Mouths

Axion's wings are spread out, catching the suns' radiation and imbuing his handmade cells with lively fire where they escape the gentle shade of the fruit trees above. He and Xenes rest sprawled on rugs and blankets.

+

He leans up to give Xenes a short lick on the face and presses his beak into the same spot. This time, Xenes does not stick to him like silk webbing.

“Hmm. Ekka’s kind has special mouths. He says they have lips. What would you think if I tried that sometime?" He traces the fine forms of Xenes' face; one of his few defined and solid features, the bone-like structures on his cheeks.

Xenes' eye maintains its skyward gaze, watching a pair of vyr flit about the treetops.

They both feel the pause in the tangled minds pace. Xenes' lack of immediate approval makes Axion's resonance waver, but he waits patiently for the other's thoughts to coalesce.

[If you wish, but don’t do it just for me...] Xenes trails through the bond. [My fangs would cut them, no?]

“Then we should both try them,” Axion speaks softly, his face now buried in the crook of his partner’s neck, searching for comforting contact.

Xenes makes a low hum and shifts in favor of Axion's horns. [Absolutely not.]

Axion sulks at the broken prospect but grows flustered when he feels those dark, formless pseudo-arms wrapping around him and tugging at his outer robes.

[I want to feel you. Just you. None of this...tepid atmosphere and star-refuse.]

Axion sits up to catch his gaze, leaving a gentle nudge-kiss against the curve of his companion's face.

"Mm. When we go back to the stars," - he pauses to repeat his affection on the other side of Xenes' face - "we can find a cool, calm star, and be together in its gentle orbit. No fragile beings or garden worlds, just us in its red light."

[I would like that.]