Friendship 101

Prologue: The Introduction

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Disclaimer: I do not own Assassination Classroom. If I did, Nagisa would have grown taller.

"Stop fidgeting." He whispers.

"B-But!" She protests.

"Manami." He urges.

"I-I... F-Fine..." She relents.

"Good. Now, we'll do fine." He encourages.

"If you say so, Itona-kun." She smiles.

With a nod of his head to her, Itona and Manami waited patiently as Karma and Nagisa finished their presentation of the phosphorus element. The pair had finished off with Karma cracking a joke about Nagisa's gender and the whole class chuckled. As the two began to walk back to their seats, Karma and Rio fist bumped and they laughed as Nagisa scowled at them.

The blue haired boy sat in his usual seat by Kaede, who put a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled. Nagisa returned the smile, his demeanor turning lighter. Karma snickered and made his way back to his seat.

Along the way, he paused at Manami's desk and smiled.

"Good luck." He whispered tenderly. Manami nodded her head and Karma continued to his desk.

"Now then... Would the last group please step forward and present their element they have chosen?" Koro-sensei spoke with a grin (as if he had a choice otherwise). Itona stood up first from behind Manami and helped the petite girl gather their papers. Together, they made their way to the front of the classroom and prepared themselves.

The two spared each other a glance. While Itona was calm and collected, Manami was still fidgeting. Her feet shuffled and her fingers twirled together. Ever so subtle, Itona stepped closer to his partner and brushed his fingers with hers. Immediately, Manami felt herself relax a bit. Managing a smile, the two looked ahead of the classroom.

The only person who could have spotted their fingers brush would be Koro-sensei and the students with high awareness.

Koro-sensei's smile seemed to have grown even bigger.

Clearing her throat, Manami started. "We are Itona-kun..."

"And Manami." Itona finished. Majority of the class ooh'd at the familiarness of them using each other's first names. "We decided to choose an element not found in the periodic table." Continued the white haired boy. "It is an element that is created and not founded, formed and intangible."

"Instead of gases and metals, Itona-kun and I spent our time researching this element. The only test subjects we could use was each other." Manami's voice pitched a little at the end in nervousness but Itona grinned.

"Nice job not stuttering." Commented the younger, blunt boy. The blush on Manami's face made Itona's grin grow even wider and the chemist just knew her partner was taking advantage of being in the front of the classroom.

"I-Itona-kun! Please!" She whispered in a hush voice. "Not now!" Itona waved her comment off.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways," Itona began again, "the element we have chosen for this project was..." He paused, trying to fight off the sudden blush that was fighting its way up to his cheeks as he said the word. "F-Friendship." Rio, Touka, and Hiroto chuckled at Itona's bashful demeanor, all of them knowing it was due to Manami's influence. And seeing how her partner couldn't continue, Manami finished for them.

"It's an element not founded on the periodic table but very necessary for people to be able to show and express their feelings. It's an element that doesn't have a number or any real solutions. It doesn't have a label and not easily simplified. But..." The raven haired girl looked at Itona for a moment. Said boy caught her stare and his blush deepened once Manami smiled.

"It's a very important, natural way of life."

Coughing, the short boy straightened up and tried to ignore his classmates quiet laughter. Ryouma was the loudest and Itona found himself wishing that the larger boy would step on a nail. He also did his best to ignore the confused and displeased stare Karma was sending him. "While spending time together, me and Manami found that there are several important factors to creating friendship."

"And this is our story." They said, together.

(A/N: Hey hey. I haven't posted anything in a while on this site, or anywhere else, so please don't mind me much. I'm really rusty. For pairings, I don't necessarily have a end game for this story, or a plot HAHA, but I do ship karumana and itonami like FedEx. We shall see.

Sorry Shugo Chara! fans! I still haven't forgotten ya'll.)