Reindeer House pt.19
“Do you think reindeer are the largest birds?” Dansaa asked thoughtfully, lounging opposite Buritsen in the library, stacks of manga piled dangerously high around them.
“Birds?” Buritsen leaned forward in interest, immediately bumping the lamp beside him. It wobbled ominously.
“Yeah!!” Dansaa nodded. “We fly and we… uh, we fly!!”
“Ohhh, that does make sense!!” Buritsen said brightly, scrambling to catch the lamp as it tipped. “Like how bees are the smallest birds, we’re the biggest!!”
“Bees?” Dansaa tilted his head. “What’re those?”
“You know!! Small and furry and sharp!!” Buritsen set the lamp back upright and slid into his chair again, satisfied.
“Ohhh,” Dansaa’s eyes lit up. “Like Kyuupiddo!!”
Buritsen paused. “…But Kyuupiddo isn’t furry. Or sharp.”
“Well his hair is fluffy!!” Dansaa reasoned quickly. “And sharp can mean… clever, right?”
“TRUE!!” Buritsen beamed. “Kyuu-chan is very sharp!!”
They sat in silence for a moment, basking in their shared intellectual triumph.
“So,” Dansaa continued, flipping a page of his manga upside-down, “if we’re birds, does that mean we hatch from eggs?”
“Ooh!!” Buritsen gasped. “Maybe that’s why Mrs. Claus is always baking -- with the leftovers!!”
“That explains so much.”
“And Santa wears red because—”
“—that’s our off-cast feathers!!”
“YES!!”
A bookshelf rattled.
Long-suffering, exhausted footsteps approached.
A hoodie-clad figure suddenly emerged from between the shelves, papers clenched in shaking hands, eyes shadowed with pure academic despair.
“I heard all of that,” Puransa said flatly.
Both of them turned.
“Oh!! Hi Puransa!!” Dansaa waved. “We’re learning!!”
“I told myself,” Puransa continued, voice trembling, “that I wouldn’t interfere. I told myself I would let this go. That it wasn’t my responsibility.”
He inhaled deeply.
“You are not birds. Bees are not birds. Santa does not have feathers. And Kyuupiddo is not an insect.”
“…Yet,” Buritsen whispered thoughtfully.
“That’s ENOUGH!!” Puransa snapped. “You’re both so catastrophically unintelligent that it’s physically painful to be in the same building as you!!”
He spun on his heel, storming off between the shelves.
A beat.
“…So,” Dansaa said slowly, “do you think he’s upset because he hasn’t eaten yet?”
Buritsen nodded solemnly. “Hunger makes birds say weird things.”
To be continued...