Chapter Text
Everything was a swirling black vortex of uncertainty, and at the center of it a little town that couldn’t be bothered to care that it was the most uncertain thing of all. Normal went there to die, and Carlos certainly felt like parts of himself had died since he set foot in Night Vale, though the parts of him that he’d discovered were rapidly filling those gaping holes in his identity, sometimes unpleasantly. His propensity to handle the strange was one of those discovered things, though whether he had discovered it because it was increasing or rapidly diminishing was still up for debate.
“Carlos.”
He could handle the common occurrences of both death and dismemberment, or at least he thought he could. He didn’t like to think about it too much.
“Carlos.”
He could handle the incessant buzzing in his mind, like radio static, or a swarm of bees flying angrily around in there like so many thoughts he wanted to reach out and grasp and know, but received only pain. So much to learn about Night Vale, and so much of it unlearnable.
“Carlos.”
Why did he even stay? There was nothing truly holding him here, just some mysteries that begged to be questioned but refused to be solved. The grant money wouldn’t last long, he knew that much. Carlos wasn’t even sure how’d he’d gotten it to begin with since the outside world seemed to deny the existence of Night Vale just as strongly as Night Vale denied the existence of mountains. So why was he still here?
“Carlos, really,” Cecil scolded, pulling Carlos out of his mind, “now you’re just being rude.”
Carlos dragged a hand through his shaggy hair, unable to get it trimmed for reasons he still didn’t fully understand, shaking off the last thoughts clinging to his consciousness before sighing and focusing on the pizza in front of him, the dingy brick of the walls around him, the garbled music lilting sporadically through staticy speakers, and the slightly perturbed violet-eyed man sitting across from him in a magenta cardigan.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, and went back to “enjoying” his mandatory pizza, and Cecil’s face softened immediately.
“Were you in another gloom?” he asked, rubbing the back of Carlos’ hand lovingly.
Carlos scrunched up his nose in indignation. “No! I was just...thinking.”
Cecil smiled and rested his chin on the back of his hand. “It looked like you were thinking gloomy things.”
All things are gloomy in Night Vale, was what Carlos wanted to say, but instead said, “What were you talking about?”
“Oh!” Cecil said as he clapped his hands together, having already forgotten his original line of thought. “That new radio tower on the edge of town. It’s not one of ours, you know, and I was talking to Jason, the secret policeman who hangs around the radio station?”
Carlos nodded, though he couldn’t tell one officer from the next with their balaclavas and all.
“Well,” Cecil continued, leaning over the table in excitement. “He said it’s not one of theirs either. They don’t know where it came from! I think it might be from that government agency that goes snooping around here sometimes.”
Carlos nearly choked on the bite of pizza he’d been attempting to swallow. “That seems like the sort of thing you shouldn’t be talking about, let alone acknowledging, Cecil. I mean, I’m no expert...”
Cecil waved the comment away. “It’s fine. It’s not like I’m on the radio, right?”
Carlos couldn’t disagree with that.
“Oh!” Cecil shouted gleefully. “Speaking of the radio, you’ll never guess where my listeners suggested we should have our next date.”
“Oh god, Cecil,” Carlos groaned, putting down his slice and resting his head in his hands. “Why are you asking them for date ideas?”
“B-but I’m not!” he sputtered. “They just call in with ideas when I talk about you. I can’t help it. They like hearing about my boyfriend.”
Carlos sighed, becoming a bit exasperated with that word. How many dates had they been on? Three? Five? Possibly ten? It was so hard to remember. They all just sort of blended together in a mess horrific interruptions and bad food. And how often had Cecil used that word? All the time, every time, ever since the first date. It was ridiculous for Carlos to be so put off by it because they honestly were boyfriends, if Carlos felt like being honest about it, but the man had fallen in love with Carlos instantly, from a smile! He couldn’t help but feel a little hesitant to go making things official yet. Cecil knew, because Carlos reminded him every time, but it seemed the idea was planted firmly in his head anyway, so he just ignored it.
“Why are you talking about us on the radio after all this time?” Carlos asked, wiping copious amounts of grease off his hands. “We don’t do anything exciting.”
Cecil blushed a soft violet. “I can think of many exciting things we’ve done.”
Carlos was glad he had finished eating because he would have choked to death right then if he wasn’t. “You don’t talk about that, do you?!”
“No!” Cecil squeaked. “Of course not, but it’s more fun to talk about spending time with you than whatever the city council is up to.”
Carlos couldn’t disagree with that either.
“Oh, I have to go,” said Cecil despondently as he glanced at his watch. “The night won’t start without me on the radio.”
Carlos would have laughed, but he was almost certain that was actually how time functioned in Night Vale, so instead he leaned over the table, grabbed Cecil by the chin, and pulled him into a kiss.
Cecil came away blushing even brighter purple and biting his lower lip, and he whispered, “Walk me to my car?”
Carlos couldn’t refuse the request anymore than he could keep himself from pressing himself against Cecil’s body, pinning him to the car with his hips as he parted the radio host’s lips with his tongue and kissed him deeply. Cecil moaned softly into his mouth as he ran his fingers through Carlos’ shaggy locks, rolling his hips gently against Carlos’ before Carlos pulled away. Cecil pouted and whined, snaking his arms under Carlos’ labcoat to grab at his ass.
“You have to go to work,” Carlos grinned, and Cecil groaned in frustration.
“Or you could invite me inside instead?” he asked hopefully, eyes heavy lidded as he bit his lip.
“Nope, work first,” Carlos replied, removing Cecil’s hands from his behind. “And don’t you dare talk about any of this on the air. I’ll be listening.”
“Okay, but after?” Cecil asked as he wrapped his arms around Carlos’ neck, voice hitching up in a whine at the end.
“After you can touch my butt all you want,” he said, and kissed Cecil on the tip of his nose. “Promise.”
The overjoyed squeal Cecil responded with was almost inhuman, and he was driving off into the evening a moment later.