Archive of Our Own

The ritual is, supposedly, a simple one. Just a few drops of blood, a chalk circle on the floor, and an offering. Tonight, the offering is a rabbit from the nearby desert (dead, of course.)

Cellbit finishes drawing the circle and sits back onto his knees, wiping the chalk dust onto his pants. Three in the morning, the witching hour. Perfect time to interrogate a lost soul.

See, it's been weeks since Richarlyson was last possessed by that artist, and that time has been spent waiting for it to happen again. But it hasn't happened, not in a way that Cellbit knows about, at least. And Roier, bless, hasn't been much help; his "therapy session" with Richarlyson more or less ended with Roier escaping out the window with their son while Cellbit was distracted with an "emergency" text conversation with Forever.

It's been weeks of nothing, and Cellbit is kind of getting sick of the waiting. The next time Richarlyson gets possessed, the spirit might not leave, and then what? Then what?

Cellbit needs to know what it is that's haunting his family, and he needs to know now if he wants to be able to prepare at all for the next 'sleepwalking session'.

After consulting briefly with Dapper, he managed to get a hold of a ritual meant to summon a wandering spirit and briefly tie it to the mortal plane. The spell is supposed to last a couple of minutes at most, maybe fifteen, but that's all the time Cellbit needs.

With Richarlyson safely asleep at Forever's base and Roier elsewhere in the castle working on some late-night designs for Bobby's room at Bad's museum, it's the perfect time to get the ritual over with.

Cellbit reaches for Dapper's spell book- borrowed and to be returned sometime after sunrise- and he opens it to the right page, letting out a nervous breath and placing the book in his lap. He thinks that he did everything right, though he didn't have all of the necessary materials. But Dapper seemed sure that missing a few newts' tails will just shorten the time allowed with the spirit, so it should be fine.

Knelt directly in the center of the circle, Cellbit only hesitates a little before starting the ritual with a chant of words he only halfway recognizes. (French, he thinks, which is strange, but not, like. Weird.)

It's all going well and he's maybe three-fourths of the way through the chant when he hears the sound of his husband's voice from the kitchen. Roier is looking for the coffee pot.

"Cellbo?" he calls, and Cellbit's blood freezes because he knows that he can't stop the ritual once it's started. Rituals just don't work like that. "Dónde estás? Do you have it?"

Which, to be fair, Cellbit does have it, it's empty and sitting on top of a book in the corner next to a half-filled mug of cold coffee. But.

But you can hear the ritual room from the kitchen.

Three things happen in quick succession:

1. Roier uses the elevator, appearing in the ritual room in the middle of the circle. He asks, "What the fuck is this!"

2. Cellbit, caught by surprise, stutters over a word. The blood drains from his face, and he immediately moves to push Roier out of the circle.

3. The second he touches his husband, a white light fills the room, blinding the both of them. Cellbit feels Roier grab his shoulders and shove him out of the circle. Cellbit hits the wall, and his head cracks against it hard enough to draw blood.

Cellbit slumps to the ground in a groaning heap, blinking quickly and repeatedly to try and clear the spots from his eyes. The light has faded, leaving the room as dark as it was before, lit only by the cold red lanterns hanging from above and the candles on the walls.

"Roier?" he mutters. His tongue feels clumsy in his mouth, heavy. His eyelids are heavy, too; it's a struggle to keep them open, to stay awake, but he knows that if he closes them he might not open them again before it's too late and he has to force a respawn.

Blurrily, he sees Roier still standing in the middle of the circle. His arms are by his side, and his head is... moving. He's looking around, side to side, and then he faces forward, and there's a quiet gasp as he looks down at his hands.

Hurt, Cellbit's brain snarls, he's hurt.

And that's enough to get him moving. He forces himself to his feet and he staggers across the room, borderline collapsing into his husband's arms. Roier catches him, but just barely, holding him by the armpits with a weird look on his face.

"Are you okay?" Cellbit asks. His words are a little slurred, but he's pretty sure that his point gets across.

Roier doesn't answer. Not for a long, long moment- long enough for Cellbit to start becoming more aware of his surroundings. Roier is hurt: his nose is bleeding, and his eyes look a little more bloodshot than usual. Magical recoil, Cellbit figures.

Slowly, Cellbit raises a hand to cup Roier's cheek. He gently wipes the blood out from under his nose with a thumb.

Almost reverently, Roier removes Cellbit's hand and holds it, his own thumb brushing softly over Cellbit's wedding ring. His eyes are wide, and his mouth is open in a slack-jawed stare. He's clearly in shock.

"I think we might need to lie down," Cellbit says. He tries a laugh and fails, but Roier picks up the laugh for him with an empty smile.

"Lead the way, mi amor," Roier says. His throat is hoarse, his voice a whisper of what it was just a few minutes ago. He presses a kiss to Cellbit's knuckles, hesitant, and... yeah, bed sounds like a pretty great idea.

Cellbit wakes up in the morning to the free fall of a respawn. He gasps himself upright in bed, his hands flying to his head; they come away without any blood on them.

He laughs dryly. Another death in his sleep, great.

Roier is nowhere to be seen. He and Cellbit had fallen asleep together, Cellbit wrapped up tight in his husband's arms purring and Roier softly humming a song that Cellbit had never heard of. And then it was nothingness.

There's humming from the bathroom, actually, now that Cellbit is awake and alive enough to hear it. Same song as before, too, only a bit louder. The shower isn't running, and the door is cracked open just a little. Through the crack, Cellbit can see a sliver of his husband facing the mirror above the sink.

Cellbit yawns and stretches his arms above his head, his back arching and his tail flicking behind him. His ears twitch as Roier turns the sink on.

"Four eyes," he thinks he hears Roier murmur, "interesting."

Four eyes, spider hybrid. Cellbit likes to wake Roier up in the morning by kissing each of his eyelids. It's a little weird that Roier is up first for once, but Cellbit did end up dying in the night from the concussion. Respawning takes time.

Cellbit clambers out of bed and feels the need to stretch again. He's bent over with his hands on the ground when Roier comes out of the bathroom.

Roier wolf whistles appreciatively. Cellbit responds by lifting his head enough to wink, making Roier grin with all of his teeth and blush a nice pink.

"Liking what you see?" Cellbit teases. His tail wiggles above him, stretching itself out (It has a mind of its own, really.)

Roier nods immediately. "Yes. Sí. Very much."

He leans against the wall by the bathroom and watches with his arms crossed across his chest.

He isn't wearing his red hoodie today, Cellbit notices. Instead, he's in what Roier had once described as his 'villain arc hoodie', i.e. the black one he only takes out of the closet when his usual outfit needs washed.

"I like your outfit," Cellbit says, because he likes everything that Roier wears.

Roier blushes again, deeper. "Really?"

Cellbit nods. He stands upright, finishing his stretches, and he walks to the closet to pull out his own clothes for today. When he takes out his black button-up, he holds it up with a smile.

"We can match today!"

Roier makes a squeak of a sound, blinking rapidly. "That's- okay! Yes! I love you!"

Cellbit's smile flickers. What was that reaction?

"I love you, too," he says, because he does and he always will. "I'm going to shower now. Meet you downstairs for breakfast?"

He doesn't wait for a response before grabbing the rest of his clothes and heading to the bathroom. He stops to kiss Roier's cheek before going inside, and he feels a blush of his own appear on his face as Roier squeaks again and leans in quickly to give a kiss to Cellbit's lips.

The bathroom door closes, and Cellbit sees the tub is still filled from when Roier must have taken a bath earlier. Roier's shampoo is still open, and their shared body wash is open and on the floor. There's a hint of pink to the water, but it's probably the body wash; it's strawberry-scented, after all.

Cellbit rolls his eyes fondly and undresses, allowing the water to drain and then turning on the shower head.

He's in the middle of conditioning when he hears the door creeeeeak open.

"Get out of here, chismoso!" he laughs.

"Ay, don't mind me!" Roier protests. "Just grabbing your pajamas!"

And Roier does, Cellbit can see him moving through the shower curtain. Roier's shadow blows him a kiss that Cellbit happily returns, and then Roier's shadow shivers, and then Roier's shadow fist-pumps and runs out of the room with Cellbit's pjs, closing the door behind.

Cute.

Breakfast today is American if only because all that's in the fridge is bacon and frozen waffles.

Cellbit gets to work on the bacon, leaving Roier to handle the waffles.

"Careful," Roier says. He's sat on the counter by the toaster with a slight, concerned frown on his face and with his legs swinging. "Don't burn yourself."

Cellbit rolls his eyes. "I'll be fine."

He flips the bacon over with a fork, hissing lightly as a few burning-hot drops of grease fly up and onto his hand. Roier gasps, his eyes focusing in on Cellbit's hand.

Cellbit shrugs. "Whoops."

"'Whoops'? What do you mean 'whoops'!" Roier exclaims.

He hops off of the counter and presses up against Cellbit's side just a tad too close considering how close they both are to a flaming stove. He takes Cellbit's hand and pulls it close to his face so he can inspect it.

"I mean 'whoops'," Cellbit sighs. He loves his husband, he really does, but... "I'm fine, see? Didn't even leave a mark."

He wiggles his fingers. Roier's eyes narrow, and he doesn't breathe for a half a second before his posture lightens and he presses a kiss to the junction between Cellbit's thumb and pointer finger.

"There, kissed it better," he says, and Cellbit laughs.

"Thank you, guapito."

Cellbit turns back to the pan, shifting his fork to his other hand so Roier can keep holding his hand, because maybe he really likes it when Roier holds his hand. He smiles slightly as Roier just keeps kissing said hand over and over again, his lips traveling from his fingertips down his knuckles and to his wrist.

And then he licks Cellbit's wrist, and Cellbit jerks his hand away with a screeched laugh.

"What the fuck?" he shouts. "Did you just lick me?"

Roier nods sheepishly, but his face shifts into eager surprise as Cellbit retaliates by dragging his own tongue up the length of Roier's cheek.

"There," Cellbit says. "Now we're even."

"Even..." Roier echoes, sounding as if he was miles and miles away. He raises a hand to his cheek and sighs moonily. "I love you, cariño."

Something tickles at the back of Cellbit's mind, but he pays it no mind. He's a little preoccupied, see, because Roier is kissing him again, hard. His hands drag down Cellbit's back, fingers digging in claw-like to Cellbit's hips.

Cellbit groans, eyes lidded shut.

"The bacon," he murmurs, his breath hot against Roier's cold lips, "Guapito, please. After breakfast."

Roier looks up at him through his eyelashes. "You promise?"

Cellbit nods enthusiastically. Then Roier lets him go, though he keeps both arms latched around one of Cellbit's, his head tilted onto Cellbit's shoulder.

He's clingy, Cellbit thinks, but that isn't new. Roier's a touchy guy, especially in private when it's just the two of them, and he's always much clingier in the hours after Cellbit gets hurt.

Still. It's a little weird watching Roier out of the corner of his eye as he sets the table. Roier is across the room supposedly taking the waffles out of the toaster, and Cellbit is supposedly placing silverware and plates down on the table, but Roier isn't looking at the toaster. He's looking at Cellbit. The waffles are burning, but Roier isn't so much as acknowledging the toaster.

Hesitantly, Cellbit sets Roier's plate a few places farther down the table than usual. Normally, when it's just the two of them eating, Roier sits next to Cellbit so they can steal each other's food.

When Roier comes over with the burnt waffles, he shovels most of the plate onto Cellbit's plate, leaving only the most miserably-charred waffle for himself. He takes the most obviously raw bacon, too, the slices that didn't get a chance to cook long enough. And then he sits at that chair down the table and he eats with his hand on his chin as he watches Cellbit eat with hearts practically in his eyes.

Hm.

After breakfast (and after a brief makeout session on the dining room table), Roier excuses himself to do laundry, which is sweet of him considering the fact that he's literally allergic to doing any chores around the castle (which is fine, honestly, Cellbit would rather do the chores himself than allow his husband to do something he doesn't want to.)

Cellbit takes the opportunity to head down to his panic room, grabbing Dapper's spell book on the way. He needs to try the ritual again because it obviously didn't work the first time. Richarlyson's spirit 'friend' never showed up, and all Cellbit got out of it was a concussion and a subsequent death.

"Maybe I did need the newts' tails, after all," he sighs. His eyes skim over the text for the tenth time, trying to figure out what went wrong.

He's sure he can find some tails somewhere. Maybe Dapper has some to spare, actually, Cellbit can go check when Dapper wakes up in a few hours.

For now, Cellbit sits, and he reads.

And then he sees in chat: [ForeverPlayerG was slain by Espadoier Supremoier]

Cellbit's out of his chair immediately and tapping to his map app on his communicator trying to find Forever.

Forever, apparently, is just outside of the castle.

And, Cellbit realizes as he elevators out of the fear room and down to the main level of the castle, that was Roier's sword. So he's probably panicking for nothing considering Roier's remarkable ability to accidentally kill people.

"Forever!" Cellbit shouts. "Hold on, I'm coming!"

"Cellbo," Forever groans. "Tell your husband to back off, jeez."

Cellbit rounds the corner to see Forever laying bleeding and annoyed on the pavement just outside of the castle entrance with Roier standing above him, one foot on Forever's back and one hand pointing a bloody sword at Forever's face.

The second Cellbit arrives, Roier is off of Forever and putting his sword away.

"Mi esposo!" he cheers, running over and plastering himself to Cellbit's side with a grip so sudden it almost knocks Cellbit over.

Forever gives Cellbit an unimpressed look. Cellbit gives him a confused, uneasy one back. He shrugs, and Roier takes the opportunity to slip behind him with his arms tightly around Cellbit's middle and his chin hooked over Cellbit's shoulder.

"Cellbit," Forever flatly says, "help me."

"He was trying to break in," Roier whispers. His voice, gorgeous as ever, tickles Cellbit's brainstem through his ear. It's enough to make him melt.

But Cellbit forces himself to shrug his husband off and go to help Forever up.

As he does so, he leans in close and mutters, "Come back later, I'm dealing with a situation here."

Roier immediately protests, storming over and sandwiching himself between them with an angry red face and a scowl.

"Back off," he orders, though it isn't clear which man he's talking to.

So Forever takes a step backwards with his hands raised placatingly. Cellbit stays in place, wincing slightly as Roier wraps himself around him once more with his nails slipping under Cellbit's shirt and lightly scratching his stomach.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Cellbit offers. "Try and finish Richas' quests today so we can all just hang out tomorrow."

Forever hesitantly nods before shooting Cellbit a concerned look and taking off back down the bridge.

As soon as he's on the far side of the bridge, Cellbit lets out a short, annoyed breath. He tries to wriggle himself free, though all he succeeds in doing is getting himself turned around so that he's facing Roier, which Roier seems just fine with.

Roier is... smug. There's a hint of a smile on his (very kissable) lips. He's pleased with himself.

"What was that," Cellbit flatly asks.

"Told you, amor, he tried breaking in." Roier punctuates with a kiss to the forehead that Cellbit tells himself he's too annoyed to enjoy. "I was just protecting you."

"From Forever? Please."

It's now that Cellbit realizes that Roier has broken out the eyeliner again. He must have done it while doing laundry. It's messier than it used to be, but it's also been months since he's worn it. He could be out of practice.

Roier frowns, annoyed himself. "I don't know! He could've wanted to hurt you!"

"Forever is literally a golden retriever. He can't hurt anybody."

"Maybe we should add doors," Roier muses, tearing his eyes away from Cellbit's to stare at the castle entrance from over Cellbit's shoulder. "It would be a lot safer."

"I don't need doors," Cellbit argues. He squirms, but Roier just pulls him closer to his chest in response. "Guapito, hey, let me go."

"Mmmm, not yet. Five more minutes."

Roier giggles and continues with a murmur into the hair between Cellbit's ears: "I love you."

And it's weird to hear Roier say it so many times in one morning. He's not the type of guy to affirm his love through words, he much prefers quality time. Cellbit knows and loves this about him. He's the one who says "I love you" every waking hour of the day, the one who initiates their kisses and cuddles most of the time.

Still. He does love his husband.

So he very, very slowly hugs Roier back, allowing his head to fall onto Roier's shoulder.

"I love you, too," he tiredly says, "but can we do this lying down? It's a little uncomfy."

"Yes!"

He can hear the sparkles in Roier's voice as Roier steps back. And then his world is flipped upside-down as Roier flips him upside-down, picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder.

"Hey!" Cellbit protests. A shocked laugh escapes from him, he can't help it. "What are you doing!"

"Taking you to bed, guapo, what do you think?"

Cellbit thrashes his tail into Roier's face, smiling at the sputtered laugh that Roier lets out.

"I have work to do!" Cellbit argues. "We can cuddle later, okay?"

"Nope." Roier pops the 'p'. He practically skips up the stairs, kicking the 'Richard' statue in the hallway as he goes. "You said to lie down, so we'll lie down. Maybe I won't let you up again, who knoo-oows."

He giggles again, and some small familiar feeling sparks in Cellbit's mind upon hearing it. He's heard laughs like that before, he's heard them out of his own mouth, and they were never good.

But, just as quickly as it came, the thought is gone because Roier is throwing him onto the bed and pouncing upon him in a hug.

Cellbit kicks his way into a more normal position, dragging Roier along with him.

Roier sighs contentedly, burrowing his face into the side of Cellbit's neck and sniffing in a deep breath. Weirdo.

He wraps both legs and arms around Cellbit, essentially capturing him. His eyes close, his eyelashes fluttering delicately against Cellbit's skin.

"Goodnight, amorcito," Roier hums, and then he's fake-snoring and smiling kisses against Cellbit's neck.

Cellbit stares up at the ceiling with his eyebrows furrowed. One of his hands absently traces patterns into Roier's back- a cat, a spider, a knife, a knife, a knife. The other hand is trapped between his and Roier's chests; it's going tingly from the pressure.

Roier starts humming again, soft and gentle and without the Spotify playlist he always likes to have on when they're together.

Cellbit lifts his hand from Roier's back; Roier grumbles, but he doesn't argue, simply choosing to squeeze himself ever-closer.

His wedding ring is shiny. He just polished it last week, of course it's shiny. But it's shinier than it was last night. There was blood on it when he went to bed. Now? Silver, bright and blinding.

He can feel Roier's ring scrape slightly against his back as Roier adjusts his grip.

Roier's breath is evening out slowly as he starts to properly fall asleep. Honestly, after the night Cellbit had, he's close to joining him.

And he does after a moment, after adjusting the two of them so they're on their sides, because maybe Roier is heavier than he likes to think he is. He may be a spider, but he's a fucking heavy one.

He swears that he feels teeth scrape against his throat before he drifts off, but that can't be right.

(Can it?)

Cellbit decides to skip dinner in favor of watching his husband start a new building project.

Technically, Roier thinks that Cellbit is back in his panic room organizing his chests. But Cellbit thankfully had a few invisibility potions left over from his most recent spy missions, so.

Observing.

At first, Cellbit doesn't know what Roier is doing.

He has a stack of wood in one hand and a stack of cobblestone in the other, and he's stood in front of the large arch at the entrance of the castle looking between them thoughtfully.

Eventually, he settles on the wood, and he starts filling in the arch as best he can considering its shape. There are some gaps, but none of them are big enough for a Cellbit to squeeze through. Maybe a Richarlyson, but not a Cellbit.

And then, to Cellbit's horror, Roier takes a block reinforcer out of his inventory, and he starts using it on the wood.

"There," Roier announces, standing back with his hands on his hips and with a proud grin on his face. "There's that exit. Next is... this way?"

Visibly lost, he walks right past an invisible Cellbit and towards what should be-

"I thought you were in your mystery room," Roier says.

Cellbit jumps and presses himself against the wall holding his breath.

Roier is in front of him, facing him, inches away from him, with a blank smile.

He reaches out, and he cups both of Cellbit's cheeks with his hands. One of his thumbs strokes its way down Cellbit's nose.

Spidey sense, fuck. Roier never uses it, so why...?

"Couldn't stay away from me, huh?" Roier teases. He leans in close, and he kisses Cellbit directly on the lips. It's a soft kiss, gentle, absolutely wonderful and everything Cellbit would normally ask for.

"Hah, nope," Cellbit awkwardly replies. "Wanted to surprise you."

"I'm surprised! Oh- hold on, I'll let you continue."

Roier backs up, then, dropping his hands into his hoodie's pockets and looking around the room with a careless-seeming whistle.

"Wow," he loudly says, "it would be crazy if my sexy husband was here watching me invisible."

Cellbit doesn't so much as breathe.

Roier's left eyes twitch.

"I said!" he shouts. "It would be crazy if my sexy husband was here!"

When Cellbit doesn't respond again, Roier stomps his foot on the ground with an angry huff.

"Come on, Cellbo!" he whines. "Play along!"

Tears begin to well up in his eyes, all four of them (and that's another thing, Roier prefers to just use two because anything more gives him crazy sensory overload), and... fuck.

"I'm trying to surprise you," Cellbit hisses. "Pretend I'm not here."

Roier cheers up immediately. "Ooooh, okay. Cool! I'll just get going then. It would be a shame if the world's most beautiful man jumpscared me..."

He winks with his right eyes, and then he turns on his heel and prances off in search of... someplace. Probably the garden, right? That would be the nearest exit, but Roier hasn't been there today. So he's probably going to the kitchen, it's second-closest.

Cellbit tiptoes along behind him, thankful for his unfortunately-catlike grace for once. Roier knows that he's there. Roier might even know that Cellbit knows that he knows that he's there.

Roier, indeed, beelines to the kitchen. He starts placing wood, periodically checking over his shoulder just to make sure Cellbit is still there and watching. Every time they manage to lock eyes, Roier shimmies happily in place and gives the air a little kiss that Cellbit can't help but wish was actually aimed towards him.

When he's down to one minute of invisibility, Cellbit decides to test a theory.

He slowly pulls out his warpstone- no reaction from Roier.

He opens the warpstone's menu and hovers his finger over the Favela warp- no reaction.

The teleportation particles appear and he starts to feel the familiar tingle and the incoming rush of wind, but he manually forces a stop when Roier screams.

"Guapito?" Cellbit asks. His heart pounds in his chest despite his suspicions, and he runs to Roier's side only to see the block reinforcer impaled clean through Roier's hand.

Roier's lip wobbles, and he looks up at Cellbit through tears, and he whimpers, "I'm sorry."

There is blood spattered across his face and neck, but most of it seems to have landed on his uninjured hand in a clean spray.

Cellbit is speechless. He didn't think the reinforcer was sharp enough to do this, and he knows sharp things. The amount of force required...

He's distracted by his crying husband, however. Roier might be acting strangely, but he's still Roier.

"Hey, it's fine," Cellbit gently says. He pulls Roier away from the half-built blockade. "You don't need to apologize. It was an accident, right?"

Roier nods pitifully. He clutches his bad hand's wrist with his good hand, his fingers twitching.

"You surprised me," Roier whispers, and Cellbit's heart clenches.

"Okay," he says, forcing his voice to be level. "I'm sorry. Let's go get the first aid kit, okay?

"...Do you remember where it is?"

He adds the last sentence after the briefest of moments of consideration. And his suspicions are confirmed when Roier shakes his head tearfully.

"No, my hand hurts, Cellbo, please- just- take me?" he begs, and it's so hard to be level-headed when he's crying like this. Cellbit would take his injuries in a heartbeat if he could, but...

His invisibility drops, revealing his pained expression. Roier looks at him and sobs, collapsing into his arms and getting blood over the back of his shirt.

Cellbit whispers into Roier's ear, "It's upstairs. I can go get it and be right back."

He gasps lightly as the still-impaled reinforcer digs sharply into his spine.

"Don't leave me like this!" Roier hisses. "What kind of a husband are you?"

"Roier-"

"It hurts, Cellbo! Take me upstairs!"

And Cellbit does. He helps Roier upstairs, and he sits him down on the edge of the bathtub, and he takes out the first aid kit with shaking hands.

He places a hand around the reinforcer's handle. Then he looks up at Roier sadly.

"This will hurt," he warns.

Roier swallows his tears and offers a weak little smile. His eyeliner is running. Terribly. It reaches the corners of his mouth, dying his smile black.

"It won't as long as you're with me," he meekly says.

Cellbit looks up at the ceiling, lets out a breath to steel himself.

And then he yanks the reinforcer out without any warning, immediately tossing it into the empty tub and wrapping a cloth around Roier's hand.

Roier wails, doubling over and collapsing into Cellbit's body. He curls into Cellbit's front with a fresh wave of sobs.

"Thank you, I love you," he prays, his voice hardly above a whisper. "I love you, thank you. I love you."

A chill runs over Cellbit's body as he searches the first aid kit for a needle and thread. For stitches. For stitches.

"Say it back," Roier whimpers. "Say it back."

He grips the front of Cellbit's shirt with both hands and looks up at him with red eyes. "Say it back!"

"I didn't think I needed to," Cellbit softly, firmly says. He gently removes Roier's hands and holds them, mindful of his injury. "I thought you already knew. I love you, Roier. I may not say it out loud, but I do."

Roier trembles before him. His corner of his smile twitches terribly.

"You love me," he repeats. At Cellbit's nod, Roier nods himself and sniffs back a fresh wave of tears. "No matter what?"

Warning bells and red flags. Cellbit's tail bristles, but it still wraps loosely around Roier's ankle. Roier looks down at it in awe.

"I love you," Cellbit says, not answering, but his non-answer is enough to make Roier's eyes glitter like the stars they hold within. "Now, please, let me finish taking care of you."

Roier sniffles, but he nods and tentatively pulls his hands out of Cellbit's.

Cellbit picks up the needle and thread, and he gets to work.

It is technically still his husband's hand, after all.

Two-thirty in the morning, and Cellbit can’t sleep.

It’s dark, in his and Roier’s bedroom. Roier had blocked off the balcony while Cellbit was in the shower, and the lanterns are now off for the night, leaving only a singular candle on the bedside table providing light. Shadows bounce across the walls; if Cellbit pretends hard enough, he can pretend that they aren’t even real.

Roier, next to him in bed, is smiling in his sleep. He has one leg slung over both of Cellbit’s, and both of his arms are holding Cellbit’s one like a teddy bear. He has his head pillowed on Cellbit’s chest, entirely ignorant of Cellbit’s insomnia.

Absently, Cellbit rubs his ring and middle fingers together. The feel of his wedding ring against his fingers is grounding, kind of. It reminds him who he’s married to.

Roier grumbles and removes his leg in favor of curling up into a semi-fetal position.

He’s cute. But he’s also Roier. Or, rather, he’s wearing Roier’s face.

Dapper’s spell was meant to summon spirits, but Cellbit hadn’t finished the ritual, and he didn’t have all of the necessary components. Roier had interrupted him. Cellbit had touched him. Since the ritual, Cellbit hasn’t felt the urge to kill; he hadn’t even wanted to look at the blood on his husband’s hand. But then there was Roier nearly murdering Forever, his friend Forever, and stabbing himself in the hand, and for what? Why? What’s wrong with him?

Cellbit can’t quite wrap his head around it. It’s like something’s missing from his brain, some tiny little locked-off room that Roier has seemingly stolen the key to.

Maybe he should just check the book again. Just in case.

Cellbit yawns and rolls onto his side. Doing so dislodges Roier, who pouts and sleepily waves his arms about looking for a Cellbit to hold. Instead, Cellbit shoves a biggish pillow in between them. Roier clutches it to his chest in an instant, falling back asleep almost immediately.

Slowly, carefully, Cellbit slips out of bed. He doesn’t bother bringing the candle with him as he pads down the cold tile steps to the kitchen; he is a cat, after all, his night vision isn’t for nothing. He elevators up to the ritual room, and then he elevators down to the fear room. And then he’s in the panic room flipping through Dapper’s spell book trying to figure out what went wrong.

French, he annoyedly thinks. Fucking French.

Entirely done with the situation at hand, he pulls up his translator on his comm and sets it to scan the text.

And when he reads it, his heart stops.

‘Failure to complete the ritual will result in the spirit attaching itself to the nearest living object until its exorcism. Exorcism instructions can be found on page 67.’

Nearest living object… Roier. Not Cellbit, because Roier had pushed him out of the circle.

“It should have been me,” Cellbit breathes, the very air knocked out of his lungs.

Roier is possessed, but it should have been him.

The book falls to the floor with a thunk, and Cellbit goes down with it. He drops to his knees and stares down at the foreign text.

‘Spirit will be most attracted to energy most similar to it,’ the book reads, and Cellbit had thought before that it had meant that whatever spirit was possessing Richarlyson would attach itself to Cellbit for the ritual because of… family. ‘Spirit may not be of this world; precautions should be taken to avoid to disturbance of souls from dimension similar to our own.’

Cellbit puts his head in his hands and groans. “I’m so stupid.”

Because Cellbit is a murderer, and the spirit possessing his husband’s body seems to be one, too.

Years ago, Cell would have been happy to be married to a fellow monster. But now, Cellbit just wants his husband back. His sweet, beautiful, handsome, kind, non-murdery husband.

He wants his Roier back.

There’s a whoosh! from the fear room, and then the sound of the turrets.

Cellbit lifts his head just in time to watch the sleepy form of his husband’s body stumble into the panic room with a yawn.

“Guapito, what the fuck?” ‘Roier’ whines. The heavy metal door slams shut behind him, but he doesn’t so much as flinch. Instead, he smiles fondly and settles down on the floor next to Cellbit, resting his head on Cellbit’s shoulder. “Couldn’t sleep?”

Cellbit’s hands shake. He takes Roier’s hand, anyway, both of his hands holding Roier’s one.

“Yeah.” He nods. “Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to wake you up.”

Roier pouts and looks up at him. (Idly, Cellbit realizes that Roier hadn’t washed his eyeliner off before going to bed. His face is still streaked with black tear lines, and it’s heartbreaking even if it is entirely his fault.)

“I thought you left me,” Roier says.

He leans further into Cellbit’s side with a grumbled, “You can’t leave me.”

“I’m sorry,” Cellbit lies. He adjusts himself so he isn’t on his knees anymore; Roier immediately flops over and lays his head in Cellbit’s lap. “I won’t do it again.”

Roier gives him a look saying ‘Of course you won’t, idiot. I won’t let you.’

“Of course you won’t,” Roier says. “You love me. You would never leave me.”

He raises a hand and cups Cellbit’s cheek. His touch is soft, reverent, disbelieving. Whatever spirit this is must be a lonely one.

Cellbit shakes his head. One of his thumbs rubs against Roier’s knuckles, brushing over Roier’s wedding ring.

“Never,” he says. “Because I love you. I just didn’t want to wake you up.”

“You can always wake me up. Every moment spent not looking at you is a moment wasted.”

So the spirit is a romantic, too. It’s almost enough to make Cellbit wish that his Roier tossed around declarations like this, but. But he loves his Roier, grandiose expressions aside.

“You’re beautiful,” Cellbit says. He leans down so that their noses are brushing.

Roier giggles and closes his eyes, all four of them. He nuzzles his nose against Cellbit, and it’s easy to pretend that this isn’t some horrible spirit possessing the real Roier. He’s almost sweet, for a murderous ghost… thing.

It’s better to keep the spirit happy, Cellbit thinks. It’ll give him more time to come up with a way to get his husband back.

So he swallows the bile in his throat and kisses Roier. He just hopes that the real Roier will forgive him…

Two days. Two more horrible, terrible days spent playing house with a monster from another dimension. It’s so domestic that it makes Cellbit’s teeth hurt.

Wake up. Stretch. Kiss Roier. Shower. Brush teeth. Kiss Roier. Make breakfast. Eat breakfast. Secretly text friends. Warn friends. Kiss Roier. Read with Roier. Nap with Roier. Paint with Roier. Eat with Roier. Kiss Roier. Ignore the sunset. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat.

And all the while, the spirit doesn’t seem to realize that Cellbit is onto it. Him. (Him? Him.) All he does is smile and giggle and laugh and kiss and it’s tooth-rotting. It’s strange, too, because the spirit hasn’t done anything too violent since that first day. The worst he’s done is ‘accidentally’ slip using a knife when he caught Cellbit texting Forever a warning to keep Richarlyson away, cutting his thumb open. He had sobbed into Cellbit’s shoulder as Cellbit had patched him up, and then, moments later, he was adjusting the reinforced glass roof he had placed above the garden (because Cellbit had said that he missed being able to take care of the garden.)

It’s almost like he’s actually in love with Cellbit, which he might be. He might be, and it makes Cellbit hurt because he can imagine himself falling in love with this version of Roier once upon a time. If they had met in prison, Cellbit might not have escaped, not without him. He would have been happy so long as Roier was happy. He would have killed Pac and Mike if Roier had asked him to. (He might still, but he tells himself that he would never.)

The worst part is that the spirit seems to be aware to some extent that Cellbit is a very fucked up individual. He makes comments about blood sacrifices he’s done, and then he asks for tips for the next one. (But he hopes that he won’t have to do another one, because he finally has someone to love him back this time!)

“I knew a man, once,” Roier says on the afternoon of the second day. He’s drinking tea, lounging across a couch in the library as Cellbit reads on the floor by his feet. “And he was gorgeous.”

Cellbit plays along with a pout. “Wow, okay.”

Roier sits up in a panic, nearly spilling his tea all over the place as he hurries to scoot down the couch and give Cellbit scratches between the ears. Cellbit purrs despite himself, ever-weak to his unfortunate anatomy.

“Not more gorgeous than you, beautiful,” Roier assures. “No one is more handsome than you.”

Cellbit raises a hand to grab Roier’s and hold it as tenderly as he dares. “Oh, but you’re wrong. Have you ever looked in a mirror, guapito?”

Roier blushes and hides his face with a sip of his tea.

“I- um. Okay. But. This guy, he was beautiful.” Roier stammers. He manages to get ahold of himself, gently squeezing Cellbit’s hand. “And smart. And funny. And handsome. And sexy. He was so sexy. But he… he never even looked at me.”

A single tear runs down Roier’s face, mixing in with his tea.

“I can’t imagine why,” Cellbit says, and it’s the truth. If his hunch is right, this mystery man the spirit is upset over is the key to the whole mystery. “I mean, you’re Roier. Who wouldn’t want you?”

“He wouldn’t,” Roier spits. His smile remains the same as it has for the past three days, but his eyes darken as he stares into the nothingness ahead of him. “Because I am Roier. I still don’t get it.”

And there’s the confirmation, right there.

“Me neither,” Cellbit agrees. He winces as Roier’s grip on his hand tightens to an uncomfortable degree. “You’re- ah, loosen up, please, guapito, thank you- you’re amazing. Who cares if you sometimes do blood rituals? Everyone needs a hobby.”

“Thank you! Finally, someone agrees with me!”

Roier groans and slumps against the back of the sofa with his top two eyes closed. His bottom eyes glare hearts into Cellbit’s face, so loving that it hurts.

“Where were you back then?” Roier softly asks.

Cellbit shrugs. “Where were you? Maybe we could have met each other then.”

“I was in…” Roier frowns, his eyebrows furrowing in contemplation. “...it was loud. It was… Chafaland, I think. Not too far from here. We can go sometime, show that bastard what he’s missing out on.”

He smiles at the thought.

(Cellbit hasn’t gotten the opportunity to tell his unwanted guest that both he and the body he’s possessing are trapped on an inescapable tropical island.)

Cellbit replies, “Can’t be too far. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have met you.”

Roier giggles into his teacup, his cheeks a cute dusty pink.

“You’re sweet,” Roier coos. He leans down and gives Cellbit a kiss on the forehead, and then one on the lips when Cellbit forces himself to tilt his head back. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Cellbit lies. “But I love my book more…”

Roier’s eyes crack open in fury. Without a word, he snatches the book out of Cellbit’s hands and chucks it into the fire. Once he sees that it’s burning, he smiles and settles back down into the sofa happily.

“Not anymo-ooore,” Roier sings. “Tell me you love me again. I want to hear it.”

Cellbit stares at the fire. He liked that book. He was just teasing him.

At Cellbit’s silence, Roier moves his hand out of Cellbit’s and onto Cellbit’s head. He tangles his fingers in his hair, laughing as the motion flips a switch and makes Cellbit melt into a purring puddly mess.

“I love you,” Cellbit slurs. His eyes slide shut, and all he can do is sit there in bliss as the monster wearing his husband’s face makes an embarrassment out of him.

One more day, and then Cellbit thinks that he has a plan to get his husband back. It involves the ritual room again, of course, and it requires the use of the exorcism spell listed in Dapper’s book. The spell is in French again, but he thinks that he can manage.

Of course, it also requires Roier agreeing to sit in the ritual circle for fifteen minutes. That’s the hard part.

But, then again, Roier is down bad for him. Cellbit is pretty sure that Roier would kill himself if he asked him to, which is both horrifying and romantic at the same time.

So Cellbit asks him to help him with a ritual, and Roier agrees on the condition that they take a bath together afterwards to get all the “magic shit” out of their hair. If all goes according to plan, Cellbit will be taking a bath with his husband, so he agrees.

Roier sits in the center of the circle cross-legged with his hands clasped in his lap, eagerly watching Cellbit finish drawing the circle around him.

“Soooo, what kind of spell is this, exactly?” Roier asks.

Cellbit shrugs. “Soul spell. If it works, our souls will be tied together in the afterlife so that we’ll get to be together in every lifetime.”

He looks up from his circle to shoot Roier as sappy a look as he can manage. “This way, we’ll never be apart.”

It’s a lie, of course, even though Cellbit has promised both his actual husband and himself many times that he would never even dream of lying to Roier. But, well. This isn’t his Roier. It’s someone else’s. Doesn’t matter if Cellbit lies to him or not.

Roier, predictably, squeals. His hands clap over his mouth excitedly, and his face glows with love. He’s crying, even- happy tears for once. His eyeliner starts to streak again.

“Oh, Cellbo,” he swoons. “You’re perfect!”

“Tell me that when we’re bonded for eternity,” Cellbit snorts. “Now, please allow me to finish.”

Roier nods and mimes zipping his mouth shut and tossing the key away.

Cute.

Using the book’s guidelines, Cellbit finishes most of the circle. He’s down to the last line when Roier speaks again, this time sounding much more unsure.

“Amor, I think I know this symbol,” Roier slowly says.

Cellbit rushes to close the circle. He’s stopped just millimeters away from the end as Roier grabs his wrist and holds it tight.

“This is an exorcism ring,” Roier lowly says.

Cellbit yelps as Roier twists his wrist, dropping the chalk. He watches it roll across the floor, stopping next to a stack of books by the teleport to the death room. (Fitting.)

Roier grabs Cellbit’s chin and forces him to look up at him, and he’s furious. His teeth are bared, and his eyes are wide in… fear. He’s scared.

“Roier, please let me explain,” Cellbit calmly says. He forces himself to be calm, anyway. He has to be. “I-”

“No! I don’t want to hear it!” Roier snaps.

He pulls Cellbit into the circle and onto his lap, forcing him to straddle him as he pulls Cellbit into a searing kiss. Cellbit feels himself kissing back for a moment, just a moment, but that one moment is enough to get him to snap out of it and try and break out of Roier’s arms.

No dice.

Roier screeches a ‘No!’ and holds on even tighter. He buries his face into Cellbit’s chest and heaves out a sob.

“I’m not leaving!” he shouts. “You can’t make me! I’m your husband!”

Cellbit sits there for a moment, hesitant. Then, slowly, he wraps his arms around Roier and cradles the back of his head, allowing his fingers to run gently through Roier’s hair.

“You aren’t,” Cellbit softly says. Roier shakes his head furiously in protest, and it’s enough to break Cellbit’s heart. “I wish you were, though. I wish that there was a me for you where you came from.”

“But I’m already here,” Roier argues. “Why do I have to go if I’m already here? You already have me. Why do I have to go?”

“Because I want my Roier back.”

“Fuck your Roier! I can be your Roier!”

Roier pulls his head back, his entire face smeared with tears and makeup. He looks like a depressed clown.

“We were doing so good at pretending.” Roier sniffs and blinks up at Cellbit with puffy red eyes. “Why can’t we keep doing that?”

“Because you aren’t supposed to be here. You know this.”

Roier shakes his head again, hides his face again. Cellbit holds him close again, allows him this.

“But I can be here,” Roier whispers. “I can be. I can be him. You just need to teach me how. I can do it. Me and him are basically the same, anyway. He’s just a little better at hiding his emotions, honest.”

Cellbit files that away for later.

He sighs and bows his head, burying his nose in Roier’s hair and breathing in deeply.

“But you aren’t,” he firmly says. “I’m sorry, but you can’t be him.”

“Why not?”

“Because I already have a him, and I love him very much.”

Roier trembles in his arms. He shakes his head once more, clenching his hands into fists in the back of Cellbit’s shirt.

“You said that you loved me,” he angrily whispers.

Cellbit sucks in a breath, and he lets it out slowly. “I probably do.”

“Then why can’t I say? Why are you making me go back to- back to him? I don’t get it. Why can’t I stay with you?”

And that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? Cellbit thinks that he would love every version of Roier in the multiverse, and it physically pains him to send him back to the situation he thinks that this Roier came from. But.

“Because there’s a me waiting there for you,” Cellbit replies.

Roier’s breath hitches.

Cellbit finds himself speaking, not quite believing what he’s saying, but also…

“There’s a you, and so there’s a me there, too,” Cellbit hears himself say. “I refuse to believe that there is a universe where me and you aren’t together. You just need to find me.”

He imagines it, the scenario he had thought of days prior: Cell sitting in the commons area of Alcatraz watching the newest inmates come into the prison for the first time, him meeting a familiar set of eyes and falling in love at first sight.

Roier whimpers quietly. “But I love you.”

“And I’m sorry.”

It’s quiet, and then:

“Your name isn’t Cellbo, is it?” Roier quietly asks.

At the confused noise Cellbit makes, Roier laughs wetly and pulls out of his embrace, smiling weakly at him with big, wet eyes.

“You always looked at me funny when I called you that,” he says. He sniffs and wipes at his nose with the back of his sleeve. “I thought maybe we just had a nicknames thing going on, but that… it isn’t your name, is it?”

Cellbit shakes his head. “It’s Cellbit. But you might find me as Cell.”

“Cellbit,” Roier repeats. He ducks his head with a small little laugh. “I wish I was yours, Cellbit. Your me is a very lucky man.”

“I’m luckier to have him,” Cellbit gently argues. “And I know that your me will say the same about you when you meet him.”

‘When’, not ‘if’. Because, somehow, Cellbit just knows. Gut feeling.

“Do you promise?” Roier asks.

He extends a pinky shakily. His nails are painted black to match Cellbit’s; Cellbit had helped him paint them the night before.

Cellbit links their pinkies together with a nod.

And that’s all Roier needs.

He slowly scoots back off of Cellbit, huddling into himself in the center of the circle with his knees to his chest and his arms around his legs. His chin tucks into his knees, and he closes his eyes, and he waits.

Cellbit offers him one last kindness before he finishes the circle.

“I was in a prison called Alcatraz once,” he says. Roier cracks an eye open and watches as Cellbit completes the circle. “Try looking for me there. If that me is anything like this me, I’ll never want to let you go once I see you.”

Roier smiles softly, a far cry from his perpetual haunting grin.

“I think I like that,” he says. “I’ll sacrifice Natalan in his honor.”

And then the circle lights up, trapping Roier inside. He buries his face in his knees, not once looking up as Cellbit begins the ritual proper. He sits there, and he accepts it, and he only screams a little as his soul is ripped from this mortal plane and sent back to his own.

And then Roier’s body collapses to the ground in a heap, unconscious.

The chanting stops. The ritual is complete.

Cellbit doesn’t wait before diving into the circle and pulling his husband into his arms. He cradles him to his chest feeling tears of his own start to stream down his face. His eyes shut, and he presses their foreheads together, and he waits.

After what’s either seconds or hours, Roier stirs in his arms with a groan.

“Gatinho?” he weakly asks. A hand finds its way to Cellbit’s face, wildly flailing around until it settles on his cheek. “Why are you crying?”

Cellbit opens his eyes and smiles down at his husband for the first time in days.

“I’m just so happy,” he says.

And then he hugs him, and Roier hugs back, confused but clearly saving his questions for later.

For later.

(Elsewhere, Roier wakes up in a dark room with a gasp. The candles are still lit, and the neighborhood is still empty besides him. Sally’s crib is still empty, and so is Natalan’s house nearby.

He scrambles to find his phone, immediately opening Safari and typing in Alcatraz Prison into the searchbar. He taps on the first news article he finds.

‘Infamous Serial Killer’s Escape Attempt Number 15 Fails’, the headline reads.

Roier doesn’t bother with the rest of the article, though, because all he needs is right there in the photo at the top of the screen beneath the headline.

He has shorter hair, yes, and he has a meaner look in his eye, but it’s him. Cell. Cellbit.

Roier’s heart skips in his chest, a giddy little feeling he almost doesn’t recognize. He’s not sure he would recognize it if it wasn’t for his recent trip.

“Cell,” he murmurs, saving the photo seven times over and swiping over to his camera app to start a new album. “Cell, Cell, Cellbo, Cellbit. Mi amor.”

Escape number 15 failed, hm?

Well. 16 will work out much better, won’t it?)