#skephero

(It's totally fine to request Skephero- I've done them before, after all! Anyway, enjoy!)

Hero had been passing the time by reading, when a certain birdie alerted his presence by groaning on Hero's chest.

Hero smiled softly, placing his book down so that his full attention could be on his partner, Skeptic, who had been sleeping on Hero's chest for the past hour and a half.

He watched as Skeptic first nuzzled into Hero's chest, before blinking bleary-eyed at the their shared bedroom. He felt Skeptic tighten his hold around Hero, so Hero rubbed a hand slowly up and down his back to help him relax and come back to reality slowly.

Skeptic mumbled something incoherent under his breath, and then squeezed his eyes shut, relaxing against Hero silently.

"You good?" Hero whispered, not wanting to startle Skeptic when he was so fragile right now.

Skeptic sighed, and then groggily said, "M' head still hurts."

Hero gave him a sympathetic look, even if Skeptic wasn't looking at him. "You want me to get you some water?" Skeptic shook his head. "Not yet."

Hero pulled him closer, and allowed them to sit in peaceful silence for a few minutes, before he found himself asking, "How bad is your headache, from one to ten?"

"Maybe like a five?" Skeptic replied uncertainly, but Hero just nodded. "That's better than earlier, then."

He felt Skeptic stiffen in his hold, and Hero figured they might as well discuss it now. "Do you know why your head was killing you all day?"

There was a pause, and then Skeptic said, "I was studying- that's what I remember."

"Yeah, all day." Hero softly carded a hand through Skeptic's unkempt feathers- another thing that needed to be taken care of. "You were in your study all day today. I don't think I saw you come out once."

Skeptic groaned and wriggled within Hero's grip, but there was no escaping this now.

"Not for food or for water, or even to stretch your wings or something. You were cooped up there all day."

"I was just working hard," Skeptic grumbled, and Hero rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, working so hard, were you?" he replied sarcastically. "Hard enough to come stumbling out all of a sudden, looking half dead as you fell into my arms, talking about how it felt like your skull was splitting in two?"

Skeptic didn't say anything, which was fine. It just gave Hero time to preen the feathers on his head.

Eventually, Skeptic pushed his face further into Hero's chest, and then quietly said, "...Maybe."

Hero hummed, satisfied with his partner's answer. He patted Skeptic's back. "So maybe, we use some logic to realise that not eating-"

"-Yeah."

"- and not taking breaks-"

"-I get it."

"-and overworking that big brain of yours- isn't a good thing, and can actually lead to, probably a migraine, actually."

Skeptic groaned in embarrassment, his face fully hidden in Hero's feathers at this point, and Hero placed a few soft kisses to the top of his head to reassure him.

"Sorry," Skeptic mumbled after a few minutes, and Hero smiled, and said, "It's honestly fine, babe. But do you know what you're gonna do now?"

"Rest."

"What else, love?"

Skeptic sighed tiredly. "Drink water and eat food."

"Anything else?"

He felt Skeptic's feathers puff up, and then he bashful said, "Maybe some cuddles and kisses as well?"

Some Skeptic ship related propaganda for @voice-of-the-sexyman

Thanks in advance and remember to take your time and take care of yourself firstly if the request pile gets a bit tall <3

(It'd be so cool to to do a skephero one! I also haven't seen a lot of it, but I'd think they'd be really good together as well. Thank you for caring about my health as well, that's really sweet of you. Anyway, enjoy!)

"Why do you do that?"

Hero paused in confusion, trying to pull his head out of the bliss he had just been under, panting as he stared up at Skeptic, who had pulled away from kissing him to ask him that question.

It felt like his head was full of cotton, and all he could manage to do was push out a weak, "What?"

But Skeptic looked entirely too focused and awake as he said, "That thing you do. Why are you doing it? It's been bugging me all day."

"What thing?" Hero let his arms fall from around Skeptic's neck, slowly trailing down his arms. "Am I not good at kissing you?" The horror of that suddenly made Hero try to sit up. "I'm sorry, I can try to-"

"No, no, it's not that." Skeptic was quick to reassure him otherwise though, patting him on the chest so that Hero laid back down on the bed. "You're perfectly fine at kissing."

"Oh." Relief flooded through Hero, making him sag against the blankets, before confusion took ahold of him again. "What are you talking about then?"

Skeptic had an expression of complete seriousness on his face, as he looked Hero in the eye, and asked, "Why did you let Cheated take your food this morning?"

Hero's mind went blank in that moment.

"Did you actually stop making out with me to ask that?"

"I'm serious!" Skeptic insisted, and Hero felt like this had to be some bizarre dream, that this couldn't actually be how his afternoon was going.

He thought he was going to be able to relax and kiss his partner silly until well into the night, and not have to stress about anything, but no. His amazing, sweet, intelligent partner had other things on his mind.

"I need to know why you did that," Skeptic demanded, and Hero looked around in disbelief as if to convince himself that this was real, before complying and saying, "I just-wanted to? Because he woke up late and missed breakfast. I just thought it was a nice thing to do for him-can we go back to kissing now?"

Hero reached up to try and capture Skeptic's lips, but Skeptic just tilted his head back in annoyance. "But that meant that you didn't eat breakfast, and I didn't find out until an hour later."

Hero flushed in embarrassment, remembering how Skeptic scolded him while making him food, and how Hero should be grateful that it was him that found out, and not Hunted and Paranoid.

"Okay, I promise to eat better," Hero said, "There-problem solved." But Skeptic shook his head. "That's not entirely the problem though."

"What is it then?"

Skeptic sighed and pushed himself up with his elbows on either side of Hero's head, giving him a worried look as he just studied his face, to the point that Hero was beginning to squirm on the spot.

Then, Skeptic looked Hero right in the eyes as he said, "You keep doing things for others."

Confusion was all over Hero's mind. "What?"

"You keep doing things that are good for the others."

Hero chuckled lightly. "So?"

"So that means you never think about yourself," Skeptic explained, poking Hero's stomach to get his point across. "I don't think I've ever seen you make a decision that was purely to make you happy-"

Hero cut Skeptic off with a loud groan, gripping his forearms firmly and swiftly flipping their positions around so that Hero was now hovering over Skeptic.

He gave the other a pleading look. "Can we talk about this later? Do we have to talk about it now?"

Skeptic gave him a baffled look, looking around at what had just happened, before his gaze flew back to Hero, a steely determination in his eyes as he gripped his shoulders.

"Yes, we have to talk about it now! It's important." Hero shrugged his shoulders casually, ignoring the bundle of nerves forming in his chest. "I don't think it's that important, and what's wrong with doing something nice for the others? Is it really that bad?"

"No-" Skeptic began, before cutting himself off with a sharp sigh and flipping them over again with a groan. Hero's head had barely hit the bed before Skeptic continued, "The problem isn't being nice to the others. The problem is that you're never nice to yourself. You'd rather jump off a cliff than do something that you want to do, and that's the problem."

Hero chuckled nervously, avoiding Skeptic's intense gaze. "I think your overreacting. It's not that big of a deal."

That was definitely the wrong thing to say, as he heard Skeptic inhale sharply, and Hero felt him grip his shoulders tighter. "Okay, then," he said, and Hero could hear the rising annoyance in his voice, "well then how do I know you even want to be with me? What if you're only doing this because I have feelings for you? How do you think that makes me feel?"

Hero's head suddenly snapped to Skeptic's face, noticing the frustration-and a little bit of hurt. "That's not true, I promise!" Hero exclaimed, before quickly flipping them over so that he could be on top once again.

"Skeptic, I love you so much, and I would never lie to you about something this serious to both of us." He gave Skeptic a pleading look-surely the other could pick up that he was being genuine right now.

"I just-" Hero paused, but he couldn't hold back now, not when it was hurting Skeptic. "I just don't know how to do things for myself."

Skeptic furrowed his brows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Hero sighed. "Look, I don't wanna proper get into it, but-I'm just too used to making decisions for Him." Hero lowered his gaze, staring at Skeptic's fluffy chest.

"It was always about what was best for Him, and what was best for Him was usually best for us, too. So when He left us, and we suddenly could make choices for ourselves, it was just-easier, to keep doing that, to keep doing things that would make others happy. I'm not used to thinking about myself. I've never had to do that before."

He fell into silence, busying himself by preening the feathers on Skeptic's chest, before allowing a small smile to appear on his face.

"But I do know-" he added, giving Skeptic a coy look, "-that this is helping with that."

Hero had the pleasure of feeling Skeptic's feathers puffed up beneath his hands, and his smile grew wider as he saw that hungry glint in Skeptic's eyes, before Hero found himself being yanked down, lips crashing into his, and he sighed, ready to relax once again.

He tilted his body to the left, letting Skeptic manoeuvre their bodies once again, but Hero's body was struggling to touch the soft sheets of the bed as they twisted until-

SLAM!

-They fell off said bed.