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 Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:24 am
Vergil hummed to himself, strapped into the child seat of the grocery cart, glancing back and forth at the shelves as they passed. Reuben was busily trying to calculate which brand of detestable oatmeal was cheaper.
He sighed, wishing he'd brought his calculator along. Vergil's eyes widened.
"Daaaad! Can we get..." he took a breath, trying to pronounce the word, "art-i-chokes?"
Reuben smiled and rolled his eyes, popping his usual brand of oatmeal into the cart. "I'm not sure if you like artichokes, kiddo."
"But!" Vergil protested, eyes still glued to the produce section.
The store was the biggest one in Durem, stocked with all the necessities for city living. He'd brought Vergil here after preschool to try and restock for the coming week. Reuben was still finding out what the songbird liked, and more often than not, Vergil would surprise him with his tastes.
"What about 'pine nuts'?"
"Ah, no!" Reuben said, a bit too hastily, steering Vergil and the cart away from one of the few things he was allergic to. "How about if we check out those artichokes, huh?"
"Okay!" Vergil chirped, and Reuben began maneuvering them to the produce section.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:03 pm
Lily had been looking around for a preschool for Stas and applied him for one just that same morning. It was about a 20 minute bike ride, 40 minute walk or 5 minute drive from the small townhouse that Lily and his little Songbird, Stasio, lived in. The little unicorn boy wouldn't start until the following week, but that was besides the point. The fridge and fruit counter back at the house was so bare that it was already collecting dust. The older man didn't really mind going to bed hungry, but now that he had another mouth to feed besides the turtle at home, he had to buy stuff that was chock full of nutrients.
In the large supermarket, Lily pushed the cart past the produce section and straight to the back where the dairy was located, as Stas sat on the seat on the front. Lily pushed the cart down the aisles, gathering the food stuff that was needed as well as at the lowest price.
"Bread... on sale. Eggs... On sale. cream cheese... hmmm. not on sale. I'll come back next time when it is." Lily said to himself as he pushed the cart down the dairy products aisle.
"Papa..." Stas said weakly as the cart passed the milk section. "Papa." He repeated himself as he tugged on the black shirt that Lily wore. Lily looked down to the little boy with questioning eyes. "Can we buy chocolate milk this time?" He asked as he leaned as far as he could in the seat and pointed to the brown and white carton on the shelf.
Lily sighed and went over to it. The white milk wasn't on sale, nor was the chocolate milk. It was slightly more expensive, but he liked to drink it anyways. "Okay. But you have to promise to drink it. okay?" Lily said to Stas. The purple haired boy nodded his head quickly and agreed to drink all of the chocolate milk.
"Okay. Now to get some Fruit and Vegetables!" Lily said as he pushed the cart down the dairy aisle to circle around back to the produce section. He didn't know what the unicorn boy liked in terms of fruits. So he thought of the interesting ones that he himself liked.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:36 pm
Reuben never noticed how much he stood out in the produce section until today. His gray-ish hair, dark pants, and black oxford shirt made a monochrome contrast with the bright shades and colors of the fruit that surrounded them.
He felt quite out of place.
"Ewww, Dad, do we have to get this?" Vergil complained, gesturing to the broccoli Reuben had just placed into the cart.
Reuben nodded. "Yup. And corn, too." Now, if he could just shuck it enough to figure out if it was rotting or not...
Vergil tilted his head and pondered this as Reuben pulled corns apart, looking for just the right one. His attention was soon diverted. "Huh. Hey, hey, what's a 'guava?'"
Reuben looked at the display to which Vergil was pointing and laughed. He ruffled the kid's hair gently. "Well, a guava is a..."
Something else, though, caught his eye. A boy with purple hair was being pushed in a cart by a man in a black shirt. The only thing was: this boy had wings just like Vergil's.
"...songbird."
"Huh, Dad?" Vergil replied, confused.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:06 pm
Lily pushed the cart close to one of the table-like things that held fruit in a way that they were so delicate that they would fall at any second yet still be held up to look nice. He didn't know where to begin with the little boy. He looked and saw that the apples were on sale.
"Sit right here. Okay, Stas?" He said to the songbird boy. The boy replied in a friendly nod as Lily walked over to the corner of the table-like thing and unrolled a clear plastic bag from the roll that stood on a metal bar. He ripped it off where there was dotted lines and went back to the cart and began to gather some nice shiny red apples into the bag.
"Papa..." Stas said as he tugged on Lily's sleeve. "There's a man over there... W-why does he keep looking here?" He said to Lily with a worried expression on his face.
"Don't worry. I'm sure they're looking at someone else." Lily said calmly as he put the fourth apple into the bag and shook it a little to see if it was too heavy or not. He decided it was alright and tied a slip-knot at the top. "Just don't mind them. Papa's here to protect you if anything happens. okay?" Lily said as he patted the little purple haired head of Stas while moving his hand around the horn instead of stabbing his hand into it.
Stas stared back at the man with his gray eyes. The man seemed to also have a son in the cart. "Stasio!" Lily said sternly to him. Stas' wings folded up close to him as Lily said his name. "Stop staring, okay?" He told him as he continued to push the cart down the fruit aisles. Lily though, was pretty curious on who they were that Stas would take so much interest in them... He occasionally looked over until he saw something that caught his eye as well...
...Another songbird child, much like his own...
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:14 pm
Reuben glanced away and finished checking the last corn. Vergil plied him with questions ("Wait, what, Dad? Guavas are birds?"), but there was something else on his mind. He couldn't recall too much about what the newscast had said about songbirds, other than the fact that they were around and that they were occasionally being given to people, seemingly at random.
But...still. Vergil's first few days at pre-K had been somewhat...dramatic. Vergil had shown that he had a flare for creating things, whether it was paper crafts, new letters, or pencil holders, but he hadn't been able to make friends with a lot of his class. Perhaps, Reuben thought, Vergil could use a friend a little more like him.
Not wanting to seem like a creeper, Reuben decided to introduce himself. He went over to the fruit aisle, steering Vergil, still in the cart, closer to the other man. Catching sight of a box of good-looking clementines on the way (Reuben loved these and Vergil was a fan as well), he added those and brought his cart to a halt a short distance from the man with the other songbird.
"Hey there," Reuben said. "I apologize for being rude and staring earlier, but you're the first one I've seen with a songbird other than myself. I was just wondering if the circumstances under which you received your egg were as odd as mine, or if you knew what was coming." He laughed a little.
Vergil turned to look at the other songbird and his mouth gaped open. Reuben noticed and rolled his eyes at his own forgetfulness.
"Oh yeah, the name's Reuben Sceleri. This is Vergil,"he said, gesturing to his son, who waved back.
"I like your wings," Vergil chirped, merrily.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:53 pm
Lily continued to push his cart down the fruit section before he was stopped by the man that Stas said was looking at them. "Um.. hi there." Lily said nervously to the male that came up to them. To Lily, he had a different air around him. Lily didn't hear any hint of hostility in his voice as he did with most people when they referred to Stasio.
"Good afternoon, Reuben and Vergil." He said as a common greeting. Not many people would have gone up to him and began to talk to him. Most people believed that he was just a careless teen with a kid already at his age. It wasn't his fault that he had a baby face and wasn't the tallest man around. "No worries, staring over never did us any harm." Lily said. He avoided giving out his own name as well as Stas' because he just didn't believe in stating his name to strangers.
"I don't think finding the egg was pretty strange." Lily told this man as he pushed his glasses up from falling any lower upon his nose. "Though I personally had no idea what was going to come out of the egg until he hatched out of it one day and began treating me like family." Lily replied with a chuckle.
Stasio smiled softly as a tint of pink flushed his cheeks. He tucked his own wings closer to his body out of shyness. "Thank you. um... Vergil." He had heard the adult introduce the other young boy. "Your wings are pretty too!" He said happily with a smile to the dark-haired boy.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:29 pm
"Huh, alright." Reuben said, considering the circumstances of his finding Vergil. Maybe they were a bit odd, even for others that had found songbirds. He'd have to give it more thought later, when he wasn't standing in the middle of a produce section, waving a box of clementines around like a crazy person.
Reuben laughed. "I know what you mean. The one person I told about Vergil as an egg thought I was nuts, so I haven't really spread the word." He added, wondering why on earth he'd tried telling Charlotte in the first place. "Currently, his pre-K teacher thinks he's going through a dress-up phase and likes to wear wings everywhere, but I don't know how long that's gonna last."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Strange circumstances, though, huh? Some people don't seem to mind too much but others seem a bit put off." Reuben ruffled Vergil's hair, and the songbird chortled.
"Oh yeah!" Reuben interjected, and tore off a blank part of his shopping list. He took his red grading pen out of his pocket and began to write on it. "Here's my cell. I might be a bit paranoid, but I think it's a good idea if we have some way of contacting each other, just in case something happens." He laughed sheepishly. "Verge got sick a little while ago and I wasn't sure what to do, seeing as he wasn't quite human, but also not a bird. I figure, if anything happens, we can contact each other and maybe help out."
He laughed again, trying not to make the scene feel so awkward. Damn it, he was giving out his phone number to another guy, hardly old enough to be an adult! If that didn't make him feel like a dirty old man, well, he didn't want to think about what would.
In the meantime, Vergil, still smiling, replied, "Thanks! I like them, too."
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:01 pm
Lily could barely comprehend anything that was going through his mind at the moment. Everything was too fast. From pre-K teachers to clementines to eggs that hatched bird children. "whoa whoa there." Lily said after Reuben had said what felt like a speech or a reenactment of his life with Vergil. "one thing at a time there." He said as he waved his two hands in front of him with palms facing Reuben.
"I know you're excited and all, but I can't comprehend anything at all." Lily said as he breathed out deeply with a weak laugh. "My brain's not that fast to take in everything." He said with another chuckle that seemed to have a bit more energy in it. "First of all. Pre-K. Where might Vergil be going to pre-K? Could you introduce this guy and myself to it if it is good?" He asked. Stas might as well have a buddy in pre-K and for almost the rest of his life than none, right?
"Personally, I wouldn't tell anyone." Lily said in a whisper. "with what's going on with this species, the 'songbird', if people of large companies find them or suspect that they are part of this lost race, they might want to take them away." Lily's voice was nervous and almost shaking as he spoke. He didn't want to give up Stas. He was the only reason to keep living on with his nine-to-five job.
"But phone number, right?" Now Lily was topic-jumping without even knowing it. He pulled out an old receipt from his pocket, looked at it to see if it had any important information like credit card numbers before writing on it. "May I borrow that pen to give you my contact info as well?" He asked, pointing to the red pen that Reuben had used to write his own contact information.
"I don't think you know my name." Stasio chirped cheerfully to Vergil. "I am Staaaaaz" He said stretching the 'a' in his name as Lily does when he tells him to not prod him to wake up.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:47 pm
Reuben blinked as the man waved his hands in front of him in an obvious "slow down" gesture. He chided himself for going so fast. He was a teacher, first and foremost, and he should know better. It's just that he'd been so excited that someone else might be able to help with what he was going through...
He nodded, ready to go slow. "Vergil's currently enrolled at Sunnyside-Up Preschool." Yeah, yeah, goofy name, but the kid seemed to like it. It had seemed sort of befitting for a child that had hatched from an egg. "I'm pretty sure they're still enrolling, so there shouldn't be too much trouble getting in if you're interested. They're having a 'bring a friend to school' day later this week, so if you and yours want to check it out as our guests, feel free."
Reuben considered, noting his companion's visible distress at the possibility of losing his songbird. The only person who he'd told (inadvertently through Chris) had been his ex, who not only hated his guts but now thought he was crazy. There was a point to the younger man's warnings. But how the hell was he supposed to explain the wings when Vergil was in high school? Reuben frowned to himself. Kid better be damn resilient. He was starting to develop a soft spot for the bird, and he didn't want anything to happen to him that might cause adverse effects...
Reuben snapped back to reality as the other man asked a question. "Er, yeah!" He replied quickly, and handed the pen over, though not completely without care. He was really attached to that pen.
Vergil oohed for a moment. "Hello, Staaaaaaz!" He said, mimicking the way he'd heard it pronounced. "You have a fun name!"
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:18 pm
Lily laughed a little at the name that was given to him. "It's quite a cute name for a preschool." He said, holding back his laughter a bit more. "It would be fantastic if we could come along to the preschool later this week." Lily said as he opened up to this man a bit more now. "Wouldn't it be good to go to school with Vergil?" Lily asked Stasio as he patted the little purple head. Stas cooed happily back in agreement to what Lily had asked him. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Lily said happily to his little bundle of sunshine.
The dark haired, bespectacled man took the pen and nodded a thanks before he lightly scribbled down his number and name for Reuben. "Here you go." Lily said as h handed back the pen as well as the scrap of paper to Vergil's Guardian. "May I take yours?" He asked Reuben. He hadn't taken the slip of paper yet, and felt as though it was safer to ask before he did anything stupid and messed up his possibly one chance to meet another parent of a songbird. "Oh, and also the address for the Preschool? I applied Stas, this little guy here," He pointed to the boy in his cart with the purple hair and horn coming from his head. "For one, but I don't know what it was called. Didn't really pay attention to it." He said nervously as he rubbed the back of his head with a hand.
"Papa gave me my name!" He said happily. "I like it a lot." He said with a giggle and a cute smile that was plastered on his face, showing off his little white teeth.
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:51 pm
Reuben grinned. See? He told himself. Not completely stupid to pick the preschool with the strange name. "Yeah, sure! I'm sure Verge will be delighted to show us around. He's been telling me all week about how there's going to be macaroni necklaces and a pinata." Reuben smiled, eyes sparkling as Vergil got all excited in the cart.
"Of course," Reuben replied, handing out the scrap of paper to the man in glasses. "I text a lot, so if you'd rather do that than call, feel free. I'm at work most of the day so I can only answer texts then, but you should be able to reach me otherwise most evenings. And for the preschool..." Reuben poked through his wallet, trying to find another scrap. Photo of Chris, photo of Vergil, old wedding photo, the hell? Time to get ride of that one. He had his hand on it, but decided against giving it to the man (too creepy), instead ripping off another chunk of his shopping list.
After a few moments of scribbling, Reuben had written Sunnyside-Up's address in his even cursive script. He handed the paper to the man. "There you are. If you need help with directions, give me a call. I put the date and times for the visiting day on there as well."
"Neat!" Vergil said, giggling. "My Dad named me, too!" He paused, eyes growing wide and his mouth slightly open. "Woah...You have a horn..."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:13 am
Lily chuckled a bit as Reuben introduced the kind of things that the kids would've done in Preschool. "That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm sure Stas would love it." He said as he noticed the eager little boy sitting in the opposite cart. It made him wonder if he had ever done those thing when he was in preschool... That is, if his parents ever took him to preschool...
"I don't really text because my plan doesn't cover it, but I'll keep in mind that you're free evenings" Lily said with a shy smile as he rubbed the back of his head with a hand. "It's convenient for me too I guess." Lily said as he thought of his own job being mostly in the daytime.
Lily nodded and said, "Thanks. It'll be a great help for us." with a bright smile. It wasn't everyday when you meet a creeper in the street and he turns out to not be one and actually be a great help to him. "You can expect Stas and I to be there for sure! But we might be late." It wasn't that Lily had something to do before hand. It was that he just had the tendency to be either extremely early or slightly late. "But there's no worries, we'll get there sooner or later in one piece." He said reassuring the other parent.
"That's cool!" Stas said with a large smile and eyes glittering with happiness at his new friend. He looked sort of confused as Vergil pointed out the spiky thing on the top of his forehead that everyone had called a 'horn'. "I like it" He said with a small pout. It was special to him just like his tail and pointed elven ears.
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:06 am
Reuben smiled as the other parent laughed. It had been a while since he'd been able to have a conversation with someone who understood the joys and madness of parenting. He hoped this one would stick around; he'd like to be friends, and he was sure Vergil would like that very much.
"Great! I've got my cell with me all the time, so I should be pretty easy to reach." Reuben added. No need to let the world know that he was (sort of) a texting maniac, or that he was a**l about watching his minutes. Not like they cared.
He smiled back. "No prob! The people at the preschool are pretty flexible, and there's generally a "free play" time during drop-off and pick-up times. If you end up coming early, Stas can play with Vergil for a bit before class starts. Otherwise, if you're late, you won't miss too much." The preschool was pretty convenient in that regard: Reuben's classes ended at 2:30pm, so he was able to pick Vergil up without any difficulty in the afternoons.
Vergil was still staring at Stas' head. "Wow." He breathed, and then broke out into a grin. "I want one, too!" He turned to Reuben, eyes pleading."Dad, can I get a horn just like Staaaaaz has?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 9:02 pm
To Lily, this was pure bliss. It was like a gift from the sky to him along with the unicorn kid. With his kid having a friend, having himself a new friend to help him in troubling times and even a trustworthy pre-k! Hopefully, things would be this easy when Stas gets into elementary school and when he gets a girlfriend in high school... In his mind, Lily sighed. It seemed like Stas would grow up too fast for his own liking.
"Sure." Lily replied to Reuben. "Thanks for everything. It'll be really helpful to me!" He said with a small awkward bow. "But that's good. I wouldn't want to feel as though I'd be leaving Stas alone in the place when it wasn't like a playing thing. I'll be sure to pick him upand drop him off on time though." Lily said with a smile. Though it was still a little uncertain. Being 24 and still not make enough for a car. Riding an electric scooter was how he rolled and he wasn't going to change it for the world.
"Would you care to shop together?" Lily asked the man. "I don't know what's good or bad for this guy in terms of nutrients." He admitted shyly. Ever since he was a kid, he loved to cook but he was never the one who would care for the nutritional stuff in the food. His mom always made the healthy stuff while he made the desserts or stuff that looked nice.
Stas laughed a bit at Vergil. It seems as though his tail hadn't been found out yet by this other boy clad in electrifying yellow wings.
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 9:56 am
Reuben was a bit flabbergasted when his companion bowed to him. Who was this guy? He hesitated a moment, and then returned the bow, figuring that it would be better to go along with it than risk offending the one person who might be able to help him or at least know what he was going through.
"Hey, no prob!" He replied sheepishly, not really knowing what to say. Hell, he'd probably be in the same position if he hadn't already done this with Chris. Granted, Charlotte had been helping out, too, but having raised a kid before (well, maybe not completely--Chris was still growing) he knew a few things. "You could say I'm not all that new to this parenting thing."
"Uh, sure!" Reuben quipped, taken aback. "No worries, when I first started doing this, I had no idea what to buy." He patted Vergil on the shoulder. "This little guy is kinda picky, but, not gonna lie, I was reading all the baby books I could find about nutrition when I couldn't find anything." Reuben tended to order take out more than he would admit, but since his doctor was cautioning him about his father's heart condition, he'd started eating healthier, too.
"Where to start...how about vegetables? Vergil likes corn and tomatoes, though he's not big on carrots. Maybe try bland food at first, I guess?" Reuben ran a hand through his hair, grinning sheepishly. "I'm no great shakes at cooking, but I can do the basic stuff. Mac 'n' cheese works, um...maybe a few pre-made meals. I don't know. Anything Stas like in particular?"
Vergil grinned along. "Artichokes!" He reminded his parent.
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