Madeleine Grows a Pair

11 - We Own the Night

It wasn't until nighttime that Espresso realized how tired he was. Usually, he slept on weekends so it wouldn't interfere with his work, but he'd spent the time being caught up in the whole Madeleine situation.

When he didn't get any sleep, his body had ways of telling him that he needed it. Sometimes it would be a wavering concentration on his work, and often he would just shut down on the spot. This time it was a massive headache pounding in his head. 

Madeleine was sitting backward on the chair by his desk. He was leaning his head on the back of it, eyes half-lidded. 

He was rambling on some story about protecting the kingdom. "-and then, Black Raisin's crows flew in and distracted them while I charged up another attack-" He stopped as if one of the words gave him a realization. 

"Espresso, how much do you know about birds?" 

Espresso closed his eyes and leaned back in his swivel chair, "About as much as any other cookie, I suppose."

"Ah," Madeleine blinked. There was no cape for his wings to hide behind and they fanned out limply, almost touching the ground. They were impossibly ruffled and unkempt to the point where they couldn't be ignored. 

"Can you help me fix my feathers?"

The question surprised Espresso. After all, just a few days ago, Madeleine outright refused to even acknowledge the wings. 

Well, there wouldn't be any harm in taking a break. All he was doing was typing up a lab report, which was getting boring. Maybe the change of pace would help. 

Espresso triple-checked that he had saved his progress and left his station by kicking the nearest wall. He and the chair rolled over to Madeleine. 

"So, how do I- uh?" Espresso hovered over one side of him, unsure if he was supposed to grab a wing and get to work or if he was just there for moral support.

Madeleine grabbed one of the wings at his side and plopped it on Espresso's lap with a smile. It sat there limp and unmoving. 

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Boundaries were another thing Espresso liked to triple-check.

"Usually I hate it when anything touches me but it's all numb for the most part. Sometimes I can feel it, but…" Madeleine grabbed his other wing and started making it look presentable. He didn't sound like he wanted to finish the sentence.

"I remember a particularly harsh winter I lived through. There were times when I'd get frostnip and my hands would go numb, it wasn't fun." Espresso tried to be as delicate as possible while aligning the feathers, "...though, thinking about it, the hard part wasn't losing feeling, it was getting it back." 

"Oh! I know that. When you're getting the feeling back in your hands and everything feels like it's burning when it's really the opposite."

"Yes! That. I hate it."

Madeleine tilted his head, "This one feels different though. I’m getting uhh… blocks of feeling? I dunno, it's just annoying." 

"Blocks of feeling…" Espresso wasn't too sure what that meant, but any information on the wings was good information. 

He pet the wing on his lap. It was soft despite all of the ruffled feathers. Each feather gave off its own source of light, pulsing with magic. They matched the color of Madeleine's hair, save for the gold bands running down the width of them. The wings were a perfect manifestation of light magic. 

Espresso should really keep a notebook for all the things he was noting. 

He would ask Madeleine if he was fine with that later. He was asked for help, and would see to it that the request was fulfilled.