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The bed shook under Jimmy, rousing him from his half-awake state just in time to see a stray, feathered appendage connect with his nose. He let out a hushed yelp, pushing the bright orange wing out of his face, back toward its owner, who had been tossing and turning all night in their shared bed.
Their gazes, soft blue and fiery red connected, and they laid there for a long moment, just staring into each other’s eyes quietly. Finally, Tango buried his face into the mattress and sat up. Jimmy followed suit.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked, voice still sleepy-low.
“Nah… You either?”
“Not with you making the bed into a trampoline every other minute,” Jimmy grumbled, but there was no malice in his voice, “Is it your wings?”
At their mention, the colorful appendages fluffed up behind him. It was an unconscious thing, Jimmy knew. It wasn’t exactly easy to get used to a whole new set of limbs in such a short span of time. They’d only taken a few weeks to grow out, after the universe had connected their souls, and if Jimmy were to guess, they still hadn’t reached their full size.
“Yeah…” Tango admitted miserably, “They feel… all wrong.”
Jimmy hummed in sympathy, scooting closer to Tango to run his hand over the top of his wing. “I might be able to help a little bit with that.” Tango’s eyes lit up. “Turn around, will you?”
He eagerly did as he was told, and Jimmy crawled up until he could kneel comfortably in front of his soulmate’s beautiful wings. He ran his hands over the top of them again, a lot more gentle this time.
They’d wondered, at first, why Tango was suddenly sprouting feathers from his back. It wasn’t exactly normal for this kind of thing to happen. Then, when they’d seen similar fledgeling wings on Scar’s back, matching in all but color his own partner’s, they came to the conclusion that it must have something to do with their soul bonds. Still didn't explain why they were the only ones getting changed like that, Tango and Scar. BigB didn't have dog ears popping out of his head, no wagging tail or thicker hair like Ren. Impulse's horns didn't appear on Bdubs' head. Scott's back remained as bare as it was normal for it to be, even though Pearl had beautiful, papery moth wings on hers. So what was up with them in particular?
Jimmy spread one wing wide with gentle fingers, the other hand starting to go through the feathers, tracing down along their bases, straightening or pulling out any of the wayward or loose ones. He felt Tango relax into his grip as he worked his way down, and he couldn't help but smile fondly at the muttered sounds of contentment coming from the man. He remembered the first time he had preened his own feathers. The relief of it was so astoundingly great that he'd almost cried. He had been dealing with his new predicament all on his own, back then, with no avian soulmate of his own to help him with it. He'd been clumsy with it, trying to rake through his wings with his arms twisted awkwardly behind his back, but after so long spent not knowing that he was supposed to preen them, even that had felt heavenly.
Because, yes, that was the thing. Jimmy hadn't been born with his wings either. He'd been cursed with the things, stumbling upon the bump of it in his back out of the blue, much the same as Tango had. And as they'd later found out, Grian had also been given his wings to him, though that story had been even less jovial than Jimmy's.
He smoothed over the entirety of the wing with his palm and moved over to the other one, starting the task all over again. It was repetitive work. One might call it boring, but to Jimmy, it was just soothing. A way to turn his brain off, for a few minutes. Or to think about things, if that's what he needed. And it was a lot simpler doing it to someone other than himself, without all of the usual contorting required. Just a slide of fingers between silky-soft feathers, again and again and again.
The mystery had been solved, then. Curses. That's what connected them all. Grian's curse spread to Scar, and Jimmy's to Tango, showing physically through the shared trait of their wings. Unfortunately for Tango, though, that's not all of what Jimmy's curse entailed...
His fingers froze in the middle of a swipe down, and Tango let out a questioning noise below him. Right, he thought, that's where all the thinking would stop. He continued pulling gentle fingers through Tango's wings, but it took a few more minutes until the rigidness fully seeped out of them. He had to keep himself from going any further down that train of thought.
Jimmy guided both of Tango's wings gently closed, the man sagging against him with his wings held lazily by his side. He pressed a kiss into his fiery hair, warmth radiating off of it. He wrapped his arms around Tango and pulled him down, snuggling them into the blankets with limbs curled around each other. He felt his breathing go shallow and rhythmic against his chest as soon as they settled.
It would do him no good to dwell on the future when their present was filled with love and joy, and most importantly, was happening right then, almost too fast to be able to savour it. But they had to.
Because in the end, he was still a canary in a coalmine, even if this time, he’d dragged someone down with him.