Chapter Text
Neither Charlie nor Vaggie had ever really entertained the idea of becoming mothers.
Charlie had been raised by less than stellar parents and she was pretty terrified of becoming like them, she especially feared turning into her mother; after all everybody that had truly known her, before her disappearance, mainly her aunts and uncles, always loved to tell her how much she had taken after Lilith.
“You may have your father's face but every time you open your mouth it's all her crazy ideas and ideals!”
Uncle Asmodeus once told her during a meeting, just before aunt Bee added
“He means it as a compliment, Apple Pie, you'd make a great queen one day!”
The princess had quickly learned that that was true, she really was her mother's successor and maybe it meant that she really would have been a good queen one day, but it also definitely meant that she would never be a good mom.
She didn't blame Lilith for how she raised her, she loved her, after all, really loved her…however sometimes she wished she could have just been a bit of a more normal mother.
But the first woman refused domesticity like a wild racoon would, her words, not Charlie’s, she wasn't even sure what a racoon was, but she had always understood that it basically meant that her mother would never be like the ones she saw in IMP town; she dragged her around hell, to rallies, manifestations, never to restaurants or the grocery store and she started teaching her how to rule when she was no more than a toddler.
She taught her to never take advantage of her title, to listen to her people, to be humble, which was probably a needed lesson for the daughter of pride, but she never taught her to braid her hair or how to put on makeup; the only tender memory the princess had of her mom was when she sang to her before tucking her into bed, but she had stopped doing that years and years ago.
And then she had just disappeared and way more than once Charlie asked herself if Lilith hadn't planned her vanishing act for years, if all those lessons she gave her were just there to make sure she didn't leave hell without a proper ruler.
She often asked herself if her mother ever really loved her or only saw her as her heir and ticket to freedom…if maybe it was her fault she'd disappeared, after all she had heard her aunts and uncles whisper about Lilith
About how she was different before she had Charlie.
Sure, she was always a lot, but you've seen how erratic she got after the kid.
I always told Luci she was too volatile to raise anyone, especially alone.
So yeah, in virtue of how much she resembled Lilith and adding to that the fact that she also got some of her father's genes Charlie had promised herself to never have children, not being able to even stomach the idea of ever going out of her mind like her parents did and mess up a kid.
That didn't mean she didn't like kids, quite the contrary, she was pretty good with children, after all they usually matched her energy and nine times out of ten they actually meant what they were saying and weren't trying to get a soul deal and a good chunk of her teenhood had been spent in the backstage of her uncle Ozzie's club and in her uncle Mammon's…she couldn't call those dressing rooms in good conscience, wrangling their workers’ kids.
She still did that from time to time to time, especially when she was feeling particularly affected by baby fever.
For Vaggie it was a bit different.
She didn't have a mom, well, she probably did, after all she wasn't part of those exorcists that were engineered already grown and ready for combat, she was one of those that had a proper childhood, it just happened that that childhood was completely filled with training and violence.
She had occasionally looked up to older exorcists, but most of those girls had already been made into perfect little soldiers, which meant they didn't really tolerate a little angel like Vaggie fluttering all around them, she was just a nuisance.
The closest thing she'd ever had to a motherly figure was Lute and…she knew well how that relationship ended.
And what's more it's not like she had all that clear of an idea of what a mother was supposed to be; it was a nebulous concept, a woman that brought you into the world and that's it, it took her almost twenty years, up to the first times she was allowed out of the shackles exorcists were usually crammed in and out of the arena that she had the possibility of seeing how a mother treated her child, to understand that she was supposed to protect you from harm and all the bad things.
But by that point she felt too old to even entertain the idea of ever being able to have a mom, she was at the age where she was probably supposed to become one, if anything, but how could she?
She was a war machine, she was a weapon.
She was herself what mothers had to protect their children from.
Being a mom wasn't something she felt like she could ever be, sometimes she thought of it as something she didn't really have the instructions for.
She struggled interacting with kids in general; it was hard enough to deal with adults, given that she never properly got taught how socializing worked, but once in hell she painstakingly learned the unwritten rules, but with little ones there really weren't many, they were pretty much agents of chaos and it scared the former angel, so she stayed at a comfortable distance from any of them at all times.
Add to all that baggage the fact that they were both women and therefore couldn't have accidents, the fact that Charlie had been sure for years that Vaggie was a sinner, putting another pretty important barrier between them and motherhood, considering you needed very specific fertility potions for sinners to get pregnant and the two didn't even really had to discuss their views on becoming parents.
Plus they had the hotel to run, and especially now, around one year and a half after they officially made peace with heaven and got a dozen more successful rehabilitation, the whole place was absolutely packed.
So it was a hard no, and that was it.
And then one night Angel entered the hotel with his eyes so bugged out Charlie half feared he went back to doing drugs, instead he urgently asked to talk to the princess in her office.
The woman immediately gestured for him to go, she would be there in a second and so the two found themselves sitting in front of each other.
“Angel, are you ok? You look a little…”
She started, awkwardly trying to find out if the man had actually done drugs as she was fearing, but not wanting to ask him directly
“Shaken…”
Angel nodded slowly
“Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm a little out of sorts…”
Charlie gently took his hand, something in his eyes looked strange, it was then she understood it definitely wasn't about drugs
“Did something happen at work?”
He straightened up a little and took a deep breath
“Yeah, there's a girl there, she's pretty new, only sold her soul a few weeks ago and…she's not doing fine, I mean, I don't think anyone at the studio is doing fine, really, but she…came in with an eye already black this morning and she looked for me during lunch break and she just…shit Charlie she fall to her knees in front of me and begged me to give you her number, I think she cried for half an hour and when I said yes she wouldn't stop thanking me…”
He rummaged in his pockets for a moment before eventually taking out a small crumpled cloth tissue with a scribbled number on it and a name embroidered on the hem.
The princess took it, her eyes already getting watery
“Was she…really that bad? You see a lot of bad shit everyday, but I've never seen you so affected by it”
Angel sighed, slumping into the chair
“I'm not even sure it was just that, I mean, yeah, she looked pretty bad but the thing that really got me…she's Italian, like me, more than me, she lived in Napoli, or so I've heard…she reminded me of my sister a but…and she had this haunted stare and it's not just the one you get when Val toys with you…it's the stare of someone that has been broken in so many pieces they don't even know who they are anymore…”
Charlie felt her heart clench, but managed to conjure up a smile in order to try and reassure Angel, she put a hand on his shoulder
“I'll call her immediately, you go have a drink, I think Husk may actually kill himself if he has to prepare another generic Strawberry-colada…”
The man nodded, appreciating the distraction she offered him
“Yeah, thanks Charlie, sorry for the pity party, see ya later!”
And with that he left Charlie alone with the crumpled tissue.
She wasted no time and called it with her phone.
The person on the other end of the line took a moment to pick up, but when she did she wasted not a single second
“What do you want!?”
The princess awkwardly stiffened, the person answering sounded like a girl on the younger side, probably no more than 20, and she was definitely pissed.
Charlie coughed, before looking down at the tissue again and answering with an unsure
“I'm looking for…Giuseppina…”
She wasn't completely sure she had said the name right, but in her defence she majorly sucked at speaking other languages, her mother had tried to make her learn as much as she could but it was not a lot cause, seriously, if Angel hadn't told her about the girl being Italian she would have probably thought she was Spanish, between her name and the accent of the woman on the phone.
Speaking of which, she didn't say anything for a moment and Charlie feared that she got offended by her call and had hung up, but then she heard her clear as day shout
“Pinuccia, il telefono, cristo! Chi cazzo ti chiama a quest'ora?! Se e il tuo capo giuro che lo dico a mamma!”
Then more silence, frantic footsteps and finally a voice, so small and faint it could probably have belonged to a kid
“Is…is this Princess Morningstar?”
“Yes…You asked Angel to give me your number, right?”
There was even more silence but finally Giuseppina hummed a small sound of agreement
“It's me…”
Charlie waited a little, hoping the girl would talk, tell her what she wanted but after two whole minutes it sounded like she was gonna have to be the one to continue the conversation
“Have you heard about the hotel?”
She dared
“Is that why you wanted to contact me?”
“Yes…”
Once again the simple word sounded so faint Charlie had trouble even hearing it; she decided she was gonna take the bull for the horns, because there was no way she was gonna get anything out of this girl over the phone, for some reason
“Do you wanna come here, let's say tomorrow? So we can speak face to face.”
“Yes!”
This time the answer was so full of hope and glee that the princess had a hard time remembering this was the same girl from just a few seconds ago.
Then, before Charlie could add anything else the girl started blabbering
“Yes, sure, I can be there, tomorrow at four? Oh…but wait I have my son at that hour, can’t I bring him? If I have to…ok, see you tomorrow!”
And with that she closed the call.
The princess batted her eyes awkwardly, not really understanding what just transpired, but eventually she shrugged, it wasn't the first time she dealt with crazy people.
“So this girl is coming tomorrow at 4?”
Vaggie asked her girlfriend, as they were both in their bedroom a little later, writing it down in the hotel's agenda, that they were both so happy to actually need, now.
Charlie nodded, hugging herself awkwardly.
Vaggie laid down right next to her, tilting her head
“Something's wrong? Please don't tell me you feel like this is a trap, because I'm not sure I can handle another ambush by the V’s…”
The princess shook her head, nuzzling her head into her girlfriend's chest
“No, it's just…Angel was right, there's something so deeply upsetting about this girl…but I can't tell you what…”
The fallen angel sighed, and held Charlie tight
“Don't start worrying yourself now, hun, you'll see how it really is tomorrow, ok?”
The princess nodded, it made sense, but still she couldn't lift that heaviness from her chest.
The next day came fast, all morning Charlie had so many things to do that the meeting with the girl from the phone kinda just…migrated to the back of her head.
Until she heard a knock at the door and suddenly remembered the feeling the previous day’s conversation left in her came back with full strength, awkwardly she went to open the door.
Giuseppina was slightly shorter than her, but not by much, she just looked smaller because of how thin she was, her skin was a warm orange but you could barely see it, as she was wearing a pale green skirt, long to the ankles and a large frumpy blouse of a darker, more forest-y green, with three, completely mismatched buttons on the collar, and her face was covered by a pair of huge dark glasses and partially by her long deep red hair, that were loose, long past her shoulder and incredibly greasy.
One of her arms, shaped like fish fins was busy holding a cardboard suitcase, while the other was holding a toddler, he looked smaller than he probably should, but not as painfully thin as his mom, he had her same warm orange skin, but blonde, short, curly hair, big black eyes and a small, yellow fish fin that sprouted from his upper back, just a little further down than the neck; he was wearing a big, bulky brown coat that seemed to have seen better days, he was looking down playing with a rubber band.
“Princess Morningstar?”
The woman asked again, with a voice that while still small and faint appeared a lot clearer to Charlie's ear than it did on the phone.
The princess nodded
“Yes, come inside, let's go to my office, also please, just Charlie is fine!”
Giuseppina followed her, face downcast, but a determination in her posture that was in stark contrast to the…everything else about her.
Once they reached the office Charlie closed the door, but Giuseppina didn't actually sit until the princess gestured for her to, and she still kept her toddler on her lap with an iron grip.
“So, you said over the phone that you wanted to know more about the hotel, what was it that you wanted to hear about, more specifically?”
She was probably a little more embarrassed in her approach than she usually was, after all it was the first time she had ever actually had anyone asking about the hotel, everyone else that checked in had merely showed up at the door and did so, without any follow up questions
“Usually the only questions I get are about where fresh towels are and if we have breakfast, which we do, in case you were wondering!”
Ok, she was very much rambling, but there was something in the girl's stare that made her uneasy, it was probably the glasses.
“So…I can just stay here? Free of charge? For real? Without having to sell my soul? Because I don't have a soul! And can my son stay too? He has a soul but I don't want to sell it…actually I'm not sure he has a soul either, really…”
The tone that came out of the woman was frantic and completely unlike the one she had last night.
Still Charlie tried to stay calm, ok, after all these were all pretty easy to answer questions, she put on her best smile and reassured her
“Yes, that's the point of the hotel, both you and your son can stay! Can I ask you for your name and what you two did to end up here…to, you know, understand how I may help you two?”
The woman nodded dutifully, with her serious expression still on
“I'm Giuseppina, but Pinuccia is fine, everyone calls me that, this is Riccardo”
She snatched the rubber band the boy was still playing with and sternly commanded
“Say good morning to the princess, Ricky!”
The kid obeyed, although never looking Charlie in the eyes; she felt her heart clench once more and reciprocated the boy’s small wave.
Once the interaction was over Pinuccia took the rubber band up from the floor and gave it back to the kid, continuing to talk all the meanwhile
“I'm not sure why I'm in hell…could be a lot of different things…”
She stiffened
“Is that a problem?”
Charlie immediately leaned forward, trying to reassure the woman again, gesturing with her hands
“No, no, absolutely! A lot of people aren't sure what they're biggest sin is!”
Pinuccia flinched, but nodded.
The princess completely understood Angel's concern, now even more than before.
There were some seconds of silence, then Charlie gently asked if there was more.
Pinuccia shook her head so fast the princess almost feared it would fall right from her neck
“Can I check in right now?”
She asked urgently.
She nodded
“Of course, actually, let me accompany you, my girlfriend handles the check-ins at the lobby.”
The woman got up before Charlie could and the princess couldn't help but notice just how tired she looked
“Do you want me to take your son for a moment? While you check in and get settled in your room?”
From the way Pinuccia looked at her Charlie thought that apparently asking someone to look over their child for a short period of time to give them some respite was very disrespectful and she was about to add that to her internal journal of things she should never ever do again.
However after a short moment Pinuccia got back to looking at her with the same look of sort of sadness she had worn since a minute ago and she looked at her son
“Nun fa dannare la ragazza!”
Before gently passing her son to the woman
“Thank you!”
Maybe the princess was just imagining it, but there was something in that woman's voice that gave her goosebumps, she just looked so relieved.
As she went to the lobby Charlie looked at the small boy
“Hi again, little one!”
She exclaimed cheerfully.
The little boy had seemed to Charlie oddly calm from the start, so much so that he flinched at the princess’ tone of voice, to which she awkwardly chuckled
“Sorry, didn't mean to startle you…”
She tried to reassure him with a lower volume.
Ricky looked at her and nodded shyly.
“So…would you mind if I carried on with the stuff I have to do and dragged you along?”
The boy shrugged and leaned into Charlie's neck, as he kept playing with his rubber band, which the princess took as a yes.
The kid was calm, almost eerily so, if she wasn't using one of her arms to hold him Charlie would honestly forget she was even holding him; until she started taking care of looking over the inventory, at which point he whispered
“You forgot to write down that money there…near ‘Shipment from Cannibal Town’”
Charlie tilted her head, confused, she almost dismissed it as the boy playing in his own head, but she then noticed that she had indeed forgot to write down the monthly expenses for the food they got from Cannibal Town; she looked at the kid with a raised eyebrow
“You can read already?”
His eyes got big and his cheeks properly red
“Si…mami can't…so I learned for her, but don't tell her! It's a surprise!”
Charlie smiled softly
“That's very nice of you…how old are you?”
He shyly mumbled
“Three…”
Charlie's eyes went wide
“Wow! You're so young to do that all on your own, you must be very smart!”
Ricky hid his face in his fin-like hands and probably blushed more; the princess decided to leave him be, in order not to embarrass him more and instead offered
“Want to help me finish this work, here?”
He smiled shyly
“Can I?”
She nodded and they got to work.
The little boy wasn't particularly helpful, Charlie could have definitely finished the whole thing three times faster without him reading everything for her, but he looked so gleeful at being able to help out, also his skills really were incredibly impressive for his age and for being self taught, the woman only had to correct him twice.
When she was finished she raised her hand to give him a high five, but he flinched a little and looked away.
Charlie didn't really comment on that, instead lowering her hand and smiling a bit tensely
“Ok, little one, want to go back to your mom? I think she should be settled in her room by now!”
Ricky nodded, but the cheerfulness he had in his eyes just a moment before was gone.
Over the next few days she kept a close eye on the kid, mostly because it was really easy to spot him; he was constantly on the couch of the living room, politely sitting there and reading all that was available, which was mostly magazines.
The princess didn't really know how to go about him, she never had to deal with a kid being in the hotel, for obvious reasons, but from what she'd been able to gather from Pinuccia, who was still very quiet and kept to herself most of the time, even though she diligently did participate in exercises, he was conceived and born in hell.
“I got offered a raise to star in some pregnancy porn, didn't realize it meant that I had to keep the kid afterwards…”
She did in fact tell her, during a therapy session, one afternoon.
Yep, she should definitely have to report to her uncle Asmodeus about some other shipment of fertility potion going to the wrong hands; she shivered at the mere idea of Valentino having that in his studio.
“I mean, I do love him now but…with my mom and all…and…papà…”
She stiffened.
By now Charlie had noticed that every time someone brought up her family, or even if she did it herself, by accident, Pinuccia stiffened immediately, almost as if she had been shocked, so they usually stayed clear of that subject.
During a single session she went a little further, just to give some context for her redemption she mumbled
“I want to see my papà again, he's in heaven…and I really miss him, I don't think my sisters do, they were so little when he died, I was already 10… my mom definitely doesn't…”
Otherwise it was just some confused information, but what Charlie understood, after a while, was that the woman had a mom she didn't love to talk about, three younger sisters and a dad she wanted to go to heaven for, and that she truly did love her kid and really, that wasn't something she saw a lot of in sinners.
So, given that he was always incredibly quiet and didn't bother anyone, she just let the little boy sit on the couch and read.
Eventually she gave him some books from her father's library; since they would have otherwise just stayed on shelves collecting dust.
Ricky's eyes got so full of stars when the princess presented him with the books that she couldn't help but squeal
“Are they really for me? Can I really keep them?”
Charlie nodded
“Yes, they're all yours, and if you want more just ask, seriously, my dad has lots of books he doesn't read”
The boy clapped his hands in response, and bolted to his mom to show him the books, making the princess’ heart swell with joy; it was the first time she'd seen him that energetically joyous.
Slowly he started coming around her more and more; sometimes to talk about books and sometimes to ask if he could help her with anything.
He really liked helping around, so Charlie always let him.
“You have a way with him”
Pinuccia told her with melancholy in her voice, one day, as she got to the office to get her kid back and bring him to bed, as he had fallen asleep while helping Charlie.
The princess shrugged
“I like kids…and he's a very nice one, you got very lucky.”
The woman looked away, placing Ricky in her arms
“Yeah, lucky…thanks for gifting him the books, Charlie…”
She then held the boy a little tighter, tousling his short curls, smiling faintly
“But you're right, I got a great kid”
Vaggie also quickly noticed the kid, again, it was very hard to ignore a little boy sitting in the living room with a book bigger than him on his lap; she thought he was pretty adorable and even more so when he asked Charlie if she needed help.
He had this light in his black eyes that she just couldn't help but awe at.
However she never really talked to him directly.
She realized that one night when she heard a weird sound coming from downstairs.
The fallen angel was always a light sleeper, courtesy of Lute's training, but ever since the hotel filled with people her tendency to get up at every small sound got pretty much out of control.
Knowing she wasn't gonna fall back asleep she silently got up from bed and tiptoed down the stairs; it was probably nothing and even if it was something potentially dangerous Husk could have probably dealt with it, but she just wanted to be completely sure.
Husk was asleep on the bar counter, Angel on a stool in front of him.
Ok, definitely nothing to worry about if neither of them got up.
She noticed that the kitchen's light was on so she silently slipped inside and it was there she found the source of the noise.
Ricky was awkwardly trying to climb the counter to get to the pantry and probably grab a snack.
Usually Vaggie would have let it go and went to go get something done, before trying to go back to bed; after all it was actually pretty common for guests to grab something to eat, even at those late hours, they left the kitchen open for a reason.
But the kid was no regular guest, he was small and it was clear he was having trouble reaching the food; the fallen angel was pretty sure that he was going to fall and break his head if she didn't intervene, so she got near him and gently tapped his shoulder.
She expected him to maybe be a little startled, but she didn't expect him to immediately scream and duck down, covering his head; her heart exploded in her chest.
She slowly knelt down in front of him, hands outstretched to signify peace
“Ehi! Don't…don't worry, kid, I was just…”
She couldn't finish because the little boy immediately started hiccuping, still in his defensive position
“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I just wanted some candies, I know I shouldn't…but I had a nightmare and I was hungry!”
Vaggie felt sick; this wasn't normal, this was the reaction people had to being inches away from her spear, not the one a three year old should have upon being found taking candies from the kitchen, especially when he had been given permission to.
She felt her heart race, what could she even say? Would touching him make the situation worse? Would reassuring him do the same?
In the end she decided to go with actions, it was usually easier for her not to fuck up too much if she didn't really use words.
She flew up to the pantry and presented Ricky with three Taffies.
The big stayed still for a few more moments, but eventually he quietly got up and looked at Vaggie with big wide eyes
“Can I really?”
She nodded.
He snatched the candies from her hand like it was hot and still expected a few seconds before actually starting to eat them.
Once he was finished he look at Vaggie once more, head slightly tilted
“Thanks…”
He whispered.
“No problem, kid”
It became sort of a routine, every few days Vaggie would hear noises coming from the kitchen in the middle of the night and she quickly learned to recognize when it was Ricky specifically; she then got down, gave him some candies and they sat on the counter as he ate his snack.
They usually didn't talk, but some rare times they did, it was mainly the boy blabbering to Vaggie about the books he was reading and sometimes about his mom, only nice things, a few times he would ask the woman about his and that, he was particularly fascinated by her wings, that he found incredibly cool; she promised him that one day she'll let him have a ride.
She was slowly starting to get less scared about interacting with the kid, but the night he told her
“Thanks for not telling my mami about the candies”
Her mind still short-circuited a little.
At first she shrugged, the idea hadn't even crossed her mind, the kid wasn't doing anything concerning, well, maybe it was concerning that he was having all those nightmares, but he lived in hell, so maybe it wasn't…ugh, whatever, he was safe and sound, so that was the important thing.
However in the following days she couldn't help but keep thinking about the fact that perhaps she should be concerned about a kid that young having all those nightmares, he was born in hell so he should be desensitized to most things.
That night, as Ricky was eating his nightly snack she dared to ask
“Have you always had so many nightmares?”
The boy didn't stop eating his candies, but mumbled
“Yes, but it got better since I'm here, I had them all the nights before, but now it's only some of the nights!”
Vaggie's heart felt heavy again
“And what are these nightmares about? If I can know…”
He tilted his head a little, as if he was trying to find the perfect words to describe the situation
“It's mostly screams and the sounds of slaps…and black, and orange sometimes…but mostly black…”
The woman furrowed her brows but didn't feel like she could do anything but sigh and let the kids continue his snack.
They were having their little nighty rendezvous for a while, when one night Ricky hugged Vaggie tight, before going to bed.
She hugged him back feeling extremely weird, but not a bad weird…just a weird weird.
Pinuccia and Ricky had been at the hotel for the good part of a year when it happened.
It was a Sunday and there were no exercises going on at that time of the afternoon, guests and staff alike were just shuffling around the hotel, some people sitting in the living room to chat or watch the TV.
Even Charlie was taking a break, sitting herself in the living room and trying to understand whatever show was on; it was probably one of the channels they pirated from Earth, because she wasn't understanding anything.
The doorbell did in fact make her slightly relieved; she went to open the door with the usual pleasing smile she always wore, but the person outside didn't seem to appreciate that.
There was a woman on the threshold, she struggled to fit into the doorframe, due to her immense height, her face was a light, sickly gray, spotted with round white freckles , her eyes two bioluminescent pits, her dark long to the floor dress got confused with her ivory black hair; all in all she looked like an ominous shadow, even though her hands, similar to fins suggested she was also a fish.
“You're…here for Pinuccia, aren't you?”
Charlie wasn't dumb, naive maybe, but she could pick up on clues.
The woman nodded, bowed to the princess for less than a second and silently shuffled inside; she had something almost like an aura around herself, a sad, dark aura.
Charlie awkwardly tried to catch up with her
“She's…in her room, upstairs…”
The woman continued shuffling up the stairs.
The princess knew she should probably not follow her, let the woman handle the situation with her daughter alone, but it felt wrong, like something bad would happen if she didn't go with the woman, so she did exactly that.
The woman didn't knock, but flung the door of the room open with such strength that it almost flew off its hinges.
Pinuccia was sitting on the bed, knees up to her chest, her cardboard suitcase just next to her.
The woman didn't say anything, but she looked at her daughter with an empty stare.
Pinuccia took up her sunglasses from the nightstand, her suitcase from the floor and started walking towards her mother with her eyes fixated on the floor.
The woman rested a hand on her shoulder, tight.
“Thanks for the hospitality, princess…but I think it's time for me and Ricky to go back home…”
Her tone was rehearsed, impersonal, nothing like the voice Charlie had heard from her during the previous year.
“Pinuccia but…why?! You're making so much progress and…”
She stopped for a second, was this another Angel Dust situation?
Would she only fuck up stuff for Pinuccia if she kept insisting?
She didn't know, but her heart was screaming at her to say something, anything.
It was the right thing to do.
She was fifty percent sure of it!
She placed herself in front of the pair, although they kept walking forward, forcing Charlie to do the same, and looked at her guest in the eyes
“Please…didn't you tell me you wanted to see your father again!?”
Something in the eyes of both women cracked.
They stopped walking.
The woman got eerily still for a second and then slowly and stiffly turned towards her daughter, before backhanding her so hard that her glasses got knocked off.
Charlie gasped but felt powerless to intervene, there, she fucked up again, she should have just shut her mouth!
“You go around speaking about him now! You killed him! It's your fault! You won't see him again because it's your fault he died!”
The words came out like blades and they all hit Pinuccia exactly where it hurt the most.
“I…I know, Madre…I'm so sorry, I'll go get Ricky and we'll go home…”
Charlie tried her absolute best but she couldn't help her hand reaching out for the woman, who flinched
"Just leave me alone!”
She yelled to the princess
“Yes, you housed a murderer, if you want to tell me how disgusting I am don't you worry, I know! I know I'm the absolute worst, I'll go away now!”
Charlie held both of her shoulders
“What happened?!”
If she had learned something from the whole situation with Angel was that there were always two sides to a story.
Pinuccia fell to her knees, hands to her eyes
“I was supposed to watch over him! He was sick and it was my job to make sure he was fine, but I got distracted and…and a friend called me and she invited me to her house and…I was just so tired, I asked my sisters to watch him and his heart failed while I wasn't there…my sisters were just kids and…and…it's all my fault…”
The princess tried her damn best not to hug the other woman, but in the end she couldn't help herself, fuck it, she'll say sorry later if it was an crossing of her boundaries
“It's not your fault, you were 10, your sisters weren't the only kids…”
The woman just kept crying, hiding her face into the princess’ chest, but her shoulders slumped, as if a boulder had just been lifted from her soul.
When her cries subsided enough Charlie got up and glared at Pinuccia’s mother
“Go away!”
She sneered, horns starting to surface.
The older woman looked at her with wide, clearly frightened eyes, for how much she was undermined Charlie still was the princess of hell.
She gave one last glance of pure unadulterated hare towards her daughter and disappeared down the stairs.
The silence that followed seemed unreal, especially in the usually loud hotel.
Pinuccia got up, hugging herself
“I’m sorry…I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about this, I should have known she was gonna come, maybe I should just leave, I caused you enough problems already…”
But Charlie didn't answer to her, she just smiled softly
“Look up”
Pinuccia did just that and realized that she was being hugged by a blinding golden light; she felt her eyes itch with tears.
Charlie did likewise, it didn't matter how many redemptions she saw, she always felt so incredibly proud of these people; however the woman looked at Charlie with wide eyes
“Wait! Can you get Ricky…I…I want to say goodbye to him!”
The princess immediately nodded and ran down the stairs and to the couch
“Sweetheart, come quick!”
She didn't explain, feeling like she didn't have time and Ricky seemed to notice and understand her frantic demeanor, cause he immediately started running behind her.
Pinuccia smiled at the boy once he saw him, she gently took him in her arms and started talking to him softly in Italian.
Charlie stranded to the side, contemplating if she should stay if go, however Pinuccia stopped talking to her kids right when she had made up her mind
“Take care of him, princess, please.”
Her eyes got wide
“Wait, I'm sure we can talk with heaven about having him there and…”
She knew it wasn't the truth, it was by now pretty publicly known that no angel knew anything about redemption and especially that they couldn't interfere with it and Pinuccia seemed to know too.
She kissed her kid’s hair once more and gave him to the princess
“Sii buono, con Charlie, ok? Ti voglio tanto bene, amore”
And with that she let herself be whisked away to heaven.
The princess nodded and smiled a little sadly.
She looked down at the boy, now in her arms and hoped he would say something first, so she could seize his reaction.
Luckily enough he tilted his head to look up, his expression neutral enough that Charlie couldn't quite grasp what he was thinking
“Is mami gonna be happy in heaven?”
She immediately nodded
“Of course!”
He hummed content
“Good, then I'm happy for her…you and Vaggie will take care of me now, though, right?”
The princess smiled, although she saw shivering a little inside
“Yes, obviously! I mean, I promised your mom, so I will!”
Ricky smiled back, completely unaware of the storm that was brewing in Charlie's chest.
That night, after laying him down in his bed, still in the room he used to share with his mom, that she will make sure to let him decorate soon, she threw herself in her own bed.
“So I’ve heard we adopted a kid”
Vaggie smirked, as she sat opposite to her girlfriend.
“Yeah.”
“And how do we feel about that?”
“I'm sorry…it was a very spur of the moment thing! She was being redeemed and…”
Vaggie took her hands gently
“It's ok, I'm just…we've never talked about children…do you really think we'll be good parents?”
Charlie tilted her head
“I can probably take everything my parents did, do the opposite and already save up half the hassle…”
Vaggie held her tight
“If you show me the way, I promise I'll try my best .”
The princess smiled gently and let herself lean into her girlfriend's hug
“Ok…then we'll try our best…”
As if on cue someone knocked on the door and Ricky appeared in the threshold, looking at the two
“Can I sleep here?”
They looked at each other and smiled.
Ok, they could do this