Love Struck

Ch. 1 Ouch

“FLUUUUUUUUG!!!"

The scientist screamed and fell out of bed. Talk about a rude wake up call. He rubbed his aching head looking at the clock. Six am. Great, he got two hours of sleep. That was a new record. He pushed himself off the floor and grabbed his shoulder when a sharp pain shot through it.
‘Probably from falling out of bed,’ he thought to himself. Wait. Why did he fall out of bed? He thought back.
‘Something scared me? But what?’ he sat on the edge of his bed trying to remember what had woken him up. Thankfully he didn’t have to think for too long because his boss’s yelling reminded him.

“FLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUG!!!!!!!” The villain screamed. Flug would have tensed up any other time he heard his boss scream like that, but it was way too early and Flug was more annoyed than anything.  He buried his head in his pillow and tried to ignore his boss.

“FLUG! YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING PIECE OF MEAT! GET OVER HERE! RIGHT! NOW!!!!” Flug groaned into his comforter. So much for just ignoring him. He reluctantly pulled himself out of bed and made sure he took a while to get ready. Just to mess with his employer. He started to head down to Black Hat’s office where he assumed the annoyed demon was calling him from, but then he heard the voice call from upstairs.

“FLUG! GET! UP! HERE! RIGHT! NOW!!!!” Flug raised an eyebrow. That was strange. Why would Black Hat be calling him up to his room? He gulped, suddenly nervous for making his boss wait. With a deep breath he forced his legs to walk back up the stairs.

The inventor was on the second floor about to make his way up to the third, where Black Hat’s room was, when the door to Dementia’s room swung open. She glared at him from the doorway, looking exhausted. “Took you long enough,” she growled. “He’s been calling you for like the past hour!”

Flug’s eyes went wide. “Why didn’t you check on him?” Dementia smirked and bit her tongue.

“He’s not calling for me,” she giggled and slammed the door in his face. Flug sighed and went up the last flight of stairs to Black Hat’s room. He was about to knock on the door when he heard groaning from the other side. It sound like Black Hat was… in pain.

“Sir?” Flug called, slightly worried at this point. He pushed the door open to find Black Hat half-dressed sitting on the edge of his bed clutching at his chest.  Flug’s eyes went wide as he raced over to his boss. “Sir? What’s the matter? Are you alright?” The demon placed a clawed hand on Flug’s shoulder with a pained look in his eyes.

“Flug,” he panted. His eyebrows furled together and he suddenly looked angry. He pushed the doctor away from him roughly. “WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG YOU WORTHLESS-” Black Hat cut himself off with a gasp and clawed at his chest again. “Ow. Fuck. That one really hurt,” he grunted, doubling over in pain. He really did look worse for wear.

Cautiously, Flug picked himself off the ground and made his way back to his employer, kneeling in front of him. “B-Boss, what’s wrong?” he asked reaching a hand out to attempt to give the demon a reassuring pat.

His eyes turned red and bulged out of his skull. “DON’T TOUCH ME!” he growled before clutching his chest again and grunting in pain. “Just help me you idiot,” he whined.

Flug started to get annoyed. “How am I supposed to help you WHEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON!” Black Hat glared at him and opened his mouth to say something, but instead just grunted again and clutched his chest.

“I’m having chest pains,” he started.

Flug nodded, “Anything else?”

“I’m nauseous, my heart is racing-” he gulped.

‘Funny I didn’t think he even had a heart.’ Flug thought.

“I’m sweaty, I feel like I can’t breathe, and-” another gulp. “-and I feel like I’m on fire.” Flug rolled all this new information over in his head.

“How would you rate your pain on a scale of one to-?”

“TEN!” he screamed, doubling over again. He reached out and grabbed Flug’s shoulder for a second time. “Flug, listen to me. I’m most definitely dying. In which case I want you to burn all of my possessions including this house and all my money, because no one deserves my wealth unless they’re me.” Flug had to refrain from rolling his eyes. His boss could be such a drama queen.

“Listen, I’m almost certain that you’re not dying, so let’s not do anything too hasty,” Flug suggested. Black Hat glared at him.

“Well if I’m not dying, then what is happening to me?” he demanded the answer more than asked for it. Flug thought for a moment.

“It could be one of four things sir,” he started. “You could be having a heart attack, which is highly unlikely because you’d probably be dead at this point if you were. You could be having an anxiety attack, which I’ll also rule as unlikely for obvious reasons. You could also be suffering from a very bad case of heartburn, but not all the symptoms are consistent with that. Or…” he trailed off, really contemplating the last option.

“What?” the demon demanded still clutching his chest.

The doctor waved his hand dismissively. “No, it couldn’t possibly be the last one.”

“WHAT’S THAT LAST ONE?!” Black Hat demanded.

“Well… Your symptoms are also consistent with… being in love.” Black Hat sat in silence for a moment.

“So it’s heartburn then.”