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Lucifer was walking towards his daughter's room with a big smile on his face. Sometimes he still couldn't believe that she was back in his life, that she wanted him in her life, and it made him incredibly happy.
Even if he knew she would be better off without him around. 'like everyone else' the though crossed his mind quickly before he took notice of the door in front of him.
Taking a steadying breath, he raised his hand, but just before his hand made contact with the wood, the door suddenly opened.
His daughter timidly emerged from the now open door. "Hey dad, er… is everything okay?" the girl said, a slightly confused smile on her lips.
"Yes, of course why wouldn't it be?" Lucifer replied quickly trying to appear nonchalant.
"You kind of… have been standing in front of the door for a few minutes."
"Oops, sorry, sweetie. Guess I got a little lost in the old noggin. HAHA!" said Lucifer tapping his head with the cane in his hands, his voice overly cheerful and a showman's smile on his lips.
The smile became more genuine when he saw his daughter giggling at his theatrics.
"Do… you need anything, Dad? You usually aren't up this early" curiosity laced Charlie's words. She tilted her head, looking inquisitively at her father.
"Ah, right it is kinda early, sorry char-char, should I come back later?" Lucifer started to get nervous.
'She is probably busy. Crap, I knew it was a bad idea. Gotta find a way out, but how…' his train of though was interrupted by his daughter.
"Don't worry Dad. I'm usually up at this time, and since we haven't started the activities yet, I was just going to check around the hotel."
"Oh, okay. I was just going to the manor to grab some things, and thought you might want to visit the old home." Lucifer really wanted his daughter to say yes. He left all his belongings at the manor when he left during the extermination and hadn't come back for anything, mostly due to fear of not being able to come back to Charlie.
"Yeah, of course, I haven't been there in so long, that would be great dad!" her voice was full of enthusiasm. "I'm just gonna talk with Vaggie. Be back in a sec!" Before going back inside her room, the girl bend down and gave her father a hug, that he quickly returned.
True to her word, after a few minutes, and some excited whisper shouts, the girl emerged from her room. "Hey dad, we are ready to go."
'We?' looking behind his daughter, Lucifer saw her girlfriend. The girl had a small smile on her face, that got visibly tense when their eyes met.
Deciding to take the chance to get to know his future daughter-in-law, he put on a small smiled and snapped his fingers, a portal appearing in front of them. "Sure thing char-char, let's go girls!".
The train of thought was interrupted when he heard his daughter. "Hey dad, we are ready to go" said the princess, and then Lucifer noticed her girlfriend behind with a soft smile in her face who that got a little tense when they made eye contact. Deciding that it may be a good chance to know the his future daughter-in-law the king simply smiled and snapped his fingers making a portal appear in front of them. "Sure thing char-char, let's go girls!".
The three crossed the portal, which promptly disappeared behind them, leaving the room completely dark without it's light. "Oops! Let me just…" Lucifer said, then tapping cane on the floor turning on all the lights in the manor.
"Why were all the lights off, Dad? Normally, everyone is awake at this time."
"Hmm… There is no one here anymore sweetie" the king said hesitantly.
"What do you mean, Dad? What about the staff and the people that helped with managing Hell?" his daughter asked, confusion painting her expression.
"Well… there wasn't much to do in the house that a bit of magic couldn't solve... So, I gave the staff and early retirement". Unable to stand the shame, the king turned to look at the wall. "I also told the other sins that they didn't need to go through all the work of getting my permission, so they could just do their stuff"
More precisely the king simply sent a text in their chat group saying, 'Not gonna be in the next meeting. Just do your stuff; don't need to bother with permission'. After that he completely ignored the group and put it on "Do Not Disturb" after they started calling.
"So… you've been living here alone all this time?" said Vaggie. Lucifer removed his gaze from the wall, his eyes landing on her surprisingly worried expression, then moving to Charlie, who wore a similar expression.
Attempting to break off their worry, the king put a big smile on his face and with exaggerated cheer moved close to the couple. "Don't worry abou that Charlie, just thought it would be good to take some time off, nothing much."
Noticing the lack of effect his words had on them, Lucifer started to panic, 'We just got here, and I already screw everything up'.
"Anyways, why don't you go show your old room to Maggie while I go to my office get some stuff? I'll join you two in a moment." Lucifer started to speed-walk, almost running, in the direction of his office, quickly disappearing around corner.
Charlie was only able to mutter a small, "okay, Dad…" before her father completely disappeared from view.
The princess felt a hard on her's and looked to her side, seeing her girlfriend with a comforting smile on her face. "How about you show me your room while we wait for your dad?" Charlie gave a little nod, a small smile appearing on her face.
They turned around and went on their way. Charlie gave a quick lock over her shoulder back to where her father has gone. It was the first time she noticed how far away his office was from the rest of the manor.
During the walk to her old room, Charlie started to tell her girlfriend stories of her childhood in the giant mansion. "and I was using his rubber duck to throw glitter at everything, and then …"
Abruptly stopping, Charlie stood in the middle of the room, looking at an empty wall. "You okay Hun?" asked Vaggie, concerned about the sudden shift in Charlie's mood.
"Yeah, it's just that… there used to be a painting there; it was my favorite one." the words that left Charlie's mouth where soft and sad, the last part barely audible.
"What was the painting like?" asked the angel, getting closer to her partner.
"It was me, Mom and Dad. I was pretty young and on Dad's shoulders. We were playing with mom and we all where smiling. I remember the picnic we had lather that day." There was nostalgia on Charlie's words and tears starting to well up in her eyes. "It's one of the few memories of the three of us together I have" the tears in her eyes started to fall silently, making their way to her cheeks and onto the floor.
"How about we ask your father where the painting is and maybe move it to the hotel? We could put it in our room." Vaggie said reassuringly, while wiping away tears from her partner's face.
"That would be great." said the princess, a smile forming on her face.
As they resumed their walk, a realization hit Charlie; she hadn't seen a single of the many paintings anywhere since coming back to the house.
When the king got inside his office, he had to catch his breath. 'When did I start running?'
After a few deep breaths, he straightened up and scanned the room, that was filled with piles of rubber ducks. When his gaze landed on the familiar painting that he has looked at every day in the past years, all motivation he still had seemed to vanish.
The king moved to sit in the chair next to his workbench. It was a mess, which made sense since he hadn't been back in the manor since the battle with the exterminators. After Dazzle was killed, he was finally able to intervene, so he quickly jumped through a portal, his wings knocking many of the tools to the floor, where they where now spread out.
The king bend down to get the tool. He took a hammer, noticing a piece of paper was under it, he turned it around and a smile appeared on his lips.
The paper in question was a project he started after visiting his daughter: a design of ducks made to look like her and her girlfriend. 'I should probably make those and give it to them'. Charlie has always liked ducks, he hoped she still did. If they liked, maybe the other residents would enjoy one. They deserved it after how much they had supported his daughter—more than he had, anyway.
With a deep sigh, Lucifer placed the paper on his desk and quickly collected the scattered tools. And after a few minutes of organizing, Lucifer snapped his fingers, a small storm of purple and golden magic enveloped the table in front of him, teleporting it to his room.
Turning around, Lucifer moved toward one of the bookshelves. After picking up a few items from the floor, he snapped his fingers, repeating the process of sending the piece of furniture to his room.
Feeling a little encouraged by this small victory, the king moved to the other shelf a few steps away. Bending down to pick up the objects on the floor, Lucifer felt his heart drop at the sight of a picture frame on the floor.
"Nononono," he exclaimed, hastily reaching for the frame while ignoring the cuts the shards of glass on the floor made in his fingers.
A wave of relief washed over him when he turned the frame and saw that the picture was undamaged.
The picture was Lucifer's favorite. It was taken not long after Charlie was born, when they first brought her home. In it, Lucifer and Lilith were singing to a completely ecstatic baby Charlie.
In the first years of Charlie's life, Lucifer was constantly freaked out. Hell had never been the most child-friendly place, and no amount of baby-proofing would change that.
He thought he wouldn't mess it up, like he had with everything else. Over time, he realized that Lilith and Charlie would be better off without him; all he ever did was mess up their lives. Eventually, Charlie would realize that too, and she would throw him out of her life. He was okay with that—he tried to be, at least—but he knew that all he could do was respect her wishes. So, he would stay by her side for as long as she wanted and enjoy it while he could.
Tears began to stream down his cheeks, and a small sob escaped him. He felt hunted by the knowledge that his daughter would be better off without him; that his days in her life would only last so long as her big heart could support a parasite like him. And after that, he would spend the rest of his immortal life alone and unable to ruin anything else. It was so cruel, to know that every moment he was in her life was just sabotage.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to tell her, she would probably get worried about him or realize that how worthless he was and cast him aside. So, he decided to simply remain in a corner in her heart until there was no longer any space for him anymore.
'I really am the worst', the king looked at the image of his wife in the large family portrait placed in the middle of the room. 'It would be better if I had left instead of you', he thought as more sobs escaped his lips.
As Charlie arrived in her room, she began to show Vaggie her old toys, rambling about their names, personalities, and detailed backstories. After several minutes, the princess excuse herself to the bathroom. Waiting for her partner, Vaggie started to walk around the room. It looked surprisingly clean, considering there is no staff to maintain the large house. She decided to shrug it off, assuming it was due to some magic used to keep it tidy.
It reminded her of their room, only with more toys and a wall that seemed full of drawings made by young Charlie. As Vaggie approached to look at the drawing, she recognized some of them as the first ideas to the Hotel. Moving to see more, she noticed that most of them where actually of her family. The Sins appeared in some, but the majority of were clearly of her parents.
Hearing the soft sound of a door opening and closing, Vaggie turned her head to see her girlfriend approaching with a small, nostalgic smile
"Coming back here bring a lot of memories back", said the princess, a gloomy tone to her voice as she looked at a drawing of her father and herself.
"Are you okay Charlie?"
"I don't really know. It's just… I'm worried about dad", the princess replied, an uneasy expression on her face.
"Yeah, he seems a little… tense?", replied Vaggie, not sure of what to say.
Charlie started to anxiously pace around the room. "Yeah! And he has been living here alone for so long, and all the paintings are gone! Maybe it hurt too much to look, and he just got rid of them!" her voice was full of panic and her breaths becoming erratic . "I know that the separation was hard for him, so maybe he doesn't wanna to think about it and I'm just making him remember it and making everything harder when he hasn't been doing great and…"
"Charlie!" Vaggie had moved to gently hold Charlie's face and look in her eyes. "Breath okay?"
"Yeah, sorry I got a little carried away there." said Charlie while taking deep breaths.
After her girlfriend seemed to calm down, Vaggie sighed. "Look, I won't lie to you and say that your dad is doing great because I don't think he is." A visible grimace appeared in Charlie's face. "And I may not know him very well, but from the little that I know of him, I can say that I'm completely sure that he wants to be in you life because he loves you."
With a sad look on her face, Charlie moved to rest her head on her girlfriend's shoulder, the action a little awkward due to the height difference. "Do you think I can help him? I mean, I can't even help some sinners with a few decades' worth of problems, and Dad has been alive since forever, literally. " Charlie's voice was filled with fear and worry.
"What… what if I can't help him?" the sentence was said almost inaudibly, as if she was afraid of uttering the words.
Vaggie cupped her girlfriend's face and gently moved her head so that they were looking in each other's eyes again. The princess's worried face was met with an expression full of love and confidence. "Charlie, if there's anyone that can do it, it's you. You're determined, loving, cheerful and your dad loves you more than anything so he's going to listen to you and you."
The words of faith warmed Charlie's heart. The girl then took Vaggie's hands in hers and began to plant small kisses on her partner's face. She then pulled Vaggie in a tight hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you so much!".
"Anytime, hon."
Charlie put her girlfriend back on the floor. "Do you think we should check up on my dad? It's been a while already, and he hasn't come back."
Vaggie then took the princess's hand and shot her an encouraging smile. "Sure, let's go look for him."
A pit started to form in Charlie's stomach as she approached her father's office. She was afraid of saying something wrong that might make things harder for him than they already were, and she worried that if this conversation didn't go well, he might leave her again.
Now standing in front of the door, Charlie felt paralyzed, as if she was trapped in her own body.
Noticing her partner's distress Vaggie moved, one of her hands on Charlie's back moving in slow circles and the other holding the princess own hand. "You can do this babe, just take a deep breath."
Following her instructions Charlie took deep breaths following the movement of the hand on her back.
Still holding Vaggie's hand, Charlie slowly approached the door and opened it.
The simple action was strangely nostalgic. During her childhood, she would cross the entire house in order to reach this door. always tried to be very quiet, but her father seemed to know she was there every time. And after entering the room, she would silently cross to look at her father and what he was doing.
In the beginning, she would often stare from afar until the maids or her mother found her. At one point, she approached Lucifer, and then he would stop what he was doing to show her a project he was working on or tell her a story before someone took her away.
That was probably the closest they had been for a significant part of her life, maybe it was the closest they had ever been.
This time however there was no one to take her away, not they could really grow closer and he might become a permanent part of her life in a way that she thought would never be true. Her father can support her and she can support him, they can be there for each other like family is supposed to.
Entering the room, Charlie was surprised when she was confronted by giant piles of rubber ducks. The emotion was replaced with a bittersweet feeling when she saw the paintings that covered the office. All the family pictures, the ones of her mother and hers where all placed inside the room. Her father had moved them all here.
A small sob caught Charlie's attention. Slowly and carefully, she moved towards the source of the sound, finding her father crouched on the floor. There were pieces of glass in front of him, and he held a frame in his hands.
The girl slowly approached the man, who appeared to not notice her presence. "hey dad…"
The king suddenly jumped, a clearly startled expression on his face. Finding his daughters face the king seemed to calm down.
"Hey, sweetie. Sorry I didn't heard you coming in." Lucifer brushed his face with his hands, trying to wipe away the traces of tears before his daughter noticed, but failing.
"Is.. everything okay dad?" His daughter worriedly asked.
"Yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be, sweetie?" Lucifer tried to shrug her off.
"You was crying. Did anything happen?" Getting closer to her father, Charlie noticed the frame he was holding, now on the floor. It had fallen from Lucifer's hands without any of them noticing. It had fallen from Lucifer's hands without either of them noticing. Charlie reached down, picked it up, and turned the frame around to see the picture.
"oh…" The small sound was the only thing she could say after looking at the picture.
"Dad are you okay?" Lucifer was caught off guard by the serious tone of his daughter.
"Ah… I…" After clearing his throat the king continued, "Yeah, I am. Uh… why do you ask?"
"When was the last time you got out of the manor, or even just out of this room?" Charlie's tone was kind and worried.
"Well, that was during the extermination, Char." Lucifer tried to appease her concerns.
"Dad…" His daughter could see through his poor attempt to mislead her, her brow furrowing in concern. "Before I called you about the hotel, when was the last time you talked to someone? And I mean a real conversation."
Lucifer started to panic. His daughter knew there was something wrong and he did't thought he would be able to convince her otherwise.
Taking his silence as an answer, Charlie decided to continue the conversation while she still had the courage to do so.
"When was the last time you got out of this room?"
The question made the king avert his gaze instantly, panic quickly replaced by shame.
He didn't even know when he had last left the room before visiting his daughter. Even before the separation, when he wasn't as troubled, he rarely left his office. It was one of his biggest regrets, while his daughter was growing up, he had isolated himself and wasn't there when she needed him for most of her life.
Lucifer felt a hand on his cheek, and his face turned to look at his daughter's. Her expression was full of concern and sadness, but also such love and care that he felt something inside him break.
"Are you okay, Dad?" that simple question was so hard to answer—harder than Charlie imagined it could be. He didn't want to lie; he felt like he wouldn't even be able to, but he also didn't want to burden her with the mess that was his life.
The king's gaze was a almost pleading for his daughter to stop and forget this conversation ever happened, to ignore whatever slip he had made that revealed how broken he was.
The look made guilt rise in Charlie's heart, she knew her father wasn't comfortable with this talk, but she was to afraid of what would happen if this conversation didn't happen.
She was afraid of stopping and not being able to gather the courage to do it again. She was afraid of what would happen if this continued. He has been living like this for at least the last seven years, or maybe since before she was born.
He was hurt, so vulnerable and small in front of her. He had always been very open about his love and affection towards her and her mother, but he hardly allowed himself to look sad, or hurt, in her presence—'maybe that was why he wasn't around much'. But now, he seemed so fragile.
"It's okay if you are not okay dad. You're not alone, I'm here to help you." Despite the storm of emotions in her mind, the words where said with unwavering confidence.
"You don't have to worry about it sweetie." Lucifer tried to fake a small smile, but despite his efforts it only made him look sadder. "Really Charlie. I'm sure there is more important stuff for you to do. You don't have to worry about me sweetie."
"But I'm worried dad and I want to help, but I can't if you don't let me." Each of words where laced with love and kindness but, that weren't able to stop the shame in Lucifer's chest.
"You don't need to Charlie. I'm the parent, it is my responsibility to help you not the contrary."
"I know I don't need to, Dad, but I want to help you. I want to help because I'm worried, because you deserve to be helped, to be happy, and because I love you. We are family, and that's what family does."
Hearing those words, Lucifer couldn't help but feel pride growing inside of him. His little girl had grown up to be such a kind young woman, capable of showing such compassion even to someone like him. She had been working so hard to create a better future for the human souls in Hell; it could change the afterlife for countless souls.
Yet, every moment he spent close to her risked tainting her dreams and her life. She was building a better future, while he was part of the ugly past that needed to be forgotten.
"Charlie, sweetie, you really don't have to worry. You already have so much to deal with, the hotel and heaven and everything that happened the last few months… You have more important things to worry about than me Charlie"
Lucifer's words had the opposite of the effect he had hoped. Upon hearing his words, Charlie's expression became of desolated sadness.
"But you are important, Dad… and I don't want to achieve my dream at the cost of leaving the people I love in the way. We've already lost so many people." Her voice grew emotional as she and tears started to pool in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you again, Dad…" The words were spoken with such fear that it seemed Charlie was scared simply saying them would make them true.
The words hit Lucifer like a truck. He had always felt like his daughter would be better off without him in her life, yet he had never considered how it could hurt Charlie—how it had hurt her.
For the first time, Lucifer understood that he had abandoned his daughter. He had left her, and now he was going to do it again. She was barely a toddler when he first left, he had hoped it be easier because of it—maybe she wouldn't even remember him. The result, however, was the scars and pain he now realized his daughter had been living with all this time.
"Charlie, I'm not going anywhere, you won't lose me." he tried to reassure his daughter.
"But you aren't well, Dad. You haven't been for so long, and you never got better, did you?"
Her words were met with silence. Lucifer couldn't answer her because he knew that if he spoke the truth, she would only become more distressed.
"Please… if you don't get help and just keep dragging yourself through life, you're just going to get worse." The words were almost pleading, "You aren't alone, you don't have to go through this alone, Dad. There are people who love and want to help, but we can't if you don't let us." There was such love and care in the words that Lucifer couldn't help the tears that started to fall.
He looked at his daughter. Her smile was warm and kind, and her eyes were full of love and care.
On the corner of his eyes, he noticed Vaggie standing awkwardly a few meters away from them, a small smile on her face. Noticing Lucifer's gaze, she gave a short nod of encouragement, her smile growing slightly.
Lucifer took a deep breath. He would do whatever his daughter wanted, and what she wanted was to help him. He didn't feel deserving of her help, her attention, and her time. But if that was what she wanted, he would try to be better.
He knew what it would mean. If he tried to get better, he would have to deal with the demons of his past—or angels, in his case. The mere idea of it terrified him, but he wanted to be the father Charlie deserved. He needed to be better for her, and even if he didn't believe he could, he at least had to try.
"Okay Charlie, I… I'm going to try." The words barely left his mouth before he was quickly wrapped in a hug.
"That's great dad. I know this isn't easy but admitting it is the first step, and I promise you that you aren't going to be alone" Charlie's voice was filled with joy.
After they parted from the hug, Charlie felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head. Her eyes landed on her girlfriend's; she had a smile of relief and pride on her face. A warm smile appeared on Charlie's lips. She wasn't sure if she would have gathered the courage to have this talk if it hadn't been for her girlfriend.
"How about we help you go through the stuff in the room, Sir? It would probably take a while to do it alone," the girl said in an effort to lighten the mood. It had been a tiring few hours for Charlie, and she guessed it hadn't been that different for Lucifer either.
"Oh right, I didn't make much progress, but you two don't need to worry; I can…" The king stopped mid-sentence when his daughter gave him a deadpan look. "Eh… I mean, M—Vaggie, that would be wonderful. Thank you."
The king then swiftly moved to start sorting through the nearest pile of ducks. His head quickly turned around to look at Vaggie after a few seconds. "Also you can just call me Lucifer, no need for formality you are already family." Then the king went back to his task.
Charlie looked at her girlfriend, a noticeable blush appeared on the girl's face, she quickly kissed her partner and took her hand pulling her in the direction of a smaller pile to her side. "Let's go Vaggie they are so cute, this gonna be fun."
"Su… Sure Charlie" The girl decided to simply be glad and try not to freak out about the apparent approval she had from her girlfriend's father. She moved to get closer to her partner a dangerous looking duck on her hands.
After about two hours of sorting through pictures, trinkets, and lots of rubber ducks, the family had finally finished with all of the belongings. Lucifer had decided to take only enough things to fill three boxes, which were quickly sent to his room using a portal.
Lucifer took a last look around the room. 'It's so empty' the thought suddenly appeared in his mind and with it memories of when Lilith had left, then Charlie and soon after he retired all of the staff. He had made it his own prison, alone for all eternity.
His train of thought was broken when he noticed a hand on his shoulder. The king turned to see Charlie, a soft expression on her face, with her girlfriend by her side, wearing a similar expression.
"Ready to go home, Dad?" The simple question made him realize; he was going home, not leaving it behind. This used to be his home, but that time was long gone. It didn't make leaving any easier. Even if he had made it his prison, it was where his daughter grew up and where he got married. He had so many memories in this place. The only solace he had was knowing he still had a home with his daughter, and that was enough.
Lucifer put his hand over Charlie's. "Yeah, let's go home, sweetie." His tone was somber but confident. Snapping his fingers, a portal appeared a in the center of the room.
Turning around, the family began to walk toward the golden portal. Lucifer's steps grew heavier, and breathing became more difficult. Before he could brace himself, anxiety washed over him, leaving him frozen and feeling like a thick fog.
Breaking through the feeling of complete numbness, Lucifer felt a hand grasping his, followed by another holding his other hand. His eyes focusing again, saw Charlie and Vaggie on his side holding his hands, encouraging, and slightly worried, expressions on their faces.
He took a deep breath, reminding himself that he wasn't alone, and began to walk again. The anxiety and fogginess where still present, but not as much as before.
After crossing the portal, Lucifer then turned around, taking a last look at the room where he had spend some of the worst, and best, moments of his life. The strong light of the portal making it harder for him to see the dark room, and with a snap of his fingers the portal disappeared.
Turning around, the king saw Charlie and Vaggie in front of him. At the back of the common room, he noticed Angel Dust at the bar, flirting with Husk, who pretended to be annoyed. On the other side of the room, Cherry was having an excited conversation with Niffty. Although he couldn't make out the exact subject, he heard something about "Mother Bug" and "giant bomb." In a chair nearby, Alastor was drinking tea and reading a book.
In that moment, for some reason Lucifer couldn't recognize, he felt a deep certainty that things would be okay, and that he would be able to deal with anything the future might throw at his, because he wasn't alone anymore.