Work Text:
Despite his utter absorption in his work, a muted pounding on the cellar door startles Herbert out of his current labor in milliseconds. He looks up expectantly despite himself, giving a little smile to the tall, looming figure at the top of the stairs.
“Come here, Little Igor,” he half-croons, giving the creature a look of approval as it moves with lurching but steady steps towards him. “There we are.”
The revealed shadow smiles, though the the expression does not carry to its eyes. In the jarring light of the laboratory, the creature’s skin is blanched paler even than Herbert’s, the jagged scar below its navel raised to high relief where it is revealed between the open front of a man’s dress shirt that serves as the being’s only covering. Herbert cups the creature’s cheek, takes pride in the high coo it elicits. An Adonis, if he may say so himself. And does. Why, some might even say that he resembles Herbert’s old friend, that nice Dr. Cain, so tragic about his accident in Peru, well at least he’s with Meg and Lady Di and Jesus now, rest his soul.
Herbert’s gaze flickers back to the liquid dripping into his beaker and he turns away from the creature. “Go sit. I’ll have a surprise for you in a moment.” It (he, Herbert thinks, his gaze slipping between his creation’s legs) sits down happily at the empty workbench several feet from Herbert’s, dully watching him work, grace and ruthlessness and strength behind every twist of his titration, every dip of his syringe.
“Fetch me the potassium nitrate, won’t you?”
The creature grunts, takes only a moment to scan the cabinet and retrieve the powder. “Good, good. Now,” Herbert says, adding a minute amount to the beaker and stirring it before sucking the mixture into his syringe, “let’s make you another friend.”
Herbert frowns as he injects the reagent, wondering not for the first time if a heart was such a good companion, or if it would serve as too much of a…distraction from their work. Fingers and eyes were well for the occasional cuddle, but his creation was becoming rather clingy, and Herbert still had far too much work left to perfect to coddle his favorite experiment as it would like him to. Well, he thinks with a sigh, watching the sachet of skin encasing the heart twitch before beginning to beat steadily, it was certainly worth an attempt.
Herbert lifts the object, holding it out towards the creature slowly.
“Don’t worry, now. It’s all heart, wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
He takes it from Herbert gently, running his bruised fingers along the seams his creator had stitched so carefully before holding his palm against the warm, pulsing skin. He mumbles a garbled phrase as he kisses the shorter man’s hair sloppily. Herbert frowns again, but lets the creature lean against him, still holding the gift as he presses his groin against Herbert’s back.
“Ah, I like your thinking, Daniel.”