Butterfly Reign

5. It's Crazy What We've Been Through, But Now You're Solo

Tommy’s blood still feels too hot in his veins from a meeting with the Foreign Affairs minister earlier. Thoughts swirling in his mind, Tommy bites on the other side of the quill – he knows it's gross, but it gets energy out of his system and that’s what matters.

“We could try and cut the path here- no, no, the plateau in the way,” he mumbles under his nose. “Instead, how about we-”

The crown-prince is so focused on scanning the map spread on the desk that he doesn’t notice something moving on the balcony until he hears a pointed knock. His head snaps up, and he finds himself staring into two curious green eyes.

Tommy leaps to his feet, almost falling over from how sore his legs feel, “Tubbo, look, the bird is back!” he whirls around on his heels, only to be faced with an empty room.

Right. Tubbo is with Ranboo, because that’s where the crown-prince has sent him. Tommy shoves the disappointment to the deeper parts of his mind and throws the balcony door open.

“Did you fly all the way here?” Tommy asks, smiling.

The parrot squawks back and paces around the desk with his wings outstretched funnily. That and an expression he bears, surprisingly similar to a pout, makes it look like he is lamenting on his exhaustion.

Tommy chuckles out on surprise – he has never seen a bird this expressive before. He grabs a cup from a coffee table, filling it with fresh water from a jug, and puts it in front of the bird. The parrot drops his head and starts gulping greedily. Tommy gets bold and pats him, receiving another squawk – this time, a disgruntled one – and the bird knocks the cup over.

Tommy makes a noise – the younger him might have cursed out loud right now, but prince Theseus has long since stopped using vulgar language, so it turns out to be a strangled yelp instead. With the trajectory the water got spilled at, the map gets soaked in a more or less straightforward line, dripping from one corner.

Like a river.

“ A river , of course!” he yells out. The bird jumps up into the air, startled, and Tommy raises his hands in defense with an apologetic look, “Sorry, sorry, got a bit over-excited here.”

With the bird calming down and folding his wings, Tommy notices a note tied up to his leg, just like the last time.

I’m sobering up now. I like to think that I’m smarter than a bird.

Tommy giggles. For no reason in particular, just because he feels like it. Now that it has become clear that somebody has seriously sent the previous note, and it wasn’t just an odd joke, it makes Tommy wonder which of the foreign guests could be the bird’s owner.

On the other hand- there is something especially fun about exchanging letters with a complete stranger.

“Should I reply?” he asks – nobody, or himself – but it’s the bird who answers, by nuzzling his head against Tommy’s hand. The crown-prince, against his best efforts, can’t help a stupid smile crawling its way onto his face.

“Okay, okay,” he says, taking a smaller piece of paper and a quill.

It looks like you’re not completely awake yet. What’s the bird’s name?

“Be careful and don’t lose your way,” Tommy says, tying up the note to the bird’s leg. The parrot coos in agreement, and flies through the open balcony. This time Tommy ended his letter with a question – he wonders if the stranger is going to reply again.