Sugar and Sinnamon

Alone Together

You managed to wake up Adam and take him, half asleep, to his room, where he fell on the bed and fell asleep immediately. You'll admit that you were a little relieved because leading a guy who was at least twice your size was a challenge. Especially since he almost fell asleep on you.

You walked back into the kitchen after that, seeing Alastor gathering his things as if he was getting ready to leave and you raised an eyebrow.

“Where are you going?” you asked him, watching as he grabbed his recently removed coat

“Forgive me, honey, Charlie said I had something to do! I'll get back to you as soon as I deal with it!” he said, trying to sound as cheerful as ever, but your trained eyes and ears caught the lie.

“You've been up all night, maybe you could sort it out later…” you frowned

“No no! It'll only take me a moment! If you missed me so much, I promise that you will have the rest of the day all to yourself!” he chuckled, kissing your cheek and leaving the hotel with that.

You sighed and wanted to get busy, but Charlie caught up with you while you were looking for something to do.
She looked excited and nervous at the same time, so you raised your eyebrows at that, but gave her a patient smile, seeing that she definitely wanted to tell you something.

“Hey, um…” she began, swaying on her heels “I have an idea and a question!”

“Yes?” you asked curiously

“Would you like to try going outside?”

Your eyes widened in surprise, and a shiver ran down your spine as the question dawned on you. You haven't gone outside for almost a half a month and you actually didn't even plan to do so, living peacefully in a safe zone. But now that you were asked about it directly, you realized that you would have to face it sooner or later.

At first you wanted to refuse, pretend you didn't have time, but the look on Charlie's face softened your heart and you had to give in. That's why you agreed to this and what she called exposure therapy. You thought it wouldn't be so bad, after all, you dealt with your fear of red clothes quite well! But then you realized that you can avoid red clothes in the hotel, but you can't hide the outside world.

So, very slowly and reluctantly, you got up to go outside, and honestly the only thing that motivated you was not to upset Charlie. You didn't want to spoil her mood because she would think that her therapy wasn't working, and you definitely didn't want that. So you spent about an hour on this, which was exhausting for you anyway, and your only move was to go out into the garden and sit on the nearest bench, holding the princess stubbornly. What had not affected you during this time of quiet stay in the hotel, hit you with a vengeance, because you unconsciously expected that there was a Vox around every corner of the garden, even though you didn't think that could be the possibility. Another thing that your body and mind did and you didn't know what to do with it and you hated it.

Fortunately, a moment later you returned to the hotel, where you immediately made yourself some hot tea, or rather Charlie made it for you because your hands were shaking. So you spent the next half hour calming down and getting compliments from Charlie for doing great for your first time. You thanked her with a trembling voice, while laughing a little at the stupidity of the whole situation.

Some time later, Alastor fortunately returned, giving Charlie some news that you didn't necessarily care about because it was Hotel-related business, but what interested you were his later words.

“...By the way, dear Asmodeus asked me to inform you all that there is an invitation for the entire Hotel to a party in the Ring of Lust.” he said after calling everyone except Adam who was still sleeping “He hopes we don't mind that it's tonight and lasts until tomorrow morning.”