Chapter Text
When the elevator hums to a stop on the third floor, Husk holds the door open and gives Angel a nod to go ahead. In that quick moment, Angel sees a flash of some unknown emotion fly across the overlord’s face. “Three doors down to the right,” he says. “I’m right behind you.”
Angel follows the instructions, feeling power in the sound his stilettos make on the fine marble floors. He walks, ensuring a certain sway in his step, allowing the man behind him to get a complete eye full of his backside. He pauses in front of their destination though, hesitating with his hand hovering inches above the door handle.
“Go on,” Husk tells him.
Angel inhales, preparing himself for whatever lies beyond the threshold. He expects the worst but is met with an absolutely astounding pink haven of a bedroom. He takes a step inside to further admire the circular bed with pink satin sheets and realizes that the ceiling is draped in all textures and shades of pink fabric. Some lace, some silken. There is a small sitting area with a fireplace and a flat screen TV. He can see an ensuite bathroom from where he stands and if his eyes aren't mistaken, he can see a rainfall showerhead affixed in there too.
He didn't realize he was holding his breath until he feels Husk's hand on his waist, urging him farther in the room. This room feels entirely different from the rest of the casino in every way imaginable. Angel is more than grateful for everything.
It hits him right then. Anxiety tightens its grip on his lungs and weighs down his ribcage. There has fto be a catch. There is no way an overlord of Hell itself would be this kind and gentle if not to expect something in return. He's even taken the time to go over the contract in slightly finer detail. Angel fears that this is the last act of kindness before it has all run out.
When Angel looks around to find him, Husk has made himself comfortable in the white armchair in the sitting area. Fat Nuggets sits in his lap. He watches as Husk leans in and whispers something to the animal before placing a healthy pat to Fat Nuggets’ stomach, and another for good measure.
Angel takes advantage of Husk’s distraction to reach out and touch the elegant, birch wood nightstand. Nothing feels real right now. He has to be sure that something is.
“I had Niffty recruit a few others in my menagerie of souls to put this together.” Husk says. “I think they did a good job.”
“It's beautiful,” Angel says. It's all he can manage with a heavy chest.
“Come over here then.”
Angel does as he's told. He stands in front of Husk for a quick second and pauses like he's completely forgotten what to do before he lowers himself down to his knees. He looks up at Husk with the eyes he knows all men like and reaches for the button on Husk’s slacks. Husk catches Angel’s hand with the exact speed that it rose and holds it.
“As much as I'd hate to kill the mood.”
Angel’s heart stops. Not in a good way.
But then Husk places Angel's hand down gingerly on his thigh. “It's no fun if you're only in it to thank me.”
He's so confused he could cry. “What?”
“You don't have to give me head if you don't want to.” Husk must notice how terrified Angel looks, how small he must feel. He reaches out and caresses Angel’s cheek. It's soft and genuine.
“Why are you doing all this?” As soon as the words fall from Angel’s mouth, he regrets them.
“What do you mean?”
Angel basically blacks out. “You picked me up off the street, cared for me, gave me all these clothes and shoes and all this makeup, and Niffty, and this room is just-” He gasps unintentionally, holding back tears he didn't know he had. He steadies his breath before responding in an attempt to bring back the facade he knows so well. “And you want nothing in return?”
“Work the floor, do your part. That's all I ask.”
Angel is wide eyed and nearly slack-jawed at the overlord's response. “That's it?”
“Yes. Now come up here, please,” Husk says. He's getting annoyed. Angel hears it in his voice and sees it in the subconscious flick of Husk’s left ear, a very feline reaction.
Angel exhales some of the tension he's holding in and sinks to sit on his knees. He takes a moment to breathe before he climbs into Husk's lap. He places a kiss on his cheek for good measure. “Thank you, kitten.”
He scoffs. “I may be an overlord but I'm not a complete asshole.”
Angel chuckles at that as he makes himself comfortable. He wraps his arms around Husk’s shoulders and leans his head on his shoulder. He can see directly out the window from where he is. He focuses on the flickering neon from the sign across the street, not caring to actually read the words.
The next thing he knows, Niffty is knocking on the bedroom door and he sits up alone in his own bed. She enters with a tray of breakfast that she deposits on Angel’s nightstand. He eats absentmindedly, replaying the rather embarrassing events of the night prior. “Niffty?”
“Yes?” She smiles, pointy teeth vaguely threatening as she does so.
“Do you know where I can find the Boss today?”
“He got called to an emergency meeting. I don't know when he'll be back.”
Half of him is disappointed, the other is relieved. He rises from bed, goes through his routine and parts from Niffty with a resolve to explore the casino floor. The next time he looks at a clock, it's 6pm. He leaves the security guard he was practically interrogating to find Husk has still not returned.
Word spreads quickly that the star is staying in the arms of a new overlord and rumors run wild. Over the next three days without Husk, Angel finds himself enjoying the paparazzi, the photos and autographs. He drowns himself in top-shelf liquor and strange men.
When he closes his eyes though, he sees Husk next to him. He imagines it's the overlord himself who closes the tab and puts an arm around his waist, guides him upstairs and fucks him until he forgets how to walk.
None of that happens with the strangers he meets downstairs though. For the first time ever, even the though of kissing someone feels wrong. Husk hasn't even done that. It's a certain magnetism that he has, a gravity that continuously pulls him into orbit. It has Angel refusing sex, something he's never done before.
The man he's currently with talks about his time spent Earthside like he's just left and drinks like he's trying to forget. Angel knows the feeling but harbors no pity for the stranger. Just barely in his line of sight, he catches a security escort coming in from the front door.
Husk is home.
Angel rises from his seat, kisses the stranger on the cheek, and bids him good night. He practically skips to the overlord’s office and immediately sits down on the dark oak desk on the opposite side where Husk sits in his desk chair. He pulls five casino debit cards and two different wallets from his cleavage and places them in front of Husk with a smirk.
“Dunno if ‘lost and found’ exists here but I found some things you might like.”
Whatever exhaustion haunted Husk fades away to pure excitement. His pupils are dilated as he takes the cards, pulls out a drawer and places them into some sort of scanner. He takes the cash from the wallets and simply tosses the rest in the garbage. After that, he counts the cash and hands it back to Angel, his eyes linger on the other for a moment too long.
Angel knows how good he looks today. He's in his color, hot pink. The dress today is strapless but of course there's a slit just for Husk which is being taken full advantage of at this moment with the way Angel sits cross legged on the desk.
Angel has done his job and done it well. He's been a very good boy. He needs just a little attention from his master.
He rises from his spot and tells the security guards to close the doors for a few minutes for a “private conversation”. They act like they don't know what is about to happen and obey their orders without objection.
Angel returns to the desk but sits in front of Husk this time, uses his legs to pull the desk chair as close as it can be, trapping Husk in his web. “Can I have something, kitten?”
”And what is it that you’d like?” Husk’s voice is smooth as fine whisky. Angel holds back a shiver, keeps his composure. He can’t break now. This is the first real opportunity to show this man everything he can do.
”Touch me?” Just for a little, he tells himself. Husk seems the giving type and now would be the perfect time to take advantage of some well-earned foreplay.
Husk wastes no time running his hands up Angel’s thighs, under the slit of the dress and pushing any extra fabric out of the way. He doesn’t hesitate when he pulls Angel’s lacy underthings down and out of the way. Angel’s erection falls forward, hot and heavy before him.
Husk teases him with kisses peppered to his inner thigh, trailing upwards until he’s close enough that his breath ghosts the base of his cock. “May I?” He asks.
”Please, Husk.”
With that, he wraps his mouth around the head of Angel’s cock and hollows his cheeks just enough to tease. Angel gasps and leans back on his hands. Husk’s tongue is textured much like his Earthside counterpart and it has Angel seeing stars as it laps at him like he’s been starved. Husk moves his head down and moans. Angel can barely keep it together.
His free hands lose themselves in Husk. They caress his cheek, his shoulders, unfasten his bowtie, and almost tear buttons off the shirt trying to undo them. He wants to stay like this but encourage the man giving him service. He just wants to feel him, memorize every inch. Angel has craved his Overlord's touch the way he craves cocaine, incessantly. “You are perfect,” he says. “So perfect for me, Kitten.”
He feels husk slip up his rhythm and hold back a gag. He uses his hand after that, at the base of Angel’s cock moving with a tight grip in time with his mouth. Its no secret as to why angel was so good at porn. Every inch of him is wonderful to look at. Even he wouldn’t mind watching a POV of this angle right now.
A few seconds later Husk begins to purr, Angel bends forward on instinct and lets out all the breath in his lungs. Angel opens his mouth to let out a moan but only a whimper makes it out. He's had his fair share of head received and given even more but nothing has ever come close to this, to an overlord of hell between his legs loving every minute. This is complete bliss. It's almost better than any drug he’s ever tried.
Almost.
When Husk moans again, Angel feels himself break a sweat. His legs twitch and his toes curl. He begs Husk absentmindedly for release. When he feels it build inside of him, Husk doesn't deny it. He encourages it, moves his ministrations with the pulsing of Angel’s cock and slows as his body begins to relax.
He brings his head up with an audible “pop” and smiles as he wipes the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. “Did I miss anything?” He's still purring.
Angel begins to shift off the desk, to mentally prepare himself for Husk to make another move. He doesn't though. He hands Angel a small bottle of water from somewhere and helps him fix his underthings and dress kindly. He pops a stick of gum into his mouth and coaxes him off the desk and into his lap. Angel doesn’t mind, he can barely feel his legs after that. “You don’t want anything more?” Angel asks him.
”I don’t think you have the energy to do anything else, legs. I feel you shaking.”
He’s right. Angel could fall asleep right here, right now in Husk’s lap like he apparently did a few nights ago. He settles in, wraps his arms around him and nuzzles his neck. He feels safe here.
“Can I show you something?”
“Of course,” Angel says.
Husk moves a heavy, maroon leather desk mat aside revealing a touch screen built into the tabletop of the desk. Thank god the screen is thick, Angel’s ass would have broken straight through. Husk navigates with one hand to a set of blueprints that Angel can barely make sense of until he sees the word “nightclub”.
“A club?”
“Why not? We've got the space for it.”
“Where is there space for a whole club here?”
“The basement.” His reply comes casually, like Angel should have known there is an entire basement to this structure.
“Where the fuck is the basement?”
Husk chuckles. “There's three lower levels, baby. Two of them are being used.”
“For what?”
“Competitive games. Though, I might have to change things around a bit.”
Angel shifts to get a better look at the screen in front of him. It's some sort of designing program, an easy to assemble 3D model-type deal. Husk hands Angel a stylus and walks him through the basics of the software as he places some finishing touches on the general design. It looks very bland, only a skeleton of a room. “Not much here,” Angel says
“That's the problem. I need more-... personality”
“I can do that.” In fact, he'd very much enjoy that. Everything in V Tower had Valentino’s touch all over it. It would be wonderful to have something that is entirely his own design from start to finish. “What restrictions do I have?”
”Go crazy, baby. I want to see what you can do.”
Husk sits with him for roughly twenty minutes before he shifts Angel onto the chair entirely and leaves to refresh himself before dinner. When he kisses Angel’s knuckles, he realizes how exhausted Husk looks. The meeting must have taken a toll.
When the office doors close behind the overlord, Angel does as he was told. He designs the club of his dreams. Even realizes that there’s a way he can alter the original design to add in a VIP loft. He spends hours losing himself in creativity and when he’s finished he signs his design.
The Menagerie- by Angel Dust
Before he leaves, he replaces the leather mat on the desk and leaves things exactly as they were. He heads to the bar to have one final drink. After a man orders him a Tequila Sinrise, he bids him goodnight and heads directly to the elevator without another word like the brat he knows he is.
Right as the elevator doors begin to close, Niffty runs on and uses flat hands on the back wall to stop herself. She smiles wide once she realizes who she shares it with.
Angel wordlessly offers her a sip of his drink which she takes excitedly with both hands on the glass. She returns it with a wide smile. “Mister Husker wants you to join him for dinner but doesn’t know how to ask,” she says.
”Well you tell Mister Husker that Angel Dust wants to know just what he’s scared of.”
The elevator stops at the second floor and Niffty leaves with a wave. “Will do!”
For some reason, Angel hopes that she’s crazy enough to actually do it. He smiles to himself as he walks to his bedroom and changes into more comfortable clothes to wait for Niffty to bring him dinner. Yesterday, he told her to eat with him for company, which she excitedly agreed to. He assumes she is prepared to do the same thing.
Instead she returns two hours later empty handed and coaxes him into a black cocktail dress for dinner with the Boss. She is excited beyond belief, bouncing between frantically dusting and helping Angel. When he’s ready, she pushes him out the door and down the hall to the sitting room on the third floor.
Husk welcomes him with open arms and a smile and pulls a bouquet of roses from behind his back like a magician. It's tacky as all hell but Angel smiles anyway. He calls for Niffty before she scampers away to put them in a vase on his nightstand so “Husk can be the last thing I think about before I fall asleep”.
She takes them with a smile and runs down the hall, holding them high like a trophy she just won.
”She’s a pistol, isn't’ she?”
Angel chuckles and allows himself to be led to a small high top table next to the windows. “Where did you find her?”
Angel takes his seat and watches as Husk takes his own across from him. Angel waits until Husk takes the first bite of his food before he even looks at his own utensils but once he takes his first bite, its hard to stop. The alcohol burning in his stomach settles with every bite. It feels almost divine.
”It’s not my story to tell,” Husk says. “What I can say is that where most people beg for a dollar, she came and asked to work for me.”
“How do people usually end up with you?”
“They hit rock bottom, want nothing more than one more dollar. Some are brave enough to come knocking on my office door, begging for one more dollar. I offer them a game instead.”
“Of?”
“Poker usually. Depends on my mood. It's never a game of pure luck though. Fuck those.”
Angel doesn't know very much about casino games, just slots. He can play a game of strip poker but not very well, which is the entire point of strip poker. Husk hates games of chance yet his wings are quite literally, a roulette wheel.
Eventually the thought of games of chance gives Angel another thought that terrifies him. Husk being there on the night his contract with Valentino was dissolved seems too convenient. “Did you know?”
“About?”
“Valentino ditching me?”
“I have eyes everywhere in the Pentagram. I couldn't risk you falling into the wrong hands.”
“Falling into the wrong hands,” he scoffs. “Like I'm some kind of toy.” Maybe he would have been amenable to it if it were truly an accident.
“Far from that,” Husk says. He places his silverware down calmly and takes the napkin off his lap. “You are a weapon in my eyes.”
Oh. Well, this is different.
“How so?”
“You had people lining up around the block today just by sitting at the bar. You bring them in, drain their wallets, and I get their souls when there's nothing left of them. You are perfect for me, Angel.”
The way those words fall from Husk’s tongue make Angel’s heart melt. If he didn't know any better, he'd say he has a petty little crush on the Overlord but he does. This is far from a crush but it's a feeling that Angel can't quite put a name to just yet. He doesn't want to. It's gotten him into terrible situations before. This relationship is strictly business and survival.
But it's the fact that Husk genuinely seems to care about some of the souls in his stores. For fucks sake, the servant imps that run around have their own panel on the elevator, just their height. By coincidence, it's perfect for Niffty too.
Husk puts on some music after they’re finished eating. It's a song he's never heard before, probably from “upstairs”. Husk then pours two glasses of champagne. He hands Angel his with a genuine smile. “A toast to your first real day.”
“And many more.”
They drink the whole bottle together. It's the sweetest strawberry champagne he's ever had and he can hardly get enough. Some intrusive thoughts in the back of his mind tells him that he wants to taste it on Husk's tongue but he stays put. Husk has given him plenty today.
They talk for an hour or so until the first time that Angel yawns. Husk uses that as his excuse to end the day. Angel doesn’t mind. He’s more exhausted than he thought he would be. When he gets back to his bedroom, he changes immediately back into his comfortable clothes and climbs into bed with Fat Nuggets. As soon as his head touches the pillow, he falls asleep.
The next morning, Angel wakes before Niffty has the chance to come in. He gets ready quickly and heads downstairs directly to Husk’s office. Once inside, he lounges comfortably on one of the sofas, takes a cup of coffee that he’s offered by one of the servant imps, and sips contentedly as his overlord finishes a rather heated phone call at his desk. He hangs up and sighs loud enough for Angel to turn his head to look over at him. “Rough morning?”
Husk tosses his phone onto his desk chair and walks over to where Angel lounges like he owns the place. He sits across from him, on the opposite sofa. ”Not anymore,” he says. “Didn’t think you’d be up this early.”
Angel feigns attitude, clutches his imaginary pearls for dramatic effect. ”I’m perfectly capable of getting up early on my own, thank you.”
“Something about you strikes me as a ‘sleep till noon’ kind of guy.” Husk sips on his own cup of coffee. He still looks exhausted as he did the day before, like he still hasn’t slept a minute. “Did you eat breakfast?”
Its funny how concerned Husk is with this proper diet. He was hoping he could avoid it this morning. Angel scoffs. “Niffty didn’t have the chance to make it to me. Wondering if you wanted to join me?”
”I don’t eat breakfast.”
”You make me eat two square meals a day, sometimes a third, and you can’t practice what you preach?”
Husk smirks. “Do as I say, not as I do.” He leans back on the sofa, legs spread in power. “Besides, I don’t know what you’re getting into on the floor. I can at least ensure you’re fed.”
They’re interrupted when the doors to the office slam shut suddenly. Angel looks directly at Husk who has positioned himself between Angel and the door in the blink of an eye. He growls. Angel can see him summon claws at the tips of his fingers on his left hand. Husk’s other pulls a deck of cards from his back pocket. Whatever three cards he grabs glow green with some sort of energy that Angel has never seen. He feels static prickle the air and smells burning plastic.
”Stay behind me.” Husk commands.”
Angel sits up on the sofa and ensures that most of his body is behind Husk the best he can be. There’s three thumps and one yell from the other side of the door before they open again.
In rolls the reptilian head of a servant imp, eyes open and lids twitching with leftover spirit. Angel locks gazes with him and recognizes him in an instant. He is one of the men he spoke to two days before, asked questions about Husk and the Casino.
Niffty walks in with a tray of food held high in one hand and bloodied dagger low in the other. She places the tray on the coffee table before she cleans the dagger off on her apron. “Snake in the grass, Mister Husker.”
”Fuck.”
Angel forces back a gag and swallows the bile rising in his stomach. Its nothing he hasn’t seen before, he just wasn’t expecting it here.
”He was talking to someone from V Tower on the phone. I heard him when I was cleaning the vents.”
”What else do you know?” Angel asks. He needs more information now.
”Valentino wants you back.”
He wishes he hadn’t asked. Husker stands him up, walks him out of the office and directly to the elevator before he speaks. When he does, his voice is low, a growl almost. “I’m not letting you go.”