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Angel Dust didn’t believe in love. Not really. Not after all the shit he had been through. He wanted to believe in love, sure. But, the years spent in Hell selling some twisted form of love had sucked any of those fairytale ideas out of his head.
Sex he could believe in. That was real; physical feelings that he could recall and ground himself to. It left marks. It left pleasant aches, and not so pleasant aches, in his body that would last well into the next day.
Drugs he could believe in. They would always help him fly when he felt too close to snapping. They got rid of the itch that crawled over his skin. They slowed his mind when nothing else could. They gave him a rush when the world seemed to slow too much. Or became too painful.
Love seemed like a concept that was so far away. He’d believed in it briefly… when he thought he might have had something with Valentino. But he snapped out of that rather quickly.
The only kind of love he could recall feeling down here was the kind he had for Cherri. The same kind of love he’d felt for his sister when they were alive. And also the kind he had for Fat Nuggets, but that went without saying. Those were reliable. At times.
Angel exhaled the smoke from his lungs. It curled and disappeared into the air somewhere above his head as he just sat there staring at his bed. Husk was laying on his back, the sheets tangled around his hips. Nuggets had wedged himself between the two of them sometime in the middle of the night and was also fast asleep, his head resting on Husk’s stomach. Angel took another drag of the cigarette.
His eyes roamed over Husk’s face, the way those perpetually furrowed eyebrows were finally relaxed in sleep. The cat’s nose twitched just a bit as he settled more into the many pillows on Angel’s bed. The spider’s eyes scanned further, over those big wings, the ones that Husk always wrapped around Angel when the world became too much. The older demon rolled over onto his side a bit more firmly, pressing his face into the pillow with a small huff of a noise. His ear flicked and Angel couldn’t hold back a small snicker as he took another drag of his cigarette.
Angel always knew that Husk was attractive. He knew that from the second Alastor dropped him in the lobby of the hotel. The older demon had a brusk, self-assured attitude that surrounded him. Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t fallen for any of Angel’s usual tricks. Angel always did like a challenge. Then there was that Devil-May-Give-A-Shit-But-I-Don’t air in the way that Husk spoke that had Angel weak at the knees.
Lord, did he like the way the cat talked.
His voice was such a lovely baritone that rumbled through Angel’s chest in the most addictive way. He loved the way that Husk would speak lowly into his ear when they were close, it seemed to settle comfortably in his bones. Angel did most of the talking between them. Husk wasn’t very good with words, but when he did speak, god, was it worth it.
It was early. Angel knew that much, though he hadn’t looked at a clock or his phone. He needed some distance from his bed. Like distance would help him see the whole situation more clearly.
His body ached pleasantly, as it usually did after nights like this. Husk was damn good in the sack, if Angel had anything to say about it. And he would have quite a bit to say if you asked him. The sex had been good from the start, Angel told himself that’s why they kept this up. Just a means to an end really… chasing orgasms where they could get them and having fun while doing it.
He and Husk had been doing this dance for a few months now. Fucking and falling asleep next to eachother. Sometimes it would be in Angel’s room, sometimes in Husk’s. Sometimes they would stay up all hours of the night and just talk. Sometimes they could just sit in silence and look at eachother. Angel swanned under the attention that Husk gave him, looking at him so intently sometimes. Regardless of whose room they slept in, the other was almost always gone by the time the sun rose.
Almost.
Recently, Husk had been staying longer. He’d be there in the mornings to give Angel half awake kisses before stealing away to the bar. The cat would kiss his forehead or make sure that Angel was awake for any early bullshit Valentino would put him on to fuck with him. Once the cat had been up early enough that he left donuts in Angel’s room for him when he woke up.
It was… strange for Angel; how all of this had progressed.
Husk wasn’t like anyone Angel had been with before. He hadn’t immediately fallen into bed with the pornstar, which was weird from the start. Hell, it had taken months for Husk to say more than two words to him really. But when those walls did come down… fuck. Angel had been lost.
The cat was a demon of action. And action meant so much more to Angel than words ever could. He’d fallen into too many fucked up situations because of honeyed words and broken promises. But actions…
Husk watched Nuggets for him when he was out. He made sure that Angel was eating. He noticed when Angel was shivering because the Hotel had the AC too high up. Husk sat with him and didn’t leave when he started to have any semblance of a withdrawal.
Angel wasn’t sure how he got lucky with this cat. Or why he stayed. Angel always steeled himself in the mornings for when Husk eventually decided that he was done and never wanted to talk to Angel again. He always prepared himself for Husk to ignore him. Or insult him. Or any number of things Angel had already experienced before.
But the cat just kept surprising him. Husk surprised him with his sarcastic smiles and eye rolls. With staying the night completely. With the forehead kisses and soft looks and gentle touches. No one ever did that. It was almost too wonderful at times to believe it.
Angel didn’t believe in love. Believing in love only led to heartbreak that came crashing down on him every time. But with Husk… well there was a small part of Angel’s heart that held out. A small part that thought that maybe, just maybe it wouldn’t end badly this time. Some part of his heart that did believe that love was possible; that all of this really was as wonderful as it seemed.
After all, everything always looks better in the morning light.