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Coming home felt strange.
He had been gone such a long time.
There were all the same people, the same buildings. But everything had clearly changed.
There's the new people, of course. It was hard not to miss the broken ship and the bare ribs of a plane. The way there were many people he didn't recognize. They stay close to one another, all staring at him with distrust.
…More than that.
Something had happened when he was gone. There were less eggs now, gone. New eggs arrived. Their parents were ever vigilant, even more so now. The eggs have a haunted quality to their gazes, young eyes that have seen too much of the evil this world has to offer. They grip tightly onto their weapons at the barest noise, cling too close to their parents as if they were going to disappear the moment they looked away.
Reuniting with Tallulah had been.. rough. Wilbur had walked to the bunker door, not even taking the time to shed his equipment before finding his daughter.
Tallulah sat on the floor, pruning dead leaves from her pets. Her ear twitched as he walked in, but she didn't turn around. She was so much bigger than when he left. If it weren't for her hair, so similar to his, he might not have recognized her. Wilbur couldn't help but notice that she no longer wears his red beanie, instead donning a purple and while spotted one like a mushroom cap.
Chayanne, on his bed, did notice him enter. What he didn't expect was for Chayanne to lunge, yellow and blue wings spread wide, and tackle him to the ground, a blade swiftly drawn against his throat. Chayanne growled at him, pupils constricted to a fine point.
Wilbur shrieked as he hit the ground. He gasped for air as Chayanne landed right on his diaphragm, and cringed as he felt a feather bend uncomfortably below him.
Tallulah stood up quickly with her crutches and ran over. She grabbed Chayanne and tried to pry him off, shrieking something. Chayanne didn't move. He looked at Wilbur for a long, unending moment, then slowly lifted himself off.
Tallulah stood over Wilbur with fingers tangled in her shirt.
Wilbur tried to speak, but the blow to his diaphragm made it difficult.
"hi, t- ullah"
She burst into tears.
"Dad."
Wilbur opened his arms, but held himself back in case she denied him. Tallulah falls into his arms, claws dug into the fabric of his sweater to soak up her tears.
She whined into him, muffled.
Wilbur ran his fingers through her hair. "I missed you, Lullah."
Tallulah hiccupped and curled into his chest. "Then why didn't you come back?" She asked.
Wilbur didn't know that she spoke Avian, but that wasn't the problem.
Wilbur… didn't really have an excuse.
Why didn't he come back sooner? He knew he had obligations at home, a daughter, a life. It wasn't the "star life" that kept him. It wasn't the looks or the people or the music.
It was…
All those months ago, When he came to Cucurucho with a request.
Wilbur is a free bird. He never really enjoyed being in one spot for too long. And even though his memory became spotty on that train ride, he knew he had something to do, his tour.
So when he came to Cucurucho, asking to leave so he could finish his tour – and when that bastard said that he had to return when it finished – well, just about anyone would try and make it last longer, right? Even though he had just gotten a kid, It was…
It was the freedom.
He didn't tell her all of that. "I'm so sorry, Tallulah." is all that he said.
She reacted poorly.
Tallulah sat up and looked at him with wide eyes. She hiccupped, loudly, and tried to shove him away from her. When he didn't budge, she beat her fists against his chest. "You left me, you left me and then everything got worse." Chayanne glared at them but didn't interfere.
She continued to cry, her voice cracking through the Avian. "Everything got bad, and you left."
"Everyone- everyone said you were coming back, that you still cared." She subconsciously raised her wings, a threat. "They told me you would come back soon. After you left, I got kidnapped" She pointed to the branching scar that decorates her and Chayanne's faces. "We got kidnapped- I- I died and you weren't even around to see it, you weren't even…" She hiccupped and trailed off as her voice failed her.
The pounding on his chest slowed until she collapsed against him, heaving sobbing breaths.
He hugs her, although she doesn't try to hug back. Slowly, her wings lowered.
"I missed you, dad. I- I hate-"
Wilbur's heart dropped.
"You left me alone, I got kidnapped, I died and you left without me."
"I hate you, dad."
He hugged her tightly. He knows she's right. Wilbur tried to move, but her little hand wrapped around his wrist.
"I hate you, but please," She finally hugged him back, "please don't leave me."
They didn't talk much after that. Wilbur wrapped his wings around them, making a dark blanket of comfort. He doesn't know how long they spent in that room, clinging onto one another while Chayanne kept watch.
When Philza came home, Wilbur got an earful from him. Phil filled in the story for him. How Tallulah and the others were kidnapped when the Brazilians arrived, how they came back injured, how Tallulah lost her first life. Wilbur didn't realize how dangerous the island had gotten while he was away.
He's starting to realize that now.
Wilbur is coming back home. Home. It feels so strange to call this place his home after so long. According to Tallulah and Phil, this place had actually been destroyed after he left but they fixed it.
It's been a week or two since he came back. Most of his time has been spent getting caught up and trying to talk to Tallulah. Everyone was expecting that, as soon as he came home, he would be her father again. That she would calm down and feel better. It hasn't turned out like that.
She rarely looks him in the eye when she talks to him, and she barely does that. Most of their conversations have been greetings and one word responses. She misses him, he can tell. But she doesn't forgive him. He's not sure if she even knows how to talk to him now. It's been such a long time.
They have managed to hang out recently. Tallulah decided she would work on her garden while Wilbur expanded the house. They plan for Tallulah to move out of Philza's soon enough, and he needs to make room for everything.
This wall is really starting to bother him. Should he use a different wood? Right, it needs to be reinforced. That means he'll have to make it even bigger so it can be 2 layers.
Maybe he should-
There's a shrill sound. Wilbur's blood runs cold.
It's in Avian.
"Help."
There's only a few people that speak Avian, it's-
Tallulah is in danger.
Wilbur has never felt the extremes of his avian instincts, never been birdbrained like Phil, but hearing his child- his chick call out for him clicked something into place in his brain. Every cell in his body screamed for him to find her, save her.
He doesn't know when he started running, but his shoes are digging into the mud and his pupils are pin pricks. His wings pump behind him uselessly, the flight feathers still cut.
Everything starts moving slowly as he approaches the garden.
Tallulah is on the ground, her canes thrown a few feet away. There's a bloody gash on her arm. Her scales are duller than normal, Phil said she was starting to go into shed.
A large monster stands over her, an arm sweeping to slice her again. He can't tell what it is, but every instinct in his body knows it's a threat to his flock.
Wilbur isn't a fighter. He rarely even wears armour.
Wilbur sees red.
He lunges for it before thinking.
The creature reels back as he collides with it. Wilbur digs talons into its arms, thank gods he waited to trim them. It's gaze shifts from his chick to him, eyes white and unseeing. It snaps it's jaw at him, luckily just out of reach.
He tries to push it away from his chick, slicing its chest as he pushes.
It swipes for him. He tears out a chunk of meat from it. He tries to tear at its face, but the creature latches onto his arm and digs its claws in. Wilbur hears a scream, but he can't tell who.
He doesn't see the creature's next move, but in an instant he's on his back, and he hears a snap below him. The monster stands over him with bloody claws. The breath is forced from his lungs.
Wilbur can't stop, he can't see his chick, he doesn't know if she's okay. He lifts his feet up and tries to kick at the monster, tries to keep it off of him. When it cranes its neck further to bite at him, he claws at its face frantically.
He's- he's stuck, this creature has him pinned, is Tallulah safe? He hopes she can forgive him for this, for not being able to save her. But he has to keep trying he has to-
An axe materializes in the creature's skull.
The monster falls, and Wilbur sees Phil. His axe is buried in the rapidly disappearing corpse of the monster. Tallulah clings to his leg, shaking.
Wilbur can see that they are saying something, but the words stop just short of his brain, drowned out by the buzzing in his ears.
Tallulah takes a step towards him, still trying to speak. She's okay, she's…
"Safe." He slurs as darkness consumes him.
—
The first thing Wilbur feels as he comes to is a hand in his.
The second thing he feels is excruciating pain.
He can feel bandages. A lot of them. Both arms are covered in thick swaths of bandages. Several cross his chest and stomach.
Wilbur tries to open his eyes, just a little.
It's not quite a hospital room. He can smell the sterilizing chemicals, but the room isn't white. There's some drawings around, but otherwise the room doesn't have anything but medical equipment.
Tallulah- oh poor Tallulah, she must have been so freaked out. She rests her head on his cot, napping lightly while holding his hand. There's a matching bandage on her arm, but otherwise she appears unharmed.
Wilbur's ears pick up the quietest click of a door. Turning slightly, Wilbur can see Phil sneaking quietly into the room. Phil nods and sits on the chair next to him.
"How are you feeling, mate?" Phil says, quietly.
"I-" His voice cracks loudly and he winces.
Tallulah's ear twitches as she begins to stir. Slowly, she blinks the sleep out of her eyes, until she spots Wilbur awake and jolts right up.
"Dad are you okay?!" she chirps.
He tries to pet her head, but he can barely move his arms. "I'm okay Tallulah. I hurt like hell though." he chuckles quietly.
"Considering the fact you have several deep cuts on your arms and stomach, as well as fracturing a bone in your wing, that's expected, mate." Phil says. "You fought one of the strongest wild mobs, without armour and tools, and somehow survived."
"Are you okay, 'llulah?" Wilbur asks.
She nods. "I'm so sorry, dad." she says, voice cracking.
"Why are you sorry, sweetheart?"
"If- if I hadn't been so- I thought I could handle that monster on my own- if I had just forgiven you sooner I wouldn't have been knocked down and you wouldn't have gotten hurt fighting it for me."
"Hey, hey Tallulah. It's okay Tallulah. You don't have to forgive me for anything. I have to earn that. And I didn't fight it to win your favor. I did it to keep you safe, Tallulah." Wilbur shakily wipes the tears from her eyes.
"Fuck- I hurt, man." He says to Phil.
Tallulah squeezes his hand while Phil gives him a gentle smile.
"We'll have to check on the wounds tomorrow. I'm good at stitching them up but we'll still need to check. Once your wing heals, we can worry about the broken feathers."
"Where am I?" Wilbur asks.
"Oh right. This is The Nest's mini hospital. Usually a lot of the people here can treat minor wounds themselves, but for bigger stuff they would get taken to a Federation hospital. So Forever made one for everyone to use so the Feds would stop yoinking people. I don't trust them anyways." Phil looks around. "Some people requested that he didn't use white, so that's why it looks so weird."
Wilbur nods.
There's a long pause.
"Tallulah helped with your stitches by the way." Phil says out of the blue. Tallulah nods in response and points at his arm. "I've been meaning to show her how. She did an excellent job."
"Thank you Tallulah, you did a great job." Wilbur says.
They sit in silence for a moment until Tallulah suddenly sits up and crawls onto the cot. Wilbur can't move much, but she settles against his uninjured side and gets comfortable.
They'll make up eventually. She'll be able to think of him as an actual father soon enough. He just needs to be patient.
But for now, Wilbur's eyes feel heavy. Every part of his body burns, but it doesn't fight off the sleep creeping through his body.
Wilbur drifts off to the sound of Tallulah's gentle breathing.