Enjoy!

Water, wings, and wonderous feelings

"Oh, Queen's toes!" Eunie exclaims, trying to wipe the mud from her face and hair and clothes. Her wings are drooping under the weight from it. "Getting this stuff out of feathers is going to be even more of a bitch than drying them is!"

Their little group of six, plus the two Nopon, has been travelling through a particularly muddy part of the Maktha Wildwoods. Their shoes and legs are covered in the cold, wet mud.

To make matters worse, they had also been attacked by a monster that had not only insisted on splashing them all down with mud, but also managed to push Eunie headfirst into a rather deep puddle of it. She is, understandably, not happy about this, and as soon as she has gotten the worst of the mud out of her eyes, she wastes no time taking out her anger on the monster.

Taion has to admit, he's quite impressed with how quickly her rage-filled self takes down the creature.

Not long after the fight, they find a stream and decide to stay there for the night to rest and wash up. Manana immediately gets started on the food, telling them they'll feel much better with some hot food in their bellies.

Taion decides he'll also make some tea later. Maybe he'll also offer Eunie a cup, if only to help her calm down. She's still muttering and grumbling about her wings. Everyone has already cleaned up, not having wasted any time getting rid of all the mud. Eunie is still fussing over her feathers, now completely soaked but mostly clean of the mud.

"I could help you with them," Taion offers without thinking. As soon as he realizes what he just said, he closes his mouth with an audible snap and looks down at his scarf, which he's wringing between his hands.

What had compelled him to make such an offer out of nowhere? Sure, he's always found Eunie's wings fascinating, because of how unique they are. Not only are they bigger than other Kevesi wings he has seen, but they're also the only ones he has seen that don't match the person's hair colour. And if he's sometimes wondered what it would be like to touch them, to run his fingers over and through the feathers, surely no one can blame him?

That must be why he'd made the offer to help without thinking. His strange fascination with Eunie's wings, the way his hands are itching to touch them, to find out if the feathers are as soft as they look...

Taion is pulled out of his thoughts when something soft hits him on the head. He catches the object before it falls to the ground and notices it's Eunie's small, wadded up towel.

"Well?" she says when he looks at her. "You gonna help or just sit there?"

"Oh, yes. Of course." Taion fumbles with the towel for a moment before making his way over to Eunie. He briefly wonders if he should suggest if Noah or Lanz would be a better help. Surely they must have helped her before, since they've known each other so long?

Then again, a quick look reveals Noah is busy with his own hair, and when Taion thinks about it, Lanz would be quite likely to just ruffle up Eunie's feathers even worse, simply because he would find it funny to upset her.

So, Taion takes a seat behind Eunie and starts working. Her feathers are even more of a mess than he'd first thought. They're sticking up in every direction, some of them clearly loose or broken. He decides to dry them first and remove any remaining mud as well as he can, then pick out the broken ones, then finish up by sorting and smoothing out the rest.

Getting the feathers to an acceptable level of clean and dry doesn't actually take too long. After maybe fifteen minutes, Taion judges them good enough for him to start sorting them out. But first, he can't resist the urge to carefully run his fingers along the edge of one wing.

The feathers, though still slightly damp, still manage to be soft enough to make silk seem like sandpaper in comparison. Taion can feel the slender bones and fine muscles. The longer feathers are a different texture, but no less soft under Taion's fingers.

"You gonna help me or just pet them?" Eunie asks him, turning her head slightly to give him a mildly annoyed look. That's when he realizes he's been sitting there just stroking her wings for nearly two full minutes.

"Sorry!" he says, and actually starts the work of straightening and tidying up the feathers. He straightens most of them, getting them back in place, and gently eases out the loose and broken ones, letting them drift to the ground.

Taion finds the job surprisingly relaxing. The repetitive motions and the softness beneath his fingers feel nice. Eunie seems to agree with him, as she visibly relaxes and her wings spread a bit further, giving him better access.

She's not quiet either, humming and sighing when he comes across a particularly sensitive spot. He finds seeing her so obviously enjoy herself makes him feel pleased as well. He has a strange urge to be near her and scoots a bit closer, so he can feel the warmth radiating from her body. He wants to burry his face in her hair, but resists this strange urge. He's working on a task, after all.

If someone had told him a few months ago he would one day be happily grooming the wings of a Kevesi soldier, he would have thought that person to be brain damaged.

It's amazing how things can change, he thinks, looking around their little camp. Mio and Noah are playing their flutes. Sena and Lanz are doing push-ups. Manana seems to be talking Riku's ears off. If it weren't for that man, Guernica Vandham, they would all still be fighting each other.

"This is pretty nice, you know?" Eunie suddenly says, almost as if reading his mind.

"Yes," he agrees. "It is."

Several minutes later he's done with Eunie's wings. And if he's deliberately been working slower than necessary, no one needs to know about it. Eunie flaps her wings a few times, almost hitting him in the face.

"Much better!" she says, feeling them with her fingers. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome," he says, though can't resist adding "But you should try to maintain them a bit more diligently. They were in quite dreadful shape in some places."

"Oh, shut it," she grumbles, this time deliberately hitting him in the face with a wing. "I don't remember asking for your opinion."

Eunie gets up and stretches, then turns back to Taion, arms crossed over her chest.

"Did you have to pull out so many?" she asks, gesturing to the feathers on the ground. "Feel like I'm going bald here."

"I did not pull out any, as you claim," Taion replies, pushing up his glasses. "Those were already loose or broken, and I simply removed them." He also crosses his arms. "You definitely would have noticed had I actually pulled out any still attached ones. And if you took care of them more regularly, there wouldn't be so many loose ones," he finishes.

"Shut up," Eunie grumbles. "I'm not taking grooming advice from someone who's hair looks like a bird's nest."

"I – My hair does not look like a bird's nest!" Taion protests as his hands go up to his hair defensively. He can almost feel his cheeks heat up and hopes she doesn't notice. He's about to say something else, when Mio chuckles behind him.

"I'm sorry Taion," she says, smiling a bit guiltily. "But it does kind of look like a bird's nest."

"Don't worry," Eunie says, before he has a chance to reply. "It's still pretty cute."

Taion feels his cheeks get even hotter, and he feels like something is squirming in his stomach. It's a strange feeling, that he's had around Eunie before, but it doesn't feel bad. It's like a mixture of excitement, and anticipation, and something else he can't recognize.

"Let's just get some rest," he says, pushing aside these strange and unexplainable feelings. "We have a long day tomorrow."

The tea can wait until morning.

Hope you enjoyed this fic! Feel free to let me know what you think of it