Chapter Text
Things have been changing recently. It probably wouldn’t be much to anyone else – just, the people at the Hazbin Hotel getting along a bit better than before. Not jumping at each other’s throats (even if that meant jumping at others’ throats together more eagerly sometimes), hell, genuinely having fun together. But Angel Dust wasn’t really sure exactly how to handle this change, especially since he just so happened to bond with the gloomy bartender with a stick up his ass in quite unexpected circumstances recently.
Honestly, Husk’s company was surprisingly nice, it was good to have somebody want to bond with him like this. Genuinely, through quality time and shared experiences, and not only loving him for his body – which was naturally made to be loved in many ways, but not by this dude, who seemed completely immune to his sexy companion’s charm.
Since they first met while the hotel was just starting out, their interactions were pretty much the same. Angel came in and out of the bar, drinking his worries and whatnot away while making advances on the poor gambler and pissing him off in the process. Sure, it’s not like it was such a bad thing, since Husk looked hilarious as fuck when he was getting mad at him for the flirting. But it just felt wrong to keep doing this with no remorse at all, especially with how much he’s done for the actor. Maybe a part of him wanted to repay the favor after that one situation.
But the problem was that he didn’t know how to do that. He could easily make his way into pretty much anyone’s pants, but actually getting to someone’s heart was more difficult. Or at least just… getting someone to like his personality beside the “act” he’s putting on, as Husk tends to call it. And he didn’t know how to keep hangouts entertaining without the forms of entertainment he specialized in, being drugs and dirty talks. Of course, they could just keep losering together or whatever, but he didn’t want to vent to him every time they met either.
So whether he wanted it or not, he developed a tendency to avoid this guy most of the time. That’s at least how it felt to him, cause if he could and knew how to, he’d be spending much more time with him. Maybe the cat demon wasn’t all that into the idea of them hanging out and didn’t find it anything weird, at least for now. It’d be a bit weird if his favorite porn star just stopped coming to use his drinks and life advice at all one day, wouldn’t it? And he wouldn’t want to worry poor ol’ Husky that much.
Sometimes, he considered asking Charlie for help. She was a natural at this whole “being nice” thing, and maybe she could help him figure out how to handle this. But just admitting it straight up would be kind of embarrassing – so whenever he had the opportunity, he just suggested it lightly, hoping the princess would pick up on it herself.
He decided to take up this chance he had on an afternoon that was seemingly like any other, which he was spending just hanging out with the two girls at the hotel.
“Y’know, how did you get so good at all this, uh, being kind to everyone around you even after the world treats you like shit?”
His question was unintentionally so direct that it even caught Vaggie's attention, as she watched the blonde lift her head from her lap to look over at their companion.
“Hm, I guess I just… hope that they'll stop treating me like shit if I show them that there's another way. It's hard to explain it like this, I think you kinda have to be born with this faith in the good, if that makes sense?"
“Mhm, if that's what you say…”
Of course, that wasn't the whole solution. Charlie said this multiple times, that you can always change at heart whenever you want with just a bit of effort, blah blah, all that friendship and kindness bullshit. Still, he found himself surprisingly close to actually believing this bullshit.
“Why do you ask?” She seemed pretty curious, which he couldn't blame her for at all. Even when he tried to seem as careless as he could and continued to look through his phone while talking, this wasn't the type of question most demons would throw around for no reason, and definitely not Angel Dust.
“Eh, no reason. I’m just thinkin’ about how things are between me and Husk, not like I wanna get all friendly with him though–”
“Wait a second.” Charlie rose from her seat, and it seemed as though she had connected the dots on something he could possibly be trying to communicate to them between the lines. “Let me guess, you want to celebrate the bond you’re starting to form with him and thank him for everything he’s done to you, so you’re trying to be nicer to him?”
“I mean, whatever makes ya happy, princess… I was thinking more like just–”
But Charlie wasn’t listening anymore, looking nearly ecstatic at the very perspective of her dear friends wanting to become dear friends with her other dear friends – pretty much jumping at him, knocking him over on the couch with a tight hug.
“Oh my gosh, that’s wonderful to hear!” She squealed, ignoring Angel’s choked mumbles about how she’s squeezing him too hard. “You’ve come to the right place, I’ll show you everything you have to do to learn to show him as much love as you can!”
“Ugh– shit…” He groaned, trying to get out of the hug just enough to be able to say what he had on his mind. “You sure I’m not giving him too much ‘love’ already?”
And the second he said it, both the princess and her partner glared at him in disbelief and complete silence, as though he had just admitted to committing mass murder. Which, honestly, wouldn’t be such a big thing, considering the fact that they were in hell and mass murder wasn’t anything spectacular.
“What?” He asked, completely clueless, to which Vaggie responded with a fully serious question.
“You… you’re kidding right now, right?”
“Noooo?..” He couldn’t quite understand what she was talking about, or why it shocked them so much. They couldn’t possibly deny that Husk was not at all a fan of the affection he was receiving from Angel, no matter how hard they tried. That was also part of the reason why he was so surprised when Charlie suggested that it was not enough.
“Alright, this… this is gonna be a bit harder than I thought.” The blonde sighed and stood up straight, glancing at her girlfriend before looking back at him, clearly struggling a bit to find a way to word her thoughts nicely enough. “Look, Angel. As much as I appreciate your, uh… efforts, oversexualizing yourself in front of someone to the point of making them extremely uncomfortable… does not fall in most people’s definition of love.”
“And definitely not in Husk’s.” Vaggie added, to which the other agreed with a quiet “mhm” and a nod of her head.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that, but like… what else am I supposed to do?” He hoped they would actually say something that maybe could help him instead of reminding him that his current “methods” aren’t exactly working out the best.
“I’m glad you asked!” Charlie’s energetic response was almost immediate after he expressed he didn’t know what to do to get the grumpy bartender to at least tolerate his presence. “There are so many different ways to express all kinds of love to someone, I’m sure we can find something that will make him like you!”
“Like what, for example?”
“Like hugs!” She squeezed her girlfriend in a tight embrace, as though trying to demonstrate how it was supposed to be done. She seemed pretty proud of herself until Vaggie reminded her of one crucial detail that made the hugging strategy work out perfectly between the two of them, but probably wouldn’t be the best with some of the other demons.
“I love you, Charlie, but are you sure Husk would take it well if he just started hugging him out of nowhere?”
A moment of silence, and a look of realization on the princess’s face.
“...we can postpone the physical touch part for now!”
As amused by the girl’s behavior as he was, Angel would rather just find out what else there was that he could realistically do not to make his every interaction with Husk either weird and flirty like he used to, or straight up awkward. He knew very well that Charlie only had the best intentions, but at the same time he was used to them being a little bit, well, unrealistic at times.
“But we can’t give up yet, this is just one of the many ways to express your love!” She wasn’t discouraged by this realization in the slightest and went on almost immediately. “You can also express how you feel about someone through your words!”
Once she said that, she gestured over to Vaggie to give her a sign that she could demonstrate it to Angel. She sighed quietly, but still looked up at her girlfriend with a smile and followed her request, taking a second to come up with some kind words she could use.
“Ahem… Charlie, I’m proud of how determined you are in trying to make everyone at the hotel happy.”
“Aw, thank you! Your kind words always make my day better!”
Even though the girls were enjoying this demonstration (at least Charlie was), Angel wasn’t exactly convinced.
“And you seriously want me to say that to him? It’s gonna sound even more unnatural than dialogue in porn!”
“Of course not exactly that, dumbass.” Vaggie rolled her eyes, as though it couldn’t be obvious enough.
“Just be nice to him! Even if you say something as simple as ‘thank you’, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” The princess gave a slightly more helpful response right after that. “And if you don’t just want to rely on words, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it if you offer to help him with his chores. Or if you just want to spend time with him!”
“And how the fuck do you expect him to take me seriously if I just start doing that?” This was honestly the thing that Angel considered one of the biggest obstacles when it came to trying to be nice towards Husk like a normal person. Of course, if he suddenly started acting all kind and sweet towards him out of nowhere, he’d probably suspect something immediately.
“You need tooooo… give it some time!”
Charlie responded after a moment of hesitation with a thumbs-up and an awkward smile; which didn’t make him more confident at all. He bit back a snarky reply of how “giving it some time” didn’t seem like a solution at all when the angels randomly rescheduled the extermination. He didn’t want to break it to her right now, she sounded like she was genuinely trying to help him in this situation. And maybe she was right about it, maybe they actually just needed some time to warm up to each other. Maybe Husk wouldn’t consider him a total fucking weirdo if he followed her advice. Just… a teeny tiny bit of a fucking weirdo.