Work Text:
Charlie shot awake, immediately sitting up and placing her hands behind her back to balance herself on the bed. Her eyes were suddenly wide open, despite how tired she felt. She quickly looked around, eyes darting as she tried to get her bearings. A scream had woken her up, and immediately, her heart started racing. Her mind immediately started thinking of every possible worst case scenario- was everyone ok? Was someone attacking the Hotel? Was someone sick or hurt? And the scream sounded like it came from close by, too.
She blinked heavily, waking up enough to realize where the sound came from- Alastor. She had been dating Alastor for a month now, and this was only their third night sharing a bed. She had loved every moment of it. He was warm, and soft, and she felt so safe next to him. Even if he got up multiple times throughout the night... come to think of it, this might have been the first time he had actually slept for more than a few minutes at a time since they started sharing their room.
"Alastor! What's going on?" She asked, squinting her eyes to see him better. He was laying there on his side still, facing away from her, with his head with nestled into his arms, which were held up towards his pillow. His ears were pinned back, which was weird. His antlers were grown out slightly, enough to be piercing into his pillow cover. "Alastor?" She asked again, noticing that the demon was shaking. Oh. He was still asleep.
He yelped again, bringing his knees up to his chest and continuing to buck at his pillow, like a deer in distress. Which, he was. Charlie's heart sank, Alastor whimpering again. She hated this, she hated seeing him like this. She leaned over with a shaky hand, gently shaking the sinner's shoulder. "Hey, Alastor. Are you ok?" She asked, her voiced still sounding really concerned. She pulled him closer, rolling him over so that he was on his back.
His smile was still present, but it was small, strained, and in pain. His eyes were squeezed shut, small tears forming in them, and one rogue tear having managed to escape down his cheek. Charlie's heart sank- her first thought was worry for her boyfriend in the current moment. Her second thought was wondering just how much this happened. This was their third night together, and the first one he had actually gotten decent sleep in. Was this a regular occurrence? She... she could worry about that later. She heard him mumble something, a quiet plea for help.
Gently, she brushed his bangs off of his face. "Hey, Al, wake up. It's just a dream, ok?" She saw his eyes begin to flutter, and she smiled slightly, seeing him coming around more. "You're safe, and we're in bed. It's fine, you are safe, baby," she hated that she almost blushed in this situation, as she called him that.
Suddenly, the sinner shot up, just as quickly as Charlie had before. But he didn't stop at sitting. Instead, practically leapt off the bed, stumbling to the ground and proceeding to fail to catch his balance as he hit the floor, landing on his hands and knees. He breathed heavily for a few moments, his eyes locked on the floor, before he placed his hand on the nightstand and carefully pulled himself up. He slowly turned his neck around, keeping the rest of his body in place, blinking away the black sclera and red radio dials that were now there instead of his normal eyes.
There, he saw Charlie, wide awake and staring at him. That was not at all what he wanted to see.
"Charlotte, dear...!" He said, his voice a bit hesitant and shaky. "And... why are you up, at this fine hour?" He turned his whole body back towards her, quickly wiping away the tear that had fallen down his cheek, really hoping that the Princess hadn't seen it yet. He chuckled nervously at just how intense her gaze was, and he knew that he had been caught. Oh, this was going to be a fun mess to clean up.
Charlie took in a deep breath, knowing that she had to choose her words here very, very carefully. If she didn't approach this in just the right way, any chance that she had of getting him to actually talk about whatever he had just experienced would be gone. He was nothing if not unpredictable. She knew that he was very, very far from the most open man in the world, and she wasn't going to force him, but she just wanted to help. "Hey, baby. How are you feeling? I think you had a nightmare."
"Astute observation, dearest!" Alastor quipped, before softening his tone slightly. "I mean, I am quite fine now, thank you very much! It's just a little incident, do those not happen from time to time for everyone?"
"Well, I mean..." Charlie's voice trailed off, as she anxiously looked down at her hands, which held her blanket between them. She didn't want to push him. She wanted to respect his privacy. "Just, if you want to talk about it, you do know that I'm here, right? It's ok to talk about these things, and I'm here to talk about it with you," she wondered if he had ever talked about his bad dreams before. With anyone. Or had he always kept them to himself, like everything else he always had bottled up. The thought broke her heart.
Alastor looked around sheepishly, before his smile grew wider and tighter, trying to regain some self control. He wanted to tell her. He knew that he wouldn't get back to sleep tonight if he didn't get everything off of his chest, and he was exhausted. So exhausted, he almost slipped and told her. "I understand that you are here for me my dear, and, if you ever need me, I am here, too. Thank you, but you should just go back to bed!" He turned around, trying to head back towards the door, but her voice stopped him.
"You don't have to talk, Al. But I love you. And I'll love you no matter what. I won't think of you as weak, or less than-" She was cut off by a loud, piercing radio shriek coming from the Radio Demon. He quickly tried to tone it down, not intending to make the sound. He hated his noises sometimes, they were such a pathetic display of emotions. Ironically enough, his greatest strength, his power, also revealed his weaknesses. And Charlie knew what that sound meant. Surprise.
Did he not realize how truly loved he was? She played back his earlier comments- when she offered him help, he immediately offered it in return. Had he never been in a relationship before, romantic or otherwise, where he was loved without requirements or stipulations? She exhaled a bit louder than she intended, and smiled softly when she saw that he was looking back at her.
"Sometimes I dream about my human life, the day I lost her, ma maman..." he sat down on the bed, facing away from his girlfriend. His head was lowered, his ears still pinned back to his head fully. It was uncharacteristic of him, and Charlie knew that. She was just happy that he was talking. "It's honestly not that big of a deal, truly. I just... I should have saved her," The last part he said very quietly, barely above a whisper, but Charlie still heard it.
"Thank you for telling me, Alastor. I love you," There was a deep silence between the two of them, the air thick and quiet besides for the tick-tick-ticking of the clock. Charlie's eyes shot up to it, watching as the clock hit 11:59. She began to hear another sound, this time coming from the other side of the bed. She heard soft whimpering coming from Alastor, followed by the sound of muffled tears. "Oh, Alastor. I love you."
He was silent for a moment, desperately trying to regain his composure. He couldn't stand the thought of being seen as weak by Charlie. He didn't want to be crying; he hated himself for it. "I always hope that she ended up in Heaven. Not that she went down to Hell and was exterminated by those angelic bastards before I had a chance to get down here, and protect her again. I see her, I see her going wherever you go after double death, who knows. Do you know? I see her suffering at the hand of an angelic blade, worse than what... Adam... did to me. It's all my fault."
Charlie's heart ached, as she watched her boyfriend lay back down, swinging his legs back up onto the bed. He placed his hands over his face, trying to shield himself- his weakness- from Charlie. His smile was still stitched on, but it looked strained, so strained, he didn't want Charlie to see it. He tried to raise his ears back up, to looking on alert, but it was hard. He was exhausted. "Al, no. It's not your fault, baby. I promise," she noticed as his breath began to quicken, and her smile fell. "Deep breaths, Alastor, ok? I. I know that she went to Heaven. Trust me, I'm the Princess of Hell. I know that."
Alastor seemed to relax slightly at her comment, but not entirely. He wiped the tears off of his cheek with his thumb, and squeezed his eyes shut again. "I love you, Charlotte. Even if... never mind."
"Even if what? You- you don't have to tell me of course, I'm not saying you have to tell me," Charlie suddenly felt some anxiety rising in her chest, wondering what Alastor was thinking. She was starting to overthink everything, and wondering if she had pushed him too hard already. She looked over at her boyfriend, his head and neck more relaxed into the pillow, but he still looked quite distressed.
"I love you, Charlotte. Even if I don't understand why you'd love me back. If maman is in Heaven- what would she say about me? Her dear garçon, now a Sinner, having committed such crimes... would she even love me anymore? When I don't dream about the day I saw her die. When I don't dream about an Exorcist freak stabbing her with her spear and slicing her... I think about her, as an angel, wondering what she did wrong. Or maybe even worse, not remembering me," Alastor was suddenly silent, as he rolled over to face Charlie, eyes glistening with tears. "I'm sorry about this little production tonight."
"Baby, I..." Charlie stopped talking, as she shifted herself downwards so that she was laying down, and rolled onto her side to face him. She reached out her hand gently, her face asking if she could take his in hers. When he nodded, she did just that, wrapping her fingers around his shaking claws. She didn't know much about Winners. She didn't know if she would still love him. All she knew is that he was one. "I love you because you're amazing, and I love you just the way you are. Nothing you ever do could change that. I want all of you, Alastor. I know it's scary talking. Thank you for talking to me."
"Thank you? I have been nothing but a troublemaker and a problem causer all night. Do you not have that supposedly important meeting with those freaks up in Heaven, tomorrow?" Alastor asked. Charlie was happy that he was starting to get some of his usual prickliness back to him.
However, what he said gave her an idea. After all, she did have a meeting with Heaven tomorrow, and with how successful her redemption program had been, maybe she could call in a favor. She squeezed his hands tighter, shifting a bit closer to him. He was beautiful, and she could feel warmth coming to her cheeks because of this. "I do, but I promise Al, you haven't been either of those things. I would never sleep again if that's what it took for you to get the chance to talk, for you to get the chance to actually feel feelings... I'm proud of you, do you know that?"
Proud. That was the sort of word that his maman used to use. He wondered if she would still be proud. Whenever he was a child, and he had these nightmares- the memories of the darkest times of his life- she would be there. He wondered if she would even as much as care anymore. "Why, thank you. I'm glad that I can serve to make you proud. Is that not what a good hotelier is supposed to do? Make the owner proud? Maybe you'll even keep me around, you know, for a bit longer," he winked.
His comments earned an eye roll from Charlie. "Stars, I love you," she said, said love becoming evident in her eyes. Her hand made its way to his cheek, gently stroking it with her thumb. She took note of the dark circles that lay under his eyes. "Baby, you look exhausted. You should try to sleep some more," without even thinking, she leaned over, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. She had never done that before. The sinner in bed next to her went bright red, his smile becoming the largest that she had ever seen it. "I'll make you a deal. You sleep now, and I'll give you as many of those as you want in the morning."
Without even thinking, he replied. "Deal."
"Deal. I love you, Al. Good night."
"I love you, dearest. Sleep well."