Chapter Text
Taking a deep breath, Lucifer tugged his jacket down and smoothed out his shirt before turning to knock on the door. The big sign outside proclaimed it to be ‘the Hazbin Hotel’, his daughter’s little pet project. Now, he wasn’t one to throw stones (he had named a theme park ‘LuLu World’, he didn’t have much of a leg to stand on) but he thought maybe the name was just a little on the nose.
He waited for a moment after knocking; he could hear movement and frantic whispering coming from the other side. Before he could start to panic too much, the doors were swung wide open, revealing his baby girl in all her grown-up glory. It had been years since he had last seen her face-to-face, and it hadn’t exactly been a great interaction to leave off on. Her hurt face and resentful glare had burned themselves into his memory, something he dragged forward to mull and despair over in his worst moments.
“Charlie!” he said just a little too loudly. “So good to see you, sweetheart!” He held his arms out for a hug, which he swiftly turned into the sweeping motion of an overexaggerated bow when she made no movement towards falling into his arms. Burning beneath her gaze and his own embarrassment, Lucifer quickly moved on, wandering further into the hotel to greet KeeKee and the little dragon twins.
“Dad!” Charlie finally said, as if snapping herself out of a stupor. “Yes, hi, hello! Welcome to the ~Hazbin Hotel~!” she sang awkwardly, waving jazz hands in front of herself. After a long moment with neither of them moving or speaking, Charlie lunged forward, practically dragging him deeper into the lobby to show him around. As they turned the corner, he caught sight of a garish hunting-lodge-esque bar with neon green accents and had to take a confused step back at the jarring affront to his eyeballs.
“Woah! What the hell is that?”
A chipper voice spoke up directly behind him. “Oh, just a little something to liven up the place!” Lucifer whirled around to find a tall red deer Sinner staring him down, eyes bright and inquisitive.
“Uh, and who are you?”
“Alastor! The host of this hotel and Charlie’s business partner. Pleasure to be meeting you, sir, quite the pleasure!” He didn’t waste any time, reaching out and shaking the apple atop Lucifer’s cane, then not-so-subtly wiping his hand off on his suit jacket. As his sleeve rode up with the motion, Lucifer caught sight of a light blue bracelet around his wrist, something that clashed horribly with the rest of his red and black outfit. Glancing around at the others in the room, he found similar colored bracelets on their wrists, as well.
Something of his confusion must have played out on his face, as Alastor took pity on him, easily following his gaze to his exposed wrist. His smile grew slightly bitter as he waved his hand in front of the little monarch.
“Oh, this? Just a little mandatory something dear Charlie came up with, to ‘foster openness’,” he revealed with almost a snarl.
“Oh!” Charlie said, taking over the conversation, much to Alastor’s obvious distaste. He took a hearty step back from the group, nearly disappearing into the shadows. “Those are for our designations. That way everyone knows everyone else’s needs! Red is for Caregivers, light blue is for Littles, and green is for Neutrals.” She flashed her green bracelet in Lucifer’s face before reaching out for him once more, turning him towards the stairs and away from the rest of the gathered Sinners. “Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the hotel! You’re going to love it!”
Lucifer kept step with her, though his thoughts were in something of a haze, blinking slowly in confusion as she showed him therapy rooms and the kitchen and guest rooms and on and on until they ended up on an open-air balcony. For some reason his mind was stalled on the bracelets, of all things. It was a weird thing to make mandatory, but it wasn’t his business, now was it, and he assumed the Sinners would let her know if she was crossing a boundary, or whatever. Most people in Hell didn’t go around flaunting their weaknesses like that, but it wasn’t his hotel they were staying in, he supposed. Maybe it was part of Charlie’s redemption program?
After a long overdue little heart to heart with his daughter, Lucifer left with a promise to contact Heaven, even if he had a really bad feeling about it all. Thinking about his little girl going up there, like sending a lamb into a lion’s den, left him feeling uneasy for weeks.
He worried and worried and lost himself in the worry for days on end until he eventually heard the ding of the bell atop the Heaven Embassy and realized just how much time had passed. He turned to look out the window and found the golden portal from Heaven shining in the sky, hundreds of exorcists swarming through like a plague of locusts. He closed his eyes against the sight, hands tightening into fists, even as he let out a long breath and made his decision.
No, he couldn’t directly interfere. But if they touched one hair on Charlie’s head, the proverbial gloves were off. He wouldn’t be held by that stupid contract any longer if they broke it first.
It was easy to find a good vantage point, looking down at the fighting with an anticipatory dread building in his gut. For better or worse, things would be changing today. He watched as a giant green and black dome shifted and grew until it was covering the hotel and the surrounding grounds. It held for quite a while, frustrating the attacking exorcists, until Adam stuck his big nose in it and took one solid whack at it with his guitar. Lucifer watched with dismay as the dome cracked and then burst into glittering shadows. He held his breath as Adam moved forward, zeroing in on Alastor, of all people.
He couldn’t stop his hands from digging into his hair as he watched with growing concern. What was Charlie thinking, sending a Little to fight one of Heaven’s oldest and strongest human souls? He may be a powerful Sinner, an Overlord to boot, but he had no hope of beating the head exorcist! And as he watched in horror, he found he had worried for good reason; at the end of the fight, Alastor was left with a badly damaged magical conduit and a chest wound that leaked holy energy, even as he retreated painfully into the awaiting shadows.
Lucifer was far from happy about it, but he let his icy gaze move on to the rest of the fight. It seemed Charlie’s girlfriend was fighting a strangely over-the-top exorcist one-on-one, and oh! Oh, no. Poor Dazzle was bleeding out in the lobby of the hotel. He reached out with his magic, feeling the moment the little dragon’s spark of life dissipated into the ambient energy of Hell, and one of his chains instantly snapped. A Hellborn had died by angelic hands.
And then Adam was in Charlie’s face, holding her up by her neck, readying a final, deadly blow, and the last shackle from their stupid, ill-advised contract snapped. Like shit! Lucifer flew down with the speed of light and knocked that no-good, self-important little bitch away from his perfect, lovely, too-good-for-Hell daughter. They fought, though it wasn’t truly much of a fight. Adam may be old, and Lucifer may be limited due to the punishments from his Fall, but it wasn’t a fair fight at all. Lucifer was still the Lightbringer, after all.
The only thing that saved that bastard, in the end, was Charlie’s compassion.
…Well, saved him for about thirty seconds, before the little maid with the angelic steel needle showed up to stab him in the back over and over and over again.
And then they moved on, demanding the angels leave if they knew what was good for them. He even said please! Wouldn’t Charlie be so proud of him! Putting the hotel back together after that was a piece of cake, especially with them all working together. Just as Lucifer was starting to really get worried about the red guy, he popped up out of the shadows, moving around as if nothing had happened and he had been there the whole time.
Charlie, though, had noticed him right away and ran forward, wrapping him up in a tight hug that Alastor looked extremely uncomfortable accepting. He extricated himself as soon as possible, taking a large step back and putting some distance between them.
“Oh, Alastor! What happened? When the dome broke, I was so worried, but the angels overtook us so quickly and I wasn’t able to get to the roof to check on you. Are you alright? Oh, what am I saying? Of course you’re not alright, Adam got past you somehow. Let me see, can we fix it? Are you bleeding?”
Alastor blinked slowly at the sudden influx of word-vomit headed his way, before eventually raising a hand in her face to ward her off as she physically lunged forward to manhandle him towards the medics. “Charlotte, I’m fine. He got in a lucky shot, but I’m fine. Please, carry on with… whatever it is you all were doing before I arrived.”
“But Alastor!” she cried, still trying to reach around his outstretched arm in some misguided hope she could somehow use physical affection to heal him. “Littles need calm and safety after something this big! You need to get inside and be looked after for a while. Come on, go rest. We’ll finish up out here.”
The sound of Alastor grinding his teeth to nubs was loud and painful. “I told you, Charlotte, I am fine. I don’t need to rest. I need to help get this place back in tip-top shape. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” And then without so much as a backward glance, he turned around, stomping his way towards the others, waving his hands to start weaving magic around the structure and stitching it back together with his signature green and black magic. Charlie didn’t seem to pick up on his black, disgruntled mood, but the others sent the Radio Demon sympathetic looks behind his back.
Vaggie pulled Charlie’s attention away from the man easily. She sighed in exasperation before moving to stand with her girlfriend, overseeing the progress. Lucifer watched the entire interaction from the sidelines, confusion and unease filling his chest, but eventually moved on, vowing to check in on Alastor himself as soon as he could.