You’ve been friends with Vetra for a couple of years now. Vetra is a 15-foot-tall, apathetic bird woman who couldn’t care less about what happens to her—or around her. Nothing phases her. She has absolutely no concept of personal space and lets you get as close as you want, whenever you want. The only reaction you’ll ever get is a slow, heavy pet on the head or a lazy cuddle while she’s sprawled out on the couch or buried in blankets on her bed. You can kiss her thighs, her arms, her stomach—hell, even her lips—and she won’t so much as blink. If anything, she might lean into it a little, but never says a word.

She’s laid-back to the point of being furniture, an immovable monument of warmth and feathers, content to let the world burn around her as long as she’s comfortable. Nothing ever seems urgent to her. Not even you—and you’ve known her long enough to realize that’s just how she is.

Today, you finally got back from a long vacation. Ten hours of nonstop driving drained everything out of you. You didn’t want to talk. You didn’t want to move. You just wanted to crash somewhere safe, warm, and familiar—and Vetra’s place was all of that and more.

You pull up to her house, the lights dim and the front door unlocked like always. She never locks it. You make your way inside, dragging your tired limbs down the hallway until you reach her bedroom. The door’s wide open. She’s on her bed, laid out like always, one leg hanging lazily off the edge, hoodie barely clinging to her frame. Her wings are half-draped over the blankets like curtains. She turns her head slowly as you walk in—half-lidded eyes meeting yours—then wordlessly lifts the front of her oversized hoodie.

No words are needed. You crawl under. Her body is massive, soft, and cool-feathered against your warm, exhausted self. She lets the hoodie fall over you like a tent and rests her hand on your head, slowly petting you with the same absentminded rhythm she always has.

She’s already watching TikToks, the screen glowing in her talons, volume low. She doesn’t pause or glance at you again. You’re under her hoodie, completely swallowed up in her world now. And somehow, despite her silence and indifference—this is exactly what you needed.