Chapter Text
“Dad?”
It’s kind of crazy how a singular three letter word can make you stop dead in your tracks. King of hell he might be, but the careful and frightened voice of his daughter will never fail to freeze him. Sure, it could be considered a bit of a coward move, but he can't convince himself to care. There are situations where being afraid to move your body even a fraction is justifiable. Like this one, for example.
“What-“ Charlie takes a brief pause as she properly inspects the situation in front of her, “Is Alastor on top of you?”
Oh, this is horrifying. This is abysmal. He’s experienced being banished from heaven but this, right here, is somehow worse. It leaves him with the same pit in his stomach, like he’s sinking into places he can’t come out of. If Lucifer had the power to make the universe stop existing he would’ve definitely used it by now. Because here he is, caught lying underneath the radio demon, shirtless. He makes the mistake of ripping his eyes away from Charlie, who seems to still be having trouble fully understanding what she’s seeing, to glance up at the radio demon for help. Alastor has a flush on his face that perfectly matches the color of his tacky red hair. He seems to be unaware of how the position they’re in right now looks suspicious, grin looking even wider than normal. Yellow teeth shine painfully bright against Lucifer’s eyes, who takes a deep, deep sigh of repulsion, regret, and exhaustion.
“What are you doing... inside his room?” Charlie asks after an unbearably long silence, shifting her eyes uncomfortably between the two.
Alastor, who hadn't even spared Charlie a glance since she walked in, snaps his neck towards her impatiently, “leave.”
Lucifer would tell him off for being rude if he wasn’t having trouble forming words. Is he having a panic attack? This feels like a panic attack. The breath that comes out of his mouth is short and he's having trouble filling air into his lungs. His mouth opens and closes but no noise ever leaves his lips. Charlie looks simultaneously offended and confused at Alastor’s tone, her eyebrows raised so high they’re nearly touching her hairline.
“Um-“
“Your father and I are busy in our current affairs,” Alastor tightens his grip on the side of Lucifer’s arm and draws him closer, sinking his nails into his skin so hard that Lucifer has to bite down his tongue to not wince loudly, “If you wish to talk to him, you can do so later.”
It’s mostly true. They’re certainly doing something Lucifer really doesn’t want Charlie to be present for. Calling it an affair is a little bit of a stretch in his opinion. It’s more of like if someone saw his worst nightmares and made them a reality.
“Hold on,” Charlie frowns, “what affairs would involve my dad taking his shirt off? What are you guys even doing?”
Another painstakingly long silence follows her words and Lucifer has the urge to bite the edge of his already short nails. He's refusing to look in Charlie's direction at all, making it clear he won't be answering the question and will instead be waiting for the radio demon to do all the explaining.
“Well, if you really must know,” Alastor’s left eye twitches and his smile looks more strained, like he’s annoyed. His voice remains forcefully optimistic as he continues, "I'm going to-“
“Okay!” Lucifer finally finds the strength to speak, loudly interrupting Alastor’s sentence before he reveals something to his daughter that he would rather she didn’t know, “Charlie could you please leave the room?”
There’s a sudden understanding reflecting in Charlie’s now widened eyes, something that looks like it could haunt her for years. It's like if someone sucked all the soul out of her, well, soul. The frown that's already on her face deepens, as if it'll be there for a long time. She immediately turns back around and Lucifer notices the wobble in her legs like she’s struggling not to lose her balance. The door slams loudly behind her and there’s a long silence. Alastor meets Lucifer’s eyes again and trails a finger up his arm.
A chill goes down his spine as Alastor wastes no time in sinking his putrid yellow teeth deep into his porcelain skin.
A ragged breath spills out of his mouth and he feels himself being tugged closer towards the other. They lay chest to chest, hearts beating in sync with each other. Alastor isn’t looking at Lucifer anymore, too enthralled with devouring his left arm like it’s his last meal. Pain makes Lucifer’s head dizzy, but he still sees the glazed look in the other’s eye and it makes him feel even more disturbed. He can feel the smile on Alastor’s lips, as he rips deeper and deeper into Lucifer’s flesh.
It stops after a while, but it’s hard to tell for sure how long it’s been. Hours seem to have passed but realistically it could have only been a few minutes. Alastor’s face is still buried into Lucifer’s arm, licking clean any blood that could’ve spilled out of the wound. The texture of his tongue grazing at Lucifer’s flesh makes his teeth clamp with discomfort. And something else he can’t quite describe. Loud static starts to fill the air to the point that it numbs Lucifer’s ears. Alastor mouth makes a soft whine where it’s still pressed against his arm, which is when Lucifer decides that it’s definitely time to put this whole thing to a stop.
There’s a loud snap as Lucifer uses his magic to push Alastor back, the static that was previously there gone completely. He sits up against the headboard, cautioning a look towards his arm, which looks like it’s been mauled by a rabid animal. In some ways, it has. His skin is even paler than before because of the blood loss and his mind is reeling as it tries to focus on the irritating demon in front of him.
Alastor has fallen onto the floor and he looks, well, not entirely great. His eyes are unfocused and there’s drool lapping in the corner of his mouth. He’s making no motions to get up and seems content to just stare at Lucifer, panting slightly.
It’s an insane sight, to see someone usually so well put together become so undone.
“Taste that good?” Lucifer asks, raising an eyebrow.
He’s actually quite curious. Blood has no appeal towards him, so to see it affect someone else to such a degree… it’s interesting. Like an experiment if you will. He wonders if his blood tastes better or worse than an average angel's. Surely the flesh of a fallen angel would be worse tasting, right? But seeing Alastor now, looking like he’s just had his first decent meal in weeks, makes Lucifer doubt that idea. Alastor doesn’t reply to his question and instead makes a truly undignified noise, like he’s trying to say words but can’t seem to vocalize them. His hands pull at his own eye-bleeding red hair and he closes his eyes, beginning to rock his body back and forth.
The sight of it makes Lucifer feel like he’s intruding on something, so he slips out of the bed and leaves the room hastily.
He conjures up his shirt on the way downstairs to the foyer of the hotel, where he hopes to find Charlie so he can apologize to her about finding him in that unfortunate position. She really wasn’t meant to see all that, and shouldn’t have in the first place if she knocked on the door instead of barging in. How is Lucifer meant to explain to her that he was letting Alastor drink some of his blood because he simply asked nicely? It’s embarrassing.
The king of hell, one of the most powerful beings in the world, allowing a lowly demon overlord to have a taste of his flesh. It wasn’t even supposed to happen, Alastor had just corned him in the kitchen late at night where Lucifer was attempting to pick up baking and asked so politely if he could have a bite of his body. His eyes downturned and a pleading smile atop his face, like he was asking to borrow something as simple as a pen.
Lucifer had uttered yes before his brain caught up with his mouth and the radio demon had beamed down at him, looking so pleased to have gotten his way.
The worst part is he doesn’t even regret it.
There was just something so alluring about seeing Alastor break down in such a way. Maybe because of the sort of rivalry the two had over Charlie. It was like he’d won, having Alastor kneel on his own floor, him being the one to look up at Lucifer for a change. He shakes his head clear of those thoughts as he descends the stairs, straightening his coat along the way. He stops in his steps when he looks up to see quite literally everyone on the couches, frowning as they watch him come closer.
“What’s… up gang?” Lucifer asks with visible hesitation.
No one replies.
Everyone looks quite displeased actually. Charlie avoids Lucifer’s eyes, deliberately glancing at the floor as if it’s suddenly caught her interest. Vaggie scratches her neck and also looks towards the floor, feigning interest that clearly doesn't exist. The spider, who Lucifer thinks is named Angel Dust, is the only one who doesn’t look uncomfortable. He’s just looking at Lucifer with wide eyes, like he’s trying to calculate something that doesn’t make sense inside his brain. The bartender is staring at Lucifer absolutely scandalized and possibly upset, brows furrowed hard. Even the weird tiny one eyed maid creature is squinting her eyes and wrinkling her nose.
It's a really weird atmosphere.
It confuses Lucifer, to some extent, why the occupants of the Hazbin Hotel who are normally so talkative and friendly with each other are now sitting in uncomfortable silence. He doesn't even like the usual hustle and noise of the Hotel but he's craving for it to come back to make everything a little less awkward. Did Charlie tell them about Lucifer allowing Alastor to bite a chunk out of his arm? It doesn't sound like something she would do. Though, self admittedly, he wouldn't really know much about what Charlie would and wouldn't do. He's kind of a shit dad.
Regardless, even if they knew of what had happened, wouldn’t they be bombarding him with questions? They wouldn’t be sitting in some sort of weird silence, like they’d all collectively seen a ghost. Did something else happen? Something entirely unrelated to him? It was just all so confusing.
Eventually Lucifer’s internal pondering is interrupted with someone descending down the stairs behind him.
He doesn’t have to turn around to know who it is because of the radio static that fills the air quietly. It has a screechy quality that makes Lucifer’s hair stand on end.
Unlike when he had entered the space, where everyone had watched him approach, they all look away this time. Lucifer doesn’t blame them. But usually this isn’t the case. Usually no one is really all that afraid of the radio demon, except for maybe the bartender who always seems to shake slightly whenever Alastor comes too close.
The radio demon walks past Lucifer nonchalantly like it's a normal evening and goes up to the group at large, who are still sitting at the couches avoiding eye contact. His hair is still relatively messy and Lucifer is surprised he hadn't bothered to fix it. Though, this is the same demon who doesn't bother to brush his teeth, so maybe it isn't that much of a surprise. Lucifer thinks the next time he lets Alastor suck his blood he's going to make him fix his teeth beforehand. There has to be a dentist around here somewhere, they all end up in hell.
The silence is stretching longer and longer and Lucifer can't take it anymore. Stillness makes him nervous. He has to break it, he has to say something. What should he say?
"Do you guys ever, uh," He starts talking abruptly, not entirely knowing where he's going with this, "go to the store and it's like- like there's-"
"Dad listen," Charlie interrupts Lucifer quickly before he can continue, "I'm happy for you and Alastor."
"You... are?"
It doesn't make sense to him because he isn't really sure what she's happy about. Is she happy about their arrangement, which consists of him willingly giving the radio demon some of his flesh, or is she happy that he's on better terms with Alastor in general? The wording throws him off a little, because it sounds like something you'd say to congratulate someone on their relationship, but Charlie isn't doing that. She doesn't sound particularly happy either, more like she's wincing with every word she utters.
Lucifer turns towards Alastor for help, who's smiling as he normally does, but in a more beamy way. His hands are folded behind his back and he's looking down at Charlie earnestly, as if gesturing for her to continue. Lucifer shifts on his feet, feeling more confused. He feels out of place, which makes him feel a little anxious.
"Yeah! Yes," His daughter stands up unexpectedly and trudges towards the two of them, keeping a noticeable distance while swinging her arms around in faux excitement, "I mean this is great! great news! You guys, uh, bonding together,"
At the word bonding the spider behind them snorts loudly and then begins coughing even louder, as if trying to cover the laugh but failing badly.
"Though, next time maybe you could," Charlie hesitates, "lock the doors, that would-"
The bartender hits the spider's back lightly, effectively cutting off the obnoxious coughing.
"Like I have, you know I have nothing against it," She laughs lightly, but it sounds overly fake and nervy, "I'm just surprised, but not judging whatsoever."
This actually makes Lucifer feel surprisingly better, to know he didn't totally weird out his daughter. It's nice that she's happy for him. Ever since the battle had occurred they'd been kind of distant with each other, even if Lucifer had started staying in the hotel to try and be less of an absent father. Lilith probably wouldn't approve of him being in such close proximity to Charlie. Though Lilith hasn't been here for the last seven years, so who's the absent parent now?
He misses Lilith.
Her absence is one he's gotten used to, but it still stings to think about. Like pressing on a newly healed wound. Being separated from her feels unfair, even though he knows, he knows that she wanted to leave. They were both tired. He should talk to Charlie about it, but the very thought of discussing his estranged wife with his formerly estranged daughter makes him extremely anxious. He'll leave that conversation for a rainy day.
"Well, I'm glad you think that," Lucifer says after a while, sniffing slightly as he continues because he feels quite emotional at this moment, "after our whole disagreement, I thought it'd be good if me and Alastor were more... properly acquainted."
"Right! right yeah," Charlie smiles encouragingly, nodding her head a little too aggressively, "just be sure to remember that part about the doors being locked as well, so you know-"
"Of course," He waves away her reminder enthusiastically, "sure thing. Won't forget.”
There's still a tinge of awkwardness in the air, but Lucifer's glad that they sorted all that out. Even if it was in front of everyone. The radio demon on the other hand, has been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time, as if waiting to see how everything will play out. His chin is high in the air as he stares down at their interaction, eyes lidded low and smile fixed wide. It's weird, it feels familiar. The way he towers over everyone, especially Lucifer. Such a tall man. So tall. Probably around six feet.
"What a touching moment," The radio demon begins so suddenly that it quite literally makes Lucifer jump beside him, "However, that particular interaction which you walked in on will not be occurring again, so you won't have to worry about such matters any further."
"Oh thank god," Charlie sighs in obvious relief.
"What?"
The thing is, Lucifer isn't even sure why he feels angry. He didn't even like it, or, okay, well, maybe he liked it a little bit. But that was only because of how satisfying it was to see the radio demon in such a state, not because he liked having his skin ripped out. He likes it when his skin stays on his body, not the other way around.
"I don't understand where your confusion comes from, your majesty," Alastor practically spits out the words 'your majesty', smile twitching as he bends his neck to Lucifer's level, "I did only ask for a taste, after all."
"That wasn't just a taste," Lucifer shoots back indignantly, "you practically mauled me." He hears a gasp behind him but he's too focused on the argument to care about it.
"Why are you upset? Do you want it to happen again?" The radio demon asks savagely, "Tell me why would royalty like you want to be humiliated in such a-"
"You think I got humiliated?" He has the urge to laugh, "like you weren't the one on the floor afterwards, unable to form words, writhing like some sort of-"
"I believe you to be mistaken," Alastor looks like he's about to pop a blood vessel, straining his smile like he's having difficulty holding it, "I did no such-"
"Your mouth was drooling even though you were already full of-"
A deafening and anguished scream drowns out the rest of his words, only made nosier mixed with the sounds of disrupted radio. The sheer volume makes Lucifer's eyes snap shut and he covers his ears with his hands. When the noise stops, he opens his eyes slowly and realizes that Alastor has inexplicably disappeared. It sends him rush of delight to make Alastor have to, quite literally, run away from the conversation. Then he remembers the things they both just admitted to doing in front of a large group of people and suddenly he feels like he's about to pass out.
"Full of what?" The weird small one asks after a beat.
"Try to infer from context," The spider frowns, "this was a little too graphic, you guys. Even for me."
"But you're a porn star?" The bartender asks incredulously.
"Yeah but still," He continues, fluffing up the front of his hair and making a face at Lucifer, "get a room, seriously. Talk about humiliation."
Lucifer ignores them and glances at his daughter, who seems to have disassociated herself from the situation. Her girlfriend is brushing her hair and trying to soothe her, shooting glares towards Lucifer. He doesn't really understand why Charlie's that upset, him and the radio demon were just arguing like they normally do. Maybe the implication he wants Alastor to suck more of his blood is what upset her. Even though it's not entirely true.
The best thing to do in this situation is probably to walk away and hope everything turns out okay later. Which is exactly what he ends up doing.