Obreptio
After a late night of study in the lab, Carlos ran a hand through his hair, perfect hair, as a certain radio host would say, and began sorting out his notes and cleaning things up. He'd been examining a small raccoon that'd fallen from the glow cloud-all hail-earlier that week.
Nothing particularly unusual about the raccoon yet, but Carlos was determined to find some clue to the mystery that was the glow cloud.
Exhausted and frustrated, Carlos tucked little Penelope, the name a young member of his team had given the raccoon, away. He trudged across the lab and through the door in the connecting wall to his apartment-of-sorts. His team had all found places in town, but he always insisted on being as close to his studies as possible.
As it would be too much of an effort to turn on the light, Carlos simply let himself find his way through the dark to his bed, where he collapsed and intended to fall asleep, lab coat and all.
Only he didn't fall asleep.
"OBREPTIO!" That certain radio host jumped up from the far side of his bed, the lights somehow flashing on as he did.
Carlos stammered as he rolled off the bed, taking the blanket with him. "Cecil!" he growled, climbing back up.
"Obreptio," Cecil responded, cheer still filling his voice and face as if nothing were unusual at all about hiding in someone's bedroom and surprising them at two in the morning. "You sure were in that lab of yours a long time. Do have any idea how long I was waiting?"
"Cecil, not tonight! Normally, I find your Night Vale oddities endearing, but this is too creepy, and I am really not in the mood! Please, just get out of my lab and let me sleep."
"But-"
"No, Cecil, I'm sorry, but go, please."
Heartbroken, Cecil slunk out of the door. "Okay. I have work in the morning, anyway. Gotta do that holiday recap, you know. Everyone gets a kick out of it."
Carlos, in tired silence, watched Cecil leave and promptly turned off the light and went to sleep.
That morning, well, that afternoon as Carlos didn't wake up until ten and then spent another three hours with Penelope-still no luck-Carlos took a walk to the grocery store. Something felt funny.
In the aisles, he felt as if someone were watching him, but when he turned to look, no one was. The teenager who checked him out and was normally very sweet, treated him with an uncharacteristic attitude.
"Here's your change," she said roughly, shoving her hand out.
"...Thank you?"
"Or you could donate it to the Friendly Forest Fund," she suggested in a rather passive-aggressive manner. "It would be the nice thing to do, imperfect Carlos."
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing. Have a nice day."
Now more than a little unsettled, Carlos walked back through town, now and then catching someone giving him a hostile glare before they could turn away. He made his way out to the car lot. Old Woman Josie was one Night Vale resident he found very fascinating, what with the angels that, for some reason, he wasn't allowed to think existed.
Josie was sitting on her porch, gazing out at the cars, when Carlos approached.
"Hello, Josie!"
"Well, someone's got a lot of nerve walking around town today."
Carlos walked up to the porch and took a seat next to Josie, setting his groceries down. "What do you mean? Why has everyone around here been giving me the third degree?"
"Well, because of how you scorned the Palmer boy, of course."
"Cecil? No, I never meant to be rude and certainly not to hurt his feelings," Carlos explained, feeling horrible. "But he was in my room at two in the morning, and apparently, had been there all evening! I'm sorry, but I can only find it cute up to a certain point. Then it starts getting creepy."
Josie simply looked at the scientist as if he were a moron. "And then you kicked him out of your house. That's terrible!"
"Why? Why is it so terrible? All I wanted was a little bit of rest!" he insisted.
"Oh, sweetie, it wasn't your fault. You're just stupid," she assured him with a comforting tap on the knee.
"Excuse me?"
"Did the Palmer boy happen to shout, 'Obreptio,' at you when he surprised you?"
"Yeah, actually, how did you know that? And how did you know I scorned him?"
Old Woman Josie cackled, "Well, for one, it was all over the radio. Cecil, the poor dear, loves to tell us all about you, your relationship, and of course, your perfect hair."
"My what?"
"But more importantly, any idiot in the Vale knows about Obreptio. You aren't from Desert Bluffs, are you? They're the ones who always mess up Obreptio. Desert Bluffs..."
"Please, Josie," Carlos asked, "what's this Obreptio? Sounds like Latin; it's Latin, right?"
"I wouldn't know, sweet cheeks, but I suppose you're a better authority on that than me," the old woman said with a laugh and a forceful push to get her chair rocking. "Obreptio is an old holiday here in the Vale-more recently celebrated incorrectly by Desert Bluffs. It's a celebration of surprises."
"Oh, shit, I'm such a jerk..."
"Yeah. You are," Josie said, and Carlos shot her a glare.
"On Obreptio, people hide in the houses of loved ones and try to surprise them by shouting, OBREPTIOOOOO!"
Carlos felt a weight in his stomach as he realized how true it was that he'd reacted in one of the worst possible ways. Cecil had chosen him as the loved one whose house he would hide in, and Carlos had met his enthusiasm with anger, threw his love out on its butt. Its adorable little butt that has to sit on that surely uncomfortable chair at the radio station all day long and just wanted to have some surprise fun in the middle of the night.
"Man, I really messed that one up." Carlos stood, scooping up the sad bag groceries. "Thanks, Josie."
"No problem, sweetums."
Just as he reached the bottom of the steps, Carlos turned back to Old Woman Josie and asked, "He really says my hair is perfect on community radio?"
"Honeycomb, that boy says all of you is perfect."
Blushing, Carlos hurried home to think of a way to make it up to his favorite radio host.
"Goodnight, listeners. Goodnight," Cecil whispered into his microphone, so done with that day. He had tried to give his listeners an accurate, happy recap of yesterday's festivities. Most Obreptio surprises had gone over well, after all. But instead, he'd filled far too much of it with his own feelings about a certain scientist.
His intern-some new kid, why bother learning names, right?-had assured him, that it was a perfectly justified amount of time. "You spend as much airtime as you need on Carlos, imperfect Carlos," he said with a snarl.
"No, no," Cecil said. "Yes, I'm hurt by Carlos's reaction, but if things didn't go as I had planned, then it is because I am imperfect, not Carlos and his hair."
"With all due respect," the intern said, "His hair is the only perfect thing about him. You did nothing wrong."
"Thanks. See you tomorrow." Cecil turned and walked home, alone, under the stars that filled the part of the night sky hat wasn't void. Slinking into his apartment, he turned on the light, tossed his coat over a chair, and walked to the bathroom for a shower.
As the steam surrounded him, filling his head, he began to see what the intern-and nearly everyone else in town-was getting at. It wasn't his fault he'd been thrown out of Carlos's place. Carlos is the one who should've done his research. When moving to a new town, people normally learn a thing or two about the culture. At least the main holidays, right? Right?
Right. By now, Cecil found himself downright angry with his perfect-headed scientist. How dare he throw him out on Obreptio! Why, that was unacceptable!
Cecil's internal rant continued as he toweled off and pulled on his purple and green pajamas. Tomorrow, he'd stomp right over to the lab, pound on the door to wake Carlos up much earlier than he was used to, and give him a piece of his mind. Cecil had been saying something by choosing Carlos's place to hide in on Obreptio. He could've picked anyone, really. And no one else would have been such a bad sport about it.
He switched off the bathroom light and, through the dark of his room, trudged over to his bed, grumbling. He'd just pulled the blanket around himself and curled into a tight ball when he got the feeling that something was... odd. Out of place, maybe?
Suddenly, a body pressed against his, an arm curled around him, and a voice like smooth caramel whispered into his ear, "Obreptio." Cecil uncurled and turned over to find himself face to face with that scientist and his perfect, perfect hair. "I know I'm a little late-"
"Well, I'd say so!" Cecil said, making Carlos hope he hadn't offended him. But as Carlos tried to explain that he just hadn't known about the holiday and had just gotten out of a frustrating session in the lab and begged Cecil's forgiveness, the radio host silenced him with a kiss. "You know, for the head of a team of scientists, you're an idiot."
"Really?" A smile crept into Carlos's lips.
"Yeah. You're an idiot for not knowing what Obreptio is and for thinking it's even that big of a deal."
"But I heard some of the stuff you said about me on the radio today, and it sounds like I really-"
"Not a big deal," Cecil said, his eyes locked on Carlos's, which reflected the pale blue glow that streamed softly through the windows from the cloud.
Carlos blushed. "So, what would have happened last night, had I not kicked you out? What's customary?"
Cecil giggled, "I don't know about customary; people just sort of do whatever they want."
"Ok, then, what would you have wanted to do?" Carlos asked.
"Whatever you wanted to do."
"I wouldn't have known. What would you have wanted to do?"
"I don't know, but right now, what do you want to do?"
Carlos smiled and gave Cecil a quick kiss, saying, "Oh, shut up and don't start that. I think we both know what we both want to do."
And then they did what they wanted to do in the soft blue light of the glow cloud. All hail.
A/N: My first fanfiction for the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. I love the Cecilos ship so much. You just can't not ship it, it's that great. And if you were wondering, Obreptio is Latin for "I sneak/creep up (on) _" or "I surprise _." Hope you enjoy!