"Please rise to welcome Headmaster Kirill and the new class of hearts."

There was a distinct silence in the hall; one that, despite the decent applause, could be heard by those whose hearts were caged. Eyes watched as a dozen students entered the hall through the double doors, led by a Himalayan vulture. The performance had only just begun, and it was already beginning to feel like Verity's show all over again.

The sizzling anticipation for change—harbored by the majority of prey—died under a gaze so diseased, one would have thought it resembled a plague.

Dread aside, Io was having none of that; only because Dmitri was standing right in front of him, thus blocking his view of the carpet that extended across the distance between the double doors and the high table. Io could barely see anything from where he was positioned, and had resorted to staring at the gap between Lucienne's elbow and Dmitri's side while they applauded in a languid manner.

Through the gap, he could (very vaguely) catch a glimpse of the newcomers. Their backs, specifically.

It was however, a very brief and unlikely instance that he met the gaze of one of them.

A shrike, it seemed to him.

How likely was it that someone had turned his head at the exact time to meet his gaze—through the tiniest gap between anything at all—and smiled?

Io watched as the shrike turned back around to ascend the steps towards the high table, wondering if the very displacement of power was meant to teach his classmates a lesson; or a mere undermining of everything that they were.

The applause did not stop until the very last member was seated, leaving a select few predators rather disturbed. These newcomers were regarded highly in the eyes of the high table, and each of them became increasingly curious as to how this applied.

Io returned to his seat with the paralyzing thought of a shrike pecking at the bars of his cage until he noticed, the expression of his fellow classmates seated around him. Across the table was Dmitri, Lucienne and Jeremiah within his direct field of vision. None of them looked very pleased by the term that was used to introduce the youth members of the council.

Predators (across every tier and rank) turned to stare.

It was something never before seen—the dismissal of what was considered to be the highest-ranked predators on the island in a mere second. A single sentence. A word.

New

To be replaced...it was something they assumed would never happen; and Io was not surprised to find the fork in Jeremiah's hand bent in half, unable to return to its original shape ever again.

*

"What the fuck is going on?" Spat the falcon as soon as they left the dining hall and were on their way back to the predator's dormitories. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck them all." In his moment of rage, Dmitri's hand morphed into his avian's claw and marked the banister with an unworldly scratch.

"Do us a favor and shut up, will you?" Shri clicked her tongue and snapped in return, as displeased as the one she addressed. "You're not the only—"

"Shut the fuck up, bitch. Tired of your acting."

None of them bothered to correct either of the two and each were far too caught up in their selfish anger to say a word. Vaughn had disappeared even before the end of dinner, and Jing was never with them in the first place. Io had not spotted her at the high table either.

"I could almost murder every single one of them right now," the cassowary voiced very quietly. "All of them."

"Not the best idea, considering that murder dismisses the prospect of suffering," Odette brought up calmly, turning to her brother with an extravagant sigh. "They deserve every needle shoved down their throats."

"Do whatever you want," Jeremiah voiced sharply, oddly short-fused. "I'm not joining a bunch of savages."

Dmitri whipped around at his words, closing the distance in a fraction of a second before grabbing the collar of his shirt. There was a monster in his eyes. Uncaged. "They're fucking messing with us and you give a shit about your morals now?"

It felt to the kite like a punch in his gut and he had raised a fist to retaliate when something came between them, resembling a worm wriggling through a crack in the wall. Iolani Tori had a frame so small, either predator would have missed him entirely if not for the words he'd decided to yell at them both.

"And is it wrong to give a shit about morals? Is it wrong to feel immense anger at having been replaced?" He kicked them in the balls.

It was strangely satisfying, accounting for the fact that either of them were far too wrapped up in pain to entertain the thought of anger and surprise. The rest appeared stunned by his outburst. Both his language and actions had been entirely uncharacteristic, or so Luka Sullivan was fairly startled by.

"All of you are being incredibly narrow-minded and fucking immature—yes, fucking immature," He challenged upon witnessing Jeremiah's eyes widen at the word. "Neither of you see past yourselves, and that includes all of you as well!" Io turned to the rest of his classmates with a glare.

All? Luka blinked, bluntly hit by this point. He was starting to feel the creeping of a vine around the bars of his cage. He hadn't said anything.

"Now, if you'll excuse me and reflect on your childish behavior," the moon phoenix snapped and left the hallway through the stairs on their right.

____________________

Something was flowing down the river; the sound of water slipping, smoothly, across wet rock; and its soft splashing, slithering alongside the banks; and above, the vastness of a sky within his field of vision before he was, all of a sudden, pulled underneath the surface and

Pipa.

Pipa was talking to him about someone—and then someone else. There was a smile on her face and he caught words and names that slipped past her lips in the form of bubbles that rose to the surface although everything was in place. They were in the dining hall. There was no water.

He was guiding her wheelchair, and they were going somewhere and then at the end of the corridor, he turned and Luka was there. The corridor. He was just there; and so was Victoria.

"Luka!"

He was flowing down the river.

Then he was flowing back up.

_______________________

There was a knock on his door. And then another.

The vulture had been in the process of removing his clothes for the purpose of a bath, and it was only until Nox began screeching at the door that he had his attention directed towards it. He stared at the dress shirt that he'd only just taken off. Why couldn't Jae-min simply invite himself into the room like he'd done for the past couple of weeks?

Spare key. He must have forgotten about it, probably in the pocket of his day coat or perhaps lying around somewhere on his dresser. Another knock.

"Tsk, stop being so impatient," Vaughn called out to the person behind the door as he slipped on his dress shirt and made for the door. "It's your fault for—"

Stupid sparrow.

No wonder his scent was a little off; it hadn't been his step-brother. Vaughn felt his anger rise at the sight of Iolani Tori. Earlier, he had returned to his room in attempt to collect and surpress the increasing concern for his mother's wellbeing and his bitterness at having been replaced for the second, third, forth time in his life. After all, he was used to being an inferior subsitute to anyone else.

A mere replacement.

"Hi Vaughn!"

The vulture found no need to craft a witty response. Io was far too insignificant for him to put on any form of an act. "What do you want?"

"It's Wednesday. Do you know what that means?"

Vaughn's instant reaction was to frown and give the moon phoenix a look of disdain (for his mere presence, of course). He then decided on a pinch of sarcasm that would hopefully put Io out of place. "That we wear pink?"

Io stared at him for a second before squaring his shoulders. "Sorry to disappoint but I don't have anything pink...you could always wear it. I mean, as long as you attend the club session."

Oh. So that's what this was about.

Vaughn sought to close the door on his club president, knowing that leaving his room at night would only serve to resurface memories that were knives. As he reached for the handle of the door however, something else came to mind and it was the prospect of having Iolani Tori at his door every Wednesday night.

A pest, was what the vulture thought as he finally gave in to the stupid sparrow's determination.

*

"Good evening, professor! I've brought two things: Vaughn and dried mango slices," Io called out to the widow bird's back with a wave, dragging his friend along. Vaughn was not willing to be dragged.

A single glance at the picnic mat laid out in the middle of nowhere with four insignificant pebbles preventing it from flying away in the night breeze brought his palm to his face. How, exactly, was this miserable set up a club session? The sparrow must be incredibly unfashionable as much as he was amazingly foolish.

"W-what a pleasant surprise!" Callaghan appeared fairly stunned by the vulture's presence. "And I have prepared for us some cucumber sandwiches. Please, sit."

Vaughn did not want to sit. There wasn't even enough space for him to sit and stay a sufficient distance away from either person; meaning that he would have to sacrifice his personal space and that was a huge problem.

"I prefer to stand, thank you very much."

"What?" Io turned to his fellow club member with an expression of sheer disbelief. "No one stands for two hours when they are given the option to sit."

"Good. Then I'm afraid I'll be excusing myself early," solved the vulture with a smirk of his own.

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to consider you absent," Io returned, opening his packet of dried mango slices as he sat cross-legged on the picnic mat. Vaughn could not see how the informal setting was going to be part of their club session, no less the club president's idea. Well, not as though he would volunteer himself for the position.

As far as he knew, Io and Callaghan looked as though they were part of the tea party club. It was, to him, absolutely ridiculous. Gossip appeared to him the only thing they were capable of on a thin checkered picnic mat under a clouded sky.

"True," said the boy as he heard the vulture's thoughts through his Link. He didn't appear guilty for doing so. "I mean, what do we do every Wednesday, professor?"

"It's become part of my being that I can't tell watching the stars in the dark and talking apart. Maybe it's all meant to come together."

Watching the stars? Scoffed Vaughn, assuming instantly that Iolani and the professor were blind. At this rate, the clouds would be all they could see.

The widowbird laughed, reaching up with an elegant finger to adjust the frames on the bridge of his nose. "I'm not too sure how I feel about that, Iolani. But perhaps we could use the binoculars today to seek something special in the skies," Callaghan produced a pair of binoculars and handed it to Vaughn. "I believe you've already returned yours? This is mine, but you may use it for the time being."

Io noticed how the professor was unable to look the vulture in the eye as he did so, and could not help but wonder just why it was not the case with himself. Perhaps Vaughn, as the son of the professor's predator, had to be respected on an equal level?

"...you have my thanks," Vaughn said rather stiffly, receiving the equipment with both his hands but remained standing regardless. He was left staring at the missing thumb on the widowbird's right hand, silently hoping that it wasn't part of his mother's interests.

Io on the other hand, watched their interaction from afar and had, of course, caught wind of the vulture's curiosity. Vaughn was rarely curious.

"Professor, how did you lose your thumb?" He proceeded to ask, as munching on a slice of mango. Vaughn quickly assumed that Io was out of his mind; that and the fact that he'd invaded his Link again was all in all infuriating. To ask a question so blunt and sensitive with eyes that spoke of a clear conscience and genuine curiosity...this sparrow was indeed the worst he'd ever seen. He had to be

Callaghan only laughed sadly. "Does that bother you very much?" He lowered his gaze to the hand with four fingers. "Well, it is rather disturbing..."

"It's not," Io denied with a smile. "I just want to know more about you."

The vulture blanched at the sheer power of his words; how they seemed to capture any heart at all. Callaghan did not seem very reluctant to tell his story. Only a little confused by the sudden cloud that passed his mind.

"I've had three predators in my life...they were all very—protective, to say the least," he began with a distant look in his eyes. Io and Vaughn were drawn to them at once. "Professor Kirill was my first predator."

A bewildered 'what?' turned heads towards the vulture, who wasn't the best at listening to stories since this was, really, one of the rare conversations he had with...people other than his family. Or the stupid sparrow.

"Yes," Callaghan laughed once more. "Surprising, isn't it? I was pretty surprised myself."

"Seems like you were very popular with predators, sir," Io chirped with a lunar smile, catching a glimmer of light reflected in the widowbird's glasses. "How did you feel then?"

"Pleased, honored, and yet so afraid at the same time," he stared at the box of cucumber sandwiches he'd made after dinner. It remained untouched. "I thought I would have to fend for myself. The idea was...frightening. I wasn't ranked very high either."

"It was then that I heard about the season games. You could say I was saved," Callaghan went on quietly. "The prospect of having a predator was very appealing—they would no longer call me a widow. I craved company, you see."

"But I was unlucky. I had assumed that there was simply no chance of me drawing a joker, but I did. It could have been anything else," Io flinched at the words that had once crossed his mind. It seemed like a long time ago. "All I wanted was an escape. Who knew I had the fortune of making everything worse than it already was?"

"Fortune's a strumpet," said Vaughn out of nowhere. Both the professor and Io turned to stare. "It's Hamlet."

The moon phoenix laughed and his friend clicked his tongue in annoyance. "What?"

"You mean to say that luck is fickle?" Callaghan nodded in understanding. "Well you are right, Alekseyve. It wasn't on my side until I met Quint." The confusion on Io's face led Vaughn to explain, rather begrudgingly, that Faustes' first name was Quint. He did not forget to add an expression along the lines of 'stupid sparrow'.

"We had been friends. Acquaintances, I called it—but he had insisted on the former term. Childishly demanding, your teacher was," the widowbird reminisced with a laugh. "At the time, I was already Professor Kirill's. When he found that I had been spending time with another predator during club sessions at night, he...removed my thumb so that I wouldn't be able to return to my room."

Callaghan's students were increasingly appalled by his account of the past. Vaughn voiced in a rather brash manner that using his silencer on every prey he had in the past was the only way of getting them to obey.

Io heaved a sigh of frustration. "Vaughn, were you even listening? Are you sure you don't want to take that back?"

"What?" The vulture snapped with a click of his tongue. "At least there's no blood involved. Chopping off a thumb is insane."

"Yes, but if you consider physically immobilizing your prey while they are still alive, then it's an entirely different matter," the moon phoenix pointed out with a sharp look in his eyes. Vaughn could not see his side of the argument at all. It was to him sheer madness.

"Students!" The professor adjusted his glasses in a fairly comical manner and turned to them with a falsely-strict demeanor. Io could not help but appreciate his effort and at the same time, pity him immensely for having to deal with an entire class. "The clouds have cleared."

Indeed; as Io and Vaughn had each been too mindful of the other, the moon had emerged from the clouds and the sky—filled with the most unlikely sea of what seemed to them, gems of the heart. The moment's silence and awe lulled the creatures of the heart to sleep, and almost as though hit with a sudden light before a dream, Vaughn was overwhelmed with a series of findings as he gazed at what he assumed was his first experience of the sublime.

Untimely and indiscriminate, yet;

In perfect alignment with the world that revolved around his cage.

He realized that Iolani Tori had many things within—some that weren't necessarily filled with the light and joy that he so seemed to possess, always.

He realized that Iolani Tori was not leaving any space for his mind to recall the memories of the past, and that it was the present that he had been forced to focus on for the past few minutes or so.

He realized that Iolani Tori was the friend that he had always wished for, as he would on days like these—locked up in his room, staring out of the window and into the dark.

The moon would always,

always be there.

_______________________

A/N: Relatively short chapter here, but I wanted to emphasize on Io's ability to fully come to terms and understand his emotions—whether or not they are positive or negative. You can tell that he's absolutely fuming when Jeremiah and Dmitri turn against each other, and it's kind of the first time that Luka's (or everyone, for the matter, including you!) seen him so worked up. Io does not deny or mute his emotions in whatever cases, and this itself can be something dangerous.

However, his ability to come to terms with his anger and understand why and what he is feeling allows him to turn to another emotion while his fury dissipates. When Io appears at Vaughn's door, he seems like a completely different person from before when he is, actually, the same. Within that short amount of time—the walk away from the dining hall and towards Vaughn's dorm, he has managed to develop a further understanding of his anger and accept it as it is before carrying on.

This has nothing to do with Io putting on a smile or faking/muting his emotions, but the fact that his mind is able to understand the creature within very well, as a constant thinker.

Also, the smol thing is important to Vaughn :') aw. EHE.

-Cuppiecake. 

Hmm...I'm so tired. Trying so hard. Always trying