Karma leaned against a stone wall on the corner of the street. The second he got there, he sent a text to Nagisa, saying that he was there. This was the arrangement they had made the day Nagisa went back home, two weeks ago. The spot was a few blocks away from Nagisa's house, but they agreed to meet there every single morning to walk to school together. It was well out of Karma's way, and added almost forty minutes to his commute, but he never said a word about it. He didn't need to. Nagisa new very well how far apart they lived.

It only took minutes after the text was sent for Nagisa to come flying down the street from the direction of his house. The smaller boy had a soft smile on his face, the one that he usually wore around their classmates to hide his true emotions. Karma new better though. He always looked towards Nagisa's eyes for his real emotions. If the corners of those baby blues were turned up, then the smile was genuine. If they lay flat, then it was fake, but there was nothing to worry about. The only time's Karma needed to be concerned was when he was that pink tint on his lower eyelids.

"Good morning." Nagisa greeted his classmate once they were close to one another.

"Hey." The redhead stuffed his phone into his pocket. The pair didn't waste time standing around before they began walking in the direction of the train station. "How are you feeling?"

"Not bad, actually." There was almost surprise in the way the shorter spoke. "It's been… calm, as of late."

Karma hummed to himself. It made him a little queasy to know that all it took for Nagisa to be in a good mood was for his mother to not scream at him. It was even worse to know that at times, that was too much to ask for. But, the teen decided to keep that thought internalized. As much as he loved pushing people's buttons, there was no need to stir the pot in this case. "Calm's good."

"What about you?" There was a slight skip in Nagisa's step when the boy adjusted the strap of his backpack on his shoulder.

"I was thinking about getting a new video game after school today. I beat my other one." He patted his pocket for emphasis. "Want to come with? Maybe come over and play a little?"

"Sure!" Almost immediately after Nagisa let his excitement build up, he let it crumble down. Eyebrows sagged, and he began worrying at his lower lip. "I… I don't know if I can though. I have to ask her first."

Ever since that moment when Karma learned of just how horrible his friend's mother is, and Nagisa had needed to stay at his place for a bit, the woman had implemented an incredibly strict curfew. He had to be back home by five pm, and when Nagisa's mother said five, she most definitely did not mean five o-one. It was early and dumb, but within these two weeks, they had learned how to escape it when needed. It was rather hard to enforce a curfew on someone in an assassination classroom after all. In the past two weeks, there had been a few nights where Nagisa really needed to get out of the house. So he had just jumped out from his bedroom window. It was two floors up, but that was nothing compared to the cliffs their entire class would take turns leaping off the edge of during gym.

Karma changed the subject, bringing up ideas for assassination plans involving the chemistry lab they were starting that week. Okuda's skills would be the most useful this time around, and there was no way that Karma was the first person to think of it. This time around though, the assignment involved making biodiesel using eggshells, vegetable oil, and vinegar. So, it would be hard to come up with a poison to get Koro-sensei to drink. But they were young and imaginative. There wasn't a doubt in Karma's mind that someone in the class would come up with something sooner or later.

"I'm telling you, a bomb is the way to go this time." Okajima's voice rang through the classroom. It was their lunch break, and some members of Class E had moved their desks together to flip through their pre-lab assignment for inspiration. Karma was more involved in the discussion than Nagisa, but that was mostly because the bluenette's knowledge of chemistry was much more limited.

"There is no way in hell I'm setting off a bomb in a chem lab." Kataoka frowned, pointing her chopsticks accusingly at Okajima. "That's probably the worst idea I've ever heard."

"Ok well I'm not hearing anyone else coming up with any ideas." The photography loving teen clicked his tongue against his cheek.

"Um…" Okuda, resident chemistry expert, cut into the conversation. She had a large composition notebook sprawled open on the desk she sat at. The young girl called it her lab notebook, but everyone in class knew that it was where she kept notes on more volatile reactions and mechanisms that could be used for assassination purposes. "If you guys can distract Koro-sensei, I can work on another poison."

"How is this one going to be different from the rest?" Isogai, who had been standing just behind the girl, spoke up.

"Well I got to thinking," Okuda fixed her glasses over the bridge of her nose. "What if we ground up some of the anti-sensei bullets, and then dissolved them in a solution, and had him drink it?"

The crowd of classmates seemed to collectively blink at the short chemistry nerd. After exchanging a few glances, Isogai eventually spoke up again. "That… That could work actually."

"I can distract him." Of course Karma was the person to offer. His usual conniving grin was on his face as he leaned his chin into the palm of his hand. "You just need time to make the mixture right? Leave it to me."

Nagisa was about to pipe into the conversation himself when the door to the rundown classroom slid open, revealing none other than the yellow, octopus-esque teacher himself. Immediately, all conversation about assassination attempts transformed into one about some TV show that had gotten popular lately, that Nagisa had never seen. So, rather than sticking around for yet another discussion that he wasn't going to be a part of, Nagisa excused himself, and somehow found his feet carrying him to where Koro-sensei stood in the doorway.

"Hello Nagisa." The crescent-shaped smile on the teacher's face didn't shift from its place when the spherical head turned to look town at the young teen. "Can I help you with something."

The student took a moment to think if he really needed anything from the teacher. After deciding that, no, he didn't, Nagisa settles for starting a normal chat. "Where did you go for lunch this time?"

If it were possible for that peculiar grin to grow any larger, than it definitely did. "Spain. I was really craving seafood paella, and there's a little restaurant by the mediterranean sea that has really fresh shrimp."

Why something as simple as lunch ended up turning into an international affair for the creature was beyond Nagisa's comprehension. It didn't make much sense to go halfway around the world for something that you could get at a european restaurant here in Japan. "Was it good?"

"A little salty." Koro-sensei admitted. "I'm going to be a little bit swollen from all the sodium for a while."

"You don't look any different Koro-sensei." Nagisa looked over the octopus' wobbly figure, seeing no irregularities.

"My feet are a little puffier than normal."

The statement drew Nagisa's eyes downward to look at the ends of yellow tentacles. The rounded ends, which Koro-sensei normally stood on, looked to be about the same shape as they always were. They could be swollen for all Nagisa knew, but visually, they looked just as oddly proportioned as the always were. The middle school student decided to drop the matter. It wasn't that important. Instead he thought about the amazement of Koro-sensei being able to travel to Spain, eat, and come back in such a short amount of time. Sure. Nagisa was familiar with the mach twenty abilities of his teacher, he had dealt with it first hand on a daily basis. But he had gotten used to Koro-sensei having that ability, it barely felt abnormal anymore. It was times like this when he would realize just how amazing that power was. "Must be nice to be able to travel like that."

The teacher stared at his student for a while before speaking. "Do you want to travel when you get older, Nagisa?"

"Maybe just a bit. I'd like to go to America some time." The boy kicked his toe into the crack between two floor boards. "Sometimes I wish I could just get away for a little bit though." The moment he said the words, Nagisa half-wished he hadn't. That sounded way too ominous.

Before Nagisa could worry about the repercussions of his own words, Koro-sensei spoke again. "You know, the great thing about this mountain is that while you're up here, you can pretend you're no longer in Japan. You don't see the city lights, or hear car horns. If you come up here when that need to get away comes up, maybe it'll feel like you've traveled."

Nagisa's eyes went wide. He knew. Koro-sensei had to know. There's no way he didn't know. The teen gulped down the mucus in his throat, feeling it go down like a rock. Nagisa could feel his eyes sting. As much as he looked up to his instructor, he didn't want Koro-sensei to know that was going on in his personal life. "Yes. Maybe." The inside of his mouth felt like cotton as he spoke.

Without saying another word, not quite being sure he wanted to, Nagisa said a quick goodbye to the teacher and left the classroom. One good thing about having only one class in this building was that it was easy to make sure you didn't run into anyone. He kept walking until he was outside, and immediately he felt a little bit better. The fresh air was definitely a good feeling.

Nagisa hadn't even been outside for five minutes when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw the text message appear on the screen.

Karma: Class if about to start. You ok?

He let out a sigh before typing out a reply.

Nagisa: I just needed some air.

Karma: Want me to come out?

Nagisa: No. It's fine. I'll be back in a minute.

Karma: Ok. Just let me know

It felt good, having someone care about him enough to text him if he mysteriously left the classroom. For a moment, Nagisa thought about his mother, then what Koro-sensei had said. The octopus was right. Nagisa didn't have the ability to travel at mach twenty speeds, or fly across oceans, but he new these woods like the back of his hand. He had an entire mountain to hike through, hide out in, and do whatever he wanted with. If he needed to get away, it wasn't difficult to come here, no matter how late at night it got.

The teenaged boy opened up the conversation with Karma on his phone once more.

Nagisa: Hey. Can you go somewhere with me tonight?

Author's Note: Hey there everyone! Sorry I have been so off the map with this story. I just got so wound up and busy in a bunch of other stuff, that I let a lot of my stories just get away from me. Hopefully, I'll be able to update this one more frequently. I have a lot of plans for this fic!

Also, I've just recently created a tumblr account dedicated to posting ficlets, drabbles, and much more. So if you ever want to take a look at some minor stories that don't get published here, deleted scenes from various fics I've written, or ask any questions your little hear desires, please follow chimie-chatastrophe

Thanks for reading!