Work Text:
It’d been a while since the both of them started living together. Vaggie didn’t know when or how that happened, but if Charlie wasn’t saying anything, then she wouldn’t either. Besides, she was still healing, so it was perfectly acceptable for her to be crashing on Charlie’s bed, right? Even though they were sharing the aforementioned bed. In a completely platonic way, of course.
Now that she was thinking about it, that also came out of nowhere.
One day, after changing her bandages, Charlie, who had been sleeping on the couch for the previous days, laid besides her while they were mindlessly talking about the demon next door and his poorly disguised baking fetish and, although Charlie was very much weirded out by it, she found it exceedingly cute and funny. Vaggie adored how she could see the good in even the strangest things in Hell.
Right. The topic.
They were talking about this and that, when Vaggie realized Charlie had gone silent. She turned her head on the pillow and was met with a mess of blonde hair. Unable to stop herself, she slowly reached over and brushed Charlie’s hair aside, revealing the face of a sleeping princess. Smile unintentionally growing, Vaggie raised her body and took the fidget toy out of Charlie’s lax hand, setting it on the bedside table. I’m going to sleep on the couch, she thought, just a few more seconds and then I’ll do, she said to herself before ending up asleep. She only woke up the next morning to Charlie covering her with a blanket with the softest of smiles.
They’d started sharing the bed ever since.
Their lives had come to an almost stagnant state, which was to be expected. With the injuries Vaggie had suffered, there wasn’t much room for excitement in her life. Especially considering that she didn’t show Charlie the injuries on her back, so those were left to heal on their own. But Vaggie was, albeit slowly, getting better. And there came the looming question of: what now? Where would she go? Vaggie didn’t want to leave, that much she knew, but would Charlie want her to stay? Maybe. Or maybe she’d let Vaggie stay just because she was feeling sorry for her, maybe Vaggie was a bother and was ruining—
“Hey, Vaggie! Guess what I just bought!”
Whipping her head around, Vaggie’s eye met Charlie’s excited ones.
Right, Charlie had gone out that morning to do some shopping for them. Vaggie offered to go with her since she was feeling better and a bit guilty for making Charlie do everything on her own, but the princess insisted on Vaggie staying inside. She’d appreciate help with cleaning though! And that’s what Vaggie was doing at the moment. She was used to keeping everything spotless in Heaven, always a stickler for order even in her quarters, so cleaning was a piece of cake to her.
Charlie wasn’t exactly messy, but she tended to leave things to gather dust for way longer than Vaggie would. So, helping with cleaning was indeed something she could and was happy to do. Her back still hurt, but since Charlie wasn’t home, Vaggie didn’t have to hide her winces when wiping the windows. She hoped it’d get completely healed at some point, though. She didn’t know what she’d do if Charlie found out about those scars.
Vaggie put the rag down on the table she was cleaning and regarded Charlie with a careful smile. “What did you just buy?”
“You have to guess!” Charlie sang and dropped three white plastic bags on the table. “Come on!”
Taking a better look at the bags, she answered, “Uh… is it another rainbow themed dinnerware set?”
“No, silly,” Charlie giggled and excitedly jumped up and down, “Guess again!”
“Charlie—”
“It’s crafting material!” Charlie exclaimed and started taking the stuff out and showing each item to Vaggie. “Look, look! I bought a bunch of paint, brushes, pencils, a small sewing kit, rainbow scratch paper—this one you got half right—even two DIY bird houses! Aren’t they cute?! Oh, there is more. Here!” Charlie dropped all on Vaggie’s arms and started taking the materials out of the other bags, “These are paper plates! I had never seen these around here before. They are sooo adorable, we can make, like, little faces on them! And I also got us some bracelet making kits! And, and…”
“Breathe, Charlie,” Vaggie chuckled, setting all the material down, “where did you even find all of these in Hell?”
“Oh, there are stores for that!” Charlie giggled, and Vaggie couldn’t question that now, could she? “Anyway! We should get started right away!”
“Um… okay. I’m not very good with this stuff, though…”
“Oh, don’t worry! I don’t care about the result, I just want to—”
In a very uncharacteristic move, Charlie cut herself off. Vaggie looked away from the small wooden bird houses, wondering if she had even seen any birds on this side of Hell, and looked at Charlie. The little red dots on her cheeks were surrounded by dusted pink.
“You?” Vaggie inquired, slightly put off by Charlie’s expression.
“I, haha, I just…” Charlie rubbed the back of her neck and the pink on her cheeks intensified. She’s embarrassed, Vaggie thought and reminded herself that her heart should NOT be beating that fast. “I just want to create something with you.”
Yeah, Vaggie was royally fucked, wasn’t she?
“Oh, um, OK, then,” she eloquently said. “Let’s… Let’s craft.”
“Y-Yeah!”
Charlie quickly pulled a chair for Vaggie and, then, herself. Vaggie sat down, trying not to overthink the fact that the princess of Hell had just done that.
The both of them silently took the remaining materials out of the bags and for a few seconds, they just looked at it.
“So… What do we do first?”
“Hm…” Charlie tapped her chin with her index a few times, looking over all the kits she had bought. “I guess we can start with the paper plates! They seem more simple. Probably, a great way to begin with… Wait! Stay there, I forgot to get my crayons!”
Chuckling, Vaggie watched her hurriedly search the apartment before starting to prepare the materials. Setting inside the bags the ones they weren’t going to use yet, Vaggie spread the pencils, paint, brushes, scissors (child-friendly ones? How did Charlie even find those? Why did they even make them? Were they for… hellborn children? You know what? Better not to overthink it.) and countless sheets of colorful papers. The plates came with instructions on how to do each animal but also a heavy emphasis on letting your creativity flow. She looked at all the colors and options, wondering how her life turned out that way.
“Where did I put them?” Charlie loudly whined from the other room. It was probably a rhetorical question, but Vaggie answered it anyway, trying to hold back a smile.
“They are under the bed right next to your bedside table,” she said, raising her voice a little while organizing the stickers and… was that glitter glue?
“Found it!” Charlie exclaimed, skipping to the table with the box in hands. “Now we can get started! Wow, you already organized everything!”
“Sure did,” Vaggie exhaled softly, taking the crayons off Charlie’s hands while she settled down. “So, which animal you’ll do first?”
“Oh, right, they are supposed to be animals. Hm, I’ll do this one,” she held up the red plate, “it’s supposed to be a ladybug.”
“Hm,” Vaggie nodded and grabbed the orange plate, “I’ll start off with a cat, I guess… What?”
Vaggie looked at Charlie who was just staring at her.
The princess smiled, “nothing.”
“OK…” Vaggie snorted.
With that, they started working on their own little projects. It was harder than Vaggie had expected. Although she was quite proficient at handling weapons—it was a secret to no one in Heaven that Vaggie was one of the top exterminators in the army—, this required a different type of skill. Wielding a spear required finesse, but properly cutting shapes and gluing them in a colorful paper plate to form a cute figure was on another level.
Vaggie laughed under her breath, putting the ears on her round orange cat face. Having her wings and eye ripped off definitely had some of the most weird consequences she could think of. Although it still hurt, and she had the inkling suspicion it’d never stop hurting, Vaggie thought it was fine.
Reaching for the black glitter glue to do the whiskers, Vaggie felt Charlie’s eyes on her. Again with the staring. It wasn’t exactly unusual. Many times Vaggie woke up with Charlie’s red eyes worrying over her, but it seemed to be happening more often recently.
Opening the glue, she looked at Charlie’s plate.
“Looking cute there,” she murmured, trying to fill in the silence.
“Yeah,” Charlie said a little breathlessly.
This made Vaggie look at her properly. Charlie’s eyes had never left her.
Feeling her heart skip a beat—or maybe two, as if she could count in those moments—, Vaggie laughed, the awkwardness in her voice almost making her grimace. “Yours definitely looks better than mine. I guess I can’t compete with the princess.”
Charlie blinked a few times, looking down at her plate as if she was seeing it for the first time. “Oh… Oh! Haha, yeah, I used to do these a lot when I was a kid, you know, I sneaked into my Dad’s atelier and he’d give me these to keep me busy.”
“I see,” Vaggie swallowed.
Her Dad. Lucifer. Charlie didn’t speak much of him and in the weeks they had spent together, she had only seen the princess talk to him on the phone once. She left the apartment to do something for him and didn’t talk of it, so Vaggie decided not to press on the issue. Lilith was another touchy subject she avoided. Charlie seemed to have fond memories of both of her parents and mentioned more than once that she was working towards her mother’s dream and she wanted to make Lilith proud, but there was always an underlying sadness in her smile when talking about this.
Vaggie didn’t like it.
“Well, I’m done with mine. I guess it looks alright?”
Charlie looked at Vaggie’s plate and snorted, hiding her mouth behind her hand. “It… It does!”
Subject successfully changed.
“I don’t feel like you’re telling the truth there,” Vaggie playfully raised an eyebrow. “What? I think this is a bonafide gatito , thank you very much. They just look a little funny in general.”
“I’m being serious!” Charlie nodded vehemently and then looked again at Vaggie’s plate. This time she couldn’t hold back her laughter.
It was a beautiful sound.
Feeling a bout of confidence, Vaggie leaned over the table, “Well, missy, if you are so serious, then you should put it on the wall. That way I’ll believe you.”
Charlie immediately sprung from her chair and clapped her hands. “That’s a great idea! Here, gimme!” She grabbed her own plate and waited for Vaggie to hand hers.
“Wait—seriously?”
“Of course! Come on, Vaggie!”
Vaggie handed her the wonky cat plate and watched Charlie glue both plates above their— the couch. She took a few steps back, putting both hands on her hips and appraising the new artwork and nodded once, very satisfied. She then turned on her heels and looked at Vaggie, the excited gleam in her eyes turning dangerously soft. Charlie opened her mouth and Vaggie didn’t think whatever she was going to say would do any good to her poor angelic heart.
“Vaggie…”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
Caught by surprise, Vaggie stuttered, “What… what for?”
“Just…” Charlie glanced once at the plates and all the crafting material on the table, and looked back to Vaggie’s eyes with such fondness that Vaggie was sure she’d combust on the spot. “I never thought I’d have someone to do these with, you know? I… I know some of my tastes don’t really fit Hell, some would even say I’m too childish, I mean, they have said that, so… Thank you for indulging me. This means more than I could put into words. To be here… with you means more than anything.”
There was a beat of silence.
Vaggie stood up and walked to Charlie. Spurred by all the feelings swirling inside of her— protectiveness, the desire to torture whoever made her sad, the most pure, unadulterated lov— , she took both of Charlie’s hands.
Vaggie looked up, a bit shaky, and tried to express all she wanted to say in a few, safe words.
“I’m not indulging you, Charlie. I really like… spending time with you. And, I have said this once, but I’ll say it however many times necessary: thank you for saving me.”
There was more, there was so much more she wanted to say, but Vaggie couldn’t. At least not now. She was guilt-ridden, still in pain, and absolutely terrified of losing whatever they had right there. The only thing Vaggie could do was hope that, regardless of their future, she’d still be in the princess’ life.
“You…” suddenly, Charlie’s face seemed closer. “You don’t need to thank me.”
“Then you don’t need to, either,” she retorted in no more than a whisper.
The princess chuckled and Vaggie could feel it brush her cheeks. “Alright.”
There, holding Charlie’s hands, feeling her body heat, having her breath touch her face, Vaggie knew she was about to do something she’d regret.
Forcing herself to take a step back, she saw Charlie’s face snap out of something, chuckling nervously. “S-So, what do you want to do next?”
Vaggie took a deep breath, pushing the impulsive thought of saying kiss you , and walked back to the table. “I think the bird house seems like a good idea after this warm up.”
“Y-Yeah, bird houses.”
Charlie sat down and they didn’t mention what had just happened.
Before sleeping, they said their good nights and laid down as if it had been just a normal day.
It was Heaven and Hell, Vaggie thought, glancing at Charlie’s sleeping form. And she didn’t want to be anywhere else.