Aviary // Joshler

// CHAPTER SIX

Tyler woke the next morning with something jabbing the outside of his arm. Still half-asleep, he shifted around to try and get comfortable again. He'd been dreaming of home.

Yes, Tyler was sixteen, going on seventeen, but he'd never stayed anywhere but his own house before, and so he truly missed it. He'd had a little trouble sleeping last night, but after opening the window, he could hear an owl hooting almost soothingly in the tree outside, and that calmed him down enough to lull him to sleep.

Something else poked at Tyler's elbow, and he sighed. Slowly opening his eyes, he sat up in bed to see that he was completely surrounded by a mass of twigs, twine, feathers, and grass.

"What is that?" 

Josh had climbed out of his own bed and was now curiously approaching Tyler's. He had a nice voice, slightly husky, although that was possibly due to sleep. He wore a white t-shirt and black flannel pajama pants--a simple outfit, but it looked nice on him.

"Sometimes, if I'm not feeling great when I go to bed, the birds come in during the night and make a nest for me." Tyler blinked. It was kind of a pain to clean it up, but he knew they meant well, and in a way, it did kind of make him feel better. It was nice to be cared about.

"The birds?" Josh only seemed more confused.

As if on cue, there was a fluttering sound, and then a chirp. Both boys directed their eyes to the bird that had just landed on the open windowsill. It was a crested blue jay, and it had something in its beak. The bird looked at Josh, seeming almost concerned by his presence, or perhaps perplexed.

"It's okay," Tyler said in a soft voice, although he was unsure if he was talking to Josh or the jay, seeing as both seemed a bit wary. Upon the reassuring tone, the blue jay flew over to stand on twig-thin legs next to Tyler on the bed. The boy held out his hand, and the jay dropped the object into his open palm. It was a yellow button.

Briefly, Tyler stroked the bird's soft wings. "Thank you."

Curtly, the bird chirped and then flew back out the window.

"Is that normal for you?" Josh eyed the button in Tyler's hand. "Birds just build nests around you and bring you stuff?"

"We're connected," Tyler explained. "It's my special ability."

"Can you control them?"

Tyler shook his head. "No, they have minds of their own, we just have a telepathic connection. That's why they bring me gifts like this, I guess." he slipped off of his bed, sock-clad feet sliding onto the wooden floor as he pulled up one of the shoeboxes out from under his bed. Sitting back down again, he pulled it onto his lap and pulled open the lid. "This is all stuff they've given me. I keep all of it."

"Can I see?" Josh asked. Almost hesitantly, he sat next to Tyler on the bed, making the latter's stomach flutter unusually. He chose to ignore it for the time being.

Tyler slid the box onto the other boy's lap, letting him dig through it. The birds gave him lots of different things--buttons, seeds, flowers, dead bugs, smooth stones, shiny pieces of trash. Sure, some of it was a little weird, maybe even gross, but the birds had gone out of their way to find and give Tyler these things, and he couldn't bear to throw any of them out.

Josh sifted through the small items for a moment. There was a look on his face that Tyler couldn't completely explain: confusion, or disgust, or something. "It's kind of strange, I guess." The brunette lowered his eyes to the floor.

Gingerly, Josh put the lid back onto the box and handed it back to Tyler. "It's not the strangest thing I've seen here," he said. Was that a hint of a smile on his face? Maybe he wasn't as much of a loner as he seemed.

"Boys, time for breakfast!" Called Miss Lindsey's voice from outside of the room. This was followed by profuse giggling, much to Tyler's confusion.

"Fuck off, Brendon!" Josh shouted, making the voice on the other side of the door erupt into further giggles, followed by the sound of footsteps racing down the hallway. "Sorry. He does that every time someone new comes to stay here."

"It's okay." Tyler offered a smile to his roommate, but the mood from earlier was gone, and Josh got up to get dressed without offering one in return.