she's thunderstorms

Loch slammed the door to the roof behind him. He needed to get some damn air. For a monster that spent his entire childhood underwater, it was amazing how now he possessed this need to breath. The walls felt constricting, the florescent lights pulsed at a frequency that buzzed in the back of his skull, and he was only one more pop-song away from a full blown migraine.

As a young man, Lochlann was quite handsome, with dark hair and striking green eyes. He was bunched up in his favorite wool jacket, his hands tucked into his pocket, but his trademark smile was discarded in place of a look more likely to be described as sullen.
He was oblivious to the stranger standing on the roof, being upwind of her when he arrived and following a set of his previous tracks. He stood facing the edge, looking at the clear sky, and then produced a flash from his pocket. He took a drink.

He mumbled, “ The way a crow/ shook down on me/the dust of snow/from a hemlock tree/has given my heart/a change of mood.”

It was a line from a poem, but Loch forgot completely about the end. He took another sip, then tucked the flask back into his pocket, and spread his arms out like a bird. The wind blew and shook his jacket.

With the change of wind, he realized then that he wasn’t alone, which meant some stranger just heard him mouthing poetry into the wind like some melodramatic weirdo.
He didn’t care.

”Do you ever feel like jumping?” he asked.

"All the time...But unfortunately, foxes weren't born with wings."

With those words, Loch turned to face the girl for the first time. His eyebrows lifted in obvious surprise. The ears were unexpected, yes, but the stormcloud above her head was something he'd never seen before. He took it all in stride, though, and then he took another drink from his flask.

"Neither do most people," Loch said. He didn't divulge any details of his own species, even though he probably could. He figured it's not like she had a choice--her appearance sort of gave things away--but he was used to hiding himself. It was a habit not unlike lying; it grew easier, but not more comfortable, as time went by.

"I've wondered a lot, though, if the school has anything in place to stop people from trying," Loch said, looking over the edge again. "Jumping, I mean. It's not like I'm suicidal or anything, but sometimes, when the walls are pressing in, and even though you're surrounded by other freaks you realize there's no place out. The edge here starts to look really, really liberating. "

He wasn't slurring, but he was talking a little bit too much, courtesy of the contents of his flask.

"I don't want to die, but I want to jump to see what would happen. I want to know what it feels like to have wings."

He took another sip, then held the flask out to her.

Maybe you should do it," she mused with a shrug, "at least you'd finally feel freedom before you ended up as a bloody corpse, huh?"

She handed him his flask back and Loch took another sip. He'd never considered it before. Would one moment of bliss be really worth the impact of hitting the ground? It was the hitting the ground he usually thought about, an escape.

He took a step closer to the edge and looked over. He didn't want to die. He just didn't want things to stay the same.

"Maybe I will," he said.

He didn't take a step back from the edge. The breeze flapped the edge of his jacket and his hair, sending it flying away from his face. He turned to face the girl again, tucking his hands into his jacket pocket.

"My name is Lochlann," he said.

He looked up towards the sun, letting the winter light turn his face pale. He liked how warm the sun looked against that cold, blue sky.

Maybe he would do it. Maybe he would jump.

"How long have you been here?" He didn't finish the question, didn't indicate if he meant the roof or maybe the school or even this life.

The towers and rooftops were always on Adam’s patrols of Starlight Academy. He was often drawn to them for their height; the only reason he could come up with was that it was due to his having a sparrow form - his grandfather had been able to turn into a rabbit, and he had always snacked on lettuce and carrots (though Adam had never asked if that was a personal preference or because he turned into a grey rabbit). Either way, the tall dark haired male had found himself finishing his current patrol by heading towards the rooftops again, his heart quickening on the steps he jogged up the stairs that would take him to his favourite spot at the academy.

Opening the familiar door, he stepped outside, greeting hurriedly by the wind wrapping around his green waist-long jacket and tugging at the black cotton trousers framing his legs. His blue eyes quickly rushed their way around the rooftop, looking to see if he would be alone or needed, finding his answer quickly enough. He stepped towards the two curiously, having not seen the two around the academy before. One, a short teen girl, had the tails and ears of another animal coming from her and a cloud above her, whilst the other was a tall boy with green eyes.

He hadn’t heard their conversation before opening the door, but prowled towards the edge to his usual spot, which was to the left of the two students. Turning his blue eyes upon them, he gave them a smile. “I hope you’re not meant to be in classes. I remember a few good telling-offs from my time as a student here for bunking.” He rested his forearms against the wall that stopped people simply walking off the edge, and smiled as another bout of wind greeted the three.

"Not long." She returned, "it's nice to get away from the ratruns."

Loch didn't know enough about foxes to get the joke, but he liked the word anyway. He tested it on the tip of his tongue, which was feeling a little fuzzy from the whiskey. "Ratruns."

Ratruns and Dee Dee. He thought it was strange that her name was a letter, but he'd heard mention that his own name was supposed to be a last-name, a concept that had baffled Loch since he'd enrolled in school. This school. He frowned again.

I like to do lunch up here," Loch said, though it was clear he didn't have any food on him. "It's quiet. I'm not a fan of the cafeteria."

There was the faintest trace of an accent in his voice then do lunch slipping out as a verb rather than the act of having lunch, and he said the word cafeteria like it was an obscenity. He didn't know it, but it was the florescent lights in the cafeteria that made his time there unbearable.

He jumped when the door opened behind him and he turned to see a security officer. "Fuck," Loch mumbled, and he slipped his flask back into his pocket. His dealer had been busted a few days earlier and though Loch hadn't seen Cabel in weeks, he was still nervous around security.

“I hope you’re not meant to be in classes. I remember a few good telling-offs from my time as a student here for bunking.

Loch made a noise that could be interpreted either way.

"I think it's a worse crime to be indoors on a day like this," he said. He wasn't looking at either of them, and he was fidgeting with his hands. He hadn't done anything drastic since he here, unless you counted his last girlfriend. And Guin. No one had ever asked him about them. And it's not like they could prove that the sleeping pills in his pocket weren't his, there was no label on the bottle, right? He curled his shoulders inward and tossed his head, but the wind kept blowing his hair out of his eyes.

Loch was uneasy and his entire posture was going to give him away.