𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 [𝚐.𝚒 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚡 𝚐𝚗!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

Interlude: Wangshu Inn

Once the two of you set down on the balcony of Xiao's personal room in the inn, you were immediately brought back into another hug. You didn't have it in you to feel amused at the way Xiao was protectively wrapped around you, his arms and wings becoming a barrier from the outside world, to the point where you thought if anyone looked upon the scene, they wouldn't even know you were there.

A quick squeeze after a while of hugging had Xiao disconnecting from his octopus grip around you.

"Go take a bath." He muttered.

"What?"

Xiao's face turned a pretty shade of pink. "Didn't you say relaxation is important, and a bath can help you relax?"

You chuckled. "Yeah I did. I'll go do that, okay?"

He nodded and you slipped past him, entering the connected bathroom and twisting the metal knob of the bath to fill the tub. You stripped yourself sinking into the warm water, twisting the knob off when enough had filled the tub.

It actually was really nice to finally have a bath after who knows how long of hanging in a dirty dungeon cell. The warm water practically forced your muscles into goo, your head tipping back to rest on the edge of the tub as your eyes slipped shut. For a moment, you simply sat there, pleasantly surrounded by warmth and content before grabbing an unused soap bar that sat on the edge of the tub.

You began to clean yourself. You weren't encrusted with dirt like you thought you would be, Tighnari must've wiped down your face, arms, and legs at the very least before patching you up, so it wasn't that much work to get the remaining dirt off your body.

Your hair was another story. With how dirty, dusty, oily, and disgusting it smelt, you wonder how Xiao was actually able to hug you without cringing away. You scrubbed ferociously until it felt smooth and the semi-sweet smell of the soap was finally sticking.

Rinsing off one last time, you stepped out of the cooling water and dried yourself off, putting the flowy shirt and shin length pants back on. They were completely dirty, only having been put on today (you think), so it was good enough.

You walked out of the steamy bathroom, your hair damp and your face smoothed out, finally losing its tenseness, along with the rest of your body.

Xiao was waiting for you, wings fluttering, on the bed. His normally stoic face was plagued by a displeased curl to his lips and a furrow to his brow.

"Hey," you called. "What happened to relaxation? Why're you sitting there like a statue?"

Xiao's eyes darted over to you, his fists curled like he wanted nothing more than to reach out and pull you to him, but he was restraining himself. "You needed to relax, not I."

You raised your eyebrow, moving to sit next to him on the bed. Gently placing your hand on his back, you felt all the knots, especially in his neck and shoulders. "I don't know about you, but being so stiff your entire back is basically a knot, requires a little relaxing."

You moved so you were sitting on your heels behind Xiao, resting your hands on his shoulders. "You okay with me doing this?"

Xiao didn't hesitate to mutter a soft 'yes', not even turning around to look at you.

You shrugged and began to work your hands into his shoulders, twisting your fingers into the hard knots, and holding his neck between your hands to rub along the sides and work out any lasting tenseness. Xiao was strangely quiet throughout the whole ordeal, only letting out little grunts when you finally undid a particularly large knot.

When you finished, Xiao's body loose and slumped, you smiled. Your eyes traced his shoulder blades, muscles, his tattoos and how his tight white shirt highlighted his body. Your eyes trailed to his wings and you noticed all the little feathers out of place, the dust diminishing the glow of some of his golden feathers.

"Xiao, when was the last time you preened your wings? They look dirty." You were genuinely curious, but your tone must've come out a different way than what you intended when Xiao curled in on himself, his wings furling close to his back.

"Are they hideous?" His voice is quiet, almost meek, yet resigned, as if he already knew your answer.

"No!" You gasped. "I didn't mean it that way! I just figured you keep on the uptake and to see them not so pristine..." you stopped before your words tangled even more. "I'm sorry, your wings are very beautiful."

"...I haven't groomed my wings since I lost them thousands of years ago." Xiao began hesitantly. "When I got them back, I wanted to keep them... nice but I had difficulty remembering how I groomed them properly. I couldn't reach some of the feathers. I felt like I wasn't doing it right. I got... frustrated, and embarrassed, so I stopped."

You stayed silent as Xiao spoke. He had never been so open with you before, so straightforward about his own emotions. You felt warmth for him bloom in your chest and you hugged him from behind, feeling him stiffen up before relaxing completely.

"I could... help, if you want me too." From where your head rested on his shoulder, you could see his cheeks redden.

He stuttered out an 'okay' and you smiled. "Do you have a brush I could use?"

He pointed silently to the nightstand and you reached over to pull out a soft brush with bristles of stiff, smooth hair, from the drawer.

From there you got to work. First, you finger combed all the feathers back into place, sliding your hands through his wings, you adjusted each one meticulously, making sure to handle them gently so you didn't damage them.

Second, you brushed his feathers with the soft haired brush, removing all the dirt and dust laying on the surface and covering the beautiful glow of his wings.

When that was done, you paused. Looking over his wings now, they looked significantly healthier than before, but something was missing, a shine.

"Xiao, where are your oil glands? It's the last thing I need to preserve your wings. It'll stop them from gathering more crap."

Xiao was as quiet as he had been since the grooming started, holding his face in his face and not even daring to make a sound.

"...The base of my wings."

You nodded, though he couldn't see, and felt around the base of his wings, fingers trailing over where feathers met skin until you found an area semi damp with sweet smelling oil. You pressed the assumed glands til your hands were covered in the viscous liquid.

Once again moving your hands through Xiao's wings, you coated each feather with the protective oil until they shined.

When you were done completely, you sat back and looked over your work, a proud smile on your lips.

Xiao's wings were glowing and pretty, free of any dirt with feathers all neatly in place.

"You look so beautiful." You said, and Xiao only hung his head lower. You laughed. "Aww did my compliment embarrass you?"

The adeptus scoffed, finally turning to look at you with a burning face. "No."

You laughed again and Xiao's eyes narrowed further into an embarrassed glare.

"Come on." You scooted back on the bed and shuffled to sit under the covers. "We're both clean and relaxed, now let's go to bed. We have to fly to Mond tomorrow."

Xiao seemed to debate something before crawling in bed next to you, laying stiffly with his wings hanging off the side.

You smothered the wheeze that wanted to escape you at the sight of the adeptus laying stick straight on his side, a serious look on his face.

You lay down next to him and with softly traded 'goodnights', you were off to sleep.

A/n - This chapter isn't disconnected from the story, it's still canon, I just thought this was a little too short to be a chapter on its own. Because of that, I made it a double update and decided to be fancy and call it an 'Interlude' lmao.