Crandy and Bayden have a talk

Crandy smiled at the little Birdtaur in front of her, happily signing her little toy sword and giving it back, only half listening to Oldman as she complained about something about her magazines that she couldn't find. They'd been at this meet n greet for a couple hours, not that Crandy was complaining. She always loved meeting her fans, especially after the war. Ever since the Nowhere King was defeated, pretty much anyone in the final battle became incredibly popular, including the flock! Even Centaurs they'd never seen before were coming to ask them questions.

Eventually, the meet n greet came to a close and Crandy said bye to all their guests with Mouthpiece and Oldman, with Hanglydangley escorting all the non-birdtaurs safely off the cloud. The four grouped up again and then started flying towards their homes. After about a minute, Mouthpiece spoke up.

"Oh hey, you guys still up for that sleepover we planned last week? I've already got a bunch of movies picked out at my place!" He asked. Everyone else excitedly agreed, turning to Crandy, who'd gotten quite as soon as Mouthpiece asked.

"...Uh, geez guys I'm really sorry, I totally forgot! I already promised Bayden I'd check up on him after the meet n greet!" Mouthpiece gave an annoyed look, but the other two just shrugged, Oldman replying

"Oh that's fine Crandy! We could always reschedule!" 

"No, no, don't reschedule for me! You guys can still have the sleepover, we can plan another one!"

"Uh- well I was kinda excited for this one! We.. haven't been able to hang out in a while.." Mouthpiece chimed in. Crandy stopped to fly mid-air, the others stopping too 

"Really sorry Mouthpiece, I just gotta check on Bayden once in a while! He always asks me too, I wanna make sure he's doing ok after… well, everything!" She gave him a smile "I'm sure we can plan another sleepover together another time, maybe even Bayden will come over too!"

Mouthpiece sighed, giving her a smile that Crandy could tell was forced "Yeah, yeah I understand! Just- uh, have fun I guess!" They all said their goodbyes as Crandy headed for Baydens house. She couldn't help but feel bad, she knew Mouthpiece was excited for them all to hang out again, she really should've remembered the sleepover. But she couldn't break a promise with Bayden, especially when he's like this. It'd been almost 3 weeks since the Nowhere King was defeated, and everyone went back home. Everyone was able to rehabilitate the Minotaurs- including Bayden, thankfully. Rider was even doing way better, and Horse was apparently going to be a shamen! It seemed like everything was getting better! Well, Bayden was still recovering. And half his friends here were too terrified to go near him now. And he could only say "like", so now he was learning sign language. Crandy was taken out of her thoughts when she finally saw Baydens house. She stopped in front of it, landing and knocking on his door. She already had an extra key, but she wanted to make sure he knew she was coming in. She unlocked it and opened the door, peeking in.

"Bayden? Buddy?" She looked around. The lights were at least on this time, usually he kept them all off. His house looked like pretty much every other Birdtaur home, one room with a dining room/living room right as you enter, a bed cot carved in the wall on one side and the kitchen on the other. It didn't look like his parents were home- probably still out helping people with Minotaurs rehabilitation like they'd been doing since enemies got back. Crandy saw a white wing poke out from the bed cot, smiling as she walked over to Bayden, still in bed.

"Hiii buddy!" She didn't want to peek behind the curtain, the one thing giving anyone in the cot privacy. He was definitely still recovering over his face especially. "The meet n greet was great y'know- a bunch of the usual fans, but we even had some taurs from the ground come up! There were even a couple humans!" She got a stool and pulled it up to the cot, sitting down. She heard the now familiar sound of marking squeaking on a whiteboard, after a few seconds Bayden stuck his hand out, holding a small handheld whiteboard with a message

'That sounds really nice :)'

It was the main way Bayden was communicating still, until he got a hand on sign language. Luckily he was able to take online classes for it, and the instructor didn't mind how he edited out his face in every video he sent. For now, Mouthpiece had gifted him a mini whiteboard and a large variety of markers to use on it.

"Yeah, it was! Oh my goose you should've seen Hanglydangley today-" she giggled, trying to get the story out without laughing too much "there were a group of these human kids, like, 3 or 4 of em, and they kept- they kept making like, turkey gobbling noises- like, every time he tried to talk" she laughed "He was getting soooo upset, I felt bad but me and Mouthpiece had to keep each other from laughing!" She could hear a chuckle come from behind the curtain, a very gravely one, and Bayden trying to cover it up. He wrote something again and stuck out his arm again to show it

'That's soo mean >:) did you get a video?'

Crandy burst out laughing again "No, sorry, someone probably got a vid though, we'll just have to wait a day or two!".

The two of them then just talked for a while. Crandy told more about the meet n greet, Bayden told her about his day, his parents actually stayed home most of the day and they were able to watch a movie together, apparently they left because some kind of emergency was happening. He also talked about how well his lessons were going, even showing Crandy how he could spell his and their friends names, and some random descriptive words. It was nice talking to Bayden. Sure, he was a 7 foot beast with a deformed jaw and spikes coming out of his back now, but he was the same old Bayden, making dumb jokes and getting excited over stuff like spelling his name with his hands. Crandy looked at the time- it'd been a couple hours now, but still early. She thought about Mouthpiece and the others, they were probably still setting up snacks and choosing what movie to watch. She couldn't help but feel bad again, she was having fun with Bayden but she'd love to be able for all of them to hang out again. Suddenly she felt a tap on her arm, realizing Bayden was poking her with a capped marker. She looked up and tried not to jump at Baydens eye peeking through a gap in the curtain, but she probably tensed up enough for him to move behind it again.

"Ah sorry- did I zone out? So sorry guess I was just- uh lost in thought!" She smiled at him. He went back to writing again, pulling it out to ask

'What's wrong? You seem kind of upset :('

Crandy thought. Should she tell him about the sleepover? She doesn't want to make him feel bad. But it also felt weird to not tell him. She finally to just tell him  "Alright- it's uh, nothing really, but I forgot Mouthpiece planned a sleepover tonight, but I'd already promised to hang out with you!" He quickly went back to writing something, but Crandy could already tell what he was about to write "BUT don't feel bad!! It's fine, I like hanging out with you!" Everyone else seemed fine with it too!" Well, Mouthpiece didn't seem happy but she definitely wasn't mentioning that. Brayden still stuck out a hand with a new message on the board

'Still, I shouldn't keep u from hanging out with the others! I would've been fine just being alone tonight!'

Crandy sighed. The tapped a foot on the ground, deciding how to word this next "... Well, I could still go, it isn't too late. Maybe…. You could come with?". He didn't say anything after that, Crandy immediately regretting asking. Bayden never wanted to venture out the house, with how terrifying he looked. But Crandy really wanted everything to go back to normal, when they all used to go out together, going to each other's houses or even out to eat just to have fun. "Look- I know you don't wanna go out cause you look 'scary' and 'hideous' and you think you're gonna somehow ruin the mood But- but I miss the old times. Sure, stuff will still be different, people are gonna be freaked out or rude, some places might not have the right size for you, but… ugh I just miss when we were all able to hang out. Together." She'd been looking down the whole time she was talking, a little worried to even look at the curtain he was behind. Finally she looked up at him, surprised to see he'd actually moved the curtains out of the way, and she could see his face for the first time in weeks. His hair actually looked really nice- looked like he'd cut it and still brushed it enough- and even his feathers looked a little less gray. After a moment, he looked down to write something again, then held up the whiteboard

'I think. I'd like to go to the sleepover.'