Lucifer's Flock

The warm water felt like Heaven on his poor wings and he closed his eyes and just enjoyed the sensation of the spray of water over red, itchy skin. He had forgotten how good it could feel to not be in a constant state of irritation.

Dan had the hose in his hands, directing the flow of the water, while Ella watched the movement of his wings.

He asked her what she was doing just watching as soon as he realised only Dan was doing anything and was surprised by her answer.

"Dude, how often do I get to see the range of movement of an angel's wings? Can you show me properly?"

He frowned and shrugged his shoulders. "Sure when they're grown in and more impressive looking. It's a bit useless to do it now."

She nodded happily at his answer. "Sure! Sounds awesome. I'll look forward to that, especially watching you fly."

And that was what made him freeze. "Uh...watch me fly?"

She smiled widely at him. "You can't show a girl a pair of wings and not go all the way, man. You need to show us your fly moves."

Dan laughed at that. "Never thought I'd agree with anything sounding that close to innuendo when it comes to a man, but yeah, you need to show us what that looks like."

And for possibly the first time in his life, Lucifer understood what it meant to feel shy. He looked to the ground, ignoring the spray of water as Dan purposefully went for his pants and head instead of the wings. "Uh...I don't know if I am really ready for flying...I mean, no real feathers right now anyway..."

Dan turned off the hose and walked in front of him, before turning it back on to do the underside of the wings. Which meant the man could see the uneasy look on his face.

"Come on, Lucifer, what's wrong with flying if you have wings?"

He shifted from one foot to the other and spent a few seconds blinking water out of his eyes as Dan sprayed his face with warm water.

"There's nothing wrong with flying if you have wings! It's just...not something I have done in a very, very long time. I don't know if I remember how to fly."

Ella joined Dan at the front of him with a look of sympathy on her face. "Did they break?"

He shook his head. "Not break, no. Not grooming properly for a period of time, my feathers started coming in too thin and weak. I can't see where I'm reaching for my preening glands. Moulting was a nightmare. All I could do was reach what I could and let the others rub against things to get the wax off. My wings just couldn't hold my weight after a few bad moults. Not to mention no longer being aerodynamic."

"Oh, wow, sorry. Okay, we'll stop bugging you about flying," she replied and Dan nodded silently, while hosing down the left wing, which he arched out slightly to catch as much of the water as possible in a particularly itchy spot.

"Yes, thank you. And this, by the way, feels really good."

"You look less red," Dan stated, switching off the hose again but this time placing it back where he picked it up from. "Well, they have now been washed with warm water. What now?"

He grinned widely at them. "Preen them! Just...stimulate the glands, and very, very gently run your fingers down each quill. The tips of feathers may start showing, since they look about ready to start growing out, thankfully."

"I'll show him how it's done, Lucifer. Come on Dan, feather care 101."

And with that said they both disappeared behind him, out of view. He was suddenly paranoid about what they were going to do to him, but he needed this more than anything. He needed proper grooming, not the hack job he'd done to himself while in Hell. And this was probably going to be the first of many days spent like this.

Then a hand was touching his back, brushing against the small pins there, before tracing their way down to his wing joints, and finding out which way was the right way by feel to stimulate his preening glands to secrete. Once they figured that out, a bigger, heavier hand followed the actions of the other, mimicking what was done.

They were using his back as practice, obviously, since he had already stated several times he didn't want broken wing feathers. Ella quietly showed and talked Dan through it on feathers that would much more be what Dan would have to get used to on a bird. On feathers that he didn't mind if they accidentally broke or not. And for once, he was glad they existed there.

His anxiety began to slowly fade as the two of them carefully and calmly did those feathers, keeping a slow and steady pace.

It was almost like they knew he'd spook and try to run if they went any faster. He wondered how they would know that. All he knew was that he wanted to move this over to one of his deck chairs so he could lie down and give them better access to his wings while being comfortable himself, because he was suddenly very aware that this was going to take at least an hour or two if they kept this pace up.

"Um, can we move to the furniture? I don't think my legs will thank me staying upright in one spot for this. And neither will yours for that matter."

They both seemed to find that funny as they giggled behind him, before their hands disappeared.

"Sure," Dan said, going over to one of the chairs and sitting at the end.

"Maybe we should do your undersides first, so you can lie down afterwards. Plus, you'd be able to watch what we're doing before moving to your back. That way you can lie down and relax instead of having to get up halfway through." Ella, it seemed, was full of good ideas and he grinned at her.

"Yes, I think that's a great idea. Let's just get this over with."

He joined Dan on the deck chair and sat himself down, fanning one wing out for them to do so he could watch. And watch he did. He noted that Dan's hands, while bigger and rougher, were trying to be as gentle as possible. He barely pulled the wrong way once he got used to the repetitive movements of grooming and Lucifer felt himself relax fully.

Ella knew what she was doing and showed Dan how to tell if the tip of a feather was ready to grow out or not. By the time they had finished with that one side of a wing, the tips of fluffy white feathers were poking out and the irritation he had been feeling lifted a lot. Now the feathers had room to grow out. He hoped they grew in properly, but there was no way to tell right now.

He soon folded up that wing neatly against his back, a lot more comfortable even with the tickling of new feather growth shifting against his skin. He was feeling gloriously good and soon had the other wing out and the two humans shifted to his other side.

He grinned at the thought of herding sheep that flitted through his mind. At least now that he knew his feathers weren't going to be ripped out for fun, he found his mind drifting to other things, like whether or not they'd both be willing to come over every day to do this for him, or at least every day until the feathers were fully grown.

They seemed to be enjoying it, as both Ella and Dan fell into a steady, smooth rhythm once they got themselves into a pattern of work.

He missed it somehow when they had finished, blinking when a finger poked him in the side.

"Yo, Lucifer, time to turn around," Ella stated and he blinked again.

"Oh. Yes. Think I'm going to lie down. I think I am falling asleep here..."

They laughed at him, and he frowned and tried to figure out what was so funny. He blinked slowly at them again, before remembering that they needed to get to his back now. He moved over the deck chair and lay down on it, stretching out his wings and letting them stay in that position so they could each do one at the same time. It wouldn't be too comfortable, but it would get done quicker with both wings being worked on at the same time. No need to sort out patterns first, they could just go for it.

Somehow he did also manage to fall asleep like that. He had completely forgotten how comforting and good and safe this could feel.

He was unused to feeling these things. So, he found it equally as puzzling when they woke him up after they had finished and were happy to repeat the process again the next night.

The reason why he suddenly felt so comfortable and safe with them hit him like a bolt of lightning. Even when his brother was on duty with Hell and babysitting him, Amenadiel never did anything like this for him. Never even mentioned it. Amenadiel had others he could have gone to after all, so why bother him about it.

Somewhere along the line of a day, he had gone from being independent, to being one of a unit.

In the matter of a few hours, he had attached himself to two humans and made them flock. And they probably had no idea what that even meant to him.

Oh, Dad help him.