Extermination Day, 1926
Adam had been unusually quiet the entire time leading up to the departure to Hell. Lute wondered, did he know? Did he expect what came next?
That the moment they emerged in Hell, standing before them would be the Devil himself.
Lucifer Morningstar. Lord of Pride, Fallen Seraphim, King of Hell, and holder of a thousand horrid titles.
He was hovering there, mere meters from them. Every Exorcist was on edge, for his face was one of stone. His glare was one of suspicion that could so easily give way to protective fury.
Only the First Man seemed unphased by Lucifer's presence.
Adam glanced behind Lucifer for one second, seeing that Charlie was here as well. She looked very worried, sitting on Dazzle's back with puppy Razzle held in her arms for comfort.
"Lute, take the others and get started," Adam ordered neutrally.
"Sir, are you sure?" Lute asked with sweat on her brow.
"Yep. Go, have fun, kickass for me," Adam waved her off calmly.
Lucifer did not speak or look away as the exorcists scattered over Pentagram City. It was slow though, it was obvious they were distracted, knowing that these two were both in the same place.
Adam made the first move as he flew forward at a steady pace.
Lucifer was more than a little surprised when Adam casually went right passed him, stopping just behind the Devil while facing the princess. "Hey, I-!"
"Razz, you're looking at kickable as ever," Adam addressed, ignoring Lucifer, who blinked in surprise. Dazzle baa'd a greeting to Adam, who rolled his eyes. "Yeah, hi, Dazz."
"Hi, Adam," Charlie greeted with an awkward wave, looking between the angel and her father.
"Oh, you are awake," Adam said with a smirk. "You were so damn quiet, I thought you were napping there, Hellflake."
"H-hellflake?! What did you just call her?!" Lucifer demanded in disbelief.
Adam still didn't respond. "Come on, we better get you home."
"Huh?" Charlie blinked as Adam began to fly. Before she could make a response, Dazzle had already begun to fly after Adam.
Lucifer could only gap in disbelief while Charlie was looking between Adam and her father, very confused by the lack of exchange. Before they got too far, Lucifer shot forward, flying just above them. "Hey! I'm trying to talk to you!"
Adam just hummed a tune to yourself, loudly.
"What are you, a toddler!?" Lucifer asked with a scowl.
"Adam...?" Charlie spoke up, holding Razzle close.
"Yeah, what's up, Hellflake?" Adam answered easily, looking at her.
Lucifer's eyebrow started to twitch.
"You...can hear him, right?" she asked uncertainly, glancing up at her father.
"Who?" Adam asked, looking up at the very annoyed Lucifer. "Oh. Of course I can't hear anything, Hellflake," he said, looking ahead again.
Lucifer now looked confused on top of frustrated. Charlie just tilted her head. "Why not?" she inquired.
Adam smirked. "Because snakes can't talk."
Lucifer inhaled, long and sharp. "Okay, you want to play that way?"
"Daddy..." Charlie pleaded softly, not liking where this was going.
"So, how you been since Eden? Lose any more wives I don't know about?"
Adam did nothing, for precisely two seconds.
With a beat of his wings, he sped forward.
Lucifer furrowed his brow. "Hey, what are you-?"
Adam's wings glowed and, with a great flap, sent two pillars of holy light down, demolishing two buildings below.
Charlie's eyes wide eye. "Adam! Stop! Please!"
This time, Adam didn't respond even to her, sending another wave to the side.
He did, however, come to a stop when Lucifer shot in front of him as a bale light. "What the hell are you-"
Adam stopped only when he was looming right over Lucifer, staring down into his eyes. For a long, tense moment, they didn't even speak.
"Hmm?" Adam cocked his head with feigned surprise and genuine disinterest. "Sorry, didn't see you there. Who the fuck are you again?"
Lucifer's jaw dropped at the sheer audacity of the question. "Don't pretend you don't know who I am."
"Oh no, I couldn't at all guess," Adam said with his arms crossed, giving a distasteful look to the apple theme on the hat and cane. "So, you breaking it?"
"What...?" Lucifer said in surprise.
"Are you. Breaking. The Treaty?" Adam demanded with a glare. "Cause that's what stopping me during an extermination means from you."
Lucifer glared back. "Of course not, you ass! I just wanted to talk to you!"
"And I have fuck all to say to you," Adam said flatly. "Now if you excuse me, I have a kid to escort home. It's Extermination Day, in case you forgot."
"You cocky-! I came here to THANK YOU for last year!" Lucifer finally got out.
"Last?" Adam repeated blankly. "Not the other few years I was her damn chaperon?"
Lucifer took a breath, "Yes, yes those too. Just...especially last year," he clarified with regret.
"You're welcome. My holy farts are worth more than the air you wasted saying that," Adam shot back instantly.
Lucifer cringed and let out a breath. "I see you're still the same little prick from Eden."
"Funny. How'd it feel being pegged for nine thousand years?" Adam asked pointedly.
"The hell you saying in front of my daughter?!" Lucifer yelled in outrage.
"It took almost ten THOUSAND years for you to have a kid," Adam explained with a shrug. "I mean, I guess after riding your short ass this long, she had to give you a pity-fuck as a reward."
"Oh, you want to go there you little shit?!" Lucifer challenged with a smirk. "About Eve-?"
"Keep her name out of your mouth, Serpent," Adam snapped, his jovial tone replaced by something low and dangerous, his wings glowing ominously.
It gave Lucifer a pause of surprise, but only for a second. "Oh, like I could keep her mouth-"
"STOP!"
Both turned to see Charlie. Her eyes had changed and her horns were out while she glared at them both with tears in her eyes.
Adam's wings lost their fiery glow.
"Stop fighting, please!" she pleaded. "I know you don't like each other and...and you don't need to be nice, but can you please not fight because of me?!"
Lucifer was at a loss. "Charlie, I'm sorry. We shouldn't-"
"We weren't fighting because of you, Hellflake," Adam said bluntly. "We were going to start at it the moment we spoke to each other. That's why I was ignoring his ass."
Lucifer took a calming breath, giving him an annoyed look. "As I said, I came here to thank you."
"And I didn't save Charlie for thanks, especially yours," Adam said coldly, refusing to even look in Lucifer's direction. "Now shut up and fly with us or take her home yourself."
Adam didn't give them the option to argue as he began to fly off again. Towards the manor. It was lost on none of them that Adam could have just flown off now and started purging sinners.
With some reluctance on Lucifer's part- and an uncomfortable amount of eagerness from Dazzle- they pursued after the First Man.
"So..." Lucifer started up as they reached him. "Do anything besides yearly visits to ravage Hell?"
"You do anything besides let Hell ravage itself all year around?" Adam countered dryly.
"Daddy, Adam, please!" Charlie pleaded, her form back to normal now.
"I'm sorry, CharChar, but I'm trying," Lucifer said with a tired smile.
"Already tried my best when I was ignoring him, Hellflake," Adam answered with brutal honesty.
"Can you just...talk about anything that doesn't make you both angry at each other?" Charlie pleaded, looking more at Adam than her father.
Adam said nothing.
"Adam?" Charlie asked again.
"I'm thinking," Adam answered with a hum. "So, were you being pegged or not?"
"Really? That's what you went with?" Lucifer asked with a deadpan. "In front of Charlie!?"
"Dad, I know what pegging is!" Charlie defended. Now Adam looked over his shoulder at her with a furrowed brow. "What? I'm 120! And, well, this is Hell. Though, I don't want to hear about what Mommy and Daddy do at night together."
"We can't hide things from her, obviously. So better just to explain them and why they are on a long list of things she has to wait another century to worry," Lucifer explained with a smile.
"Dad, I'll be grown up in just sixty years!" Charlie defended with a pout.
"Don't remind me, CharChar," Lucifer said dramatically, lamenting the quick passing of years.
"Hellflake, my advice? Don't take advice from anyone you know on romance, you'll get no good suggestions," Adam recommended.
"..." Lucifer bit his tongue while glaring at Adam's back.
"I said anybody, Scratch," Adam said with a smirk. "She better not come to me for advice."
Charlie tilted her head. "Aren't you the first human husband though?"
The question was a bit too close to Eden, but Adam let it slide. "Yeah, and you know how awkward it was to INVENT romance? Especially after-" Adam clamped his mouth shut suddenly.
Charlie looked straight to her Father, as if pleading with him to not poke the obvious subject Adam had nearly brought up.
Lucifer smiled reassuringly, if not a bit strained. "So, umm, Hellflake?"
"Your daughter is a snowflake in Hell," Adam said as if it was obvious. "I'm surprised she hasn't melted. Literally!"
"I'll have you know I'm fireproof!" Charlie said, holding her nose high. "Kind of. Mostly."
"Yeah, just like someone is boulder proof until get squished," Adam shot back with a chuckle. Charlie giggled a little bit too.
Lucifer watched the exchange with a puzzled look. Not only was Adam having an easy, if not crass conversation with his daughter, but he was obviously not going as fast as he could. The pace was rather comfortable for Dazzle.
"So...let yourself go a bit?" Lucifer tried with some caution.
"It's a robe, Daddy!" Charlie informed helpfully. "He's skinny underneath."
"..." Lucifer stared in alarm. "Charlie, why do you know that? Adam, why does my daughter know that?!"
"Daddy! I just felt it through the robe when I rode on his back a couple times," Charlie answered with a smile.
"Rode on his back...?" Lucifer repeated in something approaching fatherly despair, eyes shrunken a bit.
They couldn't see it, but Adam smirked as he flew closer to Charlie.
The Princess blinked before grinning widely as she held Razzle tight in her arm, jumping onto Adam's back. Lucifer gapped out a silent scream of parental jealousy while he watched Charlie settle onto Adam's back. Dazzle gave a roaring 'baa' before shrinking down in a poof of flames, the two goat-dragons settling on either side of Charlie while between Adam's large wings.
"Daz's wing healed fine from the wolffuck?" Adam asked idly.
"Yeah, Mommy and Daddy helped teach me how to set it and help heal it," Charlie answered proudly. She giggled as Razzle nuzzled into one of Adam's wings. "Razzle said thanks for saving Dazzle too!"
"This is a nightmare," Lucifer whispered to himself, running a hand over his face. "I'm just having a bad dream. I'll wake up in a moment and still be wondering what to say to Adam at the Extermination. And maybe I won't bring Charlie along after all."
"Daddy, who are you talking to?!" Charlie called back to him.
"No one, CharChar, no one at all!" Lucifer answered with a convincing smile. He suddenly flew up to fly beside them and brought out all six wings.
"Hey! Watch your lane!" Adam snapped in annoyance.
"Would you like to fly with me, CharChar? I'm sure my wings are comfier?" Lucifer offered with a hopeful grin.
"Too late," Adam said, nodding to the manor just in front of them. "We're already here."
Lucifer deadpanned, eyelid twitching madly.
"Can you take me flying tomorrow, Daddy?" Charlie asked with a smile.
"Absolutely, CharChar!" Lucifer answered instantly, reaching for her. "Now, let's just get you-hey!"
Adam gently descended to the balcony, just before Lucifer could pluck Charlie off his back.
They landed and Lucifer's annoyance went away with a mix of awe and envy over- of all things- Adam's robe.
With how long it was, Charlie slid down Adam's back safely and easily, landing on her little feet with Razzle and Dazzle floating down to join her. "Thanks for the ride, Adam," Charlie said with a smile.
"I know, I'm awesome. Hold your applause, Hellflake," Adam boasted playfully.
Charlie giggled and Lucifer felt part of himself dying a little inside.
How did his daughter get comfortable and friendly with ADAM after spending less than a day a year with him!?
And why, by the Ashes of Eden, was Adam returning it so willingly and easily!?
True, he hadn't personally spoken to Adam in thousands of years, but it wasn't hard to get footage of him on Extermination Day or hear how he acted in meetings at the embassy. If he wasn't praising his own nuts, he was laughing about killing demons.
And somehow, there was some kind of weird friendship between him and his precious, too-kind-to-be-real daughter?!
"Well, I should head out. Places to blow up, Sinners to smoke," Adam said with a grin with a hint of sadism.
"Please don't kill too many?" Charlie requested, somehow both resigned and hopeful.
"Hellflake, I'm not going to lie to you and say I won't," Adam answered honestly. "See you next year, I'm sure."
With that, he took to the sky. He glanced over his shoulder as Lucifer led Charlie inside, presumably for bed.
With that, Adam made a U-turn and flew to the roof of the Devil's Manor. He landed, crossing his arms, and waited with more patience than he normally cared to have.
Just as he expected, a portal opened as Lucifer stepped through, waving to the other side still. "Goodnight, my princess! I love you!" Lucifer said with a loving smile. It lasted until after the portal closed, turning into a scowl as he turned to Adam, pointing a finger at him. "Now you listen here you-"
Adam was already in his face. "How Are You Such A Shit Father?!" Adam snapped, hissing it out to avoid yelling loud enough for Charlie to hear.
"I-What?" Lucifer said in surprise.
"You waited ten thousand years to have kids and neither of you bothered to learn the most basic thing! Literally, the first thing I figured out about being a parent after my children started to walk: Make sure the kids are safe in the cave when something dangerous is going on outside!" Adam ranted on.
"I didn't know she could undo the wards around her room!" Lucifer defended with a glare.
"Your daughter has been able to break out of her room, without you knowing, for more than five years," Adam deadpanned. "Shit. Father."
Lucifer winced but glared back all the same. "Okay, you little prick. What is going on?"
"Besides you being a shit father?" Adam countered.
"Stop!" Lucifer growled. "I was serious, you egotistical ass! I wanted to thank you! But I also wanted to know why?"
"Let me ask you this," Adam retorted, leaning down. "I am your enemy. The man that hates you, both of you, most in all of time and space! No exception. So why am "I" the one who had to save your daughter while she was attacked in your kingdom by one of your sinners?!"
"Don't you think I get that!?" Lucifer shot back with a self-loathing look about himself. "That I didn't have nightmares about what she told me for weeks!? That I wasn't beating myself up knowing I almost lost my CharChar?!"
Adam stared before his face turned neutral. "Good. Amazingly, you're not a total failure at fatherhood yet."
"I don't appreciate the yet, Adam," Lucifer said, rubbing his head. "Want me on my knees, expressing my gratitude?"
"Not you, not even your wife," Adam retorted instantly. "I just wanted to get across that I think you're a shit father so far."
"Message received," Lucifer said with a sigh. "Why? I'm grateful, but WHY would you help and protect Charlie?"
"I am a big fucking advocate against anything amounting to "Sins of the Father" bullshit," Adam said flatly. "Don't get me wrong, I fully expect this Hellflake to melt away and reveal another demon feasting on the suffering around her. But right now? She's a Hellflake that insists on visiting me every year."
Lucifer huffed. "Yes, well, that won't be happening anymore."
"And you think that'll work," Adam said with a snort. "Given everything?"
Lucifer raised an eyebrow. "Are you...comparing Charlie and you to Lilith and I?"
"You know, there are two ways to take that. Your way is disgusting," Adam said flatly. "My way? Well, I certainly hope your daughter can't ruin creation more than you both did."
Lucifer went rigid and gripped his cane tightly.
"Are you done now?" Adam asked pointedly.
Lucifer scowled and looked back at him. "You know, right now? I can still kick your ass."
Adam didn't flinch. "That won't change how shit of a father you are," Adam pointed out scathingly.
Lucifer shook his head. "Fine, yes, we're done."
Adam took to the sky before the last syllable was even uttered.
Lucifer watched him leave with a scowl. He had a lot to think about. A lot to talk about. And he had to update the wards around Charlie's room.
By the end of the purge, Lute found Adam sitting on top of the clock tower, taking potshots at demons he spots across the city from his perch. Sometimes he was just destroying part of a building for fun.
"Sir?" Lute addressed in concern. "I'm sorry, Sir. This is probably our least successful purge of all time. I have no excuse."
"Yeah, you fucking do. You all were worrying your tits over what me and Old Scratch might end up doing," Adam said flatly, giving her a stare. "You'll be happy to know I held it together and didn't make either of us break the treaty."
Lute nodded. "Then why are you so unhappy, Sir?"
"Wasn't easy, not taking a shot at him," Adam remarked. "Used up so much energy not fighting, I barely felt up to joining the purge at all. Sorry to be a downer."
"It's perfectly fine, Sir," Lute said. "Is the whorespawn okay?"
"You worried about the Hellflake?" Adam asked with a chuckle.
"Only if you are, Sir."
Adam waved that question away. "Hellflake is fine. Her dad is just the same little bitch he always was."
Lute nodded absently. "Sir?"
"Hmm?"
"The Exorcists exist to aid you manage the threat Hell poses to Heaven," Lute reminded.
"I'm well fucking aware of why I'm your boss, Bitch," Adam said with an eye roll.
"Just wanted you to know where I- where we stand, Sir."
Adam quirked his head at her. "So, if I told you to place your hands against a wall?"
Lute mirrored his gesture. "Which wall?"
Extermination Day, 1927
No Charlie this year.
Adam imagined her cooped up in her room for once and wondered if she would be sulking at not getting to go out or angry that her father stopped her from doing something dangerous.
Not that it mattered, really.
"Guess I get a full day this year," Adam mused. If his grin wasn't as wide as it normally was, no one mentioned it. "Okay, Ladies! Let's get a killing! They got too fucking comfortable after last year."
The Exorcists let out a cheer of bloodlust as they began to descend upon Hell.
"Lute, fuck the scoreboard this year for me. I'm getting a big ass, Overlord," Adam said with a wicked smile on his helm.
His second in command said nothing, but her mood mirrored him; eager for sinner blood.
It only took an hour before they had a demon squealing.
"Here! He's up here!" the fly demon said quickly, pointing to what passed for a normal building in hell. "Third floor in the back, Room 43! N-now you'll let me go, right?!"
"If he's in there, Pukefuck," Adam said, making a noise of disgust as the fly actually did vomit from his mouth. "Guh! Get that on my girls and we're gutting you no matter what!"
The demon quivered under the looks of the exorcists staring down at him.
"Two of you stay here with this stinkass. The other three? Once Lute and I got the prize, fuck up any sinner trying to poke their ass in on us," Adam instructed.
"Gladly, Sir," Lute answered for all of them.
Like specters of death, they entered the establishment. Some kind of apartment complex. Everyone was already cleared out, but the few who saw them were too terrified to scream and draw their attention. Instead, the sinners either found someplace to hide or escape the building as silently as possible.
They found the room soon enough. In the middle of the building, away from any windows. There was a rather large sinner guarding the door, rather shocked to see them. Lute shot forward and stabbed him through the throat before he could even get over his shock.
Adam whistled to himself as he came up to the door. He paused for one second, listening for anything interesting. Finding none, he promptly kicked the door down. "Guess who, Bitch!?"
Inside was a rather long-necked man, vaguely looking Indian with burnt skin, four arms, and horns. He was lying on a large round bed, the air thick with some kind of narcotic smoke, and two demonesses in bed with him. Naturally, they all leaped in alarm.
"Angels- here!?" one of the demonesses said in fear.
"You fucker, you said we were safe here!" the other screamed, glaring at the overlord.
Said Overlord only starred before throwing, literally throwing one of the female sinners at Adam.
She screamed in terror as he backhanded her with his wing. It didn't just cut her, it shredded her into demonic mince meat.
The overlord made a run for it, leaping into a wall to plow through it. He didn't stop, running through walls until he was out of the building, leaping down into the road below.
He landed mere feet from the two exorcists and the fly demon. One of them stabbed a spear into his leg, making him growl in defeat as the pain brought him to his knees.
"Well, you can go," one of the exorcists said dryly, the fly sinner scurrying away quickly.
"Damn traitor. I'll strangle him with his own legs if I don't die here!" the overlord growled out in rage and denial.
"Like you'll get that chance!" Adam yelled out as he joined. "Nice work, ladies."
"Sir!" the exorcists nodded.
Adam looked down at his catch. "Well, well, King Thug himself."
"And you would be Svayambhuva Manu," Thug said with a scowl.
"Right, one of my other names. I like Adam more. Less of a mouthful, still awesome," Adam said nonchalantly. "Now, I heard you offed over a hundred people? Some of my girls don't get that many kills in a purge. And strangling? Horrible way to murder, interesting kink though."
"Thank you for the COMPLIMENT!" Thug roared, his third eye firing a beam of green energy.
There was a gasp as Adam was hit head-on by the attack, smoke covering him.
Thug panted heavily but grew increasingly worried when the exorcists didn't react, didn't even move after he attacked their leader.
Adam's hand reached out and practically slammed onto the top of Thug's head. Without wasting a second, he casually and mercilessly stuck his thumb through the third eye, making Thug scream in pain. His attempt to get free only further damaged the eye socket that Adam held to as he leaned out of the smoke with a terrifying grin.
"That's adorable. Now, let's see what happens first: You die or I lobotomize you," Adam said as he slowly pumped holy energy through his finger and directly into the sinner's mind.
It was like acid and salt had been poured into Thug's skull, then Set On Fire Because Every Piece of His Soul Was-!
Thug's eyes clouded over as he started to drool, still breathing.
"Oh, fuck, I didn't think that'd actually work!" Adam said with a laugh before blasting the head away entirely.
"I'm surprised you didn't leave him like that, Sir," one of the other exorcists said.
Adam snorted. "Ladies, I have class. I will kill sinners all day, but with some vile exceptions, I'll put them out of their misery instead of leaving them for the wolves. You know how this place gets after we've had our fun."
"Nothing but endless civil war over every inch of territory without an owner. As if one block of shit is much different from the next," Lute remarked knowingly. "What now, Sir?"
"We got an overlord, even if it wasn't a heavy one. Ladies, go have fun. I'm going to "Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, Toe" over where I'm going next," Adam waved off.
"Sir!" they saluted and flew off.
Lute lingered, giving Adam a knowing look. "Are you sure you don't need company, Sir?"
"No, I'm good," Adam assured, waving her off.
Lute nodded and left with a flap of her wings.
Adam turned to look to the side, starring seemingly at nothing.
The air shimmered to reveal a magical shield, containing a scowling Lucifer and Charlie, who looked saddened but resigned.
"You knew we were here? Lucifer asked in surprise.
Adam looked down at Charlie for a moment before looking at Lucifer with a glare, his halo glowing just a bit brighter. "You fucking ass. Did you really bring her out here to make her watch me kill someone?"
Lucifer blinked, raising an eyebrow. "What, don't want CharChar to know what you're really like?"
"Fuckwad, she already knew what I'm like. I've made it very clear and reminded her often," Adam said disapprovingly. "So, let me guess. Charlie wanted to come see me again. You didn't like it. So when she insisted, you got the brilliant fucking idea that making her watch me kill a sinner was a good way to change her mind about me?"
Lucifer was stunned by how accurate that more or less was.
"Well congrats, your royal dickness. All you did was endanger your daughter and nearly make her cry," Adam said flatly as he walked up to them. "Hellflake?"
"Yes, Adam?" she whispered out, not looking up.
"You want to go home now?" Adam asked. His tone wasn't gentle but it wasn't exactly hard either.
"Yes, please. Can we go, Daddy?" Charlie asked pleadingly.
"Charlie, I- of course. I'll take you home now," Lucifer said with a grimace of regret as he moved to pick her up.
Adam watched them as Charlie hugged her arms around her father's neck, staring at Adam with glossy eyes. "Bye, Adam."
"Bye, Hellflake. See you next year," Adam said with a half-wave.
Unseen by Charlie, Lucifer sent a glare of disapproval to Adam for the comment. With that, he made a portal to Charlie's room and took her away. The princess waved goodbye to the angel as they went.
Then, they were back in her room. Lucifer gently placed her on the bed, giving her an apologetic and loving smile. "I'm sorry, Charlie. I think I might have taken that a bit too far," Lucifer said softly.
Charlie just sniffed and refused to look at him, pulling herself up into a ball as Razzle and Dazzle came to cuddle up to her sides to provide emotional support.
Lucifer placed his forehead on hers before kissing her on the cheek. "Goodnight, Princess."
Charlie sat there as her father left, her mind spinning. Extermination Day had always left her feeling sad and stressed. Now it left her confused and uncertain.
Almost without realizing it, she moved to the balcony, taking a seat against the railing. Just like she had the very first night.
Adam was right though.
Yes, the image of him killing someone so cruelly was stuck in her head, watching him utterly annihilate a skull and sending a soul to its second and final death.
But she had always known that. Adam had even admitted that he would have killed her that first night if she had been anyone else.
He didn't kill sinners right in front of her though, not up closer like that. Except that one time that he...that he saved her.
It was surreal to recall because...
She could feel it. His power, his soul, his holy power. It was in every every movement he made.
She knew, in that moment, that Adam could kill her as simple as breathing.
And also that, for some reason, she was perfectly safe with him.
At that moment, she felt as safe with Adam as she did with her mother and father.
She smiled, recalling the feeling vividly.
…Too vividly.
She looked up in alarm and saw Adam sitting on the railing, facing outward with his feet against the side. His right wing was curled to wrap around her.
"You're here?" Charlie asked in surprise.
"Just making sure he didn't give you a beating or anything," Adam answered idly.
Charlie looked stricken rather than outraged. "Daddy would never do that! My parents would never hurt me!" she defended, her emotions still high from the night's events.
"Good," Adam said without hesitation. "A good ass-whooping can help sometimes, but...you're the kind of kid that hardly ever needs one."
Charlie opened her mouth and then closed it slowly. "Thank you," she said uncertainly. "Wait, were you...really worried...?"
"Get used to me assuming the worst of your parents, Hellflake," Adam warned softly. "Do you tell him why you wanted to keep coming to see me?"
"He doesn't think you'll change your mind," Charlie said softly.
"I wouldn't hold my breath on it," Adam admitted with a snort.
"So...why should I bother?" Charlie asked, looking down in depression.
Adam shrugged. "I don't know, why did you bother before?"
"Because I wanted to at least try! Nothing gets better if no one tries!" Charlie exclaimed, sad and frustrated, her demon form taking over.
Adam's golden wing moved a bit closer to her.
"And...and...and I know I'm a kid still! I know I'm tiny and a baby to Mommy, Daddy, a-and even you! I'm only a hundred and twenty, you're thousands of years old!" Charlie forced out in frustration, pausing to take a breath. "But no one is trying. People keep dying, but no one is trying to stop it! And e-even if you say no to me for a hundred years, maybe I can figure something out! If I try enough, if I learn enough...maybe I'll find another way."
"...You're nothing like your parents."
Charlie blinked, looking up at him. "What...?"
He didn't look back. "Trust me, that's the highest fucking praise from me," Adam said bluntly.
With that, he removed his wing from Charlie and rose to his feet.
"See you next year, Hellflake."
Instead of flying away, he stepped over the edge and allowed himself to fall. As he did, he looked over his shoulder.
There, under the balcony and upside down to the utter defiance of gravity, was Lucifer Morningstar. Adam gave the Devil a pointed look, who scowled with a troubled but resigned look as if he now understood some unpleasant but true.
Without a word, Adam flapped his wing and flew away.
He really hoped he found another Overlord to kill before E-Day was through.
End of Chapter
Only two years this chapter, but both were rather long and heavy. To quote Avatar, Lucifer is an awkward turtleduck. In canon, he and Charlie were closeR before Lilith split, but they were also never "very close" judging by Charlie's line of "Growing up, I hardly knew you at all" from the "More than Anything Song." This, he is a loving father who is nonetheless uncertain and a bit clumsy emotionally. But he's not the cringe-awkward at this point from depression and everything.
Meanwhile, Adam...look, he tried to be civil with the being he hates most in creation. But he also makes it clear to Charlie that whatever arguments happen between him and Lucifer isn't her fault. He is neither claiming or denying responsibility, merely nixing Charlie blaming herself. Lucifer is of course a bit jealous of how he sees Charlie act around Adam. It being Adam makes it all the stranger to him.
And yes, saying that someone is NOTHING like Lilith or Lucifer is the highest compliment Adam can give anyone.
PS Yes, King Thug was a person: Buhram Jamedar, King of the Thugs. His group in India is actually where the term "Thug" originally came from.
