wade not jump (Tobi/Aquila)

The weather was stormy as Aquila trooped outside, but that was okay. He liked it better that way anyways - less likely anyone else would come outside. He didn't want anyone else to find him.

He was surprised to find that once he finally decided to run from something - Aquila didn't run from much, at least not what other people run from - that he was quite good at it. It had been a couple of days since he ran away from Tobi and he had been sucessful at avoiding both the other boy and practically everybody else.

Time had calmed down his panic but that hadn't helped anything. It only increased his regret which in turn increased his confusion.

He didn't know anything anymore and it was driving him crazy.

Although he was confident the foul weather would keep most people away he still felt exposed standing out in the open. He just wanted to curl up somewhere and think. He had managed to screw up things royally - he knew that much - but he had no idea how to fix it.

That was when he noticed the tree.

Looking up at the tall, leafy limbs he knew he had found his spot. At home he had always enjoyed hiding in the attic or even on the roof when he wanted to think. This tree would be good enough for here.

With that thought in mind he jumped up to the lowest bow - not a very easy feat since he was on the short side and the branch was more than a little ways of the ground- and then once he had a firm grasp onto that he climbed.

He kept going and going until he was well off the ground, curled into a small nuck of a small branch, mostly hidden by the leaves.

Sighing he leaned his head back on the trunk, feeling the cool wind breeze past him (he wasn't even aware of how high off the ground he was).

He was an idiot yes, but he'd fix it... somehow.

Tobi had thought of nothing for the last few days but how messed up his life had become. First he had to be an idiot and fight a frickin werewolf and get bitten. He just had to open that damn door. He couldn't just leave it well enough alone when he heard breathing on the otherside of that door. No he just opened a fat can of worms. Then he had told Aquila that he liked him and then he ran off no doubt hating Tobi now. He hadn't seen the kid since their failed meeting.

It was raining and it matched his mood perfectly. He was in a sour mood only heightened by the weather. He didn't feel like talking to anyone and didn't feel liek spending his day indoors either. He decided to set off for the outdoors.

He had been wandering for a few hours when he decided to take refuge under a giant tree near the lake. Sitting under he curled in on himself trying to warm up. All he could think of were those moments before Aquila had bolted. They were seared into his memory and he wanted to get them out. It hurt too much thinking of it.

Aquila was startled out of his inner quiries by the sounds of someone approaching below his tree. He grumbled softly to himself not really looking forward to his spot being invaded, but he figured that the person wouldn't notice him up here anyways.

He had told himself that he wouldn't check who it was. What did he care - he didn't want to talk to anyone, and the less movement he made, the less noise he would make, and the more likely he would get away with being unnoticed.

The child continued to sulk up on his perch for a moment before curiosity got the better of him. If someone was going to invade his space he might as well see who it was.

Carefully, bracing himself against his branch, he leaned over to look at the new comer.

And froze.

No, it couldn't be - it was impossible - well maybe not impossible, but highly unlikely.

After avoiding him for days, how could Tobi have chosen to stand under the one tree he was hiding in?

Maybe he was wrong - he was high up after all. It could just be someone who -

Aquila leaned even further to check and let out a yelp as he fell right off.

Frantically he grabbed at the branch as his hands past cursing as he did so.

Thankfully he managed to get a grip but it was weak one. He was shimmying struggling to keep it.

"Ow," he called in an offended voice - as if the tree had meant to hurt him - as his hand slipped off and the bark painfully shreded the skin on his fingers.

Still Aquila wasn't on to give up easily. Ignoring the stinging he swung the hand back up and managed to get some sort of grip once more.

Well he sighed, I'm certainly not hidden anymore with all that.

There was no way that Tobias wouldn't have notice cursing.

So, dangling from a branch a good ways off the ground, Aquila swallowed his pride and looked down at the other boy.

"Hello there Tobi."

Tobi was sitting there sulking when all of the sudden leaves and such started to fall on him and then noise entered his range. Looking up he saw someone trying to climb onto a branch. They must have fallen out after climbing but why were they in thsi weather?

The person finally found purchase and then waved down to them. Tobi realized who it was and froze. Aquila. After all this time how could it be possible that they manage to meet under the same tree on a day when no one else would be stupid enough to be out?

Tobi didn't want to say anything still. He was hurt by how Aquila had acted. Tobi was sorry sure but what Aquila did was heartless. How could he do that to him?

Huffing Tobi walked off without looking back. In his heart he wanted to say something but it kept getting caught in his throat before coming out. Tobi walked over to the next tree and sat down in front of it and sat there.

He was so frustrated with himself. How was he ever going to live if he was hurt so easily? It didn't matter though. In the end it always came down to him crying and that was what he did there soaked throughly. Cried with fists clenched and heart in pieces.

Aquila groaned as Tobi stalked off without a word. It was worse than he thought. Before he had a hope of fixing it but now...

Really what did he expect?

"Hey, look I'm- just wait a-" he fumbled around trying to find a way off the tree that didn't involve plummeting to the ground, "Tobi!"

He huffed as he realised he didn't have another foot hold to jump too. He was just dangling in the air.

"It's not cool to runaway from a guy stuck in a tree! At least you were still on the ground - you could have followed me; I'm stuck in a tree here," his face blanched a bit as he realised the words he was say, "Merlin, I'm stuck in a tree."

Again he looked around below him, but all of the branches were too far away to try and jump to. He was more likely to just fall to the ground than land on any of the branches. His stomach clenched at the thought of falling to the ground. He could do it, he had definitely fallen farther before, but it was still going to hurt, and really he would rather find another option.

Sighing he looked up. His best hope was to get back up on his branch and then maybe he could wind his way back down again.

Wiggingling, he jumped and moved about the branch, swinging about like a monkey trying to pulling himself back up as he would if he was on a broom.

He let out a call of success as he managed to hook his feet up, and dangle from the branch like a sloath.

Now I just have to - his thought was cut off in a yell as his hands slipped and he dangled from the branch from his feet.

"Oh Merlin," he groaned as the lake stared back up at him. He could feel his ankles weakening. There was no way he was getting out of this now. At least the branch had been a long one and he had managed to wiggle his way to a part that was haning over water not land.

He let out a yell as his feet finally slipped from their holds, and he flew threw the air.

He had enough time to think that this area of the lake was probably shallow enough not to be good to fall into head first before he broke through the water.

Tobi sat there crying and heard Aquila asking him for help and then it went quiet. He sat there listening to the ruffling of the trees and the movement of the boy in the next tree and then heard the boy yell and then a splash. It then got quiet and stayed that way. Tobi started to worry. Looking over he saw no movement.

Getting up he wiped his eyes and made his way to the tree. Not seeing anyone in it he looked around even more worried. Remembering the splah he ran over to the lake and looked out over it. He saw a blue and black scarf floating the lake and panicked. Diving into the lake he searched for Aquila fruitlessly. He was about to freak out even more when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

Swimming over he saw it was Aquila. Taking hold of the boy he swam towards shore and then dragged him onto land. He checked the boy over and saw a gash on his head. He must have hit a rock. Listening he didn't hear any breathing. With worry he tried to remember the CPR his family had taught him. Damn him for not bringing his wand with him. Opening the boys robe he felt for the right spot that he was to compress on. Doing so a few times he went back and opened the boys mouth and blew into the hoping to start his breathing process up again.

Going through the motions a few times he started to give up. A few more times and he did. He sat ther sobbing with Aquila in his arms thinking him dead. Maybe they weren't meant to be after all.

Aquila sat up with a gasp before he proceeded to cough up a lung full of lake water. Once he could breath again, he let out a groan.

"That water is disgusting," he announced, "Seriously I do not recomend drinking it - ever; I don't care if you are dying of thirst. Don't do it."

He felt funny; he let his hand wander up to his head, and then pulled it back down making a face when it came back red.

"What do you know? I'm bleeding." He shrugged it off - it was nothing new.

He wipped the blood off of on his pants and glanced over that the other boy. He looked worse than Aquila imagined he did - he knew the look. Cepheus gave it to him often after mulitiple incidents.

He groaned again, "Yesh, you and Ceph need to form a worry Aquila's going to die club. Really, you both do a fabulous job at it." He smiled then, raising an eyebrow at the boy, hoping to illistrate with his normal body language that he was fine - it was usally the only way he could convince Ceph it was true;he didn't really go for the words all that often.

Tobi was sitting there for less then a couple minutes when Aquila sat up and started cughing up lake water. He stared with amazement at Aquila. He was alive and Tobi had been the one to save him.

He watched Aquila talking and acting like nothing had happened and it annoyed Tobi. Tobi had thought him dead but he wasn't! He wanted to say so much but thought better. THis kid had just falled out of a tree, bashed his head on a rock and near drowned to death and barely saved. Words wouldn't do.

Sitting there he just hugged Aquila tight saying over and over, "I'm sorry." He eventually let go and explained. "I am sorry for saying anything to you. I don't know what I was thinking. There is no way you like me the way I like you." Sighing he continued, "I guess I will just have to live with it."

Blushing but hoping it wasn't noticed in the abating rain he said, "I just have to save you just not because you weren't breathing. I..uh..had to use mouth to mouth on you because I didn't have my wand. I hope you don't mind. It wasn't like I had a choice anyways."

Aquila opened his mouth to talk some more but whatever he was going to say was cut off as Tobias pulled him into a suffocating hug.

At first he couldn't make out what the boy was repeating nerodically but finally he fit the spaces between the words and made it out.

"It's okay," he said after a moment patting his shoulder, "though i'm having trouble breathing right here."

He made a dramatic show of breathing once he was realised laughing slighlty.

Aquila flushed slightly as their last meeting was mentioned, "Wait look Tobi-"

His attempt to start on some road of apology was cut off as the Hufflepuff kept speaking.

"Oh," he intoned his flush deepeing slightly, "Well you know, since I guess you did save my life..." he trailed off not entirely sure where he was going with that anyways. He laughed slightly, "Yeah."

He sat for a moment staring out at the water, picking at the grass with his hand; for a moment he thought it would be better to have been left in the lake than be there now trying to figure out what to say.

"Listen Tobi," he paused for a moment playing with his hands before continuing, "About ... about... well you know..."

He trailed off for another moment and just stared out at the lake. Then he shook his head, this was stupid, he just get it over with.

"Okay I know how that would look, well actually I don't cause to be perfectly honest I don't remember much of what I did, but," he took a deep breath after letting all of those words flow out of his mouth non-stop with barely a gap between them, "I'm pretty sure that it looked pretty bad. But I would just like... if you give me a moment I could..."

He began stuttering again; this was ridiculous. He didn't have these problems. He was.. he was- not this.

Finally he relied on what he was good at - joking, "Pull up a seat good sir and I'll tell you a story."

Letting go he listened to Aquila stutter around everything he tried to say. It was so cute but it wasn't supposed to be funny.

Sitting there he heard Aquila sigh and then say he had a story to say. He sat there waiting and then said, "Well are you going to say something?"

"Jeez, don't rush a man when he is trying to say something," he play glared at him for a moment and then his expression actually fell into a serious one, "though you better listen closely cause I'm only saying this once... I don't usually say these things at all..."

He trailed off and swallowed. Where to start? There were so many different ways to go about it, so many different things to say...

God, he was a screwed up human being.

"I guess the best place to start would be the begining," he sighed, "You don't really know Ceph so I guess you wouldn't know any of this - I sure don't talk about it - but... our parents, umm, I guess psychodic muggle-hating pureblood snobs would be the polite way to put them. And part of their... outlooks is that they want their children to be their little mini-them.

"You can probably imagine Ceph... he didn't comply so much - and our parents didn't exactly take that so well. I on the other hand..." he trailed off thinking about how it was at home, "Well without Ceph I probably would be exactly what they want, either way I had been their favourite long enought that by the time I realized that maybe they weren't so right I didn't want to be cut out of my place..."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "So I lie - as far as my parents are concerned, I never even thought about a Muggle unless it is to say how much better I am than them."

He turned to Tobi then and gave him a grim smile.

"I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you are quite obviously the favourite, have everyone dout upon you but... it's really addicting. So I figured if it worked for my parents then it must work for everyone else. And so from that point on I just did whatever I knew would get me into the best situation to be liked by different people. If I needed to be a muggle -hater then I'm a muggle hater; if I needed to be a suck up, man did I ever suck up."

He stopped for a moment his brain going numb as he came back to the realization that he made before.

"And then I guess... I've been pretending to be who everyone else wants me to be for so long... I don't know who I am anymore... if I ever did."

Tobi sat there shocked at the kids revelation. Tobi had no idea what to say really. What could he say? Could he say anything that woul sound right? He didn't know but he had to say something.

"I am sorry for putting you in this tight spot Aquila. I was wrong to do that without knowing that much about you. There was just something that drew me to you but I guess my heart was steering me wrong for once." he said trying to not cry.

Standing up he said, "I suppose there is nothing left to say. Once again I am sorry for ever putting you in that spot. I suppose I should be going." He turned around with tears in his eyes and started to walk away. Maybe when there was time he could try and patch their friendship up. He would still like to have him as a friend even though he wantted more.

Aquila groaned as the other boy got up and started to walk away. Really why was this so hard!

"I never said I was done," he called out in a slightly irritated tone, "If you take one more step away from me Tobias Forsyte so help me God I will find a way to throw you in the lake."

He made a sound in the back of his throat, "Now you don't have to sit down, but you definitely need to stop the walking and do some listening. You said you were good at that remember?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow waiting for the other boy to do something.

Tobi wanted to keep walking, he really did, but if this kid could somehow say something good then shouldn't he hear him out? Sighing he turned around and wiped his eyes. He sat back down and waited saying, "Yes I remember. Go ahead and say what you want to say."

"Good," he nodded keeping his don't mess with me bravo for only one moment before falling back into his nervous stutteirng.

"Look, I- I," he pulled a hand through his hair, "I'm not telling you all this to make you feel bad; really it's not your fault, really - its fine that you said what you thought. I admire that actually. Its not like usually do that - no when it really means anything anyways."

He sighed again, "I told you that I didn't know who I am because.... well because when it comes to the things I want, the ones I really want well... I kind of scare myself away from them."

He turned his gaze on the other boy trying to convey with looks what he was saying. He knew he was kind of skirting around the subject, but that was probably the best he was ever going to get. Aquila rarely did feelings, after all he lived in a home where 'I love you's were handed out like dog treats. You only get to hear it if you do something Mommy or Daddy liked. Even though he always got to hear it, he had since a young age been painfully aware that it all relied on what he did.

"I'm not saying... I still got a lot of things I got work on personally but..." he trailed off but smiled slightly.

He looked out at the lake for a moment, and then his smile grew as a thought struck him.

"I think I... I just need to wade into the water a bit. You know stick my toes in and then work my way up," he smiled ruefully, "If I jump in, or fall head first, I tend to ... you know drown."

He bit his lip as he looked down and noticed Tobi's hand was spralled not that far from his own. He was still sort of confused, so many thoughts were going on in his head right now but he thought maybe...

Catiously he moved his own hand, just slightly so that his pinky just barely sprawled across the other boys. It wasn't much but...

"Is that going to be alright?"

"I am sorry Aquila. I shouldn't have put your through that so quick." he said sitting there.

He had listened to every word the boy had said and felt bad for putting the kid through it. Bad enough he told him Aquila that he liked him but then he just about kills the boy on accident.

He heard the boy say he want to go wade some and then just out of the corner of his eye he saw the boy move his hand close to his and lay his pinky over his hand. Taking it as some sort of sign that Aquila was trying to tell him something tobi took his own hand and intwined their fingers.

"I think after what we just went through that we could take our minds off of things. Just tell me this please. Do you feel anything for me? If not I suppose we can just remain friends." Yes they could but somehow it would just be an aching pain for Tobi.

Aquila gave the boy an exasperated smile, "I think I've told you three times now it's okay." He laughed slightly, "If I have to say it again I will... I don't want to use the lake one again, but I will find something awful to do."

Tobi curled his fingers around Aquila's and the younger boy didn't resist. He smiled slightly as some colour came into his cheeks. He liked it and he was infinitely happy that no other confusing or panic ridden thoughts were in his head plaguing the moment.

His blush deepened.

"I-I mean, I really think that I...yes," he whispered quietly, at first it seemed like it was to himself, there was a soft almost surprised quality to it, but then he repeated it again strong this time, "Yes, I think I do," he grinned slightly and glanced at Tobi out of the side of his eyes, "Yes."

THose words were like music to Tobi's ears. He just sat there replying that moment in his mind. Aquila liked him the way he liked him.

Squeezing Aquila's hand he smiled and said, "Well are you going to sit here all day or we going to go wade at the lake? Nothing like playing in the rain."

"You want to go back into the lake now?" he smiled raising an eyebrow at him laughing slightly.

Whatever, he was already wet, and he had wanted to go into the lake at one point - he had just planned on you know, not falling in.

He smirked as he loosened his hold on the boy's hand, "Last one in is a Dragon's pet," he got up and as he started towards the water he flung over his shoulder, "and just so you know, it's going to be you."