Lucifer continues being the twins' *cough* mom *cough* guardian and Azazel talks a lot.
Azazel met his youngest brothers for the first time when they were five and curious. Lucifer held each boy's hand strongly and barely let them leave his side on the way towards Azazel's resting place. It was entertaining to see the eldest so emotionally comprised.
"Is that him?" Rin asked, pointing at Azazel's intangible body. "It feels like him."
The other boy's furred his brows and focused his bright blue eyes on Azazel. "It looks like him too."
Both look up to Lucifer, eagerly awaiting his confirmation and praise.
"You're right," the King of Light said. "This is our brother Azazel, King of Spirits."
The boys took a step forward, towards him, hesitating only in the last second. Their shoulders tense, visible even through their thick winter jackets. Then, as so often already in the last minutes, they turned to Lucifer again. He nodded and that was apparently all it took for the twins to storm to the remains of his vessel. They immediately began to tell him about their lives and hobbies and training. Azazel would by no means claim to be the most human of his siblings, but even he was unsettled by Rin and Yukio's stories and how little the two seemed to care about their own wellbeing.
"You're raising puppets," Azazel told Lucifer. "What will you do with them when they have served their purpose?"
He had spent more time with humans that most of his siblings. He had studied them, their behavior and mannerisms and had learned from it. As much demon blood as the twins in front of him carried, they were human at the core. It didn't take much genius to see that, just the ability to reach into the depths of a soul.
Rin and Yukio were still chatting, unaware that he had chosen to strike up a conversation with Lucifer. He thought it was kinder to leave them to their happiness than to reveal he wasn't listening to them. It wasn't like they could hear what he and Lucifer discussed. Being the King of Spirits had more advantages than surviving in Assiah without outside help.
"I don't know what Samael is planning."
Azazel bristled in anger. "You don't know? You have become careless, Lucifer."
Careless and numb. In silence he wondered where his bloodthirsty brother had gone. Where was the King of Light who marched into the room with the screams of war following him?
"I'm not supposed to care. I am to raise them and teach them what I know of Gehenna's creation so that they can fulfill their purpose."
Azazel dug his claws into his brother's mind, a sharp reminder of his usual bitter laugh.
"I forgot the boys' lives have been predestined before they were even born. Created to be our cures."
Lucifer's footing strengthened as he braced himself for the confrontation. "They weren't created for this purpose. It is simply an opportunity which has opened up with their birth."
"Oh, please," Azazel laughed. "You don't even believe that yourself. Do you really think that Samael would let the situation escape him so much that such an opportunity would simply arise? Open your eyes, brother. Our cures have been bred and cultured like Amaimon's vessel. You better keep them close or they'll drown."
With that Azazel retreated from Lucifer's mind and returned to paying his attention to Rin and Yukio. Testing Lucifer's patience any further would be like poking a sleeping bear, perhaps funny at first but dangerous all in all.
And he rather liked the two boys, they were almost too cute and reminded him a bit of his own children.
Perhaps he should visit Shirou again. It had been a few years since he had last reached into his progeny's mind.
With this Azazel slowly drifted off again, his conscious shattering once again and running away with the wind.
Lucifer is not as unknowing as Azazel thinks, he's just very apathetic and can't find it in himself to care.
He's tired.
And depressed probably too. I should probably tag that.
Until next time!
Leave your thoughts behind on your way out, please!
