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If you asked Seawatt if he was grateful to be alive again, his answer would be a short, through gritted teeth yes.
If you asked, and he wasn’t trying to look somewhat sane, his answer would be a very resounding no.
Death wasn’t pleasant, yes, but you know what it isn’t either? Being yanked back into life, into a civilisation you never planned to exist in, and on top of everything else being spawned back into the world with an entire new set of limbs.
He’s disoriented, he feels like absolute fucking shit and that stupid, stupid face is beaming at him and he wants to just hit something.
He doesn’t.
Eventually, Evbo asks why Seawatt has wings.
Seawatt’s eyebrow twitches. He feels violent.
“Evbo. I don’t know.”
“Huh. That’s really strange, man.” Evbo shrugs it off.
Seawatt stares at him.
It’s silent.
“What?”
“You’re god.” Seawatt hisses.
“And?”
“You should know how this happened.”
“Well I don’t!”
“What do you mean you don’t?” Seawatt’s eyebrows furrow even further.
“I mean I don’t! This is my first time trying to revive someone!” Evbo protests.
…
What.
“I’m your fucking test subject?” Seawatt’s voice is slightly shrill. “Are you insane?”
Evbo is quiet for a second, he looks thoughtful.
“You are not supposed to be thinking about this for that long.”
Evbo has that stupid grin on his face again as he shrugs wordlessly.
Seawatt swears and storms off.
Seawatt couldn’t decide if finding a reflective surface made his fate better or worse.
The insides were white, stained with smatterings of muddy browns. The outside feathers are far more brown and broken up by bands of cream from what he can see.
They looked large enough to maybe fly with. He didn’t want to test that.
The thought makes him shudder.
Parkour god, why did he have a fear of heights, of all things, he could not have worse luck.
…
He needs to stop saying that, it’s weird now that Evbo is god.
Seawatt goes a week - maybe two, he doesn’t know for sure - before seeing someone again.
It’s Emf.
Emf takes one look at him, his wings and grimaces.
“You look like shit.”
“Wow. Thanks.” Seawatt deadpans.
Emf’s white eyes bore into Seawatt, and their tail flicks once behind them - reminding Seawatt of an irritated feline.
“I’m entitled to being far more rude. Count yourself lucky.”
They leave, and Seawatt knows they’re right but still rolls his eyes with a loud, dramatic sigh.
He thinks that could have gone worse, really.
Evbo is standing in front of Seawatt in the small building he now called home when he decides that interaction with Emf had gone the worst it could - clearly, they had settled on indirect torture by telling Evbo about the predicament he had been ignoring.
Evbo wiggles his fingers and Seawatt grimaced.
“Stop doing - eugh - that, Evbo. It’s not convincing me.” Seawatt snaps.
“Awww.” He pouts and gets about as serious as Evbo can. “You do need help, though, man. I mean… have you looked in a mirror, that can not feel good.”
“You are not the person to be talking to me about self care.” Evbo looks as if he’s about to protest and Seawatt levels him with a glare. “I should not be privy to the information that gods can still get food poisoning, but I am. Who’s fault is that?”
Evbo sighs and looks about ready to give up before he brightens again and Seawatt, once again, feels his eyebrow twitch. This happens a lot, these days. That irritation, that almost isn’t quite as strong as it could be.
“Could I perhaps interest you in a trade?” There’s a scheming spark in Evbo’s leaf green eyes.
Seawatt humours him, for… some reason.
“A trade?”
Evbo nods.
“If you let me help with uh…” He trails off, gesturing vaguely at the wings awkwardly folded behind Seawatt’s back.
“Preening.” Seawatt supplies.
“That! Preening! If you let me help with that, I won't eat raw chicken for uhhhmmmm, a week.”
“A month.”
Evbo purses his lips, looking disgruntled.
“Two weeks.”
Seawatt raises an eyebrow, unconvinced.
“Three.”
Green stares into hard purple.
Evbo relents, looking away and grumbling.
“Fine, three, but only if you don’t snitch to Emf next time I’m sick.”
“I can live with that.” Seawatt responds, a small grin on his face - those are becoming more frequent, so is Evbo’s staring problem.
That train of thought is cut off when Evbo wiggles his fingers again, a mischievous grin creeping up his face.
Seawatt’s grin immediately drops, but he has to fight the urge to let it rise again.
“I told you to stop that.” He complains.
“I know, but consider: your reaction is very funny.”
“Whatever,” Seawatt huffs, and turns around. “Just get this over with.”
Evbo, for all his insistence on doing this, is really unsure where to start as he looks at the tensed mess of feathers that is apparently supposed to be wings.
“Okay, like, chill, dude. You’re so tense, it’s stupid.” Evbo says.
Seawatt scoffs.
“Like you’d be more relaxed in this situation.” He retorts.
“Excuse you, I so would!”
“Uh huh, and the sky is purple.”
“Man, you’re such an ass.”
“It’s not my fault you make it so easy, you rise to the occasion every time.”
This bickering continues, Seawatt’s tense posture does not, and he’s so distracted that he doesn’t feel the way Evbo’s fingers are running through feathers.
When he does realise, he fights the urge to stiffen again, and instead forces himself to bite out some scathing remark that Evbo doesn’t grace with a response.
Seawatt tilts his head to look backwards slightly, and catches the concentrated expression on the god’s face - his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Seawatt almost snorts at how stupid that makes him look, ignoring the hint of fondness that rears its head.
He lets Evbo continue, and finds for all his griping and resistance, it’s… nice. The way the feathers that are crooked and straightened helps with the itch he hadn’t even realised was there, the way Evbo’s hands are careful and warm and soft and-
Seawatt blinks.
Okay, weird. No need for all that.
It’s just a favour between friends.
He relaxes into the touch anyway.
He doesn’t know how long passes between then, and when Evbo - reluctantly - tapped Seawatt’s shoulder.
Seawatt feels like he’s snapped out of a nap, or daydreaming, or something.
He clears his throat.
“What?”
“Uh, I’m done.” Evbo responds.
“Oh.” Seawatt says dumbly.
He readjusts his wings slightly, they still feel weird to have but they don’t feel nearly as unpleasant now.
He turns to face Evbo silently.
Evbo stares, Seawatt stares back.
“Uh.” Seawatt hesitates. “Thanks.”
Evbo shrugs, wordlessly.
“I’ll see you around, or whatever.” Seawatt’s cheeks feel warm, he ignores it.
Evbo stands there unmoving for a second and Seawatt’s eyes drop downwards, lingering somewhere he definitely shouldn’t be looking. They fly back upwards as Evbo speaks suddenly.
“Haha, yeah. Yeah!” He seems to jolt back into action. “See you later, Sea!” Evbo says quickly and darts out the door.
Seawatt stands in place for a moment, seeing the steadily retreating figure of Evbo jumping across blocks. He frowns. Did the idiot forget he can teleport, or does he just like parkour that much?
…
Wait.
Sea?
Huh.
That’s new. (And surely means nothing at all).