Behind The Scenes

by BabyStepsAreStillSteps

Summary:

An impression of someone is generally formed within the first seven seconds of meeting, which is then typically reinforced with each new interaction.

Sometimes, though, sometimes the view of someone can completely change with just one quick peek behind the scenes.

Husk is kind of afraid he just had one of those moments... Vaggie thinks she might have, too.

Notes:

• For Summer_Meadows.

Chapter 1: Crew Watch

Notes:

For anyone who hasn't been involved in theater, Crew Watch is the rehearsal set aside for all of the departments to come and watch the show (not a dress rehearsal) so they have an overall understanding of how their crew fits into the “grand scheme of things”. These are departments like the props, lights, soundboard, costumes, make-up, etc. and it's really helpful to make the entire cast and crew a cohesive unit.

"Pentious said he's going to visit his grandma for the weekend, which totally isn't code for starting another turf war," Vaggie rolled her eyes, and Husk huffed a bemused laugh, but the defense that he might truly be making time to prioritize family she expected from her girlfriend didn't come. 

 

She glanced to the side, brow furrowing as she found the troubled look that had been haunting Charlie's face since she got back still fully in place.  

 

"Babe?" Vaggie asked, her mirth slipping away to be fully replaced with her growing concern. 

 

"Oh, sorry, I was distracted. I was thinking about Angel... I just wish I knew what had happened in the dressing room," Charlie sniffled, wringing her hands anxiously.

 

"We know what happened in the dressing room," Husk noted, unimpressed, and Vaggie nodded.

 

"Angel got pampered like the little porn star he is," Vaggie tried not to let the scorn into her voice as she reassured her girlfriend, "his boss probably just wanted to take a break to personally show him how hot he was or some shit."

 

Husk huffed an agreement, but Charlie remained unconvinced.

 

"No,” she insisted. "You didn't see him, it was like he was scared, even when he was mad, and I just wish I knew what had happened!"

 

She let out a frustrated huff, and the air before began to glimmer. They all stared at the swirling gold for a moment before they backed up as one, watching it warily. The gold faded into a hazy image that became clearer by the second, Charlie and Angel becoming visible.

 

"I am the princess of hell, and I go wherever I please?" Charlie's voice announced, though only the Charlie in the floating scene had spoken, leaning forward with an adorable earnestness to whisper, "I'm here to get you some time off for the hotel, now where's your boss?"

 

Vaggie couldn't deny that Charlie was right when she said Angel panicked, shooting back a terrified, "No, no, no, you are going nowhere near Val," as he dragged her to the door, and Vaggie would have thought the attitude was pretentious entitlement if not for the fear rolling off of him.

 

"Angel! What is the fucking hold up?" an impatient voice off-screen demanded, and Angel's fear visibly ratcheted upward.

 

"I'm coming!" the spider hurried to assure, ignoring his boss's quip about camera activities and instead focusing on Charlie.

 

"Please, please, just wait until I'm done working, and we will talk about this. I promise,” he begged, more anxious and pleading than she had ever heard him before. "But first, you gotta go."

 

"Ah, your majesty?" a voice purred, and Angel's expression was pure, unadulterated panic as he bit out an adamant, "Oh, shit," and then watched anxiously as the obnoxious moth gave Charlie the most disgusting greeting Vaggie had ever seen and offered Charlie a role that she emphatically turned down.

 

Behind the moth's back, Angel waved his hands as he frantically shook his head, but Charlie continued pronouncing her request to discuss Angel spending more time at the hotel, and Vaggie couldn't help but notice the furious look the man sent Angel, who shrank back.

 

Vaggie knew she couldn't, because they hadn't reached the dressing room, which was the entire point of the random burst of magic, but she almost begged for it to stop as Angel went back to work, thankfully not on screen, as the odd depiction followed Charlie through making script suggestions and then accidentally setting the set on fire.

 

The view of the room widened, and she couldn't help but notice that while Charlie tried to put it out, everyone else around her ran and screamed, except one. Angel sat on the bed, staring with wide, terrified eyes as he pressed himself against the headboard and muttered a barely audible, "Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

 

A dark figure prowled into view, sending a menacing glare at Angel, who shrank back still further, and then with one powerful flap of his wings, the fire was extinguished, leaving his furious face more visible as he stared down a blatantly panicking Angel.

 

The moth's lethal expression was poorly hidden behind an accepting mask as Charlie babbled apologies a moment later, and Valentino graciously allowed, "Don't you worry your pretty blonde head about it. We have people for that."

 

He turned his head to Angel, who had put on a robe from under the bed, and shards of ice filled the moth's voice as he asked, "Angel... can I see you in your dressing room for a moment?"

 

Angel flinched but didn't seem to notice Charlie reaching out for him as he hurried after his owner, and unlike all of the previous depiction, the perspective left Charlie looking forlorn and regretful behind as it followed Angel.

 

Angel walked in, shoulders bunching further when he didn't see the moth, seeming to expect it when he turned and saw Valentino waiting like a murderous shadow behind the door, slamming it shut and stepping forward.

 

Angel raised his hands in surrender, and tried to plead, "Val, I didn't know that-," but that was as far as he got before Valentino backhanded him -hard- across the face.

 

Angel made a noise of pain, but otherwise looked unsurprised, brushing off the blow with alarming ease as he continued to desperately try to make his case.

 

"Val, I-,” he tried, grunting as Valentino's arms shot out to grab the collar of his robe as he dragged him closer.

 

"You really think you can have Lucifer's little bitch," Vaggie gaped in opened mouthed horror as the moth threw Angel back, the spider's body colliding with the dressing room chair in a way that had to be incredibly painful, but he pushed past it to cower back as Valentino continued spitting out, "fight your battles for you?"

 

"Val, please, I'm sorry... She's-," Angel backed away as Valentino stalked closer, eventually ending up with his back against the wall.

 

"You bring her here to protect you? To fuck with me?" Valentino demanded, making a grab for Angel that he flinched backward from.

 

The red smoke from the demon's cigar curled around Angel's wrist, becoming a chain that yanked him forward into the hand Valentino buried in his chest fluff, using it to rip Angel off his feet and then slam him down onto the nearby couch.

 

Angel bit out a pained, "Fuck!" before his volume was cut off by Valentino's hand moving to his throat.

 

Angel didn't try to struggle at all, only watched with wide eyes as Valentino loomed over him, biting out, "You think she can get you out of work?"

 

"No!" Angel shook his head as much as was possible around Valentino's grip. "No, that-, I'm, that-, that's not what I'm trying to do. I-, No- "

 

Valentino growled and used his hold to throw Angel across the room hard enough to send him skidding away as he lay in a crumpled heap, and the spider let out a noise of pain that shot straight through Vaggie's heart.

 

"You know she can't do anything," Valentino informed him, surveying him dispassionately as he gathered a ball of red smoke in his hands.

 

Angel didn't try to get up again, letting out a pained sob as he breathed through what had to be agony, but the smoke reached out again, becoming a dangerous, red chain around his throat that ripped him upward and to his knees.

 

Valentino summoned a glowing soul contract and Angel looked at it with heartbroken, defeated, eyes, the chain supporting all of his weight as he bit down tears growing on his waterline.

 

"I own you," Valentino reminded him with a vicious surety. "Or have you forgotten that?"

 

Angel sniffled, staring at something on the front of the contract, but answered a whimpered, "No."

 

The contract vanished and Valentino jerked Angel to the side so he could make eye contact with him in the mirror without having to bend down from where he towered over the incredibly small looking spider.

 

"When I say ‘come’, you say...?" Valentino invited an answer, and Angel swallowed down his tears and rasped, "Yes, Valentino."

 

"When I say, 'You are fucking twenty guys before lunch,' you say...?" Valentino leaned down, ignoring the way Angel shied away.

 

"Yes, Valentino," Angel obediently responded, his voice hollow and holding none of the vibrant personality it usually did, and Vaggie stared in horror at the dread of the prospect rolling off of Angel. She had always been under the impression that he loved his job, as he proudly shoved it in their face whenever possible, but maybe that wasn't the case after all.

 

"When I say, 'You better get that fucking-'," Valentino whipped Angel around to shout into his face, "cunt out of my studio..."

 

Valentino ran the back of his hand against Angel's cheek, ensuring the spider could see the razor-sharp nails at the end of each finger.

 

"... You say...?” he invited.

 

"Uh," Angel faltered, flinching as Valentino's grip shifted to clutch his face, sharp claws digging into his cheeks.

 

"You - say ...?" Valentino repeated more forcefully.

 

"Look, V-Val, she just gets involved in everything. I-I'll tell her to leave!” he placated, his voice turning heart-wrenchingly earnest when he begged, "Just don't hurt her."

 

Vaggie stared in horror. After everything she had just witnessed, that was his request? He had not once protested or resisted the moth's treatment, but the only thing he did ask was that Valentino not hurt Charlie.

 

Vaggie could not fathom how wrong she had been about him, and a roiling shame lit in her stomach at the thought of all of the careless insults she peppered him with, almost daily, thinking he didn't give a shit about any of them.

 

Valentino seemed to swell with fury at the request, hoisting Angel higher so his feet left the ground, and he was dangling by Valentino's hold.

 

"I have killed bitches for less than this attitude you're giving me. You're lucky you make me money!" Valentino screamed, slamming him back down on his feet and then shoving him to the ground. "Now, you're going to go get rid of her, and then you are filming all night! Get me?"

 

Angel looked up at him, a broken expression on his face, but he whispered, "Yes, Val," and Valentino sent him a sickening smile as he drawled, "Good."

 

Angel made it to his feet and stumbled backward until his back hit the door, keeping his eyes on his owner even as one hand groped back for the knob.

 

He found it, opening the door for the moth, who stalked through it haughtily, shoving Angel to the ground again and then slamming the door so hard that the mirror next to it fell off the wall and shattered over the spider, who let out a sob of pain as he lay in the broken glass.

 

Angel looked for a moment like he simply wouldn't get up, but then he shook his head as though to clear his thoughts.

 

"No, Charlie. He's alone with Charlie. Can't let him hurt her,” he reminded himself, arms pushing him up as he grit his teeth through the pain and used the wall to haul himself upward.

 

Before he could fully make it, the door slammed open again and Valentino stalked back in, ruthlessly grabbing Angel's bicep and hauling him forward, giving him a few hard shakes to dislodge the glass, and then dragging him out of the room and back to the studio.

 

"All right!" the moth announced, throwing Angel toward the bed that he weakly caught himself on.

 

Charlie's jaw dropped, and then her anger grew, her hair flaming as her eyes glowed with fury.

 

"Get your asses back on set, and we are taking this from the top!" Valentino called to the room.

 

"What makes you think you can treat him like that?” she demanded, but Valentino didn't look worried. Instead, he shot one warning look at Angel and then watched smugly as the spider intercepted her on her way to the moth.

 

"Charlie, just stop!” he commanded, obviously trying for angry, but panic was clearly audible underneath, and it was enough to cool Charlie's temper.

 

"Angel, what are you talking ab-,” she asked before Angel interrupted her.

 

"Charlie, LEAVE!” he demanded, tugging her toward the door.

 

"But-," Charlie's eyes were wide and hurt, and Angel momentarily flinched from the reaction before he hardened his expression.

 

"I didn't want you to come here. I already asked you to leave and you didn't listen. You made things worse,” he told her, his breathing picking up as he glanced over her shoulder to Valentino, who was watching with a mixture of impatience and pompous surety.

 

Charlie didn't notice his wandering attention, and earnestly told him, "I just wanted to help you," while obviously holding back tears.

 

Angel's eyes were caught on his owner who subtly gestured to Charlie and then brought the hand up to slice across his own throat in what could have been merely scratching an itch if not for the venomous look in his eyes, and Angel swallowed as he returned his attention to Charlie.

 

"Well, you ain't! You actually want to help me? Get the FUCK out of here!” he exploded. "Right now, and let me finish my work."

 

Angel's act of fury fell to a bitter sorrow as Charlie sobbed, "I... I didn't mean to!" but he hardened his expression back into an angry scowl when Valentino cocked an eyebrow behind Charlie, taking a step closer.

 

"I -, I'm sorry!" Charlie cried as she turned to flee the studio with tears streaming down her face, and the look Angel sent the doorway was full of a visceral regret.

 

"I can't let him hurt you,” he whispered to himself, his eyes teary and full of overwhelming apology, hanging his head as his entire body slumped with a visible shame.

 

Valentino laughed with a grating satisfaction as he strolled over, putting his hands on Angel's shoulders and completely ignoring how he flinched away.

 

"Good boy,” he purred into his ear, and Angel's back jolted with what looked like an aborted sob before he was once again dragged by his bicep across the room and deposited in front of a group of makeup artists who did a disturbingly good job of covering all of his new bruises and cuts.

 

Angel stood, not looking entirely present as people painted various things onto his body, staring at the wall with a furrowed brow and hunched shoulders.

 

"And...," Valentino started, shooing the makeup artists away with a lethal smile, reclaiming Angel's attention, and Vaggie could clearly see the dread for what was coming on his face.

 

"Action!" Valentino called, and Angel shut his eyes, took one bracing breath, and when he opened them again the Angel Vaggie recognized was back, sultry smile firmly in place as he lured the camera back toward the bed, making a show of laying back on it as though there were nowhere he would rather be.

 

A group of enormous demons moved in with malicious smiles on their faces and his mask cracked to reveal an overwhelming terror as he shrank further from them, but then he snapped his act back into place and sent them a lascivious smile as they moved in. They picked him up by the throat and tossed him to each other as though he were nothing more than a toy, and just as Vaggie didn't think she could stomach anything else without vomiting the magical screen faded away.

 

There was a thick, echoing silence as they stared at where the screen had been, and Vaggie struggled to make her mind comprehend what they had witnessed.

 

"Now I feel bad for how much I judged him for his drug addiction," Vaggie muttered, almost to herself. "I want drugs after that, and I didn't even live it, I just watched it."

 

Husk offered a hollow, "Yeah," of agreement, but before anything else could be said Charlie burst into wailing sobs, still staring at where the light had been.

 

"Oh, babe," Vaggie whispered, sharing a helpless look with Husk as she gathered her sobbing girlfriend into her arms.

 

Charlie collapsed against her, releasing the most heartbreaking cries Vaggie had ever heard in her life, and even Husk looked affected, his hand hovering over her for a long second before he hesitantly rubbed her back.

 

“I made it worse, and he still tried to save me,” she gasped out, barely understandable, and Vaggie winced, wishing she could deny the words.

 

She couldn’t, though, because when it boiled down to it, -well intentioned or not- Angel’s day in the studio had become substantially more horrific due to Valentino’s reaction to Charlie trying to help, and Angel had still done everything he possibly could to protect her. Vaggie could not believe how terribly she had misjudged the spider.

 

Vaggie opened and shut her mouth several times as she struggled for words, but only ended up finding vague platitudes and assurances it would be alright to whisper to her girlfriend as she cried.

 

“I misjudged him,” Husk announced as Charlie eventually began to run out of tears. “I didn’t think he actually cared about the hotel or anyone here, but… but yeah, I guess he really does.”

 

“I did, too,” Vaggie admitted, feeling a twist of shame in her stomach at the thought. “I owe him a serious apology.”

 

“Me, too,” Charlie announced, voice muffled by Vaggie’s shoulder, but understandable. “I should have respected his boundaries when he told me to go, but I didn’t, and I’m sorry.”

 

“You’ll get the chance to tell him tonight,” Vaggie promised her, but Husk made a face, opened his mouth, and then shut it again without saying anything.

 

“What?” Vaggie asked, raising an eyebrow at him, and he winced at being called out, but shrugged and answered, “I… I don’t know if we should… Charlie, I don’t think you should wait by the door so you can pepper him with apologies the second he gets home.”

 

“Why not? I'm so sorry,” Charlie sniffled, turning her head so she could peer at Husk, who sent her an apologetic look.

 

“It’s just…,” he considered for a moment how to phrase what he wanted to say, “… if I’d had that day,” he gestured to where the depiction had been, “I’d want to either be eased into the whole thing or have it wait until the next day when I’d gotten some sleep. His day has to be going… rough, and it’s a lot to think you’re done for the night and then find out that the people you live with saw… that and expect you to talk about it.”

 

Vaggie bit her lip, but had to admit he was correct. If she tried to imagine being in Angel’s shoes, even with how much she loved Charlie, she could easily see how a barrage of apologies and confessions that the entire ordeal had been witnessed would make her feel panicked and defensive.

 

“Ok,” Charlie agreed, nodding emphatically as she reclaimed her weight and stepped out of the hug slightly, “No problem, ease him into it. I can ease.”

 

Vaggie and Husk stared at her, exchanged a look, and then turned back to her, neither of them wanting to dispute her, but thankfully Charlie came to the realization on her own, slumping slightly and admitting, “I can’t ease.”

 

“Caring as much as you do isn’t a bad thing, babe,” Vaggie told her sincerely, stepping closer again to hitch her into a side hug that Charlie gratefully pushed into. “It’s actually amazing, but Angel apparently isn’t used to people who care about him, and he needs your love in more understandable increments until we can get him used to it. It’s nothing you do wrong, it’s just that a lot of wrong has been done to Angel, it would seem.”

 

Charlie pursed her lips, looking near tears again, but nodded a silent understanding, so Vaggie sent her a bracing smile and turned back to Husk.

 

“He’s not going to take legitimate caring well from me either, considering how I’ve treated him since he came,” Vaggie told him, regret obvious. “I think the only one who can really ease him into it is you, Husk.”

 

Husk grunted an uncomfortable acceptance, wings ruffling at the thought, but he didn’t protest.

 

“So, Husk will tell him that we saw what happened and tell him we want to apologize to him?” Charlie asked, looking between them. “Where do we actually apologize? It can’t be the lobby unless we want Husk to call us when he’s ready for us to come in, and one of our bedrooms probably isn’t great as far as putting everyone on even footing…”

 

“Maybe one of the spares?” Vaggie suggested. “We have dozens upon dozens of rooms, we could do it in one of those.”

 

“Yeah,” Husk nodded slowly. “That could work. We could clean one out and then I could tell him you two are waiting to apologize so it doesn’t feel like an ambush.”

 

“Alright,” Charlie took a deep, bracing breath. “That sounds like a plan, let’s get to work.”

Notes:

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear what you think!

Chapter 2: Dress Rehearsal

Notes:

For anyone who hasn't been involved in theater, the dress rehearsal is the last rehearsal held before the opening night, and you do it in full costume, make up, props, lighting, music etc, exactly like you will during the real performance.

Husk tried not to wince at the way Angel slumped through the door before visibly remembering that other people may be watching and straightening up to strut across the room. His mask was good, but Husk could see the strain in his expression and the pain tinging around the edges.

 

Angel sat on the stool, barely more controlled than all but collapsing on it, and flashed Husk an exhausted attempt at a sultry smile.

 

“Shots, please, Whiskers,” he announced, his cheery façade brittle at best, but managing to stay in place.

 

"Drinking to forget kind of night?" Husk asked, doing his best to keep his tone level and face impassive while he pulled out a shot glass and snagged a bottle.

 

"You got it in one," Angel nodded, looking impressed, and then grateful as Husk slid him a shot of hard alcohol.

 

The spider flashed him a grin, threw it back, and then slid it across the bar with a request of, "Another, please."

 

"Before you get drunk, I gotta tell you something," Husk said, filling the shot but only moving it halfway to Angel.

 

"What's that?" Angel asked suspiciously, taking the shot but not drinking it.

 

"Charlie did accidental magic today,” Husk told him bluntly. "She was worrying about you and unintentionally made this magic tv thing that showed us what happened in the dressing room."

 

Angel froze, going so still he may have been turned to stone before he finally asked, "Who saw it?" in a carefully measured tone.

 

"Me, Vaggie, and Charlie," Husk answered, and Angel grit his teeth before he drank his shot in one quick gulp, sent Husk a plastic smile, and stood from the stool.

 

"Alright, thanks for letting me know,” he said, his airy tone at odds with the tension humming through him. "I'm gonna call it a night."

 

"You know," Husk offered to Angel's retreating back, "you got a bartender right here if you want to talk about it."

 

Angel paused, his form going somehow more rigid than before, and he scoffed, "Yeah, no thanks," without turning around.

 

"Why not?" Husk asked, cocking his head as he studied the spider and tried not to let his eyes widen in surprise when Angel spun with an angry explosion of, "I already get enough of your scorn and judgement, I don't want your pity to top it off!"

 

He stormed off toward the entrance to the hotel, but Husk used his hands on the bar to shove himself upward, flapping his wings to fly across the lobby faster than Angel could walk and landed in front of him, though he was careful not to block the door. Angel was already bristling like a trapped animal, the last thing he needed was to feel like he had no way out.

 

"That wasn't meant as pity, it was meant as an apology," Husk said bluntly, and Angel froze, a heart wrenching look on his face.

 

"I'm sorry I've been so judgmental of you and your work," Husk told him sincerely. "I should have known better than to take things at face value. I'm owned, too."

 

Angel bit his lip, his arms wrapping around to hug himself, but he didn't say anything as he continued to watch Husk with enormous eyes.

 

"I was an overlord," Husk told him, trying not to shift uncomfortably as Angel stared, his curiosity and surprise obvious. "I was an overlord, and I was a dumbass, as well. Could still be one, the jury's still out."

 

Angel snorted a soft laugh, and Husk grinned at him for the reaction, which had Angel's defensive body language warming a few degrees.

 

"I had souls,” he admitted. "I regret it now that I've been on the other side, but at the time it seemed like the thing to do. I have a gambling problem. I always have, even when I was alive. I only used them as gambling chips, I didn't really know what to do with them outside of that. Lost them and my own soul in a gambling match I lost to Alastor. Like I said, I was a dumbass and the loser."

 

"If it makes you feel better, I'm a dumbass that honestly thought Valentino loved me and needed help," Angel told him, voice barely above a whisper. "Lost my soul thinking I was saving him, so I guess that makes me a loser, too."

 

"I don't think being lied to makes you a dumbass, legs," Husk told him, a pang shooting through his chest at the fact that Angel hadn't even been selfishly trading his soul for something he wanted, he was trying to help someone who manipulated him.

 

"Sure, feels like it after some days in the studio," Angel admitted, eyes skittering to the side as his arms tightened around himself, making him look small and lost in a way that hurt Husk's heart to see.

 

"It might not mean much considering it's just me, but when it's bad, you've got company," Husk told him sincerely, though Angel snorted, heavy mood lifting as his expression turned entertained.

 

"Oh, you rhyming now, whiskers?" Angel mocked, but his eyes were warm, and his tone was light. "What's next, you gonna break into song?"

 

Husk smirked, and obliged, singing a teasing, "You're a loser, baby. A loser, goddamn baby," that had Angel bursting with bright laughter. "You're a fucked up little whiny bitch -,"

 

Angel interrupted his song to protest an indignant, "Hey!" through his hilarity, and Husk grinned, but acknowledged, "You're a loser, just like me," that had Angel's vague offense fading away.

 

Husk made a face, playing up the lyrics as he admitted, "I'm a screw's-loose-boozer, an only one-star reviews-er -," before Angel interjected again.

 

Angel chuckled, and informed him, "I'd give you at least two and a half stars," and Husk smiled wider as he gestured to Angel and continued, "You're a power-bottom at rock bottom," which earned another bark of laughter that he let fade before he sang, "But we've got company."

 

"Yeah," Angel agreed, finally dropping the sets of arms that had been hugging himself, letting them sway at his side to the beat.

 

"There was a time I thought no one could relate to the gruesome ways in which I'm damaged," Husk told him, suddenly finding it far easier to be open with Angel than he'd ever found it before, "but lettin' walls down, it can sometimes set you straight -,"

 

"See?" Angel asked teasingly. "That's why I don't let people in, I have no desire to be straight," which momentarily derailed Husk's song as he snorted his surprised laughter, which Angel seemed proud of himself for earning.

 

"We're all livin' in the same shit-sandwich," Husk finished his previous sentence with a wide smile he couldn't suppress.

 

"Ain't that the truth," Angel nodded.

 

"We're both losers, baby, we're losers, it's okay to be a-," Husk lifted his arm as though he were presenting Angel to a crowd, pausing to let him fill in the description.

 

"Coked up, dick-suckin' hoe?" Angel asked more than answered, looking caught off guard to suddenly be included in the melody, though he did sing along.

 

"Baby, that's fine by me," Husk nodded, and Angel looked thrilled, going on with more confidence and a wide smile.

 

"I'm a loser, honey, a schmoozer and a dummy, but at least I know I'm not alone,” he ended sincerely.

 

"I'm a loser," Husk started, Angel taking over the lyrics with the sincere pronouncement of, "Just like me."

 

He beamed a real, honest, open smile, and Husk was momentarily dazed by the expression, but he shook it off, hoping the pause wasn't long enough to be noticed.

 

"A loser,” he confirmed, holding out a hand to Angel, who giggled as he took it, allowing himself to be spun before swaying with Husk to the beat, "but just maybe if we eat shit together, things will end up differently."

 

Husk playfully dipped him, Angel gracefully bending backward so low it was almost a backbend, but he was beaming when Husk lifted him back to his feet.

 

"It's time to lose your self-loathin', excuse yourself, let hope in, baby," Husk announced, spinning the spider again. "Play your card, be who you are, a loser, just like me."

 

"Just - like - me," Angel finished.

 

"Damn straight," Husk agreed, slipping back into speaking though he kept the warm tone.

 

Angel sent him an almost shy smile, but didn't say anything so Husk bit his lip for a moment but decided to move the conversation forward.

 

"I really am sorry,” he repeated sincerely, and he was both glad and endeared to see the way Angel softened at the words. "I know I've been a bit of an ass since I got here, but I'd like to be friends if I haven't already blown it with you."

 

Angel’s eyes danced with an impish amusement, his lips pressing together in a way that took Husk a moment to understand, but then he was rolling his eyes as he threw his arms up in the air, playing up his exasperation to further Angel’s amusement.

 

"You know that's not what I meant,” he scolded, fighting down his own grin as Angel giggled with a delighted smile on his face.

 

"Now, whiskers,” he pretended to lecture. "I didn't say nothing, you thinking dirty thoughts is your own fault. "

 

Husk scoffed, rolling his eyes again, and Angel looked quite pleased with himself for the reaction, which was suddenly incredibly endearing rather than causing the grating frustration his attitude had in the past.

 

"Well, since you don't think dirty thoughts, do you have an answer for me?” Husk asked, finding himself surprised by how much he hoped Angel would accept the olive branch.

 

“I ain't never had a dirty thought in my life," Angel attempted to say innocently, though his expression crumpled into an entertained smile before he could finish the lie.

 

Husk raised an eyebrow, nonverbally proclaiming he didn't believe him, and Angel huffed another laugh before he nodded with a more earnest expression.

 

"I'd love to be friends with you, Husky,” he said, and somehow even the plethora of annoying nicknames weren't as irritating as they had been when Husk thought Angel was a shallow, insipid, self-absorbed harlot.

 

"Great," Husk announced with a little more of his honest relief in the tone than he had meant to, though he couldn't feel too bad about it as he took in the way Angel’s eyes warmed affectionately.

 

“As your friend, I do feel like it might be my duty to let you know that Charlie and Vaggie and I spent the afternoon revamping one of the free bedrooms on the first floor, and Charlie wants to apologize to you,” he said seriously. "If that's more than you can handle after your long day, I can cause a distraction, and you can talk to her about it tomorrow if you'd rather."

 

Angel sent him a look that was somewhere between shy and overwhelmingly affectionate but shook his head after a moment of thought.

 

"I think I should talk to her tonight,” he said, though he was also biting his lip, and his tone was distinctly unsure. "If I don’t, she'll be up all night frettin about it, and then Vaggie won't get any sleep either."

 

Husk was hit again with the fact that Angel really was an exceptionally good person under his thin mask of in-your-face porn star.

 

“You, legs, are already far better than any of us give you credit for,” Husk told him, enjoying the way Angel blushed with a pleased shyness. “Do you want anything before we get this show on the road?”

 

“One more shot?” Angel asked, obviously trying for playful, but his nerves were blatant.

 

“No problem,” Husk nodded, making his way back to the bar, Angel trailing behind him. “You want a shot not a cocktail?”

 

“Yeah,” Angel confirmed, wringing his hands nervously in a gesture he didn’t seem to realize he was displaying.

 

“Here, this will go down smoother,” Husk offered, switching the bottle with one from a higher shelf, pouring a generous shot, and then sliding it to Angel, who sent him a tremulous smile full of gratitude before he threw it back.

 

“Another?” Husk asked, and Angel looked like he desperately wanted to agree, but he bit his lip and shook his head, arms hugging himself as the trepidation on his face grew.

 

“I think you’ll actually like how we redid the room,” Husk told him, leading the way to the staircase.

 

“Why’d you all redo a room, anyway?” Angel asked, trailing after him as though he were walking to the gallows.

 

“We told Charlie she wasn’t allowed to ambush you with apologies the second you walked in the door, so the lobby was out,” Husk told him, glancing over his shoulder in time to see Angel huff an amused breath with a grateful look on his face. “Charlie and Vaggie thought if we did it in your room, we were making you talk to us because you couldn’t escape to your space if we were in it, and it might be some weird power play dynamic bullshit if we did it in one of our rooms. So, unused bedroom, neutral territory. That was the reasoning, not sure if it’s sound or not.”

 

“Oh,” Angel said, falling into step next to Husk with less blatant dread, sending Husk an almost bashful smile. “That was thoughtful.”

 

Husk shrugged and shot him a sidelong grin with a playful, “We’re not very good at it, but we try,” that earned a snort of real laughter from Angel.

 

“Well, this is it,” Husk announced, stepping to the side and making it obvious he’d let Angel choose when -and if- to enter, and the spider took a bracing breath, paused, and then slowly brought his hand up to knock.

 

Notes:

Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear what you think!

Chapter 3: All Call

Notes:

For anyone who hasn't been involved in theater, all call is a call for volunteers of all actors and all back stage that are available should come help.

Vaggie exchanged a look with Charlie as they heard a soft knock on the door, wondering what reaction they were going to earn from Angel for the unintentional breach in privacy.

 

The lack of storming in or pounding on the door was promising, but the quiet sound could also be Husk letting them know that Angel was refusing to hear them out.

 

"Come in!" Charlie called, doing a truly terrible job at pretending not to be fretting.

 

The door swung open, admitting Husk, and -to Vaggie's relief- a rather nervous looking Angel.

 

He seemed taken aback by the room they had spent the day redecorating. Vaggie was actually pretty proud of their work. They had dragged in couches and armchairs from the storage in the basement and cleaned them as thoroughly as they possibly could. They had also found armfuls of unused blankets, washed and dried them, and laid them around the room with the dozens of pillows they'd claimed and made a nest on the floor that would be comfortable to sit or lounge in that would position them closer to each other and hopefully make it easier to share hard conversations if they weren't so spread out and separated.

 

Walking past the outside of Angel's decorated door -the only decorated door, she had realized in retrospect, feeling another bolt of shame that she hadn't known he cared about them when he covered his door in their pictures- had inspired her favorite change.

 

Charlie had managed to create a string of fairy lights that twinkled with a beautiful, inviting light through another burst of accidental magic after they had been discussing if they should bring lamps in, and they sparkled almost ethereally as they cast a soft glow around the room.

 

They had pinned the prettiest of the blankets they found to the wall, adding colors and designs to the space without it being overly distracting, and all in all she was incredibly proud of the cozy, welcoming atmosphere they had managed to create.

 

"I love this room," Angel told them, eyebrows raised as he stared around in amazement.

 

Charlie let out an adorable squeak as she tried to contain her happiness at the comment, some of the tension falling out of her shoulders at the reaction.

 

"Your room was actually the inspiration," Vaggie told him. "Well, the outside. We were talking about how we liked the lights and how friendly it looked."

 

Angel looked touched, but struggled for what to say for a long second before he offered a simple, "Thanks," and a bright smile.

 

"Sit?" Charlie asked, unceremoniously plopping on the floor in the padded nest of pillows and blankets, making Angel and Husk snort their amusement while Vaggie shook her head fondly at her girlfriend, but obligingly shut the door and then sat next to her.

 

Angel and Husk completed the circle, not looking as sure about the choice, but not protesting either, and she would take it.

 

"Before we start -, well -, we didn't go in your room because I'm trying this new thing called respecting boundaries," Charlie told him, ready to go on to give him the gift they had made, but he interjected a fond, "You were tryin' to help me, Cha-Cha. I appreciate what you tried to do, I really do."

 

Charlie looked ready to burst into tears, and if she did, they wouldn't actually give Angel the present, so Vaggie laid a hand on her girlfriend's arm to stop her and interjected herself into the conversation.

 

"I'm going to pause you for just a second," Vaggie told Angel, far more gentle with him than she had ever been before. "Charlie has something for you."

 

Angel cocked his head like a curious puppy, and after she let herself let go of the previous animosity, she couldn't help but notice how adorable he was.

 

"For me?” he asked as though he couldn't fathom the concept.

 

"Yes!" Charlie announced enthusiastically, shoving the mound of fabric into his hands.

 

He blinked down at it, glanced at her, and then carefully held it up, his jaw clenching against a visibly rising reaction when he took in the pink sweater that they had cut a set of holes in and sewn on two additional sleeves from a similar top.

 

"All talks and late-night bonding should be comfy," Charlie told him nervously, watching him for his reaction. "We didn't want to invade your room to get one of yours, so we -, uh -, made one from our sweaters? Of course you don't have to wear it, but -,"

 

She was cut off by Angel hugging it to his chest with a sniffle and then pulling it on almost faster than her eyes could track.

 

"Thank you,” he told them both earnestly, burrowing his neck further down so that his chin and mouth were buried inside the sweater's neckline as his arms hugged around himself. "I love it, it's so warm and comfy."

 

Charlie looked both relieved and ecstatic that he liked the gift and sent him a radiant smile that he returned, though with his mouth covered by the sweater fluff it was his eyes crinkling happily that gave him away rather than his lips.

 

"Now that we're properly attired," Vaggie said with a wry grin as she tossed a blanket apiece at Husk and Angel before draping one over her and Charlie's legs, "I'm going to un-pause you."

 

Angel snorted as she raised a hand and mimed unpausing a remote at him, but he sobered and turned to Charlie.

 

"I'm sorry I yelled at you,” he told her, his voice small and ashamed, looking up at her from under his hair as his head dropped. "I appreciate you trying to help, I really do, I just... I just don't want you anywhere near Valentino. I'm sorry."

 

"Husk told you we saw what happened in the dressing room?" Vaggie asked when Charlie watched him with grateful tears rolling down her cheeks, unable to respond as she tried to contain her reaction.

 

Angel nodded, looking a little trapped, but he didn't get up to leave, which she considered a victory.

 

"We saw what you did and why you did it,” she told him, hoping he could feel the sincerity pouring off of her. "Thank you for protecting her, even at your own expense, Angel."

 

He gaped at her, blatantly confounded to hear such words from her, and she couldn't deny the surprise was well deserved.

 

"While we're on the topic,” she continued, trying not to let her creeping awkwardness in. "I owe you an apology. A big one. I'm sorry, Angel. I'm sorry for how I've treated you, and for what I've assumed about you. I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance, and I'm sorry for how petty and mean I've been. I couldn't see how much you cared, but I really should have been able to. Just because you don't show it in the same way the rest of us do doesn't mean you don't show it, I just wasn't looking."

 

He stared for another long second, opened his mouth, shut it again, and then finally found a response.

 

"I promise I care,” he whispered, and the tone made her heart clench.

 

"That is explicitly clear after today,” she assured him, "but I should have been able to tell before then. It shouldn't have taken that to make me wake up and actually see, and I promise I will do better about not making stupid assumptions in the future."

 

"Thank you,” he said, quiet and awed, staring at her with enormous eyes that made her feel an overwhelming urge to wrap him in a blanket and protect him from the world.

 

"I'm sorry I didn't listen when you told me to leave," Charlie told him, finally able to speak, though her tears were still falling in full force. "I'm so, so, so, so sorry I made things worse for you, Angel. I swear I didn't mean to -,"

 

"It's ok, Charlie,” he gently cut over her, his expression openly affectionate. "I know you were trying to help, and I appreciate the thought, I really do, but my boss is... evil. He's evil, Cha, and he will hurt you, princess of hell or not."

 

Angel's phone buzzed and he winced, glancing down at it and slumping in defeat as he read the text.

 

"Speak of the demon, and he shall be a pain in the ass," Angel muttered dejectedly, some of his previous lightness gone.

 

"He texts you?" Vaggie asked, more of a demand than she meant to, caught off guard by her surging protectiveness.

 

"Yeah," Angel shrugged, hesitating for a moment before he offered her the phone. "All the time. I try not to respond unless I have to, it only makes it worse to engage too often."

 

Vaggie accepted the phone and scrolled slowly back through the texts, peripherally noting how Husk and Charlie both shifted to bracket each side so they could read the texts as well.

 

Vaggie grew more horrified with every message, the tone wildly flipping between attempting to be sweet to threats and degrading insults with almost nothing in between.

 

She had always thought he was only half-heartedly paying attention in lessons because he was bored, but apparently he was monitoring his boss's messages, because there were occasional responses that placated the moth when he sent a flood of unending threats and dark promises, reverting Valentino back to compliments and love confessions for an hour or two before the tone shifted again.

 

Even the inveiglings, though, were only empty pet names that held no real meaning after the other messages, or proclamations that Angel was hot and only good for fucking, as though that were a praise.

 

The darker presages of what would befall Angel during shifts were nauseatingly horrific, and she could not fathom how he could keep up the pretense of being a happy-go-lucky pornstar without a care in the world after reading the words that made Vaggie's skin crawl.

 

"This is horrible,” she told him, finally looking up with wide eyes, finding him wringing his hands and watching them nervously. "I am so sorry you have to put up with this, Angel, this is awful."

 

He sent her a weak smile, seeming relieved for reasons she didn't understand until he offered a shrug and a, "I dunno, I might just be making a big deal out of nothin," as he watched the other two for their reaction.

 

"No," Husk told him immediately, looking up at him. "That ain't ok, and that ain't normal, Angel. That is a big deal, and you don't deserve to be dealing with that," with Charlie nodding emphatically along.

 

"Oh," Angel seemed smaller, but also more genuine, as he sent them a confused nod, not seeming to really know what to do with their reaction but appearing grateful they weren't blowing him off.

 

His face fell as something occurred to him, looking defeated as he shrugged again and morosely told them, "It's my own damn fault. I signed the damn thing, so as much as I'd like to blame Val, I'm the idiot that did this to me."

 

Husk shifted again so he sat closer to Angel, bumping his shoulder in a bracing gesture of friendliness.

 

"I told you already, legs,” he informed him, voice warm and chiding in equal measure, "being lied to and trying to help someone don't make you a dumbass."

 

"You were trying to help?" Vaggie asked, trying not to sound as horrified as she felt.

 

"Yeah," Angel admitted, staring down at his lap as he picked at the blanket. "I was an absolute imbecile that actually believed it when he told me he was in love with me, and he needed me to save him."

 

"Angel," Charlie whispered, heartbroken.

 

"Husk is right," Vaggie told him firmly, "Valentino being a shitstain doesn't mean you were stupid for trying to do good."

 

He looked up at her, eyes flooding with tears, but didn't say anything, swallowing hard as he visibly tried to keep his reaction from pouring down his cheeks.

 

A soft ding from the phone distracted her, looking down to see a reminder that said, 'FEED!' and nothing else.

 

"Uh,” she looked up at him with a furrowed brow, "you're supposed to... eat?"

 

She offered him the phone, and he snorted wetly, running two of his hands across his cheeks while another accepted the phone.

 

"I'm not eating, I'm supposed to ...,” he bit his lip, studying each of them. "If I show you something, can you not mention it to anyone outside the hotel? Literally anyone?"

 

"Sure," Vaggie agreed, just before Charlie nodded with an adamant, "Of course!"

 

"I don't talk to people if I can help it," Husk shrugged with a smirk, "I won't go blabbing."

 

Angel sent him a bemused look and playfully shoved his shoulder, but nodded and stood, hesitantly shifting his weight for another moment before he announced, "I'll be back in like five minutes," and slipped out of the room.

 

"... Well, this is going better than I ever could have dreamed,” Vaggie announced into the ringing silence, making the other two laugh as they nodded their agreements.

 

“Yeah,” Husk leaned back, propping up on his arms behind him as he waited, “if it were me, I would have booked it already.”

 

Vaggie huffed, but didn’t dispute him, knowing full well he was correct.

 

“I wonder what he’s doing,” Charlie looked to the door with an obvious curiosity.

 

“The phone reminder just said ‘feed’,” Vaggie offered with a shrug, and even Husk looked intrigued.

 

It was barely three minutes later when the door creaked open again, Angel biting his lip and looking hesitant as he clutched something to his chest.

 

“Uh, so,” Angel started awkwardly, closing the door and returning to his previous seat, whatever he was holding mostly covered by the excess of fabric of the sweater Angel wore. “So…”

 

Angel watched them all with a thrumming nervousness before he finally uncurled his arms enough to let them see the most adorable little face that Vaggie had ever seen in her entire life.

 

“I have a pet?” he asked more than informed them, one of his hands almost mindlessly petting the piglet he held with his other arms.

 

“I love him!” Charlie squealed, vibrating as though she could barely stop herself from diving across the space to pet him.

 

“What’s his name?” Husk asked, and even the grumpy bartender looked like he had fallen to the absurd cuteness in Angel’s lap.

 

“Fat Nuggets,” Angel told them, his frame loosening as they reacted well to the newest member of the gathering. “He’s my baby boy and I love him."

 

He resituated the pig to face him and kissed his snout, the piglet making happy little noises as Angel hugged him and then turned him again to face outward.

 

“How the fuck have we not heard about him before?” Vaggie asked in disbelief. “If I had a pet this cute, I’d be showing everyone.”

 

Angel huffed, but also pursed his lips, considering his answer.

 

“I used to,” he admitted, hugging Nuggets to his chest. “I’d show people pictures, talk about him all the time, but… but Val realized how much I loved him, and whenever I messed up he’d threaten to hurt him. I lived in his building, he could get to him whenever he wanted. My co-workers could get in, too, and if I pissed them off they’d threaten to do something to him if I didn’t let them do whatever to me. So, I… I just… stopped telling people.”

 

There was a heavy silence as they absorbed his answer, the piglet seeming to sense Angel’s spiraling mood, because he twisted in Angel’s grip and stretched his pudgy little body as far as he could so he could lick Angel’s face.

 

The pig obviously knew what he was doing, because Angel immediately broke into a helpless smile, bringing the piglet closer so he could bury his face in the soft fluff on the little pink head for a moment.

 

“Thank you for sharing him with us,” Vaggie told him seriously. “We won’t mention a word about him outside of the hotel.”

 

“Thanks,” he smiled, overwhelmingly grateful.

 

A silence fell that had just started to tinge awkward when Husk broke it.

 

"What exactly did Valentino tell you when convincing you to sign the contract?" Husk asked, thinking deeply, and Angel hugged his arms not holding his pet around himself and looked uncomfortable, but answered, “He said that it would help both of us because they were threatening him to meet quota and he could use it to make me a star, because he loved me. He spun this whole thing about how the Vees would kill him, and he wanted to stay with me."

 

Husk hummed a contemplative noise, but didn't speak, so Angel asked a belated, "Why?"

 

"Before I answer that, can I ask you another question? Now that you've been at the studio, do you think there's any truth in the claim the other Vees were threatening him?" Husk asked. "And do you think Valentino ever actually loved you?"

 

Angel flinched, and Husk visibly regretted having to ask, but watched him expectantly until Angel shook his head, biting his lip and visibly swallowing down tears before responding, “No, the Vees weren't that big of a game back then, and Vox makes his clout off of the combination of Velvette's shows and Valentino's movies. Velvette has her own shows, but she also gains a lot of traction by showing off her outfits in Val’s films, so even if they had been a big enough game to already be making threats like that, they wouldn't threaten Valentino, he was already doing well enough. And -, and -, no, I don't think he ever loved me."

 

"Thanks," Husk told him, sending him a warm, bracing smile. "I'm sorry to ask, but it's relevant because of the contract you signed. This might be hell but contracts still aren't binding if they are signed under false pretenses. If they were, overlords wouldn't be as rare or as powerful, because anyone could trick people into signing their name and then suddenly having control over them. I knew a soul once, he was released from his contract because he proved that the overlord he signed with, Nerghal, had lied about the reasoning."

 

A spark of hope lit in Angel’s eyes as he stared at Husk in disbelief.

 

"Really?” he breathed. "How did he prove that?"

 

"I don't know," Husk said apologetically. "But I was thinking that Charlie might be able to ask her dad what the justice system in hell is?"

 

The whole room turned to Charlie who blinked in surprise, but then smiled and nodded without protest.

 

Vaggie sent her a proud grin, glad they hadn't had to convince her to call. She had tried to persuade Charlie in the past to call in her father as reinforcements, but her girlfriend had remained adamant that she didn’t need his help. Even with how resolute she had been, though, Vaggie should have known that Angel was important enough to override Charlie's determination not to rely on her father.

 

"I'll do it right now,” she nodded, pulling out her phone and dialing without a second thought, putting the phone on speaker as it rang.

 

"Heeeey, bitch!" Lucifer greeted, bright and cheerful, and Charlie sent the phone a small smile.

 

"Hi dad,” she returned, "I have a question. Is there a way to break a soul contract if it was signed under false pretenses?"

 

"Oh, sure,” he said, confident and casual. "It might be hell, but there are still rules."

 

"How do we do that?” she asked, almost breathless with the giddy hope infecting the room.

 

"We?" his voice hardened immediately. "Charlie, are you ok?"

 

"I'm ok,” she hurried to assure. "It's not my soul, it's the soul of one of my friends."

 

Vaggie couldn't help but notice the way Angel's eyes filled with tears at the word, though she tried not to draw attention to it. She was sure Husk noticed, but Charlie was gesticulating with her hand not holding the phone and looking above all of their heads at the wall as she talked.

 

"We were talking about it, and the person who convinced him to sign lied to him to convince him,” she explained. "We were wondering if there's a way to break it on the grounds of false pretenses."

 

"Oh," Lucifer said, significantly calmer than the moment before. "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a way to check, give me a minute."

 

The phone was filled with several long seconds of footsteps before the sounds of rummaging around were heard accompanied by a distant whistling, as though Lucifer had set the phone down as he moved around the room.

 

Fat Nuggets broke the awkward staring the four had been doing by rearranging himself to snuffle into Angel's arms at a different angle, drawing all of their attention.

 

"Go on, say hi, baby," Angel cooed to him after noticing how eagerly Charlie was looking at the little piglet.

 

Nuggets sent a hesitant glance back at Angel when he was set on the ground, but Angel smiled reassuringly and gently pushed him toward Charlie, who held out her arms eagerly.

 

"Let him sniff you first," Angel instructed as Nuggets approached, sniffing the fingers that Charlie held out to him for several long seconds before apparently deciding she could be trusted and prancing closer to look up at her with an adorable expression.

 

"Can I pet him?” she asked, her voice thrumming with her excitement, and Angel grinned at her and nodded.

 

"Yeah, but be careful of his eyes on his back,” he cautioned. "Those darker spots there,” he pointed to a series of patches of the piglet's back that looked different from the rest, "he usually keeps them closed, but even closed they still shouldn't be poked too hard, you know? Just make sure you keep your hand light over them."

 

"Ok!" Charlie chirped, lightly stroking a hand down the fluffy back, looking absolutely delighted as she gained confidence to keep petting the pig that was happily soaking up the attention.

 

Seeming much more assured after the attention lavished, the little piglet meandered a step to the side so he could give Vaggie a beseeching look as well, and she chuckled, but dropped a hand to the pink, fluffy head.

 

"How soft you are should be illegal,” she told the pig with a disbelieving seriousness that made the others laugh, but she meant what she'd said and her hand stroked over the soft fur again and again if it's own volition.

 

The little piglet eagerly soaked up the attention, prancing happily in place when Husk huffed a breath and reached across the circle to pet him, the bartender's eyebrows raising in surprise at the feeling.

 

Angel watched like a proud parent as his pet preened under the affection, but a noise from the phone recaptured their focus.

 

"Ah ha!" Lucifer's voice crowed, tinny and sounding far away from the microphone. "I knew it was down here somewhere."

 

There were a few more sounds of rummaging around before the kings voice grew steadily clearer as he returned to wherever he had left the phone.

 

"Yes, I knew it was here,” he said jovially. "I made this ages ago to speed along court proceedings. It's been a while since I've seen it. I'll send it over to you."

 

There was a blinding flash of light that Vaggie's eyes took several seconds to recover from, but when she could blink away the spots in her vision, she saw that a round, flat black stone around the size of a dinner plate with intricate ruins carved into it sat in front of Charlie.

 

"So, what you do is set the soul contract on the X, and if it is not binding the stone will flash green, and the contract will break. If it is binding, the rock flashes red to let you know, but otherwise nothing happens."

 

"Oh," Charlie blinked, surprised before she shook herself out of her shock, "thanks, dad. How -, uh, how do I get the contract?"

 

"You know this sinner, right?" Lucifer asked, his voice light, and friendly.

 

"Yes," Charlie confirmed, shooting Angel a bright smile. "He's one of my best friends."

 

Angel stared at her with the most potent expression of disbelieving adoration Vaggie had ever seen in her life, but Lucifer only hummed a pleased sound, and allowed, "That's great, CharBear. It'll make the summoning easier if you know them. With some practice you can do it for any contract in hell, but the technique will be easier to find with someone you know. Think about the person you know, picture them in your head."

 

He paused for a moment, and it would've been hilarious how intently Charlie stared at Angel if not for the seriousness of the situation.

 

"You can picture them?” he asked, and she chirped a confident, "Definitely," that Lucifer excepted with no further questions.

 

"Excellent," he announced, and it sounded as though he were walking again as his voice spoke over the echo of steady footsteps. "Think of this person, think about their contract, picture their face in your mind and think their name and then the word contract as you stretch out your power."

 

Charlie bit her lip, but clenched her eyes shut and concentration, murmuring "Angel’s contract," barely audibly to herself again and again, brow furrowing with effort, until their was suddenly a glowing piece of parchment in her hands.

 

Vaggie stared at it, amazed, and Charlie's eyes flew open again as she looked down in shock, and then her smile was growing from cheek to cheek.

 

"Thanks, dad, that worked!” she cheered, and he chuckled fondly but bid a warm, "I knew you could do it, Charlie. I'm glad I could help. Anything else?"

 

"No, that was it, thanks, dad," she said, still beaming, and he offered a warm, "Bye, Charlie," and then there was the click of the dial tone.

 

If Charlie was off-put by her father's abrupt farewell she didn't show it, almost dropping her phone to the side in her haste to set it down to free her hands more completely.

 

She hesitated, glancing to Angel, who was staring at the golden contract in her hands with a heart wrenching mixture of hope and fear, one of his hands finding Husk's to clutch at as he watched.

 

The whole room held its breath as Charlie extended the agreement over the stone, carefully settling it on the rock, but almost as soon as the parchment made contact the entire way flared a bright, unmistakable green, and the contract burned away before their eyes, Vaggie's gaze only able to catch a heart and the little A at the bottom of the page before the paper, ink, and contract were incinerated into nonexistence.

 

Angel gasped, and Vaggie's eyes flew up. There was one instant where a thick, restricting red chain was visible, and then it faded away to nothingness as the blackness retreated from Angel’s eye as if it had never been there before.

 

"I'm free,” he whispered in an awed disbelief.

 

"You're free," Husk repeated, far less shocked and more emphatically joyful

 

"You're free," Vaggie added, enjoying the way the realization was dawning over Angel and how his smile was growing brighter and more genuine by the second.

 

"Thank you,,” he turned to tell Charlie, his sincerity pouring off of him as his eyes filled with tears. "Thank you, Charlie, thank you so much."

 

"You're free!" Charlie cheered, diving across the space to tackle him in a hug rather than acknowledge the gratitude and Angel laughed, loud and free as he wrapped her in a hug and clutched her tighter without trying to get up from where she had knocked him onto his back.

 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he repeated into her shoulder, and she hitched him in tighter as she told him, "I'm glad I could help, Angel, and I'm sorry I made life harder for you today."

 

"Today was more than worth it if it means I never have to go back,” he announced, letting himself be tugged up to seated and then pulled into a hug from Husk.

 

Charlie plastered herself against Angel's other side, and Vaggie took the opportunity to drape over her girlfriend to get closer as well.

 

"What do you want to do to celebrate?" Charlie asked, her giddy glee almost tangible, and Angel sent her a shy smile as he asked an almost bashful, "Would it be ok to just stay here and hang out?"

 

"That would be great!" Charlie told him, seeming pleased he hadn't picked something that would involve getting up.

 

"I'm going to stop by our room and grab some of the board games in case we want to play," Vaggie told them as she reluctantly extracted herself, her motivation helped by the way Angel echoed an excited, "Games?"

 

She let herself pause in the doorway to take in what an adorable sight they made, but then hurried out on her quest. After all, they had freedom to celebrate.

 

Notes:

Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear what you think!

Chapter 4: Quiet on the cans

Notes:

For anyone who hasn't been involved in theater, Quiet on the Cans means that everyone on headset communications should stay silent and not talk over the intercoms. It's basically equivalent to 'cut the chatter'

 

She distantly heard a powerful thud and faint yell that she would have written off as the ambient noises of hell if not for the way Angel sat straight up as though he had been electrocuted.

 

"Shit!” he bit out, eyes wide and terrified. "He's here."

 

There was another thud, and a far away, muffled, "Amorcito, let me in this instant!" that failed to make sense in her head for several seconds, but Angel was instantaneously springing to his feet.

 

"As long as you stay quiet, he won't know you're in here, I can lead him away from you all, you'll be safe,” he said, words tripping out of his mouth almost too quickly to be understood. "Nuggets gets fed twice a day, one cup of his food in the morning, and another at night, try not to give him too many table scraps, they're not that good for him. His bag of food is in my closet, so he doesn't get into it while he's alone in the room. Make sure you tell him he's a good boy at least once a day."

 

The thudding below them grew more insistent, and Angel’s panic skyrocketed by the second, but he bent to pick up his piglet, who had been watching him worriedly, and kissed his head, hugging him tightly and whispering, "You're not just a good boy, you're the best boy. I love you, baby," and then unceremoniously deposited him in Husk's lap.

 

He looked for a moment like he may kiss Husk as well before he switched tracks and instead sent them all a smile and an earnest, "I love you all, thanks for the ride, it was fun," and then he sprinted out of the room without giving them time to do anything more than stare at him in shock

 

They all blinked at each other in confusion, the stillness rather jarring after Angel's flurry of movements and words but a loud crash a few seconds later broke them out of their daze and had them all scrambling upward as they realized the front door had caved in.

 

"Alright," Vaggie said, some of her military command leaching into the tone. "Someone has to stay alive to take care of that pig, Husk you -,"

 

"Oh, no fucking way am I just sitting up here,” he squawked, shoving Nuggets at Charlie, who for once refused to take him.

 

"Fine," Vaggie bit out, feeling her stress levels tick higher. "We'll leave him in here."

 

"In the bathroom," Charlie hurried to add. "That way he'll be harder to hear from the hallway."

 

Husk nodded, darting across the room, gently depositing Fat Nuggets on the ground, and then firmly shutting the door behind him.

 

Vaggie nodded her approval, spun on her heel, and led them out to the hall, only pausing long enough to make sure Husk shut that door as well before she was marching toward the staircase to the lobby.

 

She held out a hand to stop Charlie from running ahead, hissing a low, "No, babe, we gotta be smart about this. We need to know what we're walking into, if we can, we should surround them. Surprise them. They don't know how many of us there are, that's one of our only advantages here, considering he probably brought at least another V with him, and they are in the running for overlord."

 

Charlie and Husk didn't look happy, but they nodded their agreement and crept down the hall with her.

 

"Oh, Angel," a malicious voice sighed in a parody of sympathy, "always so stupid, aren't you?"

 

"Yes, well," a voice Vaggie only recognized as Vox from the sheer number of broadcasts he did, "Your little pets were never known for their brains."

 

"I thought you had more brains than to barge into the hotel owned by the princess of hell," Angel shot back, doing an impressive job of covering the fear she could hear buried in his voice. "You're lucky she and the gang are out at the moment, or you would be paying for the damage you just did."

 

"You think that little pathetic malparida could actually do anything to me?" Valentino scoffed, and Vaggie’s hackles rose still further, retrieving her spear that she kept tucked into the corner of the top of the staircase when it wasn't with her to insure it would be close enough to retrieve if the hotel was ever under attack, but not so close to the front door that just anyone could grab it.

 

"I think you are underestimating the Princess, and I think you only met her when she was trying to be polite," Angel spat out, obviously insulted on Charlie's behalf. "You ain't never seen her when you break down her door and threaten her residents."

 

"Now, now," a new voice tisked, and Vaggie winced at the knowledge that they were dealing with all three of the Vees. "We haven't made any threats yet."

 

"Oh, yeah, because it's so friendly to go knocking down people’s doors," Angel mocked before his voice turned serious. "Why are you even here, Velvette? I thought you were smarter than to piss off the future ruler of hell."

 

"Yeah, it wasn't my first choice,” she told him casually, “but Vee protects Vee, and we really can't have our little pets strutting around making messes."

 

"Half of your empire is built on my ability to strut around and cause a mess," Angel informed her, unimpressed, and she snorted, but allowed, "Fair enough. Can't let our pets slip their collars and cause a mess, then."

 

"What mess?" Angel demanded, and Vaggie peered around the banister to survey the room just in time to see him throwing his arms wide in exasperation. "I ain't doing nothing. The only thing I did in the last hour was watch a show and revel in the novelty of getting the hotel to myself for a few days."

 

“And what about the hour before that?” Velvette drawled, obviously unimpressed by his defense.

 

“Oh, you wanted me to announce on live broadcast that a soul can overturn a contract if the overlord lied about the deal to get them to sign?” Angel asked, his voice sharp and barbed. “I didn’t think you three in particular would want the fact that if someone is manipulated into a contract, they can get out to be common knowledge.”

 

“What makes you think this is a broadcast?” Vox asked, his mask of calm control brittle at best.

 

“You think I can’t tell when ya broadcasting?” Vaggie could practically hear Angel rolling his eyes. “Oh, please. Your pupils literally change, Vox, you dumbass. It’s not that hard to figure out.”

 

“They what?” he hissed as Vaggie peeked at the scene again, finding Velvette shrugging at him while Valentino sent him a sheepish look.

 

“Oh, come on, how were they supposed to know?” Angel asked him, judgement obvious. “Valentino has the most shit eyes of any demon I’ve ever met in all of hell, and Velvette does all of the prep work for both of you but isn’t actually there while you’re putting on a show, idiot.”

 

“You think I am the idiot here, Angel Dust?” Vox asked in a lethally calm voice, but Angel just barked a laugh and confirmed, “Yeah, I do, fuckface. You’re an idiot that doesn’t even realize your empire is crumbling as we speak.”

 

“How’s that?” Vox asked dangerously.

 

“If it comes down to it and we can't make them leave without threatening vengeance on Angel when we're not looking, we may have to kill them. To end them permanently, we’ll need my spear, it’s angelic,” Vaggie told the other two in an undertone. “I’ll try to get down to the ground level to sneak up on them, you two stay up here and be eyes in the sky unless we need you on the ground, ok?”

 

She received two nods and crept across the open staircase to hide in the other wing of the landing where she could hopefully subtly climb down the side of the stairs.

 

Angel heaved a heavy sigh but conceded to explain.

 

“Vox, your money and contribution to this little act is only one tenth from your personal broadcasts, and the other ninety percent are from distributing Valentino’s movies. I had previously thought that Velvette was smart enough to cut and rise if you two pulled some stupid shit like this, because she isn’t actually dependent on either of you. She makes all of her own clothes, and her own press. All she needs to do to replace you two is buy a camera and do her own shoots for billboards, her sales come from the in-person fashion shows and sales of her outfits, which, granted, are advertised for free in Valentino’s movies, but she has more than enough of a base to continue without that.”

 

Vaggie stayed low and shrugged out of her oversized sweater, tying one sleeve around the sturdy banister closest to the wall and furthest from the standoff occurring below them.

 

“She also holds the vast majority of the souls you three own because she knows how to hold her temper and not shoot people with angelic bullets because she’s annoyed,” Angel informed them. “Vox, you’ve donated two thirds of your own souls to Valentino’s temper, and Valentino has switched from hoarding souls to hoarding money once he realized that owning me and a few others was enough considering plenty of demons are willing to brutally use a pornstar, the only ones he has to own are the ones getting used.”

 

Distantly, she was impressed with Angel's knowledge and delivery, though most of her focus was consumed by ensuring she was staying silent as she fed the rest of the sweater through the gap between banisters, lithely slipped over the railing, and carefully shifting her grip from the wood to the makeshift rappelling rope she had created.

 

“That brings us back to Valentino,” Angel’s voice noted as Vaggie began to carefully lower herself downward. “Valentino, who just lost his number one star on the same day a major fire caused substantial damage to the studio, putting another dent in the budget he was already tight on, planning to make up for the unfathomable amount of money he spent at bars and casinos in the past month with my upcoming shoots, but that’s out now. Oops, and your side projects ain't got the fan following or the ability to step into my boots, so it’s lookin’ like you’ve just become the weakest link, Val, taking down Vox, and apparently Velvette, with you.”

 

“You think awfully highly of yourself, don’t you, puta?” Valentino hissed, incensed. “You’re nothing but a set of holes, and you’re worth nowhere near what you think you are.”

 

“Actually,” Angel disputed, voice moving further into the lobby just as Vaggie released her grip on the fabric and dropped the last few feet to the ground with a barely audible sound. “I know exactly how much I’m worth. I know that your prostitutes make only three percent of your overall portfolio. Porn I’m not in makes a measly five percent of the total despite the fact that the rest of your unfortunate souls combined create almost as many films as I do. I know your brains are almost as shit as your eyes, so I’ll do the math for you, puta. My movies, mine, rake in ninety two percent of your overall income because I might hate it, but I am damn good at my job.”

 

Vaggie crept forward, sinking down to hide behind the reception desk Alastor had insisted on.

 

“What?” Valentino gaped while the other two Vees glared daggers at him.

 

“Did you seriously forget that I do your books for you?” Angel asked, lounging back against the bar, languidly draping two of his arms over the bar top as though he were merely out at a club making conversation. “Fuck, I know you’re stupid, but I didn’t think you were that stupid. You don’t remember going, ‘Oh, Angel, my eyes can’t see well enough’ and ‘Oh, Angel, since I can order you not to share our numbers why don’t you just keep these books for me?’ which I did for seventy fucking years.”

 

Valentino stared in open mouthed shock, while Vox and Velvette seemed to almost steam with their rage, but Angel merely cocked an eyebrow at him, and Vaggie took the opportunity to sneak closer, crossing the open floor while everyone was staring at each other and crouching down behind the couch.

 

“Well,” Angel smirked, looking so casually confident Vaggie would have believed he was completely at ease if not for the slight tremor she could see running through his hands, “I always knew you were an idiot. For instance, instead of going out and desperately trying to find someone who could do even half of what I can, you instead decide to come and knock down the door to the princess of hell, and then Voxxy over there didn’t even cut the feed when I started in on your weaknesses and numbers.

 

That is going to be Katy Killjoy’s cue to put that plan into place that I cannot believe you haven’t seen coming, Vox, it’s so fucking obvious. Not to mention, I’d be willing to bet at least a seventh of your souls were lied to and can now break their contracts if they present them to Princess Charlie, so you’re down even more. And Val, Bellatrix is going to seize the opportunity to be the big porn industry producer and destroy you if you don’t ruin yourself long before she can. Velvette is the only one here who could potentially still come out at some semblance of the top if she plays her cards right.”

 

“We are going to kill you, and you will die in agony,” Vox hissed, sparking slightly as he stalked forward, and Vaggie shifted her weight, ready to spring into action.

 

“Well, yeah,” Angel nodded, seeming unconcerned, “but that was going to happen no matter what, and you all just gave me the unrivaled pleasure of decimating you on my way out. My end may be here, but I get to die knowing that you will all get what’s coming to you. No matter what you do to me, I’m gonna die happy.”

 

That appeared to be what broke the moth’s fragile self-control and he lunged toward the spider with a yell, and Vaggie leapt forward, but Angel burst into motion before she could get there.

 

One of his arms reappeared from behind the bar. Apparently, he hadn’t merely been lounging, he had felt around for a full bottle of alcohol and brought it up to slam into Valentino’s head. The bottle broke on impact, coating the demon in glass and alcohol, and he stumbled to the side, barely staying on his feet as he clutched his head in pain, squinting at Angel in disbelief.

 

Angel squarely held his previous owner's red gaze as one of his other hands produced a box of matches from behind the counter and ran a match along the striker strip before he almost nonchalantly tossed it at the alcohol covered moth. The fire caught in an instant, Valentino dropping to the ground and rolling frantically as he screamed, but Angel ignored him, turning his attention to the attacking Vox as Vaggie rushed forward.

 

Velvette noticed the movement, turning and making a lucky grab at the spear’s staff, but Vaggie used the grip to her advantage and spun in place, pulling Velvette off her feet, and planting a foot in her stomach to send her catapulting across the room to land in a heap.

 

Vaggie turned to find that Angel had used the broken bottle he had held onto to slash a long cut in Vox’s face that was sparking and hissing as the man tried to attack again. Angel ducked the pained punch, slipping in closer and slicing a bloody gash in the wanna-be-overlord’s side.

 

Vox let out a pained noise, but also grabbed two of Angel’s wrists in each hand, murder in his eyes. Vaggie sprinted forward, but Angel was faster, extending two additional arms that were shocking -though Vaggie belatedly decided she should have known they were there considering she knew he was a spider- as they sprouted out from under the sweater, reached up, and dug fingers into the crack on the screen and pried it larger.

 

Vox practically threw him away, clutching at his face in pain, and Vaggie used the opportunity to sweep him off his feet and stab her angelic spear through the center of space just below his hips. It wouldn’t be an instant kill shot, but the fact that he screamed in agony as he curled over himself was worth the delay.

 

She turned to check on Velvette, who had pulled herself up, but was standing across the room and looking like she didn’t know if she should flee or not, so Vaggie turned her attention to Angel, who had found himself backing up to put distance between him and a furious, charred Valentino.

 

Before she could blink Husk was there, wings flared and protective as he snarled at the moth, and Angel was completely hidden from view, but she could still hear him announce, “For fuck’s sake! You lot listen like a brick wall!” with an exasperation so potent it was almost tangible.

 

“You will not hurt him,” a voice from the foot of the stairs announced, and Vaggie knew it was Charlie, but it also only had a passing resemblance to her voice.

 

Everyone in the room spun to find her prowling across the floor, her hair whipping around her as her eyes flamed. She was inexplicably in a red dress that Vaggie had never seen before, but looked damn good on her, and she had a… tail? The new appendage was enough to waylay the attack Vaggie was mounting as she stared in confusion, but Charlie continued to stalk forward.

 

“You will never hurt him again,” Charlie promised darkly, her voice thrumming with a dangerous power. “You came into my hotel and tried to hurt my residents? My residents are under my protection, and you will not touch them.”

 

Her voice overlaid a deep, thundering rumble that had all three of the Vees staring at her in open terror.

 

Velvette did the smart thing, turning and running out the door without a backward glance for her compatriots.

 

Vox did the only thing he could do, lay in a bleeding heap and gape at her in horror.

 

Valentino did the stupid thing.

 

Valentino, eyes wide with terror, glanced around, registered he was trapped by a wall on one side and Husk and Angel on the other, and apparently completely forgot that he had wings as he decided the only way out was through. He charged forward, but before he could even get halfway to Charlie, Vaggie was there, thrusting her spear up through his ribcage and lifted him off his feet as she pierced his heart.

 

“I am not killing you because she can’t,” Vaggie growled, glaring up at the moth that was gasping and soundlessly mouthing words as blood dribbled out the side of his mouth, “I am doing this so that you and everyone watching this fucking broadcast understand that Charlie is not the only defense of this hotel. For someone to touch any of our residents, they will have to go through me, the radio demon, the king of hell, and the princess herself. Think twice before engaging, because this,” she shoved her spear still deeper, and Valentino let out a noise of pure pain, “will be your fate.”

 

She disgustedly pointed her weapon to the side and let him slide off to land on the ground, staring at Vox for a moment before the light left his eyes forever, in full view of the broadcast through hell that Vox was too shocked to stop sending.

 

Charlie growled her fury, slamming the pitchfork that had somehow appeared in her hand on the floor, and Valentino was incinerated, burning with a malicious looking fire that was far more fearsome than the usual flames seen around hell. Within seconds he was nothing but a pile of ashes.

 

Vox stared in horror at the remains for a long second before he slowly brought his eyes up to the women standing above him.

 

“So, Vox,” Vaggie asked, spinning her spear with a skill and dexterity that spoke of lethal ability, “are you causing a problem for our residents?”

 

He frantically shook his head, scuttling backward as much as he could with his injury, eventually managing to get his knees under him as he desperately crawled toward the exit.

 

“Hey, Vox,” Vaggie called just before he was out the door, and he turned back to her with a look of pure terror on his face. “Don’t forget, this applies even when our residents are outside the hotel. Once someone is a resident of this hotel, they are under our protection, no matter where they are in hell, and we may be about forgiveness, but do not think that would stop us from extracting vengeance like you have never seen before on anyone who dares touch even one hair on our peoples’ heads.”

 

Vox visibly swallowed, nodding frantically, and she was pleased to see he was still broadcasting as he scuttled out the door and out of sight.

 

 

Notes:

So, uh, sorry to anyone who loves Vox? I just really feel like most people in the hotel would not be super fond of him... At least I didn't kill him?

I know that Vaggie was technically already checked off in The Will-be Has-been, but I felt like she deserved her own story where she directly freed Angel, so double check for Vaggie, I guess?

Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear what you think!

Chapter 5: Strike the Set

Notes:

For anyone who hasn't been involved in theater, striking the set is what it's called when all of the performances have been given and the cast and crew have to dismantle the stage and backdrops.

"Well," Husk broke the ringing silence as he stepped forward and folded his wings to his back, "that was eventful."

 

"You stupid fuck!" Angel rounded on him, a dizzying mix of fear, relief, and outrage in his voice, but Husk merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

 

"You could have died!" Angel exploded, gesticulating wildly. "What the fuck where you thinking? I told you all to stay in that room!"

 

"Technically, you just said that he wouldn't know we were in the room if we stayed there," Husk countered conversationally, which was an amusing juxtaposition to the flailing emotion Angel was overflowing with.

 

"You -, you -, you stupid ass!" Angel eventually managed to splutter out. "You knew what I meant! You knew! And I told you how to take care of Nuggets, what if we'd all died? Who would have fed my baby?"

 

"Niffty would have found him and taken care of him," Husk told him confidently. "She goes in every room at least once a day, and I didn't realize before I met him, but Nuggets has to be the puppy she's always asking you if she can feed."

 

That gave Angel pause, and Vaggie had to admit she was surprised as well, the odd conversations that had dotted the past month of Niffty begging a baffled Angel to be able to feed the puppy and the spider giving her a bewildered, but firm, 'No,' that had her pouting for at least an hour flashing through her mind.

 

"Oh, is that what she meant?" Angel asked, momentarily forgetting his outrage. "I thought she found some hellhound or something that would eat her if she got too close."

 

"I did too," Husk grinned with a huff of amusement, "but she keeps asking you, and only you, so she must have found Nuggets in your room and realized he was your pet."

 

"… Oh," Angel eventually nodded, "now I feel bad for telling her no."

 

"You're gonna make her day when you tell her she can visit him," Husk told him with a grin, and Angel smiled back for a long second before he visibly remembered he was angry and his scowl reasserted itself, though it only seemed to amuse Husk further.

 

"You still shouldn't have come down!" Angel's volume rose as he found his previous panicked offense. "You could have gotten hurt!"

 

"So could you," Husk noted, bringing him up short. "Why is it ok for you to get hurt or killed, but not me?"

 

"Because… because" Angel struggled for an answer, his voice escaping far quieter as he shrugged and eventually said, "because it's just me."

 

"And you think that's a valid argument?" Husk asked, sounding as unamused as Vaggie felt, and beside her Charlie slipped a hand into Vaggie's, squeezing it and obviously struggling not to jump in and inform Angel just how unacceptable that reasoning was.

 

"I don't want you to get hurt," Angel offered in a small voice, and Vaggie didn't know if she wanted to shake him or hug him.

 

"And you think it's ok with me if you get hurt?" Husk demanded, but Angel had no response for him beyond biting his lip and staring with wide eyes and a small shrug.

 

Vaggie's heart clenched at the sight, and Husk visibly softened, his eyes sad even as he opened his arms and pulled the spider that suddenly looked remarkably young into a hug.

 

"No,” he told Angel firmly. "It is not acceptable for you to get hurt. You gave us your last wishes speech, and you really thought I was going to stay in that room and let them kill you? You think your friends would just sit in the room and shrug instead of rushing in to protect you?"

 

"I've never had anyone try to save me before today,” he mumbled into Husk's chest. "It honestly didn't occur to me as an option."

 

"Well, now you know that if you're in trouble you have the rest of us to pull you out of it," Husk said matter-of-factly, and Angel pulled back to study his face, cheeks flushing slightly as Husk stared steadily back.

 

"I appreciate the thought, but I don't want none of you getting hurt for me," Angel told him, an almost shy sincerity in the tone, "so thank you, but I need you to promise me you'll never do that again."

 

"No," Husk told him bluntly, and Angel blinked in surprise for a moment before he scowled as the answer connected.

 

"Yes,” he insisted sternly.

 

"No," Husk told him, just as firm. "We losers have to stick together, and there's no way you're gonna get me to promise to just sit on my ass if I know you're in trouble."

 

Angel rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh, but there was an undeniable affection in his eyes as he announced, "We can talk about this again later," in a put-upon voice.

 

"Sure, we can," Husk nodded amiably, "but you're never convincing me to agree to that."

 

Angel huffed another amused breath, making a show of crossing all three sets of his arms, and then immediately distracted them all from the conversation by wincing with a gasp.

 

"What's wrong?" Husk asked, far closer than the other two and the first to reach Angel's side.

 

"Nothing, nothing," Angel shrank back, pasting on an unconvincing smile as he tried to hide his lowest hands from view. "It’s all good, I'm just being a diva, you know how I am."

 

"Angel," Vaggie warned, and he stopped his retreat as he stared at her with wide eyes. "Don't do that. Come on, Angel, let us help you."

 

He bit his lip, looked at each of them, and then slowly uncurled enough to bring his bottom hands up a little further, revealing his burned fingers.

 

"I -, uh -, my… my fingers got a little singed when I was getting away from Vox,” he said, voice unsure and almost meek, and Vaggie suddenly remembered that he had plunged his fingers into the sparking crack in Vox's screen to escape his grasp.

 

"Oh, Angel," Charlie looked ready to burst into tears as she gently captured one of his hands and brought it up to peer at the injuries.

 

"What was your plan here if we didn't stop you from brushing off our help?" Vaggie asked him, raising an eyebrow that nonverbally proclaimed how much she did not approve of whatever answer was coming.

 

He sent her a weak smile and tried, "I was just gonna retract them until they were better?" that was far more a question than an answer.

 

"What?" Husk demanded, immediately recapturing Angel's attention as he took the wrist of the other injured hand and brought it up to look at the fingers in disbelief. "Absolutely not! Burns are not something to mess around with, Angel, they could get infected. We need to treat these."

 

"I -," Angel was starting to look distinctly trapped as he glanced between the three of them, breath coming in shallower pants, and Vaggie claimed the injured limbs from both Charlie and Husk and then let Angel go, allowing him to shrink back and pull all six of his arms to his chest. "I don't like having them out for long."

 

"Why?" Vaggie asked gently, glad when Husk and Charlie seemed to understand they had overwhelmed the spider and shifted back.

 

"Well," Angel carefully considered each of them before deigning to answer. "I always keep one set retracted in case I need it, because people forget I have three sets, not two, like Vox did. Then they don't tie them up or grab them or try to block them, and I can get away."

 

Vaggie couldn't blame him for the reasoning, but also didn't want to risk infection if they left the burns untreated, and she could see her conflicted feelings on the faces of the other two as well.

 

"How about we compromise," Vaggie soothed. "How about you retract your middle set and keep your lower set out while they heal?"

 

Angel hesitated, watching all of them warily, but then he slowly pulled his middle arms into himself, leaving two of the sweater sleeves flopping empty to his sides while his lowest set of hands stuck out the bottom.

 

"Hmm," Vaggie considered, "Angel, can you give me your sweater, please?"

 

"What?” he asked, face and voice suddenly full of panic as his upper set of arms hugged his torso while his lower fingers hooked in the hem of his sweater despite the wince the movement caused. "Why? I'm sorry, I won't retract my lower arms, can I please keep it?"

 

He ended the plea with a devastatingly effective set of puppy eyes that Vaggie stared at for a long second before her brain caught up to the situation and she felt her heart give a vicious twist.

 

"Not to take it,” she assured, putting her hands up in a placating surrender. "It's yours now, Angel, we made it for you, and we're not going to take it back."

 

Angel's body language loosened slightly, relaxing at the promise, but Husk's face twisted in sorrow at the realization and Charlie let out a pained sound at Vaggie's side.

 

"I should have phrased it differently," Vaggie acknowledged, ignoring the reactions of the other two and refocusing Angel's attention. "I was wondering if it might be more comfortable if we cut a slit down the side where your lower arms are so you can extend them if you want, but it isn't obvious you've retracted a set if you have them tucked in because it would only be a thin slit in the fabric."

 

"Oh,” he smiled, looking much happier. "Do you think it will unravel it to just cut the fabric?"

 

"We'll sew a hem," Vaggie assured.

 

“I’ll go get the sewing stuff!” Charlie volunteered, all but sprinting out of the room as the other three sent bemused grins at her retreating back.

 

“While she does that,” Husk rolled his eyes with good-natured exasperation as he took a few steps to the bar and bent down to retrieve something, “let's get those burns treated.”

 

He reemerged with a first aid kit in hand, glancing at Angel as he asked, “Do you want to get treated in your room, at the bar, or on the couch?”

 

Angel bit his lip, shrinking into himself and still seeming incredibly hesitant, but he offered a small, "Couch?" that was more a question than an answer, but Husk nodded his acceptance, and ushered Angel over to sit down after he and Vaggie moved the sofa to sit against the far wall, away from the glass, blood, and ash that littered the floor around the bar.

 

Angel sat, pulling his knees up to his chest and managing to become remarkably small for such a tall spider, and Vaggie felt another surge of protectiveness in her chest flare for their resident.

 

"So, we'll need to put salve on those before we bandage them," Husk told him as he pulled the coffee table in front of Angel and laid the supplies out before sitting in front of the spider.

 

Before Angel could say anything in response Charlie burst back in, sewing kit in hand and she presented it to Vaggie with an adorable, "You're better at sewing than I am, do you want to do the hem?"

 

"You're great at sewing, babe," Vaggie told her as she accepted the offering. "If you'd be more comfortable with me doing it, though, I'm fine with that. "

 

"Yes, please," Charlie said, nodding fervently and Vaggie grinned at her to acknowledge she had heard.

 

"Before you start that," Vaggie interrupted Husk’s movements as he reached for the first burned fingers, "can I pin where the hole should be?"

 

Husk shot her an annoyed scowl, but obligingly eased back, and Angel straightened up, using his top two hands to pull the sweater down so that she could take the measurements.

 

She carefully pinned the top and bottom of where his shoulder made a bump in the sweater, double checking her work before she nodded to herself and asked, "Perfect, can I have the sweater, then?"

 

Angel still looked incredibly reluctant to give up His newest article of clothing, but he did pull it off with slow, wary motions and then hold it out to her with an expression full of doubt, as though he would snatch it back at any moment.

 

Vaggie huffed her amusement at him, plucking it out of his hands, but sat down next to him rather than retreating to the worktable in her room as she might have otherwise done.

 

Charlie sat next to Husk on the table, her gaze flicking between watching Vaggie work and monitoring Angel for any signs of excessive pain, and Vaggie focused on her own task, checking and double checking before she carefully cut the first slit in the garment.

 

She set her scissors aside and got to work on hemming before anything could unravel too dramatically, peripherally noticing Husk insist, "Angel, can I have your hand, please?" in a tone that was more firm, though it stayed warm and protective.

 

Vaggie finished the first set of hems, holding the sweater up so she could survey her work, and hummed an approval as she saw that her tight topstitch kept the gap from flopping open when arms weren't poked through it, leaving the new addition subtle and barely noticeable.

 

She turned it enough so that Angel could see the result as well, and then resettled the cloth on her lap as she got to work on the second side

 

She couldn't help but be amused and endeared by how closely Angel watched her, which caused an excellent distraction from the bandaging of his fingers that occasionally made him wince and hiss in pain, though he didn't try to pull his hands away, and Husk murmured soothing apologies every time he caused a reaction.

 

Thankfully Husk was almost done bandaging the second set of fingers as she was finishing up, and she stalled her last few stitches to draw out the diversion, successfully keeping Angel distracted through the more painful treatment of the burns that were worse on his right hand than his left, and held up the sweater for his approval as Husk tied the last bandage

 

She turned it to each side so that he could appraise how it hung and then offered him the top, which he eagerly accepted and pulled on immediately, beaming with an almost childlike delight as his bottom set of arms slid through the gap that opened at the perfect height for them.

 

"What do you think?" Vaggie asked, unable to wipe off the expression that she knew was soft and affectionate.

 

"It's perfect, thank you, Vaggie,” he told her, incredibly earnest and overwhelmingly adorable, and she was afraid she might melt if he kept that look on her for too long.

 

"I guess next on the list is cleaning up the glass and fire mess before Niffty kills us all," Vaggie decided, tucking her needle back into the small sewing kit as she glanced at the others, immediately biting down the mischievous smile that wanted to form as she caught sight of Husk staring at Angel with hearts almost literally in his eyes.

 

She had thought she had detected a change in attitude through the evening, but the look on the bartender's face cemented the statement in her mind. The cat had stayed far closer than usual to the spider ever since he followed the sinner into the room they had renovated. He had let Angel hold his hand to help with his anxiety when Charlie broke the contract. He had let Angel lounge against him, practically in his lap, under the weak pretense of attempting to view the board better when they had all played, instead of pointing out that Angel could easily move closer if he was actually having trouble reading the squares or reaching the cards.

 

She had already thought the hotel may see a new relationship budding, but Husk's expression paired with the consistent and continued flirting from Angel made it almost guaranteed.

 

"Ok," Angel nodded, breaking her out of her thoughts and moving to get up before her arm shot out to push him back against the cushions.

 

"Absolutely not,” she told him sternly, sending him a reprimanding look that he seemed honestly confused by. "You are not helping, your fingers are burned. Burns get infected so easily, Angel, we're not messing around with that. You can sit here and supervise."

 

Angel's lips twisted, protest visibly building, but Vaggie turned to her girlfriend.

 

"Charlie?” she asked, trying not to get sidetracked by the fact that her girlfriend was still in a fitted dress with horns and a tail which were distractingly attractive, "Can you please supervise this disaster and make sure he stays here on the couch?"

 

Charlie laughed with a nod, sitting on Angel's other side and laying one of her arms over his shoulders to pull him into her side.

 

"Can do,” she agreed with a smile, unbothered by Angel pouting at her, and Vaggie sent her a fond look as she stood.

 

"I guess you signed me up to help, then," Husk drawled, teasingly unimpressed as he fell into step beside her, and she sent him an unrepentant grin as she nodded and confirmed, "Yep, sure did," which had him snorting his amusement, but also retrieving the broom and dustpan without complaint.

 

"Alright,” she met him back in front of the wreck that their lobby had become, "let's get to work."

 

Notes:

Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear what you think!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 12 of Will someone please save Angel Dust? Literally anyone! Anyone at all!