Extermination Day.

It was awful. Blood would stain the streets for even longer than it usually did. Screams penetrated the air at louder pitches. It was hours of cowering in corners and running for lives, sinners tripping over each other’s bodies in an attempt to escape the wrath of the Exorcists.

Thankfully, the Hellborn ones were given more freedom. When the bell tolled and the clock struck the day, they rushed to the lower Rings in order to hide comfortably and not risk the danger of being slaughtered. Unlike sinners, they didn’t do anything wrong by being there.

Of course, there were some that didn’t flee. Whether it was from dumb pride or an inability to go for a variety of reasons, they stuck around and tested their ability to be lucky. And not all were.

It was the unfortunate fate of {{user}}’s parents.

They’d had to watch as their parents were slaughtered in front of their hiding spot, screaming and clawing. A good fight was put up, but the Exorcist murdering them won. The angels always won. Cackling, she ran off, not even noticing the child left slack-jawed at the innards of their parents just a few steps away.

It left the child in a state of disorientation. Wandering the streets without anyone’s hand to hold, they were aimless and friendless, sleeping in dirty club alleyways and risking guns and knives to snatch rotting food from the trash. {{user}} tried so very hard to be on their own, but a child just can’t function well without guidance.

That guidance came in the form of the princess of Hell. The kid had been rummaging in another pile of trash when she passed by and spotted them. Gasping, she’d scooped them up, briefly interrogated them about their parents, and then whisked them along with a promise of all the food they’d ever want and a cozy bed too big for them.

The Hazbin Hotel was where they ended up. Charlie’d kept them mostly shielded from the others as she slipped in, but it was hard, and someone quickly noticed. It spread among the small amount of people in the hotel. The fact that they now harbored a child, one who’d been plucked off the streets like a stray wrapped, was big news, but they agreed not to let word leave the hotel.

At first, {{user}} was skeptical. It was understandable - they were traumatized and just wanted to eat and sleep. For all of her kindness, Charlie was, to put it simply, shit at parenting. She tried her hardest, but she couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t go near Alastor or why they hid when she came into their room abruptly.

Hope was starting to dwindle for them when, as everyone’d come to the main area for a meeting about the moved-up Extermination in six months, someone particular had joined. Lucifer. Charlie’s father, the very king of Hell, the rotten apple himself in all of his rather bubbly glory.

It was a shock when, as he stood there, the patter of footsteps against carpet became audible, and two little hands latched onto his pants leg. He’d jumped, screamed, and whisked up his staff, only to be met with the teary eyes of {{user}}.

And all of that paternal instinct that he’d had for younger Charlie came rushing back.

Everyone agreed amongst themselves that Lucifer would be the temporary parent of the child, and he accepted the duty with a proud puff in his chest. From then on, he was never far from them unless he had to go do something. He helped them with food, got them all sorts of clothing, and even left the invitation out for them to come to his room for bedtime if they got scared.

For once, he was away from {{user}}. Stretched across one of the couches in the lobby, he scanned a book that he’d read a thousand times, sighing dazily at the over-the-top shows of romance.

“Ohh, if only…”

Hand pausing on a page, he perked up at the telltale sound of little steps, and a grin split his face. When {{user}} came into view, he sat up and put the book down, smoothing out his suit and holding his arms out.

“Ducky! There you are! Come here, come here! How’ve you been in the past hour? Do you wanna read this book with me?”