I know I said I was on hiatus for October, but I just really wanted to write something for Satan's birthday because I love this demon so much, I'm sorry :')

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but it's probably really obvious that I've never been to a cat café before (however I have found out that there's one near me when I was looking some things up on Google and let's just say that I might be visiting one soon…)

I'm really sorry in advance for any mistakes, I decided to start writing this a few days ago and worked on it between a few other fics so I'm not 100% happy with this one. I'll come back and correct any mistakes I find at a later date, I just need a little time to forget what I wrote first

I'll be spending the rest of October reading through and correcting the last few fanfics that I've already posted and writing/ finishing off a few more ideas I've had :)

I hope you guys enjoy this fic!
See you soon!
~K'rasu

The Cat's Cradle Café

Satan tilted his head to one side as he regarded Lucifer with a confused stare, "Lord Diavolo wants to send me on an errand in the human world?"

"That's right," Lucifer nodded with a serious expression, "it's an urgent matter that needs to be dealt with promptly on Lord Diavolo's behalf, I can hardly rely on the others."

Satan gave a thoughtful hum and frowned as he folded his arms across his chest, "I don't understand."

"What isn't there to understand?"

"Why isn't Lord Diavolo sending you?" Satan narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the older demon. "Aren't you supposed to be his most loyal and devoted subject?"

"Unfortunately, I'll have other matters to attend to," Lucifer said with a tiresome sigh, "you see, the Great Witch Maddi will be visiting the Devildom and I've been entrusted with the task of escorting her during her visit, she specifically asked for either you or myself… unless," Lucifer gave an amused chuckle as he gave Satan a surveying stare, "you'd rather exchange tasks?" He suggested.

"Maddi?" Satan shuddered and widened his eyes in horror. "I guess I wouldn't mind going to the human world after all."

"I thought as much," Lucifer gave another amused laugh, "you'll be going to the human world on the twentieth to meet with—"

"Wait," Satan cut across Lucifer, "on the twentieth?"

"That's what I said, is there a problem with that?" Lucifer asked as he arched a quizzical eyebrow at the other demon.

"But the twentieth is…" Satan's murmur trailed off and he shook his head with a sigh, "it's nothing, nevermind," he scowled under his breath.

"If you have plans, I'm sure I could talk to Lord Diavolo," Lucifer offered, "you could always take over my escorting duties and make time to see to your prior arrangements while I take care of the task in the human world?"

"It's fine," Satan said with an irritable huff, "I'll go, but you owe me for this."

"Good," Lucifer smirked triumphantly, "so you'll meet with members of the Three-Legged Crow Company to discuss Lord Diavolo's plans to expand the Corvo chain," he explained before he turned to leave, "I'll speak to Lord Diavolo and give you the details later this evening."

Satan's frown deepened as he watched Lucifer's retreating back disappear down the corridor.

"Plans to expand the Corvo chain?" He furrowed his brow as he murmured to himself. "Doesn't that seem way too out of my depth? Surely it would be better for Lord Diavolo to see to that himself." He finally unfurled his arms — letting them drop back down to his side — as he shook his head with a sigh. "Though, I guess it beats spending the day with Maddi."

Satan tucked a large and heavy brown envelope under his arm as he stared at the map that was displayed on the screen of his D.D.D before he shifted his gaze towards the building in front of him with a confused expression.

"This is definitely the address that Lucifer gave me," Satan closed the app and opened his messages instead to check that he had definitely input the correct address, "but all that's here is… a cat café? This can't be right."

He shook his head to himself as he found Lucifer's phone number in his contacts, pressed his D.D.D to his ear and paced around in front of the café impatiently while he waited for Lucifer to answer his call — his anger increased with each ring until the call finally disconnected.

"Unbelievable!" Satan growled under his breath as he pulled the device away from his ear to see the 'User Busy' message flash across the screen. "Now what am I supposed to do?"

He remained still for a moment while he contemplated his options before he finally returned to his messages with a resigned sigh.

Satan:

Is this some sort of joke?

Satan:

The address you gave me took me to a cat café.

He stared at his D.D.D for a few moments, hoping that Lucifer might have noticed his missed call and would reply quickly.

"If he punishes me for being late because of his own mistake, I'll curse him!"

Satan saw something move out of the corner of his eye and slowly turned his head to find a black and white cat staring up at him through the café window — he felt his anger and frustration quickly slip away, and a smile play on his lips as he watched the cat lift its paws off of the ground and lean against the window as if it was trying to reach him.

He stepped closer and crouched down in front of the window to watch the cat through the pane — he was careful to move slowly so that he didn't startle the cat — and felt his smile widen as the cat followed him with its eyes and tried to sniff at him through the glass before it opened its mouth to meow at him.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to wait at this café until Lucifer gets back to me, right?" Satan said to himself with a thoughtful hum as he checked the homescreen of his D.D.D for any messages.

He straightened himself up to his full height, slipped his D.D.D into his jacket pocket and untucked the brown envelope from under his arm before he approached the entrance to the cat café.

Satan's eyes moved around the café, taking in the soft lighting that gave the café a warm, cozy atmosphere that was complimented with the smell of coffee and books. He could see comfortable armchairs in front of low coffee tables placed carefully around the café, along with various scratch posts and cat trees where he could see a couple more cats lounging or playing, and an exercise wheel. Along the back wall stood some bookshelves that had been filled with worn books and cat-shaped ornaments.

He paused for a moment to admire the cat-themed pictures of famous human world paintings that decorated the walls near the entrance and to thoroughly read through a list of house rules.

"Good morning, welcome to The Cat's Cradle Café," a woman who was standing behind the reception desk greeted Satan in a cheery voice, "have you already pre-booked today or would you like to make a walk-in appointment?"

"I would like to make a walk-in appointment please," Satan replied as he pulled his attention away from the house rules notice to return the receptionist's welcoming smile and approached the desk.

The receptionist nodded, "okay, you can have a single one hour timeslot or you can book two consecutive time slots," she offered.

"Hm…" Satan hummed with a pensive expression, "I won't lie and say I'm not tempted, but I should stick to the one hour time slot."

After an admission fee — that Satan paid using human world currency that Lucifer had given him earlier that morning — and signing in to the café's guest book, the receptionist pointed out a coffee counter towards the right of the café where he could order food and drinks from the menu, before she then motioned towards the bookshelves that he had spotted earlier and informed Satan that he could peruse the books at his own leisure during his visit.

Satan thanked the receptionist and gave an appreciative nod as he headed towards the counter where he studied the menu that was displayed on the wall behind the coffee station before he placed his order.

He spotted a noticeboard out of the corner of his eye as he tucked his wallet away in his pocket again and approached it with a curious expression — his eyes flitted over photographs of cats and the printed text next to them.

"Arthur, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald…" Satan read a few names aloud in a murmured voice as he surveyed the noticeboard. "I see, so each cat is a rescue cat and they've named them all after a famous author from the human world," he mused to himself.

Satan gave a startled jump as he felt something brush against his ankles and glanced down to find the black and white cat he had seen in the window earlier staring back up at him.

"Ah, you must be…" Satan slowly turned his gaze back to the noticeboard and instantly found the cat's photograph. "Agatha," he chuckled as the cat meowed in response, he crouched down and held his free hand out towards the cat — letting the feline brush and nuzzle its head against the back of his hand, "that's a nice name, you were named after Agatha Christie, right?" He asked in a cooing voice. "I'm quite the fan of detective novels too."

Satan watched with a content smile as Agatha turned and ran towards one of the many cat trees where she pounced playfully on a brown tabby while he returned to his full height and headed towards the bookshelf instead.

He ran his hand over the spines of the books as he noted each title, "so many books I've never even seen in the Devildom," he murmured in an awed voice as he mentally sorted them alphabetically by genre until one finally caught his eye — he carefully pulled the book from the shelf and inspected it closely.

"Murder on the Orient Express," he read the title with interest and casting a knowing glance towards the cat named Agatha before he moved towards one of the armchairs and sank into the seat while he set down the brown envelope in his hand on the coffee table in front of him and skimmed over the blurb on the back of the book that he had picked.

He had barely turned the book over in hands and opened the front cover before he felt something jump onto his lap. Satan peered around his book to meet the gaze of a large calico.

"You must be Austen," Satan cast his memory back to the pictures and names he had read on the noticeboard as he gave the cat a warm smile and watched as it made itself comfortable and curled up on his lap before he slowly turned his attention back towards the book in his hand while he absently scratched the cat in his lap behind the ear and listened to her purrs as he read.

He had blissfully forgotten all of his thoughts and worries about the meeting with members of the Three Legged Crow Company as he allowed himself to become absorbed in his book and enjoyed watching cats run and play around while a waitress placed a large latte — that had been decorated with foam art of a cat — and a sweet pastry on the coffee table in front of him.

His D.D.D began to ring, startling him and reminding him of the reason for his visit to the human world as he pulled the device out of his jacket pocket to see Lucifer's caller ID illuminating the screen.

Satan sighed to himself as he answered the call and pressed his D.D.D to his ear, "you took your time!" He snapped as his anger from earlier returned.

"I was attending to other matters." Lucifer's curt voice replied. "Your text said there was a problem?"

"Yeah, you gave me the wrong address!"

Lucifer chucked, "is that so?"

"Do you think this is a joke?" Satan snapped impatiently. "I swear that if you even think of punishing me for being late to that meeting, I'll—"

"There is no meeting, Satan." Lucifer cut across his brother; Satan could hear the amusement in the other demon's voice.

"… no… meeting?" Satan repeated in disbelief. "But Maddi—"

"The Great Witch Maddi never had a visit to the Devildom today either."

"So you sent me on a wild goose chase?" Satan asked furiously in a voice more forceful than he had intended, he quickly checked to make sure he hadn't disturbed the cat in his lap or attracted the attention of anyone else in the café and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Now why would I do that?" Lucifer asked. "Perhaps you should take a look inside that envelope I gave you this morning."

"The envelope?" Satan's eyes wandered towards the brown envelope on the coffee tablet.

He rested the book in his hand on the arm of his armchair before he carefully leant forward in his seat to pick the envelope up and gave the cat in his lap a few reassuring strokes as he opened the envelope. He pulled out a heavy book that had a green ribbon tied around it — he moved the ribbon to read the title 'The Devildom Nightmare' — along with a black card that had been intricately decorated with golden lace patterns and lettering that read…

"Happy Birthday, Satan." Lucifer gave another chuckle.

Satan remained silent as he stared down at the card in his hands with a stunned expression.

"Enjoy the cat café, but don't be too late," Lucifer spoke up again when Satan stayed quiet, "your brothers are looking forward to celebrating with you."

Satan smiled to himself as a chuckle of his own escaped his lips, "I'll be home soon."