Work Text:
Simon is an insomniac. Even before he went to prison, he always had trouble sleeping as a teen.
Of course having everything he loved stripped away from him and being sent to prison did not help him. Over the years, his problem got worse. He got less and less sleep with each passing day, the bags under his eyes darkening.
Bobby knew of this, of course. They'd started dating years ago, a few months after Simon got out of prison. Bobby had been taken hostage and narrowly avoided death before he was found by the police. After a while he and Simon healed together, though each still had problems. Bobby had terrible nightmares from time to time, and Simon's sleeping issues remained.
What Bobby didn't know was that Simon got up to some interesting shenanigans during the late hours of the night.
Bobby had awoken frightened from a nightmare. He hugged what he though was his boyfriend tighter, only to realize it was far too squishy. He opened his eyes to see that the man he had been cuddled up to when he fell asleep was now replaced with a pillow.
Bobby got up to look for Simon, thinking he had gone to the bathroom or gotten hungry, only to find that he was the only one home. Poor Bobby couldn't fall back asleep now. He was starting to worry about Simon. What could be possibly doing out so late? Was he okay?
As Bobby's mind and heart raced, he heard the sound of a key twisting in the door. Simon was wearing his usual work suit instead of the T-shirt he had fallen asleep in, and he looked tired out.
"Why are you awake, Bobby?" Simon asked, as if he was the one that should be asking questions right now.
"I could ask you the same thing! Goodness honey, you had me scared half to death! Are you okay? Where have you been?"
For how worried Bobby was, Simon definitely seemed very somber for someone who just came home wearing formal work attire at one in the morning. "I was just out running an errand. No need to worry."
It was only then that Bobby noticed something else strange. Taka was perched on Simon's shoulder, watching their whole interaction take place. "What kind of errand did you have to run that required Taka to come with you?"
"... It's really nothing you need to be concerned with. We just went out for a stroll. Nothing more." Bobby was surprised by how Simon brushed him off. Usually Simon would either answer a question or say he wasn't comfortable answering, but today he had just plainly lied.
Bobby let it go eventually, but he didn't forget. Oh he couldn't forget.
After their interaction, Bobby started to notice signs. When he woke up, Simon would occasionally be wearing a different outfit than what he wore to bed. Taka started to be tired more during the day and very playful at night. At one point, Bobby had even found a red feather in their house even though Taka was all brown and black.
Simon of course had excuses. He was wearing something else because he got thirsty and accidentally spilled some water on himself. "So you spill water on yourself every other day?" Bobby asked. Simon played it off as a tired clumsiness, but Bobby saw through his lies.
Taka was more tried than usual because she had seen Simon awake and stayed up playing with him? Bobby wasn't buying not a bit of it.
That red feather was from a bird that he had seen outside one night and he just so happened to pet it a bit and got a feather on him? Then why the hell was a red bird out in the middle of the night?!
The 'answers' Simon provided provoked more questions rather than providing answers, and Bobby couldn't stand it. Him and Simon rarely kept things from each other. Of course, he trusted him, and he understood that there were some things that Simon wasn't comfortable talking about. That was fine. But when your boyfriend and his hawk start randomly disappearing for hours at a time, usually very late at night, mind you, you're going to have some questions.
Bobby tried his very hardest to ignore his partner's little nighttime secrets. That was his business.
But it kept nagging him. What in the world could Simon be doing so late at night that he couldn't trust him with? He had already ruled out the obvious answers.
Cheating? Simon hated it with a passion. Also, he didn't fall in love easily, and he was asexual. It was very unlikely that he had a secret romantic partner that Bobby never knew of.
Drinking or gambling? Simon wasn't the type to drink often, and on the rare occasion that he had a glass of wine, he didn't hide it from Bobby. They were both adults, they could have a glass of alcohol if needed. And besides, Simon was good with managing his alcohol. Bobby would be impressed if he managed to hide a drinking problem. And gambling? Simon found it useless. He knew how to manage money. And he knew gambling was illegal. He'd rather die than go back to jail.
Drugs? No. Just no.
So what the hell was he doing? Bobby noticed that it wasn't something he seemed to keep secret out of necessity, no, Simon was embarrassed about this.
All these questions were answered one day when Simon's young niece and her girlfriend stopped by.
Athena and Juniper were two bright, friendly young women. Athena, Simon's niece, was a very smart, outgoing gal, and while Juniper was smart and friendly, she was a bit more shy.
Simon had gone to the bathroom and Bobby just couldn't help but asking, "Do you know where Simon might be going super late at night? I know he's been disappearing off to somewhere, but I can't figure out exactly where!"
"I've got no idea," Athena replied, thinking. "He won't tell you?"
"Nope! I've been trying to get an answer out of him for a week now and he won't tell me!"
"Maybe I could use widget on him..."
"I'm not sure. He's good at keeping things a secret, even if you know he's lying."
"Ooh, what if we investigate tomorrow? While he's at work?"
Bobby considered this plan. Simon wasn't ever going to tell him, he knew that. And this secret was different than any other ones Simon had. Bobby had always been okay with secrets before. He trusted Simon and knew he wasn't doing anything bad. But this was different. He needed to know where Simon was running off to! Surely he had a right to know that! And why did he have to bring Taka with him?!
"Let's do it."
The next day, while Simon was at the prosecutor's office filing some paperwork for his latest case, Bobby and Athena got to investigating. Bobby had taken the day off work for this, so he had to make it count! He hated missing work.One thing Simon was telling the truth about was that he was walking. He didn't use public transport to get wherever he was going, so it had to be nearby.
The red feather stumped Bobby. Where had he gotten that from? It felt real. So he had to be somewhere with birds. And it had to be somewhere that Simon was embarrassed to be at.
The only thing Bobby and Athena could think of was the 'Owl-Some Aviary Sanctuary', a horrible name for a place with good intentions.
The sanctuary was a home for injured or orphaned birds who couldn't fend for themselves. There, they rehabilitate every bird possible, and the ones who can't be sent back into the wild are put up for adoption.
Athena and Bobby talked to a friendly receptionist, Reberda. They came to know that the sanctuary was currently looking for volunteers. And recently, a very dark-haired, goth looking man started coming in for volunteer work very late at night.
"He comes in every night to play with the birds and care for the injured ones. From what I hear, he's very gentle. He even brings his own bird here to play," Reberda told them.
So this was it! This was where Simon had been coming! But why was he so embarrassed about volunteering? It wasn't all that bad, was it?
Later, after Athena had long gone home, Bobby confronted Simon about this.
"Honey, there's no reason to be embarrassed about volunteering! It's a noble cause! Why were you so insistent on hiding this from me?"
"Bobby... Darling. Have you seen the uniform that volunteers have to wear?"
"No. Why?"
It turns out that the aviary was severely underpaid, explaining why all their employees were volunteers. It also turns out that they could only afford a certain amount of uniforms for their volunteers. And most of their volunteers were female. And it may take quite a while to come up with male uniforms...
When Simon showed Bobby the uniform, he immediately understood his embarrassment. It wasn't Simon's style at all. It was a bright blue short-sleeved dress with a white apron and stockings.
And you bet your boots Simon looked gorgeous in it.
