My Dad the Peacock

Yushiro fiddled with a lock of his hair as he and his father stood in line for the coalescence. Yushiro had no desire to donate dust, at least not right now. Maybe in a few years, but he has insisted coming with Hayate simply to just get out of the house. Not to mention he was totally worried something would happen at the Shrine again and didn’t want his dad going there alone. What if the Exiled One tried something like she did in the past season?

“Calm down, Yuu.” Hayate said looking down at Yushiro. He could practically feel the anxiety radiating off of him. 

“I am calm!” Yushiro snapped without meaning to. The feathers on his wings fluffed up in his anxiety.

“Ok,” Hayate replied raising his hands defensively. “We won’t be here much longer, I’m next in line.” 

“Mmm.” Yushiro hummed nervously. He flapped his wings loudly and he stepped out of line to wait for Hayate to hand over a medium sized bag of his dust. He listened attentively as Hayate chatted with  a friend who was also at the shrine. 

“Daaaaad, come oooon! You gave them your dust, let’s go home!” He finally whined after a few more minutes of Hayate chatting with Aether. 

Hayate frowned and his ears folded back slightly annoyed. “Alright, I’m coming-“

As he turned he folded his ears against his head and frowned. He suddenly did not feel good. 

“Dad are you alright?” Yushiro asked hurrying over to Hayate, who was now doubled over. 

“Mhm. I’m fine, I bet it’s just food poisoning.” He replied gritting his teeth. He felt...strange. Like he had sat in a weird position for too long and his legs had pins and needles, but rather than just his legs, the feeling was everywhere. 

Then as if to signal how wrong he was, the cries of several Ringox could be heard all around him. Then came blinding pain and a startled shriek from Yushiro. Wondering why Yushiro had yelled, he looked down to see Yushiro craning his neck up to see him, eyes wide. Hayate was confused, he was tall but he wasn’t that tall. 

“It’s ok! I’m fine,” he quickly said reaching a hand down to ruffle Yushiro’s hair, only to pause confused when he found himself shoving a wing in Yushiro’s face instead. 

It was then that he looked around to notice other ringox had suddenly taken on beastly forms that were not fox like based on their tail. For him that meant he was a peacock. 

“A very, very large peacock.” He said slowly as his mind worked through what had happened. This was not how he thought the day would be going. He was so preoccupied trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and trying to calm Yushiro down at the same time, that he almost didn’t notice The Exiled One herself spouting more bile as she did last season, only to disappear as quick as she had come. Would this be a common place thing now? 

“Dad what if you’re a giant peacock forever? YOU CANT FIT IN THE HOUSE RIGHT NOW-“ Yushiro yelled realizing Hayate’s new height. 

“Yuu, Yuu calm down, its alright. This will get fixed!” Hayate assured. His now much larger tail twitching a little nervously. Perhaps in the back of his mind, he was nervous that it would in fact not get fixed. 

“We just need to help find Primavera.” Hayate added as he gently pushed Yushiro forward and away from the shine with his arms, well now wings. He was getting too old for this.