Chapter Text
Alastor
Charlie talked too much. Alastor is aware of this, but he speaks Charlie at this point and he can filter through the nonsense to grab key points. According to what Charlie said, falling out of love is easy. Easy as being an Overlord.
- Spend more time together (to see flaws)
- Get bad gifts (to show lack of belief in their character)
- Ridiculous nicknames (to show lack of respect)
He doesn’t know enough about love to say those won’t work, but they don’t seem like the proper way to fall out of love. It’s moments like this, where he’s sitting in his chair after a good show, that he really wishes it wasn’t ROSIE of all people that had become afflicted by this dastardly disease.
Because anything that makes Rosie less Rosie is a disease.
He bounces a foot and leans on an elbow. He certainly couldn’t just say to Rosie, “Spend more time with Lucifer and get him bad gifts.”
She would know in a heartbeat what he was trying to do. He has to change the wording. Charlie said too many words, and he was far better with words than she was, so he just had to… twist them a little.
Time to visit Rosie. And hopefully he gets to keep his antlers.
///
Rosie
Alastor. He’s been on Rosie’s mind for a bit now. For a day and a half since Charlie’s conversation. Certainly, it’s quite normal for her best friend to be on her mind. But, there’s also the niggling feeling that he’s after something that’s hers and she doesn’t like it. When Alastor wants something, he gets something. He goes after it. He seeks it out and pins it down.
Rosie taps her pencil against her yellow notepad and hums. She can’t focus today. Can’t even think of anything to make her mind stop racing.
“Rosie?”
She starts and spins to see Dany’s pursed lips. Dany had been SO good to Rosie. She’d taken care of the town. She’d looked after Alastor. She’d run down stray vendors, torn apart Cannibal Town enemies, and kept everyone in the loop.
And she refused to call herself Rosie’s friend.
“Are you okay?” Dany was supposed to be in the back until 10. Supposed to be. She’s here though, and Rosie has to try and sort through her thoughts. At least Dany could keep her grounded. Maybe she would ask Dany if she noticed something different about Alastor. Dany knew him quite well since Alastor’s presence has been a constant over the years.
“Just fine. Alastor driving me crazy, you know how he is.” Rosie laughs when Dany rolls her eyes.
“Don’t I.” Dany mutters and Rosie waves a pencil in her direction in agreement. “I did not threaten or kill him at all while you were gone, I deserve an award.”
“That you do.” Rosie nods and turns back to her pad. She writes down supplies for the Emporium. “He’s been off since I came back. Did something happen while I was away? Maybe he had a revelation or something?”
Dany’s spine stiffens. She laughs and it sounds a little fake. Odd. Dany doesn’t hide from Rosie. “He’s been himself. He’s just grumpy.”
Dany is gone before Rosie can ask more questions. It makes her tap at her paper pad. It makes her narrow her eyes where Dany had been a moment prior. It makes her itch. Alastor WAS different, and Dany knew it. Dany even knew why. She just didn’t want Rosie to know.
Dany only hides things from Rosie when she thinks it's for the best.
Rosie doesn’t like it.
///
Alastor
Dany is at the counter when he arrives. She hisses at him. He hisses back. What’s WRONG with him? This is caused by Lucifer. He just needs to get Lucifer out of the situation and then everything will go back to normal.
“You!” Dany leans over the counter as soon as he gets close. “Start acting like yourself. You’re making Rosie worry.”
“I’m always myself.” Alastor puts on his sharpest and most charming smile. “Are you implying something, my dear?”
It’s then that Alastor sees the worry swimming in Dany’s eyes. She’s worried. About Rosie. Dany only worries when there’s something to worry about. After working with her for two months, he knows that Dany is quick to prioritize. She’s prioritizing Rosie right now.
It’s worse than Alastor thought.
“You’re being too nice.” Dany mutters as she pulls away. “Rosie thinks you’re hiding something, and she’s right.” She huffs. “As per usual.”
He scoffs. They stare at each other. She taps at the counter, he taps his foot. “I owe her.”
“Which is why you looked after the Emporium. Which is why you’re being nice to ME despite your grumpiness.” She waves at the world around them, her pencil flung off into the ether. He uses a tentacle to grab it and place it back on the counter. “You suddenly deciding to give a damn about your debts after having accumulated them over a century is not OUR fault.”
“WAtch YoUr tonguE.” He leans into Dany’s space, but she doesn’t back down. Why would she? She’s essential. He can’t touch a hair on her head. “I have always cared about my debts.”
Worry. She’s so worried. It makes Alastor want to tear apart the Emporium and leave nothing but the foundations. He would never hurt Rosie in that manner. “Then figure out how to care and not make her pull her hair out in worry.”
Dany waves a hand at him. A dismissal he would not tolerate from anyone else.
He huffs, spins on a heel, and leaves Dany to her nonsense thoughts about him not being a good friend. He will be. If he has to figure out how to kill the King of Hell, he will.
///
Rosie
She has pins in her mouth, a needle in her hand, when Alastor walks in. She raises an eyebrow at him and waves at the dress in front of her. She might not have her hat on to give him the sign of “go away” but he knows when she’s busy. Dany is at the front.
“Apologies, Old Girl, I had a thought.” Alastor slides into the seat by hers, and she rolls her eyes in response. He’s here whether she wants it or not. “Involving your infatuation.”
Her hands stop and she carefully, ensuring she doesn’t prick herself and get blood on the fabric, she puts down the needle and takes the pins out of her mouth. “If this is about Lucifer, you can go away.”
He’s here about Lucifer. She can tell based on the twitch of his ears. She really doesn’t want to believe Charlie. She really doesn’t. If she does, then… She suppresses the tremor in her hands by pressing them flat against the dress and table.
“Look here, mister, if you’re telling me to--”
“Rosie.” He sounds a touch … not desperate. No Alastor would never come off as desperate, that would be a weakness of character, but he does sound like he wants her to listen. Like he needs her to listen. She closes her mouth and puts her hands in her lap. She can listen to her friend. “It’s been less than two years.”
He has a point. How long had Kay taken to worm her way in?
“I question whether you know him as soundly as you think.” That is also fair. He is the King of Hell and he has been around for thousands of years. Sometimes he slips up and says millions, and she’s starting to wonder how old the universe really is. “Perhaps. Perhaps we should work on getting to know him.”
She narrows her eyes at the ‘we’ in that sentence. He waves a hand to say he’s not done.
“More time spent together does wonders to figure out if you truly know someone. How long before our friendship became what it is today?” Decades. “Not to mention he’s such a needy thing. Why, he needed Charlie’s permission to fix the bathroom just an hour ago. Surely there are many things he’s needed that you’ve noticed?”
She blinks at Alastor. Lucifer does need things, doesn’t he? And she hasn’t been looking to see what those are since they got back. Oh, she’s been a terrible friend. He’s been quieter, he must need something specific. She’ll have to keep an eye on that.
“And your nickname for him.” Sunshine? Lucifer is her Sunshine. “Rosie, dear, don’t you think you might be --” Words fail Alastor. Alastor of all people. Words fail many people. Bart is one of them, and Paul is another, but Rosie has never seen Alastor stop and stare at her with wide eyes and twitching ears. Oh, there’s something wrong. There’s something wrong and it has to do with Lucifer--
And Rosie REALLY doesn’t want to believe Charlie is right. She really doesn’t.
“Getting in too deep, too fast?” Alastor is being too kind right now. Too soft. Not himself. She doesn’t like it.
“We’ve already had a similar conversation.” They haven’t. But Alastor narrows his eyes as he tries to think of one, which gives her time to speak. “He’s a friend, Alastor. Let me have friends. You have your little hotel crew, I have Sun-- Lucifer. And we both have Cannibal Town. Is that really so bad?”
“You have Lucifer?” Alastor taps at the table. His emphasis on ‘have’ makes her twitch. She really doesn’t want to believe Charlie. “Having someone is different from being friends with someone, Rosie.”
Rosie tries to see Alastor. She really does. She tries to know him, understand him, and she thinks she does most days. Most, but not all. Today she’s having trouble seeing past the wide eyes and the words of Charlie playing in the back of her mind. She must be missing something. He can’t be-- He can’t be after Lucifer. Her Sunshine.
She purses her lips. “It’s just like you to play semantics.”
That gets a bark of a laugh from him. “Radio Demon.”
“Mmm. Demon of bothering me during work.” Rosie turns to grab her pins and needle. Alastor backed off so quickly there. Perhaps Rosie is seeing things she shouldn’t. “Did you need anything else?”
The quiet settles as Alastor hums and looks around the room. She starts to put her pins back in her mouth so she can work quickly. Too many dresses to get done and too little time to do them. Orders from the seven Rings are coming in, to the point that she and Dany had to start rejecting them which is a first, and Rosie needs to keep up.
“So you’ll consider what I said?” Alastor never asked her that before. He always assumed she’s listening. As he should. Because she does. He’s acting differently. “Perhaps try to see Lucifer as he is? Instead of what he presents?”
Rosie talks around the pins she’s placed in her mouth. “Sure. Doesn’t hurt, right?”
He stands with a clap and brushes off his front. “Good! A Radio Demon is always right, you know.”
When he sinks into the shadows, Rosie stares at the dress and tries to understand why she didn’t see this before.
///
Alastor
Rosie saw right through him. He knows she did. It was in her eyes. In the way she paused when he kept talking. And, the most heinous thing of all, his words failed him. He growls at the window of his room.
HIM! The Radio Demon. Lucifer is a terrible influence on them both. Losing WORDS. As if they aren’t part of Alastor’s very being.
Rosie won’t do as Alastor asked because Rosie knows Alastor. He was off and he knows it. Not to mention that Rosie probably thinks she knows Lucifer. The easy method has been done then. The easy method of going to Rosie and trying to present a solid and fact based case has been tried.
She saw through him.
He messed up.
“Roach King?” Nifty darts out of the vent in his wall. She’s been doing a good job at keeping the hotel in tip top shape. Unlike a certain someone. “I have done as you ordered!”
“Excellent.” He has no idea what he ordered, but he’ll take whatever Niffty offers. She is, after all, one of his best people. Not that he owns her soul, she just sticks around because she can. It’s a fun relationship. “And your results?”
“The Roach queen is in the vents.” Nifty giggles. “And the biggest Bad Boy told me I could get her. She can’t hide when he gave me speed shoes.”
The Biggest. Bad. Boy. Alastor feels an eye twitch. “Lucifer.” He growls and looks out at the Emporium. Lucifer and Rosie. Rosie and Lucifer. It makes him sick. “If Rosie doesn’t get her head together, I’m going to kill them both.”
Niffty blinks at him with big eyes and he sighs. He waves a hand. With a salute, she scurries back into the vents. Probably to find her roach queen. Or kill someone. Either works for him.
What is Lucifer doing talking to Niffty in the first place? Nifty is ALASTOR’s soul, thank you very much.
Alastor taps a finger against the shield of his microphone. Lucifer. The easy method to separate them had failed, because Rosie is far more clever than she is dumb, but Lucifer isn’t clever. He’s quite dumb. Yes, he was a good dancer and he was clever. Yes, he fixed Alastor’s microphone, but Rosie comes first.
Rosie should have always come first. It doesn’t matter. Alastor is fixing it.
Lucifer is dumb. But. He’s reasonable. Nice to Rosie. Cares. A little too much, some might say, which makes him easily manipulated. Maybe Lucifer is the easy method, and Alastor had been trying to take the hard path this entire time. Perhaps.
He squeezes his microphone cane as a few memories trickle into view. A bayou. Moon heavy, hanging low, with the waters sloshing and the spray sending the scent of salt into the air. The dance hall of white. The body of-- The body.
Lucifer is not dumb. But he is certainly dangerous. Alastor will have to be careful.
///
Rosie
She comes home to Lucifer humming. He’s moving around the dining room, putting down dinner plates, and she feels her heart thump against her rib cage. He’s so good to her.
Has she been paying attention? Has she really grown so used to him in their (short when Alastor put it that way) friendship that she stopped trying to figure out what he needs? Alastor thought so. She’ll have to try a little harder. “Sunshine, a surprise? I thought we were cooking dinner together.”
He blinks at her, all bright and soft around the edges. What does he need? Rosie should figure that out. “I came home early to do the sun room measurements. Figured I’d cook a favorite.”
Sinner thigh steak. He would.
Goodness, how quick and easy it is to fall into a routine with him. To fall into him and laugh. She needs to take care of him like he’s been taking care of her. After dinner, she asks, so carefully to not make it seem like he’s done anything wrong (he is such an anxious angel), “Have you been needing anything, Sunshine?”
“Moonlight?” He tilts his head as he grabs the empty dishes. “What could I need?”
She taps at the table as she thinks. “Oh, I don’t know. Just making sure you’re happy.”
She follows him. They do the dishes. He flicks water at her and she laughs. They’re side by side. When they’re about to go to bed, he sighs and looks at her and he is… SO SOFT and lovely. “I just want your friendship. How could I ask for anything more than that?”
Her friendship.
For some reason it feels like someone just tore out her heart.