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Webby felt... something. She could say with 100% certainty there were feelings in her body. Her chest, specifically. Sometimes the feeling flowed through her arms-- they should be moving-- or up to her throat-- she needed to make noise. Instead, she was just sitting down, feeling the emotion slowly constrict her. She could hear voices-- so loud, but she couldn't comprehend them at all. She understood each word, but they didn't make any sense to her brain. It just added to the feeling of static and fullness filling her mind. Her brain was pressing so hard on her head as if it was trying to shatter her skull. Hands were on hers, trying to gently release her grip, and only then did she realize her hands were clenched, grabbing fistfulls of her hair.
She tried to focus on it instead of the pain, and with it she felt she discomfort at her body being contorted in such a position. Sitting down on her bed with her feet on the floor in front of her, tucked in a tight ball with her head between her knees, put her back at an angle that caused pain up her spine. Even as flexible as she was, how tense and tightly curled her body was caused so much pain-- but she couldn't do the simple action of sitting up. She needed more pressure, it wasn't enough it wasn't enough-- nothing was enough. Only when fire burst in her lungs did she feel the breath she was holding rotting in her lungs, but she held it longer, the fire burning away some of the gaping void in her chest, the pressure against her lungs, throat, and face satisfying the need to feel things. Arms were suddenly tightly gripping her stomach, causing her to release all the air at once, which quickly evolved into a yell. She held it for as long as she could, the gutteral scream finally relieving some of the feelings in her chest and throat, bringing feeling back to her arms and clarity back to her mind. By the end she was gasping for breath, uncontrollable tears leaking down her face freely with how tightly her eyes were shut.
The voices became clearer as she sobbed, each noise and movement she made freeing the feeling of heavy concrete crushing her head. Now that her head wasn't as full, the voices felt much quieter, which didn't help at all. She wanted them to scream in her ear, she needed any sort of input-- she just needed to feel something anything. "Get it out Webby, it's okay, just breathe." Lena's voice was soft, reassuring, and she felt the arms around her stomach tighten, pulling her back towards the voice."I've got you, it's okay." When Lena hugged her tighter, the relief she felt was immense, both from the pressure and from her back having to straighten when pressed against Lena's chest. A noise bubbled out of her throat and a whine entered her ears, instantly dispelling some of the tension in her throat. She hummed harshly, holding the note as long as her sobbing would allow, recieving soft praise in response.
"Continue to stim, Webbigail, it will help." Violet suggested, "may I touch your hands?"
While she still couldn't open her eyes, needing to feel the tension it created in her face, she nodded, sniffling and continuing to hum as she slowly released her hands from her hair. It was hard, her hands trembling and white-knuckled from how tight her grip had been, leaving deep nail imprints in her palm, but eventually they were safely in Violet's hands. Violet gently massaged her palms for a moment, presumably noticing the indents, then began to manually move her hands up and down at a quick pace. It didn't take long for her to begin flapping her hands on her own, exhaling harshly and whining at the relief that washed over her. She only was able to hold her breath for a moment before a hand was pressing against her chest, forcing her to exhale.
Her hands eventually slowed down, finally calming down with the tight hug from Lena and Violet helping her breathing, comforted by her closest friends who knew exactly what to do by now. They'd experienced multiple shutdowns and meltdowns, including ones that were angry and destructive. Coaxing her into relaxing was not nearly as hard when she wasn't fighting against it, so it was no time at all when she was able to open her eyes and rub at them with her hands. A box of tissues was pressed into her chest, which she accepted with a soft thanks and began to clean herself up.
"Would you like me to let go, Webs? Or do you want more pressure?" Lena asked softly, Webby feeling her beak gently ruffle the feathers on her neck affectionately. She couldn't help but get a bit flustered when she felt soft rumbles against her back, Lena cooing softly to soothe her. She must've not heard it over the crying. Lena didn't coo or croon often, only when she was particularly distressed or if Lena was very tired. Meanwhile, Webby did it whenever in contact with her friends, or even if not, using the rumbly sound to stim.
"Pink?" Lena asked suddenly, even softer and gentler than before, making her all the more flustered. She felt one of Lena's hands begin to gently rub circles on her stomach, not letting go of her grip, the fondness of the notion making her feel like she was going to drop dead. In a good way. "Are you alright? Able to talk?"
"Are you experiencing affection overload?" Violet questioned, gently pulling her hands away from her eyes-- when had they gotten there?-- and sending her a smile. "The only solution to that is to stim, Webbigail."
She hummed, nodding and beginning to flap her hands again, feeling the building energy lessen. When Violet couldn't help but join her, shaking her head a bit and flapping her hands at the wrists, a bubble of laughter escaped Webby's beak, flapping more in response. More rumbles pressed against her back, this time as Lena chuckled and breathed softly against her neck, just causing even more energy to build in her chest. She was feeling a feeling again, but this one was bright, shooting through her body like fireworks that could only escape through shaking her body as fast as possible or laughing loudly.
She took a big inhale as her hands began to settle once again, then exhaled slowly. "I'm tired." She stated simply, causing more chuckles from her friends.
"I think tired is an understatement, that seemed exhausting." Violet responded, taking one of her hands to gently rub her thumb over the top. "Would you like to lay down? We can form a 'dogpile'", she used her free hand to do quotation marks, "for maximum pressure without harming you."
"Yeah! I mean-- that would be nice, please." She blushed a bit, but she was reassured by both that her enthusiasm wasn't an issue.
"It's part of your charm, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." Lena chided gently, "I wouldn't be here if not for your unwavering affection and joy."
"That's quite sappy, Lena. It seems you are a softie after all." Violet smirked at her while Webby twisted in her grip to grin, catching the eyeroll sent in Violet's direction before they made eye contact.
"That's so sweet!!!!" She squealed, tapping their beaks together and causing Lena to instantly blush a deep scarlet across her cheeks, neck, and exposed shoulder, only able to stammer incoherently in response. "I love you both so much :D!!"
"I still don't know how you manage to portray emoticons through verbal language, but I'm glad you're feeling better. I love you too, Webbigail." Violet's mouth quirked up in a rare grin, bigger than her normal small smiles, and interlaced her hand with Webby's. "I'd fake gag, but considering you are recovering from a shutdown I will let the displays of romantic affection with your partner slide. For now."
Lena's "I love you too" was a bit muffled, more flustered, meanwhile her "shut up, Vi" was significantly louder, reaching over to flick her sister in the face. Violet's face did not change, but she did roll her eyes. Not just a flick of her eyes to the side; she fully, manually rolled her eyes in a circle, clearly taking "rolling your eyes" literally. Her face did change, however, when Lena snorted at her, contorting into friendly anger.
"I am not immune to the cain instinct, Lena, especially when you find humor in my shortcomings."
Webby giggled, easily silencing their argument before it could continue. "Okay okay, no fighting, it's dogpile time!" She grinned, giggling more when Lena dragged her further onto the bed, only letting go so she could lay on her back, instantly being flopped onto by her partner. Violet did the same shortly after, dimming the lights and retrieving a book to read before laying horizontally on top of her sibling, crushing Webby under the weight of them. She idly flipped pages to find her spot in the book while Lena sighed loudly at the sudden pressure, being dramatic even if she adjusted to it quickly. That didn't stop her from reaching her hand back to lightly slap Violet's tail feathers, however, earning an unamused hum from her sister.
Webby's eyes were already beginning to droop, the exhaustion in her bones mixing with the relaxing pressure to put her straight into a half asleep state. Not to mention it was late already, long past their respective bedtimes. A day of understimulation led to an understimulated sleepover, her brain keeping her awake until she burst, her body desperately shutting down. Thus, she wasn't the only one sleepy, emphasized when Violet's head was one second up straight to read, and the next just limply fell onto her book, out cold in less than a second.
The last two awake erupted into giggles, Webby couldnt hold back her grin at the precious snorts coming from Lena as she devolved into fits of laughter. "She does this like-- like every night if she stays up later than normal. It's so fucking funny!"
"Language!" Webby reprimanded through her grin, taking Lena's face in her hands and gently playing with her cheek feathers. "Your laugh is so cute, my pretty angel."
"Mmmf." Lena responded gracefully, the blush from earlier returning full force. When she finally managed to form a sentence, all she could come up with was simply "Yours is cuter."
Instead of responding directly, she just pulled Lena's face towards her, her eyes glancing down to her beak then up to her eyes for permission. At her small nod, she leaned forward, gently interlocking their beaks. With how tired she was, and how often she kissed Lena, there wasn't the fireworks anymore, but instead just.. comfort, familiarity. Her kisses were incredibly soothing, made her feel safe. When she finally pulled away, Lena was properly flushed and wouldn't meet her eye-- it was such a simple kiss, why was she so flustered? "Lena," she started softly, an adoring smile on her face as she teased her, "you're so easy today."
Lena paused, biting her lip, before shrugging a bit to try to seem nonchalant. "I just... I was just worried about you, so seeing you all happy again is.. reassuring? Twice as cute?"
Before she could offer more words, Webby was kissing her again, but this time it was multiple quick pecks all over her face, relishing in the warm feeling in her chest when Lena smiled and giggled at the sensation. "You're so sweet, I love you so much, Lena." She reached out to hold Lena's hand, and then lifted her free hand to her beak to cover an abrupt yawn. She had momentarily forgotten how tired she was, but suddenly the exhaustion returned full force.
Lena gently kissed each of her eyes, saying a soft, shy, "I love you too, Webby," before resting her head back down on her neck. "Bedtime now, Pink," she whispered, gently squeezing their interlocked hands and recieving a hum of agreement, along with a squeeze back of course. Webby leaned her head back to rest on her pillow, closing her eyes and idly running her free hand through Lena's hair. Soon enough, she felt soft snoring against her neck, resisting the urge to flap her hands and squeal at how cute it was. She was also just unbelievably happy to fall asleep with the two of them, even if they had done so many times by now, having to force herself to slow her breathing. Eventually, the warmth of her friends enveloped her fully, her hand slowly falling still as she succumbed to the peaceful depths of sleep.