smoothly- or not- because he bumped into someone.
They hissed when he- almost clumsily- dragged both the person and himself into the small washroom stall.
"What the hell, Shuu?" The other person hissed at him, and Gakushuu wasn't surprised at all to find Karma being bodily pinned against the washroom door by him.
Gakushuu placed a finger on his lips to motion for silence, then had to hold onto the walls as the train started moving.
Karma slipped a hand around Gakushuu's waist and another somewhere slightly behind him and pulled them tightly together in a steadier hold.
They were the same height, and were pressed together from the foot to their chest. They had their chins tucked over the other's shoulder, and were literally stuck together in an embrace.
Gakushuu's heartbeat, awkwardly enough, sped up. Gakushuu hoped that Karma wasn't looking at the vein in his neck and was instead thinking about the unexpected situation instead.
Or even thinking about saving Gakushuu from falling back into a dirty place. That teasing would be more preferable.
Then he heard the subtle familiar steps of his father walking past the stall and towards class A.
Class A, that was where Gakushuu was supposed to be.
Gakushuu almost wished he could press closer, to hear better, or farther, so he could actually do something.
They waited for a few more minutes, by that time Karma had let go of Gakushuu's waist (disappointingly) and Gakushuu had calmed down his heart, even though they were still attached to each other.
Gakushuu pulled away slightly, and sighed in relief and Karma silently raised an eyebrow.
He suddenly realized that Karma had literally been dragged along and just stayed quiet the whole time because Gakushuu had signalled him to.
That was quite a bit of trust he placed for him.
Then he handed off his unopened can of energy drink and the earphones hanging around his neck to Karma.
He took them with a bemused expression.
"The Principal is here too," he whispered in Karma's ear.
Gakushuu should have known better than to relax with his classmates on a school trip. He was sure, with class E getting on his father's nerve, if he had been seen with an energy drink and god forbid, a pair of earphones?
Nothing good would have come out of it.
But why the hell was the Principal on the train??
Gakushuu slipped out first, leaving behind a slightly confused Karma, before going to find the Principal.
He had bought out all the seats of a whole cabin and was working on his laptop in silence. He raised an eyebrow at the sight before he left, unacknowledged.
So he wasn't there for Gakushuu at all. It was a cursory check on class A then.
He sighed in relief as he made his way back but instead of going back to his own cabin, he went back to the walkway between the cars.
Karma was there, sipping on Gakushuu's energy drink and twirling the wire of his earphones.
"So?" He asked when Gakushuu came back out. He took the energy drink from Karma and gulped down the rest. Karma watched him, amused.
"He should have just taken the flight instead," he complained, tossing the can into the trash. "He's been hovering around like I'm going to either drop dead or destroy the school if he's not looking," he added with a sneer.
Well, it was true.
Gakuhou had found ways to try to restrict Gakushuu inside his home as much as possible. He hadn't even complained too much about Gakushuu stopping a few of his extracurriculars.
Like, since when??
Was this his severely uncomfortable way of trying to take care of Gakushuu while a world ending monster taught in class E? Or his way of keeping them apart…?
The thing was, Gakushuu had never been able to read his father. He knew his father cared about him, but he had never exactly shown that with actions.
He knew his father hated to lose, but until Koro-sensei, he hadn't actually seen his father lose at anything.
He never could tell what his father wanted.
He wasn't sure if his father was wary of Koro-sensei or if he knew that Koro-seneei imitated his style of teaching. Or even if he was aware of Gakushuu's relationships with the students in class E.
"So, you decided to kabedon me?" Karma said, his teeth peeking out from between his lips into a mischievous expression. He put a hand beside Gakushuu's head and leaned in closer.
Gakushuu blinked in realization.
He essentially had pulled a kabedon on Karma, didn't he? He had even pulled him into a close space like a cliché too.
He would have made a joke about it, if his tongue didn't feel like it had twisted up in a pretzel at Karma's teasing reverse kabedon at him.
Gakushuu shot him an unimpressed look, and Karma pulled away with a disappointed look.
"And here I thought you'd be the blushing maiden!" Karma stuck a tongue out when Gakushuu's expression flattened even further.
"I have never played the blushing maiden in my life," he said. Karma almost did a flip take at the fact he had taken offense to…something else?
"Oh?" He immediately grinned, willing to take advantage of the slip.
"In fact," Gakushuu continued, interrupting Karma, " I believe it's you who's playing it."
??
Karma felt question marks form over his head. Gakushuu smirked, satisfied.
Karma's face burst into red.
He belatedly realized that he had implied Gakushuu was not only gay but-
Then Gakushuu just-
Karma's face was practically a heating bag when Gakushuu picked up Karma's other hand, his thumb brushing at Karma's thudding pulse and Karma almost pulled away.
He would have, actually, if Gakushuu hadn't just shot him a challenging look. He leaned back against the wall, pulled Karma's hand up towards his face and placed a soft kiss on his wrist.
He smirked, feeling the pulse under his lips, and the speed at which Karma's heart was beating.
Karma leaned in close, and Gakushuu looked up, his violet eyes were intense, but also, light, teasing at Karma. He was pulling at the blood thrumming through his body, right out through the soft lips pressed against Karma's wrist.
He let out a soft breath, feeling the slightest brush of teeth against his skin. There was a familiar heat on his skin, against his body, and unlike a few minutes before, it was him pressing closer into it.
"Hey, Karma," Gakushuu whispered softly, his voice pulling Karma out of the slight tunnel vision he tended to fall into, especially when he was about to get into a fight, but this time, it wasn't exactly a fight, was it?
Karma couldn't speak, but he stared into Gakushuu's pretty violet eyes that were staring into him. And Karma felt the slightest bit dumbstruck at how pretty Gakushuu was.
Like, of course, the other boy was good looking and had about a million fans praising him about it. But.
Gakushuu had a sharp awareness in his eyes that shone even through the gentle violet. Normally, the color would lend itself to bring softness into a face, but it looked like tinted glass, it was sharp, hard and looked the slightest bit brittle.
But when Karma looked in further, it felt like an entire world was hidden under the depths of violet. A ruthless arrogance that would take advantage of even the smallest opportunity and yet there was gentleness reserved for the people he called his own.
Gakushuu's eyes were teasing, but he was serious. He didn't look it in the least, but Karma knew Gakushuu now. He could tell.
Somehow he felt like he knew what Gakushuu was going to ask him. He felt like he could tell the words that had been building up between them.
His eyes flickered slightly. Gakushuu hesitated.
"Do you-"
Someone cleared their throat.
Gakushuu immediately jerked away, before realizing he had nowhere to go. Karma just lowered his hand and looked up with a slightly irritated expression.
"Yes?" He asked.
Anaya deadpanned at the two of them.
"This is a public space. Anyone can walk in on you both," she looked at Gakushuu, instead of Karma, who was still shamelessly pressed up against Gakushuu.
"Anyone," she emphasized again.
"Um, yeah," Gakushuu said, his voice going an octave higher.
Karma sighed, before taking an exaggerated step back and putting his arms up like he was showing he had unhanded Gakushuu.
Anaya shot Karma a subtle thumbs up, as Gakushuu pretended to straighten his clothes to calm down. Karma's eyes glittered with mischief.
"The teacher was doing rounds," Anaya clarified when Gakushuu looked like his brain wasn't about to burn out through sheer embarrassment.
"He asked for me?" Gakushuu frowned lightly, already shifting into his class rep mode. Anaya nodded silently.
He shot Karma a politely apologetic look before waving and walking slightly too fast back towards the teacher's cabin.
Karma watched Gakushuu walk away and turned to look at Anaya, Gakushuu's essential left hand, who had stayed a step behind.
"Good view, huh?" She said, her lips faintly curling up into a smirk before she, too, walked away.
Karma blinked before he felt a familiar heat crawl under his skin at the memory of what just happened. Then he remembered staring at Gakushuu's back.
'Well, both qualified as a pretty good view ,' he thought absentmindedly.
He blushed a little again, but this time with a smile.