Rockin' Robin

Weeeeeeeee

Zander grinned. He had always loved the month of October. There was something undeniably magical about the change in the seasons, the air getting crisper with the leaves, the world's colour pallet changing from fresh to warm on its journey to cooler temperatures.

Look at me! Look at me!

Smiling up at the tiny sparrow as it continued its first time flight, Zander continued to follow it, his sneakers crunching against the leaves that had fallen early.

"Hey! Slow down little one! Your mother will freak if you get lost!" He sped up to a slight jog as the bird disappeared into the branches, the boy following the sound of his excited young voice. "Hey! Will you slow down!"

Keeping his eyes on the treeline, he pulled himself to a stop at the edge of a fast flowing river, his eyes searching the tree and leaves for a hint of the small little bird. "...where have you gone little one?"

Here I am! with a chirp of laughter, the small baby sparrow appeared, fluttering its wings as it slid to a clumsy stop on a thin branch. You should stop worrying, frie-

With a snap, the twig broke, sending the chickadee in a downward spiral that it's wings wouldn't help, the sparrow's flying knowledge too green to know what to do in this situation. Flapping about wildly, the bird only accomplished turning itself upside down, falling head first toward the rushing waters.

He had found himself jolting, throwing himself into the rushing waters in order to cup the small fragile animal in both his hands. His sigh of relief was swallowed by the river, sending him in spirals as he was tugged under by the current.

Hold on the bird never loosening, the boy kicked his way toward shore, fingers fumbling for purchase on the grass and pebbles surrounding the river. Holding the bird in the crook of one elbow, he used the other to drag himself half out of the water, coughing to clear his lungs of the fresh tasting stuff.

"Are you alright?" He murmured, blinking the water out of his eyes as he looked down at the sparrow.

There was no answer.

Ninette couldn't help but find the name of the woods highly ironic. Peaceful. She had never known the meaning of the word peaceful. Not in her entire life. Some people may have claimed it was her own fault. She was too high strung, too willing to create her own drama.

But the Ninette knew better than those people. Life would create drama for you anyways. You might as well create the kind of drama you can control, before someone else throws it at you and you drown before you even start swimming.

She wasn't sure what caught her attention first - if she had in fact caught the boy speaking, or if it was just fate that drew her feet towards the river, but either way Ninette broke out of the trees and into a position to see clearly just in time to watch Zander dive into the rushing river.

Now panic, wasn't an emotion Ninette did often. It was in fact one of the few emotions the admitedly dramatic girl never exbited, however in this instate, as she watched the boy buckle under water too fast for him, she couldn't help but feel...

Well panick.

Panic that history was going to repeat itself on her. It was true, Simon's accident had had nothing to do with water, and the boy had been miles away from her at the time but still, in that breifest moment from when she saw his head disappear to when he was pulling herself out again... she almost felt like a little girl again. Lost, hopeless...

About to lose something very important.

An odd feeling to be sure, since she hardly knew the boy at all.

Then, he pulled himself out, muttering to something in his arms, seeming perfectly alright.

And the panic so foreign to the girl morphed into something she understood complete.

Anger.

"What in the hell did you think you were doing? Are you a complete idiot that you didn't realize you could have been killed. That someone could have-could have-" her voice faultered slightly, her eyes widening and her voice dropped... nothing more than a little girl talking out of an almost full grown woman's mouth, "Someone could have lost you. Someone... someone where would have felt... something."

At the ever familiar sound of anger, Zander cowered, tugging his arm - and the baby bird - closer to his chest as he tried to shrink himself down. He looked up at the girl hesitantly, only slightly relaxing when he recognized her, his eyes going to her hands to see if there were any signs of her planning to-

"It's alright, Ninette. No one will be hurt if I disappear." His tone was matter of fact, his focus going back down to the baby bird in his arms. "Please be alright, little one." He said softly, sitting so he could look at it more closely. "You're alright, aren't you?" Distress stole over his features, his brown eyes widening worriedly as the bird remained unresponsive. "Little one? Can you hear me?" He loosened his hold on the small creature, pulling it gently into his palm. He could still feel the bird's fluttering heart beat. It was weak. Almost too faint.

Pressing his fingers gently against the bird's chest, he applied small bursts of pressure, biting his lip in concentration. It took a half minute, but suddenly the bird was moving, it's wings fluttering as it regurgitated the surprisingly vast amount of water. A weak tweet was all it took for Zander's face to split into a wide, unabashedly happy smile. He looked up at the girl, his grin still in place.

Part of her regestered the way he turned away from her anger, sunk in on himself as if he expected to her to lash out instead of just yell. Perhaps that was what made her soften even futher.

Or perhaps the fact of the matter was she was already breaking down.

"How do you know," she murmured as she watched him with the bird, trying as desperately as... as well she probably would have been trying if she had been forced to drag him out of the water. The truth was sinking into her, "I bet you everyone would have said no one cares about that bird, and yet you do. Someone would have cared about you."

Despite how hard she was trying to deny it, the familiar ache was there. A ghost of it, for she had never had to go through with it, but there none the less. She had almost been hurt again. She had started to care - even for the boy she had spoken only a few times.

"Maybe I would have cared."

She was horrified to find the familiar warm feeling of tears burning in her eyes as he turned to smile at her. Completely relieved. He was so... innocent, happy with... well whatever he got. How could he...

"You're a good person, you know that. Better than most I've met... definitly better than me."

"Someone has to care for those who slip between the cracks, don't they?" He asked softly. He grinned down at his palm as the baby bird got to its feet, ruffling its feathers before looking up at him and hopping up to his shoulder. Slowly, Zander got to his feet, standing at his full height and wincing at the bruises and cuts he must have gotten from the rocks hidden in the stream. The baby bird sang a note of thanks in his ear and he smiled wider. "You do not have to pretend for me, Ninette." He said, walking toward her. "You are strong, one of the strongest I have ever met, you do not need anyone. No, you do not. Instead, you wish for them. Someone to come and care for you, yes? It is alright, I care for you." He paused as he made to step past her, looking back at her over the shoulder the bird was perched on.

He offered his hand to her, a small hesitant smile on his face. "You may come if you wish. I must return this bird to his nest. His mother will begin to worry."

"I don't-I mean-" the girls voice came out in an indignant huff before she seemed to deflaite again. Pink hair looking almost the said show of defiance it was on top of her tired face.

Caring... she still didn't fully understand- she... the thought terrfied her. She wasn't strong at all. It wasn't that she didn't need anyone. Ninette needed people all the time.

She was just to terrfied of being that vulnerable again to admit it.

"You shouldn't care about me," she murmured even as she shocked herself by reaching for the offered hand. The act, one of friendship, comfort (Not of possession, just trying to claim) threw her, and yet... "I don't know how.... I won't thank you for it. I'll still be as..."

She trailed off, her eyes going gaurded again, and she attempted to push the thoughts she had formally been thinking away.

"We have a bird to return though, don't we?"

Zander tsked, his Italian accent becoming thciker slightly for a brief moment. "I do not understand you French. Offer to care, and you wish not. It is something that is a gift. You should not deem to return it, as rare as it is." He frowned, before taking her hand and intertwining the fingers. "Come then. The nest is just this way." Walking ahead of her, the Italian kept his eyes on the branches, only glancing back when the bird fluttered its way to their intertwined hands, then up to Ninette's shoulder.

"Yes, she is very beautiful, little one." Zander agreed, pulling to a stop beside a tree. The songs of the small bird's family met his ears, and he smiled. "Now, can you make it up there? Your nest is very high up." A small tweet, and the sparrow was determinedly taking flight again, doing a slow loop around both their heads before shooting upward, making its way up to its nest. Zander's hold on the girl's hand tightened slightly the higher up the bird went, not relaxing until he was safely back in his nest.

Turning back to Ninette with a small smile, Zander gestured toward Beauxbatons. "Shall we go back now?"

Ninette didn't deem his comment with a responce, still far too flustered by it anyways. The fact that she didn't pull her hand back in and of itself was comment enough.

Although never pointed about it, Ninette Fontaine rarely did touchy-feely, unless she was getting particular benifits out of it in the end.

But she wasn't even trying here. She was just... letting him... be there. It was an odd act in and of itself.

Glancing back towards, him she continued to frown every so often as he continued to well.. speak to the bird, but was too disarmed to make a smart comment about it.

"I suppose," was all she managed at his suggestion, and gave a brief nod of her head.