pika318: This seriously came out longer than I expected. This is in the same universe as Chapter 2 and Chapter 9. This is how Lucifer met Ashiya, Alas=Ramus, Chiho, Suzu and Emi after her reunion with Maou.

One shot: Babysitting

It was 10:30am when Lucifer woke up.

Sitting up in bed and stretching with a yawn, she reached out for her work mobile phone first. As expected, there were various messages from her customers. She scrolled through them slowly, noting the messages that she would have to reply later.

After she was done, she put the work mobile phone down on the dresser beside her bed, then picked up her personal mobile phone next. At this kind of timing, she was not expecting any messages from her colleagues yet, unless it was an emergency. However, there was still one notification shown on her phone screen.

Tapping on the notification, she realised that it was a message from "Maou Sadao". It read, "Are you free today? Can you call me when you can?" The message was sent at around 9am.

Lucifer frowned, wondering what Maou wanted. Tapping on her phone, she found Maou's phone number and pressed the 'Call' button, then put the phone to her ear. As the ringtone sounded, she pushed away her bed covers and sat on the edge of her bed at the same time.

"Hello? Lucifer?" After a few rings, Maou's voice was heard on the other end of the line. He sounded tired for some reason.

"You asked me to call, right? What is it?" As she waited for him to reply, she started to pick up some sounds in the background. Strangely, it sounded like a child was crying.

"Are you working today?" Maou asked.

"No. It's my off day today. Why?" Lucifer asked in return.

"Erhm, a lot of things happened, but er… there is a child staying with me now, a girl."

"Okay?" Lucifer responded, raising an eyebrow, many questions flashing through her mind.

How did Satan end up taking care of a young child?

Is that why he sounds so tired?

Whose kid is it?

Before she could ask any of those questions though, Maou spoke first, "I'll explain everything to you later, but can you come over to my apartment? The thing is... including our neighbour, we're all guys here and she's not completely comfortable with only guys around. Then Chi-chan is still at school and I don't want to ask Emi for help."

It was then Lucifer understood that Maou was asking her to babysit the child.

Well, it's not as if I have never done it before, although human children are different from demon ones.

"Where do you stay?" Lucifer asked.

"Oh right, it's at Villa Rosa Sasazuka. The address is…"

As Maou gave her the address and described the location, Lucifer realised that his apartment was only a 15 minute walk away from hers.

How convenient.

"I see. I'll be there in around 40 minutes or so." She replied after mentally estimating the time it would take for her to quickly wash up, change and eat breakfast.

"Really?! You're a huge help! I'll see you then." Then without even waiting for her to reply, Maou hung up.

"Gosh, seriously..." Lucifer commented in exasperation at Maou's impatience. Then putting her phone back on the dresser, she started to get ready.

"So this child thinks you are her Papa and Hero Emilia is her Mama." Lucifer concluded after hearing the whole story from Maou.

The child in question, Alas=Ramus, was currently sitting in her lap, playing with a rabbit plushie she had brought from her apartment as Maou sat opposite her, trying to feed lunch to the silver haired toddler.

"Yeah…"

"What kind of messed up setup is that?" Lucifer commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Believe me, I'm not happy with it either, but I don't have much choice… Alas=Ramus, ahhh…" Maou said as he moved the spoon to Alas=Ramus' mouth and tried to get her to open her mouth so he could feed her.

"Ahh….." Luckily, Alas=Ramus was hungry enough and opened her mouth obediently, allowing Maou to stick the spoon in her mouth slightly. She ate the mouthful happily and Maou withdrew the spoon to prepare another bite.

"It looks like you're doing well though." Lucifer commented as she watched this.

"Trust me, mealtimes are normally not this easy. It's probably because you're around this time. Normally she'll be whining for Emi by now, so thanks for this."

"You're welcome." Lucifer replied on reflex as she thought about Alas=Ramus' reaction when they first met a short while ago.

When Lucifer arrived at the door of Room 201 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka and knocked on it, the person who opened the door was a lean and tall man with light straw coloured hair. He looked really tired.

"Alsiel?" Lucifer asked, his hair colour immediately reminding her of his demon form.

"Oh, you're here, Lucifer…" Unlike him, Lucifer did not look any different from her demon form, so he appeared to have no issues recognising her.

As the door was opened, the noise within could be heard.

"Mama?" A child's voice was heard.

Alsiel, now known as Ashiya Shiro in Japan, turned back to face the child, who Lucifer now saw behind him.

"Ah, no, Alas=Ramus, it's not your Mama." For some reason, he sounded and looked tense.

"I want Mama…" Already, the child sounded and looked like she was about to cry, and behind the child, she could see Satan, now known as Maou Sadao in Japan, look at the child with an apprehensive expression.

Taking it as her cue to enter, Lucifer walked into the apartment and even though she immediately noticed how small the apartment was, she pushed the issue to the back of her mind for the moment and walked up to the child, kneeling in front of the child.

Almost immediately, the child looked at her with wide eyes and all signs of her being upset over not having her Mama seemed to go away.

"Hello, what's your name?" She asked with a smile on her face.

The child paused, then answered, "Alas=Ramus."

"Alas=Ramus, is it? My name is Lucifer." As she said this, she reached into the handbag she had with her and pulled out a small rabbit plushie, holding it out to Alas=Ramus.

Alas=Ramus' eyes shone as she stared at the cute rabbit plushie which looked very soft and huggable.

"This is a gift for our first meeting." Lucifer said, pushing the rabbit plushie into Alas=Ramus' hands. The silver haired toddler took the toy immediately, hugging it and feeling its fur.

Maou smiled at Alas=Ramus and prompted her gently, "What should you say, Alas=Ramus?"

"Than' you, Loosifah nee-san!" Alas=Ramus said happily.

"You're welcome." Lucifer said, patting Alas=Ramus on the head. "Do you want to play with me for a while?"

" 'kay!" Alas=Ramus replied, and that was how Maou and Ashiya were able to take a break for a while and peacefully prepare lunch.

Since Alas=Ramus was focused on playing with the rabbit and eating lunch while on her lap, Lucifer looked around the apartment once more and her gaze stopped at the kitchen.

Currently, Ashiya was not the only one standing there.

Shortly after she arrived, their neighbour Chris Bell, who was also known as Kamazuki Suzu in Japan, had come to help Ashiya prepare lunch for the adults as well as teach him how to bulk prepare Alas=Ramus' meals, seeing how tired the househusband was from the lack of sleep.

It was her first time seeing him, and even though Maou had told her that Suzu did not plan to go against them and she did not sense any feelings of animosity when they greeted each other briefly, she did not know if he could be trusted yet.

As if he sensed her stare, Suzu turned his head slightly in her direction. As their gazes met, before Lucifer could react in any way, she saw him look away quickly.

Strange.

She thought. Unbeknownst to her, the male priest was actually blushing slightly, surprised at how cute she was.

Dinner time

The plan had been simple. Go to the Demon Fortress, have a civil dinner with the Demon King, Alsiel, Suzu and Chiho so she could spend time with Alas=Ramus and make her happy, then go home.

However, after Yusa Emi knocked on the door of Room 201 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka and Chiho opened the door, she could already feel that something was off.

"Ah, Yusa-san, you're here!"

It was not the first time Emi came over to the Demon Fortress to eat after Alas=Ramus suddenly came into their lives and started living in the Demon Fortress, so Chiho no longer greeted her nervously as if the high school girl had expected a fight to break out, but there was still something unnatural about that cheerful greeting.

It was as if the cheerful tone had been forced out.

As Chiho stepped aside to let her in, Emi also saw out of the corner of her eye that Chiho giving nervous glances in a certain direction. After Emi looked in that direction, she finally pinpointed the source of Chiho's discomfort.

There was an unfamiliar girl who appeared to be around Chiho's age sitting at the dinner table.

And Alas=Ramus was sitting in her lap.

When Emi took one more step into the room, intending to ask who this stranger was, Alas=Ramus had already left that person's lap, and was running towards her.

"Mama!"

Being used to this by now, Emi bent down and let Alas=Ramus run into her outstretched arms and picked her up easily.

"Hi, Alas=Ramus."

The young toddler grinned at the response and snuggled into her arms.

With Alas=Ramus safely in her arms, Emi surveyed the dinner table once more. Maou and Ashiya were sitting on the left side of the table, while Suzu sat by himself on the right side. The girl who she did not recognise was sitting between them.

The Demon King can be dense, but he can't be so dense to invite a girl to his house for dinner without thinking of Chiho-chan's feelings, right? Is she a new neighbour?

As if having an unfamiliar person there was strange enough, all of them seemed to be watching her, as if they were waiting for her reaction.

As a few seconds passed, Suzu was the one who finally spoke up.

"Emilia, why don't you sit down. Chiho-dono too. I'm sure Alas=Ramus-chan is hungry."

With Suzu's prompt, Chiho seemed to wake up from whatever state she was in, and sat down next to Maou, the tension never leaving her shoulders. That left Emi the spot in between Chiho and Suzu, which also meant she was sitting directly opposite the unfamiliar girl.

Taking her seat at the table, Emi placed Alas=Ramus on her lap and after glancing at the girl opposite her, she turned to Maou and asked,

"Seeing that she seems to be your guest, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Beside her, Chiho gasped softly while Maou widened his eyes in surprise. Even without turning around or looking at Ashiya, Emi could sense that the others were probably reacting the same way.

"What?"

Unable to comprehend the strange atmosphere, Emi finally asked this.

Maou's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

Emi turned to Ashiya for more clues, but the tall and lean man only turned away awkwardly, it seemed like he had pushed the responsibility of explaining this situation to Maou.

Eventually, the one who spoke was the girl she did not recognise.

"I know we haven't seen each other in almost two years, but to forget the face of your enemy is really careless."

With those words, Emi turned, switching her focus from Ashiya to the girl, who currently had an amused expression on her face.

Purple hair, purple eyes. That small build….

"Lucifer?!" Emi exclaimed. She would have stood up and drew her blade, but Suzu placed a hand on her shoulder, then looked at Alas=Ramus on her lap.

A toddler seemed to have been alarmed by Emi's shout and was currently looking up at her with wide round eyes.

"Sorry for scaring you like that, Alas=Ramus." Then she forced herself to show a small smile to assure the young girl.

Alas=Ramus seemed to be satisfied with that, because she turned to Maou next and said,

"Papa, everybody eat?"

Alas=Ramus addressing Maou directly appeared to help him recover from his shock, and he picked up his chopsticks in response.

"Yeah, let's eat, everyone."

With that, everyone picked up their chopsticks and started eating dinner quietly. Even Alas=Ramus sensed the atmosphere was not right and did not chatter to Emi about her day, like she usually would.

After a tense twenty minutes-

"If you really wanted to know Emilia, Satan called me here because he needed help looking after Alas=Ramus."

Surprised by the sudden address, Emi coughed a little as she forced the last bite of rice down her throat, then she looked at Maou suspiciously,

"Since when were the both of you in contact?"

Ashiya appeared to be offended by this and replied in a hostile tone,

"I don't see why we need to inform you about our activities, seeing that you're our enemy."

Emi scowled at the reply, "Do you want to give me a reason to kill all of you right now?"

Watching both of them bicker, Maou sighed lightly then spoke up, "Emi, don't say such violent things in front of Alas=Ramus."

"Stop using her as an excuse and answer me!"

"We met only recently. From that incident with Olba, you should have known that Lucifer is alive right?"

"Yeah, but knowing she's alive and her actually being with you now are two different things! What are you planning?"

"We're planning nothing, Emilia. He really only wanted me to help with Alas=Ramus, not that you'll take my word for it, would you?" Lucifer answered.

"Of course not!" Emilia shouted, but before she could say anything more, she felt a tug at her sleeve.

During their conversation, Alas=Ramus had left Emi's lap without her noticing and was now tugging at her sleeve.

"What is it, Alas=Ramus?"

"Here."

After getting Emi's attention, the young girl pushed something into Emi's hands. It was soft and fluffy. After examining it more closely, Emi realised that it was a small stuffed bunny.

"Loosifah nee-san's present."

Emi looked at the bunny, then at Lucifer.

"You gave this to her?"

Lucifer answered nonchalantly, "My customers give me a lot of presents, I can't possibly keep them all. Alas=Ramus is a young girl and would appreciate those more than I do."

"I said than' you!" Alas=Ramus exclaimed at this moment.

"Oh, did you? That's a good girl." Emi said absently, patting Alas=Ramus on the head.

"Anyway, I don't plan to cause havoc here unless Satan says so, and seeing how he's so passionate about his MgRonalds job, you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

"Seeing that it's coming from you, I'm not that inclined to believe it." Emilia snapped back, but did not seem to pursue the matter further.

"You said something about customers? What do you work as?" Chiho asked, desperate to change the topic after such a tense atmosphere.

"A hostess."

"Hostess? You work in an inn?" Chiho repeated.

Lucifer gave a small laugh at Chiho's innocent reply, and answered, "Have you ever taken a stroll around Shinjuku, it's quite near here right?"

"Of course I have."

"Have you ever seen those advertisement boards showcasing pictures of beautiful ladies, trying to attract people to visit their establishment? I meant that kind of hostess job, Sasaki Chiho."

"Oh." Finally realising what Lucifer meant, Chiho blushed furiously.

Perhaps the others did not really know what a hostess was, because they did not react much at all.

"Brr brr brr." At this moment, Lucifer's phone vibrated. Reaching into her handbag and pulling out her phone, Lucifer looked at the screen, then after saying "Excuse me", she picked up the call.

"Hello, Kazuma-san? I'm eating dinner at a friend's house… it's about 15 minutes away from our apartment, why? …... Oh, is that so? ... No, it's alright, I'll meet you there." After cutting off the call and putting the phone in her bag, she turned to Maou, saying with a troubled smile, "Something came up, I'll need to go now."

Maou looked worried and could not help but remember the incident she described which caused her to end up in hospital, asking, "This urgently? Is it serious?"

"Not really. It's just a last minute appointment with the tailor since they had to cancel our original appointment. I'll be meeting my assistant on the way there, he was the one who called just now." Lucifer replied.

"Ah, I see." Since it did not sound dangerous, Maou did not ask any further.

As she moved towards the door to put on her shoes, Ashiya stood up to open the door for her. Straightening up after putting on her shoes, she said to the room, "Thanks for the dinner."

"Take it as payment for taking care of Alas=Ramus." Ashiya said.

"I'll share my working schedule with you later, so you can consider calling me again if you need help." Lucifer replied with a smile.

Then she heard Alas=Ramus speak, "Loosifah nee-san leaving?"

Turning to the toddler, Lucifer replied, "Yes."

"Coming again?" The young girl asked, a hopeful expression on her face.

"I will when I have the time. Until then, listen to your Papa and Mama alright?"

"Un!" Alas=Ramus said.

"Then I'll see all of you around." After saying this, she walked through the door and closed it, leaving the rest of them to finish their dinner.

END