Fireflies

The snow had melted away since the last time she had come here. The higher powers had decided to give the cemetery a nice summer night tonight, clear skies, beautiful weather, a gentle summer breeze. Karma loved every second of it. This was why she had packed up her things, gotten her old muggle tent and sleeping bag, and went to spend the night with the only family she had left.

Pitching the tent right beside Jet's little space, the young vampiress laid out her sleeping bag, shoving her knapsack into the tent behind her. She'd had the tent since she was five, so the thing barely covered her up to her shoulders if she tried to lay in it, but it was alright. She only went camping in nice summer weather like this anyway. Carefully, glancing around her as she did so, she pulled Ty's pillow out of her knapsack, curling around it as if it were her favorite teddybear - which, she supposed, it had become, in leave of the boy himself.

Relaxing on the soft green fabric, Karma laid on her back, lacing her fingers behind her head and looking up at the stars. She identified her brother's favorite constellations, pointing them out to the grave beside her, smiling happily at the memory of her and Jet doing this together every so often to spend time with their mother.

"And there's Sirius. That old dog." She joked, smiling against the tears welling in her eyes. "Your favorite." She took a deep breath and kept going, her eyes going from one to another. "Camelopardalis... still can't spell that by the way, you're the only one who ever could short of the Astronomy professor, I recon... Lynx, we've got a Transfiguration Professor named that now, you know... Pisces... Look! Jet! Triangulum Australe! It must really be summer now, eh?" Tears began to leak from her eyes, down the past her temples and into her hair. She moved her hands from behind her head and wiped them away, chuckling slightly.

"Ack, you big lug. You've made me all emotional, loser." She murmured. "This would be so much funner if you were really here, you know?" She sat up, wiping the tears on her arms and trying to stop the flow of them. She took a few deep breaths, tears slowing only slightly as she tried to calm herself down. "I miss you, you know." she whispered softly. "You were the best brother ever."

"I should think Serpens may be favorites of yours." Her tone was quiet as she stepped silently forward. She extended a hand towards the sky, tracing patterns as she continued. "Cauda and Caput - though, you can't have either without Ophiuchus.

"Lyra is my favorite constellation, though. And Betelgeuse, my favorite star."

Aria's gaze left the sky to go the headstone. "I was sad to hear about Jet. I liked him." Finally, she looked at Karma, a soft smile pulling at her lips. "Hello, sis. Miss me?"

Karma's eyes had fluttered closed against the tears, wiping them away again to no avail, a small laugh up from her chest. "Well of course I love Serpens, but..." She froze, blinking incomprehensibly into her tent, before she turned and looked at the girl, just looked at her, her expression blank.

Then she was in motion, a shout of "Ree!" and a bit of vampire speed later, she'd all but tackled the girl, wrapping her in her arms. Her hold on her sister tightened as it dawned at her that she was solid - not a dream, not a hallucination, not this time - and she rested her ear on her sister's chest, going completely still as she listened for the steady beat of the organ that promised her sister was living. She pulled away slowly, still holding the girl close, a wide smile on her face. "Of course I missed you! It was- was like a piece of me was missing!"

Behind her, a hoarde of fireflies took to the air from the grass around her family's graves, illuminating the air with their flickering light. Her brown eyes flickered all over the girl, taking in all her features. "Did you go visit Rhysie yet? He'll be so excited to hear you're back!" She gushed, tugging the girl over to her tent to sit beside her - gently putting Ty's pillow into the tent - and pulling her knapsack forward.

"I was keeping... well... I'm a dork so..." She pulled out a small leather bound book and held it out to the girl. "Here's... well... I thought you'd like a recap on what's happened when you got back, so I've been keeping track." She frowned. "I think the last I wrote in it was... three days ago, and it started the day after you-" She pouted. "...went." She smiled again. "Anyway! Now that you're back, we can do sisterly things again and stuff!"

Aria's smile broadened as she was caught in Karma's embrace and she hugged back, a laugh escaping her lips. She remained silent as the other girl verified her realness, brown and blue eyes sparkling.

"Rhys?" Aria blinked. "I... I found his grave. Isn't he - that bloody bastard." She let out a relieved, vaguely insulted huff, though it was clear her irritation wasn't much.

The blonde was obediently seated and reached out to accept the book. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "That's very thoughtful." Her own gaze tracked over the half-vampire. There was something... off between the balance of vampire and human; Aria could sense it.

"I didn't go on purpose," Aria teased, adhering to the euphemism. She reached out a hand to brush hair back from Karma's face, smiling warmly. "I've missed you," she said. "A lot."

Karma snorted. "Like the boy could stay dead. He promised, remember?" She shrugged, prodding the bond between herself and the Welshman gently. He would have felt her happiness, so she simply showed him a smorgus board of happy emotions with a promise at the end. "He's a vampire now." She said simply, shrugging. "Everyone who's anyone has a grave before they start their immortal life I suppose."

"No problem. Wouldn't want you floundering around like a fish out of water now that you're... back." She smiled again, the motion blinding in its happiness. "I missed you too, loads and loads and loads, but why bother dwelling on that? We're together again!" She reached into her knapsack again, pulling out a glass jar that seemed about the size of a pickle jar, and handing it to Ree. "You can help me with the tradition. Usually it's me and-" She glanced at the grave, before shaking the emotion away. "But you can help this time." She grinned. "Catch fireflies."

She gestured to the little lightning bugs around them, going slightly cross eyed as one landed on her nose briefly, blinking in its lazy golden way, and flew off again. "We let them go at the end of the night, just at sunrise." She grinned. "You in?"

Aria took the jar, turning it over in her hands. Either Karma was exceedingly glad to see her again, or she had changed; those were the only plausible answers she had at the moment to explain the other girl's near-childlike behavior. It very nearly felt like a role-reversal, in a sense.

"Sounds fun," Aria replied with a return smile. She set the book aside, then twisted the lid off the jar. "Is there a record for us to break?"

"A record?" She asked, standing and stretching. "I think Jet caught 20 in three minutes." She frowned slightly. "As our brother was completely human, I still have no idea how he did so." She grinned fondly at his grave before looking back at Ree and offering her a hand. "But Jet was always magical like that."

Aria accepted Karma's hand up. "Only twenty?" she echoed. The blonde turned towards the headstone with a teasing smirk. "I'm sorry, but your record is about to be woefully beaten."

Turning back towards Karma, Aria tilted her head, lifting a pale brow. "Shall we?"

Karma nodded eagerly and grinned at the blond girl, her sister, her living sister. The next few minutes passed in a blur, but soon the jar was decently filled with the flashing insects, and Karma was sitting back on the grass, holding the jar of light and grinning at it.

"There are few things as pretty left on Earth, you know." Karma whispered, melancoly sweeping over her as she gazed at the lights. So many bright things were here, captured for the pleasure they were supposed to bring. Sure, they would be freed, but would they ever really be the same again? Had their brief time in this glass bound pergatory changed their outlook?

Sighing, the girl laid back, balancing the jar on her stomach and holding it there with both hands. Her eyes slowly slid shut, and she sighed. As the air left her, she refraned from breathing in again, holding her pose and listening carefully to Kama's insight.

"Can I ask you something, sis? I'm going to be perfectly honest, if you want to ask something back, but I don't want anything to come between us again. Not like it did before. I dont- I don't want to be without someone I love again. Understand?"

Aria had seated herself atop Jet's headstone, appearing perfectly comfortable there. Her head tilted slightly as she ascertained Karma's behavior, gauging what the girl's fluctuating demeanor may or may not mean. Whatever conclusion she reached, if any, remained unspoken.

The blonde thought she had a fair guess as to nature of the question Karma wished to pose. It was perhaps a bit sooner than she anticipated, but as far as Aria was concerned, it was inevitable.

"Of course," Aria responded calmly, mismatched gaze fixed placidly on the brunette. "I, too, will be honest, and perfectly frank."

Karma's eyes changed, the one on the right darkening to a brown that was almost black as Kama began to talk, telling her what to say, and Karma rephrased it.

"It's just that... you know how we argued before you went? It bothered me for ages while I was searching for a cure." not that I found one. The unsaid words hung over her, dragging down her emotions. She'd failed. She hadn't been able to protect one of the only people to-

Keep your eye on the snitch, would you?

"Do you really believe I tried to steal him from you? Stole him?" She asked softly, her eyes never leaving Ree's. "Because you were with Rhys before I even thought about dating him. You're the one who brought it up." She shook her head slowly. "I suppose I just want to know your intentions. We've been dating for almost two years now, and..." A slight blush lightened her cheeks, and a slow sort of affection stole over her expression as she thought that. Almost two years. "I- I don't want this to come between us. Either of us."

Aria ducked her head; an acknowledgment that that was entirely where she thought the conversation would go.

"You could have told me my world revolved around him when you realized my memories were compromised," she stated frankly. "Only Rhys made mention of it, and I didn't know him at the time, so I dismissed it. Because of that, I had to remember on my own. All I knew was that Djinn told me to stay away from him and that he was Djinn's son."

The blonde gave a soft laugh. "My intentions?" Aria rose to her feet, face lifting to the sky as she shut her eyes against the gentle evening breeze.

"Sometimes, I think being born must be so much easier than being created," she murmured quietly. "People born have Will; those made have Purpose. Even if it is but imagined, it is always there, ever influencing the way you comport yourself, the way you see the world."

Her eyes snapped open and she turned back to Karma, expression open. "I consider you my sister. That sentiment is sincere. But that does not change the fact that I was made for Arsen. I will be anything he wants of me - anything at all. That is my purpose. That is the only way I will ever feel fulfillment in my life."

Karma closed her eyes, allowing the sound of her sister's voice to float into her awareness much like the wind over the graveyard. It was a familiar sense of calm that caused the girl to relax, laying beside her family's grave always seeming to have that affect on her. "I didn't know he was something you had forgotten." She said truthfully. "I thought you and he had had an argument of some sort, and you were ignoring him. I didn't ask because I figured it wasn't any of my business." She shrugged her shoulders. "I never really thought of dating him until you brought it up."

"Most people who are born spend their lives looking for their Purpose." Karma observed, her eyes flickering open to look at the stars. "Most never find it. Some don't care. Whole religions are based upon finding the thing you were created with." She shrugged again. "Perhaps you are right, and it is somehow easier to be born, but I don't believe it. No one has it easier than anyone else. Not anymore."

Her eyes closed again, and she took a deep breath through her nose. The familiar scents of the cemetery rose to meet her, along with the newer, different addition of Aria. She had always been alone whenever she came here. It felt... odd to have someone else with her. Even someone she considered family. She'd never brought her father, or Geoffrey here, and she'd never brought Arsen either, though that was more on the affect of Holy Ground than anything else. She supposed that if one was gonna come back from the dead, a cemetery would be where she'd meet her.

"I trust you." Karma said, her voice softening as Kama's went harsher. It took a few moments for the girl to wade through the degrading comments and insults to find what she wanted to say once more. She swallowed, opening her eyes to look at the girl, unaware that they had darkening slightly as they lightened back to their original color. "I wouldn't take your Purpose away from you. We are sisters, Arsen or not. That doesn't change." She shrugged a shoulder, her eyes going back to the jar of fireflies. "Doesn't change anything either." Her fingers went to the lid of the jar, hesitating as her eyes tracked one of the insects inside.

Aria effortlessly held back any retort she may have had to Karma's claim that she had no idea she had forgotten Arsen. Karma knew there had been holes in her memory after Djinn had given her a false past. It would not have been the least bit difficult to piece together that the missing memories all involved Arsen. A person did not simply go from the center of a person's existence to an object to be avoided without reason, after all, fight or not. Anyone else would have at least recognized the person in question.

"Perhaps," Aria conceded simply to the idea that no one had it easy. She gazed at the brunette a long moment, almost as though looking at something beyond her.

"Do you?" she queried, pausing a moment before she continued. "No matter. I shan't try to take him from you. As I said, I will be what he wants of me. Perhaps, he won't want anything of me, at all. He never has before - and he's always known I was made for him."

Aria looked away, again, expression pensive. "Sometimes, I think it would have been better had Djinn never created me, at all," she stated thoughtfully.