A/N: This is a relatively short chapter I managed despite the strange occurrences of college life as a freshman (HATE) and I'm pretty upset that I haven't had time to myself lately but here it is! Some more Io and Luka (and I can finally develop more on them LOL)!
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"I can't leave you," Luka repeated simply, as though it was the weather that they were talking about.
Io looked up to see that the eagle had fixed his gaze on him as well. The moment was fleeting and eternal all at once; the force of an emotion so large and unknown that swept the pair off their feet and allowed the respective creatures in their cages to grow.
"I thought you were going to say that I was..." his blurred vision, despite the gradual emergence of a light, made it hard to decipher the emotion in Luka's eyes—reduced his voice to an inaudible whisper that he was certain could not be heard over the breathing of the night. "That we could never..."
He paused to wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, listening to every second of the eagle's silence.
"You know," the smaller frame sniffed once, loud enough to cause a fair shrug in his shoulders. "I think about it very often."
"How, if something silly like soulmates were to exist, they would break it to me that I was different," a quiet laugh escaped his lips and he looked up to see that his companion hadn't bothered to take his gaze off him. "Because it's sort of obvious that I am, see. You know it too."
Luka nodded vaguely; not because he didn't completely agree with what Io was saying, but because he was far too absorbed by his being to fully grasp where they were—what they were doing, saying, thinking.
"I know it's bad for me to expect things." Because truth to be told, expectations were more often than so the bane of many existences and it was clear to Io, who'd experienced the shortcomings of both himself and his external world. "So I try not to think about how I want to be treated by the people important to me. The people I care for."
"Which...includes you," he was going off on a tangent here, and he knew perfectly well that he was but it was Luka listening to him, so.
It was okay. "Of course it does, right?"
"Right," said the latter as he broke into a smile—one so rare, it warmed the very tips of Io's fingers without a single touch.
"So did I..." he went on with concern burning slow in his eyes, "treat you correctly?"
Io was mildly startled by the question. "Well I don't quite know because I never arrived at an answer, you see. I mean, about how I would like to be...understood. By other people."
To his surprise, the eagle nodded. "Because you will never be?"
It wasn't as though they had been moving in the first place but Io felt as though they'd halted in their tracks all of a sudden and somewhere within, a point of no return had surfaced with a shout. He noticed the intensity of his companion's gaze as they lowered to meet his and found it strange that he'd never quite noticed until now.
"Um," he paused as soon as he tried to begin. "I—I know that I give the impression of being...well, being different and I might have said something along those lines somewhere at some particular time that sort of, you know, led you to that same conclusion of not being able to understand me as well, but."
Io blinked; and in the very next moment in which Luka would see his eyes again, they were already the shade of the moon.
"It appears...that you understand me perfectly very well.
And I have a feeling that it's precisely because you say that you never will."
It was as though something clicked in place for the both of them, and the breath of the night seemed, all of a sudden, clearer and almost audible.
Each waited intently—until one of them could no longer contain the growth of something so huge it swept aside his being and escaped through his eyes, ears, lips.
"Can I hug you?"
"Okay."
He found it. What it was.
The knowing of the heart.
Luka might not know him; the workings of his mind and the arbitrary thoughts that pervaded its sea deeper than any other. He might not know what it means to be human, most likely never even considered the thought while it remained whole in the mind of his friend for the longest, longest time. Luka might not know Io at all—
But he knew his heart.
Understood it perfectly.
And perhaps that itself was so rare that it was, already, more than what Io could ever ask for.
*
A quiet sobbing could be heard hidden amongst the trees, rustling in attempt to comfort the one who was in the arms of another. There was an unusual sadness in his tears, a grief so abstract that no one and nothing could understand for sure but for Io, having someone who allowed him space for every emotion—no matter joy, sorrow or anguish—was enough.
Luka didn't necessarily understand why his companion was in tears over nothing. He'd never considered his company to be important to another existence, since that was his case before Io came around and changed his opinion entirely.
In a stiff and awkward manner, he reached down to pat the latter's back. It was small.
Was he crying out of joy? Of grief? Anguish? Was his friend happy or sad?
His first thoughts drifted towards a series of simple emotions. Words that he'd heard very often and read about in silly novels in which he soon stopped reading entirely.
Luka arrived at a very peculiar conclusion—one he thought that no other novel would have proposed or accepted, even.
It wasn't the point.
Whether Io was crying out of happiness or anger or sheer frustration wasn't the point at all. Sure, it mattered but no, it wasn't the point.
"You...okay?"
His friend responded with what he assumed was a nod, which seemed a little like he was struggling to wipe his tears on Luka's shirt.
"Just stay like this for a little longer."
The eagle said nothing, only resumed his awkward patting of the other's back while their Avians watched closely—perched on a nearby tree. Seconds ticked by without their notice; standing. Waiting. Luka didn't know how long 'a little longer' meant to Io, and was trying his best to keep up with his otherwise lack of response (apart from said awkward patting).
"Do you need to wipe your face?"
"Uh...yeah that would be nice," the smaller frame released his hold on the other and raised his gaze.
At first, Luka had thought that his friend had somehow underwent an operation that resembled an eye swap due to how puffy the latter's eyes were. He was about to voice his opinion when Victoria (a bird! A bird had to remind him!) was kind enough to save him from the pits of embarrassment by informing him that humans tended to have puffy eyes after crying.
Luke paused. It wasn't exactly his fault since he'd never witnessed a crying human in his entire lifetime. Even if he did, he probably hadn't paid enough attention to notice the puffy eyes—or perhaps did not even recall what the faces of people really looked like.
After all, humans were never something that he paid exclusive attention to.
"Sorry about your shirt," the moon phoenix rubbed his eyes shyly. "It smells nice by the way."
As usual, Io spoke without any sign of a filter and on ordinary circumstances, depending on who he was talking to, he'd receive a spectrum of reactions.
"Oh," said Luka. Spectrum of reactions.
"I don't have tissue. Do you?"
"No...but I have a leaf."
Luka did not have a leaf. He was only staring at the tree behind Io and getting ready to pluck one of the leafs from its low branches as though he genuinely believed that Io would agree and wipe his face with a leaf due to the absence of tissue.
Both were still for the next minute until the bubble of mirth that rose from Io's cage wandered higher and higher and threatened to burst—that he finally let slip an unintended laugh. It sounded to Luka almost lunar, his laugh. It was soft and kind, giving the impression of something whole.
Full.
"I guess a leaf works? I'll take it."
The eagle took his words at once and started towards the nearest tree when Io burst into laughter once more only to say that he meant it as a joke.
"I...knew that," claimed his companion.
The workings of the heart had its ways and it was this very magic of a connection so special that found a place in a world so dark; in existence so large yet seemingly insignificant. Perhaps just by being there, Luka would have dried Io's tears without lifting a hand and by some miracle of the night, make him smile by doing the same.
And he did.
"Guess I'll use my own shirt for now."
Luka had no choice but to agree. He turned towards the path, the direction in which they had been walking and asked if he was ready to carry on
and the other said
Yes
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"This is disgusting."
The bearded vulture struck aside a lamp that stood innocent by the corner of her desk, patiently awaiting for someone to return it to its original position. Vaughn stared at its helpless state, finding it particularly ironic that he wasn't the target of anything physical despite his existence; insignificant even when compared to a dull and inanimate lamp.
Perhaps that was all he ever was, and all he would ever be. Insignificant,
All he felt was the incomprehensive beat of his cage; nothing short of the creature that curled up small, still. It was harsh. This beat.
"Oh yes," his mother turned to meet his gaze as though acknowledging his presence for the first time. "Why are you here?"
Vaughn paused, searching for something he could say. There was nothing.
"I—"
"I didn't call for you."
The vulture didn't feel as though he was being interrupted. There wasn't much to be said in the first place, and so he thought that perhaps this was for the best. A part of him was glad that his mother was kind enough to spare him a moment of hers while the other paled in comparison, hoping to hear a word beyond an anger so simple, it was almost false.
"If you're here to comfort me, then I'd very much like for you to leave," she said with a frown, folding her arms. "Your trip went extraordinarily well, or so I've heard from Viktor."
He wanted to voice his opinion of it being a mistake—that he had not been enjoying himself in the slightest, but his mother was not so kind as to allow him the luxury of opportunity.
"That sparrow's a shrewd little thing isn't he? Even more so than yourself, Vaughn!" Verity mocked with a burst of laughter that was clearly forced. "Doesn't that sound like a tragedy to you?"
He was beginning to feel the brunt of her grief and anger at every passing second, paint peeling off her face to reveal something raw and desperate. Mother and son were alike in many ways despite the distance; each plastered by a mask that did not suit their nature.
"I'm sorry Mother."
Vaughn knew not what else to say. Had the ability to lose things that they deemed precious to them was something that could run in their blood, then perhaps it did. The family of scavengers lived up to their name, scraping past every damned second of their lives not knowing what it felt like to live and not just to survive.
"It doesn't matter," she spits with the voice of a snake. "All that matters now is the order that we've done so well to protect up will now. The Pyramid must stand, Vaughn."
"That is all."
Verity finished in a whisper that found its way into the heart of her child—weak against the wishes of its own flesh and blood. He looked away, unable to bear the sight of his mother drowning in pain and anguish when there was nothing he could do.
There was a voice at the back of his head, one that would have severely upset her had she been able to hear it.
You've come so far
"Even if it means that we have to stay as scavengers?" He asked quietly. "Forever?"
The gaze that met his eyes were filled with a kind of sadness that was unknown to a child. He did not know what to make of it.
"I remember how I asked him that very question," she smiled strangely.
"Him?"
"Your father."
Vaughn was quiet. He could feel the creature in his cage breathe with a hush, unable to venture any further beyond. It was a dark, ominous shadow that loomed ahead—one that he'd never been able to form a concrete impression of, or conceive in any manner.
"Listen to me, Vaughn."
He raised his head that was lowered. Those were the eyes of Verity Ann, he knew. And yet, he couldn't quite tell if it was her. His mother.
"You must always, always abide by the order. Even if I am no longer the one in power, no longer here, you must remain true to your role as Winged."
"Do not stray," she took him in her arms as though he was, again, a child. "And for the love of skies—"
"Never place your trust in anyone."
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A/N: I'll leave interpretations for the ending to Io and Luka's scene to you guys because it's relatively simple? HAHAHAHA if you're having trouble, I can explain in the comments if you voice it out :>
Here is the part!
Luka had no choice but to agree. He turned towards the path, the direction in which they had been walking and asked if he was ready to carry on
and the other said
Yes
I'm not sure if I'll be able to update next week with yet another orientation camp coming up but I'll do my very best!! ^^ ARGH *screams into the abyss*
-Cuppie