Work Text:
Someone was rooting around in Cor Leonis's fridge.
Well. Not so much someone as something.
He'd woken, suddenly, in the middle of the night, to a dark room and a strange sound. Not an echo from a nightmare, but a strange, shuffling, slurping sound coming from his kitchen. Then, there was a light filtering into his bedroom as the fridge door was pulled open.
Cor sat up.
It wasn't a thief. It couldn't be. A thief wouldn't be hunting for midnight snacks in a shitty fourth-story apartment. Right?
Still, he took the Kotetsu from the Armiger and, quietly as possible, slid out of bed and into his slippers, creeping across the floor in only a pair of worn-out boxers.
When he reached the doorway, he could make out a shape. It was the shape of a man. Maybe. Almost. It had that general outline, anyway. But the man-shape ended in what could have been a floor-length coat. Or, it could have been a river of slime. He wasn't completely clear.
Whoever it was had to be about the same height as him, because he ducked in the same way Cor did when he was trying to figure out what to eat. At last, he reached one arm in—and Cor was almost certain the arm was dripping slime—and pulled something out.
Cor squinted. Was that.... a jar of pickles?
The man—beast? Whatever—held up the jar and inspected it. Made some sort of a sound like an echoing chuckle, and pried the jar open far too easily. Let the lid clatter to the floor, reached in, pulled out a pickle. Ate it. Reached another hand in, pulled out another jar that Cor was pretty sure was peanut butter. Put the lidless pickle jar back in the fridge.
Cor had seen enough. He cleared his throat. The creature turned its head almost entirely around to stare at him.
It was a man. Sort of. But his eyes were black pits, and tar-like sludge dripped continuously from his tear ducts and the corners of his mouth. His hair, too, was a dark red on top but ended in black sludge that cascaded down over his body—also made entirely of sludge. What he'd seen on the bottom half did appear to somewhat resemble a coat, but that too rippled and oozed black. The sludge didn't seem to go anywhere once it hit the floor. He'd left a trail of it on his way in—the half-open window, apparently—but it wasn't conglomerating on the floor in any way as he stood by the open fridge.
"Ehhh?" the monster asked.
Cor wasn't sure if it could talk. But rather than scream or run or simply decide he was dreaming and go back to bed, Cor asked, "What are you doing in my fridge?"
The creature looked down at the jar of peanut butter, then back at Cor. "I was hungry," he said. His voice, while pitched mostly like that of a human, was accompanied by the distant shrieks of demons. Not coming from the window or outside, but down the man's throat.
It was then that it started to dawn on Cor exactly who—or rather what—he was looking at. "You're the Beast of Lucis," he said.
The creature contemplated this a moment, then said, "Indeed I am. You are Immortal Cor Leonis?"
"Just Cor," he said, shuffling uneasily, but he let the Kotetsu go back to the Armiger. He was pretty sure this thing wouldn't hurt him. There were all kinds of legends about it, sure, but... a creature like that. If it wanted to kill him, it would have done it while he was asleep and he'd already be dead.
"Oh." He almost sounded disappointed.
Cor hadn't exactly gotten a satisfactory answer to his first question, so he tried again. "What are you doing in my apartment?"
"I have been looking for you," he said, and Cor winced at the high-pitched background demon screeching, "for a very long time."
It was hard to say how long a long time was for this creature. From what Cor knew, the beast had always haunted Lucis. There were occasional reportings at the Citadel of Guard or Glaive spotting the beast perched atop a light post or the corner of a skyscraper. Once, a man claimed the beast had come to his house in the middle of the night, aggravated that his shop was closed because he wanted to buy a hat. The Guard were convinced the old-timer had dreamed it up. Now, Cor wasn't so sure.
"Um, okay." Cor said. "Why?"
Leaving the fridge door open, the creature turned and started easing its way towards him, leaving a slime trail in his wake. Those endless black eyes fixated on him and Cor slid one foot back, unsure what to do. "You are immortal," the creature said. "You are immortal?"
"I..." He wasn't really sure what the creature was trying to ask. But he was pretty sure it was asking if he was... actually immortal.
"You are... like me," it said, stopping a few feet away, and he was almost certain its neck elongated as it inspected him more closely. "I am so lonely. And I heard tell of another immortal in this city. It took me a very... long time to find you, Cor the Immortal."
Cor just stared at the creature, not quite sure what to say. Immortal... that was a nickname he'd gained as a teenager. That had been nearly thirty years ago now. He tried to shake his head but... he felt, admittedly, bad. Thirty years the Beast of Lucis had been looking for him because he thought Cor was actually immortal?
"I'm... I'm sorry," Cor said at last. "I'm not..." The creature looked at him, and even though its eyes were empty, he thought he saw disappointment dawning across its face. "I'm not like you," he said gently. "I'm not actually immortal. I'm... I'm mortal. It's just a nickname."
"Oh," the creature said, and despite the demon-screaming echo, it sounded... sad.
"I'm sorry," Cor said again. "I'm not... like you."
"Oh," the creature said again. "Well, then." He dropped the peanut butter jar and Cor winced as it thunked to the floor. The slime trail he'd left inexplicably began to move, sliding across the floor towards him before being drawn up into him, rippling along the bottom of his coat. "I will leave you," he said with an air of melancholy, "Goodbye, not-Immortal Cor Leonis."
"Wait," Cor said before he even realized what he was doing. He held out his hand and stepped forward. The creature stopped. Looked at him curiously. "Wait. You're... you're just lonely?" Cor asked gently.
"I am," the creature agreed. "Terribly. Lonely. It has been... so many years. Such a very long life. I... am bored."
"Well," Cor said. "No need to hurry off, then. Here." He picked up the peanut butter jar. It, strangely enough, wasn't covered in slime at all. He held it out. "At least finish your snack."
The beast stared at him. "You are not afraid? I am terrifying."
"I've faced worse," he said with a hint of amusement.
"I am ugly."
"Do I look like I care?"
"I sound dreadful."
"It's actually sort of... musical, if you look at it the right way."
The beast just stared at him. He took the peanut butter jar. Opened it. Let the lid fall to the floor and stuck his hand inside, pulled out a fistful of peanut butter and shoved it into his mouth which—like his eyes—was also a gaping black sludge-filled pit. But he hummed as he chewed. "Human snacks are surprisingly delicious," he said. "What else do you have?"
"I have plenty," Cor said. "Do you... have a name that isn't 'Beast'?"
"I do," the creature said, and flourished a bow, grinning at him with oozing black teeth. "You may call me Ardyn."
A shudder rippled all through Cor as he said it. Ardyn.... that was.... the same name as the Accursed. The so-called Betrayer King.
He would... unpack that later.
"Okay, Ardyn," he said. "How about you stay for a while? I'm not Immortal. But you uh... look like you could use a friend."
"That," Ardyn grinned, "would be lovely."
Oh Gods, Cor thought as Ardyn turned to go back to rooting through the fridge, what am I getting myself into?