In Love with Lucifer

Dead Mom

'I'm nervous.' I say, looking around the busy restaurant.

'I can tell. It'll be fine. It's your parents.'

'I guess.'

'Do you want me to leave, or should I stay?'

I grab his hand as I see ma and pa approaching our table.

'I'll take that as a 'stay.'' He chuckles. All I can do is nod.

Ma smiles at me, and her eyes are glistening with tears. Suddenly, I'm tearing up too.

'Ma!' I yell hoarsely. I run to her, and she embraces me.

'Kiki...' She whispers tearfully. 'It's really you.'

And we cry. We cry because the last time I saw her, she was frail and bald and hooked up to a thousand machines and could barely speak. We cry because she never got to see me become an adult. We cry because I never thought I would see her again. Pa's here now too, and once I stop crying, I hug him too.

'You've grown quite a bit, son.' He smiles. 'Last time I saw you, you were still up to my waist.'

'Am I taller than you now?' We stand back to back.

'Not quite.' Lucy says.

'Who's this, Kiki?' Ma asks.

'Kiki? Great nickname.' Lucy teases. My face goes red.

'Ma, pa, this is my boyfriend, Lucifer.' Their mouths drop open.

'Lucifer? As in...' Pa starts.

'Satan himself, yes.' Lucy smiles, extending his hand for pa to shake. Pa shakes it suspiciously.

'So, Lucifer...' Ma begins.

'Please, call me Lucy.'

'Okay, Lucy. How did you and Kiki meet?'

'Oh, he summoned me.'

'You did what?' Pa looks amused.

I feel my face go red. 'I kind of, sort of, may have sold my soul to him in exchange for him being my friend? The details are kind of blurry to be honest...'

'That's exactly what happened. Not very social, our Kiki.' Lucy says politely. Wow, he's really enjoying this.

'Don't call me that.'

'Fine, Aki.' He rolls his eyes. 'Shall we sit?'

He pulls out the chairs for everyone at the same time, and we wait for our orders to be taken.

I talk to my parents, catching up with everything that happened in my life that they didn't see, and their deaths that I didn't see. Lucy is annoyingly polite and him and my pa are already ganging up on me, which is super annoying.

I'm glad they don't have an issue with me being gay, at least.

Also, you know, dating Satan himself.

We all exchange numbers, with promises to keep in touch, and then we leave our separate ways.

'Your parents seem nice.' Lucy says as we're walking home. He could teleport us home, but I like walking places.

'They are. I'm glad you all get along.'

'Introducing me as your boyfriend was a bit much, though, we've only been dating for two days.'

'I'd rather be honest. We did say we haven't known each other for long.'

'True, true.' We carry on walking in silence, holding hands. It's comfortable. The night air is cold, and the stars shine prettily above us, visible through the thin veil of clouds, like small jewels shining in a dark velvet fabric. The moon is like a huge pearl brooch, maybe. If I look up, the sky looks like a huge dome.

The houses are all quiet, apart from the occasional party or late night. As we near our apartment, there are more and more 24 hour places. Hell is a lot louder than earth, because no one actually needs to sleep. Most people do anyway, for the sake of rhythm, and because sleeping is nice, but you don't need to.

We walk into the skeleton of a cafe that we've prepared. It opens in two days. That's so crazy to think about.

'It kind of is, isn't it?' Lucy smiles.

'It's fucking crazy.' I run my fingers through my hair.