Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The next few days were peaceful. The kind of peaceful Lucifer hadn't experienced since the Hotel was in the process of being rebuilt. He hadn't realized how much stress Alastor was causing him until he backed off.
Lucifer might even have gotten a full nights sleep last night! That hadn't happened in an especially long time!
(He wasn't thinking about the fact that his sleep had been haunted by the caress of teeth along his neck or glimpses of red, red sated eyes.)
The images threatened to steal his attention, even as he tried to bury them down with all the other things he was refusing to think about at this point. He forced himself to pay attention, tuning in as Charlie said, excitedly, "She's already spending half her time here! It's really only a matter of time before she agrees to join us full time!"
The campaign to get Cherri Bomb to join the Hazbin Hotel had been having mixed results since the fight with Adam and her participating in the rebuilding. She was clearly here mostly for Angel, but it seemed that the other denizens of the hotel were growing on her. Charlie was correct in that the cyclops spent just as much time at the hotel as she did were ever else she landed when she wasn't with them. She even had a room of her own, even if she didn't officially claim it. It definitely helped it was right next door to her best friend.
Lucifer patted her shoulder. "She'll come around in her own time. Remember, for this to work, they have to actually want it."
Charlie placed her hand over her father's, biting her lip and near bursting with excitement. "I know, but it just feels like we're so close! It'll be so great when she agrees."
"Yes, but in the meantime, we'll just continue to make her feel welcome." He smiled at her proudly. "Which you're already doing so well at!"
Charlie's returned the smile, pleased with his feedback.
The moment, like so often when one lives in Hell, was suddenly and abruptly interrupted by the entire building shaking.
Angel appeared on the landing of the second floor, the one that overlooked the main entrance and foyer. "What the hell? We haven't had any shady guests lately, have we?"
Alastor stepped out of the shadows near the entrance, a loud boom ringing out as something large and heavy hit the door.
Lucifer was suddenly glad he had reinforced the structure. It wasn't impossible that someone could break in through brute force, especially if someone was extremely determined, but the sheer effort would give the hotel guests ample time to mount a defense.
Loud shouting came from outside, words unintelligible through the thickness of it. Alastor ignored the hostile aura premating from outside as if he couldn't even feel it, throwing open the door.
"Oh my, you are quite annoying," he greeted the group at their door. The two fellas up front, stooges and the muscle by the look of them, were holding a large battering ram. Alastor eyed it distastefully. "Whatever business could you have with us that is worth all this racket?"
A nervous looking demon cleared his throat, unwisely drawing the Radio Demon's full attention. "We." He swallowed, complexion growing paler the longer Alastor stared at him. In a rush, he stated, "We were sent here to send a message!"
The radio host tilted his head to the side. "Message?"
The group glanced at each other, clearly psyching themselves up. Nodding, the 'leader' proclaimed, "Yeah, 'give up this shitty mission, or else.'"
"Or else what?"
The group collectively drew their weapons, an assortment of guns and knives. "Or else we're going to have to use force."
The widening of Alastor's grin should have been a warning. Lucifer would have felt bad for the little idiots for not seeing the flaming pile of shit they had just stepped in, but they were in the process of threatening his daughter and that was just a big no go for him.
"Oh, you really don't want to do that." Lucifer came up to stand beside Alastor, hands coming up in a shooing motion. "Like, seriously. Go back to whoever sent you and tell them they don't get a second warning."
The leader blinked down at him. He must have been new to Hell, because he asked, "And who are you?"
"Oh, little ol' me?" Lucifer's wings and horns appeared in all their full glory. "I'm the Devil, bitches."
The group barely had time to do little more than gape before they were sent tumbling arse over head from a powerful gust of wind, curtesy of the before mentioned wings. Fully prepared to rough them up a little before sending them on their way, Lucifer stepped out of the hotel.
Only to be halted by something wrapping around his waist. He glanced down at what appeared to be a shadow about the thickness of a vine. Now, where had that come from?
"Now, now, your Majesty, that won't do."
Ah, yes. Of course, it was one of Alastor's shadow tentacle things.
"Oi! Put me down!" The blond protested as he was picked up and then deposited on one of the second floor balconies.
Alastor didn't bother looking back at him. His tone was that of a parent talking to a particularly petulant child as he ordered, "Why don't you stay up there for a bit? There's really no need for you to get involved."
Lucifer had half a mind to take not just the goons out, but Alastor as well, but ultimately decided to let the Radio Demon have his fun. Besides, he was looking a little peckish lately. "Just leave one alive so they can tell their boss to back off!"
Down below, Charlie chimed in with, "Or we could leave all of them alive?"
Alastor near cackled as he grew in size, the invaders suddenly realizing they were in serious danger and attempting to make a run for it. Shadow creatures began to rise out of the ground, breaking off their get away. "Nonesense!" Alastor disagreed cheerfully. "Everyone mysteriously disappearing is a much more delicious way of keeping people on their feet!"
Lucifer rolled his eyes. Oh, he bet it was 'delicious.'
A noise behind him drew his attention. Lucifer looked over his shoulder, finding himself eye to eye with a wolf demon he'd never seen a day in his life. Especially not one that had no business sneaking into the hotel with a knife he was clearly intending to use.
They started at each other for a long moment. The guy must have been an idiot, because he apparently decided he wanted to take his chances and attempt to stab the King of Hell himself.
Lucifer reached up, fully intending to catch the blade. Under normal circumstances, weapons made in Hell couldn't hurt him and would have just shattered on contact.
But this blade wasn't just an ordinary blade made it Hell. Lucifer realized it must have been made from Angelic Steel when the knife cut straight through his hand like a hot knife through butter. He winced, despite himself. Somehow, he'd forgotten how much that could hurt.
The wolf demon made the mistake of not pressing his advantage, seeming to think that the pain of something as simple as a knife through the hand would be enough to make the first being to ever lead a rebellion against a real army to pause. Oh no, all it did was infuriate him.
Lucifer pressed his hand down the knife further, allowing him to take hold of the hilt. The demon's grip went slack with shock, allowing the blond to wretch it out of his hand. With his good hand, Lucifer yanked the offensive object out, carelessly tossing it onto one of the other neighboring balconies, where it would be of little use during this battle and could be retrieved later. "Oh, that was a very poor decision." Giving no quarter, he darted forward to wrap his hand around the demon's throat, wings flapping to give him the hieght to do so. "Tell me why you're up here, before I decide to be rid of you regardless."
The wolf grunted, hands clawing uselessly at his arm. He managed to choke out, "Like we said: we're just here to send a message."
Lucifer looked down at where Alastor was rounding up the last couple of stragglers, tossing a third into his mouth. The little nervous demon from before appeared to have peed himself from fright. The seraphim turned back to his captive. Something told him that those boo zoos were a mere distraction and this was the real leader of the group. Shaking him a little, Lucifer demanded, "Who sent you?"
A sneer came in response. "We're just for hire. We get a call and we do the job, no questions asked."
Lucifer realized he wasn't going to get anything of use out of this guy. And since he was likely the only real threat of the group, the blond didn't feel comfortable letting him be the return messenger.
A beat of his wings had them air born, bringing them to hover over Alastor, who's ears perked up as he realized he was about to get another morsel. "Whelp, in that case, it sounds like you're useless to me. Guess I'll just hand you over to the Alastor--"
"W-wait!" The wolf demon frantically choked out, "Isn't this p-place for s-second chances! Your d-daughter believes in that s-shit, doesn't she?"
Lucifer's eyes narrowed. "You're right. My daughter does have a gift for seeing the best in people, even when there isn't any. But me? My curse is that I'm damned to always see the worst in all of you." Between one blink to the next, he let his form bleed into it's most demonic, hellfire igniting and his broken halo taking form as the true crown of Hell manifested. His True Eyes opened along his coat, Seeing right through this worthless soul and all of his sins. "Tell me, honestly, do you regret, even a little, for pushing Elizabeth in front of that train? Did you care in the least that her husband only had a handful of voicemails to remember her voice by? That her son grew up without any memories of his own mother?"
The wolf demon gasped for breathe, eyes wild. "The- the reporter? I had to kill her." He squirmed and yanked to no avail, Lucifer's hand like steel around his neck. Frantically, he added, "She was no-no one! She- she was going to ruin everything!"
Lucifer sneered. "Wrong answer."
Without hesitation, he opened his fist. The wolf demon shrieked as he fell, the shrill sound abruptly cutting off as Alastor closed his mouth around his treat.
The nervous little demon, perhaps smarter than they gave him credit for, took advantage of the distraction to make his get away. Alastor let him in favor of watching his king, eyes alight and calculating.
Lucifer hovered above him, every one of his eyes trained on the sinner below him. He realized that while he had seen Alastor in his full eldritch form during their first meeting, this would be the first time Alastor was seeing him in his own full demonic form.
Alastor, like in every aspect of his life, neither blinked nor cowered. He brought up a hand, the motion that puppet slowness he'd showed when Lucifer had manifested the pair of deer ears. He brought it up until it hovered just below the Devil's feet.
Lucifer squinted at him, not trusting that if he let himself land in Alastor's hand, the latter wouldn't just drop him out of spite.
He never found out either way, as he became distracted by Charlie's alarmed shout of "Oh my goodness, Dad!"
Alarmed, Lucifer spun around, his demonic features melting away into his normal appearance. "Charlie? What's wrong?" He came down to land in front of her, reaching out to make certain nothing had gotten past them to hurt her. "Are you okay?"
Charlie grabbed onto his hand, causing him to wince. Horrified, she cried out, "Forget me! Your hand is hurt." She hissed as she assessed the full extent of the damage. "Oh shit, it went all the way through!" She twisted around to shout back at the other behind her. "Vaggie! Bandages!"
Lucifer held up his free hand. "It's fine, sweetie, really. It'll heal up in no time. Really, I'd be more worried about any survivors. Alastor is way too enthusiastic for a guard dog." He glanced over his shoulder at Alastor, who had shrunk down to his normal size. Lucifer caught a glimpse of a gold coated tongue past the the hand the red head had up to his mouth. Lucifer found himself reassessing if Alastor had been offering him a hand after all or if he had just been taking the opportunity to get another taste of angel blood.
Judging by the pleased look on the deer demon's face, and the fact that he was letting 'guard dog' comment slide, it was most likely the latter.
And this was why Lucifer had trust issues when it came to this little shit.
Charlie tugged him towards the inside of the hotel, saying something about bandaging his hand. He was forced to break eye contact with his rival or keep his daughter from carrying on with his fretting. Really, it was all too much. It would take longer than the usual for injury to heal - the scar would barely be noticeable in a few days! - there was really no need for all this fussing! He even tried to say as such, which turned out to be a bad idea, because now Charlie was making sad eyes at him and really he was just going to be quiet and let her do her thing because it was so much better than her crying.
In the mess of the clean-up, Lucifer completely forgot about the angelic blade.
tbc
Part 5
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You can't really do much for Valentine's in space, especially if your boyfriend is on the other side of the Universe with the BoM.
No one says a word as Lance mopes through the castle. His messages to Keith were left on read, everyone else was too busy, and not even the mice were willing to spare him a stray moment of comfort.
So here Lance is, wandering around aimlessly sulking to himself dramatically. No one else seemed to know nor care what day it was, hell he only knew bc he happened to glance at the earth calendar Pidge made.
Not that is really mattered. Valentine's Day wasn't exactly a holiday people did a whole lot for if they weren't dating, but it made Lance miss Keith all the more.
A couples holiday Lance was sure Keith wasn't even aware of, spent alone in the castle halls on a slow day.
Oh woe is he.
Slowly but surely Lance realizes his feet carry him in a familiar direction. The path so ingrained that even when he yearns for a Keith that isn't there his feet will lead him straight to the other man's door.
Lance pauses before it, contemplating his options.
How pathetic. How rude. He is stronger than this! He's a bad bitch he doesn't need no man! He can totally survive without Keith!
. . .
Lance enters the room.
Simply walking in and existing in Keith's space makes Lances shoulders ease. He hates to admit how much he misses his boyfriend because Lance knows it hurts him when he does. Yet now he's alone looking at everything this man owns wishing he was here by his side.
He takes his time brushing fingers over the growing collection of photos and trinkets they'd finally managed to get Keith to agree to. They say cozily on the side table right in the entry way for him to look at every time he came and went. It had taken time to get the samurai to realize he was allowed to hold onto something no matter how small it may seem.
It started with a picture, a photo of the entire team on one rare day spent together between missions. From there his collection grew with gifts, trinkets, memories he could think back on with love. All gathered by his hands, all heartfelt gifts from the team, from his family.
Lance smiles softly at every single one. It's all proof that Keith was here, proof that he will return, proof that he considered this home.
It's when Lance lays down clutching a jacket Keith left behind that he realizes how special it is to have this space to see while he's gone. He has Keith's space to move in while Keith likely has nothing....
He makes a mental note to gather things to brighten up Keith's blade bunk, maybe it'll help brighten everyone's bunk. Lance has never been inside but he bets it's bland in there. Would Kolivan even allow such a thing? Lance doesn't care if he doesn't, he'll send Keith with things anyways! Maybe if he gathers enough things the whole of the blade can decorate their ship to be a little less doom and gloom–
Through all his thinking Lance tosses and turns in Keith's bed, rolling in his scent that lingers faintly in his absence. He'd be embarrassed but no one was there to judge him. Keith wouldn't ever know and neither would the team and even if they did Lance thinks he has a fair claim to Keith's room. It's his duty as his boyfriend to wallow in his absence! Lance is but a wife awaiting her husband to return from war....only, they're both at war...and–well, that's not the important part.
Lance squirms attempting to get his mind off the schematics. All his dramatics shuffle the blankets and pillows they'd both collected there for prime cuddle time, then, something pokes at Lances back.
He huffs, annoyed that something would dare cause discomfort during his time of pain and suffering.
When he flips over to look at the offending object he sees the sharp corner of an envelope folded up, it peeks just from under the pillow pile innocent in its appearance as if it always belonged there.
Lance slides it free, looking it over carefully only to find his name on the front.
It says nothing else so he opens it to pull free the folded paper inside.
Where would Keith even find paper in space? Not that it's the paper they were used to it's far too thick and oddly velvety but it's a novelty nonetheless.
He unfolds it. It's dated at the top to a time before Keith left and written like an old letter, not one too terribly long but it's even signed off like one you'd see in movies.
No one wrote letters anymore yet Keiths handwriting stares back at him so clearly.
Dear Lance,
I don't know when you'll find this and I don't know when I'll be back so I thought I'd leave something behind just in case. Hopefully you're reading this on Valentine's Day so that if we spend it apart you aren't without a symbol of my love to you.
Lance reads through the words like a dying man in the desert. He doesn't even make it halfway through the letter before the tears start to fall. Keith is so incredibly thoughtful when given the chance to show it and here's the proof right in Lances hands. The man had made sure Lance would know he was his Valentine because he knew how much Lance loved the silly holiday. It's so stupidly sweet itales Lances heart ache for him.
He writes the things he loves about Lance, he writes the way he feels when he looks at him. Keith writes like he's pouring his heart and soul into the papers pulp. As if he's allowing for Lance to hold his heart in his hands.
It's single handedly the most romantic gesture has ever received.
"Stupid...." Lance sniffles "I didn't get to send you off with any proof that I feel the same." He dries his eyes as to not get the paper wet before continuing to read.
You thanked me once, saying you were grateful to have met me, but all I could think was that I should be the one whose thanking you.
You changed my life, Lance. I should be the one thanking you, god, the entirety of the universe- whoever it is that needs to hear it- because I am thankful to have known you in this lifetime. I am thankful to know I will go the rest of my life with memories of you.
I never knew I was capable of love like this. It had always been imaginary before you. I love you Lance McClain, more than you'll ever know.
If your dream is to fly then mine is to watch you soar, to watch you smile,to watch you get everything I can possibly give to you because you deserve the world...no, the universe and if I could gift it to you I would on a silver platter. But, for now this letter will have to be enough, hopefully you can accept that for now sweetheart.
Happy valentines day, know I am always thinking of you.
-Keith K.
Lance immediately grabs his com-device, he doesn't care if Keith will leave him on read, doesn't care if that bastard won't pick up. He doesn't go to pour out his feelings just yet, no, he'll do that to Keith's stupid romantic face, but he does send him a warning.
Sharpshooter: If you don't come back soon I will hunt you down myself
It's marked read not long after. A brief . . . blinks before vanishing.
Samurai: Happy valentines day to you too Lance.
He blinks down at Keith's response, at the first response Lance has gotten from him in days.
"That son of a bitch!"
Nothing else he sends gains a response, every single message marked with that annoying little read checkmark.
OH. Now it's on! Lance thinks to himself as he begins to plot his revenge.
He will not be out romanced and if Keith thinks he knows what's coming? He hasn't the faintest clue.
Happy Valentines Day! 💘
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