Chapter Text
“Perhaps if we were to invite Solomon…” Lucifer muttered under his breath. His grumblings were furhter muted beneath the gloved hand across his face, fingers digging into his eyes to rub away the ache behind them. Diavolo was still quick to pick up on the complaint and Lucifer tensed at the laugh that followed.
“It wouldn’t be much of an exchange program if we ask someone we’re already familiar with, now would it?”
Lucifer sighed and added another document to the growing pile of read applications. There were still double the number to go through. He stared at the stack, eyes hard, before taking the next one off the top. He didn’t make it past the first few lines before he moved it to the read pile.
“Think of it as an experiment, Lord Diavolo. You need to have consistent results for this to work.”
“Of course,” the demon lord hummed. He leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees to prop his chin in his folded hands as he watched Lucifer sort through the next few pages at his desk.
“Which would imply that we need to repeat your…” Lucifer paused to choose his words carefully, “plans as closely as possible. Especially so if we’re to guarantee the safety of the humans involved.”
Diavolo nodded, but Lucifer couldn’t find any agreement in the empty smile on his face. “I see what you mean, and it’s certainly reassuring to see you so dedicated to the task. But if we are, as you said, to ensure the safety of the participants, don’t we also have to widen our factors? We’ve proven a powerful sorcerer like Solomon can survive in the Devildom quite solidly, I think. But what about humans without such advantages?”
“You… are correct,” Lucifer admitted with another sign. “So I can remove any applicants who’ve proven to have some magical talent? Is that the plan for this year’s program?”
“I had thought it might be fine to include anyone with low level power, but you might be on to something, Lucifer. It’s true that I want to prove we can house humans of any talent safely here. To do that we have to find the weakest of them. Go ahead and do so.”
Lucifer nodded, and, after a quiet moment, a smaller stack of papers sat neatly aside the rejected applications. Those still to be read still towered above the rest. Lucifer made another pass of his hand across his face. “You don’t make this easy, Lord Diavolo.”
“But I know you’re up to the task. Although, I have one idea if you don’t mind.”
Lucifer sat back and gestured to the piles. In a flash, all his work to arrange them neatly and alphabetically was wasted as Diavolo grabbed the stack from the bottom and yanked them to the floor. Lucifer rose to his feet, the weight of unseen wings heavy on his back and a headache nothing compared to the pressure of his horns moments from bursting forth, to stare, wide eyed, at the mess. He gripped the edge of the desk hard, knuckles white, in an effort to keep himself under control as the last fluttered pages floated to the ground.
“Why would you-”
“Let’s have fate decide,” Diavolo said. He walked through the strewn applications and bent to pick up one amongst all the others. “I thought this way would be faster. Here.”
The pressure subsided, but the headache increased tenfold, as Lucifer took the offered document and fell back into his chair. He took the next one offered, as well. “Is this really the best way to go about it?”
Diavolo smiled, and this time Lucifer thought he caught just a hint of real humor in his eyes. “Unless you’d like to clean up and read them over again, I would say yes.”
Lucifer pursed his lips and laid both applications on the desk. At least two powerless humans would be easier to contact than one mysterious sorcerer. “I’ll have Mammon send his crows to find them in the morning.”
“Fantastic. I expect to hear from you soon about your findings.”
Lucifer saw him off with a dip of his head before dropping it fully into his hands with a groan. He peeked out from between his fingers at the names. One Early and one Ami, both powerless, clueless, and very fragile humans. He almost felt sorry for them. But only almost. There was further work to be done to set up if the exchange program Lord Diavolo had devised was to be up and running by the start of the new R.A.D. school year. Of course these two had lives of their own, ones about to be very interrupted. Their own schools and places of work had to be informed, close friends and family contacted, documents signed and sent to make it official. At least, that part, had already been started by Diavolo. Lucifer only had to add the finial details to them before sending them out.
If only the year to come went as easily as it sounded.