Chapter Text
In an unknown location—
The faint light from above stirs Caelus in his sleep. Still feeling groggy, he struggles to open his heavy eyelids. As he sluggishly squirms where he laid, memories from earlier floods his addled mind.
Crap…did I get duped by Sparxie?
Panic setting in, he squints through blurry vision, figuring out where he was.
“Ugh…” he groans. The light overhead stings, but he keeps his unsteady eyes open. As expected, he was in a place unfamiliar to him. “Anyone… help…”
Caelus had intended to yell, but all he could manage out of his tired throat was a hushed cry. This is too far even for Sparxie, Caelus thinks. But it was clearly Sparxie who stood before him as he passed out, and it was Sparxie that handed her that glass of water…
“Shit…did Sparxie drug me…?” Caelus laughs bitterly at the realization. He thought he was bonding like real fam with Sparxie, so why?
Just then, a familiar figure comes into his view. The figure covers the light above as they take a good look at Caelus from where he laid. It takes Caelus a few moments before his mind could process the identity of the person looking down at him. His eyes widened with shock at the revelation.
“It's y-you…!?” Caelus weakly gasps. “But why—”
“As expected of the Nameless of Astral Express, you already woke up.” The figure above clicks their tongue. “The drug wore off faster than it should…guess I should up the dose.”
“N-no…!” Caelus struggles where he's lying down. The softness of the mattress absorbs every squirm and wriggle he makes as he tries to stand, belatedly realizing that he's strapped in the bed. “Don't… don't touch me!”
“Oh, no, this is nothing dangerous!” They lightly wave the small syringe around. “It'll just make you sleepy, that's all. Nothing harmful.”
The prick of the needle as it pierces through his forearm makes Caelus hiss in pain. He feels the liquid inside the syringe flow into his bloodstream.
Their voice grows distant in his ears, but Caelus manages to hear their words.
“I hate to do this to you, but I'm not done with my work yet, you see.”
“Why…?” Caelus whispers.
“Because… because o■ l■■■…”
“What…?”
“L■v■.”
Caelus tries to gather all of his willpower to stay awake, but he loses all strength in his body as his heavy eyelids finally close shut. His labored breathing from all the struggling slowly comes to a steady lull as he falls to slumber again.
The figure leans down and observes Caelus’ face. With a light, almost reverent touch, they trace the sleeping trailblazer's face; from his eyebrows, to his lashes, to the bridge of his nose, down to his lips…
Good night, Caelus.
***
“I'm sorry, could you run that by me again?”
“R-right, detective, of course! Like I said, around the time you and Officer Kuchiba went out of the interrogation room, another officer came into the observation room to inform us of the deceased, Lauvlorne's body, missing from the morgue. We talked amongst ourselves and decided that Miss Sparxie would deliver the news to the two of you and went out of the observation room. And literally! At that very moment! We look back to the interrogation room where the suspect was and he vanished! Just like that! Poof! Gone!” The officer says while waving his arms around wildly as he gets riled up, retelling the whole story to Ashveil.
The officers in-charge of the doppelganger case seems to be stressed about the whole incident, faces contorted into one of frustration and confusion after losing not just the prime suspect, but the body of the victim as well.
“How could you lose the suspect? He was right in front of you!” Kuchiba reprimands the officers that were present during the interrogation, who cowers in their seats.
“Hey, hey, don't be too hard on them.” Ashveil calms Kuchiba down. “If Clay went out of the interrogation room, he would've surely run straight to the two of us. Heck, we were right outside the door!”
“Oooh, is this one of those cool locked room mysteries?!” Sparxie squeals.
“Most likely,” says the detective. “But we're in luck—security cameras are set up inside the interrogation room. This mystery will be solved in a jiffy by the help of technology.”
“Ugh, boriiing~!”
One officer who was reviewing the CCTV footage from the interrogation room manipulates the video and rewinds it to the moment as told by the other officer—the moment where Ashveil and Kuchiba walk out of the room. They all stare at Clay's figure in the video, not wanting to miss any details. A few moments pass by, and, poof, Clay vanishes from his seat.
“How the hell…?”
Dumbfounded, the officers could only look at each other in silence. Ashveil stares at the paused video, right at the moment Clay had mysteriously been spirited away.
“Do we have footage of Lauvlorne before her body vanished?”
“We do, but…”
Another officer approaches the detective with a tablet in hand, the screen showing a paused video. The video is taken from a high angle of the room of what looks to be the morgue. Ashveil presses play. In the video, nothing seems out of the ordinary, until a person wearing a lab coat approaches one of the drawers—presumably where Lauvlorne's body is—and pulls it open. They stumble back in shock at finding the morgue drawer empty, with no signs nor traces of the cadaver.
“We already monitored the footage prior to the pathologist opening the drawer, and we found nothing…”
“This has turned into one strange case,” says Ashveil to himself.
“Always expect strangeness, detective. This is Planarcadia!” Sparxie says as a matter of fact. “Besides, I don't think you're one to talk. You have a narrating monkey for an assistant!”
“Oh, right.” Kuchiba snaps her fingers as if remembering something. “You said you had your assistant look into Lauvlorne. You even asked about her job from the suspect. Ashveil, what's on your mind?”
“Ahh, that.” Ashveil takes his phone out again. “It just bothered me, is all. I never heard of Lauvlorne before, yet she's able to dish out such a huge sum for a trivial commission of infidelity…I was wondering where she got her money.”
“Ashveil, you…” Kuchiba looks at the detective disapprovingly.
“What? I was curious.” Ashveil shrugs. “And I was right to be curious.”
Ashveil shows his message exchange with Mister N on his phone. Kuchiba and Sparxie lean in to read its contents.
“It says here that she's a sculptor, though?”
“A sculptor who sells her work occasionally. How do you make such a huge profit with just that?”
“Maybe she was born a richie-rich?” Sparxie shrugs, one hand scrolling through the screen of Mister N's long text.
“Then I should've heard her name from somewhere,” Ashveil responds.
“Must you know every rich person in Planarcadia?”
“It's good to stay informed.”
It didn't take long for Sparxie to scroll on the most crucial part of the text. Her eyes widened in surprise.
“Ohhhh, I see now!”
“Ashveil, can your source be trusted?” Kuchiba asks, brows knitted.
“Who do you think I am?” Ashveil says smugly.
Ashveil straightens his coat before brandishing his walking cane from thin air. He stomps the cane to the ground, causing the ground to shake, the air rippling with danger. Dark shadows loom beneath their feet, growling, seeking for something—or someone.
“Get ready, we're going hunting.”
***
The door swings open to the residence of the deceased Lauvlorne. Swinging her thumbs-up-shaped hammer, Sparxie barges inside with big stomps. Ashveil follows from behind, cane in hand.
“Wolfie, are you sure we shouldn't bring Kuchiba with us? I'm telling you now, I'm no good at combat!” Sparxie wags her finger right in front of the detective's face. “Sparxie is a pacifist!”
“Who are you fooling? The whole world saw you get into a brawl with your alter ego on stream.”
Sparxie dramatically gasps, offended. “Alter ego? Her? She's nothing but an old model!”
“Tomato, tomahto. Just assist me when I tell you.”
Ashveil shoots Kuchiba a message saying that they made it inside. The plan was to have Ashveil, together with Lady Sparxie's great assist, confront the actual suspect behind the whole case while Kuchiba and the other officers surround the perimeter as a safety measure on the off-chance that the perpetrator somehow manages to escape the detective's claws.
The duo makes their way to the living room where Lauvelorne and Clay were found. As the incident had just happened a few system hours ago, the crime scene was still fresh, with the pool of blood in the center glistening red under the faint light emitting from their flashlights.
“I had thought that maybe my hunting nose was going rusty with how I couldn't sniff out the perpetrator taking Caelus away…turns out they never left the premises at all.” Ashveil says, a hint of annoyance evident in his tone.
He takes bold strides right in the middle of the pool of blood, the wet sounds echoing through the quiet room as the blood's consistency had turn tacky with the passing of time. Sparxie makes a loud sound of disgust as she cringes, but Ashveil pays no mind.
“I'm not stepping on that,” says Sparxie, tongue out in disgust.
“No need. As a gentleman detective, it's only right I show proper etiquette and knock before I enter someone's abode.”
Right after saying those words, Ashveil raises his cane up high and slams it down with force. The moment the cane hits the ground, the whole floor trembles as cracks form on the surface. Ashveil adds more force behind his cane as he pushes down, causing the whole ground to collapse. As gravity intended, the two fell down together with the rubble that was the floor they were on to a level deeper under the residence.
“Maaaaybe a little heads-up?!!” Sparxie yells as she waves her hammer around in panic.
A deafening crash resounds as they soon reach the basement. Ashveil and Sparxie manage to dodge and smash any falling debris falling in their direction. As the dust settles, they finally get a good look at the new location they just unlocked.
“Uh…”
They fell right in the middle of what looks to be a workroom, as the place was littered with tools relating to sculpting as well as trails of wispaes around. And just a few distance in front of them was the main culprit—
“Miss Lauvlorne, good evening.” Ashveil tips his hat as a gesture of greeting.
“ …detective, what brings you here?”
“Whoa, you're playing dumb right now?” Sparxie asks in disbelief.
“I'm not sure I follow,” says Lauvlorne, tilting her head.
Sparxie points her hammer at Lauvlorne, the tip turned to a thumbs-down. “You're going down!”
“I thought you're a pacifist?”
Lauvlorne ignores their bickering and calmly speaks. “You know what you're doing is breaking and entering right now, yes?”
Ashveil scoffs. “No, this is a lawful arrest, unfortunately for you.”
“On what grounds?”
Ashveil doesn't respond. Instead, he spreads his arms wide open to indicate that the whole area was enough grounds for her arrest.
“ …how did you find me?”
“Using short-lived imaginaes for your crimes was pretty clever, I'll give you that. The moment their wishpower runs out, they disperse into small wispaes, leaving no hair nor shadow for the officers to track down…but they definitely leave a trace. The officers wouldn't even imagine that they're chasing after imaginaes fueled by only one person's wishpower, thus their short lifespan. And these wispaes of yours, they return to you after you use them. They even form a cute little line as they make their way back!” Ashveil laughs, yet it doesn't reach his eyes. He continues. “All I had to do was track down the wispaes leaving the headquarters of the Department of Aberrations and follow them, which wasn't an easy task, since the place was already filled with imagenaes…did that satisfy your curiosity?”
“I see,” is all she says.
Lauvlorne takes a step to the side to show what is behind her. It was the slumbering figure of Caelus. His face looked peaceful as he slept through the commotion, except for the fact that he was strapped in his bed.
The detective's face darkens, the grip on his cane tightening. “What did you do to him?”
Lauvlorne ignores the question as she slowly paces around. “This is why you're not my type…you stand out too much, your personality is too strong, and you're much too shrewd for your own good.”
“Was that supposed to be a diss? Coz it kinda sounded like you were listing Wolfie's good points.” Sparxie comments to the side.
“It's a bad thing, of course!” Lauvelorne exclaims, shaking her head. “Mister Ashveil is the type of person who attracts misfortune not just to him but to those around him! He's no hero, he's like a shadow of tragedy!”
Ashveil clicks his tongue in irritation, but he doesn't refute her words. He admits that there were times when he thought that he had somehow brought about death and misfortune to his comrades…but this is not the time to dwell on that now. He knows he should focus on getting Caelus back and exacting justice. Exacting justice, his only atonement…
“Where's Clay?”
“Surely you saw what happened to him? You even followed the trail of wispaes back here…that was him.”
“Ashveil…!” Sparxie gasps as she turns to Ashveil, eyes wide with shock.
“No, that wasn't him.” Ashveil shakes his head. “I see you've already concocted a whole new plan, Miss Lauvlorne. Is that the angle you're going for? That Clay was just an imagenae you created?”
“I'm not sure what you're talking about.”
“Hah!” Ashveil scoffs. “You've even practiced denying plausibility…well? You're still guilty of creating those doppelgangers, Miss Lauvlorne.”
“Is there a solid basis that connects me to that case?”
Ashveil takes a step forward.
“The existence of Clay is enough proof, no? Creation of unregistered imagenae, as well as profiting off of said imagenae—that is illegal, Miss Lauvlorne.”
“ …”
Ashveil takes another step forward as he keeps talking.
“Of course, this wouldn't be a problem at all if you yourself is a registered imagenist. But according to my assistant, your only registered job is that of a sculptor. An unregistered imagenist is an illegal imagenist, Miss Lauvlorne. Or is there a reason why you're not registered? Is it perhaps because you sell imagenae to clients for purposes of, dare I say, committing crimes?”
“ …”
“For example, the doppelganger case?”
Sensing that Lauvlorne was wavering, Ashveil took a bold move forward. He was now just a few steps closer to her. He had cornered Lauvlorne both literally and in their psychological warfare.
“The cards are stacked against you, Lauvlorne. I suggest you surrender right now.”
“ …heh. Ha ha. HA HA HA HA! NO!!!” Lauvlorne takes a few steps backward, where she quickly slams her back against the wall. “I am so close to completing him! I can't have you interfering now…get rid of them!”
On cue to her command, the wall behind her crumbles down as two familiar figures emerge.
“ —!”
“Wow!”
Ashveil and Sparxie stand on guard as they face off the two newcomers—their look-alikes. The first one was a perfect replica of Sparxie, while the other was a colorless, faceless double of Ashveil.
“Hahaha! Lauvelorne must really hate you, Wolfie! She didn't even bother finishing yours!”
“Am I supposed to feel bad about that?”
Before Sparxie can come up with a witty comeback, her copycat swings a hammer overhead. Quick on her feet, Sparxie manages to leap backward to avoid the death hammer.
“This thing sure can fight!” Sparxie yells, slightly flustered at her close encounter with hurt. “Detective, promise this Sparxie you'll protect me!”
On the other side of the room, Ashveil is busy evading the rapid lunges that came from the cane of his incomplete doppelganger. He doesn't attack, his eyes trained on the sleeping Caelus at the other side of the room. Lauvelorne was nowhere to be seen, which Ashveil presumes to have gone deeper inside the hole on the wall where the doppelgangers emerged. The detective can see movements inside even through the dark. Two people…who else is in there beside Lauvlorne?
“That's all the spark you got?” Sparxie teases the double as she continues to evade and parry its attacks. “Here's a downvote~!”
Sparxie gains the upper hand, attacking with her hammer the moment she sees an opening. It hits the doppelganger square in the head, earning a rather cartoonish squeak as it deflates and disperses into small wispaes. The wispaes scatter on the ground as they scramble to get out of Sparxie's range of whack-a-mole attack.
“Sparxie wins!” Sparxie bounces towards Ashveil, hammer ready for a full swing. “Spam W in the comments, chat!”
“Sparxie, never mind me—go to Caelus!”
“Aye-aye!”
“I was curious to see the extent of the accuracy these body doubles have…what a letdown.” Ashveil finally stops dodging. He remains still, ready to take the offensive. “Be riddled with holes.”
One hand on his hip, he supports his weight with his cane as he waits for the incomplete fake-Ashveil to enter his range. The moment the doppelganger lunges forward to him, he turns his body and stabs the fake with the sharp edge of his cane deep. With a crunching sound, he retracts his cane from the fake as it disintegrates into small wispaes, scampering on the floor like it hadn't been just stabbed.
Ashveil hurriedly makes his way to the other side of the room where Sparxie and Caelus were. Sparxie has managed to remove the restraints binding the trailblazer to the bed, yet he remains unconscious. Sparxie is violently shaking the boy to wake up, even lightly slapping his cheeks.
“O, Great Raccoon, get up! We gotta leave this madhouse!”
“I'll carry him,” says Ashveil.
He crouches down to take Caelus in his arms when suddenly, he sees from his periphery a familiar metallic bat swinging at his head. Ashveil ducks and rolls away.
“What…?”
Looking down on him from where he knelt was Caelus. Frazzled, he looks at the bed, and sure enough, Caelus is also there, with Sparxie hiding behind the boy. If so, this must be a fake.
Right then, Lauvlorne emerges from the shadows. She wears a big smile on her face as she cheers on the doppelganger-Caelus.
“That's right, my hero, protect me from those scoundrels!”
“Uh, scroundel? The Great Sparxicon?” Sparxie exclaims before retreating again behind the sleeping Caelus. So much for assistance.
The Caelus with a bat continues its attacks, swinging his metallic weapon in a frenzy. All Ashveil could do was dodge at the barrage of attacks. It is all to obvious for the keen eyes of the detective that this Caelus’ movements were sloppy and that he could easily overpower him, but he just can't bring himself to even raise a hand against the young man. He knows he's being irrational, but being irrational was what made him human.
“Uh, detective? What are you doing?? Fight back!” Sparxie yells at Ashveil.
“Tsk,” Ashveil only clicks his tongue.
Ashveil leaps a few steps back, creating a big gap in distance between him and the fake trailblazer. He needs time to think. Or to prepare his mind. He can't quite decide on what to do next.
This is not good… this doppelganger looking exactly like Caelus is impairing my judgment…
Just then—
“AAAHH! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!” Sparxie shrieks in panic.
“ —! What's happening there?!” Ashveil looks away from the rampaging Caelus to check on the real one. He catches a glimpse of Lauvlorne approaching Caelus with a chisel in hand. Alarms instantly rings in his head.
“Wait, detective, look out!”
Sparxie's voice brings Ashveil back to the current problem he was facing quite literally—a metal bat swinging at full speed aimed at his head. Ah…he knows he can't dodge this one. What an oversight for Ashveil.
He expects the feel of the hard bat hitting his head and possibly giving him a concussion, but what happens next is beyond his expectation. Everything happens in a blur: a figure comes flying at the doppelganger and dropkicks him at a frightening speed.
“WA-TA!!!” Rings out the voice Ashveil has grown accustomed to hearing. It came from—
“Caelus!”
“Sorry I was late, I was taking a nap,” he says while scratching his head.
“That's your battle cry? Won't you get sued by a certain martial artist?” Sparxie comments from behind him. Behind her was Lauvlorne all tied up and kneeling on the cold floor.
“I'm pretty sure he's dead,” Caelus says, shrugging.
Ashveil hurries to Caelus’ side and scans him from head to toe. After making sure he's alright, he greets the boy. “Finally made your grand entrance, big hero.”
“Hehe, thanks for looking for me!”
Ashveil smiles softly at the young man. He marvels at how strong Caelus’ mentality must be, not even getting depressed or frightened even after getting kidnapped. But of course, he was strong. He was Caelus
“Heyyy, why isn't this doppelganger going away?” Sparxie asks while poking the fake-Caelus who was sprawled on the floor.
“Huh, should I dropkick him again?” Caelus takes a step back as he gears up for another dropkickicking, but he gets stopped by Ashveil.
“If you hurt him any more than that, I'm afraid it won't count as self-defense.”
“???”
Ashveil crouches down and flips the fake-Caelus on his back. He shakes him to wake him up. “This is Clay. The true victim in this case.”
“ —!”
“Ugh…” Caelus Clay stirs from his forced sleep. Ashveil helps him sit up as he slowly regains his consciousness. “Oh…h-hello, detective.”
“Hey, there.”
“Clay!” Lauvlorne suddenly exclaims from behind. She tries to crawl to Clay from where she knelt but gets stopped as Sparxie pulls on her restraints. “Y-you're awake! I was so, so worried about you!”
“You– you were?” Clay looks at Lauvlorne with wistful eyes.
“Detective, what the hell!” Sparxie stomps her feet, fuming. “Why are they still lovey-dovey?!”
“Because he's been purposely kept in the dark, manipulated.” Ashveil explains. “Remember, Mister Clay here is a victim.”
“I am…?” Clay looks around, clearly lost.
“Teacher, can I ask?” Caelus suddenly yells, hand raised like he's inside a classroom. “Why does Clay look like me? How many more alter egos of mine am I going to fight?”
“To answer your first question!” Sparxie chimes in, a book conjured from aeon-knows-where in her hand. “I don't know!”
Ashveil sighs at the impromptu role-playing but plays along. “Why don't we ask the person who holds the answer key. Lauvlorne?”
“ …”
“You're going to jail, anyway. Might as well talk.”
“ …” Lauvlorne looks away, avoiding Clay's imploring gaze.
“Stubborn, aren't we? Let's do it this way, then—why don't I paint you another picture? Miss Lauvlorne over here gets lovesick pretty easily, and when she loves something, she goes all-out. When she met our poor Clay over here, she fell instantly. Why, he was exactly her type; bright personality, doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, very agreeable, very gullible, very malleable—quite literally so. For Clay over here just so happens to be an imagenae. And Lauvlorne just so happens to be a—”
“An unregistered imagenist!” Sparxie cuts in.
“Exactly. So for the entirety of their relationship, Lauvlorne would mold Clay to her liking—the way he dresses, the way he talks, the things he likes, even the way he looks. Now, it's time for a recitation! Mister Clay, did Lauvlorne become a fan of Sparxie?”
“Y-yes…”
“Did she make your hair, ears, and tail white to match Sparxie's iconic white hair?”
“ —! How did you know…?”
Ashveil smirks. “And did Lauvlorne become a fan of Caelus of the Astral Express?”
“Yes…”
“And now she molded you to look exactly like Caelus.”
“ …” Clay touches his face, eyes reddening as tears threaten to spill.
“Wha—how is this love?!” Caelus yells angrily as he turns to look at Lauvlorne. The illegal imagenist doesn't meet his gaze.
“Because it's not. It's obsession. Obsession so strong she can convert it to wishpower to fuel her creations—her sculptures born from wispaes. I admit, that takes talent. Even her method of creating imagenae is non-conventional.”
“Why didn't you leave?” Caelus turns to Clay this time and asks, genuine concern etched on his face.
“I– I felt like I couldn't live without her…”
“What…?”
“Hm, I have a theory for this. If I'm wrong, Lauvlorne over here can sue me for defamation or whatever.” Ashveil waits for Lauvlorne for her response, but she remains silent. He continues. “Mister N helped me with this one, so I can't take all the credit. My trusty assistant looked into the ‘small accidents’ Clay would often get himself into, and they all had one similarity—they all happened after Clay would get into arguments with Lauvlorne. There's even a pattern; he would get into a small accident, get a minor injury, get nursed by Lauvlorne, and then they make up.”
“Is that… is that the truth?” Clay's voice breaks as he struggles to speak through broken sobs. “Lauvlorne, tell me…!”
“ …”
“Did you ever love me?”
“ …I did.”
“You did?”
Silence fills the room, save for Clay's quiet sobbing. Meanwhile, the detective trio look at each other, all sharing the same sentiment: sympathy. Sympathy for Clay.
What breaks the silence was the sound of footsteps approaching from overhead. They look up at the hole on the ceiling to see Kuchiba and the other officers, rope ladders in tow.
“I'll take it from here,” says Kuchiba. “Good job, you three.”
***
Caelus has lots of experience surviving all sorts of deadly situations. Waking up in an unknown space station, fighting an Ender Dragon-looking beast, watching a friend's neck get twisted like pretzels, defeating a revived Aeon, and stopping the literal obliteration of the whole universe.
Now that he lists them down like that, he feels like taking one Amber Era-long vacation. But the Path of Trailblazing calls to him, and he must answer! And so, he hypes himself up while thinking to himself that this, too, was part of Trailblazing.
Trailblazing his way into a certain gentleman's heart. The past few days were so eventful that he completely missed his chance to thoroughly get to know his tenant, after all. When else must he act but now!
But before he can take another step to his Trailblazing for Love, he must first overcome this hurdle.
“Mister N, for a couple of months’ worth of rent and coupons of Delightful Surprise Banana Parfait from Dreamless Coffee, won't you give me the detective?”
Mister N stares at the bundle of coupons on Caelus’ hand. Without missing a beat, he accepts the coupons with fervent enthusiasm. “Please, you can have him even without these.”
“! Really?”
“Who am I to get in the way of a youth's burning passion? I am but a humble monkey, boss.” Mister N bows before turning to leave the office.
“Eh, wait—you knew?”
“Knew of what, boss?”
“That, um, you know…”
“That you hold a deep affection for Mister Ashveil? Yes, I know. Your golden eyes reflect your emotions quite clearly, boss. I bet you always lose playing UNO.” After saying those words, Mister N leaves the office of the headquarters with a skip on his step. He must be looking forward to the Delightful Surprise Banana Parfait.
“What…” Caelus remains standing, mouth agape. “How'd he know I suck at UNO? Mister N is definitely a better detective.”
Caelus is now all alone in the office. All the furbos are out to get the latest scoop on the doppelganger case, with Lauvlorne as the main suspect. Even Ashveil was out in the office, as Kuchiba requested that he assist them throughout the case.
“Aw man, I feel lonely.” Caelus trudges across the room and stops right in front of the detective's room. “I could use a nap right now.”
He and Sparxie had stayed up the night before as the streamer insisted that he help her with her livestream to “spill the tea” on a certain socialite fan of hers turned psycho. Caelus went to great lengths just to stop Sparxie from spilling any more sensitive information about Lauvlorne or Clay during the live, and even promised the girl that he'll do another live with her if she keeps her mouth shut.
Caelus looks around the cluttered room before his eyes land on the only furniture in the room that Ashveil considers to be his bed—the refrigerator. He takes his shoes off before hopping in the cold bed. As he slowly falls asleep, Caelus makes a mental note of bringing a thick blanket next time.
Next time…
***
The gentle light of the moon pours inside the dim of the room of the Furbobo headquarters. Ashveil flicks the lights on of the dark office and is greeted back by its emptiness. Even Mister N was nowhere to be seen…
“Now, where could Mister N be? It's already his dinnertime…” Ashveil says to himself. He hurries to his room and swings the door open, half-hoping he'll find Mister N.
Empty.
Aside from the usual mess in his room, it was empty
“Wait…”
Ashveil notices the pair of shoes in front of the fridge. There's no way he won't recognize that pair of shoes anywhere. He couldn't help but smile at the thought of Caelus snuggly sleeping in his fridge bed. Curious to see what the raccoon boy looks like in his space, he lifts the door of the fridge open.
“ …”
Upon seeing the trailblazer's sleeping face, Ashveil is reminded of the incident with Lauvlorne, where he had been drugged and kidnapped. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Ashveil grimaces, remembering his inadequacy to protect the boy before harm befell him.
Before Ashveil could spiral further down, a cold hand touches his hand.
“Oh, heyya, detective…” Caelus groggily greets the frowning detective. He yawns as he rubs the sleep away from his eyes. “This bed of yours is surprisingly comfy. I was sure I'd experience something close to hypothermia, but I actually slept like a baby!”
“ …that might also be because of hypothermia. Don't you watch films where characters get stranded in the snow? The moment they give in to their sleepiness, they die.”
Caelus lets out a loud gasp. He frantically pats all over his body, then to his chest to check if his heart is still beating. The silliness of the scene makes Ashveil chuckle.
“Hm, you're definitely hotter when you laugh.”
Ashveil sputters at the sudden compliment. “S-sorry?”
“You were frowning earlier. I thought you looked handsome all angry, but you definitely look better smiling.”
“Aghhh—!”
Ashveil yelps in surprise at the sudden intrusion of two cold hands cupping his face. Caelus smooshes the detective's cheeks with his hands, giggling.
“You know, I asked Mister N to give you to me.”
“H-huh?”
“He said I didn't need to ask for permission.”
“Um, Caelus…?”
“I even bribed Mister N.”
“It sounds like he sold me to you…”
“Mm-hmm. So for tonight…”
Ashveil gulps. “Tonight…?”
“Give me your time, O Great Detective.”
“Ah, ahhh, my, uh, my time…!” Ashveil laughs nervously. “You want my time. Right. Of course. What does my great landlord want to do with me?”
“It'll be too graphic if I tell you.”
“Why are you so—”
“Let's just hang out for now!”
Golden eyes twinkling, pleading at Ashveil, all he could do was nod. He takes the hands that were playing with his cheeks and sets them down. As much as he wants to hold onto Caelus’ hands, he knows he shouldn't. Instead, he joins the younger man inside the fridge. They sit inside, face to face.
“ …it's cramped.” Caelus comments.
“I heard that business is booming for you and the furbos. If you move to a bigger place with a bigger fridge, it won't be cramped anymore.”
“I have to bring you with me if I move?”
“Oh, me and the Furbobo Weekly come as a set.”
The two proceed to spend the next few hours talking about random things, like how Caelus have had experience drinking weird substances that'll either make him black out or teleport (Ashveil suspects that Caelus did not teleport, but simply wandered while drunk and forgot), Ashveil crossdressing as a madam for a case and embarrassing himself (“How could you confuse your business card with a banana? They're not even the same size!”), Mister N stealing the moon (“It was our first commission, and it even went trending online”), Pom-Pom scolding Caelus after eating a weird mushroom and causing chaos in the Express…
After running out of stories to tell, the two gaze at each other as they relish in the comforting silence.
“I like you,” Caelus confesses.
“ …I know.”
“Damn, does everybody under the sun know?”
Ashveil chuckles. “I'm a detective, remember?”
“What about you?”
“What do you want to hear?”
“Hey! You can't say that, that's a foul move!” Caelus pouts.
“I can't say.”
Caelus blinks in confusion. “Why not…?
“What's so good about an old man like me? You should go for someone who's deserving of a big hero like you, Caelus.”
“You think I don't know my worth?”
“That's not—”
“I'm telling you, you're deserving!”
Ashveil goes quiet, stunned at Caelus’ bold and honest words.
“ …are you sure? I'm way older than you.”
Caelus eagerly nods. “That's part of your charm!”
“Is it…?” Ashveil laughs softly. “I'm broke most of the time.”
“Which means there are times that you're not!”
“You're one optimistic lad… how about this? I can devour a boatload of food.”
“Hoh? Are you challenging me? I'm quite the food fighter!”
“I sleep in a fridge.”
“I'm already with you in your fridge.”
“I can be quite twisted.”
“???”
Before Caelus could process Ashveil's words, he lets out a strangled cry as the older man grabs at his thighs and pulls him closer. Ashveil then sits up and crawls on top of Caelus, their legs entangled with one another.
“A-Ashveil!” Caelus cries out in surprise.
“Yes?”
Caelus can feel his heart jumping out of his mouth, feel his whole body drumming with nervousness. Sure, he wants to do something like this, but he didn't expect for it to happen now. Face flushing hard, Caelus fights back the urge to close his eyes and instead toughs it out as he looks at the man's eyes above him.
It was a look Caelus had never seen before. For most of the time they were together, Ashveil would carry himself with carefree poise. But now, the eyes looking at him, watching him, felt foreign. It felt like he was being watched by a predator, gaze sharp, waiting for the kill.
Caelus squirms below Ashveil, not sure where else to look. For the first time since spending time with the detective, he felt small. Oddly enough, it felt good.
“Won't… won't you go for the kill, Sir Wolf?” Caelus fights through his shame and eggs on the older man to do more.
“Hahaha…this is driving me crazy.” Ashveil sweeps his hair back. “Kid, can't you tell I'm holding back right now?”
In response, Caelus pulls the collar of his shirt down, showing the skin on his neck. “I'm telling you to go for it.”
Ashveil groans at the sight. He can feel his reason leaving him. Ah, but who is he to deny a prey offering himself up to him—and on a silver platter, no less. He should just follow his instincts. After all, he is but a wolf who only knows how to hunt.
Ashveil slowly lowers his head, canines bared, ready to sink on the soft skin. Caelus keeps his eyes open, round with anticipation as he watches Ashveil.
Snap! Snap!
“Ah, shit, I left the shutter on,” says the very familiar voice of a certain streamer girl.
“ —?!!”
“Sparxie!?”
Ashveil practically shoots out of the small fridge and lands head-first on the floor. Caelus frantically gets up from the fridge to try and check on the hurt Ashveil but instead bangs his head on the falling door of the fridge. The quiet room has now been filled with sounds of groaning as the two men writhe in pain.
“Did Sparxie come at a bad time~?” Sparxie puts her hands together to show remorse.
The door to the refrigerator swings open as Caelus angrily emerges from inside. He yells at Sparxie. “W-what are you doing here?! You're, um, breaking and entering right now!”
“You left the door open, though. You're practically inviting thieves to come in!”
“Sparxie…” Ashveil stands up, rubbing his swollen forehead. “How long have you been here?”
“Since the “I can be twisted” part! Oooh, Wolfie, who knew you could be so freaky?” Sparxie giggles.
Ashveil runs his hands all over his face, ears red with embarrassment. “Please forget about that. Also, please delete the photo you took.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No!” Sparxie turns on her heel. “BL is quite trendy these days.”
“Sparxie, stop right there…!”
“Toodles~☆”
Sparxie bolts out of the room at a frightening speed. Ashveil remains rooted where he stands, mouth stupidly hanging open. He can already see all the posts canceling him for going after someone so young, and the beloved Nameless at that.
Caelus, on the other hand, jumps out of the fridge and chases Sparxie.
“Sparxie! O, Great Sparxicon! Send me a copy! Please!!!”
This marks the day of Caelus and Ashveil's budding romance. Caelus might have less experience when it comes to love, but as he always does with his past business ventures—this, too, will be something he will conquer.