Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The past few days were odd. Like beyond your normal levels of odd. First you get laid off, "because AI is just twice as effective at customer service" on your first day no less! and on top of all of that you received magical glasses in the mail, that let you date inanimate objects. Which between the Elvis impersonating shower and first aid kit hoping you have stomach ulcers, wasn't actually that weird now.

But it was late, especially today considering you spent 3 hours with Chance, the D20 discussing dungeon layouts and sussecfully derailing another session. And just as you were about to climb into your bed, (and maybe get a bit frisky with her before hand). But just before you could plant your foot on the first step, Skylar's pink bubbly visage appeared in front of you. "Woah human! You've still got two charges left, why not use me to find even more objects to love~" She wiggled her eyebrows and smirked at you. "Yeah, why not" you shrug. To be fair you hadn't become to acquainted with many dateables yet, you'd already had a friendly conversation with Dorian earlier while picking up a door dash order (considering you'd become quite the recluse since acquiring the dateviators), of course you had your daily session with chance and helped Mac sort through another massive chunk of your steamy self insert fics. You'd met Ben Hwa yesterday but you weren't exactly adventurous enough yet to try and start anything with them yet. Especially since you didn't have the best specs just yet.
So you lay your eyes onto nearest thing you see. An air vent, close to the ground. It can't be that weird you think and bend down and channel Skylars energy into it. And in a few seconds !BOOM!, its....a normal vent, well not quite two hands poke out from it like a creep in a mail slot. But when you look closer in you see the faintest eyes still creepy...but when he speaks, god your heart melts. "It's you! The human! I've been watching for so long, yet you only see me now..." his voice trails off with a sense of coldness. "Uh, yeah that's me" your left without words because one, this guy just admitted to watching you day in and day out but two, he seems cute...and pissing of your AC sounds like a bad time. "So um, who are you? If you don't mind" you move from leaning down on the step to sitting on it to meet him at face level "Oh well um I am Hector Valentino Airnesto Condicionado or HVAC...or just Hector if you like" his voice was slightly shaky, he sounded so nervous and despite your tiredness you continued to talk to him, "Well, Hector thanks for being my AC, I don't think I'd survive the cold without you!" You cringed internally as you said it and Skylar sitting on the step above you was expressing it on her face, but luckily Hector didn't seem to care much about your charisma since it seemed like he found it funny with warm air coming from the vent, "Oh! Um thank you human, I don't think I could survive without you". Skylar from behind you suddenly popped out of her cringed state, "Oh does someone have a crush on our dear human~" She teased as she looked towards the vent. "What No?!um, no I mean..um..." Hector shook his hands as his voice became frantic. You don't know why, but you feel the slightest bit, hurt by his words. His eyes darted away from Skylar and quickly back to you
"Wait! I did not mean it like that, I mean, augggh!" Hector yelled and retreated away into the vent, ending your conversation for the night.
You retreated up to your bedroom and decided to confide in Betty about your recent encounter with the HVAC while you buried yourself in a hug. "Hector? Well honey from what your saying he seems like a nice guy." She held onto you tight while running the fingers of her free hand through your hair, her voice almost lulling you to sleep. "Yeah, I mean he was a little odd though, but your right maybe I should talk to him tomorrow night to" you say as you look up her with your head resting on her chest. "I mean if I hadn't have been with you all these years I'd be a little nervous to if I learned you could talk with us, he's probably just a little shaken up hon" she cups your face with her hands pushes a stray hair behind your ear, "but there's always tomorrow okay honey" she plants a kiss on your forehead. "Yeah you've got a point". And after a quick goodnight, you take off your dateviators and crash into your comforter and pillows.

Chapter Text

Your dreams were just as odd, normally you'd find yourself cuddled up with Betty and often times buried in her bosom,as embarrassing as it sounded. But tonight your brain drifted to an odd part of your house. The attic a place you'd lost the key to long ago which normally you wouldn't care to much about considering all you found up there were loose boxes,old dusty board games,and a safe you'd forgotten the code for, much less what was inside of it. "Weird, okay I've got to be dreaming" you tell yourself and get up on your feet. The only other conclusion you could come to then dreaming would've been you managed to unlock the attic,and subsequently Dorian.
It was obviously a dream because there was no way in hell Dorian would let anyone asleep or awake past his guard. It's pitch black, and when you feel for the lights witch, it's nothing but cobwebbed wooden walls. OK, so I'm in complete darkness with no one insight to help me...Great dreaming me. You continue to walk between creaking boards putting your arm out in front of you to gage where your going, and you feel nothing but stale air until you place your hand on cold steel.

It was your HVAC system, cold,slightly rattling and most importantly the oddly charming man you met before you got some shut eye. Except without your Dateviators you couldn't resolve whatever Hector related business this dream entailed, or so you thought. As you pressed your fingers pressed against the systems large vent slats, a hand reaches out and catches your wrist in a tight grip.
"Hector?" You yell out hoping it was him, and not some demon come to prey on your soul in your dreams. "My love.." he says in a particularly low tone you've yet to hear from him, it should've been scary but you couldn't help but feel your body getting hotter as he opened his mouth once more. "I told you not to meet me here, not to look at me like this...I didn't want you to have to see what monster I really was" his grip softens around your wrist, his hand slipping down your arm to leave you. But as if on instinct you latch fingers with his. "Hector, what the hell are you talking about?! I haven't known you long, but your definitely not a monster!" You are now the one with the tightening grip around his hand, pushing yourself seemingly closer to the man cast in shadows.
"Mi amor, if you only knew, if you could see my face..." he paused "I wouldn't know what to do with myself, what if you were repulsed with my very being or just, just...disappointed" he lamented.

You knew this was a dream but you couldn't let someone who genuinely wants to love you, to just sit in there own self pity and shame thinking it was OK. You make a rash but stupid decision that would have Skylar laughing at you. You press your lips to the grate on the HVAC system.

"What are you doing?!" Hector asks frantic, his voice in a higher pitch then before. You with your face smooshed against metal try your best to speak. " Hector, you seem to love me right?" You ask. His voice perks up in a way you could imagine was do to the fact this was a fantasy. "Of course,I love you more than words can express, I love you more than I love the feeling your voice reverberating through my ventilation system!". Even in pitch blackness the warm breeze puffing into your face, as well as your own flustered complexion show just how much Hector actually means it. "Then let me love you" you whisper into the vents softly as you hear Hector's breath hitch from in front of you. "I don't have to look at you, and as much as I disagree with it I'll let you hide, for now,later and hopefully not forever, but I do care about you so please, let me love you".

Even you had to admit to yourself lucid dream you was very aggressive, even with someone you met only minutes before bed!. And apparently Hector understood the assignment because what you felt against your lips was not steel vent shafts or warm air, but warm soft lips. And thanks to dream logic or perhaps Hector's own ability the metal grate between seems to disappear somehow still leaving you to see nothing but his eyes. Dark, chocolate brown eyes once anxious but now only something can be described as..lust.

Unfortunately you don't know what happens next as you wake up to birds chirping through your window and rather embarrassingly a wet mess between your legs. Not to mention a clear view of the vent shaft that looks down at you and your bed, which now has taken on a whole new tone.