cow goes moo

[thedreamthief]

While Ronan has long cultivated and enjoyed an outward appearance and style choice meant to intimidate, discomfit, and frighten, he finds that, when it comes to assuring the staff of Darrow's Home for Children that he is, in fact, a responsible adult with no ill intentions, it's not the most appropriate.

Luckily, they have his name on a list in the system and after Ronan reluctantly hands over his ID and, sneering, signs a half a dozen forms, Jack's allowed out with him.

There's a curfew, of course, and he has to promise to keep his fucking cellphone turned on at all times, but it's a small price to pay when he spots the kid and his familiar wide smile. Ronan drives him back to Hywel in the Pig, stopping briefly for a shake at one of those drive-in fast food joints that bring the shit straight out to the car, just because he thinks it might be something Jack would get a kick out of.

Ronan's still working on his when he pulls up to the factory. As far as he knows, it should be empty for a change, unless Gansey's taken a break from his stint at the library. He knows Adam will be at work, and Noah too, probably. He's never sure about Blue, but he hardly sees her anyway so the chances are good she won't be around.

For the best, he thinks. He's not too sure what any one of them would think about Ronan bring a kid home for the afternoon.

"When you get out you gotta slam the door really hard," he tells Jack as he cuts the engine and undoes his belt. "Like, as hard as you can. Got me?"

Comments

[37hours]

Ronan says I won't scare Hercules, that's good. I think maybe I could scare him if I wanted to, like maybe with yelling and stuff because I think Leo says Seamus gets scared when things are too loud, but I don't want to scare Hercules so I keep myself more quiet. But Hercules is really loud! His feet are hard on the bottom, I think they're called hooves — they're called hooves on horses for sure — and they're so loud when they hit the ground! Like clip clop clip clop, again and again because he's happy and jumping around lots.

I laugh a lot when Hercules sometimes bumps my hand and sometimes goes somewhere else. He's got so much energy, even more than me when I've had lots of ice cream.

"Is he always this excited? He's got lots of energy, maybe all that jumping around is really good exercise, I don't think I can jump around this much," I giggle, but I try to anyway, I jump up and down like Hercules does and my shoes are also loud but not like clip clop loud, more like thump thump loud. "Are the other animals all like Hercules?"

[thedreamthief]

"Not always," Ronan admits with a smirk, watching as Hercules continues to dance around Jack. Jack starts jumping along with him, mimicking his movements and Ronan can't help but laugh a little, reminded yet again of Matthew. "He'll tire out eventually."

Standing up again, Ronan wipes his hands over the thighs of jeans before nodding over toward the chicken coop.

"You wanna meet the hens?" he ask, already turning that way. "They're not as loud and excitable as Hercules here."

The coop is situated in the back north-east corner, a little nook fenced off from Hercules but with a door that opens to the backyard, letting them wander out in the sunshine whenever they'd like. It looks nearly empty from where they are now, but Ronan knows it's only because the girls are either out in the back or hidden in the coop itself, taking advantage of the shade.

[37hours]

"Hee, I guess everybody gets tired sometime," I say to Ronan, I'm still jumping with Hercules and it's lots of fun. Sometimes he butts his head, it doesn't hurt because he doesn't do it very hard, but it's funny when he butts into my tummy. "He's got lots of Strong though! I mean he's the only goat I ever met but I think he's got lots of Strong if you have to hold him sometimes." I giggle, I think if Ronan didn't help then maybe Hercules would make me fall down on my butt already.

When Ronan says there are more animals I can meet, I clap lots. "Yeah! I wanna meet everyone!" I say before I run over next to Ronan. I think Ronan must be a little magical because all the animals like him a lot. I bet Seamus would really like Ronan, even though Seamus is more quiet than Hercules.

Ronan says that the hens are not as loud as Hercules. I think I can hear them a little bit, but yeah, it's really soft and I don't know how to make that kind of sound. It's a little like a cat purr but not really.

"Are they hiding? If they're shy, I can be quiet," I tell Ronan and I reach for his hand.

[thedreamthief]

Hercules lets out a quiet sound that sounds a lot like disapproval when Jack steps away from him, reaching up to slip his small hand into Ronan's. As long as Ronan has worked at keeping people at arm's length, cultivated his scowl and sharp edges, the gesture surprises him. It shouldn't maybe given that he's never pulled any of that with Jack, but it does all the same, makes something in Ronan's chest flood warm as he gives Jack's hand a light squeeze in return.

"A few might be hiding in the coop," he says, leading Jack toward the back corner and using his free hand to unhook the small clasp on the gate keeping Hercules out. "We can peek inside though and see. They won't mind."

He lets go of Jack so he can hold the door and keep Hercules at bay, closing it behind them with a faint click before nodding for Jack to follow him toward the coop. As expected, there are two of them hiding in the shadows -- Helena and Electra as far as he can tell -- and they both trill somewhat grumpily when Ronan pokes his head in.

"Yeah, here we go," he says, motioning for Jack to come over. "In here getting their beauty rest. You wanna say hi?"

[37hours]

Hercules is not so happy anymore because he can't get to us, I feel a little bad so maybe after we see the hens then we can go back so that I can play with Hercules again. I know that we all have to share time but I think Hercules gets more happy than the hens, so maybe that means it's okay for him to have more time.

I'm still learning about how to share time with people and with animals, sometimes it's hard because one thing will make me really happy and that's all I want to do! But we have to share time with everyone, that's important and it makes us more grown-up.

"They're sleeping?" I whisper to Ronan, I get real close so that he can hear me and I don't have to yell, if they're sleeping I don't think they'll like it if I yell. "Um, um I want to see but I don't want to make them sad if they need to rest. Like my Ma had to rest lots at Hammock House so sometimes I would play in another room."

I peek through the window, I think I see the hens in the back. "Hee, they're so fluffy," I say to Ronan and smile. "Like a big poof of feathers."

[thedreamthief]

"They're resting, but I don't think they'll mind too much if you sneak a peek," Ronan tells him, pulling back so Jack can squeeze in further for a better look.

Jack's head doesn't take up nearly as much space as his own and above it, he can see Electra ruffle her feathers in the back and stand up from her little perch. She makes a low clucking sound before walking her way to the door and down the little ramp, out toward them.

"Enough beauty rest for one day, ma'am?" he says to her as her feet pick their way through the hay. She eyes Jack, clearly curious, though she doesn't approach him at all, instead heading straight for the large open back door where the other four are out in the sun. Ronan flashes a smile at Jack and nods for him to follow, blinking against the sun as they step outside. The other hens are all out there, one of them way back by the fence, hidden in the shade, and the other three pecking their way across the hay, swallowing up bits of corn and seed and bread.

"All of these ladies lay eggs," Ronan explains, hunching down then to scoop Grumpy up into his arms. She blinks at him and gives a quiet cluck but doesn't struggle and Ronan gestures for Jack to step closer. "They're not as rambunctious as Hercules, but they're still pretty friendly. You want to pet her?"

[37hours]

I try to be real quiet when I go inside, but I'm happy when I see that the hens aren't sleeping, they're just resting, that means they won't be sad or mad if I wake them up. They're making different kinds of sounds, sometimes it's the soft one like I heard before, and sometimes it's like the cluck cluck that they tell you hens make when you read books. I like both of them but I don't really know what they mean. I think the soft sound is like when they're sleepy and maybe the cluck cluck is when they're more happy.

"The beauty rest is good, they look so pretty," I say to Ronan. Ronan lets me know that I can follow them, so I do, but I'm walking slow because I think the birds I saw in Park got really scared if I walked too fast to them. I know hens are a different kind of bird but I still don't want to make them fly away if I scare them. But when I walk slow the hens don't run away, they're still eating stuff, I look at it real close and there's like corn and seeds and crumbs.

"Do the eggs hatch into chicks? Or are they eggs that we eat?" I ask Ronan, and I laugh when he picks up one of the hens, she looks so soft and comfy in Ronan's arms. "And, and what stuff do they like eating most? And yeah! I want to pet her, um, if you think she likes it."

I touch the hen really gently, her feathers are slippery and soft and they tickle a little bit. I saw lots of feathers on the ground so I think feathers probably fall out like hair does sometimes, I didn't feel my hair falling out but we had to sweep in Room and the sweeping always had lots of hair, mine and Ma's.

[thedreamthief]

Grumpy makes a little more noise as Jack steps in, struggling a bit in Ronan's arms. She's clearly not quite used to this new, smaller person. She calms in moments though when Jack proves to be gentle, smoothing over the feathers of her side as she cocks her head and blinks at him, assessing.

"The eggs these guys pop out are unfertilized," Ronan replies, really hoping he won't have to go into too much detail about what all that means. He's not about to dance around it thought, not when Jack's obviously a damn smart kid. "So no chicks, just yolks. They make a lot more than we can eat so sometimes we give the extras away. You want to take some back with you?"

Giving eggs to a five year old is definitely not the wisest decision, Ronan knows. Which is exactly why he's offering. If he gets his way, Jack will make a complete mess either of the Pig or his bedroom back in the home.

He'll just have to make sure Jack doesn't get in trouble for it.

"And they'll eat almost anything. Seeds, vegetables, grain. Bugs." His lips twitch into a grin then as he adds in a lower voice, "Chicken."

[37hours]

Ronan uses some big words again, like unfertilized. I know what fertilizer is because I learned it from the gardener who helps water and cut the grass and bushes at the Home. He used fertilizer one time, he says most of the time you only use it in spring because that's when things just start to grow, but he needed to use it one time in the fall because we didn't get lots of rain this year. So I think fertilizer is something that helps things grow, but I didn't know that you could use it on not plants.

So maybe if you don't use fertilizer for eggs then no chicks grow and then it can just be food. I think that makes sense because if not then people have to guess if eggs have chicks in them or not and that's really sad if you guess wrong. I want to ask Ronan more and tell him yes I want some eggs but then he tells me about what the chickens eat! That's important because I want to know how to feed them and make them happy.

But Ronan says something that sounds really crazy!

"Chickens eat... chicken?" I ask. My eyes are so big right now because that doesn't sound okay! "Are they going to eat each other? That's scary! I don't want them to eat each other, they should all be friends and they can help each other with their eggs."

[thedreamthief]

Jack's reaction is priceless, his eyes going huge and round and Ronan laughs a little as he reaches out to give Jack's arm a light, reassuring squeeze.

"Not like that," he says, feeling a slight pang of guilt. Jack's a sweet kid, innocent and warm in that way so like Matthew. "It's chopped up first. Like the chicken you buy at the store, the stuff your mom makes for dinner. That kind of chicken. They won't eat each other, I promise."

He turns his head then to smile at Grumpy who only blinks her beady little eyes at him as he lightly brushes a finger along the top of her head. "They're not always nice to each other though. Have you ever heard the term 'pecking order?' It comes from these guys. They peck and bully each other, especially the smallest, quietest one. In this group, that's Grumpy here. Sometimes I have to separate her from the others so they don't hurt her."

He gives a quiet sort of smirk then. "Chickens are assholes sometimes."

[37hours]

I rub at my eyes a little bit because it's really weird stuff to think about and makes my head feel weird. Even if the chicken isn't eating the other chickens it lives with, it's still kind of weird that chicken eats chicken. Like cows eat grass and horses eat carrots. I didn't know that some stuff eats the same stuff that it is.

"I never heard pecking order before... but that makes me sad," I tell Ronan. I walk over to Grumpy and pet her really carefully, I think I want to give her the most love because the other chickens are mean. "I wish we could teach the chickens to be nice to eat other, things are a lot better when we're all nice. But sometimes, sometimes there are kids at the Home that make fun of me too. I'm smaller than the other kids who are five, and, and they say that boys shouldn't have long hair."

I make an angry face. "They're wrong, boys can have long hair if they want." I sigh then I look up at Ronan. "Why do chickens eat chickens if they have the other stuff? Are there other things that eat the things that they are? Do people ever eat people?"

[thedreamthief]

Grumpy turns her little when Jack runs a careful hand down her back and Ronan adjusts his hold on her a little when she starts to squirm just a little, though she seems to get pretty comfortable after another minute. His smile falters a bit when Jack expresses concern over the pecking order, but he keeps quiet, not speaking until it seems like Jack's about to panic a little.

"Chickens are omnivores," Ronan tries to explain. "Which means they eat both meats and veggies, but really they'll eat just about anything you put in front of them. Cows and goats are herbivores, so the only eat vegetables and grains and things like that. Pigs are omnivores too, just like chickens and, you guessed, it they can eat pig. Technically, people can eat people," Ronan adds, a bit worried about how much detail he should get into here as he doesn't exactly want to give the kid nightmares. He screws his nose up a bit in a look of distaste before adding, "But I wouldn't recommend it."

He shuffles Grumpy in his arm again then before softening his tone a bit as he reaches up to lightly rest his hand on Jack's shoulder.

"But you're right. Boys can have long hair. Hell, they can have any kind of hair they'd like." He considers a moment, eyes narrowing. "Those don't beat up on you, do they?"

[37hours]

These are big words, but they're all a little bit the same so that will make them easier to remember. Omnivore. Herbivore. I guess herbs are kind of like vegetables, Grandma uses herbs when she cooks food and they're always plants and stuff. So maybe that's how I can remember herbivore. I don't know what vore means but I guess it's like when you're something that eats. That way herbivore's like vegetable eater.

Words are weird. Sometimes even if you have other words that have the right meaning, there's still another word to show that same meaning. I don't know why but I still want to know all of the words that I can.

"I never want to eat people. I like eating meat but sometimes I feel bad about that too because like... if I know animals that make meat and they're really nice then I feel bad to eat them. Like it's gonna be different to eat chicken after knowing Grumpy," I tell Ronan and I still pet Grumpy some more, I think she needs all the love. "But eating people is extra gross, I don't want to eat what I am."

I look up when Ronan's hand is on my shoulder. "No, um, no boys are beating me up," I tell him. I know what beating up is like because Old Nick used to do that to Ma, I don't have anything like that in the Home. "Sometimes they chase me with scissors but that's all, I don't think they actually will cut my hair, they'd get in big trouble."