The breakfast table was full save a single seat in the corner. Lucienne picked at her toast, shrivelling appetite a direct result of the dull morning mood that plagued the room. Luka sat to her left with his plate untouched, expression plain and eyes fixed on the door ahead.

"So...what time's training gonna start?" Dmitri broke through the silence, crunching away at his bowl of cereal. Jeremiah turned to him with a look of amusement, handing him a napkin as he provided a vague response.

"As soon as we're all done with breakfast, I guess."

"We? Uh," Abigail reached for another uraro cookie. "If you haven't noticed, we're missing someone."

Vaughn felt sick at the thought of him being stuck in a room filled with bitter tension. For some strange reason, the entire class was in the mood for a sour edge and he, in turn, was left very dissatisfied. Naturally, the vulture would think himself the one and only predator entitled to a permanently bitter mind unless a higher power in the form of an author willed differently.

Coincidentally, the higher power had also gleefully assigned him to a villa that would test his patience and result in a terrible sleep cycle, manifested in the form of dark circles under his eyes. He wasn't entirely correct. As far as the higher power remembered, Vaughn had dark circles under his eyes since his infantile stages.

"Yeah. Tori's not here."

Eyes turned promptly towards the most suitable person to question. "Where is Iolani?" Jing brought it upon herself to ask carefully, since Luka did not seem very inclined to answer the question.

"I'll go wake him up," was the longest thing anyone in the room had ever heard Luka say. Dmitri had his eyes wide open—as though a shot of caffeine had somehow been pumped into his veins.

"Woah, uh. Okay...tell him to hurry up, alright? We haven't got all day," the falcon called over his shoulder and one could not help but think Dmitri naïve for assuming the simplicity of the situation—that the sparrow had merely overslept. Oversimplification was a mistake thought uncommonly made but in reality, plagued the minds of many human beings.

Vaughn however, was the kind to do the very opposite. Complicating matters and thinking beyond the appearance of a person or the surface of every situation was his forte. It explained the far-fetched idea in his head: a dead Iolani Tori foaming at his mouth from the possible poison in his dinner last night. Either that or reduced to an unrecognizable pile of flesh from Kirill's violent tendencies. Or perhaps stabbed by a sword dipped in poison just like Hamlet was...

Overcomplication, on the other hand, was another mistake that plagued the minds of many human beings as well.

_________________________________

The eagle arrived at Io's doorstep in a matter of seconds, having shifted to close the distance by flight. He rang the bell and waited with a heart that was abnormally loud, having either exhausted himself from the dead sprint or...well, the logical other. Luka did not want to admit that he was, by this point, extremely concerned for Io's safety but he understood perfectly well that it was a lie. He never knew anxiety felt so much like having flown a mile at record speed.

Impatient, he considered breaking the lock but Victoria warned him against it, suggesting that they fly round to Io's balcony instead since he would be very unhappy if the eagle broke something that belonged to someone else.

It wasn't long before Luka realized what he had gotten himself into, and for him to understand the light of the situation. He sought the scent that was coming from a certain direction and raised his guard for he could, already, feel it lowering.

Lyra was asleep in her birdhouse when they landed on the balcony. She woke with a start, retreating into a corner.

Who's there?

Lyra, it's us. Victoria said carefully, backing away as she did so. Are you alright? The poor boy's in there isn't he?

The sparrow peered out of her birdhouse, feeling slightly relieved. Oh! Thank skies. It's yesterday—there was something in his dinner.

Luka's first instinct was to check the door that separated the balcony and his bedroom. It was unlocked, and the scent of fresh linen was stroking the bars of his cage in a slow, painful motion. He daren't go in.

The room was a den and it barred any form of rationality or reason, inviting desires that even the mind could not harness.

"I can't go in," he swallowed, taking a step away from the door. "I'll lose."

His scent in very strong, Victoria said admittedly. It might have to do with having dual Avians. I'll go in first and talk to him.

"He might not listen," Luka had already thought this through. "It's his first time."

I'll give it a try.

Victoria entered quietly, landing on the bed next to Io's. All she could see was a white bump in the covers, which wasn't exactly the best sign.

Io? Io can you hear me.

There was a slight movement she picked up, and it appeared as though the bump was trembling. I think he's in pain.

Victoria moved closer, tugging the covers off the human with her beak as she did so. Io, can you breathe?

He wasn't looking at her. Io was lying sideways, a second pillow to his chest as he clutched at it desperately. "I'm okay," he whispered.

Oh! Oh, you can hear me—thank skies. How are you feeling?

"It's hot but I'm shivering."

Victoria replaced the covers to his neck, afraid that exposing his skin might result in a stronger scent being released. I understand. Don't you worry dear, we'll get you some help. Just...just hang in there.

"I can't think," he went on quietly, speaking to no one in particular. "There's something that's in the way. I'm not thinking. Why is it?"

Oh it's just the um, the heat of the moment, dear. You know, humans don't really think all the time, do they? Victoria evaded his question with a laugh, calling for her Winged to come in so that she could fly to the main building and ask for help.

"But isn't that it?" He whispered with ears that were flushed red. "Isn't thinking what makes us human? If we don't think, how are we...how are we different from animals who do nothing but mate and feed?"

Ah, see? You are thinking my dear. You're doing well controlling your first time.

Io laughed softly. "I don't think I want to become an animal, Victoria."

"I don't like this feeling."

"I don't like not thinking."

"It's like I just want to do it. To have sex."

"It's all I can think of. Is that an instinct, then?"

"Should humans only rely on their instincts? If we do, then we will be like animals, I suppose, so no—we're not meant to do that. So why do people rely on their instincts? For survival? Is that more important than retaining our humanity? It shouldn't be, should it? Being human isn't about—"

It was at this point at Luka entered the room and effectively shut him up. Victoria was already on her way to seek help from Jing, and she couldn't help but feel slightly relieved. The sparrow wasn't letting the heat get to him after all.

*

All it took to rouse the creature in Io's cage was a single glance at Luka, weakening the bars of reason and melting every chain of resolve he once had. It was the mind that looked after the heart—Io believed in its maternal quality, protecting what he understood was fragile and yet when aroused by certain emotions, turned lethal.

The scent of rain clouded his mind. Doubt and lust filled it like a fog. A dense, thick cloud that clung to reason and haunted its being; hunted for the easy prey within—the heart.

Luka sat on the edge of his bed, finding it hard to breathe with the sheer amount of control he was exercising just by retaining some form of common sense. He, too, felt the tug of the creature he tried so hard to rein in. It looked towards pleasure.

Raw, physical pleasure. One that would sate the instincts of the heart and leave, far behind, a human mind.

"Is it weird?"

"What is."

"My scent."

The eagle was reluctant to speak the truth. There was no going back if he did.

"I mean," Io swallowed carefully, "everyone else smells like flowers, or food, or, well...something fragrant, at least. Mine's weird."

Luka would have disagreed if he hadn't been so lost for words. Almost eighteen, he had the vague impression that having sex with someone who smelled like cooked rice or fried chicken was going to be unpleasant or just awkward. For all he knew, the silken scent of fresh linen—beds, in general—reminded him of hotels and rest; a scent that soothed the soul and invited subtle pleasures.

"You know," Io said as he felt reason slip through his fingers like water. "I used to think that happiness was something simple."

"Easy to attain."

He paused.

"But it isn't."

"My pa used to say that men only need three things to be happy," Io laughed quietly to himself. "I think you already know what they are."

Luka didn't respond with a word, merely nodded to express some vague form of understanding.

"I'm starting to think that he might be wrong," the sparrow drew a deep breath and felt a stirring below his waist. "I can't imagine attaining happiness with just that."

He sat up all of a sudden, startling the creature in Luka's cage as the covers fell to lay bare the most lucid scent. The latter's eyes sharpened in focus, animalistic for a second before returning under his control.

"Do you think there's a higher form of happiness?" Io asked as he drew his knees closer to his chest. "A sort of happiness that not everyone can attain. Different from the physical one. A physical happiness or pleasure that can be fulfilled by the three things that my pa said."

Luka paused to consider the question.

"There might be," he concluded, seeking the quiet moments of happiness he had stored away in his mind. Most of them involving a single person.

"Intellectual pleasures," Io termed without hesitation. "Feeling happiness just by thinking. By rationalizing about our being and our existence—do you think that's possible? If it isn't, then I must be weird. Because I do feel happy just by thinking. About anything."

The eagle laughed shortly, unspoken words weaving through the air. Like Io had relayed to Viktor, Luka never really said a word about his unusual curiosity and abnormal reasoning. While everyone else claimed him to be 'strange' or 'weird'—which he knew he was—Luka never did.

"Is it dark outside?" Io prompted, raising his gaze to meet the eagle's for the first time of the day. "I think it's going to rain."

The sky outside was clear and cloudless; instead, it was Luka's eyes that were darker than usual. "It's clear."

"Oh," Io rocked his knees back and forth, hugging. "So it's just you?"

"Yeah."

Through the silence that ensued, Luka picked up a wave of heat that he assumed belonged to Io. Perhaps he had underestimated the sparrow's strength and the truth was that he could supress his heat with relative ease.

"It's not easy," Io said all of a sudden, seeming to have invaded the other's Link but was, in fact, merely expressing what he felt—which really made him one with the eagle.

"What is?"

Io breathed once to calm the creature within but only roused it further. He swallowed whatever passion that rose to his lips, willing it to channel its efforts elsewhere.

"It's not easy when you're here."

Bluntly put. Yet, the sentence had left room for imagination. It? There was only one thing he could be referring to.

"I could say the same," the eagle responded with a rare expression, one that Io could barely perceive as a disarming smirk—uncharacteristic of his companion. "Want me to leave?"

"No."

The answer was immediate; and regardless of what he had said earlier, Io could only blame his impulsive statement on the cloud in his face—so large that he could not see it or anything beyond. "Don't."

"Why," it sounded like a challenge; one that dared the other to speak the truth and, by doing so, unravel himself before the other. It was the unravelling that sparked flames.

"Is that a question?" The sparrow asked quietly, fearing that he and his friend had somehow ventured into dangerous waters. There was a heat in the air that hung taut, distorting their impressions of each other and leaving both rather confused as to what they were.

"No."

Like a fog, it blurred lines; broke the cage and out stepped the creature within, hungry and awake.

"Help me."

His plea was sweet.

____________________________

Feet.

The eagle had heard the front door open and close, implying the entry or exit of a stranger. He concluded that it was the former—inferring from the mere draw of Io's scent that had anyone else been in the villa, they would have claimed him within a beat of the creature within.

"Luka?" The sparrow drew him away from distraction, eyes inviting.

"There's someone downstairs."

A whistle from the doorway proved him wrong. Whoever had returned from breakfast moments ago was leaning against the doorframe, peering into the room with Avian eyes. "Thought I caught a scent...so it was you."

Luka didn't spare the girl a glance. Neither did he make much of her words, deeming them as a minor case of provocation which he unfortunately had to admit, was common towards prey in heat. He did, however, identify her as one of Kirill's students who had been present at the dinner table last night.

It was this that made him see from a bird's eye view—a view he didn't have enough height to catch from before. Io was in the direct territory of predators he barely knew. And if each and every one of them were to behave as this girl would, his sparrow would have a hard time indeed.

She stepped into the room, drawing closer; coming into the private space that she was aware belonged to the pair. It was a direct challenge.

At this, she finally gained the eagle's full attention. His eyes—warning.

The girl breathed in the scent that filled her cage with a special flame. A heated scent that sought pleasures deeper than anything physical. A nostalgic invitation sealed with the string of one's most pleasant memory provided a draw so strong it was hard to resist.

It was one she had never encountered before.

"You're unclaimed," the girl said with a gaze that would have belonged to any predator who came within reach. "I can tell from your scent."

Luka tensed with a frown, a rare expression on his face that was otherwise unreadable.

In a daze, Io turned slow as though waking from a dream. "What?"

"You smell..." she drew closer into the room, "amazing."

She was invading. That was the term they used to describe the predators who sought an interest in claiming a prey.

"Leave."

Luka rose, away from the bed to stand between her and what they appeared to be contesting. He was heads taller and the look in his eyes was far from a friendly gaze but she did not oblige. They were calculating.

The eagle was aware of his disadvantage. A Winged without his Avian would not be able to shift and he could see hers—just beyond the doorway, by the stairwell—perched on the banister. A raven.

He would have had this in his hands without lifting a finger. There were rules to a fight, as far as he knew, but the truth of the matter remained.

Luka had made it a point to never involve himself in a contest for prey. Not once was he interested in any, after all.

This was an entirely different matter.

Do predators contest over friends?

Perhaps not until now, no. No prey and predator were ever friends. At present however, Luka had only one priority and he was aware of it.

"Leave," he said once again, and this time—the raven looked him in the eye with a smile that was wry.

"Make me."

*

The words left her lips and a black bird came hurtling past the doorway; at his face. He ducked on instinct, grabbing whatever that had attacked him by the neck before it bit him—drawing blood.

Io was frightened. Afraid and confused, he looked towards the balcony to see if help had arrived but only Lyra was in sight, hopping around frantically and looking towards the sky.

As far as the sparrow could conceive, he was witnessing a fight between an eagle and a raven for there was no sign of humanity left in either of the two. There was no restraint in their hostility, human or not. Io made out eyes that were glowing, with slits for pupils that further demonstrated his point.

Would calling out to Luka wake him?

Where was he now, in his mind? Was he lost?

Everyone.

The sparrow slipped out of his covers, no longer in a daze. His head was clear—very clear, as though finally awake and reason (although clouded with need) was back to barely holding on. It would be wrong to say that he, as prey, was afraid of the aggression that both predators were directing at each other. Rather, the truth resided in Iolani Tori; in his humanity within, which had been deeply frightened by the animalistic qualities his friend had adopted in a matter of two words.

He escaped through the door to the balcony, sliding it close after slipping through.

Io! What in skies are you doing out here? Lyra protested with a fluster. I—you're feeling perfectly unwell, please stay in bed.

"I can't, Lyra."

Everyone.

Desperation crept into his cage, melding with need that was already present within. "I can't."

"I need to go. I need to go, I need to go now."

But, she hopped from the ledge and onto the heart of his hand. But where?

"Away," he cried. "I need to get away."

Away! I...I wish I could help you but from what?

Each emotion stuffed itself into his cage, building to a crowd that he could no longer contain—the mind was barely holding on; reason at its final breath.

"Everyone."

And for the first time,

Io took flight

as a sparrow.

_____________________________

A/N:

I'm sorry if you found this chapter a little shorter than usual >_< I've been capping at 5/6k words recently and wanted a change—a sole chapter, a set-aside scene just for Io's heat. If you looked closely at the synopsis of the second book, you will see that 'heat' for Io's case, comes across as very different from the 'heat' that you see in other books that involve it (eg. Werewolf, furry themed books) not because they are birds XD but rather because Io is the one experiencing it.

Io experiences things very differently and has a very strange thinking process. At some parts of the series, he even exhibits the behaviour of a person with a mental disorder, although it is very, very subtle. Io is strange, weird, different—and many people have told him so.

Which is why when Viktor asks 'so what does Luka say' when Io says that 'everyone except Luka has said that he was strange or different', Io responds by saying that 'Luka doesn't say anything'. Luka is special to Io because he has no concept of 'normal'. Luka is very closed-off from his surroundings, keeping many things to himself while Io is kind of the opposite—he seeks many things from his surroundings and takes them in to rationalize what it could mean. Luka, therefore, doesn't know what it means to be 'strange' because, in the first place, he doesn't have the concept of what is normal.

This idea is emphasized by how Io himself admits that he is strange. Let me give an example of a cliché story with a cliché protagonist (I'm sorry if this offends you, I am not in any way referring to any particular story I promiseee):

Irrelevant person: You are weird. I've never met someone like you. It's like...you're just...different.

Almighty protagonist: Really? I mean, isn't this normal?

Irrelevant person: Not really. Everyone's doing A while you're doing...B, C, D. It's just weird.

Almighty protagonist: Well I've been doing B, C, D for my entire life so I've no idea what you're talking about man. I'm not as different as you think I am.

Here's the deal.

Unlike every other character, Iolani Tori has the heights (that he was so afraid of) to see things from a bird's eye view. Io's line of sight is so wide and so large that he sees many things that one person standing on the ground cannot see (which is also why he is the moon phoenix, and is the 'EYE in the sky' that SEES everything) and therefore does not perceive in one simple light.

Unlike every other character, Io does not deny someone else's' point of view and reject that he is 'different'. He understands where this person is coming from because he can see where he/she is coming from. He understands the concept of what the general society calls 'normal', does not reject it, accepts it, but also comes to terms with what others deem as his 'abnormality'.

Io KNOWS that he is different.

We can tell when every conversation with him goes like this:

Irrelevant (not really XDD) person: You're weird.

Iolani Tori: I know :)

The clichéd response would be: really?

It expresses doubt, and a vague denial, the prospect of implying 'hmm....I don't think so' is hidden in that word 'really'. This is because that character is unable to see from the other person's point of view, or from society's point of view. These characters are considered naïve, to have yet experienced the wider world and have yet to see many things. The reason they don't understand why someone else would have the concept that they are weird because they themselves have a different idea of what is 'normal'.

THEY consider themselves normal.

I've had a few readers telling me that they can't wait for Io to mature and suffer and learn that the world is a cruel place. Believe me, I can't wait for it too.

But if you haven't noticed, Io has been through quite some things. He has never once said that he does not hate Pipa for abandoning him at the time by choosing herself. He just doesn't quite know yet. What he does know, is that he loves her. But we all know that it is possible to hate someone as much as you love them.

Io has been repeatedly targeted by almost every single predator around him. And to be transferred into this very den of predators is no joke. V's the one who instigated this, but imagine getting transferred into a class where you know everyone is looking at your every action and knowing your weakness, looking to capitalize on it—this is what raw society is like. It is ugly, and it is about survival.

Io KNOWS THIS. Io knows. He has repeatedly said that if everyone thinks only about survival, we would be reduced to animals. He questions where humanity has gone in this process, and at the end of our lives if we have lived as a human being or an unthinking, unfeeling soul.

This isn't even a major part of the difficulties he has faced so far in the series and I'm sure you can think up more.

Io is going to be fifteen soon. He is a very, very young boy. There is much more he needs to learn and I have so much in store for him.

Just—this fourteen year old is more mature than the majority of 50, 60 year olds in this world, jaded by society and barely hanging on to survival. They are backed into a corner. Some of them even choose to vote for Donald Trump XD (Cuppie outright showing her distaste for this orange turnip LOL TURNIP IM SORRY) thinking that this is the only solution to a better world and a better life. Do they really think that this is what living as a human being is about?

I write this story with the hope that you will not become one of them. That I, as well, will retain my humanity as much as possible.

I'm not sure if you ever thought a simple response to the statement 'you're strange' would matter so much. It's such a small part of the story.

Io saying 'I know' means a lot.

It means much more than you think it does.

And now, you know :)

-Cuppiecake.