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Battler tapped his teacup, trying not to think about Beato, or what a weirdo she was. In the last game, she’d been so cruel, but now that people like her demon butler and old teacher had shown up, he was starting to see that she was a cruel, sadistic bitch… and also a petty, selfish child.
He sighed, and sipped his tea, which was a little bitter. He heard the sound of footsteps, which made him look up.
“Heya,” he said, and waved to the Stake of Purgatory. “Lucifer-chan, right?”
She huffed brushing back a loose strand of her elegant dark hair as she stood before him. “Don’t diminish my great name with such an epithet.”
He chuckled. “Gotcha, Luci-chan.”
Her face went red, and she snapped out “Don’t you dare!”
She was even easier to fluster than her master, and not even half as bloodthirsty or cruel, so he laughed and sipped his tea again. It suddenly tasted far sweeter, and he appreciated it as he watched the proud girl blush and work herself up.
“A-anyway, Battler. Beatrice-sama wanted to tell you she’d be a bit longer. That’s all.” Lucifer crossed her arms as she made her announcement.
Battler shrugged. “I see… Wanna sit with me while we wait? Jeez, your master’s such a jerk… keeping you waiting like that, c’mon…”
“What? Do you prefer my company to hers so greatly?” Lucifer asked, her eyes narrowing, and now it was Battler’s turn to blush.
“Ihihi, no comment…”
It wasn’t like that at all, right? Right. He nodded to himself as she sat down, her own cheeks still faintly pink. She was just better than Beato because she didn’t sneer and cackle at him, that was it, right. It wasn’t that he thought she was cuter and way more fun to talk to. Nothing of the sort.
She was graceful, too, whether it was stabbing him - which was painful, admittedly, and he’d really rather not experience that again - or just sitting properly in her seat across from him. Technically, that was Beato’s seat, his rival’s position. But with Lucifer sitting there, it was far more like just sitting across from a cute girl.
That thought made him blush again, and she raised an eyebrow at him. “What is it?”
“Er…” Battler wasn’t sure if he should say it out loud. “N-nothing!”
She blinked, squinting at him, and her brow furrowed as she thought. Then a look of realization crossed her face, and her cheeks went as red as her blazer. “Ah, well… This isn’t a date or anything! I’m just keeping you company until Beatrice-sama comes back, since I’m her top-class furniture…!”
“A date?!” Battler echoed, somehow managing to feel even more embarrassed by all of this. Somehow Lucifer dragged him down from his usual bravado into a flustered mess right along with her… Not that he minded, because at least they were both blushing together.
For such a prideful girl, and supposedly the eldest of her sisters, she was the one with the pride easiest to wound and break apart…
She started fidgeting with her hair, twirling one long, dark strand of it around her pale fingers. “I, I mean… Ahaha, I, Lucifer of Pride, am merely keeping Beatrice-sama’s opponent occupied… It’s n-nothing like a date, even if we’re sitting across from each other, and looking i-into each other’s eyes, and no one else is here…”
…When she put it like that. It really did sound like a date. He gulped. What had he done by inviting her to sit down? This was his fault, right? He had to take responsibility. Be a man, Battler! Be a man!
He cleared his throat. “Um… Luci…? chan…?”
“D-don’t…” she protested at first, and then stopped. “No, um… Is it fine if it’s a date? No, no, but it’s not a date… Aaah…” she wailed, clutching her head. “This is too complicated…”
Battler awkwardly reached over and patted her head. “There, there…?”
Lucifer seemed like she was getting super upset over all this, but he was starting to calm down a little. It wasn’t a date, probably. Probably. These things weren’t dates unless both people thought they were dates, and agreed they were dates, so as long as Battler remembered that it wasn’t a date, then it totally wasn’t a date.
She sniffled a little, but was quiet. Her hair was soft, which shouldn’t have surprised him, but did anyway. It was beautiful, really. Her eyes may have been red and demonic, but her ashy black hair contrasted her pale skin and unnatural eyes well, giving her a great beauty.
“Don’t pat my head,” she muttered. “And don’t get ahead of yourself. You’re just a pathetic Human. This isn’t a date. I was just confused. That’s all.”
She sounded so petulant and resigned that he couldn’t help but smile. She was super adorable. “I see. So that means I can’t call you Luci-chan?”
She shook her head, frowning. “Know your place.”
Oh, he knew his place alright, at least in her eyes. “So am I your chew toy, or Beato’s footstool?” Battler asked casually, leaning back in his chair.
“If you don’t want to be a toy, don’t be so fun to play with,” Lucifer replied dismissively.
“Who said I didn’t want to be? It was super fun, being fawned over by seven cute girls with great asses~” Battler teased, grinning.
It had been super painful, actually, but at least the cute girls had eased the agony of it somewhat. Lessened it from all-out torture to merely a… very unpleasant experience.
Lucifer growled, clearly irritated by his flippancy. “Make a remark like that again, and I’ll sadly have to leave a puddle of blood for Beatrice-sama to fix up.”
“Ihihi, so now that you have me all to yourself, you just want to pierce me all over, huh…?” Battler invited, drawing out the ‘all’ as he leered at her.
Even if she did kill him, he didn’t think he’d mind. The frustrated expression on her face was too adorable to pass up. And, on top of that, the innuendo in his words was really funny to him.
“Hmph. I just want you to show some respect. Be grateful that I’m not asking you to grovel on the floor,” Lucifer bit out. And yet, her cheeks were still red, and her hands were clenched tightly into fists.
Battler snickered a little, and then took the teapot on the table, pouring tea into the girl’s empty cup. “There. Is that enough tribute for you, oh great and powerful demon Lucifer-sama?” he asked mockingly.
She squeaked a little, and shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “Um. That… that’s not enough…”
Battler was having fun, now. She was pretty mercurial, much like her master… but unlike Beato, Lucifer really only seemed to commit violence when ordered, and she was far more friendly once you got past her cold exterior.
He nodded knowingly. “I see, I see. So that’s not enough for you, oh great, powerful, beautiful Lucifer-sama~”
“Beautiful…?” Lucifer’s voice pitched up and her eyes widened. “Um, you think I’m beautiful? Really?”
Battler blinked, and then nodded, his act falling away once he was faced with a cute girl asking for his honest opinion. “Of course. You’re really beautiful…”
Her face went red, and then his did as well. Was he really saying stuff like this to a girl…? She was a demon that was probably way older than he was, but still. Did all that witch stuff really matter? In the end, she was infinitely closer to a human than Beato or even most of her sisters were…
She leaned forward, ignoring the tea he’d poured for her. “More,” she demanded, and then clarified, “Tell me more. A-about what you think.”
Maybe feeding into her pride, even for a joke, had been a bad idea…? No, but she was so adorable like this. Her eyes were sparkling, crimson like blood or like rubies or like strawberries glistening on a fresh slice of shortcake, and all of those things sounded far, far too appealing right now. Battler swallowed. It had absolutely been a terrible, dangerous idea.
“Your hair, for one,” he managed to say without stuttering or stumbling. “It’s really elegant. And it goes with your eyes, they’re really pretty, too.” He was complimenting a girl, and he wasn’t even talking about her chest or ass, and that was somehow way, way more embarrassing than asking a girl for her three sizes.
Lucifer trembled a little, her eyes meeting his. Her gaze was questioning, as if seeking confirmation of something. He didn’t know what she was looking for. But she leaned forward a little more, as if closing the distance between them would help her in her search.
So Battler leaned forward a little too. He wanted to look more at those eyes of hers anyways. She wet her lips, pale and pink, as she composed her response to his words.
“Tell me even more. You’re just a Human, but I want to hear it anyway,” she ordered. But despite her cold, dismissive words, her voice was soft and sweet and wavering.
He resisted the urge to call her out on that. “Hm…” He pretended to think on what to say, even though he already knew.
Lucifer pouted, and leaned in even closer. Battler felt something on his fa-
She had kissed him. Their lips had met, and they could each see the other’s shock in their eyes, but somehow neither of them backed down. One of them started moving their lips, and so too did the other, even as they blushed more and more.
Lucifer’s lips were soft, and Battler felt as though she must be able to hear how fast his heart was beating, how he was struggling to keep himself from shaking, because he’d never actually kissed a girl in his life (he thought so, at least), and now he was kissing one from Hell.
It would be embarrassing to be the first one to pull away, so Battler just kept going. Lucifer must have had the same thought, for she didn’t stop either. Because of the two’s pride, their kiss only grew deeper and deeper.
Battler was pretty sure most people’s first kiss didn’t involve tongue. Somehow his first kiss did. And he felt he might never live down the shame of it… Neither of them had even closed their eyes, which both made it awkward and made it so that neither of them could calm their embarrassment.
Eventually, Lucifer was the first one to give in, and she retreated only a few inches away from Battler’s face. She was blushing such a deep red that if it wasn’t for his own state, Battler would have worried that her face would be dyed that color forever. As it was, his cheeks were just as red, so he didn’t have the presence of mind to worry like that.
“Um, well…” Battler said awkwardly, cringing at himself.
“Um…” Lucifer replied.
“That didn’t happen!” they chorused at almost the same time, and Lucifer retreated back into her chair, hugging herself tightly.
“I definitely, definitely didn’t give my f-first kiss to a filthy Human that hasn’t beaten Beatrice-sama even once with his own power…”
“I totally didn’t give my first kiss to a demon girl that’s way too into kinky stuff like stabbing people…”
They both sipped their tea, looking down so that they wouldn’t have to look at each other. Now that they’d come to this mutual agreement, there wasn’t anything left to be said. Even if Battler might have thought that the kiss was amazing, and that Lucifer was, too, he would deny it to his last breath. However many ‘last’ breaths it took to defend it.
Lucifer took a deep breath, now apparently fully calm. “When Beatrice-sama comes… we had a pleasant, peaceful chat, right?”
Battler nodded. “Yeah. When Beato comes -” He caught sight of golden butterflies at the corner of his vision, and was silent.
Battler and Lucifer shared one last glance before the furniture stood and bowed before the arriving witch. He regretted the abrupt end of their time together… even though he absolutely shouldn’t. He should be glad that Beato was back, so that he could resume fighting against her…
Battler bit his lip, holding back a sigh. It was all Lucifer’s fault for being too beautiful, for being too close to human, for being too fun to tease.
She was no good, no good at all, and he didn’t like her one bit. Even if he could still imagine the way her lips felt on his, the way her hair felt in his fingers, the way her eyes locked onto his. Even if she was stuck in his head.
Because Battler had a witch to kill, and no demon could tempt him to stray.