#reigonal wing au

[alhaithams-big-naturals]

Dragon Alhaitham Cytham AU that my friend @durasposts helped inspired me to write hehe (it was their idea! I just wrote it as a fic :3)

~

There was a fire. Alhaitham managed to grab a single book from his study, the only one he knew that he had to protect, even if it cost a limb.

A dragon's treasure is a precious thing. Their hoard could be anything and for Alhaitham it was his books.

He wasn't sure how the fire started.

Books are perfect kindling so all it took was one flame.

With the book clutched to his chest, his tail flipped back and forth. He clutched his book tighter as someone tried to pull his arm away.

His wings were folded on his back and usually he would spread them to get the assailant out of his face, but...

He snapped back to reality to see Cyno pulling a yelling Kaveh away.

He shut up as soon as Cyno crouched down and watched Alhaitham slowly untense.

Carefully, he moved Alhaitham’s left arm before frowning. It was hardly unnoticeable, but that brought Alhaitham fully back.

He hissed in pain.

"Do we have a Hydro vision user nearby?" Cyno called and when no one answered, he tried again, "What about Cryo?"

There was a shuffling in the gathered crowd as Layla nervously ran forward. Soon enough Cyno had some melted ice that was slowly getting warmer. Once it was cool enough, he cleaned Alhaitham burned arm and singed wing.

Next was loose bandaging until they could get him to the bimarstan.

"Don't worry.* Cyno reassured, as Kaveh checked him over, "I'll be the one looking into this."

Alhaitham nodded and Kaveh grabbed his right hand. Together they walked towards the bimarstan.

~

Only when Alhaitham was done getting the burns cleaned and bandaged did Kaveh let his hand go.

Just to grab his face, smushing his cheeks and looking at him with tears in his eyes before pulling him into a tight hug.

Alhaitham was shocked and tense at first, but soon enough melted into the hug. He found his walls breaking as he sobbed into the other man's shoulder.

Kaveh ran his fingers through his hair and murmured softly to him. When he calmed down enough, he planted a single kiss on his forehead.

That's when Alhaitham noticed Cyno standing in the doorway.

He quickly said his goodbyes and left them alone.

Cyno cleared his throat and spoke first, "I know a dragon's hoard is important to them..."

He handed him a well loved book. A 'King of Invokations' book to be exact.

Running his hand over the paper back's tearing covering, he had a soft smile on his face, but...

"I can't possibly take this from you Cyno."

Cyno thought for a moment, "I'm letting you borrow it. Until you can get your hoard back."

Alhaitham nodded stiffly then looked back at the book.

"Thank you..."

~

It turned out that was simply only the beginning. Now, Cyno came almost every week to give him a new book.

An excuse on his tongue, the truth swallowed for the sake of sparing the reminder.

A "Saw this and thought of you" or a "Found this on my trip out to the desert".

Kaveh had drawn up and had started working on a new study. More fireproof he claimed.

A candle was found in the ashes or what was a candle.

Alhaitham could remember that Kaveh brought it home that day.

It was marketed at an electric candle, but whatever had been used as a power source had malfunctioned.

The scholar who made it apologized profusely as well as Kaveh. Alhaitham to the latter simply made the decision that for now on they will only be buying wax candles.

As he was thinking about this, his wings drooped as he frowned. He had been doing his required daily stretching. Carefully, mindful of the healing areas.

Someone behind him cleared their throat and Alhaitham glanced behind him.

Cyno.

He found himself smiling for some reason.

Said man held two books in his hands.

"Tighnari heard about what happened and offered these two books to give you."

Alhaitham took them carefully, looking at the titles. Both were about flora and fauna. One Sumeru specific, the other was a general one for every reigon.

"Send him my thanks for me."

Cyno nodded, "I will."

He spotted a bandage on Cyno's hand suddenly and a chill ran down his spine. His tail swished.

"What happened there?"

"Ah." Cyno seemed caught off guard, "I went up against... a pyro vision wielder recently."

Alhaitham eyes him suspiciously, but let it go with a nod.

~

Before he knew it, Kaveh had finished the new study and Alhaitham started filling the shelves with his new book hoard.

Of course, his most important book, one with a note from his Grandmother, goes on his new desk.

Except... he couldn't find it.

It was gone.

Cyno found him with all the new books pulled off their new shelves and him crying quietly in the corner, wings wrapped around himself.

He set the book he was holding on the desk and crouched down. Almost instantly Alhaitham opened his wings and upon seeing Cyno, he brought him in. He clung on to him like his life depended on it.

"What's wrong..?" He nervously asked, "No need to tail me though."

Alhaitham blinked and then gave Cyno a small smile. Just his presence made him feel better.

"My book..." he mumbled.

Cyno froze.

"I have something to show you."

Alhaitham wasn't sure he liked this.

"I won't let this dragon any longer." He attempted to lighten the mood, but Alhaitham’s tail just started swishing back in forth nervously.

He picked up the book he had brought.

It was his. The one his grandmother gifted him.

"I fireproofed it." Cyno explained, "It took some trial and error, but I am Spantamad graduate."

Alhaitham held it in his hands.

He gently placed it on his desk before kissing Cyno.

"Sorry... I just..." Alhaitham shrunk back, uncharacteristically nervous.

A blush was on both of their faces.

Cyno smiled, a familar smirk when he cane up with a pun, "Well, I can't tail a lie to you."

Alhaitham held his breath.

"I treasure you."

Alhaitham embraced him.

"Thank you." He spoke softly, "I love you."

In that moment, he realized that while he thought his hoard had been his treasure, it wasn't. He would trade anything and everything for Cyno.

But he didn't have to.

Alhaitham smiled to himself and together they put the books on the shelves.

And on his desk lay two books, both well loved.

[ab0minationn]

more pla wing au but i’m branching out a bit to the other regions lol - this should’ve been done weeks ago, but my old phone was buggy as hell. i got a new one so au time babey

ok so i’ve said in the past that all wings are tied back to the ancient clans of their regions, however i never said which types each region had.

in unova, the clans had wings based on cave swallows and oilbirds. both allowed them to fly and maneuver in tight spaces, and more modern winged tend to have a mix of both in their wings. this adaptation has worked really well with their larger cities like nimbasa!

in sinnoh, the two clans had owl wings, as it would allow them to fly quietly, thus making it easier for them to survive. the pearl clan had snowy owl wings due to their cold climate, and diamond clan gets the blakiston’s fish owl, mostly because they’re the other owl native to hokkaido. modern day sinnoh does have people with a mix of both wings, as evidenced by akari, however due to sinnoh’s more traditional values in some areas, or extreme weather (ie. snowpoint), there are still a decent amount of people with solely snowy or blakinston’s wings. seeing as sinnoh is devoid of massive cities, the owl wings have held up pretty well for them, as they’re good for traversing the longer distances between towns.

moving on to regions i haven’t mentioned before - hoenn! the clans would have been for groudon and kyogre, with rayquaza being the overarching “god” in their eyes. kyogre’s clan would’ve had wings resembling kingfishers! this would have enabled the clanspeople to easily dive down into the water to collect anything they needed underwater. they would use spears to catch food as they dived, not unlike actual kingfishers with their beaks. for groudon’s clan, they’d have wings more like terrestrial birds like roadrunners. they aren’t amazing fliers, however they were very fast in their element, which was great for escaping wild pokémon. in modern days, there are definitely a better mix of the two wings, however due to how specialized they are, there is definitely still quite a large population with one wing type or the other!

alola would have more slight variants of wings between the different islands, however the majority of the types would be split between types of seabirds. personally, i would go for albatross and petrel, however there’s many sea birds native to hawaii that would work. maybe some of the smaller islands could have a few people with more tropical bird’s wings, however due to the fact that they’re less useful for the region, especially in the past, they’re still relatively rare even in modern day. for the seabirds, like hoenn, there’s a lot of water around them, so having wings suited for that would be beneficial. their wings would allow for them to easily cross great distances of water, and the thick layers of feathers and waterproofing would mean that they can take breaks in the water if necessary.

i may write more on these + do the other regions at a later point, but for now that’s all i got lol