Holiday wear.

Nights were cold out here. Raine wriggled her toes cosily in her slippers as she stood at the balustrade of the  hotel's balcony restaurant. It was past curfew but the waiters were still milling about, clearing the tables and chatting in their foreign tongue. She felt chilly in the nightdress, which hung loosely on her frame and barely made it to her knees, but there was no going back to the room quiet yet. Couldn't risk waking Abby over a pair of leggings.

The beach looked ominous-- the ocean was dark, almost black though still soothing like a lullaby. Raine rolled up her sleeve to squint at her watch and upon seeing that it was midnight, took out a single cigarillo from her breast pocket. That was followed by a tiny lighter. She could never do this at home or at Hogwarts; try her hand at the little habits of her uncles and aunts. Snuffboxes and pills were out of the question, strange things, but who would notice tobacco gone missing from the study?

Without missing a beat, the Gryffindor slid the  tiny cigar between her lips and very steadily lit it, her hand covering the flame to keep the night breeze from blowing it out. She drew in the smoke hesitantly... bitter, hazy taste. Then she breathed it out and watched the white vapor dissipate into the cold air. It was easier than a cigarette, easier than having the stuff in your lungs. Raine licked her lips as she held it away from herself, daintily. Well. That was anticlimactic. Rather unremarkable. She sighed and leaned forward against the balustrade in a boyish posture, eyes skimming the shore. It was a relief to be back in the hotel, having now spent the day in catacombs that stunk of Death. Why would any civilization build monuments to glorify such a thing? Depressing. She took in another puff without really thinking about it.

It was past curfew on the evening of the twenty first, but for some reason Vulpes didn't feel like sticking to the rules. It was probably due to a certain giddiness that filled him knowing that Aurora was his girlfriend now. Of course, he had already said good night to her and didn't feel like bothering her again. Vulpes hadn't even gone back to his room yet. Instead he just let his legs guide him as they danced their way around the hotel and up to the balcony restaurant.

Vulpes wasn't quite sure why his legs took him here. Maybe just because it was the highest point and he could see stars. So calmly, and rather elegantly, Vulpes waltzed his way over to the railing. But with sudden realization he recognized the girl standing there smoking.

"Raine?" he said in slight disbelief only a few feet behind her.

Raine jumped around quicker than a cat caught in the act, hand behind her back and eyes alert.

"Merlin, I thought you were a professor." It was only Vulpes Connor. Dear God, she never thought there would come a day when she'd be glad to see headphone boy of all people. The Gryffindor's shoulders relaxed and she brought out the cigarillo uneasily. If a teacher had caught her, the trail of smoke coming conspicuously from behind her would not have been any help.

She would need to remember to trash the thing. Raine took another drag and folded one arm across her chest as she looked at Vulpes: "You're out late. Roommate keeping you up or do you not sleep, Connor?" A droll notion once occurred to her when the Slytherin had fallen asleep in their Muggle Studies class-- that perhaps he dozed all day and stalked the halls at night, dancing to the ridiculous noise in his ears.

Thinking about it again, she couldn't help but smirk.

Vulpes gave a small frown seeing Raine pull out a cigarette out from behind her back. She wasn't exactly one he expected to be a smoker, and part of him wondered how long she had been. Another, much larger part wanted to tell her how bad it was for you but, well, Vulpes didn't exactly think he had the right to do so. It was her choice after all.

But he quickly recovered his smile. "Neither, in this case," Vulpes said happily and with a slight chuckle, stepping over to the railing next to her. For some reason he found her last comment fairly amusing. Perhaps it was because he slept through almost every class.

"I'm just to..." he trailed off trying to think of the right word. "Excited. Energetic," Vulpes turned and smiled at Raine. "So I figured I'd take a stroll. See who else is up breaking rules."

Raine smiled fleetingly and then, holding the cigarillo in her mouth, pulled herself up onto the balustrade where she balanced herself precariously. A mild breeze came in from the shore. The smell of salt water was pleasant. She looked to her side at Vulpes, who was so chipper he might as well have been beaming.

"What a happy little Slytherin," Raine told him as she flicked some ash off the balcony, "Taking strolls, breaking rules. Don't suppose I can offer you a smoke? It's my first." She looked away and leaned backwards, tipping unsteadily in the wrong direction as her eyes went up to the night sky. Cloudless and starry. Probably why it was so cold tonight.

There was something reassuring about not being the only one out past curfew. Not that it bothered her to be here but if there was company, the threat of being caught felt remote. Odds are most everyone else was exhausted from the tours anyway. Raine sighed and, still looking up, said: "Doesn't feel like it counts when you break the rules on holiday." Her head tilted slightly so that she could glance at her classmate's face: "It's like a dream. If we pinch ourselves, we may wake up back in rainy England." Which seemed like a distant nightmare now. The witch suppressed that image, "Better to keep on dreaming."

For a moment Vulpes considered taking up on her offer. In truth, he had sometimes considered it. After all he may even find himself to like it. He reached a hesitant hand out before stopping himself and shaking his head. No. What would his parents think? And worse, what would Aurora think of him if she saw it. No, better to resist temptation for now. "No, thanks."

Vulpes gave a small shrug. "Well I'm sure if we break enough, or break one severely enough, they'd boot us home. Kind of like at school," he gave Raine a broad smile. Actually, he did have to agree that it felt like a dream with everything that had been happening. "Well, 'Dreams Don't Turn to Dust[1]'," he half laughed, thinking of the reference. Vulpes doubted that she's get it.

With a sigh Vulpes turned himself around and now leaned his back on the railing. "So, what made you want to do this," he asked nodding at the cigarillo.

1.

Owl City

Raine tapped the tip of her cigarillo off the balcony, watching the ember disintegrate into ash before the wind stole it away. Her gaze shifted to meet that of her classmates and she half-smiled at him, wondering if any of their conversation was making sense to either of them. She was talking without really thinking. "My father smokes. I heard that it was relaxing," which was mostly true, "but I think it's a little dull."

Understatement. Putting aside the risk of being caught, it seemed like a very passive habit to develop. Even if she did rather enjoy having something in her hand like this; there was something to it. Raine's smile faded and she sat up straight on the balustrade, looking towards the restaurant as the waiters began pulling off the tablecloths. Bare of its frills, glassware and cutlery-- the restaurant looked mundane. The Gryffindor made an irritated sound: "I thought it would be exciting. It always is when you do something forbidden..." she kept on drawing in one toke after another but it might as well have been air rather than smoke.

"Maybe that only applies when you're afraid to do it." Raine paused abruptly, as though stopping herself from saying something else, and then indicated her cigarillo to Vulpes: "Are you afraid? Or just sensibl--" she broke off and suddenly grabbed onto the balustrade, nearly losing balance. Close one; a cracked skull wasn't a good way to be sent home.

Very slightly he shrugged. Vulpes had never really done anything forbidden, so he wouldn't know whether or not things were more exciting that way. It was strange, really. He sort of had this impression that as a Slytherin he should be one who at the very least attempts to bend the rule a bit, even if he doesn't break them. But maybe that was just because he had never really gotten out of the stereotypical mind set.

For a small faction of a second Vulpes shot his hand out in an attempt to catch her. But seeing that Raine caught herself, he simply retracted his hand and let out a small sigh of relief. How exactly would explain to the professors that she fell off the balcony.

"I'm not sure," Vulpes responded to the question posed at him. "Perhaps both? Afraid what Aurora would think if she saw me, and sensible enough to know it's bad for you." Again he shrugged. Maybe it was just fear, he wasn't sure and it probably didn't matter.

For a minute Vulpes just stood there, leaning against the balustrade watching as the waiters cleaned up the restaurant. "Think they're gonna kick us out soon?" he asked, glancing up at Raine.

Raine smirked derisively at her companion's answer. Unusual to find a Slytherin that cared so much about what other people thought. Or at least one who cared about what a Gryffindor thought. She considered Vulpes for a moment and pictured him beside her housemate, Bainsadottir. Appropriate, she thought, in a nauseatingly saccharine manner. Most romances struck Raine as nauseating right now.

She flicked her cigarillo and glanced at it, wondering how long before the whole thing burnt out.

"Think they're gonna kick us out soon?" Vulpes asked and the young witch followed his gaze towards the hotel staff as they began sweeping down the floors. It never occurred to her that they would... most hotels stopped serving at a certain hour, she supposed, but it seemed rude to simply chase them off.

Thoughtfully, she crossed her legs and leaned a little forward to avoid another near-fall: "Perhaps. I doubt they care. We're just another pair of youths, wasting the night away..." Raine trailed off with a frown. She shook her head, more to herself than as an actual gesture: "Adults do that. They categorize us or treat us like problems, you know. It's easier for them."

Vulpes gave the slightest of shrugs. "I suppose," was all he could manage to say at the moment. Raine was, after all, quite right to a point. Adults tended to assume children, teenagers especially, were always up to trouble. And he supposed this time they would be right to assume so. After all, Raine was up here smoking, and he was next to her; both were breaking curfew.

"It's not as if we don't do the same though," Vulpes said lightly, now also watching as the staff finished cleaning the restaurant. "I mean, when we see people at school we don't know, the first thing we look at is their house. And from their house we decide that they must fit the general profile. Hufflepuff's are all nice, hard working, loyal people. Slytherins are all cunning, ambitious backstabbers," he said with another, much more obvious shrug. "And it isn't until we really get to know the person that our views change."

"So really one could say we're just like them," Vulpes finished. "Human."

The cigarillo was burning slowly down to its stub with each puff.

Raine gave the Slytherin a wry look as she breathed out a cloud of spicy white smoke: "We are not just like them,[/i]" she contended. There was of course no denying that they classified each other; all adults were once youths and everyone... well, if they were fortunate, would become grown-ups someday. She was turning seventeen in December and sometimes it seemed like that day was racing towards her.

"I like to think that we have a greater capacity for change," Raine added as her gaze focused on something beyond Vulpes, "Even when do categorize people, we're better at accepting their separateness. Faster." In her mind, she pictured Sanya Almasy in Ravenclaw robes and this made her smile. A nostalgic smile. Her sister was not what she expected from that house-- in the same way, Vulpes Connor was not what Raine expected from his house. She withdrew from that thought and brought her attention back to him. Enamoured by a Gryffindor housemate and glued to his headphones.

No, certainly not what she expected: "Don't mind me, Vulpes. I must be rambling," she muttered in a lower voice, "Or sleeping, perhaps. I'm not sleeping right now, am I?" That last bit was asked with a genuine kind of curiosity. Raine leaned forward, an arm around her waist and the other propped up by the elbow as smoke trickled by her face.

Vulpes gave another small shrug in response to Raine's entire comment. He supposed she was right; that they did in fact have a greater ability to accept change when it happened. That was probably a part of youth. The whole 'finding who you are' concept.

"There's a few easy ways to find out," Vulpes said, turning around and looking back over the rail. "You could have someone pinch you. You could pour water on yourself. Or," he began, leaning over the railing and looking straight down. "Theoretically you could jump off and see if you wake up before you land."

A small laugh passed through his lips as Vulpes pulled himself back over. "Personally I'd recommend the first one. Less fatal and less wet."

Raine, in time to her classmate's response, swung her legs over onto the other side of the balustrade to face the beach. One hand steadied her while the other precariously held the cigarillo that was nearly burnt down to a stub. She looked down and with a thrill, sensed the sheer absence of matter that met with her feet. Nothing below her at all but a fall.

What would it feel like, that fall, she wondered?

"Personally I'd recommend the first one. Less fatal and less wet." Vulpes wheeled around but the Gryffindor remained mesmerized by the surface that would have broken a very painful drop. Her eyes bored intensely into the sandy floor, morbidly curious.

You always woke up before it hurt. She glanced up and smiled fleetingly: "It's only fatal if I'm not sleeping." And if she wasn't wasn't sleeping than there would be nothing at all after the pain. No, not nothing. Something... perhaps something better...

Sanya's face blinked quickly in the back of her mind but she threw a veil over it. She did not want to think about such things, not on this trip. Everything was going so well and it would be a shame to ruin that lucky streak. Raine lifted her cigarillo to her lips, drew in one last puff and then flicked it off the balcony. All she could really see was a tiny red ember dropping into the dark.

"It's a thin line..." she muttered, leaning forward as though she were about to tip herself over. Then, just as gradually, she stopped and sat up straight: "You're probably right though." The witch felt really tired all of a sudden. Tomorrow would be an early day because Professor Trishna wanted to go surfing... she shouldn't be here.

Raine climbed gracefully off the balustrade and turned to face Vulpes: "Either way, don't pinch me." A dry smirk pulled at her lips, "You're better off pinching a certain other Gyffindor."

Vulpes became much more nervous as Raine swung her legs over the edge. She wasn't seriously considering jumping was she? How exactly would he explain that to the teachers? Certainly a broken and bloody body, and him being the one to find her would raise questions. And saying "We were both on the balcony after curfew and she jumped over" didn't seem like a very good answer.

But the racing in his heart subsided as he watched her lean back and place her feet on the ground next to him. Letting out a sigh of relief he barely caught her words. "Well I wouldn't pinch you unless you asked me too," Vuples said softly. A small smirk played across his lips. "And I don't see myself pinching her either."

Still smiling Vulpes eyed the girl. What was it that compelled her to almost drop off a ledge... Idly he glanced over the side. Quite the fall. But now that he thought about it, it may not be high enough to kill a person, at least not instantly unless they landed wrong. Certainly it was enough to break a decent amount of bones on impact. But Raine seemed so unafraid of that sort of harm.

"You're not afraid of dying," he said, finally looking back at her. "Are you?"

Raine took out her lighter and felt it in the palm of her hand, a thumb running over the engraving as Vulpes quipped that he wouldn't have pinched Bainsadottir either. She smirked at this, an undertone of Gryffindor pride lurking in her expression. Her eyes shifted momentarily to observe the waiters, who were now sweeping the floors and tidying up the bar. Industrious lot.

When she looked back to the Slytherin, he was glancing away from the balustrade: "You're not afraid of dying," he asked: "Are you?"

Without really thinking about what she was saying, Raine opened flipped open her lighter and replied: "Of course I am." It was a perfunctory response. The kind of thing you would say because anything else would come across as socially unacceptable and... well, she wasn't raised to be socially unacceptable. But she wasn't raised to be an outright liar either.

The lighter closed with an audible click and the witch's gaze met her companion's, vigilant and alert. "No. That isn't right. I don't think I am, really." She watched him carefully, though she did not expect a reproachful attitude. Vulpus wasn't the sort. He seemed to be able to process events quite passively.

"There is something beyond Death. Heaven or hell... I'm not afraid because either way, I will have company. My sister, you know?" She assumed that most people knew that Sanya had died last summer, if not how it happened. Her features softened: "Although I am in no hurry to meet her." Whether this was the truth, she could not honestly say. It was as close as she could get.

Sighing softly, Raine leaned against the balcony banister. That moment came back to her, that moment in which she could have just tipped over...  "Life is full of opportunities to die, isn't it? It's waiting at every corner."