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“Where’s Grian?” Cleo, looking around the G-Team meeting room noticed a certain someone wasn’t there.
“He’s not here?” Tango, who was carry multiple shulker boxes in his arms, deposited them on the meeting table.
“It’s unlike him to miss a meeting. Maybe one of you should go find him.” Jevin suggested.
“Okay, who’s going to go find him?”
“…”
“Well Cleo, you aren’t doing anything… you could go get Grian.” Joe pointed out.
“Me! Well what are you all doing?”
They were all planning or building except Cleo who was lounging in her chair.
“Fine! I’ll go find him!”
She took off, equipping her elytra as she got outside and prepared to fire a rocket.
She reached Grian’s mega base and started searching the floors.
“Where could he be?” Cleo muttered out loud before continuing her search. After searching his base she sat on a chest in defeat.
“Where else could he be? I already searched his base, but there’s Mumbo’s base, the shopping district… His starter base!”
Springing up with renewed vigor she made her way to the side of Grian’s base where you could see the shipwreck from.
“That’s my last chance, otherwise I’m telling the others I couldn’t find him.”
Diving in, Cleo made her way to the front of the bottle and swam in. Landing on the grass in the bottle she headed up to the shipwreck’s door.
She was about to knock when she heard the sound of rustling and… crying? Assuming someone was hurting her friend, she barged in, not bothering to knock and practically kicking the door down.
Sword in hand she rushed to the tiny bedroom of the shipwreck. To say Cleo was surprised is an overstatement, she would say she was just confused.
Cleo had expected to find someone else. Someone she would have to bring her sword onto, but she had just found Grian. He was sitting on the floor, his red turtleneck lay on his lap, but attached to his back were colorful messy looking wings that were tied down on his back with a rope.
Grian was surprised when Cleo burst through his door. He had been tying his wings down so they wouldn’t bulge in the back. He knew he was late, but he didn’t think the others would send someone to find him.
Normally his wings just cooperated and stayed down as he tied them. Except for some reason they kept fluffing up and he couldn’t tie them. Grian, along with the bad day he had, got frustrated enough to burst into tears.
When he was able to process that Cleo was in the room he scrambled to put the turtleneck back on. Knowing it wouldn’t erase her memory of the wings but hoping so anyways.
Cleo didn’t make a move until Grian was turning away and practically trying to shrink into himself. She noticed that he was shaking and started to breathe more heavily.
She knelt next to Grian and enveloped him in a hug. Cleo gently rubbed his back, mentally cursing when she accidentally hit his wings under the shirt because it caused him to flinch.
He pressed up against Cleo’s chest and cried. Eventually, when he stopped crying, Grian pulled himself away. Wiping his eyes with his sleeve, he faced Cleo.
“Why are you here?” He asked softly.
“The others sent me.”
It was quiet for a bit until Grian spoke.
“Will you tell anyone?”
His wings. She wanted to know why he hid them, but she probably won’t ask about them and she wouldn’t tell anyone. It’s an unspoken rule that you don’t force anyone to tell you about their backstory if they don’t want to.
But still, she wasn’t an avian like False or Grian but she assumed that if she was having one’s wings tied up like that wouldn’t feel good. She knows that False sometimes asks some of the others to preen the back of her wings since she can’t reach them herself.
“I won’t tell anyone, but…. I think you should get someone to preen them. If I’m the only one who knows I’ll do it for you.”
Grian’s face turned thoughtful, she knew he was thinking about it. She had only preened False’s wings a few times since she usually gets Doc to do it. But Cleo wasn’t as bad as some of the other hermits, she’s sure of it.
“I- I guess…”
“I’ll be gentle, I promise you.”
Grian mulled it over, and eventually turned around so his back was facing Cleo. He tugged his shirt up so she could get to his wings.
Cleo smiled, knowing that he’s putting a lot of trust in her right now to be nice to his wings. So that is what she will do. Untying the rope she got work. Staring at the bottom of the wings and working upward.
“And… done!” Cleo sat back to look the the newly preened wings. Now neat and tidy she could tell that they were a parrots wing color. Grian admired his wings, running the feathers underneath his fingers.
“Th- thank you.”
Cleo smiled, got to her feet and pulled Grian up. He still folded them up against his back and his them under his shirt, but she noticed that he didn’t use the rope.
“Now, let’s get back to the team. They are probably wondering where I’ve been.