Drabbles and Whatnot

~Imagine One~

Podcast: Welcome To Night Vale
Characters: Cecil and Carlos

"And now, the weather."

With a sigh, Cecil removed his headphones and stood up to stretch. He had about 4 minutes to feed Khoshekh and find a drink suitable enough to keep him awake till the end of the broadcast before he could relax properly.

The clock ticked behind him, reminding him that if he wanted to do all these things he'd need to be quick. However, before leaving he double checked his phone for any messages from Intern Dana. She'd last told him she was about to escape the dog park but really she could be anywhere by now.

To his surprise and upmost delight, Cecil noticed that Carlos -lovely, perfect Carlos- had left him a message. Gleefully he clicked on it, all thoughts of feeding Khoshekh out the window. Well, maybe not quite as he could never abandon the loyal cat mutant, but the thoughts had been momentarily pushed to one side.

After all, it wasn't often that Carlos texted him for personal reasons.

And this was a personal reason.

Since the date Cecil had found himself zoning out frequently, leaving big pauses during his broadcast. Luckily these pauses weren't any longer than the ones he usually made for dramatic effect, but station management had been known to get restless when he stopped for too long.

In blind panic, Cecil snapped out of his thoughts when he realised he'd daydreamed the four minutes away. Now there was no time to feed Khoshekh or see what Carlos had sent him.

With a regretful sigh, Cecil dropped his phone back on the desk, meaning to check it later and dutifully pulled the headphones back over his ears. It would only be a few more minutes till he was done. Only a few minutes.

Indeed, a few minutes later Cecil had finished his show. He yawned to himself and through half shut eyes he groped around for his phone. His hand fumbled upon it but before he could even think about turning it on he felt his eyelids close, despite his best efforts to stay awake.

Maybe he could just sleep for a little while. Not too long as he didn't want to keep Carlos -with his perfect perfect hair- waiting.

What seemed like a several minutes but must have been a couple of hours later, Cecil awoke to someone gently stroking his cheek. He opened on bleary eye to see the face of lovely Carlos gazing down at him fondly.

"You're awake."

Cecil was unsure how to respond to the obvious statement so went with his usual "Uh huh."

Carlos shook his head but there was still a small smile playing on his lips. He averted his eyes and gazed down at Cecil's arm with interest, watching as the purple tattoos twisted and turned around his forearm.

"They're beautiful you know."

Cecil blushed a delicate shade of pink, which then deviated into a deeper, more magenta like colour. With a gentle finger, Carlos traced the tattoos as they twirled around Cecil's wrist and ended on his hand. Carlos took the opportunity to grip the radio presenter's hand tight and smiled up at him.

"I just wanted to say that I really like enjoyed the date. I was meaning to contact you earlier but well..." he paused for a second, "things came up. Anyways, I was wondering if you wanted to do it again? Maybe this time without the buzzing shadow demons eh?"

Carlos watched Cecil carefully, trying to pick out any facial expressions that could tell him Cecil wanted to. Slowly but surely, Cecil nodded in agreement; not trusting his voice to give Carlos a proper answer.

Carlos smiled broadly and squeezed Cecil's hand.

"Awesome, we can agree on a time later on. For now I think it'd be a good idea for you to get home and sleep somewhere more comfortable."

A whirlwind of emotions were tumbling through Cecil's brain but only one thought stood out to him.
"I haven't fed Khoshekh yet."

Carlos laughed loudly, the sound beautiful to Cecil's ears as he gazed in wonder at the scientist.

"It's okay I did it earlier. You ready to go now?"

"I think so..." Cecil muttered, his voice trailing off as he wracked his brain for anything that he might not have done.

"Great." Carlos said with a grin. 'Come on, I'll drive you home if you like. I saw you walk here this morning."

Cecil frowned. Oh god what should he say. Merciful ghost cloud, why hadn't he been prepared for this day. He gulped and gave Carlos a hesitant smile.

"Neat."

Carlos sighed but it was a light hearted, friendly one.

"You dork."