Lurch

 Lucifer

After ten minutes of Michael arguing with Hera, which could be heard down the hallway, mind you, I left my seat, unable to listen to the bickering between Athena and Ares. They were at opposite ends of the spectrum, intelligence-wise, mainly about the topics of relationships, and no one was getting anywhere in those discussions.

I followed my body. I didn’t think of where to go or what to do. For the first time in my life, I let my body flow with its surroundings. I went down the hallway and saw that the paintings on the walls were lighter. The servants were chuckling, nudging themselves as I went by. The smiles I had never seen, or maybe never paid attention to, had me doing double-takes down the hall.

Of course, once they realized I was staring, they busied themselves with their work rather than have my heated gaze fall upon them.

My feet landed right outside Loki’s door. Giggling and slight tappings on the door had me intrigued. What could the God of Mischief and the Goddess of Innocence be doing in there? Deciding nothing good, I opened the door without knocking and the thick air of tension waved me in the face with a pair of pants.

“Oops!” A squeak came from the corner, Loki half jumping on the bed, dropping one of his toys on the bedroom floor. “Hi, Luci!” Uriel frantically waved as I pulled the dirty laundry from my face. Looking down at it, and back to Uriel, her lips were parted wide, showing off her perfectly straight teeth.

Slapping her hands to her mouth, she looked at Loki for either protection or the reading of the room, because right now my face had not changed in the slightest.

“Don’t call him that,” Loki hissed at her. Her face filled with embarrassment, her cheeks tinged pink.

“W-why not?” She whispered back, her wings no longer fluttering around in excitement.

“He doesn’t like it,” he whispered back. “Only Mom can call him that.” Her mouth was in the shape of an ‘O,’ as she looked down at the floor, looking at her toes.

“I’m sor-,” clearing my throat, I stopped her from saying another word. Feeling the black sludge tearing up my insides, I wanted to cut the air off from Loki’s lungs to make Uriel upset. She did not know and hell, she wasn’t doing it out of spite. It was her own nickname that she had given me, not having heard it before.

“It’s alright, Uriel.” Uriel stilled, her wings no longer drooping, but they were insanely still. Her heartbeat rose as I walked to her, my feet parting the carpet, cushioning my leather shoes. “You can call me that if you wish.”

Loki’s mouth dropped in my peripheral, his hand raised to point at me, and his index finger shook with fright. “She’s y-y-your…!” My glare shut him up, his hand dropping. If he was any other person, he would have fainted in fright. My eyes burned into him, in so much he could see the pain I could do to his mind alone.

Uriel, oblivious to this stare, had her big golden eyes twinkling below her lashes. “Oh, thank the Celestial Heavens! Because if you didn’t like Luci, you wouldn’t have liked the other nickname I gave you.”

Loki’s head shot up, crawling to the end of his bed, yet far enough so I did not strangle the little prick. “What’s the other nickname?” he giggled.

“Lurch.” Loki and I looked at each other, not understanding the new name. “You know, from the Addams Family? ‘Their creepy and their kookie, mysterious and spooky….” Uriel continued to sing the theme song from the human television show, Loki rolling on the bed with his arms on his stomach, laughing.

Sighing, I pinched my nose with my thumb and index finger. Her little bounce and dance had me staring at her far too hard as her skirt swished around. Chuckling, I sat in the chair that was typically covered in clothes and sighed at the situation.

“Why Lurch though?” Loki grinned. “What makes you think of Lurch when you look at Lucifer?”

Uriel stuck out her hip, putting her hand on it. Her finger tapped her lips, something she liked to do. They were lush and shiny, the pink gloss she wore highlighted that best feature.

“Because he is really tall, he walks around with a scowl on his face and barely talks. Except he isn’t ugly like Lurch. No, he is better looking.” Her face blushed, a curl of my lip had her looking at me intently for the smile I would never give.

“A lot cuter,” she mumbled again before turning away.

“Holy Mary Fucking Poppins, what the hell happened to your room, Prince of Pranks?!” Ares strode through the door, Mariah’s arm wrapped around his hip. “Did Tartarus freeze over?”

Loki rolled his eyes, waving Ares away. “Nah, just pickin’ up a little,” he mumbled.

“We played a game,” Uriel chirped. “We used all his clothes to throw them in the hoop to pick up. It was a lot more fun as a game.” Uriel fluttered her wings wildly, staring up at the enormous giant of a god.

“Ahh, you must be Uriel,” Ares’ side glance at me had me growling at him. His smirk showed me he was planning something. All I knew was I was going to fucking kill him if he tried to fucking hurt her.

“So, do you like to play doctor?”

“No, sounds like fun! How do you play?” Uriel leaned in to listen more.

“You should ask Lucifer over here, his tingly hands will—”

That’s it.

“Out!” I yelled. Mariah, frozen in fear, tried tugging Ares, who stood there until we met eye to eye. “You cannot speak to her.” I was nose to nose with him. My physic made me look weaker in the eyes of this War God, but I had much more power than he did. Ares snorted, walking out the door.

“Just playin’ around, man,” he threw out some gang sign to Loki who returned the gesture. I don’t know why Father is friends with him. Before he left, his head came back into the room.

“When you are done playing, doctor, dinner is ready.” Throwing a small fireball at him, it grazed the door, but it chased him down the hall as it grazed his ass. He screamed like a little girl.

….

Loki stood right next to Uriel. He continued to talk away, chatting about everything and nothing. Uriel skipped along, trying to keep up with the three of us walking down the hall. She looked like she had two bodyguards as we entered the dining room.

Uriel’s eyes lit up, clasping her hands together like it was the best damn room she has ever seen. “Woah,” she spoke as she walked in. “I’ve only seen rooms like these in books."

“Probably most of the things you have seen are in books,” Loki muttered under his breath. Hera did not take the sentiment well. Her hand gripped a fork, causing it to bend at the neck.

“Uriel, sweet pea, how about you come to sit next to me?” Hera's jaw ticked. I ground my jaw. Her mother was the source of my anger. I wanted to have her sit next to me, but, of course, the only open spot next to her mother was smashed between her parents.

Uriel skipped over Loki groaning, pulling out a chair next to him. “I wanted to sit with her,” he groaned. Mother only laughed at Loki while they served us dinner. "I bet you did to," he nudged me as I rolled my eyes. "It isn't fair, I was hoping when I came of age we would-be mates," he pouted. My teeth ground together, my fingertips melting the fork before me.

Mother hissed, "stop please, Luci," her green eyes blinked, begging me. Looking at Uriel, she smiled, laughing at something that her father had said. I counted, as I watched her until my fingers cooled enough.

Dinner with my parents was pleasant, typically. Mother would talk about her day pairing souls, Father would listen to her intently and try to feed her while she talked because she got too excited telling mating stories. The one-story she wanted to tell, she couldn’t tell at all. Her body swayed, looking at Father and me and back to Uriel, who was oblivious of everything.

Father chuckled, moving the meat on his plate. We both could hear Cerberus chomping down the food Uriel was putting under the table. She tried sticking a vegetable below, but Cerberus began choking, causing the entire table to jump up in surprise.

Uriel’s face tinged pink, pretending to stick the dreadful piece of vegetable to her mouth, only to spit it out in a napkin when her mother wasn’t looking. I rested my elbow on the table, rubbing my chin as I watched her.

Shit, I've become a creepy fucker.

Her delicate skin had hardly seen the sun, her feet barely touching the blades of grass. How long had it been since a raindrop had fallen on the smoothness of her breast? My lip curled, watching the delicate thing grab the first chocolate silk pie off the dessert cart. Her lips savored each bit, pulling the spoon slowly away from her mouth.

I grunted to myself. That was a long way before we could ever be mates. My heart stopped beating in my chest. I had just said it would be a while, meaning it will happen. This wasn’t what I decided just an hour ago. I would protect her, keep her safe, but now my mind, my heart was already changing everything.

“You gonna eat that?” Loki pointed to the coconut cream pie on my plate. I picked it up, placing it on Loki’s plate. He glared at me.

“What did you do to it?” he hissed.

“Nothing,” I whispered back.

“You just damn served me your piece of pie. You never do anything nice for anyone except for Mom and Dad.” I looked back to Uriel, being so happy about a piece of damn pie, and now I’m becoming an emotion I never thought I could have.

Contentment.

Fuck, I’m screwed.

Hera, being tight-lipped throughout dinner, stabbed her fork into each little pea, spoke to Uriel. “Sweet Pea, your Dad and I have some business to attend to.” Uriel’s eyes widened, biting her lips from her smile being too big. She must have known this was a rarity. “We are going to let you stay here in the Underworld for a while. You will have to remain here, in the palace with Hades, Parisa, and their guards, and you have to watch over Loki, too. It will be a great internship for you, maybe get a handle on some of your innocent powers you may have noticed coming to the surface.”

Yeah, because you smothered her and never gave her a chance to try. I glared at her across the table. Father tapped in my head to look away.

“Don’t let her know you are her mate, Lucifer. Then we will have a world of other problems.” My eyes shot at my father. Shaking his head, he stuffed another rare piece of steak into his mouth.

Dinner was wrapped up, and thank the Fates, I’d never have to do that dinner again. It was only bearable because she was there. It was the best damn dinner for the sake of my eyes because I got to memorize each line, each tiny freckle that dusted her cheeks. I’d take everything I'd memorized and think of her while I slept.

Michael bid Uriel farewell, she gave an enormous hug with his wings engulfing her, causing her to squeal happily. “Remember, if you are in trouble, pray to me with this.” Michael pulled out one of his white feathers from the top of his wing. “I’ll fly to you where ever you are quicker than a beating heart.”

“She will be here,” Hera butted in. “Uriel is not to leave the grounds, correct?” Uriel nodded, giving her mother a hug.

“Thank you, Mom. I know this is hard for you, but I’m old enough now. I can take care of myself.” Uriel’s enormous eyes blinked happily. Hera’s arms hugged her tighter, kissing the top of her head.

“I know, dear,” she sniffed, petting back her hair softly. “Protect her, please,” Hera’s eyes landed on me and on my father. “I’m begging.”

Gods don’t beg, and Hera, once the second in command under Zeus, was now begging for us to protect her only daughter. Not just a daughter, but the fate of humanity.

“With my life,” I spoke.