XVIII
Between the clean up of souls and his regular schedule, Lucky hadn’t been back down to Hell in several days.
He’d ignored Lucius' warning to rest, if only to prove he could do it, but he regretted it. Still, he did his job expertly. Enough that the king gave him an approving nod upon his return. He was utterly exhausted and needed some solid rest, so he was thankful he’d managed to clean up his contracts and could take a nap.
He immediately left the Hell HQ parking lot after exiting the elevator, ignoring the desk demon who kept trying to get his attention.
A desperate ache to see Charlie overwhelmed him, so he drove to The Radiant Reaper against the screaming of his body and lull of sleep.
The drive took mere minutes, but felt like it went on for eons.
He parked crooked in the reserved space and dragged himself inside.
The tired prince rode the elevator up, blinking his eyes lazily as he did.
He rubbed them furiously to keep himself awake.
The door opened on floor six and he walked to Charlie’s unit. He knocked gently, then waited. And waited. And waited. So he knocked harder. He was met with silence.
“Charlie?” Lucky asked in the most respectful tone he could manage.
Anxiety started to swell. What if Heaven had snatched Charlie up while he was away? What if he’d returned to his body? What if he didn’t get his goodbye?
Panic took over and Lucky kicked the door in again. He heard Igor the maintenance imp groan from somewhere down the hall but ignored it. He raced into the apartment, calling Charlie’s name between heaving breaths as he tore through the small unit. His human was gone.
He felt like he would pass out. Or vomit. Or die. Dying felt more correct, more imminent. He didn’t even know if he could die, but he felt like it.
“Ch-Charlie?” he whimpered, standing in the empty bedroom with the freshly made bed. Even the hound was gone. Of course it was, it was tied to Charlie. If he left then the hound would vanish, too.
Charlie was gone.
His Charlie was…
A lightbulb clicked on, and not just the literal bulb in the bathroom as he flipped the switch to double check that he hadn’t missed Charlie passed out somewhere.
The thought that followed gave him a small dash of hope.
He turned to the front door, trying to focus through the tears.
He took long steps to the living room and scanned the corner where Charlie had kept the hound’s belongings.
Where was the leash? If the leash was gone, that meant someone was walking the dog.
It was a grounding point that helped pull him away from the precipice of a mental breakdown.
Someone was walking Luke and John. The hound was still here, that meant Charlie was still here. But if not in his home, then where?
“The fucking office.”
Lucky nearly crashed twice on his way back to the office.
He slammed his fist on the horn as someone who obviously didn’t value their afterlife tried to park in the space next to his, then whipped into the parking spot before barreling out of the vehicle toward the front doors.
Once again, the desk demon tried to get his attention but he ignored it.
The royal elevator was on another floor and moving too slowly for his liking.
His exhaustion was winning, he nearly tumbled into the wall and barely caught himself on the railing as he fumbled the button for his office, huffing out tiny puffs of smoke in the process.
During the ascent, he tried to fix his disheveled appearance.
He needed a shower and a change of clothes, some solid sleep and a warm meal. He needed a damn break.
The golden doors slid open and he stepped into his office with a furious energy.
“Charles Wickham!”
Somewhere deep in the labyrinth of shelves, a clattering sound broke through the silence.
Luke and John began barking from where it had been sleeping by the priest’s desk.
Charlie came running over from behind a stack of papers in the distance with files in his hands.
His expression went from concern to… joy?
Was that joy on his face? He looked so happy.
Why? It couldn’t have been because of him, could it?
Lucky took a few long steps forward until he was sprinting toward Charlie.
“Welcome back—oh!” Charlie gasped. The files dropped to the ground as Lucky bundled him up in his arms.
“You’re still here…”
“I… Where else would I be?” Charlie asked.
Lucky dropped to his knees and set his horns against Charlie’s chest as he heaved out a sigh, his shaking hands clung to the priest’s back.
“I was worried. I-I couldn’t find you, I was so scared,” Lucky mumbled. “I was afraid you’d gone to Heaven, that I didn’t get to say goodbye…”
Charlie gently set his hand on Lucky’s back. “I’m confused. Are you alright? You feel cold.”
Lucky nodded. “I need a second.”
The prince tried to collect himself, but his knees were weak and he was tired.
Sitting there with his horns pressed against Charlie, with the human’s hands on him in the silent office, his racing mind stopped.
It was finally quiet. After days of wailing, of souls bartering for one more second, of demons and angels arguing, the noiseless nothingness was beautiful. Almost Heavenly.
Lucky eventually lifted his head. Charlie looked at him with concern.
“What happened?” Charlie asked.
“I couldn’t find you at your place, and I was afraid Heaven got to you before I finished my work,” Lucky replied shakily. “I started to panic that we didn’t get our goodbye.”
“You say that as if we wouldn’t see each other once I get to Heaven.” He said it so sweetly that it stung like a white hot knife to the heart.
“We won’t,” Lucky whispered.
Charlie’s smile faded. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll be in two separate worlds, Charlie.
Once you leave here that’s it.” He swallowed hard before continuing.
Now wasn’t the time to be selfish. “That’s a good thing…
obviously! We want to get you to where you belong, but I’d hate myself for eternity if I didn’t get to send you off.
Those assholes at the Seraph’s Office don’t like to wait, so it’s hard to know if they’ll give us that moment or simply rip you away.
When I couldn’t find you I got scared that I’d missed my chance.
That I let work become the priority again. ”
Guilt bubbled up so fast he felt like he’d vomit.
“I… don’t like that.” Charlie’s golden glow flickered.
Lucky wanted to encourage that horrible loss of his Heavenly innocence.
He wanted Charlie to need him. Wanted Charlie to desire to stay, wanted to taint his soul so Heaven wouldn’t take him.
So that the only person on either side of Earth that would want him was him, but the prince knew he couldn’t. It was wrong.
“It’s not a bad thing. You getting to Heaven is the priority—”
“But why can’t I come see you? Why wouldn’t we be able to see each other?”
“Because we’re different. Because once you get that golden halo and those beautiful wings, stepping down here again would taint you. That can’t happen. It’s already risking your purity being here—”
Charlie flinched. Good. Lucky still had the chance to make Hell and all of its issues repulse him. He needed to repulse him, yell at him, demand he get back to work, be mean and forceful. But Charlie was teary-eyed, and Lucky was tired, and he really didn’t want to.
“That makes me sad,” Charlie whispered as he wrapped his arms around Lucky.
Lucky melted at the touch. His tail went limp on the warm floor and his arms hung for a second, not sure if he should reciprocate. But he had to. He wanted to. With a tremble in his hands, he embraced the human again and held on for as long as Charlie would let him.
“I hate it when you’re sad,” Lucky whispered. “Don’t be sad.”
“I’m worried.”
“About?”
“You,” Charlie whispered. “You feel so cold.”
“I’m tired, and hungry. I’ll be fine.”
Charlie pulled away. Lucky let out a soft whine when he did and had to stop himself from digging his claws—broken and jagged from the lack of care and hefty workload—into Charlie’s back.
“Go home,” Charlie whispered. “I can handle this.”
Lucky shook his head. “No.”
“You’re being stubborn.”
“I haven’t seen you in days, and I want to stay. I’ll order food and take a nap until it gets here. Then we can work like usual.”
Charlie huffed and pouted. Lucky smiled softly at the sight.
“Fine,” Charlie relented.
Lucky nodded. He used one of the nearby shelves to push himself up.
Once he was stable, he looked at Charlie who still seemed uneasy.
He set his hand atop the priest’s head and ruffled his hair before he started walking and inquiring what Charlie wanted for lunch.
Unsurprisingly, he said a sandwich, so Lucky placed an order at the regular spot since the owner now knew to keep the human’s favorite ingredients on hand.
Their usual orders were in Lucky’s favorites now, and it only made him sadder to know that soon he wouldn’t need to be ordering subs with black olives and onions every other day. He tried not to dwell on it.
As they returned to the front of the office, Lucky flopped over on the sofa they’d unearthed in their bouts of organizing and eventually moved near his desk.
He was honestly surprised at how much they’d gotten done.
He could see a lot of the floor now, and at least a third of the office was tidied.
The mess still had a long way to go, because all they were truly doing was putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound.
It would take a lot longer to get everything in proper order once it all ended up in boxes, and it sounded tedious.
Getting them into boxes was at least fun on occasion.
It was like a scavenger hunt every time a new year would pop up and a box needed to be made.
He’d seen files belonging to humans he hadn’t thought about in a long while, and reminisced over the days when it was easier to hunt down souls.
Overcrowded cities were nothing compared to the wide open expanses of farmlands and freshly charted territories.
He’d mentioned to Charlie a while back when they’d both started geeking out about a historical figure that his favorite time period had been the Oregon Trail days.
Mostly straight lines to follow between bodies with only one true route between them made finding a target easier than having to scour buildings with dozens of floors to find one person.
He missed the good old days, even if he had needed to use a horse for transport since cars weren’t around yet.
“The usual?” Lucky asked sleepily, though he wasn’t sure why. Charlie never deviated from the foods he liked. Truthfully, he’d already placed the order but it felt rude not to ask.
“Yes, thank you. Would you like me to run down to the café and get you something?” Charlie inquired.
“Not right now. I’m going to shut my eyes for a second, I’ll get up when the food arrives.”
“Have a good nap.”
“Thanks, Chuck.”