When the girl was finally sleeping soundly, the small bird-like figure moved in the darkness.

“Little man? Cute?” 

The bird looked at the bed and swooped down, and landed gently on the bedside table, and watched her as she slept.

“Why do you smell weird?”

The girl rolled over, and she was now facing him.

“Heh…”

The bird hopped onto the bed and, using his little feet, started to pad at the bed.

“I’ve gotta admit, she has a nice soft bed.”

As he made a little dip in the bed, he nestled himself into the little dip, and got settled.

“Just this once….”

The following morning, I somehow awoke before my alarm. I then slowly opened my eyes to check the time, I saw that it read:

7:45

Fifteen minutes before the normal alarm goes off.

“.. I could’ve had fifteen more minutes….”

Groaning to myself, I buried myself back under the sheets, until I remembered about the little bird that I had adopted last night. As I peeked out from under the sheets, I looked towards the wardrobe, but I couldn't see the little dark bird. As I moved up onto the headboard a bit, I could now make out tiny snoring noises, or at least something that sounded like that. I then looked around the room, trying to find the source, but had no luck. However, as I was about to get out of bed, I noticed him. Right at the end of the bed was a little black blob. As I looked over at it, I noticed that the blob was, in fact, a little bird. But he was in such an odd sleeping position. He was on his back, with his little legs in the air, and wings spread wide. I really couldn’t help but laugh at the scene, but I think I laughed too loudly, since the bird awoke.

The little guy looked confused at first when he woke, then he stared up at me whilst still on his back and I saw his little eyes widened even more and, in an instant, he corrected himself and was on his two legs again. However, I laughed again, since his feathers were sticking up in various places. But I swear I heard a ‘hmph’ coming from him, and he hopped off the bed and disappeared underneath it. Following him, I clinged to the side of the bed and looked down. Underneath my bed was where the bird went, and to me? He looked like he was trying to flatten some of his feathers.

“You’re such an odd, but cute, little guy.”

I commented as I flung myself back up and got off the bed. It was time for a new day, although I was not exactly sure what I was going to do with this bird. As I was heading towards the balcony door to open the window, I started to hear banging from out there. I grabbed the fabric of the curtains, and I pulled them back to see exactly what was going on. However, I saw that there, standing on the balcony, whilst holding one of my plant pots, was the same boy from yesterday. Ichthys.

“What are you doing?” I called to him as I flung open the door.

My shout must have surprised him, as he dropped the plant pot that he was holding, and it smashed on the floor, leaving me sighing. But at least there was nothing in that one.

“I was wondering what this was, but I suppose it broke….” Ichthys sadly grumbled as he lightly kicked a broken piece.

“It used to be a plant pot, you put plants in it. But that is beside the point, why are you here, how are you here and again, why are you on my balcony?”

“Hmm…. Good question….”

“Excuse me?”

“It's not like I forgot, I just can’t remember…. Think I was led here for a reason, dunno why…”

I was lost for words at his reply.

“Anyway, I’m coming in!” He proudly stated as he pushed past me.

“Wait, hang on! I didn’t say you could come in!”

Did he seriously just barge in? Does he seriously have no tact? 

“Y’know….” He turned to face her again. “Something smells off…”

“Something smells off?”

Ichthys started to pace around the room, then stopped again by her bed. “Have you had anyone in here?”

“What?” I felt rather flustered at his sudden question. “.. Why?”

“Nothing…” He started to pace again.

“Errr… Whatever….” I shrugged. “I’m going to go and take a bath, just don’t touch anything, ok?” I left him as he gave me a thumbs up.

Lord, why me? Why do I seem to attract odd balls lately?

When I entered the bathroom, I realised that the little bird was still underneath the bed, and I really didn’t want Ikky to, like, step on him, or something, so I turned on my heel to go back but, just before I did that, something under my sink moved. As I turned my attention to whatever was under my sink, I saw the little bird.

“How’d you get there? Well, no matter, it’s better here than being in the bedroom right now….” I said with a smile as I locked the door. “Wanna bath with me?” I said to the little bird as a joke, since he was now locked in here with me.

However, the bird blinked at me as I smiled back at him, and moved towards the bathtub. As I bent down to put the plug in and turned the taps on, I sat on the edge of the bath. In all honesty, I didn’t want to leave that nuisance in my room, especially after the plant pot incident. But I still had to get ready for the day, so I’m hoping that he behaves himself there. As I turned to face the little bird again, I noticed that he had moved and perched himself on the side of the bathtub, whilst staring down at the water. I couldn’t help but smile at his cute little curious self.

Running my finger along the various bubble baths I collect, I wondered what one to use. I grabbed two that I could use and showed the bird.

“Cherry Blossom, or….” I held up the other one. “Morning pleasure. What one do you reckon?”

I couldn’t help but notice that the bird looked a bit funny after I said ‘morning pleasure’. I took that as a sign that I shouldn't use it and put it back on the shelf.

“Cherry Blossom it is then!”

Undoing the lid, I poured some of the bubble bath in and placed it back on the shelf. With that out of the way, I started to get undressed from my night clothes. As I was about to get in the bath, I saw the little bird. He was facing away from me, with his butt high in the air, and head low. It was an odd scene. But it made me smile, and I leant over and grabbed him. As I did that, he did a tiny squeak, and flapped his wings a bit.

“Ah, calm down you.”

I carefully stepped into the bath, still holding the flailing bird and sat down amongst the bubbles. The bird was still flailing about, and I dunked him a little in the water. Not his head though, just his bottom half and let him go. I watched him as he just sank to the bottom of the bath, he didn’t even react as he went down, he just seemed to have accepted his fate.

“What are you doing, you silly thing?”

As I pulled him out from the water, I couldn’t help but notice that he was pulling a very angry, pouty facial expression.

“You really are adorable.”

I used my other hand to rub his head with my finger. He still looked pouty until I moved my finger down the side of his head a little, and his small face changed to bliss. It didn’t last long as he became pouty again.

“You have so much emotion for a small bird….”

The bird looked like he narrowed his small eyes at me, hopped off my hand and landed on the side of the bath.. But in his attempt to escape, he slipped and fell back into the bath. His tiny head popped back up again and, with that, he looked like he had a tiny bubble hat on. This caused me to giggle at him as he just floated in the spot that he just landed in, looking rather deflated.

As I washed myself, I kept looking over to where the bird was. I saw that he sorta floated on the far end of the bathtub. Anytime he floated to face me? He moved so that he was facing away from me again. He was definitely an odd bird, but it was very enjoyable to watch him.

“Well, I’m going to get out now, and I’m going to take it that you're just gonna float about in there?”

The bird didn’t say anything, just as I would expect from a bird. He just continued to float about in his corner. As I towelled myself off and changed into my uniform, I turned around and looked into the bath. Now, the bird was staring up at me.

“Do you perhaps need some assistance with getting out?”

The bird didn’t do anything, he just continued to stare up at me. Shaking my head, I bent down and gently scooped him out of the bath, and placed him on a towel. I was going to see if I could pat him down dry but, instead, I watched him as he rolled about to get himself dry anyway.

“Well, I’m not sure if birds can have bubble baths, but I think you seemed to have enjoyed it.”

When he stopped rolling, I picked him up again.

“Let’s go back to…” It was then that I had completely forgotten about the strange boy in my room. “Damn, I really hope he hasn’t done anything weird there…”

Taking the bird with me, I left the bathroom and went back into my room. I wasn’t sure what I would be expecting to see, but I didn’t really expect the boy, called Ichthys, to be half way under my bed.

“What are you doing?” I called out to him.