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Ash groans, flopping down onto his bed in Lala legion . It was such a dumb name and god Ash hated it at times. But honestly he’d gotten used to it. Even the whole spamming lala in the chat bullshit that Spoke and Planet loved so much. He sighs, taking off his armor and letting his aching wings spread out over him. He hates having wings sometimes.
Sure they’re fun every now and then when Ash is allowed to fly with them. But on Lifesteal they’re really nothing but a nuisance and a pain in the ass. He sighs and flaps them out, wincing at the strain in them. When was the last time he cleaned them? Thoroughly cleaned them? He can’t remember. After all, he needs someone else to help him with it. He sighs. He doesn’t trust his teammates with it.
Planet would get distracted and wouldn't do a good enough job. Spoke would try to do a somewhat good job but would end up being way too rough with pulling feathers out. Then Ro would just not give a shit and would probably say no. Not to mention he doesn’t think that his teammates have seen him with his wings so that’d be a surprise.
He sighs and pulls out his communicator seeing that Red’s on. He’ll probably do it. They’re enemies sure but that's never stopped them.
You whisper to Reddoons: can you come to lala base?
It's a while before he responds. Probably weighing the pros and cons of the option. After all, there aren’t a lot. Especially with some of Ash’s teammates on. He just hopes that Red makes up his mind quickly.
Reddoons whispers to you: depends what for?
You whisper to Reddoons: wings fuckin hurt
Reddoons whispers to you: this better not be a trap
You whisper to Reddoons: dont give me ideas
He doesn’t have to wait long before Red’s there and upon seeing Ash with no armor he does the same and kicks it in a pile in the corner of the base. Ash sighs and looks over.
“Really?”
Red laughs. “The trims make armor so fucking heavy. You do not understand man,” He sits down next to Ash and slowly sets him up immediately running his hand down Ash’s spin gently. It sends all sorts of messages to Ash’s brain. The main one being comfort as his wings flap almost excitedly and Ash leans closer to Red.
“Can you sit up?” Red whispers into Ash’s ear. Ash sighs and nods. He could be a bitch about it but he doubts that Red wants to stay for very long.
Ash leans forward and feels Red’s soft hands run through his wings straightening them out and soon massaging them. “How well do you want me to clean them?” he asks.
Ash pauses. He never really thought about that. His wings lay down a bit as Red’s still touching them with his hands running them through the feathers and gently straightening them.
“Just with some water and stuff. Get most of the dirt off please,” he can feel his body pretty much shut down with Red near him. It's hard not to. Red nods and gets up, getting a bucket of water and a wet cloth running the cloth along Ash’s wings.
It's cold and it's unnerving. Not as gentle sadly but it's fine. It makes his wings shiver in such a way that he can at least relax somewhat against it. Once Red’s done with that he uses his hands to pick some of the dirt off grabbing a few things and laughing as he takes a stick out.
“How did this get in here?” he smiles and hands it over to Ash who can’t help but smile back.
“I don’t know man,” his wings sink once more, feeling Red’s hand press gently onto each and every feather. His hands slowly moved up and down before staying up. His hands fell on Ash’s neck. The back of it. Gently rubbing it and then moving to his shoulders and back to his wings.
He knows that Red likes preening his wings. He finds it comforting. Honestly Ash does too. He doesn’t know if there’s another person on this server who he’d trust to preen his wings nearly as well as Red does.
Red’s hands rest along a wound on Ash’s wings that makes Ash’s back stiffen. The soft feeling went as his wings fluttered before stopping. He thinks he might’ve wacked Red in the face a few times and it's only confirmed when he hears Red complain about it. Red’s hands trace along the soft scar tissue as he grabs something from his inventory.
“What's that?” Ash asks. He knows that Red wouldn’t hurt him, especially his wings but it couldn’t hurt to ask. Especially here.
“Healing,” is what Red responds, showing Ash the glass before applying it on the wing. “What happened here?” he whispers and Ash sighs, running his hand along his temples.
“Just, fights I guess man. I get so many arrows in there it's hard to keep track y’know?” his speech becomes slurred and Ash allows himself it. He knows that Red wouldn't hurt him at a time like this. He loves him too much for it.
He feels the way his wings slowly start aching less as Red treats the past wounds by sticking a certain type of fabric that surprisingly didn’t bother Ash’s gentle wings. He sighs and feels as Red gently tugs a few feathers out warning Ash each and every time.
It did hurt, it was practically pulling individual hairs except they were basically your skin, never meant to be forced to fall out. If a feather was bent it was hard to smooth back, so you pulled.
“One more,” Red’s voice is soft. Like a feather almost. Ash wants to lay down and feel Red’s arms surround him. They’ve done it before so they could do it again. Red’s voice sounds as if it's in his ear. A few centimeters down and it’d be at Ash’s neck being able to feel the warmth of Red’s breath.
“Three, two, one,” Red counts down slowly and Ash groans as he takes the feather out and a few more with it just so Ash wouldn’t have to go through the multiple pains again. Afterwards Red goes back to straightening out Ash’s feathers, almost annoyed by the way they refused to move him his hands made Ash giggle.
Ash shut his eyes, letting himself trust Red for a while longer until he felt Red’s hands wrap around his waist and his chin set down on Ash’s shoulder. “Hi,” was the only word Red said.
“Hey,” Ash manages to bring one of his arms up and gently touch Red’s chin with it before finding his cheek and tilting Red’s face towards him.
He’s kissing Red. It's all too normal for the both of them honestly. They’ve kissed each other too much to be considered a joke or platonic. The way Red’s hands gently run through Ash’s braid sorting it out as they kiss is amazing to Ash. He’ll never figure out why or how Red does it. They lean back and Ash is turned towards Red. His wings draped around them both comfortably. The way Red rested into him was nice to say the least.
Ash let himself get a little closer to Red, closing his eyes to fall asleep. He honestly didn’t really give a shit if his teammates found him like this. Not that they would anyways, too busy with their own shit after all. He felt Red adjust himself so that his body was covered by Ash’s wing. His legs and arms wrapped around Ash so that they both couldn’t leave without the other knowing. Ash’s feathers twitched against Red’s warmth. It was nice. Very nice.
Red loved Ash’s wings, he thought they were beautiful, he’d tell Ash that all of the time. Usually ranting about how he thought that Ash’s wings were the most beautiful thing in the world and saying how he loved touching them. It was nice, most people when talking about wings would only want them as prizes. Not that Ash ever had to fear that. He was feared after all.
Ash lets himself go into the darkness surrounded by warmth.
Maybe having wings isn't so bad afterall.