Chapter Text
Angel awoke for what felt like the hundredth time in an hour when Husk started thrashing and hissing, claws slicing through the air as darkness haunted his dreams. Fever could’ve always been a contender in his sudden change in demeanor, though Angel was too tired to think too much on it.
“It’s alright,” Angel chided as he readied himself to grab at Husk’s writs if he needed to. “Just another nightmare. Gotta tell those thoughts of yours to fuck off.”
Husk’s overbright eyes opened wide, and when he reached for his throat, Angel rested his open palm over it to block him. When Husk was met that resistance, he dropped his paws immediately even if he seemed less than thrilled.
“What is with you and that throat? You’re being a real dick about this,” Angel commented as he threaded his fingers through the thick and dirty fur that was still caked in dried blood.
“Leash,” Husk wheezed.
“What?” Angel leaned closer to Husk’s muzzle so he didn’t have to aggravate his throat. “Can you say that again?”
“Leash.”
Right, Angel did remember Husk saying that he was an overlord once and now found himself on someone else’s leash. It wasn’t difficult to figure out who was calling the shot between the two, though Angel had hoped Alastor was nothing like Valentino. That still may have been true while also not meaning that Alastor was some saint. He was an overlord for a reason, and certainly one that Angel didn’t trust in the slightest. Besides, if he was responsible for Husk feeling the need to harm himself, then he was a right jackass in Angel’s mind at the moment.
“I don’t see nothin’ there now,” Angel offered nonchalantly. “Maybe it’s gone for now so you can get some sleep? Whatcha think about that?”
A deep, almost thunderous growl rolled deep within Husk’s chest. While he didn’t face in Angel’s direction, the sinner knew exactly what was going through Husk’s mind. As Angel pulled his fingers fully away from Husk’s throat, he felt himself scoot to the edge of the bed. His blood ran cold as Husk faced him with a look of cold hatred. There was no recognition in those pale yellow eyes, not anymore.
Angel eyed the bathroom at the edge of Husk’s room desperately. “I-I’ll wet another towel.” He had been using them to cool Husk down earlier when he woken up the last time, and hoped it would serve to lower that fever burning through his body; anything to calm him to a state where he could be lulled back to sleep.
Without giving Husk time to respond, Angel skirted off the bed and into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and locked it, panting hard as he slipped down to the floor with his arms around his legs. He could feel his heart almost beating out of his chest, perhaps even worse than when Val looked at him from his director’s chair. Husk wouldn’t truly harm him, would he? Despite the burning look in his gaze that said otherwise?
Angel rested a fist on his chest and began to rub harshly in a counterclockwise motion. It wasn’t uncomfortable nor painful, but it kept him grounded all the same. It was all he could do to stop himself from falling down that dark hole that would lead him to those disastrous thoughts.
“No,” Angel whispered against his chest. “M’here to help Husk, and that’s what I’m gonna do.” A new wave of determination washed over him as he gave his head a pointed nod as he located a washcloth and ran it under the cold water of the sink. Once it was damp, not dripping, Angel carried it out of the bathroom with as much confidence as he could muster, which was odd as he was never one who felt like he lacked it. Yet here he was, practically quivering with the idea of talking to his best friend.
Shaking himself off, Angel crept into view. “This’ll help,” he announced to the still riled Husk.
Husk flexed his claws as he dug them into his sheets. His hackles rose as Angel approached until the spider was sitting beside him on the bed with the washcloth grazing his brow. His body began to relax instantly as the hostility he had possessed mere moments ago fading to nothing. Angel wouldn’t go so far to say that he was happy, but content may have been a better word.
“Is that all it takes to make you behave like a kitten? Wish I would’ve learned that eons ago,” Angel chuckled as he continued to move the washcloth around to where he thought it would soothe Husk the best. The more the cat purred, the better Angel felt. His eyes even started to close after a bit when Angel’s fingers drifted to those red and black wings. Husk was always so protective of them when he was awake, hardly letting anyone touch them, let alone feel his feathers like this. However, it was difficult to ignore when Husk’s entire body was against his and the wings threatened to splay at any moment.
Angel let his fingers explore, quick to check for any signs of Husk’s discomfort. He was ready to pull back at a moment’s notice, but when Husk gave no sign of anger, Angel kept at it.
Each felt felt unique in it’s own way, and it was hard to imagine that something this soft could carry his entire weight in the sky. As Angel’s fingers explored deeper, weaving around the short fluff at the back of his wings, a finger suddenly felt something hard and knotted. Angel looked down to realize that he had left Husk’s wings and had settled on the middle of his back. This area was usually covered by his folded wings, yet deep under the fur, gnarled scars crisscrossed every which way. Some were deeper than others, while some were short and more shallow. Angel found himself exploring much more than he meant and pulled back when he realized exactly what he was doing.
Husk wouldn’t want him to cross his boundaries like this, especially when ill. Boundaries were a huge things for Husk, and Angel knew this. He cursed himself for every grazing Husk’s wings in the first place as tears welled in his eyes.
‘I’m just like Val,’ Angel thought. ‘Husk is going to hate me when he wakes up!’
Angel wasn’t given much time to ponder as Husk twitched in his sleep, hind legs lightly churning as if he was in pursuit of something. The washcloth on his forehead remained in place as he let out a raspy cough, enough to shake his frame while not rousing him awake. He began to calm a few seconds later with Angel instinctively taking his space beside him while not touching him like he had prior.
While Husk slept with as much contentment as he could given the situation, Angel felt like he would never be able to sleep soundly again.
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Angel was awoken late the next morning from movement beside him. He pretended to stay asleep as he heard Husk yawn, stretch his back, before looking at his room in surprise. “What the fuck?”
It was then that Angel made a show of waking up, arms stretched high over his head as he arched his entire body. “Good morning, gorgeous.”
A flash of panic showed in Husks’s eyes and Angel immediately regretted what he said.
“We—did…did we…..”
“No, no!” Angel let out a light chuckle. “We didn’t do nothin’. You were too busy tearing yourself to pieces to do somethin’ like that.”
The gears in Husk’s mind turned as he tried to reconcile what Angel actually meant. It was only when his paws instinctively dropped to his neck to press on the still tender slash marks did understanding pass over his face.
“Shit,” Husk rasped. “You didn’t see that shit, did you?”
“See it? Baby, I lived it! I thought you were gonna tear your fucking throat out! Who do you think was the one who helped stopp you from doin’ anything worse?”
Husk twitched an ear irritably. He grew quiet before a dry cough took over his body. He twisted away from Angel into his elbow, though Angel wanted to point out that considering they slept in the same bed the night prior, whatever Husk had would either be passed already or not. He kept himself quiet as Husk finished out the fit, surfacing with a startling gasp to clear his phlegm filled throat.
“When was the last time you were sick,” Angel questioned.
Husk swiped the back of his paw against his slightly runny nose. “M’not,” he grumbled fiercely.
“Oh, really?” Angel leaned forward on his elbows with his legs twisted behind him. “Because I beg to differ, and so does that fucking fever.”
“Fever?”
“Yeah, you don’t know how hot you are?” Angel swiped his tongue against his bottom lip, pointed teeth showing in a grin. “Because I sure do.”
Husk gazed at the discarded washcloth, long dry now, that he had woken up with on his forehead before pushing it off. The deep ache he felt in each of his joints could just be hell being hell, but something told him it was more than that. His stomach felt uneasy still despite not eating recently, and both his senses of smell and hearing were much more muted than usual. He also couldn’t deny what Angel was telling him. He wouldn’t lie, not about something like this no matter how much the sinner liked to exaggerate. Husk wasn’t sure what was worse; Angel helping him at all, or him seeing him weak.
“You know, I think a thank you is in order.”
Angel’s voice broke Husk out of his own thoughts as he whirled his head around to glare. It lacked its usual strength, especially when he gave another fierce cough. “Next round is on me. Now, will you leave me the hell alone?”
“Alone? When you’re sick and weak? No way,” Angel exclaimed as he slid even closer to the former overlord. “You’re stuck with me until you’re 100%.”
“What about work?”
“I’ll do that when you’re sleepin’. It’s not like you’ve been awake much so far.”
“Kid, I’m not worth all this trouble,” Husk grumbled as he lifted his claws to begin to thread them through the back feathers of his wings, tugging out broken ones and smoothing the ruffled ones. “I prefer to do this shit alone.”
“That’s only because you used to have to do this shit on your own. Trust me, I know.” Angel’s gaze momently darkened before he gave his head a shake to clear it. This wasn’t about him. It was about Husk! “Don’t worry. I’ll keep my hands to myself. Don’t want to take advantage of you or nothing.”
Husk rolled his eyes. “Thanks, I appreciate it,” he stated dryly.
Angel ignored the sarcastic undertones and propped himself up until he was sitting eye to eye with Husk. “So, tell me what you need?”
“You to leave me the fuck alone?”
“Besides that.”
“I dunno. Been a while since I’ve dealt with this shit.”
“Well……my sister used to tell me stories to get me to go to sleep when I wasn’t feeling well. Want me to do the same for you? I think sleep would be preferable to bein’ awake, unless you really want to be.”
Husk didn’t want to admit that the idea of sleep was tempting. Despite just waking up a few minutes ago, his body had made it clear that staying awake would only cause him misery. Maybe later he could try something to eat or to move around, but for right now all he wanted to do was curl up back in bed and not be woken up for a year. Now, the whole idea of a bedtime story wasn’t exactly his thing.
“I’ll sleep, but I don’t need no damn story,” Husk muttered fiercely as he pulled the covers back up to his shoulders.
Angel’s face took on a stricken quality. “Ah, come on! I know a couple good ones.”
“I don’t even want to know what counts as a ‘good story’ to you.”
“Fine then,” Angel pouted. “Then why don’t you tell me one?”
“You want me to tell you a story? And how is that supposed to make me feel better? You know how much glass feels like it was shoved down my throat?”
“It’s either your story or mine. Make up your mind.”
Husk mimicked Angel briefly before slumping back against the pillows. There would be no talking his way out of this one no matter what he tried. He was too tired to argue, and if he heard one of Angel’s stories of conquer and lust then he felt he might physically be sick again.
“Fine,” Husk decided with a roll of his shoulders as he tilted his head to gaze at the now smug spider. “What kinda story you want me to drone on about?”
Angel drummed his fingers against his bent knee as though deep in thought. He scooted a little closer to Husk, and when the feline didn’t immediately push him away, he leaned back to rest his head on the headboard as he held Husk’s feverish gaze. “Tell me a story about something good.”
“Something good? What kind of shit does that mean?”
“Something good,” Angel repeated. “I dunno like something fucking good. You gotta have somethin’ good that happened to you at some point. C’mon, Whiskers. Give me something, huh?”
Ignoring the obvious sexual undertones, Husk thought hard. Happy memories weren’t something he had an abundance of. He had ended up in hell after all. But, if Angel wasn’t going to leave him in peace unless he came up with something, he could dig deep to remember something.
“You know there was a time when I was younger that I would sneak into the magic shows at the casinos…..the fucking professional ones that some poor bastard had to pay to see. Guess I was lucky in that regard.” Husk broke off to cough, wings instinctively lifting with each shudder. “They were doing some sort of box trick or whatever this one time and asked for a volunteer. My fucking hand shot up so fast and they actually picked me, the idiots. Brought me up on stage and everything and put me in one of those boxes and shoved enough swords to slice me to bits.”
“What happened then?!”
“Well, a magician never reveals how a trick is done. I will say that was a pretty clever trick. When they brought me out and the crowd went wild…..that’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Husk explained with an almost whimsical look in his eyes. “Guess that didn’t quite work out, now did it?”
Angel frowned. “I don’t know. I’d want to see some of your tricks. All your tricks, baby.”
“Why does everything end in flirting with you. For fuck’s sake, just when I think you’re done, you start back up again. Can’t I just have a moment of damn peace. If not, get out!” Husk’s eyes blazed with more than just fever as he slumped back down with a strained breath. The first quickly faded from his eyes, and instead of feeling fear at what Angel had just witnessed, he felt genuine concern for the outburst.
Angel gave a defeated sigh when he realized that Husk was serious about this. “You looked like an overlord just now, asshole.”
Husk grumped. “That was a long time ago, man. Nothing you need to worry about now.” Husk wrapped his wings around his body with his eyes squeezed shut as he breathed raggedly. “M’haven’t been that person for a long time now, and something tells me he’s not coming back.”
Angel cursed himself for bringing down Husk’s mood like that. They had been sharing a relatively happy story and now Husk was looking more crestfallen than he had even the night prior as he huddled in the tacky club bathroom. That certainly wouldn’t do.
Cautiously, gently, Angel extended his limbs and felt himself drape them around Husk. He was ready if the feline reacted harshly, but he was a little surprised when Husk seemed to settle into the contact. He didn’t comment on it, or show that he overly enjoyed it, but he also didn’t rear back and shove Angel away either.
Just when Angel’s arms started to fall asleep, he felt Husk let out a low snore, chest rising and falling with each breath. A smile spread across his face as he rested his head on Husk’s back, feeling the wheeze in his lungs tenfold. He made a mental note to keep an eye on that, but for now, he only wanted to lay here with Husk. This may be the only time that the bartender lowered his guard enough for this to happen. Honestly, Angel wasn’t even sure how much he would remember after this illness passed.
One thing was for certain; he would follow Husk’s lead in whatever that was. Maybe, just maybe, this would be the true connection that Angel was looking for. If only he could be sure he wouldn’t fuck it up.