A loud knocking sound from somewhere outside your room rudely awakens you from your slumber.
You slowly open your eyes, and see that Charlie is also struggling to stay asleep. Her eyes remain closed, but every time the sound resumes, her body fidgets slightly.
"Turn that alarm off, babe..." she faintly mumbles, still half asleep.
"Okay." you whisper back. You slowly get out of bed, making sure that Charlie is still fully under the covers and comfortable before standing up.
Looking at the alarm clock sitting on the nearby nightstand, you grumble. It's only 5 A.M.
The knocking sound happens again, and you slowly shake your head. It's coming from the other side of your room door.
You open it, and see the demon overlord himself, fully dressed in his white suit and beaming his typical wide grin.
"Lucifer..." you say quietly, sleepily rubbing an eye. "Do you even know what time it is right now?"
"It's Monday, at five in the morning." he states matter-of-factly. "Now let's see some redemptions!"
"Classes don't start until nine." you say. "And you can't... force a demon to be redeemed. Only God can choose whether or not they're ready."
"That's stupid." he says.
"Well, that's how it works." you reply, flatly. "I'll give you the full rundown in the morning, now can I get back to bed?"
"Fine, fine." he groans. "Could I at least know where the classroom is, so we can meet up?"
"Room 404." you reply.
"Excellent, see you there!" he says with a wave.
"...yeah." you say back, softly closing the door as he takes his leave.
Turning back around, you can see Charlie sitting up in bed, looking at you with a nervous expression.
"That was Dad, wasn't it?"
"Yep." you say, shrugging your arms. "And apparently he's an insomniac or something, because he wanted us to start doing redemptions right now."
"Right now?" she asks, quickly looking over at the alarm clock. "At five in the morning?" You nod your head in response.
"What did you tell him?"
"In as polite of a way as possible, to 'fuck off'." you say with a small laugh, before getting back under the covers with Charlie.
"Seriously?" she asks with concern.
"Well, kind of. I just told him that classes start at nine, and where we have them."
"Okay..." she says, slowly lowering her head to the pillow.
"Don't worry, hon, we'll get through this. As far as I'm concerned, Lucifer is basically just Alastor 2.0."
"Pretty easy to see why they're friends." she says, giving a small laugh.
"I was thinking the same thing." you giggle, before giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "Night babe, I'll wake you up at 8:00, if you sleep through the alarm again."
"Sounds good... night." she says, closing her eyes and almost immediately falling back asleep.
You stare up at the ceiling and sigh, before closing your eyes as well.
You have one Hell of a day ahead of you, it seems.
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You awaken once again, this time intentionally, to the electronic beeping of your alarm clock, set at 7:30.
Hitting the snooze button, you stir from your slumber, and look to your side. Charlie is still fast asleep, her side of the blanket gently rising up and down with her breathing.
Like you promised, you'll wake her up at 8. That should still give her plenty of time to get ready to start the day.
God knows she'll need the extra sleep. Especially since the Lord of Hell randomly decided to show up as an uninvited guest.
You sluggishly get up and out of bed, reaching your arms up to the ceiling in a big stretch.
You slowly look back down at Charlie, still blissfully asleep with a cute little smile on her lips. Her peaceful demeanor almost makes you forget the potential nightmare that today may become.
"Man, what have we gotten ourselves into?" You quietly mumble.
With a sigh, you turn around and head toward the bathroom for a quick shower, to wake yourself up a bit.
After taking your shower and putting on some casual attire you set aside for yourself, you step back out of the bathroom.
A strong, but pleasant smell permeates in the air of your hotel room, a smell that you were not expecting in the slightest.
Coffee.
You know that you didn't turn on the coffee machine yet, so you have no idea how this could be the case.
"Lucifer, I swear to your Dad, if you're messing with me again, I'm gonna-" you begin to say.
Walking in the kitchen, you see Charlie standing next to the stove and holding a spatula. She is happily whistling a tune, and uses the spatula to flip something over inside a cooking pan.
She turns your direction and gives you a friendly smile. "Hey, babe!"
"Hey uh... Charlie." you say with a nervous chuckle.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"Oh, nothing." you reply. "Just thought your dad was being weird again. What are you making there?"
"Pancakes! Figured we'd have something a bit nicer than another bowl of Demon-Os."
"Awesome!" you say, stepping up to the kitchen counter.
"I've got a plate set up for you, right over there." She points a finger toward the living room, and you can immediately see a plate with three steaming hot pancakes sitting on the coffee table by the couch.
You give her a joyful smile. "You're amazing!" you exclaim, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
She giggles, as her cheeks become flustered. "Aww..."
You head over to the living room and start eating. She soon joins you with a plate of her own, sitting down on the couch next to you.
"Thanks, hon!" you say. "I'm surprised you didn't just get some from the eating area downstairs, though. We have that pancake-making machine... thing for the guests."
"Homemade is always better." she replies, before shoving another forkful of pancake in her mouth.
"Agreed, wholeheartedly." you say as you eat.
A knock on the door makes you both raise your heads.
"And there he is. Old Scratch himself, once again." you say.
Charlie looks at the alarm clock. "It's not even 8:30 yet... I'll go talk to him." She gets up and heads for the door.
"Gotta give him credit though, he definitely seems enthusiastic about redemption." you say.
She opens the door, before a hand suddenly pulls her outside the room and into the hallway.
You hear a sudden "Eep!" which makes you immediately sit up in your seat.
"Charlie?" you ask, before looking up at the doorway.
Surprisingly, Vaggie looks back at you from the other side.
"Oh good, you're awake too, come here." she says, gesturing for you to come outside.
"Vaggie? What's going on?" you ask, slowly sliding your half-eaten food to the side.
"It's Lucifer... something's happened. We need you both down in the classroom right now!"
"Why? What's he doing?" you hear Charlie's voice from outside.
"I'll tell you guys on the way, let's go!" she says, before turning around and literally sprinting down the hall.
You step outside the room and look at Charlie, quizzically.
She doesn't say anything, only offering you a shrug. She appears just as concerned as Vaggie does, though.
"So this is where it starts..." you mumble, as you begin following Vaggie down the hallway.