Archive of Our Own

Shoebilly was on his way back from a job when he came across Theo.

It had been a rather simple one, some random player that he had been paid a small fortune to kill. No clue what exactly the guy had done to warrant death, but it wasn't his business anyway.

The whole thing had gone by smoothly, a quick in and out, no witnesses, no screaming, no traces, nothing. All he had left was a bleeding corpse staining the carpet, waiting to be discovered by a worried loved one or maybe a neighbor or something.

So after a job well done, Billy was on his way out of the city, finding his way through lonely alleyways in order to avoid the public eye. Of course, he could have flown out, and he would as soon as he made it out of the city, but while within the city walls, it was just too noticeable; he had built quite the reputation for himself the last few months and he didn't really feel like getting chased down by the local guard force.

So, he was making his way through the back alleys, muddied cobble paths winding their way between houses, making for narrow passageways through the dense infrastructure. He was strolling along, minding his business when suddenly a flash of muddy, brownish gray dashed out of one of the adjoining alleys and into his way, blocking his path and forcing him to halt.

For a second Billy thought he was looking at a stray animal, a mess of dirt, grime and what looked like very neglected feathers. It took him a moment to realize that the thing before him was a whole person. A kid; probably sixteen or maybe seventeen at best.

His clothes were worn down and dirty, littered with holes and big unidentifiable stains. There were wings protruding from his back; they weren't big by any means, not compared to Billy's own at least, but they were wings nonetheless.

He was an avian hybrid, just like Billy himself. He couldn't tell what kind; like he said, the feathers were horribly neglected and, honestly, disgustingly dirty; he couldn't even make out the color properly.

The kid was staring at him, a determined look in his eyes, wings puffed up behind him like it would somehow make him more intimidating and it was only now that Billy noticed the small pocketknife clutched in the other's fist. Ohhhh this guy was trying to rob him! An amused grin split across his face. Unlucky day for him.

"Get out of my way, buddy. You don't know what you're doing." He watched a flicker of hesitation cross the other's face but went as quick as it came.

A hoarse, shaky voice echoed through the alley. "Give me everything in your inventory right now or..." He paused, almost like he was mustering up the courage to finish his threat. "Or I'll kill you!"

Billy couldn't help the huffed laugh he let out; the whole attempt at a robbery was ridiculous. He couldn't imagine it usually worked out for the boy. He obviously didn't have it in him to actually go through with anything; he was bluffing, but watching him squirm around trying to be intimidating was, honestly, kind of entertaining.

Billy wanted to see how far he would take it.

"You're gonna kill me?" His tone was condescending, meant to antagonize rather than deescalate, but the doubt dripping from his words was real. Even if the kid had it in him to kill, he had no idea who he was talking to. Shoebilly was a famed assassin, after all; there were only a handful of people in the entire server that would even stand a chance against him and this random street kid wasn't one of them.

Still, his sarcasm only managed to fuel the younger's determination, as it seemed.

"Yeah." His voice was harder when he answered him this time, unwavering in a way that made Billy question his previous assumption. Maybe the kid did have it in him to kill… Interesting…

"Ok, go ahead and try then."

When the other didn't immediately move Billy thought that maybe he had realized the underlying threat in his words and that maybe he had realized how stupid it would be to take this fight with someone so obviously stronger than him but no. After a second of what seemed like mental preparation to Billy the other charged at him, knife still clutched between his fingers, aiming somewhere towards Billy's midsection.

He was fast, Billy had to give him that at least but not fast enough to catch him by even a modicum of surprise. He sidestepped the younger easily, who stumbled past him, set off balance by the lack of impact. The shoebill gave him a last little push, just to prove his point, sending the other tumbling to the ground with a surprised shriek.

Billy cackled. He watched as the younger turned back around towards him where he was now half lying, half sitting on the dirty stone, irritation clear on his face. Billy swore he could hear the other insult him under his breath, but he didn't seem like he was about to get up and try again.

For a few moments they just stayed like that, looking at each other, annoyed defeat meeting sadistic satisfaction, cold blue warily observing Billy in case he decided it was now his turn to attack. And honestly in most cases Billy probably would have. He was a killer; inflicting pain was in his nature. It was fun for him to watch other people suffer; it was entertaining. It wasn't like him to let someone go who gave him a perfect opportunity.

But something about this kid was… different.

If Billy had to guess, the other had probably been living on the streets for months now. He was obviously malnourished, the worn-out clothes big on his bony frame and he probably hadn't showered or bathed in a while if the dirt flecking his skin and hair was anything to go by; gods, he could barely even tell the younger's hair color covered and matted under dried mud. And Billy didn't even want to start about the wings; they made him uncomfortable just looking at them.

All in all, the shoebill couldn't help but—and this was a rare emotion for him—feel bad for the guy.

Maybe it was because he reminded him of himself. The younger version of him that had been left to survive on his own oh so many years ago. He knew what it was like to be dirty, he knew what it was like to starve, he knew what it was like to kill to survive. And as much as the rational part of his brain screamed at him to just turn and leave, he thought about all that he would have given back then for someone to care or even just to help.

Caring was a weakness, that much Shoebilly knew, but something within him wouldn't allow it to leave this younger version of himself fend for himself.

"What's your name?"

"Theo." the younger scowled at him from his place on the floor.

Billy wasn't really sure what to do. He couldn't exactly take the kid in, it went against everything he stood for; no attachments, no friends, nothing to bind him down to anything or anyone. Besides, the shoebill had better things to do than take care of a random stray; he had a job to do, people to kill. So many people to kill.

Maybe… Maybe… Yeah, that would work…

"You wanna come with me, Theo?" he asked, holding out his hand to help the kid up. The other didn't move, just stared at him with suspicion, Billy could almost see the gears turning in his head. "Why would I?" He narrowed his eyes at him and then, in a more sarcastic tone, "Y'know, stranger danger and all that…" Gosh, this kid was lucky Billy was feeling patient.

Still, he couldn't quite keep the impatience from seeping into his voice as he rolled his eyes at Theo's comment. "What? Like you've got somewhere else to be? Get up, c'mon."

He nudged the other's leg with his boot, trying to get him to move. He didn't. Apparently the promise of a roof over his filthy head wasn't convincing enough for the younger. A small voice in the back of his head asked why he was even bothering to convince him in the first place, if the guy didn't want to come with him that was the problem, not Billy's; he chose to ignore it.

"I'll train you."

It was a good solution to Billy's dilemma; he'd take Theo home with him, train him up for a while, make him strong until he'd be fine on his own and then he'd kick him out, forget he had ever met him and everything thing would go back to the way it was; no attachment, no friendship. Just a simple, temporary arrangement.

At last, the opportunity to get stronger seemed to do the trick, another thing they seemed to have in common. He could see Theo visibly perk up at the offer; it was like all his wariness suddenly washed away, an anticipating, excited grin taking its place.

There was something moving on his head and Billy realized that, not unlike himself, the younger had a sort of crest adorning his head, feathers mixing into his hair and protruding from the space behind his ears, like a small set of wings; Billy hadn't noticed them before. Even now they were hard to see; they were too matted in with his hair. It was making Billy itchy just looking at it.

Thankfully, he didn't have to because Theo seemed to have come to the conclusion that training with Billy beat rotting away on the streets and accepted the hand still reaching out to him.

The younger's fingers felt thin when they met with his palm, bony, fragile, as if they'd snap like twigs if Billy squeezed too hard. He pulled Theo to his feet with little to no effort—this kid really needed to eat some more if he was gonna train him—and that was that.

It took them about another half hour to make it out of the city, Billy leading the way and Theo following behind him dutifully. After the first couple minutes of silence, the questions started 'Where are we going?' 'What's your name?' 'How old are you?' 'What are you going to train me in?' 'What are you doing in the city if you don't live here?' and about a million other questions along those lines. Billy ignored most of them—not that that did anything to shut Theo up—and by the time they had made it to the edge of the nearby forest, he was already regretting not leaving the babbling idiot behind.

But before he could dwell on it long enough to change his mind, they were faced with a problem.

"Can you fly?" he blurted out, rather unceremoniously, but he could already guess the answer.

Theo sent a quick glance toward the filthy appendages on his back, like he had forgotten they were still there. Before denying the question with a quick shake of the head.

Yeah, he figured as much with the state his wings were Billy imagined that even just moving them was painful. Why did he let them get that bad in the first place?

The entirety of his wings was basically covered in grimy dirt; especially the lower, longer feathers were stained dark with something that looked like soot. Patches of feathers were completely clumped together with mud, some of them sticking out at odd angles.

Obviously they weren't gonna look their best when the guy had been homeless for probably months now, but this bad? Theo had obviously not been taking care of them at all.

"Do you not know how to preen? Am I gonna have to teach you that too?" he grinned jokingly.

Theo didn't smile back.

Billy noticed the way the younger's eyes darted around awkwardly, trying to look anywhere but him. The contrast between this Theo and the one that had been talking his ear off for the last 30 minutes was so jarring it almost gave Billy whiplash; the wings seemed to be a touchy subject.

The shoebill didn't push on it; the two of them barely knew each other, and he honestly didn't really want to know anyway. Like he said; no friendship and no attachment, so he really didn't need to know Theo's life story.

They would have to get those wings clean later, though. They would be essential for the younger's movement during fights; there was no way Billy was training him when they were this unusable. He just hoped Theo wouldn't make it a problem.

For now though, all he had to worry about was getting Theo to his base.

It was a good distance away, maybe 2 or 3 hours if he was flying but on foot? It would take ages to get there, not to mention the resources for travel that Billy didn't have on him. So with walking out of the question, that led him right back to the first option: flying.

"Oh my god… What am I doing here?" he muttered under his breath as he made his way behind Theo. The other startled at his sudden movement, apparently snapped out of his own thought. When he instinctively twisted his body around to keep him within his vision, Billy set his hands on the younger's shoulder in a firm grip, keeping him facing forward.

"Spread out your arms for me." he instructed.

"Why?" the other sakes warily, his arms didn't even so much as twitch.

"We're gonna fly back to my base." He grabbed both of Theo's arms, which lay at his sides uselessly, "and since you can't fly," he lifted the other's arms to stretch out toward the side. "I'm going to help you out!" He linked his own arms with the younger's upper ones, and before Theo could react, he took off, lifting the other in the process.

He wasn't particularly heavy, probably underweight for his age, but the shoebill wasn't used to carrying around the extra weight of an entire person. He could already imagine the strain this was going to take on him. Oh well, not like there was another option.

He heard a loud shriek from somewhere below him and before he knew it, Theo started thrashing around in his hold, making it a great deal harder for Billy to keep the both of them steady.

"If you keep moving so much, I'm gonna drop you!" It wasn't a threat, more like a warning. The hold he had on the other wasn't really the most secure one and if he kept flailing around like a distressed animal, Billy couldn't guarantee for a safe landing.

Though it seemed his warning was lost to the wind. Either that or Theo was ignoring him, because he didn't stop moving at all; if anything, he was squirming around even more. Faintly he could make out the other's voice screaming something along the lines of wanting to be put down. Maybe Billy should drop him after all.

He let out an annoyed huff. There was no way he'd set Theo down now; he'd probably never get him back in the air again and then they would have to walk, which Billy really did not want to do. So he would just have to adjust his grip and wait Theo out; he'd himself tire out eventually.

He tugged the other up a little further before changing his hold to securely wrap Theo's abdomen, jostling him a bit in the process and earning him another shriek along with some insults that Billy could entirely make out. But they were good now.

With this change of positions Theo could trash and flail and wriggle around all he wanted; he wasn't going to drop to his death anytime soon. Now all he had to do was tune out the whining and get them back to his base before his arms gave out on him.

Theo did quiet down eventually, whether that was because he realized he wasn't in any immediate danger or because he had figured out that the shoebill was ignoring him, he didn't know or care. With Theo quietly sulking in his arms, they spent the rest of the flight in silence, which Billy found to be rather pleasant.

They had been flying for about 3 hours when, finally, a small hill came into view, standing out against the surrounding plains biome.

As they got closer, Billy slowly lowered them towards the ground until eventually dropping Theo onto the soft grass before making a flawless landing himself.

When he turned around to where the other was kneeling in the grass and he looked… well, pissed. Seemed he hadn't gotten over the whole flying thing yet.

"You cant just do that, you asshole!" Theo yelled as he scrambled to his feet, backing away slowly like he was worried Billy would spontaneously decide to scoop him up again if he decided to run.

Billy shot him an unimpressed look, eyebrows raised in a silent challenge "I can take you back to the city if you prefer that. Just say the word." he shrugged.

A bold-faced lie if he was being honest; there was no way in hell Billy would make that journey a second time, especially if he had nothing to gain from it, so if Theo was going to leave, he would have to find his own way back. Not that Theo was actually going to leave; Billy was really his only option if the younger didn't want to spend the rest of his miserable life in some filthy alleyway, feeding on other people's scraps and hoping not to get killed by some random serial killer.

Theo took a moment but seemed to come to the same conclusion. He, though reluctantly, dropped his defensive stance and opted to look around instead. They were standing in an open field, nothing but grass and wildflowers for miles on end safe for the occasional trees scattered around and the small hill behind them.

"Where are we?"

"My base."

Billy started towards a tree near the foot of the hill, it looked rather old; large and looming with thick roots burying into the ground. It took a second, but then he could hear Theo follow after him, pushing through the tall grass clumsily, hurrying in an effort to catch up to him.

Once he reached the trunk, he pushed various sticks and leaves to the side with his foot until his boot caught on a sturdy lever hidden between the roots. He delivered a forceful kick to it and heard the underlying mechanism coming to life with a low hum. It wasn't the most complicated thing, but redstone wasn't really Billy's thing and he hadn't wanted to commission someone to do it for him—the fewer people knew about his base location, the better—so it would have to do.

He could hear Theo gasp as stone slid against stone, the solid rocks to his left slowly opening up and giving way to a small hallway leading further into the hill. His eyes were blown wide with almost childish wonder, mouth hanging open in an honestly comedic way as the icy blue darted from the hallway to Billy and then back to the hallway. The shoebill cackled at the younger's over-the-top reaction and gestured for him to follow as he entered the hallway.

The walls were built of sturdy deepslate bricks, lined with dark wooden logs—the same wooden logs that had been used for the flooring. Combined with the dim lighting provided by a singular lantern, it made for a rather dark atmosphere. He hit the button to his right, closing the doorway behind them, efficiently shutting out the last bit of sunlight.

Absentmindedly he noticed Theo flinch as the door shut behind him, turning around with a slightly panicked look. Billy would have made fun of him for scaring so easily, but getting led and then locked into an underground base by someone who was essentially a stranger wasn't really the safest position to be in. Honestly, Theo was lucky Billy wasn't a worse man because he could have killed him a thousand times over by now. From a neutral standpoint following him had been incredibly stupid. But desperation famously led to the dumbest decisions, so Billy decided to comment on it.

Instead, he moved further down the hallway until he was met with a sharp drop, a ladder leading down into the actual base, all the while listening for Theo's cautious footsteps following behind him. He had climbed down the ladder about halfway when he realized Theo wasn't following him down for some reason.

"Theo?" he shouted upwards. He didn't get an answer. With an annoyed sigh and an eye roll, he made his way back up.

As he peeked his head back over the edge, Theo was standing right where he had left him, about a foot or two away from the drop, fidgeting with his hands and staring at the ladder like it had personally insulted him.

"Yo!" His voice seemed to snap the other out of whatever thought process he was going through. "You good?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm good." But there was a shake in his voice, something unsure.

"Okay…" he said slowly, unsure of what to do with this whole situation. "Are you going to get down here, or what?" He raised his eyebrow at the other.

"Yeah." Theo all but choked out in response, still making no effort to get closer to the ladder. His eyes stayed locked onto the drop and when Billy tried to catch them, he was met with… fear?

And then it clicked.

Theo was afraid of heights!

That's why he had made such a fuss while flying! Oops.

Billy felt something icky spread throughout his chest, a cold and sticky feeling, heavy in a way that he rarely ever felt; guilt.

He buried it down in some deep, dark place where it hopefully wouldn't be able to crawl back out from. He was a killer and killers did not feel guilt.

The damage was already done anyway; no use feeling bad about it now. Besides, a little exposure therapy never hurt anyone; if anything, he had done Theo the other a favor. They were going to have to work on that anyways, it was an unnecessary weakness, especially for an avian. And how does that even happen? An avian with a fear of heights? That was like a fish being scared of water!

Maybe this had something to do with the sorry state his wings were in? A mean little voice in the back of his head told him that it shouldn't matter; the voice was right.

He had said he'd train Theo, not deal with all his angsty teenage bullshit. He wasn't a therapist, for God's sake. So he could care less about Theo's wings or his fear of heights, they were merely obstacles in his training, and that was the only capacity in which they would be of Billy's concern; on a professional level, not a personal one.

Though his reaffirmations did nothing to help his current problem: Theo was still stood frozen near the top of the ladder.

"You know, you can't just stay up here forever, right?" he asked, sarcasm evident in his voice. The other shot him a glare and went back to suspiciously eyeing the wooden ladder.

Billy let him stand there and consider his options for a couple more seconds before calling out to him again.

"C'mon, Theo…" His voice was much gentler this time, all but coaxing the teen to follow him downstairs. "You won't fall. I'm right below you." He assured the other, internally cringing at his soft tone. Gods, he was not made for this stuff.

It seemed to work for Theo though, because finally, after a moment of consideration and with great hesitance, Theo made his way over to the ladder. Billy decided to ignore the shake in the younger's hands as he wrapped them around the first step and let out an inner sigh of relief when they finally started moving downward.

The base was a bit bare, Billy will admit.

It was the same theme as the upper hallway; dark wood against deepslate brick, lit up by multiple lanterns scattered across the rooms, but the lighting was warm and Billy had always preferred darker colors over obnoxiously bright ones.

At the center of the room stood a large, black couch with a small table and an armchair off to the side, all facing an unlit and usually unused fireplace. It did relatively little to fill the otherwise empty room; there wasn't any decor, no plants or paintings or whatever other things people used to give their spaces a personal touch. A bookshelf stood in one of the far corners, but it was completely empty save for a few books on different combat styles that he had picked up a couple of years ago; Billy wasn't really one for reading.

Several doors lined the walls, leading off into other rooms. A kitchen, a storage room, a bathroom and his bedroom, all of them equally bare.

The base was more practical than anything; it wasn't like Billy spent a lot of his time here. He was usually out and about, either on jobs or just fighting for the love of the game, easiest way to get some training in. He only really came back here to restock or if he was injured beyond what the healing effects of a golden apple could do, though he guessed that was about to change.

Theo looked around the room with a mix of caution and curiosity, almost like he was gauging whether he actually wanted to stay here or not.

"This place is really sad, man." Honestly, the audacity of this kid to judge Billy's base when he had probably been sleeping on dirty cobblestone for who knows how long. He was about to give him a piece of his mind—something about how Theo couldn't be picky and that he could just go sleep outside if he didn't like it—when the other stepped over to the nearest door, opened it and peeked his head inside before moving on to the next door, just moving around like he owned the place.

"Alright, just make yourself at home, I guess." Billy said sarcastically as he watched the other explore, a small smile beginning to tug at his lips at the other's innocent curiosity. He shoved it back down.

"Bathroom is that one," he stated blankly, gesturing toward the door at his left. "Go clean yourself up and take a shower," and then with a pointed glance at the other's filthy appearance "You need it."

He got an offended "HEY!" in response, Billy cackled at the younger's over-the-top reaction and made his way over to his bedroom door. "Seriously though, Theo, go take a shower. I'll get you some clothes." He heard some begrudging murmurs from somewhere behind him before he entered his room, closing the door behind him.

His bedroom was a simple thing. A big bed, unmade and messy, just how he had left it, pillows strewn across the mattress loosely taking the shape of a nest.

Billy wasn't usually one to indulge his instincts; he didn't like the thought of them controlling or influencing him in any way, they were weaknesses. The only thing that he had allowed himself to indulge in was this. Nesting came natural to all avians; he had tried for the longest time to resist, but over time more and more pillows and blankets had found their way to his bed until Billy ultimately gave up on trying to suppress it any longer. He had come to find out that it did wonders for his quality in sleep.

Across from his bed stood his wardrobe; casual and training clothes alongside combat and tactical wear, all in varying shades of black and gray. He picked out a simple shirt and sweatpants for Theo; one of his older ones that didn't quite fit anymore. Theo was a good couple inches shorter than him and malnourished on top of that, so these were probably still a bit big for him but it's the best he had. They would have to get Theo his own clothes soon.

Back in the living room, he could hear the sound of water running, stemming from the bathroom. It seemed Theo had taken his advice and was taking a shower. He left the clothes by the door and went to go tidy up his inventory in the storage room.

About 30 minutes later—Billy had made his way onto the couch by now—the water stopped running. A few seconds later the bathroom door opened just enough for an arm to squeeze through and snatch the dry clothes from the floor before quickly retreating back inside.

When, another few minutes later, the door opened again and Theo stepped outside. The difference was jarring.

Instead of the muddy, muted brown from before, Theo's hair was now a bright blonde except for a few streaks of orange-red that were falling into his face messily, still damp from the water. The set of mini-wings near his ears was freed now, lying relaxed against his hair, their feathers a light yellow mixing into a muted gray.

And as if the feather colors weren't enough of a tell already, Billy could now make out two perfectly circular, red markings on either of his cheeks. It was so painfully obvious that Billy was almost mad he hadn't realized it guessed it sooner; Theo was a cockatiel hybrid.

Billy didn't know a whole bunch about cockatiels, if he was honest. He knew that their mood or emotions were often mirrored in their crests, that they were very expressive in that way, but it didn't really go any further than that. Not that it really mattered that much anyway; a bird was a bird.

The shoebill's gaze moved towards the other's wings, and he noticed with a mix of confusion and annoyance that they had apparently been excluded from Theo's cleaning process; they were just as filthy as before. Did he actually not know how to preen?

"What about your wings?" he asked a bit bluntly.

"What about them?" Theo gave him an unreadable look, a clear note of defensiveness in his voice. Once again the wings seemed to be a sore subject, but Billy wasn't willing to let it go this time.

"Listen," he started with a sigh, "if you want me to train you, you're going to need to be able to at least move your wings. They can't stay like that." His voice was stern, leaving no room for argument.

Theo was silent for a second, starting at him stand-offishly before he caved and looked away in what was clear embarrassment. "I don't—" he cut himself off. "How do I—" Again, the sentence seemed to fall apart on him but it didn't matter; Billy had gotten the message. The cockatiel had no idea how to take care of his wings.

"Do you want me to do it for you?" he asked before he could properly think about the offer he was making. Preening was usually something extremely intimate to avians, a show of trust and care, reserved for only the closest of friends or flock. The two of them were neither of those things, they had hardly even knew each other.

Theo seemed just as perplexed at his offer. Obviously. He was already cagey about his wings, so why on earth would he let some random guy get his hands on them? But then again, what other option was there? Theo obviously wasn't going to do it himself…

The other seemed hesitant in his response, not entirely convinced at the idea, he nodded anyway. "Yeah, okay… Just—" he paused, eyeing the shoebill cautiously, scanning his face for malicious intent. "Just be careful." It was more a plea than it was a command, not that Billy needed to be told; he wasn't an idiot. He knew how incredibly delicate wings could be.

They settled onto the couch, Theo facing away from him, wings limply falling into Billy's lap. The other's shoulders were tense, like he was bracing himself for something uncomfortable and Billy couldn't even blame him for it; they were basically strangers and wings were delicate things, anyone would be on edge about letting someone else touch them, let alone a complete stranger. If Billy were to be in Theo's shoes, he probably would have punched the other for even just suggesting the idea of preening his wings. But the blonde seemed to be a lot more trusting than him, maybe stupidly so.

The feathers felt stiff and dry when Billy ran his hand over them experimentally, nothing like the silky smooth texture they were supposed to be. The wing gave a light ruffle where he had touched it as if trying to shake off the dirt and dust that was binding the feathers.

They sat in silence while Billy got to work, sorting through the feathers, aligning them in their position, ridding them of their grime and filth until they revealed a shiny yellow lying underneath. It was tedious work, but after a while Theo's coverts were looking clean and at least somewhat healthy.

The other's posture had relaxed somewhere along the way, leading him into a comfortable-looking slouch as he spread his wings slightly to make the shoebill's job at least a little easier.

It was all going smoothly until he got Theo's primary feathers and his fingers stopped dead in their tracks.

He had noticed earlier that the underlying gray was hidden beneath a layer of thick black; back then he had thought it to be soot or ash. Now he could see that it was the feathers themselves that had been tinted pitch black.

They were burnt.

Or singed, at the very least. Some worse than others, but all of them, without exception, showed some kind of fire damage. The image of flames shoved itself into Billy's mind, licking up his wings and slowly eating away at the delicate appendages. He winced; no wonder Theo hadn't been keen to talk about his wings.

Billy's touch was light as he traced along one of the burnt feathers, unsure of how to proceed. They felt weird beneath his fingers, crunchy and frail—wrong.

Theo flinched violently at the contact, his body going completely rigid, wings folding in on themselves again as a startled warble escaping him before he shut himself up by slapping a hand over his mouth. They were sensitive; Billy should have figured as much.

"Sorry." he mumbled, brushing his fingers through the coverts he had just taken care of in a soothing motion; they felt softer now. "I'll be more careful."

Theo grumbled something incomprehensible but extended his wing back out for Billy to continue.

He gave the cockatiel another second to gather himself before he went for the blackened feathers again. He needed to check if any of them would come off so Theo could start regrowing them as soon as possible. With the state they were in right now there was no way Theo could even so much as float, but if taken care of correctly the damage wouldn't be permanent.

He kept his touch as gentle as possible as he worked through the singed feathers, running his fingers along them, taking out any loose ones and occasionally scraping off any dirt or dried mud that had gathered.

The blonde's wings kept twitching anxiously every so often, but Billy could tell he was doing his best to hold still so he didn't comment on it. Neither did he comment on the occasional chirp that Theo apparently gave up on trying to cover after a while, not even when they turned from noises of startled distress into happy little trills as the blonde body started to relax again.

Part of Billy wanted to poke fun at the other for losing himself in his instincts like this, but he found himself unwilling to break this peaceful little bubble that the two of them found themselves in. It was nice, comfortable.

He worked slowly and cautiously and by the time Theo's first wing was done and he moved to the second one, he had fallen into a steady rhythm. There was something calming about the repetitive motions; mindlessly carding through the cockatiel's feathers over and over and over again until they felt smooth and silky between his fingers.

It was only when he finished with his self-assigned task, fingers carefully picking at one last loose feather that was sticking out at an odd angle, that he noticed that Theo had quieted down, that his breathing had evened out into that deep, steady rhythm that came with peaceful slumber; it seemed that the cockatiel had found the whole thing just as, if not more, calming as Billy had.

He just barely managed to keep the soft little smile off his face.

He brushed his fingers through the now soft wings last time and then he rose.

His own wings ached when he got up. Only now did he realize that he had completely forgotten to care for them after the long flight earlier; he had been too distracted with Theo to really get anything else done. Oh well, he thought, it had gotten pretty late already anyways, he'd just go to sleep and do it tomorrow.

He looked down upon Theo's sleeping form, half-sitting slumped to the side against one of the couch cushions; the blonde was gonna be in pain tomorrow if he slept like this. Billy didn't want to have to deal with that.

As carefully as he could, he maneuvered the younger downwards, to lie on his side, wings spilling over the edge of the couch and drooping onto the floor.

He left Theo sleeping on the couch and entered his bedroom, intending to call it a night and get some rest, but as he changed out of his tactical wear into something more comfortable, his gaze caught on his bed, brimming with pillows and blankets. A mock nest. Nesting was natural to avians. It made them feel safer, more comfortable. He thought back to the cockatiel sleeping on his couch; sure, it was better than some dirty alleyway, but it wasn't anything close to a nest.

He felt something tugging at him. Whispering to him. Urging him. Annoying instincts.

Billy knew what they wanted, what they were telling him to do. He refused. Like he said; he wasn't one to indulge his instincts and this was a strict no-attachments arrangement. He had already been entirely too soft with Theo when he preened his wings or when he helped him with the ladder or hell, even in taking him in in the first place, he couldn't let this become the rule. Caring was a weakness and Shoebilly was anything but weak.

Still, just to quell the annoying nagging of his instincts a bit, Billy pulled one of the blankets off his bed, a thick heavy thing, and made his way to the living room once again.

Theo didn't so much as stir as the weight of the blanket settled over him; he just kept sleeping, chest rising and falling rhythmically with his calm, deep breaths.

It was a strange feeling.

Having another person in his base, sleeping on his couch, wearing his old clothes and smelling of his shampoo, wrapped in one of the blankets from his nest.

And it was even stranger that Billy found himself not minding it too much.

On the contrary; he could feel a comfortable warmth flow through him, originating somewhere in his chest and slowly spreading to the rest of his body. It was barely noticeable, but it was there.

And, just this once, against his better judgment, Billy let it stay.