Work Text:
You had been cleaning for god knows how long. You wished that you could just lay in bed all day with your day off, but with how dirty your love was and how small the apartment was, it was a necessary evil.
Speaking of your love, he had been gone for a while
now.
He was constantly wracked with anxiety when you left the house to buy groceries without him because of how dangerous the Valley was (and his general clinginess) so he insisted on doing the grocery run while you cleaned the apartment.
And you were perfectly fine with that, sure you loved him but his obsessiveness got a bit tiring at times. It was nice to spend a little time alone.
But it was a tad bit odd that he had been gone for so long. You checked the digital clock on the counter.
6:64 pm
He had left 3 hours ago. Usually he only took around an hour to do groceries since he only needed to visit one general store. That combined with the fact it was raining heavily outside made your stomach twist just a bit. You sighed and decided to focus on cleaning for now.
“He's fine. He'll be fine,” You convinced yourself.
No matter how many times you swept there was just more and more dust. You made another dust pile and sat on one knee, struggling to sweep the dust into the dust pan with the strange angle. Trying to maneuver the broom with just one hand was straining your wrist.
You sat there for what felt like 30 minutes just sweeping up the little lines that the pile made. You had finally whittled it down to one little line, and you finally breathed a sigh of relief as you swept it into the dustpan. You stood up and looked down at the floor.
There was still another line of dust.
You breathed a long frustrated sigh and slapped the dustpan on the kitchen island. You were going to put the broom away when you heard something from the living room.
*CRASH*
You jumped and tightly gripped the broom, eyes wide staring at the closed door separating the kitchen and living room.
You silently listened for any other sound, staying stone still.
You breathed in and out deeply and consistently, slowly creeping towards the oak door. You gripped the freezing door handle, the cold contrasting your sweaty palms.
You breathed in and flung the door open charging head first into your small living room.
You let go of your breath and felt your shoulder relax a bit as your stared confused at the scene in front of you.
A big 2 foot ball of wet, black, curly hair with a big, yellow eyeball in its center was standing (well it didn't really have legs, sitting?) in the middle of the room. It simply stared at you, looking shell-shocked.
It suddenly pounced at you at lightning speed. You let out a quick but loud yelp and smacked the broom down in front of you, missing the hairball by just a few inches.
"Get! Get back!" You said assertively as you threatened the creature with the red handled broom. It whimpered like a dog and jumped away like a cat being scared by a cucumber.
You pushed it back towards the door and cornered it against the couch.
With your newfound control over the situation you finally fully relaxed and actually looked at the thing. The more you looked at it, the more it looked... familiar.
"Doe!?" You dropped your broom and found your hands on the sides of your head, holding your hair, "what the hell happened!?"
You reached down and scooped up the big ball of hair, which you now knew was your lover, and held him at eye level while you spoke.
He had talked about his "true form” but you had never actually seen it before.
You had no idea his hair was his actual form.
He swung his tendril-like strands of hair around like arms, making chirps and other animalistic noises like he was trying to explain something to you.
You cocked your head to the side. He stopped suddenly and wrapped himself around your right arm, small whines coming from him.
You sighed and petted him while you grabbed a soft towel from the kitchen. You put the towel on his back and flipped him onto the towel like you were getting a cake out of a pan.
You fully wrapped him in the towel, making sure to leave his eyeball exposed. You held him close to your chest, the warmth of your body cutting through the cold of his wet one. You sat down on your soft couch, him purring softly in your arms. He wrapped some tendrils around your neck, pulling you closer and purring even louder.
You sat down on your soft couch, him purring softly in your arms. He wrapped some tendrils around your neck, pulling you closer and purring even louder.
It was nice just cuddling like this, but you felt awful for attacking him and extremely confused why he hadn't shapeshifted back yet.
"Hey baby?"
The little hairball look up at you, a little heart replacing his pupil. Well at least you knew he wasn't mad at you.
"I'm sorry for threatening you, thought you were some feral cat that broke in or something," he let out a strange little noise that resembled a laugh, you smiled and continued, "and I love cuddling you like this, but why haven't you shapeshifted back yet?"
He looked at you for a couple of seconds, pupil back to normal. He jumped out of your arms and and started walking towards the door of your shared bedroom, scratching at it like a cat.
You sat up and let him in, where he immediately started rummaging through his drawer. You shared a dresser, the top two being yours and the bottom being his.
He rummaged through the drawer for a few seconds before pulling out a mason jar with teeth and clothing scraps. He shook it, the contents shaking around. You looked into the drawer to see similar containers, with some being filled with...well you didn't want to know. You swore one of the things I’m the jars blinked at you.
"And you showed me this...why?" You questioned.
He untwisted the jar and started eating the contents right in front of you. A mouth that reminded you of a leech's opened at the base of his eyeball and a long snake-like tongue wrapped around the contents in the jar.
You knew he ate teeth and you found some bite marks in your old clothes, but seeing him do it right in front of you and in this fashion was, well disturbing to say the least.
Finally he was done with his feast and shooed for you to the leave the room. After what you just saw you were perfectly fine with that. You closed the door, but pressed your face against the door.
There were strange fleshy noises for a couple of seconds. He opened the door suddenly, causing you to fall into his arms. He giggled and patted you on the head.
You looked up at him with a smile and cupped his face in your hands and warmly kissed him.
You pulled away and put a hand in his lips so he wouldn't go in for another kiss.
"Okay, explain”
"I need materials for my faux body before I can fully shapeshift back. That's what my snacks are for"
He giggled a little near the end with a big goofy smile on his face.
"And about the groceries?"
"It started raining, my fake body can't handle water. I lost them darling, I'm sorry"
He nuzzled into your neck and you could feel him frown.
"That's okay hun, we can just order some"
You could feel him start to smile softly after that.
"Oh, and forgive you my love~"
He talked into your neck, softly purring and pulling you closer.
"You sure forgive quickly honey"
"How could not!? You're the love of my life! I love love love you! I could never be mad~”
You still felt a bit bad, but you just held him close for the time being, loving the warmth of his body. You stroked your fingers though his still slightly damp hair and kissed him on the neck softly.
He grabbed you by the small of your back and lifted you up, swinging you around and holding you bridal style, lovingly kissing you on the neck. He closed the door of your bedroom behind him and plopped you on the bed.
He wrapped a soft blanket around the both of you and held you tight to his chest, stroking you on the back. You wrapped your arms around his neck and put your head under his.
You knew you still had to clean, the house was still quite dirty.
But.
This was more important.