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The owner of the ever-successful Black Hat Inc. was lying half asleep in his bed. After a very long day filled with meetings, various evil customers demanding a new, fixed version of the operating system of Flug's newest invention and Dementia continously cranking up the volume of her speakers, he was dead tired. The squeak of the door opening went completely unnoticed.
"Blackhat?" A timid voice emerged from the darkness.
"Mmmm?" He stirred, slowly opening his eyes. Upon him stood his human employee, nervously clutching a small pillow.
"Oh, sorry for waking you," the scientist said bashfully.
"Flug, you know I had a tough day," He sighed, but asked Flug anyway, "What is it?"
He expected to be led to Flug's room to see a tiny spider hanging just above his bed or having to kick Dementia out who was pranking Flug by staying hidden in his closet and making spooky sounds (to Black Hat they actually sounded more spoopy that spooky). He didn't expect when came next at all.
"I'm cold. Can I come in?" It took him a moment to comprehend and to decide how to act. With a huff he lifted the bedsheet a little so Flug could climb in.
He could feel that his body was cold even without touching him. And Flug had only shorts and a t-shirt. In the middle of winter. His vague knowledge about human body temperature allowed him to say that this kind of clothing wasn't enough to keep him warm.
"No wonder you're cold, if you only wear shorts," He grumbled, but was too sleepy to actually be mad. The scientist only hummed in response.
His memory wandered off to the moments that they shared a bed before. About two months earlier he practically dragged Dr Flug to the bed while he whined about deadlines, his eyes almost closed from the fatigue. But he was also tired and too lazy to reach the scientist's room. They ended up crashing in Blackhat's gigantic mahogany bed. Blackhat felt Flug struggle underneath his weight, muttering something along the lines of 'Sir, this isn't exactly my bedroom', but he was already half asleep and didn't care at all. Despite them being fully clothed, and tangled together in not excatly comfortable manner, he remembered that it was quite a restful night. Flug fleed in the morning, embarassed and his paperbag wet with sweat, despite the declaration that Blackhat's interest him is mutual (which happened about a month before).
Blackhat's train of thoughts was interrupted with Flug trying to scoot closer to him without him noticing.
"Come on," He sighed, reaching out under the blanket and pulling him close, so close that Flug was now snuggled up to his chest, his head under his employer's chin. He mumbled a shy thanks.
Despite his terrifying appearance, Blackhat turned out to be surprisingly comfortable to cuddle up to. His skin was almost human-like, but more dry and smooth and emanated an impressive amout of warmth. Flug felt his hand draw slow cirles on his black and relished in the familiar scent of smoke and probably expensive cologne.
Blackhat had to admit that he enjoyed the human's closeness a lot. Of course they shared an occasional hug and he liked to tease the inventor by ruffling his hair a bit (anytime he put his bag off for longer than a few seconds), but this was something different. He couldn't remember anyone or anything getting this close to him. But this completely defenceless and fragile (compared to him)human did. His hair carried a faint smell of chemicals that couldn't be washed out in the shower. His clothed back was warm. His hands which were laid between their bodies were gradually warming up. And he smelled of some silly, fruity shower gel.
Blackhat's thoughts were getting lazier and lazier and he finally joined Flug in a deep slumber.
Two nights passed uneventfully. On the third one, however, Blackhat was woken up again. This time he didn't say anything -- as soon as he felt Flug's presence beside his bed, he pulled him in. Again, a mumbled thanks and soon they were both fast asleep.
This pattern repeated regularly, every three or four nights Flug would climb into his bed and scoot over to him. He decided that it was welcomed, despite the man waking him up every night with his human clumsiness.
He noticed that sleeping with Flug affected his morning behaviour. Usually, he would bolt out of his bed, remembering and fussing over everything that made him angry on the distance of at least a month. He would dress himself up with the flick of his wrist and storm out of his room, ready to scold everyone and hurry them up with their jobs.
But now he woke up with a pleasant heavy warmth on his chest that resulted in a funny warm feeling somewhere inside of him. Looking at Flug's sleepy face made him calm down and his thoughts didn't immediately focus on the things that made him angry. He moved carefully as to not wake him up (no matter what, Flug mysteriously arrived in the lab way before him), and carefully exited the room. He always felt well-rested, even if their bodies were tangled together during the night.
He felt calmer, in a way. He shouted at Dementia and 5.0.5 only occasionally, and praised Flug's work more frequently than he used to before. He noticed that they improved with their tasks a lot. Explosions and various accidents in the lab receeded. Flug was more confident and efficient, working like a dog, but rarely seen dead tired.
When Flug climbed into his bed for the nth time, Blackhat said -- "You know, you could just buy some long-sleeved pajamas If you ask me." He meant it to be a joke. However, he was to sleepy to notice how Flug's body flinched and how he backed away from him.
Despite praise that came from Blackhat and his changed behaviour that made everyone's chores more pleasant, Flug returned to his usual stutter and timid way of maneuvering through the manor and lab.
And it took a lot of time until Blackhat could put his finger on it. He remember saying something about his clothes, but what was it excatly he didn't remember. He did notice, however, that since that last night Flug didn't come to him at all.
But he missed him a lot and missed falling asleep together. And Flug kept acting as if he did something wrong that upset the demon.
He decided on a plan that he hoped would be satisfying for both of them. It was very simple, to be honest.
About mid-afternoon, he strolled into the lab, slowly enough for Flug to notice him. He allowed himself to wrap his arms around the inventor.
"Hey." He hoped that his tone would make up for how tenative was his embrace. "Did you buy yourself something different to wear?"
"Uh-- N-not... not excatly," Flug tensed a bit. He probably was supposed to follow his boss' suggestion. Was-- was he going to be punished? He looked up at Blackhat fearfully, but to his surprise, the demon was smiling.
"Great," He said, nuzzling the top of Flug's paper bag with his chin. "Would you sleep with me tonight?"
It took a while for Flug to realize that he didn't answer and that he was standing there dumfounded.
"Y-yes, of course." He managed to mumble. He was completely astonished to see Blackhat beam at him. The demon wished him a good day and promptly exited the lab.
Despite this, Flug remained a little bit nervous as he found himself in his boss' bedroom. Suddenly, the giant mahogany bed, thick red curtains and fluffy grey carpet seemed intimidating and overwhelmed him.
Blackhat wasn't in the room. Flug set his goggles and paper bag on the nightstand and shyly climbed into bed. The bed sheet was now big enough to fit two people and there was another pillow for him as well.
He fell flat on his back and let out an uneasy sigh. Before he pulled the covers over himself, he saw something move at the foot of the bed. He sat up to investigate, but suddenly, a bunch of black tendrils shot in the air and pinned him so the bed.
"Blackhat?!" He squeaked, as what attacked him was most likely to be his work. Or perhaps some demonic artefact manifested its presence? The tendrils looked liked shadows, but were completely corporeal. They were similar to branches of an old oak, but were flexible and moved swiftly.
He breath quickened while he was struggling wildly. Many thoughts swarmed in his mind. What is keeping him down? Is it Black Hat? Is this his punishment for not dressing properly? Or maybe he told him that because he didn't want to sleep with him in the first place?
Suddenly one of the tendrils lifted up the rim of his t-shirt a little. He felt his face heat up a little. What-- What's the meaning of this?
Before he could think of anything else all the tendrils launched at him. He let out a small shriek, but instead of hurting him, they- Wait, are they tickling him?
He couldn't help bursting out laughing and giggling as the shadowy entities tickled his body, along with his now exposed belly.
Suddenly he heard a low booming laughter, and from under the foot of the bed emerged Blackhat. The branch-like tendrils seemed to emerge from his back.
Flug looked at him teary eyes, still giggling. His body writhed in the demon's grasp. "Stop it!" He managed to ask between fits of laughter. "Never!" Blackhat shouted and lunged at him, still laughing as he did so. Flug's eyes widened as he started tickling him with his hands. He laughed loudly while the demon ran his hands down his sides, armpits and belly. His slender appendages didn't cease their work as well.
When he noticed that Flug was completely out of breath, he finally stopped the tickling. Flug eyed him playfully as the demon slid into the covers, still chuckling.
"Well, you could at least tell me that there's a monster under your bed." He said jokingly with fake accusal. Blackhat answered with a small chuckle. He couldn't stop staring at Flug, his face uncovered, flushed from the exertion, a little bit wet with sweat -- he was tired already, tired from all the laughing, and so, so human. Blackhat absentmindedly weaved their fingers together, causing Flug to blush and avert his gaze. The demon pulled the single cover over them both. It didn't take long for the scientist to snuggle to him. Blackhat embraced him with both relief and enthusiasm, he didn't realise before how much he had missed him. But now there was something else left to say.
"If you wanted to sleep with me, you should have just told me. You don't need to find a special excuse to do so." He murmured into the human's ear. He felt a wave of heat reach him, the doctor blushed again.
"I was afraid that you wouldn't want this. And when you said this thing about a warmer set of clothes, I thought that you realised that being cold was only an excuse and you didn't want me with you." Flug said, fiddling with Blackhat's shirt nervously.
"Flug, I was only joking. I would never say no if you wanted to spend time with me or sleep together." He answered, burying his face in his hair.
He heard a content humming and the doctor shifted a little. Before he could ask what's going on, he felt a kiss being pressed to his cheek.
"Thanks." Said Flug, snuggling to him again. Soon, the doctor's soft snoring could be heard in the room.
Blackhat's face went a few tones darker as he stared at the ceiling with a huge goofy grin on his face.
He didn't get any sleep that night.