Third story in this series! Please read Feathered Friend and Nesting Behaviour first, for this to make any sense at all. This one introduces Dusty to the list of characters!
Order of the Flock
The Problem
There was a problem with his flock. Or, and here was the tricky part, it had the potential of being a problem.
Lucifer was just getting his flock together so of course there would be little problems, but this one...this one could be big and break things apart if it went on too long.
So, deciding to go for broke, he actually arrived at the precinct early in the morning, greeted Ella in her lab, before sitting down to wait for Dan to come in.
Dan wasn't the problem. Well, not entirely the problem anyway. The problem was Dusty and his already having imparted himself as a part of a flock with Dan before him.
With him and Ella entering the picture, Dusty only having seen him once and that was without Dan around and Ella not having been seen at all, the bird was probably going to throw a fit when he realised what was happening.
And that is a problem, because to Dusty Dan is first priority. He is top bird. He is top of the order of things.
And Lucifer didn't want to be downgraded to second. He was bigger, meaner and capable of torturing anything if he felt like it. But Dusty had come first in Dan's life.
It was confusing and annoying and Lucifer refused to feel jealousy over a bird of all things.
Biological drive though was kicking him to solve the problem, so he would solve the problem. Even if it meant he ended up having to give Dan up as flock. And that he didn't want.
Better to just kick the bird out, get rid of it. Dan had said he was only a temporary owner, but Dusty had latched his tiny little claws into him and refused to let go. He may not be willing to leave the home he had grown to like and live in. His cage, his perch, his owner...
Dan meant everything right now to Dusty. So, he was going to try and solve things peacefully and naturally. By getting himself and Ella close to the bird to establish the entire group as one flock. It may take a while, but it would be better than having to give up one of his groomers.
Groomers were too important to just give up like that.
He needed to get Dan to bring Dusty with him this afternoon to try and establish him in with an angel's flock, because he refused to bow to a little parrot that is beneath him in every way possible.
He wished his feathers were all grown out and he could properly display himself, but what he had right now would have to do. He could show off later.
Right now, he needed to have his humans close, because he was beginning to get anxious just thinking of how things could go. So, he got up and went back to Ella. He knew she could tell something was wrong just by how close he was dogging her steps. He didn't generally stand that close to someone.
"Alright, what is it?" she asked, when she tried to get around him to look at something under a microscope.
"Nothing...well, nothing that can be helped right now, anyway. I'll figure something out soon."
She looked up at him and frowned. "On what? You're getting weirdly close, Lucifer. Like, in an uncomfortable for humans trying to work way."
He sighed. "Sorry. It's Dusty."
She looked confused at him for that. "Wait, Dan's bird?"
He nodded. "Yep, the bird..."
She grinned up at him. "How is a bird something you need to figure out?"
He shuffled from foot to foot. "Umm, who has more of a claim on Dan's company..."
She outright laughed at that. Laughed. He frowned.
"Dude, you didn't tell us there'd be a pecking order involved. Who's first out of me and Dan?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't thought about it. And it's not necessarily me, more the bird. One of us will either have to go or integrate and I refuse to integrate myself into a parrot's flock. So, he better learn to function in my flock instead."
"You do realise you are getting territorial over a parakeet, right?"
He groaned and ran his hands over his face. "Shut up, I can't help it. It's a drive to protect and keep my flock. The bird is an unknown threat."
Ella nodded at him, a grin on her face that was not going away and he knew it was because she found the whole situation amusing. Well, let her see how amusing it is when she arrives at his flat that night and gets to know the bird herself.
Who knows, maybe things will go smoothly, but he doubted it.
