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Coming up with good date ideas can be a little tricky when you’re dating a demon.
Dinner? Hastur doesn’t really eat. His maggots enjoy eating, but letting them out would no doubt clear out a restaurant pretty quickly.
Go see a movie? Hastur enjoys gory horror movies, but how often do those come around at the theater?
Visit a pet store and look at the cute animals together? You love Hastur, but you don’t fully trust him not to pull something like miracle-ing all the rats loose to run freely around the store and scare people.
A walk in the park, however, is a classic.
The day that the two of you pick to go on your walk winds up being just about perfect. The weather is warm which means you don’t have to wear anything more than a light sweater, but the sky is overcast enough for Hastur to feel comfortable as a physical embodiment of all things hellish and lurking.
You stroll along the edge of the pond at a leisurely pace. There’s something nice about having no real destination. You can just take your time and wander around as the mood strikes you.
Shortly into your walk, Hastur reaches out and takes your hand without any prompting on your part. You know that the demon is a big fan of public displays of affection since they tend to make other people uncomfortable, but small gestures like this when there’s no one around to see let you know that he’s doing it because he cares about you.
As you round a bend in the path around the pond, you notice a collection of figures waddling around up ahead.
“Oh look, geese.” You smile. “Somehow they’re always bigger than I remember them being.”
The demon lets out a ‘hmm’ with a slight smirk on his face. “Can’t help but admire geese- they can be right bastards when they want to be.”
As if somehow summoned by Hastur’s words, you hear a honking noise and you look up to see a goose making its way in your direction.
“Uhh… Hastur?”
By now you’ve stopped walking and the two of you watch as the goose slowly creeps closer, honking all the while.
A glance in Hastur’s direction reveals that the duke of hell is calmly staring the goose down as if issuing a challenge. You have no idea of geese work that way, but this one sure seem to have taken issue with something.
“Should we leave?” you ask hesitantly.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let it attack you.” Hastur shrugs. “Might as well find out what it has planned.”
It turns out you needn’t have worried, as the goose seems to only have eyes for Hastur. Abandoning its previously leisurely pace, the goose suddenly breaks out into a run straight at Hastur, flapping its wings threateningly.
You jump out the way as the goose reaches Hastur and begins pecking at his legs while beating its wings against him.
“Fascinating little creatures,” he says approvingly with a grin as the geese bites at his pants.
After a few moments he kicks a foot out towards the goose and it hops backwards before the demon can make contact.
“Don’t hurt him!”
Hastur rolls his eyes. “I won’t. Ligur has a soft spot for geese, he likes to encourage them to attack people when business is slow.”
Yeah, that sounds like Ligur, you think. You don’t know the other demon very well, but you have met him a couple times and sometimes Hastur tells you some of the less disturbing stories about things he and his partner in crime have gotten up to.
Having reassessed the situation, the goose gears up to attack once again, this time gliding upwards on its wings and aiming at Hastur’s head.
Totally unphased, Hastur snaps his fingers just as the goose makes contact. The bird disappears and Hastur is left with no more damage than his hair being a bit rumpled, which- honestly, you can barely tell the difference from how it was before.
Startled, you look around. “What did you do with it?”
Just because the goose decided to defend its territory, doesn’t mean it deserved to have something bad happen to it.
“It’s fine. The bird has been relocated across the pond and is currently chasing around a couple who are on their first date.” Hastur smirks.
You sigh. “Well, at least it will be memorable for them.” Now that it’s just the two of you again, you take Hastur’s hand again and tug him in the opposite direction from the rest of the geese.
“Let’s go somewhere else before another one decides to take a shot at you.”
Hastur sighs as if you’ve foisted some terrible burden upon him. “Fine.”
He smirks when you laugh.