Work Text:
It was late at night as Alastor walked through the streets of hell, the residents of the hotel had gone out for a bonding activity at one of the high-end arcades, Alastor was mainly overwatched but Lucifer had riled him up and Alastor ended up beating Lucifer at every game they played together.
The group walked as many of them chattered. Some sport even had been on today and many drunken fans of the winning team were swarming the streets like a moth to a lamp, celebrating their victory with flags with the team's colours on it. Much violence had broken out on the streets between the fans of both teams. But Alastor paid it no mind as if anything were to happen both him and Lucifer were there to protect them.
They walked and were only about 10 minutes away from the hotel when in a matter of seconds a pair of drunken sinners started to fight and a glass bottle shattered as it hit Alastor right in the temple, causing him to just freeze in place as his ears tried to falter back and lay flat but Alastor forced them to stay up.
Alastor didn't have time to react even if he wanted to as Lucifer started screaming at them as they ran away. The group continued to walk for a few seconds before they realised Alastor hadn't moved, he was still staring in front of him like he had been when the bottle initially hit, eyes glazed over and stood there ridged, blood slowly starting to drip down the side of his face.
As the bottle had hit him he was instantly transported back to his life as a small child and his violent alcoholic father who beat his mother every night, or any time he could really. Young Alastor had watched and heard him hurt her many times by the time he was 5.
He just remembered one day getting home late from school one day, he doesn’t remember the reason why, but endtering the house, expecting his father to be at work but he was sat on the couch drinking a bottle of beer. Alastor goes to apologise for being late but before he knew it his father grabbed him by the hair and dragged him into the main area of the living room.
He could hear his mother begging him to not hurt Alastor as his father threw him against the wall, causing the wall to crack before Alastor slumped on the ground, body screaming in pain as tears began to run down his face, he backed himself as far into the wall as he could, curling in on himself as his father smashed the bottle of beer against Alastor’s head, right on his temple, cutting the skin bad as blood dripped down his face.
Husk tried to pull Alastor back to reality by gently grabbing his shoulder, but Alastor just grabbed him and threw him against the wall as static picked up. Although it had snapped him back to reality, he realised what he had done and just continued walking back to the hotel, internally screaming at himself not to cry, not to let his scary persona drop in front of anyone else.
The group continued to walk back to the hotel after Husk got up, Alastor far in front of them, they reached the pathway to the hotel as they saw Alastor sink into his shadow and disappear. They were worried about the radio demon but knew not to bother him right now after what happened with Husk.
Lucifer was shattered, having had a busy day in the hotel so had decided to have an early night, he said goodnight to everyone as he walked up to his room, humming to himself but as he reached the top floor where only his and Alastor’s rooms were, at the opposite ends of the hallway, he hears Alastor’s static loud and unsteady. He tries to ignore it and heads to his room.
He gets in and takes most of his layers off, leaving just his trousers and his shirt on, unbuttoning the top few buttons to be more relaxed. He pauses as he hears the static getting more unstable and louder, he shouldn't be able to hear it from his room. Why the fuck was it so loud?
He tried to ignore it but it was bugging him, the way the static was so unstable compared to how it usually sounded. He put it off until he couldn't, putting on some duck slippers and walking to Alastor’s room and knocking on the door, “Alastor?” He can barely hear his own words, never mind the knock or his own thoughts. No reply. He tried again once more after a moment but once again got no reply.
“Okay im coming in radio boy” he says slightly louder as to hope that Alastor could hear him over the static. He goes to open the door which wasn't locked, weird, he had heard how Alastor always locked his door. He enters to room and closes the door behind him. No Alastor in sight. He stood there troubled for a moment before realising the static was coming from the bathroom.
He walks up to the closed bathroom door and knocks on it, “Alastor? Are you in there?” He doesn't do anything other than listen, under the static he can barely hear Alastor’s breathing, fast, loud, and unsteady breathing. Realisation bit Lucifer that Alastor was hyperventilating, which is what caused the static to be the way it was. He had listened out for a reply but none came.
“Alastor im going to open the door,” he says as he then tries to open the bathroom door but it was locked, what he wasn’t expecting was to get a reply from Alastor screaming through the hyperventilating, “STOP, NO, NO NO NO, DONT, PLEASE” Lucifer froze in place, his hand still on the doorknob. The way Alastor said those words, they sounded as if he was in so much pain, not physical pain but mental, like he was screaming these words through tears and a breakdown.
“Okay I won't, but I’ll sit by the door, im here to try to help you, not insult you” Lucifer speaks as softly and as calmly as he can, but loud enough for Alastor to still hear over the static. He sat down by the door with a look of genuine worry on his face. Silently he cast a spell that soundproofed the room to prevent the other hotel residents from coming to also check on why the static was so loud.
Lucifer sits there in silence and just listens, gently humming a jazz song he had heard Alastor play so many times, presumably his favourite. He kept a listen out for anything else Alastor might say, he could hear him talking but couldn't hear it over the static, that is until he could hear Alastor sobbing and one sentence clear as anything, “P-please, father don't, please stop…”
Lucifer turned to face the door as if he were facing Alastor. He stayed silent for a moment before talking, “Hay, Alastor, it's okay, you are safe here. It's me, Lucifer, not your father. Im not going to hurt you, I promise.” Lucifer listened for a moment but it was clear Alastor couldn't hear him, Alastor talking to himself more and more. It pained Lucifer to hear this, quietly shifting into a small bug and crawling under the door and looking at Alastor.
Alastor was a mess, curled up in a ball pulling at his hair, strands of hair on the floor next to him, his ears flat against his head, that smile still being on his face but barely as the green stitches that held his smile up glowing and straining. The blood from the smashed bottle was still on his face but also blood from clawing at his own skin. His jacket was thrown to the side and his shirt was unbuttoned at the top (presumably to try to breathe easier) and his sleeves rolled yo to his elbows. Lucifer noticed how the tears on his face just kept flowing, his face a tear-stained mess.
Lucifer just pauses as he sees Alastor, he can clearly hear what he is mumbling to himself now, he keeps going on and on, begging his father not to hurt him, not to smash any more glass on him, to just not hurt him. It dawned on Lucifer that the glass bottle that had hit his head must have caused a serious flashback (or several), one that had left a traumatic impact on him.
Lucifer slowly made his way over to him and shifted into a cat, knowing Alastor’s dislike for dogs, and sat next to him, making sure not to touch him, and just used his magic to allow him to produce purring noises, having heard somewhere that cats purring holds therapeutic properties and can help with stress and anxiety. He just sat there, curled up on the floor next to Alastor purring.
At some point the purring hit Alastor’s ears, his ears twitching slightly as his eyes jolted to the source, seeing the cat that somehow got there, he just stared at it, still hyperventilating and sobbing, but the mumbling had stopped. He stared at it for a while before slowly and shaking reaching out and picking the cat up.
Lucifer wasn't sure what was happening, trying not to let up he was surprised by the action, the purring stopping for a split second as Alastor just pulled him close and hugged the cat close to his chest, curling up in a way that the cat would still be comfortable, and put his head against his knee’s and cries.
Lucifer just curls up against Alastor and keeps purring, finding it calming himself. Listening as slowly but surely as the static quietened down until it was gone, just hearing the sobbing as Alastor began to breathe more steadily. And soon enough his sobs had become small cries. Alastor must have been hugging the cat for over an hour now.
As Alastor calms down slightly luficer shifts slightly which causes Alastor to let him go and look at him. Lucifer paused and looked at Alastor before gently moving off of Alastor and pawing at the door, which got Alastor to stand up and open it. Lucifer exited the bathroom and hopped up onto Alastor’s bed and stared at Alastor, trying to get him to exit the bathroom.
Shakily Alastor exits the bathroom and sat on the bed. He looked as the cat jumped on the floor and sat at Alastor’s feet. Lucifer waited for a moment where he knew Alastor wouldn't react too badly before turning back into his usual humanoid self. He just looks at Alastor with worry as Alastor jumps back panicked and almost falls off his bed, becoming slightly more panicky as the static begins to pick back up.
Lucifer slowly reached out for Alastor, making sure not to touch him or be high enough to have to look down at him, to make Alastor feel more sure that he was safe, “Hay, it's okay, im not going to hurt you Alastor, you’re safe here, in your room, at the Hazbin Hotel.” Lucifer speaks as softly and as reassuringly as he can, still sitting on the floor. “May I sit next to you?”
Alastor gave a slight nod and sat back on the bed more comfortable, close to his headboard. Lucifer slowly and carefully moved to sit on the end of Alastor’s bed and looked at him. There is silence between the pair for a few minutes before Lucifer breaks it. “What was his name?”
Alastor looks at Lucifer confused. “W-who’s name? What?”
“Your father’s. If he hasn't already been killed by the exterminators I’ll make sure to give him the most brutal final death you could ever imagine” Lucifer gave a slight smile to Alastor, he meant his words.
He had lied when he had said he had never heard of The Radio Demon, in fact he knew all about him, he was intrigued by his broadcasts and how he had found a way to give a sinner a final death without angelic weapons. But if someone had hurt Alastor enough to have him react like this, he would make sure to end them completely.
Alastor just stared at Lucifer, not sure what to say before tears began to roll down his face again, unable to control it despite trying to not let the king of hell see him this weak. Lucifer gently held his arm open as if to ask if he wanted a hug, Alastor gave the subtlest of nods and began to move towards Lucifer, somehow not in control of his actions, maybe because it reminded him of how his mother would comfort him after his father beat him.
Lucifer carefully moved up the bed and gently hugged Alastor, holding him close and slowly and gently petting his head to soothe him, humming that jazz song Alastor liked so much to try to help. Alastor can't help but cling to Lucifer, crying into him for a while before speaking.
“He beat my maman nearly every night, he beat me but not as much. Although when he did beat me he would usually hit me in the head with whatever alcohol he was drinking…being hit in the head with that bottle…it just gave me a flashback to one day when I was 5, I was late home from school and he threw me against the wall then hit me on the head with a bottle of half-empty beer…that bottle earlier hit me in the exact same spot my father hit me with a bottle that day…”
He didn't know why he was blabbering, didn’t know why he was telling the literal king of hell one of the very few weaknesses he had. But he couldn't control it, just clinging to Lucifer and quietly crying as Lucifer pet his head, “Harrold Miller…born 1892, I killed him in 1920.” It took Lucifer a moment to realise what Alastor was saying, but then he realised that was the name of his father, and date of birth and death. He promised to kill the man for Alastor.
The pair sat like that for a while, Lucifer doesn't know when Alastor fell asleep, but he gently moved him to lay in his bed, he tried to get up but Alastor still clung to him. So he sat on the bed next to Alastor who was now lying down sleeping, continuing to comfort him, he didn't know when he passed out, but he had. Alastor would get a shock in the morning, and maybe even try to attack Lucifer, but it was okay for once. As long as the stupid bellhop was okay.
–A few days later–
“Breaking news! King of Hell Lucifer was seen today in his full demonic form killing a sinner by the name of Harrold Miller in many torturous ways! Talking about making him pay for his sins and what he did to his wife and son. Who is this Harrold Miller? And what did Harrold do to this wife and child Lucifer mentioned? And who are these two people? Are they in hell or are they in heaven? Who knows! We would love to hear your theories!”
Alastor couldn't help but smile as he sipped his tea, sat in the lobby with the other hotel residents watching the broadcast, Lucifer having a smug and proud look on his face. For once Alastor didn't hate the old boxy TV they had.