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Jimmy felt like he’d been doing a pretty good job in the over-city so far. This ridiculous plan they’d cooked up together to try and change the vitriol of humans against hybrids and mutants was going far better than it had any right too. At first, when Grian had suggested they try and establish themselves on the surface, go through the channels that’d been laid for decades that let young hybrids sneak out from the under-city, he’d been terrified. He might’ve been luckier than some of their friends who were unable to surface due to their appearances being too difficult to glamor over, such as Tango or Doc. Sure, that was true, but Jimmy didn’t exactly feel like having the weight of defending the right to exist for his entire species was a good idea. In the end, it’d been his cousins dragging him along. Pearl was chaotic on the best of days, and Grian was stubborn enough that no matter how stupid the idea, once he set his mind to it there was no escape. So his cousins, themselves twins, two years older them him, had hauled him with them when they’d left the under-city to try and establish themselves above. He’d been fourteen at the time, and now, a full fifteen years later, nearly thirty, he was only just starting to feel like he knew what he was doing.
The plan had been relatively simple. Step one was get established in the over-city. Step two was try and change the narrative, which they’d tackle after step one was completed.
Ok, to be fair, it’d been more of an outline than actual plan.
How exactly they’d come to the conclusion that Jimmy and Pearl would get jobs in the news industry, and Grian would balance his university professorial career with flying around in a skimpy outfit fighting the multitude of monsters and crazy machine that got out through the cracks of the under-city?
Jimmy couldn’t have answered that.
Tango, Doc, and all the others who couldn’t come above safely were working on the other end, still underground, trying to figure out where the monsters and frankly ridiculous robots or semi-mechanical creatures were coming from and how they kept getting out. They were a relatively sizable group within the under-city. Once a group of kids with a stupid idea to change the world, as they’d grown into proper adults they’d proven a commitment.
It was better than just sitting there, staring up at the blue sky through the cracks in the pavement. Jimmy still remembered those days, and maybe that was one thing he was jealous of his older cousin for.
Grian got to fly.
Jimmy wasn’t nearly good enough with glamor to conceal his identity as well as Grian did. At this point it was a miracle that he was able to keep the wings on his temples hidden, thanks to a combination of glamor and his wavy, golden-blonde hair.
His wings?
Jimmy scooted a little further forward till he was balanced on the edge of his office chair. The ache throbbed up from his lower back all the way nearly to his shoulder blades. He’d taken two doses of painkillers already, and with them in his system he could manage to function.
Why exactly his wings hurt so badly while hidden under his blue jacket, a bit overlong to keep the wing tips concealed in case his glamor ever weakened, well, his cousins couldn’t know that.
As they’d grown up, Jimmy had shot past both of them, easily a head taller than the other two avians he’d come to the over-city with, maybe more. What neither of them had really noticed was that meant Jimmy’s wings, bright and golden like his hair, were much bigger. Proportionally to his body, they had to be if they wanted any hope of lifting him into the air.
Jimmy also had worse control of his glamor. He had to take breaks throughout his days at work, moments in the bathroom with the hoodie of his jacket pulled down over his head, letting his glamor evaporate and gasping for breath like he’d just run a marathon. The wings on his head twitching and fluffing out with anxiety and stress. The ones on his back, badly as he wished he could give them a break midday, would just have to wait.
So Jimmy leaned against his desk a little further, trying to focus on the sunlight pouring through the window of his office, enjoying the warmth of it, recalling how badly he’d yearned for it as a child.
It was worth it.
He could ignore the pain from the belts digging tightly into his wings, forcing his feathers into twisted positions no matter how hard he tried to lay them flat before he secured the buckles.
So what if his wings were too big for him to hold them tight enough to his back to hide them, like his cousins could?
So what if he had to belt them into place and ignore the growing ache that ran down his spine and sparked pain all the way up to the back of his neck at times?
At least he was in the sun.
That was better than most of his friends that he returned to the dim half-light and electric buzz of the under-city to visit.
So he tried to be subtle with how he glanced to the clock, one leg bouncing under his desk as he mindlessly cataloged piles of notes from different reporters in the building. He was an article writer, compiling information into articles for publish on various online services as well as in the physical paper. It’d taken him a lot of work after he’d finished school, already severely behind the curve considering the faulty at best education system of the under-city, not to mention crippling anxiety over being discovered as he hurried class to class and held his breath every time anyone’s eyes stuck to him a few seconds too long.
Had his glamor worn off?
Were his wing tips showing from beneath his jacket?
Thankfully there were hybrids who taught in these schools, and their offices were safe havens for younger hybrids making the leap into a life constantly concealing their true selves. So he’d always had somewhere to go to take a break.
Back then his wings hadn’t been as big either, so he hadn’t started binding them with belts yet. His eyes darted to the corner of his monitor again, checking the time.
15 more minutes…
He let out a slow, shaky exhale as another wave of aching pain rippled through the roots of his wings. They tensed and twitched, straining against the cheap thrift store pleather that held them tight to his back.
Today was particularly bad. But it was Friday, tomorrow he could lay in till late in the morning, wings free and spread out hanging over his blankets. He could probably push his weekly grocery shopping to Sunday and just stay home all day. It’d be worth it, hopefully, to give his wings enough of a break to lay off the aching.
He clattered away on his keyboard faster than usual, hurriedly inputing his last few notes before he shut the device down. Leaning back in his chair, he rolled his shoulders, eyes going to the door as he tried to shift his wings at their roots, only for the ache to deepen at the poor attempt to give them some comfort. He began shoving his things into his messenger bag, and was trying to mentally prepare himself for another shooting pain that’d surely strike him from standing up after spending the past few hours hunched over at a desk when the door to his office swung open.
“Oh good, I caught you!”
Jimmy would’ve cursed anyone else showing up, but not him.
Not Scott.
Scott, who had blue hair that seemed fluffy like spun sugar, and bright blue eyes that reminded Jimmy of the sky he’d gazed at in yearning through cracks in the pavement for so many years.
So Jimmy swallowed and dropped his bag back to the ground. He spun in the office chair, trying to feign a comfort that’d been gone since Wednesday, and faced the door.
“Hey, Scott! You need something?”
Scott strode in, letting the office door swing shut behind him. He tilted his head left and smiled, putting his hands together in a mock-begging gesture. The smile on his lips was easy.
“A favor, yeah. Help me out?”
Jimmy folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. “What sort of favor are we talking?”
Not that he wouldn’t do just about anything for Scott. He’d been crushing on the man since he’d joined the news agency almost five years ago now. He was easily irritated and seemed rather obstinate, but that translated into someone determined to an almost dangerous degree.
The amount of times he’d come back to the agency office covered head to toe in rubble dust or with singed eyebrows from getting too close to one of Hot Guys various exploits couldn’t be counted on your fingers. So Jimmy played at considering the proposal, but he already knew he’d say yes.
“You busy tomorrow?”
The blonde blinked, and tried to keep any reaction off his face.
Technically no…but I really don’t want to have to go out…
But Scott was standing here giving him a warm half-smile, and for whatever reason he was asking Jimmy, specifically, for help, and the avian had just enough time to curse his own inability to say ‘no’ before he opened his mouth.
“I haven’t got plans.”
Scott’s eyes brightened, his posture relaxed and he briefly fisted his hands in that way he did whenever he was particularly excited to get started on something. Jimmy may have been paying too close attention.
Anyway.
“Great! I’m planning a survey report soon so I’m going to go to the university to get some samples. I know it’s Saturday, but I’m hoping the people we do run into will be in less of a hurry. I could really use an extra set of ears to get solid notes. Come with me?”
Jimmy could think of about a million things he’d rather do with his day off than run around a college campus trying to convince disinterested undergrads to talk to him about their opinions, but that number dwindled when he thought about doing that exact same activity with Scott.
Scott, whom despite working in the same agency for five years, and whom he’d had a crush on pretty much that entire time, he’d never actually managed to spend any time alone with.
So he pushed down the pain in his back and forced a grin, which he knew from years of practice was hardly distinguishable from his usual.
“Sounds good to me, I’m always happy to help you, I mean, help out!” Jimmy tried to keep his voice even and pleasant. Was he imagining Scott’s smile growing warmer at his little slip up? Probably.
Scott dropped his arms, swinging them behind his back, one hand catching the other wrist. “Do you live nearby? Where’s a good place to meet?”
“Wherever, I can take the shuttle.” Jimmy replied with a shrug.
Bad move. Don’t move your shoulders, idiot.
Jimmy reminded himself as pain pulsed from the roots of his wings again.
“Yeah, but I’m asking you for a favor here. Tell you what, how do you feel about coffee?”
Jimmy connected the dots faster than usual, and he’d be glad for that later. He usually wasn’t the biggest coffee drinker, but if he wasn’t mistaken, this was an offer to go out for coffee with Scott. Suddenly coffee sounded a lot tastier than usual.
“Pretty good. Actually, there’s a good shop near the university.” Jimmy supplied this from a memory of going there with Grian, whose ridiculous hours as a university professor and vigilante meant he guzzled the caffeinated bean water like air.
“Oh yeah? Text me the address. Wait, you don’t have my number, do you?”
Jimmy felt his cheeks traitorously heating up, and reached down to his bag to produce his beat-up cell.
“I, uh, don’t think so?” He tried, and Scott swiped his phone from his hand, thumbs flitting over the screen.
“There ya go. Alright, meet at 9, at that shop you were talking about?” Scott stayed closer than he needed too as he entered his number, and Jimmy had to fight to keep his voice steady.
“Yeah! Sounds good!” He managed to squeak.
“Ok, have a good night, Jimmy!” Scott leaned back after returning the phone, one hand coming up and carding through his blue hair, his bangs still tumbling back over his eyes regardless.
Then he turned and left.
Jimmy sat there for at least a solid minute staring at the door after him, mind spinning, before his phone lit up with a message.
Scott: Don’t forget to send me the address!
Jimmy sprang to his feet, and the ache that shot up his spine as he’d been expecting was forcefully shoved to the back of his mind. He could ignore it. He’d ignored the aches for years now, ever since he’d finished growing, so he could endure them one more day, even if his wings were crying out for a day of rest, not tightly bound up and crammed beneath his jacket.
He swung his bag onto his shoulder and headed out, locking his office door behind him as he went.
And in the back of his mind, he wondered if this was Scott asking him on a date.
But that’d be ridiculous.
The Next Morning.
Jimmy was walking up the sidewalk, the bustle of the city slightly reduced from usual, but nonetheless still buzzing around him. It was nothing compared to the cramped, crazed, excessive lights and noise of the under-city, so that part of coming up here had never bothered him.
He stuffed a hand into his jacket pocket, running a thumb over the bottle of painkillers he’d shoved in there with his wallet. He’d taken three tablets this morning, he’d take another three at lunch, and if he really needed them he’d pop an extra few if they ended up staying out later.
Sure, that was more than the recommended dosage, but he’d slid the question half-way through to Doc over the phone the previous night and the creeper hybrid, after some excessively concerned rambling, had relented that he’d probably be fine. So Jimmy took the win.
It’d been painful to bind his wings before he left in the morning, even though he’d freed them the instant he’d gotten through the door the previous night, he felt like he hadn’t gotten any rest at all. The ache was already waking up along his back, and it hadn’t even been an hour.
But when Jimmy turned the corner, any thoughts of his discomfort were forgotten. He tried to keep himself from lighting up to brightly at the sight of Scott standing at the door to the coffee shop waiting for him. Even still, his step bounced, and his wings tried to ruffle cheerfully beneath his jacket, tugging at the belts. The wings on his temples, concealed behind glamor, flicked upward in unison, the tiny feathers on them puffing up.
Scott looked up from his phone and saw him coming, smiling at the sight.
He waved as Jimmy approached. “Good morning. Ready to interview some grumpy college students?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Jimmy replied, giving a lopsided smile. Scott pulled the door open for them. “Well, first I need caffeine. What do you want?”
“Hm…”
…I never drink coffee…much less coffee shop coffee!
“What’re you gonna get?” Jimmy turned the question around as he stared up at the chalkboard menu with a bunch of names and sizes he didn’t think he grasped properly.
…I should’ve texted Grian last night…
He’d considered it, but the thought of the sheer amount of teasing he’d receive from his cousin if he found out why Jimmy needed help with a coffee order had kept him from reaching out.
“Probably just a latte, but they’ve got all sorts of flavors…maybe just vanilla? That’s plain, I guess.”
“Then I’ll get one too.”
So they stepped up to the register and Scott promptly put in an order for two lattes. Jimmy tilted his head. “Two? You need that much coffee in you?”
“Are you joking? I invited you, so I’m paying, it’s only polite.” Scott replied as he handed off his card.
Jimmy blinked, and processed.
Oh. Oh, he bought me coffee.
Now, yes, he’d been raised in the under-city, but surely he couldn’t be having culture shock again at this point, right? He’d spent more of his life living in the over-city by this point, so surely it meant what he thought it meant.
Right?
Scott gave him a teasing smile, his eyes lidded slightly, as he took the card back. “Don’t think to hard about it. You can buy next time.”
Next time!? There’s gonna be a next time!?
Jimmy turned his eyes up and away, one arm coming up. A nervous habit of his was the tug at the wings on his head, but he quickly swept his hand over them instead, scratching the back of his neck.
“W-Well, fair enough I guess. Deal.”
Scott seemed very pleased with that reply, and Jimmy couldn’t for the life of him understand why.
So they took a seat, and a few minutes later their coffees came out, and Jimmy was doing everything he could to avoid making eye contact with Scott. His chest felt tight, and it was taking his all to keep the burning sensation from completely turning his face red.
Scott seemed to take this the wrong way. “Sorry I dragged you out on your day off. I know it’s not your job to be running around on the weekend.”
Jimmy jumped in his chair, then put his free hand up disarmingly. “Oh, no, no! No big deal, really! Like I said, I had no plans.”
“Yeah, but if you wanted to get some rest, I get it.”
Jimmy had desperately wanted some rest, but more than that he wanted to be sitting here, with Scott across from him, and a chance to actually talk to him. This man he’d been tripping over his tongue trying to make conversation with during brief moments of notes being dropped off or waiting for the shuttle that’d piled up in five years time.
“No. Seriously, I’m glad you asked me.” Jimmy tried to be genuine. He’d always failed at being too grandiose, or so Grian and Pearl loved to make fun of him over.
For the first time, Scott seemed surprised. His eyebrows shot up, his hands closed tighter around his cup of coffee, and the tips of his ears went pink.
“Really? Good. That’s good.” He said, stilted. Jimmy sipped at his coffee again.
“Did you move here for this job?” He asked.
Someone had to start a conversation.
Scott shrugged. “More to just get out of my hometown. Not that it’s a bad place, I love it, but just…hm…quiet. Not a lot going on. Everyone knows everyone else. I guess I wanted a chance to start fresh and figure it out on my own.” Scott shrugged.
“What about you? You’ve been working at the agency way longer than me.”
Jimmy hummed. “Yeah, it’s been like…almost ten years.”
“Are you from near here?”
Once upon a time this question would’ve caused him enormous anxiety, caused him to overthink and hesitate. But years of practice answering this question left him a smooth reply.
“Yeah, I’m from here.” It wasn’t a lie. He was, even if the crowded dim-lit streets that’d raised him were located deep beneath their feet.
“I actually went to school here, though I only did a two year program.” Jimmy nodded his head toward the window, across the street where the university campus began.
“Really? That must be nice, do you still have family in the area?”
Jimmy scrunched an eye shut. “Ah, yeah, they’re around. We see each other often enough. Y’know…”
A chuckle got up and out of his throat before he could stop it, and Scott furrowed his brow.
“What?”
“Nothing, nothing.” Jimmy waved it off.
He was recalling hearing Pearls story of trying to wrestle Scott away from a good shot of Cute Guy and Hot Guy cooperating to defeat a giant robot, and how the two of them had been practically climbing over each other attempting to get the first questions in.
But he decided to keep that little anecdote to himself for right now.
Scott must’ve read his vague reply as hesitation, and took the opportunity to change the topic.
“Did you want to get into the news industry?”
Jimmy hummed affirmatively. “Sure did. You?”
Scott nodded. “Since I was a kid I found the whole idea fascinating. This is basically my dream job, y’know?”
“Same here. I’m writing up the big stories about superheroes and stuff! What could be more fun?” Jimmy grinned, and Scott’s pleased expression didn’t escape him.
And somehow, from there, talking got easier.
Jimmy had always remained pretty tight-lipped about himself as a rule, mainly because he was well aware he could get emotional and go off on tangents easily. Somehow, he struggled to keep that tight of a rein when talking to Scott. Scott was the perfect mix of prodded jokes, sarcastic digs and genuine interest that kept Jimmy talking. And sometimes, if he lined his words up right, Scott would laugh. The edges of his eyes would crinkle, his lip would crumple, and he’d cover his mouth to smother giggles.
That single noise was enough encouragement.
So they ended up taking a little longer to finish their coffee than planned, but that was fine. The entire time Jimmy had forgotten, completely, the pain in his back till Scott was rising.
“Well, time to work, I guess.” He sounded almost regretful, and Jimmy bounced to his feet.
He was lucky he’d been leaning on the table, because his grip on the edge went white knuckled and he blew a sharp breath out to avoid making any sounds of pain.
Scott saw him, and reached a hand out in a gesture of aide if necessary. “You ok?”
“Yeah, yeah, just fine! Almost slipped, there, that would’ve been embarrassing!” Jimmy lied through his teeth as he forced himself to straighten up, plunging his hands into his jacket pockets. His thumb ran a couple times again over the bottle of painkillers and he took a few steps. “Ready to go?”
Scott looked utterly unconvinced by his excuse, but didn’t press on it.
“Sure.”
So they left the shop and headed across the university campus. For a while, they focused on their work, managing to gather a pretty decent number of interviews from various students hanging out around the center green. Jimmy again was able to compartmentalize the pain into a private box of his brain to be dealt with when he got home. He wasn’t about to let this day be ruined. So a couple hours went by like this, till Scott came back over to him and held up his notepad. “I got a lot! How about you?”
“Seven…eight…nine…ten…eleven? I think? Pretty good. Most people walked straight by me, though.” Jimmy chuckled and Scott put his palms up.
“Part of the job. Well, you want to take a break? I…” Scott trailed off as his eyes wandered to behind Jimmy, which was all it took for him to take a guess at what was about to happen.
Unfortunately that didn’t meant he could dodge quickly enough, and before he could make any attempts an arm looped around his shoulders and dragged him down.
“Jimmy!”
Ow, ow, ow!
Being suddenly dragged half-over by his shorter cousin was not helping his back pain. Aching sparks raced up and down his spine and pulsed at the roots of his wings, and up through the appendages strapped so cruelly tight behind his back.
“Grian! Get off, get off! Quit it!”
Jimmy finally got away after his hair was thoroughly mussed up and stumbled a few steps backward. “I am working, come on, dude!”
Grian was standing there in his usual bright red sweater, with his bag over his shoulder and a sheaf of papers in his other hand, and was grinning at him mischievously.
“You expect me to pass on that golden opportunity just because you were working? You clearly don’t know me very well.”
“I know you too well.” Jimmy muttered. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times to straighten the blonde locks out before he turned his eyes to Scott, who’d watched the entire exchange with amusement clear on his face.
“Oh, don’t you start laughing!”
“I didn’t, I didn’t!” Scott waved his hands to plead innocent, and Jimmy sighed.
“…fine. Grian, this is my co-worker, Scott. Scott, this is my…cousin. He’s a professor here.”
“Hey, why do you sound so ashamed of me? Huh?” Grian demanded, jabbing Jimmy in the ribs with an elbow, which caused Jimmy to snag his papers out of his hand and hold them up into the air out of his reach.
“Hey! Hey! I just organized those to grade!” Grian tried to snatch them back, but Jimmy was over a head taller than him so he had no chance at reaching.
“Then quit harassing me like you’re twelve, you menace!” Jimmy insisted, dangling the papers a couple more seconds before he let his shoulders slump and whacked Grian on the forehead with them as a method of handing them back.
Grian’s fingers closed on the papers, and his eyes darted between the two of them. “So what’re ya doing anyway? Thought you didn’t work on Saturday, Jim? You usually spend the whole day in bed.”
“He’s helping me out.” Scott piped in, and Jimmy shrugged, turning his eyes off to a distant corner.
“I didn’t have any big plans, Gri.” He laid an insistence on the tone and tacked on the nickname in a way that his cousin should recognize as a message to change the subject.
“Uh-huh.” Grian narrowed his eyes at Jimmy. While he wasn’t aware of quite how bad the pain related to hiding his wings was, he still knew that Jimmy usually used Saturday as a day to rest and stretch his wings. Pearl did the same on a different day, while Grian, considering his side-gig as Cute Guy, didn’t have to worry about the pains of keeping his wings constantly pinned to his back. But once upon a time, he’d had a dedicated day set aside to rest as well.
“Oh, shut it! Don’t you have work to do?”
“Look who’s talking.”
“I’m just helping!”
“So…did you two grow up together?” Scott butted in, and Jimmy and Grian turned to look at him with owlish eyes.
Grian finally gave a bark of laughter. “What gave it away?”
“Well, you act more like brothers than cousins, I think.” Scott replied.
“Shouldn’t be, I basically raised him.” Grian puffed his chest up.
“You are two years older than me, you barely knew what was going on yourself, Mr. High-and-Mighty.” Jimmy shot him down.
Scott seemed to pick up on how there was some sort of odd family situation going on, and he seemed to consider feeding his curiosity by asking.
They already had a pre-loaded story for a response, so Jimmy just laid it out before Grian could build himself up any more.
“Our parents weren’t exactly around, neither mine nor Grian and his sisters. So our god-fathers took care of all three of us. Same house, same schools, all that stuff.”
Jimmy still distinctly remembered the look on Doc’s face when they’d laid out that cover story to him the first time, all those years ago. The creeper hybrid usually didn’t laugh that often, so he’d just stared blankly at them as if his processing core had short-circuited.
Meanwhile, Etho had been nearly in tears, laying on the floor laughing at the sheer hilarity of the concept.
Of course, it was all a lie.
None of them had parents, not that they could recall, anyway. Doc and Etho might’ve gathered together their little found family to keep them from getting lost in the under-city streets, but that had just been happenstance. They were older, yes, but not old enough to actually be their parents. Not that that didn’t stop them from acting like it most of the time. But it was nothing as concrete as the little sob story the cousins had come up with to avoid having to talk too much about their lives before they’d come to the surface. Obviously once they finished school it’d gotten even easier to just avoid the subject all together, but once in awhile it came up.
Scott immediately backpedaled. “Oh, sorry to hear that.”
Grian shrugged. “Eh, it was fine, though. They took care of us.”
“Grian.” Jimmy hissed.
“Ok, ok, I’ll stop messing with you and your date, Jimmy.”
“Oh. My. GOSH!” Jimmy swung to swat Grian in the back of the head but he’d already ducked the incoming hand and made a run for it up the sidewalk.
“Bye!”
Scott watched him go, running for his life in case Jimmy decided to give a few steps of chase, then looked back to Jimmy, who seemed wilted from the interaction.
“So…your cousin, huh?”
“Yeah…that’s him.” Jimmy sighed again and straightened up, hiding his face in his hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, it’s fine! Seems like he cares a lot.”
Jimmy peeked through his fingers to see Scott’s ears had gone pink again. Because Grian had insinuated they were on a date?
No. Impossible.
Jimmy dusted that idea frantically from his mind before he finally let his hands fall from his face.
“I guess that counts as a break, huh? Back to work?”
Scott held up his notebook. “Yes! I want to get at least a couple more before we quit.”
“I’ll try and scope out around the opposite side of the green, then.”
“Sounds good!”
So they passed another hour getting interviews, and Scott came to find Jimmy just as he was saying goodbye to another student who’d stopped to answer a few of his questions. “I think that’s all I need!”
“Yeah? Alright, I got another two as well.”
“Awesome.”
They strolled back around the green, finding a shady bench where Scott flopped back onto it gracelessly. “…done. I’ll write up the stats tomorrow…can I bring it by your office on Monday to proofread?”
“That is my job.” Jimmy said, and Scott chuckled breathlessly.
“Guess so.”
A few moments of silence, and Scott lifted his head from where he’d flopped it back over the bench. “You wanna sit down? Take a break a second before we walk to the shuttle stop?”
For some reason, he seemed in no hurry. So Jimmy nodded, turning and sitting back onto the bench.
And he’d been so caught up all day, between spending all this time with Scott, getting the interviews, and running into Grian, that his compartment had gotten full without him realizing. All the mounding up ignored pain broke through in a sharp, hot ache that stabbed from the roots of his wings the second he dropped back onto the hard wooden bench. His spine went straight, and even as he tried to bite it down a cry of pain wrenched out of his throat.
“Jimmy! You ok? Hey, hey…” Scott’s hand was on his shoulder, which was already too close. His wings were spasming against the belts, completely beyond his control, and without even thinking he swatted Scott’s hand off of him. Hunching forward to get some pressure off his back, he took several heavy breaths. His eyes swam with tears, his heart thudded hard in his chest as the ache continued to flare.
A few seconds went by before he gulped down some air. “S-Sorry…”
“Sorry? Don’t say sorry, it’s fine! What’s wrong?” Scott didn’t seem offended at having his hand knocked aside, but he didn’t try to touch Jimmy again as the avian hunched forward further.
“…back ache. Hurts.” He managed out between sharp gasps, clenching his hands into fists. He felt his fingernails digging into his palms. This was weird. This wasn’t like usual, it wasn’t the slow build toward unbearable that he usually put up with week in and week out. This was a sharp, insistent pain. His wings hurt, the pain like they were being torn out by the roots.
“Jimmy. Jimmy, can I touch you?” Scott asked this time, and Jimmy couldn’t put together enough focused thought to talk, so instead he briskly nodded.
Right away, Scott’s hands were on his, prying his fingers open and slipping in against his palms. “Here. It’s ok, squeeze. You’re not gonna hurt me.”
Jimmy would have to apologize for taking that at face value as the pain continued to rattle up and down his spine and he nearly crushed Scott’s hands in his own. He wasn’t sure how long it took for the spasm to pass, but as it finally began to subside back to the more distant, manageable ache, he refocused his bleary eyes enough to make out his own sneakers again.
“Deep breaths. You’re ok.” Scott encouraged.
So Jimmy sucked down several more quick breaths before forcing them to slow down. His heart rate began to come down, and the tension finally eased from his shoulders.
“Ow.” He managed, and Scott gave a dry huff like he’d just finished a sprint.
“Ow? Is that all?”
Jimmy slowly eased his weight back against the bench from where he’d essentially gotten locked in a hunched forward position.
“Sorry.”
“Do not apologize. Are you ok?” Scott insisted, blue eyes wide and flooded with worry.
Which was odd. Scott was typically sarcastic or cynical on the best of days, so seeing him so genuinely worried was quite different. Jimmy felt bad for causing a scene, but he wasn’t sorry for getting to see Scott show so much concern for him.
“I’ll be fine.”
Slowly, he eased his hands free from where he’d still been grasping at Scott’s and reached into his pocket. A few seconds of rummaging and he pulled out his bottle of painkillers.
His co-worker staring at them blankly. “Wait, does this happen to you often?” He demanded.
His eyes narrowed, and that sharp bite to his voice that was typically present returned from the softened edges he’d given it when so concerned.
Jimmy gave him a weary smile, self-deprecating and awkward. “Not this bad, but yeah. It’s, uh, chronic.”
That’s probably close enough, right?
Scott blinked. “So you knew you were gonna feel it today?” He repeated.
Jimmy, who’d just swallowed three tablets of over-the-counter painkillers dry, shoved the bottle back into his pocket. “I mean, I feel it every day, Scott. I usually don’t have it so bad that I can’t move like that, though. That was new. Sorry.”
“If you apologize one more time I swear, Jimmy! Have you been to a doctor?”
Jimmy fumbled. “Well, um…I mean…my, uh, god-father. He’s a doctor. So he’s kind of helped me with it.”
“Kind of!? Jimmy, you almost passed out from hyperventilating you were in so much pain, if you think a few drug store pain killers is going to fix that you have to be kidding me!” Scott was suddenly extremely frustrated with his lack of care for himself.
Jimmy wondered if he should feel flattered. He decided he’d take the win.
“I’ll be fine, Scott. Promise. It’s already passing.” He insisted, planting his hands to his knees.
“Oh no you don’t.” Scott put an arm in front of him to stop him from standing up.
“Just…take it easy for a minute before we walk to the shuttle stop. Please?”
Unfortunately, Jimmy couldn’t explain to Scott how getting home as soon as physically possible was actually the best case scenario.
And even as the ache settled to the dull thrum he was well used too, he found he didn’t want to rush either.
He let his weight settle onto the bench again. “Ok, ok. I’ll stay put a minute.”
Scott let out a breath like he’d been holding it the entire time and sat back again as well.
For a few seconds, they stared out at the campus green and the sky, and Scott spoke. “Your cousin, Grian. He knew, didn’t he? That’s why he asked why you weren’t in bed.”
Jimmy grumbled under his breath. “I guess? He knows I’ve got back problems.”
“So you usually rest on Saturdays?”
“I mean, yeah…”
“Then you should’ve said something. You didn’t have to come.” Scott insisted, but his expression said something else. Almost like he felt guilty.
Jimmy felt ashamed at the sight. “What? No, no, this is absolutely not on you, Scott! I wanted to come. I had fun, really! Honestly…being with you kept me distracted. I was hardly even feeling my back till we sat down.”
Scott looked up at him in surprise. “Really?”
Jimmy practically beamed. “Really.”
Blue eyes flicked over him, as if seeking out any evidence of falsehood, before he nodded. “Ok. Just…tell me, next time. We can always do something else. This was all super round-about anyway.”
Jimmy blinked. “Round-about?”
“I mean, you already knew I was asking you out, so I should’ve just done it the normal way!” Scott put his palms up as if this was obvious information.
Jimmy felt his heart do a backflip. The wings on his head fluttered so hard he was sure the resulting breeze was tousling his bangs. Luckily, his glamor didn’t slip, and he tried to sputter through his reply.
“You, it was…huh? I thought you needed help with the stats stuff?” Jimmy held up his notepad.
Scott’s eyes grew round as he stared over at Jimmy. Blinked once. Twice.
“Wait. So when your cousin said that…it wasn’t because you told him it was a date?”
“He was just messing! He’s always doing that!” Jimmy insisted.
This time, instead of just the tips of his ears, Scott’s entire face, from pale cheeks to ears and creeping down toward his neck, went bright red.
“Oh! Oh! Uh, well…I guess…yeah.” He turned his gaze away, and Jimmy felt a bizarre mix of excitement and confusion bubbling up.
“So you just…wanted to go out with me?”
“I mean, yeah! But we never have a reason to with work, and I always go to your office for write-ups even though you’re not even on my floor and I just…ugh! Forget it! This was stupid, it just…” Scott was hiding his face in his hands this time, and Jimmy hurriedly reached out. Grabbed his hands and pulled them away, never wanting to be robbed a view of bright blue eyes that reminded him of the skies he’d dreamed off as an avian trapped in the under-city.
“Hey. It’s not stupid. I’m happy.”
Scott glared at him. “If you’re just saying that…”
“I’m not! I swear! I mean, why else do you think I came out on my day off like this? I like you, Scott, I have for a long time! I just never scraped up the courage to say anything but…but I’m so happy you did.”
For a few seconds, things hung between them, completely quiet, then Scott made some sort of noise in the back of his throat that might’ve read as surprised.
“So…so it was a date?”
Jimmy felt a smile pull up on his cheeks, irresistible. “I mean…if you’re ok with that, then yeah. It was a date.”
This time it was Scott who tightened his grip on Jimmy’s hands. Then that warm, softened half-smile returned. Scott, who was typically harsh and cynical and straightforward, right now seemed completely at ease.
“Ok. Cool. Sounds good to me.”
Jimmy nodded. “And next time I buy you coffee.”
Scott managed to cut off his giggles halfway, and nodded. “Sure. But we’ll find another morning. You need your rest.”
Jimmy’s expression soured. “Oh, no, not another person to yell at me over my health.”
“Well, somebody’s gotta do it! Seriously, Jimmy, that really scared me, I thought you were having a seizure!”
“I know, I know, my bad. I promise, though, today really was weird, much worse than usual.” The avian insisted, and Scott sighed wearily.
“Fine. But I’m totally checking on you from now on.”
“You really don’t have too…”
“Sure I do! We’re dating! That’s how it works!” Scott replied snippily, turning his nose up, and Jimmy felt his heart leap into his throat.
“Dating…”
Scott faltered in his bravado, cracking an eye open. “Too soon?” He tested.
Jimmy shook his head, and even though the ache was still thrumming against his back, he was able to put it off in a corner just for a few minutes more.
“No. Perfectly timed, I think.”
Jimmy's favorite thing had always been the sky. From distant memories of staring up through cracks in the pavement to catch the narrowest sliver of blue.
His eyes wandered back to Scott again, to blue eyes and blue hair.
Sky-Blue Darling?
His face felt warm at the notion of such a gentle string of words, and he didn't dare to say them. One day, maybe. After all, it seemed from here on out, he and Scott would have plenty of time.