Gravity

Karma stood at the ledge of Astronomy tower gazing out over the forbidden forest and all she could see from there. The night air was cool against her skin, the pajamas she wore were her usual - bright green girl shorts and a fitted black tank top - and the cool wind flit through her hair as she stood there. It was a lot like standing at the end of the world. Fastening a belt that glistened with different colored gemstones loosely on her hips, the young Slytherin took a deep breath.

Then she was falling forward stretching her arms in a swan dive as she fell.

With a wicked grin, she turned in midair, kicking at the stone of the tower, she switched directions, flying upward faster than should be possible. Spreading her arms as she flew, she grinned, the air filling with laughter as she moved upward, her silhouette a shadow on the moon before she tilted herself backward, drifting slowly toward the Astronomy tower - and solid ground - once more.

She didn't notice the figure standing there until her feet gently lighted on the ground.

Mars began a slow clap as Karma regained the tower. "Impressive," he drawled. He walked closer to where she was standing to gaze over the edge, down and up. "Looks fun."

Sitting on the ledge, he leaned back on his hands, gaze moving over the night enshrouded forest. He drew in a deep breath through his nose, but didn't smell anything interesting enough to go investigate.

"Thanks." Beaming, the girl looked down at the belt, it's many gems glistening in the moonlight. "Designed it myself." Glancing back up at the boy, she rose to her tiptoes in an unconscious effort to be taller than him, before giving up and rolling back to her heels. "Wanna try?" Her hands went to the clasp of her belt, fingers hesitating on the seatbelt-like buckle. "Promise you'll only die if you're stupid."

Settling on the ledge beside him, she followed his gaze out into the forest, swinging her feet slightly. "Whatcha thinkin'?" She asked curiously, cocking her head to the side and looking over at him.

"Cool," Mars said. He noticed the way she rose up o her toes and laughed.

"You're short," he said. "A lot of girls are. This can be an advantage. Idiots tend to underestimate short people."

"I'm thinking school is a boring place to be stuck. Most of last year I didn't have any tutors anymore and I wasn't attending school anywhere, so I just did what I wanted. Much more interesting. Less waste of time." He rose to his feet again and looked at her.

"Let's try that belt of yours," he said.

Mouth flattening into a displeased line, the girl found herself pouting up at him. "I'm not short you're all just-" She blinked, gazing up at him in almost confusion before she was grinning. "Never thought of it that way."

"The only thing school has taught me that I couldn't have learned myself is how to find entertainment where there isn't any." She gestured to the belt still hooked around her hips, and shrugged. "And to adapt, I suppose."

Tilting her head back to look at him as he stood, her gaze unreadable as she unbuckled the belt and held it between her hands. "Okay." She smiled at him again, the motion of her lips unintentional. "Just... fall and when you're close enough to the ground, push up off the stones of the tower." She nodded, tilting her head to lean over the edge and peer down at the ground.

"Oh, and as for the gems, make sure you don't lose the red or onyx ones. You'll die." Stepping toward him, she wrapped her arms around his middle, pulling the belt and her hands back around to his front and clicking the clasp. Tightening it until it was secure, she tapped a ruby, cocking her head to the side as she ran her fingers across the leather of the belt.

"I think you're ready." Stepping away, she waved toward the ledge, gaze flickering back up to his for the first time since she decided to let him wear the belt. "Try not to die, eh? It would be messy."

"Simple enough," said Mars. He stood still while she put the belt on him. He gave a nod at her instructions, before giving her his signature devil-may-care grin.

"That would be, wouldn't it?" he said. "I'll try not to." Then he jumped, falling through the air. He laughed at the rapidly approaching ground, thrilled by the rush and the possibility that he wouldn't come out of the stunt alive.

Pulling his shoulders back, he rotated and kicked against the side of the tower. His direction changed and he was flying instead of falling. Making it back to the Astronomy tower floor, he grinned again.

"Awesome thrill," he said. "Pretty cool little belt you made."

Leaning over the edge to watch his decent, Karma found herself biting her lower lip in worry. What if he did die? She'd have to construct a whole new belt, or at least wash his blood off of this one, and who knew if it would work as well with his weirdo blood all over it? All her worries vanished as he changed direction, her design being flawless as always, even as she moved away to watch him shoot upward. As he regained his footing, she grinned brightly, smiling.

"Its only a prototype." She noted airily, shrugging. Her grin widened at his praise. No one else had ever even made a comment about her inventions, short of Arsen, but Hothead had destroyed the last one she'd showed him. "Thanks." She said sincerily. She eyed him for a moment, before smiling again. "I can make you one, if you want."

"No problem. Good piece of work," Mars responded. He took the belt off and handed it back to her. "You make a lot of stuff like this, then? Pretty cool. Talented and sexy. Double win."

He gave a devil-may-care grin at her offer. "Thanks, but actually, I was thinking of taking the jump without the belt." Then he stepped away from her, still smirking, right into thin air.

"It's a hobby." She said, pretending not to glow at his praise. "Don't you know, Pluto?" She teased, rolling her eyes as she took the belt from him. "I'm all win."

She raised an eyebrow, a gift he didn't want? Fine then. He had stepped before she could react, but she was faster than him, and they had been standing close enough together that grabbing his hand before he was out of reach was child's play.

It was a split second, the expression change from instinctively worried to contemplating as she gazed at the boy. In all of the five seconds since she'd grabbed him she came to a decision.

Shrugging a shoulder, she let him go.

Mars almost laughed when she grabbed his hand. She let go again though and he was able to fall, speeding towards the ground unhindered. He grinned the whole way.

A quarter of the way from the ground, he stuck a hand out to dig thick claws into the tower side. His other hand joined the first, then both feet. He finally slowed to a stop a few feet from the ground.

Making the climb back up in several powerful leaps, he perched on the edge. He frowned down at his sneakers. The toes had been ripped by his claws and then bits were torn off by the friction against the tower.

"Damn. Should have taken those off," he said. He shrugged, then shot Karma a rakish grin. "Think I stepped off the ledge on accident?"

Karma snorted. "Accident? No. I know the difference between a fall and a psychopath." She grinned easily, tapping herself on the forehead. "Sometimes I like to save lost causes. It's a bad habit." Shrugging easily, she clipped the belt on again, frowning at the way one of the rubies seemed to be ready to fall off. Tapping it with her finger, she looked back up at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're gonna need new shoes." She observed, glancing back at him. "That's unfortunate. You should go get some." Frowning down at her bare feet, she shrugged again, running a hand through her hair before rising her brown eyes to meet his.

"Was it fun, falling without the belt? Seems like a thrill ride." She took an easy predatory step forward, eyes still on his before she glanced down at the drop. "Seemed fun, to me."

Mars looked bad at his feet. "Been needing them, anyway," he said. "Might have some in my suitcase. Not sure."

"It was a thrill. Lots of fun." He stood up from the ledge and looked down at her. Hooking a finger under the belt, he tugged her against him. "Why? Did you wanna try?"

She felt a grin tug at her lips as she gazed up at him, allowing him to pull her closer. Rising to her tiptoes and wrapping an arm around his neck, she moved as if to brush her lips against his - tugging him down to her level - but ended up with her lips beside his ear instead. "You." She breathed. "Are very bad at listening to warnings, aren't you?" Her eyes flashed with something unreadable before a smirk overtook her expression and she pulled away the slightest bit, enough to meet his gaze. When she opened her mouth again, her voice was teasing. "I don't think I'll try falling just yet, but perhaps I'll try other things instead."

Mars would have pulled back if she had actually gone to kiss him. He was reckless, not stupid. He gave a devil-may-care grin.

"Tend to be bad at doing what's good for me," he said. "Your loss. It's fun."

He pulled away from her and moved farther into the tower. "So what's with Arsen, you and Dite, anyway? Why does he claim you both?"

Karma's eyes trailed after him as he moved away, going to the ledge herself and sitting atop it, gazing down at the base of the tower. Her mouth fell into a line as she contemplated something she wasn't exactly sure of yet. At his words, she looked back at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Demonboy has never been one who likes sharing." She offered, by way of explanation, returning her gaze to the drop. Leaning backward slightly, she continued to gaze downward, ignoring the fact that she was precarious, and that she didn't know how on earth she'd be able to catch herself if she did fall. At the moment, she really didn't care.

"It may be because you're the first male Slytherin in our year. Maybe he's feeling territorial or something." She shrugged lightly, seeming unconcerned, though the unease the topic brought flickered beneath her expression, tugging it softly in the wrong direction. "Why do you ask, anyway? Want a piece of Ree too?"

"No one likes sharing," Mars said. As someone who didn't have very much, Mars knew this personally. "Anyone who does is probably trying to prove they are a good person."

"Just curious. Making small talk. That bother you?" he said.

"Maybe they're generally good people." Karma mused, though it was clear she did not believe it.

"Should it bother me?" The half vampire asked curiously, her eyes sparkling with something unreadable as her gaze once more left the drop, her head cocking to the side slightly as she scrutinized him. Her fingers were toying with the belt, feeling the rubies and emeralds and sliding toward then away from the fastening that kept it where it was.

"Like you actually believe that," Mars said. "Dunno. You tell me." He looked back at her as she scrutinized him. His expression remained neutral.

"This place is boring," he said after a minute. "Not much else to do but sleep and watch people. Most people are also boring. I'm bored most of the time actually."

He watched the way her hands toyed with the belt. "You taking that thing off or leaving it on?"

Her fingers froze where they were, before she shrugged and unclipped the belt, laying it on the ledge beside her and standing. "I'm not bothered by much of anything, really. Suppose that's where the boredom lies." Her eyes went to the ground.

"It's funner if you play with them, the people, I mean. Makes them more interesting." Her eyes stayed on the distance, toes curling over the edge as she cocked her head to the side. "Emotions are the remote control for the human brain, you know. Makes them easier to play with." She grinned briefly. "Guess you're in the clear for toying, though. I kinda like you how you are. They're never quite the same after. No reset button. A design flaw, I'm sure." A roll of distant thunder, and she smirked, leaning forward toward the edge slightly.

"I don't know how to catch myself." She informed him before she took a step out into open air.

"You think I don't realise that?" Mars said. "People are easy to manipulate. Say the right word, do the right thing, they're putty in your hand. They get predictable after a while."

Mars grabbed the girl and hauled her back up just as she would have vanished from sight. "Don't you think you should figure that out, first? You step to your death and your boyfriend kills me because my scent is all over the place. I don't think so. My clock isn't supposed to run out until I'm twenty-six. I plan on keeping it that way."

Karma had closed her eyes before the boy had grabbed her, dark brown gaze resting on him once her feet were back on firm ground. "I would have figured it out on the way down, probably." She grinned, raising an eyebrow at him. "Oh, him again." She rolled her eyes. "You put entirely too much stock in Hothead's words. If anything, he is one of the easiest to manipulate." She blinked and her eyes were different, the dark brown brightening to an almost luminescent amber. "Whoopsie." She murmured, mostly to herself, looking away from him. Her gaze lowered to where his hand rested on her arm, and she smirked. "Plan on letting go there, Pluto?"

"Sure you would have," Mars said. "He's the only person I'm not completely sure I can beat. Rather not take my chances." Once he was sure she wasn't going to step off the building again, he let her go.

"You're a bit crazy. In a good way. I like it. Just don't jump from towers without some way to catch yourself when I'm around. Not sure I could get to the bottom in time to catch you."

Karma pouted slightly, placing her hands on her hips. "What? You're completely sure you could beat me?"

"I think you could catch me." Karma mused lightly, glancing toward the edge again, though she moved no closer. "If you had reason enough to try, that is." Shrugging, she grinned. "Thank the gods I'm the good kind of crazy. Otherwise I'd be boring." Her eyes swept him, and she cocked her head to the side slightly, taking a deep breath through her nose. "You smell weird." She observed. "Why?"

"Yes," said Mars. He followed her gaze to the edge and shrugged. "Probably. Still rather not take my chances."

He looked at her then pulled the collar of his shirt to his nose and sniffed. "Dunno what you're talking about," he said. "I smell the same as I always do."

"I doubt it." She decided. "Have you battled the giant squid yet? Find yourself an acromantula or something. The number one cure to boredom is hunting, you know." She cocked her head to the side, tilting her head toward the forest slightly as something became slightly audible. She grinned. "Have you ever fought an Alpha before?"

"I know that. You always smell weird." Her pupils dilated slightly, but she shrugged it off. "I think it's weird, anyway. It would seem perfectly normal to you, seeing as you wallow in it 24/7." she hummed. "Maybe weird isn't the right word. Maybe I'm looking for... different?" She shrugged again. "And you smell a bit like something that's mine. You've been hanging around Double J haven't you?"