Things couldn't be more complicated or wonderful. Alastor was making his way back to his own room, thinking about Charlie and what just transpired between them. Could it be plausible that she returns his feelings? Perhaps she was just lonely since Vaggie had returned to Heaven, that would probably make more sense. Even still, Alastor couldn't help but have his heart skip a beat or two whenever he thought back to how Charlie looked at him. He couldn't remember the last time someone looked at him with something other than pure fear. Don't be confused, he very much enjoyed being feared. Hell, he thrived off of it! He just never thought that he would crave an intimate look until Charlie gave him one and now he was simply addicted. He knew that he needed to figure out once and for all if his feelings were a symptom of his festering wound or if it was natural. If he were to pursue Charlie and later on realize that his feelings weren't real, he would never be able to forgive himself for leading her on.
These thoughts flooded his mind as he entered his room. One of the bonuses of being an Overlord: it came with high instincts. He knew someone else was in his room.
"You have found me in a particularly pleasant mood so I shall give you one chance to show yourself. If you do not, I shall disembowel you slowly and broadcast your cries of anguish for all of Hell to hear." Alastor stated casually. He saw a figure step forward from beside his bookshelf.
"Oh I'd love to see you try, buddy." Lucifer stated, his hands on his hips. Alastor let out a displeased hum. Literally the last person he'd want to see right now. He would actually prefer to see Adam at this moment.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, your Majesty? I didn't see you at the Talent Show. Pity." Alastor spat out. He was actually more than overjoyed that he didn't see him there.
"Oh I was there. I just know how to hide myself." Lucifer walked over to one of Alastor's chair in front of his fireplace.
"Not well apparently considering that I knew you were here mere seconds after I arrived." Alastor joined him on the opposite chair. Alastor flicked his claw, letting a spark fly and landing in the firewood. A roar of flames shot to life.
"Only because I wanted you to know I was here. Don't misunderstand, you are but a mere child to me. If I didn't want you to know I was here, you wouldn't know." Lucifer's voice was deeper and more serious than Alastor was used to. He rolled his eyes and played it off.
"Agree to disagree then. Surely you are not here to play a fun game of 'Finding Lucifer'. Why are you here?" Alastor knew it was very uncharacteristic for Lucifer to enter his Radio Tower especially at this hour.
"I know what's wrong with you." Lucifer conjured a cup of tea and sipped on it. Alastor cut his eyes to the King quickly.
"The holy wound? Yes, Adam gave it to me. Please impress me and tell me something I don't already know." Alastor chuckled amusingly.
"Ok, how about this: your feelings for Charlie aren't being caused by the wound." Lucifer didn't flinch when Alastor shot up from his chair. The Radio demon's eye began to twitch and his antlers began to grow slightly. Did Husk-
"And before you go and torture that poor cat, he didn't say anything. I was there when you were drunkenly blabbing your sorrows away to him earlier today." Lucifer smirked at Alastor. "I told you. If I don't want you to know that I'm there, you won't know."
Alastor could feel his heart hammering in his chest and he was sure Lucifer could hear it too. There was so much to absorb just in those few sentences. Lucifer knows about his feelings for his daughter, yet he wasn't mauling him? And what did he mean it wasn't being caused by the wound
"You know what's causing my feelings for her." It wasn't a question. Alastor knew that Lucifer had the answer. He felt his whole body vibrating.
"I do. But what fun is it to tell you?" Lucifer laughed as he finished off his tea, throwing his teacup to the ground and shattering it. Alastor gritted his teeth. If this was literally anyone else he would've already had them thrown outside by now. No, they would be burnt to ash by now. Alastor did learn something with Lucifer's reply though: something was causing his feelings for Charlie. They weren't natural. Alastor didn't know if he felt relieved or devastated. A mixture of both cocktailed together in his gut and made him sick.
"So you're just going to let my feelings for her remain then?" Alastor didn't understand why Lucifer wouldn't help him. Lucifer of all people should want Alastor's affections to go away.
"Like I said before, I saw you and Charlie's performance. It was very...informative." Lucifer stood up and walked over to the fireplace, standing right in front of it. He stared into the flames intensely.
"Informative how? I tire of the riddles." Alastor's patience was running paper thin already and Lucifer stringing him along for information wasn't helping anything at all.
"The way you looked at her." Lucifer paused to take a breath. "I saw the way you looked at her and it was hard to believe that those feelings weren't actually real. You didn't look at her with carnal desire. You looked at her...well...much like how I looked at her mother. They looked incredibly real."
"They feel real." Alastor blurted out before considering how Lucifer would react. He wasn't lying though. Other than them getting stronger and stronger by the day, they felt very real. It was hard to imagine not loving Charlie.
Wait. Did he just admit he loved her?
Alastor felt his knees turn to Jell-O which resulted in him collapsing back into his chair. Lucifer turned around and saw that Alastor had paled considerably. He had to remember that this most likely wasn't easy for Alastor. He probably had no experience in such matters of the heart and in turn had no way to handle them.
"I believe you. But you need to understand that they're not." Lucifer crouched in front of Alastor so he could look into his eyes.
"If I tell you what caused them, you need to not freak out on me, ok? I would hate to lock you up again because last time it clearly distressed Charlie." Alastor shifted his gaze from the floor to Lucifer.
"Why would I 'freak out' as you say?" Alastor felt like something wasn't right. Lucifer didn't know a whole lot about him, so why would he immediately think Alastor would lose it when he would know what happened to him? Lucifer stared at him in silence, contemplating how to tell him.
"I went to Heaven and talked to Vaggie. I explained to her what was happening and she had a theory. It's the only thing that makes sense-" Alastor leaned forward and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him.
"Just fucking tell me!" Alastor felt so rabid for information that he expected foam to appear at his mouth. Lucifer saw the desperation in his eyes and knew that Alastor needed relief. He needed to be free of these affections.
"She said that she remembered seeing an advertisement for Love Potions further into the city. The side affects match your to a T. The way you attacked Charlie and had no memory of it and I'm also guessing that with every passing day your feelings grow stronger. Am I right?" Alastor let go of Lucifer and became absorbed in thought. He vaguely recalled seeing a billboard for such nonsensical things and he also remembered who was the face of said products.
"Alastor?" Lucifer saw Alastor's face disfigure into something filled with pure evil. His antlers grew wide and black as night. Blood began to trickle from his mouth and down his chin. The corners of his smile reached his hairline and even his teeth seemed to become larger. Lucifer watched as Alastor turned from a hopeless sinner to a full blown Wendigo.
"I'm going to kill him. I'm going to eat his soul and make his companions watch as I do so." Alastor stood up and Lucifer also realized that he had grown in stature as well.
"Hey hey don't do anything yet! I know the V's are behind this but I can take care of them. I'll go to them and make them give me an antidote and no one has to get maimed."
"Oh but what's the fun in that, Your Majesty? I want to watch his face as I rip his soul from his body-"
"I swear all you sinners are the same. Violence obsessed." Lucifer mumbled to himself, but then re directed his attention back to Alastor. "What do you think Charlie would do if you did something like that?" Lucifer didn't want to bring up Charlie but this but he could see that he was fighting a losing battle. He knew that he could get him in the holding cell again but he honestly wasn't sure how long it would hold him, especially when he was in this state.
"Charlie knows what I am. I'd like to think she wouldn't bat an eye." Alastor growled. Lucifer could feel the static in the air to the point that he could feel tiny shocks in his lungs from breathing the electricity in.
"What if you got hurt? Charlie would be so upset!" Lucifer was grasping at straws now. He didn't want to reveal this bit of information but it seemed he was all out of options.
"Charlie doesn't care for me." Alastor couldn't believe that he considered that his feelings for her were real, even for a mere moment. Charlie saw him as a basket case and nothing more. A pawn to use for her loneliness since she lost her heavenly girlfriend. He knew he shouldn't exactly be mad since he had used people as his own pawns his entire existence but the thought of Charlie using him stung as much as the wound did.
"You're wrong! I saw how you looked at her on stage but I also saw how she looked at you!" Lucifer looked as Alastor paused and looked down at him. His pupils were radio dials that glowed red.
"You're lying." Alastor could feel his rage started to boil over to the point that he could barely contain it. It was taking over his rational thinking and was starting to swallow him whole.
"Why in the unholy hell would I lie about that? Do you know how gut wrenching it was to watch her look at you like that? Like you were the only one in the room?" Lucifer hung his head, not able to meet Alastor's crazed eyes anymore. He couldn't understand why Charlie became so attached to something as horrible as Alastor. He didn't care for him in the least but he couldn't let him go on a murder spree and risk getting killed. It would destroy his little girl.
Alastor managed to calm down enough to shrink back to his original height.
"She really looked at me like that?" The Overlord loathed himself for letting hope seep through his skin. Charlie had no reason to feel for him even a fraction of what he felt for her. Lucifer nodded.
"We can come up with a plan. A plan to get back at them but we need to lay down some ground rules if we're going to work together." Lucifer demanded. Alastor chuckled which made him relax enough to completely return to normal. Lucifer let out a breath of relief that he didn't realize he was holding.
"Ground rules, you say? Oh these I must hear." Alastor sat back down and perked his ears to listen to this nonsense. He had no intention of working with Daddy Dearest but curiosity was an easy thing to dive into.
"Rule number one: Charlie doesn't find out about any of this. For one it would crush her to know that your feelings aren't real. Well-" Lucifer stopped himself before he continued. Alastor twitched an ear.
"Well what?" Alastor saw that Lucifer almost let something slip but stopped himself.
"Well...I'm sure you wouldn't want that, now would you?" Lucifer rushed out. Alastor squinted his eyes, not buying the cover up at all. He decided to let it go for the time being.
"I assume there's a rule number two?"
"Yes! Rule number two: You do not approach the V's. Under any circumstance. Not until I say so."
"Terribly sorry but I cannot agree to that. That vindictive two timing picture box deserves all of the agony I'm going to rain down on him."
"And believe me, I agree! In the process of fucking with you, he fucked with Charlie. If you could just be patient, I can make the payback even sweeter." Lucifer tried to appeal to Alastor's vengeful side but the impatient part of him was making it very difficult.
"Somehow I doubt that."
"Can you please just trust me?" Lucifer exclaimed. He had never met such a stubborn sinner in his entire existence!
"Aha! Trust you? I didn't know that you had a sense of humor." Alastor bent forward, glaring at Lucifer.
"Hey! I happen to be very funny but that wasn't a joke! Don't trust me as the King of Hell then. Trust me as Charlie's father who just wants to protect her. We can both at least agree on that, can't we? We both care about her deeply and we want them to pay for this." Alastor straightened his back and turned away from him, not wanting to look at him much longer. He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to collapse and forget this entire conversation.
"My feelings aren't real. Try again." Alastor said coldly. He had to force himself to remember that his feelings for her weren't nothing more than a chemical imbalance. Lucifer groaned.
"Be that as it may, you mean to tell me that you want them to get away with hurting her like this? When she finds out that your feelings aren't real, she's going to be crushed."
"Of course I don't want them to get away with this!" Alastor turned around his heel and felt his blood pressure rise. His skin tingled as Lucifer looked at him wide eyed.
"Do you actually think that I'm enjoying knowing the fact that my love for her isn't real? That my affections are from a love potion, as disgusting as that is? I want to love Charlie not because of what I would get out of it but because she deserves it! She deserves all of the love she can get and she certainly didn't get it from that self righteous holy bitch! She sent her away crying and feeling hopeless and I had to watch her fall apart. I wanted to go to Heaven myself and ring her neck like a chicken simply because she caused Charlie grief. I loathe the fact that once this is all over, I won't feel this way anymore. It's not about what I will lose. It's about what Charlie would lose and that is beyond painful and Godamnit Vox will pay for that!" Alastor caught his breath as Lucifer stared at him.
"Wow. You've uh...been holding that in for a while, haven't you?" Lucifer tried to speak calmly to try and bring Alastor down but it didn't work.
"A while? A while?! I've done nothing but hold it in for weeks now! I black out and assault Charlie, I pass out and have hallucinations about my mother who died way before I did, I have to fight with every fiber of my being to not make any advancements towards Charlie and now to learn that all of it isn't real? All of it is fake? I feel..." Alastor felt the room begin to spin. He was in a spinout and knew he was about to crash.
"I feel hollow. I feel like someone has emptied me of everything that I am. But of course you wouldn't know anything about that." Alastor put his face in his hands as he tried to collect himself. There was a pregnant pause of silence before Lucifer broke the silence.
"You think that I wouldn't understand? Little do you know that I know exactly what you're going through." Lucifer said in a somber tone. Alastor put his hands down and looked at the King of Hell who now looked more like a broken man.
"I too once loved someone with everything I had. I would've done anything for her. She was...bliss. Then things changed and...she left." Alastor knew he was talking about Charlie's mother and he couldn't help but be a little stunned at how vulnerable Lucifer was in that moment. At least Alastor could blame his outburst on the love potion.
"She left and I realized that she didn't feel the same way for me. Not anymore." Lucifer walked over to Alastor's bookshelf, his finger gliding over the dusty book spines.
"What did you do?" Alastor asked before he thought about it.
"What could I do? I let her go and raised Charlie the best that I could, which as you have so graciously pointed out, wasn't very well." Lucifer looked down at his hand, which still sported his gold wedding band.
"I could never stop loving her. No matter how she felt about me."
"How could you not hate her for leaving you and Charlie? She abandoned both of you." Alastor growled as he pictured a depressed Charlie, wondering why her mother never returned.
"Love, hate, it's such a fine line." Lucifer mumbled. He turned and faced Alastor again with glassy eyes.
"True love is when you care for them no matter what. Even if they don't return your affections. Even if they hate you." Lucifer returned to stand before Alastor.
"Promise me that when this is all over, you will still look after her. Even if your feelings are long gone. Yours might not be real but...but Charlie's are very real. Please don't stop caring for her."
Alastor watched as Lucifer pleaded with him. He wasn't the Ruler of Hell anymore. He was a father that was worried about his daughter. A small spark of respect flashed in Alastor's chest.
"I...I give you my word." Lucifer smiled and wiped away a tear that had collected.
"Thank you."
A/N: We finally have some closure between Alastor and Lucifer! Ahh! I've been looking forward to this chapter for a while now! I really hope you all enjoyed it! xx
