𝐇𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐄 - Hazbin Hotel

afterhours

Lucifer had been trying his best to get along with his daughter after finally being wanted by her after so many years alone in the palace. But that still didn't mean that he didn't suffer the effects of his mind's mental health still even with the repairing relationship between he and Charlie.

The most obvious effect was clearly insomnia, which was plaguing him this particular night after everyone else had long gone to enjoy their nightly sleep.

When Charlie had allowed him to remain living at the hotel after he helped them rebuild it, she had insisted that he make him room fill more homely so it wouldn't feel so strange. According to her, Alastor had done the same thing when he moved in, and even did it again now that the hotel was rebuilt. He was certain Charlie mentioned something about a swamp, but he had zoned out as soon as the conversation had become about Alastor. Regardless, that was why millions of tiny rubber ducks now dusted every square inch of the room. What else could make Lucifer feel more at home than his little creations over his hundreds of years of loneliness?

But still, the lack of sleep was starting to become a problem.
It wasn't necessarily his fault per say. His mind just had a habit of wandering to a dark place when he was alone and on the verge of sleep. He didn't blame himself for it, it was just far too easy to slip into his intrusive thoughts when alone.

There were a lot of common themes among the reasons he couldn't sleep. Or one should say, the same intrusive thoughts that he let take over night after night. Being banished from Heaven. The fall. Lilith leaving. Charlie hating him. Not being good enough for his own family.

Back in the present, he was scolding himself for falling into the dark place again. He had hoped, desperately, that living in the hotel with Charlie and all her friends would make the pain go away, but it wasn't. It was why he'd realise that this was something, a big problem, that was going to take time and a constant effort to keep away. And he didn't want to alert Charlie if she found out how broken he was, so he was obviously keeping it all a secret.

Lucifer ran his hands through his golden hair as he paced around the room, careful not to step on any of the ducks as he knew for a fact that no one would appreciate being woken in the middle of the night thanks to a squeaking rubber duck. With sleep not being an option to him, he figured keeping his body and mind running by being active was a better start. The reason for his pacing was that he was attempting to decide what to do next with the rest of the night when sleep was not going to come.

Then an idea hit him. There was a bar downstairs as part of the hotel welcoming. At first he had criticised it when he first arrived at the old hotel, prior to Adam destroying it, but now he was blessed for it to be there. Although Husk would be gone and it would be unmanned, he knew Angel had helped himself to drinks when the bartender was absent, so why couldn't he?

Thus, he headed down to the bar and helped himself to a glass. Because he felt bad, he told himself he would clean it and put it back for Husk afterwards. But at least alcohol always helped numb the pain.

When he was done cleaning up the place as an act of kindness, that was when he heard the soft notes of music playing from somewhere. Safe to say, it made him incredibly curious.

Following the sweet sound, Lucifer headed back up the stairs until he was outside the room it was playing from. The melody was calm and pleasant and Lucifer felt his worries seemingly dissipate off his shoulders just listening to the bliss. However, as all good things eventually to an end, the music suddenly stopped. Lucifer normally would have just thought his mind was playing tricks on him, but he was certain it was real and so ended up lingering around for a few seconds as he attempted to cognitively figure out why it had stopped.