I eventually wake up in the morning, and look down at Charlie. I smile, seeing her sleeping beauty. A soft smile played on her lips as she continued to sleep, her body leaning in close to my own as she slept with her body fully entwined and tangled into mine. Her face was so peaceful and serene and her long blonde hair spilled out all over the bed around us as she continued to sleep peacefully with no real care in the world as her body was completely relaxed and calm. I affectionately pet her head, running my hand gently down her head and neck. That small bit of affection was enough for Charlie to wake up. She kept her eyes closed as she continued to try to get some extra sleep, but she was aware of what I was doing and just how soft my touches were. I felt her body relaxing even further with the feeling of my hand running down her head and neck. I kissed her forehead.
"Good morning, love." With that simple kiss on her forehead, Charlie opened her eyes and looked up at me with a smile on her face. She had to stretch a bit as her body was so relaxed and entwined in mine, which she had to untangle myself from.
"Morning sweetheart. Did you sleep well?"
"I know it was peaceful." I touch my face, feeling the tear stains on my right cheek. "I think that was the first time I cried ever since you've saved me. I'm not good with my emotions, so to think I just let everything out last night. Was I really this vulnerable without realizing it?" She watched my face as I touched it and noticed the tear stains still present on my cheek. She was proud of me for my willingness to allow myself to be vulnerable around her, even if it took awhile.
"Your emotions are beautiful. Even as a Sinner you are the most pure being I have ever known. The fact that you decided to finally let your tears show and to be vulnerable in front of me is one of the most precious things that you have ever done. It makes me feel so happy to know that you trusted me that much." I felt conflicted. I was happy that you were happy, but I still felt some shame.
"Damn it, why am I so scared about my emotions? If something threatens you, I'm always ready to fight, but I can't even face how I'm feeling." Charlie noticed the slight look of shame upon my face and she smiled reassuringly at me as she took my hand and rubbed her cheek with it.
"I know it can be hard to not be so afraid of your emotions. They can feel so overwhelming and out of control if you let them. But, you have to allow yourself to go through the motions, to allow yourself to feel them. If you ever feel too overwhelmed, that's when you come to me. I'll always be there to hold your hand and to guide you through them." I closed my good eye, crying again from it. But I was much more composed this time with a smile.
"You're too good for me. I feel like I don't deserve you, but you show me such love and devotion anyway. I don't know what to say that could adequately explain how I feel." As I continued to spill over with emotions in front of her, she watched how the tears ran down my cheeks. She was touched by how easily I was able to open myself up to her, my emotions pouring out freely. She leaned her face closer to mine, trying to express the love that she felt for me through a smile that had a mix of sadness and joy.
"You don't have to express anything but yourself, sweetheart. I can clearly sense that you care deeply for me, so you don't have to say a single thing. Just be yourself around me and that will be enough." I just kept silently crying then, nodding to what she said as I hugged her close as my little spoon. My silence, tears, and the comfort she felt in my arms was more than she could ask for from me. She wrapped both of her arms around me, holding me close as she allowed the moment of silent comfort to continue between us. Soon after another twenty minutes of crying, I felt good enough that I wiped my eye, and got up out of bed.
"Right, well, that was a good cry, but I'm not being paid to cry." I grab my eyepatch, and put it over my left eye socket again, then brushing my hair to cover it like normal. "Thanks Charlie. I needed that."
"No problem sweetheart. There's nothing wrong with letting those emotions flow out every now and then. In fact, it's healthy to do so. Your tears are some of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed." Charlie said as she looked at me with a soft smile on her face. It was such a sweet and emotional moment between us, one that we had never experienced before, but one that she loved experiencing with me. I looked over to her, and chuckled.
"Wow. You have serious bed hair. It's spread across your whole bed." My mention of her bed hair caught her off guard, causing her to laugh a bit as well as she realized she did have a complete mess of bed hair. Her blonde locks were all over the place, with some of them even reaching down to the foot of the bed.
"Well aren't you a little bedhead shamer. That's not very nice."
"Don't worry, it's beautiful bed hair. You know I love how long and luscious it is." She smiled and blushed a bit at my comment about her hair being long and luscious. She has always loved her long, blonde locks, with how soft and beautiful it is. The fact that I also thought so made her feel even more happy and grateful for me.
"Well... you're welcome to comb through it with your fingers whenever you'd like. I honestly wouldn't mind at all if you did."
"Oh, you know I would love to do that babe, I sincerely do, but I have a bunch of idiots I need to keep in line downstairs." I said with genuine disappointment as I put my new work uniform on of a short sleeve red button up shirt and black slacks, before grabbing my spear.
"So you won't have time to show me a little affection? Are you trying to make me sad and feel lonely?" I grin at what she's trying to do. "Well, maybe I can watch you put your face on a little, love." I kiss her forehead. "I just can't brush all of this long, lovely hair." I twirl the blunt end of my spear into her mess of blonde locks, spooling it up a bit. "It would take Razzle and Dazzle together an hour to get it into perfect condition."
"I bet Razzle and Dazzle would probably even take two hours to get it all combed out, considering how bad it is right now."
"Oooh, don't say too much, or else I may want to jump onto it and get tangled up in there on purpose." I gently push her down onto the bed, giving her neck and body kisses. Charlie laughed at what I had said and she smiled at how much I loved her long blonde hair. She then blushed even more as she felt her body and neck receiving kisses from me. The fact that I wanted to jump onto it and tangle myself up on purpose made her blush even more.
"Oh really? You're going to jump on it, on purpose? Now that's something I'd definitely like to see." I kissed her one last time.
"Later, but you better believe I'm holding you to it." I chuckled before backing away. As I moved away from her after giving her one final kiss, Charlie could only smile and blush as she continued to stay laying down on the bed, now looking like a complete mess from all of my kisses and love.
"Okay cutie. Just make sure you do keep me to it. I just know that you're hoping to get into my hair again some time soon."
"Oh, I will Charlie. I will." A blew you a kiss before leaving your room while you got ready with Razzle and Dazzle's help. A week has passed since the opening of Charlie's hotel, and despite having no new patrons except Angel Dust freeloading off of us, I made sure I catered to my girlfriend to keep you happy. Especially at night and early mornings when we had time to ourselves to get lost in our love of each other. She never complained at all about the fact that I tended to her so much, especially with the fact that we had no one else staying in the hotel. It was our chance for some private time in our eyes, and she was glad that I felt the same way, keeping my attention solely on her needs. She always made sure to repay the favor, especially during our time alone. On the seventh morning, after getting ourselves ready, I said,
"Alastor said he wants to show us something in the employee rec room." Having just finished getting ready myself, Charlie raised a brow in curiosity as I mentioned that Alastor wanted to show us something in the employee rec room.
"Really? He's usually not that concerned about us. I wonder what's so important to warrant him showing us something."
"I think he said it's a new commercial he compiled?" I opened the door for Charlie out of her bedroom. She smiled and gave me a small kiss before stepping out of the room, thankful for my kindness.
"Hmm... that could be it. Maybe he wants us to review and approve the commercial ahead of time? I mean, he has been trying to make a better reputation for himself to the public. Having us give our thoughts on what he's making could be useful for him." I smiled at the kiss.
"Yeah. Let's go down." Once Alastor set up the commercial for us to review, it was… not what we expected.
"Well, hello there, you wayward Sinner! Do you like blood, violence, and sexual depravity? Of course you do, that's why you're in Hell! But what if I told you there was a place to stay that had none of that? Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel, a misguided path to redemption! Founded five days ago by Lucifer's delusional daughter, Charlotte Morningstar!" As the commercial went on, full of nothing but the Radio Demon's cheap shots, I was growing increasingly displeased with every sentence. "Come place your fate in her inexperienced hands, as she tries to work through her daddy issues by fixing you! Here we offer fun things, such as somewhat functional staff and 24-hour pest control. Custom rooms, and just look at this tacky parlor! Enjoy riveting conversation with our singular resident. Wow! All this, and more at the Hazbin Hotel! Your last desperate, pathetic attempt at salvation starts here!" The commercial ended, and its creator couldn't have been more proud.
"So, what do you think?" I felt even more enraged the longer he spoke about the hotel, my body growing more tense and my muscles twitching in reaction. My breathing was shallow and heavy as I tried to keep my emotions in check. Once the commercial was over, Charlie finally let all of her emotions go as she spoke through gritted teeth.
"Let's start this conversation off this way. I am NOT delusional and I am NOT going through any 'daddy issues' whatsoever." She tried to stay calm but it was clear that her anger was making it difficult to control myself.
"Yeah, I mean, what the fuck, Alastor!" I growled as I pointed at his smug, smiling face. "We want people to come here, and this just makes us look bad with your stupid jokes!"
"Well, my friends, I haven't been active in hell for some time and everyone remembers me from my radio show, the proper medium to express oneself. But, you insisted on this noisy picture box advertisement." He tapped the tv twice with his mic staff. "So, I had a little fun with it." I got up, pointing my finger at his smug, smiling face.
"Oh, I could tell you had fun with this, Alastor. Thing is, this is not what we want to represent us. When you showed up here a week ago, you told us you would help run this hotel. Instead, you're mocking us. Nobody's gonna wanna come to a place that a powerful overlord like you thinks is a waste of time." Suddenly, Charlie's phone started to ring. It was her dad, Lucifer. I stiffened. "Uh, you go handle that, honey. I'll handle Alastor and rip his head off if he doesn't fix this." She raised a brow in surprise as she heard the phone call from her dad. Now was NOT the time to get angry, she had things to handle and she needed to remain calm and not let herself get carried away. She quickly nodded at me and gave me a reassuring look before answering the phone.
"Yes? What is it dad?"
"Charlie, my little Charlotte milkshake baby. How are you doing? He asked, like he wants to be supportive and even calling her by one of her childhood nicknames he calls you out of affection, but it sounded like he was having trouble finding the motivation.
"I'm doing fine dad, everything has been going great. Just a few bumps in the road."
"Well, word has been going around, and with the news of your hotel being open recently during the last Extermination, the leader of the Angel Army wants to speak with you asap." The words 'Angel Army' caught her attention as she froze and she felt dread starting to sink in her heart. After all, she knew that an encounter between me and them was inevitable, but this was going to happen a lot sooner than she thought it would.
"Angel Army, as in angels? I assume they aren't going to like the fact that I have an open door policy for the hotel?"
"Look, Charlie, I just want you to meet them, listen to what they have to say, and get out. I'd attend with you, but this involves shit I'd rather not get into again personally. You're not in danger, but I don't want you to be with him any longer than necessary. Okay?" Charlie let out a long sigh after hearing what her father was saying, not wanting to fight with him. She tried to keep her feelings of dread and fear inside so no one would be able to pick up on it.
"Alright, dad. I'll go face them with this alone. I'll do my best to be as courteous and as diplomatic as I can and come home as soon as I can. Will you be home when I get back?"
"I can't right now. But I'll try to make time next time. I'm sorry, baby. Bye." He hung up, sounding rushed and distressed. While he may sound rushed and distressed, she could still hear the affection in his words as he called her 'Baby', her heart feeling a rush of butterflies at his kind and affectionate words. She then took a deep breath, and let out a deep sigh.
"Well, looks like I'm going to be facing the angel army all by myself. Lovely..." When she came to talk to me, I was strangling Angel Dust on the floor because he wouldn't stop annoying me. The sight of me strangling Angel Dust upon entry brought Charlie a look of shock. Angel Dust was a pain in my ass but strangling him was a little much, despite his bad qualities.
"Ryan, I need to talk to you." I instantly notice and get up off of him, letting him breathe.
"Yes Charlie? What did your dad call about?" I asked after a deep breath, straightening out my uniform.
"Well, it was about the Angels wanting to meet up with me now that I've opened the hotel. I have to go and meet up with them but I wanted to make sure that you're gonna be okay while I'm gone." As she spoke to me, Charlie felt nervous about the upcoming confrontation with the angels.
"Charlie, I want to come with you." I gripped my spear tightly. She felt a sense of relief and comfort when I mentioned my desire to come with you. Having me there with her could help keep her from saying something stupid to the angels out of panic and stress.
"Really? I mean, if you're okay with coming and facing the angels with me, I won't argue against it. I could also go by myself. They did only summon me."
"Oh believe me. I'm more than okay with it." I said darkly. I then turned towards everyone else. "Everyone, fix up Alastor's crummy commercial so that it represents us properly, or each of you gets a stab from my spear!" I slammed the blunt end of my weapon against the floor. As soon as I said that, I watched as everyone scrambled to find ways to fix Alastor's commercial so that it would give a better representation of the hotel. I didn't have to say anything else as everyone instantly got to work. As for Charlie, she was happy to see how protective I was over her and how much I cared about this hotel. It put a smile on her face that she couldn't possibly hide from me. I took a deep breath, regaining my poise while brushing the right side of my hair back, before calming down for you. "Okay, let's talk to some fucking angels." I twirled my spear as I started to lead us to the Heaven Embassy.
After walking past numerous porn studios and through Cannibal Town, I kicked open the doors of the Embassy, which is empty when it's not Extermination Day. At least, that's how it is normally. The place was clean with a blue and gold color scheme. After signing a contract and being sorted into a room, here Charlie stood, in front of two Angels, the one sitting down having a plate of ribs. I stayed guard outside, leaving it to you, but listening through the doors and remaining in general sight.
"Sup?" The angel asked nonchalantly. Charlie felt her body tense at the Angel's nonchalant attitude. She wasn't expecting the angels to be laid back and have attitudes like this during what was supposed to have been a very serious confrontation with them. She turned to look at me from the corner of my eye, silently asking for my support. I instead gesture to her, since it was the princess of Hell they wanted to talk to, so she needs to speak to them. But I did give a friendly wink to encourage my girlfriend. Charlie took a deep breath and looked back at the angel, trying to fight off the panic starting to boil up in her heart. She knew that this was important and that she had to stay calm and try to mess this up. She cleared her throat before beginning to speak, taking a second to ensure that she would talk in a calm tone.
"Hello, I'm Charlie Morningstar, the owner and CEO of the Happy Hotel. I understand you called to meet with me."
"Yes, I know." He still remained nonchalant.
"What exactly do you wish to talk to me about?" She inquired, trying to hide the edge in her voice.
"Aren't we going to shake hands? It's not polite not to." Charlie flushed red out of embarrassment. She reached out my empty hand towards the angel. He reached out too, but her hand went through his, being a hologram, to her shock.
"Ha! I fucking got you! Ha, good shit." He chuckled. Her eyes widened in utter shock as her hand went straight through the angel's hand.
"Wait, so you aren't even here?"
"No, you think I'd come down there? Ha! No, I mean, I love the vibe, totally, I love your tunes. Pretty fucking hardcore, don't get me wrong. But! it's such a bummer! man. Everything down there's just so "eugh", ya know? Ew. All that blood and fire? Who wants to be in that squalor? Oh wait, it's Hell, so those Sinners don't have a choice. Ha! Good stuff." The way that the angel just casually spoke about all the torment that demons had to endure in hell while completely dismissing it all as a joke made Charlie frown a little bit.
"It's a lot more than that. Demons have to get tortured every day just for existing there. And if I may ask, why exactly do you think everything there is 'eugh'?"
"Believe me Princess, if you ever saw even the surface of Heaven for yourself, I wouldn't blame you if you ditched that hellfire dump for one of our best spots up here." Hearing him refer to the hotel Charlie put her heart and soul into as a "hellfire dump" made her frown sink into an even bigger scowl. As if she wasn't already irritated with the angel, he had to go and insult my hotel like that.
"And what exactly makes Heaven so much better?"
"Uh, hello! It's Heaven! Basically paradise! Who doesn't want that? That's why you made your silly hotel, huh? So that your undeserving people get a taste with the help of redemption?" He asked in an incredibly condescending way. The fact that he kept calling the people who came to the hotel undeserving for wanting to be given another chance to be happy was very irritating. She hated how the angels, like this one, viewed demons as nothing more than worthless sinners who were simply damned to be tortured by Hell. After hearing him say that, she couldn't contain my frustration.
"Yes, that is EXACTLY what I built the hotel for. Everyone deserves a second chance to be happy. And if there's one thing that I know for sure, it's that you're not a very good representative of heaven."
"Oh please. Me, not perfect? Let me tell you, I was playin' this gig, and for some fuckin' reason, this virtue chick was diggin' on the drummer, and it's like, "do you know who I am? I'm fuckin' Adam. I'm the original dick!" All dicks descend from me. I'm the Dick-fuckin' master! So, anyway, then we fucked, and it was awesome." The unexpected and completely irrelevant story that the angel shared with her made her feel completely thrown off by him. For a second, she was speechless because of the completely inappropriate way that the angel decided to tell his story. She didn't want to know about his sex life at all, so the fact that he was so open about it only irritated her more.
"Wait, your name is Adam? Like the first man Adam, that means you…Oh…." She then realized why her parents avoided him. "This explains so much."
"I know, I fucking rock." He smiled proudly.
"Okay, so... I've got a question for you."
"What's that, toots?" Though Charlie was glad to have this conversation moving along, the fact that he called her "toots" had her patience level start to decrease a little bit. She took a deep breath, not wanting to take out her anger over his condescending attitude towards her on the angels.
"Aren't you going to fix the solution to our biggest problem?"
"Wha, herpes? Yeah, that's a bitch." His response left her slightly speechless and confused, thinking that there must've been a misunderstanding.
"Uh… no, our other biggest problem."
"Oh…uh..ugly people? Math? Global Warming? Nah, wait, that's Earth's problem. Hold on, uh…" He tried thinking of what the biggest problem is, totally ignorant to the problem that's down in Hell.
"No, that's not it either…I was talking about how the angels come down here yearly to purge out the sinners in the exterminations due to overpopulation. Don't you think that's a pretty big problem?"
"What, you want us to kill more of those fuckers? We're already doing the best we can. Lute, how many did you kill last Extermination a week ago?"
"Got a good 275 this year, sir."
"275? Woah! Badass! Awesome job, danger tits! Pound it." The two angels fist bumped. "See? We're handling exterminations perfectly well." Charlie turned back to Adam, looking him dead in the eye with a furious expression on her face.
"Uh no, not awesome. Those are my people, you know that right?"
"Oh yeah. That must suck for you!" He bursts into laughter.
"But these are souls...Humans souls just the same as the ones you have up in heaven."
"They're not the same. They had their chance and they earned damnation." Adam's fellow angel coldly stated. Those words felt like a blade being slowly twisting into her heart. Hearing their response to that only made her more and more upset and hurt.
"Well, how many souls go to heaven each year then? Don't they have an overpopulation problem too?"
"Ha, can you believe this bitch, Lute? We don't have overpopulation. Hell is divided into rings. You know, circles with limited volume to store all those disgusting souls? God made Heaven an infinite void of a utopia! Why should my virtuous kind have to be exterminated when your no good sinful people are the ones deserving it?" Charlie felt her blood starting to boil at the blatant hypocrisy that the angels were spewing right now. She hated how they claimed to be virtuous yet they completely viewed demons as nothing but worthless trash that should be cast away simply for existing. That was not what virtue meant to her. Virtue meant helping people and doing the right thing, not judging people based on their actions and sending them to Hell because of it.
"Listen, Princess. The only reason you're still here is because daddy gave you and your hellborn kind a pardon from an exorcist blade. How does that feel, to know how little you matter?" Lute cruelly made fun of Charlie. "Angels don't make mistakes."
"Yeah, I never made a fucking mistake in my life." He said smugly.
"I'm not going to just stand here and let you talk down to me and the rest of my people like that."
"Then I guess our time is up. It was nice fucking-I mean meeting with you, Princess. Get the fuck out of our Emissary, cunt." Charlie froze at the cruel way that the angel dismissed her even though the conversation was not over and just like that without even a proper goodbye, the angel decided that our time was up. She took a deep breath and tried remaining as polite as she could, but her patience ran out.
"Thank you so much you two!" She shouted sarcastically. "It was NOT nice meeting you." I followed Charlie out, and I had a look of concern when she punched a closed door out of frustration. I went and hugged her, feeling sorry for you.
"Charlie." I said, hurting to see my girlfriend like this. She felt herself breaking down slightly when she heard me call her name and saw the worry in my eyes. She'd seen enough angels being completely dismissive of her and the demons that needed her support like it was the most natural and normal thing to do. She just felt this overwhelming sense of pain and sadness that made my eyes fill up with tears. Without thinking, she hugged me back, leaning her head against me gently. "I figured this would happen. But… I trusted that you could handle them. I wanted to slice their heads off so badly, but I didn't want to undermine you." I ran my fingers through her hair to comfort my girlfriend.
"I'm sorry… I should've been able to keep my cool. It's just-" Her voice broke slightly as I tried to regain her composure.
"It's okay. It's okay." I lead us out of the Heaven Emissary, heading back to the hotel.