"We should train." Charlie said one day at breakfast, her face serious as she looked down at her cup of coffee. Everyone present stopped what they were doing to look at her in surprise. "What?" She asked defensibly, fiddling with her napkin to calm her nerves.
"Hum, oookaaay, where the fuck does it comes from?" Asked Angel back, pointing a spoon at the princess with suspicion. "One second you are talking about making a flower garden for the hotel, goin' on and on about which flowers would be the best, and next you are saying we should go and train?! … Where can I get some?" He grinned when she sputtered; vehemently denning she was high, Husker kicking him lightly under the table with a roll of his eyes, silently telling him to stop it. "Alright, alright, I will be good. But seriously, where did you get this idea?"
"Weeell, you see, we did a good job last time, what with the extermination and all, but, well, what will we do next time? We can't always ask the cannibals for help (Oh they'd loved to, my dear!) and it's sure they will come back here too so …" She sighed, "I don't know, maybe it's a bad idea." She said, smiling a little when Vaggie clapped her shoulder softly. She steeled herself, "What do you say?"
They looked at each other's, some shrugging while Niffty and Cherry agreed wholeheartedly with it, the latter commenting how she missed making things (or peoples) blow up while the former already had a sharp knife out (which Alastor immediately took away with an indulgent smile). And while they were discussing plans, only one stayed silent, part of his face hidden behind his crossed hands.
"Dad?" Charlie asked tentatively, knowing full well her father would be the hardest to convince. "I-I know you don't want me to fight and I know I don't want to fight but-" A raised hand stopped her and Lucifer sighed, righting himself in his seat.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" At her determined nod he sighed again, dragging a hand down his face with what sounded like a 'fuck me'. "Alright then, it's your hotel after all." He said, smiling at the 'Yes!' he got in answer. "It's about time you learn about your powers anyway." He added, his smile turning into a smirk when his daughter stopped moving, looking like a deer caught in headlines. "Didn't think I would see it, huh. But don't worry sweet pie, I will personally see to it that the next time the fuckers dare soil my realm, you will be blowing them away back to heaven with their tails between their legs."
And so their training began. Once a week they would spend the morning hitting, kicking, firing and doing whatever exercises Vaggie had concocted for them, directing them through them like the soldier she was. It was before the extermination all over again, only this time there wasn't this urgency that plagued them last time. Only three people weren't there most of the time ; Alastor (who said didn't need to train with someone he could easily beat), Lucifer (for obvious reasons) and Charlie, who had her own training with her father, the two disappearing twice a week on the morning and only reappearing near dinner time.
It was on one of these days that Charlie, dead on her feet, was dragging herself out of the escalator to collapse face first on the sofa with a groan. From the bar Angel and Husk shared a glance before the porn star called out;
"Everything's alright princess?" Grumbling could be heard from the couch. "Sorry, can you repeat that?"
Charlie didn't move from her place, only turning her head to the side. "I said everything's okay beside the fact I hurt everywhere. It even hurt in places I didn't know could hurt!"
Angel raised an eyebrow, wincing in sympathies. Vaggie could be a slave driver and being in the porn industry … well, he knew what it was to be hurting everywhere. He also knew what was best in these cases, he thought as he made his way toward the girl.
"Okay girly, on the rug you go. Face down." He said, rolling his eyes at the suspicious but pitiful look. "Just do it, alright. Ain't you the one always talking about trusting the others."
That got the blond moving, although with regret - the sofa was damn comfortable for her sore limbs - and went down on her front, arms under her head to support it. "And now?"
"Now you put your arms on your sides and you let me work."
When Vaggie came back to the hotel with Niffty, Cherry and – surprisingly – Alastor, arms load with shopping bags (after all the meals didn't made themselves by magic), it was to groans and growls and her first thought was that Angel was passing another of his movies on the TV. Again. But then she recognized the voice, and she quickly made her way to the 'living room', sliding to a stop at the sight of the spider on top of her girlfriend.
"Ang-" She started, only to be cut by a resounding 'crack', followed immediately by a sinful moan that made her blood rush to her face. "What the hell is going on here?!" She asked a little too loudly, calming somewhat now that she knew that nothing inappropriate was happening. Not that she didn't trust her girlfriend! Angel on the other hand …
A whimper escaped the black lips, and the spider demon moved a little to work on the new knot from a better angle. "What does it looks like," he asked rhetorically, slowly moving his hands around to ease the muscle. "Shit, princess, you sure are tense. You should hit the spa more often." He said to the blond, moving to the other side of her hips.
"Can't. Too much things to do." Charlie managed to say back, fully enjoying what the spider was doing. "That's it Angel, stop the porn and I will hire you as a masseur." She proposed. And she will do it, too; the sinner was too good at it to let it go to waste. "Pleeease." She added with a pout, turning her head so she could look at him with the biggest pleading eyes she could make. This earned her a snort and a pinch, making her yelp. Her pout deepened at the clear refusal.
"Caaan't." The spider mimicked, adding with a soft smile, "But I will keep it in mind."
He will not let her know he liked the life he had here. So much different from what he was used to, he would gladly accept her offer if he wasn't already chained. But, hey, it still was a good dream.
"I take it today's training was hard, too." Vaggie gave the last of her bag to Niffty, the little sinner scurrying to depose it in the kitchen with the rest. She patted Charlie's hair as Angel stood up, the woman standing and stretching, sighing at the littles pops in her limbs.
"Yes." She said, a smile on her lips. "Dad is relentless … but I'm getting the hang of it!"
"Speaking of the top boss, where is he? It's his turn to make dinner." Angel reminded, the spider going back to the bar to pick up his forgotten drink, giving Husk a saucy grin and telling him he would have his turn this evening, to which the feline sinner merely rolled his eyes.
"Oh, hum, I think he is still up there." Charlie answered, sounding more like a question than anything. "He always stays after I leave so, I don't know, maybe he is preparing, too?" It was true she never asked him what he was doing back there. "I will go and see if he have finished." She started making her way toward the lift, but Alastor used his shadows to make it there before her, halting the princess in the process.
"Allow me, my dear. You should rest a little; you did train hard didn't you! Let me do this for you." And before she could uttered more than an 'okay', he had already left, leaving her wondering if she should be afraid of what the two of them will surely destroy this time.
Alastor willed himself out of his shadows in front of an unused door, feeling the king's allure coming from it. How the others couldn't feel it he couldn't understand, but maybe it was because he was more attuned to this sort of things than most. Or perhaps it was because he was an overlord? He should ask Husk another time. Now, though, he had a fallen angel to call for dinner-making, and he was quite curious about what the short king was doing after spending all day with his daughter.
What he found as he opened the door would have, he was sure, sent drooling a lot of demons, sinners and hell-born alike. He just lifted an eyebrow and silently took place near the door, his back to the wall. Lucifer was near the back, the room clearly a pocket dimension much like the bayou in his own since he knew for a fact that no rooms in this hotel was that big, moving with an agility and grace that was a sharp contrast with how the fallen angel normally moved. The blade in his hand was sharp, easily slicing the puppets currently attacking him, their likeness with the Exorcists almost troubling. He watched them attack again and again, more appearing every time one was destroyed, and it was only when the king blasted a powerful ring of fire around him, incinerating everything in its wake, that the dance stopped, leaving a sweating and panting Lucifer behind. The silence that followed was almost deafening.
"… What are you doing here?" Uh oh, busted! A glance was sent his way as the blond swap his blade for a fluffy towel, wiping his face. His bare torso was shining with sweat, too, but he didn't seem to mind as he curled the towel around his neck, eyes not leaving the radio demon. "Look, I know I'm gorgeous but could you stop starring, you are starting to creep me out."
A tick appeared on the deer's eye, his smile tensing a second before he composed himself.
"Why, Sire, I didn't know you were so self-conscious. But if it can help, know that you have nothing that interests me." He said, going for familiar territories. The king snorted, rolling his shoulder before making his way toward the door.
"Oh you might be surprised, my deer." He said back, smirking at his jab and at the narrowing of these red eyes as statics filled the room.
"Ha! Never." Alastor promised in a near growl filled with interferences. Oh how he longed to wipe that smile off this face, to bury his claws into this pale throat. He was certain gold would look lovely on him. "Charlie and the others are waiting, or did his majesty forgot he was on dinner duty?" He continued normally, as if nothing had happened. Lucifer only blinked once before replying;
"I am? Oh damn, tell the others I will be there in a bit!" He then hurried outside, going straight to his rooms to shower. The sweat was already starting to dry and it was itchy! It took him a moment to catch the footstep following him, and he turned his head. "And why, pray tell, are you following me?" He hissed, imaginary hackles rising.
"Me?" Alastor asked in feigned innocence. "Oh I just need to fetch something from my room which, coincidentally, happens to be on the same floor as yours." A blatant lie, he never forgets anything. "But since we are going the same way I do have a little question on my mind." This made the king of ducks raise an eyebrow, the man making a 'go ahead' motion with a hand. "If you are this powerful already, able to obliterate others angel with a wave of your hand, why do you have the need to partake in Charlie's little training sessions."
A validated question, Lucifer conceded, and he debated answering it as they waited for the lift. Ugh, why did he promise his daughter to stop popping himself in the hotel? It wasn't his fault if he nearly gave a heart attack to Angel one time, or if the barman nearly chocked himself to death! He stopped a sight from leaving his lips, arms crossing on his chest while trying to keep his mind from painful reminders. Fuck this, he didn't want to think about it. His nights were already filled with this past, images haunting him till dawn; he didn't want them to taunt him while awake!
"Exorcists are not that hard to kill once you know how." He admitted. "And Charlie is powerful; she is my daughter after all." He glanced at the demon, the other listening without saying a word.
"Then why all this?" Alastor asked again. "Without Adam any attack will be easy to fend off. You said it yourself; angels are not hard to kill."
"… It's not them I'm preparing for." He murmured.
"Come again." The deer demon said, tilting his head. Lucifer closed his eyes with a groan, fists going up to press against them, trying in vain to stop the images invading his mind.
"Michael!" He nearly yelled, and he was grateful they were in the lift and not in the corridor where anyone could hear. He took a second to bit back a whimper. "I am ... afraid … that next time it will not be only Exorcists. If you think Adam was bad …" He let his phrase trail, a shiver coursing thought his body at the painful memories. "Listen, don't tell Charlie, okay? She doesn't need to worry about it. And, hey! Maybe I'm just over exaggerating! It's me after all, always thinking the worst!" He forced a laugh pass his lips, one he was sure even Charlie could see through.
They made the rest of the way in silence, Alastor in ever present calmness and Lucifer trying his best to not fidget. He quickly excused himself and all but fled to his room, the door slamming behind him. Shower. Yes, a shower sounded good. And then food. It would keep his mind from it at least a little.
It was freshly showered and with a smile on his face that he made his way to the kitchen, quite ready to start on making a fine dinner, when he heard laughter and multiple sets of feet running around. Peeking inside, he was startle to see everyone – and he did mean everyone – going on and about, scurrying left and right while laughing and discussing. Charlie was the first to spot him, waving him inside enthusiastically.
"What is going on?" He asked, neatly avoiding Niffty as the little demoness passed before him with a large bowl of … was that pancake batter?
"Pancakes party!" His daughter confirmed with a large smile, quite excited at the prospect. "It was Alastor's idea! That way everyone can participate!" She was so happy she couldn't stay in place. His eyes went to the sinner in question, the man seemingly absorbed by the baking. He saw two plates full of pancakes already, and idly wondered how may more they planned to make.
"It's a great idea." He said at last, watching in amusement as his daughter squealed an 'I know' before returning to Angel's side who was busy preparing the batter. He looked back at the red-cladded demon, a small smile setting on his lips, the other doing his best to avoid his gaze as he made his way to the spare frying pan, rolling up his sleeves.