Work Text:
‘Mckennaaaaaaa. McKenna, where are you???” It’s rather late for Ergi to be up (god knows he needs his beauty sleep), but he happens to be missing a very important bird brain. He knows that McKenna’s one true love is work, but he has gotten pretty used to sleeping beside someone.
What would a younger him say if he knew that his one weakness was this man, in all of his glory. Young cocky Ergi would probably brush it off and laugh, but his cheeks would be pink. Learning how to be emotionally vulnerable is something he is still working on.
Ergi’s pads across the hall to McKenna’s office. His location is given away by the flickering yellow light under the door. It creaks when he slides it open, the cedar smooth on his palms.
Poor McKenna doesn’t even notice him, furiously scribbling with a quill with his back turned. Heinrey just passed a new tax reform and McKenna has to bear the brunt of the work. Ergi slides his arms around McKenna's shoulders, feeling him jump.
“You already know what I’m gonna say.” McKenna sighs, leaning back into his lover’s chest. “It was only one form! I was going to go to bed after!”
“Uh huh.” McKenna cranes his neck to face Ergi.
“Yes ‘uh huh’! It’s not even that late, last time I checked it was only nine!”
“McKenna it’s three in the morning.” A pause.
“Three?”
“Yes”
“…..”
He sighs again, shrugging Ergi off. “One more form?”
Ergi glares at him. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. He locks his arms under Mckeen’s armpits and lifts him out of his chair. “H-Hey!” McKenna definitely has the brawn between the two of them, being an accomplished swordsman and trained guard of the King, but Ergi isn’t too shabby himself. He manages to wrangel his lover out of his office, through the door and into the hall. McKenna protests the entire way back to their bedroom, Ergi having to slap a hand over his mouth so as to not wake the entire castle. He forces McKenna into bed, pulls off his shoes and wraps himself around the man like a very determined, very cuddly squid.
“Go to sleep.” a moment of quiet. “Are you really going to violently cuddle me the whole night?” Ergi wraps his arms around his waist tighter. “What do you think, love?” McKenna sighs and twists into his embrace, burying his face into Ergi’s neck. Ergi traces a hand along the dips and planes of McKenna’s torso, gentle and anchoring. He begins to hum a lilting song that his mother would sing to him as a child. It was the song she would sing when she was missing his father, the duke.
His parents' marriage wasn’t a happy one, childhood rosy glasses can only block out so much yelling. As such, Ergi grew to be a lonely teenager, always searching for affection in every corner while simultaneously terrified of what it entailed. He doesn’t lie to himself, Ergi knows he is clingy to the point of obsession and a deeply flawed individual. But McKenna has always been there for him. Always been strong enough to pick both of them off the floor and keep moving. Now Ergi has the chance to show him how much McKenna meant to him, even if the man himself was resistant.
He can feel McKenna’s breath gradually slow as he drifts into a deep sleep. The brute really has been working himself way too hard.
—-
“Thank you king Heinrey. You have been so courteous and your gardens are just so lovely! Tell your wife that the tea was simply-“ the gushing Sycophants went on and on, each sentence of praise as extravagant and ridiculous as the powdered wig teetering on the noble's head. Ergi had no idea how Heinrey deals with it. Ergii would have lost his patience ages ago. He can see Navier out of the corner of his eye talking to a king with dark tan skin. She’s flanked by her brother and a certain blue haired man of interest. From the look on McKenna’s face, he has been spaced out for a long time. Looks like his patience had ran out already. The slightly glazed look in his eyes is almost concerning, so Ergi breaks away from the group to go and save him from falling asleep on the milky marble ballroom floor.
“What do you say we ditch?” McKenna gives a little start at his voice. “Ergi!” He hissed back. “Don’t do that!” He can’t help but chuckle at the scandalized look on his face.
“Don’t you want to get out of here? Tired of listening to all of these ridiculous peacocks?”
“Of course I do! But I have duties to fulfill.”
“Cause you're doing such a good job of that already, checked out staring into space.” McKenna blushes.
“Well-I-you-Ergi!” He can’t help but laugh at that terrible defence. “Come on!” He grabs McKenna by the hand and guides him out of the ballroom. As soon as they pass through the doors, they break into a full out sprint like they’re boys again at school. Ergi yanks him through the closest door which appears to have been some sort of unused music room, based off of the many instruments and thick layer of dust blanketing each and every surface.
He soon spots what he’s looking for, a grand piano sitting innocently against the far wall. “Do you remember skipping history that one time and breaking into the music room?” McKenna laughs.
“Of course I remember. The professor got so mad.” They had ditched class and wandered their way into the music room and had ended up making so much noise they got busted.
“This is nostalgic, huh. Makes me feel like a little kid again, not a care in the world.” He takes McKenna’s hand and squeezes. McKenna squeezes back. “It really makes you wonder where the time has gone.” The man beside him muses.
Ergi pads over to the piano and sits down, lifting the fallboard. Dust floats serenely in the light of dusk. The keys are all in good condition and a quick check tells him that it’s a bit out of tune, but it will still work.
He begins with a song that made him think of better days, one of the first songs he learned to play on the piano. McKenna drifts over to his side. He had always loved it when Ergi played piano, stopping everything to come and listen. The light dancing melody tastes like watermelon and honey on his tongue, summer personified.
Ergi moves into a more sorrowful piece, one that he learned after his mother died. McKenna will never admit to it, but Ergi knows that it’s his favorite piece. Something about it reminds Ergi of paper, sharp, smooth, and oh so fragile and at the right angle, painful.
The ending note lingers in the air like an omen, a promise. McKenna comes to sit by his side in the quiet, resting his head on Ergi’s shoulder. They bask in the silence.
“Ergi?”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
“Anytime, love.”
—-
The third time Ergi manages to pull him away it’s raining and dreary. Winter was in full swing and the weather of the past couple of days reflected that, rain upon rain upon rain. The whole castle was in a bit of a funk, including McKenna. Ergo hadn't even seen him for meals!
He hates to admit it to himself, he hates it, but Ergi is getting worried. It’s been a week. The only thing he has seen of his lover is a shadow crawling into his bed at night, and a silhouette getting up in the morning when it’s just barely light out. It’s been hard, being cut off from his affections. And all Ergi wants is to just be with McKenna. He’s a schemer at heart, it’s true, but part of being with his bird brain is learning how to be open, and emotionally depend on someone.
The grand plan currently is a relaxing picnic, but alas the rain doesn’t really seem to show signs of stopping. Dinner it is. He marches his way down to the kitchens, grabs food for both him and McKenna, and marches back up. He pointedly ignores the kitchen staff’s sympathetic glances and whispers of going ‘soft’. Usually he would engage in the gossip of it all, god knows the kitchens are the best place if you want to get major dirt on someone, but he is on a valiant quest of nutrition, and nothing will stop him. (Not even a good gossip session he absolutely should be a part of).
Opening the door to McKenna's office is hard with a tray in his hands, but Ergi is a man of many talents. He finds his beloved passed out on a stack of papers, ink stained fingers slack on a quill. Ergi finds (re: makes) a space by shoving papers to the floor for the tray.
“Hey.” He murmurs softly. “Love, it's time to eat dinner.” McKenna stirs.
“Ergi? What is it?” His voice is gravelly from his impromptu nap, eye bags huge.
“Dinner. Can you eat something for me?” McKenna leans into him sleepily. Poor man. Ergi could never work that hard. After a period of time, McKenna shows no signs of moving, Ergi sighs and starts to move into dinner territory. The sooner they get to bed, the sooner Ergi can get his well deserved cuddles.
“Food. Come on now.”
“Nooooooooooooooo Ergi whyyyyy.” McKenna’s voice is muffled by Ergi’s shoulder. He paws helplessly at Ergi’s face. Ergi grabs his hand with a snort.
“I’ll play that piece you like. The one that goes like-“ Ergi hums a couple of notes.
“Mmhh guitar?”
“Of course.”
“Fine.” He peels himself off Ergi’s shoulder. “But it has to be guitar.” Ergi can’t help but smile.
“Deal.”
—-
“I just don’t understand! Why in the two hells do we need a special mineral water? It’s one delegate, one delegate of a tiny, tiny kingdom. They don’t even matter! This is ridiculous.” McKenna paces angrily in front of his desk while Ergi provides emotional support from a plush chair.
“McKenna, love, let’s take a break.” McKenna levels him with a harsh glare. “Hey. I also think it’s ridiculous. But right now we aren’t getting anywhere. Come.” He grabs his hand, leading him into the hall. “What can I do to make it better, what can I do to support you?” McKenna makes a frustrated, borderline hysterical sound in the back of his throat.
“I just need you. I’m so done with these people! It’s been quite the week and I-I” His brows are drawn tighter in a harsh slant, eyes wet. Ergi rushes over and scoops him into a hug, tucking McKenna into his shoulder. They stay like that, entertwined in an office till McKenna stirs. “Can you play me that song?” He breathes into Ergi’s neck, voice muffled.
“Of course I can. Piano or guitar?”
“Guitar.”
“Why don’t you go back to our room, I’ll get everything ready. Try to relax a bit?” Ergi rushes to grab his guitar and some tea from the kitchens. Holding all of this is quite the balancing act but again, Ergi is a man of many talents. He pours McKenna a cup, sits down across from him and begins to strum out a melody. With each passing second he can see the tension leak out of McKenna’s shoulders.
“Another?”
“Please.” His hands find the next chord, easy as breathing. He’s never told McKenna, but he wrote this song for him when things were rough and all he had was his birdbrain and Heirey. From the look in McKenna’s eyes, he already knows.
——-
This isn’t the first time they have fought, and it certainly won’t be the last. Around noon McKenna had gone storming off into his office and hasn’t emerged since. Ergi’s pride is still smarting by the time he wanders his way down to the kitchen, planning to grab dinner. Was it a dumb fight? Of course it was. Did it still happen anyways? Of course it did. They have always butted heads and probably will continue to disagree. But Ergi loves McKenna and always will.
He grabs dinner as a bribe and makes the trek up to McKenna’s office. He knocks on the door, strangely nervous.
“Come in.”
McKenna looks up, frowns, and looks back down. He didn’t seem that happy to see Ergi. He fiddles with the lunch tray.
“Look, love, I'm sorry. I know I was out of line. But I really can’t deal with you being mad at me.”
“You’re right. You were out of line.”
“McKenna please! I’m sorry. I brought you food?”
“Put it over there.” He gestures to an empty space on his desk, clearly not swayed.
“Is there anything I can do that will make you stop being mad at me?” He pleads.
“Hmmm I don’t know…..”
“McKennaaaaaaaaa.”
“…..”
“Fine. But I’m still upset at you. Play me a song. I’ll think of forgiveness, if you are particularly convincing.” McKenna is hiding a smile, Ergi can see it.
Ergi can help but smile on his way to grab his guitar. Everything is going to be ok.
—-
McKenna knows he works too much. That much is a given, Hersey is surprisingly terrible at running his own country, so someone has to pick up the slack. He had never really realized how working a lot would affect other people, till he was put in Ergi’s shoes. Today is the day of Navier and Heinrey’s tenth anniversary, and they were throwing a huge ball to celebrate. Ergi, being the fabulous party planner that he is, had volunteered to take over planning the party, as to take the stress off of the happy couple.
While helping Navier and Heirey is literally his entire job, he really, really misses his lover. All the hubbub with the party has made it practically impossible for them to get a quiet moment together. It’s been a week since they have had any interaction besides a few sentences. McKenna had finally had enough. It was time to regain all the lost cuddles.
He sneaks his way into the main ballroom, finding Ergi barking out orders to the poor people hanging up decorations. McKenna slides his arms around Ergi’s waist from the back.
“McKenna? What’s wrong, love?”
“Nothing. I just… miss you.”
“I know. After this party it will all be over.” McKenna refuses to budge, even after Ergi takes a step forward.
“McKenna you have to let me go.” Ergi tries to detach the human turned squid from his back.
“How about we take a break.”
“Oh yeah? And do what? I can’t really leave these people alone.”
“Of course you can, you have an assistant that’s I’ll do just fine in your absence.”
“McKenna…”
“Come on! Please, for me?” he starts tugging Ergi in the door.
“Ok fine. Hey wait! Where are you dragging me?” McKenna yanks him through the hallways, laughing as they trip over their own feet. He locates the music room that they found by accident the night of the other party and opens the door.
While he doesn’t have Ergi’s musical talent, he can at least pluck out one tune.
“I’m gonna play something for you.” He takes a set at the piano bench.
“Oh now you're after my job, I see how it is.” Ergi comes to lean against the piano. McKenna starts to play. It’s not perfect, after all it’s been a couple years since he learned the piece, but Ergi looks enamored. He starts the chorus then transitions into the bridge, Ergi drifting around to loom by his side.
He sits down next to McKenna, easily picking up the melody and they are playing together. Ergi brings the piece to a close, notes lingering around in the air like floating butterflies. McKenna leans his forehead against Ergi’s. After this, they will go back to their crazy lives. A moment of peace is all he asks.
“Ergi?” He whispers into the din.
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, bird brain.”