Two adored flying.
It was a great feeling when you could just let out your paper wings and take off in a heartbeat. The euphoria of learning the new tricks that birds did in midair, it was amazing to experience.
The orange number loved to admire everything there is about the world, there was nothing stopping him from doing so. Different weather conditions made it fun, because he had different wings for every situation, the dream and feeling of being aflutter and releasing all negativity to the wind was breathtaking, and he didn't want to ever let it go.
He never saw it as a handy ability to have, however, seeing as his friends preferred rays and rockets instead. Nobody had even flown with him before, One didn't like using wings, and everyone above him was too heavy to use them (Zero never went too high and couldn't pick up the wings. The What-ifer nearly sent him crashing by getting bored and turning his wings into normal sheets of paper). So Two had only done it occasionally, not wanting to leave the rest of Numberland out of it.
The unexpected meeting of the Alphablocks had him getting his hopes up, maybe these new block creatures could fly with him, seeing as they were all the same size. But he was wrong, they didn't fly, couldn't. Not unless they spelt a word, and they were okay with being on the ground more than the air anyways, not even questioning how the Numberblocks were shooting literal fire out of their bodies in order to levitate. (How A continuously ended up in the air was beyond him.)
Two found the flying habit getting less and less appealing the more he did it.
Mostly because he was doing it alone.
He never liked being alone, so he stopped flying completely, noting how much less freedom the world seemed to have now that the limitless sky was no longer available to him.
That was, until this morning.
"Watch this everyone!" J called, standing atop a rather precarious looking hill, standing gleefully on tiptoe, waving her arms about.
The Alphablocks present didn't even budge, in fact, I groaned and glared at her from below, "J! Get down from there, you can't and you should know this by now!"
Now that got everyone's attention.
E shoved I aside and called to the blue-clad Alphablock cautiously, A close behind, "J..please don't do this here! A rock is fine, but not that hill!"
A nodded and anxiously hovered next to E, both of them sharing looks that were unfamiliar to Two, "Agreed! You could fall, and that won't be any good!"
"What do you mean?" Five asked, "Alphablocks can't use rays?"
Three scoffed, "Of course they can't, they aren't numbers, Five! They don't have columns... or rows... Oh no.." Her voice teetered from pretentious to slight concern throughout the sentence. As if she was just now registering what danger J was in.
Two gasped, "Isn't that the hill next to the train station?"
One's eye widened, "You're right! That's way too high for jumping!"
"But it's the perfect place for flying!" The tap dancer scrambled to get up, "She's trying to take off!"
"How do you know? She's not doing anything but staring at us!" One asked, "She looks like she's paying attention."
"No One," A frantically shook her head, "J makes that face right before she-"
"J! Wait up!" Two easily hopped up the hill, never having much of a problem before, he was good at jumping, "Don't jump!"
"But I'm a Jaybird! I'm going to fly!" She sang, "Do you want to get a closer look?"
"Uh-well..No." Two rushed for something else to say as J's face faltered, "I'm here to help you!"
"ARE YOU INSANE?" I screeched from below, much to E's annoyance, "I can't save both of you!"
"I can't bear to listen anymore.." He sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll help you fly. But you can't do it here, not without the proper equipment." Two inched closer.
"Jaybirds don't use jets, or airplanes, or any equipment at all." J frowned, "You're just trying to stop me.."
"Nonono! J, I understand you. I really mean it, and I'm not going to put you in a jet! We're going to do it, the way Jaybirds do!"
"You've never seen a Jaybird, there aren't any in Numberland." She mumbled.
"I-I..Just give me a chance! I can show you how! I know how normal birds fly and that shouldn't be too different!"
"You can't fly..not without fire.."
"J.." He said, nervously beckoning her closer.
Once she was, he leaned in and whispered.
"...Yes I can."
-
"How are you going to fly?" J asked, leaning over his shoulder as Two dug around his closet.
"Well, I might be a bit rusty...but I've got some wings in here somewhere."
"Wings? Numberblocks have wings?" She started hopping around his room and flapping her arms, "Are you birds?"
"No, but I learned from them, they're nice once you get to know them!" As if on cue, the window opened and a bird landed on Two's outstretched arm, nuzzling his face and starting to sing a song, "Oh, hello there! Where are your friends?"
The blue bird cocked it's head in confusion, then let out a series of chirps before at least 40 more came in, landing on whatever part of him they could and circling his head. All of them were singing and tweeting whatever avian orchestra they had acquired in perfect harmony, Two was laughing the whole time as J looked on in astonishment.
"Are...are those birds your friends?" She clasped her hands together in awe.
"Yes!" He giggled, "They follow us, but I go and follow them sometimes. They sing a lot."
"Do you sing with them?"
All the birds stopped and stared at Two, who cowered slightly from the sudden excessive attention.
".....Maybe.."
It pecked him.
"....sometimes.."
It chirped angrily.
"Yes."
A tweet.
"How joyous! I'd never thought you could talk to birds!"
"I talk to you, don't I?"
"But.."
"If you're a Jaybird, then you're a Jaybird no matter what!"
Two extended a bird-covered arm to her, grinning when more birds gathered around started hopping onto J, "Don't worry, she's a friend. She's a bird, like you!"
The avians seemed puzzled, but they seemed to accept the new bird and all started chirping delightedly and swirling about in the air.
"They like me! They like me! I'm a jumping, jolly, jay!"
"Mhm...AHA! I found it!"
Two had made some changes to his wings before permanently locking it away, they still held their parrot-like vibrancy, but there were different designs and colors contained within as well, looking less simple than what they used to.
He sighed when he wondered why he ever locked the beautiful thing away in the first place.
"C'mon then, J. I need to get your measurements so I can start making them! Pick some colors while I get my supplies."
J diverted her attention away from the birds and sat on the ground, "Which one?"
The bluebirds circled her and chittered amongst themselves, some rushing to where Two was and taking the measuring tools from him, much to his surprise.
"Oh, you want to do it?"
A couple shoved his wings towards him, "You want me to hurry up and put these on, huh?"
They all simultaneously chirped a high note, excitedly fluttering about him, "...You missed me?"
"Don't worry, I'll fly with you, don't rush him!" J laughed, "I'm actually going to fly! I'm a bird! I'll be a real bird!"
Two muttered something about 'feeling like Cinderella with having animals making his stuff' and joined her in admiring the wings being presented to her.
The birds had gathered their feathers together and successfully managed to weave them into a beautiful wing prop, the care and delivery of the contrasting and complimenting colors made them look like almost a crime to put on.
J wasn't even sure she wanted to wear such an elegant object.
"Is this for me?"
They tied the strings around J's arms, doing the same to Two and urging them outside.
-
"Okay J, here's how to fly!"
"Don't we need a takeoff hill?"
"Not really, birds normally just take off from anywhere they're standing."
"So..how do we do it?"
"Well, how good are you at flapping your arms?"
"Very good! I do it everyday!" J leapt into the air and waved her arms wildly, actually managing to stay in the air for a prolonged period of time.
"Oh, that's magnificent! You have everything you need already, all you need to do is factor in your weight and height, study physics and the wind currents, become aerodynamic, and befriend spirals!"
J blinked, "So..can I fly now?"
Two glanced back and forth between the birds behind him, "Uh...Yeah! You should be fine!"
J jumped for joy and ran in circles excitedly.
"First, you start off with a run," He started, "Once you feel okay, start flapping, once you start to have trouble staying on the ground, jump! That should get you going upwards, until you have to start flapping less to stay high. Leaning forwards usually does the trick."
J nodded, "Can you show me first?"
"Oh, alright then- I guess I could show you how it's done. But I haven't done it in a while, I might mess up."
The orange numberblock suddenly felt like he was free again when he leapt from the ground, he felt his wings pull back into the air and soared above the grass as if he'd never stopped in the first place, everything falling back into place.
He did a few tricks for J and landed, skidding slightly.
She was in awe, mesmerized by the prospect of taking flight all on her own.
And Two felt happy to teach it to her.
Maybe they both needed this..
(Btw, if you guys were wondering, J did manage to figure it out, she's now the #1 flyer in both Alphaland and Numberland.)