“Please don’t.” Kara laughed, undeterred by Nico’s more subdued reactions. There was no way she’d expect Nico to parse through adverts and opinion pieces to get to an article about rabbits. The thought that she would even consider it was heartwarming and funny in equal measure. “You’ll hate it. Just wait until I’m finally writing something you don’t have to hunt for. Then you can read whatever articles of mine you deem worthy.”
Not for the first time, Kara wondered at the people Karolina had brought into her life. Nico looked a little lost. She was sitting on her ex-girlfriend’s couch, talking with said ex-girlfriend’s roommate, while she wasn’t even home. And Kara was cursed with insatiable curiosity. It helped, when she was trying to figure out everything she could about her new planet. It wasn’t quite so helpful when confronted with someone new, who gave small smiles and short answers and seemed just a little lost. Closed books shouldn’t be prodded, but then Kara understood that all too well.
“No, that’s…I know a lot of people who don’t practice all of their chosen religion. Wicca always seemed so interesting. Kind of…fanciful.” She twirled her pen between her fingers and offered a small smile. Religion may not have been her best choice in topic. How do you explain a system of belief that existed in pieces, and was only truly remembered by one person? “Um, well…my foster mom is Christian. She never really expected me to be, though, which was nice. We celebrate Christmas, and I’ve been to mass a couple times, but that’s about as far as I go.”
It wasn’t hard to see why Karolina and Kara got along. The blonde was bright and bubbly and cheery in the same way Karolina was, and Nico found herself wondering, for a heartbeat, if there was more to this setup than roommates. It wasn’t impossible to believe that Karo might have moved on, might have found someone a bit more suited for her in Nico’s absence. And it wouldn’t be fair for Nico to be hurt by it, not when she’d been the one to leave. Glancing up at Kara, she offered her a smile and almost, for a moment, wished that the blonde was a little easier to hate. “I bet they’re all pretty worthy.”
There were things she wanted to ask, questions she was afraid to know the answer to. Had Karolina ever mentioned her? Had she mentioned Gert, Chase, and the others? Did Kara know why she left L.A., why she chose New York? Did Kara know if she hated Nico now? Did Kara think Nico deserved for Karolina to hate her? Did she still talk in her sleep, did she have nightmares the way Nico did, was her bed too big without Nico in it? She wanted to prod, wanted to ask Kara a thousand questions she knew wouldn’t be answered... but she didn’t. Instead, she let the quiet hang over them like a bubble, let silence surround them. It felt safer, somehow.
So did talking about things like rabbits or religion. “People misunderstand it a lot,” Nico replied with a small shrug. “It’s a lot to do with... nature, I guess.” There were other rituals, too. Nico remembered screaming into an open flame on the beach on the first anniversary of Amy’s death, begging the spirit of her sister to speak to her, to say anything at all. Magic was real. Nico knew that now. She had a Staff that could shift the world to her liking, a mystical stick that could make things closer to what she wanted them to be, but she’d still never see her sister again. She was still met with silence every time she begged Amy to speak. “That is nice. My parents, they always wanted me to believe what they believed. Sometimes, I felt like they didn’t like me being my own person at all.”
