Time for Alastor's dad joke of the day.

Alastor: A ham sandwich walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve food here."

***Hope's POV***

It has been about a couple days since our romantic date night and the morning after was nice. After waking up I was about to get ready, but Alastor had apparently woken up too. After a nice teasing shower Al got dressed and teleported me to my room so I can get dressed.

Once inside my room while I was getting my clothes Alastor noticed my bed frame was missing. He asked me about it and as I changed, I told him what happened after he threw me on my bed. After explaining and getting dressed Alastor asks why I didn't go to him to with this.

I told him that I didn't want burden him with getting me new stuff and making him think I was taking advantage of him. Alastor simply walks over and cups one of my cheeks with his hand. He gives me a soft smile as he says it's ok for me to come to him and have him provide for me.

Right after he says that I feel a twinge of guilt and fear hit me. I know where those feelings are from and deep down I know it's silly to hold on to them. After all Alastor is nothing like him. So I shove the fear and guilt aside and tell Alastor ok. I did ask him not to go too overboard though. Knowing him if I didn't say that he probably would have given me far too much stuff.

He simply nods before using his powers to make the room bigger. It became probably slightly smaller if not as big as his room. My old bed was just gone and replaced with a new one.

My new bed was definitely a queen size at least, but maybe a size or two bigger. The frame was a beautiful heavy dark wood. The frame also had an intricate design with roses and lilies.

He tried hard to give me everything he thought I would need without overwhelming me. I really appreciated that. So, before we went down for breakfast, I gave him a short yet sweet and loving kiss.

After that Alastor had let Charlie know that he had taken care of my bed frame so she didn't have to. He did make it seem like doing it was more of a business expense then anything else.

Over the next couple days I had been working on a painting of a dream I had a couple nights ago. The dream I had started and ended very quickly, but I remember it clearly.

It was of Alastor and a woman I am guessing that is his mother. I'm confident that it's his mother because she looked like how he described her. Long dark hair with kind yet dark brown eyes. Slightly dark skin tone than Alastor's human skin tone. A long yellow 1920's style dress. Both her and Alastor were standing in front of what I assume is a new house.

I had copied it exactly. I planned on giving it to Alastor as a thank you for expanding my room. Once it was done, I made a ruby red crystal frame around it. I could have tried to make a normal frame around it, but I am far with making objects out of crystal.

Currently I had just finished make a super thin diamond strength layer over it to protect it. I made it clear and thin to replace where the glass of the frame would be. With it being diamond strong it should be much stronger than glass. It had also taken a hour to do. I'm glad I woke up slightly over an hour early this morning.

I quickly change into my normal clothes and gather the painting and a bottle of fireball before heading down. The fireball was easier to get. With fireball being a spicy whiskey all I had to do for that was buy it from a liquor store. The only difficult thing about that was finding a way to go to the store without Alastor.

Since we got together, he is more protective of me than usual. He often insists on going with me whenever I leave the hotel. Most of the time I don't mind. He's looking out for me, and Hell can be a very dangerous place. This time though I had to convince him to stay behind. I almost didn't make it back in time because the lady who was selling me the whiskey was being a pain in the ass. He almost came looking for me, but I did make it back in time and keep the whiskey hidden from Alastor.

Once I make it down to the dining room, I notice Alastor is already there. He is sitting at the table reading a book. Quickly I hide the gifts behind my back before he notices me. A second or two after I do so he looks up from his book and instantly notices me.

"There you are darling. I was about to worry about you. After all you are always the first one down here."

He closes his book before turning to face me fully.

"So dear, what is it you are hiding from me?" He says in a tone that sends a shiver down my spine.

I have to take some deep breaths for a couple seconds before answering. I swear I almost had a mini panic attack right there. Someone said something very similar to be before and it ended badly for me. So, I may have needed a couple of seconds to calm myself. I really hope he didn't that though. I walk a bit closer to him before speaking.

"Well I was going to give these to you once you came down, but since you're already down here I can give them to you now. Before you ask why I don't really have a special reason why. I just wanted to do something nice for you."

Before he can say anything back, I place the whiskey and painting on the table next to his book. Alastor looks surprised for sure. Not sure what he was expecting, but I don't think he expected to get gifts. A part of my feels a bit proud that I was able to surprise him even a bit. There is another part of me that is terrified.

The terrified part of me is also being suppressed. The terrified part of me is scared of him hating the gifts I gave him and it somehow ending badly for me. I'm suppressing it because I know in heart and mind, it's ridiculous.

Alastor is not like him and wouldn't hurt me.

Right?

***Alastor's POV***

I was sitting in surprise for a good few seconds because I truly wasn't expecting this. I was more or less expecting her to be in some kind of trouble and she was stubbornly refusing to let me help. That may be a bit of a leap when suspecting your partner of hiding something, but I serious doubt Hope would cheat on me or have gotten herself in that line of work. Plus this is Hell most are probably some kind of trouble all the time. So that seemed more likely than most options.

With her strongly insisting she went to the store without me I was suspicious. She had never had a problem with me going with her before. Then she wouldn't let me help her put anything away. She was acting strange. So I woke up earlier than normal to talk to her about it, but gifts was not what I was expecting.

After recovering from the shock of getting gifts the first thing I look is the bottle of fireball whiskey. Suddenly I am brought back to our date. She had asked me if I had tried it before. I told her I hadn't and she ordered a glass of it for me to try.

At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it, but then she told me it was a spicy whiskey. I never heard of a spicy whiskey before. So, I decided to give it a shot. It was better than I thought and I did enjoy it. She must have noticed.

Next was the framed picture she gave me. I was stunned for a good minute upon seeing it. I was a painted picture of me and my mother. We were in front of our home around the time I bought it.

I don't understand how she knows about this memory. I don't think I have talked about it. I have mentioned mother before, but not this memory.

Darling, how-" I begin to ask, but she answers before I can finish the question.

"The night we went out on our date I had this image in a dream. I remembered it clearly when I woke up and thought you might like it in a drawing or painting. So, I made it for you."

I'm at a loss for words. There was a picture of this day, but it was lost after I died. I tried using my powers to summon it to me, but nothing happened. I did find out why. The short version is someone had gotten ahold of it and set it on fire.

I gently set the painting down and reach out to bring her into a hug. I want show her a lot of love and affection, but just as I'm about touch her she flinches. I can also sense that she is very tense. Like she is trying to suppress something.

As I wrap my arms around her in a warm embrace the tension is released and she relaxes. Even wrapping her arms around me and hugging me back. While I am glad she has returned my affection and doesn't seem tense or afraid anymore, the fact she flinched still troubles me.

She's never been afraid of me before. Why now?