Safe in Brother's Wings Chapter 20: This Actually Does Taste Like Chicken, a DuckTales + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 20, everybody! In which Sashi is forced to revisit his earlier question about if bird-people can eat bird….And in retrospect I used the All-Marts as sort of a bland-name product but I could have used Smarty-Marts from Kim Possible oh well. *shrugs*

So Sashi's approach to dinner and where he got it from actually comes from a conversation my Mom had with a worker at a Sam's Club one evening, when she asked what happened to the rotisserie chickens that don't sell. You would expect them to be donated, right? Wrong—there's some sort of law, health code, or regulation that prevents them from giving the chickens away, so all unsold rotisseries go in the garbage at the end of the day. "I know which dumpster I'm raiding if I'm ever homeless" was Mom's comment upon hearing this. "Pulling back a stump" is another Mom-ism, and usually happens when Dad makes something SUPER tasty and we joke about stealing from each other's plates.

In other news, glasses are indeed a liability because if you break or lose them you're up a creek without a paddle (speaking as someone who's worn glasses for the majority of her life). And some birds (and other animals such as hyenas) crack open bones to eat the marrow within—the bearded vulture, for example, which eats almost exclusively bone shards. And fun fact about that bird: it's also known as the lammergeier (which Word recognizes WHY), or 'lamb vulture,' as they were thought to snatch away young lambs. They do not since their diet is almost exclusively bone, but that doesn't change the fact that these things are big enough to actually CARRY OFF a lamb. :O They also like to paint themselves with mud to stain their feathers different colors.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! Well let's put it this way—little brother comes in shrieking about monsters, go out into the yard that backs up into woods that has large predators such as bears, loud noise would most likely scare it away. It's the economical approach. Yes—and oh my goodness yes (and then the irony of the fact that since I'm usually writing late at night, they're scolding me too ^^; ). Thanks! :D

Hexyah, thanks for the review! Hey, it's economical, less fuss than a grave plot, and makes a great conversation piece. "Yeah this is Mom." "You mean it was your mom's." "No, it is Mom." Yes, please get more sleep Tadashi….And no there isn't, but she still has some of that old wiring there. Yes…and please no murdering. D: Because yeah, we know better, but since the dude's property backs up into woods that we've already established has large predators, they don't know that. Oh man, I hope she gets better soon—we'll be praying for you!

The gunshot had scared everyone more than they cared to admit.

'Kase had been apoplectic when they reached the others, feathers wilfed down to nothing, looking like she was trying for fury but couldn't get past the fear "WHAT happened?"

Tadashi had filled them in, joked that that had been about as effective as the horseshoe coffee in waking him up—no one laughed, but no one disagreed about getting out of there.

Hence why they were flying again, Tadashi trying very hard not to heave a sigh of relief when they left the bright lights of civilization behind.

This was not how it was supposed to go.

Violet warbled at him—it had taken a while to peel Webby and Nox off his chest, had to bribe them with flying—but now they were both flying much closer to him than normal, enough that Nox's tail kept tapping against Tadashi's wing and startling him.

"No, no, you don't need to fly this close," Tadashi hissed at him—a chirp beneath him redirected his attention. "Webby, no, you fly up there with the others—go fly with Lena, okay?"

"'Dashi," Webby said, still quiet and scared. "'Dashi yes-good 'Dashi—"

"I need a professional adult here."

"Closest professional adult," Sue declared, wobbling a little in flight to come even with him. "This is Sue, how may I direct your call?"

Despite everything, Tadashi couldn't help but cough out a laugh at that. "Yes, hi, Sue, this is Tadashi, I'm having a problem with two clingy kids."

"Have you tried turning them off and then turning them back on again?" Brittany asked, causing Sashi to sputter.

"You mean they come with on-off switches?"

"Ahem," Sue noised. "Please stay on the line sir, your call is important to us and we will be trying to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Anything happen in the past twenty-four hours that might have prompted this behavior?"

"Does hearing their first gunshot ever count?"

"Yes, that would do it. Chances are you've established yourself as a safe haven, and kids generally run to safety when something scary happens. It's why parental beds get invaded during storms or after bad dreams."

"Not that this isn't enlightening, but how do I get them back to where they should be so I can keep an eye on them? Webby," he added sternly, looking down at the little bird-kid fluttering along beneath him, constantly eyeing him like she wanted to grab onto him.

"Unfortunately, you're just going to have to let it peter out—most parents suffer through at least one night of kids in bed at a time."

"I'll take being slept on. Go on, Webby, fly up there—" he said, trying to wave her to the others—

Webby grabbed his arm, folded her wings, twisted her tail—actually flipped over midflight, kicking her feet up to grab his hoodie before plastering the rest of the way against him. The combination startlement and extra weight made him stagger in flight, had to flap hard to get back to where he was.

"Tadashi?" Sue asked, concern lacing through her voice.

"I'm fine—still here, don't hang up," he grunted, feeling the strain of maybe an extra fifty pounds clinging to him (not going to complain about how light they felt compared to normal kids right now, might complain about the rocks in their pockets). "Webby just grabbed onto me. Webby…."

"'Dashi," she noised, burrowing in close next to Violet. "'Dashi yes-good-yes 'Dashi—"

"Help," Tadashi moaned. "No, Nox, don't you get on me too."

"'Dashi," Nox noised, looking back at him. "'Dashi yes 'Dashi—"

"Help," Tadashi said, looking at Sue, who was currently looking at him with sympathy.

"I'm sorry sir, you're just going to have to wait it out," she said. "On the positive side, this probably means we'll land early again."

"Oh come on."

"I'm sorry sir, but them's the breaks."

"I blame you for this," Tadashi said, looking at Webby. She and Violet looked at him, made little chirping noises. "Oh no, don't try for the cute routine, I'm not buying it."

"Did Tadashi hang up?" Sashi asked. "Because if he did I'd like to call into the professional adult line and get some advice like on taxes, car payments, life and death situations…."

"PTA meetings," Brittany muttered.

"Oh yeah that too."

"Since when does being shot at make you lot so chatty?" 'Kase demanded from up front.

"It didn't make me chatty," Sashi put in. "But now that you mention it—"

"Shut up, Sashi."

"Beth, 'Kase's picking on me."

"Don't make me turn this formation around," Beth said.

Tadashi coughed on a laugh, flapped—muscles already feeling the strain of flying with extra weight. He had managed that time with Nox and Violet, but only because desperation had sent him shooting up into the air and away from the bear, and they hadn't flown nearly as long, he thought. Or maybe it just felt longer now because he had no landmarks to judge—yay, the little lights of the highway and from the town they had left had killed his night vision. Just what he needed.

"Okay, fine," he said finally. "We can stop a little early."

Grump huffed at him.

"Now don't you start."

"Tadashi," Sue said, using the tone he recognized from Aunt Cass.

"Fine, fine…I'll let you all know and we'll land and take a break. Maybe by then these two will have calmed down some, huh?"

"If you're lucky, but I doubt it."

Tadashi sighed, tried to hold out for as long as he could…counted the green signs he could see on the highway to distract himself, try to judge distance…strip malls and superstores were starting to pop up, further killing his night vision….

Finally had to call it quits.

"Sorry guys, I need a break," he announced—the burning feeling in his wing muscles had gone all the way to his wingtips and down his tail. Which, by the way, is the weirdest feeling ever did we ever cover just how weird it was to have a tail because it was, darn it.

'Kase dipped down, started looking around…angled away from the lights of the superstore parking lots, dove…circled around, scanning the trees before flapping back up to them.

"There's a little clearing over this way with a spot where we can get airborne again easily enough," she announced. "We'll land there."

Tadashi nodded, angled after her along with the rest of them, squinting, trying to pick out what she saw—ended up clipping his wings and running into a few branches on the way down, landing harder than he wanted to, quietly cursing the bright parking lot lights and dangit did we really need all those lights? Yes, because people did weird things in the dark.

"Okay," he groaned, rolling upright, patting Webby and Violet to make sure they didn't get squished. "You girls okay?" Upon receiving affirmative chirps: "Good, now get off, you're killing me."

"No," Violet said, snuggling close. Webby echoed her, tightened her grip.

"Help," he said to Sue, who had landed with a bit more grace.

"Come here, girls," Sue said, crouching near him and adjusting her hold on Drew. "You want to come over here and say hi to Drew?"

"No," Webby said, face buried in Tadashi's hoodie—oh great, now Nox was tucking himself under his wing no Nox—"No-no-no 'Dashi good yes 'Dashi—"

"I can't help you," Sue told Tadashi.

Tadashi sighed, tried to struggle upright—couldn't, managed to shuffle sideways a little to peer out of the woods. From the looks of it, they were once again on a hill overlooking a populated area, the bright lights filtering through the trees where they were, contrasting bright lights with bands of deep shadow. They'd probably have to move deeper into the woods if they stayed here too long. 'Kase and Sashi were perched on the rocks edging the hill, looking down at the bright lights.

"Seems sleepy enough," 'Kase decided finally, hopping off the rocks and into their little clearing. Tadashi tried shuffling in that direction to take a peek for himself; lots of lights spangling the ground, laid out in squares and lines, all orderly and neat. Manage to stumble upright enough to sit on one of the rocks and take a better look.

Sashi stayed perched on one of the rocks, looked like he was trying to pick out individual shapes in the star-studded ground—wiped his glasses on his shirt and looked again.

"Does that look like an All-Mart to you?" he asked finally, pointing.

Tadashi squinted in that direction. "Yeah, kinda. Why, what are you planning?"

Sashi already had his wings spread and prepped. "I'm going shopping."

Sashi ignored Tadashi's protest, assured him he wasn't stealing anything, just going by one piece of information he heard.

After all, it wasn't stealing if you threw it out.

Not that flying off by himself did anything for him but make him nervous, made his wings flap worse than usual—his stepdad was right, people were generally coded for groups, because right now a big part of his brain was screaming at him for not being in the middle of a bunch of other bird-people.

It made him grateful for Brittany powering after him, even if she did say it was to make sure you didn't get your idiot self killed.

Okay—okay, focus—look around…looked like a relatively small-ish town sort of situation, the All-Mart was probably built after those suburbs down there…definitely looked closed up close, the whole area probably shut down at nine.

"Okay," he squeaked. "So we know it's after nine PM."

He could just feel Brittany glaring holes in him. "And that matters why?"

"Uh—dinner—right down there—hold on—there's—do you see cameras?"

"Sashi, what are you even planning?"

Okay—okay so there was enough space to land there he thought—

Tail leading and then feet and now was a bad time to find out that landing on asphalt was loads different from landing on dirt or grass or whatever there was no give or traction the soles of his feet felt like they got road burns and he ended up taking a tumble and nearly losing his glasses.

Maybe we should get you Lasik when you're old enough—glasses are a liability for a survivalist.

Okay—okay that was fair maybe he'd be cool with it when he got back home he'd say he was fine with getting his eyes fixed because the idea of literally flying blind was just terrifying. Brittany, of course, landed with no problem, Brittany held off embarrassment by sheer grit.

"Sashi," she said, sniffing with disdain as she looked around. "We're like two feet from a dumpster."

"Exactly," he said, scurrying over, taking shallow breaths as he flipped a lid open.

"Sashi, no. No, I am not going dumpster-diving I am not that hungry I am never going to be that hungry."

"Oh chill a minute, will you?" he asked, digging through the plastic—please, don't be the one day you actually sold them all—aha!

"You don't listen, do you?" she asked, taking a step back from what Sashi was holding out.

"Oh come on!" he said, indicating the container. "It hasn't been broken open, it's fine! Look, there's two more in here—that's three rotisserie chickens, Brittany! THREE!"

"It's been in the dumpster!"

"We have been LIVING in DIRT for TWO MONTHS. Grow a spine, will you!?"

Maybe it was having her words thrown back at her, or maybe it was the fact that he actually snapped, or maybe it was the fact that she most likely had the same neverending gnawing pain in her stomach and the chance to get rid of it was too tempting—she snatched the plastic rotisserie container away from him, muttering gross gross gross as she did so, took the second one he handed her.

He grabbed the third and hopped out.

"There we go," he said, turning the one he had over to check for puncture marks in the plastic. "I heard from someone who works in one of these places that they throw away any unsold rotisseries at the end of the day."

"I'm glad you didn't bring this up at the last All-Mart we were at," she said, holding the chickens gingerly.

"I wasn't this desperate then." Which was a lie—he had been desperate then, but he had also been completely terrified, had been ever since he had woken up in that weirdo lab dealing with people who viewed him as some sort of animal it had been every sci-fi movie he had ever watched except he was the lab rat escaped specimen he'd have a hard time watching one of those movies and not sympathizing with the monster from now on he realized. He had been so relieved at getting out of there, even with wings and feathers and a tail and so on—so relieved that his mind had just gone ffzzt upon realizing he was out. He had gone on in a complete haze, following the rest of the crowd, mind on its blue screen of death until Tadashi shook him out of it by asking him what his name was.

He blinked several times, trying to process the guy with all the burn scars shaking his shoulder and addressing him. "Uh?"

The guy gave a sort of wry grin, like they had bumped into each other on the trolley or something. "I said, what's your name? Are you paralyzed from the neck up or something? Oh wait, don't tell me, you only speak bird." This with a gesture at the little black-feathered boy clinging to his wings and burrowing his face in his feathers.

"Uh—uh no. No my name's Sashi. Eastlake."

"Well hi Sashi, I'm Tadashi Hamada, and I'm not sure who this is," he said, indicating the bird-kid now peeking over his shoulder. "And he's not really being forthcoming with suggestions—or maybe he is, but I'm not squawking something unintelligible every time I want his attention."

The bird-kid said something that sounded like aawk before burrowing his face back in Tadashi's feathers.

"Uh, hi," Sashi said, higher reasoning starting to come back to him—and unhelpfully mentioning he didn't have pants on. "You were the guy that opened the cages, right?"

Tadashi shrugged. "Someone had to help. Now come on—I'm not really for it, but we're going down there and we're getting ourselves some clothes and stuff."

Sashi was glad Tadashi had gotten him out of that cage and out of his funk—it had given his mind something to focus on, let his prepper training come back—multiple layers and a raid on the camping section, despite some other people's comments.

Watching Brittany launch into the air, he wondered how those people were—they had taken off on their own ages ago—what on earth had their plan been? As far as he had ever been able to tell, he was the only one who had anything resembling wilderness training—that had been clear enough when his multiple layers paid off the first night out.

His stepdad would be proud, he figured—and he stood by his belief that he'd like Tadashi. But then again, it was hard not to like Tadashi—he had that everyone's-friend personality that probably grated on someone's nerves, but was easy to gravitate towards.

He missed his family. His mom was probably out of her mind with worry. His stepdad…he didn't know, maybe he was out looking, telling his mom that Sashi's a smart kid, he'll make it—they had to believe he was lost or kidnapped or something. It wasn't like he was about to run away to his dad.

Not anymore, at least.

"Sashi! Come on!" Brittany called down. "Someone just turned this way!"

Ohcrud—jump, flap, claws catching weirdly on the asphalt—panic—he was never good at these dead launches—

Scramble up on the dumpster, crouch, launch out—power down hard—

His wingtips slapped the pavement, but at least he was airborne, flapping frantically, following Brittany as she angled back the way they had come, glancing back frequently—

Finally managed to just glide for a bit and catch his breath.

"So," he wheezed finally. "You like chicken, right?"

"I'm still not sold on dumpster food," Brittany said.

"So that means I get your share, right?"

"You'll be pulling back a stump."

"Fair enough."

'Kase was teasing Tadashi about being the panicky older-brother again, Beth reminding him that he had promised them the story about Hiro and the bot-fighting, probably to get his mind off of things—his wings twitched, arms too tightly crossed to otherwise react. He had finally gotten the kids off of him and curled up next to each other, which gave him plenty of opportunity to focus on being worried about Sashi and Brittany.

Currently, he was hunched on the boulder he and Sashi had been sitting on, staring in the direction they had gone intently, like he could just will them right back here. He was being stupid, he knew, but he hated the idea of something happening to them—not when they were this close—

'Kase was sitting next to him—suddenly pointed. "There they are."

Tension left his back as he spotted them seconds after she did—up in the air, winging straight back for them.

"If they just stole something, heading right back for base is one of the dumbest things to do," 'Kase said.

"He said he wasn't stealing anything," Tadashi reminded her.

"Uh-huh. If it's in a city, it belongs to someone. It's stealing."

Tadashi scowled at her, opened his mouth to respond—

"Incoming!"

They jumped out of the way as Sashi came in hot, tumbling down the boulder and then part of the dirt path behind it. Brittany's landing was more graceful.

"Are you guys okay?" Tadashi asked, hopping back close. "You're okay, right? What is that?" he added, spotting the shapes in Brittany's arms—staring at the little suburbia had ruined his night vision.

"Garbage chicken," Brittany said.

"What?"

Sashi popped out of a bush, holding something up. "Ta-da! We got dinner! And can once again ask the age-old question of whether or not bird-people eating bird is cannibalism."

"What?"

"You're being stupid again," 'Kase told Sashi. "And what are you two talking about anyway?"

"Sashi went dumpster-diving," Brittany said.

"And if you guys aren't going to eat it I am!" Sashi countered. "I'm going to be super-miserable too, but I can take it!"

"Dumpster-diving?" Tadashi asked, feeling hopelessly behind on the conversation. "What did you two do?"

"Look," Sashi said, bumbling over to Tadashi and fumbling with whatever he was holding. "I heard that the All-Mart people have to throw away any rotisserie chickens they don't sell at the end of the day—not sure what the reasoning is, but the seals are still shut and they're still warm so—"

Sashi succeeded in opening the container, and Tadashi's nose went from wrinkling at the external smell to flaring at the smell of cooked and seasoned chicken.

"Oh man Sashi I could kiss you," Tadashi said, having to swallow from his mouth watering.

"Sorry 'Dashi, but that's what got my dad started, so…."

Tadashi laughed, ruffled his hair, shoved him towards the others, hollering that Sashi and Brittany had brought dinner—

Three chickens disappeared quite rapidly under the concentrated onslaught of twenty bird-people.

Everyone was quick to forgive precisely where the meal had originated from—hunger and the reasoning Sashi provided got them past that part. 'Kase and Sue and Beth quickly divvied up the meal, chunks of meat and skin disappearing as fast as they could be stripped from the bones, Grump crunching through bones, kids licking the containers once they were emptied—Lena, Drew and Harry stole some of the larger bones, cracking through them and sucking on the inside before anyone could stop them, gnawing on the outside before they could be relieved of said bones. The end result had once again looked like buzzsaws should have been heard, and while they weren't full, they weren't starving anymore.

"Very nice, Sashi," Tadashi sighed, once the kids had settled down and stopped trying to eat the plastic containers. Nox was currently sitting in his lap, busy licking his fingers, and sagging against Tadashi's chest.

"Thank you, thank you," Sashi said, laid out on his side, raising a hand to twirl his wrist before flopping back down. "Hey, if we stop by another All-Mart tomorrow we can see about trying that again."

"We'd have to stop early—we're going to have to fly through the night now that we're encountering civilization on a regular basis." Tadashi scratched at his neck, stomach feeling light, a thrill making some of his feathers stand on end (that was a weird sensation any time)—civilization. They were getting close, soon they'd be home.

Shake himself a little, look back at Sashi. "So hey, where'd you get the idea to do that anyway?"

"Ah, my mom asked the people at All-Mart what they did with the rotisserie chickens that didn't sell," Sashi muttered, rubbing his face a little, looking like he was trying to drift off. "They told her they had to throw them out, some legal or health reason—Mom joked that if she was ever homeless she knew which dumpster she was hitting first." Chuckle—suddenly look sober and distant. "I think we got real close, once."

Right then, Tadashi wanted to ask just what had happened with his family, knew that there had been a divorce…felt that it wouldn't be appropriate. He settled for grabbing Sashi's nearest ankle and shaking it a little.

"You did good, Sashi," he told him.

Sashi ducked his head, face flushing when the others echoed that sentiment.

"Fwee," Nox noised, flopping sideways in Tadashi's lap. "Dashi-Dashi-Dashi…."

"Hey no don't get too comfortable we've got to try to fit some more flying in tonight," Tadashi said, poking Nox—Nox giggled and flailed a little. "What's the rule, you guys think—no flying for two hours after you eat?"

"I don't know, they used to serve meals on planes," Beth said.

"Yes, but you weren't the one doing the flying," Sue told her.

"Wait—you guys got meals?" Sashi asked, sitting up. Huey squawked, clinging tighter. "I remember when they stopped giving us peanuts."

"They used to be full-course meals and didn't taste like cardboard," Beth told him.

"Okay, I don't remember that," Sue said, settled down a little with two kids sleeping against her.

Sashi looked at Brittany. "I want those flights—I'd fly more if we had those I feel robbed."

"Didn't you have to dress up for that too?" Brittany asked.

"You did," Beth confirmed. "It was a whole production. And none of the fuss involved with flying now—just hop on a plane and go."

"Or hop in the air and go," 'Kase said, standing and stretching. "Which, by the way, we'll be needing to do soon. I'll give you all thirty minutes, but after that we've got to go."

"Fair enough," Tadashi said, looking at her. "By the way, you have to say it."

"Say what?"

"Is there something you want to say to Sashi?"

'Kase considered this, turned to Sashi. "You smell like you dove in a dumpster."

"I'd be offended if it weren't true," Sashi said. "I mean I'm still a little offended, but not as much as I could be."

"And when you steal something you shouldn't head straight back to base."

"Okay…."

"'Kase you had something nicer to say," Tadashi sighed.

"Fine, fine…you did good."

Sashi gasped, went wide-eyed—grabbed Brittany's upper arm and started shaking her a little. "Did you hear that? 'Punch me Guido, punch me in the face, this is the happiest moment of my life!'"

"Don't make me take you up on that offer," Brittany said.

"Then you haven't been leading a very eventful life," 'Kase decided, pacing away.

"She means that in a nice way, Sashi," Tadashi told him.

"I will totally take it," Sashi said.