"Carlos."
The name was foreign and cold on the tip of Cecil's tongue as he addressed the scientist stiffly, fixating his gaze on the faintly glowing buttons to his left as Carlos stepped inside. With a quick glance, Cecil could see that Carlos' hair was perfectly dishevelled and his glasses perfectly crooked and his jawline, oh his jawline, how it was perfectly angular and how everything about him was just perfect and how badly he wanted to-
"Cecil."
Cecil froze as his boyfriend acknowledged him, with the same flat tone that he himself had forced. Carlos moved to stand at Cecil's right, distancing himself as much as possible from him. The elevator slid shut, and for once Cecil barely flinched as a grating voice from inside his head ordered him to choose his desired floor number. With a shaking hand he removed a single spider from his pocket and allowed the walls to swallow it with a sickening gulp. One spider would be enough to take them to the ground floor, he hoped.
He didn't want to part ways with Carlos. He didn't want to see his boyfriend turn in the other direction and walk away without a word. His body ached with the desire to touch him, to brush a hand against his perfect cheek and run his fingers through Carlos' perfect, perfect hair. But Carlos didn't want the same thing, he knew. No, Cecil thought bitterly, his perfect Carlos was too busy for him. Too busy doing his stupid science with those stupid scientists to arrive on time for dinner. Because 'getting to the bottom of these tentacles that keep dragging pedestrians down into the sewers' was just too important to forget about for just one hour.
Stupid, perfect Carlos.
The elevator descended slowly, achingly slowly. Cecil's heart thumped out every second that ticked by, and every second was a small eternity without his head against Carlos' chest, without his lips brushing against his. But he could wait. He could wait for Carlos to finally apologise, for Carlos to come crawling back on his perfect hands and perfect knees and perfect, perfect...
The elevator screeched to an immediate halt, throwing an alarmed Cecil suddenly off-balance. On instinct, his arms reached out towards Carlos as the scientist stumbled, his perfect eyes widening in alarm. The door wasn't opening, he realised. A judging by the horrendous hissing noises emanating from somewhere beyond those four, fleshy elevator walls, or maybe from inside his own head, they weren't going to open any time soon.
"Great," Carlos snapped under his breath, shooting an irritated glance in Cecil's direction and tapping his fingers erratically against his thigh. "Another problem that I have to solve," he muttered to himself. "This happens all the time. If my assistants would pay more attention to the maintenance of this building instead of spending their lunch breaks chanting in front of those ridiculous blood stone circles-"
"Blood stones circles aren't ridiculous!" Cecil blurted.
"They are ridiculous, Cecil," Carlos argued. "Blood stone circles are ridiculous, tentacles are ridiculous, this entire town is ridiculous and so are you! Just keep quiet and let me figure this out!"
Cecil flinched as if Carlos had raised a fist to him. He might as well have. He might as well have punched Cecil right in the chest because his lungs were deflating either way. Carlos' eyes didn't move from the elevator's pulsing walls to see his boyfriend's expression, to see the angry tears in his eyes and the crestfallen look softening his features. Instead he eyed the elevators veins with a calculating frown, watching as they crackled blue with electricity. For a few moments he muttered under his breath, something about 'if only he had the right tools' and 'if perhaps he could manipulate the ominous disembodied voice into letting them go'.
"Have you figured it out yet?" Cecil snapped after a few minutes. "Because you're a scientist?"
Carlos sighed. "No, Cecil, I haven't."
"Then maybe you aren't as smart as you think," Cecil grumbled in response. "Maybe you're dumb enough to actually spend some time with your average-intelligence-boyfriend. Or, as you probably call me in front of your science-buddies, your dumb boyfriend. Your dumb radio host boyfriend with his smooth, sonorous voice that sometimes struggles with difficult Latin incantations. "
"You aren't dumb, Cecil," Carlos assured, warming for a moment before quickly shaking himself. "If you would stop pestering me I might be able to figure this out," he muttered, his eyes now flickering from the ceiling, to the floor, to the walls, as if an answer might be etched somewhere in the flesh. More minutes passed with only muttering from Carlos and silence from his boyfriend.
More time passed, or no time at all. Time was an uncertainty in Night Vale, and Cecil refused to wear his oh so important watch that just so happened to be the only working timepiece in the city. Nonetheless, moments dragged on and on and Cecil began to get worried as Carlos' muttering grew louder, angrier. The scientist slammed a fist into the wall. "I can't," he stated bitterly. "I can't do it, Cecil." He turned to his boyfriend with a look of despair. "I don't know how to get us out of here."
Cecil was ready with an angry retort, but the words lodged in his throat at the sadness in Carlos' eyes. "It's... It's okay," he decided. "It's fine."
"No, Cecil, it isn't. You were right, I... I'm a scientist. I'm smart, and I act even smarter. If I can't show up to our dates in time or stay for cuddles in the morning then I should at least be able to help you when you need it most."
"Carlos..." Cecil began.
"I'm sorry, Cecil. I'm an idiot. I'm a cocksure idiot and we're stuck here together because I forgot to bring my equipment for rewiring the electric veins because I was too busy trying to think of what to put down in this stupid text message I was going to send you and-"
He stopped talking as Cecil pulled him into his arms, hugging him with all his strength.
"You're here now," Cecil murmured. "And until that grating, disembodied voice lets us go, you're going to stay here."
Carlos was silent for a long time before he replied. "I'm sorry, Cecil. I... I do love you."
"I love you too," Cecil assured him with a smile, hugging him even tighter with no intention of letting go. Not for a long, long time.