Devil May Care - Deckerstar

Chapter 17: Countdown to the day they may come true

It was five days into their new normal that things actually started to feel... Normal. Lucifer could even say he had missed the shoebox of an apartment Chloe had for a home, where everything was so accessible and there weren't walls lined with alcohol.

He had made himself comfortable at the kitchen, preparing dinner for Chloe, himself, and the eldest spawn that was currently babbling on and on about something, holding her baby sister with the utmost care. Chloe was taking a long, very well deserved shower in her ensuite bathroom, having left her girls under the devil's care without as much as a second thought.

"And also, we talked about the bible in history class today," Trixie commented, finally saying something that genuinely caught the devil's attention. He looked at her, lowering the heat on the bolognese sauce he was making. They would be having pasta once Chloe came downstairs.

"Oh, you did? In a public school? That's awfully retrogressive," he replied, stirring the sauce slowly.

"Yeah, I know. Anyways, they said these awful things about hell and the devil, and I just wanted to ask you if it was true." Trixie said, bouncing her little sister just a little, although the two-month-old was already asleep. It was comically cute seeing her with Clover in arms, the girl looked tinier and the baby bigger in comparison. "Because you know, you're the devil, so I guess you should know."

"Wait... You actually believe I'm the devil?" He asked with grateful surprise, looking at the child with newfound admiration.

"Well, duh. Maze showed me her face, and if Maze is a demon, then you have to be the devil. It's common sense," Trixie had to be the only child that, despite her clammy, sticky hands, Lucifer liked to an extent he would never understand. She was witty, sarcastic, and knew how to negotiate a deal to always come up with a benefit for herself. Even though he hadn't actually taught her anything, he felt proud of the child.

He briefly flashed the nine-year-old his hellfire eyes and she chuckled, looking at him with admiration, rather than with fear or disgust.

"I knew it!" She yelled, making little Clover wink open her eyes slowly, before closing them back up again. Lucifer scolded her with a look, and Trixie already knew what she had to apologise for. "Sorry." She apologized in a whisper, looking up at the devil with mischief in her eyes. "I knew it!" she yelled in a whisper, briefly taking one of her hands off her sister and making a gesture of victory.

"So, what did you want to know?" He said next, actually paying attention to the child. One could say they were sharing quality time together.

"Is it true that they cut off your wings and threw you out of heaven because you didn't want to bow down to humanity?" Trixie asked, collecting material to share with her class. "That is something our actual teacher said about you."

"First, the only time my wings were cut off was when I asked Maze to do it, and the bastards grew back six years later." He considered showing the spawn his wings sometime, but not that night. He was awfully tired, for some reason. That reason was comfortably sleeping, with her head laying on her big sister's shoulder. "And second, that's not true. I've always thought highly of your kind. Dad cast me to hell when I asked of him the same thing he gave his beloved humans,"

"And what is that?" Trixie asked, genuinely interested.

"Why, free will, of course. You all have no idea what it's like not to have free will." He said in a huff, deeming the sauce he was cooking up almost ready, so he put the pasta on a cooking pot right beside it.

"And... What is that?" The spawn asked innocently, looking up at her friend the devil.

"Uh, how do I explain this to a nine-year-old?" The devil asked himself, looking up and seeming deep in thought. "Okay, so, there is a chocolate cake in the fridge because your birthday is coming up. You really want to eat that cake, but you know that if you do, your parents will scold you. And if you don't, then the cake will make it to your birthday and you'll be able to share it with everyone." He used an example with Trixie's favorite dessert, hoping it was easier for her to understand. "So you have a choice there. Either you eat the chocolate cake early and face the consequences, or you wait until your birthday and you face the consequences."