Strawberry Milk

The moon was full tonight, its pale rays lighting up the scenery serenely. Nagisa felt a pang of drowsiness hit him as he absorbed the majesty of the scenery, made worse by the fact that he'd just gotten out of the bath. The very gentle wind swept past his cheek, caressing his chin lovingly and gently like a caring mother would.

Or rather, the moon was as full as it could be considering more than half of it had been blown to high heaven by a certain perverted yellow superbeing.

It certainly was a very beautiful night for Class E to spend the evening. The hot spring they'd reserved was just right, and it was so relaxing Nagisa could swear that he could just set up a room for life and live there for the rest of his days if he were so allowed.

Koro-Sensei, however, had managed to rile everyone up and ruin the relaxed mood earlier that night when he'd aggravated everyone into trying to kill him.

Again.

What a pain. Nagisa thought to himself with a begrudging smile as he looked down from the moon, his sights sweeping around the rest of the scene. The dark green grass, bathed by the light blue moonlight, was surrounded by tendrils of shadow that reminded Nagisa a little too much of tentacles.

"What are you thinking about, Nagisa?" The middle-school boy turned to his left, where his friend was giving him a curious look and a small smile.

"Nothing much." He said to Kayano in reply, and he shook his head. "By the way, why were you guys going to kill Koro-Sensei?"

"Ah. You see…" Kayano raised her finger as she told the story, wagging it to and fro whilst she spoke. "He was intruding in our little girls' talk with Miss Bitch. Rude, isn't he?"

"I know what you mean." Nagisa replied, letting out a little laugh. "He was doing the same thing with us, mostly."

"Really?" Kayano took a sip from the canned coffee in her hand. She let out a great loud breath after she gulped down half of the still-steaming contents. "I'll be sure to try and kill him later for eavesdropping!"

"Hehe." Nagisa smiled again and returned his gaze to the moon, idly admiring its gorgeous light.

"…why would you guys talk about something that Koro-Sensei shouldn't know about?"

The sudden question made Nagisa freeze, and he realized that he was being led into a trap. Not good. I can't tell her that we were having popularity polls about the girls! She'll tell everyone, and then the guys will all get killed!

Getting killed wasn't a joke anymore to anyone in the class. Everyone took it seriously.

So Nagisa knew that when he used the word, its meaning was quite literal.

The guys would all get killed.

"N-nothing much." Nagisa shrugged, trying his best to hide the nervousness and unease in his voice. "Just talking about guy stuff."

"If you were talking about guy stuff, then it wouldn't be a problem if Koro-Sensei heard you." Nagisa gulped when he saw Kayano's eyes glint mischievously. "Maybe…"

Nagisa shook his head vigorously, but he was beginning to panic on the inside. "Seriously, we weren't talking about anything impor-!"

"If you defend it that much, I'm only going to get more and more curious." Kayano's smile twisted into one of pure wickedness. "What were you talking about, Nagisa?"

"Uh…" Lost for words, Nagisa took a step away from Kayano out of pure reflex.

And in response to that reflex, Kayano grabbed him by the sleeve of his kimono.

Crap, she sealed off my escape! I can't run!

"I'm not gonna let you get away~" Her voice was nothing but playful now, and she neared him with a teasing grin on her lips. "C'mon, spill the beans!"

"N-no!" Nagisa refused stubbornly, trying to break Kayano's grip on his sleeve. "Besides, it's not like you can tell me what you girls were talking about, right?" He reasoned, trying to find a gap in conversation that he could take advantage of.

"Sure, I can." Kayano replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "We were just talking about love experience and which boys in the class were datable."

She gave it away without a second thought!

"Wh-why are you telling me this?!" Nagisa asked, taken completely off guard with surprise.

"Well, you're you." Kayano replied. "I trust you. You're not sleazy, and you're nice. You're my friend too, so I trust you. Besides, it's not that big of a deal as long as you don't tell anyone else, right?"

Nagisa stared at Kayano briefly, at a loss for words at the sudden torrent of honesty.

"…fine, I'll tell you." Nagisa replied, finally managing to brush her hand off of his sleeve. "But don't tell anyone else, got it?"

"Yes, sir!" Kayano saluted him, and the two laughed before they walked away from the window and sat on one of the wooden benches nearby. They leaned their backs onto the wooden wall, the scent of the drinks in their hands making them smile inadvertently as both guy and girl took a sip out of their respective drinks before deciding to continue the conversation.

"…we were talking about a popularity poll." Nagisa admitted, looking away. He had absolutely no idea how to say it to her face. He was pretty sure that doing what they'd done was stupid and shallow. "We talked about…which girls we were interested in."

"I see." Kayano, taking it to the face without any violent reaction whatsoever, nodded with her gaze still intent on Nagisa. "So? What were the results?"

"Huh?!" Nagisa was taken aback again, this time so much that he almost fell off of the bench. He gripped the can in his hand so hard that, by accident, he'd crumpled the aluminum and squeezed some of the content out of the hole on the top and onto his hand. He tried his best to recover, and he regained his composure after he'd regained his balance on the bench. "Wh-wh-why do you-?!"

"I'm asking 'cuz I wanna know."

"I can't just-"

"Fine, fine. I guess it's unfair if you just tell me." Kayano sighed, and she finished her coffee and crushed the can in her hand. She tossed it high up without looking anywhere, and the small can sailed straight into the trash can next to the vending machine. "Then, let's make a trade."

"…trade?" Nagisa echoed, dreading the fact that he already had an idea of what Kayano was about to suggest.

"Sure. I'll tell you what datable guys we thought of, and you tell me the most popular girls."

I knew she was gonna say that! Nagisa thought to himself despairingly.

And yet, despite the dread that he felt, Nagisa felt the compulsion to say it building up in his chest. "…fine, that's fair."

"Okay, then I go first." Kayano began, grinning. "Maehara and Isogai were at the top. Karma was also up there too."

"Really? Well, I guess that's to be expected." Nagisa looked surprised for a bit, then he just shrugged.

"So? Now that I coughed up my end of the bargain, it's time for you to do the same!" Kayano pointed a finger at the blue-haired boy, and her grin turned near-malicious with how mischievous it was. She knew he was getting cornered, and she had every intention of making sure he was driven right into the center of that corner like a caged rat. "Now, make with the goods!"

Nagisa sighed deeply, slumping forward a bit before shrugging in defeat and looking at Kayano. "Fine, fair enough." He looked down at his hands, counting with his fingers as he spoke. "We had a vote. Kanzaki got the highest with four votes."

"Yeah, she's real pretty! Like some idol!" Kayano gushed, placing her hands together and grinning like a fool. "I wish I had some of her bombastic looks~" Kayano then immediately turned to Nagisa again. "So, who else had votes?"

"Um…Yada had three votes, and Kurahashi had two votes." Nagisa recalled the piece of paper that they'd all had agreed to write the votes on. "Um…who else…?"

"Hey, what about me?"

Nagisa had to do a double take with both his eyes and his head in order to let what Kayano had said fully process in his brain. "…uh…"

"Tell me what I got, Nagisa~" Kayano begged, leaning forward and looking Nagisa in the eyes. "Please~?"

"Okay, okay, you got two votes." Nagisa, unable to resist, surrendered the information. "I told you, so stop looking at me like that!"

"Hahaha, alright, alright~" Kayano grinned, satisfied. She peered at Nagisa, and her smile faded a little bit. "Why don't you want me looking at you like that?"

"Th-that's…" If he could be driven into a corner even more than he already had been, he'd have been nailed to the spot. Nagisa felt so taken aback that he had absolutely no idea how to answer or even if he should answer.

I-if I tell her… The very prospect of letting the thought slip made his head fuzzy and intelligible. He felt heat rising a little bit in his cheeks, and his heartbeat had already sped up.

"…why are you looking at me like that?" Kayano asked again, inching towards Nagisa and closing the distance. She didn't like the way that Nagisa was looking at her with that kind of hesitation and apprehension in his eyes.

As if she were the reason he was put at such unease.

"I-I…I can't…" Nagisa, stuttering in his panic and unable to recuperate and gather his thoughts with Kayano slowly closing in on him, tried his best to inch away from her. He felt his chest pounding like Mike Tyson was sparring with him as the dummy.

"Why not?" Kayano, already having lost her playful, peppy air to one of curiosity and restlessness, implored of him yet another time.

"I…" His tongue felt so tied up and twisted that he felt like his brain had been smeared in honey and beaten repeatedly with a meat mallet.

"…fine, you don't have to tell me." Kayano gave up so abruptly it left Nagisa bereft of words, and he just sat there stupefied as Kayano stood up and walked towards the vending machine. She tossed in a few coins, pressed a few buttons and then pulled out a tetra pack of strawberry milk. She walked back to the bench with the usual carefree smile on her face and poked the plastic straw into the cardboard.

She sat back down onto the bench and sipped away at the milk in her hands while her companion was left to his thoughts and devices.

Alright…take a deep breath and calm down, me… Nagisa thought to himself as he tried to gather himself back together and get back under control. …what just happened?

To him, it seemed as if Kayano had gone from happy-go-lucky to telenovela maiden with the press of an invisible button.

And he'd been turned into a pile of jelly after a few seconds of exposure. His thoughts had run dry and shriveled up, and his heart had taken off at the speed of Road Runner.

And yet…

And yet he felt something within him as the image and the sensations of those few moments that had happened mere seconds ago reminded him of what he'd felt at the time.

A sense of eagerness. Excitement.

Satisfaction?

And when she'd flicked the switch off…some sort of disappointment?

"…I'm gonna head back into my room, Kayano." Nagisa said, standing up. He turned to face her again, smiling as he waved his hand once. "Night."

"Oh, wait." The green-haired girl stood up as well, and she held out the carton in her hand. Nagisa glanced at it, mystified, as Kayano flashed a grin. "Try this! They saw strawberry milk is great after a bath, and the people don't lie!"

"…sure." Nagisa reached out and took the carton from her hand, and he bit down on the straw and took a sip from the drink. True to Kayano's word, the fruity dairy product's sweetness sent pleasant shivers down Nagisa's body. He let out a slight sigh of contentment. "Hey, you're right! This does-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Kayano immediately swiped the box out of his hands and bit down onto the straw. "Right?"

He felt a minor heat wave strike his face when he saw Kayano's mouth bite down on the straw he had just drank from, and he shook his head to clear his mind. What are you doing, getting flustered over a little straw?!

He turned around and walked back down the hallway, and he waved back at Kayano as he did. "Thanks, Kayano. See you tomorrow."

"Sure thing!" She replied energetically, waving her hand goodbye before she turned around and began to walk away.

And as she did, Nagisa felt a wave of impulse hit him in the chest. Like something was giving him a push.

"…I voted for you."

Kayano stopped right where she was standing at those words. But when she turned around, he'd already walked past the corner.

"…you cheater." She muttered, a very slight blush on her cheeks and a very faint smile on her lips as she turned back and walked back to her room. "I was supposed to be the one teasing you. Not the other way around."

By the way, I forgot to mention. If you guys like this chapter, be sure to tell me in the reviews if you want more oneshots of Nagisa x Kayano. I'll be adding them in here as other chapters.