Lucifer's shoulder throbbed a bit as his fingers slid down the strings of his violin. The drugs Belial had given him dulled the pain in his shoulder and slightly numbed his mind, but it wasn't enough for him to forget about what he had done. That's why he refused to lie down and rest and came to his office instead.
Creating music was meditation for him. Something that aided in calming his stress and usually helped him relax, but this time, even playing his favorite instrument wasn't enough. He needed a distraction from his spiraling thoughts, and as if his grandfather had answered the prayer that never left his lips, a pleasant and warm smell flowed into the room.
He knew it was her even though he sat with his back to the door. She was happy. Maybe it was the intoxicated state the painkillers put him in, but her presence was precisely what he needed. He hadn't thought much about his fiancée while he was gone, but now that she was here in the room with him, he could feel himself relax a bit, and a smirk crossed his lips.
"I see a few days without me has done you well." He called, not missing a note.
"It hasn't hurt." She replied playfully, "When did you return?"
"Last night." He answered, continuing his song as she strolled around the room.
"Oh, I must have missed you coming in,"
"You didn't. I had a small altercation during my travels that led to a minor injury, which caused Belial to insist I stayed within his sight last night."
"Ahh," She replied, finally coming into his vision, "Are you okay?"
Lucifer looked up briefly to see his Baby Girl watching him. She looked lovely. The pale green dress she wore accented her strawberry hair perfectly and made her eyes pop.
"Are you worried?" He smirked, finishing his song and carefully removing the violin from his shoulder.
"You play beautifully." She replied, ignoring his question as she meandered lazily in front of him, "Did you compose that song?"
She was learning to work around his ability. Ignore the question and change the subject quickly.
"Oh no, it was composed by Pheidon Tuoba. He was a very talented composer who is still well known and respected for his work." Lucifer informed, looking her over a bit more closely, "Though he didn't write it for this particular instrument, I find I like how it sounds best on violin."
Her hair was a bit windblown, and the dress seemed to have some dirt on its skirt, but her smile was what caught his attention. Lucifer had almost forgotten how cute she was.
"Hum, I've never heard of him." She replied, slightly puzzled as she finally turned towards him with her hands linked behind her back and a sweet smile on her lips. Those stunning green eyes sparkled from the sunlight that passed through the window. Yea, there was no doubt in his mind that whatever Belial gave him was fucking with his head.
"Are you familiar with classical music?" He inquired.
"Very. I played the violin when I was alive and was familiar with classical music, but I don't remember ever coming across a Tuoba."
"You played the violin? Were you any good?" He questioned, rising from his chair, violin and bow held in one hand.
"I held my own. I was in the local orchestra, and we played pretty often, I wasn't first chair, but I was good." She smiled at the memory with a slight hint of pride.
"Show me." He demanded, handing her the instrument. Reluctantly, she took and shouldered the violin, "And you wouldn't have heard of Pheidon Tuoba. He wasn't from your world."
"What would you like me to play?" She asked nervously, adjusting the violin and her fingers as Lucifer strolled over to an armchair facing her direction and collapsed into it.
"Whatever you like." He answered, stretching back in the chair and putting his feet on the glass-topped coffee table in front of him.
"Okay, I'm probably a little rusty." She warned, and with a deep breath, she began to play.
His cute little doll was correct. She was rusty. A few of the first notes were off, but as she continued, they were rectified, and the room filled with music,
"Vivaldi, interesting that you would choose winter out of the four seasons." He hummed as he let his eyes close. The combination of the music and the smells coming from his future wife was what he needed at the moment. As much as he enjoyed the feeling of power that came with the aromas of pain and fear, this was something completely different, something quite lovely.
Lucifer opened his eyes and watched her for a moment. She was smiling as her fingers and arms moved in unison, a genuine smile. He got up and walked over to where she stood, circling her as he took in all her details, which made her nervous, but she continued to play. "Well, it seems my Baby Girl is more than just a pretty face." He smirked as she finished and handed the violin back. The next perfume that filled the air made him laugh, "Not exactly sure how you feel about that one, hum?"
"It was rude, but then again, look who it's coming from." She replied, letting out an exasperated sigh, causing him to chuckle.
"Rude? I said you were pretty and talented, women always reading too much into things." He accused, bending down to grab the violin case and forgetting about his shoulder, "Ahh!" He hissed, quickly pulling back, not that it hurt terribly, just the shock of the sudden pain that caught him off guard,
"Don't do that," She snapped, closing the gap between them and grabbing the case for him. "Are you okay?" She asked, straightening up and handing him the case, only for her eyes to fall upon his wide smirk.
"How very sweet of you." He said, sniffing the air, "Worried about your Prince?"
"I didn't say," She began but stopped, "What's the point? Yes, I was worried, but I would have been worried about anyone."
"Now, who's being rude." He joked, packing the instrument safely away.
"You can smell them, right? My emotions?" She asked as he strolled across the room to place the case safely on a shelf with multiple other instrument cases.
"Anyone's emotions, Baby Girl. You're not that special." He replied as her annoyance reached him almost immediately. "You make it too easy, you know. You get slightly flustered, and your emotions read like a baby's picture book. Oddly, I find it quite irresistible." He admitted, walking towards the desk centered against the back wall. "But yes, it's a demonic sense my mother gifted me with, along with these guys." He said, stopping and chomping his teeth at her.
"Are they all pointy?" She asked curiously.
"Mmhm," He nodded, "Terribly painful when I bite my tongue. You want to see them, don't you?" He accused, changing direction and walking toward her. She was suspicious, and he didn't blame her, "Come on, I won't bite, I promise." He reassured, opening his mouth wide.
Curiosity got the best of her, and she leaned forward to peek inside. After a moment, Lucifer snapped his jaw shut, and his startled doll jumped but then giggled. He smiled at her as he wondered what had changed. Shrugging it off, he turned and got back on the path to his original destination,
"Oh, I was in the garden earlier and," She began as he reached the desk and bent over to open the bottom drawer,
"I thought I told you not to leave the castle." He interrupted, popping back up with a glare.
"Technically, I didn't. A huge stone wall surrounds the garden, and I didn't go anywhere near the woods. Please let me keep going. It's beautiful out there, and I can't be cooped up in the castle all the time." She pleaded, "I need sunlight, Lucifer."
"As pale as you are, I figured you were allergic to sunlight." He smirked as she glared at him this time.
"I'm so pale because you're holding me prisoner." She blamed, crossing her arms.
"Maybe I like pale." He retorted, enjoying her annoyance.
"Any paler, and I'll look dead." She claimed, "Oh, is that what you're into?"
Lucifer's smile dropped, and his eyes narrowed as she tried not to smile at her jab. "Fine. I suppose it can't hurt, just the garden, though." He permitted, bending over once more, "Anyway, what about it?"
"There is this sweet lady who tends it,"
"Vassal." He interrupted again, fumbling around in the drawer that contained two large bottles and a glass decanter. "She's the keeper of the castle. Tends the gardens, runs the kitchen, and keeps all the servants on task. Also, a caregiver for yours truly when I was young, and my dad didn't have time for me." Lucifer explained, "Which was most of the time." He added in a mumble.
"Yes, she had mentioned that and something else I'm curious about."
"Go on," He insisted, finally deciding on the bottle he wanted.
"She said you cut yourself once when you were younger." His Baby Girl stated.
"I cut myself plenty as a child. What does that have to do with anything?" He asked, placing the bottle on the desk before grabbing two glasses while wondering where this conversation was going.
"She claimed you healed almost instantly."
"Ahh, I see." He smiled, filling a quarter of each glass from the bottle and walking back to her, "Here." He offered, handing her one of the drinks, but she looked reluctantly at it, "Come now, don't deny my offer again." He pouted, "A good wife wouldn't make her husband drink alone."
"We're not married yet." She argued.
"Doesn't mean you can't start practicing." He winked, "Come on, Baby Girl, loosen up a bit. Or do you not drink? I didn't think about that."
She rolled her eyes but took the glass, "I drink," She huffed, "Well, I used to. I haven't had a drink in a long time."
"What, Heaven doesn't have booze?" He asked, a little surprised as he sipped from his glass.
"Heaven didn't really have much of anything," She informed before sipping her drink, which caused her to shutter a bit and made Lucifer smile. "I used to always hear religious people say that in Heaven you want for nothing, but the truth is you just don't want anything. Everyone there is just laying around all content, not wanting anything."
"Except for you." He pointed out.
"Except for me." She sighed, taking another more confident sip.
"Heaven sounds boring." Lucifer yawned, "Now, let's get back on subject. So Vassal told you I heal instantly, huh?" She nodded, "Let's find out." He smirked, holding his glass out to her, which she grabbed but looked at him questioningly.
Then, without hesitation, Lucifer lifted his arm and sank his teeth deep into the flesh and meat of his forearm.
She shrieked as pain exploded through him, but as soon as he released his bite, the pain vanished just as quickly as it came, and he licked away the blood before taking his glass back from his stunned Baby Girl and holding out his arm for her to see.
"Disturbing and a little gross, but that's amazing." She exclaimed as she examined his unblemished arm, "How?"
"Little complicated, a couple of factors at play, but my healing ability comes from my angelic lineage," Lucifer explained.
"But your shoulder?"
"And that comes from my demonic side. So angels are immortal and, for the most part, unkillable, but demons are very killable, just like mortals. I am both." He smiled, "Angelic and demonic, mortal and immortal."
"Well, there goes Schrodinger's argument." She mumbled.
"Who?"
"He was a physicist and used his imaginary cat to prove a point, but that's not important at the moment." She mumbled, followed by a short silence while Lucifer watched her as she tried to make sense of what he had just told her, "So, is it a coin toss? Like maybe you'll heal, or maybe you won't?"
"No," He chuckled, "If I'm here in Hell, I heal instantly. If I'm in the mortal world, I bleed like any other." He explained.
"Why?"
"Not quite sure. You see, my perplexed doll, I'm the only one like me. There is no other half angel half demon combo out there, so which traits I take from each side is unknown until I figure them out. Believe me, I was shocked and confused the first time I got hurt in the mortal world." Lucifer chuckled, remembering back, "Served me right, to be honest,"
"Let's bookmark that story for another day." She mumbled, "So you're immortal here but not in other worlds?"
"No, no. I'm immortal everywhere but only unkillable here in Hell. However, I do sometimes wonder if I would heal from an extreme injury like losing a limb. Oh, what if my head got cut off?"
"You said it was an angelic thing?" She asked, snapping his attention back.
"Yes, all angels heal like this." He verified.
"I was an angel." She hummed, "Can I heal instantly?"
"Only one way to find out. Give me your hand." Lucifer ordered, holding out his own.
She did, and he brought it to his mouth and gave it a little nip, "Ouch." She hissed as a crimson bead grew on her skin. He licked it away, only for another to begin forming. He licked that one away, too, and a pleasant hum escaped his lips, "Why didn't it work?"
"I don't know. If I had to guess, it's because you've fallen." He replied before licking her hand once more. Her blood was decadent, nothing like he had ever tasted, and its taste was addicting. He wanted more.
"Please stop doing that." She said, pulling her hand away, "Was your mom like a vampire or something?"
"What? No, vampires aren't demons." He scoffed, rolling his eyes at the accusation, "I just like the taste of blood." He explained before returning to his whiskey, "And yours is quite nice. I've always been fond of human blood, but I wonder if it's the remnants of angel making yours so delicious."
"You do know how creepy you sound, right?" She asked.
"Meh." He shrugged.
She shook her head and mumbled something he didn't catch, "Okay, so you got hurt wherever you went. Why didn't you heal when you got back?"
"Doesn't work that way." Was his simple answer, "Come on, let's get back to the room. I want a nap before dinner."
They left the music room. Once the door was closed, Lucifer pulled out his key chain and locked it,
"Why lock it?" She asked him.
"This room is also my office. I have vital records and documents in there. So you were a violinist?" He asked, walking past and her quickly following.
"Oh no, the violin was just a hobby of mine. My mom was a composer and had me learn violin at a young age." She explained with a sad smile.
"Was, did she die?" He asked bluntly, slipping his hands into his pants pockets as they walked.
"No, well, maybe now. I don't know. She was alive when I died but quit composing when I was rather young."
"Why?" He pressed.
"My dad. One night, she woke me up, packed us and our things into her car, and we moved. She claimed he left us, but I found out years later he was arrested for setting fire to multiple buildings and killing many people. Kids. Most of them were kids. She wanted to protect me, so she hid the truth, and we started a new life." She sighed, and he sensed her sadness, "I went to talk to him in jail a couple of years before I died, and he swore he was set up, that he didn't do it."
"Do you believe him?" He asked, watching her walk while she stared at the floor and picked at her thumbs.
"I don't know. I mean, thirty-three life sentences with no chance of parole. They had to be pretty sure, right?"
"What's his name?" Lucifer asked, and she stopped, her eyes snapping to him.
"I don't even know if he's dead." She protested.
"What year did you die?" He asked instead.
"2026."
He laughed, "He's dead for sure, and so is your mom and everyone else you knew. Now, what is his name." He insisted, making sure there was no question in his tone.
"Gregory Galdaron."
Lucifer searched his mind until he found the answer he was looking for and started walking, "Well?"
"Do you want to know?" He asked her honestly.
She didn't respond but fell into step with him.
"What year is it?" She asked, breaking the silence. "There, I mean."
"On Earth, it's 2183."
He watched her mumble as she did the math, "I'm 187 years old!" She gasped.
"Mmhm." He nodded.
There was a short pause, and then she shrugged and sighed, "I look pretty good for my age." He laughed, surprised by the remark, "How's it feel being forced to marry an old lady?"
"Like I'm robbing the cradle." He replied.
"How old are you?" She questioned as they rounded the corner.
"Oh, I stopped keeping track long ago, but if I had to guess, somewhere around 50."
"That's not old compared to,"
"Thousand." He added, and she stopped again, staring at him, "Give or take a couple hundred."
She looked at him with wide green eyes, and then she laughed. For a few moments, she just laughed, and he was confused,
"It's just." She tried to catch her breath, "It's just so unbelievable. I was an atheist. I thought God and the Devil were just scary stories used to conform to the masses, yet here I am, exiled from Heaven, marrying the Devil. And the icing on the cake? I'm the biggest gold-digger on record."
"So you just want me for my power and money?" He gasped jokingly as they entered the main hall.
"You should be glad that I want you at all." She rolled her eyes as she wiped them on her sleeves.
"Oh?" He paused this time, "You admit you want me then?"
Her face flushed, and embarrassment filled the air as the smirk on his face grew,
"I didn't mean it that way, I uh," She was flustered, and he couldn't help but eat it up.
"If you want me, all you have to do is say please." He taunted as her face glowed even brighter.
"Can we please just go back to the room?" She mumbled, walking ahead of him.
~~~
Lucifer sat on the bed frustrated, the bandages and ointment she had left over sitting on the side table untouched. She had offered to help, but he shooed her away, insisting he could do it himself. Now she was bathing, and he had just failed, again, to loosen the bandages so he could unwrap his shoulder. Each time he tried to cross his arm around his back or over his shoulder, he had to move forward, and he could feel the stitches pulling. He could handle the pain, but he couldn't deal with Belial bitching about popped stitches,
"Let me help." His Baby Girl chuckled, coming out of the bathroom, wearing one of his shirts and her hair falling in wet strands down her back.
"I can do it." He snapped.
"That's what you said thirty minutes ago before I got into the shower. Now sit on the bed and let me help." She demanded.
As much as he wished to protest, Lucifer was tired and wanted to rest before dinner, so he obeyed and sat on the bed with a huff. His Baby Girl hopped up behind him. She smelled nice, sweet but not too sweet, and she was content. He wondered again what had changed as she lightly pulled at the bandage before beginning to unwrap it.
"If you weren't a violinist, what were you?" He asked, remembering the conversation from earlier.
"A nurse, I worked in the NICU."
"NICU?" He asked.
"Neonatal intensive care unit, baby emergency room. I helped look after really sick newborns." She explained.
"So you watched them die." He said coldly.
"Some, yes, but I also helped save many who would have died without help." She replied, not letting his words get to her.
"Did you have children?" He asked.
"No." She sighed with a sudden scent of sadness.
"You're lying,"
"No, I'm not, and please leave it, Lucifer." She snapped.
"Fine, but answer me this instead. Why be a nurse?"
"I wanted to help people, especially babies, give them a chance, you know." She said, and her happiness returned. His first thought was to ruin it by suggesting she was making up for what her father did, but he stopped himself.
"Do you know a lot about healing?" He asked.
"Yes, I was top of my class and took a lot of pride in my profession." She replied proudly.
"Violin and now medicine. You are full of surprises."
"Human medicine," She replied shyly.
"You'd be surprised at how similar we all are," He yawned, "You should talk to Belial. He also has a love for healing."
"Nah, I'd probably just annoy him." She blushed.
"Doubt it. He's fascinated by healing methods, and I know he's never met a human healer."
"Really?" She asked as she pulled off the last of the bandage, causing him to gasp as the cloth stuck to the wound, "Well, this is a mess," She mumbled, "Lots of blood."
"It's not as bad as it looks. There's no infection. Belial checked." Lucifer reassured.
"Stay here." She said, getting up and hurrying into the bathroom, where he heard her turn on the water.
The air hitting his shoulder was causing it to burn. He tried to see his reflection in the mirror across the room, but his head was dizzy, and he saw three fuzzy reflections swirling around the frame. With a grumble, Lucifer got to his feet and approached the mirror where three became one, still a bit unclear, reflection, but he could see what she meant. Dried blood caked around the jagged wound, and fresh blood oozed from where the scabs had cracked from his failed attempts to remove the bandages.
The water stopped, and she came out of the bathroom with a steaming rag bouncing from one hand to the other. "Come sit, and I'll clean it up." She instructed, and he listened, settling back on the bed before she began slowly and cautiously cleaning the wound. He felt a growl release from his chest, "Am I hurting you?" She asked, stopping.
"No, It feels good." He replied, letting his eyes close. He was exhausted. It had to have been almost two whole days since he slept, and he could feel himself slightly swaying.
"Just returning the favor. What happened, Lucifer?" He heard her ask.
"What's it look like?" He replied, opening his eyes in an attempt to steady the swaying.
"Honestly? Like you bit yourself." She answered, continuing to run the warm rag over his shoulder.
"Close, it was my brother. The same set of pearly whites." He explained as she put down the rag and began fumbling with cotton balls and alcohol.
"You have a brother?"
"Not anymore." He hissed as she dabbed the serrated wound with the soaked cotton, "But he didn't leave me much choice."
"You killed him? Why?"
"Because he was going to kill me." Lucifer replied with a yawn, "He lived on Earth, where his father was from. We only shared our mother, and for a half-demon to live in the mortal realms, there are rules that must be followed." He explained as she rubbed the ointment on his shoulder, instantly dulling the pain before rewrapping it with clean gauze. "My brother broke one of the main rules and killed a human. Death by a demon isn't part of God's master plan, so he gets a little irked when it happens, and I'm sent to clean it up. I wasn't planning on killing him, just bringing him back to Hell, but he refused."
"I'm sorry. I'm sure that wasn't easy." She said, cutting the bandage and tucking it in.
"No, it wasn't." He yawned again as he laid down, "Thank you, Baby Girl, you were helpful for once." He thanked her before closing his eyes.
"You're welcome." She replied, and he didn't have to see her to know she rolled her eyes.
"Wake me up before dinner." He ordered as he faded out into a deep sleep.
~~~
Lucifer woke to find a ray of sunlight shining into his room from between the curtains. Sitting up, he scowled. His shoulder throbbed almost as much as his head, and his stomach ached with hunger. It was morning, and he had slept through dinner despite asking to be woken. Lucifer turned his gaze to his sleeping doll, and his eyes narrowed.