Birdie Babysitting

(Gilbird x Reader)

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“And you will make sure he gets the right food?”

“Yes Gilbert, I will.”

“And you won’t feed him after midnight?”

You gave yet another exasperated sigh as the ever-prankster Gilbert Beilschmidt, who also turned out to be your friend, continued to mock you as you tried to read through the instructions he had left for you. You shot him a dark look, which only seemed to make him laugh at you even harder. Knowing it was useless to confront him on his behaviour, your attentions turned back to the piece of paper in your hands. Upon it were the instructions to take care of Gilbert’s pet bird- a young, small canary named ‘Gilbird’. ‘Not even Gilbert’s pets can escape his ego, can they?’ you thought to yourself. As much as you loved your best friend, you weren’t doing this for him. As a young ornithologist in the making, you were mad on birds, your speciality being domesticated birds. It seemed only natural for Gilbert to approach you whenever he needed to be somewhere he couldn’t take his beloved canary with him. This wasn’t the first time you’d looked after the little bird either. Over time you two had built up a relationship to the point you’d look forward to seeing Gilbird. He was a sweet little thing, always singing the typical tuneful song of a male canary. It allowed you to switch off and forget about the stresses and strains that came with your busy life. You’d leapt at the chance to do it tonight! However, regardless of your experience, you still studied the paper carefully, reading Gilbert’s handwriting as best you could:

(f/n),

The awesome me would like to thank you for looking after my awesome Gilbird again!

You know the score: Gilbird’s food and water will need changing at around 9:30pm. Change cuttlefish if needed. Spare keys are in the usual bowl. Help yourself to anything in the fridge (BUT TOUCH MY BEER AND I’LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!)

Cheers, you’re awesome!

Though not as awesome as me!

“Ok, so my concert ends at 11pm. Should be home around midnight.” Gilbert put on his blue vinyl jacket before picking up his set of keys. It wasn’t until he was standing in the doorway, ready to leave, that he added, “if you need anything, I’m a phone call away.”
You smirked at him. “As if. Now go away or you’ll be late for your concert.” With that, he stuck his tongue out at you, gave you one last grin and vanished out of the door.

You rolled your eyes before moving into the living room. It was a large room, complete with all the gadgets and gizmos a young man could ask for. A 42 inch LED TV, a Nintendo Wii, an Xbox One, a PlayStation4, HiFi with speakers- all kitted out for the crazy Gilbert Beilschmidt and his friends Antonio, Francis and Alfred. You giggled to yourself at the thought of them all sitting down on the deluxe sofa, desperately trying to thrawt each other at Mario Kart. Suddenly you heard an excited twittering coming from the corner of the room where the birdcage sat. A smile crept across your face as you realised he recognised the sound of your voice. “Hey Gilly!” you cooed as you walked over to the cage. The little yellow bird fluttered to the front of the cage, calling and twittering to you. “Is that so?” you said to him, as if he were telling you about his day. He continued to twitter at you, extremely happy to see you. You chuckled to yourself before bending down to his level. “Shall I let you out then, matey?” He hopped over to the cage door and clung to the bars with his tiny feet, waiting for you to unlock and open the door. “Alright then,” you whispered. Reaching into your pocket, you found the keys to the cage door and began fiddling with the padlock. Soon enough the padlock was off the cage door, resting instead on the bars of the main cage, and you’d flicked the latch open. Opening the door, you heard the rush of wings and felt a gust of wind to your face as the little bird made a bid for freedom. You stood and watched as the little one flew a couple of laps around the living room, stretching and exercising his tiny little wings. Your heart seemed to soar alongside him as you watched him flying free. To see him look so happy felt wonderful, especially since this was all down to you.

Soon enough, the little bird had enough of his little circuit track and flew straight at you, landing on your shoulder. “Oh, why hello there!” you exclaimed in mock surprise. You knew this would happen, as he did it every time. Once the little one got his breath back he began singing his sweet little tune. You smiled as he continue to sing, even as you went into the kitchen next door. You hummed along with him for a while as you reached into the fridge, careful not to touch the beer (though it very tempting in places). Grabbing some bread, butter and cheese, you made yourself a simple cheese sandwich; all the while you were serenaded by your feathery companion. His melody had you swaying and tapping your feet softly as you danced around the kitchen, getting things together. Eventually you have a can of soda and a sandwich on a plate. By this point, Gilbird had run out of breath and was sitting silently on your shoulder. You smiled quietly to him. “You just rest, my little man.” You carried your snack back into the living room, sitting down on the deluxe sofa with your food on the glass top coffee table. Flicking the T.V. on you went channel surfing to see if anything was on. Gilbird sat quietly still, used to the noise from his obnoxious owner. Eventually you found your way to the film channel to see that (f/f) was starting in a matter of minutes. “Isn’t that lucky, Gilly?” you quietly murmured to the bird, who replied with a soft cheeping. You set an alarm on your phone to 9:30pm so that you didn’t lose track of time before settling down to watch the movie.

All the while through the movie, Gilbird was very quiet and well behaved, nestling closer to you when he felt so inclined. It was relaxing to feel the warmth of the little bird’s body against your cheek, his little heart gently pumping against you. You’d almost nodded off completely when your phone began buzzing at you. “Uh oh, feeding time Gilly!” you said to the little bird, who responded to the word ‘feeding’ near-instantly. You got to your feet and walked over to his cage, undoing the latch to his food dish. Tipping the empty seed husks into the bin below his cage, you reached for the bag of canary food and filled it to near the top, taking care not to spill anything onto Gilbert’s floor. Next was the water bottle. This task required you to take it into the kitchen and empty the old contents down the sink before filling it was more water. You did just that before reattaching it to the cage. The cuttlefish was still pretty intact, so you didn’t need to change that. Shooting a quick glance down to Gilbird, you could see that he was too busy nestling into the T-shirt you were wearing to notice his food and water. You left the cage door open, just in case, before settling down to watch the rest of the movie, the little canary still warm next to your face.

By the end of the movie, you was almost asleep yourself. It’d been a pretty rough week work-wise and you were fairly tired. You turned your head to check upon your charge. Upon looking at him, you found that he’d made a little nest out of the creases in your shirt and had nodded off, still nestled close to your face. You smiled down at the little bird before flicking the TV off as not to wake him up. As carefully as you could, you began to make your way back to the cage to get him to bed. It took all of your tenderness and the utmost of your care to lift him off your shoulder. You brought him down in one hand and carefully used the other as a barrier to make sure the little one didn’t fall out of your hands. Gently opening the lid to the nest box, you lowered the canary into the soft nesting material, his body warmth still radiating through your hands. You had to be quiet when you shut both the nest box and the cage again, making sure that both the latch and padlock were firmly in the positions you found them in. “Pleasant dreams, my little Gilly,” you whispered to the sleeping bird through the bars of the cage. There was a blissful silence for a moment before your phone buzzed on the coffee table. You picked it up and saw that you had a text from Gilbert. Opening it, you read what he had to say:

Heya (f/n), you’ll ever guess what happened- Antonio and Francis were at the concert too! Awesome, right?! Anyway, might be back slightly later than planned! Sorry! See ya!

You sighed to yourself, before looking at the little bird’s cage once more.

“How do you live with him, Gilly?”