Its a duck

[birdwingsandthings]

[Sometime around midnight, a drawing appears.]

Comments

[whiteofcrime]

The cultural notes were devoured with keen interest. They were something he would have to remember if he didn't want to accidentally offend Luce.

Without looking up, he said absently, "Aoshi's a boy. Likes to nibble fingers and thinks he's really handsome. Keeps trying to impress Ringo." True to his word, the dove was nipping at Luce's fingers.

It took a while, but Kaito remembered that he'd spoken aloud without thinking again. He hastily grabbed his book to scribble down a repeat of what he'd said.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce smiled at the idea of Aoshi trying to impress Ringo. He carefully wiggled his fingers more, he knew doves had a soft bite.

"He is handsome." he spoke, "And how?" he couldn't write, nor could he sign so he was going to have to speak and read. He wanted to know more about the birds.

[whiteofcrime]

Things like puffing up his chest, fluffing up his feathers, strutting about like he's important. Kaito snickers at the memory. I'm not sure they'll mate but it's funny to watch.

[birdwingsandthings]

"Will you be a good Baba and Husband?" Luce questioned to the bird. "That would probably work better then just being handsome."
He then turned to look at Kaito, at times like this he wish he could do the letter thing like Spinel could.

"Where did you get them?"

[whiteofcrime]

Aoshi ignored the question - of course he would, he was a bird - and began to preen the underside of his wing. It didn't seem to occur to him to move off Luce's head. It fell to Kaito to answer, who juggled shifting Soot Divers to write his next words.

There was a seller in town a little while ago. Had lots of different animals. I bought these four from him.

Here, Kaito frowned. Scribbled quickly: He stuffed them into bags. I'm glad I got them away from him.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce looked shocked at that, why would you stuff birds into bags? He seen the petshop put them into small cardboard boxes. But a bag?

That would just be scary.

"Maybe he should be told its bad for the bird?" Luce was hoping it was just someone being dumb instead of purposely mean.

[whiteofcrime]

I tried to ask for their cage but the guy refused.

Kaito showed this with a visible scowl. He wasn't happy with the man. He had been extremely unwilling to part with any money just for the rough treatment, but he chose to prioritise getting the animals out instead.

[birdwingsandthings]

"So he is a huge butt."

Luce frowned, as he kept on letting the bird nip at his fingers.

"I hope his birds eat him."

Like in that one horror movie he saw a scene from before his Dad turned him around so he wouldn't see the scene. But it stuck with him, don't be bad to animals- they will eat you.

[whiteofcrime]

Kaito laughed loudly, startling his birds. You said it not me, he wrote as he snickered.

He leaned down to grab something from a cloth bag sitting on the floor beside his bed. Two pouches: one of seeds and one with small strips of meat. He held out both. Luce could pick whichever he liked.

[birdwingsandthings]

"Which one should I pick?" he questioned, after all, he wanted to make friends with both sets of birds.

[whiteofcrime]

Since he had both hands full and couldn't write, Kaito held up the seed bag and pointed to Aoshi. Then he held up the other bag and pointed to the ones in his lap.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce made a displeased noise before deciding to try and reach for both to try and feed both.

[whiteofcrime]

He relinquished them both with a faint smile. Aoshi, he knew, would come down of his own accord at the prospect of food. The Divers were a bit trickier.

He carefully lifted one out of his lap and set it on the bed covers near Luce. The bird trilled and cocked its head, eyeing the food pouches.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce then started to open them up, carefully taking a little of both in each hand and offering them to the proper birds.

[whiteofcrime]

The Diver near Luce's hand immediately tried to snatch the meat from him. Its sharp beak might catch his skin in the process, leaving a light scratch. Almost straightaway, the other grey bird clambered out of Kaito's lap to fight over the morsel.

"You two, I swear..." Kaito grumbled. Aoshi had been coming down, but was startled back to Luce's head. The poor kid was probably getting scratched up by the dove's smaller (but no less painful) claws too. Kaito grabbed a piece of meat and lured the grey pair away from Luce, letting them fight in his lap instead.

[birdwingsandthings]

He made a few soft, upset noises at being claws and nipped at. He shook his hand at it, and frowned at the bird a little.

"Manners." he said firmly to it.

[whiteofcrime]

The Diver screeched at Luce and puffed itself up. Apparently it did not care for manners.

Sorry, Kaito wrote, awkwardly using his non-dominant hand. Not used to caring for hunters.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce cocked his head to the side. "Birds do tend to get puffy at times."

[whiteofcrime]

They look funny when they do, don't they? Kaito grinned at Luce. The Diver's sharp break nipped his fingertips and he released the last scrap of meat. It vanished into the bird's gullet.

Aoshi flew to Luce's wrist, intent on eating now that the drama was over.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce nodded, a good thing he did not hear the previous screech, he just smiled at Aoshi. "Why did you name them the way you did?"

[whiteofcrime]

'Why', you ask him. Kaito straightens and launches into his explanation by first pointing at the Soot Divers.

I call this girl Enjou, using 'honoo' for fire and 'musume' for daughter. 'Enjou' also means a large blaze.

The boy is Ash. I think the reason is obvious right?

Next he pointed at the dove on him. This girl is Ringo because of the ring of blue. His eyes lingered on Aoshi and there was a short pause before he continued writing. And the boy on you is called Aoshi after my best friend.

[birdwingsandthings]

Luce stares at the words Honoo and then Musume. How did those add up to Enjou? Luce gets one of his hands free as he starts trying to write out how to combine the words to make Enjou.

The look Luce is giving Kaito shows that he thinks his leg is being pulled with that one.

The other names were great, but that one just made him make noise.

[whiteofcrime]

Oh. Right. Not everyone understood how names worked in his country.

Going back to the names, he began drawing characters above the words: 'Enjou', 炎娘; 'honoo', 炎; 'musume', 娘; and then the other way to write the word 'enjou' - meaning a blaze-up - 炎上. He showed these to Luce.

Also, he added, Aoshi is another way to read my friend's name. It's written the same way but the second character has two readings. Normally it's 'Aoko'.

He followed that up with the characters for Aoshi's name: 青子

[birdwingsandthings]

He nodded before saying. "Puns."

Except this was one with letters he had never seen.

[whiteofcrime]

Kaito gave him a thumbs up. Exactly! They were puns. Feel free to tell him how amazing they are, Luce. He will go back to feeding the Divers in the meantime.