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Alastor glances at the hat on his head like he’s forgotten it was there.

It’s good that Charlie made sure to greet the thing, for everyone surely likes it when they’re complimented . . . right?

Right!

“Good morning to you as well, Princess Charlotte,” Alastor says, smile still so small and polite. “I enjoy my hat as well.”

“Charlie,” she says, a little automatically because this was a small game that Alastor seemed to like to play with her. He would call her by her full name, and Charlie would always correct him because they were just friends like that. Inside jokes and all. “Just Charlie.”

“Oh . . .,” he says, blinking a little. “Then a good morning to you as well, Charlie.”

Charlie doesn’t quite know what to do with that, for Alastor has never gone off script today. He’s being so polite this morning, and maybe, just maybe¸ she could push her luck just a little more.

One day.

That’s all she needed.

“Sooooooo just to remind you, but I’ll be doing our usual greetings before lunch,” she says. It’s important that she get to know each guest. “Can I count on you to be in the lobby with me?”

Alastor hums a little, annoyingly dragging out his answer. “Very well.”

“You’ll . . . You’ll be there?” Charlie doesn’t know why she sounds so surprised.

“I believe I just agreed to your request.”

“No tricks?”

“No tricks.”

Charlie gets a little too excited, and jumps into Alastor for an excited hug. It’s a squeal that comes out of her lips. “I promise it’ll be so fun!”

“Oh! A hug.” Alastor returns her hug, pulling her into him just as tightly as she does. “This is . . . nice.”

Charlie laughs a little. “Is it?”

“I’m not actually sure," he says. "They're just hugs."

Today will definitely be a good day.

Everything needs to be perfect for Charlie today. That’s one of the many reasons as to why Vaggi willingly hunts Alastor down. She spots him roaming around the halls of the hotel, whistling some kind of happy tune.

It’s simple to step into his path, bracing herself to start a conversation with Alastor. “The hat’s new.”

Now . . . that’s not really the first thing she meant to say, but she’s never seen him wear a hat before, not has she seen him with a tie.

“I’ve always had this,” Alastor says, a little simple as he raises an eyebrow at her. “Hmmmmm, I suppose I have no use for it anymore. It does cramp my ears, but I don’t really need to hide them anymore.”

Vaggi rolls her eyes a little. “Since when did you try to hide them?”

“Since the beginning,” he says, still a little simply. It’s unusual to see him without that annoying flare. “I wasn’t too keen to be associated with that man.” Alastor’s face scrunches a little, before a sigh escapes him. “But that’s before I realized Mother was running around here this whole time.”

Vaggie isn’t surprised that Alastor’s mother was in Hell as well. It just seemed like a family thing. “Uhhhhh okay?”

“But I suppose it’s good to show a little bit of good faith,” he says, placing a hand on his chin to think. “The hat does cramp my ears quite a bite. It’s decided then—you can have it since you’re so interested in it.”

Vaggie doesn’t fully understand what he’s talking about, but half of what Alastor says never makes sense anyway.

Alastor pulls off his hair with a flare . . . and he does it with a more awkward one instead of his usual bright one. “I don’t know how he does it,” he says, grumbling a little at his awkward movements. “But the bow on this one matches the color of yours.”

Without the hat, Vaggie can see that he parted his hair differently today, and apparently decided to curl it as well. It’s quite different from his usual straight style. Still, Vaggi is neither interested or foolish enough to mention it.

Vaggi braces herself for Alastor to slam the fedora onto her head, but he drops it lightly instead, adjusting the edges around her so that it doesn’t disrupt her bow.

That small smile of his quirks just a little higher, but it clashes with the absolute dead look in his eyes. It almost reminds her of a dead fish.

There’s a moment where Vaggi is about to tell him to take the hat back, but her eyes linger on his tie clip instead. She’s never seen Alastor wear a tie clip, but when leaned down to straighten the hat, she can’t help but notice it.

Alastor follows her gaze. “Are you curious about it.”

“Not even remotely.”

“Very well,” Alastor says, taking a step back when he finished adjusting the hat on her head. “I think it looks quite nice on you.”

“I . . .” Vaggi takes a moment. “What?”

She’s so confused.

There’s this moment where Alastor sighs, looking a little tired of this conversation, but that polite smile of his neve wavers. “Mother gave me something like this as a present. It was her last one to me,” he says. “Apparently, it belonged to her husband. It was a habit to carry it around, and I just brought that habit with me in death.”

“That’s . . .” Vaggi blinks at him. “That’s it?”

Alastor tils his head all the way to the side, and his ears flop a little as he does. “Was there supposed to be more?”

“No winding backstory?”

“. . . Did you want one?”

“Niffty is stuck inside the toilet again,” Vaggi says instead. “Can you grab her?”

The corner of his eye twitches a little. “Do I have to?”

“Yes!”

Alastor slumps a little, and she swears she sees him frown a bit. Weird, but she’s knows better than to press her luck with Alastor, lest he decides to add a winding backstroy this time.

Niffty is still dripping wet when the stranger pulls her out of the toilet. She stares at him, and that small smile is what she gets in return. “You’re not Alastor.”

This stranger looked similar enough to Alastor though.

They had the same red hair, and the same fluffy ears that twitched whenever he was annoyed, and this stranger’s ears were definitely twitching.  

But there were some differences as well, like the curls on his head and the fact that he had glasses instead of a monocle.

The stranger gently lands her on the floor, and there’s an honest frown on his lips. “I’m not really trying to be.”

Niffty thinks for a moment. “Do you like my bugs?”

“Not really.”

It clicks right then and there. “Oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” she says. “You’re just like your mother—she said the same thing.”

Theodore’s smile brightens immediately. “Am I really?”

“Not really.”

Niffty waves at him as she scurries off to kill more pests.

She had an important job to do.

One day.

That’s all Charlie needed, because one day could turn into two then into three. So, she needed one day where everything went right in the hotel.

And there was a moment where it did.

Alastor was there with her, greeting those who were checking in with a politeness she’s never known him for, and a firm handshake. Charlie had a feeling that her one good day could actually come true.

 . . . Of course, that’s when her dad finally decided to settle the score with Alastor, and drop a buck of water right on top of his head.

The force of the water crashes Alastor to the ground, and he’s lying there, looking like a grumpy wet kitten, with a very, very, defeated look on his face. It seems he’s keen on staying on the ground, that bucket still on his head for some reason.

“I’m a little hurt you excluded me from all the fun!”

Charlie turns to look . . . and sees Alastor, standing by the door with a wide smile on his face and looking dry.

Charlie blinks a little. “Alastor?”

Alastor waves his hands in the most annoyingly dramatic flare she’s ever seen. “That’s my name!”

“Wait!” she says, then points to the stranger on the floor. “Then who the fuck is that?”

The real Alastor steps towards the imposter, skipping the puddles of water, to pick him up by the scruff, showing him off like a kitten. Even as he’s determined to sag into the floor. “This is my son,” he says, a little happily. “Say hello, Theodore.”

“Hello,” Theodore says, waving at her with a bucket still on his head. “Just Theo will do.”

Theo makes no movement to stand, seemingly content to be held up by Alastor, even as it only reinforces the image of a soaking kitten.

Charlie scratches the back of her neck. “I thought he was you.”

She’ll yell at her dad later, but the revelation that Alastor had a son made her freeze. It’s a bit embarrassing now that she thought about it, she made Theo run around the hotel as a host just because she thought he was Alastor.

Alastor opens his mouth to speak, but the sound of a record scratching interrupts him. It scratches the air as soon as he spots Vaggi. “I didn’t think the hotel would be so cruel to take my son’s hat.”

Vaggi pulls the hat closer to her, taking a step away from Alastor. “It was a gift.”

Alastor pulls Theo just a little higher to meet the bucket around his face. “That was yours,” he says, raising his eyebrows a little. “Yet you gave it away?”

Theo’s voice echoes a little. “I don’t want to hide my ears anymore.”

Alastor laughs into the air, and Charlie swears that his smile softens around the edges. “I see that prank was meant for me,” he says. “But even that Brain Dead King should have known that we look nothing alike.”

Theo shakes his head to deny what Alastor said, and the bucket clinks a little. In the end it’s Alastor’s shadow that removes the metal bucket around his head. Alastor’s shadow curls around Theo trying and failing to dry the poor guy.

There’s a bored expression on Theo’s face.

“Loot at him,” Alastor says, all she sees is more similarities than differences. “He’s just like his mother!”