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“Vaggie!”
Vaggie turned at the sound of her girlfriend’s voice to see her sitting at the new and improved bar, waving her over. Her gaze flickered over to the stool next to her. Lucifer sat there, top hat and all.
She abandoned the bucket of paint she had been hauling on the floor and stood up, wiping at her forehead. They only had some painting to finish on the upper floors, and then the inside would be done, and then they’d be ready for guests.
Angel seemed to be ready to take it more seriously. Cherri had stuck around too. Maybe she would come around eventually and agree to become an official guest, not just a freeloader Vaggie tolerated for the sake of Charlie.
Speaking of Charlie, she only kept on waving Vaggie over. “Vaggie, come on. Sit down. Have a drink,” she said. “Take a break. You’ve been working so hard.”
No one had to tell her twice. She abandoned the paint bucket in the middle of the room and ignored it when, a moment later, Angel came over and tripped, landing in a heap on the floor. Some colorful words left his mouth, but Vaggie was already on her way over to the bar. She gave her girlfriend a smile and slid into the seat next to her, then turning her attention to the man next to her.
Vaggie raised her hand in an awkward attempt at a wave. She silently cursed herself. Why was she nervous around her girlfriend’s father? He only became less menacing the more she got to know him. He had been helping them rebuild the last week, letting them stay at his estate while they were temporarily displaced.
“Hi,” she settled for instead. “Nice to see you again, uh, sir.”
“Nice to see you too,” he said coolly. He looked around at the lobby around them. “It’s coming along, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah. We’ve all been working hard on putting together the inside. The painting and the furnishings and all that. Minimal casualties too. Someone only fell down the stairs once,” Vaggie said a bit too enthusiastically. Lucifer cringed and raised one eyebrow, then dropped it and sent her a smile.
“We couldn’t have done it without you,” she added, bowing her head. “Thank you. Again.”
“Of course. Whatever my Charlie needs, I shall provide,” he said, leaning over to pat his daughter on the head, messing up her hair.
She flushed and swatted him away, laughing. “Dad.”
He pulled away, growing more serious. He fell silent, looking around. Husk and Angel were attempting to hang up more signs in the far wall, arguing where to put it.
“Over the bar!”
“By the stairs!”
Cherri stood a few feet away, trying to determine if it was straight as the boys shoved it back and forth. “A little to the left!”
Husk shoved it away from his chest. Angel let out a gasp of indignation. “Not my left, your left!”
“What the fuck does that even mean?! There’s only one left!”
“Hey, Nifty!” Cherri called while the others grumbled. “Does it look straight to you?”
Nifty, who had been frantically fluffing the pillows on the couch opposite of the wall, snapped her head up and fixed her one eye on the woman across from her. “Huh?!”
“Does the painting look straight to you?” Cherri asked. “I think it’s a little crooked.”
Nifty only stared at the painting, blinking. A stray feather from the pillow floated beside her. Cherri only shook her head and turned. “Never mind then.”
Lucifer looked back to the both of them. “What you’re trying to do here. It’s.. great. You two are building something great here. I’m happy to help. Whatever you need.”
Charlie smiled at her dad, cheeks parting. Her hand found Vaggie’s hand on her lap, and squeezed it. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Yeah, Sir,” Vaggie blurted quickly. “Thank you. For everything. It’s been a huge help and all that.”
Lucifer nodded and sent her a quizzical look. “You don’t have to do that.”
“What?” She cleared her throat, suddenly self conscious. “Do what?”
“Call me ‘sir’. Just call me Lucifer,” he instructed. “We’re practically family, aren’t we?”
Charlie’s hand tightened around hers. She felt her cheeks heat up. She pushed her hair out of her face, nervous. “Um, yeah.”
“Unless you want to call me ‘your majesty.’
“Um, no,” Vaggie laughed. “Lucifer is fine.”
“Good,” he replied. “Good talk, Vaggie.”
She smiled back at him. “You got my name right.”
“I did?” He raised his eyebrows. “I did! Wow, could today get any better?”
From across the room, the pillow in Nifty’s hands promptly exploded. White little downy feathers rained down on her. She stood there, eye wide and unblinking, clutching what was left of the pillow to her chest.
“Oops,” she whispered, almost too quiet to hear.
Everyone in the room turned to her in surprise. Charlie sighed, but put on a brave face and pulled herself up, abandoning her cup on the bar countertop.
Vaggie watched her stand up. “Where are you going?”
Charlie pushed in her chair, nodding in the direction of the others. “I’m going to go get Nifty before she bursts open another pillow from fluffing it so hard. I’ll tell her to go clean the rooms upstairs.”
“Those were cleaned this morning,” Vaggie retorted.
“I know, but she needs something to do. Everything is clean, and there’s no rats or roaches to kill. I’m afraid she’s gonna stab someone.”
“Tell her to sniff out the last of Angel’s drug stash,” Vaggie said, squinting. “I’m, like, ninety-percent sure some of it is still here somewhere.”
“I can take care of it,” Lucifer added, volunteering. He snapped his finger. With a red plume of smoke, a few stray roaches jumped off the bar counter and scurried across the parlor to who Hell knows where. Vaggie jumped and clutched her drink to her chest. She had been doing just fine without those things running around the hotel.
Charlie let out a yelp and sidestepped them as they crawled into the crevice between the wall and the stairs. “Oh,” she said, fixing a shaky smile on her face, trying to be polite. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Whatever you need, sweetheart,” he replied.
“I’ll go and get Nifty,” Charlie said, looking down as she walked across the room, trying to not step on any roaches. They were hard to get out of the carpet once stepped on. “I’m sure she’ll just be ecstatic.”
She walked away, murmuring something about hoping they didn’t end up in the drain again. That was a night.
“Yeah,” Vaggie said sarcastically. She moved, the liquid sloshing in her cup. “Maybe she will bring back the puppet shows. God, I missed those.”
Lucifer took a slow sip, brows bunching together in question. “How does that work? Are they dead? Alive? Does she like train them or some messed up shit?”
“They’re dead,” Vaggie deadpanned. “She tapes them to Angel’s old popsicle sticks and waves them around.”
“Huh.”
Vaggie took another sip. “And that’s after she kills them in front of their children.”
Lucifer stopped his own sip, looking mildly concerned. “ Huh.” He swallowed. “I’m sorry. Where did you find this lady? Did you hire her off the streets or something?”
“Oh, no. Alastor owns her,” Vaggie said. “Or her soul, I guess. But there’s a theory that she fulfilled her debt a while ago, but has just been following him around ever since.”
His face turned sour at the mention of that certain demon. “Of course he does,” he mumbled, downing another sip.
She looked over at him. Huh. Maybe they both had that in common: a bone to pick with the mysterious demon that seemed to cling to this hotel as his. “I see the way you look at her, you know,” he said smoothly, taking another sip of his wine.
“Congratulations,” Vaggie deadpanned. “You have eyes.” Suddenly curious, she tilted her head. “How do I look at her?”
“Like you wanna marry her.”
Vaggie spat out her drink.
She coughed, fumbling for a napkin. She put her glass down with a loud clink against the new countertop. She shoved the napkin in her face to hide her blush, cheeks pulsing with warmth.
Well, that was unexpected.
She found her voice again. “You can’t just say stuff like that!” She retorted.
Lucifer looked unimpressed. He raised one eyebrow, then his wine glass. “Well,” he asked. “Do you?”
Yes, one part of her said right away.
“Um, I don’t know,” she fumbled. “Sir,” she added. Too much? Fuck.
“What did I just say? Vaggie, you can drop it. There’s no reason to be nervous around me,” Lucifer said slowly. “I know there are.. stories about me, but those aren’t true. Well, most of them.”
“Sorry. Force of habit,” she said, biting her lip. “And I never believed those stories.” Lucifer’s gaze met hers steadily, curious. She cleared her throat and looked away. “Well, Charlie used to tell me stories, on the nights she missed you the most. She told me about all the places you took her, how you used to take her flying when she was little. Well, until Lilith got worried you would drop her.” Vaggie trailed off, aware of Lucifer’s gaze boring into her. “Yeah, she told me a lot of stories. I always thought you sounded.. nice.”
She looked up to see him smiling, a far off look in his eyes. Charlie got that look when she was reminiscing too. “Of course she told you stories,” he echoed, starting to chuckle.
It was quiet for a moment. Vaggie broke it, clearing her throat. “She’s glad you’re back, you know.”
His gaze lowered. “I know.” He took another sip, then another. “I’m trying to make up for it, for the time I was gone.”
“You know, Charlie is the kindest, most forgiving person I know,” Vaggie said slowly, softly. Her cheeks felt warm as she pictured her sweet, considerate girlfriend. She was a gem in a place like this, just as prescious. Everyone would be lucky to know her, to get to love her as the both of them did. “Chances are she has already forgiven you.”
“I know,” Lucifer repeated. “She’s like that.” His eyes went back to her. “But I’m sure you already know that.”
Vaggie ducked her head, cheeks going over even more pink. Why was talking to her girlfriend’s father about their relationship seem so embarrassing? It felt even worse than when Angel walked in on them when they were—
Lucifer cleared his throat again, serious. “I should thank you. Really.”
She came back to her senses. “For what?” She asked, genuinely confused. He was the one who had been zipping and zapping around, helping them rebuild the whole hotel.
“For taking care of her when I wasn’t there,” he said, meeting her gaze. “She’s told me stories too, you know. Punching a cameraman in the face when he called her crazy? In front of that bitch Katie Killjoy?” He raised his eyebrows, then extended his cup and hand, as if leading a toast, but it was only the two of them. “Gutsy. Cheers to you, I guess.”
She hit her cup against his, emitting a loud clink sound. Husk turned at the sound, ear flicking. “Be careful with those glasses, you hear!” He hollered from across the room. “They’re crystal!”
Lucifer and her exchanged glances, trying not to laugh. “Oh, that? It was nothing,” Vaggie finally replied. “It was like two years ago. I hardly remember it, except that her last name is sure on point.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Amen to that.” He paused. “Wait, am I supposed to say that?”
His gaze went upwards, as if expecting to be smited right then and there. They sat in silence for a moment, then he shrugged. He turned back to Vaggie. “So, tell me about the time you stabbed that one guy. Charlie said there was a lot of blood.”
Vaggie frowned. “Which one? That’s been a lot of guys who I’ve stabbed. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Hmm, just tell me your favorite one. I’ve got nothing but time.”
For the next half hour, the two of them sat there, exchanging stories and comments, sipping their drinks. She even made him laugh a few times. She found it surprisingly easy to talk to him. He was like Charlie in a lot of ways. She didn’t know why she was so intimidated at first.
But, hey, at least she wasn’t calling him ‘sir’ anymore.
After she finished up the story about the robber she had thrown out a second story window, (he was fine.. probably.) they were quiet for a moment. She looked back at Lucifer to see him fiddling with something in his pocket. He wasn’t looking at her. He was looking around the room, as if making sure no one was watching.
Vaggie tilted her head. “What’s that?”
Lucifer let out a curse and dropped it on the floor near his stool. Vaggie now saw it was a small and black velvet box. She raised one eyebrow, then dropped it. Meanwhile, Lucifer scrambled to receive the fallen box and adjust himself.
“Don’t do that,” he fiercely whispered. “You might as well tell all of Hell what we’re doing.”
“Well, what are we doing?”
He looked around them again and Vaggie held back her groan. What did he have? Why was he being so mysterious? What was it? A bomb? They already had enough of those with Cherri around.
“Lucifer, what are you—”
He pressed something small and hard into her hand. The box. “See for yourself.”
Sending him one lasting questioning glance, she took the box and decided to trust him. He was looking at her with an expectant expression, like he was waiting for something. Her reaction? She didn’t know.
She opened her palm and pushed about the box, holding her breath. She wrinkled her brows. Once she saw what was inside, her breath caught in her throat. She snapped it shut and shoved it back towards Lucifer, holding it to his chest.
“You shouldn’t have— I don’t think I can—”
“Vaggie,” he said sternly, yet softly at the same time. “Take it. I insist.”
He took her hands in his, guiding them back to her own lap. She took a deep breath, meeting his study gaze. This is why he asked if she wanted to.. Oh.
It clicked in her head. He was planning to give this to her all along.
Wow. Okay. No pressure.
With another deep breath, she opened it again. Inside it rested two beautiful rings, wedding rings. Pure black bands and gems that shone, embedded in the center. The light caught on it. She blinked back at her own reflection,
Okay, this was happening.
“They were mine and Lilith’s,” Lucifer said quietly, confirming Vaggie’s suspicions. “Black obsidian. It symbolizes strength, perseverance, and the ability to overcome obstacles, which I’m sure you and Charlie have done plenty of.”
Vaggie was speechless for once. “I.. are you sure?”
“Yes. I won’t be needing them anytime soon,” Lucifer assured her. “What? You think I’m gonna marry Alastor? Oh, Heavens, that feels so wrong to say even as a joke. God. Gross. Gah.” He cleared his throat. “If Lilith was here, I’d know she would want you to have it. She’d be glad Charlie found someone like you.”
“Sir..”
“Not that again,” he groaned.
“Lucifer,” she corrected. “I..”
“Hey, I know it’s a lot,” he said softly, taking her hands again. He cupped them around the box. “But you take your time. Lucky for you, you have an eternity in Hell with her.”
Vaggie let out a small laugh, wringing out her nerves. “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”
He pulled away, still giving her that soft and serious look. “You’re a good person, Vaggie.”
Her gaze dropped. Did Charlie tell him about her past? Did he know she was once an Exorcist, and think that despite it? “I’m not so sure about that,” she mumbled.
“But Charlie thinks so, and that is what is important,” he replied. “I see the way she looks at you, and the way you look at her..” He trailed off. “Do you love her?”
She nearly jumped at that question. “Of course I do. With everything I am.”
And she was dead serious.
Lucifer looked her over, as if studying her. “Good. That’s what I want to hear.” He sat back, still sipping at his drink. “I hope it’s evident you have my blessing, or else I wouldn’t have given you the rings.”
He talked so coolly about this, as if it was everyday he told his daughter’s girlfriend he expected her to propose in the future. Shit, Vaggie had thought about it, when they were curled up together at night and she let her mind wander, but it had always seemed like a far off possibility, something to deal with in the future. There was the stress of managing the hotel, of Heaven, of her secret past. Would Charlie ever marry an Exorcist?
“Oh, and Vaggie?”
“Yes?”
“I’d prefer a seat in the front, if possible.”
Her mind reeled. “What?”
“During the wedding. Or put me wherever possible. Just, whatever you do, do not put me next to that Radio Demon. And maybe hire a new decorating team. The decorations last time were.. something, that’s for sure,” Lucifer went on nonchalantly, then turned his head. “Ah, look, Charlie. Speak of the Devil. Hey, sweetie!”
Heart in her throat, Vaggie shoved the box into her pocket, exchanging a knowing look with Lucifer. She attempted to send him a smile. Before he stood, he gave her a light pat on the knee. “One day,” he whispered. “When the time is right.”
One day, Vaggie repeated in her head. He’s not expecting it right away.
Charlie arrived just after their exchange, smiling as always. She pressed a kiss to Vaggie’s cheek. “Hey, guys,” she said. “Have a nice talk?”
They exchanged another glance.
“We did,” Lucifer spoke first. “Vaggie was enlightening me with some enchanting tales. A lot happens around here, doesn’t it?”
Charlie shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
Lucifer only smiled. “Well, I’m glad I’m here now to witness it.”
“Me too,” Charlie replied, smiling. The same smile as her mother. “I’m glad you’re here, Dad.”
They exchanged goodbyes and good nights, knowing that Lucifer would be back soon. He wanted to oversee the reopening and help with whatever needed. Charlie talked excitedly on their way up the stairs and all the way to their bedroom. Vaggie saw her much having her father around made her happy.
Vaggie found that she was happy he had come around too.
When she changed into her pajamas that night, she felt the weight of the box in her pocket, of the rings inside. While Charlie was in the bathroom, she carefully placed it into the bottom of her drawer, folding clothes over it for good measure.
One day, she kept telling herself. As she got ready for bed. As Charlie pressed a kiss to her lips before turning out the light. As they curled into bed, tangled up in each other’s arms. When the time is right, I’m gonna marry you, Charlie Morningstar.