Work Text:
Pearl jolted herself awake hearing the blaring sirens outside that had rudely woken her up from her afternoon nap. She knew they were necessary to warn sinners of the extermination that was just about to commence, but the noise still made her want to bang her head against the wall.
Getting up off the couch and slipping on her noise cancelling headphones to block out the sirens, she went around making sure all the doors and windows were locked, and the curtains were drawn.
She knew she had no reason to be that cautious being a hell-born and all, but she still always felt antsy during the exterminations and it gave her comfort to do those things.
After Pearl finished with that she made sure her cat Cynthia was alright and she was, peacefully napping under the sofa, not a care in the world. So Pearl sat back down on the couch trying to think of something to do now that sleeping wasn't an option, because once she was up, she was up.
She usually would just find a book to read, but when she got like this, she just couldn't focus on a book,and would end up reading the same page over and over again, so after much deliberation she decided it was finally time to start going through her mom's stuff.
Truthfully she was probably overdue for this because it had been a full 7 years on the dot since her mom died in the first extermination, and this would be the first time she's even gone in her room since then, but she figured it would be a good way to burn off the nervous energy and keep her mind busy instead of thinking of what was happening outside, and hopefully it has been long enough so it wouldn't be that painful.
She switched on some calming music on her headphones and stood in front of the bedroom door, remaining that way for several minutes before opening it, trying to work up the last bit of nerve to actually open the door.
The room looked exactly as she remembered, rows of lipstick lined up on the vanity, with a few photos pinned to the edge of the mirror, a few books on the nightstand, and a floral patterned blanket over the bed, the only thing out of place was the layer of dust that covered everything.
Pearl took a moment to take it all in before deciding to tackle the dresser first going drawer by drawer on what to get rid of and what to keep.
The first drawer just held clothes and Pearl put most of them in the get rid of pile except for a few oversized T-shirts she could wear to bed because all the rest were too small for her.
The next drawer held socks, hats, and hair bows, and they put the bows in the keep pile and the socks and hats in the get rid of pile, looking at the small pile of hair bows made Pearl remember how much she loved her mom doing her hair.
The bottom drawer was just full of shoes that all went into the get rid of pile because she didn't ever wear close toe shoes.
She briefly left the room for a garbage bag, and came back to put the stuff from the get rid of pile in there before moving on to the stuff on her vanity
Pearl threw away all of the used makeup and chose a few of the unused ones to keep for herself, on the off chance she might ever want to wear makeup, though that seemed unlikely.
After that Pearl just sat on the vanity bench and stared at the carpeted floor, she felt like she should be feeling sadder about doing this but she just didn't really feel much of anything other than some lingering anxiety.
After taking that small break, she moved on to the jewelry box, she had no intention of giving any of the jewelry away, she just wanted to look through them and remember how pretty her mom looked wearing them.
When she got to the bottom of the box, she found a paperclip, an old mint, and two folded up pieces of paper. The first one Pearl unfolded was just a shopping list, but the second one was on fancier paper, and it looked like a contract.
She slowly began reading the paper, getting more confused and anxious as she read each sentence, because the paper stated that her real mother was Lilith, as in the queen of hell that's been missing for years, and that her mom agreed to raise her but she couldn't tell anyone who her mother was.
Pearl sat the paper down at the vanity and just stared at it in shock, trying to ignore the anxiety that had wormed its way deeper into her chest as she started to process what she just read.
She always knew she was adopted, sinners couldn't have kids, and she looked very different from her mom, and it's something they'd discussed several times before, but to find out that you're the daughter of the queen, is something she never could have anticipated.
Pearl sat there on the bench, fidgeting with her bracelets while her mind swirled with so many thoughts and questions.
Like did anyone else know who she was? Did Lucifer or princess Charlie? Was there something she was supposed to do about this information? Was she supposed to tell her half sister about this? And plus, how does Lucifer fit into all of this off, because it just said Lilith is her mom and nothing at all about Lucifer.
Pearl closed her eyes, trying to get the thoughts to stop or at least slow down, and when that didn't work she just turned up the music on her headphones and went back to cleaning out the room so she could just work and shut her brain off for now.
Hours later she was exhausted and things were starting to hurt but she had gone through everything in the room, decided what to keep and to get rid of, and dusted everything off.
After grabbing a cup of coffee and a sandwich, Pearl settled on the couch with a heating pad on her left arm while she watched a nature documentary about desert animals on a pirated TV channel from earth.
This usually would be the time people would decide to go to bed to rest and process everything, but not Pearl, she hadn't had a normal sleep schedule in years and doubted she would have one anytime soon.
Though her mind was quieter now than it was earlier, there were still some lingering thoughts in her mind regarding her unexpected discovery.
The most persistent one was that she had a sister now, and what she should do about that. She didn't think she would be that interested in having Lilith or Lucifer being a parental figure for her because she already had an amazing mom, but she might like having a sister.
Pearl was quite lonely and she had been for years, sure she was always pretty introverted and she had her pets, but that wasn't the same as having a real connection with a person, which is something she hasn't had in 7 years.
But would Charlie even want me in her life? Does she know anything about me? What if I'm just disrupting her life by showing up? What if she doesn't believe me? Pearl thought as she sipped her coffee.
Pearl sighed and turned her attention back to the documentary, telling herself she had plenty of time to think this over before making an actual decision.
………………..…………………………………………
{10 years ago.}
“Hey mom, would you do my hair please?” Pearl asked, holding a brush and a couple ponytails and bows in her hands.
“Aren't you big enough to do your own hair sweetheart? You are 14 now.” Her mom answered, glancing up from her word search puzzle.
“I could, but it just feels good when you do it.”
“Well, I can't really argue with that logic, can I? Braids or pigtails this time?”
“Pigtails.” Pearl responded, sitting on the floor in front of the couch where her mom was sitting, and handing her the hair stuff.
“Good choice Nola, so what were you reading about earlier? You seemed pretty invested in whatever it was.” She asked, starting to brush Pearl's waist length hair out.
“I was reading about Earth tarantulas, they're so cool! I would definitely want one as a pet one day.”
“Really? You're not worried that Cynthia would try to eat it?” She said, gesturing towards the kitten that was sleeping on the windowsill.
“No, because you have to keep them in terrariums and she wouldn't be able to get into that.”
“Well you've clearly planned this all out haven't you?”
“Yeah, I know all about the air filtration I would need, and what kind of stuff to put in it, and how big it should be.”
“You are just so smart, maybe one day you'll get one.” She said, finishing up the pigtails. “Tada, all done.”
Pearl glances at her hair before turning around to give her mom a hug.
“Thank you Mom, it looks so pretty.”
“You're welcome dear, but now it's your turn to do my hair.” She says, getting on the floor and sitting where Pearl was just at.
Pearl laughed a little and began brushing out her shoulder length hair, doing a thorough job of getting all of the knots out.
“So, if you did have a tarantula, what would you name it?”
“Hmm, maybe Jennifer or Sylvia, those seem like good names for one.” Pearl answered, separating her hair in three strands to braid.
“People names for animals, perfect, I love how you think.” she said, smiling up at Pearl.
………………..…………………………………………
Pearl sighed with relief as she hit save and logged out of the coding program, and turned off her laptop.
She had been working on coding that bug on voxtube for days and was glad that it was finally fixed.
She stretched and stood up, heading for the kitchen trying to remember the last time she ate, it could have been a few hours, or a whole day, Pearl's perception of time wasn't always the best.
She pulled some leftovers out of her fridge and popped them into the microwave, as she waited for it to finish she glanced at the calendar on the wall. It had been several months since she had made the discovery of who her mother was, and she hadn't done anything with that yet.
She had been thinking about it pretty often for the last 6 and a half months but she still couldn't decide if she really wanted to reach out to princess Charlie, or not.
Taking her food to the couch, she switched on the TV and just started watching what came on first, not really paying attention until a commercial for some hotel caught her eye after it mentioned Charlie in it.
Apparently it was some hotel to rehabilitate sinners, which was an interesting concept to Pearl, but she couldn't help but feel like this was some sort of sign that she should maybe try meeting Charlie? Or maybe she was just sleep deprived and reading into it too much, either way, she needed to get some sleep and reevaluate when it wasn't 3 in the morning.
Pearl woke up the following day around 8 am, and immediately went to get a cup of coffee first, before feeding Cynthia, sitting down with her laptop, sending an email to Voxtek management that she would be taking her week of vacation this week, knowing she'd need the time off to do this.
After getting an email back that it was approved, Pearl took a shower and put on a decent outfit, a mid length purple dress with black tights and matching black sandals, and she put her hair up into a ponytail, and put on her purple compression gloves since her nerve pain was flaring up again.
The outfit she was wearing was a drastic difference from her usual hoodies and pajama pants, and that just made her realize how much of a big deal this was for her.
After having another cup of coffee, Pearl grabbed her purse and made sure to put the contract she had found in it, knowing that was the only proof she had for this, and she opened a portal just outside the hotel.
Pearl had figured out she had that ability a few years ago but she didn't use that often seeing as she never really went anywhere and usually walked when she did, she only used it now because she knew that if she had walked she probably would have talked herself out of this during the walk.
Pearl smoothed out her dress and double checked that her hair and wings looked fine, before taking a deep breath and walking into the hotel, trying her best to push her anxiety away.
She glanced around the lobby, taking note of the odd circus theme that it was decorated in, before approaching the front desk, where a grey skinned woman sat, who eyed her dark purple wings suspiciously.
“Welcome to the Hazbin hotel, checking in?” She asked Pearl, in a neutral tone.
“No, I would like to speak with Charlie, privately please.” Pearl said, feeling a tiny bit intimidated by the shorter woman.
“Why? What business do you have with her?”
“I…uh, I don't think that's any of your business, …respectfully.” Pearl said, taking a small step back.
Just then Charlie entered the lobby and walked over to them, an excited expression on her face.
"Oh my gosh, are you checking in? Because I can promise that it's the right decision and you won't regret it." She said, in an upbeat tone that sounded a little bit forced to Pearl.
Pearl shook her head and was about to speak but the woman at the front desk spoke up first.
"No, she wants to talk to you privately but she refuses to tell me why, which I think is kinda suspicious."
Charlie looked at Pearl again and her face softened as she noticed her nervousness.
"It's fine Vaggi, we can talk in my office, alright."
Charlie said, gesturing towards a room off the lobby and Pearl followed her into the small room, and sat down in one of the armchairs as Charlie shut the door and sat down behind the desk.
"So, how can I help you….oh, I don't think I caught your name." Charlie said, smiling at her.
"It's Pearl, and I….uh, have some news that I'm sure that's going to be a little shocking to you." Pearl answered and just slid the contract across the desk.
Charlie picked up the contract and Pearl watched as her face changed as she read it, after she finished it she set it back on the desk and kept glancing between it and Pearl, trying to find the right words to say.
"Wow that's just…wow, definitely wasn't I expected to happen today, uh so Pearl, how old are you?" Charlie asked, looking her over again and thinking she couldn't be older than 16, and noticing that she did kinda look like Lilith.
"I'm 24."
"Oh, well ….if it's okay with you, may I ask you a few questions? It's totally fine if not." Charlie asked, trying to hide her shock.
"Uh, yeah, it's fine. It'd probably be weird if I didn't let you ask a few questions." Pearl said, having already anticipated this.
"Ok, thank you. So uh…where do you live?"
"I live just outside of cannibal town, where more of the hell-borns live."
"Mhm, that makes sense, do you know where my mom is ?" Charlie asked, hoping she could finally get an answer on this mystery that's been a constant in her mind for over 7 years.
"No, I've never met Lilith."
"Oh, well that's okay. So the woman that raised you, Kendra? Where is she? Could I maybe talk with her?" Charlie asked, keeping her smile up despite the disappointment in her eyes.
"She's dead." Pearl said blunty, wanting to get over this part of their conversation as quickly as possible.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. When did you find all of this out?" Charlie asked, quickly trying to change the subject after seeing Pearl tense up at the question.
"6 months ago, I found the paper in my mom's things."
"What made you decide to reach out now?" Charlie said, curious about why she waited that long.
Pearl hesitated for a moment before answering. "I was maybe hoping that I could have a relationship with you? I don't really have anyone in my life and thought it would be nice?" Pearl said softly, staring at the desk while she fidgeted with her bracelet, feeling a bit uncomfortable with being this vulnerable.
Charlie had to really resist tearing up hearing Pearl say that, and she smiled at Pearl, it being more genuine this time.
"I would love to have you in my life and get to know you more Pearl, and if you want you can even come live here." Charlie offered, hoping she'd say yes.
"I don't know about that, I'll think about it?" Pearl said, looking back up at Charlie. "Do you allow pets here? Because I have a cat and a tarantula."
"We do allow pets, our current resident, Angel has a little pig, and I have my own cat keekee." Charlie said, pulling out her phone and showing Pearl a photo of keekee and fat nuggets laying together in the couch.
"Aww, they're really cute, here's my cat Cynthia, and my spider Abigail." Pearl said, pulling out her own phone to show Charlie some photos.
"Adorable." Charlie said, looking at the photos.
"I think I'm going to go now, if that's alright? I'll get back to you soon on about me staying here, okay?" Pearl said, standing up, at her limit for how much social interaction she could have.
"Of course, it was really nice meeting you Pearl, and I hope I get to know you more, and here's my phone number, just in case you want to message me." Charlie said, also standing up and handing her a business card.
Pearl nodded and slipped the business card into her purse and waved her hand, opening a portal back to her house, causing Charlie to gasp.
"Wow, that's impressive, I don't even have that ability." Charlie said, staring at the portal.
"Ok….bye." Pearl said, not sure what else to say, and stepped through the portal and it disappeared.
Charlie just sat back in her desk chair, trying to process everything, and realized that she forgot to ask about who Pearl's father was, she didn't think it was Lucifer, but she couldn't be sure.
After a few minutes Vaggi poked her head into the office and glanced around, a bit surprised to see that just Charlie was there.
"What happened with the girl?" She asked, going over to Charlie and sitting on the desk directly in front of Charlie.
"Well, apparently her name is Pearl and she's my sister." Charlie said, the shock noticable in her voice.
"And you're sure she actually is? How do you know she's not lying or something? She could be trying to get close to you for something." Vaggi said, skeptical about this. "Like did you see her wings, they look more like angel wings than demon wings, minus the coloring."
"I'm sure Vaggi, look." Charlie said, handing her the contract that had her Mom's official signature and seal.
"Well I still think she was acting kind of suspicious."
"Actually I think she was just nervous, when I asked her why she reached out she said she wanted to have a relationship with me and that she didn't have anyone else, and she sounded so sad when she said it Vaggi, I almost cried."
"Alright, I'll take your word for it babe." Vaggi said, dropping it for now, but was still going to keep an eye on her if she came back.
"Oh, I need to call Briar, they're going to want to know all about this." Charlie said, grabbing her phone and dialing their number, and was met with a voicemail.
"And they're probably somewhere where he doesn't have service." Charlie said, smiling at the thought of her sibling in some canyon in wrath, painting.
"You think your dad knows about her?" Vaggi asked.
"I don't think so, and I don't think he's her father, but I can't be sure." Charlie said, thinking about how she would have to explain this to him if Pearl decided to stay at the hotel.
"Well I hope things go well with her." Vaggi said, trying to be supportive because she could tell that this meant a lot to Charlie.
…………………………………………………..………………….
Once Pearl got home she immediately went and changed into a clean hoodie and pajama pants and settled on the couch with Cynthia, mentally going over her entire conversation with Charlie.
It had gone a lot better than she had thought it would though she hadn't expected Charlie to offer for her to stay in the hotel that quickly.
She was pretty sure that she was going to accept her offer, though it would be a bit of a difficult change being around people a lot more, it probably would be a positive one in the long term.
While Pearl loved the house she had grown up in, all the memories attached to it were almost painful to recall, and a fresh start is probably the best thing for her.
She'd text Charlie about her decision later, not wanting to text her too quickly after their conversation, and she began making a mental list of what things she would take with her to the hotel and what she would keep here.
………………………………………………………………………
By the end of the week Pearl was all moved into the hotel, she had only taken the things she deemed as necessities, clothes, her favorite mug, her animals and their stuff, her heating pad, her work laptop, noise cancelling headphones, and 1/3 of her book collection that took up most of the room.
All the books that weren't on the small bookshelf were set on the armchair, and the dresser, and one side of her bed, and in boxes under her bed.
Pearl had gotten a room on the third floor, she hoped a first floor one would be available but unfortunately there wasn't, which just meant she'd have to make sure to lock her door when she slept so she wouldn't sleepwalk out of her room and fall down the stairs.
She had just gotten the last bit of her stuff put away when Charlie knocked on the door and walked in, glancing around the room, a little surprised by the amount of books.
"Wow, that's a lot of books, but I like how you decorated, those colors definitely go good together." Charlie said, looking at Pearl's dusty purple and pale pink bedspread.
"I have more books that I didn't bring with me." Pearl said dryly, trying to figure out if Charlie wanted something or just wanted to make small talk.
"Well we have a library here if you're interested, nobody really uses at the moment though."
"I'll probably check it out at some point, I'm always looking for more books to read."
Charlie nodded and sat down on Pearl's bed petting Cynthia, which Pearl didn't really like but she wasn't about to tell Charlie that she couldn't sit on her bed just because it bothered her for no apparent reason.
"So I was wondering if I could maybe ask you some more questions? It's totally okay if you don't want to though." Charlie asked, just genuinely curious about what Pearl's life had been like.
"Yeah, go ahead." Pearl answered, pushing some of the books aside and sitting on the other side of the bed and Cynthia immediately jumped into her lap.
"Well, I just want to get this one out of the way, but do you know who your father is?" Charlie asked awkwardly, clasping her hand together as she waited for Pearl to answer.
"No." Pearl said, looking at Cynthia as she let her and felt her purr. "It's possible that Lucifer could be my father, but I would think it would have said so in the contract if that were the case.
"Yeah that makes sense." Charlie said, thinking of how to tell him about this because she still hadn't yet. "So what kinds of things do you like to do?"
"I like to read, obviously, but I also like to watch animal documentaries, especially ones about earth animals, and I spend a decent portion of my time coding for my job." Pearl said, pausing for a second to think. "I also like doing latte art but I don't do it often because it's a bit of an expensive hobby."
"That sounds cool, you'll have to show me sometimes." Charlie said, sounding interested in it. "Okay, last question, I promise. Is there anything I can do for you? Like is there anything you need?
Pearl just shook her head, nothing coming to mind that Charlie would actually be able to help with.
"Alright then, I'll leave you be to get settled in." Charlie said getting up off the bed and exiting the room.
Pearl watched her leave, and laid back on her bed as the door closed , she was completely exhausted from moving in and she might have over done it because her wrist was starting to ache, but she just pulled on her compression gloves again, not thinking she could deal with the sensory feeling of the heating pad on her arm.
She unintentionally fell asleep shortly after and woke up much later, around 1 on the morning, she was mostly rested so she just got up and adjusted her hair before exiting her room and heading downstairs.
She glanced around the lobby and saw that no was there which she expected given the time, and she quietly walked into the kitchen and made herself a bowl of cereal and sat on the counter eating it.
She had only been sitting there for a few minutes when the light flicked on and Lucifer walked into the kitchen, wearing a pinkish red robe, and his hair in curlers, which was definitely an interesting first impression for Pearl to have of the devil.
Lucifer didn't seem to notice her as he walked over to the fridge and pulled out a container of pancakes and stuck them in the microwave, which Pearl thought was gross because reheated pancakes were always so crumbly.
He only noticed her when he went to get syrup from the cabinet she was sitting in front of and they both just stared at each other for a moment before Pearl grabbed the syrup and handed it to him.
"Thanks, uh Perri?" Lucifer said, drowning his pancakes in syrup.
Pearl nodded, not bothered that he got her name wrong, and went back to eating her cereal.
Lucifer sat at the table with his pancakes but didn't start eating yet, and he looked back at Pearl with a look that was kinda sad as he took in how much she looked like Lilith.
"So Perri, Charlie told me about your uh, situation, and I just want to say that I don't hate you or anything, cause like normally you'd expect the guy to not like his wife's secret child, or whatever." Lucifer said awkwardly, though he didn't know how to feel about the situation he knew that how any of this happened, it wasn't Pearl's fault, and he wasn't going to treat her like it was.
Pearl nodded again, understanding what he was trying to say, and was about to say something when Lucifer spoke again.
"So you couldn't sleep either? I get that, can't remember the last time I slept a full night through." Lucifer said, starting to eat his pancakes.
"Yeah, I have insomnia, and I sleepwalk, so that's a great combination to have, I'm lucky to get three hour of sleep at night when I want to sleep." Pearl Replied, finishing her cereal and setting the bowl next to her.
"So, you got any plans for today?" Lucifer asked, just trying to keep the conversation going.
"I'll probably work for awhile on my current coding project, maybe take a nap, and then read." Pearl said, planning to do the same things that she always did.
"That sounds…fun, anyways, it was nice talking with you penny, but I'm probably gonna head back to bed." Lucifer said, getting and putting his plate in the sink before walking out of the kitchen.
Pearl put her own dishes in the sink and got a cup of coffee before heading back to her room where she booted up her laptop and got to work on coding.
As she worked she thought about her conversation with Lucifer, he certainly wasn't what she thought he'd be like, but then again she didn't really have any prior expectations of him.
Pearl hoped that she'd be able to have a good relationship with Charlie and maybe Lucifer, but wasn't sure how long it would be able to go on if they saw how weird and mentally unwell she was.
It had been a long time since Pearl have had people in her life like this and she wasn't sure she fully knew how to act around people anymore, but she was trying to stay optimistic about it.
She finally reached a stopping point in her project around 7 am, and was more than ready for a nap, so she put her laptop away and laid back down, Cynthia curled up next to her, though Pearl had her doubts, she was mostly hopeful about the future.