Chapter 13: Good Deeds
Haku awoke as the orange rays flowed through the window and cast upon his eyes.
He shifted a bit only to feel an empty bed beside him.
Slowly he opened his eyes and spotted a note, sitting up groggily he picked up the note and read,
Got some stuff to do, wont be back for a while, so dont go runnin around the bathhouse like an imbicile. Later!
Haku let out a sigh, 'She's so...her.' he thought as he swung himself out of his bed and got dressed. "I wonder what she's doing...well at least she bothered to tell me-"
He suddenly felt a pulse run through his body, "Oh...she's crossing the border huh?"
Quickly throwing on his shirt he scrambled out his door and down the stairs, "It wouldn't hurt to follow her would it?" he asked retorically.
Running through the tall soft grass he came to the large building, slowing to a walking pace he headed down the tunnel.
Reaching the exit his skin was bathed in warm sunlight, a cool breeze ruffled the leaves of the forest around him, and a statue gave him a creepy grin. Scanning the area Lucifer was nowhere to be found, 'guess she's a bit ahead of me...' Haku jogged forward along the path until reaching the end of the forest, comming to a road filled with the rumored cars he had read about.
Deciding to avoid the possible dangers the road presented he headed up the grassy hill to his left.
Reaching the hill's peek he came upon a large Blue house, walking along the house's side he was about to turn the corner but quickly retreated when he spotted the unmistakable crow black hair. He heard the sound of a key slidding into a lock and then the creek of the front door. Peeking carefully around the corner he saw he last foot enter the house and the door close lightly behind her.
Waiting a few moments to make sure he was clear he lightly walked along to the front porch coming up to the door. Reaching for its handle.
'Wait...I can't use the front door!'
He took a few steps back scanning the house, it had many windows he could sneek in through but with all of the windows he may not have to sneek in in the first place. Walking back along the right side of the house he heard someone walkling along the second floor. Looking up at a window he saw her walk by.
'So she's in there.' he looked around only to find a very convinient tree he could climb up in to get a better look. Reaching a solid branch he squatted looking past the leaves to see into the room.
He saw Lucifer walking around, she had a black jacket on unzipped, a white T-shirt underneath and black jeans.
'Good doesn't look like I've been caught.' Haku thought with relief.
He noticed her walking up to a desk on the far right side of the window, though he couldn't see most of the desk as it was cut off by the window's frame. Lucifer lifted up the left side of her jacket reaching into an inside pocket and fluidly removing a pair of glasses, with thin black frames but they were frameless along the bottom.
Haku leaned forward to get a closer look almost falling out of the tree. "She wears glasses?" he whispered to himself. "They look good on her..."
She sat down at the desk but what ever she was doing was out of his sight, blocked by the end of the window. He sat for what seemed like hours watching her, she was extremley focused on whatever she as doing, her eyes filled with intent, everyonce in a while she would lean back slightly lifting up what looked like small gears and peaces up to the light.
"Is she making something? But why would she have to come here to do something as such?"
Another few hours went by, she hadn't left the desk all day, the sun was starting to set. Haku's legs ached from being bent all day.
She suddenlt rose from her chair at the desk tucking something into her pocket and leaving the room.
Haku carefuly hopped off the branch landing swiflty on the ground as Lucifer headed out the door locking it behind her.
She began walking away from the house and down the road.
Haku followed at a fair distance as she headed into town. It was like small city, stores and people everywhere you went but it was pretty nice around this late. Not too many people, and it was fairly quiet.
She stuck her hands into her jacket pockets and walked quietly along the sidewalks, drawing the eyes of everyone within a 100 mile radius.
"Guess hair and eyes like that are non exsistent everywhere...not to mention her looks in general I suppose." Haku mubled to himself as he watched from behind a wall.
Doll like men were drooling at her feet, women were filled with envy, she was a walking goddess. 'Or demon...'
This continued for a while until th sun had set even more, the sky was a mixture of pinks and neon oranges and few people were about the town now.
Coming to the center of the town where a small park stood, there were still several small kids playing about the equipment.
Lucifer walked along the wood chips taking a seat in one of the many empty swings. She pulled out one of those red toothpicks and lit it with her thumb blocking the wind with her left hand. She swung ever so slightly as the small flame at the end of her toothpick flickered, a thin light strip of smoke fllowed up and dispersed into the air not even lasting for more than a second only an inch or two long at most.
Haku watched from a rooftop across the street, "Interesting..." he watched her, she watched the children running along, smiles on their faces as they played chase with their fathers or tripped and recieved loving first aid from their mothers. Even from Haku's distance his eyes couldn't be fooled, he saw the sadness and envy in her eyes, her face was blank and expressionless but not to him.
The sun was almost hidden behin the trees, casting long thin shadows upon the park.
Suddenly he heard the crying of a little girl, Lucifer's attention had also been caught by the crying that was seemingly out of place.
She looked to her left with her eyes to see a little girl mabye 3, 4 at most, standing with her hands balled into fists rubbing her eyes as small tears streaked down her chubby face. Lucifer looked around a bit, everyone else was gone, no parents or children in the park, people still walked along the sidewalks but noone was seemingly with the girl at the time.
Lucifer looked back to the girl who remained crying, Lucifer waited a moment. She let out a sigh, taking the toothpick that was now a normal tan color. 'interesting' Haku thought, and shaking it a bit putting out the flame and tossing it on the ground stepping on it and rubbing it with her foot, when she lifted her foot it was gone. She had her hands in her pockets as she walked over to the girl. Crouching down to the little girl's level she didn't say a word, only looking at her, as if she were waiting for the girl to acknowledge her first. Lucifer elbows rested on her knees that were waist high and stood on the balls of her toes patiently waiting for the girl to stop crying.
After a minute or so the girl's cries had reduced to sniffs and hard breaths. Her hands slowly lowered from her eyes until they were by her cheeks, her eyes opened slightly, Lucifer was still looking blankly into the little blue eyes of the girl. The girl looked back at the fascinating red eyes before her, Lucifer flashed her eyes into a glowing red only for a moment as if to provoke the girl in some way. Sure enough the girl started giggling, "You has prity eyes!" she said between giggles. Haku thought his eyes may be betraying him but he thought he saw a slight smile upon Lucifer's face. "Yeah...I suppose so, I get them from my dad..." she responded to the little girl who was now calm. "I get mine from daddy too!" The girl suddenly looked away from Lucifer's eyes and at her swooped bangs seemingly fascinated, "Your hair is prity..." Lucifer looked up at the backside of her bangs, "You wanna pet them don't you..."the girl nodded a bit violently, "Alright fine..." the girl's little hand reached up and ran along the smooth black streaks of hair, she added her other hand and began petting it a bit like you would a dog. "It's so soft! Like my kitty!" she smiled brightly.
"I also get that from my dad...",
"You get alot from your daddy, do you look like him?" "Yeah, people always say I look like him only younger..." the little girl seemed to notice that tone of Lucifer's voice as she spoke about her father, after all children and dogs were always supposed to be the most aware of that sort of thing, "Does daddy make you sad?" Lucifer was surprised by the girls question,
"...My dad's not the greatest dad in the world...but lets talk about you right now, you seem a bit lost."
the girl replied with a sad nod, "Well...why don't we go find them and get you back to that dad of yours." the girl's happiness reappeared. Lucifer turned the girl around and stuck her head between her legs and in one motion scooped the girl up and onto her shoudlers. Hanging onto the little ankles, the girl was giggling from the playful motions.
Lucifer left the park with the girl on her shoulders walking along the streets, recieving lots of smiles and giggled, "How cute is that?" "Are thy sisters" "Aw isn't that sweet?" she heard lots of the women and mothers around them saying as they walked through town. Lucifer was sure to keep talking to the girl to keep her distracted from the idea of being alone. Asking the little girl lots of questions about her family, her school and friends etc.
The sun was almost gone behind the mountains and almost all of the people were gone by now. It seems like the girl noticed and began to panick a bit. "I...I don't wanna be alone, Where are mommy and daddy?" she was about to start crying again.
Haku had been following the whole time and was completley entranced by Lucifer's actions, only to be further entranced by what she did next.
Lucifer had cut the girl's tears short and began to sing...
Listen to The Fray- How To Save A Life (AkA one of the greatest songs EVER!)
Step one, you say, We need to talk He walks, you say, Sit down, it's just a talk He smiles politely back at you You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right As he goes left and you stay right Between the lines of fear and blame You begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life
Let him know that you know best Cause after all, you do know best Try to slip past his defense Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong The things you've told him all along And pray to God he hears you And pray to God he hears you
And where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life
As he begins to raise his voice You lower yours and grant him one last choice Drive until you lose the road Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things He will admit to everything Or he'll say he's just not the same And you'll begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life How to save a life
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life
Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life How to save a life
...Her voice was husky yet angelic and the girl had calmed down nearly falling asleep.
Sure enough within the minute a woman and husband along with a 17 year old boy were running around the corner.
"My Baby!" the mother screamed as she saw her child running down the sidewalk, tears of joy running down her face as she hugged her child.
Her father joined in with a sigh of realief and the teenage boy joined the group hug as well.
"Oh thank god! Where were you!? How did you find us!?" the father cried.
The child turned her neck to look behind her and pointed, "That pretty lady..." but noone was there.
The girl squirmed out of the death hug and ran back up the sidewalk and looked around but there was no pretty lady to be found.
Her parents walked up behind her, "Come on lets go get some delicious food and go home." her mother said while her father scooped her up into his arms.
Once the last of their footsteps had dissappeared Lucifer let out a sigh stepping out from behind the wall she had her back against. Looking over at the horizon the sun was at its last moments above the hill tops and slowly its light faded and left the town dark and silent.
Haku was a few buildings away looking at her with a face full of almost content. The things he had seen to day he would never forget and would certaintly bring up in the future. He thought to himself as he noticed Lucifer heading out of the town and back into the neibrohoods.
Walking down the roads he could hear the light clacks of her shoes as she walked in silence. By the time she had stopped they ere once again fairly close to the tunnel, she stood in front of a small brown house, one that belonged to a small family at the end of the road.
She walked over to the side of the house looking up at a second floor window.
'What on earth is she doing now?' Haku thought as he stood on the roof of a house across the street.
Lucifer suddenly began walking towards the side of the house, her body dispersed and she was gone.
"Did she just walk through the wall into the house?" Haku whispered. "Alright I'll have to get closer." he said hopping off the roof and standing at the edge of the woods by the house. He could see into the window from here and noticed a young sleeping girl in her bed. By her bed on the nightstand was a picture of what he assumed to be her father. Lucifer appeared inside the room, dead silent beside the girls bed, she glanced down at the picture before reaching into her pocket and pulling out what looked to be an antique pocket watch. She gently placed it on the nightstand and once again her body dispersed into a smokey black flame and reappeared outside.
"So that's what she was working on all day...I've got yet another list of questions I suppose..." Haku said with a sigh, he just couldn't keep up with all these discoveries of his. Haku peeked back around the tree he stood behind...she was gone...he looked around side to side, he couldn't spot her...
"You know it's not nice to follow people." a sarcastic husky voice said from above.
Haku's head shot upwards to see the Devil herself sitting in the top of the tree.
"Yeah well it's also not nice to keep secrets from people!" he retorted.
"Haha! Then would you like me to write a book, I've got thousands." she hopped down from the tree landing swiftly like a cat beside him.
"You are really annoying you know that?" she said as she headed down the hill.
Haku quickly followed, "Well I wouldn't have to follow you if you just told me this stuff."
"And why would I tell you anything?" she said almost glaring at him.
Haku wasn't sure how to respond, she was obviously frustrated...but seemingly with herself not him.
She pulled out another one of her toothpicks, this one still red and stuck it in her mouth lighting it and taking a deep inhale then exhal of the red tinted smoke.
Haku thought this might be a good time to change the subject as they reached the dirt path.
"What are those?"
"AGAIN with the questions. These are small sticks of wood that have been soaked in Sebastian's blood."
"I'm not even gonna ask."
"Good smart man."
They walked through the tunnel in silence, the small flame at the end of her blood stick flickering in the darkness. As they reached the exit the moon's light was blanketed over the grassy fields. A slight breeze ruffled their hair and the lights of the town could beseen in the distance.
They stood in front of the old church like building, Lucifer took the lead and began walking through the grassy fields. Haku followed quietly until they reached the stone steps. Heading over through town they reached the bridge where a old looking messenger frog stood in expensive robes of red silk.
Lucifer let out a heavy sigh,Haku looked at her with a questioning face as the two walked across the bridge.
"Always nice to see you miss Lucifer." the old frog said in a scratchy and sarcastic voice.
"I could say the same to you Gamakichi." she responded annoyed.
The frog held out an envelope with a black wax seal of the symbol of the Spirit Council on it. Lucifer snatched the letter and didn't even bother opening it before handing it to Haku.
"I'll be there in a day or two now hop along before I finally grill that geazer ass of yours.
The frog left with a "hmph!" and Haku looked at the letter with a confused gaze. Lucifer had already began walking inside and so he hurried to catch up to her.
"What is this?"
"It's a letter from the council, summoning me to my annual punishment. I would assume it probabaly says something about the severity of it. They're probably going to let Kazuma's parents take a wack at me this time."
"And you're fine with that! You're just going to go no questions asked!?"
"Yeah...doesn't really matter to me."
Haku grabbed her upper arm forcefully turning her around to face him, "Well it matters to me!" he said as he stared into her eyes.
"I don't...want you to go...you shouldn't have to be punished like this."
"Haku thanks for the concern but it's not like I haven't done shit that I shouldn't have. Relax I can take it and I'll be back before you know it."
Haku released her slowly and she began walking through the bathhouse once more. They eventually reached their floor and Lucifer headed down the hall to her secret music room. The door appeared on the wall and she opened the door, looking behind her she saw Haku looking like a sad little mut at the end of the hall.
Letting out a sigh, "You wanna join me?"
Haku perked up slightly and walked inside sitting on a chair that had been added since his last visit.
Lucifer sat down at her bench cracking every knuckle in her hands and her neck and began to play.
Haku sat there watching her do what of the few things that she truly enjoyed, that hadn't been taken away from her. She was beautiful when she was relaxed and content, more so then usual. He wanted this side of her all to himself, he wanted all of her to himself, the strange desire he had for her was confusing, he was worried about her as well, he didn't want her to have to suffer no matter how ok with it she was.
Her long slender fingers ran along the keys and after a few minutes the song came to an end.
"What was that one?"
"River Flows In You, heh how befitting of you. Uh I'm so tired." she said letting her head fall backwards. Haku joined her on the bench.
"Well of course you are, running around the human world all day. Speaking of which what was that pocket watch?"
"...one of the many perks of being a demon of death, whenever someone dies whatever was with them or destroyed when they were killed is sent to my house in a huge pile of crap. For example if a man burned in a fire with his necklace on then that necklace would come to me. Or if a girl was hit by a car while riding a ripstick then the ripstick would come to me. I like to rumadge through sometimes and see what I can find, I like to fix stuff and build stuff from the scraps. Sometimes I find somethin good like that pocket watch, sometimes the items will have a picture or engraving in them, that pocket watch had a picture of a man and his daughter together, the glass was cracked and it was broken. So I fixed it and returned it to the little girl."
"...Well that was nice of you."
"Yeah I do it all the time so its no big deal. I've got a lot of spare time."
"Why'd you help the little girl?"
"...My families in ruins and I hate it...I remember that feeling of lonelyness, doubt, sadness, knowing that my parents weren't there and never would be...I didn't cry or anything and kept it all to myself...I hated it...still do."
"So you understood how she felt and so helped her."
"Yeah...when you've got a family like that you can't afford to lose it."
She stood from the bench and walked over to the door, "Come one lets go to the roof."
Haku stood and followed, "What for?"
"Santa Claus just landed." she said sarcastically, "Do I need a reason just come one!?"
They reached the roof and the cold night air knipped at their ears, the stars layered the skies and the moon shined bright.
Lucifer walked over to the railing that lined the edge and leaned aginst it backwards on her elbows.
"So...what now?" Haku asked.
"I just wanted to come up here oh and I'm gonna need you to do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?..." he asked skeptically.
"Oh it's nothin outrageous I'll just need you to wear this." she pulled a gold and silver celtic ring from her pocket. It had a silver edge with gold strips intertwining along the inside.
Haku took the ring holding it up to the moonlight allowing it to shine a bit.
"Why?"
"That ring matches this one." she said holding up her right thumb to show the same ring, "They're a pair, magically connected. It'll allow me to keep an eye on you when I'm not around, tell my if you're in danger, where you are, anything I need to know, hell it'll even let me read your thoughts if I need to."
Haku was a bit surprised by that last part and so hesitated.
"If I NEED to. Don't worry you can trust me."
"Hah! Never thought I'd here that from you!" he said then he slid the ring onto his left thumb without a second thought.
"Now promise me you'll never take that off under any circumstances."
"Well I don't know what if I shower with it, or lose it..." he said jokingly.
"Haku..." she responded to his playful tease.
"Alright alright...I Promise.
A/N K done for now, I made it extra long to last you a while. Remember the rule 2 REVIEWS OR NO STORY FOR YOU! Now I have to go fix my brothers ripstick so Thanks to all my awesome reviewers and followers and PEACE OUT TILL NEXT TIME!