Chapter Text
It was starting to get bright, and as much as the imp wanted to just roll over and ignore it, the light was kinda annoying. He'd been sleeping in the big bed again. That seemed to happen a lot more than it'd used to; the bird telling him that he wanted Blitzø to stay up here after he was done. He liked it, it was warm and snuggly.
Often he'd wake up to find the bird fucking him thought, which was always real disorientating. His brain weren't exactly quick at the best of times, and if he'd been dreaming then it'd usually take him a good few minutes to work out what was going on. The bird did whatever he wanted all the time.
This night hadn't been any different. Blitzø had woken up twice to the feeling of something being pushed inside him, and the second time the bird had even ended up pulling his head down by the horns to cum in his mouth. Not down his throat, like when he was in trouble, but right onto his tongue in a big sticky mess that the imp was told to swallow down or else. He'd liked it. It'd been hot, even though it left him frustrated. But that was how it went most of the time. It weren't often he'd get to the place he was going, ‘cause Stolas preferred fucking his cunt rather'n the other hole, and there weren't nothing Blitzø could do about that.
Weird remembering his name sometimes though. It weren't always there, but sometimes when he was more calm the shape of it would show up in his brain. Funny how he could remember so many of the words for sex stuff, and yet all of the things in the cold tiled room were just blank spaces in his head. Whatever. He couldn't remember most things really, sometimes even stuff that he'd only just learned.
It'd been exciting getting used for whatever the bird wanted in the night. It always was, but now he was real tired. He wanted more sleep, but the light was too bright and when he raised his head he saw that the bird man had pushed the curtains along their slidey things. Eugh, no wonder it was so bright. Why'd he always have to get up so early? Blitzø had seen the stuff on his table, it was all boring flat things with shapes on them, nothing worth getting outta bed for, but apparently the bird loved it ‘cause he spent a whole lotta time sitting there.
“Hmmm…” he yawned, rolling himself over in a long stretch. At the table the bird lifted his head to look at him. His eyes were so weird, all big and glowy like that, and Blitzø felt that familiar little tug of excitement just behind his belly button. Maybe he'd wanna come back and play with him some more.
“Good morning Blitzø. And before you start in on your squirming, no, I am not going to come and join you. You had plenty during the night, so now I must insist that you get up and take yourself off to the bathroom. You are all over jizz.” That was way too many words at once, so rather'n even try and work out what he'd said the imp belly crawled his way over to the edge of the bed, purring as enticing as he could make it. He wanted to get fucked, or even go outside, not sit around being bored while the bird stared at his table.
“Rrrggh,” he growled, rolling upside down to show his belly. Maybe the bird would wanna play fight. Blitzø would definitely lose, but that only meant he'd end up with a dick inside him so… win win. Instead of coming over to wrestle with him, the bird man only shook his head with his eyes all crickled up, before raising a long finger to point at the other door.
“Now, filthy creature.” Blitzø stared. Was it… did he want him to wash? It never made any sense, ‘cause sometimes he'd want him to stay sticky for hours, but other times the bird would want him to get clean right away.
With a sulky huff the imp flopped down into a heap on the floor, before pushing up to stalk over to the other door. He never got what he wanted. The tiled room was cold. Blitzø didn't like the way the floor felt under his hooves, but he made himself walk over it anyway. Piss first, then wash. Today he decided he didn't want the falling water, but the other one. It was hard to scramble up onto the lip of the big tub. He was too short for it and the sides were slippery, but once he was up he could lean across to fiddle with the twisty things at one end. Eventually he got the action right and water started falling down to fill the tub.
Blitzø leant back to let himself coil all lazy down into the puddle that was starting at the bottom. The sides rose up so high he couldn't see over the top, and even with his tail fully stretched he still had loads of space. He liked it in here. It'd taken him a real long time to work out how to fill it up and he still sometimes forgot to do the twists again and there'd be all this water on the floor, but that was alright. It was worth getting punished for it sometimes.
There were things lined up in rows along the back and as the water got high enough to float he brought his tail up to swish between them. He didn't know how they were called or what they were for, but the bird would sometimes dump some out into the tub. A few came clattering down to bob around with him and he grabbed the nearest one to give it a squeeze. Not with his teeth. They tasted disgusting inside, he'd learned that lesson the hard way. Nice smells rose up into the misty air and he let the thing go to float around with the others.
Hmm, the warm was so nice. He always liked the warm. The tub was big too, plenty of space to roll himself around in the water and splash his hooves at the nice smelling floating things. Maybe today he'd squeeze another one. Make the whole room smell good.
When he'd finally got tired of splashing he heaved himself up onto the side to shake the water off his skin. One foot went slipping back down with a plop, but a moment later he'd found his balance and then he was dropping down to go marching back into the other room.
“Ah, ah, ah!” tutted the bird, turning to fix him with a dangerous stare. “Have you drained the bath? And put the bottles away?” No, he hadn't. He didn't really want to, but those red eyes were glaring at him so he forced himself to turn back around and try and remember how to do those things. He had to climb right back into the water again to do everything, and this time when he was done he didn't bother shaking it all off before wandering over to lean right up against the bird's side.
“Eww, Blitzø! You are soaking wet! You know where the towels are. Did you do that on purpose?!” The imp shook his head, even though he had. Big hands came grabbing for him but he ducked away before they could reach him, giving his tail a rude little flourish on his way over to the waiting plate of food. He wanted to eat now, before the bird decided to do anything gross to it.
The meat was good, and he wolfed it down as quick as he could while the bird shot him disapproving glances outta the corner of his eye. Whatever. No way he was gonna spend ages eating food with those stupid little pointy things the way the bird did. When he was done he dropped the plate back down and strode over to push his head against the bird's elbow.
“Don't jostle me, Blitzø. I am working, why don't you take yourself off and watch television? One long finger rose to point over at the fuzzy furniture, and the imp took a moment to stare after it. Nah he didn't wanna do that. The pictures were nice, but there was so much talking and he could hardly make sense of any of it.
Instead he wandered outside for a bit, then back in again when it got annoying. He tried lying down, but that was boring too. Eventually he found himself standing at the end of the bird's table, staring at him with wide, bored eyes. He couldn't even see what he was doing. Some scratchy feather stuff like usual, but right now it was the only thing moving in the whole damn room.
Carefully the imp latched his claws into the top of the table. Right at the far end, not where the bird was. No reaction. After another few seconds he gave a little pull, seeing how much of his weight he could dangle off it. It didn't even move at all, and Stolas kept his head down. Okay, that was good. Without waiting for the bird to spot him, Blitzø kicked off the floor to heave himself up onto the end of the table.
“And just what do you think you are doing?” Straight away he was getting glared at, but the imp made sure to keep himself real low, arched down all submissive right at the edge outta the way. After a few seconds those red eyes softened and Blitzø came crawling forwards on his belly. The bird reached out a hand and he leaned into it, for once just liking being near him rather than instantly wanting to push for more.
“Fine. As long as you can sit still and behave. The second you are disruptive you are going back onto the floor, treasure.” His voice was soft, even if he'd already half stopped looking at him to stare instead at whatever this shit on the table was.
Carefully Blitzø let himself lean over a bit closer and look. It was complicated shapes and patterns that he didn't know, mostly in boring colours but some of it in interesting red. There was more red on the other side, the side where the bird had been scraping the feather over and over, and for a minute the imp just crouched there and watched as the bird made these big red lines all across the complicated shapes. How was he doing that? It was interesting, but he couldn't get any sense out of it. The feather itself wasn't red, but wherever it touched the paper there'd be colour. It wasn't until he saw the bird stick the feather into a little pot and pull it back red that he really got it. He must've… seen someone do this before, right? But not like this, not with pots and feathers and whatever…
Moving as slowly as he could, Blitzø edged his way around the top of the picture to get a sniff at the pot. The smell was sharp, but not so bad. How did he get it to stick to the feather like that? Over and over again he watched as the bird dipped, then made lines, and he kinda wanted to stick his finger in the pot, but would that get him in trouble? This was more interesting than being on the floor, he didn't wanna be made to leave.
“I can feel you watching me, little imp.” The bird hadn't even raised his head to talk, just kept moving his hand across the paper over and over.
“Hmmh…” It wasn't a word, or even anything close to it. He just wanted to let him know that he'd heard.
“And what are you finding so interesting? Do you like the way the pen moves?” This time the red eyes had glanced up to look at him and he was wiggling the feather back and forth, watching as Blitzø followed the motion. It was nice, all flicky at the end, but he was more focused on the red lines and how they got made. “This is a star chart, pet. I must plot out the lines of prophecy upon them to determine the minute fluctuations of fate.” None of that made any sense at all, but that was alright. The imp was liking the way he was talking to him.
For a long moment the bird just stared at him, his head cocked to one side with a weird expression on his face, then he reached out to a pile of paper that'd been stacked at his elbow. Blitzø watched as he pulled an empty bit off the top, then he got another feather from somewhere and was pushing them across the table towards him with a smile.
“Would you like to try?” Try… try what? He didn't know what the bird was doing, but the paper and feather were in front of him and he was real interested. “Have you been watching? You see how I dip the quill into the ink?” He was moving real slow, making sure the imp was paying attention as he stuck his own feather down into the little pot then pulled it back up to dab a blob of red onto Blitzø's paper. “Now you.” Now him… what? Pick up the feather?
Focusing as hard as he could, the imp tried picking it up and sticking it into the bottle. It came up all red at the end and he leant forwards to give it a curious sniff.
“Don't lick it now, try it out on the paper.” Long fingers were tapping on the white sheet and slowly, taking his time, Blitzø pushed the red end against the nothingness. Straight away there was a splotch of colour and ohh, that was so satisfying. He tried it again, in a line this time and just like that there was a line. He'd… he'd done this before. Not like this, but… but there was something there.
Without even looking at the bird Blitzø let himself settle down onto his elbows while he scribbled out all these big lines all over the paper. It was scrawly and blotchy, just a messy tangle, but it felt real good to do it anyway. Dimly he was aware of the bird watching him but he didn't care, and when the red ran out he tried dipping it in the pot so he could go again. Line after line after line. And circles, and big blobby shapes, whatever his hands felt like. He went at it until the paper was full, and then brought his head up with a whine.
“Do you need another sheet, treasure?” Straight away another bit was getting pushed towards him and he tugged it over quick. There were all these shapes in his head and he so badly wanted to get them down.
Scrawly things, these big spirals with dots in the middle. It made him feel weird. It didn't look right and he tried that one again. Better this time, but still not really how it was supposed to look. Each time he got it wrong he got a little bit upset, but he couldn't make himself stop either. It just wasn't happening though, so after a while he made himself give up on that one and start drawing other things. He didn't really know what he was trying for, but it felt so good to do it anyway.
He completely zoned out. He didn't have any idea about how long he'd been doing this; the bird had handed him sheet after sheet and there was red all over his fingers, and on his elbows and all up the feather until it felt sticky to hold, but that was alright. Stolas had gone back to his working but every now and then he'd raise his head to look at what the imp was doing.
“Lovely, Blitzø. And what is that one supposed to be, a flower?” Maybe, he didn't really know. Flower wasn't a word he remembered.
After a while his wrist was starting to hurt and he sat back a bit to look down at what he'd been doing. There weren't really much sense to it, well, not mostly. Sometimes there'd be bits of things in there that he knew were supposed to be something, like the tub in the other room, or the pattern on his own tail.
“Is that the bath, pet? I like how you have arranged the bottles where they are supposed to be, rather than floating around in the water where you usually leave them.” The bird had been talking with a smile and that made him feel real warm. There'd been the word in there too, the one for the thing he'd drawn and all of a sudden that was kinda special. He'd made a shape, and the bird had known what it was…
All of a sudden there were ideas rushing around in his head and just like that he was folding back down to drag the feather over the paper. He could do this. There was stuff he wanted and he could make those shapes, if he focused real hard.
It took him maybe ten minutes. The first couple attempts were just messy scribbles, but by the time he got to the third the picture looked like he wanted it. With a shiver the imp sat back and lifted the paper to show the bird. At first Stolas just stared at it, but Blitzø tapped his claw against the paper, suddenly feeling all excited.
“What? It is very pretty, pet,” murmured the bird, not really looking at it at all. That wasn't the reaction he wanted. Whining loud he tapped the thing again, almost making a hole in it with his claws. “I… what? You have made two dozen such scribbles, Blitzø. I don't see… oh, is that supposed to be a cigarette?” The imp didn't get what he was saying, but the bird was staring at him real intense.
“You… did you draw what you want? Blitzø I-, that is… quite something…’ he'd stopped what he'd been doing to reach out and take the paper and he was staring between it and him with a weird expression on his face. He was taking ages, so the imp decided to whine again and this time he got a smile. “Y-yes… alright. It is a filthy habit, but I suppose after having gone to so much effort it is not as if you have not earned it…”
The bird pushed up to his feet, already walking towards the door and beckoning behind him like he wanted the imp to follow. Had it worked? His voice had been all weird, so maybe it had and Blitzø felt a happy little rush of excitement. Straight away he was leaping down to follow the bird outside, and he'd not even been out in the air for a second before the man was doing that swish thing with his fingers. The thing he'd been wanting appeared just like that, then it was being passed down into his reaching hands.
“Ah!” he breathed, so fucking delighted that it'd worked. He'd never managed to ask for anything before. Well, apart from sex. Warmth filling his chest he followed the bird over to the railing, the stick thing already held in his mouth. He was so happy that it took him a second to realise that it wasn't working. There was another thing he needed, a clicky something that hadn't happened last time ‘cause it'd already been hot when he'd got it. He was looking around all annoyed, wondering if he was gonna have to go back in and try with the feather again when Stolas gave his horn a tug.
“Here, little gremlin,” sighed the bird, leaning down to make fire come outta the tip of one finger. The imp flinched. He couldn't help it, the bird could do such weird stuff sometimes, but the fire was what he had wanted.
Ughh, that felt good. The thing was burning and he was breathing it in, all heady and gross and amazing. With a sigh the imp let himself lean against the railing feeling so fucking pleased with himself. Like this he could see all the plants down there and it felt… like… normal. Just a little bit.
The bird had moved up to stand behind him, and he liked that too. It was warm and cosy and he felt himself wriggle back a bit to get the feeling of his soft feathers against his spine. Smoke was huffing in and outta his lungs, and he could feel it relaxing him with every breath. Slowly the bird bent down to rest his head on Blitzø's shoulder, which also felt pretty damn nice.
“Well done, dearest. You know, your drawings are quite excellent. I will admit that I was expecting nothing more than smudgy fingerprints and smeared ink, but you seem to have quite the eye for form. I should not have imagined you capable of expressing anything meaningful, and yet here we are.” His warm hands had slid around the imp's waist and Blitzø felt himself shiver. He really liked that. It was nearly distracting him from the thing in his mouth, but this was his. He'd got this for himself.
“Hmm…” he murmured, and for a moment some strange instinct made him lean back, shoot the bird a smile, hold up the stick towards him to see if he wanted any. It was… what you did. Sometimes, with the right person.
To his surprise the bird actually took it. He didn't keep it for long, only one little breath, but the way he held it meant he was also used to it.
“Thank you, Blitzø. That is very generous,” he said with a smile, passing it back down. Warm feathers nuzzled against the side of his face and the imp settled into it with a happy sigh.