Marionette

Oceans, Chapter Twenty Five - Gaishō [外傷]

Standing inside Karma's apartment was uncomfortable for Amaya for many reasons.

For starters, she'd never set foot past the front door before, and she didn't really know how to take the sudden decision the red-head had made for her. What made her even less certain of what she'd let him sign her up for was the fact that it was immediately obvious to her that Karma's parents were home right now.

It was obvious only because there were packed suitcases standing against the wall next to the front door, and Amaya could hear voices echoing from within the apartment.

They were voices she had heard a couple of times in her life.

Moreso from the occasional times Amaya would come looking for Karma when she couldn't get ahold of him on his phone, his parents would occasionally answer the door. Every time they did, Karma wasn't home, though they were now familiar enough with Amaya where Karma's mother actually seemed surprised, and a little sad that Amaya had taken to dying her hair purple when she did.

Amaya vaguely recalled the lady remark that the natural white suited her far better.

She'd never met Karma's parents even once when the boy was around to notice, but she expected that he'd know of it, of course.

Karma only ever spoke of his parents in passing - Things like whether they were home or not, and on the occasional time, he'd mention what country or continent they were in at that point in time, but not much else. It wasn't like he avoided the topic, but just seemed to not really think about the topic at all. It was natural, and in a way Amaya wondered if it was because he was just that disconnected with his parents because they were never here for a large portion of his life.

He had asked her once about her own parents when they started getting along back in elementary school, but never again did he ever bring it up. At the time, she'd shut that question down so fast the boy looked like he'd been slapped, but in hindsight she couldn't really blame him for it.

It was just a topic Amaya rather shoved into the void of nonexistence.

Outside of Amaya's rather awkward train of thought, Karma had noticed her barely moving form by the door and smirked at her.

She'd noticed the look, but didn't consciously realize it until he'd grabbed her firmly by the wrist and proceeded to pull her along with him just as soon as she'd managed to get her ballet-flats off her feet.

The apartment of Karma's was rather expansive and made her own look like a matchbox in comparison. High ceilings, deep rich coloured walls and there were a lot of foreign things inside. Trinkets from his parent's work trips overseas were what Amaya guessed them to be.

Being dragged by that firm hold around her wrist, there were just a few glimpses Amaya got of the rooms, but not enough to really form any kind of recognition for future reference.

If there ever was a point in the future where she'd set foot in this place again.

Karma pulled her along with him to what she realized was the living room, where his parents were in the middle of going over what looked to be paperwork at the dining table. The room here was a deep, rich blue which felt very peculiar when one stopped to associate the room as part of Karma's dwellings.

Standing with her back towards them was Karma's mother. She was small in stature with those prominently coloured features that Karma had obviously inherited from her; Bright red hair reaching down to her waist in wavy ribbons, the same pale gold coloured eyes and pale complexion. She also looked very quite young for her age, and stood just a small few centimeters taller than Amaya.