Snow Angel (Alastor x OC)

•{Chapter 12}•

Bittersweet Cravings

"And that's how you make an origami swan!" Charlie beamed, presenting the folded paper figure she'd completed to the other two demons in the room with her. "Once you've done your best with yours, without getting stressed, our first behavioural therapy session will come to a conclusion."

"Bitch, this is fucking impossible," Angel Dust complained, fiddling with the paper and groaning as he creased it in the wrong place. "Fuck!"

"Angel-"

"I give up! I need a drink."

With that, Angel Dust left the room in the timespan of a split second. In front of where Harlene sat at the rounded table in the rehabilitation session, Charlie heaved a defeated sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose to try to keep herself calm. On the other hand, Harlene focussed on the task Charlie had set her, so invested on making a good enough replica of Charlie's that she hadn't even noticed Angel Dust leaving until she'd finished. She lifted her head and glanced around the room in surprise to see that Angel Dust had already left. Harlene then placed her attention onto Charlie, who sat on the other end of the table, observing her. She was smiling now, happy that at least Harlene had listened to her, even though there was a gloomy look in her pale golden gaze that made Harlene realise that Charlie had something she'd been meaning to say to her for a while.

"Charlie, is something wrong?" Harlene asked her.

"I've just had a lot on my mind since the meeting I had with my dad," Charlie responded, staring down at the origami swans she and Harlene had made. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to get it off my chest. But first, I need to ask you if you're in an okay place to talk about something that could potentially change the way you see things here in Hell as a whole."

Harlene stiffened in her seat. "This sounds awfully serious. I don't know if I'm ready to change my viewpoint after all these years." She then added, "However, that doesn't mean I won't try if you think it'll help me understand what I need to do in order to redeem myself."

"That's great... Please give me a moment to work out how to put this."

Anguished, Charlie took a long breath as she tried to plan out what she would say next in her head. The silence caused Harlene to grow incredibly nervous and uncomfortable to the point she began to regret suggesting that she was prepared to hear whatever it was that Charlie had to say, because she most definitely wasn't.
Life may have gotten better for Harlene since she'd come to the Happy Hotel a little over a week ago, as she was no longer sleeping on an old mattress, or avoiding leaving her apartment due to not wanting to risk being harmed by the other demons, or laying in her room throughout the majority of the day with no reason as to why she had to leave her bed in the first place, but that hadn't meant her personal problems had just magically gone away. Of course, it was wonderful for Harlene to finally catch up on the decades of sleep she'd missed because of the desire to distance herself from her horrid nightmares, yet she was still exhausted. Sure, Harlene had a reason to get out of bed in the morning now, because she had friends she wanted to be with, yet she still felt alone. Being cared for was nice too, yet Harlene still believed she didn't deserve any of the kindness her new friends had shown her over the past couple of days.
Most of the time, Harlene felt like a burden, especially when it came to Alastor.

Two days had passed since the weird evening they'd spent together in the hotel's library, and Harlene couldn't forget the sound of Alastor's heartbeat. Sometimes, right before Alastor would enter the same room as her, Harlene swore she could hear the rhythm of his heart in the back of her mind as if telling her that he was near.
They'd never discussed what Alastor's microphone had said that night, and although Harlene had tried to forget it, she couldn't help replaying its words over and over in her head before she went to sleep. Harlene was afraid that it may have expressed Alastor's true thoughts, purely because she didn't want him to catch feelings for her. She didn't want their friendship to be ruined by a love that she should've never earned, for she simply didn't deserve Alastor's love. Even so, Harlene had begun to notice that she may have already fallen in too deep as her adoration for the Radio Demon had only grown ever since the night he managed to make her smile for the very first time in almost a hundred years.
Thankfully, things between them hadn't changed much after that eventful night. Alastor continued to treat Harlene in the fashion he'd always done and Harlene had done the same. The only difference was that they were constantly in physical contact whenever they were around each other. Alastor was especially touchy. Whether it be by holding Harlene's wrist, caressing her hair or laying his hands on her shoulders, Alastor never failed to be as close to her as possible when they were together. Meanwhile, Harlene did her best not to reciprocate this as she knew that Alastor didn't like being touched even more than she hadn't, even though he tended to look strangely offended when she avoided doing so, something that Harlene couldn't bring herself to fully understand.