Chapter Text
The angry chattering of the machine gun was loud against Hell's usual ambience of screams and machinery. Good, Angel decided as he cut down demons indiscriminately. It wasn't a turf war. Cherri didn't need his help. Now, this moment of carnage was for Angel's own benefit.
He was angry. And he never was very good at venting his anger in productive ways. Just destructive ones. Charlie would be disappointed when she inevitably found out, but he wasn't thinking of that. He lived in the moment. Even if he wasn't really alive anymore.
A skull crunched under his boot, his heel cutting through easier than the toe of it as it was sharper. He kicked the demon away, not wanting the viscera getting caught and tripping him. He sighed, tears stinging his eyes but not falling. He couldn't let them fall. If he did, that would be giving in. The first step to giving up. He'd given up enough. No more.
A demon shouted, raising a metal bat. Angel didn't bother with the tommy for that one, conjuring a pistol in one of his lower hands and taking the easy shot as the demon got closer to him. They dropped with an undignified squeal.
"My you've made a mess!" Came a filtered voice, and Angel aimed the pistol out of reflex.
Seeing who it was, however, Angel lowered the weapon and returned his attention to the lesser demons around him. It had been a full horde before, but Angel had managed to put down a majority of them. They would get up later, but for now at least they were still. Dead for the moment, or at least the closest a demon could get without divine weaponry. Dormant.
"Blow me, Smiles." Angel grunted.
Alastor raised a brow before stepping closer, raising on his tiptoes to blow air onto the spider's face. Angel fought between the urge to smile or to grimace, but the former won out as the edges of his mouth turned upward despite the sour, hot pit of rage in his gut.
"Not what you meant?" Alastor asked, feigning innocence as he let his shadowy tendrils loose to keep any who might interrupt their conversation at bay. Not that he needed to. The smarter demons had turned tail at the sight of him.
"What are you doin' here, Smiles?" Angel asked, pulling his bigger gun up to rest the barrel against his shoulder.
"Watching you make art out of an otherwise boring street." Alastor answered simply.
"Yeah, well." Angel sighed, taking a flip lighter to light a cigarette now that Alastor's magic had given him an unexpected break. "I'm havin' a day."
"I notice you didn't state whether it's been a good or bad day." Alastor pointed out.
"My contract's about to expire." Angel said simply.
"That is a good thing, isn't it?"
"It fuckin' should be." Angel shook his head, flicking ash off the end of his cigarette and raking the claws of another hand through his hair. "But Val's bein' real sweet... This ain't the first time he's buttered me up to get me to agree to takin' on a few more years. But… Before Charlie picked me up I was always too doped up to see through the bullshit and didn't have anything better to do anyway… I don't know. I'm worried."
"You'll be free." Alastor said.
"Sure, he won't own me anymore." Angel scoffed. "The contract makes sure I'm allowed to live where I want and how I want while I'm off the clock. We let it expire and I won't have to do what he says but he won't have to respect my terms either. What's gonna stop him from just lockin' me up and keepin' me anyway?"
"Me." Alastor said darkly.
Angel's brows shot up, surprised at such a serious answer to his rhetorical. Then he rolled his eyes. "Protectin' your investments huh? What, don't want the Hotel losin' its first patron so soon? Wanna see me fuck up a little more?"
"You've been doing remarkably well, actually." Alastor deflected, rather than confirming or denying Angel's soft accusation. "For a demon." He amended. "We can't truly deny our nature, can we?" Alastor looked out among the carnage Angel had begun, his own presence causing the few strangers around to either run off or be picked apart by shadows. "Wrath looks well on you."
"Everything looks good on me." Angel chuckled. "I'm Angel Fuckin' Dust."
"That is not your middle name." Alastor teased.
"It could be. Read a magazine, it's in there." Angel challenged.
"I don't browse that sort of media." Alastor shook his head. "But I am fairly sure if you chose a middle name at all you would have kept it on-brand, as it were."
"Yeah, you're right." Angel grinned. "It's Peace."
"I doubt that."
"Well Loveboat don't work, it sounds too clunky. It was either Peace or Hog."
"Well I suppose that explains the pig." Alastor laughed.
Angel smiled, his anger fading somewhat at the mention of his pet. Alastor was managing to cheer him up as well, though whether he meant to or not was hard to parse.
"Whole thing ain't my real name anyway so it don't really matter." Angel shrugged, trying to take a drag before realizing the cigarette had burned all the way to the filter. He tossed the butt onto one of the bodies, the lesser demons starting to twitch as they reformed.
"Why should something need to be real to be important?" Alastor asked, tilting his head up to look Angel in the eye properly.
Angel didn't know if it was his own need to feel wanted or Alastor's unignorable charm but he felt himself move without consciously even trying to.
"What in Hell are you doing?" Alastor asked as Angel leaned down a bit too close to his face.
"I thought we was havin' a moment." Angel said after an awkward pause.
Alastor nudged him away with his cane even as he confirmed the assumption. "We were."
"What, not into guys? Or just not the ones with--"
"Stop that." Alastor said sharply, a stern tilt to his brow.
And Angel did stop. He could take a clear rejection, even if it didn't happen often. From Alastor it stung, but Angel understood. Even if they were in Hell, Angel didn't descend for that. He knew he wasn't good for much else but he was better than his boss.
"Sorry." Angel managed to stammer, his bravado gone now. "I should go… I'm not feelin' this anymore. Feel free to eat the bastards or whatever the fuck."
Alastor hummed, again surveying the dormant bodies around the area. There were about fifteen, the 'about' being because a few were torn and scattered which Alastor didn't think could be done with only bullets. Clearly Angel had used combustibles as well, likely a gift from his lady friend. Not all, but several were aquatic. Sharks, it looked like, but also an eel of some sort. Alastor wasn't quite in the mood for seafood, and Angel had his interest for the moment anyway so he turned to follow after the spider had walked far enough to leave his sight.
Not out of earshot, however. The click of the other's heels were clear to Alastor's sharp ears even from a block away. He caught up easily, even without running. Angel's legs were long but he was taking a leisurely pace, and had slowed once he realized Alastor had gone after him. They matched pace to walk the rest of the way back to the hotel together, Angel still visibly irritated but not at the other.
"Hope my spree don't end up on the news again…" Angel muttered.
"Don't episodes belong on television?" Alastor shot back easily, then laughed at his own joke.
Angel tried very hard to pretend he didn't find the pun funny, but couldn't help a quick exhale through his nose. Even wading through an internal debate on his safety versus his freedom, Alastor's humor seemed to be exactly what he needed. There was still time. He could afford a distraction. It was welcomed, even.
Husker was at the front desk as usual. "Girls are in the office." He reported as he saw Angel and Alastor enter. "Something about making flyers."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna bother them then." Angel answered, heading up the stairs to his room.
Alastor continued to follow.
"Look Smiles, you're givin' me a lot of mixed signals." He huffed as he opened his door.
"You're mixing the signals yourself." Alastor countered, entering the room as if he had been invited.
"The fuck does that mean?" Angel snapped, kicking the door shut behind them.
"You misunderstood my earlier withdrawal from you." Alastor elaborated, gesturing to the room's interior. "Intimacy of any sort belongs in a private setting, not a public streetside."
"So you just don't wanna be seen with a whore." Angel grunted, sitting on his bed. Nuggets wasted no time clambering onto his lap, and Angel curled his lower arms around the pig, who snorted and snuffled happily to be held. "Fuckin' figures."
"It's not a matter of shame, Angel. It's a matter of respect." Alastor corrected.
"How do you figure that?"
"I wouldn't kiss anyone in public regardless of if I wanted to. It hardly matters what your profession is." Alastor explained. "Others may flaunt their…time with you but I am not so crude as to brag. One mustn't kiss and tell, you know!"
Angel considered that, and sighed to himself. He'd been used to being treated certain ways for so long he'd almost forgotten what a proper gentleman was. He smiled, then let out the ghost of a laugh.
"You know what's funny?" Angel asked, setting Nuggets down and kicking a ball out from under the bed.
"Jokes!" Alastor answered confidently, a laugh track rising in his ambience momentarily.
Nuggets chased the ball, scrambling and rolling clumsily when the toy hit the wall and rolled the other way. Soon the pig was nosing and chasing the ball all over the floor, and Alastor had to also sit on the bed instead of standing to avoid the little animal from running into his legs.
"Most guys down here are…" Angel began, but paused momentarily as he chose his words. "They're like shitty sugar substitutes, y'know? Sweet enough for a second or two but always have a real fuckin' bitter aftertaste."
"How fortunate I don't care for sweets. That sounds like an unpleasant experience." Alastor answered sagely.
"Point is you're real with me. I like that." Angel clarified, not wanting to get too lost in analogy. "I don't want the fake shit Val feeds me anymore."
"Better to starve than poison yourself." Alastor agreed, his grin widening a fraction. "Or find food elsewhere or elseways. So I'm on the menu now?"
Angel blinked, taking into account he was talking to a cannibal. "Okay yeah, but now you made it weird."
Alastor laughed at that, and Angel couldn't help but to join him. Then Alastor leaned up, leaving a brief peck on Angel's forehead before standing.
"Al?"
"We were having a moment, were we not?" Alastor pointed out.
Angel nodded and smiled wider.
"Let me know what you want to do about your contract." Alastor said as he made his way to the door. "I'd like to help if you need it. Goodnight, Angel."
"Night Al." Angel replied, feeling a lot lighter.