Let Me (Vengefully) Touch YouAs I ate my hard-won dinner, I couldn't help but shed tears. It was clearly someone's uneaten breakfast - somehow, I thought it was Lucifer's - and although it was cold and most of its constituents were things I'd never seen before, it was positively delicious. I moaned softly between bites, relieved with every piece of food that touched my tongue.

  "I've never seen someone cry like that while eating..." Lucifer muttered, and even my resentment towards him had dulled a little again, despite what he'd made me do to get this food.

  "You have no idea what I've been through... Oh my god..." I moaned louder, and Lucifer twitched, but I didn't really pay that much attention. "What are these?" I pointed to the radioactive green, soft, broad cones on the pte with the fork Lucifer had given me. "They taste like hard-boiled eggs." Lucifer seemed to have to suppress a chuckle.

  "They are hard-boiled eggs," was his reply, suffusing me with confusion for a long moment. I thought about it before I realized, in the Devildom, animals normally found in the human world weren't always common or even desirable for most demons to eat. Meaning, it was egg, but the question was closer to what kind of egg. The answer, I decided as I ate the slightly salty teal yolk, that I would rather leave in obscurity over asking. "And must you moan like that?"

  "Yes," I replied, a little snarkily before I moaned again for the fun of it. Poor baby. Makes you uncomfortable, does it? That's too bad.

  "Well, in any case..." Lucifer said, his eyes straying from my face and instead to the gramophone sitting on top of the firepce. It wasn't an antique, judging by the neat stack of records currently piled next to it. Music enthusiast? Wonder if he likes Liszt. Fat chance. "I need to schedule you for a physician's appointment as soon as possible... I'm sure I can get a slot tomorrow morning." I gnced upwards at him again, even as he pulled out a pin smartphone.

  "Who's that? She's pretty!" a tinny voice said from the phone, and Lucifer gred at it. "...I apologize for speaking without permission."

  "Since you're here, make an appointment at J?rmungandr Health with Elldee One for 9 AM."

  "Yessir."

  "Damn AI," Lucifer swore under his breath, and I had to resist the urge to ugh at his irritation.

  "But why do I have to get... inspected?" I asked, and Lucifer pinned me with his eyes; I guess I still wasn't off the hook with him yet.

  "Isn't that obvious?" he asked, and I shoved a piece of sausage in my mouth to stop myself from retorting something I would certainly regret.

  "Evidently not," I replied once I'd swallowed. "The best guess I have is that you're trying to figure out whether or not I'm safe to eat. Which, by the way, I am not." Except sexually, and god why did I add that? Screw Lucifer and his good looks and my stupid hormones. I know it's around the time in the month that I start ovuting, but this is ridiculous...

  "Don't ftter yourself. I would never have any interest in a soul like yours. However, it is imperative that Diavolo knows exactly what he is allowing to stay and study at his academy when it clearly isn't the human he bargained for." Lucifer gave me a long, pointed look, as if he still didn't trust me about the fact that I didn't know I wasn't human. Or at the least abnormal.

  "You know, you can stop referring to me like I'm an object at any time," I reproached, and Lucifer turned the evil eye onto me, clearly disagreeing that I was, in fact, an object.

  "And you can be quiet and eat your dinner," he replied without much emotion. Nice little veiled threat you've got going there. Really admire you for that, I thought dryly before I looked down at my pte of food and decided it might be better to hold my tongue. This wasn't worth giving up what could very well be my st meal, so I continued eating in silence just as he'd quite strongly suggested, finishing it off by licking the ceramic. Lucifer, again, seemed a little surprised by my dedication to enjoying my dinner.

  "Question," I finally prodded, and when he gave me the go ahead to ask it, I asked, "What if I'm really not human, like you think?"

  "Maybe I'll kill you," he answered, and although he said it lightly, every muscle in my body was screaming that it was a very serious threat, and I was probably going to die if that physician discovered something even mildly suspicious about me. But then again... I gnced out into the hallway, which was still frozen, then at Lucifer's stern countenance. He'd chase me to the ends of the earth if I ran away; I don't need him to threaten that. If I'm really not human... well, guess I'll die.

  "Is it that difficult to tell humans and human-looking demons apart that you have to call in a specific person to do it?" I inquired after a moment of curiosity, and Lucifer noticeably hesitated.

  "Well... it depends on the demon. Some are much less clear than others." I paused.

  "Like you?" I asked, and he seemed almost surprised and maybe even slightly fttered at the question. No, the fttery is your imagination.

  "This isn't my true appearance," was his response, and my mind immediately strayed.

  "Catfish?" I mumbled, prompting Lucifer's confusion.

  "What?"

  "Nothing. So I guess you're feeling a little insecu-" The word wasn't even out of my mouth before Lucifer's body changed, curling horns sprouting out of his head, his uniform changing into what appeared to be a modified suit jacket, his long legs on full dispy in pin bck trousers. Two long pieces of bck fabric flowed almost seamlessly away from his high-colred suit jacket, bright red on the underside and embellished with what reminded me of peacock feathers. Which, speaking of feathers, he had many of them, bck in color and attached to four wings on his back. There was also now a bck rhombus smack in the middle of his forehead, which I didn't know whether to consider cool or stupid. "I guess that answers that question." Still pretty human looking though... disregarding the edgy former angel energy, the I'm-going-to-kill-you aura and the fact that anyone would figure out he was a demon from close up, he'd pass as a cospyer. Probably better not to say that. Let's go for a compliment. "Your wings are pretty."

  "Naturally," he replied, not even smiling at it. God, I want to knock him down a peg, the prideful piece of... no, restrain yourself, Anne. If you want to live, if you want to have any chance of surviving that stupid physical if you really aren't human, is to read him like a book. Become predictable. Make him think you really are his... his puppy. Even if you really don't want to become anything close to subservient towards this prickly piece of work.

  "Can I touch them?" I questioned, and his face immediately changed, much to my surprise.

  "Absolutely not," he practically snapped at me, and I suppressed the urge to step back. That almost sounded... defensive?

  "Why not? They look really soft... Okay, what about the horns then? Can I touch those? I'm really curious." Lucifer gave me an irritated look.

  "What do you think?" Someone's getting snippy.

  "Yes." I moved forward, reaching up my hand to touch one, and Lucifer grabbed hold of my wrist, hard. This is defensive. But why?

  "No," Lucifer growled at me like an animal, and I had to stop myself from smirking at the scheme forming in my head.

  "Can't you indulge me just a little bit?" I questioned, and when he gred at me, I pretended to have a sudden realization. "Wait! Don't tell me you're ticklish? Oh, I didn't mean to be rude, Lucifer; if I had known how sensitive you were I never would have asked!" Lucifer's jaw twitched, but he let go of my wrist before he gave a sharp harumph and folded his arms again.

  "If you're really that curious, then be my guest." Hook, line, and sinker. Dumbass.

  The moment I started stroking my hand over his top-left wing however, I found myself genuinely wanting to keep touching it. I'd originally just wanted to torment him, but his feathers really were soft. Sinfully so. I imagined that people had tried to kill him just to take them as a comfort item, and I suddenly wondered if the Devildom had a poaching problem.

  "Well?" Lucifer asked, but I wasn't really paying attention, letting my curiosity lead me to his back, and I found myself prodding at the patch of dark skin where the top set of wings connected to his back. I did, however, notice that he twitched the moment I did. "Oi."

  "Can you actually fly with these?" I jabbered, letting my intellectual side take over for a second. "Or do you just use them as, like, an intimidation tactic? Does it hurt when you y on them? Do you have to sleep on your side? Can people y on them? They seem like great pillows." I kind-of wanted to sleep on them, and I hoped that wouldn't show through as I ran my hand down his back, the unfamiliar bumps and ridges a pleasant new sensation against my hands. He, however, did not agree as he whipped around and stopped my little investigation right then and there. I looked up into his face and wondered if he might have been offended by one of my questions. "Ah... sorry. Of course they can fly and all that. My bad." Though, the longer I looked at him, his cheeks... was he.. blushing?

  "You felt them for yourself; now behave," he ordered, the slightest tremor in his body, and I pushed the hint of triumph I felt deep in my bones at the sight. He is sensitive. Good information to know; I'll definitely need to use that ter.

  "Yes, sir," I said solemnly. "I will not touch you again." Not.

  "If you grab me in your sleep again, you will not be let off with a warning," he rumbled, his eyes narrowing at me, and I wondered faintly if I'd hit a sensitive spot when I cuddled him. Hopefully not that pce, although, thinking about it now... My face felt a little warm. I did have a strong tendency to sandwich my hugging pillow between my legs. I might have... ugh, dammit. I was not apologizing for or even acknowledging that.

  "I can't control what I do when I'm unconscious," I replied, annoyed, though his eyes showed me no hint of pity.

  "That's not my problem." Dick. "Since you've finished eating, go back to bed. We're leaving in the morning, and if you're not awake before your appointment, I'll wake you up the hard way." Mneh mneh neh, go to bed, Annelie, I'll pour water on your head. Fuck off.

  "You're not my dad," I replied, although in hindsight, my mother was the one who always poured water on my head when I was little. I should have said "mom." I bet he would've hated that.

  "No," Lucifer agreed, and I nearly yelped as his arm swung around my back, pulling me against him. "I'm your 'Master', now isn't that right?" Again, I resisted my temper as I bit the inside of my cheek so hard that I thought it would start bleeding. Nice that we're sticking with that cute little theme I picked out. Yeah, sure, ye wee numpty. But I'm not your dog.

  "Mreow."