Xelqua Rising || The Lost One AU

26.Progress

Xelqua sat backwards in his chair, arms resting on the sides. He was in the center of the lecture hall and Miesall stood beside him. He took the seated Watcher's central left wing and ran his finger along it. The motion caused the other to almost shiver as it was still such a strange and unfamiliar sensation to him.

"Are you ready?" Miesall signed silently into the other's wing as he moved directly behind the other. Xelqua did not say anything, only nodding as he internally mustered his strength for what was to come. Miesall took his other hand now, taking a gentle hold of Xelqua's right wing. He slowly ran both of his hands along the Watcher's wings over and over again in a rhythmic motion. "Alright, here it comes." He signed once more, his words muffled.

Xelqua closed his eyes as he felt the familiar buzz of Miesall's magic entering his body. He had gotten significantly better in applying his magic in this manner, ensuring that the magic was only applied to the muscles of the wings themselves. Xelqua felt his muscles stretching, opening all of his wings just a bit. He focused all of his energy on opening his wings, unintentionally opening his fingers up in the process. He watched himself as his wings jolted out and then tried to reach just that little bit further and trying to maintain that position; shaking, trembling and threatening to close right back up. They had almost spread themselves completely out, but not quite yet.

"Rest," Miesall sighed, his trembling hands stopping and returning to his side. The rest was mostly for Xelqua, but the process was taxing for Miesall as well. The wings quickly folded in on themselves as Xelqua tried to regain his breathing.

"How... how many times have we done this?" He breathed.

"Once," Miesall stated bluntly, knowing full well that was not the answer the blonde was looking for. Xelqua was too tired to try and flap his wings, so he hoped the eye roll could be heard in his voice instead.

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"I am unsure. What I do know, however, is that we have made great progress so far." Miesall assured before once again placing his hands on Xelqua's wings. Without another word, he sent his magic into the other. Xelqua quickly understood and they worked together to open the wings once more. The result was roughly the same as the last time.

When Miesall dropped his hands once more, Xelqua stopped as well and the wings snapped themselves back. "This is a lot of work," he started, "Is it really worth it?"

Miesall paused, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I've never flown before and I haven't any issues. These legs--" He swung his legs to show them off, "Have served me just fine."

Miesall shook his head. Even as a Watcher now, the being in front of him could still be quite clueless at times. "Because Watchers fly, Xelqua. That's just what we do. Look down at the worlds. There are some humans that do not walk but instead are bound to chairs on wheels. Does that mean no human youth should learn to walk? If they learn, they will surely fall many times. It is a difficult endeavor to learn, and yet they do, because humans walk."

Xelqua let out a sigh. Sure, Miesall had a point, but he was still tired of all of this. It was a lot of work to gain something that he never had, never thought he would have, never needed before and still did not. Miesall noticed that he was unconvinced and so he added, "And you never know, you might like it. I know that you get bored easily. Flying is another thing to do here." a hint of a reassuring smile reached his lips as he leaned forward, closer to Xelqua. Xelqua turned towards the curly-haired Watcher out of his old human habits, forcing a smile. It wasn't much, but he was appreciative that Miesall had tried his best to encourage him. Miesall hesitated and then he added, "Let us make a deal: when you are ready to learn how to fly, I will show you the obstacle course I made."

"You made an obstacle course? Where?" Xelqua asked, already beginning to search the temple. He was pretty sure that he would have encountered it by now, having more than enough time to thoroughly search each and every room during his slumber. Yet, he had not somehow.

"Hey!" Miesall barked as he playfully pulled on Xelqua, "No searching for it! It's a surprise!" The smaller Watcher laughed at the usually serious Watcher's reaction. Then he paused.

"Wait, how did you know I was searching for it?" He asked.

"We can usually tell where about others are watching, and I noticed that a significant amount of your eyes began to dart all around the temple." Miesall explained. "That, and I know you well enough to know that you would do just that even if I couldn't see your eyes."

"Oh," Xelqua replied, not sure what else to say. He had so much to learn about being a Watcher, it seemed like it really would take a lifetime to learn it all. No one else had ever had to go through this before. He had tried to avoid thinking about this as it was always followed by a feeling of loneliness and solitude. No one could relate to him, and all of the Watchers (except perhaps Miesall) did not care to try to understand at all.  

He felt Miesall take ahold of his wings again, pulling him out of his thoughts, and begin pulsing magic into them. Xelqua followed, trying to open his wings once more. It was nice to have something to put his thoughts on instead of the sinking feeling that he had started to sneak up on him. Even if it was the work he was tired of, it was a distraction, so now he appreciated it. They slipped into silence, doing the rounds of what humans referred to as therapy with very few if any words spoken. This went on for quite some time before Miesall slipped his hands away for the last time and walked away from Xelqua, signaling the end of the session.

"Are the lessons done for now, or are we moving onto something else?" The blonde asked, slowly standing up. His muscles were stiff from sitting in the same place for so long and so he stretched, feeling the magic course through him and soothe his body.

"Well it depends," the other started, "We can either be done or I can give you an intro into brewing."

Xelqua practically glowed at the chance to do an activity that he hadn't done since the moment he had stepped foot in this place. "Brewing, please!" He chirped, causing the taller Watcher to smile.

"We would have to take a field trip to get to the brewing room," Miesall stated, causing the smaller one to get that much more excited. He bounced up and down a bit like a child who was promised candy if he could behave himself for just a few more minutes.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go, Miesalt!" The impatient Watcher cried, grabbing the other's arm and tugging on it as he tried to lead him to the door.

Miesall quickly fluttered his wings in fake annoyance as he allowed the other to pull him along. "How many times have I told you not to call me that?" He muttered, forcing a frown now.

Xelqua smirked as he opened the door for both of them. "Do you hate it?" He asked, cornering the other once more. Miesall let out an annoyed grunt, too proud to say the truth outright, even though it was obvious. Stopping just outside the doors, Xelqua slipped his hand away from Miesall's and brought both of his hands to mouth to suppress his victory giggle.

Miesall crossed his arms and let out a "hmph" before turning away and following the smaller Watcher into the hallway.

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A/N

Fun fact: What Miesall is trying is called Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES). The idea is that when someone has trouble moving a limb (often due to stroke, paralysis, etc), they'll hook a few wires on the muscles. The wires hook to a small machine the size of a calculator, which will send small electrical impulses to stimulate said muscles. The machine will send the current for a short amount of time (like 20 seconds or something) and during that time, the patient will try to work the muscles alongside the machine. Then there'll be a brief resting period (likely the same amount of time as working) before it happens again. I know someone who had it. They have told me that kind of feels like your limb fell asleep, but a lot more intense. They say that you tend to build a tolerance to the feeling, so it doesn't usually hurt unless you set it too high. When I was trying to figure out how Grian would learn to move his wings (because him just knowing didn't quite make sense) I thought of FES and I thought that made more sense than anything I thought up so far and decided to go with it. Functionally speaking, Miesall is taking on the role of the device and using his magic as a substitute for electricity.