Don't Worry Songbird, We're Here

Chapter 5- The Finale

Trigger Warnings: swearing, Dream, shipping? (its mainly soulmates thing from Double Life SMP and YHS), intrusive thoughts, rushed ending!

𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍𑁍

Grian and Tommy are in the garden, currently, both of them are sitting on the fountain rings right where the path ends, careful to not step on the flowers, consequently destroying them. 

Xel, as Tommy decided to give him a nickname instead of his longer version of Xelqua, even though he had confirmed that his sister also calls him that. He had learned that she went by the name Pearl. 

Kind of a weird name to name your child as but honestly who was he to judge? 

Moving on back to the original talk, Xel was giving Tommy a lesson on how he was supposed to open his wings, learn to fly, and most importantly, (this is nitpicky) his words, how to preen his wings. As wings are now one of Tommy's most vulnerable and sensitive parts of his body. Grian is teaching him, and showing him how to preen himself. 

"As you can see on my wings, they're a bit of a mess, so all you really need to do is to straighten them, clean them from all the dirt and gunk on them, and chip off the broken or messy ones," Grian said, as of matter of fact and in his teacher's voice Tommy didn't know he hated of felt motivated with. 

Tommy just looked nervously at Watcher's wings as he showed him how to straighten the feathers the right way and nodded. 

So Grian continue with his teach-talk;

"Avian's wings are delicate so you need to be careful with them. Avians usually only let close family, friends, or a partner, be that romantic or platonic partner does not matter." He pauses to He pauses, starting down the floor in contemplation" What matters, is that your "bird brain", as I like to call it, will be very, very picky about who to trust enough to be let close to your wings. "

There was a pause after he finished the last sentence, and then Grian asked the follow-up question. 

" Any questions about all this since we're on the topic of wings? Anything? Yes? " Grian raised an eyebrow, now looking at Tommy. 

He's looking at him with that warm smile that he hated he appreciated so much. 

But Tommy couldn't but wonder… 

"I- Did you ever let anyone preen your wings? Anyone?" It came out as a very straightforward question and to say the least, it did take Grian by surprise. 

The Watcher's mouth opened slightly then closed again as if thinking if he should answer this question or just ignore it completely. 

But then he spoke with a sigh before it. 

"... Yes. I did indeed let my family and my first soulmate help me preen and fix my wings. 

My Sister used to help me with my wings, I don't know if you remember her, I mentioned her a bit before we started talking about wings and all this." Grian said. 

'Was that a question?  Should he say something or will he just continue? soulmates? Pearl? '

These thoughts were running around in Tommy's head but he chose to ignore them for the time being, as they can be pretty… self-destructive and very angsty sometimes. 

"Pearl was her name if I remember right yeah? And you had a soulmate?! What?? I thought the soulmate thing was just a rumor?" 

He asked curiously. It was true! Soulmates were just a bedtime story for kids. 

You know… having one doesn't sound bad. 

Wait… 

" Used to, what do you mean by that?  Do they don't help you with your wings anymore? "