How long do you think Grace can keep a secret?
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To Grace’s relief, Charlie told everyone to meet out at the pool for the following day’s activity. Hell’s princess was so excited for it that she was practically leaping out of her own skin.
Lucifer was present; Grace, again donning her sunglasses because of that ‘persistent migraine,’ avoided his gaze and stayed as far from him as possible. She could only imagine what he would think of her deal with Alastor. What did it matter to her? She couldn’t explain why, but it did.
Husk and Angel Dust walked out —holding hands, Grace didn’t miss—shortly after she’d shown up.
Kofax joined them, sucking away on a lollipop that she occasionally twirled with her tongue.
Cherri waltzed out with Vaggie hot on her tail.
And to Grace’s dismay, Alastor joined them, too, with Niffty riding on his shoulders.
“I … am … soexcited! … about today’s activity!” Charlie squeaked as they all gathered around. “I gave this lots of thought and I’m so glad you made the suggestion for this, Kofax!”
Kofax blinked. “What’d I do now?”
Charlie gestured to buckets filled with water balloons lined up on the deck near the pool.
“Oh! No fuckin’ way!” Kofax crowed. “Seriously? We’re having a water balloon fight?”
“No! No, no!” Charlie was quick to correct her. “We’re having a water balloon teamwork toss!”
“Well that sounds a lot less fun,” Angel Dust groaned.
“Oh, it’s gonna be superfun! We’re gonna pair off and start out standing five feet away from our partner. You toss your balloon, they catch it. Each time it’s caught successfully by your partner, you take one step farther apart. You break the balloon—by missing, dropping it, or catching it too hard—and you have to step closer together.”
“And how, exactly, do you win this activity?” Husk asked.
“Uh—” Charlie paused. “It wasn’t meant to be a win or lose sort of thing—”
Now everyone groaned.
“How about,” Vaggie interjected, “the team that has the most distance between them once the buckets are empty wins!”
Angel Dust shrugged. “That works for me!”
“Me too!” Kofax piped up.
“So now we pair up!” Charlie glanced around the group.
“I can’t decide,” Angel thought aloud. “Would being Cherri’s partner be a good thing here or a bad thing here?”
Cherri laughed. “It’ll really depend on how well you receive.”
Kofax sidled up to Cherri, looping their arms together at the elbow. “I can receive anything you send my way!”
Cherri blushed but didn’t object.
Interesting, Grace thought. She hadn’t considered there might be something going on there between them.
“Well if Cherri’s with Kofax, I get Husk!” Angel declared.
Vaggie smiled. “I’ll pair up with Niff so Lucifer and Charlie can have some father-daughter bonding time!”
Charlie looked like she might melt away into nothing at such a sweet suggestion.
“Guess that leaves Grace with Alastor,” Husk said, eyeing Grace carefully.
Grace smiled a smile she hoped didn’t look nearly as forced as it actually was.
Eyebrows went up.
Damn. I’ll need to work on that.
“We gonna do this thing or what?” Grace squeaked, motioning to the buckets.
The pairs went to their respective buckets; Grace struggled to meet Alastor’s gaze from behind her shades.
I’m the most powerful demon in Hell.
You’ve made me invincible!
He looked at her like everything was normal, like this was a typical Wednesday afternoon.
Except it was a Friday.
Her heart raced.
“Okay! We’re gonna start with the souls on the side nearest the pool,” Charlie said. “Pick up a water balloon! Toss!”
Grace selected a white water balloon, holding it in trembling hands. Don’t toss too hard. Don’t throw short. Definitely do not break the balloon anywhere on the Radio Demon. Easy peasy.
He won’t kill you. He didn’t kill you when you splashed him yesterday.
Just toss the fucking thing! Everyone’s staring!
All the other balloons had made it safely into their partners’ hands.
With a deep breath, Grace tossed her balloon.
Alastor caught it easily.
She exhaled and they all took a step away from each other.
Okay. Okay. That wasn’t so scary!
The souls across from the pool tossed the water balloons back.
Grace caught hers, careful not to pierce it with her nails.
No balloons were destroyed in that round and everyone took another step away from their partners.
By the third round, Niffty fumbled her balloon and it splattered against the pool deck.
By the fourth round, Cherri caught her balloon too hard and it popped in her hand, soaking the front of her shirt. That received quite the reaction from everyone.
Well … almost everyone, anyway.
Alastor regarded the balloon in his hand for a moment on the fifth round before whipping it directly at Grace’s chest.
She wasn’t ready and couldn’t react quickly enough. Smack, splash! Grace shrieked at the impact.
“Oops,” he said placidly, standing there looking smug as ever. “Missed.”
Grace stared down at her wet blouse in shock. “Bullshit you ‘missed!’”
Alastor grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Kofax was right; that was therapeutic!”
“C’mon,” Charlie said through her laughter, “you know the rules! You have to take a step toward each other!”
“That’s not fair!” Grace cried. “I wasn’t ready—” She flung an accusatory finger-point at Alastor. “—and he’s not following the rules!”
Now everyone was laughing, including Alastor.
Without thinking her decision through, Grace snatched a water balloon from her bucket, took a larger-than-necessary step forward, and pitched the water balloon full-force right at Alastor’s face where it landed with a pop-splash against his forehead.
Laughter promptly became horrified gasps.
“Grace!” Kofax cried. “Do not the Radio Demon!”
“Oh,” Grace replied, a smirk growing as her eyes narrowed on him. “I will the Radio Demon.”
Alastor didn’t wait to be instructed to step forward, nor did he hesitate in slinging his next balloon at Grace.
The rest of the group stopped playing altogether to just watch what could only be described as a train wreck of hellish proportions, their heads swinging from one demon to the other as if watching a tennis match.
Grace pitched her next balloon with a huge step toward Alastor. “Can’t aim worth a good god damn!”
Calm as ever, Alastor stepped forward and remarked, “Can’t recognize a joke when it hits her in the face,” which of course was where he aimed his next throw.
“You’re a joke.” She stepped forward, her next throw nailing Alastor in the crotch.
To her surprise, he laughed. “Why thank you.” And then he pelted her in the stomach.
Thoroughly flustered, Grace spat: “That wasn’t a compliment!” Smack, splash!
“Says you.” Alastor shrugged. His next balloon met her horns and splashed above her head, soaking her hair.
“Well of course says me—” Giant step forward, smack, splash! “—I literally just fucking said it.”
“Too damn soft for her own damn good!” He’d sounded utterly infuriated despite his usual smile. His next throw hit her right in the chest again.
!!!!!! What—the—what the fuck !!!!!!
After a moment of utter discombobulation, Grace retaliated with a flung balloon that grazed his shoulder. “St-stupid! Fluffy! Asshole!”
Back in control of his tone, he said placidly, “Can’t keep her lousy mouth shut.” Naturally, that was where Alastor’s next balloon landed.
She took a steadying breath before throwing a much more precisely aimed balloon at his stomach. Smack, splash! “Doesn’t know how to knock on a door.”
“Non-meat-eating aberration.” Smack, splash!
“Revolting cannibal.” Smack, splash!
Alastor and Grace by then were both drenched from horns to hooves and standing chest to chest.
He grinned down at her, putting his hands around her biceps and just holding her like that. Slowly, his teeth disappeared into a content, closed-mouth smile with a couple darling little fangs poking out. Grace’s smile faded altogether as she regarded him with hitched breath.
She knew she was losing her mind; she was sure he looked like he might have actually been considering kissing her—if not then and there, then later. Or maybe those were her own desires she was projecting onto him in desperation.
Her cheeks warming, she told him quietly, “You look like an emo strawberry with your hair like that.”
“Grace …” Alastor arched an eyebrow. “I’m gonna make you pay for this later.”
“Don’t make threats you have no intention of keeping, Radio Demon.”
“Okay,” Kofax interrupted. “Someone needs to ask them …”
Grace pulled her attention from Alastor to regard the group of slack-jawed spectators, all still clutching their water balloons. Niffty accidentally squeezed hers hard enough to pop it.
“Not it!” Vaggie was first to say.
“Don’t look at me!” Husk followed. “I actually value my afterlife!”
When eyes turned to Charlie, she squeaked, “Fuck no!”
“Fine,” Angel Dust sighed. “I’ll do it.” He waved toward Alastor and Grace. “What is … this … exactly? Are you two together? Doin’ it?”
Grace glanced back up at Alastor.
In unison—and entirely unrehearsed—they replied to Angel Dust, “It's exactly what I need.”
Charlie followed the water balloon ‘teamwork toss’ with movie night in the hotel’s common area as a reward for everyone’s good-spirited participation.
Grace wasn’t initially going to attend but when she saw all the lights had been turned out in the makeshift movie theater, she figured it was safe enough that nobody would notice anything amiss with her—no more than the amisses they’d already noticed just in her changed behavior toward Alastor. But that, she could easily pass off as the crush on him everyone by now knew she had.
By the time Grace entered the room, everyone had already paired off. Charlie and Vaggie, of course; Husk and Angel Dust. Kofax and Niffty shared a seat so that they could giggle quietly over videos playing on Kofax’s smartphone. Lucifer was there, too, Wubby and KeeKee curled up together on his lap.
To Grace’s surprise, Alastor was also there. To not-so-much-her-surprise, he was sitting all alone on the biggest couch in the room.
After a brief debate, she sneaked in and sat on the far end of the same couch.
He glanced at her with an unreadable smiling expression but said nothing. He didn’t send her away.
That was something, at least.
Charlie brought everyone boxes of popcorn and drinks. “No meat!” she told Grace as she gave her her popcorn.
“I should hope not,” Grace laughed. “It’s popcorn!”
“And … I did something special for our hotel host.” Charlie grinned, passing a bowl of popcorn to Alastor.
He glanced at it, then back at Charlie, openly confused.
“Is—is that—blood?” Grace squeaked, looking at the very-red-popcorn in Alastor’s bowl.
“Oh, no! It’s an extra-spicy seasoning I created.” She smiled at Alastor.
Don’t be jealous don’t be jealous don’t be jealous Charlie’s just a friend, she’s not a threat, don’t be jealous don’t be jealous don’t be jealous—
Charlie continued as if completely oblivious to Grace’s resentment for her kindness toward Alastor, “I thought you’d like it since popcorn probably isn’t your favorite thing.”
She then went back to snuggle with Vaggie before even giving Alastor the chance to respond.
Maybe she didn’t want to feel bad when he didn’t thank her. Maybe she thought he might be burdened to express gratitude even if it made him uncomfortable and didn’t want to put that pressure on him.
Grace could speculate about that all night long.
Lucifer started the movie.
As the night wore on, Grace couldn’t help but notice Alastor shifting toward the center of their shared couch.
She, too, scooted away from her armrest bit by bit.
Halfway through the second movie, they’d moved enough that Grace’s hand brushed against Alastor’s. He didn’t recoil. On the contrary, he inhaled deeply, and rested his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer yet.
Her whole body ablaze, Grace peeked up at him to catch his expression.
Alastor gazed at her, his ears doing a thing Grace had never seen them do before, which she could interpret only as “I find you marginally less insufferable than I find everyone else.”
It wasn’t love, per se, but it was probably the closest thing she would ever get from Alastor.
And Grace would happily accept it.
Stay sane, deer friends!
Awwwww, the couch cuddle is so cute in color!