Chapter Nineteen - Two Sweethearts

He must have fallen asleep, for the clatter of little children's feet tears him from his state of blissful, sweet nothingness.

Before he has even arrived in the here and now, the footsteps grow louder and then the door opens.

"Lucifer! Lucifer!"

Alas-Ramus runs in excitedly and jumps on the bed with a big leap. She climbs over Ashiya, who is sitting on the mattress next to Urushihara, without paying any attention to him.

"This is sooooo great here! " She jumps up and down enthusiastically. "We were sledding! Papa and I fell off the sled. That was soooo fun! Oh, and we made a snowman! Lucifer!" She literally throws herself at him and gives him a big hug. "Can we go sledding tomorrow? Pleeeeeaaaase!"

At that moment, Emi enters the room and at Alas' words, all her shields go up.

"Alas-chan, I don't think..." she begins, frightened by the thought that the safety of her little foster daughter depends not only on Lucifer, but on a blind Lucifer. But she swallows every other word when she feels Maou's elbow between her ribs.

He gives her a red-hot, sharp look, but a second later his usual cheerful smile adorns his face again as he pushes past her and into the room. In his hands he holds a tray with a large cup of steaming green tea and a plate of sandwiches, which Ashiya immediately takes from him.

And while he carefully places the tray on the small bedside table, Urushihara sits up with Alas-Ramus in his arms.

"That would be funny, Alas-chan." Everyone in the room hears the clearly hesitant undertone of Urushihara's hoarse voice.

Emi nods contentedly, at least he seems to have understood how foolhardy such a thing would be.

"Oh yes, it will," Maou explains happily as he sits on the bed with his foster daughter and Urushihara. "Lucifer will sit between you and me, you give the direction and I steer, what do you think? Sounds good, Alas-chan? "

Unwillingly, Emi frowns but does not protest because there is no convincing argument against this arrangement and today she has not heard "You are not my mama" from Alas and she would like to leave it at that.

"'Papa, you have to be careful that Lucifer doesn't fall off", the little one demands seriously. "You have to hold him better than me."

Maou raises his hand solemnly.

"I'll do that, I promise."

"Alas-chan, did you hurt yourself?" Urushihara wants to know and his hand reaches up to her cheek. For those who don't know better, it looks as if he is looking at her very carefully and Emi has to admit that she too is fooled for a moment.

"No," the little one calms him immediately and gives him a short but firm hug.

"Lucifer," she excitedly crawls over Ashiya, grabs two sandwiches from the tray and pushes one into Urushihara's hand while keeping the other for herself.

"I made this sandwich just for you, it's cheese and ham, just the way you like it, and Papa made you some tea. I want to eat with you today. Just you," she adds in a determined tone, challenging the other adults in the room.

And then she makes an impatient "get out" gesture.

Emi does not like this, but Ashiya gets up immediately and Maou follows a little later.

"Yes, why not? " he agrees happily. "Let's leave them alone. Chi-chan is all alone in the kitchen, we should really help her cooking. Take good care of my general, will you, Alas-chan? "

"Of course, Papa," she chirps. "See you later, Mama, see you later, Alciel! "

Emi gives her foster daughter a smile and a wave and follows the two demons, but as soon as she is out in the hallway and has closed the door behind her, her face darkens.

"I don't think this is a good idea," she hisses as they walk down the stairs.

"There's nothing to worry about," Ashiya replies objectively as always. "The window is closed and there are no dangerous objects in the room. Alas-Ramus will not climb out of the window because a bird is attracting her attention, which is not typical for her anyway. And there's nothing she can hurt herself with, she's a very smart kid, and Lucifer will never let anything happen to her."

"He can't see anything!" she hisses. "And he's too weak to take care of her."

"Alas-Ramus takes care of Lucifer," Maou corrects her with a mischievous grin. "It was her idea. She wants it and you know what a stubborn mule she can be." Suddenly, he is deadly serious. "And considering that she's been taking care of him for over a month while we idiots sat next to him and got nothing..."

"Look who's talking," Emi hisses back. "You two live with him. I only visit you all from time to time with Alas-Ramus and then I have better things to do than take care of this useless shut-in."

"Nobody was talking about you," Maou answers angrily.

She opens her mouth to say something unfriendly, but in that moment they have reached the ground floor and there Chiho stands in a flowered apron at the stove, beaming at them as they approach, and Emi forgets about it.

When Emi goes upstairs an hour and a half and a delicious dinner later to rescue her daughter from the claws of the "useless shut-in" - as she so nicely pointed out - and opens the door to the bedroom, she remains rooted to the spot at the sight she sees.

Her dark expression softens and the light in her eyes becomes as soft as she allows herself to be, knowing that she is unobserved.

For seconds, she stares only at the two, who are sleeping deeply and soundly. It seems as if Alas-Ramus is holding "her" Lucifer in a protective embrace and not the other way around, and she can't help it: this sight moves her so much that she doesn't have the heart to wake them up, let alone separate them.

She closes the door as quietly as she can, and then scurries down the stairs on her tiptoes. As soon as she is back in sight of the others, the soft expression on her face disappears and makes way for the usual doggedness.

"Didn't you want to get Alas-Ramus? "Ashiya asks politely, and although his expression remains completely neutral, she thinks she sees a knowing twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"She's asleep," she says honestly, "and I don't feel like dealing with a whiny toddler, so I let her sleep."

"And Lucifer?" Maou asks, and Emi wonders when exactly he went over to calling his general by his real name and if that might have meant something.

„Sleeping too," she replies, taking the towel from his hand and standing next to Ashiya and Chiho in front of the sink to help them with the dishes.

She has an urgent need to keep her hands busy.