Chapter Text
Alastor
Alastor had been working on new material for his radio show when he heard knocking on his bedroom door. He snapped to make the door open and didn’t even look at the door to see who was walking in. The demon didn’t need to – who could it be but Lucifer?
“You’re just letting me in right away? No interrogation at the door?” Lucifer incredulously asked as he walked in.
Alastor rolled his eyes. “Why bother?” He neatened his desk and looked at Lucifer. “What do you want?”
“Why do you assume I want something? Maybe I just want to spend time with you.”
“You don’t want something?”
Lucifer grinned. “No, I do.”
Alastor squinted in confusion. “Then why would you make a fuss about my assumption?”
He shrugged. “Just ‘cause.”
“What is it you want?” Alastor scoffed.
The king sat down in a chair across from him. “Charlie said that Rosie got all the clothes finished up. I told her I’d pick them up – wanna come with?”
“I believe you can teleport three outfits without difficulty. Why do you want me to come with?”
“Je veux passer du temps avec mon ami.”
Alastor raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t get most of that.”
“Oh, I said ‘I want to spend time with my friend.’ Is it much different in Creole?”
“Yes.”
“How do you say it?”
Alastor rolled his eyes. Lucifer hadn’t been particularly subtle these past couple weeks about trying to get him to speak Creole with him. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“I was close though, right?” When Alastor shook his head, Lucifer said, “Damn! Anyway, do you want to come with me or not?”
The demon pretended to think about it, when in reality he had already decided as soon as Lucifer had asked. “Fine. I suppose I have nothing better to do at the moment and it never hurts to see Rosie.”
Lucifer scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Good enough for me.”
He conjured up a portal for the two of them. Alastor was a little disappointed; he had thought they would walk together to Rosie’s. He followed Lucifer through the portal to see that it only went just outside the entrance to the hotel. His smile grew a little wider.
The walk was over much too soon. Lucifer had actually been able to provide good conversation, even with his obvious attempts to get Alastor to slip into Creole. They reached Rosie’s Emporium seemingly moments after they left the hotel.
As Lucifer opened the door for him, Alastor remarked, “Why did you order something for yourself? Surely you have mounds of formal clothing.”
“I didn’t have that dress specifically, and I wanted it, okay, mec?”
Alastor raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t take you for the type to use the word ‘bro’.”
“I meant it as ‘dude’.” Lucifer stuck out his tongue.
“Still.”
“Oh yeah? Well… at least I can expand my wardrobe beyond my normal colors!” The king crossed his arms. “I bet you’re just going to show up to the party in red since you don’t own anything in other colors!”
“I have garments that aren’t red” – I think – “but there’s no need for me to change up what I wear for the party.”
“C’mon, don’t be boring.”
“Ahem,” Rosie cleared her throat to get their attention.
“My darling, apologies for keeping you waiting,” Alastor said as he greeted her with a hug.
“Nonsense! It’s good to see you being friendly with someone else.”
Alastor rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’m never friendly to others.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t happen a lot,” Lucifer chipped in.
He glared at Lucifer. “I don’t need to be friendly if I can still function socially, unlike someone I know.”
“Bâtard.” (Bastard.)
“What an original comeback!”
Before Lucifer could reply, likely with another name-calling, Rosie said, “I take it back.”
“S-Sorry,” Lucifer said while Alastor said nothing.
She smiled fondly. “That’s quite all right, darling. He can get combative at times.”
“More like all the time,” Lucifer muttered.
“Anyhoo,” Rosie said as she guided them to a rack of clothes behind the counter, “I’ve got your items right here!”
“How much do I owe you?” Lucifer asked.
As she picked out the correct clothes and laid them on the counter, she said, “That’s alright, dear. Consider this a gift.”
“A-Are you sure? ‘Cause money isn’t an issue for me.”
Alastor tuned out their conversation about payment when he saw Lucifer’s dress. For whatever reason, seeing it in a size that would truly fit the man made his brain short-circuit. It was much easier to imagine him wearing it now, and the thought of all that exposed skin made Alastor feel…
He didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know. He shook his head to clear those thoughts.
“...says he doesn’t see the point in changing his color scheme for the party. He probably doesn’t even have anything that’s not red.”
Evidently, they were done talking about payment.
Rosie grinned at Alastor. “I wouldn’t be surprised!”
Alastor rolled his eyes. “If I don’t wear red to the party, will you two knock it off?”
“Yes!” Lucifer’s eyes lit up.
“I might have to come to the party just to see that!” Rosie remarked.
“This matter is utterly inconsequential and should not hold this much weight on your lives.”
Rosie and Lucifer snickered. Lucifer said, “Awww, I think he’s embarrassed.”
Alastor pursed his lips and headed towards the exit.
“Al, we’re just joshing around!” Rosie called out as she continued to giggle.
He left and started walking home; he knew Lucifer would catch up eventually. The demon would go through his wardrobe once they returned to the hotel. He was somewhat sure he had something that wasn’t red, but he might need to do an extensive search.
The party was tomorrow night; if it took too long to find something, he would be forced to wear red. He wouldn’t personally mind it, but he felt like that would be letting Lucifer down. He groaned. Why did he care what that man thought about him so much?
Lucifer
After Alastor stormed out like a toddler, it took a little while for Lucifer and Rosie to stop laughing. A little teasing was apparently all it took to get him to wear something other than red.
Once they finally settled down and caught their breath, Lucifer said, “Thank you for making these and for accepting my tip.”
“You’re too kind,” Rosie said. “I can hardly wait until tomorrow night – I’m sure the party will be a success for our dear princess.”
“I hope so.”
“Even if it doesn’t go well, she’s got a lot of fight in her. I know she won’t let anything stop her.”
“I’m so proud of her. I couldn’t have asked for a better daughter.”
“You’re such a sap,” she said. “Good.”
Lucifer smiled and gathered up the clothes that Rosie had put in black dry cleaning bags. “Thanks for everything, Rosie.”
“It’s my pleasure.” She curtsied as he left the building.
Alastor wasn’t just waiting right outside, so he either started walking back to the hotel or he just shadow traveled. Lucifer hoped it was the former so he could spend a bit more time with him.
After jogging for a few minutes, he caught up to Alastor, who appeared deep in thought. He didn’t even notice when Lucifer started walking alongside him.
Cute.
Wait no! He’s not cute because I don’t like him like that! The… bushes are cute?
He just barely refrained from groaning in disappointment. He still couldn’t get rid of his feelings for Alastor and it was honestly getting annoying.
“When did you catch up?” Alastor suddenly asked, causing Lucifer to jump a tiny bit.
“U-Um, just a-a minute or s-so ago.”
“Hm.”
They walked in silence for a few moments before Lucifer asked, “What were you thinking about?”
An almost imperceptible amount of red appeared on Alastor’s cheeks. “When?”
“When I caught up, you looked like you were thinking about something.”
Alastor hesitated. “It… was nothing important.”
“Suuure.” Lucifer rolled his eyes. “You’re probably trying to figure out if you can just paint some of your clothes so that they’re not red.”
The demon stared at him with a look that said he thought Lucifer was being stupid. “Why would I paint clothes?”
“Because you’re… desperate and… stupid.”
“HA! If one of us is daft, it is surely you.”
Lucifer grinned as they fell into their familiar pattern of bickering. It was potentially ridiculous, sure, but it was fun. It was over all too soon as the hotel abruptly came into view.
As they entered, he said, “I guess I’ll just give Charlie and Vaggie their clothes now.”
“Yes…”
Lucifer awkwardly nodded and started walking away. He stopped and looked back when Alastor said, “I… could make us a late lunch, if you desire.”
He couldn’t help the small smile that creeped onto his face. “Sure, I’ll be back down in a few minutes.”
He made a portal that went right outside his daughter and future daughter-in-law’s room. He knocked on the door and called out, “I have your clothes from Rosie.”
There were some shuffling noises and a couple crashes from behind the door. Just when he was going to ask if they were okay, Charlie swung the door open.
“H-Hey, Dad, I- we were just, uh…” she started. Her hair was undone and messy, and her clothes were definitely put on hastily. “W-We were working on some um…”
“Uh… don’t worry about it.” He awkwardly handed over the bags with their party clothes. “You can get back to, um, work.”
His daughter’s face went completely red. “U-Um, thanks, for g-grabbing these.”
“Yeah…”
He turned around to go back through the portal.
Well that was awkward.
He knew she was over 200 years old now, but it was still bizarre to think that she was doing… that. She was still just a baby to him, after all.
Lucifer shook his head. That felt so gross to think about. He started thinking about Alastor instead as moved towards the kitchen. He wondered what he would be making for them to eat. He couldn’t wait to taste Alastor’s cooking again. It might even be better than Lilith’s.
He stopped walking. A familiar pang hit his heart at the thought of his wife. He really was starting to move on from her, wasn’t he?
It’s okay. She’s been gone for nearly eight years.
The king closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening his eyes again and continuing on his way to the kitchen. He gently opened the door to see Alastor begin to dish out something.
“What did you make, Al?” he asked.
Without looking at him, Alastor said, “My maman’s jambalaya recipe.”
“Oh wow, this is probably pretty special to you then, isn’t it?”
Instead of answering, Alastor shoved a bowl into Lucifer’s hands. He grinned when he realized that the other man was trying to be nice by sharing something important with him. Lucifer grabbed a fork and took a bite. “It’s good!”
Alastor smiled smugly. “Of course it is, I made it.”
Lucifer rolled his eyes and took another bite. They didn’t talk very much as they ate, but it was a comfortable silence. Once Alastor finished, he gave a brief farewell and shadow traveled to… somewhere; Lucifer didn’t actually have a way of telling.
That was nice.
He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to get rid of his feelings for Alastor – especially not if he kept being nice to him.
Alastor
As soon as he rematerialized in his room, Alastor started rooting around through his wardrobe.
Red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red…
Did he really not have any other colors? He kept digging and eventually found a black tuxedo. He put it aside – a little standard, but it at least wasn’t red. Now he just needed to find an undershirt to go with it.
After a few more minutes, Alastor finally found two shirts that weren’t red. One was blue and the other was dark green. Something pulled him towards the blue, so he put that one with the tuxedo and reorganized his wardrobe.
He rolled his eyes at the effort it took to find clothes that weren’t red, all for Lucifer. And Rosie, too, he supposed. This party had better be worth the effort – though he didn’t have much hope knowing the general gist of the plans for it.
The following day, Charlie and Vaggie had everyone working to get the hotel ready for the party. Angeldust was in charge of rearranging furniture to make a dance floor and stage for live music, as well as setting up some chairs and tables for food and refreshments. Husk joined him once he had alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks set out. Charlie and Vaggie were working on putting up far too many decorations.
The women in charge were finally starting to realize that Alastor wouldn’t do tasks that he didn’t like, so they left him in charge of the food – with the caveat that he couldn’t make all the food spicy, the spoilsports. When Lucifer finally woke up, they had him help. The former angel was surprisingly helpful and didn’t get in the way. He must have actually learned a few things when they had cooked together before.
By the time the food was done and the two had used magic to float it over to the tables, everything was ready. Alastor tried not to gag at the sheer volume of tacky decorations.
“Wow!” Lucifer exclaimed. “It looks great!”
Of course he thinks tacky decorations look great.
Charlie replied, “Thanks, Dad!” She pulled out a clipboard and a glitter pen. “Okay, so I think we have everything ready now… Oh! I wanted to ask if you two would do one more thing?”
Alastor rolled his eyes, but Lucifer spoke before he could, “Of course! Anything you desire!”
“Thank you! Um, so. The other day, Vaggie brought up kind of a good point to me,” she said. “Basically, she was certain that some people would come for the sole purpose of causing trouble or wouldn’t actually be curious about the hotel’s mission. Which, obviously, wouldn’t be very ideal for the success of the party, so we would need a way to counteract that, and we were bouncing around a few ideas and-”
“What exactly is it you want us to do?” Alastor said, radio filter a little thick from annoyance. He didn’t need a whole story to explain why she wanted them to do something, he just needed to know what the task was so he could decline it.
“R-Right.” The princess held the clipboard to her chest. “Would you two mind standing at the door to make sure anyone suspicious is, like, questioned or something before being let in?”
“Hmmm.” Alastor tapped his chin. “If they fail questioning, can I kill them?”
“What? No!” Charlie appeared horrified.
“What about almost killing them?”
“No!”
“Well. If there isn’t going to be any violence I don’t see any point in doing it.”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dad, would you be fine doing it by yourself? I can just have Alastor greet the guests and let them know where everything is.”
Lucifer giggled at the look of disgust Alastor made. “I’m fine to do it by myself, yes, but I don’t think Alastor would be very happy with that replacement job.”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “Okay, well, it’s either be a bouncer or greet guests.”
Alastor glared at her, but said, “Fine. Lucifer is probably incapable of doing it by himself anyway.”
“Fuck you! You could just say you don’t want to socialize instead of insulting me!” Lucifer said.
“Why can’t I do both?” Alastor grinned.
Before Lucifer could respond, Charlie groaned, “Please cut it out! Guests will start coming in two hours.”
“Right. Well that should be just about enough time to get ready!” Lucifer said.
“It takes you that long to get ready?” Alastor asked incredulously.
Lucifer rolled his eyes as he summoned a portal to his room. He flipped Alastor off just before the portal closed.
“Actually, I should start getting ready, too,” Charlie remarked to no one in particular.
Alastor decided that needed no response and shadow traveled to his room. Although he didn’t need the full two hours to get ready like the Morningstars apparently did, he did start getting ready. It wasn’t like he would somehow ruin his outfit, especially since there was no more food preparation to be done.
He was about to travel back to the lobby after putting on the tuxedo, when an idea suddenly popped into his head. He didn’t know where it came from, or why he thought it was a good idea, but he decided to do it anyway.