1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

day twenty-seven: wing grooming

very short, mostly because of a lack of motivation. i kind of want to continue with a general wing story line some day. actually, i've kind of already written one. but you know.

tomorrow's at the bottom.

"all right, all right, hold still, you gremlin," lance muttered, bending over pidge's feathers with his tongue poking out. his wings ruffled behind him to keep his balance. "you got a jolly rancher in here, where did you even find a jolly rancher in space?"

pidge scowled, slumping back. across from her, hunk and keith were trying to hold back their laughs. "i had some in my pockets when we got into space, and i used coran's duplicator to make more. i must have accidentally laid on it in bed."

lance shook his head, tisking, and gently tugged the candy from her wings, wrinkling his nose and leaning over for the rag and warm water he always had prepped when he did pidge or keith's wings – they tended to get a little more ragged than his and hunk's. he dabbed the water against her feathers, loosening the tiny drips of candy and dragging them away with his fingers.

"you could just pluck them, i don't care," pidge said, and lance knew she was rolling her eyes.

"yeah, but i care," lance retorted, tossing the

own feathered jolly rancher into her lap and smirking as she squawked. "it's itchy when they grow back, and that's not fun. suck it up."

keith was fully grinning now. "wow, i can't believe that for once your wings are worse than mine."

"don't push it," hunk muttered from behind him, squinting at the onyx wing in his hand. "your limb is all scratched up from the last battle and there's a twig in here. how do you guys ignore the care that badly?"

lance smiled, finally detangling the delicate feather strands with the candy on them and moving to the next chunk, relieved to see no food products. "they like having people dote over them, they just won't admit it."

both the other paladins grumbled, but they didn't protest lance's statement, which was all the proof he needed that he was right. he grinned, untangling a particularly difficult knot in the mottled