MHOS Part 28: Well Played Alastor (Day 8)

It's morning and none of the careful bandaging Husk did survived the night.. but the absolutely delicious memories will last much longer. I'm making a pot of coffee & pulling out mugs in Husks muscle shirt and panties with my hair tied up with Husks bowtie. I turn around in the kitchen to see Alastor standing by the dining room table scanning my injuries. "I didn't give you those." Alastor states.

"You don't live here" I reply. "Neither do you" Alastor smiles back.

When attempting to pass him Alastor stepped in my path gently touched his hand to my arm and examined one of the injuries saying "Where did you get them." I looked up at him and said "I've taken up pottery, it's a lot more cut throat than expected." And I push past him to get dressed.

As I head to Husks bedroom I bellow "Husk, you have a visitor." As I disappear up the stairs. Husk rolls his eyes as he passes me in the bedroom doorway saying "Alastor, what I can I do for you?" I close the door behind me and get changed slowly to give them some privacy. The privacy doesn't last long when I hear Husk calling my name.

I roll off the bed and walk back downstairs feeling like I was just the topic of conversation.. With the way they were both staring at me as I walked down the stairs my suspicions were confirmed. Alastor glances at Husk nodding before looking back at me and saying "Ella, Darling, just the person I was hoping to catch.. earlier. Can we continue our conversation now?" Alastor asks.

I respond "Our conversation was you asking me how I got a couple of bumps and bruises, hardly a meaningful one." Alastors smile grows and he says "It was the lead up to a more important conversation, to see perhaps, if you were capable of accepting a challenge." I hop up on the dining room table, pick my coffee cup back up and take a sip of my coffee as I wait for further explanations. I lower my cup, lick my lips and look back at him.. still unspeaking. He rolls his eyes and says "I would like you to track someone down for me"

I hand Husk my empty cup and flash Husk 3 fingers, pointing to the frying pan, he refills my cup for me as he starts breakfast. I reply with "You've been here longer than me. You are more powerful than I am. Why would you need me to track someone down for you?" Alastor says plainly "He's amphibious" and I reply with "What's in it for me?" Alastor laughs joyfully at the prospect of a deal. "I can take you under my wing and make sure whatever THAT was" as he waves at my injuries "Never happens again." I can hear Husk stirring my coffee so I hop down and walk over to the stove, taking the coffee and stirring the breakfast. "No" I respond. "What?" Alastor says in his radio voice.

I removed a piece of food from the pan to test it, knowing it was still too cold, but I needed not to look at Alastor as I responded because saying no to him has just sent my survival instincts into overdrive. "It's too vague and leaves too many variables." Alastor looks pleased. "Addendum?" I take a sip of coffee and say "I agree to search every lake once. Whether I find him or not my part of the deal is done. You give me 3 months of teaching if I fail to find him. A year if I succeed and bring him to you."

"Why am I teaching you if you fail?" Alastor asks. I reach for the plates as I say "I'm sure finding your my own target, your own self, in one of 11 under water environments, will take no EFFORT at all." and start serving the breakfast onto 3 plates, putting one down in front of him and walking away with the two others and my coffee.

He looks down at the plate seemingly shocked for a moment at the forethought. Husk is already sitting on the table as I approach. Alastor walks to the table behind me to see a cup of black coffee out for him at an empty seat. He takes a seat, sets his food down, looks up at me and says "You really do think of everything don't you?" and I respond with "Do we have a deal?" and Alastor scoffs, quietly amused and says in a menacing voice "Yes"

Fuck.. I didn't think about that part. I look at Alastor, pull his collar, and he caresses my chin looking down at my lips and leans in to kiss me.. a flash of my slapping Husk when I saw exactly this moment comes flooding back.. as I let Alastor kiss me.. right in front of Husk.. who is already jealous.. and now he's watching it happen at his very own breakfast table.. while we all share a meal together.. It looks like it's not ME who thinks of everything.

The kiss ends as purple smoke swirls around us sealing the deal. "Congratulations." Alastor says "You've just made a deal that benefits you greatly with one of the most feared demons in all of Hell.. in your first week no less." I let go of his collar, smile understanding that this was exactly his expected outcome.. and we eat our breakfast in silence.

As I finish my plate I go to stand up, Alastor wipes his mouth, stands up with me and says "Husker, Ella" as he nods "Thank you for the lovely breakfast, and Company.. but I simply MUST be going." He focuses his attention on me "Ella, I will see you at the tavern tonight, come by after Peaches goes to bed, I'll keep the light on for you, we can hash out the details, then." He sees the annoyance on Husks face and picks up his dishes and says "Where are my manners? Here I'll follow you to the kitchen."

Once our hands are free he places his hand on the small of my back and says "Walk me to the door, won't you dear?" I do as he requests and he slides his hand from my back to my elbow and down my arm, holding my hand, bending down and gently kissing it. He looks back up at me and says "See you tonight" and glances back at Husk before disappearing into the shadows.

I look back at Husk and say "I mean.. I won't ever have to tell you about that?" He chuckles, "Somehow.. I feel like this was worse." Husk clears his own plate. "You just kissed him and committed to spending more than a year with him in front of me. Starting with searching all the lakes in Limbo while having him as your personal escort & teacher." I sit down coming to grips with that realization as well.

Well played Alastor.