Grian was surprised as a knock came on the door. "Coming!" He called, setting down a pot of plants and brushing the dirt off his hands. He scurried to the front door and opened it, tilting his head in confusion as he spotted a paper package on the floor. Shrugging, he took it inside to open.

~~~

Wilbur narrowed his eyes as the single white paper drifted down to meet him. "Ay, what's that?" Tommy asked, reaching up to take it but Wilbur plucked it out of the air before him using his height. "Hey, that isn't fair, I wanna read it too." Tommy complained as Wilbur opened the letter, sending a smirk towards his younger brother.

The smile quickly slid down his face as he read the contents of the paper, his brown eyes widening with fear.

"Wilbur, what's wrong?" Tommy asked.

Wilbur's voice was filled with terror. "Get Phil, Tommy, we're going."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Grian."

~~~

Well, the package was innocent enough on the outside. On the inside, though, it was a different story.

Grian placed the package on the table and rubbed his hands evilly - he loved opening presents. Admiring the beautiful bow tie, he tugged it apart and unwrapped the paper. All was still for a moment, and then all was on fire.

Great, scorching heat bursted from the paper package. Grian's instinct kicked in and he opened his wings and wrapped them around his body, trusting in his feathers. He screamed as the explosion ripped the iridescent rainbow feathers off his wings, turning them a single color of bloody red on cool gray. Grian felt metal bits lodge into his wings, his legs, whatever was exposed to the bomb and felt himself being propelled backwards, landing with a soft crunch.

The world was made of fire. Everything was burning around him, melting away his once-shiny feathers and leaving but a trail of ash behind. It wasn't even done there, instead carved a path toward his flesh, licking at his clothes to consume anything it could.

Grian wanted to stand. He needed to stand. He needed to get up and move out of this dangerous place, to survive. He willed himself to flip over, letting his burnt wings protect him from falling embers above. He propelled himself up on his elbows, and then his hands, wincing as wooden splinters poked at him. Grian was on his knees, and he started to crawl, through the rubble and wood, towards the darkness, the coolness, anything that gets him out of this place.

He had the will to live. Grian wanted to live, to breathe the fresh air, to see the sky again. But none of that would happen if he didn't crawl out of his burning mansion. His breath became harsh as smoke and ash invaded his lungs. His knees grew weak and his hands hurt from rubbing across the carpet, and Grian collapsed after a few feet.

Grian's eyes closed and he just let the heat surround him, feeling comfier than he had ever in the past ten minutes and felt the will to float to peace. No. He gritted his teeth to get up again. I need to see Philza again.

Their faces flew through his mind. Philza. Techno. Wilbur.

Tommy.

He dug his fingernails into the ground and forced himself to rise. Slowly, slowly, Grian raised onto his elbows and crawled forwards, his family's faces in his heads as he inched towards the exit.

But the fire caught up, and soon, the world was burning.

And Grian burned with them.

~~~

"Grian? Grian?!"

Wilbur plugged his nose from the smoke and dust that swirled together around the room, making it impossible to see anything. Starting forwards blindly, trying to see if anyone was in the cloud of gray, he felt his foot catch on something and fell forwards into the smoke. Wilbur had enough sense to turn and land on his side, sooner than expected, on a slanted concrete block. He winced as he heard a crunch in his left shoulder.

"Wilbur!" Tommy's hand appeared and Wilbur grasped at it, letting his younger brother pull him up. "Are you okay?" His blue eyes were wide.

"Yeah." Wilbur replied breathlessly. "There's concrete ahead."

"Let me." Techno's monotone voice cut through the smoke and the fear in Wilbur. At least Techno's safe. Which leaves... Wilbur bit his bottom lip as Techno lifted the concrete away, a grim expression on his face.

"Come on."

The dust had already cleared, but their entrance disturbed it once more, making it cloud Wilbur's vision. He waved it away and scanned what was now the living room, buried in rubble and dust and smoke and ash, and Wilbur couldn't bear thinking that Grian was here, somewhere here, in this terrible place.

"Find him." His father's voice was cold and commanding. "Quickly."

So the search began, and Wilbur moved silently across the destroyed room, flipping over cabinets and pulling scraps of cloth off metal. Nothing, nothing, and nothing. Wilbur slowly began to hope that maybe Grian wasn't here after all, caught in the explosion, but logic told him that the bomb could only have set off if someone had opened the package.

Just as he came to the awful conclusion that Grian might have been blasted to pieces, Techno's voice came, raspy. "I found him."

Three pairs of heads snapped to look at the cloaked man, and Wilbur started to run, stumbling over broken pieces of furniture as he headed for Grian, or whatever remained of him.

He skidded to a stop in front of the avian's body. Techno had gently turned him over, showing his blood-stained face. His eyes were open, painfully staring at the open sky, and Wilbur knew that it was too late. He placed his hand on Grian's wrist, his thoughts confirmed and amplified with pain as he felt the cold skin rest without a pulse.

"He's gone." Wilbur whispered, and they all broke apart.

Phil's gray wings wrapped around Grian's cold body, the tip of one feather tickling the avian's nose. At that moment, Tommy wished that Grian would just sneeze and wake like nothing happened, like the time that he had pranked Grian. Tommy had put a feather on his nose while he was sleeping, and watched as Grian sneezed himself awake, sitting upright in an instant. He had chased after Tommy throughout the house, waving the feather over his head and threatening to tickle his feetsies with it, in his own words.

But he'll never wake up again. Tommy reminded himself, letting the tears fall. I'll never see his eyes sparkle again. Never, ever again.

Techno never realized how much he depended on Grian until he was gone. He closed his eyes as it occurred to him that he would never see the builder hop into the house with a smile, waving with an array of blocks in his arms and often dropping them everywhere. I took him for granted, and now he's gone. Techno felt his emotions brimming inside of him, taking deep breaths to steady himself before he went berserk.

Wilbur gently brushed Grian's ash-stained hair away from his eyes. He wanted to say that the avian looked peaceful in his death, but in reality Grian just looked like he was dead. Just lifeless, a hollow shell of nothingness that reflected his own silhouette back at him in his dead eyes. "Close his eyes, Wil." He heard his father whisper hoarsely. "I can't keep looking at him like this."

Wilbur obeyed, moving over and taking one last, good look into Grian's eyes, wanting, hoping, perhaps, for some sort of emotion. But his eyes were dead black, and Wilbur buried them with his eyelids.

Philza didn't want to move from his position. His arms and wings were wrapped around Grian, an ounce of him hoping inside that he could warm the avian back to life. Because it felt so similar to that time where they were watching a movie, and Grian had fallen asleep and when Tommy couldn't move him away from the couch to his bed, he had asked Phil to. And Phil had held Grian exactly like this, his arms around his waist as he dragged the snoring avian across the floor. So now, he willed that this was just that day, and Grian had just fallen asleep and they needed to move him back into his bed.

Then why was his body cold?

No no, it wasn't cold. It's just slightly colder than Phil's, that's all. He tried to convince himself. He's fine, he's okay, he's not dead, he's-

"He's dead and we never said goodbye." Philza choked out. "He's dead and we never said anything to him before he-"

He heard three pairs of sobs commence as he cut himself off, burying his head in Grian's ashy, gray, cold wings.

When the soft chirp came, it almost came as a calming surprise. Wilbur blinked his tears away as he spotted three parrots drifting down to meet them. They seemed unhurt except for the layer of ash and grim that covered their brilliant feathers, like the fire that burnt Grian's rainbow wings in an instant. It was like magic as the parrots glided to meet their colors. Techno let out a soft grunt as Pesky Bird landed on his shoulder; Tommy held out his hand and allowed Professor Beak to rest on his arm; Wilbur let out a soft smile as Peanut Butter nuzzled into his sweater.

And Phil was alone, his dark gray wings around Grian's ash-gray ones, his arms around his waist and his head buried in his feathers. Techno and Wilbur shared a glance, not knowing what to do, but Tommy spoke.

"Dad, it's time to go."

"I don't want to." Phil's muffled voice came.

"Dadza..."

"Don't make me go. Just don't."

Then the birds started to sing, and Philza rose once more.

And Grian was left in ashes.

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(WC: 1602)

happy april fools day >:D

yep, it was a joke all along

feel free to yell at me :)

was it good? i haven't written something like this in a while, so idk, and it was short so i really dunno