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 Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:51 am
Backdated to February 2025 Teddy kicked his feet against the edge of the picnic table. He had a notebook set in front of him, and he was trying to sketch a bird from memory. Or perhaps it was one he made up. He was taking extra care with the feathers on the tail, and seemed perfectly content. They were supposed to be meeting up with Ethan that afternoon. Instead of waiting at the house where their uncle was relaxing and watching television and offering hot chocolate, Teddy followed Cary’s suggestion to head out early so they could get to the place they’d agreed to meet before Ethan got there. It was a relatively warm day, at least. He could get away with wearing just a sweater over his oversized clothes. Hand-me-downs from Cary, of course. They could buy new clothes, but Teddy insisted that it wasn’t a problem if he wore some of the stuff Cary either outgrew or thought Teddy might like. Sometimes, Teddy even told Cary that he liked some of his clothes so that Cary had an excuse to need to buy more clothes for himself. It didn’t always work, and that just meant Cary had less, leaving Teddy to feel guilty, but he would make it up to him one day. “How was your math test?” Teddy asked, taking a moment to push his glasses up his nose as he glanced up at Cary. He knew his brother had been studying, but he always seemed to be stressed out. Teddy wished there was more he could do for him.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:53 am
There was old sap stuck to the top of the picnic table. Cary had already wiped the table clean when they first got here. The backpack he brought with him contained a multitude of necessities, some of which were just generally good things to have. Cleaning wipes, hand sanitizer, a blanket in case they decided they wanted to lay in the grass, sunglasses, sunblock, bug spray. Bottles of water and snacks. Important paperwork and anything he didn’t trust to be left at the house. Just in case there was some sort of emergency.
Plenty of people used these picnic tables so Cary was just being careful by cleaning it up. The seats were spotless and the top of the metal table had been easy to clean. Cary had a little trashbag where he kept the dirtied remnants of his efforts but it was tucked in his bag so it wouldn’t be so obvious or annoying. He didn’t want to embarrass Teddy! But he deserved a clean space.
Cary had already picked off the gum from under the table–carefully, he made sure his hands never touched it–but this sap was giving him a great deal of trouble and he was only able to chip away small pieces of it at a time by scraping it with his nail.
“Oh, um. I passed,” he said, but was so busy picking at the sap that he didn’t quite look up. “I thought I was going to do better, but I guess I can’t complain. I probably need to take better notes. I’ll just have to study more next time.”
He wasn’t ever going to be the smartest kid in the class but it wasn’t like he was trying to get into any fancy schools or anything. There wasn’t any reason to be competitive. As long as he didn’t fail, he was happy enough.
Another piece of sap cracked off so he glanced over to see how Teddy’s picture was coming along. “What are you drawing? I don’t think I recognize that one.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:54 am
As Teddy drew his bird, it slowly became hasher in appearance. The talons were long and sharp. The beak had ridges like teeth. Teddy tapped his heel to the bench, clearly untroubled by the potentially troubling image he was drawing.
“I saw it the other day,” he quietly explained. “It was outside the window. I haven’t found out what it is from any of my books. Maybe some kind of hawk? I’m not sure.”
For Teddy to not be sure about what kind of bird he saw? Well… he couldn’t claim he knew all birds, but he could tell the difference between a bluebird and a bluejay. He knew his robins and finches and cardinals. Which made him wonder if this wasn’t a songbird, despite some of the features being similar.
But then again, he was only a child. And who would believe a child that said they saw some strange bird. Especially the weird kid who loved all birds.
“Do you want me to help with flashcards next time?” he offered, because Cary often helped him with flashcards and other well organized study materials. He paused in his drawing so he could watch as Cary tried very hard to get the piece of sap off the table. He knew why Cary tried so hard to keep things clean, but sometimes he worried that he was doing too much.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:55 am
Cary’s eyes narrowed just slightly as he took in the details. Honestly, the bird looked kind of scary to him but Teddy seemed unbothered. Cary thought he was already an amazing artist so he trusted the rendition. Teddy didn’t really have much of a reason to lie to him; if it was something he’d made up, Cary would have praised him all the same.
When he noticed Teddy had stopped drawing–and was watching him–he folded his hands together over the sap as if to hide his efforts. He hadn’t brought anything to do while they were out so he was just keeping himself busy.
“Oh, maybe. Thank you, that’s a good idea,” he said, but he’d have praised his brother’s ideas no matter what. It was math, maybe he was just bad at it.
No, that was just an easy excuse. He could study harder. He could do better. In an ideal world, things would have been a lot different. Maybe he couldn’t change how things had been for him but he was hell-bent on giving Teddy everything he could have used when he was his age.
Cary leaned forward a little to better see the bird and tilted his head to try and get a better look at it.
“You saw that outside the window at the house?” he asked. “What was it doing?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:55 am
“Yeah. Nothing really. Just watching uncle smoke out back,” Teddy shrugged, adding another dark stripe to one of the feathers. “It stayed there for a long time.”
He thought it was an interesting bird, but he didn’t know why it was just watching. Maybe it was doing more than that.
“Maybe it’s like… a guardian angel or something,” he shrugged. “If it’s scary enough, no one will come near the windows, right? I hope it’s back tonight.”
---
“Cary! Teddy! I hope you haven’t been out here too long! I brought subs. And chips. And drinks,” Ethan practically bounced over to the table, lowering his backpack to the clean surface and placing the drinks down as well. “Didn’t know if you were feeling caffeine or not, so I got both options,” he grinned, quite pleased with himself.
“Woah, cool bird, kid,” he praised glancing over at what Teddy was drawing, but his attention was mostly on Cary, who looked stressed, but that was apparently a normal setting for him.
“Do you like pickles? I asked them to put them on the side so it doesn’t get the bread soggy. Sometimes they’ll wrap up a slide with the sub.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:55 am
While there was a strong part of Cary that really wanted to get a few more answers about the bird, he didn’t want to pressure Teddy for answers now that they had company. Maybe it was good timing, it gave Cary a little bit of time to think about what he wanted to say.
The bird didn’t look like any sort of guardian angel, and honestly Cary thought he might feel better if he didn’t see it around again, but if Teddy was looking forward to it…
“Ethan,” he said warmly, and flashed him a quick smile. “You didn’t have to do all that! But–thank you.”
He wiped his hand off on the sleeve of his arm so he could stretch out and pat Teddy on the arm. “If you see it again, show me. I want to see it.”
Cary smiled reassuringly, always proud of his brother, and always worrying for him.
He kept his other hand over the sap, not sure why he was worried about Ethan seeing it.
“I’ll eat anything, I’m not picky,” Cary said, and maybe regretted because Teddy knew better than most that he was very picky. But this was Ethan! And it was a sandwich, so probably from a very reputable place that had to go through plenty of inspections.
It was probably fine. He glanced at Teddy’s bird once more and found himself instinctively looking up to search the trees.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:38 am
“Just turkey and lettuce and cheese. I hope you don’t mind,” he grimaced as he pulled the subs out and laid them in front of the other two. “I asked for condiments on the side, just in case there’s anything you don’t like. If you really like tomatoes, I’ll get some next time, but they get all goopy and I’m not really a fan of wet bread, you know?”
He knew he was rambling, and he made sure to slide into the seat next to Cary, gently bumping his elbow with him. Ethan liked to think they’d become pretty good friends in the past several months, but it was difficult to spend a lot of time together when there was training to do and school and work.
And while he really liked having Teddy around, and he knew Cary liked having his brother around, it was difficult to ask more personal questions. He didn’t want Cary to be uncomfortable! But he noticed some peculiar things about him. Nothing bad, but he was very… vigilant for his age.
“Here, there’s water too,” he added, pulling out a bottle from his bag. He had everything he could think of. Napkins, plastic utensils (just in case), wet wipes to wash their hands before and after. He went ahead and opened one of them so he could scrub his hands clean. He hadn’t touched anything close to the food yet, and wanted to make sure he wasn’t getting germs everywhere after running around.
---
Teddy nodded when Cary asked him to show him when he saw the bird again. He wasn’t sure if Cary would like such a scary looking bird, but… some birds were just misunderstood. Some looked really strange, but were actually quite amazing.
“Thanks, Ethan,” he said quietly.
He set his drawing to the side to reach for one of the subs and also slowly inched his hand towards one of the caffeinated sodas while glancing over at Cary out of the corner of his eye.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:39 am
“Thank you, Ethan. That was really thoughtful of you.” And he’d really thought about things. Truthfully, Cary hated the texture of wet bread. He’d have eaten a soggy sandwich if Ethan had passed him one but he was glad to know that he probably wouldn’t have to deal with anything like that.
How could he complain, anyway? Ethan had brought them lunch!
He smiled at Ethan, ignoring the way his heart pounded all the way up to his throat. He was pretty sure he could feel it in his brain, too. He was supposed to have gotten used to this by now, they’d hung out plenty of times! Ethan was just always great.
Cary just needed to work out these butterflies real fast and then he could go back to being normal.
Maybe it was goofy to be so pleased that Ethan was cleaning up before he touched the food. It was just a relief–one less thing to worry about.
Was Teddy trying to be sneaky by going for that soda? Did he think Cary was going to be too smitten by Ethan to notice? Almost. Cary looked at him, looked at the soda. Chewed on his cheek, but then nodded. “Not too much, okay? Don’t drink it too fast.”
Cary’s usual rule was one sip soda, one sip water. He didn’t want Ethan to think he was being a nag or uncool. Teddy was just young! He shouldn’t be having a ton of caffeine. Cary would just keep an eye on it to make sure he wasn’t guzzling it too quickly. He didn’t want him to get a headache, or a stomachache. If their uncle thought Cary was letting him go out and get sick–
No, he’d be careful. Teddy would understand. If not now, when he was older.
Cary didn’t make any effort to help himself to food or drink–yet. He took out hand sanitizer and squirted some into his hands, rubbed it in, and then held it out to offer Teddy as well.
“Ethan, you do things in Destiny City,” he said, and while he knew that was a vague statement, he found that he’d often turned to Ethan to get his opinion on things. “Have you ever been by West Point? I don’t really know the area.” He’d sort of only loosely broached the subject with Teddy before but now was probably as good a time as any to finalize his plans. “I know there’s a bus that runs over there. And I’ve seen pictures, it looks pretty. There’s something I wanted to do over there, Teddy and I are going to try and head out tomorrow if the weather stays good.”
West Point had its fair share of nothingness; it had a few shops but the most interesting thing in the area was a peacock farm. Cary didn’t know if Teddy knew about it or not, he didn’t know if Ethan had any idea. He just wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to get them stuck in an area ripe for human trafficking or something.
Online, the peacock farm was open to visitors and had a pretty hiking trail. If they went now they might miss the tail end of molting season but he anticipated they could visit again in a few months when the birds were in full plume. Well, assuming they didn’t get their organs harvested or something.
West Point was a bit of a bus ride but Cary didn’t have a car and the bus was cheap enough for both of them. They could pack lunch and make a fun day out of it.
His eyes settled on Teddy briefly. His brother deserved something fun to look forward to. He’d been quieter lately. Cary just wanted to give him some time away from his troubles.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:40 am
“West Point?” Ethan repeated as he took a bite of his sub after squeezing out some condiment packets on the bread and squishing it together again. He held a hand to his mouth as he chewed, looking like he was thinking hard about what he knew of the place.
“I haven’t been there, myself. But I’ve heard others talking about it. Especially those who like to hike and be outside. I didn’t take you for the type,” he confessed with some surprise. Cary seemed to avoid anything that could result in too much grime and sweat. Not that cleaning up the rink wasn’t a lot of work, but still.
“I heard tomorrow is going to have nice weather, though. If you’re going to be outside, then it’s going to be a great day to do it,” he nodded enthusiastically about Cary’s plan. He would have to look the place up later.
---
Teddy had nodded in agreement when Cary let him take the soda, and he eagerly pulled it closer to him so he could open it and take a sip. He knew Cary was a bit overprotective, but Teddy didn’t think there was anything wrong with soda, right? Maybe it would keep him up a little at night, but that was okay. He was a light sleeper, anyway.
There wasn’t much for Teddy to contribute to the conversation, so he kept his mouth shut, quietly chewing on a few bites of his lunch and taking a bag of chips to open as well. He knew Cary had some things planned for them, but he hadn’t asked what. If Cary wanted to tell him, then he would. Just like if Cary wanted to tell him why he was always so quick to suggest they leave the house instead of staying around their uncle, then he would tell him that as well.
He didn’t mind, as long as Cary didn’t seem too stressed out. At least Ethan kept him distracted for the most part.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:40 am
“Um,” Cary shrugged, “Well, I guess I’m not really much for the outdoors. But that’s where all the birds are,” he clarified, looking quickly to Teddy as if his brother could back him up. “And in the city you don’t get to see all of them. But Teddy could tell you more about that. I just thought–you know, it might be nice to get a change of scenery. And school’s been kind of rough lately so I thought maybe we should do something nice for ourselves. There’s this place out there…”
He’d finally pulled his sandwich close enough to unwrap it, making sure the sap was still covered. He didn’t like surprises. He didn’t think Teddy really did, either. Better to tell him today than to keep him guessing, or worrying about a break in their routine.
“Well, it’s a peacock farm. I looked it all up. It’s a self-guided tour and it’s open all day. They’ve got some hiking trails, and a really scenic tour. So I was thinking we should go out. They said you can keep any peacock feathers you find, I thought that might be neat. There are some chickens and turkeys, too.”
And some pretty gardens and a few monuments. Cary thought it could be a nice, stress-free day. Well, for Teddy, hopefully. Cary didn’t want him picking up on some of his worse habits, and Teddy was too young to be worrying like Cary was.
He flashed a smile at Ethan, and offered another word of thanks. “You’ve been showing us so many neat places, I wanted to see if we could find somewhere fun to invite you, too. We’ll tell you if it’s worth visiting,” he promised, and he wished Ethan could just read his mind. He wanted to spend more time with Ethan! But he was worried about Teddy and didn’t want him stressing out. He wanted him to be able to go out and enjoy things–and Cary and Teddy had been together, well, forever, practically.
He had a few years before Teddy had been born but he’d been very present since he was just a baby. He’d confessed to Ethan that he was worried about his brother being a little withdrawn and had admitted earlier in the week that he was hoping to get out and do something with just the two of them to try and help his brother relax. Ethan had always been so kind and reassuring so Cary trusted that he wasn’t going to take any of this the wrong way. He still wanted him to know, though.
Cary’s eyes returned to Teddy and he tried not to sound like he was too desperate for approval. “If that sounds like something you want to do?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:41 am
Teddy had immediately perked up at the mention of a peacock farm. He lowered his soda so he could look up at Cary curiously. He knew how difficult it was for them to be able to do things, but if it was a cheap excursion, then maybe it was something they could do every so often.
“Oh, yeah, that sounds really neat,” Teddy nodded in agreement, touched that Cary would think to bring him to a place he would really enjoy. He knew he was the weird kid who liked birds, but it wasn’t as though he was hurting anyone by liking them, right? And at least Cary didn’t seem to mind.
Ethan didn’t, either. He’d even gotten him some bird stickers from the zoo when they went. And that was only because Teddy insisted that he didn’t want any bird toys or stuffies. So something that he could store inside a notebook was ideal.
---
Ethan smiled at the two. It was sweet how much Cary looked after his brother. As someone with a lot of siblings, he didn’t have that kind of really close relationship. He felt close with his siblings, of course, but with Cary and Teddy, it was more of a co-dependency thing.
“That sounds like a really good idea. Definitely let me know if it’s worth visiting,” he nodded, pleased to see them planning things to do. He didn’t have to tell them that he already had plans for tomorrow, so that was good. Not that it was more than skating, but he was supposed to be meeting with his coach to pick out music.
“Hey, if you collect a bunch of feathers, can I buy them from you?” he asked Teddy with a grin. “I might have an idea for my next costume, but I’ll need to figure out the details.”
---
Teddy blinked curiously at Ethan, but nodded in agreement. He didn’t have to buy them from him, but he would worry about that later.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:42 am
Cary immediately brightened; he’d hoped it would be something Teddy would be interested in but he hadn’t wanted to say anything about it until he was sure that everything was going to work out. Now, all the pieces had fallen into place. He’d been trying to come up with something fun for Teddy that wouldn’t dip into his funds too much–not because he didn’t want to splurge on his brother, but because he wanted to–
Well, he wanted to be able to provide for him. He wanted it to be just them. He didn’t want to have to rely on their uncle. It’s not like they were going to go back to their parents’ house. A pang of guilt grew in his stomach but he took a bite of the sandwich to try and smother it.
It took him a few seconds to chew and swallow but as soon as he had, he wiped his mouth on a napkin and tilted his head at Ethan.
“What are you thinking for your costume? Oh, are you allowed to share? It’s okay if it’s a secret, you don’t have to tell us.”
He knew Ethan was hard at work–he was always practicing. It was a tough sport and Ethan was very passionate about it. Cary was, unsurprisingly, already a fan of Ethan’s skating. He loved watching him at the skating rink and those weren’t even his real routines.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:42 am
“Not a secret at all! I was hoping to use the feathers as decoration. Maybe as a hair piece or part of the costume itself, like a tail. Ah, it would depend on how many feathers I could get. I have to be careful, though. We get points deducted if any parts of our costume fall off during a performance,” he hummed thoughtfully before taking another bite of his sandwich.
He didn’t mind talking about himself. He just hoped it wasn’t too annoying for either of them to hear him talking all the time. He could certainly talk for hours if he wanted.
---
Teddy nodded with approval, because of course anything bird related would catch his interest. He liked other things! He was just interested in birds because they were cool.
“Bird feathers are hollow, so if you use string, or I guess thread, you could sew them in place. Or, well, at least attach them so they are less likely to fall off,” he shared. He wasn’t sure if that was common knowledge but if Ethan was worried about his outfit, then he wanted to at least offer something to help out. Especially since he was always so nice to him and Cary. And Cary definitely needed friends. Cary spent too much time working and taking care of him.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:43 am
“Really?” Cary asked, not because he doubted Teddy but because he was fascinated to learn. He trusted Teddy on all things birds, including how to craft with their feathers. “That’s neat. I hope we can find some, I want to see. I looked up how to clean them, too.”
Oh, he wanted to kick himself. That was so lame. He didn’t need to keep rubbing it in that he had a problem. Teddy knew. Ethan probably did, too. He’d just been polite about it.
“I wanted to make sure that we could preserve the colors if we found any good ones,” he clarified, as if that would be less weird. “I’ll send you pictures,” he said to Ethan. He needed a good excuse to send him messages.
…Well, no, he didn’t need an excuse. It was easy to talk to Ethan. He just liked to have one so he didn’t overthink it.
“I want to hear more about the routine you’re working on. After you eat,” he insisted, because Ethan deserved to enjoy the food he’d brought for all of them!
“The reviews on the website said they were still having a lot of loose feathers so maybe we’ll get lucky. They have some albino peacocks at the farm. And some of those–oh, I forget the name,” he said, a little disappointed in himself. He looked to Teddy almost helplessly because he knew his brother knew the answer. “The chickens, not the normal ones, but the really cute ones, they’re really fluffy? The website says you can hold them if you’re gentle?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:43 am
“That’s actually really smart,” Ethan nodded in agreement when Cary said he’d learned how to clean feathers. “I don’t know what kind of stuff is on feathers, but just in case, I wouldn’t want my outfit infested with, I don’t know. Feather mites?”
He wasn’t sure, but he knew it was smart not to handle stuff found out in nature without taking care of them.
But he grinned and took another bite of his sandwich so he could finish eating and talk more about what he was working on. Because of course he’d take any excuse to talk about himself. And Cary was interested! Or at least politely so. That was fine, he didn’t mind either way. Maybe one day he would win Cary over. He was also happy to just be his friend.
---
“Silkies?” Teddy guessed, perking up once more because of course he wanted to hold one. He would have been happy to just look at them, too.
He knew Cary liked things to be clean, and he did as well. He just hoped Ethan wouldn’t say anything to discourage him. Luckily, so far Ethan had only been supportive and either didn’t mind or pretended not to notice. Or both.
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