The Roof, Saturday Morning

[wwiii]

Everybody had their grumpy days. Or their uncomfortable days, or their just plain wrong-side-of-the-bed days. And for any reason under the sun, really. It all depended on what was up.

What was up for Warren was spring, headed into summer. Which meant fewer layers or even just the option of lounging around shirtless, a heightened likelihood of seeing pretty girls wearing less than they were a few months ago, and, less pleasantly, a molt.

Large feathered wings were amazing, breathtaking, and absolutely liberating right up until you realized that having a pair of them meant that you'd have to deal with itching, feather dust, and pinfeathers on a seasonal basis. And so Warren had made his way up to the roof in an effort to at least minimize some of the mess in his room to spare Hinata the headache, and was now sitting on the edge, frowning at a molted four-foot long primary feather and trying to figure out what the heck to do with it as he turned it over in his hand.

This sort of thing was so much easier to deal with when his dad could just smuggle it all out through his company as 'medical waste.'

[I don't know. All I know is that I've been vacuuming up cockatiel dust for weeks now, and finally he's starting to drop real feathers so it's time to torment Warren thus. But the roof is open!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

"Kiss kiss," Karla said, settling down on the edge of the roof and giving Warren a smile. And then paused to look at him a little more closely. "Uh-oh. Looks like someone's using the roof for its unofficial purpose."

Which was a casual statement and an offer to listen all in one. It all depended on how Warren wanted to take it.

[wwiii]

Warren blinked up at Karla at that, and then gave her a wry smile before holding up the feather.

"That's what the roof is here for, isn't it? Sparing the rest of the island's population the moodiness?"

And also for keeping the rain out of the students' things, sure. But the first reason seemed more important.

"You know, I always hated cleaning my room when I was a kid. But picking up Nintendo games really doesn't have anything on this sort of mess."

[glacial_queen]

"Nintendo games?" Karla asked, blinking. "What--oh," she looked at the feather again. "Ah, I see. You're shedding."

What? Karla'd never had a bird or anything before. Her experience with animals extended to horses and the occasional cat. "Is it bothersome?"

[wwiii]

"Molting," Warren corrected with a sigh, setting the feather down on the ledge. "And yeah, it is. Everything just kind of... sits weird, for a while. You have to work harder to stay aloft when you don't have all of your flight feathers, and it's messy and it itches."

It was easy to tell what the crappiest part of it all was, wasn't it?

"But at least it means that the feathers that Hinata's kitten have gotten to are going to be replaced soon."

[glacial_queen]

Karla grinned at the mention of Yei. "That'll keep her happy then," she said, shaking her head indulgently. "Not that it helps you any."

Almost unconsciously, Karla reached a hand out to Warren's back, then hesitated before actually touching him. "Would you like a wing-scratch?" she asked. "I don't want to be rude, but you said it was itchy..."

[wwiii]

It took pretty much all the self-control that Warren had in him to keep from nodding too emphatically at the offer. But... Well, Karla would be the first person to make that offer to him.

Ever.

So even if he managed to wrestle that pleading look from his face, it was still loud and clear in his voice. "Please? If that isn't too weird? It's not so bad as it could be right now. I mean, not having them crammed into a coat all the time makes a lot of difference, you know? But I still can't quite reach."

[therewaslife]

"Hullo, Warren," said Bod, having wandered up to the roof because it was closer to his room than the deck and he wanted some fresh air. "Everything all right?"

[wwiii]

"Hm?" Warren glanced over his shoulder, shooting Bod a little smile and then shrugging a bit. "Mostly all right, anyhow. In the grand scheme of things, this is sort of like one of those temporary annoyances that I don't have to deal with all of the time, at least."

Which was probably for the best. Because if he had to deal with this much itching every day of the year, he'd probably spend most of his time pounding his forehead into a wall.

"How are you doing today, Bod?"

[therewaslife]

"Better than you, it seems," he answered, wandering closer. "No temporary annoyances that I haven't caused myself, at least. Is there anything I can do to help?"

[wwiii]

"Not unless me all but begging you to scratch my back doesn't come off as really, really weird," Warren shared, trying a sheepish smile on for size. "But if you were to agree to that, odds are pretty high that I wouldn't let you stop."

There was a thought. He could just pay someone to scratch his back. And his wings. And to poke at the new feathers and to clean up the dust and...

Look, Warren was allowed to dream big.

[therewaslife]

"I don't know if either of us would be really comfortable with me scratching your back," said Bod but he did entertain the idea of helping. He liked helping even if this was an odd request.

"Have you tried a back scratcher?" he suggested. "I've seen those in gift stores before."

[glacial_queen]

Karla gave Bod a small wave when she saw him on the roof. He was familiar in that 'I've seen you in the dorms' kind of way, but she didn't think that they'd ever actually spoken. "Kiss kiss," she said.

There. Now that had.

Sorta.

[therewaslife]

"...hullo," Bod said, not quite able to parse that greeting but she didn't appear to be coming towards him to try and kiss him so he didn't ask.

Yet.

"I'm guessing that a traditional greeting of your culture?" All right, the not asking didn't last long.

[glacial_queen]

"Not of my culture, but a traditional greeting of mine," Karla said, giving him a crooked smile. "And just a greeting, so you don't have to worry about me suddenly launching myself at you."

He'd looked a little leery at the prospect. Fortunately, Karla was far too amused by that reaction to be bothered by it.

[therewaslife]

"I will admit that the thought crossed my mind," Bod confessed, blushing just a bit. "I'm still getting used to the myriad of cultures that are contained just within the island and it wouldn't be so unusual for a culture to believe in upfront affection."

[notavalleygirl.livejournal.com]

Kitty hadn't been up to the roof before. She hadn't even really realized the roof was anywhere to be till yesterday, so she figured it might be worth checking out. She kind of figured it'd just be like a roof, been there, done that, end of story.

"Oh hey, feathers are new," she noticed, completely casually as she came over to the edge.

[wwiii]

"It kinda looks like I have a few to spare today," Warren decided, before looking up at the girl who was making her way over. "I haven't decided yet if that fact is mortifying, or just plain annoying, but I'll get back to you on that one."

[notavalleygirl.livejournal.com]

"Go with annoying. It's easier to like, just own it that way," she decided. "So I'm guessing that'd make you Warren, huh?" Call it a hunch.

[wwiii]

"Of all of the guys with huge feathered wings living on this island, you single me out as the Warren here?" He attempted to look stern for all of two seconds before he just dropped the visage and smiled. He didn't have it in him to stay grumpy at a cute girl, darn it. "Sounds to me like I almost have a reputation, now."

[notavalleygirl.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm friends with Kurt and Bobby in alternate universes or whatever," she said with a little wave of her hand. "That's gotta make the reputation thing like a little better, right?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice wandered out onto the roof, nodding her hellos to the boy with wings and the other students gathered there.

"Your feathers appear to be falling out," she noted, lifting one plume from the ground and offering it to him. "Are you ill?"

[wwiii]

"Nah, I'm fine," Warren replied, grimacing a little as he reached for the offered feather. "It's just this thing that..."

He wrinkled his nose a bit, and then shrugged and pressed on. Why not? "This thing that happens when you have feathers. The weather changes, you molt. And you replace the old, ratty feathers with new ones."

He ran his finger over the edge of the feather thoughtfully, and then held it out toward her again, so she could see it more closely. It was a bit on the tattered side, between Yei's efforts at taming the large bird and everyday wear and tear that came from being a teenage boy who happened to be able to fly.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

She took it carefully, brushing her fingers over the edges.

"It seems a shame," she said. "Old turns to new, as everything does, but perhaps this feather had just gotten good at his job. He's far too pretty to be so easily discarded."

[wwiii]

"Either that, or he's not as sleek as he used to be, and it's time to send him into retirement along with the kids and the rest of his extended family."

Since they were personifying what was sort of like the avian equivalent of shed hair, and all.

"If you don't think it's weird carrying around something that fell off of my back, you're more than welcome to keep it. The frayed ones just make flying more difficult."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Then we should be sure that he stays with the wife," she smiled. "Unless he's happy to be finished with her. The vows say 'till death do us part,' but it seems many are eager to reach that point. Why should it be weird carrying something from your back? It isn't as though I'm keeping toenail clippings. More like a lock of hair."

She was now trying to affix the feather to her shirt. It would add a certain panache. Never mind that the feather was longer than the shirt.