Chapter Text
The town was absolutely covered in snow, school hadn't been cancelled since it wasn't expected to be this heavy, so now everyone had to leave for the day. The blue bird stood at the door of the school, looking out at the snow. Shit. He had forgotten his coat. It wasn't too far of a walk, but he was almost guaranteed to catch a cold if he walked like this. He pondered on what to do, being brought back to reality when he noticed someone standing before him, staring.
"Kris! Is something the matter?"
No response. Kris had always been quiet, yet somehow, Berdly felt as if he could understand them completely at times.
"Are you walking home? I can walk with you, if you want."
No response again, however Kris started removing their coat. Berdly observed, confused. Once it was off they simply handed it to Berdly silently.
"Won't you get cold…?"
"It's fine." They gestured towards the long sleeves of their sweater. I suppose the sweater was better than the short sleeved shirt Berdly had been wearing. He smiled at them, and shuffled awkwardly, waiting for them to start walking first.
"Hey, Kris, if you're not busy I was wondering if you'd like to maybe play some video games with me…? We've known each other for a long time, but it feels like we rarely hang out."
Kris nodded, seemingly letting Berdly lead the way. He rambled on for a while, not really paying attention to how closely Kris was following behind until something hit his back.
"What was tha-" As he turned around, he was interrupted by a snowball hitting his face. He pulled himself up, doing a silly pose, nearly getting hit smack right in the middle of the face again while laughing.
"Oh, you're challenging me? I'll have you know I'm excellent at snowball fights, Kris!" He leaned down to pick up some snow before throwing it at them, barely missing by a centimeter. Kris returned with yet another snowball to the face. After at least ten misses, Berdly finally managed to hit Kris. They were taken aback for a moment, then laughed, leaning down and forming another snowball in their hands.
After a while, the two of them were covered in snow from throwing it at each other, laughing. Ultimately, Kris had won. Berdly was sitting on the ground, laughing while wiping snow off of his glasses. Kris extended their arm out to help him up. Berdly hesitated for a minute, before putting his wing into their hand and accepting the help. For a moment he wanted to simply scoff and say that he could get up himself, but he had accepted his defeat this time.
"Thanks." He paused. "I've heard from Noelle that you like to prank people, but you never seemed like the type to just randomly initiate a snowball fight like that to me! That was fun…"
They continued walking together.
"Oh, and...thank you. For letting me borrow your jacket, I mean." Their hands brushed against each other, causing Berdly to suddenly feel embarrassed. He shrugged it off, unsure as to why. Berdly had always admired Kris for reasons that he didn't understand, and their kind gesture today had almost made him see them in a different light. They didn't just feel like his rival in video games anymore, they felt like someone he actually knew.
"Thank you."
He looked baffled for a minute.
"Why are you thanking me, Kris? I haven't done anything."
"I had fun as well."
He smiled in response before suddenly putting an arm around Kris' shoulder.
"Anything for my most worthy adversary!"
They blinked, but they weren't upset by the sudden action at all. Much to the surprise of the bird, they returned the action, putting their own arm around his shoulder.
"You know you can call me your friend, right?"
He jolted up on the spot for a moment. Friend. Kris' friend. He smiled, turning slightly red in the face. Why did Kris calling him their friend make him feel so happy? Yet, for some reason, there was a tinge of sadness. He couldn't figure out why, after all, being friends was better than being rivals, was it not?
"Then friends we are, Kris!"
That sadness still weighed on him a bit, he tried to hide it a bit. He realised where they were, right outside his house. He remembered that he had invited Kris in, and as much as he had loved spending time with them today, he needed a while to collect his thoughts. He fumbled trying to think of an excuse. Kris noticed his awkwardness, a bit confused, before they remembered something.
"Oh, we had homework today, didn't we."
Berdly almost sighed with relief, glad that they didn't catch on and think they had done something to upset him.
"That's right, maybe you can come over tomorrow instead?"
He smiled gently, starting to take off the jacket he had borrowed from them, before they turned away and spoke.
"You can keep it. I've got another one like it at home anyway."
There it was, that same feeling again. He was glad Kris was looking the other way and couldn't see the redness on his face. He quickly spoke, rushing himself to get out of sight as quickly as possible.
"WOW UH THANKS KRIS I'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW OKAY BYE-"
He slammed the door shut before he even fully finished that last word, running to his room and bringing out his cell phone, immediately dialing a number.
Noelle sat on the side of the bed in the hospital, smiling as she watched her father play through the section of Dragon Blazers III that she was stuck on. A jingle played suddenly, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone.
Berdly was calling her?
Weird, usually he would only call if she was running late for something, and as far as she was aware, they hadn't planned a study session or anything. She sighed.
"I'll be back in a minute, I'm just going outside to take this call."
She pressed the answer button before she even got fully outside, not wanting it to ring out.
"Hello? Berdly? Is everything okay?"
"Noelle, I need advice."
Advice? What the Hell was he talking about? And why did he sound so nervous?
"Are you stuck on your homework again? We can meet at the library in an hour or so and I can help you if you need it."
"It's not about school!"
She contemplated hanging up, she was not the person to go to for advice outside of academic situations...but clearly Berdly trusted her enough to have called her for whatever this matter may be, so she decided against it.
"It's about Kris."
She almost dropped her phone on the spot out of shock.
"Kris…? What about them?"