[Author's note: Arthur Deepuin and Digitalis (and the other characters mentioned) are from another body of work; I write these short stories for character development purposes, which is why characters who seem superfluous are mentioned. Also, Arthur belongs to a race called Andynes, who are humanoid with birdlike wings, and Digitalis is half Andyne, and half human.]
*
"Goodbye. Love you!" called Digitalis. "Have a good day at-"
"Love you too," Mums said irritably, and slammed the front door behind her, leaving Digitalis alone in the front hallway.
Digitalis turned and headed for the bathroom, exasperated. It was 6:30 in the morning, and he was ready for his first real shower in over a month. His short, normally wavy blue hair was lank and oily and he hated it; his left wing had finally healed enough to remove the bandages he'd gotten after he'd been stabbed five weeks before, and he could finally end the thrice-weekly half-assed sponge baths. The month-old wounds were raised and dark red, standing out against the pale, plucked-looking flesh and partly-shaved blue feathers.
"You alright, Digit?" asked Arthur, peeking out from behind the shower curtain. He was already in the shower, and his long, curly dark hair was out of its ponytail, hanging most of the way down his back between his sleek, black-feathered wings.
"I'll be better when I can stop feeling like an oil slick," Digitalis sighed. He shut the bathroom door behind him and locked it, and untied his nightshirt, dropping his pants and slinging everything over the clothing rack next to the bathroom door. He felt even more naked than usual: his left wing looked sparse and ragged where the bandages had been. Digitalis stepped over to the shower with Arthur, who quickly got busy preening and straightening the bedraggled blue feathers under one showerhead while rinsing the soap out of his own hair under another; it was an andyne bathroom, meaning that it had a large open alcove with a showerhead on each of the three walls lining it, which allowed the user to rinse their body and wings at the same time.
"How's your wing feeling?" asked Arthur, carefully patting over the bare area of Digitalis's wing with a sponge. "Is it still painful?"
Digitalis nodded. "It feels kind of like someone stuck a pin in it and forgot about it, but the pain's getting more manageable all the time."
Arthur sighed. "Baby. I'm so sorry you have to go through this."
"At least I'm still alive for my daughters," said Digitalis quietly.
At that Arthur stopped and gently turned Digitalis to face him. "No. Do
not
go there, you mean the world to a lot of people. Me, for one, and Mums and Milly, Vladimir, Iris, your students and the faculty who are toiling in your absence...and of course the little gremlin that moved into the guest room."