My face turned white when I recognized the source of the scream.

"Lucifer?"

─── ❖ ── ✦ ── ❖ ───

"Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

His eyes were open and he was alert because of the fright, but you could see the bags under his eyes. He looked about to collapse from the lack of sleep.

"Oh my stars, I am so sorry, I..." I nervously fumbled with my words, blushed and looked away, even though he was sitting at his desk and he was wearing his normal clothes. The only thing he wasn't wearing was his hat.

"Oh, you are the new guest," he recognized.

"No."

To my surprise, he chuckled. "Yes, you are."

"Okay, fine. Well, it was not the best life but whatever, make it quick."

I closed my eyes waiting to be blasted by lightning or maybe have my head chopped off, but nothing happend. Slowly, I opened one eye and saw Lucifer looking at me with a confused expression.

"What the hell are you doing? I'm not going to kill you, I'm too tired for that."

His words didn't reassure me. "I apologize again for the confusion, I'll be more careful in the future. Have a good night."

"Actually, wait," said Lucifer. I let go of the door handle and turned around, afraid that he had changed his mind. "Since you're here, I need you to do something for me."

"I don't kill demons anymore."

"What? No, it's nothing like that. You seem to like the idea of killing, huh?"

I didn't asnwer as he rummaged through his desk. I hadn't seen it before, but it was full of yellow small things. The room was a bit dark, but I could swear they were shaped like ducks.

"I present to you the ultimate color changing rubber duck!" he exhibited a big smile. "It's yellow, right? But how about... now?"

With a quick movement of his hands (maybe a hidden lever or some disguised button, I didn't have time to see it), half the duck turned red. I was slightly impressed, but Lucifer had a frown on his face. "It was supposed to be completely red."

"You're almost there then." What are you supposed to say when the king of Hell himself shows you his rubber duck experiments? And I thought I'd seen it all...

"I'll figure it out." He wrote something on a notebook. He seemed sadder than he should be for a failed experiment.

"I think you should sleep."

"Perhaps. Good night, ma'am."

I nodded and closed the door behind me. As I left, I thought that maybe I should have been more formal. That could've gone so many ways, but it don't go particularly bad.

A week ago, that would've been so much easier, though. It wouldn't have been difficult to get rid of the person and make it look like an accident, but not in the Hazbin Hotel, precisely. And especially not to Lucifer Morningstar.

Speak of the devil, Lucifer did not seem that frightening at all. There was something about him that inspired respect, but also trust and confidence. A leader should not be feared, a leader should be respected.

I wondered who else knew about his rubber ducks and why had he shown one to me, of all people. I didn't mind though, I had to admit they were kinda funny.

What was I even thinking? No one here was naturally nice to others. There was always a reason behind. And being who he was, Lucifer probably wanted something. But what could I possibly have? I was thinking it too much. Lucifer did not want anything from me.

Whatever the case, I needed to sleep and I still didn't have a room. After walking all around the hotel and not daring to open another door, I reached Husk's bar and decided to lay on the floor. It was cold but not uncomfortable. I was asleep in ten minutes.

---------------------------------

I was awakened by the morning light much earlier than I would've liked. Groggily, I turned around only to find a pair of eyes and a silly smile looking at me.

"Aaaaaahhh!" I jumped. "For fuck's sake, Angel! Are you out of your mind?"

"Took a while for you to open your pretty eyes."

"Fuck you."

I could tell he wanted to make a joke for a comeback, but he bit his tongue. Wise choice. Otherwise, I would've cut it off.

"Always such a sweetheart in the morning," joked Angel. "Let's go have breakfast."

I was quite hungry, but Charlie had other plans for us. "Good morning, everyone! Due to um... last night's unfortunate events, we weren't able to meet our new guest."

"Just no singing," said Husk, which I was grateful for.

"Then you start," said Charlie.

Husk sighed. "We already met. I'm Husk, I'm in charge of the bar here."

"Now I'll go," said a snake looking demon. "My name's Sir Pentious. My egg boys are also very friendly. I like to build things and... yes."

"Pleasure."

"Wonderful, this is working! Come on, Vaggie." Charlie seemed to be enjoying it.

"The name's Vaggie, Charlie's right hand. Don't fuck with me or the hotel and don't make me angry and you're good." I just nodded.

"Charming," said Alastor. Then seemed to regret it when Charlie urged him to go next. "I am Alastor, the radio demon. You may have heard of me."

"I have," I smiled. "Angel Dust, I already know who you are."

Our companions seemed confused. "Better to put them in context, don't you think? Y/n and I go way back. She used to follow me and another friend around and we made a pretty nice gang. Sometimes other demons liked to say that she was our mother hahhhaha."

I threw him a death glare. "Very funny, very funny."

"You know you love me."

"I am Nifty! I like cleaning aaand pain hehe." That was the little one eyed girl from last night.

"Nice to meet you, Nifty." Something about her gave me good vibes.

"Well, you already know me, y/n," said Charlie. "And my dad is not here right now, but you got to meet him."

I blushed out of embarrassment remembering last night. Then I remembered none of them knew what had happened.

"I'm so sorry that you had to sleep here," she said.

"Oh, it's no problem." My back was saying otherwise, but I didn't want to stand out for now. "It's my time, I guess. My name is y/n, I like to uh, well I don't have much hobbies. I'm here, because I want to redeem myself and go to heaven. So yes."

I didn't like talking in public, especially if I didn't know the people.

"Well, we welcome you to our family," said Charlie.

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