fandomhigh | Advanced Bird Haberdashery, Wednesday, period 2

Duke, god love him, had honestly thought he might be able to come in and have the class do something other than bird hats, today. Maybe some bird themed yoga poses. Or read a story about a bird! He really ought to have known better.

The whole classroom was full of turkeys. Very unhappy, very aggressive turkeys.

After several moments of fending one of the largest turkeys off with a chair while — again — madly googling on his phone, Duke added a new rule to the class list:

Class rules:
1. Do not eat the birds
2. Do not FEED the birds

"Yeah, so, apparently feeding them can make them more aggressive," Duke said, trying for casual even as he was slowly chased around the front of the room by a 30 pound, belligerent bird. "So if you brought sausages to try to win these guys over . . . sorry?"

The turkey gobbled angrily at him and went after his shoes.

"So we're doing turkeys today!" Duke dropped the chair and scrambled up onto his desk. "They are large and aggressive." He glared at the turkeys. "And taste really good with cranberry sauce!"

The turkeys were undaunted.

"Also, the internet is really into the fact that apparently one of this country's founding fathers thought these guys should be our national bird." One of the turkeys at the back of the room took flight and swooped at him. "And you know what? I'm gonna give it to him. Good ol' Benny Franklin had something going there." He waved at the swooping bird and scowled. "For fucksake, stop it!"

The turkeys, startled by his volume, backed off and/or landed and started scratching at the tile and pecking around, looking for snacks. Duke sat down — still on top of his desk — and looked around for the hat instructions du jour.

"And we're apparently making them . . ." He picked up the paper and looked entirely put upon. "Fezes." He eyed the turkeys. "So . . . good luck with that."

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Octavia huffed as she tried to bury her face against the crook of his neck. Not at all a hiding sort of gesture, no. "There's nothing brave about going off the island."

Oh but there was.

"There's everything brave about it." Duke brought one of his hands up to cup the back of her head. "There are people out there. And people are terrible."

"They are when there's a lot of them," Octavia murmured after a beat, though she kept her tone on the light side. "And Baltimore has a lot."

"There you go then," Duke said. "Brave."

"Hosh op, deimeika," she replied immediately, but softly. "It's just a trip."

Duke chuckled. "Yeah, alright. Just saying. . . . If I can be predictable, you can be brave."

"I'm brave." Fear was a demon she knew how to slay, after all. "I just don't like it that this is one of those things where I have to be."

It was annoying to have to admit a weakness like that over something that wasn't even a real threat but just something that freaked her out.

Duke shrugged. "There are definitely worse things to have to be brave about. I've met people who are deathly afraid of balloons."

Octavia pulled back from his neck just enough that she could peer up at him with a curious little tilt of her head.

"I can't tell if you're joking or not."

Advanced Bird Haberdashery, Wednesday, period 2

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