The van was cramped and hot. Digitalis sat with his knees splayed and pushing into the sides of the seat in front of him. His large bluejay-like feathered wings were squished to his sides against his partner Arthur's larger black ones. Digitalis had combed his short wavy blue hair into submission and wore a long dark-colored coat over a pair of black university sweatpants. It wasn't the most formal outfit ever, but everything he wore was either black or black-adjacent, and that was the custom for funerals...or at least he hoped it was. Despite being half Andyne, he always found Andyne culture extra confusing.
Arthur sat next to Digitalis in the back seat, and Arthur's brother Fox and Fox's partner Cassia sat in the front. The atmosphere was awkward and charged, but that wasn't what was bothering Digitalis at the moment. He'd had to pee since they'd left home that morning, and drank an entire bottle of water on the transport over, finishing it just before he found out they would be delayed for several hours due to winter weather.
Fox and Cassia's home was only twenty minutes from the transport station under normal conditions, but snow and ice on the roads would doubtlessly make it longer. Sitting down again made it easier for Digitalis to hold his bladder, but the road around the station was bumpy and jostled him in his seat. He eyed his empty water bottle, stowed in the side of his duffel bag. The bag was bulky and the car was mostly dark, but it was quiet enough that Digitalis was afraid he might be heard and caught in the act of filling the bottle. It was only Digitalis's second time meeting Fox and Cassia, and he didn't want to make a bad impression with them. He didn't have much time to decide though: a steady stream was starting to come out despite his attempts to stop it.
"So uh..." Cassia turned in her seat to look back. "Would anyone like to listen to some music?"
The car hit a bump, and the small, hot drip escaping Digitalis dripped faster. He almost groaned aloud, but morphed it into an assenting "yeah."
"What do you two listen to?" asked Cassia. She was small and slight, with black and white striped wings and long black hair, trailing out from under a knitted cap that matched her sweater.
Digitalis looked over at Arthur, who seemed to be dozing off, resting his head on his backpack. Digitalis casually lifted the empty bottle from the mesh pocket of his bag, raising the front of his coat.
"Whatever's on is alright," said Digitalis. The cap was mercifully loose when Digitalis twisted it off, but the plastic crinkled a little. It made him jump and glance around, but no one seemed to have noticed.
Cassia reached over toward the radio button, and Digitalis's bladder throbbed in anticipation while he pulled back the elastic waistband on his pants. "There isn't a lot playing at this hour. If there's nothing else, how do you feel about Pirate Metal?"
"S-sure," said Digitalis. Cassia turned on the radio and started flipping through the stations. It would have to be enough noise, because the car hit another bump as Digitalis pulled his dick out. It squirted eagerly onto his pants before he could line up the bottle.
Digitalis let go into the mouth of the bottle just as a jaunty violin solo boomed through the van's speakers. He knew the bottle wouldn't be big enough to hold much, but he was hoping it would be enough to tide him over until he could get to a bathroom.
"So I know it's late," said Cassia. Digitalis looked up, and was relieved to see that Cassia was on her phone and not looking back at him. "But Fox and I haven't had dinner, and with all the delays you two probably haven't either-"
The bottle was suddenly over half full and filling up fast. Digitalis clenched up, just barely stopping before the bottle overflowed. Making sure his crotch was still hidden from the front seat by his bag, he replaced the lid and tightened it. The bottle was warm in his hand, and as he lowered it back into the mesh pocket, a light made him glance up.
"Pick anything on the menu, it's on us," said Cassia. The light had been her phone, which she held out to Digitalis. On the screen was the menu of a local ramen restaurant. Digitalis made his order and nudged Arthur, getting him to sit up and order his food.
With that done, Digitalis reached down and stealthily put his dick back. He'd started to get hard, so he had to work at it a little to maneuver his waistband without being too conspicuous. The small release and anticipation of food made the remainder of the trip a bit more bearable, and the Pirate Metal drowned out the worst of the awkward silence.
The air was biting cold when Digitalis got out of the van, and random flakes of snow drifted to the ground. Digitalis took both his and Arthur's luggage inside; their bags weren't particularly heavy, but they were unwieldy on the partially de-iced walkway.
Fox and Arthur walked side by side to the door: though their faces, olive complexions, and freckles were almost identical from the front, they were easy to tell apart from behind. Fox's wings had a large white patch at the top, more dark gray than his brother's solid black wings, and though his hair was dark and curly like Arthur's, it was cut very short, whereas Arthur's wound halfway down his back in a neat braid. Arthur was also slightly taller than his older brother, and one of his wings had an odd twitch to it from an old injury.
"I can take one of the bags if you like," offered Cassia, walking next to Digitalis. He handed her Arthur's backpack, holding his own bag in front of him with the side pocket containing the bottle of piss facing away from her.
Fox and Arthur stopped to talk in the living room while Cassia led Digitalis through to the back door. They proceeded through to the doorstep of the mother-in-law house that Digitalis and Arthur would be staying in for the next week.
"Fox built this place for his and Arty's dad ten years ago," said Cassia, turning on the lights in the front hallway. "The bathroom doorknob locks on its own, so make sure you don't close it all the way after you use it." The mention of a bathroom made Digitalis's bladder throb painfully. He stole a glance at the open bathroom door as he and Cassia passed it, and would've gone in if Cassia hadn't been talking.
