Heaven, Hell, and Earth

Chapter 32

Charlie's old bedroom was cold, and very empty. Of course that's to be expected when you haven't stayed in said room for five years, but it was an odd experience to her. Truly it was strange how much your view on something, or someone, can change after not seeing them for a long time. Another example would be her friends and family. She would know their faces and their voices anywhere, even if they had been apart for a hundred years, yet they always looked different in someway when she was with them again. She thought the Angel always looked taller than she remembered or that Vaggie was getting prettier. Solomon naturally looked older to her, Moxxie and Millie seemed to be getting stronger, and Blitzo seemed to be getting wiser. Somewhat.

Alastor was interesting subject though. She thought that he would never change. That apart from his size, the rest of him would remain completely the same as he grew older. But at times, she would think that he was gradually becoming more soft, more easy to read, more considerate.

"More handsome." She said thoughtlessly, then she quickly realized what she said, and shook those crazy thoughts out her mind. "Oh no. No, no, no. I am not doing this again. Absolutely not. I will not be humiliated a second time."

To further elaborate, when Charlie and Alastor were teenagers, she had developed quite a crush on him. She used to fantasize about the two of them going on a real date someday. Fancy dinners, movies, long walks in the park, slow-dancing under the stars, the kind of dates that Moxxie and Millie went on. She could still remember the first and only time she had ever danced with Alastor, she could still remember the kiss she had given him. She wondered what it would be like to dance with him again. To kiss him again.

She had experimented with make up and form fitting clothes to get his attention, but he didn't noticed. She had suggested doing an activity in which it would just be the two of them alone, he didn't get the hint. Finally one day, when they were about sixteen, she went full disclosure and told him how she felt. Unfortunately Alastor had not been like most teenage boys.

You see, while most demons could be extremely lustful, there were rare breeds that were completely adverse to any kind of affection. Beelzebub had been among that breed. He didn't attack Alastor's mother out of lust, he just did it as a means to cause pain and nothing more. Falling in love and forming that kind of connection made Beelzebub and demons similar to him, completely sick to their stomachs and ready to spew vile. Inheriting this biological trait, combined with experiencing the strange and awkward human transformation known as puberty, made Alastor very slow on the subject of sex and dating. When he had to take a class on it, gender separate classes mind you, he didn't understand any of it, and he would have failed if it was a grading class. Whereas Angel would have gotten an A+

So when the teenage Charlie told him how she felt, he was very confused and didn't know how to respond.

"Well I know you like me, sweetheart." He had said. "I've known that for years. In what way is that a secret?"

"No. Not like that." She had said. "I mean I like you in a special way."

"What kind of special way?"

"Well..." She had blushed, struggling to find the right words. "In a special way where we...Where we do things that Moxxie and Millie do."

"You mean going on a gun rampage and causing property damage?"

"No. I mean...I mean holding hands, hugging, and kissing."

"You want us to do that?" He had asked her in a confused tone. "Why?"

"What do you mean why? Because that's how I feel about you."

"Why do you feel that way about me?"

"I don't know. I just do. Didn't Solomon explain it to you in dating class?"