Ashiya, though not exactly pleased with the new heroes' presence, was however pleased for more people to stuff noodles into before they could go bad.
Chiho helped the demon general cook, determined that if Maou was going to eat something decent she would be a part of it.
Emeralda and Albertio were unaccustomed to Earth but accepted everything rather quickly, from the electric stove to the refrigerator to the odd style of dress.
Emilia shook her head at the entire thing and Maou didn't really care, he was just hungry and whatever it was his coworker and head general were cooking smelled at least edible with a hint of ginger, which was good enough for him.
Roughly halfway through the slapped-together meal Maou remembered Lucifer and turned to where the fallen angel sat against the wall, intending to offer him food when he saw the way the small body was slumped.
The former demon general's visible skin was beginning to turn a rosy violet, the colours puffing into tender-looking spots all over him.
Shaking his head, Maou made sure to set aside a dish for him in the fridge - he could eat when he woke up.
It was roughly an hour and a half later when Chiho had to leave, her mother having summoned her via text for a grocery run before her curfew. Barely a half hour after that Emilia and her fellow heroes filed out, Emi herself pausing in the doorway, looking to Lucifer's still motionless form with a frown.
"Are you going to be able to handle him?"
Maou snorted. "Have you taken a look at him lately? Yeah, we won't have any trouble for a while."
Her eyebrows remained furrowed, but Emilia nodded. "If you say so. Call me if her starts anything."
"Yes ma'am." Maou gave her a little salute and closed the door. "Whew, that was exhausting."
"Fighting Lucifer or eating dinner in the same room as Emilia?" Ashiya asked dryly.
"Uh… both?" Maou tilted his head, resting his gaze once more on said fallen angel's broken body. "We should probably move him. That can't be a good way to sit."
"Meh." Ashiya went on drying the dishes.
Maou rolled his eyes. "Seriously, dude. Come on."
With a sigh Ashiya set the drying towel down and went Lucifer, grabbing his shoulders whilst Maou grabbed his legs.
Lucifer whimpered slightly when they lifted him, but otherwise didn't stir, and together they ferried him around the table and lay him parallel to where the two of them slept.
Ashiya returned to the dishes, but Maou stood there, looking down at Lucifer's fragile form, the fallen angel's shallow breaths rising and falling with a painful-sounding raspiness.
After a few minutes he fetched the first-aid kit from their shelf and knelt beside his former general.
"Are you seriously going to bandage him up?" Ashiya cried. "After betraying you, after trying to kill us and the hero!?"
"Some of these cuts are still open." Maou said. "They could get infected."
"And that would be a bad thing?" Ashiya folded his arms. "After everything he's done, I don't see why you didn't just leave him on the street to 'get infected' by himself!"
Maou puffed out a sigh, not quite sure why he wasn't thinking the same as Ashiya right now himself.
Maybe it wasn't really Lucifer's fault - he just wanted to get back to heaven. It's not like he'd sat around all this time plotting to kill Maou… that just happened to be the price. Or maybe Maou just had a soft spot for the kid.
And yes, there was no use denying it now, Lucifer was most definitely a kid. This height of barely-five-foot was the same in Ente Isla as it was here, his young face no older and his small body no larger. He was the youngest by far of Satan's generals, and many older demons had despised Lucifer for it.
Well, no use pondering it now…
"Just, hand me a bowl of water yeah?" Maou tried. "And… maybe a washcloth or something?"
With an annoyed grunt Ashiya did as told, grumbling as he knelt on Lucifer's other side, setting the bowl above the kid's head and handing Maou one of the two washcloths in his hand.
Maou dipped his cloth in the water and rung it out tightly, holding it a moment as he looked over Lucifer's injuries, not even sure where to start.
"First you beat him up and now you're cleaning him up." Ashiya muttered. "I say we should never have brought him with us."
"Well he's here, so get over it." Maou chose a somewhat deep cut on the right of Lucifer's neck and brushed the purple hair out of the half-dried blood before pressing the wet washcloth to the wound.
Lucifer gasped and jerked, his eyes flying open the little their swelling would allow before he was thrown into a bout of harsh coughing.
Ashiya scowled, but it was still more annoyed than concerned. "Great. Now I feel sick just listening to him."
Maou ignored him, focusing on Lucifer, who had scrambled weakly back until his head hit the bowl of water and the liquid sloshed on both him and the floor, conjuring weak yelp and in turn more coughing.
"Yeah, we should totally have left him."
"Shut up Ashiya." Maou ordered, setting the washcloth down and reaching a gentle hand to hover over Lucifer's shoulder.
Lucifer tried to shy away again, but his elbows were too weak to hold him up anymore, and he just about fell and slammed his head on the wooden floor but Maou caught him.
One hand at the base of Lucifer's neck and the other cradling his head uncertainly, Maou met the pain and fear-filled violet eyes that seemed to plead with him.
"Hey, it's okay." Maou said. "Try not to jerk around, you're gonna hurt yourself. We're just going to wrap up these open wounds and then you can go back to sleep, okay?"
Lucifer's eyes did not relax in the slightest. If anything, he tensed further, the muscles under Maou's fingers stiffening.
Well, Maou figured, I've done what I can .
"I'm going to lay you down, alright? Just be still - rolling around on this floor can get you splinters."
Still Lucifer's gaze was scared, but he was too weak to disagree when Maou lowered him the third of a meter back to the ground. Too weak to prevent his own body from flinching when the cold cloth returned to his neck, wiping at the blood.
Somewhere between cleaning the blood away and pasting neon-coloured band-aids over the scratches on Lucifer's face and arms, the fallen angel's eyes drifted closed again.