Fluffed Up

[esp_dragonv2]

Fandom: Noblesse
Summary: "Hnn..." Kentas said, before he tore his gaze away from M-21's wings to look at M-21. "When was the last time you relaxed?"
Notes: Wing au.
Wings prompt for the Let's Fix It event.
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word count: 1,231
Status: Complete


Kentas was staring at him. M-21 knew he was, because there was no-one else in the room and the hairs at the back of his neck prickled.

"What?" he said, turning towards Kentas, crossing his arms as he turned, his wings arching up slightly above his head.

It wasn't just M-21 Kentas was staring at, but his wings. Dull grey and small in comparison to almost everyone else's in the house, they weren't very interesting. Not something that should have taken Kentas' attention. Not unless there was something else wrong with them, but Frankenstein would have mentioned it by now.

But then, Kentas was a werewolf. Maybe he had a better idea of what was going on with M-21's wings? They were more fur than feathers, though still able to hold him up in the sky; Kentas' wings looked like they were the same, but his fur was sleek and smooth rather than the fluffed up mess that M-21's were.

"Hnn..." Kentas said, before he tore his gaze away to look at M-21. "When was the last time you relaxed?"

M-21 frowned at him. "I am relaxed." He was the most relaxed he'd been in all the time that he could remember. Though that was easy when he used to be in the Union.

Kentas studied him for a few more seconds before he sighed. "Can I talk you though some exercises?"

M-21 narrowed his eyes at him. But Kentas wasn't Tao, and didn't have the tendency to prank others like Tao did. It should be fine.

"What is it?"

Kentas smiled. "Sit here," he said, pulling out one of the stools in the kitchen, "and wrinkle your forehead."

M-21 frowned. What was-

"Do that once you're sitting here," Kentas said, still smiling a little.

What was Kentas wanting him to do? Except Kentas had told him. And since this had followed from Kentas' question, it wouldn't be a joke. Kentas didn't do that. So he would see what Kentas was planning.

M-21 sat on the stool, leaning an elbow on the table as he looked at Kentas. He wrinkled his brow and Kentas nodded.

"Arch your eyebrows for a second."

M-21's eyebrows were already doing that as he tried to figure out how this was supposed to help.

Kentas' instructions continued going further down: closing his eyes, wrinkling his nose, clenching his jaw, tensing his neck. Lower and lower, working through his entire body.

M-21 was glad no-one walked in on them and saw him, but eventually he just focused on Kentas' voice.

Once they finished stretching M-21's toes, Kentas said, "How do you feel?"

M-21 exhaled, rolling one of his shoulders. "Looser?" Everything felt lighter, like he didn't have to put as much effort into moving. Huh.

Kentas smiled. "Good. Your wings are still a little stiff though." He lifted a hand, like he was intending to reach for them. "I can help with that?"

Normally, M-21 would have shied away from the touch but...he felt good right now. And Kentas hadn't tricked him.

M-21 nodded, turning his back to Kentas.

Kentas laid a palm on the part of M-21's wings where it met his back. Kentas gripped the muscle for a second, and then-

M-21 hissed, the wing spasming.

"Too hard?" Kentas said, releasing the pressure.

M-21 frowned. He'd had worse pain -someone trying to rip his wings off once- but the way Kentas had pressed in, it was like Kentas had instantly found exactly where it ached the most. He'd had learned to ignore that until it became background noise, especially compared to everything else his body had been doing, but now it was at the forefront of his mind again.

"I don't know?" He didn't know if he was supposed to feel that much pain; he didn't know if his body was just weaker than what Kentas was used to dealing with.

"Hnnn." The next time Kentas pushed in with his thumb, he was slower, and M-21 exhaled at the pain radiating from where Kentas was touching. It wasn't like the usual pain M-21 was used to - instead of instinctively reacting to get away or bracing himself against the feeling, it was more like...an acknowledgement? That the pain had always been there.

But as Kentas moved his hands along M-21's wings, still kneading in certain areas, the areas he'd left didn't feel as painful as when they'd first started.

M-21 kept breathing deeply, shifting his wings every time Kentas moved on, feeling the difference.

He wasn't sure how long it took, but Kentas eventually said, "I think that's everything."

M-21 arched his shoulders, flexing his wings. They settled against his back better than they had before, and he couldn't feel his fur jabbing into his back either.

When M-21 stretched a wing to look at it, the fur had smoothened out, almost resting against each other like the feathers on everyone else's wings.

What the hell had Kentas done to do that?

"Is that better?" Kentas said.

M-21 flapped his wings a few times, waiting to see if his feathers would fluff back up again like they usually did.

They didn't.

"What did you do?" M-21 said, running the back of his fingers over his feathers. They were soft, curving around his fingers when he pressed into them rather than resisting and scratching him.

"A massage," Kentas said, his own wings arching up for a second like they were shrugging. "Your feathers said..." Kentas trailed off, before he considered M-21, his forehead slightly creased. "Do you know why your feathers were like that?"

"Tch. They've always been like that - it must have been something the scientists had done." They'd done something to his DNA that meant his wings were constantly fluffed up - most people in the Union had wings like that. But then...if it was something that was encoded into him, it shouldn't have been so easy for Kentas to undo just by touching him.

"No..." Kentas said. "With werewolves, our feathers normally fluff to make us look bigger." He paused. "Because we don't feel safe."

M-21 frowned at him, crossing his arms. "This is the safest place I've been in in years." There was no competition.

"That's why I was confused," Kentas said, "because it's obvious you feel safe here and you wouldn't have come back if you didn't." He huffed, looking at M-21's wings again. "But if making yourself look bigger had turned into a habit...?"

Then there would have been no reason for him to stop doing it. Fuck. "So I have to do those exercises every time to relax my feathers?"

Kentas nodded.

"And the massage?"

"That is more because your wings were probably tired from being so tense most of the time."

"Hn." M-21 pulled his phone out, noting down everything Kentas had told him to do earlier. "...Thanks." Kentas didn't have to do that, but he had.

Kentas smiled. "If you notice your feathers aren't going down even after the exercises, I can give you another massage."

M-21 shifted, feeling how his wings rested against his back, how much better he felt. "If you aren't too busy at the time?" Kentas had other, more important things to do than look after him.

Kentas chuckled softly. "I would never be too busy for you."

M-21 shook his head with a sigh. Kentas really never stopped complimenting everyone.