Archive of Our Own ^beta

Making your way through the brush, you keep your eyes peeled. You HAD to find the best beetle for this year’s founders day bug contest, or you’d miss out on the trophy and the prize!

The fact the prize is a free pizza from the local shop once a month for a year is irrelevant. PRIZE!

Okay, maybe it was the main motivation, because you’re a broke young adult and would love 4 days of guaranteed food a month.

But anyway! You’re out in the woods looking for a huge bug! With your bug net from when you were 7!

So you’re looking for the bugs, and that’s all you’re gonna do till you find the big one. Focused as you are, you don’t notice anything else besides the ground until you come upon some bizarre, large bird feet with five toes. They’re bright orange.

“Uh? Big bird?” you squeak hopefully, looking up slowly. The legs were streaked with red and orange feathers, glossy and beautiful, but there was just SO MUCH leg. And then the pale yellow flesh started just above the hips. A humanoid torso, surprisingly lithe and delicate, led up to arms covered in more feathers and a big puff of downy ones under…a sun?

This bird had no beak, instead it had a pointy little nose, a humanoid face, and big white eyes. The ‘rays’ of the round face seemed to be something else, folded up against his head. His? Ugh, no time for pronoun talks now, THIS IS A GIANT BIRD MAN.

Finally, the appropriate response hits you and you shriek, dashing back the way you’d come only a few feet before you slip and slam arm first into a tree you were trying to dodge. The pain is instant, and blinding, and you tumble to the ground screaming.

Pounding on the ground matches the pounding of your heart in fear and pain, and a crooning and cooing sound comes as strangely gentle hands are gathering you up. Soft feathers, and you groan as you realize the bird man picked you up, but he’s being very careful of your now (probably) dislocated shoulder.

He’s making very soft noises, and walking carefully as he holds you close and strokes your head. You can’t speak, or really perceive anything other than these things, and the horrible ache in your bones. That and the fact feathers have a particular smell and this one is surprisingly fresh and citrusy. He smells clean, and you’re really glad about that.

The bird jumps up, and you yelp as it jars your shoulder, making him whimper and trill more. His fluffy ruff gets bigger and he starts dashing, going so fast you can’t visually keep up, so you close your eyes and cling on to him with your good hand.

-

Eventually, you find yourself in a shallow cave in a cliffside. You must have blacked out at some point because you can’t remember the jump it must have taken to get up here. Finally opening your eyes, you see your bird man discussing something with another bird man. This one doesn’t seem to have rays, and is colored in greys and dark blues. Same build, same floofy ruff, but the eyes were different. Red, all the way through, and this one had a mouth full of spikes. The one who’d carried you had flat teeth, you noticed now as you compared them while they twittered and tweeted at each other.

Their gestures were agitated, the blue one clearly mad about something as he gestured at you. Your yellow companion was looking fretful and upset, adding whines and whimpers into his bird sounds. This seemed to annoy the blue bird even more, but he huffed after rolling his eyes and turned to you, “Why are you here?”

He SPOKE. That voice was definitely male. “He…brought me?” you pointed at the yellow bird.

“No,” he glared at you, “I meant, why were you in the forest at all? This isn’t a place for your kind.”

Oh, now we’re being specist. Is that a word? It’s a word now. “I was trying to find a huge beetle for the founders’ day festival contest.”

He was taken off guard by that answer, and the yellow bird grabbed his arm and shook it as he chirped, probably asking things to this other one. Blue answered in a grouchy sharp hiss and small tweet, then came back to you.

“My sibling insists I introduce us. I am Moon, this is Sun.” He gestures as he speaks, and you nod to show you understand. He gives a small snort, “Your shoulder is dislocated. It’s going to hurt to pop it back in, and you are probably not going to survive if you don’t do it. You can’t hunt like that if a simple jump was enough to make you scream, from what Sun said.”

“I don’t hunt. Killing animals for sport is wrong, at least to me,” You wrinkle your nose in disgust.

“I….” Moon looks at you, seeming genuinely baffled, “Then how do humans survive, if they don’t hunt?”

“Grocery stores. Big buildings full of food and maybe a couple other things,” you tilt your head and wince as it pulls at your dislocated shoulder. “I get if it’s different for you, being a wild…bird…person?”

“I’ll take person,” he waved you off. “I suppose we should kill you, since you know about our nest now. Though, if I had to guess, there’s more fat than usable meat on you.”

You felt your stomach drop into a void. Oh god, you were going to die.

But Sun seemed irate as he watched your face, and he screeched at Moon, hopping into the area you’re sat in and circling his arms over you as he crouched close.

There was a lot of angry bird sounds, but finally Moon growled, “FINE! I’M SORRY! I won’t hurt your stupid human, but I’m not translating for you two anymore.”

He bundled himself up in the back of the small cave, red eyes glaring at you and Sun.

Sun huffed loudly at him, then shuffled to be in front of you and sat there, cooing and brushing your hair behind your ears. His touches were soft, careful, and you just started crying again. His distressed whines barely got through the panic in your chest. Moon wanted you dead because you were a danger to them. You knew that’s why, they were a secret species, intelligent enough to know humans were bad news, but you didn’t want to DIE just because you accidentally saw them!

You didn’t want to die…

-

Sun was so frantic. He hadn’t wanted this poor thing HURT and then Moony started giving off the ATTACK scent and he could NOT have that.

“No no no, it’s okay, little human, please stop being afraid. I’ll protect you, I will!” He tried to reassure them, but they just kept crying and shaking, even after he gathered them up in his lap and began to rock them like a hatchling. “Shh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know!”

“You realize they can’t understand you,” Moon hissed from the back, and Sun glared.

“You didn’t have to scare them! I don’t know what you told them, but they are HURT and AFRAID, and it’s all your fault!” Sun shot back, then continued comforting his human, “There there, little flower, it’s okay. Big mean Moony won’t hurt you while I’m here.”

“Big talk when you’re a coward,” came the sullen response from his brother.

“We were chicks, Moon, and I have apologized so many times over the years,” Sun was not going to give in to the guilt he still felt about Moon getting hurt.

“Still, you get to have your rays all nice and pretty, and I’m here plucked like a human dinner.”

“Why do you watch them if you hate them so much?” Sun asked, still protectively cradling his poor new friend in his arms. “You go out every night, only to come back spitting venom about what you saw.”

“Because they’re dangerous!” Moon raises his arms to look bigger, “They kill other animals with those big metal things! from really far away! And they don’t even eat them, your human just said so! They do it for fun!”

“But you also told me they feel that’s wrong.” Sun stroked their head gently, smoothing their fur as it seemed to be helping. “So maybe that’s just a few humans who like to kill things.”

“Those are the only humans I’ve seen out here.” Moon glares, still puffed up and angry.

“This one said they have buildings full of food, you said so, that means they have shelter and food all the time. If they can make that for themselves, they aren’t limited to living in one area, Moony,” he hated arguing with his twin, but Moon had become very paranoid after getting his rays torn off. Sun didn’t blame him for that. He barely survived, and he’s lucky that bear got distracted with the flexible flesh and got away.

“That just means there’s MORE of them. More killers who’d hunt us down just to cut our heads off to display!”

“Moon!” Sun had to stop this spiral, “More also means there’s more chance for them to think differently. You and I don’t think the same way, and we’re as close as you can get. They’re just as intelligent as we are. They feel things…they can’t all be monsters.”

Just as he said that, the human in his lap said something softly and wrapped their arm around him, squeezing tight. Sun’s rays fluffed up, the membranes fanning out a bit in his happiness at his hold being returned. He couldn’t stop the affection that warmed his chest, or the smile on his face.

“I think we should give this one a chance,” he looked up at his brother, who was still glaring but seemed conflicted as he watched Sun’s rays fold out. They only did that when he was happy or excited, or courting of course but that never happened, letting the softer, more delicate and colorful feathers show.

“Would you be satisfied if I promise not to kill them?” came the final question.

“I would,” Sun was offering an olive branch. His human’s life was safe, and that’s what mattered. Not that he’d known this was a human at first, having never seen them himself. Moon’s descriptions made them sound much uglier than this soft, warm, fragile being in his arms.

“Fine. I won’t kill them, I promise. But I don’t have to trust them either.”

“I won’t force you to do anything, Moon,” Sun agreed, nodding, “I just want them to be safe. It’s my fault they’re hurt, after all, so I want to help them.”

Moon groaned, but laid on the floor to show he wasn’t trying to be a threat anymore, “Okay. I know you don’t deal well with guilt. You want me to tell you what they said to you?”

“Can you?” Sun was excited to hear this.

“They said ‘I don’t know why you’re protecting me but thank you.’”

Sun’s rays fully fluffed out, his lovely swirling orange and yellow colors with the bright red triangle shapes along the anchor areas. “When you’re ready, later, maybe you can teach me how to speak to them on my own so you don’t have to translate.”

“I think they’d appreciate it. I know I’m getting tired of it.”

Happy with that plan, Sun continued coddling his human till they calmed.

-

Moon was literally crawling his way across the floor, flat on his belly, and you had no idea how to feel about it.

On the one hand, his position and grumpy face were hilarious. On the other, he’d threatened your life and implied he’d eat your dead body.

But with Sun chirping and nuzzling, you couldn’t exactly feel much fear as the other bird approached in his silly manner.

“I’m apologizing for real now,” Moon peeks over the side of the ‘nest’ but stays grounded, “You’re giving us a chance, strange though we are to you, so it’s not fair to judge you based on other individuals. So can I fix your shoulder?”

“If you swear you won’t bite me or rip it off, sure.” You can’t stand the WRONGNESS in your body anymore, and the pain of the dislocated joint.

“Promise on Sun I won’t.” Moon sits up and says something to Sun, who nods and holds you tightly, “This is going to hurt, little human, badly. But then it’ll feel better and work properly again as long as you’re careful.”

“Okay,” you press yourself tightly to Sun, taking a deep breath of his clean citrusy scent as you brace, “Go ahead.”

Moon nods, and before you can even register him holding your arm, he snaps your shoulder back into the socket. Even with being warned, you scream at the agony, but it fades quickly even as you blubber again. “TH-thank you…Moon.”

“I’ve had to do that for Sun before, so I’ve had practice. You did well for such a soft fleshy little thing.” Moon looked at you with a teasing smile, and seemed amused by your tears, “You cry a lot, don’t you?”

“Yeah…means I’m in touch with myself.”

“Oh, you touch yourself?”

“MOON!” you gasp and feel your face turn red as he cackles, his ruff fluffing as he hops from foot to foot in glee. “Do you even know what that means?”

“I do~” he grins, “The hunters who come out here are dirty men who talk about a loooot of naughty things. And the occasional teenagers…but I usually scare them off. I do a wonderful cougar impression.”

You’re so embarrassed that you aren’t crying anymore, and Sun is chirping at his brother, helplessly lost on what’s going on.

Moon giggles, “Sun would be so angry if he knew I said that to you. He’s a modest hatchling still, and it’s as fun to tease him as it is you.”

“Ah, I see.” You nod, swearing revenge internally, then turn your head up to Sun, “Can I tease him?”

“You can try. I think I like you more already if you’re willing to play,” Moon tilts his head and his grin gets bigger.

“Okay then.” You’re probably delirious from shock, pain, and adrenaline, but you decide it’ll be fun. You lean up and kiss Sun’s cheek, just under where the brown speckles dust his face. He squawks and drops you, scrambling out of the nest and puffing up with his rays spread near the entrance of the cave.

Moon shrieks with laughter and hops around excitedly, not able to even speak English right now as he’s too pleased with his twin’s extreme reaction.

“S-sun!” you giggle, back to the nest floor, “Sun, it’s okay! I’m teasing you! heeheehee!” You take a deep breath, then black out again. Your mind can’t handle all this.

-

Moon looks over the nest when you go quiet and sniffs at you. Alive, yes, but unconscious again, “Aww, they passed out. That was a good prank though. I think we can keep them.”

“MOON!” Sun hisses as his feathers slowly start to settle, “Did you tell them to do that?”

“Nope,” Moon trills as he adjusts the human’s position so their shoulder is less strained, “Their idea after I said you were fun to tease.”

“OOooh! Why am I forced to love you? Why can’t I just be angry all the time with your trickery!” Sun is doing an uncomfortable dance, because he’s angry about the teasing but he’s so pleased that his human and Moon are getting along.

“What is that? Is that your angry dance?” Moon sits in the big nest and preens as Sun calms down.

“No, it’s a confused dance because I have conflicting feelings right now!” Sun finally huffed as he settled in the nest, too, careful of the little human and keeping them cushioned between his and Moon’s feathers. “But I’m mostly happy you found something to like about them. Even if it is teasing.”

Moon hums, fluffing a bit more to cradle the warm, small body between theirs, “I’ll have to go out on partrol soon, but I’ll be quick tonight. This one is much more interesting than any of the other humans I’ve run into. A new facet of the stone.”

“Ooh, when they’re feeling better, I can find them some stones!” Sun went off on a tangent already, his mind wandering as he got more tired as the light vanished, “The creeks have some very pretty ones and I’m SURE they’ll like them.”

Moon nodded, just grinning as he got more ammo to tease with, “Before then, since you’ll be resting soon, why don’t we have a lesson in English, hm?”

“Ooh!” Sun focused again, since this was something he desperately wanted to know. “Yes please.”

“Alright. let’s try some simple words you’ll use a lot.”

-

You wake up to someone singing. It’s not a song you’ve heard, and the words sound like Spanish, but it’s pretty.

The cave is dark, and Sun is asleep next to you, one arm over you as if protecting you from the night. It’s cute.

The singing continues, and you look toward the source to find Moon, perched at the edge of the cave and creating the lovely music. You were still exhausted from everything, and Sun warm fluff was luring you back to sleep, but you smiled. “Heh…songbird,” you murmured before slipping back under. You didn’t see or hear Moon freeze from hearing your words.

-

Moon was the one asleep when you next wake, some fairly early morning sunlight seeping into the cave. Sun is nowhere to be seen, but you feel okay enough with a sleeping Moon. Laying in the nest, you blink upward at the ceiling, idly noticing a developing stalactite or two. You just spent the night in the woods with two bird creatures, had your dislocated shoulder fixed by one of them, and now you don’t exactly know what to do with yourself. Do you…leave? Do you have Sun show you to the road when he comes back? I mean, yeah, your life isn’t gonna just stop because something like this happened but…you want to know more about Sun and Moon.

Nothing in you is willing to give up this sudden MAGIC that happened. Another species of intelligent, feeling, sentient beings exists on earth and you’re one of the only humans who knows about it. Maybe THE only one. You want to know everything. What was it like growing up for Sun and Moon? ARE they adults? Are there MORE bird folks out there? Do they have a culture, a religion, a set of traditions? Do they DATE or is it more of a display and then mate kinda deal like smaller birds? What was that song Moon was singing last night? What did he see that made him so sure you were a threat?

You had been unintentionally stroking Moon’s arm feathers….wings? His wings. The feathers were very straight and firm, and it made you wonder if they could ever fly, these two. So many questions you didn’t know how to ask or if you should. The dark blue of Moon’s plumage was so gorgeous, and as you stroked the individual feathers, you found little things. A bit of dirt here, a burr off a sticker bush there, a ladybug, each of these you gently removed and tossed away toward the cave entrance. You even found a stubborn pin feather near his wrist, carefully scratching your nails over the top till the soft plume popped free of the skin. You’d had to help your aunt with her parakeet, so you knew about those.

Still sleeping, Moon gave a soft sigh and began a rumbling coo, like a roosting pigeon, as you groomed him softly. Small fingers and careful touches, your blank mind occupied just with the sensation of feathers and the repetitive task of smoothing each one as it was cleared of debris.

-

Sun hadn’t expected to find you awake when he returned, but he watched for a bit before alerting you. Your small hands were tenderly carding through his brother’s feathers, a content look on your face, as you plucked loose ones away with any debris and smoothed the living feathers.

His heart fluttered in his chest as a warmth spread all through it. Moon was totally vulnerable right now, asleep as he was, and instead of running away or hurting him, you were grooming him. Sun felt like he might explode from how much GOOD FEELINGS he had. He’d only meant to bring you here until you were better from your arm hurting, but seeing this? This was something he wanted to see again and again. Someone who didn’t have to care was doting on his shy, isolated brother. Someone was quietly and happily stroking their hands through his feathers and making him all lovely like he used to be.

Before Sun had run away…before he’d left him to the bear in fear.

Even though he knew there was no way he’d have been able to scare the huge creature away, even though he’d have only gotten hurt or killed himself, Sun could never forgive himself for letting Moon be mangled like that. He watched as you noticed the scars along Moon’s head, watching as concern knit your brows. Your soft fingers brushed the spots where his rays used to be, and Moon shivered. Those spots were already sensitive when they were attached to his display, but they were even more so now that they’d been damaged.

“Poor Moonbeam,” your voice echoed on the walls even from your whisper, and Sun’s chest squeezed with both guilt and affection. You saw Moon’s loss and were now cuddling up to his side, “no wonder you don’t trust anybody. Someone hurt you.”

Sun didn’t understand the words, but he knew you were speaking in sympathy for his brother’s pain.

I did that, Sun thought to himself, but shook his head and hopped into the cave, “I’m back!”

You jolted, and Moon sleepily blinked at him as he returned with his satchel full of berries, nuts, and a few roots. He also had a rabbit for Moon, his favorite.

Seeing the food, Moon woke up a bit, yawning before giving a tired smile, “morning, sun. why do I feel fluffy?” He then said something to you (Morning human, why am I fluffy?) and you blush.

Then you and Moon are speaking and Sun can’t get all the words.

“My fault,” You say shyly, and Sun feels his rays tingle from how pleased he is that you’re smiling, “I got distracted by your feathers and kind of…smoothed them out?”

Moon turned to look at you owlishly and asked, “You groomed me?”

“Yeah? I guess?” your confused face is funny. Sun wonders what you two were talking about.

“Did you see them groom me?” Moon asks Sun and he happily nods. Yay! Words he understands!

“It looks like they did a good job, too!” Sun looks over the half of his brother you could reach, “They’re all silky and even!”

“huh,” Moon stood and stretched, checking your work. “So they did.”

Sun is now eager to try the words he learned last night, so he sits in front of you with some wild strawberries and points, “Food!”

You’re shocked, then clap, “That’s right! And thank you, Sun.”

Oh that last one was his name! He remembered that one. “Sun!” He pointed at himself with his free hand and giggled, then at his brother, “Moon!”

“Yes!” that was a good word, and you looked so happy.

Moon says something, “I taught him some things last night.” Sun only gets “some” and “Night” but isn’t quite sure of the rest.

Whatever it was, you’re seeming very pleased with both of them. Sun’s glad. Very glad.