Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nathan Freeling was a mess.

He had barely any money left, hadn’t called his family in a year, had no friends, no job, and was quickly running out of options. Perhaps this is what spurred him to, in some fear fueled delusion, accept a haunted hotel from a cloaked figure. He had hoped it would ease at least some of his problems.

Of course, it did not.

Now he just had a haunted hotel to take care of on top of everything. Something which has proven to be quite difficult. With every repair he made, it felt like something new broke and, though he’d hate to admit it, the ghosts were becoming incredibly tiring to deal with. Not to mention the whole thing had turned out to be a giant financial drain. Nathan had already dumped more money than he had available into the damned hotel and it wasn’t even open yet.

After only the first month Nathan realized how terribly he needed a break from the hotel. All the stress and work had left him so fatigued he figured there wasn’t going to be getting much done that day anyways. 

Wanting to leave the hotel but having nowhere to go, Nathan decided to finally explore the woods around the property. At least this way he could pretend he was being productive.

He had only been walking for a few minutes before he was interrupted though. A faint, almost inaudible noise came from in front of him, like rocks bumping against each other. It was a steady rhythmic sound, too consistent to be coming from an animal. 

Maybe exploring a potentially very haunted forest alone wasn’t a good idea. Nathan thought as he hesitantly approached the noise. He didn’t find any monster or ghoul though, instead he found a very strange looking boy playing with rocks in a ditch. 

At first Nathan assumed the kid was a ghost. He was wearing tattered clothes straight out of the 18th century and looked so sickly and pale it felt more than possible. But he couldn’t be, he was just holding onto rocks a few moments ago. He was fully corporeal.

Nathan’s apprehension quickly turned to pity. Poor thing probably got lost in the woods somehow. He extended his hand out to help the boy up and tried for a reassuring smile. “Hey bud, let’s get you out of there, alright?

Much to Nathan’s delight, the boy returned the smile and, after some hesitation, took his hand. Nathan pulled him up and out of the ditch easily. He was incredibly light, something which only added to Nathan’s growing concern. 

He crouched down to be eye level with the child. “What are you doing all the way out here, buddy? Are you lost?” 

The kid straightened his posture so he was at his full height (which really wasn’t much) and said in a surprisingly deadpan voice. “I was trapped within that earthen prison and I thank you now for freeing me. I am not lost though.”

Nathan was taken aback, he couldn’t be more than eight (and even that was pushing it), yet he spoke with a deep, confident voice, sounding like a much older man. Shaking off his confusion, Nathan continued. It was probably nothing anyways. “Well, how about I get you back to your parents. They’re probably worried about you by now.”

“I do not have parents,” he deadpanned again and Nathan felt his heart pinch. 

“Then who’s been taking care of you, bud?” He asked, gently resting his hand on the boy’s shoulder in a way he hoped was reassuring. The kid immediately brushed off his hand.

When he next spoke his tone sounded offended and his face was scrunched up angrily. “There is no one taking care of me! I am the cobra king, the dark prince, accursed angel, harbinger of chaos, I am older than the very ground on which we stand!” He paused to breathe. “I do not need a caretaker.”

“Umm,” Alright so he’s a bit imaginative, that’s fine. He still needed help. “Well… How about you come with me back to my hotel, alright? I’ll call someone to help you out and I could fix you up something to eat if you're hungry.”

“You’re the new owner of the hotel?” Nathan nodded and the boy seemed to consider this for a moment. Finally, he slowly nodded. “That would suffice.”

“Awesome!” Nathan said with a bright smile. He offered the boy his hand which he took, allowing Nathsn to lead him back to the hotel. “You know, I don’t think we ever properly introduced ourselves! I’m Nathan. You are…?”

“I am Abaddon,” he said proudly.

~~~

Abaddon watched Nathan intently, attempting to gauge his intentions. It wasn’t necessarily uncommon for a mortal to assume he was human but it had been a few years since one had felt righteous enough to “help” him. If that was what he was trying to do. Abaddon still wasn’t certain Nathan wasn’t just trying to kidnap him.

The mustached mortal was attempting to ask him questions but the demon just continued to watch him. Abaddon has never been particularly good at human emotion, but he could tell the mortal in front of him was getting uncomfortable with the staring. Good. 

It wasn’t his goal to unnerve Nathan per se, but he did like knowing he could still scare someone. At least, sort of. In truth he didn’t really know why he had agreed. These things always end the same way: the mortal finds out the truth of his nature and proceeds to spend the rest of their miserable time on the property trying to get rid of him. At first it was entertaining enough, but one can only escape so many bindings before it just becomes unpleasant. 

Perhaps he was trailing along for the promise of food or the new target for his mischief or, most likely, the ditch had simply grown to be boring.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long to get to the hotel. Nathan jogged ahead a little bit when they were close, leaving Abaddon rather confused. Once he got to the doors though, he opened them grandly and turned back to Abaddon with a smile. “Welcome to the Undervale Hotel!”

Abaddon tilted his head and looked up at the building. It really hadn’t changed much since he last saw it, at most it just looked a bit more worn down now. Abaddon had always liked the hotel though, it was easy to break into and the complex ventilation system combined with a hectic floor plan made it easy to hide inside. The prison always had too much security for him to sneak inside and, though he enjoyed tormenting the patients, the asylums were too inhospitable for him to stay for longer than a few hours at a time. Abaddon gave an approving nod and walked inside, Nathan following shortly after.

Inside there was a group of three ghosts walking though the lobby. They recognized the demon and started snickering when they saw him standing there. One ghost - who Abaddon recognized as a previous hotel owner - even gave Nathan a pitying look. Abaddon had never liked that one. He glared at them all for daring to disrespect such a powerful being but was ignored.

Nathan jumped in front of him when the ghosts exited through a wall, trying to block him from seeing it. He was unsuccessful of course, but Abaddon let him think otherwise. He didn’t care to explain why he was already familiar with the ghosts anyways. 

“Uh- sorry about that Abaddon.” Nathan tried to laugh it off. “Hey, why don’t you go wait over where those chairs are and I’ll fetch you something to eat?”

Abaddon inspected the space before nodding. “Very well.”

~~~

Nathan took a deep breath through his noise, he hadn’t planned to get a child out of his “break”. This would be fine though, he just had to take care of him until he figured out a more permanent solution. He could do that. 

And the first step was getting food. 

Nathan rummaged through the kitchen cabinets. There really wasn’t a lot available. He’d been surviving off fast food and microwave meals like some college kid the last month. The poor boy deserved something a bit more nutritious than that, though.

After a few minutes he was able to scavenge together a plain tuna sandwich and some BBQ chips. Throwing it all on a plate and grabbing a glass of water, Nathan started heading back towards the lobby - slowly, so as not to spill anything. 

Before he left though, the three ghosts from earlier entered the kitchen. They were talking lightly amongst themselves, completely ignoring Nathan. Still upset from earlier, he decided to confront them.

“Ghosts! I’ve asked you before not to haunt the lobby. Not to mention, this time there was a kid with me! You could’ve scared him!” He whisper-yelled, setting the plate and glass down on the table as he stormed over to them. 

The ghosts looked between each other, then burst out in laughter. 

Offended, Nathan tried to defend himself. “Hey, this isn’t something to laugh about, alright?” He was ignored. “Whatever…” 

He was going to leave the room but one ghost finally took pity on him and stopped laughing. “The thing is, Abaddon’s not a kid.” She explained.

Nathan stopped, looking at her quizzically. “He looks like a kid to me.”

“But he’s not. The thing you’ve brought in here is a demon. He might look like an innocent boy but trust me he’s far from it.”

Another ghost chimed in. “Oh yeah, he’s been lurking around this area for centuries. Older than most ghosts I’d bet.”

“Like, metaphorical demon or..?” Nathan trailed off. The ghosts didn’t rely but the look they gave him made him think it was, in fact, not metaphorical. 

Nathan pursed his lips. He did look so much like a kid. A kid that needed help. But.. he was also undeniably odd. Nathan looked at the food he set up, at the door which led to the supposed demon, then at the ghosts who had resumed their talking. He sighed deeply, because he knew what he would inevitably decide and he knew that he could very well regret it.

Grabbing the plate and the glass of water, Nathan walked back into the lobby.

Chapter Text

Nathan had prepared himself for a number of things in the short walk back to the lobby. If he was going to believe the ghosts and trust that Abaddon was in fact a demon (something he still wasn’t sure on), he assumed he’d be coming back to some level of mayhem. What he actually found was even worse. 

An empty room, with no supposed demon in sight. 

Nathan walked over to the seating area - which consisted of a coffee table, two armchairs, and a sofa - and set Abaddon’s plate down. Looking around he began to call for the demon. “Abaddon? Bud? Where are you?” No reply.

Despite reason, worry started to sprout inside Nathan. What if he got lost in the hotel? What if he wandered into an especially haunted room? What if Jessica attacked him? What if he had been scared by the ghosts? What if he just decided to go back to the woods?

Nathan was about one more worrying thought away from full blown panic when he heard the sound of something scurrying behind him. Flipping around with a not very manly yelp, he came face to face with the demon child himself. 

Abaddon had snuck up behind him and was now standing uncomfortably close, staring at him with a disappointed expression. “You do not appear to have any food on your person.”

“I- what? Why would I…? Oh. I set it over there,” Nathan pointed towards the seating area. 

Abaddon nodded sharply and scurried over, Nathan following close behind. He watched as the demon child perched on the sofa like a gargoyle, his knees brought up to his chest as he precariously balanced on the balls of his feet. He sniffed the offered food and eyed it suspiciously. “It’s not poisoned,” Nathan tried to reassure, but the demon just scoffed in response. “Where were you anyways?”

“Vents,” Abaddon replied like it explained everything. 

“Right… And why were you in the vents again?” Nathan asked as it did in fact not explain anything.

“Why are you questioning me?” The boy’s words were curt and angry. That didn’t bother Nathan - he was more than capable of handling an angry child - it was his eyes that bothered him. They flashed a bright, fiery red, so inhuman it forced Nathan to confront that this wasn’t just an angry child. 

Abaddon seemed satisfied and turned back to the sandwich, apparently taking Nathan’s expression to mean he had successfully scared the mortal. Luckily, he looked to have finally decided the food was, in fact, edible and started to scarf down the food like some starved animal. It was frankly disgusting and he got tuna mush all over his face but it was also strangely endearing. Nathan couldn’t help but chuckle at the childish display. He really didn’t know what to make of this kid. 

Nathan sighed, he was going to have to address what the ghosts said eventually. Might as well get it over with. “You’re…” The kid looked up at him cautiously, like he already knew what he was going to ask and wasn’t happy about it. Nathan hesitated but continued regardless. “What are you?” 

The boy seemed to bristle at that and narrowed his eyes at the man. “I am Abaddon. I am a demon.”

Nathan winced at the confirmation. It honestly made more sense than there just being a strangely mature boy dressed like a pilgrim living in the woods and it probably isn’t even the worst thing he’d find at the hotel. Nevertheless, it still shocked him. It also made the whole situation a lot more difficult. 

“I’m guessing I can’t just go to the police about finding a demon, then?” He asked, mostly to himself, as that had been his plan previously. 

To his surprise, Abaddon actually answered. “No, last time someone tried that I simply hid until they left.” He paused. “I assume you would like me to leave now that you know of my nature?”

“What? No! Of course not,” Nathan was quick to stammer out. “You can stay here as long as you’d like.” 

The demon child looked at him, fairly amused. “That is very foolish of you.”

“Well, I disagree. I mean everyone deserves a bit of kindness, don’t you think?” 

“No.”

Probably should’ve expected that. “Hmm. We’ll work on that.” The man said, then realized something. “You know if you are a demon, how come you look like that?” Nathan asked, praying that was an okay thing to say and he didn’t just offend Abaddon. 

Abaddon didn’t respond immediately but Nathan could see him tense slightly. He finished eating and chugged the water down in one gulp before finally standing up in the chair so he could look down at the man. “This is not what I look like! This is merely a vessel. Many years ago I was bound to it. But make no mistake, I am still a powerful demon! I could tear you limb from limb should you dare cross me!” 

Nathan just laughed, the poor kid was clearly trying to be intimidating but it just fell through. “Bud… I had to help you out of a hole a few minutes ago.” 

“The dirt was slippery!” Abaddon protested, stamping his foot and crossing his arms to emphasize his point. His eyes had returned to that fiery red and he was staring daggers at Nathan.

“Sure, bud. Sorry for undermining you,” Nathan replied and Abaddon considered him for a moment, presumably trying to figure out the sincerity of his statement. He must’ve come to some sort of conclusion as he ended up hopping down from the chair and walking away.

This took Nathan by surprise and he had to fumble to get out of his chair and jog after Abaddon. “Woah, Abaddon, where are you going?” 

“Vents,” he said blankly. 

“I don’t know if that’s safe, bud. Those things really aren’t made for people to climb inside,” Nathan said, resting his hand on Abaddon’s shoulder both to show he was serious and to make sure the kid was actually paying attention to him. Much to his surprise Abaddon allowed it, even if he didn’t necessarily seem happy about it. The touch made Nathan realize something he had been willfully ignorant towards previously, though. 

Abaddon really needed a bath. 

His hair was matted and greasy, his skin caked in mud and something that looked too much like blood, and his clothes were close to tatters. 

“You know what you could do instead?” Nathan said cheerfully, trying to steer him away from the vents. “Take a bath!” 

Abaddon did not seem pleased by that. “I do not bathe.” 

“I can tell. Which is not good. Besides, having all that gunk on you can’t be comfortable.” The man could remember times in his life when he might’ve neglected showering simply due to a lack of energy. It really wasn’t pleasant.

The demon in front of him seemed skeptical, eyeing Nathan intently. He clearly didn’t seem comfortable with the idea and started inching closer to the vents. 

“Okay, okay so no. That’s fine.” Nathan was quick to say, holding his hands up in surrender. He hoped he hadn’t freaked the boy out. “How about a compromise? You can at least go wash your hair, face and hands in the sink. I just really don’t want a child who looks like they just crawled through the trenches of WWI running through my hotel.” 

“I am not a child and there were sadly never any trenches in this area,” Abaddon corrected, not answering the question. 

“Sorry, I misspoke. I don’t want a thousands of years old, extremely powerful demon who is dirty due to none trench related reasons running through my hotel.” The man reiterated. If Abaddon was going to be particular about this, Nathan figured it was probably best to just go along with it.

Abaddon looked pleased with Nathan’s correction and seemed to genuinely consider the offer this time. He nodded slowly, saying “I suppose that would be fine.” 

Nathan smiled brightly. “Awesome! Follow me then!” He stood and started walking back to the kitchen. The young demon trailing behind him curiously. 

Chapter Text

Once again, Abaddon found himself following behind the strange mustached mortal. Though by now he believed he had figured out what exactly made Nathen act like this. He was an idiot. It was the only logical answer, really. If he had a full grasp of the situation surely he would have left Abaddon in the hole. Still, there are much worse traits a human can possess than mere idiocy. Idiocy is harmless - even if frustrating - he could safely allow this one to stay.

Once they got to the kitchen, Nathan grabbed an old towel from the oven door and laid it over the edge of the sink. Then, he pulled a chair from the dining table and pushed it up against the counter, gesturing for Abaddon to climb on. Hesitantly, Abaddon did so, using the back of the chair as a hand rail. He liked how tall it made him. 

“Okay bud, I’m assuming you know what to do from here?” Nathan asked, stepping away slightly. Abaddon nodded and turned back to the sink. He’d seen humans use it plenty of times, and sure it was normally from a distance or whilst someone was screaming but he could still figure it out.

He looked over the contraption before him, from what he remembered there was some sort of lever you had to pull (or was it a button?) and then water came out. Easy enough. The demon reached towards the largest curved piece of mental, the one in the middle, assuming it was of some importance. The only thing it did though was move from one side of the basin to the other. Abaddon frowned and Nathan chuckled behind him. Which only made him frown more. 

“Do you know what to do from here?” The disgustingly cheerful mortal asked, trying and flailing to hide his amusement. 

“I have been trapped on this blasted planet longer than this pathetic mechanism even existed! How dare you question me, you fool!” Abaddon growled, his eyes flashing a deep crimson red.

“Alright, turn it on then,” Nathan replied casually, not deterred by the demon’s outburst. 

Abaddon looked confused. 

“Turn the water on,” He clarified.

“On what?” 

Nathan sighed and walked over to him. “I’ll help ya out bud,” He turned on the sink and adjusted the temperature until it was pleasantly warm. He took Abaddon’s hands and held them under the water.

The demon grimaced and pulled them safely back to his body. “It’s cold.”

Nathan looked at him quizzically. “Feels fine to me. Any hotter and you’d probably burn yourself.”  

“I can not be burned with anything less than the infernal flames of hell,” Abaddon said, like it was common knowledge he should know. 

“Is this… a demon thing then?” He asked and Abaddon nodded silently. “Well if you turn this,” Nathen indicated towards the hot water switch. “It’ll make it hotter. You can adjust it yourself if you’d like.” 

“Hmm,” Abaddon hesitantly reached for the switch Nathan had indicated meant heat. He turned it as far as it would go and put his hand under the water, but there was no noticeable difference. The demon turned to Nathan intending to make his displeasure known. 

Before he could, though, the water started to shift. Slowly, it rose in temperature, shifting from a simple cool to a near boiling heat. Abaddon stared at it wide-eyed, his mouth forming a small “o”. The demon looked at Nathan for some sort of an explanation, but his expression of confusion quickly turned to a glare when he saw the amused smile the man wore. He didn’t need an explanation anyways. 

Eventually the water rose to a temperature Abaddon found acceptable, it burned his hand slightly when he touched it but he didn’t mind. Nathan seemed uncomfortable with it but smartly kept his mouth shut. He instead guided Abaddon’s hands to the soap and squirted some onto his palm. 

The demon sniffed it and, after finding it to smell like cinnamon, tried to eat it. Much to his dismay though, Nathan stopped him, stating that it “Doesn’t taste nearly as good as it smells. Trust me, bud, I tried it,” That earned another glare from Abaddon. He didn’t understand why this mortal was so insistent on what he could and could not do. Abaddon was a lawless being he would do as he pleased. 

Still, he didn’t resist as Nathan helped him wash his hands. Abaddon told himself it couldn’t hurt, and that he’d just kill the man if it did. Of course, this is purposely ignoring the fact he most likely couldn’t beat Nathan in a fight. He didn’t want to acknowledge that, though. 

The mortal explained each step as they went and moved with a slow gentleness most humans lacked. Abaddon wanted to call the whole thing a patronizing mock of his character but in truth he didn’t mind it. Luckily, it didn’t take long to wash off all the muck and Nathan even managed to avoid touching the searing water for the most part.

“Okay bud, I want to try to wash your hair next. You okay with that?” Abaddon narrowed his eyes but nodded. “Thanks. I’m going to need you to sort of bend your head a bit so it can get under the faucet,” Nathan said, partially acting out what he described as he spoke. 

Aboddon nodded and crawled under the faucet entirely, sitting cross-legged in the sink. 

Nathan had to take a moment to process that, which brought Abaddon great satisfaction even if he wasn’t entirely sure why. “I… I meant like…” A heavy sigh. Then, in one breath. “That works, it’s fine, okay, whatever. I should’ve specified more. My bad.” He handed Abaddon a washcloth and instructed him to use it to wash his face. As he did so Nathan started working through his hair. “You know at this point you probably could’ve just showered,” Abaddon didn’t dignify that with a response. 

Nathan didn’t push it, instead he started to pick out anything that had gotten tangled in the demon’s hair. By the time he was finished a small pile of sticks, leaves, dead bugs and bones (which Abaddon quickly grabbed and shoved in his pockets) had accumulated on the counter and the water in the sink basin was stained an ugly brown.

He then moved on to working out all the mats and knots. As he worked Nathan was reminded faintly of his sister. He had on occasion helped her with her hair when they were both young. Now, of course, that was a long time ago, and her hair was never nearly this bad but Nathan still felt comfort in the familiar nostalgia of it.

It quickly became apparent though this wasn’t going to work. The mats made up most of his hair and were refusing to budge. “Hey, Abaddon, when was the last time you washed your hair again? Or even just brushed it?”

Abaddon had to think for a moment before replying. Not a good sign.“About… 1950? Around that.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s not… good,” Nathan sighed. “How does this not bother you?”

Abaddon just shrugged. Truthfully it did bother him. Well, at least to the same extent anything did. He could live with hunger, with pain, with discomfort. The constant itchy greasiness and pull on his scalp were far from pleasant, but it won’t kill him, and an easy solution never presented itself. So he would live with it. Allow it to become just another fault in his already terrible body. 

“We’ll probably have to go to a professional for this, bud,” Nathan said, which earned a scowl from Abaddon. He didn’t want to have to deal with another human. 

“I do not wish to go anywhere,” The demon replied, his tone indicating this wasn’t something he was going to change his mind about.

“Well, I’m not sure what to do here then. I mean, I suppose we could cut it off. Would you mind that?” Nathan asked. 

“My hair will return almost immediately to the length the vessel left it,” Said Abaddon.

“So… no?”

“... Fine,”

Nathan took that as his cue to start and began to rather haphazardly cut at the demon’s hair. It didn’t take long for him to finish and when he did it looked… like shit. But hey, it would work for the feral child until it grew back.

“Alright, bud, I think I’ve held you here long enough,” Nathan turned off the sink and hefted Abaddon out. He was still completely soaked, his remaining hair stuck to his face and his clothes dripping into a small puddle at his feet. 

The demon ran his hand through his hair for the first time in a while. It felt surprisingly soft and the normal pain in his scalp had left. He smiled slightly but didn’t want to say anything, not wanting the mortal to think he actually appreciated it. Nathan picked up on it though and smiled, before handing Abaddon a towel.

Abaddon looked at it blankly, then up towards Nathan, then back towards the towel. “What is this?”

“A towel? You use it to help you dry off,” Nathan explained, his tone curious. Had he really never seen a towel before?

“Would I not naturally dry myself? With time and air and heat? What’s the point of an extra step?” Abaddon asked like Nathan was the weird one.

“Well, this just takes less time.” 

Abaddon scowled at that. “I am immortal. I have all the time in the world, why would I care about a few minutes?”

The man sighed. “Look, bud, if you want to be soaking wet and probably end up catching a cold, I wouldn’t stop you, but I also don’t want you getting water all over the hotel.” 

Abaddon seemed to consider this for a moment, before he turned around and ran into the nearest vent. Probably off to get water everywhere.

Chapter Text

For the next two days the only thing Nathan saw of the demon were a stray set of eyes staring from the vents. However, he did find traces of him scattered outside as well; mostly consisting of dead animals, sigils carved into things, missing food and a few tiny footsteps he had to mop up. 

Nathan knew Abaddon was a demon much older than he was, one who had survived just fine for the past three-hundred years, but he still worried about the little guy. Why was he avoiding Nathan anyways? He thought their interactions that first day went smoothly enough. Had he angered Abaddon somehow? 

On the third day Nathan finally saw Abaddon again. He had just trudged into the kitchen to get himself a snack when he saw Abaddon standing on the counter and looking through the cabinets. True to his word his hair had already grown back entirely, though now much more clean. 

Upon seeing Nathan, the feral demon boy jumped down from the counter and pointed at him. “You! Mortal! We have no more food! Do you plan for me to starve like this?” He exclaimed angrily, stomping his foot and glaring daggers at the man. 

“Oh, right! Sorry bud,” Nathan winced slightly. “I've been meaning to go grocery shopping. I’ll head out later today, don’t worry about it Abaddon.”

Abaddon seemed to accept this, softening his glare from accusatory hatred to mere annoyance. Baby steps. 

“You know, I haven’t seen you in a hot minute. Where have you been? I didn’t anger you the other day, did I? Sorry if so, that wasn’t my intent,” Nathan said, he really didn’t want Abaddon to hate him already.

Abaddon looked confused. “Did you expect me to linger around you?”

“Well-” Did he? Truthfully, he had assumed the demon would seek out some kind of friendly relationship with him. At least something more than simple acquaintances. The woods were lonely, right? Apparently not. 

Nathan had also assumed Abaddon would require assistance in things, he may be a demon but he acted like a child (albeit a very strange, self aware one) and he had the body of one. Nathan had hoped, perhaps selfishly, that he would be needed by the boy. That way he wouldn’t have to pretend his life was meaningful, it just would be. He could have an immediate purpose. Something he could look at and pursue instead of just a distant future he had to put effort into imaging. 

He must’ve been taking too long to answer as Abaddon scoffed in disappointment. “Please make it a priority to replenish the food stores.” With that he walked off. Nathan slouched, feeling a familiar sadness burrow itself into his gut.

Good God, how pathetic was he? So distraught over the feral demon he found in the woods not liking him?

~~~

Later that day (after he had gotten the requested groceries) Nathan attempted to remount a light to the ceiling. He honestly wasn’t sure how it had fallen - it had been like that since before he got there - and he didn’t really care. It was broken, needed fixing and he couldn’t afford a professional so now he had to fix it. That’s all he really needed to know. 

He was fairly certain he’d fixed the electrical part correctly (he hadn’t been electrocuted at least) and he just needed to screw it onto the ceiling and be done. Nathan climbed onto a ladder, ignoring how its legs sunk into the worn carpet and temporarily shifted the balance. 

He held the light with one hand and used the other to screw the screw with a screwdriver (I hate construction naming convections. I tried to make it sound nice. I gave up). When he reached for the second screw, though, instead of the small box he had expected he was met with two pale blue eyes. The sight made Nathan jump, nearly falling off the ladder. Luckily, he was able to correct himself in time and stared wide eyed at the boy responsible. 

Abaddon chuckled to himself before looking down to admire the screws he snatched. He picked one out of the box and brought it up to his face to be examined. His smile widened into a twisted thing as he began mumbling to himself. Something about the grooves adding to the gore.

“Abaddon! You scared me, little buddy!” Nathan took a moment to compose himself. “Gosh, don’t do that again, alright?”

Abaddon just gave him an unimpressed look. 

“Alright… Is there a reason you’re here?” Nathan asked before quickly adding. “Not that I mind or anything. Just… y’know… didn’t think you liked me very much.”

“I wanted to see if you would fall,” Abaddon said, like that was completely obvious. “Also… the noise is quite pleasing.”

“The noise from the drill?” A nod. “Well, at least one of us likes it then. Can you hand the screws back now, please?” Nathan tried and, unsurprising, was met with resistance. 

Abaddon narrowed his eyes and moved the box of screws behind him, attempting to protect his new treasure with his body. “No! They are mine now!”

The man sighed. This really wasn’t something he wanted to deal with, especially when he had finally just mustered up the motivation to continue fixing up the hotel. He’d been staying here for over a month and it still wasn’t even open yet.

“Please Abaddon, I need them to fix the light,” Nathan tried to reason, but it was clear from the look in his eye that Abaddon wasn’t going to budge so easily. 

“Why should I care whether or not a light is fixed?” He countered.

“Well if I can fix the light, I can finish setting up this room, which gets me one step closer to opening the hotel, which would mean guests, which means more money I could use to buy whatever snacks your little heart could possibly want.”  

Abaddon seemed to think this over, then, hesitantly, he handed back over the screws. “Very well… but! You must hold up your end of the deal,” The small demon glared at Nathan in what was likely an attempt at intimidation, his eyes turning a bright red. 

“Of course! I wouldn’t go back on you, bud,” Nathan tried to seem sincere but he could tell Abaddon was still skeptical. 

Abaddon chose to sit down as he watched Nathan continue working on the light: dropping to the floor, pulling his legs up and resting his chin on his knees. Nathan pretended not to notice the demon's eyes boring into him. 

He noticed Abbadon did that a lot. Watching silently. He did it first when Nathan brought him in from the woods, then again when he took him into the kitchen, and it wasn’t rare for Nathan to glimpse two eyes stalking him from the vents. 

At first Nathan wasn’t sure why and it had unnerved him. He's realized since that the boy just wanted to understand him, more specifically if he was a prey or predator. Nathan felt bad for the small demon, but wasn't sure how to tell him he was a friend when Abaddon so rarely wanted to be around him to begin with. 

It didn’t take long for Nathan to finish with the light and he was able to safely get down from the ladder (much to Abaddon’s disappointment). He walked over to the light switch and flicked it on, holding his breath as he waited. 

Sure enough, the light turned on. “Hah! Look at that! Got a full blown electrician over here, bud,” Nathan spoke proudly, his hands on his hips. The small demon looked up at the light with a blank expression. Well… at least he doesn't necessarily seem to   disapprove. 

“Actually…” Nathan thought for a moment. “You know what, dud? I just had a great idea!” The man spoke with a bright smile, earning a look of confusion from Abaddon. “You should help out with renovating the hotel! You could be the first employee, wouldn’t that be fun?” 

Abaddon shook his head with a frown. 

“Well, I think it would be fun. Just give it a shot, alright?” The small demon continued to scowl at Nathan but didn’t protest. Nathan took that as a yes. “Awesome, follow me!” With that he turned, trusting Abaddon to listen. The quiet patter of his feet working as a confirmation. 

Nathan smiled when he heard it. Admittedly, he hadn’t been certain Abaddon would agree, or even bother to listen in the first place for that matter. This would be good though, he could use the help and this way he might finally get to spend some time with the little guy.

Nathan knew realistically that trying to befriend a demon was probably a bad idea, but it’s just nice to have another person around who wasn’t already dead. His life was already such a mess anyways, how much more could a demon really do? 

After a quick stop at the supply closet, the two went into a new guest room. Nathan explained what the plan of action was. He was going to clean the sheets, rearrange any furniture that needed it, and clean up any mysterious blood stains. Abaddon just had to dust. Nathan figured that would be simple enough to start; if the demon proved himself to be good at it Nathan would let him do something a bit more difficult.

Nathan pulled a wet wipe from its container, and handed the rest to Abaddon. “Alright, so it’s pretty simple really. You just take the wet wipe and clean off anywhere with dust,” As he spoke Nathan acted out what he was saying, wiping down the dresser and grimacing when it came back a dark gray from the caked on dust. “Anyways, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Just make sure you get all the little crevices and handles and just like… anywhere you see dust, remove the dust. You got that, bud?”

Abaddon nodded, albeit hesitantly, and walked over to the dresser. He sniffed it curiously, but pulled back sharply when he accidentally inhaled some of the dust. “I will destroy every last particle of dust that dared to rest on my domain!”

“That’s… that’s great bud,” Nathan said with a thumbs up and slightly forced smile. Whatever, he’s helping out, that's all that really matters. So what if his descriptions just so happen to be a bit violent. 

Nathan threw away his wet wipe and set about doing his allotted chores. When he looked back at the demon though, he noticed that he… wasn’t doing anything. He was just staring at the wet wipes - which were now on the ground - with an ugly scowl as if they had personally offended him. 

“Um… bud? You okay over there?” Nathan asked hesitantly. 

Abaddon snapped his head up and looked at Nathan with an unnerving intensity. “They burn my nose like acid. Was this a ploy to poison me?” He asked, his tone aggressive and accusatory, his eyes a smoldering red.

“What? No, of course not,” Nathan was quick to reply. Walking over to the discarded wet wipes and picking them up. “I don’t get what… Oh, is it the chemical smell?” Abaddon kept up a guarded expression, but Nathan noticed a brief flash of confusion on his face. 

“The chemicals? They help kill germs and stuff. They keep things clean. This is also scented so… that’s probably not helping anything,” Nathan spoke in an almost mumbling sort of way, and inspected the package of wet wipes passively as he did so. “Gosh, sorry about this Abaddon. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

“So it was your idiocy which caused my suffering?” Abaddon asked in a way that really wasn’t a question.

Nathan spluttered. “Okay, that’s unnecessary! I didn’t mean to,” He sighed. “Look I’m sorry, I’ll find a different task for you if you’d like?”

Abaddon scoffed and shook his head. “That is not needed,” with that he turned and left the room. A familiar hollowness replacing him.

The room felt impossibly quiet when his footsteps finally faded. It wasn’t like the demon made much noise, but his heart beat, his breath came slow and consistent, and heat expelled itself from his body. Abaddon was there. Entirely present. When he wasn’t all that was left was the quiet of solitude. Suffocating, imposing, controlling, painfully deafening, and innately inhuman. 

Nathan knew it well.

But still,

it hurt.