"Absolutely not," Gabriel shook his head and crossed his arms. His large wings were unfurled and fluffed up, causing him to look very similar to an angry owl. He had just been told the news about the princess of Hell's lovely redemption hotel and was quite upset about it. Well, not about the hotel, but about you heading down alone. The last thing he wanted you to do was get into another tousle with an overlord.
Who knows how it would end if he wasn't there by your side?
"Gabriel, I can do this on my own! Why do you always treat me like I'm a child!?" you argued with a scowl on your face, arms crossed under your chest as you leaned against the wall. "I'm not treating you as a child. I'm looking out for you because I care about you!" he hissed and clenched his fists tightly. Rolling your eyes, you mumbled, "Not more than you care about your job." Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"If I cared about my job up here more than I cared about you, then I wouldn't be leaving it behind to help you down in that pit of damnation."
Your breath caught in your throat as you lifted your head to look at him, "What?" The divine being nodded. "If you're to leave, you're to leave with me at your side. I will not allow any other options," he explained, already turning to begin sifting through your closet for clothes to pack. "But an Archangel in Hell can be dangerous, right?" Your attempt to reason with him was futile, a simple glance being earned from your friend as he pulled out a few shirts, dresses, undergarments, and whatnot.
"Not nearly as dangerous as a half-blood angel roaming those horrible depths on her own," he stated and reached back inside the wardrobe, a duffel bag being found and set on the bed next to your clothes. "So, start packing. You said you needed to be there by tomorrow morning correct?" he asked. You hummed in acknowledgment, walking over to the side of the bed and beginning to stuff your belongings into the bag.
"And why were you the one chosen to do this, if you don't mind my asking?" Gabriel queried as he, too, started packing the things he would require after summoning them with a flick of his wrist. "I was the only volunteer. Once all the others heard that there would be no exterminating, they lost interest." Gabriel let out a small grunt of understanding, his robes being neatly folded and placed into his bag while you simply stuffed everything in any way they would fit.
"Not like that, you ditz," he sighed and waved his index and middle fingers, all of your outfits leaving the duffel bag and folding themselves before floating back into the confined space. You frowned and zipped it up, tossing it to the floor beside the entrance to your room. "Thanks, no more work for me," you giggled and flopped down on the bed, watching as Gabriel shook his head in playful disapproval.
"So, anything you would like to do while we're down there?" he asked once he had double checked his bag and set it beside yours. A snort of a laugh left you. "Pfft! Is that even a question? I wanna kick that stupid red deer's ass for trying to take what's mine!" you yelled, folding your wings close to your body and carefully stroking the delicate feathers that adorned the extensions. Gabriel shook his head. "We aren't allowed to exterminate, as you've just mentioned. Plus, chances are slim we'll even run into him again."
"Eh, we'll still be on Pride. We might," you said and puffed your right cheek out a little. Your hands began fidgeting with each other as your thoughts began to wander as they usually did. First starting at the extermination, then to how you got captured, then to the moment Gabriel had saved you from being mutilated, and then...
And then to how awfully similar that moment had been when you were still alive, Alastor pulling you out of situations with Damien until he had ended up murdering him. Those eyes. Those damned eyes. They were bright, glowing, if you had to find a better word. Wildly psychotic behind that bloodied skull mask.
You remembered that when you first laid eyes on the scene, the immediate thought that went through your head was 'Oh god. That's it. That's the Wendigo Alastor always talks about on his broadcasts and now it's going to get me'. When he had turned around to face you though, the crimson rivers still cascading down his face, you had so desperately wished that it indeed was some mythical creature that was in front of you. Not Alastor.
But, alas, it was the man who you loved. And now you were up here, living a life — not your best life, but definitely living a life — after death.
"(Y/n)? Are you alright?" Gabriel's gentle voice hauled you away from your nightmarish memories and you silently looked up at him, biting your lower lip nervously. His brows pinched together lightly. "You were thinking about him again, weren't you?" he said as he took a seat beside you on the mattress. Shamefully, you nodded. Gabriel sighed.
"Do you know if he's okay?" you asked softly, grabbing a pillow and holding it to your chest in some sort of attempt at comfort. Your friend gave you a sympathetic look, knowing he couldn't tell you much, given it was very confidential information and that only the Higher Guard could know about it. And he didn't want to hurt you.
"Yes. He's doing just fine, (Y/n)," he said and began rubbing circles on your back between your wings. "But it isn't healthy for you to keep meandering over him like this, sweetheart. It's been so long, don't you think it's time to..." Gabriel paused, as if trying to search for the right words before finishing, "...move on?" Move on? Of course, you had tried to move on, but had you managed? No. You hadn't.
"Maybe," you huffed and dropped back onto the mattress, rolling so that your back was facing Gabriel. Silence fell between the both of you, the taller angel simply lifting from the bed before moving to the door. "I'll see you in the morning so that we can leave. Goodnight," he said and left, your eyes beginning to water at the thought of your former lover. I can't move on. I love him so much. A tear weightlessly slid down your cheek, a shaky breath filling your lungs.
I'm so damn tired of this feeling. I can only hold on for so long...
You fell asleep.
-
"Rise and shine, sweetheart. We're gonna be late," the unmistakable voice of Gabriel crooned next to you, your eyes struggling to peel open after your long night of crying.
A soft groan of fatigue left you as you sat up from where you were curled comfortably against the pillow you had been sobbing into. Your back ached. "What time is it?" you mumbled while rubbing the drowsiness from your eyes. Gabriel hummed, a pair of clothes manifesting in his arms. "Just past seven. Come on, get dressed," he prompted, helping you stand from the bed and brushing your wings out a little.
Complaining under your breath, you took the clothes from your friend and headed for the bathroom so you could wash up. Your clothes from the day prior were slipped off and you turned on the shower, allowing it to heat up before you stepped beneath the steamy water and let your tense muscles relax. Today was the day. You were going to meet the princess of Hell and help her redeem the wicked souls that thrived on the filth they lived in like rats.
Maybe I can find Al and get him to change. He must want to, right? After everything he's done, he must feel ashamed.
You ended your shower by giving your hair a nice scrub and shaving your legs. Who knew if they had showers down there or not? You were just playing it safe. Sure, it was a little degrading to assume that they were that dirty, but you could never be too sure.
A fluffy towel was taken off the rack once you had stepped out of the shower, a quick brush of your teeth allowing the hyena that had been sleeping in your mouth to flee and a fresh scent to doctor your breath. When Gabriel knocked, you had just been finished with your jumpsuit, your hand reaching for the door and opening it for him.
"Gah, ninety years and you still have no idea how to put your suit on correctly! Come here, you'll bruise your wing like that," he scolded you and forcefully turned you around so he could help you out a little. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks," you mumbled as he stroked his hand along the end of your dampened wing to flatten the feathers.
"Of course. I only want the best for you," he laughed, your whole body tensing up. Gabriel seemed to take notice, his hands retracting back towards his own body. "(Y/n)?"
"Why do you do it?" you whispered as you turned back around to face your multi-eyed friend. He smiled crookedly, "Do what, darling?"
"That! God! You tell me to move on and then you act exactly like him! How do you expect me to move on if he's practically right fucking there next to me?!" you yelled, tossing one of your hands up into the air.
Confusion was written across the angel's body, his hands falling limply by his sides. "I don't mean to," he said softly, clearly a little taken aback by what you had just said. The tears that had just barely managed to begin forming in your eyes were blinked away as you shook your head, cupping your face with your hands.
"I know, I'm sorry, Gabriel. I don't know what came over me," you whimpered. The taller being slowly wrapped his arms around you in a hug, his wings folding over yours comfortingly. "It's alright. I suppose I should have been a little more mindful of that," he cooed and ran a hand through your hair to soothe you. "Come. We will be late if we dawdle around such meaningless subjects much longer." Gabriel released you from the embrace, taking your hand in his and leading you out of the bathroom and towards the door where your bags were.
"I already informed the Man Himself that I'll be accompanying you and he didn't seem to have any issues with the idea," he said while snapping his fingers. A bright, golden gateway twisted open in front of your eyes, the Archangel holding his hand out in front of you to stop you from jumping right into the world below.
"I'll go first and make sure it's safe. Stay here until I give you my hand," he ordered while picking up his bag.
You nodded and picked up your duffel bag, throwing the strap over your shoulder as Gabriel stepped through the portal and out of your sight. Your heart thrummed quickly in your chest from nervousness. You were going to meet the princess of Hell! The heir to the throne after Lucifer. That was quite a crazy thing to imagine.
An eye-spotted hand reached through the gaping gateway in front of you, silently waiting for you to take it. Without a word, you did as you were meant to and allowed your friend to haul you onto the other side, his smile wide and happy when he saw you. "Wonderful! Now we just have to knock at the door," Gabriel grinned and gestured to the set of stained-glass double doors in front of you. "I'll let you do the honors, if you wish." He stepped back from you, bowing slightly.
With a playful roll of your eyes, you lifted your hand and knocked at the door, some shuffling and excited guffawing sounding from behind the barriers. "Goodness, that's them!" the muffled voice of a cheery-sounding female reached your ears. "Vaggie, go get the others!" the same girl repeated.
"Even-?" a less excited woman started but was quickly cut off.
"Yes, even him! Go, go! Love you!" the first one ordered the one presumably called Vaggie. You turned your head to look at Gabriel who simply shrugged and joined your side. "Sounds like fun," he whispered to you with a chuckle, your gaze moving away from him and back to the doors just as one of them was pulled open.
"Oh my goodness! Hi! You're here! Come on in!" a blonde woman with porcelain white skin and bright red cheeks squealed with joy, her red eyes wide and happy. Both you and Gabriel stepped past her and into the foyer, gazing around the place. There were some family portraits, though not many, lots of visibly empty areas of where paintings used to be hung dotting the walls. The place also looked much less dirty than what you had heard from the first year it had opened, not a single speck of dust in sight. Impressive, you silently mused.
"The others should be down here shortly! I can't wait for you to meet them! This is going to be amazing!" She bounced up and down on the spot, clearly filled with far too much energy for her small stature to endure.
Her eyes suddenly seemed to sparkle as she held her hand out towards you and said, "I'm Charlie, by the way! The founder of the hotel!" With a smile of your own, you took her hand. "Ah, so you're the princess! It's an honor, truly!" Once you had released her hand, you bowed lowly, both your wings unfurling and spreading out behind you like fragile artifacts made of silk, only to be admired from afar.
"Wow..." Charlie breathed. "They're gorgeous! And you have six of them!" she exclaimed as she turned to look at your companion with an equally large grin, your body lifting from the bow so you could face her again. "Indeed," Gabriel said, bowing a little less dramatically.
"You may not remember, but I met you once when you very, very small. Just a little child," he chuckled, Charlie's jaw dropping. "What!? Really!?" she cried, seemingly a little more excited now. "Yes! Your father told mine that he wished for a meet up, but the Man was far too busy, so he sent me instead, an Archangel," your friend explained proudly, his hands placing themselves upon his hips.
Charlie looked like she was about to explode with joy, but just before that could happen, a gray lady with white hair (a torn, red bow adorning the back of her head) came wandering into the lobby. One of her eyes was missing, a simple crimson "X" floating over the socket. "Oh! There they come! Vaggie! Come meet (Y/n) and-! Uh..."
"Gabriel," the man stepped in.
"And Gabriel! He's an Archangel," she added that last part as a loud whisper, a light giggle of your own bubbling from your throat.
The gray demoness' eye widened a little before she nodded. "Well, I'm Vaggie. This here is Niffty," she pointed to her feet, realization just now hitting you that there had been another demon with her this whole time as you stared down at the minuscule cyclops. "I'm Niffty!" the fiery haired demoness waved a black hand from where she was near the floor, her rosy cheeks almost matching Charlie's. "You're really pretty," she suddenly said, your face almost immediately flaring up with embarrassment.
"D'awh, you're too sweet," you waved her off with a small giggle, her single eye closing as she smiled brightly. A feline demon with large, red wings came wandering in, his frown reading "I don't wanna fucking be here" as if the words were stamped across his face. He went and sat down at the bar. "Hi," you waved.
"Fuck off, sweetheart. We both know this place is hopeless," he growled and popped open a green bottle of cheap booze.
You just stared at him, a small smile on your face. I like him.
"Woah-ho-ho! Check at the size of those things!" a high-pitched, male voice called from where he stood next to Vaggie. A very, very tall spider demon with pink heart accents on his fluff. Easing a brow, you looked at the wings on your back. They weren't that big. Not compared to some of the other angels' wings. Like Gabriel's. "Wasn't talkin' 'bout those, sugar tits," he laughed, your jaw immediately dropping to the floor.
"Angel! Stop harassing our guests and go sit on the couch!" Vaggie yelled at him, the spider's heterochromatic eyes rolling dramatically. "But I didn't even get 'er name!"
"Couch, now!" the moth hissed, your gaze following as "Angel" trudged over to the small couch and dropped down onto it with his four arms crossed beneath his chest, moping.
One last demon then walked into the room, his vibrant red eyes narrowed and golden smile wide. Your whole body seemed to stop working as soon as your eyes met his, hands involuntarily clenching into fists as you glared at him.
"You."
-
Alastor woke up to the sound of his alarm clock shrieking right next to his ear, one of his hands reaching over to the bedside table and snatching it from the surface before he hurled it at the wall, full force, causing it to shatter on impact. His head ached like hell and he was feeling drowsy from his raging hangover, a yawn being forced away as to not amplify the pain. He slowly rubbed his eyes and stretched, sliding off his bed and ambling to the bathroom.
He blindly fumbled through the cabinets above the sink, grabbing the first bottle of pills that his fingers grazed and immediately unscrewing the lid before shaking a good amount of the small medication into his palm and then tossing them to the back of his throat. The faucet was turned on and he ran the water into his mouth, soon being able to swallow the pills with a little more ease. Once that was over with, he finally lifted his gaze to look at the mirror.
His hair was disheveled, strands of it shooting out in every direction and looking very angry altogether. The ears atop his head were lopsided, no amount of Alastor's strength managing to straighten them. He had ended up using his hands to try and push them back into place, but they just flopped back down lazily, flicking every now and then, which had caused him to roll his eyes and move onto the next faulty feature of his face. Heavy eye bags tainted his gray skin and made his eyes look sunken, his black brows knitting together as he splashed some water onto his face and called it good.
He then stripped himself of the creased and dirtied dress shirt he had been wearing from the night before, along with his slacks before adjusting the shower's temperature to as hot as his body could handle, white steam already starting to fill the bathroom and fog the mirror. Not wasting another moment, he stepped under the falling water, a hiss leaving his mouth as the scalding rain slapped against his scarred back, but he did nothing to change the temperature, simply standing there and letting himself adjust to it.
He often found this helped with hangovers. It let him forget about it and what he did the night before, whether it was sobbing his eyes out in front of Husk or simply throwing up. He just hated thinking about how...weak he seemed at those moments. Lucky for him, Husk was a good friend when he wanted to be and always helped Alastor when he needed to vent, not doing much else but drinking and listening to him ramble. Then he never said anything about it to anybody else. It was just between the two friends, which made Alastor feel a little better.
It wasn't long until his whole body had turned red from the blistering heat of the shower, a sigh leaving him as he hurriedly soaped his body, washed off, and then hopped out to get ready for the day. He shook most of the water off his body (a force of instinctual habit) before reaching for the towel on the rack, his chest feeling heavy as he wrapped it around his waist and walked out of the bathroom.
"Zandor, what's today?" he groaned while searching his closet for some clothes to wear. Maybe if he was lucky, he could just throw on a dress shirt and some pants and call it a lazy a day. "Charlie's guests are coming," the Loa responded as he manifested at Alastor's side, his red smile small. "God damn it, you have got to be kidding," Alastor tossed his head back and snatched his overcoat from a hanger. So much for relaxing for the day.
"Alright, let's get this over with and then we can come back up here and listen to some music to forget we exist or something, I don't know," he waved a hand towards the shadowy creature while clutching his forehead with the other. Zandor nodded and vanished, leaving Alastor to get dressed.
A loud knock sounded at his room door and his ears finally decided to straighten themselves out, perking at the sound. "Alastor, get your ass out here. The angels just arrived," Vaggie's disinterested tone called from behind the door, his lips drawing back in a snarl as he answered in a cheery tone. "I'll be out in just a moment, my dear! I'm just getting dressed!" The receding sound of her footsteps let him know that she was gone, his fingers snapping once he had pulled the clothes out of the closet and set them on his bed.
His desired outfit twirled around his form before settling upon his body, the black bowtie being adjusted a little before his microphone appeared. Alastor swiped it into his grasp and then left his room with a quick stride, one hand quickly fixing his hair a little bit. He needed to look presentable in front of these angels if the hotel was ever going to uphold whatever poorly crafted title it had.
His arms folded behind his back just as he entered the lobby, the whole crew already present within the room, along with two others. A tall, white angel with lots of eyes and six wings. Alastor's brows furrowed in the slightest. That's the Archangel I met down here just a day or two ago. What a filthy coincidence, he thought to himself, doing everything in his power to not let his emotions seep past his beamingly wide smile.
His eyes then shifted to the second angel, this one smaller and seeming much more human. She was smiling a little. Alastor could feel himself begin to crumble from the inside out, his breath blocking halfway to his lungs as he took in the female's features, everything seeming to come rushing back to him at that very moment.
Oh god.
Oh god.
She suddenly seemed much less happy than she had been just moments before, a glare settling in her eyes as she snarled, "You."
Her.
{3917 words}