His Little Bird

The Coming Home

Ethan's POV

Birdie fiddles distractedly at the things on my bookshelf.

I know I should be working instead of watching her, but I can't help but feel like she's self destructing on the inside.

"Little Bird..." Her head snaps towards me, her brows raised in surprise. If she wasn't so in her head, she would have realized I've been watching her...

"Did you say something, Master?"

Master... she's called me that since the second she woke up this morning. It isn't a bad thing, but I realize it's a conscious effort from her to try and find a happy place, a place where she doesn't have to stress or think because I do it for her.

"I didn't, but I think it's either time you retire to my lap, or you go home." I know she isn't tired, it only being the early afternoon. She needs to stop stressing though and get comfort from either myself or her family.

"...I don't want to go home, Master..."

Her comment raises red flags for me. She knows I'm talking about her parent's house and not mine and she always wants to be at her parent's house.

I crook a finger at her and push my chair back a bit.

Birdie's eyes drop and she shuffles over to me. One finger directed at the floor makes her get into her bed.

"Lay down. Right here." I tap the tip of my shoe and she obliges, curling up in bed with her cheek against my shoe. "Why don't you want to go home?"

"...Do you think they are mad at me, Master?" I sigh, realizing now why she has been so odd this morning, eager to leave for work before her parents were up.

"Of course they aren't mad at you, Little Bird. You having birth parents changes nothing. I am sure Mama is... stressed just like you because this is new and unfamiliar and unexpected, but that doesn't change how much she loves you, how much either of your parents love you."

She sniffles and I pet her head, trying to calm her down.

"I know you don't want to face them because it might be a little awkward at first, but you need to. You need your parent's support and you need to remember that their love isn't conditional on whether or not they are your birth parents because it never has been, Birdie."

"What if they don't want me to meet my birth parents? What if they don't approve?" I wasn't aware Birdie was even entertaining the idea of meeting her birth parents. I was under the impression Birdie was too afraid they'd hurt her to give them a chance.

"Your father let me make the decision to tell you or not because he was accepting of the fact that you needed to know and you needed to decide for yourself. He supports you no matter what you decide, Sweetest."

"... What about Mama though? We've always been hers. We were the children she could never have and now someone else is trying to take me away from her. She won't like that.

"I know she won't. How can I turn on the parents who loved me and raised me and supported me my whole life? It's wrong."

Oh my love.

"Sweetest, no one sees it as you turning against your parents. Just because you want to meet your birth parents doesn't mean you're forsaking your real ones."

"I just don't want to hurt my parents feelings, but I also don't want to give up the only chance I'll ever have to know who I came from..." I nod sympathetically, smoothing her hair from her head.

Her eyes are an irritated pink, but they are thankfully not as swollen as they were last night.

"You're not going to hurt anyone's feelings, Birdie. Your parents understand that just because you want to meet your birth parents doesn't mean you don't still see them as your parents. Even if you like your birth parents—"