Chapter Text
Throughout his life and afterlife Alastor has come to realize that he is, in the kindest terms possible, rather slow when it comes to matters of the heart.
In life, even when boys his age had already begun sneaking in lingering stares at the neighborhood girls, he never saw them as anything worth his interest. This difference between him and the rest of society only became more exacerbated as he grew older, and he lived in an age where it was still unusual to never marry. The concept of the “ideal, nuclear American family with a white picket fence house” was typically associated with the 50’s, but prior to the decade there was obviously still the expectation to settle down with a nice girl as soon as a boy found a sweetheart to go steady with –a nice girl who was decidedly in the same racial category as the boy, on top of that. But that was a different discussion entirely.
Therefore, when his twenties arrived and the years passed by with nary a female companion in sight, his mother had begun voicing her concerns. He had always tried to reassure her that it was simply a matter of finding the right woman, saying that no one has caught his interest, but surely at some point someone would. He is still not quite certain if that last portion of his placations was a lie or not. During the time he’d said this, he had been thinking about how difficult it would be to find a lady that he would find more interesting than his little murder hobby that he’d picked up. There had also been an issue in that even if he did find a striking gal, he’d inevitably have to hide that “side gig” of his, because he was rather certain he wouldn’t give up the thrill of the hunt for anyone. Ultimately however, he himself didn’t think too heavily on the matter, being much more preoccupied with his career as a radio host as well as the after-hours fun he’d sneak in when he could, and he hadn’t been concerned about it outside of the worry it’d brought to his mother.
So by the time his life had come to an end via a bullet to the head in the middle of him hiding his most recently deceased victim, it’d come and gone without him ever taking an interest in anyone at all.
It wasn’t that much different in death, either. Having fallen to Hell, he very soon found himself face to face with what was likely the most beautiful woman he’d yet to lay eyes on, and still the only aspect to truly catch his eye had been the visible power the Queen of Hell carried herself with. With large, curved horns and a carefully judging examination, she approached him with only this to say…
“You were a rather wretched sinner in life, however… I would also not say you were the worst of wretched, either. I could make use of you… I am of the royal family of Hell, the first Sinner, Lilith. Swear fealty to me and the Morningstar family, and in exchange, you shall have the power needed to stand above the rest of your kind. I can provide you with a new hunt. Would that not beneficial to the both of us?”
In hindsight, perhaps he should not have immediately sworn his loyalty away in exchange for demonic power upon arriving in Hell. But while he’d been newly fallen, he’d gotten enough lay of the land to have caught on there was quite an abundance of powerful Hellborn and Overlord sinners, and that slavery via soul ownership was a very common occurrence. He wouldn’t stand to find himself bound in chains because of he lacked strength, especially not to sinners who he didn’t find worthy of his respect. He’d considered it a gamble to accept the Queen’s Contract, which did not require he sign his soul away, so long as he remained obedient. He would establish enough strength to stand atop any Overlord who may have posed a problem to him, and along with him essentially being sanctioned to have the type of fun he most enjoyed, there was no being higher for him to accept a Contract from outside of the fallen angel Lucifer Morningstar himself. He would find a way to keep things in his favor in the future, is what he had thought.
As it turned out, a deal with the Devil’s Wife was not one to be made lightly…
It had started out fine enough. He acted more as an independent agent than anything else. Lilith would point out any Overlords that used their power in ways she took issue with for one reason or another, and Alastor would murder them on air and add them to his collection of eternal screams, providing interesting prey along with establishing a name for himself and his radio at the same time. He also collected Soul Contracts of his own to further increase his power, and gained associations with Overlords that Lilith found more reasonable, and therefore was ambivalent to.
It was a couple of decades after he first arrived in Hell that he happened across a rather queer-looking sinner. A man with one of those newfangled bulky picture-boxes for a head. He’d never seen a demonic form quite like it before. Thus, Vox had immediately caught his interest, as shallow as it’d been. When asking after the other to question how, exactly, his head worked, Vox instantly recognized him. And rather than reacting with fear, he’d gone rather starry-eyed...
“Y-You’re the Radio Demon, right?! I’ve never seen you before, but I recognize your voice from your station! I’m– uh, I guess it’d be kinda weird to say I’m your fan, huh…? Don’t worry about that. My name’s Vox, by the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”
He did find more interesting, amusing things to be had about Vox the more he associated with the prospective business entrepreneur, though. Depending on his mood, Vox could flip between obnoxiously putting on airs of overconfidence to a borderline crippling need to overcompensate. He had apparently managed to establish himself as something of a televangelist cult leader in life, and was annoyed at having to restart and work his way back to the top once more under decidedly more difficult conditions. He was easy to irritate about many things, actually, and would often react with an amount of anger that Alastor would find personally amusing. The amount of attention he allotted to Alastor was perhaps more than he’d received from any other person in either life or death. To the point that most would have found it overbearing, even, but he was self-aware enough to know that he wouldn’t have gone into the business of being a radio personality if he didn’t appreciate attention. So overall, he found Vox to be a fine enough drinking companion to spend some free time on, and they transitioned into something of a friendship.
It was literal decades into their association before Alastor clued into the fact that Vox’s interest in him was apparently of the romantic kind, at least according to Rosie’s fine sensibilities. This was apparently so obvious, that when she’d brought it up in a luncheon with just the two of them, it had been a casual mention that suggested she expected him to have already known about this. When he elucidated his confusion, she’d been astounded to find that he’d caught not even a hint of Vox’s affection.
“You mean ya didn’t notice?! Alastor, honey– you could complain about a puddle bein’ on the ground in front of ya, and that man would dive down to lay himself across it so ya could walk over him ‘n’ not get your shoes wet! My soon ta be ex-husband doesn’t give me even a tenth of the attention that Vox gives to ya!”
“Does that not say more about your soon to be ex-husband than it does Vox…?”
“Didn’t this topic come up cause ya mentioned that Vox brought ya a bouquet of roses the last time ya went drinkin’ together?!”
“ …Well truthfully speaking, I did not find that occurrence to be too unusual, considering he’s taken to bringing me single roses prior to this. The first time he brought one I showed him how they tend to wither from my touch, but he said that he thought they looked better that way. Since I agreed with him, I didn’t think anything of it when he kept bringing me more to liven up my place. Or perhaps deaden the place would be more apt, considering the vases are all of dead flowers…”
Rosie just gave him a long, unimpressed stare. And after speaking of it aloud, Alastor also reflected that perhaps his lack of attention to those sorts of implications bordered much too close to genuine stupidity.
“ …So? What’dya think about it? About him?”
“ …I suppose I should figure out an opinion on that, yes,” was all he could manage to parse out. Rosie’s exasperation turned sympathetic at his persisting uncertainty, and gratefully, she abruptly changed topics so he wasn’t forced to come up with more than that.
After that conversation, he suddenly became aware of the fact that Vox was constantly flirting with him. And rather boldly at that, taking every opportunity available to drink, dance, and dine with him. It was to such an extent and done with such a casual lack of expectation for Alastor’s reaction, that it seemed that Vox was fully aware that Alastor hadn’t been noticing his attempts at wooing him, and yet was not disheartened at all by this fact.
Vox seemingly enjoyed expressing his affections even without seeking out reciprocation, something that puzzled Alastor immensely. He’d always been under the impression that the main purpose of courting another person was to entice them into a romantic relationship, and that the failure to do so was the source of countless angst-ridden ballads and romance novels. Therefore, he had no idea as to what Vox was getting out of this, and he was extremely hesitant to ask. It seemed that Alastor could get by fine without needing to bring up the now visible elephant in the room, and that Vox would be fine with things continuing as they had, so he didn’t see enough potential benefit in stirring the pot.
While things continued on from there without a change to that status quo, that did not mean other aspects didn’t change with the times. The bouquet of roses had in fact marked the beginning of a growing change, even. In hindsight, Alastor saw it to be a representation of Vox’s now growing success. He’d had the money to spare to upgrade from regularly purchasing single flowers to purchasing full bouquets. He started spending more time with Valentino, a pimp who was growing his power base amongst the business of illicit services in the Pentagram. Vox was in the beginning stages of building a brand name for himself, VoxTek, and once he’d managed to get his televisions on the air, he was able to begin his subtle brainwashing of the sheep. From prospective business entrepreneur, he grew into the role of a legitimate CEO of a tech company.
Other upgrades came along with the bouquets. Vox started introducing him high-rise roof-top bars and inviting him out to the finest restaurants in the Ring, from 5-star venison to the fine-dining in Cannibal Town. That picture-box head of his had also gone through a couple of upgrades, changing as the surrounding technology changed to keep up with the progress of society. And it was when Vox mentioned his and Valentino’s intention to start talks with a new sinner who had made a name for herself at that very cusp of these trends that was referred to as social media that Alastor recognized that things were reaching a peak. Should Vox continue this trajectory, him and his alliance would be considered amongst the Overlords, very soon.
And with this peak came with it a proportional downward slope. It was the beginning of the end, for this status quo that they had somehow managed to maintain.
“These Vees… It will be a problem at some point, should they continue to grow in influence. The sinner Vox has only shown suggestive hypnotism thus far, but the ability will likely get stronger as his power grows. You should take care of him now before it comes to that.”
Having folded his arms behind his back, Alastor’s grip on his cane tightened painfully. His grin carefully unmoved, he questioned, “Would not that whoremonger Valentino be a preferable target if I was to choose one of the Vees? His business is much more distasteful, my own opinion.”
After only a brief pause, Lilith turned to give him a narrowing glance. Alastor forced himself not to tense under the stare. With a graceful hum, she intoned, “Seeing that you do have a longstanding association with this target, I will overlook your lapse into insubordination. But only just this once. It’s true that the other’s practices are more distasteful, but they do not pose as much of a threat to Hell overall. Vox is therefore the priority to get rid of. Do not make me repeat myself twice.”
She pulled harshly on the lapels of his suit, causing the collar to dig into the back of his neck as he was brought into a kneel before her. Alastor grit his teeth in their ever-present grin as Lilith grasped his chin, forcing his head to tilt up and look at her. She leered above him such that her blond hair fell around him to obstruct the surrounding world from his vision, blocking out everything but the Queen.
Lilith quietly posed, “A good hunting dog has no need to think of the prey its master orders it to hunt, isn’t that right? This arrangement has been going well for the both of us, it would be a shame if that were to change. You would do well to remember your place, Alastor… Let us consider this task a test of your loyalty. Should you fail it, I shall take your soul in place of that sinner’s life. For if you cannot follow these orders, then it stands to reason a more binding Contract is required. That will be our new deal.”
“ …Understood, my Queen.”
Alastor was a self-serving demon, at the end of it all. Even if Vox was his friend, even if the affection he endless showcased to Alastor was… dare he say, endearing at times, he cannot afford to choose the man over his own soul. Such is the way of things down here in Hell.
And, as if this new standing order wasn’t enough, Vox had chosen what might possibly be the worst timing Alastor has ever witnessed when he then decided their next meet up was the right time to offer a business proposal to join his alliance…
“Alastor…” Vox had started nervously, though still with a smile, as he knew Alastor preferred. Alastor had suggested a mostly secluded park to meet up in, rather than a restaurant or bar or either of their places, and Vox had accepted the request without a second thought to it. He was smiling softly, with a noticeable fragility behind the wobble of its curve as he brought out the bouquet he’d been hiding behind his back. It was the biggest one yet, to the point where it was rather ridiculous to look at, full of a mix of bright, colorful different flowers, despite Vox knowing they’d all end up gray and dying in Alastor’s hold.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard– no, you definitely have– I’m an Overlord now, along with the Vees! Just like you. I’m… going to be at your level, now.” Steeling his nerves and posture, Vox held his arms out straight to offer the bouquet to Alastor as he finally asked, “So, since I’ve gained enough power… will you consider me your equal? I want to work with you, Alastor! With you on the radio and me on the TV, we’ll have a monopoly over the media of the Pride Ring! I’ve… always thought we were a perfect match, in that sense… What do you think?”
“ …I think it’s rather bold of you to request I join your little club after having already invited individuals I have no interest in associating with. And not in the good way. You should know me well enough to know I don’t play second fiddle, Vox.”
Vox winced, before objecting, “That– that’s not how it is! I started working with Val and Velv because I knew my business would be stronger in tandem with theirs! Of course I wouldn’t have tried to overreach and ask you to pull me up to your status by working with you when I wasn’t strong enough to match you. I respect you too much for that. You’ll always be more important to me than anyone else, Alastor! So– ”
His words cut off when Alastor took the bouquet from his hands, causing Vox’s fretting to fall away as a beaming smile grew to light up his face. Just like all the others, the flowers slowly faded in his hold, wilting and losing their life and color, but Vox still looked just as happy to see him holding them.
The smile only dropped from Vox’s screen when Alastor closed his grip tight over the stems, crushing the dead flowers to dusty pieces in his palm and claws.
“I have thought for a while, now…” Alastor started in a drawl, seemingly casual, but with an undeniable underlying tension to his words. Tendrils made of darkness grew out of his back to cast a menacing silhouette as he smiled at Vox without amusement. “That these flowers are akin to your love. You deliver them to me to watch as they die in my hands, for I am a being with which their lives are not compatible, and somehow, you take satisfaction in that. You grant me your love only to watch as it withers and dies… Is that not rather foolish of you?”
Vox’s eyes blew out wide as he was stuck back by a piercing hit from the darkness, and Alastor finalized his sentence by saying, “If you require the assistance of other sinners to match my level, you are not at my level, old pal. You never will be. I need to put an end to this farce, so I shall.”
While he was still in shock, Vox switched to fighting for his life quick enough. Any attempts he made to ask what the fuck was going on were met with stony silence. It wasn’t too long before the shock shifted to despair, and then to rage, and then soon after that, Vox found himself pinned beneath Alastor’s tendrils as he hovered above the man, his picture-box head half broken to only show one intact, spiraling eye and scowl.
Tears were streaming from that eye as well, as illogical of a sight as it was. Sobbing, Vox cried out, “Even if– even if you don’t love me back– did I really mean nothing to you at all?! Did our friendship mean nothing to you?! You would kill me so easily, just like that?! Just cause you feel like it?!”
Even then, he was met with silence. Alastor’s smile was barely more than a straight line pinned into a curve. With a flinch, Vox snapped, “FUCK YOU, Alastor! You damn BACKSTABBER! I hope you die in the fucking darkest pit of Hell!!!”
Alastor stared down at Vox’s vengeful wrath. It was time to end this. All it would take was one good strike to the heart, and then he could consume Vox and add his soul to his radio. But despite his best effort, despite his complete intentions… none of his tendrils would move any further.
It was like they were frozen in place, not heeding his will as they usually would.
Still staring down at Vox’s distraught, crying face, a thought rose to the surface, like an insisting voice over the radio. One that he could not banish no matter how hard he tried.
No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No–
He can’t do it. He can’t strike the finishing blow.
A different voice arose in the back of his mind, now, one that was not his own, and he was pulled down into his own shadows against his will. The Queen of Hell intoned, “I’ve seen enough.”
When he materialized once more, it was in a place of pure darkness. Lilith stood before him, standing tall above where he was kneeling on the ground. She brandished her magic to form a rose-pink structure.
The collar clamped around his neck, tight like a noose to hang himself with.
“I had thought this might happen… It does not please me to resort to this, you realize. There was a reason why I did not require a Soul Contract from you from the very beginning. I do not favor the practice of fully binding another’s freewill. But you’ve gained too much strength for me to handle you without care. I know better than to lower my guard when dealing with the evil of humanity.”
Alastor jerked when she pulled the chain forward to have him further prostrate himself. His grin twitched, baring his serrated teeth as his eyes flashed to radio dials and his static feedback heightened. Only for Lilith’s power to rake through him to suppress his own. He was left to claw uselessly into the ground just to find purchase.
“That being said, you still need to be punished properly for failing to follow through with a task I’d given to you… I suppose I’ll just leave you here in isolation for a while, so you can think things through and be kept out of trouble. I’m expected to be absent from Hell for the foreseeable future, but know I’ll still be watching you, as always.”
She stuck the end of the chain into the ground as she said this. As though he were but a dog chained up to a stake in the yard. When he finally deigned to look up and glare at Lilith directly, she gazed down at him with a distant sort of disappointment.
“It’s a shame, really. For a heart as blackened as yours, it would usually be a good thing to find love for another. It’s just that you made an unfortunate choice in who to open your heart to that was to your own detriment... As I had stated, your soul is now under my possession, and that sinner will be permitted to keep his life. I wonder if you will find any satisfaction in this deal?”
Done with him, the Queen slipped away into the shadows. Alastor was left to stare in wide-eyed shock at her disappearing back, the echo of her words resounding through his mind and chest.
He unconsciously shifted his weight on his knees, and something that had stuck onto the side of his jacket fell off. His sole company to enjoy in this dark, dark place.
It was the head of a dead rose from Vox’s bouquet that he’d crushed. With dried out, browning shriveled petals that had lost all their luster. Alastor shifted again, leaning over it to reach down to gingerly cradle the dead thing, his hands and claws hovering around its sides without touching it.
He only realized he’d started crying when a tear dripped down onto the flower. And then another. His hands trembled as they closed around the rose to carefully hold it between his palms.
Does he love Vox...? Yes… Yes, he supposed that he does… He… didn’t notice, before… Why is it that he didn’t notice…?
He had no concept of how much time passed, stuck in that place. Alone in the darkest pit of Hell Vox had wished for him to die in. He grew hungry. So very hungry. But sinners did not need to consume food or water to continue to persist. And so the cavernous voracity just continued to grow and grow until there was nothing but a cold, numb void inside. Most of his time was just spent lying there, unable to move far from his chained spot and not having the energy to move in the first place. A thought crossed his mind that he might as well be a corpse in a grave, at this point.
He tucked the dead flower head into one of his jacket pockets, not wanting to get rid of it, but having nowhere else to put it. Sometimes, he took it out to lie beside and stare at, just to have something to look at other than the dark.
He doesn’t know how long it’d been when there is finally a sound other than his own. Lilith stepped forward from the shadows, throwing a deer carcass down in front of him. Instinct switched his mind to something primal at the sight of meat, and his demonic features rose to prominence as he pounced on the meal, digging his claws in to tear out its throat with his fangs and finally feel the satisfaction of blood running down his parched throat, of sustenance settling into his empty stomach.
Lilith waited until he’d slowed his ravenous devouring before saying, “I have a new task for you. I suppose having you under a proper Contract is advantageous in some ways, in that I can leave more sensitive jobs to you now.”
Alastor wiped the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand while he regained a bit of his humanity, turning to gaze up at Lilith. She continued, “My daughter is making a hotel meant to redeem sinners. I personally don’t hold much hope in the redemption aspect being a successful endeavor, but it should be a good opportunity for her to learn and grow as a future leader of Hell. You are to do everything in your power to assist her. And should Heaven become displeased with her plans, protect her. This will be your job indefinitely, until I say otherwise.”
“ …Understood, my Queen,” his voice was hoarse from disuse, but Lilith was seemingly satisfied with the response regardless.
He finally moved on from the dark to return to the now too-bright red tones of the Pride Ring proper. It turned out that he’d spent seven years down in that place, wherever it was.
The Vees were now Overlords in full prominence, with Vox’s face slapped onto every other billboard advertisement in the heart of their territory. It only took a bit of sleuthing around to learn that it was well-known gossip that him and Valentino were in some sort of physical relationship, as to be expected, people would say, considering Valentino’s demeanor and business. Alastor firmly told himself that he didn’t care. It’s not as though he’d expected Vox to hold on to that dying flame for him, considering how they’d parted.
After getting himself reacquainted with the city, Alastor swiftly found Lilith’s “darling daughter” Charlie Morningstar. He swept himself into that “Happy Hotel” of hers to reform it into the Hazbin Hotel that now stands today. He performed his designated job to the best of his ability, but all the while, he was fully intent on using Charlie for his own needs. This deal with Lilith had officially become unbearable, he must find a way out. And when he successfully managed to wrangle a “favor” out of the fair Princess, it’s a victory like no other. Perhaps she is not strong enough now to break her mother’s Contract, but there was a strong chance of her growing into the power to do so. He need simply do the very job the Queen has ordered him to do, maintaining a position of favor and guidance with Charlie, and he has almost surely found a key to unlocking his shackles.
However… there was one tiny potential roadblock that had presented itself on his path to freedom.
“Who is this? Who is this– Are you the bellhop?”
The King of Hell himself, Lucifer Morningstar, was indeed much shorter than he had imagined such a lofty figure be. Especially compared to his wife, who was taller than Alastor himself. Even knowing that the King and Queen had seemingly been apart for some time, Alastor hated the man at first sight due to association, and then due to how utterly insufferable of a personality he held. He took it upon himself to annoy Lucifer as much as possible in the short time he had when Charlie called upon her father to help her, and while his reactions were amusing, the King also made sure to return the favor and make himself an annoyance as well.
This first impression was only further exacerbated later on, after the fight with Heaven. Alastor returned after licking his wounds to find a new hotel had been made with a tower for Lucifer built opposite to his own. Who the Hell had thought it a good idea to put them on the same floor? Surely this decision must have been made as a joke. Lucifer looked none too happy to see he’d returned, and Alastor smiled sharply at the attitude.
If the King was to become a permanent resident at the hotel, that would only make him into even more of a thorn in Alastor’s side. How was he to properly manipulate the man’s daughter right under his non-existent nose? Some careful maneuvering was clearly required…
At first, he had tested out prodding the King as the opportunity arose, trying to see if he could perhaps subtly harass him into leaving. This just left Lucifer to stubbornly spite whatever source of irritation Alastor had caused him, and then retaliate when possible. It got to the point where, after the lobby had been fully defaced in the name of “redecoration”, half covered in a mix of animal and sinner blood while the other half in a bright yellow paint to match the numerous rubber ducks that cluttered the place, that Charlie put her foot down.
“That is IT! You two are completely out of line!” Charlie snapped at them from where she’d forced the both of them to sit together on the destroyed couch. Vaggie was right beside her with her own narrow-eyed glare. Lucifer winced under his daughter’s fury while Alastor had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. “I knew you guys would have problems getting along, but this is getting ridiculous! You’re both grown adults so act like it! From now on, you’ll both be hanging out with each other until I see for myself that you can go longer than a day without getting at each other’s throats!”
That caught his attention. His smile curling unpleasantly, Alastor attempted, “Charlie dear, isn’t that a tad extreme? Your father and I are just having some fun with each other is all! It’s all merely harmless pranks. We can tone it down without the need for such a punishment.”
“You call that FUN, you tacky piece of red shit– ”
“DAD!” Lucifer’s mouth screwed shut at his daughter’s chastising. “This is exactly what I was talking about! You can’t even go along with Al when he’s trying to get you both out of trouble! And no, Alastor, I don’t believe that these are just ‘harmless pranks’. Who knows how long Niffty will have to spend cleaning this room?! Actually, why don’t you two work together to clean up your own mess, as a start to your exercise in getting along. Good luck!”
And with that, they were left to clean the lobby in a tense silence. Though it didn’t take too long considering they were both adept at using their magic. Alastor turned his back to the King once everything was spick and span, not intending to follow through with Charlie’s absurd “exercise”. Only to hear footsteps following him from behind as he attempted to walk away.
Cracking his neck to spin his head around, Lucifer startled with a yelp at the disturbing sight while Alastor drawled, “And what, exactly, does the esteemed King of Hell require?”
“Woah! Creepy much? Are ya part owl or something? I thought you were supposed to be a deer!” Lucifer quipped, before crossing his arms to avert his glare as he pouted. “And you heard Charlie. We’re supposed to be… getting along, ugh.”
“Seeing that you are almost as reluctant to spend any time in my presence as I am yours, I don’t see why it is you’re trying to play along with this game.”
“Because she’s my daughter, Alastor! Her opinion is important to me. I don’t want to just ignore her. So even if it means having to see your ugly mug around all the time, I’m going to do my best to make things up to her!” the King’s tone shifted into something more goading as he gave Alastor somewhat of a judging side-eye, snarking, “For a guy that tried to go all ‘you’re the child I never had’ on MY kid, it doesn’t seem like you care much for what Char-Char asks you to do for her, huh?”
Alastor couldn’t restrain his eye from twitching in irritation. Grin pulling wide, he spun on his heel so his body was properly aligned with head to lean down over Lucifer, hanging his face just above the other’s scowl. “I was abiding by Charlie’s requests long before you decided to try your hand at parenting once again. I simply didn’t see a point to indulging in this request given that we’ll likely be stuck with each other for the rest of eternity before we reach the point of acquaintanceship that she desires from us. But if you insist on playing along… Let’s see how long you last, shall we?”
Perhaps the extended time in Alastor’s company would be just the thing he needs to finally drive Lucifer out of the building, is what he had thought. At the beginning of the trial, there even seemed to be a promising chance of things ending that way. Lucifer gagged at the sight of him consuming entire raw deer carcasses for his private meals, and was none too pleased to have to spend any amount of time with a literal swamp taking up the majority of Alastor’s quarters. In comparison, the rubber ducks that filled the majority of Lucifer’s quarters were only an annoyance in how much of an eyesore they were, along with being a tripping hazard. The amount of syrup he topped his pancakes with was also rather disgusting.
There came a tipping point on Alastor’s part, however, but a mere couple of days into their ‘exercise’. They happened to be in his own room, and Lucifer was attempting to write out the grocery list Charlie had asked him to procure for the dinner she’d requested. A favored meal she remembered of her childhood. So of course, the man was in a tizzy already at the pressure of making sure it lived up to his daughter’s standards.
“Where is– Why do you only have these old-ass fountain pens lying around?! I thought you were from the 1920s, not the 1800s! There’s gotta be a normal pen in this mess somewhere– ” Lucifer cut himself off at the sound of a wooden drawer opening, and he then switched to complaining, “And why the Hell do you have dead flowers in your bedside table?! Or flower for singular I guess, which is almost even weirder than if there’d been more of them– ”
“Do Not ToUcH tHaT.”
Lucifer grunted when Alastor’s enlarged claws slammed him away from his bedside and down onto the carpet. The Radio Demon crouched above the fallen angel in his grasp, sneering down at him with a stitched grin full of sharp teeth. But it seemed the little vermin couldn’t be bothered to go without getting his hands into other people’s things, for clutched in them now…
A lively, bright red rose was held between Lucifer’s hands. The exact same kind as the one that had previously been dead. Somehow, the angel had revived it.
Lucifer seemed to understand that he’d made a rather large misstep this time, and thus kept his reaction carefully controlled. Furrowing his brow as he stared up at Alastor, he offered up the flower slowly, as one would a wild animal. “ …Sorry. If you like it that much, you should take care of it. Of course it’s gonna die off if you just leave it locked up in the dark like that.”
Having shrunken back to his normal size, though still standing over Lucifer with his feet on either side of the man, Alastor hesitantly reached down to accept the flower back. In his palm, it wilted and died once more.
“Oh…”
“…Oh indeed,” Alastor sighed, before finally stepping back. He tried to not bring notice to how he closely he clutched the dead thing to his chest. “I was told by someone that they think flowers look better this way, though. So I happen to be partial to it myself.”
Lucifer stood up, brushing himself off as he gave Alastor a queer up-down glance. After another beat, he rose his hand to snap. A curved glass cover and tray materialized from a burst of fiery liquid magic on the corner of his mantle.
“If you like the way it looks, then that just means you should put it out to see, right? I’d say it’d look edgy to the extreme, but you already have an entire swamp in this place, so it’s not like it’s gonna make it look any worse…”
Alastor stared at Lucifer’s expectant look, then shifted to eye the glass case he’d made. After a moment of enduring hesitation, he stepped forward to lift the cover, then gently placed the dead flower down in the center before covering it. When he stepped back to take in the image it presented on his mantle, Lucifer stepped next to him to look over it himself.
“See? That’s some Gothic Victorian chic, right there! …It’d say it suits the creepy vibe you’ve got going for you, at least.”
Lucifer smiled up brightly at him then, for what was likely the very first time. Alastor failed to make a quip on how proud the King was of himself, finding that he’d already averted his gaze before it could linger for any meaningful amount of time.
The incident marked a turning point for them. Their arguments settled down into bickering banter, and they managed to earn Charlie’s approval in but a week’s time from then, much to the girl’s own surprise. At first, Lucifer had made a grand show of how relieved he was to longer have to deal with him… Only for Alastor to find the man lingering around the door to his radio tower, kicking his foot on the ground and glancing around the corners of the ceiling to feign having just happened to be in the area.
When Alastor just rose a questioning eyebrow at the man, Lucifer crossed his arms defensively over his chest, looking away with a huff, “Don’t look at me like that! It’s just… been nice to be around someone, okay?! …Being alone is lonely, now that I’ve been hanging around another person long enough to get used to it.”
Unwittingly, an image of that dark, lonely place came to Alastor’s mind. He didn’t say anything in response, just leaving the door open behind him for Lucifer to hesitantly follow him inside.
Some time passed like that, the two of them maintaining a casual sort of association. Lucifer was still as insufferable as he’d been at the start, but there were also times he brought a bit of amusement or life to otherwise boring circumstances. And conversely, Lucifer seemed to gain more amusement out of Alastor’s own dry wit and occasional careless whims. He thought he understood the type of acquaintanceship they had somehow managed to develop, and thought that perhaps, if he could push it along into something closer to a friendship, Lucifer might also prove to be of use to getting him out of his Contract. Depending on how closely he still held his maybe/maybe not ex-wife to his heart, that is. Alastor had purposefully been avoiding the topic for the time being. But with enough progress, he may be able to reach the point of being able to ask after it soon.
However, as it turned out… Alastor could at least claim he’d managed to beat the amount of time it’d taken him to ascertain another’s romantic affection this time around, if only due to how abysmally slow he’d been concerning Vox. Lucifer had also helped him considerably in that regard when, after Alastor had laughed with vehemency after finding a stupid joke of the man’s to be much funnier than it had any right to be, the Morningstar had stared up at him with wide, shining eyes.
He then suddenly found that Lucifer was lifting himself up onto the tips of his toes, pulling Alastor down by his lapels to place a delicate kiss against his lips.
It felt like a flame had been lit to his face. Alastor froze in place, tension lacing through his frame. Before he managed to get his brain working enough to dematerialize down into shadow, slipping out of Lucifer’s grip and temptation before he could think twice about it.
Emerging from the shadows in his room, the warmth Lucifer had imparted onto him froze into pure ice, piercing through his chest in such a way that his breathing became labored and pained.
He paced the room with his hands tearing into his hair, his ears pinning back as he realized how fucked he was–
Maybe she didn’t see? No. There’s no way he’d be that lucky. Maybe she doesn’t like Lucifer very much, anymore? You’re also not that lucky. But surely, he’d reacted in the best way possible! Any outside interloper would assume he’d ran as soon as he could because he was rejecting Lucifer’s advances! Surely she couldn’t blame him for what was entirely Lucifer’s decision! There’s no way she won’t blame him. She’ll find some way to twist it into being his fault, like he was some temptress harlot who’d come in the night to seduce her husband away. What was he supposed to do when she was the one who assigned him to take station by her daughter?! It’s not his fault Lucifer decided to join in on what was now apparently a family business! He didn’t even want Lucifer to be interested in him! Didn’t he?
That thought brought his pacing to a sudden halt. To the side, he caught sight of the dead flower, now safely held in its display case. He couldn’t tell if its presence was comforting or mocking.
After literal decades of having no interest in anyone whatsoever… After the horrid end that came about from the one singular time he’d caught such an affliction, which ended with his very soul being traded off for a dead love… His heart chooses to fixate on the literal worst person in all of Hell it could’ve possibly chosen?!?! The husband of the woman who owns his soul, of all people! There’s no hope for him, truly! He might as well go up to the radio tower and throw himself off the balcony now! Or better yet, he should tear the useless burden out from his chest!
Rather than do either of those things, though… he somehow ended up with the flower in its glass case in his arms, curling around it on the bed similarly to how he’d done when it was the only thing he’d had in the dark. Pressing the X on his forehead against the chill of the glass provided an extra grounding sensation. Still, the ice refused to dislodge from his chest.
It wouldn’t do to panic. What was done was done. What would come his way… would come.
Starting from the next morning after that, he started carrying the dead flower in his jacket pocket again. Preparing for the case where Lilith chose to spirit him away without warning back to the dark once again, so that he would have it with him. He also didn’t leave his room that first day, though. Not wanting to risk running into Lucifer to potentially damn himself further.
It was only the second day when Alastor felt a compulsion guiding him out of his room, like an invisible chain was pulling him down to the lobby, and he knew she was about to arrive.
Before he could greet his doom, though, he was stopped in the hallway right before the expansive lobby space. Lucifer stood before him, brows pinched in a guilty placation.
“Alastor! There you are. I know you probably don’t want talk to me, but I– I’m really sorry about the other day, when I, ya know. I just– followed an impulse, cause I read the situation totally wrong and thought you might like something like that too, but you didn’t like it, and it’s my fault for not asking first. Consent is always the most important fountain to a– no, foundation, it was supposed to be foundation– ”
“Did you have someone script this for you?” Alastor couldn’t help but question in slight bewilderment despite the circumstances, finally putting his finger on what seemed off about the words. When he suddenly caught sight of Angel Dust’s pink head and Charlie’s blond hair diving back behind the couch where they’d been peaking over it to watch from afar, he exclaimed in full bewilderment, “You asked your daughter to script this for you?!”
“ …Desperate times call for desperate measures. I know my strengths, and communication isn’t one of them.”
“Of all the idiotic– ”
He cut himself off with a pitch of static when a gentle knock echoed from the door.
Everyone turned to look at it in curiosity. Charlie made her way over. She then shrieked with unbridled joy at seeing Lilith’s tall form on the other side of the door, rushing forward to give her a large hug that her mother returned with a simple smile. Lucifer also looked towards his wife’s presence with astonishment, stepping away from Alastor to approach.
In a complete flip of their mood, Alastor felt the ice build further in his chest and lungs. It crawled up his throat enough that it felt as though he could suffocate on it.
Despite his best effort, enough of the feeling must have been visible on his face to catch Angel’s notice. The spider had originally gone from looking happily at Charlie’s reunion to looking at Alastor with a blink of surprise, which quickly pinched into a concerned look. “Woah, Smiles. That’s, uh, kinda a weird smile ya got, there. You okay?” Shuffling over to lean in close, Angel covered his mouth with his hand and whispered in a hush, “…I know you’re technically the ‘other woman’ in this scenario, but I honestly don’t think you’re at fault. Just let Lucifer work it out for ‘emself, alright?”
“ …It would certainly be nice, if that were the case,” was all Alastor could say to that.
“It’s good to see you too after so long, Charlie,” Lilith’s voice carried through the room well even with its soft cadence. Pulling away, Charlie’s smile dimmed when Lilith moved on to fully set her focus on Lucifer in front of her, who was still staring at the woman with something close to shock. “But I’m afraid I’m here to discuss some matters with your father.”
Falling even further into surprise, Lucifer opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again with a tense, awkward smile to say, “Wow– How… did you even find out about that so fast? That’s– funny. Yeah… Haha…”
With a bit of a sigh, Lilith walked forward and reassured the mess of a man, “You’re not in trouble, Lucifer.”
“I’m not? …Oh! Good! That’s good!” Lucifer called out in relief as he followed in step behind Lilith. When they walked forward to eventually reach the area that Alastor was standing in, Angel rushed to make himself scarce. The King awkwardly glanced between his wife and the man he’d kissed on the lips but two days ago, and tried to spare Alastor what he was assuming would only amount to a stilted conversation, “Uh– It’s okay, Alastor. You don’t need to be around for this, so– ”
“He’s coming with us,” Lilith firmly insisted, much to Lucifer’s bafflement.
When she walked past him, Alastor just smiled tightly as he moved to step in line behind the both of them. He then ignored the concerned glances Lucifer threw over his shoulder at him.
The slow walk to Lucifer’s apple-shaped tower felt akin to a walk to the gallows. As soon as they’d reached the room, with the man himself closing the door behind them all, Lucifer turned to Lilith to jump into the conversation as fast as possible, wanting to get ahead of things.
“Lilith, listen– You said I’m not in trouble, but for you to force Alastor to talk with us like this… I really don’t think it’s fair to him. And it’s not fair to me, either. He didn’t even want me coming on to him, but even if he had, it’s– I can move on, can’t I?! We’ve been separated for years, you’re the one who wanted it, and for you to only show up now because I kissed a guy is– kinda insane, the way I see it! You haven’t even been visiting Charlie but you visit for this?! And I know I’m not one to say anything about that, but still– ”
With a softer sigh this time, Lilith interrupted him to clarify, “I’m not taking issue with you wanting to move on to another person, darling. You’re right that it’s your right to do so. I can’t ask for us to separate and not expect our emotional distance to open room for another in your life.”
The winds having been stolen from his sail, Lucifer deflated a bit as he blinked up at Lilith, puzzled. “Oh… That’s… Well, that’s good, but then… What is this about?”
“The issue here is that the person you’ve chosen to move on to is overstepping himself.”
The Queen curled her claws into Alastor’s opposite shoulder, pulling him to stand closer to her, and he moved with the nonverbal order with stiff limbs. The immense tension that ran through his body was the only thing keeping his back straight and his arms firmly folded behind him, such that his hands had no risk of trembling.
Lucifer instantly switched from confusion to alarm, glancing between the both of them without comprehension. “Wha– What do you mean by that? Lilith, I already said he didn’t do anything! What are you talking about?!”
Rather than say anything herself, Lilith looked to Alastor. “You are permitted to explain.”
He suddenly understood what it was Angel would rant about whenever he described something someone had done as being a bitch move. Alastor bit into his bottom lip, just sharp enough to draw blood before he forced his narrowing glare down onto the floor rather than at Lucifer himself.
“ …I am under a Soul Contract to serve Queen Lilith. It is an overstep to become familiar with her husband.”
Lucifer’s already pale skin turned into a sickly color as his eyes flashed wide with shock. The Queen added on, further adding to Alastor’s suffocation, “It is also an overstep to make a deal with my daughter, no matter that it was not for her soul. There was no need to get her to agree to a deal when I had already ordered you to assist her. From the looks of things, it seems that you are using my family to try and find a way out of your Contract. Did you truly believe you would go by without my notice?”
Now looking back to Lucifer, Lilith continued, “You see, darling, this sinner has ill intentions. He cannot be trusted to such an extent. A punishment is in order… but another test of loyalty is also required. I cannot leave him here if he needs such constant observation.”
It is when Lilith summons a pool of darkness using Alastor’s power that Lucifer finally makes a move. Lilith’s hand was slapped off of Alastor.
He found himself pulled away from her side as Lucifer placed himself between them. As Lilith glanced over to observe him with vague surprise, Alastor stared with constricting eyes at the back of Lucifer’s head, astonished.
“Lucifer… Do you still not understand? That man is a threat to you and our daughter– ”
“If– If Alastor was really planning that, then he’d still only be trying to save himself!” Lucifer interjected forcefully, “A Soul Contract– ?! Since when do you do that kind of thing, Lilith?! That’s not like you at all!”
“You yourself know that we can’t haphazardly handle sinners without proper safeguards. You speak so righteously in his favor when he himself has countless Soul Contracts, including one for the hotel bartender that I noticed saw himself out as soon as I’d arrived.”
“It’s– not like I’m saying he’s never done anything wrong, but this is Hell! Everyone’s done something wrong! I’ll talk to him about Husk! But the point is, he wouldn’t be trying to use us to hurt us! He’s– He’s done too much to– ”
“See, you still don’t understand. Everything he’s done to help is because I ordered him to help Charlie,” Lilith intoned, voice like a hammer driving the last nail into the coffin. Lucifer involuntarily lost his momentum, face screwing up with pain. “You cannot trust him based on what he has done before this. That is precisely why we must test him here and now. I do recognize that it is indeed possible that he loves you in truth, and if that is the case, then you would likely be right that he will not vie for vengeance against our family. But he must prove his loyalty.”
With those final words, Lilith cast her hand towards the pool of darkness she had materialized prior. And from within it, a figure was summoned into the room.
Ears pinning back on their own, the breath choked in Alastor’s throat when a wide-eyed, dazed Vox was prostrated before them. Roughed up from what must have been an involuntary retrieval, if he’d had any hope of contesting the Queen of Hell, the blessed rope binding his arms behind his back made it a futile endeavor. After a sweeping, panicked glance over the room’s inhabitants, he only stared up at Alastor in a pained sort of shock.
“A– Alastor…?! W-What…”
“I had him listen to our prior conversation from his imprisonment, so this sinner should have a base understanding of the situation,” Lilith explained plainly, before directing to Lucifer, “Alastor lost his soul to me when he was unable to bring himself to kill Overlord Vox at my request. As the Contract traded his soul for this sinner’s life, by taking that life, the Contract will break naturally with his soul traded back to him. He can thus return to his Vow of Fealty to the Morningstar family instead.”
She phrased this like it was a mercy, but when Lilith then shifted to look back to Alastor… Her stare was like winter itself. Hell frozen over.
There was not a doubt in his mind that this was a woman who was enraged that her pet had gained favor with her man. There was a reason why she’d only chosen to come for Alastor now, despite her having apparently already known of the deal he’d struck with her daughter a good while back ago.
“If you want to stay with my husband, prove that you are completely loyal to him and kill this sinner. Kill your old love to prove your devotion to the new. If you cannot do this, then you shall be coming with me instead.”
The order resounded through his frame. From where his hands were folded behind his back, Alastor felt his claws dig into his palms hard enough to draw blood.
He does not look at Lucifer, or at Vox. He does not want to see whatever reaction Vox has to being dragged into this infernal mess, and does not need to see his face to know what his decision is.
He can’t do it. He still can’t. No matter if it will grant him everything else that he could wish for. He cannot bring himself to crush that last, withered flower…
He knows that if he goes with Lilith, he will likely not see the light of day for years. Decades, even. Much more than the mere seven years he had served for his previous insubordination. But even still, he remained silent as he stepped around where Lucifer still stood in front of him. He kept his gaze firmly on the ground as he made his way to return to Lilith’s side.
“ …W-Wait. Wait! Alastor– !”
Alastor frozen mid-step when Vox bodily threw himself into his path, forcing him to stare down at Vox’s desperate face from where he’d fallen onto the ground, movement still restrained by the rope binding him.
Vox managed to get himself back onto his knees while he pleaded, “That– That was all true, right? You– You never stabbed me in the back, you lost your soul for me? You loved me? Then– I didn’t realize it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. If you need to kill me, then kill me!”
Aghast, Alastor couldn’t stop himself from choking out in shock, “What.”
“I– I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand how hard it’s been for you! What you’ve done for me! I’ve been hating you for all that time, but even then, I couldn’t stop loving you! I’ll always love you! I-I can’t let you hurt yourself for me! I’d rather die! If you lost your soul for me, then please, just take it back!”
Vox was being sincere. He was genuinely pleading for Alastor to kill him. But with every word he spoke, that longstanding ache in Alastor’s chest constricted further and further.
There was no way he could do it… He already couldn’t do it when he’d thought Vox had given up on that love of his. He especially can’t do it now, knowing that Vox would still so easily give up something so precious, just for him to wither and kill.
“ …This has gone on long enough,” Lucifer’s steady words caught his attention, the man speaking up for the first time in a while.
When Alastor reflexively turned back to look at the King, he was already directly behind him, hovering slightly above eye level with his wings spread wide. The added height allowed Lucifer to easily reach out, grasping at the space around Alastor’s neck where the rose-pink collar suddenly came into existence.
With a great heave and flash of fiery red energy, the collar shattered.
Alastor was left breathless at the feeling of its weight abruptly being lifted. It fell into pieces that faded into nothing, like scattered petals disappearing in the wind. But he didn’t pay it any mind.
The visage of the fallen angel, with his graceful but firm, beautiful face, was all he could see.
Showing the most emotional reaction yet, Lilith took an unsteady step back, balking at the sight, “Lucifer…?! This… You are inviting unneeded risk to us, leaving that Overlord unbound– !”
“If Al tries anything, I’ll take responsibility. But that’s not going to happen anyway. You’re just using our safety as an excuse,” it was Lucifer’s turn to intone deeply. While his hands came to rest on Alastor’s shoulders, the man turned his face towards Lilith. His eyes flared red with fire and brimstone.
“All this talk of keeping us safe and keeping dangerous sinners under control, and you’ve become just as cruel as them… You’re done here. Alastor doesn’t have to play by your rules, and he’s not leaving with you. Now go.”
Lilith stood still, staring in shock at the scene playing out. She likely never even imagined there had been a possibility of this happening, when she’d been planning what to do with Alastor. “Lucifer, darling… You would truly choose such an immoral sinner over the love you’ve spent millennia with? Over me?”
“That’s not what this is about. But since that’s what you want to make it about– ” Lucifer visibly steeled himself, floating around Alastor to fully face his wife, even as he left one of his hands on Alastor’s shoulder. The King leaned forward as he emphasized, “Yes. I’m choosing him over you, because you are the one who is in the wrong! I care too much for him to just let you torment him like this! Now LEAVE!”
He threw his hand out to point at the door with the demand, his expression finally twisting into a full scowl with bared teeth. The Queen stared at him for just a beat longer. Then, a look of vast displeasure cast a shadow over her face.
She turned her back to open the door and walk out without another word. The sound of it slamming shut echoed loudly in the otherwise silent room.
After another moment to process what the fuck just happened, Alastor managed to ask, “You… can do that?” He’d been planning to maneuver the King into helping him with this very task, but he didn’t think Lucifer could just do it that simply.
“…What? Break Contracts? Usually I can’t, but since I’ve been with Lilith for so long, our magic is compatible with each other like that. Also, she mentioned that your Vow was to the Morningstar Family, so that gave me some control over it,” calming down, Lucifer lowered himself back down to the floor as he responded and folded his wings away. He glanced down at Vox, which drew Alastor’s own attention back to the now stunned and still bound man as well.
Alastor dropped down to kneel on one knee as he reached behind Vox to untie him. As soon as he’d freed the man, Vox shifted around to throw his arms around Alastor, holding onto him tightly.
“Thank God. I– I’m so relieved you’re alright, Alastor…”
While he’d stiffened at first, Alastor soon found himself relaxing enough to return the embrace. His tense, almost flat smile hid itself in the other’s shoulder as he retorted, “You should be more relieved for yourself, considering you were apparently kidnapped just now for the explicit purpose of threatening your life.”
There was a quiet exhale above. Alastor glanced up as well as he could to see that Lucifer was looking away from them, now. He turned to start making his way to the door.
Only for Alastor’s hand to reach out and grasp onto the fabric of his pantleg, stopping the movement. Lucifer startled as he looked down at him. Alastor stared back up at him like a deer in headlights, caught under the gaze and without a thought in mind of what he even wanted to say.
He apparently went too long without explaining himself. Lucifer soon averted his gaze once again. “I… don’t mind giving you two some alone time to catch up, you know– ”
“You’re not going anywhere,” they both startled then, redirecting their focus onto Vox with a bit of whiplash. Still loosely holding onto Alastor, Vox just stared with insistence at the King as he asserted, “If Alastor wants you to stay, you’re staying. And that’s final.”
Lucifer stared back at the self-imposing Overlord like he’d grown a second head, which was fair, considering both what Vox was demanding as well as the fact that he was essentially trying to order the literal King of Hell around. “Uhhh… Huh? Listen, uh– shit… I know I’ve seen your face around somewhere. Starts with a V right– ?”
“It’s Vox, as in the CEO of VoxTek.”
“ …It rings a bell, somewhere. Maybe. Anyway– I know this all started because of– well ME I guess, and that it ended with… me leaving my wife. Wow, that really is what happened just now, isn’t it? Anyway– but you two clearly have a thing going on,” he said this part while gesturing a hand between the two of them, “and I don’t want to get in the way like that. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. I– ” Alastor started, only to find himself without words not two sentences in.
Both Lucifer and Vox shifting their gazes onto him didn’t help the matter, as he felt his face heat up embarrassingly. He had to avert his own eyes to the very corner of his vision just to restart, “I– Vox and I… I do still… feel, for him, but… I also… ”
Even he could hardly parse out what he was trying say, there should be no hope of other people being able to interpret such mangled statements. And yet, he suddenly found his face being gently guided forward. Lucifer’s hand cupped his cheek softly, resting there to grant its warmth as Lucifer smiled just as softly at him upon seeing he’d recaptured Alastor’s gaze.
“Alastor… do you really want me to stay? If you say yes, I’ll stay. So don’t worry, just say what it is you want.”
“ …Yes,” was his quiet answer.
“And you want Vox to stay?”
“ …Yes. That’s– a problem, isn’t it?”
Vox was the one to speak up to that, using his grip on Alastor’s arms to guide him onto his feet so they were both standing, “Not if we don’t make it one. I don’t expect you to keep up with these things, but poly’s in now. This isn’t the 1920s. So it’s fine, we’ll figure it out.”
Alastor only half understood the point that Vox was trying to make, considering he had no clue as to what that particular vernacular referred to. Until he managed an extrapolated inference in his head, in the midst of being guided into sitting down on the end of Lucifer’s bed. “ ‘Poly’ as in the practice of polygamy? But the Mormons stopped being able to marry off their women in such a way when I was still a child.”
“Fucking Christ. Forgot you would have been around for that…” Vox muttered with a slight wince, sitting down next to Alastor was he explained, “Not that kind of poly. It’s like, polyamorous relationships. As long as everyone in the couple… triple? Don’t know the word for it, but as long as we all say it’s okay that you’re dating both of us, then it’s okay! That’s what I’m trying to say!”
He stared at Vox for a few seconds. Blinking once, then twice. He had the impression this was a poor question to ask, but knew he had to ask it anyway, “ …Are we dating now? I suppose… that would be the natural progression of things... At least based on how those sorts of ridiculous novels go…”
Vox sighed with such a rattle in his chest, it sounded as though he was about to blow a gasket of some kind. At the feeling of Lucifer’s hands holding onto his shoulders, Alastor allowed the man to adjust his position into looking at the other side of him where the King was seated instead. Lucifer held a soft sort of amusement about him as he offered, “We’re dating when we say that we are, but we don’t have to rush into things right away like that. I mean, a lot just happened with you right now, it’s no good to put more on you like that. What Vex is getting at– ”
“You got my name right like less than a minute ago– ”
“ –is that you don’t need to worry about choosing between us, or anything like that. You can feel however you feel about either of us! So if you want to ask both of us to stay and keep you company, then you can, and neither of us will have a problem with it. That’s all.”
Alastor was quiet, the phrase bringing to mind the events that had only just occurred. His gaze lowering to where his hands folded together on his lap.
“ …I still can’t believe you… actually chose me, over her… Why would you do such a thing?”
“ …It’s like I said, right? She clearly wanted me to choose, but what she was doing was wrong.” Lucifer’s hand came into Alastor’s field of vision to take one of his hands, and his gaze unconsciously followed their hold to where Lucifer settled it between the two of them.
Still smiling softly, Lucifer soothed, “You don’t have to worry about that, Alastor. Alright?”
Alastor felt his own smile and frame lessen their tension, if only just a bit. On the other side of him, he also felt Vox fidget in place. The movement drew Alastor’s attention back to him to see that the picture-box face was pouting a tad.
Vox seemed to consider whether he wanted to bring up whatever problem he had, before saying, “If you’ll hold hands with him, that means we can hold hands too, right?”
“ …Seriously dude?” Lucifer outright scoffed.
Twitching into a scowl, Vox huffed pompously as he asserted, “Yeah, actually, I AM serious. Because you’ve only known him for how many months and are already at handholding, while I’VE been in love with him for SEVENTY YEARS– ”
Vox thankfully shut his own trap when Alastor deigned to reach his free hand over with a sigh to take one of Vox’s. Even as he tried to get himself accustomed to the relative strangeness of holding two people’s hands like this –as opposed to the usual none– he couldn’t help but question, “And you both are sure this won’t be a problem…?”
“Only as much of a problem as the two of us getting along would be,” Lucifer replied with a shrug, before freezing in place as he thought that sentence over again. “Which, actually… would kinda be a lot of a problem, a good amount of the time… Just pretend I didn’t say anything!”
Vox also shrugged with one shoulder, though did not look very enthused as he retorted, “Fuck if I’m gonna let anything or anyone get in the way of me being with you after it turned out that you actually like me back. This day has been a literal miracle by my standards. I told him to stay cause you wanted him, but whether he stays or goes, I’m staying.”
“Hey! What do you take me for?! I won’t leave so easily either ya know!”
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say, Your Majesty…”
…Alastor was left with the distinct feeling that there will indeed be some problems, in the foreseeable future. But if they have both decided to stay in the current moment… at least for now, he can rest some of his weariness.