A little love goes a long way

13 Karma

"Sorry, I'm late." The boy from earlier appeared, the figure Sophie swore she had seen upstairs - it wasn't just her mind playing tricks. He had a very London-centred accent, very posh and upper-class, it was almost soothing, velvety. He sat next to Jake with nobody on his other side, though on Karma's side there were two others, the mint eyed boy's - who's name card read 'Saeran' - lookalike and Kokichi. The two on 'Todoroki's' side were Rose and Brian.

She knew names, yet she had yet to speak to them, and showed no signs of initiating a conversation as dinner was served - by maids who appeared seemingly from nowhere - seriously were these people rich?

The meal was a buffet type, where all of the dishes were set out in the centre of the table and you just had to pick whichever you wanted to eat. A beautiful looking gammon sat just out of Sophie's reach to her left.

"Could you pass the gammon please?" He ignored her, as if she hadn't spoken, and continued to pile sausages onto his plate, she asked again, and yet again was ignored. Instead of trying without a reply, she would just move on and find something else to eat. Muttering an 'okay then' she looked to the other dishes, there were curry and rice further towards Jake - he would pass it to her - or some roasted shrimp - it smelled wonderful, but shrimp did horrible things to her stomach.

About to give up and ask Jake to pass her the curry, she heard a plop, as a nice juicy slice of gammon landed on her plate, she looked to Saeran but he avoided her eyes and ate his meal - either way, she had gammon, and piled her cranberry sauce on the side. There was mashed potato and swede in Todoroki's hands, he gave it to her without a word. This would be a long dinner.

She was right. The two people either side of her did not speak a word throughout the entire meal - which wasn't exactly bad, as there probably wouldn't have been much Sophie would have said in return, and honestly, Sophie would be acting exactly the same way if she was meeting people she didn't want to. It dawned on her - this was exactly how she reacted, when her parents threw those parties, this must have been how she acted.

'Oh God', she thought. 'What made me think this would be a good idea? I mean I hardly even know Karma, let alone these people, and now I'm sat here eating with them. God they were right, I am a nuisance.' Sophie didn't realise that when she thinks to herself, she mutters to herself - though in all honesty it truly isn't loud, barely a breath, if you're paying attention, or close enough to, then you could probably make out some of it. Todoroki did, though he opted instead not to say anything.

Dessert came and went in the same silence, and Sophie really did not mind. She kept glancing at Jake and pulling weird faces - or at least weird by her standard - and he would do so back until one of them broke down laughing, or they were caught by someone else - to which they would still laugh. Karma joined in on one occasion - he won, but that was in their final match over the dessert table, and once that was finished, they were let off to do whatever it was that they wished.

Sophie was still caught up on the engravings by the door - or at least what she thought were engravings - instead they turned out to be extremely intricate carvings, though not professionally.

"Saeran does that on all the doors" Sophie jumped, resting her hand on her heart and backing away from Karma - her fight or flight response kicking in - though he just shrugs and points to the door. "He's good with a knife, and when he's bored or angry, we'll just find him. Sitting by a door and carving away. Won't touch anything that isn't a door, he's odd" he broke eye contact to look over at Saeran, walking past to go upstairs "but he's our brother, gotta love him." He chuckled. Sophie had calmed herself by this point and started to tract the designs with her fingers, her face showing nothing but admiration - Saeran had seen it before he left, it made him happy, weirdly enough.

"Dinner was kind of awkward." Sophie hummed in agreement, they seemed to have started mindlessly walking "out of anyone he could have sat you next to, the prick put you with the silent ones, stupid little squid." Squid? Prick? Was he talking about Jun?

"I'm sure it's not okay to talk about your father that way?" Karma shot her the weirdest look as if he half expected her to say she was kidding before he realised he hadn't clarified anything or mentioned any names.

"Oh - oh God no! I meant my brother Ciel." She looked confused. "Blue hair? Arrived late?" Now Sophie remembered, so that was his handwriting. Ciel's. She made a sound of recognition and nodded her head. They had arrived outside, and as if it was a cliche story, the sun was just beginning to set over the horizon as they overlooked a massive garden, a few workers idled about on their smoke break, running back inside once they saw Karma.

Sophie stared at the sunset - not the sun, that would hurt her eyes too much.

"Ciel. That means sky in French, right?" She turned to him - his eyes matching the colour of the said sky. He nodded and looked up.

"You speak French?" She nodded.

"Conversational. Among other languages. Yes." It was his turn to nod.

"So does that mean you're going to be taking the languages course at college?" She shook her head.

"University, actually." She smiled, proud. "And once I finish my Uni courses, I'll take college courses. A reverse order - if you will." Karma gave her an incredulous look. "What?"

"You're going to university?" She nodded. "Grinston?" She nodded again as he laughed. "My brothers and I go there, my sister is at college, but she'll be going there in two or three years." Sophie gaped slightly at him - they had begun walking again, a while back, but Karma had stopped, bringing Sophie to a stop also. "So. Along with languages, what are your other courses?"

"I'm going into Psychology and Sociology, though it was a close call between Sociology and Art - though Anthropology was included in Sociology. Plus I have my Grandpa if I need any advice." She smiled softly, coming back to her senses as Karma hissed in pain. "Are you alright?" He brushed it off and proceeded to pluck the rose from the bush, Sophie giggled.

"Here - what's so funny?" She pointed to the table a few steps away, where a pair of gardening scissors sat. He cursed under his breath but proceeded to place the rose in Sophie's hands, it was yellow - she knew flowers had a language but was clueless as to what it was, thanking him nonetheless.

She slid the flower behind her ear - after taking down her hair, to keep the flower in place.

"Your hair's like - really long." Sophie hummed, twiddling with a dull brown strand, before lazily flicking it over her shoulder again where it belonged.

"It's tedious but comfortable I suppose. Like old shoes that are falling apart, but sentimentality makes you keep them, and all that." He nodded - they nodded at each other a lot - like words didn't even matter so long as they could nod.

There was a long but comfortable silence before he spoke again, confident - but like he had planned his words out carefully.

"So. What made you move down here, a few days before Christmas?" He turned away, not seeing her flinch back as though she'd been stabbed by the very thornless rose she was presented with. Sophie stayed silent, so did Karma, but after a while he thought the silence had gone on too long and he turned to apologise for asking, only to hear a sniffle.

She was crying.

Sophie - not long before she started crying - saw Sadness, a pulsating figure of dark blue - she knew she would cry, it was just a matter of time. Karma put a gentle hand on her shoulder but she flinched - he thought he had gone too far and tripped over his own tongue in his haste to apologise, she shook her head.

"Bad memories is all, it's not your fault." He nodded his head, but his eyes still showed his conflict, hands firmly by his sides. "We should start heading back" she laughed lightly, "before anyone begins to think you kidnapped me" this time he joined in, the unease slipping from his shoulders as she wiped her eyes dry.

He held out his arm. "My lady?" She mockingly curtsied, holding his arm as, side by side, they headed back inside.