Work Text:
“So you guys haven’t fucked yet?”
Despite her misgivings about your relationship with Alastor, Vaggie looked like she wanted to murder Angel, if that were possible. For your part, you just looked uncomfortable. Still, you figured it was better to answer Angel’s question before any violence occurred.
“Um, no, we haven’t.”
The spider demon gave you a once-over and smirked.
“Well, if ya ever want to scratch that itch, I’ll fuck ya. If you pay me.” He tossed his head back and cackled and you saw Vaggie’s eyelid twitch.
Thankfully, you had gotten used to Angel and you brushed his “invitation” off, making your exit before the porn star could pry any further into...whatever it was you had with Alastor. You still weren’t quite sure yourself.
You were one of the Happy? Hazbin? Hotel’s first patrons and Charlie said you had a lot of potential for redemption. Maybe she was right; you didn’t think you were that bad of a person. Obviously, there were reasons you were in Hell, but you also knew that your sins were tame compared to others.
You weren’t entirely certain you really wanted redemption as Hell wasn’t as bad as you’d been led to believe when you were alive. The yearly exterminations definitely sucked and you knew how much they weighed on Charlie’s heart; they were her motivation for creating the hotel in the first place. The turf wars could be dangerous, as most demons didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. Still, Hell was less a place of eternal punishment and more like a place of indulgence. Sex, drugs, and violence were in huge supply, if that was your thing. You mostly just wanted to focus on living your life. Afterlife. Whatever.
You found yourself in your room, seated on your bed, but you weren’t there for very long before the air began to grow thick with radio static and the hairs on your arms stood up, signaling that Alastor was approaching. You hadn’t shut your door, so he entered the room seemingly without a care.
“Hello, darling! It seems I’ve caught you in a state of undress!”
Thankfully, you knew him well enough to know what that meant and felt the corners of your mouth tug upward slightly. Alastor loved to claim that you were never fully dressed without a smile and you knew it bothered him a little to see you without one. It didn’t happen often when he was around, however. His own perpetual grin was infectious and you found yourself smiling wider as you gazed at him fondly.
“Much better, dear, much better!”
You’d grown used to the tinny sound of his voice and how he seemed to end most of his sentences with exclamation points. It was actually kind of endearing and usually helped to bring your mood up if you were feeling down.
You honestly had no idea how you had managed to capture the attention of the infamous Radio Demon. You hadn’t been trying; in fact you’d avoided him at first after getting the rundown of his history from Vaggie and especially after you’d heard how he’d utterly annihilated Sir Pentious, all with a huge, manic smile on his face. Apparently, he’d snapped back to his usual M.O. seconds after and began raving about his mother’s jambalaya recipe.
Realistically, you should probably be terrified of him, but, for better or worse, Alastor was extremely charming. The smiles were definitely a factor, but there was also the way he seemed to constantly be in motion and the way he always seemed downright cheerful, for lack of a better word. There were other little flourishes, like the laugh tracks that occasionally sounded whenever he made a particularly bad joke or the way he would often twirl you while a short clip of jazz music played whenever he got particularly excited. (You’d quickly learned to expect this at any time so you could attempt to avoid stepping on his feet or falling on your ass, not that you thought Alastor would let you fall)
Avoiding him ended up being impossible. Alastor was like a cat; the more you kept away from him, the more he sought you out. While you at first suspected that his intentions were sinister in nature, your interactions mostly consisted of him trying to make you laugh. His jokes were truly awful and you’d heard a bunch of them before, but it was somehow hysterical to hear things like that in Hell of all places.
It wasn’t too long before the two of you started hanging out together. Alastor would take you out to eat or you’d go see a movie together. (Of course, he always called it the “picture show”). It was a mystery how you got along so well with someone from the 30’s considering you were from a much later decade, but it somehow just worked. Vaggie considered spending time with the Radio Demon to be a hindrance to your rehabilitation, but Charlie thought it was nice that you two got along so well.
You guessed you could say the two of you were dating. Going steady? You couldn’t remember the term people would use in the 30’s and you were too shy to ask Alastor. In fact, you were too shy to really talk to Alastor about what you had going on, which is why the sex thing had never come up. While you were very much an active participant in the relationship, you tended to let Alastor take the lead in most things while you observed and learned what you could.
Alastor had a...thing about touching. He touched other people all the time, often without warning. His actions ranged from throwing an arm around someone’s shoulders to grabbing someone by the hand and pulling them into a few dance steps, to dragging someone with him to look at something that had caught his interest. With you, he’d hold your hand or pat you on the head. Very occasionally, you’d get a kiss on the head instead of a pat.
The thing was, all instances of touching had to be initiated by Alastor. He seemed uncomfortable whenever someone else touched him, with very few exceptions. It was difficult to tell when it bothered him, but you’d gotten fairly competent at noticing the signs. While his smile never dropped, he did tend to hide his teeth behind his lips and he would brush imaginary dust off of himself or fix his (already immaculate) hair. In serious cases, the Radio Demon would make up an excuse to escape the situation altogether (who picked up dry cleaning at 3:00 in the morning?) while laughing uncomfortably.
You’d quickly learned not initiate anything and to take what you were given. As time went on, Alastor seemed to grow more comfortable with touching you, but he hadn’t kissed you on the lips yet, much less initiated anything sexual. It was a little strange, but didn’t bother you a whole lot; you were pretty content with what you had right now.
It wasn't like Alastor wasn’t affectionate. Besides the touches, he was protective of you whenever you went out in public and some other demon threatened you or tried to fuck with him, which really wasn’t often. When it did happen, the demons were dealt with in the same brutal fashion as Sir Pentious. It was a little scary, but effective; the denizens of Hell quickly learned that you had Alastor’s protection and that was enough to keep most of them far away from you.
“Something wrong, darling?”
He must have noticed you spacing out because his head was tilted at an interesting angle and his eyes were narrowed in curiosity. You shook your head and yawned, then widened your smile.
“Sorry, I’m okay. Just a little tired.”
It was true. You’d just been chatting with Angel and Vaggie a little downstairs before you planned to go to bed. Alastor had caught you before you’d started getting ready. You didn’t know if he ever slept, but you liked the familiar routine from when you were still human.
You hesitated a moment, letting your smile slip just a little. You were content with the way things were, but Angel’s question, and the implications of it, were still rattling around in the back of your head. Was it too soon to ask? Should you just leave it alone? Would it make him uncomfortable? You could always just blame Angel...
“I was talking to Angel Dust earlier and, haha, he said the funniest thing. Well, asked the funniest thing, ha…”
Oh shit, this was a bad idea. But Alastor’s head tilted even more and there was no way to get out of this conversation now. You cleared your throat uncomfortably.
“Um, well, Angel asked if we’d had sex yet and I said no. But I didn’t say anything else because that’s not his business and I don’t want to blab about that kind of stuff, but I was a little curious too because we haven’t even kissed yet, not that that’s a problem but-!”
Oh god, you were rambling. You were tempted to shut your eyes and try to sink into the bed, but you didn’t. You were an adult and so was Alastor and you should be able to talk about your relationship, right? Right.
For a few moments, Alastor was frozen in place. Nothing about his expression changed, but you somehow sensed that his smile was less genuine and more forced than normal. The radio static dramatically increased in volume for a few seconds before the other demon straightened up again and his expression returned to normal.
“You’re right, my dear! It’s not Angel’s business! Besides, there are so many other entertaining things to do! Pictures to see, demons to kill, food to eat. Anyway, you should really be getting to bed, shouldn’t you? You do seem rather tired.”
Oh. So that’s how it was. You bit your lip and your hands fidgeted in your lap. In his own roundabout way, Alastor had just told you that sex didn’t interest him, which possibly had something to do with his weird touching thing. It wasn’t really a huge issue for you. Sex was nice, but you really liked Alastor and his comfort and happiness were more important. Spending time with him was enough to make you happy.
Always perceptive, Alastor noticed your reaction and froze again for a split second before recovering, his smile growing even wider.
“I don’t know about anything else, but if it’s a kiss you’re after, my love, I’m happy to oblige!”
That certainly caused your heart rate to increase. You wouldn’t deny that you’d thought about kissing Alastor before, but you were a little intimidated by his teeth, even though your own teeth were now much sharper than they used to be. It turned out, however, that you didn’t need to worry about that yet. Alastor grabbed your hand, bowed, and graced the back of it with a quick peck before tilting his head up slightly and grinning at you. He seemed to be back in his element and your chest felt warm and fuzzy, even if the kiss wasn’t quite what you were expecting.
He seemed to know what you were thinking because he straightened up and smirked down at you.
“Stay tuned for more, my love. Now get some rest and keep on smiling! When you smile, the whole world smiles with you. It’s really quite something!”
Your soft grin returned and you crawled into bed as Alastor flipped the lightswitch and stroked your hair with one clawed hand. His eyes glowed crimson in the darkness, which you would have been terrified of when you were alive, but you found it oddly comforting now.
The Radio Demon headed toward the door, humming as he went. You snuggled deeper into the blankets and sighed contentedly.
“Good night, Al.”
“Good night, my darling.”
He closed the door most of the way, but left it slightly ajar. In just a couple of minutes, the sound of soft jazz music reached your ears from somewhere in the building; it was perfect for helping you drift off to sleep.
As your eyelids slid closed, your conversation with Angel slipped away to bother you no more. You and Alastor had a bit of a strange relationship and the two of you may never be intimate, but there was genuine affection present on both sides and that’s all you really cared about. You were determined to stand by for whatever the future had in store for you.