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Having wings in London was really not the best idea. There’s barely any space and if you weren’t an experienced flyer, you were more than likely to smack face first into the nearest building leering out in your way. So, whilst Hyde was gleeful to learn, darting between rooftops and calling out gleefully everytime he stuck a glide, Jekyll was far more careful, only revealing his wings in the privacy of his office, only for just a moment.
Sometimes the pain of a corset constantly pulling his wings taught against his back would hurt. Sometimes he just needed to stretch them out. So he’d make sure the door was thoroughly locked, maybe even move a sofa in the way. Then he would pull off his shirt, one Hyde had torn lengths in so a flap of cloth lay between his wings instead and finally, finally unlace the corset front.
His first gulp of proper air after he’d been constricted so long always tasted the sweetest. He would stretch them out as far as they could go, the creaking bones like shouting pleas to his tired ears. Sometimes he would flap them, just on an urge, an instinct. Henry would look to the window, look to the broken lines of rooftops and then at the bright sky above. Sometimes it was cloudy.
He wondered what the clouds felt like. Probably cold and wet.
But there was still some childish fantasy inside of him that was adamant they’d feel like the softest pillows or the fluffiest cotton candy.
Soon enough, he’d dash the idea back down where they had come from, collect all the pieces of paperwork that had fluttered everywhere like confetti and get back to work. This time, his wings would spread out behind him on the chair, proudly displayed for no one to see.
That was his normal, until Robert found out about the wings.
“Henry.” Robert had started one day when they were alone in Henry’s office.
“Yes?” Henry responded, looking over, surprised to see Robert pulling bottles from his bag. “What.. What are those?”
Robert paused before responding, passing one of the bottles over. “Well.. I was talking with Jasper. And he said that bird wings need to be cleaned often.”
Henry opened his mouth to respond, but Robert was on a roll and didn’t seem to want to give Henry space to argue.
“He said that you can usually just wash them with water, but if they haven’t been cleaned in a while, he’s given me.. Bird shampoo essentially.” Robert also pulled a smaller bottle, “And oil. For keeping them shiny and waterproof.”
Henry paused, feeling his wings flicker under their bindings, almost as if they knew they were being talked about. His arm instinctively went to rest on his corset, almost checking it was still there.
“Robert..” He instantly saw the determination rise to his friend's face. “I.. It’s very nice of you to think of me like that. I’ll make sure to use it in the shower the next time I do.”
Henry watched as Robert shuffled around awkwardly on his feet. “Well.. I was also thinking. You know how it’s hard to reach spots on your back? It would be harder to clean your wings, wouldn’t it?”
“I..” Henry didn’t particularly know where he was going with this. Then he thought, long and hard. After a few moments, his eyes widened and he stared back up at Robert with confusion. “You- You want to-”
Robert turned a soft darker shade, not meeting Henry’s gaze, holding the bottles up defensively. “Yeah- I mean- I don’t have to of course, I can just- you know- leave you with the bottles?”
There was an awkward chuckle from the other, shuffling on his feet again and not meeting Henry’s gaze. Henry fell completely silent, picking at his sleeve. “I.. If you..”
He cleared his throat, still speaking as quietly as before. “I mean, if you really want to. It’s okay. I can clean them myself.”
The other man was silent for a little longer, not making any approach, not moving any closer. “I would like to.”
Henry was a little stunned at that, to hear that quick acceptance. Robert wanted to help him clean his wings?
Once again there was a little shudder of his wings trying to move, excited at the prospect.
“If you want to, I’m not going to stop you.”
Robert smiled softly, genuinely and Henry quietly started to unbutton his waistcoat, then his shirt. “You might want to close the door.” He reminded, looking past Lanyon.
“Oh, of course!” The other quickly turned, making sure the door was closed and locking it. Then he checked that it was once again locked. He heard a series of muffled grunts from behind him, looking back to see Henry struggling with the knots he’d made in the corset. After watching him tussle with it for the longest time, he padded back over, putting the bottles down on Henry’s desk.
Robert let his hands rest over Henry’s, the ones still struggling with the knots. Henry looked up at him, confused, but Robert started to untie the knots with delicate ease. One by one, the bindings loosened and loosened. Henry was taking deeper and deeper breaths, wings pressing against the restrictive fabric, eager to be free. Finally the lace unwound from the holes, corset falling down, his feathers fluttering free.
A sigh of relief came from the shorter man, just letting his wings fall against the floor, not having the strength to particularly hold them up just yet. His eyes slipped closed and Lanyon couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Feel good?” He joked, watching the other.
“You have absolutely no idea..” Jekyll responded almost silently, head looking like it weighed a thousand tonnes on his shoulders.
Giving him a moment to properly stretch his feathers out, marvelling at their beauty, it slowly dawned on Robert that there was currently no shirt or corset on Jekyll. His eyes widened and he very quickly turned around, rummaging around in his extensive bag of bird related items for a towel, extending it to Henry without a word.
As Henry seemed to clue into what was going on, there was a soft noise. It almost sounded like a squawk. Though it might just have been that Robert had bird related things on the mind. Robert turned away once more to give Henry a bit of privacy, hearing the fumbling of fabric.
There were a few moments of silence before Henry finally spoke up again, softly, almost shyly. “Sorry. I.. Didn’t think about that part.”
Robert quickly responded, looking back round, “No, no, it’s okay! I don’t mind-” That sounded bad. “I mean- it’s no big deal-”
The two of them fell silent once more. Robert finally broke it, clearing his throat. “So, you’re not meant to wet bird feathers thoroughly, but I don’t know if that’s different for you at all.. I’m going to assume it’s not.”
As the man spoke, he started collecting together other towels to keep the floor dry whilst he was washing Jekyll. “I’m just going to dampen the feathers with a.. Well, I think it’s a plant spritzer. Possibly stolen from Bird.”
Robert looked back up, chuckling awkwardly, “By Jasper of course- I would never steal stuff from the society.”
Jekyll looked at him with a raised brow. Robert simply cleared his throat, continuing on. “I’d wet your feathers just a little, then rub some of the shampoo over to clean the dust off. After that, I’ll pat them dry with a towel and put some oil on them. Then hopefully they’ll be a little softer, a little less itchy and a lot brighter.”
Henry, still debating everything that was going on, whether Robert was actually comfortable with this or whether he was just telling him this so Henry didn’t push him away again, simply just stood there, staring.
“Henry?” Robert called, frowning a little as the other didn’t respond to him. It seemed he had still been talking.
“Right, sure- uh- yes, sorry, I was listening.” He lied, smiling awkwardly.
Robert stared back at him, raising a brow. He seemed to be expecting him to do something, but Jekyll wasn’t moving, wasn’t doing anything, just stood there. Robert cleared his throat, gesturing to the little patch of towels on the floor by the fireplace.
“Do you want to sit down?”
“Oh! Right! Of course.” Henry chuckled, slightly embarrassed to have been caught out.
Slowly he stepped over towards the towels. As he walked, his wings trailed behind him, brushing against the floor. He did try to raise them, lift them up a little so they weren’t catching all of the dust in the carpet, though, when you haven’t used a set of muscles in a while, they’re often rather hard to work. So, whilst the wings lifted in the air for a moment, they soon flopped back down against the carpet, already tired from trying to hold them up. When he reached the towels, he sank down, sitting and allowing his wings to spread across the floor, leaning forwards to try and balance the weight a little better and make sure he didn’t topple over.
Henry lifted his head a little as he heard footsteps behind him, instinctively looking back in order to.. Protect? Defend? He wasn’t sure. It was just Robert though, settling down to sit behind him, bringing over his bag of bottles and cleaning supplies.
“Are you alright for me to start?” Robert questioned softly, meeting Henry’s gaze. Henry said nothing, just nodded, watching the other man carefully and quietly.
Robert’s hands lifted, one of them coming to rest on his right wing. They rarely were touched, never so gently. There was once that Hyde’s had been grabbed to try and catch him, luckily he’d gotten free. But Robert wouldn’t do that. Robert’s hands weren’t like that. They were soft and warm, gently smoothing out his feathers with a delicacy Henry wasn’t expecting.
He watched as the spray bottle was taken out and a light mist was sprayed onto his wings and feathers, trying to cover as well as he could. After a moment, Robert put some of the shampoo onto his hands, then started rubbing it over his right wing. He made sure not to go in the opposite direction to how the wings were pointing, brushing out the dirt and dust that had gotten trapped in the feathers long ago.
The dust turned the white shampoo a dark grey, making Robert frown. A multitude of feathers came loose as Robert stroked his hands downwards to coat them all with shampoo. “When was the last time you washed them?”
Henry hummed in tired thought, then shrugged. The action caused his entire wingspan to shudder up and down, little rivulets of water dripping down the feathers onto the handily placed towels.
“Well. I guess I’ll just have to do this more often then.” Robert responded with a dramatic sigh.
Henry blinked, quickly turning his head to face away from Robert, feeling a light heat settling onto his features. He didn’t want Robert to see if he’d gone red.
Robert, thankfully didn’t seem to notice, starting to wet his wings again and wipe off the dust filled shampoo. “I think I’m going to do another pass, alright?”
Henry nodded again lazily, feeling a strange warmth and heaviness settling into his muscles. As Robert sprayed them again, dampening them once more, then put more shampoo on, Jekyll couldn’t help but let his heavy head fall down. His chin touched his chest with a relaxed sigh. Robert started to stroke his hands down the feathers again, gently rubbing them with his fingers to remove any of the tougher patches. Jekyll slowly brought his knees up, putting his head on them instead so he didn’t kill his neck.
Seemingly realising what was going on, Robert paused for a moment, drying a hand off and pushing a pillow towards him. Henry tiredly hummed, looking down at the plush thing. After a long moment of looking at it, he realised it was one of the ones that he’d stuffed his down feathers in before when they were first coming through. A special pillow..
Slowly, he pulled it up into his lap, resting his head on the soft, cosy, familiar surface. After a few more moments, he hummed again, nuzzling down into it.
Robert smiled down at Henry, looking at how he was finally relaxing and settling down. If he fell asleep, that was okay. He squeezed out some more shampoo, gently massaging the feathers between his fingers, watching as the shampoo started to turn a much lighter grey colour than it had before. Making sure to reach all of them, he used the spray bottle to start pushing the pale grey lather down to drip onto the towels.
The feathers were originally a dull brown, coated with blackish grey dust. Now that dust was all lying dripped down in a sludge on the towels around Henry. His wings were still dull, but the colour was far more prominent now, bursting through like the leather on an old book. Making sure they were fully dry, Robert finally pulled out the oil again. It had a little dropper tool, so he utilised it, dripping it onto Henry’s feathers with careful accuracy.
Then he began stroking them again, working the oil in. It’d help strengthen them, help waterproof them and make them more vibrant. Maybe they weren’t the most practical of things but.. Robert loved them. He loved every feather.
As he went through, he straightened every crooked feather, rubbing pin feathers gently between his fingers to break them down and release new feathers. Ones that were falling out, he gently plucked them if they were easy to do so.
And then finally, finally he was done.
Robert sat back on his heels, observing his work. They were utterly beautiful and so, so soft to touch. Gently he reached out, stroking the feathers once more with a smile. As such, it took him a few moments to realise that Henry wasn’t responding.
Still curled up onto his knees, Henry was breathing soundly and repeatedly through his nose. As he breathed out, his hair fluttered back and forth. He was asleep. Robert chuckled, stepping back and leaving Henry sat there for just a moment. He went around the room, collecting up whatever blankets and pillows he could find, setting them out in a nest shape close to the warmth of the fireplace.
Then he found another one of Henry’s shirts, one already torn in the back, two slits gliding straight down. Perhaps he could borrow some of Rachel's sewing supplies to make button loops at the bottom of them? For now though, they’d have to do.
Taking the warm shirt in hand, he stepped back round to the front of Henry, gently reaching out to tap his cheek. The most he got was a muffled noise, a tired hum. He tried again.
“Henry. Henry.” He said softly, a sing-song tone in his voice.
“Na. A'm sleeping.” Henry finally responded from his pillowy depths. “Shushhh.”
“Oh, but I have a much better place for you to sleep, just over here.” Robert gestured to the pillow nest as he saw one of Henry’s eyes blink open.
Henry mumbled something incoherent, looking back to Robert. After realising that Robert hadn’t heard him, he tried once more, slightly louder. “Tis cauld..”
“Yeah, I thought it might be. I’ve got a shirt for you. Do you think you can put it on?”
After a moment’s debate, Henry slowly started putting his legs down, pillow still in his lap. Trying not to look anywhere that he shouldn’t, Robert placed the shirt over him. Henry’s fingers went up to try and do the buttons up but it was clear that he was struggling again.
“Here, let me help you with that.” Robert raised his own hands, helping Henry button his shirt up. As he did so, Henry’s hands brushed against his own, till they were lazily holding onto his wrist. Henry was falling asleep quickly again and it didn’t seem like anything was going to stop him.
He smiled, letting Henry lean down and rest his head on his shoulder. Then, there was some more tired speech, “Kin.. kin ye stay..”
Robert smiled, bringing one hand to the back of his head. “Of course I can.”
He looked back at the nest, then down at Henry who was currently falling asleep once more on him. “We’re going to shuffle over there, okay darling?”
Henry nodded, then, as Robert started to move, shuffled himself along beside him. Robert tried to brace his wings up to make it a little easier, so it wasn’t as much weight to carry. And also so his hard work was kept pristine for at least a little while longer.
It took a good few minutes of shuffling slowly along but eventually Robert was sat in the pillow nest. Henry was lying down beside him, one wing laid out under him as another fluffy comfort and the other wrapping over the top of him as a blanket. Robert smiled to see Henry’s sleepy eyes slipping shut again, looking away towards the fire. Then, ever so softly, he felt tapping on his thigh.
He looked down, seeing Henry gesturing to the space beside him.
“Are you sure?” Robert asked warily, understanding that he’d have to be lying down on Henry’s wing in order to lie there.
Henry simply nodded though, mind made up. So, carefully, Robert pushed himself to lie down beside Henry. Whether it was the wing cleaning or not, Henry’s wings were impossibly soft, as if every single feather was a down feather, just comforting him and lulling him into his own sleep. After making sure Robert was comfortable where he was lying, Henry let his other wing drop down to rest on top of him, keeping him safe and protected.
Only moments later did he feel Robert wrapping his arms around his torso, hugging him back in response.
“I love you.” He heard the other man murmur to the tired avian and the flames.
Henry smiled sleepily, nuzzling down and resting his heavy head on top of Robert’s curls.
“A loue ye tae.”