Chapter Text
No, it can't be…
Alastor froze in place near the hotel bar, his eyes fixed on the hotel's entrance. Husk, who noticed his demeanor while drying a tumbler with a washcloth, immediately asked “Hey, boss. Isn't that…”
“Rosie!” A full of excitement Charlie exclaimed and stopped the bartender mid sentence. She almost ran towards the lovely Overlord who by now was standing well inside the hotel's lobby, smiling sweetly at the royal princess. “I'm so glad you are here!” Her voice light and bright as ever, matched with the Overlord's kind and energetic attitude. “I never got to thank you in person for the help you provided us during the last extermination. We wouldn't have succeeded as much as we did without your residents.” Charlie spoke fast and almost squealed at the end of her sentence. To a random bypasser they would look like a fan meeting their favorite celebrity for the first time, but everyone who knew Charlie was not a bit surprised by her giddiness, no matter how dialed up it got at times.
“Do not mention it, darling. Everyone had immense fun that day. The spirits in Cannibal Town were higher than ever thanks to you.” Rosie said with her usual warm smile. She looked like an angel with the way the light from the hotel's entrance was framing her figure, enhancing the effect her white, curve hugging dress and wide white hat supporting an assortment of pink roses had while looking at her. The black lace adorning the hem of her hat and the ruffles at the bottom of her dress only made her platinum silver hair glisten more and her black, pitless eyes seem even more mesmerizing than usual.
When Vaggi approached Charlie's side quietly, Rosie immediately turned her attention towards her. “Oh, that must be the girlfriend!” she said joyfully as she cupped Vaggi’s chin with one hand, her long sharp nails falling gently as a feather on her cheek. “Nice to meet you, dear.”
“N…Nice to meet you, too.” Vaggi almost whispered back, wondering if everyone could see her cheeks getting an even rosier color than the ones the beautiful woman she just met had.
“Absolutely gorgeous.” Rosie continued in a cheerful manner and stroked Vaggi's cheek briefly with her fingers before returning to her previous position.
By now Charlie had moved to the Overlord's side and interlaced her arm with hers, a gesture she assumed Rosie would appreciate since that's how she made her feel welcome when she visited her town for the first time. Vaggi followed suit a second or two behind them as they began walking together towards the reception. The rest of the gang was still sitting at the bar, having a full view of the trio.
“Well, shit, look at her, she's hot!” Angel Dust exclaimed while stretching his back and resting his arms on the counter. A “What?” left Husker’s mouth as he was filling up Alastor's tumbler with his favorite whiskey.
“Oh, come on baby, I'm gay, not blind.”, he purred back at him. “I’m copying her look for my next show, it's so elegant and cunty at the same time.” He turned to face Husk this time around and winked at him suggestively. The poor man almost spilled the Radio Demon’s drink but sighed a sigh of relief when it was firmly placed on the hotel’s coaster as it was supposed to.
She can't be here. Not without telling me.
Alastor remained transfixed on her, remaining in disbelief, as if the white apparition in front of him was merely a ghost of his imagination and not Rosie in the flesh. He took the glass from the coaster and brought it to his lips but his face remained unchanged. Only a very low hum of static emanated from him, one that solely Husk’s sensitive ears picked up.
“Hey, boss.” He leaned over towards Alastor and talked as quietly as possible. “What is she doing here? Isn't your deal no more…”
Alastor's static picked up in intensity and that made everyone turn and stare at him. Husk fell back to his station immediately and got the washcloth on one hand and an already cleaned glass on the other, keeping his head down and pretending to be busy, a routine he followed every time Alastor was in his moods. Hadn't failed him so far.
“Hey, big red guy.” Angel Dust was now almost shouting, swinging one of his crossed legs playfully. “What's your deal with her? Is she your type or something?” He chuckled and rubbed his nipples before Alastor turned his gaze towards him for the very first time as his pupils began to resemble radio dials, his neck elongating, the static becoming annoyingly dense for their ears.
“I… guess not.”, he said as he lifted his hands up in a mock surrender signal. Alastor's pupils returned to his normal bright red color and his neck settled down slowly in its normal state. He brought the glass to his lips again and drank a hefty amount of the stingy liquor with one gulp; his gaze returning to her and his static subsiding but still simmering like a pressure cooker.
She hasn't glanced at me once. I know she heard me, EVERYONE heard me.
His tongue was burning from the whiskey as much as the hidden rage was burning behind his glowing eyes. Ever since they saved all of Pride and their last tit-for-tat deal took place, she hadn't sent an invitation for afterhours tea to her Emporium not even once. And the one time he actually managed to leave the hotel carefree since that imbecile of a fallen angel he was shadowing had a depressive episode and remained locked in his room for the whole day, he strolled down Cannibal Town and when he entered her Emporium she told him she was busy. Busy! She had never been too busy for him all these years. She always greeted him even when her Emporium was full with disgustingly noisy customers. She even opened her doors at inappropriate times for a lady and lent an ear to his frustrations in her private quarters. She may have been his master but above all she was his friend. His one true friend. He thought that now that their deal was in the past, they’d both be freer to have a more honest friendship. One that would be based in even more depth and closeness.
But she's not even looking at him.
He left the glass down with a bang and began walking towards the girls. Rosie had her back turned to him and the other two were either gawking at her or showing her this and that around the hotel. It was impossible by their stance to notice him beforehand, so he approached in a self assured manner. He would be as gallant and charming as ever. But suddenly he stopped in his tracks midway. He… he couldn't be seeing right. There was no way… A pair of white multifeathered wings wrapped around Rosie gently and then two arms hugged her close by the waist.
“My lovely Rosie, how glad am I to see you!” That voice, that infuriating voice belonged to that useless little bitch Charlie called father. Alastor suddenly felt dizzy. Seeing him taking such liberties with her was unacceptable. Preposterous. He was the only person in hell who could touch her waist like that and even he hadn't hugged her so tightly, ever. He had decorum. His heart thumped in his chest and his limbs were becoming hotter than usual. His antlers were beginning to grow, he could feel them, and a low growl was brewing at his larynx.
“It's been a long time, Lucifer.” He heard Rosie saying right before she… she hugged him back! Rosie wasn't one to withhold pleasantries or affections but she never… she never was so casually intimate with just everyone. Alastor's smile was nowhere to be found. His antlers receded, his static crackled like a bonfire right before it flamed out. Frankly, he could hardly breathe.
The wings uncovered her back and now Lucifer's hands were resting nonchalantly at the sides of her waist. “Charlie kept mentioning your name over and over and suddenly I remembered! I haven't seen you in such a long time, it's true my Rosie!”
MY Rosie?!!
“You look as wonderful as ever.”
What?!!
Alastor gripped his staff, plastered his smile all over his face after grinding his teeth and closed the remaining gap fast.
“I see we have esteemed visitors today.” The radio filter laid a bit too thick on his voice.
Everyone turned to look at him, with Charlie and Rosie inadvertently facing him first. He looked into her big, glossy black eyes with forced whimsy, the one he usually had whenever he was around her. But not before catching with the corner of his eye Lucifer's hands withdrawing from her promptly.
Good.
“Alastor, look who's here! It's Rosie!” Charlie, excited as ever, put her hands together and clapped little tiny claps. If he didn't know any better, he'd think that girl was abusing various substances depending on the day and her mood. But no. That was just her personality and he was peculiarly used to it by now.
“You two know each other?” Lucifer crooked an eyebrow in disbelief and judgement.
“Why yes, they're friends, dad!” Charlie interjected. “Alastor introduced me to Rosie, I told you that.”
“Alastor is a friend to our little colony of cannibals, Luci. We share the same… taste.” Rosie said with a deep and warm as honey voice while turning to face him.
Alastor's eye twitched at the utterance of this winged vermin's name in that way from her mouth. He swiftly let his monocle fall, huffed on it and cleaned it on his jacket so no one would notice his resolve crumbling.
“Of course he is.” Lucifer replied with open disdain.
“Don't you have a dark room to go crawl to and die?” Alastor shot back while placing his monocle back at its place.
“Chances are you’ll die way before me Bambi and I'll dance at your funeral.” Lucifer retorted extremely unbothered while letting his wings spread open once again.
“Haha…. Fuck you!” The radio filter thicker than ever, coated his words like a venomous substance.
Lucifer's eyes turned red and his horns appeared on his head but Charlie intervened before Alastor could escalate. She interlaced her dad’s arm with hers on one side and hers with Rosie's on the other and led them towards her dad's room “so they could catch up.”
That's what she said. Catch Up.
Alastor tapped the end of his staff on the lobby’s floor once or twice as he was observing Rosie getting gradually lost from his eyesight and into the hotel's corridors.
He briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hardly noticing he was holding one this whole time. He tried to focus, tried to tap into the radios of the hotel rooms’ and listen to their conversation to no avail. He focused harder. The signal was blocked. It was either that insufferable bird or her.
The staff glitched and suddenly showed a broken red heart on the microphone.
Did she….? Why did she hate him now…?