Finding Loopholes
A Welcome to Nightvale Fanfiction
It had been three months since Carlos had asked Cecil to move in with him, and he'd honestly enjoyed those 90 or so days eating, sleeping, and waking up with the radio host. Although sometimes he'd admittedly get annoyed with the hyperactive and sometimes brooding Night Vale native. Cecil had a tendency, to sometimes bring his work home with him; which Carlos didn't complain about because in all honestly he sometimes did that himself. Okay, he did that a lot. WAY more than Cecil, and that's why he didn't complain.
But when he rolled onto his back and yanked the blonds wrist towards his face to peer through sleep heavy eyes at the only working clock in Night Vale, only to find that it was three in the morning, he was tempted to lose his tempter; tempted, but not enough to actually do so. Carlos was a very even tempered man. He rarely if ever shouted, and never raised his voice in anger. Or at least he tried not to.
With a groan, the sleepy scientist forced himself into a sitting position, catching the radio hosts attention and causing him to cease his chattering. Carlos had honestly missed most of what the blond was talking about for the past twenty or so minutes, but he knew it had something to do with the radio station management, and the trouble with writing reports and what not.
Now, Carlos thought the whole 'no pens and paper' law was ridiculous. He thought a lot of the rules and laws and regulations in Night Vale were ridiculous. He would sometimes (more often than not) break these laws and regulations because he was a scientist, and he needed his notepad and pen. Admittedly he got a lot of warnings and complaints from the city, but he mostly ignored them. So far city council seemed rather understanding of his situation; the same could not be said for Cecil's.
"It's just so hard when people are asking questions and things need to be filled out and I loose my pocket knife or something." The blond whined. He'd gotten into trouble when he'd stolen Carlos's pen to write down some notes at the radio station. Carlos had a feeling that he would have gotten in trouble no matter where he was, but he still couldn't help but feel bad for Cecil. Cecil, even when he was obviously skeptical about the rules or laws or whatever city council decided to feed the citizens, wasn't a natural law breaker. It wasn't in his nature. He always strove to obey the law, no matter what. Carlos admired him for that.
"Well, if you just go to sleep, I'll try and figure something out tomorrow. Okay?" Carlos offered, weary and exhausted; and now that he was kind of awake he was beginning to notice the annoying itching on his wrists from an experiment that had gone wrong yesterday morning.
The blond beamed, ecstatic, and wrapped his arms around Carlos' shoulders. Cecil was very affectionate.
"Oh Carlos, you're wonderful. I don't doubt that you'll think of something to prevent me from having to go through re-education, again." Cecil stated without a hint of doubt. Carlos couldn't help but smile. It seemed a lot of the Night Vale citizens, none more than Cecil, thought Carlos as a bit of a town hero. He wasn't, but they seemed to think he was. Usually it just embarrassed him; but coming from Cecil, it was just sickly adorable.
"Alright, no please, go to sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow."
"Right! YEs, okay!" Cecil quickly scooted back under the covers; laying flat on his back, blanket pulled up to his chin, he looked like a child. Carlos rolled his eyes and smiled as he scooted back down and curled up on his side. He had no idea how he was going to solve Cecil's note taking problem.
The next day, during the weather, Cecil was surprised to find Carlos, huffing and puffing his way into the booth. The blond was ecstatic to see his beloved perfect Carlos, but also alarmed due to the short duration of the weather. Upon noticing that Carlos was struggling with a seemingly heavy package the radio host quickly ditched his mic to help the other man.
"What's this?"
"The answer to your problem. Since paper and pens as well as pencils are out, at first I thought why not just give everyone computers. Then I remembered the brief bit of history you told me about this town and computers, as well as the elementary school incident, so that ruled computers out. But then I thought, why not a type writer?" He opened the box and lugged the heavy black machine out. "I switched the ink with a bloody paste like substance, so not ink, and I replaced the paper with parchment. Which technically doesn't count as paper so they can't get you in trouble."
Cecil couldn't help but beam as Carlos quickly explained why he was there. Oh their time was so short, so horribly short, but Cecil quickly wrapped his arms around the taller man before kissing him full on the lips.
"Oh Carlos, thank you, you're a life saver! Literally! This will be great! Thank you." He quickly released the other man as he heard the quiet pulsing beeping that warned him that the weather segment was almost over. He quickly reclaimed his seat and pulled the headphones over his ears and turned the mic towards his mouth. He smiled, winked, and gave Carlos a thumbs up, who smiled back and waved as he snuck out the door just as the weather came to an end.
He stood outside the booth for a few minutes, just listening to Cecil talk about the traffic. He'd do whatever to keep Cecil happy. Even if that meant having to find loopholes in the ungodly amount of rules, laws, and regulations Night Vale seemed to have.