Our Redemption Arc (Hazbin Hotel Adam x Reader)

Got somethin'?

Adam's back within the hour. Knowing there's no time to waste on emotions and all that pussy shit and barely enough time to get the job done, he's cut his break a millennia shorter than he'd like. While the portal closes behind him like a dwindling whirlpool, he raises a brow at what he sees. You're just staring at him, your demeanour somehow equally focused and absentminded.

You're waiting for him to explode again. He's waiting for you to retaliate. Your eyes stay stuck together for an uncomfortable amount of time. Strangers who supposedly know each other failing to predict each other. You share the lonesome feeling of anxiousness, loss and confusion, the sensation hanging in the air and muddying your views like a thick, swampy fog. Eventually you try to clear the air, getting back off the bed and walking up to him.

"You alright...?" You ask quietly, like you don't want the ghosts in the room to hear, looking up at him with a sympathetic concern.

He doesn't like it, not one bit. You sound nothing like you. He looks down at you sullenly, not bothering to answer. You don't even know this is an extremely unusual face for him to be pulling. Ugh. He almost wishes he was in your shoes instead of his. You don't know what he's thinking but what you do know is that he's been seemingly desperate to get you to remember him, so you attempt to offer some solace.

"You, uh..." You feel your face warming up from embarrassment, your words sheepish. "Smell... familiar... Feel familiar too. You comfort me... I don't doubt I liked you."

Your kind, shy smile further ruins his mood. In any other case he would've had to torture you to hear even a fraction of that sentiment. It's nice and all but it's actually not nice at all. He sounds nothing short of depressed and can't be arsed to lighten up.

"I did. Doubted it constantly."

"Oh..." You frown, the feeling of your past being so alien making you reasonably upset. "Sorry...?"

"I'm not." He fake smiles at you, though the affection in it is sincere.

"You're not sorry I made you think I didn't like you?" You question distrustfully, not understanding his point of view, or anything about him really, in the slightest.

His eyes wander leisurely across your face, equally disturbed by and fond of how stress free and soft your features look, and reaches his hand up to cup your cheek. His thumb contours your cheekbone and up curve of your eye socket and back again, moving like it's taken this path a hundred times before. You lean into him. His barely there smile wavers.

"Nah. Jus' meant you cared enough to wanna control what I thought of ya."

"...That... doesn't sound caring..."

"You weren't exactly the caring type."

"Okay... what 'type' was I then?"

"The worst type." He smiles more genuinely, almost proudly. "The type to knock me over just to help me back up."

You look through his eyes, searching for some rationale behind his behaviour. You get the feeling you've never found it before. He avoids your gaze, unable to stop himself from squirming under the scrutiny. He clears his throat, takes his hand off of you and magically places his phone in his hand.

"There's, um... A recording. Of you. Talking about me." He taps the screen that's facing you with his thumb and gestures for you to take it.

When you press play you hear some faint mumbles of a feminine voice you couldn't put a name to, then your own. You listen to yourself describe Adam with words like "kind," "understanding" and "professional." You don't need to be told you're sugarcoating it to know it. The reason you're doing that is what's stumping you. You wonder if he's just simply awful at first impressions.