Chapter Text
Maybe this was an unnecessary thought but Dr Araya Lamai would not let it go. It was boggling her mind and no matter how many meetings she went through it stayed in the back of her mind the whole time…why was this bothering her so much? She’s never felt like this before, the only thing that’s ever bothered her to this extent was when she reminded herself of breathing and had to breathe manually for almost an hour.
She was stuck with this thought the whole day, even during lunch where hunger is typically the only thing on her mind. She sat down on whatever table Dr Lokken and Dr Shapiro were on and she briefly wondered where Dr DuBois was because she’s almost certain she’s never seen him and Dr Shapiro separated.
“Woah, you’re eating?” Dr Lokken spoke with a blink, her spoon halfway in the air and Dr Shapiro was also staring at her.
Araya squinted at them, “What?”
“You’re eating.” Dr Shapiro repeated and she gestured to Araya’s whole person and the plate of food in front of her.
“Yes, it is a biological human necessity?”
“You never eat. You work as much as Dr Grace does,” Dr Lokken replied and looked at her suspiciously even as she fed herself a spoonful of fried rice.
Araya opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “I was…kicked out.”
“What?”
“Stratt made sure Dr Grace and I are on some sort of watch…so if the suits come to my door I know I’ve been working for twenty hours or so.” Araya explained, digging into her food. “If I’m still working by hour forty-two they kick me out and I’m not allowed to work for at least seven hours.”
“Y’know, for someone who demands we all have eight hours of sleep, you’re pretty hypocritical.” Dr Shapiro said with a click of her tongue.
“You two need sleep— Stratt too.” That was Ilyukhina, she’d just arrived and was as energetic as ever.
“After my food,” Araya replied and she continued to eat hungrily.
Okay, that distracted her from the—
Oh come on!
She groaned and let her head drop onto the table. That dumb, stupid, idiotic thought was back.
“What’s wrong?” Dr Shapiro asked with a scrunch of her face, leaning over to make sure she was okay.
“I have a dumb thought in my head that I can’t get rid off. But I’m not allowed devices right now so I can’t Google anything.”
Dr Lokken looked interested, “What dumb thought?”
Araya lifted her head and stared at all three of them.
“Don’t laugh.”
“We won’t,” they all answered.
She took a breath and ran a hand down her face before asking with genuine curiosity in her tone:
“Why are there no baby pigeons?”
All three of them paused and looked towards each other. They didn’t know. But all of them didn’t have their devices and they’re only access to a device is a Macbook that they’re only allowed to use to call their families for an hour each day with specific communication slots.
“Uh…” Dr Shapiro thought for a second. “Maybe they hide in their nests for a bit?”
“Or they’re born big and pigeons we see before are babies.” Ilyukhina replied with a contemplating look.
Dr Lokken just shook her head and quickly finished up her food…probably trying to escape this conversation. “I think Dr Shapiro’s right.”
The men rolled in right after, Hatch being the loudest with a while Dr Redell was dragging Dr Grace into the cafeteria with them.
“42 hour watch?” Araya asked, directed to Dr Grace.
“Yes,” He nodded and let Dr Redell shove him into a seat.
“Watch him, I’m getting him food.”
“Aye aye,” Ilyukhina chuckled and she moved over to rough up Dr Grace’s hair.
Araya always wondered how the unlikely trio of Dr Redell, Ilyukhina and Dr Grace began. She knew it started with Ilyukhina adopting Dr Grace as her ‘American Baby Brother’ but she had no idea when Dr Redell had suddenly been adopted by her as well. She just remembered one day Ilyukhina came into the cafeteria and went over to Dr Redell, jumped on his back, and said: “You are Kiwi Older Brother, you are required to carry me.”
“I thought the suits were in charge of the watch?” Dr Lokken asked and Araya sighed.
“Sometimes Stratt sends Yáo or Redell to do it.”
Dr Shapiro looked up at Dr Grace and asked, “Why do we not see baby pigeons? Do they just hide until they’re big?”
And suddenly they were all focussed on him again.
Dr Grace hummed and nodded, “Yes. Their nest phases are long and go on for weeks and by the time they leave they’re big.”
“Huh, how did you know that?”
“I researched a lot of general trivia. Middle schoolers are very curious.”
Dr Redell and Hatch came back with food and one plate was slid in front of Dr Grace, which Araya noticed was the plate that was most full.
“Funny story about pigeons…” Dr Grace began but Dr Redell shoved a spoon in his hand and forced him to take a bite first.
Dr Grace rolled his eyes but went ahead and continued his story anyways, “Anyhow…when I was doing my PHD there was this old building on campus— an old science block that was falling apart. There were weird ledges everywhere and pigeons had basically declared it sovereign territory.”
He took another bite.
“There was this one spot,” he continued, “above the back entrance…this narrow beam under the roof. Every morning the same pigeon would just sit there on this orange plank.”
“Did the colour come first or fruit?” Ilyukhina asked, she was still standing behind Dr Grace’s chair with her hands on the back of it.
“The fruit,” Dr Grace answered. “The colour was named after the fruit— anyhow, the pigeon didn’t cause much trouble and I think it sort of liked us. Everyday we’d walk past it to get to our actual science building and it’d give us a small coo and we’d coo back. One time though, I was getting my butt scolded because as we walked past the pigeon I corrected a professor who said no one knew where pigeons came from— stupid, they’re descendants of rock doves.”
“Eat.” Dr Redell kicked him from under the table and Araya watched in amusement as Dr Grace took a few more bites before continuing his story.
“He was getting really mad at me and I still remember how his face turned red. As he was scolding me, saying my correction was completely wrong, the pigeon flew over his head and decided to defecate right then and there on his head.”
Ilyukhina started giggling and Dr Shapiro snorted. “Its way of telling him he was stupid, I suppose.”
Dr Grace chuckled before continuing, “He lost it on me and he caused a big scene, my friends had to make sure he wasn’t about to attack me. He had to be dragged back to class and afterwards the pigeon flew back to its spot and gave us a soft coo. Afterwards, the professor had to apologise and shake my hand.”
Hatch ate his food and wondered aloud because they seemed to have a trivia machine next to them, “Why do we shake hands?”
“Ooo!” Dr Grace perked up and sat up. “We actually don’t fully know but one big theory is that it was a way to show that you didn’t have any weapons on you.”
“Stop distracting him from food.” Dr Redel scolded all of them and turned his head to Araya.
“You too. Eat.”
“I’m eating, I’m eating!”
Ilyukhina had her chin on Dr Grace’s head when she spoke again. “Ry, why do we have seven days a week?”
Dr Grace hummed, “I think it was the Babylonians. Something about seven visible celestial objects or whatever. Then, it just spread through cultures.”
Araya decided this was the best time to ask another question that was bothering her. “Why are airplane windows round?”
Dr Grace gave her a big smile.
“Okay, so first several airplanes had to explode.”