Chapter Text
“Apo, wait up!”
Apo turned around to face her ally. Pearl’s black hair shone in the light, contrasting with the pale wings at her temples.
“What can I do for you Pearl?”
“Your wings look terrible, what on earth have you been doing?” asked Pearl
“What?” replied Apo, voice quavering. Pearl's comment had hit her oddly hard, causing her wings to reflexively draw in tightly to her body. She shook her head and dispelled the wave of sadness before pushing her wings back out into a more neutral position.
“No, no! Uh, I didn't mean it in a bad way!” Pearl hurriedly clarified, “It- just, there's feathers pointing the wrong way all over them and that can't be comfortable. Let me try and help? Please?”
Apo wanted to just push Pearl's offer off but she knew Pearl was stubborn and wouldn't drop it now that she had decided it was an issue. Besides, now that she thought about it, her wings had been kind of itchy for a few days now.
“Fine.” she conceded. “But if you hurt me, you're going in the arena again and I will personally make sure you lose.”
Pearl just giggled in response to the threat, taking Apo’s hand and walking into her bedroom. Apo settled up on Pearl’s bed, crossing her wings and letting her wings relax and spread out. Pearl climbed onto the bed behind her, Apo could feel the bed dip and tensed up as she anticipated physical contact but pearl just sat calmly behind her. She was close, but still left a small gap between their two bodies.
“Relax Apo, we're allies yeah?” sighed Pearl. “I'm gonna get started now, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it” grumbled Apo
Pearl brought a hand up, gently carding it through Apo’s long primary feathers. A small bird-like warble broke the silence in the room and startled both women.
“Was that you Apo” asked Pearl hurriedly “Are you okay?”
“Shut up. I'm fine” Apo was glad Pearl couldn't see her face because it had rapidly reddened. She didn't know her stupid wings came with bird noises too! As Pearl ran her fingers through the feathers again, she bit her lip to stop herself making any more weird bird noises. Pearl began working, brushing through the feathers to right their positions and pulling any that were about to drop. Her hands worked quickly and with a level of skill that Apo would have ordinarily noticed and questioned. However, Apo was focusing on desperately trying to keep from twitching her wings or letting out more warbles. As Pearl continued to preen her, Apo had to try harder to restrain herself as she felt her mind fogging over in a pleasurable cotton-wool haze of safety and companionship. Pearl's deft hands eventually finished up with the larger primaries and secondaries and moved to the small tertiary feathers nearest to Apo’s back. As soon as Pearl’s soft hand ran through the feathers, Apo let out another warble. She blushed, tensing up in anticipation of another comment from Pearl. Instead of a comment or question though, Pearl hummed soothingly while starting to work properly. The unknown tune Pearl was humming alongside the hands in her wing pulled the cotton wool even thicker over Apo’s brain, eroding her self restraint. Small warbles and chirps of happiness began to fill the room and Apo leant forward to allow herself to spread her wings wider, on full display for Pearl and her skilled hands. Time seemed to slip away and Apo let her eyes drift closed as the soothing warm feeling spread throughout her body.
~~~
Eventually, the fuzzy feeling that had been clouding Apo’s head cleared and her senses slowly returned to her. The first thing she noticed was that she was no longer sitting in the same position she had been when they began. Now, she was leaning against something comfortably with her head resting on a pillow. She slowly opened her eyes, and as she did so, the second and much more embarrassing realisation hit her. The “pillow” that her head was resting on was actually Pearl’s chest, and Pearl still had a hand lightly skimming over her wings although this touch stuck to the less sensitive primary feathers. Apo swore and sat up hastily while turning her face away to hide the blush that was rapidly blooming across her face.
“Hey there birdie,” giggled Pearl, “Back with us? You were pretty out of it.”
“Pearl! I didn’t mean to touch you like that!” Apo blurted out. “What happened to me, do you have some kind of weird sleep powers?”
Pearl laughed again. “It’s fine birdie, I didn’t mind where you were. And no, I don’t have ‘sleep powers’ or whatever you called them. I think that was all you, probably something to do with me fixing up your wings. Speaking of, how do your wings feel now? I tried my best, but I’m sure I didn’t do a great job.”
Apo stretched her wings, giving them a few experimental flaps. “Yeah, they feel good actually. They definitely don’t itch anymore. Thanks Pearl,” she smiled, and then the words Pearl had said fully sank in. “Wait, birdie?”
“I mean, you’ve got the wings and you were chirping away like a little bird practically the whole time I had my hands in your feathers.” Pearl shrugged, a perfect picture of nonchalance. Apo blushed, her wings puffing out behind her. She could, and probably should just leave this situation that seemed to keep getting more and more embarrassing for her. She told herself so repeatedly, and yet she couldn’t seem to get herself to move. Pearl yawned, “It’s getting late hm? We should probably get some sleep.”
“Oh! Yeah, sorry! I’m in your bed aren’t I. I’ll just– I’ll just go.” mumbled Apo.
“Did I say you had to leave? You look pretty comfy just where you are” said Pearl before adding in a teasing tone, “like you’re in a little nest”
“Hey!” snapped Apo
“Oh calm down, I’m only teasing. But really, just sleep here.”
“You sure? Your bed isn’t that big, we’ll have to be pretty close together”
“Apo, you just had your face in my tits” deadpanned Pearl.
“I didn’t mean to!” Apo sputtered out.
“I know you didn’t, you were all bird-brained. Honestly it was really cute”
Apo opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. Cute? She’d just practically felt Pearl up, yes it was an accident, but she’d still done it! But not only was Pearl not mad, she’d told Apo to sleep in her bed and then she had called them cute? Apo’s spiraling thoughts were interrupted by a remarkably odd sound which turned out to be Pearl trying to coo at her while also laughing.
“Sorry, sorry! It’s just– your wings got all puffy when I called you cute!” Pearl’s voice wasn’t mean-spirited like Apo had feared, it was only endeared and mirthful. Apo blushed, pulling her wings in tight to her body protectively. “Aw, don’t be like that” complained Pearl, “come on, lie down. We’ve gotta get some sleep before tomorrow.”
Apo knew she should leave. She reminded herself of this, repeated it in her mind, thought of all the reasons why sleeping in the same bed as her scary, terrifying, pretty, dangerous ally was a bad idea. She didn’t move.
Pearl smiled and got up to change her clothes before bed. As soon as she stepped out of the bed and took a step away from it, Apo let out a pathetic-sounding distressed warble. The sound rang out for half a second before she cut herself off by clamping a hand over her mouth. Her wings tucked in further as she folded into herself, trying to make herself as small and hidden as possible, hoping desperately that Pearl had somehow missed the blatant show of weakness. Weakness that was so antithetical to how they wanted everyone else to see them. The gods however, did not appear to have granted her this mercy.
“No need to be like that birdie, I’m not going anywhere” said Pearl, turning around to smile soothingly at Apo. Apo’s panic must have been showing through on her face despite her best efforts to have it remain hidden because Pearl continued to talk. “Calm down. I’m talking to both your brains, the bird brain and the human one. Tell your birdie brain that I’m not going away and I’ll be right back. As for your human brain, no Apo I’m not judging you. Well, at least not too much and not meanly.” Her voice had slipped up into the familiar taunting register Pearl loved to use at the end of her speaking. Apo simply nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Thankfully Pearl seemed willing to accept this as an answer and began changing. As soon as Pearl began to slip the dress off her shoulders, Apo rapidly looked away, not wanting to push their ally’s boundaries more than their stupid new bird brain already had. She turned back around when she felt a tap on her shoulder. “C’mon Apo, that dress is probably comfy enough for one night but we should probably get at least the belt off you.” Pearl had changed into a comfy looking loose dress and was now smiling down at them.
“I can do it myself!” Apo blurted out, probably too quickly, but the thought of Pearl’s skilled hands around their waist… They cut themself off with a headshake and started to undo the belt that wrapped around her waist. She quickly shed the majority of her jewellery, steadfastly avoiding any eye contact with Pearl the whole time. Her last bracelet had barely dropped to the floor before there was a tug at her arm and Pearl was tugging her upwards toward the head of the bed as well as downwards to a lying position.
“C’mon, bedtime” mumbled Pearl. Apo couldn’t help the fleeting thought of ‘cute’ that flashed across her brain at seeing her ally who was normally so composed and scary acting like that. She awkwardly lay beside Pearl, and hesitantly raised a wing before laying it down to cover her ally.
“Sorry about the wing” said Apo
“Stop apologising.” grumbled Pearl “Bedtime.”
Apo nodded and closed her eyes. She let herself relax, not letting herself focus on her feelings about anything that happened that day as she let herself drift off to sleep. Some far part of her hindbrain that she hadn’t even noticed was anxious finally felt calm for the first time at having neat wings and a trusted body beside her as she slept.