Thank you for all the reviews! I'm glad so many of you enjoyed the story :) This update took months but I hope you enjoy it!

"Thank you for your hospitality, Akabane. I have to say, I'm slightly surprised there was no wasabi in my drink." Gakushuu said a cold tone of formality in his voice. He stood up suddenly from the table they were sat at. "I suppose I'll see you around- "

And with that he turned to leave. Karma was up like a bolt, grabbing Asano's wrist and pulling him back.

"You aren't going off by yourself in that condition." The red head commanded. Seriously? What was up with the world? Wasn't Asano supposed to be the sensible honours student and Karma the irresponsible delinquent? So why am I the one stopping him from getting into trouble?

"I'm fine." Asano bit back, his amethyst eyes flashing with anger at the mere insinuation that he wasn't invincible and strong.

"You almost died." Karma stated, he rolled his eyes and dragged Asano over to the sofa and pushing him down onto it, forcing him to sit.

"Get off!" Asano hissed, but he clearly didn't have the energy to put up much of a fight. His normally strong self was depleted of power after nearly overdosing and drowning. His struggles felt weak in Karma's grip. Karma didn't like it. It made him realise how fragile Asano was at the moment, as much as he would like to deny it.

"Those pills have really messed you up." Karma stated, pulling Asano back down into a sitting position on the sofa as he tried to stand up, for emphasis. He expected Gakushuu to snap back, but instead he glared at the floor, his cheeks burning red in shame. "So you want to carry on taking them even though they leave you like this."

"Like I said I just need to cut down- " Asano started to say, but was suddenly cut off when Karma practically threw him down so Asano was lying on his stomach, face pressed into the cushions of the couch. Karma felt a flare of anger as the other took his life so lightly. How could he be such an idiot? It pissed Karma off.

"Look at yourself." Karma growled, placing a knee on Asano's back and pressing just hard enough to keep him down. Gakushuu let out a grunt of frustration, and swung for him, but Karma caught his wrist easily.

"You're so weak. I could do anything I want with you- "

"I am not weak!" Asano growled, but after the events of today, just fighting against Karma increased his exhaustion ten-fold. His muscles ached, and his eyes itched with tiredness, it was a struggle just to keep them open.

"Oh really? Then why can I throw you around like a rag-doll? How stupid are you to even think about risking your life again?" Karma scoffed, still fuelled by feelings of anger. He was about to continue his tirade, but then he realised that Asano had stopped struggling under him, and his breathing had slowed.

No way.

Karma slowly climbed off Asano, and glanced down at him.

"Asano?" He said aloud. No response. But Karma could hear him breathing. Asano had actually fallen asleep. Karma felt his anger dissipate at the pure craziness of the situation at hand. He supposed it made sense considering Asano had taken a large dose of pills and hadn't slept in a while.. but still. To fall asleep in the middle of a fight?

Karma glanced at the other, his face finally looking relaxed and at peace in slumber, his dark eyelashes dusting his cheeks. When he was like that it was easy to forget how ruthless Asano could be. Karma would never admit it out loud, but Asano's self-destructive streak reminded him of himself, before the Assassination classroom. Back when he threw himself off a cliff to kill Korosensei. Karma pulled a blanket off another sofa and threw it over Asano. Seriously. He was going to tease Asano relentlessly for this tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

After tonight, what would he do? How would he alone help Asano? Was he even capable?

Right on que, he heard a tapping at the window. Already fairly certain who it was, Karma walked over and opened it.

"Yo, Sensei." He said, no longer surprised at the sight of his yellow octopus teacher hanging around outside.

"Karma! I had a sudden feeling that you may be looking for advice." Korosensei said. His ability to somehow discern whenever one of his students were in need was uncanny. Karma still didn't fully understand it.

"I guess you could say that- " Karma said, glancing behind at Asano passed out on the couch, before looking back at his teacher. He had no doubt that Korosensei had more or less worked the situation out for himself. "I want to help someone but.. I'm not sure I don't know if I can do it."

Karma felt the heat rise to his cheeks as he spoke. Because after all, 'helping people' was not something that a hard-hearted delinquent like Karma was known for. Admitting it made him feel strangely shy. But luckily, for once, Korosensei didn't tease him for blushing.

"Karma, you've found yourself in a difficult situation. Nobody would blame you for looking to outside help." Korosensei said, with that calm tone of his. "However, if you want to try help him yourself, I'll support you."

Karma gave his teacher a small smile. He didn't say 'thank you' out loud, but they both knew he was thinking it.

Everything hurt. Asano's limbs ached, he felt like he'd been kicked in the ribs, his throat felt dry and scratchy and he head a throbbing head ache. Asano had, of course, never experienced a hangover before, but he would imagine it would feel something like this. Slowly Asano sat up and looked around, his head spinning, then realised with a jolt of shock that this wasn't his room, and he had no idea were he was.

It appeared to be somebody's living room. It was very finely furnished with two long cream sofas, and plush red carpet. Out the window, he could see a few weak rays of light, and the sun hanging low in the sky; It must be very early morning since it was still half dark. Just what the hell had happened last night? He remembered a meeting with his father at the school, but after that it was all just blank.

Carefully, he pulled himself off the sofa and felt another stab of pain in his ribs. Tentatively, he lifted the shirt he was wearing (which he was fairly certain wasn't his own), and peered down. It was as he had feared; His rib cage was marred with ugly black and purple bruising all down the side. Almost like he'd smacked into something. But what?

"So sleeping beauty finally awakens." A familiar voice said, and Gakushuu turned to see Karma Akabane standing in the doorway to the room, a smirk on his face. "I was starting to think that you'd slipped into a coma."

"Akabane! What are you doing here?" Gakushuu asked, his eyes darting around the room. Karma raised an eyebrow.

"Well this is my house." Karma said, looking slightly amused as he looked Gakushuu up and down, taking in his appearance. "You're being rather rude to your host; especially after how nice I was to you yesterday after your accident."

"Accident..?" Gakushuu questioned, when suddenly fragments of memories came rushing back to him; Falling off the bridge, Akabane pulling him out the water, telling Akabane about his 'medication'. He felt mortified. What had he done? How could he have shown such a weak side of himself to someone he considered a rival.. Akabane could easily take advantage and blackmail him now. But what was even more terrifying was the realisation that he had almost killed himself. If Akabane hadn't been there, that little mistake might of cost him his life.

"Hello? Did you get brain damage?" Karma said, waving his hand in front of Asano's face. It took Gakushuu a moment to work out that he'd been staring into space. He swallowed, pushing those difficult thoughts to the back of his mind.

"Where is my stuff?" Asano asked, acting as if everything was normal and nothing crazy had happened. "I need to get home before 10 am I have somewhere I need to be."

"Hmm? Well it's a little late for that." Karma said, pulling out his phone to show the time. "It's nearly 4pm."

"What!?" Gakushuu gasped- How the hell had he slept for so long? It had been more than twelve hours! Rationally, he knew that taking a hand full of sleeping pills when you were already exhausted and sleep-deprived is probably what lead him to that consequence. "I need to go home- I need to apologise for missing that meeting- "

He headed towards the door, only to be struck by another wave of dizziness. He felt Karma place a hand on his shoulder.

"Go drink some water and have a shower first. In case you forgot, you haven't had anything to drink in fifteen hours, and you stink of the river." He said. It wasn't a request, it was a command.

Gakushuu despised being told what to do, but even he couldn't argue with Karma's logic, infuriating as it was. "Fine- where's the bathroom?"

"My phone is broken." Gakushuu said mournfully as he plucked the device out of his pile of still-wet clothes, after showering and changing into another set of Karma's clothes.. He kept pressing the on-button but the screen remained blank.

"That tends to happen when you submerge it in water." Karma said snidely, as he pulled on his shoes.

"Shut up, Akabane." Gakushuu retorted, although his voice was lacking it's usual venom. He put his stuff in a plastic bag and walked towards the door. Karma followed.

"Let's go then."

"I can walk myself home, you know, I'm not a complete invalid." Asano snarled. Karma just chuckled, still following him.

"You remember our deal, right? I won't tell anyone about this so long as you stop taking pills. So we're going to go to your room and throw them out!" Karma said gleefully. Damn. Asano thought. He looks as though he enjoys having the upper hand.

"Why are you even doing this, Akabane. What do you care if something happens to me?" Gakushuu said. After all, the two of them had hardly spoke to one another. They had never been in the same class together, and there always seemed to be a mild sense of animosity between them.

That question caught Karma off guard. 'Because I don't want you to be hurt.' 'Because I know how it feels to be in a desperate situation.' 'Because if I save you, maybe I can save myself.'

All these thoughts sprung to Karma's head, but he squashed them down. Because the delinquent Karma Akaben wouldn't admit to something like that- instead he just smirked and said.

"Well, since for some reason you're insanely popular, if anything were to happen to you, the whole school would probably go into mourning, and it would be all anyone would talk about. It would be super annoying." Karma said with a lazy shrug. He expected Asano to snap at him again, but instead he just burst out laughing. Apparently the guy had a pretty dark sense of humour.

Well, that was unexpected. It was a nice sound, Karma couldn't help but wish he'd get to here it more often.

"You might be right on the mark there, Akabane." Asano said, a sardonic grin on his face.

"You act all prim and proper but you're actually pretty twisted, aren't you?" Karma teased. Asano didn't have a response to that, so he just walked ahead.

Pretty soon they reached Asano's house. It was big. Even bigger than Karma's house and that was saying something. It was a large white building with solar panels across the roof, and a fancy looking car outside. But the atmosphere around it was cold somehow, and the air seemed stagnated and thick with tension.

Asano walked up to the front door, putting his key in and opening it, Karma followed. Before they even had a chance to take off their shoes, a figure suddenly darted forwards and grabbed Asano by the shoulders.

It was the Chairman. He didn't look like his usual composed self, quite the opposite, in fact. His normally perfectly styled hair was disheveled and falling into his face. His parlour was even paler than usual, and his violet eyes looked on the brink of madness.

"Where the hell have you been!?"

Thats the end of the chapter! Sorry if the characters seem OOC, but I'm writing them in a situation they wouldn't normally be in, so their reactions may be different from usual. Plus Gakushuu is still effected by the pills he's been taking.

Hope you enjoyed reading it, anyhow! Please review if you want me to write more. Let me know if you have any ideas!

There has been about a fifty/fifty divide between people who want it to be friendship, and others who want romance, but I have decided to just write whatever feels natural to me, so there may be romance if I can make it work well with the story.