Madeleine Grows a Pair

23 - Wings

It's finals week, everyone! You know what that means ;) Either writing a CONCERNING amount or not writing at all, but yk how it is. I recently got myself a Tumblr account (also Walsuf), which I'm offhandedly posting a Dark Choco x Werewolf comic on. It's just something I'll be working on in my spare time, is all.

I could've just posted this as three separate chapters in the weeks it took me to write this, but it fit too well as one piece so here we are! Enjoy!

Madeleine took in the sleeping form of Espresso as he leaned against the bed.

His eyes were closed, his breath was steady, and it was almost like nothing happened at all, save for the fact that they were in an infirmary rather than either of their homes.

Actually...

Maybe something had happened. He certainly couldn't remember a time when Espresso was so close to him, so comforted by his presence, so normal.

Normal in the sense that it felt like it should be that way. Normal in the sense that he felt no unease or guilt or any other negative emotion that could possibly be tied to being around him. No, it felt normal to be around him.

And normal was good.

It reminded him vaguely of the time when he and Espresso were preening his wings, filtering out the dust and debris that had built up over time and lack of cleanliness. Dirt and specs and grains of rice that embedded in his feathers, which he had not the slightest idea of how to deal with.

However, this time he felt almost more content than the last.

There was something about laying there outside of the boundaries of either of their works, no stressing about the future or the present or the past, no lingering questions floating in ambiguity. They simply existed.

And that was nice. Madeleine needed more of that, what with dealing with new limbs entirely, of which he was still unused to. It was tiring to have all of those thoughts occupying his mind non-stop no matter what he was doing.

Of course, he still didn't know how to manage that. Them, if he willed. His wings were an utter enigma to him, they had been from the start.

However, he could allow himself to forget for a moment. He could stay there, sitting up on the bed and watching the tired-out form of Espresso rise and fall steadily with each breath.

Espresso had been asleep for a while, long enough for Madeleine to figure out why he was so unresponsive and then subsequently take off his glasses to place them elsewhere within reach (he didn't know if Espresso had a spare, and he wasn't about to find out).

Even with Espresso lying face-first onto the bed, arms crossed under him, Madeleine felt the compulsion to continue the ramble that helped him fall asleep to begin with. Maybe Espresso would enjoy the company of his voice even if he wasn't entirely there, or rather maybe he found it easier to sleep when it was noisy instead of quiet.

Either way, Madeleine quickly drafted up the next part of his story in his mind. It was another memory of his, one that he looked back on quite often.

His voice slowly sparked to life, starting as a low rumble in his chest. He didn't want to wake the other, and more so ease him into the strength of his voice. He couldn't just start yelling off the bat, that would be rude. So he began softly, "It was my senior year, and I was finally graduating to become a true paladin. I remember there were cookies cheering me on and congratulating me early, and some of them would pat me on the back in passing."

He chuckled to himself, a small grin settling on his face. He closed his eyes, and without thinking about it, started swaying from side to side. "I was marching through the halls with my fellow paladins, holding a banner up high. When I passed by familiar faces, they all greeted me by name, and when I left they waved at my back. There was confetti, I think."