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The gentle wind gushed as Parrot softly hummed, his noises sounded like faint comforting music to Reina and Theo. Theo had been quiet for a while, silently in his thoughts beside Parrot. Reina sat on the grass beside the other side of Parrot, listening to his hums as she admired a daisy while holding it gently as she could.
A question formed in Reina’s mind when she was holding the flower. Her gaze stayed on the flower before her voice had spoken up, snapping Theo out of his deep thoughts who had become as interested in what she said. “Parrot?...”
The soft, comforting humming stopped, being replaced by a brief silence before the parrot turned to his friend. Parrot had been inside his head of comfort to realize that his best friends were still here. He tilted his head slightly, curious of what Reina had to say as he answered. “Yeah..?” He responded.
Reina’s softened gaze on the flower moved to Parrot, filled with genuine curiosity. “Do… Do you have people who are relatively close to you?” She asked before quickly continuing before Parrot could answer. “I mean- like siblings.” Reina placed the flower on her lap, her gaze moving away from Parrot, but still listening.
Theo shifted his position, now listening to conversation. Parrot… Having siblings? Seems too weird to be true. Theo had never thought Parrot had siblings. Yeah, He seemed like a trusted adult, an older brother from his soft-spoken voice, but Theo could never place the puzzle piece into the puzzle as Parrot being a brother.
Parrot paused, unconsciously touching his feathers as his mouth curled into a small, gentle smile at the thought of it. His fingers messed with the feathered wings before smoothing it out when he realized what he’s doing. He never liked having messed-up wings. His eyes stared down at the grass and the daisies.
Now, being reminded about his brother he couldn’t help, but think about it before he could respond to Reina's question. Fiddling with fingers, he responded with a small nod. A smile still unconsciously on his face as his eyes seemed to be thinking something else, still.
“Yes… Yes, I do.”
Parrot was thirteen.
“Wemmbu!...” Parrot called a name, walking towards a figure that was busy doing something Parrot couldn’t remember. The figure turned around to look down at the parrot before kneeling down to reach the younger boy’s height. A smile spread across his face as he acknowledged the name calling. “Yes?”
The smile became a concerned expression of an elder brother, gently touching the younger one’s shoulder. “Parrot…? Flame?...” The End demon had noticed that the parrot had brought his younger brother, a Nether demon. The youngest of the trio was sniffling, wiping his tears, gripping Parrot’s hand desperately.
Parrot pointed at the neighboring house beside his older brother’s. “That neighbor has been throwing insults at S-spoke and… F-flame!... And me…” His voice was clearly shaking as he had likely been trying to keep himself from crying as well. Before Wemmbu could respond, another kid had walked to the purple figure.
Stumbling on his feet with his steps from not wearing shoes, walking on the grass. The voidling immediately walked over when he saw the sight of his siblings, rushing over gripping onto the oldest clothes. The youngest had the most cries when he came over, more like full-on sobbing, as his tears stained the oldest clothes slightly.
Wemmbu’s expression shifted into something when Parrot had told him about the person, but it became a gentle, caring expression when the child came rushing over with tears. He picked the child up, gently comforting the voidling while trying to calm down the Nether demon and the avian with genuine care.
The youngest kept crying, his voice muffled when he sobbed onto Wemmbu’s shoulder before calming down into gentle sniffles. Wemmbu pulled Spoke out to see the voidling’s expression. Despite the dark, smokey skin, Wemmbu still saw the tears stains on his baby cheeks that nearly broke his heart into pieces.
Wemmbu planted a gentle kiss on Spoke’s forehead before placing him down on the ground, giving Parrot and Flame kisses full of warmth on their cheeks and forehead before standing up. He crouched down his height slightly, giving a reassuring smile. “Parrot, how about you bring your brothers inside?...” he asked, the second oldest of four siblings.
Parrot’s mind was still thinking about his younger brothers, a sad frown on his face before seeing the reassuring smile that made him pull a smile on his face as well. His tears and childish sadness weren't gone, but he still felt better. He turned to look at Flame who had a blank expression, his mouth was slightly downward.
Parrot turned back to his older brother before nodding back, as a sigh of relief escaped from the oldest’s mouth. Wemmbu stood back up straight, giving a gentle pat on Flame and Parrot with a gentle smile. Flame watched as his oldest brother walked away, leaving him and his siblings alone.
The Nether demon hadn’t realized it, but eventually did realise that his younger brother had been hugging his waist the entire time after Wemmbu placed him back onto the ground. Spoke had his head, leaning onto Flame for warmth, still sniffling softly. Flame wasn’t great at comforting, but he awkwardly patted his younger brother’s head.
Spoke had only hugged harder and tighter for comfort from his older brother, till Parrot spoke. “Follow me. Let’s go back inside…” Parrot said, waving over. The avian had a gentle and soft spoken voice that made people feel safe around him. Flame nodded, glancing at the kid who was clinging onto him.
Parrot noticed how Spoke was clinging onto Flame, causing the Nether demon not being able to walk from his spot. The parrot approached the youngest voidling, picking him up. Spoke was rather a light weight kid; Wemmbu had tried feeding the younger more, but the kid refused to eat anything as a picky eater.
The second oldest smiled at the youngest, holding the Nether demon’s hand gently. The walk back to the house was short. Parrot placed the youngest boy on the couch, silently fighting the urge to poke his cheeks as the other walked to the couch on his own. “I’ll go set up the fireplace. Stay here, alright?” He spoke.
Parrot placed a kiss on Flame’s forehead that made the younger one let out a huff, trying to put up an annoyed expression, but it ended up being a small smile instead. Flame wanted to help, but he ended up staying silent, watching his older brother instead. Spoke leaned onto his older brother’s shoulder in silence, still softly sniffling.
Parrot fed the few remaining fire with kindling before grabbing big wood logs, carefully placing it inside. The heat was a relief from the earlier sharp cold that made his other siblings shiver. Parrot can handle the cold better since he had his feathered wings that kept him warm, however he isn’t as great as Spoke with handling the cold since Spoke was a voidling.
Parrot stood there, staring at the fireplace before walking towards his siblings, sitting beside them. Flame leaned onto Parrot’s shoulder, his lap holding a sleeping voidling. The oldest sitting on the couch’s mind went blank. Parrot felt himself warming up with his sibling against him. He eventually drifted off to sleep, unaware of his surroundings.
Wemmbu opened the door, about to say something before seeing his sleeping siblings on the couch. His eyes softened almost immediately, gently closing the door before walking. He went to the back door, grabbing a blanket that was knit by an old lady in the city when he visited the shop. He had that blanket since he was a child.
Wemmbu placed the blanket onto the three siblings, one of them shifted slightly from the weight of the blanket.The End demon sat beside the couch, looking at his siblings before mouthing something out. “They won’t be trouble anymore…” before drifting off to sleep himself.
“So, like who?”
“Flame, Spoke, and Wemmbu.”
“You mean, the people who turned against us? Who’s Spoke?”
“Oh, Reina… You’ll know soon.”
“Yeah, Reina!”
“Theo, mind your own business.”
“DUDE-”