Author: Eloarei
Series: Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name
Characters: Conrad

A/N: Um. Short little thing I wrote somewhat spontaneously after a week or so of listening to this insane bird chirp all night. (I love the thing though.) No point, and no relation to anything else I've written.

Birdsong

OoOoOoOoOoO

He'd lived in this apartment for several years now, and ever since the first night he spent there, he'd been plagued by that goddamn nightingale. 'Will you shut UP?!' he thought at it angrily, as he buried his head under his pillow every evening. The stupid thing must have been out to annoy him, for it perched right on the telephone wires right outside his bedroom window and began to sing its ridiculous song exactly two minutes after he went to bed. Every single night.

His methods of dealing with the creature differed depending on his mood. Most nights he tried to ignore it, and succeeded in falling to sleep in maybe half an hour. Other times he tried to drown the noise with his favorite music, but most times found that to be even more distracting. Once or twice he'd gotten so frustrated that he actually opened up his window and threw something heavy at the bird. (He missed, but he still felt sort of guilty about it afterward.)

Eventually, the nightingale's racket became a normality and his ire towards the thing faded to mild annoyance.

And then he became a vampire, and therefore forced into a nocturnal lifestyle. The first few mornings he was so worn out from the change that he fell to sleep immediately, but a few days later he'd regained enough energy to be properly aggravated once more.

Now, instead of a single solitary songbird, his sleeping hours were assaulted by the cacophonous chorus of chirping, chattering, trilling feathered demons. 'Go to SLEEP!' he whined at them, but to no avail. This had been their morning routine for years. Generations, in fact. And nature dictated it remain that way.

With great annoyance, he covered his head with as many pillows and blankets as he could find, and hoped sleep would take him quickly.

When he awoke, he was greeted by the cheerful nightingale's song. As the nights became more lonely, and the sad fact of his dark new life slowly sunk in, he began to smile at its insistent nocturnal calling. Some evenings he laid in bed an extra few minutes, his eyes still shut, and listened to the sound, pretending it was the first birdsong of the day, not the last, and that he'd soon get out of bed, dress for a normal day, and wander out into the sunlight like he used to do.

OoOoOoOoOoO