Getting pinned down by a stranger was not on my agenda this morning, and then they had the audacity to ask who I am? Seriously? That really should be my question. I ended up voicing my anger out of that.

“Who am I? I should be asking you that, as this is my room!”

“It is?”

“Get off!”

As I moved my head, I collided with the stranger's head, causing him to recoil backwards and off of me.

“Ow! Seriously?” The stranger rubbed his forehead as he sat at the edge of the bed.

“Well, you weren't getting off of me!”

“You could’ve, you know… Asked? Like a normal person?”

It was somewhat stupidly funny, I had to wonder if he was legit telling me off? I then sat up, to gather myself.

“Well, no normal person pins someone else down in the morning.”

“Lovers do…”

I blinked at him a few times as he kept checking his hand when he touched his forehead, and I could tell from here that it wasn't bleeding. But my head was throbbing a little. That guy sure did have a thick skull.

“Whatever… We aren’t lovers, AND who the hell are you and how did you get into my room?”

Seriously, why wasn’t I calling the police? However, I did know where all the heavy and hard objects were in this room, so I could easily make a break for it and hit him with one of them.

“I’ve been here for the past two days…” He stopped examining his head and turned to look at me.

“What are you going on about?”

Now that he was somewhat facing me, I could now get a better look at him. He has shoulder length, near black, hair that sadly framed a rather handsome, naturally tanned, face. He was also wearing a black shirt, black jacket, black trousers, and the only thing that was ‘colourful’, was a white dishevelled tie. However, he seemed to have something dark purple around his neck. The most defining feature was his heterochromia, one of his eyes was green and the other was a turquoise. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I swear I had seen that same type of turquoise before, and now that I thought about it? I also saw that green too.

“I’m as confused as you are, because…” He looked at his hand. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen myself…”

I had no idea what he was mumbling about, but I shuffled a little and reached for something on my bedside table, my hand reached what felt like a book. Once I grabbed it, he looked back at me.

“The bird.”

Wait, the bird! I looked around the room and I didn’t see him. I armed myself with that book.

“What have you done with him?”

The man made an annoyed face, and sighed.

“I doubt you will be able to understand anyway.”

“Excuse me?” Was he calling me stupid? Seriously, I’m going to hit him, just for that snarky attitude. In that instant, I threw the book at him but, in a flash, he caught it midair. My jaw dropped, since his reaction seemed way too quick for a normal person.

“I would really appreciate it if you didn’t hit me.” He threw the book on the floor.

“Well, you have done something to my bird, and not to mention all the other illegal acts you are commiting.”

The stranger raised an eyebrow. “Your… Bird?”

“Yes. My bird!”

The man's eyes narrowed, he looked rather annoyed when I said that and, in a flash, he was suddenly in front of me, staring right into my face.

“I am not owned by anyone…”

I was taken aback by all the sudden movement, and I just stared in confusion at him, before his head tilted.

“Why do you smell like home?”

Wait, that felt like deja vu, didn’t someone else also say those exact words to me? 

“You smell…” He continued. “Appealing, as well… I smelt it before, but my senses in that form must’ve been dulled, because they are stronger now.”

I still couldn’t say anything, what was even going on right now?

“Is reincarnation a thing? Because you….”

This stranger looked conflicted, like he was both sad and confused, all at the same time. I was about to head butt him again but, somewhere in the back of my mind, told me to comfort him. Wait, comfort him? Why? This is some stranger who, for some reason, has barged into my room and did something to my bird. But I ended up finding myself moving one hand and patting him on the back. When he realised what I was doing, his eyes widened and he took a step back from me.

“What are you doing?” He looked at me like a lost puppy.

“Again, that should be MY question. Who are you?”

“I guess, for you to understand, you need to see…”

Somehow, that ticked me off, since he was regarding that I was stupid again. But, before I got to throw something at him, he gave me a half smile, and his entire body vanished. I was left in shock for a moment, since that stranger was just there a moment ago, and now he wasn’t. Feeling confused, I moved forward and looked where he was once standing. I wasn’t sure about what I would have found, but there, standing in the exact spot where that guy just was, was that little dark bird. I should be happy that he was safe and sound, but I also felt that something was off, as I watched him hop onto the bed and stare at me. In the blink of an eye, the bird vanished and it was replaced with that same man from before. Wait. Wait. Wait?!!!! I was taken aback by all of this and I nearly fell out of my bed.

“Are you….” I raised a shaking finger to the man. “Are you telling me that you were the bird all along?!”

“And here I thought that you were used to the weird stuff, with him around…” He shrugged.

“‘Him’? Who’s ‘him’?”

“The lounge that's sleeping on your sofa downstairs.”

“You mean Ikky? Wait, you know him?”

The man didn’t say anything, he just gave me an inaudible ‘duh’.

“Wait a minute…” It then dawned on me, did I not take a bath with the bird. “Have you always been a… Man?” 

“Not been one for a while, but I guess? Yes. This is what I normally look like.” I watched him shrug, I felt myself bubbling with a bit of anger.

Getting off the bed, I walked up to him and, with as much strength I could gather, smacked him round the face. 

“Rude!”

With that, I stormed out of my own bedroom.

I didn’t know where I should go, I couldn’t face Ikky if he was awake, even if they apparently know each other, it’s still weird. So, the best place to go was the bathroom. Once inside, I firmly locked the door and leant against it. 

“What the hell is going on?”

“Why did you have to slap me? For a human, you hit really hard.”

The sudden voice surprised me, and I let out a small yelp. As I looked towards the source of the voice, I saw that there was the familiar bird, sitting on top of the closed lid of my toilet.

“How the hell did you get in here?”

“Human things are really easy to get through…”

That was the second time he used the word ‘human’, like he wasn’t one.

“So.. You aren’t human?”

The bird moved so that he could dangle his small legs off the edge of the toilet. “No, I am not.”

“So you are the same as…”

“The sofa stuffing idiot?” He answered before I could finish. “Yes, yes I am.”

“Can… All of you turn into animals?”

“No. I’m a special case.”

“If you could in the beginning, why did you stay as a bird?”

He stopped swinging his legs. “I decided to stay in that form after a certain incident. It made the pain hurt less. Then I just couldn’t turn back, but somehow…” He looked up at me. “I somehow could change back after you.... Hmm…” He trailed off.

“After what?”

“I guess it was from what you did to me before you went to sleep….”

I racked my brain to try and remember what I did. I met Ikky downstairs and he had shoved the bird down the sofa, so I rescued him, and did my work… Wait, didn’t I end up kissing him on the head? Was he referring to that? 

“You mean that you could change back after I kissed you on the head as the bird?”

“Yes, that.” He started to swing his legs back and forth again. Somehow, that looked rather adorable, and I had to fight the urge to try and video it. “After you did that, I found myself being able to transform back and forth again. So. I guess I should thank you for that.”

“I don’t know what I even did… Hmm… Maybe it’s like the fairytales.”

“Fairy what, now?” He stopped swinging his legs and stared up at me.

“Fairy Tales. Stories that we ‘humans’ read. For example, there was a girl that was able to come back to life through a kiss. Actually, there are quite a few stories that have that.”

“I wasn’t dead…”

“No, but it had that same concept. Like a reviving life force, perhaps even power.”

“Hmm…” He lowered his head, like he was pondering something. “I guess that makes sense. I suppose you aren’t as dumb as you look.”

Again with the insults. But, I guess he did thank me for whatever I seemed to have done.

“I’m not forgiving you for this morning or for bathing with me.”

When I said that, he jumped off the toilet seat and then he was standing in front of me in his humanoid form, that strong smell of vanilla really went up my nose.

“You do know that you were the one that forced me…” He moved closer to me. “Not me.”

I laughed nervously when I realised that I did, in fact, force him to bathe with me. I even remembered that he tried to escape and failed miserably, but I didn’t forget that when he gave up, he was also facing away from me.

“I guess you do have manners, sometimes.” I said with a smile.

“With?”

“You turned around back then…”

“Heh…” For some reason, he started to smirk. “I still saw enough.”

That was, again, when my hand met his face, and also when I stormed out of another room.

I ended up storming back to my bedroom, but this time I noticed that he seemed to have not followed me this time, and I fell, face first, into my bed. Seriously? I thought one otherworldly weirdo was enough, and now I have to deal with that one? That one felt like some wild animal, wild and unruly. As I slid off of my bed, I thought it would be best to get changed, as I have been wandering around in my pyjamas so far. After changing into something more comfortable for the day, I could hear an odd commotion coming from downstairs. Given that Ichthys was sleeping down there, and that other ‘beast’ hadn’t come to ‘harass’ me again, I guess they had met? However, the other one acted like he knew him.

As I headed out of my room, and made my way downstairs, I noticed that the commotion was much louder now and, before I even reached the bottom of the stairs, I could hear what was going on. Two sets of voices, one seemed happy and the other seemed annoyed.

“Would you let go?!”

“I thought you were going to stay small forever, but you’re back to normal now!”

“Yes, yes… Now remove yourself.”

“Never!”

“Oh, for the love of…”

“You can never escape my grip!”

“Hey. Wait!”

What on earth was going on? As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw that the living room was now empty. Now where on earth was all this happening?

“I cannot breathe! Get off me!”

“I’ve missed youuuuuu!”

“Missed me? You tried to kill me!”

“Well, that was just a hiccup.”

“No it was not. Unhand me!

“Hey! That's called cheating, y'know…. And… Gotcha!”

A loud bang soon followed, which sounded awfully like a pan making contact with something. This commotion must be happening in the kitchen. So, as I headed straight towards the kitchen, I swung the door open and I was met with Ichthys, who was half sprawled across my counters, with a small bird, which was flapping away, in his grasp.

“Oh!” Ikky had noticed me, and slid off the counter, whilst still holding the bird. “Morning!”

“Er… Morning, I guess?” 

“Oh, miss…” Ikky raised the bird up. “Meet Corvus, I reckon he hasn’t actually introduced himself. He’s shy like that.”

“I will end you…”

Ikky ignored the rather angry tone from the small bird in his hands.

“He may be shy, but he’s my big, grumpy bro, and I wuv him!”

With that, he moved the bird to his face and started to rub it along his cheek which, in turn, caused the bird to try and bite him.

“Hey, no biting! That’s bad!” He waggled a finger at him.

“Wait a minute…” It then dawned on me. “Did you just say ‘brother’? Like in the actual sense?”

Ikky turned to look at me with confusion written all over his face. “There’s another way?”

“Oh, nevermind. So he…” I pointed to the bird. “Is your brother?” If I recall, since that bird is actually a man, I could see some sort of resemblance, but then I thought to myself… Didn’t he say he was a twin? I guess they’re not identical? But they were identical in their looks, in some ways.

“Yep. The one I talked about.”

“You talked about me?” The bird looked at him.

“Eh, not much. Just that you exist.”

“Wait, wait…” I interrupted the pair of them. “If you…” I pointed to Ikky. “Knew he was a man pretending to be a bird, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well… I didn’t know how to branch the subject, you see? Well, that, and I don’t think I would’ve seen his cuddly self again, it’s hard to hug this scrawny thing….” He raised the bird up. 

“The longer you hold me, the harder it will get.”

“Oh, shush.” Ikky started to shake him up and down.

“I don’t think that is good for him.” I tried to rescue the poor guy.

“I guess not.” With a shrug, Ikky placed the bird on the kitchen counter and I saw him wobble quite a lot.

“You. Are. An… Absolute… Moron!” That was all that the bird could mutter out, before he collapsed sideways.

“Drama queen…” Ikky poked him in the belly.

“So HE is another one of you…” That makes Corvus a third weirdo. “But what did you mean when you said that you don’t think you would’ve seen his ‘cuddly’ self again?”

“Hmm?” Ikky turned to face me. “My bro can transform from his original form into an animal, but he usually uses a bird.” He shrugs. “But…. At one point, he just stayed as a bird. No matter what I did to him? He never transformed back. In some weird way, I missed his face. So, I guess he became stuck in that form. I tried to ask him about it several times, but he just ignored me.”

That was similar to what this bird, who Ikky calls Corvus, said in my room earlier. This Corvus reckons it was me kissing his bird head that did it, but how? I’m not special, so really? Why? 

“Hey…” Ikky’s voice pulled me out of my mind as I saw him poking the bird again. “Stop pretending to be dead, you’re not dead.”

“Leave me alone!”

After the last poke, the bird got up, fluffed up his feathers and took flight. He then flew right over me, and out of the kitchen.

“Pouter Mcpoutington…”

“About him not transforming back? Did you ever ask anyone else? I guess there are more of you.”

“Ah…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I did… I asked the best person I could find, but he never gave me a straight answer. He only said; he will find himself again when he’s found lost.”

I blinked at him. “‘Found lost’? Who on earth did you ask?”

“That guy that you met the other day.”

The guy that I met the other day? Did he mean the second one of his kind that I met? I remember him saying his name, but I was in such a daze that I ended up forgetting.

“The man in red?”