[FIC]: these wings can’t fly
For @thecrescentsweep - Xin’s wings in the Wing AU where in another world, when you are loved, you grow wings to show it. the bigger the love, the bigger the wings. Noxus - Xin - Demacia - Ionia - Shurima
i. ionia
His parents love him. His friends love him, in the innocent unthinking way of children who have yet to learn there is any other love. Xin grows up surrounded by love and his wings spread wide and pure. He playfights with one of his schoolmates (the village school is small, this boy sits so close to him that their knees touch during lessons) and watches new feathers sprouting on his friend’s wings day after day. He wonders what girl is making them come in, what girl is responsible for his own budding ruff; he accepts the accusations of being oblivious with guilty contentment, kiss-swollen lips turning up into a smile he thinks will never fade. ii. noxus He lost all his feathers when he lost his village. His wings were bare bone that receded day after day - until he stepped into the Arena and killed. Feathers grew that night, black handfuls of them, oil-slick greasy and shimmering with a strange dirty red tint, He tries to pull them out. He doesn’t want the love of Noxians. He doesn’t want wings that will cripple him in the Arena, too heavy to move with, too heavy to fight with. For a short while, before they get too heavy, he does fly. They chain him to the ground with a collar around his neck to keep him from getting too high but those nights, Xin dreams of flying back to Ionia. His wings grow heavier every day. At night, the Noxian nobles that buy his time delight in taking feathers as prizes. It never hurts when they do so and the feathers never stay gone. As love cannot be destroyed, neither can the wings. iii. demacia His wings are small things now, barely more than a newborn’s tuft. He keeps to himself and tucks his wings under his armor. They’re too small to be worth having altered clothing. He isn’t sure who loves him enough to let him have wings at all but thinks it must be the children of Noxus who sometimes came to see his fights. They would be too young still to understand that they cannot love a traitor who fights for Demacia now. Prince Jarvan IV takes Xin to his bed but the next morning, Xin’s wings have not grown. Jarvan’s are so big that he doesn’t even notice the handful of extra feathers.