Archive of Our Own

"Ah-" Rena flushes, her hands reaching to tug at her skirt as a laugh echoes around the group at the fond memory. "T-there wasn't-"

Lu looks up from her pile of cookies, a seemingly sweet smile making its way across her face. "Ciel will fend them off, won't you, Ciel?"

"Oh, but Ciel is much too kind," Ara interjects, breaking off from her daily combing of Eun, "and I was curious as to where Raven went as well."

Add looks up from his phone, suddenly intrigued. "Didn't he leave in the middle of maths class yesterday when it started to rain?"

The group falls silent. It's Elsword who ends up stating the obvious, what everyone has in mind.

"Well, shouldn't we go find him?"

The baby pigeon nestles into the small makeshift nest with ease, thankfully, and Raven finds himself smiling unconsciously. Worry dissipating, he picks up the nest and places it in a shaded corner, so it would be shielded from the elements but not completely from sight.

In the back of his mind, he worries that the rest of the gang would wonder where he'd been going - but the thought is pushed aside when he uncovers the box of worms he'd partly bought and partly caught from the garden (though he'd have to spend a while filling in the holes he'd made after school again, he thinks, sighing) and places one into the folds of the soft fabric he'd lined the bowl with to make a nest.

The poor fletchling had been caught in the wire of the rooftop's fencing - though designed to keep humans from falling off, it had caught the wing of the pigeon and had stranded it from its family, which had presumably been heading for the south for the encroaching winter. Raven had thankfully been able to dislodge the wing from the fencing without much trouble, and stowed it away in a little corner on the rooftop.

Thankfully, it hadn't been severely injured, and Raven had not needed to splint nor treat the wing. It seems even comfortable, lying in its bed of soft cloth snatched from a vacant room, devouring the worms as if without a care.

Though the school roof is - technically - out of bounds, Raven appreciates the freshness of the air and the silence much more than the courtyard below. A sports class is spread on the oval, playing what seemingly looks like soccer; their noise carries just barely up to Raven's corner.

Sighing, he peers up at the sky. There are clouds on the horizon, and rain on the forecast for the night; though it is expected to only be a light shower - so leaving the nest for another night could possibly-

"Oh, there you are!"

Rena rushes over, accompanied by Eun and Ara, who looks cautiously back at the rooftop door.

"We've been looking everywhere for you," Rena says, sporting her usual cheerful smile, "since you disappeared from the group, you know?"

Ara peers around Raven to point out the bowl nest, immediately curious. "What's that?"

"A bird?" Rena crouches down beside him, intrigued. "That's so cute!"

"It's-" Raven finds himself unable to defend his bird, falling silent.

"Oh, it's adorable!" Eun crawls onto Raven's lap as Ara picks up the bowl, petting the baby pigeon with a smile. It seems to dislike Ara, pecking at her finger rather than coo like it would if Raven had petted it, and Eun seems, in return, to dislike Raven, and Ara decides quickly to re-exchange furballs before either gets riled up.

It seems as if the girls want to say something, but the bell signalling the beginning of class rings just as Ara picks Eun back up and returns the bowl to Raven.

"Don't be late," Rena warns him as they pick up their things and begin to leave.

Raven waits a moment longer, gives the baby bird another worm, and decides to head to class.

The entire group knows about it the next morning, and it is somewhat of a bother - Raven knows that telling the wrong people could cause unnecessary trouble, and he dislikes gossip for that reason.

Especially not towards his new friend.

Although Ciel eyes him with curiosity when he finds him skipping class to sit on the rooftop, teaching the fledgling how to fly, he does bring a tub of worms from the garden for Raven's bird, gaining a smidgen of affection in return. Elesis turns a blind eye, but still reprimands Raven on his incomplete uniform with a frown.

The forecast of rain does not let up, though, and often Raven finds himself sitting on the stairs to the rooftop with the bowl nest in his lap as the rain patters softly outside. He's unable to take it home - for the obvious reason that the teachers had been keeping an eye on his behaviour after since the first incident, including what he takes to and from school, so the little chirping bundle is tucked, every afternoon, into its corner with an extra worm or two, then left to fend for itself for the night.

The rain hasn't been particularly harsh yet, and Raven hopes the rain will let off until he finds a way to take it to a vet or shelter - hopefully within the week, before the suspicion of disappearing from class takes its toll.

He's wrong, and if the sound of wind screaming in the narrow alleyway between the house and the fence isn't enough, the slabs of rain against his window scream at him to regret leaving the nest in the little unprotected corner.

Raven closes his eyes to the worry, hopes (pretends) it is fine, and sleeps.

It is, indeed, not fine.

When Raven arrives at school early, the small bud of hope that the baby pigeon had survived slowly dwindles as he pushes the door to the flooded roof open, treading through the puddles of water to the little corner.

He knows the disappointment is coming, but taking the limp body of the bird in his hands is a completely different thing altogether. Forcing down tears, he gently lifts it from the nest, remembering how it had cooed when he'd fed it small scraps of bread after being trapped for days, how it had burrowed into the nest with apparent happiness.

Regret bubbles guiltily in his chest as he wrings out the water from the soaked cloth, places the body inside and hurries down to the garden.

Rena does a double take when she spies a body crouched beside her beloved garden, but when she realises it is Raven, she hurries over to his side.

"Raven! Why are you-" She skids to a stop when she sees the small bundle by his side, the thing cradled in his hands. "Raven?"

Raven looks up, the features of his face troubled. "Good morning, Rena."

"Did you want to bury-" Rena takes a moment to choose the right word, "it here?"

Raven nods, and Rena can only take pity on his unusual solemnity as they shovel up the soil.

"You were taking care of it for that long?" Rena looks at him in what appears to be wonder as they scrub their hands clean of soil. "I didn't know you had that side to you."

"I couldn't just leave it there," Raven says, finally, as he wipes down the bandages on his left hand.

Rena smiles. "You're surprisingly kind for someone with a history like yours."

Raven looks out at the garden, the freshly upturned soil; decides it is best to keep silence.

"I'll be heading to class first," Rena announces, finally, slipping out of the corner beside the gardening shed and heading back towards the main school building.

The school is beginning to bustle when he finally approaches the garden again, crouching beside the pile of dirt. It was to die anyway, Raven realises, without its family to feed it or to keep it warm.

Perhaps he'd simply brought it a moment of comfort before that inevitable death.

Slowly, he brushes the soil off his uniform, turning his back to the stares of the rest of the school.

...Another day of endless comings and goings.

Raven hums as he walks away from the garden.