Preening

Shen was running out of ideas; the kitten continued to cry, her tears making wet trails down her face fur. She continued to shift around uncomfortably in his lap, burying her face in his hemp robes, crying her heart out, soaking in the warmth of him being there - and yet, it was doing nothing to calm her sobs.

The peacock closed his eyes, about to give up, just let the girl cry herself out, since he could bring no comfort. He moved to get up, put her down, and an idea struck him. One of the only fond memories of nostalgia with his parents: he had been only five when he fell into his usual bout of sickness. His mother had taken him into her wings, trying to calm his feverish cries; she gently ran her beak through his feathers, preening them softly.

Shen looked down at the child still clinging and sniffling into his robe. Hesitantly (and making sure no one was at the door, watching), he bent his head down, carefully and soothingly running his beak along the child's face fur. The cries noticeably subsided nearly to nothing as the kitten took in this new gesture.

She clutched tighter to him, peering up at him with wide wet blue eyes.

---

Doubtlessly the sweetest moment those two have EVER had. So, this again was a role play with my dearest - takes place after "Redeeming Light", in the Jade Palace. (It's actually set where my new fic might take place - the one with the dragon from "Me And My Dragon"), where the girl has gone off exploring, far, without telling anyone. She's punished for it, and Shen makes a mistake of simply roughly putting the girl on the bed after and storming out, without a hint of consolation. He then finds he has more trouble than usual comforting the girl because of his mistake, and is forced to resort to something he thought he'd never do.

I love their relationship in our role play; it's more of a guardian/child thing, rather than brother/sister. I'm actually leading more to the guardian/child bond now.

"Preening" is what an animal does - commonly a bird - to groom their feathers/fur, or groom their young.

<sub>( I don't think he'll get to this point in my story for a LONG time...but..it's fun to role play it. And you can see I used Kurisu's new more 'Nicolas Marlet' style )

Stock © MadameM-stock

Shen © Dreamworks

Kurisu © Cryssy-miu</sub>