Chapter Text
“Stay still,” Zeal instructed, his voice pitched low. He straddled Kaelix’s thighs, easily pinning him down with the combined weight of his body and wings. His fingers lightly skimmed down Kaelix’s lower back, working at the ties there.
Kaelix shivered. “Wait—” he gasped. “Right there’s a bit…”
“You’re too tense.” The weight on him shifted as Zeal leaned closer. His voice rumbled too close to his ear, “relax for me.”
“I am relaxed,” Kaelix protested, his voice pitching higher without him meaning to, partially swallowed by the pillow he buried his flushed face further into. As fingers trailed back up his spine, he lifted his head with a gasp.
He turned to glare over his shoulder. “You’re having too much fun with this.”
“Am I?” Zeal’s grin was far too self-satisfied as he unfastened Kaelix’s back-buttoned shirt, exposing the base of his wings to the cool air. He carefully pushed the obstructing fabric all the way off his back, leaving it to bunch at Kaelix’s upper arms.
Zeal planted a kiss on his bare shoulder in reassurance. “You know—we’ve never tried this position before.”
That’s it. Kaelix might actually die of mortification, right here, on their bed. He covered his face with his hands, effectively unable to escape the current situation. “ Please don’t make this any more embarrassing than it already is.”
“I thought you said this isn’t the first time someone’s preened you here.”
“That’s different!” The only ones he had ever trusted to do this for him were his immediate family, and no one else. Not to mention, the current mood in the room has him eager to push away any and every thought of them far away from his mind, right now.
And besides… Casual preening doesn’t usually involve being pinned down on the bed he shares with his mate.
Unable to adjust his position by much, Kaelix sighed, resigned to his fate. He doesn’t even bother pulling his shirt fully off, plopping his bound, outstretched arms onto the pillows in front of him before lying himself fully flat across the sheets.
“Just… get it over with.”
“Yes, Sir,” Zeal chuckled.
Immediately, he worked through the worst of the pinfeathers right underneath Kaelix’s wings, the gentle touch lighting up his nerve endings. Instinctively, the muscles in that region contracted, flaring his feathers to allow Zeal easier access. Occasionally, fingers would massage his skin underneath it all to get at each individual shaft, and the sensation caused his back to arch.
“Mm…” He let out a long, drawn-out sigh, the itchiness that came with growing new feathers already beginning to alleviate, leaving behind nothing but pure ecstasy. He felt Zeal shift his seat on Kaelix’s thighs, lifting a bit of the pressure on him.
“Your feathers are so soft, right here.” Zeal ran fingers through the newly-freed feathers absentmindedly, sending more tingles up his spine. “I could spend hours doing this.”
Kaelix gave a muffled laugh, cheek pressed against his shoulder in boneless contentment. “You say that like you haven’t already agreed to that burden.”
“Burden…? I think you’re fundamentally misunderstanding the situation here.” He pitched his voice lower again, his tone playful, “This is purely for my own enjoyment. You’re at my mercy.”
It shouldn’t have affected Kaelix as much as it did, seeing as Zeal was clearly messing with him… but his pulse quickened, nonetheless.
“Hm?” Zeal zeroed in when Kaelix let the silence stretch on for a moment too long. “You like the sound of that?” Coincidentally, as he asked the question, his ever-diligent fingers had been in the middle of working at a particularly stubborn quill right where Kaelix is most sensitive, his fingers firmly pressing at its base.
Even if Kaelix’s wings hadn’t twitched involuntarily at the sensation, a sharp intake of breath gave him away.
“Hm… I’ll remember that, for future reference,” Zeal concluded ominously, voice still frustratingly composed.
Kaelix’s blood rushed loudly in his own ears, heat rising all the way to his cheeks. “You’re going to drive me mad.”
“That’s the idea,” Zeal answered, fingers never ceasing their slow, careful work. He pressed a kiss into the juncture where Kaelix’s neck met his shoulder, lingering just long enough for Kaelix to arch faintly into the touch.
By the time they were done with it all, both of them were mostly unclothed, Kaelix safely caged within the all-encompassing coverage of Zeal’s wings, exhausted.
“This won’t happen again,” Kaelix grumbled, yet still leaning into Zeal’s ceaseless petting of the new, sensitive, and downy feathers at the centre of his back, reluctantly enjoying the touch like some prickly, grumpy cat.
“Yes, it will,” Zeal countered, tightening the circle of his wings around them both. From the mumbled nature of his voice against Kaelix’s temple, he was already drifting off to sleep.
“Yes, it will,” Kaelix sighed obligingly, nuzzling in closer.