[C] Cat Nap

The roof was quiet under the sheet of rain. it was rare there was rain this heavy in Catania and Lucifer had taken advantage of the heavy rain to get some time to himself.

He sat on the edge of the roof, holding a puppy in the air in front of his face by the scruff of his neck. Deme had been improving in leaps and bounds so the puppies had stayed. This one puppy had taken a particular liking to Lucifer and had practically attached himself to Luficer's ankle.

The Angel slicked a lock of hair back and gave a half smile as the puppy's tongue lolled out. Deme had made these puppies so happy. A detriment to them, he knew, but it was nice seeing something in his presence genuinely happy.

"Let us return you to your brothers." Lucifer stood, and after a moment of just enjoying the rain, turned to go inside.

Back in the room that Deme had claimed for the two of them, Lucifer closed the door behind him gently, eyes on the slouched form over the desk. He gave a soft 'tsk' as he strolled towards the form. On his way, he snatched the blanket from the end of the bed.

As he leaned over the sleeping human to drape the blanket over his shoulders, water dripped from his face and hair, splattering over the wooden desk and Deme's thick hair.

Demetri had been trying so hard to keep Lucifer happy with his progress and he hadn't worked so hard on something in all his life.

Evidently the effort had been worth it, the puppies had been with him for weeks now and he couldn't have been happier about that fact, even if it made the angel peevish.

Tonight was no exception to his hard work and he had fallen asleep on top of his spellbook.

That was until he was roused by a wet splatter on his head, which dropped down his face.

With a little grumble his eyes fluttered open groggily, unsure of what was happening until he glanced up at the soaked angel.

"You're dripping."

He murmured softly, the words coming as both a statement and a question.

"That happens occassionally when you venture out in the rain."

Lucifer straightened out to stand at his full height. He continued dripping a puddle on the floor. Until he sat down on the bed, that is, not bothered at all by the fact that he was making the bed soaking wet.

He shifted his water-logged hair over one broad shoulder and laid back, head resting on the pillow.

"Your studies?"

Demetri whined as Lucifer lay out on the bed dripping wet, though there were other beds in the room, that was the only one with actual bedding on it.

"I have to sleep on that later."

He pointed out, he knew Lucifer didn't need to but he did and he was going to end up catching a cold if he was sleeping on damp sheets.

"I've finished a few more chapters of the spell book you gave me, one was on summoning hellhounds so I glanced over it but I'm onto demonology now, given what I've seen so far I'm pretty sure I could do it."

He hasn't tested it as he did all the other spells he studied, demon summoning usually required a sacrifice of some kind and he didn't want to run around the mansion slaughtering livestock.

A slim brow arched at the whine. "Yes." He knew Deme had to sleep on it. He wasn't thick. But what did that matter to him? He was comfortable lying on this. His comfort was what mattered at the moment.

Lucifer didn't even consider the thought of Deme being uncomfortable or possibly getting sick from sleeping in a wet bed. He didn't know jsut how weak humans could be.

The Angel shook his head. "Demonology means little. You must focus on holy seals." Holy seals were what Lucifer wanted to use Demetri to break. He needed to know holy seals inside out.

Demetri just huffed as Lucifer looked at him as if he was being stupid.

"Sleeping in a wet bed is going to make me sick, then how am I meant to study?"

Trying to descifer that book with an aching head wasn't going to go well.

"The chapter on holy seals is at the end of the book, its harder to translate than the others because it has characters that aren't in the Latin book you gave me."

He had already had a little look at it but it was difficult to read and even harder to understand.

"I have taught you to expel toxins from yur body. That is not limited to liquid toxins in the blood." Lucifer sounded like he couldn't care less about the possibility of Deme getting sick.

Honestly, it was very likely that he really didn't care.

"Avoiding difficulties will get you nowhere in life." Avoiding learning because what he neede to learn was difficult? Deme was glad Lucifer wasn't a overly physically violent person any more. He would have slapped someone for even suggesting that to him some years ago.

Dems frowned as Lucifer spoke, the mans words were always a cruel reminder than the Fallen didn't care about him at all.

The only person he had in the world didn't care about him.

A horrible truth that he had to live with, perhaps though, if he did as he was instructed once he had learned what he needed to he would be allowed to ease up on the study and actually have time to form bonds with others.

Still, Lucifer had put a blanket over him, it was confusing.

"I'll learn about the seals, but its those symbols that are the issue, they hurt to look at."

It was physically painful to look at them for too long.

"See?"

He asked, picking up the book and turning to the right page, pointing out one of the symbols.

Who ever had written the book had been clever, it was a book on holy seals, as such no demon or Fallen could see what was written on the pages, to Lucifer they would appear to be completely blank.

Luciffer arched a brow and stared dead at Demetri, not even sparing a glance to the book the boy was showing him. He knew what it would look like without expending the effort to do so.

This silent glare carried on for a long stretch before Lucifer shook his head slowly, as if Deme hadn't picked up on something blindingly obvious.

"If I could see, I would not have given you the book to decipher."

If he knew about holy seals, he would have started his plans much, much sooner. He needed someone that had good magical ability and could ready Holy Seals, no matter how painful it was to read them.

A fallen Angel who couldn't see the words whatsoever and a human who couldn't look at the angelic words without being in pain over long periods of time.

"Oh..."

He muttered, only just realizing that he was meant to do all of this on his own.

"This is going to take a long time to get through..."

He admitted, unlike the other chapters he couldn't read it all in one day, he'd be lucky if he could get through a line or two each day.

"Write down their translations," Lucifer ordered.

If he could look at a translated version of the spells, he would be able to help Deme learn about Holy Seals.

He would go out of his way to help Deme at this point. He wanted to be able to escape his Holy Seal more than anything. If helping Deme learn about them would get him out faster, he would become the best teacher in any realm

"That much is obvious."

He replied with a roll of his eyes, as if he would be able to remember each line he translated without writing them down. If he was going through all this effort he wasn't going to allow himself to forget a single word.

"Why am I doing this anyway?"

He asked,placing the book back down on the desk before flopping down onto the dry part of the bed.

Lucifer arched a brow. He had preferred it when Deme had been scared to let a toe step out of line. After dealing with Belial for so long, he'd grown a distaste for backsass.

He didn't comment when Deme abandoned the book and laid down on the bed. The boy had been working most of the day. He deserved a break.

"In return for receiving my power, you must do something for me. A simple tit for tat notion."

Deme was tired, and with that came his crankiness, normally he wouldn't be so blunt with the Fallen but you couldn't take Lucifer's level of sarcasm all day without giving a little back.

"And that something is just translating the chapter?"

He asked, his words muffled as he spoke into the pillow, he doubted it would be that easy.

Deme was right. It wouldnt ever be that easy.

"The beginning of that something is translating the chapter. You will continue translating and learning Holy Seals until you are an expert in them."

He wouldn't have any less. Deme would be an expert in Holy Seals by the time Lucifer was through with him. He wouldn't have it any different.

He didn't want to know the consequence for saying no to the Fallen. No doubt it would not be pleasant.

"Alright."

He murmured, knowing he was not going to have it easy from here on out.

Still, he had his wish, he wasn't alone, though his company wasn't great, it was better than nothing.

The consequences of saying no to Lucifer weren't very pleasant. Many people had suffered as a result of saying no to him. Lucifer was the type of person that got what he wanted in one way or another.

"Sleep," Lucifer ordered in a quiet murmur.

Deme looked fatigued and Lucifer wasn't going to risk the health of his charge when he was so close to finally getting what he wanted. In a human lifetime, he could have what he had been wanting for millennia.

The boy nodded into the pillow as his arms wrapped around it, nuzzling in close to it.

He was exhausted, and a little annoyed that he had been studying the wrong thing all day.

Still, he was grateful for his new found knowledge and if nothing else the magic he could do now was a good outlet.

"G'night."

He grumbled as he rolled over, worming his way under the covers.

He hadn't been studying the wrong thing. Basic knowledge was necessary to be able to work Holy Seals. Lucifer just wanted him to put more focus on Holy Seals than anything else.

He was still pleased with Deme's progress.

After a few minutes of watching Deme's back, he reached forwards to pet the boy's messy hair in an almost affectionate gesture.