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The next time It happens, Jaiden is alone.
She’s peacefully sitting in her bed, bent over the sketchbook in her lap. Her drawings had started off in her regular art style, with slightly more distinct, established lines. But as time went on — as she drew increasingly softer memories — the drawings turned to more of a childish scrawl, complicated shapes being broken down into scribbles and the people turning into mere stick figures.
She’s having fun. She’s drawing, and giggling, and taking pictures (maybe the worst she’s ever taken, she’ll reflect later) to send to Fyrus when she’s finished. She hadn’t realized just how easily she could fall into it, just how easily the fog could come back — but at least it wasn’t scary, and at least she wasn’t sleepy this time around. This time, she could just enjoy it.
Jaiden does miss her friends a bit, though. She keeps glancing down at her phone, which she has set aside, some of her favorite tunes playing quietly. It’s getting increasingly tempting to text one of them, or even call, eager to hear their voices again— but, no, she’s fine, she can handle herself. She doesn’t need to pull them away from— from whatever they’re doing. It’s probably more important than dealing with her, anyway.
There are some— some loud noises coming from outside her room, though. She sets her pencil down, holding her sketchbook close as she begins to climb out of bed, curious to see what’s going on. But before she can even swing her legs over the side of her bed, there’s loud knocking at the door.
It opens before she can blink— Dash is standing there, looking rather disheveled, and is he bruised? The door hasn’t even fully swung open, and he’s already talking.
“—iden, come slide down the stairs with us!” Oh, they’re doing that again, “Look, I know last time we did that, Jacob got a little bloodthirsty and fell at me, and it was really loud and awful, BUT this time we have padding at the bottom of the stairs! So even if we DO fall, we’ll be fine, and no one will get hurt! And even if we do, I found the ice packs — don’t ask me why I needed to find those — and I know first aid, so we’ll be fine, we won’t have to go to the hospital, or anything. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to go to the hospital! Well, we were able to go to 7/11, but that’s different, apparently—” He makes some weird sound, shrugging. “—whatever. Jacob and I are having tons of fun sliding down the stairs again, you should join us! You down, Jaiden?”
Dash pauses in his rambling, waiting for an answer — and seems to finally look at Jaiden. Look at her and all her… Jaiden-ness. Right. She never told him about this. “…Are you okay, Jaiden?”
She stares. He stares back.
She chirrups at him, tilting her head.
He laughs, and she can’t quite tell if it’s out of politeness, out of an awkwardness that can only be eased by ignoring and moving on — or if it’s genuine, like he actually found her bird sounds amusing, like he found himself delighted at just the sounds she can make. Either way, she smiles.
“I’ll take that as a yeah, I’m fine, thank you,” Dash grins at her, but his brows are a bit furrowed now— she can’t blame him, she’s sure she looks at least a little… crazy right now. In some way. “Hmm… Something — a little birdie, maybe — tells me that sliding down the stairs, even with all the protections we’ve put in place, might not be a good idea. In fact, I think it might be a little more fun to have snack time!”
He says the last bit particularly loud— Jaiden assumes it’s so Jacob can hear her, and hears her friend’s voice distantly from the hallway, confirming her theory. She chirps, excited — snack time! With her friends!
She pushes herself out of bed on slightly wobbly legs, her sketchbook still held tight against her chest as she does so. Her wings flap open a little as some attempt to fix her balance — it doesn’t help a lot, but she manages to get a little closer to the door.
Jaiden huffs, frustrated— motor skills are not her friend right now.
But then, Dash steps in, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “C’mere, Jaiden! I’ll help you down the stairs, yeah?”
Oh, touch— she leans into him, treating it almost like a side-hug, then rights herself again. No, this isn’t cuddle time, she tells herself, it’s go down the stairs without falling time.
Dash is patient with her, guiding her gently down the hallway and to the stairs. The stairs are where it gets a little more complicated— there’s just so many of them. How’s she supposed to get down there?
Dash goes to walk down, but Jaiden roots herself to where she’s stood, cooing anxiously. He turns back to look at her, frowning a bit.
“Huh? What’s up, Jaiden?” He asks, and she wishes she could tell him— the words are at the tip of her tongue, but she can’t get them to work, she just— all she can do is look at him, low trills slipping out from her lips.
He walks back up the stairs, coming back to her side. “…Are the stairs scary?” He asks — he sounds a little confused, but Jaiden nods eagerly, relieved he caught on. Dash pauses to think, tilting his head.
“Well, if it helps— we do have those cushions at the bottom from earlier,” he says, motioning down at them. She tries to follow where he’s pointing, but— oh, god, that’s so far down. She shrinks back. “Aw, c’mon, birdie!” He takes her hand, locking gazes with her. “It’s okay. It’s like Subway Surfers, right? Except— without all the trains, and the coins, and everything. You just gotta get down! I’ll be by your side the whoole time, okay? We’ll take it one step at a time, and it’ll be over before you know it!”
She— She thinks about it, for a second. Going down one at a time, with Dash holding her hand every second, steadying her in case she’s about to fall, and… yeah. Yeah. She’ll be okay.
Jaiden nods, and Dash instantly brightens. “Well, c’mon, then! Down we go!”
It takes a bit of coaxing, and a lot of stop-and-go, but eventually— she’s down. She feels a little extra unsteady on the soft cushions below her, so she digs her talons in a bit and holds onto Dash a little tighter.
But now that they’re at the bottom of the stairs, Jaiden can look around the living room a little, and see Jacob walking in from the kitchen with a plate of cut fruit. He hasn’t seen her yet, and he looks— he looks a little tense. The air is cool around him, but not as cold as it might be if he were any more upset.
As worrying as that is, Jaiden is— she’s so excited. There’s fruit. She trills in excitement, getting Jacob’s attention immediately. He looks up, smiling, and places the plate on the coffee table gently. However cold it might’ve been a second ago, it certainly isn’t anymore, the sight of his friends enough to warm it up again.
“Dash! Jaiden! Hey,” he smiles, sidling up to her and Dash. “I got some of your favorites. Apples, oranges, grapes… all that. Eat what you want.”
She nods eagerly, making a beeline for the coffee table. She doesn’t even sit on the couch, just sits down on the floor next to it, sliding the plate as close to her as possible. She picks some grapes off their stems— they’re purple! Like her! Well— they’re a little more red looking, but they’re called purple, and that’s close enough, she thinks. She holds one up against her feathers, examining the differences in the colors, and giggles.
Jaiden can feel Dash and Jacob’s presence moving behind her, supposedly going to sit on the couch, but they don’t really say anything to her yet— instead, they’re talking reaaally quietly to each other. She pauses, trying to listen in— but it’s hard. They’re so quiet. She huffs in frustration, but turns back to the fruits in front of her. They’re so colorful— and tasty, yeah, but… god, she loves colors.
“I’ve never seen her like this before,” Dash murmurs. They’re getting a little louder, she notices. She stays quiet, listening. “Is she okay?”
“…I don’t know. I don’t think I have, either,” Jacob replies, “Except for the time in the kitchen with Fyrus. But even then it wasn’t… like this. Has she even… Has she said anything to you?”
“Nope. Nothing.” Jaiden frowns as they talk amongst themselves. She’s not doing anything wrong, is she? She can’t tell if they’re upset or not. She wishes— She wishes she could talk, so badly, so she could try and explain herself, so she could try and… do something. But all she can do is chirp, and trill, and coo, and she’s certain if she tried anything more, something— something would go wrong. Her throat already feels so tight. She doesn’t want to test it too much.
She pops the grape she’s been examining in her mouth, then looks back at her friends. They don’t seem to notice that she’s looking at them, at least not from her spot on the floor.
Jacob, she tries to call, but it comes out as a shaky warble. It gets his attention, anyway— his and Dash’s.
“Jaiden?” says Jacob, “What’s up?”
He’s— He sounds worried. He looks worried. How can she tell him she’s fine? How can she— How can she express to him that everything’s okay, that she’s just— everything’s fine, she’s just…
She doesn’t even have a word for what she is. How’s she supposed to tell him anything? She’s so… She’s so useless.
Jaiden doesn’t get up from the floor, just rests her head against his knee. He just— She needs him to get it, but he doesn’t, and she can’t explain it to him because she doesn’t even get it, not really.
“Birdieee,” sing-songs Dash, reaching a hand down to pat her head. “C’mon, join us on the couch! It’s so cozy up here. Don’t you want to be cozy?”
She looks up at them, eyes wide. Being cozy does sound nice, she’s just— She’s not so sure she could get up there. Being on the floor is kinda cozy, in its own way… but isn’t being surrounded by friends better? She frowns. Decisions, decisions.
“I’ll help you up,” Jacob offers, reaching both his arms down. She contemplates for a moment longer, then nods, grabbing his hands. It… takes a bit of maneuvering, but soon, Jaiden is squished between Jacob and Dash, cooing softly.
“There we go!” Dash cheers, leaning all the way back into the cushions. Jaiden follows suit, leaning her head against his shoulder, while her hand is holding one of Jacob’s to her chest. She’s still holding tight to her sketchbook, the pages opened to her doodles from earlier — several of them are her hanging out with Fyrus: her climbing on his shoulders, her eating sandwiches on the counter while he stands next to her, the two of them cuddling… all that.
She smiles down at them, then smiles up at her friends.
They smile back down at her, then get engaged in some ridiculous conversation over her head — she contributes little chirps and nods and head-shakes here and there, but otherwise, just listens to them… like a podcast!
It’s nice. It’s cozy.
Jaiden loves her friends.