VII
Lucky walked into his office with Charlie at his side.
The heir set the sandwiches on the desk and opened the rolled dog bed.
He placed it in the least cluttered area of the floor so the hound hopefully wasn’t tempted to eat his files.
He dropped another human femur by John’s head while Charlie unclipped the harness.
“Did I do a good job?” Charlie asked.
“With?” Lucky questioned.
“The filing?”
“Yeah, you made a bigger dent than I thought you would. I think we can actually pull this off.”
“We?”
“I’m not letting you do this alone, Chuck.”
Lucky watched as Charlie’s eyes sparkled. That blinding, holy innocence returned and Lucky had to look away.
“I assumed I’d be doing it by myself,” Charlie admitted.
“N-no, I just had somewhere important I had to be last night,” Lucky lied. He immediately felt guilty for doing so.
“A meeting?”
“A… mental health break,” he admitted. No more lying, at least where it could be avoided.
“The past few weeks have been stressful. I get… mean when I’m stressed.
I didn’t want to be a drama queen. Filing stresses me out, hence the whole—” he gestured before he continued— “not doing it for a long while. But I know this pile over here contains my most recent cases from the past few years so I think we should tackle this first. That way we can have some more floor space to work.”
“I can put together some more boxes,” Charlie said as he headed to the box of smaller boxes.
Lucky grabbed him by the belt and lifted him off the ground. “No, you’re going to eat first.”
“Are you sure?”
“Eat.”
Charlie nodded. Lucky deposited him in the leather office chair and handed him the sandwich he’d ordered.
It was a honey roasted turkey breast on wheat with lettuce, Swiss cheese, red onions, and black olives.
It sounded horrendous. The imp behind the counter had to pop up to Earth to steal some ingredients from an unsuspecting sandwich shop to make it for him, but Lucky had demanded it be done.
Residents of Hell had acquired more human tastes over the centuries, and some who were close to their human thralls often liked to treat their pets to something from their living days on special occasions, but it was a rarity so specialty ingredients like onions weren’t normally stocked.
He wondered if he’d need to stop by a grocery store after his meeting with the clergy on Earth to make sure Charlie had food.
It would cost him precious fridge space, but it would be worth it.
As Lucky picked up his own sandwich—a monster meatball with extra cheese and ghost peppers—the realization that he was planning on making room for Charlie in his home dawned on him.
He’d never entertained the thought of someone else in his space.
He never brought partners over. Gabe only came to drink when they were together, but the intimate moments had happened at the archangel’s place.
Lucky’s space was sacred, but the thought of sending Charlie home left him in a mild panic.
Maybe he could use the excuse of Charlie not being able to pay rent to make the suggestion easier.
It was then he realized he should probably pay Charlie for the filing, too.
The situation was growing much too complicated.
Lucky sat on the edge of his desk and unwrapped the top part of his sandwich to take a bite. He tried not to chuckle while he watched Charlie tear off small parts of the sub so it would better fit his human-sized mouth. The priest wiggled happily when he bit into it, and it was fucking adorable.
“Good?” Lucky asked.
“Yes, it’s delicious,” Charlie said as he daintily wiped his mouth with his thumb, almost embarrassed that his pristine image had been messed up by an olive.
It was so distracting Lucky missed a blob of marinara sauce that dripped off his own sandwich onto his shirt.
He groaned as he looked at his crisp white button up, fumbling for a napkin in the bag.
He was so flustered. In all of his long existence he’d never felt so awkward and unsure.
So… distracted. He definitely needed to get laid tonight.
“Is the filing system working? Should we continue as is or do you want to do something else?” Charlie asked.
“No, it’s good. I think somewhere in that mess I put up shelves that probably had a similar organization method,” Lucky replied as he tried to clean up his shirt.
“I’m more than happy to stay as late as we need.”
“Don’t overdo it.”
“I wouldn’t see how I could. I’m dead, sir. Not like much else can happen to me.”
Lucky cut his eyes toward Charlie as the human took another bite. “Yeah… right…”
Guilt stabbed at him excessively. This needed to stop.