#birbwatch

No one was getting sleep that night. Bastion wasyowling unhappily pulled into a tight ball while Zenyatta squeakedand patted the cat's head comfortingly. Sombra was shriekingsomething awful whizzing from one side of the rafters to the other, occasionally stopping to hide behind Reaper or one of the otherlarger birds. The only calm bird was Widowmaker who was casually preening through her feathers with Tracer hiding between hertalons without a care to be had about the storm outside. Reaper though was just a hair tense as, after all, one bad stroke oflightning could cause them all a lot of trouble. His attention thoughwas soon drawn to the entrance to their nest as Genji started to chirpup, the metal prosthetic of his wings glowing faintly in the low light as hespotted someone coming to the entrance. A very, very largesomeone. Then nesting sight fell silent as a huge goldeneagle squeezed its way in, feathers ruffled and wet and one eyescarred over showing that they were not the sort of bird to mess withdespite their obvious age.Behind him, a female falcon made her wayin, waddling with the gait of a bird no doubt about to lay an egg ortwo , both shivering from the cold of the rain.The first oneto speak up was Soldier 76, the mountain hawk-eagle dropping downjust a bit closer, startling the newcomers. Apparently they had notknown that the current establishment was occupied. The golden eaglespoke loudly, more or less explaining their own nesting tree had beenblown over in the storm, the nest lost and now, with no where to go,Ana, his falcon companion, needed a safe place to nest. It didn'ttake long to decide to let the three stay, even if Reaper was now abit worried about how so many raptors were going to be able to keepup a diet. There was plenty of game now but come winter, they mightbe competing against each other in the race to survive.

Ana was allowed to have Soldier 76'snest, the mountain hawk-eagle more than happy to roast for a whilegiven the falcon was due for an egg and in a day, there was a newaddition, although for now, that addition was just an egg.Still Reaper was pretty sure everyone was losing their mind about it.Genji was already trying to sit on it, all fluffed up and prouddespite his small size being unable to properly cover the egg. Nodoubt a bit of reliving for him of the time he sat and incubatedMcCree's egg for what now seemed so long ago.

Even Sombra wanted to help, bringingAna's nest things constantly to make it more comfortable and keep theegg nice and snug.Reaper found he didn't mind Ana, the falconwas decisive and sharp of mind. Reinhardt though, the golden eagle,was far more boisterous and loud than he would have liked but he waspopular with both Lucio and D.Va, the two birds always flitting aboutthe enormous bird, asking questions and swapping stories. It wasobvious to the owl though that Reinhardt and Ana had feelings foreach other, either as friends or something more. They were two birdsof a feather and neither was going anywhere without the other.

Reaper had just been finishinghis dinner, feasting on a young rabbit he had caught and carefullygrooming his feathers when the shrill cry of alarm filled the air.The owl jolted up, eyes widening in the dark as he let out a startledshriek of his own before taking into the air, tilting his head thisway and that  to find out where Genji was, hooting in alarm. Thesight that greeted him was the little sparrow, beaten and batteredwith an owl on top of him, clearly looking to make a meal of thewounded sparrow. Reaper wasn't going to have any of that and with ashriek, charged at the other owl, talons leading. All hislife, Reaper had been fighting off other predators and in a fight oftalons, he was a lot more experienced than the other owl. Still thescuffle was fierce, feathers flying every which way, talons cuttingagainst each other before finally with a hard pull of the wing to theenemy owl, Reaper sent them flying off, shrieking in pain. He hunchedup, spreading his wings and hissing before turning to regard Genjiwith concerned hoots. The response was weak and Genji didn'tlook good with feathers all over the place and his wings savaged.Reaper carefully picked him up and flew back to the nest, makingenough noise to rouse the entire roost as he came in. Everyonecrowded in concern and Reaper just continued his wailing. Out of allof them though, it was Mercy who spoke up, chirping loudly beforejumping to the exit of the nest. She knew a place that couldhelp Genji. A human place that helped birds. Reaper was reluctant tobelieve her but regardless, picked up Genji to fly after her as sheled the way to the facility. The dove fluttered about, making aruckus at each window until one of them opened, a man peering out andpushing up his glasses, eyes tired as he took in the three. He pausedthough, eyes widening and saying something in the human speech atseeing Genji.Reaper set the injured sparrow on the ledge,tensing up as the human picked up the sparrow and withdrew insidewith the dove, closing the window behind him. For hours Reaper satthere outside the window, hunched up and nervous, hoping the sparrowwould be okay. Dawn came and went. The afternoon dragged on. Reaperdozed off at some point into troubled sleep, only to be awoken by thewindow opening up.He hooted loudly as Mercy fluttered out,looking tired before looking over her shoulder. Soon Genji came out,although he looked different. He had metal parts now on both wings,looking sort of like those things Sombra called a robot. It didn'tmake him any less cute, and it seemed he was fine and could fly, butit was still shocking to see. Reaper carefully tapped a talonat the new parts, Genji balling up and flitting about nervously,clearly not sure what to think. The owl gave a comforting hoot andleaned down to nuzzle the sparrow to assure him that he still likedhim. Genji gave a nervous twittered but moved to hop on Reaper's headas he always did, fluttering out his half mechanical wings. Thehuman smiled at the sight, saying something. He place a small kiss onthe top of Mercy's head and a few other doves cooed in farewell fromwhere they were gathered before they took off again.

Really he couldn't blame the osprey fortaking a dive at Hanzo. She was hungry and as far as she wasconcerned, the varied tit was an easy meal. That didn't mean that itwas okay, but still, he could at least feel a bit of raptor sympathy.

The owl had been awoken from his nap bythe shrieks of a scuffle and had gone to the entrance to the nest topeer out sleepily, expecting Soldier 76 to be having it out withTalon again or the like. He was surprised to find him in a battlewith a she-raptor and seeming like he was losing even. Reaper didn'tjump to his aid though as the fight didn't look lethal and a quick glancearound and a headcount later, he saw all the smaller members werethere.Zenyatta gave a squeak as he landed next to Reaper,peering down over the ledge at the grappling raptors before lookingup at Reaper with small sounds of concern. The owl stretched and gavea dismissive hoot before shaking out his wings and hunching down,making it clear he was content to watch at best, go back to sleep atworse. McCree was making a lot of noise though, the cuckooraising all sorts of hell as he sat on top of a disgruntled Hanzo asif daring anyone to come at him and try and harm the varied titagain. Genji was beside himself with brotherly rage, puffed up andlooking like he was going to try and fight the osprey if Soldier 76couldn't defeat her. That alone made Reaper let out a long hootbefore puffing up to his full height, his eyes widening and lettingout a shriek.The sound caused the two raptors to pause intheir fight and break apart, the osprey regarding him with curiositymore than any sort of fear, giving an inquiring caw. As soon as shemade a proper call, Reaper knew right away who she was and hootedback in companionable greeting. He knew Widowmaker. They usedto nest near each other and they had a system back in those days. Thenight was his, the day was hers. He didn't pick off so much she wouldstare and vice versa. They had lived together, chatted a few times and had been sort of friends. He had not expected to see her in theseparts, especially since last he met her, she was nesting with somepuffed up male osprey named Gerrad and were planning on chicks.Clearly that had not played out. Reaper felt aruffling of his feathers as Sombra peered out from behind him, eyeingup Widowmaker before hopping out to introduce herself proudly,puffing up her garish purple plume as only a parakeet could do. Thisonly amused Widowmaker further and she tilted her head, but Reaperknew she was only playing nice because she was realizing she was abit outnumbered. The tufted owl gave a loud hoot, and took to theair, calling out for her to follow him to better hunting grounds.Widowmaker complied, taking to wing after him and the two left.

It was strange to talk to her again andthe two fell into conversation as they had in the past as they approached a meadow nearby, teeming with plump young rodents. Reapertook a post in a tree and waited for her to hunt, actually impressedwith how quickly she was able to snag herself a morsel, a small fishshe had snatched up from the nearby pond. Reaper watched her eat,wondering idly if fish tasted any different than rodent  and notseeing the appeal of eating something cold and slimy. When she hadfinished, they talked more at length.More or less she wascurious about Reaper's current living arrangement and he had hooted alaugh.

That was theone fact that Reaper always felt above all else. Doves were awful andhe hated having them around with their noisy coos and how humansseemed to think the world of those white annoying birds. They werenothing more than pretty pigeons as far as Reaper wasconcerned.Yet despite his dislike, it seemed the whole nestwas going to ignore that fact in order to welcome the pretty whitebird into their home, mostly on account that the day guardian of thenest, Soldier 76, seemed to be smitten with her. That factjust made Reaper stew in his own angry feelings. The two weren't eventhe same species and there he was, awkwardly twittering at heras Genji all but sat on his back giving peeps of encouragement hereand there. The little sparrow had seemed to get along remarkably wellwith the shy little dove, Mercy she was called,and that wasjust another fact to make Reaper's mood bleaker.

Mercy had come just as spring hadarrived and the cold of winter had relented. Typical of a dove thoughto make a grand entrance like that, as far as Reaper was concerned.She met Genji and helped him get untangled from some mesh he gotstuck in and from that point on, it was a friendship and as with allfriendships with Genji, that lead to an invitation to nest with them.

This time though Reaper had made his disgust more passive and had taken to leaving the nest later in theevening and sometimes not bothering to come back, just to give everyone the cold shoulder on principle.

That didn't seem to deter Soldier 76any. In fact, it only seemed to push him to try harder to puff up andact more self important around the cooing dove. It was a comedyroutine to Reaper, one he took every opportunity to laugh out if hesaw it with loud huffing hoots. Even when Genji turned to give him ahuffy little sparrow glare, Reaper still laughed. After all, he wasstill upset about a dove being around the nest and he wasn't about tolet Genji be forgiven for that slight just like that.

The only bird that seemed on his sidethough was Sombra, the tiny parakeet fluffing up in all her brightlycolored glory, and sitting between Reaper's talons to show her solidarity in the protest of a dove. At the very least, Sombra had suchinteresting names for the dove, many of which had Reaper laughinglouder. The owl was all for making fun of noisy, pretty doves thathumans seemed to coo over like they were symbols of a god orsomething.

If Soldier 76 were  a proper eagle,then it would be a match made in heaven in Reaper's opinion of birdsbloated on their own self worth. Mercy tried to keep out ofReaper's way and do everything to respect the owl's space. She wasn'tsure what she had done to earn the owl's constant dislike, but shedid her best to find a compromise, especially since it was clear thecold shoulder was getting Genji all fluffed up and chirping miserablyfor the owl to hoot back.The lovebirds were happy talking andsitting about and as Soldier 76 got more confident in actuallyspeaking and not making a gruff fool of himself, Genji was needed lessand less for advice. The tiny sparrow sat more and watched from afar,fluffed up and sometimes making small glances to where Sombra andReaper sat hunched over, making their jokes, suddenly the two bestbird friends in the nest. The owl had been hooting at a jokeSombra had made when suddenly the sparrow was on his head, leaning inand trying to hear only for both birds to go silent. Sombra puffed upangrily and gave a dismissive toss of her head while Reaper justsettled down, closing his eyes and pretending to sleep again. Genjigave a series of twitters, bouncing about before moving to nestleunder Reaper looking unhappy and trying to get attention again.

Reaper just spread his wings, flittingup to sit on a higher beam, a place impossible for someone to try andnuzzle up without falling off and hunkered down, eyes closed. Genjithough tried, unable to get under the owl again, jumping all aroundthe owl's head with displeased twitters before finally settling tosit on the beam across from Reaper's hunched down with the sadness,most put out expression he could manage.

Reaper kept his eyes firmly shut thoughso as not to look at that sad sparrow because he knew if he did, hewould forgive that fussy little bird and he would let him back overto cuddle and he was a big strong owl. He would not be brought low bya sad, fluffy, miserable looking-A loud hoot escaped Reaperand he opened his eyes to give Genji a withering look beforehoping over to sit next Genji, using a talon to move him into placeunder him before settling to sleep again. Genji gave a smug chirp,cozy now under the owl, only his tiny head peeping out from thefeathers of the owl's belly.

The nest was warm enough, wellinsulated from the cold and kept dry. The smaller birds like D.Va andSombra spent most of their time huddled under Bastion to beat thecold while others like Hanzo and Genji were always venturing out of the nest to find seeds to bring back.

Genj in particular liked to hop aroundand play in the snow, sometimes joined by Tracer or McCree.  Thethree had become a trio of energy now to pass the time. Everyonethough usually kept in the nest which was a problem for the owl as itjust made a lot of noise during the day. Thus he had retreated toa nearby hollow to sleep, huddled up and puffed up contently. Hewasn't sure how Zenyatta could sleep through it all but the bat haddone so, going into a deep hibernation to sleep out the winter. Itwas a bat thing he supposed.

Reaper was just about to doze off into adeeper sleep himself when he felt someone nestling against his side.The owl paused, opening his eyes and blinking sleepily before lookingdown.There at his side was Genji, the sparrow puffed up intoa ball of feathers, nestled against Reaper's side as they had donewhen they first met in Reaper's original nest. The sparrow had hiseyes closed as well as if he too was going to sleep with Reaperdespite the owl knowing he was just there for the warmth. The warmthand the company as the little sparrow still to this day liked to keepclose to the owl.Reaper let out a yawn before fluffing outhis feathers and hunkering down to sleep only to be disturbed byMcCree suddenly cuddling against his other side. Then Tracer. ThenHanzo. Then Sombra and D.Va. Soon the owl was more or less surrounded bythe whole bird flock, all trying to squeeze into the small hollow tocuddle up for warmth. The owl gave a disgruntled squawk anduntangled him from the feathered mass and took to wing back to thenest, nearing them all take flight as well to follow him. They weregoing to cuddle no matter where he so at least there should be roomto fit them all so no one was left in the cold. He returned to thenest and found his usual spot. As predicted his flock mates soon mobbedhim, all of them cuddled close with Bastion coming up behind to curlaround all of them.