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Fauna sighs.
It wasn’t meant to sound like a defeat statement. Of all her hopes leaving her body in one puffy white air exhale, floating adrift, disintegrating into the air.
Autumn was presenting its colder afternoon so far. The air had this small bite to it, unpleasant on the face if it blew strong, yet still refreshing to take into your lungs. Sunset painting its pinks and yellows with touches of orange through what’s left of the broken-up stratus.
The park is empty at this time of the day, even more so in the middle of the week. It’s the one closest to the city’s borders.
It’s also the most abandoned one.
Lighting posts having long ago forgotten how to work, slowly being consumed by vines hugging their metallic bodies, engulfing them into the background. The ground, once with marked clear paths, now cracked by the plants finding the inhospitable environment to be the perfect one to thrive on, cracking the cement that is on their way with their insistent growth. Decaying benches, once a place to rest, now rotting their dead wood away, humidity making it ideal for the moss scattered across it like small green patches, some even decorated with small mushrooms.
Despite the abandoned state the place was surprisingly clean. A few beer cans here and there, maybe some cigarette buds scattered on the floor. Nothing obnoxious like large garbage bags piled up. One place notoriously overused for bonfires, the ground stained black from soot, rocks arranged around it in an attempt to contain the flames. Fauna makes a mental note to leave an anonymous tip to the firefighters.
At some point this had been a tourist spot for the city. Had the city grown around it, this green area would still be a landmark, with tidy greenery, neatly kept walking paths, and of course well-lit sectors for the night.
As it stands it’s the perfect place to wander alone. If anything, it’s also the perfect place to get kidnapped and to be never heard of again. Fauna decides to ignore that intrusive thought.
The Kirin walks with no set destination, her long tail swaying lazily behind her, caressing overgrown bushes on her way. Head full of thoughts that needed her attention more than the direction she was heading to.
There’s a trail up the hill, not too far of a walk, into a clearing with a large pond. This was her favorite spot to contemplate her life choices. Ever since she was little her parents would take her to the park, when it wasn’t as dead as it was now. It was her favorite place to meditate. During her teen years she discovered how the moon reflected oh, so perfectly on the pond’s unnaturally calm and clear surface. Since then, every time she came to this place it was at nighttime.
This time she is a bit early.
‘ I wasn’t thinking of coming here today in the first place… ’
To her surprise, she isn’t the only one here.
‘ That’s odd, ’ she thinks ‘ people show up later at night than this ’
Keeping her distance, she walks closer to the flimsy dock where the other person is.
That’s one brave person if she ever saw one.
Maybe they don’t know that the wood there is about to give- no there’s no way, it’s so plain for everyone to see that it can collapse with the smallest weight applied there’s just no way-
In front of her is the rarest sight Fauna has ever had the pleasure to witness.
Wings unfurl slowly, shyly.
Pastel colors from what remains of the sunset bathe the marginal coverts of the avian, barely painting down onto their primary coverts.
Wings open to their full span, the silhouette walks slowly onto the dock, her back to Fauna.
A mechanical sound.
It’s muffled.
The night comes in, as if on cue, veiling all gentle moonlit darkness. Fireflies begin to slowly drift into the air, disturbed by Fauna’s steps as she walks closer to the other person. She has to warn them about the integrity of the dock. But she’s too in awe to say anything. All she does is slowly get closer to the now moonlit avian descent in front of her.
Again, that mechanical sound.
‘ A camera shutter? ’ it dawns on her, the source of the sound.
Several pictures captured; she is familiar with it.
Crackling wood.
“Ah-!” is all Fauna manages as the scene develops in slow motion for both of them.
The avian descent turns around in shock, as if ashamed, for just one second, before gracelessly sinking into the pond.
“Oh, dear!” Fauna jogs to the place that was once the dock “Are you okay?!” she looks at a distance, unsure how to assist the currently flapping woman on the pond.
Drenched in mud, covered in it more as she struggles to keep her wings out of it, flapping them uselessly. Hornwort wrapped on her arms as she splashes trying to reach the loose soil on the pond’s border, clawing at it while crawling to get out.
Fauna rushes to help her exit the waters.
“This may hurt, but please bear with me” Fauna is wrapping her tail on the avian’s torso, it is her strongest limb after all. Pulling her out of the pond in one swift motion, and sending her plunging face first on a bush nearby “oh my- I’m so, so, sorry I just-” Fauna rushes to her side to help her on her feet.
Now that she is closer, she can see she is an owl avian, her poor brown and white wings heavy, having absorbed the water from the pond.
“I-do you think I could get sick from this?” the avian shakes her wet wings in a weak attempt to get the mud off them, but they weigh her down with the mud sticking deep between her feathers. The brunette struggles to stay on her feet, losing balance from the unknown weight on her wings. Fauna hover close, ready to catch her if she falls.
Amber eyes look at her like a sopping wet animal, pleading to her honeyed sight.
Fauna sighs.
The ride home is messy.
Fauna’s driving under stress cannot be described as pleasant. Her thoughts are all over the place, so much so that neither of them sputters much of a word during the ride. The other woman lamenting in mumbles about the state of her feathers.
Fauna knows. It’s an awful thing to happen to any winged person. They are both a source of pride as well as a source of stress.
After almost running over half the people they encountered they reach Fauna’s apartment, some quick apologies given to the building’s janitor for the mud left as they walk up the emergency stairs.
There’s a stranger in her shower.
Well not a stranger anymore.
Her name is Mumei, Fauna learns. A photographer.
And an oddball.
“I feel lucky” Mumei smiles at her, with a sincerity Fauna is not used to. With a towel covering her chest as best it could, wings bent and covered with hand towels in an attempt to dry her coverts. Fauna averts her eyes, small blush impossible to hide, tail instinctively coiling around her body.
She had no clothes to fit an avian, unless she wanted to break one of her shirts to lend Mumei.
“For falling into the pond?” Fauna scoffs, turning towards her kitchen counter. Not because she was flustered, of course not, she had other matters that required her attention.
“You made my photos better somehow!” Mumei was fiddling with her digital camera, sweeping through the sequence that it was set to take “If that isn’t luck then I don’t know what is!” Fauna could hear the smile on her face so clearly.
She pretends like that didn’t make her heart skip a bit, busying herself with saving Mumei’s smartphone from certain death.
“Oh, I’m so glad it still works,” relief clear on her face, tension leaving her body, she won’t need to pay for a whole phone “it’s still working!” she turns to hand it to Mumei, who offers a smile as a way of thanks.
“I’ll message my roomie to pick me up.” Mumei says, doing exactly that.
Once more facing her kitchen counter Fauna begins tidying up the messy bowl of now useless rice grains, it occurs to her that she can offer something to eat as an apology.
“Would you like to order something to eat? It’s the least I can do” Fauna says, her back to Mumei.
“Oh, I can’t possibly impose on you further than this already” Mumei frets.
“If I had spoken up you wouldn’t have fallen, I feel responsible-!” she turns to find Mumei’s stomach exposed, they lock eyes.
Fauna looked much like a deer in headlights, as the avian was using most of the towel to try to dry her soaked primary feathers. The eye contact lasts for too long, enough for both to fluster.
“I-uh-uhm sorry, I should have-” Fauna says.
“No- em, just, you know, I should have told you I was drying my feathers or done so in the other room or the bathroom or-” there goes Mumei, rambling for a bit, Fauna would be amused at the speed and high-pitched tone she was going off to but she was too busy airing her face like a Victorian lady.
Once things calmed down Mumei left for the bathroom, the offer of a hair dryer a much needed one.
‘ Stupid!! Why didn’t you think of asking for one after showering, how could I forget that! ’ Mumei thought, taking great care to dry both her wings as best she could.
They order pizza. Mumei’s clothes had enough time to get a quick wash and dry in the time it took to get her wings how she likes them.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” Fauna asks, now way more relaxed.
She had set her Bluetooth speaker with her personal playlist as background noise for their meal at the kitchen counter.
“Yeah” Mumei answers, taking a big bite out of a pizza slice.
“You can tell me if you are”
“What makes you think I’m hurt?” Mumei answers, with her mouth full, haphazardly grabbing a bunch of napkins as she swallows.
‘ She’s a messy eater ’ Fauna notes
“W-when we, uh, when that happened, I saw your wing twitching, if you’re in pain there’s no need to hide it!”
“Oh, that.” Mumei’s smile becomes a flat line.
It doesn’t suit her , Fauna thinks.
“It’s just an old injury, nothing to worry about, it wasn’t because of today” her sight stays on the mess on her plate, half eaten pizza slice with a side of wrinkled napkins.
There is an awkward silence, the sound from the speaker all to placate the sudden loss of warmth. They eat in silence.
Mumei clears her throat, taking a deep breath, preparing her mind to speak once more.
“I do photography as a profession now, but I used to do it as a hobby,” she isn’t sure why, but she begins to tell Fauna something, something she doesn’t like to talk about much “I was into doing graffiti and urban exploration. Of course, both overlapped. I’d get to difficult locations, my wings were perfect for that,” she smiles, lacking all the mirth, looking at the Kirin but not really at her “and I would take my Instax with me, to take small mementos of the places I’d been to, it was fun. It was dangerous too. Once I almost fell from a crumbling industrial building deep in the woods, I would have died and no one would have found me.” Fauna finds that mental image way too grim “Thing is, people who are into that are often in groups precisely because of that. The usual residents of abandoned buildings are not always kind. I had no one else to go with, I’m not too popular, never was. I happened to find something I shouldn’t have. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong people. I was lucky to get away with some minor slashes on my back, somehow, they clipped my wings. Luckily those grew back! But whatever the cut in my back left my wings a bit jittery.”
Silence
Playlist ended at some point in the story, making it an even more serious conversation.
“Anyways! Now I don’t do that anymore! But! I still do photography, even if it’s not very conventional, I enjoy it.” Mumei smiles, an apology for the unprompted life story, resuming her food consumption “what do you do for a living, Fauna?”
Is she always like that, all over the place?
Before she can answer the doorbell rings.
“I’m so sorry, did she cause you any trouble?” Mumei’s roomie was way smaller than Fauna. As most rodents are.
“Bae!” Mumei chides in protest.
“Oh, no, it’s my fault she ended up like that” Fauna says.
“Fauna!” Mumei insists that it wasn’t her fault, but Fauna still thinks otherwise.
“Ok, let’s go silly, I’ll take us home, again sorry for the bother, did you apologize?” Bae was being rather polite, not unlike a parent with a rebellious child.
“Ugh, let’s just go” and Mumei played the role, Fauna isn’t quite sure if it was a show they both put on, but something about the way they were forcing serious faces told her this was a normal dynamic between them.
“Ah, wait, before I go!”
It was like a picture you’d find in a fairytale book. Wings spread open under the soft tones of the day fading, the lower half of the photo would be way darker if the fireflies didn’t illuminate the scene faintly, an unperturbed pond reflecting the moonlight like a mirror.
“Fauna?”
“Uh- yes, sorry, what were you saying, Kronii?”
“I was just-” the taller woman sighs slumping her shoulders, her reptilian tail falling like dead weight behind her “I was apologizing about last week, it was never our intention to make you feel worthless, as your managers we need to make a better job” Kronii says, hunched over while rubbing her arm up and down awkwardly, averting her eyes.
“What Kronini means is” Sana interrupts, always the calmest one of the two “we should have asked for your opinion before, during, and after! We need better communication, and that starts with us, it’s our job to check on you. So, once again, sorry” doggy ears flat on her head.
“If- if you’re still serious about quitting that’s totally fine though, but please give us one last chance? One last month, that’s all we ask for” Kronii pleads, a bit of sadness in her tone.
Last job had been a mess.
Overworked, underpaid, Fauna had failed to communicate her worries. But they also failed to check up on her as they should have.
Finding draconians is rare. Finding Kirins is rarer. Naturally, Fauna was popular for a handful of reasons: unmatched beauty and an almost impossible to find race for the model industry, as most dragon adjacent races prefer very specific job sectors. Needless to say, her schedule is always busy. When she started, her first manager put her up to any and all sorts of gigs disregarding her free time, she put a full stop to them once it started taking a toll on her mental health.
Kronii and Sana had been her friends since high school. When they learnt what happened they offered to manage her whole career. They have been together since.
One small mistake was trusting too much in each other, forgoing communication in favor of ‘ they’d tell me if something is wrong ’. Which led to this outcome, with Fauna reacting out of trauma, saying she’d quit, surprising both her friends, who had been left in the dark about the whole situation, fleeing the scene quickly after, basically bursting out in tears in front of them. When Mumei left her apartment, her phone had been left with several messages from her very concerned friends.
“It was also my fault, so don’t be too harsh on yourself, Kronii,” Fauna meant it, she didn’t take this with the seriousness that was needed from an adult, instead blowing up, she should have taken therapy sessions long ago, enough postponing “I will give us all another chance, if you’re willing to put up with me”
Kronii hugged her, her grip soft, scared of hurting her. In comes Sana with the bear hug holding the both of them into her arms, lifting them and giving them a swift swing before lowering them back on the ground, tail in full happy mode.
“So! What’s on the menu this time?” Fauna asks, a bit more relaxed now that it was all solved for the most part.
“We figured you’re a bit tired of the usual commercials so why not try something more artistic?” Sana says.
“Oh?” this picked Fauna’s interest, she had never had the chance to do something for the sake of the arts.
“We have a meeting with the new client today at lunch”
“Ah!”
“Fauna!” there she was, like it was meant to happen, like they were meant to meet again, Mumei sitting at one of the coffee shop booths, waiting for them to arrive.
“This is Bae’s shop,” Mumei tells them “actually, we live on the second floor!” she says pointing up, her other hand busy with a panini. Feathers bound by the usual wear avians had to stop them from expanding under their emotions.
It was a thin building, tucked between other shops. Ambience music was a mix of laid back with a nudge of energy sparkled here and there. Colorful walls decorated with black, white and red accents, a unique look from the other buildings, standing out like a sore thumb from the others.
Maybe a bit too much.
“I’m taking enough photos to get a display in an art gallery,” Mumei explains “the one I took yesterday is going to be in there too! If all goes well, we can sell them later” signature smile on her lips.
“What do you think?” Kronii loudly whispers to her.
“Kronini, you know you’re not very good at that” Sana actually whispers, in Kronii’s direction. Somehow Fauna finds herself literally sandwiched by the usual bickering of her managers. She manages to take a sip from her drink.
“What would the job be like?” Fauna asks Mumei, breaking Kronii and Sana’s conversation, prompting them to sit up straight again.
Mumei gives her an owlish expression, tilting her head to the side while munching on her sandwich. After humming in thought she takes the last bite of her panini, then proceeds to lick her fingers, grabbing some napkins to try and clean up the mess she had on the table but not the small bit of ketchup falling down her chin.
“I wanna capture your genuine emotions” Mumei says softly, plainly “if you’d allow me to just follow you around on your daily life that’s all I need, if you’re ok with it”
Fauna giggles. Mumei is certainly an odd one.
Grabbing a single napkin, she bends over the table to clean Mumei’s face. The avian makes a repressed squeaky noise. Fauna can’t help but giggle at how easily Mumei gets flustered.
“Sure” she says.
A week.
Just a week of being together.
Mumei had given her the freedom to decide, either to live together for a week, or just appear at her house when she wakes up and leave when she goes to bed.
Fauna felt a bit brave. There was just this small spark of extra life that Mumei carried with her, one Fauna wanted to experience too.
‘ It’s just a week, ’ she tells herself ‘ it’s not like we are going to be sleeping in the same room ’ Fauna had a spare room where her friends often crashed. Right next to hers. ‘ Why am I so nervous, it’s nothing too serious! ’
It’s not like they are just doing this with a stranger, there is a contract between them, there can be legal actions taken if any of them try anything without consent- why is she even thinking about that??
First night, she slept poorly. Brain pointing any and every direction of how something could go wrong. In the end nothing weird happened. Of course.
Fauna goes down her usual routine, starting with going to her kitchen to make breakfast. When walking into the living room she sees a shadow on the corner of her eye-
Click-click
Head snapping in the direction of the sound, tail coiling around her body, ready to react to any unwanted intrusion, all to awake now-
“Good morning, Fauna” Mumei greets, voice raspy. By the looks of it she just woke up, feathers in disarray, unbound.
At some point in the morning Mumei had set up her camera on a tripod at the corner of her apartment.
Waiting there for Fauna to appear from the hallway with her hair still not brushed, face freshly washed, yet still in her pajamas.
Fauna can’t help the blush. This is what she agreed to. There’s no point in getting upset about it.
“Just do what you usually do” Mumei looks at her, sleep threatening to take her away at any given moment.
“I feel observed” Fauna makes a point to dramatically cover her body with her hands and tail.
“That’s the plan” Mumei smiles sheepishly.
Fauna pouts.
Mumei snaps a shot.
Disbelief on her face, Mumei snaps another shot.
Their eyes meet.
Mumei gives her a smug smile, Fauna sighs, resigning her fate to the small owl invading her living room.
“I understand,” Fauna tells her, giving her back to her “but would you like to join me for breakfast at least?”
They share all their meals that day. From time to time Mumei would struggle to get her camera when she really wanted to take a shot of Fauna. Not quite sure why it was so important to photograph her while eating, Fauna would just laugh at the way the avian ran to get the machine on the tripod in a clumsy manner, tripping on her way a few times.
So, it ended up being two cameras now. Fauna recognized the characteristic look of the Instax.
Monday passed without major inconvenience. It was Fauna’s free day, so she spent more of her time doing house chores, punctuated by brief interruptions from Mumei’s captures.
Tuesday was busy. Fauna had a scheduled photoshoot for an apparel magazine. Mumei blended in with the rest of the staff easily enough. Although she got a few stares when snaping photos outside the designated set, mostly of Fauna getting ready, cosmetics being applied to her by the workers who gave a few annoyed looks in Mumei’s direction.
Fauna couldn’t help but smile at the unusual situation, it filled her with a small sense of joy, wrecking a small bit of disorder in the usually up tight set.
They picked dinner on their way back home. Not without a few shots taken from Mumei, under the artificial lighting of neon signs and light posts, walking the streets with a beauty by her side, her heart ached in a way it hadn’t in a long time.
Come Wednesday they were comfortable enough to lounge around the house without the awkward air between the two of them.
“Would you like to watch a movie with me?” Fauna asks.
“I’d love to,” Mumei answers happily.
A popular romance movie. Not popular for being the greatest romance ever told. More of a movie people made popular given how terrible it was. Credits rolling, Mumei grabs one of her fallen feathers, placing it under her nose to pretend it’s a mustache.
“You shall be mine, human” she says, making her voice as deep as she could to play the male lead.
Fauna giggles at her antics.
“Oh, but how could a lowly human like me be with such an amazing man?!” Fauna plays pretend, leaning back on the sofa, away from Mumei.
Laughter filled the apartment as they forgot they were bound by contract. Friends having a fun movie night, making fun of the mediocre writing of the movie. A few couch pillows flung from side to side, until Mumei clumsily fell over to Fauna, pinning her down on the couch.
Gold meets amber, mirth filling both their gazes accompanied by their breaths catching up.
Mumei gulps. All at once aware of their current position.
Fauna examines her expression, looking for any signs of discomfort. Her hand reached out to touch Mumei’s cheek, feeling her lean into the touch softly. Finding only a question that can be answered by her eyes closing slowly, hands coming to rest on the avian’s nape. Mumei isn’t the brightest, but she isn’t blind either.
That night she dreams of the softness of lips pressed against her pulse in a warm embrace.
The last bit of the week went by in a flash. From more photoshoots, to walks in the park, to small gaming nights, they got to meet more of each other. With secretive hand holding on the set, timid cuddles on the couch, mindless chit chat at the dining table. Something soft, warm, building between them, in between the clicking of the reflex, the small printer noise of the instax, the unspoken words of eyes meeting for a second too long, lingering with affection, sending fuzzy feelings to their stomachs.
A month of preparation. All summarized in one portfolio. It was only one week of it, yet Mumei had taken a month to select her best works and prepare them into the thin looking folder on her hands. After presenting it to the gallery they agreed to have her work displayed. Paperwork pertaining to commission percentage for the gallery and payment methods went smoothly.
Mumei was there at the opening of her display area, formal wear looking weird on someone who lives such a carefree daily life. Fauna decided to attend the venue in her casual clothes, making Mumei stand out further.
To their fortune it immediately called the attention of a good group of people, a quick success. The marketing from the gallery benefited them greatly. A kirin often presented as an ethereal being, unattainable, unreachable, now displayed in her common everyday life, yet retaining the airs of grandiose beauty on every single photo. Before the gallery closed for the day Mumei already had a hefty number of offers for some of her work.
A small party to celebrate the successful opening day was prepared by Fauna’s managers with help from Mumei’s roommate. Bae made sure her coffee shop was closed early, they had the whole place to celebrate in private.
“Congratulations!” Kronii and Sana cheer loudly in unison towards them. There were only the five of them there.
Table full of snacks crafted by the small rat, carefully prepared drinks, a cake baked by Sana herself, the shop decorated by the perfectionist snake.
“I never got to ask, why me?” Fauna asks Mumei. They sat on one of the booths, alcoholic beverages in hand, leaning over the table like it was a secret conversation among the loud music and cheering trio over at the main counter.
“I’d seen your work in magazines” Mumei begins, eyes soft, kind “they capture your beauty in a way I wouldn’t be able to. When we met I noticed, you are way more expressive than those shots make you look. I guess I fell in love with your sincerity on that night at your apartment. I wanted to capture that, your genuine emotions, making them reach your eyes for once.”
“I think I understand what you mean,” Fauna answers, after drinking a bit from her glass “if I’m being honest, I was drawn to you on that night we met by the pond, has anyone told you your wings are astonishing under the moonlight?”
Mumei blushes, a few incoherent rambles leave her mouth as she covers her face. Fauna can’t help but find it adorable.
Mumei clears her throat “I-If we’re talking about being honest” she clears her throat again, taking a deep sigh to calm her nerves. Fauna offers her hand to her, Mumei smiles, slowly locking their hands together, a simple puzzle put back in place “When I’m with you I don’t feel like I’m crippled, unable to fly, it’s this same feeling I used to feel back then, right here on my tummy” she giggles “you make my world feel weightless, like I’m soaring low above a grass field, filled with wildflowers, only for me to capture”
Mumei stops. There is clearly a question she wants to ask. Fauna can tell. She knows exactly what it is by now. Little owl too shy to say it without feeling embarrassed about it.
“Mumei?”
“Yes, Fauna”
“Would you like to go out? Be my girlfriend”
Mumei lifts her hand, still holding Fauna’s, to kiss the back of it tenderly.
“I’d like that, yeah” Mumei answers with a blush, averting her gaze.
‘ My turn then ’ Fauna thinks, leaning over the table, surprising Mumei with her bold actions.
Their lips meet meekly, somehow with less confidence than the first time. Probably because they were publicly kissing.
Oh, right, they are publicly kissing.
A hyped scream breaks their kiss, both of them looking in the direction of it like deer in headlights.
“You two are dating!!” Sana shouts, happily jumping in place, tail going a mile per hour.
“Sana, don’t bug them” Kronii holds Sana down by the arm, happiness written on her blushing smile.
“My baby is all grown up,” Bae says in a strained voice, pretending to clean a tear from the corner of her eye.
Mumei pouts. Unfurling one of her wings to its full span to give them a small sense of privacy, covering them on the booth. Dipping for a second kiss from the mesmerized Fauna.
“Love you” she whispers, amber eyes glowing soft under the light.
“Love you too, silly” Fauna replies, gold melting under the intensity of their feelings.