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Chapter 3
He should have been more on top of what Asmo was doing. He’d been to trusting. And now everything was spiraling out of control. A ball he’d thought would be just a normal affair had turned into the biggest event of the year. He should have known better. Never underestimate Asmo when it came to parties. Especially when he’d seen Mammon lurking around him too. The two of them together were dangerous together. And he’d known that. How many times had he found the two of them passed out together after a ball or a late-night outing? How many times when they were younger had he ushered them out of the room after they’d had too much to drink so others wouldn’t know the state of them?
Out of all his brothers, Asmo and Mammon were the most social, so they were of course invited to the most events, if anyone would know how to throw an event that would be something no one had ever seen before, it would be the two of them. And yet he’d seen the two of them with their heads together and done nothing about it. He’s pretended everything would be fine. That them being together couldn’t possibly be a disaster waiting to happen. But what it really was, was he’d been ignoring it. Always walking in the other direction whenever he saw Asmo coming. Dismissing him with excuses about being busy whenever he’d tried to engage him. He hadn’t wanted to even THINK about the reason for the Ball so he had thrown himself into paperwork that he’d been neglecting. He’d gotten caught up on a lot of things over the last few weeks with this method. But it seemed that his reprieve for that was over.
Lucifer turned the invitation over in his hand. He hadn’t looked at it yet. He knew he had to, the Ball was around the corner, days away, he’d be FORCED to deal with it and he should just LOOK at it. He should look at a lot of things. The bills had started to arrive for things that Asmo was ordering, planning, scheduling, but again Lucifer was just paying them without paying them to much mind. It’s not like he didn’t have the money, and if it meant he didn’t have to deal with the details for this nonsense it was well worth the price for it. It had been fun to see Mammon try and slip in a few expenses as if Lucifer wouldn’t notice, and he probably wouldn’t have, but the shops Mammon was buying from had nothing to do with planning for a Ball. Mammon was still paying for that little deceitful trick. At the end of the day though he had allowed him to get ONE thing as a thank you for helping Asmo plan everything. Lucifer was going soft in his age.
He heard stomping and slamming around and sighed pocketing the invitation, he’d deal with it later. He pushed back from his desk and stretched, having been hunched over all morning and most of the day had stiffened him up, it’d be good to get up and walk around anyway. He left his study and went in search of the commotion, never a dull moment in this house. You’d think they were all still children instead of a house full of grown adults.
“You’re kidding me.”
“Do I look like I am even in the realm of joking?”
Lucifer heard the beginnings of a fight between Belphie and Asmo. And from the sound of it he should probably get over there before Asmo scratched their youngest brother’s eyes out.
“That’s just so much work. If he doesn’t like what’s already there, he can go find somewhere else to sleep. Not like he should be picky; this isn’t his Kingdom.”
Lucifer heard Asmo stomp his foot, “What kind of attitude is that to have toward a guest? And he’s Lucifer’s best friend! We should do our best to please him.”
Lucifer heard Belphie snort. “We know YOU’D like to please him.”
There was a moment of silence and then a thud. Lucifer picked up his steps and rounded the corner and saw Asmo on top of Belphie, a rare occurrence since Asmo didn’t like to fight that often. Lucifer wished it was because he was to mature for such things, in reality it was because it wrinkled his outfit and messed up his hair. Belphie was laughing and had caught Asmo’s hands in his and was holding them to stop him getting punched.
“Alright, break it up.”
They both turned at the sound of his voice. Asmo ripped his hand out of Belphie’s but didn’t get up and pointed down at him. “Luci, tell him he has to help me properly!”
“No. Tell Asmo that Solomon doesn’t care what type of sheets are on the bed. And unless Asmo plans on spending time in his bed too he-OW.” Asmo had turned to him and punched him in the shoulder glaring down at him furiously. “Okay okay. Damn Asmo.” Belphie complained.
Lucifer walked over and grabbed Asmo’s arm and pulled him up and off Belphie. “Okay enough. Belphie, help Asmo with whatever he needs to get ready for Solomon. But Asmo, also don’t go crazy. I’m sure the Maid’s have already cleaned the room thoroughly, I’m appreciative you want to make sure my friend is comfortable, but he isn’t stuck up.”
Belphie opened his mouth, but Asmo elbowed him in the gut before he could say whatever he was going to say. He glared at Asmo but shut up. Finally, some silence from the two of them. Asmo grabbed Belphie’s arm and dragged him away. Well, that wasn’t too bad, crisis averted pretty easily. Lucifer continued walking but he wasn’t sure exactly where he was headed. He just knew he didn’t feel much like going back to the study.
Maybe he’d go find Satan and see if he’d managed to find the book, he’d “borrowed” yet. Satan had a way of borrowing books and then you’d never get them back again, they just became a part of his personal library. Even though it’s not like he had to do that, he could remember almost every book he’d ever read so if he did read a book again it was more for comfort than anything else. He could understand if he were rescuing the books and keeping them pristine or organized, but that was certainly not the case. Satan was just hoarding all the books he liked, and he did it without any particular organization. He had bookcases filled with them, but also had them in stacks on his floor, bed, table, pretty much every inch of his room was covered in books. He could put them back in the library and then read them whenever he wanted, but he liked having them at his fingertips at a moment notice.
More than once Lucifer had threatened to just move his bed into the library, that way it would be less of a mess. Satan had responded to that by coming home from the shops with a stack of new books. Lucifer had just shaken his head. As long as Satan contained the mess to his own room he wouldn’t keep bothering him about it, for now. That didn’t mean that he would let Satan keep HIS books though. Because Lucifer DID keep his things Pristine, and he didn’t care for the idea of his book being kicked under Satan’s bed or whatever else may be happening to it in there.
Lucifer walked into the foyer and was heading for the stairs when the front doors slammed open. Lords above, did NOONE in his family ever move quietly? Had he failed to raise them properly? Was he to blame for this?
“Lucifer!” Solomon yelled.
Oh, not one of his brothers, that wasn’t his fault then. Solomon’s manners were for his parents to worry about. He turned to tease him about it but was immediately on edge. Not one of his brothers. So not the usual amount of noise, why was Solomon running? His heart sped up immediately with worry.
“Are you alright?” He asked moving toward him quickly trying to scan behind him for a threat.
“No! I’m being pursued. I demand you hide me immediately.” Solomon said turning and slamming the doors shut behind himself. Lucifer scanned him for injuries, but he seemed unharmed, he should call someone to check him to be sure.
“What happened?” He asked, “How many of them are there? Were any of my brothers outside?” The panic rising with each second. Only 2 of his brothers were accounted for that he knew of.
“They ambushed me at the gate. How did they know I’d come early? Someone must have tipped them off. Vultures the whole lot of them.”
Lucifer was in the process of calling for the guards to lock everything down but the tone in his friend’s voice gave him a seconds pause.
“Who exactly is pursuing you?”
Solomon moved toward the side and peeked out the curtain. “A group of marriage minded ladies who thought they could catch me alone outside your estate. Where were your guards? I was in danger! I have to much research to do to be tied down in marriage. Besides this is your coming out party don’t they know that?”
“You Idiot.” Lucifer walked up and cuffed him in the head. Solomon caught himself before he smacked into the glass.
“What was that for?” He asked rubbing his head.
“You just scared me half to death!” Lucifer yelled, “I thought you were really in danger. I was worried about you! And my brothers. Don’t do that again.”
Solomon reached out and pat his shoulder. “I’m sorry okay. I forgot how overprotective you are. But you should be protective of me too. My virtue was in danger.”
“Where was this? You said my guards weren’t there?”
“No, don’t worry they were. But if they had come even a few minutes later you may very well be at my wedding right now. Those women were…. persistent. They pulled me off my horse Lucifer!”
Lucifer laughed truly at that. Solomon looked it. His clothes were rumpled, and he had dirt on his pant legs likely from when he’s fallen. His hair was mussed, and his usual composed demeanor was gone. He did look scared. Marriage really was something he was terrified of.
Solomon stepped forward and put both hands on Lucifers shoulders. “You are a terrible friend.”
“You’re not dying. You’re just sought after. Oh no, you’re good looking and rich, your life is terrible.” Lucifer teased and shifted so he could lead Solomon further into the home.
Solomon just glared at him. “You’re one to talk. You want to get married about as much as I do.”
He couldn’t disagree so he just waved Solomon forward again. Solomon had decided to come early to try and avoid this exact situation. He knew that if he stayed in town, he’d be swarmed with people trying to talk to him, flirt with him, suck up to him and he’d wanted none of it. It’s not like he didn’t know how to deal with people, or that he wasn’t used to fielding the attention, he certainly was. Like Lucifer he’d been bred to deal with it. Actually, out of the two of them, Lucifer would say that Solomon was even better then him, always ready to deal with any situation, always thinking, always planning. But there were sometimes, like now, where Lucifer remembered that even Solomon was only human. He couldn’t field every attack, especially sneak attacks.
So, they’d decided he’d stay with Lucifer to avoid that, plus, as a King he needed more security, so why not come stay with Lucifer? Besides, it’s not like he didn’t have plenty of space anyway. He wouldn’t be housing all the guests of course. But Solomon was an exception, Simeon too. Simeon was directly in between Lucifer and Solomon’s Kingdom’s, so when they got together at his place Lucifer and Solomon could both ride in and out on the same day, Solomon had a bit of a further ride, but he could still make it in one trip. Simeon was that close to both of them, so he didn’t really NEED to come and stay with Lucifer. They’d just used it as an excuse so Luke would be able to stay for a few days and have other people besides his own parents to play with. Lucifer’s brothers were so immature they could give any 10-year-old a run for their money.
Lucifer led Solomon toward the stairs, he’d show him where his room was and then later, they could have some drinks in Lucifer’s study. Normally he’d just let Solomon find his own way, this wasn’t his first time here, but Asmo had moved things around in preparation for the Ball, so the room Solomon typically stayed in when he was here wasn’t where it usually was anymore.
Something flashed in Lucifer’s peripheral and suddenly Asmo was grinning from the landing. Speak of the devil. “Oh hi! You’re here!” He waved. And then, for the second surprise from him today, he started running down the stairs toward them. Asmo didn’t run, he didn’t like it because he said it would make him all sweaty and gross, plus he said he was worth waiting for. And, that a Prince was never late, everyone else was simply early*. Lucifer hated when he said that, because it made them late for everything. Lucifer had started telling Asmo the wrong time for things years ago just so they could be in the realm of on time. So, to see him running now? Maybe Lucifer should see if any other signs of the world’s end were coming.
Asmo didn’t run and it was very obvious in the next moment when he’d almost reached the bottom and tripped over his own foot. Lucifer’s heart caught in his throat, and he stepped forward to do something, but Solomon’s reflexes were faster. He caught Asmo against his chest without any trouble and stopped Asmo from smacking into the ground, Lucifer let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Asmo, are you trying to scare 10 years off my life? I swear you’re all going to give me grey hair before my time.” Lucifer said.
Solomon grinned, “Don’t mind him, he’s still mad at me from earlier. Are you okay?” He asked because Asmo hadn’t moved from his arms and only looked up at the sound of his voice.
“I’m fine. Thank you. For saving me.” Asmo said and smiled up at him.
“So dramatic.” Belphie called from the landing, he was leaning against the railing yawning. “It’s not like you would have died. Maybe bruised a knee.”
Asmo whipped around to glare at their brother, but Solomon just laughed.
“Still, I’m glad I was here all the same.”
“Me too. I’d rather not have to buy you a new outfit because you ripped the knees out of this one.” Lucifer said seriously, because Asmo had done it before, and his clothing expenses had only grown as he’d aged. He had thought once Asmo stopped growing that the clothing expenses may slow down a bit, but no, he was still just as bad if not much worse than when he was a child, because now instead of just out growing everything, he was styling everything. So, he wanted new clothes constantly much to Lucifer’s annoyance.
Asmo turned sharply out of Solomon’s arms, finally leaving him and pointed directly up at Belphie. “Not a word out of your mouth!” Then he squared his shoulders and planted a smile and turned back to Solomon. “Shall I show you to your room since we’re all here?”
“I think I know where it is by now.” Solomon laughed.
“We moved you because of the Ball and everything, but I promise it’s better. It’s a bigger room with more light and prettier decor.” Asmo said and Solomon turned to Lucifer.
“So, all these years you had me in a subpar room? Shameful Luci, I see how it is.” He teased and Lucifer rolled his eyes.
Lucifer just had to add to his already full household with MORE people who were going to do nothing but annoy him didn’t he? He must actually be a Masochist. “Fine, then why don’t you go with Asmo since he’s clearly the better of the two of us? He can show you to your new room. I’ll just go find Simeon and see if he wants to have a drink with me.”
“Oh, Sim’s here already? With Luke?”
“They got here yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s just them. His lovely wife sends her love but won’t be able to attend. She’s at an art event that she’d been planning for months. She was very upset I planned this at the same time so she couldn’t come and meet the prospects as well.” Lucifer said glaring at Asmo, because he had to take the blame for this even though all the planning lay squarely at his brother’s feet.
Asmo shrugged, “I’m sorry, but this IS the season for this. It had to be now, she knows that better than anyone, that’s why her gallery is NOW. It’s the time for events and parties. Besides, this is just the first of many, I’m sure she’ll make the next one.”
“I’m sorry. Next one?”
Asmo laughed, “Luci, you thought this would be a one-time affair? Oh sweetie, no. I have such plans for this season!”
Why did that run a chill down Lucifer’s spine like nothing else? Yes, he really, REALLY should have been keeping better tabs on his brother’s doings, because apparently, he was in for way more than he’d originally bargained for. He’d be going into this season single, but if Asmo had his way it looked like Lucifer would be ending it Married. Suddenly he really needed that drink.