Proposal

Chapter 3

By the end of the hour, Husker knew more about the way porn was filmed than he ever thought he would. More importantly, though, he knew more about how much Angel put up with on a daily basis. He'd told a story of how he'd gone to shoot his scenes, something that normally only took him a few hours, but the partner for the shoot had given him all sorts of problems. On top of the new guy being almost an hour late to the set, it took him much too long to get ready. Then, over and over again, they would have to stop because the new guy forgot his lines, wasn't understanding the direction and, at one point, even hurt himself on the end of a nightstand. With every little set back, they would have to add an hour to the shoot, which took away any relaxation time he might need. So, what should have taken Angel three to five hours ended up taking twelve.

Once the spider had finished his raving, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Husker could see the immediate change in the man as his body fully relaxed and the weight from all of his anger was lifted. "Thanks for letting me talk. Normally I'd talk to Cherri about this shit, but right now's not a good time for her and I just... I really needed to get that out."

"No problem. It was pretty insightful, to say the least." The arachnid gave him a small smile.

"Well, now that I've bored you enough with this shit, I'm gonna go to bed. You probably should too." He nodded slowly and watched Angel slowly, but calmly, walk down the hall towards the stairs. When the man disappeared, Husker decided to follow his advise and go up stairs for the night. It didn't take him long to close up shop and make his way to his room. It did, however, take him a while to finally fall asleep.

Waking up the next morning was an odd feeling. Mostly because he'd actually gotten some decent sleep instead of napping for thirty minutes and staring at the walls the rest of the time. A quick shower, another thing he rarely found the time and energy for, and he was heading down to the lobby to start the day. By the time he reached the bar, he could hear the others slowly starting to get up themselves. All except for Angel, that is. Before long, the others were one by one coming downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Are you really still awake, Husker? You should get some sleep, at least! How can you even survive like this?" The princess' voice rang like music in the empty lobby, her concern clear as crystal. He simply shrugged, not bothering to correct her. She'd probably think he was lying if he said it anyways. "Please take better care of yourself." She reached across the bar and lightly tapped his hand as Vaggie joined them.

"What's wrong?" The blond looked up at her lover with a smile.

"Oh, nothing, I was just telling Husker that he should get more sleep." He watched as the two walked toward the kitchen, Vaggie wrapping an arm around Charlie's shoulders casually. The two disappeared around the corner and Husker relaxed onto the stool he kept behind the bar.

"So, you're not gonna tell them that you actually slept well last night?" He wished he could have said that the sound of Niffty's voice suddenly coming from so close scared him. However, after all these years, it was just another product of working with the woman. Along with her eerie knowledge of everyone's sleeping habits.

"What's the point? It was a one time thing that's not gonna happen again. And if it does happen again, it won't be for another thirty years or something." Looking to the side, he found the cyclops sitting on the end of the bar, kicking her feet idly. As always, she was already dressed and ready for the day, not a single hair out of place. The woman shook her head with a heavy sigh.

"You know, I really hope that you're proven wrong." She didn't say another word, but instead jumped off the bar and headed into the kitchen to help with breakfast. Alone now, Husker tried to get his mind to focus on the simple things. The things that had always seemed to entertain him prior, like the taste of his beer or the muffled sounds of the others talking through the walls. Instead, all his mind did focus on, was the talk he'd had with Angel the night before. Something about simply listening to someone complain about their day and the people in their life was cathartic for him. Possibly because he'd spent so long in life doing just that, and had rarely done it in death. Those who came to his bar back at the Dead Man's Hand usually only complained about losses, or bitched about the owner being a swindler (himself). Those who dropped by were rarely there for the bar itself, and more often times there for the casino.