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“MC?” a deep voice calls out, startling you from your thoughts. You look up to see none other than Lucifer standing at the bottom of the stairs, some papers in hand and looking at you with furrowed brows. “Why are your clothes all strewn about?”
“Oh, uh,” you start, panicking internally at the thought of him being angry with you. You try to think of some excuse for a fat second before sighing and looking away from his piercing gaze in embarrassment. “I-I tripped and dropped the basket.”
Lucifer was quiet. He could tell that something was bothering you, beyond the clothing thrown everywhere, the moment he saw you. He nods and slowly climbs the stairs. You glance at him, worried about his anger. He stands next to you for a moment, one hand in his pocket as he surveys the mess. He turns and sits next to you on the stair, setting the paperwork down on his opposite side. He rests his forearms on his knees and clasps his gloved hands together.
Your heartbeat speeds up at the sudden and very unexpected move by the Avatar of Pride. You stay quiet, a little anxious as to why he was sitting next to you instead of dragging you off to be lectured. You absentmindedly rubbed your ribs where you knew a bruise was already forming. The demon glances at you but doesn’t say anything. He could guess what happened.
“Did something happen today?” he asked, looking towards you inquisitively. You glanced at him before quickly looking away, focusing instead on a shirt laying a few steps in front of you.
You were quiet for a moment, wondering why the demon who made absolutely sure that you knew of his distaste and distrust of you was suddenly being buddy-buddy. The thought of lying to him popped into your head but you dismissed it. You run a hand through your hair and keep it there, leaning your elbow against your knee and propping your head up. You shake your head a bit and close your eyes.
“I’m just—,” you cut yourself off with a sigh and a pause, “I had a really shitty day.” You open your eyes and focus on the shirt again. Lucifer hums quietly at your response.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he apologizes, sounding truly genuine. “Would you...like to talk about it?” You give him a sideways glance, eyebrows raised in surprise and doubt. He rolls his eyes at that. “It’s a simple yes or no question, MC.” You hold up your hands in surrender, a humorless chuckle escaping your lips.
“Alright, jeez. I guess I would like to talk about it since no one else seems to give a fuck about how I feel.” Lucifer frowns at that. You both knew that wasn’t true. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant to say. I just...haven’t been dealing with the transition to the Devildom very well, I guess. There’s been a lot of things going on, but today just really sucked ass. Levi kept me up ranting about a bad ending of an anime so I slept through my alarm, missed breakfast, and was late to class, but you already knew that.” Lucifer nods, remembering his anger and annoyance because of it. “I completely forgot about the Potions test today so I wasn’t prepared and I fucking bombed it. On the way here after class, Mammon spilled coffee all over my uniform so I decided to get all of my laundry out of the way, but surprise, surprise! I tripped up the stairs and threw all of my clothes everywhere and bruised the fuck outta my ribs in the process! I guess today was really just the icing on the motherfucking cake!!”
You were panting lightly after you finished your spiel. Blush spreads across your cheeks as you sheepishly look at Lucifer, who was regarding you silently with a slightly amused smile on his face. You realize with a start that he was incredibly handsome when he smiled.
“I’m sorry,” you apologize, covering your eyes with both hands. “I think today might’ve been the breaking point.”
“It would be for anyone,” the demon says with a low chuckle. “I’m sorry you had such a bad day, MC. I know how hard you’ve been working for the past few weeks and I must say that you aren’t what I expected you to be.”
“And what did you expect me to be?” you ask sarcastically, raising your eyebrows and giving him an unimpressed look.
“An irresponsible layabout who would tarnish the good name of Lord Diavolo as well as the rest of the Devildom,” he stated matter-of-factly, giving you the impression that he had been waiting for the opportunity to say it.
“Wow,” you said nodding your head as you comprehended his statement. “Thanks.”
“But,” he said quickly, catching your eye and giving you a knowing look. “You proved me wrong. Since day one, you’ve been resourceful, hard-working, and tireless in you efforts to keep up with the crazy life we all live here in the House of Lamentation. Not only that, but you’ve shown me that humans aren’t what I thought they’d be. Solomon isn’t the best example of that, obviously, so I was very doubtful of you.”
You shared a short laugh.
“I know you don’t like or trust me because of...a lot of things, but I appreciate that,” you admit while avoiding eye contact and playing with your hands. “I wasn’t always a good student in high school, but I think it’s cause I didn’t have many friends back then. I had two people, and one of ‘em doesn’t even live in the same (state/province/country) as me.”
Lucifer hummed, the cogs in his brain turning. “Is that why you made a pact with Mammon?”
You nod in embarrassment, blush tingeing your cheeks. “Mammon is truly an idiot, but he’s been a good friend to me most of the time I’ve been here. He was actually the one who asked to make a pact, too.”
Lucifer raised his eyebrows in surprise, then chuckled. “I guess that’s not very surprising. You do have him wrapped around your finger.”
“I really don’t mean to!” you exclaim with a laugh. “He’s just...very impressionable.”
After you calmed down, comfortable silence stretched between you two. You noticed that you were in a much better mood than before, but that your laundry was still all over the stairs.
“Tell you what,” Lucifer suddenly says, catching your eye. “You pick up your laundry, and I’ll take you out to dinner for all your hard work. My treat.”
“Seriously?” you ask a smile worming it was on your face. “That sounds amazing.”
You shared a smile, maintaining eye contact, before you realized that you were leaning towards him. You blinked a couple times and leaned away, blush lighting your face ablaze.
“Oh Jesus, I’m sorry,” you say with a nervous chuckle. “I’ll uh, get to picking up my laundry.”
You stand quickly and bend over to grab a shirt and turn to throw it in the basket, only to jump when you see that Lucifer is standing directly in front of you. He was tall before, but now he looms another few inches above you. Lucifer chuckles and leans over to press a soft and lingering kiss to your cheek.
“I’ll come by your room in an hour,” he whispers in your ear. “Wear something to match that vibrant blush of yours, will you?”
You swallow and nod once, the shirt in your hand wrinkled from your tight grip. Lucifer, still smiling, turns and walks up the stairs without another word, leaving your head and heart a mess of wonders.