Work Text:
Charlie hummed along to whatever song was in her head as she moved between her vision boards that she set up in the hotel lobby. On one, there were doodles of all of the current hotel residents and staff members and on another were notes and scribbles that looked like mazes over construction paper.
Alastor couldn't make out the rhyme or reason for what she was doing, but still it was entertaining to watch her flutter about as he nursed the drink Husk had begrudgingly made for him.
Niffty and Baxter sat at the other end of the bar with some new roach project that was making Niffty vibrate with excitement. Cherri and Vaggie were perched in front of the television while painting their nails with a polish that gave Alastor just as much of a headache as the annoying noise coming from whatever program they were watching. Residents slowly came through the hotel doors as curfew approached and began to laze around the lobby and bar.
Alastor was ready to turn in, to go back up to his room and escape the annoying chitter-chatter that was beginning to start up around him. He tossed back the rest of the alcohol in his glass and slammed it back down to the bar top, right next to where Husk had pillowed his head. He jolted up with a cat-like yelp and grumbled through his annoyance as he glared at Alastor.
“Another or are you done?” Husk asked gruffly as he rubbed the pads of his palms over his face, indiscreetly wiping away the drool that had dribbled down his chin.
“I'm satisfied for now. It's getting a bit too chummy down here so I think I'll be turning in,” Alastor told him jauntily as he hopped off of the bar stool.
Husk waved him off and he was just about to disappear into the floor when Charlie clapped in that rapid way she did when she wanted to get everyone's attention. Alastor groaned internally as a whine of radio feedback outwardly displayed his annoyance and he slumped back down onto the stool.
“Good evening, everybody! I'm so happy that we're all here… except Angel… obviously… buuuuut that's okay!” Charlie laughed nervously and then waved her hands in front of her boards. “I have been putting together a team building exercise for tomorrow since most of us have the day off!”
More than a few groans came from around the lobby and Alastor heard Husk pop the top off of a new bottle and start to chug it down. Vaggie sent withering glares around the room and those who had been at the end of her wrath before straightened up to give Charlie their full attention.
“What brilliant little game are you going to bore us with now, my dear Charlie?” Alastor cooed mockingly from his bar stool, ignoring the glare Vaggie sent him. She knew very well how immune to it he was.
“Thank you, ahem, Alastor, for being inquisitive as always.” Charlie cleared her throat and let out a forced laugh. “I have been putting together custom escape rooms for you all to work your way through with a partner!”
Alastor saw a few people perk up with interest instead of the usual continuation of groaning and moaning. He had never heard of an ‘escape room’, but he must admit that the name did intrigue him.
“I have matched you all into two person teams. This exercise will serve as a way to strengthen your bond and build trust between you.”
Alastor looked back at the board with all of their doodles faces and noticed that now, all of the pictures were paired up.
Niffty and Baxter, of course.
Husk and Cherri, sure.
Himself and Lucifer…
A sharp staticky feedback sounded around the lobby and Vaggie chuckled. “Guess he found out who his partner is.”
Alastor heard Husk snort behind him and Niffty giggled manically from down the bar.
“Heh, yeeeeaah… this exercise will hopefully also help some teams sort out their, um, issues,” Charlie muttered as she tapped her nails against the side of the board.
“Oh, Charlie, I do believe I'm busy tomorrow,” Alastor said flippantly and through bursts of static. He stood once more and adjusted his coat, brushing down the arms, and then flashed the room a feral smile. “I will not be participating. Of course, I do apologize for the wrench I've thrown into your juvenile plans to promote bonding.”
He raised his fingers to snap himself into shadow right as Charlie shook her head.
“Alastor, I'm afraid your attendance is mandatory,” Charlie said firmly and moved to point to the other board with schematics and construction paper maps. “These rooms will make up…”
Alastor's smile remained sharp and dangerous as he purposely tuned her out.
‘Mandatory’, how annoying. He regretted making a deal with the princess of Hell purely for the childish games and exercises she made him participate in.
Why couldn't she ask him to eat her enemies or terrify other demons into joining her hopeless passion project? Instead of having him do trust exercises with her father…
His grievances must have become too noticeable because Husk nudged his arm and left a glass of whisky next to him. There was an amused glint in his eyes and Alastor wanted to flick him in the nose for it.
Instead, he downed the liquor and motioned for Husk to pour him another.
~**~
Alastor arrived on the hotel floor that Charlie had designated for this new ridiculous exercise nearly half an hour late. He hummed happily when he received a glare not only from Vaggie but from the king of Hell himself.
“So nice of you to finally join us, bellhop,” Lucifer said sardonically from where he stood next to Charlie.
“Dad,” Charlie sighed out and gave Alastor a strained smile. “I'm happy you made it, Alastor.”
Alastor's ear flicked but he kept his outburst of static tampered down. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let's begin.”
Lucifer and Vaggie grumbled curses and Husk's head thunked back against the wall. Alastor grinned ferally, feeling more in control.
“As I already said to the group, any powers, overlord capabilities, magic or the like will not be permitted within the rooms. Everyone will be on the same playing field,” Charlie explained cheerfully and Alastor laughed.
"Oh, Charlie, why would we ever do that?" Alastor teased mockingly as he spun his staff around in his hand. He delighted in the way Vaggie's shoulders hunched up to her ears and the slow growl that grew in the back of Husk's throat. "We have powers for a reason, dear."
What Alastor did not delight in was Lucifer laughing and knocking his own staff against Alastor's with a hard enough tap to send it jabbing back into his stomach. Radio feedback sounded as Lucifer grinned saccharinely up at him.
"Awe, can the big bad Radio Demon not play a game without his powers?" Lucifer chuckled and handed his staff over to Charlie. "I think that's a lovely idea, Charlie."
"Thanks, Dad!" Charlie beamed down at him as she held his staff protectively in both hands.
"I think we're all capable of doing some puzzles without magic." Lucifer looked over at Alastor and snorted. "And if he can't, I guess I'll have to pick up the slack for him."
"Oh, like I have done—" Alastor's retort about absent fathers and caring for Charlie and the hotel when he wasn't around was rudely interrupted by Lucifer exclaiming over him, "I'll solve all of them in a flash. You should time us!"
"I don't think that's in the spirit of 'team-building'," Vaggie told him with an edge of irritation in her voice. Oh, how Alastor wished she would turn her spear on him for a change. What an entertaining sight that would be.
Cherri blew air out and clapped her hands once in front of her. "Can we get this show on the road? I've got places to be, people to see, things to, y'know," she imitated an explosion with her hands and a boomsh sound while rocking back on her heels. "So the sooner we wrap this shit up the better."
"Right!" Charlie cleared her throat and looked around the hall with a blinding smile at everyone. "Husk and Cherri, you're in room 102, Rooster and Salina in room 103, Niffty and Baxter in room 104—"
"YAAAY!" Niffty yelled out and hoisted Baxter above her head before speeding off to the door and kicking it open, sliding in, and kicking it shut behind her.
"Oookay, um, where was I… right! Dad and Alastor, you're in 105." Charlie looked over everyone and gave a nod of encouragement. "I'll be watching from a monitoring setup in room 101, so if you need any help, don't be afraid to call out. Have fun, everyone!"
Alastor watched everyone disperse to go into their assigned rooms and tried to figure out a way he could slink away.
"Well, let's go, bellhop. Time is a-wasting," Lucifer knocked on their assigned door before opening it. He continued to stand in the hall and grinned smugly at Alastor until he grumbled and joined him.
"Try not to kill each other," Vaggie pleaded as she trailed after them. "Charlie has enough people to keep track of today, okay?"
Alastor made a non-committal noise and started to step into the room but the blade of Vaggie's spear landing on the frame blocked his way. He looked down at her with a tight smile and sardonically told her, "Yes, yes, I promise not to harm a single hair on Charlie's dear father's head. May I get through now?"
"Staff." Vaggie held out her hand. Alastor's smile sharpened as he handed it over and ignored the way his eye twitched in favor of tipping her spear out of the way with a nudge of his finger.
"It's awfully small in here," Alastor said as he looked around at the single room with walls so close he could probably touch two of them at the same time if he were to extend his arms out. "This will be a piece of cake and a waste of a perfectly good morning."
Vaggie snorted and tucked his staff under her arm. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that."
Then she yanked the door closed and engaged a lock that seemed to echo around the small room.
"Locked in… that's. That's fantastic." Lucifer looked at the door warily and laughed nervously. "Wish Charlie would have mentioned that part."
Alastor hummed, bored and uninterested already. There was a chair and small table in the middle of the room with a bookcase behind it. A piece of paper was tacked above it and he strolled over to look at it.
In bright colored pencil, Charlie had written a greeting of basic instructions with tiny doodles in the margins.
"Welcome, friends! Inside this room is one key that will let you enter the real escape room. Work together to find it and remember to have fun!"
Lucifer poked his head out from around Alastor and read the letter out loud to himself in a mumbling voice that grated on Alastor's nerves.
"Well, alrighty. One key!" Lucifer held up a finger like Alastor didn't know how to count and pointed around the room. "This shouldn't be too hard to find. Unless you need your magic stick to help you."
"I'm perfectly capable of not using magic, I just simply do not understand why we would need to go without." Alastor pulled a book off the shelf and tossed it to the floor carelessly. "Besides, you're the one who should worry. I lived thirty years without magic."
"Riiiight," Lucifer dragged out as he reached into the chair to pull out the cushions. "You know, pal, I am perfectly capable of finding a key." He tipped the chair over to look at the underside. "I've watched those game shows, okay? I know all the hiding places for things."
Alastor continued to throw books off the shelf as he watched Lucifer go through the items on the table, lifting each one up to look under it before setting it back down.
"Are you going to open any of those or just look at the bottom of them?" Alastor asked as he threw down another book.
"Are you going to open any of those books or just drop them on the floor?" Lucifer mocked while getting down on all fours to search under the table.
Alastor looked away from where he was positively sure that Lucifer was prostrating further than necessary and down at the messy pile of books. A light laugh track played. "Touchè."
He toed at the cover to one of the books and flipped it open to reveal nothing but pages and kept doing so with the rest of them. He came away with nothing but a scuffed shoe and torn book pages.
Lucifer tried to stand and bonked his head on the under part of the table. In a huff, he flipped it over and sent the objects flying to the floor.
One of the trinkets cracked open and a tiny silver key tumbled out.
"Huh. How about that," Lucifer said, bending down to pick the key up. "I told you I'd find it! With no help to you, of course."
"And I told you to look inside those," Alastor growled out with a whine of feedback behind his words. He watched as Lucifer looked around the room and cackled. "You can't find the door, can you? Oh that's rich."
He kept a confident face as he looked around the room himself. When he saw a small key hole in the wall next to the bookshelf, he hummed happily.
"Rich? Yeah right. I'm sure you have no idea where it is either," Lucifer ranted while gliding his hands over walls blindly.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Alastor told him as he dropped down to sit in the still cushion less chair. He watched Lucifer whip around with a beautiful frown painted on his face.
"Right. So… tell me," Lucifer dragged out slowly key waving around carelessly. Alastor hoped he dropped it.
"But I thought you said you could find everything without me," Alastor cooed and leaned further back in the chair. He drummed his fingers against his crossed knees and grinned. "Prove it."
Lucifer took a deep breath, chest puffing out and nostrils coming out of nowhere to flare up, and exhaled with a strained, "Fine."
He walked closer to the door they had came through.
"Hm, colder."
Lucifer glared at him and walked closer to the chair and table.
"Warmer," Alastor intoned with a tap of his foot against the overturned table.
"Warmer, I'll show you warmer, you…" Lucifer grumbled the rest to himself as he walked to the bookshelf.
"Why, Lucifer, you may as well be on fire,” Alastor said, voice dripping with mockery as he snapped his neck backwards to watch him.
Lucifer flipped him off without looking back, key shining in his hand, and looked intently at the wall. Alastor knew he found it when he let out an annoyed groan and shoved the key into the lock and pushed the door open. "Asshole."
Alastor pushed himself out of the chair with a snicker, thrilled with the reaction he was able to pull from Lucifer, and followed him into the next room.
He wasn't expecting to walk right into a near replication of his radio station and it was enough to have him stopping in his tracks. "How interesting."
"Interesting? It looks like your dingy little tower. You'll probably find something out of place and we'll find the key in under a minute," Lucifer grumbled as he ventured further into the room. "Not that I'm complaining. The sooner we get out of here the better… just a challenge would be nice."
Alastor folded his hands behind his back, longing for his staff to clutch onto, and slowly walked around the room. He noticed the lack of foliage coming out of the flooring and how much cleaner it was. "Well, then you're in luck. It's not mine. Just a close rendition."
"In that case..." Lucifer started when he stepped in front of the control panel. He started flipping and turning and pushing every switch, button, and knob. Various lights flickered in the center of the control panel and feedback came through the speakers attached. Lucifer laughed and exclaimed happily, "I've always wanted to do this!"
Alastor had to bite back the possessive instinct to slap his hands away. He must have made some noise, however, because Lucifer suddenly smirked and flipped a few more switches. "What, you don't like people pushing your buttons?"
Lucifer kept his smile and continued to stare right at Alastor as he twisted a bunch of knobs and pushed as many buttons as he could before Alastor finally made enough radio feedback himself that he had to yank his hands back and slap them over his ears.
"Alright, fuck. Enough!"
Alastor dialed it back to a low hum and forced his smile to sharpen from the wobbly line it had slackened into. "Just. Stop. Touching everything."
"Riiiiight. Isn't that kind of the point, though?" Lucifer gestures to the control panel, but stayed clear from touching it again. "Leave nothing untouched or unturned and make our way through this, um, delightful, ahem, room Charlie has set up for us."
"I suppose you're right. Go look for something elsewhere then," Alastor waved him off and sat in the chair at the control desk.
"Why do I have to go? Maybe I want to figure out what order to flip these switches to open some secret compartment." Lucifer reached back to the panel and the feedback jumped in volume again. "Gah— okay! Jeez!"
Alastor sighed in relief and waited for Lucifer to start investigating a bookshelf in the corner to get closer to the radio controls. He ran his fingers along the overhang that came off of the panel and sighed when he failed to find anything taped or tucked there. He opened the tiny compartments that were supposed to allow easier access to wiring, but found nothing in those either.
There was a knob in the middle of the panel that looked off from the alignment of the rest of the ones around it and he curiously twisted it until a clicking started.
"Damn thing," Alastor cursed when it simply continued to click without opening or triggering anything. He looked closer and noticed the knob looked more similar to that of a safe than the ones on his own control panel.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Lucifer whooped from behind him.
When Alastor glanced over his shoulder, he noticed Lucifer was holding a scrap piece of paper. "What did you find?"
“Hm? Oh!” Lucifer held up the paper and waved it at Alastor. "It's one of those clue riddle things like in the other room. It reads:
'If you want to stay on the main track, look in the cabinet full of shellac'
Now I don't know what shellac is, but something tells me that it might be in that cabinet over there." Lucifer pointed to the other side of the room to a cabinet very similar to the one he had when he was alive.
He stored every piece of music he could get his hands on in that cabinet…
"Shellac is the material that records are made of," Alastor told him while going over to the cabinet. He pulled the door open and let out a little giddy laugh when he saw records in sleeves that he recognized. "There doesn't seem to be a player, but perhaps there's something in the record sleeves."
"This is what I meant by a challenge!" Lucifer exclaimed and lightly tapped the side of the cabinet. "Should we split them up and look through them?"
Soon, Alastor had a stack of records in front of him on the desk the radio was on and Lucifer had several spread out in front of him on the floor. "Have you found anything?"
Lucifer held up a record and tapped the sleeve it was in. "Some of these have letters circled."
"Random or is there a pattern?" Alastor asked curiously as he put aside another record with nothing to note in his sorted pile.
"Hm…" Lucifer looked at the records he had fanned out and pointed to all of their covers as he mumbled under his breath. He looked back at Alastor to tell him, "They seem to all be L's and R's."
"How interesting…" Alastor stated as he leaned back in the chair and swayed it back and forth. "There's a combination lock in the control panel."
Lucifer blinked once. Twice. “Okay?”
“A combination lock that needs a combination,” Alastor gritted out, radio feedback turning staticky and poppy.
“There's no directions, though,” Lucifer said simply and picked up another record. “Aren't there usually ‘left’, ‘right’, whatever?”
"I would assume L and R would be for Left and Right."
"Oh… right." Lucifer chuckled, "Heh, right. But of course. That makes sense! So we turn the knob on your little combination lock. Easy peasy!"
"Easy peasy," Alastor repeated with a snort.
They finished sorting through the records and came away with ten records with markings on the sleeves.
“How do we know which one to use first?” Lucifer asked when he came back in front of the control panel.
“We’ll use our best guess,” Alastor told him confidently and began turning the knob left according to the three circled L's. He turned it left for the third time and then switched to turning it right. However, instead of it turning twice, the knob jammed after the first turn.
“What the fuck?” Alastor muttered under his breath.
“Everything good?” Lucifer asked from over his shoulder. “Ooo, did you break it?”
“I did not break it!” Alastor hissed. “It jammed itself.”
“Riiiight. Blame the knob,” Lucifer mumbled under his breath and chuckled. “Let me try.”
He batted Alastor's hand away, much to his aggravation, and tried to turn it. When it remained jammed, Lucifer frowned. “Oh, come on.”
“I told you. It jammed itself.”
“Knobs don't jam themselves. You fucked it up somehow! I–”
A loud, canned booing sound came from somewhere in the room.
“Stop that,” Lucifer chastised and waved his hand in Alastor's direction while still messing with the knob.
“That isn't me, you idiot,” Alastor spat, irritation growing, as he looked around the station trying to find the speakers that the noise had come from. “Try to turn the knob again.”
“You want me to turn it without it doing anything? What's the point?”
Alastor motioned his fingers in a ‘hurry along’ gesture and only bristled slightly when Lucifer rolled his eyes before complying.
Another burst of canned booing erupted and Alastor's eyes snapped to where his chair was still against the wall. “Again.”
Lucifer sighed but turned it again and the noise repeated, this time so obviously to Alastor that it was coming from behind the wall.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Alastor's neck snapped around and he told Lucifer, “I believe we're going to have to find out way into this wall.”
Lucifer gestured silently with a finger at Alastor to fix his neck as he approached the wall. He knocked on it and found it to make a more hollow sound than normal. “Can't we just… bust it down?”
“I suppose we could. Should I pick you up and use your head as a battering ram?” Alastor asked while he inspected the wall.
“Please don't do that!” Charlie's voice came through the tinny speaker behind the wall.
“Charlie? Are you trapped in there?” Lucifer put a hand against the plaster and looked worried.
Alastor huffed. “You are as bright as the night, aren't you?”
Lucifer's eyes flashed with fury and a low growl started at the back of his throat.
“It's just a speaker, Dad,” Charlie's voice comes from behind the wall again. “I'm in a different room watching, remember?”
“Oh-ho, of course!” Lucifer chuckled and looked back at Lucifer with a finger pointed to the wall. “She's not in the wall. Duh. Sooo, probably don't need to get inside it, huh?”
Alastor fought the sudden urge to squeeze Lucifer's perfectly round cheeks until the red covered more than just the corners of his mouth.
“Please leave the walls alone… this wall anyway,” Charlie specified and then the speaker switched back to playing the canned booing track.
Alastor strolled back over to the control panel and turned the knob back the other way to cease the noise.
"Hey, maybe it needs to be alphabetical." Lucifer suggested after a moment of peaceful silence.
"Left and right are already in alphabetical order."
"You… no. Alphabetize the sleeves and then use the order of left and right for the combination thingy." Lucifer gestured vaguely at the radio. "Hopefully it won't jam and we won't hear that horrible noise again."
Alastor couldn't agree more and they got to work at alphabetizing the sleeves.
“Soooo, you know a lot about radio stuff. Ahem, obviously being the ‘Radio Demon’ and all,” Lucifer said as they sorted. Alastor let out an amused hum in answer. “How'd you get started in that?”
Alastor glanced down at Lucifer. “Why?”
“I've been curious and we are stuck together. I thought it was as good a time as any to ask…” Lucifer trailed off the longer Alastor looked at him.
“I worked in radio while alive,” Alastor said, finally looking away from him. “Right when public broadcasting really hit its stride, but I always loved it. Funny how people once looked down on me for it only for radios to eventually become a staple in every home.” Canned laughter erupted and Lucifer glanced back at the wall. Alastor rolled his eyes. “That time it was me.”
"Ha ha." Lucifer rolled his eyes.
“I enjoy how… susceptible people are to radio. They take everything at its word in the most literal sense and spread it as truth. It's the same as in Hell as well.” Alastor adjusted his monocle and sighed happily. “People are so…”
“Awful?”
“Stupid!” Alastor cackled hard enough that he had to clutch at his stomach. “They are so dumb. After I died and fell into this lovely little playground of yours, there was a man who had a broadcast of himself doing a reading of a science fiction novel involving aliens. Do you know what people supposedly did when they heard the broadcast?”
Lucifer shook his head.
“They panicked! They skipped town, left their homes, went to church and stayed on their knees for days all because of a sixty minute reading of a book.” Alastor shook his head and laughed again.
“Who, uh, exactly told you this?” Lucifer asked skeptically.
“...that's not relevant.”
“Ah, the TV head guy, huh?” Lucifer snickered. “What a trustworthy source.”
“Among others!” Alastor exclaimed. The back of his neck grew prickly at the insinuation. “Husker confirmed it one Halloween when asked about it.”
Lucifer raised a brow at him. “So… your main sources are a sociopathic television and a drunk cat? Well, I guess you were right when you said people were stupid.”
A sharp hiss of radio static filled the room and his eyes flickered back and forth from dials.
“Calm down. I was only teasing, jeez,” Lucifer scoffed and pointed to what they had in front of them. “We're almost finished here.”
Lucifer's tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth as he looked over the sleeves. Forked and pink and pretty.
Alastor's feedback sharpened before fading away again. Pretty could mean so many things really. It didn't have to be a whole…thing.
"Aaand done! Let's get this figured out and hopefully get out of here, hm?" Lucifer grinned and pushed a small notebook that he found somewhere towards Alastor.
Alastor looked for a writing utensil and found a stubby pencil tucked into the spiral binding. He fought to free it and opened the notebook to a blank page. "Begin."
"Let's see… Armstrong has two R's circled so to the right twice. Then Beiderbecke has the L circled on the song title and an R circled in the name," Lucifer rattled off.
"Oh, Bix! I killed him not long after fell. Hm, the memories." Alastor swiveled in his chair and tapped his pencil against the paper. "What's the next letter?"
"Ellington has both L's circled, Henderson has the R circled in the title…" Lucifer furrowed his brows and held up a vinyl sleeve for Alastor to look at. "Who is Jelly Roll Morton?"
"The real king of jazz and one hell of a piano player," Alastor said with a point of his pencil in Lucifer's direction as his chair swayed side-to-side. "Which letters are circled on his record?"
"The two L’s in ‘Jelly’ and the R in 'Roll'," Lucifer simply said before dropping the sleeve in the pile with the rest. "Aaand that's it. There's nothing else circled on any of the other record sleeves."
Alastor set his pen down and turned in his chair to where the combination dial was. "Alright, let's see if this works."
"It'll work!" Lucifer huffed and leaned on the edge of the desk right next to Alastor's chair. His hip bumped into Alastor's shoulder and he nudged him back, cackling when Lucifer slipped off with an "Oh shit!"
"You should be more careful~" Alastor sing-songed as he leaned forward to turn the dial according to their findings.
He moved it to the right twice, the left once, right again, left two more times, right… again, then left another two times, and with a final turn to the right, the dial clicked.
The piece of the panel behind the combination lock popped up to reveal a hidden compartment. A cheering crowd sound came through the speakers as he fished the key out of the compartment. "Ah-ha, here we are!"
"I told you it would work," Lucifer grumbled as he tried to steal the key from Alastor, only for him to hold it high above his head as they searched for the hidden door in the wall.
"Oh, finally! Ahaha, I could not stand sitting in that radio station for another minute," Lucifer laughed while pushing the door open after Alastor put the key in. "This next room better… be… woah."
Woah, indeed.
There could not have been a better room built for Lucifer, Alastor thought as he took in the circus tent walls and carnival-esque furniture and decor. A kiddie pool set up for some sort of game, a miniature ferris wheel, huge posters of rubber ducks, a popcorn maker, and several balloons and huge prized plush animals around the room.
There was a lot, much more than the room modeled after his tower.
There was a low hum of circus music playing and for a moment, it glitched through Alastor's speaker when he saw the way Lucifer's eyes lit up while taking in the room.
"This is… I mean, wow, Charlie has really outdone herself with this one, huh?" Lucifer stared up and around as he walked further into the room and shook his head with a grin. "I don't know where we should begin."
Alastor itched to poke and prod and tease. And he would, he would assure anyone listening. But for the moment, he found that he wanted to bask in the light a little while longer.
There was a booth with a sign above it that said 'TICKETS' illuminated by the light bulbs surrounding the word. It was an empty booth save for the multiple rolls of tickets and a pen resting on the service shelf.
"Ticket booths are typically where one would start while at a carnival." Alastor gestured to the very booth in the corner. "I'm sure there's something there."
Lucifer agreed with a little "mhm!" and led the way to it. He looked inside and tilted his head before looking back at Alastor. "The only thing there are rolls of ticket paper."
"Nothing on the paper?"
"Right…" Lucifer picked up the roll and looked along the tickets, in the roll, and eventually, with a strand of perforated tickets strung over his head and shoulders, he let out an "aha!" while holding up a bunch of tickets with writing on them. "Sneaky things, but not sneaky enough for me~"
Alastor snorted and reached out to take them but Lucifer clutched them to his chest. "Excuse you!"
"What?"
"You had your little radio room to control everything in. Now it's my turn." Lucifer huffed and it blew the tickets draped over his face in a flutter.
"You are a ridiculous little man. You know that?" Alastor gritted out.
Lucifer giggled while he tore off pieces of tickets with numbers on them and tossed the blank sections of the strands to the side. They landed around him in piles, over his arms, shoulders, and even over his head. The ticket strands looked like ribbons in his hair by the time he was finished with a handful of tickets with number batches.
"Sooo, now we have all of these random numbers. What do you think they go to?" Lucifer asked, head tilting and making the tickets in his hair fall into his eyes.
Alastor tapped his fingers over his folded hands. "I haven't the slightest idea."
"Then maybe we should start over there!"And with that, he was making his way over to the pool of ducks, tickets trailing behind him like a bridal veil.
Alastor stepped on the roll to sever them and tossed them to the side to prevent tripping and when he caught up with Lucifer, he plucked what remained off of his head.
The kiddie pool filled with rubber ducks… of course.
"You take one of the poles and there's a magnet that will latch onto the duck. I believe…"
"You believe?"
"I've never done this before," Lucifer shrugged. "It just looks like one of the games I've seen set up at Lu Lu World."
Alastor chuckled. "Isn't it your amusement park?"
"I've stepped back in recent years," Lucifer said wistfully, a sad smile on his face as he prepped his fishing pole.
Lucifer flung his pole back too hard and the magnet stuck to one of the metal legs of the popcorn maker. He looked behind him with furrowed brows. "Huh."
"Have you never fished before?" Alastor asked while he reeled in a rubber duck and sat it off to the side.
"Psssh, of course I have!" Lucifer exclaimed, voice pitched up the way it did when he was so obviously lying.
Alastor hummed and set his fishing pole aside before slinking over to stand behind him. He wordlessly adjusted Lucifer's hold and angle of his arms and then went back to grab his pole. "Try again, with less power behind it this time."
Lucifer cleared his throat and followed Alastor's instructions. The magnet at the end of his string clicked onto a duck and he pulled it back with a laugh. He tossed it aside and threw his string again until he fell into a quick and competitive stride.
Alastor watched while he fished his own ducks out of the pool, his smile turning more genuine at Lucifer's efforts.
"HA! 17 to your 9. I win!" Alastor cackled and threw his pole off to the side when they'd finished the game. His rubber ducks were starting to make a pile while Lucifer's looked pathetically spread out on the floor.
"You are a very sore winner " Lucifer grumbled and dropped his pole into the pool. The weight of it made the water plop and slosh at the sides.
Alastor hummed happily and stopped down to look at his haul. He noticed the bottom of the rubber ducks had a letter on them. "Do your ducks have letters printed on their bottoms?"
"Uh, yeah some do, but there's also numbers." Lucifer held up ducks with 12, 14, and 2 on their bottoms.
Alastor further sorted through his pile and found mostly letters, but did discover two ducks with 1 and 15 on their bottoms. "Huh."
"Soooo letters and numbers for this room's puzzle?" Lucifer juggled his ducks with a thoughtful look. "Those numbers are on some of the tickets."
"Which strand?"
Lucifer tossed his ducks in the air once more before catching them all and putting them back on the floor to go get the ticket strands. "Let's see… 2 and 12 are on this strand. 15 and another 12 are on this one, and this strand has a 14, 1, and another 15."
"Are there any strands that have all of the numbers listed?" Alastor asked exasperated.
Lucifer leveled him with a look. "I would have said that if there were."
"You never know," Alastor intoned and came over to the strands of tickets, leaving over Lucifer's shoulder to look closer. His hair tickled his cheek. "12 is also on this strand, 14 is one this one, and this one."
"Yes, I saw that."
"Then why didn't you say that?" Alastor hummed playfully and stepped back, cackling when Lucifer stumbled backwards and huffed. Alastor did a quick count of the rest of the ducks on the floor and came up with 26 in total. "I wonder if those numbers correspond to a letter in the alphabet."
"A would be 1, so is there an A on any of the ducks?" Lucifer asked while he began sorting through his ducks. "I don't have A in my pile, but I do have D, G, Z, Q, T, and J."
Alastor did the same. "I appear to have everything else except for five missing letters. A seems to be one of them. Which would support the alphabet theory."
Lucifer looked around and clapped his hands together when he found a pad of paper inside the popcorn machine of all places. He held it up and looked around with pinched brows. "I can't find a pen."
"There was one over in the ticket booth," Alastor mentioned over his shoulder as he lined up the ducks in alphabetical order with the gaps left for the missing letters.
Lucifer came back with the pen and clicked it. "Oh! Huh…"
"What happened?"
"Well, it'll be a little hard to write with a light." Lucifer pointed it to Alastor who winced when it shone brightly in his eyes. "Oops, sorry. Heh."
Alastor blinked away the light spots to see Lucifer pocketing the pen. "Is there anything with a drawer that you could look through while I'm blind?"
"I-I'll look." Lucifer laughed nervously and moved about the room while Alastor's vision finally cleared. He made a victorious noise and pulled a pen from one of the small seats on the miniature ferris wheel.
"Perfect," Alastor breathed out and sat back when a twinge started in his thigh. "Are you ready to get started?"
"With what?" Lucifer asked and Alastor could only stare at him. He looked around at the ducks and then," Oh! Yeah, go ahead and tell me the missing letters that match our number ducks."
"2 would be B, 12 would be L, N is 14, O is 15," Alastor listed off. Lucifer looked up from the paper expectantly. "That's all."
"There were five Number Ducks."
A sharp bite of feedback came out of Alastor and with a strained smile, he said, " Yes. We already established that A was 1."
Lucifer nodded and wrote it down. "Ooookay. ABLNO. Hm… what is an Ablno?"
"I don't think that's a word," Alastor deadpanned. "Where are those tickets? Yes, those! Perhaps we need to decode those to understand what ABLNO means!"
"Hehe, it's fun to say isn't it? Ablno~" Lucifer grinned while laying out all of the ticket strands out on the floor in front of the ducks.
"It isn't unpleasant." Alastor shuffled back to his knees to help Lucifer with the ticket strands. "Are you writing or matching the numbers and letters?"
"I'll write. You did it last time." Lucifer settled cross-legged next to him.
"The first strand is 2, 12, 21, 5."
"Alrighty and what letters would those be? Aside from 2 being B because we know that already." Lucifer tapped the pen against the paper.
Alastor did a quick count and told him, "L, U, E."
"Oooookay," Lucifer drawled out while he wrote it down. "The first strand of tickets says 'Blue'."
"Next is 7, 18, 5, 5, 14."
"Ooo! 5 is E and 14 is N. What are the rest?"
Alastor hummed as he looked at the ducks. "G and R."
"Green. I'm sensing there might be a theme," Lucifer joked. "Next."
"16, 21, 18, 16, 12, 5." Alastor waited for Lucifer to write those down and then gave the letters. "That's P, U, R, P, L, E."
"Gotcha. Yeah there's definitely a pattern." Lucifer leaned forward and quickly wrote down the next strand of numbers. "Okay. What are the letters for 25, 15, and 23?"
"That would be Y, O, and W." Alastor didn't wait this time and started to list the next strand of numbers before Lucifer could take over his task again. "The next set is 18, 5, 4."
"Slow down!" Lucifer scrambled to write the letters and then the new numbers, groaning while he read over the data he already had. "Tell me what 4 is and then wait."
"D," Alastor said and immediately started listing the next line of numbers. "15, 18, 1, 14, 7, 5."
"Fuck. You." Lucifer groaned and tried to write everything down quickly, making Alastor chuckle. "Damn, what was before 7?"
"14."
"Right… right… and after 7?"
Alastor grinned, pleased with himself as he lied and said, "26!"
He watched as Lucifer's brows furrowed as he matched up the numbers to the letters he already had. He looked over at Alastor with fire in his eyes. "The last number was not 26, you idiot deer."
"This is why it's important to pay attention!" Alastor cackled and knocked their shoulders together. "There's only one strand left. Are you ready? I'll make sure to slow it down so you might catch it this time."
Lucifer shoved him with his shoulder and smirked when Alastor started to fall the other way. While Alastor righted himself back up, he quickly wrote the letters on his paper. "Alright, asshole, what's 9 and 11?"
"I and K," Alastor answered as he brushed down his suit coat.
Lucifer wrote those down and then looked over the list. "It's just a bunch of colors; blue, green, purple, yellow, red, orange, and pink."
"Don't forget about Ablno," Alastor reminded and felt warm when Lucifer's frown quirked up a bit. "What in here is blue, green, purple, yellow, red, orange, and pink?"
"You don't have to list them all," Lucifer said with a snort laugh and looked around. "The balloons?"
“What about them?”
“There's a balloon for each color.” Lucifer pointed to the balloons tied together and floating up from the floor.
Alastor looked at the balloons skeptically. "I think there might be something in these."
"So pop 'em and see," Lucifer muttered, distracted as he stared wistfully at some of the posters on the wall. After a few moments passed with no popping sound, he said, "Just take one of your claws and poke it."
"I know how to pop a balloon!" Alastor growled out through bursts of static.
"Then… what's the hold up there, bambi?"
Alastor shot him a sharp look at the nickname before glancing away to admit, "The noise is unpleasant."
He heard Lucifer open his mouth, take in a little bit of air he always did when he was about to poke fun and throw jabs at Alastor, only for it to snap shut. He looked back to see Lucifer staring at him with a curious look.
"I guess you could hold it up to the light to look through them. That should work too," he suggested and went back to his posters.
"What, no comment on how immature that is?" Alastor asked, voice sharp and taunting. Thick with insecurity.
"Both ways work." Lucifer shrugged. He stared intently in front of him and added on, "It's better this way, anyhow. The noise can be annoying."
Alastor didn't say anything to that aside from a small burst of feedback, near silent, at his surprise.
From where Alastor could see through the rubber that most of the balloons were filled with randomly shaped glitters and confetti. Stars, flowers, little animals, and more that looked like they would explode all over his suit if he popped the balloon. What finally caught his attention, though, was a balloon with a little more weight that had white puzzle pieces inside.
"It looks like our next puzzle is a jigsaw," Alastor joked with canned laughter playing behind his words. Lucifer looked closer to the balloon and before Alastor knew it, the barrier was being popped and puzzle pieces spilled out into his hands and onto the floor. “A little warning would have been nice.”
“Eh, then you would have tensed up expecting a terrible noise. It barely made anything.” Lucifer plopped down onto the floor and started sorting the pieces. He looked up and waved Alastor down. “Come on, let's put it together.”
For a while, all they did was sit on the floor setting the pieces into pieces with borders and those without. The only sound was the steady circus music and the soft thump of the puzzle pieces on the floor.
"Aren't these depictions of your own creations?" Alastor asked after a while and looked around the room at the posters on the wall of rubber duck schematics. There was one duck that could spin, another that could change color, one that could spit fire… "They certainly sound like yours."
Lucifer looked them over, eyes growing wide. "These are the first ducks I ever made!"
Alastor hummed and watched intently as Lucifer stared longingly at his old etchings. "May I ask you a question?"
"You're asking permission now?" Lucifer mumbled, only half paying attention.
"What is your fascination with the circus? More specifically these little rubber duck creatures." Alastor toed at one of the discarded ducks that they had left behind on the floor. "I'm not sure I understand the appeal."
Lucifer shrugged. "I've always enjoyed them."
"Yes, well it's one thing to enjoy and another to make it your whole personality. I've heard stories of your room, enjoying does not lead to a mountain of them," Alastor commented, inquisitive if not a bit teasing.
Lucifer simply hummed and continued working on the puzzle.
"My mother took me to see a traveling circus once," Alastor pondered out loud when he didn't say anything else. "I quite liked it. The fire breather, the two headed cow, the acrobats. It was all very novel."
"They have two headed cows in the living world?" Lucifer looked at him skeptically.
"Mhm. Genetic defects, I believe, but I had only come across them at the circus. In the 'freak' tent."
"Freak?" Lucifer's fingers froze right where he was about to push another piece in.
Alastor glanced up long enough to see the deep frown on his face. He pushed another piece in as he thought best how to word this. "Anyone who didn't fit into societal norms. Women with beards, little people, those with facial and bodily abnormalities. The like."
"I see." Lucifer clicked the piece into place and picked up another.
He didn't say anything or look at him for the next several minutes. Alastor assumed that meant he was done talking about the subject or had been distracted by the clues he happened to be working on. He was ready to let it go, brush it off as his own fault for showing interest and curiosity in the man who was typically a pain in his side.
"I was seen as the freak to my… peers… in Heaven. I didn't fit into the box they tried to put me in. My ideas were too big, too off-putting, too unusual." Lucifer let out a short, humorless laugh. "I tried to smother that part of me, I really did, but even the smallest of my creations were looked down upon. I started to create these small ducks that could be hidden away in a moment's notice so they wouldn't judge me, I guess I never stopped taking comfort in them."
Alastor suddenly recalled his little cabin in the woods and the comfort it brought him. He hid away in there not only to do his sacrificial bidding but he often used it as a sanctuary from the numerous forces working against him while alive. He wondered if he and Lucifer might be similar in more ways than he previously thought.
Lucifer cleared his throat awkwardly at the prolonged silence and asked, "Soooo do they choose that life or are they pushed into it?"
Like I was, goes without saying.
"I couldn't speak on everyone's experience, especially given I was quite young, but I do think some people chose that lifestyle. The community." Alastor hummed as he looked for a puzzle piece that best fit into this space. "I suppose it isn't much different than Charlie's hotel."
Lucifer's frown faded and a small smile took its place. Alastor watched him add several pieces to the puzzle, including filling the space he had been searching for.
"You're good at this," Alastor sighed, annoyed at how poorly he was doing.
"Yeah, well… you get good at a lot of things when you're by your lonesome," Lucifer said, voice pitched up in that way he did when he was trying to be funny even if what he was saying wasn't. He laughed and shook his head. "It is nice doing it with another person."
A burst of sweet melody came from Alastor but he got control over it quick enough that he didn't think Lucifer noticed.
"I must agree."
Lucifer stared at the puzzle once they had completed it, eyes searching over every piece even though they were all the same color. "Huh."
"What now?" Alastor groaned and leaned back on his hands behind him on the floor.
"I think there might be a form of invisible writing on here," Lucifer said slowly as he continued to look at the pieces. Alastor didn't see anything and when all he did was stare at him, Lucifer pointed to a piece that was chipping on the edge. "There's some sort of sealant that was painted over the pieces. With this chipping, I can just barely make out a difference in color between the invisible ink and the piece…. Though why they call it invisible when I can see it now is a mystery to me."
Alastor tried to see the difference, but failed. He's always had trouble with such fine details visually. It certainly got worse after obtaining the deer qualities. "Hm. How would you propose we see what it says?"
Lucifer leaned back against a huge prized bear against the wall and let out a long sigh. "That, I do not know."
"How do you even know about invisible ink?"
"What? Oh, there was a show where the killer used invisible ink to leave clues to taunt the cops. Cops used blacklight, solved the clues, found the killer and saved the next victim," Lucifer told him as he moved the bear's arm around like it was the one talking with its hands instead.
"So we will find a blacklight then. I'm sure Charlie has hidden one in here if she went through the trouble of using the ink and sealing it." Alastor started to push himself off the floor, but he was stopped when Lucifer made a sudden noise and started to fish around in his pockets.
"Wait! That pen with the light!" Lucifer pulled it out of his pocket and Alastor instantly held up a hand in front of his eyes to prevent being blinded again. "You're fine. The light is on my hand."
He aimed it at his palm and clicked. Instead of a nib with ink, the beam of purple-blue light came out. Lucifer's palm turned his usual grey black to a deep, memorizing vanta black.
"Oh," Alastor breathed out. The longer he stared, the more he felt like he was moments from falling into the vastness.
"Uh, yeah. Oh. So you know, sorry about the whole blinding you thing but obviously, this is needed," Lucifer rambled, laughing lightly to cover his awkwardness. When Alastor didn't move he cleared his throat and leaned back… when had Alastor stepped closer?… and waved the light over the puzzle and letters appeared. "Ha! What'd I tell you?!"
Alastor's ears flicked in annoyance and forced himself to unfreeze from his spot look closer at the invisible ink.
The writing on the puzzle was difficult to see at a certain angle and Alastor, begrudgingly, had to shuffle on his knees to sit directly behind Lucifer to see what it said.
"An elephant's mind is clever, the hair from their tail good luck. This aviary dweller's feather is the contrary."
"Well that was certainly worth the time it took," Alastor deadpanned.
"I liked it," Lucifer shrugged
Alastor's brows pinched. "What could that possibly mean?"
"Hm… well, aviary dweller would be a bird most likely…. It would probably be an exotic bird of some kind, right?" Lucifer asked, head tilted as he looked at the words. His mouth twisted to the side with concentration and Alastor had the sudden urge to flick his pursed lips. "Maybe a peacock…"
"A peacock?" Alastor raised a brow at him. He wouldn't associate ‘circus’ with peacocks, but then again, he had only ever been to the one he visited as a child.
Alastor stood and brushed down his coat before holding out his hand to help pull Lucifer up and looked around the room at what remained. Their hands stayed together longer than he meant and the moment Alastor realized, he snatched his back when the warmth became too much.
They ventured around the room, looking high and low for any clues that might relate to the riddle left behind for them.
"Well, here's an elephant duck I made." Lucifer pointed to a poster on the wall with a rubber duck that had a long trunk and tusks. "I should have given it ears, shoot…"
Alastor noticed something sticking out from behind a mirror and nudged Lucifer to point to it. "I believe that is our aviary dweller's feather."
Lucifer pulled the feather out from behind the mirror and held it up to show Alastor the key taped onto the back of it. "I guess we're ready to move into the next room."
"Hm." Alastor hummed when he noticed the way Lucifer's shoulders sagged. He looked around the room for anything they hadn't interacted with. He pointed to the popcorn maker in the corner. "Maybe we can stay and have a quick snack first before moving on."
"Eh, there's nothing to pop. I already checked." Lucifer waved him off, but gave him a small smile. "Thanks, though."
Alastor held out his hand for the key and patted Lucifer's hand when he passed it over. "Onto the next room then!"
The door swung open to reveal a dimly lit room. Circular tables with chairs were pushed closer to the walls and there was a bar on one side that looked more for show than anything else. What caught Alastor's attention was the floor. It appeared to be a tiling of some kind that was elevated from the rest of the room.
"Well, this is interesting…"
"It looks like a disco dance floor," Lucifer said with a snicker and circled a finger around. "This room is the most confusing yet. I don't see either of our personalities in here."
Alastor would have to agree. Aside from the bar having an older aesthetic, there was nothing here that screamed his time period or the king of Hell.
He glanced around the room and realized that there was a thin barrier between the tiled floor and the rest of the room. "I suppose we aren't hunting for clues in here, either."
"What do you me—" Lucifer's words were cut off in a grunt as he tumbled over the rope barrier and toppled over to the other side, landing in a heap. He righted himself up quickly and brushed himself off, glaring at Alastor who had started cackling. "Oh, right, yeah. Laugh it up. Like you wouldn't have done the same thing…"
"I wouldn't have," Alastor told him through laughter. "I look at my surroundings before I venture into them. Speaking of which, I could use a drink at the bar!”
Alastor strolled over to the bar with shelves upon shelves of liquor. He got a step away from the bar top and something pushed him back, making his head kick back and his foot and knee sting. "What the fuck?"
Lucifer cackled hard enough to pitch over and wiped at a tear in his eye. "There's another barrier set up. You can't see that?"
"I see that atrocious thing in the middle of the room and the whiskey I would love to get my hands on." Alastor sniffed and adjusted his monocle. "I don't see anything else."
"Huh." Lucifer tilted his head and looked at the space behind Alastor. "Sorry, pal. That drink is going to have to wait until we get out of here."
Alastor grumbled and brushed past Lucifer to look at what was in the middle of the room more closely. The white light coming from the four-by-four tile flooring was way too bright in the dinky lit room. When Lucifer joined at his side, Alastor pointed to the small lip up to the tile. "Do you need assistance?"
"What do you mean?"
"Since your legs are so short, I thought you might need a boost up!" Alastor teased and stepped up onto the tiles. He didn't make it far before stumbling from forceful shove to his backside. He snapped his head around, eyes flickering to dials. "What the hell was that for?"
Lucifer gestured with the toe of his boot that was still extended out at waist level. "I gave you the kick in the pants that you couldn't get from your drink! You're welcome!"
Alastor rolled his eyes. "Let's figure out what this is so we can get out of here.”
As soon as Lucifer joined him on the tiles, the white light started to change to different colors in a wave motion over the entire floor. Blue, red, and green before it turned back to white.
"What did that mean?" Lucifer asked as he walked over the tiles when he got to the other side, the tile under his feet turned green in a sea of white. "Well, alrighty. How did I do that?"
Alastor looked down at the tile he still stood on and saw that his tile was white. He stepped forward and the next time turned red. "Hmmm."
"Ha! Red for Red Guy!" Lucifer laughed and moved to another tile. White turned to blue and a 'boop!' sounded from a speaker they couldn't see. "Boop? What does boop mean? Green didn't make boop!"
"Step on another one," Alastor suggested, happy to use the indestructible King of Hell as a guinea pig in case 'boop!' eventually led to something like BOOM!
Lucifer did and the white tile changed to green with a 'ding!' sound following. He looked to Alastor again which prompted him to step to another tile. Another red that made an 'enh!' sound.
"That's unpleasant." Alastor quickly stepped to another that lit up blue and made another 'boop!'.
"Soo boop!, ding!, and enh!… Interesting." Lucifer tapped a finger on his chin and walked over some more tiles with a chorus of sounds following him.
Alastor watched as the tiles lit up in a sort of pattern of a green square with blues and reds around it.
"Interesting indeed. It appears the green may be the correct tiles and the red and blue ones are wrong… but why blue?" Alastor wondered, looking carefully at the floor.
Lucifer tilted his head and pointed to one of the blues. "Each blue square has a green touching one of its sides. The reds don't."
A sudden 'ding! ding! ding!' sounded and all of the tiles went back to white. Then a single steady beat started.
Oom oom oom oom oom
Alastor and Lucifer looked at each other, the floor, and then back at each other.
"What should we do?"
"Uh…" Lucifer tapped the tile in front of him with the toe of his boot and it made an enh! sound. "Okay so not that one then.'
"Wait, look over there." Alastor pointed to a blinking white square a couple of tiles away. He stretched his leg over to step on the tile and when he stood on it, it turned green with a 'ding!'. "Look for any more blinking tiles."
The next few minutes passed with them stepping on blinking tiles with 'ding!'s breaking up oom oom oom. When four tiles were green, a new beat was added to the mix to create oom-pah oom-pah oom-pah and the floor cleared to start over.
"Are we supposed to keep doing these until the key to the next room appears?" Alastor complained more than asked as the repetitive noise was making his head pound.
"You don't like polka?" Lucifer asked as he hopped over to another lit up tile.
"Not whatever isolated noise is happening over those speakers." Alastor stepped over the wrong tiles on purpose just to hear boop! and enh! again for a break to his ears.
Lucifer copied Alastor and laughed when two tiles he stepped on quickly made a new noise of 'boop-oop!'. "Maybe we can override it and have it reset to something else."
"I like the way you think," Alastor said as he and Lucifer started walking over every time to light them up in all the colors until the final green was lit up and the two-beat song ended. "Finally."
There was silence for all of thirty seconds before the loudest disco music began to play.
"What the fuck?" Alastor hissed, shoulder inching towards his ears.
"Disco? That's… hm." Lucifer frowned. "Not the best era, but ooookay."
Alastor's shoulders relaxed a bit, knowing he was in good company. He tried to step on all of the tiles to find the green again, but the second a tile turned red, the floor reset and the song started over. “Our previous method doesn't seem to be working now.”
“Hm… oh! Look, there's a green tile lit up in the middle. Maybe we're supposed to step on it this time?” Lucifer suggested and then winced. “It seems a bit far for either of us to– hey!”
Alastor picked Lucifer up and launched him to the middle of the floor, pleased when he landed on the green tile and the music shifted to the next part of the song.
“What was that for?!” Lucifer hissed and adjusted his coat jacket with a huff.
“It was as good a method as any!” Alastor cackled and hardly noticed the disco music over Lucifer’s irritation.
“Well, genius, how do you suppose you're going to get over to the tile that lit up now that you've thrown me?” Lucifer asked with his hands balled up into fists on his hips.
Alastor cocked his head in confusion and then followed a jabbed finger as Lucifer pointed to a tile a few away from him. “Damn.”
“Well, go on. Throw yourself!” Lucifer tapped his shoe impatiently against the floor and glared at him. Alastor attempted to launch himself up the way he would to jump over something with his magic, but crashed to the tiles after gaining air for a mere three seconds. Lucifer laughed at him before groaning when the disco song restarted and the floor reset again. “We really have to figure this out. This song is driving me nuts.”
“Any suggestions on your end would be appreciated,” Alastor said as he rubbed at where his elbow had collided harshly with the ground. “At least I've tried something.”
“Throwing me without letting me know doesn't count!” Lucifer waved his arms wildly at his sides and stomped his way back over to the edge of the floor. He stared at the tile until Alastor joined him. “Let's just… stay here for a moment and see if any other tiles light up before we go launching each other.”
It didn't take long for that very thing to happen. The tile he threw Lucifer on lit up first, then the one he failed to meet, and then another.
“What if instead of throwing you, you jumped off my knee?” Alastor wondered as he tracked the tiles as they lit up in the same three-tile sequence.
“Uh… what?”
Alastor moved around the floor until he was on the edge closest to the first lit up tile and kneeled. He stretched out one of his legs as far as he could and bent his knee up then patted the top of his thigh. “Step up here and then try to jump onto the tile.”
Lucifer looked at him skeptically but ultimately climbed up onto Alastor's leg and wobbled. He braced himself before pushing himself off and jumping over to the tile. When he landed, Alastor followed to the same tile and sighed with relief when the song didn't restart.
“Aren't you supposed to go to that tile?” Lucifer hooked his thumb over his shoulder.
“Maybe we need to move together instead of separately.” Alastor looked over at the other tile trying to think of the best method for getting over to it. “Isn't that what Charlie wanted with this whole thing?”
Lucifer muttered something under his breath that Alastor didn't care to ask him to repeat.
“Hey, what if we did that side step thing those disco movies have?” Lucifer suggested. “You know the whole big step to the side while they point? We should be able to reach the next tile that way.”
Alastor looked down at Lucifer and cocked his head to the side. “You think you can make it over there with your little legs?”
“Hey! Maybe…” Lucifer looked at Alastor with a frown and it dug into his skin like an irritant.
“Just… step on my feet and hold on then," Alastor suggested with a burst of radio static. He held out his forearms and waited for Lucifer to take them and grunted when his feet slotted into place. "Ready… now."
Together they stepped sideways onto the next tile awkwardly and clumsily made it. The heel to Lucifer’s boot dug into the top of his foot.
“You can get off now,” Alastor growled and lightly shook him off of his arms.
“Right!” Lucifer let out an awkward laugh and then pointed at the next tile. “Hey, look, this one is way closer. We should be able to just step over ourselves.”
They did just that and the disco music finally ceased.
“Phew, there we go!” Lucifer let out a deep breath and rocked back on his heels. “I didn't think that was ever going to end.”
“It was more tortuous than your polka,” Alastor growled and flicked his ears in an effort to clear the disco still looping in his ears.
Then the loveliest thing happened. A jazz melody started.
“The tiles seem to be in a circle now. That's much more manageable,” Lucifer said as he pointed to how the green tiles fanned out.
Alastor tapped his foot to the piano and cornet coming over the speakers as he waited for the pattern of tiles to change but they didn't.
He had a brilliant idea then.
“May I have this dance, Lucifer?” Alastor asked with an extended hand, very cheerful now that his favorite melody has replaced the horrible music of the day.
“Uh…” Lucifer stared down at his hand with confusion.
“It will be easier if you follow my lead to this song. We'll be out in a jiffy!” Alastor continued to hold out his hand and hummed happily when Lucifer finally took it. “Excellent. Now pay close attention to how my feet move.”
With that, Alastor put them in position on one of the tiles and began moving them to the music and from one tile to the next.
"Turn your— yep, like that!" Alastor said cheerfully when Lucifer finally fell into a decent stance. His fingers dug into Alastor's shoulder but at least his feet had sorted themselves out. Lucifer looked at his feet again anyway and Alastor thumped against where his hand rest at his back. "You're fine. Do not worry about those. Look at me."
"Ugh. Do I have to?" Lucifer groaned with a growing grin. "I guess I can deal with it for a song."
Alastor rolled his eyes as he swung them again. When Lucifer stayed upright, he let out a pleased hum. "Do you know why they call this swing dancing?"
"No, why?"
"It's about balance. I swing you, you swing me .. would you like to give it a try?" Alastor asked, radio echoing the jazz already coming from the speakers.
"I-I don't think I'm ready for that," Lucifer laughed off and let Alastor lead them around again. He chewed at the inside of his cheek and smiled. "Though I would like to throw you around a little."
"Swing," Alastor corrected with a chuckle of his own. "You couldn't throw me even if you tried."
Daring determination flashed in Lucifer's eyes and Alastor felt his ears pin back. The demon in his arms threw his head back with a hearty laugh and smacked his chest. "You're very easy to intimidate when you let your guard down. I see why you keep it up."
Alastor grumbled and swung them around, faster than he had so far, and enjoyed the belt of terror Lucifer let out.
"Easy!" Lucifer cackled
"You're quite good at this," Lucifer told him after a bit, beaming as he looked up from their feet. Alastor realized that he finally trusted him to carry them both around the floor to the music.
"Lots of practice." Alastor hummed to the melody and spun Lucifer out and back in, enjoying the giggle he let out. "I have missed dancing with others, I must admit."
"Well, bambi, you can dance with me anytime. This is a rush!" Lucifer threw his head back with a laugh and Alastor…
Alastor thought of kissing him.
A small peck on the chin or the cheek. On one of those red spots perhaps.
He blinked away the thought as quickly as it came and danced them around the floor a little while more even after the pattern had changed.
Alastor's chest burned in that way it always did when he exerted himself while dancing. Sweat pooled at the back of his neck and at his forehead.
He felt good.
Lucifer's hair was damp at the ends and his usual pale complexion was rosy stretched around his smile.
And Alastor felt his old, black heart skip a beat as the music played its last note. When the song was finished a piece of the flooring rose up and a little podium with a plain to see key appeared.
“I guess that's it then, huh?” Lucifer asked, still breathing heavily.
“Of this room at least.” Alastor nodded and they both walked to the door on the other side of the room
~**~
Husk's eyes narrowed at Alastor when they came stumbling out, laughing and in each other's arms, but he remained silent.
"Shit, I thought you two would never finish," Cherri groaned and stood from where she had plopped down on the hallway floor. "Can we please go do something else now? I'm tired of looking at this wallpaper."
Vaggie handed Alastor his staff and Charlie gave Lucifer his, all while giving each other a side eye over how friendly the two were being.
"You guys are being weird," Niffty finally said where she leaned dozily against Baxter's shoulder.
"It's true," Baxter agreed, adjusting his goggles so they wouldn't bump into Niffty's forehead. "Usually you two go for each other's throats but you appear to be quite chummy now."
"Yeeeeaaah, what happened in there? The camera feed cut out so all I got was sound and the disco was much louder than I thought it would be." Charlie watched them cautiously, suspiciously.
Husk remained quiet. Aloof and pretending not to care as he took in every bit of Alastor touching Lucifer and every part of Lucifer touching Alastor.
It was strange and he wasn't sure he liked it then or later that night when they were both getting chummy over drinks.
Alastor chuckled at some story Lucifer was telling him so animatedly that he was spilling his drink all over Husk's bar.
He growled as he mopped up the mess with an old cloth just to watch more droplets land back on it.
"Hey!" Husk barked and pointed at them with a stern claw. "I don't give a shit about what made you two get all googoo eyed over the other but keep my bar clean."
Alastor's radio hissed but Husk rolled his eyes. He was no longer a threat to him and he knew it.
Lucifer, on the other hand, practically turned pink and giggled awkwardly. "I must be drunker than I think, haha… ha. Ahem. Water. Please."
Husk snorted and grabbed the king of Hell a bottle of water from the mini fridge beneath the bar top and looked at Alastor pointedly. "Do you need water? You're looking a bit… tipsy as well."
"Oh-ho, Husker, you certainly have grown brave, haven't you?" Alastor said between a strained smile and gritted teeth. He nudged his glass closer to Husk and gave him a pointedly look. "Pour another, won't you?"
Husk did and then left the bottom next to it with a wink to his old boss.
"Good luck, you two," Husk told them as he walked away from the bar with a wave over this shoulder. He muttered to himself and the shadows he knew lurked in the walls, "Something tells me that we're all going to need it."
