Daughter Dearest

thirteen

Nearly a whole month seemed to pass in something vaguely similar to peace. 

Peaceful in the sense that Valentino quit blowing up Venus's phone with messages and just reduced to being the first one to like and comment on all of her posts — which Angel Dust pointed out. Both thought it was insanely weird, but they ignored the relentless overlord. 

Venus hadn't seen Lucifer since the meal she and Sir Pentious prepared, although he had texted her once to tell her to be safe if she had to go out during a particularly rough storm. 

She hadn't needed to, but found herself smiling at the message when it popped up on her screen. Though once she realized the smile, she immediately stopped smiling and removed the notification from her vision. 

She didn't have time for relationships outside of friendships or mothering. 

As Venus stood in front of the mirror, she brushed out the nonexistent wrinkles on the dress she had gotten from Steve. . . It was a far cry from the dresses she chose to wear on the daily, just a simple baby blue that was specifically for the spring and summer seasons. 

Painfully, she forced her features to morph into the ones she hadn't seen in over a month. It took a lot out of her. 

As her horns disappeared, her hair fell into her face and the steel blue slowly began to seep into her flaming irises. She breathed out a large sigh of relief when she finally stared at herself in the mirror. 

After seeing herself with horns and red eyes every day, it was almost odd seeing herself back to what she considered ‘normal’.

“Hey, Venus, are you almost ready?” Vaggie questioned from the doorway with arms crossed. The two of them had very clearly not had the heart to tell Charlie that they'd rather not go to Heaven. 

But they'd go, especially since she wanted them to. 

“Physically? Yes. Otherwise? . . I'd like to curl up in bed and sleep until I can't anymore. I have a bad feeling about today.” Venus admitted, turning away from the mirror to look at the array of shoes she had laying out. 

In the end, she chose her classic black boots, just to keep something about herself the same. 

Vaggie sighed. “So do I. . . But it would kill her if we didn't go.” 

“So then we put on a brave face for her and we go. It's only supposed to be a meeting. . . Now, I have to go make sure Angel gets back safely.” Venus smiled kindly. 

Vaggie moved out of the way just in time for Venus to walk out the door and begin going in the separate direction. 

“You look messy! What happened to you?” Venus heard Niffty question as she reached the bottom of the stairs. The small demon had absolutely no filter, which Venus had to admit made her nice to have around. 

“It's who happened to me, and the answer is everyone! Twice. Val had me working 16 hours straight on a fucking whim. The absolute dickbag. UGH!” While Angel was explaining, he pulled his hands back to pop his back before he collapsed on the couch.

“Just happy you made it back, Ang. Rest and we'll be back in a little while, yeah?” Venus mumbled, throwing a blanket over her friend. 

Charlie and Vaggie entered the room holding luggage, just in time for the wall to blow up. Startled, Angel fell off the couch and undid Venus's kind action. Those in the vicinity became irritated rather quickly.

“Argh! What the fuck is it with that wall!?” Angel groaned, pulling himself onto the couch. 

Venus stared in confusion as a female outline appeared from within the red smoke, holding a bomb in her hands.