DogBird

Chapter 7: Roe

We walked together to Kyrie's house in comfortable silence, letting the sound of nature filter into our ears instead. It was peaceful and a nice change to admiring the beauty of the earth by myself. 

I couldn't help but notice that both Kyrie and Yuki walked with an air of confidence, though their style of confidence differed greatly. Kyrie walked with a strong aplomb, his shoulders pulled back and squared off, prepared for any challenge coming his way.

On the contrary, Yuki floated like a spirit, his steps smooth and poised, and he looked comfortable walking like this, as if he'd done it this way his whole life.

Next to them, I felt like a bumbling idiot, my steps childlike as the bottoms of my feet slapped at the ground beneath me. I knew how to walk quietly when called for, but it was uncomfortable being so quiet and tense all the time, so I usually walked with flat feet like a duck. Not to mention my horrible posture from years of trying to make myself smaller, with the impossible hope of disappearing completely. 

Ahead of us, Kyrie held a low-hanging branch clear of our path and both I and Yuki nodded in thanks as we stepped into a clean cut backyard. Kyrie motioned toward the soft brown two-story house in front of us with a smile on his face. "Welcome to the House of Sommers."

His eyebrows bounced as he recalled something and he leaned closer to me. It took everything in me not to lean away from him. 

He wasn't Avery. He wasn't going to hurt me.

"Just a heads up, I have a few friends over and they can get a little..." his face scrunched as he searched for the right word, "excited. Yeah, we'll go with that."

With wariness, I nodded, following behind him as he led the way towards his back porch. Atop the wood sat a small playpen, void of any animals. Seeing the enclosure made me curious as to what kind of animal he kept as a pet. Distracted by the deserted playpen, I failed to notice Kyrie come to a stop in front of me and I rammed straight into his toned back, my lips mashing against the nape of his neck as my fingers wrapped around his waist to steady myself. 

I felt his muscles stiffen beneath my hands and he leapt out of my reach, a strangled sound coming from him as he spun on me, one of his hands flying to the back of his neck while his other hand wrapped protectively around his stomach. "What are you doing?" he asked me breathlessly. 

I held my hands up to show I meant no harm and my eyes widened slightly. "I'm sorry, man, I didn't see you stop." I sidestepped as if that could help me get a view of the back of his neck. The top of my head barely reached the tip of his nose, so it was futile to try to catch a glimpse. "Did my teeth scratch you?" I asked. I'd just met the guy a day ago and here I was, practically biting the back of his neck. 

His cheeks lit with a sweet pink blush as his usually confident eyes fell to the wood floor shyly, his hand still rubbing the back of his neck as he waved the other hand through the air dismissively. "No, no you're fine. I'm just—I'm sorry, I'm a little...a little ticklish," he admitted with a chuckle, laughing off the embarrassment he felt. It helped the tension I was harboring subside as well and I stood there with a small relieved smile curving up the corners of my mouth. 

"That's good then, I thought I might've hurt you."

He shook his head and waved his hand again. "Nah, you're totally cool. Anyway..." He trailed off as his eyes looked at the sliding glass door, his face taking up a tension of its own as he seemed to prepare for something. With a huff of determination through his nose, he wrapped his fingers around the handle, sliding the door open and letting the onslaught of commotion from inside filter into the peaceful outdoors. 

My head rocked back at the slap of noise to my ears, blinking at Kyrie as he grimaced in apology. On the other hand, Yuki waltzed right into the zoo without so much as a stutter to his step, as if he expected this. I'm guessing Kyrie was also expecting this, but he seemed wary as to how an outsider like me would react.