#raphael panacea

After Michael left, Charlie picked Lucifer up and carried him up to his bedroom, stepping over a couple of scattered rubber ducks before carefully setting him down on the bed.

Lucifer seemed calmer now, but he was now silently crying, tears falling down his puffy red eyes and down his pale cheeks.

Charlie laid down next to him and gently put an arm on his shoulder, and Lucifer seemed to calm down more.

"It's okay, Dad. He's gone now.", she said. "It's going to be okay."

After another minute or so, Lucifer calmed down, slowly falling asleep, but not before snapping his fingers and changing into his pink sweater and striped pajamas.

Charlie was about to leave, but then she heard a phone ring. It wasn't her phone, and that's when she noticed her dad's phone on one side of the bed, and it was a call from...

The 7 Deadly Sins?! Or as Charlie knew, her aunts and uncles.

Charlie knew her dad hadn't spoken to any of the sins in a while. Even so, they still called, probably just to see if he'd pick up this time instead of just letting it ring.

She looked at her dad, and he was still sleeping. But he quickly shot up at the 3rd ring, and that's when he finally answered.

"Hello?"

"Lulu! Buddy! Been a while. How've you been? We haven't heard from you in, how long has it been, 7 years? What's up?"

Lucifer laid back down, "Oh hey, Ozzie. Sorry I haven't been active, I've just been very busy."

"With what exactly?"

"...Important things."

"Uh huh."

"OMG, is that Lucifer? Luci, hey king! How's it going?"

"Hey, Bee.", Lucifer sighed. "Look, guys. I'm sorry I haven't answered in a while, I just haven't really been myself ever since Lilith left. But hey, I'm glad you guys called, and I'm glad I answered, I feel like I really needed to, especially after..."

A minute of silence, and Asmodeus spoke up.

"Lucifer?"

"You okay, Luci?"

"...No."

"Where are you? Are you at your palace? Do we need to come over?"

"I'm not at my palace. I'll send you guys my location."

Lucifer looked over at Charlie for a moment, "Charlie, we're going to be having the sins over. Is that okay with you?"

Charlie nodded. "Of course, Dad."

Charlie waited a while in the lobby, and when she heard a knock on the door, she ran to it and saw all of the 7 deadly sins at the door.

Asmodeus, Beezlebub, Mammon, Satan, Leviathan, and Belphagor.

"Welcome to the Hazbin -"

"Yeah yeah, princess.", Mammon said, not wasting any time before walking into the hotel and pushing Charlie out of the way with his big belly. "Now where's the king at?"

"Mammon, where are your manners?", said Asmodeus. He made sure to shake Charlie's hands before stepping in. "Good to see you again, Charlie. How's our little niece doing?"

"I'm doing alright, Uncle Ozzie.", said Charlie. "And answering Uncle Mam's question, he's in his room. C'mon, I'll take you guys there."

Charlie led all of the sins upstairs and down a few halls. When they finally got to Lucifer's room, Charlie knocked on the door, and Lucifer opened the door. No one looked all that surprised to see him covered in rubber ducks.

"Ozzie, Bee, Mam, Satan, Levi, and Bel! So nice to see you guys in person!", he said. "Come in, come in."

The sins stepped in. Mammon had a little trouble fitting through the door, but a little kick in the ass from Satan got him right through.

"You really haven't changed at all, Luci.", said Ozzie.

"Nope. Still the same duck loving short king I've always been -"

"And that means you're still the same duck loving short king who masks his real feelings behind a humorous mask.", said Bel.

A huge wave of silence overtook the room. Lucifer just sat back down on the bed and hid under the blankets.

Satan turned around to look at Charlie, "Kid, you mind giving us some alone time with your dad here?"

Charlie walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"What happened, Lu?", Satan wasted no time in getting straight to the point of why Lucifer was acting like this.

The poor guy says he's not depressed, but he literally dresses like a 5 year old boy and buries himself in rubber ducks to drown out his cries.

Usually, he'd try to dodge the question or not answer at all. But the strangest thing happened.

He answered.

"Michael came to the hotel."

That made everyone in the room feel a small chill run down their spines. All of the sins knew that Lucifer's brothers and sisters were a bunch of douches, so to hear that one of them came to the hotel was a bit of a shock.

Did Michael touch Lucifer?

Did he take anything?

Did he say anything?

Did he do anything to hurt him?

"He said he wanted to apologize to me."

Now the chill was gone, replaced with a bunch of eye rolls and scoffs.

Apologize. What a fucking joke. Those heavenly hacks never gave a rats ass about Lucifer's well-being and were jerks to him before his fall, worse than jerks, straight up abusive fucks. Especially Raguel. Both of Leviathan's heads growled at the thought of that grimace looking fucktard.

Levi excused herself to use the bathroom, but what she was really doing was going to find Charlie in the lobby.

"Aunt Levi?"

"Charlie, can we talk for a moment?"

Charlie nodded. "Sure. What is it? Is Dad okay?"

"He's doing a bit better. The rest of the sins are with him, we just need a moment with you. We just have one small request."

Charlie nodded.

"Is it okay if we stayed here for a couple of days? Your father has a really bad past with his family, so seeing Michael here really messed him up. Badly.", said Levi's white head. "See, Michael is Lucifer's brother. He wasn't half as bad as his other siblings, but he was still a huge sick dick. They claim they were only doing what was right for Heaven, but they didn't give a flying fuck about Lucifer. At least not in a good way."

So that's why Michael said he just wanted to see his brother again.

"It won't be for too long, just until Luci is comfortable enough to be alone again, and also to make sure none of those angels come back. Because we'll be ready when they do, and I'm pretty sure Satan can threaten Mammon to pay for the damage if anything happens between all of us. Okay?"

Charlie thought about it for a minute.

From her younger days, when she was just a baby, Lucifer and the sins treated each other like family, and they were all like aunts and uncles to her. Lucifer never mentioned anyone else being his family as far as she could remember, so she was a little confused to find him so scared in the presence of Michael.

Still, she wanted her dad to be happy, and the sins knew how to do just that.

"Of course, Aunt Levi."

"Thank you so much, Charlie!", said Leviathan. "We promise we won't cause any trouble. Well, I can't say much for Satan or Mammon. Bee, maybe. But I promise, we'll be good. As good as we can be at least."

Charlie nodded as she watched Levi make her way back upstairs, passing Vaggie, and she backed up against the wall.

When Vaggie got downstairs, she ran over to Charlie.

"Did I just pass by one of your aunts?", she asked. Charlie nodded. "Yes, Vaggie. The sins are going to be staying in the hotel for a while. I gave them the okay. Is there a problem?"

Vaggie shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I just have a bad feeling about this."

Charlie gently put a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder, "Vaggie, I promise it'll be okay. They're only here for Dad. We won't have to worry about anything."

Her eyes sparkled, and Vaggie's face softened. "Okay, babe. I trust you."

The rest of the day has been sort of calm. The sins were all upstairs and only came down to get a drink from the bar or to have a little conversation with one of the other residents of the hotel. Meanwhile, downstairs, it was just the hotel personnel and the only other guest yet to be redeemed.

Then another knock on the door came.

"I'll get it.", said Charlie.

When Charlie opened the door, the people she saw really didn't look like they were from Hell. One of them, maybe.

They were all very tall, and large in frame.

Green, pale blue, purple, orange, and black.

Wait...

Michael?!

The green one spoke up, pulling Charlie out of her thoughts.