[Fanfic, 100% OJ] Comfort

Genre: Slice of life

Length: 2499 words

B/D: I've been having a bad time recently, so I wrote something cute and trashy to cheer myself up. It's not good, by any means, but it made me happy to imagine the image.

It all began when Sora went out for a walk.

Walking, in Hime’s opinion, was just one among the many harmless quirks that made up Sora. She wasn’t one for walking, herself; although she certainly appreciated the novelty of it, flying was quicker, more convenient, and allowed her to mostly sidestep the issue of gravity. She hadn’t realised how used she was to a zero-g environment until she let go of an egg at shoulder-height, believing it would hover there harmlessly, only to discover that Planet Earth had ideas to the contrary.

Sora, though, seemed to enjoy the chance to stretch her legs from time to time. It gave her a chance to see animals that weren’t birds, and the sky looked so much grander from below. She liked the sky to be grand, where possible, and if it wasn’t she would have stern words with the management.

So she had put on her good boots and wandered out into the countryside, and neither Suguri or Hime thought anything of it until dinnertime arrived without Sora in tow. Of course, they told each other, there was nothing to be worried about. It wasn’t like there were any wild animals that could really hurt her, and Sora herself had a remarkably low havoc coefficient without Hime or Sham to act as a catalyst. She had probably just gotten lost.

Despite being highly capable individuals in many areas, both Sora and Suguri frequently became ‘geographically displaced’ (since neither would admit that they lacked a sense of direction). After much thought and teasing, Hime had decided it was an issue with their flight paths. Suguri flew in perfectly straight lines, as clean and efficient as a blast from her laser rifle; unfortunately, much like her laser rifle, she always aimed to just graze her target and avoid any potentially fatal damage, meaning she would skew 15 or so degrees away from wherever she meant to be. Hime herself flew with graceful, curving turns, adjusting gradually as she went, and so she very rarely missed her target.

Sora flew exactly straight, just like Suguri – or so she would tell you. Maybe she even believed it. But the reality was that she would fly straight for a while and then, almost at random, make a sharp, erratic zig-zag before returning to a straight flight path, like an aircraft trying to jink away from pursuit. The problem was that it was a deeply habitual motion, and she didn’t always seem aware that she was doing it; every zig and zag would change her course just a little, and without a navigator to nag her about it, she failed to compensate.

Still, she always made her way back eventually, and she knew the area around the house well enough by now. And every extra hour that she stayed out was another hour that could be devoted to shameless flirting, which was Hime’s favourite kind of flirting.

By nightfall, they had begun to get just a little worried. Suguri was pulling on her boots to go out looking for her, and even Hime was mentally fortifying herself for the process of removing her slippers and putting on real-people shoes, which were much less fluffy and comfortable. They needn’t have bothered, because that was the exact moment the back door swung open, and Sora walked in nonchalantly and sat down at the kitchen table.

Shortly followed by a brace of baby ducks.

“It’s because my hair is the same colour as them,” she explained authoritatively, and Hime realised with a sinking heart that, yes, she really did think that explained everything, and would offer no further details on why she was being followed by a ravenous horde of tiny birds. They stampeded towards her ankles and began to coalesce in a huddle of fluff. “They need names. Can you call Nath? She’s good at names.”

For a moment, Hime considered pointing out that Nath also possessed a cat, who might be an expedient solution to their avian house invasion. But she discarded the thought as being too mean-spirited for teasing, and instead looked to Suguri for guidance and strength. Suguri shrugged; the ducklings needed names, Sora needed dinner, and Suguri was not a girl to turn either out of her house, regardless of how loudly they quacked. Sora wasn’t in the habit of quacking loudly, but her flotilla of ducks were certainly making an attempt, peeping and cheeping with gusto as they raced awkward circles around her feet.

“I take it this is why you’re so late home, then?” Hime asked at last.

“Mm. They only have short legs. I had to stop and wait for them to catch up,” Sora said seriously. The ducks were now making feeble attempts to scale the chair, the tablecloth, and Sora’s calves.

“…What about their mother?” Suguri asked.

“Fox.” She furrowed her brow. “One ran away right as I walked up. Then I saw the ducklings. I wanted to come back and ask what to do, but they started following me. Can we keep them?”

“We’re going to have to. At least for a while. It looks like they’ve imprinted on you, so you’re their mother now.” Suguri spoke slowly as she reached back into her mind for long-forgotten details of animal husbandry. “Since you saved the whole clutch, it probably won’t cause problems when they’re adults, but… we’ll have to start work on a coop tomorrow.”

“I see. I’ll help. I’m good at hammers.”

“I’d be happier if you focused on being good at ducks. Leave the coop to me and Hime. Ah… it’s a good thing we have some seeds left over from the garden. We’ll need to get feed for them tomorrow, too.” She paused and looked at Hime, who had begun to wince slightly with every chirp and peep. “And some earplugs.”

Hime sighed. She rather wished she had been consulted before she had to share her home with a lather of noisy birds. But, she supposed, it wasn’t like Sora had had all that much choice in the matter either. And she’d at least brought home something that was small and cute. She could have brought home a bear. Sora liked bears, so it wasn’t exactly an unlikely possibility.

So she smiled, as Hime often did, and accepted that yesterday they had no pets and today they did, and that was just how the world worked. She poured out a bowl of seeds and watched as Sora tried very hard to get the ducks to eat them, when they were obviously more interested in clambering on her and waddling in circles around wherever she was sitting. When Sora went to bed – tired from her attempts to summon forth her inner duck mom – she watched as the ducklings poured into the hollows in her beanbag next to her body. For a moment, she wondered if it was wise – there might be trouble if Sora rolled over in the night – but then she remembered that the ex-soldier slept as still as a stone. In some ways, she was cut out for duck parenthood.

Eventually, the time came for Hime to retreat to bed herself. As Suguri sorted out the last details on her emergency orders of lumber, nails, netting, nesting boxes, and bird feed, she snuggled down between the covers, and wondered to herself what adventures a brace of baby ducks would bring.

And, idly, if there was anything delicious she could make from duck eggs.

*_*_*

The next morning, Hime was awakened by the sound of Sham pounding on the front door with tiny, frantic fists. Although this should have annoyed her, instead she looked at things with a kind of zen satisfaction; yes, Sham had compromised her beauty sleep, but she had been able to sleep through Suguri sneaking downstairs to begin work on the coop and whatever fresh auditory hell Sora’s ducks were creating in the living room. She had done well, all in all.

“What’s going on?!” Sham wailed, as soon as the door swung open. “Sora called me and she said she’s a mom now and she has seven kids! How?! Why am I not the godmother? This not okay!”

Then she pulled Hime into a full-body hug, howling like a woman bereaved. Hime patted her on the back, mumbled something comforting, and steered her into the living room.

There, Sora was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, like a statue of Buddha. Three ducklings occupied her lap, there were another two huddled on her upturned palms, one was perched nervously on her right shoulder and one brave duck explorer had colonised the top of Sora’s head. All was perfectly balanced; all was perfectly still. She was one with the duck. She had achieved duck enlightenment, and in record time, too.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,” Sham said, as if she were a balloon and all the air was very quietly escaping from her. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,” she said, looking from Hime to the ducks to Sora and back to Hime. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,” she said, and crumpled to the floor to better observe the tiny feathery creatures Sora was holding. “Aaaaaaaaa.”

“Sham, are you okay? You’re making them nervous.”

“They. Are. Adoracute!” Sham hissed in a low whisper. “Look at them! They’re so small, and fluffy, and… ducks! Oh my gosh I want one!”

“They’re my babies,” Sora said placidly. “When Nath gets here, you can both name one. Think hard about it.”

“Aye aye!” Sham said with a wink and a mock salute, before immediately barrelling into more questions. “Have you figured out their personalities yet? How did you end up with ducks, anyway? How do I get ducks?”

Sora smiled, and probably would have patted Sham on the head if her hands had not been full of baby ducks. She had acquired her first disciple – no doubt the first of many. Hime left them to it, not entirely sure her sanity would survive the deluge of duck ‘facts’ Sora would soon unleash, and went to see how Suguri was doing with the coop.

Originally, of course, the plan had been that Hime would help with the coop, but they had quickly discovered that Hime had about as much skill with hammers as Suguri had with cooking lobster, which was actually less than zero. Suguri, presented with a lobster in a pot of water, would immediately help it escape as a matter of principle; Hime, presented with a hammer, would immediately drop it into a can of paint.

Still, things were progressing well in her absence. Suguri was never anything less than fast when she put her mind to something, and the coop was already beginning to take shape. She’d already laid a floor, and had made good work on three out of four walls.

“My, my. That girl really is so troublesome,” Hime said by way of greeting. The wood floor of the proto-coop felt sturdy under her feet.

Suguri tapped in another nail: three quick strikes of the hammer, a practised and efficient movement. “You don’t seem troubled.”

She approached slowly and spirited the hammer out of Suguri’s hand, all the better to fold her into a hug. “Yes, well. I would be more troubled if you weren’t so reliable at times like these. I really couldn’t have picked a better person to settle down with.”

“…I feel like that all the time. I’m lucky to have such a good family. Even if they’re troublesome,” Suguri murmured. Her eyes closed contentedly as Hime’s arms drew around her.

“Oh, you. You really can be quite romantic, in your own way… Ah. I know. Since you’ve been working so hard, why don’t you sit down and let me give you a shoulder rub?”

“It’s fine. My shoulders don’t really get sore. If they do, they heal back up again in a few minutes anyway.”

“It’s not a medicinal shoulder rub. Purely recreational. Go on, Suguri. Let me spoil you a little.”

“…Well, it can’t hurt,” Suguri said at last, and smiled wryly. “I’m in your hands.”

“Ufufu… As you should be.”

After a few very enjoyable minutes, she sighed regretfully and left Suguri to her work. She had a guest, after all, which meant she needed to serve tea and biscuits as a bare minimum. Which biscuit was the best was a topic that had almost culminated in familial warfare several times, but it was fine to offer them to guests, whose opinions did not necessarily have to be reflected in their store cupboard. The front door knocked while the kettle came to the boil, and as expected, Nath was the one behind it.

“Hey. Sora rang me this morning. She said she’s a mother now and for me to come over,” she said, rolling her eyes ever so slightly. “Care to bring me up to speed?”

Hime’s smile glittered like a well-polished knife. “I was rather hoping you’d bring me up to speed, actually. I was quite convinced you’d have something to do with it.”

The corners of Nath’s mouth twitched slightly before she wrestled her features back into a carefully neutral position. “…You’re pushing your luck a bit with that one.”

“Duly noted. Now that I think about it, they have Sham’s face anyway. Come in, come in. We have tea and biscuits!”

They returned to the living room, where Sora and her ducks were still in the exact same position. Perhaps they had already begun to mirror their ‘mother’s’ placid personality; perhaps, Hime thought, Sora had glued them in place. Sham, on the other hand, had been presented with sufficient cuteness that she had almost melted into a puddle.

“Ducks?” Nath asked, raising an eyerow.

“Yes, ducks. No doubt your cat will adore you when you get home.”

“He adores me already. I feed him. And he prefers his duck from a packet,” Nath said, shaking her head. “They’re… very sweet.”

“Mm. I’m a duck mom now,” Sora nodded. “Now we can start naming them. Nath, you get to name this one on top of my head, because she’s the tallest.”

“Is she the tallest, though? I think that one in your lap is a little bigger.”

“She wants to be the tallest. That’s what’s important.”

“Is it even a she?”

“Yes,” Sora said, although her expression was more along the lines of She’d better be. “Sham, you get the shoulder duck.”

Nath sighed and sat down, her knees creaking. By the time the tea and biscuits were ready, the conversation was already in full flow; Nath was trying to maintain that she didn’t have the incredible naming skills Sora thought she did, while Sora tried to explain why she wouldn’t let Sham call her duck ‘Pancake’. The ducks, roused by the noise and the attention, had begun to cheep. The house suddenly felt very noisy, and very lively.

Hime smiled, as Hime often did, and put in her earplugs. Then, while no-one was paying attention, she took the tea and biscuits to enjoy with Suguri instead.

A/N: Sora as duck-buddha is my spirit animal. That is all.