Charlie awoke the next morning, her shoulder stiff. She banged a hard fist on her pillow to fluff it up and was met with a groan instead.

She whipped her head to the side and saw the pained grimace of Alastor, his chest acting as her pillow. She was layered over him, her leg woven through his, her side tucked against the couch. He flopped an arm over his face, still asleep.

Her eyes became as wide as saucers, her body frozen for fear of waking the Radio Demon and inciting his ire. The last thing she'd expect he'd appreciate is someone using him as their own personal cushion.

But Charlie also didn't want to move, the cool morning air urging her to snuggle closer for warmth. Her heart fluttered as she watched him breathe, his face a picturesque vision of calm and vulnerability. She felt privileged in this moment, privy to a private side of the overly private deer demon. Not to mention the memories of last night that flooded her consciousness in the harsh reality of day. She was stone-cold sober last night and yet the words that escaped her seemed like something a tipsy moron might utter.

But he had taken it all in stride, and responded in a way she expected. Joking, deflecting, somber. Charlie understood the way he operated at this point, no matter how much it irked her that he hid that side of himself. He had nothing to gain that way, she thought to herself, her own philosophies clashing daily with the demon's.

The blonde sat up slowly, lightly pushing herself off from him, careful not to disturb his rest. She gently extricated her limbs from his, not thinking even once of the tender and compromising position that they had been laying in. It just felt natural and familiar. Personal and affectionate. Things that, to Charlie, ought to be normal between close… companions.

But she also knew to anyone else, it would look downright scandalous. She had to get out of here ASAP, not wanting to invite outrage from any direction. She was already berating herself for falling asleep in the first place. She slept here way too many times for comfort. He really ought to create more boundaries between the two of them, and she as well…

As she finagled her leg out from between his, the Radio Demon stirred, a throaty sigh escaping his black lips. Charlie froze at the sound, her cheeks blossoming red against her will. It was such an authentic sound that it seemed almost unreal coming from the man next to her. He groaned again, a deep sound straight from his chest. The demoness watched his expression, waiting for his inevitable surprise at her presence but it did not come.

Instead his arms moved to grip hers and pulled her back into himself. Still asleep, he tugged her to him and wrapped his hands over her back like one might hold a pillow for comfort. Charlie was trapped, her arm bent in an awkward position, the other caught between his body and herself.

'Crap,' she thought. But she did not fight him much more than that. In fact, she probably exerted all of ten percent of her efforts to actually escape from his embrace, enjoying far too much the idea of a vulnerable Alastor. Overlord of Hell, but snuggly sleeper. Her face pinkened as his breath rustled the bangs of her hair.

His face was so close she could really admire his features. 'He looks so cute like this,' the thought came without warning, sending her spiraling mentally again. She wasn't allowed to think such things, not about the Radio Demon. But it didn't stop her from using the close proximity to continue the appreciation of his face. His long pointed lashes, his dark red eyelids, akin to eyeshadow. The rough texture of his skin. His soft bouncy hair. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but the risk was already too great.

Her body warmed the more she looked at him and suddenly she felt squirmy and hot, and very aware just how tightly bound their two bodies were together. The duo hugged all the time, but this seemed different, with way less space left between them, their position almost entirely devoid of empty air. It was full-body contact, made worse by the fact that the demoness was wearing nothing but a wafer thin dress, riding up further with every shift. Soon the fabric of his trousers would be rubbing against her undergarments.

Charlie wiggled her legs, feeling even more uncomfortable, the squirmy sensation making its way through her tummy.

She'd give him ten more minutes and then she would actually have to leave. The morning rays of the sun would soon awaken the entire hotel and exiting late from the deer demon's quarters would look questionable at best. She had just fallen asleep after a cold and tiring evening. It was innocent enough, she convinced herself.

…

Two minutes later, unable to wait, Charlie attempted to wake the demon. She poked and prodded at his face, shifting from fingers to a full palmed pat on the cheek. She shook his shoulder and tickled his neck but the Radio Demon was sleeping like a rock. She assumed he would always be somewhat alert for fear of ambushes and the like. He looked way too peaceful and comfortable and though it pained her to wake him, she had to escape his grasp.

"Alastorrr~" she whispered, holding his face. Is this what it would be like to wake up next to the deer demon? Her mind wondered.

Her heart pounded at the imagery and she blushed again, forcing the strange domestic vision out of her head. It was not even remotely appropriate and she was certain that neither Vaggie nor Alastor would appreciate it.

She tapped a little harder, nearly a slap, crooning his name in a light sing-song. "Wake up, sleepy head!"

Alastor's eyes finally fluttered open, glazed with sleep. He hadn't slept that hard in years. As his vision cleared, he only saw two red, opaque ovals staring straight at him.

"Good morning!" Charlie called.

He smiled in response, still half asleep before the dots in his brain started to connect. As his mind caught up with his vision, the haze evaporating, Alastor's eyes blasted open and he immediately sprung up, sending the demoness tumbling off of him.

"Saints alive!" he exclaimed, his static-filled voice gritty with feedback and the crashing of cymbals.

"Oof," the blonde hotelier sat back up. "You're quite the sound sleeper, Al!"

The deer demon held his chest, his heart pounding from the shock of seeing his companion not only sleeping in his bedroom, but also on top of him. His wound was having an absolute field day of twists and turns after a relatively quiet evening. He didn't mean to fall asleep, it wasn't in his nature to let his guard down so disastrously low as to let the presence of another being not interrupt his rest.

Memories of the previous evening began to shoot through his brain and Alastor wanted nothing more than to banish the demoness from his quarters, wary of all that her presence seemed to bring out in him. Some cozy, mushy, accepting little mess that he was. The daylight of morning brought with it a much needed clarity.

"Good morning, dear," he ground out, embarrassed from the thoughts of last night. How were they meant to continue normally after that… He was good at acting fine most of the time, but how about her?

But Charlie was perfectly composed enough and not at all phased. She had all morning before he woke to decipher her own thoughts after all.

Feeling like she has already overstayed her welcome, Charlie quickly picked up the pieces of her evening and made for the door, wanting to leave the demon to his own devices.

She also felt like she needed to get away, and be alone with her own traitorous body. It craved more of something intangible despite already being overwhelmed with body contact.

"I'll see you later, Al! Thanks for letting me crash!" she said in her normally chipper voice masking the shakiness underneath. "I'll be in the office," she let him know before escaping down the hallway, shoes in hand. Her own little version of the walk of shame. Her cheeks lit anew at the analogy.

…

It was Alastor's turn to avoid Charlie.

Well, not avoid, but just stick to his own designated areas of the hotel. He sat in his radio tower, contemplated some future broadcast, wandered the balcony, and flicked through more unread books in his bedroom.

There was only so much he felt like doing that didn't involve the demoness after all…

And he knew for a fact that she was conjuring up some other redemption activity that would only serve to annoy him if she forced him to participate. He didn't mind redemption when it was the others making fools of themselves, but when he had to do it… Charlie had mentioned the next one being a team-bonding exercise… "Virtuous Knot" she called it. The very name summoned unwanted imagery.

Alastor shut the useless book he was reading and remembered there was another book that definitely warranted a much closer inspection. The book of poetry from the King of Hell himself. As pointless as the deer demon had deemed it at the time because of its relation to redemption, it was the closest thing he had to something actually semi-related to the issue at hand.

Now where was the book? As fate would have it, the book was in Charlie's possession the last time he saw it. She said she wanted to study it further and he had let her, not buying its significance at the time.

Alastor made his way to the hotel office. His "oh well" shrug said everything about how much he really tried to avoid the woman.

…

Alastor hand froze an inch away from the office's door handle. He heard voices within, heated and unhappy.

It was Charlie and Vaggie, at it again. He wasn't trying to listen but the thin wood of the door made it especially hard not to catch bits and pieces.

Vaggie was upset about Charlie's absence the previous night after their latest row… and something about Vox? The deer demon leaned closer, hearing the TV demon's name multiple times within their conversation.

Did Charlie discover Vaggie's little rendezvous with Vox? But why did Charlie sound like she was defending a decision regarding that pathetic tryhard TV?

There was more said. About yesterday's activity, Charlie's struggle, a misunderstanding.

He debated bursting in on them to catch them unawares, his time at the door extending far too long to be considered an innocent eavesdrop.

So he did just that.

"Good day, dears!" he called, swinging the door open at a breakneck speed.

"Al!" Charlie yelped.

Vaggie glared, still reeling from her argument with the blonde. She stood upright from her leaning position at Charlie's desk and put her hands on her hips. "Do you mind? We're having a private discussion," she spit out.

"By all means continue! Though I might remind you that this office is a shared space… between Charlie and I that is…" he sauntered over to his own side of the room and plopped daintily into his chair and crossed his legs.

Fuming, Vaggie urged Charlie to continue this conversation in the hallway but unexpectedly, the demoness refused.

"Vaggie… I told you, I made my decision already. Please just trust me for once!" she whispered heatedly. Alastor's ears pricked at the words.

Mildly aghast, the former soldier shook her head and sighed. She placed a cool hand over Charlie's but the demoness removed it from her grasp.

Equally hurting, the pair looked at each other, eyes screwed up in some unspoken pain. Vaggie left then, without another word, and slammed the door behind her.

As a heated silence settled into the office space, Alastor actually felt a little bad for interrupting, the feeling coming from some buried space within. He was certain he had caught them at their worst, judging by the expression on his companion's face. It was bordering on depressed.

Maybe he should apologize and check on her, he thought, but in his own little backwards way.

…

Vaggie couldn't manage a single conversation with her own girlfriend without some damnable idiot interrupting them. It was impossible to maintain what little control she felt she had when it was constantly being torn in every direction. Her relationship with Charlie being the most tenuous of all.

No matter what she tried to tell Charlie, no matter how she tried to persuade her of the danger of associating with more insufferable folk, the more the demoness seemed to be heading in that direction! It was as if she was willfully disobeying her, or maybe she just hated her girlfriend's own suggestions that much, Charlie just had to believe her own blind faith. Singing, dancing, arguing with the news casters, arguing with Heaven! Working with Alastor, working with Vox! Vaggie didn't know what it would take to make her see sense before something truly unfortunate were to happen.

Vaggie severely regretted going to Vox in the first place. Maybe if she hadn't approached the TV demon, he wouldn't have had the gall to approach them at dinner. Her rejection of him certainly didn't help. Vox was emboldened somehow. Whether by her actions or something she didn't know of, she wasn't sure.

Maybe she ought to leave it all alone. Let Charlie fall, let her fail. Let her embarrass herself as she was wont to do. Vaggie could try and protect her tangentially, from the sidelines, from a distance. That was clearly what Charlie preferred. Though all that has managed was a war with Heaven and a deer demon taking up near permanent residence.

Maybe she could do what needed to be done without Charlie's awareness. If the demoness was unwilling to heed her warnings, she would just have to take things into her own hands.

…

Charlie hadn't spoken yet.

"Darling," Alastor began, when the silence prolonged beyond comfort.

"What Alastor? I'm not in the mood," said Charlie, her voice crushed and angry. "Maybe knock next time?" She pretended to look busy with some random papers on her desk, but she was looking without seeing.

She threw her work to the side and slumped her head on the desk, a pitiful sound coming from her mouth. A mix between a wail and a whine, Charlie began to mumble her doubts, sniffling. About the hotel, about herself, about everything. It was clear there was a lot on her mind, and not all of it related to Vaggie.

The pressures of the goal were weighing on her still, the revelations of days past only succeeded in driving the demoness further into a hole of dejection.

Alastor could sense it more than ever. The optimistic and cheery Charlie of yesteryear was teetering on the edge of some massive cliff. He had to step in. Only one of them was allowed to doubt the success of her lofty dream, or what was the point of all this?

He stood, with purpose, and tapped his radio lightly against the table. It crackled to life and began to play a lively melody, its sound echoing off the corners of the room so it was all that could be heard in the shared space.

Charlie turned her head, still laying atop the table, and sent the most withering look in her business partner's direction.

But the Radio Demon wasn't phased as he strode towards her, half in apology. This was what he excelled at, and what he knew for a fact his companion could not resist, even while in her awful slump…

A song.

He began, his voice resonant and vibrant. He ran a clawed hand over her golden hair, spun around, and continued back around the room, leading her with a finger. Charlie's eyes followed him. And before long she was sitting up, trying her damndest to not look interested, a grin tugging at her lips. Curious and caught in an immediate trance, she listened.

Charlie…
At the end of your rope, facing utter despair
While it brings the harshest foe,
It helps to see what's darkest,
To ignite the fire that glows

For the saddest lot that you've ever seen
Belongs at this hotel
They've started at the bottom
To rise with you, my belle

How it pains me to see you at your worst
It pricks and stabs and bends
Turn the frown on your face to something more
A smile that burns
A smile that burns all dark away
That turns all of night into the day!

And the second that you think you've lost
Or dipped beneath the waves
Remember what's important
The souls you've come to save

I can see it in your eyes, my dear
A look that shakes the core
That dreams of brighter days ahead
A spirit I adore

Without you this place would never work,
It crumbles to the ground
Pick up the pieces and strike a match,
And light all of Hell
And light all of Hell into a blaze
So Heaven is forced to turn its gaze!

By now Charlie was on her feet, pulled and danced around the tiny office by the deer demon. They kicked over boxes and paper alike, the white sheets of work forgotten and floating around them like fluttering birds. Alastor effortlessly twirled her as he finished his song, wrapping it up with a final belt of power and emotion. They faced each other then, Alastor caressing her cheek as the demoness in his arms melted into tears.

I'll be by your side
I'll be by your side until the end
As long as this fate of mine intends!

The last note of his song echoed into silence as the heavy thrum of his breath settled. He smiled down at her, a proud little smirk.

"Al!" Charlie wailed, crying her eyes out. She could barely stand as the message of his words settled into her heart.

Hope, perseverance, resilience, light, fire, joy… all themes that Charlie might never have associated with the Radio Demon, and here he was, serenading her with the goal of lifting her up. It was hard not to respond emotionally, to feel reinvigorated by her partner's message.

"Oh, Alastor," she said again, finding she lacked the words to thank him properly. It had been so long, too long, since she had sung herself and he inspired as he always did with barely a blink of an eye.

He conjured his handkerchief out of thin air, the one he had specifically reserved for his demon belle at this point, and wiped at her flowing tears.

"I had intended to stop your tears, not cause them!" he warbled.

His face burned after the conclusion of the song. His lyrics had always had some tone of irony before this. Never before had such a… sincere rendition escaped his lips. Sweat dripped down his brow and he rubbed Charlie's eyes and face roughly with the cloth, practically suffocating her, to avoid eye contact.

"How could I not cry? That was so beautiful!" she cried through the cloth, tears unrelenting.

She embraced her companion, hands unwrapping and rewrapping around his torso, trying to increase her grip with each attempt. She refused to release him as waves of pure gratitude and fondness washed over her.

Alastor chuckled nervously, unused to such a genuine show of appreciation that he unwittingly provoked. Her overwhelmed reaction struck a chord within the deer demon and he found himself craving the opportunity to elicit other, stronger, emotions.

Charlie wanted to give him more, give him something he desired, some small gift in return for his constant support and unwavering presence. She voiced her concerns aloud.

"You needn't offer me anything, my dear." He pulled back slightly from her hold, to finally look into her tear-stained face. "I do what I do, despite my bad attitude, because I care about you," he said, echoing her words from a time before. He said it so straight, without a hint of reservation. He truly did mean it, it came so easily that it surprised even himself. His eyes widened at the realization.

The Mark on his chest had been quiet the night before, shockingly calm despite his emotional outburst. It was quiet again now, smooth and soothing, as still as an untouched pool, at peace.

"You are a fool," she echoed right back, smiling, knowing that he would understand her meaning. "But thank you, I still want to give you something though."

He rolled his eyes, feeling a brief regret at the memory of that tense-filled night of the past. It seemed like so long ago, and that version of himself no longer existed.

The duo swayed, holding one another, surrounded by the mess of their dance. His radio still shimmering out a tune.

"Next time, join me in a song," Alastor said after a moment, thinking hard about what he could possibly want from the demoness. Sure he could ask for any number of favors (he still had the favor from their deal) and wishes that could further his own goals, but none came to mind right now. His mind was instead flooded with images of her laughter, her dance, her tears, the rest a white slate of things that didn't matter.

It was becoming easier to think that way, as odd as it still was, the Radio Demon felt he accepted the conjured imagery as if it was out of his control anyway. He couldn't defeat it, so he didn't fight it.

And Charlie felt the same. Each day, the pair became closer, and it became easier to hold one another. Alastor was always touchy, but now it was her joining in on the act to reach out and latch on to him.

She nodded enthusiastically, content with his answer.

...

AN: If you're interested, Alastor's song is sung to the tune of Through Heaven's Eyes from the film The Prince of Egypt which was just such a fitting song haha. I couldn't resist, I wrote an actual song! But I'm not much of a melody writer lol. Hope you got a kick out of it, I found it fun to imagine Alastor singing something besides his usual style of song like he does in the show. If I had like a... editing software to make my voice sound like his, I'd record myself singing lmaoooooo for the lulz.

Enjoy! Some much needed levity :) And Thanks for reading!