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Cherri Bomb narrowed her one eye at him with a lopsided smile.
“What, you don’t see it?” Angel Dust asked, surprised.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I mean I’d say he has a nice personality but…”
The two were sitting next to each other, cross legged on the hotel’s carpet. Originally they’d been playing Connect 4 (they could only do so much actual fun stuff within the hotel) but they’d abandoned it pretty quickly for a more intellectual game: ‘Smash or Pass’.
Generally Cherri and Angel had pretty similar tastes in men, which was not always a good thing, so it surprised him when she passed on Husk while he’d hard smashed. There was nothing that was glaringly wrong with him. Sure, Husk was a bit dishevelled and he constantly looked like he was sick of everyone’s shit but he had his good qualities. Husk was hard to rattle for example, despite all the crazy shit happening at all times he seemed to always keep it together. He had a great voice, deep with this slight hoarseness. Husk was good with his hands, he was always doing these complicated card tricks and doing them quickly.
Besides that Angel Dust actually thought he was a pretty okay person, not that he’d ever say that to his face. For all the cat’s big talk of ‘I don’t give a fuck about anything’, he did seem to end up helping the other people at the hotel a lot.
Even now, Angel craned his head out to see Husk stop what he was doing to hold Nifty up so she could open a window. Perfect example. He pointed toward the scene. “Look, right now. Kind of attractive right?”
The second Cherri Bomb turned to see it, some hell goose flew in through the opened window and shit directly on to Husk’s eye. He blindy lowered Nifty to the ground, then stumbled towards the bar covering the hit eye. “Goddamnit! It shit right in my eye! I can’t fucking believe this!”
Nifty futilely tried to shoo the goose out by waving her hands around. Husk ducked his head under the sink at the bar with the water running. He kept coughing as he did so, one side his face becoming flat and matted with water. When Angel looked back at Cherri she was not bothering to conceal how unimpressed she was. Her lips were pursed like she was trying to laugh. “He’s adorable.”
He scrambled desperately for something that would demonstrate that this guy was actually attractive. “..Eh…”
They were interrupted by two brooms being thrown at their feet, Husk stormed past carrying his own broom. “Don’t you guys get up and do anything.”
Days after they’d all managed to chase that bloodthirsty goose out of the hotel, the conversation was still echoing in Angel Dust’s head. Surely it wasn’t just him, other people had to be attracted to Husk. He decided to broach the topic with Charlie and Vaggie.
He’d been ‘volunteered’ into helping the girls with some repairs to the hotel. Finishing nailing in a new board onto one of the broken steps, Angel Dust spotted Husk sleeping at the bar. He was resting his head on his forearms, mouth hanging open as he softly snored. It should have been embarrassing, it was objectively pretty unattractive, instead there was this weird warmth in his chest. The spider refocused his attention to Vaggie and Charlie, who were plastering over some bullet holes.
He cleared his throat. “You know Cherri and we’re talking the other day, I’m hoping you guys can help me settle an argument we’ve got going.”
Charlie stopped working to focus on the conversation, Vaggie kept scraping on wet plaster but was watching out of the corner of her eye.
“What was it?” The hotel owner asked with a curious smile.
“Gun to your head,” Angel Dust made a finger gun and tapped against his head. “Who's the hottest guy in the hotel?”
The grey cyclops groaned disappointedly. “What are you guys 15? Was this in between you two skipping math class and shoplifting from the mall?”
Her girlfriend on the hand gave a short chuckle and rubbed her arm sheepishly. “Feels weird to answer something like that with my girlfriend next to me.”
Vaggie stopped plastering at this, looking at Charlie with a soft understanding expression. “Hey, you can answer. You’re allowed to have eyes.”
Charlie grasped one of her hands affectionately. “Aw, Vaggie.”
The whole scene was too sweet, making Angel’s nose wrinkle up. He pointed his finger gun at both of them. “Okay same time, hottest guy in the hotel?”
“Sir Pentious.”
“You.”
Angel Dust jaw dropped open. “What?!”
The girls seemed equally curious about each other’s answers. Charlie leaned against the stair railing giggling. “I can’t believe you picked Angel.”
Vaggie stood against the wall with an easy shrug. “He’s the best of a bad situation. It’s not like he’d eat my hair or rant about steampunk bullshit. Sir Pentious ?”
The princess’s pale face flushed a little. “I don’t know, he’s very sincere. It’s kind of cute.”
“I don’t know if our relationship if our relationship is gonna survive this. Maybe I should leave you to be happy with someone who describes his plans as ‘nefarious’.” Vaggie put a hand to her head dramatically and made to walk away.
Charlie tugged her into an embrace repeatedly kissing her cheek as Vaggie playfully tried to wriggle out of her hold. “Hahaha. Vaggie, please you’re nefarious enough for me.”
Again this couple shit was too sweet for Angel Dust (also it was making him a little jealous). He let them continue for a few more seconds before he interrupted. “Guys, what about Husk?”
The two stared at him in confusion for a moment then Vaggie’s eyebrows raised in realisation. She bent over the railing, calling out “Hey Husk! We’re settling an argument. Whose the best looking guy in the hotel?”
He raised his head with a groan, there were lines across his face from sleeping on his arms. Husk blinked blearly a couple times. Then he smirked. “What is Angel Dust fishing for compliments? Pfft loser.” His voice was raspy from sleep. Husk finished speaking and dropped his head down, falling back to sleep.
Angel Dust was hit with a rush of fondness, annoyance and self disgust because what the fuck? That was one of the lamest things he’d ever seen and he’d found it charming.
“Sooo did we break the tie?” Charlie asked.
Angel Dust clicked his tongue unhappily. “Jury’s still out.”
It seemed like Alastor had known Husk for a long time, if anyone would know if Husk had a weird magnetic quality it would be him. A master of subtlety, Angel Dust ambushed the radio demon while he was busy cooking. There was a pot boiling on the stove, while Alastor stood at the kitchen counter chopping away at some vague meat with a gleaming butcher's knife. He was wearing his usual suit but with a red stained white apron over the top.
He slapped his hands over a stool on the other side. “Hey! This seat taken?”
Alastor quirked a brow but continued chopping away. “If you’re not planning to be too disruptive.”
Angel rested an elbow on the counter. “Well I’ll try but your sexy little apron really isn’t helping~”
At the look this got him, Angel removed his elbow and cleared his throat. “So, Husk…”
“That’s his name.” The overlord agreed cheerfully.
“You guys meet in a card game?”
Alastor pushed the meat off the chopping board and into the stew. “Yes, Husk is a good player and a better cheater! Unfortunately for him I have very keen senses.”
He hummed sympathetically. “Yeah, that sucks for him. So you guys are sort of friends right?”
Game Show thinking music played for a moment, when the radio demon settled on an answer it stopped. “In a sense.”
Angel Dust rolled his eyes, obviously that was weird serial killer for ‘yes’. “Right. So have you ,uh, noticed anything about his social life?”
The demon tilted his head at him inquisitively but with his neck bent at an unnatural angle. “Why?”
“What do you care?” He countered.
There was a pause. Alastor put out some vegetables on the board. “He used to have a lot of debtors, now he just has a lot of debts to me! Poor man.” Stock audience laughter followed the remark.
“Right but is he…” Angel Dust waved a hand as he spoke. “You know, popular with the ladies?”
The stock laughter was back mixed with Alastor’s own, he slapped a knee jovially. “Good gracious no, I’d have thought that would be obvious just from looking at him.”
To give credit to Alastor, he didn’t waste time with niceties like Charlie would’ve. “Glad you’re not my friend. Really though? Like just not?”
This time Alastor stopped what he was doing and studied Angel Dust with furrowed eyebrows. Angel shifted in his seat, trying to get across that he didn’t care. He hadn’t been that obvious had he?
The silence was broken by a jackpot sound effect from a slot machine, the radio demon snapped two fingers together. “Electra complex!”
“Huh?”
Alastor nodded confidently, taking a lecturing posture. “That’s what they call it when one’s attracted to their father isn’t it? Of course it’s usually applied to girls but there’s no gender restriction.”
Angel Dust full body cringed involuntarily, stepping away from the kitchen counter. “Eww! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
The radio demon waved the knife at him, not threateningly but more as a means to point at him. “The real question is what’s wrong with you? Bad relationship with your father I’m guessing. Nothing to be ashamed of, well you should be but it’s common enough down here for it not to be a scandal.”
He slammed his hands down hard on the counter. “I don’t know what’s going through your whacked out brain right now but I don’t want to bang my dad!”
Alastor seemed to revel in being the unsettler in this interaction. “No, it’s good news really! That’s one demographic Husk can really hit it out of the park with. Being a deadbeat, he reminds about 60% or more of Hell of their own terrible fathers.”
Angel Dust pointed a finger at his chest. “You should really lay off Mr ‘Gee Wiz I Love My Mommy Dearest So Much I Want To Fuck Her, Marry Her And Eat Her!’”
It took a second for it to register what a mistake this was. Static crackled loudly. Alastor’s yellow dial eyes tracked his finger as he retracted it from his chest. The overlord turned around without speaking, undoing the back of his apron.
“Uh Al, I’m really-“
“ Five. ”
“Ah?”
Alastor hung the apron up on the pantry door without looking at him. “ Four. ”
Angel Dust wasn’t dumb enough to disregard the warning. He spends most of the rest of the day, skulking around the outside of the Hazbin Hotel trying to guess whether Alastor would have settled down enough to not kill him. Naturally, it’s raining. Naturally there’s a cold wind.
After his third walk around the block, Angel settles down on an uncovered bus stop bench. To his surprise, Husk came out of the hotel and walked over to him carrying an umbrella.
“This is pathetic.” The frowning bartender held out the umbrella to him. “Think you could sit in a storeroom without drawing any attention to yourself?”
He blinked in surprise. “This isn’t a ruse to feed me to your boss is it?”
Husk sighed. “Trust me, if you leave him alone for a couple hours he’ll forget about it. Well he won’t but it’ll only be funny to get back at you once you’ve forgotten.”
Angel Dust scoffed, scowling at the pavement. “He should go into comedy.”
The spider registered that the rain had stopped falling on him. He looked up to see Husk had opened the umbrella and was holding it over him. “It’s a good sign you got the heads up at all. Stop moping and come inside. You should’ve known better than to call him a motherfucker anyway, it’s an insult for a reason.”
There was a flutter in his chest. He stood up, smoothing out his blazer to distract from his sudden flusteredness. “You’re probably right. He really did start it though.”
Now that he was standing, Angel Dust was a good deal higher than the umbrella. He started to crouch so that the two of them could fit under it together only for Husk to hold it up higher to cover him. In doing so, he wasn’t shielded at all from the rain, his fur quickly getting soggy.
“Thanks.” Angel murmured.
Husk shrugged, staring at his feet.
They walked around to the back entrance of the hotel without talking. As Angel Dust hid out in the backroom with a blanket around his shoulders, Husk kept visiting him throughout to talk even when he should’ve been tending to the bar. They spent the night talking about things that didn’t matter and sneaking drinks. It was nice.
Fine, Angel Dust could admit it. He had a crush on Husk. He wanted to hold his hand and for them to talk about their ‘fweewings’. He wanted to have dinner with him. He wanted them to sleep, just sleep, wrapped up in each other. But so what?
Angel wasn’t stupid, he knew that wasn’t realistic. With his contract, work schedule, his work and general personality, he wasn’t an easy person to put up with in the long term. Besides that he didn’t even know if Husk liked men. The only evidence he had was some straight faced tolerance of terrible flirting.
The few quiet hopes Angel Dust did have came crumbling in on themselves with a phone call.
Husk slammed the rotary phone down in the holder, grumbling. He’d made such a scene that all the hotel residents had noticed.
Charlie approached the bar with a worried frown. “Everything okay?”
He ran one of his paws over his face. “Fine. These alimony payments are just fucking killing me.”
It hit the hotel like a bombshell. The others, Alastor excluded, swarmed the bar curiously. Angel Dust was shocked enough to choke on his drink.
“You were married?!” Vaggie asked.
Husk squinted his eyes, confused at the surprise. “Yeah, three times and I’ve had to pay alimony for all of them.” He reached under the bar, pulling out his wallet.
The bartender opened it up, three different wedding photos unfolding. Husk was human in all three. His skin was dark brown, he had full lips, there were bags under his eyes, his nose was crooked in a way that suggested it had been broken. The women next to him in the photos were fairly different from each other, aside from all being taller than him and busty. The first was a redhead with curly hair, the second had brown skin with long straight black blue hair and the third had short curly brown hair.
Nifty jumped up on the bar to look closer at the photos. “Wow, Husk! Your wives were gorgeous!”
Vaggie picked up the photos studying them. “Yeah they really are. Wait, are you wearing the same fringed suit jacket in two of these?”
He snatched the wallet back defensively. “It was my third wedding, I wasn’t going to buy a new suit for it!”
She rolled her eye in response. “Hard to imagine why things didn’t work out.”
“So even though all of you are dead you still have to pay?” Charlie asked.
Husk pinched the bridge of his nose. “I took it to the Hell courts all three times and lost .”
From the sofa, Alastor heckled. “Good thing you didn’t bet on it!”
Angel Dust didn’t say anything. It should have been funny. All three weddings were at the same Vegas temple. In one of them, Husk had a neon blue plaster cast on his leg. Instead Angel felt… quietly devastated. Having had one wife might’ve left room for some ambiguity to his sexuality, three ex wives were the nails in the coffin. This whole thing had been so stupid. Having these stupid little school boy daydreams just to be let down again was tiring.
“You’re being awfully quiet. I would have thought you’d be the first to pounce on this.” Husk brought him out of his thoughts.
Remembering himself he smirked. “You’re a real lady killer, kudos to you Casanova.”
The cat didn’t look flattered by this, instead he seemed apprehensive.
Angel Dust takes a step back after that. He doesn’t avoid Husk completely because he’s not a toddler but it’s easy to spend less one on one time with him. Husk can’t mind that much because he doesn’t say anything. Angel knows with enough time he’d get over it, he has before.
As part of the whole getting over it thing, he spends a night bumming out at Cherri Bomb’s apartment. It was a complete mess, her bright clothes scattered over the damaged carpet. They lie next to each other on her lumpy mattress smoking like they’ve done a dozen times before.
“Hey do you remember how I thought it was weird you wouldn’t smash Husk?” He began.
She breathed out a puff of smoke. “Yeah?”
“I might have been biased because I like Husk.”
Cherri laughed quietly, her chest moving up and down. “I thought you did.”
Angel clasped his hands together over his stomach with a sigh. “Yeah, I ,uh, don’t think he’s interested.”
His friend wiggled closer until their shoulders were pressed together. “He might not be. If he isn't, it's his loss, you know.”
It wouldn’t be but Angel Dust nods anyway.
“Anyway, I think whatever’s going he’d like to be your friend if that helps.”
“Can never have too many of those, I guess.” He pressed his shoulder closer to hers.
“I mean you’ve already got the best friend you could ever have so keep that in mind.” Cherri Bomb asserted.
Angel snorted, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “Trust me, I know. You’ll still be my number 1 girl.”
Cherri is right of course. Husk would be a great guy to have as a friend obviously and Angel Dust has been a slightly crappy one to him lately.
He knocked on the door to Husk’s room. The inhabitor opened it looking as unhappy as usual. “What?”
“You wanna hang out? You pick what we do and I’ll shout.” Angel offered.
Husk slouched against the door frame, crossing his arms with furrowed brows. “Why?”
He made an exasperated noise. “Because I am just such a mensch. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
The cat made a show of examining his claws. “Maybe I’m busy.”
Calling his bluff, Angel Dust turned and started walking away. “Ok, don’t come then.”
It was hard to suppress a smile when he heard the door close and Husk jogging to catch up with him. There was a light tugging at one of his lower arms. “Jesus, walk slower. You’re not a monster stomping over Tokyo.”
He slowed down to match his walking speed. “So what do you wanna do then?”
“I know a place, just follow my lead.” Husk answered cryptically.
From this and the less than thriving streets Husk took him down to get to this place, Angel Dust assumed they were going to some shifty dive bar. He was kind of right, it wasn’t exactly an upscale bar. They had to go down a set of stairs to get in and it was small enough that even with a few people inside it seemed cramped. There was a small stage light by a crappy singular stage light.
They sat down at a small circle table, a waiter scurried by taking an order for two beers. After he left, Husk elbowed Angel Dust in the ribs, conspiratorially. “You’re lucky I didn’t take advantage of the porn money to run up your bill.”
He couldn’t help bursting into laughter. “What porn money? I’m not living at a rent free hotel for no reason. That all goes to pay off bills and to cover production costs.” Angel Dust wiped a tear from laughter out of the corner of his eye.
Looking for Husk’s reaction he was surprised to see he wasn’t laughing but was frowning harder than before. “That makes no sense. If you’re getting paid for all these films plus residuals and media appearances for well over 70 years-“
Going into all the compounded debt he’d amounted to Valentino was not how Angel Dust wanted to spend the evening. Spotting some movement on stage, he nudged Husk’s arm. “Hey I think your thing’s starting.”
On stage a cloaked ferret demon stood in front of a microphone. “Hello everyone, this is uh, Ferrious Magic.” Despite shaking like a nervous wreck, he held out a top hat to the audience letting them all see the bottom.
Then the magician flipped the upright and small python fell out in a hissing coil on the stage floor. The small crowd applauded. While clapping Angel Dust snuck a look at Husk. The man was completely engrossed in the performance. His pupils were huge and there was a slight smile on his face. It was such a stark difference from his usual apathy, that it took him a minute to look away.
The ferret on stage continued with a few more tricks, while he appreciated his efforts none of them were really blowing Angel Dust away. That is until the end of the performance, when after draping a table cloth over a table he pulled it away to reveal a bushel of colourful flowers in the shape of the table. Angel found himself clapping enthusiastically with widened eyes.
“I could do that, you know.”
“Huh?”
“The trick, I could do it.” Husk sipped his drink.
Angel Dust muffled a laugh, he must not have done a very good job of it because Husk frowned. “What?”
Since he’d already been caught, he didn’t bother to hide his chuckling. “I dunno, it’s just a… funny thing to do. Watch someone do something then be like ‘well, I could do that if I wanted to.’”
The cat gestured at himself indignantly. “I spent my life as a magician, this amateur hour compared to what I could do.”
Seeing how offended he was making Angel Dust laugh again. “Alright, alright.”
Husk threw an arm over his shoulder leaning in closer to Angel deadpan as usual. “Fuck you. I have to prove it now, when we're back at the hotel I’ll show you.”
There must be something actually wrong with me, Angel Dust thought, that the easy intimacy of the moment was affecting him more than actual nudity would’ve. He ducked out under his arm with a laugh before it became too obvious. “Ok! I’ll hold you to it, you’ll have to do the table thing.”
Husk gave him an awkward half smile, then he sighed frowning again. “Alright, this has been fun but what’s this all about?”
“What?”
He dragged a paw over his face. “You avoid me for over a week and suddenly we’re all buddy-buddy?”
Angel Dust cringed a little. “You noticed that huh?”
“I’m not stupid. What exactly is going on here?” Husk asked accusingly.
Angel held out his hands placatingly. “Calm down, it’s nothing sinister you paranoid whacko. This is just…an apology for me being kind of a dick.”
The bartender’s orange eyes scanned him suspiciously. “Really?”
He sighed nodding. “Really. How have you been doing recently? What’s going on?”
Husk relaxed, taking a swig of his beer. “Not great. Never get divorced kid, or if you’re going to don’t do it three times.”
Angel Dust raised an eyebrow. “Alimony’s that bad?”
The cat shook his head looking tired. “Nah. Well yeah it is but it’s just the whole thing. What do they say about insanity? Trying the same thing expecting different results.”
He reached out and patted his shoulder. “Meh, I think you’re being a bit harsh. You went for it three times and got someone who wanted to be with you three times. That’s pretty good right?”
Husk sighed, looking doubtful. “Yeah, well that was then. I’ve well and truly missed the boat on all that stuff now. I know it’s not going to happen for me.”
Angel couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “Okay, calm down you’re in hell you’re not dead. There’s plenty of busty shady ladies still around Romeo.”
“Oh fuck off, like at this point in the game I have that much to bring to the table.” He snapped back.
Angel Dust went to say something- then he stopped. There was an easy way to win this argument but it would be deeply embarrassing. Though it would probably raise the poor guy’s self esteem. He froze on an expression of indecision.
Husk crossed his arms at him, annoyed. “What is this? Just spit it out.”
“…If I tell you something that I think will cheer you up, do you promise not to have a weird reaction?”
“I’m not going to promise that before you say what it is!”
Angel threw his hands up annoyed. “Jesus wept. Just don’t freak out or laugh or hit me.”
Husk’s face grew serious and worried again. “I wouldn’t hit you.”
It was too nice to actually deal with so Angel Dust pushed forward. “Nothing promised about laughing, I see. Look it’s actually not that big a deal but I have a thing for you and normally I’m pretty discerning so… the potential is there.”
The cat’s jaw dropped. He sat frozen without any other reaction. Objectively, Angel Dust could appreciate how funny the surprise was compared to his regular demeanour. As Husk blinked but continued to sit silently, he added. “And like we live in the same hotel, so I don’t like ya for the money. Obviously.”
It was hard to read his reaction or lack of reaction, it was making Angel Dust nervous. Damnit, he’d made things weird between them now. There probably wasn’t going to be anymore drinking together or late night talks. He swallowed uncomfortably. To distract himself, Angel swivelled in his chair trying to spot a waiter to wave over. “Show was alright but the drink service could be a little better. You could probably give these guys some pointers.”
There was a warm palm on his shoulder. He turned and found himself face to face with Husk. “Were you being serious?”
Not confident in his ability to speak, Angel Dust nodded. Husk leaned forward kissing him. It wasn’t a great kiss, Angel’s mouth was closed and Husk’s lips were kind of dry. It was the nicest kiss Angel Dust had in a long time.
Husk pulled back, sitting down. There was a light flush to his face as he drank his beer again.
Angel Dust smoothed his jacket with a cough, composing himself. “Sooo, I thought you weren’t…?”
The bartender smirked a little. “Guess the best way to put it would be, if laws had been different I’d be paying alimony to two more exes.”
He jokingly ran his foot over Husk’s leg. “The laws changed, you know and I’d love some alimony money.”
Angel Dust got a light kick against his leg in response.
Cherri Bomb’s freckled face was bright red, she shoved her hysterical friend over onto the carpet. He continued laughing away without pause.
“It’s not that weird! You just need to see him in the right context.” She insisted.
Angel Dust wheezed, barely forcing out. “No, no. I’ve seen enough of him as I need to. Bahahaha!”
Cherri shook him lightly by the shoulders. “Hear me out-“
Sir Pentious strolled through the lobby pushing a penny-farthing bike, he kept dinging the little bell by the handles. “Make way fools! I’m going to ‘hit the town’ on my velocipede.”
Cherri Bomb’s face dropped as Angel Dust laughed so hard, that every time he tried to pause to breathe he seemed to start hoarsely laughing again. She let go of his shoulders in defeat. “He’s not that bad.” Cherri muttered.
Angel Dust choked a couple times, trying to stop laughing long enough to talk. “How’s he even going to ride the bike? He doesn’t have any legs.” At legs he dissolved in to giggles again.