Work Text:
With a sigh of exhaustion, Momo turns the doorknob as she enters the apartment she and Okarun share. Work was pretty slow and there weren’t many customers coming over to the cafe so for the most part it was boring but it was better than it being chaotic and overwhelming for her. As she closed the door and took off her jacket, she was confused about why Okarun didn't wait for her outside the cafe or even in the living room. “He probably is out with Jiji or focused on some alien study.” She thought as she walked over and almost flopped onto the couch, burnt out like a used-up candle. As she lays down, she lazily reaches out for the remote that rests on the side table and when she does, she feels a fuzz. She turns her head to notice a loose feather by the remote. Spotting the feather sparked her attention towards more small feathers around her seat and the side table. There were slight hints of red on the feather she was staring at as she picked it up, she felt that it was a warm liquid and her eyes turned from curious to concerned. It was blood and it seemed that it was ripped from some kind of bird. A noise from the bathroom caused her attention to go from the feathery mess to the hall as she stood up from her seat. “Okarun?”
There was a slight screech heard from the bathroom in response to her call as a voice spoke quietly from the bathroom, “Oh! Uh….sorry Miss Ayase I was too busy to walk with you from work today.” Soon after there seems to be scratching and slight whimpers of pain from the bathroom. Momo was relieved that Okarun was ok but was still concerned for her roommate as the bloody feathers eventually led to her as she heard him scratching at something. “Hey you better not be fucking up my bathroom you overgrown crow! This is a mess what the hell are you doing in there anyway?” Momo hissed out in her usual demanding matter though softened at her question.
“I’ll clean it up once I’m done. I just need to- Gaaah!” Okarun yelped out before finishing his sentence.
“What the hell are you doing jackass? I know for certain you’re ain't using the damn toilet with all that racket and why is there blood everywhere?” Momo asked getting annoyed by her roommate’s avoidance. But as soon as she was about to bang on the door, the door opened, revealing Okarun as he looked roughed up. Her eyes widened with concern as she saw that the feathers on his body were seemingly plucked forcibly with red bald spots to replace the ripped-out feathers. His toe claw tapping in nervousness with his feathery tail in between his legs. His brown bird eyes looked at her with shame as he held a plastic bag of what seemed to be the feathers that came off of him, he picked up most of the feathers he could but he did miss a few as there were very tiny feathers on the rug they use in the bathroom. “I am so sorry about the mess Miss Ayase it's just that time again when I am supposed to molt. Guess I didn’t finish before your work was over.” Okarun nervously explained as he scratched himself in the neck with his claw, but given his face, it was hurting his already sore skin.
With a quick grab, Momo got his hand away from his neck before he could do more damage to himself, which caused the human-like raptor to blush from her tight grasp. Her garnet eyes glared at him as she sighed, “Yeah but usually your molts aren’t bloody and you just simply move them out without pain, what's going on with you dummy?’
With a slight turn of his head, he revealed clunks of white and red feathers seemingly coming out of the keratin shells on the nape of his neck. Even though he was 20, his colorful mature feathers never came in though his main mature feathers came in when he turned 18. Let's just say that in Ken’s opinion, he didn’t care much about them until now. Momo gently let his hand go though it always felt weird to her to feel feathers on an arm, especially if it was attached to someone she was close to. “I know Dino people and humans can be close and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if those blood feathers are what I think they are…” Momo zoned out in her thoughts that Okarun had to wave his tail in front of her face, trying to get his crush’s attention. But the way she got back into focus with her blushing face and fuchsia eyes darting directly into his caused him to recoil and blush, with his feathers ruffling up, a few falling off of the raptor, and his tail curling back behind him, almost arrowing out of his back. “Miss Ayase is so beautiful…….oh who am I kidding she wouldn’t want a dinosaur as a partner, let alone a scrawny bird like me…” Okarun thought to himself as he sighed yearnfully through his nose.
As he was about to give Momo one last glance before looking down, he felt a gentle hand on his soft fuzzy cheek, both eyes staring at each other for what seemed to be ages, though only lasting for a few seconds before Momo broke the window of silence, “Do you need help with cleaning up? I can imagine that there are places hard to reach.’
She paused a bit as she removed her hand from his cheek, noticing his chocolate button eyes following it, “-and I don’t want my couch to get messier than it already is if you missed any spots.”
Momo’s question caused Okarun to blush even more so as she did offer to help with his molts but the question still causes him to get flustered every time. And considering the mess, she was probably gonna use a shower hose to help wash off any blood or small feathers neither of them spotted. He was too speechless to verbally answer her question so he hastily chirped and nodded in response.
“Ok just let me change to something more appropriate, I don’t wanna ruin my outfit with blood and feathers. Just wait in the bathtub.” Momo said as she went to change. While waiting, Okarun grabbed a little stool and placed it in the bathtub to sit on, twiddling his claws as he was purely flustered. Usually, he would wear clothing around humans, especially Momo but when it came to situations like these, his feathers got too irritating to deal with. Not too long later, Momo came back wearing a basic cheap t shit that looked like it’d seen better days and a pair of torn-up jeans that had seen a similar fate. She went to the cabinet under the sink to pull out a pair of rubber gloves, a few brushes, and a sponge. As soon as she grabbed the cleaning tools she went over to Okarun to start the process. She put on the gloves and started to look for any loose feathers on his back as she gently removed them. All Okarun could do was just wait as he held onto a feather that was still attached to his skin. Momo was somewhat horrified by the bloody cuts that were all over the places his claws could reach as almost as if he was clawing at himself.
“What kind of a fight did you get yourself into dumbass?” Momo snarled as she looked through the bloodied feathers, removing any loose feather that got into the narrow cuts first before removing the rest. The sudden question caused Okarun to tug out a feather he was fidgeting with. Momo knew exactly what he was doing to himself and she didn’t like it one bit. “Hey, rooster I’m talking to you!”
“Huh? Um….welll……I just scratched myself too hard. Molting is itchy.” He nervously chuckled as Momo gave him a gentle bonk on the head.
“Quit it with your lying ass, what. Happened?” Momo’s head was strangely close to his face just staring at him, demanding an answer.
“Well….I just got stressed so I plucked myself….. that's all….”
“Oh really? About what?”
He then turned dead silent as he didn’t know exactly what to say to answer her question. “Shit shit shit! She’s my friend! Stop feeling this way! Have we lived together for years but we’re just friends–” Then he felt a jet of hot water hit his back, shooting him straight out of his trace and trying to come up with some bullshit lie. The water felt good it was just the surprise that got him spooked as he screeched out loud. Momo couldn’t help but laugh at the screech and soon after her joyous face went back to demanding, “Ken………”
That name used to make her flustered to the point that she had to give Takakura the nickname, “Okarun”, plus a few more other names that were either related to his species or his geeky nature. However, for Okarun, it got him shocked as the water blast that Momo got him with a few seconds ago, if he could sweat as much as a human, he 100% would be sweating bullets within the water drops that were falling off of his feathers. He held his feathery tail, removing the loose feathers from it as he fidgeted with the white and red blood feathers that replaced the fallen feathers. With a sharp inhale he reluctantly answered his crush, “I got worried about you and….’
“And what? Okarun, you know my schedule and I can handle myself even if you get into situations like this. Okarun, you can tell me what your problem is, I’m sure we can resolve it together.” Her voice turned more gentle trying to reassure him while she turned off the water. Gently holding his hand and massaging it. Okarun blushed as his gaze focused on her hand.
“Can I answer the rest once we’re done, I don’t think this moment is a good time right now…” The raptor boy requested as he stared up at her with his round pathetic eyes. This made Momo smile as she nodded a yes. She then helps Okarun finish up his bad molt by picking up any feathers from his body and throwing it away into a trash bag with Okarun helping out with the cleanup. Luckily, they had a drain filter in the bath as Okarun grabbed it and removed any small feathers that the filter caught. Momo used the sponge to scrub off any remaining blood from his body and the brushes to help get any remaining mess out. When they finally finished washing off and Okarun was getting out of the bathtub, Momo grabbed some first aid stuff and put some hydrogen peroxide on a cloth. “Hold still a minute, I don’t want your scratches to get infected..”
She gently tapped the wounds with the peroxide as Okarun held onto a towel to dry himself off whenever she was done. As she finished treating his wounds, he rubbed the towel all over his body even though like a fluffy dog, it caused his feathers to poof up causing Momo to giggle. She grabbed a brush to gently smooth out the feathers as she heard a faint purr coming from Okarun, “Is he purring……..? That's so cute!!!” when most of the feathers were smoothed out, Momo placed some gauze on the wounds to make sure it doesn’t make a mess.
“Get dressed while I heat something,” Momo said as she headed to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Okarun goes to his room and heads to his messy dresser covered in alien stickers. He opens a drawer to pull out a plain gray tank top and another to get a pair of gym pants, as a dinosaur his anatomy gets in the way when it comes to clothes. While there are outfits for those like him, however, he doesn’t care much about his look and is more focused on being presentable by human standards though he doesn’t have to wear clothes due to feathers covering his body except for his face, hands, and feet. He threw the clothes into himself as he headed over to the kitchen to see if Momo needed help with anything. With no surprise, she didn’t need help with the food since it was already ready for him as it was the chicken curry she made the previous night. He smiled as Momo placed her hand on his shoulder with a smile. He grabbed his plate and went to sit down while Momo sat with him, they began to eat while giving each other looks of yearning. As soon as the two were done eating they both went to sit on the couch as Momo looked over at Okarun and asked, "Ok now that we're done, what is it you were wanting to say?'
He hesitated, with his toe claw tapping in nervousness, he took a deep breath, almost preparing for some kind of bad news, "Miss Ayase I know this is bizarre for me to say but I don't think these are instincts telling me anymore. We've been friends for so long that I can't anymore.." His gaze meets her pink eyes.
"Miss Ayase, I love you." He quickly confessed before looking down as if he was bracing for rejection as he felt soft hands over his scaly claws, which caused him to look up at her again.
"Okarun...I was feeling the same way, I was hoping you'd be the one to say it first. Glad You did." She gave a warm smile at him as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. With enough courage, as she pulled away, he leaned in to kiss her on the lips with an embrace and Momo gladly accepted. They held each other for a long minute, not caring how different the two were as Okarun's claw stopped tapping in nervousness. As they pulled away from each other, looking into each other's eyes, Okarun broke the silence as he asked, "Y-you care about me being a-"
He then felt a finger on his lips as Momo sighed, "Hush it you. I do not care if you're an overgrown crow boy or even a monster. You are my boyfriend now, You just happen to be a stupid dinosaur."