Chapter Text
From the time Bella was three years old, she had been fascinated with Earth animals like giraffes. Auntie Charlie had gotten her a big book about every Earth animal, and for whatever reason, Bella liked giraffes. They were hard to draw, and hard to sew into a stuffed animal, but Bella still thought they were neat.
By the time Bella was five, she had two stuffed giraffes: one was a present from Auntie Charlie, who had gotten the giraffe from her friend Emily. A smaller giraffe had been carefully made by Bella and Mama. The little giraffe was the big giraffe's baby.
Still, Bella thought her giraffe toys were lonely and needed a bigger family. That was when she learned the only family giraffes had were animals called okapis, also called the giraffes of the forest.
Okapis were even weirder than giraffes. They had shorter necks and no spots and legs like zebras. Bella didn't like zebras, but she decided okapis were okay if they were only half zebra. Bella liked the sound of the word okapi, and she thought okapis had funny tongues. She wanted Mama and Auntie Charlie to read as many books about okapis as she could, but as it turned out, there weren't a lot of them.
Okapis liked to hide and stay a secret, so not a lot of people knew about them or wrote books about them. That was kind of like Bella, hidden away in the hotel from people like her Papi.
One day, Bella and Mama were watching a show about okapis for Bella's TV hour. Bella was allowed one hour of TV on weekdays, two hours on weekends or if she wanted to watch a movie, and three hours on her birthday or other nights when she was allowed to stay up late. Bella could watch shows from Earth and Heaven, but no shows made in Hell were allowed, not even the cartoons. Most cartoons in Hell were for grown-ups because, outside of Cannibal Town, most Sinners were grown-ups. The Hellborn kids' cartoons relied on stereotypes, but Bella wasn't old enough to get what exactly stereotypes were.
In her lap, Bella had her baby giraffe. The neck was a little lopsided (they didn't have enough stuffing) so Bella supported the baby giraffe's head against her chest. Mama smiled and held Bella closer, too.
As the okapi show ended, Auntie Charlie came over with what Bella recognized as another stuffed unicorn from Papi. Papi usually wrapped the presents to Bella, but Aunt Vaggi or Mama or any other grown up who found Papi's presents would open them for Bella.
This was in case it was a dangerous toy from Uncle Vox, or something on Bella's Big No No List, stuff that was not for little girls (lots of Papi's movies and books he sent were put on the No No list, if they weren't there already).
“Do you want to keep this, Bella?” Auntie Charlie asked, holding the gold unicorn at arms-length. “I know you don't normally like them, but I just thought I'd check.”
The grown-ups almost always checked with Bella if she wanted to keep a stuffed unicorn or any other stuffed animal Papi sent her. They knew she was scared of unicorns, but still thought it best to give her a choice, in case Bella stopped being scared of them.
“No, Auntie Charlie,” Bella said firmly. “No thank you, no grazie.” She hugged her baby giraffe more tightly.
“Okay,” Auntie Charlie said, “I'll just put it in the donation bag; it's almost full enough that I can send it to an orphanage, soon.”
As Auntie Charlie started to carry off the unicorn, Bella looked at her giraffe, then at the TV (credits rolling over a picture of an okapi).
“Wait, Auntie Charlie!” Bella said, carefully easing herself off Mama's lap. “I got another idea!”
Lucifer answered his door when he heard a knock, and he smiled.
“Char-char! Bella! Come on in!”
“Bella has something she wants to ask you, Dad,” Charlie said, looking down at Bella.
Bella held up the stuffed unicorn.
“Grandpa Luci, can you turn this into an okapi?”
“Sure can, sweetie!' Lucifer said as he took the unwanted toy. But as he was about to use his powers on it, he stopped. “Wait, what's an okapi?”
That night, Bella was cuddled up in bed with her two giraffes and a new, soft stuffed okapi. When she hugged the okapi, the okapi's long blue tongue would come out and lick its own ears, like a real okapi. It made Bella giggle so much.