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Things were going pretty okay, if Evan did say so himself.
After the exhausting ordeal of binding HABIT to his word to ensure he wasn’t going to hurt Ash on purpose or kill her, they’d finally been able to actually start, you know… A relationship with her. And it was going pretty great! Hanging around her was a lot more fun when he didn’t have to worry his feelings were unrequited or that HABIT would kill her for shits and giggles.
… Not that HABIT seemed particularly happy with the new arrangement.
And, well, Evan would be lying if he said he didn’t know why HABIT was upset. So he was a liar! Because he’d told Ash HABIT was in a bad mood lately and that was why she hadn’t seen much of him… Rather than admitting he was actively suppressing HABIT as much and as often as he could and it was starting to piss HABIT off.
Since HABIT couldn’t do anything to Ash, he couldn’t do anything about Evan suppressing him without risking hurting Ash. There were some super specific loopholes in their agreement that Evan had worked out on his own before he forced the agreement, so if HABIT genuinely hurt her by accident he was safe from the consequences, but if he went after anyone else on purpose and she got caught in the crossfire, guess what? Also if she ever happened to ask to be hurt, or he had to hurt her in order to help her for any reason, he was safe.
But, point was, HABIT was quietly furious.
And frankly? Evan was starting to get a little bit nervous.
There was nothing to say that HABIT wouldn’t just host-hop to someone else to beat the shit out of him (or circumvent their agreement, since Evan’s word was only binding while he was in Evan’s body), especially if Evan pissed him off badly enough. And that would be an issue, for obvious reasons.
“Wouldn’t be one if you’d stop being such a bitch.” HABIT commented, dryly, when he thought about it a tick too long without consciously blocking the thought from him.
“HABIT,” Evan began, with a sigh.
“You got what you wanted.” HABIT huffed in reply, “She’s not gonna get hurt unless she wants to be or needs to be. What fucking more do you want from me?”
“I,” Said Evan, and then Ash walked into the room and he promptly forgot to continue the thought where HABIT could hear him.
And HABIT huffed again, curling restlessly in the corner of Evan’s mind he usually hung out in when he wasn’t in control. It was just the right spot to watch and wait for a chance to spring into control, usually. Close enough to the forefront that it’d be as simple as reaching out and dragging Evan backwards. Right now it was a sore spot more than an ideal spot.
He could spring into control. He could do it so easily.
If he only wanted he could be in control in a second.
But that was the thing. He had to want. And he didn’t. Not right now.
Being in control of Evan was supposed to be… Well. Fun? Something like that. He was supposed to enjoy having the stage―taking over out of anger would carry that feeling through the entire session. And an undercurrent of anger was best left for when there was someone he needed to get rid of.
He liked Ash too, was all he was saying, and he wasn’t wild about the idea of going out with that anger buzzing under his skin. Having feelings was weird and he was frankly getting tired of it but― Ugh. He wasn’t even mad at her.
Just at Evan.
Which was a more common occurrence now than it had been in the beginning.
Evan had always been a different host for him. The perfect host. One he was exceedingly fond of and who could withstand a continuous possession with very few breaks. One who could use his powers without breaking. He’d, in whatever capacity he had at the time for it, adored this little shit.
Continued to adore him even as time went on and, somehow, the constant exposure to Evan’s mind had made him feel things. That was always the threat of staying too long in a host, really. Particularly a strong host. Because the stronger the host was, the more their personality started to affect his rather than the other way around.
And even if Evan was kind of a dumbass and could be just as violent as HABIT if given a reason, he was also… Kind of a big puppy. He cared about people.
And HABIT guessed at some point some of that had rubbed off on him, because even without Evan’s binding word he wouldn’t have hurt Ash at this point. Maybe later on, or maybe not at all.
But definitely not at this point.
He let his legs stretch out, scraping sharp points over some of the more sensitive parts of Evan’s mind just to cause him a little grief. It was fun to know it made him squirm when he dragged them over his fears. All of those anxieties that he couldn’t hide from HABIT even when he was consciously blocking him out of his current thoughts.
HABIT couldn’t do much without putting Ash in danger (which was really fucking annoying, by the way), but he could agitate Evan to the point he couldn’t put up a fight anymore. Evan was like a wild animal―get him agitated, get him seeing red, and he’d go completely stupid. He’d stop paying attention to important details, he’d just lash out.
“Will you quit?” Evan snapped at him after a few moments.
“I’ll stop when you do.” HABIT sneered back, undeterred as he ran a clawed front paw over some old trauma to get a shiver out of Evan.
That was another reason this spot was perfect. Everything that agitated Evan was within easy reach.
“You’re such a toddler,” Evan groaned.
HABIT didn’t bother pointing out that Evan had literally started this. It wouldn’t do any good. Evan, poor darling idiot, figured he was doing the right thing. And, really, usually he would be right to keep HABIT as far from the controls as he could.
But the frustrating part, the really frustrating part, was that HABIT couldn’t hurt her if he wanted to. Slenderman taking him if he did it wasn’t at all what he was worried about―he could survive that. It was the much stiffer penalty he’d face after Slenderman was done with him that he couldn’t handle. He was a demon, he was mankind’s bad habit. He was meant to break promises and bones and everything else… But breaking a contract would fuck him up for a long time.
Sort of a built-in failsafe, you know?
Fuck was it annoying though.
Evan was annoying.
At least that was a recognizable and bearable emotion, though. Just an offshoot of anger, rather than this ridiculous cocktail of oddly positive emotion. This shit was going to make him puke sooner rather than later.
Still, Evan couldn’t hold him back forever. That, at least, gave him some solace. He’d get a chance to make his weird new emotions settle down eventually. And Evan wouldn’t be able to do shit about it. He could only hold him back, resist an outright possession, for a limited amount of time with his weak little mortal mind. He’d get too tired to keep trying very soon.
So, despite his annoyance?
HABIT could be patient for a little longer.
He didn’t have to wait long. He knew that.
And, inevitably, it really didn’t take long at all. The very next morning, when Evan got out of bed, his ability to fight back started to falter. He shook it off, at first, kept trying, but within an hour the fight was done. HABIT stretched, grinning, and hooked a leg around Evan’s consciousness. Took a leisurely walk to the controls while Evan was still there.
“My turn.” He purred.
“Fuck,” Sighed Evan.
And he flicked him back toward the back of their mind. Evan could sit and watch if he wanted, like HABIT usually did. Or he could just hunker down and wait out the possession.
Frankly, HABIT had to admit he’d missed this. He’d missed the long game of waiting for Evan to tucker out. Waiting for him to not be able to fight back anymore. And nowadays he missed the way that Evan used to keep struggling even once he’d gotten ahold of him… But there was a certain amount of enjoyment to be found in Evan not fighting. The first time that he hadn’t fought anymore, his consciousness had just sagged against HABIT’s “body” there in the mindscape, exhausted.
HABIT hadn’t tossed him that time.
He’d settled in with him, purring, and taken control with Evan tucked up into his fur.
… He missed that.
But having Evan that close to the surface right now would probably mean a fight. Which was a shame, really.
He shook his head, getting reacquainted with Evan’s body now that he hadn’t had control in a couple of weeks. Stretched and popped his neck, then his knuckles. Rolled his shoulders delightedly. Sure, the human form was so much less than his true form, but he much preferred human forms. And he’d have to drag Ash and Evan to an entirely different plane of existence to be able to exist in his true form around them, anyway. Admittedly it didn’t do so well on this plane.
Now.
He checked Evan’s phone, to see if Ash was busy right now. And, finding she wasn’t, he grinned. Perfect.
He popped Evan’s bedroom door open right into her apartment and clicked it shut behind him without a backwards glance.
“Aa aaaassshhhh,” He called out with a purr, and he knew she was smart enough and sensitive enough to be able to tell he wasn’t Evan. That was part of the reason he liked her so much. “Guess who came to visit, Bunny.”
She popped her head around the corner, from the kitchen, and her face lit up just like that. That was another reason he was so fond of her, probably―she got excited to see him. She knew full well who and what he was, but when she saw him? She was all smiles. Always. Unless he gave her a reason to react a different way.
“Habit!” She greeted, excitedly, crossing the room to throw her arms around him, “I was getting worried.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist, hoisting her up into his hold without much trouble―thank fuck Evan worked out so much that even Vinny didn’t weigh anything to him―and planted a sloppy smooch right on her cheek. She giggled. He squeezed her and surprised himself a little bit with just how gentle it was.
“Nothin’ to worry about, Bunny,” He promised, “Just had some stuff to work out with Evan.”
… Because there was no point in telling her the truth. Then she’d be mad at Evan, and, well… Mm. Not exactly his endgame, y’know? If she was mad at Evan then Evan would be mad at him and the whole thing would have to start over. And HABIT was a lot of things, especially now, but the main one was a creature that was so goddamned tired of running in circles.
She pouted, anyway, “He told me he didn’t know what was wrong,”
“And he didn’t,” HABIT defended, smoothly, “Until last night.”
She seemed to relax a little and laid her head on his shoulder. “I was about to make breakfast,” She said, “Do you want some?”
“I’d love some,” He chuckled, nudging her head gently with his. “But you’re gonna have to get me to put you down, first.”
Giggling, she turned her face into his neck and puffed out a breath into the skin that, naturally, sounded an awful lot like a raspberry. He laughed, body instinctively tucking his chin in to protect his neck. He hefted her up a little higher and planted another kiss on her cheek as he did so.
“Brat,” He admonished, but he wasn’t even mad.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Walking into the kitchen with her still in his arms, he looked around briefly. He tried, also, not to focus too much on how weird it felt to be doing this… Domestic shit. To just be holding her and doing stuff that made her laugh. To be… Happy with that. It was weird. So fucking weird.
But, oddly enough, he didn’t really feel like complaining.
He sat her down in front of the stove, where she’d obviously been setting up to start cooking. She turned to face it, but tellingly chose to lean heavily against his chest. He wasn’t allowed to move, he guessed.
So he just wrapped his arms around her waist and stood there while she got to work. He could feel Evan slinking back up to the forefront of their mind.
“You don’t seem like you’re trying to keep me from pushing you out of there,” Evan pointed out, softly, coming to a stop next to him.
“I told you I’d stop when you did.” HABIT thought at him, shrugging as well as that ‘body’ of his could.
Evan huffed.
HABIT shifted, opening a space for Evan to tuck in if he chose to. Evan’s consciousness eyed the spot for a second before sighing and climbing into the spot, there under his head, between his front legs. It was a good arrangement and it showed Evan better than anything else HABIT could do or say that he wasn’t going to fight about this.
“So is Evan like, out, or is he hanging out too right now?” Ash asked, midway through making a pancake. She angled her head to look at HABIT, cocking it a little further to place further emphasis on the question.
“He’s hanging out too.” He assured her.
“Ask him if he’s allergic to any of my spices.” She ordered solidly, turning back to the food.
He cast a glance at her spice rack. “Well?” He prompted Evan after a good look at them.
“I don’t think I’m allergic to anything,” Evan snorted, “Let alone cayenne or basil.”
HABIT couldn’t help snickering a little out loud. “He’s not.” He informed Ash, “He seemed almost offended you would suggest it.”
It got Ash to laugh, and Evan to snicker a little as well. Now this was a dynamic he could live with. Seriously. HABIT liked Ash, and he liked Evan, and they liked each other and liked him, and if they were all in a good mood together? Well. It was weird for him and he’d have to get used to the positive interaction before he was fully comfortable with it, but he liked it. It was new and different and… Pleasant.
The kids, they’d changed when he left them alone and left them to their own devices. They’d grown up and leaned on each other and changed, over and over, iteration after iteration. And he’d always been just shy of being able to do the same thing. His job, his actions, his goals, every iteration, were always the same. Never-changing. Always the same.
So maybe it was pure flight of fancy that made him enjoy this. Maybe it was boredom that let him go along with it. Maybe he really didn’t have any feelings for either of these two, or wouldn’t have, but would it matter after this?
He certainly fucking liked them now. He could deal with the rest later.
… It probably helped that Ol’ Stick-in-the-Mud had changed this time around, too.
“So, dad brought me some new charms and stuff,” Ash was saying, talking while she worked like always, “There was this specific old rune that reminded me of you, Hab, and dad mentioned you might know what it was? I wanted to show you but you haven’t been around.”
“After we eat,” HABIT suggested, “I’ll take a look at it.”
“Works for me.” She said, and she was beaming, and she continued on her merry way rambling and cooking.
He tucked his head against hers, resting his chin on her shoulder, and he let himself relax and stop thinking. If this was how it was, this was how it was. Everything else could come later. Right now?
He was comfortable.
And he would slaughter anything that tried to ruin this.
Evan hummed a little, probably having caught that thought due to the vehemence of it, and settled in a little more comfortably in HABIT’s fur. “Same.” He uttered.
And, well, that was more than enough for HABIT.
This was more than enough.