Flight School: Predator - Chapter 26: Chapter 26

"Is Io here? I have good news," said the phoenix as she entered the predator's common room where the rest were gathered in silence. Thinking. Quiet.
Not a single response was given while each waited for the other to speak. There was a string of tension that pulled taut in the air ready to snap, and her entrance only served to tighten whatever grip they had of unease they harbored within. Jing looked around and found the answer to her very own question, dissatisfied.
"He's not here?"
"Yes. As you can see," Dmitri's mood had remained in its state of disobedience, the very characteristic that defined his personality. Stubborn. "You've become strangely vocal these days, haven't you? Minding the business of others that don't concern you."
Jeremiah shook his head in the far back, unable to match the falcon's age to his level of maturity. Odette had a hand over her mouth to mask the amused laughter that threatened to surface.
"Shut up, Dmitri," Lucienne the harpy eagle had not the patience to listen. His words had appeared increasingly childish to her ever since Io's burst of anger; one that had shed light on the situation from a perspective only someone of dual avians could have had. "Tori was not very happy with us, after what we said. He'd left rather abruptly...I doubt any of us have an idea of where he is."
The phoenix appeared slightly taken aback by Lucienne's brief explanation. After all, she'd always assumed it took much to anger the sparrow to such an extent. She was not wrong—but she wasn't entirely right about it either.
"He has club activities today," came a voice from the far corner of the room.
Luka was never the kind of person to spend a whole chunk of his time with his classmates, or anyone for the matter. He simply didn't. And the fact that he did, today, remained a mystery to everyone else as much as it did to himself.
"Thank you," Jing acknowledged with a nod before leaving in the direction she had come from and just as the rest were about to resume their strangled silence, she paused at the door. The phoenix glanced over her shoulder and directed her question at no one in particular.
"And Vaughn?"
It was no surprise that Luka tensed immediately. No surprise and yet, his reasons strangely unknown to himself.
There was no response to her question. "Why do you—"
"I only asked because he isn't here as well. It was not meant to be rhetoric, nor was I implying that they were together," Jing clarified with a great show of indifference, glancing at the eagle before finally leaving the room without another word.
How unusual a feeling it was to be made guilty by the words of one so cold and impassive, one they thought had her cage emptied and then filled with the essence of something so frozen, not even her flames could melt.
____________________________
"And then Jeremiah's uncle came up to greet us," Io went on, taking Pipa's bag and hooking it onto the handle of her wheelchair. "They look really alike, him and Jeremiah. They're all very good-looking."
"Maybe everyone from the Philippines are good-looking," the canary suggested with a laugh, thanking her friend with a nod as he guided her wheelchair towards her next period. "Aemiel from class five is really handsome as well, and so is his sister. She's pretty, I mean."
They laughed together, having confirmed the trend and as much as he wished to share about his heat while he was away and eleborate on his changed perspective of what was 'attractive' or 'good-looking', he could not. Worrying his friend was clearly not part of the plan, whether or not he would like to discuss the experience with someone other than any predator who wouldn't quite understand.
Was every predator appealing to his senses at that point of time? He couldn't recall—it had been a short and unpleasant experience. Nothing he wished to relieve once again but understood the significance of its displeasure.
"You don't exactly have a predator yet, do you? Pipa."
She craned her neck to meet the sparrow's gaze. "I don't know what you mean by 'exactly', but I'm sure I was never close to having one before. Even during the season games, my match didn't want me as a prey. Or...so I heard, because well, I wasn't even conscious for the matter." The canary squared her shoulders.
"Why d'you ask?"
"Hm, I was a little curious about heat. I was just wondering if we'd only be attracted to the predator we belong to. If that's the case, then what'll happen if we don't belong to anyone at all? Are we therefore attracted to all predators, you think?" Io leaned down to take the potato chip that his friend held up for him. "I don't know you see, sexuality is so complicated."
"Even more so if you're prey! And even more so when we don't know ourselves," Pipa nodded admittedly. "I'm glad you brought up this topic. Were you always so curious about sexuality? Or maybe you weren't comfortable before. I mean, I'm a girl after all."
"I can see that," Io pointed out with a laugh.
"Haha!" The canary turned back to her bag of honey-butter-flavored potato chips. "You're not hiding something from me, are you?"
Sharp.
Well, the inseparable months that they'd spent together weren't for nothing, after all; the Saturday afternoons in the library, every lunch period, every class, every morning. It was only at night that they'd never get to see each other.
"I don't have anything to hide, Pipa."
His companion smiled in response. "Okay!"
The sparrow was only just beginning to see a fairly disturbing fact that he had no intention of realizing. He was hiding things from a friend he'd almost never hide anything from. Perhaps it was the look in her eyes—the soft touch of a poppy, swaying in the caress of an afternoon breeze, so small and gentle, almost fragile; the radiance of her voice that he'd heard crack that very one time she'd shown the darkest side of her self, of human beings in general.
Io wasn't sure how he should be narrating his experience. How he would. How he wanted it to be narrated.
"And then you shifted into a sparrow?" Pipa's jaw dropped in awe, gazing up at her friend who guided her wheelchair in the most careful manner. "You know, asidde from Vijay, no one in our class has done it yet. Also, what did Luka say? I bet he was ecstatic."
Io expressed that the eagle was, indeed, very happy for him. Yet, it was rather difficult to put into words how, or why he'd shifted (due to the instability of his heat), and he opted to leave it there. A simple, unguarded sentence that was often easier for the hearts of others.
"Luka caught me in his palm. I got to sit in it for a while," was all he elaborated, and the canary squealed in response.
"No pictures? You're kidding me," she made a brief show of disappointment as they turned into the main corridoor, passing a couple of prey who stared. Io wasn't very aware of the reputation his name had gained while his class had been away on the field trip.
They had called him 'Double'.
Whether or not Pipa liked the nickname, she was fairly sure that it had circled around without a clear understanding of who Iolani Tori was. Indeed, as a Winged and a student of Flight School, he was the only known living being with dual Avians—the only one in centuries—and that was a curious fact. She narrated the details of her experience while he was absent, informing her friend of the things that he'd missed.
"Why do you think Miss V was stripped off her position?" The canary proceeded to ask warily as they neared the end of the hallway and were about to turn, yet again, into a corridor that was slightly narrower than the previous one.
It was at this strange and unusually familiar moment that Io stopped in his tracks; a dream-like chill overwhelming his cage and a warm rememberance that he only just realized, had been brewing within. Bubbling over.
He's going to be there. Io found that he somehow knew what was coming next—what he was about to witness before his eyes. Luka was.
The boy found it mildly disturbing that he did; and when Luka really did enter his field of vision, the former's eyes went wide.
He was.
The eagle glanced up from the spot on the ground that he had been staring at. In that instance, he took in the sudden appearance of his friend and an acquaintance, their wide eyes and startled expression; their parted lips and still movement. They were at times very similar. Io and Pipa were.
An unexpected change in the sparrow's expression however, took things for a turn in which Luka found himself at a loss. He merely stared at the frown upon Io's face, and the fair tilt of his head. He and Victoria were hit with a rare and unusual pang of guilt almost at once.
Pipa sent a tentative wave in their direction as Io guided her wheelchair over.
"Luka?"
"Io."
"What are you doing here?" By here, he meant the corridors of prey classrooms. It didn't occur to Luka that he stood out like a sore thumb, but many things never occured to the young man either way. "You might frighten a sparrow!"
Io had the gall to crack a joke. Neither of his friends present had expected him to do so.
"I'm...waiting for someone," Luka said in response, looking straight into the eyes of his friend as though searching for a sign of an emotion apart from his light-hearted happiness. He was beginning to find Io very hard to read—or rather, that the latter had always been so and he was only starting to realize the extent of it.
And to think the eagle himself had been the one whom the other could not see through...as of now, it was the far opposite of things. Io's eyes appeared as though he could see through everything; and it was a little frightening.
"Someone?" The sparrow laughed because he wasn't dumb, and was fully aware that Luka could not possibly be looking for 'someone' in the the corridors of prey classrooms. After all, the only acquaintance that Luka had that wasn't a predator was only himself. Io was very, very aware of that. He found this particular side of Luka fairly new and endearing.
"Alright then," he decided to go along with the former's excuse. "We won't want to be disturbing you, so. See you around, Luka!"
Victoria was the first to panic. As a bird, she wasn't all that skilled at hiding her emotions (or territorial aggression, for the matter). Luka did not appear very fazed but the creature in his cage had its head turning frantically, eyes wide and unwilling to witness the abrupt nature of their meeting.
"Wait."
Io turned. And so did Pipa. "Hm?"
It had been a slip of his tongue. What the mind had yet to consider, his heart was quick to say; and it was getting awfully loud and awfully fast. So loud. He did not know what to say.
"I...would like to apologize."
"What for?" The sparrow was facing him now, and Pipa was looking at him look at Luka. She saw that his ears were slightly pink, and wondered if Luka had caught the subtle reaction of his. From where her wheelchair was positioned, she couldn't see his expression. She could not quite tell is he was being serious, or if this was one of the tests that he was so found of doing.
For the very first time, Io saw how the eagle would appear when stunted. Amber orbs froze in place, sparks still and silent. The possibility of Io forgetting what had happened the night before—the childish and unnecessary argument amongst themselves—surfaced but dissipated faster than it had come. As far as he knew, Io was not one to forget.
Then, was he mad at him? Still?
"Yesterday."
Io folded his arms. "What about yesterday?"
"You're still mad," Luka could not decide on a tone of his own, and it ended up being a statement phrased as though he'd meant it as a question.
"I am. I am also disappointed. Also relieved. A little happy as well. Right now, I mean," he listed quietly, confusing the eagle as he would often do and yet, it did not repel the latter from the former. "Would you like to talk another time? Pipa's class starts in five minutes."
The bell rang. "Now, actually."
Luka nodded. There was nothing more or less that he could do and perhaps his friend had needed some space. If this was what he wished for, then it was alright. Nevertheless, the streak of impatience that scratched at the bars of his cage and circled within...he found that it was all very hard to bear.
_______________________
Iolani Tori was most likely the only student who would rejoice at the sight of the word 'Philosophy' on his timetable, practically skipping his way to class and hoping that he hadn't missed out much over the past couple of days he'd been in the Philippines.
He arrived at the venue stated on the timetable with barely a minute left to spare and spotted a bitter vulture seated at his usual seat, staring out of the window with his back facing the door. Naturally, Io decided to occupy the seat next to him.
It didn't take a genius to know how the predator responded.
"You again?" He hissed with a frown. "Stop following me around."
Io conjured an expression of hurt, a skill that he'd picked up from Vaughn himself: the art of acting. "I'm not following you around. Philosophy's on my timetable, see?" The sparrow was about to present his own list of classes to the vulture when the latter held up a hand.
"No thank you."
"Aw, you're so cold when it comes to the people you know. I've only seen you smiling at strangers—prey, to be exact. What does it do? Is smiling supposed to lower their guard and attract their attention? Hm, I wonder if you're doing it right sometimes."
Vaughn scowled in response, providing himself with the excuse of not wishing to entertain a stupid sparrow any longer when in actual fact, he couldn't think of a reply that was sufficiently insulting. Although he'd voiced his displeasure of having Io sit right next to him, the vulture didn't appear to be strongly against it. He resumed whatever he'd been doing before, gazing at the sky.
"Alright class," Miss Tenner entered from the front door just as the bell stopped ringing, a nervous disposition written all over her face. "Shall we continue from where we left the previous lesson?"
There was a shuffling of feet while students took their seats in a languid manner, reluctant to sit through an hour's worth of boring and otherwise useless content. Philosophy was.
"Does anyone remember what Consequentialism is?"
Someone from the back of the class laughed—the remains of what seemed to Io the condescensence of a predator towards prey. Even if the latter were years older, and their teacher nonetheless.
"I don't, Miss," Io voiced, honest as always. "Vaughn and I were absent during the previous lesson, so we'd like to know more about conse...consequences...? The word is a little long."
Vaughn rolled his eyes and wondered just what he should do to disassociate himself from the sparrow seated beside him.
Just as Miss Tenner was about to return Io's request with a smile and elaborate on the concept of maximizing overall happiness, a student walked without a single glance in her direction.
Reux Yvone was not the most respectful of his kind; in fact, his new and elevated status had polished the bars of his cage to a solid gold that pleased the creature within. He felt, by far, almost invincible. Nothing more could have boosted his confidence than the additional power he had gained just by being introduced to a sloppy pyramid.
The wholesome state
that was his pride
murdered many fates
to become so ripe
Like the only fruit that grew upon a tree having killed the rest, Reux had a smile that was possessed by pride and called for immediate attention—so much so that everyone in class had their guards raised all at once.
A shrike perched on his shoulder as he sauntered towards the seat beside Io and Vaughn's table, gaze locking onto the former the entire time.
Slightly fazed but equally curious, Io could not help but search the rest of his class for varying reactions to the particular student's impunctuality and obvious direspect towards Miss Tenner. When the boy realized that no one was going to say a word regarding the matter, he voied it himself.
"Why were you late?"
Beside him, Vaughn was trying hard to erase his existence. Apparently, Iolani Tori was awfully fond of picking fights with the wrong people. Had he not recognized that it was the shrike under Kirill?
"Me?" Reux smirked, mildly surprised by his choice of words but also pleased to have caught Io's attention so soon. "How does that matter when we have a sparrow in a predator's elective class?"
There was a resounding gasp across the room and a strangling silence that ensued. Vaughn stopped himself from mentally correcting the shrike, establishing that perhaps he was blind and had mistaken the moon phoenix for a mere sparrow—wait what? The vulture was officially confused. Just whose side was he on?
"Yvone, please..." Tenner received an unsightly glare at her use of the shrike's last name, a tad overdone but achieved its intended outcome.
Io took in Reux's behavior with a blink, staring blankly back at the new student.
"Well I don't know who you are and I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'how does that matter' but you know what? I don't really want to hear your explanation either because I admit to being rather self-righteous."
Vaughn was feeling increasingly shOok by his companion, unable to comprehend the words that were spilling past his lips.
"And yes," Io said flatly. "I am a sparrow and you're right. I matter."
He turned his gaze back towards the notepad on his desk, copying the brief description of Consequentialism that Tenner had written on the blackboard. "Thank you for thinking so highly of me, whoever you are."
"And sorry for interrupting the class, Miss Tenner."
The shrike that had so obviously come to provoke the sparrow eyed him for almost half of the entire lesson, a hot sear rising from the pit of his stomach as he did so. It was the strange bubbling within his cage—a provoking itch that roused his creature—that allowed Reux to realize the piquing of his interest. An interest higher than any prey he'd ever had.
He established, then, that Iolani Tori was...a must-have.
*
There were at least ten people waiting for Iolani Tori outside his philosophy class, and Miss Tenner was having a hard time concentrating on the last couple of minutes wrapping up the various case studies that they'd spent the lesson going through.
She wasn't the only one.
"Weird people are standing outside creepin' on us," a crow said as he eyed the windows facing the hallway. Meryl Bell and Odile were peering through the glass, staring at the blackboard and trying to make out the words scribbled in chalk. "Aren't those hearts?"
"What?" His tablemate followed his gaze. "The elites?"
"Yes, it's them. The old ones."
Whispers swept the class and private conversations came to a point whereby no one was paying attention to Miss Tenner's summary and essay assignment. Dear Io who was known for having a terribly short attention span was thoroughly invested in the gossip. Very naturally, he was.
"Vaughn, Vaughn—" Io did not hesitate to prod the vulture with his pencil. "Isn't that Meryl? Her hair makes it so obvious. And then that's Odile? And his sister. And a whole bunch of people from our class!"
Said vulture prodded by pencil slapped the former's hand aside with a glare but followed his gaze anyway.
"How effortlessly stupid they look."
He didn't expect Io to agree. "Right??" The sparrow craned his neck to peer past Vaughn's shoulder, disapproval etched all over his face. "I didn't know they have a class after this period."
"They do not," Vaughn clarified impassively, turning back to his notebook before penning down the details of their assignment. "All hearts are entitled a free block before dinner, as far as I am aware. It appears you have not noticed."
"I'm sorry I haven't. And you are right! I didn't notice at all."
"Stop agreeing to everything I say," snapped the vulture in a bitter tone, since he wouldn't be achieving his goal of adding salt to Iolani Tori's unbearably sweet life. Or well, presumably sweet life to be accurate.
*
As soon as Luka spotted a familiar-looking vulture seated beside his best friend, he was certain that nothing could be worse than this very piece of information. He was, unfortunately, wrong.
"God, I smell a rat."
Shri's off-handed remark roused creatures in every cage and several turned in her direction to give her the attention she'd called for. The osprey jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Someone from the 'new' class of hearts."
All at once, they peered into the classroom and scanned every desk. Luka (who was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the overwelming company) came up with no excuse to account for his similiar behavior.
"That guy," Jeremiah pointed out. "Kirill's favorite or something—the one with tons of prey."
It's the shrike, Victoria narrowed in on the languid figure seated a table away from Io and Vaughn, holding in a territorial screech that threatened to surface. God, he disgusts me. Luka, did you add the shoulder pads to your coat today? I would very much like to perch on your shoulder and intimidate that sick soul of his.
Almost at once, Luka regretted having forgotten to add the shoulder pads to his coat as much as his Avian did, for he was certainly in a territorial mood today.
"What's he doing in Iolani's class?" Shri wriggled her nose in distaste, impatience skittering about in her cage. "And when's this thing going to end? We've been out here for the past ten minutes."
It was at this timely moment that the bell rang as though on her cue; to the relief of everyone else.
"Iolani's packing up," Odile announced to the bunch of stupid dorks. "Coming out any minute now."
They watched as students filtered out of the front and backdoors of the classroom, ignoring the various looks that were clearly directed towards them.
"Do you think he's going to be walking out with the vulture?"
"Good question. How do we get rid of him?"
"Well we don't have to get rid of him...sh! He's out!"
Luka locked eyes with the annoying shrike that had issued a challenge to him during their time in the flight facility back in the Philippines. Both him and Victoria did not realize the glare that they directed so naturally at him, strong enough to spell death.
Reux however, appeared unfazed and unexpectedly walked away without a word.
Yes, commoner, Victoria basked in self-proclaimed victory. Leave, as far as possible if I may add. Everyone else stared after the shrike; how they didn't manage to put a hole in his back from all that, no one knew.
Had any random passers-by decided to stop in their tracks to witness the scene, they would've assumed it to be part of a gag comedy; so much so that seats could've been lined up along the hallway and the first rows filled with a crowd of enthusiasts waiting to see a group of high-ranked predators apologize to a mere sparrow.
Absolutely hilarious. Unbelievably shocking!
Io padded past the front door with Vaughn keeping his fair distance behind, eyeing the stupid bunch waiting outside of their classroom. The former however, did not spare a single glance in their direction and had turned towards the stairs as though attempting to avoid or ignore his classmates' presence completely.
"Eh? Wait. Where's he going?"
None of them were used to being ignored. In fact, the majority of predators were very much accustomed to having the full attention of others wherever and whenever; let alone these high-ranked hearts that stood gaping at the sparrow who'd only just brushed them aside.
"What the—Iolani Tori, don't you dare fucking ignore us!" Dmitri as usual, was quick to light his short-fuse and although everyone else had turned to him with the intention to shut him up, (Vaughn was shaking his head with a palm covering his eyes because the entire world was an embarrassment) he somehow managed to achieve his goal of stopping Io in his tracks.
The small frame turned rather abruptly, as though he had been waiting for this opportunity all morning.
"Yes, Dmitri?"
Mildly startled (and fazed) by his flippant tone and casual use of his first name, Dmitri Ford had to take a moment to consider his response. It was a tad too long.
"Dmitri is irrelevant," Meryl the cassowary dismissed said falcon with a nonchalant wave (to the dropping of the latter's jaw) before stepping forward. "Lucienne and I...wished to—well, express our apologies for...our behavior. Last evening."
Io blinked.
"We admit that our view of the situation wasn't entirely broad. P-perhaps, rather narrow," the girl with auburn curls was stammering for the first time, and Io was thoroughly surprised as much as he felt the will to be amused. "Sorry."
Lucienne came forward to extend her hand towards him. "Let's shake on it."
"On what?" The sparrow laughed, taking her hand nevertheless. "I understand what you mean, but I wouldn't say your view on the issue was narrow either. The both of you aren't narrow-minded at all because in the end, doesn't it all boil down to the fact that we all have different perspectives and I so conveniently have a few more than you?"
Half of them frowned.
"What the hell does he mean?" Dmitri whispered at the back, directing this to no one in particular although Jeremiah fired back with a vexed 'and I would know?'
"I'm just shocked that everyone else came to watch the both of you apologize," hinted the sparrow with a subtle smie upon his lips. Immediately, Lucienne cleared her throat and threw a glare over her shoulder, nudging the kite and the falcon.
They, however, refused to budge.
"What the hell are you waiting for? Your period?"
Dmitri clicked his tongue. A sideway glance at Jeremiah informed him that the latter was nowhere as ready as he was. "You're an idiot."
"You're the one who's fucking eighteen but behaves like an eight-year-old because of that god-damned, blown-up pride," the kite jabbed in return, provoking Dmitri into a scowl and just when both of them were drifting further and further away from apologizing, Slayne interrupted with a very simple and unrestrained apology that caught even Luka off-guard.
"Sorry." The snowy owl had his head bowed slightly—although he could have merely been lowering his gaze to meet Io's. No one knew exactly what.
"My prey told me that you were upset yesterday. It made him upset as well," he went on to explain and the very thought that went through Io's mind was clearly: Ah, I should have known. "I think I understand what he means now. That doing nothing is also a choice, so...I'm sorry I made that choice. Can you cheer up? I don't want my prey to be upset."
Odette and her brother were trying very, very hard not to roll their eyes or let slip a sound of laughter but Io beat them to it.
"Then you have to understand that every action of yours—or inaction, I mean—every choice of yours matters because, well, we all have consequences to bear, Slayne!" The sparrow folded his arms, beginning to feel as though he had been standing still for some time. "I'm not going to cheer up because you tell me to. I'm not going to mute my disappointment just because someone else tells me to do it. Sure, I can hide it—but that doesn't necessarily mean the emotion is gone."
Damn.
Io was tough to deal with; and this was fairly new to his classmates who'd never seen this side of him before.
All eyes turned to Luka, as though requesting for help. Just how did the eagle do it? Spend hours, days, weeks—with this...this ball of...what even was he? Ball of destruction? Bubble? He was a ball of something, for sure.
This moon was.
"I don't get what the fuck you're upset about because hell, I don't get you at all." Dmitri declared all of a sudden with a strange cross between a frown and a smirk on his face. "But I...admit I wasn't in the right mind when I picked a fight with Jerry-o."
Jerry-o??
"Fine, violence wasn't gonna solve a thing—and yeah, I'd just be venting my anger on someone who's obviously supposed to be on our side," the falcon turned to Jeremiah with a sneer before finally going up to Io. "I was childish. My bad."
The sparrow laughed. Yes, it hadn't been the best of all apologies and it was in absolutely no way sincere but Io understood from his point of view, the guilt that lay beneath it all.
He'd felt very much alone in his thinking; since everyone else seemed unbashedly mad and angry at other only to take it out upon themselves without seeing the truth behind it all—that it was exactly what Kirill had wished for.
"I'm sorry as well," Jeremiah almost shoved Dmitri aside to take Io's hand. Everyone stared unblinkingly. Io was confused. "Will you forgive me if I kiss your hand?"
"There's nothing to forgive, Jeremiah. If it's about forgiveness, then you don't need to ask for any because I don't need insincere apologies. I'm simply not going to forget how you responded to Dmitri, or the surprisingly large ego you seem to have that rivals his," since when was he this...blunt? Or had he been, always? Honest. Pure.
Iolani Tori was so hard to figure out.
"If this is how you usually apologize to everyone else then yes, I can see why they are charmed," Io did not bother to remove his hand from the kite's grasp. "I think I would have been as well, had I not developed my opinion of you beyond that polite, charismatic demeanor of yours. You're very convincing! I don't mind that rash, irrational aspect of you."
"I'm sorry too, by the way," the sparrow turned to both Dmitri and Jeremiah with a slight bow of his head.
"I realized that kicking a guy between the legs may be very satisfying, but not the best way to express my frustrations and catch your attention. I was wrong as well. I'm sorry for...um, kicking you in the...that thing," Io was fairly embarrassed, and despite so was actually staring at the area below their waists before raising his gaze.
"Did it hurt?" He added after a moment's pause, tilting his head with a sheepish smile.
Dmitri was far too shocked to come up with a reply and it was surprisingly Jeremiah who came up with an uncharacteristically rude and daring response.
"Would you like to try it?"
"Ah! No thank you," the sparrow laughed, hands going behind his back in a strangely endearing manner.
The atmosphere lost the initial weight it seemed to carry all day, having extended itself from the night before and its burden multiplied by the sheer number of people involved. Luka wasn't entirely sure how he'd felt about the warm smiles of relief that each of his classmates began to possess—smiles that he'd never before seen; nothing like the smirks that they would wear just a few months earlier.
It was apparent to the golden eagle (as it was to rest) that Io's presence was that of a watcher. One that flew higher than the rest, afraid of the heights that he might have to fly and the fall that would be hard but nevertheless doing so to always, always watch over those that crossed his path.
Perhaps the phoenix's lack of presence—mental presence, despite her physical form that stood unwavering—had created an impression of darkness over the island. Barely noticeable, after all this time, and yet to jarringly obvious whenever Io was around.
How ironic it must have been for the sun to obtain its light from the moon, and how strangely appealing the very idea was. For what was physically impossible in the external world was more often than so only possible within ourselves—and that was what Iolani Tori's existence seemed to prove.
"Io."
"Hm?" The sparrow raised his gaze to meet Luka's as they walked alongsie each other, following the rest of the group who decided to bring the conversation to somewhere private. The predator's common room.
They'd asked several burning questions along the way, each and every one directed at Io. Main concerns involved the new student in his class ('weird-ass shrike' or so Dmitri termed) and whether or not Io would continue to stay in the predator's dorms.
Tonight.
Io stared, suddenly able to hear the voice of Luka's heart and wondering if the sun had begun to set already.
How should I say it?
It's been so long, I've already forgotten how our nights at the house would begin. Have I ever asked? He was reflected in Luka's eyes. I don't remember. I don't remember anymore.
How did it—
How did it all start?
"The moon's really beautiful tonight," his friend gazed up at him with a lunar smile. "Want to see it together?"