brick by brick

<div align=center>A loud whistle split the silence between the trees, Hadrian's eyes flickered one way, then the other. He was looking for something. The boy hadn't dare venture too far into the forest, he'd heard stories about this place, though he pretended not to believe them, after all, what could be so bad that it would keep everyone away from here? Pshaw. He tensed up nonetheless and pushed himself away from the tree he was leaning up against, just in case, that was all, just in case he had to run away. The wind picked up, tugging at the sandy blonde locks of hair atop his head, he leaned forward and whistled again, louder this time, longer this time. Still no response. Hadrian growled softly, this was strange.

He turned to walk away, perhaps his friend was elsewhere, he couldn't get himself into that much trouble, surely. He was big enough to fend for himself, and he was smart enough, he'd be able to find his way back, even in the dark. Hadrian shrugged, maybe he just hadn't heard him, maybe he should whistle again. He shook his head, he'd be fine. The boy took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, removed one and held it in the corner of his mouth. He clicked his lighter, and lit it, taking a drag and blowing a little trail of smoke rings into the air in front of him. Hadie's eyes flickered up to movement, he whistled again, quieter this time, lower this time, though then again, he wasn't even sure if it was who he was looking for.</div>

<div align=center>Hadrian exhaled, and started just a little when the girl came close. He relaxed a little, she was a student, at least he was pretty sure she was, they'd probably passed each other in the hallways before, though Hadrian wasn't all that good at remembering faces, or names in actual fact. It was strange to see someone as young as her out here, he frowned a little and wished he'd been as fearless a child as she was. Hadrian had been the complete opposite as a boy, shy and nervous. Though he was different now, Hadie was more or less emotionless, it was rare to even see him smile.

His eyes flickered to her, and then to the bow she carried. He flicked some ash to the floor and idly lifted an eyebrow in her direction. He shrugged and greeted her back, his voice was gruff, quiet, he hadn't used it in a little while. There was a little period of silence between him and the girl for a few minutes, before his eyes finally drew away from the forest, and back to the girl in front of him. He let out a breath, and flicked more ash to the ground. "You don't happen to have seen my friend, have you?" He asked, "it's just we need to go home." Hadie unfortunately doubted the answer was yes, though it was worth a shot. The wind ran cold fingers through his hair again, pushing it away from his face and making him squint just a little. His eye colour matched the temperature today, icey, chilly.</div>

<div align=center>She hadn't seen him, and Hadrian could tell that by the look on his face. "You'd know if you saw him." He stated lazily, stubbing his cigarette out on the tree behind him and dropping it to the forest floor, crushing it with his foot a moment later, just to make sure it wouldn't start a fire, not that it'd be all that tragic, no one lived out here. He supposed it could spread and cause trouble though, Hadrian shrugged to himself, what did he care? He'd noted her disgust at his smoking habits, again, Hadie didn't really care, it was him that'd pay for it in the end, anyway.

A noise made him turn his head, he tensed up suddenly and took a step forward, a low growl came from somewhere ahead of him, the boy frowned. A large, dark shadow padded out from the cluster of trees in front of him, his eyes met a pair of large, amber ones, the beast's tail flicked, and it's ear twitched. Hadrian stared the creature out for a moment or two, it lowered it's head and dropped whatever it had dragged out here to the ground, on a closer inspection it was a half eaten deer, the back end was more or less gone and Hadrian felt a little sick at the sight of it. The large cat took another few steps forward, before stopping, it's orange gaze shifting to look at Claire.</div>

<div align=center>Hadrian patted his thigh, Altair padded softly toward him and rubbed up against his leg, like a comically large housecat, Hadie was nearly knocked off his feet by the sheer force of the creature. He cursed, and grabbed a handful of his friend's fur, whimpering softly and steadying himself. The tiger growled and snapped at his arm when he pulled it's fur. Hadrian muttered something and apologized, Altair bared his teeth at him. Could I talk to it? Hadie laughed humorlessly, all of a sudden the situation reminded him of Thumbelina, at least, he though that she was the one who could talk to animals.

"Well," he reached a hand down and scratched the top of the tiger's head, he let out an appreciative sort of growl and pushed his head into Hadrian's hand, "guess it wouldn't hurt trying." Altair was eyeing Claire suspiciously by now, his tail flicking every now and then behind him. Hadrian eyed the half deer the animal had brought back, eurgh. You better not bring that back to the house. He thought to himself, frowning at it. Altair had never seemed to be the talkative type, as far as animals could talk? Sure, Altair had a mind of his own but the thought of being able to talk to him made him laugh.</div>

<div align=center>Altair yawned, exposing every single tooth that lined his mouth, as well as the back of his throat. He lowered his hindquarters, and sat lazily next to Hadrian, staring up at him, a bored sort of look upon his features. You couldn't tell something as arrogant as Altair what to do, whether you could talk to animals or not. Hadrian shrugged, he'd thought it might go that way, Altair didn't listen to him, letalone anyone else. It was lucky he was friendly otherwise some students might have lost limbs by now, he was certainly strong enough to maim someone, but he wouldn't, Altair was simply far too nice to ever attack a person, unless of course he thought Hadrian was in danger.

"Happy to have me," he echoed, still absently petting the top of the tiger's head, scratching behind one of his ears a moment later. I should be happy to have him. As if the animal had heard what he was thinking, it rose to his feet and jumped to it's hind legs, draping both front legs over each of his shoulders and nuzzling the boy. Hadrian cursed, and went over, batting a hand at the beast and catching it upside the head, "damn animal!" He snapped, "you're too big to do that now."</div>