Paperhat drama with “I want an answer, goddammit!”
Using this answer as my Paperhat month day 10 as well! So enjoy! (Hurt/comfort)
“I want an answer goddamn it!”
Flug slammed his hands down on the desk, and stared down at the eldritch sitting across from him. The doctor was on the verge of a break down, yet Blackhat was struck with a blank expression. “If you’re not going to answer me then I’m leaving!” Blackhat remained unfazed. “Fine.”
Flug drew himself to full height, and then stormed out of the office. When he got to his room, he pulled a battered suitcase from underneath the bed and began to pile clothes into it haphazardly until it was full. The loud vvvip of the zipper left a feeling of finality in the tension filled air.
Blackhat sat like a statue in his throne-like chair. He knew that if he was human he would have suffocated a few minutes ago from lack of oxygen, but he couldn’t bring himself to breath. When Flug had barged into the room and demanded to know how Blackhat felt about him, the world had gone numb. The question had been both unexpected and dreaded.
He should have just given him an answer.
‘It shouldn’t be this hard…’ Blackhat thought.
“It shouldn’t be this hard!” he shouted. Grey, clawed fingers dug into the dark wood of the desk and dug furrows as Blackhat dragged them back towards his body. “Why are these stupid emotions so complicated!” No one was around to answer his question through, so slowly, Blackhat slumped down and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t understand…”
Flug stood at the gate at the end of the long sidewalk that led up to Black Hat Mansion; he felt empty and heavy as he glanced back at the tall windows and the menacing exterior. Then he opened the gate, which squealed on unoiled hinges, and then it slammed shut behind him with a resounding clang.
“You have to say something,” Blackhat hissed at himself. “If you don’t then he’s going to either start brooding, never talk to you again, or hate you forever! Maybe even all three at once!” Then he sighed and lifted himself from his chair to go look Flug.
The halls were quiet and the lab empty; when Blackhat arrived at Flug’s room he knocked on the closed door. When there was no response, the eldritch slowly turned the knob and swung the door open. The mess of strewn clothes told a story all it’s own.
Without a second thought Blackhat took off down the halls and eventually burst out the front door. From there he ran down to the gate and searched the streets for a familiar lab coat and paper bag, but no one was out and about. Flug was gone.
Back inside, Blackhat summoned Dementia and asked her to see if she could track the doctor down. So with a stout salute, she disappeared into the night as well, nose in the air, and her keen eyes searching for any trace of her friend. Blackhat curled into himself as he sat down on the steps in the entry way. A dull pain echoing in his chest became the only indicator of life in his still body. As the eldritch let out his pent up breath, so left a wish that Flug was somewhere safe at least. That was the least he could ask of the universe, right?
I’ve been ghosting, I’ve been ghosting along
Ghost in your house, Ghost in your arms….
“Flug I know you’re in there.”
“Please come talk to me, Flug….”
…This is why I have decided
To leave your house and home unhaunted
The sound of a latch clicking echoed in the cheap motels hallway.
“Come back with me… please, Flug?”
“You know I can’t do that Dem. Everything hurts when I’m around him, and I’ve told you that more times than I can count… I don’t think he cares about me at all.”
“Flug! He sent me out to find you! When I left he was panicking and he looked pretty worried to me! If that does not show that he cares then-”
“Then why didn’t he come find me himself!”
You don’t need poltergeists for sidekicks
You don’t need treats, and you don’t need tricks
“I’m going to go look for another job tomorrow… but if you need to see me again, you can find me here…”
“Actually… can I.. can I stay with you tonight? I’m gonna miss you at the mansion…”
A warm embrace between almost-siblings
Would it be so bad if I stayed?
I’m just a ghost out of his grave…
“You sure you’re going to be okay?”
“No… but I think I need this…”
1 week… 2 weeks….3 weeks….
The silence of the mansion left Blackhat empty.
4 weeks…. 4 weeks, 1 day… 4 weeks, 2 days….
Each second that passed drove a dagger further in between Blackhat’s third and fourth rib.
Flug, Flug, Flug, Flug, Flug, Flug
No unexpected explosions in the laboratory led to longer days, and lonelier nights.
Dementia placed a hand on his shoulder to pull the eldritch from his thoughts. She uttered 3 words into his ear and then was gone.
Blackhat changed suits and left the mansion. The directions Dementia had given him were messily scrawled in pen onto a post-it note, and blurred by the sweat on his palms. When he knocked on room 121 of the run down motel the eldritch felt all of his courage leave him at once. So when no one answered he made his way back to the front desk where he literally ran into someone.
The familiar startled look through goggle covered eyes had his whole body freezing up.
Blackhat almost bolted, but the hand on his upper arm stopped him.
“Come back to my room with me.”
The motel room was sparsely furnished; a single, run-down looking couch set in front of coffee table and a tv set, and well as a bed that had seen better day was all there was. The squeak of worn out springs wound the awkward silence tighter as Blackhat sat down. He waited for Flug to speak, but it appeared the doctor was waiting for something from the eldritch.
“Why are you here?” Flug asked. Blackhat didn’t know how to answer that without revealing all of the things he had tried so desperately to hide. “I want the truth.” Lies spilled into his mouth like oily water ready to drown him; the truth was a cat clawing its way up his throat but finding itself too terrified to leap the lake growing inside of him. “Please?” The truth fell though,.
“I’m sorry I screwed up so bad, Flug! I should have just told you how I felt, but I barely understand human emotions and it’s all so confusing and so I got scared and wasn’t sure how to respond so instead I retreated and pretend I didn’t care, but really I just want you to come back!” Flug was breathing shallowly.
“I miss you too, Blackhat,” he whispered. Then he stumbled over and plopped down next to Blackhat before turning to hug the other and bury his face in the eldritch’s chest. “I’ve missed you a lot…”
Blackhat returned the embrace and rested his chin on the doctor’s head.
“I’m so sorry…” Flug’s hold tightened for a moment as he sucked in a shuddery breath.
“It’s okay, now… you’ve apologized…Could we just go home now?” Blackhat pulled back and then did something unexpected; he pressed a soft kiss to where Flug’s forehead hid underneath his bag.
By the time the two got back to the mansion, they were greeted with warm hugs from a very happy Dementia. She had made them all dinner, and she made popcorn while she popped in a movie that she had picked out for them all to watch together as one big happy villain group again. As 5.0.5 and Dementia curled up on the floor, and Flug leaned into Blackhat as the movie started, Blackhat watched the way the soft blue light lit up the doctor’s face. Then he smiled and leaned farther back so that Flug could lay down on top of him. He wasn’t going to let Flug go again, not now, and not ever, even if it took a lot of work to learn how to express him emotions, it would all be worth it in the end.
oh my gosh anon thank you so so so much for being so patient with me ;-; I think this had been in my inbox for weeks but between college and then paperhat month and a bunch of home stuff I’ve been super busy! I hope you like this fic, and I used a paperhat month prompt as help to get it done, so I hope you like it!