Work Text:
It never got any easier.
Every time, he promised he would pay attention and take care of it before it got too bad. Every time, he would be coached gently into the process of grooming and preening the feathers that made up his red wings. Yet every time, he would end up right where he was now, laid out on the ground of his own living room, a blanket tucked under his front that allowed him to nuzzle his face into the softness and hide away the embarrassment that pooled off of him while his two friends sat on either side of him, allowing them to work while his left hand rested on the soft brown cat asleep in front of him, his right buried in his hair.
Virgil, the only other winged gatekeeper of this layer, was sitting on the ground at his right shoulder, legs crossed to support the heavy red wing resting across his lap. With a careful, practiced hand, he carded his fingers through the feathers, carefully readjusting the ruffled and twisted mess that was displayed in front of him, sliding out the damaged and loose ones as they wished to come out and tucking the ones back into place that weren't ready yet. He had spent one too many times getting on the man for not keeping them taken care of, times he learned that the scolding didn't help but the gentle checking in did. Now, he was quiet as he sat, allowing the other to relax as he worked on in silence.
Connor, who was much less practiced at this work, sat with a blinking yellow LED, eyes narrowed and focused as his slightly more firm and unsure hands mimicked Virgil's own pair, careful not to tug too hard or twist too much, but clearly not used to having any sort of wings for himself to care for and lacking practice for it. His hands carefully slid through the feathers, having to return back up a few times to find spots he missed a few times, unable to do it in steady rows as the other gatekeeper could. Though, as he would carefully slide a feather back into place and carefully run his thumb over the grouping to ensure they had all laid flat, a soft, muffled sob would cut through the silence, causing both workers to stop in their tracks for a moment as the pair of wings spread across their laps would shutter and fluff slightly before smoothing back out, readjusting personally a few feathers they had both missed.
With a shared look of concern, both would look to the man laying on the ground, his face still buried in the blanket as the brown cat had now gotten up, sitting by his head and carefully grooming through his hair. Virgil would sigh, blinking sadly as he turned back to the work and continued to fix the feathers, now speaking in a soft, low tone. "I've told you to keep these clean." Connor would bite his lip worriedly, but follow along, focusing on fixing the feathers once more as the LED spun with a few slivers of red added to the mixture.
"I'm so tired." Came the muffled reply, full of anguish yet so empty at the same time. Another soft sob would make its way out of the blanket once again as both of his hands would make their way into the soft fabrics folds. "I never mean to. I'm just so fucking tired."
"You take on way too much." Connor spoke next, voice just as soft as Virgil's had been as he glanced to the man, smoothing out a particularly twisted mess of fingers and watching the other shutter and gasp out another, broken sob of both relief and sorrow. "You blame yourself for things that aren't your fault and you try to be responsible for things you can't control."
"Just like someone else we know." Came Virgil's addition, a soft huff of laughter coming from him for a moment before he slid his hands through the feathers, finishing up his half and instead looking to Connor to try and see how much the android had left to go. "We're monitoring it, Gav. That's all we can do. You tearing yourself apart like this sure isn't helping, is it?" At the lack of response, he would sigh and shake his head, instead running his hand up and down along
the other's back, attempting to be comforting while Connor worked. "It's not. The weight of everything doesn't fall on your shoulders. If things fall apart, we can only cross that bridge when we get to it. Things will work out in some way or another because they have to. You know that."
"I'm just.." Gavin would mumble into the blankets through his soft gasps and sobs, exhaustion dripping off of his tone. Normally, he would've been asleep from the care already, this time seemed to be different. "I'm scared."
"We all are." Connor responded softly, looking at the other as he worked, gaze soft and sad. "I'm sure Nines is scared to death. Everyone is just doing what they can. How are you supposed to take care of everyone if you're not taking care of yourself?"
With the second lack of an answer, Virgil would sigh and drop back heavily onto the ground next to Gavin, the wing over his lap readjusting to drape over him like a blanket. "You need to come to me. Especially when your wings get so ruffled. The constant pain and uncomfortable feeling you're getting from them being in this state is doing numbers on your mental health too, its why you break down when I help get you sorted out again. If you're not gonna do it yourself, you have to let me."
He would urge, and as Connor finished and another shutter would roll through the wings, Gavin would gasp out a soft sob of relief again before relaxing and nodding a little, mumbling a small "okay" into the fabric as Connor laid down next to him as well.