Just This Once

Lucifer heaved a tired sigh as he sorted through a stack of receipts and checked them against the House of Lamentation's monthly bills.

"How many packages from Akuzon does one demon need?" He growled under his breath as he made a separate pile of receipts specifically for Leviathan's expenses, before he moved onto the next bill. "Hm? F-fifty thousand Grimm?" Lucifer's blinked a few times to make sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him before his face darkened as he crumpled the receipt in his fist and slammed his fist against his desk. "Mammon..."

He quickly stood up from his desk, left his study and headed down to the drawing room where he found Satan reading in one of the armchairs and Asmodeus posing for a selfie in front of the mirror.

"Where's Mammon?" Lucifer asked in a curt voice, making his brothers give small, startled jump at his sudden appearance.

"Looks like he's really done it this time, huh?" Satan gave an amused chuckle as he slowly turned his attention back towards his book. "I haven't seen you this pissed off since Asmo brought the whole nightclub home."

"Don't remind him!" Asmodeus groaned at Satan.

"Just answer the question," Lucifer said impatiently as he glowered at the pair, "where's Mammon?"

"Hm?" Asmodeus gave a thoughtful hum. "He came home from RAD earlier but went straight up to his room without saying a word to anyone."

"Which means he's probably scheming something again," Satan drawled with a roll of his eyes.

Lucifer gave a small nod before he walked out of the drawing room, headed back up the stairs and marched down the hallway until he reached Mammon's bedroom door.

"Mammon-" Lucifer threw the door open with a loud bang "- you have some serious explaining..." Lucifer frowned as his sentence slowly trailed off.

At first glance, Lucifer was sure that Mammon wasn't in his room, but he quickly spotted a figure sitting in the driver's seat of Mammon's Demonio 666 Lexura, slumped over the steering wheel.

With a weary sigh, Lucifer crossed the threshold into Mammon's bedroom - closing the door behind himself - and approached the car before he gently tapped on the driver's window and folded his arms with a stern expression.

He waited patiently as Mammon slowly cast a glance in his direction; upon seeing Lucifer's expectant face, Mammon unlocked the car doors, folded his arms over the steering wheel and rested his chin on his arms with a glum expression.

The scowl quickly slid off of Lucifer's face and he unknotted his arms as he surveyed his brother through the car window.

He walked around the car to the passenger side, opened the door and climbed into the passenger seat before he closed the car door again and turned slightly in his seat to give Mammon a surveying stare; he quickly noted the puffy, red blotches around Mammon's eyes — even if the other demon did try to hide it behind yellow lensed sunglasses.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lucifer's voice was soft.

Mammon silently shook his head.

"I understand," Lucifer sat back in the passenger seat and stared out of the windscreen, "but I just want you to know that I'm always here to listen if you need me."

The older demon reached for the door handle.

"Can you stay with me for a while?" Mammon's voice cracked as he spoke.

Lucifer froze and then lowered his hand, "of course."

"Y'know, the first rule of road safety is wearin' a seatbelt." Mammon muttered as he threw a sideways glance at the other demon.

Lucifer gave a short snort of laughter but buckled his seatbelt nonetheless.

"Happy now?" Lucifer asked sarcastically.

"I ain't gettin' pulled over because of you." Mammon joked with a small sniff.

"So where are we driving to?" Lucifer played along. "The pool table or the sofa?" He added as he pointed down towards each through the car window.

He couldn't help but feel a small sense of relief when Mammon's lips gave a little twitch.

A few moments passed between the pair in silence before Mammon finally spoke up again.

"Do you think that I'm... a waste of space?" Mammon asked in a barely audible voice. "I was a high ranking angel when we were in the Celestial Realm and now I'm a good-for-nothin' scumbag."

Lucifer's eyes widened in surprise, "Mammon—"

Mammon turned his head away from Lucifer and tried to stifle another sniff, "you must really regret having me fall with ya, huh?"

Lucifer placed a comforting hand on Mammon's shoulder and gave his brother's shoulder a light squeeze. "You may be a moron who causes me no end of stress, but you were my greatest support when we first came to the Devildom and even now you still look out for your brothers — you're definitely not a waste of space and I definitely don't regret having you at my side."

"Y-you really think so?" Mammon slowly lifted his head off of his arms and let go of the steering wheel before he finally turned to face Lucifer again. "D'you really mean that?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."

A small smile tugged on Mammon's lips, "thanks Lucifer," his eyes slowly dropped to the receipt that was still clenched in Lucifer's fist and panic instantly flashed across his face, "w-what's that?"

Lucifer glanced down at the receipt with a thoughtful expression, "it's not important, we can forget about it, just this once." He slipped the receipt into his trouser pocket. "That being said, I need you to tell your brothers that I strung you up from the ceiling."