[C] Improving

The staff only came around three times a day as which point Demetri had to sit still as they placed food through the door, he had to ignore Lucifer talking as try to act like he couldn't see everything that he could.

Still, between check-ups he practiced his magic, he had taken to using his tendrils to throw his pills out the window after pretending to swallow them for the nurses.

Since they stopped numbing his brain he found controlling his magic a fair bit easier, though it tired him out quite quickly.

Now he sat on the padded floor panting softly as he lay down, he had actually managed to make more shapes than just a tendril today and he was lifting himself up with them more steadily.

Lucifer was bored again.

He'd taken to only really talking and trying to distract Demetri when one of the nurses came out to play. Wouldn't it be interesting to see what would happen to a boy that could see things that weren't there?

When the boy began practising his magic, Lucifer just laid around watching him or ignoring him.

Right now watching the boy was boring as fuck.

So he made his own entertainment.

With echoing little yaps, three puppies with fur as black as ink and their skulls exposed popped into existence in a puff of smoke. Lucifer watched the three puppies begin to run around the small room and explore.

Demetri's head snapped up as soon as he heard yapping, his eyes widening in a mixture of amazement and curiosity as the puppies appeared.

He had always loved animals but had never been allowed a pet, granted these were a little bit strange but they were still adorable.

"Here puppy."

He muttered softly, petting his leg as one of the inky black pups came barreling toward him and pouncing onto his leg.

Deme gave a soft laugh as he picked it up, petting it as it tried to nibble softly on his fingers.

Lucifer watched the puppy jump on Demetri and play with him.

It was all so sweet.

"Collatus," his deep voice murmured.

Immediately the puppy wriggled out of Demetri's arms and the three puppies began to fight.

Hound puppies were taught to fight from puppyhood to train them to become fierce protectors and fighters.

Demetri couldn't help but pout a little as the pup wiggled away from him, he was hoping to cuddle with it a while longer.

If he had know that the man could summon puppies he might have bugged him to do so a lot sooner.

"What are they?"

He asked, laying out on his stomach and watching them fight one another.

He chuckled softly as they tugged on ears, tails and paws, they looked like they were having fun, he had no idea about the violent future they would have.

"They are our protectors down in the Underworld."

Lucifer hummed softly as he watched them fight. These puppies were showing potential. They had a violent nature. All three of them were ready to fight at the drop of a hat.

"You people know them as... Ah, Hell Hounds?"

He didn't sound too certain there. It was difficult trying to keep up with terminology over millennia.

"Hell Hounds?"

He replied, sounding surprised, granted they didn't look like typical puppies but when he thought of hell hounds he thought of something so much more gruesome, these guys were just bitey little fluff balls.

"But they are so cute..."

He added picking one of them up again and looking at it.

"I thought they would be more...you know, hellish."

Demetri snuggled with it for a moment before putting the squirming pup back on the ground to play.

"They aren't so cute when they get their teeth into you."

Lucifer had plenty of scars from over-excited Hellhound puppies. They were dangerous creatures before they were trained.

Then after... well, they were dangerous to whoever was on the receiving end of their temper.

"They get more dangerous when they grow older."

In another puff of smoke the puppies mother appeared, hunched over and snarling; eyes glowing red as they settled on Demetri. This hound was far larger than the puppies.

When the mother appeared Demetri looked up at her with wide eyes, she was huge, all teeth and angry looking, slowly he put her pup down and shuffled away from it.

He looked back down at the puppies and frowned slightly, they were going to end up like her?

She had every right to be protective but she didn't seem very happy, the thought that they wouldn't grow up to be happy and affectionate was a horrible shame.

Lucifer laid a hand on the growling mother's skull and she settled, sitting down silently and just staring at the human boy.

There were only a handful of people with the ability to calm a Hell Hound like this. Lucifer had perfected the ability.

"They are well trained by this age. You have nothing to fear of them for now."

The threat of possibly having a Hound on him may be good for the boy.

Keeping a wary eye on the mother Demetri reached out to stroke one of the pups, he didn't think he liked the sound of the Underworld.

He hadn't really been one for violence, he had no reason to be violent though he knew he world didn't work that way.

"It's a shame that they are going to grow up to be so aggressive."

He replied, he could just see the bouncy fur ball being a pet.

"It's the way of the world."

They fought to survive and protect. That was just how it was. It was how they had always been used.

And it was how he intended to train these pups.

They would come to be as fierce protectors as their mother was in time.

"The world is wrong."

He muttered, he hadn't made such a bold statement before, in truth he hadn't been so sure of anything he had said except for this.

So much of the world was broken and he hated it.

Why couldn't these pups grow up to be something more than that? They had the potential to be more than just protectors.

Lucifer laughed. Loudly. He threw his head back and gave a full on gut-laugh.

The world is wrong.

Now wasn't that the truth of the century?

He'd known that for as long as human scum had been alive. The world had started being wrong from the moment Father declared his love the possession of humans rather than Angels.

Demetri looked up curiously, raising an eyebrow as the man laughed.

"What's so funny?"

He asked, slightly unnerved by the man's sudden outburst.

While he could be scooped up one of the pups and cuddled it, setting it in his lap as he stroked it's soft fur.

His laughed died down quickly.

It was replaced by a scowl.

"You're not the first to make this observation. Fighting to make the world right doesn't help. It will always be wrong. You're better off just accepting that it is wrong and living with it."

Lucifer was bitter.

Once upon a time he had been wide-eyed and innocent like this child and said the same thing. He stood up for what he believed in, and what did that get him?

He looked down at the bright eyes of the pup is his lap as the man spoke.

He was right, he knew he was and that fact was more upsetting then anything.

"I don't want to live with it."

He replied softly, placing the pup down before drawing his knees into his chest and hugging them.

That was the entire reason he was locked in here.

"No one gets away from it," Lucifer snorted loudly.

Everyone had to suffer in this fucked up world, whether they wanted to deal with it or not.

He pushed the Hellhound away from him roughly and she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

All three pups stayed. And as if sensing the mood in the room, one of the pups barrelled towards Lucifer to jump up in his lap and cuddle up to him.

He laid his hand on the puppy's back, but didn't acknowledge it further. Just glared at the wall silently.

The third pup whimpered and crawled over to Demetri for attention.

"I know, I tried really hard, but they kept stopping me."

They had always managed to find him before he could complete the act and now he wasn't allowed near anything that he could use to hurt himself.

Though he had managed to get out of his jacket, he could very well tie it to the bars on the window, it was high enough that he could hang himse...

He looked down as the pup whimpered, giving it a small, forced smile as he picked it up and cuddled the two of the to his chest as he lay down on the ground.

"So have I."

His voice was no louder than a sound on a breeze. A soft, weak little whisper.

Lucifer didn't much like the fact that he had things in common with a human. Especially one that he was planning to just use. He didn't want to feel any emotional attachments to it.

"Practise your magic," he ordered gruffly.

Demetri gave a soft sigh as the man practically growled at him, not like he had done anything wrong.

Still, he did as he was told, practicing shaping his magic differently, instead of doing anything the man would consider 'useful' he started making balls which he could separate from his body before throwing them for the pups.

Oddly enough he found he could still control them from across the room so he started rolling them around for the pups two chase, which the two from his lap did eagerly, yapping and falling over themselves to get at them.

Lucifer, surprisingly, approved of the way the boy was practising.

It was honing his abilities. If he could make balls and control them, he could work on creating more complex shapes that could do his bidding better.

The Demon watched the boy out of the corner of his eye, just observing quietly.

He couldn't help the little giggle that came from his as one of the pups fell over the other in a race to get the ball.

He bounced it off the opposing wall and caught it again before throwing it and having it roll around on the floor, taking sharp turns so the pups would slide out.

Demetri had already accepted the fact that the man wasn't fond of him, he didn't even know his name so that was testament to his lack of fondness.

Still, being locked up with someone who didn't like you was better than being alone.