Since the two of them had come to a . . . realization about their feelings, there was always something with Miles. Granted, from his own experience and judging by how Yards talked about him, Long-ge expected that life with Miles would be always eventful, but he thought he’d at least have peace in his own home when he was alone and not expecting anyone.

Or while he was asleep. But no—here came the bane of his existence, flying through his open window, bringing the cold air inside with him. Miles landed firmly on the ground, the squeaking of his sneakers cutting through the silence. A wayward yellow leaf that had been stuck in his hair floated down and landed beside him.

“Miles!” he yelled, sitting up from his couch. A quick rest had turned into a nap, and Long-ge couldn’t think of a worse way to wake up.

He could hear the grin in Miles’s voice. “The one and only.”

“The one and only pain in the ass,” Long-ge said, trying not to sound as though he’d just woken up, lest Miles use it against him. “What did I tell you about using the door? Like a normal person?”

Before Long-ge could sit up fully, Miles sat on his legs, trapping him. “I don’t remember,” he said, kicking his feet, “which means it wasn’t important.”

He groaned. “I just cleaned from the last time you showed up.” That wasn’t the whole truth, but it was good enough. It hadn’t been long since Miles had been to his place, and they were both generally tidy—except when Miles decided it was funnier not to be.

He lay back on the couch, and Miles leaned over him, his hair dangling loose from his ponytail. “Well, maybe next time you’ll—”

Long-ge sputtered and coughed as Miles’s hair fell in his face. He resisted the urge to sneeze. Miles brushed it aside and over his shoulder and spoke again.

“Well, maybe—”

“You need to shower,” Long-ge interrupted.

Miles squawked. “I’m perfectly fine, thank you!”

“Not sure about that one,” Long-ge said, pushing him off his lap. Miles fell to the ground dramatically. “Put your slippers on and get in the shower.”

Ignoring Miles’s protests, he yawned loudly and closed his eyes, pretending he didn’t exist until Miles stomped off to the shower. Then Long-ge opened one eye, looked at the leaf on the ground, and sighed.

***

Long-ge’s urge to clean overwrote his urge to make Miles clean up his own mess. Besides, after Miles had been in the shower for fifteen minutes and showed no sign of stopping, he figured Miles was going for the whole routine. In Long-ge’s shower. In Long-ge’s apartment. Unannounced to Long-ge, the sole occupant of this apartment.

It was also clear that he planned on staying. After an hour, he walked out, humming to himself and trailing more water along the floors that Long-ge just cleaned. Without even acknowledging him, Miles went straight into his bedroom, going through the drawer in the dresser that Long-ge had dedicated to his clothing. The absurdity of the situation was still not lost on Long-ge, though it seemed lost on his sudden visitor.

At least Miles had put on slippers. It didn’t fix the fact that Miles was still dripping water all over his floor with his endless hair, but it at least meant he wouldn’t slip and injure himself. He’d already set aside two fresh, dry towels for the undertaking that was drying his hair, but he didn’t point it out, instead barking, “Miles!”

“Huh?” Miles whipped his head up from looking through Long-ge’s dresser, and it spread more water droplets everywhere.

“You’re dripping water all over the floor.” Long-ge wasn’t even sure why he pointed it out.

“I’ve just taken a shower, and water is clean, so you’re just getting a free floor cleaning session, aren’t you?”

Long-ge took a deep breath and counted to three. “I should just let you slip and fall on the floor, hmm?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Who knows?” Long-ge walked up to him, getting in his face. “But I already told you to stay dry, so if you fall, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.” For a few seconds, they stared at each other, nose to nose. Miles’s smirk was indefatigable, but his retorts weren’t—when he opened his mouth to retort, Long-ge quickly reached up and snapped his lips shut between his index finger and thumb. Ignoring his sputters, Long-ge said, “Now do you want help with drying your hair, or do you want to let it dry naturally for the next three days?”

He was right not to expect an actual answer from Miles, who batted Long-ge’s hand away and flopped down onto the bed and sat cross-legged. “Of course not! How dare you insinuate I’m bad at taking care of my hair!”

“I’m not insinuating,” Long-ge said, taking the first towel and patting the top of Miles’s head. “I’m saying.”

“What makes you think you’d take better care of my hair than me, hmm?” Miles sat up and in front of Long-ge, straightening his spine. He continued his indignant tirade. “But sure, you can try. I’ll rate your performance after.”

Long-ge snorted. Truthfully, this was the first time he was helping with Miles’s hair past buying and restocking his hair products. He took what he knew from his own routine and started there, carefully dampening the wettest of Miles’s hair without tugging or scraping.

He quickly fell into the rhythm of brushing with a wide-toothed comb. Miles had already put in a light application of leave-in conditioner after his shower, and since then his hair had gone from “very damp” to “kinda damp.” But Miles’s hair was one thing; his feathered ears were another. Long-ge had seen them, of course—mostly from afar, more recently up close.

But now, with Miles mostly calm (of course they were still worked up in a conversation, Long-ge was sure if he stopped running his mouth for even one second he’d die), it was easier to tune him out and notice his feathers, especially once he turned the volume down on his hearing aids. Miles didn’t seem perturbed that his feathers were still a little damp, but it didn’t seem right to leave them that way.

Had he put product on them? They seemed sensitive, and it was obvious he had to be careful with them. But was it necessary? Miles droned on and on, but Long-ge’s attention was now singularly on the green feathers bobbing up and down. He took a dry hand towel in one hand and with his other touched a feather lightly.

Miles immediately shut his mouth, his teeth clacking. An off switch! If Long-ge had known about this earlier, he’d’ve done this a long time ago. Miles was biting his lip, his eyebrows furrowed not in anger or discomfort, but . . . his cheeks were flushed.

The only thing in Long-ge’s mind in that moment was Cute. So fucking cute.

He took the dry hand towel and realized it was still probably too stiff and scratchy for Miles’s feathers. He instead just took to taking Miles’s feathers between his thumb and forefinger, then gently squeezed from base to tip, watching the water drip onto the mattress. Miles’s body rumbled, but he didn’t stop Long-ge.

Was Miles enjoying this? He wasn’t contesting it. He turned the volume back up on his hearing aids a little, and he realized the rumbling he thought was just Miles’s phone vibrating on the bed was Miles himself. He sounded like he was purring, though if he said it out loud he was sure Miles would become self-conscious and stop.

“Is this uncomfortable?” Long-ge finally asked.

“What do you think?” Miles mumbled, though if anything his flush had only deepened. Still, he didn’t stop Long-ge, so he continued.

The feathers were softer than he imagined, and he’d taken care to rub them the correct way. Miles continued purring, finally relaxing a little bit. When Long-ge tugged a little harder to get water off them, Miles didn’t complain; they didn’t seem overly sensitive, but it seemed like they hadn’t been touched much.

And then, Long-ge was struck with an indescribable urge. He leaned forward and took one of the feathers into his mouth, pressing them between his lips.

Miles’s breath hitched, and then he yelped, but nothing more. Miles’s hair was still cold and damp, but Long-ge paid it no mind; he closed the distance between them, his chest pressed against Miles’s back, and wrapped his arms around Miles’s waist to hold him in place. “Is this uncomfortable?” he teased, nibbling on his feathers some more.

“You fucker,” Miles said, sounding at least a little breathless. He made a sound that wasn’t really a moan. He was allowing this more than Long-ge thought. Long-ge took his time nibbling and tugging a little, dangerously close to more intimate territory, when Miles chomped down on—

“Ack!”

Long-ge’s tail had been tapping with satisfaction on the bed as he teased and teased, but Miles had gone for the opening, and he had to concede that it was a pretty good one. Miles cackled without taking his teeth out from Long-ge’s tail, but he bit it where it was thicker, closer to his body—so Long-ge flicked the end of his tail to smack him in his face, and when Miles was recovering, Long-ge pounced.

Miles wouldn’t go down so easily, he knew, but he’d been softened from attention, and if Long-ge wanted to be honest, if he didn’t put up a fight, he wouldn’t have been so drawn to Miles in the first place. All over again, Miles was loud, and Long-ge was goading him on, dodging every attempt Miles made to grab him and successfully grabbing his wrists and pinning him against the bed.

“Wanna know what I think?” Long-ge said, grinning as he snapped at Miles’s feathers, missing by an inch as Miles squirmed away from him.

“Not really.” Miles grinned back up at him, even as he wiggled away from Long-ge’s mouth. He put his hands around Long-ge’s waist, rubbing his tail close to his body, right at the base.

It took all of Long-ge’s energy to ignore it, and ignore it he did. He also ignored Miles’s retort and continued, “I think you like it more than you let on.”

He leaned down and took Miles’s feathers in his mouth again, tugging again slightly. Whatever taunt he had flew out of his mind when Miles groaned, arching up into him, against his thigh—revealing to both of them what Miles really thought about the teasing.

Miles froze, and Long-ge stared at him for a few moments. Of course Miles wouldn’t admit what he wanted; now that he wasn’t putting himself second all the time, he didn’t know how to admit anything. Long-ge made a decision for both of them, leaning down to kiss him fully, pressing his weight down into him.

Miles tangled his hand in Long-ge’s hair and tugged him down, deepening the kiss, and Long-ge’s last coherent thought was God, I should’ve dried his hair completely first . . .