"Hiro!"

The raven haired sparrow man with hair that greatly resembled dandelion fluff looks up from his work to see his brother standing in the doorway. The two had been born from the same laugh, although his elder by thirty seconds sibling was a good head taller than him, making Hiro appear a good deal younger even though fairies arrive on Neverland almost completely matured. All the same, right now the elder sibling looks flushed and excited, and as he puts down his hammer, Hiro can't help but draw playfully, "Dashi, if you just came to give me the play by play of your last makeout session with Fred, I'm good, thanks."

"What? Hiro, gross, no! Don't be such a knucklehead!" Tadashi cries, his glow tinging pink with embarrassment.

Hiro quietly cracks up at his own joke-he knew that his brother would never share such intimate details about his time with his boyfriend, but he couldn't resist messing with him whenever he could. Still, apparently Tadashi had some sort of major news to share, so he asks in a more serious tone, "What's up?"

"There's a new laugh coming!" Tadashi answers with a grin. "I thought you might like to come watch the arrival!"

"Yeah!" Hiro grins, instantly flying over to join his brother at the door-new laughs weren't a complete rarity, but they were still something special, and every fairy and sparrow man who could be spared came to welcome the new arrival, all desperately hoping that the new fairy or sparrow man might be a part of their talent group.

"C'mon then!" Tadashi smiles and waves for his sibling to follow him, and together they head for the courtyard, which were where most fairies arrived. By the time that they get there, it seems like all of Pixie Hollow had turned out to greet the newcomer. Fortunately, though, the brother's friends, GoGo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred, had saved spots for them and so they settle onto the tree branch next to them to wait for the laugh that would turn into the new fairy to arrive.

A hush falls over the crowd as the laugh comes dancing into the courtyard. Laughs were hard to see-almost invisible except for a slight shimmer-but, like happened to many laughs, this one had gotten something stuck to it as it had traveled. A bluebird's feather that had gently curled around it, making the laugh more visible. Beyond being able to see it, though, the fairies could just feel the newcomer's presence, and they all held their breath as the laugh flew to the ground and with a final burst of energy bunched itself together to create-

A sparrow man. Everyone lets out a quiet sigh and smiles as they see the newcomer for the first time. He had medium toned skin, dark blue hair, and his arrival garment seemed to be made of orange and brown autumn leaves. It was tradition to wait for the new arrival to announce their name and talent before saying anything, so they all remain quiet while the new sparrow man gets his bearings, taking in his surroundings with the curiosity of a chick leaving the nest for the first time. Hiro couldn't help but smile at the sight-usually he got pretty impatient during these first few moments, wanting like everyone else to find out what the newcomer's talent was. But for some reason with this one he didn't mind just watching and waiting. Then suddenly, as if sensing the sparrow man's gaze on him, the new arrival turns towards him, and Hiro has a sharp intake of breath as suddenly his gaze was met by two brilliant blue eyes. His heart started beating a staccato rhythm in his chest-why had the new sparrow man looked at him, of all those present? Did arrivals even usually make eye contact right off the bat? Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was indeed looking directly at him as the newcomer announces, "My name is Ezra. I'm an animal talent!"

Hiro couldn't shake a deep sense of disappointment-even more than he usually would have had-at the fact that the sparrow man wasn't in his talent, his wings even sagging slightly by the announcement. And as the animal talent fairies present swarm to welcome Ezra into their talent group, he couldn't help but feel like Ezra was watching him and looking, of all things, slightly betrayed that he wasn't coming down to welcome him as well. But he wasn't in his talent group, so how could he? Wouldn't it seem strange for a tinker talent to invade something that was specifically meant for animal talents? The others would probably tie his wings in a knot if he just came barging in like that. Still, a few minutes later as the animal talents start to lead Ezra away and the crowd disperses, Hiro can't get that hurt look out of his mind. It was like he just couldn't leave the new arrival alone, and so, making sure that no one was watching, he takes off after the little group-following at a distance so as not to be seen, but following all the same. He wasn't sure exactly what was making him do this-usually he could care less about anyone outside of his friend group (not that he was unfriendly, he just didn't have time for more than a few people in his life) but for some reason, he just had to stay close to Ezra. He honestly felt that he was doing a pretty good job of staying hidden until, at one point during the tour, the sparrow man suddenly turns back and smiles at him, causing Hiro to duck behind a leaf, heart pounding and glow turning bright pink. What was wrong with him?! Why was he feeling like this? But as soon as the others take off for their next destination, he finds himself following them yet again.

Eventually the animal talents end the tour by leaving Ezra in the Home Tree's courtyard, explaining to him that his room would be ready by that evening and how to use the directory to find it, as well as what time dinner would be served in the tea room, before leaving him alone for some much needed "breathing" time-giving him a few moments to process everything that had happened and have a chance to maybe explore around a bit on his own. At the risk of looking like a stalker now that the others were gone, Hiro decides that it's probably time to go-after all, he had work to do and Tadashi would probably start worrying about him if he stayed missing for too much longer without a good explanation. He prepares to fly off in the direction of his workshop when suddenly he hears a voice-Ezra's voice-calling out, "Hey!"

Finding himself blushing yet again (why did he keep doing that?), Hiro forces himself to turn back around and stay put until the other sparrow man, who was currently flying towards him, arrives at the branch he was standing on.

"Hey," Ezra says with a slight smile as he lands lightly next to him.

"Hey yourself," Hiro answers, not quite able to meet his gaze.

"I've been watching you," Ezra tells him, taking a step closer. "I saw you when I arrived. And you've been following me since then, haven't you?"

"I, um… You kind of looked like you wanted me too…" Hiro answers, now feeling completely stupid for having done that.

"I did," Ezra replies with a smile. "I was wondering why you didn't come down with the others."

"I'm not in your talent group, so I wasn't sure I was allowed…" Hiro mumbles, staring down at his feet.

"I certainly wouldn't have minded," Ezra answers, sitting down on the branch and motioning for the other sparrow man to sit next to him. Hiro wasn't sure why, but he did, feeling himself blushing even more when Ezra closes the gap he'd left between him.

"Why did you pick me out like that?" Hiro asks, hoping for some answers. "I mean, there were all those fairies and sparrow men there…"

"I don't know," Ezra admits with a slight shrug. "I just… Did. I feel drawn to you for some reason."

"O-oh…" Hiro feels his blush increasing at that.

"Yeah." Ezra starts playfully swinging his legs back and forth. "So… If you're not an animal talent, what are you?"

"Tinker talent," Hiro answers, unable to keep a note of pride out of his voice.

"Interesting…" Ezra's penetrating gaze never leaves him as he says, "Tell me about it. What exactly do you do?"

Despite his initial reservations, Hiro finds himself telling Ezra about his latest projects, and then about his favorite projects-the easy ones, the hard ones, and the downright weird ones-and, no matter how long he talked his companion never seemed to get tired of listening, always ready with another question the moment he thought he'd run out of things to tell him about.

"We probably should be heading for dinner," Hiro tells him when he notices that the sun is starting to go down.

"All right," Ezra agrees, and he flutters off the branch before looking at his companion expectantly. "Aren't you going to fly with me?" he asks when the other sparrow man doesn't move.

"Oh, um… Sure?" Hiro answers, flushing slightly as he flies up to join him. He didn't know why he felt so weird about flying Ezra to dinner, but he decides to just push those feelings aside and just go with it. The other sparrow man catches him off guard again as he suddenly grabs his hand, Hiro stammering out, "W-what are you doing?"

"I don't know." Ezra shrugs slightly and then smiles at him. "It just feels nice."

"O-okay then…" Hiro wasn't sure how to feel about this, but he decides to just go with it-if it made Ezra happy, why complain, right? If anything, he felt a small glow in his chest as they fly together and if it felt this good certainly nothing could be wrong with it, right? Still, when they enter the tea room, Hiro lets go of Ezra's hand, knowing that they would be heading to their separate tables. But Ezra surprises him yet again by continuing to follow him like a loyal pet chipmunk.

"Ezra, you need to go sit with your talent," Hiro tells him gently as he turns around to address him.

"Why?" Ezra asks, his head tilting in a way that was not at all adorable as he looks at the other sparrow man in confusion.

"It's just how things are done here," Hiro answers as patiently as he can, even though he can feel many pairs of eyes on him, watching the exchange. "Everyone sits with their talents."

"But I want to sit with you," Ezra states matter-of-factly.

"And I'd love to have you sit with me, but your talent might think I'm trying to steal you if I had you sit with me," Hiro replies, noticing that the animal talents were all giving him slightly dirty looks.

"I wouldn't mind that," Ezra tells him, his smile going slightly mischievous and making Hiro blush yet again.

"Please, let's just not cause a big scene," Hiro pleads quietly with him. "I promise we can hang out after supper, okay?"

"Okay!" Ezra agrees, brightening at that, squeezing Hiro's hands before heading over to join his own table.

Hiro finds himself sinking into his own chair as soon as he reaches the tinkers' table-it was nice to have a moment to breathe when Ezra had him all tied up in knots inside. But he didn't have much of a chance to relax before Tadashi was playfully elbowing him under the table.

"So… Did you have fun with your new beaux?" he asks, giving Hiro a teasing grin.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hiro groans, burying his head in his hands. Really, Tadashi? He was doing this right now?

"I just assumed that's where you were all afternoon!" Tadashi answers, playing innocent.

"Now why would you assume that?" Hiro sighs.

"Maybe because I had a lot of people telling me that they'd spotted you following the animal talents showing the new sparrow man around like you were a little lost bumble bee?" Tadashi replies playfully.

"What-? How-?" And now Hiro felt even more embarrassed-apparently his attempts to be subtle had totally backfired on him.

"Oh, c'mon, it's nothing to be ashamed of!" Tadashi says with a more sympathetic smile. "I think it's sweet that you have crush on the new sparrow man."

"C-Crush? Who said anything about having a crush?" Hiro stammers out, eyes going wide-oh gosh, he didn't have crush on Ezra, did he?

"Your glow has been pink pretty much since you first saw him, so either you're really sick or else you are majorly crushing!" Tadashi chuckles.

Hiro felt his stomach churning slightly. Did he actually have a crush on Ezra? Sure he'd been a little nervous around him, but he tended to be nervous around most people, especially ones he hadn't met before. And it wasn't like he found Ezra's gorgeous blue eyes or ridiculously soft looking hair at all attractive…

"You honestly didn't notice?" Tadashi asks, flashing him a slightly amused but also sympathetic smile.

"No…" Hiro answers, burying his face in his hands again.

"Hey, it's going to be okay." Tadashi gently rubs his back as the serving talents start to bring out the first course. "You may be oblivious, but he totally likes you, so you don't have anything to worry about."

"How do you know that?" Hiro asks, risking a glance up at him.

"Hiro, he wanted to sit with you over sitting with his own talent! I'd say that's a pretty good sign right there!"

"Yeah?"

"Yes! Just talk to him after dinner and you can get this all sorted out."

"I guess so…" Hiro answers uncertainly.

"Trust me, you'll be fine!"

Despite his brother's encouraging words, Hiro found that he wasn't able to eat much dinner that night, too nervous about what was to come. That's why, the instant Ezra got up from his own table, Hiro quickly flies over to meet him at the door-he probably wouldn't have been able to eat anything else, anyways, so he didn't have any reason to stay there.

"Hey," he greets Ezra softly.

"Hey yourself," Ezra answers with a slight smile.

"Can we talk-y'know, outside?" Hiro asks, not wanting the whole tea room to be watching this.

"Sure!" Ezra agrees, smiling and taking the other sparrow man's hand again, leading him out into the hallway, and this time Hiro couldn't help but feel a tiny current running between them as he did so.

"So, um… I was talking to my brother…" Hiro begins awkwardly when they're out of hearing range of most of the others.

"And I was talking to the others in my talent!" Ezra answers brightly. "They were asking a lot of questions about me and you!"

"T-They were?" Hiro asks, not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Yep!" Ezra agrees. "And a lot of them were saying that apparently I have something called a 'crush' on you!"

"O-oh!" Hiro finds himself blushing yet again. "D-Do you know what that means?" he finally manages to get out-could Ezra really be this innocent and oblivious?

"Mm… Nope, not really!" Ezra admits with a laugh. Okay, yes. Apparently he could. "But…" the other sparrow man continues with a slight smile, "I guess that's what you call it when you feel about someone the way I feel about you?"

"And how do you feel about me?" Hiro asks, heart fluttering in his chest.

"Like… I never want to stop spending time with you? And when I'm not with you like I can feel it in my chest that I have to get back to you? And seeing you always makes me smile and I want to hold your hand and let everyone know that we're together in a really special way?" Ezra answers, obviously trying to find the right words.

"W-wow… I… I've never had anyone say anything like that to me before..." Hiro admits, ducking his head slightly. "I-I'm honestly not sure if I like you back… Y'know, that way? I mean, for me at least, this is happening really, really fast… But, still... I think I'd be willing to give it a try…?"

"Yeah?" Ezra grins at that.

"Yeah," Hiro agrees with a small smile.

"Awesome!" Ezra pulls Hiro into a spontaneous hug which the sparrow man, after stiffening for a second, happily returns.

"So… Where do we go from here?" Hiro finally asks.

"What do you mean? Is there somewhere we have to go?" Ezra answers curiously.

"No, I meant… Y'know what, forget it. This is good," Hiro replies with a slight smile, shaking his head in amusement even as he gently squeezes Ezra's hands. "This is really, really good."

"Good!" Ezra practically beams at that.

"So, um… Want to go watch the fireflies with me or something?" Hiro asks-maybe it was kind of cheesy, but he'd always thought that the fireflies at night were something really magical, and he suddenly found that it was something that he wanted to share with his new potential boyfriend.

"Sure!" Ezra agrees with a grin.

"C'mon, then!" Hiro laughs, gently tugging on his hand and Ezra eagerly following behind him. Maybe this was the strangest start to a relationship that he'd ever heard of, but it was perfect for them, and that's all that mattered.