Emil hadn't seen him coming.

He had been on his way down to the lake, but quickly found himself crashing headfirst into another young man, whose wings were dark and sleek. They snagged against one another mid-air, and were tumbling down and crashing against the treetops before they even had a moment to think.

Emil lifted his head a little, white hair disheveled and owl-like wings ruffled. His shoulder ached – he had landed on it – and he still felt as if his world was spinning. It took him a moment to glimpse to the young man next to him.

"Like, what'd you do that for?!" he huffed, flitting his wings and furrowing his eyebrows. Emil's eyes were drawn to just how thick and odd said brows were.

"Sorry," Emil mumbled, although he was more caught in observing this odd fellow.

He was relatively short, although he still had a few centimetres over Emil. His hair was a little scraggly, but for the most part sleek, and it was the colour of the dark chocolate Emil had tried once. It was a treat that Tino had bought him from human civilization. He and Berwald did go out and work amongst the odd society, after all. His eyes were golden, or perhaps amber; regardless, they were beautiful.

"Sorry? Yeah, great. Who are you, anyway? You're not a member of the flock." The boy huffed, crossing his legs basket-style and leaning his elbows on his knees. At this point, both he and Emil had growing red marks on their foreheads, from where they had accidentally surged into one another. Emil raised a brow. He knew for certain that he was a member of the flock, as much as Berwald or Tino or Lukas. There had been a little merger, after all. The Nordic flock had come together peacefully with the flock upon the mountain, had they not? His only conclusion was that this odd boy was either newly adopted into aforementioned flock, or was of another flock that Emil had no clue about.

"Emil Steilsson." He answered bluntly, brushing his hair out of his eyes. As he did so, his wrist was caught in the stranger's hand. "W-what are you-"

"Your eyes." Here, Emil faltered, using his other hand to bat away that of the stranger's.

"Stop it."

"So, my name's Lei Siu Chun." He yawned. "Just call me Leon, it's easier. My old guardian called me that because he totally sucked at pronouncing my full name."

"Leon.." Emil echoed, trying to remember where he might've heard that name before. "You sound familiar."

"Funny, I've never seen you before." Leon huffed, folding his small wings behind him. "You're an odd guy, Emil."

Emil frowned, and glanced away. "I'm sorry for knocking you out of the sky." He mumbled. "But I should probably go. I'm supposed to be hunting." He uttered blankly, before getting to his feet.

"I was going to visit Teacher," Leon shrugged, and stood up as well. "I'll find him later. I feel like hunting, anyway."

"Wait, what? Please leave." Emil said softly, frowning and tensing. Who did this Leon think he was, anyway, sneakily adding himself into Emil's plans like that?! They had met barely a few minutes ago!

"I bet I'm totally a better hunter than you." Leon boasted, seeming to ignore Emil's discomfiture. "What's your specialty? Fish? Birds? Mine is, like, seafood, 'cos I grew up around the sea."

"Erm, fish.." Emil mumbled, rubbing his arm and glancing around. Maybe if he ran, he could lose this odd boy. "Please, I don't even know who you are."

"I already told you; I'm Lei Siu Chun." Leon repeated, shrugging.

"No, I mean-.. Erm, you're not a member of the flock I'm in, and I don't know if I can trust you or not-"

Leon interrupted. "I think we're from different flocks, that's all. Like, who's your leader?"

"We have this old man called Alfher-"

"Ours is called Romulus. Grandpa of two of our members." Leon stated, as if it was obvious.

"Our flock has almost twenty members," stated Emil softly, lacing his fingers together and awkwardly standing there.

"Whoa!" gawked Leon, pretty eyes widening to the shape of plates. "Ours has eight! Your flock doesn't possibly have a man by the name of Yao, does it?" Emil raised a brow.

"We do."

"Then you're the flock I came to meet!" Leon seemed a little excited, now seeming to have passed the blunt and shy stage. "Our leader has been talking about wanting to join our flocks."

"W-what?" Emil said weakly, taking a step back. Combining flocks? It seemed like a recipe for disaster more than anything else.

"He says safety in numbers." He shrugged. "I have to talk to Teacher, since Kiku's kind in our flock." That made absolutely no sense to Emil, but he let it go.

"If you're telling the truth, I'll take you up the mountain after I've finished hunting."

"You mean we've."

"No, I don't."

The white-haired boy huffed and tried walking off in the other direction. He heard the crunch of Leon's feet breaking the dry leaves on the ground behind him, and grit his teeth. Was he oblivious to what Emil was trying to do; escape? Maybe he wasn't, and was just pursuing for the sake of being annoying. When Leon refused to stop following, Emil jumped and spread his wings with no warning. Hurriedly, he took flight.

Leon followed him, much to his annoyance. Every time Emil would try and speed up, Leon would do the same, until he was flying loosely above him. When Emil went to flap to propel himself, Leon's hands were rough and dug into his wings, holding them together and effectively using them to ride Emil straight down to the ground.

"Gotcha!" Leon huffed, hopping off and putting his hands on his hips. "There, like, now lets hunt together." Emil grunted in pain and brushed himself off. Perhaps he should just comply so that this odd boy would leave him alone.

"F-fine! You can hunt with me! Just never hold onto my wings!" he puffed haughtily, turning his head to the side so that Leon wouldn't see his flushed cheeks.

"I couldn't resist," Leon smirked. "They were too pretty and dainty."

Emil rolled his eyes, and led the pair of them to the river. They fished for a while, with neither Emil nor Leon saying anything. Once they had a few fish each, Emil lead Leon up to the mountain, even though he didn't really trust him fully. Apparently, they had a flock combining to set up.

ok so i cant do hongice i realised after writing half of one

this is half a chapter i think and the nedxt half will shift to rochu as i actually have a vague idea of what im doing

gomen