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Kris didn’t think that it would have come to this. They figured it would end up being some inane, silly dispute. That they’d forget about it. Like they did all the other ones. Their findings meant nothing.
This had started when Kris was, as they often were, playing video games in Berdly's room.
“Kris, Kris, Kris. Are you ready to be brutally beaten by the smashing master yet again!” Berdly said in his signature lisp. Kris stifled a giggle at the accidental lewd joke. The bird immediately puffed the crest on his head out, voice rising and cracking as he yelled at the human.
“What’s so funny!? The fact that I’m gonna pound you so hard tonight you’ll be weeping!!?” Kris couldn’t contain the snicker that escaped their mouth this time, they signed for the blue bird to shut his mouth. “Jeez, birdy, you haven’t even taken me out to dinner yet.” They grinned at him from behind their hand, red eyes crinkling behind their bangs.
Berdly’s feathers puffed out even more, this time in embarrassment. Kris even thought they heard the bird squeak. They giggled again, as if in admiration of their work.
“Shut up Kristine!!” The bird covered his face with his wing feathers, which were similar to Kris’s own hands and fingers. Just… blue. And not hands or fingers in the slightest.
While Berdly came down from his meltdown, Kris searched the room that they had been in a dozen times before. They saw something new this time.
There was a jar of assorted shiny objects on Berdly’s desk. Kris audibly laughed. “You collect things like a Crow?” The bird was instantly taken out of his freak-out by the uncommon sound of Kris’s voice and put into another one at the content of Kris’s sentence. “That..! Is none of your business, Kristopher!”
He muttered something to himself as he snatched the jar out of the human's hand. They pulled their hands next to their head. “Okay man, didn’t know it was that important to you!” That day Berdly lost every round they played but one. He held it over Kris’s head like a gold medal at the Olympics. Kris, however, was thinking of something else. That little outburst at their question lingered in their mind, and they wanted to learn more. In the future of course, they’d figure out that Blue Jays were in fact part of the same family as Crows’ Maybe Berdly considered himself better than the blackbirds, or maybe he was simply embarrassed that his passerine side had come out and that Kris had been the one to see it.
That story is how they ended up at their brother’s computer, researching Blue Jays for hours like a huge nerd. Wow, Berdly was really rubbing off on them wasn’t he?
While Kris wouldn’t directly admit it to Berdly, the study of his species was beginning to take over Kris’s brain. They knew the majority of the bird’s calls and songs, for example.
They knew that Berdly only ever does that grating caw that he would let out every time he was beaten in a Super Smashing Fighters game was an attempt to mimic the Red-Tailed Hawk. Which is, objectively, much more intimidating competition in the bird world. They had concluded that the effort to intimidate them didn’t exactly work.
Honestly, it was more annoying than anything else. Now Kris wouldn’t go to the length of calling it cute. Of course not.
Even with this, it wasn’t quite apparent to Kris why they were so intrigued by this article. (And, in a semi-extrapolated, but not really because Kris may just be in denial, way. Berdly himself.) Why did the bird interest them so much? That was the question they couldn’t answer, even with all their bird facts.
They could tell you that Blue Jays are actually rather compliant, one could say submissive, with other larger birds behind the aggressive act that they put up. But they couldn’t for the life of them figure out why they wanted to know all of this, and why they really wanted to test that theory. Angel, what had gotten into them?
Then a realization hit them.
“Do I like… Berdly?” Kris thought to themself. “No, that’s sick. That’s so fucked. I do not.” Even just the thought nearly made them want to sprint to the toilet and hurl. But, the longer they sat with it the longer it seemed to make sense. They thought back to a few recent interactions.
It was a few months ago, particularly March. Kris and Berdly were having a one-sided conversation outside the classroom. Berdly was ranting about his most recent test score, a 99 instead of a 100. Kris was only partially listening, it was too early for their brain to do much thinking let alone talking. They leaned back against a locker, occasionally nodding when Berdly would pause.
Suddenly Susie appeared behind Berdly, and he was broken out of his rant. His crest as well as chest feathers puffed out to their maximum and an array of “jay-jay’s” and mimic-hawk cries came from the bird as he turned around to the saurian. They abruptly cut off with a short cheep when he turned around and heard the laughter bellowing from the intruder.
Kris found themself laughing at the birds reaction, hiding their grin behind their hand. They were glad no one could see the flush they felt on their face. Wait, since when were they blushing at Berdly??
This was a detail they only recalled now, and it only felt more incriminating. They felt themself blush at the memory too, as their research paid off in this moment. Berdly’s behavior is rather similar to that of a Blue Jay protecting his mate. Kris shook their head. “That’s not true, it’s just a one-time thing! It’s nothing. I don’t like Berdly! Berdly doesn’t like me! He is annoying and I hate him.” Kris repeated in their head, as if that would change anything.
They chose to think of something else. Anything else, they’d settle for anything. What crossed their mind was an event more recently during lunch.
Kris sat silently as Susie and Noelle chatted across from them and Berdly sat with his sandwich next to them. They had forgotten their lunch at home, which was a pretty common occurrence.
They didn’t expect Berdly to offer half of that sandwich to them. Especially with that disgusting expression on his face. (In reality, Kris only said it was a disgusting expression because the worry in his face made them uncomfortable to confront.)
“Thanks, but I’m okay” They signed to him. “I insist, I can’t let you sit there with nothing to eat while I enjoy a delicious meal! It’s simply the alpha thing to do, Kristian.” While Berdly tried to joke his intentions off, it was only because he too was uncomfortable with the vulnerability that he was facing. Even though in truth it was only being a good friend, which he was not because he was not Kris’s friend. Just an acquaintance/rival/gaming buddy. Berdly would never be friends with the likes of Kris.
Still, he forced the human to take half of his sandwich. He was looking forward to eating that too… That’s beside the point though. Kris eventually accepted the offering, and the thought to compliment the food never crossed their mind. That’s what Kris would say, at least. I would say that Kris loved the sandwich and wanted to ask what was in it to make on their own time. But they wouldn’t agree with me, because they did not like Berdly.
Not even when they totally knew now that Berdly was sharing food as a form of allofeeding, or the fact that birds share food with their mates.
“Okay.. Maybe Berdly sees me as his mate? Maybe that’s a more pressing matter??” Kris tried to convince themself that they didn’t need to think about their possible feelings for the bird. It was a more important issue to tackle the fact that Berdly totally likes them.
Kris shot up from the chair, nearly knocking it over in the process. They bolted out the door, signing “Berdly’s house. Bye Mom.” to Toriel before racing down the street until they reached Berdly’s house. They didn’t realize it was raining until the cold droplets landed on their sweater and in their hair. That’s a problem for another time, they thought.
They rang the doorbell and waited. The blue bird opened the door and was looking Kris in the eye before long. Just Berdly standing in his doorway, staring at a soaking wet Kris in the middle of a rainstorm. Kris supposed they had underestimated the storm.
“Kris? Ack! Come inside, it’s raining so hard.” Berdly cursed himself for how quickly he caved into caring for the human.
“Hello, Kristine! So kind of you to come over completely unannounced. It’s not one of our scheduled days, what are you doing here-?” Berdly was cut off when he caught the glare that he was being sent from Kris, who was looking at him from the couch under a thick quilt. “Uh. Why’re you looking at me like that?” He said, rather ineptly actually. Kris quickly shook the expression off, sometimes that just happens.
“Berdly, I know you like me. You should just give it up already!” They quickly said before their mind could catch up. Somehow, they already felt lightheaded. (And while sitting down, too. Truly a marvel.)
“K-Kris? You’re?? What?? Boring prank, Kris!” He quickly recovered from his dumbfounded state, but was still shocked at the clearness (despite how out of breath Kris appeared) of the human's voice.
“I know you like me.” They repeated, this time slower. Berdly was silent. “Would you. Care to. Elaborate.”
It sounded like the bird was talking through his teeth, except birds don’t have teeth. Kris knew that now. Kris knew nearly everything about Blue Jays which meant they knew everything about Berdly. And spent hours researching it, and wanted to test… NO!!! They do not like him, Berdly likes them! That is it. That’s all there is to it. They do not care about the chirps that Berdly can make or the patterns on his wing feathers or the crest on top of his head that puffs up when he’s angry.
“Oh Angel, save me from this nightmare.” Was all Kris could really think through the chaos.
Kris was caught up in their own mind to realize that the bird had been staring at them, waiting for a response, for a very silent and very awkward few minutes.
“You treat me like Blue Jays treat their mate.” Kris signed, all their energy was stored in their brain which was running a mile a minute.
Berdly froze up with an awkward squawk. “And you know that how!? And no I do not!!”
“Research” Was all the human signed back.
Berdly was left with more questions than answers really, the only thing that escaped him was a sigh as he sat next to Kris on the couch.
“No reason to hide it,” Kris added on, Berdly sank into the back of the couch.
“I do not like you, Kris. That is absurd.” Berdly chose a spot on the wall and stared at it, it was much better than nervously looking around the room until he drove himself crazy.
“Why do you treat me like your mate? You got aggressive with Susie, you shared your food with me.” Kris retreated into the quilt, it had a scent that was distinctly Berdly that they chose that they didn’t have an opinion on at the moment. It was totally “I wish I could take this home with me and hold it close every night.” But why would Kris ever admit to that, that’s too truthful. Not to mention, it would mean that they have some sort of secret feelings for the bird which they do NOT!
“How do you even know that’s a mate thing?”
“Silly Birdy. Research.”
“But. Why.” Berdly was losing his patience with the human and their “research”.
“I don’t know, actually.” Kris looked at the bird out of the corner of their eye.
“I think you do know.” As if feeling the sensation of eyes on him, Berdly somehow met the gaze of the human.
“I do not!” Kris blurted out, too fast and too loud to be natural. Berdly jumped at the sudden sound of their voice.
“Oh, Kris. It’s okay if you’re in love with me! You can join the party with Noelle and Susan!”
“You’re turning this on me, you like me not the other way around. You’re the one who gets jealous of Susie.” At this point, the two were eye to eye.
“Oh no.” Berdly said, and Kris moved closer.
They shrugged the blanket off, slowly crawling his way in a sort of creepy sort of paralyzing manner. When Berdly’s back hit the other arm of the chair and he let out a surprised chirp that Kris had never heard before, Kris froze in their tracks.
They laughed out loud, burying their face into the fluffed feathers peaking out from Berdly’s shirt collar. Their body was shook with hearty laughs and snorts. When they met Berdly’s eyes again, they had tears of joy in their own.
Not only was Berdly concerned for Kris’s sanity, something he would never admit to (maybe), but he was frozen in that concerned-scared feeling. “Uh. Kris?”
“Angel! I am so stupid!” Kris exclaimed. Berdly, who had just managed to get out of his frozen state was back in shock.
“I know all these things because I like you.” Kris’s voice grew quieter as they admitted the truth that they had been (unsuccessfully? successfully?) avoiding. They laughed again, and Berdly’s crest slowly rose in embarrassment.
“And I remember all those moments because I like you! That’s awful! I like you, Berdly. Oh, that’s the worst thing I’ve ever said!!” They keep being interrupted by fits of giggles, and there is a massive grin on their face. Both of which completely oppose their words.
Berdly is completely dumbfounded. This human was the most confusing thing he had ever encountered. But even as Kris practically said that the realization that they like him is the worst thing that they have ever said, a fond smile inched onto his face. He burst out into the same fit of laughter that Kris was experiencing.
As the laughter died out, the serious tone fell over the room again. Kris suddenly wanted nothing more than to run.
Unfortunately for Kris’s fight or flight Berdly lunged onto them, capturing them in his (As Kris noted, soft) wings in a tight embrace.
“Kris I- Well. There’s no way to put it…”
Berdly took a deep breath.
“You can be my player two, Kristopher.”
Kris scoffed, “R-Really? Do you know how-!?”
“Jokes. Ah. I… like you too Kris. And you can be player one if you want.”
“I’m regretting this already.” Kris laughed, their words were untrue. This awkward-weird-kinda-attractive-charm was working on them.
And they hated it. Not literally of course. Kris supposed that Berdly was pretty warm, and Kris was pretty cold. So the hug was a win for Kris, they got to warm up from the rain. And well, maybe they enjoyed Berdly’s company a little bit. Maybe Blue Jays (and Kris’s) mate for life.