Due

Flitter training. Did he really have to call it flitter training? It was the term used by proud mammas when their little ones learned to float in the air without wobbling. Sometimes it meant teaching them to fly in general, but Lovino already knew how to fly. He'd flown from floating building to floating building to get to his classes on time, and it was only the stupid wind and inconvenient tree placement that messed him up! That and the knotted muscles in his back from working tugged his body from one side to the other, throwing off his balance.

"I'm eighteen," he said. "Please don't call it flitter training."

"Can you float in the air without wobbling?"

"Yes!"

"Then let me see you do it."

They stood out in front of the currently-empty tomato trellises at the south end of the villa. The earth here was sandy and grassy and cool in the shadows, (and nicer to crash in than mud.) Feliciano stood with his hands on bent knees and his wings fluttering so quickly that his ankles were like springs.

"How do you know more about flying than me, anyway?"

"Because I can fly safely. Come on, let's float!"

There was an exuberance in his voice that Lovino couldn't disobey. Stupid rare magic voice. When Lovino had been expelled, Feliciano swore he wouldn't enroll in the same prestigious school when he came of age, in hopes that Lovino would be remembered as the last of their family to attend — instead of the Last Freaking Musical Fairy In Allegria. Feliciano's powers were strong. A little too strong at times. By singing and playing his lute, he could heal both broken bones and broken hearts. He could put happiness into a man — and take it away. Sometimes, by merely speaking with that enchanting lilt, people were moved to action. His human music tutor in the north was not helping to contain that power. At all.

And that is why Lovino now stood here in front of the tomato trellises. And that is why he bent his knees, jumped, and floated perfectly for five seconds before drifting to the side and wobbling terribly. He lit on the ground again and held his arms out to the sides, pleading that Felice couldn't see his tomato-red cheeks.

"Easy fix," Feliciano said, alighting next to him. "See, you're jumping vertically, and you're not paying attention when bending your knees, and you don't start fluttering until after you're in the air."

"And what does all that mean, professor?"

"Lovi, I just want to help you. This is about safety. When you just bend your knees and jump, you're shooting off in a random direction, and if it's vertical, that's hard on your knees. If you don't flutter until after you're in the air, it's hard on your wing muscles because you're already falling back down. Then you're struggling to gain momentum to counteract the falling. Did you learn any safe take-off techniques in the remedial lessons?"

"Just the stupid one where you spin."

"Spin? Oh, the half-spin, right?"

"Maybe."

"Let's do the half-spin. I need to practice it too. Okay, stand still."

Screwing his eyebrows together in determination, Feliciano set to work putting Lovino's body in position. Lovino was right-handed, so his right leg was put in front with the knee bent, and the left was put behind him so he was in a half-lunge. Then Feliciano twisted him at the waist so he was facing to his left. Lovino's hands were made into fists. The right was in front of him, and the left in back, as if he were carrying two heavy buckets. Finally, his wings were poised ready on his back.

Feliciano got into the same position, being over-conscientious of what angles his feet were at as if this were some fairy yoga class.

"You know what to do from here?"

"Use my right leg and the momentum from untwisting to shoot forward into the air."

"Yep! And make sure you're fluttering while you do it so your wings can catch you as you start ascending. Here, I'm gonna do it too."

Lovino watched. Feliciano twisted his body forward a few times, then untwisted and kicked off together. But instead of floating gracefully forward and up, he kept twisting and ended up floating backwards. Lovino hoped he would crash, but Feliciano buzzed his wings and spread his limbs in the air to balance, and he was once again hovering at equilibrium. He came back to earth and waited.

"That one's weird, but it does take the strain off! Try it, Lovi!"

"I'll try it if you close your eyes."

"Sure!"

Lovino took a deep breath. The grass was strong. He could feel its eagerness for the sunlight vibrating under him. He fluttered his wings. He balanced. Then he untwisted and kicked!

His legs dangled uselessly under him! But he fluttered faster and faster, throwing his arms out and bending his knees. He was floating a full ten feet in the air! Almost a perfect take-off, and much less strain on the wings. Keeping himself level, he held his hand out and beckoned to a nearby tree branch. The old thing creaked and groaned as it bent out of shape and lowered itself into a makeshift ramp. Lovino placed his feet on it and skidded back to the ground.

The two of them experimented some more, with leg and arm placements and how fast to flutter and even whether to face forward or sideways before kicking off. Once Lovino had mastered it, his brother flew up and over the vineyard, and Lovino followed.

"Balance is important. So I say we stay right here and float while we each count to a thousand. Keep your eyes stuck on the chimney there and the hay pile down there. If one of them moves because you're wobbling, you have to start over."

"That's a lot of wasted time."

"A hundred, then. If you can make it to a hundred without wobbling, you're flitter trained. Please, Lovi. I don't want you to crash!"

So magically persuasive! Lovino should've been down there pruning his vines, feeling the pain and relief in his fingertips until he learned how to turn off his empathy and become some careless-to-plants lunatic for an afternoon — sort of like all the human gardeners he knew who thought eating flowers had health benefits. Eating the poor dears! With their bony human teeth! Stereotypes aside, it was an act that could easily make a garden fairy squeamish.

Aaaaand he was flailing his arms to balance again.

Right. Concentrate. His wings beat evenly behind him. They were big and strong and a vibrant grape-leaf green. On the day he'd been expelled, when he'd cast that super-powerful spell and buried the whole campus in vines, his wings had grown as well, making his body even lighter and airier. He was floaty as a petal. Light and bubbly as a grape flower.

"Now you're drifting upwards!" Feliciano laughed. "More practice!"

Lovino grimaced. Feliciano floated in midair with his arms crossed and his legs swinging back and forth beneath him. He was swimming in nothingness and laughing as if it were the simplest thing. Of course it was. Everything came naturally to Feliciano. Strong magic. Strong spells. Strong wings. Strong social skills. Well, he didn't have the muscles, but if his magic got any stronger they'd start swelling to contain it. That's what had happened to their grandfather. And oh, he couldn't forget how Feliciano was almost an exact image of their grandfather and the perfect image of their literally stone-cold father.

"I'm falling!"

"You're not falling. Just flutter-flutter! See? You haven't had a big lunch or anything, so you're not heavy. Flutter-flutter-wings! Here, grab my hands."

Lovino fluttered faster to ascend and met his brother's gaze. This was a waste of time. He knew how to fly, and he could fly great distances! Being wobbly and clumsy wasn't a big deal. It was an endless sky. There was nothing to hang onto. Of course he was going to be a little awkward.

He took Feliciano's hands, and the two of them floated languidly above the green. The sun was fully up now. It beat pleasantly down on Lovino's dark hair and made his boots sweat. Wait. One boot sweat.

"You lost a boot!" Feliciano chirped. "Better kick off the other one now. You can find them later."

Lovino scraped the other off, twisting his body and wings ever so slightly to accomplish this without losing his balance. With Feliciano as an anchor, he remained floating in exactly the same place relative to the chimney and the haystack, and it was easy to tell when Feliciano announced he had done this for a hundred seconds.

"Now on your own," Feliciano said as he pushed his brother away. Lovino retained his steady wingbeats. There was no physical anchor, so he puffed out his chest and relaxed. Nothing to be afraid of. He was surrounded by plant life, and that was always comforting.

He spread his arms wide. Where am I? The question echoed in his mind. His fingers reached for invisible auras from the trees and the vines and the grass. The grass in the shadows ached for sunlight. The trees drank in all the new warmth they'd missed. The vines were still quite dead, and they desperately needed their pruning.

"I'm right here," he said. His fingertips twitched. "I'm staying here, where I can feel everything just like this."

It had been an idea right then and there, and perhaps because his emotions were more balanced than last October, his body could stay more balanced as well. His plants were near. They supported him. They wouldn't let him fall. He would float right here and feel the joy in every leaf and stem anchoring him.

"You're doing fantastic! You're, em, you're attracting those vines, though."

Lovino looked down and panicked. The vines were stretching up toward his feet. He thrust his palm toward them, and they shied away, slithering back to their posts. They may have been his children and allies, but they were not allowed to touch him.

"See? You can balance if you focus," Feliciano said.

"Right. So I'm flitter trained, then."

The younger fairy crossed his legs in midair and put a spindly finger to his chin. "Not quite yet. Obviously, you can't correct clumsiness with only one day of practice. We'll be back up here this evening or tomorrow so you can work more. But for now, you've got improvement under your wings!"

"Fantastic. Then I can get my breakfast and go back to pruning."

"Well, there is one more thing I wanted to try."

~N~

Part 3 up March 17th. A glittery flitter for our fairy boys' special day.

Published by Syntax-N on FanFiction . Net May 15, 2020. Thanks for reading~ No reposting~