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It was strange, the secret hallway.

Io and Kanth had let it alone for the time being, after Io had found her room. (She'd been babbling something about looking through the attic for all her old toys... Constantine hadn't really been listening.) But Constantine, reluctant as he might be to admit it, was still curious.

Curiosity had not been a good trait for him to have, previously. Nonetheless, after Io handed him a handful of wrapped candies and told him to go take it easy for a bit, he wandered back up the hidden staircase to the strange hall.

It was filled with doors. Doors and doors and doors, and all of them, save for the one Io had gone through, looked the same.

Well, not quite. Constantine found he could make out small differences if he looked closely, though he could not seem to put his finger on exactly what those differences were. However, it didn't much seem to matter. Rolling one of the candies around in his fingers - he didn't much like candy, but he couldn't have turned down Io's offer - he turned about from studying the doors on one side of the hall.

He stopped. There, in front of him, right next to Io's door, was one that was blatantly different. It was hewn from thick, sturdy wood and set with iron castings that curled and dove into ornate, foreboding points. It looked rather like someone had tried to cross a cemetary gate with a barn door.

Intrigued - or perhaps entranced - he stepped closer to it, pressing a hand against it lightly. To his surprise, it swung open, revealing a dark yet familiar room within.

Constantine swallowed, gulping back a sudden, sorrowful lump in his throat as he stepped into the room, dragging his scythe behind him. "It's just like..." but then again, it wasn't. The bed was draped in familiar sheets, but the frame, like the door, was wrought-iron, and it had a canopy with thin black curtains. The furniture was in the right places, but it was more exquisitely carved, and... somehow deeper.

There was a mount on the wall by the bed, just the right size for his scythe. Cautiously, he placed it there, and gave the room another look.

Constantine smiled. "...I'm home."

Curious was not happy.

Constantine had had to forcibly pull it off the face of the weird yellow amphibian thing that had been running around like crazy in his room, threatening to knock the delicate lamps and hourglasses over. Apparently, the froglike thing had gotten into Curious's candy.

And that, of course, was an inexcusable sin.

The puffy black spider was still chittering loudly and angrily as Constantine placed it in a large jar and screwed the lid tightly on, punching a few holes in the top with the tip of his scythe. The other... creature he scooped up in his arms, sighing as it squirmed around to stare blankly back at the frantic, trapped Curious.

He would have to ask Io where she found these things.

He found the large fishtank easily as he came downstairs and into the living room, and slipped the gold creature back into it. It swam around in circles a few times before plastering itself up against the glass and staring at him.

"You're getting too big for that tank," Constantine murmured, crouching down a bit to stare back at it.

"Yeah, Alastair really needs some kinda big aquarium/terrarrium type thing now," Io commented, talking around a cookie as she came in from the kitchen carrying the jar. She took a bite and gulped it down before continuing, waving the remainder of the cookie at him thoughtfully as she spoke. "Can't really find a place that sells 'em big enough, though. I suppose we could try the bathtub or something, but I doubt that'll go over well... snickerdoodle?"

Constantine shook his head in response, declining the cookie, and stood back up. "It got into Curious's candy... but my door doesn't really lock."

"S'ok, just shut it. He shouldn't be able to push that big heavy thing open on his own."

"I thought it was an 'it...'" He gave a small sigh. "You keep finding these things."

"Eheheh..." Io looked a bit abashed, brushing her bangs back as she took another bite of her cookie. "Well, yeah... I've wanted lots of pets for the longest time, but I haven't had a place to keep them. Anyway, I seem to be picking up more kids like you than actual pets." She paused to stroke the white dragon plush draped about her neck.

Constantine was silent for a moment.

"Not... really like me."

Io blinked, cookie halfway in her mouth. She bit slowly, swallowing the bite thoughtfully. "Well... everyone's different, Const. Anyway, we're all kinda... outcasts here. Even me and Kanth. Uh, Kanth and I."

"That's not really what I meant..." he walked over to the couch, sitting dejectedly down on it, and staring sadly at his scythe as he set it in his lap. "I don't think... s'like... m'not understood."

Io resisted the urge to snort at that one, her azure eyes shifting as she leaned against the wall, calculating her response. Social skills had never been her forte.

"Well, I can tell you for certain that if there's anything I don't understand about you, Constantine - and I'm sure there's still much I don't - it's not because I'm not trying. You have to... kinda open up too, y'know? You've been pretty withdrawn ever since you got here... I can't say I haven't been worried about that. And anyway, what about Vava?"

The point caught him a bit off guard, and he looked up sharply. "Vavalion...?" Constantine had helped Io care for the young Legend several times, and Io had definitely noticed Constantine's small smiles. "Um... well... he's only a baby."

"Heh." Io smirked a bit, placing the cookie jar on a nearby endstand. "Sometimes babies understand more than grown-ups. I don't know about you, but he seems to connect with ya somehow. I hope you two don't grow apart... you know?"

Constantine nodded, almost distractedly, glancing away as he wrapped himself in his thoughts again. There was an awkward period of silence before he spoke again.

"What about... Kanth?"

Io blinked. "What about her?"

"She... she seemed... kind of insulted by me... that time, in the hallway."

A sigh escaped Io as she moved to sit carefully next to the boy on the couch, brushing back his hood to ruffle his dark hair. "I think the both of you were just having a hard time adjusting. You're still kind of... wary of people, right?"

He glanced away. "....."

"I hope someday you'll be ready to tell me why... I said it before, but I do worry, y'know."

"Yeah... but... not now." A pause. "When Kanth comes back... do you think she'll accept me?"

"I can't tell ya for sure," Io warned, adjusting her glasses. "I'm neither psychic nor precognitive, after all. But I think... maybe with time, but I think... she probably will."

He turned back to her, his eyes doubtful and searching. "Really?"

"Really really." She watched as Constantine pulled his hood up again, running his hands along the polished wooden handle of his scythe. "I'm just praying she comes back, though."

"I think... I think she will," Constantine offered, staring tenatively across the room.

"Oh?" Io sat up straighter, leaning back against the couch as she gave him a curious look. "What makes you say that?"

He glanced back towards her, mellow and thoughtful. "When she left... she wasn't near."

"Near...?" Io appeared confused for a moment before it sunk in. "Near death?"

".....yeah."

"I see... you can tell when someone's going to die?"

He shifted, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Not... really. Like, if they're going to die within the week, then yeah..."

"Mmmmm." Io decided to drop it for now, but she rolled the information musingly about in her mind. "Well... don't sweat it, CT. If you ever need anything - ever - I'm here to talk to, 'kay? I know you're not gonna want to talk to me about everything, cause no kid does, but just know I'm here."

"Yeah... okay. ....Thanks." He gave her a small, distant smile, and stood up. "I think I'll... go for a walk."

"Yeah?" Io perked up, standing. "Good for you, get some sun!"

"...like you ever do?" A tiny smirk tugged at his lips for a moment.

"...Hey. No snarking back." She grinned, poking his nose. "But if you're going out, could you take some of these little twerps with you? They've been going crazy being cooped up inside with spring just about here." She reached around and grabbed a short white and red mushroomlike creature as it tried to sneak past, nudging it towards Constantine. "Take Arrin and Alastair, at least. Arrin's been trying to sneak outside anyway, and Al could stand to see a real pond." The mushroom looked at her in surprise, its glowing eyes flashing for a moment as it jumped a bit and clapped in glee.

"Uh... all right," Constantine replied, giving a small smile. He rather liked Arrin, though Al was mostly a nusiance... oh well. He walked towards the tank, only to have the young tonberry leap out of it and cling to his face with a loud smack, still wet and slightly slimy. Grimacing, Constantine pulled Alastair off, settling it on his shoulder.

"Have fun!" Io called, waving as he headed for the door with both in tow. "Be back before dinner; it's the honey lime salmon you like so much!"

"I will," he replied, waving his scythe in her direction as he left. He smiled as he looked up at the sun and the clouds, then began walking down the long hill to the forest behind the house.

Yeah. A walk would do him good.

It was unlike Constantine to show frustration or stress, even if he felt it. Io had found that she often had to be looking for the signs of it - noticing when he vanished to his room at strange times of the day, when he had left his scythe behind for fear of its temptation, when he was staring at the sky with more despondency than marvel. She feared she hadn't been able to comfort him nearly often enough, although knowing as little of him as she did there was only so much she could do or say in any case.

This time, however, the sound of a scythe forcibly embedding itself deep into woodwork was audible to everyone in the house.

Io flinched, missing a jump in the game she was playing and letting her character careen off into the depths of a bottomless pit. Managing to push the large, winged catlike creature sprawled across her lap onto the rest of the couch, she stood up and just turned the console off before heading for the library stairs to see what the commotion was about.

She was no empath, and Constantine hadn't vocalized his fury, but she could almost hear the scream of frustration sounding in his head.

"CT?" She asked carefully, nudging his door open with a small creak. He was slouched on the floor by his closet, the scythe gleaming wickedly from where it was lodged in the doorframe. It had cut through nearly all of his clothes - which were only a few black cloaks identical to the one he wore. "What's the matter?"

"They're all the same," he grumped, leaning back against his bed and pulling his knees to his chest. Io stared at him for a moment, then, despite her every fiber of sense yelling at her not to, burst into laughter that she quickly attempted to muffle with her sleeve.

"You're angsting your little head off because you're sick of your clothes, Constantine?" she chortled. "You could have just said so! Sorry..." She coughed, straightening and giving him a grin as she stomped her gigglefit into control. "Here, get up. I'll take you out to get something new right now, whaddaya say?" She stepped over to him and reached down, offering her hand to help him up. His pale eyes searched over her for a moment before he took the hand, rising slowly to his feet.

"Well..."

"Don't chicken out on me now," Io cut him off, her smile and voice softening. "I don't know how long you've had the same wardrobe, but if there's too many bad memories wrapped up in it or if familiarity's just bred contempt, I'll understand. The shops are waiting and the bill's on me, no matter what you choose."

Constantine smiled, shakily, and then quickly averted his gaze. "Yeah... okay. Okay, I think... I'd like that."

~~~~

Five stores later, Io had discovered exactly how picky the child could be.

"Good lord, you're worse than me..." she groaned as Constantine gave a shirt the doubtful, criticizing stare that had become familiar over the past several hours. "What's wrong with the shirt, now? It's a black t-shirt. Not much more to it."

"The neck's too wide..." he muttered, returning it to the shelf and rummaging through the others. "I don't like the plain ones, anyway. Needs... something." It was hard for Io to tell if he was directing his musings to her or no one in particular.

"Well, you seemed to like the long coats earlier... what about this one?" She was reluctant to point out the most expensive one on the rack, but there had to be SOMEthing the boy would like! He glanced over, giving it a quick look up and down.

"It's nice... but the material looks kind of stiff and I don't like the collar."

"Figures." She sighed, crossing her arms and watching Constantine continue to poke half-heartedly at the shirts. "What would you want to wear, if you could choose anything?"

"I dunno... something with flow... easy to move in... hood... lots of cover..."

"That, my dear, sounds an awful lot like your cloak." Constantine flushed slightly, tugging at his hood.

"No, it's different, I mean... it's in my head, and it's kind of the same I guess, but it's different. Hard to explain."

"In your head, huh?" Io peered at him, the gears in her own head turning visibly. "Hey CT... your scythe."

He blinked, glancing up at her. They hadn't brought the scythe with them... "What of it?"

"Well, it's not a regular scythe, right? I've seen it; it kinda changes shape sometimes. Like, according to your mood or the way you need to hold it. Kind of subtle-like, but definitely noticeable."

He blinked again, realizing that she was right. He hadn't noticed it himself, but now that he thought about it, that was exactly what it did. "I guess..." What did that have to do with clothes?

"It gets REALLY curvy when you're nervous," Io pointed out, smirking slightly. "It's something like... part of you, right?"

"...yeah."

"I have an idea I think you'll like. Let's go home."

"Now...?" He stood, looking around. "But we haven't gotten anything."

"We don't need to." Io gave him that grin of hers that those around her tended to learn to fear, and he gave a sigh. He'd just have to see what she had in mind after all..

~~~~

Back at the house, Constantine retrieved his scythe from the wall and stepped back over to Io, handing it to her. She was still a bit startled by its weight, but managed to heft it up anyway, tilting the blade until she could see her reflection in it.

"All right, we're going to transfer the scythe's matrix to your cloak. It's simple magic, but only if you know what you're doing... I've got an affinity for aura magic, so I learned this trick a while ago."

"So... what'll it do, exactly?" Constantine shuffled his feet a bit - he wasn't exactly keen on the whole magic thing, nor entirely comfortable with it.

"It'll make your cloak what your scythe is - essentially an extension of yourself. I don't know how much you'll be able to consciously control at first, but eventually you should be able to form it into whatever clothing you desire. What do you think?" The boy's eyes visibly lit up, but he tried not to show it.

"Um..."

"We can still go buy you something if you'd rather get something completely different right away," Io offered.

"...no," he decided, a bit of confidence showing in his voice. "No, let's do this. Even if it takes a while... it sounds worth it."

Io grinned, taking one hand from the scythe and placing it on his shoulder. "Remember that decision, CT. It's usually a very good one." With that, she closed her eyes, and a soft glow surrounded her hands, quickly spreading to the scythe and cloak. A point of light flared up in the scythe, then split in two, one little pinpoint travelling down her hand and across to her other, entering the cloak's aura and spreading until it could no longer be seen. A short flash later and it was done.

"There. How does it feel?"

"Not much different..." Constantine replied, glancing down and around to inspect his cloak. "I think it fits better now." A lot of the seams and patches had vanished as well, and though the edges still appeared torn, they now seemed to flow and shift rather than remain as static rips, tears, and holes. Something suddenly occurred to Constantine, and a look of sudden panic crossed his face. "Oh! Um... what happens when I want to take it off?"

Io laughed, patting him on the head. "Enchanted clothes aren't trouble in that manner, unless maybe they're cursed... even if you can't remove them with a thought yet you should be able to take them off normally. Just don't fall asleep on the train and have a naked dream."

Constantine turned bright red, then huffed, and snatched his scythe back. "I won't."

And Io smiled, then laughed, and he couldn't help but give a small laugh with her.