Work Text:
Christmas was always chaotic in Black Hat's manor. That was one of the few consistencies in the organisation that had been eternal, never having started and never ending. As a whole, it was always chaos. Just... more so around Christmas.
Flug had resorted, as an act of pure desperation, to locking the door to his lab and barricading it with whatever furniture he was willing to sacrifice that day; it could be tables, chairs, or - one one particular occasion - a giant robot he'd constructed specifically to keep the door shut regardless of Demencia's increased strength or Black Hat's eldritch abilities. Ultimately that failed, but at least it kept Demencia out of the lab for a few extra minutes.
As he absent-mindedly twirled a pen in his hand, staring at a fresh blueprint, he could hear Demencia's rattling voice echoing in the halls outside. There was some kind of commotion, over what he couldn't say, but it was enough for him to wish she'd just shut up so he could work in peace.
He should really invest in making the lab sound-proof, but then again it probably wasn't worth it. After all, he needed to be able to hear footsteps thudding on the floorboards outside, or quiet cackles as someone scurried along the walls and ceilings.
"Oh, c'mon!" Demencia whined. "Please?"
"Get back to work," another voice - Black Hat - ordered, with less of a vicious tone than usual, but he noted the underlying irritation.
He scribbled something onto the blueprint. If Black Hat was in a bad mood, and headed towards the lab, no less, then Flug was going to be in a world of trouble.
"Flug!" Black Hat yelled.
Grumbling quietly, he turned in his chair to face the door. Despite the winter chill, his lab was hotter than the pits of hell. His bag was already half-off, only covering the uper half of his face with his goggles askew, and his lab coat had been tossed in a corner somewhere. He wasn't bothered enough to retrieve it, not even for Black Hat's sake.
The door flew off its hinges and skidded across the floor to stop a metre or so away from Flug. He'd have to fix that later, wouldn't he?
Black Hat stood in the doorway, angrily clutching something in his fist. Even from across the lab, he could feel the hatred radiating from Black Hat. He hastily pulled down his paper bag and adjusted his goggles.
"Yes, sir?" he replied.
Black Hat thrust out his hand and unclenched it, revealing a sprig of a charred plant laying in his palm. "What, pray tell, is Demencia doing hanging mistletoe everywhere?"
The obvious answer was that Demencia wanted to catch him under the mistletoe and kiss him. She wouldn't have bothered with it otherwise. But that was also the simplest answer, and the one most likely to worsen Black Hat's mood, which would probably end with him getting thrown at a wall. Probably. Still, he wasn't willing to risk that. So instead he combed through his knowledge to find something that might appease Black Hat.
"Mistletoe, you say?" he stood up from his chair and crossed the distance between him and his boss, leaving about half a metre between them. "Well sir, mistletoe is a parasitic plant. Its berries are poisonous."
Black Hat's visible eye widened the slightest fraction. "Is it not a- ugh, symbol of love?" the last word was said with so much disdain it could make a child spontaneously burst into tears.
By pure coincidence, a child did start crying out of nowhere, and refused to stop for half an hour.
"That is true, yes. But it also has its evil purposes, I suppose. Which is probably why Demencia was hanging it up everywhere like you say."
The eldritch ruminated on that for a moment. Flug tensed, his posture improving under Black Hat's eye, but his shoulders folding slightly in on himself. His fingers itched at his sides.
"Can you make an invention using it?"
"What?"
"I asked if you could use mistletoe in an invention. Unclog your ears, dear doctor, or else I'll have to make you go without them."
He swallowed nervously, feeling rivulets of sweat running down the back of his neck. "Of course, sir. I'll work on it right away." Flug waited for his boss to leave, or at least to be told to get back to work.
Black Hat, however, didn't seem very keen on doing either. He stared intently at Flug - or, more specifically, his paper bag.
His hand rose and Flug flinched. Oh god, he was going to get thrown at a wall again, wasn't he? He'd just gotten that dent out!
Instead, Black Hat's hand went under Flug's paper bag to cradle his cheek. The bag was pushed up by the eldritch's other hand until the lower half of his face was exposed. He couldn't really see, so he bit the bullet and removed the bag altogether.
Black Hat's lips parted in surprise.
Flug knew he was less than appealing to look at. The better half of his face was marred by burn scars, his nose was crooked and his lips chapped and dry. His hair was unkempt from rarely being cut. His eyes were a weird shade of green. His face in general was weird. And somewhat ugly.
But Black Hat didn't recoil from the sight of him.
Flug looked up, noting a tentacle holding up the charred sprig of mistletoe. He arched an unimpressed brow.
"We're under the mistletoe," Black Hat said, in an oddly calm voice, considering literally everything about the eldritch. "How... coincidental."
Black Hat's other hand ran through Flug's hair, gently playing with the strands. He found himself leaning slightly forward, his head at a slight angle, and Black Hat mirroring his movements.
Their lips gently met, pressing together in a chaste kiss.
It was pleasant. He had thought that kissing him would be sinful and lustful, fuelled by passion and a burning fire. Not that he thought about kissing Black Hat often, mind you, but it did cross his mind from time to time. But it was mild, gentle, less like a raging inferno and more like flickering candlelight instead. Less sinful and lustful, and more innocent.
He pulled back, taking a few deep breaths.
Black Hat leaned back, the sprig falling to the floor of the lab.
"I'll be checking in on you later," he stated, as if he were in a business meeting, but the flush of his cheeks remained. "Until then, dear doctor."
Black Hat left the lab, but not before graciously picking up the door and placing it where it had been beforehand. As if by magic, the door fixed itself and reattached to its hinges.
He pulled his bag back on, fixed his goggles, and picked up the mistletoe sprig on the floor.
The blueprint on the table was pushed onto the floor in lieu of a new blank one as he already began to combine shapes into something he could make. Next to him while he worked was the mistletoe sprig.
Every now and then his gaze wandered over to it, and a small smile curled at his lips at the sight of it.
Nobody saw him, though, so it was fine.