she dreamed of paradise || [Luka & Aquila]

Luka hummed as he made his way down the silent Caracombs, a book in his hand. The random tune stopped as he looked forward, squinting into the shadows randomly, hearing a hissing as a small, harmless snake went by. Raising an eyebrow at the unusual sight, he shrugged and carried on forward.

Sitting himself down on one of the larger nooks there, he pulled out his book. A Muggle one, shockingly enough, called "The Phantom Tollbooth". Of course, his parents wouldn't approve of him reading it, but who cares. Opening the book, he grinned slightly at the picture he used as a bookmark. One of him and his sister, taken before she passed after they had been talking about where they wanted to live in the future. They had also been making up a world for just them, one where everything would be perfect. She had liked to call it their paradise. However, they were young at the time and it was all gone now.

Humming once more, he settled down and started reading the words, the toneless tune slowly stopping as he read and became immersed in the book.

[[ooc: excuse the title; I've recently become obsessed with the Coldplay song. xD]]

Aquila was bored. What else was new? He knew hardly anyone here and with Ceph miles away he did not have his usual 'go but my brother' fall back when boredum set in.

So he went for the next best thing. He went to scout at the more interesting places he could worm himself into.

The catacombs looked as good a place as any to get up to something.

Of course as soon as he was down there he realized that except for a bit of a dark and crap load of silence... there wasn't much down there.

"Stupid boring Durmstrang," he muttered to himself as he picked up a rock and chucked it ahead of him. "Stupid book for bitting me. Stupid parents for sending me to stupid boring Durmstrang. Stupid Ceph for not being here...""

He continued in this refrain walking along, and so caught up in his own self misery - for really what teenager hadn't done this at one point? - that he almost completely missed the boy sitting in the nook, reading.

Luka grinned at his book, shaking his head at Tock. Such a brilliant character for a book. And the Mathmagician with his rivalry against King Azaz. He kind of amazed him that Muggles were able to come up with something this interesting to read.

And The Humbug. Don't get him started on that.

Looking up when he heard muttering, he raised an eyebrow at what he heard. "Stupid boring Durmstrang .. Stupid parents .. Stupid Ceph .." He wondered for a moment who this 'Ceph' was but decided to ignore it.

"Durmstrang isn't boring," He said to the other in heavily accented English, hoping to bring him out of his 'funk'. "Hogwarts is the boring one. So many rules," He waved his hand about randomly, shrugging his shoulders.

"You just haven't been here long enough apparently, mon ami."

[ooc: 'Ceph miles away he did not have his usual 'go but my brother' fall back when boredum set in.' I resent that.]

"Pfft," the boy stated with a slight smirk, "Its the rules that make it fun. More things to break. If I'm always allowed to do it here than its no fun at alllll."

Quil shuffled his feet into the ground, as he continued to pout about. Really, there was nothing Aquila loved better than wallow in his own self pity sometimes... maybe it came from trying to please others too often.... maybe he was just that selfish.... either way the boy didn't really care.

He shook his head, "Nope, mon ami I haven't been here long at all... and didn't really want to come either..."

Luka nodded his head in understanding. 'So he's one of those kids,' He thought to himself absently, thinking about the kids who prefer having rules to break over free reign to do whatever they want. He had met a lot of them and most of them were risk-takers. He preferred to sit back and watch, laughing at them if they failed and congratulating if they succeeded.

Tilting his head to the side, he watched the other shuffle around. He was pouting too, and that seemed like something that wasn't unusual on his face.

"Did it have something to do with vos parents? Or that Ceph you were calling 'stupid' under your breath?" He asked curiously, leaning forward slightly and closing his book, placing it on his lap. He put his hands over it protectively, unconsciously guarding it and the photo within.

Quil gave an impish grin realizing that he's childish mumblings had been over heard.

"Parents yes, Ceph no," Aquila stated with a nod. "My parents are.... very.... opinionated people." He paused a moment then nodded decided that that sounded like the best - most tactful - way of putting it at the moment.

He shrugged and laughed, "Ceph's just my brother."

Luka hummed, leaning back to his previous position once more. He smiled at the other and patted the seat next to him, inviting Aquila to sit.

"Pureblood, by any chance?" He asked, smiling warmly. It was easy to relate if they were muggle-hating purebloods seeing as his were exactly the same.

"Big brother, huh? What's he like?" Luka asked, a slightly wistful tone to is voice. He wondered what it would be like to be a big brother - and he would have been to, if it weren't for 'the incident', as he liked to call it.

Aquila looked at the gesture smiled, shrugged and hopped up beside the boy, "Why not? I'm Aquila Turrow by the way."

"How did you guess?" he asked wrily, and impish grin on his face.

"What is Cephie like?" the boy leaned back against the wall as a smirk grew slowly on to his face. "Well, for starters... he's completely bonkers, I love him, but he's crazy. And really, he's a bit of a kill joy. Won't let me do anything fun. Always on about this 'Don't get yourself killed Aqui' thing."

He smirked for another moment, until the smirk softened into a fond smile, "He's a good brother..."

Luka nodded his head. He recognised the name from an English book on ancestry he had read. "Luka Milligan. Nice to meet you, Aquila Turrow,"

Laughing slightly, he shrugged his shoulders. "My parents are opinionated people too. Very opinionated," He said carelessly, putting emphasis to try and get the point across, basically saying his parents hated muggles with a burning passion.

"If I was him, I would be telling you not to get yourself killed too," He pointed out. "He cares for you it seems, and would hate to have you killed because of something reckless. Do you do a lot of reckless things, Aquila Turrow?" He asked, grinning at the other brightly.

Luka resisted the urge to 'aww' at the other boy, putting a hand over his mouth to hide the half-smirk half-smile on his lips.

Quil nodded, "Like wise, Milli."

"I think I know that kind of Opinionated," the boy nodded with understanding.

Aquila smirked and pretend to really think about this question".

"Wee-elll," he hedged slowly, "It depends on your definition of Reckless. You see I don't see anything reckless at all about half the things I do, but if you take somone likee... lets say Ceph I think he thinks me leaving the house is reckless."

He smirked after a moment, "That's one of the reasons he didn't want me to come here. If he wasn't around who would save me from myself?"

Luka's eyes widened at the sound of the horrendous name. "Milli?" He squeaked, hoping that he had heard wrong.

Luka just nodded his head, humming slightly. There were many Opinionated parents at Durmstrang, and some of the Opinions were passed down onto the kids as well. Kind of disappointing really, Luka couldn't help but think.

"I've only just met you and, to be honest, I think leaving you home alone is très stupide, Aquila Turrow," He nodded his head sagely, before shrugging his shouders as if to say 'what can you do'. "But maybe he is overprotective. I wouldn't know: I've never met him,"

Luka made a small noise in the back of his throat. "I'm sure you'll meet someone soon enough."

Quil smirked and raised an eyebrow, "What no Milli? You Durmy's are no fun at all."

"Now, Now... I'm not that bad. I've never broken anything that magic couldn't fix," he beamed an innocent smile as his eyes sparkled with mischief. He really need to quite seeing his injuries as points of pride... maybe Cepheus was right, he probabaly was a masochist. "If I had been born magic-less I would have been screwed."

He laughed for a moment even though it was rather a serious point.

"I don't know," the boy stated half seriously, half not, "Saving me from myself is a full time job. I don't think just anyone can do it. I'm what parents like to tactfully call 'a handful'."

Luka shook his head in denial. He was not going to be nicknamed Milli. "It's a girls name! I refuse to be called such a horrific name. No calling me that," He huffed, pouting and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, it's very lucky that you're magical then," He muttered under his breath, but it echoed slightly around them. He grinned sheepishly at the other. "Maybe if you just went with rules and didn't try and get in life-or-probably-death situations?" he suggested.

Snorting lightly, he nodded his head, understanding completely. "I've met loads of 'handful' kids. Didn't like many of them..." He trailed off at the end, shrugging a shoulder. "But, what can you do. Maybe you'll end up getting a puppy to guard you or something."

Aquila pouted, "Aww, well you are simply no fun at all." He paused for a moment before sighing dramatically, "Fine I shall endevor to not call you Milli any longer, but I can't make any promises... Milli."

"Hey, Hey, Hey now, I never said I try to do anything... the life or death situations just find me."

He gave his best innocent smile before laughing.

"Well Don't worrry Milli - I mean Luka," he flashed him an impish grin, "Everyone loves me." The boy shivered and shook his head impulsively at the meantion of a puppy, "Nope, no dogs.... I do not like dogs."

Luka groaned and dropped his heads into his hands. "You're not even trying," He almost whimpered.

"Of course they do," He hummed. "Because it happens to everyone," Rolling his eyes, he wondered if this boy would live to see next year if it was really as bad as he said it was.

The innocent look he was going for just made him look a bit more suspicious in Luka's eyes.

"Get a cat or something then," He added onto the end, ignoring the almost-use of his newly hated nickname. If it was used again, he would agree to something like 'every time you use it, you pay me a galleon' or something. That could work out well.

"Am too," he said with a smile, and playfully shoved the older boy, "And quite whimpering Mi-Luky, its really not an attractive trait."

Quil nodded his head seriously, "It really does. I don't know why people do not know this is common knowledge."

"Hmm, I can has possiblities.... I shall call the Cat Milli and it will not complain," he answered with a smirk.

"Well, at least Luky is better than bloody Milli," Luka muttered, shoving the other boy back gently and grinning at him brightly.

"Uhuh. Because I've been in loads of life-or-death situations, and so have all of my other friends," He said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at the other, completely amused.

"It's a cat. It can't complain - unless you're a beast speaker, which isn't very normal," He pointed out, rolling his eyes.

Aquila shook his head in an 'isn't it sad' manor "Some people just do not understand a good nicknames."

"Well, I feel if your doing life right, you have to have been in at least one or two," he said with a small smile. "Its surprising the things you learn when you stop caring about safetly just a little bit."

"Excuse me, have you ever met a cat? Those things complain all the time. I swear ever one of their meows is a different form of disgurntled." He nodded and then laughed.

Luka could feel his eye twitch at this boy. Oh dear god, why did he start talking to this boy? "Maybe some peoples' names just aren't meant for nicknames," He offered, referring to himself.

"No thank you," He huffed, shaking his head. "I prefer to be safe and not almost die every other day. Because that's pretty much the normal thing to do, oui? Mort est nul,"

Luka blinked in slight confusion, his eyebrows furrowing. "Yes, I have met a cat. And I wouldn't be surprised if they meowed at you in disgruntlement because you were pulling their tails or something."

Quil just smiled. He was bored of antagnizing the poor kid over the nickname... for now. He would make no promises that "Milli" wouldn't show up again but for now... He'll attempt to behave like a normal person.

"Normal, is highly overrated."

He wiggled around in his seat for a moment, never being too good a sitting still for long periods of time.

"No! After the dog, I had a strict rule of noo touching animals... I bet you cats can be worse than that dog was."

Luka almost breathed a sigh of relief when the other didn't use a nickname again. He could have stood up and done one of those stupid jigs people do when they're happy. But they're stupid, so he didn't.

"Normal is normal.. Duh,"

Luka raised an eyebrow at the other boy, wondering if he was crazy or if it was just how English people acted around others. He was betting on the former as he had met a few other foreigners and they weren't this strange.

"Not all animals are bad. You do know that, right?"

"Exactly, its like everyone else," he grinned, "Why would you want to be like everyone else? That's what... everyone is."

Quil saw his look and just continued to smile. He knew that look. Luka was trying to figure out just exactly what Aquila was, but he didn't mind. HE wouldn't find an answer anyways.

"Oh yes I do know that... however they're all plenty ticked when you tease them. The only life lesson I've ever learned."