Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was a nice day in hell. There was no acid rain, no scorching winds, and the humidity wasn’t so stifling that people couldn’t breathe. Instead, it was the kind of day where one opens up the windows and lets a breeze waft through. The hotel took to this with gusto, with everything open except the main doors. It’s still safe, as windows were covered by Alastor’s wards and the air was permeated with Lucifer’s presence.

If anyone attacked, they’d be killed before they got close.

It was a Monday.

Lucifer stares at his sketch pad. This year’s anniversary needed to be bigger. Last year had been… two years. Lucifer groans and lets his head thunk against the paper. A two year anniversary and he’d created Alastor a set of ducks.

Yes, they’d looked like Alastor, Lucifer, and Charlie. Yes, Alastor’s had a functional radio inside of it tuned to HIS station Yes, Charlie’s quacked at a higher pitch and fell over randomly. Yes, Lucifer’s quack was an ‘I love you’ in Lucifer’s voice. Of course. All of those things were true and Alastor had laughed so hard his microphone peaked, hurting everyone’s ears.

Alastor had gotten Lucifer a new work room with new materials and a magical sheet that would bring any supplies Lucifer wrote on it right into the room. The old work room was turned into a storage place, like it sort of was already, and Lucifer had taken to using the new one with gusto. Any completed creation magically tucked itself away onto the shelves in a predetermined sorting system that let Lucifer relax about trying to clean up.

It had been so thoughtful, so genuinely heart touching, that Lucifer still teared up thinking about it.

So Lucifer needed to do better this year.

Not that Alastor thought so. He’d said the gifts were equal. Alastor had said, “Oh please darling, you’re letting me be a parent to Charlie! I was anyway but it’s nice for you to acknowledge it…” A while later when Alastor had been arranging the ducks on his desk in his radio tower, Lucifer had heard him mutter, so quietly as if he wasn’t supposed to hear it despite being in the same room, “I’ve been given trust.”

Which. True.

Lucifer grumbles and starts adding more details to the radio. It’s a 1920’s style standing radio made with cherry wood. It has all the embellishments Alastor could possibly want, decorated to heaven and back with little acknowledgements of everything that is Alastor with little antlers sprouting out the back and musical clefs along the edges. Lucifer had already started setting up a few radio channels (which was very hard to do behind the Radio Demon’s back) that would play music Alastor liked. The dancing channel had swing tunes, the 20’s channel had all the classics Alastor waxed about being better than modern music, and the modern music channel had been sorted into two different new channels… ones for the hotel guests and ones for Alastor.

There was some modern music Alastor liked but refused to acknowledge. Therefore, Lucifer had that channel labeled as “Alternative Jazz” at Charlie’s suggestion.

He’d already ordered the wood and various metals needed, and he’s asked Stolas about magical glass that would never break. It was all coming together and he just needed to get these last few details right to make sure it looked as good as it sounded.

///

He was so caught up in his head that he didn’t notice Alastor until Alastor had kissed the top of his head, hummed into his hair, and asked what he was working on.

Lucifer had hidden his sketchbook and hissed.

Which Alastor found amusing, even as Lucifer found it embarrassing.

“A surprise is it?” Alastor leaned down until they were eye to eye. “Very well, darling, but you know that I’m hard to surprise.”

Right. The Anniversary wasn’t for 2 months. It just looked like he was working on a random thing. That was good! He’d wanted to give himself time to make it by hand. Magic always dulled the excitement of giving someone something.

Lucifer was struggling for words with all the thoughts floating in his head, so he just stuck out his tongue and let Alastor laugh his way out the door. Glancing around the room, Lucifer noticed that Charlie and Vaggie were zonked out on the couch. They’d needed sleep for a while now. Angel Dust and Husk were at the bar. Angel Dust was sleeping on the counter while Husk played soothing music from the nearest radio. Angel Dust had been busy as PR manager, so it made sense that he needed sleep too.

With that acknowledged and Alastor gone, Lucifer got back to work.

///

He doesn’t know how long he’s sat in that spot, or how long the breeze has blown through and ruffled his once slicked back hair, but eventually there’s a knock at the door. He ignores it, that’s Angel’s job now (ugh, his straight lines were not good enough, he needed to get a ruler).

He hears Husk get Angel to move, but his eyes don’t leave the paper as his pencil makes different variations of designs to see which fits the radio best (more music notes or less?). There’s talking ( maybe more things that reminded Alastor of his living life? ), some sort of loud exclamation echoes but it doesn’t sound like something to worry about. More surprise than anything else, so his head stays down as he listens to sharp heels tap across the floor.

Maybe he should add music staffs up the columns?

“Darling!” Alastor’s voice sounds off. Both higher and lower in pitch, round in ways that Alastor usually only does to tease and he definitely wouldn’t do that in front of Charlie because she’d made assumptions last time she’d heard him talk like that. Cold fingers reach under his chin and pull his face up at an awkward angle, just enough for cold lips to press against his cheek.

There were two things wrong. The first is that Alastor never forces his head to turn away from his sketches. He just kisses the crown of Lucifer’s head or asks politely for Lucifer to turn. The second thing is the cold. Alastor is never cold. Alastor is warmth and heat and light all in one. Alastor is a furnace in the bed that keeps the winter out and the love in. Alastor’s lips are always dry and pleasant and warm against Lucifer’s cheeks. The cold is unnerving.

Lucifer turns fully and opens his mouth to ask Alastor if he’s sick and see’s a tall woman in a purple dress. His mouth snaps closed with a click.

“Thank you for the long weekend darling. I just really needed it after the little tiff we had.” The hat on the woman’s head is heavy enough it covers her eyes, but she tilts her head back and Lucifer has to catch his breath. Those are HER eyes. “It was perfectly rejuvenating. A little longer than the usual weekends I’d take, but I’m sure you needed the space as well.”

Lucifer tears his eyes away to look at the fireplace couches. “Charlie?”

Charlie pops up instantly, hair mused, and Vaggie falls off Charlie’s chest and the couch from the force. “YES I AM AWAKE!” Charlie’s eyes are wide. “Yes! Dad! Did you need something?”

Lucifer swallows and points his pencil at the woman who is looking down at him with a soft smile. His head is still swimming with the designs in his sketchbook, and he has a feeling his brain is trying to avoid the inevitable. “That’s not Alastor, right?”

Charlie’s eyes take in the woman. She scrambles to her feet, tripping over herself as she takes off in a sprint. When Charlie throws herself into the woman’s mid section, the woman reacts with laughter and spins Charlie around. “My baby! It’s so good to see how you’ve grown!”

“Mom!” Charlie’s voice is thick, filled with tears as Lilith stops spinning her and Charlie nestles in to cry.

“Oh, did you miss me? I know that’s the longest weekend I’ve taken off since you were born.” Lilith is so tall. Her hands barely reach Charlie’s back as the two embrace. “You always struggled with being on your own, I should have tried to come back sooner.”

Lucifer slowly stands, feeling like he has to puppet his body into moving, slipping his sketchbook into his coat, and puts his hat on his head.  Alastor will be home soon. It’s afternoon now, the shadows starting to stretch. Alastor will be…

“Lily?” Lucifer hears his voice as if it’s someone else’s. It’s thick and full of some emotion he hasn’t felt towards Lilith in a long time. “You’re… back.”

Lilith’s eyes widen. “Of course, darling! I’m so—“

Darling. She called him darling as if they were still together. As if she hadn’t walked out upon seeing just how much of a mess he still was. As if she were Alastor. He takes a step backwards, away from her and towards the stairs. He feels his muscles clenching, tightness across all of his body.

He wants Alastor.

“Darling?” Charlie is hooked under Lilith’s left arm, pressed into her mom in a side hug as Lilith turns to him. “Did you hear me, Darling?”

Where is Alastor?

“I’m…” Lucifer’s right foot hits the stairs and he stumbles. “Don’t….” He summons a portal beneath him before he falls onto the stairs and watches Lilith’s eyes narrow as he disappears over the edge.

He crashes onto a tile floor and the portal closes.

His world was ending. How could he deal with all of this? He just wanted to curl up in bed and have Alastor, the person who didn’t walk away from his depression, hold him. But Lily… Lucifer presses his palms into his eyes and squeezes all his muscles in for a solid thirty seconds. A deep inhale. When he exhales he releases everything and lets his body flop onto the floor, limp as he looks to the ceiling.

The pan rack above the counter is filled with cast-iron and copper.

Where was he?

He props himself up on his elbows and looks around to see whose kitchen he’s disturbing. It’s neat, tidy with everything sorted or put away. There’s no dirty dishes so it’s definitely not the hotel’s. The windows let in red light, so still the Pride ring. He pushes himself into a standing position, leaning heavily on a kitchen median as he forces his mind away from Lily and towards solving his current puzzle.

Ah. Lucifer knows this place.

Rosie’s.

He’s seen someone tied to this median while being butchered.

Pulling away and wiping his hand on his vest, he looks around for the little window table Alastor’s talked about. A little table with two chairs tucked into a corner window, out of the way of anyone cooking but still in the kitchen for appropriate conversation volume. He moves, taking a full turn on his heel to absorb his surroundings before he spots the little table, barely big enough for his sketchbook but just large enough for a plate of food.

He finds himself in a seat and staring out the window before another thought can pass through his head.

Rosie’s is safe. Warm and cozy with strict standards of behavior, and Rosie is one of the few overlords Lucifer has met multiple times. She’s been around since before Alastor, back when Lucifer had been willing to at least peek his head out to see the politics evolving around the pride ring. Neither of them had told Alastor this, but it didn’t really seem necessary. It wasn’t like they were friends.

At least not until Alastor had dragged Lucifer to Rosie’s to get ‘Rosie’s approval’. Now Alastor groaned anytime Lucifer brought up Rosie because, in Alastor’s words, they were ‘conspiring against him’. Lucifer loved conspiring with Rosie.

He takes out his sketchbook and starts on another set of detailed ideas. Maybe he should incorporate something of himself so Alastor thinks of him when listening to the radio? What would make Alastor think of Lucifer? Hmm.  Wings? No, too gaudy.

Lucifer looks out the window and watches the shadows stretch and stretch, time slowly passing as he sits and thinks. Music instruments? Eh, a little unoriginal.

It’s at least an hour before someone flicks on the light and gives a sharp little gasp. He swings around to look at Rosie, who is watching him with eyes he still struggles to read. “Well if it ain’t Lucifer himself, gracing my kitchen with his presence. You give me a minute, and I’ll get us some tea.”

Lucifer says nothing, but he knows Rosie has seen his nod because she takes off her hat and places it aside.

“You know, Alastor left a while ago.” She hums as she moves, all grace and purpose like every movement has been done a million times before. She looks from the stove she’s heating water on to Lucifer and raises an eyebrow.

“I…” He swallows and looks out the window. “I wanted to run his anniversary gift by you.”

If Rosie doesn’t see his half-truth, he doesn’t know who will. But Rosie is kind and she just hums, not pointing out the obvious shaking hands and hunched shoulders. He peeks back over and sees she’s keeping her face carefully neutral as she observes him.

“Oh my, must be a big one if you’re planning this far out.” She sinks into the seat across from him as she places cups down, waiting until his sketch book is moved to place his down. “Let me see.”

He hands over his sketchbook, something he doesn’t even hand to Charlie, and watches Rosie’s grin widen as she looks at the various designs he’s spread across the page. It makes Lucifer happy, even if there’s too much in his head to let him enjoy the moment for what it is. A good friend helping him when he needs it.

“Oh these are lovely.” She sets down the book and points at a particular design. “I think Alastor will like that one best. But maybe add a touch of yourself?”

She sips her tea as he nods and begins to scribble a little extra bit to the design. Along one side, ducklings follow a larger regal stag. Along the other side, little fawns follow a large duck. Rosie nods when he tilts it her way and then bursts out cackling.

“Oh he’ll love it so much, he’ll be mad about it. It’s perfect.” She giggles for a few more seconds before sighing and setting her cup down, crossing one knee over the other and leaning back in the chair to examine Lucifer fully. “Now. Why did you really come here?”

Lucifer scoffs and leans back as well. “That obvious?”

“Afraid so.” Rosie gives a little wink, just one to help ease his mind he’s sure, “Means somethin’ is really eatin’ at ya. Why not share with Alastor?”

His hands squeeze his sketchbook so hard, he leaves claw marks on non-chosen designs. He looks away again, unable to meet Rosie’s well-meaning gaze. She knows so much and is so kind, but he knows she’ll struggle with this set of circumstances. It’s a problem that comes down to ‘what ifs’ and Rosie always pushes him to think in the now.

What if Lilith pushes him to get back together.

What if Alastor doesn’t want to stay.

What if Charlie wants him to choose her mom.

What if… What if Lucifer doesn’t know how to explain his choice if forced to choose (for some reason he knows he’d choose Alastor, someone he’s been with for 3 years over someone he’d been with for far longer, and that thought scares him deeply).

“Lucifer.” The way she says his name, all soft and warm with no judgment, makes him cry. He cries so hard he has to put away the sketch book and buries his hands in his face.

The little dam he’d built in his head breaks.

“My world is ending,” Lucifer hiccups between bursts of tears, “And I don’t know what to do.”

A warm hand touches his elbow and he forces himself to look through his fingers at Rosie’s face. Her smile is small, a concerned little thing that barely makes any dent on her face as her eyes grow big. “Lucifer, tell me  what’s wrong. I can’t help unless I know.”

Before Alastor, Lucifer would never have confessed anything. He would have held it in and waited until everyone got tired of waiting for him to come out of his shell. But Alastor was persistent, Alastor didn’t let him hide. Last time something had eaten Lucifer alive, Alastor had shoved him into Rosie’s with a scowl and a “talk to SOMEONE” request (as close as Alastor got to begging).

So he sucks in a deep breath and lowers his arms, feeling the tears sticking to his cheeks as they slowly dry. “Lilith came to the hotel today.”

Rosie sucked in a sharp breath, but otherwise said nothing.

“She called me ‘Darling’. Said she’d enjoyed her long weekend.” Lucifer looked Rosie in the eyes, fresh tears still at the edge of his eyes. “And I fled. Because I don’t know what to do and I’m a coward.”

“Now you look at me and you don’t look away.” Rosie clasps his hands and leans over the table to get closer to him. He leans in too, knowing that’s what she wants. “Taking space to think and ask for advice isn’t cowardice. Leaving your spouse for over a decade and then coming back while trying to pretend nothing happened? That’s cowardice. I won't have you speaking bad about yourself in my kitchen. Do you hear me?”

Lucifer nods, taking Rosie’s tut as a sign she barely believes him.

“Let me call Alastor.”

“NO!” Lucifer reaches for Rosie as she stands, hand grasping her hand just before she gets out of reach. “I… What if…”

Rosie leans down, looking him in the eye. “Is Alastor the kind of man to leave his partner of 3 years in a lurch just because the situation is uncomfortable?”

Lucifer doesn’t even hesitate. “No.”

Rosie nods and leaves. Lucifer fiddles with his tea cup, taking occasional sips while looking out the window. Night has fallen, but hell is still bright from the various lights coming from buildings. The sky has no stars, but heaven is there in the distance. All of it together? It almost makes Hell look pretty.

///

Rosie was no help. Alastor grits his teeth. Last year Lucifer had given him the most spectacular gift, and he just knows this anniversary will be no different. They were competitive in almost everything they did, from dancing to cooking to gift giving. He knew he had to step up the gift this year but there was nothing in his head.

He’d already given Lucifer everything and Rosie’s hints as to otherwise were just grating.

They’d chatted for hours it felt like, but he still walked away with just as many ideas as he’d had going in.

Zero.

By all the sins, if even the smallest about of sketches he’d managed to steal a glance at from Lucifer’s sketch book were about their anniversary, Alastor was truly fucked.

He steps into the hotel and turns to get a drink from Husk, ignoring all the other sounds coming from various parts of the lobby. Lucifer will be in his workshop now, likely trying to build whatever he’d been drawing all day, which meant Alastor had time to ask Charlie for suggestions. “Rye whiskey, Husk.”

Husk is staring at him as if he’s asked for wine.

Alastor lets his grin expand a touch, cracking his neck to show Husk that he is so very close to snapping. “I asked for a. Rye. Whiskey. No rocks.”

That seems to do it, Husk moves with a start, pouring and sliding the glass over before Alastor can blink. “Boss. You seen the king?”

Alastor freezes just as the cup hits his lips. He sets the cup down. “What?”

“The king.” Husk is wiping down the counter, avoiding his gaze. “His…” Husk pauses, tilts his head and narrows his eyes at the wall to Alastor’s right. “You should talk to him.”

There are two things Alastor has learned about Husk.

1. Husk is very observant and doesn’t drink nearly as much as people think he does.
2. Husk is generally to be believed when he’s serving as a bartender.

Neither of these things are allowed to leave Alastor’s mouth.

“Is something wrong?” Alastor raises an eyebrow and finally takes a sip of his drink. Lucifer had seemed content earlier. “Did something happen, perchance?”

“Don’t blame me.” Husk is so quick, Alastor doesn’t even get time to let a single tentacle pop into existence. Husk looks around the empty lobby. Not even Angel Dust is here, and that fact alone causes Alastor to be on edge. Everything about this situation is odd and it rankles something deep in Alastor. “Just…Ask Charlie. I don’t want you exploding at me.”

Which was a fairly reasonable, if aggravating, statement.

Alastor turns on his heel and decides that no, he will not ask Charlie. He will not ask Husk or Angel Dust or Niffty. He will ask his partner in crime, his right hand in most things. Lucifer. He just has to find him. Just because the others haven’t seen him doesn’t mean Alastor can’t find him. It’s happened before.

///

It’s dark by the time that Alastor starts to feel the panic. Lucifer isn’t here. He’s not here. He’s not in his workshop or his room or Alastor’s room. Usually Alastor just has to take a whiff and the power rolling off Lucifer is enough to track the man down. But he’s not in the hotel.

The palace?

No, it’s all stale and dull there.

Alastor has taken to pacing in his room, refusing to let others see him like this, when he gets a phone call. It’s not unheard off, but it makes Alastor grind his teeth. He plucks the phone off the receiver and doesn’t even fully press it to his head before he starts talking.

“Hello, I’m a touch busy ri—“

“Alastor.” Rosie never interrupts him unless it’s important, so he shuts his mouth and waits. “Lucifer is in my kitchen.” Before Alastor can ask questions, because how did Lucifer end up in Rosie’s kitchen, he hears her sigh. “Look, hun, just… he’s a right mess. Get here quick, no walking.”

Alastor has his shadows take him away before the phone call ends.

///

Lucifer tucks away the sketch book, and watches as a couple cannibals mill about in the night time. There’s very few of them visible from Rosie’s kitchen window, but the few he does see are just mischievous kids looking for a little thrill. It’s nice that kids can be kids in Cannibal Town.

The click of heels makes Lucifer turn his head. There’s Rosie, her smile small but still warm, and beside her is Alastor. Who… looks a little bit of a mess. His bowtie and jacket are gone, hair a little shaggy like it’s had a hand going through it, and—

Alastor swoops him up into a bone-breaking hug. “Don’t you ever disappear on us again.”

Lucifer curls around Alastor, making his body lighter in the process so Alastor has an easier time holding him up. He buries his face in Alastor’s shoulder as Alastor buries his face in Lucifer’s shoulder. It took so long for them to get like this, to get comfortable with touch to the point that Alastor didn’t shy away from it, and Lucifer relishes in every touch he gets. Alastor still avoids hugs in front of others, but that’s okay. Lucifer is happy with what Alastor gives him.

Lucifer hears Rosie leave the room with a murmur given to Alastor about taking his time. They owed Rosie something for sure. Maybe a fine cut of sinner? Alastor knew a butcher or two.

When the hug ends, Lucifer feels his body tingle and misses Alastor’s warmth. Alastor starts to rub Lucifer’s arms.

“Now. Darling—“

“Don’t call me that.”

Lucifer slaps a hand over his mouth as his eyes take in Alastor’s frozen expression. A few seconds tick by and Alastor seems to restart.

“Now. Love. Why are you in Rosie’s kitchen?”

Lucifer buries himself into Alastor’s chest in another hug. It’s just. The perfect way Alastor could have shown he was still Alastor.

“I sort of panicked and opened a portal.” Lucifer doesn’t want to say it. Worries he’ll lose the love and warmth being pressed into his arms. “I um….”

But Alastor is patient. Always patient, and understanding as he guides Lucifer back to his chair and then kneels down in front of the chair and tilts his head to take Lucifer in, to show Lucifer he’s listening. Both of his ears are directed at Lucifer. Having all of Alastor’s attention is a little hard to handle, even after almost 3 years of being together.

So Lucifer grabs Alastor’s hands and squeezes. “I’m going to be selfish right now, okay?”

Alastor gives a squeeze back with a huff of a laugh and no radio filter. “I always want you to be selfish.”

And it’s true. It’s something Alastor will roll his eyes about every time. “Then I want you to promise me that you won’t leave me.”

“I will never leave.” Alastor’s less than microsecond reaction time makes Lucifer smile, even as Alastor has to blink and furrow his brow at his own reaction. If Lucifer had to guess, based on the way that Alastor’s smile twists this way and that as he thinks, Alastor is trying to figure out when the idea of ‘this is forever’ cemented itself in his head.

Lucifer feels surprised by that too sometimes.

“Lilith came by today.” Alastor is frozen again, eyes wide and ears not even twitching, “Talked about a long weekend. Kept calling me Darling. I uh… couldn’t handle it. Portaled to somewhere I felt safe. Turns out that’s Rosie’s.” Lucifer shuts his eyes and shudders. Rosie’s. Not the palace, not his room, just… Rosie’s kitchen. Where he’s seen a murder.

Alastor laughs. One hand slips out of Lucifer’s, so Lucifer opens one eye to watch as Alastor places a hand to his head and laughs some more. “Lucifer. You were portaling to me.”

“Oh.”

That made more sense.

 “You feel safe around me!” Alastor still laughs, both hands leaving Lucifer’s as he stands and takes a step away. “The love of your very, very long life waltzes back into your life and the first thing you do is try to be with me.”

“Ex-love.”

Alastor’s hands leave his head as Lucifer once again feels the urge to slap a hand over his mouth. He’d stopped filtering himself around Alastor about two years ago so even when Lucifer finds himself stressed and overwhelmed, he still finds it hard not to just… say everything. Charlie called it communication.

Then Alastor’s hands are in Lucifer’s again, thumbs rubbing against Lucifer’s skin. “Right. Ex.” Alastor leans forward just enough to give Lucifer a kiss on the top of his head and to murmur into Lucifer’s hair. “Well I’m honored.” Alastor kisses the back of both of Lucifer’s hands. “What do you want to do?”

Lucifer really doesn’t know how to answer that question.

///

They return to the hotel, Alastor guiding Lucifer away from the main entrance (the life blood and cultural center of the hotel) and through a little side entrance he’d cooked up when Lucifer mentioned having a place to sneak in/out important people would be a good idea. It’d definitely come in handy when a certain lust demon had come to ‘ensure Alastor was up to snuff’.

Alastor still has to fight the frown that memory tries to give him.

Up they go, into Alastor’s room and into the bayou where Lucifer can lay in the grass and sleep under the stars. They would deal with all of this in the morning, for now it was important to rest.

The morning felt normal. They got up, exchanged a glance, and then raced to the bathroom to see who would get to shower first. It was always Lucifer because Lucifer fought dirty and would extend his wings to bap Alastor in the face. Alastor didn’t mind, he just rolled his eyes and brushed his teeth while the shower ran.

“What should we cook for breakfast?” Lucifer always runs his showers hot, steaming up the mirror and making it hard for Alastor to do anything. One day he WOULD get the shower first. “I’m thinking of pancakes.”

“You always want pancakes.”

He hears Lucifer brushing his teeth from inside the shower. “Yeah,” Clearly the man is talking with a brush in his mouth, he could at least take the brush out. “And you always want raw venison.”

“The superior food.” Alastor cleans and files his nails, sharpening the tips.

“Gross.”

When Lucifer steps out with a towel wrapped around his waist and a toothbrush still in his mouth, Alastor rolls his eyes. “Must you always take so long?”

Lucifer’s grin is only slightly distorted by the protruding handle, “You could always join me.” At Alastor’s gagging sound, Lucifer tosses the toothbrush into the toothbrush holder and exits the bathroom. “You snooze you lose, bucko.”

“Since when do you say bucko?” Barely escapes before the bathroom door shuts and Alastor is alone to finally do his morning routine.

///

Lucifer knows Alastor. Before they’d decided to just say ‘fuck it’ and be ‘together’, Alastor had been a slight enigma. It wasn’t how the man argued or how he resorted to violence at the drop of a hat that was confusing. Lucifer was the king of hell and he’s seen people like Alastor before. The only thing that had confused the fuck out of Lucifer was how Alastor decided someone was worth his time.

How did Charlie get his attention?

Why did he respect Angel Dust?

Why did he hate Lucifer at first sight?

All those thoughts were swirling in his head as he basked in the current moment, where Alastor is looking at him like he’s worth a million souls. It gets his blood rushing even though he still doesn’t understand how it happened.

“What’s that look for?” Lucifer chops the veggies, pushing them to the side of the cutting board so Alastor can toss them into the pan at his leisure.

“What look?” Alastor rolls his eyes, but the look is still there. Mouth soft, ears directed in Lucifer’s direction, as Alastor hums.

Lucifer points a knife at Alastor, “That look. The one that says ‘I love you’ despite the fact that I’m just standing here cutting vegetables.”

Alastor pauses, just long enough to grab the carrots and potatoes, then shrugs. “I can’t look at the man I share a bed with?” Lucifer raises an eyebrow and Alastor’s nose wrinkles. “Keep your mind out of the gutter.”

It was just a couple years ago that  Lucifer wasn’t even allowed in the kitchen, so getting on Alastor’s nerves and still being allowed to stay makes his heart swell. He can’t help but let a soft sigh escape him, and Alastor stops the food prep (magic) he’s doing with his hands to tilt his head at Lucifer. Potatoes, carrots, shallots, some rice, all thrown together in the pan right before Alastor drags Lucifer away from the cutting board and gives him a kiss on his temple. Lucifer is spun in time to the music and directed to the other side of the kitchen where the fridge is at.

Right. Focus on the moment he’s in and stop thinking of the past.

“What kind of meat today, hmm?” Lucifer sticks his head in the cool air of the fridge to let his heart rate come down. “Bacon is the typical breakfast food, and it pairs well enough with the concoction you’re making.”

“Do not call my food a concoction or you will have none.”

Lucifer can’t see Alastor’s face, but he just knows those ears are flat right now.

“You know I’d rather prostrate myself before Sera than give up your cooking. Now we’re wasting energy, what meat?” Lucifer leans out of the fridge, satisfied his heart rate is at a more tolerable level, and looks to Alastor.

Alastor is staring at the doorway, but his mouth still moves even if the voice is a little less relaxed and a lot more scary demon. “Venison.”

“Right.” Lucifer grabs the venison, at least it isn’t sinner meat, and moves beside Alastor before allowing his nerves to get the better of him and look to the doorway.

Charlie and Lilith chatting in the open door.

That’s probably why Alastor had been a little more forceful in their routine, ensuring they spent as much morning time together as possible. Lucifer had noticed Alastor’s physical affections being more numerous this morning, but hadn’t thought to put a reasoning behind it. This made sense. Lucifer was grounded by touch, by love, and Alastor was trying his best.

Lucifer’s eyes didn’t leave the doorway, but he put his hand on the meat and managed to ask, “Did you want to cut it up or should I?”

“Hmm. Slices like bacon?” Alastor turns from the doorway, sliding a little more into Lucifer’s space to force Lucifer to step back. The doorway is directly behind Alastor now. “Would likely go over better with the other hotel guests, yes?”

Lucifer is shaking. “Right. Thick or thin?”

“A mixture. It’ll be easier to satisfy everyone then.”

Alastor’s head is tilted, taking Lucifer in with a rake of his eyes, “Love.”

Lucifer is struggling to take in enough breath. This is ridiculous. He’s known the woman for thousands of years. Thousands upon thousands. Eons. He knows how she works and how she thinks, and he knows she can’t hurt him physically… but he can’t. Stop. Shaking.

Alastor called him love instead of darling.

Alastor reached out and placed a hand on Lucifer’s shoulders.

Alastor is playing Lucifer’s favorite music on the radio this morning.

Lucifer focuses on Alastor and takes a deep breath. “I’m fine.”

He’s as convinced as Alastor. But he takes the meat and goes to the chopping board and starts to slice. Thin slice. Thick slice. Thin slice. Thick slice.

“Darling!” He flinches at the word. “You know. Charlie told me you’ve been cooking. I did miss your pancakes.” Lilith chatters away while she approaches, long strides bringing her closer and closer to Lucifer. Charlie is behind her, apron already tied around her waist, and Alastor is already gesturing towards the fridge with words for her to grab something.

Lucifer focuses on slicing, humming along to the song in the background as Lilith’s words stick to him in uncomfortable ways.

“You know the little breakfast place we used to go to everyday? You’ll never believe it. They’re still open! I was so surprised.” Lilith is almost right beside him now, hands and eyes fluttering as she talks. “We should definitely get out of the hotel together you know…. we can get back on the horse, as the phrase goes.”

She winks, one hand bracing on the counter while leaning down to give him a peck on the cheek. He closes his eyes, ready for the cold.

It doesn’t come.

There’s a sharp thunk. He cracks open an eye and sees a wall of red. Alastor is standing between them, with a knife suspiciously close to Lilith’s hand stuck standing up in the cutting board. A small thrill runs up Lucifer’s spine as Alastor’s hand flexes around the handle of the knife. “Hello Ma'am! I do not allow guests in the kitchen while cooking. Safety hazard.”

Alastor and Lilith look at each other for long enough that Lucifer is worried he’s accidentally stopped time, but Charlie is still moving so that can’t be the case.

Lilith’s eyes narrow. “Hmm well if you say so.” Lilith turns around, but looks over her shoulder at Lucifer, “Darling do come out when you’re done cooking. I would love to catch up. I have so many stories to tell you.”

No one says anything until the door closes behind her.

“Little sinister there, Alastor.” Charlie’s words are soft, and when Lucifer’s eyes drift to hers she flinches. “I um… don’t think you needed to do all that.”

Alastor yanks the knife out of the cutting board and checks the tip of the blade. He hums, moving to the tools drawer and pulling out his knife care kit. Charlie looks to her dad, who tears his eyes away to look at the cut left in the cutting board. It goes all the way through, they’ll definitely need a new one as a crack radiates out from the cut.

“My dear.” Alastor is back in front of his dish, waiting for whatever Charlie cut on her cutting board.

As Charlie hands him something, she sighs, “Look it took me forever to get used to you guys. I just…” Charlie’s hands clench and unclench as her eyes fill with tears, “We’ve been waiting for her to come back for so long. Can’t you be a little nicer? Just the first few days?”

Lucifer struggles to remain in the moment. He remembers how devastated Charlie was when he finally moved on. He remembers the months it took her to come around to the idea of Alastor and Lucifer. Lucifer and Alastor. He remembers that anniversary years are being determined on their official get together and not the ‘practically together but we’re waiting to help Charlie come around to the idea’ year.

Rosie counts that time period just to infuriate Alastor from time to time.

“Love?” Alastor is there. Charlie is staring at and stirring the food with a frown on her face, but Alastor is in front of him. Not touching, seeking permission and offering solace all with that one word.

Lucifer leans into Alastor’s hands. “I’m fine.”

Neither of them believe him, if Charlie’s brief glance over says anything about what she’s thinking.

///

Alastor knows they’ll weather this storm. They are not fair weather companions, and Alastor knows how Lucifer reacts to stress. The shutting down isn’t on purpose, the pushing away is a deluded attempt to make others happy, and above all… Lucifer still loves just as much as he did the day before.

So when Lucifer says, “I’m fine.” Alastor does not believe it.

Instead, he carefully, so carefully that Lucifer can stop him at any second, moves Lucifer to the little table they’ve set up so they don’t have to leave the kitchen to sit and chat. Just like Rosie’s, so it should be comforting enough. Alastor then, still slowly so Lucifer can see what he’s doing and doesn’t flinch, shadows in Lucifer’s drafting book and pencil.

“Let Charlie and I handle breakfast, yes?” Alastor is careful not to tease at this moment, because Lucifer struggles to not take teasing seriously when he gets like this. The sigh Lucifer gives him, along with the look he only gives when Alastor is right and he hates it, tells Alastor that he’s done the right thing.

Alastor turns on a heel, making sure to pivot an ear to Lucifer in case the man is too quiet to be heard normally, and gets back to work.

Charlie is still quiet.

“He doesn’t hate her, Charlie.” Alastor uses just the slightest touch of magic to put Lucifer in a nice, quiet, music bubble. Sound will come out but not go in. It’s not invisible, like the one Lucifer could make, but Lucifer isn’t complaining. Alastor tries to make a gesture that signifies Charlie should feel free to talk, but he doesn’t want to do anything big enough to catch Lucifer’s eye.

Alastor and Charlie had grown fond of each other. While Alastor would never admit it without a large amount of sarcasm and looks directed Lucifer’s way, he might even have parental feelings towards her. It had been inevitable, after all, with Alastor’s unwillingness to do anything at less than full capacity once he’d made a choice. He had chosen to love Lucifer and that meant that the person he’d started the hotel with would, in the end, be part of his circle.

Charlie groans. “Look, Al.” The only nickname he tolerated from Charlie was ‘Al’ and it had not been by choice. “He can’t even look at her without…”

Fear? Horror? Terror at the idea that someone who knew every facet of his being knew just where to strike to make it hurt the most?

Why yes, Alastor has seen those looks. He’d had them himself when the pesky emotions associated with Lucifer met his own, depraved sense of self-preservation for the first time. That was old news however, and this was different. The look in Lucifer’s eyes was based on experience. Lucifer had been torn apart by the one person who knew him best, and he’d survived by only looking back when necessary.

Alastor lets his body fall into cooking, muscle memory guiding each part of the process, as he looks at Charlie and sighs. She seems miserable. Sins, the things he does for his angel. “Charlie.”

“Yes!” Charlie aggressively cuts mushrooms. “I know! We went through the same thing! I should be understanding and caring and put myself in his shoes!”

Alastor waits.

“But I missed her so much and seeing her…” Charlie begins to cry, and Alastor puts a hand on her shoulder like Lucifer would if he were able to handle this moment. “It made me realize none of that heart break had to happen if she’d just never left. Why couldn’t she care enough to not break either of us?”

Humming as he adds butter and mushrooms into a fresh pan, Alastor thinks of what Lucifer said in their earlier conversations on the topic (and the thought that he wouldn’t have Lucifer if she’d never left does absolutely swim through his brain). “What do you want, Charlie?”

“I want—“ Charlie presses both hands against the counter and a sob slips out. “I want to be able to enjoy talking to her without constantly asking myself when she’ll leave again.”

He hated Lilith. Every inch of his being screamed for him to go out there and tear her apart, solve all the issues in one go with a single action. Shadows coalesced beneath his feel, a solid and calm reminder of his power.  Lilith had been here for a little more than a day, and she’d already torn apart Alastor’s carefully built home.

Alastor wants to ask, ‘and if she does leave?’, but Charlie’s shaking shoulders tell him that might be a touch too far. He needs to pull back.

“Charlie.” His hand is still on her shoulder, so he presses down a little bit to remind her he’s here. “I’m looking at the child of Lucifer who has survived much more than a broken heart. She did so without her mother, and she’ll continue to do so if her mother leaves again.”

Charlie pressed her cheek once against the hand on her shoulder before looking towards the door with a laugh, wiping tears away on her apron, “We should get you a therapy license. You’re way too good at this.”

Alastor scrunches up his nose at the thought and withdraws his hand. “Well there’s no need to insult me.”

But Charlie’s laughter is good, so he doesn’t mind as much as he should.

///

Breakfast is never a quiet affair. Every guest shows up, some grabbing plates and leaving, and others sit down to chat with Charlie and Vaggie. Charlie’s inner circle is always present. While where they’re sitting at the table changes, the who sits by who never does. Wherever Lucifer sits determines everything, as Alastor and Charlie will sit to either side of him and then Vaggie and Niffty will sit next to them. After that, Husk and Angel dust will sit across the table, because Husk refuses to sit next to Niffty at all costs. Cherri is down last and she always sits by Angel.

So when Lilith is already at the table chatting on her phone, it throws Lucifer off even with Alastor’s hand on the small of his back. Lucifer wants to sit as far away as possible, but he has to leave room for Vaggie to sit by Charlie which means Alastor would end up either at the head of the table or the last seat on the side. Alastor hates the head of the table, so Lucifer needs to sit …

“Love.” Alastor’s voice cuts through the thoughts as Alastor directs him into the seat that’s a couple down from Lilith’s, “You’ll destroy the last couple brain cells you have if you keep thinking that hard.”

Lucifer laughs, leaning into Alastor even as the man puts both hands on Lucifer’s shoulders and pushes him into his seat. “You wish you could think as hard as me.”

They laugh. Alastor hums, eyes sparkling, and then he’s off to the kitchen to grab food while Charlie slips into the seat on Lucifer’s left. “Dad!”

Right. Breakfast time is family time. Focus.

“Remember how we were trying to figure out how being Hellborn works with redemption?” Charlie’s voice is bright, so Lucifer turns, puts one elbow on the table and his head into his palm as he watches her arms flail.

“Uh huh, you have ideas?” Lucifer listens to Charlie’s rant, another idea found in some Ars Goetia book that Octavia surely offered, and enjoys the moment. The clink of his plate of food, the sound of the scraping chair next to him, the smell of how rich every dish on the table is, all of it is soothing him as a reminder that this is real and here.

“What do you think?” Charlie’s eyes are big, and Vaggie sits beside her with food of her own, so Lilith is barely visible in the distance.

“I think you’re reading too many Ars Goetia books. Octavia just started her studies. If you want more ideas, talk to Stolas.” Lucifer taps Alastor’s shoulders next to him and gestures to the salt and pepper shakers. “Al, the shakers?”

Alastor turns from Husk, apparently he was giving instructions for the day about something, and passes the shakers with a soft smile. “Husk says there’s a visitor on the way.”

Seeings as Alastor hates most of the sins, and is still upset about the one time Ozzie gave him the shovel talk despite liking the man, Lucifer has to assume this smile is for Rosie. “Why’s Rosie coming?”

Alastor blinks once, twice, and laughs so hard that his static crackles around the edges of the room.

Lucifer hands the salt shakers to Charlie who hands them to Vaggie. Vaggie looks at them and then at Charlie. “Why am I being handed the shakers?”

“For mom,” Charlie supplies, before turning back to Alastor’s laughter, “Was it really that funny?”

Alastor reaches over Lucifer and pats Charlie’s head. “Don’t worry, you’ll develop a sense of humor with time.”

Now that makes Angel Dust start laughing and when Angel laughs, Husk gets a small laugh. Soon it’s spread around and everyone in their little family is laughing and life is good.

Lilith’s voice cuts across the good times. “What was the joke?” All eyes turn to her, even as she sets her phone down and generously salts her food.

Alastor clears his throat. “An inside joke, Ma'am.”

Only a second of silence follows before Lilith opens her mouth again.

“I just had the most lovely conversation with Bee, darling.” Lilith starts talking, and Lucifer has the abject realization that she will talk about their personal business in front of everyone else. “She said you haven’t been to gluttony in years! You always loved Bee, darling, we have to go visit. Would you like to go today?”

Lucifer gives a strained smile. Just as he is about to open his mouth and come up with some excuse, some lie to get out of going somewhere, Alastor’s glass shatters in his grip.

“Whoops.” Alastor’s grin is strained. “Apologies. Anyways.” Alastor sets his hand in front of Lucifer, who starts to fuss and take out the glass shards that are stuck in the flesh. “Apologies, Ma'am, but Lucifer is busy with hotel business today. The overlord trade deals that we have established need an official reading and stamp from the King.”

“That can’t wait one day?” Lilith sighs a long, suffering sigh. “I just got back and I’d like to have a day with my Luci.”

Charlie mouths the word, ‘Luci’ in Alastor’s direction. Alastor shrugs. “I’m afraid the integrity of the hotel requires it must be done today, Ma'am.”

Lucifer’s warm healing glow permeates the room for a brief second before Alastor pulls his hand away and flexes it to make sure all the fingers are working properly. Angel leans over the table, “Luci huh? Think I could call you that sweet cheeks?”

Lucifer bats away the hands that are going to his cheeks and huffs. He’ll have to thank Angel for breaking the tension later. “Absolutely not.”

Angel winks as conversation starts up again, Lilith thoroughly distracted by Vaggie. Charlie cringes and leans close so no one but Lucifer can hear. “Think Vaggie will forgive me?”

Alastor’s hand is on Lucifer’s arm, gently squeezing. Lucifer sighs, “I bet she doesn’t even think an apology is needed.”

///

Alastor didn’t lie when he said they had work to do together. However, just as Lilith had all those years ago, Alastor was more than capable of using his stamp and signature to sign some papers. Lucifer even trusted Alastor to make decisions that Lucifer would approve of, if not endorse wholeheartedly.

So when they sit down in Lucifer’s office, papers magically there when there has been none yesterday, Lucifer raises an eyebrow at Alastor and waits. Tea is made, a chair is pulled up so they sit side by side, and music drifts through the space.

“Not gonna comment on the fact that all only 5 of these papers are actually new?” Lucifer looks at the proposal in front of him. Carmilla. He stamps approval without reading the rest and moves on to the next one. “Or that you have access to my stamp and signature?”

Alastor sips his tea and reads the already stamped proposal. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right.” Valentino. Rejected.

“Ugh he submitted a trade request? Whatever for?” Alastor sets Carmilla’s aside, the lack of comment meaning approval, and picks up Valentino’s. “How does Vox put up with him?”

“The same way you put up with Vox. A lot of patience.” Vox’s proposal isn’t bad. It definitely has a couple loop holes either side could exploit though. Lucifer takes out a red pen and starts to make adjustments. The quiet is nice. “Thoughts?”

Alastor plucks Vox’s proposal out of his grasp while Lucifer moves to the next one. “Mmm. I’m still leaning towards no but it could be my spiteful nature.”

“And?” Lucifer grabs the next one. “If it wasn’t Vox and was Carmilla.”

“Carmilla’s proposals aren’t written by someone who’s been lobotomized.” Alastor hums. “But I would allow this one through with one minor correction.” Lucifer hands Alastor the red pen, Alastor makes a minor mark, and then the paper disappears into the ether in a puff of red glitter.

They’ll see if Vox approves the changes tomorrow.

“Doomsday district wants to wage war on Rosie again.” Lucifer hands the paper over to Alastor, “How do I say, ‘You’d lose’, but in a way that doesn’t actually use those words?”

“You say, ‘Rosie has full confidence in her victory.’ Why is this in the trade pile anyway?” Alastor reads the proposal and huffs a laugh. “They’re asking for open borders. At least they’re trying to have some strategy this time around.”

“Ask Rosie if she feels like a war. Maybe her meat stock is low.” Lucifer grabs the last new paper and begins to read. Lucifer almost automatically stamps it when he sees Rosie’s name but he pauses and narrows his eyes at the paper. She’s been very cheeky lately.

Alastor still has the red pen and is making minor adjustments to Doomsday District’s open borders when there’s a knock at the door. They both freeze, pen above paper, and look at each other.

No one ever bothers them when they’re working on paperwork.

Lucifer clears his throat, “Come in!”

They watch the door slowly open to reveal Lilith in the doorway.

“Now. Darling. I know we didn’t part on good terms.” Lilith takes long, slow strides into the room. “But avoiding me is unnecessary.”

Alastor’s eye twitches. Lucifer knows Alastor hates being ignored, and hates people interrupting their private moments. Spotting the shadow that’s lurking behind Lilith, Lucifer clears his throat.

“I’m just really busy, Lil…ith.” The urge to say Lil or Lily is barely squashed. “Did you need something?”

Lilith sits in the chair across from him, eyeing Alastor as she speaks. “Well I need to talk to my husband. Have your assistant leave.”

Shadows curl around the edges of the room and Lucifer has to grab Alastor’s hand before radio dials can appear. “Al. Give me a minute with Lilith, okay?”

Lucifer can practically hear the grinding of teeth as Alastor’s smile sharpens. “Are you sure?”

Of course not. He’s never sure but he can’t have Lilith ruining Alastor’s day. Alastor deserves better. “I’ll be fine.”

Lucifer knows how to read Alastor, can see his partner doesn’t believe him and is worried, but Alastor always listens. “Alright.” Alastor points at his feet. “Just call for me and I’ll be here in an instant.”

Glancing down, Lucifer sees Alastor’s shadow has latched itself to his own shadow, blending in but still visible with that wide smile. It’s comforting, knowing that Alastor is just a word away.

Lucifer turns to Lilith who has an eyebrow raised.

Lilith says, “Little dramatic for a sinner, isn’t he?”

“What do you want?” Lucifer tries to suppress the growl in his voice, but knows it slipped through as Lilith leans forward and tilts her head.

“Oh please. Let’s not beat around the bush now after your less than subtle avoidance of my touch. Darling. I want my husband back but he seems to be taken.” Lilith grins and it sends a shiver down Lucifer’s spine. “Do explain to me how someone who’s been loyal outside of pre-discussed flings is suddenly galavanting with a random sinner.”

Blink. Blink. Lucifer’s brain feels like sludge. “Galavanting.”

“My Morningstar, Luci, yes. Galavanting.” Lilith throws her hands up and then huffs. “What else would you call it?”

“I’d call it being in a committed mutual partnership.” Lucifer’s tongue doesn’t feel like it fits in his mouth. “Why do you care?”

They’re both so quiet they can hear the clock tick.

“Tell me you’re joking.” Lilith’s voice is sour, her expression twisted into something that Lucifer has only seen a handful of times. “Really? Him?”

“Yes! Lilith!” Lucifer stands up and slams his palms down against the desk, golden cracks appearing along its surface. “We apologize for pissing each other off unnecessarily! We cook together, we work together, and we enjoy life together. What about that is so surprising?”

“I didn’t take you for a cheater.” Lilith stands, her hands pressing against the desk as well, purple light glowing somewhere within her. “My Lucifer, cheating on me. It’s enough to make me angry.”

“Cheating?” Lucifer growls, leaning in until they’re close enough that he can count her eyelashes. “You DIVORCED me before you left. You were the one that said you were tired of being attached to a depressed clown of a fallen angel.”

“Oh please we’ve had fights before!” Lilith pulls away and places her hands on her hips, “Remember the Library of Alexandria? Or the Black Plague?”

“Those are different!” Lucifer feels like he’s going crazy, his hands go into his hair and he pulls. “We were just arguing over Hell, not about each other. On top of that, let me remind you, again, you divorced me! You took off your ring! You threw it in my face!”

“I also said I wanted a long weekend to think about things!” Lilith shouts, her voice crackling like fire. “Need I remind YOU that a decade is hardly the longest time we’ve been apart. That’s a blink to me, not even a blink to you. I recall a century there where we didn’t see each other at all.”

“But I knew you were coming back those other times! This time you just left! You didn’t tell me or Charlie how long. You left our daughter feeling like neither parent wanted to see her!” Lucifer refuses to shout, he can’t and he won’t. Alastor hates shouting and yelling, so he won’t rise to Lilith’s provocation. Instead he sits down, elbows on the desk and hands still in his hair, “You left me. And you can’t even admit it.”

As a drop of blood drips down his face, likely from the claws digging into his scalp, he feels the cool hand of a shadow circling his leg, grounding him to the floor.

Lilith’s eyes are glowing, her hair standing on end as she gnashes her teeth. “So you’re giving up on us then? Everything we had? Everything we did together? Eons of time spent getting to know each other?”

It’s a slap in the face, throwing their time together at him. He knows they’ve spent almost as long as Lilith’s been alive together. He knows that Hell is younger than their relationship, that stars have grown and died in the time span they’ve been together. All of that is why her ring in his face had been the worst hurt thing he’d ever experienced

He lets his hands fall out of his hair and onto the desk. He leans back looking at the ceiling to see the intricate constellations he and Alastor had painstakingly painted over a year ago. His fingers itch to touch the stars, even as Lilith glares and waits for his answer.

He’d take falling again before he relieved getting cut into pieces by Lilith’s words.

“We were falling apart as soon as Charlie was born.” It hurt to say those words, to let the truth escape his chest, but it was important and Alastor’s shadow was there to anchor him. One word will bring Alastor here. One word. “And we’re falling apart now. You can’t undo the past. We both know that better than anyone else.”

Lilith walks out and slams the door shut, rattling the room and everything around him.

He doesn’t say anything else.

///

Alastor trusts Lucifer. Of course he does, it’s natural to trust someone after having given them trust for three years. It makes total sense to fully and completely trust someone once the time within the relationship extends past the time outside the relationship.

Of course. It’s logical.

Alastor is watching the lobby from the balcony above, hands gripping the microphone so hard he’s concerned he’ll break it. He just wishes his brain was fucking logical. Instead there’s the cool logic he enjoys, relies on in deal making and day to day circumstances, and there’s the wiggling little deceiver of an idea in the back of his mind that can’t shut up.

He knows Lucifer.

He trusts Lucifer.

Lilith…

“Are you growling?”

Alastor whirls on one heel to examine Angel Dust’s wide eyes and hands up, as if he knew to be on the defensive.

“Woah. Didn’t mean to scare ya Smiles, just came by to grab something from the storage closet.” Angel keeps all hands up, ensuring his body is turned to Alastor, as a singular hand opens the closet door and reaches inside. “You uh… got that look.”

Alastor does not growl. “What look?” But his teeth are most certainly clenched.

“The one that says ‘I’m about to get violent at the next bitch to talk to me’.” Angel pulls a yoga mat out of the closet and tucks it under his arm. “It’s hard to advertise for a place that’s got you being scary in it.”

At least Angel isn’t directly asking Alastor to get himself together.

Alastor takes a deep breath and releases the tension in his shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Angel looks him up and down, then nods. “Listen.” He leans in, just enough to whisper so that only Alastor hears but not enough for Alastor to start throwing threats. “No one here likes her. She’s a bitch.” Angel sucks in a breath, “And Lucifer? She’s hurt him more than anyone here. Including Charlie. Don’t tell him I told you that. Just… Don’t let him shut you out.”

And then Angel is gone before Alastor can respond, long legs taking him away so fast that Alastor is impressed. Angel Dust is right about one thing, Lucifer has been hurt by Lilith and it can’t be undone with a simple conversation. Lucifer…

Lucifer hasn’t called for him. It’s been 10 minutes. Angel Dust was just in his face, offering nice if ineffective advice. Surely they were done discussing things now?  Alastor glances back over the balcony. Lilith is there, having emerged when Angel was distracting Alastor. Which means Lucifer is alone now and still hasn’t called for him.

Alastor melts into the shadows.

///

Lucifer stares out the window behind his desk. Time is meaningless to a star, it doesn’t think about life cycles or children. It doesn’t worry about the idea of creation and destruction. It just exists, warming the universe. Lucifer wishes he could be like that. Without worry. Without care. Just do his damn job without emotions to get in the way.

What hurts is that he doesn’t hate Lilith.

Oh no. Far from it. He still loves her. The sharp twisted little form of love that hurts to think about. He loves the memories they have together, the thousands of years of dancing and singing. The near limitless times he got to see someone around them realize that, yes, Lilith and Lucifer were madly, deeply, loving.

Gone.

He feels like he’s gone supernova, nothing left of him but dust and ash spread across the cosmos for gravity to eat up and use as the building blocks of something new.

What hurt more is he can pinpoint the exact moment he stopped being willing to let her back in. Does that make him evil? To know the incendiary point that caused all of it to go up in smoke? Because he sees it clearly and it’s not Alastor (despite what Lilith thinks). It’s not even his own depression or his isolation for years as he tried to get over their official divorce. No…

It had happened during one of those precious Father/Daughter talks. In the moments of long shadows between a demolished hotel and a fully constructed one, Charlie and him had just… talked. About anything. About everything. He’d been so desperate to learn all things Charlie, and it had slipped, like a dagger under his rib cage, out of Charlie’s mouth when the topic of Lilith finally reared its head.

Lilith was why Charlie never called. Lilith kept Charlie away. Not maliciously, but absentmindedly. No time to visit the palace and see your father, no time to call your father… oh don’t bother your father, Mammon is rampaging today about something stupid. Separated and pulled apart until Charlie barely recognized him.

He’d turned around and vomited, much to Charlie’s dismay.

He thought back to Lilith’s face when she’d asked for a divorce, and he thought of her face when she said she was leaving. It was the same face both times, the same emotions, and he should have recognized it immediately. Time slowly grinds you down, wearing away the edges of your emotions until there’s nothing left but the hollow of where they used to be. Lucifer presses a hand against his chest. He would know that better than most.

Apathy was poison.

A bird chirps outside and he looks at it, allowing a soft smile to grace his face. There was a reason he made rubber ducks.

///

Alastor knocks. He never knocks, he’s never knocked once in all of Lucifer’s time being here, but now he knocks.

“Al?” Lucifer’s voice is muffled, barely making it through the hardwood door. When the door opens without Alastor’s touch, Lucifer is standing in the middle of the room, brow furrowed and eyes narrowed. “It is you. Since when do you knock?”

With a shrug and a twirl of his hands that sends away his microphone, Alastor steps inside and shuts the door. Magic has always been at his fingertips in hell, or void energy but others call it magic because they don’t know and Alastor doesn’t tell. When he steps into Lucifer’s presence he can feel the magic at his fingertips dance. It makes the tips of his fingers numb, his heart warm, and the shadows circle the room. They’re too afraid to approach the Morningstar.

Alastor has never been afraid of the Devil.

He doesn’t know if Lucifer did it on purpose, reeling him in with kindness and persistence that can only be matched by Charlie. He’s not even sure he could have stopped it. Alastor has never been afraid of Lucifer. Not even of what he can do, who he is, nor the eldritch being that only rears its head when someone is hurt. No, Alastor has only ever been afraid (not that he will admit it) of one thing.

“Al?” Lucifer’s fingers are cold, sucking the heat out of Alastor as their hands meet. Lucifer pulls him in close. “You alright there, buddy?”

Alastor hums and takes one of Lucifer’s hands, the other going to Lucifer’s waist. Playing a simple waltz through the office radio, he takes Lucifer around the room. “You seem better, love.”

And Lucifer beams. “I did it. I said what I wanted to say for the first time in a long time.”

A twirl, out step, in step, and then back to the box. “Excellent.” Alastor picks up the pace, just enough that Lucifer hovers over the ground at certain intervals with invisible wings, “There’s still something bothering you though.”

There it is. The presence of Lucifer falls heavy on the room as Lucifer’s eyes glaze over. He’s still touching Alastor, pressing against Alastor’s shoulders in a soft, warm embrace, but the body in Alastor’s arms is only a small extension of him at this moment.

Lucifer’s many voices come from around them. “I worry.”

Alastor hums, moving the body of Lucifer into a foxtrot. The movements are sharp and quick, music bouncing around them. It’s best to let Lucifer work his thoughts out externally (or he might pull inwards and Alastor hates trying to pull him back out). The first time Lucifer had shown him this small, incomprehensible display of power… Alastor hadn’t been able to resist tapping at it with his radio waves. Just the memory of that pain makes Alastor shudder.

The silence extends and the pressure begins to prickle Alastor’s shadows.

“What worries you?” Alastor asks quietly, barely audible to his own ears, but he doesn’t want to startle Lucifer’s heavy attention. He feels it when Lucifer sluggishly turns the eyes of his body to meet Alastor’s concern.

“Do you ever feel apathy?” There are less voices now. Lucifer’s hands are still freezing, but the glaze on his eyes is thinner.

Alastor scoffs, keeping up with the music even as he talks, “A rather common emotion amongst sinners, so yes. I have.”

When Lucifer’s hands tighten around Alastor, Alastor goes for a spin to reset their hand holds. He knows from last time that allowing Lucifer to crush his body will end up in tears. The quiet descends again, only the sound of music and feet scuffing up the floors is heard.

“Do you ever feel apathy towards me?” A single voice asks, coming from the mouth on Lucifer’s body.

They stop dancing as Alastor freezes, eyes wide as he takes in the being in his arms. Warmth is returning to Lucifer, slowly, surely, as Lucifer pulls himself together. The eyes still have a far off look, but there’s life in them as Lucifer looks into Alastor.

“Never.” It’s Alastor’s turn to squeeze so hard he might break bones, but Lucifer isn’t some fragile thing. He’s not made of glass. “You are the most frustrating and entertaining person I’ve ever had both the pleasure and displeasure of meeting.”

Usually Lucifer would be quick to laugh or comment, but instead there is silence again. Eyes are boring into Alastor, the full life of Lucifer still not quite present, but at least Lucifer isn’t ice cold. Lucifer squeezes. Alastor relaxes, humming and swaying in time to the music to try and encourage the angel to come back to his body.

Seconds pass, and then Lucifer inhales and gravity seems to increase. Alastor struggles to catch his breath.

“You will one day.” Voices. Layered and infinite, they rebound off the walls and echo into Alastor’s soul.

The hand touching Alastor’s is cold enough to be painful, the eyes looking into Alastor’s are a void of red.

“Do you have so little faith in me, my Morningstar?” Alastor pulls the being closer, suppressing a wince at the burning cold, watching as the head tilts and feeling as the pressure in the room skyrockets. With a shake of his head, he uses his own powers to keep his lungs open because he’d rather not suffocate. A large crash indicates the desk cracked in half. “Do you think I would choose apathy?”

“Choose?” There’s less voices. No longer infinite and rebounding, but enough that Alastor cannot count.

“In my experience, apathy is a choice.” Alastor hums as his hands go numb from touching Lucifer. He slides the one hand that was still in dancing form to Lucifer’s hands. Alastor steps back and bends at the waist, holding both of Lucifer’s hands in his own as he presses a kiss to the back of them. The cold cracks his lips instantly. “Do you hold apathy for Lilith?”

“No.” Even less voices, some crying and some screaming, but enough that Alastor could count if he tried.

“And how is that? Hmm?” Alastor holds the hands that are cracking his skin, burning him from their cold, and waits.

“I...” Just a handful of voices now, small and soft against Alastor’s ears. “I didn’t want… I…”

Alastor runs his thumbs along the skin nearest them. “When a person wakes up in the morning, they make choices that affect them for the rest of the day. Yes?”

“Ye….s.” One voice now, but still echoing. The eyes have pupils now, but are still drenched in red. The hands are still cold, but are not burning. Alastor gives Lucifer the widest grin he can manage as the pressure relents enough for Alastor to relax the hold he has on his own lungs.

“Then I shall make you a deal.”

The pressure around Alastor disappears so fast it makes his ears pop. There’s Lucifer again, eyes normal and hands warm, wrinkling his nose at Alastor. “You know me better than that.”

True. Alastor hums. “Not that kind of deal.” Alastor removes his right hand from Lucifer’s and pierces the skin on the pad of his thumb with one of his canines. “A blood pact, if you will.”

He remembers Lucifer’s stories.

Lucifer is looking at him, and Alastor has the distinct impression that Lucifer thinks he’s crazy. “What?”

“Oh come now, it isn’t the first time you’ve done this.” Alastor holds up his bleeding thumb, ignoring the blood that drips down onto the floor.

And just like that, Lucifer wipes all emotion from his face and is the Devil. The deal maker, trying to understand what Alastor wants. He raises an eyebrow and smiles so sharply that Alastor feels a touch of his sanity get cut away. “And what are we forming a pact over?”

Alastor smiles a little wider.

“Every morning, I will choose to love you. In return, every morning you will choose to love me.” The air is warm, rushing around them as Lucifer stares, slack jawed, at Alastor. “Oh come now, I think I’m being quite generous.”

Rosie will be so mad at him, but Alastor chose to have an interesting life. He refuses to back down now.

Lucifer stares at him, mouth finally snapped shut.

More blood drips down Alastor’s thumb as he waits, posed and ready.

The clock ticks.

“Pacts with me are forever.” Lucifer’s voices are soft around Alastor, comforting and weighty in the way a hug can be.

Alastor snorts and rolls his eyes, “I’m quite aware of that.”

“They can’t be broken. There are no loopholes.” Lucifer’s pressure is there again, all around him as eyes start to peek open on the various surfaces available.

But Lucifer is still Lucifer, eyes golden and cheeks rosy. Alastor tilts his head, antlers extending, “I refuse to choose apathy.”

“Forever consists of eons.” Lucifer’s voices are whispering against Alastors skin, but the voice out of the mouth on Lucifer’s face is the only one with emotion. Alastor can taste apples and hear wings beating.

“I am aware of time scales.” Alastor gestures with his still bleeding thumb. “Shall we?”

Lucifer is slow in his movements. Right thumb pad onto his canine, golden ichor seeping out instantly, and then Lucifer reaches his thumb towards Alastor’s with the speed of molasses. He’s giving Alastor time to back out, to think about what he’s saying and what he’s doing, but Alastor is only afraid of one thing and it’s not this.

Lucifer stops with his thumb an inch away. “Every morning, I will choose to love you. And if I see the hints of apathy within you, I will speak.” A single voice washes over Alastor as a warm breeze.

Alastor nods. “Every morning, I will choose to love you.” Lucifer smiles for the first time since Alastor punctured his thumb. “And I will never let you choose apathy.”

Then they press their thumbs together, blood mixing, and the world explodes. A vacuum is created around their hands as the power from their bodies presses outward, a shockwave throwing everything against the walls and the desk out the window. Cracks form as the hotel groans, popping and crackling with energy that rushes over everything.

Someone is shouting, banging on the door.

Lucifer’s eyes are open, surrounding them, gazing at Alastor. Alastor gazes at Lucifer, still in his body, smiling that lovesick little thing Alastor usually yells at him for. Nothing can be heard as the vacuum moves to encompass both of them, pushing more and more power into the hotel’s walls.

It’s in this moment that Alastor thinks he might have bitten off more than he can chew.

Wings, so many they are thunderous. Eye, countless and staring. Voices, layering over them. Warmth so hot it burns away the world until there’s nothing but them.

And then it all stops. Energy gone, Lucifer’s eyes shut, and Alastor slaps a hand on his chest and takes a breath into his lungs. Thank the sins, life would never be uninteresting again.

They both laugh.

///

Joy. Elation. Lucifer comes down from the high of his fucking life and looks at the devastation around them. He snaps, once to fix the walls and once to right everything else, and then looks to Alastor with a grin. “Should we let them in?”

There is banging on the door.

“Dad! I swear to Ozzie that if you don—“ The door opens and a whole group of people fall through and onto their faces. The dog pile includes Angel (unsurprising), Husk (slightly more surprising), Vaggie (very surprising), and Charlie (she had been the one talking through the door). Charlie glares up at Lucifer while she tries to wiggle her way out from underneath everyone.

Alastor steps a little closer to Lucifer and lifts Lucifer’s right hand to examine the thumb. He hums.

“Dad!” Charlie is in front of him, clearly upset, and Alastor steps behind him (coward). The others are still disentangling themselves, as Husk’s wings have proven to be a problem. “You were so mad that I made a deal with Alastor and here you are! Making a deal with Alastor!”

“Blood pact.”

He hears Alastor take a sharp inhale behind him. Foot in mouth disease is part of the Morningstar genetics for sure.

“THATS WORSE!” Charlie screams, throwing her hands into the air, “Where’s the justice !”

As she starts pacing, Alastor leans forward and whispers in Lucifer’s ear, “I forgot, she does owe me a favor. I’m sure I would have remembered it when I needed it, but it’s a nice reminder.”

Lucifer groans and sinks his head into his hands. At least until he hears three more pairs of feet walking over from the door.

“So, um,” Angel leans close enough to Lucifer to make Alastor growl, “Whatcha blood pactin’?” Husk grabs Angel and drags him out the door, “I was just asking! Can’t a man be curious in these trying times?”

Which leaves Charlie, pacing and burning a path in the carpet, while Vaggie stands nearby. She looks at them, spots Alastor behind Lucifer, and then tilts her head.

“Yes, my dear?” Alastor tilts his head right back at her.

With a scowl, Vaggie walks over to Charlie and pulls her out the door too. Charlie, knees locked and refusing to be helpful, yells, “We are SO not done! This is going to be the biggest Father/Daughter talk yet, mister! Don’t you forget it!”

The door closes

“Not that bad, honestly.” Lucifer turns to see Alastor rolling his eyes.

///

“Really, LuLu, a blood pact with an overlord?” Lilith is sitting at the bar, sipping a glass of wine, as Alastor watches through his shadow.

 Alastor was busy, as some pipe had busted on the third floor from all the shaking of the hotel and (despite Lucifer’s offer) plumbing was best done by hand. Contaminants in the pipes would be horrendous to deal with. So here he stands, in a room full of water with a wrench in his hands, coat tossed on a floating piece of furniture and sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and watches what he should be participating in.

He grumbles under his breath.

It’s odd, not caring if Lucifer talks to Lilith. He still didn’t trust the woman, but the memory of Lucifer’s thumb pressed against his is just there, having happened less than 20 minutes ago, which instills in him a sort of peace he didn’t know he wanted.

“What? I’ve done them before.” Lucifer is leaning against the bar, watching as Charlie paces and runs her hands through her hair. “Wanna bet on how long it takes her to cool down?”

“Darling, please.” Lilith raises an eyebrow and looks over her shoulder at Charlie, “At least two days.”

Lucifer nods, taking a sip from a whiskey glass (Alastor just knows it’s some sweetened concoction that tastes like drivel), “Not a bad bet. But I think she’ll calm down as soon as she can talk to someone outside this hotel. Maybe a day and a quarter?”

“It’s a bet. Stakes?” Lilith fully turns on her bar stool to face Charlie’s performance. Vaggie is at least trying to be helpful, unlike Angel and Husk who are watching from the bar with the two rulers of Hell.

“Ooo, right. I always forget those.” Lucifer seems to mull over his options, tilting his head back and forth, “If I win… I get your ring.”

Lilith coughs, “Darling, what in the world? Why would you want that?”

“To give to Charlie, obviously. You’ve seen those two.” Lucifer gestures broadly in the direction of Charlie and Vaggie.

Lilith seems to freeze, the hat on her head doesn’t block shadows from seeing her wide eyes, “You could have just asked!”

“Yeah but this is more fun.” Lucifer’s voice is almost a song, and Alastor grins because that’s HIS Lucifer. “Besides. Would you have given me the ring if I just asked?”

Humming comes from Lilith, a soft melody over the air, “I really hurt you this time, didn’t I?”

The quiet settles, the hum still there as a background melody, so Alastor turns on some jazz to give Lucifer something to latch onto. Husk looks at the shadow at Lilith’s feet and raises an eyebrow before turning back to Charlie.

Lucifer sips his drink. “Yeah. And you hurt Charlie too.”

“If I win, I get to be at your wedding.” Lilith says it with such confidence, such poise, that Alastor feels a shard of respect wedge its way into his head. “Unless you count the blood pact as one. That was the original wedding, if I recall.”

When Lucifer sputters, Lilith laughs.

///

Alastor can’t help but follow Lilith with his shadows. She definitely notices because not an hour after her conversation with Lucifer, she leans down and winks at the shadow hiding in hers before saying, “Darling, I am almost as old as Lucifer. You think someone hasn’t spied on me with shadows before?”

But he didn’t stop and she didn’t ask him to. It was just a reminder of the power imbalance between them, and another shard of respect starts to work its way into Alastor’s brain.

The sun is setting, the plumping is fixed, the oven is next, and he is still batting away Lucifer’s offers of magic. “Lucifer. I refuse to cook in an oven that has a chance of poisoning our food. No magic.”

“But neither of us know how to fix an oven!” The way the man whines makes Alastor roll his eyes, even as he sends a fraction of his attention to his shadows to see Charlie making her way to Lilith on the balcony over the garden.

“Then we’ll ask someone to find a manual.” With a scoff, Alastor pulls Angel Dust into the room using a shadow and points at the oven. “Manual.”

“Jeez, ya coulda asked.” Angel Dust pulls up his phone with a grumble, “It’ll be on Luci’s printer. Next time I’m ain’t helpin’ unless you ask before shadowing me away from a nice conversation.”

Alastor waves a hand at Angel as he turns to the oven. Lucifer opens a portal and pulls the manual through, binding it with magic in the process so the individual papers don’t fall apart.

“Little rude there, Al.” As Lucifer begins to thumb through the manual, Alastor takes out the tools he thinks they’ll need from the tool box.

“Oh please, if I was nice you’d start to think the universe was ending.” Alastor frowns at the toolbox as his shadows tug on him to get his attention. He flicks his attention through his shadows until he sees Charlie leaning on the same railing as her mother, eyes wandering over the garden (which was suspiciously more green than usual). Charlie’s mouth is moving.

He turns to Lucifer, opening his mouth and then closing because asking permission to more accurately spy on Charlie feels a touch too much out of Alastor’s realm of words. Thank goodness that Lucifer knows him as well as he knows Lucifer.

“Go ahead. I’ll try to fix this on my own.” Lucifer’s face is still in the manual, “And no magic. Promise.”

Alastor is gone before Lucifer can take it back.

“We don’t really allow magic in the garden,” Charlie’s voice is soft, a small thing that makes Alastor fear she’ll start crying. But her eyes are dry and her gaze is soft.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lilith’s music is drifting on the wind, settling over the plants and filling the air with a sense of calm. “I would certainly never use my magic on poor innocent plants, darling. That just doesn’t sound like your dear mother.”

Charlie snorts. “You sound just like dad.”

“Yes, well, thousands of years together does have that effect, my little star.” Lilith gives another wink to the shadows around them and Alastor has to, dejectedly, allow another little shard of respect start to sink in. “Now, if I know my daughter. She’s here to do a few things.”

Charlie turns away to look at the city of Pride.

“One of those things is to talk to her mother, which I love darling, I do.” Without her hat, hair flowing behind her in the breeze, this is the first time Alastor gets to see the true Lilith. She’s older than she is in the posters around Pride, laugh lines and small crow’s feet around her eyes giving a hint as to her true age. There’s a weight in her stance, as if she could crush the world by walking, “Another is to admonish me for disappearing for a decade. Which I understand, darling, of course. And of course you’ll ask me about your father. Go ahead then. Ask away.”

Plants are swaying in the breeze as Charlie looks back to her mother. “What made you stop loving my dad?”

“You know I was expecting the question and it still seems to have punched a hole in my chest.” Lilith places a hand against her chest, turning to face Charlie. She sighs and leans on the railing with one elbow, “I never stopped loving him.”

Charlie whirls on a heel, “What?”

“Oh please, we still love each other. Even now. Even after all this time. But it’s different, little star, very different. When we met it was passion and fire so hot it melted the ground beneath our feet. But now it’s…” Lilith pauses, her gaze going back out to the garden, “It’s a warm bath at the end of a long day.”

Lilith holds up a hand to stop Charlie from babbling. “But that doesn’t answer my daughter’s question, and we both know you’ll keep poking until you get your answer. To answer your question, time. Time, my lovely daughter, is a double edged sword.”

With a groan, Charlie puts her head in her hands, “I’m so confused.”

“Yes, well, so was I the first time I realized I didn’t even care if I was around my husband or not.” Lilith watches Alastor’s shadows as they curl around Charlie’s ankles, which prompts Charlie to look at her feet and take a deep breath.

“So you just… drifted apart?” Oh the look on Charlie’s face was immaculate; nose wrinkled, eyebrows raised in what Alastor assumes is disbelief. “But you’re the original love story.”

Lilith shrugs. “Stories are just that, darling. Stories.”

“But…” Charlie throws her hands up into the air. “That’s it? Time? Just? I just expected…”

“Fire? Brimstone?” Lilith raises an eyebrow and gestures to the city of Pride, “Your father and I make a great team when we both care. We can create entire cities, entire rings of hell even, which you have seen with your own eyes. Have you ever seen what happens when we fight?”

“No.” Charlie’s response is instantaneous as her eyes widen. “I haven’t.”

“And you won’t.”

Quiet settles as Charlie examines her mom, a hand on the railing to stabilize her. She sucks in a breath and looks out over the garden again. “Why’d you leave me?”

“You were an adult.” Lilith sighs, “Oh don’t make that face. Your father and I had separated and all I wanted to do was get out of hell and have a breath of fresh air. It had nothing to do with you, I just knew you were an adult who could take care of herself.”

A plant vine makes its way over the railing and drops an apple into Lilith’s hands. “Apple?”

Charlie takes the proffered apple and rolls it around in her hands. “Dad refuses to buy apples from the store. Says they don’t taste right.”

Alastor resists the urge to snort but Charlie doesn’t.

“Yes, well, he’s used to my magic apples.” Lilith’s vine places another apple in her hands, “I add sweetness.”

Of course Lucifer would prefer the sugary magic apples. Of course.

“Will…” Charlie seems to struggle, her hands clenching the apple so tight it dents, “Are you and dad… going to try…. Are you and dad going to be… Going to…”

“No, Charlie.” Lilith reaches over, and puts a hand on Charlie’s shoulder, “I think the most we can hope for is a friendship now. But we both have some work to do before we can have even that. We’ll both be here for you though. And I won’t leave again, without telling you when I’ll be back.”

And then Charlie laughs, tears brushed aside as she scrubs at her face with her sleeves. As the dented apple falls to the ground, she starts leaning into her mother’s touch.

Lilith grins, bending just enough to kiss the top of Charlie’s head. “Now! Tell me about Alastor.”

Oh. No.

“Do you know the first thing Alastor said when he met dad?” Charlie is bouncing on the balls of her feet, stars in her eyes. “He said, wait… let me get into Alastor mode…” Charlie cleared her throat and scrunched her eyebrows, “I've been practicing.”

Alastor was going to kick Charlie out of the kitchen for a week.  

Another voice clear. Then Charlie folds her hands and places them in front of her, as if she has an invisible cane,“It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.” She narrows her eyes, reaching out with one hand to pinch the air, “You are much shorter in real life.”

Mother and daughter laugh, at his expense, and it takes Lilith glancing at the shadows with a smirk to stop himself from popping out and giving Charlie a piece of his mind.

“And then!” Charlie waves her hands, Alastor impression gone, “They start sing fighting! About who is more attached to me!”

“Oh, I bet your father had the time of his life.”

Charlie is bouncing from one foot to another, twirling around as if she can’t contain herself. Alastor would rather eat glass than hear more of her impressions. “Oh let me tell you about the time dad burned the beignets.”

Alastor pulls away, back into the shadows to deposit himself in front of the still broken oven. “What have you been doing?”

Lucifer is inside the oven, so his voice is muffled. “Not spying on my daughter.”

Touche.

Oh right, he still needed to figure out Lucifer’s anniversary present.