Chapter Text
Aaron awoke early one December morning, about two weeks before Christmas, to what only could be described as a ruckus. The noise was only enough to just rouse him at first, causing him to groan in annoyance. He'd worked late at the scrapyard the night before and then had a few (or rather a few too many) pints with Adam afterwards before stumbling home to bed. He'd been planning on having a lie in and the last thing he wanted was to be woken at, he groaned again as the looked at the clock that read 5:00, the crack of dawn. After a few minutes of hearing nothing more he decided that whatever had awoken him had settled or not really happened. He was just drifting off again when a loud crash echoed through the whole pub. Aaron bolted upright, now fully awake and slightly panicked. It was only then that he realized that Robert was not in bed next to him. Quickly, he threw on a hoodie so he wasn't just wearing the boxer shorts he'd slept in and rushed down the stairs.
"Oi! What's going on?" Aaron half shouted when he entered the back room to find some sort of fruit tree unearthed lying in the middle of the room and a frantic Robert flailing around.
"There's a bird loose in here," Robert said quietly as he stalked towards the side of the couch holding a coat.
"You what?" Aaron replied, his still knackered brain barely managing to take in the scene before him.
"Shhh! You'll startle it again!" Robert whisper-shouted.
Aaron took the hint and quietly snuck up behind Robert to see exactly what was going on. And there it was, some sort of almost pigeon looking bird pecking at the floor. Robert was closing in, the room completely still except for the bird's movements and the slow, deliberate pace Robert set as he inched closer.
"What the hell is going on down here?" Chas's voice rang out, startling the bird once again as it took flight, swept over Chas's head and knocked some pictures and knickknacks from the bookshelf behind her.
"Is that a partridge?" Liv appeared from behind Chas looking bemused.
"Damn it! I almost had it." Robert muttered, now watching the bird as it walked around the top of the bookshelf.
"What are you waiting for! Get it out of here already!" Chas yelled to no one in particular.
"Would've done if you hadn't opened your big gob!" Robert hissed back.
"Oi! Ya mouthy git! That's no way to talk to your soon to be mother-in-law!"
"Alright enough!" Aaron shouted, causing them both to quiet down, though it didn't stop them from glaring at each other. "Liv, could you go get me a box from the cellar please?"
"Sure," Liv said chuckling and shaking her head at her family as she made her way out of the room.
When Liv returned with the box a minute later, Aaron ordered everyone to the couch with a point and a stern look. These events were not helping his hangover and aside from the bird, they still had to deal with the mysterious tree lying in the middle of the floor.
Slowly and very carefully Aaron got a towel from the kitchen and then, in one swift movement, he gathered the bird in the towel and got it into the box, folding the top closed.
Exhausted, Aaron looked at the clock, annoyance coloured his face as he realized the whole incident had somehow taken almost two hours. "Could one of you please take that thing up to Paddy or Rhona, they should be opening up soon." Aaron rubbed at his tired eyes and started to head out of the room, intending on heading back up to bed and not emerging until well into the day.
"Oi, one second there, what about the bloody great tree in the middle of the room?" Chas started.
"Liv and I will take care of it," Rob assured, glaring at Liv as she started to protest. "Won't we Liv?"
Aaron gave a nod and started to head back up the stairs, a smile creeping onto his face as he heard his three favourite people start to bicker over the clean up and where the hell the tree and the bird had come from in the first place. It was definitely something he planned on finding out himself, once he finally had some rest.