Weakness

The commonroom was empty, fire slowly dying in the fireplace as the seconds clicked past two am. The sole occupant of the room sat cross legged on the couch, gazing down at the small rectangular shape that must have been a picture frame held securely in her arms. Though the girl said nothing, the room was filled with the comforting whispers of the portraits occupants, promising misunderstandings and miscommunications, saying they must have made some kind of mistake-

She was not niave enough to believe them anymore.

The scars that marred the right side of her face were an afterthought now, in the face of some greater flaw, but she still tilted that side of her head away from the prying eyes of the other students, even when she was supposedly 'letting them stare'. Tonight, however, she was just too tired to bother with the emotions coursing through her like the pain of getting the scar itself. In all reality, she just wanted to sleep - to escape from all of it, to escape from everything. It had been a pretty good plan, until the nightmares started. She was starting to become familiar with it; the facts that were already there, but she had been ignoring.

They had each other, and that's all they needed.

She was just a subtraction needed to make the equation equal. That was all. No one had said it yet, and neither of them had come to tell her, but it was the truth of the matter; Hoth- Arsen had said it himself.

A shiver wracked her entire body, and she dropped the portrait, the girls that had bbeen taking up the space vanished through the corners and sides of the frame. The thud of the frame hitting the ground echoed through the room, but she didn't care. She didn't care if someone came in and saw her scar, she didn't care if they noticed that her eyes were suspiciously watery, and she didn't care that this was the weakest anyone at Hogwarts would have ever seen her. Perhaps they would be the one that would come and sit beside her. Perhaps they would ignore the scar, and the tears still unshed, and the shivers that wracked her body. Perhaps they wouldn't. She didn't care.

She only wished to feel what it was like to be wanted.

Because she'd somehow forgotten.

The grounds felt oddly peaceful around him, even with his now fine tuned hearing only the gentle sound of the lake beside him could be heard. It was that sound he made sure to avoid at all costs. Just the thought of him falling into the water made his skin prickle with irritation. If he knew making up and clearing the air with Aria would feel this good then he would have done it a very long time ago. Even with his current weakness set in place he was finally starting to feel whole for the first time and all it took was to realise he needed his two girls in his life. Something he never thought he'd come to admit too.

He'd lost track of time, by the time he found himself wondering back aimlessly into the castle. Boia had run off after some creature in the forest and seeing as it was the early hours of the morning he could do nothing to stop him. He had to have fun sometime and apparently being Arsen's guide hound didn't count as fun. Luckily for him though he'd come to memorise most of the ground covering the school so he could find his own way back to the common room. He preferred to travel alone during the night anyway to try and at least adapt to his new weakness. If he was going to be stuck living like this then he might as well turn it into an advantage somehow. He just had to figure out how.

Running his hand along the wall, he finally made it to what he guessed was the portrait leading to the Slytherin common room. Surprisingly it didn't take him half as long as it usually did, perhaps his mind wondering helped him escape his fears of falling over or walking into something, making him less cautious than usual. It was something he'd have to think about later on if he wanted to get better at acting like he could see.

After quickly muttering the password he shuffled inside and paused. Usually around this time the common room was empty since everyone in the castle but him seemed to sleep but tonight for some reason or another he could sense someone else there with him. With a quick intake of breath he could only find one scent, Karma's. "Karma? What are you doing up?" He asked turning his head to the direction he hoped she sat. "Isn't it late?" He continued as he held out his hand beside him to sense the fire. He knew the sofas were only meters away from their heat so it was just a matter of finding his way to them.

She missed his entrance completely, the sound of his voice lifting her spirits before she remembered, and her mood plummeted once more. "Hothead." She greeted, a wry smile playing across her lips as she pulled her knees to her chest. "I dunno. Didn't feel like sleeping, I guess." The lie came easily, slipping through her lips before she could stop it, the slightly false tone she was too tired to hide giving her away.

"Technically." She mused, her voice teasing, though even that seemed strained. "It's early." Her gaze went to the picture frame on the ground, and she kicked it under the table and out of the way, the frame skittering across the floor.

The moment she began to talk he knew something was wrong. He never noticed before but just the pitch of her voice off and she just didn't sound her usual happy self. "What's up? You having problems sleeping?" He asked as he concentrated on the fire to guide himself to the sofas.

Arsen immediately rolled his eyes though of course the effect was missed by the sun glasses. "You know i love your sense of humor." He smirked as he finished managed to find the sofa and gratefully sat down on the arm. "But you should be sleeping we can't all be cursed with one looooooooong never ending day." He sighed, it wasn't so bad never having sleep it was just boring on occasion when he had nothing to do especially at school when you couldn't leave the grounds.

Something seemed to be caught in her throat, something lumpish in shape and impossible to speak around. She watched his movements carefully, something darker flickering in her eyes before she looked at the fire instead, resting her chin on her knees. "Something like that." She murmured. She deliberated, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Arsen..." there was a small bit of hesitance in her voice, but her lips were almost... trying to twitch upward. "What do you see when you look at me?" There was some honest curiosity in that question somewhere, something she really wanted to know, but there was... something else. Almost suspicious, poisonous, it seeped into her mindset; the idea she'd been playing with for quite some time. She kept all of that out of her voice, however, careful to sound tired, curious, and a bit depressed. Her eyes stayed trained on him, though she didn't move.