Work Text:
Bird Bath.
“Ugg, what a fucking day.” Muttered Blitzø, as he portalled back into their apartment, leading Stolas by the hand. The owl’s injuries might have been magically healed, but he still looked a mess, feathers out of place, clothes askew, thousand-yard stare.
“Yeah right?” yawned Loona, stretching, arms over head. As she did she sniffed her own arm-fur and winced. “Whoof! Uh gross we reek of smoke. Blitz, I’m going to grab my washbag and a towel and head over to the Y: I promised Gigi and Russ I’d go swimming with them later anyway, and at least the showers there are hound-sized so I don’t have to fight for space in your tiny-ass imp tub. Maybe check out that new dayspa afterwards. You need anything while I’m out?” she asked. What she was saying all seemed reasonable and plausible, and Blitzø didn’t buy it for a second. He saw the sideways glace she shot Stolas as she was saying this: this was her giving them space, letting them have the apartment to themselves if they needed it. An intense wave of love and pride went over him. He already knew he had hell’s best daughter, but sometimes she really did just go the extra mile.
“Yeah, sure Loony, but be sure to bring protection, put your forty-five in a Ziplock baggie or something, you never know the sort of freaks you can get at a public pool.”
“Yeah well you and Stolas will be here, so that eliminates like 90% of the local pervert population.” She hit back, but there was a slight smile. “Believe it or not some of us are capable of going to a public B A T H house and not trying to turn it into the start of a gay porno, Blitz.”
“It was one time, one time, and they never let you move past it.” Muttered Blitzø “The hot salt-vapour room is just where you go to fuck random twinks, that’s their natural habitat, if you don’t want to see that shit, don’t open the door. Or at least learn to knock!” he complained, locking Stolas’s new gun securely away in a kitchen draw with the knives. Stolas’s depression hadn’t been too bad these last few days, and he said he wasn’t suicidal, but there was no saying what being kidnapped again might have done to him mentally. So I guess we all just lost belt and bootlace privileges for the week he thought.
She snorted, disappearing into the tiny bathroom, only her tail visible. “Whatevs, loser.” She said, re-emerging with her towel over her shoulder (the pawprint one not the pink bunny one), a washbag, and a shampoo bottle the size of a small nation’s oil reserves. “I’ll be back late. And for fuck sakes, Blitz, don’t leave the bath trap full of feathers again, you always forget to clean it!” she snarled, as if the tiny apartment wasn’t 60% dog hair at all times, and gave Stolas a last meaningful look: he’d slumped into one of the too-small kitchen chairs, and was staring into space.
“Yeah, well fucking knock.” He said, trying to get some bravado into his voice. “Unlike you some of us have game, so don’t be surprised if there’s a necktie on the doorhandle when you get home. On every door handle.”
“Ew.” She said, but she did reach down and squeeze his hand, glancing past him to Stolas. “I’ve got some scented candles in my room, if you need them, dad, and the water-heater should be good this time of day.” She whispered in his ear. “Look after him!” she ordered, before standing back up and adding, far louder. “You don’t own a neck-tie, idiot. I’m out, peace.” She declared, before disappearing out the front door, and leaving the two men alone.
Blitzø stood facing the door for a long second. “So…. I’m guessing with your owl hearing, you got, what, all of that?”
“Yes, but it is still very sweet. And you don’t need to make a fuss for me.” Said Stolas, standing up. “I’m all right, truly. And I am more than capable of drawing a hot bath for myself without assistance.”
“Sure, babes. Sure. So, how does an immersion heater work, and what are the timer setting on our hot water?” asked Blitz, standing in front of him, arms crossed, tail swishing.
Stolas just stood there for a second. “And I am more than capable of drawing an extremely cold bath for myself without assistance.” He riposte. “It might even be good for me, bracing.”
“Yeah, the only time I ever want you braced in my bathtub is if I’m bending your feathered ass over it, hun, sit.” He commanded. “I’ll sort the bath out. You interfere and I swear to fuck I’ll fold you into a pretzel and fuck you five ways till Sunday.”
“One method of fitting me in that tiny tub, I suppose.” Snorted the owl, sitting. “But really, we don’t need to make a big thing of this. I can just-”
“You’ve had an awful day. You’ve got your ribs kicked in, tied-up, smoked like fucking deli-meat, and spent hours waiting in a shitty hospital. You’re freezing, look.” He said, taking the owls hands “Your hands are cold! Sit. I’m going to get a nice hot bath for you, and we’re going to talk about what happed today, if you’re okay with that, right? I’m going to look after you because you deserve it and I love and respect you, got it?”
Stolas nodded, and whipped a small tear from an eye. “Got it. Thank you, I... I don’t deserve you.”
“Damn right you don’t you deserve better, like an actual handsome knight or some shit, but I’m what’s here so I’m going to love and respect the shit out of you. So, get those fucking clothes off, right now.” He commanded, rummaging in Loona’s room and trying to find some candles what were romantic and not goth-girl-witchy vibes, before giving up: he couldn’t even find the floor in that room.
“Oh, yes sir. I do so love it when you command.” Said Stolas, unbuckling his trousers.
Blitzø grinned, half-way thought stuffing his own shirt into the laundry basket. “Yeah you do you little-”
He froze. Stolas noticed, pants around ankles, eyes wobbling.
“What? Darling what’s the… oh.” He looked down: his body was mostly legs, and the feathers were dull, drab, greasy looking and feeling. He’s lost what little weight he’d once had, he was a twig. No wonder Blitz couldn’t find him attractive any more in this state-
Blitzø shuffled over, still practically bent double from when he’d been stuffing dirty laundry into the basket, and put his thumb gently, oh-so gently, on the scar, the one on his calf, form the first time Striker had tortured him.
“I… I should have come myself, that first time.” Muttered Blitz. “I… Loona needed me to sort out some medical stuff, and I didn’t think you could get hurt. I didn’t know-” He sobbed. “I didn’t know and I wasn’t there for you.” He dropped to his knees, and hugged Stolas’s legs, burring his face between his thighs. “I didn’t know, I swear!”
“Oh Blitz!” said Stolas, as the imp hugged his legs like toddler and cried into him “You… you sent M and M, I got out okay…”
“You got hurt. You have scars now, ones that will never heal. I didn’t come. I… I didn’t even come visit you in hospital, I was too ashamed. I-”
Blitz felt the owl move, and felt his head taken in both hands, and burred into Stolas’s chest-fluff.
“You came this time. That’s what counts. You came for me this time, and before that at Sinsmass, and you helped me and guided me thought my depowering, and my trauma. I… I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for you. A few scars are a worthy price to pay for that.” He said, hugging the imp.
Blitz snorted, and rubbed his eyes, pulling out from the chest-fluff. “Ooof. Sorry. It’s just every time that I see you, your perfect body, and there’s this mark that’s my fault, it gets me. I feel bad: you’re a Goetia, you’re supposed to last for-ever, and I’ve dinged you up. I feal like, I dunno, like I’ve shat on the Sistine chapel celling, or something.”
“That… would take some doing. I feel the physics would be against you on that.” Said Stolas, and Blitz had to laugh at that, standing up, taking both of the owl’s hands.
“Sit. I’ll get the bath ready. And no peeking.” He added, grabbing the Asmodian crystal. “I’m just going to nip to the store, grab some things to make this real nice.”
“Okay but you’re not wearing your-” Stolas started, as the imp portalled out.
“-Shirt.” Stolas finished, with an amused snort. On the basis that there didn’t seem to be much else to do, he finished getting undressed and sorted the laundry, correctly. He only had a few changes of clothes, it was hard to find stuff in his size that wasn’t tailored, and he didn’t want his one good sweater getting shrunk in the wash.
“Lady, no shoes, no shirt no service has historically been used to enforce some really racist laws, it’s problematic, and my hooves are more than clean enough for your shitty store! Fuck you, and I’ll see you tomorrow!” yelled a voice form the bathroom, no doubt his handsome knight-errant portal-ing back. He moved to peak and got a “Nuhuhuhuh! No peaking!” for his trouble. He had to chuckle at that, and so he went back to his seat, stretching out and trying to position himself in such a way that Blitz might at least have something nice to look at when he opened the bathroom door, if he did in fact still find him attractive. There was a series of grunts and swears and the sounds of the old pipes in the building hammering, and eventually wafts of hot steam and a pleasant floral smell starting to seep out. Stolas watched, head cocked on one side curiously. This was starting to look interesti-
The sound of a portal behind him, and hands over his eyes. “I told you no peaking.” Said Blitzø, in his ear. He had to smile at that.
“Taking me roughly from behind, a bit cliché? And after all the effort I went to to arrange myself artfully on this chair for you.”
“Oh, the long legs draped over the chair is noted, very hot, babe… but this is about you, not me. Blindfold on just one sec.” he said, and Stolas felt cloth draped over his eyes and he had to smil-
Striker pulling a bag over his head as he dragged him into that van earlier that day-
He sat bold upright, heat hammering, the fear so much worse for being un-expected.
“Woah, are you okay?” asked Blitz, his face there, the blindfold instantly off. He’d noticed, of course he had. The fear was gone again so quickly that Stolas felt quite the fool for it, and blushed, embarrassed.
“I’m fine!” he squeaked. “Sorry, sorry I don’t want to ruin your surprise but… no blindfolds today, please, no ropes… nothing that’s going to make me feel… restrained, if you would?” he asked, wincing, feeling terrible about ruining Blitz’s treat when he was working so hard on making this nice for him.
“Oh shit sorry I, fuck I’m such a moron, are you okay?” he asked, taking his hands. “I should have realised, I’m such an idiot-”
“No, no it’s fine. I’m just a little, it’s fine. I’m fine.” He said, shuffling awkwardly on the chair. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, here let me, umm.” Blitzø muttered, going back to the kitchenette. “I’m just going to heat up some coals, do my living hot water bottle trick again, the tap water is only ever lukewarm. Do you want tea, or something? I grabbed wine at the store if you prefer that.”
“That sounds wonderful, but you don’t need to by me wine.”
“Oh no, I said grabbed not bought. I got a whole box of the stuff before they stopped me. It has a kangaroo on the box, and that’s a fancy animal, almost as good as a horse, so it must be fancy!”
“Ah, goon-sack larceny: how aggressively Australasian. You spoil me.” Said Stolas, smiling as Blitzø poured him a coffee-mung of what he noticed they legally had to call ‘wine-drink, now with 20% *more* ethaline-glycol!’
“Well, you deserve it hun!” said the imp, tossing some coals in a pan to heat them, before swallowing them whole. “So, are you ready for the most relaxing time you can have in hell on a four dollar plus whatever I can steal budget?” he said, passing over the wine-drink.
Stolas had to smile at that. How could you not? “Oh well, if we’re pushing the boat out and getting really fancy, count me in…” he said, sipping the wine. It tasted… actually pretty good, but that was the entire point of adding glycol to wine: antifreeze was expensive after all, and you weren’t going to waste it if it didn’t actually work as a mixer.
“Okay Stols, close your eyes.” Said Blitz, taking him by the hand and leading him. He had to smile at the whole theatricality of it. “Are you ready?” the imp asked, and he could tell from the heat and the humidity that he was being lead into the open bathroom door.
“Quivering with anticipation.” He joked. That made Blitzø snort.
“Needy bitch. Okay, you can open them now.”
Stolas opened his eyes and-
One of his small carnivorous plants was in the soap dish, rose-petals in the water, candles: pastel and sweetly scented, not Loonas, he must have bought them specially, along the side of the bath. And a tea-light, and over it one of those little stamped metal thingamabobs that caught the rising hot air from the flame and spun around, sending patterns of constellations across the tastefully dimly-lit room. Letting him, for the first time since his banishment, see some stars.
He stared for a long time.
Blitzø coughed, and looked down, playing this his tail.
“It sucks, I know, it’s not what you’re used to, it’s too small, and the tub is all stained and has that weird limescale soap-scum hybrid stuff and-”
“You… you did all this, just for me?” asked Stolas, stunned.
“yeah, well like I say it’s not much…”
Stolas leaned down, picked up Blitzø, and kissed him on the lips.
“It’s perfect.” He said, a tear running down his face.
+++
Perfect or not, it’s still a tight fit to get the both of us in this tub. Thought Blitzø, cussing and snorting as he squeezed in behind the owl with much grunting as the taps tried to right up his back passage and then poked him in the small of the back, making him slip and fall the last few inches into the tub, the heat making him yelp as he hit the water scrotum-first like a space-ship re-entry. “Dammit” he muttered, going redder than usual.
“Are, are you okay dear?” asked Stolas, leaning forwards to let the imp squeeze in behind him.
“Yeah I’m in. Sorry just had to squeeze in a bit. Not… not the first time I’ve had to squeeze in tight when we’re in this position, am I right?” he joked, nervously.
Stolas hooted gently, and leaned back, his narrow feathery back slowly lowering onto Blitzø’s chest, which was already wet with sweat. The owl sighed, and raised his knees, letting his torso sink down until his head was level with Blitzø’s, pressing his back into Blitzø’s crotch in a way that was both deeply awkward and yet still weirdly erotic.
“Don’t don’t sink any lower.” Warned Blitz. “We don’t need you breathing any more Agua.”
“Well I’ve been banished, de-powered, stripped of all rank, kidnaped, I reek of drug smoke, and I’m sharing a couch as my sleeping arrangements, so I’m not sure how much lower I could sink.” He groaned, rubbing at his legs. After a second he looked up at Blitzø’s face. “Sorry, sorry, you’re trying so hard to make this so nice for me, and I’m just-”
“No, I get it. You’ve had a bad day, and life does legitimately suck ass right now. I’m just trying to make rock-bottom as comfortable for you as possible tootsie pop.”
Stolas sighed, and nuzzled into Blitzø’s neck. “I don’t deserve you. You’re my rock.”
“And you’re my bottom. Anything for you.” He said, hugging his owl. “Ooof, not wrong about reeking of smoke. Your feathers are all messed up, hun. You… you need a hand fixing them up?”
“Oh, um, well.” Stolas blushed. “I.. I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“No it’s no problem. What… what do I do with these, do you have like a bird shampoo or something? You… you’ve never actually let me clean these for you, not even after sex. You always did that yourself.”
“Ah well…” muttered Stolas, pressing his fingertips together nervously.
“Are… are you blushing? What… did I just make some embarrassing bird fox paws?”
“…what?”
“Fox Paws. Like, when you fuck up your manners.”
“Faux pas? Misstep”
“Yeah, that too. Am… Am I not meant to touch your feathers? That Macaw guy did, back at the hospital.”
“Vassago… overstepped. That was too forward of him. He’s always done that, not just with me, he does that with everyone.”
“What, try to nibble their fucking feathers with his beak?” said Blitz, trying not to let that annoy him.
“You’re growling dear, but… yes. It’s called preening. Feathers…. They require considerably more maintenance than hair. They need to be re-aligned when they go off angle, cleaned, oiled, damaged ones need removing… you do it wrong it can really hurt if you pull out a good feather, or you can get get left unable to fly if they’re miss-aligned. It… it means you can only let someone you really trust near your feathers, so preening becomes… social. Intimate. It becomes a bonding ritual. It’s not sexual, but it is deeply intimate. You don’t let strangers do it, and I didn’t… our relationship was transactional. I didn’t want to overstep. Asking you too would have been a step too far.”
“Well that’s a stretch considering all the wildly deranged things you did ask me to do to your body.”
“Yes but that was sex, this is… No… no one has ever preened me, other than my mother. Father… wasn’t about. Stella…. You’re supposed to preen your partner as part of Goetia wedding rites but she, we skipped that step. She didn’t want to… I… I used to preen Octavia.” He said, with a strangulated sob. “Before bed, as I sung to her. It was our little ritual, just ours, and now I’ll never get to touch her again…”
“Hey, hey it’s okay babe. We’ll, we’ll find a way to keep her safe-”
“Even if we do, she’ll never forgive me. She’ll be safe, but a stranger to me…”
“Hey, hey.” Said Blitz, wrapping his arms and tail around the owl “We’ll think of something. Would, would you like me to preen you? Would, would that make you feel better, or is that… does that like make me your bird-wife or something?”
“I… I’ll need to wash them first. They’ll need to be clean and dry…” he said, blushing. “And.. and I don’t want to impose.”
“So we’ll do it after the bath, before bed?”
“I… I’d like that, Blitz.” Said Stolas, lying back in the water, and letting Blitzø stoke his feathers. “I’d really like that, if you’re ready to take that step.”
“So would I. So just relax, enjoy the soak.” Said Blitzø, rubbing shampoo into Stolas’s feathers. “Anything else I can do to help you unwind?” he asked.
He noticed a certain stirring in his crotch, as Stolas moved a hand towards him. “Anything I can do to help you relax?” asked Stolas, meaningfully.
Blitz grinned, “Well now you mention it…” he said, snaking his tail thought the water towards Stolas, wrapping it around his thighs and moving the tail spade up his inner thigh. The Owl groaned.
“Well now that you mention it…” Stolas replied, leaning back and looking up as the imp held him in his big, strong arms, tail wrapped around his thigh-
Striker and Crimson’s goons, wrapping the rope around him, stripping him at gun-point as he begged, begged them not to…
Stolas shot up, eyes wide, water splashing.
“Woah, woah, are you okay?” asked Blitz, sitting up.
“I… Sorry. Sorry it’s not you it’s just. Striker.”
“Oh that little bitch did he touch you? Babe if he did anything, anything at all…”
“Not it’s just… I think he wanted to, on some level, but I think he hates himself too much to. There’s something going on there. Something personal. What do you know about him?”
“Nothing, we weren’t exactly acquainted. But he must have a rep, I can ask around?” asked Blitz. “We probably should know who we’re up against.”
“That… that might not be a bad idea.” Said Stolas, settling back down into the water. He leaned back to kiss, Blitzø, to let him know it wasn’t him doing anything wrong and-
-Have a great fucking life with him, Dad! Via said in his mind.
He flinched back, his lips not quite reaching Blitzø’s “Sorry. Sorry, I just… I can’t do it right now. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, you’ve not been feeling horny with all the depression, I get it. You’ve had a fucking traumatic day, I think it’s normal to not want to fuck after that. And I know that when you’re, stressed, and overstimulated there I times you don’t want to be touched, or need to be alone, or when you’re depressed and struggle to get out of bed of bathe, you’re not interested in me the same way I am in you those days, that’s fine, I’ll work around that. You… I don’t need you to be as astronomically thirsty as you used to be for this relationship to work. I am an adult with class and respect for my partners. You have a right to say no. Plus if you get me too riled up but you’re not in the mood, I can just sneak into the bathroom and desperately cry and beat it like it owes me money.”
“Ah, I had wondered about the stains” said Stolas, looking around. “And the higher than average toilet paper consumption. But I can still… even if I’m not feeling it I can still help you out, do what you need me to, seeing as you’re letting me live hear rent free.”
“No.” said Blitzø, firmly. “No, let’s make this clear, no more transactional sex. Not between us, ever again. You’ll have sex with me again when you want to and not before. I’m not having you thinking you need to pay rent with a unenthusiastic hand job in the bath, or something pathetic like that. No one at IMP fucks the boss to get ahead or to keep their job, they fuck the boss because I’m fucking gorgeous. Tell that to Moxxie, if you get a chance.” He added, making Stolas laugh.
Besides, I know what that’s like he thought, remembering when he got kicked out of the circus and had nothing and he’d needed to make rent, and some other, nastier bits of his past he’d sooner forget. But you know it’s, whatever he thought. Nothing major, not worth thinking about. He rationalised, pushing the thoughts down again and focusing on helping Stolas.
“Besides, you could probably do better than a scarred old fuck like me, anyways.” Said Blitz, distancing himself from those thoughts.
The owl hooted, amused. “I never have.” He confessed. “Done better than you, I mean.”
“What, I mean I know I was your first… you gave of very strong nervous virgin energy that first time, and you didn’t even know about bottom prep, but we were broken up for several months last year, and you were rich and hot, surely you?”
Stolas shook his head. “No. Other than some awkward teenage snogging at finishing classes, you’re the only man I’ve ever been with.”
“Oh? What about that Incubus guy from Versoika’s party? The guy with the Better than Blitzo shirt? He was hot.” Asked Blitzø, swallowing a little nervously. He knew he couldn’t compete with an incubus in the sack.
“Oh, err… I took him home, right to my bedroom, and then when I went to prep myself I realised that all my lube and toys and my douche were things you’d got for me, and so I just started drunkenly sobbing over a tube of lube about how much I missed you, so he just sat there on the bed increasingly bored and blue-balled patting me on my back while I cried over lube for, I think about two hours, before the butler let him out in the morning. Very sane and normal behaviour. So you know, not my finest moment.”
“Huh. Still better than how I ended that night.” Said Blitzø, feeling… weirdly relived.
“Beating it like it owed you money, sobbing?” guessed Stolas.
“Yup. Couldn’t even cum. Missed you too much.”
There a pause, not awkward, but just, gentle, as they both considered this. It as weirdly sweet how much they’d missed each other, if it wasn’t, you know, so hilariously deranged.
“So who’s Chaz?” asked Stolas. Blitzø groaned.
“Horrible little mobster chode I fucked to get info. Not a bad dick, two in fact, but the person attached to it was a nightmare. Proof that whatever he says, Moxxie does not have taste in music or men.”
Stolas hooted at that, sounding amused. “Well good to see we both can’t do better.”
“Yep, I think we’re doomed to settle. Pitty, but there it is”
“Settle? For me? You have another former prince waiting in the wings?” joked Stolas.
“Former? I think I had a real chance with that fucking macaw guy.” Said Blitzø as he shampooed the owl’s feathers, taking care to be gentle with them. “Now I know how a cloaca works and about the whole preening thing I’m going to be fucking unstoppable.”
He paused when he got to the scar on Stolas’s shoulder.
“You mustn’t blame yourself.” Muttered Stolas, sleepily, leaning back into him
“No, but I can blame Striker.” He muttered. “Ruining a perfectly cute patch of hot fuckable owl. You’ll have this forever.”
“If… if I last forever. 100 years as a mortal, no healthcare, dangerous job? I think… I think the odds might be against us, dear.”
“Hey, now, we’ll find a way. I… shit, that terrifies me, Stolas. The fact that… that you can get really hurt now.” Said Blitz, trying to keep from sobbing. “What… what do I tell Octavia if I fuck this up, and you don’t make it? What do I tell her?”
“She’ll… she’ll manage. She doesn’t need me.” Muttered the owl “She will be okay.”
There was a brief pause, and then Stolas cleared his throat, and started to sing, building slowly, his voice resonating in the tiny bathroom, pure and warbling and heartbreaking.
It always feels so quiet in the dark
It always feels so stark
How silence grows under the moon
And it’s always gone so soon
I used to think that I was bold
I used to think love was for fun
Now all my stories have been told, except for one
As the stars start to align
I hope you take it as a sign
That you'll be Ok
Everything will be Ok
And if the Seven Hells collapse
Although the day will be my last
You will be Ok
When I'm gone, you'll be Ok
The day that you arrived the sun went black
An artificial night
You came and stole away the light
And put it in your eyes
How could I possibly suspect
That you'd eclipse the midnight sun
I thought that I knew all the moons
But then you pulled me back to one
If the stars ever align
I hope you take it as a sign that you'll be Ok
Everything will be Ok
And if the Seven Hells collapse
Although the day will be my last
You will be Ok
When I'm gone you'll be Ok
And if the Heavens crash aground
I know you'll hear the trumpet sound
And you'll be Ok
Everything will be Ok
And when Creation goes to die
You can find me in the sky
Upon the last day
And you will be Okay..
He finished, with a sob, rubbing at his eyes with a wrist.
“Ug, tears? I must have got some shampoo in them. Sorry, I must be boring you with my silly screeching and-” he looked up.
Blitzø was looking down at him, wide eyed, lip quivering.
“How… how do you keep finding ways to be even more beautiful, Stols?” Blitzø gasped, after a time. “What, what was that?”
“Oh, er. That… that’s the lullaby I used to sing to Octavia. It… it was prophesied early on that I wouldn’t make it. That Prince Stolas disappears form the timeline in his first century, so I used to try and prepare her, from an early age. Let her know that even if I wouldn’t be there for her, if, it it all ended, if the end came, she… she’d be okay.” He said, voice breaking. “And now it’s come true, and I’m gone, and all I have left of her is this song, one she’ll never hear me sing again… I’m sorry. Oh lucifer I’m so sorry.” He sobbed, crying. “I.”
He didn’t get to finish that sentence.
Blitzø took him, and hugged him from behind, and held him and sung the song back to him, roughly, lacking confidence and stumbleing over the words at one point, but he sung it as the tears came. Held him until long after the bath-water had grown cold, until the only heat was their bodies, pressed together. Heart to heart.
+++
“Okay.” Said Blitzø, portal-ing back in, bottle in hand. “You were right that because there are feathered sinners, that that sinner megastore on the edge of Pent City would have feather-oils, but there was, like, only one bottle left, and I had to fight some lanky twink for it, said he wanted it a gift for his barman, or some shit. I think I know the guy, like I’ve seen him on tv or something? Hell of a mouth on him but he did the harder daddy schtick in the fight so I punched him in the dick and ran, so we’re now the proud owner of the last bottle of feather oil this side of the pentagram.”
“Oh, aren’t I lucky.” Said Stolas, sitting on the sofa and drying his feathers. “But I’d really prefer if you didn’t get in quite so many fights on my behalf.”
“That guy at the deli fucking had it coming. He shouldn’t have called you that.”
“Strigiform? That… that just means owl, dear.”
“Yeah, well, he said it in a weird way. Besides, Moxxie stopped me before I could put his face through the deli slicer, so no harm no foul. So, you ready to get preened good and hard?”
Stolas gave him a weird look.
“Get preened gently and carefully?” asked Blitzø. Stolas had to smile at that, and he slipped off the couch and on to the bean-bag.
“I… you don’t have to.” He said, and he felt the couch creak, as the imp crawled up behind him, sitting with his legs on either side of his narrow feathered back. “If this is too intimate, if you’re not ready-”
“Stolas… let me do this. I want to do this.” Blitzø said, and Stolas hand to admit that he blushed at the idea, and shivered, head to toe.
“Okay.” Siad Stolas, heart thumping nervously. Sweet lucifer, he’d not felt like this since the first time Blitzy had taken him to bed, the anticipation was almost-
Stolas felt the hot-wet sensation on his scalp, and nearly shrieked with a mix of surprise, annoyance and utter, utter hilarity.
“Blitz! Did you just lick me?” he yelped, head rotating.
“What, what am I not meant to?” asked the imp, forked tongue out.
“Are you in fact a fucking cat?!”
“That macaw guy was using his mouth!”
“His beak, Blitz, his beak which is good for snipping off any broken feathers! Just… just use your hands! Really!”
“Sorry, sorry, so I just… straighten up any ones out of line and then, what? Rub them with a little oil?”
“Yes, you can comb it through with your fingers if you like that… that feels nice. And if any feathers are loose or broken, take then out.”
“D-doens’t that hurt?”
Stolas shrugged. “Yes a little, but if you leave them in, they catch and it sort of… inches.” He said, as Blitz rolled the bottle of oil in his palms, to warm it up.
“Okay, and… err. what’s this?” he said, gently poking at something weird growing out of Stolas’s back. “You’ve got a, well it looks like one of my back-spikes but smaller, and like it’s made of finger-nail or that hard central bit of feather…”
“Oh, a pin feather? Okay so, very very gently pinch that and sort of, tease it out.”
“Tease?”
“Wiggle it from side to side and pull it out but very gently, it really smarts if you pull one of those out wrong.”
Blitzø swallowed nervously, he didn’t want to hurt Solas… but this was apparently a big thing for birds, so he took the pin-feather, and gently as he could, pinching it softly bit by bit wiggled it out while Stolas groaned in a satisfied manner until is just came away in his hands and he flinched, thinking fuck I’ve hurt him… huh?
“Oh, there was like, a teeny tiny baby feather under that?”
Stolas chuckled. “Yes, that’s how new feathers grow in. Oh Lucifer, it feels so good to get that out. Thank you, Blitz.” Said Stolas, leaning back and sighing, as he just relaxed into Blitz’s legs. “You have no idea, that feels amazing. That’s so soothing.”
Blitz uncorked the oil, and dabbed a little on the new feather, and straitened it down so it lay neatly with the rest.
“Okay” he said, as he started to preen Stolas, with a bit more confidence. “Okay. One down, like, a million to go…”
+++
Loona paused outside the door. No necktie. She listened, big hellhound ear flat to the door. No sounds of furious goetic sex, no loud, messy owlgasm in progress. A quick sniff under the front door indicated dad had bought scented candles, stolen her good rose bathsalts, and opened… a bottle of something that seemed to be mostly sweet almond oil? Weird, but the lack of jizz probably meant it was safe to enter. Shit, it was nearly midnight, she’d spent longer with Russ and Gigi then she’d meant, they’d needed some beers after the day she’d had, dad would be pacing and angry, asking where she’d been… she’d be in the shit for this, she thought opening the door.
“Hey Blitz I’m sorry I lost track off-”
There was a small, quiet grunt. She looked over, keys still in hand.
Blitzø was sitting on the couch, dressed in shorts and a tee, his usual bedwear, Stolas on the floor in front of him, in a bathrobe, his head in Blitz’s lap. Both were fast asleep, a neat set of discarded feathers piled on the couch next to them, and Stolas… she’d not seen him look like that since the trial, his feathers glowed they were so soft and sleek looking. He looked… happy, for once.
She smiled, and went over, and pulled the horse blanket over Stolas and tucked it in around him under his chin, covering her dad’s legs and tail as well. She leaned down, and gave Blitz a quick kiss between the horns.
“Falling asleep sitting up? Idiot.” She muttered. “You’ll feel it tomorrow, dad.” She was about to walk away, when Blitzø muttered, and touched her hand, sleepily.
“Marurup?” he asked, seriously, before adding. “I love you, Loony.” In a mutter, lying down and cradling the owls head, wrapping around it like a dragon with it’s treasure.
She had to smile at that, how could you not? “Love you too, dad.” She said, before she snuck off to brush her teeth as quietly as she could.
Behind her, she let the two fathers sleep, completely unaware that for the first time in a very long time, they dreamed of just being with each other, and when they woke the next day, they’d find it was true.