Chapter Text
Dawn broke slowly, the sun’s warmth spilling into the room and pooling across the floor like golden syrup. Apo woke gradually, leisurely letting her mind come to her, enjoying the all-over comfort of the sun heating her dark feathers. She stretched her wings, stopping abruptly when they ran into something unexpected and warm. The warmth grumbled and shifted closer. All at once, the memories of last night hit Apo and she lifted her wing to confirm them. Pearl was asleep, curled up into their chest and entwining her legs into theirs. Her headwings which she normally held proudly or flapped to express particularly strong emotions were folded down, completely relaxed. Apo shifted, trying to untangle their legs and give Pearl some space. Unfortunately, this only had the opposite effect as Pearl let out more sleepy grumbles and threw an arm around Apo’s waist. Apo sighed, resigning herself to her fate for at least a short while longer. They looked at Pearl’s headwings again, so similar to her own divinely bestowed appendages and yet so different. The feathers were smaller, and well-kept. Apo wondered if Pearl preened herself like she had preened them. They wondered if Pearl’s wings were soft. As the thought entered her head, she found herself reaching out a hand to gently stroke across the pale feathers. The small wing responded instantly, flaring and puffing up slightly while Pearl let out a sleepy noise that would have been called a warble if it hadn't been muffled. Apo repeated the action, this time allowing her fingers to slip between the feathers instead of just brushing over them. The wing twitched, fluttering in response and Pearl chittered softly. Apo kept stroking over the soft white feathers experimentally, seeing how changing speed or pressure changed the response Pearl gave.
“Mmm, well good morning.” Apo snatched her hand back at the sound of Pearl’s voice cutting through the sleepy morning silence.
“You’re awake!” exclaimed Apo, trying to keep her wings from puffing up and showing her embarrassment
“Very observant,” deadpanned Pearl, shifting slightly into a half-sitting position against the pillows. “You know that I can feel it when someone touches my headwings right Apo?”
“Oh! I’m sorry. I was just, just curious,” blushed Apo. She mentally kicked herself. The last twelve hours had completely ruined the image of competency and bravery she had been trying so hard to project.
“I didn’t say it felt bad,” said Pearl exasperatedly. There was a brief silence before she mumbled something too quiet to be heard.
“What was that Pearl?” asked Apo.
“I said, put your hand back in my dang wings!” snapped Pearl.
Apo had seen her ally be scary, had seen just how menacing Nyx’s champion could be. But that always carried an easy-going air, a feeling that nobody could even bother her. She’d never seen Pearl so grouchy before. “So demanding,” murmured Apo, before acquiescing to Pearl’s demands and carding her fingers through the pretty white feathers again. Pearl let out a happy sort of chirping noise and before she knew what was happening, Apo let out a little chitter in response. Something inside her brain sang at the situation she found herself in. She began to preen Pearl’s wings in earnest, fingers clumsily trying to replicate what Pearl had done the night before. Her fingers found a broken feather and she tugged it sharply, pulling it free. Pearl let out a rapid series of warbles and chitters. Pain, Pain, Panic, Pain - the meaning filtered through to Apo’s brain. Apo let an instinctual song spill from their lips, low and comforting warbles meant to soothe their flockmate. She paused, shaking her head. Flockmate? Where on earth had that come from? She took a deep steadying breath to recentre herself, focusing in on Pearl and the delicate white wings they still had in their hands. Pearl’s noises returned to soft chirps as she calmed down from the pain, letting her eyes flutter closed and the tension she normally held in her shoulders dropped. As she preened Pearl, Apo chewed their lower lip. Pearl just looked so cute when she let her guard drop like this. Watching Pearl’s soft expression and listening to the little warbles she was letting out caused a thought to resurface in Apo’s mind, one they had been pushing away for a while.
I think I really want to kiss her right now
An annoyed chitter from Pearl snapped Apo out of her thoughts.
“Why’d you stop,” grumbled Pearl. Apo didn’t respond, her gaze instead drifting down to Pearl’s lips. Pearl hummed, “Apo?”
Apo drew a shaky breath. She could do this, she was a god’s champion.
“I think I really want to kiss you right now.” The words came out jumbled, all merged into one another.
“I, I don’t think I got that.” said Pearl, tilting her head.
Apo steadied herself again and as she did so, her eyes caught on a leather strap around Pearl’s neck. At the end of it hung a dark purple feather – Apo’s feather. A rush of happiness, pleasure, and possessiveness ran through her brain at the sight. “Pearl,” Apo began to speak again, keeping her eyes on the feather as she did so, “I think I really want to kiss you right now.” Pearl let out a strangled sort of noise, but Apo didn’t give her a chance to speak. They couldn’t let this fleeting bout of confidence escape. “Pearl, just tell me no or push me away and I will go. We never have to talk about it again.” Apo’s voice was low and serious before she leant down, slowly bringing her face to Pearl’s. Pearl didn’t stop them or protest, instead bringing one of her hands up to tangle in their dark feathers. Apo brought her lips to Pearl’s and as they made contact, her mind sang. They brought their hands up, one to cradle the back of Pearl’s head and the other to run through the soft white downy feathers closest to her temple. Pearl gasped, warbling into the kiss at the touch. Apo hummed soothingly, not deepening the kiss yet, just enjoying how soft and flustered Pearl was getting from this alone. She broke the kiss, biting back a laugh when Pearl let out a grumpy, needy noise of protest.
“Patience birdie,” murmured Apo, flipping the script from how it had been just the prior evening. She moved her head, pressing kisses to the corner of Pearl’s mouth, her cheek, the hinge of her jaw. They kissed where downy wing met soft skin, causing Pearl’s wing to twitch and hit them lightly. “Sensitive there are we?” hummed Apo, “I’ll remember that.” She left the spot alone though, moving back to press her lips to Pearl’s again. She scratched at Pearl’s wings as they kissed, relishing in the way it seemed to make her drop any tension and go completely boneless, the pillows the only thing keeping her upright. The wattle-gold sunlight of the morning hour still filled the room as the two kissed. Apo wasn’t worried about her teammates interrupting. Owen had enough sense not to walk into people’s rooms willy-nilly and Sausage never woke up this early unless he was dragged. No, this was a time where Apo’s world could shrink to just the safety of the plush bed and the warmth of the chirpy woman in her arms. All her worries about the trials and the tournament drifted away. Not gone, no, but shelved quietly in the back of her mind for now. She’d face them later, at a time when she didn’t have skilled hands running through her feathers and soft lips pressed against her own.