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Related to this fic. Also part of a longfic about the radiotrio that I hope to share someday....

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It was all feeling so nice until a hand was shaking her shoulder. A big hand, one that nearly engulfed a part of her arm. She could feel the shape of that familiar heart print over her skin.

She opened up her eye, her vision hazy, Husk’s face a blur of black and white before it cleared.

“Niff, why are you taking a nap in here? You out of your mind? I meant like on the couch or something!” Husk was leaning over the grate of the fireplace, some of the soot getting onto his fur. But his fur was already so dark, she could barely see it. “This fireplace is automatic. You’ll get roasted alive. Unless you wanna catch on fire.”

Niffty had wedged herself deep into a corner of the fireplace, half-submerged in darkness, where most of the soot gathered in. She had been scrubbing and sweeping it out, until the coziness of it all made her so sleepy. She had always liked these little spaces, ones where she could fit inside, like the vents, or even the inside of a washing machine!

She gazed her single eye at Husk, her grin showing off little specks of black here and there. “I’ve been on fire before.”

Husk rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I guess we all have to catch on fire at some fucking point when we’re here. Like some stupid rite of passage.”

She giggled. Her hands were clutched to her chest, her elbows resting on her knees. “Hehe, not here, silly.”

The hand that was on her stilled. Husk stared. Then, carefully, he pulled his hand away.

He didn’t say anything, but she saw the look in his eyes—the kind she remembered other people in her life gave her sometimes. Pitying, scared, unsure. He was cute, but he didn’t understand her the way Alastor did. Maybe he didn’t understand Alastor either. Which was a little sad, because she knew her Sir liked his kitty so much.

At the thought of Alastor, she giggled happily again, nestling further into the corner, getting even more soot all over her dress. “You know, whenever Alastor needs me, he’ll make me appear in a fireplace. It’s like he turns me into a piece of coal, right in the middle of the flames, and then I wake up feeling all warm. He knows it relaxes me so much. And he’ll always make sure to get rid of the soot right after!”

Husk continued to look at her, all while Niffty tried to brush away the soot from her apron. She only succeeded in making it more black, more grimy. This is why she needed Alastor. He always made sure to treat her right.

A quick peek showed her that Husk had gone closer to the fireplace, seating himself before it. He laid his arms over his legs. His tail swished curiously, and even his wings were slightly expanded, as if to cover them both up in their conversation.

“Niffty… How did you end up down here?” He asked her carefully, eyes on her. The fireplace held no flames, but his eyes did.

Wrapping her arms around her shoulders, Niffty giddily relived the memories.

“I was thrown into a ditch,” she said with a whisper. “But that’s not how I died.”

She wondered if the fireplace would turn on, sending tingles all over her skin. Yet, it never quite had the same feel as when she had been alive.

“One of my eyes wasn’t working, so I couldn’t see good. But still, I climbed! I climbed out of the ditch! I ruined my dress and my nails and my stockings but I got out of the ditch and found my way back to the house. He didn’t expect me back. He didn’t know I would be there. I can’t remember what he said anymore, because I was already stabbing. I had to keep doing it. I had to keep stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing—”

She stopped, even though no one told her to. She raised her head to look at Husk. He was only staring back, his wings still hiding her from view. So few people ever listened so well to her stories!

“Until I couldn’t stab anymore. Kitchen knife broke. I tried to use a fork next but it wasn’t very good. And a spoon? Much worse! I didn’t have anything else to use, except for some needles. But I just used them to fix the holes in my stockings. So I tried something else.”

One of the fire pokers was next to her, so she reached out and hugged it close to her chest, like it was a stuffed animal, or someone’s arm, or maybe even their head. “Mister would always complain about it being cold, so I sat him down in his chair. Then I went to the fireplace… We had a very small one, but it was still a good size! It could fit me all snug and cozy.”

Husk remained silent, but he was now looking away, finding patterns in the floor. Or maybe a stain. She needed to remember to clean that up later.

“It was tricky, but I got the fire started. Then I decided to go to sleep. I didn’t like the bed. The fireplace was nice and soooo warm! And fire crackling on wood is such a nice sound! You know, if you stay long enough, it’ll crackle other things too? Like skin? Like blood? Like eyes? I think that’s how I lost my other eye for good, teehee.”

Just telling the story was already making her so sleepy again. She yawned and stretched, closed her eye, then went back to cuddling the fire poker once more. Maybe she was like Husk in this. She could sleep in plenty of places too, especially when they were so warm.

She felt a hand on her again, the same hand that could have engulfed her head, or wrapped around her entire waist. She’d met plenty of big boys that wanted to do so many things with her—until Alastor showed up to correct them, as he would say.

But he didn’t show up now. Husk’s hand was over her head, stroking her hair, his claws moving through the strands gently. She opened her eye to see him leaning over again. She couldn’t read his face well, like he’d just set it in stone, or he didn’t know how to arrange his face into the right expression. But he continued to pet her, like the small thing that she was.

She really liked being cared for. She’d make sure to pet his head again later!

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