The Quiet things that no one ever knows [poison-st

"Nope, I'm not a vegetarian," she shook her head, "Although I don't like eating bird...except for chicken, because they're cannibalistic anyway,"

"Chickens are canniabalistic??" Lochlann said, blinking at her slowly, this mouth slackjawed. It was probably a good thing he'd swallowed his sandwich first! "I sort of forget chickens are birds, to be honest."

"They nest inside trees and like open spaces to forage on the ground," she said.

"Oh, no problem, that's only like 70% of the island," Lochlann teased. He started to pick at his chips, munching on them, surprised at how hungry he was. Eating wasn't helping his headache, but the action and talking with her was distracting him from it.


"Yes! That would be perfect! It's so much fun, but I hope you know how to climb trees. I think you'd be pretty good at it actually, the seagulls seem to like you so far. Just as long as you don't turn into a horse, they always seem to get upset when you do that,"

"Trust me, no one likes it when I turn into a horse," he laughed. Then, he sort of blushed a little bit, and said, "Uh. I don't know how to climb trees. I never learned. Up until now, there was no reason for me to.

"No more," she whispered to them, "No fat seagulls on my watch,"

He heard her and grinned and then, discretely, he passed some chips to the seagulls, hoping they'd like him. For some reason, he really wanted the birds to like him now that he knew Avian.

Lochlann missed her comment about his horse-shape because he was distracted by one of the seagulls, which had gotten a little too close to him for comfort.

He was none the less greatful for the change of conversation.

"What? You never learned?"

He watched her kick off her flip-flops and grab onto the branch, pulling herself up onto it and straddling the limb. He was impressed that she was able to do all of that wearing a dress--Lochlann wasn't sure if he'd be able to do that even in pants. He made an effort to not look up her skirt, although it was a little hard since he had to look up to talk to her, and she was right above him.

"You seem pretty strong, so it should be easy for you,"

".....I think the branch will crack if I go up there," Lochlann said. He suddenly seemed very nervous, although he wanted to impress her (and the damn seagulls) so he stood up and grabbed onto the branch and hauled himself up. It took him a few minutes to swing his legs over, and he was no where near as quick or graceful as she was. The branch shook for a moment under their combined weight, but seemed to be okay.

"Alright, this isn't so bad," Lochlann said, and then he looked down. They weren't up that high, and he spent a lot of time on the roof, so it's not like he was unaware of heights...it's just that he didn't spend a lot of time around them. He didn't seem to realize that they were going to keep going up.

"Yeah, you got it!"

Lochlann was feeling accomplished until she went up one branch, then another, and was probably on her third by the time he was getting back onto his feet, holding onto the tree trunk for support.

"Come on, keep up! You'll get better with each branch you scale!" "Maybe we'll find a nest at the top!"

"That's easy for you to say," he said, holding his hand up above his head to shield some of the light his glasses couldn't handle. The seagulls were following her which, for some reason, made Loch feel better. Although if she fell, it's not like he'd be able to catch her, and he sort of doubted the seagulls ability on this one.

"Okay," he said to himself, grabbing onto the next branch and pulling himself up. He was definitely slower than she was, having to find his balance on each branch he pulled himself up to. By the third one, he had to stop to catch his breath. He shouted up, "Did you find any nests?"

That was all he needed, to swing over a branch and startle a bunch of birds in their own home. He swallowed another lump in his throat and looked down, which he immediately regretted. Lochlann inched closer to the trunk for support.

"Yeah! There's one up here!"

"Looks like blue jays! Although I think they hatched a long time ago. You can still come up and see them if you want, though,"

"Alright, sweet," Lochlann said, although this was far from sweet. "I'll uh, I'll be up in a minute."

He was starting to sweat, not from exhaustion, but because...he wasn't really sure why. This was an uncomfortable feeling.

"Or...if that's as far as you want to go, that's fine too,"

"Oh no, I am coming up there," Lochlann said, his voice stern. "I'm just, uh...I'm not as light as you are."

The tree seemed to support him now, but he wasn't sure how it would feel about nine hundred pounds if something triggered him. Still, Avian was definitely lighter than him, and it took longer for Lochlann to find a spot on the branches above him that wouldn't creak when he grabbed onto it.

It took him a long time, laughably long, but he finally pulled himself onto a branch across from her, and he peered into the nest.

"No wonder birds are so safe up here," Lochlann said, looking at the broken eggshells. "If I had to do this anytime I wanted to eat one, I'd starve."

He gave a breathless laugh to show that he had no intention of eating birds, just that this was a lot more work than he anticipated. He looked out over the edge and said, "Wow, the view from up here."

Lochlann didn't quite mirror her leg-swinging, but he did relax considerably, watching the puffy clouds in the distance.

"Hey, thanks for climbing up here with me," she smiled shyly, "I've never actually climbed with someone else before. I'm used to doing it alone, so thanks! It's fun having someone else climb with you,"

"Thank you for teaching me," Lochlann said. "It's nice to do things with you, too. I know I ah...I know I can be a little grumpy sometimes, but I am genuinely happy to be out here with you. And the seagulls."

He gave Avian and the birds a smile. His headache was starting to fade, thankfully, and Lochlann was enjoying the feel of the breeze on his face. He was thinking about making an offer, but wasn't sure he could trust himself enough to go through with it.

"We should go look for the hoopoe over break," he said. "I've got some remedial classes but I should have some time off yet. We could take a trip to the woods and look for one there."

He was just very afraid of taking her out there alone. "I guess we couldn't go too far, though."