Work Text:
For once in his life, Illuga was having a slow morning.
He lacked a vanity, but a table with a desk mirror was good enough to comb his hair for the morning. His hair passed through easy enough, but struggled a bit at the end. With enough force, he managed.
A few irritated hairs came out with the comb, clearly protesting the rough treatment. Of course Illuga’s got more than enough hair to spare, but he still felt a little melancholy over it. Aedon chirped from where he rest next to Illuga’s lantern, to the little thing it must seem like Illuga just ripped out his own feathers. Ouch.
Hmm…
He looked at the hairs a little closer, noticing beyond how frazzled they were, a few of them had split at the ends.
His heart sunk not with the weight of his past and all his failures, but with the subtle defeat of soggy cereal sat in milk too long. How tragically mundane.
Illuga wasn’t a prude by any means, but he still liked to take care of himself. The split hairs annoyed him, perhaps in the same way a bird cannot help but preen feathers that are messy and disorderly. He grabbed a lock of his longest hairs to inspect, and lo-and-behold, scattered among the healthy were a few split ends.
Aha!
He isolated the first offending strand, narrowing in on it as a hawk does prey– Or a lightkeeper on mellow disorder. Or an Aedon on a worm. Or a– eh, whatever. His eyes start to go a bit cross but he uses the nail of his pointer and thumb to try and pick off the damaged area–
“...the hell you doing?”
Illuga does not jump, he has a defensive reaction! That’s all!
He turns in his seat to find Lohen, a bird’s nest of bedhead, blinking away sleep, and dressed in what seems to be Illuga’s shirt.
“I’m brushing my hair…?”
Lohen yawned, softly stretching to reveal a sliver of tummy as he did. “You’re holding a strand of your own hair hostage?”
Illuga scratched his cheek in embarrassment. “It was a split end! I was just gonna cut it–”
“With… what, exactly?”
“...”
He looked away a little.
Lohen faintly chuckled at Illuga’s predicament, still rumbly and drowsy with leftover morning sun.
“Here~”
That voice was always the sweet tone Lohen used before having a terrible idea. Illuga braced himself as Lohen leaned over suspiciously close to his face, closing his eyes– Only to have the singular offending hair taken from between his own fingers and nipped off by the blunt end of Lohen’s front teeth.
“All done. Better?”
Illuga blinked.
“...huh?”
Lohen dropped the singular hair into Illuga’s hand, pulling his knuckles to close around both it and Lohen’s own fingers.
“You really didn’t even think about just… give it a little peck?”
He shrugged sheepishly, freeing a thumb to gently caress Lohen’s as their hands rested steadily together.
“Ah, no… I suppose it is very fitting for you to think of a solution that involves biting me.”
“Ha, Hah,” Lohen laughed dryly. “Say that again and I’ll actually bite your junior off next time.”
He regretted his words immediately and squawked rather pathetically, “Please don’t.”
Lohen laughed in a way that didn’t exactly give him confidence, but that was a next time kind of problem. He rolled his eyes a little, but his lips betrayed him a small quirk of a smile. His shirt, or rather Illuga’s shirt slipped a little on his collar where the knight’s shoulders didn’t fill them out as much, letting a little pale skin show with the bruises made last night. The messy hair was endearing, and faint eyebags from staying up together too late–
Archons above, he’s pretty in the mornings.
Lohen quirked an eyebrow at him. “Okay,” he said with obvious mirth in his voice. “I’ll stay over more. How about it, birdie?”
“Err–”
I said that out loud?!
His boyfriend laughed at him, though not meanspirited.
“I don’t think you got enough sleep last night, baby. Why not come back to bed? I’ll pick out all your messy hairs.”
Lohen tugged a little on their joined fists, urging him to follow. Illuga looked remorsefully at his nicely combed hair, knowing he was just about to start his day… but that remorse faded when Lohen tugged a second time.
He followed the knight to bed, still messy and unmade, though he’s glad they had the foresight to clean up last night. Lohen collapsed on it with a satisfied hum like he owned the place, and, honestly? Illuga’s not opposed. He wants Lohen to feel as comfortable as possible in his home. Nod Krai is a far place from Mondstat, and while Illuga has never known a gentle version of the breeze, Lohen still stands atop cliff edges with his arms spread like he’s ready for flight every now and then.
He follows Lohen into their cozy nest, turning around at his boyfriend’s request to turn his back towards him. He hears Lohen scoot forward, and a pair of gentle hands start to comb into his hair.
It’s instantly relaxing. Illuga doesn’t have much of anything to do, so he just drums his finger against the mattress and hums every now and then as Lohen picks all the bad hairs out. He barely pulls at all, and nothing hurts. It is a little strange to think that somewhere behind him Lohen is putting his teeth on him again and he doesn’t even notice, but less so about the whole teeth thing, and more about Lohen being physically capable of biting and being gentle at the same
time. He didn’t think it was possible.
His teeth make a tiny click on every nibble. Lohen must’ve picked out so many by now… Illuga feels a little sleepy again.
It’s like getting preened by a very large bird back there.
And for birds, preening is only done among those with close bonds.
…Such as mates.
Illuga doesn’t jolt, he just has a physical reaction strong enough he accidentally hits Lohen square in the face with the back of his head.
“OW! What the hell, birdie?!”
He turns around excitedly, “Lohen, we’re mates!”
His boyfriend just furrows his eyebrows at him. “Didn’t you confess already last week? I thought we were dating. We are dating, right? Don’t make me look like an idiot. I’ll kill you, and then Varka, and then myself.”
Illuga presses a hand apologetically where he had bumped Lohen, but chatters excitedly, “No, I mean like birds, Lohen.”
“...tweet tweet.”
Illuga bursts out laughing.
It’s not often Lohen is the one looking at him in concern. In fact, this is the first time. But how often does he see Illuga laugh like this? Even less often. Lohen laughs with him, albeit confused.
Aedon chirps from somewhere across the room again, perhaps also concerned that Illuga is laughing like he’s gone insane.
“Ah-Aedon,” Illuga calls between giggles. “This is my mate, Lohen!”
Said mate deadpans at him, “I’m pretty sure Aedon already knows.”
“Hush, hush!”
He forcefully rolls Lohen onto his back, clambering over him and dropping to his head.
“Um–” Lohen goes a bit wide-eyed with blush. “I mean, I’m very down if you want to agai–”
Illuga leans over playfully, “No, not that right now– I have to preen you. It’s your turn!”
“My– You’re gonna what me?”
“Hold still, Lohen~”
“Hey, what the hell?! My hair!–”