charlie x vaggie love

Vaggie x Charlie couldn't sleep

She slipped back into the bedroom just as the old clock tower at the end of the hall chimed one in the morning. She shut the door softly, careful not to wake her sleeping partner. She wasn’t snoring now, just breathing heavily against her pillow. 
  Charlie’s childhood bedroom seemed twice the size of their own, or what it used to be. There was a large window on each wall, covered by heavy, maroon drapes and a balcony that overviewed the courtyard below. In one corner, hordes of stuff animals and dolls and dollhouses were stuffed to make room for her large dresser filled with her old clothes, the ones they wore now. On the opposite side was a dusty vanity with a large mirror, holding old bottles of perfume. Her walls were covered in posters of old boy bands and pop singers Vaggie had never heard of, as well as family pictures and postcards from various places in Hell. Man, Lucifer sure knew how to take his daughter sightseeing. 
  In the middle was the bed, the one that was large enough to hold both of them two times over. The mattress was deep and soft, the covers silky and a scarlet red. The throw pillows were shoved to the bottom as a makeshift bed for the cat, KeeKee. Charlie slept there now, curled up on her side, hugging a pillow to her chest. 
  Vaggie hoped she hadn’t noticed her absence. She knew her midnight strolls would only worry Charlie. She already had enough going on. She didn’t need to be helping her girlfriend with her own issues.
   Vaggie tiptoed to the edge of the bed and lifted one corner of the comforter, trying to slide in. Once she lifted it, she felt Charlie shift. The bedframe creaked as she rolled over to face Vaggie. Fuck.
  Her girlfriend’s face contorted, nose wrinkling, eyebrows lifting. When she looked up, she was greeted by her girlfriend’s bleary, sleep-filled eyes, showing in the lowlight from the flickering candle on the bedside table. 
  She pursed her lips. “Vaggie?” She asked. “What are you doing?” 
  Vaggie tried to brush it off. “Nothing. I just got back from the bathroom. Go back to sleep, babe.”
  “Oh,” she said, only looking more confused. “I didn’t hear the toilet flush.”
  “So now you have super hearing? What else should I know about you?”
  “Vaggie,” Charlie said breathlessly. She looked concerned by now, not just confused. Vaggie suddenly felt bad. “Why are you lying to me?” Her gaze softened. “What’s wrong?”
  “Can’t sleep,” she mumbled. “Took a walk.”
  Charlie sat up, blinking. “Oh. How was it?”
  “Peachy. I'm sorry for waking you. Go back to sleep—”
  Charlie just raised her eyebrows. “Really? Tell me about it.” She put her chin on her fingers, peering at Vaggie through her eyelashes. “Where did you go?”
  “You have to get some sleep, Charlie. You stayed up half the night with your dad the other day trying to draft up some foundation plans.” 
  “I’m not sleeping until you talk to me,” Charlie replied.
  Vaggie groaned. “Charlie.”
  Charlie only crossed her arms and looked down at Vaggie with a stern look. She forgot how stubborn her girlfriend could be. If she really wanted something, she got it. 
  Warmth pooled into her lower stomach. Okay, it was kinda hot—
   Not the time. 
  “Fine,” Vaggie gave in. “You win.”
  Charlie only motioned to the space beside her, watching as Vaggie slipped back into bed. She rearranged the covers around herself, the sheets falling to cover her knees as she sat up. As soon as she settled, the exhaustion hit her like a tidal wave. 
  Charlie must have sensed it, as she wrapped her arm around her shoulders, letting Vaggie rest against her side, warm as they shared body heat. 
  “Have you gotten any sleep?” Charlie asked worriedly, eyeing her. 
  Vaggie thought, then shook her head. They had all gone to bed early in anticipation for an early morning and meetings for planning and then eventually heading back to the rubble of the hotel and actually starting to rebuild. They had all gone to their respective rooms and she hadn’t heard a peep from anyone since. 
  They were probably all dead asleep, unlike the two of them. 
  Vaggie sighed again, curling closer to her girlfriend’s side. Charlie seemed to be always impossibly warm, like her own personal blanket. She felt like she was sitting by a fireplace, and she leaned into it. She had noticed it from the first time they had met, when her hand had touched her cheek and she had nearly flinched.
  Charlie had almost pulled back. I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?
  Vaggie had just blinked, groggy and losing blood. No, you’re just.. warm. 
  Charlie had blushed, and laughed, and Vaggie decided that she wanted to hear that laugh everyday for the rest of her life, to be the one to make her laugh. To bottle it up and replay it again and again, just for herself. 
  And then she had promptly blacked out, 
  She felt a warm hand cupping her cheek now and came back to the present. She was met with her girlfriend’s wide, worried eyes. “Vaggie,” she said softly. “Talk to me.”
  “What is there to talk about?”
  “Whatever is troubling you.”
  Vaggie was silent, biting her lip. 
  “Vaggie, come on. I know you. Something is bothering you.”
  Well, that was true.
  Charlie sighed, starting again. “If something matters to you,” she began, drawing back. She took Vaggie’s hands in her own, careful of the injured one. “Then it matters to me. If something is bothering you, then it bothers me too. Partners, remember?”
  Vaggie nodded, leaning in. Their foreheads met, heartbeats drumming in the same old rhythm, as old as time itself. Love. 
  “Partners,” she answered. 
  Charlie’s cheeks crinkled as she smiled. “Good. Now,” she said, suddenly pulling back. She jabbed a finger into Vaggie’s chest. “Spill it.” 
  “Charlie, ow,” Vaggie exclaimed, protesting. She rubbed at the spot on her left breast that Charlie had poked her. “I know Angel says I don’t have tits, but I still have feeling in that area. Good God.”
  Charlie’s serious expression melted. “Oh, oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. Do you need—”
  “No, babe,” Vaggie said quickly. “I was just joking. I’m fine.”
  “I could get you ice.”
  “Okay, you’re not that strong.”
  “You’re sure?”
  “I’m sure.”
  There was a beat of silence and, as if on cue, Charlie perked up and looked at Vaggie in that way again. “Okay, now spill it.”
  Vaggie just drew the blanket to her chest, avoiding eye contact with her persistent girlfriend. She traced the heart pattern on the underside of the sheets with her pointer finger. “It’s nothing much.”
  “Nothing much?”
  “I’m just.. worried.”
  “Worried?” She asked as if it was a foreign word. 
  “Yes, Charlie,” she deadpanned. “Worried.”
  “About?” Her girlfriend pressed. 
  Vaggie quirked a brow. “Everything?”
  “Everything?” Charlie echoed. “Well, that’s not good. Why don’t you try breaking it down?”
  “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I’m worried about everything. The hotel. The rebuilding. Our friends. The other sinners. The press. Fucking Heaven. I mean, Adam’s dead, but Lute—She’s a bitch that was never put on a leash. Who knows what she’ll do now that she’s in charge.” 
  Charlie bit her lip. “Okay. I was trying not to think about that, but yeah. What else?”
  “Your mom—”
  Charlie paused. “What about my mom?”
  “Her absence. It is a little concerning that the Queen of Hell hasn’t shown her face in seven years, nonetheless hasn’t even called her own daughter. I mean, what happened to her? It doesn’t help being here, with all the pictures and all the memories,” she rambled on. “And don’t even get me started on Alastor. Where the fuck did he go? GAH!”
   By the time she was done, she felt defeated. She simply picked up a velvet pillow and groaned into it, hoping the walls weren’t thin and she didn’t wake up the other occupants. Great. Yet another thing to worry about. She’ll add it to the list. 
  “So, yeah, everything,” she concluded. She should get a medal for this shit. “I’m worried about my future and—”
   “Our future,” Charlie cut in. 
  Vaggie stopped. “What now?”
  “Everything we do, it’s together. So it’s our future, and whatever you face, we face it..” she trailed off, leaning into Vaggie.
  “Together,” Vaggie finished. 
  Charlie sent her a smile, genuine. “Right. There’s no point in worrying over something that hasn’t even happened yet. Well deal with it as it comes, one step at a time. And, most importantly, together.” She squeezed her hand. “You’re not alone, Vaggie. You’re on a team. Remember that.”
  “Yep. Got it,” Vaggie murmured. “A team. Don’t worry about the future.”
  “And no matter what, you’re my future,” Charlie continued. “As long as I have you, and my dad, and all our other friends, I can do it. We can do it. You’re the reason I was able to do this in the first place. You’ve always believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in me. You’ve always defended me. I can’t count the times you’ve punched someone who mocked me, or stabbed someone who wanted to rob us. I mean, all the blood and violence isn’t my thing, but the sentiment was sweet, right?”
  Vaggie snorted. “Yeah. So romantic.” She only leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the tip of Charlie’s nose. “I’d take on every Sinner in this shithole for you.”
  “Yeah,” Charlie replied. “So romantic.”
  “Oh, I love it when you quote me.”
  “ Mhmm,” Charlie hummed. “Because you’re so smart and sophisticated I can’t help it.” 
  “Sounds just like me,” Vaggie quipped. And she was glad. Glad they could fall into this familiar, teasing rhythm. Glad they could act like it was just any day after all that had happened. Glad they had a place to stay and a chance to rebuild, at redemption. 
  And, most of all, glad she had the best girlfriend in all the Rings of Hell.