Melting Ice (open)

[Skye Malizia]

Skye was in the middle of a project. It wasn't anything required for school, and infact she'd just stumbled across it while crossing the blistering cold school grounds. Unaccustomed to being alone, she took advantage of the time she had to herself and went to work on a hurriedly put-together snowman that could easily be picked up and held in your palm. But she wasn't building it anymore; she was melting it.

She didn't have fancy pyro techniques, nor did she have a power with melting capabilities. She was doing it the old fashioned way, which was why it was taking so long. Her nose was cold and turning red, and she had the case of the sniffles, but it did not deter her. She breathed heavily on the little snowman, occassionally feeling light-headed from all the exta oxygen passing in and out of her system.

Briefly she wondered if her body got used to breathing like this, when she tried to breathe normally, would she suffocate? But it left her mind the second it came, because she was growing dizzy again.

From afar she looked rather strange. She was lying on her stomach in a stylish FCUK Angel coat, wearing thermal leggings that could easily be disguised as your typical $12 Jacob variety. Her signature KC boots were crossed at the ankle and bobbing back and forth in the air behind her back, and her leather gloves were chilled beyond feeling. Still she blew hot air on the little snowman, shivering as she watched it shrink.

[aaron]

Aaron was bored out of his mind. He strolled down the winter grounds of the school, watching the busy people around him swirl with exitement, while not really doing anything unique.

He started to see a familiar pattern of Group of Friends, kissing lovers, showing off. Group of friends, kissing lovers, crush and crushed. Group of friends, Group of friends, showing off. Group of firends, Kissing lovers, Girl melting a snowman with her breath, showing- Wait what?

Aaron danced over to the girl, who he noticed was very pretty, and examined what she was doing. The act of total innocence intruiged him, as that kind of spontanity was not at all common anymore. Without saying a word, Aaron went opposite to the girl, and started breathing on the snowman, his breath warm and smelling faintly of sugar cookies.

Although his breath was focused on the snowman, his breathtaking eyes didn't stop staring at where tyhe girl's eyes would be if she looked up. His eyes flickered with merriment and life, and his snow destroying mouth was opened in a faint smile.

[Skye Malizia]

She blinked, recoiling slightly in shock as someone lowered themselves to the ground to participate in the same practice she was. But her shock turned into intrigue, and that intrigue was holding hands with a secret joy. He was quirky and strange, but very cute. The sort of boy you could easily find yourself falling for if you weren't too careful. Skye didn't like to be careful though, so instead she smiled at him, lips half-covered by the head of her two-ball snowman. He had nice eyes. Not the drown-in-them-if-you-stare-too-long type as she had, but they were very nice nevertheless.

"Hi..." she said, as though trying to suppress a smile. But even if her lips were struggling to hold it back, the smile in her eyes was impossible to hide unless she closed them. Even then, the pull on the side of her mouth and the rose in her pale cheeks would have given her away if she were truly trying to deceive him. But Skye was not attempting to mislead him, and eventually that smile pulled the corners of her mouth up and she was doing everything she could not to giggle like a school girl.

"You're... strange," she decided, her Italian accent caressing the word with a peculiar tenderness. Skye didn't like 'normal'. Normal was boring, and boring just didn't cut it. However, despite her lack of respect for normal people, she supposed it was normal that she was a little self-conscious of her breath. She hadn't eaten sugar cookies for lunch. Instead she'd gotten a belly ache off the American hamburgers, and she still hadn't been able to get the foreign and unpleasant taste of her first and only bite out of her mouth.

So she ceased breathing on the snowman, but kept him lifted up so she could hide behind him if she needed to.

[aaron]

Star was happy the girl looked up. As soon as he saw her eyes, however, he had doubts that she was human. Her eyes were a conundrum, and enigma, a complex system of infininte depth and colour. Those eyes seemed to be winter incarnate, the icy blue somehow warm. Those eyes against with her pale skin sent chills down his back.

And then she spoke, and her Italian accent was thick and apparent. When the girl smiled, Star was positive that he would commit himself to making her smile the rest of his life.

"Ah. I'm strange. If I'm strange, you must be too. Two strange people, breathing on a snowman, in a strange school." There was no hint of an insult in Star's smiling voice. Every one of Aaron's chiseled features were in a smile.

"The snowman likes it, you know. Water looves to change shape. It's a quirk that it has." But Aaron had stopped breathing at the snowman as well.

[Skye Malizia]

Skye laughed. She couldn't help it. He was sweet and funny, and if you didn't laugh for that it would be an insult. Unaware of the effect she seemed to have on him, the tiny Italian girl poked at the snowman, diverting her gaze from his eyes momentarily to do so. His voice lilted at a pleasant pace, a spoken song, and she liked the sound of it. Sometimes she felt so childish, noticing these things and admiring them for their simplicity.

"Riddles," she accused, even if his words made perfect sense. The way he'd phrased it was like a child beating around the bush, hesitant to bop its prey on the head. Skye was more apt to direct approaches, but she didn't mind this way so long as it was playful. And Aaron was doing a wonderful job at being just that.

Considering his words from before, focussing mostly on 'strange school', Skye puzzled over them for no longer than a couple seconds before she voiced what she was thinking. She was never good at keeping her thoughts to herself, and it might have something to do with her gift, to be completely honest.

"This school is strange for you too? Are you new?"

She made no comment on being called 'strange'. It didn't bother her, and he hadn't said it in an accusatory tone. Had he tried to call her 'normal' she may have voiced something else. But seeing as how that was not the case, Skye simply pressed a cold cheek into a freezing leather palm and tilted her head to the side, peeking out from behind her snowman.

[aaron]

Her laugh. The only thing more enticing than her smile.

"Yes, I am indeed new to the school. I was in the hospital all fall, and I don't really know anyone."

Star longed to touch the girl's marble face, but even he had limits.

"Riddles... Hey, I have one for you.

Eyes that can smile, and Eyes like ice.
Smiles that entrap you, laughs that entice.
To a poor snowman, her breath is like flame.
Tell me fair maiden, what is your name?"

[Skye Malizia]

"The hospital?" Skye repeated, having not expected this sort of answer. Exchange student, transfer, newly discovered talent, miscreant - all those would have been regular responses. But being holed up in a hospital seemed a crime for someone with such a free spirit as this boy. It made her sad, to think that he had been injured enough to spend an entire season cooped up with nurses and needles.

But he didn't appear too put-out by it, and this thrilled Skye. He could move on and live his life with such joyful frivolity even with that nasty experience tucked under his belt. And why wouldn't he want to live life to the fullest now he was free? Skye certainly would attempt to be charming and witty and funny, she'd want to be remembered and loved and good.

His rhyme gave her pause. Not only was he all these things, but he could think on his feet. It was impressive, and she was more than a little intrigued. With her laugh she relented.

"After that, how could someone tell you no? Please, call me Skye."

Putting the partially melted snowman on the ground beneath them, she shivered and looked back to the castle.

"It is cold much faster here. Would you like to go inside?"

[aaron]

Aaron only nodded, his smile still firmly on his face. "Inside would be wonderful."

He motioned towards a door that was already partially open, students filing in and out, trying to escape the cold or embrace it. Star, for one, had no problem with winter. A snowflake was one of the most beautiful things that one could witness, after all.

"The hospital incident was nothing major, I assure you. I was sitting high in a tree, as I'm apt to do, when I lost my footing quite suddenly. I tumbled down, with no room for my wings to fly me to safety. I suffered a broken leg and shoulder, and a minor cracked rib."

"As for my name, it's officially Aaron Staar, but my friends call me Star, society calls me myth and the Academy calls me Fae. What will you call me, I wonder?"

[Skye Malizia]

"They have no healers here?" Skye asked, getting to her feet and brushing the flakes of snow off her coat. In Italy there was a very skilled healer. Of course, he charged very much for his services and if you couldn't pay, he'd re-do the injury you sustained. Harsh but fair... perhaps that's what it was like in America too.

At Aaron's introduction, Skye pondered. "I suppose I'd like to be a friend, so I'll call you Star. That's alright, is it not?" Star seemed like a fitting name for a friendly Fae. She hadn't noticed wings, but then again everyone was bundled up. Plus, Skye was never one to judge people on their species. Wings and horns and scales merely added personality, and it was personality that Skye valued most.

"I'm just human," she added, although she suspected he already knew. Sometimes Skye wished she could be a faery or a dragon just for a day, so she'd know what it was like to fly. She loved the flight from Rome to New York. Every hour was exhillerating. When every other passenger was sleeping or watching movies, Skye was staring out the window. The endless expanse of blue ocean and tumbling clouds would take on a dream-like quality, and she was able to block out the heavy drone of the plane's engines.

Oh dear, she was daydreaming in front of someone. Blinking and shaking herself, she walked with him back to the castle, and when Star wasn't looking Skye turned back and gave her little snowman friend a goodbye wave.

[aaron]

"No healers that I know of!" Aaron chipped, hesitant to enter the now looming Academy Building.

Star was happy that Skye decided to call him friend, after all, he had so little. Star was rather icky about his friends, and he couldn't bear to be friends with someone boring. No never boring.

"Just human? Since when was there such a thing? I can tell just by looking at you that you aren't 'just human'. For one (if you don't mind me saying), you are one of the most beautiful people I have ever met, and I grew up around many breathtaking people."

"To be honest, you're more like a faery than a human, or at least that was the impression you gave off. You look like someone who can enjoy nature and the simple pleasures of life, two beautiful things that people like to destroy."

"And, to top it off, you're here. Which must mean you have some kind of Gift."

Star, like Skye, loved to fly. Star, unlike Skye, absolutely hated airplanes. It was his philosophy that metal should never fly. That sacred honor is reserved for natural things, thank you very much.

[Skye Malizia]

After the initial shock of learning there were no healers (and making a mental note not to mortally wound herself any time soon), Skye returned his small smile. At least she had one friend. Hoping the first wouldn't be the last, the new student took it upon herself to open the doors for them both. While Star chatted, she stepped inside, unable to stop smiling. He really was charming.

"Aside from the obvious, I am human," Skye insisted, speaking about her gift. She hoped he asked for a demonstration. Skye wasn't one to voluntarily show off, but she had no opposition to doing so if asked, but being the modest girl she was, she turned the spotlight from herself to Aaron.

"Are you Fae?" It was a valid question; he was talking about Fae, he must know something about them.

Once inside and with doors closed, Skye unbuttoned her coat and took her leather gloves off, shoving them in the front pockets. Warming to the new environment, she took in a breath of her new school and sighed. Oh Italy. How she missed it. at least her and her family would return for a visit this summer. After spring break in Argentina.

Mind wandering, Skye looked back to her new friend for more conversation.

[aaron]

Aaron smiled. He stepped inside the building, and frowned slightly before smiling again. His jacket was swiftly off and slung over his shoulder. His wings spread, beautiful and glittering. They would be shimmering in natural light, but what's a guy to do.

"Aside from the obvious... such as? In fact, I haven't seen anything of your gift. " Aaron's tone took on a soft teasing quality.

"I assume that this answers your question? Or, if not, then maybe..."

Aaron seemed to glow bright yellow, melt into an incandescent blob, and then shrunk, a tiny little being. He flew up to Skye's shoulder.

_{"This will convince you."}

[Skye Malizia]

Wonderment at the sight of his wings stopped her from moving any further. They were mesmerizing. He was saying something. What was it? Gift? What gift? Who had a gift? Oh my!

When Aaron shrunk, at first Skye thought he'd vanished. She looked around, but at last her eyes focused on his tiny form when he landed on her shoulder. She had heard about the fae and what they were capable of. It still hadn't prepared her for Aaron's elaborate demonstration, and she was enjoying the show profusely.

"I have a shoulder angel!" Skye joked, smiling at the faery. His proximity however was a strain for her eyes, and slowly the subtly pain of being temporarily cross-eyed weighed on her. She had to look at something else for a moment, so she turned to look straight ahead and treaded forward.

"This is really amazing," Skye told him, the wonder in her voice pure.

[aaron]

Aaron beamed at this reaction, his laugh almost inaudible as his fluttered to sit cross legged on the top of Skye's head. The sweet smell of shampoo assaulted him, and he had to yell to get Sky to hear him.

_{"Come on, don't change the subject! You still need to show me your power!"}

Star absolutely loved being small , it was so liberating.

[Skye Malizia]

Well, she wouldn't argue with that. Even after his own demonstration, Aaron wanted to know more about Skye. And who was she to deny him? With a little smile that he couldn't see from his position on her head, Skye knew exactly what she would do to show off her power.

She came to a stop and tilted her head back slightly.

"You ready?" She asked, although it was rhetorical. Whether he was ready or not didn't matter, because suddenly Skye shrunk until she was the same size as Aaron, with her own pair of wings that looked identical to the ones Star was sporting. In fact, they were identical; Skye had only ever seen one set of faerie wings and that was what she had to base her illusion on. To Aaron, she would be tiny and hovering in front of him. In reality she was just standing in the middle of the hall, giggling.

Soon the projection would exhaust her, but right now it was fairly easy to maintain, seeing as how she was only entertaining one person, and with a very small picture.

"Have you figured it out?" She asked him. It might seem a little strange, that the mini-Skye's mouth didn't move when the question was clearly asked in her voice. The Italian girl had not yet perfected synchronizing audio with visual in her telepathic movies.