Chapter Text
Mike sighed, allowing himself to lean back a little as he stared up at the ceiling. Ever since he had been appointed Head of Communications, it’s been one task after another, in addition to the morning and evening announcements. He was a bit sad when he found out that Malcom had to retire, but he was happy to do so as he wanted to build a better life outside of the Toppats.
He sighed and saved a couple of documents, suddenly hearing a soft buzzing sound. He grumbled, staring at his coworkers, who were all already absorbed in their own work. Lately, over the course of the past few weeks, various things such as pens, paper clips, and even thumbtacks had gone missing, causing Mike to suspect foul play. But he had checked the security cams and no one was to blame for the missing equipment. It was strange, to say the least, but he knew better than to continue to fling blame at his coworkers.
Once more, a strange buzzing sound could be heard at all hours of the day in some places. They had suspected flies at first, as most of the comms Toppats seemed to have a bad habit of leaving food out, but after a thorough investigation (and a fumigation), it seemed like they were bug free.
He glanced over to where the buzzing sound was, swiping a bit with annoyance towards the noise before he gasped. He glanced to his side, gazing around a bit before tried to concentrate on his work again.
For some reason, he felt like he had brushed against something…
There it was again.
The buzzing noise returned, this time stronger than ever. He was silent for a few moments, trying to pretend he didn’t notice it until…
“GOTCHA!” Mike shouted, causing his team to jump. He hit something really hard, the bug flying towards his desk as he finally let out a satisfied sigh.
“Geez, Mike, I know it’s late, but we don’t need a wake up call,” one of the comms agents said, sipping his coffee.
“Whatever, let’s just see-” Mike suddenly paused as his eyes widened, staring down at the bug he just swiped.
No, it wasn’t a bug at all… it was a… human? A human with wings from the looks of things. Very beautiful orange wings, kinda like a monarch butterfly’s.
He slowly reached towards he before the thing growled at him, shooting up and disappearing before his eyes. Before Mike could process what was happening, suddenly he saw it fall down not a few feet away from him, seemingly passing out.
“Oh no…” Mike said softly as he picked the poor thing up. It whimpered and growled a bit and he could have sworn he heard it say “No,” at him, but he didn’t care. If it was a bug, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But the fact that he hurt something with genuine feelings was eating away at him a little bit.
“What’s going on Mike? You’re a bit flighty today… woah…” His second in command, Michelle Uhura, suddenly went up to him and gasped when she saw the tiny human in his hands.
“Oh my goodness… I thought they were a myth,” Michelle said softly.
“Me too,” Mike said, “I feel so bad. The poor little guy…” He pat it’s head softly. It snarled a bit but seemed too out of it to really attack Mike any further.
“What, what’s going on?” One of the comms guys said, getting up. Pretty soon, Mike had a crowd around him and he was annoyed for obvious reasons.
“I know you guys are curious, but you have work to do, you know!” Mike shouted. The others started to scuttle back to their work stations as Michelle chuckled.
“What are you going to do with him, Mr. Control?” Michelle asked. Mike rolled his eyes, unsure of why he let such a nickname slide, but he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he glanced at the small fairy. It looked to still be breathing, luckily, but he had so much work to do…
“I hate to put you in this position, Ms. Uhura, but maybe you could keep an eye on him?” Mike asked.
“I’ve got my own work to do,” Michelle said, “But if you’re that concerned about him, maybe you should keep an eye on him.”
“I’ve got the same problem. But I don’t wanna just leave him with a random Toppat. Who knows what might happen,” Mike said.
“I can take over for today, if you want,” Michelle said.
“Michelle, I can’t do that to you.”
“I don’t mind. I don’t have much leftover and I can tell this is eating you up a bit,” Michelle pushed the fairy towards him as he blushed.
“Go ahead. I’ll be fine. Just keep your comms headset on and I’ll let you know if I need you, alright?” Michelle said softly. Mike finally nodded as he shut off his computer, carefully disconnecting a couple of wires before heading out of the office.
It was a long walk to his room, but by the time he got up there, the fairy seemed to be awake as he felt it squirming in his hand.
“Sorry little guy, just give me a second,” Mike said softly as he searched around his bathroom before placing a hand towel in a shoebox and dropping it in there. He gazed over the edge, a little perturbed as Mike glanced at him, noticing the small wound on top of his head.
“Oh no,” Mike said, feeling a bit sick to his stomach as he rushed into his bathroom and pulled out a first aid kit, “Alright little guy, let’s get you taken of…”
After a bit of fidgeting and Mike shushing him as much as he could, he finally was able to get a small bandage on the fairies head. The fairy grumbled as it flew to the corner of the shoebox, sulking a bit.
“C’mon, I was only trying to help. A thank you would be nice,” Mike said.
“NO!” The fairy suddenly shouted in a small voice, making a bunch of chittering noises at him afterwards.
Geez, what the heck, Mike thought, as he kept watching the fairy.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I was only trying to help…” Mike said softly. He heard Michelle’s voice over the intercom as he stretched a bit.
“I’m gonna go grab something to eat. Do you think you can stay here while I go get something? I’ll bring you something too,” Mike said. The fairy suddenly seemed interested as it looked up at him, it’s eyes curious as it flapped its wings rapidly.
“Just stay there and behave. And try not to leave alright?” Mike said, walking out of his room. He sighed as he walked to cafeteria, ordering a fried chicken dish with biscuits and coleslaw. He also grabbed a couple of oranges and some potato chips from the shelves, as well as a couple of candy bars.
By the time he was done, he had a heaping tray full of stuff as he took it back to his room. He entered the room, carefully balancing the tray on the bed. He pulled out a foldable table, quickly setting it up as he set the tray on the table. Immediately the fairy was eager to see what Mike had brought, flying over to the edge of the table, glancing at what he had brought.
“This is fried chicken,” Mike said, pinching off a bit for the fairy to try, “It’s made with chicken and some spices. Try it.” The fairy sniffed a piece before taking a small nibble, it’s eyes lighting up as it up the whole thing. It coughed slightly and Mike began to grow a bit fearful before he saw the creature fanning it’s mouth. He giggled, as he took a bit of coleslaw on his fork and carefully put some in front of him.
“Maybe you’ll like this a bit more,” Mike said. The fairy stared at the chicken before he bit into the coleslaw. It made a face, but it still ate it up.
“Maybe the dressing isn’t to your liking?” Mike muttered, mostly to himself as he started to eat a bit more of the chicken. He even passed a bit of the biscuit to it, as well as some potato chips, which the fairy ate with gusto.
“You must have been hungry, huh?” Mike said as the fairy glanced to the side awkwardly.
“I’m sorry, I’m just saying. Do you have a name?” Mike asked. The fairy tipped his head to the side as he finally said,
“Yes.”
“You’ve been speaking in little chirps this whole time. How do you know how to say human words, hm?”
The fairy placed his hand on his chin before pointing to Mike and than mimicing a talking person with his hands.
“Ah, so you watched people talking and managed to try to mimic them, hm?” Mike said, “How about you tell me your name then?” The fairy stared blankly at him as Mike let out a small sigh, before taking out a piece of paper.
“Or, I could write the alphabet here and you could just spell your name out for me,” Mike said. He began to write out the alphabet as the fairy watched with great curiosity.
“Alright, just point to the letters and spell out your name. And than I’ll teach you how to say it,” Mike said. The fairy stared at the paper before he flew to the first letter of his name. He walked over the paper, pointing at each letter as Mike read them out loud.
“B… U… R… T… Burt…” Mike said, “That’s your name?” Burt nodded his head, flapping his wings a bit more as Mike chuckled.
“You would say it like Buh-err-tuh. Try it,” Mike said.
“Buuuuuu…” Burt said, struggling a bit.
“Buh… errr… tuh…” Mike said slowly.
“Buh...err...tuh. Burt! Burt Burt!” Burt said, flapping his wings. Mike giggled as he started to peel one of the oranges. Burt’s eyes suddenly lit up as he bounced up and down.
“What? You want one?” Mike asked, taking a slice of orange and handing it to Burt. Immediately it was grabbed from his grasp as Burt chomped down on it.
“You must really like oranges, huh?” Mike asked.
“YES!” Burt said bouncing up and down, eager to get his hands on another orange slice. Mike peeled another orange for him, laying the slices down on the table as Burt started to gobble them up as if it was his last meal. Mike giggled again as he saw Burt look up at him expectantly.
“Sorry little guy, I only brought enough for myself and you,” Mike said, “But maybe if you’re good, I’ll bring you another orange, OK?” Burt whimpered as he flopped on to the table, as if he was now going to starve for days now. Mike let out a small laugh before Burt looked up at him.
“Burt,” Burt said, pointing at himself. Then he pointed at Mike, saying “Yes?”
“Hm? Oh… do you want my name?” Mike asked. Burt chittered a bit, his wings flapping a little bit.
“My name is Micheal Sansbury. The comms guys call me Mike Control,” Mike said. Burt tipped his head to the side.
“Buh… err.. tuh?” Burt said.
“Oh, you wanna know to how to say it too, huh?” Mike asked, “You say it like Mmm-eye-keh. Mike”
“Mmmm…. Eeeeee….”
“Eye….” Mike said, drawing it out a little.
“Eyeeee…” Burt said.
“Kuh…”
“Mmmm-eeeeeyyeee…kuh… Mike. Mike! Mike!” Burt said, his wings flapping excitedly.
“Very good! You get the last slice of my orange as a reward,” Mike said, handing Burt his orange slice. Burt jumped up for joy, grabbing the orange slice and gobbling it down.
“I guess I can teach you some more words. Once you learn how to talk amongst the humans, maybe you can help me out a bit more,”Mike said. Burt beamed at him as Mike unwrapped some chocolate.
“How about we have a little candy to celebrate our newfound friendship, hm?” Mike asked. Burt tipped his head to the side but nodded anyway as Mike handed him half of one of his candy bars.
About thirty minutes later, Burt was still zipping around the room, chittering and chirping as he said the few words he knew in between. Mike lay in bed, wondering if he would ever stop, kind of regretting giving him that chocolate bar.
“Guess chocolate’s off the menu next time...”