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Jason sighed as he carded through red feathers.
Some of the feathers were crooked. Twisted in unnatural ways. A few were bent and even snapped off or stripped. It was going to take a lot of preening to get them to look even half decent. Even longer for them to molt out and be replaced with new feathers.
The feathers were normally so beautiful. Grey tipped primaries. Perfect for flight. Grey bled into red and red into more red. Red secondaries. Tiny red rounded feathers on the joint of each wing. It was bright and beautiful. The wings that the feathers adorned were attached near the shoulder blades and feathers gracefully made the transition from wing to body seamless.
The body that the wings belonged to was pretty great too, though that wasn't the priority at the moment.
Jason hummed in discontent as he cleaned blood from the feathers. Blood was such an unnatural look on the red feathers. As he cleaned, the body below stirred.
“Jay?” said the voice.
“Don't worry, it's just me.” He reassured.
The voice's owner relaxed, “S'good.”
Jason hummed, “Do you remember what happened?”
A noise of confusion.
He sighed, long and tired and something more.
“You dove into a burning building head first without waiting for backup of any kind.” Jason scolded.
The sharp intake of breath told Jason that the perpetrator recalled what he was talking about.
Jason continued speaking as he realigned feathers some of which were singed, “Which wouldn't be such a big deal if you hadn't flown into a building that burned and collapsed. Before you ask, you saved a kid who had hid under their bed. Then you went back into the empty apartment and that's when it gave out on top of you. Bruce pulled you out. You're lucky it's not worse than what it is.”
A hum, a little too content with the situation for Jason's liking.
He huffed in annoyance though it was muted by the relief he felt, “You're burned, not the worst you've ever had but you are. The left wing is broken, Leslie fixed it up but she wasn't happy about it. And you've got singed hair and singed feathers but I'm sure you already knew that was gonna happen didn't you?”
Jason pulled his hands back from the wing he'd been working on, the right of course, and watched as the moron gingerly lifted both wings then hissed and dropped them again.
“You're an idiot.” Jason said but it wasn't very scathing.
He should be pissed. Angry. Mad. Seething. Frustrated that his boyfriend had done something so reckless and stupid that resulted in him getting injured in multiple ways. Just because they were used to getting hurt didn't mean that he was particularly thrilled that it had happened. Jason moved to help his self sacrificing idiot of a boyfriend sit up. His hand carefully supported hurt wings and the other helped guide his boyfriend up into a sitting position.
Tim ran a hand over his face and groaned, “My head is killing me.”
The short sentence had him hacking and coughing. Doc Leslie had mentioned something about smoke inhalation. Jason passed Tim a cup of water. Tim drank it all in one fluid motion. Jason took the cup back and sat it on the nearest flat surface.
“How're you feeling?” Jason asked already knowing the answer.
“Like shit.” Tim replied softly in an attempt to not irritate his throat anymore than he already had.
Jason huffed a laugh, “I bet.”
They sat in silence for a bit, Tim taking deep breaths to get some air into his smoked out lungs. Jason, mindful of any burns, carefully rubbed Tim's back in an attempt to soothe. There wasn't much left to be done aside from waiting for everything to heal. Time was the one in control now.
“That was stupid.” Jason scolded softly.
Tim let out a breath of air that could've been a laugh, “I know.”
“I'm glad you're safe.” Jason said just as softly.
Tim glanced at him, “Me too.”
Jason looked back at Tim as his own wings ruffled, “I love you.”
His boyfriend, whose hair was singed and had wings of red, smiled warmly.
“I love you too.”