Summary: Some time after GE2 official story line, maybe more than seven years. Alisa did something embarassing and doesn't want to talk to Lucifer abou it. Gifts have emotional value (and Lucifer has trouble comprehending that)

Kind of shit: Shipping shit. Again, as per request, Alisa/MC

Canon?: Nope. What-if again.

Warnings: Alisa might be a bit OOC. I mean, I have a couple of prompts where she isn't getting embarassed by Lucifer or something but it's kind of an attempt to keep things lighthearted? Might be fluffy, nothing tooth-rotting though.

Alisa looked at her hands and pressed her eyes together.

She took a deep breath.

"Everything's going to be fine." The young woman thought to herself. She would just explain the situation like she did a dozen times before and just leave out one or two details. Nothing that out of the ordinary. Things like that just happened on a mission. It was just part of the daily drill. Injuries just happened and then someone landed in the sickbay.

Yes, it was just a mishap, nothing wrong with that.

Kota sat at her bedside, giving her a rather uneasy smile. He tried to encourage the thought but, honestly, he failed to convey a sense of security or a genuine smile. He had been there. He had seen all of it and he knew exactly what she was afraid off right now.

"Look, she will just be happy that you are alright. She will come in, check up on you and you say it's just for safety reasons that they keep you for a night. I mean you got a couple of scrapes, so…" He was babbling. Probably, he was as nervous as she was right now. For all his failings, Kota was loyal and would never abandon someone he called a friend. When she left a couple of things out, he didn't argue and kept quiet.

It wasn't something illegal where they kept their mouths shut. It was just something, in a way, embarrassing thing to admit. Something a veteran that shouldn't have happened to someone like her.

Soma had plainly told them that it wasn't a good idea. He knew that there was something that they won't tell him either. She would know. Maybe it was Kota's fidgeting that gave them away. He had just crossed his arms, shook and sighed, telling them that they should come clean at least with her.

Even if nobody opened their mouths about it. Even if they avoided her for the next week.

She would know.

There was no escape.

A voice in Alisa's head scolded her for trying to deceive her leader, a person she respected and loved and someone who once did deceiving, people-reading, and manipulation for a living. But she snuffed it out. She wanted that Lucifer respected her and trusted that she made the right decision on a mission.

Lucifer even suggested her for a leading position after Alisa's tried to convince her for months to do it. She didn't want to ruin all of this for one moment where her emotions overtook her brain. She had her reasons for what she had done and Kota was understanding why she did that but from a logical, leadership perspective it had been a grave mistake.

Then the door opened and at first, she heard no steps. The first that hit her nose was the smell of herbs that betrayed their visitor. It promptly derailed her train of thoughts. She stiffened, muscles tensed. Kota at her side immediately snapped into attention.

She was here.

Quiet steps as if she barely touched the ground like a stalker circling around its newfound prey, although her posture was straight otherwise instead of hunched. Kota called it her 'business walk' since she only didn't make herself known and just appeared in a regal pose when it concerned work. The older woman's gaze flickered first to Alisa, observing her and then to Kota.

It took three seconds, maybe one more before her eyes narrowed.

Alisa knew at that moment that she was screwed if she didn't present a convincible story. She opened her mouth but Lucifer was quicker, holding up a hand and with her commanding, cold presence forced her into silence.

"Kota. If you would leave me alone with her..."

Kota quickly gazed in Alisa's direction and Alisa could just imagine what kind of expression she wore at this moment: The desperate kind of 'don't leave me alone with this woman'. He swallowed and then steeled himself as he inhaled deeply.

"You sure? You know you can be kind of harsh when it comes to these kinds of lectures and…"

Then Lucifer smiled. The sweet cold smile that let the blood freeze in every person that gazed upon it. The golden oracle particles in her eyes made her eyes glow slightly.

"This wasn't a request." She said.

Every warning signal went off in Alisa at once.

"I-I will be fine." She tried to smile and look brave but she knew Kota didn't buy it one bit but if she was like that, Lucifer wasn't above to drag him out and lock the door behind her.

"If you…say so…" Kota rubbed his neck, stood up and passed Lucifer. He gave her a short pat on the shoulder. "Don't be too harsh on her, alright?"

Lucifer didn't say anything, just waited until the door closed behind him until she turned her gaze back to Alisa. The younger woman touched the bandages around her head.

"It was just an accident. The ruins were brittle and…" The words were stuck in her throat. Goddamnit, where was the excuse she practiced ever since she woke up?

And she could feel Lucifer's unrelenting piercing glare resting on her. "And?"

Her resolution to not say the truth was caving in.

"There was this Aragami…A small black one… You know the ones where people said that they bring luck and have these rare cores."

Lucifer was gazing in another direction for a moment, thinking of an Aragami fitting the description. "Those Abbadons that have appeared lately, correct?"

"Yes. Uhm…" There was still a chance to get out of it. Saying that she just saw one and just say panic, excuse it that everything was just a jumbled mess for her since she hit her head.

"I'm sorry. Everything is just…"

Lucifer hummed in response for a second. "I noticed a rare core in the report…Did you hunt it down?"

What report? They didn't hand in a report and everything else was just verbal until now and they haven't said anything about the Abbadon.

Hibari. Lucifer had asked for the data from Hibari and since she was at the mission control, she knew that there had been a signature of an Abbadon at the moment.

Alisa laughed a little bit uncertain. "We did?"

Lucifer was quiet for a while, seconds dragged on, turned into a minute. Then she sighed. "Alisa, I would advise that you drop the act. As adorable as your attempts are, be honest with me."

"W-What are you calling adorable?!" Alisa spluttered, almost choking at her words. Flirtation wasn't really appropriate for this dire situation, especially when she tried her hardest to save face.

"…Alisa. You start to fidget with your hands when you think that you have done something stupid." The older woman pointed at Alisa's hands. "And if it had been just some whim of fate that knocked you out, you wouldn't act like that. So what happened? A hawk dropped a turtle on you or something?"

This was an oddly specific example.

"You were reading one of Dr. Paylor's books again, weren't you?" It wasn't that uncommon that Lucifer raided his book collection and borrowed something from it. Reading helped her to stay concentrated and her mind sharp, she had once said, but still, she had the habit to quote or liken an incident to something she recently read.

"Yes, but that's not the issue. So…what happened?"

Alisa had no choice to come clean now. She took a deep breath.

"Well, after the sweep up, the last Aragami swept off my hat and I went to search for it. Then…when I spotted it, this tiny thing looked at it, then at me and…then it just grabbed it and ran away."

"…The Abbadon stole your hat." Lucifer summarized, one eyebrow slowly raising.

"Y-Yeah…But those tiny little things are so quick when startled so I hunted it down the map."

"Go on."

"So I cornered it on top of one of the smaller buildings and I thought I had it…" She gestured wildly now. "And then the ceiling gave in under it and I just…" She searched for a word to make it less ridiculous. "Jumped?"

"You jumped out of the way…Or after it?"

"Well…I had it caught it in my arms…so…"

Alisa didn't look at Lucifer but she knew how the woman just stared at her.

"I thought if it falls through the ceiling and gets buried in the rubble..." It was a weak defense. She knew that. It was just how she reacted. There was no logical reason for it other than she could let it get away with her hat. Her mind just gave up for a couple of seconds and all she could remember was sitting in the dust and she staring at the Abaddon who was just as confused as she had been at this situation.

That didn't stop her from forcibly pry its jaws apart to get her hat back. Kota said less than flattering described the situation as her having one foot on the lower jaw, one hand on the upper and the other hand inside the Aragami's maw. He had sworn the Aragami had been crying while she put it through the ordeal.

"Alisa, Abbadon can levitate. It wouldn't have fallen through. You, my dear, are very much bound by the laws of gravity. That aside…You have a gun."

That was…, unfortunately, correct.

"And all of that for a hat…Alisa, I expected better from you." The disappointment in her voice was obvious, underneath her plain amusement at this situation.

"…But it was the first present you gave me…" It wasn't more than an embarrassed mumble. There, Lucifer blinked and tilted her head, mostly in confusion. While Lucifer understood the emotional worth of things, she had sometimes trouble to understand that it also applied to items she gifted to others. She once made Soma a bookmark for his birthday years ago and she seemed genuinely surprised that he still used it. Likewise, at Kota's birthday, she somehow dug up a figurine that Kota had mentioned to like but wasn't produced anymore. Nobody really dared to ask, where and how she had gotten the figurine but she swore that no blackmail or other dealings were involved. Everybody could tell that she had no idea why everybody made such a fuss over it.

It was a birthday. Custom dictated to gift the birthday kid with something they liked and celebrate the day they were born with food and drink. It was how she understood it since she didn't have the experience with celebrating a birthday beforehand.

The hat was a gift that wasn't really a birthday present. It was just as they changed their unit from the First to the Cradle Unit and shortly before Lucifer had to leave to the frontlines. It was sudden and without a declaration that it was a gift. She just gave her the hat, saying that Alisa had forgotten it. Later she heard from the rest, that her new uniform didn't include a hat.

But that just made the sentimental value grow for Alisa. There was no indication of obligation that she had to give her that hat. She just did. For some reason, Lucifer never elaborated why and probably never will.

"You did that because I gifted that hat to you?" It made it sound somehow wrong in Alisa's ears.

"Well, yes…It's still very important to me."

Lucifer sat down on the bed, looking at her, then at her hands. Then she chuckled, laughed. It was different from her cold hollow laugh. It sounded clear and honest.

"Good god, you hunted and probably mutilated an Aragami because of a hat I gave you years ago. That poor thing!"

"I really like that hat," Alisa muttered under her breath.

"I can see that." She ruffled through Alisa's hair but she did so carefully. "Just promise me, next time it happens, you will leave it alone and I get you a new one. You are a little bit more important than a piece of fancy crafted fabric to me."

Lucifer pressed her lips against her cheek and stood up.

Alisa didn't register what happened at first until she noticed that her face was hot and her mind began to stumble over all of this. She touched her cheek, mind just gone far of the rails.

"Ah, before I forget, you do the paperwork of the whole unit for the rest of the week. Are you alright with that?"

"…Y-Y-Yes…"

It took a couple of seconds more to register what she had agreed to do. She almost stumbled out of bed.

"Hey, wait! That's unfair!"

A/N Explanation: Since some wished for more shipping. Here it is. A prompt I have written long ago as I saw a raw of the manga where Alisa and the others got new uniforms and it was stated that the MC (Yuu) gifted her the hat. Nothing spectacular. The birthday gifts can be considered cannon btw.

I don't know if I ever will include a birthday party in the original but Lucifer's general perception to birthdays can be summed up as this. But Alisa is kind of wrong in one thing: She does know that it's common courtesy to gift things at birthdays but since Lucifer considers them to be important, she goes the extra mile to show that. (It's a wierd kind to show that she really wants them to have a good time and that she is happy that they were born and that they have met.)

Likewise, she doesn't have an attachment to things, so she would most likely abandon a trinket of emotional value to survive or safe someone. So some deeper implications of gift-giving outside of now-you-owe-me are lost on her. So she wouldn't have been torn up about it if they had thrown the gift out at some point if she thinks it gets the message across. It's more about the message than really the item itself for her.

Additional A/N: As per request of the one that sent me the pm. The next ficlet will go more in the direction of Soma/MC. (Shipping again. I'm sensing a trend here). I couldn't pick out a suitable one out of the mess and it's god damn 3.00 a.m. I should sleep. Body says nope but rational thinking wants to. Having insomina is a living hell sometimes. It will come up. It will be posted. Just not now (?). Maybe this week with the update of Wolfbann. Thank you for your patience.