"He was mean," said Pipa with a frown, slurping instant ramen as she did so. "And scary."

Io had to agree. The pair had been lamenting over the encounter for the past thirty minutes while they made their way back to the prey's dormitories. Lunch was over and they had to settle with these canned and instant food products that the school had provided for Pipa during her heat, while she was to remain locked in her room.

"I wonder who he is," was all the sparrow had to say. "I've never seen a vulture that size. And I thought Miss V was large."

Pipa laughed, bringing the plastic cup to her lips for a taste of the soup.

Outside, the storm prevailed with a roar—leaving the sky rather dispirited still and the sun...nowhere in sight. How this seemed to have lasted for the majority of the day, Io did not know but felt unfortunate to say the least. He had been looking forward to Luka.

To Luka? Was that even possible; looking forward to a person and not the meeting itself?

The day was about to end. He could tell by the look of the sky, the sun that was about to set. Iolani Tori felt the slow pity of an end settle in his cage, much like a tiny boat that sank beneath the surface—drowned by the waves and drawn by the comfort of a bed below the waters. It settled there. Still.

It was a Friday. A Friday. Tomorrow, it would be...and it was at this that he remembered something else. It surfaced at the back of his mind much like a wooden plank on water—drifting.

He had forgotten to collect his tailored uniform.

"Oh," was all he said, lowering his fork.

"What?" Pipa blinked, watching the boy gaze pensively at the cup of noodles in his other hand. "What is it?"

Io glanced at the clock on her bedside table. "Uh. I...kinda forgot something."

"What?" She repeated, anxious all of a sudden. The canary placed her utensils on the table and straightened her back—all ears.

"Oh no it's nothing, really..."

"Just say it."

"They made me a new uniform. Tailored. Actually," the sparrow explained. "I was supposed to pick it up today, at the predator's dormitories."

Immediately, his friend was telling him to go. "Then, go!" She looked at him as though he was being absurd. "What are you waiting for? I heard the tailor's a nightmare. You shouldn't keep her waiting."

"Alright, alright," Io laughed, rising from the wooden chair Pipa kept in a corner of her room. She shared it with a finch. Come to think of it, Io hadn't heard much about her roommate. "I didn't want to leave you alone."

It was a strange thing to say.

Not that it was something he shouldn't have, but those words...they were meant to be kept within a cage for they could wound as much as they could heal. Perhaps they stemmed from the forgotten abyss that both had made an effort to veil under happy jokes and careless laughter—the time of darkness that they, as friends, had experienced together like a severing of ties that was meant to be fixed but wasn't.

The last thing he wanted was for her to leave again.

And perhaps to ensure that it wouldn't happen, Io vowed that he wouldn't leave her. But was that the first step towards an abyss? Well, the sparrow did not know. The will and attempt was one but the end—another. There was no telling the future.

"Don't be silly," Pipa prodded his elbow. "I'll be fine. Take my umbrella. Yours looks absolutely horrendous," she glanced pointedly at the pink polka-dotted umbrella that belonged, in fact, to the previous owner of the dorm he and Jiro slept in currently, shaking her head in dismay.

Io thanked her shortly, taking her large yellow umbrella that suited his friend immensely before bidding her a reluctant goodbye. "At least you'll like my new uniform."

"You think?" Her eyes lit up absentmindedly. "Does it look like Luka's?"

"Maybe," the sparrow replied mysteriously, purposefully avoiding her curiosity as he gave a final wave and closed the door behind him.

*

He had forgotten to tell her about the field trip.

The boy sighed as he dragged himself across the grounds towards the predator's dormitories—for the third time of the day really, he should be thanking the skies for such an opportunity, bestowed upon him by the skies above and yet, he didn't.

What made him so sure that he could, by some miraculous fortune, run into the person he had been searching for the entire afternoon? Surely, no authority would grant him the joy of having his wish fulfilled. Not in this world. Not in this story, really. Perhaps not in any story at all.

But tales worked in mysterious ways and mysterious ways they did,

for Iolani Tori was crossing the grounds between the prey and predator's nests when he saw something he thought out of a...dream.

Luka? Said the boy in his mind but it was the rain pattering against his umbrella that filled the absence of a response. Luka. It's Luka.

A couple of metres away, the eagle stopped in his tracks. For once, he was so caught up in his thoughts—thinking about someone—when he failed to realize that the very person he was thinking of was really, right before his eyes.

But for all intents and purposes, this was not an uncommon mistake that they as human beings would make every now and then. In fact, they often forget to remember what they have simply because it was just easier to remember what they didn't have.

The sparrow stared at the eagle—the eagle who had an umbrella over his head and another, in his hand. He didn't know what to say.

"Is that for me?" He posed bluntly, gaze pure. "That umbrella."

The eagle followed his gaze. "Yes."

And then there was the sound of the rain against his umbrella; the whisper of its shower. Io found that he missed the silence between them both. It was a treasure—everything was, really—when it came to certain people. We often see gold in the words they speak, the air they breathe and the promises they keep. It was the little things. The little things that we value.

"I haven't seen you lately," Io began, "why weren't you at class?" I mean, at least go because I would. Go because you'd see me there—be there because...because I would like to see you.

But then he found that thought rather selfish in its nature. Just because he would like Luka to be there didn't necessarily mean Luka felt the same way. So he didn't say it aloud.

"I overslept," the eagle replied honestly, a hint of an apologetic smile upon his lips. And then they were quiet again.

It was time for the sun to sleep but the pair seemed not to notice the ice-cold rain or muddy soil, let alone the time of the day. They simply looked at each other as though there was nothing else in the world to see. Just them.

Just the other.

Io let slip a smile. He knew it was something he couldn't hold back it was just there. It was always there, always—with Luka around, always. There was just something different they shared, different the other hearts that Io had touched and moved; listened and heard. Luka's was quiet. So quiet.

And it listened. That was the key: it listened to him.

Io?

He blinked, turning to see that Luna had roused from her sleep, materializing beside him with a rare smile. What a charming evening it is. Don't you think so too, Lyra?

The sparrow chirped with a nod, landing on top of Luna's snout to nestle comfortably between her eyes. Indeed.

Victoria watched from afar, wondering if this was how humans felt like whenever there was a need to share the ones they wanted to themselves. Io laughed, giving Luna's right wing a gentle pat. The rain was starting to pick up once more, as though a sudden gust of wind had egged its might. Lyra was quick to dart under Luna's wing, which acted as a perfect form of shelter.

Upon noticing Victoria's stare however, the sparrow moved over to make space for the other, chirping once to beckon the eagle.

The sight was strangely endearing. An eagle and sparrow seeking shelter underneath the wing of a phoenix. None of the five spoke very much; watching the rain fall in louder whispers.

An enchantment—almost like a spell broke the silence with a wave of a wand and Io turned to the source of the sound with a puzzled expression.

It was a laugh.

"What are you laughing at, Luna?"

Oh no dear, I am merely amused, she lowered her head to meet the eyes of her Winged. It appears we have a guest who seems rather keen on joining our conversation. Io followed her gaze to the third floor of the predator's dormitories, just over his shoulder.

The turn registered a lone figure standing at his window—a figure that the sparrow recognized almost immediately before the blinds were lowered all-too urgently. Io couldn't help but let slip a laugh, for the last person he thought to be interested in any conversation at all (let alone a conversation with them) was Vaughn himself.

"Someone was looking at us," he relayed brightly to the eagle, who was far too distracted to pay any attention to his surroundings save a specific person. "I think I know who it is."

Luka paused; eyes sharp as he raised his head to scan the area.

"No no, it's not something dangerous," Io laughed, waving his free hand to gain the eagle's attention. "I have to go collect my uniform from the tailor's before she closes for the day. Do you want to come with me?"

The latter was about to add that the entire purpose for leaving his room had been to seek the sparrow's company in the first place, but he thought against it in the end for it was hard to put these into words that could, in any way, accurately describe his feelings.

He nodded, taking Io's umbrella all of a sudden ("w-wait, what—") only to raise his own over them both.

*

Vaughn had drawn the blinds on instinct. He hadn't intended to appear suspicious or give the impression that he was a major creep spying on a pair of harmless lovebirds, no. In fact, he hadn't considered the prospect of being seen by the very person whom he was watching.

The moment Iolani's head turned in his direction, the vulture knew that he was—for the most part—experiencing the fright of his life. It was convenient to recall that it had been Vaughn himself who often tailed the boy in his early days as a sparrow, having taken some peculiar dark interest in Io, the one who had so easily stolen his title away.

How the boy managed to turn the tables, Vaughn did not know; for how could he be afraid of a sparrow? He was afraid of nothing, then. A sparrow was nothing—but no, he was no longer a sparrow; perhaps that explained it. That was why he made an instinctive pull on the blinds; why he started with a jump upon meeting the eyes of his Avian, the moon—

The doorbell.

There was someone at the door.

Immediately, he tensed. He couldn't bring himself to glance at the spot Io and Luka had been moments before, afraid to find (to his horror) that they were now absent. It simply couldn't be that the sparrow and eagle had the gall to pay him a visit.

Paying the black vulture a visit? No one would be in the right mind to do so, no one! But it wasn't as if those creatures had a right mind in the first place in fact had they had a right mind, they wouldn't have arrived at this point in Vaughn's sense of judgement—the brink.

His fingers closed in around the lock.

No, wait. He should check—no, there was no peephole. Vaughn had never cared for a peephole; no one ever bothered to ring his doorbell, why should there be a need for a peephole?

The bell sounded for the second time.

This was the moment Vaughn would throw everything out of the window—his arms, legs, pride, mind, ability to function as a human being for any matter—and leave the door.

He had no obligation to open it. There was no reason he should open it in the first place; why should he care about a stupid door?

It opened, and almost slammed into his face.

"Eve?" Jae-min blinked in surprise. Vaughn was having a hard time trying to register the human emotion of shock and disbelief. "I thought you were sound asleep. Why didn't you open the door?"

The professor casually invited himself into the frightened vulture's room and in that brief moment where the light from the corridor filtered into the entrance of Vaughn's permanently-dark room, he caught a glimpse of his face.

"Did something happen?" He said immediately. "Was it a nightmare?"

Even the condor was well aware of his step-brother's tendency. Vaughn had always been afraid of his dreams since he was a child. They were the very reason for his fear of the dark.

Because the vulture did not seem keen on responding, Jae-min was obliged to try a different approach. "You look like you've seen a ghost," he played indirectly. "Were you reading some of that weird Shakespeare shit again?"

"No," Vaughn refused immediately, but some part of him admitted to the sighting of a damned spirit. Indeed, Luna could have been a ghost. For all he knew, she was a mere spirit—a phantom of his dreams, something that only a select few could see and that being him. She was a ghost. "And Shakespeare is not shit."

"What are you doing here?" The vulture proceeded to avoid promptly. "Aren't you supposed to be at dinner?"

"I'll be there in a bit, okay. Can't someone old forget something?" His step-brother exaggerated with a laugh, heading straight towards the desk behind the vulture's couch. There, he picked up his records that were messily assembled in a folder. "Get something to eat, alright? And stop reading that Shakespeare shit."

It's not shit, Vaughn wanted to call at his back but Jae-min had already closed the door behind him. What he hadn't expected was for the condor to make an appearance at such a time. Seriously, he had been afraid of nothing—nothing at all! He cursed the creature within his cage.

Shuffling over to the couch for a brief shut-eye, Vaughn caught a glimpse of something else that Jae-min had left behind. It was a pin.

Meant for members of the order to wear on their coat during (possibly) official occasions, displaying whatever authority they had based on the elaborately-designed emblem. Jae-min's had three stars.

While Vaughn considered the significance of this, he placed the pin by a useless vase on the coffee table, knowing that it was a matter of time before Jae-min would realize the absence of something important and come running back—

There. The doorbell.

He heaved a sigh, willing his legs to move as they dragged reluctantly over the chilled marble floor and brought him to the dull entrance. "You really are getting old aren't—"

Oh fuck.

_________________________

Io waved. "Hi!"

In a state of panic, Vaughn made an attempt to close the door only to realize that Luka Sullivan was now on par with Iolani Tori on his list of hatred. "Can we come in?" There was a dumb foot in his way, one that jammed the door and refused to grant the vulture some peace and quiet in his entire life for all he knew. "It won't take very long."

"No," was all he managed in return, forcing the door shut by throwing his entire weight on it.

It slammed close, triggering a momentary silence in the room while a loud beat thundered in his ears.

The vulture ghosted to his living, raising the blinds in attempt to seek comfort in a collected evening sky only to be blocked by the moon itself.

Hello dear, would you be so kind as to open that door?

I'd be grateful.

*

Having experienced numerous nightmares in the past, Vaughn had long assumed he'd seen the world at its worse but as every other human being would have done, the vulture had made a terrible mistake. Certainly, assumptions were detrimental to the living. Absolutely disastrous.

"Wow, your room's really..." Io considered the word 'unique', but it wasn't exactly what he had in mind. "Clean." He settled.

He wasn't lying, no. Vaughn had an eye for order and his entire room including the loft was, relative to Io's at least, rather neat and tidy. Not a single speck of dust left its mark on the banisters of his staircase and or the tops of shelves. Even the commonly forgotten backs of wardrobes and bedframes were left untouched by any form of impurity.

Io had to admit his amount of respect for Vaughn (which had always been far from little) doubled upon this impromptu visit.

"That's none of your—" the vulture swallowed his words reluctantly upon this very strange and intense glare that was coming from Luka. "What."

Nox bared her wings as soon as Victoria got into her view, showing signs of territorial aggression in which she could really do nothing about. Vaughn was feeling awfully uncomfortable. He made a move to draw the blinds but Io stopped him.

"Your room's so dark. Why don't you turn on the lights first? Or, well," he glanced up at Luna who had been peering through the glass windows that stretched towards the ceiling. "We could always have some natural light."

"I will do as I deem fit, thank you very much," Vaughn snapped, giving up on the blinds and moving instead to his couch, not quite knowing how a host should behave. The vulture had never had a guest in his territory. An uninvited one, to say the least.

Cameron never really bothered with the visiting. Well, he was a Nocturne, after all. Nocturne's didn't really have time to visit.

"What is your business here?" Yet another silly question he needn't ask. For what was the purpose of posing a question that one already knew the answer to? There was nothing. No purpose at all, he was dry as a rock in the desert. Vaughn waited for the boy to launch into an interrogation of his integrity.

If he could see that stupid Avian, then why hadn't he said so? Why hadn't he? He could have saved them the trouble of prolonged suffering and done so much good, why didn't he say it?

Vaughn braced himself for a wave he knew he wasn't going to survive. Was it because the sparrow had seen him at his low? Perhaps this accounted for his bouts of weakness, his vulnerability whenever it came to the sparrow's words and—

"You didn't turn up on Wednesday!" Io pulled the trigger and out fired a blank. What?

"What?" Vaughn looked at the other as though he was mad.

"Wednesday—Astronomy; club activity, remember?" The sparrow clicked his tongue. "How could you go back on your word? You said you'd come."

The vulture sat back, stunned into silence.

"Do you know how excited Professor Callaghan was when I said you'd come? He prepared a pair of binoculars just for you. We were supposed to go stargazing together—I even brought snacks so we wouldn't go hungry." By this point, Luka was quietly furious that Vaughn had missed such a great opportunity that he himself would have grabbed at once.

"Don't think you'll get away with this," Io warned with a fold of his arms. "You have to come next week, alright? Or I'll, like...hunt you down, or something."

This had to be some sort of joke.

"Okay that's all I have to say. It's your responsibility to live up to your words, Vaughn. Don't go around making empty promises," was what the sparrow advised before heading back the way he came. "Alright, we're going now. Thanks for your time!"

What?

Luka tailed the other, seeming to resemble (absurdly) like a very stoic bodyguard.

"Oh and," the boy looked over his shoulder, a fleeting gaze on the moon that smiled outside the window before turning to Vaughn. "I understand that some choices are hard to make, Vaughn. And...well, I just want you to know that it's okay even if you choose not to make them."

"They are...pretty hard choices to make, after all."

______________________________

Luka's primary distraction came in the form of mourning (quietly) over lost opportunities.

While he had—in the early evening—offered to show Io his room after retrieving his uniform together, the latter had expressed a sudden interest in dropping by a certain vulture's territory. Although mildly disappointed, Luka had agreed to show him the way and was silently glad to see that he received a delightful reward in return.

It was just a smile.

At present, the eagle was about to return to his dormitory after supper when the most disturbingly large Avian stopped his tracks by landing on the banister of the stairs he was climbing. It screeched once, folding its wings before extending a leg that had—attached to it—a rolled up notice.

Read it, said the Andean condor and Victoria was quick to criticize.

Read it? She scoffed. Says the one who invaded our Link. Either you're just lazy or Viktor has no common sense.

The condor eyed her sharply. Show some respect, eagle. I'm sure the sparrow would have said the same.

How this effectively shut her up, Victoria had no clue. Luka wasn't any better, really.

*

The emergency homeroom meeting was carried out at the worst time possible. With a biting wind that stemmed from a day's worth of thunderstorms, the night was closing in with a chill. While Io was generally grateful for his newly-tailored coat that protected him from the cold, it didn't stop him from being upset about the sudden administrative class he had to attend.

Yes, he was now a Nocturne but that didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't entitled to feeling tired at night. After all, diurnals could very well be tired in the morning—even though they were supposed to be active during the day.

Nevertheless, the moon phoenix dragged himself to class and was rewarded with the delightful news that they were going to the Philippines.

__________________________

A/N: Cuppie is very excited to write about the Philippines :> although what I have in mind will not make out little sparrow over here very comfortable :< after all, why would V approve of something that does not include Io's suffering? Dear me. The Philippines is a wonderful place though, and forgive me if I don't cover very much about the culture ;-; it's so very rich but it would be difficult considering the fact that our special class will be attending a flight facility in the middle of nowhere. 

Thank you for reading! <3 Thank you so much. 

-Cuppiecake.