"After an arduous adventure that has left your party battered and bruised, but significantly richer with fat pockets from a successful adventure, it has been decided that the best place to spend that coin is on ale a good meal and the company of a woman or man, maybe both if you're feeling a bit cheeky, at the Blooming Rose. The bard, Lucky Nimbledigit, riffs on their instrument when—" Charlie pauses and looks up at the table, "Sam, role for perception."

Sam grins, his halo above his head twinkling as he picks up a dice and throws it, the table holds their breath as the dice comes to a stop, and they all look at the number. "Nine!"

A smirk crosses Charlie's face, "When you hear a scream from outside the brothel. It's an awful sound, metal grinding on stone as the screaming gets louder. It stops suddenly and an uneasy silence fills the brothel for a moment, but when nothing happens after a few seconds the music and the drinks start flowing again as the painted glass windows slowly start to fog up. Players, roll for initiative," Charlie throws in, watching as the players around the table do just that.

"The door to the Blooming Rose is kicked in, and a rather large hooded man, walks into the brothel as some of the members of your party are still drunkenly singing, or following around the little elf with the tight ass, though there are some members of your party who have managed to grab their weapons and are at the ready. It's clear from the tension that is filling the room that something is about to go down. The man reaches into his long cloak to pull out a Wanted Poster." Charlie could see that they were invested and she smiles and sits back. "What trouble has our party gotten into this time? And what will happen next, we'll find out in our next session."

"Are you serious?" A devil yells, "Come on! You can't leave us on a cliffhanger like that!"

Charlie chuckles as she looks over at Artie, "I wish I could, but I have to close up. We're already two hours after closing, but I've got some leftover space cakes, how about I pack some up for the road. I've got to clean up and start preparing for tomorrow." Charlie reminds them, adjusting her shades. This seems to calm them down.

"I mean the least you could do is give us some free stuff," Artie decides after a moment, huffing. They had spent nearly 300 dollars each on snacks, weed, and copious drinks, over the course of the evening.

Charlie rolled her eyes under her glasses but since no one could see her eyes, she simply stands and stretches and heads back to the bar area, so she can ring up the groups order, that was 1500 dollars for a few hours work, and she needed to clean and set up so the morning staff could finish the baking the edibles, and the baked goods. The dnd dice edible gummies were one of their more popular items, and they were always sold out and to make them required her to constantly be setting up for the morning staff, so that they could finish baking both the edibles and non-edibles and get them ready for the morning rush. Special molds had needed to bought, and she wondered if she start a double batch or if they should simply wait, at least quite a bit of the process was automated, back when the shop had first opened up they had needed to make the dice by hand and they had needed to put a discount on all the deformed dice.

Still she opens up the large case and pulls out the tray and grabs some paper bags with the company's logo on it, placing a sizable space cake in each of the bags before grabbing a stapler and stapling them closed so there weren't any accidents, before heading to the cashier as the guys line up. "I'll be seeing you guys in two weeks," Charlie says as they all pay for their session and head out the cafe, it was already night time and she stretches and starts to clean, she had lost track of Bacon Bit earlier, but he was probably up in the reading nook sleeping on his favorite bean bag chair. He was getting up there in age, despite his rather youthful appearance.

He'd come when she called him so she wasn't that worried about it, and she hums and grabs some rags, and a tray so she could go and clean up the booth that they had used on the upper floor, checking the other private booth areas to make sure she didn't need to go in and get them clean as well. Once she's certain that the rooms are already clean, she grabs the empty plates and glasses and places them on her tray and checks to see if she needs to grab the shop-vac so she can clean up the space.

She frowns slightly as she wipes down the table, she was pretty sure the shop-vac up on this floor was on its last legs, and no amount of drawn on googly eyes was going to help it. High people were crumb monsters especially when they had the munchies. She sighs, she'd have to lug up the other one from downstairs, she would need to—

A short yip from Bacon-bit drags Charlie out of her thoughts and she exits the room to take a look at what had gotten him so excited, and she spots him making a beeline towards the entrance and she immediately sighs. Maybe Sam had forgotten something again, he'd left his keys last time. She groans and heads down the stairs, planning to tease him when she realizes the figure in the window is much smaller than Sam's frame, she immediately and quickly heads down, hoping that it's not someone in trouble. This area was usually fine but occasionally there were issues. She unlocks the door and opens the door a crack, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, my name is Rachel Berry and I work for Faustian publishing. I just started and my boss called me and demanded that I bring her some coffee. I tried to call but the phone said that you were closed. I tried to get her order at Belzebean, but she—"

"Spicy triple espresso oat latte, with a salted caramel drizzle?" Charlie questions, raising a brow.

Rachel's eyes widened, "She already called? Oh no, this is my first job after university and she's going to fire me!"

Charlie shook her head, "She's not going to fire you Rachel, this is probably just a test to see if you're competent. Unfortunately the espresso machine has been cleaned and I don't feel like cleaning it again tonight, it's a process, and it probably is to late for her to be having her usual, so I'll make you a triple iced cold brew with a dash of oat milk, and I will add a caramel drizzle, and if she complains you tell her that the Wingless Wonder refused to do any extra work and flirted with you relentlessly. She'll get angry at me instead of you."

Rachel blinks, finally noticing that Charlie doesn't have a set of small wings to match the halo, all angels had wings, it was unheard of that wasn't the case. "Were you in an accident—and that is completely inappropriate to ask when we don't know each other."

Charlie doesn't answer the asked question and instead moves behind the bar and checks to see if they have any iced coffee or if she'd have to make a fresh batch, but she finds some and quickly prepares the drink. "Here you go that will be—"

"Do you think if I get her some baked goods that will earn me, pardon the pun, brownie points?" Rachel asks, pointing to the space cake that is still out on the counter.

"These will certainly earn you something, but I don't believe that drugging your boss would help leave a good impression."

"Drugs?" Rachel practically squeaks.

"You're a devil and you don't know what drugs are?"

"That's racist, devils aren't all drug dealers or prostitutes or—bad people we're a functioning part of this society! And what's an angel doing selling drugs?"

"This is a coffee shop," Charlie points to the board that has some corny names for their high specials and a marijuana flower drawn on it. "Some of the baked goods are for edibles, such as the space cakes, and unfortunately we don't have any non-edible baked goods left, and won't until morning."

Rachel flushes, it was odd that an angel was so open about simply using drugs, and the tattoos, every angel that she had ever met and most of them were pretty straight-laced, like her fathers, but there was an air of—it wasn't quite danger, perhaps mystery? "Well I hope she won't be disappointed."

"Your boss has never once touched a baked good from this store, I doubt very much that she'll mind, and next time you have to work late—" Charlie grabs a pen and scrawls her personal number on the phone and flashes Rachel a smile, "—just give me a call, I'll deliver."

A blush hits Rachel's cheeks and spreads, and she swallows and nods, "I'll certainly do that."

"And here," Charlie said, placing the last of the space cake into a bag and stapling it up for Rachel, "I know they're delicious but as a beginner you really shouldn't gobble up the entire thing. Start with a bite, and I promise you that in thirty minutes or so you'll be flying."

Rachel glances at the bag, her fathers had always told her to say no to drugs, but she was curious and the Wingless Wonder seemed nice enough, she had let her in and made her a cup of coffee even if it wasn't what Santana had demanded when she had been woken up, still if Santana complained she would simply hand over the angel's number and let her yell at her. "Thank you so much, how much do I owe you?"

"It's on the house," Charlie said with a shrug. She didn't really want to deal with the cashier and just wanted to finish cleaning so she went home and worked on some things before going to sleep and doing this again tomorrow.

"I can't just—thank you," Rachel flushes and grabs both before taking off and stopping to wave at Charlie who waves back.

There's a whine and Charlie glances over at Bacon-bit who is still laying there, "Maybe next time she'll come and pet you."

He huffs at this and Charlie lets out a laugh and leaves the counter so she can give him the attention and the pets that he craves, and gives him a rub down as he rolls over exposing his stomach for the belly scratches.

~ O ~

"A heart attack, it was so sudden," Maribel Lopez said as she reached to touch her daughter's hand, attempting to comfort her.

"I know she was old, but she always seemed so healthy."

"Mija, dear, these things can just happen when you get old," Maribel replied.

"I'm still alive! Will you stop with this telenovela drama! Where is my son?"

Maribel rolled her eyes, "Alma please, can't you see how hurt Santana is? She stayed up all night, she even had her assistant bring her some coffee, and she only just went home to shower and get ready for work. As for Miguel, he works here, and has checked on you several times. He is very worried about your health and you know he's going to insist on taking care of it personally."

Alma glanced over at her granddaughter, and her lips curled downwards, a look of disgust on her features, "Work? Dressed like that? She looks like a cheap whore!"

Santana flushes and glances down at herself nervously, as she buttons a few of her buttons to hide what little cleavage she had been showing."This is from the latest Hades collection! It's high fashion," she insists. "Besides, you really shouldn't be getting all worked up, it's not good for your heart."

Alma scoffs at this, "I'm fine."

"You are not fine." Miguel said as he entered the room, "You had a massive heart attack, the doctors needed to do a quadruple bypass mami. I told you that you needed to take better care of yourself, I also told you that you needed to stop getting so stressed out!"

"You stuck me in that nasty seniors home, where all they do is have sex!"

Miguel sighed and looked at Maribel who immediately shook her head, she wasn't coming back to live with them. "Mami, we've downsized since Santana moved into her own place, and there simply isn't any room in the apartment for you and we're both too busy to take care of you—"

"If you're going to treat me like a burden—after I raised you!"

Santana sighed, if her abuela was yelling at her son, then she was probably fine, "I have to get to work, there's a big meeting and the CEO wants me there, she won't accept me not showing up."

"You work too hard mija," Maribel said immediately. A boss that wouldn't even allow an employee some time off to visit a sick and old relative? Especially since Santana had never once taken any time off before.

"Our best seller is turning into a limited series, and we've got meetings all day." Santana explains, it really was a busy time for her and she couldn't afford to miss a single day of work while it was being down. She gets up and shuffles over to her abuela's hospital bed and leans down to give her a quick kiss on the temple, only to feel her grandmother hand buttoning up her shirt till it was at her neck.

"You always wear things that are sinfully low, and given your advancing age you're getting close to spinster years, if only you had married—"

"Alma." Maribel snapped at her mother-in-law.

Santana flinched but didn't pull back, as her grandmother continued as if she hadn't heard Maribel's rebuke, "That lovely young man you left at the altar. He had class, a future, and you could have quit working. You were a fool to leave him! You could have been happy right now, you'd have children instead you're simply alone!"

"That's enough mami," Miguel said when his wife looked at him to try and reign in his mother. "You need to relax."

Pulling away Santana turned around and immediately pulled back, her abuela hadn't known him. She hadn't known him either, and looking back at it, the entire relationship had done a number on her psyche. He had wanted to get close to her mother, because she was currently the District Attorney and she'd been too foolish to see through it; he had always compared the two of them, making her feel so small. Still she slaps a smile onto her features and smiles at her parents, "I really need to get to work, don't worry I'll grab a taxi."

~ O ~

Charlie yawned as she waved at the security desk, her hands filled with coffee and baked goods as she carried in the order that she had gotten this morning. Still the moment she had wandered into the cafe she had been told to go and drop off a massive order of coffee and donuts that she was currently holding in two massive thermal bags. She steps onto the elevator and leans back, she should probably think about—

"Hold the elevator!"

A smile crosses Charlie's face as Santana slides into the elevator before the door closes. "Miss Lopez!"

Santana froze and turned to glare at the Wingless Wonder for a moment, she wasn't truly in the mood to go after this morning. "I don't appreciate you changing my order last night."

"You're lucky I was there to make you anything at all. You really shouldn't bully your assistants like and get them up in the middle of the night to get you coffee. People should have a good work life balance."

Santana narrowed her eyes, "No one asked you."

Charlie hummed and opened one of her thermal bags and found Santana's order and offered it to her, "I put some extra caramel for a bit of energy for you."

Santana grunted, even as she grabbed the drink and took a sip enjoying the warmth that it brought her, "The least you could do is not go and bother my colleagues, it's completely unprofessional."

"I bring a bit of joy when I visit, sometimes you just need to take the time and smell the coffee. And I get to see you, that's why I do it. Plus everyone thinks I'm adorable!"

"You're not, you're even less so without the dog," Santana retorts, she could have used a quick pet.

"It's a bit early for Bacon-bit to be out. He's currently the store's mascot and this early in the morning, he's busy bringing people joy at the shop. Truthfully he's a bit of an attention whore."

"I heard dogs take after their owners." Santana mutters as the door slides open, "The CEO is here and if they see you they might lose it and I might get in trouble, so do your job and leave."

"Yes ma'am," Charlie replies with a mock salute.

Santana narrowed her eyes for a moment before shaking it and heading to the board room. She was already running late, but there was nothing she could do as she slipped into the boardroom, wincing as she spotted Sue Sylvester, the head devil in charge.

"I was just commenting that I expected you to be the first one to arrive," Sue said, turning to look at Santana who immediately shrinks back under her gaze.

"Apologies, I had a family emergency," Santana said, sipping on her coffee as she quickly found a seat, sliding down her chair a bit to avoid being under Sue's wrathful gaze.

Sue hummed in annoyance before she turned to the massive screen in the room and pushed a button turning it on, "As you know tonight after months of negotiations we are on the cusp of a deal for the limited series Infernal Touch. You all know how much this means for Faustian Press! But as you know, until the ink dries on the contract the deal isn't complete!"

Santana bites her lip to keep herself from making an utter look of disgust at the face of her ex-fiancé, Jesse. St. James, it took all her willpower to try not throw her coffee at the television. With that smug headshot of his, and that stupid halo and his stupid ugly hair. He had taken everything from her, including the book that she had written, Infernal Touch was the novel that she had written about her life, and what she had wanted. But she could already imagine what her abuela would say if she learned that her only granddaughter was writing such filth. It would probably kill her. So when he had suggested being the face of the book, she had thought that it was a good idea, but the accolades that he had received stung, they should have been hers.

"Jesse St. James, the book's author will obviously be involved. I'm sure he'll do everything he can to make sure that he gets the biggest slice of the pie. But to be honest, our biggest problem isn't St. James. It's Quinton Fabray of Purgatory Pictures."

A handsome demon appears on the screen, and Santana raises a brow as Kitty sits forward and she even spots Rachel's eyes widening at how handsome he was, with his startling purple eyes that had a shimmering green tint to them, it was a rare eye color but they stood out. His horns were curved and rather large and unlike Jesse St. James who was smooth faced, he had a perfectly manicured beard.

"Well he certainly is handsome, what I wouldn't do to climb that tree," Kitty sighed.

"He is certainly one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen," Rachel agreed.

Santana made a face, that was certainly true, there was something about him that seemed eerily familiar but she couldn't quite put her finger on—

Sue slammed a hand against the elegant conference table, "Enough! This could put Faustian Press on the map, and you two will be kind, and accommodating to our guests."

Kitty grinned, "I had no idea you were so bold!"

Sue rolled her eyes, of course the succubus's mind would go that way. "Not like that, I need you Kitty and you Santana to be sharp and brilliant. This shouldn't be another boring business meeting, yes I want elegance and formality but it needs to be friendly. I know you're capable of it Kitty but you Santana—"

Santana swallowed, she hadn't truly wanted to be in the same room with her damn ex-fiancé but if that was what Sue wanted then she would have no choice, "I just—"

"You are the reason that we've even made it this far Santana, and I know that you feel anxious but you need to be more confident. Tonight you're not just any low-level devil, you're going to be a rockstar! Do you understand a dragon!"

"S-sure," Santana mumbled as people gave her some encouraging applause, this was going to be an utter disaster. No one knew how to get under her skin in the worst way possible than Jesse.