Work Text:
Rove Beetle’s wings buzzed weakly as he followed Venom out of the bazaar. Even though he wasn’t carrying any of the bags from their shopping, he was clearly the more exhausted of the two.
“I khhhh…” He wheezed, trying to push himself to keep up with Venom’s brisk gait. “I can carry the bag of dates, c’mon!”
“You look like the one who needs to be carried.” Venom said flatly, without looking back.
Rove didn’t argue any more, but he grumbled all the way back to the Outclaw’s hideout. Venom nodded to the shadowy figure in one of the lookout windows, and within a minute the door was unlatched from the inside and swept open on well-oiled hinges. Venom strode into the shaded interior with a relieved sigh, just as Rove flopped onto his side and let out a pained, exhausted whine.
“Welcome back!” Magpie called over, hefting herself up from her spot on the floor. Not to greet them, but to start picking through the grocery bags for snacks.
Zerde closed the door behind them, hooking his claw over the side of the bag of dates. With one deft pull, he swiped a clinking bag of gold hidden underneath the fruit, and swept away to put it in the guild’s safe.
“Rude.” Rove huffed.
“Tell him that to his face next time, huh?” Magpie picked through a different bag and selected a plump fig. She bit it in half, unpacking the groceries to find treats that Venom might have been saving for himself.
Rove buzzed again, reaching for the water skein just as Venom pulled it out of the way.
“I’ll pour you some.” Venom chided. “sit by the window so you don’t get stepped on, okay?”
The windows were long and tall, difficult to look through if you wanted to appreciate the view but perfect for blocking out a majority of sunlight while still leaving enough room for cooling breezes to pass through.The spot Magpie had taken for herself was the prime real estate, clearly marked out by a well-worn rug and matching floor cushion.
Magpie eyed Rove as he struggled to get to his feet, limping to the spot she had just been sitting at and slumping over again. She glanced over at Venom with a clearly annoyed expression, but Venom was turned away.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Venom lowered his voice as he retrieved a small stack of drinking bowls. “I want to cool him down first.”
“Here you go pampering another newbie.” Magpie grumbled, cracking open a pistachio. “I was waiting for you to come back and cool me down, you know.”
“Ah, yes, how rude of me to have wants and opinions outside of waiting on you like your personal butler.” Venom snarked, handing her a bowl of water.
Magpie rolled her eyes and drained the whole thing in one gulp. Venom did the same with his own, then placed a third water bowl next to Rove’s head.
“When I’m done putting these away, I’m kicking him out and taking his spot.” Magpie warned, taking an armful of groceries away to the pantry, still digging through them for the best morsels to snack on.
“Hear that?” Venom said, pouring himself a second bowl. “Let's not waste time.”
Instead of drinking the water, Venom swallowed it into a secondary crop. He gurgled it for a few seconds, then blew out a puff of cooled mist over Rove’s body.
Rove groaned in relief, then went back to lapping water slowly from his own bowl. He felt like was going to be sick if he drank it too fast.
“Careful.” Venom warned. Rove looked up in confusion, and became even more confused to see that Venom was standing over him like a floor cushion he was about to sit on.
“Unh—?” Rove grunted, his whole body pressed underneath Venom’s weight. Venom wasn’t too much bigger than Rove, but that didn’t mean Venom was incapable of crushing the hivewing.
“Am I hurting you?” Venom asked.
“Nnno?” Rove was a little surprised to realise it. “Why are you sitting on me?”
Venom settled his head by Rove’s, and Rove found himself unable to avoid catching Venom’s eye. Venom was smiling, in such a way that made Rove paranoid that the sandwing could feel the way his heart had jumped.
“You remember what I told you about my grandmother?” Venom asked, rubbing his front paw over Rove’s tense shoulder.
“Maybe? I mean—yeah! She uh, d…died…?”
Venom sighed, putting his paw down. “Yes. Aside from that, she was an icewing.”
“Oh yeah, uh…” Rove coughed. “Yeah. Totally, knew that.”
Venom nuzzled Rove, his smile returning somewhat. “Silly.”
Rove decided he deserved that insult, and licked the bottom of his empty water bowl. Venom gave him the rest of the water he had used to make the cooling mist, and Rove gratefully lapped it up.
“You’ve never seen an icewing, right?” Venom said, and before Rove could correct him about the assumption Venom put his paw over Rove’s snout to rub his head. “Their scales are white like mine, they breathe ice and they give off cold; the opposite of a sandwing, you could say. And yet, I hail from both bloodlines. What a contradiction, hm?”
Rove, being unable to speak, was left with nothing to do but notice that his head felt cooler, concentrated around where Venom’s paw was resting on his nose. Just when it felt like the spot was getting too cold, Venom turned his paw over and pressed the back of it on Rove’s chilled scales, showing him the warmth of his paw's topscales.
“I can’t breathe fire or ice.” Venom continued. “My scales are neither hot nor cold. My venom is my only reliable weapon. I’m hopeless as a warrior or assassin. But, on hot days like this, everyone wants me close.”
Rove was starting to feel how much of Venom’s scales were cooling him down, aside from the paws that had begun to rub the sides of his face, rubbing out the tense headache he hadn’t noticed was there until it was gone. All down his underbelly, pressed against Rove’s back, he was quickly cooling down.
“Are you shivering?” Venom asked, pressing the backs of his forelimbs to Rove’s trembling sides. “I’m sorry, with another sandwing this usually takes a couple of minutes to work…”
Rove went limp, content to let Venom manhandle him in whatever way he saw fit. Until he felt Venom’s tail brush against his, and he quickly looked back to make sure they weren’t about to prick each other with their stingers again.
“Hm?” Venom looked back as well. “Ah, let me…”
Carefully, Venom wrapped his tail around Rove’s. Rove felt the cool underside and warm topscales wrapped around his tail like stripes on his hide, until their stingers rested together at the end of the helix, safely out of range of stinging each other. Venom’s barb had more ability to be moved and positioned than Rove’s rudimentary thorn, so Venom traced the length of the straighter keratin spike with the curved hook of his own.
“Careful…” Rove muttered, trying not to get too nervous and accidentally move.
Venom lowered his head and rested it beside Rove’s. Rove hesitated, then nuzzled Venom’s cheek in return.
“Well, aren’t you two flamboyant.” Magpie called in from the pantry, sauntering over in no real hurry. “Come on, I said what I said. He’s shaking like a leaf, anyway.”
Rove had been trying not to show it, but he did feel much colder than he thought he could be on a day like this. He didn’t want to admit to himself that it was a relief when Venom stood up, even if it was obvious. It almost wounded his ego when Venom rested his cooling scales on Magpie instead, curling his tail around hers and everything.
“Finally.” Magpie huffed, relaxing as Venom rubbed her tense shoulders.
Slowly, Rove got to his feet. Carefully circling around, making sure his steps were loud enough that Venom could sense what he was doing, he reached up and started massaging Venom’s shoulders in the same way that Venom had been doing for both Rove and Magpie.
“That’s very nice of you.” Venom chuckled, glancing over his shoulder.
Magpie clicked her tongue. “Trying to make me look selfish, I get it.”
“I’m not! I’m just—!” Rove was cut off by Magpie grabbing his forelimb and giving it a strong tug.
“Lay down.” She huffed. “Mine are warm and his are cold, it’ll cancel out.”
Rove glanced at Venom, who shifted out of the way for Rove. Carefully, Rove climbed over and settled into the gap Magpie had left between them. She was right; Magpie’s sweltering scales and Venom’s chilled underside had canceled each other out when they were pressed together, and now both sides were comfortably lukewarm.
“There. Don’t ever say I got in the way of you two—” she was interrupted by her own yawn. “—Hnmh, tired…”
Venom’s massaging was getting slower, and Rove was starting to feel his eyelids droop. He wasn’t a stranger to noontime naps; sleeping during the time of day when the heat was at its worst was somehow more ubiquitous on Pantala than on Pyrrhia.
“I like…” Rove readjusted himself to a more comfortable position, splayed out on his back with his legs in the air. “I like it here. It’s…new but still familiar. I wanna be part of your guys’ hive, or whatever you call it…”
Magpie snored quietly. Venom sleepily reached his paw over and draped it over Rove’s shoulder. Rove rested his head against it, closing his eyes and smiling.
Rove was just beginning to fall asleep when heavy footsteps entered the room; plodding over slowly, with intent. Rove opened his eyes to see Zerde standing over him, his blindfold pulled back to hang around his neck, showing his heavily scarred face and empty eye sockets. Before Rove could say anything, Zerde stepped over and sat on all three of them, rudely awakening Venom and Magpie.
“What’s your problem!?” Magpie rolled over and kicked at his wings in bleary retribution.
“You could’ve just woken me up.” Venom sighed, reaching his paw up, not quite able to reach Zerde’s snout.
“Heavy…!” Rove wheezed.
“Sh.” Zerde commanded. “Go back to sleep.”
It was easiest for Zerde to follow that command. Everyone else had to put in a little more effort now.