WHO: Blaze Wolfe & Hunter Tyler. WHEN: I have no idea. Nae? WHERE: Ty's house. SUMMARY: Blaze checks on Ty from time to time to make sure he hasn't burned the house down. He's over at a good time because Ty was definitely in the process of burning the house down with pizza boxes. WARNINGS: Length, Disney Princess behavior, possible language, dogs, mention of Ty's grandparents deaths. Uh, I think that's it?
There was usually a reason that Tyler had wandered outside. The problem was that he didn’t always remember. He would stand there, looking around at his surroundings, hoping for some kind of hint—like the universe was trying to tell him something. Then he would head back and get back to work.
It happened more times than he was comfortable to admit.
Sometimes he would leave the cash register on a mission and by the time he got to the destination he had completely forgotten. At times, he would jump with the realization of a task that he had neglected to do weeks ago, but when he made the move to get things done, he had no idea what he was doing. In fact, most of the time that Ty was awake, he knew he was moving through the motions.
Lost. Set adrift.
But there were flickers, bright personalities that waded through the fog and guided him out of his daze to the present. People that put out the fires. People that handed him food and reminded him to eat. People that interjected to make sure he was okay--even when he knew that he was anything but. Something important was missing and there were days he felt it so strongly it crippled him.
At some point, Ty had inherited a pot of chicken noodle soup from some loving soul that had noticed the abundance of pizza boxes by his trash can and was worried that he was going to turn into a stick of pepperoni. He had eaten until he was tired of the taste of noodles and it was starting to turn. Instead of throwing the rest away, he carried the pot to the front lawn and dumped it out into the metal trough by the trees.
His grandmother had loved to watch the birds from the front windows of the house. Between the squirrels and the raccoons, the feeders were almost always empty. His grandfather had put together a feeder of their own. When his grandfather died, Ty had taken over refilling the feeders with seed. He had boiled the sugar water into syrup for the hummingbirds. He tucked corn cobs around the property for the deer and the squirrels. He even put out bowls of dog food for the raccoons.
Over the course of the past few years, he’d made friends with the wildlife and he assumed they would enjoy what had remained from a week’s worth of dinners. He headed back inside, guided the pot into the sink to soak, and headed for his bedroom.
He was barely ten minutes into an episode of Arrow when he heard a knock at the front door.
Anyone that habitually came around to his place knew they didn’t have to knock. Just open the door, it was usually unlocked anyway, and go in. He canted his head to the side in confusion before he climbed out of bed and headed to peer outside.
No one. There was no one there.
Huh?
Ty opened the screen door, stepped outside, and looked around. Still--there was no one there.
Shrugging, he swung back indoors and started toward the bedroom when he heard the knock again.
“Who’s there?” he called out this time. But there was no answer.
He was quicker to the door this time and yet the doorway was empty. No girl scouts. No pizza delivery. No nosy neighbor. Just a whole lot of nothing for some insistent knocking.
“What the hell?” he mumbled under his breath as he reached up a hand to scratch at the back of his head. He’d heard rumors that the town was haunted, but he didn’t put much stock in them. Mostly because he didn’t want to believe in ghosts or demons or leprechauns or whatever else people talked about when they brought up Fall City.
Having wandered from the door toward the kitchen, he heard the knock for the third time. Instead of rushing, he waited, holding his breath for a beat to see if it would happen again. When it did, he took another step closer. And then another. And then another until he was standing at the door staring at a group of crows that had gathered in front of the door. They took turns knocking, rocking forward to tap at the door before flying away.
“Hey!” Ty offered with a surprised laugh.
The birds chattered back before they dodged away as he pushed the door open and moved to stand on the porch. He could see now that the birds of the area were taking turns descending on the remains of the meal. A raven approached him again, flying through the porch and then back out toward the grass.
“Are you saying thank you?” he asked.
The answer came in a chorus of caws and chatters as the crows flew toward the feeder before swooping back up into the air to rest on the power lines.
“Well, you’re welcome,” he replied, leaning on the railing to watch them. “I’ll remember to save you some next time if I end up with soup again.”
He stood there for the better part of fifteen minutes talking to the birds. Since he had started feeding the ravens, they tended to perform afterward. If he left out shiny bits, they returned with presents of their own. But it was the first time a bird had knocked on the door. It must’ve been some really good soup.
As the frenzy began to slow, he noticed that several of the feeders looked low on seed. He dipped back inside, grabbed the feed canister, and started toward the steps. He shook it to mix up the seed before he moved toward the closest tree to refill.
CAW!
“What?” Ty called back.
Caw! Caw!
“Oh really?” he countered. “It’s good to know you feel that way.”
He finished filling the feeder and screwed the cap back on before he sidestepped to peer up toward the trees. The crows were mocking him again.
Ty probably would have talked to them for a while longer, but he could see the finches were anxious to get to the feeder and they wouldn’t approach if he was still standing there. As he walked back toward the house, he heard the crows call to him, laughing. “Y’know, it’s not that funny--” he started to say, until he turned to find someone watching him.
A hot blush crept into his cheeks and he offered a timid smile. “Hey! Just, uh, feeding the, uh, the birds.”
Blaze stared back at him for a few long moments. From where he’d been standing, witnessing this, he was quiet.
“Well,” he said, “I guess that explains where you’ve been getting all of the hot town gossip.”
The little birds were telling Ty. Blaze looked back at him.Note to self: Don’t step away to take a picture after you’ve knocked on Ty’s door. Blaze was generally a knock and then enter kind of person. The people he knew very well were the ones who deserved the warning.
“How are you doing?” If he’d known Ty was entertaining company already, Blaze wouldn’t have disturbed him.
“Uh, good, I guess,” Ty said as he popped the lid back onto the seed container and hugged it to his chest. “I mean, yeah. Good.” It was a lie. He’d woken up three streets over on someone’s lawn yesterday morning clutching an empty box of Pop-Tarts. He took several steps away from the feeders and toward his friend. “Did you, uh, want to come in?”
“You sure?” Blaze asked. “You’re looking kind of twitchy.” Ty wasn’t a great liar. “Sure,” Blaze nodded. He had a regular time that he usually stopped by. He’d learned to time his visits for just after a meal time. In case of fire.
“What were you up to?” he asked. “Before the birds?” Not that Blaze hadn’t enjoyed the spectacle. For a lifelong fire starter, Ty was good with animals.
Squinting in an attempt to remember, Ty looked around and blinked several times before coming up short. “Uh, I--uh,” he stammered. “I don’t know.”
Looking at the birds, he walked back through the moments before Blaze had shown up. “The crows were laughing. And then, uh, I fed the finches. The raven knocked on the door,” he trailed off, trying to put the pieces together to remember exactly-- ”Oh! I dumped out the rest of the soup I had for them. They liked it, I guess.” Wait, was that the question. “What’d you ask me again?”
“What were your plans for the day?” Blaze asked. “Before you dumped your soup out. Is there anything you want to do today?”
“Oh, uh, just watching movies, I think. I’ve got a shift at Mitzi’s later. And then Feed and Seed tomorrow morning,” Ty answered with a sigh. “You wanna come in? Leo would love to say hello.”
Had it not been for Blaze’s family, he never would’ve ended up with the dog anyway. Besides, he was used to him stopping over by now and he was pretty sure they’d never just chatted in the street. Without waiting, he started heading back for the house. Before he reached the porch, he could smell the smoke. “Oh, shit,” he mumbled. He turned to look back at his friend. “Hey, stay out here for a second. I’ll let Leo out.”
“Again??” Blaze shot Ty a pointed look on the way, but he was already in the house, headed for the oven. He turned the oven off and left the fire behind the closed door to eat its pizza box and starve itself out. “Get the dog!” Blaze started opening windows.
Blaze hoped they wouldn’t have to call the fire department. They always put him out.
It wasn’t the first time Ty had neglected the oven. He tended to store things in there until he was ready to use it and then he forgot to check. But really, cooking all of the pizza at the same time made sense, right? Then it was all hot. Blaze’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts—he was still standing on the first step.
“Leo!” he called as he climbed the remaining four and opened the door. “Here, buddy!”
The dog came flying around the corner and collided with the dining room table as his paws lost traction on the wooden floor. He thumped his tail rhythmically as he looked up at Ty. Suppressing a laugh, the boy reached down for the dog and hefted him into his arms.
“Let’s go, Blaze. Your dad’ll kill me if you die of smoke inhalation.”
“I’m insured,” Blaze called over the smoke, but once he had the windows all open, he exited the house with Ty. They had about ten minutes to see if the fire would die on its own. Otherwise, Blaze would be calling the fire department again.
They stood together out on the porch. “How many pizza boxes did you put in there?” Blaze shook his head. “Come on, Ty. What if I hadn’t shown up when I did?”
Leo wiggled excitedly in Ty’s arms until he put him down. The dog raced over to Blaze and set into the task of sniffling every part of him before offering a whine in greeting. He stomped his paws a few times before sitting and staring up, glancing between both boys, waiting for attention or a treat.
“Well,” Ty started, squinting one eye as he arched his eyebrows. “Uh, I thought it was just one. I forgot I was hungry. I decided to watch something. And then I figured I should feed the birds.” He paused after a moment and studied his feet, his cheeks burned with his embarrassment. “I just--” He shrugged. “Sometimes I can’t remember. But I did get a fire extinguisher. It’s under the sink.”
Blaze knelt and pet the dog, but his attention was very much on Ty. He shook his head and exhaled. Ty could be so smart in so many ways, but in others he should have won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for being a total space cadet. There was something wrong that Blaze didn’t really understand and he couldn’t help it, because he didn’t understand it.
How could he really blame Ty for what Ty, for whatever reason, couldn’t physically remember or retain?
“You need a roommate,” Blaze said. “Preferably one that shares the same schedule.” It was scary to think of Ty living all by himself.
“Are you offering?” Ty asked with a small smile. He had no idea where to find a roommate. Or a housemate, rather. He didn’t want someone sharing his room unless he had to. Leo was plenty of company as it was.
“If you want to move into my bedroom, sure,” Blaze said. It would be kind of a tight squeeze though, and he didn’t have to remind Ty that his little sisters were demons.
Ty dropped into a crouch and offered the dog his hands. The lab returned with no prompting, burying his face in Ty’s palms, wiggling with excitement. Friend! Friend! Friend is here! Ty sometimes felt like he knew exactly what his dog was thinking. He felt the same way at times--he loved having company. But he hated when he let his friends down.
“I don’t really know where to start with that,” he explained. “Finding someone to move in.”
“You could put up an ad on the network?” Blaze suggested. “That could be a good first step.” There was Craigslist too, but Blaze thought the Fall City Network was better.
Ty hummed in thought. That was a good idea. “I guess that makes sense. I could do that.” He glanced back toward Blaze and then back toward the dog. “Leo, you want someone to come play with you?”
The dog rumbled playfully in response before taking off, leaping down the front steps of the porch and out toward the yard where he jumped toward the bird feeder, scattering the birds back to their perches in the nearby trees.