Chapter Text
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
On the outskirts of a big city, it’s quiet. Well, as quiet as a place can be next to a city. It really was just called a city for legal reasons, it was more like its own country–laws, governments, heroes–were all present. He had heard about the different villains and heroes that occasionally got into disputes, but he never actually spoke with any of them. He had only heard of them from his older sister, Pearl, who talked very strangely about them–like they were some sort of taboo subject around him.
He spends most of his days flying, feeling the breeze in his hair and macaw-branded wings. He could never feel more free than the fact he would never be chained by the foot, like in the city.
The little house Grian lived in with his siblings, Pearl and Jimmy–which were both avians too–used to be a great place to cause mischief in, but as the years went by, the living conditions were slowly tipping into a territory where they would have to do something about it. Even with all the money they had saved, they wouldn't be able to repair it or find a new house, so they were stuck with it.
There used to be more avians living around them, but one after another, they ventured into the city, and were never seen again. Grian knew about the laws in the cities, especially how enforced it is; there’s no hybrids or mutants allowed. He had hoped the best for his neighbors when then set off to the city, hoping they would find a nice apartment, and not find themselves in a lab.
For a while now, it was just the three of them in the overgrown forest, and he cherished it more than anything. He would set little traps–or pranks, since he didn't want to seem malicious–around their property and watch how his flock fell right into the hole he dug for them. Short mornings filled with the sound of pancakes, a bit of flour, and jokes that landed perfectly between him and his siblings, to evenings filled with rain and comfort, they had all they could get–but it was enough.
It was his routine, and that was what he followed everyday.
“Grian!”
Grian sprang up out of his bed when he heard a very familiar yell from the kitchen, Jimmy. He switched out his pajama pants for light grey sweatpants, and kept his red sweater on–who would tell him not to? He shuffled into the bathroom, brushed his teeth and hair, and set out for the kitchen where he could smell waffles and the sweetness of syrup.
Walking in, he saw a very deflated Jimmy chopping strawberries, while having a staring contest with a toaster. “Pearl put me on cooking duty this week.” He droned.
A new voice behind him appeared, stage whispering to him, “He said he wanted waffles, so I'm making him do the work.” Pearl stepped in front of him and ruffled up his brother’s hair.
Jimmy gave her a death glare out of the corner of his eye, “Do you want your waffles to be burnt, or are you going to let me put these–” He held up the finished plate of cut up strawberries in front of her, “–on your food?”
The main reason he wasn't allowed on cooking duty was because one night–he was about 17, so 2 years ago–he appointed himself on making food for the week, and both Jimmy and Pearl had to endure his cooking for a few days, before Pearl decided he needed a break of making “such good food” and left the job for her and Jimmy since then. There also may have been a point before that where he got mad at both of them and added a few spicy peppers from outside’s garden into dinner…
Any of that to say, he wouldn't need to cook when he was living with his siblings.
He quickly ate his–thankfully not burnt–waffles and headed to put his regular shoes on, which Jimmy and Pearl followed suit after. They all stepped outside and started their daily check-ups on the house, Pearl checking on the house’s pipes, and him and Jimmy towards a tree where they could view the roof.
A few years ago, one of the large trees next to their house toppled on them and permanently damaged the roof and part of the right panels of the house. They fixed it up to their abilities, but it still needed supervision now-and-then.
They didn't see anything out of order, so he and Jimmy decided to stay up there until Pearl called them up, which probably will be in an hour or two.
“How long do you think that house is actually going to last?” Jimmy questioned him.
It wasn't in the best shape, it hadn't been for a while, more and more parts of the house were slowly tearing itself apart–which is why they had started doing the checks each morning for a few weeks.
Grian shrugged, “Don’t know, but I certainly don't want to go to the city.”
Jimmy’s face softened in agreement. Nobody wanted to live there, with all the risks you would be taking as a hybrid and all, but you would have to constantly be in fear of who you are. But sometime, when the house is on its last limb, they will have to go eventually.
He will take what he has now.
He and Jimmy poked each other about different things, like how he “forgot” to take the trash out last night, or how Grian’s latest prank failed–which was a frequent output. The sun was climbing itself into the sky when he heard a very Australian yell.
Gliding down from high up in the oak tree, Grian saw the strange hoops she was carrying, along with a few strips of zip ties. He stared a moment longer until he realized they would be doing a flight race.
He had always been good at them, always beating Pearl by 10 seconds, while Jimmy was flat on his face from the first hoop. He thought he heard Jimmy groan as he put a grin on his face and dragged Jimmy from where he was wallowing.
“Surprise! I was going to find the brighter ones, but I think they’re at the back of the storage unit, and I'm not digging them out.” Her gaze flicked to the Jimmy Grian was dragging along, “Oh, what's the matter Tim?”
“Why can't you people call me by my real name! There’s no T.” Jimmy took a deep breath, then let out a loud sigh, “And I always do the worst with these!”
“Exactly! Super fun.” Pearl said with a grin matching Grian’s.
“Super fun is not me being the last every single race!” Jimmy batted at Pearl’s hands holding the different hoops.
Grian’s hand landed on Jimmy’s shoulder, "Don't worry, Tim, you'll win someday.” He encouraged with mock pity.
Jimmy eventually agreed, he always would, because even if he wasn't winning, he still had the best time. They used the zip ties Pearl had brought to attach the hoops to different trees and buildings, which took an hour and a half. When they were finally done, they all stood by the starting hoop.
A timer that hung from the closest tree branch counted from three. Then two. Then he flew up into the purple starting hoop with Pearl and Jimmy close behind. He made a sharp turn towards the next mark in the distance, folding in his wings slightly to fit in the hoop.
He swooped upwards and lost some speed to get to the next hoop, which was yellow and hanging to the side of a tall elm tree. Behind him, Jimmy was in front of Pearl, and was gaining on him, so he quickly gave a flap of his wings to propel himself farther into the sky, to then snap down to reach the next blue ring quickly.
Grian made a swing to the far left to get into the next hoop, which he slightly clipped a wing on, he corrected himself and recovered quickly.
The last few rings were just in front of his sight. A large teal ring, an average red ring, a small white ring, and lastly, another purple ring. He cleared them as best as he could, he clipped another wing because of an overshot on one of the turns, but in the end, he won.
He ran over to the stopwatch and stored his time. 51.83 seconds. Jimmy–suprisingly–came right before Pearl, but of course crashing right in front of Grian. Pearl came into the last hoop and landed far more gracefully than Jimmy.
“Looks like you aren't such a sore loser after all, but you still can't beat the master.” Pearl held up a hand for Jimmy to grab onto as he also gave his congrats to Grian.
“I believe my work here is done, another win under my belt means nothing to me!” Grian put an exaggerated hand on his chest, “I also heard Tim is going to make some sandwiches, am I right Pearl?”
Pearl glanced at Jimmy, then to Grian, “Sounds right, I heard it's also going to be gourmet."
Jimmy let out a disbelieving laugh as the both of them flew down to the house, throwing his hands into the air and sputtering, “C’mon guys! I just made waffles for you two!”
“That was 3 hours ago, Jim,” Grian deadpanned in the air.
Jimmy barged in front of them as they were going to walk inside the house, muttering about bread and sandwich ingredients. Grian just laughed as Pearl tried to trip him multiple times.
The sandwiches were made and passed out over the sibling’s banter, and they made their way outside the porch as they were done. “How does heading to that creek bed sound to end the day?” Pearl suggested.
They all nodded in agreement and followed a well-worn path towards the creek bed. As they got closer, more shrubs, rocks, and trickles of water decorated the space around them. The small disturbance of water could be heard over the cracking of branches as the avians got closer.
The creek bed was filled with moss and little aquatic animals, along with some land animals–like stray cats–who visited. Sometimes it would be just Grian there, staring at his reflection and wondering where his friends had gone, where his parents had gone. Over the years he had figured it out. It was overall a common place for him to go when he needed to hear just his breathing and the sound of nature, not a broken air conditioner and the sound of his siblings around the house.
But of course, they all liked to visit there together, usually in the early morning to see the sunrise flicker off the water, or late at night to stargaze. Tonight was a bit different than usual.
They settled down on some of the bigger rocks and had a small conversation about the different types of fish and frogs that lived in the creek. Jimmy joked about drinking the water–which he quickly regretted after swallowing a small frog offspring.
Jimmy had noticed Grian’s wings twitching, to which he offered to preen his wings–Grian gladly said yes. He slid off his rock and in front of Jimmy, then turned to the right of him to look at Pearl, “Pearl, I could preen yours as well, just don't fall asleep on me this time.”
Pearl rolled her eyes, “One time, Grian, that was one time.” She then said in a more relieved tone, “But please do.” She shifted over and Grian began working on her left wing as Jimmy behind him was starting on his primaries.
He had almost forgotten Jimmy was working on his wings as he absentmindedly flicked his wings to the side slightly, Jimmy groaned and knocked him on the head lightly, “Hope you haven't forgotten me here.”
Grian said a quick apology and went back to focusing on Pearl’s secondaries. He noticed she was getting suspiciously more leaned back, which made him tap Pearl on the shoulder, who jolted awake.
He made sure Pearl was somewhat awake for the rest of her preening, and also definitely didn't stuff his feathers into Jimmy’s face multiple times. He hummed quietly as he finished the rest of his sister’s other wing and told her she was done.
Jimmy was done soon after and the spackling water of the pond turned into a rich orange. Pearl and Jimmy decided to head back home, but Grian stayed and scooted closer to the water that was now reflecting the pink and blue of the sky. He traced little designs that faded quickly with the ripple of water into the pond.
Today was like any day, it was like everyday. The monotony was slowly breaking him. Sure, he was happy, but it felt like there was no variety to what was happening, wake up, breakfast with his siblings, hang out with his siblings, dinner. Repeating. It was better before everyone left, he actually had things to do other than pretending everything was going to stay fine with his siblings.
He wished he could go back when all of his friends were still here, playing, having disputes over types of snails.
But the city isn't so welcoming, is it?
People who went into the city who were like him never came back to visit, when they did, they were a whole other person. They didn't have the spark when living outside the city, they concealed themselves.
Grian sucked in a large breath and stood up, taking one last glance at the creek before heading back to get dinner from the house. The trail was darker than it was that afternoon and he felt like a thousand eyes were watching him, but it's probably from Pearl telling him all of the scariest stories from that part of the forest a few nights ago.
After a few minutes of the leaves making the loudest sound he could hear under his feet, he saw the decomposing oak sign that pointed towards his house. He followed it until the end of the bush-lined path that marked the clearing of where he was headed. The lights in the house were off. He might've stayed outside too late.
When he opened the door, he didn't smell anything lingering in the air, which is strange because Pearl and Jimmy would've made something before going to bed. In fact, the air felt devoid of anything. Like someone hadn't even come home.
“Pearl?” He called out.
Nothing.
“Jimmy?”
A pause. Nothing
Had they not come home?
Grian suddenly laughed, “Guys I know this is for pranking you guys yesterday, don't be so–” A creak of a floorboard interrupted him.
His heartbeat picked up. This wasn't a prank.
Somebody had taken them.
He backed up to start running through the still open front door, only to find it closed. A rustling sound was made near him before something covered his head and a small pain in his shoulder turned into numbness all over his arm, then to his whole body, until his eyes closed.
He was feeling tired anyway.
He was sleeping. Cracking his eyes open as much as he could, he noticed the fluorescence of a room, a stiff bed, and the smell of disinfectant wipes. He could assume where he was. But the question was, why was he here?
He remembers coming home and finding an empty living room.
And no siblings in sight.
He decided he’d rather be confused later, then to be tired and confused now, and closed his eyes.