Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The Sanctum of Sin was the heart of all of hell.

The massive castle serving not only as the underworld’s capital, looming over all the other seven rings like a foreboding sentry, but also home to it’s most powerful family: the Morningstars.

It was here that Lucifer Morningstar resided with his unbelievably attractive wife Lilith Morningstar and his sickly sweet daughter Charlie Morningstar, whilst ruling hell with an iron fist and a shark-toothed smile. Passing judgement on all the lesser demons that entered his count, passing new laws and rules to deal with an evolving cultural climate, and occasionally pranking his subordinates.

Lucifer's favorite gag had to be the time he forged a love letter from Magnamon and sent it to Asmodeus, the fireworks from that particular incident were glorious and it never failed to put a smile on his face whenever he thought about it. But that was a story for another time.

Currently the palace was totally silent apart from a few guards milling about and the faint screams coming from the torture chambers below, the royal family getting some much needed rest after a long day of governing hell and being completely fabulous while doing it. Lucifer in particular was spooning his beloved, arm draped across her stomach and face buried into her neck, the feeling of her chest gently rising and falling provided him with a sense of serenity not commonly found in hell.

Unfortunately that sort of serenity never lasts long and tonight was no exception. One moment, Lucifer is enjoying a nice dream about his former home and sharing it’s splendors with Charlie and the next, he’s shooting up from bed in a startled surprise; black heart pounding against his rib cage and labored breaths erupting from his chest.

Something was wrong, something was very very wrong. He didn’t know what it was, but Lucifer could just sense that some horrible power had just been unleashed upon hell itself that would shake it’s very foundations. Normally when he felt this sort of way, it was due to the arrival of a particularly strong overlord in hell who set to work establishing themselves as a threat; but this was different, not only did this unknown force feel far more substantial than any of the others in the past to the point that Lucifer was certain they’d be able to rival his own abilities but it seemed to originate in hell instead of arriving from the human world.

Fear and curiosity piqued, Lucifer decided he had to investigate this little issue and deal with it accordingly if the need arose. He didn’t tolerate any threats to his rule in the past and he sure as shooting wasn’t about to start now.

Hopping out of bed, Lucifer jogged over to his closet and started gathering up his usual street clothes. The racket he was making awoke Lilith from her own dream with a tired grumble, the queen of all succubi rubbing her eyes.

“Luci? What’s going on?” Lilith said.

“Nothing to worry about my sweet. Just a bit of a disturbance I feel I need to investigate, no need to concern yourself with it.” Lucifer replied as he slipped into his slacks.

“What kind of disturbance requires you to evacuate the manor at this hour? Can’t you simply assign one of the ars goetia or an overlord to look into it?”

Lucifer shook his head. “No, whatever’s going on seems to be far out of the ordinary and I need to make sure that the situation is handled appropriately. As they say ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself’.”

“Very well, do be careful out there. I know you think yourself invincible but you have been caught off guard before and you did say this was an unexpected situation.” Said Lilith.

“I appreciate the concern but it’s not needed.” Lucifer pecked his wife on the cheek. “You’re talking to the king of hell here, the second most powerful being in the known universe, I’ll be fine.”

“I know, I just don’t want Charlie to be deprived of her father.”

“She won’t be. In fact I’ll probably be back before breakfast, now if you’ll excuse me there is some sleuthing to be done.” Lucifer replied.

On that note, the king of hell exited his private bed chambers and ran through the halls of the castle. Never slowing his pace until he reached his personal study or ‘war room’ as he coined it, which was fitting considering it’s where he engineered many of the conflicts meant to keep the common demon under his heel where they were supposed to be.

 
In the center of the room, surrounded by shelves of forbidden tomes and artifacts older than time, was a three-dimensional map that allowed Lucifer to see all of hell. The fallen angel used it as a sort of monitoring system to occasionally check the status of hell and it’s inhabitants, making sure the status quo was upheld and all that. Now it would be used to help him locate the source of that power surge he had felt earlier, wherever it originated from.

With a few ancient chants and gestures, Lucifier scanned the seven rings for any anomalies that could explain the strange occurrence. He did not have to search for long however, a massive red blip revealing itself to him and pinpointing the source of the unknown event to be in the wastes of the wrath ring.

That only served to confuse Lucifer further.

He had been expecting something in the pride ring or even the envy or greed rings but not wrath. The vast majority of the population of the ring was made up of nothing but imps, the lowest and weakest demons on hell's social hierarchy, and hardly possessed any form of power in their own right unless it was through sheer numbers. So why in the world would such a spike of power originate from there of all places?

“That does it, I have to go there immediately and find out what’s going on….although I get the feeling it can’t be anything good.” Lucifer muttered to himself.

Quickly summoning up a portal, Lucifer stepped out into hell’s agricultural center and took a quick moment to enjoy the feeling of the ring. He always did enjoy the more rustic, natural feel of the locale; it was a nice break from the bustling cities of the other six rings, but now was no time for pleasure, he had business to attend to.

Lucifer hadn’t teleported right on top of the blip, knowing that appearing right in front of whatever caused all of this would practically be handing it the element of surprise on a silver platter, instead he had arrived several dozen miles away from the area in order to avoid being detected and flew the rest of the way while making sure to avoid attracting any attention. He promised Lillith he’d be careful and that’s what he was gonna do, plus it was far more fun this way; made him feel like a predator stalking his prey and he grew somewhat excited at the prospect of a possible duel.

But upon arrival, Lucifer’s anticipation deflated almost immediately as he quickly realized there wasn’t any sort of fight to be had. 

Standing before him was a strange sort of ritual site, a large symbol drawn into the dirt with several rune laden pillars forming a makeshift circle around a large altar that was still glowing with hellish energy. Nothing particularly interesting about it…apart from the fifty or so dead imps surrounding it.

They were everywhere, their little bodies littering the ground like freshly fallen leaves and covering the entire structure. Upon further examination Lucifer realized they were all dressed up in strange, cult-like robes made of black fabric with red frills and nearly all of them had been seemingly drained of their very life force, leaving nothing behind but mummified husks. The only exceptions were the three imps standing the closest to the altar: one wearing old military fatigues appeared to have imploded quite violently, another dressed in a black fedora and trenchcoat was laying in a puddle of their own melted face with their skull scorched black, and the third who was decked out in what Lucifer could only assume to be some sort of ceremonial garb was missing their entire head with bits of skull and brain scattered about. While many would have been distrubed by such a sight, Lucifer was put at ease by it all.

“It was just a ritual gone wrong.” Lucifer said with a sigh of relief. “Nothing to worry about, everyone here is already dead so it clearly didn’t work. I’ll just trash the place and head back home, easy peasy.”

It would not be easy peasy, for when Lucifer started walking away from the altar he heard the sound of gentle sniffling, followed by the wails of an infant.

The king of hell whipped around and ran back to the altar so fast it was almost as if he had teleported to it. 

Sitting there on the stone slab, tiny body covered in blood and viscera, was a baby imp who didn’t seem to be too happy about his current predicament. It looked normal enough, a tuff of white hair sitting between two black and white striped horns, but the white scar on their chest displaying the same symbol on many of the cultist’s robes was more than concerning as was the fact was that this child seemed to be the sole survivor of a mass suicide…or maybe that was the whole point.

“Did…are you what woke me up?” Lucifer said to the baby.

The small imp’s only response was to cease his cries and stare up at hell’s ruler with glistening eyes, cooing and reaching out to the larger demon in order to be held. Lucifer could only let out a sigh and oblige, he may have been a sadist but he wasn’t about to leave a baby to die in the middle of nowhere; what would Charlie think of his old man if that happened?

But when he got his hands around the imp’s belly, Lucifer felt another surge of power flow through him and saw the symbol on the imp’s chest glow brightly with ancient energy. The fallen angel tore his hands away from the baby and stepped away from the altar, causing the infant to cry out once more.

‘Okay, well that answers that question.’ Lucifer thought to himself as he steadied his nerves. ‘Looks like the ritual worked after all and this little bastard is the product of it.’

Infantcide was the first solution that popped into his head. It may have been cruel, even by his standards, but Lucifer could already tell that this child would grow up to be an immensely powerful demon that would likely be as strong as his own daughter if not stronger; better to snuff him out in the crib before he became a serious threat.

But as Lucifer gazed upon the baby imp, squirming and sobbing for any form of comfort and care, another idea came to him. Simply killing the child would be such a waste, the imp was bursting at the seams with potential and from such a young age nonetheless! While the imp could wind up being a threat, if he was given the proper guidance and care he could easily be molded into a powerful ally that would serve Lucifer well; guidance that a certain king of hell was more than qualified to provide.

‘Plus Charlie has been a little lonely in the old castle, she could do with a sibling.’ Lucifer thought to himself as he approached the crying imp and pulled out a hanky.

The ruler of hell quickly ran the fabric over the imp, cleaning all the bodily fluids off of his form and leaving him the right shade of red for a young demon. Lucifer didn’t want to get red all over his magnificent suit after all.

“Shush, shhh. It’s okay, papa Luci’s here for you little guy; dry those tears.” Lucifer cooed as he lifted the imp into a soothing hold.

Like magic, the imp calmed down immediately and snuggled deeper into Lucifer’s arms; memories of holding Charlie in his arms the exact same way hitting him with a wave of nostalgia that only solidified his decision.

“Ya know this is no place for a child to be. How about you come home with me, would you like that?” Lucifer asked with a rather silly tone.

An adorable smile came onto the imp’s face as he started making grabbing motions with his tiny little arms, unintelligible baby babble coming out from their mouth.

“Dawww! You are just precious, aren’t you?” Lucifer chuckled. “Charlie is going to adore you and with any luck, Lilith will too. Now come along, we shouldn’t keep your new family waiting.”

Tucking the imp into the crook of one of his arms, Lucifer used his free hand to summon up another portal home and stepped right in; his mind was already buzzing with plots and plans to turn this imp into a proper Morningstar over the next few centuries.

He just hoped that Lilith would take the news well.

*******************

Lilith did not take the news well.

“You are a fucking idiot.” Lilith deadpanned.

“Apple of my eye, demon of my heart, please just let me-” Lucifer began.

“Don’t you dare try to sweet talk your way out of this!” the queen of hell shouted. 

Admittedly, Lucifer probably could have handled this with a bit more finesse by easing her into the idea of adopting the imp instead of immediately springing it upon her the moment he got back home. But what’s done is done and now he had to find a way to calm her down before he had to spend a night in one of the other seven hundred bedroom chambers in the castle, away from his wife.

“You could at least allow me to explain myself first before biting my head off lilith!” Lucifer shot back.

Lilith crossed her arms and glared at her husband. “Well by all means, please, explain to me what thought process you went through that made you think stealing a blood soaked, baby imp from the wrath ring and adopting it into our family on what is essentially an impulsive whim was a good idea!” Lilith growled, motioning to the infant who was now gently teething on one of Lucifer’s fingers.

“Hold him.”

Lilith blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Hold him.” Lucifer repeated as he thrusted the infant towards Lilith. “And you’ll see exactly why I had to bring him here.”

“How in the world will holding an infantile imp change my mind about the situation?”

“Just humor me Lilith, please.”

The queen of hell rolled her eyes at her husband’s antics but obliged nonetheless, holding out her arms to accept the baby. But the moment Lilith made physical contact with the imp, she felt a sudden burst of infernal energy rush into her body which wound up startling her so badly that she immediately let the smaller demon fall from her arms and plummet towards the floor; it was only through Lucifer’s quick reflexes that the infant was spared any serious harm from the fall.

“He’s rather…unique, isn’t he?” Lilith said, regaining her composure.

Lucifer nodded. “I’m not sure what that mysterious group in the wrath ring was trying to accomplish, but it doesn’t really matter in the end. We can’t let a demon this powerful just run wild, there could be serious consequences to such a decision, and I find the idea of infantcide rather distasteful.”

“So you propose we take this imp in and raise him as our own? Bring out his fullest potential and, in doing so, ensure his undying loyalty to us?”

“Bingo bongo my dear! Besides, look at him.” Lucifer held up the now giggling baby. “He’s so cute! He’ll make a fine addition to our little family and Charlie will be utterly ecstatic to have a baby brother to play with! I just know it!”

Speaking of their darling daughter, a series of gentle knocks came from the bedroom door. All of the servants knew better than to disturb the royal family in the middle of the night unless it was an emergency and the rhythm of the knocks were too calm for that to be the case, which meant only one particular demon could be behind that door.

“Daddy? Mommy? Are you in there?” Charlie’s voice came from the other side of the wood.

“Yes sweetheart we are, come on in.” Lucifer replied.

The door creaked open and Charlie Morningstar stepped in, decked out in some apple-printed pajamas, sleepily rubbing her eyes with one hand while the other kept a pair of goat plushies she referred to as ‘Razzle and Dazzle’ tucked under her arm. The young princess appeared to have been woken up from all the commotion over the last few minutes and came to investigate all the hubbub. 

Lilith reached her first, picking Charlie up and cradling her in her arms. “Darling what are you doing out of bed? You should be getting your beauty rest right now.”

“I was but…” Charlie let out a cute little yawn. “I heard you and daddy yelling and I couldn’t get back to sleep. What’s going on?”

“Oh, we were just talking about the newest arrival to the family. Say hello to your baby brother Charlie!” Lucifer exclaimed as Lilith sat down on the bed with their daughter in her arms.

“Baby brother?” Charlie said, curiously looking over towards the imp in question.

The arrival of a new demon into the room quickly caught the infant’s attention and he returned Charlie's inquisitive glance with one of his own, practically boring holes into her very life force with big yellow eyes. The imp then outstretched his arm towards the princess and started making little grabbing motions in her direction.

Now Charlie was really confused; from her understanding, all boys were icky and gross and mean and logic dictated that a baby brother would be no different. But the demon in front of her was none of these things, apart from the faint blood stains he actually looked pretty clean and his tiny little limbs were cute; the white tuft of hair upon his head made Charlie compare him to a baby possum.

“Come now sweetie, there’s no need to be shy.” Said Lilith. “He won’t bite…I think.”

Shifting nervously in her mother’s lap, Charlie moved to take the imp’s hand in her own as a show of cautious friendship. Maybe having a brother wouldn’t be that bad?

However, something strange occurred the moment their fingers made contact. There was a spark, a flash in their eyes, and a connection was quickly formed. The daughter of the Morningstar family couldn’t quite place it, but there was something special about the imp currently holding her hand with his tiny claws that made some protective ‘big sister’ instincts start to show their head and Charlie decided right then and there that she was going to be the best sibling to her little brother of all time; pinky promise!

“I like him! What's his name?” Charlie asked, looking up towards her father.

Lucifer stroked at his chin in deep thought “Hmm…I know! How about-” 

**************************

“Moxxie?” 

The thespian imp’s eyes suddenly snapped open, freeing him from his dream and sending him into a semi-awake state; rubbing his eyes, Moxxie shifted around in bed to properly face his lovely wife who appeared rather anxious.

“Yes honey?” Moxxie asked.

“Is something wrong? You looked like you were having a bad dream.” Millie replied with concern laced throughout her tone.

“Yeah, yeah. It was just a dream, some bad memories from my childhood, nothing to worry about.” Moxxie said, waving her off. “I’m fine.”

“Yer sure? You always do get a mite down around this time of year and ah never understood why, even after all these years we’ve been together.”

“Millie, I promise, everything is okay. Just go back to sleep, we need to be up bright and early for work tomorrow, remember?” Moxxie said.

Millie sighed and pecked Moxxie on the lips. “Okay sug, ah’ll trust ya on this.”

With that, the female imp laid back down in bed and soon resumed her slumber; leaving Moxxie alone in a quiet room with nothing but his own thoughts to keep him company.

Millie wasn’t wrong, this time of year was always a bit tough for Moxxie since it marked the anniversary of the day he ran away from home and left behind everything he ever knew to get a fresh start out in hell. Don’t get him wrong, Moxxie never regretted his decision for even a moment and knew in his heart that he made the right call…especially since it delivered him into the arms of the most perfect woman in all of hell.

But there were slight bouts of homesickness that struck Moxxie every now and again, thinking of all the good times he had shared with his family and how heartbroken they must have been when he up and vanished into thin air. On particularly bad days Moxxie found it difficult just to get himself out of bed, thoughts of his father’s bad jokes, his mother’s soothing voice, and his sister’s silly antics occupying his mind and making the symbol on his chest burn with shame and regret.

There was nothing Moxxie could do about it now though, what’s done is done and there was no changing the past. Not that he’d want to, it was nowhere near as glamorous but he much preferred his current situation in comparison to the one he used to occupy. So he merely forced down those feelings of remorse and ignored the pain that came with it, soldering on like he always did.

‘Besides’ Moxxie thought to himself. ‘It’s been over a decade since I left, chances are they’ve given up the search and I’ll never have to worry about seeing them again.’

Unfortunately for Moxxie, he couldn’t have been more wrong; come tomorrow, his life would be thrown into complete and total disarray when the past he had tried so hard to keep buried came back to haunt him with a vengeance.

And it all started with that stupid little commercial jingle Blitzo had come up with. 

Chapter Text

we’ll be together forever, right Charlie?

Of course we will! I’m your big sister, I’ll always be there to protect you!

Pinky promise?

Pinky promise. Now let’s finish setting up this telescope, dad said that we can finally see the constellation he made us for your birthday tonight!

Okay!

Charlie sighed and leaned on the railing lining the roof of the Hazbin Hotel, staring out at the vast expanse of the Pride Ring with a sense of forlorn. Memories of when her family was still whole and everything was great occupying her mind; Charlie knew it wasn’t healthy to remain hung up on days long passed but she couldn’t help it, the hatred she felt over the unfairness of the situation was deeply rooted into her very core.

Hate…that was a word Charlie didn’t use very often, the list of things she legitimately hated could probably be written out on a small sticky note with room to spare; she was a very kind and loving person who regarded hate as an ugly emotion to be avoided. However, the hell princess could say with absolute confidence that she HATED this time of year for the simple reason that it constantly reminded her of her greatest failure: the day she lost her little brother.

That horrible day was easily the worst one of her entire existence and that’s saying a lot considering the horrors Charlie has had to witness over her two-hundred year long existence. The princess will never forget the absolute panic the whole family went through when they opened the door to his room and found his bed empty, a panic that only got worse when neither them nor any of the castle staff could locate him on the grounds which quickly gave way to the realization that the prince had vanished without a trace. 

Charlie never really got over the trauma from back then; the feeling that she had completely and utterly failed as an older sibling, that every single promise she had made to protect her brother had been nothing but mere lip service, ate away at her almost every day. It had gotten a bit easier to ignore it as the years went by but the pain of losing her best friend would be something she’d have to carry with her for the rest of eternity.

To say that Charlie was attached to her little brother was a massive understatement. Growing up they had been thicker than thieves, joined at the hip, like two peas in a pod, and all the other expressions used to describe two individuals who had a close bond with one another. They used to do everything together: writing songs with her on piano and him on guitar, organizing heists to steal cookies from under their parent’s noses after they had gone to bed, they even bathed together and slept in the same bed on occasion well into their teens.

In retrospect, that last one was a little weird but her point still stood! Some of her happiest memories were the ones she had shared with her brother, which is why his disappearance hit her so hard.

The princess of Hell never did manage to find out what had become of her other half, even after all these years. There was no ransom note, no sign of a struggle or forced entry, and no parties stupid enough to even attempt to blackmail Lucifer which ruled out any possibility of a kidnapping, the staff had been interrogated extensively but they were just as clueless about the circumstances regarding the disappearance of the prince as the Morningstars were so it wasn’t a case of regicide either. The most prevailing theory was that the prince had simply run away from home but even the logic behind that was questionable at best: what reason could he have for abandoning his family? He may have been adopted but they never made him feel like an outsider, as far as everyone was concerned he was a Morningstar through and through, and treated him with the utmost love and affection over the years. Sure mom and dad could be a little overprotective at times but that was only because they cared, neither of them were ever neglected or abused and had every need met thanks to the privileges granted by their royal status.

So why would Charlie’s brother leave all of that behind and flee to parts unknown? It just didn’t make sense to her regardless of how she looked at it. But did the reasons behind his actions really matter in the long run? It wouldn’t change the fact that he was gone and probably never coming back.

Lucifer and Lilith had searched for him tirelessly, using every resource they had at their disposal in an attempt to find something, anything, that could give them even the slightest clue as to where their darling son had gone. Nothing came of it though, the trail was cold and nobody had seen hide nor hair of prince Morningstar; which only served to increase their woe. 

With his abilities, Lucifer should have been able to track down his son in an instant; the demon’s unique magical signature alone was practically a homing beacon to his parents that would have pinpointed his exact location no matter where he was. But no matter how much he searched, no matter what spells he performed, the prince remained unfound and Lucifer began to assume the worst had happened and that his son had met an unfortunate demise. 

Charlie refused to accept that was the case. Mom and Dad may have lost hope, mourned the loss of their beloved son and attempted to move on, but until Charlie saw his corpse with her own two eyes she would remain steadfast in her belief that her little brother was still alive; that he was somewhere out in hell, living a life he found satisfaction in and perhaps still held onto the memories of his old family…wherever he may be now.

The sound of a fist knocking against the door to the rooftop caught Charlie’s attention, causing her to turn around and see her girlfriend standing there with a nervous smile.

“Hey Hon, did I catch you at a bad time?” Vaggie said.

“No, I’m fine. 

“Thinking about your brother again, huh?” the sinner said as she approached her lover.

Charlie bowed her head. “yeah…I still miss him.”

Vaggie hummed and joined Charlie at the rooftop railing, standing beside her and allowing for a comfortable silence to hang over the two of them. At least until the moth sinner decided to speak up.

“What was he like? Your brother I mean?” Vaggie asked.

“Well…he was kind of a dork, but in a nice way!” Charlie replied. “Shy and more than a little awkward, but he was also very loyal and was the kind of demon you could always count on if you needed a shoulder to cry on or a friend to get you out of a tough spot. He was also really smart and cultured too, took to the whole ‘royalty’ act Mom and Dad kept pushing on us way better than I did if I’m being perfectly honest, really knew how to carry out a good conversation about the ‘finer things’ as mom called ‘em. Oh and he was a big thespian, utterly obsessed with plays and musicals, the little guy could spend hours upon hours talking about his favorite operas and would beg mom and dad to take him out to a show almost every week.”

“He sounds nice, I would have liked to meet him.” 

“You two would have gotten along great, I just know it.” Charlie replied.

Vaggie nodded. “Anyways, do you think you could come down soon? Alastor wants to have a ‘staff meeting’ to talk about the hotel, he mentioned something about doing an advertising campaign.”

“That could help! Spread the word and increase the number of our residents, attendance has still been pretty low around here.”

“As in, Angel Dust is still our first and only hotel resident.” Vaggie deadpanned.

“Same difference.” Charlie said with a wave of her hand. “But yeah, I can come down now. I just needed a bit of time to clear my head, let’s go Vaggie!”

The princess of Hell then proceeded to grab Vaggie’s hand and walk downstairs in tandem with the sinner, putting the last remaining bits of lamentation over her absent brother into the back of her mind; now was not the time for frowny faces, she needed to be happy and upbeat to maintain the warm and welcoming image of the hotel.

Within minutes the two girls arrived in the main lobby of the hotel, which was looking far better than before thanks to some of Alastor’s renovations. The radio demon had practically revamped the whole building from top to bottom, the hotel looked so different from how it was originally that it was easy to mistake it for a different property entirely; Charlie had been a bit iffy about the redesign originally but the princess had gotten used to it quickly and came to love it.

But that wasn’t important right now, what was important were the colorful individuals now occupying the hotel lobby. Most of said individuals had congregated around the hotel bar with Alastor, Husk, and Niffty occupying the space while Angel Dust was lounging on the couch, phone in hand and a lazy smile upon his face.

“Ah Charlie!” the radio demon said, perking up. “Glad for you to join us! I was just talking about the first steps we’ll need to take to get your ridiculous messages out on the airwaves!”

“What did you have in mind? A radio jingle?” Charlie said.

“Hey if you need advice on a jingle, how about you check these I.M.P. guys out?” Angel said from the couch as he held up his phone. 

“I.M.P.?” Charlie questioned.

“Immediate, Murder, Professionals. Apparently it’s a buncha imps who go top side to get revenge for the poor schmucks who wind up down here by killin’ anyone who wronged them when they were still alive, sounds like a load of crap to me but god damn is that commercial song catchy!” Angel explained.

Curiosity piqued, Charlie walked over to the spider sinner who tapped the screen of his cellular device to start playing the aforementioned video. She wasn’t exactly pleased to hear that there was a whole company centered around killing presumably innocent people, but it was still worth a look if for no other reason than inspiration for their own ads.

“Hi there, I’m Blitz! The o is silent and I’m the founder of I.M.P.!” the lanky imp said. “Are you a piece of shit who got yourself sent to Hell or are you an innocent soul who got FUCKED over by someone else?”

The video then cut to a random demon, a cardboard sign being held by who Charlie could only assume to be the imp from earlier marking the individual as ‘some guy who hired us’.

“After lovingly killing my wife for FUCKING THE DELIVERY MAN, You can imagine my surprise when I wound up here! After the state of Ohio killed me, I really wished I could stick it to that yappy jogger who saw me hiding the body!”

Charlie visibly cringed, the video was less than thirty seconds in and she really didn’t like the direction it was going, or the language they were using, or anything about it at all.

The video then cut to some sort of summoning circle with two imps around it who must have been employees at the company, Charlie could see the one on the left as a small wrath ring imp with black hair, a crop top, and some black pants; but she couldn’t quite make out the other one, Blitzo’s body obstructing the demon from view, all she could see was some white hair and some striped horns before the little guy scampered away when a portal opened.

“Well luckily for you, thanks to our company’s special access to the living world we can help you take care of your unfinished business by taking out anyone who screwed you over when you were alive!” Blitzo cheered and fell back into the portal.

Then the song started and Charlie’s eyes widened when she finally caught a glimpse of the third imp from earlier.

When you want somebody gone and you don’t wanna wait too long, call the Immediate! Murder! Professionals!

A grenade or cyanide! 

We’ll make it look like suicide! 

The Immediate! Murder! Professionals! 

We do our job so well! 

Because we come straight up from Hell!

We’ll kill your husband or your wife!

We’ll even let you keep the knife!

We’re the immediateeee! Murdeeeer! Professionalssss!

Kids die for free!

And on that last horrible note, the video came to a close and Angel Dust looked up at Charlie expectantly.

“So, what did you think doll? Pretty neat huh?” The prostitute said.

Charlie said nothing, she just stood there still as a statue with a blank expression on her face.

“Uh, Charlie? You okay there?” Angel asked.

No response.

Angel Dust started waving her hand in front of Charlie’s face, now sufficiently creeped out by her current stance. “Hello? Hell to Charlie! Ya readin’ me toots?!”

That got a reaction out of the demonic princess, who suddenly lunged towards Angel Dust and tackled him straight off the couch before attempting to wrestle the phone from his hands. The duo rolling around on the ground, pulling and punching each other indiscriminately as they fought for the pink device.

“WOAH! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! IF YOU WANNA GET ALL HANDSY YOU GOTTA PAY FOR IT FIRST!!!” the spider sinner screamed as Charlie grappled with him.

Unfortunately our favorite porn star was no match for the first born child of the Morningstar family and Charlie managed to tear the cellphone right out of Angel Dust hands, frantically rewinding the video immediately afterwards

“It can’t be…there’s just no way…” The princess muttered to herself.

But as unbelievable as it was, there was no denying it when the proof was staring her right in the face. Displayed on the screen, in all of it’s adorably freckled glory, was a certain imp Charlie hadn’t seen in over a decade.

Charlie started to hyperventilate, her hands shaking and gripping the phone so tight it nearly snapped in half, barely able to hold back the excitement that was now overflowing from her entire body.

“Charlie? Hon? What’s wrong?” Vaggie asked, stepping over the downed Angel Dust.

Charlie suddenly spun on her heel to face Vaggie, a maniac smile on her face that was wider than anything the moth sinner had ever seen in the past to the point that it was almost scary, her entire body shaking out of sheer glee.

“HE’S ALIVE!” Charlie squealed to the high heavens.

********************

*RIIIIIP*

Moxxie blinked a few times, looking down at the reports he had just abruptly torn in half and groaned. He was already behind on his paperwork as it stood and now he was probably gonna have to go downstairs and fiddle with that god forsaken copy machine that Blitzo refused to replace for some asinine reason, forcing him to stay even later.

‘Oh well, better get started. It’s not like anyone’s gonna help me out with this.’ Moxxie thought to himself.

Millie was busy running maintenance on their armory, sharpening their blades and checking out their weapons for any dents or cracks; Loona was being her usual slacker self at the receptionist's desk with a bottle of beer and a celebrity gossip magazine, the imp knew asking her for help was an exercise in futility; and Blitzo had recently retreated into his office with a bottle of lotion and what vaguely resembled a naked picture of him in the shower, Moxxie didn’t know what was going on there and he sure as fuck didn’t wanna find out.

So the task of completing all of the clerical work fell to him, it was tedious but it needed to be done if they wanted to keep their books balanced. If one thought the IRS in the human world was bad, they’ve clearly never met the tax collectors running the show down in Hell; those guys were relentless.

As he made his way down however, Moxxie couldn’t help but think back on the whole incident. One minute he was calmly working on the accounting forms from their monthly income, then he felt this weird disturbance come over him that caused a foreboding chill to run down his spine which startled him so badly that he wound up shredding the paper in his hands. It was the damnedest thing and left him with a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, like something was about to go horribly wrong today and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Forget about it Mox, you’re being paranoid.” Moxxie said, dismissing those thoughts. “The company doesn’t have anything planned for today outside of a quiet day at the office and I cannot possibly think of a conceivable way we could mess that up. Nope, everything is going to be just fine today, no life altering events here!”

************************

She couldn’t believe it, she had found him! After all these years she had finally found him! What were the odds that he’d show up in some commercial for a new startup company that carried out assasination work?

Charlie was so happy she could barely even handle it: her body was violently shaking, her heart was slamming against her rib cage, the entire room seemed to be spinning around her….

Wait, was she having a panic attack? Is this what a panic attack felt like? Could you even get a panic attack from being overly excited?

‘No! Focus! You can’t afford to lose your head, not now!’ Charlie screamed internally. ‘I need something to calm me down and fast.’

The hotel owner’s eyes scanned the room until they fell upon the freshly opened bottle of hard liquor that Husk had just opened, the cat sinner having abstained from taking the first sip to watch the scene unfolding before him, and Charlie realized that a stiff drink was the perfect thing to take the edge off.

Charlie rushed towards the bar and tore the bottle out of Husk’s grip before he could so much as blink. Then Charlie wrapped her mouth around the neck of the glass container and swallowed all of its contents in one go, tossing the bottle to the side where it shattered on the floor and letting out a decidedly unlady-like belch once she was finished.

“Okay! That’s better, I’m calm, composed, and collected!” Charlie babbled. “RAZZLE! DAZZLE! GET IN HERE NOW, IT’S AN EMERGENCY!”

The two goat-like demons appeared in a flash, eagerly awaiting their new orders.

Charlie held out the phone screen. “Razzle: Find the contact info for this company, or better yet the location of their headquarters and do it fast, they’re called the Immediate Murder Profesisonals. Dazzle, bring the limo around, we’re going on a little trip!”

Razzle and Dazzle gave their mistress an adorable little salute and flew off to complete their assigned tasks with the utmost efficiency. Charlie really had to remember to thank dad for giving her those two later on, they were the best assistants ever…well second best, Vaggie had the top spot locked down.

Regardless, Charlie decided that she could check her personal appearance before the duo returned with what she asked for; this would be the first time she’s seen him in over ten years and she had to look her best.

During all of this the rest of the hotel staff and resident troublemaker stared at the princess in bewilderment, even Alastor was taken completely off guard by her sudden obsession with the imp company and the mystery individual she had mentioned moments ago.

“What the fuck is happening right now?” Husk whispered to Vaggie.

“I have no fucking clue; she’s never gotten this excited over anything before, not even when we went to Loo Loo World for the first time together.” Vaggie whispered back. 

“How do my clothes look? They aren’t dirty are they?” Charlie asked, completely ignoring the conversation the others were having to face Niffty.

“Um, I think you have just a little dirt right there. Let me just get that for you.” Niffty said, plucking the speck off the woman’s suit.

“Perhaps it would do you some good to simply ask her? You are her lover after all, surely she would be willing to fill you in on the situation.” Alastor suggested.

“Good idea.” Vaggie said before approaching her girlfriend. “Hey Charlie-”

The moth demon never got the chance to finish her thought when Razzle flew in with a piece of paper in his hooves, one that he quickly passed over to Charlie who gave it a once over.

“Imp City? Is that where you’ve been this whole time? Oh it doesn’t matter! You’re okay, that’s the important thing!” Charlie bubbled

“Uh, Charlie what-”

Charlie looked over to Vaggie and grabbed her by the wrist. “Come on Vaggie! We’re going to Imp City! Hold down the fort until I get back, Alastor!”

“Whatever you say my dear.” Alastor replied.

The princess of Hell gave the radio demon a brief thanks before sprinting outside with Vaggie trailing behind her, still utterly confused even as she was shoved into Charlie’s limo with Razzle joining his brother at the wheel.

“Head to this address and step on it! Break as many traffic laws as you need to!” Charlie said, handing them the paper. The two goat demons giving her a nod before shooting off into the streets of Hell.

“CHARLIE!!!” Vaggie screamed into the blonde’s ear.

“What?”

“What the flying fuck is going on? Why are we going down to Imp City to see some shitty gang of hitmen?” Vaggie demanded.

Charlie shot Vaggie a mischievous little smile. “You know how you said you would have liked to meet my brother?”

“Yeah?”

“Well I think you’re about to do just that!” Charlie chimed.

Vaggie had to do a double take. “I’m sorry, what?!”

“The imp in the video Angel Dust showed me! I thought I was just seeing things at first but when I checked again I knew it was him for sure! My brother’s alive, Vaggie! And he’s probably over in Imp City right now! I’m finally gonna get to see him again after all these years!” Charlie cheered, bouncing in her seat as Razzle and Dazzle took out some poor sap on a motorcycle.

“Your brother is an imp?” 

“He’s adopted Vaggie, from way back when I was a kid.” Said Charlie.

“You never told me that.” Vaggie stated.

Charlie shrugged. “You never asked, then again I never really liked to talk about him because the memories were too painful so this is really on both of us.”

“Wait, how did an imp even become an adopted member of your family? I thought imps were at the bottom of Hell’s hierarchy, why did Lucifer take one in?” asked Vaggie.

“Well, it all started one night when I was just a kid…” Charlie was interrupted when the limo came to a rather abrupt stop in front of an old office building, one she quickly realized served as the main base of operations for I.M.P. and her grin practically split across her face. “Actually, I’ll tell you later. I’ve got a happy reunion to attend!”

*************************

“And there we go! All done, thank fuck the printer was working for a change.” Moxxie said as he retrieved the last bit of completed paperwork from the company’s accursed copy machine; for once the damn thing had decided to be cooperative and print out the necessary documents with no fuss, shaving hours off his workday. Now everything was signed and stamped, all that was left to do was bring them to Blitzo to (hopefully) be filed away properly.

But before he could do that, Moxxie’s phone started to ring and he realized that I.M.P.’s resident hellhound and useless secretary was giving him a call which he promptly answered.

“Hey fatty, can you get your ass out here? Like, right now? Some bitch in the waiting room is asking about an imp with white hair and a bowtie and said it’s urgent, I think she wants to see you.” The hellhound said.

“For the last time Loona, I’m not fat! I’m perfectly trimmed!” Moxxie shouted into his phone.

Loona snorted. “Spoken exactly like a lard ass.”

“Will you-” Moxxie cut himself off and sighed, knowing that this was a futile effort. “Just…I’ll be down there in a sec.”

Hanging up the phone, Moxxie made his way towards the reception area while muttering swears under his breath and fighting off homicidal thoughts. Once he calmed himself back down however, Moxxie soon realized that getting a visitor out of the blue like this was rather strange given that he didn’t have much of a social life outside of I.M.P..

“Who would be here to see me? I can’t think of anyone who would just drop by my workplace to talk…” Moxxie remarked.

The imp shrugged and maintained his leisurely pace, assuming that he’d find out the answer to that question as soon as he got there. Although Moxxie was somewhat confused by the feeling of dread from earlier creeping back up his spine the closer he got to the waiting area.

“I’m here. I swear Loona, this had better not be another one of your-” Moxxie felt his breath hitch, words dying in his throat mid-sentence, as he immediately recognized the individual standing before him.

Even after ten years Charlie hadn’t changed in the slightest, she still had the same stylish pink tuxedo, the same well-maintained head of blonde hair, and the same pale yellow eyes that were now laser focused on him as if he was the most interesting thing in the whole room…which he probably was.

Moxxie instinctively took a step back, the papers in his arms falling to the floor. ‘Don’t panic, maybe she doesn’t recognize me and is here for something el-’

“IT’S YOU!” Charlie exclaimed, shooting towards him like a bullet.

‘OH CRUMBS! SHE DOES RECOGNIZE ME!’ Moxxie screamed in his head and turned tail to flee down the hallway.

The imp only managed to take two frantic steps forwards before a set of firm hands belonging to one Charlie Morningstar scooped him up off the floor and brought him into a spine-snapping hug, the sounds of joyful squeals stabbing into his ears.

“IT’S YOU! IT’S YOU, IT’S YOU, IT’S REALLY YOU!!!” Charlie rejoiced, jumping and twirling around the room in unbridled glee.

“NO! NO! NO! I’M NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM, PUT ME DOWN NOW! PLEASE!” Moxxie screamed, trying to wiggle his arms loose from Charlie’s iron grip.

Right then Blitzo and Millie returned from their own respective activities, having come down to see what all the commotion was about, and were understandably confused when they saw the princess of hell skipping around the room with Moxxie in her arms like he was her favorite stuffed animal while a one-eyed sinner looked on in equal confusion.

“Loonie, what the fuck is going on? Why is the princess of hell dancing around my office with my employee of the month?” Blitzo asked.

“No idea but whatever it is, it’s going on Voxtagram.” Loona chuckled, documenting the entire exchange with her phone.

“She’s not hurting him is she?” Said Millie, looking rather concerned about this whole development

“Kinda hard to tell.” Blitzo remarked. “I think she’s just hugging him but Moxxie doesn’t look too happy about it, in fact he seems to be trying really hard to get away from that crazy bitch.”

“So should we help em?”

“Nope, this is way too entertaining. I say we sit back and see where this goes.”

By that point, Moxxie had finally yanked his arms free from the hug and started pushing them against Charlie’s form in a desperate attempt to squirm out of her arms. “MA’AM YOU’VE GOT ME CONFUSED FOR SOMEONE ELSE! WE’VE NEVER MET BEFORE!” he lied.

“Oh don’t be silly, I’d recognize my baby brother anywhere!” Charlie said, completely oblivious to her brother’s struggles.

The temperature of the room seemed to drop several degrees at that exclamation and three pairs of eyes suddenly fell right onto Moxxie.

“BABY BROTHER?!” Blitzo sputtered. “Moxxie what the hell is she talking about?!”

Charlie looked over towards the other demons in the room, seemingly realizing their presence for the first time, before turning back towards Moxxie. “Moxxie? Why are you calling you that?”

“B-because that’s my name miss.” Moxxie nervously replied.

“No it’s not. Your name is Maximillian E. Morningstar, the adopted son of Lucifer and Lilith-” Charlie sharply gasped and dropped Moxxie. “Oh crap! Mom and Dad! I need to tell them about this! They need to know you’re okay!”

Moxxie’s pupils shrunk to pin pricks when Charlie pulled out her phone and started dialing up her parents, watching helplessly as his carefully constructed life started to collapse before his very eyes. He tried to lunge for the device only for something to snag on his collar and drag him backwards, slamming him against the floor. 

When he looked up, Moxxie was met with the sight of his coworkers’ disgruntled visages and he felt himself literally shrinking under their gazes.

“Okay, I can explain…”

“Damn right you can, cause guess what? We’re gonna have a little company meeting about...” Blitzo motioned to the princess of hell. “Whatever crazy bullshit you’ve got going on here, am I clear?”

“C-crystal.” Moxxie sputtered out.

Blitzo nodded and started dragging Moxxie away, the white haired imp weakly reaching out towards the phone now pressed against Charlie’s ear as if to try and summon it to him. But the storm of emotions swirling around him made it impossible to gather up the magical focus needed to do so.

‘It’s official, my life is over…’ Moxxie internally despaired.

***********************

It probably goes without saying that running the entirety of Hell is a busy job, one that has only gotten busier over the years as more and more sinners fell into the underworld and expanded hell out further and further to encompass more area. The kingdom was in a constant stage of change between various cultural and technological advancements that would have made it nearly impossible for anyone who cared about the wellbeing of its citizens to keep up with all of it…thankfully Lucifer couldn’t care less about his subjects and advocated for a very ‘lassiez-faire’ approach to his rule, stepping in only when it was absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately for the king of Hell, today happened to be such an occasion where he needed to hold a sit-down with his lieutenants over the various developments across the seven rings; discussing the general state of the kingdom and any major law changes that were on the table for ratification. So Lucifer was condemned to sit down in a boring meeting all day long and listen to his underlings drone on and on about economics and politics and who gives a shit-ics, silently wishing for SOMETHING interesting to happen that would give him an excuse to bail out early.

Right then his phone started to vibrate in his pocket, momentarily halting the flow of the meeting, and Lucifer pulled it out to see that it was his darling daughter trying to contact him. Normally he’d be overjoyed to hear from his little Charlie again especially since it was exactly the sort of excuse he was hoping for, but this whole ‘Hazbin Hotel’ business had left a bit of a sour taste in his mouth and the king of Hell really didn’t want to hear another heartbreaking message about how Charlie’s pipe dream was failing.

Nevertheless, Lucifer still took the call; he’d always have time for his little devil even if the news couldn’t have been good.

“Hel-”

“DAD I FOUND HIM!!!” Charlie shouted, interrupting her father.

“What? Who?” Lucifer said.

“MAX! HE’S ALIVE DAD, HE’S OKAY!” 

Lucifer blinked a few times and cleared out some of the wax from his ears. “I’m sorry Charlie, I must have misheard you. It sounded like you said you found our long-lost family member.”

“I did! I know it sounds crazy but I saw him with my own two eyes! He’s working at an assasination company in Imp City called I.M.P.! Also everyone’s calling him Moxxie for some reason.” 

Now that was interesting, very very interesting. But Lucifer wasn’t convinced, as much as he wanted to believe that his son had indeed returned to them he was well aware that getting his hopes up was bound to lead to disappointment down the road; for all he knew, this could have simply been some random imp that Charlie had mistaken for Maximillian. No, Lucifer had to approach this situation delicately, like a snake getting ready to strike at his prey.

First and foremost was taking steps to ensure the imp was accessible to him and wouldn’t be able to flee before he could arrive. Regardless of whether or not he really WAS Maximillian, chances are the imp would make a run for it the second he found out Lucifer was coming to see him.

Normally the king of Hell would just teleport over but that would stir up quite the fuss, especially in a densely populated area like Imp City, and Lucifer would prefer to keep this whole matter discreet for the time being. So his only option was to take the long way over via his personal transport, but that would give the imp ample opportunity to slip away from Charlie and disappear.

Lucifer needed to get him somewhere that could keep him occupied for a period of time, was unfamiliar enough so that they didn’t know where all the entrances and exits were, and was within the confines of Pentagram City to minimize travel time.

Then, like a bolt of lightning, inspiration struck Lucifer and he knew the perfect place to herd the imp into and an easy way to accomplish it too.

“Well now, I’ll just have to come see him for myself. Unfortunately I’m stuck in a little meeting at the moment and will be busy for a while; how about you take him to your little ‘Happy Hotel’ project and show him around in the meantime? I’m sure you two have lots of catching up to do.” Lucifer said. “I’ll swing by as soon as I finish up here.”

Charlie gasped. “That’s a great idea dad! I can show him around the hotel, have him meet the new staff, and tell him all about my redemption program! Maybe if I’m lucky, I might be able to convince him and all of his friends to give up on this horrible assassination company and come help me run the hotel! Then we could see each other all the time!”

“Now Charlie, don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m going to want to have a bit of a chat with him over where he’s been all of this time, so will your mother once I notify her of this development.” Lucifer explained. 

“Right, sorry, sorry. I’m just so excited, we’re gonna be a big happy family again, just like the good old days!” 

“Perhaps Charlie, in any case I really must be getting back to my current business. Make sure he remains on the hotel premises for the rest of the day, can you do that for me?” 

“Of course I can, I won’t let you down dad!” Charlie said.

“Wonderful, see you later pumpkin.” Lucifer cooed.

“Bye dad!”

With that, the call came to an end and Lucifer pocketed his phone. The king of hell turned to address the rest of the demons in the room, most of whom looked rather befuddled by the entire exchange.

“Now what were you all babbling about?” Lucifer said.

The rest of the meeting passed by without further incident, hell’s lieutenants making the wise decision to ignore whatever personal drama their lord had and resume their presentations. 

Once everything was said and done, all of Lucifer’s underlings dismissed and sent back to their homes, the king of hell stood up and left the room without a word. His trademarked smile seemed to be a little wider than usual and he couldn’t deny that he felt just a little giddy at the news Charlie delivered him.

If it was a case of mistaken identity, Lucifer would simply dispose of the imp for wasting his time and go on with his day with the bitter taste of disappointment in his mouth. But if Charlie turned out to be correct and the imp was actually his long lost son…well, let’s just say Lucifer would be very, very happy.

Chapter Text

Lilith Morningstar rose from her bed with a tired hum, stretching her arms out to her sides. The queen of hell instinctively reached for her king but found that his side of the bed was empty.

That was of little concern to her however, outside of mild annoyance of being deprived of morning cuddles, Lucifer did get up early on a fairly regular basis in order to properly attend to his duties as both a king and a proud father of their blood born daughter and their newly adopted son.

It had been about a week and a half since Lucifer had brought home a baby imp with mysterious powers of unknown origins, dubbing the infant ‘Maximillian Evanthos Morningstar’, and caused their family to grow somewhat bigger; against Lilith’s explicit wishes. Even though the imp would no doubt grow up to be a powerful demon under their tutelage, Lilith still wasn’t crazy about the idea of having a second child much less an adoptive one sourced from the lowest rung of Hell’s hierarchy. But if it meant ensuring that the mysterious powers Max possessed were in the hands of an ally instead of an enemy she’d go along with such silliness for the time being, for the sake of maintaining the Morningstar’s seat of power.

Even so, Lilith had begun to act more and more motherly towards the imp as of late almost subconsciously. The queen of hell had continued to tell herself that such actions were only for the sake of furthering her and her husband’s goal of making Max a weapon to be utilized by their family, not because she had actually started to care about the small demon like it was her own flesh and blood; although Lilith found it was getting increasingly difficult to convince herself of this every day. 

“Excuse me? Queen Morningstar?” One of the castle servants popped their head into Lilith’s bedroom.

“Yes, what is it?” Lilith said.

“I do apologize for intruding in such a manner but it’s Maximillian, your son has been rather fussy this morning and we’ve been unable to calm him down. Perhaps you could make do with some of that maternal affection you seem to be so good at?” the demon explained.

“Have you done all you can? Checked his nappy and fed him and such?”

The demon nodded. “Yes but he still will not cease his wails. Please my queen, his magic has started to ‘act up’ again and he paralyzed one of the maids when she tried to pick him up.” he begged.

That was another issue that came with Maximilian: his powers. While Charlie had developed her abilities at quite the young age, her magic was relatively controlled and stable. Maximilian’s magic, in contrast, was far more wild and untamed with frequent outbursts occurring whenever the infant became distressed for any reason. Worser still, Maximilian seemed to have far more raw strength than Charlie did to the point that it was unnatural, which made his temper tantrums particularly disruptive; of course that wasn’t to say Charlie didn’t have a few destructive meltdowns of her own, Lilith could still recall the time her daughter blasted a servant through three walls after they had damaged one of her beloved stuffed animals. Her point was that between the lack of control and the overflow of power, Lilith had a suspicion that the imp hadn’t been born with his abilities and instead had them forced upon him from whatever that strange ritual was.

Lucifer had been looking into the cult as of late to try and figure out what their motives were as well as how they managed to infuse a mere imp with such power in order to prevent it from happening again, but had come up with nothing so far.

‘Oh well, we can worry about such quandaries later. I should attend to Maximillian before the situation spirals further out of control.’ Lilith thought to herself.

Rising out of bed to her full height, taking satisfaction in how the servant before her instinctively shrunk down before her majesty, Lilith strolled out of the room with a calm expression towards the nursery.

The butler hadn’t been exaggerating when he said that Maximilian had been acting out, even as Lilith approached the room she could hear the sounds of clattering toys and whipping winds intermingled with infantile cries. The cacophony getting even louder when Lilith pushed through the door and was immediately hit with a massive gust of wind; the whole room had been engulfed in a literal vortex, Maximilian’s belongings flying around the room too and fro, several servants either taking cover or laying on the floor unconscious, and a screaming baby imp acting as the center of the storm. Unphased, Lilith casually strolled straight into the whirlwind and approached Maxmilian’s crib with a tired smile.

“Good morning my little Maximilian, is someone feeling cranky?” Lilith softly said, effortlessly blocking the projectiles tossed in her direction by the winds.

Maximilian seemed to calm down somewhat at the sight of his adoptive mother, the storm becoming less intense in response, and the baby demon reached out to her with small sniffles escaping his form. Lilith then reached into the crib and lifted Maximilian into her arms, causing the baby to fully relax and snuggle against her body in contentment; the magical outburst dissipating shortly after and allowing all of the airborne objects in the room to fall to the floor.

“There, there. No need to cry, Mommy’s here for you.” Lilith turned to the servants. “Clean up this mess will you? Maximilian does not live in a pigsty after all.”

The servants nodded, emerging from their hiding spots and quickly getting to work as Lilith vacated the nursery with her son in tow. Hopefully breakfast was ready by now, she was quite famished and Maximilian could certainly do with some nourishment himself.

While Maximilian had been part of the Morningstar family for a relatively short period of time, he had clearly developed a parental preference in the form of Lilith. Despite Lucifer having been the one to find him and bring him home, the imp had practically latched onto her after adjusting to his new surroundings and often shied away from his father’s embrace in favor of Lilith’s. It may have not been a competition, but Lilith couldn’t help but feel somewhat smug knowing that Lucifer could no longer lord his ‘favorite parent’ title over her any longer now that Max was a ‘mama’s boy’ who countered Charlie being a ‘daddy’s girl’. 

This was part of the reason why Lilith struggled so much not to get too attached to the baby imp, the way he brightened up whenever she appeared made her heart nearly melt on the spot and his interactions with Charlotte were sickenly sweet. Maximilian was almost unfairly cute.

“Who’s an adorable little snowball? You are, yes you are!” Lilith playfully cooed at Max, inciting a series of giggles from the baby.

After a few more minutes of walking, Lilith finally reached the main kitchen and smiled at the sight of a hot and ready breakfast spread waiting for her; although the queen’s good mood was somewhat mitigated by the fact that while Charlotte was already there enjoying her waffles, Lucifer’s seat was woefully empty. 

“Good morning Charlotte.” Lilith said.

Charlie smiled up at her mother. “Good morning mama!” she said, spewing chunks of partially chewed waffles onto the table.

“Sweetie, don’t talk with your mouth full; it’s repellent.” Lilith replied, placing Maximilian in his high chair.

“Sorry mama.” 

“It’s alright, do you know where your father is?” 

“He said he had to deal with his ‘sponsibilities’ and couldn’t have breakfast with us.” Charlie said with a tone of disappointment.

Lilith frowned, Lucifer had been developing a rather annoying habit of skipping out on family meals to attend to his work and hobbies recently and it was starting to grate on Lilith’s nerves. Being the king of hell was an important job but surely the man could spare a few moments to sit down and spend time with his loved ones?

She’d have to have a talk with him later today about it, for now Lilith had to tend to her children in their father’s stead. 

Picking up a bowl of fresh oatmeal, Lilith began to spoon feed Maximillian his breakfast. The young imp resisted for a moment or two, getting smears of the gloppy mixture on his face, but eventually relented and wrapped his lips around the spoon to gulp the contents down.

“So, are you prepared for your dance lessons today Charlotte?” Lilith said.

“Aw do I have to do that? They’re sooo boring!” Charlie groaned.

“You’re the princess of the Morningstar family Charlotte, you need to learn all the various aspects that go into properly filling such a role. That includes being able to maintain proper footwork in a ballroom.”

“But Max doesn’t have to do all that stuff! He just gets to play and nap all day!”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Maximilian is just a baby darling, he’s much too young to start learning how to conduct himself as a prince; He can’t even speak yet.” the queen explained

“Ah bah dah!” Maximilian exclaimed.

“See?”

“When will he learn how to talk, Mama?” Charlie asked, forgetting her earlier grievances.

“I’m not sure, most children develop at their own pace so it’s difficult to tell; We will simply have to wait for Maximilian to utter his first word as we did with you.” A reminiscent smile creeped onto Lilith’s face. “Ah, I can still remember the way your father cried when the first word that came out of your mouth was his name.” 

“Do you think my name will be Max’s first word?!”

“It’s possible but-”

Charlie turned towards her brother. “Come on Max! Say Charlie, Char-lie!” 

“Now Charlotte, there’s no need to rush it, Maximilian will speak when he’s ready.” Lilith said.

“C-C-C-” Max stuttered out.

Both females of the Morningstar family froze and looked towards the baby prince, an adorable look of intense focus adoring his tiny visage as he attempted to sound out a word.

“That’s it Max! C-harlie, Char-lie!” Charlotte said.

“C-C-C-“

Lilith leaned in closer, savoring such a monumental moment as much as she could. While her daughter’s name may not be Maximilian’s first word, there was little doubt in Lilith’s mind that this would be a beautiful memory regardless.

“C-C-Cunt!” Maximilian finished.

Or not…

Lilith’s eyes nearly bugged out of her skull when Maximillian uttered that word, the queen of hell being taken completely off guard by what her adopted son had just said.

“Cunt! Cunt! Cunt!” Maximilian repeated, banging his fists onto the table with every utterance.

“Cunt? Mommy, what does that word mean?” Charlie asked her rapidly paling mother.

Lilith whipped her head around towards Charlie and quickly covered the girl’s ears. “Do not repeat that word Charlotte! That is a very bad word for grownups only!”

“But what does it mean?”

“I shall tell you when you’re older!” Lilith said as she scooped Maximilian out of his high chair, the imp still saying the c-word over and over again. “Now finish your breakfast and meet with professor Lavey for your lessons, I must speak with your father at once!”

“But-“

“ Now Charlotte! ” Lilith boomed.

Charlie obeyed her mother at once, immediately realizing that pressing further would probably land her in a time out corner, before fearfully fleeing the room as Lilith stormed off towards Lucifer’s personal study.

The queen of hell was both furious and mortified at what had just occurred. Dozens upon dozens of words Maximilian could have picked up and ‘cunt’ was the very first one that passed through his lips and right in front of his older sister nonetheless!

“It couldn’t have been ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ or even ‘apple’, it had to be a swear word!” Lilith grumbled to herself. 

At least she had a pretty good idea of where Maximilian had learned that word from, so she’ll have a target to direct her fury towards.

Kicking open the door, Lucifer jumped in his seat and looked over to see his adopted son in the arms of his VERY angry looking wife.

“LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR!” Lilith barked.

“Lilith! I thought you were still having breakfast with the kids, is something wrong?” Lucifer asked.

“You missed Moxxie’s first word!”

“What?! Darn it! I knew I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast today! What was it? Ma? Dad? Or maybe-“

“Cunt!” Moxxie cheered.

Lucifer’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks, brain momentarily having to do a hard reboot in order to process the situation properly. Once he had gotten over the initial feeling of shock and regained his senses, Lucifer pieced together why his wife had entered the room with an air of fury directed right at him.

“W-wait my love, you can’t honestly think that he learned that word from me!” Lucifer stuttered out.

“Where else could he have learned it from?! You swear more than the staff do!” Lilith shot back.

“True. But I never say ‘Cunt’! Sure, I use fuck, shit, piss, cocksucker, tits-“ Lucifer trailed off when he noticed that Lilith’s glare had grown considerably colder, the woman shifting into a more demonic form. “I’m only digging myself deeper aren’t I?”

“Yes, yes you are.”

“Look, my point is that I don’t use…’that’ particular word and I certainly don’t swear around the children!”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Name the last time I swore in Charlie’s presence!” Lucifer said with crossed arms

That gave Lilith pause, Lucifer did have a point; while he was certainly prone to using explicit language on a regular basis, Lucifer did take great care to avoid using such words in the presence of their kids if he could help it. Furthermore ‘cunt’ wasn’t a word he used on a regular basis so it was unlikely that Maximilian had learned it from him.

“Alright, if Maximilian didn’t learn his first word from you then where did he learn it from?”

“Maybe he got it from Charlie?” Lucifer suggested.

The king and queen of hell looked at each other for a moment before bursting out into hysterical laughter.

“Yeah, sure! Our Charlotte, the most innocent demon in hell, was the one who taught her baby brother to swear! Good one darling!” Lilith chortled.

“I knew it was silly the moment it came out of my mouth.” Lucifer wheezed, wiping away a few stray tears. “In all seriousness though, we should investigate this. The last thing we need is for Max to pick up any more harsh language or worse, have to explain to Charlie what those words mean.”

“Agreed, any ideas on where we should start?” 

“Hmmm. Perhaps digging through some of the media he’s been exposed to such as the children’s books his nanny reads to him or perhaps the music he has listened to?” 

“Oh come now Lucifer, how much swearing could possibly be in children's literature?” Lilith said.

**********************

“I cannot believe there is so much swearing in children’s literature in our day and age.” Lilith groaned, plopping down onto a bench. 

Lucifer sat down next to his wife shortly after, holding Maximilian in his arms whilst the imp nibbled on a cookie. “I can’t believe the staff didn’t see anything wrong with exposing him to so much swearing; I mean ‘go the fuck to sleep’? What were they thinking?”

“We really need to have a talk with Maximilian’s nannies…and perhaps pay more attention to the type of information our children are being exposed to.”

The king and queen of hell had spent the better part of the morning looking into all the various sources that their son could have learned his first swear word from: everything from children’s books to lullabies to the court jester and more. Surprisingly, all of those media types had immense amounts of swearing written upon their pages to the point that one has to wonder why it was considered appropriate for younger demons. The strange part was that despite the adult language within such works, not a single thing Lucifer and Lilith had looked into contained so much as a single utterance of the word ‘Cunt’ throughout. 

They had been quite thorough in their search but it had yielded no further answers as to their son’s potty mouth, thus they were left right back at square one with nothing to show for their efforts apart from several hours of eternity they would never get back.

“Perhaps it was a lost cause to begin with.” Lucifer said, petting Max’s hair.

Lilith glanced at her husband. “What do you mean?”

“Lilith, we are living in HELL; the place where thieves, rapists, and murderers go when they die. Our kingdom isn’t known for being ‘child-friendly’ by any length so attempting to shield our son from any forms of impure language would have been met with failure.” Lucifer explained.

“I know that darling. I just wish he wouldn’t have had to adopt such words until he was much older, Charlie hasn’t said so much as a single swear and she’s five years older than him.” 

“I agree but we can’t change the situation, Max has already uttered his first word and unfortunately it wound up being ‘cunt’. All we can do now is try to get him to stop repeating in further and try to taper off such language as he grows up.”

“You’re right, you’re right. It’s pointless to dwell on old failures, onwards and upwards I suppose…” Lilith remarked.

At that moment Maximilian had finished up his treat and turned his attention back to his parents, hoping to impress them more with that new word he had just learned, only to immediately notice the crestfallen expressions upon their faces. Maximilian didn’t know the exact cause of his mother and father’s woe but he could sense that he had somehow disappointed them in some manner; perhaps it was that strange word he had said, mommy had acted very strange towards him when he said it and started yelling at daddy right afterwards. Maximilian didn’t like it when his parents were sad and fighting, it reminded him too much of the strange people who used to do all sorts of scary and painful things to him, so he decided to do something about it.

Maximilian started tugging on the lapel of Lucifer’s jacket, garnering the larger demon’s attention.

“Aw what’s the matter now? Does somebody need a nap?” Lucifer halfheartedly cooed.

Max puffed up his cheeks in an expression of focus. “d-d-d-”

“Oh no, please tell me you aren’t about to say another swear, Max…”

“D-dada.” Moxxie said before looking towards Lilith. “M-m-mama.” 

The king and queen of hell went still at that proclamation, staring at Maximilian with wide eyes as he kept repeating those two words to each of them. Then, in near perfect unison, both of their hearts melted on the spot as they sandwiched Maximilian into a group hug.

“Awww! Did you hear that Lili? He called us mom and dad!” Lucifer swooned.

As much as Lilith wanted to keep a healthy distance from the imp, she couldn’t help but feel touched by him acknowledging them as his parents for the first time.

“They may not be his first words, but I’ll take it regardless.” Lucifer said 

“As far as I’m concerned those were his first words. I refuse to acknowledge a swear as such an important milestone.” Lilith said. “Still, I wonder where he learned to say-“

“MOTHERFUCKING SON OF A CUNT! CUNT! CUNT!” A harsh scream tore through the air, ruining the beautiful moment. 

Looking behind them, Lilith and Lucifer saw one of the servants who worked in the royal gardens pulling several thorns out of their hand after unsuccessfully attempting to pull out a particularly spiky weed all while repeatedly using the word ‘cunt’ to express their agony.

Lilith then remembered a few vital facts: Maximilian’s regular sitters often took him on strolls through the royal gardens to get the child some fresh air as well as allowing him to play in some of the safer areas that were isolated from her husband’s collection of exotic and deadly plant life; they always kept to a strict schedule that coincidentally lined up with the rotation of the yard workers, ensuring that the same ones would always be on duty whenever Moxxie would be in the area.

Lilith’s eyes narrowed and Lucifer’s did much of the same; it seems as though they had found out who taught Moxxie to swear.

“Shall I take this one darling?” Asked Lucifer.

The queen of hell shook her head. “No allow me, you stay here with Maximilian. A boy his age doesn’t need to see this.”

In a blur of black and blonde, Lilith materialized in front of the foul mouthed gardener almost instantaneously; the servant jumping back in surprise at her sudden appearance.

“Oh, hello lady Morningstar. Did you need something? I’m a little busy here.” the gardener gruffly said.

“I just wished to inform you that Maximilian spoke his first word today, isn’t that wonderful?” Lilith replied.

“Uh-huh, great. And that concerns me how exactly?”

“Because his first word was a rather interesting one. If memory serves it was-“

“Cunt!” Moxxie exclaimed once more before Lucifer gently placed a hand over the infant’s mouth.

“Yes, that word.” Lilith growled. “And Lucifer and I have spent all morning trying to discern where he could have learned such horrible language from only to hear your passionate outburst moments ago.”

The demon immediately went pale, blood running cold. “C-come now lady Morningstar, how do you know it was me? Maybe it was one of the other maids or the-“

“We’ve checked everywhere 

“Ma’am please! Show some mercy!” The demon begged.

Lilith merely gave him a wide, fang-filled smile. “Very well, I’m in a good mood today. You can have a ten minute head start, THAT is my mercy.”

“Wha- but I-“

“You had better get moving little one, ‘the clock is ticking’ as they say.” Lilith sadistically giggled.

The demon remained there for only a few more moments before bolting off into the gardens, disappearing amongst the shrubbery in a futile attempt to escape his fate.

“Wait, did I say ten minutes? I meant ten seconds. ” Lilith said with a demonic growl.

A pair of bat wings sprouted from the queen’s back along with a set of curved horns right before she flew off in the direction of the fleeing servant, the faint sounds of screams and tearing flesh echoing through the area a few seconds later.

“I love that woman, the sounds of her brutality is like music to my ears.” Lucifer held up Max to his eye level. “Don’t you agree Max?”

“Cocksucker!” Max happily replied.

Lucifer blinked and nervously smiled at his son. “Max, never say that word in front of your mother…she can probably figure out where you learned THAT one from and daddy does not want to sleep on the couch tonight.”

“Da!”

***********************

“My lord? Are you alright?” The chauffeur said.

“Hmmm?” Lucifer replied. “Of course, why do you ask?”

“You just appeared to be smiling…wider than usual that is.”

“Oh I was just thinking of a rather humorous memory of an era long passed. Pay it no mind.”

The driver nodded. “Very well my lord.”

“Anywho, how soon until we get to my Charlie’s little pet project?

“Should only be a few more minutes my lord, it appears as the locals are giving you a wide berth so traffic is of no concern.” 

Lucifer let out a content purr and sank back into his seat. “Good….good, I am quite eager to attend to the developing situation at the hotel and would rather not wait.”

“What is happening? If I may be so bold as to ask.” The subservient demon asked.

“Oh you’ll soon find out, everyone will.” Lucifer chuckled as the hotel came into view.

Chapter Text

Moxxie nervously drummed his fingers against the conference table, Blitzo having dragged him and his coworkers into the company meeting room to hear his explanation for why the princess of hell herself was referring to the imp as her younger brother and dancing around their reception room with joy.

It had been about five minutes since they had all gotten settled in and Moxxie hadn’t said so much as a word, an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air as Blitzo, Millie, and even Loona stared at him expectantly. The white haired imp had been trying to find the right words to use in such a situation, but found the task next to impossible.

‘Where do I even start with this?’ Moxxie thought to himself as he shifted in his seat. ‘I never planned on having this conversation to begin with! At least not for several more decades when they start to wonder why I don’t seem to age!’ 

Moxxie let out an exasperated breath, he knew there really was no easy way to explain 

“So…you all probably have several questions.” Moxxie began.

“You’re goddamn right we do!” Blitzo shouted, leaping out of his chair. “What the fuck what that all about?! Why does that crazy bitch think you’re her brother?!”

“Because I am her brother.” Moxxie replied.

“Yeah right, yank on the other one Moxxie.”

“I can prove it sir.”

“And how the hell do you plan to do that?” Blitzo said.

Moxxie just rolled his eyes before focusing on a pitcher of water sitting on the other end of the conference table, he lifted one of his hands and the glass container became bathed in a strange red aura. Suddenly it floated off the table and flew straight into Moxxie’s open palm along with a few glasses, the imp pouring his boss a drink and offering it to him.

Everyone’s eyes immediately got wider at the display of magical power, undeniable proof of Moxxie’s lineage being shown right in front of them.

“Do you believe me now?” Moxxie deadpanned.

“Uh, yeah sure…” Blitzo meekly said as he accepted the drink.

“Have you always been able to do that?!” Millie exclaimed.

“Of course, I never lost my powers even after running away from home. I just preferred not to use them.” 

“Why the fuck not?! If you’re related to the princess an’ all then you’ve gotta know tons of other badass spells that could help us out on the job!”

“True, but most imps can’t even use magic at all. If word got out that someone like me was running around, slinging spells left and right, it would attract the attention of certain individuals I’d much rather not associate with…like my parents.” Moxxie explained.

The room quickly returned to the awkward silence from before, the realization that Moxxie was related to the king and queen of hell itself. It was almost humorous in a way, knowing that the meek and dorky imp they had been working with for years had secretly been a prince of the most powerful and influential family in hell the entire time.

“So…” Blitzo began. “Who the hell are you? Really?”

Moxxie took in a deep breath and looked at the rest of the group. “My real name is Maximilian Evanthos Morningstar, I’m around one-hundred and ninety years old-”

“WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU’RE ONE-HUNDRED AND NINE-” Loona sputtered

“Please save all your shocked outbursts for the end of the presentation please.” Moxxie said, cutting off the hellhound. “As I was saying, I’m around one-hundred and ninety years old. The Morningstars adopted me when I was one-year old after finding me in the middle of some kind of mass suicide ritual that left me as the sole survivor; from what I’m told, the ritual itself left me with unspeakable eldritch power and this strange symbol on my chest.” The imp pulled his shirt open to show off his ‘birthmark’.

“You said that was a tattoo!” Millie said.

“I lied, I lied about a lot of things Millie.” 

The black haired imp sat back against her chair, a slight sense of betrayal welling up inside of her that left Millie wondering how much she actually knew about the man she had married…the man she loved.

“Anyways, I lived with the Morningstars for a century and a half; having all sorts of misadventures with my sister Charlie and occasionally my parents.” A reminiscent smile came onto Moxxie’s face. “Oh I’ve got so many happy memories from my childhood, I’ll have to tell you about the first time I ever went to the theater with my family.”

A chuckle escaped Moxxie’s lips, but his expression darkened soon afterwards. “But when I grew up and my powers fully developed is when things went downhill….”

“What happened?” Loona asked, getting surprisingly invested in the imp’s tale.

“It’s…it’s complicated Loona and I’d rather not go into detail about my family issues right now; all you need to know is that as time went on I had a lot of pressure being placed upon me as ‘prince Morningstar’. Then one day I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to cut and run to get away from it all; so I packed up some personal belongings and snuck out of the house in the middle of the night, went underground for a few years until the search died down, and then emerged with a new identity and a new lease on life. I…I don’t regret my decision.”

“Seriously? Not even a little?”

Moxxie reached over and took one of Millie’s hands in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Yeah, definitely don’t regret it.”

Millie smiled at her husband, now feeling a little better about the whole situation. 

“Ugh, don’t start with that mushy crap again.” Loona groaned. “Can we go back to the part about how you’re one hundred and ninety fucking years old!”

“Hey yeah! How the hell does that even work? You look like you’re fucking twenty Mox!” 

Moxxie just shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you, my parents had some of their best scientists and scholars study me for years but none of them could seem to figure me out. All I know is that I reached physical maturity around twenty and then stopped aging all together, same as my sister Charlie.”

“Fuck me, you’re a regular old geezer aren’t ya Moxxie!” 

“You’re gonna be making a lot of those jokes now aren’t you?” Moxxie deadpanned

“Moxxie how could you…know me so well?” Blitzo grinned.

“Must be all that ‘old man wisdom’ he’s got, shame he’s got the same taste in clothes.” Loona snickered. “When did you get that suit anyways? The 1900s?” 

“Alright, laugh it up. Just know that my parents HATE jokes about their ages, Lilith especially, so get them in while you still can because that won’t fly when they show up.” 

“When they show- THE MORNINGSTARS ARE COMIN HERE?!” Millie sputtered.

“Charlie was on the phone with our parents right as you were dragging me in here. If I know them, Lucifer and Lilith are probably heading down to the office as we speak and will be meeting us shortly.” Moxxie sighed. “I am not looking forward to the reunion.”

He wasn’t the only one who held this sentiment, the rest of I.M.P. were nearly shitting themselves at the mere thought of having to come face to face with the ruling family of Hell. Each and every one of them had heard plenty of horror stories in regards to the sheer brutality and sadism Lucifer and Lilith were capable of, to say nothing of their overwhelming power that made Stolas seem like a mere bug by comparison. 

Blitzo and Loona were outright terrified, hearts dropping into their stomachs, knowing perfectly well that the Morningstars would be ANYTHING but happy to hear that they had been taunting and abusing their only son for so many years on end. If Moxxie said so much as a word about all the hazing he had been on the receiving end of to his parents, both of their asses would be battered and fried; Blitzo swore to himself that if it came to that, he’d take the full blame for all of it in order to spare Loonie from such a horrible fate…anything to keep his daughter safe.

Millie was just as scared as her boss and his hellhound, but for entirely different reasons and who could blame her? This was a big thing, it was a HUGE THING! The Morningstar family was at the top of the food chain in hell, they were the upper crust of the upper crust’s upper crust, and Millie had them as in-laws. Ignoring the fact that she suddenly felt like Moxxie was totally out of her league now to the point that it wasn’t even funny, Millie had no idea how Moxxie’s family would react to the news that their one and only son was married to a down and dirty country imp like herself; what if they didn’t like her? It was bad enough that Moxxie made such a poor first impression with her family, having gotten buckshot to the ass for his trouble after that night, and Millie didn’t want to wind up in the same position with her husband’s parents… especially since they were strong enough to kill her just by looking at her. But those worries were soon put aside when something else suddenly occurred to Millie.

“Wait a sec…if you’re a prince…and we’re married…does that mean ah’m a princess?!” Millie sputtered.

Moxxie placed a hand to his chin. “Well, not exactly. You have to go through a whole offication ceremony to be considered a true noble in hell and have the authority that comes with it; but considering the fact that you’re my spouse, you are ‘technically’ a princess even if the title doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things.”

Millie’s jaw hit the floor and she felt her chest begin to tighten up in sheer surprise.

When she was just a little tyke, Millie had a few passing fantasies now and then about being a princess like every other girl her age before she discovered a passion for hand-to-hand combat and brutal murder that turned her into the badass bitch that she was today. But never in a million years would she have imagined that those fantasies would one day come true and she’d be married to an actual real prince.

“Princess Millie Morningstar.” Millie whispered to herself, a smile coming across her face. “Ah kinda like the sound of that.”

The imp’s smile turned devious as thousands of ideas regarding how she could abuse the shit out of that position for her own benefit. The most prominent one would be heading back home to her family and rubbing it in all of their faces that she was married to not only a prince but the most powerful goddamn prince in all of hell, Millie would like to see them try and talk smack about her husband now!

Meanwhile Blitzo swallowed the lump in his throat and put on the bravest smile he could as he turned towards Moxxie. “Hey Moxxie, have I ever told you about how much I appreciate and value you not only as an employee but also as a friend? I mean you’re one of the smartest guys I know apart from me and-”

“Let me just stop you right there Blitzo, flattery is going to get you absolutely nowhere with me. Not that you need to do it seeing as I have no intention of ‘ratting you out’ to either of my parents when they show up.” Moxxie explained.

“Really?”

“Of course not, while I am incredibly annoyed by your constant invasion of my privacy and Loona’s inability to be even be slightly competent at her job-”

“Hey!” Loona snapped

Moxxie ignored the outburst “Among the countless other grievances I have with you two, I’m not petty enough to have you killed over it.” the imp said.

Bltizo sat back in his chair. “Oh thank fuck, I was really worried you were gonna throw me to the wolves for a second!”

“Oh please, if I really wanted to get back at you for all those little abuses…” Moxxie’s eyes started glowing red, teeth elongating into knife-like fangs with a reddish-black aura radiating from his body. “ I would have done it a LONG time ago. ”

Both Loona and Blitzo felt themselves instinctively straighten up out of fear, remembering that this was Lucifer’s son they were currently talking to and he was probably strong enough to kill both of them on the spot. Millie, on the other hand, actually felt a little turned on by the display of power.

“Anyways!” Moxxie said, voice now back to normal. “We’re gonna have a very long, very eventful day ahead of us with everything that’s currently going on so it may be prudent for us to discuss how we’re all going to proceed from here.”

“What, like how I should introduce mahself to yer parents?” Millie asked.

Moxxie paused and looked over towards his wife “Actually Millie, can you maybe…not tell them we’re married?”

“Wha- why not?! Are ya ashamed of me or somethin’?”

“No! You’re the greatest thing to ever happen to me Millie! It’s just that…” Moxxie scratched the back of his head. “This is a volatile situation to begin with, I have no idea how my parents will react to my return and telling them I got married while I was gone will only make things even more unstable than they already are. The last thing I want is for you to end up in the crossfire of my family drama.”

“Am ah just supposed to keep my hands off you the whole time they’re here then?!” Millie sputtered.

“Let’s just tell them we’re dating for now, ease them into the idea of us being together. Then, when the time is right, we sit down and explain the situation, sound good?”

Millie huffed, as much as she hated to admit it Moxxie did have a point. Ma and Pa were pretty steamed when their daughter told them she had gotten eloped with Moxxie, a man they completely disapproved of, so Millie could only imagine the type of outburst the Morningstars would have if they received the same news.

“Fine, but Ah’m not happy about it.” Millie said.

“Believe me, neither am I; everything about this is a complete and total mess. I’m just trying to make the best of a bad situation and ensure the safety of the people I care about.” Moxxie glanced over towards Loona and Blitzo. “All of them.”

The subtle gesture did not go unnoticed by the taller imp who cracked a soft smile, feeling much more confident about the trials ahead knowing Moxxie would be backing them up every step of the way. 

“Now do you have any other questions before we conclude this company meeting?” 

“Things are never gonna go back to normal, are they?” Loona asked with justified concern in her voice, a far cry from her usual apathy.

Moxxie shook his head. “Barring some sort of divine intervention? No, no they won’t Loona.” the imp replied.

On that note, Moxxie walked over to the conference room door and casually opened it only to jump slightly when he saw Charlie standing on the other side. The princess had her arm raised up, ready to politely knock before entering the room, but Moxxie’s sudden appearance had left her awkwardly holding a fist up against open air. Charlie could only half-heartedly chuckle and put both of her arms behind her in a regal position to salvage what little she could after being caught off guard.

“Perfect timing Max-”

“Moxxie. My name is Moxxie, Charlie. I don’t go by Max anymore.” the imp firmly stated.

“Okay ‘Moxxie’.” Charlie said condescendingly, thinking this was just her brother being silly again. “Well as you all know I’ve recently been working on a big redemption project called the happy hotel and-”

“Wait, do you mean that shitty, run-down shack you’re trying to turn into a homeless shelter or something?” Blitzo jabbed

Charlie glared at the head of I.M.P. “Hey, I’ll have you know that we’ve renovated the place a lot recently and it’s turning out wonderfully! There’s been so many redesigns and refurbishing that it barely even looks like the same building anymore!”

“Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see…” Blitzo suddenly trailed off when he got a better look at the princess. “Hang on a second, weren’t you wearing a different outfit when you came in here?”

“What do you mean?” Charlie asked, looking at Blitzo with the same glowing red eyes that she’s always had.

“I know for a fact that you weren’t wearing that crime against fashion when you came in.” Blitzo motioned to the princess’ deep red tuxedo. “Also weren’t your eyes a different color?”

“Sir, as someone who grew up with her, I can tell you with absolute certainty that Charlie’s eyes have always looked like that and she’s always dressed in the same red suits ever since we graduated from high school.” Moxxie said.

“But I could have sworn-“

Moxxie placed a hand on his boss’s shoulder. “Blitzo. Charlie has always looked like this.” The imp said, glancing at something just out of sight.

Blitzo looked in the same direction and immediately realized what Moxxie was trying to get across. “Oh right, yeah! Charlie Morningstar has always looked like that! I must have been thinking of someone else, my bad.”

“Good, now that we’ve settled that particular subject that will never be addressed again.” Moxxie turned back towards his sister. “You mentioned something about a hotel?”

“Oh right, the happy hotel! Well recently we’ve gotten a whole new sponsor that’s really helped the place get off the ground and I was hoping you and all of your little friends can stop by and see all the progress we’ve made for yourselves!” Charlie chimed before peering over her brother’s shoulder to get a better look at the other three demons behind him. “Speaking of, aren’t you going to introduce me to all of your coworkers? I we didn’t get a chance to talk when I first got here.”

“Very well. Charlie, I’d like you to meet my associates at I.M.P. We have the head of the company Blitzo-“

“And sexiest imp on this side of the pentagram!” Blitzo exclaimed.

Moxxie rolled his eyes but continued regardless. “Our receptionist Loona.”

The hellhound gave a cautious wave, still trying to process what she had just learned about Moxxie.

“And this lovely lady is Millie, my partner in the field and my…uh…” Moxxie gulped. “My girlfriend.”

“GIRLFRIEND?!” Charlie squealed, smile growing almost unnervingly wide and stars appearing in her eyes.

“Yes, we’ve been dating for over a year and-“ that was all Moxxie was able to get out before Charlie quickly side stepped him and belly flopped onto the table, sliding over until her face was uncomfortably close to Millie’s. 

“Oh my gosh hi! It’s so great to meet you!” Charlie cheered.

Millie was taken aback by such blatant invasion of her personal space but put on a polite smile and held out her hand. “Likewise yer highness.”

Charlie did not, in fact, accept Millie’s handshake. Instead she reached forwards and started pinching the imp’s cheeks like an obnoxious grandma.

“And she’s got a wrath ring accent too?! That’s so adorable!!”

Millie tried to rip Charlie’s hands away from her face but the princess was far stronger than she looked and Millie couldn’t even make her budge. It was just like whenever she made visits to meemaw before that combine ran her over.

“Moxxie! Don’t just stand there! Do something!” Millie pleaded.

“Charlie, can you please let go of my girlfriend’s face? You’re hurting her.” The imp said as he gently tugged on his sister’s arms.

The princess released Millie’s face “Sorry! I’m just so happy that you found a new special somebody, especially one this cute! She’s a thousand times better than…you know who.” Charlie growled out that last part.

Millie rubbed her sore cheeks and looked at the princess. “Wait, did Moxxie date somebody else before me?”

“It’s ancient history Millie, don’t worry about it.” Moxxie replied.

“Couldn’t agree more, there’s no need to dampen the mood with past mistakes!” Charlie said, clapping her hands together. “Oh we’re gonna have so much fun together! I can’t wait to hear about all the adorable romantic moments you two have shared like how you met, your first date, and your first kiss!”

Moxxie nervously tugged at his collar. “Maybe we could save that for later? Perhaps after we see that hotel you mentioned? You did seem quite excited about it.”

“Yes! Right! The hotel! Got sidetracked there for a second.” Charlie said, sitting up and hopping off the table. “So how about it Moxxie? Would you and all of your friends like to come and visit? See how things are coming along for my redemption program and maybe meet some of our new staff?”

“Well it is a slow day at the office, I suppose we could head over for a little while to take in your operation. Is everyone else okay with that?” Moxxie asked the rest of his coworkers.

Blitzo rubbed his chin. “Hmmm, the opportunity to hear all of your embarrassing childhood stories straight from your sister’s mouth while also getting to make fun of whatever pathetic idiots actually believe in this redemption crap? Count me the fuck in!”

“It is not-” Charlie began only for Moxxie to stick an arm in front of his sister.

“Let it go Charlie. Getting upset will only encourage him to keep insulting you, he feeds off of it.” The imp said.

“Boy do I ever! You wanna get in on this Loona?”

“Ah what the hell. I’m game. I’ve always been kinda curious about that hotel anyways.” Loona added.

“I suppose it’s settled then, we’re all going to the- Woah!” Moxxie exclaimed.

The white haired imp was about to lead everyone out of the building where Charlie’s limo was no doubt waiting, only to nearly run face first into the one eyed sinner that the princess had come in with.

Moxxie blinked at the female demon. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met yet. Who are you?”

“I’m…I’m Vaggie, Charlie’s girlfriend. It’s nice to meet you, Charlie has told me a lot of stories about you.” The sinner replied. 

“Well it’s nice to meet you Vaggie.” Moxxie replied, giving Vaggie a handshake that was a bit firmer than necessary. “I hope she’s only said good things.”

“Eh, mostly good but she did tell me some of your more embarrassing moments when you two were growing up.”

Moxxie shot his sister a look. “Please tell me you didn’t tell her about my thirteenth birthday.”

“Wait what happened on yer thirteenth birthday?” Millie asked.

“Let’s just say there’s a reason I hate theme park mascots and leave it at that for now.”

“He’s right. As much as I love telling that story, we’re burning daylight as it is so you’ll just have to wait until after I give you a full tour of the hotel to hear about it.” Charlie replied. “Now let’s go! Razzle and Dazzle are probably waiting on us.”

“Wait, those two are still around?” Moxxie hissed.

Charlie frowned. “You’re still holding that grudge against them aren’t you?”

“Of course I am! Especially after that prank with the processed cheese and locusts they pulled on me! It took me a week to wash the smell off!” Moxxie shouted.

“Fair point, but that was years ago! I know you guys never got along but I’m sure you could work past your differences and become friends.” Charlie argued.

“Yeah right. They’re probably the same bratty gremlins that they were last time I saw them!” Moxxie shot back

The two siblings continued their banter all the way down to the ground floor and the entire exchange left little doubt in the minds of anyone currently present that those two demons were related. The level of familiarity and ease that they spoke to each other was something only close siblings could achieve.

Even if he wasn’t happy over being found out, Moxxie couldn’t deny he had missed these interactions. It was nice to see Charlie again after all this time.

‘Seeing mom and dad on the other hand…’ Moxxie gulped. ‘I hope they aren’t too upset over what I did, I know how they can get when they’re angry.’

Chapter Text

“Huh, this place looks a lot different from the commercials.” Loona remarked, gazing up at the Hazbin Hotel.

“Like I said, we’ve been doing a lot of renovation work as of late to get this place in perfect shape. But I can understand the confusion, even I hardly recognize the hotel anymore.” Charlie said with a shrug of her shoulders.

The drive over had, miraculously, gone without any incidents. Apart from Charlie insisting that Moxxie sit in her lap the whole way there while she snuggled him, which of course brought on a round of teasing from Blitzo and Loona; both of who had gotten over the shocking revelation regarding their coworker surprisingly fast and had fallen back into their old routine of busting his ass as much as possible.

Moxxie couldn’t have been happier about that, although it was dampered by the fact that Millie was acting uncharacteristically quiet lately and Moxxie couldn’t blame her; finding out that the man she married had been lying to her since they day they met couldn’t have felt good and if she started treating him differently because of that-

‘No, stop thinking like that. Millie married you for better or worse, we’ll get through this.’ the imp thought to himself as he swallowed his fears and turned to address Charlie, desperate to give himself some sort of distraction.

“So Charlie, who exactly paid for all of these improvements? You mentioned something about a sponsor who recently came on board to help you with the project back at the office but never elaborated on that.” Moxxie questioned.

Charlie’s bright smile took on a bit more of a nervous quality. “Well about that…promise you won’t get upset?”

“Charlie, who is it?” Moxxie asked again, a level of firmness in his tone this time around.

“I know you won’t like it but try to keep an open mind, alright? In spite of what you may or may not have heard about him.” Charlie continued to babble while she led everyone towards the front doors of the hotel.

“Okay, now you’re starting to worry me. Why would I have heard about him before? Is he someone of importance in Hell’s social system?”

“Well it’s the-” were the only words Charlie was able to get out before the doors to the hotel abruptly flew open, nearly hitting her in the face, and revealed a certain deer demon with a blood red suit and a fang-filled smile stretching from ear to ear.

“WELL HELLO THERE! You must be Maximillian Morningstar! I must say it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance young man, put her there!” Alastor said, enthusiastically offering the imp a handshake.

Moxxie stared down Alastor’s outstretched hand like it was a dead fish before giving his sister an incredibly disapproving glare as it suddenly became clear why she had tried to delay her answer.

“The radio demon?” Moxxie deadpanned. “You got the radio demon, the guy who hunts down and cannibalizes other demons for fun, to sponsor a hotel whose primary purpose is to redeem sinners?”

“I know he may not have the greatest reputation, but Alastor has really contributed a lot to the operations of the hotel! No strings attached!” Charlie said.

Moxxie wasn’t convinced in the slightest. “And he benefits from this, how?”

“Why for my amusement of course my friend!” Alastor said, patting the imp’s head. “Seeing all the whores and tramps of hell who are foolish enough to believe in the idea of redemption constantly try and fail to achieve such an impossible dream always brightens my day!”

“Now that I can believe. I assume Charlie told you about me too?” Moxxie replied.

“Oh heavens no, as a matter of fact the most I’ve even heard about your existence was the whole fiasco that occurred when you disappeared ten years ago. You really did cause quite the stir around here, so delightfully chaotic!” Alastor reminisced with a chuckle.

“So how did you know I was coming?”

Charlie raised her hand. “That’s on me actually. After I got off the phone with dad, I called Alastor and filled him in on all of…this.” the princess motioned to Moxxie.

“Your dear sister wanted you to have a good first impression of our fine establishment, so she had me ensure that the premises were spick and span for when you arrived. Speaking of which, shall I introduce you to the rest of the staff? Perhaps give you a guided tour?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’d rather have Charlie do the honors. It is her hotel after all.” Moxxie replied.

“Fair enough.” Alastor said, spotting something behind the prince. “By the way, is something wrong with your associate over there?”

Moxxie turned around and saw that Millie was vibrating with sheer excitement, eyes sparkling at the sight of the radio demon and a series of happy squeaks emanating from her throat. Unlike her husband, the country imp actually held the radio demon in fairly high regard.

“No, she’s just excited to meet you. Millie is quite a big fan of yours.” Moxxie explained.

Alastor’s smile grew even wider. “Is she now?”

“Yer damn right ah am!” Millie cheered, getting over her starstruck stupor. “Ah love yer radio program! Ah listen to it all the time! Especially that episode ya did about all the proper ways to slice open an artery!”

“Ah, a woman of taste I see! I do so admire those who can appreciate the artistic aspects of a proper slaughter.”

“Right? Anybody can stab a bitch, but it takes some serious finesse to get a kill worth writing home about!”

“Millie. While I adore your capacity for brutal violence, can we please stay focused on the matter at hand?” Moxxie said.

“I agree, I’ve got so much to show you guys and so many more introductions to make! You two will have plenty of time to ‘talk shop’ later on.” Charlie chimed in.

“Can ah at least get his autograph before we go in? Please?” the country imp begged.

“I’d be more than happy to oblige her your highness.” Alastor told Moxxie. “It would only take a moment or two and she could catch up with the tour group afterwards.”

Moxxie huffed. “Fine, but she had better not be missing any of her flesh when I see her again.”

“Come now, what sort of animal do you take me for?”

“A rabid deer?” 

Alastor stared at Moxxie with a blank look before letting out a hearty laugh. “Such wit! I never knew Charlie’s brother would have such a sharp tongue! Oh I’m going to enjoy having you around!”

Moxxie rolled his eyes at the overlord’s exclamation but didn’t engage him further, instead following Charlie into the hotel alongside Blitzo, Vaggie, and Loona who regarded the radio demon with various levels of caution and indifference. 

“Welcome one and all to the Happy Hotel!” the princess of hell exclaimed, spreading her arms to display her sheer excitement.

Credit where credit was due, Charlie really had gotten a great setup going here. The lobby had a nice soft and cozy feel to it; from the warm lighting to the well worn furniture and the tasteful rug that really tied the room together, all of it gave off a very welcoming aura to anyone who came in. 

Although the passed out, feline sinner slumped over the bar setup was decidedly less welcoming.

But Charlie decided to fix that, walking over to the sinner and gently shaking him. “Husk, wake up. We’ve got visitors.”

The cat awoke with a snort, rubbing and blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he rose from his spot on the bartop. He had a very scruffy appearance to him: black and white fur resembling a tuxedo sticking up every which way with bits of debris caught in the strands, equally unkempt red wings draped over his back with several feathers falling off of them, and a cranky frown sitting on a worn-out, old mug giving him an appearance of a ‘bitter old man’. 

“Oh great, more idiots to worry about. Do I have to give that crappy little spiel Alastor made me memorize now?” The sinner groaned.

“They aren’t new residents Husk, it’s it’s my brother and his friends!” Charlie exclaimed.

“Wait, you actually have a brother? I thought Al was fuckin’ with me again.”

Charlie nodded. “Yeah, he’s standing right over there.” The princess said, motioning to Moxxie.

“Hello.” Moxxie said.

Husk looked back and forth between the two of them, squinting slightly to make sure he was seeing properly.

“Uh, you know that’s an imp right?” The bartender said.

“I’m/he’s adopted.” Charlie and Moxxie replied in unison.

“Okay, whatever.” Husk moved to grab a bottle off the bar shelves only for Charlie to capture him in a side hug and nearly pull him over the countertop, much to his displeasure.

“Max I-“ Charlie began.

“Moxxie.” The imp corrected her.

“Right. Moxxie, I’d like you to meet Husk! He’s the one manning the front desk!” The princess squealed. “Now he might seem like a bit of a grouch on the outside but I just know there’s a heart of gold in that fluffy chest of his!”

“LET GO OF ME YOU CRAZY BITCH!!!” Husk screeched, thrashing around in the princess’ unwelcome hug.

“If you say so.” Moxxie skeptically replied. “One of Alastor’s hires, I assume?”

Freeing himself from Charlie’s embrace, Husk slid back behind the bar and grabbed the closest bottle of alcohol within reaching distance; popping the top, he downed about a third of it in a single swig before wiping the stray liquid off his mouth. All of which was done in one fluid motion.

“Yeah, that red asshole decided to volunteer me for some ‘charity work’ here at this crap motel. ‘Least I get access to a fully stocked bar at this gig; if it wasn’t for that I probably would have snapped by now.” Husk grunted.

“But you’ve only been here for two weeks so far.” Vaggie pointed out.

Husk uncorked another bottle. “I stand by my point.”

“But- oh forget it.” the princess of hell huffed. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Well the minute Niffty heard that a prince was coming by, she freaked the hell out and ran upstairs to ‘freshen up’ before he got here. Although now that I see the guy in person, I’m pretty sure she’s wasting her time.” Husk replied.

Moxxie frowned. “HEY!”

“And Angel?” Charlie asked, ignoring her brother’s outburst.

“I don’t fuckin’ know, the guy wandered off somewhere after you told Alastor about your special little visitor. Probably wanted to avoid having to do any cho-”

“Well hello there sailor!” A new voice said.

Moxxie felt a pair of thin arms drape over his shoulders, followed by something warm and furry press against the back of his head. Yelping in surprise, Moxxie ducked out of the embrace and spun on his heel to get a better look at who exactly had decided to invade his personal bubble.

It was another sinner, this one of the more arachid variety with four arms sticking out of his torso and a pair of powerful looking legs clearly made for jumping high and fast. He was a slender and curvaceous thing, having an incredibly feminine build to him covered in white and pink fur that would make it very easy for him to be confused for a woman, not helped by the ball of fur sitting on his chest resembling a set of breasts. His outfit consisted of a slutty looking blazier that had been unbuttoned to leave his fluffy chest on display for all to see, accentuated with a stylish bow tie and pink gloves alongside some black leggings that made for a very lustful ensemble.

Currently the guy was kneeling down so that his face was mere inches away from Moxxie’s, his mismatched eyes staring into the imp’s whilst a toothy grin sat upon his mouth. 

“Hey there cutie, what brings you by this dump? Trying to get a private audience with yours truly?” the spider demon asked.

Moxxie nervously backed away from the sinner. “Not in the slightest, my sister Charlie was just giving me and my associates a tour.” 

“Sister?” the sinner looked over at the princess. “Ya never told me ya had a brother! Especially one this cute!”

“It’s not something I bring up often, not since he ran away from home. Also you should know he already has a girlfriend so please stop flirting with him!” Charlie pleaded.

“Shit, really? Well she can join in if she wants or at least watch. How about it, sweet thing?” 

“N-no thank you. I’m…I’m good.” Moxxie replied, nervously tugging at his collar.

“Eh, your loss.” 

Moxxie glanced over at his sister. “Charlie, would you mind telling me who this is?”

“Angel Dust, he’s the first resident at the hotel and hopefully the first one we manage to redeem.”

“Wait, isn’t that the same guy who popped up during that crappy news segment you did? The one where him and that cyclops blew up a fuck load of dumbass eggs working for some snake bitch?” Blitzo asked.

Angel Dust laughed. “Oh yeah I remember that! God damn that was a fun day, me and Cherri Bomb still have pics from when we kicked that prick’s scaley ass!”

“Please don’t remind me, I’m still embarrassed after screwing up that interview so badly.” Charlie groaned.

Vaggie hugged her girlfriend. “Hey come on, that wasn’t your fault. You did your best, besides you did get to kick Katie Killjoy’s ass on live television, that’s a plus right?”

“Yeah, yeah it was. Thanks Vaggie.”

A sharp gasp coming from the top of the lobby staircase immediately grabbed everyone’s attention. Standing there was a petite cyclops sinner with bright red hair and an utterly adorable poodle skirt and blouse combo torn straight from the pages of a 1950s fashion magazine. Her singular pupil was focused entirely on Moxxie and her lips were stretched into a feral grin.

“A MAN!” The cyclops exclaimed.

With almost terrifying speed, the sinner leapt onto the banister and slid straight down the carved wood. Upon reaching the bottom, she literally launched herself off of the railing towards Moxxie like a psychotic cannonball with her claws outstretched.

“COME HERE DREAMBOAT!” The sinner screeched.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Moxxie screamed back, too startled to even move.

Right as the crazed woman was about to have a head on collision with the imp, a red and black blur intercepted her midair and slammed her against the floor so hard that a sizable dent was left behind. It took Moxxie all of about three seconds to realize that said blur was his beloved wife Millie, who had just come out of nowhere and RKO’d the lady’s ass.

“BACK OFF BITCH!” Millie hissed.

The redhead recovered almost alarmingly fast, springing back to her feet seconds after her face had been well acquainted with the floor no worse for wear.

“Now that wasn’t very nice!” The cyclops said. “I just wanted to snuggle with the hot guy that came through the door!”

“That ‘hot guy’ is mah hu-boyfriend! The only demon that can snuggle him is me!” Millie shouted back, grabbing Moxxie possessively. 

The girl produced a small katana from her dress. “Hey, sharing is caring! And caring is me not sticking this very pointy knife into your stomach!” 

“Ah ain’t scared of some sissy maid, BRING IT ON!” 

“Woah! Woah! Woah! Everybody calm down! There’s no need to fight!” Charlie said.

The princess snatched up the cyclops by the scruff of her shirt and dragged her away from the snarling imp.

“Aww! But I wanted to see Millie wipe the floor with her!” Blitzo groaned.

Angel Dust snorted. “No offense pal, but Niffty woulda whipped her fat country ass.”

“Yeah right! That stick couldn’t last ten seconds against one of my top employees!” The imp shot back.

“What did I just say?!” Charlie yelled.

“Fine I’ll cool it, sheesh keep your tits on.” Angel looked at Blitzo. “We’re gonna settle this later though.”

“Oh I am so fucking there for that.” Blitzo grinned.

“I am so sorry about that Moxxie, Niffty can get a bit overly excited sometimes; especially around men.”

“It’s alright, no harm no- what in the world is that?” Moxxie remarked.

Charlie looked over her shoulder to see something that most certainly was not there when she left: a merchandise stand.

There were t-shirts, hats, plushies, notebooks, you name it. All bearing Charlie’s image like it was some sort of religious shrine dedicated to her; frankly it was a little unnerving.

“I…I actually don’t know. This is the first time I’m seeing…whatever this is.” The princess muttered.

“Why it’s one of the wonderful ideas I had to help spread the word of the hotel throughout the pentagram! All the brainless masses out there simply adore merchandise, no matter how tacky it may be.” Said Alastor as he came up from behind the princess.

Moxxie walked over to the stand and noticed something off about the setup. “Wait, why does this say ‘Charlie Magnes’? Her last name is ‘Morningstar’ not ‘Magne’.”

“I beg your pardon?” Said Alastor.

“Right here, above these fridge magnets; it says ‘Charlie Magnes’.”

Alastor strolled over to the imp’s side to see just what he was going on about and immediately spotted the error that had been made.

“Now I understand your confusion, that’s supposed to say ‘Charlie Magnets’! As in fridge magnets! There must have been some sort of error in the production of the labels where the ‘T’ had been forgotten.” Alastor said. “Oh I am definitely going to have some strong words with that printing company later today, you can be certain of that.”

“Then it’s a good thing I caught it before you made a public debut. ‘Charlie Magne’ sounds like some terrible-“ Moxxie felt his words die in his throat when an all too familiar chill went up his spine; a chill that everyone else in the lobby also felt, although only a select few understood the meaning behind it.

“What the fuck was that?” Loona nervously asked.

Moxxie gulped, throat suddenly feeling very dry. “Dad’s here.”

A wave of silence passed over the group as all eyes fell upon the entryway doors, a foreboding silhouette approaching the hotel was visible through the stained glass. The handle on the door jiggled for a moment before it started to slowly creak open.

After what felt like hours of anticipation, the front doors of the hotel opened fully to reveal the one and only Lucifer Morningstar. The king of hell standing there with his usual white formal wear with matching apple tipped cane and his infamous smile that always seemed to adorn his face.

Nearly everyone there gave Lucifer a wide berth, pressing their backs against the wall to put as much distance between themselves and the king as they could; even the stoic demons like Husk and Loona or the confident ones like Angel and Blitzo were intimidated by Lucifer’s mere presence. Millie got it the worst by far, knowing her marriage to the man’s son would make him rather unpredictable and ducked behind a plant to hide herself from her father-in-law’s gaze. All of those reactions only made Lucifer’s smile stretch out even wider.

The only people in the room who weren’t cowering in fear were Moxxie, Charlie, Vaggie, and Alastor. Although the latter two were standing up just a little bit straighter than usual out of respect for the man as he approached the four of them.

Coming to a stop directly in front of the group, Lucifer’s eyes swept over all of them but appeared to linger on Moxxie for a bit longer than the others.

“Well isn’t this a lovely little get together? It’s nice to see you once again Alastor, is that a new microphone?” Lucifer finally said.

The radio demon nodded. “Yes it is, thank you for noticing Lord Lucifer. I broke the old one in yet another confrontation with that arrogant fool Vox, I even had to get a new suit after he wrecked the old one.”

“Again? What is it, the third time this month?”

“That damn television never seems to get the hint. If anything he’s been even more persistent than usual.” Alastor grumbled.

Lucifer smiled even wider. “I can’t imagine why.”

That was a blatant lie of course. In recent times Lucifer had been forging extremely explicit love letters with Alastor’s handwriting and signature, mailing them to Vox purely so he could stir up more drama between the two of them and laugh at the resulting chaos. The king of hell had even dropped off another bundle on the way to the hotel.

“And dear Vagitha, you’re looking well. You’ve still been treating my daughter properly, yes?” Lucifer asked.

“Yes sir.” Vaggie replied.

“Good, good. That had better not change.” Lucifer growled before turning his attention to his daughter. “Charlie.”

“Dad.” The princess respectfully nodded. “Glad you could make it.”

“Anything for my sweet little apple. I take it this is the one you claim to be our long lost family member?” Lucifer said, motioning to Moxxie.

“Yes. It’s him, I know it.”

Lucifer stared down at the imp, the smaller demon shifting around uncomfortably but otherwise remaining steadfast as he stood before the most powerful demon in hell.

“Well I can see the resemblance easily enough. But does he have his ‘birthmark’?” Lucifer asked Charlie.

Moxxie sighed and undid the buttons on his shirt, pulling the fabric back to reveal the symbol in question that had been branded into his chest since the day he was born.

To any onlookers, Lucifer didn’t give any sort of reaction to said symbol; the smile on his face remaining just as wide as ever. But to Moxxie, who was far more familiar with his father’s little quirks, he could see the sides of his mouth tremble and his eyes glisten when the realization washed over him. The king of hell was barely able to suppress an emotional outburst.

“It…it is you. My son, my little Maxie.” Lucifer breathed.

“Don’t call me that, my name is Moxxie now.” Moxxie declared.

Lucifer huffed. “Very well. So are these your friends?” The king of hell said, giving a side eye to the unfamiliar imps and hellhound.

“More or less, we all work for the same company.” Moxxie replied. “There’s my boss Blitzo, our receptionist Loona, and my coworker Millie.”

None of the trio gave any sort of reaction when Moxxie motioned to them, they were caught up in a frozen stupor at seeing the devil himself standing right before them. Meeting with someone like Stolas or even one of the seven deadly sins was one thing, but Lucifer Morningstar? He was on a level of his own…

“Riveting, I look forward to getting to know them better down the road. Now then, shall we go for a walk Moxxie? Do a bit of catching up?”

“Can’t we just talk here?”

“I’m sorry, you must have misheard me. We are going for a walk, Moxxie. ” 

Moxxie audibly gulped and complied with his father’s wishes, allowing the royal demon to lead him up into the higher floors of the hotel. Although it felt more like he was being led to his own execution.

Millie of course noticed her husband’s distress and instinctively moved to go after the two of them, only for Charlie to grab the imp’s shoulder and pull her back.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Charlie stated.

Millie looked up at the princess with fear in her eyes. “But Moxxie-“

“Will be fine.” Said Charlie. “I know dad can be intimidating and all, but he also loves our family more than anything else in the world and would do anything to keep us safe. He won’t hurt Moxxie, he’ll probably just give him a stern lecture about what he did, I promise.”

Millie’s lip quivered, fear for Moxxie’s well-being pumping through her veins, but in the end she relented. Charlie was probably was probably right, she knew king Lucifer better than Millie ever would and if she was able to say with absolute confidence that Moxxie would be okay then that was good enough for her.

Although there was still a bit of anxiety bubbling under the surface, which Charlie quickly picked up on.

“Hey, how about we sit down and get to know each other a little better? I can make some tea for the two of us, would that help?” Charlie asked.

Millie nodded her head. “Sure, that sounds nice.”

“Great! Do you have any preferences? We’ve got a pretty wide selection.”

“Peppermint tea, if ya’ve got it. Me and Moxxie have it all the time to unwind.” Millie replied.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Charlie said before heading off.

Meanwhile across the room, Loona took a seat at the bar and snapped her claws to get Husk’s attention who answered with an annoyed grumble.

“Hey gramps, can you toss me a damn drink?” Loona said.

“You even old enough to drink, kid?” Husk asked.

“The fuck does it matter to you?”

Husk slammed his hands on the bar. “Look, I may be a drunken asshole but I’m not about to serve booze to a minor. Either show me some ID or get the fuck off my bar.”

“She’s in her twenties!” Blitzo chimed in. “It’s all good!”

“The fuck are you?” Husk growled.

“I’m her father! And if I say she can have a drink then she can have a drink! Don’t make me get your manager!” The imp shouted.

The cat sinner shrugged. “Good enough for me, so what’s your poison?”

“Whatever the strongest thing back there is.” Loona groaned, covering her face in embarrassment. “I really fucking need it right now.”

“Rough day?”

“Apart from Blitzo being his usual idiot self? I just found out my dorky ass coworker is the son of the devil, so you tell me.” Loona replied.

“He didn’t tell you?” Husk said.

Loona shook her head. “I don’t think he told anybody, even his shitty little girlfriend didn’t know about this crap.”

“Speaking of his girlfriend, I think she’s about to start some shit with Niffty.” Husk grunted, pouring Loona a glass of bourbon.

The hellhound looked over her shoulder and saw that Millie and Niffty were engaged in a rather heated conversation while Vaggie appeared to be trying her best to diffuse the situation. Meanwhile Angel Dust and Blitzo were watching from the sidelines as the situation unfolded, right alongside Alastor who was doing much of the same.

The imp leaned over to the spider sinner. “Hey, twenty bucks says that Millie kicks her fat fucking ass.”

“You’re on. Wanna get in on this Al?” Angel asked the overlord.

“No thank you, I was never much of a gambling man. Although I will enjoy the show regardless.” Alastor stated.

“How long until they start-“ 

Blitzo was interrupted by an audible smack cutting through the air; Millie had just punched Niffty in the face, the housekeeper responding with a sweeping kick that knocked the imp over. Vaggie got in between them in a desperate attempt to stop the brawl, but to no avail.

“I’d say about right now.” Angel Dust remarked.

**********************

“Ah here we go! Now this is much better, don’t you agree Max?” Lucifer said.

“for the last time, that isn’t my name anymore!” Moxxie insisted.

“Fine, fine. No need to whine.” Lucifer replied. “Now take a seat.”

The king of hell had brought Moxxie out onto one of the hotel balconies, a lovely set of deck chairs and umbrellas scattered about for use by the residents paired quite nicely with the view overlooking much of pentagram city. It would have been relaxing if not for the context that brought Moxxie here.

The imp considered telling his father he’d rather stand, give a small act of rebellion towards the king, but that fire in his heart was snuffed out by the knowledge that he was already in enough trouble as it was and the last thing he needed was to aggravate things further.

So he pulled up a chair and politely sat down. Lucifer mirroring his motions to sit directly across from the imp and face him dead on.

No words were shared between them, Lucifer and Moxxie simply locked eyes with each other and waited to see who would be the one to make the first move. The ambient sounds of the city and the warm breeze flowing through the air providing a sort of white noise to accompany the tense silence.

“Do you know how long you’ve been gone for Moxxie?” Lucifer abruptly asked.

Moxxie jumped slightly at the sudden question. “I’m not entirely sure; maybe ten, eleven-“

“Ten years, eleven months, two weeks, and five days exactly. That’s how long it’s been since the day you saw to remove yourself from your home.” Lucifer flatly said.

“You’ve- you’ve been keeping count.” Moxxie trembled.

“Of course I have, it’s hard to forget one of the worst days of my existence. I can still remember that horrible morning with near perfect clarity, the way your sister ran up to me in a panic saying you weren’t in bed and nobody could find you on the palace grounds.”

Moxxie huffed and looked away from his father, only for a clawed hand to gently cup his chin and turned his head back towards the king of hell.

“Now how do you think we all spent that time? Hmm?” Lucifer asked. “How much of it did we spend frantically searching for any trace of your whereabouts? How much of it did your sister spend blaming herself for your disappearance? How much of it did your mother spend lying awake at night, worrying that her son could be hurt or even dead while she was powerless to help in? And how much of it did I have to spend putting on a strong front for the sake of my rule while my heart was torn apart by your betrayal?” 

Moxxie felt himself instinctively grit his teeth with every accusation thrown his way, each one was like a stab in the gut and Lucifer knew it perfectly well.

“You must have had your reasons of course. There must have been something that motivated you to throw away the loving home you grew up in, turn your backs on your family, and leave a massive void within the Morningstar clan that could never hoped to be filled. I do hope it was worth it Moxxie, whatever goal you sought to achieve through such selfish actions I mean. What was it? Freedom? Rebellion? Curiosity? What made you leave?”

“That isn’t any of your damn business father.” Moxxie spat.

“Oh but I think it is, after all it is a father’s job to care for their offspring and help with their emotional turmoil is it not? Even when they chose to estrange themselves from their loved ones.” Lucifer droned on. “But if you want to keep such issues internalized where they can continue to fester then by all means, go ahead; you can’t hide them forever. Although I have to wonder how in the world you managed to keep yourself hidden for all these years, it couldn’t have been an easy feat after all; especially when you had such wonderful parents putting every resource they had at their disposal into tracking you down, all out of concern for your well-being.”

Moxxie hissed and shoved his father’s hand away. “Did you bring me up here just so you could take me on a guilt trip?”

“No, not entirely. But we’ve been mourning you for over ten years now, so don’t expect me to give you a reprieve anytime soon. You brought this guilt on yourself.” Lucifer replied.

“Great, just perfect.” Moxxie whined.

“Oh don’t be like that Moxxie. While I am understandably upset over your actions, I am relieved you’re in good health even after all this time. I had long since assumed you dead as did your mother.”

Moxxie mumbled something under his breath.

“What was that?” Lucifer inquired.

“How is she? Mom I mean?” The imp repeated.

Lucifer smiled. “Still the same perfect woman I married and the same woman who raised you as her own; Graceful, collected, and a little bit feisty when needed. Even after you left she still managed to keep herself together in spite of her broken heart.”

“That’s…good.” 

“Although I haven’t told her about your resurfacing yet and as far as I know neither has Charlie. I wanted to wait until I had confirmed it really was you in the flesh.” Lucifer’s grin became mischievous. “Oh I cannot wait to see how she’ll react when she finds out her ‘little possum’ is still alive.”

Moxxie blushed at the mention of that nickname, several embarrassing childhood memories associated with it bubbling to the surface. He could already imagine the spine snapping hugs he was going to be subjected to down the road, especially when he saw his mother for the first time in over a decade.

“Which brings me to my next point.” Lucifer placed a hand on Moxxie’s shoulder. “I’m bringing you back with me.”

“W-what?” The imp sputtered.

“You’ve been gone for far too long Moxxie, it’s high time you come home and return to the life you abandoned.”

“But I already have a life! One that I built all by myself with my own two hands! I have a job, friends, and a…a girlfriend.” 

Lucifer’s eyebrows jumped up. “A girlfriend you say?”

“Yes, we’ve been dating for a few years now but that’s beside the point! I don’t want to go back to the way things were! I’m happy with the current state of my life!” Moxxie shouted.

“Are you? Are you really?” Lucifer questioned.

“Yes, I am. ” Moxxie demonically growled.

Lucifer sat back in his chair with a sigh. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, at least not with such absolute certainty. Although I can’t say I’m surprised, you were never the idle type Moxxie so it’s only natural that you would have made the most of the time you had been gone.” The demon king said.

“It hasn’t always been easy, but I wouldn’t trade my new life for anything in the world.” 

“Care to wager on that my son?” Lucifer offered.

“What did you have in mind?”’Moxxie asked.

“A test of sorts, to see if you truly prefer your life as a prince to your life as a….what are you doing for a living these days anyhow?” 

“I’m an assassin for hire, specializing in long range weaponry.” Moxxie declared.

“Better than being a lawyer I suppose. As I was saying, I am under the belief that I can do away with that silly little notion that you are somehow better off on your own than with your loving and caring family who cherished you only to be repaid by you completely abandoning-”

“ GET TO THE POINT. ” Moxxie boomed, eyes flaring red.

“Ha! Still have your old man’s fire huh? Good to know you haven’t lost it.” Lucifer chuckled before his expression turned serious. “Now here’s my proposal: for the next two months, you return with me to the Sanctum of Sin and reside there during that period. Over the course of your stay you will not only readopt your title as prince of hell and assume the responsibilities that come with it, but you will also make up for lost time through some good old fashioned family bonding activities just like we used to before you decided to run away.”

“And after the two months are over?” Moxxie asked.

“Then you will be able to make a choice: if you realize how childish and selfish you acted by leaving your home and understand the importance of your role within our family, then you will return to your proper place as the prince of hell by your family’s side where you belong and give up this crazy fantasy of working amongst the lower classes like a commoner.” Lucifer stated. “But if you still maintain the belief that you are better off as a common imp than as a prince by the end of the two months, I will allow you to return to your boring life and cease all communications between you and the rest of our little family unless you yourself decide otherwise.”

“That sounds fair…what’s the catch?” Moxxie inquired.

“Only a few small concessions: you cannot attempt to leave the palace ground without permission from your mother or myself, any excursions must be approved by us and supervised by a member of the royal guard for the duration; you cannot intentionally avoid participating in family activities unless you are physically unable to, which means no locking yourself in your room the entire time and avoiding all contact with us; and finally, 

“What happens if I break those rules? Or outright refuse your deal?” Moxxie said, only to immediately regret it when his father’s eyes turned to a pale white and his teeth sharpened from fangs to daggers.

“ Then I will drag you home kicking and screaming like a petulant brat and lock you in your room until you feel ready to embrace your place in this world! ” Lucifer Bellowed, voice echoing throughout the city before returning to his normal appearance. “I do not want to have to resort to such extreme measures and am more than willing to give you a sporting chance to prove that you are better off without the weight of the crown upon your head, but if you continue to act belligerent and rebellious then I will have no choice but to carry out such acts; if for no other reason than to do my duty as your father and ensure your safety.”

The imp gulped, knowing that his old man would follow through on such claims. “But- but what about my friends? My job? I can’t just take two months off! We’re a small startup company with only four members, myself included, we can’t afford to be down an employee for that long! Especially since I’m the only responsible one there.” Moxxie muttered the last sentence.

“You mean those other two imps and the hellhound I saw in the lobby? If memory serves, they aren’t part of the hotel staff so I can only assume that they are the demons you’ve been associating with in recent times?” Lucifer asked.

Moxxie nodded in confirmation.

“Well then, why don’t we bring them along for the ride?” the king suggested. “If they truly hold so much importance to you then I see no reason why I cannot open the doors of my home to them as well. Besides, it would be a wonderful opportunity to get better acquainted with the individuals who have endeared themselves to my son and watched over him.”

“But our business-” Moxxie began to argue only to be interrupted once more.

“Will be covered by yours truly. If your employer is so willing, I can see to it that all of the business expenses he may incur over the next two months will be paid for entirely by the royal treasury and perhaps even fund an advertising campaign to help your workplace recover any customer base they may have lost during the hiatus.” 

Moxxie went silent for a few moments, stewing on this deal before turning his attention back upon his father. “Two months? And then you’ll let me go?”

“Come now my son, when have I ever gone back on a deal? Sure I may twist the wording now and then to fuck over greedy and selfish fools but I am nothing if not a man of my word.” Lucifer said.

“Alright, you have a deal.” Moxxie said, extending a hand.

Lucifer smiled and grasped the appendage in his own; the handshake sparking up with ancient demonic energy that ran up and down both of their arms, bringing about a rather uncomfortable tingling sensation, until it ebbed off and allowed them to separate.

“Ten years later and I still hate doing that.” the imp remarked, shaking his hand to get rid of the phantom sensations.

“It’s the only way to make a proper demon deal son, you know that.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Fair enough.” Lucifer stated. “But before we go back to deliver the news, can you do one last thing for me?”

“Oh what is it now?” Moxxie groaned.

The patriarch of the Morningstar family didn’t give a verbal reply, instead he leaned forwards and gently embraced his son; creating a comforting warmth from their shared body heat that Moxxie hadn’t experienced for years. 

“It’s…it’s good to see you again, son. I’ve missed you so much….we all have.” Lucifer said, a few tears dripping down his face and staining the imp’s suit.

Moxxie returned the act of affection by wrapping his arms around his father’s body and pulling him in closer, snuggling up against his torso while the imp’s tail coiled around his waist. For all his faults, Moxxie had to admit that Lucifer always did give the best hugs and he couldn’t stop himself from getting a certain level of joy from being held in such a matter 

The hug lasted for a few more minutes before the duo gently untangled themselves from the embrace they had placed themselves in, Lucifer pulling out a hanky and drying his tear stained cheeks.

“By the way, don’t you dare tell anyone I was crying; understand?” Lucifer stated.

“Duly noted father.” Moxxie said, right before the muffled sound of glass breaking echoed from the lower floors of the hotel. “Wait, what was that?”

“I’m not sure, but it did not sound good…are you friends perchance prone to bouts of violence and aggression?” Lucifer asked.

Moxxie’s eyes shrunk to pin pricks when he made the connection. “Oh crumbs…we need to get back down there now!”

“Oh what’s the rush? I’m sure they’re getting along just fine with Charlie’s staff.” Lucifer said.

“AH WILL CUT YOU BITCH!” A voice bearing Millie’s distinctive Wrathian drawl faintly emanated from beneath them.

“Then again I could be wrong.”

Moxxie wasn’t in the mood for his father’s antics, choosing instead to turn tail and run towards the lobby as fast as his little legs could carry him. Lucifer following behind him in a casual stroll and already imagining the sweet chaos that must be under development. 

He would not be disappointed, for when Moxxie and Lucifer reached the Hazbin Hotel’s lobby they were treated to a sight of complete and total bedlam

The entire place was trashed from top to bottom: furniture had been smashed and overturned, countless holes had been punched in the walls, and the tasteful carpet had been utterly shredded which was a shame considering it really tied the room together.

Standing in the middle of it all was the rather comedic scene of Charlie and Vaggie restraining Niffty and Millie respectively, the latter duo desperately attempting to free themselves out of their captivity in order to attack the other while spewing out countless insults.

“Ladies, calm down! Please!” Charlie begged. “I’m sure we can just talk this out!”

“FUCK OFF! AH AM NOT ABOUT TO LET THAT BITCH GET AWAY WITH WHAT SHE SAID TO ME!” Millie screamed, thrashing around in Vaggie’s grip.

“OH WHAT’S THE MATTER? CAN’T TAKE SOME CRITICISM FATTY?!” Niffty replied.

Millie saw red and started pulling even harder against Vaggie, dragging the moth sinner several inches forward while she tried to get closer to the maid.

“How. The fuck. Are you this strong?!” Vaggie said, holding on for dear life and using every ounce of strength in her body to keep the imp in place.

Charlie’s head snapped over to Alastor while the maid was squirming around in her arms. “Don’t just stand there Alastor! Do something!!!” 

“I would, my dear, but I’d hate to disappoint our audience.” Alastor motioned to the other four demons watching from the bar which had been turned into a sort of spectator stand.

“Come on Millie! Rip that crazy bitch a new asshole right on her forehead!” Blitzo cheered. “Daddy needs some new horse figures!”

“Niffty! If you win, I’ll give you the numbers of all the single straight guys I know that work at Val’s clubs! Don’t let me down!” Angel Dust shouted.

Moxxie was completely mortified. Normally he wouldn’t mind all that much when his coworkers decided to make a scene, it came with the job and he had long since adjusted to such chaos; plus Millie was pretty hot when she went feral like this. But his father had yet to receive a proper introduction to I.M.P. and this was as far from a good first impression as one could possibly get.

“My oh my! Your friends sure do know how to liven things up don’t they Moxxie?” Lucifer said, intentionally raising his voice so it could be heard above the cacophony of jeers and shouts.

The entire room stopped dead in their tracks, every demon going completely still and turning their attention towards the top of the staircase.

“Oops, did I interrupt? I’m sorry, please continue with your attempts to rip each other’s throats out; pay no attention to us!”

“How- How long have ya been standin’ there?” Millie nervously asked.

Lucifer smiled. “Oh not long, which is a shame because it seems as though I missed quite the performance.”

“I’m so sorry about this, dad. I was gone for five minutes to get tea and when I came back Millie and Niffty were throwing chairs at each other!” Charlie pleaded.

‘That explains all the shattered furniture.’ Moxxie thought to himself.

“You have nothing to apologize for my dear, I know how hard it can be to keep your subordinates under control at times. If you were simply willing to assert yourself more then perhaps-”

“I am not having this conversation with you right now dad.” Charlie flatly replied.

“I’m just trying to provide some fatherly advice Charlie.” Lucifer said with a shrug. “Anywho, during our momentary absence your brother and I had quite the productive talk together in regards to how we should proceed with this rather…unique, shall we say, situation.”

“Really?” 

“Oh yes, in fact you should be quite happy to hear about the arrangement we’ve worked out. I truly believe it will be highly beneficial to all of us.” Lucifer said, a slight hiss hanging off the last word.

Blitzo looked at Moxxie from across the room. “Arrangement? Moxxie what the fuck did you do?”

The whited haired imp sighed. “The basic gist is that I have to go back to my father’s palace and stay there for the next two months, doing my royal duties and spending time with my family, and when it’s over I can choose whether or not I want to stay there for the rest of my life.” Moxxie explained.

“Wait, so we ain’t gonna be able to see ya fer the next two months?!” Millie whimpered.

“Not exactly. The thing is Millie…well…you can stay there with me, all of us can.” Moxxie replied, motioning to Loona and Blitzo.

“For real? You want us to come with you to the Morningstar palace?” Loona said.

“Moxxie was rather insistent on that point, he appears to place quite a lot of value upon your friendships. Which is why my doors are open to all of you for the duration of my son’s stay.” Lucifer glanced over at the hotel staff. “In fact, I’ll even extend the invitation to Charlie’s new associates as well! Vagitha, the staff of his fine establishment, and even its sole resident.”

“Dad, you don’t need to-” Charlie began.

“Pish-posh my dear, it’s not as though we have a shortage of space within the palace. Also I do have some matters I wish to discuss with your business partner over there, matters that require his expertise.” Lucifer stated, making direct eye contact with Alastor who faltered ever so slightly.

“I dunno, staying with the royal family? That ain’t really my kinda scene.” Angel Dust remarked.

“Please, I’m sure Valentino can survive without his prized whore for a few months.” 

“Wait, how did you-” Angel Dust trailed off when it finally clicked. “Oh right, forgot who I was talkin to.”

Lucifer nodded. “Indeed. Besides, I must admit I am curious to see how far Charlie’s first client has been coming along on the path to redemption.”

“Eh, fuck it. Taking a few months off to kick it in the lap of luxury on someone else’s dime could be fun, I’m in.” Said Angel.

“As am I! Aside from whatever plans Lord Lucifer may have for me, I find myself fascinated by the familial drama brewing from the prince’s reappearance and I wouldn’t want to miss that sort of one-in-a-lifetime entertainment for anything in the world!” Said Alastor.

“Well I’m not crazy about closing the hotel doors, even if it is temporary. But…” Charlie aimed a smile at Moxxie. “Catching up with Max- Moxxie is more important.”

“Wonderful! And shall you three be joining us as well?” Lucifer said to the members of I.M.P.

“Hell yeah! It’ll be nice to get away from home for a bit and see where Mox grew up!” Millie cheered.

“Woah there Mils! In case you forgot, I’m running a wildly successful assassination company and I can’t afford to lose two of my best god damn employees for the next few months! I know you’re chomping at the bit to schmooze your way into your in-la-”

Moxxie not-too-subtly coughed, reminding Blitzo of their earlier conversation regarding his marriage.

“I mean, future in-laws’ good graces but I can’t kill all the shitheads we’re paid to kill by myself! Especially not for two whole months!” Blitzo said.

“Au contraire my entrepreneurial imp, as part of our deal I promised Moxxie that I would take care of all of your monetary concerns while your company is temporarily shut down. Everything from business expenses to ensuring the preservation of your customer base can simply be billed to the royal treasury, money is no object.”

Blitzo went still, a cheshire grin slowly sprouting upon his face. “On second thought, we have been busting our asses pretty hard to keep I.M.P. going for the last few weeks. I say we’re earned a nice company getaway trip and if Moxxie’s dear old dad wants to open his home and his wallet to us then who are we to turn the guy down?”

Moxxie shook his head in disapproval, he could already tell his boss was going to milk this for all it was worth in more ways than one and would feel absolutely no shame for doing so…just like everything else.

“It’s settled then! I’ll start making the preparations for your arrival right away; prepare your rooms, inform the staff and the like.” Lucifer exclaimed. “It should take roughly a week to get everything squared away, I suggest you use that time to pack your bags and handle any sort of prior engagements you may have had seeing as you’ll be staying in the palace for quite awhile.”

“Oh this is going to be so much fun! It’ll be just like old times, all of us together again as one big, happy family!” Charlie squealed and rushed her little brother.

Moxxie yelped as his sister brought him and Lucifer into a three way hug, sandwiching the imp’s smaller body between the two Morningstar demons and wound up squeezing all of the air out of his body from the vice-like hold. Because he was so busy trying to get air back into his lungs, Moxxie didn’t even notice that Lucifer’s smile had shifted into a much more unsettling and somewhat obsessive grin.

“Indeed it will Charlie, indeed it will.” Lucifer said, patting her back while his eyes sharped and gave off a slight glow.

‘And if all goes according to plan…neither he nor any of his friends will ever want to leave.’ Lucifer thought to himself. ‘I won’t make the same mistakes, I won’t lose you again Maximillian….not again, never again .’

Chapter Text

Lucifer sprinted through the hallways of the sanctum of sin, huffing and puffing all the while, his suit was not made for such intense physical activities such as this. Rounding a corner, he nearly bowled over a battalion of the castle guard who instinctively saluted him on sight.

“Any luck thus far?” Lucifer asked.

The sergeant leading the charge shook his head. “We have located Princess Charlie, some of the kitchen staff lured her into an ambush with promises of treats and Lady Lilith subsequently captured her. Unfortunately we have yet to find Prince Maximillian and the Princess refuses to give us his location, my lord.”

“Damn it!” Lucifer growled. “No matter, there’s only so many places he can hide. You and your men sweep the eastern library, perhaps he’s taken shelter amongst the maze of stacks; I’ll rendezvous with Lilith and see if I can extract some information from Charlie, she has to know where he is.”

“Very well my lord. MOVE OUT MEN!” The burly guard said before dashing off with his fellow soldiers.

The king of hell pinched the bridge of his nose. “One night, just one night of leisure is all I ask for. Is that too much?” Lucifer sighed.

Wiping some of the accumulated sweat off his brow, Lucifer resumed his run through the rooms of his castle. Normally he’d just utilize his all seeing map to pinpoint his son’s exact location but as of right now he was in a bit of a hurry and didn’t have the time needed to get it up and running; even if he did, there was a good chance Max could change his position which would require him to consult the map a second time. Alas, Lucifer would simply have to track the imp down the old fashioned way: running from room to room, checking every little nook and cranny for a trace of his son.

Soon he came upon his beautiful wife and daughter, the former holding the latter’s arm in a death grip while the young princess kept trying to pull away from her restraints. Lucifer would have found it adorably bratty if he wasn’t so pressed to get out the door as soon as possible.

“I take it Charlie hasn’t been particularly cooperative?” Lucifer asked, noting the tired frown on his wife’s face.

“Not in the slightest. I’ve tried everything from bribes to threats of discipline and she won’t budge.” Lilith replied.

“Figures, she’s always been stubborn about these outings.”

“Because they’re horrible and I won’t let Maxie suffer like I have!” Charlie affirmed.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “For the love of- Charlie, you are not going to ruin your brother’s experience today with whatever silly little lies you filled his head with. Now tell me where he is or I’ll…”

The king of hell paused when he noticed that Charlie’s pupils were focused on something behind him, nervously darting to his left several times as a sort of odd gesture.

“What are you looking at?” 

“Nothing!” Charlie snapped.

Lucifer looked over his shoulder just in time to see the door to one of the guest rooms gently close and lock, a faint rattling coming from within.

“Nothing huh? We’ll see about that.” Lucifer growled.

Ripping through the door like it was made of wet paper, Lucifer barged into the room while the rest of his family waited out in the hallway. His eyes swept over the scene for a few seconds before he spotted something of interest: the tip of a spaded tail sticking out from under the bed, undoubtedly belonging to his missing son.

Grinning mischievously, Lucifer slowly made his way over to the bed with all the grace and stealth of a trained predator and taking a sort of glee at the sight of the tail start to nervously twitch as he got closer.

“Hmmm, it seems that there’s nobody here. Charlie was telling the truth after all.” Lucifer lied, slowly kneeling down next to the bed. “I guess I’ll just- COME HERE!”

Lucifer lunged forwards and snatched the tail into his grip, a frightful squeak coming from its owner as the smaller demon tried to scramble away. It was all for naught, however, as Lucifer was far stronger than Max and easily dragged him out from under the bed and left the prince dangling in his father’s grip by his tail wearing nothing but his pajamas

“Found you!” Lucifer chimed.

“Put me down! Put me down!” The imp shouted as he thrashed about, a few harmless magical sparks shooting off his body. “I don’t wanna go!”

“Maximillian stop being so dramatic! It’s just the opera! A little culture won’t kill you!” Lilith shouted from the hallway.

“Yes it will, Mama! Charlie told me she almost died of boredom when she was there!”

“No she didn’t.” the king of hell reaffirmed. “Your sister is just exaggerating.”

“Egg-za-gir-ate-ing?” Max said.

“Exaggerating, it means- oh nevermind. Look, you’re coming along on this family outing whether you like it or not. So suck it up and stop acting like a brat; who knows, you might actually like opera.”

The imp then went limp in his father’s arms, whimpering in defeat. “Okay papa.”

“Thank you. Now then-“

Much to Lucifer’s surprise, Maximilian took full advantage of his father’s momentary lapse in concentration to twist his body in such a way that all the leverage was placed upon his trapped tail, the appendage abruptly slipping free from it’s captor and the demon it was attached to along with it. Max hit the carpet on all fours and wasted no time at all scampering for the exit, intent on finding a new hiding place.

Sadly for the young imp, his escape plan had failed to account for his mother standing right outside the door in the hallway. Max only made it a few more feet before Lilith causally grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and tucked him under her right arm while keeping Charlie suspended in the air with her left.

“Nice try Maximillian” Lilith muttered to her son.

“Lovely catch darling!” Lucifer said as he sauntered out into the hall to join his wife. “I must say Maximillian took me by surprise there, I’m rather proud of him.”

“Proud?”

Lucifer nodded. “Of course, pretending to surrender so I’d let my guard down and allow him to escape was quite clever. So young and already dabbling in deception just like his father, oh it brings a tear to my eye….he’s still going to be punished mind you but credit where credit is due.”

“Please do not encourage our children to try and deceive us, they’re supposed to save that sort of behavior for when they start dabbling in hell’s political system. Which, may I remind you, is still a long way off.” Lilith said.

“Never too young to start learning I say! They’re going to have plenty of responsibilities when they get older so why not start teaching them the finer points of cheating and lying now?” The king of hell exclaimed.

Lilith groaned. “For the love of- just tell the servants to prepare our transport and get Maximillian properly attired in his formal wear. We’ll save this discussion for later.” 

When Max heard the words ‘formal wear’ come out of his mother’s mouth, he immediately looked up at her in fear.

“No mama! Not those itchy clothes!” 

“Sorry my child, but I’ve made up my mind. Perhaps if you did not choose to be so difficult tonight, I might have been willing to show some leniency and allow you to select your method of dress. But it seems as though your father and I will have to personally ensure that you look proper for tonight.” a mischievous smile came across Lilith’s face. “Perhaps the frilly suit with all the laces and bows and whatnot would be a fine ensemble. What do you think, Luci?”

“Wonderful idea! In fact, let’s put Charlie in a matching dress! They’d look so precious together!” Lucifer replied, sadism dripping from every word.

“NOOOOO!” The Morningstar siblings screamed in unison.

***************************

Maximilian tugged at his shirt, the tight collar feeling more akin to a noose around his neck and the ridiculous bow tie wasn’t helping matters. Why did mama and papa also have to spring for the bow tie on top of everything else? He hated bow ties, the moment he became a full on prince his first decree would be to ban bow ties.

Then again Max supposed he should count himself grateful that he wasn’t in Charlie’s shoes right now. The poor girl had at least a dozen bows tied into her hair which had been styled into some unflattering curls as opposed to her usual straight hair and the dress covered in laces and frills only added to the overall embarrassment of her entire getup. 

Which may have been the overall point, both of the Morningstar kids knew that their parents had done this on purpose as some kind of cruel and unusual punishment for their actions; which was Lucifer's favorite kind of punishment for those who disobeyed him, he may give his kids far more leeway than anyone else but that didn’t stop him from occasionally reminding them who’s really in charge.

After several minutes of shifting and adjusting the itchy clothing, Max gave up and decided he’d be better off distracting himself from the uncomfortable sensations by looking out the window and drinking in the scenery.

Truth be told, Maximilian had never been outside of the palace before. He had spent the last few years confined within his extremely spacious and lavish home, being waited on hand and foot by various servants, and while it was nice he couldn’t help but wonder what was beyond the walls that had become so familiar to him. The imp had been quite excited when Lilith told him that he would be going out with the rest of his family to something called ‘an opera’ and finally get the chance to see the rest of Hell, at least until Charlie told him what opera was and instilled a deep sense of fear within her younger brother towards the concept of it. So much so that it completely outweighed his desire to see his father’s kingdom and motivated him to go along with Charlie’s crazy plan to run and hide until it was too late to go to the opera.

Which is why Max was intent on enjoying these last few moments of peace and joy as much as he could before he was carted off to whatever horrible fate his parents had in store for him at the opera. The imp pressed his face right up against the glass window of the carriage and-

“Maximillian, don’t press your nose against the glass. You’ll smudge it.” Lilith said, glancing at her son.

Maximilian quickly complied by pulling his face away from the glass. “Sorry mama.” 

Lilith gave the smaller demon a nod before she returned to her boring adult conversation with Lucifer, allowing Max to observe the surrounding area in peace.

The very first thing Maximillian noticed was how big everything seemed to be, granted his home was a massive structure in itself but the buildings surrounding him weren’t anything to sneeze at either. Large monolithic buildings whizzed past as the carriage rumbled down the street, each and every one of them having a very similar architectural style to the Sanctum of Sin with lots of red and blacks and spikes scattered about mixed with a sort of renaissance aesthetic. Although those buildings weren’t nearly as interesting to Max as the people who inhabited them. Demons of all shapes and sizes were lining the streets, some being the sinners dad frequently talked about who came from the human world for being naughty while others were native denizens of hell. Unfortunately Maximillian didn’t know all the various species of demon that resided in the underworld, much less have the ability to recognize them by sight alone, but they were all still fascinating to him nonetheless; especially all the smaller ones that looked just like him, with their striped horns, white hair, and red skin. Max made sure to wave at those demons as the carriage drew past, hardly noticing the way many of them had to do a double take at the moving vehicle to make sure they were seeing properly. 

“Neat huh?” said Charlie.

The prince pulled his attention away from the window to look at his sister. “What?”

“All the demons out there, they’re so interesting; especially the sinners, I bet they all have tons of cool stories about their time in the human world! I’d give anything to hear some of them.”

“Well you’ll have plenty of chances to Charlie, seeing as you and Max will be running this whole place someday.” Said Lucifer

“We will?” Max asked.

The king of hell nodded. “Of course, you two are next in line for the throne! When I’m all old and gray, getting ready to retire, I’ll pass the reins over to each of you and you’ll get to rule Hell however you want!”

“That sounds like fun!” Charlie cheered.

“I wouldn’t get too excited darling. Being the ruler of Hell also comes with a lot of responsibility, it’s not all fun and games like your father makes it out to be.” Lilith interjected. “You’ll have to manage the courts, organize the archives, stomp out any potential uprisings, and blah blah blah.”

Maximillian had stopped listening altogether, every word coming out of his mother’s mouth causing him to feel more and more pressure start to weigh down upon him. He was going to have to do all of that boring stuff when he was older? Run all of Hell by himself and fight dragons like the kings in his storybooks? He wasn’t ready for that!

Before Max could start having a meltdown, he felt a comforting pressure come around one of his hands and looked over to see that Charlie was the source of it; the princess of Hell grasping his hand in her own. She didn’t make so much as a peep but her expression did all the talking for her. It let Maximillian know that he wouldn’t be on his own, that his sister would be right by his side to help him through not only their eventual rule but anything else that could come their way. That knowledge helped put the imp at ease. 

“Lilith? I think you’re scaring them.” Lucifer said, finally noticing his children’s discomfort.

“I’m sorry, I seem to recall a certain someone saying that they’re ‘never too young to start learning’ or does that only apply to the sort of bad behaviors you like to encourage?” Lilith snarked.

The king of hell pursed his lips. “Touch é my love. Oh look! We’re here!”

The carriage came to a stop in front of a massive, ornate building with intricate carvings and murals decorating the very front of it; from where he sat Moxxie could see a pair of masks, one sad and one happy, but the meaning of them was lost upon the imp. A large crowd of demons were milling about outside the structure, some dressed in plain clothes while others had more expensive looking outfits. Most of them were being kept off to the side, away from the doors by several large and muscular demons, with only a select few being allowed to pass through the gap square in the middle of it all.

The Morningstar family were part of the latter group, their driver opening the door to the carriage and allowing them to step out. The moment they set foot on the carpet leading into the massive building, hundreds of eyes descended upon them; although Maximillian couldn’t shake the feeling that most of their attention was directed at him specifically.

A suspicion that proved to be well warranted when he heard some of the latent chatter coming from the crowd

“Is that an imp? Walking alongside the royal family?” 

“Perhaps he’s a personal servant to princess Charlie?”

“Impossible, look at him. He’s but a mere child, far too young to be given such an important position.”

“I wager he’s Princess Charlie’s pet, she probably found him on the street and begged her parents to keep him like some sort of stray dog.”

“Knowing how imps are, the comparison wouldn’t be far off.”

Maximilian didn’t know what an imp was but the way those demons said that particular word made him feel uneasy and he knew they were referring to them. So he shuffled closer to his mother, gently tugging at her dress to get her attention.

“Hmm, is something wrong Maximillian?” Lilith asked.

“C-can you carry me, please?” Max timidly requested.

Lilith looked confused until she took notice of the plebeians gossiping about her sweet little son and understood immediately. “Of course, up we go!”

Lilith scooped Max up into her arms and nestled him protectively against her bosom, making sure to give a subtle little glare to the peasants up front as a sort of warning before the entire family entered the building.

The interior was even more extravagant than the exterior: large chandeliers lit with candles hanging from the ceiling, obsidian pillars scattered across the room that towered over them like massive obelisks, and a beautiful hand woven carpet covering the entirety of the floor. It was a monument to avarice which was fitting considering who owned the building itself: the king of greed, Mammon. 

Unlike most businesses he had opened, Mammon hadn’t built the theater purely for the sake of filling his already overflowing coffers with more gold (although that was certainly one of the top reasons) nor was it purely a status symbol to show how unbelievably wealthy he was to his friend and subordinates (however it did serve that role spectacularly). No, this specific theater was actually a sort of gift to his fellow rulers; a place where they could congregate and experience culture together with their allies and families, without having to worry about all the politics of Hell putting a damper on their relationships. Of course he still had to profit off of it which is why he had to sell tickets to Hell’s upper class and run the risk of having their sanctum ruined by ambitious royals wanting to get a ticket to the top of the social ladder but they knew better than to bother any of the seven deadly sins during a show, Satan made that point very clear after a particularly arrogant prince refused to give the man his peace. 

‘It took days to clean his remains out of the carpet.’ Lucifer thought to himself.

Under normal circumstances Lucifer would appreciate having a place where he could unwind and have a bit of fun with his fellow kings, especially when Mammon intentionally put a bad act on stage for audience target practice with rotten tomatoes provided by the venue as is tradition, but tonight the king of Hell was hoping that none of the other sins were in tonight and the reason was currently in the crook of his wife’s arm. 

Lucifer hadn’t actually told any of the others about the newest addition to the Morningstar family, in fact he hadn’t mentioned that info to anyone outside of the Sanctum of sin. He loved his son, make no mistake about that, but he also knew how cruel some of the other sins could be towards imps and other lesser demons to say nothing of those who were sympathetic towards them. The mockery and laughter Lucifer could handle, it would be all too easy to remind them why he was the one in charge but Maximillian was far more vulnerable than he was and the last thing he needed was for him to get hurt because the other sins couldn’t keep their vices in check around him.

‘I know a different theater might have been a better choice but this is Maximillian’s first opera and I want him to have the best experience possible. Luckily none of the other sins seem to be present so perhaps-’

“LUCIFER?! HEY LUCI! OVER HERE!” An excited and bubby voice said.

“Father fucking damn it.” Lucifer muttered.

“Is that Auntie Beelze?” Charlie asked curiously. 

“I believe so dear Charlie.”

The princess started jumping up and down in excitement. “Ooh! Ooh! Can we go say hi? I bet she’d love to meet Max!”

“NO!” Lucifer snapped before summoning his composure beneath a fake cough. “No Charlie, I’m afraid we can’t.”

“But whyyyy?”

“Because we took so long leaving home after you two ran off, we made somewhat of a late arrival and don’t have the time. But don’t worry, you can go off with your mother and make yourselves comfortable in our seats while I greet Beelzebub. I’ll be sure to tell her you said hello.”

“Oh! Okay then! Bye daddy!” Charlie said.

With the three of them disappearing into the crowd, Lucifer put on a false smile and turned around just as Beelzebub approached him. The bee-like demon was smiling widely at him and he could clearly see the bits of food stuck in her teeth alongside chunks of flesh and bone as she kept shoveling more popcorn into her face. 

The queen of gluttony wasn’t the worst of the sins, she was actually fairly amicable albeit an absolute pig when it came to table manners and Charlie got along with her aunt wonderfully. 

However Beelzebub was also the type who loved to dote over children and spoil them rotten. Whenever the glutton came to visit, she constantly showered Charlie with treats and gifts brought from her domain such as her famous pies that were renowned across all seven rings; not to mention how Beelze lavished her niece with plenty of attention to the point that it was embarrassing. Lilith theorized that the woman desperately wanted to be a mother and was living vicariously through Charlie but that was beside the point.

If Beelzebub found out Lucifer recently added a new child to his family, she would insist on spending some time with him even if it meant barging in on their whole family outing. Lucifer knew she didn’t mean any harm, Beezlebub was just trying to be affectionate, but the entire point of this trip was for the sake of family bonding and giving Max his first taste of refined culture and having Beezlebub there would have ruined all of that. Besides, the last thing he wanted was for Maximillian to come out of the theater several pounds heavier than when he went in. Thus it was imperative that Lucifer kept this interaction as brief as possible without revealing his son’s existence.

‘Just find out what she wants, make some pointless small talk, and then leave. Simple.’ Lucifer thought to himself.

“Why didn’t you tell me you and Lilith had another child?!” Beezlebub exclaimed.

‘…shit’

******************

“Here you are m’lady, your usual private box with an unobstructed view of the stage as always.” one of the theater staff said, motioning to the booth before them.

Lilith nodded at the youthful demon. “I appreciate the guidance, you are dismissed.”

“Very good ma’am.” 

With the usher vacating the area, Lilith was left alone with her children and Maximilian decided to examine his new surroundings. 

One of the many benefits of being part of the Morningstar family was that all members had the privilege of being treated to obscene amounts of luxury in every aspect of their daily lives and this private theater box was no different. A row of plush, silk liked chairs stood in front of a golden railing which overlooked the entire theater and all its inhabitants sitting in their far less luxurious seats; further back there was a wood carved table stacked high with assorted snacks and drinks of only the highest quality, free for the occupants to indulge themselves to their heart’s content without missing even a moment of the show. It was a regular theater goers paradise. 

Or it would have been if it wasn’t for the fact that Maximillian was still terrified out of his mind. All of this wealth and hellish pleasures meant nothing to him with the dreaded opera looming overhead. From the overweight ladies screaming at him to the confusing scenes spoken in unknown tongues, Charlie had told him plenty about how horrible the experience was.

But Max had no choice but to endure, if he couldn’t escape his parent’s clutches in the safety of his own home then he certainly couldn’t escape in such unfamiliar territory. The only thing left to do was grab some snacks, sit down, and wait for his fate to come; the only silver lining to this whole situation was that he wouldn’t be suffering alone, not when his sister was right next to him.

Once he was properly settled into his seat in between the female members of his family, Max looked up towards his mother. “Mama? How long does opera last?”

“For this particular show? About three hours.” Lilith replied.

“THREE HOURS?!” Maximilian exclaimed.

Lilith shushed him. “Lower your voice! And yes, three hours with a momentary intermission mid-way through.”

“But that’s so long! I’ll never make it!”

“How unfortunate; nevertheless, whining about it won’t convince me or your father to take you home early. So I suggest you make yourself comfortable and enjoy your first opera, not many demons get the chance to have such a rich cultural experience in their childhood and you should consider yourself lucky that your father and I are willing to go to such lengths to ensure you grow up with an appreciation for the arts. You’ll thank us someday, mark my words.” Lilith said.

Maximillian crossed his arms and pouted, sinking into his chair with an adorable air of frustration one could find only in toddlers. His mother may force him to stay here like a prisoner but she could not force him to enjoy it, no siree.

Soon the various light sources in the room were extinguished, bathing the theater in darkness, save for the stage which was being illuminated by several magical orbs. It wasn’t the most practical way of putting light onto the stage but one couldn’t argue with the results, hopefully someone would invent a better method of illumination in a few years time. 

The young imp braced himself for the agonizing boredom that was about to set in…until the opening melody began to play.

A symphony of strings, horns, and percussion instruments vibrated through the air, filling the theater with pleasant sounds that reached all the way up to the Morningstar’s private box. Maximilian had to grip the edges of his seat to prevent himself from being blown away by the wonderful song flowing into his ears. 

‘Charlie thinks this is boring?’ Maximillian thought to himself. ‘How could she say that? This is great!’

Once the symphony had run its course, the curtains on the stage opened up to reveal a partially furnished room with a chair in the center and a male and female demon standing on either side of it, the male taking measurements of the room while speaking to the female. At first Maximillian assumed that this was the boring part his sister had been talking about and allowed his excitement to wane, only to have it relit as the story went on. 

Maximilian soon figured out that opera was actually a story filled with dances and songs presented on a massive theater stage, weaving together storytelling and music into something new entirely and the prince of the Morningstar family found himself enjoying it more and more as time went on. Even if he couldn’t understand the story itself, the passion in which the actors carried out their roles got Max so invested in it that he didn’t even notice Lucifer walk in and sit down in the last open chair nor did he notice that Charlie had fallen asleep in her own seat.

It wasn’t until the curtains descended and light returned to the rest of the theater that Maximillian finally snapped out of his awe induced trance.

“What? Is it over already?” Max complained.

“No, this is just the intermission, son.” Lucifer said. 

“Inter-mish-on?”

“It’s akin to a break, where the audience can get up and stretch their legs before sitting down for the rest of the show. We still have a few hours left before everything is wrapped up.” The king of hell explained.

“Oh…”

Lucifer stood up from his chair “Normally during this time we’d go for a brisk stroll around the upper level of the theater to get the old blood flowing, but your aunt insisted on meeting up with us during the intermission and refused to take no for an answer.”

“Do I have to? I wanna stay here until the show comes back.”

The moment those words passed through Max’s lips, the rest of his family stared at him slack jawed.

“What? You’d pick staying and watching that dumb opera instead of meeting auntie beelze?!” Charlie stuttered out.

Maximillian nodded.

“Really now?” Said Lucifer. “I would have assumed you would have leapt at the chance to get away from the opera with how much you and your sister fought against coming here in the first place, perhaps even use the opportunity to attempt another daring escape. Do you really wish to remain in our private box until the show resumes?”

Maximillian nodded again.

Lucifer shrugged and gently lifted Charlie from her seat. “Very well, I won’t force you to spend time with her. I’ve had my fill of tantrums for the night.” 

“B-but won’t auntie Beelze be disappointed when we tell her Max didn’t wanna see her?” Charlie asked.

“Oh of course she will Charlie, but truth be told: I really don’t care what mood your aunt is in.” Lucifer replied before walking off with daughter in tow, Maximilian and Lilith hanging back and keeping their seats warm.

“Curious.” Lilith said.

“What is mama?” Maximilian asked.

“As your father said, you were determined to avoid coming to the opera at all costs initially but now you appear to be taking a keen interest in the show itself. I was under the impression you shared Charlie’s opinion in regards to such performances.”

“Well…” Maximilian began. “Charlie was wrong.”

“Is she now?” said Lilith

“Opera isn’t boring. I think it’s fun!” 

 “You do? Or are you just saying that to appease me?” 

Maximilian shook his head. “Uh-uh. I like opera a lot, I like the costumes and the music and the actors and the sets and…and everything about it!”

“Awww! That’s wonderful! At least one of you is able to appreciate the finer things in life.” the queen of hell said, muttering the last part.

“Do you think we can do this again mama? See more operas?” 

Lilith smiled down at her son. “Certainly! It would do wonders for your development! Perhaps we could even branch out into similar activities such as art museums and ballroom dancing, if you’d be so inclined.”

“Hmmm, okay!” Maximilian exclaimed.

“Excellent.” Lilith said before looking towards the stage once more. “Since we still have some time before the second half of the show begins and your father and sister will be absent for a while, knowing Beelzebub, would you like to ask me anything about opera? I’m sure you’re curious about certain aspects.”

“Ooh! Ooh! What’s the story about? I don’t know what they’re saying.” Maximilian said, bouncing in his seat out of excitement.

“Well this opera is called ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and it’s about a young couple who is trying to decide what to wear fer our trip to yer parent’s place. What do ya think Moxxie? Moxxie? Hello?”

************************

Moxxie’s flashback was swiftly dispelled by the sound of his wife’s voice pushing through the haze of long gone memories, the setting around him shifting from Mammon’s opera house to the apartment building he had occupied for the last year or so with Millie. The thespian sitting on their bed and holding a worn out piece of paper in his hands which he had been staring at for several minutes now.

“Moxxie!” Millie yelled in a final attempt to get his attention.

“Hmm yes? Were you saying something, Millie?” Said Moxxie.

“Ah was askin’ ya which dress do ya think ah should wear when ah meet yer ma?” The country imp said, holding up two black dresses that were virtually identical in every way.

“It doesn’t matter, you look beautiful no matter what you’re wearing.” Moxxie replied.

Millie smiled and walked over “Aww! Thanks hon! What are ya lookin at anyhow?”

“It’s…it’s an old memento from my childhood.” Moxxie said, holding the faded show flier up for his wife to see. “I got it from the first opera show I ever saw, fell in love with the concept almost immediately. Those were happier times…”

“Yer still nervous about this whole mess?” Millie inquired.

“I’m going to see my mother for the first time in ten years after running away, wouldn’t you be nervous if you were in my position?” Moxxie countered.

“Good point. But don’t worry, ya’ll are family. Ah’m sure she’s gonna be jus’ as happy ta see ya as yer pa and yer sis; everything is gonna be jus’ fine.”

Moxxie gave Millie a polite smile, pretending that her words provided some comfort to him when in reality they didn’t do much; not when he knew how his mother could get when she lost control of her emotions.

Facing Lilith was going to be one of the hardest things he had done in his entire life…

Chapter Text

An annoyed growl came out of Blitzo’s throat, the lanky imp impatiently tapping his foot against the sidewalk and glancing at his phone every few seconds to check the time before returning his attention to the barren street in front of them. Normally this part of town would be a bit more lively with various low class demons going about their pathetic little existence, but there wasn’t a single damned soul in sight; the streets of Imp City had practically turned into a ghost town overnight and it was pissing Blitzo off. If there weren’t any vagrant demons wandering around for him to laugh at, how was he supposed to keep himself entertained while waiting for Moxxie’s dad to come pick them up? 

“What the fuck is taking them so long? Did they stop for milkshakes or some shit on the way?” Blitzo grumbled.

“Complaining about it won’t make them come any sooner, Blitzo.” Moxxie said.

“No, but it’ll keep me from dying of boredom. We’ve been waiting out here for your dad’s shitty ride for hours now and I’m getting sick of waiting!”

“It’s been ten minutes.” Moxxie deadpanned.

“Ten minutes too long!” Blitzo exclaimed, finger pointed to the sky. “I mean if Stolas can get to the Lust Ring in twenty minutes, how long can it take for Lucifer fucking Morningstar to travel across the damn pentagram? I bet he’s making us wait longer on purpose for sick kicks!”

‘Knowing dad, that could very well be the case.’ Moxxie internally sighed, sitting on the curb. ‘Perhaps I’ll get lucky and he won’t show up at all.’

After spending the last week making all the necessary preparations for the ‘two month long company vacation’ as Blitzo called it, the day had finally arrived where the members of I.M.P. would be whisked away to the Sanctum of Sin and experience the highest standard of luxury one could find in Hell while getting a personal audience with the absolute rulers of Hell at the same time.

Nobody was particularly excited for it, least of all the aforementioned white haired imp.

Moxxie was so lost in his own thoughts that he might as well have been on a different planet entirely. The sharpshooter had been so busy getting himself and Millie ready for the coming months that he hadn’t gotten the chance to process the situation until now. Ten years, it had been ten years since he had abandoned the moniker of ‘Maximilian Morningstar’ and built a whole new life for himself that was his and his alone. Moxxie had made damn sure to cover his tracks and hide any traces of his original identity when he left, being so utterly thorough that after the initial years he truly thought he was in the clear and that they had given up the search. Now all that hard work was coming undone right before his very eyes, a stroke of bad luck brought on by a simple mistake on his part had resulted in him being dragged kicking and screaming into the very role he had been so determined to escape from. The imp merely hoped that when all was said and done, the friends he had made after adopting a new identity would remain by his side even with the revelations that were to come in the near future; Moxxie couldn’t afford to lose the only people who could truly see him.

Millie wasn’t doing much better, in fact she was even more anxious than her husband was about the coming weeks but for entirely different reasons. Despite Moxxie reassuring her time and time again that he didn’t give two shits about what his family thought about her and she shouldn’t either, Millie still felt like she had to impress them. The country imp really wanted her in-laws to like her, to see her as the sort of demon they were proud to call their daughter in law rather than some dumb, backwater hick that Moxxie was far too good for. But accomplishing that task was easier said than done considering that these were the Morningstars, the most influential royal family in hell, measuring up to their ridiculously high standards would be the greatest challenge she ever faced and it was more than a little intimidating to her. Nevertheless, Millie tried to keep her composure the best she could and continued checking her personal appearance with a small pocket mirror; she only had one chance to make a good first impression and she was not about to blow it. She had to nail this…for Moxxie.

Blitzo, of course, was still acting like his usual cocky and loud-mouthed self but that was nothing more than a front to conceal just how tense he was about all of this. Moxxie may have sworn up and down that he’d keep quiet about all the workplace hazing he had to endure at the hands of Blitzo and his adopted daughter for their sakes, but that didn’t keep the slightest hint of doubt from festering in his mind towards the prince’s words. The founder of I.M.P. wanted to trust his employee, Satan knows he’s earned that privilege, but at the same time he knew how little value words and promises held when it came to the members of Hell’s ruling class. All Blitzo could do was pray that Moxxie was the sole exception to that rule.

The only one who had their head on straight was Loona but even she felt her nerves weighing upon her. It was no secret that the hellhound didn’t have the best relationship with Moxxie, the two of them had been at each other’s throats since the day they met, but for the first time Loona actually felt a little sympathy for the dork. Loona was no stranger to the classic ‘runaway’ story, plenty of those types had passed through her childhood orphanage over the years and she had encountered several more on the streets, the desperation they felt trying to escape their former homes for one reason or another was something that really stuck with her. If Moxxie had gone through so much effort to make sure his family didn’t find him, had put in so much work to escape a life of pure luxury, then he probably had a really good reason for leaving his past behind. But whatever it was, Loona didn’t consider it to be any of her business; the next few weeks were gonna be explosive, no doubt about that, so she planned to keep her head down and steer clear of the blast radius until all of this family drama crap blew over. 

Right as Blitzo was about to lose his patience and set something on fire, he looked up and sharply gasped. His annoyed expression morphing into one of excitement when he saw what was coming down the street. The imp’s sudden shift in mood did not go unnoticed by the rest of the group who followed his gaze and spotted the object in question: an alabaster carriage being pulled along by four hellhorses: one with an emerald green mane, the next having a sapphire blue, another with a ruby red flame, and the last was golden yellow; all four possessing a coat of onyx black that rippled under powerful equine muscles with every clop of their hooves. The carriage itself was the very definition of extravagance; everything from the intricate carvings on the surface to the gold accents covering the edges to the fact that it was the same size as a double decker bus just screamed superfluous wealth.

Moxxie buried his face in his hands. “Of course…of course that’s what he decided to pick us up in. Why would I expect anything less?”

Soon the carriage came to a stop right in front of the group, its driver pulling on the reins and halting the hellhorses with practiced ease. The servant next to him then hopped out and ran over to the side of the carriage, opening the door to reveal none other than Lucifer Morningstar who proceeded to step out onto the street with a wide sweep of his arm and even wider smile.

“Maxxie! My boy! Nice to see you didn’t try to back out of our little deal!” the king of hell exclaimed. 

“It’s Moxxie and dad…why?” Moxxie groaned.

“Why what?” Lucifer asked in genuine confusion.

The imp waved his arms at the carriage. “Just…just why?!”

“Ooohhh! The carriage! Well considering that today is the day that the lost prince of the Morningstar family finally comes home, I thought it was only fitting that we utilize a stylish and classy mode of transportation for you and your friends to celebrate such a momentous occasion.”

“That carriage is an eye sore and you know it!” Moxxie protested.

“Really? Based on your friend’s reactions I’d beg to differ.” Lucifer stated, motioning to the rest of I.M.P. who were each standing there with varying degrees of awe at the sight of the luxurious carriage.

Blitzo was going gaga over the quartet of equines standing in front of the carriage, Millie looked on with stars in her eyes and gleeful smile that stretched across her face, and Loona was frozen in complete shock as her mouth simply hung open in pure disbelief.

“Oh can we just get going already?” Moxxie sighed, not wanting to get into another pointless argument with his father.

“Of course! We wouldn’t want to keep your mother waiting after all!” Lucifer chimed, clapping his hands twice and summoning up a pair of imp servants from inside the carriage. “Henry, Ellie! Please load our esteemed guests’ luggage into the back of the carriage and be quick about it!”

“Yes Lord Lucifer.” The duo replied, quickly getting to work.

Moxxie’s eyes widened slightly, they had certainly aged a bit but the white haired thespian still recognized the faces of his former personal servants. Although they didn’t look too happy to see him.

“Hello Lord Maximilian.” Henry said, grabbing Moxxie’s suitcase.

“H-hi Henry, still working for dad after all these years?” Moxxie nervously replied.

“Indeed. Even though your parents partly blamed us for your disappearance, they still allowed Ellie and I to keep our jobs.”

“What about Charles?”

The imp butler glared at him. “Take a wild guess.”

“R-right.” Moxxie gulped, understanding the implication. “I’ll just get in the carriage.”

“You do that my lord.” 

Extraditing himself from the awkward situation, Moxxie hopped aboard the royal transport where the rest of his associates were already waiting. The trio of demons gazing at their surroundings in starstruck awe.

Given the sheer amount of luxury found in the carriage interior, one couldn’t blame them: genuine hell-leather upholstery, a retractable minibar built into one of the walls, lighting fixtures with adjustable dimmer settings, a surround sound stereo system with thousands of songs built right into it, seating that not only had massage settings but also butt warmers and coolers along with dozens of other functions for the comfort of passengers, and the icing on the cake: CUPHOLDERS.

“Holy crap. How much does a ride like this even cost?” Blitzo remarked.

“Like Mammon always says: if you have to ask, you can’t afford to ask.” Lucifer said before a servant paced him two glasses of brown liquid. “Brandy?”

“Yes please!” The imp said, gleefully accepting the drink and downing in one go.

Lucifer raised his eyebrows. “Hmm. Seems that someone has a good handle on their liquor, most demons pass out after one glass of the fifty year old brandy.”

“Well I’m not most demons.” Blitzo snarked back.

“I would say so. Few would be capable enough to build a ludicrously successful business from the ground up and it must have been even more difficult as an imp, what with the general population looking down on you as a lesser being. It’s rather admirable.”

“Oh…uh…thanks. I guess.” Blitzo said, not sure how to take such a compliment from Lucifer himself.

The king of hell chuckled. “Now don’t be so modest, you should be proud of- what was your company called again?

“The Immediate Murder Professionals, or I.M.P. for short.” Blitzo said with pride.

“I see. And what sort of service does I.M.P. provide? Maxxie tells me you’re assassins, but there must be more to it than that.” 

“Right you are! We specialize in getting revenge on behalf of sinners against anyone who fucked them over when they were still alive!”

“Really?” Lucifer remarked, now looking VERY interested in what the imp had to say. “And how do you pull off such a spectacular feat? Is there someone granting you access to the living world? A royal sponsor perhaps?”

“Funny you should mention that, see I managed to-“

“WHOOPS!” Moxxie said, ‘accidentally’ splashing his drink all over Blitzo’s clothes. 

“Wha- what the fuck Moxxie?!” Blitzo yelled.

“Oh crumbs! Sorry sir! I think we hit a bump!” Moxxie replied. “Come on, I think there’s a sink upstairs we can use to get the stain out before it settles in!”

Before anyone else could get so much as a word in, Moxxie grabbed Blitzo’s arm and dragged him up the spiral staircase to the second floor of the carriage, leaving the female members of I.M.P. alone with the king of hell.

Lucifer slowly turned his gaze towards Millie, who immediately straightened up under his unnerving smile.

“So, what is it that you do miss Mildred?” Lucifer asked.

The female imp gulped.

*******************

The second story was every bit as impressive as the first: a queen sized bed and satin sheets, a mini fridge stocked with a wide variety of expensive snacks, additional seating situated by windows that offered perfect views of the outside streets, a tiny kitchen nestled into the corner of the room, and a retractable sun roof that could transform into a mounted gun. It was less of a carriage and more of a five star hotel room on wheels, but Blitzo didn’t get much time to appreciate any of it as Moxxie was too busy pulling him towards the bed.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Easy there Mox! Are ya trying to pull my arm- Shit!” Blitzo exclaimed as Moxxie literally threw him onto the bed and yanked his jacket off in one fluid motion, shirt following soon after.

The white haired imp deposited the clothing into the sink, quickly scrubbing out the stains with cold water and elbow grease before depositing both items onto one of the seats to dry. He then marched over to the stereo set up on the opposite end of the room and flicked it on, smooth jazz coming out of the speakers.

“Well, not my first choice but it’ll do.” Moxxie muttered, turning towards his shirtless boss and approaching him with a determined look.

Blitzo’s eyes went wide as all the pieces fell into place: the ‘accidental’ spill, the rough treatment, getting him half naked onto the bed, and the sexual music. It all made sense now!

“Oh I see. You wanted to get us alone so you could ravage me right here in the carriage to get back at your old man Eh?” Blitzo cooed before flopping down onto the soft sheets and exposing his neck. “Well make it quick you stud!”

Moxxie stood there in stunned silence, blankly staring at his boss and the sheer amount of nerve he had assuming his best employee would stoop to such a level.

“For the love of- I’m not going to do that sir.” The imp groaned.

“Why the fuck not?” Blitzo asked, sitting back up.

“I can think of at least a dozen reasons right off the top of my head.”

“Then why the heaven did you ruin my suit and drag my ass up here?!”

Moxxie sat down next to his boss. “Because you were playing straight into my father’s hands.”

“The fuck are you talking about? Your dad was only showing an interest in the company.”

“No, he was fishing for information.” Moxxie explained. “My father wants to learn as much as he can about you as possible: your personality, your history, and any potential weaknesses that he could exploit for his own ends.”

“Oh come on, I think I’d notice if your dad was trying to pull a fast one on me, Mox. I’m not a fuckin’ moron.”

“So you weren’t about to tell him about our illegal use of Stolas’ grimoire to aid in company activities? that’s where the conversation seemed to be heading before I stepped in.”

“I- wait, shit you’re right.” Blitzo muttered. “I’m usually good about keeping a lid on that crap, how did he-“

“In spite of what his outward appearance suggests, my father is an extremely cunning individual who has mastered the art of psychological manipulation. It’s one of the many things he has in common with my mother.” Said Moxxie.

“What is your mom like anyways?” The lanky imp inquired.

“You’ll see soon enough. The important thing is that you need to tread carefully for the next few months and pay close attention to what you say to my parents, you’d be surprised how much information they can glean from a seemingly harmless conversation. Understand?”

“Yeah I got it. Wait, what about Millie and Loona? We left them down there with your dad!” Blitzo exclaimed, only for Moxxie to wave him off.

“I already had this exact conversation with Millie last night and Loona, for all her faults, seems to be sharp enough to avoid falling for Lucifer’s usual tricks. They should be fine, although we may want to get down there soon before my father gets suspicious.”

Speaking of the devil…

“Hey Maxxie!” Lucifer chimed from the lower part of the carriage.

“Yeah dad?!” Moxxie shouted back.

“Wrap up whatever it is you’re doing up there with your boss and come down! We’re almost home!”

“Alright we’ll be there in a second! And it’s Moxxie!” Moxxie exclaimed before turning back towards Blitzo. “Come on Blitzo, let’s- WHY ARE YOU NAKED?!”

“It’s not too late to change your mind about fucking me you know. I bet I can get you off in ten seconds, no problem.” Blitzo replied, pants and underwear having mysteriously dematerialized during the short period Moxxie was looking away from him.

“ PUT YOUR DAMN CLOTHES ON! ” Moxxie screamed, face turning into a form more befitting of his heritage.

“Okay, sheesh! No need to go fucking apeshit on me!” Blitzo snapped.

Moxxie shook his head in disgust and quickly trotted down the stairs to the first story of the carriage. The first thing he was going to do after unpacking was take a long shower to wash off the icky feeling created by his boss’ lecherous gaze.

‘I will never understand that man’s obsession with me and Millie. It’s so unhealthy.’ Moxxie thought to himself.

Hopping off the last step, Moxxie saw that Lucifer and Millie were locked in the throes of a lively conversation. The king of Hell jovially laughing alongside the country imp.

“And then ah said ta him: ‘well now yer a shit head in more ways than one!’ And then ah cut his throat!” Millie exclaimed.

“HA! HA! HA! Oh Mildred, you are an absolute riot!” Lucifer chortled. 

“Nice to see you two getting along so well.” Moxxie said, making his presence known.

“Ah, Maxxie-“ Lucifer began.

“Moxxie.” The imp corrected him.

“Right, ‘Moxxie’. Your girlfriend was just regaling me with some of her childhood stories in the Wrath Ring. They’re quite engaging!”

“Aw, thank ya kindly Mr.Morningstar!” Millie replied.

“Please, call me Lucifer.” The fallen angel replied. “Now I hate to cut this short, but we should be arriving at our destination right about-“

The carriage jerked to a halt.

“-Now.” Lucifer said, smiling a bit wider than usual.

“Wait, I know that smile. What did you do dad?” Moxxie said

Lucifer kept smiling.

“Dad, what did you-“ one of the carriage doors was abruptly pulled open and all of its occupants were blasted with what could best be described as the combined force of an orchestral brass section.

Gazing through the open door, the members of I.M.P. were stunned to see an entire welcoming party consisting of various guards and servants lined up on both sides of the stone pathway leading up to the front doors of the palace.

“ANNOUNCING THE ARRIVAL OF KING LUCIFER, GRAND RULER OF HELL, AND OF HIS LONG LOST SON PRINCE MAXIMILIAN! LONG MAY THEY REIGN!” A fat baphomet demon wearing a town crier outfit bellowed.

The guards slammed their weapons down on the path and yelled in perfect unison. “HAIL LORD LUCIFER! HAIL THE MORNINGSTARS!”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Lucifer said, dangerous twinkle in his eye.

“Oh right…and Prince Maximilian’s associates Loona, Millie, and Blitzo. Yay.” The demon said with far less fanfare.

“Good enough I suppose, come along everyone!”

Marching out of the carriage with the rest of the group, Millie leaned over to Moxxie. “Yer dad is really pullin’ out all the stops huh?”

“Yeah but I wish he wasn’t.” Moxxie bemoaned, avoiding eye contact with the surrounding guards.

“Why? Ah could get used ta this sorta treatment.”

“Trust me, it gets old fast.” Said Moxxie just as the group reached the front of the house.

Placing both hands on the intricately sculpted door handles attached to the heavy wooden doors, Lucifer looked back at the members of I.M.P.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sanctum of Sin!” The king of Hell said as he dramatically threw the doors open to reveal the front foyer of the palace.

The sheer amount of avarice put on display in the Morningstar home could not be emphasized well enough, for a group that had largely grown up subsisting on the scraps of others it was like stepping into a whole new dimension. The floor beneath their feet was a complex mosaic of multicolored tiles, alternating between obsidian, marble, and sapphire blue as one traveled across the floor; solid gold pillars with depictions of snakes and gardens carved into the surface sitting on the edges of a room; a grand white staircase draped in black carpeting coming down from the upper floors like a glorious waterfall; walls painted a deep red similar to the color of blood; and long hallways accentuated by hand crafted doorframes, leading off into other areas of the seemingly endless castle. Everything simply exuded a sense of wealth, even the potted plants were probably with more money than the entirety of I.M.P made in a year ten times over.

“Wow!” Blitzo exclaimed. “This place makes Stolas’ house look like a cardboard box!”

Lucifer’s head suddenly snapped towards the imp, literally as it did a complete one-hundred and eighty degree turn to face him. “Stolas? Are you referring to Prince Stolas Ars Goetia?”

“Uh…no?” Blitzo nervously replied.

The rest of Lucifer’s body turned to face Blitzo. “It’s not polite to lie you know.”

Seeing that his boss was in desperate need of some assistance, Moxxie jumped in to bail him out.

“He used to work for the prince before starting the company.” Moxxie said. 

“Did he?”

Moxxie nodded. “He doesn’t like to talk about it because he got fired after Stolas’ wife caught them together in bed.”

“That must be how those rumors started.” Lucifer muttered.

“Rumors? What rumors? What the fuck are people saying about me?!” Blitzo snarled, only for Moxxie to pull him back.

“Oh nothing about you, it’s Stolas who’s been the center of attention. There’s been passing gossip amongst the nobility about the Prince carrying out an affair with some lowly imp, even Asmodeus claims to have seen Stolas at his club on a date with one a short while ago.” Lucifer said.

Moxxie and Blitzo eyed each other nervously.

“Although I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Even if the rumors are true, most of the Ars Goetia partake in similar forms of debauchery; Duke Leopold carried out an affair with a living human right up until his death and that’s considerably worse, I’m just surprised Stolas didn’t do so sooner considering he was married to an absolute cunt.”

Blitzo huffed. “Tell me about it, that bitch was so-“

Help…help me…

Blitzo jumped slightly at the sound of the raspy whisper and started looking around the room, trying to find the source. 

“Did you hear that?” Blitzo said.

“Hear what sir?” Moxxie asked.

“That whisper!”

It’s…so…cold

“There! Right there!” Blitzo snapped, now glancing around faster. “Am I the only one hearin’ this shit?”

“No, I heard it too.” Loona said, looking just as disturbed as her adopted father. “But where-“

“Oh that’s just the ceiling.” Lucifer stated.

“The what?” The lanky imp asked.

The king of Hell pointed upwards and the rest of the group save for Moxxie followed it until their eyes fell upon the massive art mural stretched out across the ceiling.

It’s form was impossible to put into words, mainly because it had no consistency whatsoever. A mishmash of colors and shapes that were in a state of constant flux, always shifting and morphing into different forms, swelling and contracting in such a way that made the very surface it had been placed upon seem like a living organism.

“What in tarnation?” Millie breathlessly said.

“You like it? It was a piece I commissioned from the legendary artist duo C. Wonders and Chey Acker. They spent months carefully laying down every brush stroke, painstakingly making sure every last detail was perfect, to truly capture the essence of the void itself and all the inherent chaos within.”

“So why the fuck is it talking?” Loona asked.

“I’m so glad you asked my dear! Once the entire mural had been painted, Wonders and Acker put their finishing touch on it by ritualistically sacrificing thirteen randomly selected sinners and trapping the very essence of their souls within the piece. Ensuring that they will live on in eternal agony, fueling the ever shifting form of the creators’ deeper madness.”

Kill us…please….

“It’s a wonderful conversation piece! Don’t you agree?” Lucifer said.

There was an awkward silence hanging over the group, all of them understandably horrified by what Lucifer had just told them. A stark reminder of the fact that they were all standing in the presence of Lucifer Morningstar, a demon who’s brutality and sadism were the stuff of legend. Loona was particularly frightened, ‘the wailing ceiling’ story she had been told as a pup was now terrifyingly real.

After a few minutes of this tense standoff, Moxxie finally spoke up. “Okay! As fascinating as that is, father, perhaps we should move things along? We’re all eager to get unpacked and settled in for the next few months.”

“Oh of course! Of course! I’ll notify the servants to bring up your luggage if they haven’t done so already and escort you there myself!” Lucifer said with a jolly tone.

“You don’t need to do that father.” Moxxie said

“Nonsense! Your friends are guests, it’s only right that I act as a proper host. Besides, all of your rooms are together so it should only take but a few short minutes at most!”

The white haired imp sighed. “Fine, lead the way.”

And Lucifer did just that, escorting the members of I.M.P. Into the upper levels of the palace as a mother duck escorts it’s young with the lesser demons following behind in a single file line.

The hallways of the sanctum of sin were no less impressive than the Foyer. Maintaining the same color scheme of black carpeting and deep red walls, lined with dozens upon dozens of portraits and sculptures and other expensive art pieces. But as they passed by, Millie couldn’t help but notice something rather odd: despite there being numerous portraits of Lucifer, Lilith, and Charlie Morningstar either by themselves or together in some combination of the three, there wasn’t a single picture of Moxxie in sight. Something the country imp soon commented on.

“Hey, why ain’t Moxxie in any of these pictures?” Millie asked.

“We had them all taken down shortly after he ran away from home.” Lucifer flatly replied. “His image reminded us too much of the empty void left behind by our wayward son.”

Even though Lucifer hadn’t looked back at them, Moxxie could just FEEL that his father was glaring at him with disappointment when he said that. The brief moment of guilt he experienced was promptly shaken off by the thespian who refocused his attention on the task at hand.

‘I don’t care how much dad guilt trips me. I am not going to let him win whatever game he’s playing.’ Moxxie thought to himself.

After a decent walk that went through several twists and turns, leading them deeper into the palace, Lucifer came to a stop in front of a door…one that was unique from the ones they had passed thus far.

Moxxie recognized it almost immediately, feeling his breath hitch in his throat when he saw the text carved into the aged wood.

Maximillian Morningstar’s Room. 

Please knock.

The second carving had been implemented a few years after he had gotten his own room after a rather embarrassing incident where Charlie had walked in on him and his first girlfriend in a rather…lewd position.

‘Not the best way to bring a relationship out into the open’ Moxxie thought to himself, only to be gently pushed forwards by his father.

“Go on, it’s exactly as you left it.” Lucifer softly said.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Moxxie gripped the silver handle and slowly twisted the knob before entering his former sanctum.

But while he was a bundle of nerves, Blitzo couldn’t be happier. He was about to enter Moxxie’s childhood room, which would undoubtedly be filled with tons of juicy-

“What the shit?” Blitzo remarked, stepping into the tiny space.

Surprisingly enough, Moxxie’s room was nowhere near the level of extravagance that the rest of the house maintained. It was a small, cramped room with a couch and coffee table against one wall, a small TV set sitting on a dresser against another, and a closet door sitting directly in front of them. Moxxie’s apartment was more spacious than this, BLITZO’S apartment was more spacious than this!

“This- this is your room?” Blitzo said incredulously. “Seriously?”

“I’m with Blitzo here, I was expecting something nicer than this. What, your parents didn’t wanna fork over the cash for an actual room?” Loona snarked, only to go silent when Lucifer coughed to remind them all of his presence before exiting out into the hall and shutting the door behind him.

“No, this is the sitting room.” Moxxie replied, before putting his hand on the ‘closet’ door and opening it. “THIS is my room.”

Stepping through the second door. Millie, Blitzo, and Loona felt their jaws hit the floor in near perfect unison.

Moxxie’s room was nothing short of incredible: a four post bed with canopy overlay and bedsheets imprinted with musical notes, a sofa and plush chairs arranged around a massive tv screen that took up an entire wall of the room, a wood burning fireplace with shag carpet spread out in front of it and a large record player nestled next to it with shelves upon shelves of vinyls, the walls covered in framed theater posters and shelves of similarly themed collectibles, a sliding door that led out to a sizable balcony decorated with beach chairs and even a hot tub which had a perfect view of the cityscape in the distance, and even a little reading nook with bean bag chairs and an espresso machine. This was the sort of room most people would one day dream of having.

“Oh my unholy Satan…” Millie said, spinning around to observe every inch of the room. “Moxxie, this place is bigger than our apartment!”

“Actually it feels a bit smaller than I remember.” Moxxie remarked, stepping into the center of the room.

“You’re shitting me! In what world is this considered small?!” Loona shouted. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here Loona I- hold on, where’s Blitzo?”

“CANNONBALL!” Blitzo shouted, followed by an audible splash.

Moxxie looked over and saw that the door to his bathroom was standing ajar. “Oh for goodness sake!”

The white haired imp marched into the next room over with his female associates following behind, both of whom were once again stunned by the sheer amount of luxury Moxxie was afforded.

To call it a simple bathroom would do it a disservice. In front of them lay a massive pool of water, the tiles below sparkling in the afternoon light shining through the skylight. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Moxxie also had his own personal sauna that could easily fit five individuals and a massive mirror with three whole sinks sitting on the counter beneath it, various soaps and cleaning products scattered across the surface, all of them luxury brands.

“Ya have yer own pool?!” Millie sputtered, seeing her boss doing backstrokes in the water wearing nothing but his underwear.

“No, that’s just my bathtub.” Moxxie replied.

“Bullshit! That’s is a fuckin’ pool!”

Moxxie shook his head. “No, our actual pool is far bigger than this one. But that’s beside the point” the imp then turned towards the paddling imp. “Blitzo! Get out of there now!”

“What’s the rush Mox? Loosen the fuck up and hop in! The water’s great!” Blitzo cheekily replied.

Millie moved to join him only for Moxxie to grab her arm and pull her back from the edge of the tub. “The rush is that my mother is going to be here soon and I don’t want her first impression of you to be that of a drowned rat!”

“Fine, fine.” Blitzo huffed, floating over to the edge and stepping out of the water. “You got any towels in this place?” 

Moxxie walked over to the wall on his right and slapped a button mounted into the surface, a large rack of towels and robes of assorted colors and textures shooting out immediately afterwards.

“Woah, cool.” Loona remarked, snapping a pic.

Moxxie then plucked a fluffy pink robe and tossed it over to Blitzo who immediately cringed.

“Bubble gum pink? Really? What am I, some fuckin’ soccer mom Karen? Can’t I have a different one?” 

“No.” Moxxie deadpanned, pushing another button to make the towel rack retract into its usual spot. “Now hurry up and make yourself presentable, my mother could be arriving any minute.”

“When is yer ma suppose ta get her anyhow?” Millie asked only for her husband to shrug.

“I don’t know. Father refused to tell me when I asked, said he didn’t want to spoil the surprise.” Moxxie replied, leading the group back into the main area. “In any case, we should use the time we have wisely. I don’t know how long I have to prepare a proper introduction for my-

“Alright darling, where is this big surprise you have been going on about for the last few…” the new voice that entered the room trailed off when Moxxie spun around to face it.

Standing right there, only a few feet away with a look of pure shock and surprise, was the very woman who had raised Moxxie from infancy: Lilith Morningstar.

******************

A few minutes earlier

“Lilith! My Love! My sweet caramel apple! How wonderful it is to see you home again!” Lucifer cheered, skipping and twirling until he landed right into his wife’s loving embrace.

While Lilith accepted the hug, the affections of her husband always being a welcome occurrence, Lucifer’s cheery demeanor immediately made her suspicious. 

There was always a bit of a depressed energy to the Morningstar household around this time of year, the anniversary of poor Maximillian’s disappearance always brought about a sort of unspoken mourning period for them where they all escaped into their own sadness and grief. While Charlie often occupied herself by staring longingly into the clouds or holding the plushie she had made in his image for comfort, Lilith and lucifer buried themselves in their work to distract themselves from the weakness in their hearts until this blue period passed. So to see Lucifer in such high spirits, especially when he was his typical heartbroken self a few days ago, was certainly cause for concern.

“Luci? Are you feeling okay darling?” Lilith asked, gently pushing her husband away.

“Oh I’m feeling fantastic love! Downright spectacular!” Lucifer exclaimed. “Why do you ask?”

“You just seem to be a little happier than usual. Did something of particular notice happen while I was gone?”  

“Oh you could say that.” Lucifer giggled.

Lilith narrowed her eyes at him. “Lucifer…have you been keeping something from me?”

“As a matter of fact, I have. There’s a little surprise waiting for you upstairs that I feel you will greatly enjoy.” 

“Where upstairs?”

“In his room.” Said Lucifer.

“What? Why there?!” The queen of hell sputtered.

“You’ll see.” Lucifer replied with a knowing smile. “You will see.”

Not wanting to indulge her spouse’s antics for a moment longer, Lilith huffed and began marching up to her son’s former room with Lucifer, barely suppressing his laughter, trailing behind the whole way. 

As soon as she reached the familiar door, Lilith instantly picked up on two massive red flags: one, the door knob that hadn’t been so much as touched over the last ten years apart from maids and butlers entering the room to dust now had a dirty handprint staining the usually stainless metal; two, a set of muffled voices emanating from within. Someone was in there, someone who definitely wasn’t supposed to be.

Lilith looked back at her husband for answers, but he just smiled and motioned for her to go inside.

“This has better be good Lucifer.” Lilith growled.

“It is. Trust me, it really is.” The fallen angel replied.

Pushing through the first door leading into the sitting room and then through the second leading into Maximillain’s actual room, Lilith looked around the surrounding area in annoyance.

“Alright darling, where is this big surprise you have been going on about for the last few…” Lilith trailed off when her gaze fell upon an imp standing in the center of the room, gazing up at her with a look of fear.

An imp that looked almost exactly like-

‘No…no it can’t be. That isn’t possible.’ Lilith thought to herself.

The queen blinked.

Then she blinked again.

Then she blinked several more times in quick succession to clear her vision.

Finally she rubbed her eyes, keeping them shut and counting to ten in hopes of dispelling the illusion standing before her.

But it didn’t do her any good; for when she opened her eyes again, Lilith could still see her long lost son standing right in front of her: hair the color of freshly fallen snow, golden eyes that shone like stars in the night, the most adorable freckles that made his cheeks irresistibly pinchable, and a cheap but well tailored suit with a red bow tie similar to the ones he favored in his later years. This imp was the splitting image of Maximillian in every conceivable way, yet Lilith couldn’t bring herself to believe it…she wouldn’t, not after having her hopes dashed time and time again over the last ten years.

At least until two words came out of the imp’s mouth: 

“H-hi mom.” he said.

Lilith’s eyes went wide. ‘That voice, I recognize that voice! It sounds just like- could it really be- after all this time?!’ the demon queen thought to herself.

“M-Maximillian? I-is that you?” Lilith softly whispered.

The imp remained silent for a few moments, seemingly mulling something over in his head before inspiration struck and he sadly smiled up at her.

“ Hush now my child, it must be this way. Too weary of life and deceptions. ” The white haired imp sang.

A choked gasp escaped Lilith and she joined in on the song, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “ Rest now my child, for soon we’ll away, into the calm and the quiet.”

“ Come now my child, I’ll take thee away. Into a land of enchantment. Come now my child, the time’s come to rest, here in my garden of shadows ” the two of them finishing the lullaby Lilith had sang Maximilian so many times when he was but a child. 

“It’s you…my-my little Maxxie.”

“Actually, it’s Moxxie now but I- GAH!” the smaller demon wasn’t able to get in another word before his mother fell to her knees and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

“MAXXIE! MY BABY! YOU’VE COME HOME TO ME! TO US!” Lilith cried.

“MOM- CAN’T- BREATHE- NEED- AIR!” Moxxie gasped as his mother squeezed him tighter and tighter, as if he would disappear the moment she let go.

Thankfully, Lilith loosened her grip soon enough and shifted her hands to brush along the sides of Moxxie’s face before coming to rest upon his shoulders. The queen’s eyes flooded with tears that left her mascara running.

“Are you well? Any injuries? Illnesses? You know how dangerous it can be out there for an imp.”

“I’m fine mom, I’m fine.” Moxxie replied.

“good… Good. ” Lilith said, voice taking on a much more threatening octave as did her appearance.

‘Oh crumbs.’ Moxxie thought to himself before attempting to slip out of his mother’s grip only to find that it was ironclad.

“ Where in the seven rings have you been young man?!!! ” Lilith boomed, going from relieved to furious in seconds. “ Do you have any idea how long your father and I have been looking for? How much we sacrificed trying to bring you home? I was worried sick about you! WHAT SORT OF MADNESS MADE YOU THINK THAT ABANDONING YOUR FAMILY WAS A GOOD IDEA?! ”

“I-I-I’m sorry!” Moxxie cried out, feeling his mother’s claws digging into his skin.

“ OH YOU ARE GOING TO BE SORRY MAXIMILLIAN EVANTHOS MORNINGSTAR! I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE AMOUNT OF TROUBLE YOU ARE IN RIGHT- ”

“ LILITH! ” Lucifer boomed.

Lilith looked up at her husband with an expression of almost primal rage.

“ Calm yourself. Maximilian’s return should be a happy occasion, I understand you’re upset but there is no need to dampen such a joyous time for our family. ” the fallen angel calmly said.

Lilith snorted like a mad bull for a few more seconds before taking in a deep breath, regaining her composure, and rising to her full height.

“You’re right, thank you darling.” Lilith said, curtly nodding to her husband. “But Max? We are going to have a long discussion about your departure at some point in the near future.”

“Actually I go by Moxxie now and funny you should mention that mother. There are some people I wish to introduce you to.” Moxxie said, stepping aside to present the trio of demons standing behind him.

Lilith tilted her head, just now noticing their presence. “Are these…friends of yours?”

“Somewhat. There’s Blitzo my boss, his daughter Loona, and Millie my…my girlfriend.” Moxxie nervously stated.

“ G-girlfriend? ” Lilith sputtered, returning to her dangerous octave. 

Moxxie nodded and his mother swiftly sidestepped him, walking straight up to Millie…and passing her as well until she was standing in front of Loona. The queen of hell strolling around the hellhound and examining her.

“Hmm, well I never much cared for hellhounds and this one certainly has an atrocious sense of fashion. But her form is rather attractive, I must admit, especially those childbearing hips. I’m sure she’ll make for a fine wife someday.” Lilith said.

Loona blinked in bewilderment, before realizing what the woman next to her was impling and felt bile begin to build up in the back of her throat. The canine demon was disgusted by the mere idea of hugging Moxxie, the thought of having sex with him was enough to make her physically gag.

“Actually Mrs.Morningstar, Ma’am. ah’m Millie, that’s Loona.” the country imp said, holding up her hand in a friendly yet cautious wave.

“Oh, my mistake.” Lilith said before approaching Millie and squatting down to get a better look at her. “Hmm, let’s see here: solid muscle definition on all areas of your body, but not so much so that it’s unsightly; a lovely beauty mark paired with a cute tooth gap; the hair is a little unkempt as is your clothing but those can be rectified. Yes, I think you’ll do nicely…assuming your personality is as strong as your outward appearances.”

“Ah sure hope so ma’am.” Millie nervously replied, feeling ever so slightly violated by her mother-in-laws observations. 

“We shall see.” Lilith remarked before looking over at Blitzo. “And you? What exactly is it that you do?”

“I’m Moxxie’s employer, founder and head of the Immediate Murder Professionals or I.M.P. for short.” Blitzo said, offering the demon queen a hand shake.

Lilith simply stared at the outstretched appendage like it was a rotting fish before Blitzo nervously retracted it, the cold gaze shot in his direction proving to be more than enough to snuff out his usual cocky demeanor. 

Before things could go any further, a small maid imp poked her head in. “Lord Lucifer? Lady Lilith?”

“Yes what is it?” Lucifer replied.

“Your daughter and her associates have arrived.” the female imp said. “They’re currently awaiting your presence in the foyer.” 

“Ah, I believe that’s our cue to leave Lilith.” 

“What? But we’ve only just begun to converse!” the female demon protested.

“Yes I know but we’ll have plenty of time to talk over dinner later tonight.” Lucifer stated. “Besides Maximillian-”

“Moxxie.” the imp corrected him.

“ Moxxie and his companions are likely eager to unpack and get some rest, it’s been a rather busy day for all of us so I feel that they deserve such an indulgence.”

“Very well. I shall see you this evening at the dinner table Max and…” Lilith paused, searching for the right words. “I love you, my little possum.” 

With that the rulers of Hell vacated the room and gently closed the door behind them, the slightest glint of mischievous intent flashing in their eyes as they vanished, leaving the remaining four occupants in the room to stand alone in a tense silence.

“That could have gone better. At least she seems to tolerate you all.” Moxxie said, walking over to his bed and flopping down onto the soft surface face first

“So what now Mox? Wanna hang out? Maybe put some trash TV on that big ass screen of yours?” Blitzo asked only to get a shake of the head in reply.

“No. To be honest sir, I am very tired right now and would much rather lay here and do absolutely nothing.” the white haired imp replied.

“Come on! I bet Katie Killjoy’s rack will look amazing on the big screen!” Blitzo pleaded

“Sir please! I’m…I’m just not in the mood right now.” 

At that point, Blitzo picked up on the fact that Moxxie was a little on edge right now and pushing him further probably wouldn’t end well for all parties involved. Under normal circumstances that wouldn’t deter him in the slightest but these were anything but normal circumstances. 

“Okay. Maybe later tonight when you’re not feeling so crappy, want us to leave you alone?”

“That would be wonderful.” Moxxie replied, rolling over onto his back to gaze at the canopy above.

Blitzo nodded before beckoning Loona to follow him out of the room, an order she wordlessly complied with…but not before looking at the rather stressed out imp on the bed with an expression of concern and pity.

Once they were gone, it was just Millie and Moxxie left in the room. The former of the two imps hopping onto the bed and laying down next to her lover, snuggling up to his side and smiling when Moxxie slipped into the comforting embrace. 

‘This is going to be a long couple of months.’ Moxxie thought to himself, gently drifting off to sleep in the arms of his beloved spouse. 

Hopefully things would turn out okay in the end for all of them, because his future was looking fairly bleak at the moment. 

Chapter Text

“So, a little bee tells me you’ve got another munchkin running around the house.” Asmodeus cooed.

“And perhaps a little bee should learn to mind her own damn business.” Lucifer growled.

“Oh c’mon Luci! Don’t hold out on me! You know how much I love fresh gossip!”

Today was the day that Asmodeus decided to pay his ‘brother’ Lucifer a little visit to discuss business and the various goings ons in the Lust ring. Fairly standard stuff, the rest of the sins dropped by the Sanctum of Sin for the very same reason as part of their own duties or simply out of sheer boredom. Save for Belphagor who was too lazy to drag himself across his own home much less across several rings, but that’s what the mandatory annual meetings were for!

At first it was standard fare, the two of them had settled down in Lucifer’s personal office for their discussion, Asmodeus gave his superior the down low on the harvest of his Succubi and Incubi on earth as well as some of the new adult entertainment ventures he had been making headway into. But then Asmodeus decided to bring up more personal matters, asking how Lucifer’s family was doing which of course led to the question of the Morningstar’s newest addition. A topic that Asmodeus clearly wasn’t willing to let go of anytime soon.

“Fine, you caught us. We recently adopted a child by the name of Maximillian. Happy now?” Lucifer sighed.

“Almost. Mind if I introduce myself to the little guy?” Asmodeus asked. “Old Beezle was simply gushing about how adorable he was!”

“No, you cannot Asmodeus. Lilith would literally murder me if I let you anywhere near our son.” Lucifer replied.

“She’s still mad about that birthday cake incident, isn’t she?”

Lucifer nodded.

“In my defense I thought I pulled off the showgirl look quite well! And I distinctly remember you laughing your ass off at the time!” The king of lust argued.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Lilith refused to share a bed with me for a month after that Asmodeus. I don’t care how badly you wanna put on the whole ‘uncle Ozzie’ song and dance with Maximillian, it’s not worth giving up my morning cuddles for that long.”

“She doesn’t have to know! Just five minutes with my nephew, that’s all I ask!”

“She’ll find out, she always does Asmodeus.” Lucifer snarked. “Whine, bitch, and moan all you want, it won’t change my mind. If Lilith doesn’t want you interacting with Maxxie then I’m not gonna let that happen. Is that clear?

Asmodeus nodded. “Talk about a whipped husband.” he grumbled under his breath.

“I heard that.”

“Sorry! Sorry.” Asmodeus instantly said. “But there is something else I’m concerned about in regards to your new kid.”

“And what would that be?” Lucifer replied.

“Is it true he’s an imp?” The King of Lust bluntly asked.

Lucifer went still. “What…gave you that idea?”

“Beelze. When she was filling me in about the situation, she mentioned that your little bundle of joy looked an awful lot like a young imp: white hair, red skin, striped horns; you know, the usual stuff. But I wasn’t sure if it was true or not, you know how much of an airhead she can be at times.”

“Does it make a difference?” Lucifer snarled, claws digging into the wood of his desk.

“Not really, just seems a tad unusual that you’d take in some random peasant kid off the street and dress him up like one of your own without some ulterior motive.” Asmodeus said in a rather accusatory tone. “So what’s the game? Did the misses want a new pet or is there more to it than that?”

“There’s no game Asmodeus.”

“Bullshit, I know you Luci. I know what kinda man is behind that chipper little smile of yours. There’s always an angle, the only question is what you stand to gain from it.” Asmodeus hissed.

There was a moment of silence shared between the two, an unspoken standoff where the kings of Pride and Lust stared one another down in a battle of wills, before Lucifer spoke up.

“Asmodeus.” he began.”We’ve had a very pleasant working relationship, dare I say friendship, up until now. Have we not?”

Asmodeus nodded.

“Good. Then let’s not ruin that by testing my patience with silly little questions and petulant demands. Hmm? ” The king of Hell boomed.

Asmodeus momentarily tensed up in fear but quickly relaxed, if for no other reason than to hide his own display of weakness. He may have been on better terms with Lucifer than most of the other sins, but even he knew that the King of Pride had his limits and what fate awaited those who crossed them; Satan had to learn that particular fact the hard way. Friendship or not, any further attempts to squeeze information out of King Morningstar wouldn’t end well for him.

“Fine. Keep your damn secrets, no sweat off my perfect ass.” Asmodeus huffed.

“Thank you, now shall we get back to the matter at hand? You were telling me about this new innovation known as a hand vibrator?” Lucifer inquired.

*****************************

Charlie covered her mouth, trying to keep her breathing under control as she kept herself hidden in the darkness. She could hear her pursuer lurking about nearby and it was imperative that she remained as quiet as possible if she wanted to remain unfound.

She had picked  her hiding spot so carefully, methodologically considering her options during her sprint through the halls of the palace until deciding on a closet in one of the guest rooms filled with spare linens to bury herself in, and yet the other demon had closed in on her position in a matter of minutes. All Charlie could do now was hope that they’d end up losing their patience and search elsewhere before they figured out where she was.

Peering through the cracks in the door, the sole daughter of the Morningstar family watched as the male demon searched the room: peering behind the chairs, gazing under the bed, and even checking the ledge just outside the window. The frustration on his face grew  more and more prominent as his investigation failed to turn up the individual he was looking for.

But right when it seemed as though they were prepared to give up, the demon’s gaze drifted towards the closet and Charlie’s breath hitched.

He saw her.

The demon swiftly approached the closet and Charlie tried to burrow deeper into the fabric surrounding her, pressing her back against the wall of the closet in a desperate attempt to conceal herself, but it was all in vain as the door was soon thrown open to reveal the grinning face of the creature on the other side.

“FOUND YOU!” He giggled.

Charlie rocketed forward, launching herself out of the closet to make a run for it only to be tackled by the demon before she could even take two steps. Her body slid across the carpet for a few feet until it came to a rest next to the bed with her captor sitting atop her back, victorious smile adorning his lips.

“Yay! I win! I win! I got you Charlie!” Maximilian cheered, bouncing up and down on his sister’s prone form.

“Darn! I really thought I picked a good spot this time! How did you find me so fast?” Charlie asked.

“One of the maids told me you went in here.” Maximillian replied.

Charlie gasped. “That traitor!”

Maximilian laughed and continued to revel in his victory, feeling an unbridled sense of joy for outwitting his older sister in such a manner.

Yes, there was nothing quite like playing a game of hide and seek with your favorite sibling in the biggest house across all seven rings of Hell. The sheer number of hiding spots in the palace was enough to make one’s head spin and it left the Morningstar siblings with virtually unlimited options for where they could hold their games; games that the two of them took rather seriously.

It was all they could do to keep themselves occupied today, what with mom trying to get some rest, dad stuck in some stuffy old business meeting, and their schedules clear of any of their usual tutoring sessions leaving them with an abundance of free time to run and play as much as their little hearts desired.

Maximilllian eventually had his fill of celebratory dancing and promptly dismounted his older sister, allowing her to get back on her feet.

“So where do you wanna play next? The gardens? The library? The obser-a-tery?” Maximillian babbled.

“Ooh! How about the east wing? We haven’t gone there yet!” Charlie suggested.

That gave the younger Morningstar sibling pause. “But isn’t papa over there? He said we weren’t supposed ta bother him today.”

“We won’t! We’ll be extra super quiet, that’s the whole point of hide and seek silly!”

“Oh, okay.” the imp said, still unsure. “Hey! Can you do that thing to get us over there?!”

“What thing?” Charlie asked

“You know, the thing that mama taught you last week!” Maximilian repeated

“The portal spell? I dunno, it’s kinda tricky and I don’t have it down yet.”

“But mama said the only way you can get better is if you practice. C’mon, please?” Maximilian begged.

Charlie sighed. “I’ll try.”

“Yay!” the smaller demon cheered.

Mustering as much focus as she could, Charlie centered her thoughts on the east wing of the castle. The princess painted a vivid mental picture of the locale while repeating the hand gestures that her mother had shown her last time. Her hands started to spark up with magical energy and, with a bit of effort, a glowing portal formed in front of the demon kids that led straight to their intended destinations

Maximilian laughed and clapped his hands in excitement. “I knew you could do it! Let’s go!”

The prince wasted absolutely no time hopping through the portal with his sister following suit shortly after, the latter letting out a breath of relief once the portal closed; holding that gateway open was a lot harder than she thought it would be.

Nevertheless, Charlie and Maxxie still had plenty of energy left in them for another round of hide and seek in their new surroundings.

“Now remember the rules: I’ll close my eyes and count to one hundred while you go hide!” Charlie said.

Maximilian nodded. “And no peeking!”

“Right, no peeking. Ready?” Charlie said, earning another nod from her brother. 

The princess then turned around so she was facing one of the nearby walls, covered her eyes, and began her count. Giving Max the opportunity to take off running down the hall, a mischievous laugh trailing behind him.

The imp’s mind was racing with ideas for potential hiding spots, eyes darting every which way while keeping up a quick pace.

Rounding a corner, Max’s frantic run and hectic thought process came to a screeching halt when he beheld a rather unusual sight. Draped on one of papa’s statues was the biggest coat Max had ever seen in his entire life; one could easily use it as a tent on a camping trip with ample room for friends and family.

His childish curiosity piqued, Max cautiously approached the article of clothing with an astonished look. The coat itself was astoundingly well made, comprised of expensive looking silks and fabrics that frequently appeared in his parents’ wardrobes; the mixture of dark blues, deep reds, and glowing white stripes created a colorful display Max found incredibly pleasing to the eye; and the faint floral smell radiating off the cloth only added to its overall appeal.

Then the royal imp spotted the rather sizable pockets stitched into the sides of the coat, pockets that were deep enough to house his entire body with little difficulty. Which made it the perfect place to hide! Charlie would never think to look inside of an oversized coat!

Maximilian darted over to the coat and began to climb, using every bit of strength in his little claws and hooves to ascend as quickly as demonly possible. Charlie was probably in the seventies by now and he couldn’t afford to waste so much as a moment. He didn’t even stop to question who the coat might belong to and if climbing inside was a good idea, Max’s excitement was blinding him to any and all possible dangers of his current course of action.

After struggling and squirming his way upwards for a full minute, Maximillian managed to get a hand on the edge of one of the coat pockets and pulled himself up and over the lip, sliding head first into the space within. Thankfully the silky lining of the pocket was enough to cushion his fall and endure a soft landing.

All Maximilian had to do now was sit here in silence and wait until Charlie gave up on finding him, thus declaring him Hell’s hide and seek champion. 

As the prince made himself comfortable, knowing he’d likely be there for a while, he suddenly became aware that his body was pressed up against something hard, stiff, and bumpy.

Max fumbled in the low light of the coat pocket, blindly feeling his way through the small space until he got his hands around the unknown object. But even then he couldn’t figure out what he was holding, it had an odd shape to it that was totally alien to the Morningstar child and he was left utterly stumped.

But when Maximilian took in a breath to sigh in frustration, a pleasant scent wafted into his nostrils and suddenly he knew exactly what he was holding.

‘ Chocolate! ’ He internally cheered. 

Because he was a young child with a massive sweet tooth and little common sense, Max quickly tore off the packaging and wolfed down the chocolatey treat without a moment’s hesitation, the imp shivering in delight from the sweet sensations dancing across his taste buds.

Once the last few pieces passed through his lips, Max leaned back against the soft and silky walls of the pocket with a happy hum. He didn’t know why, but there was something about that chocolate bar that made it taste particularly sweet.

Leaning back further, the prince noticed how comfortable it was in this coat pocket. The lining was made of a soft silk that reminded him so much of Mama’s dresses, the kind that he was often snuggled up against when she was singing him his bedtime lullabies. Max could almost hear her soothing voice now.

The imp yawned, eyes beginning to droop. Not only was the pocket pleasurable to the touch, but it smelled nice too. Hints of vanilla and rose, exactly like the scented candles Papa lit in his room sometimes, swirled around his body and caused a wave of tranquility to wash over him. 

It was all…making him…so….sleepy…

Maximilian went limp, a deep slumber taking hold of his body and leaving him lost in dreamland. As he napped there in that coat pocket, the chocolate wrapped slipped free from his hands and came to rest atop his lap.

Belphagor’s sleepy time chocolate: guaranteed to give even the most restless individuals a good night’s sleep!

*****************

Asmodeus threw open the door to his bedroom with a frustrated huff, the journey back to his kingdom doing little to curb the resentment stirring in his form.

His meeting with Lucifer had been a disappointment on the whole. While Asmodeus did manage to work out a favorable deal with the King of Hell to keep the Lust Ring running smoothly, he didn’t even come close to achieving his primary goal.

A little known fact about the King of Lust was that he LOVED kids. Not in a sick and perverted way like some of the more vile residents of Hell did, that was low even by his standards, but in a wholesome and loving way akin to a parental figure. Little tykes had a way of bringing out his softer side no matter what sort of demon they were and sometimes he wondered what it would have been like to have a child of his own.

Asmodeus would never act on these feelings of course. He preferred the bachelor lifestyle, running wild and free with every willing hole from here to Gluttony at his beck and call whenever he was looking to get frisky; which was pretty much all the time. Having a kid would only get in the way of his sexual escapades, it’s the same reason he’d never tie himself down to a single partner either. It wasn’t his style. Not to mention the negative impact it would have on his reputation as the King of Lust; no, the realms of fatherhood and monogamy would be kept far, far away from him.

Yet it didn’t stop Asmodeus from doting over other demon’s children. When Charlie was born, the King of Lust made damn sure she knew him as her fun and whimsical uncle Ozzie. The demon who could always put a smile on her adorable face and let her get away with certain shenanigans behind her parents’ backs, ranging from cookies for breakfast to late night playtime, it was all the fun of being a parent with none of the responsibilities!

It seemed as though Asmodeus was on track to be Charlie’s favorite relative outside of her own parents, until that lard ass Beelze swooped in and took the title from him with a cherry smile on her face; Asmodeus may have been charming but he could never compete with the queen of Gluttony’s honeycomb cake or her saccharine personality that quickly won over her niece. Charlie still adored her uncle, but he’d always be playing second fiddle to Auntie Bee in the popularity contest.

But Asmodeus didn’t let it get to him….much. He wasn’t Leviathan, he had better things to do than spend every waking moment in a dick measuring contest with his fellow sins. The King of Lust swallowed his feelings of jealousy and simply kept being the best uncle he could be to the girl, even if he’d never be her favorite he still enjoyed the time they spent together.

Then Asmodeus started to hear rumors that Lucifer and Lilith had gotten another kid, one of the adopted variety, and were keeping it under wraps for the time being. Asmodeus was skeptical until Beelze informed him that she had indeed spotted Hell’s top royal family attending an opera show at Mammon’s theater with an extra bundle of joy.

The King of Lust quickly moved from skeptical to intrigued after that. It was odd that the Morningstars had decided to take on another kid after Charlie proved to be a pretty big handful and even more so that they chose to adopt instead of making a second heir the fun way, were they having performance issues? Time did have a way of taking its toll even on immortals like them.

But those thoughts were quickly discarded, if Hell’s greatest couple was struggling in bed Asmodeus would have been the first to know about it. Even if they didn’t come to him for help he could spot a sexually frustrated demon from a mile away.

No, there had to be another reason for this spontaneous adoption and the more Asmodeus thought about it the more curious he became. Especially when some demons started saying that the new prince was an imp of all things.

But those were questions best saved for later. At the moment Asmodeus had a far more pressing concern to attend to: introducing himself to his new nephew!

The King had blown his chance with Charlie by a hair but now there was a new Morningstar kid on the board, one who had never met his Uncle Ozzie before and was ripe for the picking.

It was second opportunity, a fresh start, if Asmodeus could get to this kid before Beelze or any of the other sins could then he’d be able to win over his little heart and become his favorite! Yes Asmodeus’ would have preferred to have the top spot in the eyes of both the Morningstar children but he’d take what he could get at this point. Better one than none.

The King of Lust thought he could arrange an impromptu meeting between him and the kid when he traveled up to Pride for business. But that attempt was shut down by the wet blanket that was Luci and his ball and chain, forcing Asmodeus to try and come up with another way to get the welcome wagon over to his nephew without the King and Queen of Hell throwing him out on his ass.

And he’d get started on such plans first thing tomorrow morning! It had been a busy day for the demon king and he needed his beauty sleep.

‘ Good thing Bel was willing to send me some of that sleepytime candy he invented, should knock my ass right out. ’ Asmodeus thought to himself, reaching into his coat pocket.

But upon doing so, Asmodeus felt something warm and squishy inside of said pocket; his initial assumption was that the chocolate had merely melted but when that something started squirming against him, it quickly became apparent that there was a living creature in there.

Asmodeus gently grabbed the unknown being, wrapping his hand around its form without causing any unnecessary harm (there’d be plenty of time for NECESSARY harm later when he found out who or what had decided to hitch a ride), and extracted it from his pocket.

Upon opening his palm to get a good look at whatever it was, Asmodeus was greeted with a sight that made his eyes widen and his heart melt.

Curled up in his hand was the most adorable imp he had ever seen in his life. The tiny little thing couldn’t have been any older than five or six based upon his size. His snow white hair was combed into an elegantly neat style with a pair of sideburns that framed his soft cheeks dusted with white freckles. His outfit consisted of a well tailored suit complete with white, gold fringed jacket with matching white pants, silky red undershirt with an intricate pattern of hearts embroidered into the material, and a small gold pin of a snake wrapped around an apple affixed to his- 

‘ Wait a second. I recognize that symbol, that’s the Morningstar crest! But why would an imp…oh by the father. ’

This was Maximillian Morningstar, Asmodeus was literally holding his nephew in the palm of his hand, the kid had somehow found his way into the demon king’s coat pocket and fallen asleep. Chances were that his parents didn’t even know he was here.

‘ Oh fuck me, I accidentally kidnapped Lucifer’s son…Litith is going to tear my balls off. ’ Asmodeus internally panicked before taking in a few deep breaths to force himself to calm down. ‘ Okay don’t panic, you just have to figure out how to put the kid back where you found him before he- ‘

Maximilian softly yawned, stirring in Asmodeus’ grip and stretching himself out like a cat to shake off the stiffness in his limbs. A display that nearly forced a squeal out of the King of Lust from the sheer adorableness of it all.

The imp rose to his itty bitty hooves, smacking his lips and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes all the while. Once he was fully awake, Max took a moment to examine his surroundings and noticed that he was in a room he had never seen before. 

From top to bottom the place was covered in red and bright blue hues, a vanity with a heart shaped mirror sat up against one wall with a comically large bed lined with silk sheets and rose pedals only a short distance away that rested beneath another mirror mounted on the ceiling; various articles of clothing littered the floor alongside deflated rubber balloons; but most strikingly was the dresser with strange looking toys on top, multicolored rubber tubes of all shapes, sizes, and textures lined up like an art exhibit. 

As Max was taking it all in, it soon became apparent that he was somehow levitating above the floor without the use of magic.

No wait, he was only standing on a giant…hand? 

Anxiety stirring in his small heart, the prince slowly turned around and traced the hand cradling him to the arm it was attached to which belong to-

Maximilian’s eyes widened when he saw the three headed giant with a big, fluffy mane staring him down with sickly green eyes. The creature was easily fifty times his size and by the look of it, the one that owned the mysterious coat from earlier.

“Hey there little fella.” The giant said

To recap: Max was in an unfamiliar place, being held by a total stranger who was significantly larger than him, and looked pretty damn scary from his perspective. So he did what any child would do in this situation: 

Scream bloody murder.

“AHHHHH! MONSTER!” Maximilian screeched.

Asmodeus frowned. “Now that's just hurtf- WOAH!”

The smaller demon immediately scrambled out of Asmodeus’ hand, plummeting towards the carpeted floor. The King of Lust tried to catch him but Max kept slipping through his fingers.

Just before he hit the floor below, Max used his magic to slow the fall via levitation. Unfortunately because he was still learning, he could only slow himself down a little and still ended up with a rough landing.

It didn’t keep the imp down for long, the adrenaline fueled panic meant he was back on his hooves within second and took off running.

“Kid wait! Come back here!” Asmodeus pleaded to no avail.

The demon king attempted to grab Max several times but the little guy was quick and nimble, evading his fingers until he reached the door; at which point his small frame easily squeezed through the small gap in the entrance, allowing him to travel deeper into Asmodeus’ manor.

“Shit.” Asmodeus said.

**********************

Maximilian Morningstar blindly sprinted through the halls of wherever he was. The imp didn’t have any particular destination or plan in mind, all he could think about was getting away from that three headed monster before it had a chance to hurt him.

In fact Max was so focused on his sprint that he didn’t even notice the succubus in a scantily clad maid outfit rounding the corner until he rammed full speed into her shins, knocking both of them to the ground.

“What the fuck?! Who the hell are you?!” The succubus exclaimed.

“Um- well- I-” Maximilian stammered.

“DARLING! GRAB HIM!” Asmodeus boomed from further down the hall.

Maximilian screamed and quickly untangled himself from the servant, resuming his frantic pace through the manor.

“Lord Asmodeus? What’s going on?! Who was that kid?!” The maid asked.

“I’ll explain later! Help me catch him before he hurts himself!” Asmodeus replied, chasing after his nephew.

Seeing that the monster was literally right behind him and gaining fast, Maximilian searched for anything he could use to slow the big man down and found an answer in the form of the decorations lining the corridor walls. The prince proceeded to use his magic to start pulling down paintings and other decorative pieces that were then launched straight at the larger demon.

“KID PLEASE! STOP!” Asmodeus pleaded, tripping over smashed picture frames and shattered vases.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Maximilian screamed back.

Soon a few more guards and servants joined in the pursuit, but they had about as much luck as their employer did in catching the imp. When they weren’t running into each other and stepping on their coworker’s toes, Maxxie’s small size and nimbleness made it nearly impossible for any of them to grab him and the chase kept on going.

Until Maximillian darted into Asmodeus’ private ballroom where a good portion of the guards were already waiting for him, blocking every possible exit.

“Nowhere to run kid!” A bulky incubus said, advancing on the younger imp.

Maximilian disagreed, running over to a nearby piller and scaling it in mere seconds; the fear-induced adrenaline pumping through his body giving him the sort of strength he didn’t even know he had. Before any of the staff could climb up after him, the prince then leaped off the pillar onto one of the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and clung to the fixture like his life depended on it.

But that did little to put him out of harms way as many of the incubui and succubi nearby merely spread their wings and flew towards him with outstretched arms, at which point Max’s panic overwhelmed him entirely and he experienced a rather violent outburst.

“ GO AWAY! ” He screeched before a wave of energy exploded from his body, paralyzing all the weaker staff members on the spot while the stronger ones were blown across the room.

The only one who managed to remain on their feet was Asmodeus himself, who watched the whole display with a mixture of fear and intrigue.

‘ So that’s why Lucifer took him in, the kid’s got the same kind of power that Charlie does. ’ Asmodeus thought to himself. ‘ Better calm him down before we get a repeat of the great tantrum a few years back. ’

Asmodeus simply stood there, braving the storm, waiting for the kid to burn himself out. Once the energy field retracted and Maximilian was left gently sobbing on the chandelier, Asmodeus calmly stepped over his defeated subordinates and made himself look as unthreatening as possible.

“Hey kiddo, ready to talk?” Asmodeus said.

Max flinched at his approach, curling up in fear from this unknown being.

“Still freaked out huh? Well I can’t blame you: waking up in an unknown place with a total stranger, it’s gotta be pretty scary.” 

Max glanced up at the King of Lust, he was still quivering but at least he was starting to calm down.

“You got a name kid?”

Maximilian sniffled. “M-Max. Maximilian Morningstar.”

“That’s a cute name! It suits you!” Asmodeus cooed. “My name is King Asmodeus, ruler of the lust ring.”

The imp’s eyes widened. “U-Uncle Ozzie?”

“Yes! I assume your sister Charlie already told you all about me?” Asmodeus said.

“Y-you know Charlie?” Max asked.

Asmodeus shot the imp a warm smile and reached into his coat, pulling out a slightly crumpled drawing he had received a while ago. The artistic quality left something to be desired, what with it being crayon on construction paper, but Asmodeus adored it all the same and carried it around with him wherever he went. The drawing itself depicted a crude depiction of him holding hands with a crude depiction of Charlie Morningstar, several misshapen hearts surrounding them and a disgusting amount of glitter dusting the page, and the caption at the top of the page read: ‘me and uncle Ozzie’. 

“This answer your question?” the demon king asked.

Maximilian nodded. The prince trusted his older sister implicitly and if she was willing to make the three headed monster a drawing of them spending time together then he HAD to be nicer than he looked, Charlie was never wrong about these things.

“Good, now can you please get down from there? I just wanna talk. I promise I won’t hurt you.” Asmodeus said.

“P-Pinkie promise?” Maximilian asked.

The King of Lust chuckled and slowly reached a hand up to the chandelier, extending his pinky finger until it stood directly next to his nephew. “Sure, pinkie promise.”

Maximilian looked back and forth between the finger that was roughly the same size as him and his miniscule pinky claw, trying to figure out how to make the pinkie swear work, before giving up and wrapping his entire body around the digit in a strange hug.

‘ Oh he is just precious! ’ Asmodeus thought to himself as he gently lowered the imp, still wrapped around his finger, off the chandelier and placed him onto his shoulder.

Max then glanced at the wrecked room littered with bodies and gave his uncle an ashamed look. “S-sorry.”

“Aw don’t be! You were just defending yourself! Nothing wrong with that!” Asmodeus reassured him.

“And the stuff I broke?”

Asmodeus shrugged. “Think nothing of it. Most of em were just tacky gifts from other royals looking to suck up to me, I needed an excuse to replace them anyways!”

Maximilian sighed in relief, at least his uncle wasn’t mad at him.

“Although, I do have to ask how you ended up in my pocket in the first place. I sure don’t remember putting you there.” the demon king asked.

“W-well, C-Charlie and I were playing hide and seek together. I saw your coat and thought it would have been a good hiding spot, then I ate the chocolate you had in your pocket and fell asleep.” Maximilian explained.

Asmodeus nodded in understanding, it was a weird turn of events but it did explain everything. Of course now the king had to decide what to do next.

His first thought was to immediately give Lilith and Lucifer a call so they could come pick up their son, the two were probably getting worried over their son’s absence and would appreciate his prompt return. But then a second thought, a more selfish one, overtook it completely.

What was the rush? Maximilian wasn’t in any danger, not with the best uncle in Hell around! And if his story was true, it had only been about thirty minutes since he had gone missing; chances are that his family didn’t even notice he was gone! Asmodeus would have to call the Morningstar’s eventually, but that could wait until he had gotten to spend some quality time with his nephew for an hour or two.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. I’ll give your parents a call so they can come pick you up and in the meantime, we can get to know each other better. We can play games, have ice cream, and tell each other stories! Doesn’t that sound fun?” Asmodeus chimed.

“Well I-” Maximilian was cut off by the loud growl rippling across his stomach, a blush rippling across his face shortly after.

“Ooh, somebody sounds hungry! I’m guessing you haven’t had lunch yet.” 

The imp shook his head.

“Well that simply won't do! C’mon, I’ll tell the kitchen to make you something to eat. What’s your favorite food?” Asmodeus asked.

“Spaghetti.” Maximilian said.

“Spaghetti?” 

Prince Maximilian nodded. “Yes, with ketchup.”

Asmodeus blankly stared at the demon sitting on his shoulder for a few moments before bursting out into a hearty laugh.

“Oh kiddo, we’re gonna get along just fine.”

*************************

The creaking of her bedroom door awoke Lilith with a start, the Queen of Hell sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes to try and get a look at whatever little annoyance decided it would be a good idea to interrupt her nap.

But instead of some hapless servant who had taken a wrong turn, Lilith was greeted with the sight of her daughter who was currently looking around the darkened room with an investigative eye.

“Charlie? Darling, what are you doing? I thought I told you and your brother to refrain from coming in here during your little games.” Lilith said.

“Sorry mom, I was checking to see if Max was hiding in here. We’re playing hide and seek and I’ve looked everywhere else for him!” Charlie explained.

“Well he isn’t here darling, I assure you.” Lilith yawned, laying back down in bed. “Run along now. I’m sure your brother will turn up eventually.”

“But I’ve been looking for him for two hours!” The princess whined.

Lilith shot back up in bed. “Excuse me?”

“I said I’ve been looking for him for two hours! I’ve checked every room in the east wing and I still can’t find him! He must have picked a really good hiding spot!”

Lilith gripped her sheets tighter, her motherly instincts flaring up. For some reason she got the overwhelming premonition that something was very, VERY wrong.

Suddenly, the bedside phone started to ring and Lilith picked it up after the second ring.

“Lilith, darling! How are you?” Asmodeus voice chimed from the other end.

Lilith groaned. “King Asmodeus. What is it now? I thought you and Lucifer concluded your business for today.”

“Well, it’s three in the afternoon Lilith. Do you know where your son is right now?” Asmodeus cooed.

“What are you on abou-”

“HI MAMA!” the unmistakable voice of her son suddenly exploded from the phone receiver.

Lilith’s eyes widened to the point that they threatened to pop out of her skull. “M-Maximilian?!”

“Uh-huh! I got kidnapped by Uncle Ozzie!” Maximilian exclaimed.

Lilith’s claws shredded the blankets. “ YOU WHAT?! ”

“Maxxie, give me the phone.” Asmodeus’ voice echoed from the background.

“ ASMODEUS I SWEAR TO THE FATHER IF YOU’RE BRINGING ANY SORT OF HARM UPON MY CHILD- ”

“Relax! He’s fine, everything’s fine. I was calling you to tell you to come pick him up from my place; I was hoping we could get a sleepover out of this but Maxxie said he needed your permission to spend the night at a friend’s place.” Asmodeus explained. “I’d ask but I think we both know the answer to that question.”

“ STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE. ” Lilith growled, slamming the receiver down onto it’s stand. The phone shattering from the sheer amount of force she placed onto it.

“M-Mama? W-what’s wrong?” Charlie said, now cowering before her mother’s unbridled fury.

“ Nothing you need to worry about darling. I’m simply going to pay your uncle Asmodeus a visit and bring Maximilian home afterwards. ” Lilith replied.

“Max is with Uncle Ozzie?” Charlie gasped. “Ooh! Can I come with you? It’s been forever since I got to see him!”

“ No Charlie. I’ll only be there for a few minutes to collect your brother and we’ll be headed straight home from there. ”

“Aww, c’mon! Please?”

“ I said no. Why don’t you go find your father? I’m sure he’s done with his meetings for today and would love to spend time with his favorite little apple. ” The queen of hell said.

“Okay.” Charlie dejectedly mumbled, walking off into the palace halls.

With her daughter tended to, Lilith turned her attention back to the matter at hand. Maximilian may have sounded okay over the phone but the queen of Hell wasn’t about to take any chances, especially since Asmodeus would be a horrible influence on the boy for a number of reasons.

As such it was pertinent that Lilith got to Lust as soon as possible.

Normally the queen would summon up one of the royal carriages to carry her there but that was far too slow, no she’d have to do the majority of the legwork here and open a portal straight to Asmodeus’ home. It wasn’t a difficult task for someone of her power mind you, but it was rather annoying that she’d have to do it so soon after waking up from what was a lovely nap.

In any case, Lilith summoned up a magical gateway to King Asmodeus’ manner with a simple wave of her hand and stepped through. The guards posted outside could see that the woman was clearly disgruntled and quickly let her pass through for the sake of their own hides.

Lilith was fully prepared to storm through the castle with all the fury of a worried mother, only to come face to face with Asmodeus waiting in the main foyer as soon as she walked in the door. The king having abandoned his earlier formal wear for a silk robe with causal sleepwear underneath.

“Ah, Lilith! Good to see you!” Asmodeus cheerily said.

“ Where’s Maximilian? ” Lilith Morningstar growled.

Asmodeus shot her a Cheshire smile and glanced down at the feathery plumage spilling out of the front of his robe. Upon following his gaze, Lilith realized that there was a small lump moving throughout the feathers; a lump that soon breached the surface of the feathers and revealed the all too familiar face of her adopted son.

“Mama!” Maximilian said, squirming his way out of Asmodeus’ fluffy chest and jumping straight into his mother’s arms.

After checking him over for injuries, Lilith looked Maxxie dead in the eye and asked. “Are you alright my child?”

“Yep. Uncle Ozzie is really nice! He made me spaghetti and ketchup, and then we had ice cream together, and played knights and dragons, and then- and then-“ Maximilian babbled.

“I think what he’s trying to say is that he had plenty of fun spending time with his old uncle.” Asmodeus snickered.

“How did he even get here? I would have thought one of the castle guards would have noticed you absconding with the crown prince.” Lilith inquired.

“Funny story, turns out this little runt decided it was a good idea to use my coat for his game of hide and seek and ended up dozing off in one of the pockets.” Asmodeus explained. “Didn’t even notice he was there until I got home, gave me one helluva scare. I can tell you that much.”

“Maximilian! I thought your father and I taught you better than that! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!” 

“Hey now, go easy on the kid! He was just having a bit of fun and nobody got hurt!”

Right as Asmodeus said that, one of the side doors in the room opened up and a pair of imps carrying a succubus out on a stretcher emerged from the passageway, prompting Lilith to look at the demon king with an expression of skepticism.

“Okay, nobody important got hurt. My point is that Maxxie’s been through enough today so how about we let bygones be bygones and let him off with a warning?” Asmodeus suggested.

“Fine, but only this one time. If you sneak off like this again I won’t be so lenient, is that clear young man?” Lilith said, directing the question towards the imp in her arms.

“Yes mama.”

“Excellent, now let’s go home and put you to bed. You’ve had quite the adventure and must be simply exhausted.” Lilith said.

Max opened his mouth to protest only for a yawn to interrupt whatever words he was planning to formulate, forcing him to relent and rest his head against his mother’s bosom.

Asmodeus gave the imp a friendly wave as he departed. “Bye Maxxie! It was lovely meeting you! Feel free to drop by and pay your old uncle a visit whenever you want!”

“Bye-bye Uncle Ozzie!” Maximilian said, returning the wave with one of his own.

The king of Lust smiled even wider. He had utterly nailed the first impression, now it was only a matter of time until he became the little guy’s favorite relative; so long as he played his cards right from here on out.

*******************

“Ozzie? Babe? What are you doing?” 

Asmodeus snapped back into the present, breaking free from the happy memory he was enthralled in before turning to face his jester boyfriend.

“Oh, Fizz. I thought you were still asleep.” Asmodeus said.

“I was until I realized my favorite demon wasn’t cuddled up next to me.” The jester imp said. “Why the hell are you up so late? It’s three in the morning.”

“Couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d make myself a nice cup of tea and reminisce about old times.” 

Fizzarolli frowned. “You were thinking about your nephew again, weren’t you?”

Asmodeus bowed his head in defeat.

“Ozzie, it’s been ten years.”

“I know, but-”

“But nothing.” Fizzarolli said. “I get that you miss him, he was family, but if he was gonna turn back up he would have by now. Max is gone, okay? He’s gone and he’s never coming back, you can’t stay hung up on him forever. Ya gotta move on.”

“Fizz, please. I’m not in the mood.” Asmodeus snapped.

“Just saying. Now if you need me, I’ll be getting some shut eye. You might wanna do the same, you and the other sins have a meeting with Lucifer tomorrow.” Fizzarolli said.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there soon.” Asmodeus snarked. 

The jester departed from the kitchen, allowing Asmodeus to return to his tea and the sadness that came with it.

Part of him always felt as though he shouldered some of the responsibility for Maximilian’s disappearance, the poor kid had been going through quite a lot of internal strife shortly before he dropped off the map and Asmodeus had only made it worse by playing a key role in the catastrophic break up between him and his first love. Granted she was a massive bitch who didn’t deserve someone as incredible as little Maxxie but what happened that night couldn’t have done his mental state any favors.

The worst part was that he never even got the chance to apologize. Asmodeus never realized the full extent of his massive fuck up until it was far too late to do anything about it and by then, Maxxie was gone. The King of Lust had held onto some sort of hope that he’d pop back up, somewhere, somewhen, just so he could apologize for what he had done. But as the years went by it became harder and harder to keep that hope alive.

‘Maybe Fizzy is right, I’ve been mourning long enough .’ Asmodeus thought to himself, placing the teacup on a nearby countertop. ‘I just hope that Maxxie is safe and happy, wherever the hell he is .’