Chapter Text
When Karma finally confirms to Nagisa that he isn't human, he doesn't find it hard to believe. Part of him knew all along, that the mysterious boy who he only ever saw after sunset, who didn't seem to have any other family or friends, who came and went without a sound, couldn't possibly be mortal.
Karma told him when the two of them where sat on their usual spot; the steel bridge over the abandoned quarry, the city sprawled out in front of them, streetlights twinkling like neon stars.
"I know." Nagisa replied to Karma's confession without even thinking about it. Karma's eyes widened in surprise- it wasn't an expression Nagisa was used to seeing on the other's face.
"What do you mean 'you know' how could you know I was a vampire?" Karma retorted, eyebrows raised.
"Okay, I didn't know you where a vampire." Nagisa clarified. "But I knew you weren't human- I mean. I guess I could sense you were supernatural in someway.."
"I've had a lot of different reactions when I've told people. But this is a first." Karma said, a smirk growing on his face. "You're full of surpises, Nagisa."
Nagisa felt a smile grow on his face. He liked it when he managed to impress Karma, as rare as that was. "What reactions do people normally have?"
"That depends." Karma said breezily. "A few years ago people would be terrified- they'd call you a demon and try and burn you at the stake. Most of the time. In recent times though, most people don't believe you and ask for proof."
"So I'm not the only one you've told.. in recent times." Nagisa said, an unfamiliar clawing at his throat. Karma laughed.
"Jealous?" He teased, his eyes practically sparkling with mirth. " I don't know how long it's been. I don't keep track of years. Don't worry. I haven't told anyone since I started speaking to you.. "
"I wasn't jealous. Just curious." Nagisa pouted, but he couldn't even convince himself. "Anyway- " He said, changing the subject. "You've just told me you're a vampire. I have a TON of questions about that."
"Oh yeah, like what?" Karma said, feigning nonchalance, but Nagisa knew him well enough at this point to see he was eager to show off.
"Well.. do you drink blood? do you have powers? Is it anything like Twilight?"Nagisa fired off.
"Yes. Yes. What's Twilight?" Karma replied casually. Nagisa practically gasped.
"How have you not heard of Twilight? it's only the biggest book of the 2010's one of the most notorious pieces of vampire literature EVER." Nagisa said.
"Okay. so me being a Vampire is not shocking to you, but me not reading your modern vampire book is? You have priorities mixed up." Karma chucked. "But wow- it's already 2010? time goes by fast."
"It's 2016." Nagisa replied quietly. For the first time since Karma revealed he was a vampire, Nagisa felt unsettled and he wasn't sure why. Karma hummed in recognition, it didn't seem like he cared that he'd missed the date by six whole years. How old is he? How long has he been around that time means nothing to him? When Karma had said people tried to burn him at the stake a few years ago. What did he mean by a few years? what where a few years to Karma? For some he felt like he couldn't ask.
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments more, both staring out into the city pensively. It really looked beautiful when you where this far away and you couldn't see the dirt and litter up close; just the urban skyline.
"You said you have powers." Nagisa said slowly, turning to Karma with a smile on his face. "What kind of powers?"
Karma grinned. This was definitely something he'd been waiting eagerly to show off. "This is one of my favorites." He said, then stood up suddenly, teetering dangerously on the edge of the bridge. Before Nagisa had a chance to tell him to be careful, he leaned forward and fell off. A silent scream escaped Nagisa's mouth, his mind went blank, his stomach dropped.
Karma fell! Karma fell! Karma fell!
"You look like you've seen a ghost." a voice from above him said. Still shaking, Nagisa looked up frantically, still shaking, tears in his eyes. Karma was suspended in midair above him, that infuriating grin still on his face as he floated. It was so bizarre, like something from a film. Karma was snickering, by the time Nagisa got his breath back and he was able to formulate a sentence, Karma was still laughing.
"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Nagisa chocked out. Karma's smile widened.
"That'd be fine. I'd just turn you into a vampire and you'd be able to fly too." Karma said. Nagisa had a feeling he wasn't joking.
2. Nagisa learned very quickly, even before he had learned Karma was a vampire, that it was pointless trying to arrange to meet with Karma. First of all, Karma didn't have a cell-phone and even though his could use Nagisa's perfectly after just one lesson, he refused to buy one- he said he wasn't interested in fads. Whenever Nagisa attempted to meet Karma at a specific place at a specific time, he was a no-show, or he'd come sauntering over an hour late. Karma's affable smile and casual excuses made it impossible to be mad at him.
Nagisa instead learned just to wait for Karma to show up on his own terms, which he did, frequently (always after dark, of course); On Nagisa's walk home, when Nagisa went to the shops, when he went to let the cat out and after revealing he was a Vampire, Nagisa would frequently wake up to the sound of tapping, and Karma floating outside his window.
Karma came and went as he pleased, like a stray cat. He didn't much care if it was an inconvenient time like the early hours of the morning or the night before a big test and Nagisa never chased him away. He was always happy to see him.
3.
"What happens if you get caught in daylight?" Nagisa asked one time. They where both sat on his bed, speaking in low voices so his mother sleeping in the next room wouldn't overhear.
"I burn." Karma said bluntly, his eyes not giving anything away. "Creatures of darkness aren't permitted to enjoy God's light."
"That sucks. I'm sorry."
"Pfft. Don't be- not being able to see sunlight is a small price to pay for immortality and powers beyond human possibility; I'm not tied to human society and it's stupid rules and expectations." Karma shrugged. But later, when Nagisa showed him a video of the sunrise on his phone, Karma replayed it again and again.
4.
"I'm going to fail all my classes." Nagisa whined, burying his head in his maths book in despair. "I'll never get into college, I'll never get a job, I'm going to grow up to be a bum."
"Just become a vampire." Karma said. "Then you wont have to worry about any of that stuff- school, working, growing up.."
"You make it sound so easy." Nagisa huffed. His mother was working a late shift tonight, so the two of them where sat at the kitchen table, Nagisa's math homework between them.
"It could be. Just you humans make it much more complicated than it has to be. All I have to bother about is my next meal. No forcing myself to be something I'm not to fit society's ideals, just so I can have a few coins thrown my way so I don't die. The dying of old age anyway." Karma said. He'd started hinting that Nagisa should be a vampire more and more often. Nagisa mostly ignored it, but there were times he was tempted. Especially when he had Maths homework due in the next day.
"Can Vampires die of old age?" Nagisa asked.
"I haven't aged in as long as I can remember." Karma replied, looking off into the distance.
"How long is that?" Nagisa questioned. Karma shrugged.
"You know I'm not good with years." Karma said.
"Yes I know. You referred to Planet of the Apes as 'that film that came out a couple of years ago'." Nagisa deadpanned. He lowkey still wasn't over that. "Okay. Let's try something else. What year where you born? When you were a human?"
Karma scrunched his face up in thought. "When I was human.." He murmured. "You know, they only really started keeping track of the years people were born recently? At least for normal people. I was definitely around before they started recording the Zodiac to count the years. So it's impossible to say."
"Wait- before the Zodiac animals? When even was that?." Nagisa exclaimed. He knew Karma had been around for a long time, but he was thinking more in the ball-park of a hundred years, but maybe it was much longer. Nagisa didn't realise he'd been staring into space until Karma leaned over him and started writing on his homework.
"Okay, that's the right answers to your stupid homework. Can we play videogames now?" Karma said impatiently, Nagisa opening his mouth to protest, but Karma continued. "Look- I've even written it in your hand writing. Low lets do something fun."
"I'm not going to learn if you do it for me." Nagisa said begrudgingly as Karma pulled him out the chair. Karma laughed.
"Just become a vampire and it wont matter." He retorted as he walked Nagisa to the bedroom. Nagisa didn't protest any further, after all, he had been so happy when Karma had found a piece of technology he had actually enjoyed.. getting the other hooked on the new Sonic Ninja game had been one of his proudest moments. The two played right through the whole game, sitting in front of the screen for hours, laughing with each other, like normal teenagers. Like normal friends.
The next day, when Nagisa was sat in classroom, trying not the fall asleep into his lunch, he googled when they started using the Zodiac animals. It was 2000 years ago. He almost chocked.