Disclaimer: Don't own.
Slipping
Sleep... did not come easy anymore. But what truly evil villain had time for sleep? Besides, Bait and Switch told him the bags under his eyes made him look more sinister.
Moist, his oldest friend, his only friend, seemed to be watching him closer than ever.
It did not surprise the doctor when, one day, his henchman confronted him in his lab.
"Doc, are you alright?"
Dr. Horrible just glanced over his shoulder at the other man. "Never better. Hand me that wrench?" He said casually.
Moist did so, and Dr. Horrible calmly wiped off the handle before using it one the gargantuan machine he was working on. I was a medicine creator. Once he was finished, if his calculations were right, all he would need to do would be to insert the right ingredients into the right ports. Out would pop a pill that was almost one hundred percent caffeine. Coffee had stopped working long ago, and Dr. Horrible did not like to close his eyes. She was always there, waiting for him, blood on her shirt and condemnation in her eyes.
Desperation was truly the mother of invention.
"Doc, are you sure you're alright. You don't look too good." Moist stumbled back a bit as the blond man jumped slightly.
Dr. Horrible had honestly forgotten that the other man was there. Sighing and turning his back on the machine (it was almost done. He knew it was) he tried to smile reassuringly at his friend, even as he rubbed calloused hands over drooping eyes. One more hour, that was all he needed. "I'm fine, Moist. Really. Don't you have a date to get to?"
The dark haired man grinned self consciously. "Yeah, Jezebel said yes to a second date. I wasn't sure she would, she's never agreed to a second one with anyone else..."
Dr. Horrible's gloves creaked as he made a shooing motion. "Then by all means, go. I'll be fine here."
"You're sure?" Already concern was pushed to the side in the wave of excitement that engulfed his sidekick.
"Yes. Go." There was a steel spine in that order, something that had never been in anything he said only months ago. Moist nodded shortly, and left the lab.
Dr. Horrible turned back to his machine, and tried to push the thought of anything else out of his sometimes overfull head.
But no matter his effort, a whisper slipped past his defenses. 'Once upon a time, you two would talk for hours about your girls. Him with his ever changing and hard won dates, you with-" He strangled the thought, much like he had strangled Captain Hammer when the man had hunted him down, finally shedding all traces of mercy. He did not acknowledge the brief thought that, if his mind was rebelling even slightly like that, that his tenuous grasp of sanity was slipping.
'That was different. Those times were different.' He told himself firmly.
The thought died with one last word. 'Why?'
He did not even consciously have to answer what he already knew. Those were happier times.
Dr. Horrible redoubled his effort on the machine. He did not need sleep.
And he no longer deserved happiness.
Crestfallen's giving me a Hel of a time. So I'm hoping writing something a little different would get the creative juices flowing. That, and my brain wouldn't let me sleep until I wrote this, because I saw Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog for the fist time today. The ending took me entirely by surprise. Anyway. I need sleep, and hopefully now I can.
Lionna