Chapter Text
Breakfast was usually awkward to say the least. Cherri barely spoke to anyone who wasn’t Angel and she just waited until he was distracted so she could fuck off back to her room and proceed to rot in there until she got tired of spending time with herself. Even she had to admit she was tiring after a while.
But that wasn’t the case this morning. The cyclops ate and joked around with her best friend like they normally would, but she had no real rush on going back upstairs this time. Because she knew what would happen if she was left alone with her phone, and she would rather answer the princess’ incessant question while one of her therapist delusions than to do that.
Right now, they were actually having a kind of decent conversation at the bar. They didn’t really drink anything other than their cappuccinos. Well maybe Husk did, but even she couldn’t completely judge him for that. As much as she wanted to.
“I thought you were gonna have an exercise today?” Husk asked before he took a sip from his orange mug.
Angel shrugged with his lips glued to his own, then he swallowed his coffee so he could respond properly. “She did say she had it scheduled for today. But she hasn’t said anything about it yet.”
“Oooh, do you think she forgot about it?” Cherri asked with her face showing clear hopefulness. She wouldn’t really mind that, quite the opposite really. Maybe she and Angel could go shopping for new clothes for her, or at least something to sleep in, wearing hand-me-downs was kind of a reminder of how low she had fallen.
“Charlie? Please, as if she had anything else to do than dragging us all into useless activities.” Angel responded with a roll of his eyes.
“Wouldn’t put it past her right now…” Husk intervened with a quieter tone, almost whispering the thought, which made both Angel and Cherri look at him with intrigue.
“What?” The pornstar let his cappuccino rest on the counter of the bar.
Husk hesitated to elaborate, his eyes darted around the room, making sure no one was listening to their conversation. That didn’t help with the curiosity the others were feeling.
“Spit it out, will you?” Cherri rolled her eye while her nails clicked on the counter in irritation. He couldn’t just bait them with the idea of finally hearing something potentially interesting and then backpedal like he had suddenly re-gained morals.
It wasn’t like she cared much for what Charlie had going on with her life, but being here was boring. At least some gossip would give them something to talk about.
Much to her surprise, Husk didn’t snarl at her. He didn’t even give her a scoff. That was almost unnatural. “I hardly doubt this is a secret,” He stated, his eyes shifting their focus to a random glass -that was already clean- that he began to polish. “You’re gonna tell me that you didn’t notice Charlie acting strange?”
“Strange how?” Angel raised an eyebrow.
That cat must've forgotten that not everyone here had as much free time as he did. Some people actually had something to do other than wiping counters or polishing glasses with a dirty cloth or drinking so much they’d have to be dragged to their rooms. Not every day at least. So not everyone was as observant as him.
Husk’s gaze flicked over around the lobby once again. “She’s been distracted ever since the battle.”
The ones by the other side of the counter looked at each other, unsure on what to say about that. Cherri thought that Angel could have a larger view than she did. He knew the princess better than her, and he was out of his room for longer than she had been ever since she (involuntarily) moved in.
But no. He looked just as lost. That seemed like enough clue that this conversation was pointless.
“Are you really surprised? Her old hotel got blasted in half and no one’s coming to the new one.” She mocked Husk’s argument like it was an exaggeration on his part. And Cherri truly believed that was the case. “Who knows? Maybe reality had finally come to bite her in the ass.”
She could see how Husk had to take a breath in order to not answer and end the peaceful atmosphere that was already fragile as it was. But what she didn’t expect was to see Angel’s face contorting into a frown, just for a moment. And then back to normal.
He even opened his mouth to argue, but the sound of footsteps made him close it again. Everyone at the bar turned their heads towards the lobby, where they saw Charlie and Vaggie having a conversation. But the atmosphere around it felt off. The cyclops wasn’t all too familiar about how a conversation between the couple usually looked, but she wasn’t a stranger to a lover’s quarrel either.
“I just think-“ Vaggie was about to tell the princess something, but the blonde just turned her head in direction to the bar, where she made eye-contact with the unwilling public.
“Oh hey, guys!” Charlie waved at them with her signature smile back on her face in a matter of milliseconds, leaving her girlfriend with a dejected expression on her face as she remained silent.
Everyone noticed, of course. But they still greeted her back halfheartedly. Charlie approached the rest, while the other girl followed close behind.
“Hey?” Angel said, clearly uncomfortable with the mood shift. Cherri did the same, but her tone was unbothered.
“It’s surprising to see you here so early, Cherri.” The princess commented, seemingly unaware of the atmosphere.
Angel smirked and placed a hand over his chest solemnly. “She got a little encouragement from yours truly.”
Cherri scoffed, but still smiled at him. “What can I say? I can’t resist this fuckhead’s biscotti.”
“I don’t think anyone’s immune.” Husk joined in the praise, sneaking a short peek at Angel with a faint smile.
And of course, the idiot looked like his head short-circuited in an instant. Cherri didn’t say anything, she just distracted herself with another slice of bread from her plate.
“Oh yes, they’re so good.” Charlie agreed enthusiastically, and Vaggie just nodded with a distant look on her face. “I can’t thank you enough for making breakfast today, Angel.”
“Pff- No need, baby. I’ve been wanting to cook for a while.” The pornstar waved her off, but it was evident he was flustered. At least to his best friend. “Niff is good, but she doesn’t have the generational talent for it.”
“Humble as ever.” Vaggie finally spoke with sarcasm.
Angel ignored her and then turned to the blonde. “So, Doll face, you said you had something planned for us today?”
Charlie’s beaming slowly faded from her features, mutating into bewilderment. Cherri had to bite back a laugh. So she did forget.
“Right…the exercise for today.” The princess forced herself to smile, her eyes similar to a deer caught in the headlights. She turned to her partner, seeking for help, and as always, the other rushed to answer on her behalf.
“We got held up with all the changes in our budget and promotion for the hotel.” Vaggie explained, attempting to sound more diplomatic than stressed as hell. No one bought it, but they let her finish anyway . “We might have to reschedule.”
The cyclops wanted to celebrate immediately. Now Angel had the day completely off. She even gave him an enthusiastic grin and he smiled back, but he didn’t exactly return the energy…weird.
“Not exactly!” Charlie cut her off hastily. “Maybe you guys can choose what to do.”
We could throw you off a bridge
Cherri cleared her throat to hide the amusement that stupid intrusive thought gave her. Angel raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment on it. Husk was way in his head to even pay attention.
“I’m the patient zero here, so I shouldn’t be trusted with the activities.” Angel scoffed.
“Let’s just go to the mall or something!” Cherri brought back her initial suggestion for the day.
It was unbelievable that her best friend was even considering workshopping options for an activity for self-betterment or whatever. He just got off the hook! And it wasn’t even his fault this time, and he still didn’t shut them down the moment they fucked up. This hotel clearly did something to him.
“I doubt shopping would help him in any meaningful way.” The bartender finally spoke with a snarky remark. She knew he was just trying to piss her off, so there was no response on her part.
With her idea being shut down, they all stayed on their spots, workshopping some last minute activities that could help Angel somehow to become a better person in just one evening. You know, easy stuff. But they couldn’t settle for anything. Charlie groaned in exasperation, which didn’t go unnoticed by the rest. They had seen her crash out before, that wasn’t new. But she wasn’t complaining about how hard it was to come up with something.
“This is my fault.” The princess declared. Vaggie tried to reassure her, but Charlie would just brush off each attempt. “I got so busy with all the new publicity that–“
“Dollface, no one’s mad at you.” Angel felt like he had to intervene. Husk nodded in agreement, showing actual concern for once.
He didn’t have that face when my fucking apartment fell apart
“It was still irresponsible on my part…” The blonde continued to mope. Leaving the atmosphere completely heavy with tension. So much that Cherri got a little afraid of breathing too loud for that moment. But the vibration of her phone shook her out of that.
She made sure no one was paying attention to her before stealthily looking at the screen that lit up with every text. So that asshole was still on it. She thought ignoring her phone for a few hours would help, but apparently that was wishful thinking again.
Well fuck this. He couldn’t control her through a fucking screen. Only a few clicks were enough for her device to be completely useless until she had her head clear enough to turn it back on.
Cherri sighed. Her single pupil flicked back to the main event. The princess of hell, trying to pull her hair out and everyone else stopping her from doing so. If her mood wasn’t completely in shambles, Cherri would’ve laughed and enjoyed the free show. But instead, she hopped off her stool and brought two fingers into each corner of her lips and blew in order to grab everyone’s attention.
“Getting a little rowdy there, princess?” she called out. And there was no need to do anything else, since that served as enough distraction for Charlie, who kept her eyes on her now. “You wanna know what I think? I think we all need to blow off some steam.”
The rest looked at her as if she had suddenly grown two heads, but at least their eyes were focused on something that wasn’t Charlie’s panicked act. Silence lingered at the bar for a moment until Vaggie was the first to break it.
“…What do you have in mind?”
Next thing they knew, they were all gathered at pentagram city’s biggest landfill. A place that Cherri could’ve considered her second home by now. There were so many beautiful memories stored in her head forever about that place.
Of course the rest were skeptical the moment they heard her idea, but after getting to the conclusion that there weren't really other choices – that mixed with her very detailed description on how this could work – they just reluctantly followed along.
As expected, only Angel seemed enthusiastic about the whole thing. He even brought a baseball bat he stole from a guy he fought years ago. Cherri remembered that moment. Watching her friend lift the weapon in the air and laughing victoriously while blood splattered all over his white fur was not something she imagined would become engraved in her brain, but it did. She always smiled at the thought.
Her eye landed on Vaggie, who clearly wasn’t enjoying the smell. Angels were cool with being covered in guts and blood, but trash was where they drew the line? Eh, maybe Charlie had domesticated her so much that she’s not used to real action anymore. Which must suck for her. She would never let her partner get her away from the thrill of jumping over buildings and destroying anything that caught her eye.
“So, uh…what are we doing here again, exactly?” Charlie tried to sound normal after being shaken up by the sight of a huge rat that scattered closer to them that she would like.
“Whatever the hell we want!” Cherri responded with a determined smirk. At least now she could break some shit and not think about– agh, fuck!
“Yeah! No one cares for property here.” Angel joined in, seemingly just as hyped.
Fuck yeah, there he was.
Husk wasn’t paying much attention as he tied his shoes. Angel advised him to wear them since there was a shit ton of broken glass everywhere. The cat didn’t love that, but he didn’t protest much.
“So we’re just gonna break stuff until we feel better?” Vaggie was not very convinced and her narrowing eye was a dead giveaway.
“Oh! Now that you mention it, I’ve heard there are places like this with rooms made specifically for people to break them.” Charlie instantly lit up when she remembered that fact. The cyclops grinned as her point was being backed up.
“See? This is something like that, just a little improvised.”
The former exorcist wasn’t too happy about it. But the choice was made.
However, the princess noticed that all of them scattering around mountains of trash wouldn’t serve much for bonding, so now they were forced to make little exercises where everyone had to line up to accomplish.
Cherri and Angel had the amazing idea of hammer throwing. With Husk’s help, they were able to find a bunch of abandoned TV’s (mostly analogical) and piled them up like a pyramid. Angel improvised a score system and traced how many points was each TV worth with red lipstick on the screens. They settled for a 20 - 100 points range. Vaggie wanted to argue that a bonding activity shouldn’t be a competition, but Husk counteracted saying that this was just to raise the odds, which would build up more engagement.
Perhaps he just wanted to feel like he was somehow gambling, but even Cherri couldn’t deny that she was glad he intervened this time.
“So what’s the winning score?” The grey haired asked, rubbing the bridge of her nose in exhaustion.
“Let’s keep it easy. 200!”
Cherri traced a line to mark where the players would stand at 20 feet from the pyramid. Most of them had good aim, so it seemed fair. “Alright, let’s see who’s got the best arm.”
Angel was first. He obviously wasn’t allowed to use his guns, so he settled for a rusty hammer they found. He threw it with as much precision as he could and to no one’s surprise, he scored a solid 60.
“Hell yeah!” He celebrated. Charlie clapped and took note of his score at a small notepad she had on her.
“That’s my bitch!” Cherri cheered, throwing her fist in the air. Husk just smirked and gave him a thumbs up. He knew Angel had strong arms after all.
The next one was Cherri. She refused the hammer so she could use something more challenging. She found a tire rim that was laying on the ground and threw it to the TV’s like a frisbee. She was aware that it wouldn't pierce an analog TV’s screen, so she aimed for a flat screen instead and bam! 50 points.
“Suck my dick!” She screamed victorious.
Angel quickly cheered for her with the utmost enthusiasm and Cherri couldn’t help but to huff out a flustered laugh. That idiot…
The bartender was instantly prohibited from using his cards. They all knew it would be too easy for him. So Angel passed him a rusty screwdriver he was able to find after digging on a random pile.
“I know you’re good with darts, so…”
“You remembered that?” The cat seemed shocked, but not really displeased. That was the first time Cherri noticed he could lower his ears.
”Of course. Been wanting to see you in action since you told me.” The spider winked at him.
Ew .
Husk stayed silent for a moment before he cleared his throat quickly. Muttering a ‘thank you’ before stepping behind the line. He took a minute to adjust the tool into his claws, sticking out his tongue as he aimed.
“Holy shit, 80!” Of course Angel took the opportunity to pull Husk towards him in excitement. Like the slut he was.
After him, Charlie was next in line. She didn’t seem too eager about throwing anything, but Vaggie lent her the angelic spear she took everywhere for some reason. Angel booed and Cherri also shouted in disapproval.
“That’s not fair!” The pornstar protested. “None of us were allowed to use weapons.”
“She doesn’t know how to use this one. And her aim isn’t as trained either.” Vaggie counteracted.
“Y-Yeah…I don’t have many chances with this either.”
Husk agreed on that. Even with a powerful weapon, the princess and her weak arms could still fuck it up. So maybe they could be merciful with her. Just this once.
What a terrible mistake that was.
Charlie gripped on the spear and stood the way her girlfriend instructed her. She took a self-soothing breath before she hurled the weapon with all the strength her noodle arms could muster.
A scream from an unknown voice made everyone peel their eyes as they looked for the source.
There was a brief pause. Then Cherri whispered “…Did she just-?”
“Holy shit. I’m so sorry!” Charlie rushed to see if she could try to do something for the poor bastard who got in the way of the spear. Everyone else stayed still, in shock. A dreadful silence fell on the scene.
Until Angel couldn’t contain his laughter anymore.
His unfortunate timing was contagious enough to make Cherri cave in. Husk snorted and lost it too. Vaggie just scrunched and rubbed her face.
“It’s okay, Hun.” Vaggie rubbed her girlfriend’s back in an attempt to make her stop crying. Everyone was gathered up around them, not knowing what to do.
At least they were able to pull her off the helpless corpse she tried to resurrect. She had to learn the hard way that CPR didn’t work on someone who just got impaled with angelic steel.
“I’m sorry we laughed too,” Angel added, placing a hand on her shoulder to see if that would help. “But hey. We have all killed someone before.”
Husk shot him a look that screamed: ‘ Seriously ?’
“You also fought against angels a while ago, remember?” The spider continued, although less confident now.
“But that was self-defense!” Charlie retorted with her voice completely broken. “That poor demon was just doing his job.”
“Okay- yeah…But it’s just a casualty. It happens to the best of us.”
Cherri had to bite her lip in order not to burst out laughing. God, Angel sucked at comforting people so much it was hilarious.
“Hey.” Husk’s voice caught Charlie’s attention. “I know sometimes it’s hard to practice what we preach, but don’t you tell everyone in the hotel that a few mistakes don’t make you a bad person?”
Vaggie nodded with her eye wide. Like she didn’t expect someone to add in an actually helpful comment, but she appreciated it. She cupped the blonde’s cheek gently to make her turn to her, so they could lock eyes. Her voice came out just as soft as her smile.
“That's true. You’re still a good person, even after this… incident .”
“And now you have something else in common with your girl-“ Husk covered Angel’s mouth before he could ruin this further. Cherri almost chewed off her lip.
Charlie continued to cry, but she wasn’t sobbing anymore, if anything, just a few quiet sniffles while she looked at the ground. It was obvious she was taking in their words.
Vaggie grabbed her hand to snap her out of her thoughts. “Hey, why don’t you show everyone that new trick you just learned?”
Charlie took a deep breath. Then her usual smile was back on her face as she gazed at her partner. She raised a hand with her index finger lifted.
A beautiful sight made everyone gasp. There was an explosion of bright colored shapes dancing on the red sky. Like that neon had a life on its own.
There was a star. Then a smiley face. Then a heart.
It’s been a while since Cherri saw real fireworks.
Tick, tick, tick…
Fuck. No. Not right now…
Her hands gripped at the hem of her skirt. She could feel her own nails almost succeeding at piercing through her flesh.
She forgot what it was like to share this sight with someone else. At least Angel was there. But even that wasn’t making her chest feel less tight. The threat of a lump in her throat suddenly appeared.
Cherri hated crying. Especially when there were people around. But even if she was alone right now, she wouldn’t shed more than a couple of tears (if she tried hard enough). That thought was a little comforting, along with the fact that everyone was too entranced on the dazzling show above them to pay her a single glance.
Maybe it was better that way. She didn’t want someone trying to calm her down. Yes, Angel included. Because as much as he cared, he didn’t get it.
That was the worst part. If Angel didn’t get it, then who would?
Was there any hope at all?
But then again, she gave up on feeling understood a long time ago. It’s easier once you lose all expectations on everyone around you, but she couldn’t have a choice there either. Which was probably for the best, because if that was placed on her twisted criteria, she would’ve been stuck in that endless loop for longer.
Someone nudged her side.
“Have you seen my phone?” Her best friend’s voice pierced through the loud noise in her head. “I wanna film this.”
Cherri 's gaze met him. Angel had his eyes shining just as much as the colors that caressed his face gently.
Then she remembered why she was there.
“Yeah,” She disguised her tone to appear just as casual. “They’re in my bag, over there.”
Cherri pointed towards the spot where they left the improvised pyramid of TV’s. The spider followed her lead, but his face fell immediately.
“What?” The cyclops raised her single eyebrow.
“Uh…you didn’t bring your bombs with you, right?”
“Of course I-” She cut herself off as realization hit her.
“Oh shit .”
“TAKE COVER!”
Everyone jumped to their feet and scattered around the piles of trash and scraps. A choir of curses overlapped the sound of their footsteps.
Angel shielded her with his lanky figure as they both covered their ears behind a broken refrigerator like that would do much.
BOOM!
Even through their efforts, the blast made her ears ring. A familiar heat washed over all of them. Sparks fluttered through the cloud that could’ve easily sent them flying if it weren’t for the fact that they were hunched over the dirt.
“Why the fuck would you bring bombs to a bonding activity!?”
Cherri rolled her eye for what felt like the millionth time. Vaggie was on her ass all the way back to the hotel and her reprimands didn’t quit in the lobby either.
“Just in case…” The cyclops told her once more, but that only riled the other woman further.
“We all have weapons. If something happened we could’ve- ”
Cherri tuned her out. Her gaze flickered around the room for literally anything else than that bitch.
Charlie was sitting on the couch across from them, still shaken up and with her face looking dark in a way the anarchist had never seen. Angel was sitting next to her, witnessing everything but not uttering a word yet.
Gee thanks, asshole.
Husk wasn’t paying attention to the scolding, he was more focused on his whiskey and surprisingly enough, listening to the princess mutter yet another apology. He shook off all of them while he stared at the bald spot the explosion gave in on his side.
They were all covered in dirt and some had visible scratches on them from the whole debacle. But nothing actually worrisome. See? It wasn’t a big deal! Vaggie was exaggerating.
She was about to completely cut Cherri off her explosives for good until Charlie suddenly stood up and cleared her throat. Cutting the conversation (if it could be categorized as such) off.
“I want to let you all know that I apologize for not taking my job seriously today.” The blonde began, sounding almost diplomatic. Like giving a speech to a horde of followers. “I will make an effort to have the activities planned thoroughly according to our schedule from now on.”
“What? Honey-”
Charlie cut her off again. “This incident happened because of my carelessness. I plan to avoid that in the future.”
Damn. Even Cherri had to admit she was shocked. Not at the overly fancy wording, but the fact that Charlie was taking the blame for this shit show. Sure, she screwed up a few times but those were accidents. Why did someone have to apologize at all? It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.
…Right?
“Charlie, it wasn’t your fault.” That was the first time Cherri ever agreed with her.
But the other didn’t listen. She just waved her off gently and bid them all a good night before retreating to her room. And once again, the room felt heavy. All eyes cornered her once more.
“Well?” The former exterminator crossed her arms and shot her a glare that felt sharper than her spear. Angel shot up from his seat and was able to speak this time.
“Cut her some slack, will you?” He walked around the coffee table to take a seat next to his best friend. Right where he should’ve been from the very start. “How was she supposed to know?”
“Bringing explosives could’ve ended up terribly. She should’ve thought about that.”
“Don’t you carry around a weapon that could permanently kill us?” Husk called her out from the rim of his bottle.
“That’s different. I know how to use it.”
“Yeah, that’s what my uncle Leonardo used to say until his son ended up with a bullet in his thigh.” Angel said casually while giving Vaggie an unimpressed glance.
“And I know how to use my bombs!” Cherri clarified.
“Oh yeah?” Vaggie challenged her with a stare.
“Yeah!”
“So why are you here and not your apartment?”
Oh, that grey, bitter, hypocritical skank!
Cherri didn’t respond with her words, but instead she pounced on her direction. Angel had to wrap his six arms around her to stop her from trying to kill a divine entity with her bare hands – which she could’ve probably done if he’d let her!
Even Husk had to chime in to pull Vaggie out of her reach.
“Let me at her!” Cherri struggled to shout into Angel’s arms.
“It’s not worth it!” He responded as he shielded his face on her back so she wouldn’t punch him.
“Ah. What a lovely show of utter nonsense and bloodlust!”
“Where the fuck did you come from!?” Angel screamed at Alastor, who just randomly materialized in the room.
“Ruin the mood much?”
“Where the fuck did he come from!?” Husk yelled as he noticed Lucifer’s sudden appearance.
Okay. This was getting ridiculous.
“EVERYONE STOP!”
They all got startled by a screeching voice that broke through the chaos of the scene. All heads turned to the small maid that was standing on the coffee table.
“I just mopped the floor!” She huffed with her arms crossed over her chest.
You know what? Fuck this madhouse. She couldn’t even kill someone freely. Cherri used the opportunity to get out Angel’s grasp and storm out of the lobby.
“Cherri, wait!”
“Angel. I need to talk to you.” Vaggie stopped him from going after her.
And the fucker relentled.
Fine! Whatever! She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She didn’t want to be fucking comforted. She didn’t need Angel. She didn’t need anyone!
Tick, tick, tick…
Her fist collided on the wall in the hallway.
FUCK THIS HOTEL!