Chapter Text
"...feel more than ready to tackle a new project. I've tried to determine what has worked well for me in the past, what has brought me success, and I'm aiming to use my findings to the fullest."
The reporters scribbled down his reply, some more eagerly than others. Grooves looked them over. Representatives of the three biggest news outlets, each of them a familiar face. A snow finch, by far the smallest of the group, with large eyes and a rainbow lanyard. A pigeon whose notebook could have passed as a novel with how thick it was. And - unfortunally - an all too familiar flamingo.
The start-of-movie-season interview was traditional by now, it had been happening for decades. People wanted to know how they felt about the year, about their idea, how confident they were, if they were eager to get started. Of course, these interviews usually turned into arguments and Grooves was pretty sure most people watched them just for that.
"I've had good luck with more visual approaches as of recent", Grooves continued, leaning back in his chair. "Little to no dialogue, music that really compliments the visual. And a heavy focus on a message, something to convey. Some people", he glanced over at Conductor, "think that my movies lack a plot, and perhaps that has been true for some of them, but I do believe that this one will prove otherwise."
It was a simple fact that not many people watched the awards for the movies anymore. Of course there were some people who really did only care about that, but most viewers could be neatly sorted into three camps: People who really wanted to see Conductor win, people who really wanted to see Grooves win and people who just wanted to watch them shout at each other. The movies were a bonus. Which was kind of a shame in Grooves' opinion, because there were always a few gems. His own movies were of course always great, but some of the others... newcomer, small producers whose movies were often lacking from a technical side - bad lighting, bad sound, bad video quality - but often had so much heart and soul and such a deep message that he couldn't help but be awed by them.
And of course, he just simply happened to like movies. To watch, to make, to love. So it was always a delight when this time of the year came: Time to return to the studio, to dust off the props and sweep the stages, to round up his actors and assign them their roles, in short: Time to get to work. Time to compete. Time to take all their ideas, their scripts, their plans, and turn them into something wonderful.
Well... something wonderful in Grooves' case. Something bland and boring in Conductor's case.
"Thank you very much", the pigeon said and adjusted his glasses. "Mr. Conductor, would you care to comment?"
Conductor scoffed. "Comment on what, his delusions? He's gonna lose, Ah'm gonna win and nobody's gonna be surprised."
He flashed a smug grin that made Grooves want to slap him straight across the face. "Ah happen to know exactly what he's planning fer his movie and Ah'll tell ya here and now: It's nothing but drivel compared to what Ah've got in mind!"
Haughty little bastard. "So sure of yourself, but what do I expect. Don't forget that I, too, know what you're planning. And you know what, I'm just going to spoil it: It's a western. Takes place on a train."
He looked around again, examining the faces of the reporters with mock curiosity,
"Oh? How strange, nobody seems surprised."
"Go peck yerself, Grooves! Ya're lucky Ah'm bothering to make a movie at all, Ah could just turn in one of me old ones and Ah'd still beat ya in a landslide!"
"Darling, I don't think anyone would notice if you did that."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Do you really need me to spell it out for you?"
...The reporters were looking back and forth between them. The snow finch cleared her throat.
"Ah... so the, uh, recent development between you two is... not affecting your, uhm, interactions, is it?"
Grooves blinked.
"...Why would that affect anything?"
"Well, people sort of expected...", she said and the flamingo cut her off: "I believe what my colleague intends to say is that people were expecting the hostiliy to cease now that you two claim to be a couple."
A moment of silence.
"...Huh?", Conductor asked, tilting his head as if hoping that the words would make more sense at an angle. "Why the peck would that happen?"
"You must admit that your behaviour does not exactly come across as loving", the pigeon pointed out. "Of course every partnership experiences its ups and downs, but are you not worried that this competition might damage your relationship?"
"Generally speaking, it is considered bad if a couple fights constantly" the flamingo added. "In fact, the viciousness of your arguments is downright concerning. DJ Grooves, do you feel safe in this", he raised his fingers to make air quotes, "relationship?"
"...Ex. Cuse. Me. I think I misunderstood something just now", Grooves said darkly. "If you could perhaps rephrase that?"
"I think I expressed myself quite clearly. Maybe you'd prefer it if the Conductor left the room for a mome..."
"Ah'll do no such thing!", Conductor barked. "What the peck is wrong with ya?!"
The flamingo opened his mouth to reply, but Grooves didn't let him: "I'd like to know that too. Let me make a few things perfectly clear, darling: I can handle Conductor just fine. Not that there is anything to handle, because he does not make me feel unsafe - quite the opposite, in fact - but if there were something, rest assured that I can hold my own just fine."
"And how dare ya imply Ah'd do something like that!?", Conductor snarled loud enough to make the finch hop backwards. "Ya've interviewed me ex-wife plenty of times - Ah remember, ya were practically begging her to say something nasty about me so ya could get yerself a big scandal, but she never said a bad word, did she?! Ah was nae abusive then and Ah'm nae abusive now!"
"I, I'm sure he didn't mean it like that", the finch said, raising her hands to deescalate. "So, uh, will your newfound love impact the awards at all? A lot of people have been wondering about that."
"And your relationship will not be strained by your frequent arguments?", the pigeon added, holding out his microphone towards Grooves.
Grooves shrugged.
"Why would it? It's not like our fights are a new development. I knew what I was getting into, so did he. If we fell in love despite our fights, why would we break up because of them?"
He wouldn't go into further detail - that was, the fact that he'd fallen in love with Conductor partly because of the fighting, not despite it. He doubted that these guys would be able to understand that.
"And as fer yer question", Conductor pointed at the finch, "first of all, kudos fer remembering that this is supposed to be about the awards. But no, it will nae. We're still rivals, we're still competing, Ah'm still gonna wipe the floor with him. What we do after hours is our business."
"It has to have some impact", the flamingo insisted. "If this relationship truly is real, then it is guaranteed to affect this competition. People are worried. They believe that the purity of the Bird Movie Awards is being corrupted. Some fear that you might be working together behind the scenes to ensure that the two of you receive gold and silver - those rumours have of course existed for years, but this is certainly not helping things. You cannot expect us to believe that everything will just stay normal, not when the two most fierce competitors have started dating!"
His volume was rising now and even the other two reporters looked like they'd prefer if he wasn't present. Grooves rolled his eyes and didn't even try to be subtle about it.
"I guarantee you, it will be normal. Both the movie-making process and the award ceremony will be completely unaffected by our relationship. It's going to be a perfectly normal year, nothing out of the ordinary. Except of course that I will win."
"In yer wildest dreams, peck neck. And dinnae think that Ah'll spare ya the mockery just because ya're me boyfriend now! Ah'll rub yer face in yer failure just like Ah always do, get ready fer it!"
"I think it's you who ought to get ready - you might want to learn how to be a good loser. Otherwise you'll embarass yourself a third time and that just wouldn't do."
"Please. First time ya won was dumb luck, second time ya won was because the lass did all the hard work fer ya and there's nae gonna be a third time anytime soon."
"Perhaps I ought to take you out on a dinner date, my darling... how about a slice of humble pie?"
"How about Ah shove one of yer shoes down yer throat?!"
"Are you out of your mind?! Do you know how expensive those were?!"
Meanwhile, the reporters were coming to a simple realization: Being in a relationship was just giving them new things to argue about. And new things to argue with. And new insults. It was giving them a lot of new things and peace was not among them.
"R-right", the pigeon said. "It seems that your behaviour will indeed remain...", a pause as he tried to find a word that wasn't completely insulting, "...unchanged."
"Ya bet yer pecking beak it will. It's gonna be a year like any other", Conductor said and got up. "Now, Ah'm gonna take this focus on our love life as a sign that ya dinnae have any more questions about the thing ya're actually here for, which means this interview is over."
"No, wai-"
"What, still had stuff ya wanted to ask? Tough luck, shoulda asked it sooner. Maybe that'll teach ya nae to change the topic on us like that. If ya wanna ask questions about our romance, schedule an interview fer that."
"We've tried!", the flamingo protested. "Multiple times, you refused every time!"
"Which should be a sign that we do not consider this a public matter, shouldn't it?", Grooves pointed out. "We are dating. This will not affect our work. That is all we told you and that is all you need to know. I agree with my darling, it's time to end this interview. We do have actual work to do, you know?"
There was a bit more protesting, a few attempts to argue, but both Grooves and the Conductor stood their ground and eventually, the reporters gave up. Grooves watched as they left.
"...So do ya have actual work to do?", Conductor asked and Grooves stifled a laugh; the reporters might still be in hearing range. The doors weren't that thick.
"Not in the slightest", he answered. "I just wanted them gone. My penguins won't even arrive until tuesday."
Conductor grinned. "Aye, same here. Ah know better than to schedule stuff on an interview day, those guys always take more time than they claim. Ah mean... look at the clock, this was supposed to be done thirty minutes ago and who knows how much longer they woulda gone on fer if Ah'd nae cut them off?"
"And you think they'd be used to that by now. Isn't that how pretty much every interview ends?"
"Yep. And yet they're always surprised."
Conductor got up and stretched. "Ah dinnae know how ya can stay so calm during this nonsense."
"Hm... let me think. How did I aquire the ability to ignore annoying blockheads?"
"Ya cannae ignore me, Ah know ya too well." And Conductor leaned in to press their beaks together for a moment.
"That I do", and Grooves returned the kiss with no hesitation. "Love you, darling."
...
Conductor smiled and happily nuzzled Grooves's neck. But he didn't say it back.
He never did.
Which was fine, really. Grooves was okay with that, he could wait a little longer. They'd come so far already. In fact, if not for that minor issue, Grooves would have said that Conductor had caught up completely.
They'd gone on dates - real, public dates where everybody could see them. They kissed each other goodbye when they parted. Their romance was not a secret, it was public knowledge and Conductor didn't seem to mind it one bit. Grooves had taken Conductor to meet his parents (and was quite grateful that Conductor had suggested doing so, as it had completely slipped his mind that that was a thing he was supposed to do) and they'd been delighted. A delight that had only grown when Conductor had visited a second time - this time with his grandchildren in tow.
They had slept together and Grooves had learnt many new and interesting things about Conductor's anatomy - most of which had prompted questions such as 'what?' and 'doesn't that hurt?' and 'how in the world did you manage to have children with a perfectly normal owl?' They had slept together platonically as well, Grooves dozing off on the couch and Conductor falling asleep with his legs hooked over the backrest and his head on Grooves belly. They had preened each other, they had snuggled for hours whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears... although in their case, only about one in three nothings was actually a compliment, because there was no law stopping Grooves from calling Conductor a washed-up geezer with no future while cuddling him. And what he got in return was usually something like 'shut yer worthless beak, peck neck', followed by Conductor snuggling closer to bury his face in Grooves' chest.
Conductor, it turned out, was a nuzzle monster. Now that he had permission, he used every chance he got to shove his face up against Grooves like a cat begging for pats - sometimes in the middle of a fight. And said fight always continued uninterrupted, completely unaffected by the fact that one of the fighters was now rubbing his head against the other fighter's collarbone.
It was so easy. So much easier than it should have been. Loving your nemesis should have been a struggle, but it came so naturally to both of them, like it was the most normal thing in the world. As if it had been meant to be.
Conductor had brought him flowers a few days ago, and while he'd gone on and on about how they were almost as 'frilly and gaudy' as Grooves himself, the fact remained that Conductor had brought him flowers. And not just any flowers... carnations, his favourite, meaning Conductor had either taken the time to find out what Grooves' favourite flowers were or had learned it years ago and had deemed it important enough to remember. Grooves had gotten him a box of chocolates in turn and he'd made sure to get one that didn't contain anything fruit-filled.
And it was so, so, so amazing. Perhaps it was the fact that this was his first real relationship, but everything felt so new and great and wonderful. It made him feel like a pretty young thing again, 40 years younger and 30 pounds lighter, basking in simple pleasures and enjoying life like he'd never be old. A teenager with his first crush, that's what he was right now - just a few decades too late. A blushing boy with butterflies in his tummy, feeling the need to pluck petals off of daisies. The world, as stupid as it sounded, really was sunshine and rainbows.
Love, it turned out, was a beautiful thing.
So really, the fact that Conductor had yet to say the words 'I love you' out loud shouldn't have meant anything. It shouldn't have mattered.
...
But it did. Good gods, it did.
He had said them once. But he'd been deeply upset and slightly drunk at the time. So he could say it, the words just couldn't get past his beak unless his brain was occupied otherwise... and even that hadn't happened since.
All Grooves wanted was to hear it straight from Conductor, sober and real. Was that really so much to ask for?
At the same time, he had told Conductor to take his time and that hadn't been a lie. As much as he wanted to hear it, he knew that pressuring Conductor into it wouldn't help anyone.
And maybe he really was wrong for wanting it; maybe he was just being too fast. He'd never had a proper long-term relationship before and the relationships he'd had, well... they certainly hadn't lacked speed. Some flirting at the bar, a hot night of pleasure and then a polite goodbye in the morning... that was it. He was a courteous lover, always offering breakfast and a ride home, but his approach was still far from slow, nor suited for forming a proper bond.
So maybe it was Conductor who was moving at a reasonable pace and Grooves who was jumping the gun. Maybe Grooves was the weird one for having said it so many times already, that was certainly possible. And he had faith that Conductor would say it when he was ready.
...
He just also really wanted Conductor to be ready now.
Calm down, Grooves. You've only been an official couple for a few months. That's a long time for you, but not for the average person.
"...What's on yer mind, peck neck?", Conductor asked.
"Just... planning out the next few weeks, darling", Grooves answered, trying hard to sound casual which was just inherently impossible. "Gotta get the penguins settled in, give them their scripts, get all the props ready, probably clean up the whole studio before anything else can happen..."
"Aye, we're looking at a few busy months. But eh, we do it because we love it."
"That we do." Come on, tell me what else you love. "And it's all going to be worth it once I hold that award."
"Aye, keep dreaming. Ya'll have a rough awakening once we actually get there."
He yawned. "Ah fer one am gonna go hit up the nearest bar. Ah deserve some kind of reward fer nae snapping at these idiots earlier."
"...Darling", Grooves began and got up, but Conductor held up a hand to stop him.
"Ah know. Ah know what ya're about to say. Listen, how about instead of picking the nearest bar, Ah pick a more reputable one? Ya know, one where the barkeeper will cut me off when Ah've had to much."
...It was... not ideal, but it was better than nothing and it was honestly a pretty big concession by Conductor's standards.
"Go to the Blue Weasel, that's a reliable one", Grooves said. "I'll drop by and check on you in an hour or so."
"Works fer me. See ya, peck neck!" And with another quick kiss, Conductor was off. Grooves looked after him in silence.
They had months of filming ahead of them, months of being in the same building for hours every day. And Grooves was looking forwards to it. Months of seeing Conductor multiple times every day, fighting and arguing and squabbling for hours... and filming, music, creating something beautiful with the help of his crew, he had missed it so much. Finally it was time to dive into that world again.
Grooves smiled. He had a feeling that this was going to be a good season for both of them.