Chapter Text
𐂂
The hotel is pretty lively as Charlie is presenting her new activity for the day. Alastor hums softly as Lucifer is snuggling against the overlord’s cheek before focusing on the show, the hotel guests and crew making fouls of themselves. It never gets old for Alastor, Charlie’s imagination is as wild as her father’s.
“Fuck. I can’t say that, it’s crap! Are you kidding me?” Adam slurs, shaking the paper with his lines.
“We’ve all been there, buddy. Say your lines.” Angel laughs as he’s chilling on the other side of the couch.
“Come on, Adam. You can do it!” Charlie tries to cheer him up, while Husk sighs, standing by Adam’s side.
“Ugh… Luci…” Adam whines and Lucifer laughs on Alastor’s lap.
“I’ll be back.” Lucifer kisses Alastor’s cheek before getting up to join the duo in the middle of the room.
He comes to Adam’s rescue and starts reciting with Adam some silly song Charlie has written. Husk joins them on the second verse and Alastor finds it so entertaining.
“And… I promise from now on… I’ll be good!” They harmonise on the last line before the rest of the crew clap.
“I need a drink.” Husk sighs before Adam hits him in his back.
“Wait for me first.” The First Man says as he drags Husk in the bar.
“Thank you for your participation, guys!” Charlie shouts to the two alcoholics as Lucifer comes back to sit on Alastor’s lap.
“Miss me?” Lucifer whispers to Alastor’s ear as the latter brings him closer.
Alastor opens his mouth but before he can say anything, the Pride Ring shakes violently to its core. Lucifer looks immediately worried.
“What the hell is that?” Cherry asks as she gets up.
“A hellshake?” Vaggie asks with worry in her voice, coming to hold Charlie’s hand.
“Dad?” Charlie asks and Lucifer gets up.
“I… I need to see. It might be Heaven coming for us.” Lucifer informs them, really they all knew it would be coming.
Heaven wouldn’t let them live after their last fight with Lucifer. They’ve just been lucky to have two weeks of peace before that. Lucifer gets up and leaves the room, the rest of the crew following him outside. Alastor feels a bit worried but he knows they’ll be fine if they fight together.
Once outside, they look around, searching for anything angelic presence but nothing.
“They won’t try to come to Hell. I warned Lilith last time.” Lucifer says as he takes the lead to look furthermore around the garden in front of the hotel.
“What’s that?” Niffty asks, pointing towards the City of Heaven that they could see from here.
They all lift their heads and Alastor can barely make out what is the ever growing sphere which seems to find its origin up there. As he looks down at Lucifer, he notices fear and worry all over his face, making him worried in return. The next instant, Lucifer furls his three pairs of wings and he is off the ground. Lucifer’s last look towards him doesn’t sit right with him for some reason. His eyes follow Lucifer in the air as a beam of light shoots from the City above. Lucifer’s wings spread wide as he tanks the whole beam. Sweat starts to form on Alastor’s temple as he realises what is happening. A blinding explosion in the sky follows and forces them all to cover their eyes and when they look again, only Lucifer remains. He’s falling and Alastor starts to run, followed closely by Charlie and Vaggie.
“Dad!” His daughter shouts but quickly they slow their pace, horrified.
Lucifer’s body, who is falling midair, is also turning into dust. It’s not possible, it can’t be. Alastor can barely make out a sad smile on Lucifer’s face before it turns into dust too. A strong breeze gathers the dust together as it forms a star shaped in the sky. It stays there, still for a long minute. As the others join them, looking up at the star. Lucifer can’t be dead, he’s coming back. He has to.
Charlie is crying her loss already and Alastor wants to break but he can’t, not here, not now. There’s still hope. She’s crying in Vaggie’s arms when the latter points towards the star again.
“Charlie, hon’. Look!” She says, shaking her girlfriend as everyone looks back at the star.
It seems to shift ever so slightly, letting six wings spread around it as it goes down to the ground level. When it touches the ground, it shifts again. Blonde locks, pinky cheeks, big blue eyes and an innocent smile. The creature wearing a white and pink long robe looks around him with curiosity before speaking.
“Hi everyone! I’m Lucifer! I’m really happy to meet you all!” He smiles even more as everyone is too stunned to say anything.
“You…? That’s a joke, right?” Angel asks, looking at the others for a reaction.
None of this feels right. Alastor doesn’t know what’s happening and he hates it.
“Dad…? Are you okay?” Charlie asks, still with tears in her eyes.
“Dad? Who’s Dad?” Lucifer asks, looking behind him, clearly not understanding what’s happening either. “Are you the people I have to help with my new mission?”
Alastor takes a step back as he feels so conflicted and heartbroken right now. Adam seems to decide to take the lead and comes closer to the angel. After all, he’s the only one who knows Lucifer in this form.
𓆙
“Hello, there. I’m Adam.” A familiar face comes closer to him, making him forget about the others around who look sad for some reason.
“Oh, like the first man! You look a bit different though.” Lucifer lets slip before clearing his throat. “I mean different is not bad!”
“I am the first man, yes… It’s just my form in this realm.” Adam explains to Lucifer and he feels a sling of excitement coursing through his body.
“Oh! Can you have your form at will? Or is it more like the form when you are here and only here?” Lucifer wonders, way too curious for his own good, but knowledge is too interesting.
“It’s my form from now on. Since I was cast down here.” Adam says with a bit of embarrassment.
“Why were you cast down? You’re the first man, you’re made from God’s image, no?” The angel asks again.
“Make him stop.” A pink furry guy begs and Lucifer feels embarrassment to be so overbearing.
“I’m sorry. I ask too many questions…” He sighs, looking down to his feet.
“It’s okay, D… Lucifer. Let’s get you inside. We can talk more with drinks. What do you drink? Tea?” The tall blonde girl offers, her hand resting on his shoulder as Lucifer feels a little bit better.
“I don’t know if angels should eat or drink anything. We don’t need that, unlike humans. But, I’m curious, what’s tea?” Lucifer pouts as she gently invites him inside and he decides to follow suit.
Most of the people leave for another room, while one just disappeared in the ground with weird noises, the tall girl invites him into what looks like a laboratory with a lot of different instruments, Lucifer has never seen in his life.
“Where are we?” He can’t help but ask.
“We’re in the kitchen.” She explains, her hand squeezes another hand.
Lucifer follows with his eyes the hand, then the arm to fall on the face of another girl, an angel. They’re holding hands. Lucifer hasn’t known angels can touch humans and be okay.
“Kitchen…” Lucifer repeats absently, so many weird things around.
“Sorry, silly me. I didn’t give you my name yet, it’s Charlie.” The girl says, bringing Lucifer’s attention to the girl. Charlie, that’s an original name, Lucifer likes it.
“It sounds fun!” He comments before looking at the other angel.
“Uh, oh. I’m Vaggie. Charlie’s girlfriend.” She says with awkwardness. That’s cute too.
Lucifer smiles contently, “You look happy together.”
“We are.” Charlie says as Vaggie lets go of her hand.
“Hot chocolate?” Vaggie asks towards Charlie.
“Yes, please.” Charlie smiles a little more before she gestures to the big table at the center of the room. “Do you want to sit down?”
She pulls a chair and sits down, as Lucifer has seen some of those in Heaven in big meeting rooms. It’s for serious time, Lucifer can be serious too!
He imitates her, trying to look as mature as possible before sitting down and staying as straight as possible. “Sooo… What’s my mission here? What’s the purpose of this facility? It’s rather… fancy?” Lucifer pats himself mentally, so proud to have found that word all by himself.
“Well, it’s the Hazbin Hotel. Here, we’re welcoming guests who want to change and be better. We have a few sinners here and we already have one that ascended to Heaven earlier this year.” Charlie explains as Lucifer tries his best to stay focused.
“It sounds lovely. So you’re helping Adam and the others so they can go to Heaven? How can I help you with that?” Lucifer asks, trying his best to stay still on his chair, letting his fingers rest on the table for a short minute before putting his hands on his thighs. He’s so bad at this.
“Well, we’re usually doing activities around this hour but with your arrival and all, I think we’ll do that tomorrow so maybe you can just go around when we’re done and visit the hotel to get your markings and all?” Charlie offers as Vaggie comes back to her with a long container which has an extra handle. Looks really funny from here.
Vaggie comes to him right after to offer him another of those weird containers with a handle. He tries his best not to look impressed but he takes it in his hands and turns it around. Being careful with the thing and the seemingly warm liquid in it.
“It’s really beautiful! What is that?” Lucifer asks without thinking again.
“Tea.” Vaggie says and Charlie clears her throat.
“It’s a cup and it’s filled with tea. To drink.” Charlie corrects her partner as Lucifer looks up at her to see her hold the cup by the handle and drinks from it.
So interesting. Lucifer holds it as he tries to mimic her but he can’t resolve himself to drink yet.
“It’s… really practical… I… I’m going to appreciate it like that for the moment.” Lucifer says with embarrassment as he puts down the cup on the table. He will be done for, if his superiors learn that he consumes human food.
𐂂
Alastor barely makes it to his room through his shadows that he falls on his knees, one hand keeping his face from kissing the parquet floor and the other one gripping at his waistcoat where his heart aches. He’s just having a nightmare right now. It’s not possible. He didn’t just lose Lucifer because that idiot wanted to protect them from another unknown beam laser sent from Heaven. It just can’t be, not after everything they went through, not after all the time it took for Alastor to finally open his heart to someone and have it ripped away in an instant. Everything went too fast, he couldn’t save him.
Alastor’s vision blurs even more as he bites down his lips to draw blood. Letting blood and tears hit the flood, Alastor doesn’t care anymore. He can’t afford it anymore, there’s no point.
“Hey, Al’! It’s Angel, are ya there?” The pornstar asks through the door.
Fuck. Why now? He needs to get a hold on himself. He can’t just disappear to crumble in the middle of the day. It’s nothing like him. He gets up with difficulty, taking a slow and deep breath.
“I’m here, Angel. Give me two minutes.” He manages to say with a most stable tone he can as he walks to the bathroom.
He lets the tap run before taking water in his hands to splash his face with it. He needs to have his mind clear, his heartache means nothing, he can ignore it for now. He sighs as he cuts the tap and dries his face quickly. He fixes his hair a little before leaving the bathroom to open the door to Angel Dust.
“Fucking finally.” Angel sighs as Alastor quickly steps to the side to let the guy enter.
“What is it you want, Angel?” Alastor asks as he closes the door and turns to the spider demon.
“I…” He starts as he looks around, grabbing one of his arms with another one. “I was worried… You know because of what happened to Lucifer.”
It has been a mistake to have answered the door, Alastor snarls slightly before shrugging it off.
“What happened needed to happen.” Alastor says with a bitter taste on his tongue.
“Bullshit! Don’t close yourself off again! You didn’t make all that progress to shut yourself off in a moment like that!” Angel growls, grabbing Alastor by the arm and the touch sends ants crawling all over Alastor’s body as he jerks out of the touch.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” Alastor warns him with gritted teeth and his irises turned into radio dials.
“Am I wrong though? Alastor, please. I’m your friend, can’t you be truthful for once!” Angel asks, trying to reach out again but he stops himself.
“My friend?! I don’t have any friends! I don’t need anyone in this hotel! Or hell, anyone in this fucking hellhole that’s the Pride Ring! I’m only here for entertainment, I’ve never cared for you or anyone else but my own little person!” Alastor explains as he slowly loses it, his voice getting more and more filled with radio static and the lights starting to waver.
Angel backs off to the door, tears in his eyes, his hand grabs the doorknob and he quickly leaves Alastor alone. Once Angel is out, Alastor tries to calm himself again, but he feels so bad for what he just did. It’s necessary, he can’t let anyone get close to him again. He won’t be able to handle it.