If there was one thing Lucifer hadn’t counted on after the rebuilding of the hotel was complete, it was how fond he would get of the place.

He’d found the whole idea of it off-putting initially; both when it came to the state of the building despite Charlie and Vaggie’s best efforts, and the fact that the goal was to fill it with sinners Lucifer only associated with awful things. Even though it had been Charlie’s dream, he’d been so hesitant to support it. After all, look at what his own dreams had brought him. But to his amazement, she’d managed to bring him around to the idea, even though he wasn’t sure if redemption was even possible yet.

Still, he had found himself at the Hazbin Hotel frequently the past month, embracing the warm atmosphere of the newly rebuilt place. They had yet to have any new guests who decided to stay, but with no current threat of a new extermination looming over them, it might take a little while. Luckily any reporters who wanted to interview Nifty after her gleeful murder of Adam had been scared off by Alastor (who had recently popped back up, unfortunately), his hatred of their video cameras coming to great use for once. He didn’t need the added pressure of cameras on him when it was hard enough to deal with himself as it was.

He couldn’t believe there was something he was thankful to the deer demon for. Not that he would ever tell Alastor about that, he’d take it to his proverbial grave.

 

It was Thursday night, Charlie and Vaggie out on a date, Alastor who-knows-where and Niffty looking for roaches in dark corners. They weren’t as easy to find now that the hotel was as new and shiny as it was, to Lucifer’s relief. He wasn’t squeamish when it came to blood and gore, not the way he’d been before his Fall, but roaches? He’d rather not deal with them. He wasn’t scared of them, but he found them to be one of the more off-putting creatures that had been created. Though Niffty’s fascination with them was… interesting. He was sure he would get used to it given enough time.

Angel had spent the last however many hours working at V Tower, leaving Lucifer and Husk to their own devices, Lucifer eventually joining Husk at the bar.

 

Lucifer’s heel lightly tapped against the leg of the high stool, one of his elbows resting against the glossy bartop, the back of his hand propping up his chin. With his other he accepted the drink Husk slid his way. “What’s this?” he asked at the unfamiliar drink. Admittedly, he hadn’t tried a lot of sinner alcohol, not when he’d had so many centuries of whatever concoctions Bee could come up with.

“It’s called a toffee apple,” Husk’s deep voice was smooth in Lucifer’s ears, making Lucifer readily pick the cocktail off the bar. Curiously, he took a small sip of the yellow-tinted drink, the thin apple slice floating in it lightly tapping against his lips. His ears perked up, the tips of them just barely visible through his blond hair. Husk raised an eyebrow.

“This is delicious!” It tasted like alcoholic candy. He’d never had anything quite like it. To think what human souls could create when they didn’t spend their time hurting each other. “My compliments to the barkeep.”

There was a satisfied glint in Husk’s eye as he picked up another glass, starting to mix another drink as they heard the front door open and close. Smoothly, Angel Dust slid onto the seat next to Lucifer, the scent of his perfume catching pleasantly in Lucifer’s nose at the soft brush of Angel’s arm against his.

“Hiya babycakes, hey sweetcheeks.” Angel purred at them, as if he, not Husk, were the feline between the two of them. It made Lucifer smile, even as his cheeks flushed slightly golden at the nickname. The first time he’d asked Angel about the nickname he had spent the next few minutes listing off the reasoning behind the ‘sweetcheeks’, each one more flustering than the last. It hadn’t stopped until Charlie’s embarrassed groans of ‘ please stop hitting on my dad right in front of me’ brought both of them out of the barrage of seduction sent Lucifer’s way.

Angel had thrown him a cheeky wink over his shoulder as Charlie tried to resume their rehabilitation exercises.

The drink put down in front of Angel was a beautiful purple and pink, the cool tone of the former floating on top of the pale pink. A thin wheel of lime was kept under the ice. Lucifer watched with interest as Angel took a drink, letting out a satisfied sigh. “Want a taste, darlin’?” Angel asked when he caught him looking. The way he batted his eyes made Lucifer unsure if he meant the drink or something else entirely.

“Oh, I still have some of my own left.” He raised his martini glass, feeling himself grow hot underneath his collar. He was glad he’d already taken his coat off, leaving him in his shirt and vest. Angel couldn’t help the soft giggle escaping his throat, ignoring the light nudge Husk sent his way.

“You know, for all your talkin’ when you were fightin’ Adam, you sure fluster easily.”

Ah, so he had noticed. “I’m not really, hrm,” He cleared his throat. “used to people flirting with me anymore.”

“I doubt that, you’re too pretty not to want to take a bite out of.” Angel’s face was propped up against the back of his top two hands, fingers laced. He let one of his long legs run along the inside of Lucifer’s boot, upwards until it came to a rest just above his knee. The warmth of his body could be felt even through the fabric.

“I, uh.” Lucifer’s face was a bright gold that could rival the decor of the hotel. Delightedly, Angel noticed he didn’t seem uncomfortable, rather, his words seemed to make him flattered. Were his flirtations working? Of course, he had all the confidence in his ability to seduce people, but there was undoubtedly something extra special about having the tiny king of Hell on his hook. “Thank you.”

Lucifer’s fingers danced over the stem of his glass. Angel’s eyes traced a path from the tip of Lucifer’s sharp claws, along the black skin of his arms until it became covered with the white fabric of his shirt, to his apple-red cheeks and the blush spreading across the bridge of his nose and down his neck. He looked absolutely delectable. He wanted so badly to have a taste of him.

 

With his mind so firmly in the gutter, he was completely caught off guard by Lucifer’s next words.

“I suppose almost 200 years of being close to a shut-in doesn’t show too much then.”

 

The silence that followed made Lucifer’s eyes dart between the other two, suddenly seeming unsure. If his tail had been out, he would have wrapped it around his legs in an effort to stifle his sudden insecurity as he realised that what he had just said might have been seen as strange. “I mean,” he choked on a strained laugh. “Not that I, I’m not speaking from personal experience, just a… joke.”

He could feel the stares Husk and Angel gave him while he avoided meeting their eyes, almost dropping his glass in his attempt to seem nonchalant. Husk wordlessly wiped the spilled alcohol off the bartop.

 

Finally, Husk sighed, plucking the now empty glass out of his hand to fix him a new one. “Yeah, that tracks.”

Lucifer’s eyes narrowed at that. “What does that mean?”

“Just saying, if anyone’s gonna have issues, it’s gonna be the guy Adam called ‘the most hated being in all of creation’. Not to mention it wouldn’t be unreasonable if you had more daddy issues than all of humanity combined.”

 

A wave of emotions hit Lucifer like a ton of bricks. He didn’t really know what to say to that.

“Ah well,” he started, slow and contemplative, accepting the new glass Husk offered him. “I wasn’t exactly popular in Heaven before my Fall either.”

“Wha’s makin’ you say that?” Angel asked, sipping his own drink. Usually the thought of finding out drama or gossip made him want to find the nearest bucket of popcorn, but this time, he just felt a little bad. He hadn’t intended for his flirtations to lead to this.

“My creations weren’t particularly appreciated. Most angels thought they were silly.” He raised a hand, the golden sands lighting their faces as they swirled above his palm. With a slight twist of his fingers, the sands morphed into a flower. The shape of it was familiar to both sinners, especially as the seeds morphed and carried off into the air as if blown by a gust of wind. They faded into nothing as Lucifer closed his hand around the now empty stem, the glowing sands trickling between his fingers, disappearing before they hit the shiny surface of the bar.

“I quite liked dandelions, too.” Lucifer admitted. “When I Fell, Heaven couldn’t be fast enough to name them unwanted.” He’d been so young when he dreamed them up, had been so excited to show them off, only to be dismissed and ridiculed. It was the first time he’d created something anyway, regardless of the no he’d gotten. That hadn’t gone down well.

He ignored Angel’s sweet smile and Husk’s look of… he wasn’t really sure, but it didn’t look bad. Was he fooling himself when he thought there might even be something fond in the look of his eyes?

“Well, at least they didn’t vanish them out of existence,” he said, trying to act flippant after revealing something he’d kept to himself for so long.

 

He finally turned to look at his company as Angel spoke. “I dunno, I find that real cute. That wishmakin’ stuff with those dandelions suits ya.”

Lucifer felt an uncertain smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “...Thank you.” He couldn’t remember ever being paid a compliment for this heavenly creation. This wasn’t a story he had told anyone, not one fit to tell a tiny Charlie when it only served to make him sad in a steadily melancholy mindset. He’d preferred to tell her about the more grand dreams, revelling in the way they made her eyes bright with delight.

“Do you… have anythin’ else you’re proud of creatin’?” Angel asked, a little hesitant, not wanting to break the brittle mood he and Husk silently agreed to try and lift.

 

Lucifer instantly lit up at the thought of getting to talk about creations that didn’t bring him quite as much sorrow. “Oh, yes, of course!” The sparkling sand built the shape of a tree, and with a flourish he made it spark into countless colours; blues, greens, oranges, purples, bright and absolutely stunning. It didn’t look like any tree either Angel or Husk had ever seen.

“They made me tone it down a lot when I finally got to create it, but I still love it. Michael called it frivolous and useless, but I got it through somehow.” At the confused looks his illusion was getting, he clarified; “It’s called Eucalyptus deglupta, or a rainbow eucalyptus. I think it grows in Australia now? Somewhere in that area, at least.”

“I’ve never even heard of it before,” Husk held out his hand to touch the sand that was floating in front of them, still above Lucifer’s hand. Lucifer made it gently flow around Husk’s claws, tickling against his fur. Husk let out a small amused noise, ignoring the way it made Angel coo at him.

“It’s so pretty, sweetheart,” Angel sighed, eyes soft as he met Lucifer’s. It made Lucifer’s cheeks burn.

“Ah, well.”

 

As their eyes were trained on the colourful sand, Lucifer’s fingers moved in the air, an exaggerated flair to the movement of his hand betraying his excitement. The sand took on a new form, the detailed shape of feathers as wings spread, lightly brushing Husk’s cheek, a beak nudging Angel’s nose.

“My pièce de résistance.” There was a sparkle in his eyes as the bird landed in a flurry of golden sand, though the excess soon disappeared, leaving Husk’s bartop clean. “Isn’t it cute?”

 

Husk and Angel leaned closer, taking it in. “A duck?” Husk’s voice held amusement, grinning as he turned his eyes to look at Lucifer.

“Yes! My last creation before I fell. I spent a lot of time on them, I suppose that’s where I was the most similar to my siblings; a lot of us loved making birds. They’re created a little bit in our image, after all.”

There was something to be said about angels and the sins that ruled the rings of Hell at the thought of that, but when it crossed Husk’s mind, he kept it to himself, at least for now.

“‘S that why your hair is styled like that?” Angel asked with a smile, his hand tracing the glittering back of the duck, his finger exaggerating the upward motion at the tail.

Lucifer looked surprised, raising a hand to his own head, brushing his fingers through his hair. “Huh. Not consciously, at least. I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Maybe you have a little bit of their image in you, too.” The words were almost teasing, but Lucifer’s smile still brightened as he looked at Husk.

“I like the sound of that.”

 

The sand lost its shape as Lucifer moved a hand, letting the gold twirl around Husk and Angel, making it dance around them. They both found that while it brushed against their fur, it didn’t cling to it like real sand would, instead leaving a pleasantly cool trail behind it, like a cool stream of water against summer-hot skin. Angel lifted a hand to let it swirl around it, delighted as it twisted around the length of his body.

The silence remained as the sand finally faded away, but it was comfortable, Lucifer finding himself relaxing. His eyes kept straying to the other two. Husk was smiling to himself, giving Angel’s arm a light smack at the way he was grinning and waggling his eyebrows at him.

No one spoke until Lucifer finally finished off his second drink. “So… what was that drink you were having, Angel?”

 

The smile was sweet on Angel’s face as he slid the remainder of his cocktail over the bartop, leaning in toward Lucifer. “It’s called a ‘Spring Fling’. So, your majesty up to trying one?”

Lucifer glanced to Angel’s face, the tone of voice unmistakeable. Ah, he’d heard of the term before, he was pretty sure.  From Beelzebub or Asmodius, he couldn’t quite remember. He thought about his marriage that had been crumbling long before Lilith even left. He thought about the demon in front of him, so open to him despite his own hardships that he had to deal with.

 

“I, uh… I think I just might be.”

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