New Perspective (Karsen)

Karma slipped out of the broom closet, Ethon's white button up shirt hanging loosly off her slender form. She felt a certain extent of chagrin, noting that the Entrance Hall was currently empty. She headed for the steps to the dungeons, knowing that getting caught by Arsen or Alucard while wearing a strangers shirt was probably not the best option. She wondered if classes had started yet, or if it was the lull that happened between breakfast and everyone getting changed into regular clothes. She hoped for the latter, knowing that it would be better to change without everyone there.

What would she tell Arsen and Ali?

Well, now that she was under the Power of the Name, it was almost pointless to even try to express what she'd found out about Ethon.... Djinn. How he believed she belonged to him.

Stupid Fire Demons, claiming everyone before they even got a chance to even...

Then she came face to face with one of the people she'd been avoiding.

He'd gone after Karma as soon as she left the great hall. Only when he left she just seemed to disappear and he couldn't find her anywhere. After a while he decided his best bets were to go wait at the bottom of the stairs to the dungeons. She had to go back there some point to grab her books.

He stood with one foot resting against the wall with his arms folded waiting for her. After what felt like hours passed he kicked himself of the wall with his foot and stood at the bottom of the stairs. "Where the hell you been?" He asked looking at her as she descended the stairs. "And whose shirt is that?!" He spat moving his hands to his sides where he clenched them into fists.

Why did she suddenly feel guilty?

Karma raised an eyebrow at him. "I was dealing with a problem." She said, sliding to a stop and debating what she could and could not say. "Ethon." She shrugged. "He is no longer an issue."

She looked down the hallway toward the dungeons, contemplating running. She had to get her books, and she had to change into something that didn't reek of her ex boyfriend.....

"Anyway. What are you doing here?"

He frowned. "Oh a problem that stinks of fire and you just happen to be wearing his shirt? Why is that Karma? What im not good enough anymore? Thought you'd go off with some human? Was it Rhys?" He asked his hand slowly turning to flames.

"Who is? I'll kill him!" He spat through clenched teeth. She was his and his alone. No one touched her but him.

"Arsen." She tried. She stepped closer to him, her eyes pleading. "I'm sorry that I like guys who play with fire, okay?" She took his wrist before intertwining their fingers, making sure they were touching so the fire didn't burn her. "I'm your's."

She gestured to Ethon's shirt. "I was cold." She shrugged. "We walked around the grounds and it got chilly, and we talked, and he offered me his shirt, then he left."

She let the human thing slide, knowing that saying that he wasn't human wouldn't get her anywhere. "Arsen. You know you're more important than any human, don't you?" She asked softly, stepping even closer. "Don't you?" She looked up into his eyes, hoping that she was getting through to him.

He looked at her with narrowed eyes. Why was it he couldn't bring himself to believe her? "I want to believe you but theres a part of me screaming to see the truth. Its like theres something im missing but i don't know what." He confessed looking at the shirt. He definitely didn't recognise it. "Who did you say you were with again?" He asked.

"If he liked fire so much why didn't he just make one?" He said simply so he didn't have to think about what they could have done together. He closed his eyes and shoved the memories out of his head. He couldn't remember that now. He couldn't remember that ever.

"Don't." He said shrugging her off so he could think. "I wanna meet him." He decided. If he wasn't that important and nothing was going on, then she wouldn't mind them meeting.

Karma tried to mask the hurt she felt when he pushed her away, but she didn't quite catch it fast enough. "Ethon. The guy who had Djinn attack Aria? That guy." She growled. "He's lucky I let him leave alive."

"Not just anyone can just pull fire out of nowhere, you know." She said softly. "You're the only person I've met that can do that." She looked at the ground, kicking it with the toe of her boot. "Its okay if you don't believe me. No one else ever does either." Her eyes turned sad as she realised something, actually accepted it. "I'm just the slut who grew up without any love." she said with a self-mocking smile. She wrapped her arms around her middle, turning away from him. "It's good to know absolutely everyone thinks that."

She gave a harsh little laugh. "You want to meet one of the guys I just pushed out of my life for you?" She asked, refusing to look at him. "The whole reason was so I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore!" She bit her lip and looked at the ground again. "You can meet him if you want." She said. "You can go around and meet all my old pets, just don't expect me to be there."

"Ethon? He's still bothering you?" He asked grinding his teeth. He still owed that kid a kicking in for hurting both Karma and Aria. No one hurt his girls and got away with it.

He looked at her. "Well most pyros carry a match or at least learn how to cast fires. What kind of person that likes fire doesn't know how to make one? The guy must be stupider than he sounds." He muttered out loud. It did seem strange. "Don't play that shit on me Karma. I know more than anyone about no one believing you." He said before taking in her eyes. Shit she was either a really good actor or she was genuine. "I..." He paused not being able to say those words she needed to hear. Saying them made then real and that was a path he couldn't go down, not without being hurt or made a fool of.

"Thats not true. You're not unloved okay?" He said, that right then was all he could bring himself to say. He growled moving back to lean against the wall. "You never make things easy do you?" He said in defeat. He didn't care anymore. If he caught her with anyone, then they'd both probably end up dead.

"Are you even listening to me? He's not a problem anymore. I dealt with it. He's gone. Poof. Over. Okay?" Karma said, starting to get annoyed. "And really? A match? A match is going to keep me warm? Are you even listening to yourself?" She was angry now, hurt. "Just... Whatever." She started walking toward the Common Room.

"If I made things any easier, I'd... I'd..." She swung around to face him, irrationally angry and hurt, though to tell the truth, Arsen should have been the one feeling that way. It only made her angrier. The fact that she was lying, that she HAD to lie, because of the Power of Names... It made her positively mad. "I'd be..." She swung back around and continued walking fuming. Suddenly, she turned and punched the wall, hard enough that she could feel her hand, knuckles, and wrist crack. There was blood on her fist, but she couldn't figure out why. The stone showed signs of stress, tiny cracks going from where she'd hit the stone.

The pain was like waking up, and she gasped, cradling her right hand. She saw it as it was. She was a terrible person, she was lying to the most important person in her life, and it was all because she was stupid enough to be nice to a boy at the Christmas Ball. That was it. She was a whore, she was a slut, she was a terrible person, and she should just...

She punched the wall again with the same fist, hurting it so much she actually let out something that could have been classified as a whimper if it had been louder.

"I do nothing but listen to you!" He spat beginning to pace the small corridor. "What do you want from me? You want me to stand by as your pets get to walk all over me?" He asked through gritted teeth. "How should i know? I've forgotten what its like to be human! I have no idea what temperatures would warm you up cause i cant feel the cold. So forgive me if i dont know what it takes to be human." He said walking up the stairs in the opposite direction to her.

"You'd what? Stutter at me?" He asked stopping on his step. "The world doesn't revolve around you. Not all guys are cuing up to be with you, you know." He spat making his way up the rest of the stairs when he clearly heard the crack of her hitting the wall.

He sighed, clearly hearing the crack of her bone. "That wasn't clever was it?" He asked moving back down the stairs towards her.

"They walk all over YOU?!" She demanded. "YOU?!" She yelled. "I've gotten RID of all of them for you! So THIS!" She gestured to both of them. "Wouldn't have to happen!" She cradled her broken hand, moving the bones with her other hand so they healed right. "And I'm only HALF human! So are YOU!" She grumbled something about people assuming she was mostly human, but it was hard to make out.

She snorted. "Trust me, if guys weren't lining up to be with me, we wouldn't be having this problem." She muttered.

She ignored his last comment, deigning instead to move the bones again, even though the pain of it made her hiss. She could hear him getting closer, and turned her back on him, ducking her head so he couldn't see her face. "Why are you coming back?" She asked in a small voice.

"Yes ME! Did you ever think about how i look whilst your off chasing other guys? No of course you didn't!" He spat punching the wall himself, leaving a burnt crater in the stone. He left his hand to heal quickly by his side. "Just stop and think for once will you? For you names sake!"

"My humanity is growing smaller and smaller by the day! Im not even half the human i should be." He growled digging his fingers into his palm. It was the only thing he could do right now to stop himself from setting the whole school on fire.

"Oh so all guys are cuing up are they? Well maybe one of them can take your crap! See if they like being messed around cause i wont be made to look like an idiot again!" He said.

"Because Karma, believe it or not i can't help but care for you. I don't know why. All this caring stuff is new to me."

Karma sighed, deciding then and there that somehow she would find a way to help Arsen's humanity. She'd stopped messing around, hadn't she? She'd dropped all her pets, hadn't she? She was only with Ethon because she had no choice. She was Arsen's.

Arsen's.

She decided that she would rather be fighting a thousand Headmasters at hand to hand combat then fight with him verbally anymore, so she stayed silent.

With a sigh and a half grin she looked up at him, trying to ignore the bubblily feeling rising in her stomach. He cared about her. All arguements aside, she hugged him, not caring that he was a bit too warm to be comfortable, and knowing for a fact that if he got much madder she could find herself coming to a very hot, very agonizing end.

"Fine." She said, finally. "You win. Happy?" She asked, tightening her hold around his middle. She just... "I don't want to fight you anymore." She said softly. "Okay?"

He looked on in shock as she wrapped her arms around him. He had seconds to turn his temperature down low enough to not burn her. "Woah!" He said his arms still frozen mid air from the shock. Slowly he began to register what she was doing and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her against his chest.

"You mood swings are giving me whiplash!" He said placing his hand against her neck so he could send down a heat to her broken hand to fix it. "And no more punching walls or hurting yourself okay?"

Karma offered a small smile at his statement. "This is new to me too, Fire-boy." She said with a sigh. "I'm allowed to have random mood swings when I'm out of my comfort zone. I can be completely straight faced while killing you, if you want."

She smirked. "I have to promise not to hurt myself?" she asked. "I won't punch walls anymore...." She gave a pointed look to the burnt crater his fist had left. "But I give no promises about pain." She flexed her hand, grinning as it didn't hurt at all. It would seem that his healing worked faster than hers. Bastard.

She raised to her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm leaving now, Hothead. Don't miss me too much. I'll see you in classes." With that, she pulled out of his arms, more reluctantly than she would have liked, and walked to the Common Room.

He smirked. "I'd like to see you try." He said kissing her on the forehead. "Im not so easily gotten rid of."

"You sadist Karma?" He smirked. "Its kinda weird to like pain you know. Its definitely not classed as normal."He laugh taking hold of her hand to make sure it had healed properly. "Perfect." He muttering looking back into her eyes.

He laughed. "I'll try not too half fang." He said giving her a wink and heading in the opposite direction. He needed a quick run before class. Otherwise he'd never be able to sit still for the full lessons.