Work Text:
It was an unusually quiet evening at the hotel. Probably a combination of Angel Dust working late and Niffty being too entertained by hunting the rats in the walls. Sometimes Alastor could hear her shuffling in there and manic cackling as she landed another kill.
Alastor sat in his usual chair in the lobby, enjoying the quiet companionship of Charlie and Vaggie as they watched a movie. He wasn’t paying it much mind himself, he had very little interest in romantic comedies. In fact, he found himself dozing off. Every once in a while though, he’d snap to and focus on the picture box.
This time when he returned his attention to it, he watched a scene of the two lovers cuddling- the smaller one sitting in the other’s lap with the taller one resting their chin on their head and their arms wrapped around them.
Alastor glanced over to see Charlie and Vaggie in a similar position- Vaggie looked very comfortable and relaxed with Charlie’s arms around her and her head propped on the tiny moth’s.
He felt a flash of envy, then mentally kicked himself for wanting such physical intimacy. Still, he briefly wondered if he recalled Sir Pentious doing the same with him. They certainly cuddled a lot, most of which was initiated by Pentious and especially in bed with the snake’s tail coiled around him. But Pentious had never laid his head on top of his. Thinking further about it, Alastor wondered where his slithery partner was.
Not wanting to disturb the girls, Alastor shadowed out of the lobby and up towards Pentious’s room. After knocking to the tune of ‘Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits’ and not receiving any answer, he rolled his eyes and shadowed inside anyway. He frightened an egg inside as he manifested physical form, but saw no sign of the serpent other than his hat left on the side table.
“Hello Frank,” he greeted the little creature.
“Oh! Hiya deer boss!” Frank waved once he realized he wasn’t in immediate danger.
“I’m looking for my silly SirPent, do you happen to know where he is?”
“Uh… boss is working on a project on the ship! He’s been at it for a few hours!”
Alastor did recall his partner mentioning wanting to work on something alone after dinner. Of course, as usual, he got sucked into his work and hadn’t noticed how late it was getting. “Ah, I see. Thank you, my tasty friend~! I shall go fetch him now!”
With that he shadowed back out of the room and headed towards the airship. Just as the egg said, the serpent was hunched over his work bench with his goggles on. A heavy smell of smoke and burned metal hung in the air, but when Alastor came up behind him to see, it looked like Pentious had barely gotten anything done. A single circuit board sat in front of him while he poked and prodded at it with the soldering tool. If this was meant to be a surprise, then at least Alastor couldn’t quite guess at what it was meant to be yet.
“Darling~” he chimed sweetly, causing Pentious to jump and lose his grip on the tool. He hissed when the searing hot tip landed on the back of his other hand and quickly pulled it in to hug it to his chest. “Oh! Pardon, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you!”
“You always sneak up on me!” Pentious hissed. He took a moment to ignore the pain as he reached to turn off the soldering tool before it could do more damage.
“I can’t imagine how,” Alastor shook his head. “What good are all those eyes if not to keep an eye on your surroundings and watch out for threats?” He produced a bowl of cool water to help ease the pain. Not ice water- he did not want to shock the cold blooded sinner’s body.
Pentious gladly accepted the bowl and plunged his whole hand in. “Whatever do you need? I’d like to finish this tonight.”
“But you’ve been working so hard for hours already. Besides, it’s bedtime, my industrious sweetheart~” Alastor wrapped his arm around Pentious’ shoulder, squishing his own cheek to his and rubbed into it. He felt a little ridiculous at being so overly sweet, but he knew it would get Pentious to agree.
Pentious felt warmth spread in his chest and melted from the affection. “Well… okay. I suppose it can wait another day…”
They walked arm in arm back to Pentious’s room where he prepared a bath to wash away the stink of burnt metal that clung to him. Alastor took his coat and hung it up, spraying it down with a vinegar solution to eliminate the odor from it as well. He didn’t mind many smells, but the sharp metallic scent did sting his nostrils.
Alastor dressed for bed and took a toothbrush to his teeth only briefly. The bristles scratched uncomfortably at his gums and caused them to bleed a fair bit. He spat out the minty gloop as soon as he could and rinsed it out with some water.
He waited semi-patiently on the bed for his partner to finish cleaning up, conjuring up a small novel to look busy. He idly hummed a jazzy tune as he read and reread the same paragraphs, unable to digest any meaning from the words. Once the serpent slithered into bed, Alastor ‘casually’ positioned himself on his lap. He leaned back to rest on his partner’s chest and so his head was just under Pentious’s chin.
“Um, Alastor?” Pentious questioned, leaning away.
“Just a chapter or two more to help me sleep, dear~” Alastor leaned back to meet his chest and tried again to encourage his partner to rest his head there.
“Yes but… your antlers…”
The deer’s ears perked up and he reached to touch the sharp points of his head adornments. “Oh… that’s right… I forget I have them at times…” He felt a flush of embarrassment, but tried not to let it show.
A hissy chuckle made it worse. “Don’t you see them every time you look in the mirror, Gigglemug?”
“I don’t look at my reflection that often- usually just to make sure my bowtie is straight, my dear.” It took considerable effort not to let his ears droop.
Pentious did, however, pick up on his low mood. “What brought on this sudden eagerness to cuddle anyway? You usually only tolerate my affections.”
Alastor didn’t want to admit that he had started to crave the cuddling- let alone enjoy it- but he didn’t know how to refute that while also getting what he wanted. “I just took a while to get used to it, I suppose. Not many people want to get too close to the infamous Radio Demon after all. Nobody could touch me even if they did want to!” He let out a forced laugh, with a staticy laugh track backing it up.
“Oh… so you felt lonely?” The sound of a record scratch cut Alastor short. “That’s okay! I was lonely for a long time too! Until I met you-“
“I was not lonely.” Alastor’s voice was nearly drowned out by the static. His antlers had grown a bit, with several new points to them.
Pentious gulped. “W-what I mean to say is- it’s just nice that you want to cuddle now. I feel wanted- needed even. It seemed for a while that you didn’t even want to be with me…”
Alastor said nothing, but felt a pang of guilt at hearing the confession. His silly SirPent was one of the few people who ever sought his company anymore- even after all the pain he had caused him over the decades. He knew that he was here to stay, yet couldn’t fully bring himself to let his walls down. Too many factors at play- too much risk of being hurt in a way that would take too long to heal. Again.
“Why don’t you just pop them off?” The suggestion broke Alastor’s train of thought.
“Pardon?”
“Deer shed their antlers in the fall anyway, correct? With the sinner’s ability to heal from anything less than a holy wound, I bet they’ll grow back in a few hours.”
‘Why didn’t I just think of that?’ Alastor briefly wondered before ripping the antlers from his head in a bloody mess. It hurt of course, but his eagerness to get what he craved fueled him to get it done.
“Not in the bed!!” Pentious objected, but it was too late. The blood had flowed from Alastor’s fresh wounds into his pajamas, and consequently onto the sheets and pillow. Even the novel Alastor still had in his lap did not escape the mess.
“I’ll just have Niffty clean up in the morning~” Alastor chimed, tossing the bloodied horns to the side, and pressed his head under the snake’s chin.
Pentious dreaded the sticky experience that he’ll have later, but sighed and wrapped his arms around his silly, demented deer. He closed his eyes as his partner picked his novel back up and hummed.
As he finally began to actually read his novel, Alastor felt safe and warm wrapped in the embrace of his partner. ‘Well, as long as I am able, I suppose I will enjoy what this relationship can bring me.’