Ichigo's bird was throwing a tantrum, squawking indignantly, flapping his wings, and chewing on the bars of his cage. Why? Because Toushiro was paying more attention to his paperwork than he was to him. Toushiro rubbed his temples and sent a suffering glance at the cockatiel now aggressively swinging on his hanging perch. He knew that he was being disruptive; his little, beady, black eyes looked smug.

"What do you want, Kotori?" he huffed, giving in and going over to the cage that Ichigo had set in the corner of his office. He shouldn't have agreed to pet-sit for the weekend, he had a pretty important report due on Monday and if the bird kept this up he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to finish it. But, Ichigo had used his puppy-eyes and Toushiro had a running history of not being able to say no when Ichigo used his puppy-eyes. He poked his fingers through the bars of the cage and Kotori jumped over to him, ramming his head against his fingertips and demanding him to scratch his neck.

"I can't pet you all day," Toushiro sighed, running a fingernail underneath the bird's chin.

Kotori chirped happily and Toushiro huffed in annoyance. The moment he went back to his work, the bird would start screeching and biting his cage bars.

"You're a nuisance, just like your owner." He withdrew his fingers from the cage and, as predicted, as soon as he took a step back Kotori let out the loudest, shrillest screech he could. Toushiro groaned. "Will you be quiet? What do I have to do to make you stop?"

Kotori's answer was to flap his wings and screech.

Toushiro grumbled and picked up the cage. Fine, they would compromise. He set it on his desk and sat down. Kotori craned his neck to see what was going on, clinging onto the side of the cage that was closest to Toushiro. He blinked and let out a quiet chirp as Toushiro picked up his brush and dipped it in the ink pad. He was silent for all of two minutes as Toushiro edited the report. Then all hell broke loose again. He screeched, he squawked, he bit his cage bars, flapped his wings, and hopped in irritation from one side of his cage to the other. Toushiro growled, throwing his brush down and yanking his hair.

"What do you want, you stupid bird?!"

That seemed to make Kotori more aggravated; he latched onto the near side of his cage and screamed right at Toushiro's face. Toushiro was stunned for a moment, watched as the bird bobbed up and down screaming bloody murder. He was about to call Ichigo to tell him that his bird was possessed when Kotori hopped to his cage door and began to peck at the latch. He couldn't open it; Ichigo had assured him that he couldn't open it.

"Do you want to come out?" Toushiro asked. He sighed when the screeching didn't stop.

Ichigo sometimes let the bird out of his cage, he couldn't fly away, and he sat on Ichigo's shoulder or on top of his head as he went around his apartment. Toushiro grumbled and unhooked the door.

"You better not shit on my paperwork."

Kotori hopped out of his cage, ruffled his wings and explored Toushiro's desk top. Toushiro shook his head and picked up his brush once more. Kotori chirped softly, the crest on his head perked up slightly and he hopped over to Toushiro and settled on the hand that held the brush. He looked up to Toushiro and blinked expectantly.

Toushiro scowled. "I can't write with you sitting there."

He shook his hand in an effort to make Koroti get off, but the bird simply chirped happily and fluffed his feathers, sinking down into a more comfortable position.

"You're being ridiculous," he sighed. At least the bird was quiet now. He was still able to write with Kotori sitting on his hand and if anything the warmth on the back of his hand was comforting. Maybe he just wanted to be close to someone. Knowing Ichigo, he probably spoilt the bird rotten.

That night Ichigo called him to check up on his pet. Toushiro was lying on his futon with the bird cage on the ground next to him. Kotori was sleeping with his head under his wing.

"How's he doing?" Ichigo asked.

"He's fine," Toushiro muttered. "He wouldn't shut up earlier today. How can a bird that small scream so loudly?"

Ichigo snorted. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Shut up. I don't scream; I yell."

"Right, babe. Hope he wasn't too distracting. He's not good with new places."

"Yeah, he stopped when I let him out. He seemed happy to ride on my hand while I did my work."

Ichigo chuckled. "Yeah, he likes doing that."

"It would have been nice to know that beforehand."

Ichigo chuckled guiltily. "Sorry, I knew I forgot to mention something."

This prompt was from Chibi Envy Chan :)

Up next is Airaly then Reflet

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-Mymomomo