Keisuke watched in awe as the small bird came to life. It chirped at him and fluffed up the tiny plumage it had been born with. He would have picked it up if he could, but he couldn’t possibly take the small creature out of this world, even if it were to be reborn, it had a right to a life as any other living thing did. It scanned him up and down, clearly hungry, and Kei felt a pang of regret that he could not provide nourishment for the creature. He only looked up when the silver haired strange began beckoning the baby, and he felt just the slightest bit of envy when the tiny phoenix happily scurried to the stranger, it wasn’t often the living were happy to see him.
Kei watched as the man coddled the chick, even though he had been a bit crass before it hadn’t really been unwarranted, and here now he looked likable feeding the small bird bits of sugar in his palm. The dark haired man wondered what the feathers of the phoenix felt like. He had felt the bird’s past life for only a second, but it had been hot and panicked, he had heard that phoenix plumage was warm and soft, surely a luxury like no other. He let out a soft sigh as he watched the two, but was startled when the man suddenly stood up.
He hadn’t even gotten the boy’s name, but he rushed away too quickly for Kei to ask. He let his head drop in defeat, joy was a rarity in his life that he did not take for granted, yet the emptiness he felt when it was gone always felt a little more unbearable than it had before. He closed his eyes, willing himself to be strong, as Thanatos he was fated to live like this, he simply was not meant to be with the living. Keisuke sat back on the heels of his boot-clad feet, trying to discard his encounter with the two and make a plan to get back to the underworld when he felt warmth against his knees.
“Little one, why are you here?” He questioned, confused, a small swell of hope pressed in his ribcage that he attempted to force down. He could not stay with this bird, his resolve wavered as it squirmed its way into his lap. He felt the slight pull of smile at the corner of his lip, but pushed it down quickly. "Why is she going to you?"
Keisuke looked up in surprise to see that the silver haired boy with the mismatch eyes had returned. The baby phoenix had run away from the boy to come back to him? It had Keisuke’s heart hammering in his chest with awe and he stared down at the little bird for a moment in shock. The fiery little bird stared back at him, clucking noisy for attention and nudging closer to his exposed waistline. Calmly, he used the back of his clothed wrist to push the bird away from his skin, but he could still feel her warmth. Looking up he made eye contact with the boy.
“She came back to me on her own? A phoenix can imprint? I’ve never heard of that before, very strange indeed.” It didn’t really make sense that the phoenix imprinted on the first thing it saw, especially considering they were born from the ashes of their past life, but birds do have the imprinting gene, he wondered if it was just a genetic flaw since the bird’s rebirth happened prematurely. This led him to worry about any other health complications it might have from an early rebirth. He turned his focus back on the boy though, “It thinks I’m its mother…”