4th story in the Guardians series (written BEFORE the third. You won't find the third story up yet.) Written for the Luciferprompt prompt: All angels have a brooding season once an eon or so. Not being tall, dark, and mysterious - no, instead, being a frazzled, grumpy lump of feathers driven by instinct to aggressively cuddle and parent every child in sight. Lucifer still doesn't like human children, but with the age difference, every single one of his human friends will do just fine. (Emphasis on platonic Lucifer & Ella.)
It fit right in with this little series of mine, so get ready for some majorly affectionate Lucifer who has taken on Ella as a charge, and starts treating her like he would a young angel he has taken under his wing.
How To Stop A Broody Angel
Ella was weirded out.
At first, it was nice that Lucifer just wanted to be close and Rae Rae had told her to expect him to be overly affectionate. Unfortunately, he had begun in the last week to take overly affectionate to a whole new level.
First he had begun actively hugging her, which was odd for him. While he would accept her hugs, he had never initiated any before he went all weird on her. Second, he had begun plucking some of his smaller non deadly feathers out and placing them in her bed. When he had even got into her house, she had no idea, but there was no mistaking the tingly feeling she got whenever she saw his pure white angel feathers. Divinity he calls it.
No it was as if he refused to let her out of his sight. He had come directly into her lab when he got in and refused to leave her side until it was home time and even then she was sure he was following her.
It was like he went from overly affectionate to sudden stalker and it was beginning to get to her.
At least he wasn't letting himself in while she was at home. She had put her foot down there. But the bed was getting more and more feathers added to it and she was seriously beginning to worry something was wrong.
Was it normal for angels to pluck their feathers? Was he doing it because he was stressed and leaving them in a place she could see so that she could try and help him? Was this just overly affectionate taken to a whole new level and Rae Rae had been downsizing how things were going?
Either way, there was one way to find out. She put her hands together and prayed to her first Guardian angel. "Rae Rae, can you come here for a second? I need to ask you something. It's about Lucifer."
The words had barely left her mouth, before a loud flap of wings filled the room and she looked up to see Rae Rae standing in front of her. She was wearing her dorky glasses today. Now she knew, the angel didn't always wear them. She was seriously beginning to think Rae Rae wore them to put some people at ease and other times took them off to not weird them out. Ella found that surprisingly adorable.
"Hey! Is there something is wrong with Lu?" were the first words out of Azrael's mouth.
Ella nodded and pointed to her bedroom. Rae Rae wandered in there, saw the feathers and let out a loud sigh. "Oh. Well this is bad."
And with that Ella's worry ramped up to eleven. "What is it? What's wrong with him? Is it stress? It's stress, isn't it? He's plucking his feathers."
Rae Rae shook her head and grimaced at her. "No, it's not stress. Well, he could be stressed right now being away from you. No, this is worse than just simple stress and Lu deals with that by partying hard and drinking copious amounts of alcohol, not by plucking."
Ella held a hand to her chest and breathed through the panic that was starting to form. "Is he sick?! What's wrong?"
Rae Rae shook her head. "Oh, no. You misunderstand. There's nothing wrong with him. He's just gotten a bit too hormonal about getting you as a charge."
Ella blinked slowly at that. "Oookay, translation, please."
Azrael grinned at her and nudged her glasses up her nose. "He's gone broody on you. Angel's don't lay eggs like a bird does, but we do sometimes get possessive and obsessive when it comes to keeping a charge safe. You humans are all so young and he wants to take care of you over everything else. The feathers are his idea of nesting. Keeping you warm and safe and healthy. I mean, he could have at least asked you. He didn't did he? That idiot is going to scare you away if he doesn't stop it."
Ella blinked. "Uh, what. Okay, so he is being a big white chicken right now with me as his brood?"
Rae Rae cocked her head to one side, before grinning widely. "Yes. That is exactly what's happening. Lucifer is a big chicken and didn't tell you anything about his sudden difference in state. Then again, he hasn't been put in charge of young ones in a long time and he hasn't been broody since, well, me. "
That perked Ella up a bit. "Wait, he went broody on you?"
Shrugging her shoulders, Rae Rae nodded. "Yep! I am his baby sister. I was made after him. He was old enough to go broody over me by that point."
"Awwww," Ella stated after that, before hugging Azrael. "So this is normal then. How long does it last? Because it is getting a bit stalkery right now and beginning to freak me out a bit."
Rae Rae sighed again, before returning the hug. "I'm not sure it will. He was like that with me for centuries, before he decided I was old enough to do things on my own. You don't live that long. Like I said, this is bad."
Ella grimaced at that. "Oh, great. I was liking the overly affectionate Lucifer always being up for a hug and listening to me ramble on about science, but this is a little too much. How do I stop it?"
Rae Rae shrugged and walked over to where her laptop was opened on her table. "Try googling what you do with chickens. It might work."
Ella nodded. "Yeah, good idea. Okay, you can go back to helping the dead now."
Rae Rae grinned widely at her again before she let her wings unfurl and disappeared in a flurry of feathers.
Ella sat down and stared at her computer. Well, she was thinking of getting a chicken anyway. She could always use some fresh eggs. So, without a second thought as to what he would find she googled broody chickens.
She soon found out the best way to break the behaviour and her mood dropped. "Well, shit..."
How was she supposed to keep Lucifer away from her for however long it takes to break him of the behaviour he was now in?