𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐩
(𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)
𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐬: 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧, 𝐒𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞, 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧 😍
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐭𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐒 🥳 (𝐀𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐈'𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 🥲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐭𝐰 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐓𝟐 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅!!)
Times like this were the best in a place like this. Currently, you sat on the floor against the wall in the upstairs room, a random book you had selected from the shelves in hand. The words “A Farewell to Arms” plastered on the front. In your free time, you began picking up new hobbies, and reading was the newest one. The book was about a man who falls in love with a nurse, a romance amidst a war. It genuinely had you hooked. At least, better than any of the other books here.
You flipped the page and yawned. The cabin was unnaturally quiet; you assumed you were alone, but the thought didn't last long before someone made their way up the stairs. You looked towards the entryway and caught a glimpse of brown curly hair and immediately recognized it.
Shedletsky made his way towards you and stopped about 6 feet away, he began fidgeting with his hands. “Hey…could you.. help me with something?” He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and averted his eyes, his wings twitched behind him uncomfortably.
“Yea, what's up?” You turned and looked at him, making note of his unusual behavior.
“I need help with… these.” He said, gesturing to his wings. Which kind of shocked you because he actively avoids talking about them. “I needa clean them and usually I would do it but my back has been super sore lately and I…” He rambled on, visibly nervous.
“Sure, what do I do?” You nodded and Shedletsky's eyes lit up. He sat in front of you.
“Okay so, there's these things called pin feathers, they look kinda like spikes and inside these spikes is a new feather. Basically what you need to do is scratch the waxy stuff off.” Shedletsky continued, “Also any shed feathers need to be brushed off.”
“Got it.” You nodded, examining the wings. It was hard to see them when they were squeezed against him so tightly.
“Get to it then.” He joked, looking at you from over his shoulder.
“I would if you'd relax a bit.” You smirked and rolled your eyes. “How do you expect me to help, when your wings are glued shut.”
You assumed he didn't notice until now, because he quickly relaxed.
“My bad.” He said, laughing awkwardly. You reached out for the wing and touched it softly, resulting in Shedletsky tensing for a second. You extended the wing gently, you were surprised to find that it was almost the same size as you. Since he had quite a few, it wasn't hard to spot one. Your hand traveled down to the fresh feather and you scratched at it, remembering the instructions Shedletsky had given you. The waxy coating peeling away like old paint, It was oddly satisfying.
Shedletsky sat patiently as you continued to preen him. Though, you noticed he progressively looked more and more sleepy.
“Do you want to lay down?” You asked, pulling your hands back in case he did.
“Yes please.” He practically belly-flopped onto the ground, he laid his head on his arms and he exhaled slowly, clearly enjoying the clean.
You glanced over the wings, looking for any other pin feathers. You noticed two on the underside so you got to work on those, while scratching. His wings would twitch when you touched the inside of them, you made a mental note to be more careful when scratching, just in case it hurt or tickled.
Finally, there was only one last pinfeather left, it was on the inside near the base of the wing. You reached out to scratch at it but as soon as you touched it, Shedletsky tensed up.
“Does it hurt?’ You pulled your hands back into your lap, worried you did something wrong.
“No it's fine, just…uncomfortable.” He shifted awkwardly, you caught a glimpse of his face, pink coated his cheeks.
“Ill try and be quick” You reassured, you went back to working at it. Shedletsky laid tense the remainder of the time.
“Done,” You and Shedletsky both breathed a sigh of relief. “Just need to brush now. So do I like, use my hands?” You asked.
“Yup, kinda like normal hair” Shedletsky looked back “Just be more careful”
“Alright" You responded. Running your fingers through his feathers, you recalled his odd behavior, the nervousness when he asked and the heavy blush on his face earlier. You ignored it though, maybe it was embarrassing for him. The oh-so great Shedletsky needed your help with his hygiene, you laughed silently to yourself. You looked back up at him, he was back to his relaxed state.
As you brushed him, loose feathers fell onto the ground beneath. Occasionally, the fluff from them tickled your nose making you sneeze, and every time it happened, Shedletsky would laugh. You picked up a handful of feathers from the floor and threw it at him, the feathers fell on his hair.
“Hey!” He chuckled, swiping the feathers off his head.
“Deserved” You laughed. Wiping the feathers off your pants, you scanned the wings one last time. The original messy ruffled look turned sleek and clean.
“You done?” He questioned, his shoulders slumped slightly
“Yup” You nodded and stood up. You recalled what he had said earlier about his back then an idea came to mind. “Stay here real quick ill be back” You walked out the room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.
You glanced around for a towel, still unfamiliar with the kitchen. The only people that were really allowed in the kitchen were Elliot, Guest, and occasionally Two Time. You grabbed the towel that conveniently lay next to the sink. You grabbed it and turned the knob for hot water on the faucet then ran the towel under the tap, letting it fully absorb the hot water. Elliot was definitely gonna be mad about the soaked towel later and he knew it was gonna be you because only Shedletsky and you didn't get put in this round. You dreaded the consequences but shrugged it off anyway. It's not like you were doing anything unreasonable. You turned off the faucet and wrung some of the excess water out of the towel. You took the towel back upstairs and back into the room.
“Take your shirt off” You told Shedletsky as soon as you entered the room to which he turned to look at you with a confused, shocked look, his face coated in pink. You were confused for a moment before realizing what you had said with zero context. “OH- NOT LIKE THAT” You covered your face with your hands, your face beginning to heat up. Shedletsky bursted out laughing.
“I got something for your back” You mumbled into your hand, holding the towel on your arm. You lowered your hands and saw a shirtless Shedletsky still lying on the floor, propping up his head with his hands, and kicking his legs behind him. Looking up at you with a smug smile on his face.
“Dont do that.” You averted your gaze, maintaining that blush from earlier. His confidence was definitely better than before, that's for sure.
“You told me to take my shirt off.” He shrugged, acting oblivious
“Yeah but don't do all that” You gestured towards him. Trying to ignore his teasing, you walked over and set the warm towel on his back, he let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes again. You sat next to him in silence, it wasn't an awkward silence, it felt calm instead. The warm lights, the crackling of the fireplace downstairs, and Shedletsky's calm, slow breathing made it so.
“So can you like…Fly?” You questioned him, your curiosity growing. Shedletsky didn't turn to look at you before responding blankly.
“Used to.” He shrugged. Not saying anything more.
“Why don't you anymore?” You followed up, curious about him..
“Too weak now” He sighed, his wings twitched behind him.
Noticing the obvious dry responses and how uncomfortable he seemed, you decided to leave it at that.
Footsteps and conversation sounded downstairs indicating the round had ended. You stood up so you could help with any untreated injuries, but as soon as you got to your feet, Builderman walked in. He looked at you, then Shedletsky, then the heavy amount of feathers that littered the floor.
“What happened here?” Builderman lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
You looked at Shedletsky, who seemed a bit panicked to be caught in such a situation. Shirtless, on the floor, lying next to you.
You were going to explain that Shedletsky needed help with something, but Shedletsky cut you off.
“They attacked me, they attacked me!” He pointed at you "We need to lock this savage beast up!” He continued placing the back of his hand on his forehead dramatically.
“Nu-uh!” You nudged him with your foot, feigning a hurt look. Builderman laughed.
“I was helping him with his preening since he apparently can't do it himself” you taunted and rolled your eyes. Builderman looked at Shedletsky with disbelief only his eyes showed. Shedletsky returned the look with a innocent smile, though it had a hint of embarrassment.
“Oh, Elliot needs ya by tha way” Builderman looked back at you. Helping with injuries had completely slipped your mind, you speed-walked out the room while waving goodbye to Shedletsky and in return Shedletsky blew a kiss at you teasingly. As soon as you turned the corner, Builderman started questioning Shedletsky. Which was kind of worrying but you ignored it.
People needed help, and that's all you needed to focus on right now.