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A gentle breeze gusted through the town center, lifting away some of the humidity and bringing a little relief in the humid summer day. Theo lazed back in his chair, his eyes flickering to Phil. He looked so cool and composed, an utter contrast to Theo as they sat in their favorite cafe in Makai's town. He felt hot and itchy, sweat sliding down his back despite him having swapped his usual clothing for a cooler t-shirt and shorts. "How do you stand this heat, Phil?" Theo wondered aloud as he ran a hand through his hair, pulling the strands free from sticking to his neck.

"I wish it would rain." Theo muttered as he sipped his ice-blended caramel latte. Even for coffee, one of his favourite drinks, Theo would not forgo his sugar. Absolutely not. Sugar was important, a good source of energy. Teeth rotting aside, it didn't really have any perverse effects on him, seeing as he flushed down quite a lot of water with the sugar. That aside, the wish for rain was rather unusual, seeing as Theo generally hated the rain. It dampened his spirits as well as his magic, making him miserable in general. So the wish for rain was actually a strange occurance, coming from one who despised the rain so.

Idly, he stared yup into the clear blue skies for a moment before closing them, drowsiness eating at his consciousness. He could doze for a while, it didn't matter.

Behind them, the cafe's door swung open, carrying the end of a conversation to those outside. "I never thought the day would come when I looked calmer than you did. Maybe we ought to move somewhere cooler." Vivian steered Arthur to one of the shadier tables, near Theo and Phil, but he paused a distance away.

"Good morning. Do you mind if we sit there?" Arthur motioned to the nearby chairs, not moving closer until the two already there agreed. It was a little old-fashioned and especially careful, perhaps, but he'd found that a little extra politeness was rarely harmful.

The heat, on the other hand, was never polite to him; if he stayed out in the sunlight for too long without protection, he was bound to burn terribly, and the humidity meant that he was flushed and a little out of breath from just the exertion of walking to the cafe to meet his sister. She tanned much better than he did, and the heat, even the humidity, seemed to make her more energetic and lively, not less, even with her hair a little mussed from when she'd run her hands through it.

Vivian paused behind him, and looked inquisitively at Theo and Phil. She had both of their drinks -- iced tea, unsweetened, for her, and something coffee with a lot of chocolate for Arthur. Normally it would've been the other way around, but the heat was bad enough that an indulgence couldn't hurt.

Phil laughed softly at Theo's remark reminding himself that Theo must have been pretty desperate to praise the middle of autumn no less, with all the rain and thunder and racket. "Well, there's nothing I can do about it, so instead of fighting it I just accept it." Phil explained sipping his delightfully cold iced tea from his glass. Theo was looking very tired as he lie there, Phil was almost certain that if he'd leave him be his brother was sure to fall asleep right then and there and that wasn't going to be very nice seeing how he'd either have to shake him awake or better even pour some water on him to alleviate the effects of the heat on him. Of course Theo would be mad at him for getting him all wet afterwards but wasn't he the one wishing rain? "Come on Theo, you can't sleep here!" he complained in a rather quiet tone of voice. With the sun that high the best he could hope to get was a sunstroke.

Thankfully for him a pair of what seemed like siblings approached them and asked to share a table. Phil watched them was Theo accepted them in their table and shifted himself to sit a bit better while smiling warmly at the both of them. They were quite a pair, truly, both with eyes nearly as brilliantly blue as his own and his brother's, both were blond too, although the boy's hair looked as if he had bleached them. He subconsciously leaned a little closer to Theo as he moved closer and fixed his glasses a little using one index finger to push them up his nose. He was happy to meet new people in any case, two young witchlings all the more, seeing how it wasn't long that he had left the academy also.

"And I'm Philemon, the little brother." he joked lightly, poking at the minimal difference of minutes between Theo's birth and his own. "Please, call me Phil."

"You know I prefer autumn." Theo idly swirled his drink around, watching the melting mush mix with the coffee, diluting it by far too much and just makiing it tasteless. "And, I can bloody damn well sleep anywhere I please." Theo responded to Phil's admonishments not to sleep in the cafe. Really. He was not sleeping well, could have used the few minutes of shut eye, but nope. Destiny, fate or some form of higher power intervened and disturbed him, prevented him from giving in to the exhaustion that was weighing him down in the form of Vivian and Arthur. So there went any thoughts of falling asleep until they collapsed in the cool embrace of Phil's home.

The two of them were a study in contrasts. Vivian's bright, short hair was done in a pixie cut, framing her face whereas Arthur's hair was gathered into a long ponytail behind him. There was very little similarity between them, perhaps in the shape of their faces and the build of their bodies. Vivian was clearly more fit though. Theo watched as they moved in sync, clearly having done this many times before. It seemed like a habit, both instinctively doing something they must have done a hundred times before. Just like he did with Phil. "It is pretty warm." Theo admitted, sipping at the slowly warming drink in his hand. Bleh. He ought to get himself a new drink. "Are you two twins?" He asked bluntly, trying to ascertain if his suspicions had been correct.

Arthur shifted a little uncomfortably at the question -- too direct for his tastes -- but Vivian didn't seem to mind at all. Indeed, she seemed to find Theo's directness refreshing. "I think that's a new record," she answered laughingly, pausing to stretch and yawn. "We are, but it's not often that people see it right off." She cocked her head, studying them both, and asked, "What about you? Are you twins?" Those blue eyes were distinctive, and though they could have been just friends or perhaps brothers, the ease with which Theo had seen their relation suggested that he knew it himself.

"Vivian," Arthur rebuked, too gently to really be serious.

Vivian wrinkled her nose. "He asked first," she protested, shoving his shoulder lightly. That, she thought, was just like Arthur -- he'd given Theo and Phil an out if they didn't want to say. And, though their little 'argument' was worded seriously, there was an easy, comfortable undercurrent to it that made the joke clear.

Phil laughed softly at Theo's remark about him not minding the weather. It's not that he didn't mind, really, he would just bear with it. If he had weather control magic perhaps he would do something about it but he found no point in actually worrying about something that he clearly couldn't affect in any possible or impossible way.

"But, you're so much alike." Phil pointed out when Vivian mentioned people didn't always see it right off. "The way you move and talk feels almost as if you both make a single person." although it was sad that Arthur wasn't quite as outspoken as his sister. It made Phil wonder if he would ever be able to hear him as himself, his own thoughts instead.

At Theo's return of the question he made haste to place both hands in his lap and straighten his back while a reserved smile was painted on his lips as he waited for the other pair's reply. It was true that he and his brother looked nothing alike and they were entirely different in their ways, but deep down there was an undeniable connection. His and Theo's hearts were connected at even their most basic of levels but because each of them was their own person and both of them had the strength required to recognize this they managed to coexist in perfect unison, a duality painted softly, equality in mind, so neither side overshadowed the other.