Ace in a Hole: Collaborative Shenenigans

Chapter 13

Alastor loves and despises the bracelet locked around his wrist, never to dare leave his sight. He adores it. Pink never was his color, but the man who trapped those pink strings together to fit around his wrist meant much more than an odd addition to his fashion, so he kept to it. And he loves looking down at it, loves knowing that everyone could stare all they wanted, but that this was undeniable proof that his one and only best friend slot within his heart has been claimed by another.

Oh, how people bitched all of his life. While he was in high school, it was the local rich kid named Bradly and the farmer boy named Paul who fought over him. When he was an adult, the local men at the speakeasy loved how gentle he became drunk, and each tried to weasel their way to his booth to sit at his side. At the side of one of the few pleasant drunks there.

In hell was a different story.

Everyone wanted to be the one by the radio demon's side, whether it be platonic or romantic. Wanted to be his one and only. Wanted to be associated with the terror he was. The old overlords who didn't laugh and scoff at him giggled at his power and tried to brush up against him, as if begging for his attention. The ladies all in cannibal town fawned over him, except for pleasant yet distant Rosie, who liked being an almost Aunt figure to everyone after she had eaten her husband. No one could replace him, she insisted. Not in personality or taste. Then, of course, there was Vox, and Alastor didn't want to touch him with a ten-foot pole.

So when Alastor begins to roam around with a very sudden new accessory firmly planted onto his wrist, with a nickname for himself on it...

Well, Alastor's days become filled with more annoying idle chatter. Especially since Alastor has been out on the streets less, since he's been visiting Sans so much nowadays. Why stay in hell when his best friend was on earth, after all? Alastor knew it would be suspicious for him to disappear for days on time with nothing but a happy attitude when he returns, but he finds no reason to care. Whenever he saw Sans, his mood was instantly lifted. Everything was a little better when that skeleton was in his life.

Introducing Sans to that church was the right call. Alastor had a rare moment of hesitation when he looked up at that old building, decrepit in both life and in his memories. The place where people spout about god and didn't care about his own beliefs, only that he followed the status quo. Alastor didn't despise church because he practiced voodoo, or because he was a demon. He despised the church because it allowed a bastard to run it, and allowed such vile behavior to get away from authorities under the spirit of god. A cult, Alastor personally believed.

Alastor was never vocal about it. Even in hell, he just gave basic lies about how demons couldn't dare to believe in such a thing and move on. But telling Sans felt like a proper step. A step he found himself almost relieved at once he took, a stone off of his shoulder. A stupid hatred to harber, he supposes, yet it's one Sans looked at and understood. Sans always just knew him so well. Knew he needed a moment to rant and didn't force in pitiful looks or empty words about how sorry he was Alastor went through that.

Sans' previous words of comparing shit to shit on a scale still rang in his head occasionally. Sans felt pity yet never overused it. He was real and bitter, yet witty and fun.

Alastor adores this man so much. That day in church Sans barely spoke, but it was just enough for Alastor to know for a fact he was going to spend the rest of forever with Sans. He was simply too much of an enigma to give up.

Even if people in hell bothered him so, he couldn't be bothered to care. Not when Sans was waiting on earth for his next visit.

The bracelet is questioned extensively by the people in the hotel, but once Alastor is very obvious in his lack of answers, they learn to avoid the question. Why waste time when it wouldn't reap rewards? Naturally, the group tries to sneak in questions to catch Alastor off guard, but he remains steadfast in dodging their attempts.