There was something strange about the long hallway. Arthur stepped forward, his memories quickly but sloppily reassembling themselves. He'd just finished...something. He looked down: he wore a large puffy coat with a comfortable elastic closure around the base of his wings, borrowed from his brother; his black-feathered crowlike wings looked glossy and freshly-preened; and his curly waist-length dark hair hung over his shoulder in the formal Renoige warrior style, complete with ceremonial obsidian clip.
Arthur didn't remember doing his hair that way, and when he tried to think about it he was met with a vague mental fog.
"Ugh, I must've fallen asleep," Arthur said to himself. A few steps brought him to the front lobby of..."Where is this again?"
Wherever he was, Digitalis wasn't there. His empty paper cup sat next to the couch, though.
"He must've gone to the bathroom," declared Arthur, not really sure why he was talking to himself. Arthur tried the men's bathroom door and it was locked. So was the women's bathroom, which Arthur had only tried because he'd suddenly realized he needed to go himself.
Arthur could hear a low hum coming from one of the hallways and followed it. He found himself near the end of the hallway, and a flash of blue feathers through the nearest door beckoned him inside.
A large planter sat next to the door along the wall, festooned with decorative red erythrum vines. Digitalis stood in front of it, pissing into the plants. He almost tried to screen himself with one of his bluejay-like wings, but relaxed when he saw Arthur. Digitalis wore his university sweats, and his short, wavy blue hair was tousled like it was after he woke up every morning.
"That's a great idea," Arthur heard himself say aloud, watching Digitalis as he sidled up next to him. He reached down to unzip his jeans, and Digitalis put a hand on his arm, still steadily peeing into the planter.
"Bear, everything is in the wrong place," he said urgently. It didn't make sense and made Arthur pause.
Arthur opened his mouth to ask Digitalis what he meant, and the room faded around them.
"We're almost home," said Digitalis, except he said it in Arthur's brother Fox's voice. "Hang in there, Koda."
The last part of Digitalis to fade was his clear, pupilless amber eyes.
Whump!
The seatbelt dug into Arthur's midsection, compressing his bladder. He opened his eyes and found that he was looking directly into the eyes of what appeared to be an angry smurf in a kilt. The word "crivens" populated the speech bubble next to it.
Whump!
"Sorry about that," called Fox's voice. Arthur sat up. His wings felt pinched between him and the wall of groceries in the middle of the van.
Arthur stretched in the limited space he had and glanced out the window. Heavy snow blanketed the rolling hills around him and weighed down the native evergreen trees, and the iron-colored clouds above threatened even more. Arthur moved a bag of rice and caught a glimpse of Digitalis, whose wings were similarly smooshed to his sides. His pupilless eyes glanced up at Arthur.
"Hey Bear," Digitalis said awkwardly. "You're finally awake. Good timing-"
The van hit another bump, but it was a familiar bump. Arthur's nephew Koda hopped out of the van as soon as it stopped in the driveway and skittered inside. Arthur and Digitalis helped carry some of the groceries into the kitchen, and retired to the small mother-in-law house out back afterward while Fox and Koda made dinner.
"How long was I asleep?" yawned Arthur, closing the sliding glass back door behind him as they left the house. A wheelchair-accessible cement walkway led to the mother-in-law house they were staying in.
Digitalis checked his phone. "It's six-thirty, so about half an hour. There wasn't much to miss." They had to step over a small bank of snow to get to the front porch of their lodgings. "We all had juice boxes and complained about having to pee."
The front door closed out the worst of the snowbound silence. Earlier at the funeral home, Arthur had caught Digitalis relieving himself into some potted erythrum vines and stopped to watch. Arthur had even "watered" a few of the plants himself, and they had been about to take it further when they'd had to leave.
"Can we pick up where we left off?" asked Digitalis, pulling off his hoodie. As Digitalis hung it on the coat rack by the door, Arthur noted the bulge in his sweatpants.
"Yes but let's add a hot shower. I'm freezing." Arthur deposited his coat on the rack and followed Digitalis to the bathroom. Arthur had intended to disrobe, but a moment later he found himself making out with Digitalis in front of the mirror. Arthur noted in his reflection that he was a little gray underneath his freckles, and his bad wing was as stiff as his penis should've been. Digitalis's body was warm against his, and Arthur greedily absorbed the heat, feeling Digitalis's erection push into his thigh.
