#doug renetti x tina lewis x black reader

[soft-persephone]

Time After Time 4

Rated: M

WC: 2.2k

Link: Time After Time Insert 4: Day to Day Night by Night

"Doug and Tina were early risers. They got up, showered, got dressed, had breakfast at home, or they’d stop somewhere and grab something to share with the rest  of the staff. 

But on the rare occasions where they could take their time, 

Doug would wake up first and kiss her.." . . . . . . "Nights,  were different"

[soft-persephone]

I Don't Want You to Leave

Doug Renetti x Black!OC x Tina Lewis

Explicit: MDNI // WC: 5k // masterlist //

Angel perked up when Doug walked in the door. 

She smiled and bounced over to him. The embarrassment she used to feel waiting around for him to reach a lull in his work or at how people might look at her ditching work every now and then to hang out with him were long behind her. 

She was here so much, people were no longer interested in what she did here as long as she stayed out of their way. 

“Do you wanna get dinner later?” She studied his face. He smiled back at her, but it was polite. Nothing more or nothing less. 

She quickly pivoted.

“It doesn't have to be anything fancy. We could stay at home and  do something simple, or maybe go out,” she put  up her hands in a effort to ease him, just whatever feels less intimate and more casual to you!” Angel giggled a little before snapping her fingers.

“Oh I know!” She smiled even more, “we could order a pizza? Eat it on the couch? Watch some good and or terrible movies? Your choice?”

His smile wavered a bit before coming back into place. 

“May..maybe some other time.”

He patted her on the shoulder before brushing past her to his office, closing the door behind him.

It felt worse than the quietness that stretched between them or his constant need for isolation.

She sucked it up, gave him his space… but it’s been weeks now, and he’s still acting funny. 

This polite smile you’d give a well intentioned stranger to leave you alone, or the one you’d give an elementary student when they ask you to buy something for a fundraiser.

She blinked the tears budding in her eyes and sat in the chair she pulled up by Tina’s desk. 

She kicked off her shoes, and sat down on one leg, making the other one dangle above the little rug Tina’s space heater sat on.

Tina was bustling away, paper after paper rustled from one place to another. Some were filled with tabs as she made a call or two, taking notes. 

People came by and gave her even more paper’s which she absentmindedly put away into their designated piles for her to eventually deal with. 

Angel tried opening her sketch book and finishing some she already started on. Maybe she could finally finish one and start making a painting for it, but they felt too lonely or held so much love that she wasn’t quite sure she was up for looking at for an extended period of time. 

The newest one felt out of place from the previous ones. 

Her art started taking a sad turn as soon as Doug started going through whatever he was going through. 

But now, after what just happened, she could only fill the page with a few droplets of tears, her hand still as it clenched and  unclenched on the page with her pencil in hand.

She attempted to hide a sniffle by burying her face in the crook of her arm, quickly drying her eyes with a sly movement of her hands, but Tina was too quick to turn around. 

“Hey,” she placed down the papers in her hand and faced Angel completely, “hey now,” she started softly with a comforting smile, “what’s wrong? Didn’t Doug just come in?”

Oh fuck.

Angel started to cry for real now. She was a silent cryer, so no one would know what was up, unless they were walking by or looking in their direction. 

But that was just it, wasn’t it?

She only teared up when she missed Doug. Angel’s just a sweet sensitive soul in the honeymoon phase of her relationship, so she cries every now and then when she misses Doug, but once he walks in that door everyone knows little ole Angel will be okay. 

“Does.. does Doug hate me now?”

Tina bit her lip before pursuing them together in a frown. 

“Doug… gets wrapped up on his own bullshit from time to time, and he won’t talk about it or do anything about it which just makes it worse.”

Angel nodded, not really sure where this was going, but it helped… kinda.

“So you noticed it too?” Angel fought the urge to sob.

Tina grabbed a tissue of her desk and cupped the side of Angel’s face before wiping at her tears. 

Angel tried to push back in her chair away from the touch, averting her gaze towards the floor at the same time. 

“Mm-mmh,” Tina whispered softly, “look at me, baby.”

Angel softly laughed with a hiss of breath. She bit back her smile as best as she could before slowly looking back at Tina.

“Doug does not hate you.”

“B-but why won’t he spend time with me anymore? He won’t t-talk to me either and he barely looks at me anymore.”

New fears fell down her face and Tina whipped them away as they fell.

Tina sighed. 

“Doug hates himse—“

“—Wh..what does that have to do with anything?” Angel almost spoke a little too loudly. 

Tina gave her a pointed look and Angel fought the urge to start shouting out of spite. 

The disappointment and bitterness was building up a storm without her and she couldn’t even let it out at the person who deserved it because they were avoiding her. 

“I will talk to him,” Tina pulled back, smiling softly as she noticed Angel absentmindedly following the movement of her hands as she was pulling away from her her, “but we all decided that if this was going to work between us, we’d have to communicate.”

Angel balled up the tissue in her hands, not looking up at Tina.

“I’m trying Tina.”

“I know you are,” she smiled softly, “i will do my best to talk to him, but whatever is happening between you two is for your two to sort out.”

—

After calming Angel down, Tina encouraged her, forced is a more accurate word, to go to her job and actually work some, regardless of the fact that she’d get paid anyway, and to come back in the afternoon when she was done. 

That time was creeping up slowly, so she made her way to Doug’s office. 

He worked today like it was my normal day, but Tina had left more than enough passive aggressive tension in the air to let him know how pissed she was. 

She walked over to the minibar by his couch and made herself a drink before taking a seat. 

He gave her a smile like normal and went back to reading whatever he was reading. 

Tina hated him when he did things like this. 

He would outright lie to her, sometimes when he had the grace to be even a sliver of something resembling a human being, he would give her the grace of saying the sweetest things he could. Telling her how sorry he was for putting her in a certain position, making her do certain things.He would plead and beg for forgiveness. He would do anything and everything he could to make amends.

When it was like that, it made forgiving him easie. She chalked it up to having a vision for the future she couldn’t see. 

He was fucked up, but he  had his own ways to get to the right place in the end, but then there were times like this.

“How are things between you and Angel?” 

Doug’s neutral smile morphed into something unpleasant, not quite a frown, but equally unappealing. His eyes dimmed down to something almost cold, but not quite. 

Doug never could completely cool down or detach. 

He ran hot, and he always will.

Doug put down the papers and leaned back in his chair to give Tina an appraising look. 

In place of his usual defensiveness, his anger, or argumentative nature when accused of something he only looked at her. 

Shit.

Tina didn’t know what this was about. 

“Doug, why are you pushing her away? You are the one that wanted this!”

“We..” His voice was low and gravely.

He’s been drinking Tina sumerises from the sound of his voice. And when he starts drinking too much, his voice always gives it away, displaying the evidence of being unused for an extended amount of time. 

“We wanted it.” He corrected again. 

“And has that changed.” Tina raised an eyebrow. 

Only he could fuck up something so easy. 

“She..you…” he sighs, looking up at the ceiling. It stretches out between them before he speaks again, “neither of you need me.”

Tina stays silent. 

Doug isn’t the poster child for emotional openness, so when he speaks on them for once, she just listens. 

“I’m just going to fuck this up. Just like I fucked up with us.” He licked his lips. “Maybe I let her find out now before it’s too late.”

Tina nodded to herself for a moment. 

Doug could be a self sabotager, but not intentionally, not usually.

But this was.. new. Something only Angel could bring out of him. 

“Why don’t you just.. tell her how you feel?”

Doug’s eyebrows scrunched together as he looked at Tina.

“Angel won’t.. she doesn’t…”

“She does and she will.” Tina deadpanned. Burying the laugh bubbling within her. 

“Angel is the most emotionally patient and understanding woman I have ever met.” Tina stood up and took a seat at the edge of Doug’s desk. “She puts up with all your other bullshit. Why would this be any different?”

Doug eyed Tina's legs dangling off his desk before looking up at her face. 

She smirked down at him. 

“I.. I don’t…” his focus wasn’t on the conversation anymore. They were alone and everyone else was home for the day. He moved to touch her but she slapped his hand away. 

“You still lied to me.” Tina said casually. 

Doug gulped, his atoms apple bobbed a little, making Tina bite her lip.

She watched the wheels turning in his head. She watched him second guess whether to smile and charm his way out of this one or start lying some more. 

“I’m taking Angel to the movies, I’m going to spend the night at Angel’s,” she mocked him, “we’re going to do this, we’re doing that.”

Doug shifted in his seat, his eyes darting around the room as she spoke. 

“I—“ he started with a tremor and another bob of his throat.

“Shut up.” Tina spoke in the same tone. Not raising or lowering her voice.

She commanded, he listened. 

“Move.” 

He swiveled his chair back slightly, making room between him and the desk. 

She stood above him. The frantic rise and fall of his chest making her throb. With every second going by his cheeks grew an angry red, his chest slowly matching. 

She leaned down close to him, slowly moving to unbuckle his belt. He kept his hands firmly on the arm rest. His knuckles strained white with the effort, remembering their rule of keeping his hands to himself. 

With less than a tilt of her head she looked from his hands to his face. 

“Good boy.” She purred.

He groaned, his hips bobbed forward in a small thrust but he overall remained still. 

“You're so good, Dougie,” she wrapped her hands around his cock, moving her hand in slow tantalizing movements, “you behave so well now but you’ve been so bad lately. Being good now won’t let you escape your punishment.

A whine escaped his lips. His loud and desperate pants were growing by the second and Tina had to clasp her thighs closer together.

“Do you understand?” She closed her hand around him a little tighter than normal.

“Y..y-yshhhh.” He stuttered out in a strain before letting out a higher pitched whine than before. 

Fuck. If he kept this up Tina wouldn’t last.

Angel walked through the doors of Bottom Dollar. 

All the lights were off save for the golden light spilling out of Doug’s office. 

She bit the inside of her cheek to avoid becoming.. emotional, about Doug. 

She doesn't want to deal with the trouble of taking the bus or getting a ride from work to get there and back here, but Tina insisted she keep busy and clear her mind, but now she is not “keeping busy” and has nothing but time to just think about it.

Tina gave her a call before she got off telling her, “Doug has slanting he wants to say to you.”

She didn’t know what to expect. 

However, she did not expect to hear moans traveling out of Doug’s office. She did not expect to walk in to see all the buttons of his shirt undone with his cock bobbing up and down as Tina sat on her knees palming at his balls. She didn't expect to see Doug fight the high pitched whines and desperate strained moans with one hand over his face as the other held the arms rest in a death grip.

“Oh.” Her voice was a dangerously low whisper. Her hands tensed around the bag at her shoulder and the bifold in her hand. Her throat felt tight and the room too small and stuffy. 

Despite how low and soft she had spoken, Doug had heard her. His eyes fell on her at the sound and he threw his head back with a violent groan. 

“Angel,” Tina’s tone was sweet, disturbingly normal even, “you made it!”

Tina enveloped one of his balls in her mouth and Angel inhaled sharply. With a pop of her mouth she pulled back, sitting higher before wrapping her hand around Doug’s dick once more.

“Tell her what you told me,” Tona stroked him suddenly, his chest rising with the movement, filling the room with a loud ragged groan, “say. It.” Tina emphasized her words with a squeeze of her hand, choosing now to rub at his weeping head with her thumb.

Angel’s panties had never been so wet so fast. 

She matched Doug’s gaze, and he let out an even louder sound. 

His face half covered with his hand in effort to muffle his sounds, various teeth marks in place from how hard he’d been biting his own hand. 

“Sc..sc-scared you’ll hate me.” He whined out, and Tina stroked him harder, “don’t…d,” he moaned and Tina stilled her hand, squeezing him, “don’twantyoutoleaveme—“

Angel moved behind his chair. She moved his hair out of his face and cupped his face with one hand. She moved the other along his chest. Sliding it up and down in slow languid movements to comfort the frantic rise and fall and he let out desperate pant after pant. 

Tina stopped touching him altogether, and his face scrunched up into something frustrated, but his eyes were closed as he leaned into the semi embrace from Angel.

“It’s easier to push you away,” he kicked his lips, calmed down more now that Tina momentarily stopped her onslaught of teasing and torture, “and make you leave me first.”

“I don’t want to do to you what I did to Tina… What do to Tina.”

“I could never hate you.” Angel rubbed his cheek with her thumb. She closed her eyes to avoid his and Tina’s gaze. 

“You aren’t… the first terrible person I’ve dated.”

Angel opened her eyes, and looked down at both of them. 

Tina seemed more relaxed, but her gaze held a little tension as she briefly made eye contact with her. Angel ignored that worry for a moment. She focused on Doug and the way he sank back in the chair further, his brow relaxing and the way his eyes started to glow.

“Never?” 

Angel thought about every horror story she’s heard about him. Everything Tina’s hinted at but never told her. The warnings from all her friends and family. All the things she pushed toward the back of her mind and avoided thinking about.

“Never.”

He smiled. Bringing his hand to cover hers on his cheek.

“Doesn’t change what he put you through over the past few weeks though.” 

Angel looked down at Tina’s dark heated gaze. 

She hummed.

“No..it doesn’t.”

Doug looked up at her with raised eyebrows. 

He felt betrayed. 

She almost felt bad, but it was nice to be the one Tina wasn’t teasing for once. To be the watcher. She moved her hand from his face to run it through his hair. Pushing out of his face, before she pulled at it tightly.

His throat bobbed and he inhaled and exhaled in sharp movements. 

A new sensation of anticipation and an excitement she never felt before twisted at Angel’s stomach. Without thinking she moved to kiss at the large expanse of his exposed neck. 

She mouthed and sucked at it. Leaving as large of a mark as she could. 

Mine, she thought with a grin as she felt the pleasant hum from his throat vibrate in her mouth. 

Fuck, she needed to do that again. 

“Angel, stop.” Tina was looking up at her with a warning glance. “He’s not supposed to enjoy this.”

Angel moved her mouth from him with a frown. 

She would outwardly complain about it, but she didn’t want to risk the attention moving towards her. 

Satisfied with one hand in his hair and one on his chest, Tina moved her hand back on his cock. 

There were plenty of sex toys and tools about the office. Probably in a box or room somewhere, but the precum dripping from Doug’s tip since Tina started her slow sensual torture was more than enough to get his dick wet as she jerked him off with her hand. 

Angel bit her lip at the sight. His thick hard cock strained against his belly above the dark crop of his hair. 

She wanted to lick it. Lap at the precum on his tip as he moved the hair on her head  anyway he pleased, gripping it to keep her close to him, telling her how well she was doing for making him feel so good. Telling her what he’d do to pay her back as she bobbed her head up and down his length. 

She hid her moan with a hum. She didn’t want to risk diffusing the situation with how horny she was without anyone even touching her. 

Doug’s head suddenly turned the other way, bumping into hers, and Angel simply moved to place her chin on his other shoulder. 

He was gritting his teeth hard to hide his sounds, but he was failing. The more Tina’s hand moved, the louder he became. 

Angel rubbed small circles on his chest. She was mesmerized by how it puffed up and down with every pant and moan. 

Tina licked the underside of dick starting from the base to his tip. 

He covered his face with a hand, moaning out a whine before biting down on the finger closest to his mouth. 

“Don’t.. don’t hide.” Angel murmured softly, "You sound so pretty like this.”

He only groaned louder around his finger, closing his eyes tightly. 

Angel ignored him with an amused huff. 

Tina was jerking him off at an even faster pace now, steady but still not too fast, his hips bucking into her hand after every other movement. Her mouth was wrapped around one of his balls before switching back and forth.

Angel wanted to help him forget where he was and what’s happening. 

He needs to let go.

She pried his hand from his mouth and he opened his eyes. Without looking away, she put her finger in his mouth. 

He opened it, letting her slide it along his tongue. 

“Cute,” she murmured in his face, “but that’s not what I wanted you to do.”

She added another finger on his tongue and smiled as he closed his eyes again. She noticed a pattern between him closing his eyes and how his eyebrows tightly knit together. A very familiar pattern. 

He was annoyed… irritated. 

She pinched his nipple with the hand that was resting on his chest and he closed his mouth in a hiss around her fingers.

“See,” she pinched at him harder before rubbing slow small circles along his nipple, “that wasn’t so hard.”

Tina hummed, moving her hand faster. 

“You look like your enjoying this, baby. Have you done this before?”

Angel felt her cheeks grow hot.

“No.” She murmured into Doug’s hair in an effort to hide from Tina’s heavy gaze. “Maybe I picked up a few tricks from someone.” Angel smiled into his raven curls that were becoming looser and messier by the minuet. 

“Think I’ll have to make you prove it to me later.” Tina said nonchalantly.” 

Ang was suddenly aware of how hard her own nipples were  under her clothes. 

She took her fingers out of Doug’s mouth with a pop.

He covered her his face with his free hand, letting all his sounds fly. The other held the armrest in a death grip. His thighs and lower abdomen were drawn tight, straining the material of his pants.

Tina winked up at Angel and she averted her gaze as her thighs suddenly became even wetter under her skirt. 

Tina didn’t hold back anymore. 

Her hand was hypnotizing as it moved.

But all Angel could focus on was Doug’s face. The sounds spilling out of his mouth as he came closer and closer. 

“What do you finally have to say, baby boy?”

“Im s-rrryy.” He whined loudly. 

Babyboy?

She was definitely saving that for later. 

Angel matched Tina and sped up her fingers over his nipples, causing his whines to reach an octave she never would have believed possible.

“Imsorryimsirrhyimsorry.” Each sorry was more tense and breathy than the last. Every part of him an angry red, tears falling down his face in pain. 

He couldn’t stop. His limbs were tense and like jelly at the same time. He was on fire and boneless.

“I know you are. You are aren’t you,” Tina cooed, “you can cum now.”

Thick hot spurts of cum splattered over his chest. Glittering under the light of his office.

Doug’s pants were ragged and heavily, filling the room.

Some of it was on her hands. 

Angel would feel shame for it later, but her mouth watered at the sight. She moved to put her hand in her mouth but Tina stopped her. 

“No.” 

Angel fought the urge to smack her teeth. 

“Put it in his mouth.”

Doug opened his eyes with an unreadable expression. The vein in his neck rolled with how hard he was clenching his jaw. 

“You made such a big mess, baby.” Tina rose slowly to her feet, sitting on the desk in front of them, “you gotta clean it up.”

Angel swallowed. 

Tina only ever called her baby, but she was looking right at Doug with such a heavy look, matching the glare he was sending her way. 

Is this what they were up to when she wasn't around? 

Angel carefully moved her hand from the back of the chair without making a sound. The other hand, glistening with Doug’s spend she placed it in front of Doug’s mouth as he and Tina glared at each other. 

He tilted his head away as her hand got closure. 

Angel looked at Tina, unsure what to do.

It was like that for a few moments. 

Doug sighed through his nose.

“Tins, you can’t be serio—“

Tina had pushed Angel’s hand into his mouth. 

“Suck. It.” Tina smirked into his face. “I don’t wanna see any left on her fingers when she takes them out, or I’ll make you eat all of it.”

That was it for Angel. 

Was she turned on by this? Or just the situation overall, she didn’t have the effort to decide. 

With the hand she had carefully hidden. She pulled her panties to the side and slowly pushed them past her lips, but she was too wet and the sound was loud and obvious. 

Recent events involved and the feeling of her fingers on her clit moving in slow circles, she let out a quiet moan. 

“You touching yourself back there, baby.”

Angel moaned again. Louder this time, nothing to hide now that she’s been caught. 

“Yes.” She mewled. 

Her eyes widened at the sound. Her face on fire. 

Tina appraised her with raised eyebrows and a Cheshire smile. Doug looked up at her with dark intense eyes. 

“Come from back there. Let us see you.”

Fuck.. she was in it now.

Angel slowly made  her way to the side of the chair. The hand at her side glistened with how wet she was.

“Come. Here.” Tina hopped down from the desk and moved to Doug’s lap. 

Angel nodded, before swallowing. She moved to take Tina’s place.

Doug was hard again. 

They made her spread her legs and touch herself until she came. Again and again and again. 

Now, Tina started kissing along her thighs, her fingers dipped inside of her, sliding in and out at a languid pace. Her  mouth wrapped around Angel’s clit, making her whine. She couldn’t stop the tears from how overwhelmed she was. 

“You're doing so good, Angel.” Doug groaned. Tina slapped at his thigh with her free hand and he put his fingers back inside her, matching the pace of Tina’s fingers in yours. He’d been trying to rub his dick along her folds for a while, but Tina wouldn’t let him. 

“Just give us another one. I know you can.”

“Can’t,” Angel panted, “can’t. No more. Please.. no.. no more.” She mewled again. 

Tina sat up and whipped her mouth with her thumb with a satisfied smile. 

“I knew I could get you to make that sound again.”

Angel layed back on the desk.

Something prickly was poking into her back but she didn’t care. 

She was so overstimulated she was sure she was going to feel this tomorrow. 

She looked down between Tina’s thighs at the wet spot she was leaving on Doug’s pants, at how his cocked bobbed between her thighs. 

“So you aren’t gonna?” Angel started.nsure what to say or do.  For some reason Tina makes her nervous sometimes. Especially when she was like this. 

Tina raised an eyebrow at her with a huff.

“I’m fine. I made myself cum plenty of times when I was jerking him off.” She slapped at Doug’s thigh for emphasis, making his cock bob.

“No…” Angel played with her hands, smoothing down her skirt a little. She isn’t a prude when it comes to having sex, but she hates talking about it, “I mean, you or me aren’t gonna..” she looked down at Doug’s dick again.

Tjna laughed.

“You don’t understand what a punishment is, do you?”

“But you.. we.. it’s not over?”

“No.” Tina smirked at her frown and Angel ignored how that made her feel. 

“So is this like a you punishing or a me punishing—“

“—it’s both of us. He does not deserve it.” Tina frowned.

Angel bit her lip. 

She was not going to make it. 

“How,” she cleared her throat, “uhm, how long is he on punishment?”

“Angelina!” Tina glared at her, and Angel nodded.

She was so fucked. 

She watched Doug push back as Tina slid off his lap. She  watched as he put his cock back in his pants as he stood up, jumping a little to get the zipper over the bulge without irritating it. 

Buttoning the three to four bottom buttons of his shirt he caught her staring and winked at her, before buckling up his belt.

She pursed her lips tightly to hide her smile and fought the urge to move her hair behind her ear as she did so.

Tina groaned in frustration. 

“Angel, if you fuck him, your gonna get it worse than he did.”

“Alright! I get it!” Angel huffed. “I don’t get why I’m being punished just because he’s getting punished.”

“You can’t go a few days without dick?”

“A few days?!?” Angel stood up in a panic. “I can’t have dick for a few days? I thought this was a day after tomorrow type of thing.”

“I think Angel is making a very good point.” Doug chuckled and put on his coat before grabbing his keys from behind Angel on the desk. 

“Just take her home without fucking her.” Tina deadpanned. 

“And remember,” she added as she walked out the office, “I always know.”

[soft-persephone]

Captured by the Storm

Doug Renetti x Black!Female OC x Tina Lewis

Word Count: 1k

Warnings/Mini Summery: Melancholy, soft angst. Loss. Sad but not too sad. Funeral. Mourning. Grief. Light comfort. Tiny bit of longing.

Angel shifted on top of  the quilt that stayed with her through her youngest years of childhood. The heavily floral pattern worn with age brought back memories as stuffy as the room she was in. The good and the bad.  .  . . her mother. She could smell them all on the quilt, in this room, in the air, humid as it was.

The humidity captured her, holding her hostage to the little girl she used to be. To the time she spent in this town. It tortured her, leaving behind its evidence with a thin but growing sheen of sweat on her skin. The cup of ice water on her old nightstand was melting away into condensation within minutes. No matter how much she drank of the warm water, her tongue stayed thick and heavy in her mouth.

Her only comfort was the sound of the rain. The smell of it. 

It enraptured her in the  swaddling nostalgia that was home. Reminding her of the good, but left her equally as forlorn. Her comfort soon became another enemy. Torturing her along with the  humidity. Helping it rise higher and higher into the night. 

The moon itself was not in the sky, keeping itself scarce, leaving her in the dark with her capturers.

Everyone else was asleep. 

She would be too if it wasn’t the only time she could talk to Doug and Tina without being disturbed. 

She turned her head to face the clock. It was barely midknight. 

Tina said they would be working late tonight. They might be home around 20 past midnight or something like that. She couldn’t really remember. She tuned out after Tina said midknight. 

It was too long.

It was too long to go without talking to Tina or Doug. 

She was used to not being around them when they were all in the same city, but now, she was across the entire country without them. Her time zone was  an even two hours ahead. She was used to waiting hours upon hours until she saw them again, but now being so far away. .. made it completely unbearable. 

She never would have said it back in California, but she hated the high stakes reward nature of their job. 

Everything was a gamble with few guarantees. That meant an irregular unpredictable work schedule. She could go from seeing them everyday to not at all in such a short span of time. The rollercoaster of time they had to spend together was a nightmare for her clingy at heart nature. 

She was comfortable laughing it off with a joke about her mom passing away when she was young, but they didn't find it as funny as she did. 

She couldn't pretend it didn't bother her anymore. 

Licking her lips, she picked up the phone and dialed their number.

“Angel?” Doug's voice was warm and thick, adding to the unbearable humidity. Her skin felt stickier than it already was a moment ago, “Why are you still up? Are you okay? Did you want to talk about your aunt?”

“N- no. . .” That's why she was here wasn’t it? Her Mom’s sister had passed. The last of her grandmother’s children. They were all together now. That gave her some comfort. “I. . .I just miss you and Tina so much.”

“What about your family? It's been a while since they've seen you! All the way from California!”

“Yeah.” she replied weakly, not really sure what else to say. 

“That has to be exciting!” 

His voice washed over her in waves. Not loud, not a shout, he was mellow and refreshing. She  talked just enough. Saying the minimum polite requirement of words to carry a conversion, so she’d have the courtesy of just laying in the dark, listening to him. 

“Wh– What– what did you wear today?” she croaked out. 

He paused, but she could hear his smile. The sound of it brightened the room around her. It was her saving grace away from her captures in the night.

“The two piece blush pink suit.” He sounded a little deadpan but still utterly amused. “Sorry I didn't have time to find something sexier before you called.” he laughed, making the room grow that much brighter, making her feel less alone, “I thought I had more time.”

She laughed with him.

The heat and the memories fading away into the background. . .into a different reality.

“What about Tina? Angel smiled, pretty dumbly too if anyone made her admit it. The anticipation left her senses fumbling into stupidity. 

“Uhm,” his falter gave her pause, “A red dress. I think it's new?’

The darkness of the room was back, and she snapped back into reality. 

She was still far away.

Angel’s tongue darted along her lips and her eyes frantically searched in the dark. She already knew every little object in the room, but she needed to look at them all again. 

Words came tumbling out of her mouth, asking, begging, and pleading for the details, but her tongue felt thick and unfamiliar. It was hot and sticky in her mouth as her skin was from the humidity and sweat. 

“Woah woah, slow down.” Doug chuckled. “You're talking too fast and your accent sounds like it's gotten thicker since you’ve been home. I can't understand you.”

“Can you put Tina on?” 

Angel grabbed the glass for another sip of warm water before laying back down.

“Hey,” Tina said softly. Her voice was sultry and seductive. It was soothing. . . warm, “it's funny how lonely it feels over here when you're all the way over there.” She paused, “It's crazy to think how one person makes such a big  difference in our lives.”

Angel’s body was overwhelmed with heat. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything sentimental or sweet. It was breaking her, and it would only get worse when the sun came up. 

“Why. . .” Angel inhaled sharply, “did you wear it today? You know I'm not there?” 

Tina didn’t say anything and she started to feel a little agitated. 

“You know I wanted to see you in it first.”

"Maybe I wanted to hear you get upset,” Tina teased.

Angel laughed. Despite the hot humid room, it was cold, rueful, and dry. 

“Fine!” she managed to spit out, “Just wait till I get home! I’m not bringing you a surprise gift either.”

“Then I'd say. . .it was worth it.’

Angel huffed.

“I don't wanna hear you complain when Doug gets the biggest, most awesome gift.”