--an april fool. (skye!)

[noah]

Noah was almost certain that he wasn't going to make it out of this lake with his junk intact. It was April, spring, and that meant that the mornings were still cold and weighed down with fog, but come lunch time and the sun was edging through the clouds and stupidly, Noah had thought it was warm enough for a swim.

Truthfully, the lake had been below freezing just over a month ago, and it was going to take more than a few sunny afternoons in order to bring it's general temperature up past tolerable. Noah had learned this the hard way, having jumped in with his usual vigor and swimsuit only to find that it was still very much Janurary as far as this lake was concerned. Still, the New Yorker hadn't been able to swim in something like six months, and as always, he was craving exercise, so he had decided to try and tough it out anyway, a decision that currently had him fighting through the icy water on the other side of the lake for his fourth lap. His lungs were on fire and he was having trouble thinking as kicked harder, pushing his limits and desperate to just get back to the other side of the lake before he got a cramp.

Noah dove back underwater, swimming as hard as he could now, a speed that was much less impressive than usual today. Finally, as he met the shore and his pile of clothes, the boy smiled past the chattering of his teeth and hoisted himself halfway out of the water, palms pressed into the grass as water poured off his torso. His skin was considerably paler, causing the tattoo on his chest and the freckles splattered over his shoulders to stand out wildly.

Heaving a loud sigh, Noah finally pulled himself completely out of the lake and collapsed on the ground beside his pile of clothes, too fascinated with the feeling of the sun against his frozen skin to really care about putting pants on.

[Skye Malizia]

The splashing was what alerted the sun-soaking Italian to his presence.

Skye was sick of winter. Of the cold, wet snow and the way it made her toes, fingers, and nose feel. She didn't enjoy looking like Rudolph the ficticious reindeer. And although winter was the best season for fashion, it certainly did not boast practicality. You either looked good and froze, or looked terrible and kept warm. And Skye, abashedly, would admit she was more vain than reasonable.

So when the forecast on her new iPhone told her today would be sunny, and the temperature would no longer have negative signs next to the digits, Skye raced to put on the spring outfit she was dying to sport the last couple months.

She slipped on some flats and hurried on outside. The pretty girl tied her hair back with the ribbon Aaron gave her a month ago and let it hang loosely to the side. It might not be the most stylish way to wear it, but it was effective in keeping it from being buffetted too much by the wind. While she walked the school grounds, she found herself getting drawn to the lake. It was no Adriatic Sea, but it made her think of her home on the coast.

She was staring off in one direction when the noises caught her ear. Then the disturbance in the water captured her eye, and her eyebrows pulled together in a concerned expression. Was it drowning?

Morbid curiosity pulled her closer to the shore where she spotted the clothes. Boy clothes, so the swimmer/drowner was at least identified in gender. Skye's mouth pulled to one side when he clambored onto the 'beach'. Where the frigid water kissed his pale skin there were red marks when the sun beat down on him. It made him look sort of... ill? She wondered if he was dying of hypothermia. She guessed the water wasn't overly warm.

"You need help?" She asked, a little too nervous to approach him any further than she had. After all, she could only think of two kinds of people who would swim in a place like this. Suicidal, or crazy. If he was the former, he might not appreciate her witnessing his failure. If the latter, he might jump up and attack her. It was best to keep her distance either way.

[noah]

Noah had been daydreaming about the summer sun in Central Park and bonfires on the beach, the heat that rolled off them in waves during summer football games and generally anything, anything that wasn't as frigid and uncomfortable as his own skin. However, these thoughts only lasted until Skye's voice cut through his hazy musings and honestly, her voice for a moment, warmed him more than any thoughts of homoerotic football matches or drunken beach fires; he suspected it was her accent because the boy had always been a sucker for European girls. Frankly, he couldn't imagine a boy that wasn't.

Stretching his arms over his shoulders, Noah tipped his head back and squinted against the piercing April sun, one blue eye squeezed shut as he regarded Skye with the other. His smile was a little hard to make at out the angle, but as always, it was in full bloom.

Inwardly, he was both marveling at the absolutely lovely girl before him, and debating if he should make an entirely inappropriate joke out of her inquiry because truthfully, the only think that Noah needed help with was getting his body temperature back up to warm, and as knew all too well, nothing got blood pumping quite like a beautiful girl.

"Not really, I think I'm going to live," he answered with a touch of uncertainty, "However, I could really use some company while I try and transform from an ice cube back into a human being," obviously, Noah had decided against the crude joke, and instead replied with his usual charming smile as he watched Skye from his wrong way-up perspective; any girl this pretty upside down, he quickly decided, had to be beautiful at an almost interstellar level, right side up.

"Plus, I should probably have someone around just in case I really do have hypothermia and end up passing out." The boy chuckled and stretched his torso out once, enjoying the simple fact that as he curled his fingers over his head, there was a tingle of feeling slowly coming back to them. Letting his arms curl back against his body, Noah sat up, turning around so that he could face the pretty blonde, his smile quirked, but honest.

"I'm Noah," his eyes were reflecting the intensity of the sun and Noah, the incorrigible and hopeless romantic, in the face of so much radiance, felt nearly indestructible, "and I would really like it if you'd sit down and just bullshit with me for a while." He paused before amending his offer with a more roguish quality sparking in his grin.

"I'll even put my pants on if that's what it takes, promise."

[Skye Malizia]

Just some company? Skye didn't like to think of herself as a vain person, but her eyes automatically re-evaluated him. So maybe he wasn't suicidal, and the kind of crazy he was... wasn't enough to admit him to a ward. He was the right kind of insane, the American cowboy she romanticized about when her parents first told her they were sending her to the States.

"I think I can do that," She admitted after a heavy pause. She looked thoughtful, but really she'd made up her mind. Skye wasn't aware, but she always seemed to surround herself with the beautiful people. The more he chatted, the more she smiled, and she took a couple steps closer to his horizontal form. He was nice, even if he spoke a bit too quickly for her to understand everything. The key words made sense to her though; someone around, in case, hypothermia, passing out. All the other words between them were syllables that could be understood just by listening to the tone.

His introduction added that spark to her smile.

"I'm Skye."

But then he went and used slang she was unfamiliar with (in context). Sit down and 'bullshit' with him? Pants...? She made a face.

"Excuse me?" Maybe he wasn't the right kind of crazy after all.

[noah]

Her acceptance immediately had Noah's smile stretched to it's limit, all his other features becoming only compliments to the boy's naturally magnetic grin. Skye, he repeated to himself mentally, trying to once again refrain himself from saying something unfitting, and though this time it would have simply been a compliment on the girl's name, he knew that in the end it would probably only come across as cheesy, and more than likely, fake, which wouldn't have been the real case at all, and well, Noah had never been about false impressions.

He was about to pat the spot of grass beside him, a motion for the girl to go ahead and take a seat, but then her expression twisted into something resembling bemused and he had to take a moment to try and figure out what could be possibly be puzzling her. Eventually he let out a chuckle of comprehension, and pushed himself to stand, grabbing his jeans along the way.

"Bullshit, it just means 'to talk casually', ya know?" Stepping into his pants, Noah couldn't avoid scowling at the way the heavy denim scratched at his bitter cold bare feet. "It's just another example of how ridiculous American slang is I suppose." Looking up from his waist after fumbling with his pants zipper and frozen fingers for a moment, the boy caught Skye's eyes and once again, a smile instantly followed. And even though his wet swimsuit was all kinds of awkward and uncomfortable underneath the fitted jeans, he did his best not to fidget, always the gentleman.

Noah finally gestured to the grass beneath them with a hand, his smile instantly devious and faultlessly charming as he suggested they take a seat without the obstruction of words.

[Skye Malizia]

His definition of 'bullshit' was odd, but it made her smile nevertheless. Accepting this, she caught his eye the moment he caught hers, and she couldn't help but smile back. However, her smile was accompanied by an uncharacteristic blush, but who wouldn't blush as they watched a boy put pants back on? It wasn't as though they'd done anything naughty, but the quirk in his mischevious smile could convince her otherwise.

He was a boy she wanted to be around, if only because his smile promised adventure. Skye willingly settled down, careful not to wiggle too much on the damp grass with her beige kapris.

"So is 'bullshit' your special gift?" Skye joked, thinking how nice it was to be comfortable enough in a new language to be witty. 'Bullshit' would soung vulgar on anyone else's lips, but coming from Skye, the Italian girl somehow made it attractive. The wind blew her ponytail across her face, and she clawed at it with an annoyed scowl. How dare nature try and spoil her flirting! Once her hair was tamed, she looked back to Noah for his answer.

[noah]

Damn, because this girl was impressing him by the second, and he probably would have been suspicious if he hadn't been so trusting. The American boy reached up, rubbing the back of his neck in a half-hearted attempt to bring some warmth to his frigid skin before finally taking a seat in the damn grass.

The blonde perched herself somewhere near him, though still at a ladylike distance, and as the wind blew through and stole her attention away, he seized the moment to take the whole picture she provided in, bright eyes sweeping her figure in a stolen second. He found that was particularly attracted to the softness of her, the reserve she wore that wasn't so much naivety as it was elegance; it seemed so rare that someone as good looking as Skye could also be humble or fragile.

Their eyes met again and suddenly the boy remembered that she was waiting for him to answer a question, "Bullshitting? No, no, I'm just really good at it. Comes with being a New Yorker I suppose." His smile was languid and feline, forever easy-going.

"I can fly." He finally added, his expression a little tilted at the thought. Noah loved using his Gift to the full of it's extent, constantly pushing and testing his limits, racing himself to exhaustion or just floating laps around the castle all afternoon. There were parts of it all he was still trying to master, but he was always learning, far too determined for his own good.

[Skye Malizia]

New York? Skye always wanted to go there! Maybe meeting a native to the city would prove useful in her lifelong quest to visit. America, compared to her lovely Italy, was lacking in taste and culture, and most of all, fashion. New York was famous for its contrast to the usual drab that affected other cities across the nation. The young fashionista was dying for a trip.

She smiled at these little thoughts, perhaps a bit carried away. Her mind was wandering as it usually did when something she found interesting was brought up in conversation. She almost missed Noah admitting what his gift was. Almost, which was why her smile grew to a grin. He could fly?! How charming! Skye instantly grew jealous, but she was still too satisfied with her own gift to let that affect her.

"Can I see?" He was probably exhausted and freezing from the swim, but her curiosity overpowered her consideration and the eager sparkle in her eyes made it difficult to deny her anything. She was so engrossed in imagining Noah lifting off the ground that she didn't even think he might refuse her.

[noah]

If Noah could read minds, that is to say if he had been born with the same Gift as his best friend and, to a degree, the lovely girl that sat before him instead of his own, he would have scooped up the Italian and whisked her off to the Big Apple without a second's hesitation. Given the window, Noah would have taken her home and shown her every corner of his birthplace. He would show her the Mosaic Man lamp posts and taken her ice skating at Rockefeller center, he would have bought her flowers from a street cart and apple pie at Ben's and danced with her under the lights in Times Square. Noah loved girls, and this one, who was bursting with so much beauty and curiosity and light, intrigued him quite deliriously.

Which was perhaps why the boy was so eager to show off, and so ready at her request for a demonstration; though truthfully it was always hard to tell, because even without an audience, Noah had always been a show-off. His muscles ached and his head was still screaming like he was being stabbed with an ice pick, but he'd never been able to say no, which was why he had already pushed himself back onto his feet and then he was even taller, higher, farther away from her because his feet weren't on the ground anymore and once he'd lifted himself up a few feet the boy caught Skye's eye and winked, before he shot up into the endless blue above them, disappearing somewhere into the canopy of trees against the edge of the lake for a moment, obviously on a mission. The New Yorker was only out of sight for a minute before he floated out of the forest and back toward where Skye was sitting. He managed a few tricky-looking somersaults at forty feet above ground before he touched back down, red-faced, out of breath and smiling as he knelt down exactly where he had been sitting before and held his hand out to Skye, something pink resting in his palm.

It was a flower – the end result of his little demonstration and the subsequent flight amongst the trees. It was a perfectly pink tulip, a flower he had spotted in the forest a few days prior on his morning run, and the moment he'd caught Skye's eye before taking off into the sky, the flower had come to mind for some reason, and he hadn't been able to resist himself.

“Surprise.” And the smile he wore touched his eyes, overwhelming the exhaustion he felt weighing down his very bones.

[Skye Malizia]

Skye reacted with a cry of delight as his feet left the grass. She clapped, impressed with his skill, and she envied his control and grace and everything. The Italian girl was on her feet without even realizing it, watching the boy with a longing sigh. Then he returned, and she hadn't even seen where he got it from, but the flower he held out to her was suddenly the prettiest gift anyone had ever given her.

She took it, delicately holding the stem between her thumb and forefinger, and she lifted it to her nose to smell it. It reminded her of perfume and the vast window gardens in Rome, of her friends back home with paper notes and girlish laughs. The scent was powerful, a hefty reminder of everything she left behind. But she couldn't bring herself to be sad, because everything she had here in America was more than enough to occupy her interest.

Noah had suddenly become a big part of that. She opened her eyes to see that new piece of America she'd suddenly befriended, and her lips curved into a smile of pure satisfaction.

"Thank you," She told him, tucking the flower behind one ear, "you are very sweet." Skye gestured up to the academy, "Did you want to go find a sweater?" She suggested, figuring that he must still be cold after the swim, and then flying through the not-so-warm air directly after. She really didn't want him to catch hypothermia, and if he did by showing off for her, she would feel aweful. She was getting a little chilly herself, and she wouldn't mind accompanying him back.

[noah]

"No problem." He winked slyly, more than glad that she liked the gift he had brought her. Noah was one of those personalities that thrived off of other people's happiness. His darkest moods only seemed to come around whenever someone in his life was falling apart and even worse, when he couldn't do anything to fix it. He was addicted to the sound of laughter, and if you were happy, so was he. The gracious smile she wore was thank you enough.

"I would love to go find a sweatshirt with you" He chuckled, and Noah was suddenly aware that he had never wanted anything as much as he wanted to find a warm change of clothes and carry on a conversation with the girl that sat before him. He was freezing, she was fascinating, and nothing really made more sense. As he stood up, the suit of goosebumps he wore was suddenly evident as the afternoon sun silhouetted his naked shoulders. The tattoo on his chest glistened. Stepping into his shoes, the boy bent down and picked up his t-shirt, tossing it lazily over his shoulder before offering Skye a hand up, his smile set at a familiar level of devastation.

"Your accent is beautiful," he said as they started walking, and for a moment, it seemed that he was going to leave it at that, "what is it? I mean, uhm, where are you from?" the confidence in his smile flickered into sheepish handsomeness, and he found himself rubbing the back of his neck again. "Where in Europe?"

[Skye Malizia]

She took his hand and his compliments, and it left her cheeks a shade pinker.

"Italy," She told him, although she briefly wondered how long she could pull off Japanese. Skye liked walking next to him; she wasn't a petite girl by any means however Noah was tall enough to make her feel normal. "I wonder if it is as beautiful as your New York?" Something in her voice made it sound like she was ready for a verbal sparring match over which homeland was better. All in good nature of course, as Skye would love to hear about New York, and she was more than happy to brag about the gorgeous country she grew up in.

The brunette ran her hand through her hair and tossed her head back to remove the stray strands from her face. She enjoyed the company of a charming, attractive young man. Skye had a tendency to surround herself with the beautiful people, and Noah certainly fell into that category. She liked to think she qualified too.

"This New York... I hear is very noisy, no?" Italy could be hectic too, what with its spectacular night life and bustling day markets, however it also held a glorious silence where you could escape to, and that was the sea. Everything dissolved into white noise the moment your head submerged in the salty water and peace enveloped you like a protective blanket. She suddenly had the urge to jump in the lake herself, however she was thankfully sane enough to recall Noah's severe shivering and be turned off by the idea.

[noah]

He was so caught off guard with her encouraging blush, that he almost missed her answer. Chuckling softly to himself, the boy jammed his hands in his pockets and turned back to the girl beside him. He could, after all, definitely appreciate the rare girl that came up and just knocked him on his ass, as he would refer to it later, and Skye was doing a pretty good job so far.

"Italy, huh?" Noah tilted his head to the side, as if appraising her in a whole new light now, though his smile remained steadfast and untouched. "I have a friend from there." He also ate in Little Italy nearly everyday for a few years - especially during wrestling season - but the boy figured that it was sort of an irrelevant conversation piece.

Her second remark made him laugh, and it was obvious how no expression suited him better. "Well, there are certainly few places I prefer over home, and even fewer I'll admit to. But, I can almost bet that Italy is better looking than some parts of New York."

He could see the castle looming closer then, shadowing over the rows of manicured trees and scattered students. Fleetingly he wondered if he recognized any of the outlines, but they were too far away and truthfully, there were more important people at immediate hand.

"Noisy? Yeah, I suppose it can get kind of crazy in town." And since his apartment was in Manhattan, Noah knew all too well that screw Vegas, NYC was the city that never slept. "I'm pretty used to it though." Every noise of that terrain was like a lullaby to the boy, from her taxi cabs and airplanes to the homeless musicians and midnight bar fights.

"I am sort of glad that I'm not there for fall anymore. Everybody comes back from vacation or to go to the University and it gets pretty insane downtown for a few months." He chuckled once more, his gaze flickering over to Skye as he found himself wishing he could show her what he meant, introduce her to his city.

"How about you? Is this your first time abroad?" Noah ran a hand through his hair, trying to squeeze the last bit of moisture from the unruly mop. "Homesick?"

[Skye Malizia]

Everyone seemed to have a friend from Italy. Maybe it was the same one. What were the chances that Tristan and Eiji and Noah were all good friends with Eve Melona? She decided not to voice her curiosity, as she didn't want to hear an 'Eve Who?' and have to explain herself. Besides, if her suspicions turned out to be correct, it would only be a matter of time before they were confirmed.

Noah redefined 'noisy' as 'crazy', and Skye smiled. "I like crazy," She commented, opening up the conversation for more talk about being crazy, or crazy New York. Noah chose to speak about New York, which spoke volumes about the kind of person he was. At least he wasn't insane. Her lips fell into a natural upward curve at his next question.

"Yes. I live in Italy all my life, but always I want to visit here," She explained, gesturing to the castle and the grounds. "I want to meet new people," she gestured to Noah and unconsciously fingered the flower tucked behind her ear, "speak new language. And here they have the best school for people like us." When he asked her if she was homesick, she shrugged.

"Of course I miss my family, my friends. All the beautiful places. But I live there all my life. Here it is much more exciting, everything is new. I like it here too much to miss my home." It sounded like she was ready to live there permanently, and, if given the chance, she might. But she had the heart of an explorer, and settling down just wasn't in her nature.

"And you miss New York." It was a statement, not a question. It was his body language, and a hint of wistfulness in his words when he spoke of his beloved city. Even his subtle tone told her how much he loved New York, and Skye felt an inexplicable pang of envy. She wished she could love something that much, so that no matter who she talked to, they would understand right away how much that something meant to her.