The Girl Who Loved A Beautiful Devil ~Karma AkabaneXReader~

Chapter 11

 I awoke to find myself in Karma's bed in his dark room; I blinked my eyes a few times, allowing them to adjust to the darkness of my surrounding before glancing to the plain clock that hung on the opposite wall.

I had to squint my eyes a little to be able to make out the time in the dim lighting; it was a quarter past two in the morning. I breathed out a silent sigh, casting my head down and blood instantly flooded to my cheeks as I remembered that I was wearing one of Karma's shirt- which was a bit long for me; it reached past my thighs- and a pair of his boxers. And what made it worse was that I could smell his scent faintly on them.

I immediately shook my head, ridding myself of those embarrassing thoughts before shifting my focus onto the empty space beside me on the bed. The last thing I remembered before I fell asleep due to sheer exhaustion was Karma's arms around me and his lips pressing a soft kiss on my forehead. So it would've been only natural for me to assume that we fell asleep together, but if that was true, then where was he?

"Karma-kun?" I called aloud, my voice slightly groggy. My eyes darted around the room, searching for the redhead until they landed on his familiar slim silhouette sitting at the window-seat by the opened window.

"Karma-kun." I breathed, vaguely relieved. I quietly got out of the bed and made my way towards him even though no one else was in the entire house besides us. The cool night breeze caressed my face as I grew nearer to Karma and the window, causing goosebumps to form on my skin. "What are you doing awake at this hour?" I inquired, stopping in my tracks once I was in front of him.

He slowly turned his gaze away from the opened window and faced me. He cocked an eyebrow and replied, "You're one to talk. What are you doing awake?"

The blush from earlier returned to my cheeks and I absentmindedly fiddled with my fingers as I reluctantly and embarrassedly mumbled, "Well... I... I just couldn't sleep, I guess..."

"Mhmm." Karma hummed with a blank countenance and turned his attention back to the window. I let out a sigh and took a seat next to him, my eyes never leaving him for even a second. "Karma-kun, is something wrong? You can tell me, you know, I'd actually be really glad if you did." I said and bit down on my bottom lip. "I need to know what you're thinking."

Karma's beautiful mercury orbs darted to me, taking in the sight of me waiting hopefully for his answer. He shut his eyes, crossed his arms and leaned his back against the wall by the window-seat. "Alright."

Even though he couldn't see it, I couldn't help but crack a small smile in response. "Thank you. So what's troubling you?"

"I..." he began, hesitant as though he regretted agreeing to tell me, which he probably was. "I just had a bad dream."

"A bad dream?" I repeated, fairly surprised that someone as tough as Karma would be troubled by a mere nightmare. "What did you dream about?"

"I was alone, like I was the last person in the whole world... or rather everyone else had left me. Then I began screaming, and screaming, screamed until my voice was hoarse... and I have no idea why but I always wake up after that last cry, like it was a trigger or some sort." He murmured and I hung on to his every word, registering them and analyzing them like a science experiment. A question then occurred to me a few seconds after he'd stopped speaking.

"Always?" I asked, remembering that little detail that he might've accidentally spilled. "How often do you have that dream?"

Karma's eyes shot open, revealing those mercury-hued-eyes as they focused on me. His face remained impassive except for a tiny, single twitch of his eye that anyone else would've missed; he was unraveling. "Have I told you how sexy you look in my clothes, (L/ N)-" he attempted to obviously change the subject but I cut him off before he could even finish his sentence.

"Tell me, Karma-kun." I said, my voice a bit throaty but firm.

He stared at me and I stared back. He finally gave in with a sigh after several moments and ran a hand through his vaguely messy crimson locks which looked more maroon under the faint beams of the moon. "I had it ever since I could remember."

"Karma-kun..." I trailed off; I'd be lying if I said that I didn't even feel a slight sense of sympathy for him... and I hated it, because I knew that he'd hate it; sympathy wasn't something that someone would enjoy receiving from others, it was a sign of how weak you actually were to the point where people feel the need to pity you.

His gaze had left me and returned back at the onyx sky outside. It was at that moment that I was struck by an epiphany. "Karma-kun," I started, watching him as closely as I possibly could. "Did you... ask me to stay over because you wanted me to see... all of this?"

A weak smile tugged on his lips as he said, "Yea, you were... kind of frustrated with figuring out my diagnosis, so I thought that it'd be good for you to know about this... and as confident and arrogant as I might seem, (L/ N)-san, I'm not always like that, and I couldn't tell you about this directly..."

"So you showed me." I finished for him; he wanted me to experience it firsthand and to be honest, it was probably the first time that I'd ever seen him so vulnerable, it was progress and I should've been happy... but I wasn't. "Karma-kun, thank you for your cooperation, but I need you to answer me this one question honestly."

"What is it?"

"Do you feel lonely, Karma-kun?" I asked and right after the question had left my lips, he immediately averted eye contact from me; the small smile on his face gone completely. I'd struck a nerve; he was nervous- scared, even- because I was right, but I knew that he wouldn't admit it if I didn't give him a push. So I shifted closer to him and gently cupped his face in my hands.

"Look at me, please," I murmured to him. "And answer me, I'm trying to help you."

There was an unnerving pause and I was tempted to pull all my hair out from the overbearing anxiety that I felt. But just as I was about to give in and pull away, Karma's mercury-hued-eyes met mine; they burned with the same vibrancy that I'd seen when we first met and it made me feel a sweet sense of nostalgia and a bit proud of how much we'd accomplished since then.

"Yes," he answered and I could feel his warm breath hit my lips which were only inches apart. "And I swear that you're going to be the death of me, (F/ N)." he said and kissed my cold lips.

I melted into the kiss, into his soothing warmth and his gentle strength; that was the first time that he'd addressed me by my first name and without any honorifics even. But...I liked it; I liked how my name just rolled off his tongue and how he seemed to say it as though it was a secret sweeter than the sea or sky could whisper.

We broke apart after a few moments and I smiled. "Not if I can help it."

Karma stared at me with the most affectionate look in his eyes that I'd ever seen on any male and it made my heart flutter within my chest. "Karma-kun," I said, giving him a reassuring smile. "I think I know what's wrong with you."

He raised an eyebrow, surprise crossing his attractive features.

"You're not crazy," I started. "You're not psychotic, you're merely just broken. You're lost and lonely because you've never been given the amount of love and care that you truly deserve. And you hide that pain of yours behind this violent façade which you're slowly beginning to believe that that's how you really are when it's not. You're not bad, Karma-kun, you're just misunderstood and-"

I stopped talking when Karma pulled me into an abrupt embrace, burying his face into the crook of my neck and I wasn't sure if I imagined it or not, but I felt something warm and wet slide down the base of my neck, soaking the collar of Karma's shirt which I wore. "Please," he mumbled, his voice vaguely muffled. "Please stop talking."

I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him and I felt his hold on me tightened. "Okay," I whispered, setting my voice low enough for only Karma to hear. "But let me say this, I promise that I will love you the way that you deserved to be loved, Akabane Karma, and I'll always stay by you no matter what happens."

A peaceful silence filled the air and I wasn't sure if it was a hallucination or a blur in my memory, but I thought I heard Karma murmur the faintest 'thank you', and whether it really happened or not, it made me smile nonetheless.