Pierre could count the exact amount of days since the night, Arackniss left him and he could count the same amount of times he considered quitting the hotel for him but he couldn't do it.
He couldn't give up the possibility of getting out of Hell for a relationship that wouldn't last and he couldn't abandon the people in the hotel because of something as stupid as a boy.
He'd have never done this before he met Charlie but she had a way of making someone change their mind and their ways, he actually felt like he could change for the first time in his very long existence.
Like the others, Pierre prepared for the oncoming extermination. They boarded up windows, built walls and trained to fight for his life against the angels that were very likely to kill them all.
The day came and the flea had managed to dodge as much as he could, taking out as many angels as were possible and when they didn't think they could keep going, Pentious had stepped in to take out Adam himself.
A mistake and a sorrow filled blessing, despite how devastating it was to watch him go, without his sacrifice, Astor wouldn't have gone into a feral rage, along side Charlies dragons, ripping apart whoever got close to him. Keeping the army away from the rest of them as Charlie and Vaggie took the lead against Adam and Lute.
If it weren't for Astors grief stricken howls as he tore into the exterminators, Pierre might not have thought twice about leaving.
It was the first time Pierre really thought about what he had said to Arackniss, what he was doing, actually meant to Arackniss and he felt foolish for thinking he could have both. Astor watched Pentious die and would never get him back, Redemption was going to be the same thing. If he'd tried to keep Arackniss around, he would have had to see him leave him too and he might have done to him the same thing.
It was at that point, Pierre decided he didn't want this anymore. He didn't want to leave Hell, anymore. He could finish out the fight, help them pick up the pieces of what was left but he didn't want to disappear from this place and if the spider would forgive him for being selfish, maybe they could start over.
It didn't take long after that for the battle to hault, for Lucifer to show up, Adam to die and the angels to retreat.
Everyone left alive, celebrating as much as they were crying over their lost friends and the snake that kept the shadow on a leash.
Charlie attempted to apologize and only made the shades grief worse. He lashed out, screamed, told her she didn't lose anyone the way he had lost someone and sadly, he was right. Astor didn't know loss before today and he didn't know how else to handle it but to be mad that nothing could fix it.
It broke Pierres heart to see it, he was sure it broke all their hearts to watch Astor dissolve into an angry, sobbing, mess because there was nothing any of them could do to help him understand what he was feeling.
The flea had never really considered Astor a person but in that moment, he seemed as human as any of them. He had lost someone he loved and he wasn't getting them back.
