Work Text:
July was arguably the worst time of the year. In Ze’s opinion.
It’s always blazing hot and dry, leaving Ze sweating and dragging himself around. His feathers and wings only make things worse– he sweats a lot less than he used to due to his reduced number of sweat glands, body temperature always unbearably high as he does anything possible to try and cool himself down. Usually, he ends up leaving the A.C. blasting cool air, ignoring Regect and Moe’s complaints about the chill.
That overall typically works well for him. Blasting cold air along with a fan or two and chugging at least a few glasses of ice cold water always manages to bring his temperature down to a more bearable place during the hottest month of the year.
…Unless the A.C. is broken. Which leads him to now.
The A.C. had given up on them a few hours ago. They’d heard a not-so-pleasant noise come from it before the heat of the day had begun to creep in throughout the house, air vents going dead silent. Regect’s been whining about the heat for a while now– given he also lacks sweat glands for the most part, he’s been in a similar boat as Ze. It’s absolutely miserable.
As of this current moment, Ze lies face-down on the couch, wings flared out and spilling over the sides of the couch. He feels like he’s practically melting right now, and far from in a good way. A fan spins on its highest setting a few feet from him, although it’s not… really helping anymore. A majority of the air being blown at him now is just slightly less warm air.
His head is also pounding from his inability to regulate his temperature– he’s gotten desperate enough to start open-mouth breathing, honestly just basically panting at this point in his delirium. It’s embarrassing, but he’s terribly desperate to try and regulate his body temperature right now.
The others aren’t faring much better from what he knows. He’s pretty sure Regect’s curled up on the kitchen tiles right now, actually. Moe’s probably faring the best out of the three of them– she’s probably neck deep in a nearby lake if he knows anything about her. She doesn’t usually get as warm with her thin fur, and she loves water, so on hot days like these he usually finds her out in the lake.
Overall, the house is miserably warm, and none of them can do anything about it, giving up and confining themselves inside while trying to cool down any way possible, avoiding any interactions with other people given the likelihood of one of them lashing out irrationally (well, except for Moe, of course. Again, she’s probably swimming to cool down. Regect and Ze aren’t the biggest fans of water).
Of course, in his dissociated delirium, Ze doesn’t really notice the sound of the front door suddenly being thrown open, nor the call of his name that echoes throughout the house.
Slightly wet-sounding footsteps mix into the sound of the fan running as fast as it can, approaching Ze’s stretched out spot on the couch cushions, tail feathers and wings twitching behind him as his eyes remain shut in discomfort and misery. Sue him, it’s uncomfortably hot in the living room, and even more so upstairs (which is the reason he’s not upstairs).
So, it obviously scares the hell out of him when a cold slime hand lands on his shoulder, throwing him out of his mild state of disassociation. Ze shoots up, head spinning from the sudden change in elevation as his wings flare outward, blindly reaching for and pointing his beloved pistol in front of him.
Nobody was supposed to be coming over today, let alone letting themself in, so it startles him to feel a hand that is very clearly not Regect’s paw. His vision’s blurry with his lack of glasses, other hand blindly scrambling to find his black frames that were clumsily thrown onto the side table, sliding them clumsily onto the bridge of his nose. His hand tightens on his pistol as his eyes adjust, seeing clearer now with the thick lenses on.
…Just to slowly lower it again once he sees the nervous smile of a very familiar slime in front of him.
“Woah, hold on–” Avery’s hands come up quickly in surrender, eyes a bit wide as he stares right at the very frazzled and sweaty avian sitting in front of him. Ze stares for a long moment before groaning and letting the gun fully fall, instead moving to rub at his forehead in discomfort. “...You okay, dude?” Ze can tell that the slime is a little bewildered, awkwardly reaching a hand out again towards Ze.
The avian takes a deep breath, blinking his eyes a few times before letting his body slump forward slightly. Avery’s hand lands gently on Ze’s face when he does, thumb rubbing back and forth comfortingly while Avery stares with poorly concealed confusion and concern. The avian relaxes an embarrassing amount at the contact, although he’d never admit that. He’d probably be getting defensive if he didn’t feel like he was currently dying of heat stroke right now from the lack of A.C. in the house. Even Avery looks a bit uncomfortable with the temperature, body looking a bit more… melty than it typically does, hand tugging at the collar of his shirt.
“Yeah– um… Hey,” Ze mutters in embarrassment, pulling himself away regrettably from the incredibly cool hand that’s been resting on his cheek. He adjusts himself for a few moments before flopping back down on the cushions, this time on his back. His eyes drift shut for a moment, already momentarily forgetting about Avery’s presence right next to him as he lets out a heavy breath. Hell, he doesn’t even ask what the slime’s doing here with how out of it he is, blocking his surroundings out for a few seconds.
Soon enough, though, he becomes painfully aware of the slime’s set of eyes just… staring at him quietly. Unusually quiet for the slime, dare he say it.
Avery’s voice breaks the silence after a few moments. “So, like… you wouldn’t mind if I, like…” the slime lets the silence stretch for a moment, Ze peeling an eye open just barely to stare at him in confusion. “...joined you, right? ‘Kaythanks–”
Ze’s eyes both fly open at that, brows furrowed. “Wait, what–”
Before he can even finish processing Avery’s words or even sit up, he feels the sensation of slightly chilled slime atop his body as Avery throws himself down on top of Ze. The avian squawks in halfhearted protest as a quick, apologetic kiss is pressed to his cheek, some of the slime’s body dripping a bit awkwardly against Ze’s skin. Still, he makes no effort to move Avery off of him as the other gets comfortable on the couch.
And, Ze won’t admit it, but the chilled contact immediately saps some of the uncomfortable, unbearable heat right out of his body.
Another wave of silence passes while Avery adjusts himself to properly cuddle Ze, goopy arms wrapping around his torso while the slime’s head rests on his chest comfortably. The weight is shockingly soothing for the avian, a relieved, quiet coo managing to slip from his throat before he can stop it. Eventually, Ze finds himself returning the contact, arms reaching up to rest on the small of Avery’s back, eyes drifting closed again.
One of Avery’s hands begins to slowly trace circles against Ze’s arm as they lay there, shifting up slightly to nuzzle into the crook of Ze’s neck. The avian shudders slightly as the temperature shifts, soon settling down again, a wing curling around the two of them as he lets himself fully relax.
Under his breath, he mumbles a quiet “thank you,” that has Avery beaming.
Around half an hour later is when Ze starts to get mildly uncomfortable again, feeling Avery’s body become warmer as the minutes tick by, although he doesn’t say anything about it. Sweat begins to bead again from the sweat glands he does have, body warming up once more, a discomforted chirp leaving him quietly.
He hears fabric shift as Avery tilts his head up just barely, cracking an eye open to peer down at the slime, whose gaze is locked onto Ze’s face. An eyebrow raises on the avian’s face questioningly, watching gears turn in the slime’s head. “…Did’ya know you’re like—… really pretty? ‘N stuff?” he eventually says, staring at Ze with such a sickeningly soft look that has the avian’s face warming.
“I— shut up—“ he scoffs without heat, attempting to reach up to smack Avery gently upside the head, shifting his hand from its spot against Avery’s back. The slime yelps at the movement, giggling quietly.
That’s when he realizes something… mildly concerning.
“… Uh. Avery,” Ze eventually says, a hint of panic seeping into his voice, going a bit pale. Avery stops laughing to look at him in confusion, raising an eyebrow at the avian.
“Yeah?”
“My hand’s stuck.”
“…Oh.”
They stare at each other for a long few moments, realization slowly dawning on the two of them with every second that passes. Ze tries moving his hand again, and then both of them, with no luck whatsoever. “Shit,” he curses under his breath, tugging one more time fruitlessly, slime sticking like superglue to his skin and clothing.
Avery purses his lips, trying to move his own hand, which has been still for a while, away from Ze’s arm, finding himself unable to pull it away. Actually, he finds that most of his body’s been rendered still, practically melded to Ze’s body. A nervous laugh leaves the slime, remembering a fact about himself that he… probably should have brought up at some point way before this. “…Hey. Haha. Um… did I mention that— um… I can. Um. Melt?”
The avian stares. Blinks once. Then again.
“…God damnit, Avery,” he mutters, levelling Avery with a very unimpressed look. The slime looks sheepish, an awkward smile on his face as he tries not to freak out himself. The heat of the day is returning with a vengeance, uncomfortable and sweaty as the two remain stuck there, Avery’s slime body now uncomfortably warm against the avian’s skin and feathers.
And, of course, because Avery is Avery, he immediately starts spewing the first things that come to his mind to lighten the mood. “Sooooo…” the slime starts, swallowing the lump in his throat. “…Come here often?”
That pulls an embarrassing, bewildered laugh from Ze, momentarily distracting him from the fact that the two of them are quite literally stuck together right now. “You’re so stupid,” Ze snorts lightheartedly, the panic in his chest subsiding ever so slightly as he smacks Avery in the face with one of his headwings.
“HEY!” Avery laughs, spitting a few feathers out of his mouth with a stupidly wide smile on his face. Ze can visibly see more words coming to the slime’s mind, and it takes everything in him to stop himself from laughing from even just considering what he could possibly say. “No, no, wait, I’ve got another one, Ze.”
Ze pretends to mull it over in his head, poorly acting like he doesn’t know whether he wants to hear whatever pickup line Avery’s got now. “Hm… Yeah? Let me hear it.”
“Well, y’know— Wow– you should’ve taken me out to dinner before getting skin to skin with me—“
Ze smacks Avery again with his headwing, harder this time, barking out a laugh that has him struggling to catch his breath. His face is flushed red, tears pricking the corners of his eyes that he regrettably can’t currently wipe away. Avery quickly begins to laugh, too, tucking his head closer to Ze. Ze chooses again to not comment on the now uncomfortable warmth of Avery– it doesn’t really help either of them to complain, after all.
Besides, at least it’s Avery instead of somebody else.
Ze carefully tries to keep his wings more spread out across the couch as some of… well, Avery, begins to drip towards his feathers, hoping for his wings to not get stuck folded in. From what he can tell, the slime doesn’t seem to be able to hold his body together as well in hot weather, judging by the fact that Avery is quite literally melting on him, so all he can really hope for is for the A.C. to be fixed soon.
The avian coos quietly as Avery presses a messy, slimy kiss to the underside of his chin, giggling quietly at the ticklish sensation. A disgustingly warm and soft feeling festers in his chest, arms curling a little further around the slime– technically into the slime, but that’s a little awkward to think about for him right now, so he chooses not to. It’s uncomfortable and really comfortable at the same time, the fan whirring as background noise
Avery, with what seems to be a lot of effort, manages to shift himself up again, and he’s for sure by now stuck onto Ze as his body sticks stubbornly against the avian’s skin. A squawk similar to earlier escapes Ze when Avery’s head plops down next to his on the arm of the couch, resting partially on his shoulder. “HEY! You’re gonna get my hair all slimed!” he protests, earning a laugh as Avery starts to purposefully try and lay on Ze’s hair, the strands sticking together as small patches of slime drip down. “AY!”
“You want more slime on your head? Don’t worry,” the slime sing-songs, sticking his tongue out at Ze as he knocks his head against the avian’s own. Ze makes another noise of protest at the movement, trying futilely to get away from the slime’s wrath. He can’t even wipe it away, for god’s sake. It’s a very unpleasant feeling, but he also doesn’t find himself minding that much as Avery snorts humorously. Ze even slowly begins to laugh as well, shaking his tail feathers from underneath him.
After a couple of minutes of Ze getting slime stuck in both his feathers and hair on half of his head, things calm down again, the only noise besides the sound of Ze beginning to open-mouth breathe to try and regulate his body temperature again being the noise of spinning blades blowing warm air at their faces. Ze groans in discomfort at the heat, looking more visibly miserable as the time passes. The fact that he can’t even get up to grab a glass of water to try and relieve some of that heat isn’t helping at all.
“Fuck, man, it’s too hot out today,” Ze finally begins to complain, sweat dripping down his face and just narrowly avoiding his eye. Avery hums in acknowledgement, slime brushing up against the underside of Ze’s chin as he scoots close once more.
“Yeah.”
Avery shifts again as he speaks. They both do their best to get themselves comfortable after a minute of silence, prepared for an uncomfortably hot few hours on the couch cushions.
…
It’s about two hours later when the sound of… something kicking up through the walls picks up, startling both Ze and Avery from their spot on the couch. Ze throws his arm out to grip the couch cushion as they both nearly go tumbling off of the couch, a startled chirp leaving him while his knuckles go white from hanging onto the fabric. After a moment, he slowly shifts himself back fully onto the couch, weary as the noise continues, albeit a bit more faintly.
He’s about to ask what that was when a wave of cool air blasts through the vent, settling into his bones with a very loud, relieved coo. The heat that’s been progressively building in his body from the weather and from Avery being quite literally stuck to him immediately begins to dissipate from his body, practically melting against the couch.
Avery’s slime shifts against him as he seems to gain back a little more control over his body, slowly starting to pull himself back together as Ze’s eyes drift shut for a moment, basking in the cold. He can hear a faint “FINALLY!” from the kitchen from a voice that sounds an awful lot like Regect, and he quite honestly has the exact same sentiment.
Ze reaches a hand up to wipe at his face as one of his hands is finally freed, swiping away the slime that’s stuck to one side of his head with a light-hearted grumble. The stickiness soon lessens on his body, Avery having himself mostly put together while still draped over the avian.
One of his eyes creeps open when the slime shifts, Avery’s familiar lips pressing to his facial crescent. He’s soon quietly laughing as the other player begins to pepper his face in kisses, halfheartedly shoving at Avery’s face. The avian’s wings puff up contentedly, cooing softly at the slime. He fans his tail feathers out under him just slightly, visibly in a state of pure bliss and comfort.
It takes him a bit too long to register the horn honking and deep voice of his two friends as Avery continues to kiss his face
He only notices them when he hears the loud click of a camera from a few feet away.
With a start, he shoves Avery’s face away firmly, head whipping around to stare at the camera gripped between Regect’s claws. “Wh— HEY?” The avian scrambles to sit up, struggling to get himself fully separated from Avery’s form for a few moments before launching himself at the entity. “DELETE THAT, ASSHAT! WHERE’D YOU EVEN GET A CAMERA???”
“NUNYA BUSINESS!” is Regect’s only response before a fist comes flying towards his invisible face.
…
Later, once Avery’s finally left, and after Regect and Ze finally stop fighting, the avian finds himself sitting on the couch with Moe. A few beats of silence hang in the air, Ze pointedly ignoring the clown’s narrowed, piercing stare.
“….Honk honk, honk.”
“….Yeah, why?”
“Honk?”
“Wh— NOT LIKE THAT???”
…He’s never living this down, is he?