memories | a fate story

shared apples

Kara sat on one of the rooftops of Alfea, a cigarette in her hand and her eyes closed. For a moment she enjoyed the peace that never came during the day. In this short time that she had been in Alfea, so much had already happened that her cigarette consumption had grown rapidly. She couldn't cope with this stress. Although according to her magic she should have been an artist of thought, she was quickly overwhelmed with too many of them. At one part of the day, she needed peace and quiet to avoid going completely crazy. She couldn't imagine how Musa must have felt, her as an empath constantly at the mercy of everyone else's feelings.

While Kara wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet, she sensed the presence of another person near her, she heared the footsteps down on the floor. At first she wanted to ignore them, but then the sounds stopped.

"Oi!" someone called up to her. "Kara?"

Confused, she looked down and recogniseed a male figure she knows. Although she didn't want it, a small smile creeped onto her lips, which she tried to hide behind her raised hand. It wasdark anyway.

"Riven?" she called down. "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing I should probably ask!" he called back, "Wait I'm coming up!"

Then he said something else, but Kara couldn't understand it through the distance. She waited a moment and then heared him coming up to the roof. He sat down next to her and clapped his hands.

"So, Kara," he said, swinging his legs a little, "What are you doing up here at this time of night."

"I like being alone," Kara said, smiling sheepishly, "I like it when my head has a break, and at night the whole world seems to be asleep and just quiet. It's the only time of the day I can clear my head."

Riven smiled slightly and looked off into the distance, which couldn't really be seen through the darkness. Then he nodded slowly and looked back at the bleach blonde.

"I think I can understand that," he said, "I can leave too, if you'd rather be alone."

Kara considered for a moment. Yes, she would have liked to be alone, but maybe having company wasn't a bad change. So she shaked her head.

"No, don't worry, stay," she said, opening her pack of cigarettes in his direction. Smiling, he pulled one out and put it in his mouth. Kara shielded the cigarette with one hand and lit it with the other.

"Do you do this a lot?" he asked, blowing the smoke out.

"What?" she asked back.

"Go up on a roof to enjoy the peace and quiet there."

"Every night," she said, clearing her cigarette of the ash that had accumulated at the front. He raises his eyebrows in surprise.

"That's often," he said, watching her nod.

"I need it," she said, "There's so much going on in my head all day that I have to let it out once a day so my mind doesn't start to burn."

"Is that why you smoke?" he asked quietly, "Because you're so stressed?"

Again she nodded and let her gaze slide from the horizon to his eyes.

"I've done things in the past that have forced me to lock myself in my room. Since I've been here I have to step out of my comfort zone all the time, everything is so noisy here and I'm not used to it at all. But somehow I have managed to be myself again here. It sounds strange, but with all this pressure to be around people again, I had the chance to be Kara again before everything happened," she said, looking down at her hands.

"What happened?" asked Riven, looking at her closely. She looked back, biting her lower lip and shaking her head ever so slightly, but that was enough for Riven to drop the subject.