Chapter Text
Charlie heaved in a deep breath. This was it. A chance to prove to everybody that he could do it. That he, too, could partake in the rituals his clan had practised for centuries. The hen on the branch below him was perfectly adequate, her dappled brown coat blending in seamlessly with the forest floor. An ideal partner for rearing chicks.
A knot was forming in Charlie's gizzard. He fought to suppress it.
Don’t you worry pip squeak, Charlie remembered his father telling him, a good hen will inspire you to perform. It’s in your blood.
This was a narrative his parents had kept repeating time and time again, until he’d messed up his first nesting season. He’d had his mate picked out for him practically since the day he was hatched. Her name was Tina. She had hatched the same year as Charlie to a friend of his father, just a couple of trees away from their nest. With her beautiful brown and yellow coat, she had many admirers.
Charlie would never forget the disappointment on his father’s face when he’d heard Tina had rejected him for another cock. Oh, he had talked encouragingly about inspiration and finding the right hen. But his very best dancing hadn’t impressed any other hens either, and he’d ended up alone that year. Charlie’s parents had had him in their first nesting season, and they'd stuck together and raised more chicks since then. After years of failure, they were surely losing hope in their eldest son.
Now though, he was ready. He’d long since stopped believing in some magical inherent dancing ability, and started practising, observing the attractive dances of other fowl. This year he would make his parents proud. As he approached the brown hen, he shook out his wings, making sure his feathers lay flat. His own coat was largely uninteresting, almost fully black. He hoped that his feathers were at least adequately shiny. She turned around and looked at him. Curious. Receptive.
This was it.
He spread out his wings, making himself look large and impressive. Then, he started moving his head back and forth, with his beak pointed upwards, moving his wings in the opposite direction. The move showed off his red chest, which he’d been told was his strongest feature. Just as practiced. He resisted the urge to look down and see the hen’s reaction. Just concentrate on the dancing. He kept going. Move after move, and the hen was still there. So it couldn’t be that bad, right? Just keep looking like you know what you’re doing.
Finally, it was time for his finishing move, which he copied from a particularly attractive cock he saw last year. He spread his wings out in front of him, tips crossed. With his beak open, he bobbed his tilted back head up and down. Surely no hen could reject him after this move.
As he finished his dance, he looked back at the hen and knew he had done it. The dance had been enough. He smiled at her, excited. She smiled back. He learned that her name was Brenda. She’d had another mate previously, but he’d died in some kind of feline-related accident.
As they flew away together, Charlie saw a blue cock watching them. Somehow, he felt familiar, like Charlie had seen him before. Was he watching the whole time? Charlie thought, and suddenly felt very embarrassed about his whole dance, even though he knew the moves were good.
The knot in his gizzard kept growing bigger. He pretended it didn’t exist. His parents were happy. Brenda was happy, if a bit too interested in his ability to escape from cats. He was happy.
He had a mate now. This was what he’d always wanted. As he looked at their two eggs in the nest they had built together, he suddenly felt very lonely. So this is it, huh.
—————————————————
Brenda left him the next nesting season. After he danced for her again, she told him that his heart wasn’t in it. That this wasn’t the cock she’d nested with last season. He couldn’t really argue with that, but he didn’t know what had changed. Was it the strain of raising their chicks? Was it complacency, now that he had a nest mate? He’d used all the same moves performed the previous year, but it hadn’t convinced her this time around. She asked him why he had approached her that day in the woods. The silence spoke for him, and she flew without another word.
His chicks were also disappointed in him, blaming him for not putting enough effort into courting their mother and keeping the family together. They had moved alongside Brenda to a distant tree. He wished they’d stayed, but he also knew that he wouldn’t be of much help to them in the future, when they needed to impress mates of their own.
Encouraging platitudes once again came from his parents. They’d given up on him the last few years, but he supposed Brenda had restored their hope. Some nests aren’t built for forever, son. Just look at Greg. When he raised Tina and her siblings, he couldn’t stop arguing with her mother. He found a new hen in the next season, and they’ve nested together since. There was a feeling Charlie couldn’t shake, that this was deeper than arguing, deeper than finding a new hen, that no matter what he did that knot in his gizzard wouldn’t go away. And speaking of Tina, Greg told me she’s looking for a new cock this year as well.
Wherever Charlie went, there was some cock dancing for a hen. Considering that even he couldn’t help but feel some kind of way when looking at their bobbing and swaying, he couldn’t imagine what the hens felt. Would he really ever be able to inspire that kind of feeling?
—————————————————
A couple of days after the conversation with his father, Charlie ran into Tina. He knew what he had to do. If he didn’t try, he would never forgive himself. He took a deep breath. This was it. The moment his whole life had been building up to. This time, he wouldn’t fail.
He made sure the feathers on his head lay perfectly and practised his best smile one last time before moving in on her.
Dancing had never felt so hard. It was the same routine he’d used on Brenda, the one he’d perfected over the years. He thought about what she’d said, about putting his heart in it. Through every move, he tried to show that he wanted this. He wanted her. And that she should want him.
Who are you trying to convince?
No, this was not the time for his mind to sabotage him. He pushed the thought away and kept moving, working his body through the familiar twitches and bobs. The knot felt larger than ever.
He was daring to hope that it would be enough, when during his finishing move, Tina suddenly looked away, entranced by something else. Disappointment mingled with relief as Charlie stopped dancing. Then he saw what Tina was looking at, and he was blown away.
Another cock, a blue one... the blue one? No matter- he couldn't focus on that right now. All he could see was the honey smooth movements of his rival. The cock slid his wings seductively down his body, constantly moving his hips in a manner that sent waves and quivers up his cerulean plumage. Charlie couldn't rip his eyes away if his life depended on it, enchanted. Enslaved.
The blue cock moved his wings over his face and suddenly looked up, flashing an intense, ember gaze that twisted something inside of Charlie. Then he continued to deliver the sight of rippling muscles and iridescent feathers, dealing crushing blows to Charlie’s confidence.
He was now sure that this was the same blue cock that had been watching him last year, when he courted Brenda. Why was he doing this? Did he dislike Charlie specifically? Or was it all just a coincidence? He felt completely helpless as the seconds passed by, the understanding of his failure beginning to set in. Even his finishing move could never rival these entrancing motions.
In the corner of his eye Charlie could see Tina beginning to hop over to her new suitor, nuzzling up to his side as he performed an impossibly smooth pirouette. A tear ran down Charlie's fluffy, black cheek as he fully realized his defeat. Tina had only the decency to spare him a quick glance before continuing to preen and fondle the magnificent fowl before her.
This was too much for Charlie. His trance broke and he turned away, almost regurgitating as the knot took too much space in his little gizzard. He reminisced about the past years. Failure upon failure upon failure. He thought of his soulless performance, how it diminished compared to the swayings of the blue cock. Charlie tried to suppress the heat building in his core at the thought of that intense glare.
Then he felt it. A strong presence behind him. He turned around and there he was. The handsome blue cock rocking in front of him. Charlie instinctively brought up his wing to caress the other fowl before jerking back, flustered. But the blue cock kept going, kept inviting, kept moving into Charlie's space and he couldn’t stop himself anymore. The knot in his gizzard burst. He let loose completely, followed the blue cock’s example and danced.
He had never felt this free. All that had been troubling him was gone with the wind and the only thing that mattered was the two bodies moving in perfect sync.
It’s in your blood.
The other fowl moved in closer and fondled Charlie's wings before sliding them to rest at his sensitive midsection. Charlie followed the silent command and pushed up against the blue cock, gyrating his hips against the other’s warm body.
After dancing for a while, he realized that Tina had sunk to the ground, tears in her eyes. He started to feel sympathy for her, recognizing the feeling of being rejected in favor of another. A blue wing reached up to his cheek and turned his gaze back to his dance partner’s eyes.
“Eyes on me,” the blue cock said, and Charlie realized that he didn't even know the name of his suitor.
“I’m Charlie,” he said, but before he could ask for the other fowl’s name, he was lowered into a dip.
The blue cock moved in so their faces were tantalizingly close. The feathers on their chests pressed together. “I know,” said the blue fowl, before pulling Charlie up again. “I’m Chuck.”
Charlie was breathless after the intense dancing, and all he could do was stare into Chuck’s eyes. “N- nice to meet you, Chuck,” he said, and then he instantly felt stupid for saying it. He couldn’t come up with anything better to say, though; His brain was still using all its processing power on understanding the day’s unexpected events.
Chuck just smirked at him. “Shall we?” he said. To avoid embarrassing himself further, Charlie simply nodded. Finally, they flew off into the sunset, to a nearby tree where they could enjoy each others’ company and chirp sweet nothings.
I guess dad was right, in a way, Charlie thought to himself as he nuzzled into Chuck’s feathers. He could remain under these wings forever.