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It was a good day at the new Hazbin Hotel.
Angel and Husk were hanging out at the bar.
"So, you're sure you have the whole day off, legs? Not gonna get called in for some bullshit 'emergency' again?" The barkeep asked the spider.
"Nah, today's the Vees' quarterly 'what we're doing next' meeting and Vox insists on total secrecy, he doesn't even let Velvette keep her phone and the one time Val convinced him to let me be his 'fidget toy' he was so distracted that Vox had to keep repeating himself until he over heated. So now I'm banned from the tower for the whole day when ever these meetings happen." Angel responded, smirking. "So you get to enjoy my enchanting presence all day ."
"Right, 'enchanting'." Husk mumbled under his breath. He then inhaled to say something else, when he was interrupted by the sound of tiny scurrying feet that can only belong to Niffty.
"Angel!" The tiny cyclops gasp-screeched, having apparently just run down several flights of stairs. "I'm sooooo glad you're here! One of the light bulbs on the 4th floor burnt out and the new ceilings are so high that even with my tallest ladder I can't reach it, but you are very very tall so you should be able to get at it no problem! Will you please help me?" she babbled excitedly at the white-fured demon.
"Um, sure short stuff, glad to help out." He replied, setting his drink back on the bar counter as he started getting up from his seat.
"I should probably go, to." Husk stated, matter-of-factly. "You'll need someone to hold the ladder and it's safest if it's held at a spot above the middlepoint, which Nif can't really reach." He walked from behind the bar in a way that allowed no argument and headed toward the elevator (one of Lucifer's improvements during the re-build) alongside the maid and the porn-star.
Once the trio got to the specified floor, the elevator's doors opened to reveal a large ladder under a dark light fixture next to a housekeeping cart with a box of light bulbs open on top.
"Um, Nif?" Angel asked the cyclops, "If the burnt bulb was right in front of the elevator, why did you run down the stairs to come get me?"
"Oh, I like the stairs better, they're more fun!" she exclaimed.
"Whatever floats your boat, tiny," he shrugged, eyeing the distance from the top of the ladder to the offending fixture.
He started to climb, while Husk went to steady the ladder, the winged cat also trying to ignore that their height difference plus the added boost put the other's crotch right at his eye level.
Once Angel reached the point where he could get to the light, he gave it a thorough look and saw a small bolt-like protrusion. He grabbed onto it and started to turn it. Or rather he tried to, but it did not want to move. He tried harder, putting his entire weight into the effort, but not only did the bolt stubbornly refuse to unscrew, but all his attempt managed to achieve was knocking himself off balance, resulting in him falling off of the ladder. He shut his eyes, bracing himself for the impact with the floor, but was quite startled when, instead of the hard landing he expected, he hit something soft, warm and that went "Oof" in a familiarly deep voice.
His eyes snapped open to stare into thin golden irises with blown-out black pupils. "Husk? Did you catch me?" he asked, simultaneously realizing that the man in question was on his back on the floor with Angel on top of him.
"Well, I wasn't gonna let you fall and have to deal with you bitching about a broken arm or whatever damage for as long as it took to heal," he replied, grumpily.
Angel started to get up, but realized that 'something' was poking him, he put on his most alluring smile and wiggled into Husk's arms. "Oh really? Is that the only reason?" he asked, playfully.
"Just what are you implying?" the grumpy bar cat asked.
"Just wonderin' if that's a bottle in yer pocket or if ya happy to see me?" replied the spider, grinding his crotch down on the quickly-growing erection that the other man seemed to be trying to ignore.
Blushing brightly, Husk replied "I've got 'Hells Greatest Wet Dream' writhing on top of me, I'd have to be a mix of stupid, dead and oblivious to not have a reaction," he muttered, "Doesn't hav'ta mean anything."
Just as Angel was about to respond, Niffty interrupted them "So it looks like the light doesn't want to come off... maybe Lucifer did some kind of angelic magic to them when he made them?" she wondered.
"Yeah, possibly," Angel responded. "He might be able to figure out what to do if you ask him?"
"Ooooh, good idea" she said, excitedly, since she had been prohibited from 'bothering' the king without 'a good reason' after the third time she'd 'accidentally' gone to clean his bathroom while he was taking a shower. "I'll go see if he's in his room!" she called back while scurrying off.
An "Ahem" from Husk pulled Angel's attention back to their 'situation'. "So, are you gonna get off, or what?" the grumpy kitty beneath him asked.
"Well, if you want that you need to do more than just lie there, I prefer active partners" the spider replied, teasingly.
"Ugh, I meant get up off of me and you know it, you brat!" growled the cat.
"Oh, I know what you said , but is that really what you want ?" the taller man asked, playfully.
"I already said that the physical reaction doesn't need to mean anything" Husk grumped at him.
"But what if it does? If I want it to mean somethin'? If you also want it to, maybe we could make it mean whatever could work for us?" Angel replied, the play in his voice being replaced with sincerity as he looked earnestly into those golden eyes.
Husks response was pre-empted by the sound of several pairs of feet running down the hall, prompting Angel to quickly get to his feet and pull the other man up with him "We can discuss this later, in private" hissed the cat, under his breath.
"I'll hold you to that, Whiskers" Angel whispered back and the group consisting of Niffty, Lucifer, Charlie and Vaggie came into view.
"See, just like I told you!" The tiny maid squealed with exasperation. "The light's out and I can't reach and Angel couldn't get it to unscrew!"
"Yeah, it did not want to move, and my expertise is more towards screwing than the opposite, anyway,," joked the spider. "I don't know if the fact that this whole place was put back together by angelic creation magic could be why it won't move, but I figured you'd know what to do since you made it, so Niffty went to get you. I don't know why Char and Vaggs are here, though."
"We were with dad, talking about redemption activity ideas when she started pounding on his door," answered the princess, "so we decided to tag along just to make sure everything was... okay." Obviously referring to Niffty's previously problematic behavior towards the royal person.
Lucifer climbed the ladder to get a better look at the light fixture, "Hmmm, I remember that the bolt-thing was meant to make getting at the bulb easier, but not how it was supposed to work." The King Of Hell mused out loud.
"Maybe it just needs the right kind of tool?" he muttered, conjuring a socket wrench in his left hand ( because of course the devil is a lefty , thought Angel). He began trying to use the tool to get the bolt off, but it still doesn't budge. "I could need more leverage, Mag- um, I mean Vaggie, could you fly up here and help me out?" he asked the former exorcist.
"Uh, sure," she replied, spawning her wings and rising toward the ceiling.
The two angels then both started pushing the wrench with all the strength they could, but not only did the bolt still not move, the tool slipped off of it, hitting Vaggie square in the middle of her face. Causing gold blood to start gushing from her nose as she fell to the floor.
"Vaggie!" Charlie cried, running to her injured girlfriend. A very chagrined Lucifer scrambling down to try to help assuage the damage.
As the archangel attempted to stem the bleeding, Niffty started babbling about blood stains and Angel tried to get Husk to move to the elevator, when over the chaotic tableau a shadow appeared, accompanied by a static-y voice humming 'You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile'.
Alastor, the Radio Demon took in the mess before him, looked up at the fixture that was the cause of the commotion, tucked the book he had been reading under his arm and gestured with his microphone-cane. Two shadow tendrils appeared, one taking hold of the glass dome of the light, the other grabbing a bulb from the box. The first one pulled and the whole dome came right off, a third shadow appeared and removed the burned bulb, handing it off to Niffty as the one with the fresh light installed it. He then reassembled the whole fixture and all three shadows disappeared back to wherever they came from.
"Thank you, sir!" bubbled the maid, throwing the dead bulb into the trash bag on her housekeeping cart.
The deer's smile reached his eyes for the first time since he got there as he nodded at her and reached down to ruffle her hair. He then promptly turned around and went back the way he came.
"Oh, that's right!" remarked Lucifer,"the bolt was meant to be a handle to pull the dome off with!"
"Okay, one, that's kinda a weird way a doin' things and two, how the fuck did Smiles know that?" snarked Angel.
"I have no idea," replied the king, "but now that the problem is taken care of, Charlie and I really need to get Vaggie here to a first-aid kit asap!" His daughter nodded rapidly at that and started helping her beloved stand.
As that trio walked off toward the other end of the building, Angel and Husk turned to Niffty "You gonna need any more help, Nif?" asked the cat. "Like with puttin' the ladder back or somethin'?"
"Nah, I got it out all by myself, didn't I? I'm stronger than I look!" the cyclops responded.
"Guess that's true," replied the spider, "so, then we can head back to the bar, and maybe have that 'talk' now, huh, Kitty?" He winked as he said the word talk.
"Don't call me 'Kitty' or it's gonna be a real short talk" grumped Husk, heading to the elevator and pressing the 'down' button.
The doors slid open immediately and he got in, turning toward the other man. "You coming?"
"Well, that depends on how good you are, don’t it?" Angel said flirtatiously as he got on to the elevator with the cat.
Rolling his eyes, Husk responded with "Fucking Christ, An-" The doors shut with a resounding 'ding', cutting off the rest of the statement.
Niffty tuned to the ladder, folded it up and hefted it to her shoulder and started whistling a some-what off-key version of ' You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile' as she lugged it back to the supply closet at the end of the hall.
It was a good day at the new Hazbin Hotel.