Radiodust - Indulging the Flesh

Part 1

The door to the hotel swung open and Alastor spun around and jumped up from his stool, beginning to launch into the quaint lines Charlie had begged him to say whenever there was a new guest, but he stopped mid-sentence upon seeing who had swept inside.

"Made ya jump!" Angel called, laughing and swaying a bit as he waved. His top left hand gripped the neck of what seemed to be a half-full bottle of booze.

Alastor's welcoming grin immediately faded back to a restrained smile and he sat back down, turning back to the bar with a sigh. "Good evening, Angel. Back from the bar so soon?"

"Yeahh, I got a little out of control and Charlie made me leave. But I couldn't help myself, I'd never been to that gay bar before and I was just so eager to meet people! Haha!" Angel made his way over and sank onto the stool next to Alastor, giggling and placing his bottle down before slumping across the bar.

"Gay bar, huh?" Alastor swirled his glass of bourbon around, watching the ice cubes inside clink pleasantly. "Explains why you were so eager to go."

"Uh-huh, it's a new place and the music was jumping. I got a little too pumped up, started flirting with this big handsome bear of a guy... turns out he had this little twink boyfriend who started getting uppity with me and like, ugh, the guy didn't tell me he was taken! But that's no problem, I said I was down for a threesome, Twink hit me with a bar stool, I tripped and hit Vaggie, she got mad... yeah it was a whole thing." Angel took a swig from his bottle.

"You really need to stop getting into these situations. That is if you're serious about redemption."

"Ah, I'm still not even sure it's gonna work. Even if it did, maybe I'm just too broken." Angel sighed, staring at the bottles on the other side of the bar.

"I don't believe that doing good deeds here can undo the sins of life. But if it does work that way, and demons can be redeemed and go to Heaven, well... I think you've got the best chance out of anyone here."

Angel brightened at that. "Aw, you big sap, you." He playfully nudged the other, who chuckled.

"I can see how hard you try at the silly tasks Charlie gives you. I do wish you all the best."

"Aww stop, are you even the real Alastor? How much you been drinking tonight, sir?"

"I may be a demon but that's no reason to forget my manners."

"Crazy how a gentleman like you is also a powerful, merciless serial killer. Haha, Hell sure has..." Angel hiccuped, swaying some more. "Has some characters."

"Indeed. So, were you enjoying the bar before your little spat with the bear man?"

"Oh yeah, it was great! Wonderful music, nice décor, all sorts of liquor... you shoulda come with us, you'd probably like it."

"I prefer to avoid bars and speakeasies and the like. Far too many people and I have little tolerance for drunk idiots."

"You're tolerating this drunk idiot," Angel said, draping against him and laughing.

Alastor used a finger to push his face back. "I can deal with a single drunk idiot. But when there's several of them, being rowdy, being ugh, flirty, I find myself losing my temper very quickly."

"I don't blame people for flirting, you're good-looking! Not sure what you looked like when you were alive but I'm sure the ladies were all over you then too! And the gentlemen, eh?"

"I died in 1933," Alastor said bluntly. "The homosexual men like yourself were not nearly so forthcoming in public. They couldn't be. One had to be very, very careful about expressing such desires. You're lucky you lived in a time where it was a little easier to find partners. To say nothing of how safe it had become by the time Vaggie was alive."