Work Text:
If you asked Wilford how the early morning meeting was going he'd say it was perfect. Fun, entertaining ideas were flung back and forth, thoughts on possible new shows were suggested and the air was physically vibrating from the enthusiasm that the pink journalist and Bim brought to the table. Their combined energy seemed to rub off on some of the others as well, with even the Doc and Host interjecting with pointers on how to refine some ideas.
However, if everything was going so well then why did Dark look so displeased? Shadows clung tight to the entity, a rigid hand partially covering his face while the other strummed an agitated rhythm on the table top with tense fingers.
"Dark?" Wilford raised a brow at his partner. "You alright there?"
At that the voices of debate died down to allow their grey leader to talk.
"I'm just wondering that perhaps you've forgotten to include something in these plans." The finger drumming stopped. He looked across the table and to his disappointment he saw a little too many confused faces. Even Wil digging his fingers into cotton candy hair utterly baffled had lost its charm.
"Seriously, not one of you?"
The air of helpless silence was unacceptable. Dark pushed himself up from his chair, his breaking aura an extension of his looming form.
"These ideas are all well and good, but what do we gain from them beside all of you living out your fun little fantasies?"
Dark could already see the offended frown growing on Wilford's face which only made him snarl in return. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his partner's feelings.
"All I'm asking is; where is the ulterior motive? Where are our plans against Mark? Where does us taking over control come in to play? For months I have indulged in all your new shows and odd requests, signing papers, accepting and declining just enough to satiate all of your creative cravings." As much as the demon tried to remain calm before his fellow egos, he couldn't hide the angry strain in his layered voice, or the way his hand gestures got wide and sweeping.
"And you can keep your fun, I'm not here to take away any of that. But if this is how our meetings will continue to be, without making any attempt or thought towards going against Mark in some way, then I'm better off staying in my office and sign your papers like the fucking Executive Producer and Entertainment Manager I've become!" A violent flash of blue and red punctuated his statement like the simmering fiery-icy fury it was.
A mix of silent shock and winces of guilt ridden fear washed over the room. Wilford, always the first to find his words, rushed towards Dark with a friendly hand reached out for comfort. "Now now, Darky-"
An irritated growl managed to silence Wil in his step. "Not now, Warfstache! You are no help right now."
The demon gave an irked tug on his blazer. "If you'll excuse me..." he mumbled, and with that he ripped open the door and left.
There was a pause. The events slowly sunk in as the dust settled.
Then Wilford's first reaction was to reach for his gun. He didn't hear the others clamber to either stop him or get out of his shooting range over his irrationality.
Did Dark just... did the love of his life...
"Did he just fucking 'Warfstache' me?!"
It took some time for Wilford to calm down. He then went through Dark's tirade in his head and came to a sad realisation.
"I fucked up."
"Noooo, no you didn't!" Bim stepped in with a nervous look. He meekly clasped a hand on his pink boss' shoulder and pushed him down to take a seat. "Don't take it personally. He's angry at all of us."
The gameshow host looked up at the others around the table. "Right guys?"
Wil didn't wait for the half-hearted collective murmurs of agreement as he waved his hands in denial.
"Shut up, shut up you. Can'tcha see that Darkipoo is right?" he asked defeated. Elbows propped up on the table, Wil rested his head in his hands. Fingers slightly smooshed his face that made his pout more prominent, a few tussled pink locks falling in his face made the pitiful picture complete.
"I've gotten all tangled up in trying to make a banging hootenanny of a show... I ignored what Dark wants."
"Wilford," Dr. Iplier spoke up, "I think everyone would agree that all of us made that fault." A few nods followed from the others.
"Not exactly all of us," Google rolled his eyes, only half listening to the conversation while he was idly tapping on his projected screen. Clearly the search engine had better things to do. "However I do suggest actually coming up with plans first, in order to avoid a confrontation like that the next meeting, and adding 'flourish' second."
"Yes! And Dark did say he has no problem with our ideas being fun... as long as they stay on task." Bim agreed and offered Wilford a hopeful smile in order to cheer him up.
As much as the pink ego wanted to stubbornly hold onto his pout, Bim's playful insistent look and unsettlingly growing toothy grin achieved in cracking a very badly supressed smile.
"Okay, okay, fiiiiine. I guess we have some work to do." The chipper energy quickly returned to Wilford, already skipping out of his seat and pulling on a strap of suspender to occupy his hands.
"Why the heck are you all still sitting around? Meeting's been over since Darky stormed off. Shoo, shoo, you too Host, I don't give a damn that you're blind, speed up. Go on, shoo."
With everyone herded out of the meeting room, Wilford hung back in there for a few moments. He was going to come up with the best ideas to make Dark happy.
Still, there was an entire week until the next meeting. On his way out Wil was already formulating a way how to apologise to his lovely demon.
--
In a gloomy office where only the bare minimum of light was allowed, as expected, Dark sat hunched over his fine wooden desk. Hair a tangled mess in his face, the air around him and the way he held himself was oppressive. The entity drowned himself in the piles paperwork before him. Anything to distract himself from how uncomfortable the inhabited body grew after he left the meeting behind, how his bones needed forceful encouragement to snap back in place every half an hour or so. How in the pit of this mangled corpse a flame of guilt sparked as soon as he lashed out at Wilford and it was growing ever since.
Focusing on work was hard when Dark knew he all but insulted his pink murder psycho's ideas which were presented with so much excitement and joy, and in extension he insulted the man himself. The demon was still half expecting Wil to barge through the door any minute, waving his gun and threatening a bullet in his skull.
Black eyes fixated on the colors of his shadowy aura reflecting on a document requesting medical tools for Iplier's infirmary. If he would just blink maybe he'd go back to work...
A walk was in order, Dark decided and stood with finality. As right a demon was during a meeting to reprimand a group of easily distracted egos even that demon needed some head clearing from time to time. He'd deal with it - and especially his dear Wil - later.
The broken entity made a few rounds through the building, looking in sometimes to check on what the egos were doing - no sign of Wilford - before he returned back to his office. Dark was about ready to delve back into another few hours of reading and signing papers when something caught his attention on his desk that wasn't there before.
Laying on the dark table top, illuminated by only the soft reds and blues emanating from his being, was a single white tulip. Grey fingers reached to pick the flower up, to notice a note attached to it.
Dark saw the easily recognisable ostentatious handwriting of a certain pink themed man that simply read 'I'm sorry' and a small doodle of a sad face with a big mustache was drawn in the corner.
A twinge of strong emotions hit Dark right in the chest at the note while his fingers admired the soft feel of the flower. He really did upset Wilford to inspire the madman of such a touching effort to say sorry. How Wil knew that white tulips often meant an apology was beyond Dark.
He put the note away in a drawer for safekeeping, allowing himself a fond smile when his gaze fell on the doodle once again, and on a whim he carefully snapped the stem of the tulip just enough to perfectly fit in the breast pocket of his jacket to wear.
Instead of getting back to work Dark turned around and left his office again. Maybe he could find something to thank his beloved and answer his apology.
Not long after, in the studio things were getting wrapped up for the night. Wilford headed towards his dressing room, leaving Bim and the Jims on clean up duty as usual. In his stride he couldn't help but wonder what Dark was up to and did he like the flower.
Speak of the devil; Wil flung the dressing room's door wide open only to see the fiendish entity standing over the vanity table. An odd expression, at least odd for Dark, found its way on the grey ego's face for being caught snooping around there of all places. In a quick reaction Dark ripped something off from a small piece of paper that rested on the table top and crunched it in his fist. He hastily took a step back, aura wildly lashing out around him.
"Dark!" Wilford brightened up to see his boyfriend before he remembered how they parted earlier that day. The mustached face went through a journey of emotions that in the end settled to shoot a puzzled look at Dark. "What are ya doing in there, buddy-boo?"
Dark's glance darted between Wilford and something on the vanity. Then he visibly collected himself, fixing the cuffs on his blazer to purposefully avoid eye contact.
"I don't think I need to explain myself, you can go see for yourself." The defensive answer came as he swiftly walked past Wil and left the room.
Wilford's sight followed Dark's leaving form, confused and a bit disappointed. Those feelings were quickly replaced by curiosity though.
He stepped closer to the table to find a box of high quality chocolates and a short message of 'Apology accepted' in Dark's neat handwriting. The note had something ripped off at the end but that didn't dampen the surge of happiness as he scooped them up in his hands, bouncing on his feet with extra energy.
"Daaark, get back here you beautiful bastard!"
He ran out to catch up with his demonic love. Dark could hear him bolting in his way and braved to turn back only to have a pink blur smother him in a tight hug and a face full of pink facial hair as he was being kissed with passion. Dark was quick to kiss back and would've looped an arm around Wil's neck if they weren't in the process of getting crushed between Wilford's strong hold.
When they parted, the madman finally loosening the hug, Wil's gaze spotted the tulip decorating Dark's jacket.
"You're wearing my flower," Wilford beamed.
"I hope the chocolates are an adequate gift. I shouldn't have lashed out on you this morning." Dark busied himself by fixing Wil's bowtie to hide any vulnerability. The answer was another tight squeeze that the entity was struggling to breathe from.
"I've already said sorry, you don't have to."
Dark felt relieved at that and hummed in understanding.
"...But say, what did you rip off from your note?" Wilford showed the piece of slightly torn paper.
The entity grit his teeth as he cringed. He was silently hoping Wilford won't notice that. The ripped piece was still in his hand and he subconsciously clenched his fist tighter around it. Wilford noticed that too.
"Gimme, show it, c'mon Darky, pleeeease," Wil attempted to grab for Dark's hand and pry it open but the grey man didn't budge.
"I'd rather not... It's cheesy and embarrassing."
"Now I really wanna see it. It can't be that bad," Wilford persisted like the stubborn man he was. Dark also knew that and as much as he didn't want to it was easier to begrudgingly give in.
He opened his fist and Wil snatched the other half of the note. The only thing on it was a small doodle of a heart.
"Awww that's so cute," Wilford cooed.
"It's really not." The mortification on Dark's features was apparent. He shouldn't have even drawn that thing in the first place.
"Yes it is."
"It's not."
Wilford dove in for another kiss to bring his point across. Dark had no problem with that.