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Gabriel grumbled to himself as he contorted in an attempt to get a grip on a particularly pesky pinfeather. The thing was just barely out of reach, no matter how hard he tried. Even with his chestplate removed he wasn’t flexible enough, not to mention that his wings were getting in the way. He huffed, preparing to just leave it be and hope it stopped poking him when V1 and Kitr walked past the bedroom.
“V1!” The machine stopped and looked at him. “Can you help me for a second?”
It nodded, trotting into the room, Kitr rubbing on the door frame as she followed. Gabriel turned so his back was to it, and extended his left wing.
“There’s a pinfeather I can’t reach, can you try to get the sheath off? It’s near my back.”
Metallic fingers brushed across his outstretched wing, the touch feather-light. It had quickly found the itchy plume, gently pinching it until the keratin sheath broke up enough to be slipped off.
Gabriel gave an appreciative hum, “Thank you.”
He was slightly startled by the mattress dipping slightly behind him. A hand tentatively set itself on his wing, before resting there for a second, waiting for his permission to continue preening. Gabriel shifted so V1 had more space on the bed, watching as Kitr jumped up and plopped down beside his thigh, and gave it the go ahead.
The machine gently cards its fingers through his feathers, carefully avoiding a blood feather here and there. It inspected the bald patches on Gabriel’s wings, delighted to see that his coverts were finally beginning to grow back; a few blood feathers beginning to sprout up. He’d be happy to know about that, but it could wait until later.
It gently began to straighten out his feathers, picking out loose down as it went. It softly pinched and pulled at another pinfeather, hearing a content sigh from the angel before it once the feather was released. It removed the bits of keratin that had fallen and moved on, taking note of the fact that Gabriel was humming a tune.
It gently tugged on a loose feather, untangling it from the plumage surrounding it, and set it beside it to be dealt with later. It finished preening the back side of his wing pretty quickly, but rather than moving on to the other one it sat back slightly to make sure it had straightened everything out. It didn’t see any more pinfeathers ready to be released, though it did notice the way Gabriel was slouching over a bit, gold slowly spreading throughout his feathers, heartbeat and breathing slightly slower than usual, and lethargically scratching behind Kitr’s ears. If V1 could smile it would.
It moved on to Gabriel’s other wing, once again inspecting it. More pinfeathers, more new coverts. Perfect. It brushed its fingers through the angel’s plumage, watching as he completely slumped over for a moment, song trailing off, before startling back into his proper sitting position.
“Fuck, V1, one second, I need to lay down.”
He turned around to face it, and layed down on his front, resting his head on its thigh. Kitr made her disapproval known with a quiet mrrp, scooting underneath one of his outstretched wings and curling up beside him. V1 went back to preening its angel’s wings, finding a few more loose feathers and adding them to the small pile of fluff beside it. It again unsheathed the pinfeathers it found, straightened out any that were crooked, and removed the debris from the feather’s sheaths.
Its routine was suddenly stopped by Kitr sneaking up on the pile of feathers, ever so slowly. It watched as she wiggled, then pounced, scattering down everywhere. She batted at a small feather, one that V1 was quick to pull out of her reach, watching with amusement as she stood up on her hind legs in an attempt to get it back. Gabriel chuckled softly, reaching over and picking up another feather as Kitr dropped down.
She proceeded to pounce on his hand, kicking at his arm and trying to steal it from him. V1 wiggled its own feather in front of her eyes, and she swatted at its hand before taking a moment to lick a tuft of fur back into place, and going back to trying to get the feather from Gabriel. The ferocity of her baps forced Gabriel’s hand to retreat above her head, which she simply could not stand for. She jumped up at his feather, before he pulled it away and V1 brushed its against her nose. Kitr sneezed, and, apparently offended by its actions, plopped down on her side, back to them, and began bathing herself.
Gabriel shook his head, setting the feather back down on the bed, V1 following suit. It once again went back to straightening out his, now slightly ruffled, feathers. He lightly traced the edges of its plating as he began dozing off again, blissful and at ease. He rolled slightly, off V1’s thigh and onto his side, gently tugging it down to lay beside him. He pulled his machine to his chest and wrapped it under a wing, falling asleep swiftly afterward, feeling more relaxed and cared for than he has felt in eons.