Sweet Little Birds (BxB Romance, Completed)

Chapter 7: Chocolate Bunny

The weeks went on. Tyler showed up at Robin's place every Tuesday and Thursday to study. Robin had gone through all the material in the rainbow-colored bag several times but despite that, he still had no clue how to flirt.

He'd also read a certain section in his Psychology book several times, trying to relate the dry text to his personal experiences. Eventually, he ventured to the school library, looking up every book he could find about the mysterious phenomena he'd read about.

Today was Thursday. So once again, they sat there, on Robin's bed—which now had blue and white striped sheets instead of the embarrassing SpongeBob ones—with their legs so close that they often nudged against each other, and shared a bag of nauseatingly sweet snacks. Today's chosen poison was Twinkies: vanilla cream stuffed into a sponge cake cover.

As the session was almost over for the day, Robin tried to think of ways to prolong it, just to be in Ty's presence for a few minutes or even just seconds longer.

The solution arrived in the form of a text. "RUNNING LATE IN CLASS. PLEASE GO CHECK ON PAX" it read. It wasn't a question, it was an order, as Des' texts tended to be. Forceful but kind, just like her.

Robin looked over at Tyler, who was busy placing colorful post-it notes in the margins of his book to highlight important passages — a method Robin had taught him. "I need to go check on Des' rabbit," he said cautiously because he was aware that it sounded kind of weird. "You want to come along?"

"Rabbit?" Tyler asked, a curious stroke to his voice.

"Des refused to leave her pet rabbit behind when she started college," Robin explained. "So Pax lives under her bed. She needs me to check on him since she's running late. The little bugger tends to escape his cage if she takes too long."

"You had me at rabbit," Ty said and lit up the room with a smile. He reached for his crutches. "Let's go save this bunny!"

A worrying thought hit Robin. "Des' room is on the upper floor though..." he started. "And there's no elevator."

Ty turned to him, crutches now in place under his arms. "I'm not that broken, Robby," he said, his voice tinged with both pain and pride.

"I'm sorry," Robin mumbled, internally kicking himself for his thoughtlessness. The balance between thinking too much and too little was hard to strike.

"I can conquer stairs if I have to," Tyler explained in a much cheerier tone. "And a bunny is a good reason for it. Let's go! Toward the bunny!"

One stair conquest later, they stood in Des' room, which was filled with posters of cute animals, halfway finished crafting projects, and paper flowers in bright colors. Basically, it was Des, in every single way. Robin always felt safe and taken care of in that room.

Ty slumped down in a floral chair, already occupied by about a dozen stuffed animals. "Move out of the way," he mumbled to a stuffed penguin while making room for himself in the fluffy zoo.

Robin laid down on the floor to release the long-eared beast from its confines."Come on, Pax," he encouraged the animal. "You can roam freely now."

The bunny did not get out. In fact, Pax backed further into the cage upon seeing Robin. They had never been the best of friends. Since Robin never had any animals himself while growing up, he didn't quite know how to act around them and Pax seemed to pick up on this. One time, the rabbit had peed on Robin's shoes while he and Des studied. It was probably meant as a personal insult.

"Sit down and let him take his time," Ty said and poked Robin lightly in the back with one of his crutches. "You're stressing the poor thing."

Robin crawled out from underneath the bed and sat down on the desk chair with a shrug. Ty responded with a smile that made Robin's whole body flutter. Every gaze between them made him assured that they shared something beyond tutoring or even friendship. He just wasn't brave enough yet to admit what it actually was, even if in the back of his mind he already knew.