Chapter Text
It was freezing outside, and Hyperlaser's hands shook lightly, despite being inside the warm bar, as he held his beer. Not that he was gonna drink it anyway.
He hated that Katana kept missing the bar hangouts they had. Hyperlaser hated to admit it, but he missed them, if only a little...
Now, he sat with the glass in his hand, looking at the contents woefully. "Stupid Subspace," he whispers, before sniffling. Hyperlaser hated crying, mostly because he couldn't. His tear ducts had gotten burned off in that stupid fucking accident.
His head perks up when he hears someone come in. He can't really see them, but it was odd. Inphernals never come in this late.
Then Hyperlaser smelled him. Rotting and reeking of chemicals. "Subspace." He says, coldly, keeping his eyes downcast, dispite not really being able to see all that well.
"Good recognition. I imagine my smell is what gave it away, hmm?" He can feel when Subspace scoots closer, resenting that he now felt the inphernal's presence.
"What do you need?"
"For you to pick up the fucking slack." Subspace bites back cooly. "I've noticed a decrease in your performance and felt the nauseating need to check on my best contractee." Then Subspace moves his hand to gently press against Hyperlaser's, making the mercenary jolt and pull away.
Neither of them were ever too keen on physical contact. Subspace's reason being his rot, and Hyperlaser's being the highly sensitive skin.
"I've been doing my absolute best. I'm sorry, it's not what you want." Hyperlaser mumbles, his voice shaking slightly.
"For fucks sake, what is the matter with you!"
"I'll see you tomorrow."
Hyperlaser pulls his helmet back on and scoots out of the booth, his breathing too fast for his liking. He leaves the bux needed to pay on the table, then leaves, leaving Subspace alone in his twisted mind.
When he gets home, he sees Princess, his cat, lying at the door, purring when he crouches to pet her. "Hey..." Hyperlaser whispers, his voice shaking with a kind of sad tone that warranted a small, worried look from his precious fat cat.
"Fuck."
Hyperlaser walks into his warm bedroom and takes off his boots, then his helmet, then his thick coat, before he pauses.
Was Subspace actually trying to be nice...? No! Of course not!
There's a small huff of air that leaves his lungs before he groans and walks back out into his living room, moving to the attached kitchen, and pulls out ibuprofen.
He stares at the pills in his hand before filling up a glass of water and taking them. Swallowing some water to help the pain medication go down, before he picks up Princess and carries her into his bedroom.
"It's just you and me, huh?" Hyperlaser whispers, his voice rough as he finally pulls off his armor, standing at the foot of his bed in boxers and a tank top.
When he finally lies down, not bothering to brush his teeth, he curls under the layers of his heated and weighted blankets, shaking, though not from the cold.
He can't help it.
He really, truly can't help it when the overwhelming need to cry takes over, but when he tries, he can't.
There's a soft, worried 'meow' from above the layers of blankets, but Hyperlaser just stays there. He's stuck in a marsh and has no idea how to get out.
He spends what feels like only a couple of minutes lying there, wallowing in a sadness that weighs so much heavier than self-pity. Hyperlaser sniffles and wipes away the non-existent tears, then finally pokes his head out of the blankets and sees that he'd 'cried' through his alarm.
"Fucking hell..." That's all he gets out before he hears a sharp knock at his door. Not his front door, but his bedroom door, and he stills.
"Sorry for breaking in." Drawls the maddening voice of Subspace. "You haven't responded to any of my calls or texts. I needed to make sure my best worker hadn't died."
"What do you need?"
"Well, it's four in the afternoon, and what I can only assume is your cat has been begging to be let out since I got here about an hour ago."
"An HOUR??" Hyperlaser squawks, throwing back the covers and checking his clock again when he remembered it had broken the morning before.
"Yes. I made you some food, and I cleaned your rather dirty apartment. Sorry if that was unwelcome, however, I knew you were depressed and figured you could use some... help." The voice that Subspace uses is surprisingly gentle, as he had been in the same spot, but no one was there to help him.
"I know I'm... unkind to say the least, but I need you..." There was a pause too long for either of them to know what to say next before Subspace said hurriedly, "Needyouontheforce! That's what I mean."
"Right." Hyperlaser sighs and walks over to his bedroom door before opening it. "...What did you make?"
"Something easy to stomach," Subspace says, his face tinted a light pink as he drags his eyes over the practically naked form of Hyperlaser, seemingly not noticing that Hyperlaser saw his wandering eyes.
"It's just some grilled cheese."
"M'kay. Sorry for not being there this morning."
"Don't apologize, it's given me a chance to see your... quaint apartment." The tone and the delivery of the sentence made it seem like Subspace genuinely cared, which, unbeknownst to Hyperlaser, he did care.
He cared a whole lot.
"Thanks. Do you need me to pick up extra hours this weekend? I should be free." Hyperlaser says with caution, coloring his voice.
"No need. I found someone to cover for you. I have you on a mandatory break."
"I'm fine."
"The largest lie told by everyone ever."
When Hyperlaser opens his mouth to protest, there's a fraction of a second where he just stands there in shock. He's rarely seen anyone care about him, let alone his boss.
Normally, Katana would be someone on that list, but Hyperlaser hasn't seen him in almost a month, so he isn't on said list temporarily.
"You said it was grilled cheese?"
Subspace nods, a smile forming on his lips, although the only way to tell is if you could see, Hyperlaser cannot. At least, not without his helmet, and at the moment, that's lying on his bedroom floor.
"Is that okay?" Subspace asks, following close behind Hyperlaser, his eyes glued to the other man, watching every small movement.
"It's fine. Thanks..."