Chapter Text
“You should really go meet the royal physician if your eye is twitching again.”
The phone screen with the blue text illuminated his face in the dark street. The surrounding people could be heard laughing among themselves, which heightened the cause behind his stress.
Discussing heightened stress with a royal physician didn't seem like an appropriate action no matter how much a literal prince insisted.
But a twitching eye was annoying. It appeared randomly on a day or especially in moments of stress. To make it worse, at every occurrence, one felt more anxious.
Though that anxiety disappeared after repeated occurrences led to normalcy.
Still, it was not a physical symptom that should be ignored.
“Yo, Lucifer!”
Of course. He couldn't even spare 5 minutes to himself to think over which doctor to choose for himself, or if any to choose at all.
Mammon looked at him with a wide smile, standing near the counter with his arm resting in an attempt to present nonchalance. The cashier shifted his gaze from the younger demon to the one switching off his phone. Lucifer already knew what was coming.
“No. I will not pay for you, Mammon.”
At that instant, the younger demon rushed forward with a desperate expression, taking up a begging stance to retrieve money.
“Please, Lucifer! Help yer younger brother this once. I already ordered the smoothie; I can't cancel now!”
Lucifer felt his eye twitch.
He had agreed to come with his brothers to this family outing on the agreement that everyone would pay for themselves.
“Oh, well, that eye twitch ain't a good sign, is it?”
Feeling a terrible urge to scold the greedy personification, he had just opened his mouth when a different voice chimed in to interrupt him.
“Wait, you're not paying for yourself? Mammon?!?! You said you'd do it!”
With his mouth now closed, his eyes shifted to a smaller figure, a specific someone who was even below his shoulders. They had the same feelings of displeasure towards Mammon as him.
“Ok, now no need to get angry, human. Ya see, I'm a bit short on money.”
“But you insisted I come because you were paying, and you already ordered it too?”
Lucifer studied the exchange student, scolding his brother, and he couldn't help but feel as if the student was foolish.
Trusting his brother with money wasn't something anyone who had the right state of mind would do.
He faintly remembered the conversation from before when they were leaving.
“No, Mammon. I will indeed not be coming with you.”
“Don’t be so stingy!”
“I'm not being stingy; I'm trying to save up money for a game update. I can't afford a sundae.”
“Levi has infected ya. There's no need to spend that much on a game outfit.”
“Doesn't matter. I'm not coming.”
“Just come, I'll pay for ya. The great Mammon will give you a treat today.”
He heard the shopkeeper sigh and decided to step in before any of them would face embarrassment.
“Stop it, Mammon. I'll pay.”
While his voice was firm enough, it extracted an abnormal but not unexpected joyful reaction from the younger brother, as he had succeeded in leeching off money from him.
Lucifer felt his eye twitch again, but someone shifted in his field of view.
“There's no need to pay for me, Lucifer. Mammon had signed for this, not you.”
He took out his card, handing it to the cashier.
“Well, he has no money, and while I would love to see him washing dishes, I am not ready to tolerate his whiny nature if he is to get sick in winter.”
The human shook her head, her neck craned upwards as she gave a polite smile.
“No issues. I'll pay for the sundae. I know I'm saving money, but I could manage somehow. I'd not feel good if you paid yourself.”
He briefly moved his gaze towards the cashier to retrieve his card.
She acts so polite towards everyone.
He watched as the cashier handed plates to both his brother and the human. The human looked guilty for having made him pay, her eyes looking at the bill, the slight widening of which informed Lucifer that she hadn't expected Mammon to order something this expensive.
“Yeah, this is fine. I'll pay you. Just give me your Demon Bank ID, and I'll pay through the phone.”
She looked up at him again, and he shook his head at the demand.
Making the human pay for a burden incurred by his brother was an act that would wound his pride.
It was not as if he were poor.
He would have paid for Mammon anyway, so this was truly not an issue for him.
So when the human tried to insist on paying again, Lucifer just raised his hand to silence her.
“I have already paid. It's fine. Next time, just don't be too trusting of someone who is the embodiment of greed.”
Walking back to the table with the other brothers, he caught sight of the human nodding in embarrassment at his advice.
“Mammon made you pay again, didn't he?”
“Is that even a good question at this point, Asmo?”
“You should have made him pay for you, too. Your recent Barnes and Noble book shopping spree made a dent in your wallet.”
“I'm not like Mammon; I am financially literate.”
Lucifer felt his eye twitch again at the constant spur of noise at the family table of the restaurant.
He didn't even feel like eating his own sundae; the constant stress often made his muscles feel jammed, and he lacked the motivation to do much.
“WOOO, human, your sundae looks good! Weren't you saving money for the game we started playing?”
The third oldest’s voice made Lucifer look away from his abandoned sundae towards the human who was sitting at the end of the table in front of him with Mammon.
“Lucifer paid for hers with mine.”
Mammon said as he took a bite from his portion, smiling at his older brother to show an exaggerated gratitude after having leeched the money.
The human, on the other hand, looked shy to eat what he had purchased for her.
Lucifer was glad that the signs of greed weren't rubbing off on the human exchange student.
“Thank you again, Lucifer.”
A silence possessed the surrounding environment, one that was only perceived by Lucifer as the human dug into the dessert.
It was as if the only thing that interested the usually bored demon in the bustling restaurant room was the sight of the human enjoying the delicacy.
A delicacy he had procured.
After what felt like months of continuous repeated tasks and repetitive submerged hours, he felt like there was something that could pull him out of the daze of Sisyphean existence.
Lucifer looked back towards his cup; his mask of indifference was still there.
Except now he looked slightly more awake.
Throughout the meal, he found himself looking at and resting his eyes for just a second longer at the human.
Of course, he was subtle about it; he wouldn't want to disturb her.
He felt oddly relieved? Excited? Enthralled? by the fact that the human had relied on his money.
How strange, he thought to himself; spending on his brothers or any other nobles has never had such an effect.
“HAH! I’m done with my sundae! Who wants to have another?”
The waiter arrived at their table as multiple brothers of his started stating their demands at the second oldest’s statement.
With a gentle shake of his head, he expressed his lack of desire to eat anything more. Instead, Lucifer’s eyes subtly glanced over the exchange student.
He really wanted her to look at him so he could tell the waiter that she'd have another.
He really wanted to buy her something more.
“Ah, no, miss. I'll not be ordering anything.”
How absolutely disappointing.
If Lucifer weren't among a crowd of people, he would have grunted to show his emotions, like how one does after losing in gambling.
A frown overcame the ridge between his eyes as he looked back towards his empty cup.
He would have preferred if she had gotten greedy in this instant.
Alas, the rest of the night went normally, and now sitting in front of the crackling fireplace of the room, Lucifer rested against his chair to think of the day.
He couldn't quite place a finger on why he felt a need, an urge, a desire to buy something for the human at the restaurant.
What he knew is that he felt oddly content at having provided something for her.
He couldn't wait to do it again.