Coco couldn't quiet explain it but trying to actually sleep in the hotel felt like an impossible exercise. The fact that her "new room" was empty and impossibly dark with the lights off and currents shut made her felt like she was going to be swallowed up. The lack of any sound was anxiety setting, like she had to be constantly listening for something in the background. And she knew that other people were here…. Just not where.

"I'm going insane." Coco turned on the light and threw the covers off the bed.

Looking at the clock, it was 1am and she had come to the conclusion there no way at all she could actually sleep in the hotel tonight. There were just too many underlying problems with her and this place that kept her from being able to relax enough to sleep.

"Ugh…" Coco let out the most depressed and tired sigh her chest could muster. "I'd rather sleep

on the couch in IMP with Blitzo watching me again…"

That was true. She could easily fall asleep in the office or at Moxxy and Milly's house because she knew that everybody in the office was close by. She missed hearing the sound of their breathing and Blitzo purring. She missed how open the rooms felt and how there was always the sound of something ticking, dripping or dropping. She even missed the mysterious sounds of something moving above her and the random gun shots!

Coco got up and wondered if this meant she needed someone to sleep in the same room as her, or at least close enough to hear them? She walked over and opened up the door to the hallway, listening in on the silence of the entire hotel. It was strange how you could hear absolutely nothing. The floors and walls weren't even making noises, there was no settling sounds that most old buildings made.

It was like you were living inside something dead.

'It's like two steps away from being 'Un-Space'.' Coco remembered that short nightmare stint inside absolute nothingness, an experience that can only be described as suffocating terror to the core of her being. Anything that is conscious shouldn't have to face that existence, of being somewhere where 'being' does not exist. A sort of state in-between nothing and something, because it was absolute nothingness. Meaningless-ness. It was just… not anything. Sin existence. And she remembered being the only cogniscent thing in there.

'If you tear away walls, floors and the ceiling; a quiet place can just become empty-nothingness….'

Oh yeah. If you're getting philosophical this early in the morning, then you're definitely driving yourself a little crazy.

"That's it," she said, getting up out of bed and taking the book under her arm. "I give up. Hell is no place to rest in peace at."

- Later in the hotel —

Vaggie came downstairs in the morning and opened up the kitchen to find Coco standing at the counter and nursing a heavy cup of coffee. When Coco looked up and saw Vaggie standing in the doorway, they both just stared at one another for a minute like they couldn't actually believe someone else was awake at this hour. Even more surprised it be them.

"Uh," Vaggie just stared at the human while her brain was processing social interaction so early in the day. "How long have you been up for?"

"Just… awhile." Coco responded, looking over to the pot of coffee and taking another sip from the mug she found.

"And how many of those have you had already?" She asked, pointing at the coffee pot that's obviously been refilled.

"…" Coco remained silent and instead took an even longer sip from the mug.

Vaggie let out a sigh and walked over to the cabinet to get herself a mug. She didn't know if she had any place to lecture a grown adult who's about her age on how to take care of herself. But she had enough right to mention how weird it is to see said adult doing a poor fucking job of it.

"You know not sleeping will just drive you insane," Vaggie said, walking over to the pot and pouring till it reached halfway up. She was too tired to be giving a lecture but figured pointing out the obvious would get her point across the most. "And this place isn't the best at keeping people sane in the first place."

"I'm pretty sure I'm long past the point of reasonable sanity," Coco smirked, shrugging a little as Vaggie poured. She then remembered how Vaggie doesn't particularly like her at this point and started to nervously chuckle. "Hehe… I'm just functionally insane at this point."

"Welcome to the club then," Vaggie responded unsympathetically, putting the pot back and taking a sip. "Mmm, good coffee."

"I know how to make a good strong brew." Coco said quietly, glad to have done something right. Between being a teacher for awhile and a current grad student, she knew how to make something decent out of even the worst stuff. "I just couldn't get sleep tonight. Figured I'd hang around here to…"

Coco trailed off. She couldn't think of any way to explain how sitting in the kitchen reading books in the middle of the night to avoid feeling lonely wasn't pathetic. But Vaggie just nodded and skipped ahead to pretend like she didn't care.

"We've all been there," she assured before walking over to the table to sit down. Since she just woke up and was more bored than angry, she decided to keep the conversation going. "So, it's hard to sleep at night here?"

"Uh," Coco blushed, looking away and trying to explain herself without being impolite. "Well, i-it's just me being nervous is all. N-Not that you guys have done anything! I-I'm just not used to the-"

"I meant Hell," Vaggie pointed to the ground under her feet slowly, regretting she had to point out the obvious. Taking another sip of the coffee, she figured she might as well lighten up and give Coco some advice. "My first year here, I barely slept. I think I was awake for at least twenty hours every day. I can't blame you if it's unnerving to close your eyes anywhere in this place, but I can promise you it won't make this a more pleasant experience if you keep it up."

"…" Coco kept quiet for a moment, then walked over to the table and sat down a few feet away from Vaggie. It was weird to think this, but since Vaggie was the most human looking person, Coco really wanted to relate to her. "Did you ever get used to being here? To being a… well, someone who lives in Hell?"

Coco had a hard time using the word "demon" to describe either Vaggie or Charlie. They just looked and seemed too human to be demons. Especially Vaggie, who seemed to be the most no-nonsense straight-(wo)man Coco had seen here in Hell.

Vaggie quirked a brow at the sudden directness, she hadn't pegged Coco to be the forward type. But she brushed it off and decided it couldn't hurt to talk to her, as long as she chose her words carefully.

"Eh," she shrugged her shoulders and sipped again. "It's not like it's something you can't live with. I've been here a couple of years now, but even I'm pretty new with lots of stuff here. I guess I'm kind of sheltered compared to some of the others."

"When did you get here?" Coco asked, interest peaked at how knowledgable Vaggie seemed to be.

"2014." She said offhandedly, as if it were her age.

"Whoa! You're so young!" Coco said, then blushed and turned away. Realizing that that actually wasn't a good thing. "I-I mean I-I'm so sorry to hear that…"
"Eh, don't freak out about it." Vaggie said off-handedly. She had stopped being sensitive about her age a while back and took Coco's comment as an honest observation, her teeth looking less sharp now then before. "Yeah, I died pretty young and not too long ago. I try not to let it get me too down. If I did, I couldn't function here."

"It must be hard…" Coco said quietly, the words just slipping out. Coco couldn't even imagine how hard it must be to function as reliable as Vaggie does everyday.

"Not really," Vaggie drank the last bit at the bottom of her cup. Not attaching any emotion to the feelings of sympathy. "You always die. Sometimes quick, sometimes slow and painfully. But you'll always die. And you'll probably end up here."

Coco held her tongue for a minute after that. She wasn't sure what Vaggie was getting at, but it sounded like she was just saying that to herself more than to anyone else.

Coco decided to change the topic.

"You think you still look human because you haven't been here that long?" Coco asked, looking particularly interested on that topic.

"Hard to say," Vaggie said, getting up to put her mug in the sink and wash it. "There's lots of demons who come down here looking pretty disgusting and disfigured from the start. I guess it might have something to do with how close you feel with being human… But I don't know. I can't judge."

It was silent for a minute as Vaggie washed her dish. The only sound between them the running water. Coco held her cup in her hands, the warmth almost completely gone and the liquid still dark but less appealing. She bit her bottom lip and forced out her voice again.

"Sorry if that was too… personal." Coco said, looking down at her cup. "I just, don't really know what to talk about with other people. I don't know anything about Hell or what people do down here. I feel like I just make it obvious I'm still a human…"

"Well, it didn't hurt my feelings," Vaggie said, flicking water of her hands then turning to walk back over to Coco. "But don't forget. You're not the only person who's living in this place. Everybody here is "alive", in a sense. We just… we just have a different definition of life and death is down here."

"It's really confusing," Coco admitted, her eyes showing how disturbing some of the things she's seen that are considered 'normal' happen on a daily basis. "I don't know if I can get used to it…"

"Don't be so closed minded," Vaggie scolded before sitting back down and giving her a cold but patient look. "You're smart enough to figure this shit out. Just remember, you're still a human so you can't play by demon's rules. But don't hold us to your standards."

"Huh?" Coco looked confused for a minute after what Vaggie said. "I didn't know I was-"

"I don't mean you can't expect anything civil from us," Vaggie explained before looking away for a moment. She sounded like she was trying to teach you something she had to learn on her own. "Just don't act like you have something to teach everybody just because you're doing a little better. People down here have a lot of shit, but there is some kind of system going on. So don't act like everything has to be exactly like it was in the living world or that we should be following those stupid hypocritical rules humans say they should follow."

"I don't think that…" Coco said, feeling defensive at that comment. "I didn't know I was… I'm sorry…"

"I'm not trying to be a bitch," Vaggie immediately clarified and help up her hands to show there was no malice. She turned her head and looked at Coco with serious but softer expression. "I'm saying this because… this place isn't your home. So, you can't be here and keep comparing it to the living world. It's the first rule we all have to learn. Once you've left there, there's no going back. So it doesn't help you to keep thinking about it while you're here. It'll only make you more depressed."

Coco stayed quiet for a while. She wasn't sure how to integrate that to her situation right now. It's obvious to her that Hell is… hell. But was she still stuck in the past? Was it so wrong to be comparing Hell to Earth when… Hell isn't Earth.

Vaggie let out a sigh softly and got up, patting Coco on the shoulder. It was the most "human" thing she could think of to make Coco look less like a kicked baby. And she couldn't help it, the human did look particularly pathetic when wallowing in depression.

"Just something to think about," she said before walking away. Immediately feeling weird about showering her with minimal comfort. "I don't want to see you all burnt out because you couldn't adapt to here on your own. Just remember, the hotel's got your back. But-"

"You guys aren't humans," she finished, smiling up at Vaggie. "I won't act like you owe me anything. But… I'll still treat you guys like humans, if that's all the same."

Vaggie stood a bit taken back for a moment before smiling and nodding. She then immediately freaked out about doing that and walked out of the kitchen and over to the hallway, letting out a deep breath and shaking her head.

'How the hell are we going to keep her safe if she can't even sleep over for one night without an emotional breakdown?' Vaggie looked over her shoulder back to the kitchen. She let out a sharp breath from her nose and shook her head with an annoyed look. 'She won't get anywhere with redemption if she thinks she's the only good person here. Just… are we supposed to be redeeming her? Or does she think she's supposed to be redeeming other demons. Ugh, that coffee works too well…'

And that's how Vaggie left Coco alone in the kitchen unsupervised.

"She seems nice," Coco said naively. Deciding to continue staying up past the point of good judgement, she figured she should start making breakfast. "I wonder if you can make pancakes in a microwave?"

A very bad decision on all of their parts.

-Several hours later-

Husk normally sleeps in a room behind the bar where there's a decent bed and decent space to live a semi-functional depressing existence. Unless he spent the whole night drinking. Then he passes out behind the bar and under several cases of bottles that he tells himself is cheap booze even though it smells like pure ethanol.

He generally rouses himself out of his night terrors around noon to the sounds of screaming and threats, only to quickly begin drinking again. So when he was roused awake at what he assumed was… not noon. Was very weird.

And the fact that he was woken up by the sound of someone continuously knocking on the top of the bar like an alarm clock was also not helpful.

Knocknockknockknockknockknockknockknocknotcockknocknockknockknockknockknocknocknockknockknockknocknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockn

"What the fu…" Husk half blinked his eyes open immediately and he knew he wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep without punching anyone. "ALRIGHT! What the fuck do you want with my afterlife!?"

Husk stood up all the way, knocking over countless bottles to pieces, only to see Coco standing on the other side of the bar holding a plate of hot cakes in one of her hands. She looked more confused than Husk was but put on a civil smile and held out the plate to him.

"The kitchen was on fire for awhile there but it's all good now," Coco said while hoping to pacify the situation, leaving out significant details to the rest of that story. She seemed to look completely fine but the sleeves on her shirt were completely singed "Just thought I should let you know. ?Desayuna?"

Husk stared blankly at Coco for a total of 5 seconds in stunned silence, forgetting that she had even existed since yesterday. Which is weird because she's a tiny human who definitely looks like she should have been eaten alive by now. He then looked down at the plate and back up at her again. Deciding that the offer of food was good enough negotiation to not kill her, he took the hot cakes and immediately turned and walked away to ignore her somewhere else.

"Wait I need to know if.. there's a… fire alarm and…" Coco stopped as soon as Husk began flipping her off from ten feet away. She then sighed and shook her head in self defeat. "And why did I expect a demon to care if I almost burnt down the hotel?"

"You almost burnt down the hotel?" Charlie asked confused, standing right next to her.

"GAH!" Coco shouted, jumping a full two feet back while looking at Charlie stunned. "When did you even get here? I mean… Almost. Almost burnt down the… hotel."

"No worries!" Charlie said quickly, giving off a light chuckle. She seemed to be able to be cute and scary at the same time and that wasn't really easy to handle at the moment. "It takes a lot more than one kitchen fire to bring down this hotel. I had it specially repurposed to stand up to even the toughest disasters and attacks Hell can supply!"

"Uhhh… okay." Coco wasn't sure whether to take that information as good or bad at the moment.

Coco wasn't sure anymore whether to feel safe when Charlie was around or slightly on edge, given that the woman seemed to be able to sneak up and surprise her at any moment. But Charlie was also cute and seemed to be actively trying to be a decent huma-um, Demon. Therefore she wasn't the worst person she's met here.

"I'm glad you're awake!" Charlie said actively, wrapping an arm around Coco's shoulders and walking her through the front lobby. "I have an amazing idea to help you get started here and helping Angel Dust with his rehabilitation!"

"Oh, really?" Coco said, putting on a very forced smile and false giddy voice. "N-Now? It's so early- I mean, greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat…."

"The sooner we start, the sooner we see progress!" Charlie nearly sang out as she began gesturing to the kitchen. "And it'll be a great way for you both to bond and-"

"NOT IN THE KITCHEN!" Coco immediately warned.

Before Charlie could ask why, Coco ducked down and pushed Charlie to the bar stand with awkward strength and stress. Once there, Coco just smiled as much as she could to distract them from her sweating.

"Heh heh," Coco started, trying to think of ways to keep people out of the kitchen for the foreseeable future. "O-Or we could just… have it right here! B-Better to have breakfast at a table like this, you know what I mean?"

"…" Charlie looked at Coco surprised for a minute, trying to think of why she wouldn't want anyone in the kitchen for some reason. But then she figured that the bar was just as nice of a place to start and smiled eagerly. "You're right! Let's make this a comfy atmosphere to get started then, now that Husk is out."

Charlie clapped her hands together and Razzle popped out from behind the bar, surprising Coco with his sudden appearance. He stood up and swept off all the bottles and glasses from the counter top before laying down a red and white striped table mat and placing down a portable moka pot and coffee mugs.

"Nice!" Charlie said eagerly, nodding at Razzle. "Now we just need some food and-"

This time she was surprised to see Coco laying down a plate of hot cakes that stacked up to ten. They stood on the table while Razzle quickly ducked down and pulled out a bowl of apples and sticky syrup-looking substance. Charlie just looked on for a second before grinning up at Coco.

"Aw~ You made breakfast for everybody," Charlie said cutely. So happy to see someone caring about others.

"Uh, yup." Coco said with a stressed smile and avoiding eye contact. Hiding many awful secrets that happened in the past hour. "Yeah. That was totally my intention…"

"Now all we need is Angel Dust," Charlie said looking behind her before clapping her hands again. "He should be asleep in his room for awhile. Razzle, tell Dazzle to get Angel Dust up and ready for breakfast!"

"Are you really sure we should do that just to-"

Before Coco could finish, Razzle gave a tiny salute and seemed to disappear behind the bar. It was a few seconds before she suddenly heard a lot of noise and crashing sounds from upstairs. Startled, Coco stepped back a few steps before suddenly Angel Dust dropped from the ceiling and directly behind the bar.

"Owww….." Angel Dust groaned before pulling himself up, fully dressed but obviously not by his own hands, and leaned over the bar with a pissed off expression and bags under his eyes. "I swear, I will gut and tear apart those little fur balls with my own teeth when I get a'hold o' you!"

Coco, stressed by the sudden appearance of the tall pink demon, turned to see both Razzle and Dazzle standing on the other side of the bar with mischievous grins. They obviously took a lot of pleasure in torturing the half awake Angel Dust by throwing him out of bed, into a wardrobe, into some clothes and then down the stairs behind the bar. Well, Charlie did say that they just had to get him down here and not how…

"Thank you boys," Charlie said cheerfully. "That will be all."

"Those twos are a menace to society!" Angel shouted, now standing up all the way and pointing at them with a set of two hands while baring his teeth. "Next time you two midgets sneak into my room while I'm asleep, I will rip out your throats and use them as dildo covers!"

Coco tried to ignore these threats that were happening right beside her and figure out what the hell was going on. Razzle and Dazzle simply nodded to Charlie, walked over and stared up at you for a good five seconds and then scurried along with secretive plans of some sort.

"Well that's not suspicious at all…" Coco said under her breath.

"Nothin' good can ever come out of those tiny fucks." Angel said on a final note before looking over to see both Charlie and Coco standing over on the other side of the bar. He then let out an exhausted groan, not surprised that the source of this never ending annoyance was coming from either of them. "And what the fuck do you want from me now? You realize it's… uh. What time is it, Doll Face?"

"Doll Face?" Coco repeated before looking over her shoulder at a clock. "It's like 7:15am."

"It's fucking morning!" Angel yelled , throwing all his hands up in the air and starting to growl lightly to himself. "You realize every hour is unholy before happy hour?"

"Now Angel," Charlie said in a pacifying voice before moving over to be closer to both Coco and Angel. "It's time to start your day with a little early morning redemption exercise! And what better way to do that than over coffee and breakfast!"

"…" Angel just stood there now with a 'wtf' expression like he was too tired to be bothered with an angry look anymore. He just looked at the bottom of the bar with different contents and started trying to process his life a little more. "Well. I guess any hour in Hell is happy hour with the right liquor."

Angel picked whatever bottle he could easily grab and then climbed over the bar to sit on a stool. He was about to start trying to open it before Coco walked over with a mug of coffee that was still hot. Apparently she had quickly started making some as soon as she could. Angel, never one to question free food, just took it from her and proceeded to go back to ignoring her existence even as he drank.

"So what's your game here this time, princess?" Angel asked after taking a few sips and feeling a bit more game to play. "What? Are we all gonna have a tea party here and braid each others' hair?"

"I'm glad you asked," Charlie said while ignoring the slab of sarcasm. She brightly smiled over at both Coco and Angel before pulling up a stool to sit down at too. "I think one thing that everyone needs to work on in order to be better people is by being friendlier with everyone!"

"Friendlier?" Coco asked, sitting down and quirking her brow. Was she already not being friendly enough to the most impossible person in the room?

"Yes!" Charlie clapped her hands and nodded, happy to have two mostly willing participants here. "And since you're new and both of you are guests, it'll be a perfect way for you two to start bonding together since you'll be spending more time working on redemption for each other while you life here!"

"UGH!" Angel slammed his hand on to the bar for a minute then picked it up and rested it in two hands. He stared over with dead tired eyes and wished he could just throw over the bar, but was restraining himself in order to keep his room. "No no. Go on, continue. This whole stupid exercise seems like a great way to waste my time in the morning."

Coco just lightly glared at Angel who was still doing his best to ignore her existence. She wasn't sure why he was so against putting in minimal effort to be tolerable, but figured he wasn't going to be changing any time soon either. So this whole thing seemed like it was going to be miserable.

"Okay…" Coco sighed, resigning herself to having to interact with Angel for longer periods than desirable. She looked up at Charlie and hoped whatever she had planned could be over and done in under five minutes. "I guess we, well, I can try. So, what do we have to do?"

"This is just something I want you guys to do to help you guys get more comfortable with each other," Charlie said, promising that this would be as painless as possible. "Just start off by saying one nice thing to each other and we'll work our ways up from there!"

Well, if that was all she had to do, Coco figured this could be easy enough for anyone to do.

"Okay, huh, I guess I'll go first?" Coco looked over Angle and thought for a minute before putting on a small smile, giving an honest easy thing to comment on. "Your colors are really pretty. It's the nicest shade of pink I've seen around here."

Angel thought this was the dumbest thing he's ever been asked to do and treated it like like that. Not even giving it a second thought, he tossed out the first thing he could think of.

"You look like a homeless bum that got caught in a trash fire like an idiot," Angle deadpanned, not even bothering to pick his head up from his hand. He started checking out his nails and continued half heartedly. "But hey, you pull it off or somethin'."

The long silence that followed that was thick. And Coco immediately began regretting ever setting foot inside this hotel as her face started lighting up a bright shade of red.

"Was that you're nice thing or are you just warming up?" Coco asked, already beginning to get irritated.

"Huh? What? Not feeling all warm and bubbly yet, Doll Face?" Angle said, rolling his eyes. He then smirked and turned to face her in his seat, figuring he could get some amusement out of this if he just kept teasing her. "If you're lookin' to "feel good" about yourself, you might have to take care of that privately~"

Coco sat there confused for a minute, not getting whatever he meant. But the Angel held up a set of hands and started rubbing them together and… she sort of got the message.

"That's-you-I'm-UGH!" Coco just continued to get flustered up as she realized what he meant by that. She covered her face that had turned a bright shade of pink and gave one last pleading look to try and see if he could be nice for a second. "Can't you just try and play along for a minute?"

"This ain't a team effort, Doll," Angel said with a chuckle, enjoying her fluster. "Not even if you think of me while doin' it."

It was completely obvious that Angle wasn't putting any effort into this at all. But she also saw that Charlie hadn't noticed his complete lack of effort and so she vowed to keep going through this torture to help her feel better. After all, she's gone through almost 28 years of shit and all of middle school being bullied, how bad could this be?

"Okay, first. Let's not turn this into a fight you guys!" Charlie said, immediately standing in-between the two of them while starting to sweat a little. Who knew this was a bad idea (except everyone else)? "Second, see how she smiled at the end of it! It shows she actually cares and is telling the truth!"

"What part of me looks like a caring comfort creature?" Angel commented with a side long glare. And then also picking up the hint and giving grin. "And what part of what I said didn't sound like the truth?"

"How hard is it to pretend to be nice?" Coco said, opening up both hands with exasperation. "You don't need half a brain to just say something nice for a minute."

"Ey, watch it Doll Face." Angel said, pointing a finger at Coco with a side glare. "Not all of us can be stupid little care bears who give a shit like you."

"Can you go five minutes without being a total jerk?" Coco said gritting her teeth, trying to be civil even though she was getting angrier and angrier. The curse mark on her upper arm starting to heat up more and more.

"Jezz, can you even speak like grown up and cuss? You sound like a retarded cartoon character." Angel Dust smirked and chuckled, liking how easily he could push her buttons even when she's on the very edge. "It's adorable. I almost can't take how fucking cute you are, like some kind of rejected preschooler with tits."

"Can't we stop now?" Coco asked Charlie, turning to look at her while pointing at Angel's self-satisfying grin that now is an eternal source of frustration for her. "I'm kind of sick of being of made fun of for being human!"

"Aw, what's wrong, Baby?" Angel continued to tease, taking pleasure in this endeavor now. "Did someone get bullied too much in Catholic school? What? You wanna get mad and spank me for hurting your feelings~?"

"Oh I would slap the shit out of you if I wasn't trying to be a good person…" Coco growled under her voice, now locking eyes with Angle and feeling the curse mark starting to burn. "And you make it so hard…"

"I make everything hard, baby," Angel said, playing with his empty cup of coffee before giving her a little grin and puffing up his chest. "But hey, maybe your little good girl act makes it fun for you in the bedroom. Too bad its so much more fun to play naughty for me~"

Charlie saw this was going nowhere and starting to create a lot of tension. Even weirder, Coco was giving off something that was starting to make Charlie feel very uncomfortable. So she had to pacify this quick and see if she can end this diplomatically.

"Okay, Angle, this isn't some kind of game you can use to take advantage of," Charlie said firmly before perking up a little. She wanted to see if she could actually get one attempt at being nice out of him to try and meet them in the middle. "Look, Coco is right. Being nice isn't that hard when you just think about it carefully. Try again! This time, Angle, you go first! How about you say something nice and simple?"

"Simple?" Angle said, giving a laugh as he looked at Coco up and down. Her very appearance in the baggy clothes borrowed from Moxxy and Blitzo made her look like a child pretending to be a grown up, which was so fucking sad it was hilarious. "You want me to actually find something that isn't completely pathetic here?"

"Do I really need to be here anymore?" Coco groaned while looking at Charlie.

"Just try it!" Charlie said louder, in a tone that was half pleading and half demanding.

Both Coco and Angel sighed at this and went back to staring at each other, now just trying to get this over with as soon as possible.

"…" Angle stared up and down at Coco for a moment, racking his brain for the least insulting thing he had but that was getting harder and harder to find. He looks down at her breasts for a second and then back up. "There's room for improvement."

"You're one to talk!" Coco said, covering her breasts and angrily flushing.

"Uhhhhh," Charlie let out a long, tired sigh. She saw that this had been the opposite of productive and decided it was time to change tactics. "Okay, that's enough everybody. Let's call it a morning and try again later."

"Right," Angel said, rolling his eyes and standing up while taking several hot cakes to leave with. "What ever. In the meantime, I have better things to fuck around with that aren't here. Don't bother me, Doll Face."

And with that, Angel got up and left to his room where he planned to sleep and relax until something else interesting happened. And when he did leave, Coco finally rested her head on the bar top and sighed. It was probably from the lack of sleep, but Coco now felt more emotionally exhausted than an hour ago.

"Please never make me do that again…" Coco asked Charlie while still covering her face on the bar.

"Sorry…" Charlie said sympathetically. She sat down next to Coco on the other seat and put her hand on her shoulder consolingly. "I guess you can't force things to change that quickly overnight… But. You're doing a good job so far. Thanks for trying."

Coco looked up at Charlie and smiled. Happy to at least see that Charlie knew she was putting in some effort.

In the next minute, both Vaggue and Husk came walking into the room. Vaggie looked slightly worried about something while Husk just dragged his feet behind him like he couldn't be bothered to do the job he's paid to do.

"Hey, Charlie," Vaggie said, pointing her thumb behind her at the office. "Something uh… Sensitive came up. You might want to take a look at it…"

"Can it wait a minute?" Charlie asked, looking up over and Vaggie before gesturing her head at Coco. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"… Trust me. It's sensitive," Vaggie said testily, trying to emphasize this was important without have to spell it out. "I just heard about it over the radio…"

"Hell still uses radios?" Coco asked, surprised they were still using such old tech.

But that seemed to completely change Charlie's mind as she broken into an incredibly stiff smile that showed various levels of stress and agony pouring out over it. Coco began to wonder just what exactly was so unpleasant that had to be playing on the radio…

"OKAY! Thanks for this morning Coco!" Charlie announced as she got up and awkwardly started making her way over to the back room. "We're making real progress over here with Angel Dust and everyone! Ah ah ha haha… S-See ya around! Have fun at work today!"

And with that, Charlie and Vaggie both quickly walked over to the office together and left Coco sitting alone at the bar table. Coco pondered what was seriously wrong with these people as Husk briskly walked back behind the bar and began picking up a coffee cup to fill.

"Um… So, what was that about…?" Coco asked Husk, gesturing with her thumb over to where Vaggie and Charlie went.

"Don't bother with things that don't matter," was all Husk said.

Coco stayed quiet for a minute then, watching Husk fill half the mug with coffee and half with vodka. A weird choice since she would have mixed it with whisky herself.

"Do you think there's actually anyway to make Angel Dust like me?" Coco asked Husk. She felt desperate to appease the people here so she wouldn't have a miserable experience in the hotel, and also so she might actually make friends with someone other than Charlie. "Or just, not hate me?"

"How the fuck would I know." Husk responded. Putting the bottle down and then drinking the whole cup of coffee in one dump, Husk rolled his eyes at the whole thing that was going out. "Why should anyone care if anyone likes 'em? I don't even care if you like me, so quit fucking whining at my bar."

".. But," Coco was about to retort before she let out a big self defeated sigh and dropped her head down. "You're right…"

Coco felt exhausted, and hot all over. She wasn't sure about that last part, but it was definitely also tugging on her energy. To the point she wondered: Can she even really be a good person? After all, if she can't even handle Angel Dust, who just seemed to be all talk, then how can she handle herself around actual demons in Hell outside of the Hotel?

Husk looked down and saw Coco's sad green eyes and felt a sort of pang of regret. It was obvious she felt some kind of grief, and even though he couldn't understand it, he did feel like it was weird she was even trying.

" Tell ya what kid," Husk said slowly, making Coco look up at him. "The fact is, it's pathetic seeing a whiney human crave attention from a lanky whorish piece of shit and then have her feelings hurt for not knowing better."

"Gee, thanks," Coco said, feeling her heart break a little more as she sunk down in her arms.

"But, the fact that you're tryin' to actually find some good points with a piece of shit like Angle Dust, and that you actually care about how people think of ya…" Husk looked for some words that he could use that didn't sound like total crap or make him want to puke. "You're not a BAD kid."

Coco sat up after that and looked up over at Husk. He actually did try to say something nice to her, and she could tell me meant it. That was actually the first thing that made her feel welcomed here.

"Aw," Coco said, smiling a little wider at Husk. "Thanks, Husk. That's really nice!"

Husk caught her smile and flustered a little, feeling weird to have a human girl even saying something like that to him. He knew he had to quickly insult somebody in order to get rid of this giddy feeling her cute smile was giving him.

"Now don't come over here thinkin' I'm gonna start cheerin' ya on or anything!" Husk said loudly, quickly turning around so Coco couldn't see him blushing a bit. "Just because you don't make me

wanna puke doesn't mean your entire existence doesn't bother me. Now quit tryin' to buy my attention and fuck off somewhere useful."

No longer feeling so depressed, Coco cheerfully took his advice.

"Okay~" Coco said cheerfully, jumping off the bar stool. "I guess I should see when Blitzo and the others are coming."

'She seriously only needs one compliment and she feels better?' Husk thought to himself. He picked up a glass that he planned on pretending to clean until he caught a glimpse of his reflection with a scattered blush all painted over it. 'SHIT.'

He immediately threw the glass onto the floor and broke it into a million pieces. Coco turned her head in question and Husk just stared at her blankly.

"It was a... faulty glass." He said.
"... Okay." Coco responded.

Then a knock came at the front door followed by Blitzo and Luna walking in together into the hotel.

Coco! How's my wonderful employee!" Blitzo cried happily walking in. "If I don't see you in the next 15 seconds I'm gonna start blindly shooting everything~!"
"Can you stop saying that every time I leave a room?" Coco asked, walking over to Blitzo and Luna with her bag.
"You got the book?" Luna asked, barely looking away from her phone.
"Yep," Coco nodded, showing the book attached to her hip via the belt.

"Great!" Blitzo cheered, pulling Coco under his shoulder and readjusting the devil horn headband. "And how was your first night? Want to stop over and see the other losers for a minute and-"

As Blitzo was talking, a loud BANG! was heard from the kitchen area as if something was falling to pieces. Followed by the cries of terror from Niffty in the other room as well.

"OH MY CLEAN HOUSE WHAT HAS HAPPENED HERE!?"
"Gotta go let's go to work now BYE!" Coco shouted, pushing her two coworkers out of the Hotel to face another day of Hell and the IMP office.