Chapter Text
"I just think an exploration of the living world would be so fun!"
If Angel had an ongoing list of famous last words (which he did, but it was still in Hell), then that would be going straight to the top of the list. Charlie Morningstar, RIP, who-the-fuck-knows-when to 2025.
Add the rest of them to that tombstone too, even though they didn't say the words, they were damned right alongside her.
Angel had been on the fence about the whole going to the living world thing to begin with. It had been decades since he was up there, sure, and most of his enemies were probably dead. But ultimately, what was the point? It was just going to be a trip down the bad memory lane highway.
What he was not expecting at all was for Lucifer to magic them into a bunch of high schoolers and tell them that going to high school was the way they would be experiencing the human world again. He didn't even have the chance to open his mouth to say "no thanks!" before he was whisked away topside.
At least he wasn't the only one pissed off.
Alastor had murder in his eyes. Although the effect was slightly dulled by the fact that they were a warm brown color now instead of his usual creepy radio dial schtick. What was unnerving though was that he didn't smile in his human form. Not when he was pissed at least.
Which was one point in the direction of the common theory that his smile was stitched on in hell. But hey, he could cash in on that bet later. For now he was determined to stay on the other side of their nicely provided living room, right next to Husk who was a more safer kind of angry. Or at least he hoped.
Husk was still shorter than him as a human, but not by much. Angel hadn't been all that tall in life, average for the time at five-foot-eight. Husk was maybe two inches shorter than that. It was definitely an improvement to be able to look into those now hazel eyes without having to bend all the way over.
He wasn't sure what Husk had looked like as a human either. Never really thought it mattered, he was a cat in Hell. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the other's clear dark skin, dark coiled hair, and square build.
He kind of looked like he could be Alastor's cousin actually. They had the same eye and mouth shapes. Although Alastor's skin was several shades lighter and his hair only had a slight curl to it, being more wavy than anything.
Those two were really the only others that had meaningful differences between their hell-forms and their human forms. Coincidentally enough, they also were the only two that were severely pissed off about the current situation, besides Angel. Maybe it was related, maybe it wasn't.
The only difference for Charlie was that she was significantly shorter and the rosie-redness of her cheeks had turned to a far more natural human blush. She was still startlingly tall, at least six foot, but not freakishly so. Vaggie also had a more human hue to her gray-ish skin, white hair darkening into a platinum blonde. Her height hadn't changed at all, now being at the same height as himself now that he'd shrunk.
Niffty was still recognizable as Niffty. Same posture, same tiny height, same bob. Her hair had flipped to being dark black and her now two eyes were an almost equally dark shade, but hardly anything else stood out about the changes to her.
If anything, the only true notable thing was that she didn't have to climb onto the couch, she could simply flop onto it like the rest of them. Which she did. With great enthusiasm.
Angel hadn't had the chance to look in the mirror yet, but if he had to hazard a guess, he'd say he probably looked just as Italian as he did in life. Which is to say, very.
"Call your father and get him to change us back!" Husk snapped at Charlie.
"I'm trying-" She whined, desperately tapping away at her phone. "He's not picking up my calls!"
Angel seriously hoped this wouldn't be another repeat of Lucifer going to get the milk. He'd basically ignored his daughter for seven years straight. Angel wasn't looking forward to reliving his human life, even if he didn't have to deal with Valentino.
"It says he'll come pick us up at the end of the semester," Alastor grumbled, setting down a piece of paper.
They crowded around the coffee table, taking turns looking at the note left for them. Alastor shimmied off to a corner, acting aloof and unaffected, even if Angel could see the twitching of his eye.
The note was barely a page long. It detailed that they could use their human names, and Vaggie could pick whatever last name she wanted to fit in. Then, the name of the school that they were going to and where their supplies were (in their respective rooms). And, most importantly, under no circumstance were they to reveal that they had experience with the afterlife and that they were completely and entirely human again.
Now Angel could see why Alastor was so ticked about the note. Going from having all the power to no powers overnight must suck.
"Well..." Charlie trailed off. "Might as well make the best of the situation, right guys?"
Niffty was the only one who nodded enthusiastically. She didn't receive a response from anyone else.
"I'm not going by my human name, not the first one anyway," Angel declared.
The idea of going by Anthony again made him shudder. No, he had been Angel far longer than he had ever been Anthony. He didn't mind keeping the last name though, Berlusconi. Fuck his family. He was so going to use this as an opportunity to ruin their "good family name".
Husk and Niffty both seemed to be thinking along a similar line. He knew Husk had lived a long while topside, but he'd lived almost as long in hell. From the sounds of it, Niffty was barely a twinkle up here before dropping down. You do tend to get attached to your new name after a while. Some of the older sinners, the really old ones, don't often remember their original names.
So, suffice to say, there were no protestations.
"I'm claiming my room," Alastor said before wandering off towards the stairs.
The house had a weird split. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and a bathroom were all on the first floor. But all of the bedrooms seemed to be on the second floor. It wasn't that large of a house either, so Angel was betting somebody was going to have to share.
It didn't take long to figure out who was rooming with who with how the bedrooms were set up. The first one was so clearly decorated in Charlie and Vaggie's style that it hurt. The next was clearly a mixture of his and Husk's, which, score. Although he'd rather it be an only one bed kind of situation, he'd take sharing a room.
The final room was Alastor's and Niffty's. Thankfully, the former radio demon didn't have any complaints about having to share a space. Niffty was always going to be the best option anyway, but it still made things smoother.
True to his word, the school supplies were laid out on the desks that each of them had. The room was kind of cramped by having two twin beds, dressers, and desks though. Even more surprisingly, however, was the fact that the closet was already split 50/50 with the kind of shirts he and Husk would normally wear.
He was starting to think the king did a little more planning for this thing than he let on.
Angel grabbed the paper on top that listed out his school schedule. Despite still being a little peeved at the king, he was still curious to see how things had changed in the decades since he'd been in school.
He never had a shot at public school. Him and his siblings all got carted off to private Catholic schools, the kind that whipped you with rulers if you so much as thought something unholy. It was quite ironic to be from a mob family talking about "thou shall not kill" and all that.
He glanced at the top of the page. His classification apparently was sophomore, grade 10. He was sure the others might have been able to guess how old they were supposed to be based on their body, but for him the teen years just blurred together. He'd shot up like a weed at twelve and stopped growing by fourteen.
But, according to this handy piece of paper, he was supposed to be between 15-16. He might not even be old enough to drive. What a killjoy.
He scanned over the rest of the page, taking in his schedule. English, U.S. History, Chemistry (if only Cherri were here), Algebra (eugh), PE, Spanish, and...blank?
There was a secondary page underneath. Apparently he couldn't get away with taking just six classes, but Lucifer was nice enough to let him pick the seventh. All he had to do was checkmark it and magic would do as magic does, signing him up in the same way he was signed up for all his other classes.
He picked the tech class, because why not.
He wandered over to wear Husk was sitting at his own desk, leaning over the other's shoulder to take a peak at his schedule. It wasn't that different from Angel's. He had a different English class, and didn't have to take PE, but he got shop class and a free period. Not too shabby.
"I do not want to be a teenager again," Husk groaned.
Angel leaned forward even further so he could reach the paper, messing with it. "Look on the bright side whiskers, you get to be a senior at least. King of the crop right here."
Husk only grumbled.
Angel thought it was funny, until he saw the date that they were to begin classes.
"Tomorrow?!"